Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Zack S. Rudledge | The Christian Reeve Podcast | #92 |
Transcript
- 0:00It's another episode of the Christian we've podcast.
- 0:02But are you subscribed? If not make sure to like, share
- 0:06and subscribe, spread the word about the Christian Reef podcast
- 0:10and enjoy this episode. Hello and welcome to another
- 0:15episode of the Christian Reef podcast.
- 0:17Today's guest is an author, a personal trainer Fitness
- 0:21Nutrition specialist and brain health trainer all the way from
- 0:25New Jersey in the United States is name is Zach, s, Rutledge.
- 0:29Welcome to the shows are They do.
- 0:31Thank you so much for having me. This is great.
- 0:33Thank you. Now, the pleasure's mine, man.
- 0:36I got really excited. I actually did way more research
- 0:38than I normally do for this because I always do a little bit
- 0:40of research beforehand but with this, I actually went and read
- 0:44your book if you could believe that.
- 0:46Oh, thank you. It's a very short read.
- 0:50Highly recommend it to everyone but yeah, let's get straight
- 0:52into it. So it's called the official
- 0:54depression relief Playbook. And when I read through this,
- 0:59there were I think, I think it did.
- 1:01I write some extra notes. Oh yeah, I did.
- 1:03Oh, crikey, there's gonna be a lot.
- 1:05I really, I really wanted to detail with this, all right.
- 1:08And I find it very interesting because, you know, there's a lot
- 1:10of books out there on and various theories on how to
- 1:14approach depression stuff like that.
- 1:17And I was curious because you've made, you've condensed it down
- 1:21to a, you know, a very kind of short, read highlighting, some
- 1:25key areas that people should focus on and I think it's good
- 1:27as a kind of a starting point. For people, especially people
- 1:31like maybe have never a kind of sought help, maybe are just kind
- 1:36of come to grips with didn't with depression initially.
- 1:41So yeah, it's a good little reader talk to us about like how
- 1:43this book actually came to be and what readers can sort of
- 1:46come to expect from it? Sure.
- 1:49Well it came to because of covid.
- 1:51So I think my friend put it best, he said covid is kind of
- 1:55like shaking the leaves from a tree so I was working in video
- 1:58production. And when that all kind of fell
- 2:02to the side because everything was shutting down, you know, my
- 2:05real, what do I really want to do?
- 2:08Came out. So I'm actually, I don't know if
- 2:10I mentioned this to, but I'm actually I'm going to start grad
- 2:14school G's for the second time now, but this time for to become
- 2:17an actual licensed therapist. So in the meantime, so I start
- 2:22that in January, so but in the meantime, because a lot of
- 2:27people had known my past and because Covid, kind of
- 2:30heightened. A lot of things, let's say it
- 2:36was its own challenge, you know, in a lot of different ways, a
- 2:39lot of people are reaching out to me saying like, hey, I'm
- 2:41struggling, you know what do you think I should do?
- 2:44And what I did was I was I was going through and I was emailing
- 2:47people and I was going through looking at a lot of the old
- 2:49emails, I was sending people back when I was a grad school.
- 2:52The first time in film School actually because they know my
- 2:56past and I said this is getting crazy.
- 2:58You know. I'm I must have sent, you know,
- 3:00messages, the 20 different people.
- 3:01I said I was going to compile this into a book because it's
- 3:04gonna be way easier than I can say.
- 3:05Go get the book. So that's how it came about.
- 3:09Was it was almost almost by accident.
- 3:12It wasn't like a plan thing. It was just really out of
- 3:14convenience and then once people started getting back to me
- 3:18saying that it was, you know, it was actually making a big
- 3:21difference in their lives like oh, you know, maybe I should
- 3:24start pushing this a little bit, you know.
- 3:26Get some, get some eyes in front of this.
- 3:28Yeah. If you had any feedback about
- 3:30the book so far, what was the reception Into it.
- 3:33So the feedbacks been surprising the the most surprising feedback
- 3:38was from people who said that it was great for anyone because I'd
- 3:44like friends reading it who aren't oppressed and they're
- 3:46like this is actually really good just for people in general.
- 3:48I was a God, that's really nice. That's what I was reading it as
- 3:51well. I was sitting there like there's
- 3:53some really good advice in here, you can tell that you're very
- 3:57well-read and that you've read they set.
- 4:00You know, when you come to sort of read certain books is that
- 4:03everyone's read and like you never to be sort of insert those
- 4:06into, like, your own kind of theories and approaches and
- 4:09stuff. But I was reading it.
- 4:10I was like, yeah, I've read something similar to this
- 4:12before. This is good stuff, this is good
- 4:14advice. It's good to appear in a little
- 4:16short book like this. Yeah, well yeah, I'm glad you
- 4:19said that, I made it short on purpose because the last thing I
- 4:23wanted to do when I was 20 years old was, was read through 350
- 4:27pages to get one or two ideas out of it, right?
- 4:29I just didn't have the and I didn't have the energy to get
- 4:32through. TV show.
- 4:33It was, it was that deep of a depression.
- 4:36So I made it short and purpose because I didn't want it to be
- 4:39daunting and I made it like pound-for-pound punch for punch.
- 4:41Those powerful thing I could in the most compact presentation, I
- 4:47could really make. But yeah, another another like
- 4:51really pleasant surprise was, I've been going on a couple
- 4:54podcasts with actual psychotherapists.
- 4:57And they've been saying, how much they loved the book.
- 4:59So that was really cool. Almost like a, like, a valve.
- 5:02A batian. Yeah.
- 5:03So because they were like, yeah, I would recommend a lot of these
- 5:05things too, so that was really nice.
- 5:07Also. Yeah, he picks up on some good
- 5:09points that I think you the word you used a dawn to.
- 5:13I think that's a very good kind of word to describe.
- 5:16Not only having to just read a big book like that potentially,
- 5:20but also, when you're dealing with depression or something
- 5:23similar, If you're receiving good advice, that's what I would
- 5:30consider good advice you often. Told, you know, try to approach
- 5:34things one step at a time. So, if you've got that big
- 5:37goals, that seem really daunting, obviously, try to, you
- 5:40know, complete little goals and help you get to that bigger go,
- 5:43right? So, something like this is
- 5:45perfect because yeah, if you're depressed, you're not going to,
- 5:49as you said not. Well, you're going to want to
- 5:50read some big book that takes like five hundred page.
- 5:53I mean, like it's a struggle to even get out of bed in the
- 5:56morning. You know what I mean?
- 5:57Like that that in of itself is like a major Challenge.
- 6:00And for those who don't suffer, that might sound a bit crazy.
- 6:02Easy. But trust me, I hope you never
- 6:04have to suffer from depression because it's one of those really
- 6:07horrible things that people have to deal with.
- 6:09I don't really suffer with it as much.
- 6:10I've had like a cute bow tie suffer more from like anxiety.
- 6:14That's my thing but I totally don't know where you're coming
- 6:18from with regards to this. And yeah I think it's there
- 6:23should be more kind of resources out there like this, where it's
- 6:26a lot because as you said like it and it's frustrating as well.
- 6:30There's so many books out there not just in In Psychology but
- 6:33just in general that could be condensed into just those simple
- 6:36ideas and I feel like a lot of the time you just listening to
- 6:39the offers ego or waffle, do you know, absolutely.
- 6:44Some of the stuff. It depends who's written it.
- 6:45I mean, sometimes you get like really good stories, you know,
- 6:48for instance, that was one of the things I liked about yours
- 6:50was that it was that very there was like stories taken from your
- 6:53life and kind of, you know, it was kind of told from the
- 6:57perspective of it had like a human kind of feeling, do you
- 7:02know them? Mean that makes sense.
- 7:03Thank you. Yeah.
- 7:04It's not like it's not just like, oh, I'm reading some book
- 7:07and they given me some ideas and that's great.
- 7:09It's like, hit here's. Here's like my personal
- 7:11experience and something to connect with me, I because I
- 7:15think that's more important. Especially when you're dealing
- 7:17with depression or something, similar to that, you want to be
- 7:21able to talk to someone who can relate to you.
- 7:23Really? I mean, exactly.
- 7:26And then like that's a big part of like the, the beginning part
- 7:28of the book. And like I think the subtitle is
- 7:31something like You got something to do with the, you know?
- 7:35Advice from a guy who's lived it, or something like that.
- 7:37And like, that was really important for me because I lived
- 7:40it. So, like, I've read plenty of
- 7:42those books that are more academic and they're like, it's
- 7:45not really very human. So, you know, just getting
- 7:50getting relating on that level. I felt like is an important way
- 7:53to Ghana kind of get people into gear, right?
- 7:56And and realizing I say in the book, you know, there are
- 7:58different flavors, is the way I put a different flavors of
- 8:01depression, you know, some people may have like a PTSD The
- 8:05type thing, some people may be in grief, some people maybe,
- 8:08which grief out argue isn't depression.
- 8:10But, you know, we can get into that later.
- 8:12He'd like some people have artists I make which means, you
- 8:15know, they have a low-level depression that hangs with them.
- 8:17And then when they come across traumatic events, they fall into
- 8:21these deep pits that are harder to get out of.
- 8:23So there's different types, right?
- 8:25And I've been through a lot of them.
- 8:26So, so yeah, I tried to make this human.
- 8:28As I could, there is so many great quotes in this book.
- 8:32I just want to read a couple of them, here's One right, drunk
- 8:36edit sober, couldn't agree more with that one.
- 8:40You are not a depressed person, but rather a person living with
- 8:43depression. I want to Circle back to.
- 8:45That is why you refer to something called the D-Day
- 8:47approach. That's as you can see.
- 8:49You know, what, exact talk us through the D-Day approach?
- 8:51What exactly is that? So essentially, I believe that
- 8:58there's no Silver Bullet for anyone when it comes to getting
- 9:01out of that hole. Because that was one thing I was
- 9:03trying to do was trying to find the one.
- 9:05That's going to work when I was finally in gear, trying to, you
- 9:09know, sort myself out. So, what we don't concentrate on
- 9:14one thing, concentrate on everything, everything that you
- 9:17can do. So there are theories out there
- 9:22that depression, you know, is primarily a gut issue still
- 9:27there giving because you actually create more serotonin
- 9:30in your gut than you do in your brain.
- 9:31So they're giving probiotics their theories that it's
- 9:34inflammation. So, That's why I put things in
- 9:37there about diet, getting your information down and they're,
- 9:40you know, they're different theories about causes.
- 9:43I believe that there can be married different causes.
- 9:46And there's in the on the same way there's, you know, probably
- 9:5250 different ways that you can battle it.
- 9:55So if you're coming at it from first, the structure, right, and
- 10:01your actual physical body. And then, so, you're trying to
- 10:03sort out, you know, if there is inflammation Comes out of some
- 10:06kind of certificate issue coming out of from the Mind issue
- 10:08because I argue that your mind and your brain or well, it's
- 10:11true, your mind and your brain are different things, right?
- 10:13Your brains the organ your mind, you know, your mind can use your
- 10:16brain. The problem is a lot of the
- 10:19time, our brains are wired still for that prehistoric landscape
- 10:25where we were looking out for the saber-toothed tiger.
- 10:27So it was more advantageous to look out for the danger and see
- 10:31the negatives as opposed to the pile of food because you have to
- 10:33jump out of the way the saber-toothed Her right?
- 10:36Send the food can wait, so you're more in tune to that.
- 10:39So, yeah, it's just tried to come at it from everything,
- 10:43which is really the way I got out of it, to be honest, you
- 10:45know, and if you do a few of these things you'll you know
- 10:49Notch up a few points. But if you do all of them,
- 10:51you're really going to start to feel a difference.
- 10:55Yeah. Again I just want to keep moving
- 10:56through some of these quotes. I'm going to read the mold
- 10:59because there's just so many, but like I had to just write
- 11:04these down because they're just really good.
- 11:06Depression lives in the past while anxiety.
- 11:09Lives in the future, we must stay in the present moment.
- 11:12One can only control right now. I completely agree with this
- 11:15one. Like so much your apologies that
- 11:18I'm having problems with my camera, but I'll keep going.
- 11:21So basically. Yeah, as long as we can see you,
- 11:24that's the main thing. So, basically, that my favorite
- 11:26thing about this one is that it's just like I completely
- 11:31agree with this concept of, you know, living in the moment.
- 11:33I think that is what we must all do with everything, you know
- 11:36what I mean? Like you can't live in the past
- 11:37pass this dance buried and you can't live in the future because
- 11:41you know, it's constantly changing and forming and it's
- 11:44hasn't happened yet. So you got a limit them.
- 11:47Oh yeah, yeah, which is obviously easier said than done,
- 11:51right? You know, living in the moment
- 11:53is pretty tough. But that's where I think one of
- 11:56my one of my Turning points and I have had a lot of them is like
- 12:02embracing challenge like like when I went to grad school for
- 12:06the first time or even undergrad, it was like, it was
- 12:09really tough for me, especially with everything I was dealing
- 12:12with. So just really sinking in that
- 12:15moment. Like if I had to read a, if I
- 12:16had to write a paper, let's say I would sink into it and just
- 12:21sink into opening the document and then just putting my name
- 12:25out and just taking the little micro goals.
- 12:29And that's what kind of focus is you focus as you in the moment.
- 12:32It's kind of like, being in the flow, like, like when people say
- 12:35You're In the Zone on, if they use that in the UK, but in
- 12:37sports, they say, you know, you're in the zone, right?
- 12:39Look, if your site fight fight Sports particular, isn't it
- 12:43like? Okay, see ya.
- 12:44So yeah, even well, even like doing podcasts, right?
- 12:47The only thing we're thinking about, I mean, you're thinking
- 12:49about your camera, but the only thing I'm thinking about right
- 12:51now is like our conversation, right?
- 12:53I'm just completely in this moment.
- 12:57So either something, I think it depends.
- 13:00I know I know what you mean. I'm capable of kind of
- 13:04multitasking. Like if I was to like, you know,
- 13:07quantify my brain power right now, it's 85% what you're
- 13:10saying. And 15% the camera, it's slowly
- 13:12becoming more 50/50 through the course, of what's going on
- 13:16because this is frustrating happens to me.
- 13:20It's happened last to stop. Yeah, just a side note.
- 13:22I don't know what it is with zoom lately, but not having a
- 13:25lot of luck with zoom lately. But you know what?
- 13:30Oh god, this is a good example to write.
- 13:33Stuff is gonna pop up. Yeah, there's gonna be problems.
- 13:37Nothing's going to get always planned it.
- 13:39So, what are you gonna do about this?
- 13:40This camera issue is a metaphor for the obstacles that you face
- 13:44in life and the barrier. It really, is it really is.
- 13:47So like, you're not over there like screaming and throwing
- 13:50things and freaking out. We're just rolling with it and
- 13:52you know, continue our conversation words.
- 13:55If I were in my deep depression, I would have been like oh of
- 13:58course it figures. You know, the car will be going
- 14:00out on me. You know, that kind of thing.
- 14:01That's a really good point. No, I'm glad you actually raise
- 14:04that, I couldn't agree more. There's been times when I've
- 14:08lost it over stuff that just doesn't matter.
- 14:11And it's taken me many years to get to this point now where
- 14:14we're at where I can just kind of calm Lee approach these
- 14:18things bit by bit. Like for instance, I've spoken
- 14:22about I don't think I've spoken about it on the podcast before
- 14:25but when it comes to kind of like didn't Anxiety.
- 14:30One of the issues I've always had, is getting this kind of
- 14:35like paralyzing feeling where I kind of feel like, I can't
- 14:41really do much, like, it takes over both physically and, like,
- 14:44it, physically. It's like that.
- 14:46I don't know. It's like extreme.
- 14:48I just start to know, like, sickness I guess, but it just
- 14:53takes over and you like, It takes a while to get back in the
- 14:59normal frame of mind. And now I know understand all of
- 15:04those sayings like, you know, sleep on air or, you know, don't
- 15:08make a decision when you're angry.
- 15:10Like you know all of these things are so true.
- 15:12Like you just can't do it because it will just completely
- 15:14ruin any chance you have of being able to approach things, I
- 15:21suppose kind of in a With a clear mind, right?
- 15:26Right. So, so I mean I'm glad you
- 15:29brought that up to because depression and anxiety tend to
- 15:32travel in the same Pathways in the brain.
- 15:37So you know, I mean still a lot of time people will you know
- 15:41graduate from one and go to the other like that kind of thing so
- 15:45they can both be there which mean?
- 15:47Sorry so like so okay. So yeah so I actually Started,
- 15:53you know, with anxiety that 10K sunk into a deep depression.
- 15:57And then, as I was getting better, the depression went away
- 15:59and I had, I was more of like an anxious guy.
- 16:02So, you know, so you kind of I got to say, I think you can.
- 16:06You can live with anxiety and sort of still function fairly
- 16:11normally depends. How much it paralyzes you live
- 16:14for me. Sometimes I get it a little bit
- 16:15and it's dark. I can sort of ignore this.
- 16:17I can manage it sometimes, but sometimes, it's as bad as
- 16:19depression, sometimes it's like I'll fuck, I just I can't leave
- 16:23the house today. I don't know.
- 16:24This is really like when I get those days.
- 16:27Yeah. I think like, if I was working
- 16:29right now, I don't know what the fuck I would do.
- 16:31I would be able to be in the office or be, I don't know
- 16:35dealing with customers or something.
- 16:36You feeling like this because it would as you said you won't be
- 16:39able to approach the job with a clear mind it would affect your
- 16:41judgment on things and then your I suppose your emotional
- 16:44response and everything because it absolutely isn't as much as
- 16:47you try to fight it a lot of the time.
- 16:51I feel like you don't win that battle and depression is I 15
- 16:53times worse. That's why like it took me many
- 16:56years to understand fully what depression really is.
- 16:58And I think we're all still trying to understand it fully
- 17:00but in a nutshell it's not being sad or being depressed so don't
- 17:07be sad or being upset. It's like a It's almost like a
- 17:12nullifying effect isn't as a numbing experience.
- 17:15It kind of just makes you like. And it depends.
- 17:17Everyone has a different experience but what many people
- 17:20have told me over the years and I've had the same thing as it
- 17:22kind of like the Looms and sits over you and weighs down on you.
- 17:26And it kind of Makes you demotivated.
- 17:31I think would be the best thing. It's like it's like you just
- 17:34don't want to do anything. Yeah.
- 17:36Yeah it's hard to put into words, right?
- 17:38Yeah, just why things like music exists, you know?
- 17:41The kind of can describe the Indescribable undescribable
- 17:44Indescribable. So yeah.
- 17:46But as far as like anxiety, you know, a little bit of anxiety
- 17:50that's going to exist, right? And that's normal and a little
- 17:53bit of sad. Well, sadness is going to exist,
- 17:56right? Not the same as the pressure.
- 17:58When it comes to like things like panic attacks, one thing
- 18:02that tends to help a lot of people that I know is like the I
- 18:05don't know if you know the Tibetan approach.
- 18:07Where like for instance, my fiance has panic attacks and I
- 18:13tell her accept it, run towards it, run towards it.
- 18:18Like run towards that panic attack instead of trying to
- 18:21fight it, she's feeling that push against against against
- 18:24against. And if she runs towards it, a
- 18:27lot of the Time people feel just like it, melts away because
- 18:30there's no longer that that struggle anymore.
- 18:34What? It's one, it's one method that
- 18:37tends to work for people when it comes to like there's acute
- 18:40panic attacks, right? But yeah you know a little bit
- 18:45of anxiety. It's going to exist but you
- 18:49know, there's a certain point where you do need to start
- 18:51getting help. Right?
- 18:52So you know it's finding that what's when you start seeing
- 18:55peeing on your life, like you said, if you're having problems
- 18:57going to work, Okay. Now I, you know, guess are
- 19:00taking action, right? Yeah, I got it depends like I've
- 19:03always had what I would term is acute like I've never been.
- 19:06I've never received medical help because it's never really
- 19:12stopped me from doing things. I've always been able to sort of
- 19:16exert some degree of control over it.
- 19:18And I think that's the kind of a key point that we're sort of
- 19:20covering at the moment is to what degree are you able to
- 19:23control it? If you can control it and it
- 19:26doesn't affect your life too much.
- 19:28Much then maybe you don't need help but I think for the wider
- 19:32majority of people that is simply isn't the case and then
- 19:35there's that battle of do. I don't I you know, and you get
- 19:40anxious about that, you get worried about that it's like
- 19:43should I will it work for and everyone's different like some
- 19:46people, for instance need the drugs, some people fare better
- 19:52with the therapy and no drugs, some people need both you know
- 19:54it's I think it's an individualistic thing you can't.
- 19:58Therefore, you can't generalize and in the same way, you can't
- 20:00generalize experiences either. Like, you know, one person
- 20:04describes depression in one way. The next person describes it in
- 20:06a different way. You know, like, remember I had a
- 20:09partner many years ago and she was dealing with various
- 20:12different. I think she had some bout of
- 20:16schizophrenia. So she was taking medication for
- 20:19that and I think she was also suffering from depression if I
- 20:23remember correctly. But anyway, she had medicine for
- 20:26it and she described it as being being like that giving that
- 20:30nullifying affect numbing like she couldn't feel anything and
- 20:34she was sad about that like she wanted to feel and so Yeah, you
- 20:43know, we, we kind of worked with it with each other together to
- 20:47help her get off them. And that was a very trying time.
- 20:50I'm a for good like, six to eight months, it was not easy.
- 20:54And I wouldn't recommend that. By the way, I think you should
- 20:58always with these things. At the very least, seek help
- 21:02from a therapist or talk to a professional about it because
- 21:06And then the bigger Point here is like the effect on the brains
- 21:09chemistry at brain chemistry. Sorry because everyone has a
- 21:14different effect reaction to these things.
- 21:17In her case, she was okay. But it took many many months for
- 21:21things to kind of normalize and dull down.
- 21:24And I think in the end it worked it worked out, worked well, but
- 21:27it was For a long time we were seeing like why those drugs were
- 21:33at least initially necessary, but I think it said a lot for
- 21:41having people around you that support you.
- 21:43You know what I mean? Because the whole time we were
- 21:46just kids we were just teenagers.
- 21:48Yeah. I had no idea how to deal with
- 21:49something like that. I just promised I just said like
- 21:53hey I'll be around and originally she didn't want me to
- 21:56stick around. It was this kind of thing like
- 21:58you know, I'll understand if you want to walk away kind of thing
- 22:02and I just couldn't do that. Like, I felt like it was Shitty
- 22:11to do that. Pardon my language.
- 22:12But like, you know what I mean? You got to kind of like if you
- 22:15if you say you love someone you care about someone.
- 22:19That's the reality. It's not, it's not how you see
- 22:21in the movies. It's it's been there for people,
- 22:25their low moments and showing empathy showing The you'll be
- 22:31there for them even when they're not so easy to deal with and
- 22:35stuff and right, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.
- 22:40And I've had many friends over the years Dove Dove, you know,
- 22:42had various different conditions and suffering with things that I
- 22:45think the biggest thing I've understood now is that, way more
- 22:48people suffer from these things than you think.
- 22:51And I think it's made me kind of think that maybe we're all on
- 22:55some sort of degree of a spectrum.
- 22:57So even people that say, Hey, I'm always fine.
- 23:00Never have issues. I wonder sometimes if maybe they
- 23:03have experienced something but they just didn't identify it as
- 23:06that. They just kind of thought.
- 23:07Oh, that's white weird. I probably had a bad day or a
- 23:09bad week then it's like maybe there was something more serious
- 23:14there. But you just yeah, I don't know.
- 23:15I think everyone has to kind of Judge it for themselves and you
- 23:21know, base their decisions on whether they get help based on
- 23:24that control. Do you really have at the very
- 23:27least if you're human you've been through some kind of
- 23:29trauma, right? Whether it's capital T or
- 23:32lowercase T, you've been through some kind of trauma if you're if
- 23:36you're a person but so yeah we I don't know what the health care
- 23:43is like over in the UK but over here in the US it's a shit show
- 23:46it's just really awful and Especially mental health.
- 23:51I mean, I have health insurance, I'm lucky enough to have health
- 23:54insurance which, which a lot of Americans don't and it doesn't
- 23:59cover mental health. So you know, if I were to have a
- 24:03mental crisis That I, what am I supposed to do?
- 24:08You know? Because a lot of my friends, you
- 24:10know, they want to go to a therapist but they can't afford
- 24:13150. $200 an hour to go sit and talk to someone and they need
- 24:17really need it. It's really bad, you know, and
- 24:19that needs to get sorted out and I'm getting a little off-topic
- 24:22there, but that's an important point.
- 24:26I mean, I'll have Customs a totally different.
- 24:28Like, in the UK, we have the NHS, but When it comes to that
- 24:34basic things, like a any and basic surgeries and stuff like
- 24:38that, you can usually get it pretty quickly straight away.
- 24:41But with everything else you're essentially on waiting lists, so
- 24:46it is free, but sometimes you'll be waiting for a long time,
- 24:51maybe half a year or maybe even more than that and the more and
- 24:57more that time goes on the more and more, they're trying to kind
- 24:59of there's always just talk about, they're trying to
- 25:01privatize Healthcare in the And I don't think they'll ever
- 25:04really successfully put it off. Because the NHS is, is an X is a
- 25:11record. Exactly.
- 25:12And Export bit of is, is kind of one of the last few remaining
- 25:16things that exist about the UK. That makes it kind of draw a
- 25:19reason to come here and live here and you know what I mean
- 25:22and and it's paid into by attack the taxpayers.
- 25:25It's supported by the taxpayer. So it makes sense.
- 25:28It's it kind of works but it is flawed, it's deeply flawed and
- 25:32there are specs to it that are being slowly privatized and
- 25:35stuff and, you know, it is what it is, but it's It kind of
- 25:41confuses me. Like what you've got hit there
- 25:43in America. Like I mean, I've heard stories
- 25:47but is it true that? Like, okay, let's say I'm in a
- 25:51terrible accident and I have to go to hospital.
- 25:58Be stitched up, maybe maybe even have surgery, whatever to stay
- 26:02alive. If I don't have the money then
- 26:08because I've heard two things I've heard either one You get
- 26:10operated without your concern and then you just get given the
- 26:14bill afterwards. So they just do everything.
- 26:17Save your life. Then you deal with a shit or is
- 26:20it sort of the alternative which is, oh, check this person,
- 26:24whether or not? They've got health insurance if
- 26:25they don't that will decide whether or not we keep them
- 26:28alive. No, they always do the surgery,
- 26:32they do save you. Yeah.
- 26:33Okay so problem is like the whole urine afterwards, right?
- 26:37Hmm yeah yeah I know I know quite a few people who are
- 26:42paying all these Hefty medical bills.
- 26:44You know ten years later because, you know, little bits
- 26:47at a time. Yeah, they do.
- 26:49They do they get here? Like I said, so the least they
- 26:52do sort of installments thing. They don't like the expect that
- 26:55kind of straightaway. Know that is an option.
- 26:58Yeah, yeah. I mean, But I know people who
- 27:00have had cancer and their insurance won't cover things,
- 27:03which is insane. Like, what are you paying for
- 27:05the insurance for? Yeah, that that doesn't make any
- 27:08sense to me because, although, while the the model white be
- 27:11flawed there at the same time, if you're yeah, if you're paying
- 27:15for health insurance, you would expect it to cover.
- 27:16Pretty much everything, you know.
- 27:18I mean, I mean, I understand if there's specialist stuff there
- 27:20that maybe have to pay a bit more for, but what's the point
- 27:23of paying for? I mean, my it just Insurance of
- 27:25any kind, you know? I mean, like I've had like, for
- 27:29instance, And one of my flatmates had an issue with his
- 27:32bike recently motorbike and the insurance wouldn't cover the
- 27:38issue. And I was like, what?
- 27:39So what, why is he paying for that insurance?
- 27:41Then like what what, what the fuck does it cover like?
- 27:45Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. We got the same thing here.
- 27:47Yeah, sweet. Well that when they try and get
- 27:49out things in there, like oh it's an act of God.
- 27:52We can't possibly cover you on that.
- 27:54And it's like how much money do you need?
- 28:00Scoundrels make every year. Come on.
- 28:02Can afford to pay out. Give me a bit of money.
- 28:04You mean, if you're paying me a couple of thousand now you
- 28:08probably made 100,000 for me in my life times and let's be real
- 28:12right. All right because if you think
- 28:14about, if you never claim, they're just getting free money.
- 28:18You're absolutely right. And I mean II know that's
- 28:22literally just explaining what insurance is there but you know,
- 28:26he is, it is a great concept because a lot of the time, most
- 28:29people don't Come on it ever and you are just paying perpetually
- 28:33and they're just lining their pockets from you.
- 28:35It's kind of like the whole point of insurance isn't it is
- 28:38it's kind of like a, what if scenario?
- 28:42It's like our keep paying you just in case, you know, just in
- 28:46case something happens, let's hope nothing happens.
- 28:49Touch wood but just in case. Yeah.
- 28:53Yeah, but right, you know what? It's like because they're so
- 28:55tight and because they are businesses.
- 28:57It kind of makes sense why they try to refuse to pay out because
- 29:02it's like they lose money when they do that.
- 29:04And it's like, yeah. But how can you justify not
- 29:08paying when you earn that much money, friend that many people
- 29:12every single day at lie? Exactly.
- 29:14And that's kind of what it comes down to, right?
- 29:16I feel like, you know, and I don't know what the answer is.
- 29:18It's way too complex for my mind but, you know, I feel like your
- 29:22mind is part of your body and it should be somehow covered, you
- 29:25know, for dark. Okay.
- 29:28Now, 100% body cannot live without the mind.
- 29:31You know. It's come on.
- 29:33Yeah, it's crazy outside of what appears in your book what other
- 29:37useful tips. Could you give to people
- 29:38suffering with depression outside of my book?
- 29:42Yes. Is there anything, maybe that
- 29:43you didn't have space for in the book or, you know, maybe you
- 29:46thought about later? Yeah I did I did.
- 29:52And it sounds maybe a little simpler silly, but I wish I had
- 29:58said this, it's really important.
- 30:01And I would have put this in a hole.
- 30:02Like, I have a mindset chapter, it's really important to
- 30:06practice forgiveness and, of course, practice forgiveness
- 30:09with yourself. And that's what everyone always
- 30:10says, right? And, and that's a given I say,
- 30:14but you've got to really forgive other people because everyone
- 30:20else in your life at that. Moment ads are they don't
- 30:24understand. Yep.
- 30:26Even if somebody's been through a deep depression, they don't
- 30:30completely understand your specific scenario.
- 30:34Nobody would have understood my specific scenario.
- 30:37So you have to forgive, you know, the, the like misguided
- 30:46ignorance advice or yeah, just their ignorance or you know,
- 30:51people Says something off the cuff that you know, lands the
- 30:54wrong way, they just don't get it.
- 30:55So you have to forgive that maybe I'll add that to the book
- 31:00that there were people in my life.
- 31:01Like I've reached out very few times but when it's really
- 31:04gotten bad, I have reached out and there are certain people
- 31:08that just say straight away, you should get medication and I'm
- 31:13like, I don't want to do that. I don't like medication and I
- 31:16like the concept. I don't want to touch it, you
- 31:18know, because I know what I need like as And that might sound.
- 31:23We make me sound a bit, you know, silly like or how can, you
- 31:26know you're not a professional is that?
- 31:28Whoa, look, I've noticed over the years that when I talk to
- 31:32someone and they understand and they're empathetic and they just
- 31:35shut up and listen and don't try and like, tell me what to do and
- 31:38I just listened and are there for me.
- 31:41I suddenly feel 100 times better.
- 31:45So, what I need is understanding people and unfortunately,
- 31:51they're very hard to come by, because most people will
- 31:55firstly, Most people and I've said this on the podcast before.
- 31:58So sorry for repeating most people confuse sympathy with
- 32:02empathy and they're very different sympathy.
- 32:05I feel is being like yeah. Yeah, I feel so bad for you.
- 32:10Yeah. So, but I was tragic just
- 32:12tragic. Here's what I would do.
- 32:15Bubba, Bubba, Bubba, right, A lot of times people just offer
- 32:18their advice unsolicited but what I understand it's don't get
- 32:23me wrong. I'm not sitting here trying to
- 32:24paint a perfect picture of my Myself I for years did not
- 32:27understand the complex concept of empathy.
- 32:30I was even told that I lacked empathy by certain people and
- 32:34the whole bands, up fair enough, I didn't get it.
- 32:37And in more recent years now I get it empathy and this is kind
- 32:44of simplifying it but this is what I understand.
- 32:46Empathy is when you see someone upset, you go sit down next to
- 32:49them and you say, hey, And they say, they might say yes and
- 32:57maybe they'll talk and you sit and listen and you just there
- 32:59for them, give him a hug, get them, food, whatever, whatever
- 33:02is comforting, but more often than not, they'll say no.
- 33:08And they might sort of want you to leave or something and you
- 33:12know, best thing. I think you can do in that
- 33:14scenario just speed that Don't say anything just be there.
- 33:20Operate as normal, you know, don't make a big issue out of
- 33:24what they're dealing with. Don't don't make them feel like
- 33:27they're in issue or like they're doing something wrong, just be
- 33:30there. And the person will naturally
- 33:33open up because they want to talk about it, but they want to
- 33:36feel comfortable, they don't want to feel like they're a
- 33:38burden, they're an issue. Like if they talk about it,
- 33:42there's going to be a problem. Bell, open up when they're ready
- 33:46to open up. It's your job to just be present
- 33:50and be there. And listen to many people.
- 33:53Open their mouths and just start talking and bla bla bla bla bla
- 33:55bla black. No shut up.
- 33:57Listen, That's empathy in my opinion.
- 34:02I'm with you there. No, I don't think that's great.
- 34:05That's great. But I think it that that and
- 34:08again, I think it takes a long time to learn that it's, you
- 34:12know, some people. There were people that said to
- 34:14me over the years, when I would say they would say, are you lack
- 34:18empathy? And I was at, I just don't
- 34:19understand the like or this is a natural thing.
- 34:21How can you not naturally have empathy and it's like, well,
- 34:25when I was growing up, I wasn't really shown it a lot to be
- 34:28honest. I mean Yeah, I had supportive
- 34:30parents and stuff, but like, sometimes they would like
- 34:34sympathy and empathy, you know, sometimes they would be a bit
- 34:37difficult, you know, they were just different people, they had
- 34:40their own stuff going on, you know, that's the thing.
- 34:43We always forget growing up is our parents, our people, to our
- 34:46families are people too, absolutely.
- 34:50But I always looked at that as, like a okay.
- 34:54Maybe, you know, maybe I just need to the problem was, I was
- 34:58quoting this The I needed to be like you no more stronger.
- 35:03I had to stop being weak. I had to, you know, come and do
- 35:07all this stuff. And it's like, That was all
- 35:10wrong to think that way. But that was back then and you
- 35:13know, the world was different things with different times with
- 35:16different these days. There's okay to come out and
- 35:22kind of talk about these things and people will be more
- 35:25understanding and there's more resources and stuff out there.
- 35:28But at the same time and here's something that people don't
- 35:30always talk about enough. And I think I mentioned this in
- 35:34the podcast before but apologies again, if I repeat if it
- 35:38sometimes things you know they come up again.
- 35:39We've had a few guests on here that have spoken about mental
- 35:41health and stuff. So you know, While Society tells
- 35:50you, it's okay to open up and talk about these things in
- 35:54actuality. When you're in companies working
- 35:57in companies, it's very rare that when you tell them you're
- 36:02dealing with something that they actually will be supportive and
- 36:06take that into account. A lot of the time, they'll just
- 36:08use that against you because you will be classed in a kind of
- 36:15liability category. Now you're like potentially
- 36:21problematic and then there's also the element of like, you
- 36:25know, if they treat you badly, you could potentially sue them.
- 36:29So they've got that in the back of their mind, but the bigger
- 36:32issue is our reliability or you know, and because here's the
- 36:37thing, so many companies. And I'm talking about big, big
- 36:39company, not startups that, I'm sure there's plenty of companies
- 36:42out there that are decent and have good ethics and stuff.
- 36:44I'm just talking about those big, big companies.
- 36:46You see the big major Providers, who they paint this picture of
- 36:50being great employers and workplaces.
- 36:53And, you know, we're, we're there for everyone.
- 36:55You are having hard times, you know, wouldn't even pay for your
- 36:57therapy, you know, like but then when you actually, try to get
- 37:04that help and you tell them hey I'm suffering, you know, hey
- 37:07maybe maybe I need a week off you know, maybe I'm not doing so
- 37:12well, suddenly You become a problem.
- 37:19And I seen this in many companies where It won't fire
- 37:23you straight away because you could sue them, but they'll find
- 37:30a way to get rid of you. Yeah.
- 37:32They'll find a way. They'll construct a series of
- 37:37events. Or I like to say, you know, a
- 37:41series of check marks against you and then the below, sorry,
- 37:46we have to let you go. You know, it's just all these
- 37:48different things. It's just not working our best
- 37:51of luck blah, blah, blah, right. Hmm.
- 37:54But it's BS and it's hypocrisy and existing in so many other
- 37:59things not just in, in depression and mental health,
- 38:01but like, ageism, sexism racism, all of those things still exist
- 38:06in workplaces. I like to call it, like it is.
- 38:09The to tional problem you know like like institutional racism
- 38:14is a very big one but I think yeah there's a big
- 38:19discrimination against mental health still, even though we are
- 38:23kind of going in moving in the right direction, I think it's
- 38:26still there because you know, companies, people forget
- 38:30companies, are there to make profit businesses, are there to
- 38:32make profit, right? So people having bouts of
- 38:36depression and mental health issues and stuff.
- 38:39That means they're losing money because you're not working and
- 38:42that's the only way they see it, you know, and I've worked for
- 38:46companies. And again, I'm not saying all
- 38:48companies, like, I like this, there are good companies out
- 38:50there. I need to keep reiterating that
- 38:52because people, always take my words out of context and I go,
- 38:55he's single companies are bad. Like I work for a company and
- 38:58they're not like that, but it's like my experience is, you know,
- 39:06It's not always how you think it is.
- 39:09Like, it isn't even the recent couple of years that I learned
- 39:12that like, hey, Char is not there to support like the
- 39:17employees. But rather to improve support
- 39:20the interest of the business and the clue is the clues in the
- 39:23name resources. Right?
- 39:26Right, right. That's how you see.
- 39:28You are a resource and yeah, I don't know, I guess, I guess my
- 39:33whole point with this is very long-winded point.
- 39:35So I do apologize to our list. Some viewers.
- 39:37But I just think there needs to be less of a stigma against
- 39:41mental health because everyone has a different thing that
- 39:44sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it's very
- 39:46long-term and people need a long, long time to address their
- 39:49issues but sometimes it can be just a small bout.
- 39:51Sometimes if you just give someone a bit of time, couple of
- 39:54weeks, that'd be great for like six months after that, you know,
- 39:59sometimes not always. But I'm saying like sometimes if
- 40:02you've ever run that exactly. Yeah.
- 40:05Yeah, it's so. So back to what you said that's
- 40:08interesting is I never thought of that.
- 40:09I've never had like a corporate job and work for very small
- 40:13companies. I never thought of it that way
- 40:15but you know, in the same way, I guess, just in in anyone seeking
- 40:20help, it takes bravery, right? It's a shame, it would take that
- 40:23extra bit of bear bravery to seek help because you're worried
- 40:26about your job, I would, I know it's there but I would hate for
- 40:32that to be a little I know it's a limiter.
- 40:36I would hate for that to be the limiter, like the the thing,
- 40:39keeping you from getting help. If you're in that situation, I
- 40:45think you don't just do it to yourself in a way.
- 40:49I mean, you, you know, of course, you get this, but you
- 40:53would hope that the company would support you because you
- 40:55want to sort these people out and get them help, and you would
- 40:57have a better employee, but if you are afraid, let's just say,
- 41:01you know, you don't have a supportive system at work, you,
- 41:04you owe it to to yourself. You owe it to your family to
- 41:07find another way to get the help.
- 41:09It's something that it can't wait, you can't just wait for a
- 41:12perfect work situation because there may not ever be a perfect
- 41:16work situation, right? You may get a different job and
- 41:19it may not be there too. So yeah.
- 41:20It takes bravery but you this is your life.
- 41:25You got to have The Bravery to find help somehow.
- 41:29Yeah, I mean, I think my advice would just be Avoid telling your
- 41:37employer, I think, because, yeah, Dad.
- 41:44I just feel like they're not going to support your best
- 41:46interest and it's, like I said before, you're treated as an
- 41:50asset. So, right.
- 41:52And I've seen it, I've worked for companies, you know, you'd
- 41:54be there like seven years, 10 years, and they'll just fire.
- 41:58You like that. It's don't need you anymore.
- 42:00Damn shame. It's really terrible because All
- 42:03human, right? We've all been through this
- 42:05traumas like oh yeah, no. I mean, again, it's about asking
- 42:08for sympathies but asking for the empathy and the respect of
- 42:12the company that you're putting all this hard time and effort
- 42:14and work into and you want a little bit.
- 42:17It's like when you, when you ask for something, you don't get it.
- 42:19And I know I'm paying a very negative picture here, but I
- 42:22guess I'm just saying to people like be be wary at that, you
- 42:24know, mean could be cognizant of that like It's a job, that's all
- 42:30it is. And there's many jobs out there
- 42:32and if you are going through a difficult time, Just try to kind
- 42:37of focus on yourself in that moment, you know, everything
- 42:40else is secondary. Yeah, seek out that help.
- 42:43And, you know, there's all, yeah, just seek out the help.
- 42:46I mean, that's the most important thing, right?
- 42:48It don't ya. During your studies of
- 42:53psychology at University. Did it accurately convey mental
- 42:57health conditions when you were learning about them?
- 43:05That's a hard one because it's so varied.
- 43:14It's so varied. Like we were saying earlier, you
- 43:17know, like well that's actually one of the reasons I come at it.
- 43:20Like I say in the book at this need a approach, right?
- 43:21Coming at it from every angle because I know somebody who had
- 43:25some very serious mental health issues because it's awful.
- 43:31Dropped on his head as he was a baby, okay?
- 43:35Just, just terrible, right? But his situation is going to be
- 43:40the same as anyone elses, right? So saying accurate, No one
- 43:45picture can be accurate, you know?
- 43:47No. One picture can be accurate.
- 43:50Yeah, that's my best to answer. It sounds like a lazy answer,
- 43:53right? Because no, dude, I kind of get
- 43:55it, get it because like, when I get people asking me about
- 43:57what's the best workout for me? What's the best diet for me?
- 44:00I hate saying it. Depends because it you know, but
- 44:03it does. It depends on your goal pens.
- 44:04Are you an ectomorph warning or an endomorph?
- 44:06He liked it. You know.
- 44:08It really is an individual individual thing.
- 44:11Yeah, I guess I was just curious because you know at the
- 44:14scientific level and educational level, I do often wonder if you
- 44:19know, because they have like their own gender and they're
- 44:22trying to like, teach get you through, it is.
- 44:24I mean, universities a business. They're trying to push you
- 44:27towards that Academia. True.
- 44:29Sometimes I wonder if they actually teach Things, as they
- 44:32are accurately or if you know, Corners a car.
- 44:36Or if, you know, maybe it's only one particular Root of think, I
- 44:43don't know how to put it, right. Yeah.
- 44:45Like they would only be saying, you know.
- 44:47It will only be talking about medications and they wouldn't be
- 44:48talking about relationships or right?
- 44:50Yeah. They have their one thing that
- 44:52they're pushing. Yeah, actually this is actually
- 44:54pretty interesting. I'm the program, I'm starting in
- 44:57in the spring is a mind-body program so it's called Dance /
- 45:03movement therapy, right? So it's a traditional, I don't
- 45:07know what they're called me, UK, but L PC or licensed
- 45:09professional. Counselor, which is a
- 45:11psychotherapist. But it's with this, this track
- 45:16this, this extra certification called Dance /, movement
- 45:19therapy. So I'm not doing the dance
- 45:20stuff, right? But the movement therapy.
- 45:22The idea is that we keep score in our body that we, when we've
- 45:26gone through these traumatic events, you know, we're carrying
- 45:29it in our gut or carrying it in our back, you know, you're
- 45:31carrying your stress there and which is great.
- 45:34You know, we're getting our bodies evolved to which I think
- 45:36can only help in you know that talk therapy.
- 45:40But also I think Ubi great recruiting tool, excuse me,
- 45:44especially for men because when I was 20 years old, not that I
- 45:48would get into the dance stuff but getting into the workout
- 45:51stuff, okay, that could get me to open up.
- 45:53That's it, that's a way to recruit me.
- 45:55I'd be like, okay, I'm not one of those quote unquote, broken
- 45:57people who goes to therapy but maybe I can go to this movement
- 46:00thing. It's this alternative route
- 46:02that, you know. Okay, we're moving.
- 46:04And we're and then now I can kind of open up and I feel like
- 46:06it's a, it's a more integrative thing.
- 46:09So yes, Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so I'm like, I'm really
- 46:13stoked on that aspect of it. Yeah.
- 46:16So just going back to the workplace stuff because you
- 46:21mentioned that you haven't worked for big companies.
- 46:23Any really small companies, but with those companies, did you
- 46:26ever experience sort of discrimination in the workplace?
- 46:28As a result, your depression? I did it ever become apparent to
- 46:31them. Or did you just keep under wraps
- 46:33or no? Because they'll play.
- 46:35I was lucky enough to where the police's I worked.
- 46:37Everybody's quirks were pretty Out in the open.
- 46:41Oh, right. Okay, yeah.
- 46:43So I mean, I worked in it in, in, in Creative environments.
- 46:49So like, you know, it was very clear when people are those CD.
- 46:52It was and people were open about it and people were very it
- 46:55was very clear when people had trying to think of some other
- 46:57ones people had OCD was the big one especially because people
- 47:03when they do, I worked in video production and people will do
- 47:05the lighting and unless the lighting was like absolutely
- 47:09perfect, where is it? Dude, it's not going to matter,
- 47:12it's not going to matter. I like, there is no such thing
- 47:15as perfect when it comes to lighting, right?
- 47:17But it had to be absolutely perfect in their mind in their
- 47:19chutes. Look at the laid by, you know,
- 47:21an hour or something. So it doesn't want that there
- 47:23was stuff like that. If it's less about wanting
- 47:26Perfection and more about like a sort of a metaphor for a lack of
- 47:30control in their lives it's like this is the only thing I have
- 47:33control over in my life. So God damn it.
- 47:35I'm going to make sure I get the most out of this.
- 47:38That's that's absolutely Part of it.
- 47:40Yeah. Yeah.
- 47:41But it was interesting. Yeah.
- 47:42So like anything that was that was out there like we had people
- 47:45with with alcoholism and it was it wasn't open.
- 47:48Yeah. So it was like yeah and so we
- 47:51were all pretty supportive of each other.
- 47:52How do you navigate that though if you're working in a sort of a
- 47:55Young office where presumably everyone kind of goes out for
- 47:58drinks every now and again like how do you kind of feel of it
- 48:03right? Okay, fair enough, fair enough.
- 48:07Well you know, He was a person, and it was, you know, bouts of
- 48:14not drinking bouts of drinking, bouts of being great, bouts of
- 48:19bad behavior. Bouts of being a sweetheart,
- 48:21bouts of being argumentative, and we just had to kind of roll
- 48:25with it, which it, which was actually a pretty nice
- 48:26environment because they would, we would roll with the guy who
- 48:30had the OCD, we would roll with, you know, it was just kind of
- 48:33like we accepted it and worked with the best we could and
- 48:35supported each other. Yeah, we're proof Steel company
- 48:38because I think they look kind of like what I see.
- 48:40Literally a lot companies, I feel these days would not accept
- 48:44that and we're not tolerate that.
- 48:45So it's refreshing to hear of a company that sort of does and
- 48:48then works together to resolve it.
- 48:50So I think that's a better way of approaching it anyway because
- 48:53we were a team, you know, you got to fill in each other's
- 48:55weaknesses and a relatively small team.
- 48:57So there are going to be weaknesses and it yeah, it just
- 49:00wasn't that that corporate mindset.
- 49:02It would be were it was, you know, we're doing like TV
- 49:06production and stuff like that. So yeah.
- 49:09Fair enough. Fair enough.
- 49:13What's a misconceptions about the realities of depression in
- 49:17your opinion or experience? One thing that really gets me
- 49:21mad? Like I had this conversation
- 49:27with the girl recently who she she was openly one of those
- 49:31people who was like who essentially thought you could
- 49:35yell at the person into snap out of it snap out of it you know
- 49:40I'm gonna say just just a to Jedi force up for one second
- 49:43like yeah what person thinks that that's going to work as not
- 49:47just to deal with depression or something?
- 49:48But just in general like what do you expect when you're talking
- 49:52to another human being and you start shouting at them?
- 49:55Or just being generally, like, like just nasty.
- 49:59Like, well, what do you expect is going to happen?
- 50:01Like either that person's going to like burst into tears and be
- 50:05like really broken down and like really upset because of that or
- 50:08they're going to react very violently and angrily towards
- 50:11you. Like there's no kind of they're
- 50:12not going to be like oh that worked.
- 50:15I feel great, thanks for that. You really shouted me back into
- 50:19normality like it's kind of like tough love on.
- 50:24I guess is the way she's so that, that whole concept is
- 50:27toxic as anyway. Yeah, well, I agree with all of
- 50:31that. Don't get me wrong.
- 50:32I think sometimes. Yeah, tough love.
- 50:34If you're talking about being brutally honest, with people.
- 50:38Yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah, that that pep talks have a
- 50:41place, have talked to her place which I'm you know I you read
- 50:44the book, I'm trying to kind of you can do that with respect.
- 50:47You can do that in a way where you're treating that other
- 50:48person with respect, what AB stayed out there with the whole
- 50:51shouting thing. That means that person has zero
- 50:54respect for you. It's, it was kind of sad, you
- 50:58know, I will say she had been through her own traumas, I'm
- 51:01sure. So, you know, that's part of
- 51:03part of our job, right? Is like, okay, like I said
- 51:06before, forgiveness for them, they don't understand.
- 51:10At the same time, you do have to give yourself.
- 51:13Those pep talks, I can say, okay, this isn't my fault, but
- 51:16that doesn't mean I'm stuck there.
- 51:18You still have to be driven to get out of it.
- 51:21You still hold some. Some responsibility, even though
- 51:24something What happens to you? Let's say like you were using
- 51:28the accident metaphor before that you know car accident a car
- 51:31hits me. My car skids out in the middle
- 51:34of the highway. It wasn't my fault still.
- 51:36Partly my responsibility to get that car out of the way so
- 51:39traffic can resume, right? It's not like I'm just gonna sit
- 51:41there. Yeah, so yeah, it's some people
- 51:45with though, that's the thing, some people worthy.
- 51:46But what some people would be like, oh, that's not my problem.
- 51:50All right, right. Well, I have to deal with that,
- 51:53all right? Yeah, so so So it's that's part
- 51:56of my message. This is partially you know your
- 51:58responsibilities right even though it's not your fault, you
- 52:02know? I don't know I mean we could
- 52:05talk about metaphors all the time but all you know a bunch
- 52:08that's why I tend to communicate through metaphors but yet part
- 52:12of this is your responsibility and part of that's kind of like
- 52:15energizing, you know. It's not like I'm helpless, you
- 52:19know it's been if I see this as partially responsibility even
- 52:22though it's not my fault but it's a part of that is Like it's
- 52:26almost like a to me. It feels like this breath of
- 52:28fresh air. It's like, okay.
- 52:29Let's let's let's I have some control here in this situation,
- 52:33you know, and you and everyone absolutely does.
- 52:36You have control not of everything.
- 52:39Nobody has controlled everything, right?
- 52:42But you know, what's that? What's that saying?
- 52:47You don't have control of what happens to you, but you have
- 52:49control of how you react to it, right?
- 52:53And, you know, you can react to it.
- 52:55Anyway, of your choosing. So, yeah, it's really important
- 52:59that we take some responsibility.
- 53:00Here is probably the most important aspect of it.
- 53:03Really. It was only really what I
- 53:06started doing that in my life that I notice things got a lot
- 53:08better and it's refreshing as well.
- 53:10Like take lying as a concept if you just stop lying and just
- 53:17say, hey, yeah, shit. That was me.
- 53:18I fucked up, like, you'd be surprised how well people react
- 53:21to that, initially, they might be a bit like angry at you but
- 53:24that Respect you because you tell the truth, a lot of people
- 53:27don't. And I think a lot of people kind
- 53:30of just let it go like lying, everyone does that?
- 53:34And it's like nah, not everyone. And if you don't lie and you
- 53:40tell the truth, I think it shows that you're showing respect to
- 53:42that person. You respect them and you, you're
- 53:45not treating them like an idiot, you know, you're treating her
- 53:48with the respect they deserve. So yeah, I think that's that's a
- 53:50big big. I got a quick little practical.
- 53:54Vacation tip so let's just say you mess up doing something
- 53:58right. And you somehow offend me in
- 54:03some way or whatever one, like like thing that helps really
- 54:08well is instead of you just let's just say, you send me an
- 54:11email apologizing saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
- 54:14sorry, right? Okay fine, another group but
- 54:17this is this is the way I would do it.
- 54:19If you sent me an e-mail, you said, I'm sorry in or you said,
- 54:24I thank you so much for understanding.
- 54:26Thank you, thank you. Thank you for forgiving me.
- 54:28Thank you for That way you're thinking I would much rather
- 54:32hear a thank you. You're putting this on me as
- 54:34opposed to just I'm sorry. So and just saying I'm sorry,
- 54:36I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Thanks so much fun, you know,
- 54:41you say you can say you're sorry but then say thank you so much
- 54:43for understanding. This has been so tough.
- 54:45Thank you for, you know, not blowing up on me.
- 54:48You know, then it's like oh that I don't feel pretty good about
- 54:50it. So, you know, it's just a little
- 54:52communication to there that we learned.
- 54:54No. I see what you mean.
- 54:56I think that that really does work well.
- 55:00Yeah, I've said that two people from my past previous Partners,
- 55:04friends. I've always sort of thank them
- 55:06for the lessons. They taught me and what it kind
- 55:08of brought to my life. So, I think there's something to
- 55:10be said for that. She's returning it, it's not
- 55:12just about you, you're turning it into the relationship.
- 55:16Yeah exactly. Yeah, moving it forward.
- 55:23Do you have any plans to kind of extend the work for the official
- 55:27depression relief? Playbook?
- 55:28Maybe do future additions or second edition or maybe just a
- 55:34Sikh or something like that? You got any plans for that as of
- 55:37right now? I don't what I most likely lost,
- 55:42I have a pretty packed packed life at the moment.
- 55:45I'm I'm shooting a full-length film in a couple months.
- 55:48I'm getting married in October. Wow.
- 55:51Start. And I started grad school in
- 55:53January so it's not ready. Tenth time.
- 55:56Yeah. So along with that I'm getting.
- 55:58I'm finishing up a certification to become a yoga teacher, so
- 56:02there's a lot going on right now.
- 56:04So right now I'm just getting this out and I feel like this is
- 56:07a really good starting point. Like you said, I feel like I've
- 56:10I'm really proud of this right now.
- 56:12After I finish up my schooling, I've got to imagine I would beef
- 56:16this thing up and make it a little longer.
- 56:19And, you know, I don't want to go too long.
- 56:21Like I like you said before I want to keep it pretty short.
- 56:24I've got to imagine I'll add more but immediate plans.
- 56:27No, I'm still, you know, I stand by this book, every word of it.
- 56:31I stand by it. So right now just trying to
- 56:34trying to get it out and it's run as many people as possible
- 56:37to tell us about your decision to not proofread or edit the
- 56:40book before publishing. I think a lot of that's just
- 56:43that's just me man. So So like yeah, that's just me.
- 56:49I was like, you know, I could I could agonize over every word
- 56:54like I could and like make a grammatically perfect.
- 56:57But is it going to matter like I could agonize over it and like
- 57:02you know that's not the point of this book right?
- 57:05If there's little flaws in there so be it like my point was to
- 57:07get these message across as clear as I could and I feel like
- 57:10I did that you know if there's a missing ' here and there okay
- 57:13whatever. I'm not like whatever dude I'm a
- 57:18person like, you know, it's not like this is my thesis or
- 57:21something. Yeah, even when I've read like
- 57:23Major Works published books, I've still felt spell found
- 57:27spelling mistakes and stuff. I feel like that's just I just
- 57:30happens. Oh, I mean okay so cool.
- 57:32Yeah like I didn't I literally haven't read it.
- 57:36No. You're specifically.
- 57:37I'm talking in general. Okay.
- 57:39Yeah, big. What Like official official
- 57:41published books? I found there's no There's one I
- 57:46caught that I was really glad I did, it was on the cover, I
- 57:48misspelled the title. So I'm glad accosting upon.
- 57:53Yeah. But yeah, it's all good.
- 57:57Well, I've been the biggest challenges associated with your
- 58:00depression. And how did you overcome them?
- 58:05That's a good question. The, the, the biggest challenge,
- 58:09I mean, I'm thinking about the hardest points, which were, you
- 58:13know, I don't know if we talked about this, when everything like
- 58:17really hit the fan, it was right after my best friend was killed.
- 58:19I don't think we talked about that.
- 58:21Wow. So that was That was the summer
- 58:24After High School. And so I noticed, you know,
- 58:28about throughout my childhood but it was you know, I didn't
- 58:30notice it at the time thinking back, I noticed it now and so he
- 58:36was killed some After High School.
- 58:38All my friends went away to college, I ended up failing out
- 58:42of college because I just couldn't take it.
- 58:44So that was like my deepest deepest point.
- 58:46I think the hardest point was Just getting going like, like,
- 58:55getting into that mindset of Ike figuring out that I can be more
- 58:59than this. I can be more than just the guy
- 59:01the rock bottom. That was the hardest part just
- 59:04getting going. And that's really I guess that's
- 59:06why I wrote this book, right? Like and that's why I started it
- 59:09the way I did was just this is the thing.
- 59:12I joke that this is like this book.
- 59:14I wrote it for the worst possible audience or like the
- 59:16worst possible way to get sales because these aren't people.
- 59:20Who buy books, right? Who like if you're that
- 59:22depressed, you're probably not seeking out help.
- 59:24You're probably not going to buy a book on depression.
- 59:28So I really wrote it, in one way, is more of like a gift for
- 59:32people. So like I wanted, I want people
- 59:37like, let's just say, you have a friend who's deeply depressed.
- 59:39I would love for you to buy this book for them.
- 59:41Give them the hard copy to lay next to their bed stand every
- 59:44night, right? So that's kind of like, you know
- 59:48one Avenue I was I was going forward this book, but Yeah,
- 59:58let's get back to your original question.
- 59:59I do, I'm going off in the change in you.
- 1:00:01You mentioned you mentioned there about your friend.
- 1:00:04First thing I'm going to say straightaways You comfortable
- 1:00:08talking about that? Oh yeah, because I think a lot
- 1:00:12of people listening could probably really benefit from
- 1:00:16hearing this story and, you know, I've lost friends as well
- 1:00:22over the years. So I do understand to some
- 1:00:24extent He mentions his high school's, how old are you
- 1:00:28roughly at this time? Right now as we talk know when
- 1:00:33you when you when you're at high school and when this happened
- 1:00:36when your friend passed 18, right, okay, and like how did
- 1:00:45how did it happen? Car accident.
- 1:00:48Right? Okay.
- 1:00:50Was it was it was it like How can I put this?
- 1:00:59Was it because of someone else, or was it?
- 1:01:02Maybe he said he was at fault in that scenario just driving too
- 1:01:06fast and it was a it was a spot where other people had crashed.
- 1:01:10Oh, okay, because it was he was going over the speed limit,
- 1:01:15right? And the road curved and at right
- 1:01:19at the curve, there was a telephone pole and he was going
- 1:01:22too fast to the telephone pole died and it was a spot where
- 1:01:27Other people had crashed for some reason, they didn't move
- 1:01:29telephone pole. If he was on either side, he
- 1:01:31would go on safely into a field. It was just one of those things,
- 1:01:34there's a mistake, it was just an accident and like and, you
- 1:01:40know, and it's it's it doesn't really like end there because
- 1:01:43there are all kinds of things that bother you after the point,
- 1:01:45like right? Like the the reporting on it was
- 1:01:50they found alcohol in the scene but he didn't drink what they
- 1:01:54didn't say was, they found the bottle that they found was
- 1:01:57Opened but that wasn't reported on.
- 1:01:59So like I see, right? So what it was.
- 1:02:03Okay if you yeah if I can theorize a little bit here.
- 1:02:06So while you're trying to contend with this, just the
- 1:02:10situation as it is because that's enough young man to be
- 1:02:14dealing with anyone to be dealing with, right that
- 1:02:16knowledge that situation, your then here in those police
- 1:02:19reports. And they're basically painting a
- 1:02:21picture of a person, your friend and That's not your friend
- 1:02:28that's them. Trying to make a story.
- 1:02:30That is untrue. It wasn't the police, the police
- 1:02:34that the police, and the media, the media that's, yeah.
- 1:02:36The police are how we learned the truth.
- 1:02:38It was the, it was the media who tried alcohol was found and they
- 1:02:43left it there. So then like I was actually the
- 1:02:45president of sad. I'll know if they have that in
- 1:02:47the UK students Against Drunk Driving.
- 1:02:49I was the president of sad in high school and, you know, in
- 1:02:51like people are reaching out to me like, you know, talking about
- 1:02:55how there was alcohol found at the scene was really sensitive
- 1:02:57things. Did the media actually kind of
- 1:03:00you said they're like they kind of said there was alcohol at the
- 1:03:02scene but did they kind of imply?
- 1:03:05Anything did they kind of come out and say hello?
- 1:03:07Maybe it's a alcohol-fueled thing or did they kind of say as
- 1:03:13you say they just left it there and then let people make their
- 1:03:16own things because they let there be light.
- 1:03:18Okay? Because you know, there were no
- 1:03:21blood tests or anything but there didn't have to be.
- 1:03:23It was unopened and he didn't drink.
- 1:03:25So it was like So yeah, so it was it was an interesting thing,
- 1:03:30right? So obviously you mentioned that
- 1:03:33this is like kind of the starting point.
- 1:03:36As far as you're the dearest, the deepest point, the starting
- 1:03:39of the deepest point. Yeah.
- 1:03:42Stalkers free like Let's paint a timeline.
- 1:03:46So that happens, you're 18. And then when were you able to
- 1:03:50overcome the depression, like, what was the end point?
- 1:03:54There is no end point. So okay.
- 1:03:58It was, it was a Brick by Brick thing.
- 1:04:01Those next few years were brutal.
- 1:04:05It wasn't, it wasn't a three-month thing.
- 1:04:08It was brutal. No.
- 1:04:09No, of course not. But obviously, I kind of think
- 1:04:12that, like, when I say the end point, what I mean by that is
- 1:04:15like the point where you can kind of return to Living.
- 1:04:21So so yeah. It was in a sense.
- 1:04:23Yeah. Like a it wasn't till.
- 1:04:26I mean my started seeing like colors again is really kind of
- 1:04:29how it felt. I was 25 24.
- 1:04:34So it was, it took a good while and I was looking for those,
- 1:04:37those silver bullets, things that could help and they just
- 1:04:41they weren't there. So that's why I like, I say that
- 1:04:43D-Day approach in the book, right?
- 1:04:44You got to kind of come at it with everything and it wasn't
- 1:04:47till I was, you know, I was transferring from college.
- 1:04:50College trying to sort it out and yeah it was until I was
- 1:04:54about 24. 25 want to start to see colors again seeing that
- 1:04:56there's like a life ahead. Yeah.
- 1:04:59So what will the things during that time that really helped?
- 1:05:03Like did you have a good support network around you were there
- 1:05:08particular? I don't know Hobbies interests
- 1:05:10things driving, you maybe work, maybe studies.
- 1:05:13What were the things that kind of helped you?
- 1:05:18To get out of this to overcome this.
- 1:05:21What were the main things that helped you?
- 1:05:23So I was playing in bands this whole time, right?
- 1:05:25And it was a very toxic scene like this.
- 1:05:32I mean I still playing bands but it was the, the scenes at the
- 1:05:35places I was playing in like New York and Philadelphia.
- 1:05:39You know, I literally was seeing people getting thrown through
- 1:05:41tables and people pulling out knives and like, really rough
- 1:05:44areas, right? When was this?
- 1:05:45What will sort of time with? What is early 2000s?
- 1:05:50Okay, yeah, so yeah, playing some really seedy places, you
- 1:05:57know, but but we eventually worked our way up and we were
- 1:05:59playing cbgb's and I don't know if you know what that is.
- 1:06:03Isabelle but yeah, so that's kind of like punk rock Mecca.
- 1:06:07So like the birthplace of punk rock in New York was cbgb's.
- 1:06:10That's where like the Ramones Blondie, Talking Heads
- 1:06:14television, they all came up from there from cbgb's.
- 1:06:17So that was like, a huge deal for me to play there just before
- 1:06:20they closed. And, but at the same time, you
- 1:06:25know, if I School me knew that I was playing cbgb's, I would have
- 1:06:29been doing backflips for a week, but at at that time, I was also
- 1:06:34struggling. So it was kind of like, you can
- 1:06:38look at it two ways that the depression ruins, the cbgb's
- 1:06:40experience, or the CBC cbgb's experience was pull helping me,
- 1:06:44pull me out, right? Because it was like, this, this
- 1:06:46thing that I could latch onto. So, So that was happening,
- 1:06:49right? So, but the music like that
- 1:06:51playing music, never stops, I still do that, like I said, but
- 1:06:53one thing that helped was, you know, working just on that
- 1:06:56physical structure like getting into working out.
- 1:06:59Like, I done martial arts through my teen years and I
- 1:07:02stopped when high school stopped, as soon as he died.
- 1:07:04I stopped But but then I started pulling on those lessons that I
- 1:07:09learned. I learned like a law, not just
- 1:07:11the working out, but the working in like meditation and well
- 1:07:15yeah, like the stuff too and what that was like these small
- 1:07:19bricks and it kind of from there, I just added, you know,
- 1:07:23the news dialing in the nutrition and just it was Brick
- 1:07:26by Brick, it was kind of the clouds, kind of slowly going
- 1:07:29away over a decade. Yeah. so really, I think the
- 1:07:33biggest lesson we can hear from your experience was that like
- 1:07:39it's a step-by-step thing and it's an ongoing thing, but also
- 1:07:46there were things. Things you were working towards
- 1:07:50different interests, you had goals, you had that, you are
- 1:07:54able to focus on to then sort of help you to get through those
- 1:07:57times. Yeah.
- 1:08:00And like, it took me a very long time.
- 1:08:04So the point of the book is, you know, I want to cut this down
- 1:08:07for people, you know, this is all these lessons.
- 1:08:09I learned all over years and years and years, you know.
- 1:08:12So that's that was one of the big reasons I threw this
- 1:08:14together to is like I would love for somebody who's going through
- 1:08:17something like this to be able to Cut that time, you know, by x
- 1:08:21amount because you know, I wouldn't wish that that many
- 1:08:24years on anyone. Yeah, essentially you know
- 1:08:27you'll lose them. It feels like so you in that you
- 1:08:30mentioned obviously. Martial arts.
- 1:08:32Yeah you're a karate black belt. So what the key things you've
- 1:08:36learnt from Karate. So there are a lot and you know
- 1:08:41that There was, that was from the years I was about 11 or 12
- 1:08:49till I was 18 was when I was really deep into it.
- 1:08:52And For the sake of ease, you know, I think the most important
- 1:08:59part that I pulled away from it was the meditation, was that Zen
- 1:09:02meditation? You know, what is this yoga?
- 1:09:05Or is this something? No, no, that was, that was from
- 1:09:08the karate was okay. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:09:11That was, it was, that was like, the, it was a Japanese style.
- 1:09:16So it was like that, that Far Eastern, you know, the mindset.
- 1:09:22Yeah. That was that was that.
- 1:09:24That I held onto the most. That was, that was the biggest
- 1:09:26help for sure. Yeah.
- 1:09:29Okay. And yeah, similar question.
- 1:09:33Well what the key things you've learned from yoga would be
- 1:09:36swollen taken from that? Yeah, so yoga is like, my new
- 1:09:39martial art is the way I talk about it, right?
- 1:09:41So Justin. Yeah, like because I love the
- 1:09:44discipline of it. And I love the fact that like,
- 1:09:46karate was nice. And it was good at that time
- 1:09:48because like, you had like, though the goals to work up to
- 1:09:51like the ranks and it was a cool thing.
- 1:09:54And yoga, there's no ranks right?
- 1:09:56Like, I'll be okay yoga teacher, but there's no, like, yeah, you
- 1:10:00can't be a black belt in yoga, right?
- 1:10:02So like yoga is great because it comes out, it comes at it from
- 1:10:08like the mental, emotional spiritual, physical, like you
- 1:10:12have all of it in this one package and one thing that
- 1:10:16people like, if it's going to talk strictly about like the
- 1:10:18physical side, just for a second man.
- 1:10:21Okay, this was a life changer. So the first time I took yoga
- 1:10:23class And in grad school, there's a free yoga class going
- 1:10:27on in like this side room at our gym at the University.
- 1:10:31So I'm sitting there and I'm, you know, talking to this girl
- 1:10:36before we start. And she was very young.
- 1:10:38She was just out of high school and she said you see all these
- 1:10:41guys out there moving all these weights around she's like they
- 1:10:44think they know what Fitness is? They have no idea.
- 1:10:47It sounds like, oh, okay, whatever.
- 1:10:48So I do this yoga class I could not walk the next day but I come
- 1:10:52from. I mean like Could walk, but it
- 1:10:54wasn't pleasant. Yeah, I don't.
- 1:10:56You mean, yeah. So you know and I come from a
- 1:10:58fitness background at that point.
- 1:11:01I was already a personal trainer I was lifting weights and doing
- 1:11:03you know doing all kinds of cardio stuff but man it works
- 1:11:06you it fills in all these gaps that you didn't know.
- 1:11:09We're there. It's like it's really great.
- 1:11:12Like so I encourage everybody kind of like, I mean evangelist
- 1:11:17when it comes to yoga. Go take some classes.
- 1:11:18It's so much fun. I've seen a lot of people
- 1:11:21talking about Hot Yoga, so, basically you're doing yoga.
- 1:11:24But, like, in like pretty hot temperatures.
- 1:11:27Do you think that's any better that?
- 1:11:30How does that differ different to sort of regular yoga?
- 1:11:32Is it better worse? Like, talk to us.
- 1:11:34I can't speak to that because I've never done it.
- 1:11:36Okay, it doesn't appeal to me. I have a tough enough time.
- 1:11:41This is Go, the regular 90-minute classes like, you
- 1:11:46know, maybe there's some benefits.
- 1:11:47I don't know that. I'm cool with what I'm doing
- 1:11:51right now. And moving it Forward.
- 1:11:56What exactly does a brain health trainer do?
- 1:11:59Oh yeah. Super fun, right?
- 1:12:00So like I got that a couple months after covid, Hicks.
- 1:12:06I was just looking for something like To do that.
- 1:12:10I could possibly do like freelancing or you know, or just
- 1:12:15to make myself. Expand my horizons a little bit.
- 1:12:21So essentially you know, you're looking at the different parts
- 1:12:23of your brain and you're looking at what activity can strengthen
- 1:12:30these parts of your brain and how they how they work together.
- 1:12:34It gets very boring, very quick. But I'll give you, I'll give you
- 1:12:38a I'm not bored. I find interesting personally.
- 1:12:41Okay, so so you have the listeners.
- 1:12:43They're going to, they're going to send me hate me.
- 1:12:44If I go on this fever, you want my listeners very intelligent
- 1:12:51steam people. They like this stuff.
- 1:12:55You took away my friend. Okay, so I'll I'll say this.
- 1:13:00Everybody got to start playing pickleball, okay?
- 1:13:03If you don't know a pickleball is it's a cross between Like
- 1:13:09ping-pong table, tennis, and like regular tennis, so you're
- 1:13:13standing and you're knocking the ball on the ground, but it's not
- 1:13:17as big as tennis. It's not as it's like a, it's
- 1:13:19like a tennis like quarter size of the court and the ball is
- 1:13:25like a almost like a wiffle ball like these, this plastic ball so
- 1:13:31good for your brain table, tennis, ping, pong, whatever you
- 1:13:34call. It also really, really good for
- 1:13:36your brain. Okay, incredible.
- 1:13:38A lot of these things that we learned are just theories and I
- 1:13:41don't know if you guys know Daniel a man over there, he's a
- 1:13:44pretty famous brain guy. I guess he's an author and he
- 1:13:48has like a lot of PBS specials over here on on public
- 1:13:51television. And he it was his disciples who
- 1:13:57started this whole brain training thing, okay?
- 1:13:59So some of it is theoretical You know, based on like we think
- 1:14:05this will happen for your brain, right?
- 1:14:07A lot of it's like ways to fight off Alzheimer's to improve
- 1:14:11balance to fight off Parkinson's, right?
- 1:14:16You know, I'm going to, um, add a chapter in the book because,
- 1:14:20you know, think there's things are that are important with
- 1:14:23coffee and juggling, believe it or not, really, really good for
- 1:14:26brain balance exercises. Yeah.
- 1:14:28It's a super fun thing. Yeah, I'm actually doing a
- 1:14:31presentation. Tation on it, I guess in about a
- 1:14:33month, my yoga school. So yeah, it's a cool thing.
- 1:14:37Awesome. Functional aging Institute I
- 1:14:39should plug them because you should check that out yet.
- 1:14:41It's a certified Braille brain health trainer.
- 1:14:46And it's with functional aging Institute, they're really great
- 1:14:50Institute. I mean, they have all kinds of
- 1:14:52free materials. So, you know, anybody who
- 1:14:55struggles with cognitive things that they have a lot of great
- 1:14:58materials that are here. Thanks for sharing told us about
- 1:15:03your work as a fitness nutritionist specialist and I
- 1:15:06got the wrong Fitness Nutrition specialist.
- 1:15:08There you go. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:15:10So in a way that's actually how I ended up on the road to, to
- 1:15:19becoming a full-on, like just therapist because what I was
- 1:15:24doing was you know, meeting with clients through Zoom about
- 1:15:29nutrition issues Shoes. Okay.
- 1:15:31So they knew I was a personal trainer.
- 1:15:32I knew my stuff about nutrition but then I got this
- 1:15:34certification and people who just really struggled with their
- 1:15:37diet and we were not talking about their diet, that's not
- 1:15:41what was happening. They knew what they were doing,
- 1:15:42what they should be eating, they knew what not to eat and they
- 1:15:47would just yeah it was just all these emotional issues with just
- 1:15:51would just pour out of them and pour out of them.
- 1:15:54How does that happen? What so that, firstly, it took a
- 1:15:56lot. Yeah, I just see eye-to-eye
- 1:15:58chocolate, man. But anyway, so my husband's
- 1:16:03cheating on me like that, where how do you get to that?
- 1:16:06Like how? I mean, it's not that far of a
- 1:16:08jump believe it or not, it's not that far of a jump.
- 1:16:12You know, people would say I overeat where I'm eating all
- 1:16:16this garbage, I know I should be eating this garbage, but I was
- 1:16:19so stressed out today because of this.
- 1:16:22And that's it. And that's all it took.
- 1:16:24And I mean then it was it was, I would say 80% of the Clients
- 1:16:30were talking about emotional issues.
- 1:16:33I guess you must be pretty easy to talk to them because, you
- 1:16:36know, it all comes down to comfortability.
- 1:16:39I mean, one of the things I've always said about this podcast
- 1:16:41for its owners bit little bit different.
- 1:16:43But, you know, you always get more out of people when they
- 1:16:46feel comfortable Juno meaning and then it becomes a case of
- 1:16:49just asking the right questions, but it speaks a lot to your I
- 1:16:53suppose. Demeanor and ability to be
- 1:16:56supportive that people are able to open up to that.
- 1:16:58Because I mean the fact Still Remains you're a Fitness
- 1:17:01Nutrition specialist. You're not in that particular
- 1:17:03instance, you're not being a therapist yet they're happy to
- 1:17:06take. So it's interesting, right?
- 1:17:08So that's why I was like you know, I was like I'm more than
- 1:17:11happy to be your friend as we talk about this kind of stuff
- 1:17:13and I can be empathetic but you know, I should probably get
- 1:17:18probably get some schooling in this.
- 1:17:19Make sure I don't break anything so I see 62.
- 1:17:22You basically went and And sort of studied more about therapy
- 1:17:26after that, to sort of help with that and and just also for your
- 1:17:29own. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:17:31Like and like, you know, I already built up a great rapport
- 1:17:34with a lot of people because I was a personal trainer and
- 1:17:36that's usually where it started was.
- 1:17:38We were going through the workouts and stuff and then they
- 1:17:40would want help with my nutrition stuff.
- 1:17:42So I already had that Rapport. Yes.
- 1:17:45And now it's kind of like leveling up getting that Masters
- 1:17:48in therapy. So what Allah the best.
- 1:17:54And worst things about New Jersey.
- 1:17:58That's a great question. The best thing we have a lot of
- 1:18:02best things. So okay so like one thing about
- 1:18:06the u.s. is People are very proud of being from Texas and
- 1:18:13New Jersey, we have. I don't know why.
- 1:18:16Texas is gigantic. Texas is cool.
- 1:18:19You know, I've I don't know what it is about.
- 1:18:21Like, obviously back in the day, you know, Texas Lone Star State,
- 1:18:25you know, all that right? But these days because I've had
- 1:18:29a lot of guests on from Texas, from places, like Dallas, Austin
- 1:18:34places, like that, it seems to be like a massive, like cultural
- 1:18:39hub. Kind of like a cross between
- 1:18:42Silicon Valley in my San Francisco 2.0.
- 1:18:45It's kind of like cultural and new business, small business,
- 1:18:50venture type Capital. It's fascinating how it's
- 1:18:53developing into that but apparently that's that's the
- 1:18:55deal with Texas these days. Yeah, I'm not knocking it but
- 1:18:58jerseys better so oh whoa. So I'm very lucky because we
- 1:19:05lived, you know, we're an hour and a half from New York where
- 1:19:09An hour from Philadelphia, we're 40 minutes from the beach.
- 1:19:13I was probably the beach is our best thing.
- 1:19:15We actually have where small state but we have the most
- 1:19:18usable Beach, more usable beeps than any other state, even
- 1:19:22Florida because you have like a lot of these states like
- 1:19:24California has way more coastline, but they have like
- 1:19:27rock Cliffs. New Jersey has the sand beaches.
- 1:19:30So we have the most usable Beach.
- 1:19:32I'm actually moving to the beach next week.
- 1:19:34So yeah, and and we're also. So we have the beach right
- 1:19:37there. And then we're also just an hour
- 1:19:39or two from Snowboarding skiing. So we have these mountains in
- 1:19:42Pennsylvania. So we're like we kind of have
- 1:19:44everything right here. So that's the best part of New
- 1:19:47Jersey. The oh, you're getting excited
- 1:19:51for the worst. Yeah, it's just giving to the
- 1:19:53duck. Come on, bring it.
- 1:19:55So the worst part of New Jersey is what people The perception of
- 1:20:01this very narrow strip of that's like, Turnpike near New York
- 1:20:08City. It's like, that's what people
- 1:20:10know because like The Sopranos new and yeah, yeah.
- 1:20:15So there's some great people there but it's just never stuff
- 1:20:20that you drive through. That's very ugly.
- 1:20:22Definitely a lot of factories like refineries things like that
- 1:20:25and then there's like this little spot and of course he
- 1:20:28picked out the worst spot for the He sure that TV show it's
- 1:20:31always like that they're not even from New Jersey, they're
- 1:20:33from New York but it is like that little you know
- 1:20:37quarter-mile strip is exactly like it is on the TV show,
- 1:20:40right? But the rest of it's really
- 1:20:41nice. I've heard that our drivers
- 1:20:44aren't great but but I lived in d.c. for Washington d.c. for a
- 1:20:49while and no drivers were jerks too.
- 1:20:51So like I don't know. I'd like I'm not a fan of
- 1:20:54aggressive driving like I like when everyone's calm on the
- 1:20:57road. So I'm gonna say Because I'm
- 1:21:00currently like deep into season four, sir, Prados, which by the
- 1:21:04way, just on the side note, everyone should go and watch
- 1:21:08that go out of your way to watch that.
- 1:21:10Amazing cinematography amazing acting all that jazz but it
- 1:21:14really does show off New Jersey and I think not in just a bad
- 1:21:19way in a good way they show you nice parts and bad parts which I
- 1:21:23think is more like how it should be, you know what I mean?
- 1:21:26Like it's you should always show the best and worst places in a
- 1:21:29Area. Because, believe it or not,
- 1:21:31every city around the world. Has that London?
- 1:21:33You think London is all beautiful.
- 1:21:35Hell, nah, I could show you about 50 different places and
- 1:21:39you'll be like, that's in London.
- 1:21:41Yeah, every place I mean, and you got to do that.
- 1:21:45And the good thing about the soprano is obviously, you know,
- 1:21:48it's it's about gangsters. So you know, a lot of the places
- 1:21:51they're going to be hanging out, I'm going to be dingy but then
- 1:21:53they show you in the higher class places like they show you
- 1:21:55the oh hey there's like they've got quite a bit culture here in
- 1:21:58this like higher higher. End places and nice houses a
- 1:22:01nice neighborhoods and stuff like that.
- 1:22:03So it's like every and I feel like because I've lived around
- 1:22:07the world, I've lived in different places and stuff and
- 1:22:08it's the same thing every time. You know there's what the media
- 1:22:12perception is and you know it Eva paints a places overall
- 1:22:16really good or overall really bad and then there's the
- 1:22:19reality. Yeah and it's always usually a
- 1:22:22mixture of both. I don't feel that there's very
- 1:22:24many areas around the world to be honest that are purely like
- 1:22:27good or purely bad. I think there's generally A
- 1:22:30mixture, of course. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:22:35What's the biggest life lesson that you've learned so far?
- 1:22:39Oh good lord. That's a tough one.
- 1:22:42My favorite question. That everyone is capable of far,
- 1:22:49far, far more than they believe. That's that's true.
- 1:22:54Everyone is way more capable and it took me a very long time to
- 1:22:59learn that an adult mean like I guess like the world now.
- 1:23:05I guess we would equate it to like Instagram likes.
- 1:23:10Like I don't mean like that right?
- 1:23:11Like man I guess in a way you could put it that way if you
- 1:23:16want. But I mean like meaningful
- 1:23:18things. Sorry it's all the Twitter heads
- 1:23:22out there, whatever they're called the Instagram heads, you
- 1:23:24know? But yeah, you're capable of so
- 1:23:28so, so much more. Yeah, it really is true.
- 1:23:31Yeah, I think the biggest thing. NG it sounds cliche, but the
- 1:23:33biggest thing holding people back is their own mindset.
- 1:23:35No matter what situation there, and it's their own mindset.
- 1:23:37Yeah, couldn't agree more with you.
- 1:23:41As we draw things to a close for today.
- 1:23:42Do you have any final words or maybe some upcoming projects
- 1:23:45that you'd like to share with our listeners / viewers?
- 1:23:52Why I feel like that? That forgiveness thing is pretty
- 1:23:55important. That's been like my thing lately
- 1:23:57is forgiving, other people don't understand.
- 1:24:02You know, I'm working on these all these creative projects that
- 1:24:05were kind of put on hold because of covid.
- 1:24:07They're all kind of exploding now right now.
- 1:24:09We're coming back to life, man. I think of something fun.
- 1:24:14I can't think of anything fun right now.
- 1:24:16Well, I can't think of anything fun.
- 1:24:19See, I think that right there. So many people.
- 1:24:23I'm like, yes, you two people ask me like, what do you do?
- 1:24:27What do you do? You know, like I do live streams
- 1:24:29a lot in about. What do you do?
- 1:24:30What do you do for fun? I'm like I mean This this is fun
- 1:24:34and I like this, you know, is it?
- 1:24:35And it's relative isn't it? Because like what your idea is
- 1:24:38what do I do? What do I spend with you?
- 1:24:40I don't know but it's like we will have these different
- 1:24:44passions and things and you know to me it sounds like you're very
- 1:24:47varied guy. You got a lot going on in your
- 1:24:49life and yeah it's just exciting to hear what you'll do next.
- 1:24:55I mean I think There's definitely legs for a sequel to
- 1:24:59this, this book. This is a really good book.
- 1:25:02Okay, thanks again. So much, the official depression
- 1:25:05relief, Playbook go out of your way to get that.
- 1:25:08Tell you why I'll do this. If anybody wants like a just
- 1:25:12like a preview of it, shoot me an email and I'll send them a
- 1:25:14chapter and see if it's their cup of tea.
- 1:25:17Because I understand, you know, if it's not that's fine or maybe
- 1:25:21the thing you really need to read or really need to pass on
- 1:25:23to someone else. So shoot me an email.
- 1:25:24If you want to preview it or just get it's like three bucks.
- 1:25:27On Amazon, I don't know, it's worth every penny.
- 1:25:31Thank you. This was a massive, thank you
- 1:25:34for being on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure
- 1:25:36chatting with. Thank you.
- 1:25:37It's an honor, man. This is really cool and to
- 1:25:40everyone listening or watching the Christian we've podcast.
- 1:25:43If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to like, share and
- 1:25:46subscribe. If you're listening on Spotify,
- 1:25:48Apple podcast Google podcast wherever you listen to the
- 1:25:50Christian re podcast, leave us a like Davis to review.
- 1:25:54Let me know your thoughts. What you think, let me know who
- 1:25:57you would like to. See on the show.
- 1:25:58Next what you would like to hear on the show.
- 1:26:00Next be safe be well. And as always, I'll see you in
- 1:26:05the next one.