Finding Your Calm with Noah benShea

Helping Families Be Happy

In today’s episode of the “Helping Families Be Happy” podcast, host Christopher Robins, Co-founder of Familius publishing, husband, father of nine, author, fisherman, backpacker, and aspirational musician based in the Central Valley of California talks with guest Noah BenShea, North America’s most respected and beloved Poet/Philosophers, Pulitzer Prize-nominated, and international Best-Selling author of 28 books translated into 18 languages. They explore the principles of successful living from Noah’s most recent book – The Surfer and the Sage: A Guide to Survive and Ride Life's Waves co-authored with world champion surfer - Shaun Tomson.

Episode Highlights

• 01:37 – Christopher says, it's interesting to think that a real champion Surfer Co-authored a book with a world-famous Poet.
• 03:50 – Poetry in many regards is the business of putting a frame around a moment around a witness that you give to a moment that might otherwise pass unnoticed, unknown, says Noah
• 05:38 – Noah shares, what he learned about life through his experience with Shaun, and the parallels that exist with the ocean and with waves in the surfing.
• 08:10 – Shaun spends more time in the water than he spends typing, and Noah spends more time typing than being on a surfboard, says Noah.
• 12:02 – Christopher reads a section of the book – “When there are storms overhead, drop down into your mind ocean and ride the waves under your waves, the calm in your storm is the calm within you, your calm is calmly waiting, your calm is not at a distance from you unless you are at a distance from you.”
• 14:45 – Noah says, finding that calm inside of you is first recognizing that if you're in a state of turmoil. The turmoil is yours, and the disquiet is yours.
• 16:20 - Your working life is who you are and how you conduct yourself with you, says Noah.
• 18:42 – Noah mentions, that life is a gift, and prayer is a thank-you note. Write thank-you notes, and send those thank-you notes out.
• 20:02 – Noah states, that the only company that we can be assured of on that journey is ourselves.
• 22:35 – Before Noah gets to his prayers during his meditation is that he imagines that he is a prequel to himself.
• 24:55 – Noah’s feeling is that each of us is a time machine, and in our memory, we can go backward in time. In our imagination, we can go forward in time, but the only place you can steer your time machine is in the now.
• 26:55 - In working with Shaun there were times in a story that he would tell about loss, but he wanted to be wise enough to be silent, states Noah

Three Key Points

1. One of the real strengths of this book is that at the very cost of anything else both Shaun and Noah wanted to bring honesty and candor. Just two straight-ahead guys who are a little further down the trail than a lot of other people in life perhaps, and bring that to it. So, to Shaun the ocean of the idea of a wave rising or waves falling, catching a wave or missing your wave, or the idea that you’re not a drop in the sea, you are all the drops in the sea in a philosophic sense was very easy and a comfortable fit for him. While they both spoke about doing this book, Shaun was the one who decided that he (Guest) would be the sage in this book.
2. You're not in charge, what you are in charge of is you. What the world delivers to your doorstep each morning isn't your responsibility, your responsibility is your reaction to it, and it's calming to the soul. When you realize that your sole responsibility is who you are and how you conduct yourself. That's the only thing you're in charge of for the moment and in the moment. Your working life is not what you do, but who you are and that's in the book. So, our work in life is oftentimes making us self-important.
3. In the same way, as we leave the woods behind, we leave the boat behind, and we leave the river behind. We wander through where we are in that moment, and the only company that you can be assured of on that journey is yourself. So, it would be wise to be good company to that company on that journey. Our ability to be good company with others is premised on our ability to be good company with ourselves.

Tweetable Quotes

• “A poet's work is not always writing poetry but discovering poetry and putting the appropriate silence on both sides of it.” - Noah BenShea
• “Feelings are like tides, they come and go, and not to get too attached to your feelings or don't confuse how you feel with who you are.” - Noah BenShea
• “All courage happens on a private scale on a private stage.” - Noah BenShea
• “You can't like others if you don't like yourself, you can't love others if you don't love yourself.” - Noah BenShea
• “People don't do things to you; they do things for them.” - Noah BenShea
• “Self-pity is the worst way to discover self.” - Noah BenShea
• “The two great days in a person's life are - the day they are born and the day they know why they're born.” - Noah BenShea

Resources Mentioned

• The Surfer and the Sage Book
• Noah BSenShea: Website
• Podcast Editing