139. Feeling Stuck? Use Street Wisdom to Navigate the World with More Curiosity with David Pearl

Having a reliable routine for getting fresh perspectives and ideas can be a sanity-saver and a path to opening up new potential almost every day for you. In this episode, we learn about just such a path with David Pearl, who is leading a movement—Street Wisdom—that can be an energizing, simple way to find answers to small daily quandaries and your most challenging problems. And best of all, it’s a free, ever changing way to boost your sense of joy, wonder and well-being. 00:00 Preview 01:10 Intro & Welcome 06:40 Walking in Circles The idea of getting experiential learning from wandering around emerged from as early as David’s childhood. The real catalyst was being lost and learning from mistakes. David learned the idea of walking in circles in public spaces when seeking out the meaning of life. David attempted walking in circles in Leicester Square and felt a bit self conscious but quickly realized that very few people were paying attention to him. The street can be a wonderful place to explore development and one’s own limits. As busy as the street is, in a funny way it’s a private space. David is not the first to put forward the idea of walking in busy cities. The Flâneur movement, for example, arose in Paris in the late 19th Century. The Flâneur was a person who could be at home anywhere and was always observing and enjoying the everydayness of life. The Flâneur’s art was social observation. A group of French poets, led by Guillaume Apollinaire and Charles Baudelaire used the streets as sources of artistic revelations. 13:08 Street Wisdom Street Wisdom offers exercises to help people become more Flâneur-like. One of the exercises used at Street Wisdom is designed to help people slow down. Another exercise is to help people increase their awareness. For many people the eyes are the main system of awareness, yet there are 4 other senses that can be used. A third exercise is geared toward awakening your physical intelligence. The popular opinion is that intelligence is centralized in the cranium while wisdom is distributed throughout the body. Let your feet take your head for a walk. Your body has an opinion and we can listen to that opinion to guide our navigating of the world. 18:00 The Discipline of Simplification 3 parts Tune up your senses People are awakened through various exercises. Quest With their senses awake, they go for a wander with a question in mind. Begin to record what is noticed through any of the senses. The Sharing Share whatever popped out at you. The Street Wisdom website offers a “walk shop” which offers simple instructions, and gives guidance on how to lead a walk. Online options are also available to lead or join virtual walks with groups. The Street Wisdom website has download links to audio guides where David takes people through the stages of the walk shop at their own speed. 21:20 I Am You The Street Wizards are a group of volunteers who have fallen in love with the process and have moved into deeper practice. “I Am You” is one of those deeper practices. The idea behind “I Am You” is to get a simultaneous sense of your uniqueness but also of your connection with everyone in the crowd. “I Am You” is important in this age of social media. The “I Am You” practice challenges the idea of what a stranger is, and addresses the fear of others. “I Am You” doesn’t require anything more than an imagination and a mischievous spirit. Humans have the amazing ability to create images in our minds of things that do not exist. We call this imagination. This imagination leaves us susceptible to media images that may project the world as worse off in the future. We have the opportunity to imagine and create a positive future. We need to exercise, on a daily basis, a better way of living. 30:00 Break We have the opportunity to imagine and create a positive future. 32:55 Authoring the Future There’s an infinite number of possible futures. David is helping people make decisions that the future will be proud of...