Before 2026 Begins, Listen to This | End of Year Compilation

What's up everyone? Welcome back to the podcast. This is the last episode of the year and it is a compilation episode filled with various different moments of 2025 with different insights and reminders to help you step into 2026 with intention and with clarity and presence. I have as an addition and a bonus gift for you all just cuz I love y'all and I want to say thank you for being in my life and for making what I do possible. I am linking down below my year in review template and also 2026 intention setting guide as well. There are just a bunch of different questions with a Spotify music playlist that you can play as well and just reflect on the growth and the challenges and the relationships and all that came up this past year for you and to set intentions for this next year. What are the seeds you want to water? What are you calling in and I think it's just an really incredible time of the year to slow down, to get clear, to change direction even 1° and that has big effects down the road. So, I hope you find that useful. Again, link in description for that and that's it. I just want to say thank you guys. Thank you for making what I do possible. I am very excited about what we're cooking behind the scenes as the team is growing within Know Thyself to bring you in-person community experiences, more diverse conversations, increasing the quantity of the episodes as well as the quality and yeah, that's all. Thanks for coming along this ride and I will see you next year. I remember maybe it was about 10 years ago when I started doing past year reviews instead of New Year's resolutions. So, looking back at the last year every week of the calendar for peak sort of negative and positive experiences positive and negative people, right? The slight battery drains that seemed consistent over time activities and people and in addition to that and I joked with a friend of mine at one point. I said, you know what I should create as a journal cuz like people love journals. Everybody's putting out a journal. I was like, let me just add to the noise, but my journal will be something like worries that mostly didn't come true. Where you just look back at the things that you were worried about and so I do this when I look back at the calendar and just what a tiny fraction of the whole, the smallest percentage that actually become a problem. And that gives you, I would say two insights for me and I need to constantly remind myself of this because I'm hyper-vigilant and actually tend to see the world is like full of danger strangers you can't trust, etc. That's my baseline, but one is a lot of the things you're really, really terrified about, worried about just don't happen, right? So, in that case the cards fall in your favor. But real life has bumps along the way. So, when the cards don't fall in your favor you figure it out and when you look backwards, you can see like if you're actually sitting here, you have decent life, you have figured out thousands upon thousands and maybe millions upon millions of little micro-decisions and adaptations along the way. So, it's also doing a retrospective to convince myself and this takes re-convincing that you can figure it out. So, I would say trusting in the ability, your own ability to figure most things out and recover even if something ends up being really terrible. Yeah. Which happens, you know, that's life. And I'm curious in your year in review process, like the more that you've done that, have you actually seen the needle moving forward of not worrying about those things that are outside of your control? Like you you made progress. Yeah, yeah, much better. Yeah. So, that is a coachable skill and or a learnable skill depending on how you do it. And I say coachable and learnable because I I view those things as slightly different. Learnable is this self-improvement game, right? And there's a lot to the self-improvement game, but the social component surrounding yourself with the right peer group, people who call you on your [ __ ] when you're blowing little things out of proportion, people who remind you the silver lining when you're focused on the dark side of things, people who point to the past for evidence that you have figured something out also for or to say, "Hey, you're about to make the same mistake." So, I really try to I don't try. I calendar and invest in time with those people and that's arguably the most important thing that I do at the beginning of each year, but look, every day is the beginning of a new year. So, you don't have to wait for January 1st. It's kind of an artificial >> [laughter] >> constraint. You don't need to do that, but is looking forward to my calendar and basically once a quarter, let's just say, I have at least a long weekend going up to a week where I spend time with those people. And you can read, you can study, you can meditate, you can do all those things or you can just surround yourselves by the people who embody or naturally do things, think things, believe things that you want to absorb. I it it tends to be I think a little bit easier if you just steep yourself in it. There's kind of like a shallow level of approval that is easily transmitted and easily like visible to others, right? You know, that if you just think about like, I don't know, buying a fancy car or um you know, having like amazing photos on Instagram or whatever. Like it's it's like the cheap candy version of belongingness and there's like almost no sus- sustenance there, but it's very it's very easy to make that appealing. Like that's very visible and obviously desirable on like a very superficial level. Um whereas I think the deep meaningful sense of belongingness that sense of like I get I can be who I am completely authentic, warts and all. Like there's a there's a certain level of discomfort and unpleasantness that is inherent in that that is like doesn't is not easily transmitted on Instagram or um in a YouTube video. Like it's not you can't really advertise it. Like there's no magazine ad in in in Vogue saying like, "15 awkward conversations to help you be yourself with your partner on a random Tuesday night." Like that's just that it's not a sexy promotion. Like nobody's like clicking the buy button for that. In a way like our our our our needs get hijacked relatively easily by like the exposure, the amount that we're just purely exposed to. And I think there's a lot to be said of um cutting a certain amount out of your life. I'm a big proponent of there's different names for it, but I call it a information diet or a an attention diet. So, like being very mindful and thoughtful of like what content and information you're consuming and being careful like the same way I I like the metaphor of a diet because I think it maps really well to kind of the information age that we we live in. Like it's fine to have some of that content, you know, that like sexy social media content. Like it's fine to have a little bit of that just like it's fine to have you know, a little bit of dessert here and there or like, you know, a candy bar every once in a while, but like if that is your primary diet day in and day out then your mental health is going to deteriorate the same way if you just ate candy bars all day every day. Your physical health just like completely deteriorates. So, I think it's useful to think about like what is like the the the vegetables of an information diet and making sure that you have like a strong sturdy portion of that in your life and then like anything that is candy for you, like just being very conscious of how much of it you're consuming and when you're consuming it and like and put guardrails on yourself because ideally we would all have perfect self-control and we would like be able to manage our but it's not we're we're [ __ ] animals, dude. Like it's just put guardrails on yourself make certain things off-limits, delete apps, block certain pages at certain times, leave your phone out of the bedroom. Like you know, it's like all this like basic mental hygiene stuff. Um that is is it's becoming commonplace, but it's becoming commonplace for a reason cuz it's just like it's it's becoming like the the nuts and bolts. It's becoming like the brush your teeth and floss of the 21st century. It's just like put your [ __ ] phone away, you know, like stop following accounts that make you feel bad. >> [laughter] [gasps] >> You only envy the life of people whose sacrifices you don't see. Yes. And it's so an alluring and persistent delusion, you know, to idealize people's lives that we see whether it's through social media or in in different spaces and it's one thing to be at have something that's admirable and have it be inspiring for you to take action in life. It's another thing to think that people didn't work and have to forego many things that you don't want to to get there. Yeah, it's it's cuz nobody shows the sacrifices. Again, it's like there's no Instagram account of like all the sacrifices of in somebody's life. Like it nobody wants to share that with anybody. Nobody wants to see it. But it it is it's inherent in in like anything that's good. It it's whether it's, you know, developing a skill or being respected or or being loved. Like it's it's I don't I to say you have to earn it cuz I think that's like a bad model. Like you It's not You're not earning things, but it is It's just that like the the the sacrifices like component of it. It's like the It's the part of the iceberg that's underwater. I I mean, I think this is why I just keep preaching the message of health because if you have your health, everything else in your life will work better. Um I think the goal of health is to be adaptable. People go on vacation, they eat whatever they want, and they don't gain a pound. That's adaptability. You can be around somebody who sneezes, and you don't you don't necessarily go down with a cold. Like how well are you adapting to the different environments you're putting yourself in? To me, that should be the goal of health. The goal of health and you're right, like where where is there ever a moment where you're like, "I've I've arrived." Like I think the problem with health in general is that we made it a noun. It actually should be a verb. It's a It's an action you take. It's a continual process, right? Continual process. And then from that, um yeah, I think I think we're all purpose For me, I feel like ultimately humans are the hap- happiest when we are in service of of either each other or a mission or when we're outside of ourselves. I think the minute we start thinking too much about what's in it for me, where's my stuff, that's where the suffering begins. So, I just can tell you what I told my kids is really to find careers that light you up and you're excited to go to every day, but that are giving back in a beautiful way. Because when we are in the me me me culture of give me more, give me more, give me more, that's where we really start to find ourselves going into the darkness. And the light comes when, "How can I help you? How can I serve you?" That goes back to the primal way of that we were designed. That we were designed to serve others and to help lift others up. And I really think that's where we missed the mark with happiness. Mhm. And living in one of the most individualistic times and cultures where people are often celebrated and rewarded for kind of being the person who did it all themselves, you know, the self-made person is such a such a bull- like [ __ ] proposition. There's no self-made anyone. We are really successful to the degree we're invested in uplifting others and not just making it all about us, you know, and and we can receive so much We do receive so much in that giving. There are many practices that we can have and like, you know, things we can be devoted to that support the deepening of our experience of our true nature. And I found and I've heard you speak to the really bedtime and and like the time before sleep, our mornings and our nights are some of the if not the most important times to guard because we're in a hypnagogic state, right? So, if somebody wants to um really take responsibility for their life, they want to cultivate vitality, they want to know their true nature, what would be an example of a bedtime routine or something like at at nighttime that can really help us guard that space? That's that's so very important. Um you [clears throat] go to sleep at night. First of all, there's a level of forgiveness of the day. Petty annoyances. You don't want to go to sleep with any of that. You don't want that to be a part of your subconscious. And why? Because it will it will it will create momentum of that perception. Faster. Yeah. And then become a part of your mood, your attitude, and your greater perception. So, I like to like scan and forgive. And then When you say scan, you mean like body scan? Yes. Scan my scan my day. Okay. You know, uh so that I'm not holding on to what this person said or what I think they've said or what I think they meant. So, it's just like a a forgiveness. Now, often times people will talk about um at the end of your life doing that. I say, "Do it every day. Don't wait until the end of your life and forgive all these people." You know what I mean? [laughter] Just Don't allow it to accumulate. Uh-huh. Just just just just forgive everything every single day. And then, you know, when I most times when I go to sleep, I will close my eyes and I will choose a timeline of a life that I want to live. The feeling tone of it. I choose it. I choose it that it's happening now. And then I go to sleep in it. Or if I'm dealing with something I need an answer, you know, I will choose It's not the future, but I'm choosing that the answer and the issue is already solved. What do I feel like? And then what happens is like it retrofit itself. It will give me a level of guidance. But I wake up in the morning as to how to approach that situation. Now, when I wake up, it's the same thing. You're still in a hypnagogic state. So, I wake up and I consciously go into a state of gratitude that I exist. It has nothing It's not attached to I'm grateful that I I have this. I'm grateful that I have that. I'm just grateful that I exist. And then I I will get out of bed. And I'll I'll stand and I'll do this. I'm so grateful to be alive, awake, and aware. And then I do this. I surrender to life. Sometimes I'll use the word God or love or peace. And then I open myself up and I'll say, "I'm available to the energy and the strength to handle anything that comes into my life today, my assignments for today." Cuz I know I have assignments on my to-do list. And then there's things that are going to come that I I don't know they're going to come. Somebody's going to call. I'm going to have to respond to this. So, I asked and made myself available to the energy of that. And to And because I've done it so long, I don't even It's not even a I don't even think about it. It's like I'm I'm able to articulate it to you now cuz you asked me a question. >> Yeah. But I'm not really thinking about it. It's just like I'm so grateful. Yeah. I surrender. What's my assignment? You know, like that. And so, when you're in those states, it goes deeper into your subconscious. And then And then what happens is you have less worry. You know, I I People suffer from worry. They suffer from anxiety, anxiousness. They're projecting their worst-case scenario onto what they call the future. And they're actually living in those chemicals without the thing even happening. You know what I mean? So, it's it's happening for them right now, physically, chemically, on the immune system. But it hasn't even happened. The thing hasn't even happened. >> [laughter] >> But the body doesn't know it. So, you know, I I I like people to learn that they are they are sovereign being and they can determine their own perception. It's not magic. It's just practice. You know. It really just sounds like utilizing whether it's 30 minutes or an hour before bed to really transition your state, right? Because you're going to marinate in whatever that state you last >> Yes. were awake in. And that builds momentum in ways we don't even realize how much it builds momentum. And then we wake up in ways we're not even privy to. It's going to continue to infuse that energy. You know, and so it's like if we want to live a life filled with joy and gratitude, then releasing Mhm. which is that forgiveness stage, which you first said, um those those chains and ties we have to people, events, and situations in which we have resistance to throughout our day. In many ways, it's almost like the last illusion cuz we always think it's like me I I am forgiving the other person, but really it's like this inner process of of letting go. And just not continuing to not perpetuate, you know, the state of of Is it pain in within us? >> Yes. There's so much for us to embrace about the power of every morning. Because when you wake up in the morning and you go directly to social media, directly to the news, directly to the stuff of the world, it's like you're just saying to the world and to the worst aspects of the world, "Come on, eat me alive. Take my nervous system. Make me crazy. Come on, do it." And especially like before political campaign and stuff, the world is like this. Yeah. And every every religious tradition I've ever read about talks about the power of the morning to calm, whether it's the lessons of the course, transcendental meditation, some mindfulness exercise, Buddhist, Kabbalistic, whatever, to align the nervous system with the truth of who we are. The Course in Miracles says even 5 minutes in the morning will guarantee that the spirit will be in charge of your thought forms throughout the day. It doesn't mean you're going to be an enlightened master, but it means that the chances of you really falling off this spiritual wagon, saying something, doing something, sending an email, writing a tweet that you're going to go, "Oh, why did I do that?" Your chances are much less at And also, the chances are much greater that you'll catch yourself when you do, and you can atone and make amends. The second thing is to recognize that everything we go through in life is part of a what the Course in Miracles calls a highly individualized curriculum. Everyone we meet, every situation we're in, is perfect for what we can learn that moment, that day. Are you showing up in your best? Are you showing up with a give mentality or get mentality? Is your heart open or is your heart closed? Are you there in support of others? Are you only thinking about yourself? And uh it's it's it's about using every experience to train our attitudinal muscles. There is physical gravity. You You go to the gym because at a certain age, if you're not holding those muscles up, gravity is bringing them down. But there's emotional psychological gravity, too. If we're not exercising with accumulated repetitions of positivity and graciousness and forgiveness and mercy and personal responsibility, then we're headed down to anger, to um uh cynicism, to anxiety, to depression. And that's really where we are right now. We're at a moment where you're either headed down or headed up. The You know, we've had this myth of the of neutrality. But there's really no such thing as a neutral thought. There's no such thing as a neutral life. Either our energy is being sucked into this maelstrom that's at this point a downward spiral. And you see it all around us. It's uh institutions crumbling, people's relationships, how people feel about themselves. Or you're part of this evolutionary spiraling up that is also happening. That we're all, you know, and the kind of people who'd be listening to your podcast feel part of and want to be part of. These two simultaneous phenomenon happening at the same time. You know, you just take so much for granted when you're younger. And when you're older and you look back and you realize I didn't realize I didn't take my life seriously enough or I didn't take other people's lives seriously enough. I didn't take that relationship seriously enough, other people's relationships seriously enough. And look at the state of the world. You know, I I've said to people, who would have thought we'd be nostalgic for the 1970s? You know, we just had no idea. And I think even you and me having this conversation today, I'm sure there are a lot of people for whom nothing we're talking about is new information. But rather we're having conversations to be able to embrace more deeply and experience more deeply the concepts that by now most of us already know. It's living living it. Especially we all have our blind spots. And so your life experience is not going to come around to honor your your comfort zones. It's going to come around to bust your comfort zones, to make obvious to you your blind spot. So, I think it feels hard for so many people right now cuz everybody's going through their little piece of the crucified world. But we have to remember this is all purposeful and it's all taking us to who we need to be because we need to develop the characterological aspects of self to endure these times and to transform these times. Everything happening is a reflection of who we have been. So, if we don't like what's happening, we have to become someone other than who we have been, the renewal of the mind to know that we were we were conforming to the patterns of the world and this is what we got. Okay? Have a renewal of the mind. Be different now. And uh emerge wiser, stronger, uh more capable because we have a world to save. The Course in Miracles says that the people who've lived on this earth, this is amazing to me. It says that the people who've lived on the earth who've achieved the most have achieved like think about the people who've achieved the most, right? Have achieved a fraction of what all of us are capable of. That's how early this is in our evolutionary journey. >> [laughter] >> Right? Isn't that just mind blowing? That would just boggle my mind. Who [snorts] was it George Eliot who says it is never too late to become who you might have been? Mhm. And so whether it comes to a secular, religious, spiritual, whatever, if you do it, it works. And you go to the gym, it works. You do the lectures of the course, it works. You read books like this, you take it in, you allow those aha moments to illuminate your thinking, it works. You go to AA, you go to the meetings, it works. And I think that that's where we need to be with each other now. I think we need to be a whole We have been so trained by modernity in the last few years to just embellish your wound, your trauma, your enough. And I know from trauma. I I know from trauma. But at a certain point the question has got to be what great thing are you doing and how can I help? We've been infantilized. We've allowed ourselves to be infantilized. I think the higher consciousness movement we've actually contributed to it. And we will not literally we will not get out of here alive or at least our great grandkids will unless men stop acting like boys and women stop acting like girls and we support each other in that. And and you Yes, I can have compassion for your pain and still call you to be your strength and know that I see your strength. I see the part of you that's going to heal from this. I see the part of you that's going to move through this and even be more of a man, more of a woman, more of a human being. That's what we need to be right now. And there's an urgency in the air and it's we were born for this. Mhm. Entrainment is is this idea where if you have um just uh for those who maybe don't know the word. Uh if you have a a certain oscillating body, you know, let's just for simplicity, let's just take a tuning fork that you can strike a tuning fork, it'll vibrate at a very particular frequency. If you can bring that near another uh body that can oscillate at the same frequency, you don't have to have struck that other one. Just by the proximity they they the vibrational travel through the air and then it'll start to move it and they'll start to vibrate together in sync. And that is what we call entrainment. And we are multi-vibrational beings, right? So, we can vibrate at many different capacities. And uh but let's say you go out into the city, right? You go out into Los Angeles. It's a bit chaotic. It's kind of crazy. Especially if you're on the freeway. And you get a bit frazzled, right? And and and it's stressful and it like that kind of creates a a a negative state within the your own being, mind, your emotion, your physical. And the way we can take something like entrainment and that that's a tool that is a power uh that we can take into our own hands where once I well, one, don't get into road rage, right? You have choice around that, right? So, just exercise like, "Okay, I'm just going to be patient here and I'm just going to you know, be mindful and bless them rather than curse them." I mean, that's going to go a long way right there. Uh two, when you get back into your own environment, your own home, like put on harmonious music, right? Use tools like things that stimulate your senses in a positive way to create a positive entrainment field. So, putting on some classical music or some meditation music or you know, doing some aromatherapy. Like all of these are ways that we can stimulate our senses with vibrational energy intentionally, they can bring us back into a harmonic state. And then also your thoughts, right? Like Dr. Emoto showed with the water crystals, like your thoughts really can influence um the water into being more harmonious or disharmonious. And so, if we're 70% water, your thoughts have a major influence on whether your cells of your body and all the water in your system is going to be in a in a beautiful and harmonic symmetric state or if it's going to be in a a less symmetric state. Yeah, I'm such a big fan on crafting our environment. As we create our environment and then our environment creates us in many ways because there's that sense of entrainment happening on a reciprocal fashion, right? So, it's like if we can create an environment in which we're mostly spending, which is our home, um to be conducive towards more of those coherent energies and then when we go out in the world, we can be a sense of entrainment, you know, as people have talked about being in the presence of of awakened beings alone, not talking, not working through practice or philosophy, just alone being in the presence of something, um that tuning fork starts to affect the vibration of the of those that are around it. Um and so yeah, I think it's just such an important takeaway to to craft an environment around you that is conducive. People are very strong influences on energy, right? And so we can learn how to protect our own energy, but then we can also learn how to um be the one who's in training versus just the one who's being in trained. Like choosing to consciously spend time with people who are in that um more of just like that clean energy is uh is so valuable, so needed and difficult choice at times when you see you feel like especially earlier on your journey, you're starting to wake up to these truths and you're surrounded by people who have just no idea about it for better or worse. And um again, it goes back to that you know, that point of death and rebirth in terms of our relationships. Yeah, and and the sacrifice is one of those sacrifices sometimes that we make along the way and and you know, when people hit that point, it it can be very it can be a lonely place when you're starting to explore and awaken into these things, but your friends and your family are not and they don't get you. It it can be very kind of you can feel a bit isolated. And um and sometimes we have to let go of old relationships that aren't like aligning, you know, if they don't you know, when you talk about entrainment, it's it's alignment. Are you going to be supportive of me in in this new frequency or this new way of being or are you going to try and drag me back into the old way of being? And um those who are supportive, like great, they're ready to continue aligning and and and being supportive of you as you grow, but those who resent you for it or you know, try to drag you back into the old dynamics and like hey, what's wrong with you? Why aren't you doing this? You know, you used to do this. Well, you used to be fine, you know, and they kind of make you feel bad for like the fact that you're choosing something different is really because they're not secure with themselves and so those sometimes we have to go through that separation if you will that that is part of the alchemy and we have to make certain sacrifices and when you do that you create a new room for and making new choices and and aligning with a new group of a new community if you will that will get you, you know, so so this is all part of the alchemy that we go through on a personal level as we grow and transform and evolve. Um and you know, the the key to being able to be that person who brings the positive frequency of entrainment into a group is to know thyself. Mhm. Right? The more you know yourself, the more you can maintain your own frequency. You know who you are, you know your center and you you usually won't have so much attachment to people needing needing their approval if you will and then that allows you to really maintain that frequency that you cultivate and generate for yourself through your own practice and your own choices in life. In my experience the more you put these insights into practice, the more that that like no reason happiness comes about. Most people don't need a reason to be pissed off and sad and and frustrated about life and we don't need a reason to be joyful and happy, you know, and the and I think the more that you examine this, the more that you actually don't need a reason or an outcome for your own joy to be present. Yeah, and that's a another controversial idea that might be like offensive to some people at first of of course I need a reason to be happy. How can I be happy if things aren't going well in my life? But um that's what what we're talking about I think is a little deeper than that. It's a level deeper than that. But the idea beneath it is that attachment is itself a contracted mental state, right? I'm zeroing in on something. I'm focusing my mind on a pursuit of a goal and so I have to contract my mind to pursue the desire, the attachment. And so desire is not bad or wrong in any way. It's very divine. We're just supposed to be pointing it or we should point our desire towards divine things, you know, realizing our purpose and our truth, our essence and all of that. It's beautiful to desire good, loving and godly things. But when the ego hijacks desire and points it towards objects and sense pleasures, that's where we get lost in the weeds and start suffering. And so in the same way that the kind of underlying philosophy of lack is giving, right? Giving is the remedy for lacking. In that same way, detachment is the remedy for attachment. It's like duh, that's not a novel concept. But it's important to understand what detachment is. Detachment is not the losing of something you want, right? It's not the giving up of something you want. Detachment is the relaxing of a contracted mental state. And so the sort of phrase or idea given in the book for the second belief in outcome happiness is to repeat this outcome, like whatever it is you've identified you want, you're chasing, this outcome cannot give me anything I want. And you're sort of denouncing the attachment as being fruitless for you. And the ego will resist and say, "No, of course it has what I want." But the the key you're looking at, the key insight is what I really want, right? What we all really want is to be happy right now, to be at peace right now. We don't actually want a future happiness. The only reason we keep chasing happiness in the future is cuz we don't think we can have it now. I can only get it when I get that outcome. So we chase, chase, chase. We're on the hamster wheel. But if we actually got serious about what do I really If I could just press a button and have whatever I want, we would all press the button that says a perfectly happy, harmonious state of being, right? That's what we all want. And if you got the car or the girl or the guy or the house and it made you depressed, you get rid of it. So it isn't really the attachment you want. It's the state of being you want. So detachment is like this recognition, "Oh yeah, I want to be happy now, not in the future and I can't be happy now while I keep my mind in a contracted state, a tunnel vision focus on one desire I think I need. Peace of mind is the absence of striving, is the absence of attachment. And so I just want to be fully in acceptance, at peace with this present moment." And so again, to re-qualify that, you've got to come to the realization I just described organically. It can't just be a a thing you repeat as if it has magical power. You really have to see this for yourself. No, this is actually true. I really do just want to be at peace right now. And so yeah, I can actually see how if I keep chasing this girl or this money, I'm just going to be unhappy forever. And that seeing is the ah the the release will come from that and that's the the positive emotion I described is it should feel good when you re-qualify because you're moving closer to what's true and farther from what's false. And as we said, what's true always feels good, what's false always feels bad, existentially speaking. Is there anyone you know, you don't have to say their name, but maybe one or two people you know in the spiritual communities, consciousness communities, who are incredible human beings, who have incredible gifts and talents that really help heal people, they have a presence, a love, a connection that you're like, "Man, this person really influences so many people in the communities, but they are just blocked around money. They they don't charge money, they give it all away for free, they they feel guilty when someone tries to give them money, they they say, "No, I can't take your money." They're rejecting it. And can you see how that could be hurting them from amplifying their own lives lives' fulfillment, but also the fulfillment of impacting others? Do you know anyone like that? So many. Really? A lot of people. What would you say to those individuals based on your money healing journey or your relationship with money and what it seems to be, you know, at 28 you have a sanctuary, you have a growing business, but you also feel free with your money, you don't feel trapped by it or feel wronged by it. What advice would you give to the spiritual community who has struggles around creating financial prosperity? >> Yeah, that's a great question. I would say that what it means to be human is to have the capacity to move beyond any boundaries and limitations that are set on us. And being a slave to money is a limitation and boundary of expressing our true nature as a creative being. And so no matter what area, what topic of life it is, if we have stuck energy around it, if we don't feel safe around it, if we don't have the capacity to own it, then it's limiting us and we are limitless. And so whether it's money or sexual energy or, you know, business or, you know, creativity, wherever there's a block, there's an opportunity to expand beyond that block. And so when it comes to money, it becomes a taboo. You can get comfortable in the environment that you're in and the people that are around you that share similar beliefs around money that are sort of unspoken. Mhm. And so what I would say is to first spend time with people who don't have that same money story. Spend time around people that think much more expansively and don't have blocks around money. And then start to challenge your own notion and write down a lot of the questions we had in this conversation. What does it mean to live a rich life? What are my stories about money? And then I think that starts to shift the direction of your focus around it. And then you're given the opportunity. I feel like in life so often you're given the same lesson until you pass the test. And when, let's say, you're an artist and you sell paintings and you sell them for a couple hundred bucks, but you feel like the value is there a thousand dollars or two thousand dollars. You're given an opportunity next time somebody wants to buy your painting and asks for a discount to say, "No, this is what it's worth." And that's uncomfortable, but it is an opportunity for you to really refine what your value is and you'll be shocked the level of abundance that comes in as a byproduct of you standing for what your value and worth is. >> Yeah, man, that's powerful. Yeah. What would you add to that? >> That's great. Well, I would say that you know, everyone watching or listening, they should you should create your own mastermind. And so people can learn from you in the spiritual community about how to expand their message and charge properly for their message. That's what I You should start a mastermind. That's what I think. And it goes back to you said it, like the mastermind habit of being around people that don't think the same way as you. And that's being uncomfortable. That might be investing in a mastermind or investing in a coach or a mentor or just saying, "How can I be around someone like you who has figured out how to create money around this this knowledge or this skill set?" Um but be willing to invest. I There's a great story from Jen Sincero. I don't know if you know her book, You Are a Badass. I think it sold like, I don't know, five or ten million copies. And she's done a lot of the deep spiritual work, but she was a a writer in her early 40s, like living in a garage, you know, at some you know, paying like 500 bucks a month or something in LA, like being the broke artist vibe. Not a sellout. I'm going to be like the creative artist. I'm going to make art, I'm going to write and I'm going to charge minimum cuz I'm not going to sell out. And she talked about how she was sick and tired of being broke and having this limiting like artist lifestyle. And she ended up hiring a coach that changed her life forever. This wasn't like the best coach in the world who is like a multi-millionaire, but she hired a coach that knew more than her and had more courage to charge more. And she spent like I can't remember like a thousand bucks a month on this coach, but it was like all of her money it felt like. It was so uncomfortable to invest in this coach. And this coach pushed her to charge more for her writing and to go write the book that she really wanted to write. And then she wrote You Are a Badass. And it made her financially free for the rest of her life. She's like, "If I didn't have the courage to invest, I would have then said, 'I need to figure out how to make this money back.'" So it was that kind of stretching myself to invest in something, knowledge, a person, a mastermind coaching, to then say, "Okay, I need to now expand myself to go be able to generate more." You did that when you got this house. You stretched yourself financially to create a sanctuary and you expanded your ability to create abundance. And um that's what I would say. Like you gave the answer. Surround yourself with people that think different about money and you'll start to take on those beliefs as well or at least challenge those beliefs. And it's it's so valuable because when you see how money really is just a story beyond taking care of your own needs, whether a hundred grand or a million or a hundred million becomes kind of your norm way of like annual revenue, it is a story and you you you learn that when you talk to really abundant people who are extremely wealthy financially and how it's the norm. You almost expect it. >> Yes. And so obviously you create what you expect more of and what you believe your value is worth. And I also start, you know, in the spiritual community I would just say don't stick in the spiritual community where people are not giving money away. You know, are not like investing in things based on what you're worth. Go find wealthy people who are broken and solve their problems. >> Yeah. They'll pay you a thousand times more than a spiritual person and just trading sessions with each other. >> [laughter] >> Like go find wealthier people or people that are in a demographic that have money and solve their problems. Yeah, the spiritual community is called planet Earth and there's 7.8 billion people. >> Exactly. Go find people with money. Yeah. Hey guys, a quick share. I have been loving this company Momentous for their rigorous testing when it comes to the purity and efficacy of their products. For example, their big three stack which includes their omega threes, vegan protein and creatine. They have great formulations and are all NSF sport certified. One product I love from them the most is their creatine. I'm not sure how many of you know about or consistently take creatine, but I have genuinely noticed a difference in effects it has had on my workouts and supporting my mind the past year while supplementing with it. 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A lot of people would see individuals who are thriving externally and say that is a life that is an ideal life, whether it's a sense of freedom or abundance or whatever they kind of denote is like that lifestyle. Uh and it becomes very culturally pervasive to continue to externalize and outsource our sense of freedom and security and safety into some event happening outside of us or some relation happening outside of us. And the first principles way of kind of bringing this back home instead of seeing the pursuit of happiness and the the goal of everlasting peace or fulfillment is on the on the other side of certain events, kind of collapsing it down and realizing we have the capacity to to source that within ourselves. And so, why do you think it's so pervasive to outsource our sense of freedom and safety? And then let's walk us back home and in our ability to to source that ourselves. >> great question. So, we often tune more into what's missing than what's present. So, if what's missing for me is resource, then I imagine if I had resources, I would be happy, which is why some people are stunned to discover there are wealthy people who are depressed, right? They're like, you know, why would they, you know, seek out therapy or why would they struggle with confidence when they quote unquote have everything? But it's like, but it's not everything. But it sure looks like everything if if those are the piece pieces that are missing. So, [snorts] you know, we can be tricked by performance or presentation and especially in this time of social media, we use this term compare despair. You know, it's so easy to say like, "Oh, look at them." And we're looking at like their curated life, right? It like it looks well put together, it's well presented or like the matching pajamas, you know, but people are are struggling. So, we get pulled into the performance and think like if my picture looked like that, surely I would be joyful. The other piece which I do think is important in liberation psychology, we talk about the importance of not only looking at the individual, but looking at context. Uh because if we just put it on the individual, like then we won't pay attention to the ways in which systems affect uh people's peace or happiness. And then we'll just say like, "It's an inside job. Don't worry about those things. Like, you know, you should just, you know, meditate more." And so, it's it's a both and. And I think, you know, in psychology we sometimes use like a false dichotomy, right? It's that, you know, is it nature or nurture? Is it environment or internal? And both things contribute, right? So, as a society, we want to work to create an atmosphere, for example, where things are fair. Uh fairness decreases distress. If I can feel like some things are safe, reliable, fair, uh and then I also, while we're working on those larger things, want to do my internal part of what are the ways that I can nourish myself in the midst of this environment. What do you wish to remind people about their fundamental wholeness? In essence, uh so much of our life is spent unfortunately in this like enchanted view of the world that it's going to happen after all these things. Um and in your own experience and so many people you've helped kind of guide to that place as well, to experience that and to have a reference point for that level of freedom irrespective of external circumstance is the most liberating thing we can taste in our life. And so, what do you wish people were reminded of in regards to that? I would like to remind people that we're worthy. And instead of the world often gives you a feeling like you have to chase worthiness or prove yourself or obtain certain things to be uh significant, right? So, we're chasing significant validation, worthiness. And it really requires I'm going to say a stretch of faith because we often base our conclusion on evidence, right? So, if I have been continuously mistreated, it's hard for me to believe I'm worthy cuz the idea is if I was worthy, people would treat me better. But if everybody keeps treating me this way, like there must be some truth to it, right? And so, it becomes this like radical revolutionary act to decide even if no one else believes it, I am worthy, right? That I am sacred, that I am enough. And I'm going to treat myself that way and then I'm going to gravitate toward people and places that treat me like they see the truth of me. So, I get how from a zoomed out perspective, we're just like a speck of a speck, right? But from a zoomed in perspective, especially since so many of us were very engaged in the world and media and social media and politics, it can feel so important in the moment to engage with that world, but also so confusing with everything going on. So, I'm wondering what guidance you have for someone who wants to impact the outside world, wants to do it from a clear place and not get confused. How do you do that? >> [clears throat] >> So, when it comes to quality of your life, the only two things. One is profoundness of your experience. If you sit here, not because of what you're doing, just if you sit here, how significant is this life? How significant it is depends on how profound is your experience at a given moment. So, when it comes to inner experience, profoundness of experience is the most important thing. When it comes to activity in the world, impactfulness of our activity is the most important thing. We don't want to do something that doesn't impact anybody. You don't want to do politics that nobody is interested in. You don't want to write music that nobody wants to listen to. You don't want to cook food that nobody wants to eat. You don't want to write a book that nobody wants to read. You want to do something that is impactful, isn't it? So, profoundness of experience if you do not establish impactfulness will become accidental. And you'll always be worrying, is it happening? Is it not happening? No, if this experience is very profound, what you do will be of a certain quality. It'll impact. But how much impact is not always in our hands. It is the times we are born in. See, right now, for example, many great beings have come. When they spoke, hardly 10 people could hear them. Gautam Buddha, gentle being, if he spoke, hardly 10 people can hear. Krishna, most exotic being, he could speak only to one person, and that guy is full of confusion. Well, you know, Jesus came, only 12 idiots, and one of them freaked on him. >> [laughter] >> I'm saying this has been the unfortunate history, isn't it? So, today, because of technology, because of various other means that we have, today we can sit here and talk to the entire world. Was it possible for a Krishna to do it? A Buddha to do it? A Jesus to do it? Does it mean we are better than them? It's the times, isn't it? So, our activity is dependent on the times in which we exist. How impactful are we? So, we are at a time like never before, you can sit in one place and talk to the entire population on the planet. Never before this has happened. Not because we are better than them, simply because we are fortunate. We're in such times where we have such means to deliver, which they did not have. They had to raise their voice and speak. Two rows heard, third row doesn't hear a damn thing. >> [laughter] >> Yes or no? This is the reality. Huh? Every idiot made up their own thing. Those sitting at the back. This is all that happened. And everybody wrote their own versions of what they said. Today it's being recorded. If you said this is what Sadhguru said, they'll play the recording and say that's not it, this is what he said. Never before this was possible. So, we are at a time where one man can do what 10,000 men could not do just 100 years ago. Yes or no? So, this is a great fortune, but we can also make a great misfortune out of it. If we handle it sensibly, consciously, we can make this the greatest possibility. If at all if there was a time to transform human beings, it's now. Because never before you could even address them. Isn't it? Never before in the history of humanity you could even address them. Where the hell they are, you don't know. Isn't it? Today you can address them. If at all if there was a time or there is a time to transform humanity, this is the time. In this generation if we don't do it, it simply means we don't have enough love in our hearts, that's all. There's this idea of casing delayed gratification. So, I'm going to sacrifice today to be happy tomorrow. That too doesn't really work, because often times what ends up happening is people move the goalposts. So, it's like then the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. When is it enough? So, some people go through life forgetting how to enjoy themselves, because there's this idea that I'll retire and then I'll have a good time. I'm going to trade the best 40 years of my life between the ages of 20 and 60 to have 10 years at the end where I've got I need a hip replacement, but I can travel the world. So, there's this delayed gratification, which is still just chasing pleasure. So, the real antidote to that is dharma. So, dharma is what allows you to do hard things. It gives you a motivating force that allows you to embrace difficulties in life. And my favorite example of this is I have daughters. And so, if someone were to, heaven forbid, like threaten them in some way, that same thing, if someone pulled a gun on me, like I wouldn't want to deal with that. I wouldn't be like engaging with them. I'd try to run away or or whatever, right? But if someone pulls a gun on my daughter, then I'm stepping in the line of the gun. And it becomes easy. It becomes simple. It's like there's no question. Like I 100% I can have fear. I can have worry. I can have anxiety. I can have all kinds of negative states. And I'm like stepping into the path of that. So, dharma and it it makes sense to people, right? Why would I do that? Because my daughter's involved. So, dharma, everyone in life is like trying to figure out how to optimize, how to be efficient, how to use AI so they don't have to work hard. Everyone wants to not expend effort or maximize the gain that they get from an effort, which is still greed at the the fundamental. So, dharma allows you to not do that. So, when you do dharma, it opens up your options. So, dharma is fundamentally what allows you to give up gratification and live in a different way. So, it it completely expands your options. Um the other problem is that a lot of people confuse dharma with should. And a lot of people will be like, I should do this. This is my dharma. I should do it. It's psychologically a different thing. Dharma comes from a deeper part of you. Shoulds come from mental conditionings of society. So, when I when my parents were like, you should become a doctor, there was no passion to become a doctor. I ended up becoming a doctor for completely different reasons. And but I I did it out of dharma. And then it became easy. Like from failing out to being at the top of my class became really easy if you're doing it in service to something. One last point about dharma is that we know from addiction psychiatry and plenty of like neuroscience and stuff that in order to give up something good, you have to replace it with something. So, like addiction is about conquering addiction is about wanting something more than what the addiction gives you. Right? So, the addiction gives me like avoidance and all this kind of stuff, but I want a life. I want to be able to live. I want to be able to hold my head up high. I I want these kinds of things. And so, dharma kind of moves in that direction, where dharma can be the substitute for all of the other desires that you have to do your duty. And I think your duty is determined a lot by the harm being in harmony with your environment. So, my duty as a doctor is different from my duty as a a husband. So, I'm not my wife's therapist, right? If I try to be my wife's therapist, it's a mess. I've tried. Doesn't work. So, I think like the more people start living in service to their dharma, which then there's the whole question of how do you find your dharma? The better off your life will like you may experience more pain, but like your life will feel good. And it'll be easy to live. So, it's kind of like strong that way. Yeah, it seems like a a bit of a lubricant in terms of your experience of life. There is that again, that saying from the Gita that when you protect your dharma, your dharma protects you protects you. Um and uh it's just fascinating what comes on the path when you're living in alignment with that. It does beg the question of how does one move from shoulds to like authentic dharma and discovery of that? What have you found for people as the as the biggest catalyst to really discovering and living in that? So, the biggest catalyst is controlling your indriyas or your sensory organs. So, if we look at where do shoulds come from? So, let's be precise and scientific about this. Where do shoulds come from? Shoulds come from your perceptions. So, when I get told by my grandmother, oh, you'll be wonderful doctor one day. When my dad tells me when I'm 9 years old, get pulls me and my brother aside, says one of y'all is going to be a doctor, one of y'all is going to be a lawyer. Like so, when I So, if you look at most of what you want, right? And even when you say to yourself, I should do this. Where is that idea coming from? It's coming the should is a friction between the internal you and societal expectations. That's literally what the word means. So, finding your dharma is first getting rid of all of your shoulds and seeing what is left. Now, the problem is that when we are faced with shoulds, that creates negativity within our brain. It creates anxiety. It creates fear. It creates lack of desire, right? Then we have to use willpower. So, there's this fundamental tension. And then what happens is since since the should creates an anxiety, my brain needs some way to fix that. That's why we turn to dopamine. That's why we turn to pleasure. That's why we give in to wants, right? My The way I combat the should is by going towards a want. Cuz a should makes me feel bad. I don't want to study. I should study. And so, there's a fundamental polarization, right? The moment I create a positive find I create an electron. So, there's what there's your dharma. And then when you get lost of that, you fill it up with shoulds. And then you have these compensatory wants. And then you have a struggle, which is the core struggle that most people have. I should do this. I want to do this. Once you get rid of the shoulds, and you also get rid of the want. So, once you get rid of the shoulds, then the wants will go away, too, because they're created by the shoulds. They're created as an alternative or an avoidance of a should. Right? So, I I The reason I love playing video games is because I don't want to work. So, there's a certain amount of quietness and involution that is necessary for that. So, to get away from your shoulds, and so the first thing that I would tell people is like, you know, if there's something in your mind that you should do, you'll notice there's always a want. So, just step away from all that and just sit. Dharma will come from within. So, when we get rid of your societal conditioning, you will discover that there are natural driving impulses. And the more that you give in to those natural driving impulses, it's not a want and it's not a should. I would say the best language to use is feel like. So, I'll give you like a really simple example. I feel hunger. But I don't need to satisfy it with a burger. That's a want. I don't have to I should eat a salad, I want a burger and hunger. Does that kind of make sense? That's how you triangulate to Dharma. So, the hunger and then what you do is you pay attention to what satisfies the feeling. It's not a desire and it's not a should. I will feel proud if I eat a salad. That's wrong direction. I love it when I eat a burger. That's the wrong direction. What makes me feel sated? Right? What makes me feel content? How do I remove the hunger? And so if you look at like satvic food from ashrams, you'll feel a lack of fulfillment from the dopamine energy standpoint, but your body will feel good. And so Dharma is about feeling and feeling comes from within, should comes without. Want is to run away from yourself. Does that kind of make sense? So, that's how you find Dharma. David Hume, the Scottish philosopher, said that there's is versus ought. I found that those are exactly the distinctions between intrinsic drive and extrinsic drive. If you know what the hierarchy of values actually are, the is, not what they ought to be, the conformity of society's deontological normative ethics, you access your greatest potential. You can actualize your potential. People are confronted by their mortality and the anxiety of the eschatological mystery. And so they create two mechanisms to survive it. A path of individual heroism, a path of immortality for the individual, or a path of immortality through the collective conformity. You know, as Young says, we live in a world that we want to be ourselves in a world that doesn't want us to be. And we want to make a difference, but can't make a difference conforming. You can only make a difference following an individual path. The trailblazer. The one with the machete walking through the thing and not following a path, but creating a path. The one that had the dharmic path, not the karmic wheel. But I realized that you will trap your life if you're not delegating. You can't self-actualize your life very easily without delegation. Unless you completely simplify your life and do like [clears throat] the cynic Diogenes that live in a a barrel with a dog and have nothing, no attachment, or a Gandhi approach. So, I basically learned at age 27 the importance of prioritization. Cuz if you don't fill your day with high priority actions that inspire you, your day's going to fill up with low priority distractions that don't. And the distractions that don't are going to be unfulfilling and distracting to create a frustration to go back to priority. To get you back to yourself. Cuz these are not you. This highest value is the ontological identity that revolves around is your highest value. Whatever your highest value is, if you ask anybody who are they, they're going to tell you whatever's highest on their value, that's going to be their answer. Mine's teacher. If if you're raising a a children and your highest value is of being a mother, if you ask her who are you, she'll say I'm a mother. If you go to a person who's a serial entrepreneur and ask him, even though he's got three or four kids, you ask him who are you, he's not going to say I'm a father, he's going to say I'm an entrepreneur. Cuz whatever's highest on one's value, their ontological identity revolves around, their teleological purpose revolves around, and their epistemological area of expertise excels there. So, that's where they're most powerful. So, finding that out and delegating anything else that devalues you is what I set out to do at age 27. And within 18 months, I pretty well gave it all away. And I basically teach, research, write, and travel. That's about it. Teach, research, write, and travel. I don't I'm pretty useless outside that. I I technology I delegate, business administration, I just teach, research, write, travel pretty well every day. I I'm like that 27 I'm 28, so I'm like I'm at that point where I'm transitioning into that full-time delegation of all the things that aren't highest priority value most meaningful to me. But is there something that just that feel that you feel called to share about what would serve someone like myself who's embarking on the journey of life getting to hopefully living a life that is most meaningful and aligned with my values decades down the road? I I wouldn't change anything back there. But I would say that it was I was very grateful to go through a few uh intermediate steps to get feedback on how important it is not to try to be second at being somebody else and not try to worry about whether people like or dislike you. When you can embrace both sides of yourself and be the hero and the villain, the saint and the sinner, and realize nothing's missing in you. You're the most extreme of everything that could be even known. The most virtuous, the most vicious. When you can embrace all of that, then you're not going to be distracted by people's opinions. But as long as you're disowning any of those, the world on the outside will run you and you'll have evoked potentials instead of spontaneous potentials guiding your life. So, there was a concern in my 20s, what will people think? Or what would happen if I did this? And that gradually kind of became less of priority. If that makes any sense. Because I realized that I could have the whole world against me, but the question is, do I have my soul against me? >> [laughter] >> My soul being the state of unconditional love in my most authentic state. And you're going to be liked and disliked no matter what you do. I tell people you're only going to grow to the level of embracing of the hero and villain. So, if you can embrace this much hero, but only this much villain, you're only going to grow to that level. You have to be able to be liked and disliked by the same number of people. And if you can do that, I mean, Donald's a good example of that. Donald's got a billion people liking and disliking him. At least. Maybe 4 billion liking and disliking him, who knows? So, because of that, he's probably on every newspaper in every country every single day. His influence. Um how well can you embrace and own all your parts? If you any any part you're disowning is emptiness. Any part that you could ever imagine in anything that you don't own is your emptiness. 41 years ago, I was about 30 years old. And at the time I as I mentioned earlier, I went to the Oxford English Dictionary and I went and identified every one of the traits inside me. Because that was my attempt to try to own the parts and have a preemptive strike instead of having to wait till people push my buttons and react. With fore- with hindsight, I'd rather have foresight and identified so when I saw that and people would say things about me, I'd go, "Okay, that's true, too." You know, somebody says, you know, "You're this or that." If I can honor that and see that, I don't have a reaction. They can't control me. If I try to disown it, they can manipulate me. And I can be influenced by them for fear of losing or gaining or something and get attached to one way or the other. These are the Buddhist attachments that stop people from being themselves. I'm curious what you think of the balance between like realizing we're creator of reality and we can have an intention and and powerfully manifest things. Often times in earlier on in spiritual people's journey, it's at least in the West kind of directed towards materialistic purposes of trying to attract or make more money or whatever thing. There's that, but how do you balance that with the feeling of trust and surrender that what's meant for you will be yours and what's not meant for you, you will never have. And yeah, taking the pressure off of trying to create your reality and kind of recognize the inherent abundance around you and and allowing the like to be surprised by the universe in a way. So, like, yeah, how do you how do you balance between intentionally manifesting and attracting what you want versus what you're speaking to also, which is like kind of letting go of it and and understanding that that's a that's a powerful way to live, but perhaps a more powerful way to live is to also um release the unending need for improvement and to be, you know, in the deeper state of gratitude and appreciation. I'm glad you bring that up because I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Cuz one thing I noticed is that a lot of times with people that are really adamant about creating their own reality, the law of attraction, manifestation, one thing I notice is that a lot of times the people that are really into this kind of work also went through a lot of trauma earlier in life. They may have had a spiritual awakening, been to understanding that we're spiritual beings of in temporary human experiences, but I can't ignore the fact that even within myself of me being called to it especially years ago, there was a certain part of me that wanted to feel more like I was in control. There was a part of me that could feel like this is what I want to create. I feel like I'm in control. I experience it, and then it's like I feel safety. So, it's almost like trying to create a sense of safety through my manifestations because if anything unknown were to happen, that's the scary stuff. >> Yeah. And what if what you could actually experience in your life was so much better than what you can even imagine, but we block it because we're like, "No, I want my manifestations. It's on my vision board. I've been manifest I've been thinking about it. I've been feeling it." And the way that I look at this is is kind of simple in the stage that it's basically about are you attached to outcome or are you present to the moment and enjoying the process? If you follow your excitement and you're in the vibration of your passion, loving what you do, what you are in the vibration of is in the vibration of being. You're in the vibration of embodiment. You are being this version of you because it's who you choose to be, not of what the result will get you. And what a lot of people do with the law of attraction is they're focusing on what they want and they're trying to in a way control reality because then they can feel safe and because the future moment that they get to is going to be better than this moment right now. And what happens a lot is people end up robbing themselves of the joy in the present moment and just following the passion because they're trying to get somewhere else that's going to be better. So, the way that I work with this is I follow the thread of excitement knowing that it's not my job to control how things happen. It's my job to focus on my energy state. It's my job to focus on my vibration, my energy, and knowing that I'm following that because it actually feels good, not just because it's going to get me somewhere else. And I think where a lot of people get caught up is they do it because how long do I have to do the visualizations for and how long do I have to do this passionate thing for until I get there? Yeah, like a means to an end. >> It's a means to an end. And anytime things are a means to an end, that's where attachment is. And attachment is what creates resistance. Attachment to I want to attract a partner like this. This is how it's going to happen. I'm going to go to a coffee shop. I'm going to see them at the coffee shop, and they're going to say this, and then we're going to we're going to have this beautiful connection. It's going to work out. Meanwhile, you're on the way to the coffee shop and someone asks you for directions, and you're like, "Ugh, you're not the person." You know what I mean? Like, you're I'm just focused on getting to the coffee shop for that experience. And it's like people end up blocking them from experiencing more magic in their life because they're trying to control it all, trying to in a way regulate their nervous system through the manifestations of what they create, but they end up creating more resistance in the process. So, I think the most powerful thing to do is to focus more on the process and to realize that it's more of an energy energy state that you're in because it's who you choose to be. Like, even when I was making videos in 2017, it wasn't just making videos because eventually I quit my 9-to-5 job. I'm like, "Oh, this energy is who I choose to be." And what's funny is most of the time when people are in that being vibration and they're not just doing it for views, they're not just doing it for that purpose, they end up they it ends up working out much better. Like, it ends up actually happening. Very rarely is it someone that's like, "I'm going to get on YouTube to become a famous YouTuber." that becomes a famous YouTuber, right? It's normally people that are like they feel a calling. It's just who they are. Um even when you back in the day I remember listening to people that are like really big YouTubers. Like, I just want to make the best videos possible. I just want to make the best videos possible. But it will it's not necessarily like I need to get the most views possible. I need to get the most views possible. It's more process-oriented. It's like there's probably a love to making videos, you know? And I think that that's a lot of times where people block. And also, when you think of attachment, importance is an end result. Attachment is an end result. And the focus is instead on who you are being, that's where the energy shifts. Life has this illusion of continuity. Like, for example, the a lot of these lights that are around us are actually flickering maybe hundreds of times per second, but because it's so fast, so rapid, we're not aware to the degree that it's actually not a full continuous light source. Yeah. >> And similarly, within our experience of life, we have this experience of being a solid self moving through solid space and time. And as you deepen from Anapana to Vipassana, you're starting to really experience that illusoryness. Yeah, you get a really clear like you know, it just sort of jumps you into like what's true. It's just like here's the shock of reality. Like, you're not this still static thing. You're actually just composed. Like, there it's a composition of all of these forces coming together. And I think it's really um like I'm so grateful. Like, I think that's that's been one of my um biggest points of gratitude is understanding that my identity isn't static. And being able to feel the dynamism of it, to be able to feel like, you know, my body as a rushing river of atoms and really clearly feel that, you know, which one of these atoms is me? Like, where am is the focal point of my existence if everything is arising and passing away at such incredibly rapid speeds? And you understand that, oh, it's actually okay. It actually is rather helpful to understand that you simultaneously exist and you don't exist. And being able to live with these two truths. Like, Lady Sayadaw said, you know, if you say you exist, that's true. If you say you don't exist, that's also true. Neither of them are lies. And this is something that you get, you know, cuz you you could especially when you go to these Vipassana retreats, you're being exposed to the ultimate reality. Like, at the conventional level, you and I are having a conversation. At the ultimate level, what's happening? Right? It's just atoms. Just like subatomic particles moving at really rapid speeds. And we just happen to be like near each other. Yeah. And I think knowing that has just given me so much liberty and like allowing my preferences to evolve. Like, allowing the past be the past and like moving into the present with just openness. Like, when you experience the impermanence of something that there will be a first and last time that we do anything in life, >> Yeah. it changes radically how we approach all of our relationships, our career, our family, and how we engage with them because as much as I love, you know, this conversation and and meeting you, who knows what's going to happen to either of us the next moment, you know? And and that invites actually an immense presence. And and and that brings so much more aliveness to life. I think in a life that is inherently impermanent and uncertain to how things are going to transpire externally, there is this awakening to the realization that of like that backwards law, you know, of where we try to control things or want things to happen in a certain way, and the more that we try to pursue it, it almost eludes us. Like, by holding our breath, we lose it. You know, and by trying to stay afloat, we can sink. And so, it's this interesting balance of like you spoke to with it in terms of our internal characterological emotional wounds and trauma trauma and stuff, but then also in terms of like trying to create in the world and build our career and create the life of our dreams and and whatnot, there is this interesting balance of intention of action and then also finding the place that arises from that state of inaction of of stillness and seeing that as a bedrock. One quote on your Instagram post actually said you you don't find your ground by looking for stability. You find your ground by relaxing into instability. And so, there is there is this interesting universal paradoxical framing that is really interesting to put into action in our life because it's an it's a very unique philosophical exploration, but to actually live it is where liberation comes in. Yeah. This is one of those quotes where if I were to go back, I I would add a little bit of context. Um Maybe I did in the caption. I forget, but you don't find your ground by looking for stability. You find your ground by relaxing inst- into instability. There's a spiritual truth in that. There's also a relative truth that sometimes you need to create enough external stability to allow your system to relax enough to even begin this pursuit. Um I think sometimes like coming out of poverty, coming out of very difficult circumstances where there's a lot of chaos, having a grounded relationship, even if we're not sure, it's like coming from the deepest place, but it just like we feel stability and something feels good about that is really necessary for other parts of our system to open up. So, I want to acknowledge that truth. And there is no example in the universe of someone attaining awakening by perfectly manufacturing their external world. In many ways, it can actually become a a prison because it gets so comfortable that you mistake it as awakening. You mistake it as freedom. Or you have just less and less of a reason to try to pursue something else. So, my invitation to people is really to look at like the classic once that happens, then I can start the work. And just watch how compelling that is and how is subtle that is. And what is it like to just meet this moment with an orientation uh as Bhikkhu Bodhi would say, this moment it's like this. This moment it's like this. It allows us to soften our grip on how this moment should be, meet it in its perfect imperfection. As spiritually trite as that is. Uh and do the practice of instead of entangling ourselves with how does this need to be better in order for me to find refuge, how can I keep zooming out and remember that the refuge is already here. And that wholeness is not something I have to create, it's something that I remember. I may need to fall apart in order to see that my life can be built on the resonance of space, trust, and surrender. And that often means letting go of the need for stability, surrendering into instability, and seeing that there can be still a motivating pulse that creates your life. One really easy way to kind of measure how you're doing is to look at the last I don't know, whatever you can remember. Say the last week. Go back in your memory and and remember what you did for the last week or or if if you go only the last day, that's all right. But remember it. And if during that day or week keep track of how many times you had negative feelings. When did you feel upset, hurt, angry, abused, misunderstood, felt not just misunderstood but but uh misunderstood in kind of a negative way, stress, all of those things. There's certainly anger. Upset at other people. And think how many times did I have negative feelings? Most people only have to go back about 2 hours to find a negative feeling. Most people have negative feelings all the time. Just the news makes them angry. Yeah, everything kind of makes them angry. People that disagree with them makes them angry. But if you grow up, that's not the case. You can say, "Well, I haven't had any negative feelings for as long back as I can see." Well, now you're doing really, really well. You are a low entropy person. If you're the average person, you have negative feelings off and on regularly. If [clears throat] as you grow up, it's less and less. So, that's how you can tell about how you're doing. Just the negative feelings. Annoyed, upset, shouldn't be that way. Those people, they're they're screwing it all up for the rest of us, you know. This kind of of of uh attitude and we tend to blame everybody else for the things that we don't like. George made me angry. George doesn't make you angry. You choose to be angry. You have some sort of fear and George just resonated with that fear of yours. And you get angry. So, nobody makes you angry. Nobody makes you upset. Nobody makes you have negative feelings. All that comes out of yourself. So, when you get rid of the fear, you get rid of the ego, you get rid of the beliefs. Beliefs are traps. You get rid of the beliefs, you're a happy camper. You enjoy your life. You smile a lot. You laugh. You play. And you're very productive. You get a lot done. And anything you need or want falls at your feet just as you need and want it. Life just you seem to be very lucky. But you're not lucky. You're just leveling up in a game that's all about, you know, lowering your entropy, becoming becoming love. So, that's how you know. If you look at your life and say, "Well, my life is just a series of struggles. I thought if I just get past this, if this relationship just worked out, if this my boss just gave me this raise, everything would be good after that." And it may be good for a few weeks after that or maybe even a few months, but you always end up back in that same spot with this hurdle that you have to get by or have to get over. If I could just get over this and if that were true, everything would be downhill after that. And it doesn't work that way. The only way everything is downhill after that is if you grow up and start caring and sharing and cooperating, having compassion. You help people. You stop asking, "What's in it for me?" And instead you ask, "How can I help?" Then your life gets to be good and happy. I call myself a hopeful pessimist. In other words, I see things going wrong all around me, but I remain hopeful. >> [snorts] >> And that's partly because I believe we don't know a tenth of what's actually happening. Partly because I think human beings are a wonderful um a wonderful species. We've focused all the time on the things we've done wrong and there have been many of them. But we should be more grateful for and aware of, not in a vain way, but in a a humble way for what we can achieve at our best, which is extraordinary and is attested to by so many historical examples. >> [gasps] >> And that gives one gives one hope. So, don't despair. And don't say it's all so much bigger than anything I can do. Uh I often hear, you know, "Everything seems to be going wrong, but what can I do? The world is such a huge place and I'm so small. And this world is so tiny in respect to the cosmos. What does it even matter?" I think that is the left hemisphere speaking. Because what the left hemisphere is saying is things are important because of their size, measurement. We'll be wanting is more, more quantity, not quality. And [snorts] so, stop thinking in terms of quantity. Quality can be important in a very small quantity. How big, for example, are the things that are completely immeasurable. How big is my love for the person in my life I love more than anything. I may say, "My love is bigger than the heavens. It's deeper than the seas." or whatever. And the left hemisphere okay, how how deep is that? And so, "No, that's not what I mean." And so, "What does this person mean to you?" "No, I can't explain what you mean." This is the left hemisphere doing its kind of let's get it all charted and measured and then I'll say whether it's worth doing. There there are things you can do on a big level. You can join organizations that hope [clears throat] to help and that's fine and good. They may or may not be successful. At an intermediate level, you can start modeling things like small groups of people who do aim to live together, preferably without being embroiled in technology, living their lives close to the ground, making and eating their food together. Um no doubt one hopes having some kind of spiritual life that they can share together. And modeling something that may help us if things collapse and I do think they may well collapse. And if they do, the most helpful thing will be to have small centers of people rather like the monasteries in the Middle Ages that kept going despite everything. But the third and last is there is an area which sounds so small that it can't be worth anything, but it is worth everything, which is in you. What is in you? It's so big that the left hemisphere can't even measure it. And what is the only bit that you're asked to take responsibility for. You're not asked to solve all the problems of the world. Nobody is. That's completely ridiculous. So, let that one go. Instead, make sure you've at least dealt with your own self. And that can start tonight. It can start now. It doesn't have to be something that's labored on for years. And it really is the most important thing you'll ever do because you've been given you to look after, you to grow. As John Keats said, amazing man and died at 26. In the letter to his brother, "This world is a veil of soul making." Your your soul is not something that's sort of given to you. "Oh, okay, that's nice. I've got one of those. That's my eternal life, is it?" But no, it the soul is something you encounter in you and you grow in you or you fail to grow in you. And that matters enormously to you and for you and you matter enormously. But it is also part of the saving of the world. If we were to put it in the world of what is our potential, right? Like, you know, potential is something that gets actualized over time. It's not like you could realize your potential like it's a finite thing. It's it's never ending, which is why this is such an extraordinary game, right? The mountain without a top. For as much as I've garnered and learned and realized and let go of and shared and reconciled and mitigated, like it's it's okay, there's something that happened last month that I'm like, oh [ __ ] I didn't even see that, too, you know, and it's it's just beautiful because it's like it's like a sport, like I love golf, right? Like in the there's no one in the world at the best of the best, they don't get it perfect, that you know, Ben Hogan, one of the greatest, he said, you know, in his best round of golf he hit four perfect shots, you know, it's like it's the consistent exploration of what it is to be us. And there's a joy to that, like, you know, it's at times it can be a pain in the ass cuz it's never ending, but that's also part of the the the gift that it is to be alive, to taste it all, to feel it all, and to explore it all. Yeah, it's it's again the paradox of being a limitless being within this finite human experience. I remember listening to a tape where Ram Dass was talking about how he's tried every plant medicine and every every mantra he's done and every teacher, you know, as if there is a place other than the human experience where we're supposed to get to. Yeah. >> And, >> [laughter] >> you know, the deeper realization was like, what if I actually came here to have a human experience? >> Yeah. How funny, you know? Me us being humans. And and it just invites again accepting more of our own humanity in the process of what it means to to be here in this realm. I watched a clip recently on on the on the gram, and this guy, I don't know who it was, just came up in my feed. And he was talking about how he, because of a really bad accident, he couldn't feel anything, right? Like sort of a form of paralysis. And it was so beautiful because he said, when I got back, you know, and I started to heal, it took months, he said, I really enjoyed pain. Not because pain is good, but because I got to feel. And I really think, you know, that's one of if we were to look at this through some bigger lens of the universe that we talked about right at the beginning, that gods have sent us to this particular dimension of planet Earth, I really feel that the ultimate intention of what it is to be human is just to feel. Fill in the blank, it doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be joy and like, you know, euphoria or an orgasm, it could be like [ __ ] heartache. I mean, I love the fact that I love my dad so much it hurt that he died, you know? It it's all it's all an expression of love, right? In a in different different ways, like and that to me is the gift that it is to be human. And so whenever we deny ourselves feeling something, you're cutting off what it is to be alive and vital. And we're so programmed to like, well, we only want the good [ __ ] right? Like don't want the bad stuff. And it's like, no, there's there's joy in all of it underneath, it's just the capacity to feel itself is the opportunity that is to be human. That saying, I don't know what the truth is, but I know what love feels like. >> [music] [music]

This final episode of the year is a special compilation reflecting on the lessons, reminders, and moments that shaped 2025. It’s a curated journey through insights from across the year—designed to help you slow down, take stock, and step into 2026 with greater clarity, presence, and intention. This episode is less about doing more and more about listening—reflecting on the growth, challenges, relationships, and inner shifts that defined the past year. It’s an invitation to notice what wants to be released, what wants to be integrated, and what seeds you’re ready to water moving forward. Sometimes all it takes is a one-degree change in direction to alter the entire path ahead. Momentous: Best Creatine in the game https://livemomentous.com [Use code KNOWTHYSELF for up to 35% off] 2025/2026 Reflections and Intentions: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/yearinreview Andrés Book Recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/book-list ___________ 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:37 Review 2025 Instead of Planning 2026 (E166 – Tim Ferriss) 00:05:27 The Most Important Practice of 2026 (E152 – Mark Manson) 00:10:11 There Is No Wealth Without Health (E128 – Mindy Pelz) 00:12:26 The Importance of a Bedtime Routine (E143 – Michael Beckwith) 00:17:59 How To Grasp The Opportunity of Life (E119 – Marianne Williamson) 00:25:16 The Power of Entrainment (E145 – Dr. Theresa Bullard) 00:31:01 Be Careful With What You Desire (E160 – Aaron Abke) 00:35:18 Explore Your Relationship With Money (E140 – Lewis Howes) 00:41:59 Ad – Momentous 00:43:14 Happiness is an Inside Job (E149 – Dr. Thema Bryant) 00:48:16 The Unique Opportunity of Our Times (E154 – Sadhguru) 00:53:25 How To Discover Your Dharma (E155 – Dr. K) 01:01:11 Living The Moment You're Meant To Live (E164 – Dr. John Demartini) 01:07:53 The Problem With Manifestation (E118 – Aaron Doughty) 01:13:29 Finding Stability in Surrender (E135 – Yung Pueblo) 01:16:23 Relaxing Into Instability (E146 – Cory Muscara) 01:20:42 Looking Back To Plan Ahead (E158 – Tom Campbell) 01:24:35 A Different Perspective of the Future (E165 – Dr. Iain McGilchrist) 01:29:04 The Unlimited Potential of Being Human (E134 – Peter Crone) ___________ Watch the Full Episodes Tim Ferriss: https://youtu.be/NxmUCGuapNw Mark Manson: https://youtu.be/to-APJvffFQ Mindy Pelz: https://youtu.be/pgWnbRg5-cg Michael Beckwith: https://youtu.be/r3wrUmE1L3w Marianne Williamson: https://youtu.be/AQzKagUJGvI Dr. Theresa Bullard: https://youtu.be/mrKiH4J0_5U Aaron Abke: https://youtu.be/zXMKj8fNnYQ Lewis Howes: https://youtu.be/PTPjCtF9es4 Dr. Thema Bryant: https://youtu.be/ItRCT_L2kpA Sadhguru: https://youtu.be/FMoXXb-wKE8 Dr. K: https://youtu.be/zj40FT631P4 Dr. John DeMartini: https://youtu.be/dVR01alAe8o Aaron Doughty: https://youtu.be/79INohJ7KTw Yung Pueblo: https://youtu.be/bwom9Y6ybcg Cory Muscara: https://youtu.be/IrxFMkYUBFg Tom Campbell: https://youtu.be/IoGSWLuH2Js Dr. Iain McGilchrist: https://youtu.be/LZ5C11mlTH4 Peter Crone: https://youtu.be/VCi93m9lloM Episode Resources: https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/ https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/ https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfpodcast https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com Listen to the show: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX