89: Agapi Stassinopoulos On Speaking With Spirit And The Power Prayer

[00:00:03] AS: I was so depressed and so down. Oh, my God, Light. The difficulties as a young girl that I went through, with the disappointments constantly with the acting thing. I was sitting next to a woman and being Greek, I talk to everybody. Somebody sitting next to me to the bus, of course, I'll say, “Hi. How are you?” It’s beautiful woman. I said, “Well, I'm very depressed. I didn't get the part that was – I'm an actress.” “Oh,” she said. “I'm an actress. I was an actress.” She said, “I’m a nurse. I have a little boy. I'm a single mom, so I had to earn a living.” She said, “What did you audition with?” I said, “I did Joan of Arc.” She said, “Oh, my God. Was that the Burnett Show?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “I know that monologue.”
I said, “It's the one that goes, you promised me my life. That you lied.” I said, “Do you want me to do it for you?” I start to recite this monologue, which is so powerful, because she's in front of her accusers. She says to them, “I could live without water and bread, but to shock me from the light of the day, to throw me in the dungeon, so I can no longer hear the larks in the trees, and see the soldiers passing by, and to no longer be able to smell the flowers and the air. That is worth in the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times, so burn me, burn me at the stake. God will be with me, and God will comfort me, because the hatred in yours will be supported by the comfort of God, and the people who love me.” She goes on and on and she says, “So God be with me.”
I'm screaming this monologue in the bus. The whole bus wakes up and she applauded me. She holds my hand and she says, “My dear girl. You don't have to wait for anyone to hire you. You are so talented. Why don't you go do your own thing?””
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:01:55] LW: Hey, there. It’s Light Watkins, your host have At the End of the Tunnel, which is a podcast that features the backstories of luminaries, who have found their purpose with large and small causes, oftentimes after navigating very dark tunnels. They are now using their platform, or their art, or their voice, or in this case, their prayers to help point others in the direction of the light at the end of their tunnel.
My guest today is Agapi Stassinopoulos. Agapi is reintroducing us to the art of prayer. Agapi hails from Athens, Greece, as you may have heard in her accent. She has a fascinating life story, lots of twists and turns, as all of the wisest people tend to have. She's also one of my rare guests who was actually introduced to yoga and meditation as a child, mainly through her mother. Her father happened to be in World War II and he spent time in a concentration camp.
Also, Agapi is the sister of Huffington Post creator, Arianna Huffington. She makes a lot of references to her sister, as she's telling her stories, and that's who she is referring to. Anyway, later, as a young adult, Agapi thought that acting was supposed to be her life purpose. However, she was having a very difficult time getting traction. That experience led to her spiritual teacher, and she pivoted to storytelling and writing. She ended up spending about 10 years developing the Greek god and goddess archetypes, which became the basis for her first two books about Greek god and goddess archetypes. Then she created a one-woman show about that subject. Then there was a documentary for PBS about that subject.
She continued to write and speak and she released two more books. One was called Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity and Unconditional Love, which is full of inspirational stories, mostly about her mom and growing up and all the lessons she learned along the way. That was followed by Wake Up to the Joy of You. Most recently, Agapi has released another book called Speaking with Spirit: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire, and Uplift You.
Now, I met Agapi a few years ago when she spoke at one of my Shine inspirational variety shows. She's someone whose presence made me light up back then, and it still makes me light up whenever I'm around her, or even whenever I'm speaking with her. She's got this really beautiful, wise auntie energy if I had to summarize it. I think, you're going to feel the same when you hear her speak and you get to witness our dynamic. Without further ado, let's get to my conversation with Miss Agapi Stassinopoulos.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:04:58] LW: Agapi, it is a pleasure to have you on my podcast. Someone who I've known now for several years. We met through The Shine. You came and graced us with your presence and with these amazing stories. I remember reading your biography and your books. I think at that point, you had just released Unbinding the Heart, or was it Wake Up to the Joy at that point?
[00:05:26] AS: No, I think Wake Up to the Joy of You, but I think you were reading Unbinding.
[00:05:28] LW: I’ve read both of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that's the one that had a lot of your life story. I was like, this woman has an amazing story, and you told some amazing stories. Anyways, I'm honored to have you on the podcast to share some of that Agapi goodness.
[00:05:46] AS: That's, I think, Agapiness vibe as they say.
[00:05:49] LW: The Agapiness. Well actually, if I'm being honest, the first time I came across you, I didn't realize it was you when I was listening to your sister's book that you read. You did the audio version for –
[00:06:01] AS: Thrive.
[00:06:02] LW: Was it Thrive? It is the one about –
[00:06:04] AS: The sleep revolution. I did them all. Yes.
[00:06:07] LW: Yeah, exactly.
[00:06:08] AS: The Thrive. Yes.
[00:06:10] LW: I fell in love with your Greek accent, and I know you were a sister. It all came together back then. Now you just released a new book that I thought did a great job of summarizing a lot of the greatest hits from your story. It's Speaking with Spirit: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire and Uplift You.
Before we get into that, or maybe as we're getting into that, it's always good to get into the backstory of how you came to be the channel, the beautiful, radiant channel that you are. A lot of my initial questions will be geared around that. I think, I have to ask you this question, because it's so close to my work, meditation. Your book is about prayer. Everybody always wants to know, what is the difference? What is the difference between meditation and prayer?
[00:07:08] AS: It’s something that I've been really wanting to get into that question with you, because I know your incredible passion about the practice of meditation and how you have to me, demystified meditation. You took it off the pedestal, and you brought it down to the kitchen table. You said, “Here it is my friend. It is in your fingertips. You can love it. You can fall in love with it. Let me show you how.”
It's the same thing with prayer. I'll backtrack just a little bit for the sake of our wonderful listeners. I was born in Athens, Greece. My mother was unbelievably spiritual, not religious, but very, very grounded in her soul and in just the majestic being that she was and is, because although she passed, her spirit is so alive. Taught me and Arianna incredible values about the human spirit and unconditionality and generosity.
She had a fervor of bringing up her daughters and opening up worlds for us that were extraordinary. As you know, in the beginning of my book, I actually started it by saying, “My first spiritual teacher was my mother.” I remember seeing my mother sitting in our living room, drinking tea and eating favorite biscuits, to contemplation. It looked like she was doing nothing, but over time, I realized that this was her time of spiritual communion.
In reflection, she seemed to be drawing upon something deep within herself. She was listening for guidance and direction, as she orchestrated various aspects of our lives. This was her form of prayer. I was raised with this sacredness of life. Just to give our listeners an idea who my mother was, her name is Elli Stassinopoulos. Is that she fought the Germans in the Second World War by being a nurse in the Red Cross. She was a young girl who wanted to go study in Switzerland, and the war broke up and the Germans came and occupied Greece.
She was in a cabin on the top of the mountains, hiding Jewish people and serving in the Red Cross when three Nazis marched in and started to shoot with machine guns. She spoke German. She stood up and in perfect German she said, “Lay down the guns. You have no right to shoot. We are Red Cross.” She said, and I’m getting the chills just as I'm saying these stories, and I've said it so many times. She saw three machine guns be lowered and they didn't shoot. They left them alone.
She said to me, that to me is what she called, “My life force,” and her trust in life, that she had it in her to stand up to the Nazis. From then on, whatever financial difficulties she faced, whatever difficult she faced with my father, who was not faithful to her, the pain, the angst of trying to bring her girls up from a one-bedroom apartment in Athens, Greece, to go to London and open up possibilities for us in university and I went to drama school. I wrote about this in Unbinding the Heart and poured that story upon story.
This were my foundation. She taught us yoga. Do you know, I was initiated, I don't even know if I've told you that, when I was 12 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, by transcendental meditation. He came to Greece. My mother said, we're going to go meet him. I have pictures of him at the airport with carnations that I brought him. The foundation was laid from a very young age. The trust in life, the invisible, and as again, I must repeat, not in the religious sense, because other than christenings, funerals and weddings, and Easter Sunday, we didn't really go to church.
She used to say, our home is our church. When we had dinner together, all together with people she would say, “That is the human communion.” Food to her was sacred. I always say the story, when she heard the phrase in America, “Oh, let's go to a place with a fast food.” She said, “Fast food? There shouldn't be nothing fast about food.”
Cut to being in Los Angeles, as a young actress to do a movie at the age of 23. The movie didn't work out. I ended up staying in Los Angeles, and was doing hours and hours of yoga, three hours to be exact, reading every spiritual book trying to find my connection with myself. I didn't call it God. I didn't believe in God as such in my – I'm now in my 20s. I've left my home in London where we live. The soul and the heart yearns to wake up.
I’ve heard this beautiful phrase that says, “Even to yearn for God is grace.” I had a spiritual awakening, Light, that was very specific. It was an exact time, in Beverly Hills at my hotel. I fell asleep on Autobiography of a Yogi pages. At about 6 or 2 in the morning, I was woken up with a light coming in from the window, the sun. You know how sometimes the light can come in and hit you. The inner light came. Just to give you a specific, I was reading about the yogis transcending their body and living in the Himalayas and living in the mountains, under terrible conditions. Yet, they were not their bodies. Their souls was traveling, and would come back to the body.
I remember remembering, “Oh, my God. I am not my body. I am not this Agapi. I am a soul.” I fell on my knees and weeping going, “I know. I believe. Io credo.” I wrote in my diary, “Io credo. I believe. I know.” That was a moment of my awakening. From that moment on, all sorts of synchronicities happened. I asked for a teacher. Two or three months later, I think, through a friend and a retreat that I went of a yoga retreat, I met a woman, a friend who told me about my spiritual teacher, John Roger. I met John Roger in Los Angeles. That's, if you can imagine, so many years ago. I was 23, 24. That became my path. It's a path of soul transcendence with the awakening of the light.
Again, very specific experience. I've now met John Roger. I have awakened into this reality. I have no job, no money, but a lot of friends who love me. People say, how did I survive? I don't know how I survived through my mother's teachings. People take care of you, as you take care of them and you love each other. It was an amazing thing. I mean, literally, I was so taken care of. People will open their homes and say, “Come stay with me.” It baffles me how I really survived. I was on the mountaintop where Nichols Kearney in Los Angeles meditating, and my third eye opened. I started to feel the light coming in, like this beautiful, soft caress of light. It filled me up.
I remember saying, “I will never be alone anymore.” From then on, my commitment to the light, obviously, I was guided to then study psychology. I mean, my physical world life was unfolding, but my inner spirituality was unfolding. My prayer, which I will share with our listeners right now, became every day, I would say, “I ask for the light of the spirit, and let's do it all together right now, because we are living in the moment, of course, to fill me surround me and protected.” I ask that any negativity, any disturbance, any worry, any angst in may be transmuted into the light, into the nothingness it came from. That I may move through my day, with grace and ease and light. That became my daily prayer.
The same way with friends from my community, we would always say, “Oh, I'm going for an audition. I have an interview. I have a date. I am going on a trip. Can you send me the light? Send me the light.” Now, this has been my – it's like you in meditation. It’s like, your skin. This is my skin now. I call in the light all the time. We have a prayer list in my community. I put a podcast. Before we did the podcast today, you are in the light list. I'm in the light list. Our podcast is in the light list. Anybody who works with me, my sister and I always say, make sure you put this in the light list.
A friend called me today and said, one of our dear friends is in the hospital. I said, “Great. Light to him. Light the light.” Now, I have a posted in my car in Los Angeles, on top of the visor, the top, it says, “Light.” I get in the car and all I say is, “Light.” That has become, my God, such a comfort. I share it with people that are not in their spiritual path. We're all on our spiritual path. We are all on a path to spirituality. People always ask me, “Agapi, what do you think is our purpose in life?” There is only one purpose, my friends. To wake up to our souls and our spirit. The rest is gravy. It's whatever. It's fine.
I mean, you can have your goals and you can have your ideal scenes, and you can do your vision board. On top of your vision board, and everything just say, “Wake me up to my soul today. Let me awaken to that a little closer, whatever it takes.”
[00:18:04] LW: We still didn't get to the difference in prayer and meditation. What is your real-world practical difference in prayer and meditation?
[00:18:11] AS: We are going to come to that. To me, the prayer is opening up the gates to consciously communicate with whatever we want to call it. Let's give it God, your heart intelligence, your divine, your 36.2 trillion cells that are making you, your life force, the universal love, whatever we call that, Light. The words are so limited. Let's say, to your God. You open up the conversation. You open up the communication.
In asking, as I said about the light, or praying and asking, in my practice. Let's say, I'm about to meditate and I have 100 thoughts going on, or worries, or the list of everything we go through in our thoughts, or I had a very bad night with a dream, or my children will walk me up, or my husband is sick. I mean, whatever is going on that consumes us as we're about to meditate, the prayer to me is a precursor to the meditation. You know how they’re saying the vitamins? It’s a precursor, so that you are – before you start to chant your mantra, open up the gate, open up your heart, first of all, because, Light, if our heart is not engaged, it don't mean a thing.
Our heart has to become – whatever we do. Whether it is we're cooking, or we’re washing the dishes, or we are talking. Especially when we're about to commune with a deeper part of ourselves, for God's sake, bring your heart to it. In your heart, you open up your heart and you say – I say, “Father, Mother God,” because I relate to the divine as a protective force. That's my practice. You might say, “Beloved.” Every prayer in my book starts, “My beloved, or my higher power. I ask right now that I connect with you more deeply, and that I move from the chores and the doings of my daily life. I move more deeply into my soul, into my heart. Let this practice for the next 20 minutes be devoted to that higher consciousness. Show me. Let me listen to you.” Whatever it is. I'm making it up as I’m speaking to you now. You get what I'm saying.
At that moment, Light, instead of being dry, you get to feel juicy. I mean, I've had experiences where I've literally sat to pray or meditate, and we call it in my practice, spiritual exercises, because it's active. You don't want to go to sleep, or you might leave your body and think you're going to sleep, but that's another story. You want to feel your soul. Enter your soul. Enter your spirit. Oh, my God. It transforms everything. I mean, I have had times where I've exploded inside. My heart chakra went into this, and you have felt, I’m a completely heart-centered person. For me, when I open up to that loving, and of my soul, of God in me, it's so beautiful. It's so palpable, that then whatever I do in the day, Light, it changes. It changes my day. That to me, is the difference. Am I making between meditation and –
It’s like, you're going to meet your lover in your meditation. To me, that's what meditate. You meet your inner being, that you don't really capture, or see. All sorts of things can be revealed to you from the other side. Your guides can start speaking to you. Your spiritual self over the other side. I mean, I've seen my mother in my meditations, in my spirit – My mother has shown up. My father has shown up, were both passed. My teachers. I have experiences. They're not uniquely designed for me, or I'm very special. It's nothing to do with that. It's because I have practice and I'm willing, and I believe that there are guides and there are the spiritual beings. If we open up, they'll come and visit, because between this world and the spirit world, there is just a little veil. The veil, when you ask in prayer, is the actual lifting of the veil.
[00:23:16] LW: I wrote something about conspiracies and thinking for yourself. I sent it out to my subscribers the other day. I got a reply back from somebody who was saying, “I can't believe you're talking about COVID and denying COVID.” He projected this whole thing onto – I didn't say anything about COVID. I didn’t say anything about denying anything. I feel like, when the word ‘prayer’ comes up, the same thing happens, where it can trigger people to project all kinds of religious stuff onto that and limitations.
[00:23:53] AS: Loaded, loaded, loaded word. Loaded. Exactly.
[00:23:57] LW: No, I just love the way you present. You make it so accessible.
[00:24:01] AS: So accessible. Oh, my God. That is my prayer with this book. Make it 24/7. Make it your song, however your words. I encourage people to as you read this book, as you read these prayers, all my prayers start with bringing to the table exactly how you are. If you are sad, if you're sorrowful, if you are upset, if you are off balance, you start by saying, “Beloved, I am feeling off balance. I had an argument. I'm in separation with myself.” That's where the kindness comes in. The Buddhists talk about loving kindness, Light. That is where the kindness comes in.
Where, instead of judging the hell out of yourself and the other person, you go, “I come into the softness of my heart, and I ask that the spirit within me may show me the solution.” Then you allow that energy. It’s energy. Its own energy to come in. I ask people to please read the prayers that I have loud, but then write why, I say, speaking with spirit, because it's active. In our voice, we carry the healing energy, and you know that. When you hear, I mean, okay, Andrea Bocelli, or Celine Dion, let's say, and you feel so lifted, or Pavarotti. I mean, through their voice, they lift you up to the heavens.
I feel that, okay, we might not be able to sing like Bocelli, or Pavarotti. You can actually speak kind words to yourself and to each other, and allow that healing energy to come from you to the other person. You know, when you tell someone, and of course, with my friends that I love, what I always say, we never hang up the phone by saying, “I love you.” You might feel really off that day. Suddenly, somebody you love calls you and says, “I love you.” You go, “Wow, I got it.” I mean, you and I are such dear friends. Many times when we've talked on the phone, I say, “I love you, Light.” You’ll say, “I love you, Agapi.” I would feel that energy.
You're far away. You're in Mexico or somewhere. When we've had conversations, we've always share that in our heart. In the same way, I ask people to dare go there. Light, why don't we pray is because we have put it out on a special occasions. I mean, when we are in crisis, when you're at let's say, on a flight, and there is turbulence, everybody prays. I don't care if you believe, or don't believe. You say, “Oh, my God. Let me help me laugh.”
[00:26:55] LW: Right.
[00:26:57] AS: Or, when you're on TSA in the line, and the person is grumpy and everything. You pray again and you say, “Oh, my God. Let me go through this line.” Let them not take all my stuff from my chest and throw them away.
[00:27:12] LW: Even the remarks we make like, “Oh, geez.” Or, “God.” Or, “Holy crap.” These are prayers. We're saying the names of this intelligence, this inner intelligence without even realizing we're doing that. We mostly do it when we're in trouble.
[00:27:27] AS: Anybody who doesn't believe that there is a higher power – Mark Nepo, the wonderful poet, before he speaks at any event. I love it. Before he even says hello, he says, “Does everybody believe that there is something larger than themselves?” Everybody raises their hand. He says, “Well, I guess then, we're all mystics.” I feel, part of the unfortunate thing that has happened with organized religion is it has come in with a lot of dogma. The dogma that my way is better than yours, has separated. So much separation in humanity, and so much separation in people that a lot of people stopped believing.
They said, oh, you cannot imagine how many people I've heard in my podcasts and in conversations that were raised Catholic, or raised Indian, in Hinduism, or in different religions that they said, as a young girl or a young boy, there was so much imposed on them, that they turned away from religion. I go, “Okay. You can turn away, but where do you turn in to your spirit?” The people who worship in a very structured, religious way, with the temples and the churches and whatever, just bless them and say, “That's your way. God bless you. I'll find my way.” That's what in this book, I wanted to give permission and I say, if there – I don't know how many billion people are on the planet. How many billion?
[00:29:06] LW: Almost 8 billion.
[00:29:08] AS: 8 billion. I think, actually, I have that actually here.
[00:29:11] LW: Yeah. You have 8 billion prayers. There's 8 billion different ways to pray.
[00:29:15] AS: Humanity's in a moment of spiritual crisis. Structure, religion, in all its forms has caused many of us to feel divided than ever, and has alienate us from the truth of our oneness. There are more people who say there are none. They don't believe. I remember very specifically, there was a girlfriend of Arianna’s, who came and had dinner with us. We had a few friends for dinner a few years ago. Arianna said to me, “Well, go talk to Jennifer, because she's having a hard time. She was let go of her job as a newscaster. Her boyfriend left her after seven years. Her mother is very sick and she's just very down.”
I went up to her and I said, “Arianna tells me this is a hard time.” I said, “Do you pray?” She looked at me, and I have heard this so many times, “Well, who do you pray to?” Ain’t that an amazing question. I said to her, “Well, let's start by praying to the 36.2 trillion cells that are making you right now and breathing you. You or I have no idea how that is made, how we are made. We are a miracle of life. Let us pray to that lifeforce.” I took her hands and I said – and before I pray for someone, I bow my ego down. That great way when we bow to each other. I'm sure in yoga, we always learn in yoga practices, you bow down, and then you surrender that part that says, “I know. I'm the one. I know it’s speaking.” You bow down.
Then I ask for the spirit in me to help the spirit in her re-boost her strength, her confidence. That's exactly what I asked. I didn't ask for a new boyfriend, for a new job, for her mother to be healed. I asked the spirit to boost her confidence, to know that she's not alone. To know that the one that works with her is her wisdom and her soul and they’re right here, right now. We felt it, and we held hands and she cried. She said to me, “My, God. Nobody has ever done that for me before.”
[00:31:30] LW: That's what I've noticed about your prayers is that they're almost affirmative, or their declarations, as opposed to treating God like Santa Claus, or something like that, right? You end each one with, “So be it.” Can you just talk a little more about the anatomy of? If someone is listening to this and they want to do that for a friend, what are some of the considerations they should keep in mind? Obviously, getting a copy of the book and reading your format. On top of that, what are some of the considerations when praying for someone, or for themselves?
[00:32:06] AS: Well, first of all, we become self-conscious. We go, “This is silly. Who am I talking to?” Somebody asked me the other day and said, “You mean, you're talking to yourself?” I went, “Yes, yes. I'm definitely talking to myself, but I'm talking to my high self. I'm talking to the Godself in Agapi.”
[00:32:26] LW: Not someone outside of you.
[00:32:27] AS: Exactly. Thank you, Light. Thank you. I cannot say this enough. It's outside. Of course, there is a universe within outside of us, that is unimaginably mystical and mysterious and miraculous. We are a microcosm of the macrocosm. I think, I've heard that from so many teachers. We are a little speck of that, that the universe is made of. Once you grab that, and you say, “I'm part of that.” It's almost like the lifeline. It's powerful. It's like, I call it the tsunami of spirit. It's not lukewarm. It's hot. It has life in it.
First of all, you've got, as Light said, to know and claim it in yourself, even if you don't feel it, and you got to go out of your self-consciousness, and start to come into your vulnerability and your openness, and allow the spirit in you, without you censoring it, to speak to you, or for someone else. For example, fear. I have a whole chapter here on fear. When you're in fear, you feel paralyzed. I've dealt with fear a lot in my life.
I've recently dealt with fear, because I got a very bad infection in my right eye, right when I was promoting the book. Feeling fantastic and bang, I had to cancel things. I had to postpone. I had to take antibiotics. It was very, very hard on me. I had to go into forgiveness. There's nothing wrong with me, because I felt punished. I felt, why is God punishing me when I'm about to speak about God and this beautiful message? You can imagine, it put me to the test.
Back to the fear, for example, the prayer in the chapter that I have about fear, and they were this, it’s chapter 25. you're bigger than your fear is, I asked to find the courage to move past my fear, knowing that the mighty spirit that lives in me is so much bigger than my fear. Show me how to transform my fear into trust. You claim your fear. As I say is, you look at the fear in the eyes and you don't say, “Oh, I'm afraid, but I shouldn't be afraid.” You face it. You offer it, and mind security into confidence. Then you ask for the qualities that you want.
If you're not afraid, what are you? Trusting, calm, secure, guided, inspired, connected. Okay, be creative with your prayer. That's what you want. In fear, the primitive part of our brain is fight and flight. We don't know what's going to happen. We are afraid of the future. We're afraid of the moment. We're in pain, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Right there, you say, “I'm in pain. I'm in pain. I'm in light right now, more than any other time.” Everybody’s struggling with something. Everybody. Everybody's struggling with finances, the lockdown, the insecurity, the constant bombarding of the news, the things that are people are going not only with their health, but the insecurity of work. it's incredible.
It could really be there to help each other find our spirit through that prayer. People say, “Well, I'm feeling pretty awful myself today.” This friend of mine called me and she's lost it with her kids, because they're at home and they're fighting. She's very nervous about money and everything. I said, “Well, did you pray for her? Did you stay right there? Marianne, let us bring the spirit with you.” The person says, “Well, but I was depressed myself.” I said, “Well, go beyond your depression, because you by praying for someone, you are going past your narcissistic depression self.” I'm sorry, but it is like that, right? I mean, I talk to myself like that. 
When I'm sad, I say, “Let's go past you. Past that persona, and go to bigger part of you, the one that walks in me is better than the one that is in the world.” That's a beautiful phrase of Christ, which I love. Go do that part. You know it in your meditation. I mean, you have felt. I don't want to put words into your mouth, but I'm sure you have felt that power, Light, right?
[00:37:13] LW: Yeah. I mean, every spiritual tradition, every religion even says, or hints at the fact that the kingdom of heaven is within, but we forget about that. Why do we forget that? Why does it take spiritual practice –
[00:37:25] AS: Agapi’s book.
[00:37:28] LW: - to remind us. Because you mentioned, you lying there in that bed and that light hits you and it gives you this awakening experience. If someone hasn't had that yet, what have they not been doing?
[00:37:41] AS: Well, also, Light, I had that experience. Then, my God, I had so many difficulties in my life. It's not like I had my experience at 23 and I lived happily ever after.
[00:37:53] LW: You write about that. Every difficulty you have leads to some greater awakening, and some new step along your path.
[00:38:01] AS: I had projects that I worked for years that fell through. I had relationships that I thought, “Oh, he's the one,” and he was not the one at all. He went out and found another one. I had heartbreaks. I had times where I was broke. I had times where I didn't know what to do with myself. I knew the spirit and I knew the light, but I didn't know how to translate it. I had to trust that in my forming, in my awareness, creating my life and myself that I was guided, but that doesn't mean that I didn't go through the ebbs and valleys of life.
That's the reason why I have the confidence and the authority to come up and talk about it with such passion, is because I know it. I have faced a lot of these human difficulties. Until we die, I think, we're always facing something. Back to your question of how do we find the confidence to pray when we feel awkward, we feel silly, we feel self-conscious, is to just put one foot in front of the other. You put one word in front of the other. Your intention behind is you start to assume it, and it will meet you halfway, your willingness to go there. There's nothing more wonderful than to pray for someone and to feel that the spirit used you to life them, right Light?
[00:39:44] LW: It reminds me this story that happened to you, where you ended up giving the monologue on the bus and that one, you were complaining and you weren't getting the acting jobs. A women said, “Well, you don't have to get a job to act.”
[00:39:58] AS: Yes, exactly.
[00:39:59] LW: Can you share that story? I think, it's such a wonderful story. That it summarizes all this up.
[00:40:02] AS: Oh, my God. It changed my life. I was auditioning in New York City for a six-hour adaptation of Greek plays at Williamstown. I went with Joan of Arc. I did the Joan of Arc monologue. By that time, I already had my spiritual experiences. I was already in the spiritual path. I had a lot of high expectations like, “Okay, it's a Greek play. It's a Greek director. I'm a Greek girl. I'm talented. I'm very talented. I will get this up.”
[00:40:36] LW: Beautiful.
2 [00:40:38] AS: I’m beautiful. I'm talented. I speak Greek. I speak English. Well, I auditioned and the guy called me three days later, and he said, he spoke with a thicker accent than me, “You know, Agapi, you know, you are so talented, my dear girl. But I don't know how to cast you, because you have so much personality that if I cast you as an extra, you'll stand out in the chorus. Not extra, in the chorus. If I cast you with a big part, [inaudible 00:41:09], you don't have a big enough name.” I said, “No, I do. It’s Agapi Stassinopoulos. It’s very big.” He said, “Well, no, no. I mean, Sigourney Weaver, Susan Sarandon. I need the names for the theater.” That was that.
I was despondent. I can't even get a chorus part in a seven-hour adaptation of the Greek plays. I took the bus to go to my singing lesson, which I had religiously every week. I was so depressed, and so down. Oh, my God, Light. The difficulties as a young girl that I went through, with the disappointments constantly with the acting thing. I was sitting next to a woman and being Greek, I talk to everybody. Somebody sitting next to me to the bus, of course, I’ll say, “Hi, how are you?” It's beautiful woman. I said, “Well, I'm very depressed. I didn't get the part. I'm an actress.” Oh, she said, “I'm an actress. I was an actress.” She said, “I’m a nurse. I have a little boy. I'm a single mom, so I had to earn a living.” She said, “What did you audition with?”
I said, “I did Joan of Arc.” Said, “Oh, my God. Was that the Burnett Show?” I said, “Yes.” She said, “I know that monologue.” I said, “It's the one that goes, you promised me my life. That you lied.” I said, “Do you want me to do it for you?” I start to recite this monologue, which is so powerful, because she's in front of her accusers. She says to them, “I could live without water and bread, but to shock me from the light of the day, to throw me in the dungeon, so I can no longer hear the larks in the trees, and see the soldiers passing by, and to no longer be able to smell the flowers and the air, that is worth in the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times, so burn me, burn me at the stake. God will be with me, and God will comfort me, because the hatred in yours will be supported by the comfort of God, and the people who love me.” She goes on and on and she says, “So God be with me.”
I'm screaming this monologue in the bus. The whole bus wakes up and she applauded me. She holds my hand and she says, “My dear girl. You don't have to wait for anyone to hire you. You are so talented. Why don't you go do your own thing?” I left the bus. I felt so elated, as if something had hit me. That the light had hit me and said, “Get off you're wanting this acting so much. It's not for you. Go do your own thing.” Of course, I didn't know what my own thing was going to be. I reflected on in it and thought.
I think, a few weeks later I started to think, “I'm going to do a one-woman show with all the Greek goddesses, seven of them.” The Greek goddesses from Olympus. I am going to do the monologues that I love for each goddess. Burnett show of this Joan of Arc will be Artemis and the castle will be Demeter. A character from Burnett Show Colorinthia is going to be Aphrodite, and on and on. It was a dream. I mean, I put this show together and I launched it and it was Agapi emerging with my light and my spirit, but now combining my talent into the world. That's how my life unfolded; finding the courage to say, “I'll do my own thing. Nobody's hiring me. I will hire me.”
[00:44:51] LW: Well, it's almost like you embodied that. You wrote about this in your book, the chariots and fire line, when the guy says, “When I run, I feel God's pleasure.” It's almost like, you stumbled upon that living prayer. It's a living prayer, right? Because you thought acting was your purpose. For all we know, for that part of your life, for that season, that was your purpose. It wasn't about the outcome. It wasn't about getting the film role. It wasn't about getting the audition. It was about just the art of acting itself. God is speaking through your actions.
[00:45:26] AS: Exactly. Oh, my God. That is so true that you remember that movie. I don't remember that.
[00:45:33] LW: I didn't remember it. I just read it in your book. I was like, “I want to go watch this movie again,” because I saw it when I was a kid, and I don't recall that profound moment. It really struck me.
[00:45:44] AS: Let me just share it with our listeners. There is a movie called The Chariots of Fire, that Vangelis the Greek composer actually wrote the music. It’s a true story, by the way. It's about two Olympic athletes in England. One is a Christian, and the other one is a Jewish one. They're competing in the same race. The Christian one is a missionary. They go with his sister all around. They, of course, support people to become Christians. His love is running. He’s running the race. His sister has a conversation with him. I think, his name is Lidel. “You got to give up that hobby of yours of running, and concentrate on what God is calling you, for which is being a missionary.”
He turns to her and he says, “But when I run, I feel His pleasure.” That is the most beautiful line to me, that I've really heard from expressed, how the spirit moves with us when we do something that we really love. I wrote this whole chapter of during the pandemic, because I wasn't speaking, and I wasn't interacting with people out there. I stopped feeling his pleasure. I got really sad and very upset. In writing this book, the spirit allowed me to get deeper into myself, to feel his pleasure while I was writing, while I'm speaking the words. Spirit comforted me in my bereftness of what was happening. Now, you tell me when do you feel his pleasure, or her pleasure?
[00:47:36] LW: I read this anecdote. You probably heard it before, where an astronaut goes into space, and it comes back and he tells everyone, he had a face to face with God. They go, “What was he like?” He goes, “Well, first of all, she's a black woman.”
[00:47:52] AS: Oh, my God. I love it.
[00:47:55] LW: I feel that when I'm doing my writing. I write these daily doses of inspiration every morning. It's at a point now, I've been doing it for over five years. It's at a point now where I just – I'm clear, that is not me writing. I'm just the secretary showing up every morning.
[00:48:11] AS: Oh, my God.
[00:48:12] LW: To transcribe the message. Look, I don't feel like doing it every morning. You wrote in your book, how you had no idea that you would have to renew your enthusiasm for this project. You had to write dozens of drafts, about inspiring people to find that pleasure through their action. I think, that's one of the other mistakes that a lot of people make is if I'm not feeling enthusiastic about it all the time, and it's not meant to be, that's not God, that's something else. I think, that through your example, it's not about an isolated event, or an isolated feeling, or mood, or state. It's about a direction. If the direction lights you up, if the direction makes you feel expansive, then you know you're moving forward, as opposed to getting yourself stuck.
[00:49:04] LW: Light, I have to tell you something, and this is my question to you. My God. To me, you exemplify devotion, discipline and consistency. I am not that consistent about anything. Exercise, meditation. I mean, I really struggle with a part of myself that is not that consistent person. When I do it, I love it.
Like I saw in your Instagram when you put the thing, that you do a 100 burpees every Sunday, which of course, I don't agree with that at all. I think, “Oh, my God. What is this man putting himself through? Why? Why are you doing that to yourself?” I mean, you have this, I don't know. It's like, this warrior part, where you are exactly the opposite of I don't feel like it. Like people say, “I don't feel like it.” They wait to feel like it, to do it.
I'm looking at my desk, not here at my home. Since I've been back from LA about three months ago, I think something like that, after a year and a half, I have so many books and papers. I look at it. Literally, I have no energy to move those books, all these papers and these files. I much rather talk to you and to people about my prayer book and write a book, or speak it. This little action of cleaning up my papers by myself, it feels – Now you say to me, “Why don't you just pray about it? Ask for the guidance.” I admire that about you so deeply. You get up every morning and you write with a – You tell us. I want to hear, what is it in you? What is that muscle? Where did you get it from?
[00:50:55] LW: I remember, you wrote something. I'm trying to remember who said it, because you're telling a story about someone else. Oh, Lin Manuel –
[00:51:03] AS: Miranda. Yes.
[00:51:04] LW: Miranda. Somebody asked him a similar question like, how do you get the motivation, or the inspiration to keep creating? He says, “I treat every day like this is it. This is the last day I have. I need to get it all out.”
[00:51:15] AS: Tomorrow is not promised. I love that.
[00:51:17] LW: That's right. That's right.
[00:51:19] AS: That's incredible. That’s incredible.
[00:51:20] LW: That's the attitude that I try to cultivate is that, all we have is today. Yeah. I would say, you're not giving yourself enough credit, because you are very consistent with this one thing, which is bringing your heart to everything you do, whether it's having a conversation, whether it is walking. Because you remind me of that, right? You always say to me in my writing and everything that I'm doing, make sure you bring your heart to it. If you bring your heart to it, then it's going to have the desired impact. I have to remember that when I'm doing my own writing. That helps me to be more vulnerable and to be more transparent, and to be more heart-centered when I'm even thinking about the things that I'm doing.
It's a balance. You have to show up for the work, but you also need to get your ego out of the way. Because when the ego creeps in, then you end up becoming the lecturer and lecturing everybody. People can feel that. Oh, this is now about him. It's not really about helping us. That's what I see in your work. It's really about just service. You write about this so beautifully. You talk about the kite analogy, and I've never thought about prayer like a kite.
[00:52:32] AS: Oh, I love that. I love that.
[00:52:34] LW: Can you share?
[00:52:35] AS: Yes, thank you. Thank you for noticing that. Because that came to me, literally, I was walking by the beach in LA, in Santa Monica Beach. Suddenly, I –
[00:52:49] LW: Probably something bad had just happened, because it's always preceded by something that didn't go your way. Like obviously, it’s, “Okay, I’m going to go to the beach and just chill out.” That's where you see.
[00:52:58] AS: Oh, it's frustrating. I couldn't go to any shops. I couldn’t get my coffee. I got to just go to the beach, and walk on water. Okay. I was looking at these kites and how the kite never stand still. Then the wind takes it to the left and to the right, and the little boy runs with it. Then suddenly, have you seen where the kite suddenly steadies itself? It's like, the wind, the kite, and the hand and the little boy, they all become aligned. What I wrote is, think of prayer as your favorite kite with a string wrapped around the spool, that you're holding in your hands. You're the one that releases the string for the kite to fly.
When you're flying a kite, the wind can take you in many directions. In the same way, your emotions, your thoughts, and whatever you're going through in your life can sway you from one direction to another, until you steady yourself, until the kite, the wind and you become one, then you can fly as high as you want.
You go to pray and the thoughts come and the unworthiness, or the judgment. This is not good enough. Oh, who am I to believe? What is there anyways? I don't see anything. I don't feel anything. Then you go left and you go right. Then you exhale. You go, “Ah.” As all our spiritual teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, the wonderful teacher who just passed away. He said, “It's in the stillness. It's in the stillness. It's in the non-doing that you experience the transcendent.”
I feel, why not experience it every day, if we can, if we choose it, if we're willing? I just found the chapter, my dear, Light, that has the Chariot of Fire, which is chapter seven, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. I'll read this to our listeners. I always feel the magical connection of my human self with the larger spirit. I leave every event, which when I do my events. At the end of an event, people approach me and say, “What you said was meant for me. I felt my heart burst open. I really let go of something.” I leave every event feeling fulfilled and blissful in all of the expansion of the human heart. It's beyond anything I can describe. When I speak, I feel His pleasure.
Cut to the pandemic quarantine when there were no events, but endless Zoom calls. For me, it felt like I had been pushed out of my paradise, deprived of the very things I love the most. I meditated. I prayed. I tried to find ways to recreate some of the feelings that I've had when speaking, and connecting in real life. Those feelings never left me. I just needed to find ways to keep igniting that connection. I often thought of the thousands of actors, dancers, musicians, and singers, who feel the aliveness when they perform. I was filled with compassion and heartache when realizing that during the pandemic, they may have felt completely cut off from the joy during that time.
I tried to find it through dancing, moving, loving, listening to music, cooking, walking on the beach, connecting with my friends, and engaging in my work through FaceTime and Zooms. But most of all, I found it through gratitude and reverence for the ordinary little things in life that I was taking for granted.
[00:56:42] LW: That brings up a question of guidance. Do you think that we're all being guided all the time? If it doesn't feel like that, why not?
[00:56:57] AS: Well, let's say you're feeling upset, or depressed or down and you say, “I'm just going to go get drunk.” You get drunk, and you fall on the street and you hurt yourself. The next morning, you're in pain, and you have to go to the hospital, or you’re feeling awful. Were you guided to do that? Or were you at that moment of your doubt, of wanting to go for the drinks, or feeling despair, were you able to come to a place and say, “Right now, I need the help. I can't reach to that spirit. I can't reach to the hope. I can't reach to the faith. I don't know where it is.” I'm at the pits. Is there someone that I can reach to? Can I go beyond that?
The part says, well, go drink. Okay, so what voice is that? If you have the muscle in you, to write it down, I mean, I always encourage people, when you are feeling very down, write it down and be silent. Take charge of that. Whatever you can, however you can, and walk and listen, what I'm saying, Light, is not easy. If you have one person in your life that you feel safe, you say, this is a very hard moment. We all have gone through that. That you can say, can you hold good space for me? Can you remind me of something good in my life? We are guided, but we are guided to do something that we might at that moment not be able to do? Does that make sense?
[00:58:35] LW: Yeah. You've also said that inner spirit that we may pray to, sometimes is telling us, “Hey, just drink some water, or just go take a nap, or something various.” It’s not some big –
[00:58:46] AS: Go shower.
[00:58:46] LW: - Moses on the mountain top getting the 10 commandments conversation all the time.
[00:58:52] AS: This is so funny, because when I was having my upsetness about my eye, I had a sharing with my spiritual group and John Roger. My teacher has passed, but there is a wonderful following, the teachers, a guidance. There is a wonderful man who now represents and shares the teachings. I was having a Zoom seminar with some of our friends. It was one of the seminars that we do often to lift each other. I shared with him how awful I was feeling, and how miserable I was feeling, and how upset I was.
I remember him saying, “You know that this, too, has value of what's happening to you. You might not see it right now, but it's shifting your perspective and it's helping you come into a greater deepening and patience for yourself and loving for Agapi.” Then he said, You know, because you've talked about the yogis and the teachers, that they live in very dire circumstances and they survive. They I live in cold weather and they're just wearing a little loincloth. They bypass the body. They bypass the pain. “He said, “You know, you've heard about his whole practice that you put yourself in cold ice.” Jim Hof. What is his name?
[01:00:17] LW: Wim Hof. Wim Hof. Yeah. The ice baths.
[01:00:19] AS: Wim Hof. The ice baths, which I've never done. He said, “Put yourself in an ice bath and see if you're thinking about your eye.” Well, it's funny. After my sharing, I went and took a shower, then I took a cold shower. It's like, is that my inner guidance? Yes, it was my inner guidance. I'm in pain. I'm uncomfortable. I'm going to get up. I'm going to shower and I'm going to take a cold shower. It woke me up.
Often, we are guided to do something that doesn't feel comfortable. The spirit might say, “Go ask so and so for help, or ask him for a job, or ask this person.” You go, “No, I can't do that. I don't feel comfortable.” “Why not?” Then you go ask this person. The person says, “I don't have anything right now, but I'm glad you asked. I'll keep you in mind.” You go, “Well, you see it didn't work.” Then three weeks later, the person calls you and says, “We have an opportunity for you. Would you like to try it?” Lean into it. Lean into it.
[01:01:28] LW: Fortune favors the prayerful.
[01:01:30] AS: Exactly. The partnership, and then people say to me, “What would you like one thing from this book for people to take away?” I say, if I could tattoo one phrase in my forehead, would be, “God is my partner. I'm never alone.” Now, again, God, please put your words there. God is the way that it works for me. I wrote a chapter in the wake up to the job view, called God is my partner. To walk this spiritual warrior path, which to me, you are, Light, you got to step into your courage, after all. It’s stories upon stories, where you hear people who bypass their small self. The person says, “I don't want to do this, or I don't feel like it,” or the denyer in us, the doubter in us. Go to the other part that is the believer. Listen to that other voice, because we all have it. That's the magnificent part about this.
[01:02:36] LW: We just dismiss it. We think it's woo-woo, or airy-fairy. It's not. It's so powerful.
[01:02:42] AS: Real. It’s so real.
[01:02:44] LW: There's a story I've heard that I always think about when I think about the voice of prayer and inner guidance. That is the story of a healer that was walking through a village. There was a sick boy. Some people recognized the healer and said, “Would you please come and pray for the sick boy to get better?” He comes over and he starts praying in the affirmative, like what you write in your book. This grumpy man who was in the crowd, started heckling the healer and said, “This is nonsense. What you're saying is just hocus pocus. It's not going to do anything. I can't believe you're wasting everybody's time.”
The healer looks up at the man and says, “You hideous, monstrous moron. You need to shut up. You're ugly. You're stupid. You don't know what you're talking.” The guy starts getting so angry. The healer comes up to him calmly and says, “If you let those words get you so angry, couldn't the opposite have a positive effect?” He healed two people that day. I just love that story.
[01:03:52] AS: Oh, that's so beautiful.
[01:03:54] LW: Power of prayer.
[01:03:55] AS: Yeah. Yes. That is our prayer. As you said, we’ve got to watch that ego. I mean, God doesn't like not being right and not knowing, or being vulnerable. The thing that I want to emphasize so much, and to see that all of us now in our humaneness, are going through something. Becoming more compassionate to ourselves, to each other, and to reaching out is a liberation. To know that we are not alone, not only because of the spirit, but we have each other.
To me, again, I just want to say that I just love the content that you put out, because it's so much with the intention of serving and uplifting people. If you're going to put content out in your social media, really make it as connected and as purposeful to lift others, because then it's beautiful. You are so fulfilled then. Because you know that if you change one person's life, if you just lift at somebody today, my God, that was worth it.
[01:05:19] LW: As we wind down this conversation, one of the things I wanted to point out for the listener is because, again, you have made prayer and praying so accessible. It's secular, so it doesn't have any religious conflicts. It's broken down into categories. Even if you want to pray for creativity, or pray for abundance, or pray for this, or pray for that. It's all broken down into categories.
[01:05:41] AS: I even have a prayer for you can have a happy divorce.
[01:05:45] LW: Right. Exactly. Literally, any and everything under the sun, there's a prayer for that. You recommend reading the prayers out loud, which I love. I was listening to another podcast. Was completely unrelated to this one. The guy was saying that a quick way that he has learned to go deep in conversation with someone is to ask that person, “If I were to pray for you, is there anything that I should pray for?” Automatically, everybody gets vulnerable, everybody gets close.
[01:06:20] AS: Oh, my god. I love that.
[01:06:21] LW: It turns into this amazing – Yeah. It turns into this really deep conversation. I think, following through on that, there are some suggested prayers in your book that anyone of any religious faith, of any spiritual tradition, or even atheists can use to invoke that inner guidance, and that higher intelligence in the positive and the affirmative, to help themselves, as well as to help other people.
[01:06:47] AS: If you were to ask me, if there's one thing right now in my life, that you could pray for me, can I tell you what it would be?
[01:06:55] LW: Yes.
[01:06:55] AS: I would pray that I would truly, truly know and embody what I'm speaking about, so that I can go to sleep, and feel the beloved sweetness. I would wake up, and I had this experience the other day. I woke up. I had my book launch on the 18th of January. I woke up. Because of my eye, I can't wear any makeup, and I'm wearing my glasses. It's a different level of vanity. My vanity is like, I just had to completely say, glasses, no makeup. Yes, I'll put my lipstick on. This is the message of my heart.
I woke up, and I had no fear. I moved through my day with such calmness. I had two or three days, where I stayed in a very calm and connected place in myself. It was heaven. It was heaven. It wasn't heaven, like lightning and thunderbolts and ah, I feel so joyful, I want to dance. It was this contentment, this presence inside of me, that was connected. Light, this is my prayer for myself. This is the prayer for everyone that I think of, and I love and I don't know. This is the prayer for humanity for me. Let us find that connection. Let us find and help each other, know that we are always connected to our source, like our breath. Let us make it so conscious, so that we have our days, knowing that we don't walk alone.
All my life, I’ve dealt with a sense of loneliness, because I love being with people. As I say, always better and better now. I mean, I'm much more comfortable with myself, but even I have this beautiful poem, which I recommend people to read it. It’s called Coming Home. I love to actually, as we close, to read it to our listeners, because the last line and the last message is when we move in with ourselves.
[01:09:27] LW: I want to read that at the end. I just have one more question for you before we get to that, if that's okay.
[01:09:31] AS: Yes, yes. Now, you have to tell me what can we pray for you?
[01:09:37] LW: Well, I'm currently touring around, teaching people meditation and holding space for that. I would like for you to pray for me to stay safe. I have not had COVID yet. I don't plan on getting COVID.
[01:09:48] AS: Oh, that's beautiful. Yes, you don't want COVID. We're going to pray that you stay protected. No hugging.
[01:09:56] LW: No hugging, just in case. Just don’t hug anybody.
[01:09:59] AS: Please, don’t hug people. Even though I'm a such a hugger. Don't hug people. Would you wear you mask?
[01:10:04] LW: What about when I see you? Yeah, I wear masks, and I’m vaccinated and all that stuff. I want to stay available to do what I feel like, it's very much my mission. That's what I'm –
[01:10:17] AS: Yes. We'll put it in the light. Every time before you go to do your work, and also, will put it in the light, and I will pray for you. I will hold space for that and ask for the protection to really be protected, and watch yourself. Because it's easy to – I mean, I went to a bookstore the other day, and my girlfriend and I, just we prayed before we went. We went with our masks. I wanted to buy some books and some cards and I just said, this is that, this day, very little time. It was also a lot of people, because a Sunday afternoon. It felt very safe. I mean, I watched it. I don't go to a store, unless everybody wears masks. If somebody comes in masked, I move away unmasked. We’ll pray for that.
[01:11:06] LW: Beautiful. Thank you very much. This is a question I ask everyone near the end of the interview. I'm really curious to hear your answer, because you have been in the company of many rich, famous movers and shakers of the world. Having had all of your experiences juxtaposed against that, I'm curious what your definition, or what your understanding of success is at this stage in your life?
[01:11:33] AS: Yes. Anybody who – Emerson said it so beautifully. If in your life, you have helped one human being become more freer, more lifted, and helped ease their lives, you have been a successful human being. That is definitely my definition of success. There are a lot of people who are very successful physically, and they have a lot of wealth, or recognition, and they can still affect people's lives. I'm not saying one or the other. Let's say, if you're somebody who hasn't gathered amount of wealth, or successful in your career. Maybe you had a lot of stumbling blocks, and you're not where you want to be, who cares? Is your life affecting other people positively? Are you on purpose with waking up yourself to your higher self, to your divinity, to your soul?
Is that part of your daily motivation practice? Can you keep asking for help from others, who use support and you admire and you feel like mentors, to also help you if you're having difficulties, and if you're feeling stuck. Also asking for the light inside, but asking for people to show you the way, if you don't know that way. I had to ask a lot of help. I had a lot of mentors in my life to get to where I am.
[01:13:12] LW: This is really a success book. This should be in the success book section of the bookstore.
[01:13:17] AS: I love that.
[01:13:17] LW: 52 Prayers to Guide, Inspire, and Uplift. That's the key to success. That's exactly where this book needs to be.
[01:13:24] AS: Thank you. Thank you.
[01:13:25] LW: Okay, you're going to share the poem with us?
[01:13:26] AS: Yes. This is called Coming Home. It was written overlooking the Mediterranean, over in Mykonos Island, overlooking the Aegean. If you haven't been, please, heaven on earth. Santorini Mykonos, the Vistas, the blue sky, the breeze, the Aegean Sea, and the warmth and the wonderful generous hearts of people in Greece can really help you open up your heart tremendously. I was sitting there and feeling how my prayer has been to not – to feel connected with myself, even when I'm by myself. Not only is when I'm with people. I wrote this on my iPhone, actually. I dictated it. 
Coming Home. I used to be so lonely; lonely at my house. Lonely when I got back to sleep. Lonely when I was alone. When I was with people, I was never lonely. But when by myself, loneliness would hit my house.
Then one day, I heard the voice. “Why don't you move in? I live alone, too. You would like it here. Move in with me.” I looked around and it was me talking to me. My house was empty. Wow. I said, “I left that beautiful place a long time ago, going out, looking for others to fill my home and left my house empty.” Move in. Move in with me. You’ll it here. You'll never have to pay rent. I’ll never evict you. You will be my honored guest. I know you, your likes, your dislikes, your little quintessential idiosyncrasies. I know you.
I’ll treat you nice and kind and give you a lot of space. Move in. Come. Move in with me. I looked into my eyes, my heart and saw the love for me. I surrendered. I opened the door and moved in into my empty house that I had left a long time ago. It was exactly as I left it. It had just missed me. I moved in and never left, and never felt alone anymore. For my house filled with love, once I accepted such kind, tender invitation.
[01:15:49] LW: Beautiful. I love that. I think that's a great place to end it on. Just want to acknowledge you for embodying the meaning of your name. For those of you who don't know, Agapi means love. This is literally love and light having a conversation.
[01:16:05] AS: I never thought of that. How beautiful.
[01:16:08] LW: I’m light. Yeah, I just want to acknowledge you, Agapi. You've been one of the most consistent presences in my life, and in a positive way. You're one of those people, when I think about you, when I see you, when I'm just around you, I feel uplifted without you saying a word. Just being in your presence of just me. I'm sure, everyone else who's around you shares that experience. Thank you for being a walking, talking, thinking bundle of everything that you represent; guidance, inspiration, and that uplifting energy. I'm really appreciative of you taking time out to come on to this show and share your work with my audience.
[01:16:54] AS: Well, I thank you so much. At the End of the Tunnel. That's the name of the podcast?
[01:17:00] LW: At the End of the Tunnel, yeah. Which is obviously a pun on my name. Also, we've all gone through many dark tunnel moments, and that's where we usually discover that the light that we're seeking is not outside of us. We are the light. We are that light.
[01:17:16] AS: You know, I have this great quote that I've posted many times, which is like, “There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You are the light in the tunnel.”
[01:17:22] LW: You are the light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah.
[01:17:24] AS: You are the light in the tunnel, while you're crossing the tunnel.
[01:17:27] LW: That's right. That’s right.
[01:17:29] AS: Well, thank you so much for honoring me and loving me so beautifully, and so beautifully representing the book and the message. I share it with all my heart with your wonderful listeners. I ask you that as you read the book, please share it with others. Post your beautiful prayers, your prayers, my prayers in your social media, so we can create a tsunami of love around this and open up the gates. So people will know that this is an extraordinary tool that we are now holding in our fingertips. We can use it. We can use it to lift ourselves, to guide ourselves, to get what we want. Or, if we don't get what we want, to have us. Because really, this is what we want.
[01:18:22] LW: I've heard you give out your email address, too, because you want people to actually engage with you and let you know about their experiences.
[01:18:29] AS: Absolutely. It is agapi@unbindingtheheart.com, unbindingtheheart.com, the title of my third book. You can email me your thoughts about, well, after you've read the book. I can send you some of my guided meditations from my last book, which I give out as a gift. Just share yourself and share yourself with others and pass it on. I'm just very, very grateful. This has been an incredible conversation. I'm so glad it's recorded, and we have it. I’ll post clips from it. It's been just magnificent to talk to you, Light, about this, and with such hard an insight and wisdom and how you see.
It just really helped me redefine some of the concepts, which I'm trying to bring out as clearly as possible. Thank you, my dear friend. I love you. I hug you virtually and we’ll tag in person, and we have a Greek meal one of these days, too.
[01:19:32] LW: Yes. Beautiful. Okay, thank you very much.
[01:19:34] AS: Thank you so much. Thank you, sweetheart.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[01:19:37] LW: Thank you for tuning into my interview with Agapi Stassinopoulos. Her latest book, Speaking with Spirit is out now and it's available everywhere books are sold. To learn more about Agapi and her work, I would suggest starting with her website, which is unbindingtheheart.com. Her Instagram is @AgapiSees.” That’s A-G-A-P-I-S-E-E-S, as in Agapi sees all. Her email, as she mentioned during our conversation is agapi@unbindingtheheart.com, which is spelt like it sounds, unbinding the heart. You can let her know what you think about Speaking with Spirit. We'll put links to everything in the show notes, which you can also find at lightwatkins.com/tunnel.
While you are there, you can search my past podcast episodes by subject matter. If you want to see more episodes about people taking leaps of faith, or people overcoming financial struggles to follow their purpose. You can get a list of all of the episodes of those specific subjects along with more.
Also, if you're feeling inspired by these stories, and you want to make sure that this podcast continues to not just stick around, but to grow, and to thrive and reach other people, the best way that you can support that mission, which is my mission, is to leave a rating, or review for the podcast. I know everybody says it, leave a rating, leave a review, subscribe. It helps more than you can fathom. If you have 10 seconds, just 10 quick seconds, just glance down at your phone right now. If you have the Apple Podcast app open, you will see the name of this podcast, At the End of the Tunnel on the screen, on the homescreen. Scroll down past the previous episodes and you'll see five blank stars. Just tap the star all the way on the right and you've left a rating. It's that simple and it only takes 10 seconds. Thank you again for that.
Otherwise, I look forward to hopefully, seeing you back here next week with another amazing story from the end of the tunnel. Until then, keep trusting your intuition, keep following your heart, keep taking those leaps of faith. If no one's told you recently that they believe in you, I believe in you. Thank you very much and have a great day.
[END]