The Rich Roll Podcast - Taking Care In The Time of Coronavirus

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

A diversion from my typical format, today I sit down with my wife Julie Piatt to discuss the coronavirus pandemic. For those unfamiliar, Julie is an accomplished yogi, healer, musician, and mom to our four children. She is the author of three bestselling vegan cookbooks and hosts both the For The Life of Me podcast and Water Tiger, her online spiritual community. In addition, she is the founder and ‘Mother Arc’ of SriMu, her recently launched plant-based cheese start-up. This is a conversation about exercising care and self-care as we delicately wade through these most unprecedented waters. It's about replacing fear, anxiety and uncertainty with acceptance. Surrender. Creativity. Faith. And self-inquiry. It's about navigating calamity with grace. Finding the opportunity in crisis. It's about leaning into what is to reflect more deeply on our lives. And mindful response over reflexive reaction. And finally, it's about seizing sequestration to contemplate a better path forward for ourselves, future generations, and the planet. Without minimizing the severity of what is and what is to come, may we come together now -- in this virtual space -- to grow. Because we’re in this together. And together we are stronger. As always, subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. May you find comfort in this exchange. Peace + Plants, Rich

The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey everybody, how you guys doing? What's happening? Rich Roll here. I am your host. This is my podcast. And we are gonna do something a little bit different today because things are getting weird out there.

So Julie and I have gathered here together today to do essentially an impromptu podcast on the subject of care and self-care in this age of coronavirus that we find ourselves in right now. There's a lot of fear out there. There's a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear out there. There's a lot of anxiety, a lot of confusion and uncertainty. And we just felt like it was a good moment

to take a beat, take stock of where things stand and hopefully provide a little bit of our experience and guidance for people who are listening, who are looking to connect a little bit more deeply and figure out the best, healthiest path forward for themselves and for their families. Would you agree? And in addition, we're on lockdown.

We are on lockdown. We have a lot of time. We're gonna get into that in a second, but right up here, up top, let's take care of a little housekeeping by giving a shout out to our great sponsors who helped make this show possible. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life.

And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem, a problem I'm now happy and proud to share

has been solved by the people at recovery.com who created an online support portal designed to guide, support and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do.

And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful, and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that,

I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem. A problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple.

Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful, and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Julie Pyatt, how are you doing?

Hi, Rich Roll. Thanks for inviting me on your show. It's a timely and important conversation that we need to have. I think we should start off with just- Social distancing. Well, we're appropriately distanced from each other right now. No, actually, before you get started,

I just wanted to interject about the gravity blanket. So you've forgotten, but the gravity blanket was my idea. That's true, 100%. I actually found it and I was like, this is gonna be really good for you. And the thing that kinda hurts my feelings slightly when you just did the ad is that it's a replacement for a warm hug. And some of the community who doesn't know us

are a little bit alarmed because this week you posted a picture of your tent with a beautiful moon rise. And I commented, hope you slept well, my love. And then I got a bunch of messages like, what do you mean? Don't you ever see him? Why wouldn't you know? Do you guys have sex?

Is everything okay? So- You commented on that from downtown. You were downtown with one of our daughters. Not everybody knows that. But anyway, it was just kind of funny. So when we were on social distancing, like Rich and I are already very, very masterful at social distancing on a regular basis. But yeah, so the thing is, is that you've always been too sensitive. You're not like a cuddler during sleep. So when the good replacement for that is the gravity blanket because it's like a warm hug.

Because I still need a warm hug. You do, just not for me. I know. Or any other human. To really flesh this out though, you were the first person to say, I think this would be helpful to you. And that was quite a while before Greg gifted me the blanket.

And that opinion derived from a friend of ours who has an autistic child and discovered that the gravity blanket had an incredibly beneficial impact on calming this child down and producing a good night's sleep. That's right. And you were like, Rich, you should do that. That you're on the spectrum.

It's someplace on the spectrum. No, it's really, really good. I mean, it's amazing for you. And I just look at it like you're very sensitive. You're much more sensitive than you even acknowledge. And so that kind of experience is very nourishing for you and very sensitive. You're much more sensitive than you even acknowledge. And so that kind of experience is very nourishing for you and very nurturing. And that's why you sleep in a tent

and it's sort of like a cocoon. It's the temperature you need it to be. It's your isolation. And you just need, you need that as a human being. There's a womb-like kind of experience to it. That's right. So, and I'm good with it. But our marriage is good, right?

Just for the record. How are we doing? I think we're doing pretty good. I think we're doing great. Just for people out there who are like, I thought everybody knew I slept in a tent and then I posted that on Instagram and people were like, what?

Yeah, for you now. So our marriage is solid. Solid. I love you. I love you, honey. And it's all good. I'm so glad to be sequestered with you. And I love your tent. I'm so, we're And it's all good. I'm so glad to be sequestered with you. And I love your tent. I think we can honestly say we are both so happy to say goodnight to each other as

we disappear into our own spaces. There is no trauma being experienced by either one of us. It's really good. It's independence. And I'm up at 3 a.m. usually meditating, doing ceremony and ritual and all kinds of things. And that doesn't work if I share a room with someone. Yeah, well, you're gonna wake me up and you're gonna start lighting candles and burning incense in the middle of the night. Exactly, who knows what else?

Some kind of witchcraft will be happening. Something. All right, well, let's get to the moment, the now. And I think it would be helpful Kind of witchcraft will be happening. Something. All right, well, let's get to the moment, the now. And I think it would be helpful to just kind of recap our introduction to what we're experiencing in this moment. I would say upfront that I'm traditionally relatively low-key and somewhat cavalier in the face of, you know, the occasional global panic.

Like I tend to downplay it. I was in New York City in, I think it was like a month ago at this point, No, it was like two weeks ago or something. I think three weeks ago. And people were, you know, pushing elevator buttons with their elbows. And a lot of people were wearing masks in the airport.

And I was looking after myself and making sure that I was washing my hands, et cetera, but I wasn't freaking out. And that was kind of my MO, but everything changed for me like last Thursday or Friday. We're recording this on Tuesday the 17th, it's gonna go up on the 19th. So about five, six days ago,

that all shifted when in a very compressed period of time, the NBA postponed its games. Tom and Rita Hanks publicly announced that they had tested positive for coronavirus. And I listened to a couple podcasts. I listened to Sam Harris's conversation with Nicholas Christakis. I listened to Joe Rogan's I listened to Sam Harris's conversation with Nicholas Christakis. I listened to Joe Rogan's conversation

with Michael Osterholm. I read up on the internet. I tried to find the best sources of objective information that I could. And basically it completely changed my tune on how we were navigating what was happening. And we had a conversation, I believe it was Thursday night, was it Thursday night? Thursday night.

Where I was like, we need to shift. We gotta lock things down. We made the decision to cancel all of my podcast interviews for the next couple of weeks. We called Mathis who was downtown because she goes to school downtown and said, we want you to come home. We don't want you to go to school on Friday.

And it felt a little bit, I think in that moment, slightly alarmist to you, who's also somebody who's pretty low key about all this kind of stuff. In retrospect now, five days later, it's clear to me that it was the wise decision. In fact, we would have been better off had we instituted that even earlier at that point.

Yeah, it was definitely, I mean, it was like a clear shift on Thursday night. And the thing is that it took me a while to get up to speed with you because we had been sort of in this sort of one energetic of how we were processing the information and not going into fear and, you know, we're super healthy and all that kind of stuff and living in the moment and being connected and doing everything that we do. And then in the evening, you came in quite agitated. And, you know, we had some intense conversations because, you know, you were feeling like you wanted to pull Mathis out of school right then and her school had not been closed. And so I was like, well, you're her dad. If you want to do that, then do it. Let's make a move. So we did. But also in addition to that, our son Tyler happened to be home staying with us.

And he's actually very researched and very informed, and he was feeling the same. And so what we did is we reached out to our other son Trapper and called Mathis and told her she wasn't gonna go to school on Friday. I was on my way downtown that evening. And then Jaya, we just canceled everything and just basically said, we are gonna sequester here with our immediate family until we-

Further notice. Yeah, until further notice. And for people that don't know, Tyler and Trapper are older, 23 and 24. They have an apartment in Echo Park, which is near Hollywood. So they left that apartment, came here, and we've been just at home ever since.

Yeah. In the meantime, we did obviously go to the grocery store and stock up. I got tons of canned food. I went to the Indian market and bought like 40 or 50 pounds of rice, you know, which again was something that seemed in the moment to be perhaps slightly paranoid,

but better safe than sorry. And we've stocked up, we've got tons of food and we've been sort of existing in this liminal space ever since. And there are pluses and minuses to this. On the plus side, it's brought our family together. We're all under one roof for, you know, the first time in a while. And there's something really precious and beautiful about that. You have really engaged your cooking in a passionate way and preparing these amazing meals every night. We set the table, we've got candles out

and we have a big family dinner. And that's a rarity with our kids spread out these days. Yeah, it's been great. I mean, I'd say that there's a lot of silver linings. One of them is just being all here together. The other thing is we are very blessed to live in a beautiful home in the middle of nature. And just to have the

time even for the younger girls to be with the older boys, it's like already Jaya's energy, like she's already grown up. Like she looks like she grew a foot in the last week, just playing with the boys, you know, being with them, laughing, you know, fooling around. The only thing we've done is we've got on the trail with the dogs just once because it's been pouring rain. But yeah, it's been really great to be here. And we're all artists. So, you know, Mathis is doing screen printing in the garage. She'll start online classes tomorrow.

You know, Jaya's been in her room doing her, you know, different kinds of makeup and hairstyles and also playing with the boys. And the boys are both doing music. Tyler's getting ready to record a record. So he's preparing his first 12 roughs to send to the producer. And Trapper's doing daily rehearsals in another room. And then I took out a book that I haven't published yet. It's a memoir on homeschooling that's almost done and realized I only have like a couple chapters to finish and it would be ready. So I think we're all looking at what can we do creatively? What can we create?

What can we experience? What can we make in this sort of inner time that is uncertain, but also really precious? Yeah, I do wanna speak to our privilege a little bit. I mean, we're both self-employed and we have the ability to work from home and do what we do in the space where we live, which is what we would be doing ordinarily.

The difference is nobody's coming over here to do podcasts. And I'm grateful that I worked very hard and developed like, you know, I have a huge stash of interviews that I have to kind of moment by moment figure out which ones are most appropriate to share. Like I'd had a whole set schedule and that's kind of out the window

and I'm trying to, you know, ride the wave and do what feels best, you know, on a day-to-day basis. But we're very lucky in that regard that we can continue to do what we do. Most people are not in our position. There's a lot of people who either have to go to work or are being laid off or are on some kind of unpaid leave. And this situation, which is, you know,

I predict will only escalate in the coming weeks, is creating a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear, and a lot of uncertainty. And that, which is brew, is contributing to behavior and mental states, mental and emotional states that I don't think are healthy for people. So my intention in this conversation is to provide people with

a few guidelines to help them more gracefully navigate the uncertainty that we're experiencing and what's to come. Yeah. I mean, and I think it's important to note that I do have a company where I go to work and I have employees. So I'm not only at home, I do have a lot of leeway to work at home, but we had to hand washing and, you know, extra changing of uniforms and all this kind of stuff. And then everyone on the team that we could move virtual, we did. And I'm a beginning company. I'm a brand new company. And I don't really care. I mean, you know, I think aside from like Amazon or like huge, huge companies, I mean, this is something that is affecting businesses. It's affecting all of us.

And so there's going to have to be some, you know, some allowance or some processes or some concessions that are given to all of us so that we can begin again and, you know, create, you know, economy and be able to live and eat and all those kinds of things. Yeah, well, it'll be interesting to see how that develops. It is, but I mean, listen, so when we look at that, we have to understand that as human beings, we are resourceful and we are resilient. And as much of a crisis as this is,

it is also an opportunity to create a new way of being in the world and to learn how to live more aligned with our planet, with our spirituality, with our bodies, with our neighbors, with our animals. And so I think this is the work and this is maybe where the two perspectives sort of need to meld in the middle. Like we need to know the facts. We need to know what's going on. We need to understand that sequestering now and two and one week ago was the biggest civic duty you could offer is to really, you know, you came to that awareness and shared it and guided us into that. In addition, though, that cannot be the only predominant energy that mandates the life. So there are many things that happen in the day.

And like we just talked about all the silver linings of being home, like, you know, nothing in life is all one way. And so, yes, we are really in a moment of great transformation right now. And the opportunity is that without this kind of adversity, we don't often change what we do as humans. to take a moment and just recognize the suffering of the individuals who have had the life path where they have exited, where they have died, and all those who will die. So those are all somebody's child, somebody's brother, somebody's mother, somebody's friend, somebody's sister, somebody's father. They are not nothing. They are not just like, oh, well, that's an old person, so they died, or that's a weak person, so they died. This is our community, and it's our humanity. So, while we process this experience by learning to

serve love, we need to never forget to be in reverence, in honor of those souls, that that was their path. And when we are in these type of experiences, in my experience as a healer, as a guide, as somebody who has studied what happens when we die my entire life, like I am focused on death always so that I can live a meaningful life. I am focused on death always so that I can live a meaningful life. There is a perspective at some level that all of us have a contract. And when it's the time for exit, or maybe there's multiple exit points in a lifetime, our soul may mandate that we take that exit point. But to cultivate a remembrance that we are eternal life forms. This is not it when this body dies. That's not the end. This is like earth school where we're discovering things and evolving and we should honor those souls in their choice of exit or, you know, not at a personality level because none of us want to choose that at a personality level, but at some greater perspective. And again, I'm not separating from the suffering

of the actual condition. I'm very connected to that. However, in order to transcend it, we must rise up and take a bigger vantage point. This is a special moment. It is an opportunity to, you know, telescope out and canvas how we live our lives and the state of society from 10,000 feet. I think the knee jerk reaction is to be in fear, to mindlessly, you know, scroll through the newsfeed and stoke those, you know, dopamine hits. And it's important to be informed

so that you can make rational decisions, but being in a reactive state and a fear-based, which is essentially a fear-based state is not productive. And the path forward is to ground yourself and achieve a level of mindfulness so that you can respond objectively and understand that not only is this an opportunity, but that the extent of your suffering

is related to the extent to which you're trying to exert control over things that you don't have control over. And it's scary to really grok the sense that we can't control what is happening. The only things we can control are our behaviors, our thoughts, and how we respond to others and the outside world.

And the more that we can embrace that truth and practice it, that will lead to a reduction in suffering and will pull the veil on the opportunity that is at hand. And in truth, there is something about slowing things down. And you're seeing this with people. Human beings are innately creative. When they're stuck in their homes, we all saw those videos of people who were sequestered

in Italy who were doing exercises on their, like a group exercise on their terrace from some fitness person who was, you know, across the street and singing, you know, together. I mean, those are beautiful expressions of humanity that are motivated by constriction. motivated by constriction. And we all hear about how moments of hardship or moments of constriction and restriction produce the greatest art because it is the human will and spirit that's being tested. And the response to that is to find a creative way forward. And in this moment where we're compelled to slow down,

it helps us take stock of what's truly important. And again, the opportunity is to realize the value in that and to parse what is extraneous about our fast paced lives and make a more conscious choice to double down and invest in those things that are important. And to really avail yourself of this moment for however long it's going to last, to engage in that creative spark,

to dust off that book you've been working on that never seems to get the attention it deserves or whatever pursuit it is and invest in that. Yeah, definitely. And how about pay the greatest reverence and honor to all of those souls who have taken exit, who have played a role in this virus for our own awakening? How about committing beyond the sequestered timeframe?

How about really looking inside your life? I'm doing that at another level. I instantly went inside and was like, how can I live more aligned and prepare more for my death? And if I was going to, I'm going to call it graduate, my friend April calls when someone dies, it's a graduation. You're leaving from this realm into another realm. So if I did take my graduation from this virus, which nobody knows, I mean, I'm super healthy. That's not what I feel.

I don't have fear or anything like that, but no one has the crystal ball and can see every single outcome. But what I'm taking the time to do is taking this time to really look at if this was my last two weeks, how am I living my life? What are my choices? Do I want to spend that time stressed out, looking on Twitter, looking on Instagram, grasping for control?

Or do I want to spend that time communing with my spirit, communing with the people that I love? It's probably a balance. It's probably not all one thing or the other, but, you know, you were mentioning control. And one of the issues with this planetary realm is that all of the systems are weighted with relevance only in patriarchal knowledge from the brain, you know, and that's why everybody's running around trying to find a consensus. Like, is this the right diet?

Is this the right political stance? Is this correct? Is that not correct? And the thing is, there is no consensus because life is diversity. And we know from soil health that diversity is what creates the beauty in life. When we're diverse, we can be these amazing life forms and exchange with each other and enrich each other's life. So there is no control. Let's all be very clear. We're probably feeling it a lot right now,

and that's the gift of this experience is we're not in control. The night before or the week before, a few days before you came home with this more intense information about the need to sequester, my brother was in Nashville, and I looked at the newsfeed, and there was a tornado that ripped through downtown Nashville. It could have been him. I mean, my other brother was just there. My brother has his wife and his kids, and there's literally no control. He's like, Julie, it came in the night. Nobody heard it. My friends are all okay, but it looks like a war zone here. So the whole thing of humanity that can be so arrogant, that can think that it has everything figured out,

either scientifically or in ways of society, like our food chain. Like if anybody, if there are aliens, which, you know, you and I may disagree on that subject, but if there are aliens, let's say there's disagree on that subject, but if there are aliens, let's say there's a benevolent race that comes down. I'm like how long it would take for Julie to get the aliens.

I have to, but let's just mention though, you were the Star Trek-y, not me. But anyway. I love Star Trek. Go ahead. But let's just say, this is just for this demonstration, let's just say that another race of beings came to the planet and they saw what we were doing with the food system, with the animals.

I mean, it's inhumane. And we can't get over it because we wanna fight about who's right and who's not right. And it's inhumane. Any human being, if you made them stand in the room while they tortured and ripped these animals to shreds, it's just not humane. It's not our nature. That's not not humane. It's not our nature.

That's not who we are. It's not a judgment. It's not about that you're bad and you have to protect yourself. It's like, look at what we're doing to the planet. And you know what? One of my most cherished guides' perspective on this is that this is a gentle way. It's actually a gentle way to wake us up, to let us know really what is gonna be required for us to transform this planet. We are facing climate change. We are facing all kinds of challenges. And the time to act is now.

There's no more, we're not in the exploratory stage. It is time to claim your own authority, go inside your own being and find out what is true for you. I'm not saying be like me. I'm saying be like you. Don't be like Rich, be like you. We need you to be you. Do that work to find out who you are. Find out what you loved as a child. Find out the values and ideals and ways of living that are important to you, and then live in alignment with that. Do we now think that our government is going to give us any relevant security or support or protection? It doesn't matter which party is in power. The entire soup is rancid. And as a chef, it's like when the ingredients are tainted,

you can't just pour salt in it and make it better. And we've come to this crisis point. I mean, we are in an actual crisis right now that you and I have never seen in our entire lifetime. that you and I have never seen in our entire lifetime. Yeah, it's totally unprecedented. People are going to die. Lots of people are gonna get sick. I read a Goldman Sachs investor synopsis that was sent to me by a couple people from a call that they did yesterday

with estimates that they're thinking that 50% of Americans will be infected. And some of those cases will be mild, some of them will be medium and there will be fatalities. But they're not thinking 50% fatality. No, no, no, but 50% will contract the virus. Yeah, and they're saying mild in 80% of the cases. And yet it is true that it is that this reminder is gentle

in comparison to what it could be. It's gonna be bad and we need to be prepared for that and take appropriate action and do the social distancing and the sequestering and all the things that we're doing to flatten the curve. At the same time, it is in a cosmic universal sense, a gentle reminder, a gentle reminder to wake us up and alert us that the status quo that we take for granted

and the sort of systems that are in place are broken and leading us towards an environmental collapse and a social and societal collapse if they're not redressed. And this is a way for us to unify over that concept and begin to make the changes necessary so that our planet can survive and that human beings can live more symbiotically on the planet.

Yeah, and I would say like literally to create an entire new world, an entire new experience of how we live in exchange and take care of each other and love each other and co-create and all of those things, all of those seemingly idealistic, immature, you know, idiotic things that have been literally shut down for thousands of years on this planet. And meanwhile, they've got everybody believing that they can be the one or 2% that makes the money. And, you know, it's like the, there was a children's book. Oh, I can't remember the name now, but it's basically a story of caterpillars that are trying to get it to the top.

And they're, they're literally just crawling over each other and they get to the top and there's nothing there. Like they're, they were all striving to get somewhere. And, you know, when you do graduate, when you choose to leave your body, which I really believe is a soul appointment, I believe there are many, many options, but, you know, you are, that is a trajectory. I mean, why is it that, you know, some people pass and some people don't? I mean, for me, it's intelligent to take a spiritual perspective. I mean, how can you quantify that, you know, in concrete, you know, terms? You can't, you know, there's much that is not explainable. But I guess what I'm saying is that, you know, this is the time for us to live as if every day was our last day. And you're not

taking your bank account with you. You're not taking your credit score. You're not taking your fame, your celebrity. You're not taking any of it. You're just taking your consciousness. What was your awareness? And this world is so driven by consumption. It's so easy to just medicate on Netflix and consumption and sort of work at a certain level. And all of us are alive. It's a great privilege to be alive. We incarnated at this time for a reason. We were going to be part of the change. This is our moment. This is the moment where we get to be who we really are and dig deep and become these beautiful, magnificent life forms. And I want wanna take this opportunity to just acknowledge all of the care workers and all of those heroes and sheroes that have been taking care in hospitals and the doctors and everybody that's been working

that couldn't take off. The people that are serving the food lines, the groceries. The grocery workers, the food chain supply people, everybody who can't, they can't stay home. That's right. And it's like, you know, our friend, Brian O'Hara's son, Connor, is one of the managers at one of the Whole Foods.

And he's been in there every day, like from morning to night, super late hours. And, you know, this is all over the country, but what I find and what I know we will find is we will find our humanity through this process. And we will find joy and beauty and creativity we never imagined. We will find a connection and a meaning to life we never dreamed of. And it is going to be sad. We are going to lose some of our loved ones. Some of

us are going to exit. And that is going to be sad. And we are going to grieve for them, grieve with our community. But also what I would say is don't waste their gift. Honor them. Honor all the ones who have raised their hand and said, okay, I'll exit. Let's honor them by not wasting this opportunity. We are the ones we've been waiting for. It's us. It's not a government. It's not a system. It's not a club. It's not a celebrity. It's none of those things. It's us, all of us in our own unique individual life prints, not another one of us in the entire multiverse. We have so much power and creativity and beauty that is inherent within ourselves. If we can only be courageous enough to become our own authority and understand that it's you,

it's you that is gonna be the change. One of the most potent aspects of this experience is this palpable sense of unity. Even when we're out on the trail and you see one or two other people out there, there's kind of, there's an unspoken acknowledgement that we're all sharing a particular experience and that coalesces human beings.

And I think there's something really powerful about that if it can be channeled in the right direction. Oh, yeah, totally. And that's the beauty of this type of learning experience is that it doesn't discriminate. It literally, you can't escape it from your title or your economic state or anything. It's literally affecting all of us. It's affecting all of us. And, you know, it is a virus as we are a sort of virus to the earth,

the way that we interact with her. Yeah, there was an article that was sent to me by a couple people, including Howie Nordstrom. What's up, Howie? Hi, Howie. I think that article was entitled something like, it's not a virus, it's the medication. It just flipped the perspective on it. Bye, Allie. I think that article was entitled something like, it's not a virus, it's the medication. It just flipped the perspective on it as, you know,

a way of looking at what's happening as, you know, a possible, you know, cell for the planet, ultimately in the long run. And I don't wanna minimize, you know, what people are enduring right now, but from, you know, a global perspective, you know, what people are enduring right now. But from, you know, a global perspective, you know, it's a way of recalibrating how we live so that we can, you know, forge a better way. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's all perspective. And that's the thing that I

want to really encourage people is the work in this moment, it takes maturity and spiritual awareness to make a decision to not loop with the negativity. Your mind and your ego will want to agree with it. Oh yeah, this could cause a financial collapse. And your ego feels, yeah, this is true because I'm seeing all those signs. But we have to remember that we are creating our reality in every perspective we choose. And so that article that Howie shared, I don't know if he wrote it or somebody else wrote it, but that is the awareness that we want. We need to flip the perspective. So just a basic example from our life, when we went through financial collapse, I flipped the perspective to this is my spiritual alchemical moment. I'm not a deadbeat.

I'm in my sacred moment. So again, applying that to this experience, we are not going to be annihilated. This is our sacred moment. It's our wake-up call. And this is the moment that we get to rise up and be everything that we've ever been. We may go through some experiences that don't look safe to us or don't look like what we experienced. For instance, when we went through our financial collapse, we had no health insurance. I had days where I was down to one potato. We learned through that experience that something

always creates, something always arises, something always appears. And some of us are going to have to learn the very sacred lesson of being able to receive help from another. Because in this Western society or modern society, we've been so isolated and so self-determined that we have learned unconsciously that it is shameful to receive help from someone else. And when you have been reduced to your knees in such a way, you will graciously and gratefully accept the help of someone else. And that is a flip of what you're usually used to. So it is all perspective. It's entirely perspective. And this is what I've been talking about, is that there are all kinds of people talking about all the problems ad nauseum all the time,

and not just in this crisis, but even before last time I was on your podcast. We need to understand that we are creating our experience moment to moment. And that doesn't mean that you put your head in the sand and you don't know what's going on. Yes, get the facts, know what the ground is, keep yourself safe, follow all the protocol, do not deny what is happening. This is a very severe, very real pandemic. And even with that information, you can flip that perspective and you can choose to serve that and to be in love and to be in creativity and hopefulness. And it's a choice to believe in humanity. It's a choice. And you can make that choice and celebrate it. It's a choice that's both intellectual and emotional. And I think it's easier for people to wrap their heads around making that choice from their brains,

from their thinking brains, but emotionally trying to quell the pangs of anxiety that people are feeling that are rooted in legitimate concerns, I think is, when I put out on social media, like, what do you want us to talk about? I mean, that was overwhelmingly the largest theme, which is how do I, you know, deal with the anxiety and the uncertainty of this moment, you know, on a day-to-day like practical basis.

Well, you know how you deal with it is you develop your spiritual connection and you understand that the spiritual connection is the really only important relationship in your entire life. It is first, it is second, it's third, it's fourth. It is when you have a spiritual connection, you understand that life has a mandala, life has a plan, life is unfolding, that it is not up to you at this level of human to be controlling everything with your thoughts or reading the news or trusting sources outside of yourself. You have to trust yourself. You have to develop this alignment. And that comes through meditation. It comes from just really making the decision

and saying, you know what? I'm living in this human life. I'm going to trust myself. I'm going to nourish myself and nurture myself every single day. What do I need? What is the best for me? What would be the most supportive for me? All of these kinds of things. And the other thing that I do want to mention, and it's very, very important that we bring in the mother energy, the female energy into the conversation, not conversation, experience of this issue. It is the tendency of a male society to want to overanalyze all the tactics and then make fun of the feminine for wanting to do a prayer or wanting to do meditation or being able to hold this loving, nourishing capacity. I mean, we must understand that both energies are part of life.

It is not going to be solved by only intellectual facts and figures. That is not going to be the way. The way is through connection into the great mother, the great cosmic mother, which is really the greatest force that is over all of us. We need both. We need a balance of both.

I mean, we need to be able to test people. We need to be able to provide people with adequate medical care, like all of the infrastructure and all of that is important, which is probably falls on the masculine side, but we need a balance of both. And you're right. Our culture is tipped towards the masculine in a huge way. Yeah, I would say. I'm granting you that. Yeah, well, you should.

I mean, it's drastically that way. And in the moment where you're facing your death, you're not going to be checking facts on Twitter. You're going to be wanting that mother's embrace, that connection, the faith, the magic, the creativity that connects you with that force that you know is greater than your own being. 100%, 100%. So it begins with acceptance rather than grinding against reality, surrendering to what is, like just basically being in an open-armed, in an open armed, like open, you know, embrace of the situation that we find ourselves in. Suffering comes when you're trying to deny that, or basically, you know, be resentful or frustrated

at the truth of the circumstances that we find ourselves in. And the more you can do that, the more peace you will find for yourself. And whether that's through meditation practices or whatever protocol that you adopt, the more mindful and grounded in the moment you can be, then the better position you're in to be responsive from your highest self,

as opposed to reactive from the more reptilian brain aspects of who we are. Yeah, it is. And there's ways, of course, you're gonna wash your hands a lot. You're gonna self quarantine. You're going to eat as healthy foods as you can find, of course, turmeric, fresh ginger, any kind of spirulina, any kind of just fresh fruits.

How about we just eat an orange, just peel it and eat it. Don't go to the breads. Don't go to a bunch of sweets. Don't eat a lot of sugar. Don't binge on donuts right now. You need your immune system strong. So eat as much whole foods, whole leafy greens, fresh vegetables, organic if you can find it. Leafy greens, fresh vegetables, organic if you can find it. Eat as much whole foods as possible, at least for the beginning of this. We may get into a situation where we have to turn to canned things and this is fine. But I'm just saying really nourish your immune system.

So you want to get sleep. You want to eat healthy whole foods. You want to be in the sun if you can safely get outside. Spend time in the sun. If you can do an open-eye meditation on the sun right when it's rising, if you can see the sun actually pop over the horizon, you can actually gaze at that and get tremendous healing frequency. If it rises to a 45-degree angle, you have to stop looking at it because then it can become dangerous. But the sun is a very powerful source of energy. We need to acknowledge it,

go out and spend time in it, train in it like Rich does. Another thing you could do is take salt baths, make sure that you're getting in bed before you're tired. Don't watch a bunch of scary movies and panic inciting information, movies or news articles. Move your body. Develop a nourishing self-talk with your body about how grateful you are for this body, how healthy this body is. And even if you develop some symptoms, keep nourishing your body and know that you're going to recover, you're going to heal. It is a perspective, right? If you go down and start entertaining thoughts of doom and gloom, you're going to fuel that trajectory. So this is where

the work comes in. I am healthy, I am whole, I am well. And with your permission, Rich, I would like to do a meditation and a healing for everybody who is listening today. Can we do that at the end when we're done? Oh yeah, I thought it was the end. No, we're not done yet. Oh, okay, he's not done yet. No, I've got other things I wanna say. He's not done yet, people.

Listen, the trail running, getting out, I got on my bike the other day, like that's been the saving grace for me. And we live in a place where it's possible for me to be able to do that, to be out in nature, that's complete social distancing as I don't see any other human beings on the running, obviously, if you can do that, lean into that.

Another thing that came up with people commenting on what they wanted us to talk about is disappointment over things getting canceled. People who are training for big races, the races get canceled. Our friend Andrew is planning on getting married in May. That's very much in question and it's probably not gonna happen then. A lot of that is going on as well.

And I think that's a different flavor of acceptance and surrender as the path forward. It's just, this is what's happening. And rather than rally against it and be angry or frustrated or sad or resentful, just embrace it, accept it. This is something that's affecting all of us. For the athletes out there who are disappointed

that the race is being canceled, understand that the race really isn't what it's about. The race is an excuse for you to take care of yourself on a daily basis, to prepare your body and your mind and your soul to endure something difficult. And just because a race is taken off a calendar, that doesn't mean that you need to deprive yourself of that experience.

Yeah, and I mean, I think the perspective is quite important here. I mean, we have to be grownups and we have to understand what we're facing right now. I mean, this is not about- It's like your marathon's canceled. Well, we're in a global pandemic. This is unprecedented in our lifetimes.

You could be not alive or people could not be alive. So I think we have to trust in the divine timing of this. Once again, I want to mention again that in my feeling, it is actually a gentle. It's not going to go to the depths of the greatest naysayers that are predicting Armageddon and these type of things. These are programs that are used to incite fear, panic people, make them feel helpless. So we need to remember, once again, this is going to cycle through. We're all in this together. And the more we can take care of ourselves and take care of each other through checking in virtually and just being together and knowing that together we'll get

through this, I think the better. I did have actually somebody also messaged me and wanted me to talk about how to handle family members that don't have the same perspective that you have. And so I think this is for Catherine. Catherine, thanks for messaging me, sweetheart. So, you know, again, I think this is a moment for many, many reasons, as I said, you know, owning your own authority. You know, you can inform as much as you can, you know, on social media with your family, let them know, send them the articles. as well with someone in my family who just wasn't informed the way that I was. And I sent them some information for their own review. And at the end of the day, you don't have control over another human being.

And so what I would rather you do rather than have your energy in another human being, however, we do have control over our children and we exerted that over our teenager. Right, which is a whole other thing. We could kind of talk about a little bit cause there's probably a lot of parents listening right now who have teenagers.

And for me, the most challenging part has been dealing with the vicissitudes of a 16-year-old girl who is not happy about her social calendar getting truncated. And it's unbelievable the amount of energy that goes into that. And it's tested me to my limits, like trying to figure out how to dance around that.

Yeah, I just have to roll with her. You're much better at it than I am. She's my wave, I just surf her. But no, she's actually already conformed. There's been conformity happening in the last two days. And we were giggling saying like the silver lining is gonna be like the transformation of, you know, certain personalities into more expanded, healthy, creative expression.

So we'll just say that. What's those steps like? First there's anger and then there's pushback and then there's acceptance and then there's grief. You know, it's like she's going through those stages right now. I think we're getting into a better place. No, no, no.

She's actually, she's been screen printing in the garage. She's done a bunch of, a bunch of beautiful artistic work. And anyway, she begins her online classes tomorrow. So it's fine, but yeah, it was, it's kind of been a source of comedy and we've, we've joked a lot about it with the kids. But anyway, I did want to say to Catherine's question is, you know, you can't control their people, right? I mean, we've, we've all experienced that in our families with those of us that are eating plant-based, you know, it just seems so obvious, like why isn't everybody just stopped already? And yet it's still going on. I mean, it's almost like it takes something of this severity to really catalyze, you know, real change at a deep level. So what I would say is, again, as I advise with

Rich in my relationship, it's like really after you've informed and shared your heart in neutral loving compassion, take that magnifying glass back on your own heart. And I would start really working on being a masterful life form at the point of your death. That is really why we're all here to learn how to die, to learn how to make that transition, knowing that we are eternal life forms, that the life doesn't go out and that we will continue in different forms in different places. So yeah, I think we have to, again, contain our energy and decide where you want to direct that energy. And you certainly don't want it to be siphoned off by individuals who may not choose your path. And also, they may end up being perfectly fine making all those choices that they made that are contrary to every choice that you made. So, it's okay.

I would just sort of let go, inform and let go. Another big thing is sober people who now are faced with the prospect of not being able to go to meetings. There's a lot of concern about relapse, drug and alcohol use in the home, things like that of this nature, while people are kind of living on top of each other in a way that maybe they're not used to

and the social dynamics that come with that. And to that, I would say more and more meetings are going virtual. I mean, I don't know if you can buy stock in Zoom, but that would probably be a good bet right now. I know that meetings in my area are I'm getting links from friends, they're resorting to Zoom meetings.

So if you participate in a 12-step program and you're listening, maybe be the captain of that kind of change. There's also plenty of online resources and tons of meetings that are in audio form online. And what I'm going to do is put together a resource list that I'll put in the show notes to this podcast with the best information that I can compile on that subject. And also on the subject of, you know, if you are on Twitter, who are the better people to follow, who can give you objective points of view and take all the partisanship out of this and other types of resources that I think would be, you know, wise and prudent to follow if you do make

the choice to engage with social media on this issue. That's great. That's really good. And also, for any of you that have interest to go deeper with me into the spiritual cosmic view of what's going on in the planet, I'm doing two online virtual events with Conscious City Guide. You can check out my Instagram feed. But I'm going to be teaching a yoga class that actually embodies you in your own life print so that you can be your own authority and really live embodied in the unique divine design in which you were created. I'm also going to be doing sort of a discourse, which I will present the cosmic view of what's happening, things that are happening behind the scenes by beings that are not informed that are helping humanity. So we have to remember there's all kinds of unseen things that are part of our life and those life forms are helping us, helping humanity. And there is so much love and so much help for us as a species. And they're really, really hoping that we get our shit together and

that we evolve into a brighter way. Yeah. I'm thinking about doing a daily Instagram live kind of thing. I think a lot of people are doing that because they're stuck at home. There's a lot of programming out there. So why not throw my hat in the ring? I don't know, I'll give it a try.

No, listen, it's really important. And the other thing is we're gonna have to pivot to online. We want people to stay healthy you know, healthy in their offerings and what they're doing in the content. And it's an opportunity to answer questions directly and get more granular on some lifestyle practices that, you know, we've availed ourselves of that I think would be helpful. Yeah, definitely. And while we're on that subject, I do want to mention our Plant Power Meal Planner. This is our meal. Shameless plug. I'm just, no, it's important. I mean, and it's under $2 a week. So it's very, very accessible, but if you guys aren't using it

already, it is a seamless, amazing platform that basically just customizes all your recipes. I'm sure you've heard Rich, you know, add it before here, but I'm just telling you from my heart. The team at Shreemu has been infusing, we've been infusing it with, you know, added before here, but I'm just telling you from my heart. The team at Shreemu has been infusing, we've been infusing it with, you know, new fresh recipes. And it's just an amazing, it's an amazing offering. I mean, what can you get for under $2 a week that has that level of service? And you can customize it,

you can put in what you're allergic to, what you don't like to, how many people, what you don't like to eat, how many people you're customize it. You can put in what you're allergic to, what you don't like to, how many people, what you don't like to eat, how many people you're cooking for. And maybe in these times of like really trying to decide what to cook, it might be helpful to you. So anyway, I just wanted to mention that as well.

And you can find that at Rich's site, richroll.com. Yeah, or just meals.richroll.com. I mean, it's basically an unlimited supply of delicious plant-based recipes. And if you're in a metropolitan area, there's a good chance that it integrates with grocery delivery. So in this time of sequestration,

you could prepare these new recipes to do something fun and creative in your home as well and have everything that you need to prepare them just basically delivered to your door, which is pretty cool. Yeah, yesterday I actually found, I had two coconuts in the fridge that I just hadn't, I hadn't taken the time to open them up

and there I was with a lot of time. And so I opened them up and took the meat out and sat down on the table and actually had a half an hour to take all the brown bits off. And just, it was a moment of presence of cooking. Usually I'm racing to like photograph five recipes or, you know, shoot a bunch of food. And it's never like with that kind of experience.

And so it was really beautiful. And also I had a first yesterday and that's that Rich made me a healthy drink. He actually made me. Isn't it a first? I think it's a first. No. Yeah, honey. I think so.

He made me an orange. How can that be? Because you're not really a chef, honey. Orange, carrot, turmeric. Yeah, orange, ginger, carrot, turmeric. Yeah. Yeah. It was good too, right?

It wasn't that good, but I drank it. Come on. It wasn't. I told Mathis, I was like, look, your dad made me a healthy drink. And I go, it doesn't taste good, but I'm gonna drink it because I know how much love there is in it. Come on. It wasn't, I told Mathis, I was like, look, your dad made me a healthy drink. And I go, it doesn't taste good, but I'm gonna drink it because I know how much love there is in it.

And I drank it. I never make these things with taste in mind. Let's see. I just, I'm like, this is what I need right now. This is what I'm gonna drink. Let's get down to just the basics. I'll leave the taste for you. That's okay, it's okay.

But it is, again, to kind of bring it back to the beginning, a moment where we can really take the time to prepare beautiful meals for our families while we're cohabitating in this way, and to create ceremony and ritual out of that. Because when you've raised kids and then those kids get older and they leave the house, it's only then that you realize how precious

those meal times are with everybody. Oh, yeah. As I would say, like the house, it's only then that you realize how precious those mealtimes are with everybody. Oh, yeah. As I would say, like the house being just filthy dirty and then all of a sudden the house is clean. And I was like, oh, that clean house is overrated because where are all the kids? The house is, it's been raining like crazy. The house is super dirty.

The dogs come in with mud all over them and jump on the couches and just is what it is right now. Super awesome. All right, so let's wrap this up. Drink a lot of water, eat healthy plant-based meals as much as you can, get tons of sleep, try to exercise outdoors if you can, if that's available to you, get outdoors,

even if for just a walk, expose yourself to the sun, call your friends, Zoom them, tell them you love them. This is a moment where we're all trying to connect and we need to get creative with how we do that and enjoy the company that you're keeping in your sequestration. And above all, meditate.

That is the most important thing. So as you're getting more sleep, get up early in the morning before the sun rises, sit in silence, connect, feel yourself as a greater being, feel the energetic that you are that is beyond your human body, and start to remember yourself as a divine organism. Start to remember yourself as a divine organism. You're here in a life that is blessed. It's such a privilege to be alive. And what are the ways that we can express our own unique divine design in ways that are more expanded, more meaningful, more powerful? There's nobody coming here to save us. We are the ones we've been waiting for. It's not one person. It's a diversity of beautiful,

precious, creative, extraordinary life. Life doesn't make mistakes. And so let's take this opportunity to truly, truly remember our divinity and our birthright, which is to be merged with the eternal essence of what it means to be a divine human. This is just one play. It's just one role that you're going to experience in all of your existences, in all of the places where you dwell across the multiverse. Let's not waste it. Let's make the most of it. Let's rise up and be all that we can be. And let's be unified and not judge and tear each other down. Let's look for all the ways that we're the same. Let's look for all the ways that we connect. So can I do the meditation now?

Yeah, I wasn't sure whether that was the meditation or not. Okay. That was just the monologue that precedes the meditation. It was, but I was just creating the energetic field. Okay. But now you've ruined it. No, I'm kidding. It's fine.

All right, go ahead. Okay, so I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes if you feel comfortable. Of course, if you're driving, don't close your eyes, okay? Stay with your awareness on the road and know you can return to this. And so in healing practices, we understand that there is no space and time. So wherever you are, Rich and I are connected with you directly.

And wherever all the listeners are, we are all connected in this energetic field. And so I'm just going to open the field in sacred service to the law of one. The law of one is the unified field where we are not separate. We are connected, resonant, and eternally thriving. And as I open the field, I ask for all that is needed and necessary for the highest exchange with each individual person as is in alignment with their highest directive. Beloved future selves, nature spirits, guides, teams from the cosmic universe, we call you present now to assist us during this great time of transformation.

During this great time of transformation, we ask for nourishment and comfort and compassion around all of those who are suffering, please lead us, direct us, and guide us to the highest expression in order of priority that is in the highest alignment for each individual. diversity. We understand the presence in love. We understand and we welcome to experience the power of the human heart. Please open all channels of light to connect us with each other in ways that cannot be broken. Please open all channels of communication in ways we can co-create, nourish, and nurture each other. Please open all channels of light to remind us that we are the ones we've been waiting for. And for all our beloved human tribe who have graduated and who will graduate throughout this experience, we ask that they be given safe passage and that they be connected to the Trinity Gates and they be cared for and taken to their highest directive in the universe. to their highest directive in the universe. And for this and so much more, we offer our gratitude, our love, and our commitment.

We are unified. We are together. And we are with each other. And so it is. Beautiful. For people that are listening who might think that Julie just read that off a piece of paper, she was sitting across from me with her eyes closed, just channeling it. You guys are super special to us. You've made our life uh makes me cry

it's a joy. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate you guys. I love you. I love that I get to do this and we're gonna do it again. We're gonna be back to our regular programming. We'll be back tomorrow. Yeah, we're back tomorrow with another,

I gotta shift gears here a little bit. We'll tell you how Rich slept. Here's the thing. Maybe we'll, we should, actually, I should come to the tent and sleep with you one night. Oh, no. Do an Insta live.

We'll see about that. We will be back here in a couple of days with regular programming. I think it's important to, you know, kind of maintain the integrity of the show important to, you know, kind of maintain the integrity of the show as it, you know, exists. But I want to be adaptable and spontaneous to be able to pop in and do maybe, you know, a few more shows than usual on the subject matter to kind of deal with what's happening in current events. So you can look forward to that.

If you're digging on Julie, you can find her at Shreemati on Twitter and Instagram. Instagram is her jam. You can check out her delicious, amazing plant-based cheeses at shreemu.com, S-R-I-M-U.com. We can talk a little bit about that in more detail next time. And I think I will try out some Instagram lives. So you can find me on Instagram at Rich Roll.

Awesome. And I'll be up with a water tiger call next week. If you wanna join my spiritual community, you can find that at juliepyatt.com. And your podcast. And my podcast, For the Life of Me, Iiepyatt.com. And your podcast. And my podcast, For the Life of Me, I Started Again. So yeah, it's true. I'll be putting podcasts up and just offering techniques. Water Tiger is a monthly call, a monthly Q&A, and a monthly topic presented. And I have a bunch of techniques similar to the one that I just did for different purposes as we navigate this human trauma,

not just this human trauma, but human trauma from all kinds of things, ancestral things and histories and many, many things. But anyway, it's a beautiful time and there's so much support for us here. And so take care of yourself and each other. Take care, stay true. Peace. Namaste. Stay true. Peace.

Namaste. Plants. We did it backwards. Thank you.