Barbell Shrugged - The Bledsoe Show  — Charles Clay: From Pain to Purpose  — 100

Episode Date: September 17, 2018

Charles Clay is an alchemist dedicated to raising the vibration of this planet by empowering life-lovers to heal themselves! His mission to help people understand and heal aches, pains and injuries, so we can all experience more joy, love and creativity.   Charles is also a neurokinetic therapist (NKT), NASM corrective exercise specialist, ACE certified trainer, co-author of Better Business Book, and creator of The Bulletproof Core Program.   In this episode, we talk about viewing the human body as the greatest technology available to us, joy as our natural state of being, why making a fool of yourself is a good idea, vacation vibration, how seeking adrenaline can be damaging to your body and reduce recovery, the signs of being stressed, how the jaw impacts core strength, my 2018 Burning Man experience, and more.   Enjoy! - Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: https://shruggedcollective.com/tbs_clay ------------------------------------------------------------------------   Please support our partners! @foursigmatic - www.foursigmatic.com/bledsoe  to save 15% on your first purchase @vuori- www.vuoriclothing.com - Use coupon code BLEDSOE25   ► Travel thru Europe with us on the  Shrugged Voyage, more info here: https://www.theshruggedvoyage.com/ ► What is the Shrugged Collective?  Click below for more info: https://youtu.be/iUELlwmn57o ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

we're sitting here with uh mr charles clay he uh is one of the happiest people i've ever met and you also have an incredible amount of energy and if i ever want to pick me up all i gotta do i need no drugs all i gotta do is is hang out with you just get a dose of charles man there's plenty of me to go around i think we've been we've been hanging out for i don't know a little over a year yeah so much has it been two years it's been about about two i think now yeah yeah we've had a lot of good times um and uh yeah you've helped me with some stuff in the past and uh i hope i've helped you with stuff who the fuck knows oh yeah and uh mic right there and uh yeah we've got to be good friends and it's uh i'm excited to introduce you to the audience can you uh with like real quick give us a quick

bio about uh who charles is although you could i think it could be like a 10-hour thing. Yes. It could be like 10 hours, but what are the quick highlights that people, you know, what might they learn from you in the next hour? Well, one of my favorite gifts to share is how to optimize the greatest technology on the planet, the human body.

We each are gifted with these incredible avatars that we get to play in so i like to uh i have a lot of fun with really reconnecting that with people that's a lot of the work i've been called to do and um and so many different directions like just getting people back to our natural state of joy and love and expansion. I think a lot of people probably consider, they don't consider that joy is their natural state. You know what I mean?

Most people are like, I can't remember the last time I experienced joy. Yeah, it's too bad when we pinch it off, huh? It's flowing through us like a river at all times. We tend to uh accumulate resistance and not let it in you are one of the most joyful people i've ever met what thanks brother uh were you always that way i've it's always been my nature i have really vivid memories when i was a kid of just having the most fun with play. So getting back to that nature and incorporating that

and all the incredible ways of releasing resistance allow me to activate my genius with play. You said the word resistance. And I think a lot of times people, as an example, want to step out on the dance floor. Or they want to sing along with the song, but there's something inside of them that goes, eh.

It's like that resistance shows up. It's the ego of putting yourself out there. That's a huge part of resistance uh it can be emotional it can be physical physiological metaphysical i mean there's so many ways we um we tend to pinch off um joy and life force and all this energy but i love that example i love that example because because it just reminds me of all the times I go to bars sometimes without even having a drink. And I'll just check in with the vibe. And everybody is kind of, you know, got the arms folded in the corner.

And they're like, chins up up, too cool for school vibe. They haven't had enough drinks yet to loosen up. Right. And I haven't had any drinks, and I'm just waiting for a good song to come on to make a fool of myself. As soon as I feel a beat, it's like, boom, I'll do the most ridiculous dance. And it's so funny to watch the domino effect. Some people, you see the judgments at first, and then you'll see a couple people start tapping their toes

and start moving their heads a little bit, like bobbing their heads. And then it's like domino effect. You'll get one person you'll lock eyes, like a girl or somebody who's like, they've been dying to dance they just needed the green light and then most girls in the bar yeah they just need an excuse they want somebody to ask them to dance for sure right so then you get a group of girls out there and then and then it's just like you watch this ripple effect of everybody kind of loosening up throughout the whole place and then the whole vibration changes and you do that you you walk into a room that could be low-key and the next thing you know it's high vibe i do this at the grocery store yeah like if there's a good song at the grocery store um i'll be dancing in the aisles

and i love the looks that i get from people they're like people look at me like is this guy crazy and i look at them like are you crazy guy crazy? And I look at them like, are you crazy? This song is amazing. How are you not dancing to this? Yeah, one of my favorite things about hanging out with you is you remind me of what's possible. We could be at the grocery store together or something and you start doing that.

I go, I could have done that. But I was so in my own head. I was thinking about something i wasn't i wasn't being present so i i do is that is what you're experiencing you think you have just a heightened level of presence is that something you've been working on yeah and um just letting go of the illusion of fear like the when i see that program come up of like oh shit they're gonna judge me or you know if i i want to be seen a certain way all that stuff those are programs i can literally just see come up like old programs it's like windows 2002 software that doesn't serve me anymore so i

just swipe left on that and i'm like let let's get crazy. I just have some fun. And it's so fun. You just do, um, I do social experiments all the time. So my, uh, my brand is vacation vibration and it is so easy. It's basically taking what we love to make so complex and just breaking it down into the simplest form to easily digest it. And a great example of this is, you know, just going to the DMV. So I had to go get my license renewed. Right. And that is one of the lowest vibration places. Some people call this the closest thing to hell. Right. The DMV. So before I walk in, I basically just create an intention and it changes the whole experience. So I decide, how do I want to feel in this? Well, I want to have some fun in the DMV. I

want to make as many people laugh in the DMV as possible. So that's my intention. That's my challenge. Very simple. And I, I walk in and instead of succumbing to that, like, Oh, this place sucks. And everybody's just like head down, like time goes by like super slow. It's easy to succumb to that. If you're not aware of what's going on. Same thing in hospitals, right? You walk into that place and it's just like, right? Unless you have the power of intention. And I walk in, I drop into a meditation. The kid next to me has got a big brace on his knee. And I go, man, you've been kicking too much ass bro or what and he he starts cracking up he's like i wish you know blew out my acl blah blah blah and um

you know and then we start dropping in like ever tried meditation for healing knees no so told him about accelerated healing gave gave him a meditation. Next thing you know, he's on his way, right? He's stoked and got something new to try out. And then... Well, I want you to explain what you're talking about to the audience. Yeah. Because that might be a new one. Yeah.

So, you know, I gave him the same meditation that I used when I broke my back for healing. And I realized the power of surrender and just letting go of resistance and rest and love that. I was super addicted to it. And, um, and it's fun to be just like engulfed in that, but it also pays a huge toll on our bodies. You know, it's like when you're in that state of fight or flight all the time, then, um, and you're not getting enough rest and digest mode, then it's just, you're basically using all your resources for that. And then instead of, um, capitalizing on, you know, testosterone, human growth hormone,

all these real good, feel good hormones that help keep you lean. And, uh, what are some signs that somebody is living a lifestyle that creates more stress hormones? Shallow breathing is a really easy one. Or posture. You see it in people's posture. We're getting sucked into our technology and it shows. You know, those are usually the easy ones. Anxiety, you know, there's a lot of indicators it's it's usually really easy to tell when we're in a fight or flight mode and and that's what's crazy is i did my own experiments so i realized

wow this isn't really serving me well getting like adrenal fatigue i'm like could take a nap for days you know i was first getting into personal training, and I wanted to save everyone and improve everyone's life. So I'd take like 10 clients a day and just go full bore and rock it with coffee and everything. And then I would just hit the ground. Dude, I don't know. I talk to so many people who are these big box gyms, and they expect their trainers to have eight to ten clients it's crazy

you're not going to last and there's no way you can give the same quality to the last couple clients I train coaches personal trainers in the strong coach program and one of the things I tell them is dial it back if you're coaching

eight hours a day dial it back to four and go for quality over quantity and charge more Dial it back. Yeah. If you're coaching eight hours a day, dial it back to four. Yeah. And go for quality over quantity and charge more. If you're practicing, if you're getting bad reps in, so if you're on your eighth client a day, you're practicing bad reps. Yeah, exactly. It's a great way to put it. So getting back to my experiment, I realized I was ready to just sleep for the three days straight. I was super fatigued, dealing with all kinds of issues. So I was like, all right, I'm going to cut out everything that's revving me up. So I cut out the coffee. Um, I'm from like Seattle area, North bent. I love coffee. And that, so that made me really check my relationship with that substance. And,

um, it wasn't easy. It was like every so often I wanted another cup. Oh, I know so many people who listen to this show take, uh, like C4. It's crazy.

Pre-workouts. Oh yeah. It makes coffee look like a bitch. Yeah. It's like that. Yeah. It was uh ultimate orange when i was oh yeah yeah that stuff was like insane if i if i knew what boofing was i probably would

have boofed some orange yep it was great before football games yeah and um so as soon as i cut that out um a lot i just started gaining all this knowledge. And it showed me that I was so addicted to adrenaline that even without the coffee, my mind would find ridiculous problems and create this whole melodrama of bullshit just to get that same fix of adrenaline. And, or I would, you know, wait till the very last minute to get out the door to go to work you know so i was almost late and that would give me that like oh i'm in a fucking race car i gotta get to work you know adrenaline fix right nothing's worse than being early yeah so those are the little things that were showing up that, you know, that's how addicted I was to this feeling.

And so then I was up snowboarding in Mammoth one day. And it's a freaking blizzard. You couldn't see anything. And I'm there with a couple buddies. And they shut down the lifts. It was so dangerous up there. But we were already at the top. So we're like, hey, let's stay low, be ready for anything.

Because all you could see is a whiteout. So we're flying down this mountain. And I remember it was fun at first. And then I take a jump. I had no idea there was a jump there. And I'm in mid-air on like a blank canvas. I can't see anything. And I freaked out, man out man i was like i have

no idea where the landing's at what's up what's down so i smashed the shit out of my um my lumbar spine and um it felt like a lightning bolt hit me and uh landed pretty bad and um i remember like being in so much pain and just reaching for help. I was like, shit, my friends around couldn't see them. And then I grabbed for my phone. My phone was dead and I'm stuck on this mountain. Like not only am I like 11 on a scale of one through 10 pain and I'm like, I'm up on the top of the mountain.

How the hell am I going to get down? So I clicked off my board, and I was just channeling all the movies I'd seen, like Braveheart and Gladiator. I was like, I've got to get through this shit. So just my inner warrior clicked on, and I would just sit on my board and try to ride it down as far as I could.

And then it would hurt so bad, I'd fall over and just rest for a while and then keep doing that. It was crazy. And then I finally made it down. I go see all these doctors. They're ready to do surgery. They're like, yeah, you're jacked up.

They showed me all these x-rays and stuff. We're going to need to do surgery. What actually happened? So S1L5 just looked like they weren't aligned anymore like it was like um yeah yeah it was um jammed and it looked bad but i also um let the painkillers wear off and and kind of just felt into my intuition it was like don, don't do it. Don't go under the knife. So that began my healing journey, um, the natural way. And, um, and it was a painful one cause I would get, I've tried everything, right? Like acupuncture to massage therapist, to chiros or whatever I could

find to try to heal my body. Cause I went from incredible Hulk hardcore trainer to debilitated and stuck with all these terrible feelings that I was trying to drink away using Facebook sex drugs whatever I could use to not feel the fear to not feel the fear, to not feel guilt, shame, like all this, like just heavy emotions that I was sitting there by myself in pain, feeling finally. And then I just remember like, that's it. I surrender. I'm open to all knowledge of, I know I just need to learn more and I'll get through this. And so I did, I put this meditation on and it was Abraham Hicks, same meditation I gave that kid in the DMV. And it was crazy because as soon as I dropped in, a friend I hadn't talked to in years sent me a text and said, I heard your back's jacked up. Try neurokinetic therapy. And this is the work of David Weinstock. So I opened this up after

my meditation and just took a rabbit hole to connecting so many dots for me with my background in kinesiology, minor in health and wellness. It was the work he'd done. I was so excited about that. I got him on the phone. And I was like, David Weinstock, I'm in so much pain. I think you can help me. I want to learn. I've been following all your stuff. And he's like, you know, I'm in a conference teaching a course right now in San Francisco.

But I'll set you up with Christina, one of my top students, San Diego. So by the time I walked in to see Christina, I looked like Shakira stuck in like a mid-dance move, right? Like my hip was like way out to the left. My upper body's to the right. I'm hunched over. I can't even stand up straight, and I'm in so much pain. I could barely crawl to the bathroom at some points, let alone get in my car and try to make it to the session. And I was so skeptical because I tried everything I felt like.

And, um, and Christina rocked my world. She just started finding where these compensation patterns were going on in my body, cleared some of those, turned on muscles that weren't firing. And all of a sudden I get off the table and I can stand up straight. I can move. I could dance. I gave her a big hug. I was like, holy shit, I need to learn this. This is, I just had an epiphany right there. And I was like, this is amazing. I'm going to learn this. I'm going to teach this. I'm going to help others make sure they don't experience as intense pain as I did. And, um, so that was my gift that came from, from, uh, intense pain, from pain to purpose. And, um, and now I can go to the DMV and start a dance party and, uh, and have people cracking up

and laughing at, uh, even the closest place to hell. Where can people find that meditation you're talking about? So Abraham Hicks, I believe it's a wellness. It's called wellness meditation. It's one of their healing meditations. It's 15 minutes, super simple. It is exactly what every cell in your body needs to hear. It's just boom, dialed in, deep breaths, just relax, finally surrender,

go to the opposite realm of fight or flight and enjoy the benefits of rest and digest. Body already knows what to do to get back into alignment. Our cells already know what to do to balance and find harmony. We just have to get out of the way. We we we just tend to resist so much and um you you look at you know we can learn a lot from animals you you pet a dog that doesn't like your energy he's like oh shakes it off right and then he's back to being a dog again he's present you know you see ducks ever getting a squabble they're like whack whack whack afck, and now they're all fighting and stuff. And they, as soon as they're done, they, like, shake their wings out, and then they're, like, super chill, back to being ducks again.

And then they're back to being present. Humans don't do that, though. No, we love to hold on to shit, like, hold grudges and, like, you know, and emotions. Like, we hate feeling certain emotions, so that just becomes you know it's energy in motion so when we resist it what we resist persists and then it becomes issues in

our tissues and then you got to come see me and get a mind-body tune-up so we can clear that up and teach you how to heal yourself what uh uh one of my favorite things that i got to do is my brother came and saw me last December and I got, I got him a session with you. Yeah. His, his mind was, yeah, he trains, you know, he trains, he works out, he does a lot of my program, like a lot of the stuff that I teach and he's, you know, and I, I think he hears about a third or maybe probably more like 3% of what I say. Yeah, right, right. You're his brother.

But it was really cool because you pointed out, you taught him stuff about the core where he goes, oh, I had no fucking idea. Right. And he's running around, all of us, we love lifting heavy weights. It's just ingrained in us right yeah but if we are dealing with any of these compensation patterns any dysfunction in the body um is going to get amplified and it's just reinforced when you're throwing weight on top of that yeah so

practicing bad behavior yeah so i would way rather help people work smarter than harder and um just give them these quick, easy tune ups that you can do. Find those compensation patterns, clear them, and then go back to working out and instantly you're stronger because everything's firing. You're supporting your spine better.

And then your strength gains go through the roof and it's just amazing. It's super experiential. And, um, one I've been seeing a lot recently was, um, um, the connection with the jaw. So yeah, I get so many people are running around without their transverse abdominus firing. Now TVA, that is your intrinsic core muscles. So if those aren't firing, then you're not, it's basically your internal weight belt. So you're not supporting your spine as well.

And they should be firing milliseconds before you do any moves just to help stabilize your spine. Why are people's TVAs not firing? So here's what I've been finding. It's crazy. I will test those muscles, literally I'll just push down on their legs, and if they are firing, it's really easy to tell. They get a good neural lock, there's no, it can't push down. If they're not firing,

it's a fail. Then their legs just want, want, want them just drop, right? Like there's not no signal going there. So then I find where the, the neurological traffic jam is, right? Like, why aren't they getting a signal to their intrinsic core? And a lot of times it's the jaw. The jaw is associated with our limbic system, so our emotional capacity, right? So if we're clenching our jaw, dealing with anger or like just holding on to anything, any stress,

we're just clenching there, right? Think of your nervous system as highways. So if your brain is home and you're trying to get cars, neural signals to your core muscles to fire and then backed home to your brain to give feedback on how the quality of that movement was. Well, problem is you might have a traffic jam at your jaw. And that is, and a lot of times, even guys and entrepreneur women, it'll be the right side. My right side is so more developed.

I got like a hunk of meat on my right side of my jaw and then my left side is like a little bitch. Yeah, it's like you got, if you were a squirrel, you're like hiding nuts in there for the winter, right? On your right side. And so I see this all the time and that's a masculine side. Right. So in, um, throughout history.

So that's all the, the mind chatter of like having to do, do, do like get out, bring home the bacon, the, the stress, the, um, that subtle fight or flight response is showing up in the jaw. And then that's blocking the neural signal to the intrinsic core muscles, and then you're weaker. That's why your jaw muscles, if your jaw is not firing properly, it can make your whole body weak. Oh, yeah, big time. Yeah.

Yeah, so we see a lot of that, and that's a really easy one to correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we see a lot of that. And that's a really easy one to correct. Yeah. So then I teach them my bulletproof core technique. And all of a sudden, they release that. So now they're getting a good neural signal to the intrinsic core. It's really fun to watch people with this because they're like, what? They're like just turned on muscles they forgot about. They're like, whoa.

I watched it. It's so good. And they're instantly stronger in everything they do. So it's super fun and experiential. It's so interesting. I think a lot of times people will go, oh, why can't I get my deadlift up? Why have I hit a plateau in my squat and all this? And it's hardly ever what you think it is.

It's not because you should be doing five sets of three instead of five sets of five. That's rarely the problem. It's something because you should be doing five sets of three instead of five sets of five. That's rarely the problem. It's something that you're not even dreaming of. Something like the jaw. You're not the only person. I've been around. I've had my jaw worked on by a few different

people. I've had from different perspectives. Every time I've gotten benefits out of it. I've taken practices you've shown me. I now massage my jaw because of you. And it helps. If anything, doing it before I go to bed at night really makes a huge difference. And with my work, I love it because once I hone in and show you where the compensation pattern is, then I teach you how to release your jaw. And then right after that,

go into strengthening your deep core muscles. And I have some awesome exercises for that. That's part of the Bulletproof Core Technique. And then you feel it. You feel those turn back on. And then you're reinforcing that every time you do another rep. So then you go and apply that.

Now everything's turned on and primed, right? Then you go apply that to like goblet squats where you're getting your glutes involved and your core and everything's firing on all cylinders and you just feel like a fucking boss in the gym and you got a whole new pep in your step and you're walking around like thunder. If your core's not firing,

your glutes aren't going to do what they're supposed to do. Right. So it's all in your link. You have a flat ass. It's probably your core. Right. It's never what you think it is. Yeah.

It's fun because everybody's different and we see all kinds of different things. But that's a lot of times when people are pushing through the pain. Think about that because your body's giving you a very important message, right? And the intensity of that message is, um, the amount of pain you're dealing with, right? So, um, I've learned so much about pain that it's been one of my greatest teachers. And so I actually appreciate. I'm like, oh, thank you for showing me that little check engine light. Because I can correct that before it gets to a major breakdown.

So I really appreciate those signals. Whereas before, I'd be like, push through. Fuck the pain. You know, like listen to Rob Zombie. I'd be Zombie, like. I haven't even thought about Rob Zombie in years. Dude. That used to be a thing.

Yeah. And Metallica. Somebody right now listens to Rob Zombie in the gym. Yeah. Somebody does. Yeah. And then goes home and watches movies and, and I'm just like. You know what though?

I'd rather listen to Rob Zombie than Nickelback. So totally whatever you're in, whatever flavor you want. Right. So listen to your body and thank your body for those pain signals and get the tune ups that you need because it's trying to prevent you from a major breakdown. The intelligence of the human body is so vast.

We're always tuned in tapped in and always giving messages um whether we're paying attention or not so have you heard about this is uh i uh so i used some of the techniques you showed me with the jaw i've had my jaw released by a couple different therapists and uh the last guy i went and saw, he looked at my jaw and he goes, well, I could release it, but I could work on other stuff because your teeth are all shaped in a way that it's just going to go back anyway.

And I go, I never even thought about that. You're fucking kidding me. And sure enough, like all my teeth are pointed in a direction that every time I chew, talk, clench, it's putting stress back on the right side. So even if I'm solving some things in my jaw, I now need to get Invisalign or something to straighten out my teeth. Because yeah, you get your teeth straightened out, then we release the jaw.

Have you heard about that as a more long-term solution yeah you know these these patterns die hard right and who knows how long they've been going on so um just just like our programs that are running in our mind that you know create the veils at which we see reality through right they're either serving us or they're not but what's great is you're already at the point of awareness so that's a big step right then when you begin to notice that oh i'm clenching my right jaw what's happening when you're clenching your right jaw you know what are you tens up on? What's going on in your life? Is it like, oh shit, I gotta fucking make this deal work. I gotta like, you know, make this where, what are you trying to control in your life at that time? Right. And when you start taking a look at that and say, okay,

sorry, jaw, I'm not going to take that out on you so much. And then start these deep breathing techniques and expansion breathing. You can move this energy and then start these deep breathing techniques and expansion breathing you can move this energy and then it allows everything to align again naturally and then you're you're not taking it out on your jaw so much and then your teeth can relax and then like your whole body i feel so silly my approach thus far has been to work the left side more. Yeah, you're only chewing with your left side now, huh? Yeah, but food and mouth, chew on left side. Yeah, yeah. That shouldn't cause any problems.

It's a good place to start, you know? I think the left side's likely been getting underworked and the right side's getting overworked. Yeah, we're always learning always learning always open to um to more expansion like a thera band over on the left jaw yeah we'll get you some headgear we'll bring that back mike bletso makes headgear cool if i can make the headgear cool i I can make anything cool. Yes, totally. All right, we'll see what we can do. Oh, man.

So you just got back from the burn, dude. You still got, like, fresh playa dust on you, bro. That's what I was wanting to lead with. Oh, my God. Yeah, Burning Man was epic. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to go. You know, I highly recommend it to people who don't want to go. No, I'm just kidding.

There are only 75,000 people that are allowed to be there. So it sells out every year. I've noticed that it's harder to get tickets every year. I got my tickets two weeks before the burn this year. Went solo, didn't have a camp. You can go in, you can have a camp. I've done that in previous years. Went in completely independent, which was nice with my wife, Ashley.

And, man, we went hard. It was fun. I went out six nights, and I watched the sunrise, I think, three times. And, Mike, when you go hard, boy, that's like, that's next level hard. Because that's one thing I've always admired about you is you take like a box of like a, you know, this is what I'm used to in life. And then you just push in every direction, whether it's like with your experiments with plant medicines and on all different sorts or like old patterns in relationships and stuff you just like you take a look at fear and like kick it straight in the face i love that about you

uh yeah i tell people all the time like like, fear is my guide. And if I'm afraid of it, then I have to do it. You're like, ooh, hey, fear. Let me lean into this a little bit. There was a moment at Burning Man. It was about, it was halfway through the week. I look at Ashley and I go, and by the, well, I'm not going to have to put it, I'm not going to put disclaimers on this. People know who I am.

It's out the window. I go, I think I want to, I'm trying to decide how vague to be. I'll just say it. Just say it. I think I want to take this girl out on a playa date. So like a playa date,

the playa is the desert out at Burning Man. And a playa date, like like a playa date, the playa is the desert out at Burning Man. And a playa date, like the rules are different at Burning Man, right? So it's like, You get to make them up as you go.

Yeah, it's like, oh yeah, I'm going to go out with this girl. We're going to go hang out for a few hours. She's interesting to me. Yeah.

So I'm going to go do that. And she goes, well, why? You never really seemed that interested in her before I go, oh, because talking to her scares me. She goes, makes sense.

I love Ashley. She's like, oh, okay. If that's your why, then it's cool. I think she knows. She goes, now he has to do it. Yeah, right. If he doesn't do it, it'll eat him up. I love that.

That's one way you get the most out of the human experience is you recognize fear and then lean into it and, and create this dance. Yeah. So for the record, uh, that night I asked the girl on a playa date, she said yes.

And then, uh, we didn't follow through, but that's also Burning Man. Yeah, right. Look, 90% of the plans you make never happen. Right. I try to not make plans.

People go, I'll meet you at Burning Man. I'm like, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, see you there. Half the people that I think I'm going to see don't even see them, and then I end up hanging out with people who I barely even know and loving it. And, yeah, you use synchronicities instead of time yeah it's really cool yeah yeah it's legit i mean they make it confusing on purpose yeah because the the map the layout of the city is in time and letters so you go hey i'm to meet you at 2.30 at 5.30.

Yeah, right. It is built-in confusion. Thank you. It's like you're just trying to meet up with somebody and your brain's in a pretzel already. And then on the last night, you have the man who's in the middle of the city. They burn it

and then they pull up all the street signs. So there's no reference points. That's right. So the last night's in the middle of the city, they burn it, and then they pull up all the street signs. So there's no reference points. That's right. So the last night's chaos. That's true. The last night, my friend Tanya and I, we took a bottle of champagne, and we went for a walk.

And the last night I was there, and we split this bottle of champagne and we walked the perimeter of Burning Man. And there was this camp away from everything else. And there was a red carpet to it. And it was this big canvas tent, no walls. And it looked like there was two living rooms set up in this tent.

And there were people on one living room and the other one was empty and tanya goes uh we uh what do you think that is over there i go let's find out and we go walk up and there's a gate you walk through uh to get there and right next to it and like i said before everything's in time time, all the street signs and stuff. But it goes 4 o'clock, 4.15, 4.30, 4.45, 5, 5.36. It goes in like 15 or 30-minute increments. The sign said 4.20.

And sure enough, we were between 4.15 and 4.30. Oh, that was clever. Nice. So we walk in there, and we see this guy. He's about 70 years old and 70 something. And we go, oh. And, you know, we start talking. And Tanya's asking all the questions. I'm pretty quiet at this point.

And imagine that. And she goes, how many burns is this for you? He goes, all of them. You've never missed a burn? No. And then he walks off and then there's these other group of people in the living room space that look like they're about in their 60s and so we start chatting with them and they go do you know who that is i was like no they. They go, it's Ranger Danger. Michael Michael. And I go, that doesn't mean anything to me. I go, oh, he's one of the founders of Burning Man.

It's like, what the fuck? He wasn't joking. All of them. All of them. He's responsible for it. And we're in awe that he's attended them. That's amazing. And then they told us some epic stories.

They told us how it started. You know, it's like, well, we started a bonfire on the beach once. Nice. And then the next year we did it again and twice as many people showed up. And it was cool. And then, you know, a few years later the cops kicked us out. And then we found Black Rock City, which is out here in Nevada. And Larry, one of the founders that passed, he's more well-known.

I guess there were 16 people running Burning Man at the time. And he drew a line in the sand. He goes, if we cross this line, everything changes. Who's in? He said, all 16 people stepped over. And everything changed. Everything got really crazy. It's chaos out there.

It is. Chaos. It is the craziest phenomenon I've ever experienced. How many times have you been? Just once. I went two years ago, and I was just in awe of daytimes totally different than nighttime. You get just the best of both worlds and the sheer art the size of the art that that they create in the middle of this desert like a giant whale

just illuminated like pulsing with led lights through it and just this huge face or this sphere that's like shooting lasers on the ground that creates an illusion of space and people try to ride their bike through and they fall over because they get dizzy like this is crazy and i i just looked around in awe and i was like humans are fucking amazing we just created this in the middle of nowhere i want to mention to people because i think people their assumptions people are just on drugs out there which which is true people are on drugs out there but a lot of people go sober yeah you don't need drugs out there i didn't you feel like you're on drugs i didn't i didn't we literally that's a great example um the whole time you know i had maybe a drink or

two of tequila i had a couple puffs or whatever, but other than that, I didn't feel called to do, I was already in like surreal land. It's like you're in, you're in a fricking Salvador Dali painting, you know, and that's without drugs. It is like, like nothing I've ever experienced. Yeah. My first year I was in such awe. I didn't do much of anything. Yeah. I didn't feel the need. And, um, and then even the last day when we did try some stuff, we were kind of like, are you feeling anything? No, I think we're already there. We've already been just on cloud 10. Once you've been, once you've been at Burning Man for three days, you're in a completely different reality. No matter how hard you try you're you're forever changed and

um i remember you know what's so cool about the playa and the burn is that even in the middle of nowhere you can manifest anything like you can whatever your intention is whatever you want to create it can be done there like anything's possible and um i mean we just went to simple things like i just went to take off and our crew and like we had a flat tire or something and i'm like man we just if we only had a tire pump real quick not one but two people heard and ran out on the on the road we're on with tire pumps like instantly and then and then we stayed with Camp Trilogy, which was amazing, just incredible food, right? And we're all a bunch of acro.

Is that from Trilogy, La Jolla? Yeah. So Joe and his beautiful wife, they got married there. So we got to experience that. And I remember asking Joe at the end of the burn i was like man that was such an incredible experience that was such a cool camp um what was your biggest highlight of burn and he said i caught up on sleep i go bro that is the last thing i ever thought you're gonna say and he was dead serious.

What? He has been working his tail off so much that his intention was to just relax and get married and start a new chapter in his life. And yeah, so even if you need to catch up on sleep, you can even do that somehow at the burn. I don't know. I can't imagine that, but you know what? You never know every burn for me has been so different i've done three now they've been all so different that all i will now buy anything if someone says oh this is yeah this is how it was for me i go yeah i can

see that yeah right there's no there's no off limits no yeah yeah it's wild i i was uh super fortunate i had four virgins with me and so uh what i mean by that i say you might want to clarify for people first timers yeah for rookies yeah first time to burning man yeah not real virgins i don't fuck with that that's boring yeah what's up with the uh the one day in heaven you'll get 70 virgins? Who wants 70 virgins? I want 70 pros.

Yeah, know what they're doing. I want 70 pros with no STDs. That's way more interesting than 70 virgins. Now you're manifest. Just want to throw that out there. Just for the record. I just want to rename the Virgin Islands. Is that too much to ask? What do you want to rename the Virgin Islands. Is that too much to ask?

What do you want to rename them to? Benhir. Benhir Islands. The Benhir Islands. So, oh yeah. So I had four virgins with me. Some people are going to know who they are. And I don't care if they don't want me to say their names but michael and adi cashew who they've been on the show before uh multiple times they were there

and ashley and i spent a ton of time with them epic it was really cool like with adi our relationship is i'm like her big brother and she's my little sister. And so it was really cool for me to show her all this really new, cool stuff and watch her mind get blown. Watching, watching some of your best friends minds get blown is the, that's better than your mind getting blown. It's the best. It's like reliving your first time through them.

Yeah. And then I had, uh, uh, Webb Donovan and Jared Davis come in and Webb had,

he was in my retreat, Training Camp for the Soul, which was only two weeks before Burning Man. Halfway through the retreat, he realizes,

a guy from Boston, he goes, I can do anything. And I said, yes, you can. And then I made a joke about him going to Burning Man

and that night he's buying Ashley showed him how to buy Burning Man tickets he buys two tickets and he brings his friend Jared who is he works for Subway he runs

CrossFit crack out of Boston and I guess crack is an Irish term. He told me, I go, that's strange. That's a strange name. He's addicted. Makes fun of the Irish, I guess. But he got Webb to listen to the show,

and that's why Webb showed up to training camp with Soul. So it was cool, full circle. Full circle. So I got to take a CrossFit, uh, gym owner and, one of the guys from, uh,

my retreat, because when we do the retreats, we get into super deep work. So I know a lot about them by that time. So it's cool to help facilitate whatever experience they're going to have on the playa. And, uh, those two guys watching those two guys,

they were completely transformed by the end of the trip. They thought they were coming in for one thing and then they got another and they were perfectly cool with it. They were so stoked. In fact, I got a text message from Jared this past weekend. He goes, man, I implemented all this stuff I learned at Burning Man and everything in my life is getting better. My business is doing better. My relationships with women is better. Everything is better. And a lot of what he learned was how to simply communicate more effectively. And I know people think about Burning Man and they think about the art and psychedelics and the music and the dust,

but man, that's also something that I get a lot out of Burning Man is learning how to communicate better because I'm hanging out with people who that's where they put their attention. Right. Yeah. So rad. And it's so giving. Everybody is giving. There's no, there's no, which is such a cool phenomenon to experience. Like it makes me want to, um, next time i go just bring a ton of shirts that just say like shift happens yes that would be awesome so what i brought was a bunch of um those like doctor masks right oh yeah and and um and i had these pens that smell really good so i did all this art like i drew like these ridiculous huge lips and noses you know so when you put these things on

it looks like your face is like tripped out and um so i made a bunch of those i drew them on the way to burning man and gave them out because it's get you know if you get caught in a dust storm there on your bike without without anything to you know you're stuck you're huffing some major sand and dust. But those were really cool. Everybody just is so creative, and you can find anything you need there. It's wild. It's wild. I ran into, in one hour,

I was at this party on Wednesday night. One hour, I had three different people find me in the same hour and tell me that they were there because they listened to this show. Yes. And then I ran into another guy. Confirmation. Yeah. I ran into two more people that week that said the same thing.

So a total of five. One of the guys finds me when I'm about to jump in a group shower. I'm buck naked. I'm buck naked hanging out with my friends and this guy running up want to give me a hug he's all naked i'm like yeah let's just do like a bro hug yeah i don't know you yeah uh no it was good he's listening to this right now that's hilarious it was awesome but i i was perfectly cool with it it was fun i was like that is i i was laughing so hard because i go of course somebody's gonna recognize me right when i'm butt naked about to jump in a shower i recognize that ass from a mile

away of all places i mean uh the most epic place I'd been recognized up to that point was at a strip club. Awesome. What made it epic was my wife was there. So she got to be like, oh, of course he's going to get recognized here by the manager who's going to say my name over the loudspeaker. Nice. He's like, oh, we got a barbell shrug to Mike Bledsoe in the house. Up next on stage, Mike Bledsoe.

That was like three years ago. That was a really... That night was amazing for my ego. Real plus. Yeah. That's good stuff. Let's get back. I want to talk about... We did a good 15 minutes.

Yeah, that was a good rant. It was worth it. It's worth it. I know people loved it. I want to know, you're up to some new things. Yeah. What are these new things coming up? So we were talking about retreats. We have an epic retreat,

January 3rd through the 10th. And this is in Bali. It's called Follow Your Bliss to Bali. And we have organized such a badass team of superstars um healers talented we got um i got to teach his acro yoga classes he also does fire spinning and sound healing and he's like the best of the best of all these and so by the way all those things if you've never done them which most people listening to this have never done any of those things, they're all way more fun and way cooler than it sounds.

Yeah. You got to experience it. You have to. You have to. Yeah. So we've basically created an epic choose your own adventure. So the, the lineup, the, um, the offerings are incredible and like hikes to waterfalls and just really diving into, to the feeling and the culture of Bali and, um, and really allowing people to, to take a moment to experience vacation vibration and the other

end of the spectrum, like when the healing happens, when you get to actually rest and digest and dive into a new level of self-discovery you know so this is going to be um one of our most transformational retreats super excited um to start people's best year ever off in bali i'll be i'll be in thailand in that period of time and i don't have plans for those dates yet so nice i might you gotta come dude if you feel the call it might be in there you gotta show up it's um yeah it's gonna be like no other and so we're really excited right um teaming up with some all-stars for that one and um my work with hang out where do people go to find that? So you can check out, uh, www.followblistobali.com. Followblistobali.com. Cool. Followblistobali.com. And, um, and then you can, uh, reach me on

Instagram, vacationvibration, um, Facebook, just Charles Clay, super easy. And then there's also my website, greatestu.com, and that's the letter, capital U, dot com. And that goes through, you can learn all the keys to happiness, unleashing your joy, all the services I provide with mind-body tune-ups, unleashing your strength programs, which are just epic results we're getting. So fun. I have clients. I have a client in Kuwait right now that is just like he's blowing my mind with the way he's been showing up for himself.

And another client that flew out from Australia to get a tune up with me. And now he wants me to go to Melbourne and teach neurokinetic therapy and all the modalities I'm using there at a workshop. And so it looks like I'm going to be doing that right after Bali, January. So the years look pretty good. Yeah. And, um, and then, um, we And then we have my podcast that just launched. So sexy. And this is super fun on Thursdays at 3.30. And we just went live. We're teaming up with LA Talk Radio. So it's gone from a podcast, just started out,

to now it's a full-on show. And that's with Brigetta. And we have so much a full on show. And, um, and that's what Bridgetta and we have so much fun on the show. Like the, the guests we've been getting on are like amazing. Like one, one woman, um, can channel aliens and she's on the show. Yes. And she's like using this to, um, to give messages to her clients that they need to like, just shed layers that aren't serving them in their life. Like that's just one example. Um, it's so fun. I'm really enjoying it. And so we're, we're going live to Caboo this weekend and, uh, we get to interview some of the rock stars and uh enjoy the press passes and rock that

out oh yeah and then we'll be in la in the studio um to interview some of the rock stars for that for that show so tune in to soul sexy every thursday at 3 33 and um you can even catch that uh live on my facebook uh we post on youtube and um and then on the website, soulsexy.com. Soulsexy.com. Man, how'd you get that domain? Isn't that great? That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, I love it.

Yeah, we just finished a little ditty for the intro, too. It's like, soul sexy. She's like, soul sexy. Yeah, it's dope. We've been having a lot of fun with it. Awesome. That sounds great. Yeah, just multiple ways of getting the message out right now.

Just on cloud 10. Man, I can't complain. Life is so good. It just blows my mind how when you follow your intuition, life just keeps getting better. And then you hit these pinnacles and you're like, how can I get any better? And then boom, you're just like a new ceiling.

I've been having that experience myself. The sky's not even the limit anymore, man. Everyone I talk to, it seems like 2017 was hard for a lot of people. Yeah. Was 2017 hard for you? It was a challenging year for sure. It seems like everyone got their ass kicked in 2017 and everybody in 2018 is loving life

thanks for the contrast yeah yeah there you go yeah it's that's what's great we get to enjoy contrast in this human experience um we don't get that where we come from where we're going so even even the worst shit that you're dealing with just be grateful because something amazing is coming on the other end of that you know and knowing that while you're dealing with, just be grateful because something amazing is coming on the other end of that, you know, and knowing that while you're in the shit is really helpful. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Thanks for joining us today. Yeah. It's been a treat brother. All right, man. Yeah. We'll be hanging out soon. And, uh, thanks for joining us today. Cheers.