November 7, 2023 • 60 mins
Imagine leaving behind the chaos of your routine, your phone, and retreating to a cabin in the woods for a 10-day silent meditation retreat. That's exactly what I, your host Mike, did, and I'm here to share my enlightening experience with you. Hear about a journey that starts with a daunting 4 am alarm, a journey that's all about learning to disconnect from the world and finding inner peace. Take a peek into the retreat's schedule, its restrictions, and the importance of letting go.
I remember the struggle of maintaining a new routine, the fight against the ego, and the determination to stay on course. Do you have the courage to face your inner demons and control your emotions? I did, and I learned some invaluable lessons from a mysterious stranger along the way. Our chat explores the power of focus, how it influences the body, and the essence of living in the present.
As we conclude this enlightening journey, let's talk about the science of positivity and happiness. Let me share with you how learning to relinquish negative energy and embrace positivity has been transformative for me. It's a work in progress, but the results are incredible. Join me as we explore the power of choice in determining our destiny. Open up to the universe and its endless possibilities, for we are all in this together, and every shared story is a beacon of light for someone else. So, are you ready to embark on this journey with me?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hi, welcome back to another episode of Life Changers
, and this is Mike.
We are back for our thirdseason, so I'd like to thank
everybody who's been listeningto us and encouraging us, and
sorry, we haven't uploaded a lotin the summer, just been really
(00:38):
busy.
So we decided to take thesummer off and now we're back to
our next season and then, yeah,we'll just continue doing two
seasons a year after this.
So it's good to be back.
It's hard to get the groove,like I've been trying to record,
I guess, for the last month.
It's just really hard to getback in the groove of things
(00:59):
when you're just not used to it.
After, like the summer, it'sbeen a while, but a lot has
happened.
So we're going to talk a lotabout ego in this season and
another topic I'd like to talkabout is how I guess you know
(01:21):
trying to find, you know,everlasting love, you know, and
stuff like that, and it's just avery interesting story I just
wanted to share with you on that.
So we'll get to that throughoutthe season.
But I guess one of the maintopics is your ego, or, as some,
most people know it, the voicein your head.
I am not going crazy, I'm justwant to talk a little bit about
(01:44):
the ego, because I learned a lotabout the ego.
I guess one of the last thingsyou heard me talking about is
how we're going to, how I wentto do a 10 day meditation
retreat and I've been tosideburn and a bunch of other
festivals this year and talkedto a lot of people and a lot of
amazing people out there andjust see how awesome the world
(02:06):
is and stuff like that.
As long as we don't focus on thedoom and gloom right, because
you know it's true what, whenyou are projecting outwards, is
what you're going to get?
Sorry, I was just going to pickup my phone to make sure it was
(02:27):
on silent because I don't wantto get interrupted when I'm in
the flow and I just interruptedmyself, but is what it is?
So I was going to push on,vibrate or lowering to let you
go.
Sorry about that.
But, like I say, uncut itunedited, let's just we take the
raw footage, we master thesound to make it sound a little
(02:50):
bit cleaner and more consistent,in case I back up from the mic
and stuff like that, so it'slike consistently loud and stuff
like that.
But I digress, but no, I trulyI know for a fact.
Like for me it is what it is,but like if it doesn't work for
you, if you don't recognize it,maybe you might start
recognizing it or startunderstanding it more.
I mean, I heard about all thisstuff like when I was younger
(03:11):
and how to stop people are nutsbut until I actually started
putting it to practice.
Now it is what it is like.
I actually see and understand alot, but you know it's like.
You know it's like they sayright, you are what you eat,
right, but what you put out inthe universe, what you focus on,
(03:32):
is what you're going to get inreturn.
So if you're focused on all thenegativity in the world and if
you're focused on all the crazystuff that's going on, that's
what you're going to see.
A lot of.
It's kind of like the algorithm.
I know I mentioned it before,but for all the new listeners
it's kind of like the algorithmfor YouTube or TikTok or any of
those platforms.
The moment you start searchingthings, it will be like oh,
(03:56):
their attention span on thisitem was a lot longer than these
items, so we're going to showthem more of that and that
becomes your reality.
And then your reality becomesnegative.
If that's what you're puttingout in order to research all
this negative stuff, people sayoh you know, mike, if you don't
listen to the reality of theworld, you know you're living in
a bubble.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
(04:16):
No, we are all co-creators.
We all create our beliefs, ourexistence.
We all create what we want tofocus on, what we deem is true,
what we deem is fake, and so onand so forth.
So it is what it is.
But for me, I realize more andmore like it's crazy, like it's
(04:40):
just crazy.
So like I've listened, likebeen watching a lot of like
movies and stuff like that andlike reality shows and stuff,
but I notice a lot.
That one you know I bring intomy reality like the word, like
you know I don't know, when youput me on the spot, I put myself
(05:02):
on the spot.
But when I bring into myreality stuff like you know how,
you know I create my reality,or the frequency of money and
this, and that I start hearingit more and seeing it more,
right, and there's even been athing I forget what it's called,
but it's kind of like when youbuy a brand new pair of shoes or
(05:22):
you buy a new car or somethingnew, you never really noticed it
before.
But when you buy one and youstart noticing it, then you
start seeing it everywhere.
You're like, what is everybodycopying me, right?
Well, that's because youbrought into your reality.
Now you're focused on that,that's what you're going to see,
because that's what you'researching for and that's what
the universe will be like hey,look over, here she is, this is
(05:43):
what you're looking for.
So, yeah, for me it's puppiesand rainbows, or, like I like to
say, hakuna Matata.
It's such a wonderful phrasebecause it means no worries, and
I just want to be in aworry-free state, because I
don't know about you, but likeif we're just focused on all the
worries of life and then startgetting crazy and then oh, but
(06:06):
like I try to keep me, like DrJoe Dispenza would say you know,
I don't want to be high beta, Iwant to be normal.
I don't want to be alwayspushing my feet on the gas and
trying to accelerate really hardand really fast and then push
the brakes the same time,because we do that all the time
and I don't always want to belike worried and stand by.
(06:28):
So yeah, in my reality ispuppies and rainbows and I
focused on a lot of awesomethings, but I digress back to
the story at hand.
So the 10 day meditationretreat right, I believe it's
called the Vipassana meditationretreat and, as a lot of you
know, my wife has done it twiceand that was this was my first
(06:51):
time going this early in thesummer and pretty much it's a
lot of people I tell they'relike what?
You're not seated, that it'snot as bad as it sounds.
Okay, I'm gonna tell you whathappened and then I'll tell you
other things and then that willbring us into the thing for
talking about, likeunderstanding my ego or the
(07:12):
voice in your head and stufflike that.
So that's what we're gonnafocus on.
So the 10 day retreat so youpull up to this place and it's
nice.
It's like I don't know, in thewoods near the countryside, like
(07:33):
there's no, like even your cellphone, like when I pulled in,
it was kind of like glitchingout, like, oh hey, we're in the
middle of nowhere, why are wehere, mike?
But so like I was getting ready, you know, like I was mentally
ready, my wife explained to me alot.
Like I'm not a lot, but sheexplained to me a few things
like just listen, do what theysay and have fun.
(07:54):
She's like it's gonna beamazing, it's gonna be relaxing
for you, right?
I was like, okay, I like torelax, right, I gotta.
I literally gave my wife my cellphone, all the information she
needed to run the company.
So if there's anything sheneeds to do and meetings, I had
you know coming up for those 10days and any, if any customers
(08:16):
calls and emergencies and stufflike that, how to deal with it,
right?
So I just gave her everythingand then it's that's it.
You go check in, okay, andyou're, you're about to talk.
At first they check in, you sayyou're here, and then okay,
yeah, and they tell you whereyou're gonna be sleeping.
(08:36):
So I ended up looking out.
My wife says, oh, you're solucky, like it's amazing, you're
gonna love it.
So, instead of sleeping in likewith a roommate and like in like
university type barracks, Iguess I like rooms, right, so
there's like two per room andthey're all like two floors of
everybody, but they're like,yeah, you're gonna get a cabin.
(08:57):
I was like cool, so I got acabin in the woods.
It was awesome, I was excitedand you know, my wife can't stay
actually for a little bit like.
So when I checked in they wereallowed to stay, my wife and
kids and they came and looked atthe cabin where I was gonna
stay and they're like cool, youknow, I showed them this is like
we're gonna eat and you know,and stuff like that.
Like we weren't allowed to gointo the meditation hall, but
(09:20):
you know I was like, well,that's where I'm assuming I'm
gonna meditate, and stuff likethat.
And then my family left andthen I got to hang out.
I was talking to some peoplelike, oh yeah, this is my second
time.
A lot of people is their firsttime.
It was my first time.
And then we get to eat and thenthey talked to us a little bit
about what they expect.
(09:40):
So pretty much it lights out by10 o'clock at night and then you
get woken up at like four inthe morning or 4 30 in the
morning.
So if you're sleeping in, likethe, the main sleeping area,
there's like a buzzer that goesoff inside.
But since I was in the woods Ihad to have an alarm clock.
(10:04):
So I brought my own alarm clockand then they take everybody's
cell phones away.
So you're not allowed on yourcell phones, you don't get to
check emails.
No, voicemail, no, nothing.
You're disconnected from theworld, okay, which is awesome.
You're disconnected from, like,everything that's going on in
(10:25):
the world.
Like you hear nothing, okay.
And yeah, there's an emergency,like there's a phone number
people can call me at or theycan call you know, after I have
an emergency, I can call out andstuff, right.
But yeah, no phones, no,nothing.
You disconnected and you're notallowed to talk to anybody
after supper.
(10:47):
So when supper rolls around thatday, we're not allowed to talk
after that and you don't talkfor 10 days.
Hear, fly in the studio,anyways, I'm not gonna get
distracted.
So you don't talk to nobody for10 days.
So they call it a 10-dayretreat.
(11:07):
But, just a fun fact, you'rethere for two other half days,
so it's 10 full days.
So the first day is just a halfday, right, you check in after
supper, it doesn't really count.
Tell like the next day is dayone, okay.
Then when day 10 hits, so,which is 11 at that point, then
(11:29):
only day 12, in the morning,after breakfast, we're allowed
to leave.
Make it stop so bad.
You're not allowed to leave.
That's.
Another thing is there's allthese areas left to walk, but
you're not allowed to leave theproperty, you're not allowed to
walk to other areas.
So, yeah, I was in there likethe guy's own and we were all
(11:52):
talking and stuff.
And then you know, separatearound, boom, stop talking and
then you just alone in your head.
You got nothing to distract you.
We have a lot.
I noticed we're like we have alot of distractions, even
talking to my friends or even mywife.
Sometimes I'm like what did wedo, like before smartphones or
iPhones and stuff like weactually like hung out and
(12:13):
talked and did things like it'sridiculous how you realize how
much you don't do Because we'regonna launched on our devices
because it's never gonna misssomething.
And don't get me wrong, there'sa lot of good stuff on your
devices.
You can get a lot of amazinginformation and do a lot of good
with it.
But there's also a lot ofdistracting stuff and then,
(12:35):
before you know, becomes a habitand it's like an addiction
where you like if there'snothing to do, you just pull
your phone.
And I don't want to be thatperson, but I am, apparently I
Felt naked without my phone.
So day one starts, so we sleep,I go to bed, I wake up at 4 am.
I'm like I'm gonna do this.
(12:55):
So I woke up at 4 am, I'm gonnaask you to wake up at 4 am and
then 4 30 is when you're allowedlike loud, like I can leave.
There's no washrooms in mycabin, like it's just literally
plywood and wood in the woods.
So I have to walk like a minuteor two out of the woods To go
to one of the main buildingswhen there's washrooms and stuff
(13:16):
that I could use.
So in the middle of the nightI'm not leaving, so I'm not
walking out there in the middleof the night.
Who knows what's in the woods.
So, and there's only six cabinsin the woods, only six of us
out there, and yeah, I justthink it up, everything.
It's just so funny some of thestuff, but anyways, so it's you
(13:39):
know, the official morning ofday one, day one.
Sorry.
So I was.
My alarm goes off because I seeto set your alarm for at least
like four o'clock.
Wake up, you'll do your routine.
Then 4 30 until 5 30, try tojust like meditate, and all they
want you to do is like so theyteach you, I guess the night
before before day one.
So day minus one or day zero.
(14:01):
They teach you like that youjust focus on your breathing,
just Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe in, breathe out.
That's all they tell you to do,that's it.
So I'm all gun-ho.
I woke up.
You know, 4, 30 for 4, 4, 15, 4, 30.
(14:24):
I'm sitting down this chair,I'm like, yeah, close my eyes.
And I'm just like, focus onyour breathing.
So, fun fact, when you'refocused on your breathing,
you're not focused on anythingelse.
So if you focus on breathing,you're not focused on anything
else.
So it's amazing.
So you just start, you know,focus on any breath.
And if you start getting, yourmind starts to wander.
Oh, hey, like I wonder what'sgoing on on my phone?
(14:45):
Oh, I don't have my phone.
Oh, what's going here?
Then just bring it back tobreathe in, breathe out.
Okay, so I did that, no problem.
And then about, you know, 5, 30.
It's like, oh, breakfast time.
And you know, open my eyes, andthen I see this thing on one of
the screen windows.
I Like this black blob, I guess, because it was like sunny, but
(15:10):
not too sunny yet, and I waslike, oh, whatever, that is like
probably just like a leaf orsomething right.
And then I was like cool.
So then it's like breakfasttime, so go to go see breakfast.
And then he starts seeingpeople walking around.
So I start walking around andnow I'll go to breakfast and
it's so quiet, all you hear.
(15:31):
This shit's clean, clean Peopleeating.
But you know, and they tell younot to make eye contact.
You know how sometimes make eyecontact, people like oh, he's
like, nod your head, like yes, Iunderstand.
Like they tell you not to doanything like that, like you're
supposed to be there for you,you're in your own space, you're
there to help yourself.
I Didn't know why.
Yet what am I helping myselfwith?
(15:52):
I'm happy, I'm good, I'm good,I could have a tada right.
And Then, you know, stars myheads, my mind starts to wander
with all this, like funnythoughts, and I'm just like,
okay, you know, and you knowthere's books that I've listened
to on audible, by dr Joedispensa and another one by
(16:15):
Michael a singer.
And Michael a singer has onethat talks about the voice in
your head.
I believe my close here.
Yeah, it kind of talks about ita bit, and dr Joe dispensa as
well, but anyways, and they talkabout your ego or the voice in
your head.
Yes, michael a singer, yeah,okay, he has a book called the
untethered soul that talks aboutit.
(16:36):
It's really good.
Should look it up, michael, asinger, untethered soul, and he
also has one called thesurrender experiment, which is
not the one I recommend, butyeah, so he talks about it a bit
and he wrote a whole book aboutit, about his experience.
But the voice in your head andhow he's just trying to get
through shut up, just to stopbecause it always seems to be
negative, right, and yeah, mymind starts doing that.
(16:58):
Right, like, oh, what if you'renot doing it?
Right, why, you know what isthis and why is this happening?
And oh, like, for breakfast,like it's just oatmeal and fruit
, I don't really drink coffee,but like there's juice and milk
for the coffee, so drink milkand water.
Like you carry water bottles,you drink a little water,
because when you're bored youjust drink water, but anyways.
(17:22):
So, and like, we have our signseats.
By the way, we have an assignedseat where we eat, with sign
seat in the meditation hallwhere you sit, meditate and
there is people you can talk to,where you're allowed to like,
talk really quiet, and say like,hey, I need help with this or
I'm having a problem with this.
And every day, after themeditation sessions, you can
talk to, um, the person that'sthere in charge and, like tell
(17:46):
him, like I'm not, I feel thisor I don't feel that, and that's
what I'm working on.
So, like you don't have to talka little bit, but you don't
have to talk to each other andthey're recommended.
You don't talk and no nodding,no acknowledging other people's
existence, because we're allthere for ourselves.
So you don't want to, you know,distract people.
And so after breakfast, like soI'll join breakfast, I'm like,
oh, okay, this is like I'm doingit, like I'm all like Day one's
(18:10):
easy, good.
Before you know it, you knowI'm counting down the minutes
before I got to see my amazing,beautiful wife come, pick me up
and my kids and be like I did it, you know.
So I start like my mind startswondering about, like love, all
the accomplishments gonna beawesome, you're doing good.
You know this is easy, right,and you know I first my mind is
pretty good, it's not negative.
And then after breakfast, um, Ibelieve it was by 6 30, and
(18:39):
then you have a little bit offree time until 7 30 where you
can like shower and stuff, likethat shave, do whatever you need
to do, and then by 7 30, boomin the meditation hall.
You One of the meditation, allfor two hours.
Each time we go home, go threetimes a day, and That'll
actually the last time was forthree hours, a lot longer and
then, like they tell you, likeyou'll hear from the person that
(19:01):
tells you like okay, this isthe new, this is like, tells you
some stories, like you watch,like it's pretty fine, I'll get
to it.
So you go in and then you justthat's it.
You're told to focus on yourbreathing again and you do that
for like three days.
Why, yeah, three days, we justfocus on the breathing.
So I go, and then you try tomake sure your mind is water
(19:21):
over my case.
I try to make sure my minddoesn't wander and that I don't
fall asleep and snore.
Embarrassing without be thatI'm just in there snoring away
and everybody trying to meditateand that's a smack me.
But after the first morningmeditation I talked to the guy.
I was, like you know, sittingon the floor in the lotus
position, where it's likecrisscross applesauce you cross
(19:43):
your legs, you know, and you sitthere.
I Said you know, it's kind ofhard for me, like I get start
getting pain in my legs and onmy back and stuff like that.
And so he's like, well, youcould just, you know, don't
worry about it, that's part ofthe process.
Like you got to get through thepain, you got to get through
the pain and I was like, well,if it's possible to have a Chair
.
He was, well, there's thesewooden blocks you can take and
(20:06):
kind of like, sit on it.
And then he put your legs under.
So it's kind of like you'rekneeling on the floor but yet
you're sitting.
So, like he goes, that mighthelp you.
I was like, okay, yeah, I'lltry that.
So then you get to leave andthen for like an hour or so,
then after that's lunchtime, andthen you got a little bit of
free time.
Then you go back into the hallfor another two hours, and then
(20:28):
I was like, okay, I got this, soGet the piece of wood, I'm
sitting on it, I'm doing it.
I'm like, yeah, my mind startsto wander a bit, like Now my
mind's getting grumpy.
It's like, hey, they won't giveyou a chair.
They told you the pain isnormal.
Like what's going on, man?
Like you're getting all thispain and stuff and then they
(20:50):
don't want to give you a chair.
That's not nice to them.
I'm like, yeah, my mind's like,hey, what if this is just like
it's not really about themeditation, that they're
watching us to see much Painthey could put on it.
I'm just like my mind's like,yeah, what about?
And I'm like what the hell'sgoing on?
Just shut up, calm down, youknow.
And my mind is like, oh, hey,no, there goes the ego, just go.
(21:13):
Yeah, we're doing what we'retold, not just following.
I'm here for myself.
I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonnado this, because it tells you to
give it a shot, like you'rehere for yourself, you're here
to help yourself.
And I didn't know why at first.
By day three I realized why,and then you know.
(21:35):
Then, after that, it's supperand then we get to go back and
Do the three hours and they playa video.
I think you hear guys voice.
You talk like it's all likeaudio.
Look, you hear guys voice andhe tells you like, okay, this
war, focusing on and I know,just breathing, I'm breathing.
And Then he says like you couldfeel the breath and just focus,
because and Dr Joda spends usas this all the time that when
(21:59):
you are actually closed yourmind and not thinking of
anything and you're nothing andyou just like man.
They're like just turneverything off.
How that's the best way foryour body to heal itself.
How it's kind of like rebootinga computer.
If you leave a computer on allthe time, how it starts getting
sluggish and lag-ish and thingsaren't working properly and
stuff like that.
Well, this way, if we Meditate,it's like rebooting our
(22:25):
computer system.
It's like turning it off,turning back on that everything
could just like relax and youfeel so much better after.
And this is what it's all about.
This is what I was trying to do.
Right, that's what I assumed themeditation is about just like,
just relax, be no, actually getthere and be nothing, and it's
cool, like, and my mind haslittle dialogues going on.
(22:46):
It's like looking at otherpeople, sometimes like I open my
eyes, I'm just like oh man,like, how long, and like, and
when you listen to the audio ofthe guy that tells you because
what we're doing, and sometimeshe says like at the end of the
so you meditate for two hoursand after that we take a little
five to ten minute break.
Then you come back in.
Then they let us watch like anhour or so of a video of the guy
(23:08):
teaching us the meditation andtalking to us, and then we do a
little meditation, then foranother half an hour that we're
done.
So we're there for a while, butat one point he's saying like
you know, oh, how you sit theregoing, I wonder if it's almost
over.
I wonder like I just mindstarts to go nuts right, like
hurry up, and my legs hurting,or this is hurting, oh, hurry up
.
And then you, you know, you tryto like open your eyes and you
(23:30):
look at one of the clockssomewhere in the building, in
the room Right, and then he seesonly been five minutes, oh, I
felt like an hour.
And he start and I'm like, yeah, like it's relatable.
I'm like this is crazy, mymind's freaking out because it's
used to all the stimulation wehave, right, we have the phones.
I can watch anything on TV inan instant and I could Google
anything and see anything I want.
(23:51):
But now I got nothing.
It's just me alone.
There's other people there, butyou feel so alone and it's not
a bad thing.
Okay, I learned a lot.
So Day one's over, day two rollsaround then, so I go to bed.
You know, like we leave at 9 30, we have half an hour and then
(24:12):
it slides out and since I'm inthe cabin, I got my own light
switch.
But I mean I just go in thereand turn it off and Then I Want
to bed.
I woke up and Day two I Woke upfor about four, forty five a
(24:34):
little bit later I Went set down, the Dometa sort of sitting
there, my mind just going likeoh, what are you doing here?
What do you?
What do you think?
You're gonna become like someBuddhist monk or something?
You gonna meditate and andwaste your life.
Like you know, as they say,yolo, you only live once, right,
(24:55):
like living life to the fullest.
And now you're just wastingthis, your second day, and
you're just wasting it.
Well, I'm like I just okay, Irelax, just breathe in, breathe
out, breathe in.
And then, as I start gettingbrighter again, I looked at the
window and I see the on thescreen because, like the little
curtain the curtain was open abit See this thing, like this
(25:15):
figure, like a little thing, Idon't know, a little like, maybe
like three, four inches longstuff, like that, whatever.
And Then I was like you know,before I leave, for Like I
started getting brighter andbrighter.
So then I turn on the light andtook my flashlight on.
I looked at the thing as it gotbrighter before breakfast and I
(25:38):
saw what it was.
It was a big Spider.
It was huge.
I forget that there's a wolfspider, a female wolf spider.
So if you Google that in yourphone, you see how big they can
get.
Just staring at me, like Icould see its eyes, I'm like, oh
my god, so this is day two.
(26:00):
So I'm like, hey, this is mrSpider.
Miss, a spider.
Nice to meet, you, pleased.
And I want to tell you I'm inthe cabin in the woods.
It's not like some Really nice,well-made cabin, it's literally
plywood.
There's gaps.
I got mosquito netting over mybed because there's mosquitoes
can get in, bugs can get in, youknow Stuff like that.
(26:21):
Like I could see outside.
If I look at my door, there'slike almost an inch gap and
there's all these gapseverywhere, so like bugs can
come in and just roam free inthere.
You know mice, everything.
So I'm like can you just stayoutside and not come in and eat
me?
No, it's not nuts, but thespider was big and I was a
(26:44):
little concerned now the back ofmy mind, all I'm pitching, the
spider, just as I'm sittingthere meditating, gonna come in
and crawl my leg and, you know,attack me or whatever.
And I'm like, oh man, like I'mnot scared of spiders or bugs or
anything, but I was terrifiedof the look of this one.
If I could look at it and seeits eyes looking at me,
(27:07):
contemplating life, I mean, yeah, look it up if you want to get
squeamish.
So then, you know, I go tobreakfast and then as we go to
the meditation hall afterbreakfast, the guy comes and
says, hey, how's the meditationis going?
(27:28):
You know, like the one guy waslike in charge of helping us if
we need anything and I was like,oh, it's going good, but
there's a spider in my, on thebig, small, my screen in my room
.
It's outside, but I mean it canjust crawl right in.
And he's just like, oh, make itfunny me.
Yeah, you're scared of a spider, huh.
And I'm like, okay, and he'slike, well, I got you a chair if
(27:51):
you wanted it.
So he set up a chair for me inthe back of the hall, so like I
would get a side seating right,because here's where you can sit
, or you can sit on the mat orthat brick thing, let you decide
.
I just want you to becomfortable for the meditation,
because I look here, you lookeda little, you know, like I would
wake.
You know, stretch and movearound a lot, trying to, you
know, not have a sore back oranything.
(28:14):
And I know it's all mind overmatter.
I know everybody's yelling attheir mind at the Mike's.
I'm yelling at the mic butyelling going hey, you know it's
mind over matter, it.
You know.
Do you could just wheel it away?
Right, right, mike, you couldjust build away.
But yes, it's true, you can.
But it's harder than it soundsand it took me many years to get
(28:35):
to the point that where I'm at,and I'm still learning and this
is my journey, this is why I'mdoing the podcast is my journey
while I'm learning how toHarness the universal powers I
guess you would say it becomessupernatural and get what I want
, create what I want, butanyways.
So I was like that's cool.
(28:56):
So then, you know, I sat on thefloor for a bit.
Then, when I couldn't, I set upon the chair and I was like, oh
, this is more relaxing, andthen I could just sit there and
meditate and then once again, myego, my mind, the voice of my
head, starts going on.
Hey, you know, you're eating thesame thing today.
You had the same, is always thesame food for breakfast.
It's like they're.
(29:17):
They don't want you to have anyand is a lot.
So another fun fact it's allvegan food.
So there's no meat, no, nothing, it's all vegan.
And the others milk and there'scheese.
So it's not.
I Guess it's be a vegetarian,vegetarian, sorry, it's all
vegetarian.
So, look, there's tofu and thestuff like that, but there is
(29:40):
meat.
I mean the no meat.
There's cheese and milk on someof the.
In the morning.
You got milk and some cheese inthe afternoon and put on your
salads.
So, yeah, it's really healthyfood, press, and it's awesome.
Like I love healthy food.
I don't look like it, but sohard to make anyways.
And then I was like, yeah, thisis cool that my mind's going.
Oh, hey, you know.
(30:01):
Like it was a hard day.
Like my mind is just like Idon't know, like the eagle, just
like punching me down.
Like you know, oh, you can't dothis.
Like, oh, oh, I wonder what'shappening at home, you know, and
no one's able to Call you ifthere's an emergency, right, and
I'm like, oh, what if there'sall this huge contract you're
(30:24):
working on?
And then, and then your wifescrews it up and then it falls
through and my mind's like, oh,and you gotta understand, like I
know it's just.
If you ever experienced that,you'll understand.
But when your mind starts goingcrazy and I'm not crazy, I mean
like I'm talking myself my headright, but like where your mind
just starts saying all thesethings, do you like what is this
(30:45):
?
What is this Cuz?
I'm like trying to focus onbreathing.
Okay, stop talking to me, I'mfocusing on breathing, stop, and
you mind just continues.
And then if you actuallyentertain that thought, you know
how like thoughts come flyingthrough your brain.
And then, if you actuallyentertain it, kind of like
whoop-whoop and bring somecloser to you, and then no, and
then your mind start on, yourbody starts reacting.
(31:06):
If you start accepting it, it'slike, oh, yes, that is
happening right now, right, andstuff like that.
So it's getting like okay, youknow, my mind's going a little
more, my ego right, and it'sjust trying to like, hey, you
can't do this, punch me down,and trying to get me out of
there Because it wants to getback to its routine of doing
whatever it does normally.
Right, it's hard, it's reallyhard to change.
(31:29):
So I was like, no, I'm gonna dothis.
So then, after that one, I waslike wow, that was hard.
You know, after the breakfast,the morning one, and then we get
to go and you know, stretch,relax and then meditate by
yourself, as they say, and thenyou go eat for lunch and you
know, as I see people like I'mwatching people, I'm a people
watcher, so I'm watching peopleand some people are like walking
(31:52):
around and they're like thegold all grounds.
You know, there's a trail.
Actually you can walk and goover a bridge and then you walk
through the woods.
They could walk around thewoods but there's a lot of
mosquitoes, because summertimemosquitoes love me.
So I was like I don't want togo to walk around the woods, so
I'm just trying to stay like outof woods as much as possible
(32:13):
and Stuff like that.
And then I was like so, justSorry about that, yeah.
So I was just like watchingpeople walking around, some
people just like drinking andlike water and stuff.
I'm just like I'm trying tofind a place in the sun just to
sit and relax, and you know Iwas just trying to stay in their
(32:36):
own world.
No one's really talking to eachother, stuff like that, and you
know.
And then lunch rolls around andand some people are there like
10 minutes before lunch thecafeteria oven.
So they're just in therewaiting, waiting, waiting, and
then you get to go ahead, sinceit opens, get food, eat, leave
(32:56):
and, like you know, it lasts forlike an hour or so.
But if you eat fast and thenyou start walking around again
and everybody's just trying tobe busy and it's like you know,
some people are doing betterthan others.
I see some people just walkingaround.
There's like a little donutlike in front of the building
where we eat breakfast.
It's just like a driveway thatit's like a circle and people
just pacing around that circle,and then we go meditate, then we
(33:18):
go back for the after lunchmeditation and then I'm just
sitting there and then, okay,I'm okay.
Focus on breathing ranks.
I'm like breathing in, and Idon't know if I told you this
before, but I have when I wasyounger or broke my nose, so I
have a hard time breathingthrough my nose.
So I'm what you call them mouthbrief breather.
I breathe through my mouth, soI have to focus to breathe
(33:39):
through my nose and sometimes Ifeel like I don't get enough air
, so then I open my breaththrough my mouth, so I'll try to
breathe through my nose, right,you know, in and then In and
out.
Right, just focusing on thebreathing, my mind starts
creeping in again.
It's like, hey, what you doing,mark, you sitting here, still
(34:00):
you're doing nothing, like, andthen my mind is just going on
about like, hey, you know, youwouldn't know if your wife was
driving the the vehicle and thenblew a tire and crash, and now
they're all in the hospital andthere's no way for them anybody
to reach you.
Because, like your wife's,unconscious and and just my mind
is just going nuts Like thisand I'm like, what the hell,
(34:21):
like, am I crazy?
I'm not what I'm realizing here.
I'm nuts and this is only likeday two.
And then it's just like, okay,you know, and I just ignore it.
But you know, if you focus onsomething, your body can make it
real.
Like dr Joda Spence that talksabout a few different trials
(34:44):
that they've done.
Where do they get people toplay piano?
But we'll just play a certainsong, right, and they get the
control that does nothing, andthey get people to close their
eyes and visualize themselflearning the song and playing
the piano.
And the control.
Nothing happened in their brain.
The people that played thepiano, a certain part of their
(35:06):
brain started like glowing, asthey say.
They're like, oh, you learn itright.
And the people that justvisualized it had the exact same
thing as the people thatactually did it, like it was
creating the same muscle memoryin their mind and everything and
the same place in their brain,to the point where they probably
can sit in front of a computerand they could be able to play
it.
So, like your mind, you know,doesn't know the difference of
(35:27):
what's real or not.
Just like I explained to, wherea lot of people can resonate
with this, like if something badhappened to you, right, and
then you talk about it even ithappened five years ago, ten
years ago, twenty years ago andyou start talking about it.
How you start feeling the exactsame anxiety or the same thing
and the same and start gettingemotional and stuff like that,
(35:48):
right, because every time youtell that story, your body's
reacting to it as if it'shappening again, sorry, and
happening again and again andagain, every time you tell that
story, like, your hands will getclammy.
If you talk about a caraccident, your hands get clammy
and you start shaking and You'relike, okay, I talk about it
(36:09):
right.
Or you might even break downand cry if it's something like
you know, something sad thatyou're talking about, and that's
the society we live in is where, like, we focus on things like,
like dramatic or things likethat, and we just hold on to it
and nobody really lives in thenow.
We all live in the past, like itseems like we live in the past
(36:30):
and then we plan for the future,but we never reach the future.
We just live in the past and wefocus in the past.
So what's gonna happen?
The exact same thing.
You just gonna have a loop andso, yeah, a little sign out, but
yeah.
So when you're telling thatstory and you're talking about
it, just like me, when I'mtalking about right now, this,
(36:50):
my experience at this 10-daymeditation retreat, it's
bringing back emotions on mymind and my body starts acting
like oh man, I'm still here, I'mstill meditating, like you know
, and it starts reacting as ifit's happening right.
So no difference if you startfocusing on those thoughts in
(37:10):
your mind of like, oh, maybesomething bad might have
happened.
All right, like I, my wife toldme no news is good news, so if
I don't hear from them, it'sgood.
If every somebody has to comein and say, hey, mike, you got
to come with us Because we needto talk, then that means
something bad has happened.
Right, somebody called andsomething bad, right.
(37:31):
So no news is good news.
So I just tell myself that nonews is good news, no news is
good news.
And you know, folks on breathingagain, and then as my body
starts, like you know, lessSweaty and clammy, and then like
worried about like all thiscrazy stuff happening, and just
yeah, bring it back to reality,bring it back to reality.
(37:52):
You know, just focus on thebreathing, focus on the
breathing.
And then you get then after themeditations over.
They say come and talk to us ifyou want, blah, blah, blah, and
I was like I'm good, it's justbeen crazy.
And then you know, continue theday and we go back for the
(38:16):
After separate meditation, whichis the long one, like you do
two hours, and then you watch avideo and then another hour, so
it's like almost three and ahalf or hours and yeah, just, I
don't know, became like real,where I started entertaining in
those thoughts and I Startedgetting worried like yeah, what
(38:39):
if these things are happening?
What if you know Somebody'srobbing my house and holding my
family captive?
Or what if my wife died and mykids are alone and my oldest
daughter can't reach me because,well, they have my cell phone
and she doesn't know who to call.
And you know, I'm just allthese thoughts right, like it's
(39:00):
weird how your ego just throwsthat at you and always seems to
be like Negative thoughts.
I Don't understand that, why itdoes that.
I know I got to reread thatbook and then kind of like it's
(39:22):
not a bad thing, okay, but itfeels bad because you don't
understand.
I'm a visual thinker.
So somebody tells me a story orjoke, I Don't just hear it, I
actually like it played in mymind, like it's actually playing
(39:42):
in my mind, like I'm a visualthinker, as they say so, visual
talker.
So like if you ask medirections, I'll give you
directions how to get somewhereand I'll see it in my mind and
map it out as I'm doing it.
Right, it's just I don't know.
It's like I got photographicmemory.
Some people say I'd be greatfor counting cards.
But yeah, I got a good memoryand I'm a visual thinker.
(40:09):
So like, not only like, is itjust my ego saying these things?
If I entertain it it becomesalmost like a movie or something
like playing in my head, likethe stage is set in my head
Right and I'm in my head andthen if I'm entertaining that
negativity, it starts playingthe, playing it, and I'm gonna
start oh man, it's just so hard.
I Like I don't know if I soundcrazy or anything, but like I'll
(40:37):
try it and my ego and that, andit was getting hard and I'm
even like, started worrying,like maybe I'm going crazy.
I like, no, I just push it away.
Push away, no news is good, nonews is good news because I
haven't.
You know like I, I travel a lot, I'm gone a lot, but I'm able
(40:59):
to call or text or check it outmy family, check it on my wife,
right, I'm just, you know,always, I don't know like if
it's just me or from justSubconsciously, a negative
thinker or the ego is like thatfor everybody.
But from my experience intalking to people and Reading
these books and stuff, where noHappening to a lot of people
(41:21):
like you got a program here, yougo and partner with it, like
this is where the story is going.
But I just gotta lead up to thestory.
But yeah, it was this.
The second day was hard, aftersupper, I didn't, you know, like
(41:41):
you couldn't tell, but I wasstarting to get like almost sad.
And now I'm just like Thinkinglike I'm gonna tap out.
No, it's only been two and ahalf days, I'm gonna tap out.
And then right away I startthinking like oh, was your wife
gonna think she'd bedisappointed in you?
And and you know, like you know, don't, don't, don't tap out.
Like the ego is going opposite.
(42:02):
Now I'm trying to keep me there.
It's kind of weird.
And then I was like cool, like,and then, you know, I would
think like if you stay and dothe ten days when your wife
shows up, show, run into yourarms, give you a big Hugging, a
kiss, and you could twirl aroundand all your kids would be like
daddy, you're my hero, you knowstuff like that.
So I'm like, okay, I could dothis, I could do this, right.
And then I go back to my room,look at the spider, like please
(42:30):
don't come in here, don't eat meand I kind of like close the
curtain, like a name is tospider, and I got into my bed
and then my mind starts goingcrazy again and I'm just getting
like, just getting sad, likewhat you know.
And at first I was like I'mdoing this to impress my wife,
(42:50):
because she's done this twice.
I'm doing it to impress her,right?
Well, day three rolled aroundand that morning I Just stayed
in bed and tell you can hear theding for breakfast, because if
(43:12):
you don't eat breakfast, man,you there's no snack time,
there's no nice, and and thenyou go and now you don't
actually get supper anymore.
Supper is more Just like asnack, like fruit now, and a
drink, that's it.
So you only eat reallybreakfast and lunch and then you
(43:34):
kind of get a snack.
But if you've done this before,you don't even get the snack
Because I for supper just getlike a coffee, that's it.
So I was one of the lucky onesthat I could do house Nick, have
a banana and an apple, drink mymilk water, yeah.
(43:54):
So I didn't feel like meditatingand I looked at the spider
start having a like hey, mrSpider, thanks for not coming in
and biting my face off.
Just imagine if you wake up andsee that crawl on your blankets
.
Man, it's big.
Look it up, google it right now.
You know, wolf spider, femalewolf spiders, those are bigger
it's.
I'm not even exaggerating it.
(44:15):
I, if I had my phone, I wouldhave took a picture and posted
it my social media page.
And you guys be like oh, my god, that's just big.
Yes, it was a big, creepyspider, I'm not exaggerating.
And then I hear knock on my door, just before breakfast actually
, and I open the door and theguy I was there like hey, just
checking in.
Um, you know how's it going.
(44:38):
I'm like oh, it's going allright, you know meditating.
Well, he's like how about yourspider situation?
So I showed him, I pulled thecurtain over and show him the
spider and he was like whoa,that's a big spider.
Yep, that is a big spider.
And he's like oh, because I wasat this point I like I'm like I
(44:58):
don't want to be out here, nomore, I'm mine just going nuts.
I need to.
I want to be inside witheverybody else, have my own
bathroom, be able to shower,because I'm used to show every
day Anyway.
So I was like yeah, it's goingokay, you know he's like it's.
It gets hard, it gets hard, butlike it's worth it.
You know, trust me, it's worth,it's worth it.
And then I was like cool, andthen that was it.
(45:20):
So I went for breakfast, go tothe morning, meditation and my
ego mind just start going crazyagain and thinking of all this
craziness.
And I'm trying not to let itaffect me, but it's hard,
because what you always think,like what if my ego's right?
What if there is somethingcrazy happening right now?
(45:41):
What if this, what if that?
And then I'm like me, maybe,yeah, maybe, there's a little
bit of truth and what my ego istrying to tell me.
And, and it was hard, I wasliterally felt like a zombie for
day three and I'm just gonnastay around day three and talk
(46:05):
to you a little bit about someexperiences and then we'll end
it and then we'll We'll talkabout day four and five on the
next podcast, the next episode.
But I Was just going throughthe motions, I didn't care for
breakfast.
I remember I think I skippedbreakfast on day three, just
(46:32):
zombie.
And On day zero there's this oneguy and he's that we were
talking, we're all talking, andone guy was like I've done this
twice and all like this is mysecond time.
This is awesome.
Blah, blah, blah.
Another guy shows up and healmost looks like a guy from a
famous movie, like in a moviecalled can hardly wait.
Yeah, it looks like somebodyfamous, but I don't know.
(46:54):
And no, everybody.
The guy one.
A guy turns around, looks likethis whole times.
Have you done this?
He goes.
I don't know it's how long haveyou been doing this?
As long as I can remember, hegoes.
I do this all the time, likeyou know.
And and the guy's already barefeet and just look, you know I
(47:15):
guess he belonged to like a monkand Stuff like that.
So I call him what's that word?
Npc Cuz.
Like every time I see them he'sjust Going from one place doing
like just no motion, no,nothing, like he must have done
(47:36):
this a hundred times, I don't,but he's remember, he's.
I start.
My ego started telling me likehey man, if you do this full
ten-day thing, you might end uplike him and you might lose your
mind and go crazy, and thenyou're gonna sit here and he's
gonna go, oh, and you won't evenknow what date is, what year it
is, and maybe he's trapped inhere and like maybe we should
(47:56):
ask him to blink of any talp,and I'm like whoa, oh God, this
is nuts.
I like throughout the rest ofmy journey, like you might hear
me referring to him mr MPC.
But yeah, mr MPC man, he wouldlike I always.
He was always there, meditating, is always on time, just Doing
the motions like and yeah, Ijust started picturing him like
(48:18):
maybe just an MPC.
He's broken down to be here,doesn't know anything.
But yeah, he was mr MPC.
I miss you, mr MPC.
I Wonder if you're still there.
We just live there.
But yeah, so in a nutshell, Istarted realizing, like, after
(48:44):
you know those books withMichael a singer and Dr Spence,
I had like the ego, it's a realstruggle to keep it quiet and
how starts to go crazy.
And and In the book for theSurrender experiment, no
untethered soul by Michael asinger talks about how he tried
(49:05):
to like shut it up and try tolike lock it away and tell you
know, don't talk, don't do this,don't do that, don't do that
right, and how you know spoileralert how he starts realizing
throughout the book that that'snot the way to do it, that your
ego is actually your ally, butit's just been programmed.
It seems, to listen my case tobe mr Negative.
(49:28):
Mr, you know, keep me in check,right?
If I'm like, oh, puppies andrainbows in my brain is like,
hey, check, you know, realitycheck.
Nothing's puppies and rainbows,but it really can be.
You know, you hear all the timehow the you know when you get
(49:53):
rich, and you know your wholelife You're trying to get rich.
And then when you reach therichness, and how money just
flows and blah, blah, blah,right.
And you hear all thesedifferent people talk like that,
how like easy it is to just getmore wealth when you have
wealth, and so on and so forth,right, and how it just keeps on
attracting, attracting,attracting, because now they're
(50:13):
not worried about it.
And Like you hear some of mytalks, some of my episodes that
like, if you're chasing some,well, I'm chasing you, you're
gonna run away, so stop chasingand then things will just come
your way and happen.
But you, this 10 day retreat sofar, by day three, I'm
(50:35):
realizing it's a lot harder thanI expected.
And at this point, by the endof day three, I'm thinking like
I'm going nuts.
So I go to talk to the one guy.
I'm like, hey, I gotta check in.
He's like okay, and I'm like amI going crazy?
He's like what do you mean?
(50:55):
I'm like my mind's going nuts.
He goes yeah, that's the ego,that's why you're here.
He goes.
Before I became one of theleading persons for the
meditations, I was just astudent, like you, and I've done
it a few times.
And he goes I want to leave.
It was hard.
He goes.
(51:16):
I made it to like day eight.
I'm still ready to like leave,right, and you're only day three
.
He goes you're advancing fasterand this is harder than most
people their first time Likeit's like you're already
connected to yourself or to theuniverse or whatever, right.
I said, yeah, you know, I read alot and I study a lot and I
(51:37):
practice different meditationtechniques, and this is a new
one and my wife reallyrecommended it and goes yeah, so
the whole point of thismeditation, which is derived
from Buddha meditation, is toovercome and to connect to your
(51:59):
ego where it's not controllingyou, where it's your partnership
or whatever right.
And I'm like well, why does itgo so crazy?
And he's like look, he goes.
Don't worry, you're not crazy.
If I thought you're crazy, I'llkick you out of the study.
I'm like study, no, but hedidn't say study, but kick you
out of the program.
I was like, okay, he goes.
(52:21):
No, you're doing good.
Like you're, after the 10 days,you'll be a whole new person.
Like you got this, don't worry,man.
And I'm like, okay, I got thisright.
And he was like everything thatyou're buying is telling you is
just nothing to worry about it.
Like it's just screamingbecause I want attention or
wants you to be busier, becausewe're normally really busy
(52:44):
people in this world.
Right, we always got somethingto go, I mean, on my desk right
here.
I got my MacBook, my iPad, myphone.
I got all these devices here,right, and some of them were
going off.
So I don't know if you heardthem, but people are texting me,
people are trying to call me,but it is what it is.
But, yeah, I realized that theday three I still had seven more
(53:10):
days to go was gonna be hardand I figured, if I can make it
to day five and the end of dayfive, day six will be so much
easier, right, and I'm justgiving myself these day by day
goals.
And there's one point on daythree where I had to get up and
leave, and I couldn't controlmyself and I cried Like I just
(53:35):
couldn't control.
I was crying, my mind was justreleasing and crying, and crying
, and crying.
And this was before I talked tothe guy and it was confusing
Because it was good enough forme and other people who were
laughing.
You know how, horaow, they sayto me, come down on unspeakable,
(54:03):
and I scream Because not like Iwas talking to someone and I'm
talking to them.
My feelings, you know, my otherbrother, my brother, my dad or
whatever, be like hey, you want,you want a reason to cry, I'll
give you a reason to cry.
Stop crying for nothing.
You know, bottle it man up,right, and that's what I was
told a lot of my life.
So I didn't cry much.
(54:26):
Um, as an adult I don't cry, andI just couldn't help it.
I just it just released andapparently it's a good thing to
release.
So I haven't at all balled itup.
So I just cried and cried andcried for a bit and then that
night, after I talked to the guy, I went to my room and and that
night was hard, um, anything Iheard outside was like oh,
(54:51):
something's, something's goingto come and you know, get me, or
that spider's going to come andget me, or I'm going to wake up
and there's going to be a mousegnawing on my feet, or just you
know, I really didn't want tobe there.
I'm like I got to run, I got toget out of here, I got to run,
but you know, I just you knowwillpower and I'm just going to
stay and ignore and happythoughts try to think of happy
thoughts and stuff like that.
(55:11):
Yeah, this, uh.
You know, when I tell the storyto my friends and stuff, I try
to make it sound funny and jokeyand stuff, but it's hard, it
was hard, um, and this is onlyday three.
(55:32):
So at this point I'm learningthat, you know, which is a good
thing that I'm learning fasterand the whole point of this
meditation is to release allthat negative energy, just throw
it out and just let back inpositivity and the positive
energy and just be.
(55:56):
You know, all you can be andthat's what I want to be.
It's just, mr Happy, mrPositive.
I'm always positive.
You know, when I talk to peopleand you know, look at the bright
side.
You know somebody hit my truckwhile, like you know, you got to
better.
You know my truck would getfixed and stuff like that, right
.
And then you go we'll be like,well, it's going to take him so
long, you got to fight withinsurance and your premium was
(56:19):
going to go up and all thisstuff, right.
And then it's got to be like,okay, release that and just be
happy, yeah, it's.
Uh, it was an interesting time.
So that's day three.
So the next episode I'm goingto talk a little bit more about
(56:42):
uh day four and five and thenwe'll take it from there for the
episodes and then we'll, youknow, see how it goes and talk
about different things.
I'm learning, but this summer Idid learn a lot of amazing
stuff and met a lot of amazingpeople, and I hope to bring more
people on uh the episodes tointerview and talk with people,
just so you can hear theirstories and their journey
(57:03):
throughout life.
And this is what the wholepodcast is about.
It's about you.
It's about bringing everybodyas a collective like just happy,
joy and just positivity,because it is all about you.
You are in control of your life.
We're always told we're not,but you are in control.
(57:25):
You are the power to choosewhat's going on in your life, if
you want positivity ornegativity.
If you're a negative person, alot of negative stuff are going
to happen to you, just like if Ientertained all those crazy
thoughts up to this point, I'dbe so sad and depressed and I
was, you know, getting sad.
(57:46):
But it's up to you if we'regoing to let that happen or if
we're going to see thepositivity and look for the good
things in life and stuff likethat and just live your best
life.
Live in the moment is what we'reall achieving and this is what
I'm trying to achieve and I'mtalking about my journey as I
get there and, you know, like tohear some of your journeys, but
(58:07):
I am literally just trying tolive in the moment and to live
my best life and I hope, likepeople that have listened to the
podcast, can enjoy it and, youknow, learn and if you already
know this stuff and kind ofreaffirm what you've already
(58:27):
know in your heart and justreaffirm it that you know alone.
We are all in this together and,yeah, I am a work in progress
and it does take one day to tryto achieve our goals and I love
making this podcast and I hopeyou guys enjoy it, love making
this podcast and just share withyour friends, share with your
(58:48):
family, share with the peoplethat you feel would benefit.
Because I never thought in mylife where I'd be running a
podcast talking about the law ofattraction, because I used to
think it was crazy.
But until I startedexperimenting with it and
testing it and applying it to mylife, and what works, what
(59:09):
doesn't work, it's amazing whatthe universe can open, what
doors will open for you.
I do want you to know that I dolove each and every one of you.
I might not know you personally, but if we could just have
positive energy and just releaseinto the world and just bring
us so much more happiness tothis world, it will be so much
(59:33):
better and that you areimportant.
We are all in this.
Together, we're a collectivecreator of our universe and of
our world and of our reality.
Let's make it happy, let's makeit the best one and just enjoy
life.
So stay tuned for the nextepisode.
(59:54):
Thank you very much forlistening and putting up with
this not so positive, I guess,vibes that I'm putting out today
.
But this is just gettingsomewhere.
It's going to get reallyinteresting.
So stay tuned for the nextepisodes.
I do appreciate you.
I love you, I love you.
Hi, welcome back to another episode of Life Changers
, and this is Mike.
We are back for our thirdseason, so I'd like to thank
everybody who's been listeningto us and encouraging us, and
sorry, we haven't uploaded a lotin the summer, just been really
(00:38):
busy.
So we decided to take thesummer off and now we're back to
our next season and then, yeah,we'll just continue doing two
seasons a year after this.
So it's good to be back.
It's hard to get the groove,like I've been trying to record,
I guess, for the last month.
It's just really hard to getback in the groove of things
(00:59):
when you're just not used to it.
After, like the summer, it'sbeen a while, but a lot has
happened.
So we're going to talk a lotabout ego in this season and
another topic I'd like to talkabout is how I guess you know
(01:21):
trying to find, you know,everlasting love, you know, and
stuff like that, and it's just avery interesting story I just
wanted to share with you on that.
So we'll get to that throughoutthe season.
But I guess one of the maintopics is your ego, or, as some,
most people know it, the voicein your head.
I am not going crazy, I'm justwant to talk a little bit about
(01:44):
the ego, because I learned a lotabout the ego.
I guess one of the last thingsyou heard me talking about is
how we're going to, how I wentto do a 10 day meditation
retreat and I've been tosideburn and a bunch of other
festivals this year and talkedto a lot of people and a lot of
amazing people out there andjust see how awesome the world
(02:06):
is and stuff like that.
As long as we don't focus on thedoom and gloom right, because
you know it's true what, whenyou are projecting outwards, is
what you're going to get?
Sorry, I was just going to pickup my phone to make sure it was
(02:27):
on silent because I don't wantto get interrupted when I'm in
the flow and I just interruptedmyself, but is what it is?
So I was going to push on,vibrate or lowering to let you
go.
Sorry about that.
But, like I say, uncut itunedited, let's just we take the
raw footage, we master thesound to make it sound a little
(02:50):
bit cleaner and more consistent,in case I back up from the mic
and stuff like that, so it'slike consistently loud and stuff
like that.
But I digress, but no, I trulyI know for a fact.
Like for me it is what it is,but like if it doesn't work for
you, if you don't recognize it,maybe you might start
recognizing it or startunderstanding it more.
I mean, I heard about all thisstuff like when I was younger
(03:11):
and how to stop people are nutsbut until I actually started
putting it to practice.
Now it is what it is like.
I actually see and understand alot, but you know it's like.
You know it's like they sayright, you are what you eat,
right, but what you put out inthe universe, what you focus on,
(03:32):
is what you're going to get inreturn.
So if you're focused on all thenegativity in the world and if
you're focused on all the crazystuff that's going on, that's
what you're going to see.
A lot of.
It's kind of like the algorithm.
I know I mentioned it before,but for all the new listeners
it's kind of like the algorithmfor YouTube or TikTok or any of
those platforms.
The moment you start searchingthings, it will be like oh,
(03:56):
their attention span on thisitem was a lot longer than these
items, so we're going to showthem more of that and that
becomes your reality.
And then your reality becomesnegative.
If that's what you're puttingout in order to research all
this negative stuff, people sayoh you know, mike, if you don't
listen to the reality of theworld, you know you're living in
a bubble.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
(04:16):
No, we are all co-creators.
We all create our beliefs, ourexistence.
We all create what we want tofocus on, what we deem is true,
what we deem is fake, and so onand so forth.
So it is what it is.
But for me, I realize more andmore like it's crazy, like it's
(04:40):
just crazy.
So like I've listened, likebeen watching a lot of like
movies and stuff like that andlike reality shows and stuff,
but I notice a lot.
That one you know I bring intomy reality like the word, like
you know I don't know, when youput me on the spot, I put myself
(05:02):
on the spot.
But when I bring into myreality stuff like you know how,
you know I create my reality,or the frequency of money and
this, and that I start hearingit more and seeing it more,
right, and there's even been athing I forget what it's called,
but it's kind of like when youbuy a brand new pair of shoes or
(05:22):
you buy a new car or somethingnew, you never really noticed it
before.
But when you buy one and youstart noticing it, then you
start seeing it everywhere.
You're like, what is everybodycopying me, right?
Well, that's because youbrought into your reality.
Now you're focused on that,that's what you're going to see,
because that's what you'researching for and that's what
the universe will be like hey,look over, here she is, this is
(05:43):
what you're looking for.
So, yeah, for me it's puppiesand rainbows, or, like I like to
say, hakuna Matata.
It's such a wonderful phrasebecause it means no worries, and
I just want to be in aworry-free state, because I
don't know about you, but likeif we're just focused on all the
worries of life and then startgetting crazy and then oh, but
(06:06):
like I try to keep me, like DrJoe Dispenza would say you know,
I don't want to be high beta, Iwant to be normal.
I don't want to be alwayspushing my feet on the gas and
trying to accelerate really hardand really fast and then push
the brakes the same time,because we do that all the time
and I don't always want to belike worried and stand by.
(06:28):
So yeah, in my reality ispuppies and rainbows and I
focused on a lot of awesomethings, but I digress back to
the story at hand.
So the 10 day meditationretreat right, I believe it's
called the Vipassana meditationretreat and, as a lot of you
know, my wife has done it twiceand that was this was my first
(06:51):
time going this early in thesummer and pretty much it's a
lot of people I tell they'relike what?
You're not seated, that it'snot as bad as it sounds.
Okay, I'm gonna tell you whathappened and then I'll tell you
other things and then that willbring us into the thing for
talking about, likeunderstanding my ego or the
(07:12):
voice in your head and stufflike that.
So that's what we're gonnafocus on.
So the 10 day retreat so youpull up to this place and it's
nice.
It's like I don't know, in thewoods near the countryside, like
(07:33):
there's no, like even your cellphone, like when I pulled in,
it was kind of like glitchingout, like, oh hey, we're in the
middle of nowhere, why are wehere, mike?
But so like I was getting ready, you know, like I was mentally
ready, my wife explained to me alot.
Like I'm not a lot, but sheexplained to me a few things
like just listen, do what theysay and have fun.
(07:54):
She's like it's gonna beamazing, it's gonna be relaxing
for you, right?
I was like, okay, I like torelax, right, I gotta.
I literally gave my wife my cellphone, all the information she
needed to run the company.
So if there's anything sheneeds to do and meetings, I had
you know coming up for those 10days and any, if any customers
(08:16):
calls and emergencies and stufflike that, how to deal with it,
right?
So I just gave her everythingand then it's that's it.
You go check in, okay, andyou're, you're about to talk.
At first they check in, you sayyou're here, and then okay,
yeah, and they tell you whereyou're gonna be sleeping.
(08:36):
So I ended up looking out.
My wife says, oh, you're solucky, like it's amazing, you're
gonna love it.
So, instead of sleeping in likewith a roommate and like in like
university type barracks, Iguess I like rooms, right, so
there's like two per room andthey're all like two floors of
everybody, but they're like,yeah, you're gonna get a cabin.
(08:57):
I was like cool, so I got acabin in the woods.
It was awesome, I was excitedand you know, my wife can't stay
actually for a little bit like.
So when I checked in they wereallowed to stay, my wife and
kids and they came and looked atthe cabin where I was gonna
stay and they're like cool, youknow, I showed them this is like
we're gonna eat and you know,and stuff like that.
Like we weren't allowed to gointo the meditation hall, but
(09:20):
you know I was like, well,that's where I'm assuming I'm
gonna meditate, and stuff likethat.
And then my family left andthen I got to hang out.
I was talking to some peoplelike, oh yeah, this is my second
time.
A lot of people is their firsttime.
It was my first time.
And then we get to eat and thenthey talked to us a little bit
about what they expect.
(09:40):
So pretty much it lights out by10 o'clock at night and then you
get woken up at like four inthe morning or 4 30 in the
morning.
So if you're sleeping in, likethe, the main sleeping area,
there's like a buzzer that goesoff inside.
But since I was in the woods Ihad to have an alarm clock.
(10:04):
So I brought my own alarm clockand then they take everybody's
cell phones away.
So you're not allowed on yourcell phones, you don't get to
check emails.
No, voicemail, no, nothing.
You're disconnected from theworld, okay, which is awesome.
You're disconnected from, like,everything that's going on in
(10:25):
the world.
Like you hear nothing, okay.
And yeah, there's an emergency,like there's a phone number
people can call me at or theycan call you know, after I have
an emergency, I can call out andstuff, right.
But yeah, no phones, no,nothing.
You disconnected and you're notallowed to talk to anybody
after supper.
(10:47):
So when supper rolls around thatday, we're not allowed to talk
after that and you don't talkfor 10 days.
Hear, fly in the studio,anyways, I'm not gonna get
distracted.
So you don't talk to nobody for10 days.
So they call it a 10-dayretreat.
(11:07):
But, just a fun fact, you'rethere for two other half days,
so it's 10 full days.
So the first day is just a halfday, right, you check in after
supper, it doesn't really count.
Tell like the next day is dayone, okay.
Then when day 10 hits, so,which is 11 at that point, then
(11:29):
only day 12, in the morning,after breakfast, we're allowed
to leave.
Make it stop so bad.
You're not allowed to leave.
That's.
Another thing is there's allthese areas left to walk, but
you're not allowed to leave theproperty, you're not allowed to
walk to other areas.
So, yeah, I was in there likethe guy's own and we were all
(11:52):
talking and stuff.
And then you know, separatearound, boom, stop talking and
then you just alone in your head.
You got nothing to distract you.
We have a lot.
I noticed we're like we have alot of distractions, even
talking to my friends or even mywife.
Sometimes I'm like what did wedo, like before smartphones or
iPhones and stuff like weactually like hung out and
(12:13):
talked and did things like it'sridiculous how you realize how
much you don't do Because we'regonna launched on our devices
because it's never gonna misssomething.
And don't get me wrong, there'sa lot of good stuff on your
devices.
You can get a lot of amazinginformation and do a lot of good
with it.
But there's also a lot ofdistracting stuff and then,
(12:35):
before you know, becomes a habitand it's like an addiction
where you like if there'snothing to do, you just pull
your phone.
And I don't want to be thatperson, but I am, apparently I
Felt naked without my phone.
So day one starts, so we sleep,I go to bed, I wake up at 4 am.
I'm like I'm gonna do this.
(12:55):
So I woke up at 4 am, I'm gonnaask you to wake up at 4 am and
then 4 30 is when you're allowedlike loud, like I can leave.
There's no washrooms in mycabin, like it's just literally
plywood and wood in the woods.
So I have to walk like a minuteor two out of the woods To go
to one of the main buildingswhen there's washrooms and stuff
(13:16):
that I could use.
So in the middle of the nightI'm not leaving, so I'm not
walking out there in the middleof the night.
Who knows what's in the woods.
So, and there's only six cabinsin the woods, only six of us
out there, and yeah, I justthink it up, everything.
It's just so funny some of thestuff, but anyways, so it's you
(13:39):
know, the official morning ofday one, day one.
Sorry.
So I was.
My alarm goes off because I seeto set your alarm for at least
like four o'clock.
Wake up, you'll do your routine.
Then 4 30 until 5 30, try tojust like meditate, and all they
want you to do is like so theyteach you, I guess the night
before before day one.
So day minus one or day zero.
(14:01):
They teach you like that youjust focus on your breathing,
just Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe in, breathe out.
That's all they tell you to do,that's it.
So I'm all gun-ho.
I woke up.
You know, 4, 30 for 4, 4, 15, 4, 30.
(14:24):
I'm sitting down this chair,I'm like, yeah, close my eyes.
And I'm just like, focus onyour breathing.
So, fun fact, when you'refocused on your breathing,
you're not focused on anythingelse.
So if you focus on breathing,you're not focused on anything
else.
So it's amazing.
So you just start, you know,focus on any breath.
And if you start getting, yourmind starts to wander.
Oh, hey, like I wonder what'sgoing on on my phone?
(14:45):
Oh, I don't have my phone.
Oh, what's going here?
Then just bring it back tobreathe in, breathe out.
Okay, so I did that, no problem.
And then about, you know, 5, 30.
It's like, oh, breakfast time.
And you know, open my eyes, andthen I see this thing on one of
the screen windows.
I Like this black blob, I guess, because it was like sunny, but
(15:10):
not too sunny yet, and I waslike, oh, whatever, that is like
probably just like a leaf orsomething right.
And then I was like cool.
So then it's like breakfasttime, so go to go see breakfast.
And then he starts seeingpeople walking around.
So I start walking around andnow I'll go to breakfast and
it's so quiet, all you hear.
(15:31):
This shit's clean, clean Peopleeating.
But you know, and they tell younot to make eye contact.
You know how sometimes make eyecontact, people like oh, he's
like, nod your head, like yes, Iunderstand.
Like they tell you not to doanything like that, like you're
supposed to be there for you,you're in your own space, you're
there to help yourself.
I Didn't know why.
Yet what am I helping myselfwith?
(15:52):
I'm happy, I'm good, I'm good,I could have a tada right.
And Then, you know, stars myheads, my mind starts to wander
with all this, like funnythoughts, and I'm just like,
okay, you know, and you knowthere's books that I've listened
to on audible, by dr Joedispensa and another one by
(16:15):
Michael a singer.
And Michael a singer has onethat talks about the voice in
your head.
I believe my close here.
Yeah, it kind of talks about ita bit, and dr Joe dispensa as
well, but anyways, and they talkabout your ego or the voice in
your head.
Yes, michael a singer, yeah,okay, he has a book called the
untethered soul that talks aboutit.
(16:36):
It's really good.
Should look it up, michael, asinger, untethered soul, and he
also has one called thesurrender experiment, which is
not the one I recommend, butyeah, so he talks about it a bit
and he wrote a whole book aboutit, about his experience.
But the voice in your head andhow he's just trying to get
through shut up, just to stopbecause it always seems to be
negative, right, and yeah, mymind starts doing that.
(16:58):
Right, like, oh, what if you'renot doing it?
Right, why, you know what isthis and why is this happening?
And oh, like, for breakfast,like it's just oatmeal and fruit
, I don't really drink coffee,but like there's juice and milk
for the coffee, so drink milkand water.
Like you carry water bottles,you drink a little water,
because when you're bored youjust drink water, but anyways.
(17:22):
So, and like, we have our signseats.
By the way, we have an assignedseat where we eat, with sign
seat in the meditation hallwhere you sit, meditate and
there is people you can talk to,where you're allowed to like,
talk really quiet, and say like,hey, I need help with this or
I'm having a problem with this.
And every day, after themeditation sessions, you can
talk to, um, the person that'sthere in charge and, like tell
(17:46):
him, like I'm not, I feel thisor I don't feel that, and that's
what I'm working on.
So, like you don't have to talka little bit, but you don't
have to talk to each other andthey're recommended.
You don't talk and no nodding,no acknowledging other people's
existence, because we're allthere for ourselves.
So you don't want to, you know,distract people.
And so after breakfast, like soI'll join breakfast, I'm like,
oh, okay, this is like I'm doingit, like I'm all like Day one's
(18:10):
easy, good.
Before you know it, you knowI'm counting down the minutes
before I got to see my amazing,beautiful wife come, pick me up
and my kids and be like I did it, you know.
So I start like my mind startswondering about, like love, all
the accomplishments gonna beawesome, you're doing good.
You know this is easy, right,and you know I first my mind is
pretty good, it's not negative.
And then after breakfast, um, Ibelieve it was by 6 30, and
(18:39):
then you have a little bit offree time until 7 30 where you
can like shower and stuff, likethat shave, do whatever you need
to do, and then by 7 30, boomin the meditation hall.
You One of the meditation, allfor two hours.
Each time we go home, go threetimes a day, and That'll
actually the last time was forthree hours, a lot longer and
then, like they tell you, likeyou'll hear from the person that
(19:01):
tells you like okay, this isthe new, this is like, tells you
some stories, like you watch,like it's pretty fine, I'll get
to it.
So you go in and then you justthat's it.
You're told to focus on yourbreathing again and you do that
for like three days.
Why, yeah, three days, we justfocus on the breathing.
So I go, and then you try tomake sure your mind is water
(19:21):
over my case.
I try to make sure my minddoesn't wander and that I don't
fall asleep and snore.
Embarrassing without be thatI'm just in there snoring away
and everybody trying to meditateand that's a smack me.
But after the first morningmeditation I talked to the guy.
I was, like you know, sittingon the floor in the lotus
position, where it's likecrisscross applesauce you cross
(19:43):
your legs, you know, and you sitthere.
I Said you know, it's kind ofhard for me, like I get start
getting pain in my legs and onmy back and stuff like that.
And so he's like, well, youcould just, you know, don't
worry about it, that's part ofthe process.
Like you got to get through thepain, you got to get through
the pain and I was like, well,if it's possible to have a Chair
.
He was, well, there's thesewooden blocks you can take and
(20:06):
kind of like, sit on it.
And then he put your legs under.
So it's kind of like you'rekneeling on the floor but yet
you're sitting.
So, like he goes, that mighthelp you.
I was like, okay, yeah, I'lltry that.
So then you get to leave andthen for like an hour or so,
then after that's lunchtime, andthen you got a little bit of
free time.
Then you go back into the hallfor another two hours, and then
(20:28):
I was like, okay, I got this, soGet the piece of wood, I'm
sitting on it, I'm doing it.
I'm like, yeah, my mind startsto wander a bit, like Now my
mind's getting grumpy.
It's like, hey, they won't giveyou a chair.
They told you the pain isnormal.
Like what's going on, man?
Like you're getting all thispain and stuff and then they
(20:50):
don't want to give you a chair.
That's not nice to them.
I'm like, yeah, my mind's like,hey, what if this is just like
it's not really about themeditation, that they're
watching us to see much Painthey could put on it.
I'm just like my mind's like,yeah, what about?
And I'm like what the hell'sgoing on?
Just shut up, calm down, youknow.
And my mind is like, oh, hey,no, there goes the ego, just go.
(21:13):
Yeah, we're doing what we'retold, not just following.
I'm here for myself.
I'm like, yeah, I'm just gonnado this, because it tells you to
give it a shot, like you'rehere for yourself, you're here
to help yourself.
And I didn't know why at first.
By day three I realized why,and then you know.
(21:35):
Then, after that, it's supperand then we get to go back and
Do the three hours and they playa video.
I think you hear guys voice.
You talk like it's all likeaudio.
Look, you hear guys voice andhe tells you like, okay, this
war, focusing on and I know,just breathing, I'm breathing.
And Then he says like you couldfeel the breath and just focus,
because and Dr Joda spends usas this all the time that when
(21:59):
you are actually closed yourmind and not thinking of
anything and you're nothing andyou just like man.
They're like just turneverything off.
How that's the best way foryour body to heal itself.
How it's kind of like rebootinga computer.
If you leave a computer on allthe time, how it starts getting
sluggish and lag-ish and thingsaren't working properly and
stuff like that.
Well, this way, if we Meditate,it's like rebooting our
(22:25):
computer system.
It's like turning it off,turning back on that everything
could just like relax and youfeel so much better after.
And this is what it's all about.
This is what I was trying to do.
Right, that's what I assumed themeditation is about just like,
just relax, be no, actually getthere and be nothing, and it's
cool, like, and my mind haslittle dialogues going on.
(22:46):
It's like looking at otherpeople, sometimes like I open my
eyes, I'm just like oh man,like, how long, and like, and
when you listen to the audio ofthe guy that tells you because
what we're doing, and sometimeshe says like at the end of the
so you meditate for two hoursand after that we take a little
five to ten minute break.
Then you come back in.
Then they let us watch like anhour or so of a video of the guy
(23:08):
teaching us the meditation andtalking to us, and then we do a
little meditation, then foranother half an hour that we're
done.
So we're there for a while, butat one point he's saying like
you know, oh, how you sit theregoing, I wonder if it's almost
over.
I wonder like I just mindstarts to go nuts right, like
hurry up, and my legs hurting,or this is hurting, oh, hurry up
.
And then you, you know, you tryto like open your eyes and you
(23:30):
look at one of the clockssomewhere in the building, in
the room Right, and then he seesonly been five minutes, oh, I
felt like an hour.
And he start and I'm like, yeah, like it's relatable.
I'm like this is crazy, mymind's freaking out because it's
used to all the stimulation wehave, right, we have the phones.
I can watch anything on TV inan instant and I could Google
anything and see anything I want.
(23:51):
But now I got nothing.
It's just me alone.
There's other people there, butyou feel so alone and it's not
a bad thing.
Okay, I learned a lot.
So Day one's over, day two rollsaround then, so I go to bed.
You know, like we leave at 9 30, we have half an hour and then
(24:12):
it slides out and since I'm inthe cabin, I got my own light
switch.
But I mean I just go in thereand turn it off and Then I Want
to bed.
I woke up and Day two I Woke upfor about four, forty five a
(24:34):
little bit later I Went set down, the Dometa sort of sitting
there, my mind just going likeoh, what are you doing here?
What do you?
What do you think?
You're gonna become like someBuddhist monk or something?
You gonna meditate and andwaste your life.
Like you know, as they say,yolo, you only live once, right,
(24:55):
like living life to the fullest.
And now you're just wastingthis, your second day, and
you're just wasting it.
Well, I'm like I just okay, Irelax, just breathe in, breathe
out, breathe in.
And then, as I start gettingbrighter again, I looked at the
window and I see the on thescreen because, like the little
curtain the curtain was open abit See this thing, like this
(25:15):
figure, like a little thing, Idon't know, a little like, maybe
like three, four inches longstuff, like that, whatever.
And Then I was like you know,before I leave, for Like I
started getting brighter andbrighter.
So then I turn on the light andtook my flashlight on.
I looked at the thing as it gotbrighter before breakfast and I
(25:38):
saw what it was.
It was a big Spider.
It was huge.
I forget that there's a wolfspider, a female wolf spider.
So if you Google that in yourphone, you see how big they can
get.
Just staring at me, like Icould see its eyes, I'm like, oh
my god, so this is day two.
(26:00):
So I'm like, hey, this is mrSpider.
Miss, a spider.
Nice to meet, you, pleased.
And I want to tell you I'm inthe cabin in the woods.
It's not like some Really nice,well-made cabin, it's literally
plywood.
There's gaps.
I got mosquito netting over mybed because there's mosquitoes
can get in, bugs can get in, youknow Stuff like that.
(26:21):
Like I could see outside.
If I look at my door, there'slike almost an inch gap and
there's all these gapseverywhere, so like bugs can
come in and just roam free inthere.
You know mice, everything.
So I'm like can you just stayoutside and not come in and eat
me?
No, it's not nuts, but thespider was big and I was a
(26:44):
little concerned now the back ofmy mind, all I'm pitching, the
spider, just as I'm sittingthere meditating, gonna come in
and crawl my leg and, you know,attack me or whatever.
And I'm like, oh man, like I'mnot scared of spiders or bugs or
anything, but I was terrifiedof the look of this one.
If I could look at it and seeits eyes looking at me,
(27:07):
contemplating life, I mean, yeah, look it up if you want to get
squeamish.
So then, you know, I go tobreakfast and then as we go to
the meditation hall afterbreakfast, the guy comes and
says, hey, how's the meditationis going?
(27:28):
You know, like the one guy waslike in charge of helping us if
we need anything and I was like,oh, it's going good, but
there's a spider in my, on thebig, small, my screen in my room
.
It's outside, but I mean it canjust crawl right in.
And he's just like, oh, make itfunny me.
Yeah, you're scared of a spider, huh.
And I'm like, okay, and he'slike, well, I got you a chair if
(27:51):
you wanted it.
So he set up a chair for me inthe back of the hall, so like I
would get a side seating right,because here's where you can sit
, or you can sit on the mat orthat brick thing, let you decide
.
I just want you to becomfortable for the meditation,
because I look here, you lookeda little, you know, like I would
wake.
You know, stretch and movearound a lot, trying to, you
know, not have a sore back oranything.
(28:14):
And I know it's all mind overmatter.
I know everybody's yelling attheir mind at the Mike's.
I'm yelling at the mic butyelling going hey, you know it's
mind over matter, it.
You know.
Do you could just wheel it away?
Right, right, mike, you couldjust build away.
But yes, it's true, you can.
But it's harder than it soundsand it took me many years to get
(28:35):
to the point that where I'm at,and I'm still learning and this
is my journey, this is why I'mdoing the podcast is my journey
while I'm learning how toHarness the universal powers I
guess you would say it becomessupernatural and get what I want
, create what I want, butanyways.
So I was like that's cool.
(28:56):
So then, you know, I sat on thefloor for a bit.
Then, when I couldn't, I set upon the chair and I was like, oh
, this is more relaxing, andthen I could just sit there and
meditate and then once again, myego, my mind, the voice of my
head, starts going on.
Hey, you know, you're eating thesame thing today.
You had the same, is always thesame food for breakfast.
It's like they're.
(29:17):
They don't want you to have anyand is a lot.
So another fun fact it's allvegan food.
So there's no meat, no, nothing, it's all vegan.
And the others milk and there'scheese.
So it's not.
I Guess it's be a vegetarian,vegetarian, sorry, it's all
vegetarian.
So, look, there's tofu and thestuff like that, but there is
(29:40):
meat.
I mean the no meat.
There's cheese and milk on someof the.
In the morning.
You got milk and some cheese inthe afternoon and put on your
salads.
So, yeah, it's really healthyfood, press, and it's awesome.
Like I love healthy food.
I don't look like it, but sohard to make anyways.
And then I was like, yeah, thisis cool that my mind's going.
Oh, hey, you know.
(30:01):
Like it was a hard day.
Like my mind is just like Idon't know, like the eagle, just
like punching me down.
Like you know, oh, you can't dothis.
Like, oh, oh, I wonder what'shappening at home, you know, and
no one's able to Call you ifthere's an emergency, right, and
I'm like, oh, what if there'sall this huge contract you're
(30:24):
working on?
And then, and then your wifescrews it up and then it falls
through and my mind's like, oh,and you gotta understand, like I
know it's just.
If you ever experienced that,you'll understand.
But when your mind starts goingcrazy and I'm not crazy, I mean
like I'm talking myself my headright, but like where your mind
just starts saying all thesethings, do you like what is this
(30:45):
?
What is this Cuz?
I'm like trying to focus onbreathing.
Okay, stop talking to me, I'mfocusing on breathing, stop, and
you mind just continues.
And then if you actuallyentertain that thought, you know
how like thoughts come flyingthrough your brain.
And then, if you actuallyentertain it, kind of like
whoop-whoop and bring somecloser to you, and then no, and
then your mind start on, yourbody starts reacting.
(31:06):
If you start accepting it, it'slike, oh, yes, that is
happening right now, right, andstuff like that.
So it's getting like okay, youknow, my mind's going a little
more, my ego right, and it'sjust trying to like, hey, you
can't do this, punch me down,and trying to get me out of
there Because it wants to getback to its routine of doing
whatever it does normally.
Right, it's hard, it's reallyhard to change.
(31:29):
So I was like, no, I'm gonna dothis.
So then, after that one, I waslike wow, that was hard.
You know, after the breakfast,the morning one, and then we get
to go and you know, stretch,relax and then meditate by
yourself, as they say, and thenyou go eat for lunch and you
know, as I see people like I'mwatching people, I'm a people
watcher, so I'm watching peopleand some people are like walking
(31:52):
around and they're like thegold all grounds.
You know, there's a trail.
Actually you can walk and goover a bridge and then you walk
through the woods.
They could walk around thewoods but there's a lot of
mosquitoes, because summertimemosquitoes love me.
So I was like I don't want togo to walk around the woods, so
I'm just trying to stay like outof woods as much as possible
(32:13):
and Stuff like that.
And then I was like so, justSorry about that, yeah.
So I was just like watchingpeople walking around, some
people just like drinking andlike water and stuff.
I'm just like I'm trying tofind a place in the sun just to
sit and relax, and you know Iwas just trying to stay in their
(32:36):
own world.
No one's really talking to eachother, stuff like that, and you
know.
And then lunch rolls around andand some people are there like
10 minutes before lunch thecafeteria oven.
So they're just in therewaiting, waiting, waiting, and
then you get to go ahead, sinceit opens, get food, eat, leave
(32:56):
and, like you know, it lasts forlike an hour or so.
But if you eat fast and thenyou start walking around again
and everybody's just trying tobe busy and it's like you know,
some people are doing betterthan others.
I see some people just walkingaround.
There's like a little donutlike in front of the building
where we eat breakfast.
It's just like a driveway thatit's like a circle and people
just pacing around that circle,and then we go meditate, then we
(33:18):
go back for the after lunchmeditation and then I'm just
sitting there and then, okay,I'm okay.
Focus on breathing ranks.
I'm like breathing in, and Idon't know if I told you this
before, but I have when I wasyounger or broke my nose, so I
have a hard time breathingthrough my nose.
So I'm what you call them mouthbrief breather.
I breathe through my mouth, soI have to focus to breathe
(33:39):
through my nose and sometimes Ifeel like I don't get enough air
, so then I open my breaththrough my mouth, so I'll try to
breathe through my nose, right,you know, in and then In and
out.
Right, just focusing on thebreathing, my mind starts
creeping in again.
It's like, hey, what you doing,mark, you sitting here, still
(34:00):
you're doing nothing, like, andthen my mind is just going on
about like, hey, you know, youwouldn't know if your wife was
driving the the vehicle and thenblew a tire and crash, and now
they're all in the hospital andthere's no way for them anybody
to reach you.
Because, like your wife's,unconscious and and just my mind
is just going nuts Like thisand I'm like, what the hell,
(34:21):
like, am I crazy?
I'm not what I'm realizing here.
I'm nuts and this is only likeday two.
And then it's just like, okay,you know, and I just ignore it.
But you know, if you focus onsomething, your body can make it
real.
Like dr Joda Spence that talksabout a few different trials
(34:44):
that they've done.
Where do they get people toplay piano?
But we'll just play a certainsong, right, and they get the
control that does nothing, andthey get people to close their
eyes and visualize themselflearning the song and playing
the piano.
And the control.
Nothing happened in their brain.
The people that played thepiano, a certain part of their
(35:06):
brain started like glowing, asthey say.
They're like, oh, you learn itright.
And the people that justvisualized it had the exact same
thing as the people thatactually did it, like it was
creating the same muscle memoryin their mind and everything and
the same place in their brain,to the point where they probably
can sit in front of a computerand they could be able to play
it.
So, like your mind, you know,doesn't know the difference of
(35:27):
what's real or not.
Just like I explained to, wherea lot of people can resonate
with this, like if something badhappened to you, right, and
then you talk about it even ithappened five years ago, ten
years ago, twenty years ago andyou start talking about it.
How you start feeling the exactsame anxiety or the same thing
and the same and start gettingemotional and stuff like that,
(35:48):
right, because every time youtell that story, your body's
reacting to it as if it'shappening again, sorry, and
happening again and again andagain, every time you tell that
story, like, your hands will getclammy.
If you talk about a caraccident, your hands get clammy
and you start shaking and You'relike, okay, I talk about it
(36:09):
right.
Or you might even break downand cry if it's something like
you know, something sad thatyou're talking about, and that's
the society we live in is where, like, we focus on things like,
like dramatic or things likethat, and we just hold on to it
and nobody really lives in thenow.
We all live in the past, like itseems like we live in the past
(36:30):
and then we plan for the future,but we never reach the future.
We just live in the past and wefocus in the past.
So what's gonna happen?
The exact same thing.
You just gonna have a loop andso, yeah, a little sign out, but
yeah.
So when you're telling thatstory and you're talking about
it, just like me, when I'mtalking about right now, this,
(36:50):
my experience at this 10-daymeditation retreat, it's
bringing back emotions on mymind and my body starts acting
like oh man, I'm still here, I'mstill meditating, like you know
, and it starts reacting as ifit's happening right.
So no difference if you startfocusing on those thoughts in
(37:10):
your mind of like, oh, maybesomething bad might have
happened.
All right, like I, my wife toldme no news is good news, so if
I don't hear from them, it'sgood.
If every somebody has to comein and say, hey, mike, you got
to come with us Because we needto talk, then that means
something bad has happened.
Right, somebody called andsomething bad, right.
(37:31):
So no news is good news.
So I just tell myself that nonews is good news, no news is
good news.
And you know, folks on breathingagain, and then as my body
starts, like you know, lessSweaty and clammy, and then like
worried about like all thiscrazy stuff happening, and just
yeah, bring it back to reality,bring it back to reality.
(37:52):
You know, just focus on thebreathing, focus on the
breathing.
And then you get then after themeditations over.
They say come and talk to us ifyou want, blah, blah, blah, and
I was like I'm good, it's justbeen crazy.
And then you know, continue theday and we go back for the
(38:16):
After separate meditation, whichis the long one, like you do
two hours, and then you watch avideo and then another hour, so
it's like almost three and ahalf or hours and yeah, just, I
don't know, became like real,where I started entertaining in
those thoughts and I Startedgetting worried like yeah, what
(38:39):
if these things are happening?
What if you know Somebody'srobbing my house and holding my
family captive?
Or what if my wife died and mykids are alone and my oldest
daughter can't reach me because,well, they have my cell phone
and she doesn't know who to call.
And you know, I'm just allthese thoughts right, like it's
(39:00):
weird how your ego just throwsthat at you and always seems to
be like Negative thoughts.
I Don't understand that, why itdoes that.
I know I got to reread thatbook and then kind of like it's
(39:22):
not a bad thing, okay, but itfeels bad because you don't
understand.
I'm a visual thinker.
So somebody tells me a story orjoke, I Don't just hear it, I
actually like it played in mymind, like it's actually playing
(39:42):
in my mind, like I'm a visualthinker, as they say so, visual
talker.
So like if you ask medirections, I'll give you
directions how to get somewhereand I'll see it in my mind and
map it out as I'm doing it.
Right, it's just I don't know.
It's like I got photographicmemory.
Some people say I'd be greatfor counting cards.
But yeah, I got a good memoryand I'm a visual thinker.
(40:09):
So like, not only like, is itjust my ego saying these things?
If I entertain it it becomesalmost like a movie or something
like playing in my head, likethe stage is set in my head
Right and I'm in my head andthen if I'm entertaining that
negativity, it starts playingthe, playing it, and I'm gonna
start oh man, it's just so hard.
I Like I don't know if I soundcrazy or anything, but like I'll
(40:37):
try it and my ego and that, andit was getting hard and I'm
even like, started worrying,like maybe I'm going crazy.
I like, no, I just push it away.
Push away, no news is good, nonews is good news because I
haven't.
You know like I, I travel a lot, I'm gone a lot, but I'm able
(40:59):
to call or text or check it outmy family, check it on my wife,
right, I'm just, you know,always, I don't know like if
it's just me or from justSubconsciously, a negative
thinker or the ego is like thatfor everybody.
But from my experience intalking to people and Reading
these books and stuff, where noHappening to a lot of people
(41:21):
like you got a program here, yougo and partner with it, like
this is where the story is going.
But I just gotta lead up to thestory.
But yeah, it was this.
The second day was hard, aftersupper, I didn't, you know, like
(41:41):
you couldn't tell, but I wasstarting to get like almost sad.
And now I'm just like Thinkinglike I'm gonna tap out.
No, it's only been two and ahalf days, I'm gonna tap out.
And then right away I startthinking like oh, was your wife
gonna think she'd bedisappointed in you?
And and you know, like you know, don't, don't, don't tap out.
Like the ego is going opposite.
(42:02):
Now I'm trying to keep me there.
It's kind of weird.
And then I was like cool, like,and then, you know, I would
think like if you stay and dothe ten days when your wife
shows up, show, run into yourarms, give you a big Hugging, a
kiss, and you could twirl aroundand all your kids would be like
daddy, you're my hero, you knowstuff like that.
So I'm like, okay, I could dothis, I could do this, right.
And then I go back to my room,look at the spider, like please
(42:30):
don't come in here, don't eat meand I kind of like close the
curtain, like a name is tospider, and I got into my bed
and then my mind starts goingcrazy again and I'm just getting
like, just getting sad, likewhat you know.
And at first I was like I'mdoing this to impress my wife,
(42:50):
because she's done this twice.
I'm doing it to impress her,right?
Well, day three rolled aroundand that morning I Just stayed
in bed and tell you can hear theding for breakfast, because if
(43:12):
you don't eat breakfast, man,you there's no snack time,
there's no nice, and and thenyou go and now you don't
actually get supper anymore.
Supper is more Just like asnack, like fruit now, and a
drink, that's it.
So you only eat reallybreakfast and lunch and then you
(43:34):
kind of get a snack.
But if you've done this before,you don't even get the snack
Because I for supper just getlike a coffee, that's it.
So I was one of the lucky onesthat I could do house Nick, have
a banana and an apple, drink mymilk water, yeah.
(43:54):
So I didn't feel like meditatingand I looked at the spider
start having a like hey, mrSpider, thanks for not coming in
and biting my face off.
Just imagine if you wake up andsee that crawl on your blankets
.
Man, it's big.
Look it up, google it right now.
You know, wolf spider, femalewolf spiders, those are bigger
it's.
I'm not even exaggerating it.
(44:15):
I, if I had my phone, I wouldhave took a picture and posted
it my social media page.
And you guys be like oh, my god, that's just big.
Yes, it was a big, creepyspider, I'm not exaggerating.
And then I hear knock on my door, just before breakfast actually
, and I open the door and theguy I was there like hey, just
checking in.
Um, you know how's it going.
(44:38):
I'm like oh, it's going allright, you know meditating.
Well, he's like how about yourspider situation?
So I showed him, I pulled thecurtain over and show him the
spider and he was like whoa,that's a big spider.
Yep, that is a big spider.
And he's like oh, because I wasat this point I like I'm like I
(44:58):
don't want to be out here, nomore, I'm mine just going nuts.
I need to.
I want to be inside witheverybody else, have my own
bathroom, be able to shower,because I'm used to show every
day Anyway.
So I was like yeah, it's goingokay, you know he's like it's.
It gets hard, it gets hard, butlike it's worth it.
You know, trust me, it's worth,it's worth it.
And then I was like cool, andthen that was it.
(45:20):
So I went for breakfast, go tothe morning, meditation and my
ego mind just start going crazyagain and thinking of all this
craziness.
And I'm trying not to let itaffect me, but it's hard,
because what you always think,like what if my ego's right?
What if there is somethingcrazy happening right now?
(45:41):
What if this, what if that?
And then I'm like me, maybe,yeah, maybe, there's a little
bit of truth and what my ego istrying to tell me.
And, and it was hard, I wasliterally felt like a zombie for
day three and I'm just gonnastay around day three and talk
(46:05):
to you a little bit about someexperiences and then we'll end
it and then we'll We'll talkabout day four and five on the
next podcast, the next episode.
But I Was just going throughthe motions, I didn't care for
breakfast.
I remember I think I skippedbreakfast on day three, just
(46:32):
zombie.
And On day zero there's this oneguy and he's that we were
talking, we're all talking, andone guy was like I've done this
twice and all like this is mysecond time.
This is awesome.
Blah, blah, blah.
Another guy shows up and healmost looks like a guy from a
famous movie, like in a moviecalled can hardly wait.
Yeah, it looks like somebodyfamous, but I don't know.
(46:54):
And no, everybody.
The guy one.
A guy turns around, looks likethis whole times.
Have you done this?
He goes.
I don't know it's how long haveyou been doing this?
As long as I can remember, hegoes.
I do this all the time, likeyou know.
And and the guy's already barefeet and just look, you know I
(47:15):
guess he belonged to like a monkand Stuff like that.
So I call him what's that word?
Npc Cuz.
Like every time I see them he'sjust Going from one place doing
like just no motion, no,nothing, like he must have done
(47:36):
this a hundred times, I don't,but he's remember, he's.
I start.
My ego started telling me likehey man, if you do this full
ten-day thing, you might end uplike him and you might lose your
mind and go crazy, and thenyou're gonna sit here and he's
gonna go, oh, and you won't evenknow what date is, what year it
is, and maybe he's trapped inhere and like maybe we should
(47:56):
ask him to blink of any talp,and I'm like whoa, oh God, this
is nuts.
I like throughout the rest ofmy journey, like you might hear
me referring to him mr MPC.
But yeah, mr MPC man, he wouldlike I always.
He was always there, meditating, is always on time, just Doing
the motions like and yeah, Ijust started picturing him like
(48:18):
maybe just an MPC.
He's broken down to be here,doesn't know anything.
But yeah, he was mr MPC.
I miss you, mr MPC.
I Wonder if you're still there.
We just live there.
But yeah, so in a nutshell, Istarted realizing, like, after
(48:44):
you know those books withMichael a singer and Dr Spence,
I had like the ego, it's a realstruggle to keep it quiet and
how starts to go crazy.
And and In the book for theSurrender experiment, no
untethered soul by Michael asinger talks about how he tried
(49:05):
to like shut it up and try tolike lock it away and tell you
know, don't talk, don't do this,don't do that, don't do that
right, and how you know spoileralert how he starts realizing
throughout the book that that'snot the way to do it, that your
ego is actually your ally, butit's just been programmed.
It seems, to listen my case tobe mr Negative.
(49:28):
Mr, you know, keep me in check,right?
If I'm like, oh, puppies andrainbows in my brain is like,
hey, check, you know, realitycheck.
Nothing's puppies and rainbows,but it really can be.
You know, you hear all the timehow the you know when you get
(49:53):
rich, and you know your wholelife You're trying to get rich.
And then when you reach therichness, and how money just
flows and blah, blah, blah,right.
And you hear all thesedifferent people talk like that,
how like easy it is to just getmore wealth when you have
wealth, and so on and so forth,right, and how it just keeps on
attracting, attracting,attracting, because now they're
(50:13):
not worried about it.
And Like you hear some of mytalks, some of my episodes that
like, if you're chasing some,well, I'm chasing you, you're
gonna run away, so stop chasingand then things will just come
your way and happen.
But you, this 10 day retreat sofar, by day three, I'm
(50:35):
realizing it's a lot harder thanI expected.
And at this point, by the endof day three, I'm thinking like
I'm going nuts.
So I go to talk to the one guy.
I'm like, hey, I gotta check in.
He's like okay, and I'm like amI going crazy?
He's like what do you mean?
(50:55):
I'm like my mind's going nuts.
He goes yeah, that's the ego,that's why you're here.
He goes.
Before I became one of theleading persons for the
meditations, I was just astudent, like you, and I've done
it a few times.
And he goes I want to leave.
It was hard.
He goes.
(51:16):
I made it to like day eight.
I'm still ready to like leave,right, and you're only day three
.
He goes you're advancing fasterand this is harder than most
people their first time Likeit's like you're already
connected to yourself or to theuniverse or whatever, right.
I said, yeah, you know, I read alot and I study a lot and I
(51:37):
practice different meditationtechniques, and this is a new
one and my wife reallyrecommended it and goes yeah, so
the whole point of thismeditation, which is derived
from Buddha meditation, is toovercome and to connect to your
(51:59):
ego where it's not controllingyou, where it's your partnership
or whatever right.
And I'm like well, why does itgo so crazy?
And he's like look, he goes.
Don't worry, you're not crazy.
If I thought you're crazy, I'llkick you out of the study.
I'm like study, no, but hedidn't say study, but kick you
out of the program.
I was like, okay, he goes.
(52:21):
No, you're doing good.
Like you're, after the 10 days,you'll be a whole new person.
Like you got this, don't worry,man.
And I'm like, okay, I got thisright.
And he was like everything thatyou're buying is telling you is
just nothing to worry about it.
Like it's just screamingbecause I want attention or
wants you to be busier, becausewe're normally really busy
(52:44):
people in this world.
Right, we always got somethingto go, I mean, on my desk right
here.
I got my MacBook, my iPad, myphone.
I got all these devices here,right, and some of them were
going off.
So I don't know if you heardthem, but people are texting me,
people are trying to call me,but it is what it is.
But, yeah, I realized that theday three I still had seven more
(53:10):
days to go was gonna be hardand I figured, if I can make it
to day five and the end of dayfive, day six will be so much
easier, right, and I'm justgiving myself these day by day
goals.
And there's one point on daythree where I had to get up and
leave, and I couldn't controlmyself and I cried Like I just
(53:35):
couldn't control.
I was crying, my mind was justreleasing and crying, and crying
, and crying.
And this was before I talked tothe guy and it was confusing
Because it was good enough forme and other people who were
laughing.
You know how, horaow, they sayto me, come down on unspeakable,
(54:03):
and I scream Because not like Iwas talking to someone and I'm
talking to them.
My feelings, you know, my otherbrother, my brother, my dad or
whatever, be like hey, you want,you want a reason to cry, I'll
give you a reason to cry.
Stop crying for nothing.
You know, bottle it man up,right, and that's what I was
told a lot of my life.
So I didn't cry much.
(54:26):
Um, as an adult I don't cry, andI just couldn't help it.
I just it just released andapparently it's a good thing to
release.
So I haven't at all balled itup.
So I just cried and cried andcried for a bit and then that
night, after I talked to the guy, I went to my room and and that
night was hard, um, anything Iheard outside was like oh,
(54:51):
something's, something's goingto come and you know, get me, or
that spider's going to come andget me, or I'm going to wake up
and there's going to be a mousegnawing on my feet, or just you
know, I really didn't want tobe there.
I'm like I got to run, I got toget out of here, I got to run,
but you know, I just you knowwillpower and I'm just going to
stay and ignore and happythoughts try to think of happy
thoughts and stuff like that.
(55:11):
Yeah, this, uh.
You know, when I tell the storyto my friends and stuff, I try
to make it sound funny and jokeyand stuff, but it's hard, it
was hard, um, and this is onlyday three.
(55:32):
So at this point I'm learningthat, you know, which is a good
thing that I'm learning fasterand the whole point of this
meditation is to release allthat negative energy, just throw
it out and just let back inpositivity and the positive
energy and just be.
(55:56):
You know, all you can be andthat's what I want to be.
It's just, mr Happy, mrPositive.
I'm always positive.
You know, when I talk to peopleand you know, look at the bright
side.
You know somebody hit my truckwhile, like you know, you got to
better.
You know my truck would getfixed and stuff like that, right
.
And then you go we'll be like,well, it's going to take him so
long, you got to fight withinsurance and your premium was
(56:19):
going to go up and all thisstuff, right.
And then it's got to be like,okay, release that and just be
happy, yeah, it's.
Uh, it was an interesting time.
So that's day three.
So the next episode I'm goingto talk a little bit more about
(56:42):
uh day four and five and thenwe'll take it from there for the
episodes and then we'll, youknow, see how it goes and talk
about different things.
I'm learning, but this summer Idid learn a lot of amazing
stuff and met a lot of amazingpeople, and I hope to bring more
people on uh the episodes tointerview and talk with people,
just so you can hear theirstories and their journey
(57:03):
throughout life.
And this is what the wholepodcast is about.
It's about you.
It's about bringing everybodyas a collective like just happy,
joy and just positivity,because it is all about you.
You are in control of your life.
We're always told we're not,but you are in control.
(57:25):
You are the power to choosewhat's going on in your life, if
you want positivity ornegativity.
If you're a negative person, alot of negative stuff are going
to happen to you, just like if Ientertained all those crazy
thoughts up to this point, I'dbe so sad and depressed and I
was, you know, getting sad.
(57:46):
But it's up to you if we'regoing to let that happen or if
we're going to see thepositivity and look for the good
things in life and stuff likethat and just live your best
life.
Live in the moment is what we'reall achieving and this is what
I'm trying to achieve and I'mtalking about my journey as I
get there and, you know, like tohear some of your journeys, but
(58:07):
I am literally just trying tolive in the moment and to live
my best life and I hope, likepeople that have listened to the
podcast, can enjoy it and, youknow, learn and if you already
know this stuff and kind ofreaffirm what you've already
(58:27):
know in your heart and justreaffirm it that you know alone.
We are all in this together and,yeah, I am a work in progress
and it does take one day to tryto achieve our goals and I love
making this podcast and I hopeyou guys enjoy it, love making
this podcast and just share withyour friends, share with your
(58:48):
family, share with the peoplethat you feel would benefit.
Because I never thought in mylife where I'd be running a
podcast talking about the law ofattraction, because I used to
think it was crazy.
But until I startedexperimenting with it and
testing it and applying it to mylife, and what works, what
(59:09):
doesn't work, it's amazing whatthe universe can open, what
doors will open for you.
I do want you to know that I dolove each and every one of you.
I might not know you personally, but if we could just have
positive energy and just releaseinto the world and just bring
us so much more happiness tothis world, it will be so much
(59:33):
better and that you areimportant.
We are all in this.
Together, we're a collectivecreator of our universe and of
our world and of our reality.
Let's make it happy, let's makeit the best one and just enjoy
life.
So stay tuned for the nextepisode.
(59:54):
Thank you very much forlistening and putting up with
this not so positive, I guess,vibes that I'm putting out today
.
But this is just gettingsomewhere.
It's going to get reallyinteresting.
So stay tuned for the nextepisodes.
I do appreciate you.
I love you, I love you.
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