Latest / Finding New Waters / Sitting with Discomfort: Ryan Soave on Trauma, Recovery, and Resilience
Transcript
- 0:00For my mentor said to me, you got problems in places you
- 0:02didn't have places before. You know, it was like, you know,
- 0:06it's like I, I didn't have a family, I didn't have
- 0:08responsibilities like this and like really this, the problem
- 0:11and solution was nothing compared to what I've been
- 0:14through in the past, But I'm, I'm more sensitive to it.
- 0:16You know, the pain comes sooner, which is a a gift because you
- 0:21know, it used to be like driving down the highway and you know,
- 0:24you go off on those rumble strips, you know, and you hear
- 0:27that and you're supposed to get back on the road like I used to
- 0:29in life, feel those rumble strips and feel them again.
- 0:32And then I'd like be in the ditch and it'd be rolled over
- 0:35and the car be on fire. And then I'd be like, hey, can I
- 0:37have some help? All right.
- 0:38Welcome back everybody to another episode of Finding New
- 0:41Waters. I'm sitting here with our CEO,
- 0:42Justin McClendon, and our very special guest today, Ryan Suave.
- 0:47Welcome, Ryan. Oh, thanks for having me guys.
- 0:49I really appreciate appreciate being here.
- 0:52Yeah, man, we're glad to have you.
- 0:53So I don't want to get too bogged down in this, but I do
- 0:56want to kind of give a little bit of a background on how we
- 0:59ended up sitting here today a little.
- 1:03I've been working in this field now for just over 5 years.
- 1:06And right when I started working, a friend of mine I went
- 1:09to high school with named Kendall, who is a notoriously
- 1:13great connector as it is, reached out to me and said you
- 1:16need to meet my friend Ryan. You may have met him.
- 1:18They went to Wake Forest together and so we kind of
- 1:22connected and emailed and went back and forth.
- 1:24And then couple years later, I was touring Guardian down in
- 1:30Florida and I was walking down the hallway.
- 1:32The guy was giving me a tour and his name is your title was
- 1:36either clinical director or chief clinical officer, I can't
- 1:39remember. But on the door I was like that.
- 1:41That's Ryan. And they're like, yeah, you know
- 1:42him. I was like, well, kind of.
- 1:44And then, and then we've ended up talking a few times and, you
- 1:47know, helped each other out on a few cases and then, you know,
- 1:50just sort of know what, what each other is up to.
- 1:53And then he was recently on the Huberman Lab podcast and Kendall
- 1:58sent me the thing and I was, I'd already seen clips of it and she
- 2:01said you should get him on the podcast.
- 2:02I was like, you know, I'd like to think I already had that
- 2:04idea, but I'm not sure. But anyway, so I reached out to
- 2:07him and I, he went, I think part of the deal was he said, listen
- 2:11to the whole thing. It's three hours.
- 2:12And I did immediately. I want my next drive.
- 2:14I listen to the whole thing. It was so good.
- 2:17And I really loved everything, all the insight about, about the
- 2:20clinical side of things and, and your specific brand of
- 2:24meditation and yoga and all that, but also the way you talk
- 2:27about recovery and respecting traditions and just, I, I just
- 2:31loved it. And so anyway, so here we are,
- 2:34and I'm glad you're here, man. Oh, thanks.
- 2:37Thanks for that nice introduction.
- 2:40Am I echoing then or is it good? Oh, you're good.
- 2:43I think you're good, yeah. Thanks for the introduction.
- 2:46I, I, I, I wasn't asking you to listen to that because I, I, I
- 2:50was promoting myself. I wanted you to listen to it to
- 2:53make sure you still wanted to have me on SO.
- 2:55I hear you. I appreciate being here.
- 2:57Yeah, well, yeah. Tell us how that happened first
- 3:00of all, but. I had I've known Andrew for many
- 3:07years. I'd actually helped been a a
- 3:11small part of help in his lab on an experiment that they're yeah,
- 3:17an experiment they're running to study like fear, stress and
- 3:22trauma using virtual reality, not as a not as a intervention
- 3:28to use for people, but they're actually using virtual reality
- 3:31to put people in like fear based scenarios.
- 3:33So there was these different scenarios.
- 3:35There was being attacked by dog or dogs coming at people,
- 3:40spiders, claustrophobia heights. And then there was another one
- 3:43that was filmed swimming outside the cage with great white
- 3:46sharks. My involvement.
- 3:49And it was they after people did these were in the kind of fear
- 3:53based scenarios, they would come out and do some sort of they
- 3:57would listen to something that was more relaxing really to kind
- 4:00of build capacity in their parasympathetic nervous system.
- 4:02And then they'd go back in and they were measuring all kinds
- 4:05of, you know, they were measuring stuff with their skin,
- 4:07their eyes, their heart rate. Some of them had implants in
- 4:10their brain they were doing stuff with.
- 4:12I wasn't on the the research side of it, but I helped with
- 4:14that part. And I also got to go on the trip
- 4:16when we filmed the, the great white sharks.
- 4:19We were in a on a boat with some other guys for a week off the
- 4:23coast of Mexico, like a couple 100 miles off the coast.
- 4:25And they had permits to swim outside the cage with the
- 4:28sharks. And they had another friend had
- 4:31this 3D virtual reality, Michael Mueller's his name.
- 4:34He had this 3D virtual underwater camera that they were
- 4:38filming the sharks with. And I was I had a permit to go
- 4:42outside the cage, but I did not go outside the cage.
- 4:45I actually blamed it on my wife. I said my wife wasn't going to
- 4:49let me do it. But I don't know if it was
- 4:51really my wife. I mean, these things were there
- 4:53were hundreds of them and they were, you know, the size of a
- 4:55car. And it was, it was, it was a
- 4:57crazy, it was a crazy experience.
- 4:59And just over the years, you know, I've kind of, we've, we've
- 5:01stayed in touch with friends and you know, I'm, I'm really proud
- 5:04to see what he's done. And, you know, over the years,
- 5:06he kind of said, I'd, I'd like to have you on.
- 5:07And then one day it just happened.
- 5:09And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not the, the, the level of fame or
- 5:14caliber of one of the folks he has on, but it was, it was great
- 5:17to have that conversation. I'm, I'm, I'm just super
- 5:20grateful for it. Yeah, well, you did a great job.
- 5:22I mean, I, I wasn't just listening to it to, you know,
- 5:24make sure you we wanted you. Obviously.
- 5:26I know you're kidding, but but but you know, sometimes I do say
- 5:30say, you know, let me, let me listen to this and I'll get
- 5:33through it. But it it was, I mean, I could
- 5:35have listened to another three hours easily.
- 5:36It was really, really good. So good job there.
- 5:39I have another three hours you can buy I'll send the I'll send
- 5:42you the link after this I. Hear you just we'll, we'll make
- 5:44sure we get all your links, don't worry.
- 5:47And so one other thing, you know, when we were kind of
- 5:49prepping for this, you'd sent me a YouTube clip the other day
- 5:53about I'd say a clip. It was a 30 minute video.
- 5:55Justin listened to it. I listened to it.
- 5:58And you know, I, it's funny when you're talking about these
- 6:02techniques and you're sort of thesis is learning how to, how
- 6:06to sit in discomfort, right? I mean, that's kind of a big
- 6:09part of it. And I remember thinking, my
- 6:11first thought was, you know, is this reserved for things that
- 6:14are actually, you know, a problem?
- 6:16And then fortunately, by the end, you did give another
- 6:19example of yourself being stuck in a middle seat.
- 6:23And, you know, that being the kind of trivial thing that that,
- 6:26you know, can trigger us, you know, and I was thinking
- 6:28because, you know, it's basically sometimes it just
- 6:30comes down to when I don't get my way, I get in this in this
- 6:33kind of thought pattern and feel a physical sensation.
- 6:36So we just kind of talk about, you know, that video and kind of
- 6:39what you're, you know, kind of where your specialty is, for
- 6:43lack of a better word. Yeah, you, you know, I, my,
- 6:48I've, I've worked a lot over the years with, with trauma and
- 6:51addiction and other mental health conditions.
- 6:53But I, you know, really looking at a trauma as kind of the, I've
- 6:59had a kind of mission to broaden the definition of that and to
- 7:02make it less like I either have it or I don't, you know, that
- 7:06everybody experiences trauma in their life.
- 7:08We all experience loss, we experience pain.
- 7:10You know, it's, it's part of it's, it's, it's part of life.
- 7:14And, you know, at times, if we let that build up and things
- 7:18haven't been resolved, then, you know, it can kind of and, and,
- 7:23and if things impacted us early on and kind of shaped the way
- 7:26that we did relationships or do relationships, like it can have
- 7:29an impact later on in life where we needed to be one way in
- 7:33certain situations. But in our in our adult life,
- 7:36you know, it's calling for another way.
- 7:39But we don't really have that programming yet, right?
- 7:40We have kind of the programming of the relationships we're in
- 7:44and then we want to get into to something out.
- 7:46And this especially becomes the case when, you know, our
- 7:48programming was really impacted by, you know, maybe significant
- 7:53events that had us kind of in survival mode or really kind of
- 7:58fending for ourselves or fighting for ourselves and in
- 8:00some way, whether actually or emotionally.
- 8:04And I kind of use it like, you know, the, the, it's part of our
- 8:09nature to experience wounds. And that doesn't mean that then
- 8:15we're a victim of something that we can never get out of.
- 8:17And we have to live like that. And we're, you know, gives us an
- 8:20excuse to not live the lives that we want to live or, or take
- 8:23risks or, but, you know, it's kind of like the nature of a
- 8:26boat in, in water, you know, in, in saltwater anyway, right?
- 8:29If a, if a, if a boat sits brand new boat sits in saltwater long
- 8:33enough, it's going to get a Barnacle.
- 8:35And that one Barnacle is not going to really affect it unless
- 8:37maybe it's a, you know, a super high intense race sailboat where
- 8:43everything needs to be exactly perfect.
- 8:45But for most boats, a Barnacle is not going to really impact
- 8:47it. Maybe 5 or 10 or 100.
- 8:49But there's a point at which there could be so many barnacles
- 8:53that that hull wasn't cleaned off that it could start to
- 8:55affect its navigation, right? It could start to affect the,
- 8:59the, the motor that's in the water as well.
- 9:02And then there's a certain point at which it could breach the
- 9:04hull and it could sink, right? But the, the, the nature of that
- 9:08boat being in that type of water is it's going to get a Barnacle.
- 9:11And, and I think that's, and in, even if you clean all those
- 9:14barnacles off, you know, then you're going to get another one.
- 9:21The difference in, in, in, in like the same thing kind of
- 9:25happens with us. We experience wounding, we
- 9:27expand. If we don't kind of pay
- 9:28attention to them over time, it could build up.
- 9:31The difference is if, if all we knew, like we grew up in a
- 9:34certain way and, and say we're, we'll go back to the boat
- 9:37analogy. All we knew was driving a boat
- 9:39with a ton of barnacles on the bottom of it, even though the
- 9:42navigation was impacted, but we didn't realize that, you know,
- 9:45we just knew this, this is just how we drive this, this boat.
- 9:49And then we try to enter it into a race, right.
- 9:51And now we're not driving like, or we're around other boats and
- 9:54we're like, wow, they're driving that boat a lot differently than
- 9:56us. And that's, that's really what
- 9:57happens, You know, if we grow up in certain situations, and these
- 10:01don't have to be always the, the situations that show up on like
- 10:05the, the aces, you know, with the adverse childhood
- 10:08experiences, it could be just how we are impacted in
- 10:10relationships, not only with our parents, but with our, our
- 10:13classmates, with our coaches, with our teachers, you know,
- 10:16things that happen in our environment.
- 10:18But if that's all we know until we get out in the, and it, it
- 10:21seems normal. And then we get in the world and
- 10:23maybe you go to college, maybe you get in a relationship, you
- 10:25go to work and, and and it's different, but you're still
- 10:29driving the Barnacle covered haul boat of yourself.
- 10:33I'm kind of mixing metaphors here, I guess.
- 10:35But you know, now you start to see where it's, it's, it's, it's
- 10:39different. You know, I've had a lot of
- 10:40people I know that say I didn't realize that my, you know, that
- 10:43things were not, I didn't want to say dysfunctional, but
- 10:46weren't effective in my family until I spent time with another
- 10:49family or sometimes until I saw a family on TV, Right.
- 10:52And then you start to realize that.
- 10:53And that doesn't mean that what you did was wrong or bad or the
- 10:57way that you were raised. It's just a matter of looking
- 11:00and saying, OK, this is how I've been shaped.
- 11:02And, and now does the shaping still fit in the scenario that I
- 11:09am in my adult life? And also along with that, a lot
- 11:12of people will come, you know, if, if you had to live a certain
- 11:16way, you're going to be living that way.
- 11:17And it's kind of the only gear you have, right?
- 11:20And then so someone, let's say they grew up in a relate in a,
- 11:22in a family where, you know, their parents maybe weren't paid
- 11:26attention to in their, in their childhood.
- 11:28And now they're doing the opposite and trying to give them
- 11:30every opportunity. But it, it kind of feels to the
- 11:33kid like they're living, you know, the parents are living
- 11:38vicariously through them and they start to Orient in a way
- 11:41that they feel like I have to be perfect in order for my parents
- 11:45to be happy, even if the parents aren't meaning that right.
- 11:48So now that sets up this kind of transactional nature of like to
- 11:52get love, I need to do something right or to be liked or to be
- 11:56effective. That person may grow up and be
- 11:59able to build a business, be super successful.
- 12:01And in transactional relationships, they're really
- 12:03great, but then they try to apply that to their marriage or
- 12:08their, you know, romantic relationship or their children
- 12:13and it, it doesn't work. So then they give this
- 12:15dissonance where they're really successful or, or feeling really
- 12:19successful in this one area. But then in these other areas,
- 12:22they're, you know, not feeling like, you know, maybe their
- 12:26marriages are falling apart, their kids don't like them, they
- 12:29don't know how to be an effective parent, you know, all
- 12:31of these things. And so eventually that stuff
- 12:35leads to there being a lot of stress in the system, right?
- 12:38A lot of people get stressed by this stuff, especially if like
- 12:41they can be really good at work and that at home, it's really,
- 12:43it's really challenging. And that discomfort, stress
- 12:47builds up and creates discomfort in our, in our, in our bodies
- 12:50and our nervous system, in our brains.
- 12:52And eventually, I mean, this is, this just goes back to like a
- 12:55literature where, you know, the doctor Sokhor said, we, we drink
- 12:57essentially be, is men and women drink essentially because they
- 13:00like the effect produced by alcohol.
- 13:02You know, I, I believe that effect is relief.
- 13:04You know, that they're looking for some sort of relief from the
- 13:07stressors of their life. And, and that's where it, you
- 13:10know, that stress builds up like those barnacles and then
- 13:13eventually people are looking for relief and all kinds of
- 13:16things. And those become either in
- 13:17actual addictions or addictive behaviors in in all levels of
- 13:21acuity and and intensity. Ryan, something, I mean, just to
- 13:27that last bit that you said there reminded me of something
- 13:29I, I, I heard in the the YouTube video that we watched, and I'm
- 13:34probably going to butcher this, so feel free to correct me,
- 13:36right? But I think you said something
- 13:37along the lines of, you know, we perceive discomfort as
- 13:42dangerous. Is that is that sound pretty
- 13:44pretty accurate? I mean, I think we're, you know,
- 13:47we're designed is, is, you know, we have a, an evolutionary
- 13:51design that's pretty amazing as humans, right?
- 13:54And I think we, our bodies and brains have not evolved as fast
- 13:59as technology has, right? So, you know, 300 years ago,
- 14:04there was a lot of things that we'd lived out and, you know, a
- 14:06lot of people still lived in, in nomadic tribes or lived on off
- 14:09the land. And there was a lot of things
- 14:11that were dangerous, you know, I mean, there wasn't even a tooth,
- 14:17a tooth infection could be dangerous.
- 14:18We have antibiotics, right? I mean, like, I mean, there was
- 14:21not not only that, but you know, the, the weather, the we weren't
- 14:26quite as a top of the food chain.
- 14:28Maybe not that animals were eating us, but there were a lot
- 14:30more animals that were dangerous.
- 14:31You know, there was, it was wars were a lot more violent.
- 14:33There was a lot of of stuff. And, you know, we, we have a
- 14:37part of us that's like, and like like an animal or a reptile,
- 14:41you'll hear talk about the reptile brain that just kind of
- 14:43looking for threat all the time. And we want that to be there.
- 14:48But, you know, nowadays, whereas, you know, 2 or 300
- 14:52years ago, maybe 100 years ago, maybe last, you know, there were
- 14:54a lot more things that were threatening to us on a daily
- 14:57basis. We don't really live in, at
- 15:00least in, in, you know, developed nations in the, in the
- 15:04West especially, you know, the majority of people are not
- 15:08living in a constant state of immediate physical threat.
- 15:15Probably the most that we do every day is driving, right?
- 15:18I mean, you're hurtling down the road, right?
- 15:20And, and most people aren't terrified of that, right?
- 15:23But so we still have the system operating that's that's looking
- 15:27for threat. And and you know, there's
- 15:31especially when we've experienced trauma or wounding
- 15:36early on that hasn't been resolved.
- 15:37You know, maybe we had to be oriented towards threat because
- 15:40as a child or as a baby, if your parents abandoned you or
- 15:44neglected you, you would die or you were married.
- 15:47You know, I the, the kind of joke that I would say is like,
- 15:51and this is not true for me at all.
- 15:52So mom, if you're listening, please don't.
- 15:54This is my example. You know, if my mom when I was a
- 15:56kid left me out in the in the woods for a month when I was
- 16:00three months old, you know, I'd be dead.
- 16:04You know, now I'm 49, if she leaves me alone for a month, we
- 16:07get along better, right? Like I can't be abandoned and
- 16:10neglected in that, in that, in that way.
- 16:12That's not true, mom. That's not true, mom.
- 16:14That's not true. You know, I can't, I can feel
- 16:18like people can leave me. I mean, people can leave me.
- 16:21I can feel loss, I can feel grief, people can die and I can
- 16:24feel a lot of pain. But I'm able to, you know, I
- 16:27have the capability of, of, of, of caring for myself.
- 16:31And so if people were in situations maybe not even that
- 16:34extreme, but you know, being, experiencing bullying or being
- 16:37abandoned or neglected in, in, in some way, you know, early on
- 16:41as a kid, you know, these things that as adults we can look back
- 16:44on and go that maybe it wasn't so bad, but as a kid, they could
- 16:47be life threatening, right. And so if you're oriented to
- 16:53kind of surviving now, you're still left with like looking for
- 16:57threat every day, but the these things that we experience aren't
- 17:00threat. And then I would say taking it a
- 17:01step further, you know, will confuse discomfort as threat and
- 17:08then react to that discomfort as if it's threat in a survival
- 17:12mode, right? So example, you know, B, you and
- 17:16I are walking across the street and my car is about to hit us.
- 17:20I you see it, I don't want you to grab me and like ask me if we
- 17:23to teach you how to meditate and have compassion for the driver.
- 17:27I want you to shove me as hard as you can and you dive, even if
- 17:31it hurts us to get us out of the way so that we live.
- 17:34We're meant to go in that state of survival mode.
- 17:36The problem happens if I walk in the house at night and, you
- 17:39know, my wife says something benign like, you know, take off
- 17:44your shoes. And I look at her and I
- 17:46immediately start thinking like, oh, she doesn't love me.
- 17:48This kind of I, I go in this reactionary state, you know, now
- 17:52I'm reacting to her. She's a car about to, I mean,
- 17:55it's just some discomfort that she's triggered inside of me.
- 17:59Does that kind of answer your question, Justin?
- 18:00Yeah, absolutely. And you know, other examples I'm
- 18:04sure laundry list long, right. But you know avoidance, you know
- 18:08substance use like you mentioned, you know aggression.
- 18:11I mean all the things I guess, right?
- 18:13Yeah, And, and I think it's important to say that, you know,
- 18:15we, we don't always go all the way.
- 18:17I I, I like to look at addictive behaviors kind of on a spectrum.
- 18:20I mean, outside of, you know, shooting fentanyl in your neck
- 18:24or, you know, drinking yourself to death and, and the stuff that
- 18:27can actually get physically addictive and dangerous.
- 18:31You know, there are more kind of innocuous things that I can
- 18:35sometimes use addictively and sometimes not.
- 18:38I mean, it could be avoidance, it could be, you know, sometimes
- 18:42it's great to be alone, but now I could be kind of like
- 18:45addictively almost finding ways to not interact with people.
- 18:49Or, you know, sometimes I'm watching Netflix because and
- 18:51binging it because I'm on a plane or I'm sick.
- 18:54But there's other times where I got a super stressful day and
- 18:59you know, everybody is asleep and now I'm like, well, I'm just
- 19:02going to stay awake that I do that.
- 19:03You know, a lot of people do this.
- 19:04There's this, there's a term for it.
- 19:06I can't remember. I think it was called like I
- 19:10can't like sleep procrastination or something like that.
- 19:12But I, I would, you know, and stay up too late watching 3 or 4
- 19:20shows when I should have just gone to bed, you know, and, and
- 19:22I'm not saying that's like a totally addictive thing, but now
- 19:25that thing is using me versus me using it, which is kind of on
- 19:30the pathway there, right? And that's something that's
- 19:32very, might sound very silly, but I, you know, I think you
- 19:36could do with ice cream or, or food.
- 19:38I mean, people do it with all kinds of things and just
- 19:40recognize when am I, when do I have agency and when am I kind
- 19:44of giving my agency away, you know?
- 19:48I well, that confusion of, of, of what is actually a, an
- 19:52imminent danger versus things. It's kind of like I said
- 19:55earlier, sometimes it's just when I feel like I'm not getting
- 19:57my way and that fear of losing something I have or not getting
- 20:01something I want. I can confuse those trivial
- 20:05things with like something that's an actual imminent danger
- 20:09in terms of my physical reaction and how I start to process it.
- 20:13Like, I mean, if somebody kind of gets in the way of something
- 20:15I want to do sometimes, you know, be it my girlfriend or the
- 20:19person in traffic or, you know, sometimes a customer service
- 20:22person. And I and I can feel, I have
- 20:24like a physical sensation in the back of my head which sort of
- 20:28tells me, hey, you're about to, you know, yell at somebody or do
- 20:32something irrational. And most of the time it stops me
- 20:34from doing it. But you know, I would say like
- 20:3625% of the time I kind of muscle through that sensation and still
- 20:40sort of act out, you know? Yeah, and, and I think it's the,
- 20:44it's not just like, I mean, there's a reason I I say it's
- 20:47confusion, but we're, you know, there's a part of us as human
- 20:51that's evolved. You know, that prefrontal cortex
- 20:55has evolved significantly as far as like I understand, you know,
- 21:00we, we are best at giving meaning to things.
- 21:03And, you know, we can kind of look to the future and we can
- 21:06look to the past where we learn from it and, and, and look to
- 21:09the future to kind of apply things and invent things.
- 21:12I mean, we're, we're pretty amazing like that.
- 21:15The the and we don't want to take meaning away from things
- 21:18because the meaning in, in life is what makes it at least I
- 21:22think so rich. You know, I, I, I, I make that
- 21:25my relationship with my kids and my wife has as a has, has depth
- 21:30and weight and it and, and a richness to it.
- 21:34I don't want to not do that. But that meaning making part of
- 21:37us is what can also get us in trouble when we're not in, you
- 21:40know, finding ways to garner control over it because, you
- 21:44know, something will happen. You know, I do consulting and
- 21:46someone called me and said, you know, we have to end this
- 21:48consulting contract at the end of the month.
- 21:50You know, I could go into like, OK, now I'm, you know, I can go
- 21:54down the road of I'm not going to get that paycheck now, you
- 21:58know, and the way that I could react to it internally is as if
- 22:01I'm going to like an imminent danger.
- 22:03Now, if I never made money again, there's some potential
- 22:07imminent danger way down the road, you know, but no one's
- 22:10going to knock on the door and take my house away and all the
- 22:12food out of the pantry and all that stuff like today.
- 22:14But that's the way I'll I'll react to it not only like that's
- 22:17going to happen. Someone's going to knock on the
- 22:19door, take everything out of my bank account, everything out of
- 22:21our pantry and then tell me I'm never going to be able to earn
- 22:25for my family again. Like that's not true, right.
- 22:29And even if it was a truth that could happen, it's several steps
- 22:33down the, the, IT, it's like way in the future weeks, months,
- 22:37year more, you know, And so when I get in that reaction where
- 22:42it's like I'm in a survival state based on something that
- 22:45might happen and might. And it even if it did is down
- 22:48the road, then I actually miss out on what the, the, the steps
- 22:53are that I could use to solve it today.
- 22:55And I miss out on a quality of life.
- 22:57So there's this kind of, you know, balance that we want to
- 23:00build between like, we don't want to just make everything
- 23:03neutral and be like, Oh, I don't care about anything.
- 23:05You know, you don't want to, I don't want to live life like
- 23:07that. You know, I don't, I don't, I, I
- 23:10want things to, I mean, when they hurt, I don't want them to
- 23:14hurt. But when things hurt, it mean to
- 23:16me, it means that like somebody dies.
- 23:19I don't want to just be like, you know, somebody I love, they
- 23:21don't want to be like, let's go have lunch.
- 23:23You know, it's great. You know, I want to be like, I
- 23:26want to hurt. You know, that's a price that we
- 23:28pay for loving them. And again, in it, I don't want
- 23:33to, but that means that we've given this meaning and but if we
- 23:35apply that meaning to this like a these imaginary scenarios that
- 23:39may or may not happen and way down the road now we're, you
- 23:45know, it's old male, you know, So what is it?
- 23:47Do you hear this in, in 12 step recovery, like fear is borrowing
- 23:51or worry is borrowing pain from the future, You know, and that's
- 23:54just like, what am I doing? And so, you know, I, and I
- 23:58think, you know, in the, to take it into some of the 12 step
- 24:01literature, you know, Bill Wilson in the, in the 12:00 and
- 24:0412:00, I think really defined this well in the beginning of
- 24:07the four step, you know, in the first couple paragraphs, he
- 24:10talks about all of the instincts that we have, you know, a
- 24:13survival instinct, the sexual instinct, the material instinct,
- 24:17you know, social instinct that, you know, we need to be able to
- 24:20make money and build things. We need to be able to have sex
- 24:23to to and and love to to like build families and and populate
- 24:28the world. We need a survival instinct for
- 24:30if we're, you know, in danger, we need a social instinct to
- 24:35feel connected and a community. But it's when he goes on to say
- 24:38that like most of our emotional problems, and I'm not going to
- 24:41get this accorded, most of our emotional problems are are are
- 24:44because of misdirected instinct. You know, I need too much money
- 24:47or I need it. You know, what am I putting at
- 24:49the top of my list? If, if, if I wake up in the
- 24:51morning and money is the most important thing to me.
- 24:54Now that most important thing to me is almost like my God and I
- 24:57become or my master and I become a slave to it.
- 25:00You know, he wrote about this stuff, you know, whatever the
- 25:031520 years after they first got sober and they were seeing
- 25:06people that had put down the drink and now they were acting
- 25:09out sexually. They were acting out weird, you
- 25:11know, doing weird stuff with money.
- 25:12You know, I don't know what weird stuff with money means,
- 25:15but you guys might know, like some of your audience might get
- 25:18that they're just like, they were just being weird.
- 25:20I'm sure, right. And so they're like, what, what,
- 25:22what are these causes and conditions?
- 25:24And then when you go on into the 6th and 7th step, especially,
- 25:27you know, he's right. And I'm thinking about this more
- 25:29from an academic standpoint, not just for addicts and Alcoholics,
- 25:32but for a process for people. I, I think everybody should read
- 25:35this. You know that looking at where
- 25:39misdirected instinct in the form of character defects are coming
- 25:42up and you know, looking at some of these character defects or
- 25:46liabilities in some situations are just that they're
- 25:49liabilities or defects, but in other situations they're assets.
- 25:52It's like, where are we applying them?
- 25:54You know, anger is not a terrible thing, right?
- 25:56We feel like we experience anger and it might give us the energy
- 25:59to establish a boundary. But if I take that to rage, you
- 26:03know, somebody insults me or I perceive insult and and maybe
- 26:09they were just making a joke and I, you know, walk out in the
- 26:11parking lot and, you know, cut the stems off their tires.
- 26:15That's like a misdirected instinct.
- 26:17You know, that doesn't, I've never done that, by the way.
- 26:20I've thought about doing stuff like that.
- 26:21But you know, like it's, it's an overreaction, you know, a
- 26:25disproportional response. And I think whenever there's we
- 26:28look at our responses, that disproportional response, it it,
- 26:32I think it shows that we've gone into some state of fight or
- 26:36flight into a survival mode or an instant instincts are about
- 26:39survival. And we're choosing from that
- 26:42rather than like, experiencing it and then making our choices
- 26:45based on what's best for us and those around us.
- 26:48Yeah. So Ryan, what I'm, what I think
- 26:50I'm hearing anyway, it sounds like the work, so to speak,
- 26:54quote UN quote, is kind of like trying to find a way to exist in
- 26:57the in the middle, right? You know, not the extremes or
- 27:00not the, you know, lack of sensitivity, if you will, but
- 27:03maybe trying to find that middle ground where we can react
- 27:06appropriately. What do you think about that?
- 27:09Yeah, I think that's the case. And, you know, as we go on in
- 27:12life, you know, we're going to, you know, especially, I know you
- 27:15guys talk to a big recovery audience.
- 27:17You know, I mean, the, the, I think a lot of the last part of
- 27:20the 12 steps is that practice these principles and all of our
- 27:22affairs, which to me goes, you know, means go build a life to
- 27:27practice these things then, right.
- 27:28So someone comes in and they're able to like, you know, they're
- 27:31in treatment, they're in their meetings, they're going to a
- 27:33lot. You know, they're like in there,
- 27:35they're doing all the things right.
- 27:37And and they're in their bubble and then and, and maybe they're
- 27:40single and they haven't really been working and, you know,
- 27:44they're able to practice these principles and then all of a
- 27:47sudden they get in a relationship.
- 27:48Now there's something else for that to bump up against, right?
- 27:51So they're probably going to go and even if they found the
- 27:53middle right, or balance, and that's another thing.
- 27:57Balance isn't like, I'm standing still, you know, balance is
- 28:00like, whoa, you know, I might get in and I might even touch
- 28:04the ground. And, and then then maybe they
- 28:06get a new career, they go back to school and they've got
- 28:09something else for that to bump up against.
- 28:10And they've got all these people in their lives and
- 28:12responsibilities. And so not all, there's two
- 28:15things happening. They got more places for those
- 28:17reactions to happen. And, you know, they also
- 28:22generally become more sensitive to their emotions.
- 28:27You know, I, I went through something recently, something
- 28:29happened. You know, when I have something
- 28:30these days that like really puts me in fear or, or I, I, you
- 28:35know, I've got enough tools and people, mostly the people around
- 28:40me that it doesn't last very long.
- 28:41You know, it doesn't mean that the problem is not there, but
- 28:44I'm not having that overreaction to the problem, you know, and I
- 28:48was, I was, it, it was probably 12 hours, maybe a day.
- 28:52And I was just like, I was like, Oh my God, this is like when I
- 28:55first got sober before that, like I, I, I was just terrified.
- 28:59And looking back at it, it was nowhere near that, you know, as
- 29:04my, one of my mentors said to me, you got problems and places
- 29:07you didn't have places before. You know it was.
- 29:10Like. You know, it's like I, I didn't
- 29:12have a family, I didn't have responsibilities like this.
- 29:14And like really this, the problem and solution was nothing
- 29:18compared to what I've been through in the past, But I'm,
- 29:20I'm more sensitive to it. You know, the pain comes sooner,
- 29:23which is a a gift because you know, it used to be like driving
- 29:28down the highway and you know, you go off on those rumble
- 29:31strips, you know, and you hear that and you're supposed to get
- 29:34back on the road like I used to in life, feel those rumble
- 29:36strips and feel them again. And then I'd like be in the
- 29:39ditch and it'd be rolled over and the car be on fire.
- 29:41And then I'd be like, Hey, can I have some help?
- 29:43You know, like now that noise thankfully comes a little
- 29:48sooner. And so I think the work is,
- 29:51yeah, finding a way to be in the in the middle.
- 29:53But more most importantly, being able to recognize when you're
- 29:56out of that middle that you've if, if we're going to use the
- 29:59word middle or balance that you've declared this is the life
- 30:03I'm living with the principles I'm standing on.
- 30:05And I can recognize when I'm in reaction sooner and return out
- 30:10of reaction quicker. Now, that doesn't mean if I'm
- 30:13really sad or upset about something that that goes away,
- 30:17but if I can start to recognize what's the overreaction to it,
- 30:22you know, and, and, and remove and, and work through the stress
- 30:26around the stress, then I can lean into whatever I'm dealing
- 30:30with because we're going to have problems in pain.
- 30:32You know, as a wise man once said to me, you know you're
- 30:35going to get sober and then things break and people die
- 30:37every day, you know? It's part of life.
- 30:41And you know, one of the things I've heard you talk about too
- 30:44is, is using these tools, you know, if you're in recovery,
- 30:47whatever form, if it's 12 step and using that and prayer and
- 30:50meditation. And I want to hear a little bit
- 30:52about your it's yoga nidra, right?
- 30:53That that's what you do. Is that what it's called?
- 30:56Yeah, I mean, that's one of the forms I think that's, I think
- 30:58you, you know, I'm biased a little bit because I've trained
- 31:00it and used it. But I mean, there, there's also
- 31:02been some studies directly around the, the yoga nidra that
- 31:05showed a, it, it in that specific type of meditation, it
- 31:07showed a 60, I think it was like a 65% increase in endogenous
- 31:11dopamine during the practice, which is really, I'm not a
- 31:15scientist, so I, I'm not going to be able to take you down all
- 31:18that. But there's, there's some
- 31:19research out there that people can find.
- 31:22What I like about it is Nedra means sleep.
- 31:25So it's a yogic sleep. It's a sleep based meditation.
- 31:29So you do it mostly you can do it sitting, but most people do
- 31:32it laying down and you just listen.
- 31:33It's a, it's not, it's not necessarily to replace all other
- 31:37forms of meditation, but it's a technique that kind of
- 31:40disappears. The technique you don't have to
- 31:42really think about anything. And it's kind of designed to
- 31:45take through some like brief little movements and things and
- 31:48then down into this like relaxing state to take your
- 31:52brain to the, the, the brain waves to the levels that they
- 31:56are in sleep, you know, and in, in sleep, in those deeper brain
- 32:01waves is where we're, you know, in, in slower brain waves in
- 32:03general is where we're more creative.
- 32:06And I, I, you know, I, I don't have the anecdotally, I would
- 32:09think that, you know, for me, a representation of that as we
- 32:13dream, you know, and your dreams are like, why can be at least
- 32:16minor, They can be wild. I can be anywhere in the world
- 32:19or outside of this world with people I know or don't know, you
- 32:22know, doing all, like doing one thing one second and something
- 32:26completely different, you know, like eating dinner with a famous
- 32:30person for a second, then like flying on a crocodile, Max,
- 32:33right? Like it can be that's pretty
- 32:35creative or like kids are very creative, you know, and
- 32:38imaginative. And so when we can get into
- 32:41those lower brain wave states, you know, we can start being
- 32:46more creative. And that's important because
- 32:50when we're in these higher brain wave States and all these
- 32:53thoughts are going, we're just grabbing onto the thoughts that
- 32:55we've had before. It's like, I know what to do in
- 32:57this scenario. I'm just going to do the same
- 32:59thing again. And we're not even actively
- 33:01thinking that, you know, we kind of become these robots just
- 33:06plagiarizing from our past. And when we can slow down and
- 33:10there's this yogic principle I like called stealing leads to
- 33:13seeing the more that I can still, the easier I can see
- 33:17what's happening because what I, you know, what I see happening
- 33:22is impacted and, and, and kind of by my historical, you know,
- 33:27my memory, my imagination, my kind of pre programming.
- 33:31You know, it's like attorneys will tell you, criminal lawyers
- 33:34will tell you eyewitness testimony is like the worst
- 33:37because you have four people, they'll see four different
- 33:40things, you know, just based on their own perception.
- 33:44And as we move through time, our perception changes.
- 33:47We have different memories of our past.
- 33:50You know, you could, the two of you could have travelled
- 33:52together 10 years ago and you'll both have a different, you might
- 33:55have a different memory of where you ate or what day it was
- 33:58nothing major. Just to recognize that we're
- 34:01kind of adding more perception and, and distortion to our, our
- 34:06memory as time goes on. And so I, I, this yoga nidra is
- 34:13a way to really kind of slow those brain waves and kind of
- 34:15get to that sleeping state. You know, I think he coined it,
- 34:20but Andrew did it and we talked about on the podcast, Huberman
- 34:22really has brought it forward to another form.
- 34:25That's not so much 'cause some people don't like, you know, the
- 34:28term yoga, whether it's because of a spiritual practice or
- 34:33something else, or, you know, it's more Eastern than Western
- 34:37And, and that's fine. My, my yoga, the people that I
- 34:40learned it from who are Indian said, you know, call it whatever
- 34:43you want, you know, like get people to, to find ways to be
- 34:46still in the ways that they can. So there's another form called
- 34:50non sleep deep rest, which is basically the yoga nidra without
- 34:53and without kind of using intention.
- 34:55And you know, there's a ton of YouTube videos out there now
- 34:59and, and apps that you can do a great one is my friend comedy
- 35:02Desai has an app called I, I think it's called I am yoga
- 35:05Nidra. If you look her name up, it's a
- 35:08like 4 box and, and use some great, great yoga Nidra and NSDR
- 35:14in there. And you just lay down, listen to
- 35:15it. And the idea is that now you can
- 35:18kind of bring that sleeping state into the waking state,
- 35:21meaning bringing those slower brain waves into the into your
- 35:25daily life. You know, another by product of
- 35:28it is it's like taking a nap. So you kind of get the benefits
- 35:32of sleep. So people that don't sleep well
- 35:34or, you know, find themselves in stressed out situations
- 35:39throughout the day. As you practice this over time,
- 35:42it kind of can help you build that, you know, not only get
- 35:46into the slower brain waves, but kind of build capacity into in
- 35:49your parasympathetic nervous system, which is what allows us
- 35:52to come out of fight or flight. Absolutely.
- 35:55I mean, whatever tools, whatever tools.
- 35:57You use I really, you know, I like for people to set up a, a,
- 36:00a practice of, of tools that are both proactive and reactive.
- 36:04So proactive are the tools that you schedule.
- 36:08So people that go to therapy, go to meetings, they work out, you
- 36:11know, maybe they, they do a meditation every morning.
- 36:13They go to church and meet with friends.
- 36:15You have it scheduled, right? You do this on Tuesday.
- 36:18You don't know if you're going to need it on Tuesday, but
- 36:20you're doing it anyway. And it kind of builds capacity
- 36:23for you, right? You might not be in crisis, but
- 36:24you're going to therapy to grow. You know, I always tell people
- 36:28the second best time to be in therapy is when you're in
- 36:31crisis. The best time is when you're
- 36:33not, right? You can work through this stuff
- 36:35without that. And then reactive tools are the
- 36:38things that when you recognize that you're maybe in that
- 36:41heightened state or overreacting.
- 36:44And I don't mean overreacting in a way that like someone uses
- 36:47that to say, oh, beer, just overreacting.
- 36:49I mean, like there's a disproportionate response.
- 36:52Those are tools that you can employ quickly.
- 36:54Like you're probably, if you recognize that and you're in a
- 36:56meeting, you're probably not going to lay down on the ground
- 36:58and listen to a 30 minute meditation or call your
- 36:59therapist, right? You're not you're not going to
- 37:01do that. These can be very short, like
- 37:03breathing techniques that people can use.
- 37:05Sometimes there are things that could be employed in a scheduled
- 37:08or deployed in a scheduled state, like proactive.
- 37:11But the proactive things help you raise that capacity to be
- 37:14able to experience that discomfort, allows you to be
- 37:17able to still so that you can see it just improves your
- 37:20overall Wellness. And the reactive are, you know,
- 37:24I'm way out of balance. How do I get back to that middle
- 37:27that Justin was talking about? That's exactly what.
- 37:30That's exactly what I was wanting you to talk about is,
- 37:32you know, we, we can have these scheduled like you said and have
- 37:35our, you know, our maintenance and our spiritual maintenance
- 37:39program, whatever. But to be, to have these tools.
- 37:41Can you elaborate a little bit on some of these tools to use in
- 37:46a reactionary fashion, like if you're in a meeting or in
- 37:48traffic or in some situation where you just kind of feel
- 37:50yourself getting, you know, disproportionately angered or
- 37:53dysregulated? Yeah.
- 37:55I mean, I think another thing that that that comes out of, I
- 38:00mean, it doesn't, it probably was around a lot longer than
- 38:02that. But I like the way that he
- 38:04writes about it in, in, in the 12 step literature is to, or the
- 38:09Alcoholics Anonymous literature is to pause when agitated,
- 38:11right? And I really think that if I
- 38:14could have a superpower, it wouldn't be to fly.
- 38:17It wouldn't be to be invisible. I really, if I could literally
- 38:23every time pause when I'm agitated and I'm pretty good at
- 38:28it, but not great all the time. I, I think that would, and if
- 38:33everybody had that, I think it would, it would drastically
- 38:35change their lives, right? Just kind of putting some space
- 38:39between that thought and, and action.
- 38:43Most, I, I think a lot of people and you probably, I know you
- 38:47come across them, you know, especially in, in addiction
- 38:51recovery, you know, most of the problems come from impulsive
- 38:54behaviors right there. Even if they've gotten into
- 38:57recovery and they've been sober, there's a moment where they say,
- 38:59you know, screw it. And that screw it is like an
- 39:01impulsive thing. So anything that we can do to
- 39:04put pause in, in in between there, just pausing is hard
- 39:09because if we're in that state, you know, if like intellectually
- 39:13pausing, if we're, if we're in that state, if someone's like
- 39:16super reactive and you just tell them to relax, what, what
- 39:20they're going to punch you in the face.
- 39:21Probably right. Or, or some people will.
- 39:24It doesn't, it doesn't help. So it's not just deactivating
- 39:27the that's called the sympathetic nervous system that
- 39:30drives that fight or flight. It's, it's activating the
- 39:33parasympathetic nervous system. So doing something actively to
- 39:37bring us toward that out of everything is falling apart and
- 39:42towards everything's OK. I think breath in some way is
- 39:45one of the quickest ways to do that.
- 39:49And because if you are in a fight or flight state, breathing
- 39:55generally isn't long, slow, deep and full just because it's kind
- 39:59of like getting ready to run. You're going to get ready to
- 40:02maybe hold and maybe the people are holding their breath or
- 40:04they're breathing really fast. And I think there's some sort of
- 40:07signal that's been sent that says.
- 40:09Like, hey, I'm in danger. Get the body ready for it,
- 40:11right? If you can slow down your
- 40:13breathing and especially your exhale, get a really long
- 40:18exhale. And if you can do that a few
- 40:19times, I think it sends another signal to your nervous system
- 40:22that says, Hey, if I'm, if I can do this, then I must not be in
- 40:26danger. Like physical, immediate
- 40:28physical danger, right? Because you're, you're giving
- 40:31yourself a little bit of that time and it can really bring
- 40:33somebody from here to here really quickly.
- 40:37So, you know, there's all kinds of breath out there, box
- 40:40breathing, you know, different 4 count and eight count breaths.
- 40:46I like just taking a slow inhale through your nose, like really
- 40:49softly and then exhaling as like the longest, softest exhale you
- 40:55can do through your mouth. That exhale like really can
- 40:58bring us down if you need to like purse your lips that can
- 41:02kind of slow the the exhale out and then do that for seven
- 41:07breaths, right. 10 breaths. You know, sometimes it's hard to
- 41:10say breathe for 10 minutes or two minutes or whatever it is.
- 41:13I mean, but most people can take 7 breaths, right?
- 41:16I can kind of for me, that kind of tricks my mind and that's a
- 41:19great thing to do getting, you know, changing your location
- 41:23that move a muscle, change a thought is, is real like getting
- 41:26up out of your seat and walking outside.
- 41:29If you're, if you're inside and you're like in meetings like
- 41:32that, you know, not like this one, but like on zoom meetings
- 41:34and you're really stressed out, like take a break, walk outside,
- 41:37look at the trees, look at the sky.
- 41:39You start to like, look at you get this more wide angle thing
- 41:43for me that helps me see that like I'm pretty insignificant
- 41:47compared to the rest. And I don't mean insignificant
- 41:49and like I don't have worth and value.
- 41:51I mean, just like one of my teachers always says there's a
- 41:55hundred. What is it 100?
- 41:57And or 1.4 million earths could fit in the sun.
- 42:02Like think about that for a second and be like, OK, if
- 42:05that's true, like whatever, I just like that guy on the zoom
- 42:09meeting that looked at me funny. Like does it really mean
- 42:13anything in the scheme of things?
- 42:15And, and, and, and just getting outside and almost a mentor, my
- 42:19school getting small, like just kind of looking around.
- 42:22You start to kind of see space in between things and notice
- 42:25that. Just look at the trees and the
- 42:26birds and, and breathe, you know, go for a walk, call a
- 42:30friend, you know, I mean, or if you, if you can't, if you can't
- 42:35get out, you're in a meeting and it's happening and you can't and
- 42:37you and you've done the breath just kind of notice like moving
- 42:40from I'm pissed off or I'm angry or I'm hurt to what am I
- 42:44experiencing in my body? And might just be, I feel my
- 42:48feet on the floor. I feel my butt in the chair,
- 42:52feel the air on my skin. My heart's racing.
- 42:56My skin's hot and, and I mean, doing that sounds so simple, but
- 43:01it starts moving. It starts moving us from I'm
- 43:04angry to I'm experiencing these sensations.
- 43:07And now rather than identifying as the anger, I'm disidentifying
- 43:13from it. I can see that I'm experiencing
- 43:15it and then I know that every emotional state that I've
- 43:19experienced has passed at some point.
- 43:22So it might stay there. But and that's kind of letting
- 43:24go, right? Letting go isn't that
- 43:27something's gone and said that I don't have a grip on it and it
- 43:29doesn't have a grip on me. So if I am the one experiencing
- 43:32and now I can go, oh, I've got agency and control.
- 43:35I can sit with this. I can move, I can take a breath.
- 43:38I can this isn't going to hurt me.
- 43:40I can start to recognize things and these are practices.
- 43:43It, it, it, it, it takes time. Some people, especially in early
- 43:46recovery, don't have that muscle yet.
- 43:48You know, and you and you and you build it over over time, and
- 43:50then you build it and then you start building a life and you
- 43:53have more things for your stuff to bump up against.
- 43:56And then you got to practice it again.
- 43:58Yeah. This is great, Ryan.
- 44:01Man, I feel like we could. We could keep doing this for
- 44:04hours man. Yeah, I mean, so yeah, we could
- 44:08do this for hours and I'd love to do this for hours and I would
- 44:11we'd like, I want to have you back on here for a follow up.
- 44:13We'd. Love to do.
- 44:14That, but we're kind of up against it.
- 44:16What for now, tell our listeners you know how to how to find you
- 44:20and what you're up to and give it, you know, some specifics on
- 44:23how to reach you. Yeah, I, I, I do some one-on-one
- 44:27coaching and, and and therapy. People can find me on my website
- 44:34or on Instagram, my websites, ryanswab.com.
- 44:36If you go to the and, and I'm I'm I'm working on a a book that
- 44:40will be hopefully coming out later this year or in mid 2026.
- 44:46And so right now I'm I'm mainly focused on putting out as much,
- 44:49you know, a lot of content to just that's no cost that can
- 44:52help people. So you can find me on Instagram.
- 44:54It's Ryan dot suave. If you go to my website,
- 44:57whichisryansuave.com, you can sign up for this free course I
- 45:03have. It's a six day e-mail course.
- 45:05It's got some of the stuff we talked about today, but it's
- 45:07like really kind of got some actionable tools for people to
- 45:10use. It's again, no cost.
- 45:14And then I'm starting to put out longer form stuff on YouTube.
- 45:17You can find me there. It's RJ suave SOAVE, or if you
- 45:20just Google me, you can, you can, you can find that.
- 45:23So yeah, mostly I'm, I'm really focused on that.
- 45:26And then I also do some I, I, I, I like to keep my clinical chops
- 45:30up and, and try to help some people that way.
- 45:32So I do, I, I still do a bit of, of, of that.
- 45:36I also like work with groups and do speaking engagements and, and
- 45:39stuff like that. So I'm pretty easy to find on
- 45:41that website. People can e-mail me directly
- 45:43through there and I'll be the one responding.
- 45:45It won't be in AI chatbot. Awesome.
- 45:48That's fantastic. Swab SOASOAVE.
- 45:53Yeah, like the this is perfect for like the wine, not the
- 45:56shampoo. I hear you.
- 45:59Well, hey, man, I thank you so much for being here.
- 46:01Thank you to Kendall for connecting us five years ago.
- 46:04And thank you, Justin, for being here.
- 46:06Absolutely. Thanks Justin man, nice to meet
- 46:08you. Man, just can't thank you
- 46:09enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- 46:10Lot of fun. Thank you.
- 46:11Awesome. Cool.
- 46:13If you liked what you heard today or just want to know more,
- 46:16give us a call on 9196708119 or visit us at
- 46:21newwatersrecovery.com. Thank you.