Swallowing Our Pride
Fasting space.
We are moving into it today.
Fasting process voluntarily opening up space in the body.
Physical space without food for some sort of purpose.
Trying to release energy in the body.
Give space.
There's something that we don't need to be released.
So I say simple fasting
because that whole process is literally nothing.
The process of fasting is doing nothing.
We say very simple, but not necessarily easy to do.
What do we do when it's difficult?
For struggling,
we want to eat something, or maybe even we don't.
But we do it anyway.
We say there's something. To eat.
It's right here. The decision is so easy.
But do we really need it?
Do we even really want it?
Do we want to get into a fasting space to balance it out?
Say every good thing we want, but everything in balance.
Here's my thought of the day for you.
Instead of swallowing the food that we maybe say
is not our best choice at this moment,
can we swallow our pride instead?
That's the centering part swallowing the pride.
Much easier said than done.
I'm trying to bring us the very deepest, thinking
this is what I want.
Try to get really into the root level.
Why do we make the decisions we do?
Why do we even feel the way that we do?
And most importantly, how do we change and mold our experience
so that we can be walking the path that leads to our success?
That's climbing the mountain.
That's what we want to do and experience
joy, peace, and contentment at the same time.
If we are climbing a mountain, so to say, getting to a spot,
we say we hit a number on a scale, for example.
But we aren't happy and joyful.
We're not feeling settle that peace content.
I would not call that a win, but I would call it a win
if we found a way of being in the world
where we encounter the space of peace, contentment,
joy, happiness, satisfaction.
If we didn't accomplish some initial purpose,
but we found a place
like that, wouldn't we say that that is good enough? You know?
And then we want to open up the very best possibility,
which is that both of these things can come.
My experience working with people over a decade
and a half on this type of process
is that finding the latter is the path to the former,
finding a way of being a path of contentment
is the path, ultimately, to finding the type of success
that we are looking for on a health path and losing weight.
When I think of this topic, pride, this is the type of thing.
Well, we talk about fasting as a mirror.
We can look, a mirror doesn't lie.
We say a mirror is showing us truth.
We're trying to move toward health and weight loss.
We have to know things that are true.
Sometimes truth can be a little bit hard to see,
but then it's good, right?
Because it's honest.
I want to be very honest.
I tell people, be honest with yourself.
I'm gonna give you another thought from this
very deep and powerful book.
The mountain is you, the mountain is me to.
We're all climbing a mountain together.
I'm looking in a mirror like anybody else.
I'll tell you today, when I was thinking about this topic,
when I was reading,
in the book, I thought, what is.
Think of the food space. Okay.
Do you, And and it's totally fine to do,
but do you watch, cooking shows?
Do you follow food influencers?
You think about people now and super in food, too.
And in the fasting.
I'm hope I'm communicating that the joy of eating.
I think that's a video
I have on the channel fasting for food lovers.
That was the, video. And who isn't right?
Food is such an incredible, wonderful, essential thing.
The fasting space isn't about denial of food.
It's about bringing enjoyment to food,
but in the proper balance so that we can enjoy food
and enjoy fasting, that they all blend together
in this beautiful dance of health.
But you can take a food influencer
if that's the only side of it.
If we don't have the balance, then it can be taken to a space.
It is not grounded to me where I want to go.
In this session today, a fasting space
very grounded and very humble.
I think of the as opposite of humility.
A food influencer showing like the very most incredible
food is like, look at me.
Look at how like I am eating the most delicious thing
and it creates this thing like I want that, I have to have it.
Hey, I'm just going to give you permission if you need it.
Today I'm going to say, you know what?
Like you don't say it's okay.
Fine to watch something like that. Finally be inspired.
We want to cook delicious, healthy, fun meals.
I'm not discouraging that in any way,
but I am pushing back against things that are hype
and things that create a cycle
of feeling like, you know, keeping up with the Joneses.
Like, oh, if I'm not eating this most extravagant thing, okay,
that can be taking us in a direction that we don't want to go.
I say the humble path to realize
a fasting space can be just nothing at all.
It's not flashy and not necessarily
popular outside of niche circles.
You know, like you're talking with your friends.
Like, are they saying all like,
I cooked this incredible thing, everybody
posting Instagrams of, you know, like,
look at this incredible thing.
Okay, I made one.
I don't even have an Instagram.
I have an Instagram, but I don't post anything on it.
I just grab my name case I ever wanted to.
I mean, I posted one.
Influencer type photo for fasting.
Okay, do do you remember the hit?
Is everybody following simple fasting community post here,
I show it to you.
Here's here's my fasting influencer photo. Okay.
I was sitting out in my backyard.
I was having a fasting day.
I was like,
I need to capture fasting in a way that is like fun.
So I, I filled up my wine glass with water, let it sit.
So I got the little bubbles and put it on the plate.
I had fun with it.
Okay, but see, this is a very.
This is trying to be fun, but it's very humble, right?
I, I post this on a fasting channel
and a lot of times you're going to post this, hey,
like look, look at me.
I'm like having water, you know, not quite as exciting
as some, you know, extravagant creation.
This would be like swallowing the pride, right?
Saying, hey, I'm going to be content just in this space
because this is the road less traveled.
Remember, in the fall,
we read Robert Frost, the Road Less Traveled.
Our society doesn't post influencer photos like this,
and I'm not saying that they should.
To me, fasting is a personal path.
I don't think people should.
This is the thing about swallowing the pride.
I'm not think we need to be out there being like,
oh, look at me, come, I'm fasting.
It wouldn't be the, It's not really the spirit
of what I'm trying to communicate anyway.
How do you feel about it?
Listen to what this, book says.
To overcome our attachment to pride,
we have to start seeing ourselves more holy and honest. We.
I just dissect that sentence for a minute.
Like, see, this is the whole book, right?
The book confronts us with things.
This is why I love it. The book is.
It's like a truth seeker.
It's trying to say, like, what is the reality?
It doesn't sugarcoat anything. Right?
And, you know, when we're just reading this to ourselves,
we're just hearing it,
you know, I'm
I'm sitting here in my own little room by myself.
You know, you are wherever you are,
even to say that first thing
to overcome our attachment to pride,
you know, it can feel like.
Am I attached to pride? Like we start resisting? I know I do.
When I read it, I see, other people prideful, but not me.
Okay, but then it's challenging us, right?
Because even to approach it,
we say, how much self-judgment do we have already?
We were struggling with that yesterday,
leaning into it about don't judge
because when we like I was yesterday,
we judge others and that flows back.
We judge ourself.
And then it's that judging of ourself
that can just trap us in this little box.
So here's a spot where we can do it.
Not to judge ourselves, but to realize like
how are we actually doing here in the core being.
And then this is the positive side of it.
See ourselves more wholly and honestly.
Who doesn't want to do that? Like to see ourselves holy?
We who think of the whole
being like a holistic approach to wellness.
We want total health and wellness.
So I like this.
Instead of thinking that we need to prove everyone around
us, prove to everyone around us
how perfect and flawless we are and how much pressure is there
to do that in society these days, right?
We imagine ourselves see ourselves
more realistically as people
who, despite our weakness, are trying our best.
See, this is so thoughtful.
This is so thoughtful.
We are trying our best right?
In the end, it looks far worse to hold on to
what is wrong or what I say, what isn't serving
us, what is in our path.
Because you care about what others think.
Because you care.
More about what others think than it is to let go.
Because it's what is right for you.
I am.
This pride keep us on a path that isn't really ours,
because we care about what others think.
Can't you just see how that happens so many times,
so many people,
everybody trying to keep up an image or a perspective?
What will other people think of me?
We have pride that keeps us acting in a way
maybe isn't serving us, but we're afraid not to do it.
Swallow the pride.
Ultimately, they say people will respect you far more
if you can acknowledge that you are an imperfect person
like everyone else.
Learning, adapting, trying your best.
In reaching this mindset,
you also open yourself up to learning.
By not assuming that we know everything
or that we need to seem perfect,
we admit when we're wrong, ask for assistance, lean on others.
Swallow the pride is just opening up the bigger space.
Say we're not perfect and we don't have to be.
Thank goodness. Right?
And we don't have to appear that way either.
See this sort of process to me?
Help us take all the pressure off.
I want people moving in a health direction.
No pressure.
So I say at the beginning, right.
Fasting is an open, voluntary space.
Nobody forced to do it.
You're forced to do it. It's not not fasting.
Something much darker. Fasting is openness.
Fasting is free of judgment,
is moving away from every type of pressure.
By swallowing our pride,
they say we're opening ourselves up to growth.
Our life will be better for it in the long term.
How they close it. Swallow the pride instead of the food.
Sometimes that's what I would say
when it's the appropriate time to do it.
When you feel called to do it.
I like to use the analogy of a dial when trying to dial in
on the amount of times that it is right to do that.
We're saying yesterday, like,
what if we stop counting calories
all the time and just counted the times that we eat in a day?
Maybe you count one, maybe you count one, two, or three.
See, those are the types of numbers.
This is the type of math that to me is the simple.
We can count one, 2 or 3 in a day
and then we just work that space.
That's not a that's not a flashy thing.
I've been thinking it's hard to write a book about that.
I think we'll see.
I try to think I would write a book if I could find a way
to fill an adequate number of pages, but the type of book
that I would write, as I think about it, is, it isn't
pages and pages
trying to elaborate how to count to three in a day.
You know, that's the simple part.
The part that needs the exposition.
The part that we're doing here, right, is dialing in
to the mental emotional state
that puts us in the, mindset to actually do it,
to actually overcome
the barriers and the obstacles that stand in a way
of doing a simple sort of thing
on a routine basis in a way that brings, joy and contentment.
That is the real challenge.
How how are you doing about it?
How are you feeling with this, process?
Are you finding a space like that,
or are you not finding a space like.
If people were finding a space like it,
I would love to hear about it.
If people are not finding a space about it.
I would also love to hear about it,
because this is the process.
Like the book was saying, reality based, grounded.
Seeing things as they actually are,
you have to have a clarity of vision like that,
because what, wherever that space is, being totally open
and honest is how you flow through it.
It's how you challenge it
and then ultimately open up yourself to learn and grow.
But this, is certainly what I want for myself.
I'm giving this talk to myself
as much as I'm sharing it with anyone else.
Being totally open and honest to learning and growth
open up to the potential.
Swallow any pride that we have, whether that's
instead of actual food
or it can take, of course, this process.
Bring it to any area in our life where we are trying to move
forward, where we'd have been stuck,
where we are trying to learn and grow,
whether that is in our relationships, it's in our work.
It's just wherever we are at, it's in our health.
I was listening to I Don't Know what it was, a little podcast,
a little discussion yesterday, a couple days ago.
Have you heard of this framework called Four Burner Framework?
They're saying you can imagine life like a gas stove.
We got four cooktops on it for burners.
I'm adapting this a little bit.
They didn't exactly say it this way,
but it's like basically you get 220%.
Okay, this is how I was thinking
of what they were saying for your burners
means you can have two burners going 100%.
You already blew 200% of your 220.
The other two burner is going to be on simmer
and the burners are our family,
our friends, our work and our health.
Pick pick your tattoo. You want to run 100%.
You want to be 100%,
you know, knock and work out of the park and 100% health.
Is that going to sacrifice family
and friends like that is building this holistic,
like we are saying, space in our life.
And and what are the compromises you want to make?
People in the discussion were arguing,
well, this isn't really true.
And other people are saying, well, it's it's true.
And it at least provides a way to look at kind of a little bit
more holistic framework.
Let's just use it as a thought experiment.
Or you can for a moment, if it were true, if you had 220%,
it's like you say, well, you know,
what are the compromises you make?
I don't really like running my family at 10%.
Or let's say you're kind of work and friends, but
health is down at 10% because you're running 100%.
And these other burners, I tell you,
when I was thinking about this for my own self, I'm like, man,
I jerry rigged up my burners
and ran 200% on work for quite a while,
and the whole thing, was going to explode
and the health and everything else was, detrimental.
So this is something to think.
How do you bring it into balance?
What if you brought two of your dials down to 75,
and you opened up another 50 to fill it up?
But like some people say, no, I can go 100% everywhere,
but like, can you,
can you really see this is I'm bringing that up
because this is pride coming in.
Somebody says I can do everything
all the time, absolute maximum.
But it blinds us to see that we can't see it at the time.
Like pretty much can't can't be 100%
committed to everything you can give to your work.
And I mean, it takes time and investment to be healthy.
So I fasting,
I say bring it in because it simplifies things less cooking,
less shopping, less dishes, more space.
It can help you optimize.
If we're on these burners, it can help you optimize, say,
trying to get the most health for the least amount of times.
Help us flow through a space, as smoothly as possible
for trying to free up resources
to, keep our other burners cooking.
But the pride, the pride would say, no, I can do it all.
I can, I can max out all these things
when the probably the more grounded thing for the average,
human person that is, like, everybody truly is.
That isn't just trying to create an image for someone.
We have to bring a balance to all of these things.
I say very often, like the health and Burning Man
that is our society.
Health banner is the back burner that's on simmer right?
The the flames are hidden.
Everything else in health
gets put on the back burner and simmer.
I, of course, as, doctor, as somebody
who is, trying to inspire people toward better health.
I say, let's,
let's try to bring some balance into that equation,
give some more heat on the back burner to that health process.
No analogy is perfect. Okay. But.
We invest in our health.
We send some resources in that direction.
It's going to flow back out.
Here's where that burner doesn't quite the analogy
doesn't quite go when we invest in our health, when we devote,
our intention and resources,
that is an investment that pays dividends, that flows out
okay.
When the when the energy is flowing in the health space,
you've gotten your good sleep and you're rested
and you have corn nutrition
and you have optimized the metabolism
and the insulin resistance is getting vaporized.
And you just that thing is snowballing
and you're feeling better, like, obviously
that that bleeds over into the whole rest of our life.
More energy for work and family and life.
And this is what we want.
And then as we optimize our health, I think our health span
that we're just optimizing our time in that space
that we can actually keep the burners going.
So important.
So I say we gotta don't neglect it.
Don't put health on the back burner.
Don't let pride tell you that you got this.
You don't need to do the fundamental things.
You're going to be fine.
All these things can burn it out.
I mean, I can I can reflect on that.
You know, from my own experience of basically, burning out,
to some degree in the modern health system,
nobody teach you to say no.
Okay.
If you don't have boundaries, which apparently I didn't.
Apparently my boundaries were destroyed
during my residency training and I never rebuilt them.
I remember having lunch with a fellow doctor somewhere
just in the first,
you know, two years of, my medical practice at the university
and, wonderful friend of mine.
And, they were already burned out, had a year or two,
and I was just ramping up.
I mean, the insanity got so much more for me.
I remember sitting there at, having lunch there,
thinking of quitting, you know, which they did.
And it was wonderful for them. Like,
how are you doing it? Like.
Like, I don't know.
I mean, I was just thinking to myself, I'm
just because I'm just great, you know?
That's what I'm thinking. I'm tough.
Like, I'm not.
I'm sorry to say this.
I'm not like you, okay? I'm tough. I can do it. Okay. Really.
I was just so on balance
that I didn't realize that I had my health
and the simmer on the back, and I was destroying the,
setting the groundwork, of destroying half the someone,
someone else not willing to do because they're smarter.
Oh my gosh.
Like, I'm like, I got to find some balance.
It took me a lot longer. Very stubborn.
Okay? I'm very stubborn.
I realize I could I could just plow forward for years,
many years without realizing how out of balance that was.
That was definitely pride
that was leading, leading me in a bad direction.
Have you ever done anything like that?
Or am I the only one?
No, no. No. Pride.
Pride.
Very much pride.
Very hard to see, but it's everywhere.
And, you know,
as I spent yesterday, preparing for this, you know, I
going through, like, when I read the first line of the book.
Right?
I say, oh, pride is like we immediately
some sort of ego center in there.
Hey, that's not something that I deal with.
That's something that other people deal with.
But then I started writing to have on done this,
get out a journal and try to just write.
Like sometimes writing, in my experience,
is an easier way to get down into the deeper layers
of the emotional state than it is,
to just try to think about it.
We just sit there,
everything kind of abstract when you write it out.
So I started doing some journaling last night.
Write it out.
That's where I found this big pride,
you know, pride moment for myself where it's like, oh, like,
I can see if we were to run this whole game over again,
if I was back in that space, if I had more awareness,
I could have had such a deeper conversation with my friend
and realized that we were actually in the same space,
but they were so much more aware of it.
They swallowed the pride way before I did.
And, you know, could have helped so much, so much.
But this is what we do in life. We are not perfect.
This is part of the process bringing down the ego,
embracing a humble path
that leads us to a space of being more grounded.
In the word humility in our society. Not not very popular.
Thanks. Who wants to be humble?
Everybody wants the best stuff.
Photos in the best experiences, right?
We we have a prideful, culture.
Certain side of pride, of course, is good.
We want pride in ourself, meaning
we want to have a good relationship
with ourself and be in courage and love ourselves.
See, that's the positive side of it.
But always reality focused and always grounded.
See, this is bringing everything into balance.
Good to have pride in our work,
have pride in our relationships.
This is the positive side of it.
To feel good about things of value
and things that we are moving toward when.
But not the type of pride that is puffing us up.
Not the things that are apart from reality and not the things
that are pulling us off of our path
because we're afraid of what someone else would say.
This is why we want things that are rooted and grounded.
And the other side of pride is humility.
And really the, the side of pride that is good
is also the side that is facing humility
and just reflecting on it.
And so to me, the fasting space, very humble space,
that's what helps it to be grounded and see if, if humility.
If we say.
The thing we're seeking is ultimately contentment.
As this new gentleman
the other day talking that that he was, some sort of,
I don't know, eastern, spiritual figure.
It does a lot of meditation training.
The interviewer was asking him, are,
you know, because he's he's, like,
very stoic appearing, you know, he's just kind of,
you know, like, like this.
You know, very calm, but, like, are you happy?
You know, he's like, yeah, you're very calm.
You say you're at peace.
You're very calm. Like, are you happy?
He was like reflecting on, happiness versus contentment.
And from his perspective, you know, we can,
we can see how that shakes out from our own perspective,
he said.
Contentment much better than happiness.
Contentment much more grounded and stable.
Contentment providing a platform where happiness
can emerge from more than just chasing happiness.
And then if we don't have it, we can end up in a state
where we're neither happy
nor content that that we end up a lot.
That is how we get into these cycles.
We're always needing some sort of distraction.
We're craving something to take away the fact.
So he he says, don't seek happiness, seek contentment.
And then you're more likely to find both.
So it's I really like that.
To me, that is the humble and grounded space.
Have you been in a space where it's like
where you're really not content like this?
Is that experience
isn't that almost the definition of what anxiety is?
Isn't that the type of thing that leads to a discouragement
and a depression is like,
it's like a total lack of happiness and, contentment.
And isn't it pride that would say.
I deserve this, I deserve happiness.
We we feel insulted at the even the fact that we don't do it.
And all these are the types of thoughts
that spiral in these negative, thinking.
Isn't it the humble path to say, like, I don't even need that.
Like we're not even seeking happiness,
but like, we're finding grounding and contentment.
So like so many things in life, let go
of the thing that we actually want in order to find it.
Yeah. Thank you.
I think this is, Like a huge area where it is, it's
say, I know and this is I,
this is the second area
that I dug in, you know, in my own journaling
last night as I was going, you know, through this.
So the first thing really early in my practice saying already,
if I was thoughtful, could have recognized.
Things were out of balance.
And then I came, came to it like this.
That was maybe somehow much later, like 2018, 2019.
2019. That's where it was.
I had really realize, like, I was so strung out
I was you have no idea how many different things I was doing.
Oh my gosh, running a huge internal medicine practice.
And we got going the whole weight management,
you know, clinic on top of it.
And it's all good things. It was all good things.
And teaching medical students and the hospital wards and,
and medical director of the clinic
and launching a research program.
And it was just,
I mean, just the amount of stuff it's just all good things.
So you to say you have to in life,
you have to swallow the pride.
You have to learn to say no.
You have to say no to good things
in order to allow room for better things,
like just space to breathe and help your health to flourish.
But this is what I was said. And I did everything myself.
And I had
I had some, you know, a lot of issues to work through.
Say, why this is
this was the observation I finally came to 2019.
I think 2020.
Why is it so hard to ask for help?
Like, that's what I was asking myself.
And I realized that again, I can never ask for help.
Like, look, I'm just I doing all these things and I don't,
I don't know how to manage this.
I didn't know I was like, you just got to start saying, no.
You have to make hard decisions.
You have to say no to things that are,
you know, taking you in a wrong direction.
I needed help to even learn how to say that.
I started asking, I got a therapist.
Okay, help start unpacking it
like it's like you need to start learning how to say no.
As like
it seems like you need to start learning how to ask for help.
Like so that's the prides is where we come back to the ego.
This is the sort of things I was like,
oh, I'm not the type of thing.
I always say.
Someone says, can you do this?
Like, yes, because always you can first
because I think I'm strong, capable.
I'm the type of person that get stuff done.
I get a lot of stuff done.
So you just say, yes,
this is like you don't want to disappoint people more.
Pride feels bad to say no to people.
No isn't a word people like in our society.
Start cutting everybody off. Say no, no, no.
Then you say, oh, what are people going to think of me?
But why are we really saying yes?
Right? Why?
When we get into cycles like this, why do we really do it?
Absolutely. That's the thing.
Is it pride that is driving so many of these cycles
that are driving us in directions that don't serve us?
Ultimately, even if they're good things.
This is what I'm reflecting in my life,
even if they're each individual thing, is a good thing.
The collective direction of the ship,
is it sailing in the right
direction, you know,
are we sailing toward greater health and wellness?
Are we moving toward a land that is grounded and present?
I really loved that discussion we did yesterday about
like what it is actually like to truly be present.
I think so many times we don't even know what it is
like to actually be present in a space.
I was thinking about that, you know, last night too,
how, you know, I hiked out by this beautiful frozen lake.
Surrounded by nature, a bald eagle came floating by.
SAT in a tree right over me.
I'm just like watching.
I'm like, this is a beautiful, beautiful space.
Say, I'm not content here.
It took a while to settle in to do it. And.
And how often do we get into a space
where we flow through a space
where we went through that kind of craving
for some sort of distraction?
And then we actually settled in and we're like, oh,
I'm good now, you know what I mean?
Like, I was reflecting on it.
I tried to dial in, you know, I'm I'm here
trying to lead a mindfulness sort of based health experience.
I try to practice what I preach as much as possible.
And I was like, man, I it's been a minute
since I did this, and I flow through that space
and then you get to it. To me it was like ten,
ten, 15 minutes before I was like.
I was like, whoa. I felt like I arrived, you know?
I was like, oh, I'm really here
now, and I don't need to be anywhere else.
Like it's I was able to, you know, to do that
in the middle of this beautiful space even took a while there.
Harder to do.
You know, I tried to do,
you know, a meditation like that when I'm at home.
Okay. But then I'm surrounded.
I got a screen and a screen and my phone
and the things I was like, okay, you really got to be.
Thoughtful. Dedicated.
To open up a type of space like that.
But that sort of space, when you really clear it out
to me, is the emotional space
where you can start to be aware of things like this.
I never I'll tell you, I never it's
it feels so sad to me to say now,
I didn't have any kind of meditation or journaling practice
for over a decade of my medical practice,
you know, like it wasn't
just till the last couple of years
where I started figuring out, oh, this is really important.
Like, not just in medicine, but in life.
So now I think in retrospect, like what?
What a tragedy.
Like, what if I could have gone through that space
and handsome awareness?
What if I was writing this out?
What if I was just doing like, the basic, fundamental things
to say, hey, I can do a little check in.
How hair?
How are your four burners doing?
You know,
are we balancing family and friends and health and work?
You know, and just to write it out.
And I never even realized it was something to do.
You know,
it could sound so foolish from the perspective of society.
Like, oh, you're going to go just sit in a room by yourself.
You know, what I'm missing is I'm dismissing going into like,
an empty room and shutting the door and sitting in silence.
So, like, who would want to do that when we got Netflix?
You know, who would want to do that when we could be looking
on, you know, any sort of social media?
Is it? Wouldn't you just be bored?
And of course you would be at the start.
This is the thing.
This is the barrier to entry to that.
And our pride tells us you should never be bored.
So you're better than that. Like,
this is not what we do in society.
We move beyond that.
We don't have to be bored.
We don't sit around. We're not like.
Okay,
but I think, I think we need a different word than board.
Exactly. Board has so much negative connotation.
I loved super loved this analogy.
Realizing, okay, getting into a fasting space,
you're going to feel hungry.
That's like a craving for food is hunger.
Tennis okay, like we want to eat. We feel it.
The physical properties in the body, which are hormonal,
which are hormones that are just trying to run
a digestive system, trying to organize the digestion, bleed in
because we're mental and emotional.
Physical being all together means that when we have these
physical things happening in the body,
we also interpret them emotionally, makes us want to eat
even if we don't need the food right.
And we feel it okay.
But you flow through that space.
Hunger is hormonal.
It always ends.
Can take 60 to 90 minutes.
Have you experienced that a hunger wave comes?
60 to 90 minutes is quite a while, right?
It's not instant.
There's a peak of that.
It peaks a most intense part that is usually 10 or 15 minutes.
So the barrier to getting into a fasting space
where you flow back out of it.
Have you experienced this in your life?
You felt hungry, you couldn't eat or chose not to,
and then the hunger went away.
Helped you to realize, oh, you could just
if you could see the labs,
you could see the ghrelin levels coming up
and then coming back down.
Right.
And you say, oh, it felt emotional,
but it was a physical process in the body,
the same parallel in the mental emotional space.
We go into a space, we say, I want to go on to this
path, open up space, say boredom
in the mental space is the hunger of the physical space.
We open up the mental space like, no, this is
I need to be doing something.
I need to be scrolling on a thing.
I need to know what is happening in the world.
I need to communicate.
It's like, you know,
that's like a hunger craving for the mind.
We flow through it just like we can flow
through the physical space into a fasting space.
We can flow through the mental space.
That's what I'm outlining with my experience in the words
right
that we go through the space,
you feel the anxiety say, oh, I'm worried.
I don't want to be experiencing this, but you pass through it.
Same thing.
Like the food craving, the peak experience ten
15 minutes to reach the other side.
Have you experienced that?
I'd say I'm embarrassed to say
I went a whole huge part of my adult life.
Never experienced that, or is like,
I never intentionally opened up a space
where I say, I'm just going to be here
and try to find some contentment and a space
and then experience that jittery anxiety of like,
I've got to do something
to break through to the other side
where the nervous system calms down,
and then you're like, I'm okay again.
See, this is what we're ultimately trying to get to.
This is the whole thing of swallowing a pride and embracing
a grounded and humble path to find a space like that.
Isn't that what we're trying to find in life?
To let the nervous system reset,
to calm everything down
and find a space of peace and contentment?
To me, that is the flow that leads toward health, balance,
weight loss, just one point along that path
in a much, much larger space of well-being.
That's why I want it to be,
The fundamental part, you know, the base layer.
You got to be good with yourself
first, flowing into sort of that sort of space.
That's why, you know, all these things flow in each direction.
But here's just one path.
I'm saying, what if before we dove in
on a health path and were like counting them macros
and how much protein and carbs and what food choices
and and what all of this and that and calories and
and even then in our space, you can say before we even count
one, two, three on our fasting, process,
can we just take a space and flow
into that mental space of peace and contentment?
Can we find it there? First?
Because if you can find it there first, if you can sit
in, space, flow through what we say
as boredom, as if it was something bad instead of
just the barrier to entry
to something really beautiful and valuable.
How much stronger are you going to be
as you approach
the physical task of opening up a fasting space?
If you've if you're building mental strength where you say,
oh, I've experienced something like this,
there was anxiety happening.
I felt a craving or a compulsion to do something.
And you know what?
I realized I didn't need anything.
Within myself, actually, this is what we're trying to do.
We're trying to find strength and power inside of ourselves.
The energy, the human spirit that is inside of us all
that is capable of accomplishing
really difficult things, right?
To to lose weight
and become healthy in the midst of an unhealthy society
that you can picture, like just a giant river
that is heading downstream toward like a waterfall.
And we are trying to walk the other way
and do some water walking
against the stream and say,
we're just going to plant a little bit of a different course,
a big ask, I mean, it is
have to be very, very grounded to do that.
Think of being grounded in the middle of a stream,
hopefully as shallow, I don't know.
We got our head over the waves and we can touch the bottom.
And we see we're finding that grounding
so we can take the steps against the current.
Whatever analogy you want to use, hit
the deck is stacked against us right
in the modern world, deck is stacked against us
to be the healthiest version of ourselves possible.
We want to flow in that direction when the flow
all around us is heading in the other direction.
If you're not mindful,
if you're not grounded and present, like we're saying,
you're going to get swept up in the flow
the other direction happened to me, okay.
Happen happen to everybody. Okay.
So wherever you are like like you're saying here and.
Don't have to be perfect, don't have to look good.
It's why this is why I love this topic. So while the pride.
The more we get into it
so often, isn't this down at the really deep level
that we've got to do that
first in order to really get on our path?
Even if it's difficult, and then we have grace
with ourselves,
like we were saying in the book, have grace with ourselves.
When you realize, okay, when we're really honest,
like we're saying, we got a mirror here, we're just looking
at the honesty of it, trying to really get into the deepest
and most profound space so that can be difficult.
This is how we practice compassion for ourselves.
Flow into that space, I said, you can do it the other way
if you're having trouble doing that.
See, you know, I like the idea we're testing.
We can test these different paths. We have natural tools.
Want to help people move in health direction
naturally so that there is basically no cost and risk.
The natural paths are just ways of being in the world.
And the the natural way
of being a human being is an experience of health.
When the environment is supportive, health, arises.
So you've got natural practices, movement
practices, mindfulness practices,
healthy
eating and fasting practices are just tools in our toolkit.
Help us approach the obstacle that we have.
So here I've tried to flow really hard into this path,
opening up the mental space
first to find this contentment on the other side of boredom.
Then we come to see boredom.
We invert it.
We say, oh, this is actually good.
This means I'm moving in a space.
It's like, this is what it feels like to disconnect
from all of these things
that are pulling me in a different direction
to center myself
when we stop seeing it as like, oh, this is negative.
This means I'm not experiencing some joyful thing or whatever
it is.
Hey, no, we reinterpret that.
That's something that can be pulling me off center.
This experience that I have in the past called boredom.
Now I feel I re call it something else centering.
This is the feeling of centering.
What does it feel to become grounded?
You know, so we call it something positive.
Maybe we need another word for it.
Okay, I'm not saying that that is easy. Okay.
That takes practice.
It's not the time type of thing.
Oh, you just go sit in a room and you just do it.
Oh, I just did it one day now.
No, maybe it could be as I even say it.
Maybe you do do it.
And then you flow into a space,
you're like, oh, it just happened, you know?
So it could just happen. Like I made it through.
I experience the boredom.
You know, sometimes I'm even going like this and like,
oh, I just want to get up and walk out of the room,
and sometimes I do.
I get I'm not perfect.
And, so maybe try one.
You just went through it and you're like,
oh, I made it into a much better set of space right away.
Okay.
But if you don't, then it's a practice.
So I'm just going to give myself five minutes.
I'm going to try to make it five minutes.
Then the next day I'm going to try to make it six.
And maybe we don't make it on the third day,
but the fourth day we show up
and we make it seven,
or we just start back to five and we have grace, you see.
Okay, so that's away.
And then maybe by week three, you know, whatever it is, like,
oh wow, I made it, you know?
And I was like, oh, I did feel better.
Even so, I don't know if I'm, am I three years in on trying
to stay in a cycle of a meditation practice?
Am I better at it now than I was before? Yes. Am perfect.
No. Like it's as still I start to do it
and then I end up going and doing something else.
But sometimes I don't know what it is.
One out of three I really make it through
and I'm like, thank goodness I do that feel so much better.
The rest of my day is better.
I want you to experience something like that.
Or like, oh, I made it through this barrier of boredom
and into a space that was so much better.
And then it helped everything.
Okay, so we can flow in that direction.
If you're not in a space where that's happening,
you can flow the other
direction and say,
hey, I'm just going to lean into this fasting practice.
I, I'm having trouble in this mental space,
but I can dial in on this food.
I can eat at noon and I can eat at six.
I can get in a groove like that
and see that can flow back around to as we open up
that fasting space.
It's giving the body some resetting time.
That is building the other side of it
because we're physical and mental.
At the same time, when you do these sorts of things, okay.
When you build these practices in many ways,
what we are doing through these different practices,
whether it's exercise, eating healthy food, fasting,
flowing into these mental health spaces,
we're changing the hormonal structure of the body,
I think is probably the most important thing we are.
You know, I always say, you know, wouldn't it be nice
if there was a control
panel like your data on Star Trek or something,
like an Android?
You just open a hit, some secret thing
the panel opens, reprogram,
you know, say, oh, we're operating this way now,
and then put it back and we just go, okay,
the closest that you can get to that in any sort of natural
way is to realize the way the body is set up.
It changes physiologically in response
to our environment and activity.
Okay.
So like as a as a fundamental process,
do you see that the body is not static.
It's dynamic.
It isn't just in one state. It's flexible.
This is why a human being can adapt to
to such extreme variation.
You got people living up on the North Pole
and it's frozen and you got people living on the equator
where it's hot all the time,
some people living in almost total darkness, some people,
you know, in the sun all the time, you know,
do you see some people eating a completely vegetarian diet?
Some people are carnivores, but the human system can thrive
and basically every type of environment
that you can find on Earth,
the human being, can survive and adapt
because the whole system is incredibly flexible.
And that flexibility is it is adjusting
and responding in a conversation with the environment.
So now we are here in an environment, in a space
that we are creating for ourselves.
That's how we bring in the right brain,
every creative act and process
to create the type of environment
that supports, the flourishing of the body.
So the body responds.
So how does it respond?
One moans, is how the body communicates.
Hormones are what you know. Everything's dark in the body.
If we think about it
this way, it's not like people seeing things.
Some people say actually, interestingly,
some types of light actually in the body.
Very fascinating.
Now that I think about it, but think is basically dark cells,
the way they talk to each other, they,
they have communication signals, chemicals
that are telling all the other cells.
Here's what I'm seeing, here's what I'm experiencing.
And then there are protocols and pathways.
All these signals are present
means this type of thing is going on here.
We run this program.
So see we don't like the program that is running in the body.
You see.
So right now the program that is running in
the body is weight gain.
Right.
This is like a program that is running
because more calories coming in that are needed
which leads to hormones, insulin being high
when the energy is high.
Insulin high energy is reactive right?
Think of energy like think of a fire can burn you, right?
That energy is present.
Heat. Okay.
Sugar like that in the body is reactive.
You can basically get burned on it.
The delicate lining of the inside of your blood
vessels got to be very tightly controlled.
Don't want the fire out of control.
So insulin comes in, jams the extra energy in a cell
where it can be stored safely without burning things.
Okay.
It's like we burn the energy and store it safely
so it doesn't hurt the body.
Okay, so insulin controlling that want to change these things.
You see if insulin is the weight gaining hormone amongst
others say well how do we get the insulin down? Okay.
Changing how we eat, reducing these things,
changing the hormones
that are stopping the signal
that's telling the body to store body fat.
Yes, it's about calories, but it's also about the signals
about how the calories are processed.
So yes, we want to change calories.
I say more important, we want to get at the root level,
change the hormonal structure.
So the body's in a state where the hormones are saying,
let's just burn this energy up.
You see what I'm saying?
Now? The same thing that's on the physical side.
And then on the mental emotional side,
other hormones controlling these things.
Like we did the talk on inflammation and chronic stress,
that the normal physiologic functions of cortisol,
the stress hormone supposed to be released in small amounts
overnight, helps our muscles and tissue to repair that.
When we are in a chronically stressed state,
that hormone gets launched out all the time.
It destroys its natural function, sends
a different message, right?
Part of signaling in the body
like what is the frequency cells know this.
What are the frequency of these things?
Hormonal patterns and some sort of cycle different
than hormones coming all the time, sending a different message
to the body when chronic stress is coming in
leads to all these pro-inflammatory pathways.
Basically, a body thinks it's under attack.
Need to be in like fight or flight mode all the time.
It's like immune system primed.
This is how amazingly
chronic stress can lead into autoimmune disease.
How are we kind of like, you know, it's it's like when you're
not exposed to a sound, like, how could that be the case?
This is like, go back and watch the talk on inflammation.
And we went through the pathways of to to realize
that this stress, the experience in the mind
flowing out hormonally
through every part in our body, including adrenal glands,
cortisol heading out, interacting with the immune system,
then the immune system,
of course, responsible for autoimmune disease months
once 100 other maladies in the body.
So we want to get into a deep level
of health and healing in the body.
So we want to reset that hormonal structure.
Then the hormonal structure of the body in its natural state,
grounded at peace, contentment.
We don't have chronic cortisol elevation.
Everything's back to its natural rhythm,
where we get a little bit of cortisol
just in the proper amounts to help the body
and then come back into this, centered
space of peace and contentment
where the body says, here everything is okay, here
brings the pressure down.
Take the, take the immune system off of high alert,
immune systems like an army.
You got chronic stresses that things, too, are under attack.
They got the guns out ready to kill stuff.
So, like, you want a message coming out?
Parasympathetic flow.
This is. So we've talked in this session.
Swallow the pride.
Say I'm okay in this very grounded, humble space.
Even doing nothing.
It's worth it to me to go through the unpleasant
mental experience of flowing into a meditation space,
because that's the barrier to entry.
I made it through it.
I wanted to hit the phone. I didn't go to it, I made it.
I wanted to walk out of the room into anything and else,
including something good,
like taking a walk, like, wouldn't I rather take a walk now?
Isn't that good and healthy? Of course it is.
But in everything in its place,
maybe what I really need to do is be okay.
Not even taking a walk.
Like we're saying.
Let go with the good things to make room for something
better to get into this mental space.
Really? Let go. Actually, I'm okay here. Now that space.
See, now you're finding contentment.
Very hard to find in this culture. I'm.
I am doing my personal best to find it for my own self.
It's been a journey.
I am trying to share out that experience of how to do it.
This in my experience,
is the path to do it, to flow through that space.
Let the nervous system calm down.
Think what the nervous system
is. That's part of the communication.
We got communication through the nervous system.
We got communication through hormones,
and they're all in feedback cycles with each other.
Look what just happened.
Like your question in the body when we actually shut off
the phones and the screens sat in the space experienced
the unpleasant experience, the feeling
that is like anxiety of having to distract ourselves
from the difficult task of just doing nothing
means just being present with ourself.
Think about, okay, wouldn't it be nicer to be with a friend?
You say, oh, if I was a friend, then we could talk.
Isn't that good? Yes, of course it is.
Are you friends with your self?
And a meditation is like getting to be friends with yourself.
Something we don't do right.
I went through my entire life up until, like 3 or 4 years ago.
No real relationship like that.
Not spending any time as like,
the last thing I want to do, sit in a room just by myself.
What am I going to do?
I mean, I start feeling anxious right away.
Is that even something you can do?
I didn't know I didn't.
I was like, oh, you mean I can like, kind of talk to myself?
Like, what is that? Isn't that, like, weird?
Can kind of feel kind of weird, but then you realize, oh,
like what is actually happening there?
We think about some of the things
we've talked about over the past weeks and months.
Do we love ourselves?
Are we kind to ourself
or are we judging ourself, or are we punishing ourselves?
This is our attempt to get healthy, or actually a punishment
for some unresolved emotional thing that we haven't done?
See, we are we're really getting deep
now into trying to untangle all that.
This is the space.
It's like you get into that space and then out of it,
and then you find always contentment here.
And when you get into that space.
Then you can start asking
some of these questions than answers.
Then issues start coming up
and you can start to think in a more grounded,
real, rational space
like what is actually true here, what is happening in my life.
And we don't have to just run away from it right away,
like most of life is like, oh, what about this stage?
I go distraction like, oh, go do something.
Don't want to think about it, okay?
But once you get out of that cycle,
we're in more of a flow state.
I'll tell you, once you break through that boredom barrier,
once you start to center something about how that's working.
We got Clark centers in the mind keeping track of time.
A lot of times in our society, those things are like
hyper primed or like, oh, we just know now.
We always know, don't you know?
Oh, it's been about 30s since this is.
Oh, it's been about a minute
since that, like, we're so dialed in on these time.
I think part of that experience of flowing
is getting out of that cycle
where we kind of disengage
that Clark center that is always so dialed in.
Super charismatic nucleus in there.
Okay, like let's shut that down a little bit.
Let me pay a little less attention to that.
That's how we can start flowing through a space
like greater amounts of time passing.
We're not so aware of it
really. See the pressure's coming off.
This is my experience at the lake.
The first ten minutes I was there.
I mean, I'm like, oh, man.
I'm like, I don't know if I can do it.
This is supposed to be a vacation.
I'm supposed to be having fun, right? Okay.
But then 80 more minutes after that went by, I'm like, are we
are we done already?
Like all of a sudden, like an hour went by
and I had been thinking all these beautiful thoughts
about, like the wind flowing through
the trees is like the breath that I'm breathing.
And I was just having the most beautiful types of thoughts,
and I would never think about in my regular life.
But see, that is the process of coming into balance.
Like there's not really another way to do it
that I have found.
If you're aware of it, let me know.
I want, I want to learn, I need if there is a better way.
But this is the way that I have found to come into that space.
And then the breathing helps.
That's. That was the message from the trees, right?
I'm watching the wind blowing through the trees, watching
the trees are swaying
in the wind, realizing I'm breathing in this same air as.
Like I'm breathing in the peace, the contentment.
Breathe out the negative, that breathing. That's part.
This is my long answer to your short question.
What's happening in the body
as we're the breathing is supporting that.
Getting that parasympathetic outflow.
So much of health can be contained
just in that one simple process.
A deep breath in and out.
When do you ever do that?
You do that when everything is okay.
You do that in a space
where you're not rushing to be somewhere else,
and that is literally communicating to the body.
Everything is okay.
We can settle down if you're feeling anxious,
if you're feeling overwhelmed, take the deep breath.
Stretch out that diaphragm.
The signal is actually triggered by the diaphragm.
Okay.
Open up the lungs, sending that signal back to the brain.
Okay, we've taken a deep, slow breath here.
Body knows then, that flows out into the body.
Says everything okay.
That is heading back out, telling the adrenal glands.
Chill out.
Crank down the cortisol production.
So the physical process of deep breathing,
pairing that into a meditation space.
Absolutely.
Even just regular breathing,
you know, how can be some deep breathing.
Just regular breathing.
Breathing bringing awareness to and help to slow the rate
these things very synergistic process
because as we're making it through that space, we're calming
the mind.
Breath is the physical experience in the body like seaweed
because we're one thing.
We're connecting it.
The physical body is calming down.
The mind is calming down.
We're having racing thoughts. We breathe through it.
We're using this is the same thing
fasting, meditation, breathing, thinking.
We're using each side of our mental and physical space
to move us forward in health
so that everything can come into balance.
So that we can be grounded and move forward in health.
