The Rich Roll Podcast - The Process of Process Is Process

Episode Date: August 21, 2015

Julie and I are back with yet another installment of Ask Me Anything, a twist on my typical long-form interview format where Julie and I engage you — the listener — by addressing the topics and questions you want discussed. This week's AMA explores: * the employment of passion * engaging in process over results * reconciling spiritual detachment with the law of attraction * releasing old ideas & changing your story; and * self-acceptance: embracing dark and light Special thanks to Steven Simpson and Jeff Warrington for today's questions, as well as everyone who submitted inquiries — keep ‘em coming! The show concludes with My Man, written and performed by Julie — aka SriMati– accompanied by our sons Tyler & Trapper Piatt. I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation. Peace + Plants, Rich

Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. My name is Rich Roll. I am the host of this podcast. The podcast where I sit down with the outliers, the paradigm breakers, the big forward thinkers, the out-of-the-box minds and personalities across all categories of excellence and positive culture change to mine the tools, the insights, and the principles that can help all of us unlock and unleash our best, most authentic selves. So, this is another edition of Ask Me Anything.

I'm here with the lovely Julie Pyatt, my wife. Hi, Rich Roll. You are today's outlier personality. Thanks for having me. Talk today. And first off, an apology for being a day late on the podcast. Life intervenes sometimes. It was my fault.

No, it's nobody's fault. But hopefully this will carry you through the weekend. And we have a great guest for Sunday night. Nobody's fault. But hopefully this will carry you through the weekend. And we have a great guest for Sunday night. That's going to be Conrad Anker, who is widely considered one of the greatest high altitude climbers of all time. It's a really great conversation. So that's going to go up late Sunday night. I can't wait for that one.

Yeah, he's super cool. So anyway, thanks for tuning in, you guys. I appreciate you subscribing to the show on itunes for subscribing to my weekly newsletter for spreading the good word and if you want to support this show there's two uh great free ways to do it the first is just give us a review on itunes takes a couple seconds really helps us out a lot and the second way is uh next time you're going to buy something on amazon first click through the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com. I've gotten a couple emails from people who are like, I can't find the banner ad. Just go to the podcast page.

It's right there, right in the middle of the page. It should be pretty easy to find. And there's also an option for people that live in the UK so that you can support through Amazon UK. And just click through that. Buy whatever you're going to buy. It won't cost you anything extra, but Amazon kicks off some loose change,

and that really helps support the show, the mission, and you can make it easy by just bookmarking the link on your browser, and that way you don't have to keep going to my site. It's just right up there on your browser. Makes it easy. So thanks so much, you guys. Today's episode is brought to you by all right julie how are we doing you're doing good how are you doing today i'm doing pretty good how was your morning

my morning was good i got to go see my old friend john moffett oh that's right gratitude which is nice caught up john's actually an interesting guy. I think I might get him on the podcast. I mean, he's a former world record holder in the 100 breaststroke. We were teammates at Stanford. He was a member of the 1984 Olympic team. And he has kind of an interesting story. He went into the 1984 Olympics, number one in the world on the 100 breast, predicted to win the gold medal against Steve Lundquist, who had been kind of the reigning champion in that event for many, many years. And in the preliminary heats, he tore his groin muscle completely and had to drag his

legs for the final 50 meters, which in breaststroke, you generate all your power from your legs. And he has these huge, massive, strong legs. He has quite some legs. Yeah, and he still made it into the final heat and showed up at finals with a big bandage wrapped around his leg, had to drag his legs. And it was kind of a tragic thing. And it ended up being a story in that Bud Greenspan documentary

called 16 Days of Glory. Bud Greenspan is the famous, amazing documentarian who used to make, make documentaries about each Olympic games. And John was the subject of one of those stories, pretty heartfelt, amazing story. And now he's a filmmaker and a television producer in Hollywood. Uh, he's working on a really interesting, um, documentary about the 1980 Olympic boycott where, when the United States boycotted the Olympics in Moscow, because he was a member of that team as well in 1980.

He was the youngest member of the United States Olympic swim team. I think he was like 16 years old at the time. And it's kind of his experience of what it was like to make an Olympic team and then not get to go. And then the perspective of all the other athletes and kind of the geopolitical kind of environment of what was going on at that time. It's pretty cool. It sounds amazing. Can't wait to see that.

He's been working on that for years and years and years. Well, you should have him on. I should. Well, you know what's funny is I did have him on a long time ago and something happened and the audio file was corrupted. Do you remember that? Yeah, I remember. So we've talked about doing it again.

So if you guys want to hear from John, let me know. Yeah, yeah. He's a great guy. He's a pretty cool guest. And he also recently had a really bad mountain bike accident. And he has a kind of an amazing story about that. He had to get airlifted out of Topanga State Park. When was this? This was like four or five months ago.

He had major surgery on his leg and his ankle and all that kind of stuff. So he had major surgery on his leg and his ankle and all that kind of stuff. Basically, what was happening was he was coming down kind of a steep precipice. And there was a jogger in front of him, a female jogger, who was kind of going down the hill. And she had earbuds in. And he was trying to alert her that he was coming down or that he was going to pass her. And she couldn't hear him because she had earbuds in. And he ended up kind of crashing. He it was he was going slow he wasn't going

fast but he just landed wrong and he completely like torqued his leg and part of his bone was sticking out of his ankle like it was really bad they had to bring helicopters in and she didn't even know she just ran off to this day she doesn't know that she really was the catalyst to this accident so it brings up a really interesting issue about wearing earbuds when you're out, even if you're out trail running or, of course, riding a bike, like how that can be dangerous. Right. You know what I mean?

That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, I wear earbuds when I'm riding and running generally. Do you think you would have heard him? Well, I don't. You know, it's made me think about that, right? I usually leave one ear out so I can hear what's going on, especially when I'm riding my bike.

Right. Sometimes when I'm out trail running, I don't though, because I'm like, I'm just on a trail, you know? But what happened to him has really made me think about that a little bit more. Yeah, that's interesting. You know what I mean? Do you want to know what I did this morning? What did you do?

I practiced yoga. I caught up. Of course you did. A 7 a.m. yoga practice. Beautiful, traditional Sivananda series. And it feels good getting up that early and being... What time did you get up? Well, I got up...

I mean, I did yoga at 7, but I was up before then. Yeah. Did you get up at 4 again? No, not 4. Right. Just like probably 5.30. I never know. I never know. You never know.

No. And also the other thing is I just, yeah, I got back from a camping trip with Mathis, which was really nice. That's great. Where'd you guys go? We went to Montana de Oro, which is a state park on the central coast near San Luis Obispo, central coast of California. Really cool, beautiful camping trip.

Daddy, daughter bonding. Mathis is 11 now. And we got to explore some sea caves and go on a long hike and be on the beach and make food together. And I think the thing that was great, I mean, for me, you know, it's just when you have four kids, it's hard to get that one-on-one time with one particular kid because there's always so much going on. So it was really nice. I think it really brought us closer. And I think that I was very aware and kind of present with the idea that, you know, these are the precious moments, right?

That's right. Like, you know, how long is she going to want to continue to do this kind of stuff? I mean, she wants to. We want to go more and all that kind of stuff. But I was like, this is the kind of thing that I'm going to remember when I'm 80. Yeah. And she will too. She will too. So. Precious time. Anyway.

It's cool. It's great. All right. Should we get to some listener questions? Let's jump in. So the first one I have is from Steven Simpson. And it's kind of a long email, but the gist of it, or the gist of his question is really that he is, he's a very active person. He's been inspired by the podcast. But he is trying to pursue a more meaningful career trajectory that's more in alignment with his interests. And the question really is, how does someone like myself find work or financial support being involved in both the adventure athletic community and or either the wellness, yogi-minded,

thriving, organic, plant-based community? You know, how can he be led in a better direction? And it's kind of a hard question to answer. I mean, you know, even in the ad, like for NASM at the a better direction? And it's kind of a hard question to answer. I mean, even in the ad, like for NASM at the beginning of the podcast, it's all about like, get paid to do what you love. Like, that's what we all want, right? Wouldn't it be great if we could all get compensated for doing something that we're passionate about? I think that's a fantastic goal for anybody. And we've worked very, very hard to get to that point where we are lucky enough

to be in that position. But certainly we had to, you know, sweat and work harder than I ever worked as a corporate lawyer to get to this place. And I think that the most important thing, or maybe the biggest piece of advice that I can give is first to identify what that passion is and then to just be expressing it more in your life without it being wed to this idea of when and how you're going to get paid for it. Right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, when I started here, an example would be the podcast, right? Like I started the podcast because I had... We were stranded on an island. I was feeling the

need to have no friends express myself creatively and i'd always love podcasts and i thought it would be cool i'd gotten so much out of podcasts in my life and i thought maybe i can contribute to this conversation somehow but i didn't get into it thinking how am i going to get paid doing a podcast like i just wanted to do it and and then i did one and i was like that was super fun let's do another one let's do another one. Let's do another one. And I got really into it and I got better at it. Um, I think the podcast has stayed true to its original idea, the kernel of the idea that I had when it began, but it's, it's certainly evolved. And, and of course the audience has, has grown like exponentially from,

from when we began. And now it's in a place where it's a financially viable path for us. Beginning. It's not like this amazing business model. It's not like the podcast could support my family, but it is generating some revenue. And that's something that wasn't occurring in the beginning, and it wasn't why I got into it. I got into it because I enjoyed doing it. But like anything, when you devote yourself to something

and you get better at it and better at it and better at it and you're in the process and the journey and you're doing it as an expression of your authentic self and hopefully in a vein of service to other people, I believe that at some point, as I said in Finding Ultra, the universe will conspire to support that. Right. And so how long has the podcast been? When did we launch?

Do we know? Two and a half years. It was in December 2012. That was when you launched it. Right. Or November, maybe. December, I think. Right, so we're coming up on three years of this.

And how many hours a week do you devote to the podcast? An unbelievable amount of hours. Just give us an estimate. Way more than most people think. Just say. The actual interview part is the shortest amount. That's the easy and fun part. Yeah, the back-end production aspect of it is,

and I have help, you know, Tyler's producing the show, and I've got Chris and Sean working with me on graphics and web stuff, but I spend a lot of time writing the blog post for each one. I mean, hours and hours. If you broke it down, I don't know how many hours I spend a week on it. Maybe 20, 30 hours.

Maybe not that many. So we're two and a half years in going on three years, right? Yeah. And it's only now starting to, you know, any a source of business right so i'm just trying to make the point of like how much time and effort you've put in and and it's don't get me wrong i mean i think it's the ultimate sort of like new paradigm business model because what it is is we're sharing very very meaningful information that's transforming people's lives. And it is an amazing forum and an amazing sort of medium to spread the message and to spread awareness. So even though it's not like for whoever wrote in and you're wondering,

it's not going to be resulting in a kind of old paradigm job where like you get a paycheck and you see it physically, like you sort of have to build it in the ethers first and creatively first. And then, and like James Altucher was saying, like, we don't even really know where it's going or how it's going to work out. There's a tremendous amount of faith and just, you know, just being, you know, being in the process of doing it, you know, being in the process of doing the thing that you love. And then that creates, you know, the energy that then somehow will form into some positions, some jobs, some, you know, some events, something that will then support you financially.

Well, I think there's a distinction, right? Like it's possible that, you know, Steven could find a paying job doing what he loves. Like maybe he can work in an outdoor retailer store that allows him to, you know, take groups of people out on, you know, adventure hike. I don't know. You know, like there is the possibility that you could get employment from some corporate entity

that would be supportive of the things that you could get employment from some corporate entity that would be supportive of the things that you desire. Maybe it's a, you know, an NGO or a nonprofit or something like that. But to the kind of James Altucher tip of choosing yourself, if you want to create like your own, you know, sort of reality that is self-supporting, then I think you're in for a longer road, but ultimately a more fulfilling road. And there is no one path towards that. I can't tell anybody like, here's how you do it. I think you have to, you know, really be diligent in identifying what that passion is. And then, and like I said, you know, be in the process of expressing it. Like I just read this article

with Stephen Colbert. It was in GQ magazine. Somebody had tweeted it to me earlier today and it was all about like him getting ready for his new late night show. And he said something really interesting where he said, the process of process is process, you know, and like it's beautifully succinct and comedic and so true. Like the process of process is process, you know, and like, it's beautifully succinct and comedic and so true. Like, the process of process is process, right? Like, you have to be into the process. Like, I was into the process of training for Ultraman. I was into the process of doing a podcast, not because I had my eyes set on some destination or what it would evolve into. And I certainly didn't do it because I thought, oh, this will be a good business or a lead generator for something else I'm doing. Like, no, I just enjoyed doing it.

And it has evolved and grown into something, you know, that is now like a thing. But I didn't predict that. I didn't know that that would happen. You know, I just continued to do it. would happen. You know, I just continued to do it. So, I think if you can identify that passion and then begin to practice it and really fall in love with the process of doing it, the process of process is process, and be in it for that, and then try to figure out how that can translate into being of service to somebody else, right? So to the extent that whatever you develop, whatever acumen or level of skill that you can hone

as a result of engaging in that process, how can that then be transferred to somebody else and be of benefit to them, right? Like what are you going to bring to somebody else's equation that could perhaps fulfill a need or benefit their life somehow. Yeah, and I think it's also just saying yes to whatever presents itself that's in that arena, you know, that's in that sandbox of whatever you want to do, and just keep saying yes to whatever

it is, no matter if it's a small thing. Because those are all little energetic steps towards, you know, creating a new sort of experience around your life. And, you know, I don't even know if there's so much figuring out. I think if you're in the creating and you're doing it and you're, you know, you're in with both feet, you're going to be presented with opportunities and then you're going to know and you're just going to be like, yes, I'm going to do that. Yes, I'm going to do that. And it will start to build. Yeah. I think that every successful person that I know, particularly in this town, like in Hollywood, I mean, look at any screenwriter, how many screenplays did they

write before they sold their first screenplay? Like, you have to really be okay with working for free, you know, and having that faith that it will ultimately at some point translate into something in a way that you can't predict and is not going to be the way that you imagine in your mind that it will, right? Like, you know, there's a million personal examples that we've experienced. Like, I really enjoy doing public speaking and I wasn't very good at it at the beginning and I did a lot of stuff for free. You know, I would go, anybody who would say, hey, come and give a talk, I would do it. And as a result of doing it and doing it and doing it, without ever asking how am I getting paid or why am I doing this, I got better at it.

And now, you know, I have the, you know, amazing opportunity to travel to some cool places and get paid to give talks. But it didn't start out that way. I just enjoyed doing it. And as I got better, I realized how I could craft what I'm doing in a way that would be more impactful than the way it was, you know, the talk that I gave six months ago, or what have you, right? So, a lot of times I get

emails from athletes, multi-sport athletes, triathletes, you know, really successful amateur level athletes, I want to get sponsored. How do I get sponsored? They're looking to get something from a company. And I think the reasons for that are varied. Sometimes they just need the support because they can't afford the gear or what have you or maybe a little financial support could help them travel to a race here or there. But I think also there's an ego component to that too. Like if you can put a brand name on your jersey and you're racing, then that somehow validates what you're doing with your time. But what I often see in these

inquiries is really the spirit of them is, how can I get this person to give something to me? And I always say, my response to that is always the same. It's like, you have to flip the equation. You're asking the wrong question. You should be, if you want to approach these people for support, you need to approach it from a perspective of how you're going to benefit them. Like, again, it goes back to service. How, you know, what are you contributing? It's an ROI equation, right?

A company is going to sponsor an athlete if they feel like there's some gain short-term or long-term for them. If there's not, then they're not going to do it. So, your job is to convince them that by associating with you, that somehow they're going to end up better off as a result of that relationship. And I think that that applies to how you pursue, whether it's a new job or a career or a choose yourself endeavor, you know, what are you contributing? What is unique to you that nobody else has? And everybody has something unique because we're all individuated and unique creatures of God, right? We all have our own specific voice.

And even if you're like you want to do a podcast and you want to interview people that inspire you, you're not me. Your show is going to be different than me. So, what is where you provide that opening for the magic to come in, in a way that, you know, could potentially perhaps transform or change your life. But you have to be in it for the long haul, and you have to be committed. And I think you have to be unshackled by the sort of old paradigm equation of how am I getting paid for this? Yeah, and I think we can all sort of switch the equation of how am I getting paid for this? Yeah, and I think we can all sort of switch the question that we're asking.

And I think the old paradigm question is, what am I getting? You know? And I think the new paradigm question is, what am I bringing? Right, that's exactly what I'm saying. Yeah, that's exactly right. So, you know, that's just a good shift. So, spend some time in meditation. Of course, knowing what you're bringing would then, you know, require you to know yourself or at least to have some connection into what your unique talents are or what it is you really want to express in this life or how you were really made and designed. again, leads us back to meditation and finding the time to connect with yourself, to connect with the inner child within you, getting some space around you and really focus on, I think,

seeing what's right in front of you, seeing what you have in order to create a field of abundance and of, you know, sort of surplus and a generous support around yourself. And then, you know, build from there. But, you know, think about, I think also a new way for us all to feel financially supported in this new energy is to shift our focus to getting our needs met. So knowing that the universe will meet your needs, and that might not look like what you're used to, it might not include a 401k, or it might not include a very large savings account. But you'll find as you step onto this path, if you're living in congruence with your heart and you're expressing yourself authentically, you will find that your needs do get met. I think also you need to disconnect the paycheck from the passion initially, which means that, you know, you may have to work at a place that isn't

ideal for you, you know, to support whatever it is that you're passionate about. Like, those worlds aren't necessarily going to be merged, you know, when you're taking your first steps. They start to align and come together over time. But it's, you know, I think you have to be okay with earning a living or, you know, getting a paycheck to make sure that you have a roof over your head and that you can buy food in whatever way that that you can as you continue to, you know, engage the process as process for the purpose of process. Does that make sense? Do you agree with that? Well, I mean, I agree with it, but it's not what we did. So, you know, I mean, but not everybody has the path that we chose. So, you know, the path that we chose was...

But I practiced law for many years longer than I wanted to. Yeah, but there was also a point in the, you know, sort of in the process where we had to make a decision which way we were going. So, we didn't really work odd jobs to make us safe while we were pursuing our heart and passion. We sort of jumped into the abyss. That's true. Which is kind of scary. And it's kind of also, you know, I mean, I feel a sense of responsibility. I don't mean to say that, you know, there should be anybody else's path.

And certainly, you know, we're not here to tell anybody what their life path is. We're here only sharing our experience and what we've learned along the way. And of course, everybody's experience is going to be unique. So I would say probably in the beginning stages, you know, yeah, you don't have to identify yourself completely with a job or with some sort of sustenance that you find yourself doing, you know, as a means to an end, that's okay. But what I would say is that you spend most of your focus connecting with your heart and really identifying what it is you came here to experience, you know, and what do you want your life to look

like? And what gifts did you bring with you because all of these are very very important and life is precious and time is precious and so you should you should spend your time wisely now how dramatic that is or how difficult that is depends on you know each individual is different and you can get um you know the opportunity for awakening comes in many different flavors, many different packages. Ours happened to come in a financial dismantling package. Other people might receive theirs in a healing, you know, in a health issue or through divorce or through even natural calamity, you know, an earthquake, a tsunami, like all of these things are opportunities that our soul provides us to, you know, look deeper within ourselves and find something greater than this physical body and an ego personality. Pete Yeah, I mean, I think everybody's

demarcation line is different. You know, at some point, there is wisdom in taking that leap of faith and like sort of, you know, breaking the chains from there is wisdom in taking that leap of faith and like sort of, you know, breaking the chains from whatever it is, whatever career path you've been on and saying, okay, I'm going into this now into the abyss. I don't know where it's heading. But I think when you're trying to straddle both worlds, and we've talked about this quite a bit, like, you can't have your foot in both worlds. Like you committed to living this life based on your passion or are you not? You can't have it both ways. And I mean, there's a responsibility quotient that has to get built into that because you

don't want to be rash. But also, there will come a point where you're like, okay, am I really doing this or am I just playing around and giving it lip service? And when you get to that point, that scary point, and you're like, okay, I'm going for it all the way, it's terrifying. That's a very frightening moment. But I think it's also really, at some point, it becomes necessary in order to allow the kind of universe to fill that void and provide the opportunities, you know, to move in a new direction. Yeah, because if you're straddling both worlds, you're creating sort of a push-pull energetic.

So, you're saying yes to one thing and no to the other thing, so it's confusing. So, the energy is trying to respond to what you are telling it, but you're telling it to conflicting things. So, you know, we experienced it, you know, definitely very viscerally. And I remember one conversation where I was begging you to let go of law and to swim. And like I've said before, the help arrived a lot later than I thought it was going to. And had I known it was going to take so long, I don't know if I would have been so brave. But anyway, we were and we did, and here we are. So anyway, just connect to your heart and feel your body.

Let your body tell you, and you'll know. You'll know when you can no longer work in the other situation because you won't be able to bear it. Or if you need to make a decision and you're sort of stuck, often the universe will make that decision for you're sort of stuck, often the universe will make that decision for you and you will find yourself without the job. Yeah, right. All right. Well, I hope that was helpful, Stephen. Next question is from Jeff Warrington. Thoughts on spiritual detachment. Basically, the opposite of popular notions that

practicing laws of attraction are necessary to get what you want and or to achieve goals. So, this is a really interesting question. This idea of detaching from the result of your actions versus these kind of well-known ideas around practicing the laws of attraction. If you saw the documentary, The Secret, they talk a lot about that, like kind of putting out there what you want, like sort of exuding that energy of where you want your life to be as a means of bringing that into your life. So, they seem sort of diametrically opposed. And so, how do you reconcile these two modes of thought? Well, I would say that everything is a level of awareness. And I would say that the secret information is a level that is not that aware and not that developed.

secret information is a level that is not that aware and not that developed. And I think, you know, there's a lot of people that go around, you know, creating vision boards and saying, you know, if they say, it's like the little engine that could, if they say, you know, I think I can, I think I can, you know, then it's going to happen. And that's all fine. You know, it's obviously better to envision things that you would like to experience in your life and also have a positive outlook and, you know, and, you know, keep a keep sort of a positive energy about you. But I find that that is actually pretty immature stage to be in, I think, and when you become more mature, you sort of realize that from the point that you're sitting in your personality, you can't really know what is best for you or for anyone else. And it comes through the transformational practice of detachment

and of really cultivating a frequency of service and letting go and surrendering that you connect with something deeper beyond your personality and then you can truly be in service the issue is though is you can't really read about this in a book and actually get it you can get the concept but i don't really feel in my experience i mean maybe some some could have just a realization in, you know, an enlightenment realization in meditation. But I think most of the human race were provided opportunities to alchemize ourselves into something more divine through challenges, through hardships, through, you know, difficulties in life. through these experiences of not having any money or suffering physically with health issues or suffering the loss, the death of a loved one, or maybe it's divorce, there's an alchemy and there's a friction that happens and it almost feels like you're going to burn up and sometimes feels, you know, unbearable, like you can't take one more second of it and this is in fact the alchemical process that is um you know

transforming you and is clearing you of these sort of more immature ideas and then you get to a place in your expression uh where you're you're simply a servant of that force that is greater than you and you release your attachment to the outcome. This doesn't mean that you don't do anything, you're still, you're, you're, you're engaging in detached action. So you do move in the physical, but you've released your attachment to the outcome. And I find that a lot of the secret type programs that are sort of been circulating, a lot of them have to do with this abundance. So, it's like everybody that's in that stage of spiritual development, they all seem to be focused a lot on trying to get their bank accounts up.

And what I've discovered in my experience of spiritual transformation, it has nothing to do with money. So, I mean, money is beautiful and it's an energy and it's nice to have it but um you'll have it in balance and alignment when you don't need it anymore and when you need it um it's the grasping it's still out of balance yeah i think the the the distinction between detachment and practicing attraction can be pinpointed, at least one aspect of it can be pinpointed to issues around control, right? So, if you are detaching or you're surrendering, then you are releasing the illusion of control. rendering, then you are releasing the illusion of control. If you're overly kind of connected to this idea of the laws of attraction, like, I think I can, I think I can, there's this idea of control

that creeps in. Like, if I do this enough, then I can control the outcome of what's happening. And so, I think that there's a lot of peace and serenity around releasing that, right? And this is coming from somebody who is a control freak. I'm a control freak. And it's very difficult for me to let go and say, you know what? When I really sit down and think about it, I actually don't have control over very much. I have control over how I react to certain situations. I have control over what I put in my mouth and what I say. But I don't have any control over how people react to anything that I do. And I really can't control outcomes out in the world. And when you kind of really ponder that, you're like, it's kind of a relief, right? It's kind of a relief. You know, these are things I learned in recovery. I mean, they talk about surrender and recovery, and a lot of people misinterpret that and think that that means giving up, right? Like, I didn't come here to, like, give up. What do you mean surrender?

Like, I'm not surrendering. I'm here to, like, you know, make my way in the world. And I think that that's a confused interpretation. Surrender just means focus on what you can control, right? Place your intention on that. And the results will ultimately take care of themselves, you know, in your long term best interest. Yeah. And I would translate that a little bit, refine that last statement a little bit to say, focus on the present. So, because really, ultimately, you're not really controlling anything, not even what you think you can control. So, but what you can do is you can do what's right in front of you, and you can be present, and you can take a breath.

There you go. You can do that. So, and I mean, you know, I also wanted to say with you know with love and compassion i'm not i'm not uh you know i i did plenty of that type of visioning you know in my early years in my early development you know but i in my experience you know i did a lot of that that abundance visioning and nothing happened it didn't really fruit with anything and you know if you if you just look at you know you have to look at a life trajectory and what it takes to become, you know, what does it take to really become yourself? And that doesn't happen overnight. It's a process and it's a journey. And

so, yeah, I would say, you know, considering turning your, you know, like what if you just considered like every night when you went to bed, you know, like, what if you just considered like every night when you went to bed, you didn't get to take credit for anything that was perceived as good in your life. And you also didn't, you weren't allowed to take any blame or shame for anything that was perceived, quote, bad in your life. So what if when every night when you went to bed, you just gave the entire experience over to something greater than yourself and said, thank you in gratitude and just let it go. And then what if when you woke up in the morning and your feet hit the floor when you're getting out of bed, what if

you remembered that you're only in service to that force? And how would that shift your experience of how you meet every experience in your life? And in my experience, personally, I've found that I have greater compassion, greater patience, greater energy and ability to work and serve and create and do things that I love. So, and it's a relief. And it is a relief. What a relief. And it's a relief and it is a relief. What a relief.

I think one good thing about kind of this idea of the law of attraction, though, is that it kind of drives focus on intention and intention is important, right? So, if you're conscious of what your intention is, then that can sort of compel a decision tree of how you behave in certain situations, right? Like when you're very aware in the moment of what your intentions are, then that can mean that you're going to react or act or say or do or whatever in a certain way to be in alignment with that intention. Yeah, it's a good practice. It's definitely a positive practice. And at some point when your life is a living meditation and you're in full alignment, you will spontaneously react or act in any situation in a divine manner. It's like an instant reflex. It's not thought about. Right. If you really want to attract like some something into your life, you know, a relationship, a career or whatever, I think that really the best way to do that is to surround yourself with the people that do that, that thing, or, you know, surround yourself with the people that you respect and, you know, aspire to emulate and to undertake the actions that they take.

You know, ultimately, that's going to propel you in a direction that I think will ultimately serve you. Yeah, that definitely, definitely is powerful. The company that you keep is very significant in the experiences you create in your life. And I think it brings up kind of a related ancillary issue that I was hoping we could get into, which is this idea of embracing both the dark and the light, right? Like if you're talking about practicing the laws of attraction,

that kind of, you know, sort of ventures into the sort of new age spiritual world of everything is beautiful rainbows and unicorns. And, you know, everybody loves everybody and there is no darkness, right? And so I think really if you want to grow, I think that it is better to rather than repress or deny, but rather accept and embrace the dark aspects of your own life and the life around you to at least acknowledge them so that you can reckon with them. Because there are negative dark forces out there and to pretend otherwise, I think, is somewhat delusional, right?

So, you have to embrace both aspects in a somewhat dualistic way in your own life in order to then confront them and figure out how you're going to navigate through them and overcome them. Yeah. I mean, as human beings, we all have those polarities existing within us and, you know, that's what it means to be human. So, there's a disingenuous, how do I say that? human so there's a disingenuous um how do i say that disingenuous uh kind of um feeling i think when somebody's always saying you know uh you know it's all perfect everything's great like you can

feel under there that that's actually not the truth right and so you know not not that it isn't good to focus on the positive it absolutely is but i believe that you know we all you know we're the total sum and we live on planet earth which is a land of polarities and you know there are light and dark things that exist on this planet and within us and so by acknowledging that um you can exactly balance reconcile harmonize those two energies so that the dark isn't, you know, out of balance or overcoming you and you are able to, you know, rise up to some higher level of divinity. But, you know, I've always said one of the really fascinating experiences of my life and my discoveries about my own life is that, you know, one could take the actual facts, you know, of my life or any human

life, and they could choose to portray it in one of two ways. You know, they could choose to portray me, you know, as a spiritual seeker that I am, devoted meditator, mother, you know, artist, or they could take the darker aspects of my life and choose to express those. And it simply comes from the lens of perception. So, you can perceive a situation, you know, one of two ways, you know, probably many different ways. But that was really super fascinating to me. I read this ancient Indian text called the Ramayana. And it's actually Ramayana or Ramayana, depending on the pronunciation, the part of India where you're from. But it's an amazing book. And it's a story of Rama, who is the dharmic hero of this, you know, epic tale.

And it's six books. It's a huge, huge huge work and there's so much fighting and it's it's a uh there's many many many many battles and so um Rama is this uh perfect you know dharmic hero who basically forgoes all of his birthright you know for humankind and he always makes the greatest choice and he's just he's really just beloved and loves his beloved wife sita and they become exiled for 14 years and in like the fifth or sixth book of this entire work of so many battles going on um they um the the work presents the perspective of the demons and the demons have exactly the opposite perspective of this Dharmic hero.

And that was just a really beautiful teaching, and I really got that. You know, it's like one of my favorite quotes that I've said before from Anandamoy Ma, every man is right from his own point of view. So, you know, we have this human experience, few. So, you know, we have this human experience, and we as human personalities create a chain of experience out of these events. And more commonly, we create a chain of suffering. So we'll say, when we were little, you know, I never got picked for kickball, or, you know, I have buck teeth, or, you know, my dad left me me and we create this whole chain of suffering and then less frequency less frequently someone will make a chain of of happiness like my parents

love me so much i always win i'm always lucky and the truth of of life is that we're neither of these two stories both are false so what we really are is the consciousness that's beneath it all that is unchanging and, you know, eternal. And so we're in this play of life and it is a play of both light and dark. And we have to understand and have looked at ourselves as a total self-sustainable entity before we can truly progress.

Yeah, it's beautifully said. I think it begs the question of if we're going to transcend this dualistic idea of like good and bad like to understand like to really like deconstruct this idea like you look at your life and you know because we're human beings we identify certain things that happen to us and we construct a story around it and that's the story we tell ourselves about who we are it's the story that we emote either verbally or or through our disposition or our actions that we tell the world about who we are, right? And usually it's latched on to a few certain things that have happened to us in our life that we've decided are the most seminal or important for whatever reason. And for a lot

of people, and including myself, it's you're a terrible person. Like you're not worthy. You don't have anything of value to say. And one of the most kind of powerful struggles or kind of evolutions that I've had as a result of recovery is examining the veracity of that perspective, right? examining the veracity of that perspective right so very early on in my recovery somebody said to me all right so you're telling you so you say that you're this and this and this like well let's let's look into that like what would it be if that was actually not true what if all these stories you've been telling yourself about who you are are actually not true. You know, and I had to pause because then if you really embrace that, then you have created a foundation for your entire life based upon a false premise, right? Which is an amazing thing.

And then to get to that place to say, maybe I'm not that person. You know, maybe I could get to a place where I do have something of value to offer the world like what would that be like you know and that's the evolution like that's that's the work and that's hard work you know that's hard work but um but i think that there's a lot of people out there who are suffering because they are telling themselves some version of that story. And it's very easy to stay stuck in that, to be your own worst enemy, and to be impervious to evidence that contradicts that story.

So then the work becomes about examining it and getting to a place of releasing these old ideas. getting to a place of releasing these old ideas. So how do we begin to release these old ideas about ourselves that are perhaps untrue and are not serving us anymore? Once again, that's really profound, really amazing. I've never heard you share like that in that particular manner. That's beautiful. Again, you know, it's knowing yourself it's starting to entertain the idea that maybe there is something greater than a personality that's you know that

that is uh unfolding in your life um it's starting to do what you love it's staying out of fear like we talked about last episode find what you love stay out of fear connect with yourself in meditation and start to understand that you can be reborn in every present moment literally in every present moment you're not the person you were seven years ago you aren't the person you were seven days ago you aren't the person you were seven hours ago so in each and every moment, there is a new opportunity for rebirth. The breath is very, very, very powerful tool and a very simple tool, but it's available to all of us all the time. And, you know, it's about, you know, committing, stepping on the warrior path and wanting to transform, wanting to rise up, wanting to experience something greater and beyond this polarity that we're

living in. Yeah, I think the other component piece to that, and this was expressed to me actually last night, I was reminded about this idea, which is really cool. A friend of mine said this. And it's that when you are carrying that baggage around, like if you're carrying this heavy load about who you are and that's what you're kind of admitting to the world, if you're doing that, you're caught up in yourself, right? You're probably just spinning and thinking about yourself all the time. Oh, I don't have anything to say.

Nobody likes me. Whatever it is, whatever the story is, if you're looping that and you're walking around and this is the repetitive like sort of mental pattern that you're fertilizing, that is a form of egotism. It's a self-obsession. It's an obsession of the mind that is equally egotistical as the arrogant person who thinks they're better than everyone else. And perhaps more destructive, certainly more destructive to you. And I think the way out of that is to get out of your own self. So how do you do that? Well, you extend yourself to another human being in service of them.

Call somebody else up who is having a hard time. Get out of your own head about who you are and what you're doing and just invest yourself in somebody else's journey purely in service, right? Self-esteem comes from performing esteemable acts. When you can make that a habit, then you will shift your opinion of yourself over time. But you have to get out of yourself and you have to understand that that negative thinking, that victimhood, that is very self-indulgent and it's selfish, right?

It's selfish and it's not serving you. So maybe think of another way of behaving. And the easiest thing is to pick up the phone and call somebody else, right? Like get out of your own head yeah it's act another one of my favorite favorite teachings from uh an indian master that i worked with years ago was that uh he proposed that the resume that you

write like if you took a resume that you prepared um and you compared it with the way you really feel about yourself on the inside. So if you just take a minute and so he says, who you're telling the world you are is more than you think of yourself and inside you think less of yourself. Oh, totally. And so what he's saying is that that setup is very, very treacherous because you've created a violence in there within yourself. Like your being is fighting between those two sort of incongruencies.

Neither are true, by the way. Not the shame part of it and not the arrogance part of it. But anyway, so fascinating. Great question. Yeah, cool. All right. Well, I think we worked that one out. I think that's done for now.

You did? We have a couple minutes left. Maybe this would be a good time to check in with you on what's going on with you in food. What's going on in the evolution of julie srimati and and food at the moment oh wow that's cool well um kind of a lot actually i'm i'm uh i'm kind of back from some travel and i've been uh working in my kitchen developing some uh aged nut cheeses and i'm quite excited about that that sounds really. It's not really hard but I'm going to write an e-book about it I think so that I can get the material out much quicker.

So I'm having a blast with that. It does include you know it requires using a dehydrator in some cases and you know sort of fermenting with some different things but it's been really fun. And I think the tastes are definitely rising to the next level, which is really kind of fun. So I've been enjoying that. And I've been enjoying using all the knowledge that I provided in the Plant Power way, but in sort of as sort of a foundational creative point. And so I've really been letting myself

go to the farmer's markets and connect with the farmers and find what's local and I'm challenging myself to really use like big variety like a different variety of things as often as possible so like last night on Instagram I posted a saw like seared okra dish and my grandmother grandmother from Texas, my mom Pearl, that was her name. She used to make this, of course, southern fried okra that was, you know, fried and it was kind of almost burnt, really. And it had cornmeal on it, but it was super, super tasty. And, you know, I don't know how many people are familiar with okra, but it's quite an interesting specimen and when you cut it it has a sliminess to it so I never liked it boiled or steamed because it's just too there's it has slime on it literal

literal slime on it so last night I found this beautiful purple okra and just diced it up and got a little bit of coconut oil and seared it in a blackened skillet got it a little blackened not totally burnt and then i just tossed it in nutritional yeast and some himalayan salt and it was absolutely divine beautiful amazing so i was happy yeah i got home late and there was a plate in the oven did you get to have any after everyone was asleep and i ate it it was delicious good right yeah good that was good and then these um fingerling potatoes um that were all you know i love finding all the truly organic vegetables that are completely you know um organic in shape you know they have things growing out of them and they're sort of

you know unique shapes they're not all perfectly round in different ways so i found these fingerling potato potatoes and i made them in a kind of a variation on a cashew cheese um broth but i made it with more water in it and i used brown rice miso and tried some walnuts actually instead of cashews and it worked really great so that was also quite delicious the kids love that so that was really fun so i'm posting all of that on instagram if anybody wants to um follow my feed i'm trying to entice you all to buy my book so i'm working very hard someone told me actually this really cool that's the real intention there's this really cool person uh who's on instagram and i think they're drum guland is that who they are and this, if it's the right feed,

they live on a farm and they post the coolest stuff ever. And I don't even know them. I don't even know if they know what an inspiration they are to me. But they just told me that they were like, okay, she says, or he, it's Drum Gouland. I think you have finally convinced me to buy your book. it's drum goo land i think you have finally convinced me to buy your book and then i have this other amazing uh chef that i met in london at the farmer's market and uh she is quite an artist just amazing and she just started uh following me as well so we're having fun with

the foodie stuff uh on my feed I can't find her right now. Her name is, oh, here, let me find her. See, I have 23 comments already in this. Let's see. Anyway, I'll have to find it and mention her again another time. But anyway, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, all right, cool. And already starting to get organized about putting together some new cookbook material. Yes, we are.

Yeah, I'm actually working on a very special book to me. I'd actually like to hear from you guys how you feel about this. But I started making art kicks for my kids since my oldest boy, Tyler, was two years old. art kicks for my kids. Since my oldest boy, Tyler was two years old. So for about, you know, 18 years, every birthday, my children could just come to me and say, I would like X, and I would create it on the fly the day of their birthday. And oftentimes, they even ended up helping me decorate it at the end. So it was, it was this event that they knew that they were so special on their birthday that I would spend all this time and do this particular thing for them. And so, we've had many, many different versions. We've had Pegasus and we've had fairies and we've had lots of guitar cakes,

some bass cakes. We've had self-portraits of animals, Ganeshas, trees, all kinds of things over the years. And so I'm developing a book that has like five gluten-free vegan cake recipes along with frosting recipes. And I'm going to present eight to 12 designs and along with parenting advice and sort of sharing my experience of raising my four kids, my four very different, artistic, unique kids, as I'm sure yours are as well. So anyway, I'm excited about sharing this because, you know, I feel like it's a beautiful, it's been a beautiful experience actually making the cake and not going down to the supermarket and buying, you know, something off the shelf. That means the most. And some of these cakes were very kind of hilarious looking. They're sort of bohemian art cakes. So, it's not about perfection. I never took a cake decorating class. I'm sure I could benefit from one. decorating class. I'm sure I could benefit from one. But anyway, it was very true and authentic and spontaneous, and it's been a joy for us. So, I hope to share that with you guys and also

some of the history, historical photographs of our family now that we are established. And I mean that we're, that I'm 53. I have historical photographs of raising my kids I can't believe that very cool and the idea that like a cake could be vegan and gluten-free and be awesome is kind of a mind blower for a lot of people but it's true it is it's true so we're looking forward to that thanks I'm excited about that cool all right well I think we did it for this week's edition of ask me anything is that it I think we did it for this week's edition of Ask Me Anything. Is that it? I think we're done.

Okay, awesome. Thanks, you guys, for listening. If you have questions, keep sending them in to info at richroll.com. We're going to keep doing it as long as you guys keep sending us questions. Again, sorry for being a day late, but such as life for all your plant power needs go to richroll.com we got nutrition products signed copies of finding ultra we got the plant power way we got 100 organic cotton garments we have julie's meditation program which is flying off the shelf the digital shelf people are enjoying that happy to know that guys plant power tech teas peace and plants sticker packs temporary tattoos we have fine art prints. We have lots of cool stuff. So go there and check all that stuff out.

Thanks for supporting the show, you guys, for telling your friends, for sharing it on social media, for Instagramming it, for subscribing on iTunes, for subscribing to the newsletter. We appreciate you guys. Very much.

Yeah, so. And to connect with me, you can go to srimati.com um i'm also srimati on instagram and twitter that is s-r-i-m-a-t-i are we going to take this out with a song we are i think we're going to actually tyler wanted me to uh to uh post my man so it's a song about rich in my early journey it's a love song i wrote for you just another one cool have you heard it i have heard it i think i might have heard that song it's been a while i like that song all right cool all right see you guys in a couple days thanks so much peace plants namaste Namaste. Namaste.

Underneath your pain I feel your song Beating my heart The image reflected in your eye says it all. If this is an illusion, why can't I be deluded in you? I'm desperate to break through these frozen walls But I can't see through Pain is the chain of hope Keeping you from yourself Your expectations chisel into stone They form yourself

If this is an illusion, why can't I be deluded in you? I'm desperate to break through these frozen walls But I can't see through You walk in Feeling fine You walk in, feeling fine. You walk right in, there's a magic in your smile. I feel your touch once more for the first time My man

My man Thank you. La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la I shut your eyes and fall into my dream Take my hand Take my hand hand Take my hand Take my hand My man