Rich Ahlers - Men's Health Crisis: The Need for Mind-Body Connection and Self-Care

Rich Ahlers is a multifaceted professional with over 20 years of experience in healthcare, particularly in the realms of acute care, cardiovascular neurology, and rare and genetic diseases. Rich is deeply involved with the WiseMen Project, a retreat-focused initiative aimed at optimizing men's health through alternative and holistic methods.

Visit the Wisemen Project website here: https://wisemen.health/
Visit Rich's landing page here: https://vitalhabits.ck.page/bf0b5247b6

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding neuroplasticity and neurogenesis is key to personal transformation, and both can be influenced positively through appropriate nutrition, movement, and mindfulness practices.
• Movement, especially through activities like yoga and qigong, serves as a powerful tool for priming the brain and fostering favorable changes in mind and body.
• Men's health faces significant challenges in society due to cultural stigmas and resistance to seeking help, but change is attainable through individual awareness and community support.

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Transcript

0:33

Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage bodywork and beyond. Follow us @nativeyoga, and check us out at nativeyogacenter.com All right, let's begin Welcome to Native Yoga Toddcast. My name is Todd McLaughlin, and I'm so happy you're here because today, I have the pleasure bringing Rich Ahlers to the podcast today, Rich, I met through Christian Valeriani. And they are both a part of wisemen.health, the link is in the description, click it, check them out. You can also find them on a couple of other links that I'm going to include on YouTube, Instagram, and websites and the likes. So I highly recommend you check them out, which has some great information. If you need a little bit of inspiration for your day, follow this conversation all the way through to the end. If there's something that you loved, enjoyed and or want to send us a message, we'd love to hear it. I really am thankful for your support for listening, just so happy that you're here. All right, let's go ahead and begin. I'm so happy to have Rich Ahlers here today with me on the podcast. Rich, how are you feeling today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. Super excited to chat with you today. Oh, thanks so much. You know, I had the pleasure of hosting Christian Valeriani. And good, good, good, I stumbled there from Kristin, Valeriani, thank you, Christian, for introducing me to Rich and Rich, you're involved with the wisemen project in which I learned a little bit from speaking with Christian regarding Men's Health and creating retreats that can help men work through some issues that we have. And so on that note, I just want to start off though first asking a few questions regarding your background and your history. Can you tell me a little bit about what type of work you've been involved in in your life? Yeah, yeah. So most of my career actually fun fact, I started in the music business unrelated to what we're doing now. But yeah, I started my career in the music business. But then, shortly after that, I've spent roughly around 20 plus years in healthcare, so more of the conventional model, anything from acute care to cardiovascular and neurology, rare and genetic diseases, I spent most of my career consulting in that space. And then more recently working in digital digital, kind of digital interventions or wearable technology and how to move more towards a preventative model, which is like understanding what biometrics and data tell you about your health, and taking more of an ownership of your house. So that's kind of like my, my, I guess, my high level of my career. And, and so yeah, and then so a lot of the things that I do have done in my professional career, I've kind of taken into my purse personal career and tied it into Wiseman, tied into the teachings that that we do within that program to help other men realize that you don't need to go down the conventional route necessarily to to get healthy. Yes. Does that mean when you say you worked in, say health care? Was that through the avenue of becoming a medical doctor or which? What type of study did you do to go down this path? Yeah, so no, so I wasn't, I wasn't going to school to be a clinician. I was actually in the pharmaceutical business. And so I was a consultant on therapeutics in the space of multiple multiple diseases over my career, mostly rare genetic disorders. So no, so it was much more of a clinical sales role than then in an educational consulting role than the clinical role where I'd be treating patients. But the amount of families and people and clinicians that I've worked with and touched over the years, it's just extensive. So there's a lot of things that you learn within that space and understand when you're in that space. Yes. And then you're making mentioned like when you say a wearable you're talking about, like if I have an Apple watch or a Fitbit or a Garmin, and I'm able to see that my heart rate is here, my amount of sleep I got was there. And you are attempting to help us understand a way that we can now utilize that information and benefit from it. Am I Am I right? Yeah, yeah, correct. So I actually used to work at aura, which is one of the wearable devices. And I use this. I used to basically develop partnerships or contractual agreements to do clinical research using the rings. But to your point, yes, I think there's, in my opinion, there's a lot of power and utility in wearing these devices. for the right reasons, I don't think they should be chronic. But I think that they help you understand. If you're having any symptomology like, say you're, you're anxious, or say that you're constantly fatigued. There are a lot of things in that data that you will get from these wearables, that may tell you that there are some indicators of what you're doing in your life every day that's probably contributing to that. So maybe you're not sleeping as well. Maybe you're sleeping a long amount of time, but not deep and restful. Maybe you're not moving enough. You know, these are kinds of things that you could look at look at. And like, I think you said before, like HRV, heart rate, respiration rate. I think one of the things in this stuff that we teach the Weizmann project is that human beings, in general are not aware of their breathing patterns, they're not aware of when they're actually really stressing their bodies, because I think we've become so immune to like, this is normal. So the devices will help tell you or give you some insight to like, whoa, wait a minute, like I was actually stressed for a long period of time there. And I wasn't exercising, and I wasn't doing something that was physical, it was more of a mental, physiological thing that has impacted. That is so interesting, because that's interesting, because when I have a Garmin watch, and it had a moment the other day where it said, you're under unusual levels of stress, do you want to take a couple breaths? And when actually try to check in to feel like, am I even stressed right now? Why is it saying that? I didn't even know that. And I almost at first thought, oh, this thing must be broken, you know, like, but it's interesting to think about that on the level of, you know, maybe I don't even know that I'm stressed out, or I don't even I'm not even aware that I'm experiencing stress, and that this other element through heart rate might be able to pick that up. What have you noticed with that when in wearing one? Have you ever had that similar alert? Yeah, so I have in the past, I think the one thing I'll say is like take things from a wearable as a grain of salt, because they're not diagnostic tools. And they're not, you know, they're not super accurate all the time. There are definitely some anomalies that can happen in wearable devices, but to your point, they tend to start to learn you as a user, and then they know when things start to pop up as issues, and they'll give you a signal. So yeah, so I think like to your point that there are times where we may not know, but our biometrics or our our physiological responses are happening autonomously because we don't pay attention to them. And there can be an erratic heart rate that's suggesting that you're stressed now you could be just sitting here with me right now. But if your mind is going somewhere else, it just by the thought alone, you could be you could be creating stress at the cellular level, that's going to cause a cascade to your heart. You know, maybe you're sweating, there could be something that's happening in the background. And so these wearable devices can tend to pick up on that for irregularities. And then you get prompted, you know, yeah, that is interesting. What what do you think in relation to? I don't know how much when you were growing up people how much they did or did not say to your thoughts mattered. But I feel like, personally, there was a shift where I started to think or realize, what am I thinking does matter does have an effect? What do you what is your understanding of the role of thoughts and our biology? I love this question. I mean, it's a fairly big. So like, what same thing, I mean, I grew up as a was born in the late 70s grew up as an 80s. Kid, these things weren't talked about. And when people did bring them up, like, oh, you should breathe. People thought you were weird when you would say stuff like that. Like it wasn't a normal common thread. The funny thing is, to your point, you know, fast forward, I started to realize about a decade ago, oh my gosh, this is what they meant. This is actually real science. But back then there was not enough data to quantify what people were talking about. And I'm talking about the yogi's or the recovering, these people that were in the sectors that were doing this work, and it was it was not being, you know, I guess, mainstream accepted. But yes, I think, number one, no, I was never taught this stuff, it was more of like, you know, shut up and deal with it, suck it up, you know, this is life, like, just get through it, stop, you know, stop it, snap yourself out of it. But there is there's much more neuroscience to thoughts. And there's also things that can influence thought. And so what I've learned in my practice, so, you know, I've been doing traditional martial arts since I was six. And we do a lot of meditation and body connection, and spirit and a lot of spiritual warrior mentality. And so a lot of those things, were teaching these principles, and I was too young to understand them, but I kind of started get it later in life. And then there's like, the nutritional things, like things that influence and there's experiential things like, you know, traumas and environment, and all these things that can influence thought, yes, the one thing that I found so crazy, though, when I looked at a lot of the research around this, because I had my own things I was trying to deal with, like, as I was trying to solve my own problems, is that by the age of seven, we have already developed our, our interaction and belief systems around our place on Earth, and in in circumstances. So how we deal with things, how we think about things, how we react to things based on what's being said, like, we've already developed that lens. And that's not something we were taught as children, I wasn't taught that as a child. And the second part of it is, I think that's very fascinating is that the old notion was that your brain is fixed, that by the age of seven, if that's who you are, and you you have this brain, that that's who you are, and you're never going to change it, and too bad, you're stuck with it? Well, we now know, over the last decade or so that that's also not true, that the brain is malleable, like a muscle, you can train it, you can, you can create new neural pathways, new neurogenesis, new grooves to encourage a new thinking pattern, a new belief system, or ways to respond. So yeah, I'm kind of like splintering off a lot of that question. But there are a couple things I look at, it's like, you have your belief of your environment. So things that you've learned in your environment growing up your, your seven years of influence, your familial influence, your social network influence all these things that have influenced that behavior pattern or belief systems, then you have the dietary part of it. So if you're exposed to environmental toxins, or if you're eating a less favored diet, so things that are denatured foods, chemically derived foods, GMOs, sugar, this is going to have an impact on your gut integrity, and that gut integrity is gonna have a direct impact on your neurotransmitter production, which impacts brain function. So we could think we're broken, just by dying alone, and not realize that diet itself is what's causing the issue with the mind. And then there's, you know, and then there's the the things that you do to train the brain, you know, do you meditate, do you breathe? Do you journal? How do you influence the brain? Or do you allow the brain to run on autopilot with these programs in the background, and not influence the brain? I hope I hope I've answered that question. You are okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So the last thing like so. So I was saying yes, when you when you by the age of seven, you have this pre programming. But we also know now we could change the pre programming. So how do you change the pre program? Well, one, it's not as easy as people think it is, does take time. But I did it for myself. I've done this work now for the last seven or eight years on myself intensively. And the ways that you can easily impact the mind are through food and nutrition, like I said, so if you feed it good information, then you will have the most, you know, the most engaged organ to do the things that you want to do with it. If you don't feed it, well, it's going to be very hard to kind of change the things you want to change. The second thing is that I found is in which we talked about this at the Weizmann project, is that movement is one of the most powerful things to change the influence of the brain and the pathology or the or the or the pathological responses in the body. Mm. The Brain influences the body, the body influences the brain. If we allow that to happen, the body works independently of the brain. And the body dictates the feeling or emotion of the response. So hopefully I'm not losing you there with that, but this is like in Joe Dispenza. His work, which I follow, and he's, he can verbalize this way better. I love his books. Yeah, his books. Yes. So, so movement in what I've experienced through my own research and through seeing it and other people that we've done work with, is that if you move the body in a certain way, you can one release emotions or things that are stored in the body, which are keeping you stuck. And secondly, you start to create neuro chemicals that influence the brain. And once you do that, it makes it so much easier for you to then go into the brain and start making changes on your program. Versus just let's say, you just get up in the morning and you sit down, you're like, Oh, I'm gonna meditate. Now, when I work for certain people, if you've got a very busy brain like I do, and you're not priming it, it's gonna be very hard for you to just lay down or sit down and go, Okay, I'm gonna meditate now with my eyes closed for 20 minutes. Yes, you're gonna you're gonna fight you're gonna probably fight your brain a little bit. So movement, I think it's, it's like, it's a secret sauce, I think to priming the brain and, and you're a Yo, you're a yogi, correct? Yes. So here's what's uh, here's what's impressive about yoga. And Qigong, which Chi Gong is the Chinese version of you. That's, that's the way I look at it, right? It's their version of how to prime the body like Yoga does. This is the part I think that most Westerners don't get. The actual movement patterns in yoga, while they're amazing for the body. And they're great to release stored emotion and traumas and things in the fascia, and they release tension and stress and all the things that it's good for just like Qigong. What people forget, is all of that is priming, to influence the brain and the mind, at the end of practice. The same thing goes for martial arts, you train physically punching, kicking, training, whatever. And that's good. But the movement is what's allowing you to create that synergistic effect between body and mind. It gets the mind neutralize. And then at the end of your practice, guess what we do in traditional martial arts? We meditate? Nice, good, right. So, so movement Prime's the brain, and then you could go into a meditative state, or a visualization state or a manifestation state. And it's so much easier to just pop into that and make influence on the program. That's a good point, because you made mention that, that might that might be the missing piece for Westerners when we're engaging in these different arts like Qigong. And yoga is, like, it sounds like you're saying, When you come to the table, you're even if you were fighting the like, if I'm coming to a yoga class, and I think I don't have the energy, I don't have the motivation. But you get started and you start moving. If we just understand that all we have to do is start moving. And that's going to be a big part of fixing the problem. If there's a problem, or we see a problem, that that's really all we have to do. So I like it, because it sounds like you're simplifying the, the why should I get on the mat. And just, it's real simple. All you have to do is move and if you start moving, your brain is going to start working better. Yep. In addition to the things you made mention, like feed yourself, well drink plenty of water, set yourself up for success there. What is another component that you? I feel like he made mention of proper diet? movement that has some intention? Do you feel like then somebody's running out on the football field to play football, basketball, tennis, yoga, martial arts, all the same? It doesn't matter. We just got to find something that fits us well, or do you put more emphasis on these traditions such as Qigong and yoga that has this inherent mind body awareness element that may be isn't as readily talked about in the traditional sports that we grew up with? Right? That's a good question. I want to go back to one thing you said before that may help people that you, you were saying that simplifies things is that I'm not recovering but in recovery. There's a saying, and the saying is move a muscle change that thought, very simple. You don't want to move. You don't want to exercise. Guess what most of us don't, the primal brain doesn't want to be uncomfortable. The primal brain wants to be sedentary at times, move a muscle change that thought that's kind of what you were saying before and I want to just Make note of that. I think I like that. Yeah. Because like you said, influences everything else like, Yeah, you don't want to but just get up and move. And once you start moving, guess what happens? Yes, your heart rate goes up, the blood flow happens, your lymph moves neurochemical. And then everything just starts to fall into a cascade where you start to feel better. But yeah, so so your other your other question was like one of the things. So I think that you know, I think it's very complex, right. But I think that the Western world has gotten themselves into trouble with the fact that we're obsessed with Quick, quick hacks, shortcuts, quick fixes, everything, I need my problems to go away. Now. Lack of patience, you know, a lot of impatience and not contentment. One of the best things for me in my life was to go through the dark sides of things, or to go through the really hard parts of life, as much as I hated them. That journey brought me to a much bigger pie in the sky, then getting a quick fix, I think. And this is why Wiseman kind of exists in an essence is that we become obsessed with this, that we don't want ownership. For our health, we want someone else to own it. When something's wrong, we want it to go away, we don't want to do the work because it's just too painful, which by the way, is connected to the brain and the subconscious, and the programming. And someone just give me something quick. So I can just go on about my wife and keep doing what I'm doing, which is clearly not working for me. But I want to keep doing it because I don't want to change anything that I'm doing. You know, screw this screw you, you gotta fix this not my problem. Yeah, so that's the that's the biggest issue, right? It's like we want we're so attached to that, which is why the pharmaceutical industry is what it is, is because people are allowing themselves to be told what to do versus self seeking to figure out like, how do I resolve my problems? So in answering your question about like, sports and things. I love sports. I love sports growing. Yes. Do I think that all sports have have health benefits? Totally do. Maybe you don't want to be banging heads and football or hockey, like like I did. But for the most part, all sport, physical activity as a whole is very influential for health for the body. You could tip the scale, though, you can overtrain you can over compete. You can overdo it and have injury physically or mentally. But I think don't answer your question. Doing anything physical is good for the body. Yes, because you're giving it a little bit of stress to become resilient in times of stress. However, I think when we think about the audience that we talked to, which is basically middle aged men, so anybody that's probably, I don't know, late 30s to 60. They're going through something very different than maybe someone in their 20s or early 30s, which is they've experienced a lot of life, a lot of setbacks, a lot of wins a lot of struggles, a lot of dynamics and obstacles, losses, wins, relationship problems, financial problems. So they start to have a very dynamic life. And when they have a dynamic life, they realize that going to the gym every day is not cutting it for me. Or not going to the gym is not cutting it for me. Or, yeah, maybe I do that pickup game with my buddies once a week. But there's still something wrong in my life. I'm not feeling fulfilled or something or I don't feel healthy, or I'm having health complications. And so, things like yoga, and Qigong. While they're not as adapted by the male population, there are hundreds and hundreds of studies that prove that it helps with depression, anxiety, even as even as as equivalent to a therapeutic. It helps lower disease onset. So cardiovascular disease, metabolic dysfunction, autoimmune conditions, neurological conditions, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia, I can go on and on about almost every single ailment that yoga and Qigong have been studied in to improve people's lives. depression, isolation, right, loneliness. So I think that there's to answer your question, long winded I think there's a place for these specifically in people's lives. What we do at the Weizmann project, though, is that we don't teach them in a setting where it's dogmatic or you have to do it this way. This is how the 2000 years of you know, we teach it in a way where it's, it's a mechanism, it's a movement, it's, it's, there's no restriction in order For people to adapt to it, not call it something. And they're more like men are more likely to do it. If you if you don't call it something, you know, like sun salutations, opening the Great Gate, they're like, what do you what are you talking about? So, in a way where we we teach these principles and we teach these movements, but we don't tell them. You're gonna go do yoga now, you're gonna do Qigong now, you know, yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. That's, that brings up a lot what what do you feel the state of men's health, mental and physical? Is at currently? Are we looking good? Are we not looking so good? Other stats that can prove one way or the other? What are you noticing and studying and realize, yeah, ah, men are in trouble in society today. I think most people don't see it. Because again, we're trained not to. in society, we're trained to escape, drink, drug, run, watch porn gamble. You know, self destruct in any way possible white knuckle life and hide it from everybody. But the statistics to your point don't lie. You know, men are four times more likely to commit suicide. They are more at risk for heart attacks. They're there. I think roughly about 60 80% of men won't even get an annual physical. So they're not even taking proactive approach to their health, they ignore it. They're more likely to have addictions, alcohol and drug use mental health issues such as depression, anxiety. So there, there are just massive stats on this. And I think the problem lies and kind of what you and I were talking about in the very beginning, which is societal influence of how you're supposed to be as a man in society. Don't talk about it. Talk about your problems. Don't tell anybody that you need to see a therapist. Don't tell anybody that you have problems. shove it down, shut up, and go to work. Go do what you're supposed to do. Be a man be a tough guy. Yes. The Alpha bullshit excuse my language is the exact reason why men are in trouble. Because we think as a society, we've been taught, if I act tough, I am tough. If I put on the show, everything will just go away. Not true. My great grandfather was an alcoholic. He was a two time, you know, was a POW of World War Two, well decorated, massive alcoholic because guess what? He was never taught to deal with the problems with a trauma. So he died of cancer from alcoholism, I can tell you that, right? Yes. And there's many other people in the lives of our families that have gone through this because that's what men were taught. And so now today, because of this, men are in trouble. No drug, no alcohol, no escape is going to save you. The only one that's going to save you, the only thing that's going to save you, is you. And so, you know, we're like this this week until I get like really serious because like, it's good. It is our mission to get men to understand that they have to wake up, wake up. The shits not going away. Every time you go to the doctor, if he's putting you on a drug, there's a problem. Every time you go to pick up that drink to cope with stress, there's a problem, or it's going to turn into a problem. So yeah, men are just not in a great place in society. I can tell you that. Numerous people have reached out to me, you know, PMS and DMS and tax like, Hey, I'm struggling, can you help me? Because they they're the same thing. Like they're afraid, as a man to say out loud, I need help. You know, so the private like in the backend, it's like, I need help. It's like, this is a problem that we can't be open about this, you know, and that men need to learn a better way of dealing with things. So yeah, I think I think men are in trouble. I think here's the good news, though. I think we've seen now with like, biohacking and the adoption of more yoga and breath work and the Wim Hof Method, a cold plunging sauna and all the things that we're doing that looks sexy and cool. Those have actually shed more light on men taking more initiative in their health. Now, it may not be as direct as maybe what we're doing. But I love the fact that there's promise that men are starting to open up a little bit and there's definitely some influencers out there that I've met that I've spoken to that are also being open about it, you know, Oh, Michael Church now recovering addict, restaurant tour, entrepreneur openly talks about it. Great shaman who I've connected with, definitely makes mention of it in his book. And it's something that that he's posting and numerous other people, right. So I think the good news is, is that we're starting to wake up, and people are starting to individually talk about it. But I think the bigger thing is, we've got to get communities together around this, because men are influenced by their community, men are influenced by the people they surround themselves with. So if you surround yourself with very successful guys, that are entrepreneurs or career people that are doing these things, it's it's going to resonate with other guys going through the same things and knowing it's okay. To deal with your shit, you know? Yes. So yeah, like I said, yeah. Oh, man, I hear that, that's great, because it gets my wheels spinning on on so many different levels in relation to how important it is everything you're saying, I applaud what you guys are doing with the Weizmann project. I, you know, it sounds really intriguing. I'd love to join you guys. I mentioned that to Christian it sounds like a neat program. And what do you think the women listening? are thinking right now? If you? You know, I would, I would think they would be thinking right on, you know, if if the man the men in my life, be it my husband, father, brother, friends, took care of themselves a little better, and opened up their thoughts, emotions, feelings, and we're willing to dive in a little bit, that potentially our relationships, and whatever form they take could improve. That sense. Doesn't that seem obvious? It does. I think you're right, I, women have a lot of these things. And they're more apt to at baseline willing to do these things. So I agree. I like I think every time we've ever engaged with someone, you know, a woman, they've always said, I know somebody, I know, somebody that could really benefit from this. And this is feasible, you guys are doing? Well, we also want the guys to wake up and say that themselves, right? Yeah. We don't want the women trying to push guys into things because then they're probably not going to do it. But if the guys see it and realize it, that's good, too. Yeah, I think you're right on. I think it's well supported. I think it's much needed. And we don't do it, I guess the one thing to say is like, in case anyone's like, listen this and try understand like what we do, we're not therapists, we're not going to ask you to talk about your problems. Matter of fact, we find that talking about your problems makes them more your problem. Like, we don't want to focus on the problem. Maybe you focus five minutes on your problem. But after that it's less Let us teach you in three days. How to rewire your entire mind and system. So that when you go home, you're super equipped to take on life in a totally different way. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Good point. If I like say, I get really inspired listening to you, and tomorrow morning, like right now we're in the New Year's resolution, Resolution Phase. We, my wife and I own yoga studio here in Florida. And we noticed like January 2, you know, we're the busiest we've ever been, and which is great. Thank you, everybody. And but at the same time, sometimes it's hard to make that stick. And the excitement is real in the beginning. And then like you said, the hard work kicks in and, and I love that you brought up to the element of like, the more I love working with YouTube, and I love working with yoga online. And the more I research topics, I find that it's like, do it in seven minutes. And it's like that in that movie that makes the joke about well, what happens when the six minute version comes out? And then it's like, well, what about the five? Yeah, four bit, you know, and it's like, quicker, faster. And I even had someone bring to my attention. And I believe in all this. I mean, I teach the same thing. I mean, because I think from the angles, sometimes people are like, you know, I really want to get a yoga practice going, but I don't have enough time to do it. And one minute would be better than thinking I don't have five and not even doing one minute. So I do appreciate this shortened approach. But I also really appreciate what you're saying that there needs to potentially be a shift toward wanting the more challenging route. Like that whole thing of like, I want the more challenging I don't want the easy. So if I wake up tomorrow, and I'm like, Alright, I listen to rich I want to take this seriously. And I would like to rewire my neuroplasticity and you threw out a word earlier when we when we got on was it neurogenesis This. Yeah, so basically like, you know, neural creation, like you're creating new neural pathways like, you know, that's the interaction in the brain that happens. How can I get that? Yeah. Oops, new grooves? How can I be a good thing to do? I mean, I think I could guess what one of your answers would be. But maybe you'll have something new for me. What can I do to get those nerve that neurogenesis going and set new grooves? From the time I wake up? Great question. My number one go to because of my busy mind, is I recommend to everybody, first thing in the morning, go out for a 30 minute walk. It doesn't involve you to go hard. You don't need to have, you know, you don't have to be cardiac, you know, you don't have to worry about any cardio heavy cardio are like being in shape. We're primarily meant to walk, go out for a 30 minute walk. Don't take your phone, don't put your headphones in, walk, allow the thoughts to come up, allow the noise to come up, you will find after about 1015 minutes, you will get mental clarity. And in those moments, when you get mental clarity, you're going to start to notice that your brain is gonna get creative. And it's going to start to think about things that you want to do, whether it's write that book or start that exercise program, or reach out to that friend, or do that hobby that you want to do. You're going to find when you walk for 30 minutes, you're going to allow your brain space and time to process the crap and leave room for creation. That's one of the best ways to do it. And oh, by the way, it's movement, like I said before, yeah, yeah, the best way to influence the brain. Great plant if I'm say I have a huge day after normally wake up at 5am My first battle with your thought is but now I gotta get up at 430 Don't you think it's worth it, though? And so I know we have to get enough sleep. But what I found that when I do set my alarm that little bit earlier to niche in that time for me to actually get that walk first thing. It's so worth it. Even though I might be worried like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be so tired by 5pm in the afternoon, like I should probably sleep in and like that time management element is so intense right now, isn't it like? Yeah, like, yeah, so your point, I would say this, because I'm not even a morning guy. Like I get up at like around 630. But like, I'm not a morning guy. Yes. If you're someone who's a morning person, you can get up earlier, do it. If you feel like it's going to become restrictive. Well, guess what, it probably doesn't fit in your life. So to your point, what I found beneficial is you must no matter what, schedule it in your day, and in your week, I have a set routine I do every week. So I know. Monday, Wednesday, Friday is my gym days, Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday is my walking days, at least baseline and then if I want to change that, change it but have a structure in your day. Like today, I'm gonna go to the gym later, because I had early stuff I had to do. But I still put it in the calendar so that my body's like, I gotta go. If you can't walk physically, like if you're, if you're strapped for time, and you still want to get this kind of thing to happen, then my solution to that would be journal, or meditate. So if you don't have time to go out, take 10 minutes and journal and meditate. And that means you know journaling is an active meditation, you're getting your thoughts on paper, meditating, you can meditate with your eyes open if you struggle with your eyes closed, and just meditating about thinking about how you want your day to go or thinking about the one thing you want to accomplish in the week. Don't even make it like 10 things. One thing I want to do this today is just think about it. Think about how you're going to do it. Think about how you're going to feel that's an easy way to do the same kind of thing as you would do when you're walking. Nice. Yeah, great point. That made me think about a concept you mentioned Joe Dispenza. So I'll bring up something that I learned from him I write and I recently read becoming supernatural. And then the other one, how to break the unconscious habit of being yourself or something of that nature. And he makes mention of through the visualization process of imagining what we would like to become and then as we're literally walking forward with our steps that we embody that space like almost walk into that element that we want to bring into our life which I found really powerful in relation to what you're talking about waking up and just going for a walk because I found that that was a huge help for me once I started doing that. Can you speak a little bit about your thoughts around this idea? I think that I do. is very powerful. I almost associate it with, like a sport. So if you're someone who like plays football or plays baseball, what happens when you put on the Jersey and the uniform? You become a new you become someone different. Yeah. And even when me when I put on my karate uniform when I put on my martial arts uniform, it changes something. And it's like Halloween for kids, when they put on their Halloween costume. They legit think through that person. And guess what? Good luck. Tell them they're not. Yeah. So what Joe's talking about his true because the mind doesn't know the difference between thought and reality. He talks about this all the time. And I've experienced in my own life, I've done the work. So to your point, yes, I think when you visualize yourself, I think visualization is 10x and 100x. In meditation, when you visualize yourself stepping into that character, stepping into that new identity, you're firing and wiring, as he says, You're creating neurogenesis and neural connection, that is saying to the cells, I am this person now. And I'm going to act and be and behave and do as this person would do. Now. So if that means like, I'm walking into a healthier version of myself, and I look like this, I'm 40 pounds lighter, and I'm not depressed, and I'm, I'm content with my life, and I have these ideas, I'm gonna create a this, this business I want to run, you're gonna fall right into place with that, it's gonna make it much easier to do yes. Because you're believing in becoming that character, that costume that, you know, that entity, that's cool. And he talks about this to like, in his other work, and a lot of his work, which is, this is really hard for people to understand. And you really, you got to kind of do the work, but he talks about, in order for you to change anything in your life, you must forget the person you are now you have to change the identity. So this is where it gets tough. Like we could talk about this for like probably another hour, or minute. Or more or more. Yeah, the minute you do that, a lot of things change. For you, for your relationships, for the way that you look at life. So it is a massive thing. But he talks about in order to change your health or the things that you want or anything, you have to change the identity, because the identity is being influenced by the ego and the perceptions and the beliefs of the person that was seven years old or younger. That you never addressed. So you, you, you got to just shed the skin like kids do when they put the costume on, you know, great point, what is something rich that you in doing this sort of meditative and visualization work? Realize was maybe one of the main grooves implanted in you between ages zero to seven, did you have any memories that came back of like, gosh, I remember my dad doing this or my mom doing that? Was there anything that you came in touch with that helped you to change that setting? A little bit? Yeah, so you're asked me like, specific things that I remember as a kid that were like holding me back? If you're okay, talking about it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, for me, it was like, low self worth. And I always felt, I guess the word that always came up for me was stupid. Like, I always felt stupid. And that's because of my environment. Like if I didn't get the grade that somebody wanted me to get, or if I didn't understand the question. And I, like the teacher got upset with me, like, these are things that formulated this belief system that I was stupid. Or, you know, or I wasn't interested in a class because school don't get me started on school today. But like school told me, I had to learn this. And so I must know it, I must get a good grade. And if I don't, I'm not smart. These are things that influenced me. And so to answer the second part of your question, those were things that I resolved through meditative practice, through movement practice, through journaling, through reading and researching and understanding. And actually what came out of it was I became smart in those that's, you know, even just in those instances, because I was becoming well read becoming well researched because I was working in clinical fields. I was like, wait a minute, like, I know more than most people know about this stuff, like, and I didn't go to school for it, and I didn't, you know, so that's kind of one of the things that I did was like, gotten real with myself was like, Is this is this a fabricated belief, or is this a truth That's the question I would say to anybody. If you think you're not good enough, which is usually the most common threat for most people is I'm not good enough. But whatever it is for you ask yourself the question. Is this true? or did somebody plant that programming? or somebody's people multiple experiences? asked that question. Great point. Great question. That's what I started doing. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. These are not the future. Yeah. I see how important that is. Yeah. Like, I'll give you another example. So I'm in my master's, I had to pause my master's degree for human nutrition, Integrative Nutrition, because I got too much going on in my life. But I never thought I was a good writer. Because an English class growing up, I was horrible. I never got good grades. I didn't understand it. I was like, why am I not getting this? Right? Fast forward, I'm in my Master's class, you know, for the last like year. And I'm writing papers, and my teachers are writing me back saying, Oh, my gosh, your writing is so captivating. I love what you wrote. I couldn't wait to read more. I want you to finish the paper. I want you to write more about it. Like I was getting all these positive responses. And I'm sitting there going, I suck at English. But do I? Yes. So it's like, you know, it, I guess, like what I'm saying is like, sometimes you also have to be doing things that you love to come out shine. You know, being told something to do, may not make you do well. But if you believe in love something, and it's within something you're interested in, watch what happens. You'll do whatever it takes, you know? Yes, yeah. So anyway, so it's just like, you know, again, like it's it's question your beliefs, question what you think is true or not true. And those are generally the things that hold people back from a relationship from financial gain from wealth and abundance outside of money. You know, success, whatever. It's the belief systems. Great point Rich is is what you made mention that you work with the wise man project, when is the next event happening if anybody listening was wanting to meet with you guys? Yeah, so the next event is June 6 to the ninth. This year, it's going to be in the Poconos area of PA. So very accessible from anybody in the tri state. But we also have people fly in for these events from cross country. So don't let it be a limit to you. Three days deep dive, I can tell you, it's a tremendous experience probably sounds bias from me. But like I said, in three days, we reset your life, you reset your life, we teach you how to do it, but you do it. So that's our next event. And then we also for people that can't access us, which I think you might be asking me this, and I was gonna jump the gun on you. But for people that can't access us at the retreats, we do offer Lifestyle coaching remotely, so you can sign up to work with us remote one on one. Or you can follow our content by signing up for our newsletter on our website. Go to our YouTube channel, which we started putting some content up there to teach people certain things and things that we've learned in our life. So there's there's multiple ways that you can engage us if you can't go to a retreat, but the retreat is really where you see the magic happen. That sounds so cool. Thanks for sharing that. If you visualize where your project is headed, and you can go big like you can make a bold dream here. What would you like to see? What what what would you wear? What is your goal and dream with this project. So I've always said that I want to impact but we want to impact as as wise men a million lives. And for the for the better. So I see that the way that that happens is I see that we are doing not only more events, but I think we're doing more community outreach, we're doing more presentations, we're doing more podcasting, we're doing more writing, maybe even do some courses to teach people remotely how they can tap into that at a fair price. And then I also see in the very big future, which we've discussed is eventually creating a retreat center for Wiseman so a place where you can go to constantly refill your cup, you know, empty and refill your cup. So you can go back to life the way that you want to feel and be very cool. Like having an ongoing program like we're weekend after weekend type of thing where it's a place that people can visit and you have a home base where where would that where would that be? Where would that be? Where is that place like in your in your dream? My mind? Yeah, I think would be in the tri state area just because of like where we live and access ability for us, you know, maybe it's upstate New York, you know, or Vermont or, you know, we're Western jersey, but that would be, you know, a place I think would be accessible for us to get to and for us to be a part of it. Where are you located? I'm in New Jersey. I'm not too far from Krishna. Nice. How far? How far from the beach? Are you? 20 minutes. Did you see that? 30 foot swell you guys had? I saw a picture of it. I was like, it was a picture of a guy like surfing it. I'm like, Okay, now, like, I would never do that, though. Like, oh, my gosh, I know how cold it would be this time of the year. I mean, just to have just your face showing and your hands and feet completely covered. I can't even imagine it looked absolutely amazing. I know at this. At the same time, I brought this up with someone recently that came down from Jersey and I said, Did you see that swell? Like, oh, and California? I'm like, No, actually, Jersey just had their biggest swell in 30 years. At the same time. They had that massive one over out and like Ventura, Northern and Southern California got completely hit. That's cool, man. And then I do want to ask you a quick question about the music industry. You said you worked in the music industry on so what capacity as a recording engineer as a musician? What, what was the? I wish? No, I was I was a I was a designer. Nice. So I'm a creative designer. So I used to do album covers, merchandise, designs, web web collateral. And so I've worked at Yeah, I was in jazz and classics for a while. Cool. I worked at Angel Blue Note records, under capital. And then I was at wind up which which is no longer around. But they were under. They were independent, but they had like creed. Evanescence Drowning Pool, like a lot of these big indie rock bands. So I ended up working with a lot of those artists as well. And then I did some Marvel Marvel stuff, but really cool experience. Like, I got to get to do some really cool stuff. My time there. Nice. Are you still working on the graphic design level digitally? Or you do? Have you kind of stepped away from that? What what is your role in that field? Currently? Yeah, I stepped away. You know, for years, I ran a design business, like I went off and ran a design business. But I cope, it actually took that business out, unfortunately. So it went from doing really well to just like shutting down. So I no longer do it. However, it's funny, you bring this up, because I recently came across a bunch of art that I've created that I've never used. And I'm starting to think about, Do I want to sell this artwork on merchandise for people? So that's something I'm kind of toying with. It's like, nice, it's a creative outlet. Maybe I'll you know, maybe I'll sell some of it on merch. Very cool. That's awesome. And it's cool how you're able to blend these different life skills over a long trajectory into this passion that you have for helping individuals helping others find a little bit of peace and a little bit of a little more happiness. Lately, I know we have just a few more minutes. So I don't want to take you down to winding a track. But lately, what are you what are some of the conversations you're hearing from people that you're speaking with? Do you feel like we're in an ultra high stress level? Do you feel like we're coming into a little bit of a golden era? What is the the overall prevalent vibe that you're experiencing? I think there's like a honeymoon phase proposed COVID. But I think there's a lot of suffering and silence beneath the surface. I think we, when I look at it, when I look at it from a clinical level, so So even in my professional life, when I look at what's happening, there are I don't even know countless amount of digital therapeutics, but your app based programs to help people with mental health that are coming out on a monthly basis. I mean, it's just crazy how many things coming up. The pharmaceutical industry is working towards a lot more mental health direction, as well as using digital therapeutics to intervene as an intervention. So I don't think we're out of the woods. I actually think we're feeling the ripple effect of what happened in COVID. It's kind of like the, like the long haul, like the the aftermath. Yeah, I think that's what we're seeing, unfortunately. And so you're seeing people I think kind of go like, Oh, like that's over. But now they have all these habits they've created because of the coping mechanisms and those are compounding into health issues. And yes, I don't believe that we're in a great place I actually think we're not yeah as a society and I think men are definitely feel it. Yeah, man. I hear you on that. Yes, but there's people like you people like me, people like Christian and tons of other great people out there that are providing doorways for people to find and go into and and find their place, you know, and how to get through some of it. I agree in on that note for in our attempt to close our conversation, would you be willing to give us one final pep talk? Yeah, sure. I think it's needed. I liked where you are. I liked I liked that you got Pat, you're passionate about this. And I feel like I, I've suffered with depression, I've gone through some really deep, dark holes in my life I've been able to pull out of it. I'm very thankful I didn't give up and I'm still here. And actually feeling fairly confident that life is really worth living actually, beyond just fairly confident. I'm very confident that life is great if we just do some of the hard work. So I'd love to just hear I can I can always handle good pep talk to be honest. Yeah, yeah, here's, here's my, here's my long and short. I'm living proof, you're living proof that you can do something and change your life. I went through the same things you went through in different instances in my life. I got myself off of pharmaceuticals, albeit I wasn't on a lot of them. But I definitely changed a lot of things about my health based on these practices, simple practices, movement, nutrition, sleep, stress management, relationships. There's never a bad time to start something in your life. Don't wait till the New Year. Don't wait till the catastrophe happens. Because generally, it's when it's too late. You like, if anything, I think what I want people to know is that you within you have the power to change anything that you want in your life. If you created it, you could undo it. And no human being is better than another human being no human being was born with more of something than another. We all come in with nothing we leave with nothing. So if someone else could do it, so can you if you're going through depression, or you have a disease or you have a loss, to your point, like you said, Todd, like, you will get through it. Take that as a learning point go through the darkness. What is it trying to tell you? Because on the other side of that is the superpower, your superpower there's always a reason for that journey. It's not for naught. You know, so that that's you know, that's my, my diatribe. But I everybody has the power to change their life. Yes, you gotta want it you gotta want it's so freakin bad. That it's all you think about. Oh, man, thank you so much. Thank you, man. That feels good. I, I always appreciate that. I like being reminded. Likewise, I mean, that's why it's happened to podcasts. And when I read books and your mind, your mind can slip on you, when you even the people that are most trained in consciousness. The mind can slip. And if you let it slip without you checking it, you can end up there. Yes, yes. You know, people people asked me to see actually I want to see this before I go on and on kind of relate. But people ask me they say how are you? So discipline? How are you able to get up and do these things all the time? How do you stand out? How do you because my life depends on it. And the people that depend on me, depend on it. That's it. That's it. If you if you know that if you know your life depends on it. You will do it. Yes. I love it. I love it. Thank you Rich. Thank you so much. Yeah, man. I can't wait to meet you guys in person. I'm gonna make a wise man journey here soon. Love to have you. Thank you for this. This was a great chat. Love to do it again. We will. Thank you so much. I wish you the best and I can't wait to meet up with you again. Thanks, Todd. Happy New Year, man. Thank you so much. Thanks for doing what you're doing know. Stuff that you're sharing. I'd love to visit you want to thank you. I'll be in touch. Thanks. Take care. Take care. Native yoga podcast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you liked this show, let me know if there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve. And if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us at Native yoga center.com. And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it and review and join us next time