Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Star Being. I'm Tara, your guide. Blending the wisdom of the stars, philosophy and soul centered conversation. Here we question, remember and reconnect with the stars, with self, with true being. I hope these conversations ignite within you resonance, awakening and a deeper knowing. Together we open to more truth, more magic, more you.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Welcome to Starbing. If this is your first time tuning in, I hope that you enjoy and if you are a regular listener to Star Being, thank you for tuning in again. It's great to have you here.
This is going to be a little bit of a different format to my usual episodes, so I would love to know your feedback if this recommendation resonates with you and leave me a comment on Spotify because when you do a podcast it is like a black hole. You obviously can see how many downloads and what episodes have been listened to the most. But in terms of if this is resonating, if you enjoy it, please let me know. So yeah, Spotify comment. You can leave or contact me through Instagram DM me. I love to hear from you, what it brought up, what you took away and that is what this is about. I love long formats where I spend more of my time doing like the podcast and my newsletters. And so getting that feedback is, is really great. I love to hear from you. So please do reach out. So today's episode I want to talk about my first love which is philosophy.
And, and I when I just turned 17 I went to university.
And when you are at university you have to do a foundation unit. And there was five to choose from and I chose this unit called Structure, Thought and Reality.
And this was all to do with philosophy. And I am so grateful that, that I took this class because I loved it.
And this really at university especially this unit really taught me or gave me the skills that I learned how to critically think before then. I don't feel that high school teaches you that like it's more conforming. Whereas university and I have been out of the game for a while now, so couldn't tell you if university is still like this. But all my professors, my, my teachers, my mentors, they really pushed us to think for ourselves. And in I after this foundation unit I went on to do some electives actually in philosophy.
And just having those debates and being able to put your world view forward was yeah, such a, such a great thing. And when I went to university I was expecting everyone to be my age. I thought, you know, you're 17, like straight, straight from high school. But in my classes the majority of people were My age now, so in. In their 40s, you know, in their late 30s.
And I cannot tell you how incredible that was as well, because the. Their wisdom and their knowledge. And so I had this, you know, kind of sheltered from that age, like, you know, being so young, but then I was with people that had this, you know, like, years of experience and wisdom. And so it was such a beautiful learning experience for me, the whole university.
And through philosophy, this is where I went on to study astronomy.
And what I will say about astronomy, like I was. You know, it was more physics and mathematics, and it was heavily based in that. And there was some really intense topics, like. Like black holes. But my professor that I had was so incredibly passionate about the subject. Every class was a joy because he just loved it. And so I want to take some of that passion into what I have for philosophy and when I talk about it. And so that is my intention. And the reason I want to bring this into the podcast is because there is actually, like, a cross section between philosophy and astrology. There's a lot of similarities, because at the end of the day, we're talking about the larger picture of life, like, you know, asking those big questions, what are we doing here? What is this all for? And the. This is what I spend the majority of my time thinking about.
So I am excited to start discussing these topics as if you've been following me for a while. I read intensely. I read nonfiction. And so, yeah, bringing some of these concepts to you is what I'm excited about. And so today I want to discuss two concepts. One is Akrasia, and the other is the examined life.
So I want to talk about Akrasia. So this is the subtle, a gap between knowing what's right and actually doing it.
So it's where we have that tension our mind understands, and your heart wants to, but your actions don't follow through. And so the ancient Greeks had a word for this, and it was Akrasia.
And it's sometimes translated into a weakness of will, but that doesn't really capture it. It's more like an internal resistance, this conflict within us where our highest intentions don't align with what we end up doing.
And so I'm sure you can recognize this in your own life. And it. And it can be subtly like, you know, telling yourself you'll meditate every morning, but, you know, hitting snooze instead. And you say, you're right, but, you know, the hours go while you're scrol through your phone or, you know, the foods that nourish you, the Best yet you reach for that, you know, that quick sugar fix.
These are the moments that can feel frustrating or even shameful, but it's not out of laziness or a lack of discipline. It's deeper and it's almost this mysterious pull inside of us that's the soul's tug of war between what we want and what feels easiest or safest, safest in the moment.
And this is the tension that Socrates, and you'll hear more about Socrates because he is an inspiration to me. He is one of the founding fathers of philosophy and he thought about this concept deeply. He believed that if we truly knew what was good, we would naturally do it.
But clearly we don't.
So that raises this question that I have been thinking about.
When we act against our better judgment, is it because we don't really know what's good?
Or is it that knowledge alone isn't enough to bring about change?
And this question, you know, it's, it's haunting because what it means to be human, you know, a creature of intellect, emotion, habit and will, you know, sometimes that's all dancing in harmony and sometimes it's in conflict.
And this is where I think about the other concept that I want to bring up today, which is one of Socrates most famous declaration that he said was the unexamined life is not worth living.
And so you've probably heard this before, but I really want to invite you to pause and, and really sit with what Socrates meant because he didn't say this lightly or as something, you know, catchy. He actually said it. And this is probably what gives it such weight as, well and potency.
He said it standing before a jury moments before drinking poison hemlock.
And he was sentenced to death for the way he questioned the youth of Athens. He was getting, just asking questions to get the youth to, to think for themselves.
And with this, you know, declaration that he said what he was pointing to, it wasn't journaling or a self help practice.
He meant that a life without reflection, without that deep and ongoing self inquiry, is a life half lived without examining ourselves, without turning our gaze inward to ask the heart hard questions.
We drift through existence like shadows, reacting to the world around us rather than living intentionally from our own values.
And so for me, this is where philosophy isn't, this academic pursuit, this is where it becomes really sacred to me and why I want to bring it to you because I feel that it is the therapy for the soul.
And there I want to bring up the difference between philosophy and religion because I grew up in a Very restrictive religion.
My parents and their parents both grew up in this religion. So it was quite an intense framework to be in.
And we left that religion when I was 15.
And so I feel like I have a deep understanding of what it is like to, to be in a religion and also then coming out of the other side. And this is again where my love of philosophy comes from. Because philosophy invites us to think deeply and question continuously.
Whereas in my experience, religion often asks us to accept and obey and you know, philosophy encourages us to question everything, including ourselves.
And when I think back to when I was in that religion, it was frowned upon to, to be inquisitive around the religion. Especially as a child when things don't make sense and you, you cannot get the answers.
And so this, for me, finding philosophy gave me that, that freedom and that liberation to. Because I, like, from a very young age, as, as young as I can remember, I had all about existence. And yeah, none, I thought as you get older, like it was some secret and the, the adults would let you know when you, when you came to a certain age.
But yeah, if you're listening to this, you probably have that inquisitive mind as well. And so, yeah, this was, this was very liberating for me.
And so coming back to Socrates, he didn't want us to have a blind belief.
He wanted this active examination.
And his most powerful question wasn't what is truth? It was what sort of person should I be?
And I feel like this is, and this is what I love philosophy because it just gives you this moment to self inquire and think what that means to you.
And so it gives us this shift to focus us inward and it moves the spotlight away from the external success, on status, on validation, and onto the internal. So our character, our virtues, our essence, who do we want to be in this life?
And this is something that I have been thinking about a lot recently and especially as you get older and you've, you've gone through the career, you've got the, the quote, unquote success.
And yeah, you, you realize. And you can't tell yourself in your 20s or your 30s, you can't because you just, you're stuck. Or I certainly was stuck in this.
Yeah, like, do more, be more. And it's not sort of like. And yes, like my spiritual practices and that has definitely kept me always inquiring, but I think it's so easy to get distracted.
And so coming back to this, and because this is the real challenge, how do we live that question in our busy Messy, imperfect modern lives.
And because Ecrasia doesn't show up as a dramatic failure, it's more often it's a quiet moment. It's those micro decisions where we're choosing comfort over courage, ease over growth, and distraction over nourishment.
So every time we're reaching for our phone instead of sitting with ourselves, every time we're avoiding the hard conversation or the uncomfortable feeling, this is a Krasia, this is it really whispering.
And so when you catch that, and the first thing is that self awareness and giving ourselves that time to pause, taking a breath and asking ourselves, what am I afraid will happen if I actually do this thing I know I should do?
What discomfort am I avoiding right now?
What story am I telling myself about why I can't?
And it's interesting because the resistance isn't about ignorance or laziness.
It's about fear. That fear of change, that fear of losing control, that fear of facing uncertainty and the unknown.
And Socrates himself really lived this.
When he was contemned to death by Athens for corrupting the youth with his questions, he refused to run.
And many advised him to flee and to save himself. But to run would have been to betray his own principles.
And this is why he inspires me so much, because he was such a man of integrity and, yeah, embodied his principles. So instead he accepted his sentence and he drank the hemlock calmly and he. He chose integrity over safety.
He literally chose death over compromise.
And now I'm not suggesting you need to risk your life for your beliefs, but I do believe that standing for something, having a moral center or a set of virtues you live by is essential.
Because I've heard this before, this phrase, and it really stuck with me.
You've probably heard it, but if you stand for nothing, you will fall for everything.
And I feel this is so important. It's this crucial reflection that I've been thinking about a lot. As we live in society, that society often feels like it's fragmented, it's distracted, it's uncertain.
What does it mean to live this meaningful life?
And then we ask those questions. How do we define success?
Is it wealth? Fame, comfort? Is it something deeper? Is it alignment? Is it integrity?
Is it the courage to live according to our values?
And this is the question that Socrates invites us to, to really wrestle with.
And obviously we don't face hemlock or public trials today, but we do face something subtler and more, I guess, pervasive, I think, which is distraction. Our phones, those endless notifications, social media, scrolling our to do lists.
These are the modern hemlock, they're slowly numbing our ability to stop, to reflect, and to live deliberately.
And this is why I love working with the, the seasons and nature and the moon cycle, because it gives me this way of connecting back and being.
Yeah, mindful and, and deliberate. And I think this is where rituals become so important.
So I want to invite you to do this challenge. And I say this to myself as much as at least once a day, creating a sacred pause.
So stop, look inward and ask yourself, am I living as the person I want to be right now? Not tomorrow, not in some ideal future, but in this exact moment?
Because living deliberately, it really starts with this, in the present, in the awareness.
And when we start to make choices from this place, that gap between knowing and doing starts to shrink. And this is where Akrasia loses some of its power.
And coming back to Socrates, he understood this so clearly that you're standing before the jury with his life on the line, declaring, the unexamined life is not worth living.
These words were a vow.
And like I said in the context of how he, when and how he said them, it was, it was a vow that life without reflection and meaning is a life without a soul.
And so how do we take that vow in our everyday life away from that context and put it into our own existence?
And so I, as you know, I, if you've been following me for a while or if you've had a reading with me, I love practical. So I, I want embodiment. And so it's really important to, yes, have the knowledge.
But how you can implement things into your life, especially this more spiritual, esoteric knowledge, is so important to me.
So these are some steps I've done, five steps that I really feel can help us embody this in our life.
So number one, a slowing down and creating space for reflection.
Because our life moves so fast and is easy to operate on autopilot when we have these built in small pauses into our day, a breath before responding to a text, a moment before making a decision.
You're creating that space to reconnect with yourself. And in that space, you can ask, who am I right now? Am I becoming the person I want to be?
And this isn't about judgment, but it's more about curiosity and that kindness towards ourselves.
Number two, asking the tough questions daily.
And so we're not waiting for a crisis moment or we're not waiting for, you know, that holiday to reflect. We're making self inquiry a daily practice and asking ourselves, what am I avoiding?
What fears lie beneath My resistance, what stories about myself need to be rewritten or released?
Because these questions keep you awake, aware and aligned and they help prevent drifting through life unconsciously.
And this is again why I love working with the new moon and the full moon, because the full moon especially is around rewriting like limiting beliefs and releasing and having that conscious awareness of what is coming up for us. And so imagine if we're doing the this every day.
I'm, yeah, I'm excited to start implementing.
And so number three, embracing discomfort as a teacher.
So change requires us stepping out of our comfort zone. And when we have this resistance, leaning into it rather with openness rather than fear or shame. And discomfort is often that signal pointing us towards growth and that invitation for you to learn something new about yourself.
Number four, taking micro steps aligned with your values.
I talk about value so much because I think it is so, so important. So if you haven't already writing down your values and then looking at how you embody those values in your day to day living, and I've mentioned this before, a lot of the time we have aspirational values, we want that to be important, but we're actually not living it. And so this is where that disconnection happens. That's where we come out of alignment. And this is, you know, energetically, yeah, completely out of alignment.
And so coming back to taking these micro steps like, so that's number one, knowing what your values are.
And then, because when we're doing like big change starts with small consistent actions, it's that, you know that sentence in your journal, it's making a phone call, you've been postponing.
These tiny steps are building trust in yourself and are slowly closing the gap between that knowing and doing.
And finally, number five, I think this is really important for connection. It's finding a witness for your journey. So sharing your intentions and your reflections with someone that you trust.
Because this accountability is about connection and having someone to hold that space for your growth.
And this can really help with courage and motivation to keep going, especially when things get hard.
And so, yeah, that's what I wanted to offer you and so that we can come back to what Socrates declared, like living the examined life. And it's not about perfection or having all the answers, it's just this curiosity, this kindness, this commitment to this, to the self. And it's this courage to ask the questions and yeah, keep moving forward.
And so this is where I think that it's the most meaningful and the most beautiful work that, that we can do.
And so in summary, what we've discussed today is Akrasia.
So this is the quiet but powerful gap between knowing and doing.
And it's not a personal flaw. It's part of the human condition.
And we spoke about Socrates inviting us to live a life examined not once in a while, but daily in the small choices that make up who we are.
And, yeah, that.
That's what the art of the examined life is. Not having all the answers, but being awake enough to keep showing up for the questions.
And what I've learned as I've gotten older is that when you.
When you feel like you have all the answers to your questions, the questions actually change.
And this is something that I wasn't prepared for. No one tells you this, so a spoiler alert if you haven't already come to that epiphany.
But it is about, yeah, I think that is the big one for me is about having this curiosity and being humble enough not to know.
So, yeah, that is what I want to leave you with.
I would love to know your thoughts on this episode if it sparked anything for you, if you liked learning a little bit about flow philosophy. The questions that I am sort of, you know, running through my mind where I'm at.
And yeah, I will speak to you very soon. Thank you for tuning in. I'm sending you lots of love.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to Starbing. May the wisdom shared resonate in your soul.
Until next time, stay connected and keep reaching for the stars. This is starbeing signing off.
