Latest / INSPIRE STORY / #051_ Developing Mindfulness How to Quiet the Noise _ Live in the Present

Transcript

#051_ Developing Mindfulness How to Quiet the Noise _ Live in the Present · INSPIRE STORY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Mindfulness doesn't mean just being calm. It means being really
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: available to the present moment. Manoj Dias, Sri Lankan meditation
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: teacher and founder of The Open App.
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  Speaker 2: He is an animated speaker, humble teacher and thought leader
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  Speaker 2: in the mindfulness space.
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  Speaker 1: You are not your thoughts. When I heard that, I
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  Speaker 1: think that was the first moment I'd experienced conscious mindfulness.
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  Speaker 1: Like I heard my thoughts for the first time.
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  Speaker 3: All we have is our attention, and where we decide
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: to place it ends up dictating the trajectory of our lives.
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  Speaker 1: Loneliness is continuing to rise. Mental health rates are continuing
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  Speaker 1: to get worse. You don't meditate to get good at meditation.
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  Speaker 1: You meditate to get good at life. We're really good
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  Speaker 1: at being anywhere but here. The moment we have to
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  Speaker 1: just be with ourself, it's very hard.
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  Speaker 3: If we're not our thoughts, then who are we?
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  Speaker 1: Jeez, how long do we have?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look at this. Thanks for coming out, everybody. Nice to
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: see so many happy faces. Very excited for this conversation. Manoj,
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  Speaker 3: I think the best place to start is with you
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  Speaker 3: making the case that for mindfulness. Why should we care
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  Speaker 3: about this instead of just yada yada-ing it?
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  Speaker 1: We've all heard for the longest time, this word mindfulness,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it had like a real moment, I think
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  Speaker 1: around the nineties when everyone was practicing mindfulness, a way to,
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  Speaker 1: to work with stress, you know, Jon Kabat-Zinn really introduced
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  Speaker 1: mindfulness based stress reduction. And that became the prevailing connection to,
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  Speaker 1: to that word. Over time, it's becoming so many different things.
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  Speaker 1: I've worked in different industries where mindfulness can be how
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  Speaker 1: you perform at work, for example. It can be mindful cooking.
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  Speaker 1: I once saw a workshop on mindful sex, and I'm like,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: this is cool, but what does this word mean these days?
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  Speaker 1: And so I'm kind of a little flexible on what
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  Speaker 1: it means, but for me, I come from the Buddhist system,
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  Speaker 1: so that was how I was born and raised. So
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  Speaker 1: for me, Mindfulness is a way to really free myself
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  Speaker 1: from suffering, for me to overcome the patterns that keep
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  Speaker 1: on happening in my life, my own neuroses. And so
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  Speaker 1: if that is interesting to people, I think you should
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  Speaker 1: care about mindfulness. But I also think it's interesting in
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  Speaker 1: a place like New York, which is kind of wild.
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  Speaker 1: I've been living here for a year and a half,
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  Speaker 1: and it's kind of insane. And I'm like, if I
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  Speaker 1: didn't have a mindfulness practice, would I be okay? I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Share a little bit about your entry point to this
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  Speaker 3: because you're Sri Lankan. You were sort of raised in
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  Speaker 3: this tradition, but it took you a while to realize
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  Speaker 3: you had to develop your own relationship with it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think people assume because when they look at me,
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  Speaker 1: I've got a shaved head, I'm brown. I'm like, he
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  Speaker 1: probably meditates. I didn't. It was never a part of
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  Speaker 1: my life. Like in Sri Lanka.
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  Speaker 1: Mindfulness and Buddhism is more of a religion, whereas in
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  Speaker 1: the West, it's becoming more of a philosophical practice. And
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  Speaker 1: so for me, I came to it through suffering. That
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  Speaker 1: was my entry point. I was in marketing and advertising.
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  Speaker 1: And if anyone's worked in marketing and advertising, you probably
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  Speaker 1: know this story. I had an anxiety attack one day.
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  Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out what that was because
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  Speaker 1: I'd never experienced anxiety or even a panic attack. I
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  Speaker 1: went through all these different ways to try and fix
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  Speaker 1: myself you know went and saw psychologists psychotherapists took medication
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  Speaker 1: took time off and nothing really helps me unless until
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  Speaker 1: a friend told me one day come to a yoga
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  Speaker 1: class and I know shit this is actually what I
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: said I said I don't know any Lululemon I can't
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  Speaker 1: yeah like he's like no no come there's there's lots
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  Speaker 1: of hot girls there it's also what he said and
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  Speaker 1: that got me so I was like okay I'll come
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  Speaker 1: I'll come And there was no hot girls there and
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  Speaker 1: no Lululemon, but there was like five guys over the
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  Speaker 1: age of 70. It was an ex-Buddhist meditation teacher and
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  Speaker 1: he was really talking about mindfulness. He was talking about
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  Speaker 1: meditation and developing awareness. And I think that moment was
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  Speaker 1: the first time in that class when he was saying,
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  Speaker 1: you are not your thoughts. He kept on repeating that,
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  Speaker 1: you are not your thoughts. When I heard that, I
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  Speaker 1: think that was the first moment I'd experienced conscious awareness. mindfulness.
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  Speaker 1: I heard my thoughts for the first time. You're never
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  Speaker 1: going to be anything, or you're always going to be sick,
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  Speaker 1: or what are you going to have for lunch? I
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  Speaker 1: was actually just able to see it without having to
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  Speaker 1: embody every single thought that popped into my mind.
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  Speaker 3: Why is it that the Western mind and the Western
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  Speaker 3: way of life is so resistant to mindfulness? Is it
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  Speaker 3: our self-identification with our thoughts as being the definition of ourselves.
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  Speaker 3: What is the source code that makes it more difficult
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  Speaker 3: for our culture to kind of cotton on to the
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  Speaker 3: benefits of the lifestyle that you espouse?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's necessarily Western culture in general,
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  Speaker 1: but I think it's definitely in places that are very
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  Speaker 1: metropolitan where there's a lot of industry. I mean, I
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  Speaker 1: can feel like it at times, like I'm I wake
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  Speaker 1: up in the morning to work, to produce. So I
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  Speaker 1: have to perform. So I have to be optimized. So
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  Speaker 1: I have to have this 30-minute morning routine just so
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  Speaker 1: I can get to my day and get to sleep
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  Speaker 1: at night at a certain time and wake up and
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  Speaker 1: do it again. So I think there's this prevailing belief
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  Speaker 1: that slowness is almost antithetical to our way of being.
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  Speaker 1: And the interesting thing is mindfulness doesn't mean just being calm.
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  Speaker 1: It actually doesn't mean just being slow. It means being
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  Speaker 1: really available to the present moment. I think when we're
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  Speaker 1: available to the present moment, we're much more attuned to
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  Speaker 1: what's here versus the anxieties, the stress, the worry, and
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  Speaker 1: the future thinking, which I think culturally maybe in the
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  Speaker 1: West we're really good at. We're really good at being
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  Speaker 1: anywhere but here. And maybe people in the East have
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  Speaker 1: figured it out. But then, you know, I see people
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  Speaker 1: in Scotland. They're pretty mindful and present.
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  Speaker 7: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It is insane that the only thing that's actually real
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  Speaker 3: is the present moment, which is constantly fleeting. And yet
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  Speaker 3: we live our lives persistently rehashing things that happened in
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  Speaker 3: the past or tripping out on what's going to happen
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  Speaker 3: in the future. And we're so rarely actually available, to
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  Speaker 3: use your word, in the present moment, which is reality.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And that's hard, though, right? The reality for a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us is hard to be with. Because the moment, actually,
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  Speaker 1: has anyone gone on holiday recently? And the moment you
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  Speaker 1: go on holiday, you get like sick or you just
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  Speaker 1: get tired, right? And it's because we're operating under this
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  Speaker 1: level of intensity that the moment we have to just
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  Speaker 1: be with ourself, it's very hard.
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  Speaker 3: Or we're restless and we're immediately looking for the activity
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  Speaker 3: to distract ourselves from.
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  Speaker 1: Everything that we've been running away from just is like, hello.
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  Speaker 3: We bring it with us.
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  Speaker 1: We bring it with us.
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  Speaker 7: Exactly. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: One of the things that you're known for is making
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  Speaker 3: these practices, ancient practices, accessible to Western audiences. And I'm
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  Speaker 3: interested in the tension there because the way to appeal
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  Speaker 3: to the modern person who is living in the three-dimensional
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  Speaker 3: world is to say, this is the way to reduce
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  Speaker 3: your anxiety. This is the way to improve your relationships.
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  Speaker 3: This is how to be more productive at work. This
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  Speaker 3: is all kind of... wrapped in this language of optimization.
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  Speaker 3: You know, that's how you get people to pay attention
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  Speaker 3: and go, oh, I need that. It's an entryway, but
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  Speaker 3: it's not really what this is about.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it can be, to be honest.
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  Speaker 1: I just think that's a very superficial layer to this experience.
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  Speaker 1: I think we have looked for ways to integrate mindfulness
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  Speaker 1: in a way that feels appeasing to society and culture. And,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Jon Kabat-Zinn, like he's the one that everyone
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  Speaker 1: talks about as being the one that really was able
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  Speaker 1: to integrate mindfulness into contemporary culture. And he did it
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  Speaker 1: through the lens of the medical system. He said, you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you're stressed, do these techniques. What he didn't add
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  Speaker 1: was like, okay, look at your mind as you're experiencing life.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the way you're behaving. Look at the morality.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the ethics around it, which is not as
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  Speaker 1: cool as saying do the techniques and you'll feel better, right?
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  Speaker 1: If you tell someone to live more ethically, to not lie,
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  Speaker 1: to not steal, to not harm someone else, that's a
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  Speaker 1: lot more confronting. So I think that's how we got
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  Speaker 1: it into society, into culture. But then I use the
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  Speaker 1: example of kind of eating an avocado with the skin on.
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  Speaker 1: It's kind of like, it's okay, but it's not great.
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  Speaker 1: But then you peel the skin, you eat the avocado,
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  Speaker 1: maybe add a little salt and lemon. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: It tastes way better. And I feel like when you
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  Speaker 1: go a little deeper into mindfulness and meditation, that's where
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  Speaker 1: the real taste and the real essence of the practice
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  Speaker 1: really begins to show itself.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe leading with the existential crisis of like, if
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  Speaker 3: I'm not my thoughts, who am I? Might not be
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  Speaker 3: the way to bring people in.
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  Speaker 1: The door, I guess is what you're saying.
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  Speaker 3: But if we're not our thoughts, then who are we?
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  Speaker 1: Jeez, how long do we have? I mean, I think
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  Speaker 1: that's a contemplation. And for me, it's I think the
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  Speaker 1: easiest way to explain it to secular audiences is that
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  Speaker 1: it's not so much a question of if we're not
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  Speaker 1: our thoughts, who are we? It's that can we feel
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  Speaker 1: this essence of interdependence with each other? I think we
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  Speaker 1: focus too much on our individual selves. That's why hyper-individualism
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  Speaker 1: is so venerated in today's society and culture. But for me,
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  Speaker 1: it's less about me, actually. It's more about how am
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  Speaker 1: I in relationship to my wife, to my new friend
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  Speaker 1: to the people that I'm meeting every day? How can
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  Speaker 1: I move through the world in a way that doesn't
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  Speaker 1: cause any harm, but actually does the opposite, you know,
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  Speaker 1: cultivates presence, creativity, compassion? I think they're much more interesting
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  Speaker 1: to me now than really trying to figure out my
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  Speaker 1: own individual life path and spirituality.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know the exact quote, but the Dalai Lama
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  Speaker 3: said something like, obviously a different tradition, but He said
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  Speaker 3: something like, the point of meditation isn't to, certainly not
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  Speaker 3: to optimize. It's not to reduce your anxiety and improve
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  Speaker 3: your sleep. It's not even necessarily to make you a
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  Speaker 3: better person. It's to make other people better.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: That is a really beautiful sentiment. And it gets to that.
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  Speaker 3: idea that you're referencing around venerating individualism and understanding that
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  Speaker 3: the happiness we lack is in the service we have
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  Speaker 3: yet to avail ourselves of for others.
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  Speaker 1: That's a beautiful way to say it. But I think
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  Speaker 1: if you tell people, do this, you're not going to
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  Speaker 1: get any benefit out of it.
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  Speaker 3: You're going to be able to serve people better if
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  Speaker 3: you do this.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know.
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  Speaker 3: Optimization? I'm in the door. And speaking of which, there's
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  Speaker 3: nothing wrong with that. I'm into optimization. I'm an athlete.
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  Speaker 3: I know you've worked with athletes. You've worked with NBA players.
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  Speaker 3: What has that experience been like? And what are the
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  Speaker 3: benefits that you've seen in an athletic context with the
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  Speaker 3: people that you've worked with?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's interesting when I get the opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to work with athletes, whether it's professional football players. I'm
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  Speaker 1: from Australia, so I call them football players, not soccer players,
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  Speaker 1: or NBA players.
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  Speaker 3: It's okay, the World Cup's going on right now. You
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  Speaker 3: have more liberal bandwidth to.
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  Speaker 1: Get away with that. Great. It's interesting. Sometimes what comes
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  Speaker 1: up for me is, oh, I have to present this
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  Speaker 1: stuff in a way that's palatable to them. And sometimes
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  Speaker 1: it's true. They have high-performance teams, and I have to
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  Speaker 1: be very careful around the language that I use. But ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: one lesson I've learned is that whether they're athletes or
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  Speaker 1: whether they're just individual people, old or young, we're all
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: kind of searching for the same things. We want to
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  Speaker 1: be more available to the present moment at its essence.
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  Speaker 1: And I think the context and the relationship to athletes
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  Speaker 1: is when they're more available to the present moment, they're
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  Speaker 1: able to access their training. They're able to access more
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  Speaker 1: creativity on the pitch or on the court. They're able
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  Speaker 1: to let go of errors much quickly. So their response
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  Speaker 1: time is just more elevated. And so that same context
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  Speaker 1: can apply outside of that, right? If you are just
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  Speaker 1: present and engaged in this moment, overthinking about what you
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  Speaker 1: did before or what's going to happen afterwards, you're just
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  Speaker 1: here and there's a natural flow to the experience when
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  Speaker 1: that happens.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think athletes are pretty good when it comes
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  Speaker 3: to the mind-body integration. They understand how to that this
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  Speaker 3: is one thing and they're familiar with the flow state
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  Speaker 3: and the no thought that, you know, kind of is
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  Speaker 3: part and parcel of their best performances and trying to
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  Speaker 3: be in that place more consistently is gonna unlock better
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  Speaker 3: performance more consistently. At the same time, I think athletes
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  Speaker 3: are also pretty good at turning off the communication that
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: their body is trying to, you know, when their body
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  Speaker 3: is trying to tell them something because they can compartmentalize
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  Speaker 3: their pain or they can block things out. And I'm
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: curious if that's ever come up, like that can be
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  Speaker 3: ultimately a block. Like I can't deal with any of
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  Speaker 3: that because I have to do this right now. Shutting
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  Speaker 3: down that communication.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. It's funny. One of my favorite, I'm a
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: big ritual fan, by the way. So it was like a,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it was like a big moment for me when Rich
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: said he wants to talk to me. One of my
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: favorite conversations of yours, I think it's with Dr. Ellen
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  Speaker 1: Langer and she talks about the, one of the many
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: conversations I think you've had with her, but one of
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the conversations is around decision-making and how so much of
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: it is like a mindset. And I'm not going to
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: do any service to her by quoting what she said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: but I think there's two schools of thought to be
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: completely honest, because interoceptive awareness is important. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: important in the context of athletics, but it's also important
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: outside of that. And I think it's interesting how we
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: respond to that. So, you know, Ellen Langer's, am I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: saying her name right? Yeah, Dr.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Ellen Langer.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: Dr. Ellen Langer.
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  Speaker 3: She's the best, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: She kind of says it's simply a decision. We're capable
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  Speaker 1: of doing so much more than we think we're capable of.
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  Speaker 1: And I think there's moments when we have to really
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  Speaker 1: listen to the body and be intelligent in how we
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: respond to that. Maybe slowing down to speed up is
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: an option versus just going so hard out like David
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Goggin style and just being able to do incredible things.
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  Speaker 1: But for the average person, I think it's the average athlete,
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  Speaker 1: and I consider myself like a very average athlete. I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: think it's important that I listen to my body because
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: there have been times– I used to play semi-professional cricket
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: back in Australia.
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  Speaker 8: Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you know what cricket is, but
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: that was my area of expertise. And then there were
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: so many times I just wouldn't listen to my body
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and I would get injured, you know.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Her quote, her most famous quote, Dr. Ellen Langer, is
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: stop worrying about making the right decision and make the
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: decision right. And I think what she's saying in between
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: the lines there is your intuition, like your heart intelligence
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: knows what's right. And when you make that decision quickly,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: it's really coming from that heart place of knowing what's
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: right for you. But in our culture, we over index
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: on the mind. And so we want to run circles
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: and circles and all the risk assessments. And, you know, well,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: if I do this, then this is going to happen.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: And her whole thing is like, we're terrible prediction animals.
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  Speaker 3: We actually don't know what's going to happen. And you're
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: better off trusting this. And this is a big piece
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: in your work. This integration of mind and body is
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  Speaker 3: so much in our culture about really turning this off
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  Speaker 3: so that we can hear this more and learn how
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  Speaker 3: to trust it. And value it equally, I suppose.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it is. For me, it's like, it's
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: not turning it off necessarily, but knowing how to use
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: it more sharply, use it more intelligently.
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  Speaker 3: Well put.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And I think we don't listen to our body and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: we don't know how to interpret those signals. And then
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: often what we do is we react. We don't respond, right?
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Like to Ellen Langer's point, like we have a very
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: strong negativity bias. So if we if we think things,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: it's usually the worst. Like we're always predicting the worst
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: possible outcome. So if we just leave it up to
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the mind, then we're just fear-based animals. But for me,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: it's more like listening to the cues. It's being able
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: to be with any discomfort, which I know you're very
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: familiar with as an endurance athlete, like be in the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: mud per se and not be overcome by that. And
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: then use the mind to know that, okay, we this
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  Speaker 1: is an impermanent experience. I've done this before. I've trained
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: for this. I can go beyond. So I think it's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: more what I'm advocating for is this balanced relationality between
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the mind and body.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: You mentioned earlier that your tradition of mindfulness coming from
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Sri Lanka is rooted in religion. We're in a secular culture.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: I'm curious around your thoughts on The explosion of the
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: wellness movement, the explosion of mindfulness centers and programs and
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: meditation apps and run clubs. To my mind, these are
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: all things to celebrate. People are caring about these things
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: in a way that historically we haven't. And that's a
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: good thing. But it's also.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Uh, a replacement for religion on some level. It's a,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: it's a secular religion, this wellness, and it's become sort
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: of a choose your own adventure. Like I'll take this
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: from this and this from this when it suits me.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: How do you think about that in terms of your
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: teaching and trying to orient people around these principles?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's such a great question. I mean, for the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: longest time I've been teaching for around 20 years, you know,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: when I first started teaching, everyone thought I was really
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: weird and like, oh, that's that meditation guy in Australia.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: My parents had a heart attack because I left my
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: marketing job to be a meditation teacher. And so it
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: would be this thing that I wouldn't tell people. I'm like, oh,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I teach. But I think what's happening now, sorry, what
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: I've learned over those years is that I've had to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: alter my language in order to make it accessible. You know,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in previous organizations that I've started, like we weren't able
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to use the word spirituality because we thought that had
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: connotations and that people would freak out and then, you know,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: No one would come. And so it was very much
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: around performance, optimization, protocols. Like that was the language that
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: we used to use. But, you know, in the last
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: few years, I started to grow an internal discontent with
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the industry that I was in because I was seeing
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the industry itself grow. $ 6. 8 trillion is, I think, what
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the wellness industry is valued at right now. And yet
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: loneliness is continuing to rise. Mental health rates are continuing
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to get worse. And I feel like we're at this
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: moment in time where there's like a real crisis of consciousness.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Like what is real? Like what is true? What is
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: ethical and moral? And all of those things combined with
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: the rise of AI, the fact that algorithms kind of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: run our life right now, wars ravaging us, there's almost
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: this perfect storm for something like religion to come back, right?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And there's a good and a bad side to this.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I think over the last 40 years, religion has been
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: declining And interestingly enough, as religion declines, more people are
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: identifying as spiritual but not religious. Interestingly, in the last
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: six or seven years, that number has started to plateau.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: And in the last, I think, two years, we're seeing
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a slight uptick in people going back to religion, which
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: is fascinating to me. And I think it comes back
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to this crisis of kind of consciousness. But what we've
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: replaced religion with, because we still want the things that
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: religion gave us, right? We want to gather in communion.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: We want to look towards certain people. So I think
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: podcasters actually kind of replaced, you know, pastors and stuff
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: because people want to believe in something. People want to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: follow like a protocol because it gives them this sense
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: of safety and direction, similar to like the 10 commandments
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: or the eightfold path in Buddhism, all these different things.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: And we want to feel safe around people that have
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a similar view to us. So that's why run clubs
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: are kind of going crazy. Like last year, In particular,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Strava said that run clubs quadrupled just in one year.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And we're seeing this with, I think it was sort
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of on TikTok recently, how people are going back to
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: church to meet their boyfriend or girlfriend. I'm like, that's cool. Like,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: why not? Like, try everything else. But people are looking
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: for that because of this moment in time, I think.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. which I
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: use all the time because I travel all the time.
• 21:40
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  Speaker 3: was In the airport on my return, watching all the
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  Speaker 3: travelers going to and fro, I started wondering about their
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  Speaker 3: you order now. At the same time, it's the death
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: of the monoculture, and I'm seeing this mimicked in all
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: of these wellness subcultures. Maybe I go to this church
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: for communion, but I go here for my breath work,
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: and I go here to do my yoga class, and
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: I have my run club, and then I go to
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Minoge for mindfulness. One of the interesting things about you
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: is that you've consolidated meditation, mindfulness, and breath work. How
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: are these things different? How do they work together? How
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: are these of a piece with each other and why
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: should they be kind of practiced as a one as
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: opposed to segmented in the way that we think about them? Like,
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: you know, we want to put things in boxes, you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: and separate everything just like our social media feeds, I guess.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's such a great question. I think, you know,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: for me, what I've really tried to own in the
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: last 18 months is that I think everything is spiritual.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: And I used to be really shy in saying that.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I don't want to use the word spiritual.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I use mindfulness instead. And what I mean by spiritual
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: is that I feel this interdependence with everyone, like I do,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: even with all my algorithms pointing me towards this division.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to, as best as I can, open up
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my field of awareness, my heart to an extent, to
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: everything that's happening here. And so if I think of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: everything as being spiritual, I think there are many ways
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: to cultivate that. that level of spirituality. So I don't
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: need to just sit and meditate as a way of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: connecting to my body. I can dance. So dance has
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: been a huge part of my life the last three,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: four years. And that's now a practice that I lead
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and I teach. I think music is universally spiritual. And
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I think now we're seeing the power of sound and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: how it affects brainwave states and HRV and all that
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So music has the ability to connect
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: us to something much deeper. And then there are other
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: things like just genuine moments of connection with another person.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Like they inherently feel spiritual to me because they're rare.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: And I feel like there's no me in this other person.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Certain times I feel like, oh, like I'm so in,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I'm so in this moment. Like I get, you know,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: like what Rich is saying, because I've had that experience
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and there's this symbiotic sort of dance in that moment
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: that feels to me like it's a very spiritual moment. So,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: For me, it's all that. It's all a meditation, basically.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: There's also this idea of segmentation. It's like I do
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: my mindfulness practice or I do my meditation or I
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: do my breath work. I have my morning routine and
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: then I go live my life. Whereas mindfulness really is
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: about how you are carrying all of this awareness throughout
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: the day. It's not something you do and stop doing
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: and then live in the same way your body and
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: your mind aren't two different things. This is a integrated.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: The idea is so that you are mindful more of
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: the time.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Yes. I mean, like Sharon Salzberg, one of the great
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: mindfulness teachers would often say, you don't meditate to get
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: good at meditation. You meditate to get good at life.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: And I think, all these techniques, they're just techniques, unless
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: they point us towards something. Like, I don't do breathwork
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to get good at breathwork. I don't meditate to just
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: be a better meditator. I want to know myself deeper.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: I want to feel more connected in this life. And
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: all those are expressions that we can cultivate through these moments. So,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: another friend of mine once said, yeah, I meditate for
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: an hour every day, but then I'm a jerk for
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the rest of my day. Like, something's not happening here. So,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I think hopefully we're moving into a time where we're
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: moving beyond just the techniques because the techniques can be
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: packaged and sold, right? What's harder to sell is a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: way of looking at the world. And I think hopefully
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: we'll get to that place.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Speaking of techniques, Manoj is going to take us
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: through a practice in a moment. Before we do that,
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: what is the most common misconception that people have about
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: mindfulness or breath work or meditation that you encounter in
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: your teaching?
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: That it's a new experience. And I'll explain that. So
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: when people say to me, hey, I've tried meditation. I
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: can't do it. I'm like, but you already are mindful.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And they're like, no, I'm not. I've never sat. I've
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: never meditated. I'm like, well, do you like to cook?
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, I love to cook. I can
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: tell me how you cook. It's like, well, chop up
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the things, blah, blah, blah. okay, well, as you're chopping
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: up those things, are you using your hands, right? I'm like, yeah. Okay,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: so you're feeling the texture of the food and the produce.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Do you smell the food before you serve it to someone?
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: They're like, yeah. I go, okay, so your senses are
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: engaged in this experience. And so that's a mindful experience.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Like when you run, it's the same thing, right? You're running,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you're feeling all the sensorial inputs that are happening at
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the moment, whether it's the foot on the pavement, the breath,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: whether you're noticing your thoughts, telling you to stop, like
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: all of that is mindfulness, but it's then if you
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: wanna take it into meditation, you kind of evolve that slightly.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: But if you don't, if you're not into meditation, then
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: just cultivate those same qualities when you're talking to someone
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: or you're about to go to sleep when you're trying
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: to do work and then a thought pops up and
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: you're like, okay, my attention is here. Can I come
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: back to my senses and can I just be here
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: in this moment?
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it took me a long time to realize like
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: there is no wrong way to do it because when
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: you become aware that your mind is racing, you have
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: become aware of that and you are paying attention. And
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: the longer that I've done it, the more I have
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: come to appreciate the value of attention. Like all we
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: have is our attention and where we decide to place
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: it ends up dictating the trajectory of our lives. And
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: we don't really consider that or value that in the
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: way that I think that we should. And the more
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: that I've done this, the more conscious I am of
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: where I'm placing my attention and why.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'd love to hear from all of your
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: experience and the people you've spoken to, what's something you've
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: learned about mindfulness and meditation?
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: That everything that I don't think I have and I
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: aspire to have is available to me in the present moment.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Because when you are present, there is no lack, like
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: everything's fine. And even if that's a very fleeting experience,
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: to be able to return to that, and the more
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: consistently I'm able to return to that, you realize it's okay.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Life's pretty good.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: But then you go on your phone and it's like,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: oh shit, new shirt, new shoes.
• 31:11
  Speaker 8: I know, I know.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Why does that guy have that?
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Let's open it to questions.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for that conversation. I was wondering,
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: since both of you have an athletic background and you
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: know so much context, I was wondering what you could
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: say about the whole obsession around peak performance and mindfulness,
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: but also, especially for you, Rich, since you are kind
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: of an optimizer to mindfulness. maybe like touch on what, what's,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: what is beneficial about peak performance?
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: Well, my, my definition of peak performance has evolved, I
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: guess I would say. I mean, I've, I've certainly gone
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: through many seasons of life where I had a narrow
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: definition of peak performance in an athletic context or a
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: professional context. Like I know how to hone in on
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: a goal and blot everything out and just barrel forward
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: towards it to try to get the most out of
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: my body in a physical context or my mind in
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: a professional or intellectual context. And I'm now in a
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: season of life where peak performance to me means how
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: can I be more available? How can I actually enjoy
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: this incredible life that I've built for myself rather than
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: walk around stamping my feet resentful and like caught up
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: in the past or future tripping? These things don't come
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: easy for me. I have a certain program that's running
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: in my mind and that creates intractable patterns of behavior
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: that don't serve me. And I've been on this journey
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: to untie those knots and see what's beneath them. And
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: meditation and mindfulness and some other practices have been critical
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: in that. And what I've discovered is that there's so
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: much more to life than my very narrow vision of
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: what it means to be not just like a quote unquote,
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: like successful person, but what does it mean to live
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: a joyous life? You know, that's a foreign concept and
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: ideas like happiness have always seemed like indulgent to me
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: or something that is fine for other people and that
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: I want for other people, but isn't necessarily important to me.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: And now these things are important to me. Like what
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: is the point of all of these things that I've
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: done and all the hard work that I've done and
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: the service that I've done on behalf of other people,
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: if I can't enjoy this life, if I'm not available
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: to give and receive as much unconditional love as possible.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: And so for me, peak performance is really a measure
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: of my capacity to love. And it's taken me a
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: long time to get there and I'm not very good
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: at any of this. I have a lot of growth
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: and learning ahead of me, but that's been, it's been
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: a really kind of beautiful unfoldment that I'm kind of
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: in the midst of right now.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: You should have a podcast.
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: Wow.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Beautiful.
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I wouldn't add anything else to that, but
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I think peak performance is usually how people find things
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: like mindfulness because it's one of those things where you're
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: trying to get somewhere, right? You're trying to get to
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the optimal place And I think everyone gets to a
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: point where you're like, oh, I'm never going to get there.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Like there's nothing more to optimize. There's nowhere else to go.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: But it's just like never ending hamster wheel. We're just
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: chasing our tail. So I think it's a great entry
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: point for people like us. But it's not, I don't know,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: maybe for me, I don't think it's a destination.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you need those entry points. You need
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: those portals. I came into a yoga class. shortly after
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: I got sober back in like 1998, because this is
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: where the hot girls were. And I ended up meeting
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: my wife there. So I achieved that goal. And I
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: got interested in meditation and mindfulness so that I could
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: reduce my anxiety so that I could unleash a higher
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: tier of performance in myself. And everything was very goal-driven
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: and I needed it then. And the trust in the
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: person that you're working with is like, okay, let's get
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: you in the door. And then once you begin to
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: do this, you'll go on your own journey with it.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: And if you continue along that journey at some point,
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: you'll realize that, uh, you know, there's, there's something to
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: this idea of transcending goals altogether and just trying to, uh,
• 35:34
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  Speaker 3: can test it and see how your body responds. I
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: love the outdoors, but I'll admit ever since I started
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: driving my Rivian, I find myself making even more time
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: to just hop in and take it to places where
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: I can live real experiences. I was recently able to
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: drive an R2 with RJ Scringe, the founder and CEO
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: of Rivian, and we talked about how this is no accident.
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: How does that idea of like, how are we creating this,
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: you know, completely seamless connection with the outdoors through a
• 39:14
  Speaker 9: car that by definition sort of has to seal you
• 39:18
  Speaker 9: off from the outdoors? And how do the design decisions
• 39:22
  Speaker 9: inform that perspective?
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: If you're in this car, you should feel like if
• 39:26
  Speaker 7: you want to go somewhere and explore a hike or
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: stay a little bit later, it's there. It's just, again,
• 39:32
  Speaker 7: a little nudge to say it's okay to explore. Yeah.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Seek out the unknown. The front trunk has a drain
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: plug in it.
• 39:38
  Speaker 7: And the rear, the glass dropping in this car is
• 39:40
  Speaker 7: a really nice feature because it allows you to throw
• 39:42
  Speaker 7: a surfboard in the back or you can easily put
• 39:45
  Speaker 7: your gear in the back. So it's just all these
• 39:46
  Speaker 7: little things that are, you know, that, yes, they're features
• 39:49
  Speaker 7: and they're, On their own, they're maybe not the whole story,
• 39:52
  Speaker 7: but you put them all together as a meal, it
• 39:54
  Speaker 7: should feel like a product that's just built for someone
• 39:58
  Speaker 7: that wants to go live, you know, a full adventurous life.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: To watch the rest of our conversation and learn all
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: about the R2 and the places it can take you,
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: go to stories.rivian.com slash richroll.
• 40:15
  Speaker 10: Thanks, Manoj and Rich. This has been great. I was
• 40:18
  Speaker 10: really curious about what you're talking about with the interoception
• 40:20
  Speaker 10: piece and the bridge between performance and mindfulness, because I
• 40:25
  Speaker 10: see two different camps from a performance based lens. There
• 40:28
  Speaker 10: can be the squashing of that interoception because the show
• 40:31
  Speaker 10: must go on. And especially from a younger age, if
• 40:35
  Speaker 10: you learn that you need to suppress these parts in
• 40:38
  Speaker 10: order to perform and do what you need to do
• 40:40
  Speaker 10: under that pressure, that's one thing. And then the other
• 40:43
  Speaker 10: end with the mindfulness, And even if you're coming at
• 40:46
  Speaker 10: it from looking at symptoms as messengers and trusting yourself,
• 40:50
  Speaker 10: whether that's anxiety, depression, pain, I feel like interoception in
• 40:55
  Speaker 10: the felt sense is a very critical way to feel
• 40:59
  Speaker 10: into things, to actually regulate and to tune into where
• 41:01
  Speaker 10: you're at to heal, especially from a trauma-based approach. And
• 41:05
  Speaker 10: so I'm curious between those two, the performance and the mindfulness,
• 41:09
  Speaker 10: that intersection with interoception and how maybe if you're an athlete,
• 41:14
  Speaker 10: learning to feel again and to trust yourself in that
• 41:16
  Speaker 10: way when maybe years there was all about suppression and
• 41:19
  Speaker 10: numbing and kind of pushing through.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's such a great, great question. And we kind
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: of touched on it before, but you know, the funny
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: thing is all my years, the number one profession, the
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: people that I see are dancers, ex-dancers, people that have
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: had dance careers because, you know, they've had to work
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: with their bodies for so long. And then, you know,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: when they quit or they retire, then it's, a different
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: relationship to their bodies that they're trying to develop. And
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: so I think from a performance lens, you definitely have
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: to have a quality of interception, but then have the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: mindset to be able to choose how you respond in
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that moment. So for example, I work with an NBA
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: team and with the NBA team, it was like, okay,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: notice when your heart rate is starting to go really quickly.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: So have that interoceptive awareness of what's happening and then
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: apply a breathing technique that can bring it down. So then, okay,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: similar breath actually to what we practice. Okay, so my
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: heart is going quickly. Before I take this free throw,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: let me take a few moments to regulate. Sometimes we
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: have to have that awareness and be like, okay, I
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: just have to take the shot anyway. We don't have
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the ability to regulate in that moment, but that's really
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: what peak performance teams at some of these large organizations
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: really do to help people develop this awareness and then
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: find methodologies to be able to meet them. And I
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: think from a trauma lens, it's slightly different. I think
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: you can't even almost compare the two when you're working
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: with trauma because a lot of the literature, the recent
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: literature around trauma is being able to really meet trauma
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and actually to let it arise and titrate between what
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: we feel and what we don't feel. And so it's
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: almost a completely different thing, but I think somewhat related.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, ultimately, the place you want to get to is
• 43:09
  Speaker 3: not having to suppress anything, being able to, uh, you know,
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: have an awareness of those past experiences, uh, but, uh,
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: maintain your equanimity because you've healed it or you've made
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: peace with it, or you've changed your story about it.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: Like, so you're not like, I have to push this
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: down so I can be really good over here. Like
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: you're just playing a shell game with a kind of, uh, uh,
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: a short fuse because you know that that stuff's going
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: to come up and show its face in a not
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: so good way otherwise i.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Mean i've never run a marathon i've never run more
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: than three k's but i'm curious um you know when
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: when you run and you get those stories and those
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: internal cues around like stopping and like what how do
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: you deal with that do you just keep going or
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: do you just.
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: I mean the the the easy answer to that is
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: that you just break it down into the shortest, like, okay,
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: I just need to get to the next land post
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: or whatever, which is a shorthand for saying the more
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: present you are in your experience, then the less you
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: have to worry about, you're not worried about like, I
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: have this far to go. Like, okay, I can handle
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: the pain in this moment. Now it's a new moment.
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: I can handle it now. And I can handle it
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: in this moment as well. And that's how you do anything. Like,
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: you know, you don't change your life, make any change, uh,
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: Short of the tiny little things, these little adjustments that
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: you're constantly making. And I think we think of change
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: and transformation or I want to change my life as
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: these broad strokes and, you know, like bold proclamations. But
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: the real arithmetic is in these tiny little adjustments that
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: are micro and are being performed anonymously. And they're not
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: sexy or romantic or even all that noteworthy. And that's
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: all about being present and being aware of what's happening
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: to you in the moment. What is the next thing
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: that you're going to do? It's not about what you're
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: going to do when you wake up tomorrow. It's like,
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: what are you doing right now? Where is your attention?
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: What is your behavior? How can you show up better
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: in this moment? How can I be more present for
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: this experience? How can I not be caught up in like,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: am I like, is this working? Are they happy? But
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: just like, knowing like, oh, the value of whatever is
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: happening here is truly a function of how present I'm
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: able to be with you right now.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 45:31
  Speaker 11: Thank you.
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: For each of you, whether you're training for a marathon
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: or just maintaining your regular mindfulness practice, when or if
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: you reach a point where you no longer get that
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: reward or value or output from that action, but it's
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: something you want to maintain and kind of need to
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: push forward with. How do each of you approach getting
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: back to a point where you get the reward or
• 46:01
  Speaker 5: get the feeling that brought you or to that practice
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: in the first place? Or is the reason why you
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: maintained it?
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Meditating is not fun, first of all. Like no one
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: meditates because they enjoy it. Like I don't meditate because
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I enjoy it. What I enjoy is like how I
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: change as a person, how I can be more present
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: in my life to the people that I love and
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: care about. Ultimately, that's for me the reward. And even now,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: like 22, 23 years of practicing later, I still don't
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: want to meditate when I wake up in the morning.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: It's like a struggle. I'm like, oh, maybe I just
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: want to see what's on Instagram just today, just today.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: And then that fucks me a little.
• 46:45
  Speaker 6: Oh, sorry.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Can I swear? I guess so. Yeah, so I'm kind of,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I see it as like maintenance and health, like brushing
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: my teeth. That's how I reconcile it in my mind.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I don't wake up and debate with myself if I'm
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: going to brush my teeth. I just know everyone will
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: appreciate it a lot more. And so the same way
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: I think of meditation as being one of those things
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: where the world will appreciate this a lot more, even
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: if it sucks.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: I wish I could say it's a non-negotiable. I negotiate
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: with it far too often.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Totally.
• 47:22
  Speaker 8: I'm going to double down on the spiritual part and
• 47:25
  Speaker 8: ask you, can you really know your true self absent
• 47:30
  Speaker 8: a spiritual practice?
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: What have you learned about that through your journey?
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love this. I can talk for hours about this. No,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think the self is constantly evolving, right?
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: Like the version of I think this is where in
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: my education, I've started to really understand and learn and
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: embrace the fact that who I am is constantly evolving.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: And so I'm super curious about that version of me always.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: And so it's never like I've discovered who I am.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: It's like right now, this is who I am. I'm
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: showing compassion to the parts of me that I don't like,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: I don't love. I'm really embracing these things that are
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: happening and I'm not running away from life. I think
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: that's really an important part of my spiritual practice is
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: not running away from it and meeting each moment just
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: as it is and not really how I want it
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: to be. Because for a lot of my life, my
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: suffering came from things just not going the way I
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: wanted it to go. And so then I tried to
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: change myself in order to meet those things versus just
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: being able to meet it just how it is. and
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: find curiosity and openness and compassion for those parts. And
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I think that deepens directly in correlation to how I practice.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: And so like right now I'm about to have a baby,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: not me, my wife. And so I was like, oh,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: how do I meditate? And that's giving me a lot
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: of anxiety right now. And maybe you can give me
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: some pointers on that actually. But no, it's just continuously
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: being curious about this version of me and And that
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: version of me meeting how I want to live ethically
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: and morally. I think that's, I'm learning over time. That
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: is almost as important as my meditation practice.
• 49:16
  Speaker 8: Thank you both so much. This has been great. And
• 49:18
  Speaker 8: thank you for the breath work. um rich i followed
• 49:21
  Speaker 8: you for a while and like it seems that you
• 49:23
  Speaker 8: started off with more ultras and endurance and as you've
• 49:28
  Speaker 8: aged i mean you pivot when you need to or
• 49:31
  Speaker 8: feel it seems and you've from hearing journaling to meditation
• 49:37
  Speaker 8: and still doing swim runs and everything, it just seems
• 49:42
  Speaker 8: like there's always another place to move. And I feel
• 49:45
  Speaker 8: so many people get stuck in, I'm going to do
• 49:48
  Speaker 8: a marathon and I'm going to do a marathon and
• 49:50
  Speaker 8: a marathon and marathon. But like, you've opened my eyes
• 49:53
  Speaker 8: to so much more in the guests you've had on
• 49:56
  Speaker 8: have done so many amazing things. And it's just so
• 49:59
  Speaker 8: inspiring to see that there's so much more out there.
• 50:02
  Speaker 8: So thank you. Um, and as you age, um, I
• 50:06
  Speaker 8: love that you still bring more to the table and,
• 50:09
  Speaker 8: And there's so much like every year. So thank you
• 50:12
  Speaker 8: for showing that longevity is like there and open. And
• 50:16
  Speaker 8: my parents are both Ironmans and I'm like, oh geez,
• 50:19
  Speaker 8: I have to keep up with them. But like I
• 50:21
  Speaker 8: follow you and there's always something else to do.
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: So.
• 50:25
  Speaker 8: Is there something that you think is most helpful or
• 50:29
  Speaker 8: is it like mindset where you don't close off a
• 50:33
  Speaker 8: door or you just open other doors that is most
• 50:35
  Speaker 8: helpful when you keep going? Or is it your support system?
• 50:40
  Speaker 8: I just find that you seem to have the key
• 50:43
  Speaker 8: and I know you always like, it seems like you
• 50:46
  Speaker 8: bring it back like, no, it's not me, but you
• 50:48
  Speaker 8: have a key to something that helps others.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: So thank you.
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you for the kind words. Uh, I promise you,
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: I don't have the key. I definitely don't have the
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: skeleton key, but I think the best way to answer
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: that question is related to the previous question. Uh, and
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: it has to do with knowing myself. Like I got
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: into endurance sports, not because, uh, I wanted to stand
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: on a podium or distinguish myself. Like I used it
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: as a spiritual journey. to better understand myself. I was
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: very confused about my life and that capaciousness, like that
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: time alone on the trail. I used to confuse it
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: with meditation. I think now it's sort of an active meditation,
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: but that quiet and that connection with my body, I
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: desperately needed to sort out who am I and what
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: do I want to be and what's important to me.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: I was asking myself questions I'd never asked myself before.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: And it just so happened that Endurance was like a
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: vehicle for me to go on that exploration. And then
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: when I kind of welded that with my very goal-oriented
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: intellectual mind, I was able to do some interesting things
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: that other people seemed interested in. But that was the
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: real goal there. It was a journey to know myself better.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: And what I've discovered, having gone through that experience and
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: the other various experiences that I've weathered in my life,
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: is that In the Buddhist context, to know thyself is
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: to alleviate suffering. It's like, what is causing our suffering?
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: It's our attachment to our identities. The notion of self
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: is really just an illusion. It's a construct. It's a
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: story we tell ourselves and other people about who we
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: are that makes us feel grounded and certain in a
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: universe of uncertainty. Otherwise, we would spin off our access
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: and we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves. We
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: wouldn't be able to operate. So there's an evolutionary rationale
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: for it. But fundamentally, it's an illusion. And being aware
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: that the self or who you are or how you
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: define your identity is nothing more than a story. And
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: it's a story over which you hold agency. It's a
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: story you can rewrite at your own convenience. And the
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: more you can detach from that attachment from who you are. Well,
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: I'm this person, you know, like I have a silver
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: medallion status in my Delta. You know, it's like all
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: these things that we do to make us feel comfortable.
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: And like, we belong, like we want to belong to
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: the village. We don't want to be outcasts. Like all
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: of these things have, you know, important functionality in our lives,
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: but they also serve to create a lot of suffering.
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: And if you can detach a little bit and realize like,
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: this story is just a story I'm telling. Like, I'm
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: going to go tell this story. You're liberated from the
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: constraints of your identity that's holding you hostage. And it
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: allows you to grow and explore and be curious about
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: who else you could be without feeling the burden of like, well,
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: that's a, that threatens like this notion of who I am.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: And that's allowed me to kind of walk a little
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: bit more lightly and say, well, you know, all right, well,
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: I just, I had spinal fusion surgery. Like, I don't
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: know if I'm ever going to be an endurance athlete anymore.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: Oh my God. Like, who am I going to be
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: if I'm not an athlete? Like, well, God, the universe,
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: my higher power, clearly, uh, they're like, dude, you need
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: to stop. Like you, like I've been trying to tell you,
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: you need to be more still. You can't sit still
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: with yourself for a minute. You're always running away from
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: your emotional discomfort. So I'm going to break your back
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: and force you to lay down. And instead of begrudging
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: that or being resentful, like, oh my God, like I'm not,
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: I can't, blah, blah, blah. Like what a brilliant, beautiful
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: opportunity of discovery. Like what if I leaned into this
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: and didn't treat it like a burden or a setback,
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: but rather this amazing gift? How many people get to
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: hit pause on their life and just stop and say,
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: what happens when I just am here and I can't
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: run away? What can I learn about myself? And by
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: leaning into these new opportunities and not considering them as threats,
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter whether I ever do anything in the
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: endurance context again. It doesn't matter whether I decide tomorrow
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to be a podcaster. I think that
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: people get caught up in these identity silos. And what
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: I see time and time again, and I see this
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: in Ironman and in marathons, like people change their life.
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: They discover they've run their first marathon or they do
• 55:30
  Speaker 3: an Ironman. And it's, it's like the lights go on,
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: they have an epiphany and they are forever transformed in
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: a very good way. As a result of these experiences,
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: they become evangelists. Now everybody has to do an Ironman
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: because look at like what it did for me. Isn't
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: this amazing? But ultimately they end up stuck and they just, okay,
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: like I'm just, I got to do more Ironmans. I
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: got to run more marathons. And, and, and they're, short-circuiting
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: their growth, like their growth plateaus there. And they don't
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: realize like, oh, I've learned 95% of what I'm going
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: to learn through this experience. And there's a universe of
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: other experiences available to me if I am willing to
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: let go of this and grab onto this. And understanding
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: that change and transformation isn't a one-time deal. Like, oh,
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: I changed and now I'm changed. it's a relationship that
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: we're in. It's a lifelong relationship and embracing that, like,
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: what's the next change I need to make? And, you know,
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: it never gets easier and change and transformation and, you know,
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: taking contrary action and getting out of your comfort zone.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: Like these are always uncomfortable, you know, but by moving
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: towards that rather than recoiling from it and, and kind
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: of siloing ourselves in our like identity, like I do
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: this and this is who I am. And I vote
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: for this person, um, has been very liberating for me.
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: And so I spent a lot of time thinking about that.
• 56:51
  Speaker 3: And I think that is why I've been able to
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: just be like, okay, I'm doing this and now I'm
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: doing this. And, you know, when I started doing this,
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: I was really interested in this. And now I really
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: don't care about that. And I'm talking to Manoj and
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: I want to know about the nature of consciousness and like,
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: what is reality? Like, that's much more interesting than, you know, like,
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: what do you eat for dinner?
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much for listening.
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: For the conversation guys.
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: And I wanted to say thank you, especially to Rich
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: whose book and podcast has been a source of inspiration
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: for me along the time. I came to the U
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: S in 2020 to the city.
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: I didn't have a job.
• 57:33
  Speaker 4: My wife was working and I was running like crazy.
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: And after reading your book and, you know, getting into your, podcast,
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: I ended up running a few ultras. So it really
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: helped me. And it ignited on me a journey that
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: it was, as you were saying, it was self-discovering myself
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: and the potential of not only my body, but also
• 58:01
  Speaker 4: my mind. But now I'm in a situation in which,
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, it may happen to many people who get
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: into endurance sports.
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: I got two babies.
• 58:12
  Speaker 12: And So I'm finding it challenging right now to continue,
• 58:18
  Speaker 12: you know, meditating and finding those specific, you know, or
• 58:23
  Speaker 12: those spaces during my day to meditate, to continue pushing
• 58:28
  Speaker 12: myself into, you know, endurance sports.
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: So life changes when you have kids.
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: I have two toddlers and it has definitely, I don't know,
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: challenged my life and my endurance experience. a lot. So
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: I was wondering if you guys have a few tips
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: for new dads that would like to continue finding those
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: spaces and continue.
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: This is good timing for you.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: I'm listening. I'm not taking notes. You are.
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: I'm no parenting authority. Trust me. In my experience, your
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: children become your greatest teachers. And the more that you,
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: are in present awareness of that, the more beautiful the
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: parenting experience is. And they are mirrors for all of
• 59:23
  Speaker 3: your character defects and foibles and frailties. And so you
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: can't get away with anything, you know, when you when
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: you have children. And that's beautiful and also challenging. But
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: God or the universe doesn't give you what you're not
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: prepared for. And I wouldn't trade being a parent for anything.
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just been the most beautiful experience I
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: could possibly imagine that continues to give and continues to
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: be challenging. So embrace it rather than look at, oh, well,
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: when I'm a parent and now I'm not going to
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: be able to do this thing or it's going to
• 59:58
  Speaker 3: really compromise this. The world is abundant and the experience
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 3: of being a parent will just bring more abundance into
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: your life. And so don't look at it as an
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: encroachment on your like favorite hobbies or whatever. Look at
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: it as this gift of abundance that's going to take
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: you on a journey you can't possibly imagine. I think
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: that's all the time we have. I think I want
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: to end it by just saying thank you to Rivian
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: and the Rivian House for hosting this. I can think
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: of no other brand that is more on brand for
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: the conversation that we just had, because Rivian's all about
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: connecting us to nature and connecting human beings to each
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: other by removing the obstacles that get in the way
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 3: of adventure and living together. life to the fullest. And
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: the more I get steeped in mindfulness and meditation, I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: realize that's what it's about. Like life is this journey
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: and this adventure, and I just want to experience it
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: to the fullest. And the things that Manoj teaches and
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: preaches are really the path towards that. So if Manoj
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: is new to you or these ideas that he's talking about,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: this is your first touch point for them. I implore
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: you to do a deep dive into his world and
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: check out his offering. So you have open that the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: app or like, is that any more or where should
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: people learn more about you? Is that over with?
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: That's old news.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: But yeah, you should definitely look them up. They're great.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm really bad at this part of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the conversation, but I'm launching an editorial platform. It's called
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: gentle noise. It's for people that are curious about spirituality
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: and contemporary culture. So if that's you, it's a non-dogmatic
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: sort of editorial podcast, all that sort of stuff. So
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: tune into that.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: Should we have you take us through a practice?
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 6: Sure.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, is that cool? Would you like to practice? So
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: a really important practice, I think, is our ability to,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: and people get really hung up on this when we
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: talk about HRV, like heart rate variability, and people turn
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: it into this big thing that I don't think is
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: really all that important, to be completely honest with you.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: But there is a breathing technique that you can do
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: five minutes a day that I found personally to also
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: help with sleep. So if you struggle with sleep, it'll
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: give you really good sleep scores on ordering, talking about optimization.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: But it's also a really great practice that helps us
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: predict our ability to really weather stress over the course
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: of our life. And it's sometimes used to predict our
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: general health. So really simple practice. It's called coherent breathing.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: You breathe in for five, you breathe out for five.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: I like to add a little pause in between, just
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: feel like it's nice. I don't know. So maybe we'll
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: do a few rounds of that. And so for this,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: with functional breathwork, which this technique is, you should generally
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: use your nose to breathe. When you're doing other kinds
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: of breathwork, you can use your mouth. But with functional
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: breathwork practice, use your nose. Why is that? It's generally healthier.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It's a better way to breathe. It filters out, especially
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: when you're breathing in a lot of smoke from Canada.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Canada. It helps filter out some of that stuff,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: but also there's other flow-on benefits. Like we breathe through
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: your mouth a lot. It can make you more tired.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: It tends to be a lot more depleting as well
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: over time. And there's some emerging research around how it
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: changes face shape. So you care about that.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: For the looks maxers out there.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for the looks maxers out there. So really simple technique.
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: I'll guide you through it. So first, just relax into
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: whatever position you're in. Yeah, just shake your body, actually.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Do that. That feels good. Everyone's been sitting down listening
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: to us for a little while. Just shake. Actually, shake
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: your hands too.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: No one's watching you. They're all watching me and Rich.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: Just shake.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 5: Good.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: And then just shake your shoulders. Maybe shake your legs.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe turn the outer edges of your mouth up a
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: little bit. It's actually very beneficial to your jaw. Yeah,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: do one of those. Do it again. Yeah, good. I
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: love that. And then just relax your body. And if
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: you feel comfortable doing so, you can close your eyes.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: If not, just allow them to soften gently. And I
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: want you to begin by taking a slow, deep breath
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: in through your nose. And then as you open your
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: mouth as an exhale, let something go. Whatever that is.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And then through your nose, please breathe in for.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Exhale, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 11: Pause. Breathing in. four, three, two, one. Breathing out, four, three, two, one. In, four, three, two, one. Out, four, three, two, one.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 10: In, In.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 4: Out.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: One more just like that.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 7: And out.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: And then keeping your eyes closed, I want you to
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: bring to mind someone in your life that you're grateful for.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: Visualize that person as if they are here with you now.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: As you visualize that person, I want you to reflect
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: on why you're grateful for them. What have they shown you?
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: What have they taught you? And then take a moment
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: and reflect on something about your life that you're grateful for.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 6: Maybe the safety of your home, the clean water that
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 6: you drink, or what you do in the world.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: What's something that makes your life easier, better? And then finally,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: please bring to mind something about yourself that you're grateful for.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: What have you overcome? What have you given? This part
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: is often the hardest part. So take this one brief
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: moment and just reflect, what am I grateful for about myself?
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: And take a big, deep breath in. And then open
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: your mouth, let something go. Whenever you're ready, you can
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: very slowly bring your attention back. And whenever you're ready,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: you can open your eyes.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: Is there anyone who doesn't feel better? Right on. Awesome, man.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Thanks, Rivian. Thanks of all of
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: you for showing up today.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 8: I appreciate you.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you.