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Shai Tubali: Hello, everyone. I am so thrilled to initiate a dialogue for 1000 Reasons for Feeling Awe with the delightful Amrit Sandu. As a globally recognized speaker, Amrit is not only the host of a successful podcast but also the founder of Inspired Evolution. His credentials include certification from Eckhart Tolle’s esteemed School of Awakening, as well as being a Master Certified Trainer for Mindvalley, in both Australia and India. As an ambassador for both Inspired Evolution and Mindvalley, Amrit frequently conducts enlightening keynotes, seminars, and workshops across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. And for me, it is a great source of delight to have this opportunity to speak with you today, Amrit. 

Amrit Sandhu:   Shai, if I’m honest, I’m melting hearing you read out something even about me. I love your work so dearly. It is an absolute honor and pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me here, brother. It is an absolute pleasure.

Shai Tubali: Brother, I love it. Yes. So, as brothers who share the awe at the beauty and mystery of life and this existence, I would like to start by asking you – as you know, this project is based on me inviting dear interviewees to choose their own specific reason for feeling awe, for being in awe in the face of life, the universe, and so on, based on their experience of life and their expertise. Now, I know that for awe-inspired individuals, there are usually millions of reasons for feeling awe. But what would be our gateway today? What would be your chosen reason? 

Amrit Sandhu:   Yeah, there was a particular moment. Is that what you’re asking about? The particular moment that I felt the most awe at sort of brought us into something that I’ve wanted to bring to the table today. There are, as you mentioned, so many aspects of an inspired life that one would want to bring, but I think the one that probably rings with the richest vibrancy, I’m a bit nervous to share it because it’s very dear to my heart, but vulnerability is always a good place to go in these things, especially because it’s you. There was a very, yeah, just I remember when I proposed to my wife on that particular day, how it all happened, the series of events that led to me asking her to marry me. There’s a lot in our story—how we first met, etc.—but I’m conscious that I have to pick one moment—so the one reason for feeling awe was just the signs and the synchronicities and the trust and all the unfoldings of me marrying my wife and me asking her to marry me. 

Shai Tubali: First of all, she is very fortunate that this is your one reason for feeling awe. 

Amrit Sandhu: I’m very lucky, that’s what I would say. I joke that I put the ring on her finger before she realized what was going on. I am very lucky to have such a beautiful partner.

Shai Tubali: So, let me start by asking you because, of course, we are using this reason as something that could inspire our listeners and viewers. So my question is, could you bring us closer to this kind of occasion? What was the source of awe in these special circumstances? 

Amrit Sandhu: If it’s okay, I’d like to share the story. So, thank you so much. I had known my wife for about nine years before we got married. So I really made sure (laughs). But we never really saw the point of, well, marriage, really, because we are a bit new age, I guess, if you look at it that way. Yeah. I was always ready to make a commitment, but for my partner herself, she was just like, “Hey, I make the choice every morning to wake up next to you.” I don’t need the sort of old system of bondage that comes with a signed certificate of marriage or whatever. So, it was interesting that we never really felt compelled to get married in the first place. I was hoping that one day we’d make a commitment, and then one of the things that started coming closer to us was this idea that we were going to have kids. And my son is now two, touch wood. And the Inspired Evolution is all about breaking social taboos. But one of the big social taboos was that being Indian and having kids outside of wedlock in our culture is a bit of a disgrace on the parents. Now, I know that this is old-school thinking, but that’s kind of how the Indian culture sees it, even to this day, a little bit. Quite traditional in that sense.

And so, for our parents’ sake at the very least, we are of the opinion that we are looking to potentially start a family, and that maybe we should at some point get married. I don’t think we agreed that we couldn’t have kids outside of wedlock. So, there was this event that had to happen before we potentially had kids. And for the longest time, I knew exactly how I was going to propose to my wife. Now I’ve had you on the show, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but one of my ideal guests to have on the Inspired Evolution podcast was an artist named Nahko. He’s this incredible musician, and his songs are actually my favorite songs. And there are many stories as to the synchronicities and the aura I feel through his music. But, long story short, I was hoping that one day, when I was ready to propose to my wife, he would be part of the proposal. I’ll just run you through my dream proposal and what my dream proposal was. Full caveat: this is not exactly what happened. 

So my dream proposal was: my wife’s favorite place in the world was in Amsterdam. There’s this big park, right? I’m pretty sure it’s called Vondelpark, in the middle of Amsterdam. And it’s like, if you’re going from one side of Amsterdam to the other, everybody goes through the park. There are people juggling. There are people doing things like getting married; this is kind of like Eden a little bit. Right? So Vondelpark has this really beautiful vibe in the heart of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is obviously very liberal and forward-thinking. It’s a really nice culture in this space. And so we’re in Vondelpark. This is my dream, and my wife and I have been having a great time traveling in Europe. It’s one of our favorite European summers. As you know, being from that part of the world, there’s something special about them. And we walk past this tree, and next to this tree is Nahko, who is playing a song. And the song is called “Tus Pies,” “your feet.” I’m probably butchering the French version of it, but the song’s called Your Feet, and he’s playing this song, and it’s about how your feet found me, and I’m so grateful for your feet and the path that they walk in this life. Right? That’s the theme of the song. And she has this moment where she turns around and goes, “Oh, my God, that’s Nahko just playing in Vondelpark.” And I’m like, “Yeah, that’s our favorite song.” And she’s like, yeah. And then I point to the sky, and then it just says, “Will you marry me?” This was my dream proposal. So the sky says, “Will you marry me?” My favorite artist is sort of playing in our favorite place in the park. And, yeah, this was my dream. And my ambition with the Inspired Evolution podcast for quite a while was to get Nahko onto the show so that I could eventually ask him to see if there was some way I could reimburse him for his time or if he was ever going to be in Amsterdam to do a gig. Can I synchronize this? Can I make it happen? And it just never really eventuated; you know, a year had passed, two years passed, three years passed. And I started getting a little bit anxious, I would say. We’re planning a family. I haven’t proposed. I don’t really know; I’ve got this dream proposal, and I don’t really want a second-rate proposal. You only get to propose to the love of your life, touch wood, once. And so I was like, “Okay, what are we going to do?” So one of the things I realized early is that, like, whenever it happens, I should have a ring. So I purchased the ring, and I had the ring burning a hole in my pocket for, I think, at least two years, if I’m honest with you. I just had this ring sitting in my pocket, waiting for the Nahko synchronicity to eventually come through, and the universe, I believe, will deliver. And it didn’t end up happening. 

And we were actually traveling. There is a whole story on how we ended up in Brazil. But we’ve been to Brazil a few times, and there’s a beautiful music teacher there. His name is Carioca. And Carioca means “Brazilian guy,” loosely, a man from Brazil. But this guy is a musician, and he makes Brazilian music and he’s phenomenal. And he’s a very dear brother, and he makes incredible, incredible music. So he was Kay’s first music teacher, like a proper guitar teacher. And he was actually what inspired me to pick up the guitar. And so we were going to music retreats on his land in Brazil every year. And then I had the ring in my pocket, and I kind of knew that we are getting to a point where, with women and their bodies, there’s this, I don’t know if this is real, but science says so, let’s see, but before the age of 35, you kind of want to have your kids because it becomes much harder to conceive for women after the age of 35, right? So we’re conscious that there’s this bit of a biological deadline within which I’ve got to propose to my wife before we can have some kids. And there’s like this real universal pressure starting to build, and Nahko isn’t appearing. So I’ve got the ring in my pocket, and we’re going away for, I think, the third time to see Carioca in Brazil. And he’s got this beautiful retreat, which is called Ciranda. It means “circle of children.” You know there’s an acre of land, and they only inhabit 1% of it. There’s a beautiful music maloca outdoors. I love these guys. They’ve got, like, a $100,000 sound system in the middle of the forest. So when they press record, you can hear the monkeys and the forest, like the Atlantic rainforest, birds, and everything else. It’s just a really beautiful, lush space to be in, touch wood, and I feel very privileged. It’s even more Eden than Vondelpark, really. It’s a really incredible place. And I remember on the musical retreats, there were these overnights where we’d sit and make music. And there are people from all over the world who come together. And the concept of the music retreat is basically that Amrit will bring a song, my wife will bring a song, and everyone will bring a song that they want to learn and share. And we each form the band, like a 20–25-piece band to each person’s song. And we learn the different instruments, different musicalities. It’s a really great experience. It’s probably one of the best experiences of my life. So much so that we kept going back. And so, I had this idea: there’s always a sort of closing retreat that happens. There’s a sort of closing ceremony to end everything. It’s like, “Okay, this is the end of the two weeks you’ve been here learning all these songs.” And then, one after another, we perform the songs to each other. It’s got an incredible energy to it because you really bond through music. And I just said, “You know what?” We’re here. I’ve got a ring, and I can just feel it. I think this is going to be the time I propose. And I remember there’s a guy with a photography film guy there with this incredible set up. And I was like, “Perfect. Can you please film the proposal, etc.?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” And I’m like, “Okay, cool.” So we’ll propose here. And at the end of this big retreat, everyone’s sitting in a circle. Someone’s got a gem bay, someone’s got a guitar shaker, music, and a big drum, and everybody’s in a circle. And I asked Carioca, “Dear brother, can the last song at the retreat be a song that I sing that we sing together, me and my wife? And at the end of the song, can I propose to her?” And he was like, “Oh, Yes,” He’s like, “Yes, absolutely, we would totally do this.” And I’m like, sure. Perfect. So he’s on board. Everybody’s on board. The night comes. I’m super anxious. I’ve got the ring in my pocket. Literally, I’ve reminded Carioca. Hey, I’m about to propose to my wife. Let’s not forget that I’m going to do this. And he’s like, “Yes, absolutely. You go, son.” I was like, “Thanks, brother.” And so the last song comes on. I go to sing, and just as I go to sing, and the song is going to be Love is My Religion by Ziggy Marley. I don’t know if your audience knows it. Hopefully, they do. If you haven’t, please go check it out. And it goes “Love is my religion, love is my religion.” And my line was going to be “my love and my religion, will you marry me?” Right. Touch wood. I’m very cheesy, if you haven’t already been told. So that was going to be my line. And at the moment when the time came, I picked up the mic to sing the song, and Carioca was facilitating the retreat. And he looked at me, and he goes, “No,” and I could feel the ring burning a hole in my leg. And I’m looking at Carioca, and everybody in the audience is looking at me. Everybody who is part of the retreat is looking at me. And I’m looking at Carioca, and I’m like, “No, this is my moment,” and he’s like, “No.” And I’m like, “Aeh?” And because it was his retreat, I sort of curled into my own little shell. And I was just like, “Okay, I guess this isn’t the moment.”

And after the retreat, my wife came up to me. She’s like, “Is everything okay? You seem really perplexed, like things are kind of off; are you okay?” And I was like, “Okay, let’s go to the waterfall. Let’s go talk at the waterfall.” And then I was trying to get her to go to the waterfall so I could propose there. And then she was like, “But I’m really hungry. You know, we’ve been up playing music all night.” And then she got to the kitchen, and then everyone started talking to her, and all the energy started to dissipate. And I was just like, “Oh, my God. What is going on? This is just not happening.” This is just not flowing. and I’m just questioning everything. I’m just like, “How is this really happening right now?” I’m internally devastated. There is a big part of me that trusts the universe, but in these moments, it’s really, really, really challenged.

And afterwards, I went up to Carioca, and I’m talking to him, and I’m like, “I was meant to propose.” And he goes, “Oh, I forgot. I thought you were asking to sing one more song. That was it. I could feel the energy was good.” I was just like, “I was meant to sing one more song, and I was meant to propose.” And he was like, “Ahhhh, are you still staying for another four days?” And I was like, “Yeah, we are staying for another four days.” He’s like, “Okay, we’re going to do another musical performance, and at the end of that…”. I was just like, “Carioca, man, come on.” Anyway, I left licking my wounds, but I was like, “Okay, cool. Perfect. There’s another opportunity.”

And as it turns out, four days later, it comes around. And I tried to learn the song that I actually wanted, because I’d already sung the song that I wanted to propose to, but I couldn’t propose, so that moment was gone. So I had to come up with another song, and I was like, “What song am I going to learn to sing at this retreat?” And I was like, “I can’t play the guitar that well.” But there’s a song called “At Your Feet” that I wanted Nahko to sing in Vondelpark. That’s been my dream this whole time. And I was like, “Maybe I’ll learn how to sing that song and play it on the guitar.” Anyway, so I’m learning how to play it on the guitar, and because it’s a musical workshop, everybody’s looking at me, and they’re like, “Dude, you are really not playing this very well.” What are you doing? And I was like, “Look.” And I told a couple of the brothers, “Look, come here.” This is what’s going to happen. At the end of the next retreat, I have to propose to Kay. I was meant to propose to Kay a couple of, like, a couple of days ago, and now I have to learn this whole new song in, like, two days, which I can’t play. And they’re like, “Bro, we’ll play with you.” You just sing. So long story short, we practiced together for, like, day and night, hiding from my wife at this retreat, which is a very intimate retreat. There are only, like, 20 of us from all over the world, right? We’ve been together for, like, three weeks already, hiding from my wife and learning this song. And we get to the retreat, and at the end of this retreat, I sing the song, which is the Nahko song, which is to aspire to your feet and how they found me. And as I’m singing this song, the brothers are playing the guitar, and it is just the most magical moment of how everything has just come together. And I get down on one knee, and I propose. And she said yes, thankfully. And Carioca is there, facilitating a retreat. There’s a lot of love in the air. and we’re obviously very smitten. We’re now engaged. This is all happening. And the piece about awe—thank you all for listening in. I know it’s a long story, and I really appreciate your patience. You’ll remember that the piece about awe was always meant to be that song. I was forced by nature to miss the song, to miss the moment, and to be forced into the song. and it wasn’t meant to be Nahko. It was meant to be Carioca, who’s a massive mentor to us and who means even more to us than Nahko could ever possibly know. Even though we love Nahko’s music, Carioca gifted us music and continues to open that gift for us.

And we walk out of the massive outdoor maloca, and you look up in the sky, and there are two massive rainbows in the sky. And it was like, “She definitely said yes to marrying me.” And I was meant to say, in the sky, “Will you marry me?” And so in that particular moment, especially when you asked me about awe, it was just all the bits that came up about me trusting the process when things were going wrong. Oh, no. What’s going to happen? When is this going to happen? And then in that affirmation, we said, “We’ve never seen a double rainbow there in our time there.” We’ve been there for many years. Everybody was remarking, “We’ve got this beautiful photo of the entire retreat under the two rainbows as our memory on our wall.” And yeah, it’s in those moments where you’re just completely floored at what the universe is doing. 

Shai Tubali:   So you’re talking here about this ability to allow the universe to show us the right moment. 

Amrit Sandhu: The synchronicities really blow me away. When there are signs from the universe that really affirm your path. Like the two rainbows in the sky all cinching into me singing the right song, I have to get out of my own way. And also just the lessons that we learned along the way, which was like, every time I thought something was perfect, I was forcing it with my mind. Right. But then it’s like there’s a better way, but you need to trust, let go, and surrender. So there are a lot of lessons that I got from that awe, but the big part that invoked the awe was the synchronicities and the signs from the universe. And I find if I slow down things like rainbows, things like when you’re thinking about peace and you see a bird flying over with a twig in its mouth, you’re like, “It’s not a dove, but it looks like peace.” And these signs that come your way, I find really awe-inspiring.

Shai Tubali: I see. So you say that there is a certain discrepancy or a gap between our thinking minds that think that the right moment has come. And then there is a certain cosmic dimension or a certain timing that we are unaware of; is that so?

Amrit Sandhu: “Perfectly.” Yeah, I really think so. I’m not sure if it’s all destined to be a certain way or not. I think that’s a really big question that everyone has always asked, and we haven’t really gotten very close to the answer. But I think there is a lot of opportunity for us to surrender the mind, trust the signs, and flow more in life, and I think more awe begets that flow than sort of pushing with the mind does. This is just my humble perspective.

Shai Tubali: So what would you say about this moment that you were experiencing there after years of trying to get married and doing your best to reach that precious moment? What does this moment reveal to you about the nature of the mysteries of life? Could you talk a little about it?

Amrit Sandhu: Yeah, it’s really interesting because I had to have some vision of what my ideal proposal looked like. Like I had to have some vision, and whether that vision was part heart, part brain, like it was my dream, right? And when we say “dream,” sometimes we dream with our heads, but really, I feel like when it’s a pure dream, we kind of dream with our hearts. So the dream proposal was like it came from the heart, really. And there was no way that it was really ever going to happen in some ways, but part of me was like continuing to dream, like maybe it could happen, and then going on my way to architect it a little bit with my head. So then, allowing the head to sort of apply itself as a tool to facilitate the dream in some way. And that looked like me making sure I got a ring, and then me making sure that the team was trying to reach out to Nahko to try and podcast him. And then I kept getting a no, which was interesting. I still, to this day, don’t believe it should have been a no, but it was a no. And so yeah, there’s like allowing the head to sort of follow the heart a little bit and then going, “Okay, I’ve had this vision of the heart, and then I’ve tried to integrate it with my mind.” And then the mind has this propensity to try and want to do the best that it can do, and it really has this propensity. And then you start to go along, and it’s like, “Oh, it’s not working.” And then you start to question yourself to the point where the mind has the ability even to question the heart and its dreams. and going, that dream was never possible. Why’d you make me dream that? And so now you’re in this loop of self-criticism and self-analysis, which is not fueling the purity that was initially there in the first place. Right. And then learning that, actually, it was really useful to have my mind sort of pull me forward, but then also learning where to let go and then allow more than the heart. There’s the fabric of everything to sort of guide and just trust that actually when the moment’s meant to be and you’ll be there, and the vision that you had, your heart, your mind, it’s all sort of stacking on top of each other, and the universe and its blessings will all come together to support you time and time again when you need it, where you are every single time. And it’s a reminder for me that, as I’m sharing this with you, that’s probably happening every moment. Right. like we are the pinnacle of our ancestors. Like our ancestors, if they are an arrow, they’ve all left behind the legacy that is us. Every single moment begets the next moment. And here we are, the biggest miracle that ever existed, and somehow the universe is supporting us in our existence and everything. It’s just like I’m just me; what’s the big deal? And at the same time, you are everything and connected to it all.

Shai Tubali: Yes. That’s wonderful. I would say that at that moment, you didn’t only propose to your wife but also to your future wife and also to the universe. Right. Because it’s a sort of marriage with the universe, with its universal timing and intelligence, and being able to surrender to this kind of union.

Amrit Sandhu: Yeah, it’s a profound way that you’ve articulated that, because in the Sikh faith, which is how we got married, I’m Sikh by faith. And in the faith, we have four rounds around our holy text, where we walk around the text, and each round represents its own symbology. And as you get through the rounds, you’re actually marrying yourself to God more than you are to the other person. Obviously, you’re marrying the other person. But the first few rounds are about you and family, and then as you go through the rounds, the last rounds are dedicated to this, which is an opportunity for me to recognize what union feels like. But then there is also what divine union feels like. And this is a vehicle for us to grow and learn how to actually be unified as one.

Shai Tubali: So how do you recommend that we follow this kind of path of awe? Is that even something one can prepare for? because it’s something that eludes or transcends our own expectations. Right. It’s not that we can prepare ourselves for this moment of awe. It was just exactly when you were refused over and over again by the universal timing.

Amrit Sandhu: Yeah, and when I look into the story, and maybe this is just the way I look at things, but I think there are at least five ingredients that it’s taught me, and potentially people can take away if you’re listening to this episode, the first one is don’t be afraid to dream. Right? I think absolutely You should dream. It’s an absolute gift that you’re alive as a human, and we have the ability to imagine. The fact that we can imagine something is quite remarkable when you just pause to reflect. Like imagination. And Einstein said, “At some point, you’ve got to quote Einstein.” I think you said that in our podcast at some point. sooner or later. And it’s just the fact that he knows imagination is one of the most important, and he was comparing it to something I’ve forgotten what he was comparing it to, but imagination is just so incredible. It’s absolutely incredible that we have the gift to imagine. So to dream and envision is quite mystical. And I think a lot of times, as a coach, what I find is that people are afraid to actually do that, which a lot of the time is to put a vision out there. Because then, if they speak their vision, a lot of people actually have a vision. But if they speak their vision, write it down, or communicate it to someone, there’s almost this borderline anxiety that comes in on the other side. It’s like, “Oh, now I can only fall short,” and it’s kind of true. Like, my vision with how I wanted to propose to my wife with Nahko there and having that idea of, like, there was a dream and giving it, and I didn’t really share it with anybody; I just shared it with myself, but I kept reaffirming it, and it definitely did pull me forward to the point where even today, when I can speak to you, me having written in the sky, like, me forcing to write in the sky, will you marry me? versus the universe and God, however you want to describe it, putting up two rainbows, which is complete nature. Doing its thing is so much better. And so, a vision is incredible. And one of the things I find myself saying in my coaching sessions is that if you shoot for the stars, you might just land on the moon. Yeah. And in this story, I feel like I was shooting for the moon, but I actually landed on the stars. So shoot and have a vision. So I think that’s number one: give yourself a vision. Don’t be afraid to have a vision. You don’t have to share it with the world. And in fact, sometimes as a coach, I say, “Don’t share it with too many people,” because you actually get dopamine hits when you say you’re doing something but you’re not actually taking any action. So your brain and mouth think they’ve taken action by saying they’re doing something, but they’ve actually done nothing. So it’s a total hack. So if you can actually keep your vision close to yourself but affirm it, it’s actually really useful.

The second thing that I took away was to pat myself on the back, and I invite you guys to do the same: be prepared. If I didn’t have the ring, it would have been the most beautiful moment, and it would have just swept right past me. So preparedness is a total thing, not forensic anxiety. It doesn’t have to be like that, but be prepared. It’s the reason we slow down and take the time to do things. If there’s something that’s coming your way, even if it’s in the future, like even planning for your retirement, I know that sounds much more clunky than what we’ve been discussing, but financially, set yourself up and be prepared. These things matter. You can prepare to the best of your abilities. So I think there’s a lesson in there for me to be prepared so that I can make the most of a moment when it appears to me. Can you imagine if we were coming to Australia and then I was like, “Okay, now I’ve got to design a ring and get it made up?” And it’s like, “I’ve got to do this within three weeks.” And it’s like, “The jeweler says it takes three months.” And it’s like, “I can’t do this now.” and be prepared. You know you’re going to propose at some point, and this person is right for you. Get a ring. All my friends are like, “Is this the one?” And they’re like, “Yeah, this is the one.” And I’m like, “When are you going to propose?” I don’t know. I haven’t thought about the proposal. I was like, “Get a ring.” And they’re like, what? And I was like, “Mate, the moment might just appear.” Just get a ring. And a couple of friends got a ring, and they were like, “Oh, now I started.” And the ring has its own energy right now. They’re starting to think and prepare. And moments are starting to appear, and they’re starting to notice the moment because of your preparedness. Yeah. It’s like a warrior. You’d much rather be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war, right? So an opportunity to be the warrior Take the time to be prepared. 

The other big piece for me was surrender. Yeah, it’s the most painful piece, I know when I’m saying it. I’ve still got a lot of work to do when it comes to surrender, but the third point would be surrender. It’s like, because there was so much self-aberration, even like, “Oh, I couldn’t do the Nahko way.” And then I got to Carioca, and then I couldn’t propose. And that was my moment; he told me not to. And it’s okay, people; try again. And I was like, “That was the song.” And then it was not meant to be that song. Right? It was meant to be the song I had always envisioned, because that song had carried the frequency of my proposal for so long. Just learning to surrender. And I think if I called that point three, I think we would call that three A. Three B’s would be to get back up, to get back up again and again. Within surrender, there’s got to be trust. They’re two sides of the same coin. And this is what a lot of these synchronistic, awe-inspiring moments keep teaching me. because when they came, they were never planned. Like you said, you can’t plan for them in some way, but when they come perfectly architected, they are even better than you could have even imagined. And you’re like, what? And one of the things that it does is, without you even trying, crack you open to trusting more. It’s like, “Can you trust?” that even when things are going wrong, they’re cracking open in just the right way for you to get the yoke of the egg out of it? That’s exactly how it’s meant to be. Trust and surrender are two sides of the same coin. What I’ve had to learn is that if I can’t surrender, it’s because I’m holding on and not trusting. And if I can’t trust, there’s definitely not going to be any surrender. So my inability to surrender is directly linked to my inability to trust, right? So if I can trust more, I’ll be able to surrender more. Right? Now, I know that is a big call, and my heart goes out to people who are facing some of my coaching clients. They’re facing terminal illness. And it’s really hard to trust in some instances, but ultimately, we’re all going to learn to surrender. That’s the final test, I believe, in many ways. So the ability to cultivate trust and surrender, I think, is fundamental. And in that time, while you can and you’ve got the blessing of life, get back up.

And the fifth point, I would say, even though I went three A, three B, is to slow down. Is to slow down. Really? I know when I say that, it’s a fast-paced world in the 21st century. It’s almost like 20% of anxiety is baked into everything. I totally acknowledge that. But there are moments where even when I sit on a park bench and I look down at the ground and I’m just looking at grass, it’s like, “Okay, I’m looking at grass.” And it takes me a good 30 to 60 seconds for my whole system to relax. And now I can see individual ants. I can see the life that’s happening at that level in the grass. I can actually notice things. Before, it was just grass, but when I slow down, I can actually see things a little bit better. You increase the fidelity of the moment when you slow down. And so the synchronicities are always there. The signs are always there. But oftentimes, when I find that I’m guilty of this even now, I’ll put my hand up and say, “Yes, I’m a culprit.” I’m rushing past the signs. And I see this a lot in my coaching as well. Stress is a sign in your life that you need to recalibrate, and people are just blowing past it again and again. One more coffee, and we push a little bit more. Just another six months of this, and I’ll be all right. Six months turns into, like, six years, and it’s like, I’m still doing the same thing. I never got off the hamster wheel. And it’s like stress. Listen, it’s a sign. Slow down. What is your stress actually saying to you? What are the signs around you saying? You keep seeing the same numbers appear. What does that mean? What are the signs? You’ve been thinking of a particular thing, and it keeps showing up in your field. How does that, obviously, work with the Internet and the algorithms? They know you really well, so it’s getting a bit treacherous in that space, but even in the world, it’s like something as random as I’ve been contemplating animal totems, and I keep seeing the fox. What does that mean? Does it mean anything? Maybe it doesn’t mean anything, but you’re slowing down. You’re pondering, you’re contemplating, and I believe it doesn’t have to be where you believe it, but because you are the universe looking in on itself. Curiosity is a fundamental tenet of the human experience, right? Which I guess is the seed of awe, right? Because you get curious, and then you’re trying to look in on yourself, and then you see the majesty of what you are, and you’re like, “Oh, my God, I’m the universe.” As if that’s not the most awe-inspiring thing in the world, right? And in there, taking a moment to slow down and connect to those moments gives you the ability to connect to the curiosity of who you are, why you’re here, and what’s going on in the world. But if you don’t slow down out of curiosity, you might miss the moment. You might miss the opportunity for awe. Like when I walk out of the temple, if I didn’t look up to the sky, it’s pretty hard to miss a double rainbow, but I could have just rushed off and picked up a phone. Obviously, it was a phoneless retreat. Again, an invitation to slow down, but I could have just jumped onto my phone and just started doing a bunch of things, sending emails, blah, blah. I totally missed the moment. And that memory will stay with me forever. And I’ve had the blessing of hopefully inspiring a few people into awe with the memory now here, thanks to Shai and all of you listening in. So, yeah, take the time to slow down.

Shai Tubali: Wow, that was absolutely inspiring. These five pieces of advice are so precious. So if I may summarize in one sentence, what I’m gathering from everything that you’ve been saying is that awe in this context is like a meeting point between human dreaming, human vision, and cosmic timing.

Amrit Sandhu: Yeah. That leaves me in awe every single time.

Shai Tubali: And everything in between. Of course. Yes. I’m so grateful for this meeting.

Amrit Sandhu: The pleasure is totally mine.

Shai Tubali: It’s been really intimate and engaging. Thank you so much, Amrit.

Amrit Sandhu: Thank you so much, Shai. I absolutely love your work. And like I said, it’s an absolute honor to be here. Thank you so much for having me share a little bit about me and my life with everybody. Thank you. Hopefully, everybody leaves a little bit in awe and inspired to cultivate more awe in their lives. I absolutely love what you’re doing, and we’ll continue to share in every way. Thank you.