Real Life’s Adventures in Living: The Path to True Happiness with Guest Alastair Henry Part II | EP 63

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Dr. Judith: Welcome to Mastering Life's Adventures, an educational podcast about

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tapping into your true self, the soul, your soul, the substance of your life.

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To discover what life's ups and downs are really about, and how to

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have a greater sense of purpose, peace, joy, and fulfillment.

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I am Dr.

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Judith Holder, your host, coach psychologist, fellow seeker, who enjoys

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diving into the connections between spirituality, psychology, wellness.

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And your everyday life's adventures all preparing and polishing you

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like the fastest, a magnificent diamond to be your best self.

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If you're craving more from your life, you are in the right place.

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Come let's journey together and transforming what you know

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and to who you really are.

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Mastering life's adventures begins now.

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Hi, I am back with, uh, Alistair Henry, and we're talking about a, a slightly

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different topic, but similar vein.

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Our topic we're gonna be talking about today is the path to true

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happiness with the underscore true happiness and what that really means

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and what that really looks like.

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And I usually give the analogy sometimes that we have three ways

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in which we can move through life.

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We can move through life on a skateboard and slow things down and be observed

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and look at things and not fall off that skateboard and enjoy the

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experience that we're moving through.

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Or we can be like a cork and water that we can just float and experience

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the here and now and be mindfulness as we talked about in part one.

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We can also have like a springboard or a trampoline in which we're bouncing

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on to get to see something higher.

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So we're bouncing and bouncing.

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Seeing the higher view and understanding someone from a greater advantage point.

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And sometimes our life experiences a moving us all to all three

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or just one or two of them.

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I'm here to talk with Alistair about this whole notion in order for us to

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move towards this point of happiness, we need to know what that even means.

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So Alistair, why don't you talk a little bit about again,

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who you are?

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Yeah, I'm a, I'm an author.

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I'm an adventurist and I'm a double lung transplant recipient.

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And, uh, one of the advantages of being old is you can reflect.

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And as you reflect with the maturity comes wisdom and you can think back

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to different times in your life.

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And some of the decisions you made.

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And of course, at the time, when you make the decision, you think

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you're making the right decision.

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But upon reflection, you realize, wow, that was a bad decision

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because you were being biased by other factors in your life.

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You didn't realize it at the time.

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And I think it's, uh, when I look back to my twenties and thirties,

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I was in the corporate world.

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I was, um, I was a yuppie.

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I was working very hard, progressing, succeeding.

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It was all about being ambitious and progressing.

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But I look at it and I think, okay, but I wasn't happy.

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I was succeeding.

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So what is happiness?

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Well, for me, it's being content, feeling fulfilled, being able to

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sleep at night soundly like a baby.

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That's happiness.

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But it took me a long time to get to that point.

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It took a lot of, um, a lot of journeys, ups and downs to get there.

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But little by little, I see that that was my journey.

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But it was many chapters in life.

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I'm an author and I see life as a, as a book with different chapters

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and you walking your way through the book and one chapter leads to

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the next, to the next, to the next.

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It's progressive.

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And that's the evolution of the soul.

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That's the spirit.

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Dr. Judith: Exactly.

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That's what I was thinking about when you're talking about chapter to chapter.

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Each experience in life is maybe a new chapter.

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That's what the soul likes too.

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The evolution of the progression of the soul is also on the

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crest of what is true happiness.

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Because we think it is in the materialistic world only of success.

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Or achieving something, and that's what we've been conditioned into, but there's a

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whole new world, which you discovered when we talked about in part one in Canada,

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in a remote area about mindfulness, being fully present, having time to reflect,

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having time to be able to look at how you're growing and evolving, and you

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went into a community from a, from one community of the corporate world with

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fast paced, Just get the dollar, let's keep it moving forward, looking at how

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we need to structure things to a whole new world saying, that don't work here.

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And that don't work here.

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And then you went from, you know, you know, the remote area in Canada,

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and then you went to Bangladesh, and then, you know, you went to, you had

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these other adventures to continue to continue, continue to evolve

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your soul evolution of awareness and sensitivity of the givingness.

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The survey.

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of the helping is where I find some measures of happiness.

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And I think when you give, you get it back.

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It's weird.

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You know, just, I mean, the Hindus believe in karma and I have, um,

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sort of Buddhist, Buddhist beliefs about things, about accepting things.

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And, uh, yeah, I think there's a lot more that we don't know.

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I mean, we're only human beings, but every once in a while I sense the

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universe is sending me something that I don't quite understand, but it's there.

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When I came back from Bangladesh, I volunteered in London and

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it was the Northwest London Resource Center was looking for a

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volunteer to work on their board.

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And the executive director there was a lady called Candice Whitlock.

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This is how I met Candice.

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Our paths crossed.

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Candice liked what I was doing with my life.

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She'd already resigned.

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Uh, she was gonna set off.

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So the two of us went off together.

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That was 12 years ago.

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She sold a house, sold everything, and just set off.

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She was a free spirit, just like me.

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And I think to myself, you know, how many women might I have met that

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wouldn't have been on that wavelength?

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And yet, for some reason, I met Candice and she was on the same wavelength.

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We both found what we were looking for and it worked out right from day one.

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Wonderful.

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Candice went to, um, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica with me for a year.

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And then we went out to Georgetown, Guyana for a year.

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And then in between assignments, of course, we came home.

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I moved in with my daughter cause I had a bedroom in the basement and

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Candice moved in with her daughters.

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But we got talking and saying, you know, This isn't fair.

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Yeah.

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We keep imposing on our children.

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It's like, well, how long are you going to be home dad?

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You know, I don't know till the next assignment.

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So we decided to go backpacking.

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As if we were in our twenties, we're in our late sixties.

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So we just went off to Central America for four months, for four months.

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We just went off.

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Yeah.

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We're through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua.

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And the following year we went off to Southeast Asia through Bali.

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Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, no reservations, nothing.

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In fact, the first month we intended to stay in Thailand, but when we

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got to Bangkok, it was raining so hard, and the forecast was

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for rain to be for another week.

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We just went back to the airport and got a little plane to Bali, to Denpasar in Bali.

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So we spent the first month in Bali.

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Out of all of that, it just flowed beautifully.

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We never had a problem with, uh, finding accommodation or finding food or anything.

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But I know most travelers gotta have everything lined up.

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But that's the fear in this.

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If I don't do this, bad things are gonna happen.

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And they're not, they're not.

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Yeah,

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Dr. Judith: yeah.

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And it's also, um, you're talking a degree of trust in the universe.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You trust the universe that things will work themselves out.

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And I think that sometimes that's what we need to get more back to is if,

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if you're faith based, or you have a Buddhist or Christian or whatever

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tradition that if you believe that things will work themselves out,

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and you keep yourself in alignment.

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With the good and doing the best that you can in a situation, then most things

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do usually work themselves out even the bad things that seem to happen to us.

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There is a silver lining, even in the bad things, if we can be able to kind of

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garner it and gather it and learn from it, because all experiences are trying to

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help us to continue to grow and advance and our awareness about ourselves, and

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about those that are around us as well.

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Absolutely.

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And you know, when I went to Bangladesh, I didn't realize, but,

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uh, I had to learn to speak Bangla.

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It's like, God, you gotta be joking.

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I'm 62.

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I can't learn a foreign language.

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I took lessons and I learned enough to get by.

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Amazing what you can do that you think you can't.

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You just do it.

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Just like Nike says, just do it.

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And that is so true.

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It really is so true.

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We are our own worst enemy most of the time, because we're conditioned

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to not have the confidence.

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And the other part of us says, well, no, I've got to take some lessons.

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I've got to go to night school too.

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No, just do it.

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Get to something for dummies and just read the book and teach yourself.

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Dr. Judith: Yeah, it's kind of taking on the, for those individuals who

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tend to be a little bit more cautious about how they want to live life is

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that sometimes we need to just put our foot out there and just take the step

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and move forward on faith and knowing that we're doing the best we can and

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also be open to trying something new because that opens a new door to us

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that we wouldn't have had otherwise.

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We did it.

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We found that, hey, I actually like this.

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I'm learning new.

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Otherwise, we keep a closed mindset, and it keeps us trapped, and our

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soul doesn't want to be trapped.

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Actually, our soul does not want to be put in the box and just say, this is all

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you're going to do these four walls is it.

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And as our soul says.

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Um, no, that doesn't, you can put me in that box, I'm not going to be happy.

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And I'm going to be restless.

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And I'm also going to be sometimes we get into negativity, we're thinking,

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where's this negativity coming from?

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It's because you're not being attuned to your inner self, and our inner

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self saying, I need more, I want more, please listen to me, please see me.

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And please help

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me.

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And if you trust in the universe or whatever, you know,

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it sends you these things.

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And when we came back, we said, well, now we're in our, about

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70, we were so late sixties.

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And we just thought, no, we can't do this volunteering anymore.

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It's just too, too hard.

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We don't want to anyways, like been there, done it.

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So what we were doing was writing actually at the time, as I said, I wrote that book

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awakening in the Northwest territories.

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And when I wrote that book, I called it White Man on the Land, and it

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was about a man who went to Loots O.

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K.

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for two years, and then he left.

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And people said, love the book, love the story, but it causes the reader

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to say, well, we need to know more about this man that went into Loots O.

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K., and what did he do afterwards?

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So I carried on writing and writing, and I went right back, and

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it turned out to be a biography.

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It starts when I'm born in Glasgow, Scotland, believe it or not.

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So, Awakening in the Northwest Territories is my autobiography.

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And then, because I enjoyed writing so much, we continued to write.

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So when we were volunteering, we were recording all of our adventures.

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And Candace and I co wrote the book.

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It's called Go For It.

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Volunteering Adventures on Roads Less Trouble.

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And the whole idea is to inspire and motivate other retirees to

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consider sharing their skills to help improve the lives of others

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in the world by volunteering.

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That's what we did with that.

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It reminds me of

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Dr. Judith: the movie that came out several years ago about Pay It Forward.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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I know by paying it forward, the universe also returns back to us so

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much more in happiness and contentment and sharing and giving of ourselves

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and advancing communities and helping the communities to feel gifts that

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we give and as a retiree or not as a retiree, um, allows to continue the

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advancement of that particular community and also the advancement of the soul.

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Thank you.

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And when we went budget backpacking, we wrote every morning

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and then just had fun in the afternoon.

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But we realized, you know, that the rest of the world is cheap

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compared to North America.

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It really is.

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And most of the places we stayed at, you know, we paid 10, 15 a night.

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And we thought we can have a wonderful exotic holiday and you

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don't have to spend a lot of money.

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So we did it on a budget.

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And the book we wrote was called Budget Backpacking for Boomers.

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And it's how to do it.

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So we showed you everybody where we went.

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So everywhere where we went at the back of the book is listed the hotel, how much

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we paid, how little we paid and everything and all the wonderful adventures we had.

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Because for most people, when they think about holidays, they

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wanted a very organized trip, you know, thousands of dollars.

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With a guide.

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Well, we just wandered around for four months.

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None of us spoke any of the languages.

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Dr. Judith: Yeah.

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Also, I think I, I hear that quality of the simplicity of happiness.

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Absolutely.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Um, and so minimalist.

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Dr. Judith: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's kind of minimalist and the simplicity of it.

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And that we also in our own culture, we think it has to be

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complex to get to happiness.

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Right.

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Well, when I went to Lutz okay in the First Nations.

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I was living minimally up there.

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Because you just have the bare essentials.

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I just had a lot.

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It's a lot of fish and caribou and things like this.

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You couldn't do the big shopping at the grocery store because

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there just was not the selection.

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So you learn little by little that you only needed.

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a knife and a fork and a cup and a plate.

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You don't need 10 or two dozen.

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You just need one of each.

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So when I went to Bangladesh, it's the same thing.

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You live minimally, uh, at the same level as your colleagues.

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And, uh, that wasn't a problem for me, you know, same thing for Candice.

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And we live minimally now, very frugally.

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It's taught us to be very frugal.

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And that's just the way we are.

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But we had to recondition ourselves because in, you know, we were

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brought up and we're primarily North Americans, but we've evolved.

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And still happy.

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And less is more.

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With it.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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Oh yeah.

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Dr. Judith: And I think that comment about less is more is very powerful

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in the way for the soul evolving because the outer consciousness,

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the ego persona will always think, I need more, I need more, I need more.

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It's not enough.

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It's not enough.

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It's not enough.

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But the soul says, no, that's not the level in which we want or the

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vibration which we want you to be in.

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We want you to be aware of the fact that it is in the minimalist awareness

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and attention and a reflection that you do through your writing, for example,

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that allows you to tap into your soul, which is allows you to effortlessness.

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And the flow of what happens, especially probably even when you're writing, there's

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an effortlessness that happens, you know, with that process, because it is

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the time we sometimes think our soul is separate from who we are, but our soul

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is actually integrated to who we are.

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And we're trying to just uncover our soul and be aware of this

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experience as an existence.

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Well, a little later this morning, I'd like to get back to

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that because it's very important.

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But I was saying, when I was in the corporate world, we have to multitask

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because you've got meetings, you've got things cropping up all the time.

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And my mind was always busy.

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I was never living in the moment.

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I was always going running, running, and I did all those like 20 years of that.

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That's what I realized.

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And it's the same thing now when I look around, everybody's on the

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phone, nobody's living in the moment.

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But when I went up there to live with you, it looks okay.

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When you live in the moment, you stop, you live in the moment, all of a sudden

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life becomes very rich, very full, and you can really appreciate it in technical.

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Dr. Judith: I was just thinking that.

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Otherwise you're just going through the motions.

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So many people are going through the motions, they're running,

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they're doing this, they're doing that, going from this to that.

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But there's, they don't stop and really truly appreciate,

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you know, whether it's food.

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Or a glass of wine.

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Everything is just a race.

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Dr. Judith: You're saying something that's really critical.

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That we've been conditioned to live that way.

Alastair: 00:18:07

And the more that we live that way as a race that's going on, the

Alastair: 00:18:10

further we get away from our soul.

Alastair: 00:18:12

And the soul sense of who we really are.

Alastair: 00:18:15

And get into game anchoring into that soul sense, because that's where the

Alastair: 00:18:20

richness of our happiness is that we will uncover and feel as if we're anchored

Alastair: 00:18:25

in something more than ourselves.

Alastair: 00:18:27

Then this next event that's coming up, or this next situation we need to deal with.

Alastair: 00:18:32

And that's entirely different world, not to say that these outer things we

Alastair: 00:18:36

don't need to attend to, but we also have to attend to the awareness that

Alastair: 00:18:39

if you want to have a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness and contentment.

Alastair: 00:18:44

And compassion and care is anchoring into that soul essence, that

Alastair: 00:18:47

substance, the substance of our life.

Alastair: 00:18:50

Absolutely.

Alastair: 00:18:51

And you know, Judith, I had a rude awakening when I went to

Alastair: 00:18:54

Bangladesh, very, I mean, one of the poorest nations on earth.

Alastair: 00:18:59

And then it dawned on me, how can these people be happy?

Alastair: 00:19:03

They have nothing.

Alastair: 00:19:04

And yet they were whistling.

Alastair: 00:19:05

Everybody was laughing.

Alastair: 00:19:06

And I thought, how can you do that?

Alastair: 00:19:08

You've got nothing.

Alastair: 00:19:09

And that's when I realized happiness is a state of mind.

Alastair: 00:19:12

It's not what you have.

Alastair: 00:19:14

It's not your bank account.

Alastair: 00:19:15

You know?

Alastair: 00:19:16

I mean, I had all of the stuff when I was up after I retired, but I wasn't as

Alastair: 00:19:21

happy as these people who had nothing.

Alastair: 00:19:23

But the guy was cleaning the public washroom, my God, you know, with a mop.

Alastair: 00:19:27

Oh, what a horrible, horrible, stinky job.

Alastair: 00:19:30

He was whistling.

Alastair: 00:19:31

And I thought, well, he just has a job.

Alastair: 00:19:34

He's happy.

Alastair: 00:19:35

He has a job.

Alastair: 00:19:36

Many people don't.

Alastair: 00:19:38

Men, Harold, were so spoiled, so privileged.

Alastair: 00:19:42

Really?

Alastair: 00:19:43

Mm hmm.

Alastair: 00:19:43

Dr. Judith: Mm hmm.

Alastair: 00:19:44

Yeah, we're not taking the advantage of understanding that the gifts that are

Alastair: 00:19:48

given to us, how do we utilize them in a way that helps others to move forward,

Alastair: 00:19:54

but also honor those gifts that we're given and not just throw them away.

Alastair: 00:19:59

It's like throwing out that, you know, throwing out food

Alastair: 00:20:02

because we don't want it.

Alastair: 00:20:03

But instead, no, can we give this food to someone else who can be able

Alastair: 00:20:06

to have it and enjoy it as well?

Alastair: 00:20:09

And so that presence, that living in the moment and a different mindset allows us

Alastair: 00:20:15

to be able to find maybe true happiness.

Alastair: 00:20:20

The other thing is community.

Alastair: 00:20:22

They, because they have nothing, they rely on each other.

Alastair: 00:20:25

But I noticed families were very tight, very happy.

Alastair: 00:20:29

And we've lost that in North America.

Alastair: 00:20:31

You know, we're all individuals.

Alastair: 00:20:33

We, we go to the movies, we do this, we do that.

Alastair: 00:20:35

But the whole idea of being community of people dropping in and family

Alastair: 00:20:41

gatherings, we're doing it traditionally at Christmas and Thanksgiving,

Alastair: 00:20:45

but it, it's a special occasion.

Alastair: 00:20:47

It's not part of daily life.

Alastair: 00:20:49

And that's what I noticed there.

Alastair: 00:20:52

That's what brings them happiness, is family.

Alastair: 00:20:54

The elderly, they look after their elderly.

Alastair: 00:20:57

A lot of times, the grandparents are the looking after the children.

Alastair: 00:21:02

Because the, well, the grandchildren, the children are scraping a living,

Alastair: 00:21:07

but it's the grandparents that are looking after the grandchildren.

Alastair: 00:21:12

Dr. Judith: And this is a quality, when you talk about community, I think

Alastair: 00:21:14

about coming into unity for community.

Alastair: 00:21:19

Coming into the unity of the oneness of the family of the community of the

Alastair: 00:21:24

core essence of caring and concern of enjoying each other's presence that we

Alastair: 00:21:29

sometimes have gotten away from because of our electronic devices that we find

Alastair: 00:21:34

ourselves on all the time, but they are doing it naturally and they probably

Alastair: 00:21:38

have a greater sense, true happiness that we think with our technical

Alastair: 00:21:43

abilities and our Individualistic perspectives, which they have their

Alastair: 00:21:47

place that that's going to only be the way for us to achieve our happiness.

Alastair: 00:21:52

And you're talking about another way that they have been able to do that through

Alastair: 00:21:56

that coming into unity of the community.

Alastair: 00:21:58

Well, I know there was some talk.

Alastair: 00:22:00

I read some studies about the happiness index and it turned

Alastair: 00:22:03

out, I think it was Nepal was the happiest country in the world.

Alastair: 00:22:07

They don't have any television or anything.

Alastair: 00:22:09

That's what makes them happy.

Alastair: 00:22:11

Yeah.

Alastair: 00:22:11

And you know, the other thing, Judith, really, at the end of

Alastair: 00:22:14

the day, every single person on this earth wants the same thing.

Alastair: 00:22:19

To be happy.

Alastair: 00:22:20

That's it.

Alastair: 00:22:21

To be happy.

Alastair: 00:22:22

All the things are important, but not as important as being happy.

Alastair: 00:22:26

I think about a lot of very successful, uh, I'd say rich people that I know.

Alastair: 00:22:31

Man, I, I would say they're not happy.

Alastair: 00:22:33

They're just, Hmm.

Alastair: 00:22:36

They're not happy.

Alastair: 00:22:37

They're not nice.

Alastair: 00:22:38

People.

Alastair: 00:22:39

Mm-hmm.

Alastair: 00:22:40

. Mm-hmm.

Alastair: 00:22:41

. Mm-hmm.

Alastair: 00:22:42

. They're rich and they're condescending and whatever, and discriminatory,

Alastair: 00:22:47

but they're not as happy as that guy cleaning the public washroom and dacker.

Alastair: 00:22:52

Right.

Alastair: 00:22:53

Dr. Judith: And is if the, you know, that person's cleaning the washroom

Alastair: 00:22:57

is a person who's being fully present, as you mentioned earlier.

Alastair: 00:23:01

Is the person who is living in the now and enjoying what they're doing

Alastair: 00:23:05

because they're aware of the fact they got a job and that can be happy.

Alastair: 00:23:09

Whereas we kind of move into this notion in search of we're

Alastair: 00:23:13

always in search of something in search of more, more, more, more.

Alastair: 00:23:17

And what we actually need to be is think about happiness and think about

Alastair: 00:23:22

joyfulness because part of what we're.

Alastair: 00:23:26

You know, sometimes people get in thinking about happiness as the end and

Alastair: 00:23:29

be all, and if it has true happiness has joyfulness with it, and that joy

Alastair: 00:23:35

of the spirit, the joy of the, it's the motor of life that allows us to be

Alastair: 00:23:39

able to giggle and then laugh and to find humor in things that maybe we're

Alastair: 00:23:43

serious and that we end up finding.

Alastair: 00:23:46

I can feel some, find some humor in this.

Alastair: 00:23:49

So the joy factor, I think is a contributor to this happiness factor.

Alastair: 00:23:53

What are your

Alastair: 00:23:53

thoughts?

Alastair: 00:23:54

Yeah, I agree.

Alastair: 00:23:55

For us, joy, It's when we can share and we see the smiles and we can impact somebody

Alastair: 00:24:02

else's life, either by inspiring or motivating them or giving them something.

Alastair: 00:24:07

When we stopped volunteering and backpacking, we decided

Alastair: 00:24:12

the universe sent us this idea.

Alastair: 00:24:14

Well, why don't you put your, um, all the photos you've got and

Alastair: 00:24:17

your stories together into a one hour audio visual presentation.

Alastair: 00:24:22

Go to long term homes, retirement residences, community centers,

Alastair: 00:24:29

and that's what we did, so we did that for five years.

Alastair: 00:24:32

Everybody enjoyed the stories and the photos and whatever.

Alastair: 00:24:36

So it was a way of us sharing our adventure and them living

Alastair: 00:24:41

through our stories and pictures and being entertained.

Alastair: 00:24:46

And it brought back a lot of memories.

Alastair: 00:24:47

People would say, wow, yeah, I went to Thailand when I was 20.

Alastair: 00:24:51

And then they start reminiscing and recalling.

Alastair: 00:24:55

So we did that for five years.

Alastair: 00:24:56

I only stopped touching when I got sick, you know, cause I was diagnosed

Alastair: 00:25:00

with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Alastair: 00:25:03

Did I tell you about

Alastair: 00:25:04

Dr. Judith: that?

Alastair: 00:25:05

Uh, I think the listeners have not heard about that.

Alastair: 00:25:07

And I think the seekers would probably be interested in hearing

Alastair: 00:25:10

that experience and how it tied into, you know, the core that we're

Alastair: 00:25:13

talking about, the happiness and joy.

Alastair: 00:25:16

Yeah.

Alastair: 00:25:17

Well, it was about December, 2019.

Alastair: 00:25:20

I was having trouble breathing.

Alastair: 00:25:22

Now, I'd been a pack a day smoker for 50 years and I was convinced I had lung

Alastair: 00:25:28

cancer and I'd been addicted, never could kick the habit and I resolved myself to

Alastair: 00:25:33

saying, okay, well, you'll go out, you know, you'll get lung cancer, just the

Alastair: 00:25:37

same as your mother and your brother.

Alastair: 00:25:39

That's how they died.

Alastair: 00:25:40

They were heavy smokers.

Alastair: 00:25:42

So it was no surprise in December, 2019.

Alastair: 00:25:45

I was 75 and I couldn't breathe.

Alastair: 00:25:48

I was like breathing, sucking through a straw.

Alastair: 00:25:53

So I went to see a respirologist and it was diagnosed as

Alastair: 00:25:56

idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Alastair: 00:25:58

I was put on oxygen.

Alastair: 00:26:00

Immediately 24 seven and they said this fibrosis is it's a chronic disease

Alastair: 00:26:07

with a morbidity of three to six years.

Alastair: 00:26:10

And I said, well, what have I got three years, six years.

Alastair: 00:26:14

And they said, well, unfortunately, in your case.

Alastair: 00:26:17

Your fibrosis is quite advanced.

Alastair: 00:26:19

So you're looking at 18 months, 18 months.

Alastair: 00:26:24

So that gave me a best before date of about June 2020.

Alastair: 00:26:28

But with my Buddhist philosophy, I thought we're all going to die

Alastair: 00:26:32

and we all have a best before date.

Alastair: 00:26:33

I just know what mine is now.

Alastair: 00:26:35

I mean, some people are going to die before me.

Alastair: 00:26:38

They just don't know it yet.

Alastair: 00:26:40

So in a way, I felt fortunate.

Alastair: 00:26:43

I thought, okay, I've got 18 months now to do what I got to do.

Alastair: 00:26:46

And what I wanted to do was to go back to England, say goodbye to my

Alastair: 00:26:49

sister, friends, family, everybody.

Alastair: 00:26:52

So I went back to England with my wife, my three children, three

Alastair: 00:26:55

grandchildren, so eight of us.

Alastair: 00:26:57

We went to Manchester for a week and they came in from France.

Alastair: 00:27:01

And so it was about 25 of us there, big, lovely dinner one Saturday afternoon

Alastair: 00:27:06

and out in the country at a pub.

Alastair: 00:27:08

That was wonderful.

Alastair: 00:27:09

And then we went out to Guernsey for a week because my relatives are from

Alastair: 00:27:13

the Channel Islands and we had that.

Alastair: 00:27:15

So I came back and now it's getting towards December 2019.

Alastair: 00:27:21

And I've gone from three liters a minute.

Alastair: 00:27:23

To five to eight liters, 12 minutes.

Alastair: 00:27:25

So I realized I'm progressing, you know, probably got six months left.

Alastair: 00:27:30

So I'm going through this last Christmas, last Thanksgiving, last

Alastair: 00:27:33

birthday, last, last everything.

Alastair: 00:27:35

I'm accepting it all because my Buddhist philosophy is to

Alastair: 00:27:39

unconditionally accept what is, but my, my children weren't Buddhists.

Alastair: 00:27:44

They didn't accept it.

Alastair: 00:27:46

And they said, dad, how about a lung transplant?

Alastair: 00:27:49

And I said, no way.

Alastair: 00:27:51

Not at my age.

Alastair: 00:27:52

They don't do organ transplants at my age.

Alastair: 00:27:55

So we'll look into it.

Alastair: 00:27:57

So to please them, I did, but to my surprise, I found that, um,

Alastair: 00:28:02

anyway, I went on the wait list in June, 2020 and September, 2020,

Alastair: 00:28:07

I had a double lung transplant.

Alastair: 00:28:08

That's three years ago.

Alastair: 00:28:11

Dr. Judith: Congratulations.

Alastair: 00:28:12

Yeah.

Alastair: 00:28:13

Right.

Alastair: 00:28:13

It's as if you got a new opportunity.

Alastair: 00:28:16

That was given to you and your soul, so development and evolution itself,

Alastair: 00:28:21

and it's as if you actually use those analogies earlier, it allows you

Alastair: 00:28:26

first to float and just kind of be with what is that might be potential.

Alastair: 00:28:31

But then you had kind of a life raft to come through your kids saying once

Alastair: 00:28:34

you look into the lung transplant, and you ended up doing that.

Alastair: 00:28:39

And so it allows you now to be more purposeful.

Alastair: 00:28:42

And that's the springboard, looking at the higher, what's the higher

Alastair: 00:28:45

thing I can do with my time that I do.

Alastair: 00:28:48

And the grace has given me with more time, you know, planet earth.

Alastair: 00:28:52

I

Alastair: 00:28:52

began writing a book in 2016, an important book, but I stopped writing

Alastair: 00:28:57

in 2019 because I, what's the point, you know, anyway, I carried on writing.

Alastair: 00:29:02

So I was able to finish my book, publish it on Amazon and now it exists.

Alastair: 00:29:07

I brought it into existence and people are enjoying it because it's

Alastair: 00:29:11

got some important lessons in there.

Alastair: 00:29:14

It's a historical fiction romance novel and I narrated it.

Alastair: 00:29:19

Unbelievable.

Alastair: 00:29:20

I narrated it two years.

Alastair: 00:29:22

It's about twin boys, identical twin boys born to an unwed mother at a

Alastair: 00:29:28

time when such a thing was a disgrace.

Alastair: 00:29:31

It was 1920 in Lancashire, England.

Alastair: 00:29:34

So the church came in and took one of the children and put them in an orphanage.

Alastair: 00:29:39

Anyway, it's a big story.

Alastair: 00:29:40

The boy actually ends up coming to Canada.

Alastair: 00:29:43

Canada had this program over a hundred thousand children under the age of 13

Alastair: 00:29:49

were shipped to Canada as home children.

Alastair: 00:29:52

They were orphans and they were shipped because Canada had a labor shortage.

Alastair: 00:29:56

It needed domestics to work in the big houses as caregivers

Alastair: 00:30:01

and cooks and cleaners.

Alastair: 00:30:03

And the farmers needed workers for the harvest or whatever.

Alastair: 00:30:07

And at the time, England, all of these guys, all these boys and girls were

Alastair: 00:30:11

in orphanages in England, but people were complaining about the cost.

Alastair: 00:30:15

It was costing the government to feed and clothe these kids.

Alastair: 00:30:20

So they put it together this package to ship these kids to

Alastair: 00:30:24

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Alastair: 00:30:27

So, one of the twins is a, is a, he becomes a home child.

Alastair: 00:30:32

But, we didn't teach this in our schools.

Alastair: 00:30:36

There's a lot of things about the colonialism in Canada that

Alastair: 00:30:39

was never taught in the schools.

Alastair: 00:30:41

We never taught about the Indian residential schools or the Chinese

Alastair: 00:30:46

head tax and the home children.

Alastair: 00:30:48

So this is to create a greater awareness.

Alastair: 00:30:52

Because these kids that came over, they were part of the huge part

Alastair: 00:30:57

of the development of Canada.

Alastair: 00:30:59

We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Alastair: 00:31:02

But here's the other thing, Judith, that people don't realize.

Alastair: 00:31:05

I'm breathing through somebody else's lungs.

Alastair: 00:31:08

These lungs will never be mine.

Alastair: 00:31:11

They're a different DNA.

Alastair: 00:31:13

And I'm taking all sorts of medications for life to stop my

Alastair: 00:31:16

body from rejecting these lungs.

Alastair: 00:31:19

So you wonder, where does the soul, the spirit live in the body?

Alastair: 00:31:22

Is it in the heart, the brain, or is it in the DNA?

Alastair: 00:31:26

And the weird thing every once in a while, I, I, I sense this other

Alastair: 00:31:31

person, I can feel their spirit.

Alastair: 00:31:33

Yeah.

Alastair: 00:31:35

Dr. Judith: Yeah, I think so.

Alastair: 00:31:36

That's a great question.

Alastair: 00:31:37

I

Alastair: 00:31:37

feel like a different person.

Alastair: 00:31:38

Yeah, it's weird.

Alastair: 00:31:39

Weird.

Alastair: 00:31:39

Dr. Judith: And I think this, the soul does, is housed in the solar

Alastair: 00:31:42

plexus of the body and it's housed in all throughout the body as well.

Alastair: 00:31:47

And so that when you have another.

Alastair: 00:31:49

aspect of you, which is your lungs, that there is some energy, you know,

Alastair: 00:31:54

as well that, you know, from that particular soul essence that was

Alastair: 00:31:58

originally in that body with that love, those lungs, you know, taking place.

Alastair: 00:32:03

So I can understand why you feel maybe their, their sense or their presence,

Alastair: 00:32:07

because it has some of that DNA, but even the soul is more than the DNA.

Alastair: 00:32:12

itself.

Alastair: 00:32:12

The soul does take flight once the body, which is the house,

Alastair: 00:32:17

for example, of the soul.

Alastair: 00:32:19

And then once the body is left, then the soul does evolve and move on.

Alastair: 00:32:23

But it doesn't mean that it's in the fragments of itself

Alastair: 00:32:26

in different places as well.

Alastair: 00:32:28

Right.

Alastair: 00:32:28

So that's a great, very interesting perspective.

Alastair: 00:32:32

That's right.

Alastair: 00:32:32

These lungs never died.

Alastair: 00:32:34

They were taken out of one person and given to me.

Alastair: 00:32:37

So there was no death of the lungs.

Alastair: 00:32:40

You know, so there's functioning just like they did in the other person.

Alastair: 00:32:45

And my book.

Alastair: 00:32:46

Dr. Judith: Right, right, right.

Alastair: 00:32:49

Yeah, it is powerful.

Alastair: 00:32:50

And I think it also ties back into this whole notion that we've been began

Alastair: 00:32:54

talking about is we're true happiness.

Alastair: 00:32:58

When we get when we have an opportunity to live life more.

Alastair: 00:33:02

Now that in this case a transplant is like is precious.

Alastair: 00:33:07

Life is precious now.

Alastair: 00:33:09

It is about being fortunate, feeling fortunate, realizing how

Alastair: 00:33:15

fortunate and appreciating it.

Alastair: 00:33:17

Like we only have a limited time on earth, you know, whatever comes into

Alastair: 00:33:21

our life, we just have to appreciate it for all, for all it's worth.

Alastair: 00:33:25

Right.

Alastair: 00:33:26

I look back and I think, wow, you know, this really is a gift of life.

Alastair: 00:33:30

It's a second chance at life.

Alastair: 00:33:32

Wow.

Alastair: 00:33:34

Not many people get this and yet I got it and I'm enjoying

Alastair: 00:33:37

it and doing so much with it.

Alastair: 00:33:39

Yes.

Alastair: 00:33:40

Dr. Judith: Especially about your serving and giving and trying to give back.

Alastair: 00:33:44

Whatever you gain, you try to give back, which is so delightful to see.

Alastair: 00:33:48

Well, I, that's a, an aspect of karma.

Alastair: 00:33:51

Mm-hmm.

Alastair: 00:33:51

, you know, in, in a sort of Buddhist, Hindu context.

Alastair: 00:33:54

It is.

Alastair: 00:33:54

It

Alastair: 00:33:55

Dr. Judith: is.

Alastair: 00:33:55

And that's a whole conversation in itself because I think there are karmic

Alastair: 00:33:59

situations that we find ourselves in, and you've taken the best light based

Alastair: 00:34:03

upon choices and experiences that we've made in our lives, that we can have

Alastair: 00:34:07

that good karma come back to us just as we can have that quote unquote bad

Alastair: 00:34:10

karma or life lessons I like to say.

Alastair: 00:34:13

that come back to us for us to learn and to continue to grow.

Alastair: 00:34:16

But for the soul, whether it's good or bad or indifferent, the soul just says,

Alastair: 00:34:20

let us learn, let us grow, let us advance.

Alastair: 00:34:24

Because we want to continue to move towards that greater sense of

Alastair: 00:34:27

Buhidic, that you're talking about, of the Christic nature that allows

Alastair: 00:34:32

us to serve and give more to others.

Alastair: 00:34:34

So with that being said, and as we're winding down, is there any last comment

Alastair: 00:34:39

you would like to leave the seekers?

Alastair: 00:34:41

I would say be yourself.

Alastair: 00:34:43

You know, try to shed off the pressures to be what you think you should be or what

Alastair: 00:34:49

you think other people might like you.

Alastair: 00:34:53

To be very honest and feel vulnerable and just be yourself.

Alastair: 00:34:57

And I think that way, when you got on that track, it leads you

Alastair: 00:35:01

down a path of authenticity.

Alastair: 00:35:04

And with that authenticity comes.

Alastair: 00:35:07

A sense of personal fulfillment, happiness, contentment,

Alastair: 00:35:12

you're just happy who you are.

Alastair: 00:35:14

It doesn't matter what other people think, because in our world, of

Alastair: 00:35:17

course, with fashion and conditioning and consumerism, there's a lot of

Alastair: 00:35:23

pressure on us, a lot of machoism to become who we think we should be.

Alastair: 00:35:29

But that just leads you astray, and if you go down that road, you won't be at peace.

Alastair: 00:35:34

You'll always be restless.

Alastair: 00:35:36

So just being yourself, just accepting all your warts and freckles and everything.

Alastair: 00:35:42

That's it.

Alastair: 00:35:43

You don't have to cover them up.

Alastair: 00:35:44

And you say, here I am world, this is me.

Alastair: 00:35:47

But that's, it's simple to say, but it's powerful to do.

Alastair: 00:35:50

Dr. Judith: Mm hmm.

Alastair: 00:35:51

Mm hmm.

Alastair: 00:35:52

I agree.

Alastair: 00:35:53

And I think that's in some ways, but many people are learning how to be is to be

Alastair: 00:35:58

more authentic to who they really are.

Alastair: 00:36:00

And that's a journey like you've been on the different journeys that you've

Alastair: 00:36:04

experienced and life adventures, you know, that you found yourself in.

Alastair: 00:36:09

So how may they reach you if they would like to reach out to you,

Alastair: 00:36:12

Alistair?

Alastair: 00:36:12

Yeah, if you go up and, uh, I've got a website.

Alastair: 00:36:16

It's www.

Alastair: 00:36:18

alistairhenry.

Alastair: 00:36:19

com.

Alastair: 00:36:21

I'll spell it for you.

Alastair: 00:36:22

It's A L A S T A I R H E N R Y.

Alastair: 00:36:29

And there you will find out more about more information about me and

Alastair: 00:36:33

my wife Candice and our adventures and books and some other aspects.

Alastair: 00:36:39

Home children donate organ donations.

Alastair: 00:36:43

There's a lot on the website.

Alastair: 00:36:45

Dr. Judith: Great.

Alastair: 00:36:46

Well it's been a delight to have you in this part two.

Alastair: 00:36:48

I'm grateful to hear your adventures and your experiences that you've garnered

Alastair: 00:36:52

and trying to give back to others.

Alastair: 00:36:54

I think the Seekers will be delighted to explore the website that

Alastair: 00:36:57

Alistair has just made mention of.

Alastair: 00:36:59

So thank you Seekers.

Alastair: 00:37:00

Take care.

Alastair: 00:37:01

Till we meet again, be well.

Alastair: 00:37:04

Thank you for joining me for this episode on Mastering Life's Adventures.

Alastair: 00:37:09

Being your best self through soul evolution.

Alastair: 00:37:12

If you have enjoyed what you've heard today, I would be delighted if you

Alastair: 00:37:15

would share this episode with others.

Alastair: 00:37:18

Leave a thumbs up and subscribe to my Mastering Life's Adventures podcast.

Alastair: 00:37:22

Look forward to your joining the next episode.

Alastair: 00:37:25

Please leave any comments or suggestions you might have below.

Alastair: 00:37:29

Bye for now.