Thomas 'Woody' Woodland: The Enlightened Addict
In today's episode we're joined by Woody; and boy! was this an enlightening conversation! It stretched our minds and made us question everything including our own thinking.
If you're interested to hear about someone who totally transformed their life, this episode is for you.
From addict to guru, he talks to us about his years of addiction to drink and drugs, his time in rehab and his subsequent, awakening and sobriety.
Woody worked in Private Equity, driven by money, success and a rock n roll lifestyle, before radically changing his life. He now coaches high performing individuals and lives in an (almost) constant state of peace... yes, you heard that right.
Woody teaches us so much in this episode:
- We have inherent resilience.
- Our external experiences do not create our internal experience. (It's a mind bending concept in a lot of ways - but stick with it!)
- The power of thought - 'I don't have to feel what I'm thinking'. Pause a minute and take that in... you are not your thoughts
- Enthusiasm for life is within. We often don't realise it's us. We assume it's the external circumstances.
- Life is not an outside-in experience.
Towards the end of the episode, we also discuss how Woody’s enlightened state of mind can marry up with the anger and outrage over such potent issues like Black Lives Matter:
- He notes - we don't make good decisions when we're mad, sad or worried.
- People mistake peace for inaction. Actually peace is inspired action.
- We have two states - stuck ‘in your thinking’ or ‘in life’.
- What we THINK is up for grabs. In short, our default is we feel what we think; but we are at choice to tell ourselves otherwise.
Resources (from Woody himself!):
- Syd Banks has lots of videos (I think 3 video series and many other individual ones) on YouTube and on www.sydbanks.com
- If you want to get a feel for what the 3 Principles then the best thing to do is listen to Syd - just don't try to understand it intellectually. Look beyond the words to the Truth of it, we have to look within to understand it
- 'Within' or 'inside' is a metaphor for beyond the physical world, beyond what any of us can conceive
- Syd also wrote 6 books about this understanding
Other amazing coaches / teachers mentioned:
- Micahel Neill, Dr George Pransky (Michael's mentor), Dr Joe Bailey, Dr Bill Pettit
I also love Dr Dicken Bettinger, Cathy Casey, Judy Sedgman, Elsie Spittle.
You can find Woody:
thomas@woodlandgrowth.com
https://www.instagram.com/thomas.woodland/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaswoodland/
And us:
pivotpointspod@gmail.com
Gabi Miller:
and Amelia Saberwal:
Our Editor / Life saver - Rob Sell
Pivot Points Jingle - composed, performed and recorded by Alexandra Kolubayev, also know as Alix Kol.
Logo design - DShaw & Co