The Rich Roll Podcast - The Ultimate Hack Is Mastery

Episode Date: June 17, 2016

We’re back with another long-awaited installment of Ask Me Anything — a twist on my normal format where we answer questions submitted by you, the listener. However, today is a twist on the twist. Instead of listener submitted questions we focused on one core inquiry — how to reach escape velocity on your life to step into your most actualized self. At the outset, Julie and I spend some time recapping Plantpower Italia– our first retreat in Italy — as well as our experience spending time in Ireland with David & Stephen Flynn of The Happy Pear. Then the discussion turns to address the process required to live fully expressed. For me, this journey boils down to one precept: Mastery is the ultimate growth hack. Enjoy the show! Peace + Plants, Rich

Hey everybody, welcome to the Rich Roll podcast. I'm Rich Roll. I'm your host. This is a bonus episode. We're back with another Ask Me Anything with my lovely wife, Julie Pyatt, a.k.a. Srimati. How you doing? I'm doing great. How are you doing, sweetie? Good. It's been a long time since we've done one of these. It feels like it's been a very long time. How many, like two months or more? Longer than that. Longer than that. Wow. So we're well overdue.

Have you missed me? I've missed you. you miss me i've missed you again the trope in all of this is that the only way that uh julie and i can get uh into a place where we can have an intimate conversation is to do a podcast that's what we're doing today that's right highly recommended for for marital therapy for healthy relationships start a podcast yeah it'll either bring you you'll you together or it'll blow you apart. So, so many things to talk about today and let's just get right into it. I mean, the primary sort of thing that I want to unpack initially is just our trip, right? We just got back from this incredible experience in Italy,

traveling through Europe. I want to recap that a little bit and use that as a foundational platform to talk about a number of subjects. So we just hosted our first retreat. I know. Congratulations. Congratulations to you as well. Yeah, we took 33 campers, retreat attendees. Willing campers. Willing campers who came from all over the world. We converged on this beautiful villa nestled into the hills of the Chianti region about halfway between Florence and Siena for a week of transformation.

What does that mean? It was pretty intense, right? It was completely deep, actually. I mean, we had asked everybody to write in kind of their story and tell us a little bit about why they had chose to come on the retreat. And so we were reading some of the kind of bios and letters on the plane on the way over. And I had prepared sort of my part of the retreat and had an idea of how it was going to go. And before we arrived, you know, I really just realized that I had to let it all go and just see what they wanted. So I was prepared to just speak about vegetables, but they came completely

raw and bare and vulnerable and really ready to go deep. And I would say we went deeper than any of us ever imagined we would go. We went super deep. And again, people came from all over the world. We had a couple that came from Australia, a bunch of people from London, some people from California. South Africa, Spain, Ireland.

Yeah, all kinds of people. Canada. That's right. I'm sorry, did you say Canada? No, I didn't say Canada. And like Julie said, we requested that everybody kind of write a letter. What are your expectations for the trip? What do you want to get out of it?

Tell us a little bit about yourself. And I thought they would just say, well, this is my job. And, you know, it would be very surface level stuff. But people ended up writing these incredibly thoughtful and private, revealing, very vulnerable letters about what drew them to not just us, but the opportunity that this retreat, that this program might be able to do for them. And it was incredibly touching, right? And so when we arrived, we were like, I felt like a sense of not pressure, but like expectation, you know, like all these people are here. Like, how are we going to be able to be of service to these people over the course of seven days? And it was,

uh, it was incredible, right? We were on point from like six 30 in the morning, all the way till 11 at night, there was not a lot of free time. We had a ton of fun. It was amazing, but incredibly productive in terms of really just getting really intense and intimate with people to try to help them navigate whatever sort of scenario they were finding themselves in. And what you realize is that everybody has their stuff, right? When you meet them on the surface, hey, maybe their life looks great on the outside, but everybody has something that they're struggling with. Everybody has that thing that maybe they don't even feel comfortable telling their friends or their partner about. And I think

that was the sweet spot where we were able to really be of service to people. It was amazing. And it was also like the fact that they were so courageous and so willing and they came so open and raw and vulnerable allowed this amazing, magical healing and connection to happen. And, um, it was, it was,

it was beautiful. And yeah, every single person has their thing. They have their journey, they have their story. And, you know, we're all on this planet

you know uh together and it was just it was an incredible experience far surpassed my wildest imaginations and we did have one person actually who was completely happy from germany i i need to like just say that so she just came but she was very kind of quiet and she had a great time. And I think it was a wonderful bonding for her. But yeah, it's a way of forging community around ideas and lifestyle and principles. And when we were all done, when it was all said and done, I think we had seven people volunteer to sort of take control of continuing

to cultivate the community beyond the seven days. Yeah, well, we were, so at the end of the seven days, it was really interesting because by day two, we all felt like we had been there seven days. That's how much kind of movement and how deep we went together. So, you know, coming to the end of the week, you know, I was thinking about re-entry and how do we make sure that everybody has tools to go back to their life and not, you know, blow up their marriage or blow up their family or whatever. So, so we spent kind of the last day on community and you and I were really wanting to create a kind of mobilize this, this, this troop of people, this community of people that had come with us and experienced this sort of deeper level of intimacy and friendship to continue and continue to develop the message and offer support and a immediately seven people stood up and they're rocking it.

We have a private Facebook group and they're already posting. And I'm gonna be doing a meditation with them this week for the solstice. And yeah, it's gonna turn into something really amazing. And I think in the subsequent trips that we do, the idea is to gather this kind of group of people and maybe build a mass of maybe

200. And then at that point, we can start to explore some other projects. I mean, right now within the group, the main mission is to hold everybody in their highest divine expression. That's just to hold that awareness for each person. But as we build it and grow it and develop it, we can expand that out into doing some, you know, kind of projects in other countries. And it's going to be really fun. It was interesting trying to conceptualize how we wanted to approach this seven days, because I think what you find in this space are very segmented experiences. Like people want to learn about plant-based cooking. So they go on a retreat and it's all about the food or it's a triathlon training camp, you know,

and then you're just working out the whole time. Like I participated in those or it's, you know, a meditation retreat, a silent meditation retreat or a yoga retreat, or it's a, it's a, an experience about, you know, trying to improve the intimacy of your relationships. And so we bit off a lot because we were trying to kind of merge all of these things and pack them into, you know, a comprehensive experience that would take somebody through, you know, seven days where we could look at all of those things and give them all equal balance. And I think we struck a pretty good balance.

I mean, we were doing meditation. We were doing yoga. I was running with people on these beautiful trails that kind of connect all the hills and the little villages around the region. We were always on the hunt for the shingale, which are the wild boars, the pigs that live around there. A lot of people were seeing them and hearing them. I didn't have that experience. Maybe next time. But it was really fun, that part of it.

So cooking demos, intense relationship workshops, career-focused seminars and discussions, and all kinds of things. And my worry going into it was that we weren't going to give any of those particular subjects enough significance or enough time or bandwidth in order to really make any progress. But I feel like we were able to really hit a sweet spot with each of those. And I think anchoring it in the yoga and the meditation allowed people to kind of open up and connect with everybody more intimately. Like when you do yoga every day together as a group, it kind of sheds your facade, your mask comes off,

you become more open and more willing to engage in the discussions that were transpiring and taking place throughout the week in the workshop sessions. Yeah. I mean, yoga and the spiritual foundation is everything of the entire group. And I spent two months before we left developing the specific series, which I'm going to be releasing a video soon. It's called Jai Yoga. And so it was really beautiful to see everybody step into that. And the practice has an original music composed by Shuman Laha, which is, he's my sitar teacher, and he's a very, very, very accomplished classical musician. And he composed this whole piece specifically for the practice. And it's a very, very deep practice. It actually brings you very much into the present

moment and it was interesting to see it because we went in and we had you know yoga yogis of all different levels you know some people had never even practiced before and then we had others who had more advanced skills so it was really cool though to see um you know i tried to design a practice that was strong but that was something was something you could sustain over a daily period, like you could do it every day and still be all right. So anyway, it was a huge success and it came, you know, came out great. Right. And I really feel like this was a coming out party for you in many ways. You know, I obviously, you know, the initial draw are people that have followed this, you know, my podcast or read my I obviously, you know, the initial draw are people that have followed this, you know, my podcast or read my books and, you know, have the plant power way and are familiar

with your cooking, but maybe a little less familiar with, you know, some of the other skill sets that you possess. And this was an opportunity for you to really shine. Like you were really of service to these people in a profound way that I think they didn't expect, um, in a beautiful way. And it was really fantastic to be able to stand by you and watch you really flourish in that environment. So much so that I felt like I had to up my game for next time. You know, I got to get my shit together so that I can bring it, uh, you know, in a more substantive way. Uh, when we, when we go back, I don't know. I thought, I thought you were beautiful. I thought, first of all, thank you for that acknowledgement. I appreciate that a lot. I have to say that this

experience was probably the first time in my life that I felt fully seen and fully able to be myself because I was expressing myself in all the things that I do. And underlying all of that is a deep desire and a deep compassion and love to help people and heal people and to be open and nonjudgmental in the face of whatever they're going through. And to be able to create this yoga flow practice, which has really been the foundation of everything in my life. I mean, everything that allowed me to support you through your journey came through this yoga,

through asana, through meditation, through all of that. And I haven't really been expressing myself in that way because it was, you know, the cooking was up and that seemed to be what people were more open to. But as I started to prepare this program, it really hit me profoundly just how that is a core foundational part of who I am and without it none of the other things would exist so that was you know one piece then the other piece was is I developed 60 new recipes for the menu so it was all plant power way Italia I am so excited about these recipes and about this new book product we're not quite sure if it's going to be an e-book or it's going to be a published book but it was really really really fun creating these recipes Italian food is lovely and that was quite quite a fun adventure to create

all the food and then to be able to sing and play at night so i was singing and performing with the boys at night and um harry had completely redone the tracks in kind of a new way and tyler and trapper and i were able to sing together and that was really really meaningful and then above all to see you know we had an ayurvedic practitioner jenn Ayers, there with us, and she was extraordinary. We also had our tea master and Chinese medicine physician, Colin Hudon, there as well. He's also the owner and founder of Living Tea, livingtea.net. He makes and imports some of the finest teas in the world. As a matter of fact, just yesterday,

Tim Ferriss posted on Instagram a picture of his living tea. His new favorite tea is living tea. And I immediately texted Colin. I was like, oh, Tim gave you a shout out. So Colin was with us on the trip. He was incredible. Him and Jennifer gave a presentation one afternoon that was mind blowing. And he did tea ceremony every morning.

So you could either go running with me or you could do tea ceremony with him. And people were really impacted by that. Yeah, they were both amazing to have on the trip. And so they got to sign up for a session between either one of these physicians, either one of these health practitioners to sort of have their own private session. And what I was able to see through the week is that people were needing some deeper kind of spiritual healing that I do, which is more of an etheric kind of clearing of different energies, of lifetime alignment, certain things like that.

To go way down the rabbit hole. Yeah, but it was really meaningful. I mean, it's like there was like I ended up doing probably seven sessions. And even in the final meeting, a couple people hadn't gotten what they needed. And I was able to do a quick session. So to be able to be of that service and actually help somebody shift, because sometimes we have issues that are running in our lives. And it's not even from this lifetime, or it's from another energy. And we can really benefit from these alternate types of healing modalities that clear energies that aren't seen and deal with things sort of in another level.

And it was amazing to me how sensitive we all are as human beings. Really, these awarenesses and these experiences are really not foreign to us because we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And so if you just go below the surface, immediately people were seeing colors, they were having visions, they were having experiences, they were having dream experiences. So it was quite readily available.

I didn't have to push very hard. All I had to do was hold the space for them, which is really all it is anyway. So it was a really super meaningful, a very, very meaningful and valuable use of time. This was not a luxury vacation of just, it was actually a luxury vacation. It was amazing. The place is amazing. But what I mean to say is that this is a gift of experience. It's so much more than just going to a place like a hotel and staying there and enjoying the place.

Because we really, really, really did connect at a very deep level and work on a lot of issues and a lot of traumas and a lot of things that people are just navigating in their life. And unless they had come so openly, we couldn't have done what we did. So it's really the group and so significant that this group of people were the first people that came. So we have plans to do this four times a year. So we're going to be announced, actually, we've already announced the next trip, which is in October. It's in the same location in Italy. And we're already over

half sold out, I think, for that event as well. But we're going to continue to add locations and stuff. But this is what's happening on these trips. This isn't just, you know, go hang out and, you know, have some juices with Rich and Julie around the pool. Yeah, it's funny, because everybody came with their own expectation of what it was going to be. And of course, they're projecting upon us, because of what they know from the podcast or the books about what we're going to be like and what the experience is going to be like. And I think that's correct. A lot of people were like, well, we're going to go running. We're going to hang out. We're going to eat great food and anything beyond that. Like, you know, who knows? Or I don't think there

was huge expectations of anything beyond that. And at the end of the seven days, I really do feel like everybody left different. And I think the shift isn't a temporary band-aid. I think people were profoundly impacted, and I think they're going to carry that into their life. And one of the funny things that you said was, when you look at kind of the mainstream culture of sort of self-help experiences, you know, whether it's Tony Robbins or any number of these people that conduct these,

you know, weekend or week-long events, the typical format for these is you rent a big ballroom in a hotel. Everybody stays in the hotel. It's like the Anaheim Hilton or something like that. And you're in a conference room. And there's a big stage and there's a lot of lights and there's a lot of loud music

and there's a lot of sort of artificial excitement that's crafted. It's like theatrics, dramatics. And like, everybody, are you ready? Are you ready? Stand up and shout and, and shout, you know, and do all this kind of, like they cultivate this environment

that gets you excited, right? And then you hear these speeches and you are inspired by these. I'm not, you know, casting aspersions on any of this stuff. I mean, Tony Robbins is amazing, right? But a lot of that, you know, one of the themes that I'm constantly thinking about and talking about is how do you translate that inspiration into action?

And inspiration, in certain ways, it's easy to inspire people. Like you can put an Instagram post out or you can get people up and down and jumping up and down and excited. But how is that going to impact them long term? Like, how are you going to get that to stick and stay and translate? Right. And so the problem with a lot of those other events is that inspiration wanes, right? People go back into the world and they kind of forget about it or they don't put it into action. And you were saying like, like we were the opposite of that experience. Like we weren't doing any of that.

Like it wasn't about getting up and jumping up and down and getting people excited. It was going inside. Like how can we quiet down and really get deep and get into that really special place that people are afraid to go and create an environment that's safe for people to do that. Yeah, it's true. And I mean, it really was. It's kind of like we did the exact opposite. We kind of, because the Jaya Yoga practice, it's Shuman's track is, it's very, very deep and slow.

And probably the most challenge that most people would have is how slow the practice is going because you're never throwing your leg just you know up in the air or making any quick movements it's much like a tai chi it's much like a conscious meditation so every time you make a move you're aware of it and you're connected to your breath and it's against this beautiful track that we we don't even know what that track is doing like what that music is, because sound heals like more powerfully than any other frequency. And this is truly, truly like a divine transmission that's taking you into the inner chambers of yourself. So that in and of itself

was really, really amazing. But I have a perspective on actually Tony Robbins. And I think I do have a perspective on what happens with that raw, raw energy. And this would, again, align with what I feel about all of this go, go, go, go. Like never stop, never stop, running, running, running, running, running. All of that kind of energy, there is a burnout point. Because I was a very, very loyal Tony Robbins disciple in my 20s. And I did four programs of his and I've firewalked. I'm a firewalker people. So, um, and I had powerful experiences with him and, uh, and he was amazing and, and, and very

powerful. Like there's some energy with him. Like one time he hugged me and I literally felt he might just snap me in half. He's a huge man, very, very big. But, um, what I did find with that, because I launched my fashion company, actually using those kinds of principles, um, is that what is not addressed in that is the burnout point. So again, you're, you're, you're grabbing from this very high energy kind of forced state of awareness, but you're not tapping into really the deep inner fire, which is constant always. So that was my experience with that type of program is that there's a burnout. That's the struggle with me,

because I'm a big proponent of a hard work ethic and I know how to work hard and I've seen advances in my life by devoting myself and being committed to that sort of path, but also understanding that I have bumped into burnout. I go in waves. It's like a sine curve that goes up and down.

I work really hard and then I burn out for a while and then I need to regroup. And you're always reminding me, like if you can just find a balance point, if you can generate that output from a place of calm and centeredness and quietude, then you're gonna flatten that curve and your production output will be larger overall

because you're not gonna have the peaks and the valleys. But as somebody who's in recovery, it's like, I love the peak. I don't like the valley, but I'm always going for the peak. So this is the journey for me of trying to incorporate more of that into my life because not everybody has the energy level of a Tony Robbins or, you know, a hustle 24 seven, Gary Vaynerchuk kind of, uh, personality type. Most people don't, right. They can watch those people and be inspired by them and try to mimic them. But most people are going to burn out if they try to model their behavior on that. And they don't have that kind of, you know, churning constitution that those unique individuals have.

Right. And it's sort of like, it's so interesting because Shuman was, you know, he teaches me sitar every week and he was playing a piece and, you know, he described it to me that Indian music is like, like, like, let's say that somebody asked you to take eight hours to walk from here, like to the kitchen, like think about what that takes that it's a lot easier to just get up and run to the kitchen. You just get up and run and you're there. But what if somebody told you, okay, take eight hours from now and then walk over to the kitchen. How, how would that look? So again, when you're, when you're, when you're soft and when you're quiet and when you're deep, I'm not saying you don't do a lot of action or you can't express a lot in the world, in the world,

but it's the way that you do it. And I would say that on the retreat with you, I thought you were absolutely beautiful and perfect in what you added and what you offered. And there is a combination between you and me that is truly divinely inspired and divinely created. It's no accident that we're together. The combination of us provides something that allows, I think, a deeper transformation. And it allows more of a bridge for people to come deeper and to come and be vulnerable and be open. And I would say that I hadn't seen you in such beautiful energy for many, many years than I did during that retreat. for many, many years than I did during that retreat. You were really connected, really in service,

really intelligent, really just amazing. Everything that you offered was beautiful during that week. And so that was my experience. And I think that that was everybody else's experience as well. Well, I appreciate that. And we should give a shout out to our incredible crew because we couldn't have done it without a tremendous amount of support from many people. Mel Nahas was our producer and she just did a bang up job, an incredible job. Amazing woman.

We didn't have one problem, you know. And we also had, I mean, the group of people that showed up was incredible. Like usually there's always one person who's a problem or there's some drama or something like that. There was none of that. The group was incredible. Mel handled everything. Everybody arrived perfectly. It was just seamless, pillar to post.

Yes. And then having Colin and having Jen be able to offer their levels of expertise to the group was incredible. Having the boys there to be sort of of service and perform music, I think was a beautiful addition to it. It added a family element that really allowed people to see kind of how our family functions.

And I think that was impactful for a lot of people. That was a big point, actually, that a lot of people mentioned. And a lot of people were very emotional about it. And it definitely was. At the beginning, somebody said, I think David said, um, who lives in Florence, he said at the beginning, I was like, Oh, you know, great. Their family gets a vacation. But when he came there and saw what we were doing and how they were interacting with us, um, it really deeply did affect a lot of people. And they, right now our boys are actually traveling

all over Europe, meeting all these people that they met on the retreat. So they're visiting different countries and staying with these new friends that they've made. But yeah, and even people said, you know, we wish you had brought the girls because the family dynamic is something. And, you know, once again, it's like, we're just authentically living our experience and sharing our experience. And the difference between you and me and a lot of, you know, maybe other people who are more specialized is we sort of have a very full life and we are playing in all those different areas. And so, you know, it's no surprise to me that we were able to offer support and all of that. And, and, um, seven days, I mean, we, you know, I don't think, I actually don't think it would have been better if it was 10.

I think we did, I think seven days was perfect. I think it was the right amount of time. On the last day, we kind of had a special session where we sat around in a big circle and everybody went around and kind of shared what they got out of the experience and how it's impacted them. And there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Like every single person, even the most hardened people with the most hardened shells were having, you know, were emoting on a pretty deep level. And that spoke volumes to me about the impact of the trip. So it was incredible. Also Leah, you know, who came and taught yoga as well in conjunction with you. I mean, just the whole thing was amazing. So in any event, I don't want this to be like a crazy long advertisement for our retreats, but it was a remarkable, beautiful experience. And if it sounds like something that you're interested in learning more about,

perhaps attending a future event, the best way to learn about it is to go to ourplantpowerway.com. There's plenty of information there. You can email Mel, our producer, through that website. She's happy to answer any questions. And the next trip is October 1 through 8 in the same location. I think it's 3 through 11. Is it?

Yeah. I keep saying 1 through 8. No, I think it's 3 through 11. Is it 3 through 11? Anyway, you'll see on the site. All right. Yeah, so it's there. And then we're looking for, we're trying to lock down an Australia location for the end of February.

And then we'll be going back to Italy in May the same week. And then next summer, we're going to be going to Ireland. So anyway, just keep in touch via the site. We hope you can join us one of these trips. And if not, we're going to be sharing content along the way, like the yoga video will be available probably in maybe six weeks or something like that. And then we'll keep you posted on the status of the Plant Power Way Italia,

whether it ends up published or it ends up as an e-cookbook. We don't really know yet. But I also want to just mention that one thing that Colin was pointing out to me and that hit him very deeply is that there really wasn't one demographic on the trip. We had two children in their twenties bring their mothers, which was amazing, adorable experience. We had three military people who came from all over the world, which is really incredible. And we had, you know, athletes, we had yogis, we had business people, we had, you know, just really kind of one guy who had just lost a bunch of weight. So, you know, it was just a whole sort of beautiful array of different kinds of people.

And there really was no one unifying, you know, quality that drew them to the retreat. unifying, you know, quality that drew them to the retreat. Right. I think one theme is that people showed up thinking it was going to be a bunch of ultra runners and ultra athletes. And there was some level of intimidation about what the runs were going to be like. And I just want to say, like, that's not what this retreat is about. It's not about ultra athletes. Everybody was, you know, coming, like Julie said, all different walks of life. It's not about, you know, ultra athletic performance. It's really about unlocking, you know, your own unique, best, most authentic self. And that is a different definition for every single person. And everybody brings, brought their own unique life experience.

And we were just there to be of service to helping enhance and shine a spotlight on that. Yeah, definitely. And so anyways, to all of the initial Jai tribe who came, crew and everyone who attended, Rich and I love you. And thank you so much for making this first event so extraordinarily special in every way. It was just divine.

All expectations across the board. And then after that, we went to Venice and spent a couple days family time there, which was amazing. And then we went to Ireland and hung out with the guys from the happy pair, the happiest men in the world, these guys, I'm putting up my podcast with them next week. So you have that to look forward to. Uh, I'd heard of these guys, uh, because I've been following them online, their YouTube channel and their Snapchat, et cetera. And I knew from a video that they did with Tim sheath, that these are kind of the two, you know, sort of vegan people in Ireland who are making waves and doing interesting things. Twin Brothers, they have a restaurant cafe called the Happy Parrots

in Greystones, which is about, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes south of Dublin, right on the coast. And they invited us out to visit them and get a look at what they're doing out there. And it blew me away. Like I'm so impressed with these two young guys and their level of enthusiasm. I mean, their, their level of enthusiasm is like nothing I've ever seen. These guys are inseparable and they are, they are just so active in the community. They are really community oriented. They've got this whole town that they live in, just ecstatic about healthy food and healthy lifestyle they're teaching courses they're changing lives and they have uh now they have something called

pearville which is they created their own city 14 000 square foot facility where they're creating all these healthy food products uh shipping them all over ireland 300 stores in ireland making youtube videos like crazy their snapchat machines and they're just full of life and positivity. Yeah, they're making it. I mean, the thing that really blew me away is, you know, it's as good as any of the highest, you know, highest developed health food stores in LA, maybe even better. I mean, they have sprouting containers, they have, they're making kombucha, they're making kraut. They make some of the most amazing hummuses and pestos plant-based pestos i've ever had yeah they were shipping 90 000 bars uh this month and their bars are amazing

you know a lot of times bars for me it really give me a stomach ache i can't really i can't really process them but these bars that they made are really really really high quality so and they're adorable and infectious and always happy and they're jumping into the irish sea at least three times a day they're the happiest two dudes i've ever yeah they're twins that are literally almost like the same person and they just love each other they're amazing so a lot more you're going to hear a lot more from me about these guys the podcast with them is going up this weekend and we're going to try to incorporate them into our Irish retreat in Ireland, which is going to be next summer. Definitely. Yeah. So cool. So I think this is a good moment

to launch into an interesting, you know, perhaps interesting discussion that we could have a lot of, you know, messages that I've received in the wake of, you know, what, from an outsider looking in on this experience that we just had, you know, we got to go to Florence and we got to go to Siena and we went to Venice and we went to Turin and we went to Ireland and people are saying, wow, you know, it must be nice to be able to make your living traveling to these amazing locations. Like, how do you do that? How do we do that? How did you make that?

How do we figure this out? How did you make that happen where your career is merged with something that you're passionate about and that you're in service of? Well, I mean, starting at the very beginning, and then we can launch into our more personal, is, you know, it really happened because I was practicing yoga, and I was going to yoga retreats. And it suddenly occurred to me one day as I was on one of these retreats that why were we coming to this, you know, one location, which was basically like kind of a granola hippie location in Ojai when we could

go anywhere in the world. I was like, why would we only go here when we could go anywhere? And so I had this really profound experience. I told it at the retreat. I don't think I had ever told you before, but I was in Ravello. It was before I met you. And Ravello is on the Amalfi Coast and it could be the most beautiful view you could ever see in your entire life. It's absolutely, it's extraordinary beyond measure. And I had just discovered yoga and I went into these ruins next to the hotel in the morning really early. And I started practicing yoga and I closed my eyes and suddenly I opened my eyes halfway through my practice. And there were 60 people from the village had come down to watch me practice yoga. And so I was very attached to my yoga, which you

are when you first start practicing. So I just continued. I closed my eyes and continued and finished my practice. And when I opened my eyes again, they had all left except for this old Italian man who had sat down on a bench four feet away from me. And as I finished, he got up and he shuffled over to me and he looked in my eyes and held his hand out and I put my hand in his and he smiled and he had no teeth and I for a minute there I was like what is happening here like is he gonna grab my boob or you know do something I don't know and he kneeled down and kissed my hand and looked at me very, very specifically. And then he turned around and shuffled away. And it was at that moment that I thought, I'm going to bring people to Italy to practice yoga. So that is how the whole thing happened. That was 20 years ago. Yeah. I had been

invited to this villa for a friend's birthday party and we all arrived and it was so magical. And I thought, wow, how did this happen? Like we got an invitation back in the US, and then everybody's just showing up at this villa in the middle of nowhere. So that was how it happened. And I ended up partnering with a well known yoga teacher named Steve Ross for many years. And you know, we did these high end, you know, yoga retreats for many, many years for almost a a 10-year period, sometimes twice a year. We tried a boat, and we tried a couple other things. We did a location in Mexico also that was really great. Rich came to many of these with me after I did too.

Then I met you, and you started coming. But anyway, so it was sort of born there, and it worked really well there. It actually really did change people's lives although there really wasn't much of a spiritual program there was a lot of laughing and a lot of yoga and a lot of shopping at the outlets but there wasn't really any program so when this opportunity came up again the fact that we have a message that is touching people and your book and finding ultra and, and the plant

power way and all of that I knew, you know, and also all the spiritual development that I've had over those, you know, 20 years, I knew that we had more to offer than that. So I already knew the baseline that it was going to be awesome. But then I didn't know, you know, what we were actually going to be able to contribute, which was really, really beautiful at this time. So I guess you could say this energetic pathway was laid 20 years ago. So it's something that there's a foundation for it. There was something that was meaningful, that was useful, and we've been able to now bring it back in

and incorporate it with what we're doing. But it took 20 years to really let this thing cook and mature to a point where we were ready and the audience was ready to do it. that I'm aiming at, that I'm trying to get to, is bridging that gap between, you know, current circumstance to a more idealized circumstance, right? So, you know, in 1998, you know, 1998, I was stuck in a career that I hated, and I could not see my way out of it. I just didn't think that there was any way that I would ever reach any kind of escape velocity out of being a lawyer. You know, that's what I trained to do. Law school costs a lot of money. I wasn't going to just throw it away. I had no idea what another way would look like.

How would I support myself? I didn't even know what my passion was. You know, everybody's talking about, follow your passion. Like, what are you talking about? Like, all I knew is what I was very unhappy and very unfulfilled in my career. And through a process, I don't even know what you would call that process, but a process of introspection, I don't even know what you would call that process, but a process of introspection, a tremendous amount of soul searching, internal work and confusion and mistakes and missteps and blindly stumbling around in the dark,

we've arrived at this other place. But 15 years of doing that, 16 years of doing that, of trying things that weren't working and really the undercurrent theme, 15 years of doing that, 16 years of doing that, of trying things that weren't working. And really the undercurrent theme, the underlying theme in all of that was trying to strip away at myself to get at my heart, to find something that moved me. That's what Ultraman was.

That's what ultra endurance sports represented for me. That's what this endurance sports uh you know represented for me that's what this journey through nutrition and health and wellness and meditation and yoga has been all about and so it took all of those years to get to a place of some level of understanding where it seemed responsible or appropriate to then be able to turn around and share it in a way that would be meaningful and not, what's the right word? Not like a surface level sort of lip service way

of conveying information, if that makes any sense. Well, I mean, what you mean is that when it's actually part of your authentic self, it's not a business pitch. It's not a marketing pitch. It becomes part of you. That's the authenticity. That's why it takes so long. It has to become part of you before it's, you know, in recovery, there's a saying, you

cannot share something you haven't got. You can talk about it. You can pretend like you're sharing it, but it's not going to stick or resonate with anyone because you're not, you don't actually inculcate that. You don't actually intuit that. You don't inhabit that truth. You have to get to a place where that is your truth. And then you can be a beacon that is in a place where you can share it in a way that it's going to be functional and work for other people. Yeah. And so, you know, I thought that I was going to be doing this in my thirties,

you know, I mean, that's been probably one of my biggest pains have been having to wait for it. Like I knew it was there and I knew that I was going to be doing all these things, but to not be able to express it or not be able to just launch it. And not, I didn't understand why it didn't work back then. And the way that I describe it is that, you know, we had good ideas back then we did like it, they weren't bad. They, it wasn't, you know, in the scheme of the world of what you could be doing, they were pretty good. But the key was, is that we still had traces of personal ambition that were mired in this service. So if you're saying that you want to help people, but you really haven't become yet, you're still running personal ambition. It's an idea of a persona that you want to be.

It's an idea. It's really the same energy as an actress, you know, or a performer. But I would say that I would be, it would be dishonest for me to say that I've been stripped of any ambition. Like I'm an ambitious person. I would say that over the nine years that we were pummeled almost into nothing, that you were stripped of much of your ambition. Well, I was humbled for sure. I have a level of humility that I didn't possess then. Well, that's part of it. But I think the point I'm trying to make is you could still have goals and ambitions. No, but you're confusing what I'm saying.

All right, so clarify. You're confusing what I'm saying. Ambition is when it's for your own personal ego justification. Real service is when you're truly of service without attachment to the outcome. Two different things. So when you're of service, you're not serving, you're clear of the personal drive of things that you want to get. And I understand that you still have some and I still have some, I understand that. But in the scheme of of things in the grand scheme of things that is the key thing that was different because we needed to be prepared in order to share at this level in order to imbibe in order to have the frequency and the energy so we did not have

that we were not mature at that point meaning we could not hold this example at that point because we hadn't been through all the trials and all the tests and all the becoming. And so it takes a while to become in a life. You can't just become at a certain age because you want to be. You have to go through the alchemy and the transformation, and you become alchemized. The takeaway is a couple things.

First, patience. People that are trying to expedite this process of reaching escape velocity out of whatever situation they find themselves in to arrive in this more idealized version of themselves. It takes time. It's hard. And the second prong of that really is that the ultimate growth hack is a long-term passionate devotion to mastery.

Not that you'll achieve mastery, not that we've achieved mastery in the ultimate sense in anything that we do, but it's devotion to that mastery, mastering the self, mastering the tools that we're sharing. That takes a long time. So there, I'm going to interrupt you right there.

So devotion to mastery is very different than ambition. Do you see the difference? Yeah. So you just expressed it. Because the goal is not external. It's not external affirmation. It's not any kind of material gain. It's commitment to the process

of being better and showing up for it on a daily basis, whatever that is in your life, that ultimately will bear the fruit that you're looking for. But the moment you take your eye off that and you start looking externally is when you're becoming distracted. Yeah. And when you say better, what do you mean by better? you say better, what do you mean by better? Becoming better, what do you mean by that? Well, becoming a more actualized human being. Becoming more in touch with your heart. Becoming more expanded in your consciousness.

And this touches into everything, which is why the event that we just hosted had to touch on so many things. Nutrition is important. It begins with what's on your plate. But that is not the be-all and end-all. I feel like if we had done a week where it was just all about plant-based nutrition and nothing else, it's a missed opportunity to talk about the really important things.

Because you clean up your plate so that you can get more in tune with who you are. And then it's about how do you channel that revitalization into the best direction that's going to shift your trajectory and lead you towards the life that you are meant to be living. Yeah. And this brings me back to yoga. I have to come back to yoga because as you're sitting here speaking to me, I'm remembering the story I just told you about how these retreats started. The story that I shared that how yoga is the foundational core of everything beautiful in our life. I could not have held space for you. I could not have said, Rich, go train. If I did not have a yoga practice, I could not have. If I did not have a yoga practice, I could not have.

I met you in a yoga class. Recovery and yoga for you was the beginning of you starting to look deeper within yourself. And I can see you when you're on retreat, when you're practicing yoga every day, what a beautiful result, what a beautiful flowering that is in your personality. And so we're trying to give people takeaways for this episode of Ask Me Anything.

The biggest takeaway that I would say is get your ass on a mat. Go practice yoga. Find it in whatever form. There's a million different places you can find it. Start practicing yoga. These asanas or postures carry a sacred vibration. They will clear you of all this residue. They will connect you with yourself. And as a side effect, you will

become healthy and supple and flexible and more calm and all of these things. So, you know, really Really, yoga is a wonderful gift that we have as humans on this planet. I can't stress enough the value of that practice as your guide and your constant through all the stages of your transformation. Implicit in that is that the answers that you seek reside within you. Implicit in that is that the answers that you seek reside within you. That doesn't mean that you don't seek out the advice of a teacher, that you don't read books, that you don't garner inspiration from the people that are providing inspiration in your orbit, in your world, that you don't have mentors, that you don't seek the advice of people that you trust. But ultimately, you have to be your own barometer of what's right for you. And if you're struggling with which way to go, if you're indecisive, if you have paralysis in your life,

in your relationships, the way to resolve that is always, and the answer is never going to change, is always inside of you. And so yoga and meditation are really the key to unlocking that and finding your own personal truth to unshackle you from that paralysis. The truth is that, again, it goes back to a long-term devotion and commitment to mastery because it's not going to happen in one yoga class. It's going to happen when you decide to change one thing in your life, and that's everything. When you make this commitment that this is going to be the most important thing, whether it's your spiritual evolution, the expansion of your consciousness, whether you're

doing it through yoga or meditation or some combination of those two things, when you make the commitment to prioritize that above everything else, above your job, above your relationship, that's when you start to step into the solution. That's right. Beautifully said. So it's all about yoga. Yoga and meditation. And I think all of the, the, the bounty, you know, the fruits of the pain that we've suffered, the hardships that we've gone through are a result of, of, of that commitment, you know, and you've been leading the charge. Like I'm the, I'm the sort of reluctant, you know, complaining kid that gets dragged into it and then goes oh why wasn't i doing this all along and then i'll relapse and revert back to my old default ways and then i

go oh yeah i felt better when i was doing that and then i go back in you're you're like a constant and this is where we are like the yin and the yang because you're you're the one who's always been you've never wavered in that commitment. You're very, you know, your curve does not go up and down that much. It's pretty constant, right? You're able to hold that space. And that's a unique, I think that might be your most profound talent

is your just consistency with this. I'm less consistent. And it's that thing where knowledge will avail you nothing. It's like, I know what's right for me. Sometimes I struggle with getting into that place of doing it consistently, but it's always drawing me back. And I think giving myself, like not flogging myself and beating myself up for not being perfect or as consistent as you has been a struggle that, being perfect or as consistent as you has been a struggle that, you know, I've been constantly, you know, trying to overcome to get to a place where I can be okay with myself, but also aspire

and work harder towards that level of consistent practice. Well, I think, you know, I think along with, yeah, not beating yourself up and not being judgmental, there also comes a responsibility because, you know, at a certain level, when you've reached a certain level of maturity, you know, it's time to stand up and take responsibility basically. So I'm not, I'm less, I'm, I'm less in the energy of, oh yeah, you know, um, it's okay to, to, uh, to waver a bunch. It's like, I'm not saying that. Yeah. But you, you know, you have enough experience now and it's kind of like for all of us. And this is like a planetary thing right now. I mean, the game is getting amplified up. You're going to start to see everything get like a kind of more intense, more amplified and spiritual practice is, is required of us. It's not a choice.

It's not like a pastime or a hobby or a cute little idea of taking a picture of meditating. It is a necessity to be able to fulfill your mission. And I'm talking for all of us. It is a necessity to fulfill your mission. So if you don't know who you are, start practicing yoga so you can find out who you are. Because we need you to be all of who you are, everything that you were created in your divine blueprint. We all need you. We're waiting for you. We're waiting for you to come online so you can join us.

So yeah, now things are getting a little bit more intense. Now it's like, no, you need to make a decision and you need to devote yourself to something greater than yourself. And one of the things in Jaya Yoga practice that I designed in there is the first thing we do is lie down in pranam, meaning lie down on the floor and offer your life over to something greater than you are. Because we're just not in kindergarten anymore. You know, you saw the mass shootings in Orlando this week. This world is not all unicorns and rainbows. It's just not all happening. I wish it was, but it's just not. So how do we manage? How do we maintain our light? how do we manage? How do we maintain our light? How do we maintain our mission and keep our energy balanced and in a good place so that we don't get sick? We don't get disease. I mean, all this

going up and down and the extremes, it's hard on your body. It's hard on your system. hard on your body. It's hard on your system. So it's affecting you physically. It's affecting you spiritually. And also it's affecting the environment because other people are receiving any imbalance that you're throwing off. And so again, it comes to us understanding that we are spiritual beings having a human experience and the spiritual practice is essential, right? Especially right now, especially right now. And so thoughts are things and emotions are things and our inner space affects people around us. So it's not just about your own experience.

It's about the greater experience. And so I'm going to be speaking up and sort of requiring and calling for and holding the space that we all up our game a little bit. I'm upping mine. So, you know, I'm, I'm not staying in this place. I'm going to another level. So my spiritual practice is heightened right now. You i have uh it is very very in the forefront of of what my life is and i'm sharing that on my podcast divine through line and amazingly getting the most extraordinary letters from people all over the world who are having real human life experience happen to them you know and um i'm honored to be able to hold space for them and speak to those type of issues.

But I feel like we've, we've hit a tipping point. I feel like, you know, there's, it's kind of a different game now and we're all being required to step up and, you know, take action and make a commitment on a lot of those things that we've known for a while, you know, are kind of in the field, but we haven't really taken responsibility to step into them. Everybody has those things. Everybody has something that's in their blind spot or that they're sort of semi-consciously aware

they need to deal with. Yeah, and it's your life. This is your life right now. You don't know if you're going to be alive tomorrow. So what are you waiting for? I think that's a good place to close it down for the day. Okay. Thanks for having me on. The powerful Julie Pyatt laying down the mad crazy truths at the end. Just got inspired a little bit there. That was fantastic. Thank you. I'm inspired. No, it's true. I mean, I, you know, I guess I'm talking about it from just a place of honest, transparent experience with the struggles that I've had in terms of creating consistency. And so

that's my commitment. You know, that's how, that that's that's the blind spot that i need to look at and amplify to get to a place where that's no i mean to to this is to say that that's no longer okay it's it's no longer okay for me to to tell and create that story that well this is the way that i am you know i go up and down like this. That's just a story. I have power to change that. And I've made great strides in doing that, but I still have work to do there. So that's the commitment that I'm making.

Beautiful. Awesome. So that's it for today. Thanks, you guys. Thanks for having me on. So again, if you're interested in learning more about the retreats that we have going our plant power way.com world best place oh yeah our plant power world power you think i'd know our own website right our plant power world.com uh check out julie's podcast divine through line

uh i just put up a new video today a new a new vlog I didn't see it. Yeah. So check out my YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash Rich Roll. Trying to do more vlogs. Trying to find a system. All right, honey, we just got back from the trip and everything. Yeah, I know. I know. But I'm aspiring to ramp up my video production because I really love doing it. You're really good at it. Thank you so much for everybody who has been tuning in. It really means a lot to have this audience. I don't take it lightly. I don't take it for granted. I really do appreciate it.

It means everything to me. If you have not subscribed to the show, please take a moment and do that. That helps us out a lot. Leave a comment on the iTunes page. That also helps us out a lot. What else? And thank you so much to everybody who has

made a habit of using the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com. You can find that banner ad on any episode page. It doesn't cost you a cent extra on any of your purchases, but Amazon pays us a little commission on that. And that really helps us keep the bandwidth flowing. So thank you everybody for that. And what else do we have to say? If you want some food inspiration and yoga inspiration, follow me on Instagram at Srimati, S-R-I-M-A-T-I. Also, you can find my music on iTunes and CD Baby under Srimati as well. And this summer, I'm working on a vegan cheese book that's due to be published in 2017 so I'm excited to share

some of the process of that on Instagram and like Rich said you can check out my podcast Divine Throughline I'm on iTunes you can subscribe there alright love you guys and be back with you soon

thanks so much peace namaste plants Thank you.