Morning Vibes, 8AM Austin Event Recap, And Thoughts on Philippians 4

GM!

I'm back on the Cape typing this.

And before I say anything else, I’ve got to be honest - I broke a promise.

I told myself (and you, technically) that I’d post these posts every day for 90 days. Then - I flew to Austin, threw the first ever 8AM event, and… I missed some days. I didn’t write/record. I told myself I’d do it tomorrow. Then the next tomorrow. Then the next 😅

One day i was tired, the next i had forgotten my microphone… yadayada excuse excuse.

And I’m reminded of a lesson… ‘the minute we wait for perfect conditions, we’ve already lost…’

Anyway, we’re back now - and let me first reflect on Austin. I was originally there for a buddy’s birthday weekend—and then decided to double up to host the first ever live 8AM experience.

It started as a pretty complex, wild and abstract idea.

I wanted to bring in other people to ‘lead the show’. At one point I was trying to book Bryan Callen, the comedian, to do a set in the middle of the event. I was also thinking of getting a monk to lead an hour long meditation. And I just kept adding more and more bells and whistles. But the truth kept echoing in my skull and in my heart…

The closer I got to the date, the more I kept hearing one thing in my intuition:

“I AM the event. They don’t need more shit on top of the shit. They just want the shit. And I AM the shit they want.”

Does that make sense? probably not - let me explain-

This might sound really weird, but I just finally realized that the main thing people were there to see was me. Not in a egotistical way - but in a way that I was the one giving the experience. It wasn’t Bryan Callen’s show, or some monk’s show. It was my show.

The experience I aim to deliver, that achieves all of the 8AM Brand ethos and values is for people to see someone who’s actually in their alignment. Fully. All out.

So that’s what we did. And it was a major vibe.

After the event, we were breaking everything down. It was 3AM. We were exhausted. I had no idea how my small staff was going to get everything out of the space by earlier than like 9am the next day. There was so much shit to pack and clean up.

And then, out of nowhere, this guy Harrison—who I’d only just met—came up to me and said: “I’ve got 10 volunteers coming. We’ll help.”

Turns out he runs a massive 400 person Bible study in Austin. And 10 of his friends showed up with joy in their eyes and literally Christ in their hearts to help us clean up a venue with zero incentive.

That moved me. Pure Christ-like love. Free of any ulterior motive or incentive. Just service.

The next night, I went to Harrison’s Bible study. 100 people show up every week. So cool. And this week, we read Philippians 4.

I had never really known what Philippians was about - but basically it’s pretty simple. Paul, who used to be vehemently against Jesus as a Jewish priest, finally converted to being a follower of Christ - and he wrote a series of letters to various villages where he was trying to help spread the teachings of Christ.

A couple of the main messages that stuck out to me were he:

“Rejoice in all things.” Whether you’re in pain or power, the spirit and energy of Christ is within you. So be grateful to that. Let that help you ascend. Pretty simple…

Now this next one, a bit more meaty:

The basic idea is this - anything that is making you anxious, bath it in your consciousness. Bath it in the spirit of Christ within you - again this is not the physical human historical man Jesus — rather we are talking about the light of God that he embodied. When you bath your worries and anxieties in this light, they have a way of working themselves out.

And spend enough time contemplating, or meditating in that light, and you reach a ‘peace that transcends all understanding’.

Ultimately that’s what we’re searching for right? In everything we do, we just want peace or joy or happiness. We want more money because we think it will give us freedom. We want a new house because we think it will bring us happiness. We want a new car because we think we’ll be happier. But truly, at the end of the day, the only way to get these states of energy is if we bath our consciousness in the light of God, the inner Christ light.

So yeah.

I’m learning more and more about scripture. Been into this stuff for like 9+ years and it’s an endless journey of learning.

Another thing I was thinking about is baptism - and what baptism is actually about.

Here’s my take - real baptism is not about dumping yourself backward in a river. It’s rather about rinsing the soul of uncleanliness.

You release guilt, shame, and the tethered weight of anything heavy that you’ve been carrying with you. And suddenly—you're light again. And you have to do this again and again. this is in part what Paul meant when he said, “I die daily”.

That’s the current I’m aiming to be in right now. Hold onto nothing, die to ego, and just create. Trust that the alignment will handle the rest.

Talk soon!

– Arlin

ps - If you’re walking that same path, wanting to be building in alignment… Come join a likeminded community getting after this frequencies as well. Apply here: 8amapp.com