Good Life Project - Yung Pueblo | How to Create Clarity & Connection

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

Why is it that, so often, we need to be brought to our knees in order to wake up to, and reclaim, what really matters? And, does that have to be so? These are just a few of the questions we dive into ...with my guest today, Diego Perez, best known for his virtual moniker, Yung Pueblo, which is both a reminder to him to stay grounded in a younger, growth mindset, and also a contained to frame this current season of work as a project that doesn’t constrain his own personal and professional growth. Diego’s new book, Clarity & Connection, shares many of his recent insights about life, meaning, love, work, self-awareness, and of course, clarity and connection.You can find Yung Pueblo at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Tara Brach about wisdom and compassion.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKEDVisit Our Sponsor Page For a Complete List of Vanity URLs & Discount Codes.Fireweed: After the devastation of a forest fire, the first plant to grow back is fireweed. Meet people with vastly different experiences who have demonstrated their ability to grow and adapt to whatever challenges life throws at them, and -- like the fireweed -- come back stronger than ever. Listen to Fireweed wherever you get your podcasts.Talk Easy: Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, activists, and politicians. Where people sound like people. New episodes every Sunday. Listen to Talk Easy wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 actually some of your greatest power will come to light in groups. And that's kind of what I learned was like, as an individual, you do have power, but you can only do so much. When you come into a group that can share a common cause, whoo, sky's the limit. You know, you can really make serious change. So why is it that so often we need to be brought to our knees in order to wake up and reclaim what really matters? And does it actually have to be that way? These are just a few of the questions that we dive into with my guest today, Diego Perez, who's best known by his virtual moniker, Young Pueblo. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, he moved with his family to Boston where he saw his parents work relentless hours and struggle with poverty. And he turned
Starting point is 00:00:45 to activism and advocacy at a young age, went to Wesleyan where his life then devolved into partying and drugs that really threatened to become a way of being as he moved into adulthood. But in a moment of profound reckoning that would awaken him both to his own need to refocus on mental health and physical well-being, as well as a different way to live, he re-centered meaning in his work and life. And a quest was set in motion, one that would eventually lead Diego into a 10-day Vipassana meditation experience that had a transformational effect and would set him on a path of self-discovery and an ever-deepening devotion to a now years-long, two-hours-a-day meditation practice, regular extended retreats, and the pursuit of truth and wisdom.
Starting point is 00:01:29 And now a part of that also involved writing. And what began as a tool to process his own experiences, well, it eventually became a public writing practice. And his words landed in a powerful way, amassing a global audience of millions of people writing under the pseudonym Young Pueblo, which is both a reminder to him to stay grounded in a younger growth mindset and also a container to frame this current season of work as a project that doesn't constrain his own personal and professional growth. Diego's newest book,
Starting point is 00:02:10 Clarity and Connection, shares many of his recent insights about life, meaning, love, work, self-awareness, and of course, clarity and connection. So excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes.
Starting point is 00:02:43 The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday, we've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.
Starting point is 00:03:03 Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him,. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what's the difference between me and you? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. Originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Yeah, that's right. And then to Boston. How old were you when you actually made that journey? I was tiny. I was four years old. And that's when I initially came over with my mom and dad and my brother. And I have a little sister, but she was born here. My brother was 10 years old when he made the trip. Yeah. So you're itty bitty. Do you have any recollection or any sense of what it was there
Starting point is 00:03:39 for you? Or it's just sort of like a blur? No, but what's, what's interesting is that there's a clear divide in my memory, um, where I have a tiny amount of fragmented images from living in Ecuador. Like I have one image of me playing outside, um, with a toy car in front of the house that we lived in, but my memory has really become crisp and clear and more movie-like when I got to Boston. And that's probably because I was four years old. So who knows what's happening in a four-year-old's mind. But yeah, it all kind of really, in some way, it feels like life starts when I turned four. Yeah. Have you had a chance or have you sat down with your family or do you know what inspired the immigration from Ecuador to Boston? I think what really inspired,
Starting point is 00:04:31 I think at that time, you know, my parents just like, they didn't really feel like there was just a lot of economic opportunity for us. I grew up really poor in Boston, but my mom and dad, the level of poverty that they experienced as children was to an even much higher degree. My mom, hearing about her growing up, her mother didn't even have food for her to eat and would actually send her to the homes of neighbors so that hopefully she'd be able to get a meal from a friend. And my grandmother, she didn't know how to read or write. So there was a stark sort of, you know, we were, my parents were really poor. And then when we got to Boston, my family was really poor because my mom, she ended up working cleaning houses and my dad worked in a supermarket.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Their wages were very low and we really struggled to like, you know, pay the rent. And there was just a lot of, a lot of financial stress in our house. Yeah. How did that land with you just individually as a kid, sort of being, being in that family culture and, and, and seeing that around you? Yeah, it was quite bewildering because I remember thinking even as someone who was really young, like the world to me looked abundant, you know, from what I was seeing on TV, what I would look out, what I would see outside,
Starting point is 00:05:55 what I would see in the classroom. And it always seemed like a shock, like why, like what's happening here? You know, like how is this abundance not reaching happening here? You know, like, how are, how is this abundance not reaching my home? And, and it was tough, you know, because a lot, my mom and dad, they loved each other. They love each other deeply. But a lot of their fights, their disagreements, their conflict was around, like this struggle to make ends meet. So I saw that sort of structural pressure, just push onto my family. And it was interesting
Starting point is 00:06:28 seeing the difference between how they used to fight all the time when I was little, but then as my brother and I got older and we started working and we started adding to the family funds, and especially now that we're adults and my sister is an adult, my parents don't have that stress. And my parents, they barely have disagreements these days because their problems were really structural. They were money related. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious how that frames in your mind as a kid. Like what is important to strive for in life? It felt to me like, you know, in the midst of searching for answers as to like, like
Starting point is 00:07:11 it made me want to study the world. It made me want to know, you know, like, like why some people have less and others have more. And, and that really kind of took me on a journey into activism and into understanding economics, because that just seemed like a whole nother world that, and that's actually what I ended up majoring in when I went to college, because I wanted to understand how capitalism worked, like how some people could have so much and others could have so little. And is there a way to kind of like balance that out a bit?
Starting point is 00:07:45 Yeah. What was the first step in for you to activism and organizing? Because it sounds like it actually touched down pretty young in your life. Yeah. Yeah. I started pretty young. I started early on when I was 15 and my brother actually introduced me to that world. I got into this organization called Boston Youth Organizing Project, and it was such a special place because there were adults who would support us by teaching us how to organize and like organizing in the sense of like being able to find a common cause for a group of people and strategizing as to how we were going to make our goal come true. You know, whether that was at the city level or in our, you know, in our schools, we really like made serious change as young people. And it was cool because we would, you know, we'd learn how to organize and then we teach each other how to organize and we would constantly be empowering each other to like make, to make change. And this was all, you know, we were all really young, but it was pretty formative because I got to see pretty quickly how, you know, a group of people can become rather unstoppable if they, you know, have good values and are working together for the betterment of many. Yeah, I mean, what a powerful experience to have,
Starting point is 00:09:05 especially young in life, right? Because I feel like so many of us, especially in sort of like the teen years and the early years, it's this season where for so many, you feel largely disempowered. You look at the world and you're like, this is a massive machine.
Starting point is 00:09:20 And I see all the people that are running this thing. And I, like, who am I? You know, how can one voice seriously make any meaningful dent in that universe for you to have an experience early on, which showed you that no, actually like you matter. It must've been so formative in so many ways, but not the least of which showing you that you actually can make a difference, which I think is something that so many people still struggle with far into adulthood. Yeah. And it's interesting because we live in a super atomized society. So it's hard to really come in contact with your power because
Starting point is 00:09:56 actually some of your greatest power will come to light in groups. And that's kind of what I learned was like, as an individual, you do have power, but you can only do so much. When you come into a group that can share a common cause, sky's the limit, you know, you can really make serious change. And it was really, you know, I felt really fortunate to be amongst a group of like really diverse young people who had the same like economic background. A lot of us were immigrants as well. And we would look at a situation and be like, oh yeah, we can change that. And we would be really confident and we would go and we would win. We'd win all the time. So having that just showed me the power of people. Yeah. That's amazing. One of the things that I've often seen, you know, there are a lot of benefits, I think, to learning those skills and being surrounded by that environment and embodying this notion that you can actually be a part of
Starting point is 00:10:49 significant change. The other curiosity as you're sharing that is there's a phenomenon I've seen happen with so many folks, me included sometimes, where when you step into a place of advocacy or organizing or activism, it's really easy to drop into a place where binary thinking dominates the landscape. It's black or white. It's us versus them. There's no middle ground. There's no gray. There's no argument.
Starting point is 00:11:15 There's no partial win. It's like there are only two choices. And if you're not with us, then you're just against us or you don't get it. And I'm wondering whether that mindset was a part of at least the early days of organizing and putting energy behind different things. Yeah, I think to a large extent, there was a lot of that mentality, very strong, like group psychology. We'd be working as a unit and we're like,, you're part of us, are you not with us. But I think there was definitely undertones of compassion there, even if they weren't fully matured, because we were lucky, like, you know,
Starting point is 00:11:57 the adults who are working with us, they were pretty compassionate people, they were never trying to dehumanize the people who we, who were targets, the people that we would want to try to get something from. So that felt really formative. And it felt like the roots of like the kind of the thinking that I try to do now, where, you know, to me, when I think about love, I mean, love is something that can hold space for multiple perspectives. And it's something that can allow for complexity. And I think that's something that is not just growing in the like, activist organizing world, but all over the world, you know, that we can be able to still function harmoniously without having to like, hate each
Starting point is 00:12:39 other or demonize each other in certain ways. Because at the end of the day, like everybody makes mistakes, like, you know, we're all incredibly imperfect human beings. And what matters is like, are we open to changing and being better? Yeah. It's such an important question, especially in this moment in time, right? Because we're all dropped into this space where there's so much disenfranchisement, but there's also so much isolation and separatism and dehumanization. It's sort of like, you know, there's an installation of beliefs and values that rise to the level of identity. And once that becomes that, it becomes brutally hard to back away from that, even when you're presented with really strong evidence that it's not right. And I feel like, yeah, I mean, I hope you're right in sort of like,
Starting point is 00:13:27 I feel like we have been dropped into this sea of pain of isolation and dehumanization. And I'm waiting for that pendulum to swing back towards openness and realizing that we're sort of like all part of like the same fiber of humanity. It sounds like you may be a little bit further along in seeing and stepping into that space than I am at this point. Yeah. I mean, it's a struggle. It's a struggle to have people who, you know, that there are people who exist in the world who don't like you because of different facets of your identity. And then there's also a struggle to be attached to different parts of your identity when in reality,
Starting point is 00:14:05 there's nothing static about you. You know, A piece of your identity that may have been so important to you seven years ago may mean nothing to you today because you've just grown in so many different ways. And if you were to attach yourself and stick to that part of your identity, you would actually be limiting your own flourishing. So I think even within the work that I do within myself, I've really tried to sort of shift the way I see identity to just to think about it as a flowing river, because it just keeps moving and it'll move and sort of switch itself up in a way that can meet the moment as opposed to just like trying to make the moment fit you, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, it definitely does. So a lot of these seeds were
Starting point is 00:14:51 installed early in you. You end up going to college, you go to Wesley and studying, exploring a lot of these things. I know you've described that time in your life as one where there was a big element of the pursuit of pleasure. And that involved a lot of partying, a lot of drugs, which is not entirely uncommon, like when kids go to college. Oh, yeah, very common, yeah. Yeah, but it seems like there was something else going on with you. Like there was something underneath that,
Starting point is 00:15:17 that was not just sort of like your typical pleasure-seeking experience. Yeah, and I think in some ways, you know, that same root that was in me is in a lot of people. There was just this like underlying anxiety and sadness that I did not want to admit to myself. And for whatever reason, you know, it just intensified in me in particular where I couldn't let go of the party because the party kept me away from my feelings. And even after I graduated, I just kept wanting to be in these environments where, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:56 there's a lot of alcohol, a lot of drugs so that I could just, you know, keep avoiding whatever it was that was happening inside me. And I couldn't just, you know, I couldn't embrace was that was happening inside me. And I couldn't just, you know, I couldn't embrace how I was in that moment. And because I couldn't embrace myself, it just led to this like snowballing of these patterns. And they just became thicker and thicker over time. And it's tough, you know, because it ended up happening in that college environment. But there were also a lot of things about that environment that were positive, you know, like, I was so grateful that I went to Wesleyan because they really helped me learn
Starting point is 00:16:28 how to think. But at the same time, like the, when I entered into Wesleyan, I really did not know myself. And because I didn't know myself, I ended up hurting myself. Yeah. I often wonder about experiences like that, where you have it, you know, there's a lot of duality in it, you know, on the one hand, you look, there's so much good that comes from the experience. But on the other hand, there's, you know, there's a lot of struggle that goes along, along with it for you. What was it that was underneath it that you felt was causing that sense of sadness or that sense of anxiety?
Starting point is 00:17:06 Yeah, I think that there were these long currents of sort of like insecurity that stemmed from being a child, you know, like being moved from Ecuador and that were in a place where I was really surrounded by so much loving family to having like a very small family where it was because I had so many aunts and uncles and cousins. We were a huge family in Ecuador, but then coming to the United States. So I lose that sort of emotional base. And then we get put into like the like the fitness space of like the United States where it's like make or break, good luck, you know? And, and it, we're lucky that we were able to like have a chance at opportunity, but it's only a chance, you know, it's not, it's nothing certain. And I think that's what a lot of people don't understand about the immigrant experience. Cause like, I remember immigrating here and
Starting point is 00:18:01 having a lot of other friends in elementary school or middle school whose parents went through the same journey and their stories are not successes, right? They continue to struggle because there isn't as much space for accessibility to wealth or accessibility to good jobs or accessibility to good education. And it's tough. It's really tough to make it. But I think those that, um, going through that journey, it just kept like augmenting this sense of not feeling secure and just like a lot of sadness. Cause it was, it was hard to see my parents struggle so often, like on a month, month basis, you know, always trying to figure out how
Starting point is 00:18:45 to pay the rent. And I think that that just kind of kept building over time. And I just did not have the strength, like the internal fortitude to accept how sad I was about it all, about how it all happened and why we had to struggle and, or, you know, why it even happened in the first place. But, but when I started noticing, cause I remember these moments like where I would be in college and I would, um, the party would be over and it'd be like five or six or seven in the morning. And I'd be in my room before I go to sleep. And as soon as like the alcohol or the drugs are wearing off, like that's the feeling I would feel. It was just sadness, just bubbling up. And that's the thing that I was running away from.
Starting point is 00:19:29 Yeah. I think we're learning so much more these days about the notion of transgenerational trauma and how a trauma gets passed from generation to generation, sometimes through shared experience, sometimes through just witnessing, sometimes through something that is almost like less tangible, but it is sort of like this ethereal fabric that transfers those patterns from one generation to another. And it sounds like that was definitely part of your experience. Yeah. You describe an experience, I guess it was probably shortly after coming out of Wesleyan, where I was also ignoring my body. And my body was just could not tolerate any more of this like sort of constant, you know, this constant unhealthiness that I was giving it. And I, yeah, that, that night in particular, I mean, I just felt like my heart was totally out of rhythm, falling out of whack. I could barely breathe.
Starting point is 00:20:54 And I, um, I felt like my life was like slipping away. I really felt like I was in the balance. And, um, in that moment, it was like such a, it was was like a long like two and a half three hour struggle where I was just like on the ground kind of just crying and thinking about my life and sort of like thinking like should I call an ambulance should I not I was like really kind of full of shame that I had even got myself to that point. And, and in that moment, you know, I thought a lot about my parents, about how much they sacrificed for me to be in this country, for me to like, you know, get to the point where I've gotten in my life. And I felt that I needed to just make a change because like, and I kept thinking about my time, you know, in the activist world, like
Starting point is 00:21:44 before I ever started doing drugs or anything like that, and how empowered I felt and how good it felt to help people. And I was like, wow, I've become so self-centered, only thinking about my pleasure. And this has led me to such misery. And in that moment, I decided to just put away the hard drugs and not go back to them. And, and over time, I like sort of weaned myself off of using anything. And now, you know, I just, I drink water and, and breathe air. That's, that's what I do now. The Apple Watch Series X is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist,
Starting point is 00:22:34 whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman.
Starting point is 00:22:56 I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot.
Starting point is 00:23:06 Flight risk. It sounds like also, you know, like a big part of this for you, while not immediate, you know, like at some point, I guess it was a year, within a year or two, you stumbled upon this thing called meditation, in particular, Vipassana. Yeah, that's right. And which is, can be just astoundingly disruptive and also transformative in a lot of ways. I'm curious how you actually stumbled into that experience, whether you proactively sought it out. And then the first time you actually did, you know, a 10 day retreat, what that was like for you?
Starting point is 00:23:52 Yeah, it was, it was interesting. It kind of came to me pretty serendipitously through one of my really good friends in college, someone that, you know, is one of my best friends. And he, he ended up traveling through India and he was going through a pretty transformational period in his life as well. And I think one of the families that he was staying with told him about it, and he ended up doing a 10-day course. You know, I spent a lot of time partying with him. And it's been fun sort of seeing the evolution of our friendship. Like we've been friends for, you know, more than a decade now. And sort of seeing its rough beginnings and now like the, the, the slope, it's steady harmonization in our relationship. And, but he ended up doing a course and he wrote back an email to myself and three other friends.
Starting point is 00:24:38 And it was all about love, compassion, and goodwill. And I remember being so shocked by that email and so surprised by it because he never talked about these things before. And I realized at that point, and this was sort of like about six months after that event that we just talked about, I had already been focusing on developing healthy habits, on sort of spending time with myself, like really trying to sit with myself without meditating, but just being with my emotions, even if they were hard. Because I realized that that was how I got there. I got to that tough point in my life by ignoring the tough things that I felt. So I was like, okay, let me do the opposite and just be with them. But after I heard about his meditation experience and him talking about love, compassion, and goodwill, I knew I was like, whatever he got,
Starting point is 00:25:29 I need the same thing. Like I need the same thing in my life. So I ended up doing a course, I think about almost like exactly a year after that event. And I, you know, that was just one of the smartest decisions I've ever made. One of the hardest things I've ever done because that first course is just so difficult. You know, we spend all of our time being, you know, in our, the thought-based part of our mind and the intellectual part of our mind, but we don't quite know how to be intentional about experiencing what's happening in the body and to be able to sort of like reset my mind in that way or try to reset my mind in that way in allowing it to feel, you know, to feel reality as about,
Starting point is 00:26:13 as opposed to just thinking about reality was just so immensely challenging. But I had never felt such deep healing before in my life. So even after that 10 day course, I just kept going back because I knew I was like, even though that was incredibly, incredibly difficult, the returns that I got from them were from what I got from it was just much higher than the effort I put in. You know, even though I had put in a bunch of effort, I was like, wow, I feel better than ever before. So I need to keep going back. Yeah. That's so interesting. A couple of years back, we had Tim Ferriss on the show and I've known Tim for years. And I remember him coming to the studio and he had literally just gotten out of a 10 day retreat. And you could see in his eyes
Starting point is 00:26:57 that there was a lot going on. And it turned out for him that it was actually fairly profoundly traumatic. Yeah. There was a lot, a lot that came up, a lot that had to be processed after it. He was very fortunate in that he had sort of like a very wise mentor who happened to be one of the guys during the retreat who he was able to have access to on almost a daily basis to help process some of the profound trauma that comes up. But it can be one of those things where it's not necessarily a joyful experience. You know, but also it's not the type of thing where you walk out after 10 days and you're like, okay, well, that was hard, but I learned a lot. And now like I'm in a much better place. It's
Starting point is 00:27:42 like, no, it's sort of like you've got 10 days of seeing clearer than you ever have before. Yeah. But now you have to figure out what to do with what you've now seen more clearly. Yeah. That's really well put. And I'm glad that you're, it's funny thinking about the Tim Ferriss experience besides juxtaposed to like the Diego Perez experience.
Starting point is 00:28:03 Cause and we didn't, he, he didn't meditate in the same tradition that I did, but, um, but this is something that, you know, I try to be really sort of cautious about cause I let people know that I'm a meditator and I let them know that I meditate in the Guanka tradition, but I also let them know that healing is available to everyone, but how that healing looks or what path or what method you take totally depends on your personal conditioning. So, you know, there are a lot of different forms of meditation, light forms of meditation, harder forms of meditation, but then even if meditation is not your thing, you know, try one of the very many forms of therapy
Starting point is 00:28:43 that are out there, because there are a lot of ways to process what's happening in your mind, the type of conditioning that you've been carrying, the trauma that you've experienced. Healing is really available. And there's a ways to go in terms of accessibility, but it's certainly more accessible than it's ever been. But it's really critical for you to kind of measure out like, what can I actually tolerate? And what would be good for me? You know, you should definitely do things that are challenging, but you don't want to overwhelm yourself. And I think that's to each their own, you know, for me, I don't think I could have gone to a better place because it helped me see myself and also like
Starting point is 00:29:20 purify a lot of that conditioning that was just so clogged up in my subconscious. And that unbinding work just helped my mind feel lighter. And it's like you said, you know, it's very difficult to see yourself much more clearly than ever before. But I think that was just the best medicine that I personally could have taken, but it's not necessarily for everyone. Yeah. And I think it depends so much also, right, on what are you stepping back into? You know, like, do you have some form of support structure, whether it's family or friends or more formal therapy or whatever it may be? Or are you stepping back into a life and a world and a circumstance where it is brutally hard and agitating all the things that have brought you to this place and there's very
Starting point is 00:30:02 little support? I think it's so unique, the experience of that. And like you said, I love the fact that you sort of advocate for stepping into a process of awakening in a way that is aligned with the truth of who you are and where you are at any given moment in time. And we're all different. That circumstance is different for each of us. And it's also totally relevant to the level of trauma that you carry. Like if you carry like very, very intense trauma, then your pathway into entering yourself may be something that needs to be a little lighter so that you can process bit by bit in a way that feels manageable.
Starting point is 00:30:41 Because what you want for your healing journey is you want it to be something that's sustainable, something that you can do lifelong. But if too much comes out too, you know, too quickly, and you just feel it overwhelming, and you just want to close that door, then no progress gets made, you know, so you really got to, you know, find your own medicine. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. I know for you, so you come out of that and this becomes an inciting incident effectively for what has now become a years long practice for you, a meditative practice. So it's not just retreat based. It's not like, hey, once a year, I'm going to dip into retreat.
Starting point is 00:31:16 This is a commitment that you've made for a bunch of years, for a lot of hours. And along the way, you're also stepping back into your life, I guess, stepping back to a certain extent into organizing, but writing becomes a part of your experience as well. And I'm curious how that enters your experience, your work, because it doesn't sound like it was a central part of who you were or what you were doing before. Yeah. Yeah. In no way was it important to me. Like writing was never, especially creative writing was never something that I looked at as something that I wanted to do or as a possibility for like a future serious endeavor. You know, after I started meditating, I did a few
Starting point is 00:32:06 courses and then I started, I kind of jumped back into that world. I was doing some like nonprofit consulting and some organizing work on the side with this really great youth abolitionist group in Boston. And that, you know, felt very sort of nourishing and correct in the moment. But then I kept feeling like as I kept, cause I would go to a few courses a year, I would like really make time. Cause it felt like an important healing period for me to do a few 10 day courses. And also cause I was still sort of like sampling it. You know, I wanted to really make sure that the healing was real. Cause I didn't want to be delusional. You know, I know, I was done with being delusional. I was done with the lies. I wanted to be as honest with myself as possible. So I wanted to run
Starting point is 00:32:49 a real experiment and see if this was actually giving me results. And when I started seeing that it was real and my mind felt lighter and also the intensity of my reaction started decreasing, you know, I started because it used to go through the same difficulties of life, the same ups and downs. And I noticed that, you know, I wasn't reacting as intensely as before, but there was something else kind of happening in the background where this like bubble of creativity started coming up and I could feel, yeah, it was like, it just felt like my mind had more space and not like bubbles, but like a spring was like opening up. And I started writing very sort of sporadically at first. Like I remember I wrote a poem after my first retreat. And then I don't think I really wrote much for like four or five,
Starting point is 00:33:37 six months. And then slowly it started coming. And after a number of retreats, I felt, I was like, okay, I was like, I think the healing is real. I know it's real, but I know that I'm not personally fully healed or anything like that, but I feel like I'm on the journey and I should write about it. Even though I'm not like, you know, wise or anything like that, I feel like there are perspectives that I want to write about to try to sort of process the learning that I'm doing myself. And if I share them, like, let's see if they also resonate with other people. And that's kind of when it picked up because that's, so I did my first course in 2012, it was
Starting point is 00:34:15 July of 2012. And then I started taking writing seriously. It was like about like the very beginnings of 2015. So it took a while for it to get started. Yeah. And you start sharing, you know, it's interesting because I, when you sort of look at the body of work that you've built and offered publicly over a period of years now, it's, it's, it's vast. And it also, in a way it defies, it defies description. You look at it and you're like, is it poetry? Kind of. Is it philosophy? Kind of.
Starting point is 00:34:50 Is it theology? Kind of. Is it social science? Kind of. Is it social commentary? Kind of. But it's interesting because you sort of stepped into this space where it feels like almost the fact that you weren't somebody who studied the written form and devoted yourself to it and the craft and knew all like who had come before
Starting point is 00:35:12 you and the lineage and the structures before that. I wonder from the outside looking in, it almost feels like it gave you the freedom to just step into it and do it the way that just felt right to you rather than feeling constrained by what you thought was the appropriate form stepping into it. Does that feel landed anyways, Drew? I mean, I don't think the description has been more apt about what I do. I appreciate you taking a look at that because it's funny. I'm realizing now more and more, and especially, you know, looking back at things in retrospect,
Starting point is 00:35:47 the medium did not matter to me. The message mattered. And I felt like these reflections were bubbling up inside me. So I wanted to just put them out there in a way that when, in a way that people could connect with. And I also like, you know, did sort of do things strategically in the sense that I know in a time where people are overwhelmed with information, minimalism would be good to combine different messages with minimalism would feel right. And then I think over time, it started developing into something that might look like poetry,
Starting point is 00:36:22 but, you know, I'm not an academic poet. Like it's not the type of like literary poetry type, you know, the things where these journals that people put out great works, but that's not my style. That's not what I'm trying to do. I'm never trying to pretend to do that. I'm more so writing in a prose slash like pop poetry format. That's a term that Lang Lave sort of created a few years ago that kind of like summarizes this new wave of expression that is more so like about flexibility. And it's just about how people feel. Like even though, and that's one of the things that's the struggle of poetry, right? It's like this ivory tower, like, do you have the skills to be a poet? Well,
Starting point is 00:37:03 some people still do these days and they still write poetry in that format. But now it also doesn't matter because everyone has the right to share their perspective and some people may be attracted to it. So I feel really sort of fortunate to be born at that time of creative freedom and also like digital platforms where you can sort of leverage and spread your work and see if other people find it useful. Yeah. I love that. I feel like we're in this time now where, you know, the sort of the hallowed ways of like how you're supposed to do things has just kind of fallen away. And there are certain people who certainly still have a dogged attachment, you know, to that form and structure. And there's a bit of an ivory tower type of thing that gets wrapped around it. But I feel like the
Starting point is 00:37:49 notion of being able to share in a way that is open and accessible and real is more important to a lot of people these days, both as a creator and as somebody who might receive what's being created, then the structure itself, not to say that there isn't a lot of grace and beauty in the art form and really studying it. I think I read some of the classical poets and I'm just moved to tears in seconds. And at the same time, I can read something you've written or read something Cleo Wade puts out there or read something. And it's the feeling. And it's also the invitation that says this was written for all of us.
Starting point is 00:38:27 Yeah. You know, you don't have to have a certain level of education or thoughtfulness or, you know, like linguistic expertise in order to actually just let it land in your soul and know there's something true about it. And I think it's beautiful because we can have space for the people who are, you know, from that type of like academic rigor that they're creating their written art from. That's fantastic, you know, keep doing that. But just because popular poetry has emerged and more people now feel like they even have the right to call themselves artists, even though they weren't
Starting point is 00:39:03 educated in a particular manner. I think that's also really beautiful. So it doesn't need to be combative. I think there's just there's space for everybody. Just do your own thing and keep going. Yeah, no, 100%. You also decided to step into that space into the domain with the pen name, Young Pueblo. And I've heard you describe it, you know, a number of different ways and a number of different reasons. Most recently, I think I heard you describe it as a project effectively. Yeah. Yeah. It's totally a project. So tell me more about, about that and what you mean by that. Cause I'm curious. Yeah. I think, um, when I started writing, I just had the sense that I could write a few books, not very many books. Like I'll just, I'll write a few and, you know, I want to write because I really have something to say, not because I feel like
Starting point is 00:39:51 my career is dependent on it. So like, I don't, I don't want to be a person who writes like 80 books. Like I want to just write, you know, a good handful, but I wanted to make sure to position the work within a proper frame. And that was a frame that I was really, was resonating with me at the time, just realizing how human beings, like as a whole, know how to do at a collective level yet. Like the simple, like my favorite example is think about when you were going to kindergarten and your teacher was trying to teach you the most basic things, like cleaning up after yourself, not telling lies, not hitting other people, being kind to one another, you know, these sort of fundamental things. But if you were to scale that up to the human, like the level of humanity, we don't know how to do those things at all. You know,
Starting point is 00:40:49 we're constantly, we're destroying the planet with the way that we produce things, we're constantly harming each other. And there isn't as much space for kindness that, and you know, kindness and compassion being a real measure for maturity. I think we're growing into that. And I know that I'm growing into that as well as an individual, but it felt like the idea of Young Pueblo that all of humanity is young, because Young Pueblo literally means young people. It felt like just important to talk about these sort of reflective ideas, these pieces that hopefully spur on self-awareness, and that it could be one of the very many things that's helping humanity grow up.
Starting point is 00:41:30 I love that. And I also have this curiosity. There's like a little thing in my head that's wondering something, which is that, you know, when you finally step into the space of writing and sharing ideas, and then you say, okay, so I'm going to step into also this pen name and it represents a number of different things for you. Was there anything in you that also wondered, am I possibly using this as a way to hide as well? Oh, that's funny. Yeah, for sure. I think it was like a skillful method. Like I didn't know that it was going to be this big,
Starting point is 00:42:07 but looking back on that moment, like the name just really felt right. And then once, you know, we get to that place where it's like 100,000 followers, 500,000 followers at that point, I was like, oh, sweet. Like, I'm really glad that I made, that I made this name Young Pueblo because people think Young Pueblo is
Starting point is 00:42:25 famous, but they don't really know Diego behind the creator, behind the words. And that felt really good because I wanted to set up, even with the Instagram, because it all started from the Instagram account. I wanted to set things up so that people would really focus on the ideas and the messages. And it's not the type of account where I'm trying to like make my face famous. Like that's the last thing I want. I want to hopefully make these ideas famous and like have them help create positive impact in the world. But I don't, yeah, I don't want to like aggrandize myself in any way or like, I don't know. That's just not what I'm trying to do. Like I'm here for impact, but I'm not here for fame. And Young Pueblo just feels like it was just a smart call.
Starting point is 00:43:09 Because now, you know, when I go out, people don't, they don't recognize me in the street or anything like that. And I think that's healthy. Yeah, I love that. I know a lot of people think about how to step into a social space or share their art, share their words, their thoughts, and there's a fear wrapped around it. And I think the hiding can sometimes be hiding from a place of fear, but also hiding from can also be a positive thing in terms of like, well, let me just build healthy boundaries
Starting point is 00:43:39 around this and do what I can both just to protect me and my humanity and my ability to be present in my life, but also to make it not about me and make it about the ideas. Yeah. And it feels like that was really the deeper motivation or at least part of the motivation behind it for you. Yeah, definitely. I think that's been, I don't know, in a way, I hope, because I don't really, I can't tell how people are receiving things, but I hope it sort of decentralizes me as a creator and more so makes different pieces about all of us. You know, we've all felt heartbreak.
Starting point is 00:44:16 We all know what sadness feels like. We all know what the excitement of entering a new relationship is like. So hopefully we can find the generality of the human experience inside of those words. Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever,
Starting point is 00:44:41 making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th.
Starting point is 00:45:09 Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. Let's dive a little bit into some of the ideas in your new book, because what started for you
Starting point is 00:45:28 as a way to share regular ideas and thoughts on social platforms, eventually turned into your first book, Inward, a couple of years ago, and now into this next book. And I guess before we even get into the ideas, my curiosity is, so the name of the book is Clarity and Connection. The first one was Inward. What was it inside of you that made you say, it's time to write a next more substantial thing and this is what it needs to be? Oh, I liked the challenge and I knew that was the direction I was heading in because I was enjoying minimalism for a while, but then I very naturally started noticing that I was enjoying minimalism for a while, but then I very naturally started noticing that I was just writing more.
Starting point is 00:46:08 And I was like, let me not curb that. You know, let me just let it flow and see what comes out. I still try to be rather sharp with the amounts, the amount of words I use. I don't want to be like overly wordy because I think even with, you know, the clarity and connection that, that book has a lot more short essays.
Starting point is 00:46:26 But even those are trim because I'm still trying to maintain that sort of like young Pueblo quality. But yeah, I mean, the new book has like three or four times the amount of words as the first book. but it's still sort of appeasable in the manner that it's like you can open it up to any page and read a few pieces and get a lot for your day to think about. Yeah. It's interesting because when I read what you've been writing and you compare this to then InWord and then to years of things that you've been posting online, there's an efficiency of language that feels like it's actually become more efficient over time. I don't know whether you feel that or whether it's been an intentional practice. I'm a huge fan as a writer of Hemingway and his just astonishing efficiency and use of
Starting point is 00:47:15 language. He could throw out five words and break your heart open. It feels like from the outside in that there is a devotion of craft around that for you. Is that accurate? Oh yeah. Oh, there's definitely, I mean, it's, it's a lot. I think when I first started spending intentional time thinking, okay, let me hone this voice
Starting point is 00:47:37 as a writer that has never really stopped. I'm always like when I come up with a piece or an idea, like, and I'm reading my work, what I'm doing is just striking out words left and right. I'm just like trimming it down, trimming it down to just be as clear as possible. Because there's a few things I try to keep in mind. Like not only am I trying to make it accessible to any reader of any education level, but I'm also trying to make it accessible to people who, you know, because English is the lingua franca of the world, right? The whole vast majority of the world, that's the way the world functions is through English a lot of the times. And a lot
Starting point is 00:48:17 of people in the world know a little bit of English. And I try to, you know, right now that I have a global audience, it's like, hopefully I can make something that, you know, someone who has studied English for a few years can still get something out of this piece. That makes a lot of sense. So the topic of the New Book, Clarity and Connection is, you know, you realize really quickly diving into it that a really big, big topic is the notion of accumulation. Accumulation on a couple of different levels, but talk to me a little bit about this. Yeah, there's, I mean, and I've really like, I've really owe this idea to the meditation, right?
Starting point is 00:48:55 To learning from SN Goenka and Seadju Bakken. And you really, once you start meditating, you start seeing how every reaction the mind has actually accumulates a little pattern in the mind, right? It makes an imprint and it adds up over time. And this is something that became so clear to me during like 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, where it was just like, wow, like, you know, all these reactions, I'm just like encoding all of these ways to repeat these same patterns in the past. So basically, like if I've reacted in the past with a lot of anger, then I'm much more liable to react with
Starting point is 00:49:39 anger in the future. And realizing that the mind is malleable in that way where it can accumulate things. It can actually also let things go. And that's our gateway to healing. And I found that so like, you know, I find it so hopeful and it's like a real sigh of relief that I can actually let things go. And through different methods, you know, we can actually peel back that system of accumulation and, of accumulation and feel lighter. Yeah. I mean, because you really reflect if you think about the process of meditation and not all meditations, but certain approaches to meditation, for sure.
Starting point is 00:50:15 It's not about stopping the flow of things into you. It's about allowing them in, but also being equally free and allowing them to just process themselves out. It's about non-grasping as they move through. It's about noticing and identifying. And, and I, it feels like, you know, that's the macro lens for what you're talking about in the context of the way that thoughts and feelings and emotions accumulate inside of us. And instead of making it a trap, um, like opening the door, making it more like, you know, the wind blowing through a screen door on a summer porch or something like that. thinking about it as something that's really sort of bliss oriented, that we're just doing it to become happier. And with a lot of different meditations from the Buddha Dhamma, sort of from the orientation of the Buddha, happiness is an ultimate goal, but the way to get there is
Starting point is 00:51:19 through purification, right? You're trying to purify the mind, clean it out of all this like junk that you've accumulated over time. So you're not necessarily going to be happy immediately, or you're not going to be like super joyful all of the time. It's about being real with what's happening in the moment and developing a sense of equanimity where you can observe what's happening without reacting to it, without craving or without aversion. And you can be with what is. And through that ability to be a quantumist, a lot of happiness does emerge from that. A lot of joy does emerge from that, from just being able to see reality without constantly projecting onto it. Yeah. You break the book into these five different parts. You start out with a look
Starting point is 00:51:58 at self-awareness. There's a piece you write on numbness and dissociation. I wonder if you, do you happen to have a copy of the book with you? Would you be open to reading? Yeah. Can you tell me what page it is? Yeah. Page 11, actually, was the piece I was thinking of. After the trauma, I shifted into survival mode.
Starting point is 00:52:24 Unknowingly, I shielded my being with numbness. Numb to letting others in. Numb to my inner turmoil. Numb to accepting what happened. Unknowingly, I fell into a cycle of craving. Craving safety. Craving nourishment. Craving no more pain.
Starting point is 00:52:44 My reactions were large and loud. Anything that did not go my way was perceived as a potential threat. My focus centered on protecting my delicate sense of self. I had little energy to place myself in anyone else's shoes. It took the constant feeling of dissatisfaction and the exhaustion of never feeling at ease for me to start pulling myself out of my disassociated way of living and finally say enough to a constant state of defense before awareness. I feel like that speaks to so many elements of the moment that so many people are in right now. Yeah, it feels common. It's, um, I took a, like, you know, thinking back to different hard moments in my life, but I also, I remember writing that and thinking about like, what does trauma feel like in the body? Like from my own perspective and from others as well, to see what that, like navigating that process
Starting point is 00:53:49 really feels like. And also from hearing, you know, from my own story, from hearing the stories of others, there's that point of like dissatisfaction with the patterns that you've accumulated that sort of fuels you to really start going inward. Yeah. So one of the other things that you explore is it comes out of the category of what you call unbinding, which I think is kind of a fascinating word. Tell me what you mean by that.
Starting point is 00:54:18 Sort of similar to the point that I was making before about how we accumulate things. A lot of times these things we accumulated get knotted up into patterns. So for me, it felt like the pattern of running away was something that was just so thickly knotted up that when I started doing the opposite of that and spending time with my emotions, even when things got hard and turbulent inside of me, it felt almost like I was trying to break through a wall because all those patterns were so knotted up together. So I really had to put a lot of effort into just doing something as simple as being with myself, as sitting down with
Starting point is 00:54:57 myself and not trying to run away. And in a way, it does feel like those knots that we tie, we have to do some intentional unbinding of those knots. Yeah. I feel like so many of us are in that process right now. And there's an assumption that I think a lot of folks make that you speak to in this section, which is this notion that says, let me put my life on hold while I get this figured out, while I do the healing work, and then I'm going to come back like a healed rock star, and then I can start living again.
Starting point is 00:55:29 Yeah. And you argue against this approach. Yeah. It's not my favorite approach because you only really find out if you've been successful in your healing by how well you navigate the ups and downs of life. By trying to like remove yourself from life, you won't know how much progress you've really made. And you almost have to like let yourself be in the present moment and let life test you to see have my reaction levels changed?
Starting point is 00:55:58 Am I being more compassionate? Am I actively taking care of my self-love and honoring my boundaries even during difficult moments? And yeah, I think removing yourself from life doesn't really support you and making as much progress as you can. flash to, you know, the Buddhist path is always fascinated me because they've carved out two paths, you know, the householder approach and the monastic path. And there's this really fascinating acknowledgement of the fact that some people are going to go and spend a lot of time in solitude or remove themselves from society. And others are actually going to stay completely immersed in civil life around them. and that you don't actually have to step out.
Starting point is 00:56:46 If you make that choice, if it's right for you, there's a way to do it. But if you also choose to be completely immersed in life as it happens and swirls around you all day, there's also a way to do it that way. You can be present in that life and also present in your own unfolding, in your own process of liberation and collective liberation without having to extract yourself from it. And I always thought that was so prescient, the way that it was so clearly identified and there was almost like a permission given to live and also do the work. Yeah, I think it's quite beautiful. If you look back to the really like, you know, the suttas
Starting point is 00:57:23 of that sort of encode the Buddhist teaching, rather the earliest sources of the Buddhist teaching, there are a lot of different householders that become very enlightened. From Anathapindaka to Chitta, there's just different people that the Buddha talks about, men and women who just sort of take that next level leap. And they're still householders, you know, they don't necessarily take robes and become monks. And there's nothing, you know, the work that I'm putting out there is nothing against being a monk, if that's what you so desire. That's actually a beautiful thing to be able to give your life, you know, because what do monks do? They're sort of like donating their lives in service of the Dharma, which is beautiful. But if that's not for you, that's great. It's also not for me. I like being married and I like being able to move about my life in my own way. But that does not stop you from making serious process on the path of liberation. Yeah. Which also brings up really actually the next
Starting point is 00:58:27 thing that you focus on, which is the fact that so often, you know, we're actually not doing this in isolation, that we're doing this in relationship with ourselves and with other people, with those that we love, with intimate partners. You're right. It's not about finding a partner who has flawless emotional maturity. It's about finding someone who can match your level of commitment, not just to the relationship, but commitment to heal themselves so they can love better, see more clearly and have more presence. Tell me more. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:56 I mean, and that's, that's the slow learning that, um, that I've been doing from just being with my wife, you know, cause we, I think a lot of these pieces that I wrote about partnership, they emerged pretty directly from the experiences that I've had with my wife and how we've moved into just like a whole different phase in our relationship now, where like the first part of our relationship when we were young, right? I was 19 and she was 18 when we first got together. But that first part of our relationship was really tumultuous and turbulent. We didn't know ourselves. We didn't know how to treat each other well. We kind of sort of stumbled through those years. You know, there was a lot of like a connection was, was real,
Starting point is 00:59:52 but it wasn't yet deep. And it had no emotional maturity because I think your connection only really can get super deep when you are able to open up those layers of yourself by getting to know yourself. And then you can then share, you can share them with another person and see how you can better harmonize together. But ever since we both started meditating, she's a serious meditator too. She's gone through these same transitions as well. And we've have found that a lot of times when we used to fall into arguments, fall into conflict, a lot of that intensity has been removed so that when we have, you you know what we used to have arguments now they're more like discussions or they're disagreements so that there's more sharing and more of us trying to understand each other's perspectives as opposed to trying to win over each
Starting point is 01:00:40 other or you know like trying to one-up each other in different ways. A lot of that, and in no ways is our relationship perfect or anything like that. You know, we still have our struggles, but we have more tools with which to properly like process our struggle. And our primary tool is our own personal inner work that helps us just be more compassionate, be more aware and be more, you know, just stop projecting onto each other all the time. Yeah. And I feel like those same tools allow us to maybe grasp our own past selves a little bit less, you know, and past selves maybe meaning five minutes ago. You know, the position that we argued fiercely for last week, you know, I think the practice sometimes allows you to zoom the lens out a little bit and kind of like when somebody
Starting point is 01:01:30 counters that position and you believe it strongly, rather than just say, okay, it's time to put the shields up and defend like crazy. You're kind of like, okay, that's, you know, I identified strongly with this set of beliefs or this thought. And maybe I still do, but let me at least hold myself open to the possibility that there is a different point of view here. And it's, you know, so it's not that we're just completely surrendering ourselves to being remade on a daily basis, but maybe we hold on a little bit less lightly along the way. But you know, one of the things that I'm curious about is what
Starting point is 01:02:06 happens when two people are in a committed relationship and one is deep into a process of growth and one either isn't at all, or they're on a much different path or the pace and the commitment is profoundly different because that also can create its own sense of friction. Yeah, that's a great question. I think I've seen a lot of examples in my life of people being in really profound, deep relationships and also walking different paths. Some people taking the path of therapy really seriously and getting a lot of benefit from that,
Starting point is 01:02:44 but then they're not so much into meditating. And I've seen relationships really sort of blossom. I do see the challenges. I remember the one challenge in particular in my relationship was when I felt this very big aspiration to start meditating two hours a day because I was getting so much for meditating. I was like, I got to keep this going on you know, on a daily basis, really spend time on it to keep this experiment going. And I started doing that before my wife. And there was a bit of a sort of an odd moment where, you know, she had started meditating as well, doing the 10 day courses, but she wasn't quite ready to start meditating two hours a day. So I think for a number of months, I'd say for about five, six months, I just, you know, just,
Starting point is 01:03:38 just felt really committed to it. And, and I kept going and eventually, you know, she was moving at her own speed. She also wanted to do this, but she didn't feel quite ready. And I tried my best to not push her or anything like that. And I tried my best to not push her or anything like that. And I made sure that she, you know, she was okay with my decision to take time from our time together so that I could spend it on myself. And she was really supportive of that. And eventually things sort of clicked for her and she felt like she was ready and she started. But it was interesting seeing the opposite of that, where when, so she was done smoking marijuana before I was, she just was, you know, it wasn't really serving her. And then for me, I felt like I needed a little more time with it.
Starting point is 01:04:15 And there was this period where she had totally stopped and I kind of kept smoking for a few more months. And she gave me the gift of her patience, right? Where she was just like, you know, do your thing. Like, I know you want to stop and just like, you know, find your time, move at your own speed. And that really helped me because I was able to feel like I didn't have a lot of pressure hanging over me. And I was really able to work out things within myself and really see that, you know, this really is not serving me anymore. And it's actually like limiting the depth of my meditation. So I, you know, I felt really committed to going deeper. So I ended up letting it go. And that was also really beautiful. But
Starting point is 01:04:57 even realizing that we really do move at our own speeds. It's a hard thing, but an important thing to embrace in long-lasting, committed relationships because, yeah, you're not going to heal at the same speeds. You're not going to rest at the same speeds. You're really your own individual person. Yeah, which brings communication really front and center and openness and vulnerability, which I know are topics that are dear to our heart also. And it also really points to the very title of this book, Clarity and Connection. At the end of the day, it all circles back to that. And it's almost like, you know, connection is to a certain extent, the byproduct of a devotion to seeing more clearly in the first place, and then communicating what you see and also being open to that being
Starting point is 01:05:43 communicated back to you. I want to ask you about one other thing before we start to wrap our conversation and something that I know I've heard bubbling up in your conversations more and more recently, but I'm guessing it's something that you've been nailing on for a long time, which is the notion of what you term structural compassion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, um, it's funny.
Starting point is 01:06:08 I've been like that term. Um, it's a term that hasn't been like fully developed yet. I don't think anybody, and nobody really owns it, but to me, I see a lot of structural harm in the world where a lot of different systems kind of crash upon each other. And a lot of people end up getting hurt for different, like if you take economic inequality, right, all around the world, that there are just so many people who just struggle to make their material ends meet. And it's not like, you know, they're not like lazy or anything like that. They're just like, they're just stuck in a poverty trap. Cause I, and I know from firsthand, like I know how hard
Starting point is 01:06:49 my parents worked and how they literally were not able to leave that poverty trap until my brother and I became older and started adding funds to the family. You know, these, these, these structures that we exist in and when you can take that to not just from economic inequality, but you know, these structures that we exist in, and you can take that to not just from economic inequality, but, you know, racism, you can even look at climate change or, you know, patriarchy. if we are able to sort of turn them upside down and intentionally inject compassion into the situation, I hope that we can create something that we can call structural compassion and be able to recognize that in different areas where people are being either oppressed or hurt in some manner or another, we keep our eyes open to that and we stay active in trying to just uplift all people. Because I really, I see a transition happening in this century, hopefully, where we expand our idea of human rights to include that people are no longer suffering in this intense way, in a material way,
Starting point is 01:07:59 so that they're, you know, can be educated, have healthcare, have these sort of simple basic rights fully met globally around the world so that we can all live well. Because, and then, and I think a lot of people fear that because immediately they think like, oh, this is like some strict form of communism, but it's like, no, it's just, we're just humanizing the world. We're just trying to, you know, help all people live well. And that doesn't mean that some people aren't going to be wealthy, you know, people can still benefit from the things that they
Starting point is 01:08:29 create. But we do want to sort of remove that intense struggle that a lot of people go through, like, you know, there's still people dying from hunger, people dying from simple diseases that could be fixed, and people suffering from different forms of racism and this onslaught of climate change that's about to befall us. How are we going to be able to interact compassionately with each other so that we can support all of us flourishing and living well? Yeah, that is a big question. But the notion of structural compassion, I just like that.
Starting point is 01:09:06 Yeah. It paints an image because we know that there's a lot of structural harm, but let's move to a structural compassion. Right. Yeah. It's like, what would the systems of compassion to operationalize it at scale be? It's a really interesting question. Yeah. It feels like a good place for us to come full circle as well. So hanging out in this container of a good life project, if I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up? much equanimity as possible. I think equanimity has been the real, the treasure that I've found in this life. And I think it means, you know, spending time meditating. Like I go to courses really often, but I would like to, as I get older, to go to more and more because I get so much from that. And because I get so much from that, I'm able to give more. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:10:07 Hey, before you leave, if you love this conversation, say that you will also love the conversation that we had with Tara Brock about wisdom and compassion. You'll find a link to Tara's episode in the show notes. And of course, if you haven't already done so, please go ahead and follow Good Life Project in your favorite listening app. And if you found this conversation interesting or inspiring or valuable, and chances are you did since you're still listening here, would you do me a personal favor, a seven-second favor, and share it? Maybe on social or by text or by email, even just with one person. Just copy the link from the app you're using and tell those you know,
Starting point is 01:10:42 those you love, those you want to help navigate this thing called life a little better so we can all do it better together with more ease and more joy. Tell them to listen. Then even invite them to talk about what you've both discovered. Because when podcasts become conversations and conversations become action, that's how we all come alive together. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here.
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