How to be "Ultra Spiritual" with JP Sears - Unleash Your Inner Author

You may know JP Sears as a spiritual coach and YouTube comedian. He is an internationally known speaker and producer of the popular YouTube “Ultra Spiritual” and “Awaken with JP” video series.

Now he’s becoming an author! JP’s book, How to be Ultra Spiritual: 12 1/2 Steps to Spiritual Superiority, is being launched in March, 2017. As you can see from the title, JP likes to joke about taking life too seriously. He has an amazing talent for making people laugh and loosen up, which makes delving into the deeper stuff less scary and serious. My favorite example is this quote: “Writing a book is probably like conceiving a child and giving birth to it, only it takes a lot more energy and focus. And less orgasm.”

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JP Sears

Amy Collette

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Highlights:

JP on language: Since ‘positive’ and ‘podcast’ both start with ‘p,’ they probably come from the same Latin root word… I’m sure there’s ancient Latin words that mean podcast.

But seriously, there is a lot of power in language. It’s the energy of connection.

JP on his background: University wasn’t for me. I got into holistic exercise in San Diego and got passionate about helping people with their health. That led me into nutrition, another piece of the (hopefully gluten-free) breadcrumb trail. That all led to emotional healing work. Now I do speaking, workshops, and retreats, as well as some coaching.

JP on YouTube videos : I discovered that video is an incredible method of artistic expression. I had really repressed my humor, so I started to let it come out in video. I find new messages and speak my perspective through the language of humor.

Amy on writing: When you’re getting stuck writing, go do something fun. Or write something funny. Everybody has a funny story that they love to tell, or a joke, or something a little raunchy that gets you out of being so serious.

Gluten Freedom

Amy: One of my favorites in the Ultra Spiritual series is How to Become Gluten Intolerant. (Here’s a teaser: “Gluten Intolerance is the hottest eating trend in the New Age community since we discovered we don’t have to eat animals. Gluten is the new animal you don’t have to eat.”)

JP: I’ve been gluten-free about 15 years. I had to do that video for myself because I was getting too dogmatic about it. I had to have a laugh at myself.

Law of Attraction Delusion

Amy: One of my favorite “serious” videos that blew my mind is your “Law of Attraction Delusion.” Can you give us your theory in a nutshell?

JP: The law of attraction is typically interpreted in a one-dimensional way to gratify our ego. “Whatever I want, I make the Universe give me that. I make the Universe happen.” That’s the “magical mind of the child.” There has been a lot of capitalization on that ego need. The law of attraction plays on the idea that I manifest things based on my dominant thoughts.

Maybe the worst thing is the world is to always get what our ego wants.

The better question is to ask, “What part of us wants that, and why?” These wants may be compensating for an internal sense of insignificance. What’s most important is to go into those wounds of insignificance and address them.

A more mature psychology is looking to realize that whatever we want, it’s already there: richness, abundance. A three-dimensional mindset is “Let me realize how those experiences of abundance are already present.”

Amy: That idea aligns with gratitude: rather than looking at what is lacking, looking at what is available right now. What’s going well.

Positivity

JP: Balance is the ultimate expression of positivity. It’s important to feel all your feelings, not just the positive ones: hurtful feelings, painful feelings, feeling them.

Amy: What’s your mission? What’s the impact that you hope your work has on the world?

JP: Helping people help themselves to connect to themselves and connect to their sense of meaning and purpose. A lot of the world’s problems are generated because people feel meaningless and purposeless. When we don’t have meaning, we will create things to have a temporary gratification of meaning. If I need to be against you, or against another country, we will do hurtful things to other people to anxiously go after a sense of meaning. Finding a sense of purpose may not solve all the world’s problems, but it gives you a damn big quality of life.

Becoming an Author

Amy: Tell us about your journey to becoming an author.

JP: I didn’t really decide to become an author. I had publishing companies reach out to me because they liked my content and knew it could sell. They asked me, “Would you like to write a book?” The answer was yes, I do want to write a book in a comedic fashion. It felt like a “yes” deep inside. But writing a book is scary, it’s quite an undertaking. Writing a book is probably like conceiving a child and giving birth to it, only it takes a lot more energy and focus. And less orgasm. It was a beautiful experience writing the book. The book is called: How to be Ultra Spiritual: 12 1/2 Steps to Spiritual Superiority, coming out in March 2017.