Shawn Levi

Always give your all to everything you do

True fulfillment comes from selfless action. Selfish action that seeks a reward at the end will never be satisfied, because there is always a hunger attached to it that will never be satiated.

On the other hand, selflessness is full in it within itself. This is a quality of energy and action that we all can look towards inherently inside of ourselves. But sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish which is which.

Oftentimes, a selfless action may involve a painful choice or a difficult decision, but the fulfillment and joy of service exists alongside the discomfort of the action.

It is a privilege and an incredible opportunity to be able to serve others. Whenever I see an opportunity for true selfless action, I take it. They are precious moments.

This doesn't mean you have put yourself down and to shut yourself off in order to help other people. The opposite: you become most yourself when you are serving others. Oftentimes, a selfless action might be to NOT give the begging man a dollar, or to say NO to the person that is asking something from you. This knowing doesn't come from morality, justice, or intellect. This knowing comes from the heart, a sense of what you KNOW is right. An unshakable, unwavering confidence that needs no grounds for defense.

And often times it can be blurry and hard to discern what is selfless. But no worries, you will know very soon when you step off the path: selfish egoic action taking always leads to pain sometime down the road.

The question is... how long does it take for you to admit that to yourself, and how much do you want to de-identify with your ego and instead act through your loving heart?

So go out and help someone today.

For no reason at all.

Call a friend that you know probably needs it or wants to hear from you, but you've been too busy/shy/impatient to talk to.

Give someone a smile and a compliment that is feeling down, help someone carry their grocery bags back to their car, look to serve someone else today.

The world needs your love, and you're the only one that can give it. There's someone only you can reach that nobody else can, there's someone only you can help that nobody else will.

You have a special place in this world, and no matter how small you think your actions are, you don't know how impactful and meaningful they can be on the other side.

In the spirit of this post, if anyone has been dealing with challenges or difficulties in their life and would like someone to talk to, please send me a message and we can hop on a call :), we might work some things out.

All the love,

-Shawn

Being happy and having a good life is very straightforward. Are you honoring yourself and taking care of yourself in all the ways you need?

Is your body in good shape and comfortable to be in?

Do you have a fulfilling job that stretches you, grows you, makes you feel appreciated, and allows you to serve others?

Do you have a circle of friends around you that you can connect with?

Are you part of a community where people take care of eachother?

Are you having a fulfilling love life and a relationship with a partner you have chemistry with?

Are you speaking up for yourself and sharing the things with others that you’d like to?

Do you have a creative outlet, and are you nourishing the areas of your life that you love (i.e. if you love science, are you reading science books, if you love art, are you working on any projects)?

Do you spend time connecting with nature, even if its just smelling a flower while passing by the neighborhood garden?

Are you cooking for yourself and eating nourishing, healthy meals?

This might seem like a lot…

But it becomes very simple if you just allow yourself to embrace life fully, feeling all the emotions that life brings to your doorstep.

By stopping using distractions to escape from reality and the ways you feel, you will know very quickly when something in your life is out of alignment.

The problem is, with modern society, we have normalized indulging in comfort, and numbing our uncomfortable emotions. Emotions are our natural guide, and we have allowed ourselves to fall out and of touch with them.

How much time are we spending on computer screens, or using substances (including sugar, wheat, coffee, fried foods)?

Browsing on youtube, instagram, and tiktok has been normalized. Drinking alcohol a few times a week has been normalized. Sitting in front of the computer for 60+ hours a week has been normalized. Eating junk food has been normalized.

The problem with it is that our natural compass to guide us to wholeness has been put out of wack by how easily accessible dopamine is all around us. We can easily escape reality on command with a $1 snickers bar, or simply by whipping our phone out of our pocket.

Realizing parts of our lives are out of alignment can be incredibly uncomfortable. There may be very difficult sacrifices we have to make. And over years of numbing, its easy to have grown weak and unwilling to get through the discomfort needed to break through addictive patterns. But through sacrificing our comfort and convenience, we are lead to the unwavering bliss of integration and authenticity, the peace of being whole, content, and satisfied with ourselves and our lives.

If you are unhappy with your life right now, there is very likely a very real reason why, and an action you are taking to make yourself unhappy that is within your control. And unhappiness feels pretty sh*tty, so the bandaid fix is to run away from that feeling instead of changing the action pattern.

What i invite you to do is to slowly but surely rip the bandaid off. To stop “treating” your unhappiness with escapism and avoidance, but to instead embrace life fully and to put down the addictions that help you avoid the circumstances of reality.

And to re-evaluate what you consider an addiction, and what you consider escapism and avoiding life. If you wouldn’t let your 6 year old kid do it as a good parent, it’s probably not good for you.

From this place, you will have the energy, clarity, and strength to do what you truly want to do, and to shape your life into complete alignment with who you truly are.

All the love to you guys,

-Shawn

Always try to do your best and to do the right thing. The universe will take care of the rest.

Life is like swinging from a series of monkey bars, but you can't see the next rung until you let go of the previous one.

Phases of our life come and go, and its easy to forget to appreciate the moment. You will never get this time back, so love it fully and savor every second while it lasts.

You know how you feel after a really good workout? Your body is tired out and a little sore, but you feel accomplished and relaxed. In order to get to that feeling, you had to get through a bunch of discomfort. You probably had to get off the couch, put down your potato chips, go to the gym, endure a bunch of painful or uncomfortable exercises, and only then do you get to feel that after-workout high.

This is a metaphor for life.

When you continuously do the things you know are right, and you put the instantaneous gratification of laziness, avoidance, and trickery aside, you are honoring yourself. And simply acting on that wavelength- doing what you know is right- will be rewarding in it of itself. You will need no outcome or external, the action is fulfilling within itself.

These are they types of principles you want to aim towards. Wholesome action leads to amazing things. And while the temptation of betraying this right action- cheating, stealing, avoidance, etc- may have a strong pull, it is never what will lead to longterm happiness and true self-appreciation.

There are many pitfalls to the path of coming back to yourself, and being free from the pulls of momentary gratification.

If your goal is to be whole, to be in your power, to feel amazing and to have fun with life, to walk through life with gratitude, grace, appreciation, and joy, there are many things you must let go of in order to allow yourself this freedom.

When we hold onto something, it is a weight. We try to run away from reality, what really is- and this is impossible. We can just pretend to run away from reality.

Imagine you broke your foot. Instead of admitting it is broken, imagine you take a ton of pain killers and you decide to continue walking on it. Your situation would get worse and worse, and your foot would still be broken, but you would simply be pretending it's not broken. There will come a time where you would have to admit to yourself that your foot is broken, and to take the necessary actions so that it could heal. And THEN, you will be able to walk again flawlessly without having to avoid any reality.

This is essentially what we do to get away from emotional pains stored deep within us.

There is a certain stance we can take in life, however, in order to face and accept life. If your intention is to act through love, you will start to be able to discern what actions and intentions get you closer to your goal, and what take you further away from it.

One example of a pitfall that stops us from returning to ourselves is holding onto other's love, trying to control it and bottle it up. Love is something that comes and goes, it is free, and it cannot be coerced or forced. It is something that someone has to genuinely want to give, out of the freedom and generosity of their hearts. It is not something that can be bought, manipulated, or controlled.

Many times we try to do this to people. It can come in different forms: sometimes we might act all high and mighty, above others, in order to gain respect and obedience. Other times we might try to convince someone to be our friend, to try to recieve love through pity, and make others feel bad about us for attention. Other times we may try to control a relationship, forcing others to be with us out of our own insecurity of loneliness.

None of these will actually "fix" the issue. All of these ways to try to recieve love are, essentially, using a pain killer to heal a foot.

The true way to receive love is to be completely grateful and appreciative of when it comes, to be honest and vulnerable and transparent about any feelings that come up that may want to take more, and to not try to hide these feelings and get more of it manipulatively or secretively.

For instance, instead of acting out and being mean to others for attention, the vulnerable way of dealing with this is saying that you feel lonely and you would appreciate someone to be there for you. This gives the other person a choice rather than trying to manipulate them or pull on their strings to give you attention.

The more you sink into self acceptance and self worth, the more you will start to notice these patterns and tendencies within yourself pop up. Awareness is the first step, acceptance and talking about them with someone that you trust is the next step.

The goal is to not be reliant on an outside source for your love. To appreciate external love, to even weep with joy, but to not be dependent on it. You want to allow yourself the acceptance from within yourself. And that means facing the hard feelings you have instead of running away from them. Going through them, not away from them. Admittance, Acceptance, Humility.

You are in your power when you are vulnerable.

Being raw and being courageous enough to show real emotion is what is truly transformative. Being honest and showing others how you feel and what you are going through, wearing your heart on your sleeve; this is where your power lies.

Whenever I write a post, it always comes from a place that is very dear to my heart. I'm the person that deals with the most pain, the most insecurity, the most anxiety. I do my best to allow myself to fully feel these things, to allow myself to be human, and to not run away from it. We all deal with these emotions, nobody is immune to them, nobody is above them.

The way is through, to accept your own humanity. Slowly but surely, these once "catastrophic" emotions now stop seeming like a problem, and start to be part of the ebb and flow of the game of life. And these experiences and emotions become doorways and bridges to connect to other people. They become valuable and appreciated, rather than cast away and avoided.

When I was growing up, I felt very excluded and alone. That feeling still comes up today. For instance, coming back to Los Angeles and growing my roots again here, it has been challenging to find family again. There are many times I don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. I'm also on a very unique path: as I'm giving away all my old stuff, many people are constantly questioning and challenging my motives. Why am I giving away my prized collections? Why am I joyfully working and content with my pay at my job, and not asking for more? Why do I keep the diet I have?

What I am constantly learning is to accept and love these feelings as I navigate through life. For instance, just a couple weeks ago, I used to dislike feeling small. Now, however, I can actually enjoy being out of the spotlight and letting other people shine. Feeling small is no longer something I want to avoid (as much).

As long as we're putting up a wall, or a front, or trying to act like someone we're not, we're out of our power, and out of acceptance of ourselves. And we're all human. We all have parts of ourselves that we don't want anyone else to see. Parts that we have learned are "bad" or "unlovable" or "shameful".

The practice is to courageously show these parts of ourselves that we never wanted others to see. As I mentioned, they are doorways for intimacy, connection, closeness, and bonding. You probably have a pretty close bond with the people you've went through really hard times with together. We bond over the challenges and difficulties we have went through.

In this way, our insecurities are actually our strengths. They are adversities that we have had to endure. They are valuable experience that helps mature us into our fullest self. Songwriters use these emotions as powerful material for their most influential songs, and who doesn't love a story of the struggling underdog coming to the top? We can all relate on this level, we all value the transcendence through our pain and suffering.

And when you let down your guard and show others you aren't superman, others can relax into their own insecurity as well. If you don't need to be perfect in front of others, they don't need to be perfect in front of you. If one person shows its safe to show a certain emotions, others can relax into that same safety as well. This is our true power. We come into being and into wholeness through this acceptance of ourselves and others.

That is why I value vulnerability so much. And yes, its fu***ng difficult sometimes. But through awareness, humility, and gentleness, we can all relax into who we truly are.

There is a certain way you can look at life that facilitates rapid growth, healing, and self love. There is a particular way to perceive the world and your own experience; through discerning what actions are for your own good and what actions will take away from your overall happiness and wholeness, and through listening to the desires, emotions, and movements of your heart, you gain an intuitive knowing of what the most aligned and integrous path is.

Through listening to your heart, you become more and more in touch with yourself, wholesome, grounded, and joyful about life. The things in your life that are not serving you slowly start to fall out, the habits, patterns, and conditioning that cause you insecurity and pain slowly start to unwind, and every part of your life starts to feel aligned and congruent with who you truly are. The masks and acts you subconsciously put up start to fall away, and you start to learn to accept and love yourself and life more fully, all the ups and downs, all the ranges of emotions and events that come with the vastness of the human experience. Life starts to become more and more fun, and you start to be immersed in more and more opportunity. The things that you want in life start to come to you, and things start making a lot of sense.

The way you listen to your heart is through inquiring within and seeing what the most aligned, wholesome desire you have. When you feel into it, what makes you feel the most love? What have you wanted to do for a long time, but have been too scared to take the leap of faith and go for? What could you do that would make you feel good about yourself simply through the action, without needing any reward? And similarly, what are you currently doing right now in your life for the reward and not for the love of doing it? Are you going to work out of love, or simply for a paycheck? Are you trying to win games out of the love of competition and play, or are you trying to prove to yourself that you are better than others because this is a vital part of your self-esteem?

In the pursuit of following and listening to your heart, there are quite a few pitfalls. There are momentary rewards that may feel good in the moment, but guide us further and further away from our hearts. The heartspace is naturally vulnerable, open, kind, humble, willing, grateful, gentle, generous, soft, and incredibly expansive. In the moments our ego kicks in, we are tempted to be guided away from this space. Bragging to others, controlling or dominating others to feel powerful, seeking approval and validation from others, cowardice and laziness, self-righteousness, these are all emotions and desires that can take us away from listening to our hearts. From the space of our heart, we don't need to engage in any of these patterns to feel whole. The heart is confident, and full of love and delight from it's own source. And through giving, serving, and loving others, we radiate more and more, and the feeling of love becomes more overwhelming. The heart is already full, it doesn't need anything more. From this space, when we give something to someone, it is pure.

On the other hand, many times our actions or intentions do not align with this wavelength. This is completely normal and human, and everyone struggles with this. For instance, when you give someone a gift so that subconsciously the recipient will do you a favor in the future, or giving a gift so that it will win you their favor, or giving a gift to show off how good of a gift-picker you are/ how much money you have, these are all intentions that seek to take something. A pure heart would give a gift and be filled and fulfilled soley from being able to give something away and light someone up, and would want nothing in return.

This is where your awareness kicks in. You can start to notice when these patterns come up within you. Throughout the day, there are countless times where we want to act from a place that is not from the heart. Sometimes it will be confusing and you won't know where your desires are coming from, but the process of inquiry and searching will eventually guide you to clarity through experience. Sometimes we think we are in the right, and we end up doing something that will hurt someone or ourselves. The feedback is usually quite instant, and it stings. This is how we learn to differentiate what comes from the purity of love and what comes from places that cause us more insecurity.

The drama and suffering of life is what opens us up. The only way "out" of the emotional pain you are currently in is through it. This pain is here for us, to help us listen more closely to our hearts, and to guide us towards growth and truth. The shock is what wakes us up and opens our eyes. The pain will be there until you decide to face it. And until that day, it will grow more and more until you are finally ready to go through it. And all that pain that grew over the years will give you the willpower, courage, and energy you need to break through your walls and fears. All that suffering and unbearability will give you the power to make the decision to go through the discomfort, and to never look back. This is one of the reasons why we need suffering in our lives, it is one of the most prominent forces for change and growth.

Simply through having the will and intent and desire to follow your heart, you will learn. Along the way, there WILL be many mistakes you make, just like how a baby falls quite often when they learn to walk. But every time they fall, they intuitively learn where NOT to step, and how to balance better and better so that they can eventually walk effortlessly. Simply through being devoted to your own heart, you will start to see the pitfalls that prevent you from happiness and growth, what to avoid and what takes us away from love, and what to pursue even if it may be uncomfortable and difficult in the moment. The moments of most adversity are the ones that push us to shine the brightest.

Through the lens of your heart, you can start looking at life. You start to see where people are not honoring themselves, for one reason or another. Sometimes it's too difficult to face the truth. Other times the lie they are living in is too comfortable to let go of. And you start to see these things within yourself, and slowly but surely your life starts to unravel and unwind until you are finally back to yourself. And from this space, you don't need anything else. Wholeness, peace, generosity, and kindness permeate your life, and the things you need naturally come to you. You are still faced with challenges and moments of inner conflict: the journey never ends. But as you walk down the path, more and more things fall into alignment, there becomes more sturdiness, joy, complexity and depth to your character, and life becomes fuller and more meaningful. Opportunities are handed to you because people can feel your capability and genuineness, and the desire to fall deeper in love just grows and grows.

Being completely sober is one of the most powerful practices you can have. That means to be with the energy of life, and what life brings at you without trying to avoid it or escape it.

Completely sober to me means:

- Having your diet in such a way that you don't have dopaminergic foods. No sugar, no fried foods, no bread, etc. Theres food that is very satisfying to eat in the moment and makes us feel nice and warm inside, but takes away some of the intensity of life and leaves us regretting it in an hour or two.

- Using technology / screens / social media only when you need to use it. Video Games, Youtube, Movies, Instagram, Facebook, etc. can all be used as a way to escape the way you feel and your life situation. Not using these mediums to escape the world you are living in is vital, and to me this is a huge part of being sober.

- There are also other ways to escape such as Gambling, reckless/fast driving, overindulgence in s*x (especially if you are desperate), etc. Any addictive tendency is a way to avoid life and avoid feeling the intensity of your emotions in that moment. Even something like dumping your emotions on other people without noticing how they are feeling / if they even want to listen can be a way to avoid being in this moment. Also, lying to others is another sneaky way to avoid reality as well.

- Obviously, no drugs including: Coffee, Ni****ne, Alcohol, Marjuana, Psychedelics, Opiates, etc. There is a time and place for these things, and I don't deny that they have some spiritual potency for growth. But what I am illustrating in this post is a very different wavelength, being completely sober. Through being sober, you will learn to rely soley on yourself, and learn to not need to use anything outside of yourself as a tool for expansion and growth.

This is a tough process for many, because as we grow into adulthood we often find one or two (or ten) of these ways to avoid life, and then we rationalize them to make them seem normal and harmless. I assure you, every single one of these things takes away from the zest of life. You must eventually confront yourself and hear the things that you are telling yourself.

Whether its the fact you are unhappy at the city you live in, or that you always wanted to pursue a dream that you never allowed yourself to go for, or that you are in a relationship that should already be over, you must hear yourself out and listen to the inner guidance that knows what is best for you.

There are countless things we are always telling ourselves, and some might be a lot harder to listen to than others. In order to be happier, you might have to abandon your whole career, something that you have built up for 10+ years. You might have to change perspectives and views and habits you have held and rationalized for your whole life.

That is why the process of becoming sober can be stressful and unpleasant at times. That is why we often use substances as a way to avoid the truth and slip back into the dopaminergic haze of ignorance.

I'm not saying that this path is easy. It takes time to ween off these comforting habits that we have held onto for so long. It takes willpower, friendship, and courage to go down this path.

You must learn to be honest, vulnerable, speak the truth, and have good will towards others and towards yourself.

And through this path, the blemishes of misery will come up and be dissolved in the beautiful life you are creating for yourself.

Once you are ready, and once you have the courage to start facing the things you have been avoiding, this is one path you can take to move forwards, and to make your life into something you're really proud of and truly joyful to partake in.

-Shawn

When you stop growing, stretching, and doing the things that expand you, your life becomes empty. We need to stay on our edge, and our edge is always fluctuating.