LISTEN: We appreciate all feedback, and questions for Q&A shows, emailed to podcast@bradventures.com. If you have a moment, please share an episode you like with a quick text message, or leave a review on your podcast app. Thank you! Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, I won’t promote anything that I don’t absolutely love and use in daily life:

• Peluva: Comfortable, functional, stylish five-toe minimalist shoe to reawaken optimal foot function. Use code BRADPODCAST for 15% off!
• Mito Red Light: Photobiomodulation light panels to enhance cellular energy production, improve recovery, and optimize circadian rhythm. Use code BRAD for 5% discount!
• Wild Health: Comprehensive online health consultation with blood and DNA testing, personal coaching and precision medicine. Get things dialed in! Use discount code BRAD20 for 20% off!
• Take The (Cold) Plunge online course!
• B.rad Whey + Creatine Superfuel: Premium quality, all-natural supplement for peak performance, recovery, and longevity. New Cocoa Bean flavor!
• Online educational courses: Numerous great offerings for an immersive home-study educational experience
• NEW: B.rad Superfruits: Organic Freeze-Dried Exotic Fruit Powder! Natural Electrolyte Hydration & Energy Powder
• Primal Fitness Expert Certification: The most comprehensive online course on all aspects of traditional fitness programming and a total immersion fitness lifestyle. Save 25% on tuition with code BRAD!
• Male Optimization Formula with Organs (MOFO): Optimize testosterone naturally with 100% grassfed animal organ supplement

Brad’s Favorites on Amazon I have a newly organized shopping experience at BradKearns.com/Shop. Visit here and you can navigate to my B.rad Nutrition products (for direct order or Amazon order), my library of online multimedia educational courses, great discounts from my affiliate favorites, and my recommended health&fitness products on Amazon. TRANSCRIPT: Brad (00:00:00): Welcome to the B.rad podcast, where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life without taking ourselves too seriously. I’m Brad Kearns, New York Times bestselling author, former number three, world ranked professional triathlete and Guinness World Record Masters athlete. I connect with experts in diet, fitness, and personal growth, and deliver short breather shows where you get simple actionable tips to improve your life right away. Let’s explore beyond the hype hacks, shortcuts, and sciencey. Talk to laugh, have fun and appreciate the journey. It’s time to B.rad. Brad (00:00:38): When you get angry, fearful, anxious about the future, depressed about the past. This is coming from repeating your stories and keeping you stuck. So master your perceptions. Master your Brad (00:00:52): Welcome to the first of a series of shows of some of my favorite podcast insights from the many great guests I’ve had in over 500 shows now published. And I’m gonna categorize these into general personal growth insights. And then we’ll do a show covering relationship insights, and then more on health and fitness diet, exercise topics. So this one will be general personal growth insights from the various guests. Some of the tidbits are quite short and some are more lengthy. So I think it’ll be a fun and entertaining mix of great insights that hopefully will stay with you and improve your life. And I think we have to start with my main man, Dave Rossi, who’s been on the podcast four times. And I have sticky notes and journal entries of some of his great, uh, messages that I think about every day. And one of my favorites is the quote, what should I be doing about this right now? Brad (00:01:57): This is the question to ask yourself. Whenever you experience fear, anxiety, negative emotions, you ask yourself the question, what should I be doing about this right now? And discipline yourself to let go of what you can’t control, and instead, go with the flow of life. Remember that your brain computations are what generate emotions and a lot of your brain computations. A lot of the thoughts that you formulate are driven by flawed childhood programming and distorted values, spiritual beliefs, programming, influences of society, consumerism, fear-based media programming, and all those kind of things that allow, uh, negativity and, uh, stressful thoughts to float into your brain. So you can ask yourself anytime, whatever the issue is, what should I be doing about this right now? If you’re able to take some action, if you’re stressing about the future, or getting a job, or your finances, or your fitness or your health, yes, you can take a decisive action right away, and that will alleviate that anxiety that occurs when you live in your brain. Brad (00:03:15): Maybe you can, uh, suggest to yourself that you don’t need to be in control, that you can let these thoughts and these emotions go and float away and return to the present. Another quote from Dave, along the same lines, you can’t think yourself into new ways of acting. You can only act yourself into new ways of thinking. Now, I have another tidbit written down about parenting. So quick tips from Dave Rossi about parenting. when you’re speaking to especially, like a teenager where sometimes the communication gets frayed, you wanna make direct eye contact, have constant affirmations of love and support, however, you’re gonna dispense the feedback that you need to, and you’re gonna do so with loving kindness. It’s best to treat them like equals in the family with respect instead of using authoritarian or take it or leave it style advice, especially when there’s that potential for rebellion and disengagement when they come into adolescent years. Brad (00:04:22): So you can make comments like, uh, you can tee up things like, it’s okay to ignore my advice, and I may be wrong. However, I suggest that you pay attention to your grades in high school if you wanna get into college, whatever the message you have to share at that time. And then closing, uh, maybe difficult discussions with things like, I believe in you, and I’m definitely right about that, where you said you might be wrong about the advice you’re giving, but I believe in you. I might be, and I’m certain I’m right about that. you brighten my day, you know, general statements of affirmation and positivity. And we’ll get into some of the, uh, insights that was shared by my former podcast guest, Ashley Merryman, relating to the best way to talk to your kids. And the best thing to emphasize and the wonderful article titled The Inverse Power of Praise. Brad (00:05:15): Maybe I should skip to that right now, since we’re talking about parenting. This was an article that was written in the New York Times in 2007, and it absolutely changed my philosophy about parenting on the spot. And I thought about the article every single day. I’ve thought about it every single day since then for the last 17 years when engaged in parenting philosophy and strategies. So, Ashley, who was on my show several years ago, she’s the bestselling author, with her writing partner, Po Bronson of Nurture Shock, as well as another book called Top Dog, the Science of Winning and Losing. But in Nurture Shock she talked about how parents with mistaken good intentions oftentimes can screw up their kids which was the same, sort of theme covered by the, the article in the New York Times titled, the Inverse Power of Praise, how Not to Talk To Your Kids. Brad (00:06:21): And that article, which quoted Ashley and Po and also, uh, was greatly inspired by the popular work from Stanford researcher Carol Dweck, and her concept of growth mindset as opposed to fixed mindset. Hopefully you’ve heard about these concepts but I’ll give you the basic overview, as it comes to parenting. The presentation is that praise can be damaging, especially in modern times when kids are often over coddled and protected from failure as they are concurrently immersed into overly competitive academic and athletic experiences. So when you are trying to support your kid and build their self-esteem, Ashley called it the self-esteem movement or the self-esteem generation where perhaps previous generations, uh, were oftentimes sharing stories about being brought up with strict parents on the farm. And we were up at 5:00 AM when the bell rang. We had to go milk the cows. Brad (00:07:22): We didn’t get a lot of warm fuzzy, uh, but we grew up to be strong, resilient people. And so now we’ve kind of switched the pendulum over to, uh, coddling these kids and telling ’em they’re awesome and wonderful. And Ashley’s very dismissive of the strategy of every kid gets a trophy. And you’ve heard that as kind of a tagline. I kind of, uh, disagree with that in a way because, I gave out trophies to every kid on all the teams that I coach. And there were great many teams that I coached for my son and daughter. Um, and I think it’s deserving of a celebration because you don’t know what every kid is bringing to the table when they make it through an athletic season. Sometimes that’s a wonderful achievement deserving of a trophy. It doesn’t mean they’re the greatest athlete or whatever. Brad (00:08:05): You don’t have to read too much into it. So it’s not a big deal, uh, as a gesture. But I think, uh, when she discusses the concept further of praising these kids for, you know, accomplishing very little, just showing up, that’s when things can get distorted. So, back to the article and some of the messaging from Carol Dweck, Ashley Merryman, praise can be damaging because if you tell a child quote, you are smart, or you’re so pretty, or you’re such a great athlete, or you’re amazing at math, it’s possible for the child to become socialized to overvalue their innate intelligence or physical beauty or athletic ability, and learn to trade on that in life instead of working hard to constantly grow and improve and take risks accordingly, in pursuit of personal growth and improvement. The article discusses how a kid doesn’t need that type of praise anyway, because very early on, kids learn on the street in the rough, the rough playground at the elementary school, they already realize or learn00:08:05] that they’re smart or athletic or even physically attractive. Brad (00:09:18): It’s not necessary to drum on these points in order to boost self-esteem. And, in fact, it has the potential to make their self-esteem more fragile because they become attached to this type of praise and become unwilling to take risks and tackle new challenges. You realize they’re protecting their cred as an amazing athlete. ’cause their father told him so because they scored a basket in the basketball game, so they don’t wanna sign up for basketball camp that summer. The article has great tidbits from research where they, um, teed up these kids before they took, uh, for example, an academic exam. And some of the kids were told they’re so amazing at math problems. And then they, then they had another math test, and then they told other kids where, um, they emphasized the effort that they made and praise them for the effort rather than the result, or rather than innate character attributes. Brad (00:10:18): And that is the winning formula. And that’s the most important takeaway here when we’re talking about parenting. So the major tenet of effective parenting is to praise the effort versus praise innate character attributes. Alsomentioned in Ashley’s show is that you wanna be honest with your feedback. So instead of saying you’re a great little basketball player, you could say there’s a lot of great, there’s a lot of kids who are, uh, really skilled in sports. And, um, it, it looks like you’re gonna have a real challenge getting selected for the middle school basketball team. Uh, things like that where you’re just telling the reality rather than blowing smoke. Also, I remember from the article Inverse Power of Praise. The kids become very astute at filtering out what is blather and what is actual authentic praise. And boy, I can definitely relate to that, where, whatever people are trying to get on your good side, or they’re just operating from programming and spewing things out, uh, just, uh, as a matter of course, rather than, you know, really making a detailed compliment on a specific attribute or a performance attribute. Brad (00:11:36): So be honest with your feedback. Of course, you can say anything you want as long as it’s warm and supportive. The second is to praise the effort, not the character, as I mentioned. And then, during my interview with Ashley, I remember that she, uh, made a, a big point to clarify or, or add some nuance to this idea of praising effort rather than in results or, or character attributes. Innate character attributes. She said, it’s important to focus on and praise effort toward improvement. So it’s simply not enough today to praise the effort that can lead to a long life of banging your head against the wall, just grinding away because you’ve been praised for making effort your whole life. And maybe if that effort is misdirected or it is not leading toward improvement or personal growth or escalating skill, that’s a recipe for frustration and falling short of your potential. Brad (00:12:35): And oh, yeah, guess what? <laugh> life is super duper competitive these days. So praising your kid for making a wonderful effort every single day, and they’re not getting any better. Uh, that’s when it’s important to intervene and say, Hey, why are you hitting so many golf shots when your swing is so terrible? Kind of thing, right? Okay. So when you praise effort toward improvement, you get focused on skill building, which is very empowering and the best way to nurture true self-esteem and also get along the way those wonderful senses of making progress and satisfaction for making it through the various stages. And of course, that entails a lot of failure and setbacks. I just heard a quick from my former podcast guest, David Epstein, author of the Sports Gene and Author of Range, and he said that you should be failing around 15 to 20% of the time, which is a great indication that you’re in your zone of excellence, right? Brad (00:13:40): So if you’re always succeeding and, and coming through and sailing through life with A plus scores, that means you’re probably, uh, falling short of your potential because you’re not taking on challenges that are too daunting right now, and providing learning experiences from failure. So that is the, the quick takeaway from the show with Ashley Merryman, the great article and, uh, writing right on the coattails of those, quick parenting tidbits from Dave Rossi. Brad (00:14:12): Coming up next, my wonderful 2024 interview with Thais Gibson, personal growth expert. And this is a show, as I mentioned in the intro to the show, one of my favorite shows that I’ve ever done. And something that’s really had me thinking since the day we recorded many months ago. I think about it all the time. ’cause she pretty much got me into the hot seat partway through the interview where I’m interviewing her about her work and her offerings with her personal growth courses. Brad (00:14:43): She said, well, maybe the best way to convey this is to have you be the subject Brad <laugh>. So she asked me about what things that I’m struggling with or falling short on. And I believe the example I referenced was my financial responsibility, wealth building, my perspective on all these things and my coming through and aligning my behavior with my values and beliefs. And it was a really illuminating personal growth exercise that highlighted her points very well. And so, she describes how when there is a conflict between your goals and behaviors, that is the definition of self-sabotage. And it’s typically rooted in flawed childhood programming. For example, people carry around the subconscious belief that they’re not deserving, let’s say, of abundant wealth and the freedom that comes with it, or whatever the topic we’re talking about. Brad (00:15:39): Maybe even it’s the fabulous body that you dream about and you set the goal you want to have a visible six pack by summertime or whatever. But then deep down you feel undeserving. And so you’re not making progress in achieving these goals because of flawed childhood programming. Again, the conflict between your goals and behaviors is the true definition of self-sabotage. Now, when we say rooted in flawed childhood programming, we hear this term bantered about by so many experts these days. It’s like the hot tip of psychology. We have to acknowledge that our subconscious that’s driven by the programming controls 95% of our thoughts and actions throughout the day. The subconscious is very powerful, and it will get its needs met no matter what. So you will self-sabotage no matter what, until you awaken to the idea that you are behaving in conflict between your goals and behaviors. Brad (00:16:45): Let’s see. The example that was used on me where I say, Thais, I have goals of being more financially responsible and successful, yet I seem to be falling short. And then she asked me those hard questions of how do you spend your time? How do you spend your free time, things like that. And I said, well, I, I do exercise, health and fitness things. And that, uh, showed that the areas where in which I’m most successful, I kind of are gravitating to spontaneously. And then where do I possibly spend not enough time? Oh, pouring over expenses, <laugh> reports and spreadsheets, and tracking my financial prowess and my financial progress. So I tend to distract myself from my stated goal of being financially astute, and instead am out there exercising and working out. So that’s getting my needs, my subconscious needs met no matter what. Brad (00:17:45): So if you want to overcome that conflict between your goals and behaviors, you need to sync them. The subconscious responds not to written to-do lists or stated goals, but it responds to emotion and imagery, not to even logic, not even to written stated goals. The subconscious responds to emotions and imagery. So, how do you spend your free time, and how would you like to transform your life to improve? You’re going to, um, kind of sink the ways that, uh, the things that you enjoy. Like I mentioned my example of exercise, and now the idea here is to break through my flawed subconscious programming, perhaps feeling undeserving or whatever it is, and spend my free time pouring over expenses from my credit card transactions and places where I might lack responsibility or due diligence and, and rolling up my sleeves and putting in the time necessary. Brad (00:18:48): So, that’s, that was a big takeaway for me. And then every day when I’m out there working out where, which I do so automatically without requiring motivation or e even written stated goals, I’m just called there by my subconscious programming, right? I think about, gee, um, maybe I can apply this automatic behavior, this incredibly fantastic habit that I have for the lifelong commitment to health and fitness. Maybe I can apply that in the other direction of my stated goals where I’m falling short. Does that make sense? And then here’s a practical tip that Thais mentions. Create an audio, an audio recording on your phone or whatever of your new vision, and listen to it three minutes per day for 21 days. And that will help, bring the subconscious programming into your conscience and be enable you or set you up for change. Brad (00:19:45): That’s why I mentioned that I think about the show every day, because am I listening to an audio recording of my new vision? Three minutes a day for the last 21 days? No, I’m not. Perhaps I’ll be inspired to do it after finishing this recording. But that is some really, really powerful stuff from Tais Gibson. I strongly encourage you to listen to that show. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of great takeaways. Brad (00:20:08): Next on the list. I go to Luke Storey, and he’s got a great podcast of his own called The Life Stylist, gets a lot into the spiritual and the woo woo stuff. And, one thing that we talked about that really resonated, uh, was the topic of manifestation. Because I’ve kind of been sitting on the sidelines, perhaps with that healthy skepticism when you hear these people, especially guests on podcasts, uh, going on and on about how they, you know, called immense wealth and, um, you know, happiness and the dream life into their, into their scene simply by practicing manifestation techniques. Brad (00:20:52): And as probably the majority of people listening who aren’t deep into it, there’s that healthy skepticism, like, yeah, right. Now, Luke addressed this topic with, um, a tremendous insight that I wanna share with you. And he says, manifestation usually does not work because our mindset cuts us off from the potential power that it might have. So, if you are a skeptic or a non-believer in the powerful forces of manifestation, guess what? You are absolutely correct, and it’s not going to happen for you because you are not open to the possibilities. So in order for the powers of manifestation to work and make magic in your own life, the starting point is that you must be grateful for your current situation, your current material possessions, your current status of your relationships, whatever that thing is that you’re feeling like is a void in your life. Brad (00:21:52): And you wish you could call in that dream man who’s six foot two or taller, prefers to fly privately rather than commercial, has a nice five o’clock stubble, usually and dresses in the, the finest apparel and, and so forth. Um, you cannot be feeling envious, jealous, or lacking in your personal, uh, experience today. Otherwise, you’re going to be immediately cut off from the power there. Now, now that we feel grateful for our current status and our current state of health and relationships and being alive and breathing every day on this planet, then we are able to dabble in, for example, creating a specific vision, feeling deserving and activating your wonderful imagination to imagine the possibilities ahead of you for the life that you dream of. Um, so the, um, the, the I am statements can be powerful here. Brad (00:22:57): These are things that, uh, can prescribe your future and program your brain. Your life is like a GPS you program the destination and your path unfolds to get you there. So if you start talking in I am statements, um, I remember meeting a guy at a trade show just walking the halls, and I locked, made eye contact, and the guy said, Hey, come on over. You wanna do my little exercise? And I said, sure. And he said, write down three of your main goals, but don’t write them as a goal. Write them as, um, I am world champion in speed golf. I am a New York Times bestselling author, and, uh, write another I am statement and, uh, carry this piece of paper around. And that kind of shifts from a goal, which we all know, we have a lot of, a lot of us have a hard time believing in the goals that we write down, and then also achieving them in the second place. Brad (00:23:55): So it was a pretty fun exercise and unforgettable to look at things from a different perspective and use these I am statements. And then speaking of that, you know, feeling grateful for your current situation, and then creating a speci specific vision, feeling deserving, and using your imagination. What I just talk about with Thais Gibson, she said, create an audio of your new vision and listen to it for three minutes a day, times 21 days. So if you’re listening to a new audio, describing what you want to do to improve your life, and write that conflict between your goals and behaviors and the self-sabotaging patterns that you engage in, you have to be open and starting with being grateful. Love it. Thank you. And Luke Storey. Brad (00:24:39): Next we, go on to Don Goewey. And the title of his show was Stop Fixing Yourself and Rewire Your Brain for Happiness. He described a four step process to become more self-aware, and well-adjusted,. Number one is heighten your awareness. So that means noticing what are your triggers instead of operating, as we said before, 95% of the time from flawed subconscious programming that happened to childhood, which I guess is the sort of the essence of, uh, what’s, what triggers you trigger being descriptive of, you know, an automatic reaction. You fly off the handle when someone cuts you off in traffic for some reason. Who knows, maybe they’re rushing to the hospital because someone in the car’s, in labor, we don’t know that. But instead, we get triggered and activate our temper when something happens on the roadway. So instead, notice, heighten your awareness of what triggers you. And then by definition, you can have more control over it, rather than it being in the category of trigger. Oh, isn’t this easy for us to see when this happens in other people? Ha ha, there she goes, getting triggered. Again, I can realize exactly why, ’cause I’m sitting here observing, but maybe not as good of that when you get triggered yourself, <laugh>. Okay? So, uh, that was step number one is heighten your awareness. Brad (00:26:14): Number two, look inside. Realize that your perception is what creates reality. Ooh, that’s pretty deep. So reality is basically, um, there is no fixed reality, right? It’s your perception, creating your reality. And guess what, that might be a little different than someone else’s reality. Number three, don’t identify with negative thoughts or emotions. They are not you. They are just something that’s independent from you like Dave Rossi said, when, um, talking about, uh, your thoughts, let them go and discipline your mind to say, instead, uh, what should I be doing about this right now? And after that, go with the flow. Your negative thoughts and emotions are not you. Finally, his fourth tip is to become more self-aware and well adjusted, realize that everything shall pass. Brad (00:27:16): Okay? Next, we go on to John Demartini, who was chock full of amazing quick tidbits to help you with your personal growth and really healthy, empowering mindset and love having this guy on. And I really love listening to his podcast, where the programs are very short, but filled with, uh, actionable insights and memorable takeaways. Probably my favorite one was when he was talking about, uh, the essence of a, a healthy, well just in life is to pursue what he calls your inspired purpose. What is your inspired purpose? Here’s his question. What do you do spontaneously every day that requires no motivation and brings you joy and fulfillment and makes a positive contribution to the world? That is your inspired purpose. So he wants, especially in the context of career, he corrected us when we, we talk so frequently about follow your passion. That’s the secret to life. And he said, go look up passion in the, uh, on the, uh, on the dictionary. And I’m gonna wait, we’ll pause the show right now. I’m like, okay, hold on a sec. Brad (00:28:32): Oh, passion. The Latin root word is to suffer. So when we pursue our passions, a lot of times that leads to suffering. And he makes a critical distinction between pursuing your passion and pursuing your inspired purpose. So it’s something that you do spontaneously every day, requires no motivation, brings joy and fulfillment. And I think I add this add-on myself that might’ve been editorialized makes a positive contribution to the world. Because if you declare that your inspired purpose is playing video games in the basement, and that’s what really gets you excited, and you do it spontaneously every day, requiring no motivation, um, we have to add that other one to really actualize your the highest level of contentment, happiness, and satisfaction. Now, if you’re not exactly pursuing your inspired purpose every single day, whatever you’re doing, it’s important to see that such as an, an in between job or, you know, a menial job that’s not aligned with your ultimate advanced training and, and, uh, academic degree, whatever. Brad (00:29:36): See it as a stepping stone. So, uh, keep your eyes and ears open and realize that you bagging groceries right now is an important stepping stone to one day, <laugh> owning a company of your own and dealing with, uh, a payroll and insurance, whatever the example might be. And, that’s a nice, healthy way to see, instead of getting stuck right now, all you’re doing is you’re on a stepping stone. And when the time’s right, you’re gonna take another step closer and closer toward your inspired purpose. Uh, here’s more on the topic. We create internal conflict with our authentic self. When we use terms like I need to, I should, or I have to. Internal conflict with our authentic self. So, banish those statements from your vocabulary, and instead put the mindset, the thinking back toward inspired purpose and doing things that really, you know, light you up inside. Brad (00:30:43): Realize that the things that you do in life that require a lot of motivation and willpower are gonna be difficult to excel in because these are flimsy and unreliable drivers of behavior. That’s right. Willpower is regularly depleted every single day. Our willpower is stronger in the morning than it is late in the evening when we’re staring at that pint of Ben and Jerry’s, or thinking about streaming another show on Netflix, even though we realize that we should get to bed. So motivation and willpower are overrated. They’re flimsy and unreliable. And instead, we want to get in that sweet spot where we’re, uh, doing our main contribution spontaneously. All right? And if, again, back to belief systems, if you think this is nonsense, just like the concept of manifestation, you probably will remain stuck in a life that is not aligned with your inspired purpose. Brad (00:31:44): So open, open yourself up to the possibilities, and find those things that really light you up, and that’s the signal, uh, for what to pursue as a career and perhaps, uh, as hobbies or how you spend the rest of your time. Okay, here’s another Demartini, dealing with emotions and fears. This is self in pro, it’s self-imposed drama to see only the downside of events. Remember, it’s your perception and your decisions and actions about these perceptions that matter. Repeating your stories works the amygdala and weakens the forebrain, keeping you stuck. Practice mastering your perceptions, and you will master your mind. Does that make sense? It’s, let’s say we just had a recent a presidential election in the United States, and people have all kinds of perceptions about it, um, that, uh, it could be causing them, uh, uh, strife or discomfort. Uh, are you gonna take action? Brad (00:32:46): What are you gonna do about it? In my case, stay in the lane of promoting healthy living and educating and inspiring people to follow this path, and has absolutely nothing to do with, uh, things like, uh, political election. So I’m not going to do anything except for, uh, work on what I can control. Um, what should I be doing about this right now? And making those decisions and taking action, uh, that is better than, uh, trafficking in, uh, what our culture seems to be very good at, which is to repeat the stories and work the amygdala. That’s the primitive part of the brain. So when you get angry, fearful, anxious about the future, depressed about the past, this is coming from repeating your stories and keeping you stuck. So master your perceptions, master your mind. Another Demartini-ism fill your days with high priority actions, or they’ll become filled with low priority distractions. Brad (00:33:54): If you don’t empower your life, other people will overpower you. If you aren’t living according to your highest values, then you will succumb to distraction and instant gratification. And that pretty much describes, uh, a huge percentage of modern life, uh, where we have so much potential for nonstop, uh, hyperconnectivity, distractibility, instant gratification that we have kind of departed from this lauded pursuit of our inspired purpose. Instead, uh, our content to just be entertained and stimulated all day long. So, I love the wake up call that Demartini provides to think further about what do you do spontaneously every day that requires no motivation and brings you joy and fulfillment, and makes a positive contribution to the world? That’s huge. That’s huge. I love it. Brad (00:34:45): Dain Heer, another great guest, um, title of the show was Letting Go of Trauma and Drama with Total Ease and Freeing The Chihuahuas <laugh>. I guess that was probably chatter in the mind. I can’t remember why I titled the show that way, but he gave this great little suggestion for a mental exercise, and I think about a lot, uh, when I’m resting. Um, so what he suggested was, uh, as a practice, uh, to improve your ability to expand your awareness of your present everyday life situation. Imagine floating above your home, close your eyes, right? Relax, get, get into a relaxing position, uh, and then imagine floating into the sky above your home, and taking in the surrounding radius of one mile in your immediate neighborhood. Yeah, float up there and just check out the, the mile radius below you, and then, uh, expand that to a 10 mile radius of awareness. Okay? Now I’m taking in the whole giant lake over there that’s two miles away, and seeing the whole, uh, the, the Tahoe Basin, they call it. Brad (00:36:02): Then I’m going to practice a hundred mile radius. So now I’m taking in, um, a huge chunk of, uh, northern California and Northern Nevada, and then I’m gonna go to a thousand mile radius. I’m taking in the entire west coast, all the way down to Mexican border, Canadian border, and I’m just floating up there above my home where I started. And, uh, realizing, uh, in that sense that I insignificant in that perspective, and maybe that will help me to, uh, get over myself and all the, you know, ruminating thoughts and challenges that are occupying my brain. Instead of just, uh, letting things go, asking myself, what should I be doing about this right now? And perhaps what I should be doing about, the things floating around is to just take a, a real float and go from one mile to 10 mile to a hundred mile to a thousand mile radius. Brad (00:36:57): Here’s more from Dain. When you get frustrated, ask yourself a question. Who does this belong to? So, if you’re having an interpersonal situation, you can say, does this belong to the other person? Like, are they dumping on me their issues? And so it belongs to them. Clearly, it’s, it’s not my problem. They’re just getting triggered. Okay, well, if it belongs to the other person, then it’s not your problem. Let them, let them chew on that, and don’t let it ruin your life. Oh, how about does it belong to you? Are you the one getting triggered and getting frustrated by the clerk who’s asking too many questions and can’t remember, uh, how to spell your name the second time? Well, um, that’s your issue. Then you have the power to let it go. So by asking who does it belong to, you can let things go in either example if it belongs to them or it belongs to you. Brad (00:37:53): Along those lines, Dain reflects that those who are most sensitive as a personality trait, those who are most sensitive, suffer the most depression and anxiety. So it’s really important if you’re a sensitive type to realize that that’s a really strong, uh, personal attribute, but you’re also more vulnerable to getting, uh, pushed around, uh, in modern life and suffering from depression and anxiety. So you have to make a considered effort to let go of trauma and drama, realize that your sensitivity should just be an attribute, but never a liability. More from Dain, living your truth makes you feel lighter. Living a lie makes you feel heavier. And, and this could relate to any kind of lying. Lying to others, of course, it gives you that, uh, uh, uh, uncomfortable feeling inside that actually weights you down in a metaphysical sense. Brad (00:38:53): It could also mean lying to yourself. So you’re a nice, upstanding citizen. You’re not <laugh>, you’re not BSing people, uh, with, uh, you know, selling them crappy used cars. But if you’re lying to yourself about something, and this pulls me back to the insights from Thais Gibson, where I’m on camera saying, well, these are my goals. Thais, I want to be more blank, blank, blank, and blank, blank, blank. But then I’m spending my time, uh, doing other things that are my subconscious is drawn to and deliberately avoiding and distracting as a coping mechanism for things that I’m uncomfortable with, because they are areas where, uh, my stated goals and behaviors are in conflict. And then I am literally self-sabotaging. So lying to yourself makes you feel heavy and weighted down as opposed to being truthful. So the, the exercise here is to ask yourself, how can I change with total ease? Brad (00:39:57): And so if you practice that awareness exercise, be honest with yourself and tie in some of the insights I mentioned from Thais, tying in from Thais, that could be a big help. Thank you, Dain, here. That was great. I float above my neighborhood and my city, and my entire region, quite often when I’m laying down to relax and close my eyes. Brad (00:40:20): Okay, Bruce Lipton, the colorful author of the book, Biology of Belief. I tried for like three years to get him on the show, and then I got him on there, and he went to town. He got off the rails a little bit. I think remember, he was ranting about COVID and controversial topics like that. I kept trying to bring him back, but he got some tidbits in there that were really, really helpful. And, his overall life’s work is so transformative in the area of how our thoughts affect our cellular function in our bodies at all times. Brad (00:40:58): And how he actually proved these concepts that were completely disregarded and thought to be woo woo, you know, decades ago when the science was, uh, more rigid. So, um, here’s a quote, uh, from Bruce to kind of set up the premise of his life’s work. When operating from the conscious mind, we are creators of our lives. However, when we operate through this subconscious mind, our lives are shaped by the raw downloaded programs we acquired in the first seven years of our lives. Science has now recognized that we only use the conscious mind around 5% of the day, and 95% of the time, again, we’re operating from flawed subconscious childhood programming. How to understand this, I mean, it’s so hard to accept at first that we’re just walking around as robots for 95% of our behavior. Brad (00:41:51): But the analogy that he uses is you’re driving a car down the road, however, you’re talking with someone else in the car, you’re talking on the phone, you’re listening to a podcast. So you’re driving, you’ve become so comfortable with driving that you’re literally on autopilot and operating the vehicle from subconscious programming of how to drive a car and be consciously aware. I mean, be constantly aware of the, the traffic signals, the car in the lane next to you and so forth. So, how do you do that? Well, it’s from years and years of driving programming going into your brain such that you can pay tremendous attention to a conversation or listening to a podcast, rather than being completely 100% conscious and engaged with the act of driving. However, think back to when you just got your learner’s permit and went behind the wheel at age 15 and a half, oh boy, that was requiring your total focus and dedication, and you certainly weren’t listening to a podcast or talking with someone else. Brad (00:43:02): You were working on flicking your left hand to put the turn signal on because you’re about to turn left. And then you’re staring at the light on the street, and when it turns green, you’re thinking about pushing your foot onto the gas and turning the wheel just right so that you stay within the stripes. So, that is the analogy to accept this highly validated assertion that we’re operating from flawed subconscious programming. And whenever you get triggered, of course, it brings to light the truth of that statement that the triggering is coming from the subconscious, because I don’t think people consciously want to go through life getting triggered about this or that when someone cuts ’em off on the road, or when a loved one says a triggering phrase, and they respond in kind, that’s all emanating from the subconscious. Brad (00:43:52): The insight that we’re operating from subconscious is profound because it reveals that we’re not creating the lives we desire, but are unconsciously manifesting lives that are coherent with the beliefs that we downloaded when we were in that sponge period of ages zero to seven,. Since up to 70%. This is quoting Lipton of the downloaded beliefs that we acquired before age seven are disempowering, self-sabotaging, or limiting. We experience stress from the programs that undermine our conscious minds, wishes, desires, and aspirations. So in that zero to seven age of heavy programming, what’s happening there is we’re an open book, right? So we are about, we’re in the process of forming fixed and rigid beliefs, getting programmed by, uh, parents, by religion, by that mean teacher in first grade, by the bullies in our peer group, by society, by commercials, whatever is going into our poor little vulnerable and sensitive brains. Brad (00:45:01): That’s what’s happening. And that’s why we keep experts keep referencing, uh, this programming period. And then we experienced the discord and the stress from those programs undermining our conscious minds, wishes, desires, and aspirations. So when I was bullied repeatedly in that sensitive, uh, uh, the age groups of, uh, five, six, and seven, it formed an imprint that I carry with me every single day and get triggered when people criticize me or whatever the example is, you see what he means there. We experience stress from the programming that undermines our conscious minds wishes. I want to feel, uh, tall, empowered, and confident, but that little kid who was the smallest in his class and was bullied keeps coming back and interfering with my desire to, to be the best I can be today. Brad (00:45:58): Oh, man, that’s pretty wild. So then Bruce’s show and Bruce’s books go into the, uh, the science of why, uh, this is happening. And it’s that cells have perception switches that respond to signals from the environment. A thought of fear sends a signal while a thought of manifestation sends a signal. At the cellular level, our cells have either, they, they have three potential responses to let’s say in this case, we’re talking about how our thoughts influence cellular function. Of course, other signals from the environment influence cellular function. So when you take off running down the road and your heart responds to the demand created by your legs moving at a fast pace and generating energy, um, these are also signals. And your cells respond by, uh, taking in more glucose to fuel, ATP production in the cell and so forth. Brad (00:47:01): But with Bruce Lipton’s work, we’re talking about how thoughts influence cellular function at all times. So, um, there are three potential responses. A cell has either a neutral response. Bruce Lipton calls that elevator music a defense response, which is a stress response and a positive response, uh, which is, uh, a feeling of happiness. Thoughts influence, cellular function at all blood chemistry. Uh, therefore, you can literally alter cellular function by altering your thoughts. Brad (00:47:37): See how this program’s tying together wonderfully? Dave Rossi says, when you experience thoughts of anxiety, stress, fear, whatever, you actively redirect your thoughts towards your values and your vision, and thereby change the negative or the fearful thoughts to empowering thoughts. And by doing so, you alter cellular function in the body. My favorite example of this is having a rough, stressful, exhausting day. Brad (00:48:10): And then we still have to go to the birthday party at 6:30 PM but I’m so tired and cranky and moody that I’m gonna say, look, I only wanna stay for half an hour, and then I just wanna go home and decompress from a lousy day. But when you walk through the door in a festive environment and have smiling faces and camaraderie and entertainment, your actual physical mood and energy level change at a chemical level. So you go from tired and exhausted to feeling alert and energized, and you’re all of a sudden, I mean hours later, you’re perhaps even staying up past your bedtime, and you’re not tired, you’re not moody, you’re not cranky because you have changed your thoughts, thanks to the signals from the environment. Um, this idea that our thoughts influence cellular function ran counter to the established scientific views of the time that your life is controlled by genes. Brad (00:49:11): And, the breakthrough work gave rise to the very popular and highly regarded field the study of epigenetics. That’s how environment affect affects, uh, genetic signaling in the body. So, boy, we’re into the, we’re into modern times now where we realize that e even thoughts can, can make us, uh, healthy. Uh, so Bruce, talks about three main ways to reprogram your subconscious and change your life. And the first one is through guided hypnosis with an expert. The second one is through repetition. So, you change whatever behavior you’re, uh, repeating, like studying, establishing, um, a behavior of, uh, having a healthy breakfast or exercising every evening with the dog before, uh, turning in for the evening. Um, they, they come into, uh, they turn into habit through repetition and reprogramming accordingly. Uh, same with thoughts, right? Brad (00:50:20): So if you actively work on Dave Rossi’s exercise of redirecting your thoughts from anxiety, fear, and stress, to asking yourself the question, what can I be doing about this right now? Or thinking again about your values and your vision, whenever you experience fear, anxiety, why am I doing this? Uh, and so forth. Oh, it’s because I want to help others, and I’m feeling stressed about it right now, but I’m, I’m calling to a higher purpose, that kind of thought exercise. You influence cellular function in a positive manner through repetition. And then finally, his third idea is through super learning. And I guess that means really understanding this stuff, listening to his podcast, reading his books, realizing how the body works, and realizing the power and the control that you have over it, rather than succumbing to that flawed subconscious programming that you’re not deserving of the beach body or financial success because the programming’s just been sticking in there. Brad (00:51:21): All right? So, um, from emanating from his books and my shows, I have, uh, my sticky notes or important entries in my, um, journal that I try to see frequently. And one of ’em reads like this sticky note, look at areas where you struggle in life. This is where what you want is different than your subconscious programming. Hey, why don’t I have more wealth, financial security, and the freedom that it brings? I mean, I work hard. I have my goals written down. I’m very focused. I’m productive. However, is there something where I don’t feel deserving of this or have a negative programming about it, which a lot of people do, right? There could be that disconnect rising up, same thing that Thais talked about. So, um, if you want to, uh, stay stuck in your programming, uh, go ahead, but bring this stuff into your awareness. Brad (00:52:23): And then as we talked about a little bit with manifestation, that entails saying, writing, reading, and thinking about those things that you want to manifest, rather than just banishing them to the subconscious. Or, in my example, the exercise that Thais took me through, uh, disengaging and distracting and spending time naturally on things that I enjoy, rather than things that I potentially dread because they, um, bring discomfort because my goals are in conflict with my, uh, behaviors. Brad (00:52:54): Alright, Dr. Anna Lembke, author of Dopamine Nation, Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Whew, That was some pretty heavy insights from her show. Especially how to realize how the runaway dopamine addiction is so prominent in today’s world and what we can possibly do about it. And oh, yes, if you, claim that, uh, you’re not addicted to anything, um, think again because almost everyone or possibly, we could say, you know, that perhaps 99% of people, do qualify as addicts as we have been plunged into, uh, the digital age. Brad (00:53:40): And the powerful pull of hyperconnectivity has landed just about everyone in the category of addiction. Addiction needs a 30 day reset to rebalance brain chemicals. So you need to withdraw or, um, abstain for 30 days to get back to a baseline. I think that insight is extremely relevant to like substance abuse and the, the really destructive addictions where, um, there’s no other choice but to go away, disengage from real life and go to rehab and so forth. Some of the details she talked about, with this Dopamine Nation message and how we have become, uh, addicts to the, uh, the quick hits of dopamine provided by, um, well, many things as we know from Dr. Lustig’s book, the Hacking of the American Mind, which I’m going to highlight shortly. But the pursuit of easy pleasure is what, uh, creates this addiction because, um, what we really what’s really the most healthy is to have sort of this, uh, balance between, uh, discomfort, struggle, uh, perseverance, and then pleasure, happiness, and gratification. Brad (00:55:03): So she calls it the opponent process reaction. Um, when we induce pain, struggle, discomfort, sacrifice, it generates an aftermath of pleasure chemicals in the brain. So in the brain, the brain engages in the opponent process reaction where if we do something hard, we feel good afterwards. Now, if we get something for free, which is the essence of modern life, because remember, our ancestors, in order to get a dopamine, a surge of dopamine, they had to work hard. They had to find, um, the, the beehive and take it down and harvest it, or take down, the whatever they were hunting or gathering for, and then have the, uh, the, the flooding of dopamine, uh, the pleasurable chemicals coming because they work so hard to do it. So now, if you don’t have to work hard and you can just click a button and have DoorDash come to your door and indulge in a decadent nutrient deficient food that gives you instant pleasure sensation, that’s when you drift into the category of addiction, which one of the definitions is you need a hit just to feel normal, just to get to baseline. Brad (00:56:14): So we’re thinking about exercise addicts that overdo it and get to the gym every single day at 6:00 AM and are obsessed with their physique and their diet and their workout performances. If they miss a workout, they feel terrible, and they are in a bad mood. That sensation of feeling bad because you missed out is, uh, is the essence of addiction. The obvious examples of being addicted to substances where you, you can’t even function until you get your hit. So the opponent process reaction is kind of the opposite of that, where you have to work hard for the dopamine, the dopamine hits that you deserve and can enjoy. And then when the dopamine spike goes away, you kind of go level back to baseline rather than dive down below baseline. So the difference between an unhealthy addictive behavior and a positive behavior is that opponent process reaction, um, addiction is a shortcut, a way of getting pleasure for free without having to work for it. Brad (00:57:16): Here’s a couple of quotes. Oh, I mean, what I told Dr. Anna was I think she spewed a quote that was life changing, and I had to remind her how awesome it was. ’cause she’s like, I don’t know. What are you talking about, Brad? I said, this was one of the greatest quotes. And she said, the routine things you do in daily life can take on epic proportions, but it doesn’t mean you have to get to the top of the mountain. I love that because we’re so measured and judged in modern society these days that we feel like we’re falling short of, you know, a happy, satisfying, fulfilling, respectable life if we’re not ranked highly enough in our corporate structure or what have you. So the routine things you do in daily life can take on epic proportions, even if you’re not at the top of the mountain. Brad (00:58:13): I feel that one really spoke to me. ’cause right now I have so much fun training for and competing in Master’s track and field, which is kind of a, you know, it’s just for fun. We’re not talking about the Olympics here, and I’m well past my athletic prime in terms of my chronological age, but it has so much deep meaning to me because I’m doing the best that I can, for whatever age group I’m in. And it’s just as important to me as, let’s say, when I was a professional triathlete competing on television and competing for cash prizes and all these things that made it seem, uh, more important than a bunch of old guys, uh, shuffling around a running track, racing in a Master’s track meet. So I think that’s a recipe for happiness, is that whatever you’re doing in your life can take on epic proportions. Brad (00:59:04): If you’re teaching second grade, oh my gosh, the school years upon us, and we are gonna have the greatest class and we’re gonna make the best decorations, and Halloween’s gonna be amazing, and they’re gonna learn to read and they’re gonna improve all their skills and their confidence, and we’re gonna teach ’em to socialize. And so an ordinary second grade teacher at the nearby elementary school is doing an epic, epic performance, uh, to contribute to, uh, a wonderful world and mold and shape these young kids and send them on to third grade ready for action. It’s beautiful. Brad (00:59:37): Okay, so back to striving to return to a nice, healthy homeostatic balance. If you feel like things have gotten outta hand, whether it’s, uh, having a few too many drinks over the course of the week, or a few too many reaches for your smartphone over the course of the course of the week, or a few too many challenging workouts where you’re laying in a pool of sweat, the endorphins are flooding your bloodstream. So you have that instant gratification, but it is, in many respects, looking like an addictive behavior. Number one, find a pursuit that gives you meaning. Number two, focus on the challenge rather than the result. Number three, look for things that get you into the flow state. Number four, give yourself at least a 30 day break from that behavior that you feel like you’re displaying addictive tendencies. And number five, realize that sometimes you have to sit with discomfort until it passes <laugh>. All right, that’s a nice little wrap up. I got many more quick highlights for you and then medium and then longer highlights. So I hope you enjoyed our foray into highlight shows. And as always, love to connect with you and learn about, uh, your thoughts, questions, comments, feedback. So please email podcast@bradventures.com. Thanks for listening, watching. Speaker 3 (01:01:04): Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.