The Rich Roll Podcast - The Transformative Power of Practicing Gratitude

Episode Date: May 11, 2014

Unless you are a new listener to the show, then you very well may be fatigued by my show opening mantra. If so, you're out of luck, because I'm going to repeat it here anyway: Each week I bring you the best most forward thinking, paradigm busting minds in health, fitness, athleticism, creativity, diet, nutrition, art, entrepreneurship, personal growth & spirituality…. The goal is simple: to empower YOU with the tools, the knowledge, the inspiration and motivation to take your life to the next level. To help you discover, unlock and unleash your BEST most AUTHENTIC self. I repeat it here because it's particularly relevant to today's guest and topic. I repeat it here because I need to remind myself that in order to make that leap to so unlock and unleash, I must say yes to experiences outside my comfort zone. I must be and remain open to new ideas that are unfamiliar. I must continue to be willing to risk. And I must be willing to experience things that still scare me. There is a truism I find myself repeating under my breath: you cannot transmit something you haven't got. In other words, if I hope to so transmit, by way of this podcast, the inspiration and tools I profess to offer, then I must walk that talk. Otherwise I strike a false chord – my words become inauthentic. And this house I bled to build becomes a mere house of cards, soon to fall in upon itself. After a rewarding 7 days in Ontario with Julie, I’m now traveling alone — in the midst of this extraordinary speaking tour across the Middle East — Beirut, Lebanon and three cities across Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar. Traveling to this part of the world intimidates me. Is it safe? Can I go outside and run without negative repercussion? And how will I and my message be received by cultures so different from my own? I love traveling. I can think of few things that excite me more than getting on a plane for a very long flight to some exotic place I have never before seen. And yet, I am definitely well outside my comfort zone. These are not places that I would ordinarily choose to visit. But that's what makes it so enthralling. I am wide open to the multitude of opportunities they potentially offer. It's about practicing “yes” to the new experiences that present themselves, irrespective of whatever feelings of fear, insecurity, doubt and anxiety that creep up and strive to keep my life small for the sake of comfort and security — emotions I know are underpinned by illusion – what the Hindus call Maya. For me, the practice of saying yes in the face of such fear and doubt has been paying dividends of late. I can't tell you what an incredible experience Beirut has been the last few days. A place in so many ways vastly different from what I expected. Imagine a mashup of old and new. Cote D’Azur meets Arabia. Parts almost indistinguishable from Milan or Paris or Tuscany – très chic European, sophisticated and urban teeming with beautiful, intelligent, curious people I had the privilege of spending time with. There's a reason it's called The Paris of the Middle East. But turn your head to peer behind my lovely hotel on the waterfront and you will see the unmistakable scars of war. The scaffold of the towering old Holiday Inn hotel – once the pride and pearl of the city — looms high yet decimated and rife with bullet indentations and gaping holes from shell fire artillery blasts. Demolished just after construction was completed when the civil war broke out on 1975, the scaffold still stands in a state of utter disreapir as a constant reminder of a different time, and the ever-present instability that underpins the city's elegant, cosmopolitan veneer. As I sit here tonight finishing up this post, I am now writing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Welcome to the Rich Roll Podcast, Episode 85 with Julie Pyatt. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to the show, to the RRP, to the Rich Roll Podcast. I am your host. My name is Rich Roll, and you might already know this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Each week, we bring to you the best, most forward-thinking paradigm, busting minds in health, fitness, athleticism, creativity, diet, nutrition, art, entrepreneurship, personal growth, and spirituality. The goal is to empower you with the tools and the knowledge and the inspiration and the motivation to take your life to the next level, to help you discover, unlock, and unleash your best, most authentic self. So how do we do that?

Well, to do that, we kind of got to do things that get us out of our comfort zone. We got to be open to new ideas that, you know, maybe are unfamiliar and experience things or be willing to experience things that just might scare us a little bit. And I'm kind of doing that right now. I'm in the midst of this incredible tour of the Middle East. Right now I'm in Beirut and I'm getting ready to fly this evening to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And, you know, I have to admit that traveling to this part of the world intimidates me a little bit. It's definitely out of my comfort zone and very far away from home. And I miss my family. And it's a part of the world that I'm not that familiar with. And it's easy to read new stories and sort of be intimidated or scared. You know, there's, you know, trouble in the Middle East or what have you. You know, is it safe or can I go out running without something happening to me? And then, you know, how is my message going to be received? Because

I'm here for speaking gigs and there's the cultural differences are, you know, vast in certain places. So I have no idea how what I have to say is going to, you know, how that's going to be received by people that are coming from, you know, a very different place in terms of their culture. So the point being that I'm definitely out of my comfort zone right now, but I'm going into this experience open, open to the new experience. And I'm practicing saying yes to new experiences. When people say, hey, come and do this or come and meet this person, I'm saying yes. When even maybe inside me, I'm like, I don't know. I don't know how that feels. But as a result of doing this, my horizons are being expanded exponentially

on an hour by hour basis. And it's been a truly amazing experience being here in Beirut the last couple of days. I've met so many incredible people. And in so many ways, it's so different from what I expected. It's this crazy mashup of old and new. I mean, parts of it look like the south of France. It's sort of this Côte d'Azur meets Arabia. And when I'm walking around parts of town, I could swear I'm in like Milan or Paris. It's very European. It's very sophisticated and very urban. And there's beautiful, intelligent, curious people everywhere I turn. And then right next door to my lovely hotel is the scaffold of the old Holiday Inn Hotel, which, when it was built in the mid-1970s, was sort of the pearl of the city. It was the finest hotel ever built. And right now it stands absolutely demolished and rife with

artillery blasts from getting shelled in Lebanon's civil war in 1975. And it still stands completely unbuilt and occupied by the military, you know, guys in camouflage and berets lingering around armored Humvees with automatic weapons. And they occupy it as a strategic vantage point, given it's on a high point of land in the neighborhood where you can kind of oversee the entire area. And it's pretty interesting, you know. And that being said, I'm just taking all that in and witnessing everything. And I had an incredible run along the water the other day, and I've been exploring the city. I was well received from my presentation, which went really well. And I'm just meeting fascinating people. And as a matter of fact, I just got back from riding for a couple hours in the mountains,

just outside Beirut. If you go outside of Beirut, like 15, 20 minutes, you're in these incredible mountains that are covered with cypress trees and it's green and lush and gorgeous. And I was riding with arguably Lebanon's most famous athlete, you know, particularly their most famous adventure athlete, a guy named Maxime Chaya, who's this insane dude. The guy has climbed the seven summits. He's skied to both the North and the South poles. And more recently he broke a world record for being the fastest guy. He was, it was a three guy team. They rode a boat all the way across the Indian ocean and they did it faster than anybody had. And I think they're the, it's the only three man team that's ever rode across the Indian ocean. So anyway, he's quite an extraordinary fellow and,

and quite a good cyclist as well. I would say. We were riding in these mountains and it was nothing like what I expected. It really felt like I was in riding through tiny mountain villages of Switzerland or in the Alps with these pitch switchbacks and narrow hairpins lined with beautiful cedar trees and lush green landscape. It was really stunning. So the point is this, I couldn't have dreamed that I would even have an opportunity to meet a guy like that, let alone ride a bike with him. And as Casey Neistat said in a previous episode, it's all about investing in experience, you know, learning how to say yes to new things. And this is what I'm doing and it's paying off and I wouldn't trade it for anything. So next up again, I'm going to Saudi Arabia.

I'm going to go to Riyadh. I'm going to go to Jeddah. And I'm going to a city called Al-Kabar, not places I would choose to go on vacation, but I really can't wait to see what I discover in these cultures that are so foreign to me. And it's such an honor to be able to present what I'm all about to these people.

And it's going to be interesting to see how it goes, how it's received, you know, what the reaction is going to be. And it's kind of like this recent experience I had. A couple of days ago, I was on France TV. A couple of months ago, there was a French TV crew that came to my house. They filmed me and I forgot about it. And then I received word, oh, it's finally going to air. And I had no idea that it was going to air on primetime television. And it's a show that's called Les Pouvoirs Extraordinaires du Corps Humain.

Sorry for butchering my French, but loosely translated, that means The Extraordinary power of the human body, which is a pretty cool subject. It was a fantastic experience being on this show. It's a very high gloss, high production value, primetime French television show that I have since found out is seen by 6 million people. So it was really cool to be introduced to France in such a high profile way. And I'm really happy with how I represented my message to that audience. But the show took a little bit of a weird turn. They had a counterpoint to what I was talking about, an expert nutritionist who chimed in

with some sort of wary words about adopting a plant-based diet that really I take issue with. Sort of, you know, this idea that, oh, if you're going to do this, it's going to be a full-time job. It's very difficult. And if you're a child or a pregnant woman and you really shouldn't do it, it's very complicated. You're going to have a hard time meeting your protein needs. And, you know, it might work for Rich, but there's nobody else who's doing it. And just a lot of unsubstantiated claims. And it was frustrating for me to hear that because I had no idea that they were going to kind of undercut what I had to say with somebody else who was taking a counterpoint point of view. But, you know, I can't control these things. And

I understand that in France, these ideas are new or perhaps they're threatening to their gastronomical culture or their heritage of great cooking and food. And, you know, at the end, it doesn't matter. It was an honor to be on the show. And this is interesting. But I did write down some thoughts on it. I wrote a blog post about my reaction to being on the show. And you can check that out at whichroll.com. If you do, check out the comments below the post. It's really quite fascinating, the discussion that takes place there. In any event, it's been an exercise in letting go, in surrender, and in understanding that I only have control over my actions and that the result of those actions, how they're received, really

isn't under my control. And in fact, it's really none of my business at all. And when I tend to think about it in that way, I can find peace in all of it. I can find gratitude for the experience. And gratitude is today's subject on the podcast. It's been a while, but Julie is now back on the show. I'm pleased to announce and gratitude is the primary topic of the day. This is a good one. We have great conversation. So I encourage all of you to be open and allow yourselves to receive some information that might be new to some of you. Maybe not, but maybe. In any event, enjoy. 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,

an 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,

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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.

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. Well, first of all, it's been a little time since you've been. You've chimed in as a co-host, but we haven't sat down to assess our relationship in a while. That's right. It's been a while since we've even talked, actually.

I know. We've been together for many days here in Canada, but we haven't had a conversation between the two of us yet. So what do we do? We have to podcast in order to do that, right? That's right. It's the new way to connect intimately with your significant other. Well, the truth is, Julie and I are here in Canada.

We've been together for five or six days traveling around to a couple different cities. And we don't have our kids with us, so we don't know what to talk about, right? Is that true? That sounds very dismal. I know. It's not really true, but it is kind of funny.

When you're living your life at home, so much of marriage and relationship is about logistics and planning, right? It is. So it's very easy to fall into a pattern of just having this kind of relationship that's all about how are we getting from point A to point B throughout the day. Well, and more specifically, it's actually more of a function of or a result of the amount of things that are going on right now in our life. Right. Well, our life's really busy. So there's a lot of traffic copying that goes on in order to like get everything done. Like, no,

I can't do that. Why? You know, you're, you're going to have, well, how are we going to do this? Yeah.

Explosion. Only in my, usually just in my mind, in your mind, that's happening. Explosions. And then you just sit there still and you let me have my process. And then I go,

and then I go, Oh yeah. When I get to the other end of it. I'm glad that— It'll be okay. It's probably good that I don't know what's going on in your mind. You have no idea. No, I have an idea.

Yeah, well, you know, nature rigged it that way. That's good. I don't think being able to be telepathic and read each other's minds would really actually be a productive, positive thing. I can do that, but I shut it off when it comes to you. Oh, you do, right? you want to share what you read well i mean i tend to wear my whatever's going on in my mind is pretty evident across my face so you don't have to be you don't have to be a psychic yeah exactly exactly so yeah so we thought um that we would uh do another one-on-one podcast. And also, just as a result of, you know, kind of a couple of the events that we've done

over the past couple days, there's been a lot of love for Julie. And when are you coming back on the podcast? We want to hear what you have to say, Julie. So here I am. So careful what you ask for. With mad wisdom. Yeah.

No, everybody here. And we probably should have sat down and said, what are we going to talk about today? But we didn't. We just turned the mic on and we'll just see what comes out. No, we'll just do it spontaneous and let it arise. But really, overall, I mean, we've just been completely in a gratitude cloud since we got to Canada. And just the people here are extraordinary.

And they've just been so amazing to us. I mean, what an amazing blessing to be able to meet these people face to face, people that we're in touch with on Twitter and Instagram, and also people we don't know. And it was just, it just really blew me away, blew my mind. Yeah, it's been an incredible experience. You know, I've been lucky enough to do quite a bit of traveling lately. And Julie hasn't had the opportunity to go everywhere with me. Most of the trips that I've done have been by myself or, you know, Tyler came to New York, but, but, you know, you did the cruise and you did, you know, we, we went to Costa Rica together

and we've done a couple of things, but I think this trip, you, you, you got a full blast of what it's like to go on the road. Of a real podcast fan. Take the road, take the RRP on the road of a real podcast take the road and take the rrp on the road it's it's incredible it's just it's amazing and i just i wanted to hug everybody and connect with everybody and you know we spent a lot of time doing that and i it's just it's an amazing experience it's really incredible right so what's what happened was uh we came out to this area of Ontario originally to do three different events, one of which got postponed. That was in Toronto.

That was supposed to be today, right? Today is the fourth. I don't think we could have done another one. No. No energy. Yeah, it takes a lot of energy. So the first one, we flew into Toronto. flew into Toronto. We spent the night here and then we went to Burlington, which is a city about,

I don't know, 45 minutes or an hour outside of Toronto to do this event that was put on by Kevin Brady and Advoka Health, his company. And it was for me to give my presentation, my keynote. And what was amazing about that was that it was on a Tuesday morning, right? Yeah, from 9am. And then there were some events after my keynote. And I thought, who's going to show up on a weekday morning, you know, to hear a presentation, like people have to go to work, right? And they had almost 500 people registered for the event. Not quite that many people showed up just because of circumstances, I'm sure. But their boss called them into work. Yeah, it was in this beautiful theater in Burlington, brand new.

I think it's just a couple of years old, a gorgeous theater. And tons of people came. And the mayor of Burlington sort of announced me, introduced me, which was great, in conjunction with Kevin, who really just put the whole event together because he's passionate about health and wellness and fitness. And he's an accomplished triathlete in his own right, as is his son, who he trains with, which is pretty cool. And we got to go and have dinner with his family the night before. Beautiful family. And after that event, after I did my deal, just sort of receiving people and meeting people,

it was just, it was so heartwarming and so touching. And really, just to have people come up and share their story and, you know, how they relate to, you know, my story and your story and their own personal, you know, obstacles and things that they've had to face and overcome and really intimate stuff, right? It's impossible to not, you know, be really touched by that. And the consistent theme throughout the whole thing was the podcast. I love the podcast. I have to drive. I have a two-hour commute or whatever. I look forward to the podcast. And I think that, you know, I sit in our garage or our, you know, little studio or wherever it is and talk into the microphone. And of course, I know there's an audience out there just based on the feedback on social media or comments or whatever. And I can see how many people are downloading it.

But that's different from actually going to a place that's very far away from where we live in a different country and to have so many people give us the positive feedback about, you know, what they're getting out of the podcast and what they want to, what, you know, I was sort of asking, well, what do you want to hear? Like what's missing? What would you like to hear more of? And they were saying more Julie, more Julie. And yeah, it was just, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing, but it's a lot of energy too, to be present and focused with each person and to you know have a have a you know a substantive meaningful exchange with every single

person but it's a worthy use of it for sure of course and you're great i mean you take so much time with everybody and like we said we already said on another podcast but um this one might go up earlier it might go well This one might go up earlier. It might go earlier. Well, I might put it up earlier because we have a long queue of now, and this is sort of present as to what's happening right now. So maybe I'll put this up in another week. So, I mean, you were just so present with everybody,

and you took so much time, and it was so amazing because the line was so long, and everyone was waiting. Just patiently. They weren't hassled. They weren't hurried. They were just waiting. So I think it's amazing. I mean, I met so many people that drove in from far away, you know, from hours away.

Yeah, people drove in. I mean, we were outside of Toronto. People drove in from Michigan, from Buffalo, from Montreal. Yeah, Montreal. That's right. Yeah, it was really cool. That's right. Yeah, it was really cool.

And so we did that, which was amazing, and got to get a nice long run along the lake in the morning in Burlington. And we had wonderful meals from Lettuce Love Cafe. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about Lettuce Love Cafe for a minute. So it's this little cafe in Burlington. Burlington is a town that you wouldn't on first glimpse think would be a place where you're going to be able to get super healthy, delicious plant-based meals. And there's this little cafe right on the main street, right by the water there, that just had fantastic food. And we had dinner catered at Kevin's house the night before the event. And then they catered the lunch at the event. And then we had dinner there after the event at the event at the event and then we had

dinner there after the event of course so we ate there a lot yeah so big shout out and big love to to all the people i mean if you're in burlington you gotta go yeah i mean truly extraordinary i mean some of the dishes that they have on their menu are um you know stand up to anything in la or new york that i've had yeah of course it's incredible i think it's a testament to uh how much uh enthusiasm there is for this plant-based revolution the plant power revolution that's right and there's a bakery also yeah it's associated they're the same people i think yeah do you know what the bakery's name is uh i want to say uh i'm gonna get it wrong a name it It's Christina or Kristen's or something like that.

No, that's wrong. No, yeah. I think it's an L name. I'll put it in the show notes. We'll figure it out. Yeah, this is why we should do research, get our facts straight before we do the podcast. We're being real. We're keeping it real.

But anyway, yes, there is a bakery that's the same people behind Lettuce Love Cafe. They do a great job. So thanks a lot. You guys really made our stay amazing. So then we went from Burlington to London, Ontario. London. Which is like two hours and change outside of Toronto. And it's a college town.

It's a really cool place. And when they say London, they're not messing around. They're not kidding. It's like a little London. They have all the streets. And if you're not careful, they'll not messing around. They're not kidding. It's like a little London. And if you're not careful, they'll put you in the London Tower. Yeah. Like there's buildings that look like Parliament and all the streets are. The River Thames.

Yeah. And the river that runs through the town is the River Thames. And I know that because I went on a run along the river the morning before. I was like, oh, wow, the River Thames. They're not messing around here. They're not. The London thing. They're serious.

So this event, well, the background with this is that when we knew we were coming to the region, we reached out to these friends that we had met, Jillian Mandich and Ange Peters, who have the Holistic Health Diary podcast. Jillian Mandich and Ange Peters who have the Holistic Health Diary podcast and I had the honor of being their first podcast guest on their first episode. We. We. Well you did it too but on separate occasions. No we were there together. No what happened was I did an event in Ottawa last year. I think we were prior to that. Oh they packaged us? so i met jillian the first time because she came from london to ottawa to uh interview me for her podcast the morning after i did that event um which was like a year ago no almost about a year ago right and so we met her and and uh you know we were both

really impressed with jillian and angge's enthusiasm and their commitment to the wellness movement. And there are girls that really follow through and are doing some really cool stuff in London. And we both started following them on social media. And so when we knew we were coming to the area, we reached out and said, hey, we're going to be around. You know, maybe we could, I think at the time it was just like, hey, let's try to hook up or see you. I think at the time it was just like, hey, let's try to hook up or see you. And then they just took the ball and ran with it and created this whole basically one-day retreat in London that was really, you know, there's a lot of things going on. There was yoga.

There was the singing. Crystal sound healing. And lots of vendors and cool stuff. It was supposed to be like this one-day kind of respite from your life to recharge. But it was really oriented around the two of us coming and appearing. And we thought, oh, this is cool, great. And they sold it out. And it was at this beautiful winery outside of London. And they had an entire dinner that was prepared by the chef at this location who got our cookbook

and prepared recipes loosely based on our recipes. Inspired by. Inspired by, of course. And I got to give my keynote, and Julie topped off the evening by singing a song with a beautiful cellist, 17-year-old boy. It was so cool. It was just a really touching evening. And we did, I don't know what the order of the podcast we're going to go up, but we did interview Jillian and Ant for a podcast. So I don't know if that's going to get

a lot of us on that. So we're going to repeat some of this stuff, but it was an incredible, it was an incredible day. And again, it was another experience of really getting to meet people up close and personal and, and again, hear their stories and, and, and really connect. And it really just gave me, um, there's such a through line. Like it gave me, you know, a more, um, I guess it gave me greater enthusiasm for the path that we're on and the trajectory that we're on and to really kind of double down and keep going. You know, the, the fact that so many people are responding to it and are enjoying the podcast and are getting something out of it of value is, you know, it's incredible. You know, it just,

it moves me to tears. It really did. I was very emotional to be able to experience that. And so I think that, you know, it's more than just, hey, you know, people are like, oh, is this part of your book tour? You go around and say, I'm like, not really. It's not really. I mean, yeah, I get to sign books and that's great, but I wouldn't call it a book tour. It's really just, we're kind of going around and connecting with people really through a variety of different kinds of events. Yeah. And everybody always, a lot of people were saying to us, the first thing they would say is, I feel like we're really great friends because I listen to the podcast, but you don't know anything about us or about me. And I just feel like this podcast is that kind of medium. And we really are friends because if you're connecting to the information

at this level, it's not like we have to take time to get to know each other. It's like we're kind of already settled in. So it's just a really great, it's a great way kind of already settled in so it's a it's just a really great um so it's a great way to connect and a great way to spread uh the word about plant-based nutrition podcasting is powerful man it's it's really so what are we gonna say i don't know yeah like that just puts the pressure on me like every now i start getting all up in my head like no like what am i gonna say now i have to really deliver, right? But I think that, you know, in sort of an overarching way, one of the things that I'm getting out of it is just how great Canada is in terms of their interest and enthusiasm for this wellness movement. You know, we're back in Toronto now.

And, you know, we're back in Toronto now. We had made our travel plans to come back to Toronto after London because there was going to be this other event, which didn't transpire. But we just decided to, you know, maintain our travel plans and stay here and just have a day and a half to recharge and get a little bit of work done before and see Toronto before we head back and go to a couple of cool restaurants. And, you know, Toronto has been amazing for me. I spoke at the last two, uh, Toronto VegFest, which is like the Toronto VegFest is like the biggest VegFest in North America, I believe. It's huge. It's the, the amount of people that pass through that is incredible. And that was the VegFest that I, that I went to right when my book came out and kind of delivered my keynote to a large audience for the very first time. And then went back last year and just got such a great

response and felt so warm and welcomed here. And it continues. I went out running this morning and somebody was even running and they turned around. This woman turned around and ran after me and said, oh, Rich Roll, I got to get a picture with you. And we're running and they like turned around this woman turned around and ran after me and said oh you're you know rich roll i gotta get a picture with you and we're like running and she's holding her phone you know and i'm like wow you know this never happens at home you know this is cool i think i'm gonna stay in toronto i'm feeling the love so much so i think that brings us to the real kind of overarching theme and what we wanted to talk about today, which is gratitude and being in touch with gratitude. Yes, that's right. And it's just, to experience it,

it's almost like it's exponential when you touch into it and you experience it. It amplifies many times over inside of you. And to meet all these people and to connect at this level and to sit with them and listen to their story and find out who they are, the transformation they're experiencing in their lives, it just blessed us, you know, a thousand times over for every single story that we heard. And, you know, I've just been literally vibrating for the last week with that immense emotion of gratitude and being grateful for being able to serve in this way and able to connect in this way. And I think it just, it really is an emotion or a state that also can

be cultivated as a part of everyday living and living for transformation and living in the highest vision of yourself. Because this effect is not unique to us or not unique to this experience. It's with everything in your life. And, you know, they always say if you can cultivate an attitude of gratitude, you know, there's a lot that can be experienced through that portal. And it's always a choice of perception. You can always find something to be grateful for. I mean, yeah, we find a lot to be grateful for in this situation. But in every situation, you can always choose to find, you know nugget of gratitude which will propel you into a heightened experience and a more expanded experience yeah i think uh cultivation cultivating

gratitude that's sort of the touchdown word because gratitude really is a practice and gratitude is something that that comes hard me. And it's a concept that I was not that familiar with or, um, didn't really understand until, uh, I got sober and I came into, you know, the programs of recovery and you hear, you know, anybody who's in recovery or know somebody in recovery knows there's all these sort of slogans, right? These little quips. And one of them is attitude of gratitude, cultivate this attitude of gratitude. It's like, yeah, it sounds so trite and silly. And, but it is, it is true, but it is a practice. It's something that you have to cultivate. It's something that you have to really kind of focus on. For me, my default state is not gratitude.

You have a facility for getting into gratitude much more easily than I do. And even when things are really good in my life and I have no reason to complain, which is most of the time, I'm very blessed, especially right now. blessed, especially right now, it's very easy for me to still, you know, look at, I focus, my default is to focus on all the things that are wrong, right? And I think that's a common thing with a lot of people. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. But you know, well, you know, I'm not gonna be able to do that. Why can't I do that? And that guy didn't call me back. And, you know, that's, those are the things that I naturally gravitate to and mentally kind of hang on to. These are my reasons why I can't be happy right now. And that gets exacerbated if I'm hungry, if I'm angry, or I'm lonely, or if I'm tired, right?

Which brings up another thing I want to talk about on the podcast, which is being tired and sleep and balance and all of those things. But I think where you can come in and maybe provide some guidance or some helpful tools is on the subject of gratitude. Because I think for a lot of people, it's difficult to kind of connect with. So what are some of the things that people can do who struggle with this to help them connect with it a little bit better? Okay, well, I mean, specifically, so all of experiences is simply a chosen perspective. It's a perception. You know, it's like, it's like, you know, people say, well, is your glass half empty or half full? You know, how are you choosing to look at it? So I think that, you know, it's great to acknowledge that, you know, a default is not to be grateful and to be in resentment and to see the negative in everything. And then one step beyond that is to understand that we are alling and you're looking at the lack in any event

situation circumstance or person you can make the decision to stop the behavior yeah it's well see i think that's the thing what happens is people say well is your glass half empty or half full like make it you know make it half full and develop an attitude of gratitude but there's no what's the roadmap? Well, the roadmap is first to understand that it is in your power to make the shift. I mean, so if you're doing this as a default, I would say that possibly one thing to consider is that you've gotten lazy and you're letting your mind run you. So you're not your mind, you're your heart, and you're much more

than just your brain. So the brain can experience looping patterns of thoughts. Explain what a looping pattern is for somebody who's not sure. It's like an automatic, like you're on automatic. You're like, well, I always do that. When I see the dog, I always kick him. No, I don't mean that literally. But yeah, it's like, well, whenever I get tired, this is what happens, right? Well, I think a good example is we all know those people that are – they just – you know, there's a cloud over their head all the time or they're a professional victim and nothing ever works out. And they're always pointing their finger like, oh, I didn't get the job. I got fired again.

Or even like the guy who always seems to end up in a fight at the bar and it's always somebody else's fault. And it's like, what's the common denominator? The common denominator is yourself and what you're bringing into the equation. And if you keep getting that same result, you have to look in the mirror and try to figure out how are you co-creating or how are you contributing to that? And more often than not, it's that looping, you know, behavior or attitude in your mind of, you know, that guy is more than me or why can't I have that? Or, you know, the world always wrongs me or whatever it is, that story that you tell yourself that becomes reality because you're looping it so often that you are perpetuating

this attitude that you then project out onto others and onto the world that facilitates that negative result. that you have the power to change any situation in any moment. Like in every single moment, it's an opportunity. It's a fresh new moment, almost like you're reborn in every moment. So you can let go of that story, of that program, that I'm this kind of person, or I'm always resentful when, or if I don't get sleep, then I'm like this. That is just a story in your head, and your body is following suit to that. So you can start to reprogram it,

and you can start to put a different lens on it. And when you see yourself looping, you can make the decision to stop and put a new perspective on it. And so it can be anything from the surrounding circumstances. It could be, yes, I'm physically, you know, acknowledging I'm physically tired, but I am so grateful right now for this experience in my life

and this ability to serve in this way that I'm going to... Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but like you can say that, like I'm just putting myself in my own shoes when I experience this. So I know when I'm starting to loop, right? And I'm telling myself that negative story. And I can point to all of these examples, all these events over time that fortify that story and make it true in my mind. And the truth is I'm choosing which events to focus on in the past that support that without really looking at anything else in my life that might say something different. But it becomes – there's so much momentum behind it.

It develops so much power. So putting the brakes on becomes very difficult. And to just stop and say, okay, I'm grateful is the mere act of just saying that. Does that begin to shift it because sometimes it's just is that you know those are just words how do i get in touch with that emotionally well i would say the mere act of of realizing that it's happening and not just being in it the mere act of realizing that it's happening like just like in a you you recognize there's a problem, right? So just the mere act of watching it like an observer, that in itself will start to heal it and transform it.

The other possible thing that you could, there's a few things, very easy. You could take a breath. You could see that it's going and you could choose to connect to your breath and you could take the longest inhale that you can muster and the longest exhale. And you could repeat that for even a minute, one minute of inhale, exhale. And it would shift already what's going on.

But the thing is, is that your mind or your ego is attached to that um to that feeling and it's going to want to go there it's going to want to be right just like the attic wants to you know have that drink or go to mcdonald's or what have you it wants to it wants to feed on that negative thing yeah that negative thing feels good basically what you're saying is you have to give yourself a time out exactly to put yourself in time out that's right you should give yourself a timeout. Exactly. You have to put yourself in timeout. That's right. You should give yourself a timeout. To reboot the hard drive. And the breath is so powerful. It seems kind of silly if you don't understand it or you've never done it.

It's very, very powerful. And my guess is if you did it for a minute, you would be already shifted. It might still be there, but it wouldn't be there in the intensity that it is. Another thing you could do is you could hum. shifted. It might still be there, but it wouldn't be there in the intensity that it is. Another thing you could do is you could hum. My humming meditation, I prescribe it for everything. I know you are. But you could hum, and that would definitely shift your energy. You don't have to hum for the 30-minute meditation that I have. If you just hummed for one minute, even 30 seconds,

have. If you just hummed for one minute, even 30 seconds, suddenly everything would be shifted. And the third thing that I have for you is you could put a rubber band around your wrist. You could say, I'm going to not engage a negative, that negative programming looping. And you could simply snap, pull that out and snap your wrist like when it happens, you might need like an ultra, an ultra snapping band. Well, I think it's like some sort of Pavlov's dog kind of way of doing it. Or, you know, on some level it almost harkens back to, you know, the Catholic ascetics that would whip themselves right you know what i mean like they take the they so dire on the back or whatever what do they call

it mutilation what is it called i forget the term for that but but no it's not that um but i think the first thing you have to do which you alluded to is to be able to really get in touch with this distinction between your mind and your higher consciousness. And we talk about this a lot, like I'm repeating myself on this podcast, I'm sure. Yeah, but it needs to be repeated. But that's the most important thing, because if you don't understand that you have a consciousness that exists outside of your thinking mind, then it becomes almost impossible to stop the looping. Because if you think that your mind is you, then you don't know that you have actually

the power to control how it's operating. And you don't understand that you actually have a choice about which messages your brain is sending to you. You have a choice as to whether you're going to entertain and give those thoughts, those ideas, those images energy or not. So it's that idea that you mentioned, the idea of becoming the observer. And once you understand that there's a dichotomy, right? There's a distinction between these two things and that you have a choice to look down on your thinking brain and go, oh, that's interesting that I'm looping again on that negative thought.

brain and go, oh, that's interesting that I'm looping again on that negative thought, you know, that idea that like, you know, whatever it is, like, oh, I'm not worthy or, you know, nobody's going to love me or whatever it is that is your Achilles heel. And you can say, oh, I'm going to put the brakes on that. That's interesting that my brain is doing it. I don't have to believe that. I don't have to entertain that. I actually can tell myself a different story.

I can create a new story and let me write down, let me think back on my past and write down all the evidence of things that have occurred in my life that can support this new story and start giving that energy. That's right. And if you're very lucky and blessed, like we were and you were this weekend, and you have an experience where you experienced an extreme amount of gratitude, you can grab that again. So when your mind starts looping, you can take a moment, breathe, and drop into your heart, feel your heart, and remember, draw again this experience back that you felt, that gratitude that you felt.

And it can be any experience, the gratitude you felt when your baby was born, when you met your soulmate, when you got your dog the first day, anything. It can be anything at all. Draw into that experience and then use that experience. Because you can choose to participate in any negative looping pattern or you can rewrite your own story. And when we're talking about life transformation and what you and I have created together through many years of commitment and creativity and heart and courage and immense struggle and near death. That's being a little dramatic. It's not really. It may be in some cases. But that's what we're talking about.

We're talking about this is your life. This is your life, meaning everyone's life, whoever's listening. This is your life. And you have the power to live it in the manner that you want to live it. So we must start to understand that we are not our looping thought patterns. The mind is beautiful and should be used. You should be using it. Your mind should not be running you.

And if your mind is running you, you're not in the driver's seat anymore. you. And if your mind is running you, you're not in the driver's seat anymore. And all of these automatic things, they could be programs from your childhood, from society, from any kind of structures of the ways things were, and you're attaching to them and making a story about who you are as a being. And it's all just not true. The idea of putting yourself in timeout and connecting with your breath, like it sounds funny. But I think we actually do that. We're hardwired to do that intuitively without even thinking about it. Like, you know, think about, you know, oh, you just had a, you know, your boss just fired you or your boss just told you you didn't do a good job. And any kind of event that's, like, puts you in some sort of emotional, temporary emotional crisis. You know, there's that idea of, like, I have to, you know, you go into the bathroom and you lock yourself in the stall and you need a moment right well

that's what you're doing your your your your sort of sympathetic nervous system is driving you to extract yourself from that situation and you know you're the hyperventilation or it's like you're breathing because you're trying to um you know calm yourself down and get a grip, right? So it's not that different from what we might do instinctually, but you're just creating a structure around it, like a more proactive kind of proactive. Well, and a positive structure, so not just taking yourself out of the timeout

and then going and telling yourself how wronged you were or how right you are or how screwed up everybody else is and how, you know, everyone else is wrong and you're right, a time to actually take yourself out and go, okay, I'm making my own experience and I'm going to shift this and I'm going to choose in this moment to see the highest potential in that experience. You know, if somebody wronged you or you feel, you know, stepped on or hurt, you can choose to look at that person and say, you know what? That person's doing the best they can. They're just trying to get home. They're just trying to find their way.

And like they kind of stepped on me in the way. And you know what? I'm going to choose to just release it because I don't want to be in that negative vibe. Well, and by carrying that resentment, you're the one who's suffering, right? It's like you're punishing yourself for it. Let's say, just for purposes of example, you really have been wronged. Like, you did nothing wrong and somebody wronged you terribly. Yeah, like in a court of law.

And the other person is completely at fault, right? Yeah, like in a court of law. And the other person is completely at fault, right? So you have the ability to have justified resentment or justified anger over that situation. Like, that guy did that to me. And you can create a whole story around that. And you can collect a bunch of people who will agree with you, right? And they'll say, you're right.

That was really wrong. Like, I can't believe they did that to you. And then it just foments this resentment. But when you think about it, you're the one who's suffering. It's like you're creating additional suffering for yourself over this person that wronged you. The person who wronged you isn't suffering as a result of your resentment. You are. So you're actually making another mistake, right? That's right. And I mean, we need to feel our feelings. So it's not about like, oh, everything's great and I feel like you cut my leg off, but I don't care. No, that's not it. So you feel the emotion and recognize that you feel wronged or you feel hurt.

And give yourself like a limit of time, like, you know, I'm going to feel that, really feel it and get in touch with it and admit it. And then you can choose to redefine it and put it away and let it go, you know? But how do you overcome that resentment? By letting it go. Right, but how do you let it go, right? What is the actual practice of letting it go. Right, but how do you let it go? What is the actual practice of letting it go and getting into a place of, if you can forgive that other person, even when they're totally in the wrong, that creates a freedom for you, right?

But that's very difficult to do. How do we begin the process of walking down that path? Again, I think it's acknowledging the the truth of the hurt feelings like if you're really pissed like really get in touch with that like acknowledge it don't stuff it don't act like it didn't happen or that you shouldn't have felt that way if you if you feel really angry or really hurt you should acknowledge it yeah i feel really angry and really hurt and then you can choose to um to release it in a number of ways. I mean, if it was, I mean, what I just said is understanding that everybody's just trying to make it home.

And when I say that sentence, everyone's just trying to make it home, is everyone's just trying to realize themselves. That's what their life is about. And we're all just providing experiences and reflections and opportunities for that to happen. And so the most important perception that you're having is your own. You know, it's about your own evolution. So if somehow karmically something, you know, happened in the way where there was an interaction and you were part of that, you know, you can just acknowledge that that was part of the plan and you had this interaction with this person and you can choose to depersonalize it, like get out of this whole personal idea that it was so personal to you, you know. Like it was some thin data against you and it probably didn't have that much to do with you? Well, you know, and the thing is, is, I mean, everything has different levels of perspective. So from where I sit, you know, there's a perspective for,

you know, something from many different views. Like if you start to take a bird's eye and you start to pull out and pull out and pull out and pull out, then things look very different. So that's just a good metaphor for me to understand that if I'm in a situation and it's really painful and I can't understand it, you know, and I can't make sense of it, I can feel my pain and then release the situation to the trust that I have in the cosmos and in the plan that this was, this happened for a reason, I might not understand it right now, but I'm going to release my personal attachment and my connection with the other person and the whys and the, you know, it should have gone down like this and why didn't it happen this way? Just let it go. Let it go and just, you know, send,

I wouldn't say, I'm not going to say send anything, just call in grace. And a beautiful thing that I love is to ask for complete forgiveness and complete forgetfulness. Forgiveness. And forgetfulness. Ask to be able to forgive the other person. And forget. Literally, like, just disconnect from the whole episode and just release it. A couple things that are helpful for me in dealing with these situations are, first of all, and I've said this before on the podcast too, but we are, again, another thing that we're hardwired to do is to immediately judge a situation.

So this was bad. This thing happened to me, and it's in the bad category. But the truth is, we really don't have, we have almost no information on whether that event was in our interest or not in our interest. We just don't have the information. Like, you won't know for years later until other things happen in your life, whether something that happened to you set you on a better trajectory or worse so that's a good sort of mental trick that i use to try to get out of trying to judge a situation and the second thing is just get out pen and paper you

know and start writing it down like just just write you know write get out a journal and start writing this is what happened just let it all out like he did that i can't believe that and didn't just write it until you can't write about it anymore and then you know put it in a drawer for a day or you know then tomorrow maybe burn it or it's a way of like purging that emotion out of your body so that you can kind of start anew i like the burning part the burning part yeah no i like that it's actually really powerful well you what you're doing is you're creating ceremony around these things, and those things are powerful. And it seems like, oh, do I really have to burn it?

Well, I don't know. It's just an idea. It's an idea of giving the process meaning, putting meaning onto that. If you burn something, then you really are saying, I'm letting this go. This has disappeared from me. That's right. There's something onto that. Like if you burn something, then you really are saying like, I'm letting this go. This is, this has disappeared from me. That's right. There's something to that. The other thing is, uh, is to implement at least the 24 hour rule, which is to get a bat. Well, yeah, in a padded room and go crazy. You could do that. Yeah. They're just emotions. They're not going to kill you. You should, You should feel them. You shouldn't repress the emotions.

You have to find a way to exercise them out of your system in a healthy and productive way. The 24-hour rule is all about not reacting. Instead of impulsively reacting to a situation where your programming just takes over and you say the thing you always say when you're in that situation without thinking about it is to extract yourself out of the situation and don't do anything for at least 24 hours. Is that from AA? Is that an AA principle? It's not. It's not strictly that, but I mean, it's a tool that I've learned in recovery, which is, you know, that guy said that and like, you immediately want to send the email back. Like you get an email that incites you, right? And you're like, oh, I'm going to show him.

I'm going to tell him. He's so wrong. Don't do it. You can write the email. Just don't send it. Never send it. And make sure that in the to line on the email, you don't have the name up there

so you don't accidentally send it. Just write it without an address in it so you can't screw up and send it to the person by accident. And then you can look at the email the next day and you'll probably feel a little bit different. But at least that way you're getting the upper hand on not being reactive. You're giving yourself time to process something before you just do something impulsively. And those impulsive actions usually don't end up in a good result. Yeah, that's wise. I think that's wise. Except for if we get an argument and you say,

I need 24 hours, I'm going to be like, uh-uh, we're talking about it right now. Right. That doesn't always work so good either. No, but that's a good technique. The other thing was something that I talked about with Asher on the podcast, which his thing his his uh his protocol of implementing the of course rule what is that yeah so you don't even listen to the podcast honey i have no time i'm writing the cookbook all right and books and music no the his i don't know what he calls it but but basically what it entails is you know when something has happened to you and it's not what you wanted to have happen, you tell the story. And at the end of the story, you say, of course.

Like, I got fired from that job. Of course. Of course. Because then it makes you look at, well, why did that happen? And I think what it does is it makes you look at your side of the street, right? Because people don't want to look at their side of the street they want to they want to take inventory on the other guy's side of the street but they don't want to look in the mirror and say how did i co-create this how did i contribute to this result occurring and also i mean of course could always

could also be like yeah because this is the divine plan and this is my life plan and it's unfolding exactly as it should so So of course this happened. And also to look back at other things that have happened in your past that at the time you thought were terrible, but now you're like, oh, thank God that happened. Yeah. Which is always. Yeah. Almost always.

Right. And so that helps you understand that, again, this idea of not having all the information and to try to get into a practice of refraining from from judgment judgment of yourself predominantly but also judgment of others and of situations and what category they have to fall into like why is the human brain so wired to organize everything and label everything and put everything in boxes that's's what I keep asking. I know. I like that, though, you know? Why do we have to know so many details about so many things in the mind? Well, sometimes it's helpful.

Sometimes it is. Like for driving across Canada in a car. Yeah, that was the thing we were arguing in the car because I'm driving and I needed her to navigate, but she's not so into navigating. I just was like, just drive. I'm like, no,

I don't know where I am. You have to tell me where to go. You're a very thorough navigator. Well, I like to know And it's good, and you got us here, and I appreciate that. I really do.

I like to know where I'm going. And I just probably would have gotten there a different way a little bit later, possibly. Yeah, maybe. But I would have arrived. But anyway, I appreciate it.

So what else about gratitude? So are you grateful now? Yeah, I'm very grateful now. Awesome. I'm very grateful. No, that's cool. You know, I've had a great experience here this week. And I'm excited for the next little part of this trip that I'm about to go on.

Yeah, it's great. I mean, I think just to wrap that up, and before we move on to the next little part of this trip that I'm about to go on. Yeah, it's great. I mean, I think just to wrap that up, and before we move on to the next topic, I just feel like this time is really exciting because as we start to understand more and more and more that we're actually creating our experiences, you can start to observe your mind entering into certain judgments or perceptions

about any single thing that's happening. And you can literally rewrite it, reformat it, reframe it. And you'll see if you even do that one time within a very short amount of time, even an hour, even a half hour, the feelings and emotions that were attached to the original story that you were telling that was coming in will just be gone. And then it's not even relevant. It's not even in the storyline anymore. It's just gone. Well, you're overwriting your old story with a new story. Right. So it's about putting energy into that new story. And it always goes back to pen and paper, though, you know, for me, like, i have to write it out i have to see it and that practice

not typing on a keyboard but actually writing in a journal really you know because it forces you to kind of slow down you know because you and it's very tactile and there's something about that that allows you to kind of connect with it in a different way. It is. It's more powerful. It's really powerful. It is. So get out your moleskins. That's right. So, and, you know, that was something that Swami talked about when he came to our house, right? The story that we tell ourselves and connecting. Like he used the example of the branch, right? Yeah, what he was using was, he would say that...

Swami, what's his name? Which one? Nityananda. Nityananda, right. So we have this, explain who he is. Well, Nityananda is a realized Indian saint that I studied with for some time, I think in maybe, I don't know, 2006. Several years ago. I don't know. 2006 or I don't know.

It was a while ago. But anyway, he was just a very beautiful catalyst for me at a certain point in my life. I met him and he just gave me some really amazing nuggets of wisdom and I was able to receive them fully at that time. And he's also the one who named me Ma Ananda Srimati. Right, which is why you go by Srimati. Which is why you go by Srimati, because I tried to shorten it so it wasn't Ananda Srimati.

But it was a really beautiful experience. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. And I received that name at a time that I was very very very sad and feeling very lost and it gave me you know a tremendous amount of of energy and beauty and creativity in my life so all of my artist stuff and my music that's why I release it under Srimati but anyway one thing that he used to talk about was really, really profound is that he would talk about that, you know, we have a story that we tell ourselves. will selectively choose certain events, circumstances, situations, and they will form a chain of life story around those specific events when in reality there are thousands of moments, tens of thousands,

hundreds of millions of moments. Every second is a moment. Yeah, so everything's happening all the time. There's all these things happening. When you think about that kind of human experience and the fact that we don't even perceive, you know, we perceive such a small percentage of what's really going on in various different ways. So, he would say likely the person, the human will pick out these serious events, and they will make a chain, and he called it a chain, because it's most, you know, it's a bondage really of their story. And it will be things like, oh, I was, you know, I was never loved when I was a baby.

And then the next thing would be like, oh, I was, you know, I was never picked for the team. Or in the next one's like, oh, no one ever loved me. And then, oh, I never had a girlfriend. And then, oh, I was ugly. And then pretty soon this whole thing is like gaining power, like through this chain that you're making. And also, he said, some people also make a chain of like happy things, but it's much less common. So, they'll say, oh, I was always lucky. I always win.

You know, I'm so beautiful. I always get what I want, you know. And he said, but what he's saying is both of those experiences are complete lies. They're just insanity made up by the human experience. But the person who's telling themselves that positive story ends up, that perpetuates a more positive life experience. It does. That would be a better way to go, but it's still an illusion. So it is its own form.

Even that positive idea is still a form of bondage. It's still an illusion, and it's still like the pendulum, right, of the light and dark, this polarized experience that we have. Like, oh, that's a great experience. Oh, that's such a tragic experience. But the thing in consciousness, when you start connecting with your spirit and your soul, is that you're the consciousness that is beneath all of it, and you're never changing. You're forever radiating and conscious and existing and expanding.

You're not – so the good and bad is kind of like relative. You're like, well, is it good? Is it bad? It doesn't matter once you've connected with that kind of energy beneath it. And so what he was saying is he would use the word, you know, unclutch because he didn't, you know, it's not a word. But what he was saying is the same thing that I was kind of saying in the beginning. It's like, just drop it. You can drop it anytime you want. You're not your mind.

You're not that story. You're not that history that you're telling yourself. And so now is the time. To sort of protract along that argument, though, his sort of idea would then to be to not have a story at all. Well, that's the ultimate. Like if you're in an Eckhart Tolle kind of state of… Master of presence. You know, master of being in the now, there is no story. There is no story.

There is no time. That's right. Time, this human construct that we have, this linear idea of our experience, is also an illusion, right? So to really master consciousness would be to get in touch with the idea that, yeah, there is no story. There's no past. There's no present. There's only now. But see, that's what meditation is. And that's why that's the practice meditation technique, the practice of getting to a moment where you experience that.

Not the actual meditation technique, but what you might experience at some point within that. Where you're, it's like in our, it's like that line, you know, I'm everything and nothing. It's all. It's like we're everybody, we're I'm everything and nothing. It's all. It's like we're everybody. We're all connected. We're all living the same life.

Yeah, I guess that if you could really unclutch in that way, then that's a big part of how that would reduce anxiety. all of that, and you're just in the present moment, then there's no holding on to any of that, and that will just immediately sort of reduce your stress level. That's right. And it's about being in a state of being. So in being, you're existing in consciousness, right? And it doesn't mean that you sit in your cave or your apartment and you do nothing or your house. It means that, you know, I think the deeper that you get into it, the closest that I can describe it is you're living spontaneously. So anything that's spontaneous is a worthy action. You know, it's a worthy use of energy because it's spontaneous in the moment.

It's natural. So... I think what happens is that fear starts to crop into this because we do hold on so strongly, so firmly to this idea of identity, what our identity is. Like, I'm the guy who does this.

And so meditation or these practices are asking you to let go of that. And that's terrifying. To the ego. Doesn't want to let go. And sort of a common thing in sobriety is, you know, when you come in, the idea is, and these are spiritual principles that apply, you know, irrespective of whether you know, when you come in, the idea is, and these are spiritual principles that apply, you know, irrespective of whether you're, you know, a recovering alcoholic, these are just spiritual principles that have a lot of power and truth to them. This idea of surrender, right? Like,

oh, I have to surrender to my disease, or I have to, you know, surrender to the present moment, or surrender to the idea that, you idea that I don't have control over people, places, and things. And that's equally terrifying because it threatens identity. It threatens our idea of identity. And I think what most people infer from that is this sense of losing a sense of who they are. Like, well, if I do that, then who am I? It's defeat. It's now I'm going to become some kind of, you know, mindless drone who has no control, you know, like that. That's not what it is. But that's where we go, right? And I think that that is what prevents a lot of people from sort of attempting to implement these things into their life. And that's why it's so scary. I think

that's the barrier. Yeah, that's the huge barrier, because the ego wants to survive, and it wants you to think that it's it, that that's it. And if I don't have my ego, then who am I? Then who am I? I'm nobody. So how can you address that? Well, I mean, you do have, even in consciousness, you have an ego, because you're here in a human body. But I guess it's like the identification with it. So it's not, in my experience, and you know, I'm only where I'm at, you know, on my own journey. But it's not like, once you've connected with consciousness, you're never angry, or you're never, you know, jealous, or you never have an emotion that comes up. You have it come up, but you, you're in, you can observe it, you watch it, you're like,

oh, there's that thing, you know, and then you, you know, you make your choice in the moment of how, you know, how to respond to that. You can witness it or, you know, you can transform it or, you know, just you can know what it is. So I think it's, I think it's illusion to think that, you know, that you're, you know, you're never going to have these experiences. And I've experienced with enough masters and gurus and spiritual teachers and stuff to know that, you know, they all have their humanity. Let's just say that. You can attest to that. Right. I mean, we're all human. So, you know, we have these drives, you know, sex, power, money, it's all there. So, yeah, and that's, the thing is,

is that meditation is really the only way that I know that you can really start to get behind that. And, you know, it's not a jog. It's not a running meditation. It's a meditation where you're actually inquiring, you know, into the deeper aspects of yourself. So, and the thing is that motivates me and that is, you know, true for everybody is all of this is just temporary. It's not going to be here forever. You know, we're not, that's one of the reasons why I have so much gratitude and I'm so present and you're so present. And I wanted to, you know, put my arms around all these people and I wanted to look at them and I wanted to hear who they were.

I wanted to do that because I understand that it's fleeting. We're having this beautiful experience. It's not going to be forever. Nothing's forever. Everything in this world will go away. you know just to kind of uh you know how i relate to all of this on a personal level part of this story that i used to tell myself and that i still hold on to that you know the kind of things that you're talking about threaten is this um is this idea of self-will like i'm very attached to my self-will like i'm you know like the story i will tell myself is you know i was never uh you know i'm not a super talented athlete but i was able to get pretty good at swimming and do pretty well

at ultraman because i just i know how to work hard. I know how to go the extra mile. And I was never the smartest kid, but I know how to buckle down and study and get it done, and I can get the good grade because I'll go the extra mile and I'll try hard. And that's part of how I construct this identity of who I am around those ideas. And that's part of a story that I will tell myself. And so when you say, well, you have to surrender that story. That story isn't exactly true. You have to let that go if you want to sort of grow and expand your consciousness. I don't want to do that. I kind of like that story. And my ego is attached to that story, right? So it's really about surrendering my ego. And that's where it gets into this idea of like, well, if I do that, then who am I?

That's defeatism. That's like throwing my arms up and giving up, right? And I know that that's not true. And I've struggled with that. And I've come to the other side of that. When I'm not consciously dialed in, I'll go back to that story, right? Like we forget. That? Like it's, we forget. That's why it's a practice. That's why you have to continue to work at it and continue

to do it or you will resort back to your old story or your default. So I think for somebody who's listening, that's a common thing. Like, well, that's giving up. So I was hoping you could kind of elaborate on a little bit, a little bit on that idea. I can try. I mean, first of all, I mean, I think that, you know, the world is really grateful that you have that amazing work ethic and that you're able to go the extra mile. And if you weren't created like that, you wouldn't have been able to do Ultraman, this insanity things, Epic Five, like those things that you do you it's part part of that is within you which allows you i mean i saw you suffer i saw you suffer so badly on day two

of ultra man when i crewed for you and um it was brutal we were silent in the car and i was with you every single pedal push when you when your shoulder was sheared off. And you just freaking did it. It was raining, the winds, it was horrifying. And I just, that was like a feat. I can't even imagine, like my personality, I could never do anything like that ever. And that's the beauty of individuation of how people are created. So I guess what I would say is you don't have to leave that. That's a tool for you, and that's something that you cultivated in your life. But when you tap into consciousness, you will understand that you are so much more than that. It's like the big container of you, the consciousness holds that within it.

But on a daily basis, as I go throughout my day and my mind is doing whatever it's doing, how do I connect with that idea better? By understanding and breathing into your heart and connecting with your consciousness, then you can use those tools without being attached to the outcome and understanding that this is not your play. This is as much as efficient as you are and as hard of a worker as you are, all of those things exclusively did not put you where you are sitting in this moment. It's by the grace of God that you're sitting there. Yeah, I mean, I think that was what I was driving at that I wanted you to get into, which is this idea of action versus results. And it's fine for me to apply myself in that certain way as long as it's not because I'm clutching on to an idea of how it's going to turn out. So I think the trick is in releasing your attachment to that outcome. It's like you do the work. You're not giving up.

You're not throwing your arms up in the air. You continue to do the work. It's your relationship to the outcome. Is that a healthy relationship or is that an unhealthy relationship? And that's what makes the difference between whether I'm angry and resentful or able to tap into gratitude. Because when I truly am detached from how something turns out, then I have a lot more peace in my life. That's right. And there's a lot more space for the miracle to come in, the unknown, the surprise, the super thing that you could have never imagined in a million years. And the miracle to come in, the unknown, the surprise, the super thing

that you could have never imagined in a million years. And the other thing is that I would say is within the process, a good way to gauge if you're in your dharma is when you're in the process, if you're expanded and you're enjoying it and you're in love and you're having fun then you're really in your dharma if you're doing it and you're resentful and you're you know thinking you're the only one in the planet that can do this and you know and you know you're holding on to the control so tightly you're missing what consciousness is trying to give you because by holding it so tight the energy can't get in it can't get in to then do some crazy thing we're like oh my gosh like how did that happen and

i would ask you right now i mean the heart before you say that though the hard part about that is that in order for me to get that focused and that intent on something and to work that hard at something it almost requires that i have some association with how it's going to turn out. Like I'm doing it because I want it to turn out a certain way. Yeah, and so I always say when I'm creating is I have a vision. I have the vision. I meditate. I feel it viscerally, emotionally, the smells,

I meditate, I feel it viscerally, emotionally, the smells, how I want it to feel sort of on every sensory level that I can imagine. And I infuse it with as much love as I can muster. And then I let it go. So I would say hold on loosely. Yeah, do all of that. Vision it, go, yeah, I think I want it to be like this. This could be cool. And, you know, identify like, you know, things, places you want to visit or experiences, you know, how do you want to feel? That's why a lot of times I say,

identify the emotions you want to feel in your life. Because if you're too attached to your mind, you'll spend all the time describing the details and you're not feeling it. And it's the feeling that is the power. That's the most powerful. So, yeah. So, you're co-creating with your soul or with, you know, everything else that you're interacting with. So, it's great to have a vision. It's amazing to have a vision.

Right. It's entrepreneurial to have visions. It's entrepreneurial to have visions. When you talk about trying to vision the emotions that you want to experience as opposed to a specific outcome, like a set of facts that the outside world smiles upon or what have you, that kind of gets into the subject of this idea of the drive to be happy. the drive to be happy, right? Like this, you know, again, back to this dichotomy of our human experience, like there's unhappiness and there's happiness, there's satisfaction and dissatisfaction. And how can I be happy? You know, how can I, I want to be happy, but I'm not happy. Right? So what is that? You know, what is that, that, that innate human drive to be happy all about? And where are people, in your opinion, missing the boat in terms of what they should be working towards or how to better experience or tap into that emotion that they're driving towards? That's huge. That's like huge.

Well, I mean, I would say, again, it goes back to meditation because if somebody's not happy or they're striving to be happy, they might not know themselves. They might not know what makes them happy. Well, I think that we do certain things because we think it's going to make us happy when we eventually get to a certain – like when I get that thing, I'm going to be happy. I'm taking all these actions because on some future date, the results of those actions will put me in a place where I'm going to be happy. And you're like chasing this dragon or running on this habit trail for your whole life and you never quite get there. Well, and also if you're in that space, I mean, it's not about the destination. It's about the process. It's all about the journey. So that's another thing that I would say, you know, in the daily life.

If you're not in joy while you're doing it, you're not in your Dharma. And when I say in Dharma, it's like, you're not connected to your heart. You're not in your sweet spot of like where you're supposed to be. So what, and you can, you can find joy in housework. I mean, it's hard for me to find joy in housework, but you could know. So, um, no, but it's, it's funny. I was, I was writing on my own book today, and I actually tell this story that when I got the land to build the house, and we had just met, and we were beginning, and it's like I got that permit, and I went out on the land, and I, you know, I was going to do this project that I wanted to do for so long and we were starting a life together.

And I asked myself that question. I said, I stood out on the land and I sat down below the house pad and I said, okay, if I could snap my fingers right now and the house be done today and I walk in, would I do it? And the answer was no. today and I walk in, would I do it? And the answer was no. Because it was the process that I wanted. That's where you're getting the joy. So whatever you're doing, if you're doing something today because you think in five years then you're going to be happy, then you've lost your way. Because the moment is now. You might not be here in five years.

lost your way because the moment is now you might not be here in five years right and we all know that intellectually but how can we you know i know what the answer is already it's gonna go back to what we already talked about but it's like all right so fine everybody we all know that we all know like you know you know we're we all know that that we all think or we trick ourselves into thinking like if I get that new car then everything will be cool. And then never is, right? Because on the desire curve it's only sweet right before you get it.

Yeah, either you get it or you don't but you get it and then you get it and then for five minutes you're happy and then it's like there's something else wrong. That's like my friend Dave Hartman this crazy longshoreman

that used to be my friend when I grew up in the rough streets of Anchorage, Alaska. He used to say Julie, what happens when you're really hungry and then you eat? And I'd say what? And he'd say used to be my friend when I grew up in the rough streets of Anchorage, Alaska. He used to say, Julie, what happens when you're really hungry and then you eat? And I'd say, what? And he'd say, you lose your appetite. Because it's a silly thing. It's a Dave Harmon thing. But I would ask you though, I wanted to ask you, what is your experience when you're taking photographs? What's going on inside your body

uh when i'm doing my selfies when whenever when you're shooting whatever you're shooting oh i love it it's very it's a creative outlet for me and are you resentful when you're doing that no and are you thinking that you have to control every single detail no no i'm just doing it. I'm enjoying it. So you're in the love of doing that, and you're extremely gifted in that? Like, I'm really looking forward to you

doing a big photography show at some point in your life. I really, really think you're quite talented at that. I mean, I've stopped shooting pictures. First I have to get that camera. When I get that really good camera, then I'll be happy, and then I can do it. No, you're doing it now. But I would also say that the other thing that's very, very helpful to us right now in our lives of being humans

is to try to experience joy as much as you can. Try to experience joy as much as you can. So if you're in a, like, let's say you're in a job and you don't, you know, you have to work at this place and that's just where you're at. Try to find joy in your life. Try to make sure you're, you know, you're listening to music, you're taking a painting class, you're doing something that is feeding you. Something that is like what your photography is to you, you know, and because you want to experience that joy as often as possible because you want to exponentially like activate that within yourself so that it becomes part of you and you can access that feeling quickly and readily and it's

there. So, you know, your life is your life. It's about now. You're living it now. So find out what that is, whether it's, like I said, music or a certain way to dress or a certain way that you design your home or your room or whatever it is. It's really important to be in joy. Yeah, and I think that it doesn't mean, you know, this gets misinterpreted into this idea like, well, if you want to be happy and you're unhappy in your job and quit your job, like, well, maybe you can't quit your job. Like, I understand that, but there's probably something that you could do with your free time that will allow you to tap into that joy.

And maybe it's something you haven't done ever in your life, or maybe it's something you used to do as a kid that you haven't done in a long time. You don't give yourself permission to do that anymore. And I think it's about giving yourself permission to tap into that more childlike quality and find what it is. It could be, you know, for me, it was like,

I just want to go outside and run on a trail. It's like, I want to feel the sun on my shoulders. It doesn't have to be a complicated thing, and it doesn't have to completely overhaul how you live your life every minute of the day. It's just about trying to experience some of that a little bit more in your life and to give that some energy. That's right, but this does remind me of slow-mo, though. Slow-mo, yeah.

Slow-mo is awesome. You've got to put in the show. We have to get Slow Mo on the podcast. Yeah, if anybody knows Slow Mo, hook it up. I put it out there on Facebook. Oh, you did already? And they're like, all you have to do is go down to Pacific Beach. He's right there.

So awesome. He's easy to find. But I put this on my Facebook page, and I tweeted it the other day. Slow Mo is a guy who is a medical doctor who, I don't know, can you explain it? Well, he says he was an asshole. That's his words, not mine. But he said that he was a physician and he was just into working

and totally, totally focused in that. And then I guess he started to lose his vision. He started to have some issues where he had that condition where you can't recognize faces. And then he was having some weird memory problems. And he was starting to notice that and how it was impacting his ability to be in his profession. Yeah. And so then he decided that he was just going to recreate his whole life. So he closed his practice and moved down um near a beach and he really took some time and really to figure out what it was that he loved to do and what he

discovered is what he loves to do is skate and that's it it's rollerblade so now he rollerblades up and down pacific beach in san diego pretty much all day and he's like an icon there like everybody knows him and that's he just does it like all but he's developed this kind of like semi kind of strange flying technique where it's he's like on one it's so cool like coasting he's connected it all to like consciousness like he's having a spiritual experience and he's like skating really really slowly with one leg up in the air and his arms raised and this huge smile on his face and they interviewed some people and you you know, they're like, oh, I thought he was homeless.

I thought he was crazy. But anyway, it's very inspiring and very sweet and it's really cool. And he speaks about some of these things that we talked about today, about how, you know, you don't have to buy into someone else's idea of what your life should be, you know, and you can choose at any time to switch it up. And I would say he has done that to an extreme degree. Yeah, it's very powerful.

It was a short little film, a short documentary film that the New York Times put up. They do these little op-ed movies, like Casey Neistat's done a couple of them. He didn't do this one, but it was a little, you know, biopic, a short little biopic on slow-mo that was beautifully shot. And it's just a wonderful little movie. And it really makes you, you know, rethink your reality and what's important and your priorities. That's right.

And that doesn't mean that you're going to quit your job. You're going to do slow-mo. You're going to go slow-mo on it. And start skating on the beach all day long and doing nothing else. But it's such an extreme example that it really forces you to, you know, kind of take stock of your own priorities. And it shows you what you can do. And, you know, once again, it's like, it's your life. So let it be you that you're living it for, you know? And I mean that, you know, collectively with your family and with your children and your partners and your communities, you know. And I think these decisions that you make, you know, some of them small, some of them could be life altering, like when Slow Mo decided he was just going to Slow Mo skate.

It's a pretty big decision, right? Whether or not you're making the right decision for you is completely contingent upon your relationship with yourself and whether you've done that interior work and whether you're in a place where you can trust your instincts to guide you in the right direction. Because I think if you're disconnected, then the impulses that you're responding to in your brain are not necessarily reliable, and they could lead you down the wrong track well and this is where again meditation it's like you you know really need to take the time to connect with who you are and get to know yourself and you know not to be you know tooting my own expression my own horn here but uh you know i have this meditation technique that i channeled and recorded and rich has on his site it's called Jai Release. And at the event, we had quite a few people that have been practicing and a lot of people with really amazing results. And the reason that I designed it is because I'm a mom and I have four kids and I'm an artist and I'm doing all this stuff all the time. And so it's hard to find

these quiet, it's not like I have a quiet life where I can sit down and do it. I have to be able to do something that works with my life. And this is a 30 minute meditation. If you've never meditated before, it's easy. It makes it really, really easy to drop into a state where if you do it, if you make a commitment and you do it for 40 days or even less i suggest 40 days you will get messages you will get in touch with yourself and you will start to transform and you'll start to know yourself more and get more connected and it was really cool it was cool to meet all those people that have been humming and and doing the meditation and uh uh, makes me happy. It really, really helped me a lot. Yeah. It's interesting. Um, and you know, that kind of brings up the, the, the new mind body

green course that I just, that just went live and this idea of trying to find tools to transform your life and kind of a consistent theme in that, in that program, it always comes back to doing the inside work. You know, it's on a surface level, it's like, how do you set a goal and achieve it? Well, here are the steps to do that. But the first and most important thing, you know, nothing else matters if you haven't done the foundational interior work to get to know yourself so that you are connected enough to know that whatever goal you conjure up for your life is actually the appropriate goal for you at that time. Otherwise, it's going to be a lot of wasted

energy. You may go out and achieve whatever goal you've set for yourself, but maybe that wasn't the right goal, right? I mean, I would say even, you know, not that you can't do anything, you should proceed with whatever inspires you. But yeah, start meditating. Just start doing it. It's going to only enhance your experience. It's only going to help. It's only going to make you stronger, more powerful, more connected to who you are. It's just amazing. It's healing.

It's calming. It's inspiring. It's great. It's everything. Why is it so hard to sit down for five minutes? It's really hard. And that's why when I found this technique, it was... It's so painless too. It's like, why do I... I mean, I'll just speak from my own experience. Why do I resist it so much? I put out so much energy resisting it, and it's so much easier

to just do it. And when I do it, my life is better. And yet the next day I'll wake up and I'll resist it again. Well, this is, again, it's like 30 minutes. It's easy to put on whatever your device is. And the reason that I love it is the first section is a humming. It's a humming. It's an active meditation. So what it does is it churns up all

those thought patterns and all that residue that's going on in your body so that you might actually drop into a moment of silence. Because I know if you just sit down, you're not really meditating because your mind's just running. So, you know, and that's not to say that, you know, we all have days where our mind is running or where we're more monkey mind than another day. Again, it's like if you do it over a 40-day period and you just consistently show up and go, okay, I'm going to go do it. I'm going to sit down and put the headphones on.

I'm going to hum like a strange person, and I'm going to listen to the meditation and just do it. Then it works. It's very very very powerful it's easy to meditate and be calm and have a serene outlook on life and be present when you're a monk in a cave it's a lot more difficult to do it in the modern world right and then you're the minute you come out of it you're presented with you know some challenge or whatever. And I know that when I am actively meditating and I'm in that practice that

those challenges, I'm able to meet them and sort of gracefully navigate my way through them as opposed to reacting or relying on that old behavior pattern that always gets that result that I don't want. That's right. Well, it connects you. It really does. And it provides a lot of clearing of energies and ability for other things to come in and support you that you might not be open to. You might not be able to receive them. What do you mean by that?

Well, I mean one. I don't mean like you. I mean one, yeah, because if you have thought forms or emotions or trauma or fear or anything that's lurking inside your system, these meditations, they clear that stuff out. So it's almost like a cleaning. And then you're able to listen. And just, I mean, what a blessing to just stop talking and stop looking at the device for just half an hour and just sit down. I mean, you could just as a little breather for your body and your mind and spirit to just shut off the stimulus

for a moment. It's only 30 minutes. It's easy. Like what else takes 30 minutes in your life that you could not do? An episode of Law and Order. No, that's longer than 30 minutes. I was going to say like, you know, what is it? I was going to say three men and a baby.

I don't know. What is that Charlie Sheen show? I don't know a baby. I don't know. We don't watch that. What is that Charlie Sheen show? I don't know. I don't know. Shows I don't watch. How I Met Your Mother? Yeah, How I Met Your Mother.

Yeah, but I got to watch How I Met Your Mother. There you go. You got to choose, okay? It's a big choice in your life. If you're opting for transformation, then you have the power to choose. And the thing is, is you can't sit there. It's like everybody has the same amount of time in every day.

All of us have the same amount of time. It's just a matter of how you manage your time. And I would say that you can't get it all from running and training and cycling and swimming. It's all amazing. And I'm bowing down to all the triathletes and all the ultra runners everywhere. And it's still, there is still a place for meditation. A meditative run is great, but this is beyond. It's different.

It doesn't take the place. I mean, it is an active meditation and it does have meditative benefits for me but it's qualitatively different from sitting down and doing the humming meditation or doing any other kind of form of meditation that resonates with you but speaking of ultra runners can we just talk about that raven that was on on timothy olsen's back yeah so that is the coolest shot he is such a cool guy so timmy olsen who if you've been listening to the show you know he was a guest he's this insanely accomplished talented ultra runner um and super cool guy if you haven't listened to that episode you you must he's he's a

he's a beautiful soul that guy uh but he's wonderful on instagram posting pictures of all his adventures running up these mountains and the other day he posted a photo of him on the top of some mountain with a gigantic raven perched on his shoulder, like eating something off his back. He's just – that was insane. That was the coolest photo. Yeah, I think he's at one with what he's supposed to be doing. He's merged with his – He's amazing. what he's supposed to be doing.

He's merged with his. He's amazing. The other thing I wanted to, and then we'll wrap it up, but I wanted to tell that story about when we first started doing yoga years ago when we first met at Steve's class. And Russell Simmons used to come to the class. Yeah.

And it was in the early stages of his um journey with yoga and empire vegan nutrition well he was already you know it's already running an empire he was already huge but he was just started to like actively incorporate meditation into his life and we were riding the elevator little two-story elevator down with him after class and he's like man if i keep meditating like steve wants me to meditate i'm gonna lose all my money you know he's like he was all worried all i do is do yoga and meditate now like i'm i got my eyes off my business it's all gonna go to pot right and and the great irony of that of course is that the opposite took place and he writes about that in his books where um you know he really made that the number one priority in his life and his whole thing like opened up and exploded even huger than you know he ever imagined

it would and and and i think that that gets back to this idea of surrender and the threat that that poses to the ego and thinking, if I'm going to do these things, then who am I now? And I'm not going to be the guy that I thought I wanted to be or that I'm going to be. It's not that. It is actually the opposite of that. It is the warrior's path, and it is an essential tool in arming you to sort of meet the world on the world's terms and to really blossom into the person that you're meant to be. Well, and on an expanded level, and just from a logical level, if you want to be logical about it, if you know that everything else is fleeting, the body, the houses, the wealth,

like everything in this world is going to die at some point. So why wouldn't you spend time cultivating the spiritual connection? Why not? Why not? Why not? Why wouldn't you? Of course. Any, any.

Of course, as Usher would say. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Well, I think that's a good place to wrap it up. Are we not going to go on from here? No, we're going to. I thought we were doing balance.

No, we're going to save that for another episode. Another one. You think it was good? Yeah. We did that well. I think we're good. We've been going for over, uh,

yeah, we're at an hour and a half now. Oh, we are? Yeah, that's good. That's good. And we're going to wrap it up.

So see, that was great. So cool. And then next time, maybe you can take us out with a song. Okay. That'd be amazing. All right,

cool. Okay. So that's it for us from Toronto. Julie, you're going back home tomorrow and I'm getting on a plane and flying to. All right, cool. So that's it for us from Toronto. Julie, you're going back home tomorrow. And I'm getting on a plane and flying to Beirut, Lebanon, where I'm going to give a talk there. And then I'm going to go to Saudi Arabia, which is going to be amazing.

Are they going to give you a kid? Good opportunity for some epic running selfies. I think it is. You can be by yourself. You can just run around everywhere. Right. No, it's a pretty extraordinary experience. It's the third time you're going back.

I mean, that's, you know, in terms of like a gratitude check, to be able to have the opportunity to travel to these incredible places, you know, foreign places that I probably would never, you know, go to. you know, go to and to have that be connected to and tied to spreading a message that I feel strongly about is that's, you know, a good way for me to connect with gratitude and a sense of service, which is really, you know, that, that becomes like the, that's the rudder for the whole thing. So I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be an amazing trip. That's right. That's right. Cool. Okay. But I'm going to miss you and I'm going to miss amazing trip. That's right. That's right. Cool. Okay. But I'm going to miss you and I'm going to miss the kids. I'll miss you too, sweetie. You'll FaceTime us. There'll be some FaceTiming.

There'll be FaceTiming. Yeah. Selfie timing. All right. So if you're new to the show and this is the first time that you're hearing Julie, the best way to connect with her is to go to her website, SrimatiMusic.com, S-R-I-M-A-T-I music.com. And she's Srimati on Twitter and Instagram. Instagram's really your thing right now, though, right?

No, I'll do it. You got to start doing more recipe and food stuff. People love that. I will. All right, I'm going to get back. And we are hard at work uh in the final stages i should say julie because she's really uh put in the mileage on this on uh completing our first real hardcover cookbook it's pretty exciting we've been working on for a long

time i haven't really talked about it on the podcast, but it's coming together beautifully. It is really a gorgeous piece of work, and it's going to have a bazillion recipes in it and just insane photography. Yeah, like just the photography is extraordinary in this. And it's really shaping up to be quite a beautiful book. And we're looking at a fall release for that. And when we know specifically when that's coming out, we'll, of course, keep you posted as this develops. But we're really excited about that. That's our next big project that's coming down the pike.

That's right. And I'm performing on Friday. This will be after. Yeah, that will have passed by the time. Yeah, on May 9th. But we are excited. You're going to get to perform with the boys at this pretty big benefit. Yeah, it's cool.

It's One Heart Worldwide Foundation. And it's a foundation, actually, the work of Arlene Salmon. And she was actually asked by the Dalai Lama to go into Tibet and open up clinics to support women in healthy child birthing practices. They had a very high mortality rate with women. And the reason for that is pretty interesting, right? Well, I think it was just really basic practices. They just didn't have clean water. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was kind of a leap from the indigenous practices into,

you know, maybe some modern assistance that helped. And, you know, the Dalai Lama asked her specifically to go in, and I think she didn't do anything at the beginning, and then, you know, he wrote her a letter, and so she did. So, she's opened up all these clinics in Tibet, and the mortality rate with women in childbirth went down about 90%. That's amazing. It's incredible. And then she was ordered out of the country at gunpoint by the Chinese government. And she was very sad and kind of went through a moment of feeling a little hopeless.

And then the folks in Tibet said, you know went through a moment of feeling a little hopeless and then the folks in tibet said you know the clinics are up and running and we've taken what you've taught us and so they you know they're here and so then she decided that she was going to expand this worldwide and go into a lot of remote areas so i think it's in about 15 countries now i'm sorry if i'm if it's 10, I think it's like 15. And so she heard my song, Mother of Mine, and she asked me, it's on my album on iTunes under Srimati. The title of the record is Mother of Mine, and the track for that is Mother of Mine. And she heard it, and she just said,

I'm making a documentary right now, and I'd love to have your music in my film. of mine and she heard it and she just said i'm making a documentary right now and you know i'd love to have your music in my film and then they asked me to perform at this benefit so it's a really cool it's at an amazing restaurant in santa monica very zen very gorgeous and the events being hosted by karyann moss yeah i know the matrix yeah so cool you know she was at our house she filmed a movie at our house. I know, I remember. Yeah, so I've had lunch with her before there. So I'll have to remind her when I see her.

So it's all coming together. Yeah, so it's just really cool. You know, I feel really grateful because, you know, the song is really a deep spiritual experience for me. And to be able to sing it with this alignment at this benefit is just crazy. And it's on Mother's Day. So, or Mother's Day weekend.

So anyway, so I'm really excited about that. Maybe we can put the link in the show notes. Yeah. So people can donate. We will. So the website for, for the foundation is.

Oneheartoneworld.org. .org, right. Oneheartoneworld.org. No, I have it wrong. Oneheartworldwide.org. Oneheartworldworld.org..org, right? Oneheartoneworld.org. Oh, no, I have it wrong. Oneheartworldwide.org. Oneheartworldwide.org. Yeah, I think that's it.

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure. Okay. We'll put it in the show notes. All right, I'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, so I'm going to miss you on Mother's Day, and I'm also going to miss that performance, which is a bummer.

Yeah, you are. You are. But, you know. Okay, man, I've got to spread my wings. Yeah, I know. Sorry. I can't wait until I get back. I can't postpone it. No know it's okay man i gotta gotta spread my wings yeah i know sorry i can't wait until i get back i can't postpone it no it's cool thanks for having me on the show of course i always love to uh have these experiences and we'll have you back again soon thank you thank you very much we'll see what people think okay we'll see be nice everybody all right you're gonna start your

own podcast or what's going on keep talking about it actually i was asked i was actually specifically asked by some people this week um yes i really want to i'm i'm finishing uh an ep that i'm releasing at the end of the month with the boys um called jai home and then i'm uh turning in the cookbook and then turning in my book book. And my hope is, is after that I'll have my website reconfigured for Srimati and I'll be able to launch my podcast and I don't want to launch it and then not be able to do it. So we've, things are getting kind of more balanced in our life a little.

And, um, you know, I want to be, I hope to be the first show under you, under the RRP if you would have me we'll see

okay I'll work on that I think it'll work out okay good alright cool alright hey thanks for coming by the RRP Julie

thanks Rich Roll alright it's been an honor to spend this time with you let's go have dinner let's go you know do our thing

alright okay peace plants namaste have dinner. Let's go, you know, do our thing. All right. Okay. Peace. Peace. Plants. Namaste. Hey, everybody. That's our show for this week. How'd you like that? How do you like those lemons? Let me know what you think in the comments section at richroll.com for the episode, the page for that this week's episode. And if you have a minute, throw a review up on iTunes. We love that. If you are stuck or frustrated with your life and not

sure how to get off the dime, maybe you want to check out my new course at mindbodygreen.com. It's called The Art of Living with Purpose, How to Set and Achieve Goals, Transform Your Life, and Become Your Best, Most Authentic Self. It's over two hours of streaming video divided up into 14 sessions. There's an array of downloadable tools and resources that address everything from the fundamentals of transformation, how to properly set a goal, erect a roadmap, create structures, momentum, community, and accountability, and why people traditionally fall off or fall short. Basically, I try to distill down and convey the essential foundational principles and practices behind every successful, sustained life transformation, the things that have worked for me, the things that don't. And all in all, I think it's a pretty valuable toolbox that contains the assets that are required to make the changes in your life necessary to become the person you always wanted to be and deserve to be. So if this feels right

to you, if this feels like something you might benefit from, then take a look. It's at mindbodygreen.com. You can find it right there on the homepage. What else is going on? The iOS app for iPhone and iPad. That's developing nicely. It's coming along. We got to fill out a bunch of paperwork with Apple, blah, blah, blah. So it's in the pipeline and I'll keep it posted on when the release date is for that. But I'm pretty excited about it. It's looking super cool. If you want to support the show, tell a friend and keep using the Amazon banner ad. If you use the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com for your Amazon purchases, Amazon will not charge you a cent extra, but they kick us some commission change. And we really

appreciate that. That has supported us over the last year and a half. And you guys have been amazing with that. So thank you. You can also donate to the show. There's a donate button at richroll.com and keep it up with the Instagrams. I love it. People have been sharing on Instagram pictures of themselves listening to the show out on a run or, you know, during their commute or whatever it is. And I just love getting those throughout the week. So keep that up, you guys. Thank you so much. And it's a great and easy way and a fun way to spread the word and kind of tell friends about how much you're enjoying the show at the same time. So thank you. Go to Rich Roll for Rich Roll. Go to Rich Roll dot com for all your plant power

provisions. And that's it, man. I'll see you guys next week. Until then, let's all take a shot at practicing and engaging in gratitude. And I promise you, it'll make a difference in your daily experience. So I'll see you next week. Thanks, guys. Peace. Plants. Trying to make sense of everything in life Trying to sort it all out in my mind my mind love is

not a problem to be solved I only cry cry cry Cry Used to be a Proof of what's my thing What you think of me Was all that seemed

Important in the achievement of a dream In your blue eyes Now I see the truths inside of me Find to love myself as God made me Not for what I thought you wanted For me to be My heart rips open wide My heart r is open wide My heart is open wide

My heart is open wide Trying to make sense of everything in life Trying to sort it all out in my mind Love is not a problem to be solved I only can can be be Bye.