and the Vice President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all very much. The Vice President and I have been in a meeting and we raced over here, but I think that based on my previous experience, situations like this, I'm going to have to give lessons in padding your part. But I'm sending the Congress today our second annual report on the state of small business. The report was prepared by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which under the leadership of Jim Sanders and Frank Swain is doing more than ever to assist and counsel America's small businessmen and women. I really think that that line should be the men and women of America's small business. But I'd also like to introduce Faith Whittlesey, my new assistant for public liaison. You stand up and say, Faith will be the small business contact here at the White House. She's replacing Elizabeth Dole, and I know she'll continue the good work that was done by Elizabeth and Wayne Valles. Before I describe the report and our administration's efforts on behalf of small business, I'd like to thank SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives for their fine example of volunteer spirit. And I'm glad that the SCORE Association Board of Directors could be with us here today. The 12,000 retired executives, they represent volunteer hundreds of thousands of hours each year to help small business people. Last year alone, they assisted nearly 130,000 businesses nationwide and in Guam and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. And they deserve our thanks, all of them. The report that I signed today proves once again that the millions of small businesses and the people who run them are vital to our economy and economic growth. They carry on a tradition dating to the foundation of our country, a tradition of national strength, deriving from the ingenuity, the independence and individual liberty of our people. Our small business owners demonstrate through free enterprise that our national well-being is dependent on individual freedom to pursue our hopes, our dreams and our creative ambitions. As the report shows, small businesses contribute significantly to our daily lives. Almost half of all private employment is in small firms and small businesses create more than half of all the new jobs and are an important source of new products and technologies. As business and civic leaders in their home states and towns, small business men and women improve the quality of life for all Americans. Our economic recovery program was designed to strengthen the contributions of small business by reducing the heavy economic burdens, weighing it down. Runaway inflation, high interest rates, high taxation and excessive regulation. We already have accomplished much and I'm confident we'll see more progress in the months and years ahead. But if our economy and our people are to continue to climb out of recession, we must not tolerate any backsliding in the Congress. We must assure an economic climate in which America's small businesses can grow and prosper. If the Congress will work with us to do what is right and necessary, we can keep America on the upswing, ushering in a bright new age of lasting prosperity to outshine any other in our history and that is the goal. Already the inflation, which had driven up small business costs and eroded profits has dropped to a third of its former rate. For the last six months, inflation has risen at an annual rate of only 1.4 percent, the lowest six-month rate in 18 years. The towering interest rates that once forced so many small businesses to close also have dropped dramatically. The prime rate as high as 21.5 percent two years ago is 10.5 percent and we'll get it lower. Far fewer regulations are being imposed on small businesses as we've cut regulatory growth by a third and that's under a task force headed by the Vice President. We've broken through tax barriers to capital formation and investment and virtually eliminated estate taxes for a surviving spouse and our tax indexing provision and individual tax rate cuts will make it easier for small business owners to fund and maintain their companies. These tax reforms are designed to spur saving, investment, and productivity. There's an old economic axiom still true today that says if people are not allowed to earn more by producing more, then more will not be produced. Well, that's why our tax incentives are critical to recovery and we will not abide any tampering with them. The third year of the tax cut, scheduled to take effect in July and tax indexing will benefit small business people and average working families the most. Their repeal would be a cruel blow, an unfair attempt to steal the just rewards of those Americans who have carried us through recession and into recovery. The export trading come and incidentally, I mean it when I say we won't tolerate it, I will veto any attempt to get rid of those two tax cuts. The Export Trading Company Act I signed last fall will also help small firms compete in foreign markets. And the Small Business Innovation Development Act, which I signed last July, will direct more federal research and development funds to small high-tech firms, the enterprises that always have been leaders in innovation. One of the reforms I'm proudest of is the requirement that Uncle Sam pay his bills on time or pay an interest penalty. This obvious and overdue improvement in the way government does business will help the many small firms with federal contracts. And speaking of doing business with the federal government, we've expanded the amount of federal procurement going to small business, especially firms owned by minorities and women. Last year, almost $45 billion in federal procurement went to small companies, and that's an all-time record. As you can see, this administration is dedicated to restoring and preserving a free market environment in which small businesses can grow, create jobs, and earn the healthy profits that benefit us all. We can do this only in an economy free of inflation scourge with monetary and fiscal soundness and a rational regulatory policy. But already, liberals in the House have proposed a budget that would undermine the improving economy with a frontal assault on the policies that have got America on the mend. Unable to break their spending addiction, these members have proposed reversing the hard-won domestic spending cuts achieved during the last two years. Money for these excesses, they claim, can be found by slashing our defense program to dangerous levels and engorging the tax share of our gross national product to the highest levels in history. Such a plan not only would gamble with the security of the United States, it would plunge us once again into the no man's land of spend and spend and tax and tax. We must not permit them to drag us back into that swamp. America has taken its first cautious steps toward recovery. There is no doubt about that. Our progress will grow more bold and dramatic in the weeks and months ahead, but only if we hold fast to the economic policies that have gotten us this far. And as this report indicates, small businesses have an important role to play. Recent surveys show strong optimism in the small business community. Owners are again planning new purchases, inventory development, which will fuel the recovery. Many millions of our people dream of working for themselves and running their own businesses. It's risky to be sure, as you well know, but those dreams reflect the imagination, the daring and the creativity that has brought so much progress and made this nation so great. Theodore Roosevelt was right when he said, it is our duty to see that the wager worker, the small producer, the ordinary consumer, get their fair share of the benefit of business prosperity, but it either is or ought to be evident to everyone that business has to prosper before anybody can get any benefit from it. Well, generation after generation of hardworking Americans have understood that truth and used it to build the most prosperous nation on earth. As I sign this report today, let us remember that success for small business and for America is one and the same. I call on the Congress to work with us to hold down spending and protect the people's tax cuts. Let us remember that prosperity, like profits, must be earned. It will never come as a gift from government or anyone else. If we return incentives to risk takers and entrepreneurs, we will free our people to create good times ahead, restoring hope and opportunity for everyone. And now I'm going to quit talking and start writing and send this to Congress, this State of Small Business report.


Obviously, our weekly charting analysis webinar, my name is Jasper Lawler. I've got the risk warning on the screen that we have to go through just for compliance purposes before we kick off our webinar. There we are. In all honesty, a little bit of a quiet day kicking off the week. It's obviously a shortened week. We've got Good Friday on Friday. And that's celebrated not just by us but by U.S. markets as well. And so that in combination with almost deliberately slower economic calendar in the lead-up, it's going to maybe take some of the volatility out of FX markets. I noted on Twitter that already volatility started to come out of the FX market. You know, it's very easy to track just Euro-dollar as the main benchmark there. And the true range for the Euro-dollar was about 60% of its average true range over the last 14 days. So you can see it's starting to contract a bit. And that's, I think, even more extreme today. We're not seeing too much movement. The only one notably is the pound, which isn't too dramatic. It's certainly one of the bigger laggards today. After that news about the in Duncan Smith quitting the front bench of the Tory party after the budget. And so that normally doesn't matter, that kind of thing, a bit of sort of internal party politics. But obviously we've got the referendum coming up. And the government is in favour of staying. So in Duncan Smith is one of the MPs who favours exiting. So it obviously, I would say it slightly damages the remain campaign, obviously. And so that's where you see the pound come off a bit. We'll come back and talk about the pound in more detail. But I think maybe worth just having a little look back on what happened last week in terms of its impact on equity markets. The most interesting by far, not today so much, looking like a pretty flat open in US markets. But overall, this is our daily chart for the USSE, our proxy for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, pulled out a little bit, maybe more than I would normally do. It zoomed out a bit just because of this declining trend line. That's the all-time high. And it's connected these two peaks quite well from November, excuse me. And as you can see, had a pretty much vertical rally off the February low, and we're just running into this trend line now. So just a little, I'm not necessarily saying this trend line will cap the advance, but I think it's pretty hard to dispute that this rally is pretty overextended at this point. Now, you can remain above in overbought territory on the RSI and other indicators for a long period of time when the trend is in place. So never would I advocate just selling out of your long position or going short just because we're above 70 on the RSI or anything like that. But we do have this trend line resistance, and then even if we get through the trend line, which I think is probably quite probable, we have some of these peaks beginning at this December 28th, 29th area, and then back up to the November peaks pretty much at that 18,000 mark. So interestingly, I'm sure you've probably read online or in the papers, but up and around this vicinity not far around 17, 500 to 600 mark on the Dow Jones takes the index back into positive territory for the year, and you can pretty much see that according to our charts. We were talking about these peaks from December, and then when we look at the 1st of January, the 4th of January, the first opening trade year is down here somewhere. So we're obviously above that at the moment. So quite the abrupt turnaround. Really nice classic double bottom pattern. The objective for the double bottom was about 1715. I don't know if you can probably note, 17505. So nicely reached. We got a little pause in that area, I think, but barely, and we've just popped high for the next day and stalled a little bit today, but mostly because of the lower trading volume more than any real attempt to sell off. So I don't know if you've read what is normally Michael's morning report, but I wrote it today, just referencing the importance of the US dollar. So I'll close down the US 30 for a second. But one thing for why it's important for US stocks, the Iranian stocks began before the dollar started losing value, so the two are not completely in sync, and the dollar doesn't completely explain everything, but I think it's added a bit of extra strength to the rebound, which could have just been a dead-cap bounce off the lows and in a swiftly drop into lower lows, but I think part of the reason that didn't happen is that the weaker dollar did a couple of things. I would say three important things. One is that it added support to the bounce in oil because obviously it was denominated in dollars. Two, it improves the prospect for US company earnings, and you can see that's partly why US stocks are doing so much better than European stocks. I mean there's a bit of fundamentally higher profits being made by US companies in general, but still the multinationals have suffered a bit from the stronger dollar because obviously their foreign earnings, they try and repatriate it back to the US and they're not as much from it. So now that's going to be a boost to the bottom line of the multinationals, like Apple, who obviously they've got their product launched today. That's probably the biggest event for today, given the lack of economic data. That's about 6 p.m. GMT when Apple I think are going to be launching a smaller, cheaper iPhone and we'll have to see how markets react if that is the case, but those companies are likely to do better. And then the other big concern at the start of the year was the Chinese Yuan and because the dollar has lost some value, the Chinese Yuan is paid against the dollar. The people's bank of China haven't had to depreciate the Yuan against the dollar as much, which was a big worry that that was a policy goal of theirs to boost Chinese exports. So that was confirmed again today by the Premier in China and I think that's part of the reasons why the German DAX was leading gains kind of sagging back a bit now, but why we saw a bit of a big leg higher. But this is obviously the dollar index. You can see we've really come down a fair bit from the peak and we just had a bit of a bounce on Friday and seeing a bit more gains today but not too much, like I said, low volatility. We've looked at U.S. markets, this is the FTSE 100 or our proxy for it at least. You can see we're just compared to the U.S. markets, which are now well above their 200-day moving average and you could probably say something equivalent to 6,800 or something if the FTSE 100 were to be matching the Dow Jones. It would be way up here, but it's not. In a sense, it is because it's challenging these same time period highs but obviously that bounce was that much shallower off the lows in August. In U.S. markets, it's got a good bounce off the lows in August and then came lower. FTSE 100 has basically been in this range and we had this double fake-out lower, which hasn't materialized in any big losses. And now we're kind of doing the same on the top side where this was the high. We tried to break out but just sort of failed so far.  So people short the position, short the market below this low, scramble to get out and anyone short anywhere looking to re-enter the market short on the bounce cover and that adds to the buying. So don't get that quite so much on the upside but nonetheless a bit of a fake-out higher at the moment. We're below the 200-day moving average and the higher we get into this range, the bigger the risk of the market rolling over. There's not really a defined trend and obviously in terms of sort of value trading we're near the top or end of the trading range than the bottom. And starting to get to the stage where sales are higher probability than buyers at this point. We've not made a higher high in the daily chart for a little while. We have on the weekly chart that's this but we've made a lower low on the weekly chart too so not too much of a defined trend and we're running into this 200-day moving average. So this is not really looking like a top pattern to me but nonetheless it doesn't necessarily have to when we're just in a trading range. This is not really a top pattern either. Arguably a triangle ready to break out to the top side but it didn't. You could see something similar here where we chopped down and just run out of steam and roll over. Quick look at European markets in comparison. That was just looking at it. We got quite a sharp bounce early. Sort of around the time those Chinese remarks were coming out I believe and got quite a strong bounce but really given a lot of those up now. I think with the thin liquidity no one had the confidence that that move was going to get sustained and we reached 10,100 and just rolled straight back but it's 10,000 again. So this is really interesting in the DAX because here's the breakout from the head and shoulders pattern but that's bearish and golfing pattern that we saw on Thursday which if I'm not mistaken was the ECB day is basically making that whole breakout look a bit ominous and today if it finished the same way it would be another fake out hire and add scope to the idea this head and shoulders pattern is about to break and if it does it's fairly clear pattern. I certainly won't be the only one with this on my chart with this left shoulder, head, right shoulder. Then if it drops back below the neckline considerably particularly below Thursday's low then I think that's quite a strong signal of weakness in the market and obviously bear in mind that we are still below the 200 day moving average so a lot of reasons to think the market could see significant weakness if this pattern gives way. So definitely keep your eye on 9,940-ish about where we are at the moment on the Germany 30 as a proxy not just for German stocks but for the FTSE and for US stocks as well. I did mention for anyone new today obviously feel free to chuck through any questions if you had some on maybe a market less likely to be covered by me. I'm just going to cover the major effects pairs and commodities coming up next. We've got about 15 minutes left of the webinar so definitely feel free to send those my way if it is something a bit more lengthy always feel free to send me a direct private message as well. I can talk to you outside the forum of the public webinar. So one of the reasons that European stocks have been underperforming in the last week or so was obviously that kind of failure of the ECB policy to really kick into gear and then the Fed meeting kind of rubbing salt into the wounds because really even though the ECB have doubled down on their quantitative easing program and cutting interest rates into the negative it's not helped weak in the Euro because the Fed is looking less likely to raise rates at this point. So this Euro strength is not really I think I said the exact same line in the last week's webinar. It's not because of strength in the Euro it's just relative weakness in the dollar that's pushing the Euro higher here. You know these are basically the sort of the peak here you know it's kind of what's happening as about this sort of 1340. I think it's 1375-80 which is the peak from the 11th of Feb. This 11th of Feb is a big date in a lot of markets it's called a bottom-in stocks top-in gold top I think the gold has surpassed it's things I think so silver top in the Euro so a bit of a sort of risk asset swing point so when some of these markets brush through here it could be meaningful. The Euro is stalled at the moment so we've got an inside day from Friday so we'll just have to see we've got a break to the downside but it's pulling back in the inside day I mean that's fairly typical to be honest you shouldn't get too scared from an inside day break out just because it pulls back into the day you know obviously that's a lot of an intraday movement doesn't necessarily mean it's not heading lower but should the day close like this or even higher that'd be a bit of a fake out from an inside day and could be a good sign that the market's going to push back into that peak so to look up for that as a little potential opportunity to at least maybe go and test those those highs just beneath 114. Overall though bit like when we were looking at the pound hard to really pick up a massive sorry was it the pound or the footsie this is not really a trending market right now the Euro so you've got to pick your spots again like I said there we're in a basically a sort of choppy sideways market so in that kind of environment selling near peaks buying near troughs tends to be a bit more effective than buying breakouts or selling you know selling breakouts so if we pop through this high my thinking is that the there's a greater likelihood that we roll over drop down again than there is that this move gets a continuation higher because you know look at the significant layers of resistance that we have not far above you know all those different levels are going to have different sellers looking to sell into the strength particularly with the general fundamental view that you know the eCV is obviously going in the opposite direction to the Fed even if the Fed slowed down a bit we mentioned Sterling but otherwise seems like we've put a bit of a bottom in I'm not sure it's going to dip back through 140 before the referendum it could do before the referendum but it would really only be a bit of a sort of Scottish referendum style I suppose where the polls start getting really really midway and uncertain closer to the date of the referendum that said yeah I think the polls are the only things you have to go on before an election but I think there's been a lot of evidence recently to say the polls you know are often very wrong but at the moment we've made a higher high we've stalled above that high and now we're dropping below similar to the Euro and they're getting a little fake out lower so we'll have to see whether we can sustain but to me this is a this is a pattern of uncertainty not necessarily bearishness this sort of spinning top doji type pattern that we saw in front but it is just right after a breakout so you know not really what you want to see particularly today's action dropping through the low you know you want to see that move continue but you know it looks like we've just run out of steam and same kind of deal we've got lots of layers of resistance above here it's not really an outwardly uptrending market we're well below the tune today moving average so difficult to buy breakouts you know if anyone who jumped in long maybe around 144.60 or something above that high to me well obviously benefit of hindsight but it's that's riskier than if you were like going for a breakdown below this low obviously that didn't work out you know most strategies see a good high percentage of mistrades of the nature of trading but to me that that would be a high probability trade looking for the breakdown there than this one would up here because of the nature of the trend that we're in as I said you know no coincidence really that that breakout failed and that breakout failed because it's like I said in these sideways choppy markets the breakout trades tend to have a lower probability than just buying off the undervalued or selling the overvalued near the near support resistance I mean now that I guess that is more generally the case you know if we're getting into a kind of trading dynamics in general obviously the breakout trades work less often but when they do work they work really nicely particularly if you're able to you know if you've got a strategy in place to be able to hold on to them you know sort of trolling stock-triot strategy you know obviously the many losses are made up for by that big win it's kind of the nature of the beast but I think you get my point look at euro again just versus sterling I've been laying out this this range for a while now this 0.77 to 0.79 range it's fairly clear cut and it's been great for you know selling the top of the range buying the bottom of the range at some point it's got a breakout not really clear which way this still looks more like a continuation pattern to me but could develop into a triple top just you know a modest head and shoulders pattern and you know we've got to you know we've got to look again for the breakout so it could be another fake breakdown but as we said before you know you get a lot of false breaks but you've got to keep taking them and eventually one goes in your favour and then you've got to cling on to it as best you can Dolly Yen similar situation going on where we've we've basically put in what could be a triple bottom we've had two false breaks below that 111 mark and haven't been able to get any further but you know obviously the trend is very much down so I tend to think there is more likely hit of a drop down to 110 than there is a break of this declining trendline but still you know again when we're talking about a sideways market the hybrid the higher probability trade is buying these supports selling news resistances rather than looking for the breakout I think what we could maybe get is given that we've had two fake outs I mentioned this in the chart forum is that we've got a bit of potential support turned into resistance maybe from these lows around the one sort of in a 112-25 ish so if we do get a little rebound to there maybe that's an area that the market can roll over again for to achieve the breakout just had a question about Brexit I mean I've got my own opinions on Brexit but for the moment for the moment I don't think that you know it's weighing on sterling you know I think it's every bit of news around Brexit Brexit is typically important for sterling but we're not seeing any influence on markets and we're not seeing really any influence on stocks I would argue and probably won't until closer to the until the actual June referendum date so yeah obviously got my opinions on whether we're better off in Europe or not but I'll leave everyone to make their own decision on that one I'm highlighting Brent here but the WTI obviously we were lower early on in oil basically in this 40 level in WTI is causing a lot of problems we had a drop on Friday that was the first drop after two nice days of gains and you can see the market's working quite orderly in oil you know benefit of hindsight obviously and you know you get a few little false breaks and things but nonetheless reasonable stoplosses even selling what has been a very strong revire you're getting some little dips at where you'd expect the dips to come from and so obviously the WTI mark here you know a nice trade if you were to have the opportunity I think would be maybe another drop down to this 3750 and then eyeing 40 and 43 again that would be in line with the trend and so have a higher probability than if we try and sell this 43, sorry this 40 level on rebound but then again 43 again with significant support for a while so we get up to there I think that could be some resistance again you know just below it we have these two peaks but we haven't got there yet 40 is a big round number and on Friday we saw US rigs have their first increase this year so that's kind of the pattern that we're going to see in markets in oil sorry for a while I think these US shale producers are very quick to get back online and start pumping oil again and so once we get a bump rise in the oil price suddenly US supply starts increasing again and drives the price back down so until we see other sources of supply normally namely OPEC and other kind of long term deep water projects coming offline we're going to get this short term effect higher supply for much from shale lower price lower output from shale back and forth gold has lost a bit of its lust over the last few days I mean largely down to the dollar dollar weakness a little bit of dollar strength that we've been seeing and this channel is kind of working we haven't had a chance to go up and test the 1300 mark yet and it looks like to me at this point I mean it's a consolidation so you know there's some pretty large tails both from the top and the downside hard to really tell which way it's going to go with the short term trend favours a break higher below the 200 week moving average below 1300 favours a break lower so difficult to call at the moment you know sort of feel like it's due a big correction but that's not to say I can't have another little pop first my assumption I would say I'd probably default towards if we do get a move up to 1300 then is the higher probability area for a deeper sell off quickly touch on copper because we've got a an interesting pattern here we know we tried to take out the previous peak for march failed to do so and put in the shooting stuff so if we got a close below there especially that's quite a bearish signal especially as we just made it above the 200 day moving average not really confirmed at the moment we'll have to see how today closes but if today's close is lower or even if just today's peak is lower than the Fridays we're going to have a bit of bearish divergence higher high and a lower low reversal candlestick pattern towards a correction there in silver perhaps down to 220 again perhaps lower okay that's it for this week's webinar we've pretty much got a couple minutes left thank you very much all for attending hope it was helpful good luck with trading this week didn't really cover too many of the major economic announcements coming up really because there isn't many we do have US durable goods probably the the biggest one tomorrow is quite big because we've got the Eurozone PMIs both German major German business and investor confidence surveys out and UK inflation data all out tomorrow and then we have UK retail sales on Thursday that's the same day as the durable goods again and then just nothing on Friday for the bank holiday so probably not going to be economic data necessarily driving things hence not the big influence in the webinar today watch out for the direction of the US dollar we do have the Fed and ECB speakers trying to influence things so watch out for that thanks again everyone and have a happy Easter cheers


Okay. So let's get started. I just want to read from accept20 and x20 and verse 32, where Paul is, you know, talking to the efficient leaders, right? And he's he's like, he's seeing them for the for the last time, actually, like, Paul had spent almost three years with them. And But right now, he's meeting them. He's meeting them for the last time. After that, he'll go to Jerusalem and then he'll be, you know, He'll be He'll be imprisoned and then be put in the house arrest and he'd be martyred finally, right? So it's the last time. So he's actually giving them some very important valid instructions, right? So we'll be looking at verse 32 and he says, So now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace. Okay. So after giving them some instructions, he's saying, I'm commending you, I'm presenting you. It's like I'm handing over you, right?    And he's, you know, and he says about what the word of God and what God himself will do in their lives. He's saying the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, right? Which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified. And so verse 32 is saying that this, you know, this is one important thing I need to do. I'm leaving, but I'm going to do this for you.  So, so we realize that God's word, of course, we read, we are refreshed, we are strengthened. God's word is something that can build us up, right? And even as we present ourselves willingly to God, God's word builds us up and gives us, you know, gives us or makes access or opens a door for the inheritance, the spiritual inheritance that we receive from him, right? As able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all the saints, right? So, you know, as we pray and start, let's just say, Lord, I present myself, I yield myself to you and to the word of your grace, right? Let the entrance of your word bring light, let your word build faith in me. I just yield myself, I receive that and give myself wholeheartedly to you so that there might be, there might be edification and there might be progress in my life, spiritual progress in my life. Okay, let's pray, right? Father, we thank you, Lord, or even as we see here, Lord, now that we, we present ourselves, we commit ourselves or give ourselves to you, submit ourselves to you and to the word of your grace, which is able to build us up, edifiers and give us an inheritance among all the saints. Father, we thank you that there are certain things that we do in the natural and which we fail miserably because it's only you and your word can bring about in our lives, God. And we commit all the areas of our lives into your mighty hands, Lord, and we submit to the Lordship, your Lordship and to, oh God, and we esteem your word higher than anything else in our lives, Father God, and may your word, Lord, build us up and may your word, Father God, open our hearts, open our lives to the inheritance, to the riches, Lord, revelations, the inheritance that we have in you in Christ Jesus. We thank you, we give you all the praise and glory in Jesus' match, His name we pray. Amen, amen. Okay, so we, so this semester, again, two more, two hours every week, actually two hours, both the subjects, yeah, so two hours every week on inner wholeness, right? So inner wholeness, well, this deals with the area of our soul or our emotions, and also talks about God's perspective about it, right? How does God see us? Is God interested in our emotions? God interested in our emotional wellbeing, our emotional health? And how does that affect our life, right? Because we can, you know, we can be saying, you know, I'm a strong person physically, strong person, you know, with regard to faith and so on. And I have these, you know, intense desires and I'm very sincere about these things. But then, if they're in the area of our emotion or emotional health, if that is not healthy, right? If that is not, maybe some of the challenges are not dealt with, then that becomes a barrier. That becomes a hindrance, that becomes a barrier. And as, you know, as a child of God, it can be very frustrating, right? As a child of God, because we know that, we know who we are, okay, because that is what God is pronouncing us to be. You know, we know that we are sons and daughters of God. We know that we are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. We know that we have the authority that God gives us and so on. But practically living it out, it can be very frustrating if this area of our lives is not dealt with, is not healed, is not healthy. So it could be with areas of, you know, we're going to look at some of these challenges. It could be, you know, a self of insecurity, a sense of maybe low self-esteem. It could be anger, it could be fear, it could be the feeling of inadequacy and so on, right? Maybe some addictions and lusts and all that. So we will look at that and see, okay, what is it that God, how has God, how does God want to empower us and heal us and overcome these things in our own lives? Okay, so let me just share the notes. The notes are there in the stream again, or in-person class, physical notes, I think will be made available a little later, right? Okay, so that's the scope of the course. Evaluation and assessment will be two graded quizzes, right? One in the beginning, one towards the end of the course, so that's the plan. Okay, let's look at chapter one and chapter one deals with the problems of the soul. Okay, you just now had the course on developing the human spirit, right? And we're looking at, I'm sure you would have studied about the tripod being that God has created us to be, right? 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23, let's read that. It says, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, right? So God of peace sanctify, sanctify means to set us apart, okay, completely. And it says, may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so we learn a lot of things about how we are created. We learn a lot of things about how God wants us, what is God's heart for us, right? So all that comes through in this verse. So 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23 is talking about, okay, that man and as human beings, we are made spirit, soul and body. And in the Greek, we see words like pneuma used for spirit and then, you know, suke, which is used for soul, from which we get the whole thing of psychology and so on. Everything that deals with the mind, the will, the emotions, imaginations, intellect and everything, right? Then he talks about the body. Now, what is God's heart saying that let your spirit, soul and body be preserved, right? Be preserved meaning, let there be no injury to it. Let there be no damage to it, okay? And preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he's talking about God's heart, God's will for every human being to be preserved in this manner.  Does God want me to continue to, you know, be in this way? God's heart is that he wants this, that our spirit, soul and body to be preserved, meaning protected, guarded, whole in Christ Jesus. Till he comes again, right? Okay. So, another verse that we see Genesis 2 and verse 7 says that God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a human being, okay? So that is what we see. We see that, okay, God breathed, God put something of himself in us, right? So that is why we are eternal beings even, right? We have our spirit, the spirit of man lives for eternity. It depends where we live or how we spend eternity. It depends on the choice that we make about Jesus, right? But because God created us in this manner and he breathed something, we are eternal spirit beings, right? And of course, 1 Thessalonians 5-23 talks about how we are made and God's heart for us. One other verse which deals with, which talks very clearly about God's heart for us is this, pre-John verse 2. Okay, we will study this in our financial stewardship class, right, first year. So he says, pre-John 2, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers, right? And in the Greek, the word suke is used there. I believe he's saying, I pray that you may prosper in all things, right? And he's actually praying that, John is praying that over the people, over the church and he's saying that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. So when you say prosper, what does it mean? Sorry, to flourish, yeah, to flourish to thrive, right? So it's not just getting by, right? So prosper means that let it just be fertile and thrive and flourish and be in health, right? So that is God's will for us that in all areas of our lives that we would prosper and be in health. Okay, so even as we pray or even as we look at our own lives, we can say that, okay, if there is something that is, okay, in the area of our mind with emotions, there seems to be something that is not right. Then God's heart is that it need, it can actually flourish, it can actually thrive, right? Okay, so, and also another thing that we see in this verse is that there is, there seems to be a connection, right? There seems to be a connection between the spirit soul and the body. Yes, the inner man is the real man. We are the inner person is the real person. And we see that there is a connection. Okay, how do we know that? It says that I pray that you may prosper and be in health just as your soul prospers. So your soul prospering is connected to giving us prospering, physically prospering, you know, especially everything. Because we see, practically we see that, okay, a person might be okay, physically strong. But if emotionally they are down, then it affects them, right? They could, you know, doctors can't find anything wrong with their body. That's fine. But then they are unable to do the things that they want to do because emotionally they are down. Maybe there is fear or depression or whatever, you know. So that is something that we see that it's interconnected. Or if they are down physically, it affects them emotionally as well. You know, we know for sure, right? Okay, let's look at the soul. So this course is about that, right? About emotional health. So when we look at this word soul, it refers to our mind will emotions. Okay, so we need to have that just a reiteration of what we know already, what we studied already.  So even our memory, our imagination, our creativity, everything comes out of that, right? So when we look at spirit, we know that is the inner man, right? The Bible talks about the heart of man, talks about the spirit of man. And many times in the Old Testament, the word that is used there for heart refers to both spirit and soul together. Like how do we know that? You know, for example, if you look at this verse, Genesis 6, okay. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Right? So it's talking about the inner man, but it's also talking about, you know, this ability of reasoning and imagination and thoughts of the heart. Everything is continually evil. So sometimes it's used for spirit and soul together, right? Like in the Greek, we see that spirit, soul and body and that was known with very strict differentiation. But we see that in the Old Testament, it's used both together, right? And then of course, the flesh refers to, you know, that's also another thing that we need to think about. The flesh would refer to the physical flesh, the physical body, but also refers to the appetites of the body, which are not in line with God, which is not honoring God or appetites of the body which are not satisfied in God-honoring ways or God-ordained ways, the flesh. The flesh would also mean it could be an unrenewed mind. That's also, you know, say fleshly thinking, which means that the mind is not renewed to the spirit. The mind is not renewed to the word of God, and therefore it's a fleshly thinking, right? So we see that. Galatians 5 talks about the works of the flesh, okay? And it's not a very pretty list, right? So Galatians 5 verse 19, just before Paul talks about the fruit of the spirit, he talks about the works of the flesh, right? Saying the works of the flesh are these lists out, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, everything.  And so it starts with saying these are the works of the flesh, okay? So we're just looking at, you know, all these different terminologies and the differences and so on, and the connection as well, right? Between this, okay. So what is the difference between the brain and the soul? Brain and the soul. So see, so when he says soul, we're talking about mind, will, emotions, intellect. And the brain does the same thing. So is there a difference or is it the same? Is it just a different word? Brain is connected. Brain is connected to the, yeah. So yeah, yeah, true. Like the brain is the organ, the physical organ, right? It's like a processor, there's a lot of computations, tells the mind, I mean, tells the body what to do, processes, all our inputs, right? Everything happens there. So when a person dies, the spirit goes to be with the Lord. And the brain anyway goes to the earth, decays, the physical organ decays. But we see that, well, you know, will the person be able to recognize Jesus? Will the person carry memories of the earth, whatever they did? And when we look at scripture, we see that, yeah, they did, right? Which means the soul, which is mind, will, emotions, imaginations, memory, all that, is something which is part of the spirit man, right? Which also has an eternal capacity to live beyond the physical, yeah. Nina, yes, brain is a part of the body and it will operate according to what it is fed with, yeah. So that's the thing that we need to understand about the soul, that it goes beyond our time here. It's not the physical organ that we are talking about, right? So if you look at, you know, Hebrews 412, right? Porter, when he's talking about the Word of God, 412, for the Word of God is living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, which means that, hey, it's a very integral part, but the Word of God is able to pierce even to the division of soul and spirit. And he goes on to say, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart. Yeah, so which means, he's actually describing, okay, this is the function of the soul, this function of the spirit. But the Word of God is able to discern what is coming from our spirit man and also what is coming, what is soulish in nature, right? What is, maybe, you know, when you say soul, it would also be unrenewed or renewed thinking, right? So he's talking about that. So the Word of God is so powerful, it's able to even distinguish, okay? So, you know, just for us to know the differentiation. Now, yeah, okay, okay, and brain is more, sorry, thank you. Anthony, brain is more logical, more physical, but the soul completely is going beyond the physical. Yes, that's true. Yeah. So the soul is part of the spirit. I mean, this is how I imagine it. It's that it's, you know, it's part of the spirit covered by the spirit and it has the eternal nature to it. And therefore, it goes beyond our time here on the earth when our physical body is no more and goes to dust. The soul will, because it's part of the spirit, sorry, it will continue to be there. We will continue to have our memory or, you know, everything there. Okay. Then, so the soul, there can be, you know, it has many advantages, right? Because if our mind is renewed, then we see that our actions are renewed. Like, whatever we do is, sorry. So if our mind is renewed, if our thinking is renewed, then our actions are renewed. We are able to grasp what the spirit of God is putting in our hearts. So it has, you know, it has a very important role to play in a believer's life. Okay. So that is why we're talking about Romans 12, Romans 1 and 2. Be transformed. Be transformed. You know, transformation is the big thing, the big change, right? Where we cannot recognize stage one and stage 10 maybe. And if you say there are 10 stages to a transformed life, we are not able to recognize that. It's like that Greek word, metamorphous, from which we get metamorphosis, right? So the caterpillar to the butterfly. So it's a very powerful thing. And that transformation is possible when our mind is renewed to truth. Because when our mind is renewed to truth, then our actions, our speech, our imagination, everything changes, right? And we see transformation in our life, right? But what if it is renewed negatively, right? You see the extent of what can happen. The extent of damage that can bring about, that can be brought about in a person's life, right? So we're talking about, you know, these kind of problems or challenges. So, yeah, so some examples could be hatred, depression, uncontrolled fear, worry or anxiety. So these are challenges, problems, and it's in the realm of our soul, right? Realm of our soul. Okay, for example, okay, let's say behaviors and choices. If the person has a compulsive behavior. Okay, so it's not something to do with the physical nature, but it's obviously something, something more, right? For example, I, you know, came to know of someone who was, who had a compulsive behavior to wash their hands, right? How often do you wash your hands in a day? Okay, so we're thinking, okay, how many times, you know, but the thing is this person had this compulsion to wash, you know, every other minute is washed, come and then felt that it's dirty. I need to wash again, go and wash and not just wash, you know, just scrub and wash and so on. So leave the house, want to leave the house, okay, I need to wash my hands or you touch anything, I need to wash it, right? So, so much so that the hand would be very, like the skin would be, you know, pink in color because just keep washing, keep washing, keep washing. And it's a, it's a very, you know, I mean, it's a very sad thing, right? So it's not always a place of fear. No, I touch something, oh, I need to wash it. It's not a, you know, it's a challenge. It's something to do with the mind and something to do with the emotional well-being of that person, right?  Like, sometimes we lock the door and we want to shake it and see, you know, is it really long, you know, or maybe you want to go in the lift. It's already pressed, but you want to press it two, three times. So you're making sure it'll, you know, go to where you want to go, etc. You know, these are mild things. It's okay.  It hinders, hampers you from living a normal life as a believer, as a human being, right? All your normal functioning is hampered because of it, right? Then there is a problem, right? What about emotional well-being? Okay, so we're talking about behaviors, choices, emotional well-being. The person has maybe fear, anxiety, you know, feeling that in every situation, you know, I'm the victim. Everybody's against me in whatever situation, you know? So, you know, let's say a work kind of a situation, they're okay. The whole world is against me, the work, you know, the boss is against me, the whole world is against me. Okay, move from that place, that environment or that company to another place. Same situation over and over again, you know, they're against me. And sometimes we try to spiritualize it saying, okay, I'm being persecuted, right? And the thing is that there's a challenge, right? And maybe it's a low self-esteem or something like that and the victim mentality. I'm saying that this is what it is. Everybody's against me, everybody's doing this for me and I'm day in and day out. This is what I'm going through, right? And so it would result in problems when it comes to relationships, right? So, you're not able to, that gets, you know, that gets affected as well, you know, in what way? You know, some people can become very manipulative, right? People can become very dominating, right?  Unworthy. So they will do something in order to feel worthy. Maybe in, you know, in a setting with friends or with family, they're constantly feeling unworthy. So they want to feel worthy, so they would try and do something in order to feel worthy. Okay, so it could be, I don't know, they change the way they speak, they change the way they do things. And it could also be, you know, in a way to put down people. Let's say I put you down, right?  And then I'm feeling like, okay, now I'm actually above this person. I'm, you know, I'm at a higher place than this person. Or I have to prove to you that maybe you're skilled in something. I prove to you that I'm better than you, so that I can feel better. And sometimes, and then when you think about it, it comes from a place of very, very insecurity and which arising from a place of being, you know, unworthy, right? That is so deeply ingrained, you know, I'm feeling unworthy, I'm feeling very low. So therefore I do something in order to, in order to even win appreciation from people, approval from people, right? So I do things, I say things and then everybody claps and wow, today I'm feeling good. Tomorrow, bad mode, why? Nobody clapped. Nobody gave a compliment, nobody said any good things, I'm feeling.  So we see that these are challenges, right? And then it affects our relationships. Sometimes it could be our life experiences, like constant failure, it could maybe unfaithfulness that we have experienced or it could also manifest in unfaithfulness to our, you know, in all our relationships and so on. Physical health, that's the thing. What happens in our soul realm or regard to emotions, it manifests in our physical life or physical, you know, like stress, for example. If there's intense stress, continuous stress, it manifests itself physically. How? Lack of sleep, right?  You're not necessarily solving it, but it's going over and over again. You know, you're playing that scene over and over again, what if kind of scene or it could even be hurt and anger and you're replaying that scene over and over again. That person said this or it could be even like, you know, I need to say this or I should have said this. Imagine any conversations. This person said, I should have said this. I should have done this over and over again. And it affects our physical health. It could be maybe not being able to sleep and it could also manifest itself in some kind of physical things. It could be maybe some kind of even skin conditions, right? Your skin is because of the sweat. Doctors call it like psychosomatic, right? Because of the things that are going on in our mind, it shows itself in the body, right? It could be psychosomatic, which means, you know, something not, it's not because of the physical nature, but it's because of the emotional things and, you know, insomnia, sleeplessness, maybe some rashes and skin conditions, et cetera. So because of stress and so on, okay? Props 15-13, right? It says, a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, okay? So internally, your spirit is rejoicing. Your soul is joyful. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance. You see it physically, but by the sorrow of the heart, the spirit is broken, okay? See, it's all interconnected again, right? Look at the other words, Props 17 and verse 22. A merry heart does good like medicine, okay? So internally, you know, you're good, you're thriving. It is like medicine. It's having a positive effect or a healing restorative effect on your body. But a broken spirit dries the bones, meaning it is affecting physically. It dries the bones, meaning there's, you don't feel like doing anything.   I wish I can go back to bed again. But then you go back to bed and you're wishing, oh, I wish it'll be morning again. You know, it's like an ever-ending cycle, right? So we see that these are challenges of the soul realm or the emotions and it affects relationships, human relationships. It affects our body physically. It affects all realms of our life, all aspects of our life. Okay. So what are the... Okay, let's go to chapter two. What are the... Any questions? Sorry, before we go forward. Yeah. We've said that like, first of all, our spirit carries the soul, like spirit and soul. Our integral, integrated. Even soul is like eternal because we have these memories, we have these emotions. Right. We can feel, but we have also learned that even our spirit has the emotions taste. Correct. Correct. So is it actually the feelings of our spirit or is it the soul? Yeah.  And if our mind is renewed to the truth of God's word, then that processing becomes sharper. Because what is in our spirit is processed by our soul. Right. So we process in our mind. So we receive... Let's say we receive a revelation and we... Is it of God? Is it not of God? Okay. So the discernment comes when our mind processes it, but when it's renewed to the truth of God's word, then it's, you know, your accurate accuracy or even the rejection of it happens. And that is why Hebrews 412 talks about the fact that the word of God is able to, you know, much sharper even to the division of soul and spirit, the intense of the heart and the thoughts of the... Intense of the mind and thoughts of the heart. So you're able to distinguish between the things. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. So we looked at problems in life, which happened because of problems in the soul. Right. And so, which means that... So when we address this, we actually address the problem. Right. When we address this meaning that this is the root of it. So it's not about behavior modification. You know, many times we try to... Change our behavior or at least try to change our behavior, right? And we... And even with, you know, maybe it's with others, we say, okay, we try to... I'm not saying that rules or guidelines are not important. They are important for some kind of harmony in society and so on. But then if you put a person in prison and then you release them, that's not going to solve unless there is transformation. Change in their thinking. And that is why, you know, a lot of ministry that happens in prison and praise God for some of the changes that happen. You know, the education that goes on and the people are changed. People are educated. People are informed. And then also, you know, educated in the sense spiritually. So they get to encounter truth and there is a change. So in that sense, you know, there is transformation. When they come out, then the whole thing changes, whole life changes. Right? So it's... No, no, no. That we will look specifically into, you know, building up the spirit man with the word of God and also, I think praying in tongues and, you know, all those other aspects of it. Yeah. But here we will look at how to address the problem of the soul, how to be healed of those, you know, emotional things. Yeah, it'll overlap. Yes. Oh, yeah. I know that. Yes. They will be overlap. Yeah. Okay. So Nina's question is, while the soul and the spirit are closely connected as they are, what goes to heaven after physical... What goes to heaven after physical death? Is it possible to be soulish while on earth? Meaning without the influence of the spirit man? Yeah, definitely.  We take responsibility for it. And that is why life transformation, you know, we... God has given us that responsibility. Yes, our spirit man is born again. Doesn't have, you know, he's removed that. He's put to death the old man, the old nature. But when it comes to the soul, God has given us... The Lord has given us the responsibility to take the truth and renew our thinking with the truth. So it is possible to be soulish when you say soulish. You know, we're talking about functioning with the unrenewed thinking, unrenewed imaginations, unrenewed emotions. Yes, it is possible. And that's where the problem is. For the believer, you call yourself a Christian and you're behaving like this. Where's the problem here, right? Yeah. I hope that helps, Nina. Any other questions beyond that? Yeah, if there are other questions, that is why it's necessary for... Yes, true. That's true. That's where our mind is to be renewed by the truth of God's Word. So in this renewal, we will... we see transformation. Transformation, primarily in our thinking, which affects our emotions, which affects our actions. And it's an ongoing thing. And the proof of it is transformation. Yeah. Okay, so, yeah. So it's like... so is it like our soul, our spirit, like when we are born again? Our spirit is like set apart. It's like our old man was dead and a new man was inside of us, new creation. New creation in our spirit. But our soul is not and it can be influenced to both good and bad. Yes. True, yeah. Yeah, so when we say we are born again, our spirit man is now... is alive. You know, what Ephesians talks about, that we are made alive. So we are made alive, we are sensitive, we are able to hear the voice of the spirit and everything. And all that happens. For the first time, we realize, hey, I'm praying and I know that there's a sense of knowing that it happened. I'm a child of God. All that happens in our inner man. And it's because of the fact that we are new creations. And yes, when it comes to the soul, needs to be... That is why we say, okay, we grow from maturity to... I'm sorry, immaturity to maturity. And that's the process that happens of renewing our mind. And the thing is that it need not be a long process. It just depends on the individual surrenders and yields and says, okay, this is what I'm going to do. Yeah. Is there a possibility for a person like who is not renewed in his thinking and he was living soulish to make his spirit dead again or... See, the thing is this, right? You... Okay, so let's say you're saying... So what you're saying is that a person is living a carnal life, which means fleshly minded, carnal minded, not on the things of the... So actions also follow. Rebuilding against God, doing the things that are dishonoring God. And at the... What happens there, you're actually opening the door spiritually for the enemy to attack, right? And you're placing yourself in a very vulnerable position, right? You're moving away from God's jurisdiction, right? So what happens is that person can come to a place like Bible talks about having their conscience seared. Hebrews talks about that. Now these are people who have their conscience seared, seared meaning that it's hardened. So you come to a place of being having a conscience seared and you can yourself... Now that's what Hebrews again talk about, that person can actually reject Christ. So Hebrews 10, I think, right? Where it says, yeah, if we sin willfully after we have received Hebrews 10, 26, after we have received the knowledge of truth, there is no longer remains a sacrifice, but a certain fearful indignation. So he's talking about anyone, verse 28, anyone who was rejected, Moses, Lord dies, okay, without mercy. How much more worse punishment do you suppose? Will he be thought worthy? So this is all that person has done. A believer, right, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, countered the blood of the covenant by which he was, sanctified the common thing, right? And insulted the spirit of grace, okay? It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the... into the living God. And then it says, verse 39, but we are not of those who draw back to perdition. What does that mean? Verse 30, we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul, okay, which means that, hey, this person can actually make a choice, consistent choice to draw back, to reject the Son of God, to insult the spirit of grace, and count the blood by which he was sanctified, a save, to be a very common thing, and do all that. A person can go to that place. But can I... So the question is this, no? Can I make the judgment and say, this person is not saved now? Exactly. So that's the thing. I cannot make a judgment. So can a person be, you know, come to that place of just rejecting, and we know potentially it's possible. But when that happens, can I take that call and evaluate and assess that, yes, this has happened? Exactly. So that is the thing. I don't know. I guess they might know that. They know that. Because obviously, when we are... Obviously, we... because of guilt, they are times where we go back... So there are times when we... There are times where we'll go back to God, and there are times we hold ourselves because of regret or because of pain, or because of the emotional being of that person. And sometimes it continues, and sometimes they get numb. Like, they can't... Maybe they get hard enough. Hard enough. And even sometimes, even if they want to go, they can't able to. Even if they want to, they are not able to because they... See that the very fact, even if they want to, that's the glimmer of hope. Right? Which means that, it talks about how the spirit lusts against the... how the flesh lusts against the spirit, and there is that tension of whatever is off the spirit, it's against the flesh. There is that tension. So as long as there is that battle even, it's... Yeah. But even if there's, you know, if you're seared and then for a season, they're just living this kind of life, we know that the Spirit of God is constantly reaching out. We know that the Spirit of God is able to save to the atom most, provided they respond, of course. But the Spirit of God, God will always be reaching out, will always provide circumstances and bring them to a place of decision. But the decision is this. But he will always bring them to a place of decision. Sovereignty, dreams, isn't it? The person may not say, but then maybe in hindsight they might say, okay, this is what happened. Why am I saying this? Because it happened in my life. Right? Because I was living a double life as a believer, as a spirit filled, you know, very well knowing the truth. I was living that, but Spirit of God never gave up through the most unlikely of sources. It's always reaching out, always reaching out. Always providing a decision. I was saying, yes, no, yes, no. For many times it was just, no, no, no, but then he's always reaching out. Right? Yeah. Okay, we shall stop here and then come back to chapter 2. Right? Thank you.


And in relationships, vulnerability is the last thing that we want other people to see in us, but it's the very first thing that we want to see in them. Yep, we're gonna go there. Today we're gonna talk about emotions. We're gonna talk about how to take your emotions and turn them into your superpower. And one thing we're gonna talk about very, very deeply today is vulnerability. Yep, we're gonna go there. Why? Because we're so afraid. Every human is afraid of vulnerability in some sort of way. And the reason why is because in people's heads we think of the word vulnerability, and we think vulnerability as weakness. We think it's a dark emotion. We think vulnerability at its core is fear and anxiety and shame and disappointment and the most difficult emotions that exist. But also at the core of vulnerability is love and joy and happiness. And it's hard nowadays because we see all of the ads on TV that tell us that we're not good enough. We see little girls nowadays seeing magazines that show them what perfectionism actually is. People get on Instagram, children get on Instagram, teenagers get on Instagram, and they see everybody Photoshopped in some sort of way. It is so easy to edit yourself on your iPhone right now. And so what do we do? Because of the fact that we look around us and we think, oh, everybody else is so perfect. That person's not, I'm not. We numb ourselves. We numb vulnerability. And we don't want to open up because we don't want to be disappointed. We want to stay in our armor because opening up makes you feel naked. And it makes you feel like you are coming out of your skin. And it's only gotten harder with social media because obviously everything's so edited and then people are looking at how many likes they get. And if they don't get as many likes as somebody else and they don't feel like they're good enough and all of advertising and social media makes us feel like we're not good enough. We're not good enough. We're not pretty enough. We're not smart enough. We're not fit enough. We're not successful enough. We're not thin enough. And it makes it so hard because then we're looking at our imperfect selves because everybody's imperfect and we're comparing ourselves to standards that are basically impossible to achieve unless you have a computer to fix it, right? Women see ads and people are unattainably skinny. And through Photoshop, they have perfect skin, quote unquote, perfect skin because they can edit everything out. So then they start comparing themselves and comparing their lives to near perfect standards, right? And then you watch movies, then you see marriages and love stories and rom-coms that have these perfect lives and these perfect love and these perfect marriages that ours could never compare to to how great they are on the big screen. So what do we do? We hide and we try to make ourselves not be seen because we're not that. We're not that perfect person, the advertiser. We're not that perfect person that's on Instagram. We're not that perfect relationship and that perfect love that we see in all of the movies. So what do we do? We hide from everybody, from ourselves, from our friends, from our family, from our significant others because it's easier to hide. So we hide behind an armor and we never let anybody see the real us. We hide all of our blemishes. Women hide their blemishes behind makeup. Men hide all their bald spots but behind hats and we get into relationships and we get into friendships and all of them are just surface level and they never grow and they never become deeper and really deep relationships or really deep friendships because everyone is just afraid of possibly letting somebody in and possibly being let down. And it's easier just to hide than it is and to hide and to never be let down than to truly open yourself up for possibility in what could be and then be let down. So we don't even enter the race because we're afraid that we might lose it. So we close off, we close off and we close off more and more and more as we get older. But here's the problem with that. In order to experience the best emotions as a human we have to experience vulnerability. In order to experience true love, true joy, true happiness, true hope, true authenticity we can't experience those without allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. But the problem is this, we see vulnerability as weakness. We see vulnerability as weakness. It shows us being weak. It shows us being imperfect. It shows us not being as good as everybody else. But when you're open and you're honest and you're vulnerable and completely emotionally naked do you wanna know what people actually think of you? Think about it for a second. They think, wow, that person's courageous. I don't know how they just did that. I wish that I could open up. So what's interesting is though we think courageous being stepping on and being vulnerable is weak, other people view as courageous. And I think that one of the main problems with being vulnerable is that it leaves us open to uncertainty. Most people are uncomfortable with uncertainty. Most people want certainty. They want definites in their lives. You know, what if we love someone and we open up to them and we show them our true selves who we truly are behind all of the armor and they see it and they don't love us back? Or what if they judge us? That's what we worry about. It's too risky. We don't wanna open ourselves up and possibly be hurt. That's just gonna hurt even more. So we stay closed. We keep our armor up. And it's not just love in relationships. It's many things. You know, vulnerability is many things. Vulnerability is starting a business. Vulnerability is finding your passion and following your passion. Vulnerability is doing what other people think that you shouldn't do. Sharing an unpopular opinion. Calling a friend who might have cancer. That's vulnerable. Saying I love you first. Saying, you know, that you have art that you wanna share with someone. Sharing your music with somebody. Trying something new. Exercising in public when you're overweight. Being accountable. Having faith. Admitting that you were wrong at some point in time. Asking for forgiveness. All of those are vulnerability as well. In the word vulnerable, just so you know, it comes from the Latin word vulnerable, which means capable of being wounded open for attack. And that's what we feel like when we think of the word vulnerable. I could possibly be wounded. I could possibly be attacked. And we wanna be strong. We wanna be courageous. So we don't allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We don't allow people to see that side of us. So we think it will open us up for some form of an attack with the possibility of being emotionally wounded. And that sounds hard. It's emotional exposure. We wanna hide behind that.  But in reality, when you're vulnerable, you're not emotionally weak. You actually become emotionally stronger. No one looks down on someone who's vulnerable. They look up to them. To be vulnerable is to truly be alive.  When we come into this world, we're vulnerable. Children don't care what you think about them. They don't care. They don't care about clothes that they wear. You know, Dean's child was over here. He's a year and a half. He was over here this weekend. His kid was walking around my house naked. Did not care about anybody seeing him naked. Didn't even pop into his head, right? Children don't care. They are vulnerable. They're the epitome of vulnerable. But then as they get older, they get reprimanded what they should and shouldn't do. They learn what they can and cannot do in the world. And what happens is they realize what they can't do and what they can do and they start to close off.  I'm not allowed to be that. So they close off. In elementary school, you get older. You share secrets with a friend. They think that they'll never tell a soul and they tell people and then you get made fun of. So what do you do?  You learn to close off from these things because it's easier to close off than it is to be made fun of. That's also why breakups are so hard, right? You find your first love. You show them your true self because you don't know any better. You allow yourself to be emotionally vulnerable with this person and it makes you so happy. It makes you over the moon in love with that person. Love and happiness and all of that good. But then you see that person kissing someone by the locker and you feel like your heart's been ripped out, whatever it is, right? It's emotional treason is what it feels like. So you learn to close off. I don't want to show my true self anymore, right? So it's raw emotional years that we learn to close off rather than being hurt. So we're certain that if we close off that we won't be hurt. So we want certainty over uncertainty a lot of times. If we open up, it allows us to be hurt and possibly be scarred by somebody else. But everybody has to deal with vulnerability at some point in time, not just a few people. We all have to figure out that vulnerability is something that we need to embrace or die without truly being seen as who we are. See, we're human. We all struggle with feelings of not being good enough. We want to feel loved. We want to feel like we're good enough. We want to feel like we're good enough and smart enough and pretty enough and successful and happy and thin enough and fit enough, whatever the hell it is that you want. We want all that stuff. But to be vulnerable is to be alive and to open yourself up to being seen, to open yourself up to being happy, open yourself up to being loved, to open yourself up to possibly being hurt. And if we want to truly be happy, then we have to figure out a way to embrace that vulnerability. So how do we, how do we possibly allow ourselves to be open to those things? Well, vulnerability is the only real thing that's gonna allow us to set us free, to love truly and to be loved. And typically we tend to run from it. So we need to learn to be comfortable with letting our armor down. It's like anything else. It becomes hard the very first time, but it becomes easier with practice. As adults, we need to learn to be, I can't even speak, you need to learn to be courageous, to follow what our purpose is, to find connection, to feel what true love is, to see what true love is. And in relationships, vulnerability is the last thing that we want other people to see in us, but it's the very first thing that we want to see in them. Think about that one for a second. Isn't that interesting? It's the very last thing that we want people to see in us, but it's the very first thing we wanna see in them. We want to know the real them. We wanna see the person that they hide from everyone else. But we don't want them to think that we're weak. We want them to think that we're strong, right? But some people have been wearing a mask for so long that they don't even know who they truly are.   But one of the things that makes us so much more advanced in animals is our emotional capacity that we can constantly expand that emotional capacity. And we can't worry about not being accepted. We have to step out into the unknown. There's a quote that really works well with this and it's be the changes you wanna see in the world.  You might have to be the first person to be vulnerable. You're the one that's listening to this episode, not them. So maybe you have to be the first person. The first person that opens up, that's vulnerable in the relationship that you're in. The first step is really being open and vulnerable is to believe that you are enough, that you are good enough, that you are pretty enough, that you are fit enough, that you are successful enough, that you are smart enough, that you are thin enough as you currently are. Not to say that you couldn't get better but as you currently are, you have to be open to just loving yourself and accepting yourself as you are. Because you might not be where you want, say, physically, but it doesn't mean that you can't start looking at yourself as if you are fit enough right now and tell yourself that you are enough.  That's one step to getting more confident with being vulnerable, is being confident in yourself. And when you look at yourself, you can be happy with the way that you look and with the way that you look and you're happy with it and you can be vulnerable and you're confident, you can be confident showing it to others, knowing that you're perfect just the way that you are, you allow yourself to be happy and you stop hiding. Like when I first started this podcast, one of the things that was so terrifying for me was that I remember writing down on a piece of paper that I was gonna be true and authentic and real and raw and vulnerable. And that was scary for me because I never really practiced vulnerability. Like when my father passed away, he passed away on a Thursday, I went back to school either Monday or Tuesday, right? I didn't tell anybody, I was 15 years old because what 15 year old boy is allowed to show emotions, especially around his friends. I didn't tell anybody. So I always struggled with opening myself up. And when I started the podcast, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna actually talk about it. I had so many friends that didn't know that my father passed away, didn't know my father's an alcoholic, I never talked about it. And I went, you know what? I'm just gonna go ahead and start saying it to people. If I can be open, honest and vulnerable, then people maybe can listen to me and go, you know what, me too. Maybe I can connect to, maybe they can connect to my story in some form of a, you know, some way or another. And in turn it will help them deal with whatever it is that they're dealing with, right? What I can tell you now that I'm almost 900 podcast episodes in is that having a podcast and saying these things out loud has been one of the most cathartic things that I could possibly do.  Say some of the really stuff that was really hard because I hit it from everybody. For years and years, for 15 years, nobody knew any of that stuff. It was hard for me to be vulnerable. Guys aren't supposed to be vulnerable. That's what we're told, right? And I was reading a book called Daring Greatly by Brené Brown and I saw it and I was like, you know what? This is right. I do need to try to actually try to be more vulnerable and to actually share what I thought was my quote unquote weakness. And what was interesting about it is as I shared my story, I started getting so many emails from people that were like, oh my gosh, I love this. I connect my story with yours. Thank you so much for being vulnerable and courageous and all of this stuff. And the funny thing was is that people started reaching out to me these podcasts that I was so afraid to put out, I was so afraid to talk about my father's issues, my father's death. I did a podcast episode literally a few days after my grandfather passed away and I remember literally crying in the episode and I was like, I'm gonna put it out anyways. Now it's terrifying. And then I got so many emails of people being like, thank you for being vulnerable because it gives me the confidence that I can go and be vulnerable as well. It shows me that a confident person can be vulnerable, right? And some people don't even let anybody know that side of themselves. Some people don't even know that side of themselves. Some people joy is something that they don't allow themselves to experience. Vulnerability is something that they don't allow themselves to experience. In the happiest, most amazing moments in your life, the happiest, most amazing feelings and emotions that you wanna feel are all being held back. If you can't feel your lowest lows and you definitely can't feel your highest highs. So you're restricted emotionally if you can't fully open yourself up ever, right? And some people, the most joyous moments of their lives are held back because they're still too worried about what could possibly happen. And they have armor up. Like a good example I always think of is parents. They see their kids on the first day of school and they worry about when they're gonna be 18 years old and leaving for college, instead of just fully being in that moment and thinking about their child going to school, right? Or they see their child going to school for the first time and instead of being like, oh my God, this is a beautiful moment, they immediately start thinking about, oh my gosh, what if they're bullied, right? Or they watch their kids sleep, I've heard this many times. And they think about, instead of thinking about how beautiful they are and how amazing that child is and how lucky they are to have them, they interrupt those what could be beautiful thoughts with worrying about losing them. So instead of having a moment of joy, they have that moment, they hold that joy back with worry of what could happen if that person's not always around. They ruin great moments because they worry too much about being vulnerable of what could possibly happen. They don't enjoy the moment too much because they think about what could maybe possibly someday down the road happen with that person. They don't let themselves fully experience joy. They don't let themselves fully experience those joyous moments and fully become alive because they don't want the possibility of somebody leaving them, dying, something happening to them. So once again, they put up the armor. You have to allow yourself to be happy. You have to allow yourself to feel joy. You have to allow yourself to be okay with where you currently are. You have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. Stop trying to be perfect. As a self-admitted perfectionist in my past, that's a hard one for me to realize that I will never be perfect, right? And as quote unquote perfectionists, which really perfectionism, if you heard my podcast episode not too long ago, perfectionism is just a mask that you're wearing that cover up a fear or an insecurity. We believe that we have to do things perfectly. So we avoid and minimize all of the things that could possibly give us judgment or shame or any of those things because we have to be perfect, right? Perfectionism is not self-improvement. At its core, perfectionism is trying to earn approval from others by looking perfect. Perfectionism is not the key to success. It actually hampers your success. And it's correlated with depression, with anxiety, with addiction, because we try to be perfect, but it's literally impossible to be perfect. There's no way to do it. Perfectionism is self-destructive and it is an unattainable goal and it will hold you back from being vulnerable because you're like, I'm not perfect, so I can't show people who I truly am. You will never be perfect. Nothing that you ever do will be perfect. Nothing that you ever create will be perfect. Remember this quote, done is better than perfect. Just do whatever it is you need to do. Another thing you need to do in order to feel more vulnerable and to be able to open yourself up, stop numbing yourself. What do I mean by that?  So many people work their asses off or work too much so they don't have to feel feelings. So many people drink so they don't have to feel feelings. So many people smoke so they don't have to feel feelings. So many people eat so they don't have to feel feelings. People smoke, they drink, they eat to minimize the feeling that they have of just being this vulnerable object that's floating through space on an organic spaceship that's going to die one day. And I don't just mean like alcoholics. I mean the casual like, oh, today was a stressful day. I need to take the edge off, take a drink or have a smoke, right? I'll just have a glass of wine to relax. Think about that for a second.  There's something going on behind the scenes or oh, I'll just have a piece of cake to relax. I deserve it after a hard day, right? Sorry to say it, but that in itself is hiding.  You're running from feelings. You're running from emotions. Believe me, everybody does it. I do it myself. I'm not perfect, but we need to be aware. Numbing the feeling of the real world because the real world is too much for us to handle at the current moment. So we can start by opening ourselves up. If we can start with these steps, we can start to feel a real connection between us and other people because it's what makes us human. It's what makes us different. You know, it makes what makes our species different than all of the species is the ability to make real deep emotional connections. And we as humans, we're hardwired to want to feel those connections, to feel emotion, to feel spirituality, to feel physical touch. We want to feel, we want to be seen. We want to feel heard. We want to feel valued. We want to give in and receive without feeling judgment. But in order to do that, we have to learn to become vulnerable and realize that vulnerability is something that's going to be powerful for us, not something that's going to open us up for harm. We need to learn that it's necessary.  Believe that you are enough. Believe that you have enough. Believe that you're perfect just the way that you are. In order for you to make real, deep, lasting changes in your relationships, in your life, realize that somebody needs to be the first to have courage to wake up, to open up, to step up, and to be vulnerable and have the courage to say what needs to be said. Don't be afraid of being looked down on. Being vulnerable is never a weakness. Being vulnerable is always a strength. People always look up to someone who's vulnerable. People always want to think, want to be courageous and want to be vulnerable as well.  So realize that vulnerability is courageous. Vulnerability is power and vulnerability will never, ever be weakness. Hey, thanks so much for watching this video. If you want to learn even more about master your mind, click right here and watch this video as well.  Failing at something is better than doing nothing.