Fasting Space

If you take only one thing from this session today,

I want it to be to create a powerful bias toward action.

Taking action is often the first step to move toward

better health,
and it's out of that space, out of taking a step

that we often start feeling the motivation
to do what we are doing.

The total inversion of what most people think,

what we commonly think
of, is that we have to build the motivation first.

We have to feel inspired in order to do the thing.

And so today we're going to be diving deep.

In this how do we take action?

First, the bias toward action
so that we can build out the good energy

that will help us flow in the direction we want.

Diving deep as deep as we can.

Keep us from getting stuck in the mood. Trap.

Have you felt that way
ever where you're just stuck in a space?

It's like, how do we break out of it?

Sometimes people ask me like,
where do I find the motivation to move out?

And get going.

Can you get some insight on it today?

From this book that I really love, The Mountain is you.

This is one of my favorite books.

Now, I think because as we're going through it,
you know what?

Never sugarcoat anything.

It's giving us powerful insights and ideas

for change and moving forward
in such a healthy and positive direction.

What are you thinking of it? Do you like it?

I hope you do.

This.

Thoughts I'm going to share with
you are coming from a section titled

Disconnecting Action and Feeling,

which I think is such an important thing to do.

They say here the final and most important lesson to overcome

self-sabotage is to learn to disconnect action from feeling.

We are not held back in life
because we are incapable of making change.

We are held back.

I say at least so often
because we don't feel like making change.

What do you think of that?

And so we don't do it.

Have you been in a space like that?

Maybe you're in a space like that right now.

Like, do you want change? Like somewhere in there?

Is there an internal struggle?

We're here in a space where moving toward health

is the idea and we can see it.

Concrete steps to take.

But we're stuck in a space.

I think we're conditioned in society to feel like.

I mean, we got cheerleaders and everything is like.

And then social media, right, is like,
everybody's having a great experience online.

Do you ever feel like that?

And everywhere I look, people just crushing it.

How come like, my experience is such a struggle?

Of course, in society today, so much of that is a mirage.

I say shut it all off. Shut it all off.

Come sit with me here by the shore of the lake.

Watch the beautiful sunrise.

Sunrise literally is energy coming to us.

It was giving me energy today.

The truth is, you can have a vision of what you want.

Know that it is undoubtedly right for you.

It's simply not taking and not feel like

taking the action required to pursue the path.

Really?

You know, I would sit with this for quite a long time
because.

There's a good reminder to me and take a big, deep breath.

We're going to do some deep thinking on it.

There are lots of things in life that are on balance, right?

We're trying to balance opposing things,
each of which can be true.

And I really love this, section.

The truth is, you can have a vision of what you want,
know that is undoubtedly right for you,

and simply not feel like taking the action
required to pursue that path.

Okay, we sit in that space on the one side of it.

I say that is actually perfectly fine
because nothing is forced.

Nothing is required.

And we did some thinking over the past couple of weeks
about how, hey, if you're not feeling

something like you want to feel and inspired

to do something, you know, called to it.

This is one side of it.

And I'm like the today we're seeing the other side of it.

Nothing forced.

Opportunity present today.

What this is to me is
how do we deal with the middle, with complacency.

Remember, we did so much thinking in the fall
that we can get stuck in a place of complacency,

and we can get stuck in a place where it's like,
oh, everything.

We were kind of in this space.

Everything feels halfway okay,
so I don't want to rock the boat.

This concept is giving us another tool.

That's how I would say to look at it.

We have the tool that we are saying before, okay,
you don't force anything and wait till you feel inspired.

That's like, if we're climbing up a mountain,
we've gotten to the base camp.

This is helping us to unwind every sort of, experience

that is like frustration with a weight
loss, weight loss plateau, right?

Or any kind of health plateau
or really any type of, experience in life

where we're working towards something
and we make some progress and then we are feeling stuck.

It's like we're inverting that and we're realizing,
hey, we are.

We have climbed up to a difficult place.

We have made progress in life.

Now we are consolidating the experience,
and we are building up the skills

and the ideas and the emotional space to power us forward.

Okay, that is all good.

Now we want to recognize the other side too.

You don't want to sit in the base camp forever
and so this is bringing to me a little bit of an edge

to our experience to say, you know,
sometimes we need a little bit of a fire lit under ourselves.

Right? A little bit of motivation.

How do we find motivation if we say, hey, okay,

now things we've been in the base camp for a couple days.

This is where we're going in the book.

We've been in the base camp for a couple days.

I don't really want to stay here forever, right?

And many times
it's like, oh, if we get comfortable in a space,

then we can get stuck and say, I don't want to leave.

So now this is showing us action first, feelings later.

Have you had the experience?

I think it's easiest to see an exercise,
at least in my own life,

when it's like it feels so warm and comfortable in bed.

You don't want to get up.

It's like, I think I'll just stay here.

I'm going to hit the snooze button
and and doesn't that feel right?

And doesn't it feel so good and is like,
I do not feel like getting out of bed.

Right.

And remember, you know, we attacked some of that

from atomic Habits with this idea of our identity.

Like what is the identity that we have here?

Am I the type of person who is going to get up
and do the difficult,

thing to take care of myself, right,
and the struggle to do it?

Okay. That's where you really find that identity.

Okay. Have you had that experience?

Maybe you've definitely had the experience, right
where you don't do it.

And then I know that's me or I've gone through a day
and then I'm, I'm like missing it.

Or you make the hard choices,
say I don't want to do it, but I'm going to do it anyway.

You take the action
and then have you had it where how much better do you feel?

Oh my gosh, that's where I am today
because I did not want to get up.

But I'm like, I just did it, you know?

And then I went, for a run and I went down

and I saw the sunrise, and I set my camera
there, and I felt so good.

And so this is the sort of thing you see it in exercise.

You take the action, then you feel good about it.

So many times in life,
I think, don't you wish it wasn't this way?

But, I mean, I feel like it's true.

The motivation that we want
is on the other side of actions that we have to take.

You take the action first,
then the feelings flow from it, at least some of the time.

And so that's the balance.

You never have to force yourself.

This is a line
we're saying don't force yourself into something

that is going to be, really not in alignment.

Right?

But on the other side.

When you're open to it, even if you don't feel like it.

When you know logically, rationally, in the mind,

hey, this is the really the thing that is in alignment.

I'm going to check the feelings at the door. Take the action.

Powerful move.

They go on here as feelings are essentially

wired as comfort systems.

That's like,
The Hvac system just keep everything perfect, right?

The feelings just like cool things off, heat things up.

It's like it's always eternal spring inside Hvac
for our emotional life.

That's our feelings.

They produce a good feeling
when we're doing what we've always done.

Staying in familiarity.

This to our bodies registers as safety.

Might not be the safe choice, though.

This is the thing.

Like we are living in a very privileged time.

You know, I just I do has another message.

I want to, you know, communicate.

When we think of the broad history of human beings,
think of the incredible struggle,

you know, throughout history just to stay alive and survive

and the conflict between people and nature

and other people and oh, man.

And so much of our biological reality

in the body is just is geared towards safety.

Like, look, if we can make it through the day right.

Just find gratitude for that.

And so this is why so many of these grounding practices
that we talk about, right.

Just as simple, taking a deep breath. Right.

Because okay, we just been in some dangerous situation.

What's the first thing you do.

You take a big deep breath.

Do that with me right now. So good to do.

See I feel better.

Just one little deep breath I feel a little bit better.

See, that triggers all the things.

Help everything to relax.

And then that's sending the message to the body of safety.

And in that space of safety, so many good things happen.

That's when the body can calm down the immune system
shut down the stress

hormones, help to get everything into balance

that's flowing in, also into our fasting space practice

where we give the body space to rest and reset.

Okay.

So we're in this space, okay. This privilege space.

We find gratitude for it. This way.

Now we can open up like some some bigger and better thinking.

So if we have some basic needs met here,
you think Maslow's hierarchy, right, where we're getting

our basic needs met here,
and we can start moving up the ladder

to attain, some really higher level things,

like how do we really optimize things,
not just survive, but thrive.

This is what I really want for everybody.

Just absolute thriving and flourishing.

One of my favorite words,
flourishing is such a huge word in health, right?

Not a word that,
I encountered much in the modern medical system,

but something that I would really love to say
man flourishing.

Let's just have incredible health.

To me, fasting is one part of a holistic pathway towards
something like that

that is involving, like all of our total well-being, physical

and mental being emotional.

Listen to what they say here.

We can actually train ourselves to prefer behaviors
that are truly good for us.

I'm not saying just good for us in the short term.

Like make us feel safe.

Like stay in bed and hit the snooze button,
but like get up and do the thing that is difficult.

Take the walk right that that is like, open up the space.

Say no to things that are getting in the way
of unleashing true metabolic health.

We can train ourselves to prefer things like that.

This is how we restructure our comfort zones.

This is a powerful concept to me.

I love this idea.

Have you ever thought of that? Restructure your comfort zone.

What a what a powerful idea.

Like we think of comfort zones as like a static place
that is never changing.

Like, this is my comfort zone, okay?

And then and then it always has to be that way.

But what if, like, think of a remodeling project you ever.

Have you ever been involved, anyone in your life
with a house remodel project?

You bring in somebody who knows something,
and they just start looking at stuff

that you would never think of, like,
but what if we just knocked out this entire wall?

What if we just, you know, just totally reimagined this,

you know, and they're like, whoa,
I don't want to demo my house.

But then all of a sudden you're just like,
you know, you open up space, right?

And they're like, man,
we can fit a whole bigger kitchen in here.

How about an island? You know what I mean?

It's like people who know.

So, like, all of a sudden now your space is much better.

You see, he's more comfortable saving the remodel.

Hard to go through.

But then you're like, man, I'm glad we did this.

This was great.
What if we could do that to our comfort zones?

We did a session on shifting,
fasting, shifting our reference point somewhere in the fall.

I think that is really like that.

We have the experiences. Then we take the action.

We open up a space, we move things.

We can shift the reference point.

All of a sudden we've provided evidence

to ourselves that we're capable of something else.

Like, look at this.

We built, evidence here.

I love it down on some mental walls.

I love that this is what we're trying to do.

Break through, the barriers that are standing between us

and a different way of being, which, you know, is
my favorite, way to talk about a health path.

Finding a way of being in the world
that helps us flow in a different direction.

Maybe there are mental walls and barriers that are standing
in the way, and maybe we can demo those things.

Bring in, the demo crew a little bit.

And what does that look like?

And feel like maybe that process

just like any kind, of change, stretching.

Here's a nice word.

Stretching the comfort zone. Okay?

We don't have to jump all the way outside of it.

Maybe don't have to break it.

But what if we just stretched it a bit?

That seems like a way to bring some gentleness to it
as we do that.

Okay.

As we're stretching the comfort zone,
as we're demoing some mental walls, we can.

And this is what I see as the goal.

Begin to crave what we repeatedly do.

So the first times we do it,
the first few times we can feel uncomfortable.

But the trick is being able to override that hesitation

so that we are guiding our lives with logic

and reason, not emotionality.

Those are some words that are easier said than done, right?

But they are powerful and is getting to the very core of it.

I especially love,
this section begin to crave what we repeatedly do.

Somewhere I saw a quote once.

It's like we are what we repeatedly do.

I should look look that up. Who said that?

But isn't that true?

I think the first time I ran into that, quote.

Yeah, it was, it was from a musician, but it was from.

I think I was taking guitar lessons,
and then I said something to somebody who's like the teacher.

I was like, I'm not, you know, really a musician.

You know, I, I don't know very much.

Like, that's why you're at the lesson. Okay.

And then they had that quote, you are what you repeatedly do.

You start doing something as like
then ultimately you will be it.

You know, it's like now I'm a guitarist
because I play the guitar, right.

So here's what we. Okay.

We are what we do. That's what the quote is.

I say we begin to crave what we repeatedly do
get in the flow.

How do you do that if you're not repeatedly doing it?

It's hard to crave it. Do you see what I'm saying there?

That's what we are exploring in this section.

Action first, feeling later.

We think about, okay, as we're planning in the

the future, we're trying to plan the health experience
we want.

What is.

You ask yourself, like, what do I want to be feeling?

You know, in this experience,
how do I want to feel on a health experience?

I mean, the answer is that I, you know, come up with, say,

I want to be feeling joyful and I want to be experiencing
flourishing and happiness.

I don't want to be tethered down into some, you know, thing

that feels like just another burden of something to do.

This is why I love fasting and how I describe it.

I just want things that are open, open.

It's,
you know, it's like that session now rules for weight loss.

I don't want rules for people.

I don't want rules for myself.

I just want to be doing things,
you know, that feel good, you know?

And, To be in a mental space like this is saying.

To be craving the things that actually take us on the path
means, like,

I want to do this because I feel, you know,
I feel good doing it.

Exercise is like that.

A fasting space is like
that as you become skilled with it either.

Either way, I mean an exercise is the same, right?

Like if you never exercise, you try to go out and do it.

You know,
you might have some sore muscles, you know, you say, ouch.

And we but we recognize in the body gets stronger from that.

We take take that as a corollary to a fasting space.

Wherever you are.

So like if you haven't practiced this, like,

do you think it is going to be more difficult
than you are practiced with it?

Yes, but do the thing and then you are building the evidence.

Then you are building the experience.

Then as you become more practiced at it,

start to crave the thing because you feel it in the body.

They see you here, so your emotions are always valid
and need to be validated.

They are hardly ever an accurate measure
of what you are capable of in life.

That that is so good that we're recognizing the emotions
and the purpose they serve, right?

It's not like emotions have no value.

Emotions have a purpose. They're there for a reason.

But don't don't use that reason.

See, this would be how we define ourselves in the past
and define ourselves by our past.

Don't let the emotions that are rooted
in what has been determine what might be.

Emotions are not always an accurate reflection of reality.

All your feelings know is what you've done in the past,

and they are attached to what they have drawn comfort from.

And here they give examples.

So let's, let's see how this, sits with us today

as we're trying to move forward in a powerful way.

You may feel as though you're worthless,
but you most certainly are not.

Most certainly you may feel that there's no hope,
but the most certainly is.

You may feel as though everyone dislikes you,

but that is, it grows over exaggeration.

You may think everyone is judging you,
but that is a misperception,

probably coming from judging ourselves.

I say.

Most importantly,
and this is the key for our session here, you may feel

as though you cannot take action when you most certainly can.

Most certainly can.

They're telling us we simply don't feel willing to do it
because we are not used to it.

At least some of the time, right?

At least some of the time. Do we get ourselves in that?

Have you been in a space like that?

This is where I like sitting today, right in the middle
between the session we did the other day.

Nothing is required.

Don't have to do anything.

No pressure to have to do anything.

Fine. To sit in a space and wait for it.

Hopefully it's a space like this.

Sit in a beautiful space.

Find a space of contentment.

Recognize everything is okay even if nothing changes, right?

But that core part of it.

Do we want the change? That's that's the thing.

That's where this is sitting.

Do we really want to change?

And from that space you say, I have contentment here,
I have peace here.

Everything is okay.

If the inspiration comes.

That was a session the other day, right?

When the inspiration comes and flow with it.

So if we are having the inspiration to do it

and like we have the mindset we have, the feeling is there.

It's like, don't fight it.

Like there's a great place to find gratitude, right?

Recognizing there's something that can happen.

Inspiration strikes.

We had patience and grace with ourselves

and inspiration came and we didn't force it.

And we're able to flow into a space,

say, see, that's beautiful.

And, when something like that happens,

say we have big time gratitude for that.

And then we're sitting in here when, when really we know

logically and rationally that we want something to
we don't have to wait for that.

That's the other side of it.

We do not have to wait for lightning to strike

into our, situation
before we take the action and make it happen ourself.

I just plug in to the experience and we can generate it.

Can't wait.

Can't we generate the inspiration
we want through positive action and momentum?

That's what I want.

Build the momentum by taking action first.

Don't have to wait.

Even if we can do it.

I like that, that sounds good. Schedule it.

That's an idea of making it happen.

We're stuck in a place
like we want to take action, schedule it.

See, there's a very, very practical, suggestion

schedule is like, make the decision ahead of time.

We took the emotion out of it, and now it is happening.

And we are committed and we are sticking to it.

I love that it's like there's a way to break out of a cycle.

If we've recognized it, we feel stuck.

Just schedule the end of it and be done with it, you know?

And then you take the action
and you build this cycle, take the action.

Moving forward, and then the energy will start flowing again.

Right then we are back in this cycle.

Schedule the demo crew. All right.

There's an emotional, barrier,
a mental barrier that you have identified.

Maybe you wrote it in the journal.

Maybe.

Maybe just put that on the calendar with an alert.

You know, tomorrow at 10:00, the demo crew's coming,

and then your phone can tell you
that would be a good way to use that.

I say. You know, there's your start. Remember?

You know, in the fall, thinking fast and slow,
we're doing all the priming effects.

You know, here's an idea that is just coming to me.

Is like, okay, I'm
I try to tell people to, you know, get the phone off.

I try to do it myself, try to find the balance.

We're living this digital existence, but, like, okay,
how can we, like,

use this device also to help us more like,
maybe we should be scheduling more calendar

reminders of things that we want, like positive ideas
coming into our mind when we're thinking of them.

Like if we're identifying times when we're struggling,
how about a calendar reminder?

Priming the good things. You are strong and powerful.

You got this, you know, remember the priority
and then scheduling the things you know.

We are taking action at this time and then it lights up.

They say here, hey, this is an encouraging thought.

We must overcome our resistance to some discomfort.

We won't always feel happy initially,
no matter how right and action is for us, right?

The things that are really for us, right?

Our path when we're climbing up the mountain, climbing up
a mountain is difficult.

Not a lot of people do it.

Most people content just to sit in a space,
not to change and grow.

But we say we are building a powerful mindset
because we really care, right?

Isn't it the truth? We're thoughtful people.

We care about ourselves, other people.

So you say we want to do something that might be difficult.

Maybe I'm willing to undergo some amount of discomfort
in order to accomplish something.

Isn't this the thing that really brings the most meaning
and purpose to

our day is an experience,
say actually really accomplish something here?

We want to give ourselves the opportunity to feel that good.

You know, say, I'm I'm okay taking a step out.

Just like.

Just is it delaying our gratification?

Right. Delayed gratification.

They want to feel good now versus feeling better later.

That's like a big thing.

That's exercise.

Right? That's getting out of bed.

That's a fasting space. Right.

And say at least in the short term, I say you know,

the the the practiced fasting state, you feel quite good.

I want to tell people, have you experienced that at least

some of the time where you say, oh, I got into the space,
I felt better, right?

You go through a hunger wave.

You say, normally I would have eaten, but then the system
got the message, oh, we're not eating now.

Hunger hormone goes away, body starts releasing energy.

Then you feel better, right?

It's like pass through an experience, strengthen
and then feel better.

They say here it's essential that we learn to take action
before we feel like doing it.

Taking action builds momentum.

It creates the motivation that we're looking for.

My feelings do not always come spontaneously,
but we can generate them.

I really feel that way.

I was thinking yesterday I was going back and looking at,

some of that thinking fast and slow.

Do you remember the one that was like the brain hack?

We did the thing. The simple brain hack.

What was the whole thing?

But it was like, go look in the mirror and smile

and say an encouraging word to yourself,
like you're feeling down.

Like you're feeling like you don't have the energy to do it.

Go look in a mirror.

And tell yourself you got this.

And smile right
and just the very act of smiling and doing it.

It's very likely that you're going to feel better.

We have this ability to inspire ourself.

I love that you have to simply begin
and allow your life and energy

to reorient itself, to prefer the behaviors

that are going to move your life forward,
and not the ones that are holding you back.

And you can coach yourself and tell yourself to do it.

And I will give you every encouragement,
whatever path you are on.

What are you truly seeking?

I just tell you you are strong and powerful.

You can do it.

You can move in the most positive direction.

If you are feeling stuck.

Okay, I give grace that I can.

I say, hey, take the pressure off, no pressure.

Just sit in a beautiful space.

All good.

Okay, but I give some fire also and I say, hey, try it out.

Take the action first, do the thing and you will have,

the experience and the motivation can come from it.

Practice it.

I say try it out, practice it and try it out

and see if that, does not come to be the case.

All right.

It is another week.

We're starting out the week as we're recording this Monday.

Here, let this be a week of action wherever you're at.

And if you're coming through on the replay
and it's not a Monday, just

start, start where you are.

Let this coming days be days of action.

Put it on the calendar, set a reminder with an alert.

And, let's dial in on positive action across every domain.

Of health.

Bring in a fasting space as the base layer to the amount

that you call feel called to it, excited by it.

Say, this is a personal challenge and experience.

Say no to some things.

I think we're trying to say no to emotional barriers.

How about saying no to some physical, food?

Right.

As yes, an analogy, but also as a way,

deeply getting into the physiology of the body.

Awesome.

How about scheduling in, you know, more movement, more times

for beautiful mental health space, reflection by the lake,

a meditation space time in the journal.

Every good space help us really identify

these, barriers to our path.

Dialing in the healthiest, food choices.

These are the wellness processes,

and we pick and choose, you know,

we're trying to build our skill across all of these things
which all flow together,

to create a holistic health experience,
meaning total wellness.

That's what we're after.

Let me know how your experience, is with it.

Share ongoing thoughts and perspectives in the comments.

And I will look forward to being back with you tomorrow.

Have a great day, everybody.