Download Episode Hereright click link and select “Save Link As…”

In this episode Joel and Antonia talk about Timothy Leary’s phrase “A Young Race Of Laughing Freemen” and how different personality types can show up to the world with joyful expression.

In this podcast you’ll find:

  • Timothy Leary quote: “I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.”
  • A Laughing Freeman is somebody who shows up to the world who can laugh about things not happening how they want and you are still free. You’re not bound to a rigid way things have to happen. You take things as they come.
  • It’s interesting how much “energy” really matters.
  • A Laughing Freeman moves through the world in a free way and goes with the flow.
  • What defines happiness?
  • How can you keep that sense of being a Laughing Freemen all the time?
  • You have permission to do that all of the time if you want to, even in the worst scenarios in any moment, even if it is less than ideal.
  • Ties in with a past podcast we did on Presence Work.
  • Taking it to the next level: I’m going to have fun no matter what.
  • You can be empowered to have fun.
  • An experience can change because of this mindset shift.
  • Choose to be happy and expressive or choose to be miserable.
  • Test how well you can “show up” in any situation.
  • Emotional resilience: you have become almost untouchable, it’s almost impossible to disrupt your calm.
  • There’s pride and discipline in becoming a Laughing Freeman; more skill and practice is developed.
  • This doesn’t necessarily mean being happy in all circumstances.
  • It’s not happiness; it’s more a sense of Joyful Expression in the midst of unhappiness.
  • It’s a state of being, no matter the circumstance.
  • A frame shift.
  • This is not the same as pushing down or hiding authentic emotions.
  • It’s not about the happiness.
  • It’s the expectation of the happiness, of getting the circumstance that will get you happy.
  • Once you have an expectation of happiness, it can be a let down.
  • It was never the “thing” — it was actually the pursuit of happiness that was important.
  • Biblical reference to hope: the assured expectation of things hoped for; the evident expectation of reality is not beheld.
  • There’s a component of joyfulness associated with hope, an assumption that things will eventually get better.
  • An important part of happiness, or being a Laughing Freeman, or hope or rule to have: attach yourself to some hope.
  • The emotion of hope itself is very rewarding.
  • It’s not about the emotion of happiness, it’s about all the other emotions that create a system where happiness is a frequent emergent.
  • If you can tend to things in the system, happiness is most likely going be an emergent of situations most often.
  • “But you have no idea what my life is like, it’s terrible!”
  • How can I still be a Laughing Freeman?
  • You have full and complete control as to how you show up in situations.
  • You may not know how yet or have the skill set built or have permission yet.
  • But your emotions show up in yourself and you can choose to show up as a joyful expressed self no matter your circumstance.
  • No one can put emotions in you; you do that yourself.
  • Skill development: you might not be able to show up like this right away, but if you put the work into it, you will. It’s hard, but you can do it.
  • Movie: Life is Beautiful.
  • You can get a high proficiency in this even if you’re not born with it.
  • You gain resiliency by not letting stressful situations own you.
  • Allow yourself to just be present in the moment.
  • Remove negative judgement just for a moment. And then next time, do it for a little bit longer and then a little bit longer.
  • Eventually you can just sit in the absurdity of it all and eventually you can sustain it, almost like a meditation.
  • This skill is available to everybody, but it is work.
  • Most of the time, we’re given this blueprint that when we don’t like something, we fight against it.
  • There’s a difference between The Fight and The Work.
  • The Fight: I’m not at all OK with the reality of this situation and I will resist.
  • The Work: All of the micro transactions you do everyday to become a better version of yourself and transcend the need to Fight.
  • Doing The Work allows you to build emotional and intellectual resilience.
  • As humans, we work so hard to build systems to avoid feeling unhappy and we spend so much time doing this that we don’t even know how to deal with it. All in a an attempt to avoid dense energy and negativity.
  • Own how you show up.
  • Life happens to you and around you in ways that you can’t always control.
  • There’s so much power and choice in this.
  • Feel your authentic expressions.
  • Sometimes it’s good to fight.
  • But with skill building, ignoring your authentic expression if it’s negative, and to pretend it doesn’t exist would be fighting.
  • So feel your natural expressions, and sit with the emotions that would take you out, allow yourself to not have the knee-jerk reaction.
  • We can be programmed; take over the programming and decide to feel something else, accept reality and do your own inner work.
  • Get present. Reality is reality.
  • This can happen no matter what your personality type or cognitive stack is.
  • Even if your introverted process is not thinking or feeling.
  • You go to your driver or co-pilot and you calibrate to where you’re at and allow yourself to sit there for a few minutes and then another few and then another few.
  • Find that place inside yourself you can rest into.
  • Ask yourself what is the introverted cognitive function of your type?
  • What is the space you can get into that doesn’t have judgement necessarily, isn’t trying to find the bad guy, and is just trying to figure it out?
  • That’s developing discipline; just be there.
  • It takes discipline, time, and practice and a lot of energy out of you so you have to have recovery periods.
  • You have to build a practice around it.
  • Recovery might be easier for judgers, especially introverted judgers.
  • It will be difficult for ExxJs to put in recovery time because you might think you should just be a machine.

In this episode Joel and Antonia talk about Timothy Leary's phrase

To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below:

Subscribe with iTunes
Non iTunes Link
Download The Android App
Subscribe on Soundcloud
Subscribe with Stitcher
Subscribe on Google Play

If you like the podcast and want to help us out in return, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking here. It will help the show and its ranking in iTunes immensely! We would be eternally grateful!

Want to learn more?

Discover Your Personal Genius

free-personality-test-myers-briggs-2

We want to hear from you. Leave your comments below…

5 comments

  • Salt
    • Salt
    • May 20, 2017 at 3:22 am

    Certain days I can roll with it as opposed to being invested in the “happenings” but couldn’t define it or what to do about it. Then in one podcast, it was defined and then could see a path AMAZING! Then the part towards the end about IP’s…… yeah, that drove it home.(LOL)…..Thank you for the wonderful content and clarity.

  • Kiri
    • Kiri
    • April 6, 2017 at 3:06 am

    As always you guys are hitting the nail on the head. I love the concept of looking at every situation and smiling or laughing at it – what a tremendously joyous way to live in this world! Thank you for once again brightening my day with your beautiful wisdom.

  • Kristi
    • Kristi
    • March 30, 2017 at 1:59 am

    I love your podcast, but this episode was a life changer. I am in law school in one of the most rigorous trial advocacy programs in the country. I am disabled, and it takes me so much longer to do everything. I’ve been feeling so demoralized because there are not enough hours in the day to do everything. This episode helped me so much.

  • Simon
    • Simon
    • March 29, 2017 at 11:08 am

    Another great episode. The “laughing freeman” concept appears to me like a “smiling Stoic”.

  • Chelsea Welch
    • Chelsea Welch
    • March 28, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    I hope you guys know exactly how big of a difference it makes when you speak about your humanity, imperfections, and the fact that you don’t always get it right. It’s so easy when you find “growth mentors” to fall into a trap of thinking that they have it all figured out and that they never fail. Even though intellectually it’s obvious that no one ever has everything together, it still triggers shame and feelings of “not good enough” when I perceive it that way emotionally. I don’t think you could ever give too many examples of the times you fail or all of the things that are hard about the work that you are suggesting (i.e. that the “work” phase you refer to can be exhausting, and don’t forget to give yourself recovery time!). Please keep up this pattern in your work – it is incredibly helpful and grounding!

Leave a comment

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.