Listen to my latest podcast episode:

TMHS 785: How Optimism Affects Your Health & The Truth About Your Emotions – with Dr. Sue Varma

TMHS 751: 4 Ways to Transform Your Mind & Achieve Your Goals Faster

The most effective way to reach your goals is by transforming your mindset. In order to achieve your goals in the new year, it’s critical that you understand the role your mind plays in solidifying your habits. When you’re able to change the way you think, by default you begin to change your behaviors.

On this episode of The Model Health Show, you’re going to hear four inspirational messages to remind you of your ability to affect change and create the life that you want. You’re going to hear powerful insights about how your identity influences your actions, the best methods for overcoming negativity, and how setting an intention can spark transformation. You’ll also hear groundbreaking truths about how to utilize strategies like forgiveness and reframing your challenges can change your outcomes.

This compilation features four incredible thought leaders in their respective fields, including Michael Beckwith, Ed Mylett, and more. I hope this episode reminds you of your power and inspires you to reach your goals. So click play, listen in, and enjoy this episode of The Model Health Show!

In this episode you’ll discover:

  • The truth about how far you are from reaching their goals.
  • How your life’s challenges can qualify you to make a difference.
  • Why identity is the most powerful force for humans.
  • The three key ingredients to upgrading your identity.
  • What it means to be the one.
  • How your reticular activating system works.
  • Why being teachable can help you reach your goals.
  • The transformative power of forgiveness.
  • How to use self-assessment to improve yourself.
  • What your state of mind is, and how it influences your reactions.
  • The 5 Ds to overcome negative thoughts.
  • How to block out negativity.
  • Why you should start a success journal.
  • What mind fasting is.
  • The power of practicing introspection.
  • How depression relates to expression.
  • The difference between real thinking and mentation.
  • How having a strong intention can change your life.



Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Model Health Show. If you haven’t done so already, please take a minute and leave a quick rating and review of the show on Apple Podcast by clicking on the link below. It will help us to keep delivering life-changing information for you every week!

Transcript:

SHAWN STEVENSON: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is nutritionist and bestselling author Shawn Stevenson. And as we head into this new year, I want to provide you with some powerful insights and messages to help you to remember how powerful you are to create the life that you want to create. And in this episode, you're going to be hearing from four of the most inspirational figures in the world, four of the most inspirational people in my life personally whose messages, whose teachings, and whose examples have truly transformed the way that I think and the way that I live my life. And I think that this is going to give you rocket fuel as you head into this new year. Now, up first in this special superhero team up of experts, you're going to be hearing from bestselling author and absolute world leading expert in personal development, the one and only Ed Mylett. In this segment, he's going to be sharing with you why you're so much closer to your goals than you may realize. And the most important aspect of your mindset that you need to take control of today. Let's dive into this incredible message from the amazing Ed Mylett.

 

[music]

 

ED MYLETT: I think there's an issue in the world today that's just like its own epidemic, which is that people think they're further away from their life they want than they are. They don't lack vision. The Bible says where there's no vision, the people perish. But I think if you actually dove into that, it's not that there's no vision. Would you rather be happy or sad, rich or poor, help people or not help people? You've got a vision for your life. The problem is, you think it's so far away. Because you think that's far away, you act in accordance with that belief system and you perpetually keep it there. But the truth is that's a lie. I've proven in my life, so have you, your truth is your one relationship, one meeting, one podcast, one book, one new thought, one new emotion away from a completely different life. It's much closer than you think it is, but because you don't understand that or you don't understand how to find those relationships, those thoughts, those meanings that you keep it that far away. Two weeks ago, this is just for me and you, but everybody can hear it. Something dawned on me. 3:15, I wake up crying, which I cry once in a while. I'm like my dad.

 

ED MYLETT: I wake Christiana up, my wife. I go, "babe, wake up." She says, "what?" I said, "wake up." I said, all... Because this decision changed my life for my dad. I said, "babe, someone helped daddy." She said, "what?" I said, "someone helped my dad. It just occurred to me 51 years later! Someone helped my dad get sober." In the darkest, most quiet moments of his life, the worst time of my dad's life on his knees, some stranger helped my father in some coffee shop or dark place and helped him change his life. And I don't know who this person is. And our children owe them a debt of gratitude. Our nieces and nephews do. My mom does. Millions of people I reach do”. And I said, “That's not the crazy part. The crazy part is what qualified this person to help my dad? Their mess, the things they were the most, they were a drug addict and alcoholic also. They're shameful things. They're things they want to hide the most that they think disqualifies them the most from helping somebody is the very thing that qualified them to help my father in the darkest moment of his life. I've got to meet him. And this is a thing for everyone listening to this. Most people think I'm not qualified. Shawn, he's qualified to help somebody. Mylett, maybe he's qualified. Me, you have no idea about my sins, my mess, my bankruptcy, my relationships, this thing I'm ashamed of, the lack of accomplishment I've had so far.

 

ED MYLETT: I'm disqualified from having a great life from helping people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your humanity, your experiences combined with your gifts, are what does qualify you to help other people and make a difference. And so it just made me really emotional to think this beautiful soul, imagine that person, man, when they were drugging and drinking and stealing and lying. They were preparing to help my dad that entire time. So we're always in preparation to change other people's lives whether we know it or not. I think it's the most powerful force for human beings is their identity. And your identity is the thoughts, beliefs, concepts that you hold to be the most true about you. And I said this to you another time. It's like a thermostat that's sitting right there on that wall right there. It sets the entire temperature for your life. And so if your happiness thermostat is set at 75 degrees or your wealth thermostat or your health thermostat is set is 75 degrees. Let's just use financial. 75 degrees of financial worth you think you have. You can acquire all the skills in the world, and you can begin to produce the results. You find the right business. You're producing. You're at 85, 90, 95, 100. You're cranking. Somehow within a year or two, you find a way to turn the air conditioners on and cool it right back down to what you believe you deserve. And you think it's coincidental. Ah, the market changed.

 

ED MYLETT: The stock market, the real estate, supply chain. I had to loan some money to a friend. My car broke down. Nope, that ain't what happened. What happened was you turned the air conditioners on because your results exceeded your identity. And when that happens, you will always find a way to bring it back. Even in the health space you know this. You'll see somebody with all the tools you've given them. This is how you can drop that weight. This is how you can become more healthy. They implement all the tools, but internally, they still believe there's 75 degrees of health or wellness.

 

ED MYLETT: They find a way within a year or two to put the weight back on in spite of the tools they have. And so there's a lot of tools in the book, but how do you change your identity? And I say there's a holy trilogy of identity change. And I believe there are these three things. I'll say them quickly. One is faith. It's ironic, but if you have faith, it's amazing to me, no matter what your faith, I'm a Christian, but no matter what your faith is, it's amazing to me how you'll have faith on Sunday at church or your synagogue or your mosque, maybe even go to a Bible study on Wednesdays and you pray. So you got the Lord, you have a meal. Let's hold hands and pray. You're a praying person. But man, when you walk into a business meeting, you're alone. You walk into a boardroom, you're alone. You go on a sales call, you're all of a sudden alone. The nerves come up. You go back to this old identity you have.

 

ED MYLETT: But if you're really the son of the highest king of gods, if his DNA is running through your blood, your identity ought to be off the charts. So link them. Two, intention. Running on a beach, I'm 30 years old, Maui. I went on my first trip to Maui. Running the other way is this bald dude with a sweaty, hairy back. He's running towards me. And it's like the sun's not up yet, so it's dark. And I'm so old, brother. I'm wearing a Sony Walkman with a cassette playing, and so is he. And we run right by each other, and it's Dr. Wayne Dyer, who's one of the gurus of all time of thought and spirituality and life. And I said, "Dr. Dyer, you changed my life." And he turns and he's got a deep voice like me and like you.

 

ED MYLETT: He goes, "I doubt that." But he goes, "you did, but how did I help you?" And he walks towards me. We spend about an hour and a half sitting on the beach next to each other watching the sun come up. And I have this beautiful conversation with this man who will become my friend the rest of my life. And at the end of it, he goes, "Ed, you're going to change the world." And I said, "thank you." I'm sure he said this to other people. He goes, "and you're brilliant. And the way you think through things, your mind is very unique." And he goes, "but that's not what you should attach your identity to, Ed. You're always going to be chasing it." I said, "what is it?" He goes, "your intentions are so beautiful. You have such beautiful intentions. You want to serve people. You want to make a difference. Please do me a favor for the rest of your life. Attach your identity to your intentions and it'll never go backwards."

 

ED MYLETT: And so the second one is your intentions. Begin to give yourself more credit and raise that thermostat for what you intend to do, the difference you intend to make, and you'll become very resourceful. Then the third thing is association, who you're around. Not only who you're around, but their proximity to you. If you're around someone who's got 150 degrees of wealth in their life and you're a 75-degree, they will heat you up to their proximity. Eventually over time, or at least closer to them. So faith, intention, and association will shift your identity.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Ed, I got the chills.

 

ED MYLETT: Long answer, sorry.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: No, this is so powerful, so remarkable, and so simple.

 

ED MYLETT: Thank you.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And the simplicity, that's what the beauty is, but that story about Wayne Dyer really hit me. I started to like get choked up a little bit.

 

ED MYLETT: I got to tell you, man, when I came in here today, I parked my car out there. I said a quick prayer because I don't have every answer in the world. I'm a man. I'm 51. The older I get, the more I realize what I don't know. I said a quick prayer. I connected to my faith. I literally reminded myself of how much I want to help people today, the difference I want to make. And I've already got the association thing nailed. Then I came in here feeling pretty good about things. So I've carried that all my life, the intention thing.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes, that speaks to the alignment of who you are. Wayne Dyer has had such an impact on my life. I don't talk about it enough. Actually, I don't know if you have put this together, but that second one, intention, he had a book called The Power of Intention.

 

ED MYLETT: He was writing it while we were on that beach.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Come on! 

 

ED MYLETT: Yes. I love that you know this, by the way. Do you know that almost, actually, no one has ever said that back to me before. Yeah, that was the first Wayne Dyer book I read was The Power of Intention. He was writing it while we were sitting there. That was when he was writing it. I love you, the fact that you know that.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Listen, there's a statement that he said. That I think about almost every day. Not every day, but almost every day. Because especially today, when there's so much divisiveness on the surface. But I know, the thing is, even when I say a statement like that, we're inherently connected.

 

ED MYLETT: That's right.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's just a perception of divisiveness. But he said, he was quoting St. Francis of Assisi, and he said, “because everybody's trying to get people to understand them or to take on my thing, to listen to me”. But he said, “seek first to understand and then to be understood”. Right? 

 

ED MYLETT: Yeah.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so I think about that almost every single day. And that's like a thread behind what I do.

 

ED MYLETT: It's why you're so good at this. You're an incredible listener. I'd love to know where that comes from, too, because even in private life, this is you. This is what you just described as you. I think it's why we have a connection 'cause I only have like three or four skills. And one of mine is that like and I know what it comes from. I just share it with you 'cause on the other side of our adversities in our lives are often where we develop our greatest gifts. Napoleon Hill says in Think and Grow Rich, I love this. On the other side of temporary pain, you're introduced to your other self and that other self produces another life. For me, the reason I'm good with being present with people is my dad was an alcoholic. So I'm a 5-year-old little boy. I've got three sisters and a mom. When I'm 5, brother, when that man would come through the front door, I'd have to quickly be present with him and read him. Is it sober, dad? We're going to go have dinner and maybe shoot some hoops in the backyard. Or is it drunk dad is his tie the wrong way is his hair a little bit messed up is he slurring his words is he walking a little bit slower and if it's that dad, Mimi get the girls upstairs mama go take a shower and I would be present with my dad I had to read him by the time I was 5.

 

ED MYLETT: Well, that's one of my biggest skills in business all my life now. And then the second thing would kick in, I'd grab his hand and I'd have to talk to him to change his state, "daddy I got an A on the spelling test today. I hit a home run in baseball. How was your day?" And I would talk him out of that state. And so it is one of truly your biggest gifts. And it's one of mine as well, born out of something tragic and difficult. And if we look back on our lives with hindsight, this is where you've built a lot of your resiliency, a lot of the skills you have, a lot of the stuff you use to be successful came through temporary pain. One thing I want to tell everybody here is that when you see a happy or successful family, either or, at some point back in their lineage, they weren't. And then the one shows up and that one changes freaking everything for that family. And Neo's the one in that movie. I'm the one in my family. I changed the way my family thinks. I changed the way the world treats us. I changed the way we live. We're never going back again. I've changed it. The world does not have their thumb on my family ever again. We call the shots now, man. And every family, there's the one that eventually shows up and they change the dynamic.

 

ED MYLETT: They change the emotions. In your family, you're you're the one. And everyone listen to this. Even the fact you go, no, I'm not the one that's probably makes you the one. But it's not 'cause I wanted to. I fought for it. I fought to be the one in my family. We changed who we are in the world in one generation. My dad made the decision to get sober and then I took it to the next level and we changed it. So I love that part of the matrix, the one, 'cause I believe in every family the one eventually appears. The second part, though, is probably more important, which is that there's a part of your brain called the reticular activating system. There's what they call really bullet time in the movie where things slow down and you can begin to see things that were always there but you couldn't see before. The RAS is the filter. It's in the prefrontal cortex of your brain. It's the filter of your entire world. It scans in things that are only important to you. So you don't go crazy. Otherwise, you think about the blood rushing through your right ear, the people in the corner moving around. You'd be crazy. So it keeps you sane. So when something becomes unbelievably important to you, it filters in and slows things down for you.

 

ED MYLETT: So I just saw your guys. I just bought a Tesla 'cause I like what Musk is doing. Brother, everywhere I go now, I see Tesla's red one, but babe, there's a white one. Hey, there's a plaid there. Three lanes over the other side of the frame. I'm like, babe, black Tesla just drove by. She's like, "how in the world are you seeing these cars? I don't see them." I said, "babe, 'cause they're important now." Here's the hook. Those Teslas were always there before. I never saw them 'cause they weren't a part of my matrix. They weren't a part of the RAS. So the hook in life is really, really simple. It's like when you walk in a room auditorily, it's really loud room. There's 300 people there. Someone in a normal voice says, Shawn, you hear that voice because auditorily your voice is important to you. So you hear, see and feel things that are always in your environment, but you were oblivious to before. The key in life is programming your matrix. The key is that the Tesla's of your life become those meetings, those relationships, those thoughts, those decisions. And when you get it going, 'cause you've had this too, you're like, "my gosh, there's another one. There's another one. There's another one." You're like I'm vibing in a different way right now. And that's the difference, not in anything in your environment, anything in your life, completely different in the filter to which the world reviews itself to you. And that's your matrix.

 

[music]

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Such an incredible message. And we are just getting warmed up. One of the ways that Ed and I connect is our love of fitness, our love of training our bodies so we can show up stronger and more resilient in our day to day lives. And for me, it's all about practicality and understanding things that are going to happen in our lives that are going to be obstacles in our goals to getting to the level of fitness that we want to get to. So we can have aspirations of going to the gym every day or going on a hike or going for a walk every day. But stuff happens. Life happens. Things come up. And so over the years, I've been collecting different pieces of fitness equipment, different tools, low-cost tools that I always have on hand when plans change and I can't get to where I want to get to. So I always have something at home and also for my family to utilize as well. And so this is why I'm such a huge fan of unconventional training, not just the typical push-pull methods of training, but being able to focus on all of these remarkable stabilizer muscles and having a level of tone and definition that you typically don't see with people in my age bracket, for example, but also the functionality and being able to express myself in all these remarkable, creative, fun ways. Because we want to be able to continue playing and having fun as we age as well.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And a big part of that, for me, has been utilizing unconventional training with the fitness tools from Onnit. They are the company that brought steel clubs and steel maces and their incredible primal kettlebells to the market. Things that have become popularized with other companies. Onnit is the originator. They've had partnerships with Marvel, with Star Wars, like you just can't partner up with companies like that, but it's because they are the real deal. They are the industry leader when it comes to utilizing these tools. And also they have top tier science backed. Literally, they run some of their supplements through double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials, and they're based on earth-grown nutrients. So their Shroom Tech pre-workout has been run through a placebo-controlled clinical trial, and it is proven to increase your stamina, to increase your bench press and squat reps. It is truly remarkable. And the same thing holds true with their nootropic alpha brain. And so not only do they have steel clubs, steel maces, and their primal kettlebells, and so many other pieces of incredible fitness equipment that again, I highly recommend you pop over there and grab yourself at least one of these fitness tools to utilize this year. Add something to your repertoire, but also they have the very best human performance supplements that you're going to find.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And you get everything that I just mentioned for 10% off store wide when you go to on onnit.com/model, that's O-N-N-I-T.com/model, upgrade your dedication to fitness, get yourself one of these pieces of equipment to have on hand at your home. And also they're fun. And they're amazing to be able to utilize. You could do sometimes dozens or even over 100 different exercises with some of these pieces of equipment. It's truly remarkable. And also again, incredible nutrition as well. So check them out onnit.com/model. And now we're going to get into this next conversation with somebody who, literally, he left a permanent positive mark on me when he was sitting here in my studio. It changed me forever. One of the most incredible conversations. I've been doing the Model Health Show for over a decade now. And this is one of my top five favorite moments was talking with Greg Harden. Greg has been the mentor for Tom Brady, for Michael Phelps, for Heisman Trophy winners like Desmond Howard. The list goes on and on and on. He's been this secret weapon.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: He's one of those people who's just how did I not know about you? And he's been behind the scenes helping student athletes in particular for decades. And Tom Brady was actually questioning his ability to make it at the collegiate level until he crossed paths with Greg Harden, who helped him to reframe his thinking, to reframe his mindset. And we all know the history of Tom Brady, but that intersection, that interaction with Tom Brady while he was at the University of Michigan with Greg Harden changed everything for him. And in this segment from Greg Harden, you're going to learn about the critical importance of taking total responsibility of your life and your results and the transformative power of forgiveness. Check out this segment from the amazing Greg Harden.

 

[music]

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Obviously, you have this acclaim in working with some of the most successful athletes to ever do what they do. Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, the list goes on and on. And I think immediately what people would feel is I'm not like those guys. And you make the argument. And matter of fact, you lay out really the science of this, the art and science of you do have this in you. You just don't know it and you need the guidance. And that's what you've really unlocked for us. So can you start off by talking about on the surface and maybe even a little bit deeper, what makes somebody like Tom Brady different? 

 

GREG HARDEN: Well, if we go straight to it, humble and hungry.

 

[laughter]

 

GREG HARDEN: Bruh. Hungrier than the average person, but humble enough to be coachable.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Wow.

 

GREG HARDEN: Coachability is the critical piece to the puzzle. That's what you see. That's what you've seen. Let's think about how you coached yourself out of a degenerative spinal. Bro, I've been dying to meet you. Your backstory is one of the most amazing backstory. I'm getting emotional just thinking about what you did and how you pulled it off and how you transformed yourself. So we're talking about self-transformation. We're talking about reinventing yourself. We're talking about reengineering, redesigning how you think and how you act. That's what you did. You pulled it off. I don't know if everybody understands your backstory, but, bro, you started off in a situation where giving up would have made sense.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

 

GREG HARDEN: And then you talk about your grandmother. And your grandmother was just loving you. She wasn't giving you no motivational speeches. She's just loving you to death and be happy to see you. And you were miserable, negative, and depressed. And she's just happy. And you're like how come I can't be like that? Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, you're right.

 

GREG HARDEN: And then you hit a switch. You hit a switch in your mind and said, I am not going out like that. If I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to be miserable, negative, and depressed. I'm going to enjoy whatever time I have. And then you start eating differently, thinking differently, walking differently, talking differently. Then you turn yourself into Johnny Badass. No. No. I'm sorry. I get excited real early.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Hey, listen here's the thing that I love most about this book, which everybody needs to get a copy like yesterday. You literally laid out how I went from there to here. You laid it out. There wasn't a portion missed. And one of those was taking responsibility. Because in that process, when I saw the circumstances I was dealing with, I was pointing the finger. Why them? Why won't they help me? Why me? And it wasn't until I took full responsibility for my life, I became empowered and it changed the game for me.

 

GREG HARDEN: That is the game changer. Imagine trying to explain to a 19-year-old Tom Brady, who's really convinced that the coaches don't like him, that they're not giving him the opportunities they're giving the other players, and him sharing that with me. And I'm listening carefully because that's what I do. I listened, I listened, and he vented, and he's emotional. And I share with Tom, I hear you, I feel your pain. Who gives a rat's ass about what the coaches think? What do you think? You want the coaches to believe in you, and you don't believe in yourself, son. So until you believe in you, don't expect me to believe. Now, the good news is I'm crazy enough to believe anyway. And I believe that you're capable and qualified of transforming your mindset, transforming the way that you see this and take full responsibility for... If you're only getting three reps, those got to be the greatest reps that anybody's ever seen. And then they'll give you five. And then over time, look out, and that's how you transform.

 

GREG HARDEN: So yes, taking total responsibility. For example, if we use that same example, we look at Tom, and Tom wants to be a professional football player, and he's not even in the lineup. I said, you need to train as though you're going to be a professional football player. In fact, why don't we get football out of the equation? I said, why don't you train like an Olympic athlete? That's a different mindset than I want to play football and I want to be in the NFL. Why don't you be one of the best athletes on the team? Why don't you change the way that you're approaching this? And it seems to have worked out a little bit.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. Results speak for themselves.

 

GREG HARDEN: And how do you use the word forgiveness? See, one of the most difficult challenges in life is to forgive. And you can imagine in certain sessions you're talking to people about forgiveness, and they look at you and say, you're nuts. Why would I forgive somebody that did A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and go all the way down to Z to me? And you have to share with them. You don't forgive them for their sake. You forgive them for your sake. Because of the madness. When we're talking about staying sane in the insane world, we've got to take it all the way to that level. It doesn't mean I forgot. It doesn't mean that it wasn't wrong. It doesn't mean any of that. But I am not going to keep dragging you around and letting you live in my head and hold me hostage to things that were yesterday. And so to let go, I have to be willing to forgive not what they did, but forgive that moment and how it affected me. I've got to let go and forgive you because you're a human being. Because our fantasy is that our parents should have been Peter and Priscilla perfect. That's a great fantasy, but that's all it is. They turn out to be human beings. And if you really want to know who you are, Study your parents, and then study your parents' parents, and where they're from, what continent, what ethnic group, what years, what was going on at the time.

 

GREG HARDEN: Your parents are a direct result of their parents, and it goes on and on. You need to study your family to know who you are. And then what you said brilliantly, opens up the door for us to understand that we can extract from who they are the great qualities and characteristics that they had. I don't care what they were into or how unhealthy they were. There are some things that they did that make total sense that worked. And you want to take all of those characteristics because in hating your parents, if you want... The secret to mental health is letting go of yesterday's baggage, forgiving parents for not being perfect. Because they just couldn't. They couldn't pull that off. But you can decide what really worked well when they did it well. And you can also decide what you're not going to emulate or copy from the family history. Because we understand, well diabetes is in our family, so you know what to do. Heart disease is in our family. But we don't think about alcoholism and addiction. We don't think about negative attitudes or depression that's not necessarily triggered by a chemical imbalance, but by habit and routine and whining and complaining about everything and blaming everyone else.

 

GREG HARDEN: So those habits, you can look at and see which habits were good and which habits were not. I'm going to keep these habits. And that's what you should do, not just with your parents, but with people around you. Take the best from me. Don't take my bad habits. I curse like a sailor, right? I'm good at it, but it's not my best habit. But I have some good habits that you can extract, that you can take away. There are people in your family and people around you, people who you've met. There are people who you're studying who don't even know you're studying. You should have mentors that don't even know they're mentors. But you're studying the way they move, the way they groove, the way they articulate their moods, etcetera. And say, that works. What we teach in the book is like identifying what works and what doesn't work in our lives. That's the simplest formula you can give people. If getting drunk every day is working, by all means, continue. If it's not. [laughter] If it's deteriorating relationships and destroying your financial health, if it's doing A, B, C, D, and E, you have data. Look at the data. The data says it's not working. Every time I get drunk, things don't go right.

 

GREG HARDEN: Look at the data. Turn into a scientist. When I'm not drinking, boom, boom, boom. So we begin to become so sophisticated that becoming the world's greatest expert requires you to look at the opportunity to do critical self-assessment, how you evaluate what's working and what's not working in your life. Self-defeating attitudes and behaviors simply talking about how I think and how I act. There are ways that I think that are not healthy. There are ways that I act that are not healthy. Switching it over to the positive side, what are the self-supporting attitudes and behaviors I can incorporate into my life to increase the chances that everything is going to go just the way I dreamed, the way I visualized it, how I organized my thinking and my behavior. So just be deliberate and intentional.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right, I hope that you're enjoying this compilation, and this is dedicated to giving you some fuel to head into a new year and write the story that you want to write moving forward. Now, whenever a special guest comes into the Model Health Show studio, everyone is offered some of the most health-affirming and nourishing teas for them to sip on. Now, whether that's matcha green tea or one of my favorite teas, which is the fermented tea called pu'er. It's all about creating an environment for health and wellness within the body. In particular, when it comes to pu'er, it's about creating an environment of having a healthy microbiome. A study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that pu'er is able to potentially reverse gut dysbiosis by dramatically reducing the ratios of potentially harmful bacteria and increasing ratios of beneficial bacteria. One of the major ways that pu'er is able to do this is its high concentration of polyphenols that are remarkably beneficial for our gut flora. Now, the only pu'er that I drink and that I offer to my special guests is the fermented pu'er that utilizes a cold extraction technology making this pu'er at cold to low temperatures for up to eight hours.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And this patented process gently extracts the natural antioxidants and polyphenols specifically and provides them in a way for maximum efficacy. And it's wild harvested. So this is beyond organic, making it even more rich in polyphenols. Plus it's triple toxin screened for one of the highest levels of purity. These are the teas from Pique Life. Go to piquelife.com/model. That's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com/model. And you're going to get up to 15% off their incredible fermented pu'er plus free shipping and other bonuses like free tea samples with some of their pu'er tea bundles. And their tea samples actually come with a 12 pack of different tea varieties for you to try out some of their different and they have over 20 award winning teas at Pique life. Again, go to piquelife.com/model for up to 15% off free shipping plus a free sample pack of their incredible teas. Go there right now. P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com/model and check them out. And now let's get to our next special guest in this powerful compilation. 

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And our next guest is one of the most renowned personal development speakers in the world. He's also a multi, multi, multi-time bestselling author. I think he has like 20 books, something crazy. He's constantly writing books, constantly teaching and serving. And I'm talking about Jon Gordon. This was one of my other favorite shows of the past year. And in this segment, he's gonna be sharing with you the truth about how our state of mind controls our reality, plus strategies to change your mindset instantly, when you need them. Check out this segment from the one and only Jon Gordon.

 

[music]

 

JON GORDON: It really is never the circumstance. It's never the event. It's always our state of mind. When your state of mind is low, the circumstance happens and it bothers you. The same circumstance can happen, but you have a high state of mind, it doesn't. You rise above, you move forward. So high state of mind, low state of mind. What characterizes a low state of mind? A lot of clutter, a lot of thought, worry, fear, anxiety, doubt, insecurity. What characterizes a high state of mind? A lot of clarity, focus, positive energy. Like being in the zone is like the ultimate high state of mind when you're just flowing. You got confidence, you got a lot of courage. That's a high state of mind. So high state of mind, low state of mind. And it's always our state of mind that will determine how we feel, how we respond to the circumstance that we're facing. And why this is so important is because we're always dealing with all these different events in our life. We're always deal with challenges, adversity, and setbacks. And when you have that low state of mind, you're not going to respond well. When you have a high state of mind, you rise above, you move forward, you have more resilience. You have more grit. And that's what is needed in this world.

 

JON GORDON: You're never going to be in a permanent high state of mind. I wish that was the case, but it's not. It's the ebb and flow. It's like a roller coaster. We're going to have highs. We're going to have lows. If you've never been on a roller coaster before and this is your first time on a roller coaster and you're going down and you think the roller coaster is going to crash, what would you want to do? You want to jump off. When we're in a low state of mind or heading towards a low state of mind, we want to jump off. We want to escape. And so many times when people are in a low state of mind, they want to escape the feelings that they have, the thoughts that they're thinking. So what do they do? They play video games. They drink. They do drugs. They eat a lot of bad foods. People do a lot of things, a lot of addictions to escape how they feel. And it's because they're in a low state of mind.

 

JON GORDON: The key is to realize that that's part of the ebb and flow of life. Nothing is wrong with you. Nothing is broken. You're just in a low state of mind. Don't jump off. Stay on the roller coaster. Because what happens is you also start to think something is wrong. Something is broken. So what does that do? It revs up thought. Now you have all these thoughts and you're thinking a lot, like the baseball batter that goes 0 for 4, 0 for 3, and 0 for 4. And so that baseball batter's now thinking, something's wrong with my swing. My swing is broken. I gotta fix this. Then they go into a slump. And then it's hard to go and get back from the slump. So what does that baseball player need to do? Just play. See ball, hit ball. And it's the same way. Stay on the roller coaster. Nothing's wrong. Nothing's broken. Just stay on it. What happens is when you do this, so often you'll ride the wave right back up to a higher state of mind. Once you realize this. Just the other day I'm walking. I'm on my phone, I'm talking to someone at an important meeting, and this bus comes by all loud and interrupts my conversation. I'm like come on, bus, and I yell at the bus. I yelled at the bus, and I laughed at myself.

 

JON GORDON: I yelled at the bus. It's not the circumstance, Jon. You allowed that circumstance to bother you because you were looking at the circumstance. And so I laugh going, "No, it's not the bus. Focus on you." And in that laughter, I was right back up to a higher state of mind right away.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, that's powerful. What if the bus, though, was like I'm driving here. But that's not what's going to happen.

 

JON GORDON: Well, it could happen. Imagine, again, we're in LA right now. So two cars driving on the road. They see each other as the traffic. So you're driving, I'm driving. You're the cause of my traffic. I'm the cause of your traffic. But there was a sign the other day that said, you are the traffic. Guess what? It's all one. We're all in the traffic. And so you're part of the traffic. Don't look at the traffic. But we're looking at each other. And so we're now fighting over this one spot or one area in the road that we're trying to get into. And we're in a low state of mind. If you're in a low state, I'm in a low state we're probably giving each other a finger or yelling at each other. And that begins the process of road rage and all these incidents. But think about what happens if you're in a high state of mind. I'm in a high state of mind. You're trying to move in. I go, come on in. I got you. Good. We give each other a thumbs up. We wave. We move on.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Different fingers.

 

JON GORDON: Right. Different fingers. You're number one. You're a positive number one. Or hello, a thumb. Right? A thumb up. So it all depends on the state of mind of how we're responding to the situation.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. High state of mind. And even when you said that you were laughing off that moment, humor is more accessible. Right. And it's kind of like a bridge back to like you literally. It's kind of like a reset for your nervous system in a sense, because if I ever catch myself having a reaction like that, which is definitely far more rare than it used to be. But then I literally within a few minutes, especially if I'm by myself. Right. And I have an irritation thought. I just laugh. What are you doing? Come on but having access to those tools. And here's the thing. When you shared this about the ebb and flow, you're sharing what people don't want to hear because we want that prize that other people are selling us that you could live this blissful life in eternity and this whole thing. They're selling a false bill of goods. You're talking about reality. But here's the cool thing. What you do share is that by working on these tools, you can make the ebbs and flows less steep. Talk about that.

 

JON GORDON: That's key. So when you're recognizing this, you won't have as many highs and lows from a vertical standpoint. They'll be more horizontal. So you will not have extreme highs, extreme lows. And so when you're dealing with challenges, adversities, and setbacks, you'll find yourself...

 

JON GORDON: You might be affected, but not as much as you were in the past. For me, someone who is naturally negative, actually, and struggled with negativity growing up and dealt with a lot of pessimism, a lot of fear, a lot of doubt, a lot of worry, even depression. On my journey, I had these highs and lows. And as I've been doing this and modeling this and living this, it's now become a part of me. I rarely go to the high and the low. I sort of stay very balanced along the way. And that's really important to go through life that way in a more powerful way, because you don't want to be the victim of your circumstance. You don't want to allow these situations determine your mood, your happiness. It's good to laugh at life instead of making or allowing life to make you cry. And as you said, I love what you said earlier. When you laugh, what's happening when you're laughing, you're definitely raising your frequency and your vibration to a higher frequency. There's no doubt about it. Versus anger and fear and worry and scowling, bringing you down to a lower frequency. No doubt that laughter, we know, is great for the heart, great for our health, great for our longevity.

 

JON GORDON: Smiling, laughter, real smiles, real laughters, all of that elevates our state of mind. No doubt about it. But I think it's important to understand, like the five Ds that I'm sure you read about in the book, and those Ds are how we go towards the negative. The Ds will sabotage us. And it starts with the doubt. So there's a seed of doubt that grows into a forest of uncertainty and fear. So it all starts with doubt. And then there's distortion, which are the negative thoughts and lies that will tell you things about yourself and your future that just aren't true. So you might have the pain, but then the thoughts come in and say, oh, that pain, it's never going to go away. It's going to be with you for the rest of your life, and you're never going to get better. And you know what? Your father and your grandfather had that kind of pain, and you now will too, for the rest of your life. And so my biological father, who left when I was a year old, he always had a bad back. And I remember I started to have a bad back in my 40s, early 40s. And I told myself, you will not have a bad back. You will not be like that, like he was for the rest of your life. You will not have a bad, I just said that you will not have a bad back. You know what? No back issues. I made the decision because I was starting to have a bad back. Like, nope, I will not have a bad back.

 

JON GORDON: I truly believe there is the power of belief in talking to yourself. The receptors as you just said. I love that. I know that there's 86 billion neurons and every neuron has a transmitter and receiver on the neurons, which basically supports my belief in theory that the brain is an antenna. But what we're saying here is that your body's an antenna, the whole body, and it's always listening to what you're saying... Well, guess what? The lies are coming in. Are you going to believe the lies? Because if you believe the lies, the body now believes the lies. But everything has meaning. Like, the brain is always giving meaning and creating meaning based on the world we're experiencing and sensing and feeling. And so, for instance, Novak Djokovic, when he's playing tennis, if the crowd is booing, he says, I imagine that they're cheering. So what is he doing? He's literally taking the sounds and the vibrations and just giving new meaning to it, from which the brain might give one meaning. But now he's changing it, and we have the power to change it. We don't realize the power of the brain and what we can actually do, because what is the brain but just processing electrical signals and electrical impulses? And the auditory nerve is basically taking the sound vibrations and then translate it into then meaning that makes sense or that gives meaning to what you're hearing. And then the same thing on the visual context.

 

JON GORDON: It's light receptors, eyes. Then the optic nerve, right, is now converting those signals into visuals and images. And then we create a visual map of what we're seeing as we're looking at each other. We're creating visual maps of each other right now, but the brain is literally creating this visual map that we're seeing, but all basically by firing neural-synapses in the brain that's allowing us to experience this. It's pretty wild when you really think about the context. So I truly believe you can change the meaning. You can change the distortion in the lie and then speak truth to the lie.

 

JON GORDON: The third D, discouragement that comes in, we can encourage. The fourth D is distraction. And distractions are the enemy of greatness. And a distraction is anything that keeps you from being your best. A distraction is anything that keeps you from what your purpose is, what your mission is. And you'll always have distractions along the way that will sabotage you. And then the fifth D is divide. And so these Ds, as I talked about earlier, they separate. They divide you. They weaken you. They make you feel powerless. So if negative thoughts weaken us, then how can we become stronger? How do we become more powerful? How do we uplift ourselves? And I love to share an acronym. This is very practical for people. This is in the book as well. But we can share it with them so they get some immediate benefit. Right now, it's tune. T-U-N-E. Tune. The brain's an antenna. Tune to the positive on a daily basis. So how do you do that? Trust in truth. So when the doubt comes in trust. You know what I do? Like, I'm a spiritual person. I do believe in God. So whenever I start to have doubt, I go, you know what, God? I don't have all the answers. I trust in you, and I trust in your plan for my life. In that moment, the doubt goes away, and I find more trust and peace in that moment, truth. I speak truth to the lies on a daily basis.

 

JON GORDON: Dr. James Gills, the only person on the planet to complete six double iron-man triathlons. Double iron-man. Which means you do an iron-man. A day later, do another one. And the last time he did it was 59 years old. He was asked how he did it. He said this. I've learned to talk to myself instead of listen to myself. He said, if I listen, I owe the fear, the negativity, the doubt, all the reasons why I can't finish this race. But if I talk to myself, I can feed myself with the words and the encouragement that I need to keep on moving forward. So what was he doing talking to himself instead of listen? So that's the truth part of it. Speak truth to the lies on a daily basis. And that goes to the heart of helping people understand who they truly are and the power they possess and the greatness that is within them. I always ask people, do you want to be great? Everyone says, yes. No one ever says, I want to be average. Okay, you want to be great. Every kid wants to be great. But why? 'Cause deep down, we know there's greatness within us. That's the truth. And you're here to do great things. You just have these voices that say you're not great, and that's the battle. I want to be great. Voices say I'm not. Okay, listen to the truth instead and start speaking that truth. So that's the T part. Then there's you. Unite with love.

 

JON GORDON: So the minute I'm fearful, I'm stressed, I'm worried. If fear separates and fear divides what unites? Love. Love unites and love casts out fear. And love is more powerful than fear. So this is my number one strategy for athletes, but it could work for all of us. Like, even a salesperson, you're selling. The minute you focus on loving your client, loving the product, loving what you get to sell, you're going to be so much more powerful in that moment from your state. My son has been now selling since he graduated just a month ago. Got right into a job selling, so he's selling. First week went well this week. Dad, dad didn't have a great second week. I just didn't feel good. I drank on the weekend and man, I just didn't have that confidence in that feeling in that state, like, exactly. You weren't feeling right. You didn't feel good. Your state wasn't right because you weren't loving it. Now you're thinking a lot. You got a little fear. You don't want to say the wrong thing, but when you're loving it, you're just in the moment. What made Michael Jordan so great? Everyone said he hated to lose. He feared losing. Yes, he hated to lose. But that will never make you great. Hate will never make you great. Michael Jordan loved to compete against you. He loved to battle, he loved to beat you. He actually loved to destroy you. Yeah. And when he was playing you, it was all about love.

 

JON GORDON: He wasn't worried about failing. He wasn't worrying about messing up. He was loving the moment. But think about kids today. Think about teenagers. Think about adults. Social media, comparing, when you're comparing, you're despairing. You're looking outside. You look at other people's lives instead of your own. You're being distracted. You're focusing on your place and not happy with it. And you look at someone else's highlight reel and see how they're performing. And so this is going on and on and on. And so you're living with fear instead of loving your life and your mission and your purpose and loving what you get to do. Now people say, yeah, John, but I got this job. I can't, I don't love my job. There's not going to be a lot of things that you love about your job at times. But you can love the people in your job. You can love serving others. Pavarotti, the famous opera singer, always said, everybody wants the audience to love them. But I love the audience and then when you focus on loving the audience. What happens? You're one with the audience now. You perform at a higher level. There's a resonance because now you love them, and there's now a connection that happens. So why is love so powerful? Because love creates connection. Connection creates clarity, clarity creates confidence, and confidence creates courage.

 

JON GORDON: And that's why tune is so essential. Like, you start to have this connection, you start to have more clarity. You see things more clearly, your purpose, your mission, life. And then from that clarity, there's so much more confidence. Like when you know why you're here and what you're here to do, there's so much more confidence in how you're showing up. And because of that, you now have the courage to go after things. N is neutralized in negativity. So that you unite with love. N is neutralized in negativity. We do have to neutralize it, because, let's face it, it's coming our way. Gandhi said, I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. Great advice from Gandhi. I'm not going to allow this negativity to bring me down. I'm going to lift others up. My wife will literally now go, stop. When a negative thought comes in, she'll say stop, and she'll replace it with a positive thought. Practically, you write down on a left side of a piece of paper, write down all your negative thoughts, like your common wants. We all have ours. I know you have yours. You don't have to tell me what it is. But I know I have mine. We all have it. Everyone has it. Every, the goats in the world, the greatest athletes of all time, have these negative thoughts that come in. They just know how to deal with them. So they come in.

 

JON GORDON: You write them. On the right side, you write down the words of encouragement, the words you will say to those negative thoughts, the truth you will say to speak to those lies and the more you speak truth on a daily basis. What happens is that starts to become who you are. That starts to become the life you live, the more you speak truth. And does it take work? Of course it does. But so does eating healthy. That takes more work. But guess what? Is it more worthwhile? Yes. Anything that is hard right? Is most likely more worthwhile. And if it's worthwhile, it's going to be hard. And the reason why that is is because when it's worthwhile, there's going to be resistance. It's easy to be negative. There's no resistance to being negative. There's a lot of resistance to being positive, because that's the journey, trying to be positive. And then you get this resistance and force that you're always facing, that's trying to divide, separate, and weaken you. And I've got to face the resistance. But as I do, I become stronger. I grow. I become more powerful in this world the more I face it. So the resistance is actually part of the journey, part of the struggle. And the more you recognize that and see that, the more we help other people. See this? Oh, it's just an ebb and flow.

 

JON GORDON: Oh, you're just facing resistance. Oh, the battle. Yeah, the battle makes you stronger, but, yeah, you're facing it. And guess what? If you want to be great, you're going to be tested along the way. Everyone will be tested. So I overcome the test when I neutralize the negativity, and E I elevate my thinking. And every day, I'm elevating my thinking. Gratitude. That thank you walk is key. Success of the day. I'm on a mission now to get everyone to start a success Journal. People have been talking about gratitude journals for years, but I want you to, for years, I want you to have a success journal. At the end of the day, focus on your one great thing that happened that day. The one success. Not all things that went wrong. What's the one thing that went right? And the minute you focus on that, guess what? You go to bed a success that night. What we look for we start to find more in our life. So what we look for, we start to see. And we actually will start to attract more of it. So the minute I'm focusing on success, I'll start to experience more successes. So I get up the next day, all right, I went to bed a success. I now wake up a success. Now I'm ready to take on the day. And guess what? Every teenager in America should be doing this.

 

JON GORDON: And would we say something's wrong with them? Would they say they're broken if they were doing this? Would their mindsets be different? Would their life be different? Yes. This is how we could save the country. I truly believe.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right, I hope that you're enjoying this compilation. We're at our final guest expert with our inspiration for a powerful new year and giving us insights, tools and powerful reminders that we have agency to affect change in our lives and to write the story that we truly want. And our next expert, he is about that life. He's one of my greatest mentors. I started learning from him long before we even met. And he's been such a bright, inspiring force in my life and a great friend. And we're always communicating and hanging out together. And I'm just so blessed to have him in my life. And I'm talking about the one and only Dr. Michael Renard Beckwith. He's a multi time bestselling author and the founder of Agape Spiritual center. And he's also one of the stars in the hit movie The Secret. He's also been featured on Oprah's super soul Sunday and the list goes on and on and on. But one thing I know about Michael Beckwith because I've been at his house, I see all the nutrition he is about that life when it comes to nourishing, as he calls it, the body temple. He knows that his ability to express, his ability to serve, his ability to reach his highest potential and to stay at a high vibration has a lot to do with how he's taking care of his body.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And one of the things that him and I are both big fans of is utilizing superfood concentrates. And one of my favorite superfood concentrates is a blend of the most powerful super-fruits. In particular, red, blue, that hue. That is an indication of certain antioxidants that have remarkable benefits. For example, Acai has the highest orac value meaning its concentration of antioxidants of any of the popular fruits that you see in the produce aisle at any conventional grocery stores. Now, Acai has an orac value of over 100,000. That's about 10 times more antioxidants than common fruits. And how does that show up? Does it actually translate over for our bodies? Well, a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that Acai does in fact raise participants' antioxidant levels, demonstrating how effectively it is absorbed by our microbes, by the human gut. Our bodies really do vibe well with Acai. That's why it's popping out here on the streets right now. But we want to make sure, again, that it's organic. And these superfood concentrates. What if you blend Acai with, for example, blueberry, which researchers at the University of Michigan published data affirming that blueberries can actually affect genes that are controlling our ability to burn fat. Plus, combine that with the power of something that's well documented to increase our endurance.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that beet juice is able to increase stamina of study participants 16% during exercise. These are just some of the ingredients, the superfood ingredients in the organifi red juice formula. It is free of conventional sugars. It's all organic. This is great for the kids. Kids really like organifi red juice as well. It's a huge upgrade from the conventional Kool-Aid and Flavor Aid that many of us grew up with. This is a way to get all of these incredible nutrients infused into our bodies, into our cells by enjoying something like organifi red juice. Head over to Organifi.com/model and they're going to give you 20% off their incredible red juice blend. Go to organifi.com/model. That's Organifi.com/model for 20% off store wide, including their incredible all organic red juice blend. And now for our final segment, in this inspiration compilation, to give us some rocket fuel as we head into the new year. Our final segment is with the one and only Dr. Michael Renard Beckwith. And in this segment, he's going to be sharing how to take back your mind this year and create a vision for your new, healthier, more successful year ahead. Check out this final segment with Dr. Michael Beckwith.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Mind fasting is another name for meditation in which you're not putting external stimuli into the mind. You're actually stopping and going within, exploring your own inner terrain so that you're able to touch the places within you that are not being derived by anything outside of yourself. So you're actually fasting from stimuli. And interestingly enough, though we both appreciate a healthy diet, we appreciate good food, we appreciate good supplements, we appreciate good nutrition. We can take all of the good nutrition, but if our internal dialogue or a lack of self-worth and appreciation or unhealed trauma is not dealt with, then all of the good nutrition can't overcome a lot of that. So mind fasting is extremely important for the transmutation of superstitious beliefs and thoughts and perceptions and things of that particular nature that will spin out and become our experience. So introspection that leads to Transpection is extremely important. I just call it mind fasting.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Obviously there's a lot to consume out here on these streets today. There's so much information, so much content, so much to choose from. But if we are constantly consuming, I would imagine that we would become backed up in a... Spiritually.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Spiritually constipated, absolutely. I think I don't want to say the majority of people, but a great many people don't feel alive unless there's some kind of external stimulation. Some people, you know, we've heard the old statement, I think, therefore I am. Some people's statement is, I have drama, therefore I am. Or I have extreme excitement, therefore I am. I have some kind of extreme stimulation, therefore I am. And so they're addicted to that.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Many people are addicted even to negativity. They're addicted to the tonic chemicals that flow through the body. And so, we have to prime ourselves to come to an awareness that there's something about us that's already all right. It's already magnificent. It's already beautiful. It doesn't need any external. It just needs our appreciation of it, our embracing of it. And then instead of consuming we didn't come to the earth to consume. We came to the earth to radiate, to express, to create, to glow, to give, to share, to shine.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: So it's not consumption. It's an emergence of something that's already there that wants to express itself. It's totally opposite from consuming. Depression and trauma have become kind of normalized and popular in the atmosphere of the mentality of the world. And so, when you look at our culture, the Western world culture, there is a heavy movement around commercialism, around materialism, around gaining, but there's not a real vision about the activation of the potential within us. We don't hear about character anymore. We don't hear about becoming the best version of yourself, unless you're listening to you, unless you're listening to me, or listening to people who are awake.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: People are reaching outside of themselves to get something to make themselves happy. Again, the consumption. So that leads to depression rather than an expression. So depression means that something's not being expressed. So just in terms of long-term healing, the studies that I've seen is that if a person walks around, if a person hydrates, if a person begins to stimulate their mind with a vision, then something begins to change with them not only chemically, but mentally. Their focus becomes, I'm not trying to get famous. I'm not trying to get likes. I'm not trying to be known on Facebook. I'm not trying to get something out there that's going to fill me up.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: I have something and I want to express that. That's creativity. It's beyond just mere creation. It's actually I'm tapping into something within me that I want to express. That leads to a greater sense of happiness, a greater sense of peace, a greater sense of joy, a greater sense of being available to inspiration, you see. And so, I think when was the last time you heard a political leader or a leader stand up and say you know we have to garner our country to have a vision of what can be possible.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Generally our leaders will stand up and they're always against something. They're gonna fight a virus, they're gonna fight another country, they're gonna add more nuclear weapons. They're gonna do something that's gonna augment fear within the population rather than focus an individual towards a vision of possibility, a vision of peace, a vision of community, a vision of working together. So kids grow up and all they're hearing is what they are to be afraid of. That's all they hear.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: They go to school. We've got to get them under the tables, it's gonna be a mass shooting. Here's how you get out if a mass shooter comes in. Here's the next disease you might get. If that's all they're hearing, then that leads to a kind of a depression of energy. You take a child. And I've met your kids, so I know you do this consciously or unconsciously. And you speak to their potential. You speak to their possibility. You speak to the greatness within them on a regular basis. They start to rise up differently than kids growing up with everything you can be afraid of.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Now, of course, you have to teach your kids not to run in front of a car. If a car is coming, there are certain basic things. Don't touch the oven if it's hot. Yeah. But if that's their only message, that there's something bad out there and it's going to get you, then there's a curtailing of creativity and hearing the inspirational broadcast that's happening everywhere throughout the universe. So depression is a lack of expression. That's how I kind of frame it. There's a difference between real thinking and what is called mentation.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Mentation is the daily regurgitation of the thoughts you had yesterday, day before, day before, day before. And some people mistake that for thinking. Real thinking is inspiration. I call it human interrupts, where you interrupt the mentation. If you read a good book on inspiration, you listen to this podcast, you listen to something that's gonna interrupt your mentation, then a new idea can come in. An inspiring thought can come in. Now that's thinking. But most people don't think so. They're just regurgitating. And then what happens is the ego, the vanity of the ego, takes ownership. And those thoughts that become opinions, points of view, positionalities, those are my thoughts. Those are my opinions. And then the vanity of the ego wants to protect that. I'm right. That opinion is wrong. This opinion's right.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: I tell people, don't cherish your opinions. It's an old Zen statement. Above all, cherish no opinions. 'Cause they're gonna change. The opinions you had when you were 16, you don't have those opinions today, but you probably fought for them when you were 16. So the idea is to hold all of your opinions lightly because as you get new information, new insights, new revelations, you will grow.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: So, we move from mentation through mind fasting, interrupting that flow and then become open to inspiration. And then we change. That's what we want to do. We don't want to be the same person where we are at this moment or who we were five years ago. We want to be always on the edge of discovery of the good and the beautiful and the lovely and the intelligence that's within us. So we're actually living to grow. But when you're unconscious, you live to protect who you think you are. That's the ego's job, to protect this limited identity.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: But when you're able to mind fast, able to meditate, able to sincerely study to grow, then psychologically, we would say having a healthy ego. Spiritually, we would say you're gonna transcend the ego's clutches. But ultimately, you're living to discover more and more about yourself. And again, many people aren't living there. They're living to protect themselves and to protect their identity rather than what within me is trying to emerge that I don't even know about yet. The unknown. Everything begins with intention.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: Now, the average individual that's just reacting is suffering from an intention deficit. Not just an attention deficit, but an intention. They don't have an intention. They're just kind of buffeted around by the world. They just react to what's happening, but they don't set an intention. And so if you wake up in the morning, you have an intention. I intend to be a better version of myself. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. It's not how yet. See, the ego says, how do you do it? Before you even know what the it is. But if you set an intention, then what comes into your life is are the how-tos.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: So if I establish an intention, which I do every morning, I establish an intention every day. Then the universe brings for me into my orbit ways to fulfill that intention. I'll meet somebody, I'll have a conversation, a book will fall off the shelf. Something will happen that will begin to grab my attention to walk in a different direction. So I suggest to people, start with some basic intentions. I intend this week to be more available to the opportunities for prosperity. I don't know where it's gonna come from. It's not my job. But I intend to be more available to prosperity.

 

MICHAEL BECKWITH: I intend to be more available to the health of my body temple. I intend to be more available to really good friendships. That's my intention. So what happens then by law, the universal presence law begins to wrap itself around that vibrational intention and new worlds begin to open up. Now, here's the deal. The worlds are already there. But if the mind is full, if the mind doesn't see the possibility, then the eyes can't see the opportunities. It's impossible. You have to be able to hang in the possibility, then you start to see opportunities. But they're already here, but you can't see it if the mind says it's impossible, you see. So, start with intention first.

 

[music]

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode, if this inspired you, please share this out. Share the inspiration with someone that you care about. You can send this directly from the podcast's app that you are listening on, and of course you can take a screenshot of the episode and you can tag me. I'm @Shawnmodel on Instagram. I always love to see the social shares and the love. Just share it on your IG stories or you can share it on Twitter or Facebook wherever the case might be.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And listen, this year I'm dedicated to taking things to another level. And we've got some amazing, I'm talking about amazing masterclasses that we have lined up for you and the most amazing guests that we've ever had. And I'm so excited about this new year coming up. So make sure to stay connected, stay tuned. This is an investment in your health and your happiness and being able to understand that you have the pen in your hand to write the story that you want to write. And I want to do everything that I can to support you in unlocking your true greatness because you are that. You are incredible.

 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I appreciate you so much for making me a part of your life. So much more in store. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care. Have an amazing day. And I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode. And if you got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much. And take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.

 

 

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