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After six months in Pandemia, the world is adapting to the ‘new normal’. Has anything really changed - changed for better? 0r worse? The coronavirus is still active and as contagious as ever it was. The pressure of the global situation is no less. Arguably it’s pressing down on us even more as we face the fact that we cannot go back to the old familiar pre-Covid world.In this episode I speak about the purpose of pressure as exerted on us collectively through the pandemic and in our ordinary, individual lives. And I introduce you to the intelligent principle of life that I call ‘Mister Gogus’. This is the last episode in my first series of podcasts. All episodes will stay online so you can revisit them. I am often told that people who go back and listen again get more from them than they did first time around. You might also want to sign up for ‘The Course in Conscious Living’.~ Clive TempestEpisode 10 recorded September 4 2020For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

To contain the pandemic people are wearing masks in public places. Does it change your identify, to wear a mask? How does it affect your relationship to others? Does it make you more of a giver or more of a taker? The instruction to wear a mask is a given of the society - a limitation placed on the individual and you may say it takes something of your identity away from you. But if you’re anxious about coronavirus then your mask is your shield; it gets you back into society and gives you back your role. There are many ‘givens’ that define our needs as a society. As individuals, what is given and not given, in either a situation or a relationship, is how we define our personal needs. In this episode I examine how we navigate the network of needs and limitations, and of ‘giving and taking’, that forms society. And I suggest that not much can change in this world unless we change how we give and what we take.Recorded 28 July 2020For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

 ‘We’ve been playing those mind games forever’  sang John Lennon; and then he chanted: ‘Love is the answer’. Yes, it is. But we won’t find much love in mind games.  So I question the utility of ‘the mind’ in a world of insane ambition, division and abuse; when our times are out of joint and we seem to be sleepwalking towards the next crisis. I say it’s time to lose our minds and wake up sane, with a clear head and a quiet brain. Then love may indeed become the answer.Episode Eight of this podcast is mostly about the difference between a still mind and a quiet brain, philosophy and wisdom, time and space - with a dose of hokum, and laced with snakeoil. It was recorded on 2 July 2020.   For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

'Along with the coronavirus crisis we now have a crisis of social conscience. In the resurrection of racial division we revisit a long history of brutality and injustice. The cracks in our civilisation are daily more apparent. But what's happening in the bigger picture of our human story? What are we to believe? What's going on behind the stories on the news? And what about the stories we tell ourselves? Will they end well or badly? Does our story ever end? In the seventh episode of this podcast I tell the story behind the stories we have always told, from the age of myth, through the centuries of religious belief, right up to the psychological dramas that preoccupy us today'.If you're new to this podcast, it’s recommended that you also listen to the first episode, 'The Bigger Picture'.  This episode was recorded on June 16 2020. For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

‘The pandemic lockdown is easing as regulations are relaxed. The restless world is released from its enforced pause and now it’s eager to be busy again. There is more traffic, more noise. Only the dead may rest in peace - not the restless living. ‘As governments try to contain the spread of the virus, and at the same time control the return to 'normality', so we have to find a new and better way to live, while containing pent-up anxiety and agitation. We have to relax the psychological regulations we impose on ourselves, such as what we’re supposed to think, according to the stories we tell ourselves about what we want from life. ‘In this episode I speak about three ways to train yourself to be less restless. So that you can restrain your anxious thinking and be alert to what's actually happening as the situation changes.' Episode recorded 19 May 2020.For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

‘We’re living in critical times. The pandemic disrupts normality. Past remedies are not reliable. Future solutions come too late. We’re trying to control the uncontrollable. How can we turn this to our advantage? We can see the whole situation -  we’re all in it - as an opportunity for a shift in consciousness. And individually we can take it as a training in how to live more consciously. So I offer you three disciplines for transiting these times, summed up in three words: Contain, collect and connect. Listen and see what I mean. As with all my talks, I recommend listening more than once.’ This episode was recorded on 6 May 2020.For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

'What can the global pandemic teach us about living with uncertainty? Our lives and lifestyles are threatened and the future is uncertain. How do we react, collectively? How will we cope, individually? I see our whole psychological civilisation as a great castle, built to defend us against our insecurities. But now the walls are coming down, because the way we normally live is a due for radical change. And that starts with ourselves. Can we drop our dependence on 'situation normal'? Can we stop and change direction? Will we give the wonder of life and nature a chance? I say there is a space inside us where uncertainty disappears; where nothing is certain and yet, if I can get you there, it is a place of reassurance.'This episode was recorded on 25 April 2020.For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

'To live more consciously means dropping self-consciousness.  How is that done? I speak about the tension that comes when you, the individual, become aware of your relationship to a social group - family, friends, strangers, an audience. I offer you a simple insight to free yourself from social and performance anxiety. I ask you to question why you need to present yourself in public as you do, for example on social media. Is your presentation more important than your presence? Why not just be present as the unique individual you are?'  This episode was recorded on 10 March 2020.For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

‘Shall we slip through the cracks in the world? This talk sets the Covid-19 global pandemic in the bigger picture of its historic significance. It will bring upheaval and change to our world. Shall we embrace change or try to revert to normality? To consciously move into the new, we have to know what we’re doing and why. We have to be able to slip through the cracks as the current civilisation crumbles.’This podcast was recorded on March 18 2020. The corona virus pandemic had already caused widespread alarm in the UK, with panic buying in supermarkets and waves of anxiety spreading through the population. The Government was just about to introduce restrictions on public meetings and unnecessary travel.For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus

‘Who do you think you are? What are you? Why are you here?’ Clive Tempest introduces himself and his work, which he describes as a lifelong creative endeavour to become more and more conscious of 'the bigger picture' of our lives - so that we can see what life is and what we're doing here on earth. He speaks about a great intelligence working through us and how it drives consciousness towards a greater realisation of love. He shows us how we can leave psychological suffering behind, find purpose in our individual lives and make our own contribution to the evolution of consciousness. This talk was recorded on 14 March 2020. For more recordings of talks by Clive Tempest see: http://www.bigger-picture.net/audio-conscious-life.html  And his online Course in Conscious Living: http://thecourseinconsciousliving.comYou can rate and review this podcast at:https://lovethepodcast.com/mrgogus