Latest / Faithful Fitness With Coach Alex VanHouten / Pain Is a Teacher: Faith, Fitness, and the Courage to Keep Going
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, Faithful, Welcome to the Faithful Fitness Podcast. In a moment,
- 0:05Speaker 1: my dad, coach Alex van Houten, will help you honor
- 0:08Speaker 1: God by making the most out of the body God's
- 0:10Speaker 1: given you. Today you can expect truth from the Bible,
- 0:13Speaker 1: tools from science, and guidance for everyday life. So listen closing,
- 0:18Speaker 1: Get ready, Let's get one percent better today.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Hey there, coach Alex. Here, grace in peace to you.
- 0:30Speaker 2: This episode is a little more tender than usual. I
- 0:33Speaker 2: had the opportunity to sit down with Elena on the
- 0:36Speaker 2: Intimate Conversations with Men podcast and we talked about pain,
- 0:40Speaker 2: not just pain in theory, real pain, pain in the body,
- 0:46Speaker 2: pain in the mind, pain in a man or woman's
- 0:50Speaker 2: sense of worth, pain that makes you wonder whether you
- 0:53Speaker 2: still have anything left to give. And I'll be honest,
- 0:57Speaker 2: this conversation hit close to home. We talked about my
- 1:00Speaker 2: journey with Eelers Danlos and what it's meant to live
- 1:03Speaker 2: with a body that doesn't always co operate, and how
- 1:06Speaker 2: pain has become one of my teachers. Not because pain's
- 1:09Speaker 2: good and not because I enjoy it, but because pain
- 1:13Speaker 2: tells the truth. Pain says pay attention, pain says something
- 1:19Speaker 2: needs care here. Pain says you can't keep pretending that
- 1:24Speaker 2: this is not here right now. And that matters because
- 1:28Speaker 2: a lot of men are carrying pain that they've never named,
- 1:31Speaker 2: physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, the pain of feeling
- 1:35Speaker 2: like they're not strong enough, not useful enough, or not
- 1:39Speaker 2: capable enough, maybe even not needed enough. And when a
- 1:44Speaker 2: man starts to believe that his value only comes from
- 1:47Speaker 2: what he can do, pain can start whispering a very
- 1:51Speaker 2: dangerous lie. You're worthless, not worthless as in without value,
- 1:59Speaker 2: but worth less, less useful, less capable, less needed, And
- 2:05Speaker 2: that is a lie from hell. You're not done yet.
- 2:10Speaker 2: God made you on purpose for purpose, and if you're
- 2:14Speaker 2: still here, there is still something to steward. There is
- 2:19Speaker 2: still another faithful.
- 2:20Speaker 3: Step to take.
- 2:22Speaker 2: So as you listen to this conversation, I want you
- 2:25Speaker 2: to wrestle with this question, what pain in my life
- 2:29Speaker 2: have I been avoiding instead of bringing into the light?
- 2:33Speaker 2: Because acknowledging pain is not weakness, it's the beginning of courage.
- 2:39Speaker 2: Encourage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being
- 2:42Speaker 2: afraid and stepping forward. Anyway, before we jump in, I
- 2:48Speaker 2: want to share something that really encouraged me. A listener
- 2:51Speaker 2: recently left a review and I read it while we
- 2:53Speaker 2: were traveling this weekend to spread my brother's ashes, and
- 2:56Speaker 2: I'll just say this, it really put a smile on
- 2:59Speaker 2: my face and a tender moment.
- 3:01Speaker 3: So thank you.
- 3:02Speaker 2: Every review, every message, every note of encouragement reminds me
- 3:06Speaker 2: that this work matters, and that God is using these
- 3:09Speaker 2: conversations in ways that I don't always get to see.
- 3:13Speaker 2: And one more thing I'm excited to share with you.
- 3:16Speaker 2: In the show notes, you'll find a preview of some
- 3:18Speaker 2: new songs I've been working on I Know right music too.
- 3:23Speaker 2: With the help of a music building tool, we're building
- 3:25Speaker 2: a music library that helps us transform some of my
- 3:28Speaker 2: poems and even passages of scripture into music that's designed
- 3:33Speaker 2: to fuel running and lifting. For faithful fitness. Is not
- 3:37Speaker 2: just hype music. It's formation music. Songs that help you
- 3:41Speaker 2: train hard and pray harder, and keep your heart fixed
- 3:44Speaker 2: on what matters while your body's doing the work. Soon
- 3:48Speaker 2: they're going to be available on Spotify, Apple Music, or
- 3:51Speaker 2: wherever you listen to music, But right now it's just
- 3:53Speaker 2: on YouTube. I'd love for you to listen in train
- 3:56Speaker 2: with them and let me know what you think. All right, guys,
- 3:59Speaker 2: without further to do, let's get to my conversation with
- 4:02Speaker 2: Elena on the Intimate Conversations with Men podcast. Thanks so
- 4:06Speaker 2: much for having me, Elena. I'm really excited about this
- 4:08Speaker 2: conversation me too.
- 4:10Speaker 4: I am. Thank you for being here, first of all,
- 4:12Speaker 4: and thank you for the determination of growing raising two
- 4:18Speaker 4: sons with strength and fate. And we definitely need those
- 4:25Speaker 4: kind of parents a lot, fathers. I meant to say, Alex,
- 4:32Speaker 4: I cannot help it, but notice it in your bio
- 4:36Speaker 4: and in yourself that you have been challenge yourself with
- 4:44Speaker 4: some generic condition, I might say, and you tell me
- 4:51Speaker 4: a little bit more about that.
- 4:53Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 4:54Speaker 2: So, my journey as an exercise scientist actually started with
- 4:58Speaker 2: dealing with my own injuries and issues back even when
- 5:03Speaker 2: I was an adolescent, and so at the.
- 5:04Speaker 3: Time I didn't know I had a genetic disorder.
- 5:07Speaker 2: But I would do athletic things, and I would train
- 5:10Speaker 2: just like my friends in track practice or in wrestling
- 5:15Speaker 2: or in martial arts, and I would always end up
- 5:17Speaker 2: with some sort of joint related issue my hips, my knees,
- 5:21Speaker 2: my back, my shoulders, my wrists, and they were issues
- 5:25Speaker 2: that other people weren't dealing with They would slide and
- 5:30Speaker 2: grind and pop out of place, and that always seemed
- 5:34Speaker 2: to get better over time, but I had to rehabilitate myself,
- 5:38Speaker 2: and so that journey of learning how to be injured
- 5:44Speaker 2: and then get back to the exercises that I appreciated
- 5:47Speaker 2: or the games that I liked to play and deal
- 5:49Speaker 2: with the pain in the process, that's really what forged
- 5:55Speaker 2: this whole path of becoming an exercise scientist. And it
- 5:58Speaker 2: wasn't actually until later, about ten years into training people,
- 6:02Speaker 2: that I learned about my own genetic disorder that explained
- 6:06Speaker 2: a lot of the things that I was wrestling with.
- 6:08Speaker 3: And that disorder is called eelers dan los.
- 6:11Speaker 2: Eelers dan los is a difficulty in the body of
- 6:14Speaker 2: synthesizing collagen. It can affect tendons and ligaments, It can
- 6:18Speaker 2: affect cardiac tissue, it can affect the digestive system, and
- 6:22Speaker 2: so many of the things that I had wrestled with
- 6:24Speaker 2: made a lot of sense after I understood what was
- 6:27Speaker 2: happening in my body, and well, I didn't have an opportunity.
- 6:31Speaker 3: For excuses because I had wrestled with it for ten years.
- 6:34Speaker 2: So that's what I love about that is it taught
- 6:38Speaker 2: me how to help myself and I could help others
- 6:41Speaker 2: in the process. And then actually being able to put
- 6:43Speaker 2: a name to it made it possible for me to
- 6:47Speaker 2: start taking steps to help myself and eventually my children.
- 6:51Speaker 4: One makes you perceive that pain was actually helpful to
- 6:56Speaker 4: you to get back or learning through pain.
- 7:00Speaker 2: Well, you know, pain is a lot of times pain
- 7:02Speaker 2: gets a bad rap. And I'm not saying it's it's enjoyable.
- 7:07Speaker 2: I'm not one of those people. But but pain, pain
- 7:12Speaker 2: is a teacher. So so you know, our body uses
- 7:16Speaker 2: pain to teach us what isn't good.
- 7:19Speaker 3: Right.
- 7:19Speaker 2: So, so, for instance, if I get stung by a bee,
- 7:23Speaker 2: you're gotten a be sting that's really painful, right, like
- 7:25Speaker 2: ow yeah, yeah, they're like that's big, Like ah, look out.
- 7:31Speaker 2: So so you get you get stung by a bee, right,
- 7:33Speaker 2: and and what happens, Well, it's an intense pain and
- 7:36Speaker 2: and it teaches your mind and your body.
- 7:38Speaker 3: Wow. Bees are Bees are painful. Bees are dangerous.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Watch out for bees, right and unless you're allergic, bees
- 7:46Speaker 2: aren't mortally dangerous. They're not going to kill you with
- 7:49Speaker 2: one beasting, but kind it's painful, right, And in the
- 7:51Speaker 2: same In the same way, when you exercise, your your
- 7:56Speaker 2: body can can tell you, hey, this this is really
- 7:59Speaker 2: hurting your knee, and that's a signal.
- 8:04Speaker 3: It doesn't mean you don't exercise.
- 8:07Speaker 2: It's just teaching you what is appropriate for your joints,
- 8:12Speaker 2: what's appropriate for attendants and ligaments. And for me, pain
- 8:17Speaker 2: has been a great teacher. I don't like pain. I
- 8:19Speaker 2: don't enjoy pain. I don't wish it on anybody at all.
- 8:23Speaker 2: But pain can teach me what not to do with
- 8:26Speaker 2: myself and if I'm willing to keep visiting the thing.
- 8:30Speaker 2: Kind of like Thomas Edison said, I didn't fail at
- 8:33Speaker 2: making a light bulb thousands of times. I just learned
- 8:36Speaker 2: thousands of ways not to make a light bulb. And
- 8:39Speaker 2: pain can be a similar teacher.
- 8:41Speaker 4: So to summarize what you just said is many people
- 8:47Speaker 4: see pain different. The way you see it is pain
- 8:50Speaker 4: is a feedback mechanism that is guiding you, and it's
- 8:53Speaker 4: actually your partner that is guiding you on what way
- 8:57Speaker 4: to take or not to take.
- 9:00Speaker 3: Excellent, that's exactly right.
- 9:02Speaker 2: And if you're going to see pain that way, the
- 9:05Speaker 2: biggest thing you need is endurance and courage, because pain
- 9:10Speaker 2: is not easy to deal with. And so in my experience,
- 9:13Speaker 2: many people will avoid pain and in many cases it's
- 9:18Speaker 2: actually facing pain head on and understanding is it getting worse,
- 9:22Speaker 2: is it getting better?
- 9:23Speaker 3: Is it? Is it maintaining?
- 9:25Speaker 2: And that those those pain signals can actually teach us
- 9:28Speaker 2: a lot about what the right way for us to
- 9:30Speaker 2: move is.
- 9:32Speaker 4: Uh, tell me about endurance and courage.
- 9:37Speaker 2: Yeah, So endurance is just that capacity to keep going
- 9:41Speaker 2: when things get difficult. Right, So at a physiological level,
- 9:45Speaker 2: it just means that that when my cells start to
- 9:48Speaker 2: run out of energy, they have other pathways to get
- 9:52Speaker 2: more energy. Right, That's the most basic level, that's what
- 9:55Speaker 2: endurance is. But from a mindset perspective, endurance is saying saying,
- 10:00Speaker 2: I'm going to get knocked down seven times, but I'm
- 10:02Speaker 2: going to get.
- 10:03Speaker 3: Up eight I'm not.
- 10:04Speaker 2: I don't I don't get to give up, right, And
- 10:07Speaker 2: and that is a that is a very powerful and
- 10:09Speaker 2: important trait to exercise. And if you don't have much endurance,
- 10:13Speaker 2: it's okay. That's something you can build and grow in yourself.
- 10:17Speaker 2: And so we see that in exercise science pretty frequently.
- 10:21Speaker 2: It actually doesn't take a whole lot of effort on
- 10:24Speaker 2: a regular basis to build endurance right into every cell
- 10:28Speaker 2: of your body. And then the courage aspect is pain scary.
- 10:33Speaker 2: You know, when when little kids fall down and scrape
- 10:35Speaker 2: their knee, what's the first thing they do an even
- 10:41Speaker 2: before it hurts, even before the pain hits them, it's scary, right.
- 10:45Speaker 2: I have a seven year old son and he was
- 10:50Speaker 2: riding his bike and he just crash, you know, sp
- 10:54Speaker 2: scraped himself all up, and he gets up and he's like,
- 10:56Speaker 2: I'm okay, you know, and he hops on his bike
- 10:58Speaker 2: and he's he's a tough dude. He rides up to
- 11:01Speaker 2: me and he's got blood coming out of his knee,
- 11:03Speaker 2: and he looks down and he sees his knee and
- 11:05Speaker 2: he goes and he starts to cry. So because it's scary,
- 11:11Speaker 2: It's it's not just that it hurts, it's that pain
- 11:16Speaker 2: is scary.
- 11:17Speaker 3: We feel like it's gonna get worse.
- 11:18Speaker 2: We're concerned that it'll never stop, right, And so it
- 11:21Speaker 2: takes courage to face pain because if if we hurt,
- 11:28Speaker 2: it's scary. And courage is not Courage is not a
- 11:31Speaker 2: lack of fear. It's being afraid, but stepping into that fear.
- 11:35Speaker 4: Anyway, Oh, I love that. May I ask, when your
- 11:40Speaker 4: son fell, he saw the blood and start crying, what
- 11:43Speaker 4: do you do? How do you handle that?
- 11:45Speaker 2: Alex as a dad. As a dad, I always want
- 11:49Speaker 2: him to know, hey, you're okay. So I say, hey, buddy,
- 11:52Speaker 2: you're okay. Look at it. It's just a scrape. We're
- 11:55Speaker 2: gonna go take care of it. We're gonna wash it
- 11:57Speaker 2: up and stuff. Give me a hug. Men, And for
- 12:00Speaker 2: for a young for a child, when when they're in pain,
- 12:03Speaker 2: sometimes regulating their nervous system with your own nervous system
- 12:07Speaker 2: is the best call. So so we have these cool
- 12:11Speaker 2: receptors on our body that that when we feel touch,
- 12:15Speaker 2: it actually overrides the pain a little bit. So I
- 12:19Speaker 2: don't know, if you've ever bumped your head on something
- 12:21Speaker 2: whack ow, you can you can kind of rub around here.
- 12:28Speaker 4: That's my favorite thing of remind me.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Oh yeah, when you bump your head, you can actually
- 12:35Speaker 2: rub the area around it and it decreases the amount
- 12:38Speaker 2: of pain that you feel. So it's actually comforting to
- 12:41Speaker 2: have some touch in conjunction with the pain, not right
- 12:45Speaker 2: on the wound, you know, you know, rub the wound,
- 12:47Speaker 2: you just rub around it, right, So so anyway, as
- 12:50Speaker 2: a dad, I want to comfort him.
- 12:52Speaker 3: I want him to know he's okay.
- 12:53Speaker 2: I want him to know that there's something we can
- 12:55Speaker 2: do about this pain, and that he's not alone in it.
- 12:59Speaker 4: This is very interesting you said that because a couple
- 13:01Speaker 4: of days ago I personally fail, which sometimes I'm surprised
- 13:04Speaker 4: why I'm still doing that because I'm not five. And
- 13:08Speaker 4: you know. The first thing is I check I was
- 13:10Speaker 4: wearing pants. I checked my knee because I landed primarily
- 13:13Speaker 4: in my knee, and I said, I'm okay, and I
- 13:17Speaker 4: keep going. I was going to an appointment. When I
- 13:19Speaker 4: got to my appointment, I realized that I have a
- 13:22Speaker 4: big scrash here. It was fuel, it was still with blood.
- 13:26Speaker 4: That's when I know I'm not okay.
- 13:28Speaker 3: It's not okay. I'm bleeding yet it is so true.
- 13:34Speaker 4: Wow, thank you for that. Okay, So I want to
- 13:39Speaker 4: ask you more questions about that, because I'm sure I
- 13:42Speaker 4: am not the only individual who experiences pain. So when
- 13:49Speaker 4: when any any any of us adults, not kids, because
- 13:52Speaker 4: sometimes we learn things to do things through our parents
- 13:56Speaker 4: but also through our little friends and they don't know better.
- 13:59Speaker 4: Right as an adult, when something like that happens because
- 14:06Speaker 4: I'm also not the only one failing or bleeding. So
- 14:11Speaker 4: what do you say will be the better thing to
- 14:15Speaker 4: do to handle that pain at that moment in the body.
- 14:20Speaker 2: Well, the first thing that adults need to know about
- 14:23Speaker 2: pain is acknowledging that it's there, okay, is actually an
- 14:28Speaker 2: important step. So for adults, what we often do, and
- 14:31Speaker 2: we do this with emotional pain too, it's not just
- 14:34Speaker 2: not just physical pain, it's acknowledging that it's there. Right,
- 14:39Speaker 2: many times the adults what we want to do is
- 14:40Speaker 2: act like it doesn't exist, like we want to shove
- 14:43Speaker 2: it down. We want to tamp it down, move it
- 14:45Speaker 2: to the side. I don't have time for this pain
- 14:47Speaker 2: right now, right, So if I fall on the ground
- 14:49Speaker 2: and I scrape my arm and my leg, my knee jerk.
- 14:52Speaker 2: Is to do the same thing you did, go on
- 14:54Speaker 2: with my day, like I'm fine, whatever, move on, you know, yeah,
- 14:58Speaker 2: only my pride hurts a little bit, that's all right,
- 15:01Speaker 2: And somebody saw it right especially through that you're like,
- 15:05Speaker 2: I'm fine, I'm fine, stupid sidewalk, you know whatever. So
- 15:12Speaker 2: as an adult, we have to acknowledge our pain. And
- 15:14Speaker 2: this is actually, this is actually what they teach in
- 15:17Speaker 2: trauma therapy as well, and it's it's extremely important.
- 15:20Speaker 3: It's to acknowledge what happened.
- 15:21Speaker 2: I fell down, I scraped my arm, I'm bleeding, it
- 15:25Speaker 2: hurts right, and I know it sounds dumb, but those
- 15:29Speaker 2: are very important things to acknowledge. And the same thing,
- 15:31Speaker 2: you know, if I'm having a bad day with regard
- 15:34Speaker 2: to my own physical pain in he los analasts, I
- 15:37Speaker 2: have to be able to acknowledge it.
- 15:38Speaker 3: Ow my back really hurts right now and.
- 15:41Speaker 2: I'm having a hard time putting my own shoes on,
- 15:44Speaker 2: or my ankle is not allowing me to walk on
- 15:48Speaker 2: it today. Like I need to acknowledge those things. Now,
- 15:52Speaker 2: that's that's step one. I need to acknowledge it, and
- 15:54Speaker 2: that gives me an opportunity. If I can acknowledge it
- 15:56Speaker 2: to myself, I can acknowledge it to other people, not
- 16:00Speaker 2: in a complaining victim mindset way, but just stating the
- 16:05Speaker 2: reality of life. I'm in pain, and that's okay, it's
- 16:09Speaker 2: okay to acknowledge that. And then step two is a
- 16:11Speaker 2: little harder. So if you can't acknowledge, you got to
- 16:13Speaker 2: start there. But step two is a decision about what
- 16:20Speaker 2: you're going to do with that. And this is very
- 16:24Speaker 2: subjective because because the way that you walk forward in
- 16:28Speaker 2: your day with courage and the way that you walk
- 16:31Speaker 2: forward in your day with endurance might not be the
- 16:33Speaker 2: same way. I need to walk forward in my day
- 16:35Speaker 2: with courage and endurance. Right, But I am the only
- 16:39Speaker 2: one who's living with the pain and has to decide
- 16:42Speaker 2: what to do with it.
- 16:44Speaker 3: Nobody else can tell me what to do about that.
- 16:46Speaker 2: And so, for instance, if I I don't know this
- 16:49Speaker 2: weird thing in Ealer's Daan Loos, I can just wake
- 16:52Speaker 2: up and be like, I don't know how, but I
- 16:54Speaker 2: injured myself in my sleep. I've ever done that before.
- 16:56Speaker 2: Ever you're woken up like and been like, ow, what
- 16:59Speaker 2: did I do? I have a cool story for why
- 17:01Speaker 2: I'm in pain right now?
- 17:03Speaker 4: That yet there you go.
- 17:05Speaker 3: Yeah, So when I.
- 17:06Speaker 4: See a man with a bruce, I said, give me
- 17:09Speaker 4: a good story, at least give me to.
- 17:11Speaker 2: Make good story.
- 17:11Speaker 3: Yeah, did you fight a bear? Yeah?
- 17:14Speaker 2: So I wake up and say, wow, I'm in a
- 17:18Speaker 2: lot of pain today, Like my back really hurts. I'm
- 17:21Speaker 2: in a lot of pain today. I acknowledge it, and
- 17:23Speaker 2: I have to decide what to do about it. I
- 17:24Speaker 2: have client sessions that I intend to train through. I
- 17:27Speaker 2: have things that I want to do with my sons.
- 17:29Speaker 2: I have maybe my wife wants me to get in
- 17:32Speaker 2: the attic and carry some stuff down, And I have
- 17:34Speaker 2: to decide, Okay, is this the kind of pain where
- 17:37Speaker 2: I can I can move through it, Okay, I just
- 17:40Speaker 2: have to be careful, or is this the kind of
- 17:42Speaker 2: pain where I need to start changing my plans?
- 17:45Speaker 3: Right?
- 17:46Speaker 2: And this decision is really important because for me with
- 17:49Speaker 2: Ealers daanlows, there are many individuals who find themselves hooked
- 17:54Speaker 2: on pain medications and that alters the way their mind works,
- 17:58Speaker 2: that alters the way they're their body works, and personally,
- 18:02Speaker 2: for me, I like to keep that as minimal as
- 18:05Speaker 2: possible because I would like to maintain my capacity to
- 18:10Speaker 2: make decisions about what I'm going to do with this pain, right.
- 18:14Speaker 2: And so that's the step two is being after I've
- 18:18Speaker 2: acknowledged it, I need to make some decisions about how
- 18:20Speaker 2: I'm going to face this today and if anything needs
- 18:23Speaker 2: to change about what I've planned, or if anything needs
- 18:26Speaker 2: to change about my attitude, and that leads me then
- 18:30Speaker 2: finally to step three is my emotional attitude about this pain,
- 18:34Speaker 2: because especially for men guilty. We tend to face pain
- 18:40Speaker 2: with anger. Right, So, if I'm in pain, I'm more
- 18:44Speaker 2: likely to be irritable. If I'm in pain, I'm going
- 18:47Speaker 2: to be angry about it. If I'm in pain, I'm
- 18:49Speaker 2: more likely to lose my temper about certain things that
- 18:52Speaker 2: wouldn't bother me. And so the step three, after I've
- 18:55Speaker 2: acknowledged my pain, after I've decided how I'm going to
- 18:59Speaker 2: face this today, then then in step three here I
- 19:03Speaker 2: can I can take an emotional posture to that, right,
- 19:06Speaker 2: I can. I can actually treat myself with kindness. I
- 19:08Speaker 2: can actually have some grace. I can ask for patients
- 19:11Speaker 2: from the people around me, and and I can I
- 19:15Speaker 2: can do that in a way that doesn't make me
- 19:17Speaker 2: a victim, right because I'm facing my pain courageously here,
- 19:22Speaker 2: I can do that in a way that doesn't make
- 19:23Speaker 2: me a victim. And so I'm not asking anybody for pity.
- 19:26Speaker 2: I'm not asking anybody for for their I don't know
- 19:31Speaker 2: what's the word. I think pity is the one. When
- 19:36Speaker 2: you wrestle with pain. You don't want people's pity. That's
- 19:38Speaker 2: not that's not what you want you You want other
- 19:41Speaker 2: people just to understand your reality so that you can
- 19:44Speaker 2: continue being the best version of you that you can
- 19:46Speaker 2: be today. And so so that's that's number three is
- 19:51Speaker 2: being able to choose your emotional disposition towards the pain today.
- 19:56Speaker 4: Alex, you brought some great points there, and I'm just curious.
- 20:02Speaker 4: I know you're not a psychologist, but with think yourself,
- 20:07Speaker 4: what is the psychology or what goes in your mind?
- 20:10Speaker 4: And you're right, I perceive in my life the man
- 20:13Speaker 4: in my life that when they get sick, they just
- 20:18Speaker 4: it's really hard to handle pain. Not because they cannot
- 20:22Speaker 4: tolerate the pain. It's because it's like if they don't
- 20:26Speaker 4: want nobody to see him in pain or and need.
- 20:29Speaker 4: And I'm curious. So the reason why I create this
- 20:32Speaker 4: place is this space is to learn more, right, because
- 20:36Speaker 4: by learning, we can support our men and we can
- 20:40Speaker 4: be there or you know, do better. Right, what is
- 20:45Speaker 4: the psychology. Let's say that on a good day or
- 20:48Speaker 4: on a bad day, and a day you're not really
- 20:51Speaker 4: feeling well, and like I said, like you know, when
- 20:55Speaker 4: men get sick, they really get angry, but at the
- 20:57Speaker 4: same time they're like little kids, right, And I could
- 21:00Speaker 4: again my experience the men in my life and more
- 21:04Speaker 4: specifically to adults.
- 21:06Speaker 3: Right.
- 21:07Speaker 4: So it's just like I have that I already had
- 21:08Speaker 4: that expectation. But what gos in the mind of a
- 21:11Speaker 4: man when it's not able to be in there one
- 21:15Speaker 4: hundred percent? Because there is something in the back of
- 21:19Speaker 4: their mind that says, my purpose is to empower, my
- 21:23Speaker 4: purpose is to protect. And when they are not able
- 21:27Speaker 4: to do that, what happens in the mind.
- 21:29Speaker 3: That's a great question.
- 21:30Speaker 2: So, so men tend to derive what their self worth
- 21:35Speaker 2: is from what they're capable of doing. So if so,
- 21:40Speaker 2: the psychology of a man is I can fix things,
- 21:44Speaker 2: I can run fast, I can I can fight bears.
- 21:47Speaker 3: You know, women love me?
- 21:49Speaker 2: Right like these these are all the things that a
- 21:52Speaker 2: man derives his self worth from, right. And so so
- 21:57Speaker 2: if I see that I cannot accomplish something, or I
- 22:00Speaker 2: see that I cannot do something, the psychology for a
- 22:03Speaker 2: man is to become depressed and also combative and defensive.
- 22:09Speaker 3: Right.
- 22:09Speaker 2: So this is important with regard to the pain conversation,
- 22:13Speaker 2: because because if I derive my worth as an individual
- 22:18Speaker 2: from what I'm capable of doing, then then pain directly
- 22:23Speaker 2: disrupts my own worth.
- 22:25Speaker 4: Correct.
- 22:26Speaker 2: Pain automatically says hey, you're in pain, so you're worthless.
- 22:30Speaker 3: Not worthless, but worthless. That makes sense.
- 22:34Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, we're going We're going to a good place
- 22:38Speaker 4: now because I have now from there, I have many questions.
- 22:41Speaker 4: But before I ask many questions, I don't want to
- 22:44Speaker 4: forget to us days. In your bio you use the
- 22:48Speaker 4: word a man. When you use the word man, you
- 22:50Speaker 4: refer as a mankind or you only help a man
- 22:54Speaker 4: with your coaching.
- 22:57Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. So I get to work with men
- 23:00Speaker 2: and women and faithful fitness. For the purpose of your podcast,
- 23:04Speaker 2: it's important that your audience knows that my primary work
- 23:10Speaker 2: from a faith based health coach perspective is with men.
- 23:14Speaker 2: Primary work with exercise science actually happens to be with women.
- 23:21Speaker 3: To work in birth year.
- 23:24Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's been my experience in the training
- 23:27Speaker 2: world that women are faster to ask for help, and
- 23:30Speaker 2: so I have found that as a coach, I have
- 23:35Speaker 2: found that women are more willing to let me help
- 23:38Speaker 2: them from an exercise perspective, And I work with men
- 23:40Speaker 2: when they're ready, but they like to figure it out
- 23:43Speaker 2: the hard way. Sometimes I have.
- 23:45Speaker 4: So many questions and my mind is running while so
- 23:48Speaker 4: I'm going to try to.
- 23:49Speaker 3: Be very okay, okay, very.
- 23:52Speaker 4: Crafted in each question. And I usually ask the question
- 23:55Speaker 4: about all those men who are great on paper, leaders
- 24:01Speaker 4: that are and a lot of pain. Now, because we
- 24:04Speaker 4: are specifically you and I having a conversation of the body, right,
- 24:08Speaker 4: the pain sometimes doesn't refer up. You know, they feel broken,
- 24:12Speaker 4: they feel hurt, they they are in a lot of pain,
- 24:14Speaker 4: but a lot of that is also physical. So I
- 24:19Speaker 4: as you as you were describing men and pain, I
- 24:23Speaker 4: went back to the movie Forrest Gum, and I thought,
- 24:27Speaker 4: and I remember how sometimes parents over protect kids they're
- 24:32Speaker 4: they're you know, are born with a child. I'm going
- 24:34Speaker 4: to call it a challenge, right, and then when you
- 24:39Speaker 4: say words less when you were talking about that, you
- 24:42Speaker 4: know and and that challenge, and I'm just gonna say that,
- 24:46Speaker 4: then I want you to give me your opinion and
- 24:47Speaker 4: that challenge. They don't get to be like an whatever
- 24:53Speaker 4: normal is, a normal kid or playing and all of that. Again,
- 24:57Speaker 4: it's just a movie, but I can see how that
- 24:59Speaker 4: reflects in life and truth and a real story and
- 25:04Speaker 4: overprotect us kids instead of trying to help them to
- 25:09Speaker 4: be a normal and normal whatever whatever that means. And
- 25:12Speaker 4: the belope they're doing right, as a man the bevelope.
- 25:15Speaker 4: They're doing, as you said, they're make sure they're they
- 25:20Speaker 4: measure themselves about what they're able to do. So with
- 25:26Speaker 4: regards to that specific case, let's say there is a
- 25:29Speaker 4: mother and a father right now, they have a kid
- 25:32Speaker 4: born with a physical challenge with regards to playing and
- 25:40Speaker 4: exercising with the other kids, what is that? What is
- 25:44Speaker 4: that your experience. We're gonna start with kids, and then
- 25:48Speaker 4: we're gonna go up to men. Okay, to the specifically,
- 25:52Speaker 4: we're gonna talk about men with the life of that
- 25:55Speaker 4: boy that is restricted by the not just the illness,
- 26:00Speaker 4: but the overprotection of the parents sometimes. What words would
- 26:06Speaker 4: you use to parents like that?
- 26:09Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for the question.
- 26:11Speaker 2: This might be a very deeply opinionated response, but I
- 26:16Speaker 2: think it's important. One of the things that we find
- 26:18Speaker 2: in the psychological community is that mothers and fathers have.
- 26:21Speaker 3: Different roles in boys lives.
- 26:24Speaker 2: A mother cannot teach a boy how to be a
- 26:27Speaker 2: man because she's no matter what mom does, she I
- 26:33Speaker 2: was raised in a single parent home. My mom did
- 26:35Speaker 2: her best with four kids, and my mom did a
- 26:40Speaker 2: wonderful job of nurturing.
- 26:42Speaker 3: She did a wonderful job of teaching.
- 26:43Speaker 2: She did a wonderful job of modeling what discipline looks
- 26:48Speaker 2: like and what love looks like. She did that very
- 26:51Speaker 2: well for us. But my mom couldn't teach me how
- 26:53Speaker 2: to be a man. She couldn't teach me what it
- 26:55Speaker 2: looks like for a man to approach challenges and to
- 26:58Speaker 2: deal with those things in the way that a man can.
- 27:02Speaker 2: And so what my mom did is she put me
- 27:05Speaker 2: in the vicinity of men who were pursuing different challenges.
- 27:10Speaker 2: And so actually kickboxing was the first way that I
- 27:13Speaker 2: connected with men in any meaningful way outside of outside
- 27:19Speaker 2: of not having a father in the home. And so
- 27:22Speaker 2: I learned, you know, how to fight and how to wrestle,
- 27:25Speaker 2: and what it looks like for men to genuinely love
- 27:29Speaker 2: each other, to give big hugs, and to challenge each other,
- 27:33Speaker 2: that sort of thing.
- 27:34Speaker 3: Have fun. I was yelling, I was maybe nine or
- 27:36Speaker 3: ten years old.
- 27:37Speaker 2: Right in something that I learned, and this was a
- 27:42Speaker 2: story in my life, I was in a kickboxing match.
- 27:45Speaker 3: Right in kickboxing, you.
- 27:46Speaker 2: Put gloves on, you put headgear on, you get into
- 27:49Speaker 2: the ring, and you fight like and the point is
- 27:52Speaker 2: to beat each other up.
- 27:53Speaker 3: That's like, that's the sport you score points.
- 27:56Speaker 2: By getting through the guard and kicking him in the
- 28:00Speaker 2: face and ducking and hitting in the guts and stuff,
- 28:03Speaker 2: right' that's how you win.
- 28:05Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how you win kickboxing.
- 28:07Speaker 2: So just before I went into the ring, my mom said,
- 28:10Speaker 2: don't hurt the boy, Alex.
- 28:12Speaker 3: Oh wow, so she said to me, So, you.
- 28:15Speaker 2: Know, I'm trying to make my mom happy, and I
- 28:18Speaker 2: get beat up, like, I just get trashed because I'm
- 28:22Speaker 2: trying not to hurt the kid, right, And I mean,
- 28:24Speaker 2: he's a little bigger than me.
- 28:26Speaker 3: I don't know what she's worried about.
- 28:27Speaker 2: Like he's a little bigger than me, and I'm just
- 28:29Speaker 2: getting beat up.
- 28:30Speaker 3: Man.
- 28:30Speaker 2: And I'm ten years old and I'm getting beat up.
- 28:34Speaker 2: And I go back to my mom after the round's over,
- 28:38Speaker 2: and I'm crying, like and I'm just I'm frustrated, you know,
- 28:42Speaker 2: I just got beat up and I'm frustrated. And she
- 28:46Speaker 2: looks at me and she goes, why are you crying?
- 28:49Speaker 2: And I said, because I'm trying not to hurt him.
- 28:51Speaker 2: I don't know how to punch somebody and not hurt him.
- 28:53Speaker 2: And she goes, don't listen to me anymore, Go talk
- 28:57Speaker 2: to your sense. So I talk to my sonse and
- 29:01Speaker 2: my sense I wasn't the least bit worried about me
- 29:03Speaker 2: hurting the other boy. That's his problem. He's got to
- 29:05Speaker 2: keep his guard up. He said, Hey, you're getting hit
- 29:08Speaker 2: in the face with the right hook. Dodge that and
- 29:10Speaker 2: come in with the right cross. I'm like, okay, cool,
- 29:12Speaker 2: And I did that, and I mopped the floor with
- 29:14Speaker 2: this kid, and I was all excited and happy.
- 29:18Speaker 3: And what's cool is in kickboxing.
- 29:21Speaker 2: This might sound weird in the ladies world, but in kickboxing,
- 29:24Speaker 2: once you beat each other up and the round's over,
- 29:27Speaker 2: you give each other a hug, and you're closer friends
- 29:29Speaker 2: than anybody else. So you know somebody intimately when you
- 29:32Speaker 2: fight with them. So I beat this gid up and
- 29:35Speaker 2: we're friends. Now we get the spar for the rest
- 29:38Speaker 2: of rest of the next couple of years. And what
- 29:40Speaker 2: I learned is that the father's job is to create
- 29:45Speaker 2: the space for a boy to explore difficulty without it
- 29:52Speaker 2: being too dangerous. So if I'm fighting a thirty year
- 29:56Speaker 2: old man as a ten year old boy, that's dangers.
- 30:00Speaker 2: I'm going to get punched in the cheek, and you know,
- 30:03Speaker 2: injure myself in a way that I can't recover from,
- 30:07Speaker 2: but another ten year old boy is not going to
- 30:09Speaker 2: do too much damage. So two boys with supervised fighting
- 30:14Speaker 2: and safety gear, this is a safe space to explore
- 30:20Speaker 2: difficulty and challenge without a mortal injury. And the same
- 30:25Speaker 2: thing goes I'm raising my boys. When I let my
- 30:29Speaker 2: six year old get on the monkey bars, I'm not
- 30:32Speaker 2: worried about him. The falls like, I don't know two feet,
- 30:35Speaker 2: so I'm around, but I'm watching him and he's not
- 30:39Speaker 2: going to get hurt too bad. My two year old
- 30:41Speaker 2: wants to try the monkey bars, Well, that's a long fall.
- 30:45Speaker 2: So I'm going to pick him up and let him
- 30:47Speaker 2: be there, and I've got my hands here, but I'm
- 30:50Speaker 2: going to let him figure it out and then catch him.
- 30:53Speaker 3: And that's Dad's job.
- 30:55Speaker 2: And so flipping the script, Mom's job is to let
- 30:58Speaker 2: dad figure that out.
- 31:00Speaker 4: Oh, I love that.
- 31:01Speaker 2: Mom's job is to let dad create the space for
- 31:05Speaker 2: difficulty and challenge while also helping dad learn what the
- 31:10Speaker 2: thresholds are for injury. So something my wife does really
- 31:13Speaker 2: well in our house is when she sees something, she's like, ooh,
- 31:16Speaker 2: I don't know, I'm worried about that.
- 31:19Speaker 3: She just kind of goes somewhere else. So we.
- 31:25Speaker 2: Yes, just let us do some of the dangerous, challenging things.
- 31:28Speaker 2: And you know, not that I'd ever intentionally put my
- 31:32Speaker 2: sons in mortal danger, but sometimes there are things that
- 31:34Speaker 2: moms see could go wrong and they're concerned about that,
- 31:39Speaker 2: and that's okay. But boys have to be allowed to
- 31:42Speaker 2: go explore those difficult things. And so if I'm a
- 31:45Speaker 2: child who's developmentally challenged in some form of fashion, that
- 31:48Speaker 2: doesn't change for me.
- 31:50Speaker 3: It just changes the atmosphere.
- 31:53Speaker 2: Around what is injurious and what is appropriately challenged.
- 32:00Speaker 3: And that's dad's job.
- 32:02Speaker 4: I love I love what you said again in my
- 32:06Speaker 4: in my exploration about learning from you know, newborn boy,
- 32:12Speaker 4: which I have a I have a new god son,
- 32:15Speaker 4: by the ways, you know, Mansel. I just met him
- 32:19Speaker 4: a week ago, and I am so inspired. He actually
- 32:22Speaker 4: tried to have a conversation with me, which makes me
- 32:24Speaker 4: so happy. Exactly, I can wait to have you, I
- 32:31Speaker 4: told him, I can wait to have you on my podcast,
- 32:34Speaker 4: and he's gonna beautiful, beautiful boy. Thank you for saying that.
- 32:41Speaker 4: And and this is very interesting because now that you
- 32:44Speaker 4: said that, I cannot help it but keep continuing that.
- 32:46Speaker 4: So I I have learned the you know what you said,
- 32:51Speaker 4: month's job is you know, the being. That job is
- 32:55Speaker 4: the doing, and it's important to learning to help them
- 32:58Speaker 4: learn the obstacles, especially because all of that will reflect
- 33:03Speaker 4: on what they do with their life, meaning professionally. I
- 33:08Speaker 4: also learned that when a mother and I just I
- 33:12Speaker 4: want you to elaborate on this. So I'm just going
- 33:13Speaker 4: to give you a little bit of I'm gonna give
- 33:16Speaker 4: you a little bit of bacon, and you give me
- 33:17Speaker 4: all the meat on this, okay, And I love bacon.
- 33:23Speaker 4: The when a mother is raising a kid, especially a boy,
- 33:28Speaker 4: we want to focus on boys. When a mother is
- 33:30Speaker 4: raising a boy, and I hear this in many places,
- 33:33Speaker 4: by the way, and the boy doesn't have a father
- 33:38Speaker 4: who is going to challenge him and help him doing
- 33:45Speaker 4: to bring those kids into sports some others. While we
- 33:53Speaker 4: could be worried about, oh my kid is going to
- 33:57Speaker 4: be hurt and I am working and I am the
- 33:59Speaker 4: only one who brings the money and I'm not going
- 34:01Speaker 4: to be able to take care of my kid, or
- 34:04Speaker 4: if there is a kid who was born with a challenge,
- 34:07Speaker 4: it's even more right. So what would you say to that, Alex.
- 34:13Speaker 2: I would say that I would applaud mothers who are
- 34:16Speaker 2: raising their sons and struggling to find the right leadership
- 34:22Speaker 2: and male presence in their sons' lives, because it's worth
- 34:26Speaker 2: the fight, so don't stop trying to find that right place.
- 34:30Speaker 2: I would also say that sports are not the only
- 34:32Speaker 2: place that you can find that. So you know, sports
- 34:37Speaker 2: are wonderful. You might find some good male coaches, martial
- 34:40Speaker 2: arts instructors, or soccer coaches or football coaches. You might
- 34:43Speaker 2: find some good coaches that really pour into their children
- 34:48Speaker 2: that way. And in the same way, you can find
- 34:49Speaker 2: some coaches that turn sports into their own idol, which
- 34:53Speaker 2: is not something you want your kid to learn, is
- 34:56Speaker 2: to find their identity in a sport. And so. But
- 35:01Speaker 2: you can also find the spirit of the Father in
- 35:04Speaker 2: other places. You can find the spirit of the Father
- 35:07Speaker 2: in a religious setting. So for instance, my wife and
- 35:11Speaker 2: I we run our children's ministry at our church, and
- 35:14Speaker 2: it's very important to us that when kids come to
- 35:16Speaker 2: our church they encounter fund We play kickball, and we
- 35:20Speaker 2: throw frisbees, and we play uno. You know, we do
- 35:23Speaker 2: all the stuff, and it requires the spirit of the Father.
- 35:28Speaker 2: I say that in quotations the spirit of the Father,
- 35:32Speaker 2: the capability of bringing a good environment, of encouraging play
- 35:37Speaker 2: to a situation. Because you can play Uno in a
- 35:39Speaker 2: way that everybody loses. You know, you can play a
- 35:42Speaker 2: card game where everybody's mad at each other and nobody
- 35:45Speaker 2: follows the rules, and that's not any fun. But you
- 35:48Speaker 2: can play Uno or chess or you know, these these
- 35:53Speaker 2: board games or building forts or wrestling or whatever it is.
- 35:58Speaker 2: You can do that in a way that's encouraging and
- 36:01Speaker 2: good for everybody. So you can count that in other
- 36:03Speaker 2: places too. And what I would say to mothers is
- 36:05Speaker 2: be on the lookout for places where children are safe
- 36:09Speaker 2: to play.
- 36:10Speaker 3: And that's that's that's where you're going.
- 36:13Speaker 2: And if there's a place where a child is safe
- 36:16Speaker 2: to play, the spirit of the Father is there somewhere,
- 36:19Speaker 2: Like there might be a guy who's watching the playground
- 36:22Speaker 2: and making sure everybody's doing okay. There might be there
- 36:25Speaker 2: might be men who are actively planning games for kids
- 36:30Speaker 2: at church. There might be a coach on the field
- 36:32Speaker 2: who's coaching the football team. If there's a place where
- 36:35Speaker 2: children are safe to play, that's that's a good place
- 36:38Speaker 2: to find the spirit of the Father.
- 36:40Speaker 4: I love that question. Thank you. Thank you for that, Alex,
- 36:43Speaker 4: because definitely there's a challenge right to especially for the
- 36:47Speaker 4: kid because they might feel the absence of the father.
- 36:50Speaker 4: But now I'm going to shift into different kinds of
- 36:53Speaker 4: questions and I am very curious to know what makes
- 36:56Speaker 4: you create a faithful, faithful fitness.
- 37:01Speaker 3: Yeah. It's been a journey and a project for me.
- 37:04Speaker 2: You know, I actually spent several years in my early
- 37:08Speaker 2: adulthood as an atheist, so somebody who championed the rationality
- 37:12Speaker 2: of science over faith. I saw it as kind of
- 37:16Speaker 2: superstition if nothing else. And in that changed for me.
- 37:22Speaker 2: There was a time in my life where God showed
- 37:26Speaker 2: himself to me as both real and it was necessary
- 37:30Speaker 2: for faith to be a guiding principle in my life
- 37:33Speaker 2: even and above rationality at times. And so I had
- 37:36Speaker 2: always been an athlete. I'd always been somebody who worked
- 37:40Speaker 2: through my own pain and difficulty with exercise, and I
- 37:45Speaker 2: was practicing that, but I wasn't sure exactly where my
- 37:48Speaker 2: faith fit in, and so the process of integrating those
- 37:53Speaker 2: two things was a process that I had to go through.
- 37:57Speaker 2: And then what I noticed is as I was coaching
- 37:59Speaker 2: my clients many at the times that I would give
- 38:02Speaker 2: them exercise or nutrition practice.
- 38:05Speaker 3: To move forward in.
- 38:07Speaker 2: There were times that they didn't do the things they
- 38:09Speaker 2: know we're good for them, and the question was why.
- 38:13Speaker 3: What is it about our belief system?
- 38:15Speaker 2: What is it about the things we think we know
- 38:18Speaker 2: about ourselves that impact us and change our decisions about
- 38:24Speaker 2: our health and our fitness. I'll give you an example.
- 38:26Speaker 2: Let's say I'm working with a client, and this is
- 38:28Speaker 2: real life. I did this last week. Let's say I'm
- 38:31Speaker 2: working with a client who has type two diabetes. Type
- 38:34Speaker 2: two diabetes means my body does not regulate blood sugar
- 38:38Speaker 2: very well. If my body does not regulate blood sugar
- 38:42Speaker 2: very well, I shouldn't eat sweets. I just shouldn't. It's
- 38:46Speaker 2: going to be hard on me. It's going to cause
- 38:48Speaker 2: damage to my capillaries. It could make me go blind,
- 38:52Speaker 2: it could make me feel terrible. I could end up
- 38:55Speaker 2: in a coma if I eat too much sugar. Right,
- 39:00Speaker 2: client having type two diabetes eats four servings of cookies
- 39:05Speaker 2: on Monday afternoon.
- 39:08Speaker 3: Why what the heck's going on there? What?
- 39:11Speaker 2: Like, I know cookies are basically poisoned to me, but
- 39:15Speaker 2: I'm eating them anyway.
- 39:16Speaker 3: And if you ask, why are.
- 39:17Speaker 2: You eating those cookies? Well, you know, it was just
- 39:19Speaker 2: one of those days. I had a bad day and
- 39:23Speaker 2: I wanted some cookies. And I can't understand that, right, right,
- 39:30Speaker 2: And and emotional eatings is a real thing. Most of
- 39:33Speaker 2: us could could relate to what it looks like to
- 39:36Speaker 2: bury our emotion and sugar. Right, But you have to
- 39:40Speaker 2: ask what do you believe about yourself in order to
- 39:45Speaker 2: eat cookies that you.
- 39:47Speaker 3: Know could kill you? What do you have to believe
- 39:50Speaker 3: about yourself for that to be the case? Right? What? What?
- 39:54Speaker 2: What are your what is your faith like? That's that's
- 39:58Speaker 2: really the deeper questions. And I can tell this client
- 40:01Speaker 2: from a nutrition and exercise perspective in science, Hey, you
- 40:06Speaker 2: have type two diabetes. These have fifty grams of sugar.
- 40:10Speaker 2: You don't need to eat those. I could tell a
- 40:12Speaker 2: client that and they can understand it. But whether or
- 40:16Speaker 2: not they're going to act on it, whether or not
- 40:18Speaker 2: it's a part of who they are and they understand
- 40:22Speaker 2: what they're doing in their day because of what they believe.
- 40:26Speaker 3: That's a completely different question.
- 40:28Speaker 2: And so faithful fitness isn't It is an attempt to
- 40:31Speaker 2: take our belief systems and combine those with our actions
- 40:38Speaker 2: in our bodies.
- 40:39Speaker 3: We say that we work to help people.
- 40:41Speaker 2: Make the most out of the body God's given them,
- 40:44Speaker 2: And so that's the underlying structure of faithful fitness.
- 40:49Speaker 3: Oh, I love that.
- 40:51Speaker 2: Well.
- 40:52Speaker 4: Sometimes I guess we don't see things that we eat
- 40:55Speaker 4: as something that is going to hurt us stuff bad,
- 40:58Speaker 4: because it's giving inspilation. Right, It's given us pleasure to
- 41:01Speaker 4: to put that in our mouths, So we don't we
- 41:04Speaker 4: don't measure the pain that He's going to give us. Also, Okay,
- 41:09Speaker 4: next question, since we get in it and this and this, Uh,
- 41:14Speaker 4: on this part, there's there's a lot of challenges here.
- 41:19Speaker 4: What happens with some individual has a different uh the
- 41:24Speaker 4: religious belief or not not religious belief, the perceive to
- 41:29Speaker 4: be challenging to help those individuals.
- 41:33Speaker 2: No, I for myself, I always tell them, hey, look,
- 41:36Speaker 2: many of the things that I believe at a deeper
- 41:40Speaker 2: level are from a Christian ethos, So I will reference
- 41:44Speaker 2: the Bible regularly. I believe in Jesus's teachings, and I
- 41:47Speaker 2: believe that regardless of your faith background or understanding of
- 41:51Speaker 2: those things, they can still teach you deep things kind
- 41:55Speaker 2: of like what's your favorite movie and why if you
- 41:57Speaker 2: have a favorite movie, you understand that there are stories
- 42:01Speaker 2: that inform your life and that captivate your attention and
- 42:05Speaker 2: that you can move forward with like you bringing up
- 42:07Speaker 2: Forrest Gump just a little bit ago, right, is a
- 42:09Speaker 2: great example of that. And similarly, I want them to
- 42:12Speaker 2: know where I'm coming from and that I'm not pushing
- 42:16Speaker 2: that on anybody. But at the same time, I want
- 42:18Speaker 2: them to understand that if what I'm saying doesn't make sense,
- 42:23Speaker 2: then I don't know how it's to explain it. At
- 42:27Speaker 2: the same time, it's important to me for my clients
- 42:30Speaker 2: to understand that the science doesn't change the way I
- 42:33Speaker 2: believe it is that God made the world and that
- 42:37Speaker 2: we explore the world through science, and that's actually a
- 42:41Speaker 2: faith based process.
- 42:43Speaker 3: By the way, that's what science does.
- 42:44Speaker 2: We make a hypothesis, we think this is going to
- 42:46Speaker 2: happen this way, and then we have the faith to
- 42:48Speaker 2: run the experiment, and then we have the honesty to
- 42:51Speaker 2: look at the results and say what actually is that's truth? Right,
- 42:56Speaker 2: So faith leads the process, rationality examines the process, and
- 43:03Speaker 2: then truth is what emerges as a result. Right, And
- 43:05Speaker 2: the same thing goes in your journey with your body.
- 43:08Speaker 2: I can tell you, Elena, that squats are good for
- 43:11Speaker 2: your legs. You can go, yeah, yeah, that sounds right.
- 43:15Speaker 2: I believe squats are good for my legs. And I
- 43:17Speaker 2: can even explain to you the proper form to do
- 43:20Speaker 2: a squat so that there's not so much pain in
- 43:22Speaker 2: your knees and so that you bypass the issues with
- 43:24Speaker 2: your ankles, and so you use your butt and your
- 43:26Speaker 2: glute muscles get to fire.
- 43:27Speaker 3: Right.
- 43:28Speaker 2: I can tell you those things, But until you and
- 43:30Speaker 2: I actually do some squats, nothing changes. Right, So, regardless
- 43:36Speaker 2: of your belief system, the faith to do something, the
- 43:41Speaker 2: faith to actually practice it, and then the rationality to
- 43:46Speaker 2: examine and say, okay, how did that go?
- 43:48Speaker 3: What was the result? Is there anything that needs to change?
- 43:52Speaker 2: Regardless of your faith background, your faith and rationality are
- 43:57Speaker 2: going to have to work together to put the science
- 43:59Speaker 2: into practices.
- 44:00Speaker 4: Absolutely, thank you. That was perfect In this moment. There's
- 44:09Speaker 4: probably many individuals listening or not. We're not round right,
- 44:14Speaker 4: we're recording this, but thinking I was not giving the
- 44:19Speaker 4: opportunity to exercise because I was born with a specific condition, illness, syndrome,
- 44:27Speaker 4: or challenge, and it doesn't allow me to exercise and
- 44:34Speaker 4: we're talking about adults, and there's nothing else I can do.
- 44:39Speaker 4: I was told that I have this condition, and it's
- 44:44Speaker 4: terri fine to think about me finding the right person
- 44:49Speaker 4: because I don't know how and who is going to understand.
- 44:53Speaker 4: So the first question I have is, how do you
- 44:55Speaker 4: evaluate every situation? Or do you evaluate every single sea
- 45:00Speaker 4: situation since we have different challenges, right.
- 45:03Speaker 3: That's a great question.
- 45:04Speaker 2: When I work with individuals, I always have a set
- 45:08Speaker 2: of questions that I ask to understand their story. And
- 45:11Speaker 2: really it's that simple. Tell me your story, how'd you
- 45:14Speaker 2: get here? And people will tell me. They will tell
- 45:19Speaker 2: me things like my doctor told me I'll never run again,
- 45:21Speaker 2: or they'll tell me things like I wrestle with pain
- 45:23Speaker 2: every day, or they'll tell me things like like I
- 45:26Speaker 2: really messed up my shoulder and I'm pretty sure it's
- 45:29Speaker 2: beyond help, you know, something like that.
- 45:31Speaker 3: So they'll tell me what the issue.
- 45:34Speaker 2: Is correct, And then I have to ask, what would
- 45:39Speaker 2: you like to see happen? And that's an interesting question
- 45:43Speaker 2: because because if I can look at the challenge and
- 45:49Speaker 2: I can say I would really like to see this happen,
- 45:53Speaker 2: I would really like to see this change, then my
- 45:58Speaker 2: job as a coach is to take what I understand
- 46:00Speaker 2: about the science and encourage my client in the direction
- 46:05Speaker 2: of the thing they see as possible. And for me,
- 46:10Speaker 2: I love that process. I think it's an amazing process
- 46:13Speaker 2: and I have yet to meet anybody who couldn't get better.
- 46:17Speaker 2: One of my most challenged clients that I ever worked
- 46:20Speaker 2: with our work together was mostly in a recliner. He
- 46:25Speaker 2: didn't generally move from this position, and we did recliner
- 46:31Speaker 2: based exercises for his arms, we did recliner based exercises
- 46:34Speaker 2: for his legs, and he even got to where he
- 46:36Speaker 2: could stand up and walk without pain for four hundred yards,
- 46:40Speaker 2: which is a really big deal because up until we
- 46:42Speaker 2: started working together, he hadn't left his house in seven years.
- 46:46Speaker 2: So I believe that no matter who you are, where
- 46:50Speaker 2: you're starting, you can get better if you're willing to try.
- 46:55Speaker 2: That's how the body works. But it's a question of
- 46:58Speaker 2: understanding what's the next step need to look like, and
- 47:02Speaker 2: that's my job.
- 47:03Speaker 4: For individuals specifically with challenge. Let's continue specifically speak about challenges.
- 47:13Speaker 4: There are scared, there are scared to see nobody is
- 47:16Speaker 4: going to understand my pain, Nobody is going to really
- 47:18Speaker 4: truly understand how I feel. What makes you the right coach.
- 47:24Speaker 3: For me.
- 47:24Speaker 2: I can't always say I understand how you feel, but
- 47:27Speaker 2: what I can say is by hearing your story, I
- 47:30Speaker 2: can develop compassion and love for where you're at. Because
- 47:33Speaker 2: there was a time in my life where I was
- 47:35Speaker 2: told I'll never run again. There are times in my
- 47:37Speaker 2: life where I've been in so much pain I would
- 47:39Speaker 2: rather just not be here anymore. There are times in
- 47:42Speaker 2: my life where I didn't know how I was going
- 47:44Speaker 2: to be there for the people around me, and wasn't
- 47:48Speaker 2: sure what my value was at all because of the
- 47:50Speaker 2: condition of my body or how I felt in it.
- 47:54Speaker 2: And so for me, I really resonate with that difficulty
- 47:59Speaker 2: because I understand and what that feels like. And I
- 48:01Speaker 2: also want whoever is listening, who's in that position, to
- 48:04Speaker 2: know you don't get to give up. You're valuable and
- 48:08Speaker 2: you matter. You're here on purpose for a purpose, and
- 48:11Speaker 2: if we can keep that in our hearts in our minds,
- 48:14Speaker 2: then we'll just take it one day at a time.
- 48:18Speaker 4: How if there's an individual in that situation and things
- 48:26Speaker 4: that you're amazing, But I don't know if I can
- 48:29Speaker 4: do that even with the example of the individual in
- 48:32Speaker 4: the couch. I still don't know. My condition could be different,
- 48:37Speaker 4: or I have really not exercise in a long time,
- 48:40Speaker 4: or I have never exercised, And I don't know if
- 48:45Speaker 4: really I'm capable, because you know, the number one thing
- 48:48Speaker 4: that stops us or makes us move is fear, the
- 48:53Speaker 4: number one emotion. Right, So how do we actually going
- 49:01Speaker 4: compromise or married to the idea that I am different?
- 49:06Speaker 4: If we go back to the reference and the movie
- 49:10Speaker 4: for its gun, what made difference is that somewhere along
- 49:13Speaker 4: the line he believed in himself more than his mom did, right,
- 49:17Speaker 4: and he was you know, and the first time he
- 49:19Speaker 4: broke through those obstacles and the legs was because the
- 49:23Speaker 4: girl was saying run right. So there's always a voice
- 49:28Speaker 4: or either regardless if it's exterior or our own voice,
- 49:32Speaker 4: who's going to make the difference. So I can't. I've
- 49:36Speaker 4: never had that exercise. It is going to be very difficult,
- 49:40Speaker 4: It's going to be painful. I don't know. He sounds great,
- 49:45Speaker 4: but my condition probably is different. What would you say
- 49:48Speaker 4: to that?
- 49:50Speaker 2: I would say it's less about having faith than me
- 49:52Speaker 2: as a coach, and more about having faith in yourself.
- 49:55Speaker 2: That you're not done yet. For me, that's a fa
- 50:00Speaker 2: than God thing. If if I wasn't, if I was
- 50:03Speaker 2: done here on this earth, if I had nothing left
- 50:05Speaker 2: that I needed to do, nothing else to pursue, then
- 50:09Speaker 2: in my mind, I'd be in heaven. I'd I'd be done.
- 50:12Speaker 2: I'm out. Uh and and so and so what I
- 50:16Speaker 2: often say in my work and what I often say
- 50:18Speaker 2: in our community and even to some of my clients,
- 50:23Speaker 2: be faithful because God's not done with you yet, and
- 50:26Speaker 2: so We're going to make the most out of what
- 50:27Speaker 2: over time we have left. And that's if that's your attitude,
- 50:31Speaker 2: then then I'm the coach who has compassion for that.
- 50:35Speaker 2: But if that's not your attitude, I can't give that
- 50:37Speaker 2: to you. You have to you have to believe you're
- 50:40Speaker 2: not done yet.
- 50:41Speaker 4: And I specifically as this question because as you said earlier,
- 50:45Speaker 4: the doing, you know, when they don't feel like they
- 50:48Speaker 4: can do anything, is also going to a depression. Right
- 50:52Speaker 4: there are in a state of depression where they might thing,
- 50:55Speaker 4: this is so painful, I don't know what to do
- 50:58Speaker 4: that maybe exiting this lie it will be the best option.
- 51:03Speaker 4: Right to get to that specific said, So let's give
- 51:11Speaker 4: me another shot. This person is extremely depressed, not just
- 51:16Speaker 4: thinking I can't do it, but it's extremely depressed and
- 51:20Speaker 4: ready to take it to the next level.
- 51:26Speaker 2: This is an important question to me, and it's going
- 51:27Speaker 2: to be hard not to be emotional about it. But
- 51:29Speaker 2: I lost my brother to suicide on December sixth of
- 51:33Speaker 2: last year. So he's ten years younger than me. He
- 51:37Speaker 2: does not have Ealers dan Loos, but he wrestled with
- 51:41Speaker 2: a methamphetamine addiction and it got bad enough that he
- 51:45Speaker 2: decided it was too painful to continue living. And we
- 51:48Speaker 2: as a family found out about that. It was a
- 51:51Speaker 2: surprise to all of us. We didn't know that this
- 51:54Speaker 2: is something he was contemplating and that this is something
- 51:56Speaker 2: he was going to act on.
- 51:58Speaker 3: Right.
- 51:58Speaker 2: And so what I would say is, there's there's actually
- 52:01Speaker 2: a picture here between my life and my brother's life.
- 52:04Speaker 2: And I'm not saying I have everything figured out. There's
- 52:07Speaker 2: something I want people to understand about their personal pain.
- 52:11Speaker 2: There are people who love you and who want the
- 52:14Speaker 2: best for you in your life, even if you don't
- 52:16Speaker 2: know it. They don't always express it, but they're there.
- 52:20Speaker 2: And what happens when you take your own life, you
- 52:24Speaker 2: might end the pain for yourself, but you take that
- 52:28Speaker 2: pain and throw it on everybody who loves you. And
- 52:32Speaker 2: so what that what I learned from from that experience
- 52:34Speaker 2: with my brother is is there is a deep anger
- 52:39Speaker 2: in me toward that because I love him, I wanted
- 52:42Speaker 2: the best for him. I would have I would have
- 52:45Speaker 2: stepped in as a good big brother to him if
- 52:47Speaker 2: he would have told his family and friends what he
- 52:50Speaker 2: was struggling with, and he did not.
- 52:52Speaker 3: He faced that alone.
- 52:54Speaker 2: And what I would say is, if you're in that space,
- 52:58Speaker 2: I want you to know that you're value and I
- 53:01Speaker 2: want you to know that even if you don't understand
- 53:03Speaker 2: the love for the people around you, just speaking that
- 53:07Speaker 2: and voicing that and getting help with that will help
- 53:09Speaker 2: you to see that you can indeed step forward in
- 53:13Speaker 2: your own pain and that it's so much better than
- 53:17Speaker 2: taking what you're wrestling with and throwing that pain on
- 53:20Speaker 2: other people.
- 53:21Speaker 3: And so I want you to continue.
- 53:23Speaker 2: If not just for yourself, continue wrestling with that because
- 53:28Speaker 2: you don't want to do that to the people who
- 53:29Speaker 2: love you.
- 53:31Speaker 4: Thank you, Alex. Now for the individuals who are in
- 53:36Speaker 4: that specific situation and the family members who know they
- 53:41Speaker 4: have a challenge but they don't know to what degree,
- 53:44Speaker 4: and they perceive that individuals are depressed, what would you
- 53:49Speaker 4: say to them to take a step and getting closer
- 53:54Speaker 4: and let them help them get that out of their
- 53:58Speaker 4: voice it out right because they cover and they hide
- 54:03Speaker 4: it for some reason instead of yeah.
- 54:08Speaker 2: It actually comes back to what we talked about with pain.
- 54:13Speaker 2: And I'm not saying the emotional pain of suicidal ideation
- 54:17Speaker 2: is the same thing as a knee scrape, but the
- 54:21Speaker 2: process to wrestle with it is the same. The first
- 54:24Speaker 2: thing that has to happen is acknowledging it, because that
- 54:29Speaker 2: sort of thing grows more powerful in the dark. That
- 54:33Speaker 2: sort of thing grows more powerful in shame. And so
- 54:37Speaker 2: when I try to cover it up, or when I
- 54:40Speaker 2: try to avoid it, or when I try to act
- 54:42Speaker 2: like it doesn't exist, it gets bigger and stronger, and
- 54:47Speaker 2: it really will take you over.
- 54:49Speaker 3: It really will win.
- 54:51Speaker 2: And when we acknowledge something, it doesn't go away, but
- 54:56Speaker 2: we remove the capacity for it to grow more powerful.
- 55:00Speaker 2: And so if I can say to my loved ones,
- 55:04Speaker 2: I'm not trying to upset you. I know you probably
- 55:06Speaker 2: can't understand, but there are times that I feel like
- 55:11Speaker 2: it would be better if I wasn't here there are
- 55:14Speaker 2: times that I feel like my pain's too great and
- 55:17Speaker 2: I just want to be done with it. There are
- 55:20Speaker 2: times when I feel like I'm alone and I you know,
- 55:24Speaker 2: I might as well not not keep wrestling with this anymore.
- 55:29Speaker 2: When you can acknowledge that, when you can say that
- 55:32Speaker 2: and get really serious, like get specific, speak the truth.
- 55:35Speaker 2: If you're wrestling with that, I almost killed myself last week,
- 55:39Speaker 2: If that's where you're at, acknowledge that. That's the first
- 55:44Speaker 2: step to getting rid of the power of that thing
- 55:48Speaker 2: in shame in the same way that it's the first
- 55:51Speaker 2: step to dealing with pain. And when you acknowledge that,
- 55:56Speaker 2: then the people in your life who care about you
- 56:00Speaker 2: and actually step in and help you to wrestle with
- 56:02Speaker 2: it in the same way that I was there for
- 56:04Speaker 2: my little boy when his knee got all scraped up. Hey,
- 56:08Speaker 2: it's going to be okay. We're going to get it
- 56:10Speaker 2: taken care of. Look at me, You're strong, You'll be
- 56:13Speaker 2: all right. And I mean, the pain doesn't go away immediately,
- 56:16Speaker 2: but that's the first step to healing, and if you're
- 56:18Speaker 2: wrestling with suicide, you need to take a step in
- 56:20Speaker 2: the direction of healing.
- 56:21Speaker 3: Acknowledging is the first step.
- 56:25Speaker 4: Excellent. Thank you for someone who has deal with for
- 56:33Speaker 4: many years now with a diagnosed autoimmune condition, who never
- 56:41Speaker 4: had a relationship with exercise, have found you as a
- 56:45Speaker 4: coach has been inspiring and.
- 56:52Speaker 3: You have.
- 56:54Speaker 4: You have definitely that you said, I don't want to cry,
- 56:58Speaker 4: but inspire me to know that my dreams can come
- 57:06Speaker 4: true because I would not lose my movement and my
- 57:08Speaker 4: buddy and I want to acknowledge you and thank you
- 57:12Speaker 4: for that.
- 57:14Speaker 3: You got it. Well, you're not here to give me
- 57:15Speaker 3: a hug, so can we give like a knuckle bump
- 57:17Speaker 3: or something.
- 57:18Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you, Thank you for being here today. Thank
- 57:25Speaker 4: you for inspiring the world. And I can definitely say
- 57:29Speaker 4: that when I was terrified and not to know who
- 57:33Speaker 4: to believe, I had a lip of faith. I let
- 57:39Speaker 4: my my intuition guide me and you have been the
- 57:44Speaker 4: perfect the perfect coach. So Alex. For those who are listening,
- 57:50Speaker 4: where can they find you?
- 57:52Speaker 2: You can find all my work at Faithful Fitness. So
- 57:55Speaker 2: faithfulfitnessdevo dot com has my book and it's a book
- 58:00Speaker 2: because it takes forty days to walk through that journey
- 58:03Speaker 2: for sure. You can also find my work on YouTube
- 58:06Speaker 2: with interviews and also solo podcasts at faithful Fitness oorg.
- 58:12Speaker 2: You can also download our app, Faithfulfitness at faithfulfitness dot co.
- 58:18Speaker 4: And just to be clear, where are you located in
- 58:24Speaker 4: where are your clients?
- 58:27Speaker 2: We're located in Greenbrier, Arkansas, and my clients are all
- 58:32Speaker 2: over the world. So I have the opportunity to work
- 58:35Speaker 2: in person with a few people locally, but for the
- 58:38Speaker 2: vast majority of my clients, I work with them virtually
- 58:42Speaker 2: and you can connect with me regardless of where you're at.
- 58:46Speaker 4: And I can definitely be certain to say that no
- 58:50Speaker 4: matter how far you are, you feel really close to
- 58:52Speaker 4: us because you definitely monitor everything on a daily basis.
- 58:57Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you for caring, but I'm not speaking
- 59:02Speaker 4: about humanity. Thank you for caring about yourself because that's
- 59:05Speaker 4: where we start, right and then you know, putting our
- 59:08Speaker 4: own map so we can help olders.
- 59:10Speaker 3: That's exactly right.
- 59:11Speaker 2: And thank you, Elena, because I'm very blessed to be
- 59:15Speaker 2: in your corner and honored to be your coach. You're
- 59:17Speaker 2: a hard working person and I'm excited to continue helping
- 59:20Speaker 2: you shine your life.
- 59:21Speaker 4: Thank you. You're actually very interesting, but it's definitely has
- 59:25Speaker 4: about it. Did you ask me today, are we gonna?
- 59:28Speaker 4: Are we sure we're gonna do this? Because I just
- 59:30Speaker 4: fall in right, and it brings a lot of things,
- 59:34Speaker 4: a lot of charges, and my movement changes. But but
- 59:40Speaker 4: I want to make sure that I can continue because
- 59:44Speaker 4: my mission is bigger than my life. My mission, my
- 59:47Speaker 4: purpose will continue even when I'm not here in this world.
- 59:51Speaker 4: And when you have someone so inspiring in your corner,
- 59:58Speaker 4: you just have to go.
- 1:00:00Speaker 3: Just you can't not do it.
- 1:00:03Speaker 4: Option, Okay, two things. I have a tradition of what
- 1:00:09Speaker 4: I call fire rapid questions. I say one or two words,
- 1:00:13Speaker 4: and you answer as quick as you can with one
- 1:00:16Speaker 4: or two words. No stories, okay. And then once we finished.
- 1:00:20Speaker 4: But before I do that, I want to ask you,
- 1:00:25Speaker 4: who do you perceive is a person the right person
- 1:00:29Speaker 4: to be in this podcast? Someone who you know intimately
- 1:00:32Speaker 4: or not, someone who's famous or.
- 1:00:35Speaker 3: Not, Oh, the right person to interview with you?
- 1:00:39Speaker 4: Yes?
- 1:00:39Speaker 2: Correct, man, you ask such good questions. I'm thinking of
- 1:00:47Speaker 2: two people. One you probably don't know of and the
- 1:00:49Speaker 2: other you do. There's a there's there's a guy who
- 1:00:54Speaker 2: runs the CrossFit gym down the street here in Greenbrier, Arkansas,
- 1:00:59Speaker 2: and he's a good due he's been through a lot
- 1:01:01Speaker 2: of things in his life. He's also a little softer
- 1:01:04Speaker 2: spoken than I am, so if you really want to
- 1:01:06Speaker 2: get to know him, you have to ask good questions
- 1:01:08Speaker 2: and listen.
- 1:01:09Speaker 3: But he's a he's a great guy. His name's Jason.
- 1:01:12Speaker 2: So he would be a perfect person to connect with
- 1:01:14Speaker 2: on your podcast if if he's willing to talk to you,
- 1:01:17Speaker 2: and if you're willing to talk to him, And then
- 1:01:21Speaker 2: and then the second person that came to mind is
- 1:01:24Speaker 2: actually think you would have a very good conversation with
- 1:01:28Speaker 2: the guy who runs the Diary Diary of a CEO podcast.
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: I don't know if you if you know him or not,
- 1:01:36Speaker 2: but but he's he's a genuine guy with a great,
- 1:01:39Speaker 2: great accent. And between the two of you, even if
- 1:01:41Speaker 2: I didn't know what you were saying, I'd just be
- 1:01:43Speaker 2: happy to listen.
- 1:01:45Speaker 4: Thank you. I would love to He's in my he's
- 1:01:48Speaker 4: in my list of he's in my bucket list, and
- 1:01:52Speaker 4: he'll be in this podcast one day.
- 1:01:55Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with you on that one.
- 1:01:57Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. With that for that, I'm gonna
- 1:02:00Speaker 4: ask you the fire rapid questions and then at the
- 1:02:02Speaker 4: end you will have the opportunity to bring us some
- 1:02:05Speaker 4: words of wisdom. I also want to tell I also
- 1:02:08Speaker 4: want to say to the listeners and to the viewers
- 1:02:11Speaker 4: viewers that this specific episode was about addressing challenges, but
- 1:02:19Speaker 4: we're going to have another episode for individuals who have
- 1:02:22Speaker 4: who the only challenge they have is in their mind,
- 1:02:26Speaker 4: because that's the biggest one, right all right? One two
- 1:02:31Speaker 4: three Health, fitness, women, awesome, suffering, difficult, social media, digital sugar,
- 1:02:47Speaker 4: AI a tool, fatherhood, difficult and meaningful stress, good, profession,
- 1:03:08Speaker 4: calling mine, body, evolution, interesting, happiness, fleeting, soul, eternal gratitude,
- 1:03:33Speaker 4: a discipline, authority not me, leadership a choice, parents, honorable, authenticity,
- 1:03:52Speaker 4: necessary love, language, words of affirmation, transformation, inevitable with hard work, education,
- 1:04:12Speaker 4: honesty and truth, men necessary, time, unstoppable, fear, worth facing, knowledge,
- 1:04:33Speaker 4: a gift fulfillment.
- 1:04:38Speaker 2: Right here, pornography, digital sugar, society a project connection right here, discrimination,
- 1:05:00Speaker 2: lack of love, It's spirituality, necessary God, a good father, service,
- 1:05:17Speaker 2: meaningful music, a gift, values, hard won sons. O. N.
- 1:05:36Speaker 2: Gabriel and Bennett, Legacy, Gabriel and Bennett.
- 1:05:48Speaker 4: I love the name Gabriel, by the way, because it
- 1:05:50Speaker 4: sounds it spells the same way English and Spanish, and
- 1:05:54Speaker 4: he's the name of an angel. Emotions signals identity.
- 1:06:08Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
- 1:06:10Speaker 2: Hard one husband, sacrificial wife, also sacrificial empowerment, weight training, monogamy,
- 1:06:32Speaker 2: also sacrificial polygamy. Sugary Let's sugar baby.
- 1:06:47Speaker 3: A gift.
- 1:06:49Speaker 2: Pain also a gift hmmm. Sex a very big gift. Money,
- 1:07:04Speaker 2: something to Steward family.
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
- 1:07:12Speaker 3: Brothers and sisters, the physical body, the buddy also a
- 1:07:20Speaker 3: gift to Steward.
- 1:07:22Speaker 2: Conversation mm hm. Meat and potatoes, manhood yes, mm hmm.
- 1:07:37Speaker 2: Hard one.
- 1:07:39Speaker 4: Mm hmmm. Birth right.
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: Irrevocable in Timothy, necessary and worth, fighting for wealth.
- 1:07:58Speaker 3: H misunderstood death mm hmm. The one thing we all
- 1:08:14Speaker 3: have in common life, something to make the most out
- 1:08:21Speaker 3: of and last but not least love God.
- 1:08:31Speaker 4: H thank you, Alex. I'm gonna it's been. It's been
- 1:08:36Speaker 4: very inspiring to be here and having you and with
- 1:08:40Speaker 4: your radiant self. I don't get to see of you
- 1:08:44Speaker 4: a lad. So this is this is this is cool
- 1:08:49Speaker 4: and inspiring, very inspiring to have you in my corner,
- 1:08:51Speaker 4: like I said before, and to close this this episode,
- 1:08:55Speaker 4: you have already said where where we can find you?
- 1:08:59Speaker 4: And I would love for you. Please to close this
- 1:09:02Speaker 4: episode with some words or wisdom, So give us your wisdom.
- 1:09:07Speaker 2: I would actually like to close in prayer, and maybe
- 1:09:10Speaker 2: that would be wise. Perfect Father, God, thank you for
- 1:09:14Speaker 2: this day and this awesome opportunity to spend time with Elena.
- 1:09:17Speaker 2: I pray that this conversation has been a blessing to
- 1:09:20Speaker 2: everybody listening. And I also pray a special prayer for
- 1:09:25Speaker 2: my friends listening who are wrestling with whether or not
- 1:09:29Speaker 2: they are worthwhile and whether or not they can have
- 1:09:32Speaker 2: the strength to continue. Got to pray that they would
- 1:09:35Speaker 2: find their value in the fact that you made them
- 1:09:38Speaker 2: on purpose, for a purpose, and then their life matters.
- 1:09:44Speaker 2: Give them the strength and the courage they need to
- 1:09:47Speaker 2: step forward and make the most out of one more day.
- 1:09:51Speaker 2: Ask these things in Jesus name.
- 1:09:53Speaker 4: Amen, Amen, thank you, thank you for that, Thank you
- 1:09:58Speaker 4: for being authentic.
- 1:10:00Speaker 2: You.
- 1:10:01Speaker 3: I appreciate for you. Lena, thanks for the time, and.
- 1:10:04Speaker 4: I appreciate you too, and I'll see you soon again.
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: What's up, Faithful? This episode helped you share it with
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: someone who needs to hear it, and don't forget to
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: subscribe and need a review. Some of our people can
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: find faithful fitness. My dad's devotional Faithful Fitness is available
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: now and you can join our Faithful Fitness community by
- 1:10:29Speaker 1: clicking the links in the show notes. We all have
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: a cross to carry, but it's lighter when we do
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: it together. See how lay it an alligator. But until then,
- 1:10:40Speaker 1: strain hard and pray even harder.