Dave Rossi returns to the show for an inspiring and insightful conversation about meditation!
The Imperative Habit author is back to discuss the life-changing benefits of meditation โ something I admit he has been urging me to incorporate into my daily routine for a while now.ย
A big fan of silent meditation, Dave explains why he emphasizes the importance of quieting your mind and simply letting thoughts come and go over using apps to guide you through the experience. Youโll learn about why consistent meditation can make happiness a reality instead of a fleeting concept, and we also talk about why itโs optimal to operate from a place of devotion instead of just trying to go off willpower (which, remember, is a finite resource). We wrap up with a discussion about the Law of Attraction and the role meditation and gratitude play in experiencing successful manifestations.ย
Hopefully Daveโs enthusiasm for this powerfully effective practice will inspire you to start meditating too โ it certainly has inspired me to make time for it!ย
TIMESTAMPS:
Meditation is the thing that’s going to take you away from the racing thoughts and the envy and the guilt and the things that set us back. [01:30]
Silent meditation lets you unplug all those โto doโ thoughts gathering in your mind. We need to practice not thinking. [05:47]
Silent meditation is the power of your brain working for you, not the power of your brain processing the information of the world. [12:59]
No special equipment or time set aside needed.ย All you need is a chair. Ignore the noises in your head. [18:35]
You can practice not reacting. [24:23]
We often learn helpful techniques and then forget to use them.ย Practice doing new ways of meditation. [26:33]
When you practice unplugging your brain, youโre turning off all of that mentation. Youโre saying, stop stress, stop anxiety, stop depression, stop worry, stop doubt, stop low self-esteem. [31:32]
How does the practice of meditation connect to goals such as diet or exercise when life gets in the way? [34:28]
The things you want donโt require will power. They require devotion. [36:36]
You have the power to make choices over the biological urges of your body.ย
[38:14]
The mental chemical production of stress is way more harmful than what you eat. [43:37]
Reality is your choice of beliefs. Emotions vibrate at a certain level. [44:43]
Desire becomes a fear because you think you need something to be whole or happy. [53:58]
Spirituality is a more advanced word for being civilized. [55:22]
Our self-worth isnโt going up or down depending on what people think. [58:17]
Rossi talks about his course in meditation. [01:01:05]
LINKS:
- Bradโs Shopping page
- The Imperative Habitย
- Bradโs Morning Routine
- Never Split the Difference
- DaveRossi.com
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B.Rad Podcast
Brad (1m 30s): We go with appearance number four, I believe. It’s Dave Rossi, author of The Imperative Habit and boy, oh boy, we get going every time. It’s always wild times. And this time we focused on the topic of meditation because Dave is a huge enthusiast. He touts the life changing benefits of meditation, and he has a thick skulled buddy here who he’s been encouraging gently and strongly for a long time. Wondering why Brad Kearns is not meditating yet. Maybe I should title the show that way, but I’ve agreed to try it out. Even now I have a pretty busy life and I have my priorities and my morning exercise routine. Brad (2m 15s): I might have to stack it right on to that positive habit and give it a go. And he’s a big fan of silent meditation. So forget all the apps and the bells and whistles and the burning candles. He just wants you to quiet that mind. And when the thoughts come in, just let them pass, put them off to the side. He makes an interesting point. You’re going to love this distinction between our biology and the chemical reactions that create our daily behavior patterns, the, the pursuit of a hormonal experience, dopamine, serotonin, we’re doing this, we’re doing that. We’re getting a workout. We’re feeling wonderful afterward. We’re eating a meal. The meal tastes great. We’re scooping into that pint of ice cream, even though we feel guilty about it and it’s not aligned with our diet, but we’re getting a hormonal experience. Brad (3m 1s): And then he wants us to transcend into that spiritual realm where we operate our lives, not from willpower, which is that diminishing resource, but from devotion. And that, that, that spiritual approach is what meditation is all about is quieting the mind, quieting the racing thoughts. I think you’re really going to get a lot out of this. We moved from one application to another. We talk about the popular topic of manifesting wealth and manifesting success and where meditation can play a valuable role in getting your disposition right, your mindset, so that you can access these wonderful tools that have become super popular. Brad (3m 43s): And I think that’s a really important aspect of it because so many people reject these ideas out of hand, the law of attraction that you can call in the, you know, the, the big house on the hill and the, and the fast car and the perfect partner, but really you have to operate from a state of gratitude for what you have and where you are now, before you can access the power and meditation is the thing that’s going to take you away from the racing thoughts and the envy and the guilt and the things that set us back, our human frailties, and kind of push us into a higher realm of existence where happiness is not just a fleeting concept, but it’s a daily reality. Dave Rossi, bringing that energy, bringing the heat. Brad (4m 24s): You’re going to love it. Here we go. Thank you, Dave Rossi, the hurricane is back one of our favorite podcast guests. I think you’re, you’re now breaking the record with your fourth appearance. If I’m not mistaken. And boy, the, the, the notepad is lengthy. We have all kinds of directions we’re going to take it. And I’m just wondering how everything’s going for you and glad to connect again. Dave (4m 48s): Well, let me just say, I want to be like Brad Kearns and break records. So if that’s what we’re doing, I’m, I’m fulfilling my, my, my dreams fulfilling my wishes, breaking records like Brad Kearns. Brad (5m 0s): It’s all about breaking records, man. Something gets you going. And you’re, we had some exchanges that were really fascinating to me. And one of them was your, your non-stop hurricane energy level, and anyone who’s around you can see this, you know, the motor mouth will go without interruption and the enthusiasm for all, all aspects of life. And I know this is an awakening for you and anyone who’s read your book, you know, realizes that you were in that rut in your past life. And I’m jealous of that because I was just complaining to you before we hit record that, you know, I have some great workouts. I feel great out there. And then I crash and burn. I have three days of just exhaustion, and then I, you know, I’m coming back and I want to be a health expert and help motivate, inspire people to do things right. Brad (5m 47s): But I still identify in myself, Hey, you know, there’s always ways to optimize. You asked me about my sleep. My sleep is fantastic, but you know, there could be some other areas and of them is that, that, you know, emanating that loving spirit that brings you energy. And I think that’s where we left off on the, on the, the, the email exchange where you said, you just, you know, you’re loving life. More energy comes into you, even if you’ve had a long day and we all can reference this. Because we’ve had a long crappy day and we sit in traffic, then we walk into the wonderful exciting party gathering and we’re full of energy, right? So it’s not really that we’re exhausted. It’s just that we don’t like traffic jams and busy stressful days, but we can snap our fingers and come out of it. Dave (6m 32s): Well, yeah. I mean, what are the things that will, we wanted to share with you? And it’s funny that you, you started talking about energy levels. Energy is a word that gets tossed around a lot. And I’m talking about day to day energy in terms of approaching your behavior and driving your car and talking to people and approaching exercise or whatever. I’m not talking about vibrational energy or spiritual energy or emotional, energetic signatures. I’m talking about, Hey, it’s 6:00 AM and I’m ready to go and let’s go. And whatever, that’s kind of energy that you’re talking about and, and guided meditation helps so much for that. Dave (7m 12s): And that’s why I’m so surprised you’re not meditating. And so I kind of wanted to share that and talk why you’re not meditating unless use energy as a motivation. That’s a great, a great segue into it Brad (7m 24s): Right. If we talk long enough, it could be the title of the episode. Why the heck isn’t Brad meditating? he’s trying everything else. And I think, you know, I’m so fond of this morning routine that I talk about, and it feels like a meditative experience to me because I launch into this sequence where all I’m doing is counting through the reps of the various moves. You can see it on YouTube. We’ll link it in the show notes. People have heard me talk about enough, but I’m doing 40 scissor kicks and then 20 frog legs in each direction. Then 20 scissors, then I’m doing 20 mountain climbers. And I’ve tried before to like listen to a podcast while I’m doing my thing so I can multitask and be more productive. Brad (8m 7s): And what happens is I lose count, I lose focus, and then I have to start over. That’s my penalty. And so I do kind of have a glimpse of the benefits and the wonders of starting your day, especially first thing in the morning, with something that you could, you know, characterize as mindful where I’m right there, just doing something, you could maybe judge it as boring if you want to. But I’ve gotten to the point now where it’s such a habit that I don’t judge it as hard or easy or boring or exciting. I just do it. And I, I realize it gives me great benefit. And I, I suppose I sound like someone who is enjoying meditation too, cause it’s kind of like the same story. Dave (8m 48s): Well, I, I’m talking about silent meditation and there are some really big differences between a guided meditation Brad (8m 54s): like an app. You mean? Dave (8m 55s): Yeah, there’s a difference between an active meditation like walking or gardening or surfing or bike riding or running. Those are a form of meditation. I’m talking about silent meditation. Now what I want to explain to you when you’re, what I heard you say is that your morning routine is really busy and a lot of meditation takes place during your morning routine. And that’s great. Okay. But what, what, what medic the purpose of meditation, as I explained this in my class a bit is imagine if you had a boat towing, a giant net, and that net is capturing all kinds of information. Dave (9m 36s): How many reps have I done for my stretches? Am I doing my morning routine? Rightly correctly, what time is it? Am I going to finish my morning routine? By the time I need to hop in the bike and ride, or before I have my next podcast or, or whatever I’m doing. And this fishing net is catching all kinds of information, stimulus, questions, busy-ness right. That I call so-and-so, do I have enough gas in my car? How long was this going to last? Am I going to get there on time that I call you? You know what I’m talking about? Right? Silent meditation is basically just unplugging that fishing net. Imagine all of this wide net, this just incredibly broad net capturing all kinds of stimulus. Dave (10m 21s): And you just unplug it for a little while. Imagine what that would do to your brain to say, we’re just going to practice. This is the important thing we’re going to practice. Practice, practice, just like swinging a tennis racket. We’re going to practice not thinking now the brain is pretty wired to think. I mean, it automatically always thinks that you just can’t all of a sudden, not think it will automatically think just like you automatically breathe, but just like practicing breath and practicing life, we can practice thought. We can practice eliminating thought. We can practice ignoring thought. We can practice reducing thought. And when you do that, your brain does not focus on all of the things within that fishing at any longer. Dave (11m 6s): The brain says we have, we have, we have shit to do. Let’s go heal. Let’s go amend. Let’s go be calm. Let’s go connect. Let’s do other things besides think about who to call or what to do or how, what count am I on? And that’s why silent meditation is so different than a walking meditation or, or a guided meditation, or even a Kundalini or energy meditation. Silent meditation is an entirely different ball of wax. Brad (11m 33s): And you’re recommending that as your favorite modality or do you like people to mix through them or? Dave (11m 41s): You know, I think, I think people can do different things at different times. I think for me, I did some guided. I did some and even listening to music would be guided. I would, I would guide meditation and would put music on. And all of a sudden I’m thinking about a beach with a girlfriend or a past relationship or a friend or a family member or something yet. And my mind begins to wander. And that’s not what meditation for me is about. It’s about stopping the mind from overthinking, practicing, not overthinking. And I found myself reminiscing and that really wasn’t what I wanted to do with that time. So I said, look, I’m going to stop with the music. I don’t need to think about X, Y, and Z, whether it was a positive memory or even a sad memory. Dave (12m 26s): The goal was to unplug that fishing net unplugged stimulus and let the full power of my brain work for me and heal me and focus on me not to focus on the outside world and not to focus on who I had to call or what bill I had to pay or how much money was in my bank account or that I eat the right foods. I should, I shouldn’t have had that last night. I really is that going to cause weight gain that piece of cake that I had did have gluten in it. I don’t remember what didn’t have that much sugar. It was kind of an odd, Brad (12m 55s): He’s got his arms crossed. He’s sitting on a cushion and he’s thinking about, yeah, Dave (12m 59s): is an order, the flood that we want to stop, that we want to. And it doesn’t just because as you try to meditate, it doesn’t mean that that happens. But the take is practicing that you’re practicing, trying to turn off those voices. And when you turn those voices down where you practice ignoring them and you practice letting them pass. Your brain gets used to that muscle memory and your brain begins to say, oh, this is time to do nothing. And not think we’re not going to think about bills or people or food or diet, or how much I weigh or did I lose at half a pound? Or was it water weight or whatever it is. And your brain gets used to that. And that quiet moment is where all of the magic happens, that that power of your brain working for you, not the power of your brain processing the information of the world. Dave (13m 46s): That difference is where the power of meditation, where that comes into play Brad (13m 52s): So we’re, we understand it’s difficult and can be frustrating. And the, the recommendation is when the thought pops in about the gluten that you ordered last night, you don’t judge it and let it go. Is that, is that where we’re, is that what we’re looking for? We’re not going to have a blank slate for 20 minutes. We know we’re going to be battling against the busy brain, especially if we’re wired to be, you know, frenetic pace, like, like most of us are pushed into these days. Dave (14m 22s): Yeah. So, so, you know, let’s use spirituality again and kind of bring that word back into the conversation, not from a woo woo perspective, but bring spirituality in as a differentiation between physical and nonphysical. Physical being your body, your brain, your chemicals, the hormones, the peptides, transmitters things you can put into a jar, anxiety, depression, even happiness in the form, serotonin and dopamine. We’re talking about chemicals and the non-physical side of us, the thoughts, the intuition, not the rationalization and menagerie is that our subconscious mind plays on us. Dave (15m 4s): That’s body and physical and, and you know, not a spiritual event. I’m talking about the really, truly non-physical aspects or makeup of us. And, and to make this to accent, what I’m talking about, if you could just for a second, say hello to yourself in your brain. To say, Hey, Brad, Kearns, I need a haircut to say that to yourself. And you could do that couldn’t you? Brad (15m 29s): Sure Dave (15m 29s): You could actually. Yeah. And you could actually hear it. You could hear yourself say that the non-physical aspects I’m talking about is not the person saying those words, and it’s not the person that listening to those words, it’s the entity. That’s actually observing that whole process taking place. Hey, I, Brad Kearns said this, and I Brad Kearns listened to this, that seat, that place of observing that you did, those actions is the non-physical stuff that I’m talking about. Okay. Now, when we talk about meditation, we’re trying to connect to that aspect of us. We’re trying to turn everything else off. We’re trying to turn the mentation off. We are trying to turn the chemicals off. And that is ultimately takes a lot of practice. Dave (16m 12s): And we practice that` by sending thoughts down the road. So a thought pops in. We let it go. And for me personally, the body, the physical side it’s algorithm and survival. Although wants to do is save your life. So that does not want to stop. So sometimes when you meditate that biology, that biological side, that subconscious mind is going to get more active. It’s literally going to drive you crazy. I would get nauseous and actually get up and almost go throw up. It was so it was so powerful for me. Brad (16m 45s): What the, the, the, the racing thoughts, you mean when you tried to meditate? Is that what you’re saying? Dave (16m 51s): Yeah. Yeah. Brad (16m 51s): So they got worse than when you were sitting on the, on the bench at the park, not trying to meditate, but actually kind of drifted into, you know, you, you drifted near the goal without trying, and then you really try and it gets frustrating? Dave (17m 6s): Well, yeah, certain, certain thoughts do get turned down when I meditate or when I started. And even today it happens sometimes. So when I’m sitting at the park, I’m contemplating and I’m reflecting, and maybe I’m thinking about happy thoughts and how great that meal was last night and what a great run I had, or a great lift that I had. And I’m like, oh, this is so great. I’m so happy. You know, but my mind is busy and my mind is active and my mind is thinking. When I start to meditate, my mind begins to get more active. And it’s not necessarily more active because I’m thinking about fewer things. It gets more active because I’m telling my body, the biology, the physical side to turn off and it is going to resist that off button. Dave (17m 52s): It’s like the candles of the birthday cake. You blow them out and they keep on coming back and you blow them again. They come back. It’s kind of like that. It just keeps on coming back. And so for me in the beginning, I would literally get nauseous. My body did not want to let go of mentation. It did not want to let go of the algorithm of survival. And that’s a very spiritual thing to tell your body. We don’t need to survive right now to stop thinking, you don’t need to save me. I’m going to spend 20 minutes doing this, and you’re going to have to let me do this. Just let go. And it does not let go easy. Brad (18m 28s): What kind of environment have you created for these, these, these sessions? Dave (18m 35s): Whenever I have time environment, can I afford, I mean, I don’t know that I need anything special. You don’t need anything special, you know, a big, a big, you know, supporter or a teacher. He’s not the inventor, but Maharaji Mahesh was the spokesperson/teacher, self-proclaimed teacher of transcendental meditation. And he would say, I don’t understand why people don’t meditate. All you need is a chair. Brad (18m 59s): Yeah. Dave (18m 60s): It’s all you need. And you really just need to set the time aside and a place to sit. You don’t want to lie down because you’re, the goal is to be active. The goal is to keep your mind alert. The goal is to make your mind busy and the terms of alertness, but you want to make it alert by the active elimination of thoughts. The thoughts are tiring. Brad (19m 24s): And so are you your eyes, half lidded instead of closed and you’re sitting in a chair or on a rock, or is it the physical stuff? Dave (19m 35s): The physical stuff is easier where you sit or how you sit or the time of day, I can pretty much meditate anywhere because when it’s loud, I think, okay. That’s just more practice of, of effort to ignore those noises. The whole point is to ignore, ignore the mental noises, not the physical noises. And frankly, the mental noises are a little bit tougher to ignore it. Brad (19m 59s): If it’s noisy, I suppose there’s, you know, it’s a busy, busy train station. It sounds like a challenge. Dave (20m 6s): Well, would it be easier for you to ignore loud noises of a train or noises in your mind of your voice talking to yourself? What would be harder for you to turn down? Brad (20m 16s): The internal voice for sure. Dave (20m 18s): Right? So when you’re practicing turning the internal voice off, and I don’t want to say turn it off because you don’t turn it off, you basically learn to ignore it. You learn to send those, those thoughts down the road. And before the next thought comes is that little space of quiet, that little space of nothingness and meditation. Isn’t about learning how to do that. It’s about learning how not to stop yourself from doing that. So we’re trying to remove the things that prevent from meditating, not actually how to meditate. Brad (20m 50s): That sounds like your Dave Rossi happiness advice as well. Dave (20m 54s): A little bit the same. Yeah. I mean, things stop us from, from where we kind of naturally want to go, right? Our body stops us from our diet plan. The busy-ness of our mind stops us from calming down the anxiety. And the fear stops us from seeing happiness. I mean, that’s kind of my alcohol work shields, the filter, it filters out the things that make us unhappy. So we have these brief moments of happiness albiet it synthetic borrowed and not, you know, someone that has any longevity. Brad (21m 27s): Oh, in that case of alcohol is that you’re talking about bounces or distractions, whatever addiction is, I guess. Right. Dave (21m 36s): And that in meditation, it can distract you when the goal isn’t to be distracted. It’s to take this thought and send it down the road and just say, I’m not going to think about what I ate last night. I’m not going to think about what I have to do today. And then that little tiny space is meditation. That little tiny space is when your brain just goes, oh, and then a thought will come very quickly after that. Yeah. Okay. That was so cool. Well, that was really cool. I didn’t think about anything. Brad (22m 9s): Wow. I succeeded. Hey, well now I’m thinking I’m talking about it. So wait. Yeah. Okay. Try it again. That’s what happens to an athlete when that, when that kicks in, you know, when, oh my gosh, I’m having the best golf round of my life on the 16th hole. Oh man. Push that thought away people, or I’m doing the, the foil, you know, where you rise above the water and the motorized board. And it’s like, oh my gosh, I’m getting it. I’m flying. And then I looked down to see the speed I’m going at. And that’s when I wipe out spectacularly. It’s like, when you, when you lose that flow state by, by judging it or identifying it. Dave (22m 46s): Yeah. Well, there’s some things that talk about the average person has like sixty or seventy thousand thoughts per day. Brad (22m 53s): Right. And Bruce Lipton says 98% of them are identical to yesterday and 80% of them are negative or something like that. Dave (23m 2s): Right. And there was some statistic that the professional athlete or the elite athlete has 7,000 or 6,000 per day. Right. Brad (23m 9s): You’re kidding. 10 times tenfold, less than the average Joe? Dave (23m 14s): Going into flow, like you talked about into focus into a state of focus and flow. Your brain is not thinking about what you ate last night or what you’re doing, or who loves you or who doesn’t love you, or did I pay this or I didn’t pay that, or right. You’re just kind of focused on your craft. And it’s very focused. That’s the state of flow that a lot of psychologists talk about and that takes practice. Brad (23m 39s): So you, you have your meditation practice for 20 minutes Dave (23m 43s): or whatever, Brad (23m 44s): and then for the rest of your busy day, and you’re a good guy to, as an example, because you have this, you know, multifaceted, extremely challenging, you know, career of, you know, presiding over these massive projects that have many, many moving parts. And so I imagine that you’re going to process a shit ton of information in the course of a single workday. But are you leveraging your meditation skills in some way, when you, when the, when the stuff hits the fan and you start to your phone, your cell phone starts to buzz and people are in your face or whatever’s going on. Dave (24m 23s): Well, I think for, for everybody, this statement might be true that the most critical, critical aspect of anyone’s success, certainly with negotiating or sales or interaction or behavior or, or, or any professional setting, even in a, in a interpersonal setting, it’s your ability to stay calm will have a huge impact on your ability to, to navigate a situation, whether it’s an angry spouse or a child, but children are just great curriculum, but for this too. But if I’m practicing, sending thoughts down the road and practicing, waiting for that pause before the next one comes like swinging a tennis racket and building a muscle memory of, of not reacting to thoughts. Dave (25m 14s): So when, when my child says something or someone that works has some been inflammatory or something happens, I’m pretty practiced at ignoring the first thought that comes to my mind. And I’m pretty practiced at saying, let’s let this go. I mean, it just doesn’t really go away. I mean, the words came out of the, out of the person’s mouth and I, and I, and I can, I can practice not responding. Brad (25m 41s): Yeah. Dave (25m 42s): Because I’m practiced every single day letting thoughts pass. And because I’m practiced letting thoughts pass every single day in morning and night in meditation, I’m able to let thoughts pass during my active active day. Brad (25m 58s): Yeah. And it seems to me, there’s a distinction between not reacting, you know, you’re, you’re putting on a good face for the world, but then inside it’s driving you crazy. And all you’re doing is not responding, but you’re still being triggered because, you know, someone said something to you that you don’t appreciate or offended you or whatever. Like there’s still, there’s still an internal reaction. And that would be a nice goal to just let everything, all the water flow off your back all day long. Right? Dave (26m 34s): Well, okay. So I’m going to, yes, absolutely. And I’m going to give you a little bit more data with that. So it’s an absolutely wonderful book called Never Split the Difference by an FBI negotiator named Chris Voss. A good friend of mine Brad (26m 49s): I did that guy on his podcast. Dave (26m 52s): It’s a great book and Brad (26m 53s): Never Split the Difference, huh? Dave (26m 55s): Yeah. Now a friend of mine read that book and he also read my book. And when I was reading Chris Voss’s book, I thought to myself, God, what Chris Voss said is the single biggest failure to negotiating is staying calm. But his book doesn’t talk about how to stay calm. So my friend who also read my book said, Hey, I loved your book because it gave me seven techniques. And I had to change my belief structure. Had to change my paradigm to stay calm. And now that I could stay calm, I could apply a lot of Chris Voss’s techniques in Never Split the Difference. And, and the thing about meditation is it’s just that vehicle that lets you practice some of the seven steps in my book where the checklist that I have. Dave (27m 44s): It’s a vehicle of saying, Hey, just like Viktor Frankl said between stimulus and response is that small moment in time where all of our growth comes from. If you can’t grab that small moment in time, you’re kind of in trouble. Meditation helps you practice grabbing that small moment in time without actually reacting. So not reacting is the first step. The second step is taking that small moment in time and changing your paradigm. Changing your belief structure. Changing your attachment to the outcome. Changing your fear for the outcome. Changing your lack of acceptance of the situation that’s right in front of you. So now you’ve grabbed that moment in time, you practice and not reacting. Dave (28m 27s): And now you’re practicing, changing your subconscious patterns, changing your paradigm, changing your beliefs, changing your intentions, checking in with your intentions. And now as this over time, not only do you have the power not to react verbally, but you also have the power not to react emotionally. Harv Ecker totally talks about this in his book, your words are the consummation of your thoughts. So if you stop the words from coming out, you’re, you’re, you’re killing the thought in its tracks. You’re not actually consummating the thought. You still have the thought, but you’re not, you’re not becoming vocal with it. Dave (29m 8s): It’s the end of the thought, the, the words, Brad (29m 10s): it has a better chance of becoming a fleeting thought rather than an obsessive thought that’s going to turn you into a resentful, you know, down into a negative spiral. Dave (29m 24s): Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me about your experience with Chris Voss. That must’ve been a great, a great podcast. Brad (29m 29s): I think he’s he’s yeah, I don’t remember. I think he was, he was just talking to us about the Two Meals a Day book, and I’m not sure if it was aligned his typical podcast content, but well, Dave (29m 46s): if you get a chance to read that book, I, in terms of, and you know, for me, I’ve read it a couple of times and the hardest thing comes down to, oh shoot. I wish I would have applied that technique that, that Voss talks about it as book. And then, and then you’d say to yourself, oh, I wish I could have picked that up. And this situation that would have really been helpful and you want to remember those techniques and use them. It just takes practice. And if you get swept away with emotion, if you get swept away with anger or even happiness, you get fooled by thinking something’s really fantastic. And then maybe it’s really not. You, you lose an opportunity to seek a higher level of perspective, to, you know, see things more for what they’re really worth, not for how you wish to perceive them. Dave (30m 31s): So meditation really helps slow all that down because you’re practicing, slowing down mentation. So in real life, you’re actually slowing down mentation to the point where you can apply choice or well freewill or devotion or dedication. You’re able to stop that reactive behavior and then apply what you were the one to apply. Brad (30m 54s): And I guess in contrast, if we’re really wrapped up in hectic pace of modern life overstimulated, hyper-connected where simply reacting and operating from subconscious programming for most of the time, just like Bruce Lipton argues with scientific validation. All we are is like a, you know, a machine reacting based on our, our programming. They, they, a lot of times reference to childhood programming from age zero to seven. And then we just set forth repeating these bad patterns even know we don’t realize it until later. Dave (31m 32s): So that’s what I’m talking about. That’s in the body, you’re living in the body, you’re living in the subconscious mind. You’re living out those programs. You’re, you’re, you’re responding to the hormone of hunger. You’re responding to the hormone of sadness. You’re responding to the hormone of depression or anxiety. Your body is reacting. It. It’s only reacting because your brain is sensing the stimulus and comparing that stimulus to the programming that Lipton’s talking about. And then the brain produces that, that chemical. Okay. Now the point is to get off of that train, to get off that pattern, to stop that. Just to stop a cold in its tracks. And the thing about it, I’m going to tie back to meditation again, from a physiological standpoint, you’re getting off of the sympathetic nervous system and you’re getting onto the parasympathetic nervous system. Dave (32m 23s): When you unplug your brain, when you practice unplugging your brain, you’re turning off all of that mentation. You’re saying, stop stress, stop anxiety, stop depression, stop worry, stopped doubt, stop low self-esteem. Let’s just turn all of that off. It’s practice, turning off every day, 20 minutes a day, hopefully twice a day, but at least once, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off. And you’re going to slowly shift your body to the parasympathetic nervous system. And you’re not going to feel anxiety anymore because you’re actually not maintaining. It doesn’t mean that the factors that are creating anxiety have gone away. It means you’re just not processing that information at that time. Dave (33m 7s): You’re practicing, not processing the information that makes you feel anxious. Brad (33m 12s): And may that chance arise later in the day, too, to put it into practice when you’re hit in the face with the interaction with your boss that leaves you anxious usually, or whatever the example is. Dave (33m 26s): Yeah, you, you have practiced in saying, I don’t need to react to this right now. And isn’t making me feel anxious, but I’m kind of practiced at ignoring that. I’m just going to practice ignoring that right now. And I’ve been taught to let things unfold. Let’s see what unfolds in the next hour or the next day and see what really comes of this. Maybe I misread the situation. Maybe I misunderstood the situation, maybe they’re right. And I really did screw up. And I got to take that as really helpful constructive criticism, you know. But it’s not emotional anymore. It’s not charged. It’s not simply that throws you into your sympathetic nervous system and creates lots of stress and lots of cortisol and all kinds of harmful things. Dave (34m 9s): It’s not something that then makes you say, ah, fuck it. Don’t want to go have that donut that I’d been wanting to eat for the past week because it tastes awesome. And now I’m stressed. And I was told I did this poorly, or I made a mistake. So I’m going to go eat that donut. You know what I mean? You, you you’re, you’re able to control those types of landslide situations. Brad (34m 29s): So I know you’re progressing along the, the path to the secret, to weight loss in a different direction than most people who are obsessed with the macronutrients and pricking your finger for your finger for your blood ketone values. So how does the, how does the practice of meditation kind of connect to being aligned with goals, like cleaning up your diet and staying on the path for long periods of time and, and things like that when, when life gets in the way? Dave (35m 6s): Well, I think lots of ways, I think all diets succeed and fail for the same reason, which is your ability to follow them or not following them. And I think when you follow a diet religiously, or from a devoted standpoint, it becomes a lifestyle, not a diet. And so your ability to make those choices to make any choice, the most important choice. Isn’t whether I should eat this or eat that. If you resist something, you’re going to want more of it. So now you’re engaging willpower. So we want to engage devotion, not willpower. Brad (35m 46s): Okay. Cause do willpower is known to be diminishing fragile resource. Dave (35m 54s): Well, to me, willpower is you fighting simply that you, you kind of want, Brad (35m 58s): Right. And you, you do that 73 times every day. And then on the 74th time, it’s 9:30 PM. And you go for Ben and Jerry’s cause you’re, you’ve exhausted that resource, Dave (36m 9s): Right. And if I want something and it doesn’t take willpower to get what you want. Well, if I want to live a healthy lifestyle and that’s what I want, it doesn’t take any willpower to get what it takes to make the choice of something that I naturally want. Doesn’t take any willpower to want to eat a doughnut. If you want it, if you want to eat a donut, it doesn’t take any willpower to, to eat it. It takes willpower not to eat it. Brad (36m 36s): Right. So right. The things you want don’t require willpower, right? They require devotion. Dave (36m 44s): But I’m an, I’m an hour 19 of my fast today. And that’s a choice. It’s a choice to fast Brad (36m 51s): with devotion, Dave (36m 52s): with devotion Brad (36m 53s): passing at one donuts, Dave (36m 54s): right? And so if I say to myself, do I want to eat this? Or do I not? Biology and the pathology of me will always choose the easy path your body has an algorithm to survive. And that includes food. And that includes feeling loved. And that includes all kinds of things, very complicated things. But your body thinks is matches that algorithm of survival. So if I ask my question, if I want, I’ve asked myself the question, do I want to be fit? It’s a different question then do I want to eat a donut? My body will always want to eat something that tastes really awesome because it releases serotonin and dopamine is always reward centers. Dave (37m 39s): And it’s very easy to do that. It’s a little bit more difficult to break the drive of the body to break the drive of survival, jumping in a cold tub. You, you know, this is like, that’s a very spiritual event. I’m going to do something and my body does not want to do. And it’s incredibly therapeutic has all kinds of medical benefits, but you’re going to have to deal with some pain. Not going to hurt you. It’s going to help you, but that’s simple. Your body does not want to do. And yet you do it every single morning. Hmm. Brad (38m 9s): Right. You’re, you’re exercising devotion, right? Dave (38m 14s): And when you practice, I call it the, the, I choose muscle. You’re practicing. You’re developing your, I choose muscle. I choose to jump in cold water. I choose to fast. I choose not to eat this. I choose to eat this right. I have the power to make choices over the biological urges of my body. I have the power to choose not to react to stress or anxiety or sadness. I can, I can have his emotions. We all do. I do. But it’s what I do with them. That makes a difference in my life. Not that I should come to them. Brad (38m 50s): We could be, you know, lonely, lonely evolved creatures, like, like, you know, our friends in the animal kingdom and just go operate according to our instincts at all times. Right. And, and basically binge watch digital entertainment, eat whatever we want spiraled downward into crazy stuff. Addiction, addictive behaviors and things that are self-destructive over the long-term, but provide instant gratification. Dave (39m 23s): Yeah. It’s like that, that study with the, the two marshmallow study. Have you heard that study? Yeah. Yeah. Right. So you’re delaying gratification, which your body wants. Th th the, the ability to have choice, they have the ability to have power, to make choice over biological urges, strong biological urges, right? Having that power to make choices offers so much success. And the kind of choices that I think you need to start with are the things in my book, the choice about acceptance and not fearing the outcome and stress. And the, one of the biggest things to choose is how you view yourself. That’s a choice. Dave (40m 3s): In fact, well, let’s talk about a bigger term. I’m just thinking off the top of my head to me, the biggest choice to make is what you believe. The biggest choice you need to actually have some authority over is what you believe. Because everything is programmed. But Lipton talks about you didn’t choose that. It is programmed in your head. Your daughter’s program, because of what she observed from zero to seven, you can’t control what she observed. There’s no spam filter. It got filled. You can’t control what you observed or what you didn’t observe. She did. And in my book, I referenced, if you were raised in a red room, you might love red. Or if you raise in your red room, you might hate red. The point is a red rooms and affect your programming. We don’t know why you love it, or why some people hate it. Dave (40m 44s): The point is, it’s just going to affect you. And choosing what you believe in making a choice in what you believe is probably one of the most powerful choices you can make. Because that’s the beginning of changing your programming. It’s the beginning and changing your patterns. And meditation’s one of those things that gives you that first step and in pausing, and just practicing how to pause Brad (41m 8s): and then getting good at questioning your beliefs, because we form these fixed and rigid beliefs in all different areas. And in the, in the health and wellness scene, we have factions and we have disputed science and things that get people really riled up. And I referenced this emergence of the carnivore diet movement as a, as an exercise for me, and challenging my fixed and rigid beliefs and being open-minded and thinking critically to new information, because, you know, just when we think we, we have all the answers and all the, all the solutions we’re, we’re, you know, we’re exposed to more information. Brad (41m 52s): And apparently I think Mark Manson references this research that we’re, you know, consumed for our entire lives, with seeking out confirmation bias, to make sure that our beliefs are, you know, locked in, whether it’s our politics or our opinions about how to exercise or how to eat. And that’s where I think we could. Dave (42m 15s): That’s a survival instinct. That’s a survival instinct, isn’t it? Brad (42m 19s): Sure. Dave (42m 20s): It’s a survival instinct to know that what I’m thinking is supportive about other people, because what would it be like if I was all by myself alone with this thought and no, no one supported it. It would feel remarkably vulnerable, which is a very biological trait to be vulnerable. That vulnerability stems from the algorithm of your body, trying to drive for survival. It feels weak, even though it takes strength to be vulnerable, it feels exposed. And nobody wants to feel that way. Biologically, spiritually, you don’t care about it. You’re like, all right, it’s okay. I could be alone. And I could, you know, I’m not, I’m not a slave to my hormones or my thoughts. Dave (43m 2s): I can choose. You can choose what I believe. And frankly, we should choose things that work for us. Like I think the placebo effect is such an underrated effect in weight loss and diet. That your carnivore diet works for you because you think it does a huge part. I mean, the physiological studies on one diet or another, or one type of food intake in another is vastly different. And, and I think people are underestimated that these studies are done with people who are highly stressed and their bodies are under attack from cortisol and insulin from stress, Brad (43m 34s): the average person, in other words. Dave (43m 38s): Right. The mental chemical production of stress is way more harmful than what you’re going to eat. I mean, granted, you’re not eating really, really bad food, but you know, I mean, that’s a killer is that stress hormone and the insulin release, everyone said, oh, you don’t have a fat problem. You have an insulin problem because you too many carbs, well, stress stresses. You can fast and still gain weight. If you’re always stressed, your body is still going to say store fat with the chemicals. And I think the second thing is the placebo. So one diet works for one person and it doesn’t for another. So, you know, find what works for you and, and stick with it. Dave (44m 17s): But, but rearrange your choices around what works for you and rearrange your choices around what you want to believe in that you’re choosing to believe that’s a pretty wide category choosing what you believe. Brad (44m 35s): Right. You can kind of go envision the life of your dreams and, and go, go make it happen. Dave (44m 43s): But you have to believe it. I mean, the can talks about this in his book. The brain can actually alter DNA. And there are a lot of people that you say, oh, it’s just in my DNA I’m big boned. Or it’s just in my DNA. I’m born heavy. Or it’s just in my DNA. Well actually, actually not. I mean, does it need to, it’s a belief. You’re believing that your DNA is holding you back from something. And a lot of people have proved through anecdotal experiences, certainly Joe Dispenza. And when he’s done with his body and, and his, his spine injury, you know. And what Lipton’s done with his study, if you believe that you can’t do it, if you believe this is your body type, then, then it’s going to be your body type. Brad (45m 30s): It’s difficult to, to, to buy in sometimes, you know. Deepak talks about this, about how we make a new stomach lining every six weeks. And we make new lungs every six months and a new skeleton every 12 months. And so if you have this old knee injury from high school football when you were a superstar down on the bay area and your knee still hurts to this day, because they botched the surgery or whatever. And Deepak says, it’s just the memory of the injury and the bad surgery, rather than you’re you’re bone on bone. And your x-ray shows that your meniscus is all frayed. And so that part, you know, I’m always trying to balance the, you know, the manifesting message with, with the reality. Dave (46m 17s): Well, reality is again, your choice of beliefs, right? I mean, I, and again, I’m, I’m not a superhero. I don’t want to say that I am. And, and I went backpacking this last weekend and I have a torn ACL was never reconstructed. I have a meniscus has been taken out. I do have to slip discs in my back, which I was supposed to have surgery in 2016, L five S one and L four L five. I had surgery scheduled February. Got it. I had the epidural shot to be able to walk. And this last weekend I had a 50 pound backpack and hiked 2000 feet, a five mile hike each way. Dave (46m 59s): And my dad, who’s 78 skit, little tired. I picked up his pack and put it on my pack and he had about a 40 pound pack. So I carried 90 pounds, the last two miles with a torn ACL and torn meniscus in two slipped discs and never felt it. It was just something that I had to do. And it was my belief that I could handle it. That abled me to handle it. I mean, I don’t have to tell you it’s a belief. It really is. I don’t know. I mean, I, I mean, I’m not Brad Kearns setting in records with high jump, but, but it’s true. I mean, you really can imagine whatever you want and you can achieve it. Everyone’s talking about this. It’s just to the degree that you choose to believe it. Dave (47m 41s): And it, it doesn’t mean if you don’t, if you say, I believe it, you know, the fake it until you make it, that what’s his face said, I say, believe it until you believe that your subconscious mind has to believe it until your conscious mind tells you it enough, it’s called the illusory effect. They tell you something yourself, something enough times, you will actually begin to believe it. Your subconscious has to come along for the ride. And if it’s always nay-saying consciously, then your subconscious is going to naysay as well. Brad (48m 10s): And in, in ways that you don’t even realize, right, when you’re, you’re, you’re talking about the, I think this, this idea of manifesting and turning your beliefs into reality is a lot of times pointed at wealth manifestation and, and, you know, living the life of your dreams and involves Lamborghini’s and beautiful homes up on the hill. And I think most people check out, check off that train somewhere early on, because it seems so ridiculous. And thereby once they’ve departed that train, they’re there, they’re not going to they’re, they’re not going to be leading there, but I’d like to dig into that a little deeper, because the way you express yourself on these matters, it really, it really makes a lot of sense. Dave (48m 56s): And well, I mean, I’m just expressing years of heavy reading from lots of people that I, that I cross-reference against each other, and also really heavy personal anecdotes that I’ve experienced. And I’m not coming to you as someone that’s, that’s regurgitating other people’s stuff, but I do, but I’ve actually experienced a lot of these things in my own life, in terms of, I believe that my knee can handle that type of backpacking situation. I just can. I just, I just believe it. I mean, it’s, it’s what I needed to do. And I think when you manifest, if you’re manifesting, you know, a Lamborghini or a big house on the hill, you kind of manifesting your biology to survive again and manifesting doesn’t really care what it is. Dave (49m 42s): Doesn’t it doesn’t, you’re deviating from the greatest good when you want yourself to have a Ferrari. And when you’re wishing that upon yourself, then you’ve missed the whole point because that’s kind of, it kind of has to be the afterthought. It kind of has to be the reward of what you’ve accomplished when you manifest. And, you know, manifesting is about, there’s an author called Neville Goddard. I’m not sure you’ve ever heard of Neville Goddard. He’s written a lot of books and he’s someone that Wayne Dyer talks a lot about. And he coined this phrase, “living the wish fulfilled” so if you, if you talk to, to Lipton and a lot of other people about even, you know, David Hawkins and, you know, all of his books, the eye, the eye of the eye power versus force emotions have an energetic signature. Dave (50m 36s): Now we’re changing from energy of moving around every day and having tons of energy with working out in relationships where we’re talking about vibrational energy. Okay? And I want to separate vibrational energy of your composition from the type of energy that an emotion has. Although they’re kind of similar. If you’re in a meeting and someone walks in with really negative energy, you can sense that also. If somebody is a pretty positive person, but they’re upset and they walk in with feeling upset, you can feel that too. Emotions have an energetic signature. Emotions vibrate at a certain level. And one of the highest vibration emotions is love. Dave (51m 17s): It’s the highest. And that’s also a very misunderstood word love because people think about girlfriends at puberty or boyfriends that they had, or love loss or love gained. And they think about love in terms of somebody else. They think about love with sex. They think about love with making me feel good, which is back to biology. Again, it’s not to serotonin and dopamine. We’re talking about love being a non-physical connective attitude or state of being, not an emotion that’s created from oxytocin or serotonin or dopamine, because those are back the body. Again, we’re talking about spirituality. We’re talking about non-physical love as an emotion and love. Dave (52m 0s): It’s a state of being vibrate, very high. It’s a, it’s an open-mindedness, it’s a giving. It’s a humility. It’s a gratitude. It’s, it’s kind of what binds it all together. And those energetic signatures along the scale from, from disappointment or anger or sadness to love. If you emanate, I don’t have the Lamborghini, that’s an energetic signature. So you can’t manifest. I want it. You have to manifest that you have it. And that’s hard to do. It’s hard to do if you can’t control your thoughts. Brad (52m 40s): Yeah. You wrote, if you form negative associations to money like greed, anxiety, rebellion, guilt, and you’re, then you’re cut off from the force. You can’t manifest things if you’re unhappy or currently stressed. And Luke Storey, the lifestyle is podcasts. We had a great interview. And he said that the, the part people don’t get is that you have to be in a state of gratitude right now for wherever you are in life in order to manifest more. But if you’re driving past, you know, your neighborhood into the, the high rent district and feeling jealous and envious and making pot shots, and I think we have to watch our, our, our verbal very carefully on these matters because we, we manifest these statements really easily. Brad (53m 24s): And we go through the day making self-deprecating comments, or, you know, spiteful, critical comments about whatever it is, especially maybe, you know, resentful of the disparity of wealth and in developed nations these days, or whatever your, whatever your game is. And so you’re immediately cut off. And that, that makes a lot of sense that if you’re not in a state of gratitude, now you can, you know, change the channel and, you know, try to go a smile at the sun and be happy to be alive. Dave (53m 58s): Absolutely. Yeah. If you are negative and negative about yourself, if you look at yourself as a state of low self-esteem or low worth, the reason why desire becomes a fear is that you think you need something to be whole, or you think you need something to be happy, or you think you need something to be grateful for. When that is ultimately the energetic signature of fear. So how do you desire something without quote, desiring something? Well, that’s a little bit different and that’s a little bit tricky, and that takes some time to develop and, you know, live in the wish fulfilled. Dave (54m 45s): You kind of have to put it in check. You kind of have to ask yourself, what’s the intention behind why I want this. If the intention is because I want to have a big house in the hill, because I’ll feel whole, or I’ll, or I’ll feel important, or people will love me. And when people love me, I feel good about myself. That’s a difficult threshold to cross to get that. You know what I mean? Brad (55m 8s): Even if you get it, you might still be miserable carrying your problems with you to the big house, right? Dave (55m 14s): And, and what you said, Luke said, which is gratitude is such a great practice because there’s lots and lots of detail behind that. Brad (55m 22s): And we, we may not have enough time to go into all of the detail about gratitude, because it really is a spiritual practice. You’re breaking from the biology. Being jealous is natural to an animal. Being jealous as they have that carcass. And I want that carcass to eat. They have that shade. I want that shade to survive better and stay cool. It’s natural for animals to compete. And in fact, even within their own pod. Gorillas have, you know, a social order, the big guy who’s ruling the pod, or the group gets to say, this is how we travel. And this is what we do. If not, he’s going to go kick your ass. Dave (56m 3s): That behavior is modeled from the survival of the fittest. And so when you’re practicing gratitude, it goes against biology. And so what did we call it? When we evolve out of our animalistic state? It’s called being civilized. And when we keep going that direction, it’s called spirituality. Spirituality is a more advanced word for being civilized. We’re, we’re, we’re working farther more and more away from the animal way, from what animals do, which is fight. And they’re jealous and they’re competitive. And they’re judging too. I’m happy they have that carcass. I’m sure mine will come. Dave (56m 44s): I’m happy that they have that shade. I’m sure they might share it. Right? Cause we don’t need shade anymore. We don’t need the carcass. There’s like everything’s available to us. We, we, oh, we still have an animal side to us that we need to break free from. And gratitude is a wonderful practice to do that. Brad (57m 2s): Yeah. I guess logistically it could get difficult because we’re so buried in noise and, and, and stress and, you know, consumerism and peer influences. And I know just quickly back to your story where you were the guy who was with, with the bigger face in the, in the, in the portraits, like who’s that guy. So, you know, you, you lost your health and you were even know you had a material success, you weren’t in a position to be gratitude, be grateful. And, you know, we’re kind of, kind of in that rut. And so I guess, yeah. Tell me about that. Dave (57m 42s): That was insanely jealous of people that were more successful than me and I was insanely jealous of people that could get, it could be in better shape than I was or lose weight. And that was incredibly painful to feel like I didn’t have any control over that. And then when they let go of that is when I actually gained control. I would, I remember just crying and I just have no control. I can’t lose weight. I can’t do this. And I can’t do that. And I should have these things. And I don’t. And when I stopped having those things is when I got those things. Brad (58m 17s): So I just see that disbelief, you let go of the, you let go of the frustration, right. Then you woke up the next day. And then you said, what are you going to choose to eat, not burdened by that negativity that you’re such a failed dieter? Or is that what you’re trying to say? Dave (58m 34s): Well, I let go of the fact that being thin was important. I let go of the fact that money would make me happy. Now, let go of the fact that it mattered how people looked at me. Because when I let go of how people looked at me, I changed how I looked at myself. Instead of comparing myself to my own programming, I began to stop that. I began to not derive any value from how people viewed me or how I viewed myself and just let that go. I mean, it’s kind of like Mark Manson’s title, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Dave (59m 16s): Right. And it’s, it’s more than that. It’s a currency that, that animals exchange to survive. It’s that I don’t want to be alone syndrome. I don’t want to be the only one having this thought or the only one on this diet, or I find a lot of strength in the majority believing that this works right. You know, when we let go of that currency, we’re letting go of the body. We’re letting go of the ego relating go of those drivers. And we’re choosing a different path. We’re not our self worth, isn’t going up or down based on what others think of us. And also it’s not going up or down based on what I think of myself. Dave (59m 58s): I don’t think of myself as anything. And that’s an important place to get to. And you said something about being stressed and how do we do this when we’re so stressed? Well, that’s kind of where meditation comes in is that it’s at least 20 minutes of not being stressed. All the factors in your life still exists when you take cocaine and you don’t feel it at that moment, right? You’re like, ah, this is so great. And I feel so happy, right? All the factors still exist. And the thing with that is that’s fully chemical. It doesn’t provide any value. It provides no longevity. It absolutely destroys so many aspects spiritually and physically, but meditation does exactly the same thing you depart from your problems. Dave (1h 0m 40s): It doesn’t mean the problems go away. It means you practice departing from them. So you’re better able to handle them. You’re better able to work through them. You’re better able to get help and be vulnerable and find ways out and find new avenues and read and learn, and grow and interact and ask for help. There’s so many benefits that come from being able to process that information. Brad (1h 1m 5s): Tell us about your course, how that works. Dave (1h 1m 9s): So I think for a lot of people, meditation was incredible, is incredibly confusing. I did, I didn’t know the difference between a silent meditation and the guided meditation. I spent a thousand dollars on a class. It didn’t really teach me. Hmm. So I thought people have the same problems. And I think people don’t know, people come to me and say, oh, I can’t meditate. My mind gets busy. Well, that means you need it. And that also means it’s working. So I developed a course. It’s kind of a, how to it’s 14 days, which is like the popular a 14 day mountain challenge. It’s not a challenge. It’s 14 days. And every day is a 10 minute lesson that says, when you close your eyes, this is what you want to do. Dave (1h 1m 49s): This is how you want to sit. This is what you want to do. This is how you want to set it up. This is what environment you want to be in. Which basically means you don’t want to be all riled up. And right after a fight, you, you want to already kind of be in a calmer state. You don’t want to be agitated and no, your adrenal glands are going off. And then you’re going to say, I’m going to meditate now. It’s not used, calm yourself down. It’s used to practice breaking mentation. It’s the class that says, look, this is what you do. This is what’s going to happen. This is what you’re gonna think about. This is how you’re going to get over that. This is how you’re going to maintain your practice. This is what’s normal. Here’s some tips on how to get through it. Here are some expectations to have. And if you do this for six months, you’ll literally change the composition of your brain. Dave (1h 2m 35s): It’s been clinically studied about what happens to your brain when you meditate. Brad (1h 2m 39s): Maybe I’ll have a longer attention span, which is one of my concerns about modern life. Having lived half my life, without the hyper-connectivity and the mobile device, it feels like we’re all at, at shortened attention span and everything. We go through our day with conversation and our own thoughts in our brain and you know, racing at the highest speed and history of humanity. Dave (1h 2m 59s): Well, it’s funny is, is that I, I always tell people the most important meditation is the one that you do when you don’t want to do it. Because again, you’re forcing yourself to break the stress mold. And so morning meditation is very difficult for me. I’m like, I’m a go getter. I wake up early. I’ve lots to do. I got phone calls to make. I have lists in my head with things to do and I’ll make up and I’m ready to go. And I say, stop, stop, stop, stop. Everything takes a break. Nothing’s going to fall apart in 20 minutes, I’m going to show what power I have over my life. And I’m going to meditate right now. And I do it at night. That’s a little bit tougher for me because I’m a little stressed out and a lot more it’s processing in my day. Dave (1h 3m 42s): At night. So the night of meditations are actually harder to do the meditation. Easier to start harder to facilitate the morning is the exact opposite. It’s really hard to break the day and stop. But the meditation itself is, is actually very easy. Brad (1h 3m 59s): Yeah. Your brain is refreshed I guess. Dave (1h 4m 1s): Right. From sleep. Exactly. Yeah. Brad (1h 4m 3s): So we go to Dave rossi.com to enroll in the course. Yeah. Dave (1h 4m 10s): Dave Rossi, global.com. You can sign up online. It’s very easy delivery system. There are 14 days between five minutes to 10 minutes of lecture. There’s some homework. We call it value added exercises, but it’s a little bit of homework. And then there’s a seven audios that when you’re ready to meditate, you listen to those audios. There’s lots of pauses. It kind of talks you through it. It kind of reminds you what you’re supposed to do. And when you want to meditate, you play those. So a little bit of soft music, but a lot of silence, we’re trying to work up to a 20 minute silent meditation without getting up and vomiting. Yeah. Let’s not easy to do. It takes time. Brad (1h 4m 50s): Yeah. Good stuff, man. So when are you going to, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it just to honor my, my, my podcast interview here and your, your constant reminders and encouragement. I super appreciate it. Maybe I’ll have to stack it with my morning routine. It’s already so long. It’s like, what’s another 20 Dave (1h 5m 10s): if I have a choice, but an exercise or meditation, not pick I’ll pick meditation first. Brad (1h 5m 16s): Wow, Dave (1h 5m 17s): absolutely. And I’m into fitness. Brad (1h 5m 20s): I’m echoing Deepak Chopra’s comment about his daily meditation, which he starts at 4:00 AM and he goes to 6:00 AM every day. And I, I believe he was asked on the interview. I heard it might’ve been on mindbodygreen podcast. And the guy said, you know, what about, what about don’t? You need more sleep. And he said that the, the meditation is more restful than two additional hours of sleep. And so he’s a more rested human because he wakes up at 4:00 AM and continues till 6:00 AM. And I’m like, that’s bad-ass level, level 79. And I can’t even imagine that concept, but it’s so awesome. It coming from him, he knows what he’s talking about. So, you know, who knows maybe someday I’ll be that guy before the sunrise taking the first two hours of the day to, to increase my energy. Brad (1h 6m 7s): Vis-a-vis lying in bed, you know, listening to my ocean sounds well. Dave (1h 6m 12s): He had the benefit of Maharaji Mahesh actually teaching him meditation. I mean, he was, he was well-known enough Deepak to actually have Maharaji teach him. There’s a lot of science behind that. I mean, I, I think he’s right, that you do get a lot of energy and a lot of rest through meditation. Yeah. I mean, your brain is a lot of mentation is very taxing and very tiring. I think meditation would do wonders for you. I think he would actually change so much of what you’re doing and it wouldn’t. And I think you have so many great lessons in your podcasts. Like I’m stunned at how much one can learn on your podcast and what stopping anyone from applying. Dave (1h 6m 55s): Those is their ability to make the choices, to follow the advice that people are giving them. Can’t follow the advice. If you can’t follow the diet, if you can’t eat keto, if you can’t stay away from carbs, if you can’t stop eating sugar or drinking alcohol, you’re going to have a hard time meeting some of this, this advice, this wonderful life that creates so much value. And meditation really is that start, that start to strengthen your I choose muscle. And I’m a big supporter of that. Brad (1h 7m 24s): The I choose muscle. Yes. That’s Dave Rossi. Everybody send us your comments podcast@bradventures.com. Dave and I’ll talk it over and we’ll, we’ll tee him up for show number five. It’s always fun times. Keep doing what you’re doing. And everyone go to Dave Rossi global and sign up for the course. Let’s let’s do this already. It’s time. Dave (1h 7m 44s): It’s time. Brad (1h 7m 50s): It’s time. Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support please. Email podcast@bradventures.com with feedback, suggestions and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list to Brad kearns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bimonthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. 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