“The core of everything… is based on how we feel about ourselves.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
Sometimes loving ourselves is a challenge that often results in negative emotions. We even tell ourselves that we should not cheat on some of the greatest experiences of our entire life. Today, Jonathan Masiulionis explains how self-love results to being in alignment with all dimensions. Self-love is not being selfish. It’s the only way we can provide a service that’s much more genuine and heartfelt. Jonathan sheds light on how self-love equates to caring about your time, your energy, your boundaries, your mission, and serving others. How you feel about yourself reflects greatly on your personal and professional life. Listen in and discover how you can live your life with a higher purpose by starting off with you.
.
Listen to the podcast here:
Highlights:
03:27 How It All Started
09:32 Beautiful Experiences
13:40 Learn To Love Yourself
19:17 Being Enough Right Now
26:07 Forms Of Love
39:02 A Show That Teaches A Valuable Lesson
49:38 No Reasons To Love Ourselves
56:25 Fulfilling The Mission
1:03:23 Just The Way You Are
Resources:
TV Shows
Monday Night Mayhem
The Best of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Books
Dying To Be Me by Anita Moorjani
Heaven by Randy Alcorn
Wishes Fulfilled by Wayne Dyer
Memories of Heaven by Wayne Dyer
Till We Meet Again by Julie Muller
When Daddies Go To Heaven by Erma Hamilton
Where Are You? A Child’s Book About Loss by Laura Olivieri
Self-love is not selfish. Join @myexpectation and @JMasuilionis as they discuss on how to love yourself completely by #experiences#expectations#goals#mission##selflove Click To Tweet
Quotes:
04:02 “Our soul gives us the opportunities to get things right at some point in time.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
04:32 “If you’re loving yourself… it reflects in what it is that we see in our relationships.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
05:56 “Everyone is doing the best that they can, with the knowledge they have, the skills they have, the tools they have and the love that they have. Everyone is just doing the best that they can.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
07:52 “Many of us come from the perspective of, ‘What’s in it for me?’ before ‘How may I serve?’ ” – Jonathan Masiulionis
14:30 “In everything in life… we have the opportunities to move through and heal.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
16:46 “Be able to look at everything in your life as a blessing.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
18:46 “How we choose, either in the negative or the positive, makes all the difference.” – Art Costello
24:43 “The core of everything… is based on how we feel about ourselves.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
26:21 “When you believe in the possibility of everything, you don’t let anything get by you. Everything becomes a learning experience.” – Art Costello
44:21 “Play… and how they play is so important to children. It really affects everything the rest of their life.” Art Costello
48:09 “Allow your heart to open yourself up to things, especially those that you enjoy as a child.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
54:20 “Things always work themselves out.” – Jonathan Masiulionis
Meet Jonathan:
Jonathan Masiulionis is the President of Empowered Publicity, a publicity company that serves and empowers inspirational, spiritual, and children’s authors. For nearly two decades, he has been helping creatives, entrepreneurs, and entertainers across the country to fulfill their dreams and expand the reach of their work. With the power of enthusiasm and determination, Jonathan is a seasoned professional at taking ideas and turning them into realities. He uses his networking savvy, well-developed organizational skills, and powerfully positive energy to promote and establish name recognition for all of his clients. He is looking forward to moving to San Diego, California to begin his next steps, which includes opening a children’s hospice for terminally-ill children in La Jolla.
Website
Email
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Transcription:
Art Costello: Welcome to the Shower Epiphanies Podcast. Today Jonathan Masiulionis is my guest, and I knew I’d screw up the name. But it’s not in the name, it’s in who this guy is and he’s a powerful publicity, powerful person, and has a heart of gold. And for nearly two decades, Jonathan has been helping creatives, entrepreneurs, and entertainers across the country with their promotion. His ability to highlight the best of what artists bring to the table is uniquely exceptional. With the power of enthusiasm as a publicist for inspirational, spiritual, and children’s authors, and Empowered Publicity, Jonathan understands the whole genre. He uses his network savvy, well-developed organizational skills, heartfelt positive energy to promote, establish a true partnership and promotion. Jonathan powers his clients with personal attention and dedicated support that they need. Jonathan currently resides in Buffalo, New York, but his heart is moving to San Diego, and later this year he’s going to open a home, a hospice home for children, which as anyone know, who knows me, knows that children are my passion, training and teaching them, loving them, and I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like for Jonathan working with kids in hospice. Having lost my wife to cancer and knowing how that affected me, I can’t imagine as a child. Anyway, welcome Jonathan, it’s a pleasure to have you here. Can you tell us your story and how this all started, this tremendous journey you’re on?
Jonathan Masiulionis: Art, I want to say, first of all, thank you very much for the invitation. Thank you for the opportunity to be on your program, and thank you for the gift of you. Normally in any time that I’m blessed with any sort of an opportunity such as this, I’ll kind of save this towards the end, but I feel that I’m starting to learn, and I should say, remember more that life isn’t necessarily about me. I’m just a cognitive wheel, I’m an important cog, but I’m not the cog. And it’s important for me to express my gratitude and appreciation to everyone who extends opportunities along the way and opens up their heart to me. So for you and for the wonderful work that you’re doing in service to children and to grown children, so to speak, all across the country and all around the world, I want to extend my appreciation, and my gratitude, and my thanks to you before we begin this lovely conversation today.
Art Costello: Well, I accept it and we have a strong connection because we both have resided in the remote parts of Upstate New York. We have a lot in common, and which you probably didn’t know about me was, I went to school college in San Diego, and lived quite a few years there, and one of my dreams is to own property overlooking the Pacific Ocean and La Jolla.
Jonathan Masiulionis: I wouldn’t be surprised, and at some point in some fashion, some way shape or form in the foreseeable future, and yonder off distance that we’ll be able to have this sort of interaction, not just from afar, but in a more face to face sort of thing, which is fantastic. Thank you for sharing that too.
Art Costello: We’ll do it. Let’s hear your journey. How it all started for Jonathan.
Jonathan Masiulionis: If you would have told me Art that one of the big visions for myself, it would’ve been told me first of all that I bet that children would be my life’s purpose. If you would have told me that before, I would have said, you’re full of it. If you would’ve said that a children’s hospice would be one of the biggest visions, and goals, and realities of my life, I would’ve said, no way. There were many different things that I feel this goal around, I needed to learn, and I needed to remember this life for me in many instances was a do over. Because they feel that our soul gives us the opportunities to get things right at some point in time, we, many times we learn the lesson via pain and suffering, right? That was kind of like the same cycle over and over again, but I feel that we get to a point where is the famous boxer, Roberto Duran said, “nomas,” no more. And you choose to be your authentic self, you choose to live in integrity, you choose to have everything that you do internally be reflected on the external, and that’s really how life works. If you’re loving yourself, which we’re going to be talking extensively about today, when we take the time to do that, it reflects in what it is that we see in our relationships, in our personal relationships, in our business relationships, et cetera, and so forth. Growing up, I can admit, I felt very challenged with loving myself. Growing up, I wanted to be a sportscaster, I wanted to be the next Chris Berman, on ESPN, right? We happen to be doing this interview on a Sunday when we’re enjoying this conversation. I grow up and I’m watching NFL Primetime with Chris Berman, that’s what I want to be. Back in 1989, I began a 25 plus year love affair with the world of professional wrestling in sports and entertainment, then [inaudible] WWE. Wrestling provided a cathartic effect for me, so no matter what was going on in my earthly surroundings, so to speak, I had that as my go-to. I give a lot of credit to my parents and my sister because they did the absolute best that they can. There was a large part of time where it was a very toxic relationship in terms of surroundings and things of that nature.
“Our soul gives us the opportunities to get things right at some point in time.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetThat’s because we were living on top of each other, and we weren’t able to focus on our own cells and nurture ourselves, it was just this survival sort of mentality. But I look at that, Art, from a different perspective now because everyone is doing the best that they can with the knowledge they have, the skills they have, the tools they have, and the love that they have, right?, Everyone is just doing the best that they can and many of us I feel, and we’re really being given a golden opportunity to let this go if we haven’t any sort of resentment, any sort of anger from people towards the passages, it just doesn’t serve you in terms of the president moving forward. So I followed my passion, went through high school, went through college, began doing an internship at the Empire Sports Network, which was, had a relationship with the Buffalo Sabres, John Regis who owned Adelphia cable, which was then one of the largest cable companies in the country. It turns out he was embezzling money from the company, he went to prison. So I share this because the Empire Sports Network went under. So I went in from being a production assistant to, you know, getting my foot in the door to really not knowing what I was going to do. Now growing up Art, if I may mention, I was born and raised Catholic, altar server, Eucharistic Minister, CYO, you name it, I did it. There was a very strong relationship with God that I have that I still have to this particular point in time. I still remember the our father in Latin that I learned in seventh grade, but a lot of Catholicism not to get too preachy off the rocker here, at least for me it seemed like force. It was, you must do this, bless me father, for I have sinned, et cetera, et cetera. So around 2002 or so is really when I started losing my way, especially, I began working in the world of collections at that particular point in time for what lasted nearly 13 years. I can look back in hindsight and say that, collections taught me so much about life, about the work that I do as a publicist, the importance of listening to people to open up your heart. And one of the things that I had moved through and I hope that your listeners can really resonate with this is that, many of us, we come from the perspective of what’s in it for me before how may I serve? As long as I get what’s mine, then maybe I can give a little bit here and there, but it wasn’t this vast open heart, right?
“If you're loving yourself... it reflects in what it is that we see in our relationships.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetI began doing what was at that particular point, a wrestling radio show. I’m a college station that I was actually at here in the Buffalo area, Buffalo State College, had such a fun time doing that show for over two years. It transformed into what was one of the first ever podcast that was created in 2004, the show was called Monday Night Mayhem. The show lasted for over a decade. It was one of the most popular wrestling radio shows in the country. So I found myself interviewing every single top professional wrestler, including Geyser at the top of the charts now, you’re A.J. Styles, you’re Kevin Owens, even like your Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, right traveled across the country by Wrestlemania’s. I was broken, I felt broken I should say on the inside. My on-air personality that I had created was the big mosh. I morphed into that because felt that they could love the big mush because the big mosh could do stuff for people. The big mosh could make things happen for people, right? But slowly but surely I did not know who I was. I didn’t know who Jonathan was, and I’ve adopted my spirit name of Johnathan,, John is my legal given birth name and I never, it’s not to say that I didn’t resonate with that, but Jonathan, which it was shown to me over time means either gift from God or giver from God. And it was just a continued part of my growth. Things began to shift from me a little bit, Art. Things began to shift for me, you know, today we’re talking about the importance of loving ourselves just the way that we are. And it took me more than a minute to be able to realize it. There were a few experiences else that I needed to move through. My grandmother passed away in 2013, August 13 2013, Polish, or as we call them babcia, right? Polish for grandmother. And I had a very strong relationship with her growing up as a child. And on the surface when that happened, it may have looked like one of the most traumatic experiences in my entire life. In hindsight, it turned out to be one of the most beautiful experiences of my life because she very much became my guardian angel from the other side. And it’s very much guided me over the course of nearly now the past seven years, I began as the expression goes, you know, when we have an awakening, we start going down the same streets, but looking at them from a different perspective.
“Everyone is doing the best that they can, with the knowledge they have, the skills they have, the tools they have and the love that they have. Everyone is just doing the best that they can.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetSo several months after she passed, I let go of Monday Night Mayhem back into the universe. I did a health wellness and spiritually aligned radio show and inspirationally based podcast called Soul Luminous Radio. So while there was this time of grief that was happening, people such as Anita Moorjani, Jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer’s family, Mira Kelly, top transformational leaders, bestselling authors were coming into my life and I had no idea why this is happening. I was like, these really cool beams of light coming into my life. Anita Moorjani’s book was actually given to me by, what was my first spiritual teacher, it was Jennifer Norton, and it was a book called Dying To Be Me, and Anita believed that fear had caused her cancer. For all of your listeners who are not familiar with Anita’s journey, I’ll do my part to get a condensed reader’s digest nutshell version. Anita have her father, and I believe her sister, or her father and her best friend I believe passed away from cancer. So she did everything to prevent herself from getting cancer. She ate from glass, she did the supplements, she ate organic, etcetera, etc. So what happens, she gets cancer. She whittles herself down to under 90 pounds, as tumors the size of grapefruits in her body, and she ends up dying, she flatline. She had a near death experience, she came back, while she was in the NDE, she believes that she had a choice to come back, or to transition. I believe she saw her father and her best friend, in the dream, it really was her choice. She came back, within six weeks of coming out of the NDE, there was no trace of cancer in her body.
“Many of us come from the perspective of, ‘What's in it for me?’ before ‘How may I serve?’ ” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: Wow.
Jonathan Masiulionis: So I was wondering why, like Anita’s journey in certain respects was pretty darn similar to my own, in terms of the whole fear. There were different storylines that I told myself. One was, there’s something wrong with me. So of course, you know, when we replay the same story in our mind over and over again, and eventually in some way, shape or form becomes our external reality, right? You know, there was a lot of things about me, we were talking in the Shower Epiphanies green room, just a short time ago, we were talking about, sometimes we have difficulties receiving, sometimes we feel unworthy, sometimes we feel unloved, right? You know, how can we love ourselves quote unquotes, especially if we did something wrong. So shortly thereafter, this was I believe in 2014, I should say, after I left collections, while I was doing Soul Luminous Radio, I went over to the Hay House. Hay House, of course, many of your listeners may be familiar with one of the top inspirational spiritual consciousness publishing companies. They had an, I Can Do It event at the Roy Thomson Hall, and that completely changed the trajectory of my life. Because this is where for two days I was immersed in the energies of, you know, we need Amore Johnny, and Dr Joe Dispenza, Gabby Bernstein. But there was a transformation that was beginning to happen. It was also very intense, dark night at Soul that was happening at that particular point in time too. But I remember coming back on the QEW driving back to Buffalo from Toronto and I said, I want to help people, I want to inspire people, I want to serve people, but I don’t know how. And that’s when Empowered by John, which was the name of my company at first was created. So I was starting to get a little bit of a better idea of things, but the mind was still focused on acquisitions. It was focused on what’s in it for me before, how may I serve. I let go of working in collections in 2014, and in 2015, I remember I was actually seeing Anita Moorjani for the second time. It was a self love workshop in London, Ontario.
And I remember coming back from that workshop and I felt very flush. There were some symptomologies that I was moving through. I remember going to the a Urologists office and he had pointed to what was, I don’t know if it was left or right testicle and he said: “This should not be enlarged like this.” So, you know, they did scans and everything, and it was shown, and I use the term PERCEIVE when I’m saying what I’m about to say, because they believe that everything in life, if there’s a perceived illness, sickness, or disease that were presented, we have the opportunities to move through and heal. And the only thing that’s technically permanent, so to speak, is what we decide to posse out from, you know, when we transition to the other side. So I had a doctor tell me: “Jonathan, you have testicular cancer.” And that is when, it could have looked like I really had an opportunity, I had a golden opportunity, it was really the universe’s way of saying, you can finally love yourself, right? So there was a part of me that had an idea of what was happening on a bigger picture perspective. And then there’s the part of me that’s on the earthly surface that like could have continued this storyline and an extensive fashion moving forward. So I remember Art, actually having chemotherapy for a couple of months, and I remember, there were people that were getting chemotherapy, being an empath, I’m able to kind of pick up on things, and I was picking up on things from other people that I knew that they may not last very long. So I was to make the most of that experience that was actually there, right? But this is when I began to really take my life back, to take my power back, to really learn to love myself. A funny story, you have to try to find humor in these sorts of experiences, right? And the urologist had mentioned: “We would like to donate part of your sperm to the Buffalo sperm bank because you said you see yourself having a child at some point.” And I told him, I said: “I’ve clearly seen myself having a son at some point in time. With all due respect, they don’t necessarily need to have the Buffalo sperm bank on board. I see myself fathering my own child.”
“In everything in life... we have the opportunities to move through and heal.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: (laughs).
Jonathan Masiulionis: So I made the decision at that point, I could have continued to kind of, you know, I could’ve had an additional surgery. I did have one surgery, but I could have perpetuated one of the stories that I kept telling myself of, there’s something wrong with me. Illness, sickness, disease, believe in all of that. I still had to go through a little bit more than that in some way, shape or form. There was, it could’ve looked like I lost everything, like I had no money to my name, lost all my money, had an eviction notice in my hand, this was in 2016, I believe. So I share these sorts of things because if there’s your listeners that are tuning in right now and they’re feeling challenged when it comes to loving themselves, it’s important for them to be able to look at everything in your life as a blessing. Sometimes it may take some time to get to that particular point. I could have easily look back and say, why did the collections chapter happen? You know, why was this perceived diagnosis given? Why did I lose all my money at that particular point? I could have easily beaten myself up, and I did do a certain point, but things began to open up even further. I would probably say about two years ago when I was really starting to make more of the right decisions, I really took the time to get into, you know, I hired a coach. I might have things, I’m still blessed to work with Heather Christian, strung out on the Oregon Coast, began doing body talk sessions with her. It took some time Art, you know, I feel that what I’ve shared from this, sometimes people have to go through these sorts of experiences to have a deeper appreciation just of everything of life.
“Be able to look at everything in your life as a blessing.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: One of the things that I was going to bring up to you that I have learned through my life’s experiences, that big events lead to choices, and how we choose either in the negative or the positive makes all the difference. Because when we were in the positive, we get positive results, and of course, negative brings the illness, the sickness, the bad thoughts, all of that to the surface.
“How we choose, either in the negative or the positive, makes all the difference.” - Art Costello Click To TweetJonathan Masiulionis: Correct.
Art Costello: So Henry Ford said: “We are who we think we are. You’re right if you think, no matter how you think.” There’s so much truth in that because we are who we think we are. So it’s important.
Jonathan Masiulionis: It is. And it’s interesting because to have a bookend to what is it you just shared, what actually comes to mind is, is that many of us, we think that we are our bank accounts. We think we are the titles that we have, property owner, husband, wife, CEO, president, blah, blah, blah. So this is, even one of the reasons why, I don’t struggle with this at all, but I’m not the typical publicist. I even a little uncomfortable with being referred to as a publicist. It feel that God has blessed me with tremendous gifts of being of service to other people, and it just happens to look like what a publicist actually does. But I feel that it’s important to be able to really be in the right mindset to really lead your life as if you don’t necessarily own anything. Wayne Dyer, before he passed, he was very adamant and saying: “The last suit that I’ll ever own, it’s no pockets, because where I’m going, I can’t take anything with me.” So, right? One of the things we’ll probably unpack, even further talking about loving yourself just the way that you are is acknowledging that you are enough right now. And it’s something that you need to tell yourself everyday because, how many times do we find ourselves telling this to other people? You know, Mr. Rogers, we’ll talk about him, I’m sure. He says: “You’re perfect. You’re whole, you’re healthier, complete just the way that you are. I like you just the way that you are.” Sometimes we can say that to other people, but we have the difficulties of doing that ourselves. And this is part of our work, this part of why we didn’t just come here to paint taxes and die, and I feel that many people are starting to kind of get out of that old mindset of just living in restriction, living in limitation, and really believing if I may, you know, pardon something from one of, I take something from, politely from one of Disney’s most popular movies of all time, Aladdin. It really is like we’re stepping into a whole new world where we really believe that we can love ourselves, and we don’t have to feel guilty about it.
Art Costello: A lot of it lies in our expectations. Because when we live to the expectations of other people, and I’ve been on this kick the last three podcasts that I’ve done, when we live to the expectations of others, we’re never happy because we’re not living to our expectations. The seed that God planted in us to where our greatness lies is in how we expect. It has such a huge influence on the path of our lives. And when we have these big events, and we have these things that awaken us, and we learn to really deep, and I need to be very cautious, because I don’t want people to think that this is about being selfish. We have expectations for ourselves, and God has expectations for each and every one of us. And those expectations are not about being selfish. They’re about finding your path, your passion for this world, what you’ve been sent here to do, and what you’ve been created for lies so much in our expectations. But when we get influenced by the social expectations, the relationship expectations, the advertising expectations, the government expectations, and religious expectations, they start to really alter who we are. And it’s important that you really focus on what you truly know, your passion, and what your expectations are for yourself. And when you focus on the goodness of it, good things happen.
Jonathan Masiulionis: It’s interesting that you actually share that, because I feel that we’re in a time right now where many good things are starting to happen. You know, taking a quote from Heather Christian, I mentioned beforehand, that she says: “Things are just getting better and better now.” And I totally believe that. To add briefly what you mentioned about expectations, it’s vital for us, yes, we, God has expectations of yourself, very simple. Love yourself, love your neighbor, be kind, it’s just super simple, right? We don’t necessarily need a tablet with 10 specific commandments on there, right? They’re very even simpler than that kind of thing, right? But the importance of, when I see the word expectation, I also think of the word attachment, right? When you have an expectation, like it’s going to happen this way, right? We always like to think you’ve got this great plan. Here’s how it’s going to happen. Like, you know, we’re talking about this move to San Diego, and what will be a few months from now, right? Okay, well, here’s, okay, I’m going to move to this part, I’m going to live here, this person’s going to be here, and you’re just basically doing what I call the Marcel Marceau. You’re trying to just go like this, right? And I feel that when you are in a state of allowance, there are experiences that are trying to come into your life, there are people that are trying to come into your life, there are relationships that are trying to come into your life. But if you’re like this, if you’re this like big X in front of you, the universe cannot move its way through to you. God cannot move God’s way through you. Some people say that God is a he, or her. I happen to believe that God is a he, but it’s, God is this beautiful being besides the point. But if we have this state of restriction, state of limitation, things may take a little longer to actually happen. So this is why, your listeners may be saying, why is all this important? What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? The core of everything, the core of all of our relationships, our businesses, whatever we do in life is rooted and based on how we feel about yourself. And when you take the time to be with that, and to nurture that, and to not give up on that, to not give up on you, your life can become like Mr. Rogers neighborhood, in some way, shape, or form.
“The core of everything… is based on how we feel about ourselves.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: Yes, I can. One of the things about it is that, I talk about a lot, and I’ve written about a lot about, my belief has always been, that I believe in the possibility of everything. Because when you believe in the possibility of everything, you don’t let anything get by you. Everything becomes a learning experience. And when you take every event in your life, no matter if it’s tragic or whether it’s the most joyous thing, if you’ll garner from it, all the lessons, and all the learning experiences that come out of that, you can never look at anything as a failure, because you gained the experience and knowledge that is meant to teach us. And that’s how we grow as human beings. I’m 72, it’s taken me all these years of just living this circle of life to come to some of these realizations, and I want people to understand you don’t have to wait that long, if you’ll open up yourself to the possibilities that exist for everything in your life and just follow the path, God’s plan for us, unfold like a beautiful flower, and he’ll get us through the hard times. I never planned on my wife passing away at 60, she was 56, 55, and I was 63, I never planned on that happening. That wasn’t my plan, my plan was totally opposite, but it taught me so much, and it’s led me on a path that has been incredibly beautiful sense. I could have taken the view and let it stop me right there, at 63, I could have shut everything down in my life and just said: “I quit. I’m not going to do anything.”
“When you believe in the possibility of everything, you don't let anything get by you. Everything becomes a learning experience.” - Art Costello Click To TweetJonathan Masiulionis: Yes.
Art Costello: I did the complete opposite. It propelled me to become bigger, better, and greater than I have ever been in my life, and that were beyond my dreams.
Jonathan Masiulionis: If I may share a brief story, thank you for opening up your heart and sharing the beautiful relationship that you have with your wife. One of the things that I encourage, not just children, and this is really the root of the children’s hospice that I wished to open up, and will be an amo opening up, it’s all happening all at once. But that love never dies, that it only changes form. We’re so used to growing up, I remember the holidays were very big for me growing up. So being Polish, we have the Polish meatless meal, we’d have put on ease, and we’d have the fish, and the bean, and bacon soup, and the cream of mushroom soup, and there would be my grandmother, there’d be the other members of my family too. When someone passes away, we’re so used to this, we think that we are, and since, are and I are speaking both visually and with sound, so to speak, he can see me kind of patting my head. But what I’m sharing with your listeners is that, we’re used to the visual, we’re used to putting our hands in the face of somebody because we think in some way, shape or form, this is all who we are, we’re just the bodies, right? But I’ll share with you, and I’ll share with your listeners something that’ll really open up your heart. Growing up, flipped in a time when malls were big, actual malls, not kind of like the malls we have right now, right? Things that are called malls. But there was a bus, there was the 4H bus that would travel from where my grandmother lived in the Sloan area to the Thruway Mall, a small bus ride. So after my grandmother transition, I saw bus that said Thruway Mall. Now it wasn’t the 4H, it was the 6A, I believe it was, or the 46A, I believe, something with the 6A in it. So I said, babcia, if this is you, I want you to make your presence known. Art, I see that bus nearly every day. I see that bus on Sunday nights at 9:00 o’clock, sometimes realizing buses shouldn’t run at 9:00 o’clock on a Sunday night. It’s just interesting, I could just be moving through a challenging day and I see that bus, and I say, all right, babcia’s reminding me to stay focused, to stay confident, to love myself despite what it is that I may be going through. So it’s interesting, you know, we’re talking today about loving yourself just the way you are, and we’re also remembering that love comes in different forms. It’s not just loving yourself, it’s not just loving other people, it’s realizing and remembering that love takes a different shape and form when you’re on the other side.
Art Costello: Yeah, there’s a great book out by Randy Alcorn called Heaven. It’s a very technical book, and I’ve mentioned it before on my show, but it’s a biblical description of heaven, and it’s not what you would think it is. It’s very different. It’s very different than what we actually think heaven looks like from a biblical perspective. And he is, he’s a biblical scholar, and it’s not what we think it is. That’s all I’m going to say about it.
Jonathan Masiulionis: I like to think that, again, putting smiles on the hearts and faces of your listeners. I like to think that Heaven is like my two favorite stories of all time. Trader Joe’s and Toys “R” Us, they like, Toys “R” Us, and I still refer to it as it’s in the present tense, because I can literally just go across the Queen Elizabeth Expressway, from Buffalo going into Canada, and literally like a half an hour. There’s the Toys “R” Us, it’s still open, right? And toys are kind of resurrecting back in a different form. But you know, I feel that heaven is, your loved ones will be there when you get there. The things that you enjoy doing as a child, you’ll be able to do when you’re in heaven. So for me, I love listening to records. So I feel that, especially as we take the attempt to fully enjoy this experience, take the time to love ourselves, to nurture ourselves, to express that same joy for other people that are in our lives. We get to a point where there is no longer a fear of what’s to come. Because we know that love never dies, we know that it only changes form, we know that we just simply morph into something into, you know, some other form, so to speak. So I know, for me, I still feel that I’ve got a good long life ahead of me, I just turned 38 this past August. But whenever my time comes, I’m not afraid. And this is when you’re given that sort of a plabel, whether it be cancer, heart attack, whatever, you face your own mortality. You say, Holy, you know what? Is this it? And if we continue to fester those sorts of thoughts and beliefs, we can kind of speed up that experience a little bit, right? But I honestly feel that, and this is one of the things that I feel is a strong component about loving and nurturing yourself, loving yourself just the way that you are.
You come to a point if you’ll allow yourself to believe this, where you can feel that you can fulfill your wishes. I have here in my office, one of Wayne Dyer’s bestselling books called Wishes Fulfilled, encourages everyone to believe that whenever your hardest desiring is already a present reality, even if it hasn’t taken the full form and shape yet to connect to the energy of that, and then to allow the other sorts of things to unfold, still taking the necessary guided action steps, right? So again, when you take the time, you realize that love is that fuel. Some people might be listening and saying, I have this desire to do this, or I have this wish to do that, I don’t know how it’s going to happen. One of the things that I had learned, thanks to my former co host at the Soul Luminous Radio show that I did the health wellness, spiritually line inspiration in these podcasts, Michelle Rober, she had told me: “Jonathan, you don’t need to know the how.” You don’t need to know the how, right? When you plant your seeds, right? If you’re a farmer, and you’re planting cucumbers, green peppers, tomatoes, you don’t question how the crop is going to look. You don’t know if you’re going to be having, maybe the green peppers will be a little green and yellow, right? You don’t know what they’re going to look like. But if you take the time, you water the crops, nourish them, they come up more beautiful than you actually realize. So again, Art, we spend all this time, many of us with this old mindset of chasing, chasing, forcing, pushing, feeling, we had to make things happen. How many times did hear that? You gotta make things happen, right? No you don’t. No you don’t. And everyday, I constantly remind myself of this because, when you’re in this state of allowance, you don’t need to make things happen. When you’re loving yourself, there are things beyond words and description that can actually come into your life. Just several months ago, I was actually out in the San Diego area for a full week, and some of the experiences that I had there is this area in La Jolla, which is where the children’s hospice is going to be built. It’s right where the La Jolla Cove meets the Pacific ocean, it’s called the children’s pool beach.
Art Costello: I know right where it’s at.
Jonathan Masiulionis: Yup, and this is, before, I was actually there back in 2005, that was the only other time that I was in San Diego beforehand. I took a picture of myself on that little pier, that little walkway, for those of your listeners who’ve never been to LA Jolla, I’ll actually just mention, it’s kind of like a little Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic catwalk, we’re at the very end you can put your arms stretched down. It’s like you’re the global Pacific ocean, you can sound like King of the world. I took that picture, my soul remember that picture at that point. It was an area that was just filled with baby seals and baby otters out in the sand. When I went back there, there was children, actually children’s pool beach, actually had children on it.
Art Costello: Ehmm.
Jonathan Masiulionis: And I was, I said, man, you know, it took me 14 years from when I was last in San Diego, which was at the end of March, early April, 2005 all the way through 2019, August of 2019, and I said: “It took me 14 years to get here.” So there were many times along the path. If there’s listeners of your program right now that are feeling like giving up, like throwing the towel, they feel that loving themselves is a challenge, sometimes we even tell ourselves that, do not cheat yourself out on some of the greatest experiences of your entire life. I feel that my life partner is going to be coming into my life extremely soon. Her energy is already present. One of the main reasons why I came here this lifetime is to also be a great father. Now he’s not here, but I’ve been communicating with him from the other side for about the past, like, five years or so, and this is no judgment mentor to other people. There’s a lot of people that look for the love externally, and then they get into relationships and sometimes they’re extremely dysfunctional. They feel they need to bring in a child into the world, or bring in their boyfriend, or whatever, or their girlfriend, or whatever the case might be. And I’m so grateful and so appreciative that I had been given this opportunity. It’s kind of like I’ve been telling my son, I said, you know, I’m getting my you-know-what together. So when you take the time, it’s not to see that people need to be told why to love themselves. If you need a little reminder as to why that’s important, the experiences of your life will be that much more nourishing, nurturing, energetic, engaging, lively. If you’re in that head space, or in that mind space, and you’re in that heart space all together, or everything is in alignment, I feel, Art, that as a result of loving yourself, you’re in alignment mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and that reflects in your external reality. You know, sometimes I still find myself challenged. Every time we level up, especially if our purpose is very big, we may be faced with different sorts of challenges, or bring up stuff from the past, but it’s a matter of how you respond to that. And this is why I’m so glad that Mr. Rogers come back into my life over the course of this past year plus because I very much have needed a very gentle, nurturing, masculine role model to remind me of who I am and why I’m here to do what I’m doing, especially for the children.
Art Costello: I wanted to talk about Mr. Rogers and how it has affected you, because I know that it’s had a pronounced effect on you, and your thought process, and your feeling process, and just who Jonathan is.
Jonathan Masiulionis: Growing up I think I was maybe more of Sesame Street person, and Mr. Rogers, but I remember watching Mr. Rogers. And it’s really fascinating because I think that your listeners might actually be a little bit cheated outside of this visual experience, but I actually am holding one of the replicas of the neighborhood trolley, which I actually have. I feel this is the best $60 investment in my entire life from shoppbs.com. But around 2000, I believe it was the spring of 2018, that’s when the Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor came out.
Art Costello: Ehmm.
Jonathan Masiulionis: And that is really around the time when I first saw the film, one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It really showed Mr. Rogers, the soul, people are used to seeing Mr. Rogers in front of the [inaudible]. He actually was that, and then some in real life. He was an Ordained Presbyterian Minister, many people may not realize or remember that. On his show, it Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, it wasn’t, bless me father for I have sinned, it was, you could call it the religion of Mr. Rogers’. You know Robert Holden, the well known Hay House author out in the UK says: “If someone asks you what is your religion? You say love.” And I feel that Mr. Rogers reminded us of that. Every show, he started off and he ended the program by saying: “I love you just the way you are.”
Art Costello: You are, ehmm.
Jonathan Masiulionis: It was this gentle embedding of this very important message. Sometimes we embedded the other kinds of passages. We tell ourselves the other kinds of stories, right? And sometimes people can feel that Mr. Rogers is just meant for kids, right? You know, he’s teaching all of these valuable lessons, which totally feel as important, right? But me then as a 37? 36, a 37 year old man at the time, when I saw this film, why am I picking up on this? Why am I starting to resonate with this? And he had such a very important purpose for the children. There were many things during the course of my life where I kind of squashed down my feelings, my emotions, my purpose. And I remember a friend of mine, Lisa Jolly, who’s a channeler out in Australia, had actually, Wayne Dyer was speaking through her and she told me, well, he told me to begin reading a book called Memories of Heaven, which is one of Wayne Dyer’s last books where he actually talks to children about their experience in being heaven before they came into the real world, before they came here on earth, shortly thereafter, this was around like 20, like 2016, that was a part time after school teacher for one summer. I was wondering why did that, but I bring this up because you bring up Mr. Rogers. And I had actually kind of shown that during that, I actually got fired from that job, believe it or not, because I didn’t appreciate things even back then. So things began to become clear about my purpose for the children to remind them of just how important that they are. I feel that there is extensive healing that is happening in my life as the result of me sharing these messages for children. Not just through sharing the messages of children’s books through what I do at Empowered Publicity as a publicist, that’s part of it, but it goes deeper than that. I’ve had people that have come to me and say: “You have a cool niche. You work with children’s office, as well as inspirational and spiritual authors.” And this work means so much to me on a soul level, because if there are different sorts of books that can get out there that talk about the importance of nurturing yourself, and loving yourself, and being kind to other people, not just the see spot run, not just the cat in the hat, even though those are tried and true and there’s nothing wrong with that. To compliment that sort of energy with what Mr. Rogers was sharing with us in the process that you can really live in a world where anything is possible, and it’s why they call it the neighborhood of make-believe. It’s been said that, as part of keeping a balanced life, that play is important. And as adults, right, let’s be honest, we got to pick up the kids, we got to cook the meals, we got to take care of the taxes, and then we might find some, just a little bit of time for us, right? I’ll only be happy if everyone else is happy, or I can only give myself the hour at the gym once everything is all said and done.
Art Costello: What you didn’t realize is that you just touched us something that’s near and dear to my heart, because I worked with Dr. Stuart Brown, a world renowned psychologist, he’s actually the head of the National Institute For Play. And when he was doing his research for his doctoral thesis and all that, I had the pleasure of working with them, and they went, and the one common thing that they found in all mass murderers, Charles Whitman, Gacy, I mean, just through all of these people, was that they did not play as a child. Play is so important to children, and how they play is so important to children that it really affects everything the rest of their life. So I just wanted to sneak that in there.
“Play… and how they play is so important to children. It really affects everything the rest of their life.” Art Costello Click To TweetJonathan Masiulionis: I appreciate you sharing that as well. And thus it’s importance, it is the importance of us to be able to still do that as grown children, as adults, because children pick up on whatever it is that we do, and whatever it is that we say. So again, people may say, well, why does Jonathan, who is a grown 38 year old man have a Mr. Rogers trolley? Why does Jonathan spend time watch and just realizing I’m afraid of myself in the third person, which is not [inaudible] shape or form. Why do I spend time watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood? Why do I spend a lot of my free time reading children’s books? And it’s because I feel that is the result of making the decision, this was several years ago, to me connect back with my inner child, which is one of the cores about loving yourself. When you can get to say that I love you, I appreciate you, and everything that you went through, and that I am there for you no matter what you are going through, you tell your inner child who is the part of you, they can sometimes be scared if you’re faced with something that could look like a challenge or difficult, you’re that proverbial divine storm. When that span of things in my life was happening over, two years, easily looked at that as a divine storm, totally could have done that. But it’s important for us to be able to do this for the children. While also, there’s a term that I use now, and it’s called ‘custodians.’ We are custodians for children. Even if we don’t necessarily have our own children, we are holding the space for children’s that they don’t have to be afraid. And even if they are afraid, they know that things are going to be okay. Mr. Rogers was actually called back into the WQED studios after 9/11. Do a series of little short videos, like 32nd spots, to talk about the importance of, when there were different things that he talked about. One of them that struck a chord is that, when there’s times of fear, always look for the heroes, always look for the helpers, I should say. He said: “Always look for the helpers.” So Mr. Rogers was not afraid to cover controversial topics such as death, such as divorce, even when Robert Kennedy got assassinated. In the first week of shows of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, they went there, they talked about assassination. So I feel that Mr. Rogers, to kind of come full circle to your question, I feel he’s helped me to reconnect with my feminine side, but to also honor my masculine side. Because I think for me it was like this struggle where it was like, there was a lot of dominant masculine energy, and then it kind of went to the feminine perspective, and now it’s embracing both.
And I will mention this, some people think that Mr. Rogers was like a Navy Seal, or he had tattoos. There’s all these myths about Mr. Rogers, and now he was just this very gentle, compassionate, I also encourage, if any of your listeners can get to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Mr. Rogers, I actually went to the Fred Rogers Center, which is in Luttrell, Pennsylvania, where he was born, and they have everything there. They have the trolley, they have the puppets, they have, did you know that every single time that a child wrote to him, he wrote back, so they have boxes of stuff at the Fred Rogers Center. So again, despite what you’re going through in your life, if you have a very busy job and a few kids, you can’t watch all of these episodes in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood or do some of the things that I’ve done, do what actually resonates with you. Allow your heart to open yourself up to things, especially that you enjoy as a child. Whether it be playing records, whether it be watching Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, whether it be going to Disneyland for the first time in 30 years, whatever that case might be. But Mr. Rogers is really giving us a message now that’s even maybe more valuable than ever before, and it is, I’d like you just the way that you are, that you are special, and I like to add in that you’re whole, you’re healthy, and you’re complete. Because sometimes again, when we have challenges about loving ourselves, we can feel broken, or we can feel like it’s something that’s yonder off in the distance, and that’s not the case you can begin to do that right now.
“Allow your heart to open yourself up to things, especially those that you enjoy as a child.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: I think the world needs that message more now than it ever has. I really do because of the way the world, the political upheaval, everything that’s going on right now, and it gets just jointed for children to see some of the hatred that’s coming out politically, I wasn’t going to get political with. I mean, there’s a lot of hatred coming from the sides of this political spectrum right now that is so hateful, and your children see this. Your children see this and they learn it, and that to me is what’s really sad about some of this divisiveness that’s coming on it. And I’m not saying that it’s not genuine or all that, but it just needs to be kept in check I think when you’re around children.
Jonathan Masiulionis: We live in a society where, yes, things are different now than when you were a child. Things are different now from when I was a child back in the mid to late 80’s and early 90’s, because I was born in 81. Children have, as parents, there’s this storyline and belief that sometimes we can send our children to school and they might not come home, like we didn’t have that before, right? It was just a matter of, you go to school, you come home, right? Despite that, it’s important to not allow yourself to get sucked into the fear. Because Marianne Williamson said, very beautifully: “A miracle is a shift from fear to love.” That really is the definition of a miracle. And if we can choose to engage in more of these sorts of energies of love, be it that highest spectrum, that highest vibration, yes, can we be there all the time? No, we’re human. We can kind of slide down a little bit, right? But it’s a matter of having more awareness. It’s a matter of being more open despite what it is that you experienced beforehand. Just one of the things I wanted to briefly add in is, is that,, when we’re loving ourselves, it’s very easy to want to close our heart if something happens, right? Especially if we’re in a relationship with someone, a meeting doesn’t go the way that we had expected. Sometimes we have issues with rejection. I remember interviewing Jack Canfield several years ago and he said: “Jonathan, rejection is a myth.” It simply means redirection.
Art Costello: Ehmm.
Jonathan Masiulionis: So it’s also kind of go back to the points in your life where you were wondering why something happened, to kind of compliment that perspective of looking at everything in your life with gratitude. Always look at that, you’re always looked from the perspective that you were being redirected, right? Sometimes people will say, yell out the term plot twist, right? Especially if there’s something you know different than what you plan happen. This is why for the children’s hospice, if God has something else planned for me out in San Diego, that’s great. If it’s meant to be someplace else besides, I’m open to that too. I feel pretty clear in terms of the guidance that I’ve received. But like I don’t know the first thing about, like to run a non profit, I don’t know anything along the lines of that. I’m in the process actually of, and this is the first time that I’m actually sharing this public, going to give you a little bit of a scoop you on your program. I’m in the process of writing my first children’s book.
Art Costello: Great.
Jonathan Masiulionis: So I have actually been doing research on mine, and reading 10 books in what is quote unquote my genre because this is actually going to bring the children’s hospice to life through the form of a children’s book. So I’ve actually done the research, move through the fear. I’ve done the research thus far, which includes reading 10 books in my genre. So like there’s this one called Till We Meet Again, a children’s book about death and grieving. There’s another one called, When Daddies Go to Heaven, Erma Hamilton, and there’s another one that’s Where Are You, a child’s book about loss. So there are seven other ones in addition to this, and I trust the fact that that’s all going to happen. I feel that you can suspend disbelief and just trust whether you’re religious, or spiritual, or you’re from Texas, so I will coin a phrase you’ll probably laugh at, if you worship at the altar of Dak Prescott, sometimes people will worship at the altar of the Dallas Cowboys, right? Nothing wrong with that I guess. But there is something, there is someone that is behind the scenes that’s kind of moving the pieces. One of my favorite movies growing up, I should say that I really resonate with, maybe not favorites, was the movie Gone in 60 Seconds with Nicholas Cage, and there is a scene in the film where the police are looking for a list of cars that Nicholas Cage and his posture trying to boost. So there’s a specific kind of light that you can use where you can kind of see things that you can’t see, you can kind of see behind the scenes, or whatnot. I kind of use this analogy that if we could turn the lights off and kind of see like what is happening in the back whether you believe in God, whether you believe in Jesus Christ, whether you believe in angels, whether you believe that your departed loved ones are helping you from the other side or not.
There is something that is moving things in the process. If you can just surrender to that and trust the fact, you mentioned several times while we were in the Shower Epiphanies green room, which by the way, for anyone who wants to join Art in the future, the green room has such delicious vegetables, it has such amazing things. Sometimes there’s one of the jokes that I use, I think it was in the movie either Wayne’s World or Wayne’s World 2, and I said: “If Ozzy didn’t have his brown M&Ms, he wasn’t going to go on stage that night.” So the Shower Epiphanies green room has got all of the amenities, and then some, by the way, I kind of lost track there for a second. But just to trust in the fact that things always work themselves out. Because the worst case scenario, if you take the time to love yourself just the way that you are for 30 days, and if for whatever reason, let’s see, you’re not happy with the results? You just spent 30 days opening up your heart, you just spent 30 days helping to open up miracles in the lives of your loved ones and those that you care about, right? But I really don’t feel that we need a reason any more. We don’t need a reason to love ourselves. And it’s important that I mentioned this too. It no longer has to be seen as guilt, and no longer has to be I’m loving myself so what will other people say about me because I’m spending time on myself, right? Because the old paradigm of self love was selfishness, and self love is not selfishness. Self love is you care about your time, you care about your energy, you care about your boundaries, you care about your mission, you care about serving others so that when you can be with someone that you are fully present. So before our interview, I spend time doing kegon, doing a lit workout, praying, and doing a sea salt bath. And I feel as a result of that, that this energy, and this conversation, this wonderful experience that we’re having is that much more of a higher vibration and really feels even, it feels like my heart is opening up even for the, not to say if I didn’t, if it took out the sea salt bath, or took out the [inaudible], it wouldn’t have worked out that way. But this is something that is a gift. This is something that’s a gift for all of us right now. Sometimes people think that we just receive gifts twice a year, for our birthday, and for Christmas. And this is a gift that you can give to yourself everyday. And it’s very interesting, as we’re starting to wind down our time, I’m sure, when I was in San Diego, there’s a hotel that I stayed at, purposely, the closest hotel to LA Jolla Cove, right? It’s called The Grand Colonial Hotel.
“Things always work themselves out.” - Jonathan Masiulionis Click To TweetArt Costello: I know it.
Jonathan Masiulionis: You’re familiar with it. It’s a hotel, it’s been over like a hundred years, but they just remodeled it, it looks really nice. And it’s interesting because I have a pen in my hand, it’s a grand colonial hotel pen, and I realize that as the result of loving myself and continuing to do the right things, and to continue to not give up, and closer than I think, literally La Jolla is in the palm of my hand. Now, it might just look like a pen, but going back to what Wayne taught us, to wishes fulfilled, like I have anchored this vision into reality about this children’s hospice. If I may, just a briefing about the children’s hospice, it’s not, sometimes people think a children’s hospice is where children go to die, right? I was introduced 10 years ago to the folks at children’s hospital in Buffalo. Now the Oishei Children’s Hospital here in Buffalo. Each child’s hospital has what’s known as a child life department. They provide emotional support and entertainment for children that are going through cancer, that are recovering from surgeries, and they’re also going through dialysis. So they bring in athletes, professional wrestlers, musicians, theater performers, authors to all connect with the kids and their families, to help them move through what it is that they’re going through, to kind of take them away from what it is that they’re going through the same point in time, right? So when I was introduced to the folks at children’s hospital 10 years ago, I started by bringing the professional wrestlers, the guys whom impact wrestling, the guys from ring of honor, the guys from the WWE, right? And the big gold belts, and put them on the kids shoulders, it was an incredible experience. That relationship has continued to the point where I actually read once a month to the kids in the child life department in Oishei Children’s Hospital. The children’s hospice will have that same element, the child life element where you can bring in people into the children’s hospice, you can bring in athletes, and professional wrestlers, and authors, and just spend time with the kids.
So again, like the energy, the intention, the heart is out, and I know that God is bringing in the right people to help me to fulfill this mission. Because I know that I can’t do it by myself, I know that there are people that are very a well-equipped in certain other areas that will hope to make this happen, but you know, step one, getting out to San Diego. Step two, life partner coming in the equation. This is in no particular order, by the way, going back to the whole God’s plan versus my plan. Step three, children’s book coming to fruition. Step four, son coming in. And I think shortly after those four steps that things will become even clear for the children’s hospice. But I am, this work that I’ve been blessed to do with Empowered Publicity, Art, there’s a reason why I call it PR from the heart. I hope that your listeners understand and have a greater feeling of what lies in my heart about the opportunity really to be at service to other people now. I feel that when we share our stories, this is where healing happens. This is where healing happens. Whether you can share your story in an interview such as this in the Shower Epiphanies Podcast, whether you are doing a large speaking engagement at a very large unity church, whether you’re doing a book signing in front of a couple hundred people at a Barnes & Noble, this is where healing happens, and it is the importance of sharing our stories. People ask me: “Why do you do what you do with Empowered Publicity?” Here’s one of the responses that I say: “I love helping people to share their stories.” So when you can love yourself, when you cannot look at your story in the way in which you did before, you can also love other people more. The service that you’re able to provide is that much more genuine, it’s that much more heartfelt, so it does have an impact. How you feel about yourself, how you treat yourself, impacts how you treat other people, how things reflect in your professional realm in terms of your work. I’m very blessed, and this work will continue to grow and develop over time. And however, this whole journey unfolds between Empowered Publicity, the children’s book, the children’s hospice, I’m just grateful, and this is a perfect way to kind of bring things full circle as is that, and we talked about gratitude at the beginning of our conversation, right?
I feel there’s been a lot of healing happening, not just in this conversation for me and you, myself and you, you and I, I feel that there’s a lot of healing that’s happening in the hearts, and minds, and the souls of your listeners, or listening to this program as well. Because at the end of the day, there’s a reason why the children’s hospice is being called walking each other home. It’s one of Ramdasia famous quotes at the end of the day, what we’re all doing, right? You know, we’re ideally, we’re all going, back up to the big hybrid of Trader Joe’s in Toys“R”Us in the sky, right? Oh, gosh, what’s my favorite thing for Trader Joe’s? Organic Power to the Greens. They sell this, it’s like $3 a bag. It’s got like spinach, chard, kale, it’s this great thing, I have a bag every day. So the Organic Power to the Greens are served fresh every day, and yes, where you can get unlimited Mr. Rogers trolleys at the Toys“R”Us in the sky as well. But we are all just walking each other home. So we really have that choice. Do we feel that heaven is that place in the sky? Or are we ready to have what we are experiencing here on earth, be that heaven on earth? It’s not just a Belinda Carlisle song from the 80’s, you know? Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, Heaven Is a Place on Earth, that’s a little, I didn’t, I was in my vocal ensemble a little over 20 years ago in my senior year of high school, so that was the best free song that I’m going to be doing. But I am very grateful for the opportunity to share this because this isn’t just my message. I just asked my grandmother, I asked God everyday, show me what to do. Show me whom to serve, how to serve, when to serve, where to serve, and in what capacity to serve, and I’m there. And that’s how I’m choosing, not just to show up for this interview, and this conversation with you, but you know, for the rest of my time, for for 2020 and beyond because it’s game time. This is a very important timeframe for all of us right now, and it really begins with just the fundamentals of things.
Art Costello: I agree. I agree. Yep. I don’t think we could have planned a better way to end the show then on those words. I mean, you talk about exposing your heart to people. I think you’ve done a tremendous job. I think your mission is absolutely beautiful, and there is a question in my mind that it isn’t going to come to fruition because you believe you have hope. You have all those things that a lot of people in this world are lacking right now. And by expressing it the way you do and have, I’m hoping that we can open up the eyes of many, many people, and I think we have, I think we serve our audience well today Jonathan, and it’s been a blessing to have you here.
Jonathan Masiulionis: The last words come from Mr. Rogers and from Daniel Striped Tiger, again, to provide the visuals, I had this amazing poster, it’s actually a piece of artwork as I call it, that the folks at Michael’s actually custom framed for me by the way, and it’s a picture of Mr. Rogers and Daniel Striped Tiger, and there is King Friday’s castle that they’re near as well, and it says: “There’s no person in the world like you and I like you just the way that you are.” And if there’s any sort of homework, quote unquote, or message to take from this program, you really have a choice. All the listeners for tuning in have a choice. You can believe what Mr. Rogers is telling you and just allow yourself to be with that, to remember how special, how love that you are, just you being you. You can continue what was the old narrative that is very disempowering it and it no longer works, the choice is yours. I like your listeners just the way that you are, the way that they are. And Art, I like you just the way that you are., you’re a very special soul, you’re doing amazing work with this program, an amazing work and being of service to other people. I feel that this is a wonderful experience that is and will continue to do many wonderful things for many people all around the world all throughout 2020 and beyond.
Art Costello: Thank you Jonathan, and everybody, everything that we’ve talked about, all the references will be in the show notes. All the ways that you can get ahold of Jonathan will be in the show notes. Everything that we talked about here will be there. And of course, you know that you can always find me at expectationtherapy.com, and with that being said, I’m going to let Heather White take us out of here. Thank you audience for listening in, and this is going to be one of the best shows that I’ve ever done. Thank you everybody.
————————————————————-
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Join the Shower Epiphanies Community today: