Spirit of the Deal

I had the great opportunity to hang out with Dan Reeves as we discuss accepting a higher power in your life and what that looks like.

Dan has quite a bit to offer you in this episode and a number of tools along with practical application of these tools so that you can live a life fully tapped into your own spiritual being.

Be sure to reach out to Dan & let him know you heard this episode here today!

Places you can connect with Dan:

http://spiritualunderground.org/index.html

https://www.instagram.com/spiritualunderground/

https://www.facebook.com/SpiritualUnderground/

The 12 step book that Dan references in the podcast:

Brandon Handley 0:00 54321 Hey there spiritual dope spiritual is that that my podcast is so you listen after you go through like a few of them you forget like who you're even announcing and like you have to get used to your new one and just how's that gonna come out? Um, but hey guys I'm on with Moloch Dan is okay say last name de cerca. Certainly, Sadam ri is a spiritual underground. Dan, I connected just kind of just on the general idea of our podcasts and what we have to share. And it's a similar journey. But just different tales, right. So pretty. And that's the thing, right? So everybody's kind of going through something. They just, you know, there's a guy that listen to a book, Jed McKenna, and he's kind of like this salty, spiritual guy, right? And what I like about him is that he says, He goes, listen, I don't know how you're going to get there. But I can tell you what to expect after you've gotten there, which I think is kind of interesting. So Dan, Thanks for hopping on today we are we're tackling Sunday in this way. And and one of the things I, I like to ask people is, before we even get started, right, well, you and I talked, you interviewed me recently, people, we are kind of conduits for the universe to talk to, right. We're conduits, our story that we're sharing here. And what we're sharing here today is meant probably for somebody else more so than it's meant even for us. So for that person who's listening today, just to receive the message that's being delivered, what do you think, you know, what, what is something that somebody needs to hear that,

Dan Reeves 1:38 you know, the dopamine boost brought me to my knees, my, my, my bottom, so to speak. But the thing what I'm finding out as I keep on traveling this journey is that we all have some kind of room for more in our lives. That's the question I ask people whenever I'm talking outside of the 12 steps, circles about you know, if they want to change their lives Do you have any room for more and I think most people the answer to that is yes. I have actually had one person tell me no i don't really believe them. But you know there always is room for more problem as it seems like we get stuck and and hopefully with these things what I hope to be as a catalyst to unstuck people you know, no matter what direction you're coming from, is that there is a way to get unstuck and I don't know what that really is for you. I know what it was for me. But what I can promise you is that there is getting out of that hole is available to you might take some effort it's gonna take some action for sure. But But you know, there's there's a hopeless feeling when a lot of people's hearts that they're like stuck in this spot, and they're just gonna have to resign themselves to being this.

Brandon Handley 2:52 And this is all there is right? There's nothing else right? Yeah, because it gets

Dan Reeves 2:56 Yeah, that my sponsor my mentor has so rewritten this 12 steps in a way not dot rewritten but reformatted it into some modern language and in the beginning of his book he puts a statement here this is not the way my life is supposed to be this is not the way my life is supposed to be now if you don't fall under that category great but fact is I think a lot of people are you know I see this underlying you see it in the stores I think you're you know spoke to you before and and I know your spirit you see this like almost a zombie like dissatisfaction underlying most people's day to day you know, it's everything looks to be like being done in a little bit of a pain spot. Like oh, man, I have to go to the grocery store. And, and, and, you know, operate on it playing today, man, I'm peeking around the next corner seeing what's coming up next. Sure. And and And, you know, there just is you don't have to stay in that spot. But get this one, you know, and some people would subscribe to more kind of wonder about that myself about how many trips around this blue, Big Blue Marble I get or wherever else I'm not really sure about that concept, but it has landed with me. But I know this trip is the one I got now. Sure, knowing what I don't want to be doing is laying an old age wishing I would have,

Brandon Handley 4:24 huh, gosh, you know this, this is so great. You said that right? That was one of the one of the things I saved today. You know, a lot of people give Facebook a lot of shit, right? Yeah. But quite honestly, like I'm pulling up the picture right now because that was that was one of the things there's actually two things that he said that they're kind of resonating with me. But the first one is directly in line to that right says I hope your life is full of I can't believe I did this, then I should have done it. Right. Yeah, that's powerful stuff. And then and then the other line I had somebody a post today was kind of along the lines. What you're saying there, right? You know, we're peeking around this corner, or we're waiting, and we're sitting here suffering. And and the way I kind of pictured it is like, you know, there's there's always a wave coming, right? There's always a wave coming and, you know, it's your opportunity to stand there and get crushed by the wave. Or you have the opportunity to ride that wave. Right. So, but I did, I did, I did caveat it as like, if you go so you know, just as in terms of surfing, you know, it's always a good idea to go with somebody who's done that before. Right? Because you can learn on your own.

Dan Reeves 5:37 You know, why take that hard path? You know, I mean, and I'll tell you why. Because, for me, I have trouble asking for help.

Brandon Handley 5:47 Yep, yep. Yep. You know,

Dan Reeves 5:48 the crucial words in the 12 step rooms, you know, help me I don't know what to do. When somebody heard those words. I know then I didn't have somebody I can work with. The flip side of that is, I know, I know. I know. Well, look,

Brandon Handley 6:05 I mean, we I think he said the beginning, we all know what to do. Right? We all know what we're supposed to be doing. And this works in every realm, right? This is why this is why health coaching is so big, right? And nutrition coaching is like, we all know we're supposed to get to the gym, we all know we're supposed to eat better. We all know that we're supposed to floss all these things, right? But until you get like the dentist reminding you like Hey, listen, if you don't keep if you don't floss, you're gonna lose teeth. Right? If you if you don't work out, you're gonna you know, maybe live to be 70 instead of like a healthy 85 right and all these things. I need help man. That's definitely powerful stuff though. So let's give a little let's give a little background right on kind of your podcast and what your spiritual dope is right? Because as you're saying here, and I think what people may be hearing already is like you can't you come from a place where it was no street dope. Yep,

Dan Reeves 7:00 yeah, you know i and i don't fit the mold of that necessarily either what most people think about when they you know, when you see me and hear my story that I heard you say you know the video and the audio did not really line up because I came from an upper middle class back home with two parents who stayed intact. My mom passed away and 16 if they'd made it one more year to been 50 years of marriage. I had it you know, a little cliche saying I had everything I needed most of what I wanted sure, but yet still there was that thing that empty feeling me someplace and I know a lot more of that because I will talk from hindsight, right. You know, I didn't know any of this when it was going on. But I still had that little thing where, you know, I just had trouble fitting in and I you know, I allowed myself to, you know, I hung out with some people who bullied me, because the companionship was worth the pain of the bullying. I put myself in situations where I was cultivated this programming inside of me have less than that, you know, everybody else had the playbook of how to do this thing called life and I must have missed that day in school and and and what I did was watch what you did and and at one point you know I ran into the you know somebody asked me what really my very first drugs for cigarettes but I ran into something that changed the way I feel because that was really what it was doing that's why you know I needed I wasn't okay with the way I felt when I ran into these substances to change the way I felt. I thought I'd found the magic key and you know, for a long time it was and you know, early on I started running into consequences getting caught with Oh, by the you know, in in 3d as in my lifetime and various other things that would have happened that that caused some consequences but none of them would make me change. One of the things was is I came from a relatively young my dad I my hometown God dad knows everybody with a little money in a lawyer in some know somebody You get out of trouble when you're a kid. I look back at that. And I'm like, man, if I'd maybe had some secret, you know, I don't know, again, what do you do wonder I look at that now, you know, when I run into somebody, some consequences are really a good thing, because that will change your trajectory, you know, otherwise, I just keep on going that direction. I'll go on until some consequences happen.

Brandon Handley 9:18 Right now, like, and the other thing you heard I heard in your store, too. So I mean, you were at the same job for about 28 years. I haven't gotten the specifics of the job. But this was a job that was sending you all around the world. You tell us a little bit about that.

Dan Reeves 9:31 Yeah, you know, well, I got a job right out of high school. Actually, I was still in high school and I started drafting I'm mechanically inclined, I just love that kind of stuff. I was doing mechanical drafting. I was doing architectural drafting. And I got a job and held it for like three years. And the fact is, is I couldn't get to work it in the morning, the night before and I got a chance and chance again, to correct my behavior and I couldn't do it and they let me go and you know, look at that as a blessing too, because that caused some changes. You know, that was some consequences, right? And lo and behold, you know, the universe just keeps on providing and I got a job just not too long after that it's this place and it's there's a story around it, but I don't think and I didn't know where I was going and still a placement agency and didn't know where I was going. And I still remember that really uncomfortable feeling, man, I'm walking in and trying to tell somebody that they should hire me. I just could not believe it myself. But they did. And they hired me is kind of funny story. I'd come from some minimum wage job and, and I told him what I needed to start and this is like in 1991, and I think I told him I needed $6 an hour to start. This was my was my offer. And the guy here steal that. Yeah,

Brandon Handley 10:43 doesn't really matter what I was $6 an hour.

Dan Reeves 10:46 I was 20 years old, you know and, and in the God did not I don't think he I think he was on a script because I don't think he heard a word. I said, you know, he he looked at me he goes well, I'm sorry. So we started by at $8 and 90 cents an hour. Well, that Work and I'm like Did he just and so I got this job and and I traveled up you know I made I made work a real important thing and it's not a bad thing right at all but I did I worked my way up and a few years they called me an engineer I don't I check the some college box that's another thing that doesn't go it did for me it didn't go out drinking and drug and did not go fit a college schedule.

Brandon Handley 11:27 We could not do that. Well you already kind of like we already habitual user at this point in

Dan Reeves 11:32 time. Yeah, but this time, you know, by the time I was in high school, I was smoking pot every day. I was drinking on the weekends is a little harder to drink in a day for me on the weekdays, you know that I could smoke pot and function. I spent my entire senior year

on cocaine.

You know, so I was already using pretty heavy stuff by that time. You know, I was I was taking acid when I before I had my driver's license. We were reading breeze and I remember that so well is because we would be riding our bicycles.

I know it was before driving. Okay, yeah, by this

Brandon Handley 12:08 time I don't think I said something I don't think I've ever tried riding a bike while you're on so that was really fun.

Dan Reeves 12:13 It really was. I can remember coming home at daybreak you know, listening to the birds singing and writing my 10 speed with no hands you know, because I could ride it thing no handed and just cruising up the road head known crawling my bedroom window it before mom and dad knew I was gone for the night. That's about this time I was doing it, you know, and there was really nothing I wouldn't do. If somebody had it. I did it, you know, went through phases, but you know, somehow are still able to keep my feet under me. You know, I got that second DUI when I was 19 years old and and the solution was not to stop drinking and driving. The solution was to do it smarter and better. I noticed that the 2d has I had one of them was because I was speeding and the other one I got pulled over because I had a taillight out. So that meant you'd need to do an airline pilot walk down around your car before went out, you know, it wasn't a drink it was make sure that all in our lives working and do it smarter, and I didn't get my third DUI until I was 38. So two years, wow, doing that, you know, but I did the formula, I got married, had a couple kids bought a home had this job that I thought I was gonna have forever because I kept on advancing up to the ranks and making more money every year. And, and, frankly, those years it's a little you know, I don't want to glorify the use, but it was fine. Yeah, you know, and it was fine. Until wasn't any more.

Brandon Handley 13:37 Yeah, like I said, I mean, what point is it not fun anymore? And you know, throughout this whole thing, right? Are you still you're still working your job and you're still advancing? I'm still I'm functional.

Dan Reeves 13:47 Yeah, I am actually a superstar at work, because I'll pull the rabbit out of the hat. It's another kind of now look back at it is, it was more of that, you know, it was less of a drive and more of a to prove They're more the kind of thing to prove that I'm good, you know, I have a little Superman thing you know that I need to be the superstar So, you know, looking back and stuff I you know, I'll drag my feet on a project and not let them know it so that I can come in and get called in at the last minute to make the three point shot. You know, and I could always make the shot, you know, and and that would give me praise, right because Dan could pull these things off. But you know, through 12 step markers stuff I realized I wouldn't pull that stuff off really, I was I was I was dragging my heels I was saying begun to not do anything until the last minute. But yeah, everything ever I was completely functional and I really stayed that way

until the end,

and sometime around 2005 My mom had a back surgery and and a drink and wasn't working for me, but I couldn't stop. Stop drinking every day. I'm stopping to beer joint across the street from New York. And if I didn't already have kobir in a cooler in the car, I was stopping and getting some. And and I was coming home and I was playing chameleon. My wife had no idea I was drinking as many as I was, you know, look like maybe I was having to out the grill after work. But you know, effect was that, you know, I was guzzling down and I didn't you know, I didn't go to bed. I was sleeping in a recliner in my own room. You know, I'm in the main cave. I just totally disassociated myself from my family. I got these two young kids that that are that need a dad and he's absent most of the time. I mean, he's present physically, right, but I'm not there. Right. And the alcohol quit working and what I started to get my headaches every time you know that I drank it and it will just make me feel like crap. And I tried different you know, maybe, maybe I should drink some bourbon. Sure. Yeah. And you know, try to figure out the magic recipe gotta you gotta you gotta you got to up the ante. Yep. And and I come home. My mom had had this back surgery and she'd been she. Mom's health was always bad. All our lives that matter. She pulled off as many years as she did, but I saw this bottle sitting in her bedroom and picked it up and looked at it in his prescription bottles. And it said for pain. Hmm, well, you know, I had some pain. Sure, yeah. And I shook out to about two pills of each one bottle each bottle to um, there's two big pills and two little pills. I didn't read the labels any further than that and put them in my pocket. But Matter of fact, what I did is I took the two small ones right now. And I put the two big ones in my pocket. And in about 45 minutes later, no pain. The world was okay. I actually have photographs of that night. At this time. My wife is working night shift. She's a nurse working weekends, only night shifts, so she could make full time pay working just nights. And then she could be home with the kids all week and I'd be home with them in the weekend. Well, there's a picture of the party that night with the kids and I had, you know, bandanas tied around their heads and do rags answer and what I found out later is that was too oxy cotton 40 something I'd taken

Brandon Handley 17:03 40 milligrams is that Yeah, that was just saying,

Dan Reeves 17:05 Yeah. Is that little or a lot? I don't know. It was a lot for me. And they would do just one would do just about anybody. Sure.

But I didn't know that then. And, you know, in the world righted itself and grabbed a couple, you know, the next night, Saturday night I took the other take. And although they weren't what last night was they did just fine, sir. And, you know, there was a time when my drinking wasn't every day, and I would just drink on the weekends. And what I say is that that collapsed on me. I started whereas, you know, it just the disease progressed, and I was drinking every day before long and the same thing with the pills.

Brandon Handley 17:45 I like how you kind of phrased it last time when you and I were talking right? You know, just dis ease, right? Yeah. I think it's really I think it's really important to kind of state it like that, right? Because if we and if we Look at disease in of itself. That's something that kind of never goes away. And this is just me, right? Like, I'm not part of a program or anything like that. But if we if we take it and break it apart like that, right, we disaggregate that word and we say dis ease. We know that we are in a place of discomfort, right? Is that what you're saying? I mean, yeah,

Dan Reeves 18:22 I am on but also believe that this thing is a

Brandon Handley 18:26 pervasive?

Dan Reeves 18:27 Yes, I do believe this is a lifelong thing for a guy like me. I don't think that's the case for everybody. But But for me, and you know, and I'll throw something else out there, man, I'll sell you this solution in any manner, you're willing to buy it in, you know what I mean? So, sometimes that disease works for somebody and sometimes it doesn't. And if you reject that premise, well, then I'm okay with that. Right. So I have a tools that will help you get better. Yeah, they just will. It isn't really making a difference, whether it's going to be better if you believe that this works for you, but it's not Not necessarily a requirement but I do like that. You know it is it's a dis ease. I am not okay with it myself. Right, right. I'm not at ease. I'm not sure that does bring it down to fundamental stuff. But I just like not comfortable my own skin, right? I don't feel like I fit in with you. Alright. So I got three girls. My daughter and two girls stayed the night last night and they distract me over there to my right. So it did it did throw me off a little bit. Sure. But my my using stuff started collapsing. I mean, the same thing happened with the pills, so and so next weekend, I grabbed a couple more. It was just a weekend thing for a while. And they collapsed on me to where I needed these things every day. So I started getting with my doctor, I started doing other kind of things in order to get them. And if I came to your house and you had some you didn't have anyone I left. So you go through all the relatives and you go Through all that, and when that ran out on I started going in people's houses I didn't know that is called burger Lee.

Brandon Handley 20:09 I mean, this whole thing advances while and you're still working,

Dan Reeves 20:12 you're still fully functional. Again the video the video did not match. Yeah, no, I'm just I was doing your right I just want to track

Brandon Handley 20:19 it right he's tracking it right because I mean you're you're you're going to work you're a guy that's getting sent internationally to get things done. Yep. And and you know that's that's that's what everybody's seen

Dan Reeves 20:31 yeah send me to Singapore to Korea we had offices in Thailand we you know I've been all over the globe with that company trusted to go do my job. Meanwhile, under the surface is this other dude it's like almost you know it's like two distinct personalities going on.

Brandon Handley 20:48 I'm just curious kind of like did you ever kind of decide what the underlying like primary pain was that that kept it going?

Dan Reeves 20:58 I do call it the disease of alcohol. That's just what we say in our deals. It's it would be like, and it's just for simplifying terms. I'm not sure that it's really right. Okay, but I do know that there are some kind of mental instability in me that unless I am doing something to treat that actively, I'm just not okay.

Brandon Handley 21:20 Okay. Yeah, yeah, look, so let's move on to that. Right. Like I mean, so look, I think I think the story is like, you got in deep, right the story is you got in deep you were in the grip You know, you're raising a family. You're doing all the you know, theoretical exterior, right things your interiors getting leggy. But like, you know, there comes there comes a spot where like, I think I talked about like, hitting rock bottom right, like, I don't think you always have to to get better. But you had a rock bottom moment.

Dan Reeves 21:53 Yeah, I did. You know, and I actually had two of them that I'll speak quickly. One of them was in 2011 when this thing finally Ended up being enough and my marriage was getting Rocky and and that was a catalyst kind of event that this this dis ease in my marriage was becoming an issue and and I went to I called a doctor told me I couldn't claim with my wife and told her what was going on and and sought help for the first time in 2011 and then not and I went to a detox center and got some help and dove into a and and what I say now is that was basically that week that event was basically off of a bad weekend. Because all it was was just a bad weekend. No big deal. I said I had a year of sobriety and I sat down on my tools thinking I was okay that I could move forward without this. Yeah. I didn't really think it but I still

Unknown Speaker 22:51 have a lot of beer again.

Dan Reeves 22:53 Well, I stayed sober during that time and then slowly after I put down my tools, I remember my my My wife at that time was into herbal medicines and stuff and she had like these cheap vodka and brandy and stuff that she would soak like herbs and stuff into making tinctures. That's right. Yeah. And I looked over there one day when I was getting ready to pay the bills and and I look over there because I know that cabinet right there was the one that they were sitting on and there was a bottle of vodka and bottle of brandy there and I went and got a Dixie cup of all things and thought I would just have a drink. well lit up this thing that we call the phenomenon of craving, which is once I put some in me, I'm not really going to be able to stop and a lot of people think that means tonight well I had a Dixie cup or two that night not stopped. But you know, a couple nights later look like a good, you know, and in the ball started rolling again. I ended up having that Marriott lost that marriage ended up in divorce. And my whole world just started crumbling. You know, after that, to that point to where and by now I'm breaking it out of steel and pills and I got caught a couple times by friends

associated people that knew me a little bit. Mm hmm.

And of doing the deal where I would take them out of your house, and those people let me off the hook on my promise that I would go seek help. I never did, right. But then finally I ended up getting into a house and I'll tell this story as fast as I can, you know, sit here one night with a new girlfriend after coming back from Thailand. Now the thing you know, my sobriety dates didn't really I had an international sobriety date and domestic sobriety date, you know, when, when the cat's away, he's gonna play soccer pretending to be sober during this time. You know, I'm sitting here with a new girlfriend. My kids are here in the house. her kids in house, they're all in bed. I tell this girl I'm going to I'll be right back. I walk out the back door, go around the corner. It's dark. I go across the house because the old man across the street always had medicine that I like to have. And, and, and over time, they were on to me. Matter of fact, I've been continent house. Before, six months earlier, and I went over there and opened up the door, walk in their house while it's occupied their home, go back in his bedroom, where he is sleeping, reach in a dresser drawer, get to the medicine, shake out a handful. And when I turned around this time, there was a shadow standing there with a baseball bat and pepper spray. And he put this pepper spray four inches from my face and blasted it and lit into me with a ball bat, man. I got away. Wow. I wrestled by him and got out. He spent that night run in the streets not knowing what to do. I took off or in a different direction from my home. He knew who it was obviously. I come back to my house at around two o'clock in the morning and to see all the lights on in my house. I went around the side house looked over there. My parents car was in the driveway and so was that girl's car. I didn't expect that girl's car to be there. There was I lost all consideration for what was going on there during that time, you know, I was gone. What I found out was that that guy come over to my house and he had raked out two satellites and my windows and my door, he busted the window out in the door, he come in the house, he busted up everything that he could with the baseball bat. As he left in, my dad was over there, cleaning up the house. I sat down behind the pantry in my backyard and sitting there and I remember echoing over and over again, this, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? And I heard the back door open and close. And I looked up and there was my dad and he had two five gallon buckets and I didn't know what he had at the moment. And he kept walking down the pathway that leads to where we set out the garbage. And I was trying to make myself as small as I possibly could so that he wouldn't see me and, and I heard his voice say Damn. And I looked up and I said yeah, and he said, words that I will never forget. He said, Are you okay? Are you hurt? That is not what I was expecting to hear. Now, for my dad that actually is but because of what I was thinking of what I had done, those were not the words expected here. Next thing I know, I felt a hand on my knee and he sat down beside me and said, Come on, let's go inside. Take a shower, hit the sack, and we'll deal with this tomorrow.

Brandon Handley 27:15 That's powerful, man.

Dan Reeves 27:16 That's powerful. I tried to do that. And I came in and did that in the next morning. So let me finish this last little piece on this part. I come in the house. I went to bed I looked in teary eyes. My mother or my girlfriend. My kids did not wake up. The cops have been searching my house that night looking for me. My kids were spared that memory. They did not wake up as the cops for shining flashlights in our closets and under their beds. I woke up the next morning, I put that, that that girlfriend, my kids and her in my car and had them drive up the street so that if they got stopped, it wouldn't be me and gotten her car. But before I did that, I got up, took a shower went back in the backyard, got under the rock where I'd left the handful of pills that I've got Before the night before, and took a half dozen of them and put the rest of them in my pocket and moved on with my day and that's comes to show this there's a blind in the book it says we couldn't remember the the humiliation and the suffering of a week or a month ago, when we decided to drink again or decide to use again. And you know, I couldn't remember the humiliation or the suffering of last night, right. The only thing I could think to do was put more pills in my body. Alright, so watch out for my arrest and that was well went down in a whole nother angle. Just cut to the chase on that I was looking at six to 20 years in prison. The scared to death I spent the next six months going TO to see the judge every month or every couple of weeks doing these pre trial things and seeing my lawyer my lawyer and the prosecutor in jail had me convinced I was going to prison for at least six years. And I met up with some dudes on a Tuesday night and and something shifted for me that night. And that was when I met my home group is this Underground, and that's what the name of the podcast is after. Okay, walked into there and and and started doing one particular gentleman told me to do who is still my sponsor today. And I ended up getting sentenced to a year of home incarceration, a year probation and another year set on the side, set on the shelf, as we say, pending successful completion of those two. So what went from a six year to six to 20 year prison sentence, I ended up spending nine months on home incarceration and had time to do this work on myself and, and my trajectory changed forever.

Brandon Handley 29:36 For sure. For sure. I mean, you know, this is just super powerful. I love how your dad just kind of accepted you right in that situation.

Dan Reeves 29:43 He thought that my back always

Brandon Handley 29:45 Yeah, and I mean, that's super powerful. Has somebody like that there for you,

Dan Reeves 29:50 you know, and he still lives with me, you know, he may walk by here.

Brandon Handley 29:53 For sure. You know, looking you know, you lost some relationships and if I recall correctly, you know, at that job that you thought you're gonna have forever, that ends up kind of getting dissolved as well. Yeah. You know, but you know, you found yourself right? You found yourself amongst like some friends or at least some associates in the spiritual underground,

Dan Reeves 30:14 the alikom brothers, so okay really are they really are we I'm a tap on my phone away from Heaven help at my door if I need it. And, and I'm a tap away from providing help if somebody else needs it, I got

Brandon Handley 30:28 this, you know, so let's talk a little bit about like kind of living this transform transform transformative life, right? Like I mean, cuz, you know, now you're stepping into a new space, right? Like I made the joke about you know, 12 step program however, I really only know about two steps to that program. The first step is uh, you know, you kind of let go and and accept that there's a higher power

Dan Reeves 30:55 right? First step is really, I have a problem.

Brandon Handley 30:58 Okay, first steps. You got a problem. Know the one stuff you got it you know you say hey there's there's a higher power is not just me and then like one of the one of the end steps is like spiritual awakening I'm like why skip the whole bunch of steps but yeah, you know let's talk about like kind of what that journey is like I talked about maybe even some of the work that you did to get to where you are and how long you so if you don't mind me asking Dan over

Dan Reeves 31:21 five and a half years so January was my five year

Brandon Handley 31:24 modulations man thank you that that's a it's a lot right and it's a whole different life. Let's talk about like kind of the the journey though to, to, to me it's I feel like it's liberation and freedom when you no longer have to observe like that the whole that those things have not necessarily observed. But like break those addictions right? Well once you once you have something else to do then to keep running back to those things that have a hold on your grip on you. You're free to go live a whole Another life, right? Yep.

Dan Reeves 32:02 Yeah, you know,

I like to say, you know, do this say it enough a lot came into the rooms of recovery, the 12 step recovery to try to they told me I was spiritually sick. I thought that meant that they I thought they were dogging on me because I wasn't going to church I had no religion to the process and an awesome sponsor and have a great bunch of me and I came to understand that my actual spirit my essence my very being had been sick and and morehow got sick and was from living this thing called life and not in my case and not a real healthy way. You know, you don't you don't pick up good tools on the path I was on.

Brandon Handley 32:42 Definitely mentioned tools several times to what are some of the tools right,

Dan Reeves 32:46 yeah, so that's what this 12 step program gave me was some tools to work in. And I'll also say that, you know, we're now in the Louisville Kentucky area in replace, we're offering this to people who are not necessarily addicts or alcoholics if they want some concrete tools. To do so, you know that you know, and there's a lot of people a lot, there's quite a few people Brasil brands, one of them is taking the 12 steps and kind of molded in his way, but it's just really the same thing. You know, instead, I got a problem to solve, right? So I got a problem, there's nothing before gone, right? I mean, unless I have something to work on, you know, if I don't have something, then once there is a fix, you know, don't break, you don't fix something that ain't broken. So I got to come to some understanding that this is actually a problem. Number two, that step two says, basically, you know, it says some, you know, there's some pretty flowery 30 language and that's one of the things that's kind of blocks people but just coming to believe that a power greater than yourself can restore you to sanity. So there's some funny language in that that says, you know, this power grid are so everybody defaults on God, right. So, what I like to say is that, you know, when I use the word God, I am saying it, just like Kleenex, you know, if you asked me for a tissue, and I hand you a box, and there's tissue sticking out of it, you're not looking on the bottom to see if they came from Meyers Kroger's target or whatever. You know it. Kleenex it's like saying Coca Cola. It's like saying, you know, any other name brand thing. It's just an easy word to use whatever that means to you, man, that should be your inner spirit as power greater self can come from inside it can be a more of a universal thing you might be nature could be music, it could be who knows what So, you know, I always like to get over the block. Yeah, I'm not doing this because you're talking about God to me.

Brandon Handley 34:24 Yeah. Well, you know, anytime some business God like 99% of people, you know, especially in the Western Hemisphere, think that you're, you're saying you're saying, the Christian God, right, the Christian God, Jesus God, God, the God that molest all these people, right, you know, and that's a shame, right? Because now you're holding yourself back from the possibility of accepting that higher power simply over your own beliefs of what that is, right.

Dan Reeves 34:51 So, you know, it says, Do you believe there's a power that can help you to believe there is a way that power for my new sponsee is made

Unknown Speaker 35:00 You know, sure that hey,

Dan Reeves 35:02 do you think I can help you? Sure. You know, here's where I was, here's where I am. Do you think that it can happen for you? So it's just coming to believe that you can get some help, is believing that you can get help necessary. Probably not required, but it does help if you're, if you're a willing participant. Then step three is saying, okay, man, I'm willing to have some help. That's to help me step. You know, again, everybody gets hung up in this turn your will over will in life over the care of God. That's at 30 languages that that bill Wilson, the author of that stuff, you know, let's just get over the language. It's just words and stuff. Yeah, we grant these noises in column words, right? When we accept the meanings of them. If you're blocked up by the words, I will use different things like that or disease earlier in disease, right? You know, I'm not gonna let this human language be the block to how I can help you for sure. So help me that's three. So then we get into some concrete work, man and I do an inventory of my life and I sit down and write down things of everything we call resentments, but I'll write down the stuff that's happened to me and what's made me who I am. Where we've been you talked about before about being programmed, right? That we get programmed by our life experiences. Well, then this inventory, we go look at that. And in order to get deprogrammed, I got to look at the programming. And I said, my, my life experiences, it's happened to me, and what made me who I am. So we got some concrete tools on how in a real simple to this four step tool is pretty easy of going through and looking at that stuff, right? We look at three things. We look at resentments. We look at fears, we look at the things because most people run about unfair, we're scared of this. We're scared of that for sure. And and what we've done in our sex lives in our sex inventory, how we think about that, just because it's such a huge basis on what we are as a being a human being, you know, yeah. So we look at those three things. And then we do a fifth step, which is I tell somebody about everything. When I sit down and talk to my sponsor and told him all my dirty secrets, a weight lifts off.

Brandon Handley 36:55 Yeah, I mean, there's I think there's some vulnerability there too, right?

Dan Reeves 37:00 concept of it

Brandon Handley 37:00 yourself in a say you're putting yourself in a place where, you know, this person could easily come down on you for all the stuff that you've ever done how you've been condemning yourself for each and every one of those things like 1000 lashings for each and every one of those things for years now, probably. And when you come clean to somebody, like your sponsor, and then they say, what else cheese? You're like, why didn't I give you enough?

Dan Reeves 37:26 Yeah, there's some big I mean, one of the big tools in that fifth step exercises. You know, I did that take me to man, you're not alone. Yeah, we think we're hiding down in the closet with all our own dirty secrets. Ultimately, you know, to some extent, we've all done similar kind of things, and it wouldn't make any difference. I don't think you could take the attic and alcoholic aspects out of it. We still got stuff that we're you know, not particularly happy about that? We did. Sure. So we do that and we have a couple more tools or we asked this power that's greater ourselves to help us get over it help us to help take this stuff away. We call them character defects and stuff though, basically you know and I don't like that term too much either because I am not defective. Let's take the stuff that the what the way I'm operating that I don't like the things that I'm doing and the way I'm operating and I'm not okay with the things that no longer serve me. There it is. Universe please help me get rid of this stuff right help me start operating on a new plane sir now just Just let me run through it real quick. Well my my head's on to is that and then we go out and the people that we have hurt the people that we've done stuff to the people I stole pills from the people that are treated, you know, in a poor way. I go back out and I face those freakin people, man and I and I do a man's with him. And we have a very powerful recipe for doing that. We have some prep work and some different things so that we can do that in a powerful manner. And we have a thing called the ninth step promises that that are a very powerful bunch of statements of things like a fear of economic insecurity to leave you

Brandon Handley 38:55 scared scarcity mindset,

Dan Reeves 38:56 right. That's just one of them. Yeah, fear. People will leave you if you don't, yeah, you'll start being able to do things you never thought were possible. And it all comes up from going out there and clean up the past because now I'm not walking this earth, worrying about seeing you. Mm hmm. Right? Now if I'm gonna walk around and surfing right now, I'm afraid if I'm a bump into you at Kroger's, and I had that looking over my shoulder thing all the time, I'm looking over my shoulder you I can't look at where I've been. I gotta look where I'm going. Yeah, that's a nice step allows me to clean up that path where I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore. For sure. In repairs relationships, too.

Brandon Handley 39:32 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, it's at least kind of gets it off your mind. Right? Even if I mean that relationship. You know, you have the opportunity to go out there and you've got the opportunity. This is a kind of an exercise of courage, the right exercise of facing your fears and extra action. Right and and Jerry,

Dan Reeves 39:54 you're not necessarily asking for forgiveness from them. So much as Kind of forgiving yourself for the actions you've taken. There's, there's a lot of that there's a big piece of it is not really, you know, it looks like it's between me and that person. Really not. It's between me and my inner self, or I got it cleaned up on my end. And to be honest, if that person rejects this event and tells it go to hell and wish you drink yourself to death, for sure to have executed the action and gratitude as a successful thing. Yeah. The reaction to it doesn't matter.

Brandon Handley 40:27 I love that. Yeah, I mean, look, we all adopt

Dan Reeves 40:29 what happens though.

Brandon Handley 40:31 So but but there is that idea that you know, that that that that can still happen and and an understanding that their non acceptance of that from you shouldn't reflect on your genuine intent.

Dan Reeves 40:50 And it is so rare that that ends up happening with this formula. When you go to somebody with your heart and your hand and you own the stuff you did. And that's really what people want, right? You want that person to own that they did that. Really that's what I don't even do apologies to people anymore I do amends with people I use that same formula no matter what. Even if it's a total story not long ago I was not quite the person I wanted to be with a clerk at the convenience store that a couple of months ago I went sat in my car was getting ready to leave and I was like, man, I don't like leaving that bad juju behind and so I was like, so I get up in there and just go Hey, I'm not the guy to cut saw a man ago. I don't want to operate like that guy anymore. And I harmed you by by being a jackass here today was real bad. It wasn't like I but and I owned it. I asked her if there's anything she needs to say to me. Yeah, that a few words and got some things off of her chest. So she had a chance to verbalize her stuff. And and then I asked her for anything I can do to make it up you know, and she's standing over there jaw open because she's never had any my do that. And we fixed this little rift June 1 real quick and I mess around with that the rest of day either, right?

Brandon Handley 42:03 Yeah, that's great, man. I mean, it's kind of like a vibratory cleansing we'll call it right like yeah, I would you leave that behind, right? I love the Rift, right? same ideas a rift, right? Like a Tear Tear and like the the universal fabric,

Dan Reeves 42:17 right? You know, and that's another one of the things that I can leave behind me, you know. So part of this 1011 or 12 is starting to practice these principles in my life and doing these and using these tools that I just spoke of, and that 12 says having had a spiritual awakening as a result of doing that work doing those step work and going and cleaning out the cleaning out my past. Then I now to carry that and give these tools to other people. And I use these and Matter of fact, I did a fifth step with my sponsor, we actually did a back and forth two way fifth step yesterday over some issues that have been going on some stuff about how we feel about this whole COVID thing and the pandemic and some stuff about the where we were at personally with the the social equality issues going on in the world right now. And, and then we also had a little rift in the universe amongst our home group of guys. And so we had this little wad of undone business. So we applied these tools in inventory and wrote it out and then spoke to each other about it and we'll walk those tools out in order to get that piece of our thing you know, so that's the one that's the area that I see with this 12 step tools that I don't I haven't found personally anyplace else is that I have some concrete active tools that are not like I have to go to South America and take some wasco or Yeah, I don't have to I don't have to like go to these big huge lengths I can do this work from my bedroom and if I need to, I can do this fist up over the telephone with somebody you know, so I can I can put these principles and these tools into effect in their head they're just concrete. And and

I've never seen anybody do this work that said, I wish I didn't do it.

I will make a broad statement to Say that it that I can guarantee you that it will bring some improvement to your being it'll it'll improve, it will bring some more to your life as a guarantee.

Brandon Handley 44:12 Let's hit that what was the fifth step again?

Dan Reeves 44:14 This step is that where you speak to somebody about this stuff. I said that the step actually says submitted to myself to God and another human being the exact nature of my wrongs. That's what the step says. Basically, it looks a little like a confessional, but it's really not because you get feedback on it. And so that's, that's, that's sitting down and talking to somebody about it. And you know, that's where, you know, you would do that in the lifestyle if you have a coach, right, but not a problem. You got something going on? Well, you would sit down with this coach, and he would talk to him about it. So right, yeah,

Brandon Handley 44:46 yeah. I mean, it's the same ideas like you know, just kind of there's a blockage, right, you throw or even like, you know, hey, I there's, I feel like there's some bad juju back there, right, or, we're up ahead or whatever. And you got to ask yourself, not only does it not Serve me anymore as like, how else can I see this? How else can this be seen? Because your perception, Dan, Camp ception may not be the group's perception, you talk to your group. And so when you bring this out of the group, what's the use you, as a group see things exactly the way you do? Or is it most oftentimes, kind of different right now like, crazy, that's not feeling or thinking that sits in your head?

Dan Reeves 45:22 Right? That is exactly part of that step, Tim, where it says that we talked to somebody about it. And so you want to think I say, I can't see me very well, I really can't. I'd like to think I can see that I really can't. So like when I got something going on like that, I bump it off, either my sponsor or my support group members, my brothers in this brotherhood and say, Hey, man, here's what's going on. You know, what, what, what's your What do you see in this? So I'll get another set of eyes to see me and then the flip side of that is, you know, they don't see themselves. I always say this. I don't see me very well. I actually don't run my life very well at all. Got a guy who does right I got a guy that does a pretty good damn job of running my life. Nevertheless, that's stretching it. He's not running my life but he does a really good job of guiding me now that guy he don't do so good with his life either. But he's got

Unknown Speaker 46:13 a guy

Brandon Handley 46:16 is great. And we build

Dan Reeves 46:17 that, you know, so you know, his guys my guy also right? So I got that guy and I got this, you know, there's a thing into the back of the into the toaster and back into the there's 164 pages is the sacred text of the hugs and arms and 12 steps in the back of it. It says he will in speaking of this power power, but it's using that old, masculine Christian odd language. He will help you create the fellowship you crave.

Unknown Speaker 46:43 Hmm, yeah, I

Dan Reeves 46:45 never knew, you know, I didn't know because at some base level, when you talk about what it was that was missing, hmm. It was that connection with my people that was missing throughout that whole thing and by party didn't drink and I could get that temporary measure. than temporary connection with these people so it was it was filling that in a point came where I got to where I couldn't do that with people anymore you know either mountain being you know nobody else was doing it I gotten so bad that I was embarrassed to show my use at that level for sure now here I have this fellowship with these guys around me that I've said I've got this connection to a community now and it's broader than just you know it's a big it's the ripple in a pond thing right I got my I got my sponsor and real tight in that circle sure by the where the pebble landed in the water right and outside that next ring is my support group I really close guys that out that I work with and talk to you on a day to day and that we meet up once a week and see each other if not more times and that the guys that come to the retreats the guys that we go out to eat with

Brandon Handley 47:43 and you're running these retreats right there

Dan Reeves 47:46 yeah you know it's never one of these miracles that happen yeah. And I was one year sober and I was not one year so right ankle brace it on in my group was going to a local florist to have a little day trip retreat they were going to do and they went and I couldn't go because it's out there. by the county so the ankle bracelet that goes on like a BP Yeah. Now they would let me go do my recovery stuff. They let me go to work, they let me do the things. Let me take my kids to scouts and my daughter might send the scouts my daughters to dance and they let me do that, but this was outside where I could go and they wouldn't let me. And so the following the one of the things was is they had people run into them, and they kind of complained about that they weren't in a private location. Well, 20 years ago, my dad my brother and I built a log cabin on 54 acres outside of town here about an hour drive away. And they were talking about having that retreat and how lack of privacy and you know, you get that nudge from above, and I'm like, Hey, I got a place right and and I had in 2016 I held my first men's retreat. There you go. Yeah, this year was my seventh. So yeah, and and, and, and I say over and over, I don't know how this happens. You know, it never was orchestrated. It wasn't like I said, Hey, I'm gonna do this Sunday. No different than the spiritual underground podcast. I never did set site on saying Sunday. I'm going to be doing this podcast or I've got I've got a woodshop in the backyard that was manifested out of this recovery movement. Sure. It was manifested it like almost no dollars to me. Right? And how that happens, you know, I, but now I have this after losing that 28 year career. A year before I lost that job. We built this switch up. I got all these tools out there. I'm starting to make stuff for people outfit and doing little projects on the side for money. And that and lo and behold, you know, I say when when God built that cabin in 1999, I had no idea what he was doing. Now is where I take people to do fifth steps. Bring my guys down there we have these retreats, church Dan, and then they had no

jack that

we call it we call it the Fargo hug club. There's a little town in Indiana called Fargo and I read write nothing more than to gravel roads crossing. Right. Greenside. They're in a train they're on every corner, but we call it Fargo Hunt Club all my buddies have become that think of it as a sacred place It really is. No it did. It was built on dope and booze I stood up on that log wall driving spikes down through the walls with the beer cans sitting on the log behind me more concerned with knocking the beer over then I was driving the spike if I wouldn't Yeah, and now now it's a completely different energy down there right oh pletely different energy you know and I got this switch shot back here where now I have this gig that allows me to put my you know, I went to mankind project you know, and they have you talked about a mission you know, and my mission is to create a world of healing recovery through guiding people to find their true true purpose with the 12 steps

Brandon Handley 50:43 Yeah, yeah look and and you're doing it right now. Right so and one of the things that I hit on before I know you work on are your guys created 12 step book. Sounds like you're heavily promoting it might be something you guys are doing and kind of Cahoots. But you you also did. You became a yoga instructor. So I get that correct. I mean, so

Dan Reeves 51:02 yeah, that's another one of the things you know, my miracle list is is deep enough that if I don't, when I was brand new, my sponsor said these things were happening to me that were of great nature. And he said, you should start writing that stuff down. Right? Because you're going to forget it. Yep. And I started doing it nowadays. We'll do a little thing you'll go add that to the list. And yeah, so I became a yoga instructor. I was that list. What do you is that I called my miracle. I call it my miracle list. I just always have you know, could be also you know, there's a tool out there called a gratitude list where when you're feeling down, you write down all the stuff that's good, all your gratitude, you know, it's kind of long term gratitude lists where I can go back and look at these things that have, frankly, the universe has brought me to where I'm at right now. Mm hmm.

Brandon Handley 51:45 Yeah, you must have something valuable left.

Dan Reeves 51:47 Why in the world what I believe is gonna drop me off here, right. So I begin to doubt it. The next thing I'm not going to be supported with, right? I go, you know, that can't be, you know, I can't do that. That's beyond my abilities. Well, I'll quick look at this guy. To list this miracle list, so tell me I look at what's happened to date. What do you think it's gonna stop? Yeah. So that, that that yoga teacher training thing was another thing some girl, you know, you know, that's been our character defects is a essence I've been, since my marriage ended, certainly got no room for giving relationship advice, but a guy come into my life and she snuck me into a yoga class and She tricked me into going because she knew me I would make any reason not to do that, because that's not masculine. I can't do it. You know, I'm not flexible enough. I'm not you know, all the different reasons about why I couldn't do that. And I fell in love with yoga and it became a part of my recovery. And that's another thing that's going on in the world is a combined 12 step recovery. Yoga thing that's now combines the benefits of yoga with the benefits of 12 step philosophy and and gives you a little power punch through using those two tools. And now I coach people I'm working with to get into it because that exercise does something to me that I don't Get from riding a bike or swimming or going to the gym. You can Oh, good

Brandon Handley 53:05 spirit. Right, right. Yeah, I mean look, I'm that that that's all part of it right? I love it right? I love I love how you you know, you're, you're transitioning into this, this other being this authentic you right without without hiding underneath the pills without you know if you do have some self doubt you're facing it with you know the stories that you're telling yourself and reviewing the stories and looking at them in a different way instead of saying I'll shoot ain't gonna happen today I'm gonna have to have a beer All right, like they have today this year. And you know, you start to develop like these quote unquote, like healthier mechanisms of dealing,

Dan Reeves 53:46 right. Yeah, and it gives you that positive outlook to man I mean, it just means all the world to have these people around me we encourage one another my sponsor, they spend the biggest coach for me and encourage her from the beginning about you know, go for it day. Yeah.

Listen for it when you can do it, what can I do to help you do it?

Brandon Handley 54:03 That's, that's so important to right. So when you get that encouragement to go Be yourself. Alright? And when you get that encouragement that says, How can I help you? Right? You're like, not only are you saying that I can and should go pursue this, but you're willing to offer like assistance for that. Yeah, that's powerful. Yeah. Now, tell me a little bit about the book you guys are using to apply to daily, like, you don't have to be an alcoholic to use these tools.

Dan Reeves 54:35 Yeah. You know, kind of goes into you know, do you have to, you know, do you have to be from India to benefit from yoga, right, you know, I, we, one of the other premises and 12 step philosophy is, I gotta be able to, I gotta be willing to let go my own ideas. You know, we hang on to these camps and shoulds and it's only this way and only those kind of people can do this, and we gotta let go of that stuff. So my sponsor was sober. He just said Alberta made 36 years at the 18 year mark, he had that feeling of, there's got to be more. And he the universe provided and bumped him into some teachers. And his life changed with that many years sober from being this just not drinking dude to this plane that that I today get to benefit from. And so he had these teachers and he got this happen to him and he got to feeling like you know, you go around and this can cause a little bit of a rift but I'm comfortable speaking my truth today in this in this. A lot of recovery rooms is so so stuff going on in there. It's not the level that we can get to. It's a lot of there's a lot of less than it could be recovery going on. And if you fall into those rooms, they're just not very attractive when people are just struggling just to stay sober today. That becomes something you know that you know, we think Thank you and I you know if I'm like having a fight that hard at something, then somes not going, right. So he had all these tools and and it wasn't documented. He wasn't seeing it. And it's not in that book that that book that bill Wilson wrote and released in 1935. Plus a lot of people rejected it 1935 language, right with that God hard hand, and other kind of thousand these and things like this that would cause a guy to inherently reject this stuff. So he put these tools down on paper and started writing this book about six years ago, modernizing the language and bringing forward obviously expanding the concepts of how to have what we call squeeze more juice out of this work, for sure. Yeah. And so he did that and he wrote a book and it's called 12 step spiritual recovery. You can find it on Amazon author's James Christopher Cohn. It is the 12 steps for anybody. He goes into showing how this you know without Coxon acts we pretty clear about this booze and dope, bringing us to our knees. You know Are you rejecting that premise? You're not ready for help yet. But the normal person, what is it? You know, they needed to find what is that problem sometimes, you know, and that spiritual sickness thing is, is that, you know, frankly, our spirits get stepped on by doing this thing called life and it happens to our peer groups through our education through our parenting Archimedes this time do you find like, the kinds of ways

Brandon Handley 57:22 do you do find like the spirit really hasn't been addressed? Right? Like, I mean, it's good. Well, here's the deal, though. Like, you know, do you remember any spiritual school like any spiritual class on spirituality from like, K through 12? Right, like, I don't recall any No, I had some spiritual teachers walk through my life that

Dan Reeves 57:40 I couldn't you know, what even said right, like so yeah, but even right, yeah, no, it's a lack of exposure.

Brandon Handley 57:46 Right. And, and, and I think that even with the current western style church, is is that there's, it's very, here's what you do. Here's how They did it. But the application to the spirit doesn't seem to be readily visible.

Dan Reeves 58:08 And it's based on a lot of hope, you know, you got to just turn here, you know, just just hopeless, it's going to work for you, you know, or this 12 step stuff actually gives you some tools and the action behind it. And I'm not so sure that's the total effectiveness of the tools, although I know the tools are affecting the effectiveness may just be in that you're doing something.

Brandon Handley 58:25 Sure. I mean, look,

Dan Reeves 58:27 you know, that you got off your ass and you're doing something.

Brandon Handley 58:29 It doesn't matter, though, right? Like, as long as you do get up and you get going, right, as long as you have just like you said, take some action and start leaning into it. I think that's, that's not too different than general coaching. It sounds like a lot of the tools are, you know, here's what I'm finding more and more there's overlap with the tools, right? It's just how you apply them where you apply them when you apply them and all those things. So that's what I say about the higher power thing and the tools and all that seems like a you know, everybody wants to be able to receive that gift but you need yours tablet to blue. Robin and Bill needs his with a green one and I need a wrap on on mine. It's really all the same gift inside a box, you know, but it's just got a little bit different colored ribbon on it and because it's blue,

Dan Reeves 59:13 Brandon can accept it.

Unknown Speaker 59:14 Yeah, whatever reason,

Dan Reeves 59:16 cares why

Unknown Speaker 59:17 it's the only color I see is blue.

Dan Reeves 59:18 Yeah. Because the further down the path I get, the more you do you start getting into alignment where you see you know, the Buddhist principles and stuff out of the Bhagavad Gita and, you know, and then even beyond, but for me, it's big time growth when I start beyond actually peek into that Bible and seeing that those principles are there to you know, have to bridge that is also I actually what I get to do and that's one of the things is that I always got this message and I'm not sure if it's, I'm not sure if I took the message or if it was actually given to me. But I got this message that it was their way of highway kind of thing when any religion I would get into. I don't know that I won't say That's true, but that's the way I looked at it. We I can find a day man I get to pick and choose, I'd say through this trusted program. I get to go to Walmart Buy a brand new ball of playdough. And I get to come home and I get to form that thing up into what works for me and I get to build my own spirituality from scratch. And, and

and i think it works.

Brandon Handley 1:00:19 If it's working for you, right, I think I think that it's okay. One of the things that I kind of guess that I took away from a lot of these spiritual books and everything like that, is that if you just it's just like anything else in life. If you just follow one, you'll be cool. You probably just follow one. It'd be cool. If you just focus on kind of like one thing, no matter how small it is in life, you'll be cool,

Dan Reeves 1:00:45 right? Yep, I didn't start wrapping all these other ones and swinging them in until a little further down my path because the other thing that tells us tells me is to continue to seek. Yeah, continue to improve my conscious contact with whatever power it is that I'm getting hooked up with here. And in order to do that, I do that through yoga and I do that the man kind of do that for you in other books and I do that because when you mentioned a couple books to me on the podcast The other day I write the names of the books down because I didn't think I got that message by accident.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:13 Hmm.

Dan Reeves 1:01:14 I'll be open to looking and exploring this other stuff.

Brandon Handley 1:01:18 So you know, you've got the podcast going, you've got you know, somewhat of a movement going right you're hosting events and

Dan Reeves 1:01:26 the 12 tips spiritual record, we call it TSS, or there's a there's a, there's 12 steps spiritual recovery, calm, and there's a Facebook page called 12 steps spiritual recovery. We're hosting meetings here and lowered. They look a lot like 12 step meetings where anyone is welcome to come and try the 12 step tools.

Brandon Handley 1:01:42 Right, right. So is it t SSR? Calm?

Dan Reeves 1:01:46 Now it's got that big old long thing. Okay. Make sure recovery.

Brandon Handley 1:01:50 Yeah, wanna make sure somebody finds it right. 12 steps spiritual recovery.com

podcast is a spiritual underground.org

Dan Reeves 1:01:58 Yep. They're trying podcasts if you're the website spiritual underground.org haven't done as good a job keeping that up lately because I've got the little hit counter on it and just Matt in YouTube is two places where I've kind of invested some energy and decided that my energy hasn't been really um actually think about redoing the website just put a link to the podcast you know put other put the Google Play and apple and the links on it and just let it be like that rather than put content but yeah, spiritual underground podcast is you know all all the major platforms that are out there Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, Apple anchor anchors the host

Brandon Handley 1:02:39 Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. And you know you're putting out great content man. You're helping people you got people reaching out to you from all over the world to thank you for kind of putting yourself out there and what you're doing I thank you for you know, reaching out except in the conversations. You've mentioned some books I mean, what is what is what is like one or two books outside of of 12 step program obviously that have really impacted your journey. Hmm

Dan Reeves 1:03:07 one book is a journey into power is the Baron Baptist. He's the

Unknown Speaker 1:03:13 he he is the

Dan Reeves 1:03:16 guru of the yoga style that I do is a power vinyasa Baptist style power. vinyasa is called journey into journey into power is what it's called. And it goes through a lot of lifestyle stuff. It's not just a yoga book it's about what your diet is, you know you are what you eat to some extent you can't go put crappy fuel in your body and expect it to run good. I can't put crappy gas in my car expected to run good. He talks about meditation and and different things. So that was a that was definitely a big one. And you know, something that really turned my corner on the way I look at spirituality was there's Oh, oh preacher called him at Fox and his sermon on the mount, which you know, no I want to reject that book because of its western. For me for Dan, want to reject that because it was based on Jesus words in the New Testament and the Sermon on the Mount and most people heard about that. But he shed a new light on what those things could mean for somebody rather than the meaning I had absorbed. So out of two books that probably shift my foundation. Those two things, that girl that snuck me into yoga bought me that journey and the power book before I ever two years before I ever thought about taking yoga teacher training. And I sat down and read that book, and I still am amazed a diver sat down and read that book. There was no reason I wasn't really interested in yoga. Hmm. But I wonder like, you get a better read this my girlfriend gave it to me. I don't know. But it did it. It changed me.

Brandon Handley 1:04:52 Hmm. I love it. I love it. You know Is there anything else that you know again, you know, we get through tail end here. That if you feel like anybody should hear out there, right? So if somebody made it to the end of this podcast, what else did they hear for today?

Dan Reeves 1:05:10 Let me tack that on this sort of little bit about the podcast. Where did the podcast explore how people come to find themselves? We call it recovery. To me recovery is to reclaim or reclaim that which was lost or stolen. That's a definition I had found. And that's in the process spiritual recovery stuff. So to in I heard your guests today, listen to your podcast. You know, I think this common theme is is that we're trying to get closer to what our true selves are right. And there's a bunch of avenues to do that. My roots come from 12 step recovery. I do believe that it will work for you regardless if you're addict or alcoholic or just want some new tools in your life. What I do the podcast is have people come on and talk about their journey to how they found themselves or are moving. Yeah, I hesitate to say that max like found myself, but I'm closer than I used to be. And I'm on a journey of finding myself. Majority of it is that I think the big thing is, is that when you hear that other people have done it, especially in this podcast type of environment where you actually just hear these people's voices and you hear the passion and in them about what, what has happened for him. That translates into hope for you that it can happen for you too. Beautiful, I love those voices. So that's what I try to bring out what the podcast is that you said. It's not really for me, it's, if we can only touch one person with this podcast, and that person decides, hey, I want to be a better version of me. Then, then we then our mission is completed today.

Brandon Handley 1:06:46 And thank you so much for popping on. They really appreciate it, brother.

Dan Reeves 1:06:49 Thank you, man.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Brandon Handley 0:02 What is up? What is spiritual dope? Today, we are going to talk about, we're going to talk about this word numinous. We're gonna talk about this word numinous. And we're gonna start off just like this, we're gonna jump right into it, and we're going to take your entire life experience can most likely be summed up in a couple of words, you probably have just a few words that you would use to convey the entirety of it. And at most, you refer to specific moments in time, seasons, segments of the whole, what we fill those moments with? Is it possible for you to fill them up with a story of how they were, or the stories flat draw without any true depth, like a pothole versus a lake? Right. Oftentimes, you feel slightly detached and sometimes you may feel powerless or overwhelmed. You feel as though the universe is swallow you whole, without even taking a moment to savor the delight dish you feel like this oblivious to any onlooker yet do you have a desire

Unknown Speaker 1:08 you have a knowing

Brandon Handley 1:10 there are moments in your seasons that that's the sometimes they just don't make the cover no so your story there are moments in life where you're completely in tune with who you are seemingly in sync with all of the universe. I'd like to think that maybe it's a moment we sing along with your favorite song and your heart pulses in a different frequency. a surge of what it feels like in love emotes from from your entire body. Maybe you were dancing last night was pure magic. Can you dance through the entire evening and, and each move was a release of pure energy that moves your body in line with the cosmos. It could be as simple as revelation, like a moment I like in jujitsu. It's it's a tiny inhale that expands your chest. It's so cool. able to finish up the choke. moments like this have certainly been. They've been considered being in flow, a term that was coined by psychologists my highly Jakob his last name, cissna, Nima, Holly, whatever. Look, if you look up flow, you'll find this guy maoli and describes optimal experience. He says during flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement with life. Now, I'm going to use the word numinous. I'm in kind of like tandem with flow. And that feeling of a numinous means according to Merriam Webster, it's it's supernatural, filled with the sense of the presence of divinity or holy or appealing to the higher emotions and to the aesthetics. sense spiritual. And the words arrived from the Latin word Newman, meaning Divine Will or not, it's just a figurative nodding of or the ascent or of command of the Divine head. This is a state of being that can be mimicked by drug use, or drinking or just you know, pure intoxication.

Unknown Speaker 3:25 mimicked

Brandon Handley 3:26 right, in short, going out of your mind, so that you know you're able to experience yourself and I like to, I like to segment those two words yourself because they in this context is two different two different pieces. And look, you know, intoxication is not sustainable. And it's certainly fraught with its own sets of dangers and in an untruth, asked me how I know, you know, truly pales in comparison to know this true experience of Numinous But it is a version of it right? I will say that. But imagine being able to access the space within you this this feeling of Numinous that will a connectedness that is indeed supernatural by comparison to your natural being your everyday default position and then we that we discussed towards the beginning of this one right we just we just being and it's kind of flat as draw and just living kind of Jesus to existing it's all default. Now this this word numinous is a very word that Carl Jung used to describe his own experience with the divine. And he lifted the word from professor of theology, Rudolf Otto. He felt that there was a need for a specialized word to describe the concept of holy without, without moral without the morality factor without moral factor.

I think that's kind of interesting, right? Because most people feel like there's got to be, you're not allowed to feel that space, unless you've been morally correct your entire life. So, and I love how young defines it as a dynamic agency or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will, the humanism, whatever its cause maybe is an experience of the subject independent of their will. The humanism is either a quality belonging to a visible object or the influence of an invisible presence that causes a peculiar alteration of consciousness. And, you know, it was Young's thinking that this is either a quality inherent to an object or an experience that comes over person, often inadvertently. So what's happening here, so, let's know some kernels of truth. Yeah, yeah, there's there are many of these moments. feelings and newness, newness. They Come unbidden or john calls out inadvertently. In physical nature, this is what you may call to me he has What? You one reference point is kind of like when you're hitting your stride again, going back to flow. This is a it's a similar feeling. But not 100% the same. And let me see, I can't remember if I get to that or not. So, and this is again, I'm saying that so that you understand that that's kind of the sensation or somewhat of a state of ecstasy. Right. So, but not you imagine this feeling coming over you Only you haven't been running. You haven't been dancing. It is a feeling as Jung says all of his work with his patients, as though as he as he watched their complexities and confronted their unconscious that feeds the hunger of the soul and provides feelings of liberation. relief. It's like this just weight, this weight comes off of you. And you're relieved and and Okay, and liberty is just as he said. And it obviously obviously you can hear the struggle in my voice as I tried to describe it for you. But what I want to do is couch it for you so that should you ever find yourself feeling these things or in a certain way that you're not losing your shit, right that you're you're you're in a known space. And it's so well known that, you know, this is a feeling that it goes hand in hand with Joseph Campbell's work and emphasizes the call of the hero. And as young states it's a feeling that while ineffable it's also and I love this word called it any any loose, right, it cannot be resisted. It can be be ignored. And just like when the called the heroes resisted this, there's the refusal. The call, refusing the call can can certainly have grave consequences for both the hero and the wider world. I always I would always say, you know, if you don't step into your greatness if you don't share what so what's calling to be shared through you? Do your there's somebody out there waiting for you, right? There's somebody out there that need you to step into your greatness, whatever that means for you, right? That's the call of the hero. Then somebody else is being impacted because you are not acting. Right. You can see heroes who have who certainly refuse to call stories like Sodom and Gomorrah were lots more Wife is turned to a pillar assault looking back the burning cities after God told her not to or of the medieval legend, the wandering Jew who was cursed to walk the earth until Christ returned as penance for having taunted mankind's Redeemer on his way to crucification. And don't be wrong guys. I'm looking for stories to relate this I don't know these stories myself, but if they're speaking to you, and I hope that they do you know, that that's those are some of the a couple of the stories. Right. And, but understand,

Unknown Speaker 9:32 also,

Brandon Handley 9:34 that the refusal is generally human nature and it's not final. The call will continue. It doesn't stop just once you try to suppress it for the first time. And you see this illustrated in a Star Wars which, you know, for those who don't know, already, is really when Joseph Campbell's work kind of came to light in the call the hero because That's the hero's journey. And we see Luke refers refused the call first, right? He says, I can't get involved. I've got work to do, right. And he leaves and his refusal to the call takes him back home. And he realizes that the destruction of his home, which he may have never even seen, we're seeing

Unknown Speaker 10:21 in the first place had he accepted the call at first.

Brandon Handley 10:26 Now, the refusal also seems to indicate like a humble nature

Unknown Speaker 10:31 of fear of the unknown for your human

Brandon Handley 10:33 right. Sometimes if you don't heed that call, or have to overcome that fear that that initial fear, then some people may see you as arrogant or, you know, maybe oblivious or maybe even dumb, I don't know, right. But again, I'm gonna use pieces of my own story. My first podcast, it was scary. First time we're going to release to reach out to one Talk to people. It was terrifying. terrifying. You know, I had no idea

Unknown Speaker 11:09 what would even come out,

Brandon Handley 11:11 and I had no idea whose lives I could or would touch were impacted, let alone my own. So

Unknown Speaker 11:19 if you do continue to refuse,

Brandon Handley 11:22 there's the regret that you always hear people talking about on their deathbed that they regret that they didn't do X, Y or Z or they'd never tried to do more, they live more, spend more time with their family, go to that baseball game, kissed that girl. Do whatever,

Unknown Speaker 11:40 right you have this life of regret

Brandon Handley 11:44 because you're not giving in to this impelling force within you. That is life. But we'll get back to young here. He noticed that when he was talking to those who ignored this call, things started to go badly eventually leading physical symptoms as the self do this, the internal self tries continues to try to get the individual's attention. The sensation of flow, as I stated at first is very similar to unbidden. But there are many ways to find yourself in this state of flow. Now, if you can recognize the state of flow and the way that is entered your life, you now have this just what I'd like to call a keyhole that you can look through and see what this feeling is like. Now, the next aspect of this numinous feeling it's a it's a challenge to time it right? You don't know exactly when it's come because like it comes in advertently, right? You don't know when it's gonna come. However, I want you to be able to recognize it. Like I keep saying, for what it is when it shows up, or again, if it has already shown up and maybe you've done your damnedest to this dismiss it, know that it will not disperse without you're attempting to shut it down through unnatural ways, through drugs through drinking through through whatever, you know, suppression, escapism all these things. To me that's also many will call in awakening, a rebirth or resurrection. And I love how psychoanalyst coffered Graf Durkheim states it just because right? He states like this, let us not forget that an experience of awakening does not create an awakened person. The doors open towards the mystery within, you are on the path of initiation, but it is a beginning,

Unknown Speaker 13:45 not

Brandon Handley 13:46 an end. And should you finally decide to accept you will with time, gradually integrate matter in spirit and you will integrate matter in spirit Otherwise, you know, the disconnected human sight. And you'll be able to with practice, you know, meditation, chanting, reading, martial arts, you'll be able to sit in this numinous space. You heard through this podcast of flow, right, which is quite similar to the numinous state, and you also heard the call of the hero. If you've experienced flow states, you're on the precipice, right? And if you can recognize what puts you into flow states, you're not too far off in my in my opinion, and from my own experience of the numinous. Right? And would you say that maybe, I would say that you can experience them at will. I mean, these are Yogi's, I'm not saying that this is not. I can't say at this point in my life that you know, that Satori, or you know, Nirvana. You know, Nirvana means something Blow out your head right blood blowing your mind is one of the one of the states so

Unknown Speaker 15:06 I think that that's possible.

Unknown Speaker 15:09 Have you found

Brandon Handley 15:09 yourself in a numinous state? Have you had a hero's call and awakening?

Unknown Speaker 15:17 a rebirth?

Brandon Handley 15:20 And again, I share all this because if you have felt the touches the tengiz of any of this and you feel like you might be gone easy. You feel like you might be losing your shit. You feel like this is a midlife crisis. You feel like you're in a Crux or situation. I disagree. College disagrees. Joseph Campbell disagrees. There's many many many, many others out there who would disagree. This is this is your state of being this kind of being awoken your your life force within you looking to expand beyond the constraints, right? So I want to hear if you've had a hero's call, I want to hear if you've had an awakening, and you know, shoot me, shoot me an email at Brandon, at Oh, where do I exist? Brandon at spiritual dope.co I hope you've enjoyed. I hope you've enjoyed this word numinous as much as I have

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

I was lucky enough to catch up with Marissa Nash and chat about how she is leading with spirituality in her thriving coaching business.

Her career in wellness started at lululemon, and since she has worked in the wellness industry for over 9 years. She has been a Certified Professional Life Coach for 5+ years, a 1,000+ hour Yoga Instructor for 9+ years and she specialize in teaching self-care, meditation & mindfulness techniques.

Marissa is a certified Executive Coach and Corporate Wellness Consultant. She is also certified in The Science of Wellbeing from Yale University and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from Thomas Jefferson, developed by Meditation Teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn.

She developed The Well Method out of a gap that she witnessed in the wellness industry as well as the practices, techniques, and holistic modalities that she has used to heal and transform her own mind, body, and soul.

She has coached over 300 women and have worked with clients across the U.S. and abroad, including California, Pennsylvania, New Zealand, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Michigan, and New York!

She graduated from Penn State University in 2011 with a B.A. in Corporate Communications and completed my Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership and Executive Coaching at Concordia University with Dr. John Townsend.

​

She is also a dog-mom to my mini-goldendoode, Finn (check her out on my instagram!)

Connect with Marissa here:

https://www.thewellco.org/

https://instagram.com/marissarosenash

https://www.facebook.com/thewellcobymarissarose

​

Brandon Handley 0:00 54321 Hey there podcast listener and welcome to spiritual dope today I've got Marissa Nash joining me and she is a woman's life wellness coach, executive coach, meditation teacher, yoga instructor, corporate wellness consultant, you know, she embodies all these things and, but she pulls it together in a holistic manner. So she has a holistic life coach. And her mission is to teach you how to tap into the wisdom of your mind, body and soul. And learn to trust your intuition and step into your personal power both personally and professionally. As a certified life coach for over five years, a over 1000 hours of yoga instructor for nine years, specializes in self care, meditation and mindfulness techniques. And she's also a certified coach and a corporate wellness consultant. There's There's quite a bit more so you know, you've got you've got it all gone down. But as it kind of relates to this, you believe in Many holistic modalities that you use with your clients such as Lifestyle coaching, yoga, mindfulness, visualization, and Reiki. And I'll leave it for anyone who wants to find out more about all that you're doing to head over to your website after they kind of check it out. But welcome, and thanks for joining us.

Marissa Nash 1:19 Thanks, Brandon. I'm really excited to be here.

Brandon Handley 1:22 You have no idea what you're in for do you're like, I have no idea what's happening.

Unknown Speaker 1:27 But like the energy of it.

Brandon Handley 1:30 I love it. I love it. Um, so you and I were connected by a good friend of mine, Jeremy Todd, who we started our podcast adventure years ago with each other. He was quite literally my first interview. And and YouTube connected and he said, you know, you got to talk to Brandon, you're, you're right down the street from me. You're over in Philadelphia, you're from the area as well. And let's kick it off. I mean, what what what, that's what I want to start with cards at the every card. Nearby your tarot cards because this is how you start your this so So, you know Marissa starts her podcast with a, you know, a kind of a card reading. I don't, but I love the idea so I figured I'd spring that on you let's find one do you want to pull a card and tell us what we're up for?

Marissa Nash 2:15 I love it. Yes, I would love to do that I do on my podcast and in sessions with all my clients, I pull cards. I find that it's really important just to connect spiritually with you know, you and I are humans on this earth doing the best we can but you know, what, what is the divine guidance that we need to be tuned into and also for your listeners. So I use Oracle cards. I'm a big fan of Gabby Bernstein. So I'm using her super attractor deck.

Brandon Handley 2:41 She, you know, I wasn't aware of like she's a spiritual junkie. Right? Is that right? Yeah. I love it. Right like it plays in line with spiritual dope, right. Come on now.

Unknown Speaker 2:51 Yes, I love it. Yes. Okay, so this is a cool one. So I'll read this over. So it says the more I attune my energy with appreciation, the more the universe will deliver.

Brandon Handley 3:03 Hmm, love it. What's that mean for us today?

Unknown Speaker 3:07 Yeah, I think it's really interesting. I, you know, I, I don't know where this conversation will go. But a big belief that I have is around manifestation and in order to manifest, you really have to appreciate what you have and you have to be in energy and in alignment with appreciation and gratitude. It's a big part of my story. And what I help clients with is really focusing on living a life in alignment with gratitude and appreciation and a state of abundance. So I imagine that will come up today.

Brandon Handley 3:35 Absolutely, I mean, look, so that's all the line is the line is, uh, you know, appreciate what you have, right? Just Just in general. You know, just be grateful for the things that you do have. It doesn't matter if you've got a lot, but at least want what you have, right? Because if you've got a lot and you don't want it, that's not serving you. Right. Right. So for you For your for your information. So I grew up with a hippie mom. Right? Well, and, and yeah, we'll see there you go and and it was like, you know, she was caught like these these lifestyle trappings, right like you know, these are all the trappings, like if you've got all these things and you're kind of trapped with those things right because you have to, you're trapped with those things you're maintaining them. Right. So let's let's I mean let's jump into, you know your journey a little bit I want to share a little bit of your backstory. realizing you're from the Philadelphia area, you're a Penn Stater Penn State, right. So Penn State, my wife went to Penn State as well she, she still talks about it, she still loves it seems like it must have been a good time there. But you also you've traveled around a little bit. And most recently if I if I'm following the story, now you're back here from Texas. Right? Is that right? Okay. So, walk us in the journey from you know, Penn State to where you are today? Any synopsis any way you want to?

Unknown Speaker 5:03 Yeah, I would love to because my journey actually in wellness did start nine years ago at Penn State, which is a little surprising because you think Penn State party school, I was in a sorority, and I had this moment, my junior year of college, where I just knew that I was seeking more. I felt like you know, did the college thing. There's something more for me, but I didn't know what it was. And I remember my best friend Becca, I came back from summer break. And she just looked different. She looked radiant. She looked, you know what I would call really well. And I just asked him like, Becca, what have you been doing? It's yoga. And I'm like, yoga. What, what's yoga all about? Let me try it. And so we would do a 90 minute hot yoga class at this little apartment in State College on campus at Penn State. This guy named Doug owned it and he was just plugged heaters into the wall of this apartment studio that he rented. And we would do hot yoga for 90 minutes and then it would end with a yoga nidra. a pretty long 30 minute I feel like sometimes even 40 minute Yoga nidra practice which is so good. It's a deep meditative practice. So you're going deep into your subconscious through guided meditation. So I was introduced to meditation, spirituality and yoga, you know, one of its deepest levels at a very young age. And I don't think I knew how powerful that really was, but it worked for me it calmed a lot of my anxiety. I have been a dancer when I was in middle school, I quit around High School. And I think that creative element was really missing from my life. So I felt like I had found my place I did one yoga class and call my dad the next day as a college student. I said, Dad, I'm going to get certified to be a yoga teacher.

Unknown Speaker 6:53 I have two or three grand

Unknown Speaker 6:57 Are you back and I did it. I honestly took one yoga class. Sign up for teacher training the next day with the philosophy that, you know if I pay for the teacher training I get for yoga classes and I get paid as a teacher. So it made sense to me. And from there my journey took off actually worked really well lemon for a while and two different stores in Philadelphia and in Charleston, South Carolina. And Lulu lemon was a great setup for me at a young age. They were really big on goal setting, there was a lot of transformational leadership that was happening within the organization, and just a lot of ways to really connect with the wellness community as well. So I really do a credit a lot of my early career to what I learned at lemon. And that that ended me up in Charleston, I ended up moving to Charleston before Charleston was, you know, the place that it is today. This was, gosh, six years ago, and stayed in Charleston for a little while. Where to Lou lemon didn't teach much yoga there. But then I really started teaching yoga when I moved to Southern California

Brandon Handley 7:57 because there's a there's a Bill Murray story in Charleston. Yeah, let's highlight that just for a second. Because you know, listen, when my wife and I were in North Carolina for a little bit you and I had talked a little bit about this before. And we're like, the only reason we would go to Charleston would be to catch up with Bill Murray. What happened between you and Bill Murray?

Unknown Speaker 8:16 I don't know very. I've never met him. But

Unknown Speaker 8:20 no, no.

Brandon Handley 8:22 Yeah, no. Did we have this conversation? He became me. That's not you. Ah, are you sure?

Unknown Speaker 8:30 I never met him. I mean, he lives there. But yeah,

Brandon Handley 8:33 that was told me the story then.

Unknown Speaker 8:36 I don't know.

Unknown Speaker 8:38 I've been talking to Okay, keep moving then.

Unknown Speaker 8:40 Oh, no, the girl said. Um, yeah. Now he has a restaurant though. Apparently. That's really good. I

Brandon Handley 8:45 was I wasn't so I was in this conversation. Mm hmm. Man. All right. Yeah, she's pretty good with this, but go ahead.

Unknown Speaker 8:52 Um, yeah, so then I actually ended up moving to Southern California. I got a job teaching stand up paddleboard yoga in Laguna Beach. and manage this little paddle, paddle board shop and Laguna on the ocean. And it was awesome. You know, living in Southern California being in my early 20s I really got to live out a lot of the dreams that I had. And I then got connected with core power yoga. So I taught full time yoga in Southern California. I also managed the core power yoga studio for a little while. Another amazing organization to be a part of great, great leadership, great leadership development inside of the organization. And then I honestly moved back to Charleston and did some nonprofit work for a little while. And all along have been a life coach. So I've been a life coach for five years, I've always specifically focused on women, helping them to transform their lives, whatever that looks like for them, whatever their end goal is. In the recent couple of years, my my primary focus has been on holistic wellness, and really helping women to map out what their wellness plan looks like. I found For me when I really got in touch with Okay, my wellness is a priority took me a little while to figure out it was almost difficult it was it was hard like this undercover topic of like, I would walk in like a crystal shop and be like, Do you know anyone that practices I already know or let you know, like, do you know when doing energy healing and it's like, why was this so hard to find? And

Unknown Speaker 10:23 so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 10:24 yeah, exactly but what I knew worked for me um, and so that's really led me to design you know, the welco which is my wellness coaching firm, as well as my corporate wellness programs. And you know, as of late, the well method, which really guides women through a one year program, where they actually get to meet with me as their transformational leadership coach, but then also get access to for other holistic healers that they get to do private sessions with within the year because that's what I've found works for me is being able to work with a lot of different modes. realities and a lot of different healers to make sure that I'm well in all different areas of my life.

Unknown Speaker 11:06 Now, I love it. I love it.

Brandon Handley 11:08 And I love Look, I mean, it's initially right even back in college when you're doing kind of the body movement, right with the yoga and then you go right into, you know that Yogananda right, like going into the deep meditative state. And, you know, the things that that's, it's a lot of people know, to move their bodies, right and work their bodies, and that's really important, but what they don't do after that is take some time to kind of go with it.

Unknown Speaker 11:35 Yes, I,

Brandon Handley 11:37 um, I want to know more about your hippie mom. Yeah. Yes. I mean, you know, so, you know, Was it easy for you then to for, for me to kind of jump into this space mentally. It was kind of an easy transition for myself, because of a hippie mom. Right. So I'm just curious if that was similar for you. Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker 11:57 my parents are both deadheads, so Grateful Dead all day long in our house still. And yeah, I think my mom, so my dad I would describe is like, yeah, deadhead, he still goes to like cover shows and Yeah, super into it just um, my dad was always so supportive of me and my dreams. He's also an entrepreneur. So I think that helped me. So I've never been limited in that. And my mom is very spiritual. She's very open minded. I love that about her. I remember she would buy me books of, you know, different world religions, and she always just encouraged me to explore and to really honor people and faith in their spirituality, their race. I mean, you know, what, what they believed and I'm, I'm really grateful for that. It's something that you know, as you get older, you realize that not everybody is raised that way. And I really raised to be empowered to make my own decisions in my faith and spirituality career. And it's helped me a lot, I think, be a leader in this space.

Brandon Handley 12:56 Now, I love it and it seems like you know, you're totally aligned with Kind of your purpose? Um, and what would you say purposes because, you know, bring in, I think as a coach, right, coming from the coaching space as well as a coach, you know, it's our job to help others bring out the best and others. Right? Bring. And I had another guy I had a coach and look, I have a, I'm not a Christian, I don't come from a Christian background, but you know, my coaches like my job is to bring people to Christ. I was like, Okay, tell me what that means to you. Right? Because I mean, that could mean anything to anybody. Right? And when he explained it, to me, it was, you know, to kind of bring you to your Divine Self Help you step into your power, that's a good thing. So what does that? What does coaching mean to you? What's your end game? Like when you're coaching somebody? What's that transformation? really mean to you?

Unknown Speaker 13:46 Yeah, that's a great question. So for me, I would say since I work specifically with women, it's to help them to live a life that feels in alignment. So I do a lot of limiting beliefs work. I also really do believe in meditation because I think that We can get covered in beliefs about ourselves, or we have the world works that aren't true. And for me, it's been most healing, to clarify, but what beliefs do I choose? And then from that place, I can then make empowered decisions about my life. And, you know, it's difficult. And that's why I think coaching is so valuable, because, you know, it's difficult making decisions for my life that don't fit the mold for what everybody else is doing. And I know I've always kind of been that way. But through coaching and having my own coach, you know, you're you're validated, you're affirmed, you're reminded that that's okay. I'm also really big on community. So I do have a community called the well and that's really designed so that women can come together and explore who they are and still be loved along the way. So that that's really important to me, the way that I do that I can talk about later, but it's really about making empowered decisions for your life, based on you learning how to live a life that's in alignment for you, not based on what anybody else wants for you.

Brandon Handley 14:57 No, absolutely right. I mean, there's the public process of kind of going to unlearn everything you've been taught. Right? But but in the sense and and and try not to do it too dramatically, right? Like you always think about a good buddy of mine. And we always talk about, you know, the matrix, and nobody makes their first jump, right? And just trying to like, yeah, look, you're gonna make that first jump. And if you you know, quote, unquote, fail, or if you fall down, I hit your face. I mean, that's all in your mind. Right? Like, you just get back up and you keep at it, right? How do you know, how do you help these women to expand and understand their limiting beliefs?

Unknown Speaker 15:35 Yeah, definitely. I like what you said about you know, I don't think it's a hard and fast process. I think that can actually be more disruptive and counterproductive. So you know, I actually did a limiting belief session with a client yesterday, but that was her sixth time working with me. So we've been working together for three months. You know, it's something that I think the relationship with Coach and client is really important. I'm definitely the type of coach where you know, it's not a one off session. I don't even offer one off sessions like it's it's a year long program at this point because you have to feel really safe, you know, you have to feel really safe and secure with the people that you're working with to really transform on a deep level. So the limiting beliefs work, I actually was inspired to create that. From john Maxwell. It was literally like a four sentence line in one of his books that I read. And I was like, that's it. That's exactly what I need and what I feel like my clients have needed. I used to run my coaching practice, in that I would help my clients to visualize where they want to be. I would help them to set the goals to get there, and then I would hold them accountable. But I noticed they weren't actually achieving and accomplishing their goals because they were running up against these limits in these blocks. So that's how now I tackle the blocks and I let them know that it's normal to have blocks, right. Like I said, like the unlearning process isn't unique to anyone. We all meet that. So yeah, it's really, I would say like guiding them and holding their hand through it but also empowering them. Don't give them words or language, I might give them examples. But ultimately they end up with an affirmation that is going to then rewire their brain to push them to where they want to be in a loving and kind way.

Brandon Handley 17:10 Hello, hello. And john Maxwell is really awesome, right? I wasn't a fan of his until his latest book, right? And I don't even know what the name of it is, but somebody shared it with me when the leader shift, right, why the leadership, audible was like, so good. And like, literally mowing my lawn listening to it. I was like, I was like, that's it this great, I'm like, you know, and then I was like, get Fine. I'll go read some more of his stuff. You know, because, you know, some, you know, coming from that subculture background and you can't Yeah, that's more it's a little too square square hole for me, right. Um, so, you know, I finally accepted them into my life. It's my john Maxwell story. But it's like that, right? You you. You have and this is, this is My process right sounds kind of similar, where you've got the idea in your mind. And it's not until like you stumble across something else that explains it for you like, Oh my god, that four lines right there explains what I've been trying to convey, but I haven't been able to do it. And there it is. And it's just like a burst right there kind of like a starburst, right? So I love that. Let's talk a second about like, you know, spirituality and Divinity. Right, what I mean? I think, yeah, I think I heard you say divinity. Talk a little bit about that, you know, on one of your podcasts, and then what's that mean to you? Like, kind of taking divine grace and spirituality, right, like

Unknown Speaker 18:46 fill me in like, what's what's up?

Unknown Speaker 18:48 For me my spirituality is a constant exploration. I remember when, you know, I I was a Christian at a point and then I you know, I wasn't and I was raised Christian. So I kind of went in and out and you know, I am no longer a Christian. And I remember asking myself like, well, who do I pray to that, you know? And for me it was it was kind of helpful and fun to just explore, you know, ask other people like, Well, how do you pray? And what does that look like? And I would work with different healers and just kind of, you know, kind of absorb and try on and then figure out what works for me. So, currently, my spiritual practice my spirituality looks like a lot of meditation, a lot of self reflection, a lot of letting go of being told what to do and how to do it and and challenging and questioning and digging in. But a big spiritual practice for me is just reciting some affirmations and prayers that I have. One that I specifically love that I'm working with right now is I love myself unconditionally. I feel myself unconditionally. I feel myself loving myself unconditionally. I feel myself forgiving myself unconditionally. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you. So the past the present in the future, and I love that prayer. So that's just mean that brings me back to a place of centering and grounding and then just helps me move on with my day. So yeah, for me, it's really being connected to the divine throughout the day. So cards helped me with that meditation. Prayer yoga. breathwork is a big practice of mine. I think there are a lot of different ways to spirituality. And if you're someone that's looking to explore spirituality, I highly recommend white hot truth by Danielle Laporte. She kind of tackles all these different spiritual practices and religions and beliefs in a really loving, hilarious way. And it really freed me up to be like, this doesn't need to be so serious, you know, like I can just floor and try on and see what works for Marissa,

Brandon Handley 20:47 for sure, for sure. I love that. I love that right? It doesn't have to be so serious. It doesn't have to be. Don't have to like, just kind of make fun of the door. There's always like a headband. Like listen if you go to a dead concert everybody looks like they go to what that concert right? And sometimes you get the same type of thing with spirituality you go to like you're like, Oh, you know what these it looks like this looks like it could be a pretty cool spiritual group you show up and everybody's wearing like the same kind of tie dye skirt like beads around their neck and you know, there's definitely some crystals going on. Right? But it doesn't have to be. You don't have to look the part to be spiritual, right? You don't have to be do it that way. And it doesn't sound like you're doing it that way. Sounds like you're doing you know what's, what's houses look for? maresa. Right. connected to the divine, then let's take another layer deeper. What's the divine mean to you?

Unknown Speaker 21:43 Yes, I really believe I kind of CO relate. Mm hmm. So deep question. So I do pray for divine guidance. I have found that instead of you know, praying to God, I pray for divine guidance. So that's one way that I connect with the divine I also view the divine as our higher self. So sometimes I will visualize either my higher self or my higher self showing up as golden light and invite that into my body and clear and release any beliefs within me that are not in alignment with my higher self, who I believe is the divine version of me.

Brandon Handley 22:19 Okay, is the Divine Self. And just, you know, kind of checking it out, right, I love First of all, I love the imagery. You know, is it the Divine Self a part? A part? Is it within you, a part of you are separate from you, like, I'm just, you know, where we are.

Unknown Speaker 22:36 I see it as something I can always connect with. I think, you know, I'm not personally actually someone that believes, you know, and like, I'm not trying to achieve enlightenment on this earth. You know, but I think that I think I'm a human, you know, a soul and a human body. You know, I am very human and very much of this world. Every day, you know, it's like, um, you know, I don't believe in like wearing all white And being spiritually light ending all day. And I love being a human and love being in this body so that I can bring divine guidance to this earth. So yeah, I think for me, it's something that I can always access and also is within me, but because I live in the world, you know, that can be clouded. Sure, no, no, I get it. I get it. And first of all, I'll throw out like I made a coffee cup. It says a first coffee than awakening. Right? Yeah.

Brandon Handley 23:27 Right. Because we are like totally human. And like, you know, some days which is like, you know, if you if you if you catch me before this cup of coffee might not be best idea, right. So, so here's the here's why I'm digging into that, right? Because I think I think the lion came from like Joe dispenza. Right? We only rise to our level of thinking, right? If we only rise our level of thinking and then if we think that and there's nothing about being human right if we just think that if we think We're just seeing a man and we just think that we're these these shells. And we just think that we're these, you know, flesh bags and there's nothing again, nothing wrong with that. But once you kind of introduce your higher self, once you introduce this connection to divinity, once you access the divinity, your Divine Self, and you've got that ability to access that, what does that do to your level of thinking? Right? And to me, like that just means that you access a different, you know, level or phase of thinking. So with your divine with your divine divinity and divine grace, you're able to take on more than you could if you were just human, right? And again, I'm not saying just humans are bad we all have everybody has the ability. And the other part of this too is like if we go all the way back, you know, what beliefs do you choose? Right? You can choose, you know, if we use Albert Einstein, you know, either everything's a miracle or nothing's a miracle, right? If we use the Vedanta Right, I'm not, if you listen to Swami is Safari on a panda, right, I totally butchered that last name, but I got all the syllables. If, if you ever check him out, like I mean, there's 44 hours like where he's gotten into the introduction of data, but like, part of it is either your all of it or none of it right? You're either all of the universe or you're not a bit you're connected 100% or not at all. So but that's a choice that you make. And once you make those choices, right, it starts to open up and it sounds like you do some la right like, I mean, you know, law of attraction stuff, it all kind of plays in and that's why you know, I'm kind of digging in on the Divinity part, just kind of seeing where you are with that. So once you accept your divine access, how do you feel like that transformed you?

Unknown Speaker 25:46 Yes, interesting, because actually, I'm gonna relate this to the the work. The way that I help people to access their most Divine Self for sure is through meditation visualization. I take them through, you know, deep guided journeys, but I also because of the human experience I really helped them to focus on what their core desired feelings are, and how do they want to feel in this life because I believe that when you can access that, then you can actually live out your most divine and most empowered self. So for me, once I connected with, you know, who am I and what are my wants and my needs and desires, which is typically more difficult for women than it is for men. I was really able to make decisions for my life that bettered my life that made me feel more in alignment that started to attract more of what I wanted, and you kind of alluded to it, but I think that perspective is key. And that's why in the beginning, when we pulled this card, you know, tuning your energy to appreciation is huge. Because if you can attune yourself to appreciation or you know, to an affirmation of gratitude to what's already amazing in front of you, you're going to start to Yes, I believe attract more of it, but also have eyes for seeing more of it. So I'm a big believer in that As well

Brandon Handley 27:01 100% I call that like kind of setting your filters, right? Like, pretend like we're all walking Google's right. If I go and I say, you know, show me beautiful things in Google, it returns beautiful things. It never ever does it return, like a whole bunch of crap. Right? And, you know, so if we wake up every day, you're like, Oh, this sucks. That sucks. This sucks. That sucks. You know, you're setting your filter to this sucks. This sucks. And that's all you're gonna see. Right? So I wanna, I want to, I'm gonna pick on a little bit here on the, you know, the women, you know, women and and kind of determining what they want, you know, versus men. Right? As a challenge, right? What makes you say that like, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 27:44 yeah, but while the masculine energy, like the Divine Masculine is much more rooted in what they want, what they need, getting those needs met, it's much more stable and consistent. Just eat You know, we could go deep, like our hormone cycles are different, you know. So men are men are very static from day to day. So they wake up, they want, it's pretty much the same every day. Women are more in a 28 day hormone cycle. So we change and we add and we flow in the Divine Feminine is it's more creative, it's a more more open, it's more sensitive. So for us, it actually can change a lot. You know, this goes for both women and men, but a lot of women that I work with are also empaths. So they can take on a lot of other people's energies, and men can do that, too. Absolutely. But yeah, I think that, you know, women are naturally a little bit more curious and sensitive and willing to go with the flow versus be like, this is what I want this I need day in day out.

Brandon Handley 28:45 Sure. Enough, fair enough. Fair enough. Um, and here's the only the only the only thing I'll say about that is that I think that's just our Western conditioning. Right? And, and I hit on this all the time with, you know, kind of anybody I talked to especially young guys when we like, when we're growing up, right as men. It's like It's like, and women too, I'm sure it's like, Alright, well, don't give into your emotions, right? Don't react to your emotions. And you know, you can't let your emotions control you. And what that translates into, for me as a child, right is, oh, I'm feeling something, I need to shut that off and never address it again. All right. And I think that i think that that's kind of where the that's what we see. Right? The the men's non ability or haven't traditionally been trained to address their emotions, right, even identify him. Right. And I think that that's the big challenge. It's like, hey, do you even know what you're feeling right now? Because if you don't know what you're feeling, how can you address it? Right? It's just the whole awareness thing we like if it doesn't have a label, you can't you can't do anything with it. Right? So that's the one thing that the author out there because I don't I feel like men kind of get a bum rap and we don't allow. I don't know what the hell I want, right? You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, I'm just doing I'm just doing what the guy had me just did or over there. I'm like, I don't shit works. We'll try that. What do you just do? I'm gonna do that, right. Just like you got to varies. I'll get two burgers. I don't whatever. Right. Yeah. So it's kind of like our social training. Right? Yeah, just saying give men a chance, you know? Yeah, it's, it's the, it's the idea of like, have be had that open dialogue, right? And that's a challenge too. For men. It's like, you know, they feel like you know, I'm going to go just on my own here. So if we kind of open up and share a feeling of it, first of all, we're like, we don't even know we're like, it feels kind of like this amorphous blob over here. Let's let's you know, let's let's whittle it down until we can figure it out. And nobody wants to be caught in that situation. Like I'm feeling these things and I don't even know what they already want to talk about that because that could that could get rejected. Right.

Unknown Speaker 31:01 Yes, no, that's a really great point. I definitely do agree, I think all of us can benefit from being more self aware. So the first piece is the awareness piece of how Yeah, how do I want to feel and not just go? Oh, yeah, like, the, like you said, This is what the person ahead of me did. So this is how I have to do it. One affirmation that I've been telling myself lately, as I, you know, like bring some new programs into existence for the welco is just I can be the first to do it. Because I want to overcome that belief of Well, I have to do it a certain way, because that's how society has done it. It's like, I'm an Aquarius, and I'm here to innovate and honestly, there's to

Unknown Speaker 31:40 me, there's no way so winter Bertha, January 27 25th. So um, you know, it's funny.

Brandon Handley 31:51 The the idea though, so, you know, how do you want to feel in this life, right, how so let's say you're working with us women that aren't over connected with their emotions, how do you get them connected to those emotions? And, you know, to get them to even explore that idea?

Unknown Speaker 32:08 Yeah, so it is a process. So I use the nine areas of wellness. And with each of those areas, we go through an entire map of how they're feeling on a scale of one to 10 in that area, then we talk about what's currently happening. So that's the awareness piece in that area. And then I have them just rewrite and journal about how they want to feel or what they want in that area. So it could be like, you know, I want to buy a house or I want a different career, whatever it is, and then we we go back and I really have them focus on the feelings behind what they desire. And then I have them narrow those down. And then we start to set action steps and goals around those feelings because it's honestly the hardest work is figuring out what you want to feel. emotional process, even just doing that that usually causes some shift and the person but then once you start to get those needs on small levels, it feels good. You know, I always hear that we are so primal, you know, we are primal beings, we want to feel good, we want what we want. So when you get clued in to what you want, you're going to go and get it as long as you can start small, and then you're going to want more of that and more of that. I always say, you know, it's like, you know, if you're a runner, I'm a runner, but after I go for a run, I can be having a pretty shitty day, and I'll go for a run and then I'm like, I feel great. Everything's okay, I want to drink a green juice. I'm gonna wake up early tomorrow and do yoga. You know, I'm like, I feel good. I did something good for myself. So the more small good things you can do for yourself. I think the more you can tap into that transformation a little bit quick, quicker.

Brandon Handley 33:40 And I think he talked about that in the beginning too. Like how do I start doing wellness just for myself? Right. And and how do you do that how you start some of your clients off right small bits and pieces and you know, what's the, what's some of the reactions that they get, like, what's what are like? What are some timelines that you look Got a with the scenes, some transformations and people.

Unknown Speaker 34:05 Oh man, it's so cool. So I really do focus my practice on women who who work in corporate, they certainly don't have to. But a lot of my clients do work in corporate. So it's really amazing to see that the work that we do in their personal life actually translates into their corporate space, they are much more confident. And this is within a couple of months. So that they noticed that they're much more confident they're making healthier decisions for their life. They're trying a lot of different wellness modalities that feel like they finally fit. Because that's the type of coach that will be like, cool, we're gonna have you do yoga, but how are you feeling? What do you need? Okay, so you're anxious. So let's not have you do power yoga, let's have you do some yoga. So it's very holistic in that way, really looking at the client as a unique individual. their relationships begin to change very quickly. And yeah, they're just overall happier and they get feedback really quickly from other people. A lot of my clients are like, people are telling you that I seem happier. And I'm like, Yeah.

Brandon Handley 35:04 Awesome. That's awesome. I love it. I love you know, look, I mean, everybody, I think needs it right? to kind of go through the process. If we at least have somebody out there encouraging them and seeing them for who they are, right, we like you know, I see you for who you are. And we're gonna help you to see the same for yourself. Yeah. Um, do you want to talk a little bit more about the wall method? Like kind of what you got going on there?

Unknown Speaker 35:31 Yeah, sure. I'd love to. So how a man the well method was really I would say that burst into existence just from a gap that I experienced in the wellness industry. And this obviously is, you know, my personal methodology and what works for me. So there are plenty of ways to do wellness. But what I noticed when I really wanted to start my wellness journey, and I was like, I'm ready. This is important to me. I'm ready to invest in it. Like I mentioned earlier, it was to like, it felt like I was piecemealing everything together and it honestly started to add up. You know, I'm like working with one healer there and I'm driving 30 minutes and then I found this other I related coach and I have to go 45 minutes into the city and I'm like driving all over and scheduling all these appointments and it was a little overwhelming. Yes, it absolutely worked. And I've connected with so many incredible wellness leaders. So what I've done with the well method is I've developed a one year program so my clients actually work with me as their holistic life coach and then they also quarterly get a session with a wellness expert. So I'll have somebody that you know, teaches them I Aveda in a private one on one session and that really helps them to understand more about their own body and seasonal wellness. I have a girl that will be doing body acceptance and self love working with an astrologer and then a womb wisdom guide and healer. So it's an amazing womb wisdom guide and healer

Unknown Speaker 36:58 wisdom

Unknown Speaker 37:00 Yes, this might be new. Yeah.

Brandon Handley 37:03 That's interesting. That's actually I've never heard I've never I've never heard and it's just fun to say actually waited.

Unknown Speaker 37:08 Yeah, it's a really cool creative title, but she's a cycle track and how to actually use their cycle to their advantage, which is really important and women's wellness.

Brandon Handley 37:18 Sure, man, it's like, you know, the tides of the ocean no doubt, right? Yeah. And I'm sure that there's like some emotional ebbing and flowing right. When are you going to use that? high tide of energy? You got it.

Unknown Speaker 37:32 I can tell you have a wife who understands

Brandon Handley 37:38 so listen again. I grew up in your my hippie mom. Oh, yeah. single mom is just kind of like, you know, it's just it's kind of already there. Right. So all that stuff there. So advantage disadvantage, I don't know. Um, and and so you're rolling this out? This is going to come out like around July so we're going to be live in July?

Unknown Speaker 37:58 Yes, yes, we will be live In July, so I've actually already been doing I would say, half of this program, or you know, years now. So it's really just an accumulation of everything that has worked and then really making it personalized. It will be a personalized bonus plan so that you don't have to go find all the healers and ask weird questions and go into crystal shops and feel like you're like, knowing that Unicode

Brandon Handley 38:22 gamma system there bro.

Unknown Speaker 38:25 Paying the table, you know, it's, it's all designed specifically for you. And actually, it's based on seasonal wellness. So we'll go through different wellness topics that I have found to be transformative in my life based on the seasons and the nature of each season and what you know, I believe that we should be holistically looking at in this season.

Brandon Handley 38:44 I love it. I love it on your page. Where do I find you at wellness podcast, you've got your wellness podcast, you offer a free virtual chain training on your site. You've got some meditations on there. You've got books Love I'm gonna go ahead and just say you know playing big by Tara Moore You are a badass by Jensen zero desire map. Which one did you mentioned at the beginning? Right? White Hot

Unknown Speaker 39:12 yes white hot truth by Danielle Laporte and she also wrote the desire map and all my clients get the desire map is I guess when they started incredible book,

Brandon Handley 39:21 right and I saw you had in your picture untethered soul. So you're Michael singer fan right? Um Have you thought Have you read the surrender experiment?

Unknown Speaker 39:31 I haven't,

Brandon Handley 39:32 should I? It's interesting. It's actually changed me and just like his his whole concept of it right? is you know, and I actually interviewed this guy named Greg Bernstein. He's like a shaman, you know, God doing vortex tours in Hawaii, and he's much one that I'm not doing any justice. But uh, you know, he, he talks about it too. We talk about la right and we also kind of talk about the constant Have you already have limiting beliefs? Even your most unlimited thought of what you want is pretty limited, right? We think the box is huge, right? But really, we're playing like and like this, this kind of a pixel of it, as it were. So who am I? To go tell the universe what's best for me? Right? And so, Michael singer kind of does it in this way where he says, I'm pretty sure the universe wants what's best for me, but like, even more than I could ever imagine, so I'm just gonna surrender to what the universe has offer. Right? And I was like, I was like, it's pretty potent bro. That's pretty it's pretty, it's pretty big. Right? And then like, his whole story is is pretty interesting. But just like that, that that kind of idea was like, All right. So I wasn't I wasn't sure if you would, you'd read that one what um, you know, so you're doing the cards. What is something that else is kind of like just radically changed your whole life, you know, spiritual journey. or anything that you're doing? What is a book a movie? A song, poem? Whatever.

Unknown Speaker 41:06 Yeah, well I'm gonna have that book to my list because I really enjoy that and think I would really really love that so you know what I'm gonna throw this one in there this is probably not what you're expecting doesn't probably didn't sound spiritual it is but just joy and having fun like having so much fun I think spirituality can get so serious you know I'm some meditation is so important getting on my mind doing my yoga practices, but sometimes you just need to go like have a drink with a friend or you know, go do something fun for yourself. So for me, I bought a surfboard recently I used to surf in California. And you know, my commitment is just to make sure that I'm at the beach and then I'm surfing and just really honestly like living a life that I want to live so I'm going to throw in there just fun.

Brandon Handley 41:48 No, I love it. I love it And listen, it's actually in the word enlightenment right light, be light, right like just kind of doesn't say and heavy man doesn't say like, you know, and German and like, carry all this heavy shit around with you and be stoic. And so it gets a bad rap too. But I love it though. So no joy. And I like that you use joy over, you know, happiness. I think joy is more sustained. And you know, more recently I heard the definition of happiness is completely external is literally based on happenstance. So the things that are your around and your circumstances, right, I think that joy is something more innate that you can control. So I'll take it. I'll take it. What? Yeah, what would you say? What would you say that we haven't kind of hit on something that you would share?

Unknown Speaker 42:40 Yeah, I mean, I don't think we talked too much about how transformational meditation is, I know that you meditate. I think what's really interesting, you know, I'm, I'm a pretty, you know, woowoo spiritual person. But I do also think that research is important and there's so much research behind mindfulness meditation, the practice of meditation that I always And follow is mindfulness meditation. I completed Jon Kabat Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, through Thomas Jefferson University and it was life changing. You know, bringing mindfulness into your day can be so helpful to help you to access what's really going on. And you know, we both talked about the importance of awareness, right. So getting aware of what's going on through mindfulness is very helpful.

Brandon Handley 43:26 You on your podcast, you have a really nice way of kind of putting, like mindfulness and meditation you feel free to share that here, right? Like, it's not necessarily that your mind won't be distracted it instead it will, is to bring it back. So share a little bit of that.

Unknown Speaker 43:42 Yeah, I see mindfulness and meditation as a training ground. So it's literally like me going into training and I schedule it in and I'm like, Alright, this is where I train my mind because what happens in that space lasts. Like I said, there's a lot of research around it, but the benefits of meditation last. So for me, I see it as a training. Round. And just like anything that you're training and it takes practice, and it's never going to be to a point where your mind is silent again, bring you back to we're human. But it's about the relationship that you have with your thoughts. So you'll you know, be meditating, your thoughts come up, what is your relationship to them? And what are they showing you and maybe need to go off of the anchor of your breath, if that's what it is, if your anchors your inhale and your exhale, and your body speaking to you and it's like pain or uncomfortability or have this thought, you know, listen to me, then it's kind of working with that and being like, yeah, body Yes, mind. Yes, divine guidance. What are you trying to show me? And that's really where I explore myself and and then also ask for spiritual guidance to

Brandon Handley 44:42 follow that. Yeah, you're right. We didn't want to talk about too much. Meditation. The one thing that I learned through meditation, and he talked about unconditional love, right, which to me is kind of synonymous with don't judge like non judgement, right? You're paying attention to your body, but you're not judging it, right? It's like, hey, there's it's acknowledgment. But it's not giving it a good or a bad week, right? Is that what you're saying?

Unknown Speaker 45:10 Yeah, absolutely. I think through mindfulness comes it actually research has proven that empathy for others and empathy for yourself, which is the loving kindness and the self compassion,

Brandon Handley 45:21 the metta metta meditation, right? And here's what I love about the metta meditation. We spend a lot of time thinking about ourselves. Yeah, right. And this is like an opportunity even like, I'll pull out midday and do like a five minute metta meditation, so I can think of some other people and not think about my own shit. Right? And but but because that's what we do, right? We think about all the stuff that we've got going on for ourselves. So if we can take just five minutes, give ourselves one minute in there, like all right, well, this this, if you're not familiar with meditation, you know, explain the metta meditation real quick for somebody who's never done it.

Unknown Speaker 45:56 Sure. So yeah, metta meditation is also known as loving kindness meditation. very accessible, you know, on apps or on YouTube, if you'd like I also have on on my website, it will guide you through a very incredible meditation where you are seeing others in front of you and sending them loving and kind words you also go typically back and forth between sending others loving and kind words, and then you're self loving and kind words. And through that the state of the brain actually changes. And you can see benefits from that very quickly.

Brandon Handley 46:27 Yeah, no, it's awesome. And I still remember my first rounds of meditation. I did it headspace. And then I didn't do it for like two weeks. And then I was irritable as hell. And I tracked back I was like, What's different? What's what, what what, you know what I mean? Because I hadn't done it. I was able to track it back to meditation. And I, I'm sure I missed the day here, there, but it's part of my daily life. So if you're an irritable Raji son of a bitch, want to try is meditate Where can we send people to go find you on all the things that you're doing right now?

Unknown Speaker 47:11 I am a connector is I would love to connect to the guys chat more about this stuff. I definitely someone that is on Instagram a lot. You can find me at Marissa rose Nash, and my website is the well code.org. I'm also on Facebook at Marissa rose Nash or the welco by Marie rose, so feel free to reach out I do also offer a free 30 minute solo sessions where we explore limiting belief in one of the nine areas of wellness to help you get unstuck and find a little bit of freedom there.

Brandon Handley 47:43 Awesome. Well, hey, thanks a lot for stopping by today. Glad you took a chance

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Brandon Handley 0:00 Hey, hey, hey, what is going on? Happy whatever day this is hope that you're doing well, it's Brandon Handley here, the voice of a generation hit you with some more spiritual dope. I don't have an intro. So I'm just gonna go ahead and roll with that one. You know, finally got done messing around with clean cleanup as my chickens here. And I've been waiting to do this podcast for a while this is one that, that that means that that means a lot to me. And it took a while for it to mean a lot for me. And we'll kind of discuss that as as we move forward here. So, what I want to share with you today is vision, right the the word vision and kind of what it means to have a vision and, and that kind of thing. And it's super powerful. And I think that we really neglected quite a bit. And I'm not sure what your familiarity is with the word visit. And how it plays out into your life. But I love these two quotes that come to mind. And the first one is by Helen Keller. And it says the only thing worse than being blind is having sight. But no vision. And that's just well, powerful right? And to be honest with you when I first heard it, you know, it took a while for it to you know, ricochet my mind and finally smash something and then make connection as it were kind of like a BB inside the mind. And then this other one is a Japanese proverb, vision without action is Daydream. action without vision is nightmare. Oh, so true. Right, so true. So true. And let's let's just kind of talk about let's talk to these two quotes. And and see, you know, what it is that Do you think about vision? How do you think about vision? Do you think about vision? And as I was putting this one together, you had to look some definitions up. And we're going to talk through those definitions. And we're going to see how they sit with you how they sit with you. So the simplest definition is the ability to think about or plan for the future with imagination, or wisdom. I love imagination being in there. It's inventiveness, creativity, innovation. And to me, this begs the sub question

Unknown Speaker 2:36 how

Brandon Handley 2:37 do you think about your future? Do you think about your future based on known events of the past as though on a trajectory into the future? as though the past is the groundswell that's carrying you to your future? And then of course, I've got to say, do you see wisdom in that Right, do you see wisdom in that that is the soundness of action or decision with regard to the application of experience knowledge and good judgment, I would say yeah, you could see some wisdom in living that way. Because you're gonna, you're gonna translate some of your experiences in there. So there's definitely some wisdom if you do it in that way. But I also ask, Is there creativity? Is there innovation? Is there inventiveness and that because really, if you're if you're basing everything kind of on your past that how will you know what your future is? Right? So you, you, you've got to think more about kind of what you want to have happen to you. Because vision basically is something that is never happened, right? Is the vision something that you would like to see happen and you know, less than I guess, you could have Have a vision that isn't something great that you want to have happen. But typically, a vision is is something good, right? fanciful? Or, you know, you've never, it's never happened in your life before. And so, when you look at some of the visionaries throughout time, you know, did they perpetuate the past? Or, and I love I love I think I heard this idea once the first time from neville goddard. Did they call forth a vision, right? And yet we get to another we get to another definition of vision Now, that's a vivid mental image underlying vivid mental image, you know, especially a fanciful one of the future a dream, a conceptualization. Clearly, this is something that does not exist in the world today. But were you to have a vision.

Unknown Speaker 4:53 You'd be able to see

Brandon Handley 4:56 a mental image of it clearly, and I want to take that a step. Further, and call it a full rendering within your mind a full setting where you'd have such a vision and you would summon all of your sensory elements you would be able to touch, there would be a texture,

Unknown Speaker 5:14 a smell, a full depth

Brandon Handley 5:16 of experience, there would be emotion. I believe, to me that vision is propelled by emotion. Businesses are granted. I feel like visions are granted some would say by God, the universe or something, something that you access to this greater than you have led yourself to believe. That's where visions come from. So where have you seen visionaries in your past and in all time, and I had a couple of examples pulled out for you today. If you're if you're thinking of, you know, the past couple hundred years, you would think of the Wright brothers. And these were bicycle mechanics. Do they have a degree in aeronautics With a Avi Could you be you can't be an aviator before aviation even exists you know would they even mechanics and and i would say no they were granted a vision and they persisted with that vision they persisted with as if that was something that was guaranteed to them and I think of the story from Napoleon hills thinking grow rich and the story about Henry Ford the eight cylinder engine v you know that was actually the eight cylinder you know the V eight to V eight and he had a vision to create something that was that was cheap and good a V eight that was cheaper but there were some that existed already but they were expensive and they were really you know, kind of monstrosities.

Unknown Speaker 6:54 So, at some point, oh, wait, hold on. There's

Brandon Handley 6:57 so during that time, you know, the cheap cheap and good did not exist, right. And he'd been surrounded by experts and engineers that were saying that it could not be done. And I love this line because he says, at some point, it becomes necessary to disperse with the services of experts. And these are people who have found limitations in their field most likely. And when you find people that that hit limitations, they're no longer thinking beyond what they believe to be true, right? If you find somebody that's been in a field for so long and has been doing what it is they do, for so long, they no longer see what is possible beyond what it is that they've seen. So he assembled a team of engineers, far from those naysayers far from those experts. And as they got to work the first six months It was nothing. You get frustrated engineer's claiming impossible, and he would say go ahead. And he was he would say stay on The job until you succeed, no matter how much time is required, right, no matter how much time is required, keep at it persist. And you know that this happened for yet another year and with Ford saying, I want it, and I will have it. And finally, again, this comes out of thinking Grow Rich Napoleon hills as if by a stroke of magic. The Secret was discovered his determination and his faith in Division in that image that he held in his mind, right, if we go if we if we, if we think back to the beginning here, the mental image being held clearly of what was possible. So you call forth the impossible in service to the masses, and why is that important? Why is it important to be in service to the masses, feel like you're really not going to have a vision grant To unless what you're trying to do is of service to something greater than your immediate self. And that's, you know, again, these are, this is just my perception of vision and kind of how you can take a look at it. So, you know, another thing to note here is that you don't need to be the person in possession of the know how you don't need to, you don't need to know how something will happen in order for it to happen, just like just like, hey, this was this was Henry Ford and he was he tasked

his engineers with and his team was something that he you know, he felt

Unknown Speaker 9:41 could happen.

Brandon Handley 9:43 And then I'd like you to consider for a moment right Do you know how your how to grow your hair? Right, but it happens. Do you know how to create the white blood cells in your body to fight illness yet? You're creating it. Do you really even know No. Do you even know how it is that you are alive? And when you stop for a moment and think about all the things that you don't know how specifically are happening, but are happening for you every day, then is it possible for something to happen for you that you hold it a vision without knowing how it will happen? Is it possible and if there's that possibility, then you have to consider Hey, then, then it is possible that something could happen for me without knowing how it's going to happen. So then vision your vision, doesn't require greatness. I don't I don't think without outside of you. I believe that it requires and comes from the greatness within you. And I think that this is what you live for. This is what calls to you in the hero's journey. This

Vision is the call of the hero. And I think that you'll have many visions. Right? And this is it the vision without action is a daydream. That's the Japanese proverb. And then when you answer that, you take action on it, right? You take action. And when you answer that you accept what's already been granted the strength and the grace. That to carry out your vision, and you've already got this within you, it's just how do you want to apply it in your life? How do you want to how do you want to apply it and you know, we think of other stories that have been out there, other great visionaries. You know, Tesla and his love electricity needs to say to him about him, he would have a vision without even going like all to to without gone through so many gyrations he would see it once and create it and it would work just as he'd seen it so clearly in his mind. And then you had Steve Jobs.

Unknown Speaker 12:01 With the iPhone

Unknown Speaker 12:03 You know, he he would he just

Brandon Handley 12:05 kept at it and he believed that it could happen. And then you've kind of listen you've got Ilan musk doing whatever it is that he's doing, but there's something

Unknown Speaker 12:12 different

Brandon Handley 12:14 about his approach, there's something different with how he's going after these things. And, you know, I think that it could just as easily be you now that you kind of understand fully, you know, how vision could be applied and, and I think that once you have a vision, you're calling forth the future. And that is something that you can do every day. And that is something that when you wake up, that is something that pulls you and calls you and you're taking action and it's just such a emotional void filler, I would say and it's not it's not a overarching ambition for great wealth. Just to have this great wealth, there's something in there. That to me is so powerful and then even on the back end of this action without vision is nightmare to do all that you do

Unknown Speaker 13:17 without a vision to me seems hollow.

Unknown Speaker 13:21 Right? Without a vision, hollow action,

Brandon Handley 13:24 what is it? What is what is your action for? Why are you doing what it is that you do? And when you're called forth in the vision, then I think that you're super powerful way. So hey, listen, you know, rolled over in your own mind, see how you see how you feel about it. consider creating a vision for yourself and seeing what that feels like. versus a plan versus a dream versus any of these other words there versus a goal and see if it doesn't Make you quite literally resonate at a different vibration and if it does, that's cool if it doesn't, that's cool to you know Call, call it what you want this is what it does for me and that's that's really what I'm here to share with you this is this is that is my spiritual dope, right? That's my hit. And when I think of when I think of a vision, I feel like that that is granted and I feel like there's divinity and I feel like there's strength and I feel like there's hope and I feel like there's all those just powerful, innately gifted things within it right? To me, I think that's powerful. That's something that I wake up for every day. And I think that hey, listen, if you're digging what you're hearing here today, I would just appreciate hearing from you and say, Hey, you know, Brandon as spiritual dope, co appreciate what you're putting out there and I would love it. If you head on over to iTunes and leave a five or five star rating if you love it a one star rating if you hate it, don't leave anything in between. I don't you know, I don't want to live for mediocrity. And let's let's keep it rolling. Thanks for tuning in and I will talk to you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Paresh Shah is a human being - 100% genuine article. check out part 1 for an in-depth introduction to Paresh.

We pick up where we left off on https://spiritualdope.co/paresh-shah/ - we dig on some integrity and some great ways to keep on going on if you are feeling down.

Places to connect with Paresh:

https://www.glimpulse.com/

https://www.liftersrising.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pareshshah1

paresh shah 0:00 Like what are some of you are yes and Brandon you have so many hi I read the deadly

Brandon Handley 0:05 bring everything I bring all of everything that I've ever done with me right you get to bring all of all of you know, diversity isn't just in the workplace for the people that you interact with. It's all of your personal experiences. Right? So it's it's, it's you know, I worked with horses I've muck stalls you know I've bartended I've been able to serve in many many different capacities and and I can bring a different aspect and I can reapply anything to this specific situation I can bring my specific experience my specific set of eyes exactly is and how you

paresh shah 0:43 show up right how you show up is what makes the difference compared to someone else.

Brandon Handley 0:49 And and, and I'm just as excited to get precious input right like I want to I want to see what what is it the press brings out you know, look, I love How I think I can't I cannot tell a lie. I love how I think and I enjoy my own thoughts. But I also enjoy somebody else's and I want to find I want to celebrate the differences right? I don't want to celebrate our same if if we're all the same stop me now. Right But I want one

paresh shah 1:20 of us is one of us is redundant.

Brandon Handley 1:23 One of you can go home now. Um, so I celebrate I celebrate our differences and what we can create because of our differences.

paresh shah 1:32 That's exactly what the centerpiece is about. It's called show up ride your yes and and what we teach is that you take these differences and I'll show you this little picture over here that actually alluded to earlier where remember that movie man? Whoa, I lose you know, so here we go. Okay. Remember that movie man on the wire about the guy who The Wire across the world trade center and he be across the high wire. Have you seen that movie? No, I didn't say so. Oh, it's an absolute 100% hundred 50%. You must watch it. All right. He basically he had to be within the dentist office. He saw a National Geographic cover. And this gets back to what you were talking about in terms of the tension and how do we really attuned the tension you were talking about earlier, right? He was in the dentist offer office and he saw National Geographic that was announcing this idea of the World Trade Center and it had a graphic artist rendition of these new tallest buildings in the world that were going to be built. And he was so fascinated with the whole idea of there being these two, you know, magnificent monster buildings that we're going to be built, right and so while in the dentist office and he used to be a judge. He was a juggler and that kind of thing. He drew a cable across the two. And he said I want to walk a tight wire across the world trade center. And he's practiced. And he put a team together around it that they broke in, which has made it even fun. It was a heist today, they broke into both buildings to get the cable across, right? And he put a team together that helped him take his vision and go Alright, we have to get this cable there. How are we gonna get this, you know, 2000 pound cable to the top floor and it's just amazing. And he actually ended up not just walking. He ended up dancing or laying down On that high wire as people in New York looked up going inside a man and he was dancing on his high wire. And one of the things we teach around this, the honoring differences, as you spoke about is when you tighten the lines, you tighten the tension

in differences, right? creative differences, you know, older people and younger people, you know, people with different points of view, then and you would tune it, you can create a resonant frequency that then basically makes that possibility, a total reality. And, you know, he was just dancing up there. He was not afraid, at all. So, show up is that third one, it's essential. serve up is foundational. You have to realize the world has changed. It's foundational rights that from transacting to service. Listen up is essential. You got to listen To your inner self, to your body and to others to go, okay, what's going on here? And how do you speak into the listening of other people so that you have that connection and you get each other, right? And in the middle is show up with your yes and go, you know what, you're different than me. And let's take those differences. And like, let's put like a guitar chord between us, and let's tune those. So we can create this resonance in this harmony that can then propel you to a higher solution that you may not have even seen existed, right? Have you compromised so we don't advocate compromising? Because that's no one satisfied when you compromise or tolerate differences. A lot of you know, teaching is let's tolerate our differences, that that dulls that connection. But if you really take that connection, and the differences and you reach across the gap, and go Okay, let's let's put a little knot here. Let's let's really tune it, and what do we want to collectively create together? And create this thing so you can just like slingshot it up and create that new possibility. That's what he was able to do. That's what we teach in that show up, use your differences not to tolerate each other and have to compromise. But, or even honor honors pretty good compliment. It's a compliment activated. Exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. That's what we call the activate our differences activate diversity. So that's the third one so it serve up Listen up, show up with all of your yes ads I miss and I'm missing on this. But uh, and then the last one is act up. It's about taking action and be purposeful and have you take a big vision of what you want to create and take that next step. And how do you use your what we call this? You fake it till you make it? Okay? You make it and so to be a ke what what do you want to create? And what does that look like? What's the visual? What's it feel like to be there now? Right? What does it sound like? To have that, you know, you know, to be dancing on that wire, you know in the wind in New York, or kinesthetically, what's it feel like to be in that moment in the ever present? Present Moment? And what's that expression and experience be like the VA ke and so, you create that you fake it till you make it and then that feeling that vibration pulses out collectively, when you have all these people eliminating you, you emanate your evany Exactly. And that guitar, that what we say is the the bow that was the hunter bow, you turn it sideways, from serve up, and it becomes an instrument with you pluck it and it becomes music, for sure. And then it becomes a catapult and it becomes like a trampoline, where everyone's holding this trampoline. And you can propel you know change at the community level, at the individual level at the company level. So it serve up Listen up, show up and act up. are the four mind shifts in this lifter leadership model and part of why we are connected why we have connected and you've connected me with amazing people is you are a lifter and lifters resonate with one another.

Brandon Handley 8:13 Yeah man No, no, it's awesome right it's awesome that you know, I think what's beautiful is that you know we talk a little bit about the spiritual side and maybe the woowoo right we go we go I but that's a little woowoo this vibrational this this heart centric stuff.

paresh shah 8:31 Hold on let me check with the little the little spirit behind me. It's too woowoo Ah, little further. Oh for sure. For sure. Thank you. St Germain.

Brandon Handley 8:42 Okay, sure. Right. Like we're nowhere nowhere even really close, I think to as a really Whoo. But the

Unknown Speaker 8:49 thing is, is that

Brandon Handley 8:51 I think there's the people on the woowoo side, right that that are doing things in the business world or afraid to kind of put their feat in the business world because they can't speak the business language even though that that's what they're doing like wow you know maybe a goal and a plan and a grand vision right in business because it's something that that's desirable right like so if you've got a you know coach or somebody a celestial person human being out there right and it's just like this is you know, all woowoo like, what's your vision and what's it feel like you know, if they can change that language just a little bit to to make themselves a little bit more marketable, right. that's acceptable because you're not you're not losing who you are. Right? You still get to do your yes and

paresh shah 9:41 yes, and yes, Brandon and the business desirability that you spoke to earlier, like the Language of Business, right? Um, I've got a guy who works with me, his name is Phil and no Was you the bullshit generator? Yeah, okay so I'm not saying I love the business speak the book like you pointed me to that website the bullshit generator and and part of this gets back to like that honest resume. So like that was kind of what you were reading in our earlier take of this to some extent had some bullshit generator type of stuff for Rashad internationally renowned, blah blah blah his mom is very proud that he got a degree from blah blah blah his his dad you know made great sacrifices so he could then get the award for our oh my god it's so funny. But anyway, there's so you know, the bullshit generated let's magnetize our, you know, scalable, strategic, transparent web readiness and reinvent our disruptive synergistic AI guys kind of done with that you get it gets,

Unknown Speaker 10:58 it gets to a certain point where it is too much, but you know, okay,

paresh shah 11:03 but you got to speak the language, you got to speak some of the language and you don't throw the baby out with it's not even the baby with the bathwater. It is part of how it works. We have to kind of look at the words and go. Does hunters Make sense? We know what what we what our intention is? Or what we're calling ourselves, right? Or do the words actually shape how we come into how we see the world and that's and you you see how it's a both way circuit? In other words effect and how what we do affects our words. And so

Brandon Handley 11:40 we write like how we describe it, I think that you know, it's it's, it's what we want when we show up, what are we showing up as and we make that determination with our words we show up. This is a home job job, it sucks, yada yada yada. I'm sitting around a bunch of people, it's a bunch of postage and being generated. You know, all right. Well, you know, everyone a while, and sometimes you, I'll fake it for myself and I'll be like, we know what I'm really doing today is XYZ. I'm making sure that the when I show up today, I don't know somebody were able to connect today because the job that I have and and do exactly. So, you know, what's beyond like, kind of this what's right in front of here? What you know, we are more than what we see. Right and and i think that's another part of the spirituality bit, right we, we limit ourselves to this, this finite vision that we see and what is right here around us with our five senses, right when we could really be everywhere all the time and beyond. Beyond here, right? We could say, I guess yeah, yeah. What I'm doing today, what you and I are doing today is echoing an eternity.

paresh shah 12:43 Yes, actually. Yeah. What there's a he wouldn't call himself a teacher. He calls himself a pointer. And Mooji Have you heard of Luigi? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 12:56 I just he's not like he's not my jam. He's not my jam. He's not you

paresh shah 12:59 You're a fan. You're a fan you love. I do love them and so I love the way that you say he's not my jam right? So it so we are all notes and his notes strike a chord with me that help me kind of be a help point me to the reminders of the truth that I am and and so you said that my gym but you don't other hand you know and like certain things might speak to you differently around that. So he would call it you know, don't be distracted and he and I love his Caribbean accent it's just so like, you know, don't be distracted by the shape of your body. It's just the shape. It's a shape of your it's an idea. It's a concept and you're more than that. You are You are the witness of that. Do you is that that's your dynamic aspect. That just that just just for now for now just be empty of that you can go back to it anytime you want. Just for now, and it's it's so reassuring around the the modernists

Brandon Handley 14:07 I like you as Mooji

I like you as Mooji

paresh shah 14:17 well, you know what's funny as moochie would probably say I've not met him. He would probably say a messiah and that's what we are we are the I am We are the is we are the isness then so, so why why are we surprised? Let that idea go You have a great imagination. Your imagination is very good but you don't need a man You don't need to create anything you already are. You are you are you are and it's made your Mooji fair just

Brandon Handley 14:50 you know it's it's let's I get myself hung up on that from time to time. Sometimes it's it's the deliver Earth You know, that's, that's why so many of us have to kind of go out there and not just uplifters right like lifters for sure, right? recognize their own divinity within and then try and light others up right? And we got to go out we have to teach from our own heart how, you know, how can I help you to get this spiritual dope, right? You get the spiritual high for yourself right? Like how can how can I get you connected to source to whatever it is, and how can I get you to recognize you're so much more than Yes, yes,

Unknown Speaker 15:38 yes and and and

Brandon Handley 15:39 you know, we all you're going to speak to a different audience and they're going to hear you as Mooji. Right. And, and and

paresh shah 15:51 it's just the shape, it's just an idea,

Brandon Handley 15:54 but if it's Mooji I'm like, just like Satguru like I'm okay but like I'd rather listen to like all listen You know, it's just like your favorite rock band right like the like the who that wasn't for me right but uh you know I like you know some other bands right like like what like what I mean look I mean for if we're talking classic rock I mean I was you know look Zeppelin Zeppelin is easy right but I was later I was later in my music life she's a Harley remember like a buddy I still remember actually listening to heart and like you know bear that Magic Man album right on like cassette like, oh, like

paresh shah 16:29 that's a great right like I mean a great album. I just saw heart before the COVID thing they were playing here yeah at the US at the forum and an NC Wilson are so gifted there boy it's it's they've been doing this for so long. Their songs Magic Man. Yeah, even at Barracuda. Great on these dreams. like that song these streams is. I'm gonna pull it up. on my YouTube, I'm gonna have them play the stream. I don't know if you're allowed legally to play this on your podcast. But listen,

Brandon Handley 17:07 listen, if I if, if I'm garnering a la la attraction,

Unknown Speaker 17:13 right, then I'm in.

Brandon Handley 17:16 Go ahead.

paresh shah 17:27 But look at Nancy.

Dude, you gotta love the ad.

Every moment I'm awake, right? And what were you talking about earlier?

Brandon Handley 17:47 of the the awakening, right? The the the, you know the second chance, right the second chance to to really recognize and capture the essence of like, all that you're still capable of right what's the Know what's what's it's, it's realizing how much more life has to give. Right? And that's that's kind of what I found and stepping into that right. You talked earlier about stepping into your greatness, right? When you when you when you realize, you know, you've accomplished something that's impossible for you when you realize that the impossible was actually a really, really fucking low bar. Yeah and you're like wow, that was a really low bar that I've set for myself.

Unknown Speaker 18:29 Exactly.

Brandon Handley 18:32 And he you know, then then that you're just really opened up to how much more is left and it's always it's funny because you always get the question well, what would uh, what would you tell your 20 year old self right? What advice would you give just the same advice I'm giving to myself now and I hope I take more action on it right like, this is the advice I should be taking action on. Because I have I have more than 20 awesome years to give and it looked earlier. It point earlier is like everything I accomplished up to this point. You know, I've been loath to say it myself, but I agree it's been kind of easy, right?

paresh shah 19:09 You're, you're graded you can get, you can get really good. You're a fast learner, Brandon. And you can get really good at most things that you put your mind to, sure or not your mind necessarily like your your your, you know, heart and mind. But there's something about that next level. Hmm. That you, you, you you get, you know,

Brandon Handley 19:31 that but that's what that's where that's where, you know, that's where you found yourself, right? That's where you found yourself. When you push your body there, you push your body there, and you're like, there's this next level to me that I didn't even I didn't even I wasn't even paying attention to. Right. I didn't even know that this existed

paresh shah 19:46 within me. I did not I did not exactly, exactly. And that's what's cool. And you talk about that second chance. I like that reference. Because actually, every moment we have that second chance, it's actually every moment and instead of waiting This what we talked about, like in that serve up, there's an awareness aspect or Mooji again would say you out the witness, you know, what is the awareness that sees pressures getting upset. The shape of Paresh is getting upset, who is the awareness? And when you have that awareness, then it helps you. Because I have shit days like don't get me wrong people like oh, Brad, you're so positive. I have crap days, shit days. And it's really a question of, you know, you get you give yourself a second life in the moment to go right now I could react right now to what the situation or I could be response abled. And every moment is that moment to go. I could go this way and be a YouTube for I think, honestly, I think there's five or six hours random. That'll happen. I have not done that. It's, it's gross, but you know, it

Brandon Handley 20:54 did listen, it's gross being human. Sometimes it's just disgusted.

paresh shah 20:59 But there were some there were some funny cat videos that our mortal there. So it's every moment you have that and so there's an attunement. That's really cool. And so, today has been a really great day. It is Friday. I'm speaking with my friend Brandon with Jimmy though, bro. Don't tell me it's not Friday still my god it's Thursday. Somebody told me it was Friday. You accepted that? I agree.

Brandon Handley 21:31 Who knows? Like listen some of my my supervisor last week goes man just weeks gone by pretty fast. I was like, not for nothing. But I haven't been able to tell time for like the past three months, man like, it's

paresh shah 21:42 my it's my daughter. My a second. Sorry, my my two youngest kids. It's their last day of school. So to me it's a Friday because it's your last day of school for like all this COVID and all that stuff. So I'm gonna give her a call. Let's do let's go get ice cream or some shirts. We'll do after this. So anyway, what I wanted to point out, I want to come back to something that you said earlier and share a story a little bit. You talked about being at your low, earlier, and what did you still recall?

Brandon Handley 22:13 I just don't feel like you have to get to a specific low in order to rebound to find your high, right. Like, you hear people say, Oh, you got to you got to hit rock bottom before you can bounce back up again. Well, I think you can just make a determination for yourself that there's something more to this life and what is that and chase that to that?

paresh shah 22:32 So I'm not going to comment on that specifically, because I believed that the same and then I kind of got to a low and it took that for me in that case in the traditional kind of Joseph Campbell journey. Yeah. So I can't say because I was like, no, not for me. I got it covered. I can ascend this situation he made

Brandon Handley 22:56 me hate maybe my maybe my falls on the way

paresh shah 22:59 nobody No, but what and I want to agree with you and I want to agree with you, okay. And I do want to agree with you. So I don't feel it's necessary. And in fact, I had a friend of mine who's very attuned to kind of, you know, galactic happenings. And you know, she could talk about all kinds of realms and things. She shared something really beautiful with me that I did like a real doubletake around when we were talking about the shift that civilization is going that we're in the midst of. A friend described what what we're in the midst of in terms of these lifters being you know, people recognizing the lifter within them is we've gone from Homo erectus to we're evolving as humans, from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. To Are you ready for this next one? What we're in the midst of Give it to me? Stop mine. My friend gave it to me. homo luminous Hello. Yeah. I love it. Hold on. luminous or another word she used is homo University Talas unity consciousness. So we're becoming like beings, we're becoming lighter. And we're really kind of moving from that materialist, that kind of the 3d realm into this more esoteric higher frequency, higher dimensional kind of perspective on, uh, you know, what we experience. And so yesterday I was walking my dog. And this gets back to like hitting low and I wanted to just kind of explore it with you in a certain sanctity, so I was walking my dog and I was feeling I was really in the zone, as we talked about, like, I just feel like things are working and I'm able to, I feel good, I feel good about what's happening, despite the ups and downs, etc. And I was listening to kind of inner guidance with Julia Cameron would guide you to kind of listen to that inner voice and I'm always down walking by Dog and there are a lot of surfers out because people things are opening up here. And I saw some familiar friends who were going surfing. And what came to me was, I wonder if my other friend who I won't mention happens to be here because we tend to collide in those accidental, you know, like there's, we just happen to like collide into each other when we're not expected to in the normal kind of way. And so I called him and he's a really tough dude like he's way tougher than you know. Me super tough. He's big guy. very knowledgeable, really introspective. Just just a real kind of salt of the earth guy who grew up here. I just love him. So like, dude, how's it going? I'm having a great day. I'm here with my dog and he would always feed my dog little doggy biscuits you would get at Costco so my dog loves loves this guy. He's like,

Unknown Speaker 26:03 And,

paresh shah 26:06 and what he shared with me was really an interesting perspective. Because he was actually contemplating suicide. Mm hmm. And I'm like, Oh, come on, dude. And then I realized he was actually like, in that space.

Unknown Speaker 26:30 And

paresh shah 26:33 he's a super tough guy, and he's super self aware. And what he said was, was moved to me. He said, when you're at your all time low, like a rock bottom type of low, you don't even have enough energy, to motivate yourself to do something about it. And it's all about You're way up in certain ways of see things that you might do something like that. And I was like, why? And it struck me as coming from a place of pain and knowing and wisdom. And it was very, like, wow, I haven't thought of it that way and his perspective for what it's worth.

Unknown Speaker 27:34 Because

paresh shah 27:38 he was in a really strange place and I wasn't expecting that. And his perspective was interesting, and it was hopeful to me, which was he goes, so what I'm doing is I postponed it three days at a time. What would I do between now with that because he's kind of He's kind of planned it, which is a decent way to describe what he's planned. And so, and he goes, Well, what can I do in the next three days, that might make a difference? And then as a way of helping himself trying to move out of this feeling, which is so present to him, and I'm doing my best like Left, left left, and you know, come on. And there's a lot of pain in the world. So I I bring that up, too. He's one of the most positive people I know. Right? Yeah, cheer and you know, even when it comes with the job where my dog's tail starts wagging when she sees him, not just because of just Costco doggy treats that he always has in his his car. And so it's really getting back to that choice, right second life that you talked about earlier in each moment. Which way, you know, can we encourage ourselves to go and let's use our heart, let's use our friends, let's use our community to encourage going, you know, in one direction versus the other in every moment so we can have that second life and that next moment I'll be going to go light or dark or we're going to go, you know, anger, forgiveness, or we can go you know, self shame, versus, you know, kind of honoring. You know, how magnificent we are. And these are things that we forget very easy to me. Mindfulness is really, I don't like the word mindfulness for what we speak about in terms of if you call it spiritual Joe, it is really not about your mind being full. It's really about an emptiness of sorts of kind of being in the stillness of you're listening

Brandon Handley 29:51 to Lopa, I think Toluca that says, you know, you know, have a mind that's open to everything and attached to nothing.

paresh shah 29:59 Oh, I love That I will find this open to everything in a test nothing. Yes, I love that. And it's kind of, to me it's like, it's not mindful that it's remindful this we have to remind ourselves remind ourselves you know that there is that the second chance or that Second Life is an adventure that you may not know what your resume is gonna look like, right? Take it that adventure in the choice of this moment to go this way versus that right because lifters are not it's not that you are or are not a lifter because that would cause division and separation from the unity that we really are in how do you show up on purpose in the moment, right, you show up with that lifter attitude to lift in that moment, even for yourself

Unknown Speaker 30:46 or alone, even for even for your friend right? Like you're you're you're

Brandon Handley 30:51 lifting and positivity isn't as necessary as as you being there for him. Right? And that's how you lifted him by just being there for him.

paresh shah 31:01 Exactly. And my tendency would be to give advice. And I really resisted that. Because I really was in the space of like listening to myself, but you know, I feel like I want to call this person and I was inspired to kind of, oh, that was like an inner listening. Right? And hey, let me call him and see maybe he's, you know, gonna tap me on the shoulder and go telepathy. I was right behind you all the time. Or, you know, because that's the type of connection we often have. Right? And, uh, and it was really and here's the beauty of it. It was healing for me too.

Brandon Handley 31:38 Like, it was like he was looking for things to live for right every every third day like what are some things to live for? And so even even while he was kind of down and out, he was like, this is this is this is what I'm alive for. This is what I'm living for tomorrow. I'm gonna do this or, you know, these are reasons to live, you know? Yeah. Is I love that though. I do. I mean,

paresh shah 31:57 isn't that beautiful? It is. It is If someone's ever like, if anyone knows anyone who is in that space, that type of desperation and what he shared with me, which I feel is safe to share, because I'm not sure who it is, is there was a pervasive shame that was a that was the emotion he was experiencing. And as you and I have talked about the Harkin scale of consciousness, which is, you know, the different emotions that humans go through from low frequency to higher frequency, shame is the lowest frequency a human can have. It's like a 20 on an exponential scale. Then it moves up to like, you know, grief, anger, pride, accepted joy, unconditional love, peace. And he was so low on that scale. And it was a beautiful mechanism that he had his self awareness. His Higher Self is all the more go to dip the novel, you know, his, you know, here's your p&l x, right? Push it off three days, push it off three days and like probably like a sobriety perspective. You know, I'm not gonna have that today, one day at a time. And so I would recommend that recommend I implore anyone, because that was genius to be I've not heard that as a strategy to then hopefully you can pop out of that low vibe, and then get that perspective to go, okay, you know, that was me at a really low frequency permissioned way, it's part of the experience. I'm not gonna feel bad about that. And now I'm in a different place and a different perspective from which I can make that choice in a different different way. So it's a great strategy. I feel I'm not an expert in these matters, but I felt that it provided me some some tool he was a tool that I certainly feel is a great thing about a toolkit if you're feeling down about something before you react and make kiddie choices you know, give yourself three days to

Brandon Handley 34:08 just keep pushing it off. I love it. I love it. Well, brother Hey, look at this. It's always awesome. I feel like you know you and I could obviously we could we could probably talk for a lifetime. Unfortunately, I don't know how many people are gonna want to listen to us talk for a lifetime

Unknown Speaker 34:25 let's um, hit me with hit me with

Brandon Handley 34:31 what's like the, you know, you talk about the Four Agreements what's like the most radical you know, spiritual book that's like hits you in between the eyes.

Unknown Speaker 34:47 Radical

Brandon Handley 34:52 doesn't have to be a spiritual book like what's the one that hits in between the eyes because goodness gracious like I've been reading like business books that are like making me feel spiritual out. Right.

paresh shah 35:01 It's really like it comes from everywhere. The I was reading Psalm 23 in the Bible the other day, and it was this, like, you know, it's you between the eyes. You know, we mentioned earlier the Four Agreements, there's such a simplicity to it around what are we agreeing with? What voices are we agreeing with? Which voices are we not agreeing with? What situations are we agreeing with or not? And I think that integrity piece, and that was the one that you remember that stands out to me as well branded as, like a super tool. You know, don't take things personally, I find that the most difficult one, especially in a family situation where you know that so I find that most difficult, you know, do your best. I think we I do my best and you know, we're very hard on ourselves. And that's It's important to kind of remember those victories of Hey, we got this done this week and Today's been an epic nod Friday, it feels like Friday because we got so many things done. Right. That integrity piece, I think is the most powerful thing if I tell I tell folks that in the field of kind of, you know, metaphysics or eudaimonia human flourishing which is what really what it's about it's you die you die, Moti Alec, how do we flourish? How do we saturate ourselves with living our to our fullest and the integrity piece is very, very powerful. And I tell some of the folks that I mentor that I wish someone had taught me about the integrity of word way earlier in my life and the schema that works For me around that really helped me understand how integrity of word could co create. You want to take a minute kind of take a quick journey around a way of seeing integrity that blew my mind when when? Yeah. Okay, all mines. Let's do it. Okay, so I wish someone had taught me this when I was, you know talking to your 20 year old self for 22 years. So I wish someone had said, Hey Pradesh, this is how it works. save yourself a lot of gray hair and occurring of pain and suffering as you learn. There are three types of integrity draw here on the board just so you can visually follow along. And I get this until I got it. And then when I got it, I got it. And now it's question of practicing and remember The first type of integrity is what I teach to my coaching or my students, it kind of kind of came together is there's moral integrity, which is, you know, don't be a bad boy don't steal because if you steal from someone, they're gonna steal from you and pretty soon all hell breaks loose and it's, it's, you know, be in the field of morality, don't be a bad person or a bad boy. So that's moral integrity. And that's often what we are really habituated and trained to operate in by our parents, like don't do that, you know, that's not good. And so then shame often comes from that realm, but that's a different conversation. So that's, you know, good bad moral integrity. The second type of integrity is integrity of relationships. Which is, you know, honoring someone respecting someone, etc.

There's a third one, which is the integrity of word, which is what you spoke to your word, right? And in the realm of spiritual dope, if you'll allow me to use that word, this third one is the dope. This third one is the dope, these two are important. And the way I see things, they don't really apply as much, unless it's like in the karmic realm and things like that, as this integrity of words. So let me give you an example that will illustrate for me what kind of clicked for me. And I was like, wow, I wish I had known that way of seeing things before. So let's say that you and I have a plan to be on the podcast at four o'clock today on Thursday on Friday. And so I was like, yeah, I'll be there. So I think told you I will be there at four o'clock. And let's say that I arrived at 4:02am I violated moral integrity. Have I been a bad boy in that realm? No, no. Okay. Have I violated a relationship integrity like keeping you waiting for two hours at a restaurant or something like that? Right? So in those two realms of there hasn't been any kind of, you know, deep violation of integrity in the way that I was, like, raised to kind of think about integrity and you know, being good and respecting etc. And if I said I'll be here at seven o'clock, and I arrive at seven o to have I been in integrity with my word, no man, you're slightly you're slightly off the mark. off the mark, very great observation and you know the word sin means off the mark. Right? It's just off the mark from archery. And so the moral stuff makes us feel you're a sinner. You're a bad boy. I know church lady, Dana Carvey, you know, would be prudent at this moment to be like, Mr. Shah, we're gonna tell your mother Oh, buddy, what did you do? Again? You can jump on with the church. Maybe? No, it's Dana Carvey doing church lady. Wow. So, that day I had a David Dana Carvey medium came through. So, what's cool is this word is all domain in and of itself. So, what I've learned and learned and I apply as much as I can, when I remind myself in my mindfulness is when the universe the the the substance that we are swimming in like fissure in water, source Spirit God as we Speak our word. If it goes, Hey, Brandon, I will send you a copy of my PowerPoint tonight. And I do it. I'll be there at four o'clock. I'll do it. I you know, tell my daughter I'm going to let's go to Baskin Robbins and celebrate. you're graduating from seventh grade. Tonight. Oh, nice. Yay. Pink bubblegum is the best flavor with those little Chiclets of bubblegum a veal always guys, always. So what happens is the universe gets a reliable signal to go press said he was gonna send Brandon the PowerPoint tonight. Did he do it?

Yes or no. And it's not a judging universe. It's just a calculator. It's just an accountant. And it goes presh said it. You do it? Yep. Did he show up at four o'clock? Because that 402 is not his word. 359 or Yes, he did. It. So he said it, it happened. He said it happened, did he take his daughter for Baskin Robbins. I give you my word after this call, I'm going to take my daughter to Baskin Robbins. So yes. And so what I was taught, which I think is the most powerful thing, and it relates to the book, The Four Agreements is, when you create a pattern of reliability with the universe to say, I spoke it, it happened, I spoke it, it happened, I spoke it it happened, versus I get it to you tomorrow. Or you know what, I'm going to do that p90x tomorrow for sure. And you don't do it. What happens is you get checks that x is in a mishmash, so the signal isn't strong to go, Well, what what do we do with this, that the universe is sort of the computer kind of responding? And we and our word is our mouse and our keyboard? It's like, Well, I know like what the deal is, however, if you start, like, slicing reality in and interacting With it to go. I said this, it happened. I said this, it happened. I said this, it happened. Then when you have integrity of word, you can speak it and go. I know my friend is like, hey, meet me at the restaurant, there's gonna be horrible parking and got to go around the blog. I'm like, No, I don't agree with that. There's going to be a parking space right in front of the restaurant that's going to open up and the universe goes, he says it it happens. He says it it happens. He says it happens. And you demonstrate that then it can work backwards, which is you say it and the universe goes. It's a pattern. You say it happens. And that is this realm of integrity of word. It's your magic wand is your word. Your word is your Why have you read that book? I haven't. Mind blowing, right?

Brandon Handley 44:51 Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. I love it. Right.

paresh shah 44:53 So that to me is the ultimate like it's one of the greatest breakthroughs of thinking to go Wow. And sometimes, like, if I have a meeting at, you know, three o'clock, you'll see me running down the street or up the stairs, right? Because, like, I want to be an integrity on my word. And there's a way to reconcile it if you get there later, whatever, but it's really, because then you you're putting that impression into the universe. So, you know, I said it, it happened, I said it, it happened. And then that becomes a reliable pattern for the universe to respond. And it has nothing to do with moral integrity or relationship integrity, necessarily. And that I think is is so profound. I wish someone had taught me that, uh, you know, 20 years ago, or even sooner, and I wish every young person listening to this can just get that and go, you know, you're just creating a pattern by being in integrity with your your, your, your spoken word of your written word.

Brandon Handley 45:55 Now, I love it. I love it. definitely definitely powerful. I love I love how you got there, right? And you're right like your word is your one right? So dude, thanks for sharing that one right like who nobody saw that comment. Nobody saw that one comments so press saw everybody thank you so much man for taking the time today for for reconnecting Yeah. Where Where am I? Yeah Look, I mean, where am I gonna send people find fresh today?

paresh shah 46:20 Ah, well we are all one according to Mooji and so good to be here and there you are there I am there there there it is. If you go to our website lifters rising calm the team as you know put some things out there as resources. If you feel you're a lifter, which you know I'm imagine your your audience gets attracted into your your messaging, then come to lifters rising calm, maybe share your story. Connect with us if we can be of help to you. That's one way of getting in touch with us. We We're also creating an app. This company, that's basically an app for lifters is the way to describe blip pulse. And so we're going to be getting we're putting this app out into the world it's all about love and being lifters and and you know, creating a messaging and kind of social media experience that's around love and happiness and joy and basically spreading the spiritual dope I guess is how we might your hope dealer I mean, I oh my goodness. But as I told you do not do the sex, drugs and rock and roll of this, this situation here so so yeah, we're so we're going to be launching a beta on that app. And so connect with me however you like through LinkedIn or lifters rising and we're going to be having certain people be beta users. To help us really flesh out this experience that helps us share love and compassion and caring and giving Loving impulse, which is what glint pulse is really oriented around. So that would be glint pulse, calm, GL impulse, calm, the giving, loving impulse, cheering, that giving loving impulse. So we've got lifters rising calm and good pulse calm and if we can be of any service to you, your audience in any way. Absolutely, we're here. We're here to serve up and we want to listen up to you so we can show up in our best way to act up and make a difference. Namaste, Brandon, thank you so much. Brandon Handley.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Paresh Shah is a human being - 100% genuine article. Please read the transcript for his introduction.

We talk about what it is to be a Lifter, about manifesting, about being a homo luminous, transcending the mundane and living a life that may have at one moment seemed impossible...

Places to connect with Paresh:

https://www.glimpulse.com/

https://www.liftersrising.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pareshshah1

paresh shah 0:00 Okay, so I would love to give the honest resume instead of like the the accolades that my mom and dad, we're very proud but issues first is engineering class. I want to be like that to me. We're starting to get boring even for me. Awesome. And so let's revisit that and kind of come on air. Here we go. Real and just go. I love it. I love it. Man. So 54321 Hey there podcast. This is Brandon Handley on with Paresh Shah. We're slinging some spiritual dope today and press. I love press for this because I started to read his, you know, online resume bio, which reads awesome, like in any corridor, right? But he's like, Hey,

we're doing spiritual dopes a we're leading with spirituality. We are leading with authenticity. I want to share my real resume my life resume, so fresh eyes.

Brandon Handley 0:59 I don't have that in front of me. I'd love to hear it though.

paresh shah 1:04 Thanks, Brandon. Thanks for having me on. I love this spiritual dope

concept, it's more than a concept you're actually

creating the energy around conversation through conversations that uplift you know, everyone who's listening here and beyond because you don't even need to be a listener because it's a buy. It's a buy. It's it's the, the the vibe of what you're creating. So I must say you and yeah, it was kind of weird. Because part of you know, you talked about the journeys that you have been on Brandon and we've talked earlier about your your journey and the various journeys that we go on. And they're a dear friend and you speak to me in a way that where you get me and we get each other and we we have telepathy in many ways, because we're thinking the same thing at the same time. And there's even evidence of it where we have written something down and say, Hey, you know what, you just said that I work so hard to that won't even say I worked hard. Frankly, it came easy for me for most things to get that laundry list of whatever you would call his accomplishments. On that bio, I was like, and as you were reading it, this I was going oh my god, this is so boring. Can we like move on? And it was it's so funny because I was like, I work so hard. My parents are proud. I actually have didn't work hard in certain ways. Things just kind of snowball. Often, you know, it's kind of like, you know, when the kid like, you're good at stuff, and then people like, throw more stuff at you. And I was like, This is so boring. And this isn't what this is about. And it felt kind of gross with my friends. So I wanted to thank you for kind of rewinding, rewinding, and that's not what it's about, primarily, and I think this whole sphere we're in right now, as a world, one of the beauties that's come out amidst the struggles and the suffering and you know, what's really, you know, happening is it's forced us, some of us to kind of go inside and go, what really matters here? What really matters here? And how do I want to show up, which is our third lifter mind shift that you're familiar with. In the lifter leadership world we have serve up, listen up, show up with all of your yes and qualities that make you unique, and then act up. And I was talking with my brother yesterday, and I was like, why don't we just have like an honest resume? And so I went out and I bought on his resume.com because the best way to remember an idea is spend 999 on GoDaddy and park the domain so you never forget the idea and feel you didn't do anything about it. So honest resume. And so I started thinking and we were jamming on it. You know what would our honest resume be? And my brother

Brandon Handley 4:05 I really want to interject right like cuz teacher telepathy right earlier today I was listening to you know one of your other podcasts and you were talking about the time that you took off for a year to go travel with your wife and hike and do all the things you like houses one year absence can look on my resume and I wrote down is like, what happens if you take that thought away? You know, take that would build your life resume right like and you know, what does it look like to say? It doesn't say there's nothing wrong like it's great go create a business, get people jobs, get them into a certain space and and and all these things. But what happens if your goal is to live an amazing life period? And you know, there's not a fear of, well shit, I can't I can't take a year off and go explore life and what am I What am I

paresh shah 4:58 going to say about me? Myself, even my mind, right? We're like, what are you going to do about the gap in your resume? I'm going to backpacking for one year and and there was truly that there was an aspect of that a little bit, but it was very much drowned out or over or I wouldn't say overshadowed over lit by the possibility of how cool would it be to go backpacking for a year, we went to India and Nepal, we hiked the end of foreigners, my wife and I, she had just finished her PhD and so it was a great, like, you know, let's just kind of see what's going on. And I there was a little bit of that. What am I gonna have to say for myself? Because you don't just like take off. Um,

and, um,

it was kind of funny because when I came back and was in the job market, I got a call from GE, from a headhunter and they had this cup The management program that you get to be, like, part of like, they're like they're your your starting leaders if you get to be part of this program, and they put you in different business units, so you can really kind of learn the ropes. And you know, kind of it's like the leadership group. So I got a had a headhunter call me about that. And I was like, Yeah, see, I'm marketable. This is great. I'm getting ahead under call from GE, and one of my teachers, Professor, Joe Bauer, who's still a great professor at Harvard Business School, we had this class called management is about management leadership, and he had a total crush on jack welch. Like every case, we had, like 50 I don't know it was a semester course. And it was like a study how great jack welch is and how GE because the GE thing was like the gold standard of how do you you know, run a great enterprise based on how things were defined then. And so I had this conversation with the with the the client, the headhunters, client G, And I was excited go, I nailed it. Right. And they're like, when you told them that you went backpacking for a year, they're like, we don't want somebody who's gonna just like take off and do something like that. That's not our way. And I was devastated. I was devastated. But then later on, I was liberated to go. Yeah, you know what, that's not really my path. And so I've, you know, been an entrepreneur since then. So, yeah, the journey takes you to amazing places where new frontiers get open. And on that trip, one of the pivotal things we did was, we took Julia Cameron's course called the artists way. It's a it's a book a workbook that you do. It's a self guided workbook, and it's called the artists way. And I had felt that I had gotten to left brain from my engineering and from my business work, and then I was in consulting as great, great left brain stuff like super cool projects. We were on And, you know, the musician from high school and other things we used to play with, sort of didn't get enough voice. And so the artists way was a way of kind of recapping into the creative side. And so we started doing this, this course called the artists way by Julia Cameron. And I recommend it to anybody, anybody. And through the process that Julia took us through in this workbook. We started seeing the world in a whole different way and started experiencing some of the first

miracles non obvious

you know, coincidences, telepathy, and all kinds of extraordinary ways of experiencing the world. And she really opened opened my aperture around. You know how to see the miraculous, even in in in the darkness, and am I 100%? there all the time? No. But I didn't even realize that was like a doorway. Before.

You know, this part of the journey.

Brandon Handley 9:09 I love it. I mean, because you were you were on you were on the managerial track you were you were on the fast track you were, you were bits, ones and ones and zeros, right? And you got to be productive, get in line and stay in line. And if you get out of line for a year, you can't come back.

paresh shah 9:25 Okay. It was a fear of that. There was there was a fear of that. There really was,

Brandon Handley 9:28 I wanna, you know, I love that you're bringing that up artists way. I'm gonna share this with you. I'm actually doing what is the right brain artists or whatever, right? I'm teaching myself and you can't really see. Well that can

paresh shah 9:40 see that's beautiful.

Brandon Handley 9:42 Right. But I mean, that's, that's, you know, they're teaching you how to draw like, I'm doing that right now. I'm trying to engage my right brain, right, like and going through that process.

paresh shah 9:51 It's so great. And you know what, in many ways, this whole right, not the right brain left brain characterization is it over simplification doesn't really work that way. But we kind of we kind of use that as a vernacular. It's really tapping into this, that creative, that intuitive and bringing it all together. My wife, Eliza, she studied with a Nobel Prize winning biologist Walter Gilbert. He won the Nobel Prize for biology. And he was off the chart genius like, you know, DNA sequencing. And I think he was in the company of the one who did the pea pod experiment in biology. Right, right. Yeah, that guy? Yeah.

Brandon Handley 10:40 Sorry. Like, I forget that. What's the guy's name? Michael Mendel

paresh shah 10:42 was it? Yeah, Joseph Mendel. So he was kind of in that league of like, super extraordinary minds. Off The Charts genius. Walter Gilbert and he, like he, when he was a lecture, like listening to some other Speaker a professor at Harvard, my wife pointed out that he'd have his little sketchbook and he would be sketching the person or the scene or the hand upside down. And, and I think he may have now I may be extended, but he may have even been using his opposite hand. And in doing so, it's like, wait, why would you sketch someone upside down because that whole other perspective would lead to a very different outcome. And that was, you know, a kind of a glimpse of his genius of how he saw things very differently. And cultivated both aspects of his his genius. Then he became an artist and a photographer, and he sells scarves with his art on it. And so he's, he's been this polymath anyways. Yeah,

Brandon Handley 11:54 I love it. I think that um, you know, that talks to, I'm gonna I'm gonna weave in some real quick Guys if you're joining in oppression I have had conversations before which you may or may not be picking up on and and the thing is we're talking about spiritual dope and spiritual dope is is got its target line set up on you know we're looking at what does it look like to lead with spirituality What does it look like to be a spiritual person but integrate or you know Professor heard you talked about it earlier and some of some things I was listening to it's like interweave right be all of who you are not and don't separate your spiritual self from your business self from this you know this other software you know be one self right but also recognize right the Divinity within is precious you know, you know gosh you had an expression of divinity right surfaces you had a great line on the Nobel Peace Peace. Peace one right we're like, you know, let that divinity come out right. And, and when you do, I think you you You said you were having one of those buzz kind of days right? Give me what I would say today you've had a hit of spiritual dope right like you've hit a spiritual high Tell us about that. But again guys, we're trying to align like people who have had success by leading or integrating their spirituality into their their overall lives and how you can do that for yourself and if you've been thinking that it can't be done or if you've been concerned about what that might look like for you then come take a look at what's happening here and spiritual though connect with a Paresh connect with anybody else connect with me. The people that bring it on? Yeah, is like let's, let's, let's help you shine your light, right.

paresh shah 13:42 Ha, it's, um, we had we had a team call today with our with some of our teams and we have hired 13 summer interns because I wanted to have as many of these young people because a lot of the internships have been canceled and it's a total bummer. One of the ones that we just hired yesterday, he moved to San Francisco. And he was on his resume. He was one of 12 out of something like 4000 applicants to get like that internship. It reminds me of like that, you know that that movie, where the where, who is it goes to Google to be the interns.

Not Tom Hanks.

The guy from Night at the Museum anyway, the two older, older, older guys trying to come to me. So anyway, so and then he moved to San Francisco to start this job, and it just got canceled last week. And we're like, oh, and you can feel it. These young folks are just like, dang. And so part of what we're doing is trying to create as many opportunities for internship where people can have meaningful work, you know, make a contribution collaborate. And so we have actually more than a handful now, of interns and We had a team call today where people were just at the stage now where we're giving each of these interns like, this is your project bread. And now, and this is your project, and we're giving them like, real projects that are a bit bold for interns, and they are so amazing. And we're getting so many things done that, you know, you talk about the day I've had, it's Friday afternoon, and I was on with my team and we were just like celebrating the victories and it feels good to win we celebrate victories. It helps us not forget, we actually got a lot of things quote done, because sometimes you can get a lot of things done and then the next day go, Oh, I haven't done crap. What a loser I am. You ever have that feeling? Oh, yeah, yeah. And so we were like, wow, we just and these young folks are taking on their like, My responsibility is I'm creating it's it's so energizing because as it pertains to spiritual dope, these young kids, they get it. They get it disproportionately. And we talk about being a lifter we talk about, you know, being open hearted and serving others and really seeing a vision of what you want to create that's good for the world, and how you can attract that in even when you're feeling in a crappy mood, or in a low period, which, you know, while today, it's been one of those great days. It's quite the roller coaster for all of us. And there's all kinds of things happening. And there's like this flow that's going between the turbulence of people having like realizations about this is what I really love doing and I'm really a moved by it like your friend the medium. And these young folks. I call them kids but they're they they're getting this that we can't keep up with them. They go Yeah, and when you talk about applying your yes and qualities, and really creating What you want, the way we see it is you could really, you know, you know, change the world and manifest this whole new way of being and, and they're pushing the thinking and they're really embracing it. They're just soaking it up. And that to me is is one of the greatest things of today because we haven't talked to them about two weeks. And I used to have weekly meetings and then we didn't have to, we had two weeks and I, I told the team, I need a pep talk just to be in their energy, right? This gets things going it gets that flywheel going, when you move to a higher frequency of joy and celebration and gratitude. It's from there that you can you know, get that Vantage on what you want to create, you know for for the world or it or in service and it helps you pop out of what gets you angry. And I was just telling my my sister Yes, yesterday that I had a day where I was on Facebook at the end of the day. I looked at myself and I tell him my kids, like, you know what I did? all day. I pretty much was on Facebook most of this day. What have I done and it was, I was like on Facebook for like five or six hours, and I was totally like, I couldn't even get out of the sofa. And I was like, there's got to be something good. Oh, that's good. But they give me more, give me more. And I was so I got my vibration was like, Whoa, hmm. And I got into the car and my 77 Nova, and, you know, took off listening to some music very loudly and called a friend, like you were saying earlier today, like you feel the impulse to call someone and within within three or four minutes, we were back to you know, feeling good about the world and what's happening. You can't feel good about everything that's happening, but you can hold a higher vibration that supports everybody. You know,

Brandon Handley 18:52 I say I think they I mean, you know, in terms of like the higher vibration and have have an elevated conversation is really kind of what we're seeking. Like that, well, you're having we're looking for an elevated conversation. It's not that these things aren't important. It's not that they aren't happening. It's not that you need to ignore them. But how can you elevate the conversation, bring it somewhere else and take it somewhere else entirely. And that's the higher vibration that you're talking about. Right? You You also, you'd mentioned like, you know, you don't want to come from a scarcity power driven mentality, right modality. If you come from there, if you're coming from a place of restriction, or fear of losing your place in line, right? That's good things don't come out of bad places.

paresh shah 19:40 Ultimately, they do when you look back at them sometimes I guess, but it doesn't seem apparent. Right. Right. Well tie Right. Yeah.

Brandon Handley 19:46 And I'll make it again, like, you know, coming from places of fear coming from places of scarcity, things can come out of there, like I was talking with somebody else, and they were saying, you know, ultimately, you need to hit rock bottom before you can, you know, bounce back up again and that has not you know i don't care whose story is what story that has not been my story it's very frustrating in to like for me to hear that line all the time because you can find yourself just wanting a different life right just realizing I think that you did with your pX 90 self right and with with with

Unknown Speaker 20:22 Tony Horton, Tony Horton but we love you

Brandon Handley 20:25 so, so fresh tell the story about what happened. You know so you're you're in you're in. You're in Paris and you're you're you know,

paresh shah 20:34 let's call it being in a flat spin like goose goose and Tom Cruise. We're in Top Gun where you're just like something's not working.

Brandon Handley 20:45 Yeah, I can take that. Yeah, yeah,

paresh shah 20:48 yeah, that's kind of but not in the family side. family has always been wonderful supportive. Just kind of more in you know, kind of whatever you'd call it. I wouldn't call it a midlife crisis unless I was in that mood it was it was a blender, a blender, but we don't need to get into it. Part of the honest resume, by the way as a parent identical is, um, I prefer not to repeat the stories. And it would be cool if you could just like write down, by the way and here's my journey. I thought I was all this. I thought it was all that I was really good at this and then this happened. And I realized I wasn't this I realized this and that's my story once and for all. So that we don't live in our stories.

Anyway, this is apparently identical.

So p90x came in so I did not. I wasn't, I didn't feel attuned to direction let's just say around what is the next step I thought that my thinking logical mind was the primary mechanism or dashboard in which to discern what the next action would be, etc and The The funny thing is you might call it well you know it's Spirit spoke to me mediums books to be God spoke to me or somehow you listen to your true nature your higher self in yoga we call it own animal guru dev Namo your you call on your highest self to help you do your best. I didn't really talk any of this I thought it was a bunch of hogwash, but I'm speaking to right now. Okay in the pendulum bride, and I got a message because I was in the flat spin and I'm like,

Unknown Speaker 22:34 you know,

paresh shah 22:37 what are they gonna do? What are they gonna do?

And then the message was you got to do something impossible press to get out of this situation. And I'm like, impossible. Who am I talking to? I don't really believe in anything up there. Impossible, and I really wasn't. You know, Constantly attuned to kind of listening to that spirit source. And I was like, Okay, sounds like I need to do something impossible. What is it? Do I need to like climb Mount Everest Do I need to like what's impossible? And it came from so many places it was just like, like five or six conversations in a row around the inquiry of what's impossible What do I need to do to get out of this spot spin? And I thought it would be like this. You know, big you know, go meditate for 500 days you know in it. I really need a K for this. Give me a cave give me a cave. Yeah, but make sure it is great espresso in the cave. You know, that's the the spiritual dope. So what came before I really would even speak of things coming in the in the listening was You want to get out of this situation per rash? Like, yeah, it really doesn't feel good and it sucks. And I feel kind of low right now. And it doesn't make me a great dad either sometimes. And the answer was great. I got it for you. I'm like, Great. I'll do it. I climb Kilimanjaro with my buddy Dave. I can do it. p90x. I'm like, What? You need to do p90x. I'm like you mean the. I'm Tony Horton, you up 90 days get the best shape of your life. And, and it was a joke. It was kind of like what? Right and I realized later that I had never pushed myself that hard. without someone kicking my butt to do it, ever actually in anything because, like academics and things came naturally I played tennis. Since Swimming, but it wasn't really like, you got to show up yourself to do something really demanding where it hurts. And you got to get that extra pull up up. And so I started doing it, which was weird that I followed through on it, but it was kind of like the let's call it a voice but it wasn't a voice. It was a knowing, um

was Yeah, like to you that's kind of impossible

to be like ripped and, you know, and be that, like so fierce, right I had I had not been fierce. Physically, I'd never played like football or anything.

And

so I started doing it and my little living room in a village in France where the kids went to school and we'd occasionally go to a dance garden, and I got into my body in a way I'd never seen gotten into my body and the message I got was like, Yeah, you're going to do this. And if you don't, this time, then shut the Bleep up about ever getting in shape. And if you end up being on the sidelines, you know, when your grandkids are playing football, just remember this and not in a loving way not in a in a you know, shame bill way or anything like that. Just like a dude, this is your moment, like step up is it and so I did it in not 90 days, it took me longer. But I really did it. Like I'd come home at one in the morning from work. And I'd put that disc in and I had never really put the disc in like that before in my life, put that disc in and go I'm gonna do this. And I actually did complete it. I felt really good about myself and showing up my kids like wow, Dad's going crazy. Doing this stuff. And then and then Tony Horton and his whole gang of people all become like our friends in our house and you know, my kids come home to dad you hanging out with friends. Wherever today because Dre has like Tony sidekick. And then there's Greg over here. And so they became personalities in the house. And I found the physicality and the pushing myself. And the message was, you know, and I was like, I did it, I did the impossible. I did something I didn't feel I could do. And then the learning from that, or the lesson was, once you do one thing, it's impossible. Nothing's impossible. And so my flat spin started coming out. And so I kind of came out of my flat spin. And I was like, wow, okay, this feels good. I'm starting to really get some traction around other aspects of my business in my life and what I wanted to create, and then and I felt really good. Like I did the impossible, Tony, exit up. And what happened was then my wife decided to do it because she had seen, you know,

Brandon Handley 27:51 the results or whatever we call it.

Unknown Speaker 27:54 And don't be shy.

Unknown Speaker 27:56 That's all right. Yeah, it worked for you. I'm not so rip,

paresh shah 27:58 as but anyway.

So she's like, I'm gonna do this. And so she started doing it and then guess who showed up in the spiritual domain? In my little on the shoulder here going, Hey, Paresh Guess who showed up?

Brandon Handley 28:14 Under the answer, so I don't want to give it away.

paresh shah 28:17 Doubting Thomas.

Doubting Thomas was like a press. Yeah.

What if it was a fluke that you did that impossible thing?

I'm like, No man, I sweat. I I went from rubber bands.

To massive man.

Unknown Speaker 28:38 Massive man, you know me.

paresh shah 28:42 Oh, man.

Unknown Speaker 28:45 All the time.

paresh shah 28:49 I like the mini massive. I get mad. I went, I went for a minivan.

So I went and I was like, No, no, I'm not going to accept that. I I've read the Four Agreements

I've gotten. So I got into all the spirituality, and I found it like this amazing new world. And I was like, No, I'm not agreeing with that. It's what you agreed to is what you experience is what you create. It's what you out project. Like, I'm not gonna agree to that. It's like, dude, dude, it was a fluke. It was a fluke. I'm like, No, so I started going online. And looking up. Can you do like, what if you do p90x multiple times, and there's some guys who've done it like five times, they're really freaky.

Unknown Speaker 29:39 There's so

Brandon Handley 29:41 many pack.

paresh shah 29:43 So I said, you know, I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna do this again. Shut up, shut up. And so I started doing it again. And again. I wasn't so strong. Um, I've gotten I'm pretty much like a weakling. But my barbells and dumbbells were getting more heavy. And I my wrists, I didn't like exercise my wrists and my wrists got injured. doing that, and I finally got it into my physicality. And I'm starting to really, you know, feel like what it feels like to push hard. Push yourself beyond, and I said, you know, this physicality of like, really being in the moment of something is really a powerful experience. And, and I'm feeling really powerful. I'm getting my fearlessness back, let's go do something else and and the ideas are flowing. And so then I said, Well, let me do some yoga or something. So I can, you know, rest my wrist and just do some other and meditation. Thus, I got into the yoga and meditation, which is, you know, so part of,

Brandon Handley 30:53 you know, who you are and what you do, right. Right. I love Now, here's the here's my big Take away from that story, right is is the the whole idea. And the reason I asked you to share is because once you do the impossible once, right,

Unknown Speaker 31:09 and then you begin to see that other things

Brandon Handley 31:12 are fine. What else have I been holding yourself back for you today?

paresh shah 31:15 Exactly. Right, exactly.

Brandon Handley 31:18 Right. And it's so funny because the way you tell your story about the tailspin, you know, I totally relate right and and, you know, you could you know, plenty and I think you and I had this conversation, plenty people could call it a midlife crisis. I like the idea of awakening, but a second chance at life. I'd like you like you would mention there's like,

paresh shah 31:38 a second chance at life. That's pretty good, right? Because even awakening is kind of like, well, what's that really mean? I mean, he says, it's kind of a chance, a second chance of living. Yeah, like that.

Brandon Handley 31:48 But the thing is, is that, um, you, you made a conscious real superconscious decision and recognize that there were two paths you could go down right? You I could I could get on a path where I sit down on my ass and watch my grandkids play and it's great. But if I have the opportunity to participate, I choose that opportunity. So I really view that the whole you know, second second chance, right? you get you get presented, right, you get pretty bad. It's a presentation. It's a present

paresh shah 32:24 to like that. Yeah, it's,

Brandon Handley 32:26 it's a gift it is it's a gift. Because because here you go. And it says, All right. You have, you know, you're smart enough, you know, the outcomes if you continue this way for the rest of your life. Make a choice, right. And once you make that choice, it's put up or shut up.

paresh shah 32:46 Right, in every in every moment of your life

Brandon Handley 32:48 for the rest of your life, actually, because

paresh shah 32:50 there's a lot you caught you constantly have. Right, right. It's way but it's also good. Yeah,

Brandon Handley 32:55 it's also not until you recognize how powerful That moment is where you make that choice. Yeah. Right. Just like your point, you know, so, you know, if you're listening, you know, press has got like a V, they're like, you know, there's an intersection there. And this is this is the power of choice. Yeah. Which which not for nothing, it took me 40 years. All right, I'm not I'm not the I'm not the fastest one of the bunch, right to recognize that when the power of choice and exactly what that's gonna mean, first of all, you got to choose to own your life. This is your life that everything that happens is it's a choice, right? You, you made that choice to lose that job at GE because you went on that hike, right? You know, you made it maybe not

paresh shah 33:47 consciously, right, maybe not consciously, right.

Brandon Handley 33:49 And you showed up there when you showed up there.

paresh shah 33:51 Right.

Brandon Handley 33:52 You accepted that right? You own it. You said all right. Well, all right. Well, that was a choice I made right and here we are. This is my life now. And these are the The choices that I'm making. And that's the look and again, I think this is stuff that you're teaching with lifter leadership to with the opportunity let's let's talk about, you know, bringing all of who you are to work right like, let's because listen I want I want people to understand that you are leading a spiritually LED, you know, art center of all of who you are your Divine Self. Yes, but you're doing it with a purpose and a passion that is leading others in that direction so that they can know give give me give you give that you give the story because it's yours itself.

paresh shah 34:33 Yeah, so our team is this lifters thing is really

resonating. It's resonating with a within our team within these young folks who like yeah, that's how we would like to be led, you know, give us responsibilities. let us apply our yes and skill set and show up in different ways. And so When I will describe to you I'm going to draw it but I'll guide in space as well for the audio listeners is like the Four Agreements.

Pop quiz asshole. What are the Four Agreements Brandon come on you can nail

Brandon Handley 35:15 me I don't I just you know be impeccable with your words like the

paresh shah 35:19 right okay? The snipers taking the laser beam off your head. Look, I mean that's a shame. That's I'm going down I'm gonna be impeccable with my word.

Brandon Handley 35:30 picking one.

paresh shah 35:32 And you know what that might be. All you need to do is be impeccable with your word, put your word out there and then receive and accept and let it go. I think that's pretty much the simple truth that my the teachers who I most respect convey and one of these days I'll get it. Um, but yeah, that was a speed reference would I believe was filmed here in LA so I'd love to see that. Now that I'm in LA and see that school bus with galleries that dun dun dun dun dun Cuz Now I know what the five is. I know what the 405 is, and I think it ends at La. So that's an action movie. But anyway, um, the four agreements are very powerful, be impeccable with your word, always do your best.

Don't make assumptions. And what's the other one? There's one more. Okay, listeners, you know it, you know, the back of what

Brandon Handley 36:29 you call it.

paresh shah 36:30 Don't take anything personal. Okay, that's very, very great one. So

those are the poor. And so, and it's all about making agreements with yourself and with what you're willing to accept, in, you know, your your world. Now, there is a collective consciousness where you can't begin to say, Well, you know, I'm agreeing with the violence that's going on or I'm agreeing with the division or the other ring and the brutality and you know, actually And around that is important and essential. So I don't want to, you know, convey that, you know, it's just that simple bippity boppity boo, you know, I'm not agreeing with this, and therefore it doesn't exist and put your head in the sand. So in a similar way to the Four Agreements, lifter leadership has, for what we call mind shifts. We need to shift our minds to adapt and evolve into a new way of being as humans and as humanity. And what's happening is people are aligning up with these ways of being and what we have found from the business perspective. And from the innovation, team motivation, customer loyalty. Sustainability perspective is that this model works for organizations to be able to do their jobs and, and thrive very effectively in today's time, so we have four mind shifts. And it's not a mindset. We don't want anything to be set in stone, everything is always moving always evolve the clue that we are notes in a sacred song. That's just a symphony of energy moving through what appears as the universe to us, which is a song all around us and we are each a unique divine expression and unique divine frequency pulsating in no other way down to where I believe every hair is an antenna, a different little antenna 20% that creates a unique note, and we're all notes in a sacred song. And we could just fly in the song and let it be it just you know, respond to what comes and take the next right action or we can fight and be discarded and attitude. cetera. So we have for mind shift and lifter leadership. The first mind ship, we call serve up, serve up game on is that you game in town serve up and this game is a shift from scarcity to abundance from me, too We from that command control dominating way of being to cooperation and co creation, right and so the just observe up is to recognize that the hunt is over, it's no longer about hunting. Okay lifters don't need to hunt lifters can attract cuz they saw a whole different game.

Brandon Handley 39:45 I got to tell I got to tell you, right so i'm gonna i'm in a new I'm in a newer job role right right now and I saw that they were bringing on what they called hunters. Right? And so I had, we had to give a presentation on you know what we're doing or whatever And I, the girl that I'm working with, I was like, Can we change this? kind of want to be a hunter? I was like, Can we change this and we win and we call ourselves rainmakers. Right? I love it and, and they accepted that too because I mean, the art art or title or job was like rain or was hunters right and everybody's accepted our rebranding and I'm just like love

paresh shah 40:21 that isn't that feel great?

Brandon Handley 40:23 Oh my god cuz I like I don't make me feel like a hunter like I'm running out there like you talking about like with and I just remembered our conversations right I'm like, I don't want to be this photosphere out there trying to catch my catch my next meal, you know and and,

paresh shah 40:39 and divvy it up because it's all about market share not very, you know, the mind shift is the market share scarcity, competition, right sharing. That's the new economy. That's the new way of being

Brandon Handley 40:50 so to to just create something together. What exactly what can we come together here to co co create, right there's something here and if you and I can can you know If we can be impeccable with our words, right? We can if we can come together in those ways and and and identify each other as humans, trying to, you know, bring better things to the world, right and improvement somehow, then we can co create this thing, right? And yes, I don't need to hunt you, we're going to attract each other.

paresh shah 41:20 Exactly. I don't want to be a piece of meat. I don't want to be a piece of meat. So anyway, what the, the first mic is, is about serve up service instead of transaction. Right? And it's serve up. It's a new game. It's a new game. And the game is a very different game with different rules. And when we shift into this lifter way of being, then everything works a lot better or most things work a lot better. So that's serve up the first mind shift that we just talked about. The second mindset is Listen up. Listen up, and we teach four types of listening because listening is The new way is the new language, essentially. And we teach four ways of listening. One way is listening to your embodied dashboard. So what is your intuition telling you what your gut telling you? And let's consider that part of your brain in addition to that logical and rational, you know, kind of more mathematical or analytical way of being which also has its place, but let's really tune in to our embodied listening and go you know, does this feel like it's an integrity does this does this is feel right, what's the right thing to do on the front lines in this situation with this customer and tuning in to that feeling and we call it you know, having more than a feeling it's like really like, it's more than the feeling that gets us into that. It's the spiritual dope, like when you really tap into that vibration of of

Basically that that embodied knowingness as an additional way of responding. Then we listen then we have listening to others. And then we have listening to that inner self, which is the whole mindfulness piece. So lifters have a mindfulness aspect. So that is listen Ops, we have server. First one, listen up. The third one is show up. And that's like the centerpiece of this. And there we say it's about writing your yes and breathing. So you've

Brandon Handley 43:28 got thanks for tuning in today, guys. This is gonna be a split file. But I want to make sure that the ending where you can connect with Paresh is available to you. So I'm keeping that on the end of both tracks. So this is week one, at the end of week one, you're just going to be able to hear where you can connect with them. Don't be surprised when you hear the same ending on week two. Shaw, everybody. Thank you so much, man for taking the time today for for reconnecting. Where? Where might you look? I mean, where am I going to some people find press today?

paresh shah 44:05 Ah, well, we are all one according to Mooji. And so get them here and there you are there I am there there. There it is.

If you go to our website lifters rising calm the tea team, as you know put some things out there as resources. If you feel you're a lifter, which you know I'm imagine your your audience gets attracted into your your messaging, then come to lifters rising calm, maybe share your story. Connect with us if we can be of help to you. That's one way of getting in touch with us. We are also creating an app. This company, that's basically an app for lifters is the way to describe blip pulse. And so we're going to be getting, we're putting this app out into the world. That's all about Love big lifters and and you know creating a messaging and kind of social media experience that's around love and happiness and joy and basically spreading the spiritual dope, I guess is how we might your hope dealer I mean, oh my goodness. But as I told you know not due to sex, drugs and rock and roll of this, this situation here so so yeah we're so we're going to be launching a beta on that app and so connect with me however you like through LinkedIn or lifters rising and we're going to be having certain people be beta users to help us really flesh out this experience that helps us share love and compassion and caring and giving loving impulse which is what glint pulse is really oriented around so that'll be glim pulse, calm GL impulse calm, the giving, loving, impulse, cheery, that giving loving impulse so we've got lifters rising calm and good Paul dot com. And if we can be of any service to you, your audience in any way. Absolutely, we're here. We're here to serve up and we want to listen up to you so we can show up in our best way to act up and make a difference. All around noms day.

Wednesday Brandon, thank you so much Brandon Handley.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Brandon Handley 0:00 What is going on? spiritual dope? How are you? You're not a spiritual dope, you're about to get some spiritual dope. Hey so just checking things out seeing how you are today and I figured I'd share a little bit on the initiate it and kind of the initiation process and what that looks like so you know, where I sit, there's a number of people that I've spoken with over over the years. And it seems that for them, life seems to peak out around 30 Hold on, quote unquote, fun is gone for these people, and they are no more parties, no more going out getting wasted and just galavan saying with no worries, and and, you know, they believe they found themselves now in their 30s in a place that they feel like they're, they're stuck for life. This is where they kind of land when they're 30. It's kind of where they're routed. Right? This is where they stay for ever. And this reminds me about the baby elephant at a circus. If you've ever seen an elephant at a circus, you'll see that there's a stake in the ground. And there's a tiny rope that's attached to this elephant's foot. The thing is, is that elephant could very easily just lift his leg breakaway and walk off on his own. But he doesn't. Do you know why. The reason that the elephant doesn't just lift up his leg and doesn't just break away is simply because that's how he grew up. The elephant grows up when they're tiny, they stick them to the stake and they stick this string this rope on their leg and they can't when they're young age, they cannot, they are not able to move their leg off of that steak no matter how hard they try. The thing is, is that after a certain period of time, they stop trying, they stop trying to move their their leg, they stopped trying to escape because they tried so many times before. They just know it's not possible for them. And now I know that I recognize this in my own life. I was able, I wasn't able to identify it right away. Now. I mean, look, it took me a long time to actually identify this, I was about 38. And there was a certain panic. In my life, the panic was this feeling of knowing that there was something more to life, but I was tethered, just like this elephant to a stake. And, and since uh, since I'm human, I realized that I realized that I had been tethered and I was Unlike the panic was I'm stuck, I'm stuck. Oh my gosh, I gotta get out of this right away. All right. And I was looking for a quick way out of this. And meds, right. I was like I was looking for I was looking for a fix to one solution and a feeling maybe. Right. And I thought that that that my problem, my primary problem that if I just fix this one problem, I'd be able to do whatever I want, right, that was the silver bullet. And you know, at that time, I thought my It was my inability to focus. So, you know, the magic bullet. I took it, and it gave me a new issue for right. Instead of instead of correcting the issue that I had, it created a new issue, which was to hyper focus on all the trivial things in my life and complain about them. I was really Weird and it just it and, and going through the site is critical of mag, my wife critical of my children, I was focusing on things that just didn't matter. And it almost cost me everything almost cost me my marriage time with my children. And even if even if Meg had accepted me because you know, she's the one who's really taught me throughout my life, how to accept people as they are and love them unconditionally. You know, I feel like that that may have happened. It would be miserable for everybody. If you misery for everyone involved. This had to stop. I had to change. I had to change my plan. They was how I was going to do this. I'd recognize that I hadn't ever really participated in my own life.

I'd never gotten clear. I need to look back over my life. And it had been it had been a good life. And by some standards, some people might even say that it It had been a great life. As a matter of fact, I still recall somebody asked me, he says, says, Brandon, you know why? Why are you looking for more? You've got, you know, all these things. And I said, I said, I said, Man, look, let's do this. I've gotten this far. And everything that I've gotten today, I haven't even tried, right, I'm sure I've put in some effort, but wasn't being clear. Was I being intentional? Was I driven by a purpose? Or was I just acting from a state of survival? And, you know, that's, that's how I'd recognized let's see what happens if I initiate the change myself. What happens if I've looked for find and implement clarity within my own life, what would be possible then, what would be possible then? And listen, initially, once you once you recognize this, once you recognize it That, that these are some of the drivers that you if you put these into your life that there's so much force behind them, you'll find yourself going after that non stop. And that's what I did I initiated absolutely Initially, I initiated I put the time in I began to read ravenously I hadn't read for years and I picked up these these self development books, personal growth books, parenting books, I mean, look, I was doing a podcast on parenting and I had the feel Oh, so what can I share? What can I learn, implement and share? Alright, so I took classes online I'd taken you know, finance, I'd taken so many coaching classes. I've participated in coaching programs the I began to work out eat better change my habits took on one coach opened up which and that opened I opened up to my dreams, right. I took on a second coach that Coach, you know, as you kind of go on, you're taking this coaching. What was funny, that coach literally, it was kind of an accent but so at the bottom of, of our agreement that I would double my income within a year, just about so every day a little bit of work every day putting pressure on myself, like a, like it was some kind of sprint. And I realized that I need to slow down or burnout right? I had to realize that this was a long game. And I paused for a second. And literally, I did I took some deep breaths. I took some more time for myself. And focus time right meditation and just just reading timeless, universal truths, you know, stoicism eaching, which is really the biggest two but you know, it's been a lot of time reading those. And and within this space. Within this practice was something that I had not expected to happen. This was the exact process of initiation right at forged a new key as it were, if you've ever heard the saying that old keys don't open new doors, I forged a new key and a new door become exposed at the time and it showed me you know, expose possibilities of who I was. And Unlimited, creative, caring, loving child of the universe, right? And and this was something that I was already aware. It's once you it's like you rediscover who you are recognized that I have to go through this process right I recognized that. I was already merged with source I've recognized the line now of you're a spiritual being having a physical experience that opened up to the universe and ever since then, I've recognized the source flowing through me right lifeforce, whatever you want to call it God, Jesus Buddha, well, you know, whatever it is divinity, Grace, the strengthening of the Divine strength. And I began to recognize myself as a conduit for the divine for the divine energy that creates worlds that flows through me.

And now, you know, I'm openly sharing some of this stuff, because even now even more is flowing through me. Because, you know, that first flow to recognize when you recognize it, right, it's a trickle. And it's almost scary. You're like, what is this and should I share this as you kind of have no choice but to share it in a way that you're sharing it all the time anyways, is it's when you recognize it. And then you're giving it away even more than them even more is gonna flow through you. If that makes sense. I mean, it's kind of like the end. It's, it's it is love, right? It's unconditional and you can never Never give too much and you'll always be filled back up with it. But I've been hiding it right I've been, you know, I didn't feel comfortable talking about it because I didn't understand what it was. I didn't understand what I was going through. But through all, you know, studies and listening, I mean, I can't tell you the number of hours of audio listening to the dance of listening to other spiritual leaders, you know, and just some type of Christian charities. I've got the Skype bill, bill donohue, you know, hundreds of hours Vedanta Society of New York, hundreds of hours and really exploring, reading hundreds of I mean, just nonstop kind of really seeking and reading so that I could understand what it was that I had within me that I was trying to get at Right. So how do I how do I return this right return, literally return this and turn it out. And, and I did that through fatherhood for the rest of us podcasts. I did that through partially through the prosperity practice, and but it was still veiled. And it wasn't until recently when I came across a couple of people that were already doing it, who were already leading from a place of spirituality. And I realized there was no sense that I wasn't able to do this, right. There was no sense that I wasn't going to be able to come out here and stop kind of shade my own life, right. And I was going to be able to interview these people sign a light on what they're doing, how they're how they found their spirituality and how they're leading with their spiritual self. And it's also that you so that can teach you and show you to do the same thing for yourself, right? The story is to help you reflect who you really are. Right. And the question that I've got for you at the end of this here is, are you ready to initiate life for yourself? Are you ready to cross that threshold of humanity? And are you looking for a sign? Are you looking for a sign? Are you waiting for a signal right to accept your own divinity? Well, I think this is it. If you stayed on to the end here, this is the call. Step into your greatness accepted. You are the Savior. In this instance, you're your own Savior, no one, no one else can initiate this for you. You've got to be the one who initiates it. And then, you know, begin the process if you're looking for help. If you're you know, if you're looking for the next phase in that, reach out to me, Brandon at spiritual dope, CO, or find me over on Facebook or Instagram at spiritual dope, and let's have the conversation right? I mean, if you just know looking to get your story out there You're just looking to understand what some of the next steps are for you, or even just for me fuel for the fire out, I texted someone the other day the fuel for the fire for some of this is just being able to share how you feel and be accepted for who you are because you are an amazing person. You've got an amazing story, you've got something incredibly creative within you that's quite literally dying to get out. And it's my hope to help you live to get that out right. Live by getting that out. So that's it guys. Hope you've enjoyed this one. This one is really, really about the you know, initiating, right taking taking the initiation and being initiated. I know it's a kind of a play on words, but I want I really want you to take that to heart

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Join me as I catch up with my coaching friend Steven Mills.

Steven & I spent quite a bit of time together a couple of years back as I was beginning to coach and he was a coaches coach...

After catching up with him, I felt I could detect a bit of a Heroes Journey... a spiritual tale as it were within him and invited him to share on this podcast.

I am a loving father to my daughter Evanna; I was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland and live in Glasgow, Scotland today.Ok a little bit about me then, at the young age of 16 I joined the British Army in 1998 and served for six years with two operational tours of Iraq and Kosovo. I left in 2004 to begin my transition back into civilian life. This transition was challenging for me, and in the years that followed, I resorted to alcoholism and anti-depressants, Living from a place of stress and Anxiety, Failed relationships, jumping from job to job, never really settling down or finding peace. I suppressed a lot of childhood trauma that would bite me in the bum later in life that stemmed from emotional neglect, physical and verbal abuse. This was one of the main reasons I joined the forces to run away from this, this wasn't the answer as I found out the hard way later in life. The transition was a real rollercoaster ride for me, without the support I was used to in the army, life had its challenges, with uncertainty and no purpose to where my life was heading. I got lost in a trail of destruction which impacted my health, finances, relationships with friends and family and I had no hope and a feeling of emptiness and hurt. Eight years of going round in circles, frustration, feeling useless, no peace and continuously busy, destroying a lot of relationships, emotional and spiritual health issues, and much more I decided to enough was enough, it was time for a change. Through this process, I have gained so many transformational insights into destructive patterns of not only my behaviors, habits, attitudes, and beliefs but of others around me too. This has been an ongoing journey. Moving beyond this season of life influenced me to evaluate my future, and take this vision for my life today, to facilitate and coach as many people who were in my position as I am physically possible to overcome the common fears, blockages, limitations in order to heal and have a transformation in your life as I have, if I can do it, so can you.

Brandon Handley 0:02 4321 Hey there. This is Brandon Handley. I am on with Steven Mills, who's a coach and mentor, men's life coach, trauma recovery coach, online trainer, who's currently just recently founded. Core coaching business Academy is also the founder of social enterprise core connections, coaching and training. He's a experienced men's coach. And he's got over seven years experience in the coaching a personal development industry. He's a loving father. He's from Scotland, I don't even know how to pronounce where you're from. So I didn't even try except for Glasgow, which, you know, that's where you are right now. joined the military at the young age of 16. And you serve for six years there, two operational tours of Iraq and Kosovo. And this is when you left in 2004 To begin a transaction, transit efficient back into civilian life, and you were kind of that was kind of a challenge, from what I understand he resorted to alcoholism and depressants, living in a place of stress and anxiety. Not really being able to settle down and kind of seems like that stemmed from emotional, black, physical and verbal abuse. And and, you know, throughout all this, you know, you started to find your own path, right, you start to find your own path and you hooked on to coaching and others you've over the years, you know, I know you're passionate about coaching, that's how you and I met you, you helped build the coaching community, you've been a mentor and a trainer to that and more recently, as you and I reconnected, you told me that you know, you've gone through and I hope this is okay to share, because I know I didn't ask, but you know, you've had some more therapy over the past year. Seems like you may have had some kind of struggles in, in getting past this kind of like invisible barrier threshold, right that you felt like something was holding you back. And you spent some time work more time work on yourself. And a Pac Man, it seems with a fierceness as it were, as I like to say, right. So, you know, welcome. Thanks, Steven, for coming on today. And thanks for reaching out to me just to say, Hey, I'm sure you probably didn't have a podcast in mind when you said hey, Brandon, what's going on? But after hearing your story, I felt like it was something that fit with what we're doing here. Well, what I love to do is I love to start these off with like, you know, one or two things right? What is something that I can help you celebrate today? Or you know, what is is like spiritual dope, right? Like is the name of the podcast so what's like, your most recent spiritual high if you could qualify?

Steven Mills 3:00 And then probably place off NRP. So what's took about our journey, it took a lot of years to find that went around in circles and, you know, kept living and old patterns and dealing with childhood trauma, which was overpowered, and on me it's like a dark cloud over my head. And there was a lot of toxic shame in there that I used to live by. And I call them sub hub and a lot of self pity parties. So from going through that journey of healing from trauma, over a 12 month period, and really get into the trenches and do and be able to look the past and a deeper level than I have ever done before. And I was able to find that place off and a piece. So I guess that in our piece, you know, call it spirituality, call it whatever faith in that place at peace. I think we all want to find that in life. We all want to find that inner peace Inner Peace Center brings so much Joy brings so much, you know, you feel that sense of you're okay, you're settled yet there's no you don't have to worry about the future. You don't have to think about the back of the past too much, but actually just loving more and know if you like and I know that's probably a cliche to say loving on the note but actually, it's achievable. And it takes a lot of work by took me a lot of work to get there. But knowing the work of dead you know, I would always encourage anyone out there that's maybe going through things from the past as to really engage with that and be able to look at because you have a choice right or look at or we look away, we can look away and I for years, I looked away I denied I suppressed I didn't really address it properly. And then it came out like a volcano feel like it was like a volcano effect that just blew up. And just like fireworks go all over the place with Emma was my favorite Whole body. So finding that inner peace has been a big revelation for me. And it's allowed me to slow down. And everything I do know, because I believe slowing down as the best slowing down solves most problems. If we're able to find a place and a peace and slow down in life, we're able to see things from a different perspective. And we become more patient and much more welcomed set of choices. And that's been a big revelation for me a big breakthrough moment. I feel like a big aha moment. It's really changed my my life and many ways. And this allowed me just to follow my intuition, follow my gut and follow what's what I'm truly passionate about and, and find my purpose if that's what you want to call it. Your mission in life, your vision, all these things. So yeah.

Brandon Handley 5:53 man you got you got a lot in there, right. One of the things a few of the things that that you've gotten, there is The acceptance of you know what I think a lot of people call the shadow self, right? Or the darkness in themselves, or whatever you want to call it. But you know, by facing that pain instead of and welcoming it and seeing what it had to teach you, in your life sounds like one of the things that you've done there. And it also sounds like you know, the whole being the now thing. While it may sound cliche, it's very much so when the student is ready, the master will appear right? And that's when all of a sudden, it sounds like you're finding all these cliches have some place in reality, and you're like, man, I really did I just did I just say being the now did I just say find inner peace and everything will be okay. Yeah, I did. And the other part in there too is when you find here, those you Hear that chirping in the background? I've got chickens in my bathroom. Who knew that?

Unknown Speaker 7:09 little chicks in there? Yeah.

Brandon Handley 7:11 I always make fun of myself to those five chicks in my bathroom, but not what you're thinking. Um, and then, and then when, you know, you find that inner peace and this is a line that I heard from Bob Proctor finally, finally made some sense. It was like, I don't need to slow down.

Unknown Speaker 7:30 I need to calm down.

Brandon Handley 7:32 Right? I don't need to be excited because when something's excited that that's an indicator of your molech Moloch. You know, molecular level, bouncing around too fast. This excited. There's lots of energy there, but it's not focused energy. Right. And it's not calm and to your point, thoughtful energy, you know when you can pause in that intercom if you're not worried or thinking about yesterday and if you're not concerned, worried about tomorrow, you can focus on today and what's right

Unknown Speaker 8:04 in front of you.

Brandon Handley 8:08 In a sense of calm, right, like you said, Take a breath, think about what's right in this situation, think about what you should do right here and now versus this kind of react. And like I said, this excited motion, this excited motion says what? Oh, that's there. We got to go do this. This is what I know to do. We're gonna hop right to it.

Unknown Speaker 8:29 Right, that's not it.

Brandon Handley 8:31 And that's what you found. So I love it, man. That's, that's something to celebrate, for sure. And I think that that's also where we've, I'm sure heard it all throughout time while you're growing up, you know, you're the sum of all the choices that you make. Right? And, and you see now the power of choice. The power of choice is in that call moment that you're talking about. Got that all kind of sum it up all right for you my caption.

Steven Mills 9:04 Choice is quite a big thing. I mean, we all have, we all have choice choices every day. And certainly we make and how we live our lives and what we do as a career, what we do in relationships, we all have a choice to respond in a way that's, you know, whatever way you want to respond and respond from a place of fear or we can respond from a place of love. We can respond from a place of, you know, calmness, whereas more well considered, or we can respond emotionally and a reaction. And it's just, you know, having that knowing that we've got that free will to choose how we live is very important. And it's only through my experience of healing, that I found a place to choose more effectively. The biggest thing I learned through healing from trauma was you to feel as real before you suppress all the feelings of denial, but if you can set with these feelings as hard as they may be It's, it's the best way to heal as I lower it just to be and to release because emotions, emotions need to move. They're not they're not they're just temporary they have to move. You know, if you think of emotions come from a Latin word emotive, you know, as moving as a movement, emotions need to move. And a lot of us struggle with dealing with the hard emotions, the the tension, the shoulders, the butterflies, the stomach, the anxiety that may come through pain. And there's one of the biggest things I had to learn it was just stuff set, still allow it to come and go, allow it just to be and release it through different ways like breathing. I used to write about a lot. So I journal I write a lot about my domain recovery. I would write a lot of it and release it through writing, how I was feeling because a lot of us don't really engage with our definite emotions, a lot of us tend to only know a few, a handful of emotions, but actually, if you look at not the definitely, I have all the different emotions, that is, it's probably 50 4050 emotions, that we can all go through another and it's been aware of all them. And it's allowing them to come into your life and leave your life and we're, you know, we can react emotionally or we could just set with them. And his biggest thing out loud was just, I like the phrase to feel as real, to feel as real and life to just set with the feelings, no matter how hard to make beat do that. And that took a lot of practice for me. It took a lot of practice. And as I was going through my healing journey, because when you start delving into this, the dark shadow as you may call it, Brandon and we start looking into, you know, what's really going on deep down and and maybe some past, you know, trauma that really has hard it can be definitely To face up to them and that's where trauma can drive that addictions it can drive you know, relationship behaviors, it can, you know, just behaviors that maybe not, you know, healthy in a relationship it can drive all sorts of different behavior or patterns. And and unless we're in a weird on, we're never able to address them fully and actually be mindful of how we have been for our last domain for some of their patterns or habits and we have come from because these patterns and habits and sometimes creep up on us and be unhealthy but it could come from past traumas and and this is why I'm really passionate about trauma awareness and helping people with trauma and relationships because, you know, economically be that partner that's where someone with trauma doesn't see what the you know, the where these behaviors are coming from. They just actually react to the behavior and start Should I that's not good. I'm you. You've just been angry to me for Reason, but the anger could be coming from past arch. You know, the anger comes from past hearts really, I mean, behind anger, there's always pain.

Brandon Handley 13:10 So I believe 100% 100%. So again, you know, a lot a lot in there. Right. And I think that to hit it off with what you've discovered is something that I would assert is that Western civilization, you know, European civilization has been taught very poorly about their emotions, which is something that sounds like you found, right? You said you knew of like, maybe four or five, and it's like, all right, well, you've come across another 30 or 50. Right, and you're journaling and you're dealing with them and you're sitting with them and you're learning about your emotions. What are something you know, what are some other tools that you know, how did you how did you learn? You know, what would you tell me if I wanted to learn What these other 25 to 45 emotions are that I may not be aware about right. And then what are some other tools? You talked about journaling, right? As one of your big ones, what are some other tools that I can use to identify and deal with my emotions? And again, learn what some of these other ones are? Because I know anger. I mean, right? Like, How old's your daughter? Six, six. So you've probably watched it the Disney one right? Inside Out, have you watched it? All right. So I mean, those are like those, like the five emotions we know. We know like, anger, joy, happy, you know, sadness. And then like, you know, the the the other guy, right? So yeah, walk us through a little bit of that, right? We're learning

Steven Mills 14:46 about having the art of, I call it the art of curiosity. So it's been it's always it's always been curious of what's going on. Not you know, not just mentally but physically. How is the emotions of affect us physically as well as mentally? Because a lot of us focus on that just a reaction more than I'm gonna interrupt just one sec.

Brandon Handley 15:08 I'm going to as what would you because I see I see a pathway going down right now how about what if I asked you this question What about how are you teaching your daughter to identify emotions and deal with them when she said she went, which when she grows up she's able to to do what your it took you 30 some odd years to do. Right? How would you teach her to

Steven Mills 15:31 teach her the moment as I am? Get off to draw how she's feeling? I get to draw and expressions of how do you feel a foreigner? How do you feel right now? Can you draw me an emoji? Or can you draw me a sample emojis and can be okay, can you also draw me a picture of how you're feeling right now? And also teacher to it's okay to cry. It's okay to let your emotions out and the best wishes Sometimes it's okay to cry. Daddy sometimes cries. And it's okay. I mean, a lot of us don't like to admit, we cry, especially men, we don't like to admit that we have, we would like to see it be seen that we've got all together. But actually, if we allow it just the floor, sometimes the best release of emotions is through trial through 11. The tears to flow aluminum f meet hard not to change suppress them, but just allow them to flow. It's like a rubber bashes canal here, right? I fit in a river, the lava flows, right. Yeah. So So

Brandon Handley 16:32 yeah, a big part of it, though, is again going back to kind of like that Western civilization part is that, you know, we've been taught to control our emotions. Right. And as especially as men control your emotions, you know, don't let your emotions run you. Yeah, which is true, right, which is where we get to this point in kind of your stories set with your emotions, understand your emotions. make a conscious choice off of your emotions, don't react. Tear emotions, which is very hard to deliver to a young child because again we hear Don't let your emotions control you which translates to a child is an adult so your emotion so it sounds to me like you're you're you're you're helping her to identify them. You're helping her to allow her to express them. You know, tears is one way art is another right How can you translate, translate those emotions, identify them and share them. Awesome. I love that. Yeah, a little bit more. Go ahead. Sorry.

Unknown Speaker 17:35 Yeah, interrupt.

Steven Mills 17:36 No, no, it's cool as cool as you know, emotions are right and society we're not taught how to express them. We you know, and a lot of time has grown men don't try comes to me and I you know, man up and get yourself together. We you know, all these phases talk to young men and you know, don't you can't we you know, you can't be seen to cry because that's, you'd actually be shown a weakness but See it. The opposite is that's the strength as a strength to show your weaknesses. It's a strength to show your vulnerability at times. And it's a sense of speech was meant to be a vulnerable, and sometimes to show that we have pain and allow the tears to flow, because it's much more powerful and showing the vulnerabilities. Now, teaching children that as I feel is really important for white parents. I'll say stop crying, don't cry, just get on with it. Come on, yeah, you'll be fine. You, but sometimes it's about being patient. And, you know, 11 the children just to, to kick off and allow them to be angry. Because if you try and stop lying God, you're gonna, you're gonna just flare even more. Whereas if you just allow it to, I, you know, and it's about, I see that you're angry. I see that you're frustrated, and that's okay. Because in life, sometimes we get frustrated and we get angry and I'm not going to hold against you. Allow it to just release it, allow it to come out. Because of you, there's another statement I grew up with, and that was, children should, you know, shouldn't be heard, should be seen but not heard. And something's allowing children to be held by allowing them to release that anger, or at least start excitement, release of tears. And it's about just helping them become aware of that. as we as we go. because more people, more children become aware of their emotions, the better they're going to be equipped going in the adulthood. When disappointments come when things come that show up in life that causes on pain. After then aware of what's called going on, then there's no better place to respond, and then to deal with it. And this helps with self care. And it helps with managing expectations as the drawn toddlerhood so for me, not at score, export and just explore your emotions be widdle Take a look at you know, the stuff that works as I've said, there's frustration, there's anger, I'm happy and fulfilled. I, you know, I'm agitated. I, there's definitely words and there's different ways we can describe how our emotions put the quotes gone and our physical body what's going on with their emotions mentally, what's going on, Anders, the more we can slow. This is our lambda the last 18 months and it's the more we can just be patient and show yourself that bat grace and self compassion, compassion as an important ingredients when it comes to and keeping up you know, being being okay with ourselves and being okay with our own skin. And part of my healing journey was shown that compassion because as I see a lot of machine, and when shames around us like a dark cloud over here, but if you start being compassionate to the max, and that's the antidote for shame and compassion, as something again, we're not really shown too much when we're growing up. We're not sure how to be that sure sure that self compassion, you know, love yourself became to yourself that self kindness because a lot of think all of us Eagle, no it's not about Eagle it's about more about forget about the eagle. It's about fetal kidney on skin being your ability to love yourself and show yourself that kindness and forgiveness even when you make a mistake. But some kids grew up trying to be perfect because their kids the parents have these expectations on them. That's just jackal with expectations check with the mom to be perfect it's about allowing them to show that it's okay to make mistakes. So kill them and show that self coke self compassion is something that I know I love to help out with when I'm coaching and when I'm helping them find that place to show themselves that back crease and just come on. Tricia flat little bit several passionate because the more we can learn that Assaf compassion, because as an art, and it's something we need to practice, because we're a lot of people are showing this growing up to short self compassion. So it's almost like unlearning what was learned as grown up?

Brandon Handley 22:14 And you know, that's 100% 100%

Steven Mills 22:17 the

Unknown Speaker 22:19 year it looked

Brandon Handley 22:19 at the idea of that self compassion. The idea of learning that again for yourself, like you just said there at the end to having to unlearn everything that you you learned while you're growing up is something that you know, Alan Watts talks to quite a bit not sure if you ever listen to him, just kind of a beatnik type, you know, back in the day talking about different comparative religions, right. But he talks about it in the sense of like salted meat, right, you know, you salt it to cure it, but like before you can eat it, you have to put it in the water and desalinate it, right. You have to, you have to, you have to make it so that it can be Music but uh, you know, that's what I think of, you know, when you say that line, right? Just because that was kind of the first time I'd ever really understood or heard it. You also talk about, like, you know, look, the grace, right? To me, that's a super powerful word. Because again, we talked before we got started here, the kind of the gist of this is, you know, kind of the, you know, the spirituality, inner sense of self right. And when you look up the word grace, that's the, I think called, like, divine power. Right? And, and really, divinity is again, talks about the inside of you what's inside of you, right? That's divine, who you are, is divine. And when you accept like divine, when you accept grace, who you're accepting of power that, you know, it's just like, allows you to be in that place that you've been talking about that, that gets part of what gives you that

Steven Mills 23:59 sense of calm.

Brandon Handley 24:00 The sense of inner peace that's grace when you when you discover that for yourself that's man you can you can't I mean, I haven't tried but you could walk on water, that kind of thing, right i mean that's the kind of thing we're talking about. And and it really seems to me like you found it right seems to me like you found this space and you're really leaning into it.

Unknown Speaker 24:22 And, and you're using it

Brandon Handley 24:25 to fuel your life and your success and your career right now with your next coaching place, right and I've got it right here in front of me too, is like, you aim to help people discover their peace, so they can find their passion and purpose so they can fulfill their life goals and dreams. Right now, I would go so far as to say what you're trying to do. You know, this is and this is again, my perspective kind of coming from the coaching space as well is you're trying to Find people how to become aware of their own emotions, how they can find that grace within themselves. So they can, you know, accept themselves as who they are. And you talk about, you know, teaching kids how to accept themselves at an early age, as you and I are doing as fathers. I know that my son, and I think that, you know, they look at numbers like he'll come home and he'll say, I only got five wrong. I'm like, Well, how many did you get? Right? Tell me how many you got? Right, right. Let's celebrate your wins, man. It's okay to celebrate. You know, you got 15 right? That's awesome, dude. It's awesome. I always break down like, I'll break down a baseball batting average form, right? I'm not sure how big you are and American baseball over there. But if you if your batting average is 25%

Unknown Speaker 25:46 you're actually not bad.

Brandon Handley 25:48 That's pretty good. You get to 35% journalist, a hero, okay. And so it's really it's not about those numbers. It's about how you feel about what you've done. Did you bring it? Did you bring your best game? Did you did you prepare yourself for for this particular situation? And I'll even loop in jujitsu with him too because he's in Jiu Jitsu and I'll say, all right, well, you know, you learn more from your losses than you do from your wins because you know, your wins this mean that like you, you may train a little bit more than the other guy. But if you lose, you can see where your deficiencies are, you can see what you need to work on. Right But, but come out of there being strong, like you're saying, show yourself compassion, and learn, learn about all of that, that you can. And I think that sounds to me, too, like you're teaching your daughter to these things, right? You're teaching them as you're learning them to do Am I getting? Am I getting this all right for you? Or am I missing anything?

Steven Mills 26:51 Yeah, yeah, that's it. I mean, Greece as powerful graces really, you know, when you've got grace that takes away any guilt Grace is the antidote to guilt here. If you say

Brandon Handley 27:03 that's right, you said the antidote, the antidote, the antidote, hey, I will not interrupt the antidote to shame, right was compassion, right? I love that line man, the antidote. I love that line. So I mean, that's gonna be, that's gonna be a tweet, you just wait for that one.

Steven Mills 27:18 Cool, that's fine. You're getting a ticket ticket that said this was before. And, and grace is added to it to go. Because when you've got grace, there's no room for guilt, when you're able to just show yourself that that forgiveness for grace. Grace for me means that you're forgiven towards yourself, and Jana placed off, not being hard on yourself. You have been better on your shelf and grace just once famously, is a great ingredients that works well with compassion. And then if you've got grace and compassion, then it's only going to bring patience. You're able to show much more patience with others, you're able to show much, much more grace with a lot of because you've given it to yourself. And when you're in that place of patience, and you've noticed fixations, then you have not attached to the outcomes, all the results in your life tell you not to their results, and when you're not attached to the outcomes and results, and not bring space. Again, spiritual. No,

Brandon Handley 28:14 absolutely. I mean, I mean, that's, that's the whole gist of it, right? Like, it's and you know, that talks to Buddhism, right? To me it talks to Buddhism. See, it's the, the attachment to the desired outcomes. Right? That's right, that brings suffering, right, because you get to the point of, well, it's got to turn out this way. And if it doesn't turn out this way, I'm gonna be pissed and what was me life's Right. Yeah. What you're saying though, is let go of those outcomes. Have some faith in it? Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Man, there's a little bit of there's a little bit of there's a little bit of spirituality in that. Let's talk about, let's talk about, you know, this past. It says you said about 18 months about therapy. I want to talk a little bit a bit about The difference between especially you being a coach a little bit of difference between what therapy is and and what coaching is right and and and, you know, kind of when to use both.

Steven Mills 29:16 So therapy for me, I was definitely journey altogether and I learned a lot along the process and for me, it was a longer process than I would normally find coaching. So for me therapy as delving a lot into, you know, a lot of that deeper work. So, you know, not seeing the course and capable deep part but for therapy depends on what kind of therapy you go down. There's different tapes and different modalities, but for me therapy is about really jumping into the trench and delving into some of the past traumas that maybe affect who we are today. And and if you're not aware of this, it could really check out Cochin another hand a lot of it as progress. It's about setting goals and moving forward in your life coaching, you may not even get past this much. But if you can find a hybrid of coaching and therapy together, then you're finding the sweet spot. So a lot of the work I'm doing with trauma recovery coaching, as a hybrid between coaching and therapy. So as as given, it's been therapeutic, and it's so low in space and given silence and less than, but at the same time asking the right questions that allows the individual to explore. So for me therapy was, it was an eye opener I learned so much about myself, I said, I learned so much about my behaviors, about habits and patterns turned up in my life today. And I learned more about toxic shame hoshin was overshadowing everything I've done in my life and allow around our wars for others. And how are we keep everyone that that's obviously good at keeping people at arm's length And not allowing them and to affect my emotions are not alone. They're meant to. So I was very, I struggled to show up and vulnerable at times. And it was me learning how to be vulnerable and actually be completely honest, on a heart level, rather than my head level, just trying to tell people where they want to hear or so I showed up more vulnerable than I've ever done in my life. No therapy. At that age, the route I went was CRM, which is like compare comprehensive resource model. And it's about it's almost like there's about Shimano humanism and now, and it's about it's about shamanism and not therapy. It's very much similar. And there's also a hypnosis so it's about a hybrid between CRM a new model, now not like people will know about it was developed by an American woman, and Lisa Swann. And she, she developed this model, comprehensive resource model, and it's very especially specialist especially in trauma. It's a very very effective and modality for clearing trauma and it is quite safe it's a safe way of doing it and it's it's more prolonged it's more of a preparation and get into that place where you're mindful and you know allowing yourself to go back into some of the memories not really experienced none but remembering them. So you're unable to distill at least them so you know, living these memories to come off maybe abuse or these memories of you know, past things that happened and what that were that stuff actually to deal is just given that space, silly some and I've done a lot of work in that. It was fair therapy every week for 14 months and tall and saw caution. If you look at coaching, how is that different? coaching you might not be sometimes not, not not you may not go quality coaching for that length of time. You may only be coaching for some time. Six weeks or 12 weeks or three months or six months, but euro, and there's nothing to have, like a hybrid between coaching and therapy, and actually bring both together. So what I've done know, is what I'm doing from an acoustic portion as well as my men's coaching. I bring a therapeutic approach and based on where my journey, I've learned from the caution aspect of also having the counseling and the therapeutic. So when I put it all together a pitchman good stead to help us deal with some of the past hearts that may be affecting them. And it's so this is where I look to help people find peace because, you know, we can help people find a set of goals for their dreams going forward. But sometimes you need to have that that deeper and to really deal with the deep rooted stuff. So you're talking about limiting beliefs, but you're also talking about the trauma.

Unknown Speaker 33:53 Well, yeah, like, you know,

Brandon Handley 33:55 I think for you, right, you found In therapy, you went deeper. You found some things that were holding you back and I say I'd like to think of it as a plane right? Like, you don't think I'm thinking of like you know the actually thinking of like, God what is it just to say where those movies where they got too much like I'm thinking of like the cocaine transporters right like that they're always trying to smuggle but you know that it got to drop you got they got to drop off that stuff so they can make it over certain ridges right like and it sounds to me like you had some pain that was dragging you down. You had to address it. You had to identify you said is this still serving me? Does this serve me? Should they stay on the plane? Or should this be jettisoned?

Steven Mills 34:43 Yeah, and this is what I would use the three years and this is where we need to, first of all, acknowledge that we've got that pain there. Acknowledge. Then we look at accepted and coming fame Going to a place of acceptance that is going on. And then we address so acknowledge, accept and address, as we are looking at when it comes to trauma when it comes to any pain from your past, as we need to be look really explored on the seas and it's also about awareness, there's a 44th in the awareness and for not acknowledged and unaware of that, how it's playing out in our lives, that we're not going to be willing to accept an address. And that's what therapy did for me, it helped me do all these 40 years. And it also gave me a bit of give me more tools to, to throw in when it came to court, Jen, and it helps me my job when I'm coaching is to help people slow down and find a place of peace spot, because that's the don't do that fast, then they're going to struggle to follow that intuition. When it comes to the passion and purpose. They're going to struggle to tell themselves to listen to what's going on and say rather than and so my job As to get them from the head to their heart as soon as we can. Because when we get them to the heart is more authentic, the be the shop, maybe more more fundable. And it's true that that's when the magic happens is when when, when we get when we get more honest and authentic from a place of that heart and allows more flow. So this is my, my role when I'm coaching and also brings like, like, I see a hybrid with with therapy at the same time.

Brandon Handley 36:30 I love it. I love I love the four A's to write, acknowledge, accept, address and bring that awareness without being able to acknowledge except or and or dress and identify, right, give these things kind of a label. You can't be aware of them. You can't. You can't make a choice on something that you're unaware of. Mm hmm. So I love that. I love that I love I love the head to heart right now. Bringing them from The head to the heart. And, you know, to me, there's definitely a huge connection there. And, and I chased that one down to a few years ago, myself. And there's a booze lie. It's just, it's called the heart, the heart mind, right, connecting the two. And once you meet, once you make that connection to the two of them, and maybe you're feeling from your heart, and then your mind is able to as you kind of go back to right, what am I feeling in my heart right now? That's the acknowledgement, right? And then you have the opportunity to accept it, of whether or not that's true for you, in your mind, right after you've acknowledged it, and then you can address whether or not that's true for you. Right, is that my follow on kind of like, how I how I would use this?

Steven Mills 37:53 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, pretty much you getting down at your heart levels and as For me key and this is where you find your true answers in your life not in your mind, not what you you know you think people should be and the best way to get from head to heart is asking really powerful questions and allowing them giving them that space

Brandon Handley 38:17 have an example of a powerful question Stephen most

Steven Mills 38:21 powerful question would be

what's what's your biggest blockage? what's what's holding you back right now? Honestly, forget about external refer no forget about what's going on around you forget what's new mate. What's really holding you back?

Unknown Speaker 38:39 Well, what's, what's the blockers? Damn, like, I would answer that too. I'd be like I was like, Yeah, man that you know, for me.

Brandon Handley 38:49 It's it's what I'm doing right now. Right and it's fear. There's like tremendous fear and going ahead and and continuing to step into what I'm doing right now. Spiritual dope, right leading with spirituality. I mean, who does that? Right? Plenty of people do but it's the first time I've ever done it. So I'm terrified because I've never done this before. Is this the right thing for me to do? I don't know. So I'm blocking myself with a number of things invisible blockages, because I've looked all around and I see that society says, Well, you don't talk about religion and you shouldn't do this. And most people don't do it like that. And that's not the way it's been done in the past. And so man, for me, some of my biggest blockages are what we talked about earlier. These are all the things that I've learned. And I need to unlearn them, right. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 39:41 Now I need to face them and walk into

Steven Mills 39:44 a set and another good question is what you seek what you seek in within. What are you seeking right now? The what's missing as something that you're seeking on a heart level.

Brandon Handley 39:56 Great one brother. That is a that's a great one. I'm not gonna lie, because so what I'll do in the mornings, is, I have a, you know, mini practice as it were, right, a reflection period. And I go and I write these questions, I search out questions just like you're saying, What's missing? What am I seeking? And I don't you know, I would use the word God the universe, right, that connection to it. Right? And, and that's exactly what it is. I'm doing right now, with this conversation you and I are having I'm, I'm looking to kind of validate what I already know to be true. Mm hmm. Right. And and where can i Where else can I find this in life?

And that's exactly you know, so I believe. I've already established a connection with God divine divinity within right. I've kind of harnessed with it, come together with it, but every day. I feel like I'm still questioning that right. I'm still looking. looking looking for that. I'm still looking and that's the spirit dope right there, brother.

Steven Mills 41:02 Yeah, that's uh that's that's certain. It's a nice powerful questions. That's the more the more quality of questions, the better the more quality answers we'll get. And the more the more willing we are to search and like, go back to our on our curiosity and feel just curious in life. And when it comes to others, just asking questions, the best coaches, the best therapists are the ones that asked good questions and sharp after they ask the question, and just alone space lesson. Yeah. And then you pick it up on what's really going on. And you've given the most powerful thing here as allowing someone space to get everything out to release everything. It's maybe in the main so we can get down to that space. Most nuggets and coaching are found when once they've replied, You don't answer straight away. You give me back so silence is actually silence is golden, right? And silence in space that helps people explore much more when it comes to emotions explore much more what's on the heart, and it's about our curiosity. Another question I love to ask is, what do you need to do that you don't want to do?

Brandon Handley 42:15 Now you asked me that one a couple of years back, man, that sucked.

Unknown Speaker 42:19 I was like, Man,

Brandon Handley 42:20 you always know what you need to do. And it's just like you just do it, you know? Because that's um that shows your level of commitment to what it is you say you want to do to me, right? What you know, so if you know what it is that you need to do, because inherently you do right and you're not doing it, are you indeed committed to what it is that you say you want to do?

Steven Mills 42:51 So, again, it comes back to the choice love versus fear. are you choosing love in your life or are you choosing fear yellow in the future? To overcome you already moving beyond and choosing love, because when you're choosing love, you're much more you're following your true heart. You're trying to find your passion, you've got a love for others around you, your family and people. And love versus fear comes in every choice we make, I believe in when it comes to career when it comes to, you know, responsibilities in life, not just a family but our friendships. Love versus fear as the choice that we all have to make. Love comes from our heart fear comes from what's going on our mains, or what's what we are going to block our shelves.

Brandon Handley 43:36 So for me, the question ends up being you know, is that part of kind of what drove you? I use the word drive you into therapy? Is that part of what made you seek out therapy was it you didn't find yourself choosing love enough? And you were choosing fear more often?

Steven Mills 43:55 I choose fear much more often. Yeah, I load shame to crap on me. I upload shame to really orange Company allowed not to hold me back. So I was choosing fear for years, not through potential any fault at all. But it was my own fault was not actually addressing the traumas and not addressing the past that maybe has shown up in my life. So you talking about trauma reenactment here, I would gravitate to certain relationships in my life, because of my childhood. And they weren't serving me. And I didn't, I was vulnerable. So I know boundaries. And fear really troubled me for years. And it was only when I went to that journey healing, that I was able to then start fame than, you know, love and self. Also more love for people around me. And another only due to any trauma or addiction as healthy relationship. A healthy relationship, a loving relationship, someone that's there for you, unconditionally, on giving you that acceptance, as even when you're angry. Even When you're throwing a lot out there, and that's one thing that gave me hope and help me through much omnious as through the, my partner who was was just solid rock, and she, she was there constant. So relationships and love as another 92 you know, addictions, trauma?

Brandon Handley 45:21 Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, you know, it's so funny, like just kind of how similar, you know, parts of our journey are right? I can tell you that when I was vulnerable to my wife, Meg, years ago, when I was going through, you know, kind of my space, my journey, actually what even maybe even years before that, the whole the whole gist of of me packing everything up and driving 3000 miles across country in a vehicle that might not have made it was due to her ability to love me as I was on conditionally and then years later, when I was able to be vulnerable and she said, She says, I don't understand, you know, kind of what's going through what it is that you're doing, but I'm here for you. Right. And even even more recently, I think, you know, I just had a, you know, a minor just like blow up, but you know, you talk about that volcano and the eruptions just like, everything had gotten to me at a certain point. I was like, Listen, yeah, I've rarely Yeah, really express my anger, right. Which is probably not healthy. But, you know, I had expressed it and not in a violent way. I just like erupted. You know, I apologized, and I just said Listen, I you know, I really sorry, and just, nobody deserves to have to hear my shit just because I'm feeling this way. And she goes, listen, I get it. You know, everybody, just kind of everybody. We're all gone through some things. And you know, when you have somebody like that in your life, right when you have somebody that's accepting you as you are. That's powerful. And I think that that's also where do the things at home first, right The having a solid This is the importance of a good home life a strong relationship at home a strong relationship with your family because you can be who you need to be and be loved unconditionally for who you are every day at home. It makes it much easier to pass the threshold of your own doorway and into the world and accept that maybe somebody else is going to accept you as you are as you're being accepted at home.

Steven Mills 47:30 Yeah. Because no matter what we look at, we all look for validation, right? Everyone in life looks for validation. You know, Michelle or Oprah Winfrey used to talk about this everybody acumen I'm sure. You know, we'd see him sad cuz they're not for you. Even like Obama and all these different people would say at the end, was that good enough for you because we're looking for validation. So what we all want validation from others and our ways and that police acceptance is powerful, and it's powerful and it allows us It gives us more Peace knowing that we can be who we are with people around us and and that helps bring peace and come back to grace, about self compassion, if we're showing compassion does help us on our journey to find more self compassion. And no, it's not an easy journey finding peace. It's not an easy journey, finding a healing through recovery from trauma from from from past hearts, but as a oneness, what's going on. So then, you know, you can then enable yourself to love them, and a better place going forward, and you then allow joy in your life yellow, loving relationships, you allowed yourself to find your passion and your purpose. And one of the things no, as, you know, one of the biggest things I've learned is not to care what people think. And if you can come to a place where you don't care what people think it's quite, it's quite cool, because you can just do your thing, be yourself. And, you know, for me, I'll just keep somebody Thing simplistic, you know, coaching, there's so many different modalities. There's so many different things about coaching. But coaching for me is just simply allowing people that space to explore with that. And a good coach is someone that lessons effectively. And that's good questions. I said, and I, you know, I saw as a coach, all I can the best gift I can give someone is my time and space to explore where they are and really get down to delve into the heart and go that little bit deeper to then help them find the the AHA most breakthroughs I get some that sense of peace. So bear with

Brandon Handley 49:40 it. I think I think once you get to do right is you get to give people permission to find themselves to be themselves right and beyond hindered, and to allow them to share their dreams with you while you support them and helping them facilitate Let's state that right by giving them permission to be in that space with themselves as they are. And then I think the other part that I would throw in here for you is that you know, your whole journey as and where you are right now, I just want to highlight this is that you change the world outside of you by working on what's inside of you. Is that fair?

Steven Mills 50:26 Yes, definitely. Because the more you you more you work on yourself, the more you get a crack to help others and a much more effective way, and you can make an impact make a big difference. And, you know, for me, it's just one passionate team. I don't need to have a big audience. I don't need to have you know, thousands of people follow me as one passion. I tell you, if you can change the world to one passion, then I'm happy. I'm a happy man. I'm fulfilled on my journey. If I can change the life of one person per day, I'm living a life of purpose. Making a difference and the lives of others. One passion to another, just like,

Brandon Handley 51:07 just like Jim Rohn said, focus on the few. Yes, it's on the few brother. You know so Look, man, you're using the game that just to this whole thing, right is people who are kind of following their intuition, their inner selves and living a life that's true to who they are. And I can't think of anybody else that I know that fits that more than more than you are right now. So I appreciate you, again, reaching out sharing your story. What is what is uh, I always like to try and give some other tidbits to the audience to like, what is a book or some type of resource that has had tremendous impact. It's like, earth shattering for you. change everything about what it is and how you do it.

Steven Mills 51:54 And one of the books I read was recently in the library last year was the The mindful path to self compassion. And I think it's Dr. Christopher kalmar. Another book that I liked was the body nose score.

Brandon Handley 52:10 And I've actually had that one in my garage right now from a friend of mine. But uh, yeah. So tell me a little bit about that. What What does that What about?

Steven Mills 52:18 It talks a lot about, you know, traumas, it talks about past hearts, it talks about how our physical ailments and physical body can tell us what's going on in our lives. And it's been it's been able to then explore and be aware of what's going on in our bodies. And because more often than not, it does know the score at times. It shows up in our life when we feel that tension or we can feel something like a sore sore throat or it's a really good book to explore emotions, and know how to express them and how to be aware of them. And it just delves into a lot of different types of traumas and stuff. It's a really good book. I can't remember the same fun. I can't remember the guys name. It's a Dutch guy and phone number A couple other books there. And that's the only good bit and the book I'm reading at the moment is called Layton call and by Dr. Hawkins, and this is a very powerful because well and that's it's quite it's a path to surrender. So it's really about letting go over fears, letting go of, you know, it's very thing you know understanding acceptance, grief. So again, it's a very powerful book and letting go and all the different kinds of fears that we have in our lives and how they're showing up and it's about just as I love that word, surrender, and people see so the end of the war, belt, surrender to your shelf, surrender to your fears, surrender to, you know, the attachments you have in life, you know, surrender to, and the outcomes. So end up to say having faith and just, you know, finding that space, to just be and surrender to all our own. Everything is our own. Us, I surrender to expectations. So it's surrenders and really big what I discovered recently and really tried to understand much more. And so let go is a good book, and many other different books I've read so many over the years, I was a personal development junkie. I've not read as much I don't read as much as they used to. But I still doubt you will delve into books though. And again, but certainly These are some I would say recently that I've had a big impact. Also, the complex PTSD book by Pete Walker was another one and from thrive and survive from surviving to thriving. That was a really powerful book and understanding my my trauma, and yeah,

okay, so I recommend that

Brandon Handley 54:43 last one there, mostly for somebody who is seeking to understand more about their trauma.

Steven Mills 54:49 Yeah, or the complex PTSD or as well not so that's striving to survive is by Pete Walker, who writes a really really simple so really good book, I would say it was like the best have complex trauma. And yeah,

Brandon Handley 55:04 I love those. I love that all sounds great. So thank you for sharing those thanks for sharing kind of your story, your thought processes, you know, the dealing with emotions. Here's a couple of anecdotes, right. And I've just really enjoyed our conversation here. And I love seeing that you are out there, you know, still serving these coaching communities still giving all of this wisdom and all of who you are to your clients and helping them to build out their own communities and their own coaching practices. as it were, we didn't talk too much about exactly what it is that you're doing. But you know, I want I want people to who, for anybody who's been piqued and interested by you know what Stephen is talking about today and would like to find more About Steven Mills, where should we go to find out more and connect with you

Steven Mills 56:05 and you could check my coaching page on Facebook, Steven Mills coaching, I'm just revamping the website in the moment. And you would find me in the core coaching business Academy, and but the Facebook community that you're a part of Brandon. So you do a Facebook Live stuff in there and we give away a lot of resources and offer free, free events weekly. So we help development with we've got a pro program launching very soon. And for coaches that want to really make an impact and they're and they're, you know, practices and also help them thrive as a coach because 80% of coaches in the world and, and under $20,000 a year and we want to help people actually, you know, move beyond that and help them build a thriving coaching practice and overcome the fears of selling and overcome those fears of maybe associate them with what they're doing. So I my passion lies with helping coaches and find that passion and really start living by the purpose and start serving and making a bigger difference than they may be already doing. And

Brandon Handley 57:13 you're trying to teach them how to stop playing small, right? It's a

Steven Mills 57:15 it's a program that myself and my business partner Kevin Petri have developed. It's a 12 week program that will be launched very, very soon in July. So we are working hard on it, you know, we've got a curriculum ready and we're just going to be putting it out there. And that will be a part of my work over the next and years to come, I'm sure. As well as I still have my private practice. So you know, Stephens called Chen. And I've also got core connections coaching chain, which is the social enterprise, which we still do a lot about working there as well with some of the teams that have there. So a lot going on, and you're more than welcome to join me there. My email address you've got there and but you probably better Find me on

Brandon Handley 58:01 Facebook and you know Steven was caught Shen are the court coach and Business Academy. Hello, brother. Well, hey, thanks again for hanging out with us today sharing your story, like I said, and you know, just being being out there being honest with us and being sincere. Thank you so much.

Steven Mills 58:18 Thanks for having me, Brandon. It's been a it's been a pleasure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

The Universe Conspires

Brandon Handley 0:00 What is going on. Here we go. What's going on doing this one through otter AI just to see if it transcribes while I talk, and just wanted to see how that turned out so what are we doing here today. Welcome to the podcast so glad you could join us here on spiritual dope. Today we're gonna, I guess we're just gonna try and go for a hit right you know spiritual get your head get those have kind of a spiritual uplifting as it were maybe it's a download thing who knows how you're gonna handle it but what I want to do today was say hey, it was decision time, right, you've done everything right. You play all the reindeer games. You went to the right schools. You listened to and followed all the rules that you still can't seem to break through right you're in the same place working your ass off for 40 to 60 hours a week, maybe you've been doing it for the past 1520 years. You work harder. Okay, sure, you were told to work harder you work smarter, okay I'm not really sure what smarter looks like but you're still working. 40 to 60 hours a week and if you're still working 40 to 60 hours a week. You're still pretty much to me. Just working harder. Right. And then you're like shit I'm still in the same place with the same people, somehow, even my problems are all the same, right. Well, here's what I learned while I was reading the book, are you ready to succeed. I've read it several times, I recommend it to everybody I speak to. And one of the first things that, st, st Kumar hits on his mental

Unknown Speaker 1:52 models. Right.

Brandon Handley 1:55 We talked kind of like about your mental models that you had created for your entire life. You just, that's how you end up with the same problems right the same way of thinking that got you here isn't going to be the same type of thinking that gets you there, right, some of the some of the mental models I had were were stuff like. Be a man and you know take take it all and be a superhero and put it all on your own shoulders you never need hope suck it up right suck it up Buttercup, that kind of thing. And you know even, even as I was older, you know, working in some pretty, pretty cool awesome jobs actually surrounded by super smart people and this is I mean look you hear coming out my voice still like well I was like what was I doing surrounded by all these super smart people, you know, people with MBAs and great education is I was always terrified and stuff that they would figure. I said, What if they find out that I'm a high school dropout well they even listen to me then. And, you know, so how is this model serving me How is this way of thinking, serving me, how is this beneficial. Right. Does it feel like that for you. Sometimes I gotta ask, you know, does it feel like, you know, the models that you've been using for yourself. Have you standing in the same place using the hamster wheel stuck in the mud. You know, up against the same wall, day after day after day and nothing ever changes right. So, in this books. sukumar brings up the idea that he was taught by his own Indian mother, that this is a benevolent universe. And this universe is looking out for, for you. Right. It was looking out for him. And he disregarded her for years he would make fun of her he'd say stuff like, Well, why doesn't a melon just pop up here for me you know and appear from the universe it's benevolent universe and, you know, I think any, any good parent does you, you don't really charge your child you just you just realize when someone your child's not ready to accept that yet right they're not they're not ready to regard that idea, as, as true you know eventually though he had a shift in his own mind. And when he did and he applied this model to model of the universe being benevolent his own world began to change. And it's kind of like at this point where it's very similar to Alcoholics Anonymous right he recognized that he had a problem. He recognized that he had a poor mental model that was not empowering him. Right. And then he went ahead and he accepted that there was a power greater than himself. That was the universe that not only could it help. But, it, it also wanted his greatness, to come through as well right it was it was vulnerable, it was on his side. It was on his side. And I read this book it took me so long to get around to even reading it, but when I, when I read this. I began to apply it to my own life and I did it very very kind of lightly. You know, just kind of like happenstance is listening because once this stuff gets into your head and you accept any of it. And you just apply it right it's not just it's not just sounds like you can't not apply it. Once you've read it. Right, so it's almost like you've got a new. I would say that the, your mind is like Google, and whenever you read a book, or listen to a story. It goes into the subconscious that somehow right it goes into the recesses of your mind and it's always going to be available so this idea to be was available to me. It was new, and it was a, you know, I had a mental model that I was now rebuilding. I was building this new mental model. And it was pretty neat right because now I'm seeing the universe in an entirely different manner. As a matter of fact, it was like I had a brand new friend. Everything I did, it was no longer just me. Who's mean to you hear my, my best friend, the universe. Right. And I'd be gone too, as Alan Watts suggested to trust

Unknown Speaker 6:31 the universe

Brandon Handley 6:32 as another. And what happens when you trust the universe is not only just another. But the idea that it's a benevolent universe and that the universe wants these good things to happen for you.

Unknown Speaker 6:46 So I

Brandon Handley 6:48 opened it up to the very simple possibility that it may actually be true, you know, just a super, it's a possibility. Right. And I was able to face the universe and honestly a whole new way.

Unknown Speaker 7:07 I felt

Brandon Handley 7:08 in some ways that if you know sometimes like things don't work out and you're going through this process your new mental model right and and how do you look at it so now instead of saying, oh man this is shitty that didn't turn out for me and that guy was an asshole and man he just didn't get where I was coming from man. You know what I mean like instead of putting it, kind of out there in that way. I would I would really kind of address it and not even like an odd, you know we talked about being positive on this and positive on that. Well, I began to address it in such a way that I was like well maybe the universe knows something in that scenario that maybe my life would have turned out like shit if I think this way, you know full full on out, and I'm able to dismiss it, or, or I can just simply say hey maybe this didn't turn out for XYZ, and instead of getting bummed out about it, look at it as an opportunity to improve myself so that the next time that shows up, you know look go back, take notes reflect here's what went wrong. Here's what went right capture that. And, you know, give myself the opportunity to to redress it should that particular situation ever show up again.

Unknown Speaker 8:17 And sometimes, you know,

Brandon Handley 8:19 stuff on the surface didn't seem awesome again. On the surface, they don't seem awesome. But in my mind as they will say we know what that's, I'm so glad that this happened. You know the example I'm thinking of right now was you know I'd lost an amazing job or on the surface again looked like a great job. It wasn't a bad job. But when that job was no longer there. So many other possibilities became open to me that I hadn't been pursuing

Unknown Speaker 8:56 because I had the job.

Brandon Handley 8:58 Right, I had this kind of invisible tangible stuck to my leg, keeping me with with it within like a six square foot radius of, of all the things. Is it a square foot when it's a circle,

Unknown Speaker 9:11 I don't know,

Brandon Handley 9:14 but I wasn't I wasn't aware of these opportunities. Because I because

Unknown Speaker 9:19 I was stuck in

Brandon Handley 9:21 this other mental model of doing these other things I'm doing this job and, you know, I wasn't aware of these other opportunities because I was stuck. But by seeing the universe as another, I see the universe as being benevolent and on my side, I was able to free my mind up right from these constructs these constant constructs of a fear. Overall worry. And honestly, you know, for me, it's been very liberating and freeing, and, you know, do I stop and say okay universe has dropped all the things in my hands no I still show up and I still go to work, but I'm able to approach it in a different manner, right I'm able to approach it with the universe, rather than me against the world or the universe against me. Now we're kind of in tandem. Right. So, you know, it's a model that I'm using. And the real challenge is for you to make a decision, a decision the current, you know, to, to, to continue with your current model. Right, or to begin to do in my mind, what you were personally born to do you were born

Unknown Speaker 10:42 to create.

Brandon Handley 10:45 And right now you have an opportunity to create a new model, one where you and the universe are in partnership. A partnership that has clear communication.

Unknown Speaker 10:59 Feel free to speak to the universe, let it know

Unknown Speaker 11:04 some of your wants some of your wishes.

Brandon Handley 11:07 Right. Let's say stay up, have some fun with it to be light hearted about it, you know. And, and just say hey universe What's up, this is what I'm looking for. These are a few of the things. And, and trust it right High Five the universe. Because here's what's gonna happen if you so choose to decide to go this route right and you begin to look for evidence that the universe is listening. And trust me when I tell you that. Once you begin to see the evidence that this model is working for you. The universe with you. It may not be possible for you to ever go back, right. I'll post a link on the podcast, and at the website, spiritual dope co to the book if you're interested,

Unknown Speaker 12:02 the

Brandon Handley 12:04 otter will be having the transcription to this too if you want to read through it. And my only real big ask on top of all this stuff so really the call to action is for you to create a new mental model for yourself. Okay. And try to put it into practice universe, God,

Mitch, whoever, you know, call call it what you want but understand. If you accept that there's a power greater than you that is willing to work with you, then you begin to see this whole thing in a different way. So, try it out. If it doesn't work for you, you know, if you don't find evidence that the universe is listening then shut it down what's it gonna cost you, right. You don't have to tell anybody about it. All you got to do is have someone to thoughts and think and see and look and and you know it's put a model into place. Worst case scenario. You're still where you are today, tomorrow. Right. And so, look, if you like what you're hearing. I'd love to hear from you. be sure to reach out, shoot me a message

Unknown Speaker 13:15 at Brandon at spiritual dope.co. Take it easy.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Join me as I speak with Greg "Magick" Bernstein today.

For nearly twenty-five years Magick has been "creating a Shamanic Container" which catalyzes healing and awakening. While still an attorney turned successful and lauded entrepreneur, he began his decades of study with master teachers, Elders, Kahuna, Shaman and Mystics. Stepping fully into his role as spiritual teacher, shamanic life coach, mystic retreat leader, and master storyteller, at 37 he sold his last advertising company and moved to the Sacred Site of Hawaii.

On Maui, he established Sacred Voyages, through which he facilitates Sacred Site retreats and personal shamanic guidance.

His unique approach is to create & transmit a powerful field of love and truth in which awakening, healing, the mystical, and connection to higher self is exponentially amplified. He does this in part through his shamanic storytelling style in which he transmits teachings and their deep wisdom on an energetic level which penetrates deep into listeners, helping them dissolve illusion and awaken to the truth of who they are so they can live their full authentic selves. This happens in coaching sessions, group teachings, podcasts and broadcasts of any kind. He calls this essence of his work a Shamanic Transmission.

Connect with Magick ere:

https://sacredvoyages.com/

877-SACRED8

https://www.instagram.com/sacredvoyagesmagick/

https://www.facebook.com/ShamanicHunaRetreat/

Brandon Handley 0:02 321 Hey there This is Brandon Handley and I am on today with Greg magic Bernstein of sacred voyages. Greg, is he you know, it goes by magic actually. So as you have been doing 25 years of creating a semantic container which catalyzes healing and awakening, while still an attorney, he turns, who's very successful attorney, he turned entrepreneur he began decades of study with master teachers, elders, Kahuna shaman and mystics stepping fully into his role as a spiritual teachers demonic life coach, mystic, retreat leader and master storyteller at 37. He sold his last advertising company and moved to the sacred site of Hawaii. on Maui he established sacred voyages through which he facilitates sacred site retreats and personal semantic guidance has you unique approach is to create and transmit a powerful field of love and truth in which awakening, healing, the mystical and connection to a higher self is exponentially amplified. He does this in part through his semantic storytelling style in which he transmits teaching and their deep wisdom on an energetic level which penetrates deep into listeners, helping them dissolve illusion and awaken to the truth of who they are, so they can live their full authentic selves. This happens in coaching sessions, group teachings, podcasts and broadcasts of any kinds. He calls this essence of his work, a semantic, semantic, semantic transmission. How would I say that but

Magick 1:44 different people say it differently, you know, I say demonic.

Brandon Handley 1:47 Got it. Got it. I still remember my mom busting my balls over or saying like Celtic before I learned that was Celtic, you know, way back in the day, right? I'm like, come on, um, but welcome and thanks for being In here very excited to have you on on with me. What is what is something we? You know, I'm actually that's just my typical question that I like to think of let's just like you said that this is kind of like a transmission of energy sermonic wise. And that can only come through and be facilitated I think a lot of times through a conversation and organic diatribe as it were. And to that end, what is something you think that somebody you know, who's gonna needs to hear today?

Magick 2:35 What's coming through? Yeah, so before I answer that, I just want to clarify one thing in your intro, thank you for that wonderful intro. And just, I just like to be really, really clear about things. So I did go to law school and become an attorney. But I did not never practice law. So I would never characterize myself as a successful attorney because I actually never practice law. Maybe that is successful. Like I didn't want to do it. So I succeeded. By getting out of it for sure, but yeah, so just to clarify that so now for your question like so what what what would I want people to hear right now,

Brandon Handley 3:10 somebody needs to hear this right like so, this podcast is going out somebody needs to hear this

Magick 3:18 yeah so, that question can only come through in the moment for who I tune into and what I tuned into who might be listening in this moment and what started to come through when you said that is to tell the listener that you are love and that you you know, I lead retreats in sacred sites that's that's something that I do I take people out to to vortexes or places on the earth, where there are certain sites where the earth energy is is more active and alive and it amplifies catalyzes and accelerates change, evolution awakening of consciousness. These sites are are sprinkled all over the world and I prefer the ones in Hawaii and Mount Shasta and so don't because they have to ticular qualities they have very specific qualities. And even though that's one of the things that I do for work, my ultimate message is that you are actually the sacred site. You are the mystical experience you've been looking for. You are the love that you've been looking for. And looking outside of yourself for that just keeps you stuck in a circle or on a hamster wheel that actually has you continuously working something that you can towards something that you can actually never achieve. You may have noticed that anything that we get in life in the material third dimensional reality is temporary. It's impermanence. By law, by nature, nothing lasts forever. Everything ends every relationship that you're ever in dies, everything that you ever touch, every new iPhone that you get is going to break it's going to eventually disintegrate. And so we look for the material world to bring As the deep lasting inner peace that we desire to bring us the love that brings that. And by definition, because it's all impermanent, it can't do that, you know, you can never get enough of what you don't really need. So to turn your attention to the love that you already are, but you have lost sight of you become unconscious of and you've forgotten about, that can actually begin to cultivate a more lasting deep inner peace to really turn your attention to where it belongs. Instead of giving that up and going for basically what I would call the compensation package or the second prize. Well, I can have the shiny new car, I can have this great relationship or I can have sex or a drug or whatever, all of that like second prize, because usually we've given up and we don't even realize that we could have the truth of who we really are.

Brandon Handley 5:54 At I mean, at the cost of opportunity, right? I love it by the way. So that's that's just awesome. You You will Love, right? So somebody needs to hear this today. Right? So somebody if you're listening,

Unknown Speaker 6:06 you're welcome.

Brandon Handley 6:09 You're welcome. Right, the and so let's talk a little bit about your history. How did you, you know, end up where you are today? I know we talked a little bit about it, you know, you studied law you didn't, as you say, practice, but you did have a successful advertising business. But now you're, you know, you're this retreat guy, right. Did you see that coming? Right?

Magick 6:31 No, I

mean, it was just totally like it was a one thing led to another kind of thing. I mean, I definitely had some experiences when I was very young that were abnormal. You know, I had the experience of karma in first grade and I knew what karma was, and nobody told me about it. I was noticing that I had a telepathic relationship with my brother in sixth seventh grade. So had some experiences like that, but I never had I never really thought much about them, you know, and I just thought, Oh, that's really interesting. And then when I got to college, I started practicing, I started reading spiritual, esoteric books. And I was practicing like, astral projection and leaving the body and things like that, because I had a friend who was also spiritually inclined and interested. But it was just sort of an exploration of life to me and what what life is and what its limits are. I had every intention of being an attorney, or a businessman, and just diving deeply into that world. It wasn't until in 1996 I met my first teacher, because I was I had been on a transformational track of like, how do I improve my life? How do I become a better person? How do I get more of what I want have more peace since I was 14 when my parents asked me if I wanted to go into therapy, and I did. And so uh, In 1996, I went to a transformational center where I was living in Dallas. And that's where I met my first teacher and she was, you know, a shaman, sorcerer, whatever you want to call it in disguise. You know, as her disguise was, Hey, I got this transformational center and I'm teaching these like modern, advanced psychological techniques like hypnosis and Jose Silva's work and NLP and meditation, but when you got in there, you started to get into where she was teaching you psychic skills, psychometry, telepathy, you know, or reading and eventually deep mystical shamanism. And so she became my first teacher I fell in love immediately and started developing my own course like before I even finished her advanced course I was developing my own course and I was teaching in health club and I took private clients on but it was all like just the movement of the truth inside of me. I had a business at A time I wasn't intending to change businesses. I wasn't intending to be a spiritual teacher. I wasn't intending to do anything other than this is just what's alive in me. And this is what's moving. I love teaching. I love working with people. She eventually asked me to start teaching at her center. She took me under her wing and started developing me and and apprenticing me to kind of take over. And she led shamanic retreats in Hawaii, which is where the deep shamanic, you know, cultivation started to occur. But all that was like I was also still I had, you know, I'd started an industry that didn't exist before. GE Capital offered to buy that from me by the time I was just under 30. And, and then I built an international ad agency, and I was doing that all the time. I was spending almost every weekend teaching all weekend and several nights a week teaching in a mystery meditation school and had her center and but it was all as a hobby. It was all just like, I love it. And it's I love that I'm growing. I love that I'm helping other people. It was wasn't until I sold my business in two in 2005. I moved to Hawaii. And my teacher said, Well, why don't you start leading retreats there? And I was like, Huh, okay. And that began sort of as a career more, which I don't really think of it as that. But, you know, the the material world and spiritual world completely merged and became one at that point.

Brandon Handley 10:23 Now, I love that, you know, that kind of opens up the question here where you're doing this, we'll just call it your, I'm sure it was more than nine to five. I'm sure you're working, you know, whatever the hours were, but how you work in the corporate gig. And at the same time, you're doing that the mystery school and the mysticism on the weekends?

Unknown Speaker 10:45 How are you able to integrate the two?

Magick 10:48 Great question that that was my whole journey during that time, because I for a good chunk of that time, I felt like I had two paths, like I was on two parallel paths and they felt Separate. And yet I kept going inside and checking with my higher self and my inner guidance, and I kept getting No, you're on the right path. This is the path like it's one path, even though it's two. So I would say the primary way that they got integrated was inner guidance. So a big part of what I was developing during this time period, was my connection to my higher self. And cultivating that connection so that I could make every decision in my life from something greater than what my mind might decide from something greater than my logical brain. From what I would call my omnipotent self or my god self or something, you know, this this part of me this inner guidance or higher self, the way I see it is, it's like, it is everything that ever has existed or ever will exist in quantum physics. Now they talk about there being an infinite number of parallel universes that are all coexisting at the same time, there's no time space, there's no past or present or future, it's all happening now. And so within that my higher self has already been and and will be everything. And so it has access to way more than the narrow range of my left brain, you know, thinking logical sequential cutting reality into small little bits and pieces mind. So I started cultivating, tuning into that and when I tune into that it gives me information and it tells me what to do. So I can be in divine right action. I can be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. And when I say right, I don't mean right or wrong. I mean, like the highest choice, the place for the most grace synchronicities manifestations, and that's the best for all concerned. So I implemented that into my business life. For example, I had a potential client that my advertising agency specialized in outdoor advertising like billboards. So me and my sales lady went to see this client and he wanted to buy like two $300,000 worth of billboards from us. And he was a, you know, triple A rated client who spent a million dollars a year on television been around forever, you know, seemed like a great deal. But he said, Go back to your office and write up a contract. Well, on the way back to the office, I got a clear No, do not do business with this man. Now I'm on a need to know basis with my inner guidance. So it doesn't have to give me the reasons it just gives me the yeses and noes and do this or do that. So I said to my sales lady, I said, You know, I, you may not understand or get this and I know that this is going to cost you a big commission, but I'm really getting that we should not do business with that man. She's like, What are you talking about? He's awesome. And he's gonna, he's a great company and blah, blah, blah. And I said, I just have the sense it's just an intuitive deep sense. That it's a no. And we've worked together enough. And she'd seen this enough that she trusted it and didn't put up much of a fight even though she was going to lose a big commission.

Well, we didn't take the business he did put the words up with one of the local vendors who I talked to six months later. And the guy said that the guy didn't pay his bills and stuck them with a couple hundred thousand dollars. That would have put me out of business, for sure. Another way that it manifested and I was able to practice it is I used to drive around the city with a notepad and I'd write down the names on all the billboards, and then I'd go back to the office and I'd spend a week calling those hundred people and saying, hey, do you need an advertising agency that specializes in billboards? Here's why I'm better than you could do it or anybody else. And you know, I have a normal closing rate, maybe, you know, 10 15% or whatever, that I would make sales. But one day, I was driving around and I noticed that some of the billboards they just said There was just a different feeling I had about them. And it was my guidance. And my guidance was saying, These people are right. And it's a perfect Win Win, call them. And at first I ignored it. Because that's kind of what happens. And we usually ignore this still quiet voice or that soft feeling that we have. That's our inner guidance. And so I often tell people, I learned more about my inner guidance from times when I don't listen to it, then times when I do, because often when I don't listen to it, I mean, when I do listen to it, I don't always see a result. Like if I'm guided to go a different way home one day, and I go that different way home, and I didn't get in a car accident. I don't really know. I didn't get no car accident. But when I didn't listen to these voices about the boat wards, six months later, the guy who had one billboard in town all of a sudden had 20. And I'm like, Whoa, they could have used me. That's the kind of perfect clients when they're growing like that, that Use me. And I remember that voice in my head. Because I know my voice. It's like, I teach people how to find their god voice. You know, mine's three inches, four inches behind my head just below the occiput Ridge, it kind of points upward. It's a male voice of tuck soft and quiet and a certain tone and pitch. So I can spot it and distinguish it from any other thought or feeling inside of myself. That's very valuable. So anyway, fast forward, I started listening to that voice that was telling me which billboards to call on and now I would drive around and I'd write down one or two instead of 100 names. And I would have like an 80% closing rate, I call them up and I'd say, Hey, this is what I do. And this is why I can benefit you and they'd say, Oh, my God, you're a godsend. Thank you so much for calling when you do, and it was just beautiful, how it would unfold. So throughout my business career, which I found that transformational center just after I entered in The business so throughout my business career, I was implementing following my inner guidance my inner guidance and being on a spiritual path the entire time and it was of great benefit in fact it it it almost cost me my business not following it once and I got back on track and got everything I wanted out of that business because I did fall away it was it was intense the lessons for sure, but powerful so that's one of the ways I integrated it.

Brandon Handley 17:31 Now I love it right because I mean you you know like you said you discovered your God voice and that reminded me of you know, I'm sure you've probably covered Course of Miracles yourself at one point. Have you ever done a Course of Miracles or gone through it checked it out?

Magick 17:48 I've never done the Course in Miracles but I'm familiar with it. But there's

Brandon Handley 17:51 there's one section in there. I forget the exact lesson right but real similar what you're saying is and when you when you understand or you hear your God voice and I'm not sure like I've got mine honed down just as well as you have, but when when you realize that that's coming from within you, you're like, Whoa, right? That's, that's a powerful, that's a powerful thing. And and you don't really forget that moment when you recognize that that's, that's what that is. And then, you know, you got so many, you know, lots of awesome pieces in here. One of the things that I think that we don't see caught out too much is the idea of cultivation, cultivation, self cultivation, right? You want to talk to that a little bit for me, because you called it out, right? Like you cultivated yourself. Your connection to your higher self is, what does it mean to cultivate yourself?

Magick 18:47 Yeah, well, I mean for me, as I started the call out. Today, you know, I am the sacred sites. I am God, everything God, God is infinite. So there isn't anything that isn't God. I am inner guidance, I am unconditional love. If you talk to any therapist and you say what's at the heart of people's confusion, their depression, their sadness, their, you know feelings of despair, their anger, their fears, you know, at the heart of all of that is self esteem, self worth, which is about self love. And so, to me cultivating is it's like a garden. You know, if you have a garden outside and you don't ever water it, you don't ever weed it. You don't ever give it love. You don't never tend to it in any way. It's probably not going to grow, you know, it's going to wither away and it's just going to be kind of a barren, empty garden. So to me, it's like going inside and finding the love that I am and then putting my attention on that putting my consciousness in And being with it, that's a cultivation of it, that's actually bringing it to life bringing it to consciousness. Same thing with my inner guidance. If I put my attention on it, if I find it and distinguish it from anything else, I'm building a relationship with my deeper wisdom, and the deepest love and Divinity that I am. It's a relationship, as long as we're in duality, that we are in relationship with everything. And so when you build that relationship and you cultivate an intimacy with yourself and intimacy with your God, self and intimacy with the love that you are, then you become more of that and you become you manifest and actualize more of that until eventually, you become one with it. And you are it which is the true reality that was already there in the first place. You were just in the illusion of separation.

Brandon Handley 20:58 I love it. I love it. You know, absolutely right, you got to cultivate, you have some nurture. You have to allow for it to unfold. And that's word use a little bit earlier too. Because you can't really force that, right, you can't force that to happen. And if you do try to force it to happen, I, I liken it to, you know, like tissue paper or something, right? Like you, you can, you can kind of walk it open gently or something like that. But if you try to force tissue paper, if you're just going to shred it, right, so, I mean, you really can't, you can't force this thing to happen. You can cultivate and nurture You know, this love of self this enter God, the recognition that you are God. And when you say that it's it's not exclusionary to, like you said, the rest of anything. It's because everything is God. Right. Right.

Magick 21:54 Yeah. Like when most people would hear you know, whenever I say that, I'm very aware of the misinterpretation that can occur. When I when I especially when I say I am God, because you know, there is a very egoic way that somebody could say that I'm special. I'm different. I'm better, you know, and that's not what I'm talking about. When I'm talking about is I'm actually the same as you, right? Like we're both god, there's there's nothing better or different about me or you were the same thing. Actually everything that we see that distinguishes us as different is actually illusion. Anything that I could say that is better or worse about you or me is all the illusion of this material reality. When you awaken to your true nature, you one realizes that I am you. You are me, there is no difference.

Brandon Handley 22:50 There's no separation,

Magick 22:51 right? There's no separation and we're both God.

Brandon Handley 22:55 Right. I mean, that was like you're saying it's when you awaken to the The true sense of who you are your God self, it's to recognize that you are as well as everybody else right to recognize the Divinity in everything.

Magick 23:12 Is that fair? Yeah, for sure. Okay. And what find? What I like to help people get back to cultivation and nurturing right, is that people are typically looking for that outside themselves. How do I realize this by going to this religion or chanting this boss, john or going to Kyrgyzstan or, you know, whatever practice it is, which some of those things can definitely be helpful. I'm not saying they're not. Two of the things that I find to be the most potent are going to sacred sites, sacred sites catalyze and amplify and accelerate. If you have the keys to unlock the mystical aspects of those sites and the power of those sites, you know how to do that, and those sites can actually touch us into what we what's beyond our perceived limitations and take us into a greater experience of reality, a more mystical experience, kind of like Iosco without the Iosco. And the second thing is meditation. You know, it's everything is inside of you, the entire universe is inside of you, all the love that's ever exists is inside of you. God is inside of you, the infant is inside of you, divinity is inside of you. So if you want to actually cultivate and nurture a relationship with those things and realize those things, then you've got to go not outside where you can have some externalized version of it or some intellectual version of it or conceptual version, but inside where you can experience it. Everything that truly transforms us is experiential, and that happens on the inside. Most of us are very disassociated from our bodies, which is our vehicle for the spiritual Being having a human experience. And so we're in our heads we're thinking, and that keeps us from being in the body. And that's where the experience of the as above and so below meets divinity in humanity meet in the body, that's where it's happening. But most of us are walking around just outside our body just outside our body this way or this way, or that way. We're in the future. We're in the past. We're not actually here.

Brandon Handley 25:25 I mean, so one of the things that you're talking about there, too, that I'm hearing is it's you know, while you know, our bodies are kind of the container you know, would you would you also make sure that you know, the vessel the vehicle, but we're so much more than like me, because I see, you know, you're, you know, in the video, you're pointing to yourself in this body here and around, but like, we're everywhere at all times. And I think that you also talk a little bit earlier about, like, you know, these kind of parallel universes being available at all time. There's not, you know, this kind of Time space continuum is there like an ability to shift knowingly in between these?

Magick 26:05 there absolutely is and what I want to like further distinguish when I'm talking about going in and you're talking about, hey, but we're outside to like wherever you were like I'm this computer that I'm looking into right? Um, my experience and all I can do is speak from my experience is that if I want to discover the mystical if I want to discover the love that I am, if I want to discover the the infinite, instead of going out because I am out there, right but instead of going out which is less palpable, you know, it's it's harder for me to discover it that way. It's to go in and then in here is everything out there. It's the doorway in and when I go in here, and I drop out of thought which has us in sequential time. Right. It has a stuck in 30 dimensional reality. So I dropped out of the mind, which is a narrow realm of existence that holds us in all those laws and science and, you know, the laws of science and all of that are from the rational mind. Like they don't occur when you're dreaming, right? Because you're not in that rational mind state, you're in office state. You know, you're in, you're in a slower brainwave frequency when you're dreaming. And that's why you can walk through walls and you can fly. So to actually drop us into that lower brainwave frequency during waking reality, through a meditative practice or going into a site that alters us into our more normal actually natural selves, which is lower frequency, then in that slower frequency. Now the permeability between all these parallel universes is much thinner. Our ability to step from one timeline to the other. Well, of course, I can just step from one to the other, which is why when people come on retreats with me, I mean, sometimes people come with terminal disease and they leave and it's gone. Like a lot. I mean, physical healing is one of the number one things that are, I would say, easy to shift when people come on a retreat, you know, they come with a cancer, one lady came last Shasta retreat with a cancer on her chest and she left and it was gone. It just boom, you just step from one reality to another. But the key is you have to get out of the mind and into the body.

Brandon Handley 28:28 Of that, hello, that I mean, you know, I don't I don't understand exactly what you mean by you know, out of the mind and the body but, you know, I feel I feel it right. Like it's kind of, yeah. which is which is, which is an interesting thing too. And you know that that's a big part of this whole kind of journey. You know, and when you talk about recognizing your God, so when we talk about being divine, it's not to the exclusion of anybody else. This is the name experience and you've feel it and this is where to me You know I love I love the the sights gets you beyond like you know what some of these other religions get you beyond but it's been so far my experience and I'm I'm on a newer journey right that I'm able to at least refer to some texts like religious texts or something else to know that this isn't new. This isn't new. This isn't the first time this has happened. It's not because because to me, especially when I went through it I went through a kind of alone right? I went through you know, kind of this you know, piercing the veil or whatever breaking through that that doorway right? And you know, literally you can almost look back at your life and see like there was this doorway that was always there that you always had the option to kind of walk through and see, right. But there's, that's what is in these religious texts and, you know, this goes back to you know, I'm not a kulak look, never a churchgoer. But like, you don't cast your pearls before swine, and it that that line has meaning now, right? Like you can't, you know, have these conversations with just anybody unless they're open to them, right and have had that experience to recognize, because you and I have this conversation and on the back of my head, I'm like this kind of stuff. Right. Um, and, but that only comes because I've had some experience in it. Right.

Magick 30:28 Totally. And, and, you know, I'm not the first person to say anything that I say, you know, that, like you said, there's been people throughout time that have said, what I'm saying in different ways, you know, and so that's, that's comforting to look back and go, Oh, yeah. Because on the way like you said, you you can't really, like you heard what I said, but you don't fully grok it. You can feel it in the body. And that's why I share with people like it's exciting. Initial, you can get it conceptually, maybe. But when you're talking about some of the things we're talking about here, you can't really deeply get it until you just experience it and you can't force yourself into that experience. All you can do is put yourself in situations where you're more likely to have the experience and learn so that you know where you're headed and what you're, you know what may happen, which opens up the doorway to it. So, meditation, going to sacred sites, maybe doing some chanting, whatever, putting you in a place where the most of us are thinking all the time, and we've been thinking all the time our entire lives. So we think that that's who and what we are, and that's what we need to navigate reality. Now, when you awaken out of that to some degree, and you're just in the body, I have the experience of no thoughts or thoughts happening, but I'm not a identified with them. So I'm not one with them. So I know they're not real. They're just thoughts. And they're just like clouds passing, and I'm centered in the silence. I'm centered in the emptiness and the nothingness. That is everything that is me. That is all it is. And there isn't any need for a commentator, someone to tell me a story about what's going on or about somebody else, or to judge something or to compare and contrast or any of the stuff that the egoic mind does. I'm disidentify with that, and that's who and what I really am. That's what's permanent, versus what's temporary is the thoughts they come and they go so they can't be really what you really are. They come and go. So when we get in the body and we have an experience like that, that can wake us up. But then there's usually a journey of trusting like can you trust Can you turn the reins over to your to your life to God, meaning you're not going to think your decisions any More you're just gonna let God live you let life live me that's a big trust that's the big let go and

Brandon Handley 33:07 let God right let go and let God and Zack Listen man, you know, it's it's yeah you want to write you want to in such a such a such a terribly hard way but you know it's just the programming right it's hard to it's really hard to jilt that and especially you know, I'm just gonna come at it from my own perspective being you know being a family man right like this is this you know for me to for me to walk downstairs and be like hey listen we're just going to go ahead and let go and let God now from here on out you know you remember that T shirt you got that was funny that said you know Jesus take the wheel and I'm gonna say Jesus take the wheel and it's not funny anymore is it? But, but I you know, um, you know, I kind of came across that and I really felt that when I was I was reading a lot of Florence scovel Shinn, right? The idea of just really casting all your worries to God and men. I have not ever felt so light my shoulders like I mean, I was just relaxed at that moment and understood for just a moment what that felt like. And I was like, this is the thing. No wonder why it's in a book. That's pretty old. It's been passed out for a while.

Magick 34:20 Right? Right. Throw out a practical way into this. Yeah, absolutely. Please do intuitive for most. Yeah. So you want to, you know, let go and like God, and so whenever we set an intention, I want to let go and let God or I want a new Mercedes. It doesn't matter what it is. When we set a new intention, the way humans are built and constructed where we're like manifesting machines. So we we create things we materialize things into reality if our vessel is clear, and there isn't any conditioning woundedness baggage, for sure. versus the case with anybody. But if it's totally clear like that, then we just think something. And if it's in soul alignment, it just materializes. So, if you decide I want to let go and let God and you state that intention, then all you have to do next is be what will happen if there's something in the way of that is it will immediately show up. So if I'm like, Oh, you know, I'm thinking about whether I should quit this job. I just want to let go and like God, Mm hmm. You set that intention. And if you sit and meditate, or you just walk around, go for a walk in nature, what's going to happen immediately is everything in the way of it your fears, your doubts, your worries, the consequences of what could happen, all of that is going to arise. Most people confuse that with a problem. Oh, no, you know, all my worry is here. Now, that didn't work. You know, I thought I was you know, I was letting go and letting God and what I got instead was fear and doubt That's actually part of the actualization of your intention is that if there's something in the way, the unconscious sends it up to the conscious so that you can actually metabolize it, process it, empty it out of your system. And then when you're empty, you are letting go and letting God so the key is to be processing our emotions and our wounds and our trauma. And what most of us do is we avoid our wounds and our emotions and our trauma. The emotional body does not work. If you don't feel it. It's like you will get it's like your digestive track does not work. If you don't have saliva and digestive fluids. You will get constipated, you will get stopped up. It will stop your entire body from running it will eventually break down all your other systems. Same with your emotional body. If you're not feeling your emotions, they don't get to resolve. They're all temporary as long as they get to resolve and they get to do that. Their full completion cycle, when you don't feel them, they don't get to do that. And then they get stuck inside of you. And then they're they're, they're running you from your unconscious. You ever wonder why you have behaviors and thoughts and feelings that are not in alignment with your intentions? You know, you're trying to be really loving and kind to your partner or your daughter or whoever. And something passive aggressive comes out, or you know, a way that's like, something that your father would do that you definitely don't want to do. And you're like, why would I do that I don't want to do that is because there's unprocessed wounds and emotions in your in you and they want resolution. And so they will attract and magnetize situations into your life so that you can touch in with those old wounds and heal and resolve them. So if I want to let go, I'm like God, all I have to do. And I say that, you know,

Brandon Handley 37:53 like, I just face my shit.

Unknown Speaker 37:54 Exactly.

Brandon Handley 37:58 So, so here, here I think is a Crux on this one. Right. And, you know, just just see what your your thoughts are on this is that, you know, I think that as Western Western civilization, we grow up and we're told, you know, to not let our emotions run us and and what we do is is, you know, or analyze like, you, you can't you got to be in control of your emotions, right. And we don't we don't know what that means, right? As especially in our youth, right, in our youth, we process this as, Oh, I better shut that down, because I'm starting to feel something right. Yeah. And and I think that also what you're talking about two, would you know, would this be what is kind of characterized as the Shadow Work? Right, you know, is that, is that fair?

Magick 38:42 Yeah, I mean, that Shadow Work is an aspect of it. I mean, ultimately, what I teach people is how to love everything equally, without distinction without a version to one thing repulsion with not trying to pull one thing or in or push anything out. I'm going to unconditionally And that's an important distinction. We're not talking about conditional love here, we're talking about unconditional love and we can, I can tell you what that means in a minute. But to unconditionally love everything equally that's happening inside of me. Whatever emotion is going on, to unconditionally welcome it, accept it, feel it and be with it. When we do that one, we stop suffering, because my definition of suffering is the resistance to what is so when we're resisting fear or doubt or pain, we suffer because we now have decided something's wrong with it. We've given it a label, it's bad or it's good. And now we don't want it and so it hurts when we don't have the mind involved separating things. It just is. Fear just is in you know, my definition of joy is being in reality exactly the way reality is. So I'm just fully I am my fear. It doesn't matter anymore. It's not something I'm separate from, and that's running me it just is and then it actually can heal and release. And so yes, when you're doing this work, it will both take you into your divinity, because you're loving what is so when what is is empty and peaceful, you're going to be in like this incredibly infinite space of all that is, and that will take you into your shadow, which is your unresolved trauma and wounds of your humanity, of what it means to be a separate individuated being on this earth. That's a painful wound. And whatever form it's been showing up in you, wherever you were, you did not receive unconditional love. That's a wound and it needs your love. Like we're here to learn to love ourselves in the ways that we weren't loved by the external. One of my friends studied near death experience where he was with someone studying near death experiences. And, you know, lots of those people said, you know, they, they saw light at the end of the tunnel and they saw whatever their God was and all of that, but he actually found that the number one thing people said, was that what before they came back, they were told the purpose of life is to love

Brandon Handley 41:08 that Well, I mean, and then a big part of that too. And what you're saying is, you know, love all of who you are unconditionally. Right. I mean, that's like the, the gist of it. So, you know, before we before we dial it down too far, you know, the, one of the big parts about this podcast is, you know, to really, you know, share a little bit more about what it's like to follow your path with each you did. You're going to say, you know, kind of, you know, Joseph Campbell line, follow your bliss, right and into a career into a life kind of worth living with intention and, and all these other things. I mean, tell us a little bit about what that looks like to run a business like that.

Unknown Speaker 41:48 Like to hear about that.

Magick 41:50 Well, there's two aspects of that for me. One, there's like when I had my advertising agency, I wasn't Exactly following my bliss so that Joseph Campbell quote, like I get, and also, it's, it could be a trap, because following your bliss, if you're following pleasure, then that means that you might not be following the truth.

Brandon Handley 42:17 Mm hmm. That's right. I mean, you gotta you got to make that distinction of, you know, you're not just, you're not just following pleasure or following I guess what makes your heart sing right? When you said earlier being true to yourself, right. And, and, and I think that's the definition I would use for bliss, right.

Magick 42:34 Yeah, I'm even that definition. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, right. I'm just saying, There's there there's, there's, it's hard to put these things into like one single phrase. I mean, I think that's a really good one. However, sometimes my my higher self or my inner guidance might take me into something that isn't so blissful. That doesn't feel so good temporarily, but it is the best choice for me and everyone else. Sure. Now that in itself is blissful. So it's tricky. We're using language here. Right? Right.

Brandon Handley 43:05 Right, right. So

Magick 43:06 for me that bliss if you want to use Joseph Campbell's phrase includes my inner guidance, it includes my my higher self. And when I do that, it doesn't really matter what's happening, I am blessed. You know, I am experiencing joy as long as I'm, as I mentioned earlier, you know, really being with what is no matter what is. So I feel like that that other quote, that I don't know who said it, but they said, you know, if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. Right, right. Yeah. And that's where I feel like I'm at now. Okay. is in the work that I do. It's what I love. It's, it's, it's it wouldn't matter if I was getting paid not getting paid. I mean, for many years, I wasn't getting paid.

Brandon Handley 43:50 Let me talk about that. What was that part like, right? I mean, so because here's, here's, here's what I think a lot of people you know, it's just like that iceberg thing, right? A lot of people see the tip of the iceberg but they don't see you know, Everything else that went into getting to where you are today. Right?

Magick 44:04 Right. Yeah, I mean, it was a long, difficult, arduous journey for me, I came from there. I mean, the reason why my parents wanted me to go get into therapy when I was 14 is because I was a hellion, you know, rebellious, angry hellion that had been in a dysfunctional family and was was incredibly hurting. And so, years and years and years and years, I like Actually, my whole life. From that point. I've had some kind of mentor, some kind of therapist and I'm constantly working with shamans and Guna, sorcerers and just always being mentored and I have dedicated my life to my path. So you know, the one thing I noticed I used to teach classes and I'd have 3040 people in class and I would say now if you'll just do it This exercise I just taught you, between now and next week just to at once, if you're really into doing every day, and I guarantee you, you're going to change your life. And then if I come back next week, and I'd say how many people did it and nobody, you know, one person, two people, nobody consistently would raise their hands. I always was the guy that did it every day. You know, I'd be like doing the exercises every day, meditating every day. If you my, my experience is that if people really want to realize their divinity, or have peace, or have you know, even at the lowest level of the hierarchy, like just get what you want in life. That requires a lot of work. And for me, I always had two things going one, there was just something inside of me. There's just something inside of me that just is evolving, and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm on a train.

Brandon Handley 46:01 Yeah, I mean that unfolding is gonna happen whether or not life is going to happen, right and unfold. Whether or not you're, you're asking it to, right there's

Magick 46:12 my pursuit of doing transformational work that was just happening like, like some people don't do it, I couldn't help it. I'm just doing it. Right. And then there was a second piece where I had pointed in dedicated my life that I want to evolve and I want to do this work and I want to change and grow. And, and that part of me saw it as an investment. Like every moment that I meditate, the quality of my life is going to improve in the next moment, every moment that I do some exercise that I've learned that some transformational class, the quality of my life is going to improve. Every retreat that I go on, the quality of my life is going to improve and and I chose retreats and teachers and exercises and meditations that if I didn't see like you results like, I tell people when I work with them in private sessions with me on the phone, if you don't change in one session dramatically, I'm probably not the right teacher for you or, or helper. Like, let's do a maximum of three sessions and we evaluate, right? I mean, I've sat with schizophrenia before for two hours and then they're not schizo. phrenic, I've sat with someone that had a debilitating brain tumor that was causing them complete malfunctions and one of their, the language centers of their brain so they couldn't speak or understand language. 30 minutes later, they're speaking and understanding perfect English, like you're not working with someone that's facilitating those kinds of results. You may want to find somebody else and that's what I that's what I that's what I dedicate my life to. That's how I have five six different sorcerer shamans that have taken me under their wing and that I had this like, lifetime Carlos customer data book kind of experience with six of them.

Brandon Handley 47:56 Wow. I love that. I love that. I mean, I love the fact that you know It's like hey, maybe there's there's plenty of people out there that I think take advantage of people's willingness to to find him better themselves. But yours isn't just defined and better yourself. It's to radically alters somebody's life. Is that right? I mean, is that fair? I mean, I can't listen. Yeah, that's a that's an awesome, you know, kind of kind of way to go about it. And you know, that That, to me sounds like that's, you know, that's your intention when you wake up every day and your intention is to radically alter somebody else's life in a way that such that you know, if they come back to you and say, I don't feel radically altered, like Well, I guess this wasn't meant to be right. It's not you It's me. I don't know right. But

Magick 48:47 yeah, matter why, you know, it's the right fit for each other. Sure. Yeah. Pass but yeah, that's that's my measuring stick. You know, whether I'm on doing a retreat or I'm working with people in person or whatever. If they're not, like, after they do a retreat with me, if I don't check if I check back with them a year or two or 10 years, 10 years later, and they don't tell me it was a defining moment of their life, and they are like, you know, I'm totally different now. And here's why. And here's what happened differently, then I feel like, you know, I didn't do my job. Wow. And I love that. I love that too.

Brandon Handley 49:23 So, so much, so much good stuff. So, you know, look, I mean, here's this, you're just another awesome story. And I'll say just another awesome story. But there's, for people who are tuning into this podcast, what I want them to know is that, you know, they can, you know, follow their intuition. They can listen to that God voice and, and, and trust it, you know, how do you how would you go about telling somebody to begin to trust that right, like to trust their intuition? Mm hmm.

Magick 49:54 Well, I think that the it's a difficult question to answer because I work with people individually rather than generalizing. And that's how I get the results I get. So whenever I try to generalize it, it's challenging. However, having said that, the I think the first step is to find the time that you were intuitively guided about something new for me the first time that I tried to answer the question that you just asked, I asked myself, Well, when is the time in my life when I was guided? So I can go back and study it and figure out how is that guided? Like most people are, like, if I say, Well, how do you know when you're guided? They go, I don't know. I just know. Well, that's a lazy answer. And often an ignorant answer. And I don't mean that derogatorily I just mean, like, they don't know what they don't know.

Brandon Handley 50:52 Does that is that that's the lack of cultivation.

Magick 50:54 All right. Yeah, exactly. They don't realize that they could go back, slow down there. memory of a time when they had an inner guided experience and study it and notice, did I see something? Did I hear something? Did I feel something? Was it inside me? Was it outside me? How did this piece of wisdom drop into my consciousness or arrive here? Because there is a way that each person uniquely receives and perceives inner guidance. That's the most important first step is to start trying to find how do I receive and receive guidance? Because if you don't know that, how are you supposed to improve upon it and start you know, being more guided by it? You don't even know what it is. It's just like a random thing if you don't know that. So that's the first step is to just start studying it. And, you know, also, I think, a practice and intention and a practice. It's like, Okay, I'm going to intend today on Tuesday. David, I'm going to follow my inner guidance today. And I'm going to do it see most people start trying with big decisions and have big consequences. Like how am I going to get a divorce? Am I going to move? You know, like big things? It's like, no bad idea. There's because not only do I teach like how to get in touch with you and your guns, but there's a whole laundry list. I spent a whole day in my inner guidance weekend class, teaching people what can get in the way of it. And when it's a big decision, there's a lot more that comes up that's in the way. So start out with little perfunctory, ordinary mundane decisions. What are you going to eat for lunch today? What are you going to wear, you know, who am I going to call today? foods a really great one. And I have a great experience with it. You know, I was at a 10 day workshop. And they were feeding us at the workshop and they were feeding us a lot of, you know, raw food solids and I was a carnivore at the time. And you know, I was by the time that workshop ended, I was like ready for some meat. So my buddy and I were like, let's find the best cheeseburger in town. So we found this place that had a great cheeseburger. We went there. He didn't even he opened the menu, sell cheeseburger, closed it, I opened the menu, and I was like, Well, I'm gonna use my inner guidance today. Even though I desperately wanted a cheeseburger, so I cruised the menu, and I got a hard note on the cheeseburger, which was very disappointing. But I had cultivated a pretty strong relationship with my guidance at that point. And that's what it takes. It takes doing things like this and building trust from experiences like the one I'm telling you, because I didn't order a cheeseburger. I ordered like some sauteed fish and vegetables, which wasn't what I really wanted. Your wants is one of the things that can get in the way of your guidance. Now what I wanted, but what do I want more to follow my inner guidance which is taking all of my wants, and all of my souls purpose and everything into consideration, or some tiny little egoic wants in the moment, right? That's a distinction most people don't have. So I wanted the big wants, I want guidance. So I ordered the fish. My friend had the burger arrive, he took three bites, he felt sick, didn't finish it got food poisoning. My fish was fantastic. Right now that experience is one of those moments that like, crystallized and and deepened my experience with my guidance so that my faith in it was even stronger after that. So, practice, practice, practice in non threatening inconsequential contexts, and then pay attention. How did I get that? How did I know that? Get a journal, where you can keep notes about this stuff and reflect on it. And this is the cultivation of it. It's paying close attention to it your attention is the most valuable asset that you have that you can direct that and where you direct that is where things will grow and things will begin to build where attention goes energy flows.

Brandon Handley 55:15 I love it. I love it, you know absolutely right you know stick to the small stuff right? And and and don't try to manifest or expect miracles on your on your first go round. Right? And you know just and and accept it and and i think that we're talking about is is there certain qualities these are qualitative, you know experiences that you feel right? They have textures they have moments that you know, that you can you can go back at and you can recreate those within yourself right to feel whether or not you you say oh, this is intuition again, right this right and and you can go back and begin to see that I love it. I mean, you've definitely given us lots of like, you know, The things that we can, you know, look at and try to implement in our daily lives. And, you know, it's plain to see again that this is a huge benefit in the services that you provide. So super glad that we had the opportunity to connect and share this with a larger community. Where, where would I send somebody who who's looking for a little magic today?

Magick 56:25 Well, you can find me at my website sacred voyages.com. And you can find me on social media at Sacred voyages magic. And if somebody wanted to email, they could email the addresses awaken at Sacred voyages calm. And I'm just realizing I don't have my 800 number memorized. So I'm gonna tell you that in one moment here, it's eight, seven Seven sacred eight. It's funny, I didn't have that memorized 877 sacred aids it's pretty easy. And you know, I offer virtual retreats where somebody can be in their home anywhere in the world. And we can have a retreat in which I teach them how to create a sacred sites out of any nature where you're at, and how to have the kinds of experiences that we have in vortexes, like in Sedona, or Mount Shasta or Hawaii, in Chicago or in Florida or wherever you are, and there's interactions with people and their demonic transmission and teachings. You know, on this podcast I'm, I tried to convey and transmit as much of this information as possible. But it is less conducive with the interactivity than when I'm just on my own and I just drop in like later today, and I do this once a month and you can find out more at circle forge comm I do my own podcasts, which is on Facebook Live and it's also recorded. And I think it's sacred forges comm forward slash magic with a K on the N dash talks. And and that's a powerful way to connect more with me it's free. I pick a topic each month and I just transmit that topic. And people get affected and transformed by it. And so there's virtual retreats, there's retreats that are in sacred sites, which right now we're in times of COVID. So that's happening less or not at all at the moment, you know, I do custom retreats and I do group retreats and then I do a limited number of private one on one sessions on the phone because I only have so much time. So those are the primary ways that somebody could reach me and find out more and, and many of the topics that we talked about today, you know, I could teach you about for a weekend, you know, how to love yourself, how to cultivate guidance, you know, discovering the Divinity inside embodiments, you're being with your emotions, which is really, I think the Number one secret to our humanity. The number one secret, we don't get a manual. When we come down onto the earth. Nobody says, Hey, here's the manual, here's how you run this thing. We're all trying to figure it out. And if I if there was one thing that I could teach a human being, to help them actually have this vessel run properly, it would be how to actually be with your emotions, how to and I have a whole method I teach called the Oneness method of how to actually embody and be with them that you know, one session changes people's lives. So lots of different ways to connect. Love to hear from anybody and everybody.

Brandon Handley 59:38 Awesome, guys. Well reach on out to magic. Let him know you heard him here. And thanks again for being here.

Magick 59:44 Yeah, thanks, Brandon. I appreciate it. It was great being here with you great, insightful questions and I appreciate your consciousness and good to connect and to be with your audience. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai