Mindful Impact Podcast With davidji

1:21:57

1:21:57

Mindful Impact Podcast With davidji

by Justin Francisco

Rated

4.8

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

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9.3k

davidji is an internationally renowned meditation coach, author, and wellness expert. He is a spiritual teacher and certified Vedic master who aspires to help people lead more fulfilling and purposeful lives by introducing them to the stress-reducing and life-affirming practice of meditation. In this episode, you’ll hear from Davidji on, [13.32] His route into meditation. [22.04] Ancient wisdom.[23.16] Connecting to the silence. [46.14] Choosing peace. [01.13.42] His 16 Second Meditation.

Meet your Teacher

Justin Francisco

Rochester, NY, USA

Meet your Teacher

Justin Francisco

Rochester, NY, USA

Transcript

Welcome to Episode 61 with David G. Welcome to the Mindful Impact Podcast. I'm your host, Justin Francisco. This is the place where you'll discover how to be the most mindfully impactful spouse, Parent, And career leader you are destined to be. A new expert guest will be on every Monday to discuss topics using mindfulness techniques with family and business leadership. Thank you for listening and please don't forget to rate and subscribe. It really helps allow me to keep recording these episodes for you. So David G. Is one of my most prominent guests I've had on yet. I'll read a little bit about his bio. He's an internationally recognized stress management expert. He's a corporate trainer, Meditation teacher, And the author of the gold medal winning book, Sacred Powers, Critically acclaimed and Amazon number one bestseller, Destressifying the Real World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting Fulfillment, And Peace of Mind, And a book called The Secrets of Meditation, A Practical Guide to Inner Peace and Personal Transformation. Another winner of a Nautilus Book Award. He's done many, Many, Many recordings that you can find on his website. I won't talk too much about it because we went an hour and a half, But it was very, Very good. It gets better and better as the episode goes on, So stay with it. Or listen to some of it now and some of it tomorrow or the next day. You could also find David G on www. Davidg. Com, D-a-v-i-d-g, Sorry, J-i, D-a-v-i-d-j-i dot com, And at davidgmeditation on Instagram. He's also on Facebook. So without further ado, Let's go ahead and press play. David G. Again, Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. The first thing I always ask all my guests that I have on, And I'm really interested to hear how you respond to this, Is when you wake up in the mornings, You get up, What fills your heart? What is it that makes your heart just sing out loud to the universe each day currently in your life? Huh. Gee, What makes my heart sing? Waking up. Waking up makes my heart sing. I'm one of those people who launches out of bed every morning. I wake up usually about an hour before the sun's come up. So the first birds, I'm up with the first birds. And so I like to actually wake up in darkness. I like to meditate in darkness. And I like to feel the sun come up. I sort of like use that as my meditation timer. So usually about maybe 20 minutes into my meditation, Sun starts coming up first light. And so that's the first thing I do. I wake up and I meditate. That's like my technique that I've been sharing with the world for the last 20 years is YEM, Rise, Pee, Meditate. So that's what I do. I rise, I pee, And then I meditate. I love coffee. It happens after. I love walking with Peaches the Buddha princess, My dog. That happens after. Peaches meditates with me. But I'll leave my bed and I actually am excited to wake up and connect to the stillness and silence that rests within. And part of that process is asking some important questions. I'll ask, You know, Who am I? When am I my best version? I'll ask, Well, What am I grateful for? And I'll do that sometimes for like three to five minutes, Just going over my gratitude list. And a lot of things that you would not assume would you be grateful for, You know, Like I'm grateful for coronavirus. I'm grateful for suddenly being like blocked in my house, You know, Quarantined. Well, Can I stop you there? Can I ask you why? Like, How can you be grateful for that? I'm not disagreeing. I'm just asking. What are your reasons for that? Well, I guess. Because I love it. I love that aspect. Yeah. So I guess that. You know, These are like deep philosophical questions. Like I don't I don't live my life painting things as good or bad. So I don't see people as bad. I don't see no matter who they are. Doesn't doesn't matter. I don't see them as as you know, As bad. I don't see situations as bad. And maybe this is, You know, Studying, You know, Ancient, You know, Teachings for a really long time. So I see the thing I see like. So what's this thing? And then I look at all the components of it, You know, The yin and yang of all things. So I look at this horrible virus that is killing people and and creating, You know, The concept of panic in our environment. And then I see this other thing that's help helping to reconnect us to the stuff that really matters to us. And suddenly giving us pause. I think each one of us at some point in our life, But only a thousand times. Actually, Maybe 10, 000 times has said, I wish I could just slow the world down just a little bit. Or I wish cars weren't belching all this pollution into the air. Or I'd love to spend time at home with my family just a little bit more time. Or I've been working so hard for the last five years. If I could just have some kind of break or just like just let everything just slow down just a little bit. And then I would be overwhelmed. So we've we've probably said that, You know, Lightly or we've even prayed for it at other other times. And so, Like, I see this this when I look at like this, The era of covid, Which is sort of like what I what I think of it. You know, This year, The last six months or so, It's forced us all to reconnect to those important things that matter to us. Stuff that doesn't matter that we were once spun out over that sort of gone. We're spun out over other stuff. Yeah. But, You know, As I as I as I look at the world, It seems to be other than everyone getting swept up in panic or anxiety or fear or or or what ifs. I see it as more peaceful. I see, You know, When I'm walking my dog in the morning, People are, You know, I mean, We're all sheltering in place. So, Like, You know, They're on one side of the road. We're on the other side of the road. It just feels to me that there's like a whole bunch of peace. There's also a whole bunch of fear and panic and anxiety. But those are translations. Those are interpretations. You know, Is that actually fear or panic or anxiety outside of us? That's how we're translating what's going on. And it's really uncertainty, Unknown. Will I run out of money? Will I catch this thing? You know, There's things that they're real. You know, That's will I die? Will people I love die? And then I won't be able to be with them, You know, When they're dying or I won't be able to see them. But again, It's that we're projecting ourselves like, What if that happens and then we can go there? So that's really a translation. So I see the I see the, You know, I'm grateful for for everything. I'm grateful for my trauma. It's taught me and strengthened me, Made me more resilient. I'm great. That doesn't mean that I can't sit and sob, You know, Hysterically over horrible things that have happened to me or really feeling pain and experiencing it. But I realize that every time I look at someone and judge them in a certain way, It has nothing to do with them. It's like it's me. You know, I'm like formulating this person is good or bad or, You know, I'm making that up. And so, Yeah, My gratitude practice can get can get pretty get pretty intense because there are some some mornings where I'm like, You know, Thank you so much for that political person that I that I can't stand. That's helping me to crystallize how I feel truly inside of me. And they've actually just send them some compassion. So that's so that's really what I'm going through. I'm like working out my stuff during my gratitude practice. And, You know, Thanking whomever for for all these, I would call them all gifts. They're wrapped in different packaging. They're all gifts. Yeah. Now, You weren't that was beautiful. Now, You weren't always having this outlook, I'm assuming. This takes, You know, It takes years of practice and unpacking and meditation and a bunch of other things. Can you for people listening, My listeners, They don't not all of them know your story. If you want to just give like a brief of like where you were before this and then that moment that really I think everybody like has either like almost a gradual. But there is some sort of a shift moment that creates you to make that decision to do something different or change or transform or whatever you want to call it. What's your short story? Yeah, Well, You know, I'm a meditation geek. I am that I wasn't always and I love exploring the ancient teachings. My most recent book, Sacred Powers, Was really exploring all the ancient indigenous cultures to try to find what were the commonalities, You know, That that that connected cultures, You know, Two, Three, Five, Ten thousand years ago. Like what were those, You know, What were those those those basics that they all believed in? And you can find that and and you know, Whether that's a culture, An indigenous culture in in in North America or Asia or India. There are so many commonalities that have existed for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. But I this is all, You know, In my last 20 years that I put attention on that. And prior to that, I was, You know, I was deep in the corporate world and I was a bond trader for a while. And I was a mergers and acquisitions advisor, Worked on Wall Street, Worked in the you know, I'm from Queens. I'm from Queens, New York. You know, We're like we're very, You know, As you come out of the womb, You know, The doctor whispers in your ear, You know, Like, OK, Here's how it works. Focus and effort. If it's not working, More focus. That's not working. More effort. And that's it. More hustle. Right. That's it. Get out there and kill them. Step over anybody who's in your way. Get your elbows really sharp and and get what's yours type of thing. And, You know, I believe that I lived that I was probably I was a jerk for most of my most of my life. I was not I had probably pretty low emotional intelligence, Wasn't paying attention to how other people were feeling or emoting or or even my own feelings. I was just like on this, You know, Laser beam focused. Let me get out there. Let me crush it. And, You know, That led to me working 18 hours a day, Seven days a week and probably not being a great I was a great provider, But I was not I was not a great partner. I don't think, You know, My wife would probably go, Yeah, Probably, Probably right. But at a certain point in time and really my defining moment was was 9-11 because I had worked in the World Trade Center for a while and I'd left there about six months before 9-11 to take another job for someone who, You know, Was just a horrible person. But they dangled a whole bunch of stuff in front of me and my partner and we like we bit at it. And of course, None of that ever materialized. We just like, You know, Just traded in our lives to work for the devil. And with the hope of, You know, Having riches and of course, No riches, Only only agony. And, You know, I remember I remember on 9-11 we were like we were like 20 blocks up from Tower 2 from the World Trade Center where I worked for all. And we were standing on the roof of that building. I was COO of this company at the time with a whole bunch of my staff and we were standing on the roof watching as Tower 2 collapsed. And that's sort of like snap something in my brain, Snap something in my heart. You know, When you see something that's not even possible and it happens and it turns everything you've every belief system you've ever had in your entire life just gets blown up. You know, That just cracked inside of me. And in that moment, I was just overwhelmed by my entire life and by everything in existence. And about a week later, I was in lower Manhattan walking past a row of cardboard boxes that people were living in. And I walked past this particular cardboard box and this hand reached out, Grabbed my pant leg and this guy, You know, Peered up at me and said, What's going to be on your tombstone? It's a fairly reflective question. In any other moment, I would have just kept walking by. But I just I just stopped and hung out with this guy. It seemed like hours. The world stopped. All sounds stopped. All the noise of New York City stopped. It was only me and him in that moment. And, You know, And those words were were just like rippling through me. And I walked a couple of blocks after that, Really a couple of steps after that and realized I was like dripping sweat. Tears were coming down. You know, My eyes, My knees were weak. I sat down on some steps up in a apartment building just a hundred feet away or so. And, You know, I was asking myself, What is going to be on my tombstone? Why am I here? Why am I doing everything? What's the what's the purpose of everything? And I came home, You know, That day and spoke to my wife and I said, Like, You wouldn't believe what happened and like shared that whole thing, All aspects of it. And she said, You need to quit that job. I've been a fairly obedient husband in my life. And so very shortly after that, I left that job and she said, You know, You should there's this guy, Deepak Chopra, Who's doing this doing this meditation retreat in Oxford, England. You should go do that. And I was like, Really? And I was like, OK, Because I had started meditating in college. I went to I went to went to school upstate New York, Syracuse. Yeah. And there was an experimental Asian studies class where we all, You know, Practice meditation and stuff like that. And that slipped away from me, You know, Over the years. It sparked me. I explored a lot of different kinds of meditation, You know, For like 10 years after I left college. But they all slipped away as I got deeper and deeper into the corporate world. So when she said, You know, This guy, Deepak Chopra, Is doing a meditation retreat and this would probably be really good for you. I was like, OK, Let me do that. And so. Again, Fairly obedient. I was like, OK, Yes, Dear. So I did that and there was supposed to be like three thousand people at this retreat, But there's only a couple of months after 9 11. So like there were like 50 people there. So it was really an opportunity for me to go really deep with this guy, Deepak Chopra, Who I'd never heard of or met. And that's really where I where I connected with him. I meditated. We were meditating for like six, Seven, Eight hours a day. Do you remember the first meditation you did with him? I did. Did you remember do you remember like how you felt or what like emotions you had around it or, You know, Do you do you remember that? You know, I was very, Very emotional in that period of time. And. You know, I don't think anyone I don't think anyone explores, Quote, Spirituality, Whatever, Whatever, Whatever that even means. I don't think anyone really explores it unless there's some type of wound. I think that's the that's the reason people get on a path of deeper exploration, Deeper self exploration. There's a wound and you're trying to somehow, You know, Intuitively, You know, It needs to be healed. You know, You feel pain. I think pain can be a really, Really powerful motivator for anything. And so, Yeah, I remember that first meditation. I remember really those first three days of meditations because what happened on the third day was suddenly my heart just cracked open. And for the first time, Probably in about 20 years, I felt joy and I had not experienced the concept of joy. It was almost like it was a new thing. It's like joy. It was like happiness, You know, Like unconditional, Like feeling really, Really, Really soft and and light. And I had not felt like I'd been like really, Really heavy for a really long time. And I reached out to my wife and I said, Listen, I think I'm going to think I'm actually going to to go to India after this thing in England. You know, I spoke to Deepak and he was like, Yeah, You should check out India. And I was like, OK, I'll do that. And so she said, OK, So, You know, Got a visa for India. And then when this thing ended on day seven, I headed off to India in search of the guru. That's what I was doing. I was like searching for the guru, You know, And I went went into the Himalayas to try to find His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He wasn't there that day, You know, But I didn't know. I was just like heading around. I traveled. I bathed in the Ganges River. And I like did yoga every morning and meditation every afternoon and read the Bhagavad Gita. How long were you out there for? I had a six month visa and I was there for about five months and 28 days. And you were you were married at the time? I was married. Yeah. With the most supportive, Amazing being on the planet. It was just looking for me to get to the other side of my emptiness. You realize my shock and that like as you know, In 2020, I don't see a lot of relationships where, You know, Someone would be like, Yeah, And like an early marriage. Yeah, It's taking six months. Go to India. That's cool. No problem. I'll just hang out and I'll figure things out here. Like, I love you. It's fine. Go ahead. Explore. Yeah, I think my wife sensed such a deep wound inside of me. You know, Maybe 9-11 was the wound. Maybe 9-11 was the spark. You know, A lot of people I knew died and and really everything inside of me. I went into like very, Very deep depression after that. But yeah, Often when I tell the story to people, They say, Are you still married to that same woman? You know, Because that's, You know, That's the figure. That's definitely the first wife. She is my first and only. And so, Yeah, You know, And I did a lot of that was a really, Really a lot of introspection. And I was searching for the guru. And honestly, It was like five months and 28 days later and I'm I'm I'm laying in a hammock, You know, Reading the Bhagavad Gita, Which I read every day. You know, Einstein read it every day. I figured enough for Einstein. Definitely good enough for me. That makes total sense. They say that our brains are closer to those of monkeys than they are to Einstein's brain. You know, The rest of the human race is actually closer to to the Simian brain than to Einstein's brain. So I think whatever Einstein did, I'm I'm doing that. It will get me closer to an answer. And so I'm like, Einstein and everything. Exactly. I'll keep you so proud of me. My office is really messy also. And Einstein's office, It looks like a bomb hit it. And so, You know, I was reading the Gita and, You know, I had searched high and low for the guru. I had explored everything. I had taken trains and buses and walked and hiked and lived in the jungles and slept on the side of the road. You know, Like like the works I had done, Like the whole you pray love thing without the eating and the love. You know, Just a lot of prayer. And ultimately, I was reading the Bhagavad Gita and there's this line in there, Chapter two, Verse 48. You know, Have it etched inside of me. And, You know, Arjuna, The great warriors is asking God, How am I supposed to live my life? You know, I mean, There's so many so many powerful parables in the Bhagavad Gita. And and God, You know, Replies to to him. And I don't think Einstein believed in God, But I know he believed in the universe. And I replied to him, Establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action. That's like one of the truth bombs in the Bhagavad Gita. And I was like, Establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action. And suddenly, Like it hit me like a lightning bolt. And I was like, Yes, Yes, Of course, If I can just get still on a consistent basis before I act, I'll act at a higher level. I'll execute at a higher level. I was always running to this and and reactive and, You know, So so conditioned in all of my all of my behaviors. And suddenly I had like the like this is how I want to live my life. I want to be able to slow myself down. There's another great line in the Yoga Sutras, Which maybe I'm sure you've read, Which is a yoga chitta, But it's the Nirodha, Which is oneness union with everything. You know, Is the progressive quieting of the fluctuations of the mind. So I believe that inside of each of us is the answer to every single question we could ever ask. And if we are willing to allow ourselves to progressively quiet the fluctuations of our mind, We can hear the whispers in our heart. We can hear the whispers of of God or of the divine or of your best self or your highest self. And so like that like hit me like a lightning bolt. And I like raced away from that and was like, Oh, My God, That's it. That's the answer. That's how I want to live my life. And I like raced back to Mumbai and, Of course, Racing back to anywhere in India is like, You know, I waited for like 15 hours for a bus to come. And then it took like, You know, 48 hours for the bus to get to Mumbai. And then I sat in the airport for another 20 hours. That was like racing back. And when I got home, A couple of my friends said to me, Hey, Welcome back. You know, We noticed that you've been here for like a month and all you do is sit around and meditate. And, You know, This is actually more to life. And I was like, Yeah, I know. Meditation. So amazing. So I want to do. And they're like, Why don't you like help other people, You know, Help them meditate since you like, You know, Love it so much. And I was like, I'm from New York. I don't care about anyone else's meditation. And they said, Well, If you really want to learn something, Learn to teach it. And so I looked at my wife and she was like, Yeah, You should probably do that. So a friend of mine said, Come on, Reconnect with your boy Deepak. He has like a meditation center, Some wellness center in California. You should check that out. So I said, Come on, Honey, We'll go out to California. You'll get massages, Ayurvedic massages, Beautiful, Hot oil massages all day long for like the four days of this workshop. And I'll do this thing. And it was actually at that thing that suddenly I thought there's going to get again. I think it's going to be like 500 people. And they were like 30, Including me and my wife. And I was like, What's going on here? There should be like hundreds of people, You know. And so I was having a conversation with Deepak and his co-founder, David Simon, David Simon neurologist, Deepak Chopra endocrinologist. So like, You know, Physicians who had really embraced this holistic way of looking at health and healing. And I was like, What's going on here? How come no one's here? And they said, Well, You know, Since 9-11, Not a lot of people are coming here. And I was like, Oh, My God, This is my skill set. I can turn around companies. That's what I do. That's what I've been doing for like all my life and, You know, Most of my life. And in New York, I can help you like bring this place to, You know, State of really thriving. And they're like, OK, Sure. Would you like to be the COO? And I was like, Yeah, Sure. And I said, I'll go back to New York and I'll call you once a week and tell you what to do. And I'll tell the staff what to do. And David Simon said to me, No, No, No, You got to sort of like be here and breathe the air. You got to like live this thing. And that's the only way. So I came home from this like this lecture and, You know, My wife was like laying, You know, On the on the bed in the hotel room. You know, She's like, You know, Totally blissed out from like a two hour, You know, Four handed massage or something like that. And I said, Hey, Guess what? I got a really great job. And she's like, Really? I go, Yeah. And she said, What you'd be doing? And I said, I'm going to be a COO. She goes to that again. And I said, No, No, No, It's for this really beautiful organization that helps people. And people come from all over the world and they like you and all this other stuff just like me. I'm healing. And she's like, How much are they paying you? And I said, Well, I agreed to do it for free for six months. She's like, What? And, You know, She goes, You haven't even worked for a year. We've just been like banging the credit cards. You've just been sitting around meditating since you came back from India. And now you're taking a job, You know, For free. Yeah, Yeah, I think this is like really what I want to do. You know, She is like, I support you. OK. And so so I started the next day as the CEO. Within a week, They were like, You should get on the teacher's path and like become a meditation teacher here. I go, Well, That's why I came out here. Initially, I went to that workshop and they were like, Yeah, Do that. And then I then became the lead educator, You know, Over the next like 18 months. Then they asked me to be the dean of Chopra Center University. And so for like 10 years there, I was apprenticing under these two guys, Diving deep into all this ancient wisdom, Meditating for like three hours a day, Leading meditation, Practicing yoga, Got certified in yoga while I was there as well, Got certified to teach Ayurveda, Which is the oldest healing system on the planet, And and ran this organization. And then at a certain point, I was like, Right, It's time for me to leave the nest and and go out into the world and teach this stuff, You know, To people who who don't necessarily have access to teach kids in hospitals. And I want them to teach people who are struggling and want to travel around the world and, You know, Do that. And so in 2012, I sort of left that world to bust it out on my own. And so when you were when you were at the Chopra Deepak Chopra Center, Was it like as far as work wise? I mean, Was it pretty because, You know, Compared to being a CEO or what you were doing before, You know, Merging companies and stuff like that. You know, Was it a lot less dress? Was it more flow? Was it less hours? It was still the same 18 hours a day, Seven days a week because it was a wellness center. So it was open every day. And so I was I was overseeing like, You know, All the massage therapists and all the and the marketing team and the sales force and all the instructors and like all these and the front desk people and our inventory and our products and like all these things. So now I was working just as long. But suddenly I was working for like something that was bigger than me. You know, I'd been working for people to make the money for like two, Two long. And, You know, I was just like a little cog in the wheel. And suddenly I was like working for something bigger than me. I was working to help people all over the world connect to these teachings and to and to heal themselves. And I really loved hanging out with Deepak and Dave. We traveled the world. And so I wasn't it was like almost it was you know, Working, But it didn't feel like that that that work all the time like it did before. Then that helps. I haven't worked a day since since I quit my job back in New York. Cool. You know, I have I have done a lot of stuff and I've been really, Really busy. And none of it's not every moment's fun. You know, Some of it's horrible. But I never felt like I was working. You know, I always I always felt like, You know, Oh my God, I'm I'm like, I'm creating doing stuff I like. I'm continuing to heal in that process. So maybe you can take take the boy out of Queens, But you can't take Queens out of the boy. But I learned the techniques to help me. It's not about, You know, Focus and effort. I don't I don't believe that anymore. You know, I'll give you, You know, I'm speaking out of school here, But I could do that. So at a certain point, One of my roles was to negotiate these various Chopra centers around the world to negotiate the contracts for licensing deals. You know, A lot of people were like, We want to create a Chopra Center here and we want to create a Chopra Center here. So I was the guy who sort of like, You know, The deals were structured by by all the finance people in the organization, But I was the one who negotiated the deals. And, You know, I came back from one deal and I said to David Simon, I crushed him on this one. They're paying us this amount of money and we get a piece of the action here. And, You know, It's definitely, You know, Like, It's a score. And he goes, Is it a win-win? I go, Well, If we're both of the wins, It's a win-win. I don't know that it's a win-win for them. No, I think, You know, They're totally disadvantaged. Then I struck the greatest deal and they signed, You know, Willingly, You know, And he's like, It's not a good deal. I go, What do you mean? We're going to like crush it. He goes, But they're not. They're going to struggle and they're going to suffer. And I was like, Yeah, But, You know, Every deal I've ever structured in my life, You know, If I could negotiate the win for my side, It's a win. He's like, No, No, No. We need to, When you strike a deal, Everybody's got to be euphoric. And I was like, Well, They're definitely not euphoric. And he was like, Go back, Make them euphoric. And so I went back and renegotiated the deal. And I realized, Oh my God, Every negotiation, Everyone has to be thrilled with it. Because like, If you're like, If you like crushed it and someone else is the loser, You know, There's a certain amount of energy that's like weird energy. We see it in sports all the time. You know, We see when the one when your team wins the wins the wins the game and the other team like loses with like three seconds left. The level of euphoria is like so extreme. And the level of despondency on the other side is so extreme. And that that energy is real. Those people are carrying that energy. Who knows for decades, Maybe. So I realized like, Wait, Let me be even more creative. Let me figure out ways for everyone involved in every situation for every, Every scenario. Let's let's create just win, Win, Win, Win, Win, You know, On all sides. And and that was like such an aha moment for me. And, You know, And I've always felt like that since then. That's awesome. David, I just had are you familiar with Mindvalley at all company? Sure. Sure. Yeah. I just had Jason Campbell who works there. He he is the host of their podcast called Superhumans at Work. And he talked to me half the podcast about selling with love and that exact concept which you just used. And those are so recently and it was the first time I've ever heard that. And now you just said it again, Which is obviously the universe speaking. Like that is that's so that's such an amazing moment. I'm so glad you shared that. It's awesome. And so even even when you even when you like buy something, I just just just three days ago, I was on the phone with this with this company that sells fans. And I found like a particular fan that I want to install in my house. And I called them up and they said, Yeah, You know, Just wear a mask and gloves when you come in and we're happy to sell you the fan. That's like an essential business in Southern California. So because we've had like 85 degree days. Right. You need fans. Right. You need new. Yeah. So I go to. So right before I go, I go, Let me check this fan online. I didn't even look anywhere else. And I see it and it's like fifty dollars less with another company online. So I take a pic. I take a picture of it online and I figure, Well, When I get there, You know, Then I'll, You know, I'll say, Oh, By the way, You know, I saw this this been online for fifty dollars. Sure. So I walk into the store and I'm feeling a little anxious about it since they told me the price and since I said, I'll be right over, You know, Until they were sort of like a sort of a kind of agreement on the. On that price that they gave me and I was heading right over. It was like 15 minutes from my house and I get there and I'm thinking, Do I do I even go there? Do I let this be a win? Do I do I do I hold to the agreement or do I negotiate the better price or, You know, It's not like a big box store. It's a smaller store. And I, You know, And I walk in and she goes, Here's the fan. And I'm thinking this, This is this is in the back of my mind the whole time. I'm just thinking about like fifty dollars, Fifty dollars. You know, Do I do I eat it? Do I do whatever? What's that? And she says, Oh, And by the way, I saw the price online. Fifty dollars less. So you can have it at this lower price. What? And I was like, You know what? I was like, So, You know, I said to her that that's so beautiful. You did not have to say that. And she said, Well, You know, I wanted both of us to really feel good about this. And I was like, Yeah, It's like beautiful. Like I almost I had tears coming down my face like buying a fan. And, You know, So. So I came over to my wife. I walked in the door and they said, We found a fifty dollars jeeper for you. And and she said, Well, That's how we live life. If we can just keep trusting and we can just keep moving with an open heart. And so like, I don't know that that's like the parable of all parables, You know, Just the fan. But it was like that was like so powerful. And and in that moment, I'm hoping they felt it was a win. Yeah, I'm sure they got it. You know, She didn't give it away to me at a loss. But I felt like a win. And so suddenly, Like everyone's happy and like you're like the third person I've told about this story. So and the other people I've told live around here. So like, You know, Something like that, The positive ripple of the win win is more than them even pocketing fifty. You know, If they end up with like three more customers from my positive experience. You know, It's looking at the much, Much, Much, Much, Much bigger picture. And that's how that's what meditation allows you to do. It allows you to go to yoga, Stop, Kuru, Karmani, Which is establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action. Get still a little bit and allow things to unfold rather than forcing them and imposing your will on the moment. That's good. It's what I think about right there, David, As you say, Is like the amount of energy that like mental energy that goes into a transaction like that. And why not make it good energy? Right. If it's that if we realize what's going into it like that, You know. That's cool. And I was dreading and I was dreading that conversation, You know. Oh, This is sorry. This is my wife's bringing me a peanut butter breathe smoothie. Hey, Love that. Yeah, That's great. Hey, Is that the protein double punch? It's actually it might be the protein double punch. It's the peanut butter. And yeah, Yeah. After I came back from from that week at Breathe Yoga, I instantly started creating every single day my own protein double punches every single day. And so that's a little unsweetened almond milk. One date for sweetness. Two teaspoons of peanut butter, A teaspoon of maca powder, A teaspoon of Sharpen Burger cacao, Which is unsweetened cacao, Which is like makes it so amazingly beautiful. And then what I do is I make ice cubes out of espresso so that it keeps it like smoothie. So then I put espresso ice cubes in with like a handful and two bananas and like I zip that thing up. Oh, And one one scoop of Garden of Life protein powder. And like it's like one of the most I can run on that for like, I don't know, Seven, Eight hours. And it feels great. So I'm so I'm so happy that you're as she goes tonight. Is it OK if I come like, Yeah, Come in. It's just it's a podcast. It'll be it'll be it'll work out. It'll work out fine. That's great. You're sure. I'm sure you're sharing such amazing, Amazing things here. Do you have a time when you have to get off? No, I usually set aside about OK, In about an hour or so. Hold on a second. Let me see when my next is. I am leading meditation for an addiction group at 11 o'clock my time. So, You know, We've got about we have a solid half hour. OK, That's awesome. Is that a local addiction group or is that? I don't even know what it is. Yeah. Cool. Honestly, Someone's really neat. You know, Again, Honing my craft that someone that someone, You know, I know that 12 step programs in California, They were like outlawed like five weeks ago because they didn't want people getting, You know, Hanging out together. And so suddenly I realized there's a lot of people who are struggling out there who could use a little meditation. So, Yeah, That's what I do. I do about maybe two a day where someone says, Hey, Could you guide us in a meditation or something along those lines? I'm like, Yeah, Sure. Let's do that. That's so cool. And for people listening, I said this in the intro, But David G has over 300 recorded ones on your website, Right? Yeah, I've actually recorded over 1100 guided meditation that you could find on Spotify and Amazon and Apple Music on Insight Timer on Rocker on unplug meditation app. You know, There's like there's a lot. And there's at least 300 of them, You know, Free on my website. Before I even came on here, I've listened to so many and went through a couple of courses of yours and stuff. I was like, Oh, I'm like his friend. So this is going to work out great. He doesn't know it yet, But I'm his friend. So I was curious question I have. And this is actually something that last night I was sitting down with my wife and I was like, You know, What are some what are some of the you would want to know if you were listening to this podcast? And she brought up a really good question that I was curious about. How is how is your relationship with meditation changed from when you first really got deep in your practice and the way that you shared it with people and the way that you viewed it and what it was doing for you to today? And I think that's a big gap. But well, I would say that I'm heavily meditated now. You know, I've got, You know, More than 10, 000 hours of teaching meditation, Talking meditation, Meditating, You know, And they say that, You know, Do anything for 10, 000 hours and you become masterful at it. So I think at the beginning, I was teaching meditation as a person who was not necessarily heavily meditated, You know, I just begun the journey. And so I was still frenetic, And I was still reactive. And believe me, I'm far way so far from perfect. Interesting, But but but I was, I was like doing it. And now I just live it. And so I'm not even, You know, It's probably how you were when you first were a parent, You know, Think of like your first couple of years, We're like, You know, The baby's crying. Yeah, The what do we how do we do this, You know, And how do we do that? And what's this? And, And like, We need to be good parents. And, You know, You know, All that stuff. And at a certain point, You're just like, This is who I am. You know, I'm this dad. You know, She's the mom. And like, We do this thing. And it's just part of who we are, We intuitively make decisions for our kids doesn't mean we don't struggle over certain decisions and choices. But we were making the more intuitively as opposed to like, Fast, Get that book, Had a had a burp, The six month old so she doesn't vomit when she's, You know, Like all that stuff. And so I think that as I have continued to meditate, And made it really the most consistent, The most consistent part of my life that I do, That it flows into everything that I do. So it flows into when I'm teaching a class, I used to think, Well, I, I hope I do a good job teaching this class. And now just teach a class. And, You know, I just share what's, You know, I used to come up with big presentations, You know, Because I do a lot of work in the corporate world. I do a lot of, You know, I'm like the only guy at like the medical conferences who doesn't have like nine letters after their name. I only have, I only you know, Everyone's like MDF. You know, Like all these other, You know, PhD and all that stuff. And I don't even have two names, I only have one name. So it's even like more absurd. But you know, I used to get up there with all these presentations and lots of bullet points and like all that stuff. And now whenever I teach even the most serious corporate environments, Whether that's, You know, Facebook or AT&T or so many different corporate environments that I like to teach it. Working with cops, You know, Working with members of the military, I don't even bring, I don't bring PowerPoints anymore. I don't bring a computer. You know, I sort of like get in there, Ask a whole bunch of questions, Find out who everyone is, What is the room need, And then I'll teach that. And so I've become more spontaneous. I think I make better choices now. I get still before I speak, I get still before I act, I get still before I make a big decision. This doesn't make me some like stoner slacker. You know, It really allows me to take a breath and be like, I'm going to teach you how to do that. You know, It really allows me to take a breath, It allows my brain actually to take a breath before I respond to anything that's coming into me. And so I think that made has that's made me a better teacher that's made me a better meditator. And like one, One thing feeds the other, It's made I believe it's made me a better version of myself. I'd like to think that. And it's, It's allowed me to surrender a little bit more. I'd like to surrender a little bit more in life. And that was not a word in my vocabulary, Probably for the first 30 years of my life. Surrender is a powerful word. It's a very, Think about it. I think that's one of the things that I've noticed is like when you're fighting to keep your marriage together, When you actually surrender. I've noticed that it's comes together more simply. Yeah, Because what do you what do you you know, I mean, At your funeral, Justin, And at my funeral, No one's gonna say, Oh, And he was right. So often. When they're when they're making the list of all your great attributes, You know, And he was right. You know, Being right is so overrated. And but it seems like so critical in the moment. You know, You know, You know, We've all we've all said, You know, Something along those lines, Where, You know, Just want to like imply, Oh, By the way, It would have been a good thing if someone had said that before, Or I told you so, You know, One of those kind of things. And the reality is that's way overrated. And I think we can ask the question. Do you want peace? Or do you want to be right? And probably, You know, 95% of the time, Probably choosing peace is the best answer. Now, Of course, Whenever I share that, That that phrase with anyone from the East Coast, They go, Can I can I have both? Can I can I have peace and be right? I'm like, You're missing no point. If you still need to be right after that thing. No, You cannot. Those are the overachievers. Those are the people that I get it. I get it. Yeah, It's funny. You mentioned that it's actually one of my favorite quotes is when you have the choice between kindness and being right, Choose kindness every time, Which is very similar to what you said. It's it's and I actually it's funny. I like I'll be in a moment and I'll actually repeat that to myself. Okay. Do I need to be right in this situation? Or do I need to be kind and create more of a peaceful moment? It's like, You know, When you need to be right when you're like, When you see a bus hurtling at somebody who's walking across the street and they don't see it, You need to be right by racing into the street and pushing him out of the way. You know, When someone's like about to touch the chainsaw, You need to be right in that moment. But like, We're talking about like, Those are so few and far between that everything else, It's sort of like it's overrated. It just is, You know, And you know, It's underrated love. You know, And I know the sound so like woo and kooky and I don't mean to come across like that. But but it really, It really is we just need to have a little more acceptance of ourselves and everyone around us just a little bit more acceptance instead of intolerance. We're so intolerant when someone says something that we don't agree with and like, We're just guessing also, It's not like it's like there's some universal truth that we're like, We're saying, What's my truth? It's not a universal truth. It's like my opinion. You know, People can actually weaponize that statement. Oh, This is my truth. No, You have an opinion, And you're trying to like, You know, Make it sound like more more expansive than it is just her opinion. And we all just have opinions. We're all just trying our best. So if you're trying your best, Probably if you loved a little bit more and tried to be right a little bit less, You know, You know, What do they say in the dog world, Because I'm big on not big on dogma, But I'm really big on dogs. You know, Wag more bark less. Wag more bark less. All right. All right. What about? Well, Take a little small shift here. What about during this quarantine? I mean, Obviously, You got you work on your relationship. And you know, I have a lot of families that listen to this a lot of people that are married or together. Have you learned? I mean, And all your years together, You've probably learned a lot. But like, During this time, Have you learned something new or grew in a different way that you are like, Wow, Okay, Still have still growing and still learning with your with your spouse? Yeah, Yeah. You know, A lot of families have someone who leaves the house to work or two people who leave the house to work. But someone's got to be like the homemaker. Someone's got to be like, Making dinner or setting the table or washing the dishes or taking up the garbage or or tidying up or making the bed, You know, Like there's like a whole bunch of stuff. That sort of like don't even pay attention to unless you're the one doing that, Then that's on that's on your list. So during this time, When, You know, I used to prior to this, I used to travel a lot. You know, I was on the road 200 days a year. So that's a lot, You know, Sometimes locally on the road, But you know, A lot of times in planes, I teach and I teach all over the world. So I'm flying everywhere for three days here, Four days there. One, One hour here. And so I have not been doing that. I made a choice actually to like really slow that down about six months ago, And spend a little more time with my wife and to spend a little more time but constructive time, Not just to be home. You know, It's like it doesn't serve anybody. But so yeah, There's like a whole bunch of chores that I was either not seeing, Or I take it for granted, That I sort of proactively said like, Let me, Let me take this on. No. And some of them she's like, No, No, No, It's okay. You don't do that very well. There's a reason that I do that. You can, You can, You know, Washing the dishes. No, Step away. Okay, You just you just rinse them and put them in the dishwasher and I actually clean them. So, So I've tried to like find things even like turning over the remote control. I spent a lot of time watching TV with my wife, You know, Our evening activities, You love the binge stuff and we love to watch different series. And like, You know, But only for 20 years, Have I controlled that, That remote and like so every night we sit down, I actually will like pick it up and like hand it to her and they go, You're the drivers. And so, You know, Just little, It's like the little things, You know, She'll go out, You know, To do something and when she comes back in the table set, You know, And I clean now I you know, I always clear. And so, You know, Suddenly the garbage is taken out, You know, So there's like a whole bunch of stuff that would either be like a coin flip who is going to do it, Or someone would would say it and I'm just trying to, I'm trying to find all the little things to bring a little more grace into our, Into our connection. And it's not like I then say, Hey, How about that table being set wasn't that amazing. You know, You don't look for recognition, You're not looking for that. Right. Right. Right. This is purely like making a $10 million anonymous donation, You know, Which, Which most people don't do, You know, They want their name on the building. But it's, You know, I'm doing like all this stuff. You know, She'll come out of the shower and I go, And she'll get one of the leashes, You know, For our dogs, You know, And I go, I walked in both. Everything's good. You know, Or, You know, And I'll, So it's allowed me to, To lean in a little bit harder into, Into, Into doing more than my share. You know, I don't want to, I don't want her to overhear me, You know, Cause I, Cause I don't throw it up. You know, I don't put it in her face and I don't mention it. I'm just, You know, I think she likes the coronavirus version of me. Like, I don't even know if I'm overstepping my boundaries here by asking this, But does she ever like say you're not doing enough, You know, Has she ever, You guys ever have those conversations and then you have to find out where you do more? Of course. And there's, There's always this, You know, This, This, You know, Like, You know, Like, It's not like you can, It's not like, You know, We're not, You know, We're not doing any, I don't know, We're not doing any of this stuff that's going on in the world right now. You know, We're not doing this, You know, In the last three years, We're not doing this, You know, And it's not, It's not part of our relationship. We've never been scorekeepers. So like no one's keeping a list here. We're not scorekeepers with our friends. We're not scorekeepers with, With people that we meet. Gifts all the time. People give me like chocolate and t-shirts and tchotchkes, You know, Spiritual, You know, Chimes and things like that. You know, I don't throw anything away. And I'm also a voracious reader and I'm like, I'm reading like, You know, A couple of books every single week. And like, Of course I never like, And so she's the, She's the unhoarder. She's like the Marie Kondo of my life, You know, She's like the declutterer. So like, I'll read all these books and I'll go, Hey, I had a stack of like 30 books here. She goes, I brought them all to goodwill. Nice job. So I'm going to fill our house with stuff. And she's literally like, Uh, You know, Lessons are how, So yes, You know, I'm, You know, There's a conversation, You know, She's so not a hoarder and I am so order that, Um, You know, If there's like ever like arguments in our life, It's not over like anything. Well, I, Maybe it is very serious, Um, But it's over stuff like that. It's, It's over, You know, Like I said, Einstein's office, You know, My office. And so suddenly she'll tidy it up and I'll go like, No, I knew where everything was until you stacked it all, You know? Um, So yeah. Um, Yes, We had, You know, Believe me, I'm like, She's the angel. I'm, I'm the devil. So kind of you to say she's definitely the better half of the two of us. But yeah, So, So I figured this was like a perfect opportunity for me to just like, Let me step up my game. Let me step up my game. And the key of course will be when they blow the all clear and suddenly you can like, You know, Leave your house for more than buying toilet paper. Um, I need to, What I'm thinking is I'm going to accelerate it then, You know, I'm not going to like, This is my new normal. I'm going to like even be like, You know, The higher level of serving. And it's only because like, I want her to feel good. I want her to, To, To not have issues. So like I've made personal commitments and I've made lists of, Um, Stuff I'm going to throw out and things I'm going to like lesson. So I think this is a great time for all of us to like pull back the bow. You know, We can all just pull back the bow right now on all these things because we're just going to go back to these conditioned ways that we were before this and everyone's going to forget, You know, That like, Hey, There was like that moment in time in 2020, Maybe 20 years from now, We'll even remember like, Hey, There was that, There was that thing where we all like suddenly realized what we care about in life and what was really important to us. And, Um, And what were the causes that were relevant and, Um, Who was in our front row and whose front row were we in? So I'm taking this time to sort of like level up. I'm taking this time to be even the kinder version of me without anticipation that I'll then settle back, You know, To being a jerk. Um, Once this has subsided. So, Um, You're the only person and everyone listening, I'm the only people I've shared that with, But that's like, That's really important. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I want to be stronger on the other side of this. And I think all of us can be, Can be better on the other side of this, Not like, Okay, Now we're back to normal, You know, And of course you, Meditation is plays a big role with whole keeping that right. Like of course, Right. Um, Yes, Because our conditioned behaviors are conditioned for, You know, How long you married five, 10, 20 years, You know, So like we know what those roles are there. They're all conditioned. So you're not just going to stop them and do something else. Right. The only way to break the free of conditioned behaviors or break free of a rut or break free of a bad habit or break free of an addiction is to insert a pattern interrupt into that space. And meditation gives me that opportunity a couple of times a day, You know, At least two, Uh, But throughout the course of the day, I'll take these breaks in the action because if something's coming into you, That's come into you a couple of thousand times, You're going to respond the same way you've responded those last couple of thousand times. But if you can put a break, Goes back to the Bhagavad Gita, Establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action, You know, That pregnant pause, Even that was uncomfortable here. Me just, Just holding onto silence for a couple of more beats. It's uncomfortable in our life. We're always finishing people's finances. We're always filling the void. You've got 10 seconds. Look at your phone. You've got 20 minutes to sit in the doctor's office, Work on emails or read highlights magazine. You know, Like we're always trying to fill the time. No one's just actually willing to like get still before they're brilliant. And so meditation helps you do that. You know, I don't have to think about it. I don't have to try. I've woven stillness in the silence into me so that it naturally is chasing me all day long. And when things come into me, Hopefully my responses to them are in proportion to what came in. Right. We've all been that you've haven't having like a really crappy day, You know, Or you're feeling irritated and someone says, Hey, Can I get you a couple of a cup of coffee? You're like, No, Here's someone was about to like give you a gift or like was thinking of you and you're like, She like wrapped up in your own little swirl and like, Well, That wasn't proportionate. The answer should be, Oh my God, You're so kind to think of me and you want to get me a cup of coffee. I don't want one right now. But that was so sweet. Thank you so much. I love you. Like that should be the response always to things like that. But like we're swept up in our own little, You know, Little tornado. Yeah, It makes you know, And you say that and I want to relate to that because as I've been daily practicing meditation daily for a year and a half as my listeners now we talk about everybody that's been on my podcast is a daily meditator except for one or two people. And, You know, I sometimes I beat myself up for reaction that I have to certain situations and I know you're not, You know, I shouldn't do that. But it's a constant work in progress. I have to keep telling myself and for the people listening, Just like David G is saying, You know, Like, We're not perfect. Like he said earlier, Which is amazing to me that he's not perfect, Right? After all these years of meditation and teaching and practicing. And, You know, I'm just at the beginning of my journey. So like I'm human. I'm going to have reactions like I used to and stuff. It's just way fewer and far between is the goal. Right? Yeah. And something as simple as like during this during the last six weeks, My wife has been coming up with a lot of experimental dishes that we have not normally necessarily had like as our faves, Our go to meals. And so in the past when she would say, Hey, You know, We mostly vegan food here. So she's like, Hey, I'm going to do this like, You know, Vegan meatballs with this special brown rice pasta kind of thing. And in the past, I would go like, You know, My response internally would be like, Oh, That or, You know, And I would say, Uh-huh. You know, And now, You know, She'll say, Hey, I'm thinking of making this and like, Yes, Yes, Let's do that. Just that shift in like, I want it to succeed. I want it to be great. I don't want to like eat a meal and go, Oh, That was horrible again. You know, I want it to be like so beautiful. So just even the way that I'm, You know, So I'm pointing to like some bad behaviors that I had in the past, Which is not being not being ecstatic when she came up with it with something that she thinks is going to be fun or good or we're new, We're special. I want to be as enthusiastic to her dreams. Even this, You know, We're talking about vegan meatballs, You know, Um, You know, However small the dream is, I want to be as enthusiastic, Um, Because I, That's, That's better for me. That's better for us. It's better for her. It's better for the energy. Um, So it's really always asking like, What's the best that I could do right now? Not like what's the least I can get away with. Um, Which I think was a mindset that I had, Um, You know, Uh, Back in the day, Uh, Back in the day, Six weeks ago. Yeah, Right. I get it. I get it. That's cool. Um, Well, You, Uh, I'm going to throw a couple of random questions that year. We have a few more minutes. You only cause you mentioned a couple of things and I'm more curious. And I think people listening might be curious. What does David G watch on TV? You said you're into TV shows. What are a few TV shows? Oh, Well, I watch a lot of shows and I'm in like heavy rotation with my standards. Um, Homeland, You know, That was a favorite of mine on Showtime. It just ended. Um, Loved all three seasons of Ozark on Netflix. Um, Binging the last three episodes of season six of Bosch. Um, Love to, Uh, If you haven't seen Bosch, You know, I love, We love police like melodrama. So I love the blacklist. I love, Uh, I love Blackish. Blackish is a great show. Uh, Great, Uh, Netflix show black AF. Um, Also not, Not necessarily, Um, For, For children, But it's by Kenya Barris. I just started watching that by the way. I have to say that that was, And it's very like warming and hilarious and funny around race. Like it's, It's just funny the way, You know, The way the, The twists on racism and the way it's just really funny. You know, There's, There's, You know, There's certain directors and certain writers who like are always trying to teach you a lesson, But sort of like spank you in the process. And I, I would prefer to be, Um, To, To have some humor and some gravitas, But some, Some, You know, Don't, Don't lecture me, Show me and, And, And, And give me the, Give me the chance to be better, You know, Show me where we're clearly unfailing and give me the chance as opposed to like spanking or scolding me, Uh, For previous bad behaviors. And I think that that's really, That's really what, What that mindset does. And um, You know, There's such systemic racism, You know, Woven into the fabric of our entire society, Um, And not being black, You know, This, You know, Clearly I'm on the, On the winning side of that, Uh, Or the losing side, I should say. Um, And so, You know, How do we, How do we make this, This, You know, How do we make our society better? It's, Uh, Again, It comes back to meditation, You know, What's meditation. It's just expanding our awareness. That's it. Expand your awareness. You'll probably make better decisions. Expand your awareness of things you've done that haven't been your best version. Ideally, You'll choose your best version next time. Ideally, You know, And I think the more times we can connect to stillness and silence and the more times we can expose ourselves, You know, To that, Um, You know, I watch SVU, Um, You know, Uh, Special VIX, Uh, Law and order, Um, Special vixens, Uh, Been watching that for like nine years. I've watched every single law and order, Everything, Um, That's out there. And, Uh, You know, Uh, I said to a friend of mine, Uh, Yesterday, I said, Uh, All right, I'm done. She goes, What do you mean? I go, I finished Netflix. I'm done. I finished Netflix. I finished Netflix. And she, She said, Well, What's next? I go, The only thing next would be to, To create a show on Netflix because the only one I haven't seen so far. So I watch a lot of, Um, I love Dave Chappelle, Amazing comedy. Um, I mean, He is, He is also like calling, Calling stuff out on, On just like blows your mind. Dave Chappelle, You know, One of the, One of the comic geniuses of our time. But yeah, I finished Netflix. So now I'm like, Gotta move on to Amazon prime. Gotta, Gotta do that now. Hulu, Hulu is next after that. No, I did Hulu. Honestly, I, I, I, I did Hulu. Handmaid's Tale. I mean, If you haven't seen Handmaid's Tale from beginning to end, That's, I fell in love so deeply with Elizabeth Moss, Um, As an, As an actor in that, You know, So spectacular and Ozark, You know, Laura Linney, Jason Bateman, Geniuses. And that inspired me to go back and watch like nine seasons of Arrested Development also, Which is also on Netflix. Um, Good comedy. So I like, Um, I like very, Very uncomfortable comedies. So like uncomfortable comedies, Like I want to, I want to laugh and be really uncomfortable in the process. Um, And I like, Uh, I have not. Is that in that category? Yeah. I mean, It's, It's her favorite comedy of all time. She said, But it's, It just ended the last season, Six seasons of it. Um, How, If I could recommend something, That would be really good. I watched a lot of them. It's so fun. Cool. I'll go in there. I'll go like it. You like, But, Uh, Now we'll get out, We won't do too much in a TV show topic here. So we'll stop that. Um, And then, Uh, Last year though, You said books. So a couple, One couple more things. So last year you said books or you said books, You read reading a lot. What are two books that you like were like, Wow, These are really good that I read recently. I read the Bhagavad Gita every day. Right. That is like part of, Of, Of what I do. And so if you've ever thought of like reading the Bible, Um, You know, Um, Bhagavad Gita is sort of like this universal metaphorical, Um, Journey that answers, Well, That actually asks and it asks more questions than it answers, But it's about life, Death, Purpose, Um, Uh, Meaning, Um, How to move forward, How to live life with greater grace and greater ease. You know, I think that's like, So, So like amazing, You know, Just like a, It's really, Really powerful. Another book that I'm, Um, That I'm really big on is, Uh, Um, I like, I like spiritual books. I like, Um, I like books about, Um, History and I like, And I like spiritual books. Uh, I think another great, Great book, Um, Is, Uh, Ram Das's Paths to God, Like so, So powerful. Um, Lama Surya Das's Awakening, Awakening the Buddha Within. Really like, I like to know how people lived thousands of years ago, Um, In their hearts, You know, Um, Much less concerned, You know, About, Oh, I just, I just reread, Uh, Franz Koch's, Um, Metamorphosis. That was, That was pretty intense. Um, Uh, I also like reading, Uh, Plays. So I like reading, Um, Beckett and uh, Ogetz and I don't know. Well, You, You, Einstein, Have you read his biographies or autobiographies? I have read, I have read a couple. Do you have a favorite? I'm just curious. No, No, I like reading, You know, Einstein, There's a lot of Einstein letters that are out there. I like reading like the stuff that Einstein wrote. Einstein wrote a lot of letters. Um, So just, Just, You know, Just gives you insights to genius. Um, I actually was reading, I don't recommend this to anybody, But I was just reading this like really chock full 700 page book on, Um, What's at the heart of a warrior. Um, And, Uh, It's about the neurological and physiological impact of stress on people in the military and on cops. And so I've really been like exploring that because I love reading neurological white papers. Um, Again, Meditation week kind of thing. Uh, I love reading like what happens to the brain and which parts of the brain are sparked and how do we cultivate those and things along those lines? Um, So I'm leading, I'm reading a lot about, You know, Cause we wouldn't think so, But the U S military has done tons of really deep neurological research and physiological research on the impact, Um, Of people in battle, Preparing for battle after battle. They know all this stuff. And so, Uh, This is by Lieutenant David Grossman. Um, It's a, It's a, It's a really, Really powerful book, But in there, I really learned a couple of things and I've been teaching this for years and I didn't know these things, But as the heart moves up from 65 beats to 75 beats, 75 beats to 85 beats from 85 beats to 95 beats, 95 beats to 105 beats. And over that we lose sort of like control over our body. Uh, Certainly our fine motor skills. This is why when you're like scared and you're trying to lie and you're fumbling for your keys because you can't, You can't get your keys out of your purse or you can't get your key into the lock. That's because suddenly your heart rates come up and so your fine motor skills are gone. And like under normal circumstances, You just like pick up the key, Slide it in the lock. Like, How is it possible? You could like take a key and just slide it in the lock without even thinking. And it goes right in, You know, And you turn it. And other times you're like, You can't even do it. It's because of the heart rate as the heart rate goes up and as the heart rate goes up, You become, There's a pro right above my head. Um, As our heart rate goes up, Squawking on the truth. I hear you. Um, So as your heart rate goes up, You become less in control of the stuff that matters to you. It's not just physiological. It's emotional as well. That's why when you're really, You know, Heart rate goes up and you're really pissed off, That's why you blurt out stuff that you wish you could take back, You know? So if we can always just arrest our rising heart rate when we sense it through typical techniques, Such as 16 seconds or just closing your eyes and taking long slow deep breaths in, We slow that flow of hormones and chemicals that makes us not necessarily be our best version, But it's actually a physiological thing. It's not like we hate that person, You know, Which we suddenly realized, Oh my God, It's, I don't hate that person. I'm just being, I'm being, I'm being run by hormones and chemicals here. It's like this really bizarre kind of thing. So we have another, I love it. It's part of the podcast. I like it. So on your earlier mention about the guy that said, You know, What would you want your tombstone today? Yeah. If you die, Which of course we don't want to happen, But if you die, What, What do you want written on your tombstone? And remember there's not a lot of space on it. Yeah. Well, As David Simon always said to me, No one gets out of here alive. So like, I know that I know that to be true. None of us are getting out of here. So we're all getting, We're all going to leave this earth plane at some point. What would I like written on my tombstone? Yogastha kuru karmani, Which means establish yourself in the present moment and then perform action. I would like that because I think that like one, That one phrase has helped me be a better person, Has helped me make a better choice. And I believe it will make everyone's. Could I just like teach us 16 seconds? Maybe you've shared it already. I literally in three seconds was going to say, Let's end this with 16 seconds. So that's amazing. So the way, The beautiful thing about 16 seconds is that everyone's got it. Okay. You're like, No, I'm too busy for 16 seconds. You got bigger issues than that. So everyone's got it. And in only 16 seconds, We can actually shift what we're thinking about, What we care about. Um, Like so many different, You know, We can slow everything down and give our brain that opportunity to take a breath. So think about something right now that's been bothering you a little bit, Irritating you a little bit. Don't go too deep. This isn't therapy. It's like just in the last few days, I'm sure something irked you and get clear on that. And now close your eyes and watch your breath as you take a long, Slow, Deep breath in through your nose. Watch that breath go down to your belly and hold it. When it gets there, Hold that breath and keep watching it and keep witnessing it and keep observing it. And now release it and watch it as it goes up your chest. Keep witnessing as it moves through your throat, Out through your nose or mouth and keep exhaling and keep watching it and keep observing as you allow that breath to dissipate into the ear. And now open your eyes and breathe normally. And that was 16 seconds. And in those 16 seconds, If you were playing along, And I know you were Justin, Let's see that you were not thinking about that thing. I just asked you to think about it. And I didn't tell you to stop thinking about it. I just said, Close your eyes and watch your breath. So what do we prove? Number one, We can direct our thoughts. So we never have to be stuck in sad or depressing or despondent thoughts if we don't want to. We can shift our thought, Our attention to wherever we want it to be. We were not in the past. We were not in the future. We were fully present. We introduced a break in the action just to 16 seconds. Now, Maybe you're thinking about that thing right now and you weren't thinking about it before. So I apologize for bringing that into your awareness. But the reality is we have the ability, Whether we're stuck in traffic, Whether we're on perma hold, Waiting for customer service to pick up, Whether we're waiting on a long line, Whether we're, You know, Our computer is booting up and it's taking too long, Like whatever it is, You know, Even reading an email and getting flustered over it, We have the ability to just introduce a 16 second pattern interrupt. And that's the key is not just breathing for 16 seconds. It's watching our breath. So watch it as it flows in for about four seconds, Hold it in your belly for about four seconds and keep watching it. Release it, Allow it to come back up for about four seconds. Keep watching it and then exhale it out and keep holding that breath out for about four seconds. And that's enough to actually slow hormones and chemicals that are inside of us. Like, So what's cooler than that? That's like transformational and no equipment necessary. And we've all got that. So hopefully people, You know, Bust that out, Do it four times. It's a minute to 20 times. It's five minutes. It could be the foundation of your entire meditation practice, Or it could just be a tool that you pull out when suddenly you're about to feel stress or anxiety. Yeah. And I love that you could use it. What you said earlier, Instead of taking that 10 seconds to look at your phone in between something, Do that 16 second breath work every now and then. And it's just like, It really will change your like, It sounds cheesy, But it really will change your life. Like if you incorporate that. Yeah. So, You know, It's the little things that change our lives because you know, Sometimes like the giant things like, Like coronavirus, It's giant, But it didn't change our lives. It's all those little things that we're doing to respond to it. You know, Every single one of those little things, How we treat the people we live with, How we treat ourselves, What we do with the world, You know, Where, Where our mind goes, What we dedicate ourselves to, What sparks inside of our heart. It's those little choices in the big thing that makes the difference. Love it. Daviji, Thank you so much for being here. So grateful. So did you have fun? Oh my God. This is so good. I can hang out with you for like days, Obviously. I love it. Thank you. I appreciate that. Can you, Are you able to pick your computer up and do like a circle? I'm always curious what's around you. Are you, Are you, Can we do that or no? Yeah. Let me just unplug a few things here. I mean, I've always seen this view a lot. So I wanted to, You know, Is this your front or back patio here? This is my backyard. The backyard. It's like the thing. Awesome. I'm pretty, I'm pretty much like in my little tree house here. Yeah, You are. I can't wait to be able to go outside out in Rochester, New York. That should be in a couple of weeks. So we're excited. No, No, Who knows? You know, They're like, Uh, Our parks open. They opened our parks and then they closed our parks. Oh, Did they? No, They're not open yet. They opened the beaches, Uh, Last Monday. So we've had like all the beaches were wide open for a week. And like I think yesterday it said effective Saturday, Effective tomorrow. They're closing everything in there. Oh, I didn't know that. Wow. Yeah. So they did this and apparently, Um, Yeah, Uh, Apparently like our numbers are still accelerating. So it was like, Why are we doing that when our numbers are like going like this? So interesting. They're teasing you. They're messing with you guys. That's what that's. So I think if you get, You know, If you, If you don't, If they don't open up, You know, The world, Uh, For you, Um, So soon, Uh, Like right now, Probably in two weeks, You will be able to go outside. I mean, It just, I just meant warm weather wise, Honestly, We're barely hitting the fifties here. So I'm like, Oh man, Look at, You're out there enjoying the sunshine. Like we haven't seen sun in like six days. I mean, There's beauty in there obviously, But, Um, It'll, You know, It's nice to see it talking to you. It's nice to see it talking to you. Listen, I went to school, Um, In upstate New York and Syracuse. So I know, Um, When those days were suddenly we had sun, No one went to class. Everyone was, You know, Everyone was just like laying around playing frisbee, Doing whatever, Like those classes, They were empty. I wouldn't even know because I never went to a class, You know, Cause we only had about, You know, Um, And my girlfriend at the time went to Binghamton, Which I think has the least amount of sunlit, Um, You know, Sunny sky, Uh, Blue sky hours of any place in the United States. And so like, You know, And they, And they, And they, There's a correlation between that and suicide. If you can even believe that the three, The three least sunny places in the United States, I think are like Portland, Maine, Binghamton and Portland, Oregon, I think. Um, And those also have like three of the highest suicide rates. So yes, I wish sun, Sun, Sunshine on you and warm weather and a beautiful spring. Um, You know, We've got what we call May gray. So it's going to be like overcast for the next 30 days here. It may be warm, But it'll be overcast. So like our maze are just like white sky. Oh, I didn't know that. Interesting. Well, I know you have a two o'clock that you have to jump on and take care of. So, Um, Appreciate you and appreciate what you're doing and, Uh, Namaste. Also, Uh, Yeah, I'm excited to go back and I'm taking David G's meditation, Uh, Training or whatever we want to call it. Cindy's too. I'm not even sure what the actual name of it is, But, Uh, Yoga meditation teacher training. Yeah. See I'm taking, I don't even know the official name. So there we go. Uh, All right. Thank you so much. I'll let you go. David G. I appreciate it. Thank you. This was a lot of fun. Hopefully I, Uh, Was able to add some value. Oh yeah, You did. You absolutely did. Thanks. Thank you so much for listening. Next week we have another amazing mindfully impactful guest. I know you're going to love have an epic week and as always give a stranger or two a smile to brighten their day. The ripple effect it can create maybe even more impactful than we even realize. I love you and thank you for listening.

4.8 (291)

Recent Reviews

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Kalyani

April 17, 2025

Excellent interview! Thank you Davidji, Well Worth the time!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🎉💜

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💞🐾🦮Jana

July 13, 2024

Fabulous interview. Thank you. We love our Davidji. 🙏🏽🐾🎶📿💕🐕🌷🌺💖🪶🕊️♾️🌈🕉️🥰

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Catherine

March 20, 2023

Long but worth the listen if you follow davidji and his teachings

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Lynn

December 28, 2022

A great interview & l have learnt so much & ordered a few books. Do follow Davidji regularly on Insight Timer 🙏

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LORI

December 5, 2022

Really enjoyed listening to this interview and learning more about the life of one of My favorite humans David Ji:)

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Andy

September 3, 2022

Thank you and much love to everyone

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Daniel

August 30, 2022

Thank you it was great to learn more about my favorite meditation teacher 😁

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Pumla

August 13, 2022

Oh my goodness. It was so wonderful listening to Davidji outside his meditation sessions. More so his lives life experience👌

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Linda

July 11, 2022

This discussion has inspired me to dig deeper into the values I actually live and the values I would like to live. Thank you.

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Lisa

May 28, 2022

Love Davidji 💕

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Kimberleigh

March 20, 2022

Best podcast episode EVER! Loved “sitting down and talking with davidji”! I will save and listen again! Thank you! 🙏🏻🕉♥️

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Paige

December 10, 2021

davidji is the shiiiiiiiiz!✌🏻

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Kim

November 27, 2021

Excellent

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Erin

July 1, 2021

Amazing conversation! Thank you for opening my heart to greater possibilities for growth and development. I took some notes for further learning and will spring from this moment to fly. Namaste

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Em

March 20, 2021

Loved the podcast Brightened my day here on an overcast day here in UK. Ever so grateful for such inspiring words to cultivate new energy & shift my perspective. Peace, love & light to you both 🙏💚

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Suzanne

January 24, 2021

Good day Justin, I really enjoyed your interview with Davidji, so insightful. Would you mind to let me know the titles of Davidji's favorite books. I listened to the interview on Insight Timer, I really like your interview skills so I decided to subscribe to your postcast 😊.

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Roberta

January 4, 2021

Nice talk! Nice to discover the human side of Davidji

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Sarah

November 10, 2020

Fabulous. Thank you Davidji and Justin 🙏✨💕

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Kerry

November 1, 2020

Fabulous! 🙏🏼❤️✨

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Petal

October 24, 2020

That was super dooper awesome...loved the bird! 🌈💓