EFR 836: How to Be Successful in Life by Rewriting Your Subconscious Belief System, Break Through Your Mental Blocks and Achieve Greatness with Brandon Epstein

00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production. What is maybe something that the coach has to continuously coach himself on over a period of time?

00:09 - Brandon (Guest) We all have the governor that turns on once we go to places we've never been before. Now you're getting a lot more criticism as well as praise, and so when that happens, the governor can turn on where it goes. You know what. You've gone far enough and now it feels like there's less safety on the other side of more success, because really, what it's about is getting into a deeper state of awareness of what it's like to be you right now and really becoming aware of that so you can navigate to where you want to be. You don't have to be a coach to do this. You can do this for yourself, no matter who you are.

00:41 - Chase (Host) Are we overstimulated or do we just lack the training necessary to sort through what is noise and what is actually valuable for our personal growth.

00:52 - Brandon (Guest) We're highly disconnected, so it's hard to hear that voice, that feeling in your gut, the feeling in your heart, the feeling in your mind, where you're like I know because you do. The beliefs we hold determine the emotional frequency we live in consistently. Life is happening right now and the next action you take can completely transform the life that you could live forever. You sit into the tension of the present moment, of the nothingness, nothing. Just be here right now. This is Brandon Epstein, men's Performance Coach, and this is Ever Forward Radio.

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03:21 Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to Ever Forward Radio. I am your host, chase Schooning. If you're new, first and foremost, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for tuning in with me here today. There are quite literally millions of other podcasts out there, but here you are, for whatever reason, and I thank you for it. If you're coming back, welcome back. Thank you so much, no matter how you found the show, if this is your first or 100th episode, if you find it in your hearts to support the show in just the smallest little way.

03:47 Here are two ways. Going to your podcast platform of choice you're listening right now. That's probably Spotify or Apple. Tapping that follow button, the subscribe button, does wonders for the show. That's number one and two. If you find value in the content I put out and helps you live a life ever forward. If you love what my guest today, brandon Epstein, has to say and you think it could help one other person in your life, sharing it with that person would go the distance. Sharing the link, posting it up on social media, tagging us. I would love to interact with you. We'd love to just get your feedback. So subscribing to the show, sharing it out with just one person, really does wonders. Over here at Ever Forward Radio, helps us grow, reach more amazing guests like Brandon and my biggest goal helps me help as many people as possible bring heightened attention and awareness to key areas of their wellness to help them keep moving forward, ever forward, every day.

04:37 Brandon is here today, fresh off of the release of his book Program to Fail how to Break Through your Mental Blocks and Achieve Greatness In this interview. This one is powerful. I would encourage you to check out the video as well. I sat down with him in studio here in LA. Not only does he share his wisdom and just his very calm approach to some of what I think are life's biggest obstacles. In his work and in our conversation today, brandon is going to show you how to leverage your subconscious to achieve goals, overcome obstacles and live a truly empowered life. You're going to gain tools to break negative thought patterns and create healthy habits, allowing you to feel and perform at your best.

05:19 If you'd like to learn more about Brandon, check the show notes, everything we talk about, all the resources and his content, his page, his work, his book all down there for you under episode resources. With that, let's welcome Brandon Epstein to Everford Radio, for somebody that is just tuning in for the first time has no idea what Everford Radio is about. They don't know me, they don't know you. Why do you think they should stick around?

05:41 - Brandon (Guest) Man. They're going to get some keys to the universe today. They're going to understand some universal principles that don't get taught in school but we all know are true when we actually hear someone say them out loud, and so I think they just stick around long enough to get some of those keys. It's going to be worth their weight in gold.

05:58 - Chase (Host) I like it. I like it. So Everford Radio is all about bringing awareness which I know you're a big fan of into key areas of our life to help us move forward, or, I'll even say, to be reminders of things that we maybe should come back to, like stability, infrastructure, kind of those just key principles and values that helped us move forward to get to where we are now. And in preparation for this interview, I was kind of just researching a lot of questions that people are having around what's keeping them stuck, what's keeping them from not moving forward? Or just kind of confused about what were the actual tools that I used or had access to to get me here. How did I even get this far in life? And for me it all comes down to habits. And so what do you think are three habits that the most successful people in the world do every day that, if everyone else did too, would possibly change their life?

06:51 - Brandon (Guest) forever. It's a difficult question, right, because we're all unique and we all have different ways of functioning, and so everyone is very broad. But just off the top of my head, I would say it's more about what you're not doing than what you are doing, right. So if you can remove the vices from your life and you can live in the truth, which is being able to sit into the tension of the present moment every day without having to do something to distract yourself whether that's, you know and a lot of people aren't going to like this, but you know, whatever it's like, you love your zins, smoking, weed, whatever it is drinking, whatever those things are, that you use social media, whatever it is, porn, any of your vices that you use to break the tension of the present moment If you can remove those and you can sit into the tension long enough to actually uncover what makes it uncomfortable to be there for you, that's one of the most powerful things you can do, and so I wouldn't say it's necessarily a habit, it's more of a way of being yeah.

07:52 So I'd start with that Um, yeah, that's for three sleep, right? I think this is. You know, I'm not a sleep expert, but I think it's pretty common sense at this point that the more you sleep, the more quality sleep you have, that heart form you're going to be. I think everyone knows that. And then I'd say, if I was going to come to a third habit that I'd say to prioritize.

08:16 - Chase (Host) Yeah, something universal you think everybody's on their own path and in their own place but something that you think we all could just yeah. Adopt more regularly as a habit.

08:26 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I would say, being conscious about everything you consume and that's just a way of being again, but it's also a habit because, like what you eat as a habit, what you drink is a habit, the media you consume is a habit, and so just being conscious, aware of what you're consuming, understanding that you're becoming that right, so you know, I understand, like getting really high quality food is expensive, but just being aware that, like if an animal had a really terrible life and died in a terrible way and you consume that, that energy is a part of you, right? And if the food you're getting was sprayed with pesticides and you know has all this poison on it, essentially and you're consuming that, like that's becoming a part of you as well. So I think, just being conscious of what you're consuming and not just getting caught up in the momentum of what's pulling you forward, of just like, hey, I'm busy, I'm going to stop at Taco Bell or hey, I'm just want to get high on the news right now. So I'm going to open up the app and just see all the things I could get outraged about. So I'm going to open up the app and just see all the things I could get outraged about. So I think the habit of being conscious of all your consumption.

09:28 - Chase (Host) What maybe would be your top two habits? Maybe your three. Let's go with the three theme here. Do you have three?

09:41 - Brandon (Guest) habits that you really attribute to really keeping and even developing success in your life. Yeah, I'd say that number one habit is I coach myself every week. So I'm a performance coach. I work with professional athletes, business owners, all kinds of high achievers, and it's funny that I did this for years and I didn't do it for myself. So the last couple of years I started actually scheduling coaching sessions with myself every week.

10:01 - Chase (Host) You schedule coaching sessions with yourself. Yeah, yeah, wow, I've never heard that before?

10:06 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, because I'm like I'm the best coach, so why wouldn't I coach myself? I'm like I give this gold to everyone else, why wouldn't I give it to myself? So that's something that came through at one point. It's like wait a minute, you know, I think that comes down to like self-love. So many times we'll do things for other people that we would never even do to ourselves. You know, whether it's our children, or our spouses or parents, it's like wait a minute or our coworkers. It's like why don't I give myself this? So?

10:31 - Chase (Host) what does that look like? Sorry to interrupt you. I'm so curious about this. Do you talk to yourself in your phone or a mirror? Do you go back and forth in a table? Do you write to yourself? What does coaching yourself actually look like?

10:44 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah. So I try to create an intentional container around it. I think this is great because you don't have to be a coach to do this. You can do this for yourself, no matter who you are, because really, what it's about is getting into a deeper state of awareness of what it's like to be you right now and really becoming aware of that so you can navigate to where you want to be. So I set the stage. I like to light a candle when I can, just to say okay, we're starting now.

11:07 I like to put on binaural beats. So if you look that up on YouTube or Spotify, you'll find them. What they do is they just help slow down your brainwaves, get into a better meditative state. So it drops me into a state what was heart rate, all those good things. Just get into that rest and relaxation. Then I open up an ongoing Google Doc I have. I just do it like I do for any of my sessions with my clients. I go this is a date, this is the number of sessions I'm doing, and then I love that. Same protocol. Yeah, so that's amazing. Same protocol, same thing. I start all my sessions with my clients. For the most part is then I close my eyes and I ask myself what's it like to be me right now? And I try to put that on a scale Like, if one is, I feel so bad I don't want to live anymore. And 10 is this feeling of wholeness where like.

11:54 I've arrived in this place I don't want to get away from. Where am I at? From 1 to 10?. So I put that down, I write down the emotions that are creating that experience and then I lean into the resistance. If I'm 10 out of 10, then I just move on. I'm like I'm good Because for me, so much of performance is just about removing the resistance, like if you're doing great, like you're going to be fulfilling your potential.

12:15 But if there is a gap let's say I'm a 7 out of 10, I'm like, okay, let me feel into the resistance. What is the emotion there that lies between a 7 and a 10? And I'll feel into it. I'll find it in my body and this is all done with my eyes closed, and I'll go hmm, I'm feeling anxious, okay. And then I'll ask myself okay, let me just lean into this, feel into it. And then ask myself well, what am I believing to be true right now? That would create an anxious feeling. Right now, that would create an anxious feeling.

12:48 And then, by following that thread, I'll come to some kind of perceptions being created in my life, based off of, oftentimes, the situation I'm living in. Right, maybe it's. I have some work obligations, something I haven't done before, you know, putting myself on my edge, and or maybe there's something going on in a relationship in my life and I'm like a little fearful about what the outcome is going to be. So I'll just actually write down the belief in my google doc, like I believe, if I mess up this thing, then I'm gonna get fired or someone's never gonna work with me again. It's usually completely irrational, but usually our beliefs are right. So we're wired for that survival reflex, and so that's why it's so important to sit into this awareness, get into the feeling, write it down. It doesn't need to be rational, and this isn't head work either. Right, I'm not thinking of this, I'm feeling into it.

13:33 So what I'll feel and we talked about we might do this later in the session for you is I'll feel it, and anxiety usually lives in the upper stomach, and everyone knows what I'm talking about. It's like whenever you have that tightness in the upper stomach around, like, oh, what's going to happen here? There's a lot of uncertainty in a situation. It starts to tighten, tighten, tighten. So I'll feel into that tightness and I'll ask the question from there what am I believing to be true?

13:54 That's making me feel anxious now, and then I'll write it down, and then there's a process I go through where I'll accept my way through. I'll be like, fine, I throw out my hands if you will. I'm like it's true. It is true Because it wouldn't have came up if it didn't live in my body. It's true right now for me. I'm making it true. I'm going to perpetuate that reality and I experience that through the emotion I'm living in. And then I surrender it into the energy right. I just take the old belief and I flip it to the opposite and I integrate it into my body through breathing techniques to come back and really move that energy back up into my heart, into the chest right in the middle there. Once I get there, I just check in again.

14:36 All right, what's it feel like to be me now? Now I'm a nine and a ten. Okay, if I could get to a ten, how would I get there? If I could get to a 10, how would I get there? And so it's usually just moving through those broken pieces of code that are showing up from past experiences, that have left that seed of fear inside of me, that need to be moved through, and then sometimes it's just like I want to journal on an inspiration that might be there. Okay, because I'll go through the resistance and then the aha moments start to flow through, because that's what I found in everyone If you remove all the resistance, then, like the floodgates open up, inspiration comes through. Then I'll journal about the inspiration coming through and then, oftentimes, I'll have an inspired action that comes from that. All right. Well, now that I know this to be true and I'm feeling this way, I'm going to go do this thing. Yeah, what do I do about it?

15:18 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

15:30 - Brandon (Guest) And so for me could take 15 minutes, but I really just create the space for doing the work I need to do myself, and however long it takes, it takes.

15:36 - Chase (Host) Do you find that these sessions, these coaching sessions with yourself, you're able to, in that session, arrive at that point, that emotion process that worked through it in that session, or do you ever need to come back to something, what is maybe something that the coach has to continuously coach himself on over a period of time?

15:57 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think that we all have the governor that turns on once we go to places we've never been before. Sure, sure, right. So I see this as pro athletes. All the time it's like, oh all right, you made it into the NFL, but now you might become pro bowler, and now everyone's talking about you. Now they're saying your name on ESPN, now you're getting a lot more criticism as well as praise, and so when that happens, the governor can turn on where it goes. You know what. You've gone far enough and now it feels like there's less safety on the other side of more success. So I'll experience that as well.

16:30 If I haven't been someplace before, that governor will turn on and it'll put me into that fight or flight state around don't go there, don't go there. This is uncomfortable. You haven't done this. I think that's inherent just in the survival reflex of the human being, and everyone knows what I'm talking about. It's like you start to feel that, even like when things get intense. If you're dating someone right, it's like, oh man, this could be the one. And you start to go haywire a little bit, or at work, or it can happen in so many different areas of your life and so that's what comes back is, if I keep striving for more, I'm going to keep running up against that governor that says we're already going 95 miles per hour, you don't need to go 100. And I'm like, yes, I do.

17:11 - Chase (Host) And then I have to move to the resistance to go through that.

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18:15 So if you're looking to replace one or all the things in your skincare lineup or looking to start one, I cannot recommend Caldera Lab enough and with your first purchase using code ever forward at checkout, you're going to save 20%. To your point, moving through resistance. We can go about it in a few different ways. Right, we can, you know, maybe lean into what works for you. But I think, universally, if we all just carved out that time to kind of just sit to be present, even if we didn't know what a next step or the next steps were, just carving out that time to reduce stimulation, which brings me to my next question as a barrier for people to work through this stuff, are we overstimulated or do we just lack the training necessary to sort through what is noise and what is actually valuable for our personal growth?

19:06 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think you know that we're highly disconnected as a species right now.

19:11 Right, we're highly disconnected, so it's hard to hear that voice and actually listen to it, because I always tell everyone, like I don't give advice in my coaching, like you know best, you do. But how do we clear out enough of that noise for you to be able to listen to that intuition, the instinct, whatever you want to call it, that feeling in your gut, the feeling in your heart, the feeling in your mind, where you're like I know because you do, but some, where there's so much information we're consuming, life is moving along at such a rapid pace that, even though we do know what's best, it's hard to create the spaciousness to have that. And so, yeah, this practice that I just talked about can do that. Obviously, there's a lot of them out there. Like you could do it through a workout. You know, if you get it, go for a long run or yoga class you might come to the spaciousness to be able to hear that very faint inner voice in there, maybe without the AirPods.

20:04 - Chase (Host) Yeah, there you go. Listen to your voice, not your playlist.

20:07 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, exactly, but I think right now we're so disconnected and we're so busy that the biggest edge for people at this point is to sit into the tension of the present moment of the nothingness. Oh yeah, no phone, nothing. Just be here right now, because everything's going to come flooding in If you sit there long enough. I hate that, the truth, man.

20:28 - Chase (Host) Yeah, but that's. I've been there and I know I talked to a lot of people. When I give recommendations. You know you know, chase, I talk to a lot of people when I give recommendations. You know you know, chase, how, how can I help with this problem? Or what would you do in this situation? Or I just common questions. I think a lot of people have not necessarily even towards me. Um, excuse me, but across the board, most of the time, I will recommend stillness, I will recommend get quiet, be with yourself, and it's almost like people would rather have a really hard workout. Give me the workout, give me the protocol, give me the lifestyle, give me all that stuff, because I that's more kind of quantifiable and understandable. But most people struggle with sitting with themselves. Why do you think that is beyond the overstimulation of the noise, the playlist, like, what do you think is the biggest thing keeping them from able to sit with themselves?

21:22 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, if we want to go real deep with it now, I think it's um being able to actually see and experience themselves as God which I think is the scariest thing that anyone can do Went straight to God.

21:34 - Chase (Host) All right, right there, right there Okay.

21:37 - Brandon (Guest) You know and you call whatever you want universe source, whatever you believe in, that's a higher power yourself, because I think in that stillness can flood in how great and magnificent you can truly be, because that is the source moving through you. And I think that's actually the scariest thing. I was just at this company retreat I was leading for the sports agency, this company retreat. I was leading for this sports agency and one of the agents, you know, he's just always kind of like avoiding going deep and I just called him out on him I'm like you're terrified of how great you can be and that's why he doesn't want to sit in that stillness. And he was like that got too real for me and he's like but you're right, it's true, and so that's why I think we stay so busy, because it's and this may not be conscious right.

22:20 So if someone's listening to this, they're like what are you talking about? Like I'm not afraid of how great I can be. This is really happening more at the unconscious level where, like, the unconscious knows your unlimited capacity for greatness and when you really channel those unique talents, and maybe part of that is a fear of actually coming to awareness that you're not utilizing your unique talents right now, and so that's a way of like shutting God. The universe, however you want to label it out, is by being on a path that you've figured out to be a rational, safe place to go. But you know, if you come to that place of stillness, that there's a lot being suppressed there. You have these unique talents that you could be channeling. That will allow your full power to flow through you, and a lot of people just don't want to face that. They want to go. You know what? Life is too busy, I have too many responsibilities. Don't even go there with me.

23:10 - Chase (Host) I really like that answer, man. All right, which way to God? I think in the first 15 minutes I love a new record. First 15 minutes, I love a new record. Do we have to first change our beliefs in order to attract?

23:26 - Brandon (Guest) success in our life? It's a great question. So my experience is that the beliefs we hold determine the emotional frequency we live in consistently, because in any given moment, whatever we believe to be true is filtering the external world right.

23:41 You know this like whatever we see, smell, taste, touch and hear, it's coming in through our senses, right, and it's passing through the belief and it creates a perception that we have.

23:52 So I think oftentimes we don't even see some of the potential pathways there for us because we're deleting, distorting and generalizing the information because it doesn't match the beliefs that we're holding. So, generally speaking, I think that we need our beliefs to be aligned with the outcomes that we want for our lives. But it doesn't necessarily only come from doing some of the work that I do around starting at engineering the beliefs and going there. I think that's the most powerful and efficient way to do it. But I think a lot of people have done it through pure force and will, which is a lot harder to get it done and it's definitely not the guaranteed way. But when you hear people talk about the grit stories, the motivation, I just push, push, push, push, push. That's also, I think, a way to develop the belief through that experience. That then opens up some of the gateway for the possibilities and the outcomes that they want to experience.

24:45 - Chase (Host) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think I mean that works for me. It has worked for most of my life and I think that's probably a really, um, really honest question. You have to ask yourself if you can't just keep that up, because just pushing on and grit, it can be like false motivation is motivation, right, and so I think you have to really understand how you take and if you can keep that up. Otherwise you're just kind of trying to latch on to somebody else's process, right, exactly.

25:16 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, and I think you can tell by the outcomes in your life, right, If you really are stepping into that awareness and you're looking at the things that you want to be creating in your life.

25:25 You know, with any of my clients who start with the baseline, where's your mental wellbeing, How's it feel to be you, more or less physical health, career, finances, and then a few buckets for your relationships romantic relationship, work relationships and your tribe. So if we did a baseline and we looked at these different areas and you saw that one was really weak one's a three out of 10, then maybe we identify that you know what force and will maybe it's working in some of these other areas, but it's not working in this area. Maybe, you know, maybe that's getting you where you want to be in your career financially, but then why do you have these incessant arguments with your romantic partner, Like maybe that's an area that we actually have to just go right to the belief level and deal with those things that are triggering you, because force and will is not working there. So it can work in some areas and maybe it doesn't work in others.

26:12 - Chase (Host) Okay, can we go a little bit deeper there? I love that example. I think it's really important for the audience member to go kind of compartmentalize your life right now, your relationship, your health, your fitness, your vitality, your, your job, your family, kind of whatever your top four or five buckets are and then rate them I'm hearing on this kind of one to 10 scale and then ask yourself let's say there is a three out of 10. Maybe it's your relationship to your example, but yet all the other examples are eight, nines, whatever, significantly higher. And you go. I have a process for that, my grit gets me there, my work ethic gets me there. I think I'm carrying that same approach into this bucket, but I'm at a three. So is it a matter of reevaluating or our overall process, or do we just need to go back to the drawing board in one of these buckets because it's not working?

27:04 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think we all have our different processes to create results in our lives and so if something's working fine, leave it there. You know. No, no reason to fix what it's not broken. But if you identify there is an area where you're like I don't like this, it doesn't feel good. This is creating issues for me that I think we reevaluate in that area, and then maybe that process in itself gives you aha moments of like you know what? I thought it was a nine out of 10 in this other area, but I can actually imagine now, through this new perception of how I'm creating my reality, that I could actually bring this to a 10 in these different ways. So I think it's, and usually, as you can imagine, people want to focus on the areas that they're already strong.

27:44 Right, right, yeah, right. Like someone comes to me you know a successful CEO. He's like hey, I just really need to make more money. I'm like you got $10 million in the bank. You're good bro.

27:51 Yeah, and then when we do the baseline, it's like oh, you have your divorce and your relationship with your new girlfriend, who's half your age, is a 3 out of 10. How about going there? Because how much does that act? Because he's trying to make more money to feel better, but the thing that's actually pulling his well-being down is this toxic relationship he's in. So if we just go here and we reprogram whatever subconscious issues maybe led to the divorce and led to these issues you now have in this relationship, then it's just a new way of functioning. Maybe you bring that to other areas, maybe you don't, but at least we've resolved the issue that's at hand.

28:29 - Chase (Host) That makes me think about. Maybe our ability to get to those higher levels in our other buckets is not so much our ability, but just the level to which we swing so hard away from the other areas. So maybe you're not as um, not as capable, or don't have the grit that you thought you did, but you can just pour a lot more attention into one bucket compared to the other. So it's like, really, do you have a process versus? Are you just that good at ignoring another area of your life?

29:00 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think you're right. I think oftentimes it's like you look at someone's breakdown of their time and the actions that you take and their habits they have, and they're like well, you're so diligent in this area of your life, how much time or energy are you devoting to this other area? And then it becomes very obvious as well. It's like, Hmm, yeah, and maybe it is. Maybe they could not do the reprogramming, but they could actually like, instead of only reading business books, like read a book about intimate relationships, right. Or maybe instead of going to a business seminar or workshop, they go with their romantic partner to some relationship seminar or something like that, or even just a weekend retreat alone. You know, just have quality time together.

29:40 - Chase (Host) Yeah, what about, um this quote here? I found this, I like it from Rich Roll and he says you familiar with Rich Roll. He says discomfort has a message for you. Yeah, why do you think we don't hear that message, or do we and we just choose to ignore it?

29:55 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, it reminds me of Rumi. Has a quote that says the wound is where the light gets in.

30:00 - Chase (Host) Yeah, yeah, I haven't heard that in a while. That's yeah, it's a good one. Um, kind of goes back to the discomfort sitting in discomfort we were talking about earlier. But, um, they're sitting with it and then there's understanding that there's a message for it. Yeah, I think a lot of people even struggle more to get to the message component. Right, there's a message for it.

30:18 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think a lot of people even struggle more to get to the message component. Right, yeah, I think that you know, broadly speaking, we live in a victim society at this point. Right, it's easier to say, well, blame and complain, which actually doesn't help you at all. Right, it actually just puts you into a disempowered state and like, maybe for a moment you get a momentary emotional relief of like it's not my fault, I've outsourced this. But I think just that, yeah, I think a lot of people are running the programming of like this was done to me, and I think that's also getting fed by a lot of the media. We consume a lot of the just ways of being in our society at this point where, like, we give people permission to be a victim and so, if you have permission to be a victim, you can blame other people, you can complain that when you're sitting in the discomfort, instead of actually dealing with him, and be like I did this, this is me, this is my work to do, you can outsource it and you're kind of like doing a little bit of like bypassing of that discomfort you're experiencing instead of doing what he was talking about, which is actually listening. Okay, you know, and it's like my coaching I said I did right.

31:21 If I feel anxious, there's a reason right, I'm running out of a broken piece of code. Maybe there's a conversation I need to have that's uncomfortable, that I need to just go through experience that needs to be had. If I feel ashamed about something, it's like maybe I'm participating in a behavior that I need to change. Or maybe I just have a disempowering subconscious program that's making me feel shameful about something that I shouldn't. So I think it's always feeling into the discomfort and then asking yourself is it a broken piece of subconscious programming and form of belief, or am I just out of integrity with the actions that I'm taking? That's what I found. It's either one or the other with the actions that I'm taking.

31:58 - Chase (Host) That's what I found. It's either one or the other. You said programming a few times. Can you kind of define and describe that more? I believe we all kind of reach a point where we have a realization oh, I do have some form, some levels of programming, conscious or unconscious, and then it's a matter of like really rewriting code for the life that you want. So for the person maybe struggling to comprehend, what do you mean? My life is programmed, I'm living out of this programming. What does that mean? What does that look like and how can we actually rewrite it?

32:28 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah. So the exciting thing is, most of us have been programmed to fail, and I think that's exciting because then you can look at any of the undesirable results in your life right now. Understand that you're not just in this victim state where, like this was done to me, there's nothing I can do about it, but rather like the programming is doing exactly what it was programmed to do. It was programmed to create the life and the experiences that you had so far, and so we could look back at when the programming begins. From zero to seven years old, we're in our primary programming years, where we were born to survive in a tribe, and so you need to assimilate to what the beliefs are of the tribe and the ways of being and the values. And so if you grow up in a family or in a greater community that holds different beliefs, some of those are going to be empowering and going to be helpful to you.

33:18 Some are not Right, but you're taking on all of it. You're not going through this rational process from zero to seven of like that's good, that's bad, hey, hey, dad, that's a bad habit. You should cut that out, right? No, you're going. That's how we deal with these issues when someone cuts us off in traffic, we scream at them. It makes us angry and you're getting programmed Like. This is just how we react. This is how we assimilate. If you go against that, then we're programmed to believe that we're going to get kicked out of the tribe.

33:46 - Chase (Host) Yeah, how do we even get to the point of responding that way? We probably witnessed it by our parents or in some kind of young experience and that just became our norm. That's it. Yeah, I'm curious, does anybody? Has anybody ever been cut off in traffic for the first time ever and you just go? Oh, god bless you. You're probably in a much bigger rush than me. You have a family emergency. That's so wild. Never kind of thought about the origin of the traffic response.

34:10 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, and it's just well. It's fear which creates anger. That's usually what comes from anyone who's angry. They're just afraid and they're trying to grasp back for control in that situation. But yeah, so we're getting this program from zero to seven good, bad, indifferent. We're receiving it and so don't blame your parents or community or anyone. It's just that's what they got, that's what you got, and basically the way I think about it cause I'm a father of two daughters it's like I'm going to carry the baton as far as I can in regards to my own programming. I'm going to pass it along to them and they're probably going to find things that I programmed to fail in that, hopefully, they can carry the baton a little bit further.

34:47 Right, because we go through that early programming, zero to seven, where we get most of those beliefs about the world right. What political party is good and bad? Right? What religion is the right religion? Who are the good people? Who are the bad people? Right? You know, you grow up in the US and in the. You know, I'm a millennial. So like we got the programming of, like the people in the Middle East were the bad people right, terrorist attack, you know, twin Towers that all gets programmed into you. And then you know, at some point you can hopefully choose to change that programming and understand the universal human experience and that there is no, there's not a bad person because the political party or the religion or where they live in the world, but that's all programmed into us, right.

35:31 And then as we go along in life, we're getting all different types of beliefs based upon our emotional experiences that we have. And so you know, let's say that you get cheated on at 15 years old by your first girlfriend, and then again at 17, and then 18, and then 21. And by the time you're 25, you go. You know all men are cheaters or all women are cheaters. They can't be trusted.

35:56 And that doesn't necessarily come from your parents, Maybe they had a great relationship but you've lived these strong emotional experiences that have created that scar tissue in the form of beliefs which is how you're programmed and how you're carrying that forward. And so we're just living all these lived experiences and the more emotion that's fueled into them, the more deeply that belief gets ingrained and the more it's reinforced through life experiences and more deeply it's ingrained. And so some of it's great right. Like you have positive life experiences, you build this belief in yourself. Like you, as a podcaster, you've done this so many times. You have this incredible belief in yourself to hold the space to create a great episode, because the repetition has taught you that You've got all these positive reinforcements.

36:35 - Chase (Host) Repetition to create truth.

36:36 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, absolutely. But you know, let's say I haven't done many podcasts and I go on and I do my first three or four and people just tear me apart Like I'm going to believe that you know, podcasts are scary and that you know, podcast hosts are assholes.

36:51 - Chase (Host) Right.

36:52 - Brandon (Guest) And so I'm not going to want to continue to have those experiences. And so at some point, you know, when we go through our awakening process and it is a spiritual awakening, if you will, because then you're challenging all the programming that you've received in your life, and I think that's a really crucial part of growing up in adulthood. I don't, this is when I was a boy, or when I was a girl. I was programmed, and now I'm an adult and I get to choose my own programming, and so you can choose that based upon where are you suffering in your life? Right? Do you want to perpetuate that suffering? Do you want to pass it along to your children or the people in your community, or do you want to change things? I think that's a big part of growing up is going through that process of awareness, seeing how the program is creating your reality. And so, as you're hearing, you said what's programming? Well, I talk about programming synonymously with beliefs. So whatever you believe to be true is how you filter the external reality.

37:56 - Chase (Host) That's your program.

37:57 - Brandon (Guest) And that's the program you're running and that creates your life. And once you understand this, you can see everything and you can actually have a lot more empathy for people. You could see someone just be so vehement about like, oh, you believe in, you want that person for president, and you can see how angry they get and you can have empathy for them. You're like, oh, you don't understand how you built that belief in yourself and so now you're judging another person because you believe that they're everything associated with what that other side is that you believe right, those people are evil, they're racist or they're woke whatever side on it that you want to label someone and they're wrong, they're bad. And when you go through that awakening process you can have more empathy. You see people, you know what. They're just living in their programming instead of meeting, whether it's a presidential candidate or any other human being at the human level.

38:46 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

38:46 - Brandon (Guest) And just being like who are you Not, who are the group, the lump of people that I'm trying to put you in?

38:54 - Chase (Host) I don't ever get political, but the time in American history where we're at right now whether you're about it or not, it's all over the place. We're about to elect, go to the booths to vote for our next president in a few months. Can you walk us through that a little bit more? You know how can we be more aware of ourselves and our own programming so that, should we choose to vote in any capacity, we are doing so in the most alignment of what we actually believe and maybe not what we have been programmed to believe? Also, to have that level of empathy and awareness for the other side and to get to a place of being able to ask better and more educated questions, to get to the core of other people's belief systems, instead of just going I'm this party or that party. I'm right, you're wrong.

39:46 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, you know, I was thinking of like the metaphor of like I grew up in New York as a kid. So whenever I watch sports, like I believe the Knicks were the good team and the team they're playing was the bad team. You know like we're the good guys and you're the bad team. You know like we're we're the good guys, you're the bad guys. You're trying to beat us right.

40:03 Like in the 90s, it was like reggie miller was a villain, you know, and then me, alan houston and patrick ewing and all the guys who are on my team, we were the good guys yeah right and I believe that to be true, and so that's why he was a bad guy versus someone living in indianapolis saw reggie Miller and like he's a good guy, like these guys from New York, they're the bad guys, they're the you know the enemy. So I think it's stepping back and seeing that politics is very much the same and asking yourself, like, what am I believing to be true about Democrats? Ooh, and you know all the anxiety that comes up and the fear and whatever, and maybe you could write that down, right, if you're a real introspective person, like, let's be honest, like no one's going to do this. But if you're asking me, like, how do we become conscious people who make conscious choices, especially about electing our leaders, you can actually uncover, I believe that Democrats are insert, insert, insert, write it all out. Okay, what do I believe to be true about Republicans? Insert, and just allow yourself to write down everything you believe to be true about them and then see your biases in that and understand that. Okay, now, what do I believe to be true about this actual human being who's running for office in this party or another or, you know, an independent party, and actually say, can I separate myself from, like this belief about this party and actually look at the person myself from like this belief about this party and actually look at the person.

41:21 And if you're someone who really wants to elect the best leader possible, right, and you should be looking at the individual, the human being, looking at their track record. What have they already done? What have they said? Do they have integrity? The things they said before, things that they're still saying? If they've changed their beliefs on things, why have they done it? Have they acknowledged it? You know? How have they affected the role so far? Does it align with my beliefs? You know the things that they fought for in their career before they arrived here on the biggest stage in the world.

41:52 What does that say about them? And do I want this person to lead me Right, and then you can really verse engineer. So I think it's creating that separation between yourself and your biases, because it's easy just to go yeah, this is my team and we're the right team and that's all there is to it, because you don't have to think right, you can just watch, whatever your preferred media outlet is, get your beliefs reinforced and stay very much in this unconscious state. But, as we know, that just continues to feed the division versus like'll get like a republican and democrat here and like they could both be our best friends, we could love them as human beings. But then we bring up the politics and like, all of a sudden they're at each other's throat and maybe they don't want to talk for the next three months, right, so it's like.

42:32 - Chase (Host) Can we get?

42:33 - Brandon (Guest) beyond that to the human level, and then the human level as it relates to the president. To take it a step further we do that right.

42:45 - Chase (Host) But then I think, my personal opinion I think there's also a secondary factor of what we think about the person and what we think about their politics and I know a lot of people probably in every election, but especially this election, I feel like it's even more top of mind is I need to vote, I need to contribute my time, my support to the person that I think is going to make the most difference in the country that I live in for my livelihood, my finances, my family, my insurance, all this stuff, family, my insurance, all this stuff. And again, personal opinion. I feel like there's disconnect there and maybe beliefs someone has about the candidate and their politics. How do we go? I don't agree with the person but I do agree with their politics, or vice versa. Yeah, from that kind of same non-bias awareness starting point.

43:38 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I mean, I think things are very light laid out in a way now where people really kind of say what they're standing for, you know, in regards to their politics. And it's like I heard PBD um, patrick, but David talk about this in a nice way. I don't know if you ever listened to his show every once in a while.

43:53 Yeah, and he was just. They're just talking about like, well, yeah, I guess, like, what kind of world do you want to live in? What are the most important things to you? Right Is like is immigration most important thing to you? Is it the economy? Is it DEI? Is it transgender issues? Like where, whatever the most important things are for you?

44:15 - Chase (Host) I guess you should align yourself with that person who prioritizes Birth control, abortion, pro-life, pro-choice and it was huge right now.

44:22 - Brandon (Guest) Definitely Federally and state what is the thing that really matters to you in your life. Not just like getting swept up in like the media craze of like good team, bad team, but more so like what actually affects my life, you know, and if you're someone who has children especially, like what kind of world do you want your kids to grow up in? What are the things that actually affect their life and make it better or worse? So I think it's stepping back far enough to see that and it's not a right or wrong answer. It just comes down to each individual and your own values?

44:52 - Chase (Host) Yeah, because right now, it's pretty wild to think whoever gets elected potentially can run the next eight years, and so it's not about making the best decision for you and what you think they can do for your country and your life right now or for the next year, but imagine yourself over the next eight years and how does that influence your decision-making process. That's a much bigger equation.

45:16 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, and who knows what they'll actually do once they get in the office.

45:19 - Chase (Host) Who knows man who?

45:20 - Brandon (Guest) knows that's always, always the case To bring things back. That's why I always try to tell people you know what, like you can get involved with politics but ultimately, unless you're actually running for office, like, clean up your own inner world, right Be, be the change you wish to see in the world, right, right and focus all your energy on that, because it's easy to just like send out, you know, tweets or Xs, whatever you call them these days Laptop warrior.

45:46 - Chase (Host) Yeah, keyboard warrior.

45:47 - Brandon (Guest) Exactly, instead of like okay, what are the things that you believe in? How can you embody that right? If you want, if you're against pollution and that's a big thing for you and you want to protect the environment, okay, like where are you buying your food from? Are you composting? Are you trying to grow any of your own food? Like yeah, what are?

46:05 - Chase (Host) you actually doing to contribute?

46:06 - Brandon (Guest) to a solution. What are you doing Right Instead?

46:08 - Chase (Host) of just complaining about the problem all the time.

46:09 - Brandon (Guest) Just be it. Whatever it is, just be it. You know, if you're someone who's like you know, I really believe in more of just a meritocracy, All right, do that in your business, you know, and I think if we can just embody it in our own lives, like everything takes care of itself, oh, dude, so good.

46:34 - Chase (Host) I love that. I say all the time you know, if you can learn how to change and consistently maintain your world, I think we all do that collectively. We're changing the world, yeah, so it's starting here and then expanding out afterwards. Absolutely, I want to go back to an example you talked about of you know, the person who got cheated on, you know, at 10, 15, 25, whatever. It reminded me of this question. What about if it's us? I think, when looking to push back past barriers in our life, the brutal truth moment in some instances is that we're the common denominator. Sometimes we're the problem, but a lot of people, I think, know that deep down, but they don't want to face it. What are a couple of maybe harsh truths you think a lot of people have or struggle with in terms of accepting that they're the problem?

47:25 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, well, that's an ego death in itself, right?

47:29 That's what we're talking about is like when you actually bring awareness to you being the problem, that's an ego death, because the identity that you built up like we always want to see ourselves as, like, on the right side of history, and so when you're actually bringing into awareness, like I created the problems, I'm the person.

47:46 You have to go through a death of sorts. And I have a really good friend who struggled with heroin addiction for years and now he's doing great. I'm actually going to meet him out here later today but now he has kids, great job, all these things come over it, but like he had to die in the person that he was, which was like an ego death of it's all me, it's all my fault, I'm the one who created all of this, and that's the only way you can change the pattern and become the person who creates different outcomes in your life is you have to go through that full, painful, and it is painful just to face, like that, the identity that you're living in is the identity that creates all these issues, and you know that is a real spiritual ego death.

48:31 - Chase (Host) Now is that as simple as just making the choice? I'm choosing to believe that I was in the wrong. I'm just choosing to flip the mindset, flip the script on this, so that I can learn how to move on. Will that work? Or does it have to truly be a belief that you know what? In all of these relationships I messed up, I was a contributing factor, more so than my partner that led to us not working out.

48:53 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I mean, I think it's heavy, I think it's very complex, but I think that the acceptance, you know, I think just like looking at the issues in your life and then just going through the acceptance of it, which is just like for me it's like breathing through and be like, yeah, it's true, I am that I did create that, and just the acknowledgement, the acceptance. And it could take time, it's a lot to process to get to that level of acceptance, but it's like, okay, first step awareness. I can see how I have perpetuated these patterns. I have created issues for myself and others. And the next step is acceptance. After awareness, I accept it and then the next step after that, once you fully accept your way through it, realize that well, I'm living the present moment and I did that in the past.

49:39 So the only way to move forward Into the past literally just like surrendering that nothing I've ever done in the past, so that we can be present as much as possible and then move forward in the future yeah, I can really only talk from experience and so for me it was doing the reprogramming work and it's really identifying the things you want to surrender is like I want to let go of that way of being, that programming I've held onto, and so you come into awareness of it, you accept that it's there and you're surrendering it into the past, and so that's really coming for me mostly at the program the belief level in processing this in the body.

50:40 There's other ways to do it, of course. You know. There could be, like my body, like making amends and saying like, hey, what do I feel like I need to do to make this situation right? Um, it could be, you know, engaging with different practices, um, whether it's going to therapy, whether it's um doing plant medicine journeys that help you face these things and move through them and surround through them. But most of all, it's taking a different action in the present moment.

51:09 - Chase (Host) Yes, please say that again.

51:11 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, most of all, it is taking a new action right now, because I have another friend the theme that is still on the streets dealing with heroin and meth, and I talked to him some time ago and I was like listen, man, like he thinks, you know, thinks he's only 34, but he believes his life is over.

51:27 He wasted his whole life. And I tell him I'm like dude, life is happening right now and the next action you take can completely transform the life that you could live forever. So I think that's part of a surrender, which, of course, is very tough. Like he's still on the street, so he hasn't got there, like my other buddy who was also on the streets, but he's been able to overcome that. And so I don't know if it's a matter of will, like I've never been in that situation but I do know that you have to change your action in the present moment to create a new reality. And so maybe one day it's like, yeah, instead of picking up the drug or whatever whatever your pattern is right Instead of binge eating at night when you're super stressed from work and you need to release, instead of binge eating, maybe you pick up some celery and carrots right it's just taking that different action in the present moment.

52:15 - Chase (Host) Instead of calling that toxic ex again or giving in to the boss that just squeezed his blood from the stone. You know, yeah, yeah, they're all little micro choices, man.

52:25 - Brandon (Guest) Yes, they make up our life, absolutely.

52:27 - Chase (Host) You've got a very calm approach in general. You have a calm, welcoming energy, um, and just someone that does the work that you do. I don't see that. I don't see this that often when we're talking about changing your life, changing your belief system, reprogramming, um, and it makes makes me think of kind of the opposite. You familiar with Jocko Willink? Yeah, love the guy, yeah, and he has this quote. He says, to quote wage war on your weaknesses Seems the total opposite of what we're kind of talking about in the vibe in general here. Do you think that's necessary? Is that too aggressive? Is that warrior mentality necessary? I think that's necessary. Is that too aggressive? Is that warrior mentality necessary?

53:08 - Brandon (Guest) I think it's a level of consciousness that could move you forward, right? I think there were always operating at different frequencies, and some frequencies are better than others, but they're not the best right, and so that's what comes down to power versus force, like you can force yourself to move forward through anger. It's just kind of what he's talking about.

53:26 Like that's wage war, and it's actually better than, like the lowest frequency you could be in a shame. So if you're living in shame all the time, just beating yourself up, regretting all your life decisions, it's still forced, but it's a much higher frequency. To move into anger of like never again. This happened to me. I'm going to overcome it Like I'm not going to keep on staying in these patterns. I'm going to fight back against it. The world's against me. Whatever it is right, anger is just a higher frequency. It's still in force.

53:52 Now what I've seen is, if you can keep going up to higher levels of frequency, you can get into your power, which is what does it feel like? To live in acceptance, in peace, in joy, where you're really being pulled forward instead of having to force yourself and push yourself. So I wouldn't say anything is necessarily inherently better. I think it's just a part of that consciousness journey, because that's I had to go on the same journey, you know, when I played sports. It was all when I started. All this stuff is like okay, it's just force, it's pushing, it's trying harder and it's not that effort isn't inherent in any level of achievement, it's just that you're seeing an incomplete picture and you're getting better fuel sources as you go along.

54:31 - Chase (Host) Ooh yes, yeah, yeah, I like that.

54:34 - Brandon (Guest) Because when you're inspired, like that's just a beautiful fuel source to come from. It's like for me like to do the work I have to do now, like I don't have to like convince myself to wake up in the morning, work with my clients. So like it's inspiring, it's joyful, it's purposeful, like I want to do it. Um, but like in my beginning of my career, I was trying to make my way in this world and the only way I knew how was by creating meditation, mobile apps, using my meditation, get it out there, cause nobody wanted to hire me at 22 to do this work. I didn't have the experience, so I ended up finding some success, but a lot of my work was done behind the computer. I was like doing SEO, keyword research to get my apps more visibility out there.

55:16 That was force. You know, that was just I didn't enjoy that, but it was like a force. But it was a part of my journey to get to where I am today and I think that you know that force. That is a part of the growing up process and hopefully, as we move forward, we can align with more of those higher frequencies. But you start where you start right, and so you have to take all those steps along the way.

55:40 - Chase (Host) What makes your approach to behavior change, human performance, mindset, belief reprogramming? What makes your approach so different?

55:50 - Brandon (Guest) I think that a lot of people are trying to solve problems in the head, whereas I'm going beyond the head. I actually tell people I say, cut your head off, roll it in the other room while we do this session. I tell people you don't have to figure anything out, there's nothing to think about, there's nothing that you're going to come up with in your head to solve your problem. My belief and this is very different than how a lot of people in mindset or even mental performance or psychology operate is that everything we need is on the other side of the resistance that lives in our bodies. So I believe that it's all right there. If we can connect a source, it's going to flow right in for bodies. So I believe that, like, it's all right there, like, if we can connect to source, it's going to flow right in for us. So if we go into the body and we remove that blockage, it's going to flow in.

56:32 You're going to have the solutions to the problems in your life. That's why, like I'm not a big fan of like counselors who are going to go in. They're going to tell you what to do or give you advice. It's like you know you know best, but you need a skilled enough person who can remove the blockages that are preventing you from connecting to that deeper wisdom. So that's the biggest thing I see. You know, I actually work with an MMA fighter right now in the UFC who he has two mental coaches. He started with someone who does more of the mental stuff and I think he's got a lot of benefits from that, but he had to bring me in because there was a deeper emotional block that he had to move through that. It doesn't matter how many like affirmations he did or how many positive habits he put into his life or how much he meditated. The energetic blocks and the physical body were still there until he dealt with them and that's why I had to come in and move him through that.

57:23 - Chase (Host) Which I think is a perfect segue into before we get to my last question. We were talking about maybe kind of experiencing your approach a little bit, and it's perfect, because what you're saying about the physical blocks to the other side, you know the like, the life that we know we can have or that we want, or just a better feeling. That's kind of I personally, where I'm at. There are some I mean, what's the best way to describe it? It's, it's.

57:59 It's a really interesting place I'm in right now where I'm being revisited by a lot of past traumatic events, specifically physical. Um, traumatic events specifically physical. After the fact, I moved past a lot of mental, emotional, spiritual, traumatic work I shared with you earlier the death of my father, ptsd, a lot of injuries in the military, and so a lot of that stuff was really just kind of snowballed into significant mental health problems for many, many years. But all that truly kind of parted ways I stepped through that at the beginning of this year and then, literally the day that that happened, all of these kinds of physical things came back to me. And so what I've been trying to do now the last seven months is focus all my mental health work, all my personal stillness work into okay body.

58:50 Where's the blockage? What have I ignored? What are you not getting? Where has the healing not taken place? Because it's more so. When it all first started, it was turning into new problems for me in the form of like, how could this be happening to me? I devoted my life to, to wellness and resiliency. It's like how, how could this happen to me? Now? I felt like I was the most prepared, but yet I'm so unprepared for this, and so now I'm kind of like damn, all right, what did I miss? Well, also trying to be present with the lesson I need to learn.

59:25 - Brandon (Guest) It feels good, while also trying to be present with the lesson I need to learn. That feels good. I even felt like a big shift in your body around, tightness in the solar plexus moved up into your heart and expansion by you just saying that right there. So I think I want everyone to listen to this, to understand the fact that you just feel like boom, I'm willing to be seen. My mask just came off. I'm the expert, I'm the guy who's telling you what to do and the healing just shifts right there.

59:49 And it begins in the mask coming off and going. There's more work to do, Right Truly for all of us, myself included, but that is it. So. It's like when you start that path, you take the mask off and you close your eyes. Right now, what comes up?

01:00:24 - Chase (Host) for you around something that feels like it still needs to come up and out and released. It's these old, old physical wounds. Um, which is unique. You know I'm not anyone that hasn't experienced an injury or a physical setback, but for years to go by and to make such incredible progress, to now be revisited by them is one it's, and it's humbling, but also just like is it. Is it ever going to get good enough? Are the tools that I've been putting in my toolbox worthwhile? Have I just been kind of prolonging the inevitable? It's a. It's a. It's a confusing spot to be in, honestly, yeah.

01:01:09 - Brandon (Guest) And so I feel that, again, the solar plexus, the fear, right, the fear of it, fear, fear, fear. And if you can shift into there, what I just heard come through was also like am I doing the right things? Like the fear of like, all right, I've learned all these tools, I've done all these things, I'm participating. I of like, all right, I've learned all these tools, I've done all these things, I'm participating, I'm being proactive. And the fear that I feel in there in the upper stomach is like am I doing the right thing? Can you feel that?

01:01:38 - Chase (Host) That's a hard question.

01:01:40 - Brandon (Guest) Sit deep into the upper stomach there. I want you to connect to that stomach there. Once you connect to that, or like, the fear is, I'm not doing the right things right. That's what creates the fear is like is all this for, for not and I'm not saying it's not based on a rational reality of whether you're doing the right things or not, but the fear that comes through is like all this stuff's revisiting me. The fear is. I'm not doing the right things.

01:02:08 - Chase (Host) Or even the things that I've been doing, while they might have kind of quote here worked for the rehabilitation or the physical goals that I had. I guess it's now kind of is that what I should be doing? Just because I want to do them, just because they maybe have contributed to progress in one way or another? Is that really what my body wants or my body needs? Um, is that the best thing for me just because I enjoy it? You know? Yeah, yeah, you know.

01:02:50 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, yeah. And what's coming up for me now through that is yeah, it's like this fear, I mean it's the same thing. It's kind of like am I doing the right things? Am I doing the right things? Am I doing the right things? I'm not doing the right things. I'm not doing the right things. I want you to say I'm not doing the right things, I'm not doing the right things. Do you feel that Right in the solar plexus area there?

01:03:09 - Chase (Host) A little drop Something just dropped. Yeah, oh yeah.

01:03:12 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah. So stay with me here, because so much of it is not even about the words that we're speaking. It's about the frequency and the energy that's being moved. So it's not even about the words. So don't get too the words. It's just like it's going to carry a certain emotional, um frequency that's living in your body. So I want you to say I believe I'm not doing the right things. I just want you to actually accept that. So it's like the ego death and all the work that you want to, that you've done, that you want to keep doing. It's fucking wrong. You're yeah, it's wrong. It's wrong. Yeah, you're stupid, you're wasting time. Who did you think you were? You thought you dealt with it all. You're right, you're an idiot. You don't know what you're doing. And let me know when you've just accepted yeah, I'm doing the wrong things. Not a head accept, but just like a body of like, a surrender of like, oh fine.

01:04:04 - Chase (Host) Yeah, clearly, yeah Clearly been doing the wrong things.

01:04:07 - Brandon (Guest) And I want you to visualize your life on this timeline spread out in front of you. Visualize it to the right, to the future. Infinite possibilities, light, head right, complete healing or complete destruction of the body. Anything can happen there To left's, the past. It's dead energy. Actually, you can't go back and change any of that, so it's also dead. Can't touch it.

01:04:27 The only thing that's real is right in front of you right now. I want you to imagine there's this cloud of energy living right in front of you, like your horse with blinders on sitting right in front of you. This cloud of energy of like I'm doing the wrong things, oh, and the frustration, the letdown, even though it feels like there's a little bit of shame there, there's a lack of control. It's like, oh, just a cocktail of shit. Can you feel that? Yeah, all right, here we go.

01:04:50 I want you to feel it, feel it, feel it, see that cloud energy. I want you to breathe in deeply through your nose, exhale and a powerful wind is going to move from right to left. It's going to blow this cloud of wind, this, this cloud to the left, to the left, to left, to left, all the way into the past. And the second it goes in the past, it dissolves, because the past is dead. And I want you to find yourself in the present moment, here, flying through time and space. In the present, the void, the now, the now, the now, the now. The rawness, the nakedness, the infinite openness, the emptiness, the now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, now, and what's the opposite of? I'm doing the wrong things.

01:05:30 - Chase (Host) I'm doing the right things.

01:05:31 - Brandon (Guest) Repeat after me. I believe I'm doing the right things. I know exactly what to do.

01:05:35 - Chase (Host) I believe that I'm doing the right things. I know exactly what to do.

01:05:38 - Brandon (Guest) Breathe in deeply through your nose, exhale it down through your head, your neck, your shoulders, your upper arms, your lower arms, your hands and your fingers, down through your upper back, your chest, your lower back and your stomach. Feel this move down through your hips, your thighs, your lower legs, your feet and toes, breathing deeply, into a state Again I know exactly what to do and I'm doing the right things.

01:06:05 - Chase (Host) I know exactly what to do and I'm doing the right things.

01:06:06 - Brandon (Guest) Breathe it in deeply Exhale I know exactly what to do and of trusting yourself, and the energy explodes out now and surrounds you in this energetic aura. I want you to feel yourself being held in this energy of clarity in the present moment. I know exactly what to do and I want you to surrender everything from the past, whether it's the things you've been doing or things you're thinking about doing. I want you to come into the present right now. I want you to tell me what do you feel inspired to do right now, not from the head, but from the heart.

01:06:54 - Chase (Host) To keep listening and stop forcing. That's it.

01:07:00 - Brandon (Guest) The healing that's going to happen in your body is not going to come from the head. It's going to come from this place of alignment and presence, because in the present moment, it's the only place where you can actually listen to your body and ask it what it needs. And it's not always the same, and what was right yesterday might not be right today. So I want you to tell yourself right now I was right then and I'm right now.

01:07:22 - Chase (Host) I was right then and I'm right now.

01:07:24 - Brandon (Guest) And all the things you did to get you to where you are today. They were right, and now you're right now, but it doesn't mean you're going to do the same things. You feel that. So, in its acceptance of it doesn't need to be the same thing to keep being right. I was right then, I'm right now, and right now, in the present moment, I'm choosing to listen to my body and inspiration and I'm going to follow that thread to do what's right now. So there's no wrongness in any of this process you've been in. You're right then, you're right now. And now.

01:08:02 Give yourself permission to actually just follow the thread of like, there's nothing lost. You're present to what you need and what you know is best for you right now. And you're going to do that, and no one outside of you could ever tell you what that is. You know best. There's no expert you're going to go to. No, you're going to sit in the tension of the present moment. You're going to go body. What do you need right now? And one day it might be hey, you know what I need to ask for help and see a physical therapist. Another day I might need rest, I need to run, I need to lift weights. But it is not this blanket prescription that's going to give you the certainty of control that the ego wants is going to be an evolving process of presence, tuning in every single day to the inspiration that's there in your body and following that thread, boom shit, shit.

01:09:14 - Chase (Host) I felt good, I felt true. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome.

01:09:22 - Brandon (Guest) That component about where I think I thought that I was wrong and it kind of like beat yourself up or make these assumptions, but then at the end of you're right then, and you're right now it was right then and right now, yeah, yeah, cause we're always doing the best we can, and you wouldn't be able to be where you are now unless you were where you were then all things that we know, right, all things that we know right, all things that we know.

01:09:47 - Chase (Host) but it's like when things, when things are good you can easily believe that, but when you're coming face to face with a problem, yeah, the disbelief and what I want you to feel and connect to is that it's not any of the words that we even said here.

01:10:02 - Brandon (Guest) So if someone's just listening to this, they have no idea the experience that you actually just felt in your body, because it's not about the words, right? We know all the things. We've read all the books, we've listened to it all. We know, but it's the energy just got moved in your body. All that mattered in that whole process was that the fear was removed so you can connect back to the present moment, to that own inner knowing, and that's really what it's all about and inner knowing, and that's really what it's all about.

01:10:28 - Chase (Host) And like, the biggest physiological or the first, I say, biggest physiological change for me in that experience was something that I normally don't get to until later in like a breath work, practice or some other kind of a spiritual or mental health work that I do was just like that, in immediate sensation of like kind of like lightheadedness, hypoxia, like that first big breath you. You guided me through what was followed by, just like the tingles which for me all.

01:10:54 In any experience I've had like that has always been like a moment of like a deep thought that I'm I'm been ruminating on, but I finally let go of and just that first breath yeah, we could feel the energy move we could feel it.

01:11:08 Someone like myself. That's been the biggest struggle is, you know, I'm like I went to school for this, this has been my career, I talk to experts all the time for a living and I have all these practices and habits, but I'm just like, damn, what have I been missing, what have I been doing wrong?

01:11:24 - Brandon (Guest) And even definitely some ego in the beginning of I can't believe this is fucking happening to me, to me, to me, god. That's all of our process, right? It's like that willingness to be humbled so we can come back to the truth over and over and over again, because there are so many levels we can evolve to in this experience of life. It just keeps going and going, and we only get to discover them through going back there, again and again, going back there again and again.

01:11:55 - Chase (Host) That's the truth, man. Yeah Well, this is definitely helping me move forward in my life. Thank you, brandon. You're welcome those two words. If I were to ask you directly ever forward, what do they mean to you?

01:12:12 - Brandon (Guest) How would you say you live a life ever forward. Yeah, I think it's what we just talked about. Right, it's for me.

01:12:15 I'm on that consciousness path which is just continuing to evolve myself to like get farther away from the pain body and further into my highest potential to access my gifts, to be able to share them with others and to align with the higher power that I feel is flowing through me. So ever forward is like keep taking those steps, keep riding the lightning, keep going out on that edge, because that's what it's required. Keep doing what it takes, and sometimes it's going to feel like failure, sometimes it's going to feel like embarrassment, and that's okay, that's all part of the process, you know. Continue to move ever forward through it, without judging whatever those emotions are that are coming up as I keep taking steps.

01:12:58 - Chase (Host) Never a right or wrong answer. I say I appreciate every guest's interpretation, man, so thank you for that. Where can my audience go to connect with you? I know you've got a book out.

01:13:11 - Brandon (Guest) You do some amazing work. Where can they go to tap into more of?

01:13:13 - Chase (Host) what you do.

01:13:13 - Brandon (Guest) Yeah, I think they would love the book. You know it's called Program to Fail. It's available on Amazon. The book tells my story of getting on this path and talks about everything from playing college football, learning to become a healer in that process, then going and bringing it into professional sports and all the challenges that have come with that, and then I actually give people a blueprint to do this stuff for themselves. A whole second part of the book is the same stuff I give to my coaching clients. So it's like an enjoyable story to kind of like see a guy on the path and what I hear is it's very conversational. So people enjoy just reading the story, resonating with it especially people who played sports in the past will be able to resonate a lot with it and then getting inspired to actually do the work, because I lay it all out there. So that's the main place, but I have a website, thebrandandepsteincom, if they want to check out more of my work, if they want to work with me personally one-on-one.

01:14:07 - Chase (Host) I'm very active on Instagram as well. Brandon Epsi underscore. Well, you guys I don't know if you're listening, maybe you felt it. If you're watching the video, maybe you felt it and saw it. But such a, such a treat of an episode. Thank you guys. So much for tuning in. Definitely go check out what Brandon is up to and, yeah, I'm going to go sit in my feels for a little bit. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com