Robbin is a personal trainer, teacher and coach. He provides Ascension coaching, Holistic personal training and masterclasses. I normally do not feature coaches on my interviews (I tend to get a lot of requests for appearances on my podcast by coaches) but I approached Robbin because of what I saw on Instagram. His physical feats and exercises that were “just because I want to try this” really spoke to me. Little did I know what his journey had been.

Living in the Netherlands he started in break dancing and appreciated the combination of effort and creativity (note the dual-brained thinking that once again appears with someone I connect with). He pursued answers to dieting, movement, body, spirit and those pursuits took him to India in which he lived in a monastery for a time. In studying and practicing yoga he also because vegetarian and then vegan but found a lack of strength which then moved him to a different path.

It’s a deceptively simple thing, but Robbin says this is just the core of what he is doing. Think about if you can walk up a hill, or just climb over an obstacle. Seems easy but people tend to focus on a muscle or muscle group but the reality is we do need to move from A to B.

He mentions both Wim Hof and Joe Dispenza. Here are the links as promised.

Follow him on Instagram for workout tips, inspiration and some really amazing videos: https://www.instagram.com/castillomovement/

Check him out on the web: https://castillomovement.nl/ (use google translate if you want to read it in English)

Alrighty, I am here with Robin Castillo. Hi, Robin.

Robin: Hi, Mark. It’s so nice to speak with you.

Mark: And as I normally, uh, start most podcasts with interviewing someone and having a conversation, I say, “Tell us who you are and what you do.” So if you’d like to do that, that would be wonderful.

Robin: Ah, okay. Well, who am I? That’s a tough question. I really don’t know. I really am still trying to figure it out who I am. I can tell you my name, but you already told the audience my name. So yeah, I just think I’m like a consciousness in this body and experiencing this life here on Earth. And what do I do? What do I do? I like to explore this connection, and I love to share the insights I get through my life experiences.

And during my days, I primarily guide people, coach people to get in better shape and to share some knowledge about consciousness, basically. Yeah, it sounds maybe a bit vague, but it’s actually pretty, pretty a sober practice, if that’s the right pronunciation. Um, I just train with people to get them in good shape. So I really check how is the posture, and I try to link it with like, uh, I work a lot on a personal level with clients. And mostly they come to me because they want to have like better physical, um, structure, body, and then soon enough the conversations get deeper and deeper and we focus more on the consciousness side of life, basically.

Mark: Well, I think, I think that all makes sense. And I think it is all, I think it is all connected. And it’s certainly hard to work on the body without and ignore the spirit, right?

Robin: Yes.

Mark: And just like it’s hard to, uh, raise someone’s spirit if they’re eating terrible food and they’re not and not exercising.

Robin: Yes, it’s all linked together, for sure. That’s what I believe, too. And I think that… Oh, go ahead, I’m sorry.

Mark: No, it’s like the body is like some kind of reflection of your being on some level. So taking care of the body is also a reflection of how you take care of yourself.

Robin: I think that’s absolutely correct. And I think that’s probably also why you call yourself a holistic personal trainer, because that’s probably the only true way to train someone, is to sort of look at the whole. And like I said, you know, there are people who go to a gym and say, “I’m going to get a personal trainer,” and the personal trainer just yells at them and tells them to do certain exercises better and better. But unless you really ask, they’re not going to talk to you about your diet or anything else.

Mark: No, that’s true. Yeah. Well, most personal trainers, it’s just diet and exercises, pretty basic, but for me, that’s too superficial. I don’t just want to learn somebody to do a pushup because, you know, last week I was thinking like, what is what is the highest form of coaching? What is the best way how I can guide someone? What’s the best possible advice that I can give to someone? And yes, that’s not how to learn to do a pull-up. No.

So yeah, I’m trying to make the switch more and more. And yes, holistic is a good label. It’s more like complete, you know, you work with the whole being instead of just the physical. But now I’m also playing with the term Ascension coach, so I’m trying to find my way into that. But yes, you’re absolutely right. Like, it’s more than just doing some physical repetitions. It’s more than that. And a lot of these things, you know, a lot of, uh, people go to the gym, they just do it for like the image, you know? They try to create the image, physical image, and it’s not really about longevity or durability of the body. So that’s, I think the shift is coming because there is now like a big fitness boom here in the Netherlands for sure. Like we have many gyms, like cheap gyms, and everybody can go to the gym. But people, I think they do more damage than they do good for the body because they’re like, you know, just destroying themselves.

Mark: Yeah. Well, I think you’re, I think I’ve made that observation as well because there are people who eat all of that, um, pre-workout stuff, and they take in all of that terrible protein powder that has, you know, ten-syllable words in it and things that you would never eat. And then they have a lot of caffeine, and then their little heart beats really fast, and then they go and they work out and kill themselves.

Robin: Yes.

Mark: And then the rest of their life, they, the rest of their day, they’re not physical because they got their workout in, you know, instead of just being physical in their life also and thinking about their core and, like you said, posture and then having a good posture and thinking sort of like from the core outward instead of just, you know, slumping around and while you’re being hunched over and all that stuff. So I do think that, I think you’re right. I haven’t really heard anyone say that gyms are destroying people, that they’re destroying themselves, but I can’t argue with that. I think that’s probably very true because, you know, I’m not saying gyms are bad, and just like you’re not saying gyms are bad, you’re just saying that people are using it as sort of a quick fix and then they forget about everything else.

Robin: Yeah, that’s a beautiful set. I couldn’t have said it better. Yes. Because, yeah, you see the big gyms and a lot of big devices, and you just sit on it and just make one movement. And then, you know, you build a particular movement which you maybe would never really use in daily life. So, you know, you build this structure, this body, but the functionality goes away, mobility goes away. Many people go with different reasons to the gym, but like what you’re also observing, the majority of the people, they’re just doing it for the image. And yes, they think if the image is good, then the whole structure is good, but no, that’s not the case. That’s not the case.

And that’s basically pretty sad because there’s just not enough awareness. If you look at the old, maybe Egyptian, not really, but maybe the Greek statues and you see the men with like great physique those times, but they didn’t have all these wild, crazy devices, you know?

Mark: Right, right, exactly.

Robin: So it’s also, I try to go back to the basics a lot. So just work a lot with your body weight. My philosophy is a bit like this: you should be able to move your body functionally from point A to B. You must be able to move objects from point A to B. And then you have to be… well, that’s actually it. Because moving your body from point A to B, you can have different routes. Maybe you have to climb over a thing, maybe you have to crawl underneath something. Well, if you look at these movements, then you have a lot of muscles you use in a lot of different ways, like how your body is developed to do these movements. But it’s not valid to just sit on a machine and just do one move. It’s just basically a big waste of time when you can do so many beautiful, better things with your body in the same amount of time than just sitting on a machine and doing 10 reps.

Mark: Well, that is so, I think that is so true. It’s, and your sentence, “you should just be able to move your body functionally from A to B,” is deceptively simple because there’s so much to that for people. There are people that say, “I’m going to go to the gym and work out,” but if you said, “Well, all I want you to do is walk up this hill or climb up this tree,” not climb a tree, but you know, move, do something where you have to move your arms to get over an obstacle and so forth, and they couldn’t do that. But they would go to the gym because, like you said, they’re going to sit on a chair or sit or stand or do something and focus, they’re going to isolate their muscles while nothing else needs to be held up. And that’s not how we get to the kitchen, to the garage, to the walk in the park and things.

And I think that’s very true. And it’s so funny, I was meeting someone for coffee, um, months ago, and I had to go get, I had to unplug my laptop. So I just popped down, you know, I squatted down really quick, grabbed my stuff, and popped right back up. And he said, “Oh,” and he looked at me like I was a yoga master. And I said, “What? What did I do?” And he said, “Oh, look at you.” And I thought, well, all I did was just squat down quickly and grab something. Like, you should be able to do that. It shouldn’t be amazing.

Robin: That’s very true. And if you look at society, like if you go, you can basically survive and become old just by laying, sitting, and standing. If you go to the supermarket, you know where the most cheap, the most expensive products are? Like, on eyesight height. You know, all the cheap products are down low, you know?

Mark: That’s true.

Robin: You have to squat if you have to go down to get the cheaper products. And people say, “Ah, never mind.” Or maybe you have to reach higher, you know? They cannot reach higher. They cannot lift their arm. Everything’s made super comfortable. And yeah, this comfort zone, you know, staying too long in this comfort zone is going to do some damage because you get weaker, basically.

Mark: Weaker, get weaker, exactly. And I think that’s one of the, you know, I have worked, I’ve been self-employed for a very long time, and I have a home office, which is the majority of the time I spend is in my home office. And I have the luxury of deciding that I now want to work from my knees instead of sitting on my chair, or I want to get up and walk around or do something and break it up by actually walking around. You know, I can break up my work in many ways that people in an office cannot, and it’s unfortunate.

But yes, um, speaking of amazing, you know, the videos that you’ve posted, the pictures and the other things that you do is just, I just find amazing. And Instagram is made up of influencers and people who, and I think as you said it before too, that people just, you know, they just want a certain look. And it’s just people who put on a certain kind of clothing and filters and just take pictures versus what you do. And I see some of the exercises and movements that you do that are, I almost feel like you do them because you’re like, “Well, can I do it this way? Maybe I’ll just try it this way. Let’s see if I can do it this way,” just to see if I can do it. And I think there was a section of pull-ups that you did that were from this bizarre angle that I was just, it’s just so fun to watch the human body move in that way. It’s just such a neat thing.

Robin: Oh, well, thank you. Yeah, well, I have like a hate and love relationship with Instagram. I think like I delete it all. You know, what do I do it for? But yes, as you said, like I don’t have, never one workout is the same. I always like to be creative in my workouts. Um, I actually started as a break dancer, a B-boy, when I was a small kid because break dancing was like the only sport where I can be completely free and do whatever I want and be super creative. Yeah, just create my own moves and then go to battles or showcases and then showcase my moves against opponents or for an audience. And yeah, that was also my let out because, you know, in school, I could never find my way. And so in the evening, the break dance practice was really something for me to look out to.

And yes, when I was getting a bit older, around 22, I was in the break scene for like 12 years and winning battles and taking it pretty serious. But then I wanted to go, then I started to find some more interests in spiritual life, let’s say, and also about yoga. So I started to go really deep into yoga, and I became vegan that time. I’m not vegan anymore, but that time I became vegan and I did a lot of yoga, and I was traveling to India and living in the monasteries and, you know, just being there. And then I came back, and I was like super flexible. Uh, I still had the creativity, but I was pretty weak because I wasn’t aware of protein intake. So my muscles got weaker and weaker, more flexible.

And then I was thinking, “Okay, what is like the best way to build strength?” Because I got the flexibility, I got mobility, I got the creativity, but I also need the strength component to make it more complete. Okay. Then I came to calisthenics, like building strength with your body weight, like the pull-ups and the push-ups and just like the ancient Romans and the Greek people trained, you know, just with your own body weight. And in order to create like overall strength in all your body, you have to be pretty creative to hit muscles in different angles and to really develop like the muscle as a whole. So I was thinking like, “Okay, how can I develop this muscle as complete as possible?” This should mean that I should be able to apply pressure and resistance in many different angles and with many different lengths. So that’s just what I was experimenting with, like, “How can I be developing my body the best as possible?” So yeah, I was just creating, creating, creating, creating, creating, creating. And some things worked, some things didn’t work. But yeah, the creative part is huge for me. I cannot go to the park and just do 10 times this, 10 times that. It’s too boring for me. I like to be creative, and yeah, that’s also how I can maintain the practice, because of the creative aspect of it all.

Mark: I think that, um, as part of being a balanced person, I think the logic and the creativity kind of have to find a happy medium. And this is something that I have, you know, I’ve said this in many interviews because I keep finding people that I keep discovering are sort of what I call “dual-brained,” where they have a creative side and they have a logic side. You clearly have a logic side if you’re able to accomplish what you’ve accomplished. You obviously have systems and methods. You can’t start a coaching practice if you don’t have a plan. You clearly have all that. So you have the logic side, but also have the creative side because you keep challenging yourself.

And you say, “Look, I’m not going to run back and forth 50 times, and I’m going to do that again tomorrow and again tomorrow.” Just like I’m sure you don’t tell your, um, you know, the people you coach, your students, I guess we could call them, you don’t tell them, “Okay, I want you to do this a hundred times, and I’ll see you next week.” You obviously have to have some sort of creativity. And I do that same thing. I have technical aptitude on certain things, you know, other logistical things I love, but I love being creative and I love when they work together. And I think with what you do, you’ve sort of found a way to make both of your brains happy. You know, you get to be creative, you get to be creative with individuals, and you also get to sort of follow a method and a system as well, which I think is really important.

Robin: Nice, nice what you said. I never thought about it like that. It’s cool.

Mark: And thank you. And then you also mentioned, um, yoga and going to India and actually living in a monastery. So, um, how long ago did you start focusing on yoga?

Robin: Well, I started actually when I was, this already nine years ago. I was, you know, living in the Netherlands, Western country, and I didn’t find a lot of happiness in this system, in this culture, let’s say. I was chasing the wrong things to find happiness. And then I came to a documentary about some guy living in the Himalayas, and he was just, he just turned everything away—his family, his job—and he was just traveling in search of God, the connection with God. And I saw just joy in his eyes and happiness, and I was thinking like, “Hey, there was something here.”

And then I started to shift my idols. Instead of looking at the superstars, I was looking to the prophets. And I was thinking, “Hey, these prophets are interesting individuals because they really want the best for me. They had something to say.” And these prophets were like rebels themselves, too. They were like born in some kind of religion and they were thinking, “Hey, this is not it. I will try and find my own way and find the truth myself.” Because, like, Jesus was born as a Jew, Buddha was born as a Hindu, um, yeah, you can keep on going. Like all these prophets, they were born in a time where they were thinking and feeling like, “Hey, something is missing. I have to find my own way, find the answers myself.”

And this motivated me to leave the Netherlands and just go traveling, basically. And I first went to Ethiopia for like almost three months, and yeah, then to Egypt, and then to Israel, and then home for three months, and then Nepal and India. So I basically went to all these ancient countries where there’s a lot of wisdom and a lot of wise people. So I just basically went traveling to those sites and just had a lot of conversations with people and really living a basic life, you know, just in hostels or cheap rooms. And you know, never drank alcohol or went to the clubs, just basically read my scriptures and do my practice and talk to this and talk to that person and just try to get some answers, basically.

And yeah, that urge or that craving for wisdom has never stopped since then. So I came back to the Netherlands, and then people asked me, “Hey, what did you learn? Hey, teach us also.” Okay. Then I started to make some kind of workout, like a combination of strength training, yoga, and meditation. And then in another country in Holland, Rotterdam, maybe you heard about it?

Mark: Rotterdam, mhm.

Robin: I was, people invited me more and more in Rotterdam, and I was thinking, “Hey, maybe in Rotterdam, there’s more for me.” And then I went to Rotterdam. I moved over there. I went to live by a friend, and then I jumped into the theater world. I was doing theater shows, like traveling throughout Europe. And it was like one show about the Aghoris. These are like very extreme monks living in India. They live in the cemetery grounds, and they’re eating the dead bodies. Like, it’s very extreme.

Mark: Oh my.

Robin: Yes, yes. They say there’s no taboo. Everything is made from source, so there’s no, everything’s matter at the end of the day. So they have no taboo of, no fear of nothing. Well, yes. And then again, I was traveling to more countries. I also went to Mexico, and yes, these ancient civilizations and this knowledge always intrigued me. And you know, eventually I try to find some knowledge where I can identify myself with and then make it my own. Perfect. So this journey is keep going. So yeah.

Mark: Yes, I think that’s in a nutshell what everyone hopefully is doing, is continuing to learn, continuing to explore, and finding what part of that is meaning for themselves. So they can take what they can of it. And I think a lot of people just simply don’t expose themselves to enough things like that. They get stuck in this very thin path without looking to the left or looking to the right where they may see something really wonderful. And I think curiosity plays such a huge part of it. And you know, we talk about lifelong learners. Well, everyone should be learning. We’re all learning every day, no matter who we are, what we’re doing, or what our status is in our society. We should always be learning, and we can be learning from 360 degrees around us.

Robin: Yes, but yeah, the main problem, I think, is like the fear of losing oneself. Yeah. Because if you maybe find a different perspective and that changes maybe your whole view of life. So yes, who will I be with this new view? I don’t know. Maybe, you know, this fear thinking, right? So it’s a lot of fear.

Mark: Oh, sorry. No, I’m so sorry to interrupt you, but I think that’s such an important point of people actually being afraid to change and lose who they are. So you’re saying that’s what you deal with with your clients, or that’s also what you’ve dealt with with yourself, or both?

Robin: I think both. And I think I also see it a lot in the world around. I see a lot of people just scared to really challenge their own core beliefs because they’ve built their whole life around that. Maybe the friends, the family, all the things built because people, they share some same beliefs. And if they change that, then oh, maybe they got a lot of resistance and, you know, then the fear thinking comes in. I think it has a lot to do with like the ego, you know? The ego likes to know what it is, so it’s afraid to change because the comfort zone is giving security. You know, you cannot blame them. But if you want to grow on a soul level, if you want to expand, if you want to gain wisdom, if you want to really evolve as a being, you have to be willing to let that part of yourself die, basically. Sounds maybe harsh, but it’s actually a beautiful thing, you know, to rediscover yourself again and again and again and again.

Mark: I think that’s so true, and I don’t think I’ve heard it said quite that way because everyone talks about “comfort zone.” In fact, they talk about it so much that it just loses meaning. I mean, everyone says, “We need to move you out of your comfort zone, comfort zone this, comfort zone that.” And then people sort of forget what that really is. But part of that, like you said, is the security of thinking, “Well, I’m right. I can’t be wrong on that.” But the fact is that, like you said with your ego, you may find you’re wrong. And I think “wrong” is a little bit black and white. Like, you may find you need to adjust something and say, well, like you did. You’re a great example of where you studied yoga and then you were a vegan, but you’re no longer a vegan because you learned things about protein, and you also found that what you were experiencing with yoga, you still wanted to add strength to that. And so you didn’t just say, “I’m just going to do this one thing and I’m done.” You kept looking, and you kept bending. And I think that’s really important.

Robin: Yes, and it was also not easy to do because I was on this vegan journey for quite a while, and I was completely convinced this is the way. And I was going even more extreme towards a the fruitarian lifestyle. I was like six months only on fruits for a time.

Mark: Oh my.

Robin: And I was thinking, you know, I was looking at nature, and I was thinking like, “Okay, if I want the most peaceful diet there is, I should just be able to eat only fruits.” Because if I eat, for example, broccoli, you know, then I have to kill the whole vegetable. And the tree gives so much fruit every year. So yes, if we take a few fruits, I even help the tree because I can help place the seed on different soil, you know? So actually, I’m doing the whole system a favor. So fruit is like the perfect diet, the perfect peaceful diet. But yes, I started to get complications, and I started to get weaker, etc., etc. So then I was thinking, “Okay, so staying only on fruit is basically not going to work for me for the body I got.”

So then I started to also eat the seeds, you know, the seeds of the fruits. So the seeds contain fats, the seeds contain some protein. So I was basically eating fruits and parts of the fruits, like seeds and nuts and these things. So I get more protein in, I get more fiber in, but I couldn’t digest it very well, so much of the seeds and nuts every day. So I was thinking, “Ah, this is also not a solution.” Interesting, you know, because now maybe I have to change my whole my convictions about diet. And I was also promoting this diet. So I was like, “Okay, who am I, you know, if I now change?” Oh, that’s pretty scary, but I have to do it.

And then when I was only thinking about like fish, like fat fish like mackerel or salmon, my teeth started to water. I don’t know how to say it in English, but you know, you got like the saliva starts to run.

Mark: Yes, your mouth waters, exactly.

Robin: Yes, and that started to happen when I was only thinking about it. So I was really thinking like, “Oh, so my body is craving for this fish.” Okay, why does it crave for this fish? I had some skin problems, so I was thinking Omega-3s. My body is craving for it, and my body doesn’t know another way to get Omega-3 except from getting it from this fatty fish. So I was thinking, “Huh, let’s find like a plant-based substitute for this Omega-3.” So I was finding like algae oil and stuff, but no, it still didn’t work. And then I was thinking like, “Okay, now I just have to respect my body and just make this step and just digest the fish.”

Okay, so if I want to start eating animal products again, I have to make sure I find like a very good source where these animals have a respectful life, where the animals eat like good organic food, so I get the best possible product with the most love, most respect. Then I would indulge in it. So I started searching for these kind of foods, and I started to notice that my health went up, my energy levels went up, the little aches in my joints went away, my skin started to heal. So yeah, it was really difficult because, you know, in a lot of cultures and stuff, a lot of religions, you know, they promote veganism as the only way if you really want to be a spiritual person. So I had to really challenge that. And yes, you know, you develop these different perspectives if you just really go into it and really learn from it, from firsthand life experiences. So yeah, it’s still tough sometimes to eat animal products, but I start to really connect with the animal being and really be thankful that the body is part of my body, that I can do my work better. So the animal has a higher, I respect the animal that’s being sacrificed for me to do my work, basically. And in that way, yes, I can accept this diet.

Mark: Well, I think that’s wonderful. And you use the word “perspective,” and I think that’s so important. Just like, you know, the word “mindfulness” is used all the time again, so much that people sort of forgot what it really means and how important it is. And I think what you just discussed is a perfect demonstration of having perspective because if you’re right in the middle of being a vegan, you’re never going to really see outside of that because you’re a vegan, you’re done. But you took yourself outside of that and sort of looked at it from another perspective and started questioning things because you changed your perspective. By changing your perspective, you actually used a different perspective to decide that. And had you not done that, you would have just accepted the consequence and said, “Well, this is what I committed to, I’m done.” And I think people do that in many aspects of life where they don’t really take a breath and go, “Is this really what I want, or is there something more, or is there something different? And can I benefit from looking in other directions and maybe, as they say, thinking outside of the box?” And I think in a lot of the things you’ve been describing, you keep going back outside of your box and looking in and saying, “Hm, what else is there? Or is there something I can improve, or is there something I’m missing?” And I think people are missing out on a lot. So it’s really interesting and neat to hear that you sort of did that so many times.

Robin: Yeah, that’s the thing with the comfort again. Like, okay, you find something, okay, it works. Okay, why it works? And I was promoting it, this is the way because it works. I’ve been through it, and now I found it. But everything is due to, everything is changing all the time. So yes, for me, it worked for a certain amount of time, but the illusion I had to learn, I don’t say it well. Let’s put it differently. Um, I was on this vegan diet. I thought it was the way, and then it changed. So I had to learn that everything is changing all the time. So accepting that, you know, accepting that, “Okay, this works now. Maybe it works for 10 years, maybe it works for five years.” Just keep on, as you said it, keep on observing yourself, reflecting on yourself, and see if it still works. If not, just change it. It’s perfectly fine, you know? Don’t be too attached to your convictions. This is what I have to learn, that don’t be too attached to my convictions all the time. Be able to just experience it and just let it go. Just let it die. Just be able to die. That’s it. To let everything go in love for progress.

Mark: I think that’s similar to saying also that you shouldn’t have a conviction just for the sake of having a conviction. You should actually be able to say, “Does it serve me? Is it in line? Can I ask for more or something different?” And then maybe, as you said, just sort of let it die and pull away from it. And yeah, it’s interesting that one of the hardest things to do in life is to let go. You know, you think the hardest thing is to climb that hill, the hardest thing is to commit to something. The hardest thing sometimes is to let a thing go. And it’s interesting, it takes strength to do that, but we don’t think of it in that way.

Robin: Yeah, I think I make this phrase like, “If it don’t flow, let go.” Right? That’s it. If you just notice the flow isn’t there anymore, okay, there’s something you have to let go. What is it? What is it? Well, you can figure it out. Just reflect and just sit in silence and just observe, and then the answer will become quick to you. But yeah, then you have to have the courage to follow that insight.

Mark: Right, that comes next. And you mentioned, um, you know, the answer coming quick, so that sort of gets us back onto meditation. And so what are your thoughts on that, about how often and when and so forth?

Robin: Um, yeah, you also said mindfulness before. And meditation, actually, your whole life can become a meditation. So meditation, mindfulness for me is just being in the moment. Being in the moment. So you take some time to plan some steps, and you spend time being in the moment. Spending time being in a moment, you can do different things. Um, if you just say like, “Hey, I have free time now, I want to be in the moment,” and you’re just going to sit in a nice, quiet space, close your eyes, you’re going to focus on your breath, you’re going to focus on visualizing beautiful possible futures, or you’re going to share some love to the Earth or whatever it is. Meditation has so many different aspects to it.

But I think it’s important to really find the silence within every now and then. And you can systematically do it, like every morning or before you go to sleep, or you can do it during the day if you have to wait on something. Or maybe you have to wait on a bus, for example, or just standing in the line of the grocery store. You know, there are more ways where you can just practice this. If you practice the stillness in your meditation, you can apply it very easily in your daily life.

And yes, so you can do it how many times you want. Uh, if you’re not familiar with it, just start to get familiar with the observing part of yourself. Because not, to my surprise, not many people are aware of the observing part of themselves. When they have certain emotions or certain feelings, they mostly feel they have two options: either give into it or suppress it. And when you suppress it for a long time, eventually you will give into it because you cannot hold anymore. And if you give into it all the time, you may not have control over it because you just let it take you over all the time.

And the third option you have is just observe it. Just whatever the feeling of the sensation is or the thoughts you have, just learn to look at it from like a distance. Be completely aware of it, but just only observe it. So you don’t suppress it, you don’t give into it, you just let it be. But you don’t let it take you over. You just see, look at it from a distance. And then a beautiful thing is happening because, let’s say we talk about a feeling of revenge or a feeling of anger. Right? If we give into this feeling of anger, you can feed it with our thoughts. So, “This person did this to us,” “Yeah, because how could he make the choice?” and blah blah blah. You can feed that feeling. So the feeling becomes more and more and more and more and more, and eventually the feeling is so intense, you’re going to translate it in physical movements, and you’re going to maybe be aggressive with your hands or shouting or whatever.

Or when you suppress it, you say like, “Don’t give into it.” You keep boiling it inside of you. You keep suppressing it, keep suppressing it, and maybe you put it away, you find some distraction, whatever distraction it might be. And the next day, somebody triggers that emotion again, and then you cannot suppress anymore. You don’t have the self-control to find distraction, and then boom, you get into it, and you’re going to showcase that emotion physically also by shouting or by fighting or whatever.

But if you just learn to observe this feeling, so you don’t feed it with your thoughts, you just be completely aware of this feeling. Where is it? Where is it exactly located in my body? Just try to exactly find the location of that feeling. Just put all your focus, all your attention on observing that really weird, annoying, irritated feeling. And don’t feed it with your thoughts. Don’t feed it, just observe it. And eventually you will see that it will just wither away because you actually starve it. You starve it because you don’t feed it with your thoughts. And then it goes away. So then you give it respect, you give it your attention, but you don’t let it take you over. And you can do this with many different emotions. And you can learn this basically, to learn the art of observation. And observation, you can just sit, relax in your corner, and just observe your body. Like if I tell you now, just don’t move your left hand, but just focus on your left hand. Just feel your left hand as clear as possible. Okay, within a few seconds, you’re going to feel some tingling sensations. Maybe you feel the blood flow in your hand, maybe you feel your heartbeat in your hand, but you’re going to feel that your hand is there. Just focus on your left hand. It’s a very subtle feeling.

Mark: I’m remaining quiet so that I don’t interrupt your instructions to people.

Robin: No, but you tried?

Mark: No, I was doing exactly as you said. And I’m imagining that the audience is at this time doing the same thing. So I didn’t want to interrupt you.

Robin: Okay, but did you feel something in your hand?

Mark: Oh yeah. I’m an interesting subject because I do exactly this all the time. I am a student of observation and perception, and so, yeah, so I have done that to the, I’ve actually affected my own heartbeat, and so I’ve learned not to focus too much on certain areas. Um, so I’m very aware of it, so I didn’t want to say anything.

Robin: Oh, it’s my mistake. I had to ask you.

Mark: No, no, not your mistake at all. No, you’re just, I think that’s fascinating. I think everyone else but me was doing that and probably still is. And I don’t want to interrupt you any further, but I think it’s a great thing for people to change your focus because there are people who go through life with tunnel vision, and they don’t even focus on even a pain or why they have a pain or why, you know, something’s creaking in their body or something is a little sore. I think your body is always talking to you, and you’re right. It’s just like people who overly focus on their stomach and then they say, “Oh, I have an upset stomach.” Well, you know, maybe you should shift your focus away from it in this case, or you know, shift it towards something else.

I think what you’re saying is absolutely valuable. And that’s exactly what happens because, a perfect example of that is if you’ve ever driven a stick shift car versus an automatic. And if you drive a manual car for a long time, both of your legs are doing something. But then if you switch to an automatic, your left leg just sits there. And I found that when I switched from a manual car a long time ago when I was younger, my leg kept falling asleep because I wasn’t used to moving it anymore. So it would just be cramped there. So then I eventually learned how to keep moving my left leg around a little bit so that it wouldn’t fall asleep. But you don’t think of that when you’re doing a manual car because that leg is actually busy doing something. Um, just like I’m sure you would say, if you’re putting someone through some sort of movement or exercise, you may say, “Well, even though you’re doing a leg exercise, how is your posture? How are your arms and things like that?”

Robin: Yeah, it’s complete. The complete being, the complete physical structure has to be working together. But you also say something interesting about the stomach pain because pain is also an interesting subject. Pain, the sensation, you know, the uncomfortable sensation. And it’s like we’re not respecting our bodies so much anymore. So we get like painkillers so easily. And yes, you know, just try to disconnect from the body actually more and more. But actually the body is like the physical portal to this Earth. You experience this world through your body, through your senses. So there has to come a big shift there.

There’s some shift happening. People are getting more, there’s this movement going on where people become more conscious about how they use their body. Uh, Wim Hof, maybe you’ve heard about Wim Hof, the Dutch Iceman?

Mark: No, I have not.

Robin: Oh, he’s like, he has like world records on his name, like climbing the Kilimanjaro in his shorts and the longest time sitting in ice baths. And he’s like pretty famous now in America. He trained Oprah and all these people, and he’s like a breathing coach.

Mark: It’s Wim Hof, Hoff, right? W-I-M H-O-F-F?

Robin: So, his… okay, perfect.

Mark: I will, in the article that is included with this podcast, I’ll make sure to have a link to him as well.

Robin: Yeah, he’s doing great things. They all even injected him with a bacteria to see if he got sick, and he could just raise his immune system by just breathing, by just the breathing techniques.

Mark: Wow.

Robin: And yes, if you look at like the Tibetan, you know, they also have a lot of these techniques, how to rise up your metabolism of your body. So that many, like, maybe you heard about Joe Dispenza? He’s like an American guy who had like an accident and he broke his whole back. And the doctors advised him to put like, you know, all the iron casket in his back to make him able to use his spine again. But he didn’t want to do that. He healed his spine by meditation and by really connecting with the body.

He was, um, well, there are stories, right, like mothers where the child is under the car, and the mother just lifts the car up, you know, to free the child.

Mark: Mhm.

Robin: They say we only use like 60-70% of our muscles, but we can use 100%, but our body doesn’t allow us to use so much force because then we may have a higher risk of getting injured.

Mark: Right, right. We have self-preservation that’s in play at all times, right, which some people learn to turn off more than others.

Robin: Yeah, so there is this very wise consciousness of the human body that wants to keep on living. So you want to procreate, you know, and make sure the DNA keeps on living. Right? And we are like, we observe and we experience it through a soul level. So it’s like the soul and a body coming together. Like this body is like the vehicle we have to experience this beautiful life on Earth. So it’s very important to respect that because actually the human body is like an extension of Mother Earth. If you look at the Earth, the body is made out of elements of the Earth. We actually, our body is a part of the whole earthly ecosystem.

Mark: Absolutely.

Robin: So if we see that, hey, our body is just a little part of Earth, basically, and we have it, we can enjoy life better here if our body is in like a perfect state because then we can enjoy the pleasures that Earth has to give us. So that means if we want to take good care of ourselves, we also have to take good care of our mother, of the mother of the body, that is Mother Earth. Just the Earth. If this insight grows, you only want to eat organic food because you see how they spray the Earth and they destroy the soil. There’s no life again in the soil, you know? You’re destroying the Earth. And they’re drilling for oil, all the resources, and you know, like raping the Earth, basically. We’re like raping the Earth. But then we see like, “Hey, we’re actually raping our mother.” And that is a very extreme thought, but yeah, this consciousness is like growing, growing more and more if we want to really get the best out of this life.

Mark: Right. I’m very glad you’re a part of that and you’re a driving force for not just yourself, but for others. And speaking of that, I promised that I would not take more than an hour of your time, and I can’t believe how fast the time has gone between the two of us. Uh, I have in the article connections to both your Instagram and your webpage. And so, and we can speak offline about any other links you want in there. But since you have my attention and the audience’s attention, is there any other shout-outs or anything you wanted to say before we close things down?

Robin: Uh, well, my website is in Dutch. Um, my Instagram, yeah, on and off. But if there are like people listening to this podcast and they’re interested to work with me, then they can just send me an email through the website or through my Instagram. And I provide coaching online, different aspects. It can be just working on the physical, but can also translate to more in-depth conversations. So yes, if people are interested, then I’d be very happy to share.

And shout-outs… well, yes, shout-out to you. Shout-out to you because how this came together is also pretty magical. And that’s also proves again that the most beautiful things come unexpected and that one thing always leads to another. And you don’t know where it leads to, but if it just feels right, then it’s always worth it to just go flow with it.

Mark: Absolutely, absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree. I think it was pretty amazing. And for those people who go to your site, which I’ll have a link on, they can simply right-click and tell Google to translate it, and it’ll actually translate it into English or whatever their language is. So I was able to read it that way and read up a little bit. So yes, it was really kind of fun how we connected, and I really enjoyed that. And it’s really interesting, too, that this was the very first time I talked with you. It’s not like we talked offline back and forth and planned what we were going to discuss. It’s so nice to just sort of hear someone for the first time and allow them to speak about, you know, what they’ve learned and their passion and all that stuff. And it’s just so interesting to hear from you and your experiences. I mean, because you’re not someone who’s just saying, “You know, here’s my opinion.” You’re someone who’s saying, “Well, I did this, and then I put myself through that, and I learned this, and I took a turn here.” So that’s really wonderful. So it’s so nice to be able to spend an hour with you and talk with you.

Robin: Well, I’m living a pretty lonely life, I feel like. I don’t have many people who I can really share, who I really feel like they understand what I’m saying, because I’m not living the average type of life. Right? And I feel with you, I feel like you really are vibrating on the same level, and we had a very flowing, nice conversation. And I’m thankful that I was able to share my story and that you asked like beautiful questions and shared your perspective. So I really enjoy this time.

Mark: Oh, I’m so happy to hear that. I’m so glad you enjoyed yourself. And thank you so much. That’s such a high compliment coming from you. So, uh, I will tell you to take care, and I hope to talk to you soon. And thank you again so much for your time.

Robin: Very welcome, very welcome. Bye-bye.

• Don’t make resolutions. Make a goal with a system behind it.
• Become aware, then act on this awareness (that’s the whole premise of the podcast in case you haven’t noticed that yet).
• Don’t be afraid to learn.
• Don’t be afraid to be wrong, or at least have your understanding deepened and/or adjusted.
• Consider how much time, energy and resources™ you’re spending on everything in your life and compare that to what you spend on yourself. The quality of your life is going to be commensurate with what you spend on yourself.
• You’re human. Even when having great success you still have to take time to regenerate.
• Balance is everything.
• Do spend time, energy and resources on you, your life and your happiness.
• Alchemy for Life™ podcast can help raise awareness and allow you to act on things that can greatly improve your life, usually in only 10 minutes
• Alchemy For Me™ online learning can provide classes (some completely free) that you can explore. Watch for new guest teachers in 2022 and an expanded list of classes ranging from time management to dating to health.

Lets celebrate both today:

Check out Balance and the Holidays.

Check out a free course on AlchemyFor.Me – Do it to a F.A.U.L.T.

We have two subjects this Sunday – old news and new news.

Around this time you are feeling an additional pull at your time, energy and resources. It’s the holiday season. Each year I give you a heads up and a warning about what is going to happen—and a way to deal with it. This year is no different. And since it’s no different, I think it’s important to revisit Balance and the holidays. That podcast will walk you through what to expect. Relief some of the stress of the holidays in exchange for understanding and peace. It did not make sense for me to just record a podcast that was 95% identical to that one because I am all about providing value to you. Speaking of value…

I’m letting you know first. You know that we have 200+ episodes of the podcast (wehew!). It’s a way for you to sample and be informed of topics, tricks, pointers, information—even a new way of seeing the world. You know that i give talks, provide workshops and do one-on-one coaching. Those are all more interactive than a podcast (and longer than 10 minutes!).

Alchemy for Life has always been the big umbrella that this all fits under. What about me you say? Well I have something for you.

School is open! Just like you can go to Alchemy for Life (https://alchemyfor.life) for all these goodies, you can now participate in deeper information in the form of courses. I waited a long time to do this because I wanted to have the right platform and method. You can now go to Alchemy for Me (https://alchemyfor.me) and I already have two courses waiting for you:

Actually writing a book – Writing a book to completion for first time authors. You’ve wanted to write a book, you’ve been writing a book, but now we are going to end the frustration, and guilt, and actually write the book.

Do it to a F.A.U.L.T. – One of the core tools I created to enable the people I coach to end frustration, do something the have to, want to, or aspire to.

Check it out, sign up for the free course. it may literally change your life.

Years back this month came to my attention as a number of people I knew “on the internet” were participating and writing 50,000 words in one month! WOW!

I tried my hand at it and unlike a normal person I couldn’t just open Word or something, so I put effort into building a free writing site based on a point system to keep everyone participating. We had 500+ members.

Oddly, the next month I did write a 50,000+ word story but it never saw the light of day.

Then one day a few years later after some dust settled after some major life changes, I wrote my first nonfiction, then the next, then the next, then the next.

Then I wrote my first epic, and the duet, and last month published the prequel – 𝑼𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝑫𝒐𝒘𝒏.

Last week I met with another book club to discuss 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 and it was one of the most unique and fascinating (and vulnerable) experiences I’ve ever had.

Everything starts somewhere, and writing starts with one thing: giving yourself a license to write.

So if you don’t want to give it, I’m giving it to you.

Here. Hold on to this, because I am introducing something beyond the podcast to help you write a book.

Stay tuned…

It is. Think about it. Everything. This doesn’t just apply to people who create something from nothing. This applies to everyone. That includes you.

There’s no job that you can mention that doesn’t do this – bricklayer, marketing exec, race car driver, CEO, artist, writer, stay at home mom. You have to think about what you are going to do before you do it. Even if your job is repetitive. The bricklayer checks the weather and has to make sure the humidity or rain isn’t too much. He envisions the road being muddy. The marketing exec composes an ad and then imagines people clicking on it, and the numbers it generates. The race car driver imagines the pull of the g’s in the turn, the lack of vision from the helmet, etc. Everything is first imagined and then realized. And yes, sometimes it’s not realized, often it is realized differently than it was imagined, and sometimes it comes to fruition exactly as imagined. For a creative, those are the weirdest times. Trust me.

It is because of time that fantasy becomes reality. You think it, you imagine it, and then it happens. Sometimes it happens differently and you adjust, and learn and then fantasize differently. There is no escaping this. Even if in the middle of raking leaves you drop the rake, run inside and decide to make a pizza you are still walking through (fantasizing) about how the stuff is going to mix, and even how it will smell. Time creates this. Time enables this.

So now what? Listen to the podcast and find out…

Transcript:

Hey there, welcome back.
Today’s chat is from the perspective of someone who creates fiction — something from nothing, something that doesn’t exist and likely never will.

But this applies to everyone, not just writers. Whatever your job or role is — bricklayer, stay-at-home parent — you still run scenarios in your head. You plan. You imagine.

Here’s the point: It’s all fantasy until it’s reality.
That’s how our brains work. That’s how time works.

Even if you’ve done something a thousand times, you still visualize it — like building a wall or laying bricks. The weather forecast is a perfect example: pure fantasy until it either rains or it doesn’t.

You’re constantly visualizing:

Even something simple, like deciding to make a pizza, includes a mental walkthrough — what ingredients you’ll use, how it’ll taste, how you’ll prepare it.

We’re told to “stay in the moment,” but that’s hard — the moment is always fleeting.
Mindfulness says:

But fantasy is a useful engine. It’s not just dreaming — it’s preparation.

Raise your hand if you’ve rehearsed a conversation in your head — with your boss, your spouse, a client — and imagined it going badly.
We do this to prepare, though it often turns into dread.

So what now?

Studies show that mentally rehearsing a physical task improves your actual performance.
Whether it’s:

If you mentally go through it with energy and intention, your reality will better match your fantasy.

This applies to:

Writers and coders know the terror of a blank page or screen. That fantasy — imagining the process, the results — drives action.

You’ve never heard it framed this way because people avoid calling it what it is.

They say:

But it’s all the same: Fantasy shaping reality.

Everything is fantasy until it becomes reality.

Thanks for listening — your feedback means a lot.

We say that hindsight is 20/20 in that looking back on an experience already lived you can make some pretty intelligent, informed decisions, right? You can say what you would have done because you’ve already seen what you did do.

But this looking back also has the down side of regret and remorse. Knowing what you know now you look back with even more information and pronounce your actions as wrong (while forgetting you didn’t have this new information).

So, in a way you tell yourself what you should have done, and you may from time to time ask yourself “Why did i do that—I should have known better!”

But there is someone you can ask a question to—the person who has yet to take action. Instead of asking your past self, do something radically different. And before we go on, have you ever heard the podcast about notes from the future? You may notice I enjoy thinking fourth-dimensionally to solve problems.

Obviously you can’t actually ask your past self a question, but you can participate in a thought experiment. If you place yourself in the mindset of who you were ten years ago—what you were going through, the limited information you had (as compared to now), the differences in social norms, available technology, etc., you can ask yourself what you would do or what your past self feels about something. It’s an experiement.

So, what if you asked your future self? Sounds odd? Sounds like yelling into the void? It’s not. it’s a way of this past self to communicate with the self you will become.

Try it, and listen to more on the podcast.

Some people are saying yes; some people are saying no. But you might be surprised.

So people who create content—podcasts, music, painting, books—and people who gather people like musicians and speakers all have audiences, right? Well, they aren’t the only ones. You have an audience if you bring the pies for Thanksgiving, or regularly cook for your family, or even if you are the dude who picks up the recycling each week.

The aforementioned artists may have a huge audience. When they have an audience that is massive your gage for the quality of their work ultimately becomes one thing – money. The more sales they make the ‘better’ the artist clearly is right? That’s regardless of what they produce and how meaningful or helpful it is to civilization as a whole.

Obviously that set up has a number of flaws.

If you have a small audience you are more likely to want to interact with them.

If you are the person whose job it is to not dry out the turkey on Thanksgiving then you are probably interacting with your audience. If you cook regularly for your family, or you are the cleaning crew for an office building then you too have an audience.

We almost all do. Our interaction varies. It’s the close interaction that can be very meaningful.

If you think about your family, your peers, your co workers or your clients as an audience you may become much more aware of how your work affects them—and be more open to feedback.

(listen for more)

So what color do you see in the main graphic for this podcast today? If you lived a very long time ago, you probably didn’t say “blue.” Why? Because blue is not mentioned in ancient texts. Does that mean their eyes couldn’t see it? Well, that was what scientists and historians thought until the works of Jules Davidoff, a psychologist from London. Working with a tribe in Namibia they gave them tests involving colors.

Like the ancient peoples—and even not-so-ancient peoples—the Namibian tribe had no word for blue. They did, however, have a lot of words for the various shades of green. A test that involved a lot of green squares and only one blue one, the tribe had a lot of difficulty in finding the blue one. They did not, however, have any trouble finding a slightly different green square among other green squares. Hmmm.

If you are a native English speaker you will instantly see a specific color if I say “pink.” But pink is simply light red. Our language—for one reason or another—has separated light pink as an entirely separate color. If I show you a square that is light blue, you will say it is “light blue.” If you are a native Russian speaker that’s not true—because you have a seperate word for light blue just like we have a seperate word for light red.

So, guess what happens when you ask native English speakers to find the slightly different red among reds? Guess what happens when you do the same with the native Russian speakers? And if you reverse things? Both groups have more trouble.

Because they don’t have a word for it.

So if we don’t have a word for it it makes it harder (or impossible) to see or differentiate, and if we do have a word for it it makes it much easier to see and understand, I have a question:

Is there something in your world you can’t see simply because you don’t have a word for it?

Think about that.

This title makes even me roll my eyes but it is accurate. Whoa, I already demonstrated it. There are so many books and talks and podcasts about the power of this or that, and we begrudgingly trudge through it and see if there are any takeaways. Spoiler: usually not.

But this time it’s different. Ooh, I did it again.

As I’ve said before humor is a fantastic thing—but can get in the way of communication. e.g. – You ask a question and someone makes a joke, then expands on the joke but doesn’t ever get around to answering the question. There are other things that can get in the way of communication, and that’s where “but” comes in.

If you’re overly-perceptive you may focus on the things that seem out of place before you answer a question. If you do this it can be problem. Learning to to use the power of but, and however, and other ‘informational separators’ can save you (and those you communicate with) a great deal of time and energy. This works if you are a speaker and have an audience (we all have an audience—see a future podcast on that), or have work peers, or clients, or a spouse or loved ones. So it is something everyone will find useful.

Behold the power of but and listen for more. And stop giggling.