Welcome to the Gathering Pod, the audio version of my weekly gathering room broadcast.

I'm Martha Beck.

Today's episode of the Gathering Room is called Your Perfect Problems, because I have been seeing

more than ever before that problems are like really good friends who really annoy you.

Friends that you wish would not say the things that they say, but then once they've said them,

you have to admit you needed to hear it.

Problems, they help us get out of the illusions that lie within each and every human mind as we start our

lives. So, for example, if you are growing up and you are told you're not good enough or that

you're inferior to different kinds of people or that the customer is always right or whatever it is you're

taught. If it doesn't agree with what's deeply true for you in your heart and soul, it will cause

suffering. It causes a sense of things being wrong. It takes you off your path. It makes you

make the wrong decisions for you. Example I've used many times. You know, I was

raised Mormon, happened to be gay. I don't know if I would have identified as gay, if I'd even

identified as dating before I was an adult. But, you know, it never even occurred to me because I

couldn't because that would be a sin and it would be horrible. And that took some unlearning, right?

Like I had a belief in me, got it completely innocently, but it didn't match what was deeply

true for my heart and soul.

You probably have the same thing.

We all do.

We all have beliefs that we've taken from either socialization or some kind of difficult

experience where we drew a conclusion

and included it in our belief system, but it's not in resonance with the deepest truth at our core.

...