The Rat Race Crippled My Lower Back so I Moved to Bali (Rat Race Revolution Podcast)

0:00 Alright, welcome to the Rat Race Rebellion podcast. I am one of your co-host Paul Tio do and we created this podcast with the intention of letting you know that you can go after your dreams. So if you're stuck in some sort of a mundane life that is not consistent with your heart and your soul, we are bringing guests that will show you and tell you that you can go after your dreams and I'm Brent Collier. Another co-host also joined by Michael Henry behind the scenes, in the background.

0:30 Helping us produce this amazing podcast, where we share our own personal experience, of the hero's journey. The struggles that we've faced, and the challenges that we've overcome to live a life full of passion and purpose, we want to encourage you to do the same to travel to see the world to live your best life. And hopefully by providing you with some amazing guests and interviews.

0:52 We can encourage you to do the same. So thank you so much for listening. Yeah, and we're also going to, of course, have some Wellness tips on yoga. Meditation and dealing with anxiety dealing with lower back pain. So they'll be lots of fun tips for all.

1:06 You Wellness, professionals out there have a beautiful day. Thank you so much. All right. Welcome everybody. Welcome to the Rat Race Rebellion. Episode 1 the to co-host, interviewing each other actually me. Interviewing Brent. So this is Brent.

1:20 Collier Johnson, did I say that right? Yep. You got it. Cool. And we're going to talk about Brent's Journey from San Francisco to Bali Indonesia. And all of the Things that were went in between there. Yeah. So first off, Brent, why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself where were you born? Where'd you come from?

1:38 And yeah. So I'm Brent originally from California. I grew up in Northern California and a small little town by a lake. Had a typical middle-class upbringing did quite a bit of sports growing up was also involved a lot in School and did really well in school ended up going to San Luis Obispo down in the coast, on the coast of California, where I went to college there and then travel to San Francisco where I worked for the last decade. And after a couple of trials and

2:16 tribulations in San Francisco, ended up finding myself in Bali where I'm living now, and living the dream out here. Amazing. Yeah, let's backtrack that. See you grew up in A small town and we're you very involved in sports. Or what were your interests, as a kid growing up? Would you describe your childhood as normal? Did you have hippie parents?

2:38 Did you have conservative parents? What was it like growing up in your house? Yeah, my parents were pretty conservative. They did a lot of work to help me prepare for school and so I did a lot of school work outside of school which made me really excel in school. For example, if I was Is in third grade, I would be doing fourth grade work with my parents and ended up getting one of the highest gpas and our high school and just really an academic student.

3:10 But on the other end I did Sports and was really involved in track and field and football and typically had a, I'd say normal upbringing. What position did you play in that running back? I was going to say, you got the running back. Body has like this guy looks like a tail that tail back or fullback tail, but there's a tailback did Very fast was found in about seventh grade that I loved running and ended up going to the sprinting team on track and field doing hurdles. Did pole, vaulting and ended up

3:41 finding myself playing football for my high school years. Nice did really well, and it was my life was pretty much school work and football, cool. Those of you watching this on video, this is one of our mascots Bobby. He's popping in to say hello. It's my dog.

3:56 So just notice he might be coming and going Has, he feels so played football, lots of track and field, very athletic. It sounds like your parents. They give you a wonderful upbringing but they pushed pretty hard, huh? Yeah, there was a lot of pressure to perform especially in academics and in school and it was pretty good agreement that as long as it would get my school work done and do well on that, I could do what I want. And so I really focused on

4:23 getting my school work done and doing well on that which actually was a really good motivator to be. And really helped me in college when there was a lot of distractions. And a lot of things going on, about what's going yourself parties and, you know, typical College things. Yeah, very big partier.

4:40 Yeah, I did. I did I did a lot of schoolwork and I did really well at it and then I was able to go party and have fun and when a lot of people would go party and then save school work for second, I did it in the reverse way.

4:52 Yeah, it's opened up so many doors and allowed me to be successful while still have fun. Well, I think pretty awesome. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I think really more than anything. What college is is it's this bridge between being at your parents house and being a child. Yeah.

5:09 And being completely on your own as an adult. Yeah. And I look back at my college experience and the education that I got was Good education. But what are they? What I got was that bridge? Yeah. Between between really growing up and and still being a child, right?

5:26 Right. And left. For the first time you're on your own. You have to explore how to feed for yourself. How to do your laundry, how to do these things. But there's also so many opportunities to discover yourself whether it be through clubs, or fraternities, or sports, or whatever. The young to chase girls, and chase girls and drink and have fun.

5:45 Yeah, that college. But I did too. Chase girls. Drink went to the weight room and then, yeah, I play guitar. Yeah. Yeah. Very similar, nice. Okay. So then fast forward after college. You moved to San Francisco right away. Yeah.

6:00 Right after college, I ended up going to San Francisco for this dream job. That I didn't even know was my dream job at the time, but ended up turning into this amazing job. I went to college originally doing business marketing. In finance and Entrepreneurship and found myself joining consulting, firm doing technology Consulting around the country, which was a really cool opportunity that I kind of fell into, which was pretty awesome.

6:32 And it brought me to San Francisco where as able to start a life and have an apartment have friends build a foundation of my first adult life on my own, and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And one of the most expensive and one of the most expensive. Yeah.

6:47 You had a good job and you're making the money and can pay for it. It's so much more enjoyable. Yeah, I think that's what I know of. I've never worked in Consulting myself. But as what they tell me is they hire you right out of college.

7:01 They give you a lot of money and they work you to the Bone. And but it's enjoyable because you're 22 and you have the energy and you're excited to be making money. And I think when we're young men, Lisa, I'll speak for myself like having having a more material.

7:17 Attitude at the age of 22 is very normal. Yeah, I wanted to make money and and and show my friends like how powerful I was and and find beautiful girl and and date the beautiful girl and have a lot of money and have a nice car and then a nicer apartment and then go out on the weekends and get drunk. Yeah, that is that was my life at. Yeah.

7:37 So this is what you would call a weekend warrior. Yeah. Work through the week and do well at my work. Take care of my work. Make the paycheck and then go blow it on the weekends. Yeah, buying nice. Close nice. Things going to nice bars or restaurants going on trips really living for the weekend which was reciting at that time.

7:56 Yeah. And something that I would compare myself to other people and be like, hey, I'm in this position and I have this opportunity to do this. Let's make the most of it. Yeah, and being in a place like San Francisco, where there are such a collection of people from all around the world, gave me an opening to all these diverse experiences. That I didn't have growing up like, why just exposure to different cultures?

8:23 People people from India, people from China, Japan. Europe was able to meet these types of people and see different experiences that they had compared to my upbringing. Yeah, and go and go on trips with them. Go to go out with them and in San Francisco.

8:43 There's always something going on. Yeah, we have to learn how to say no. And I really Fell into that trap the first couple years because yes, yes, let's do everything. Yes. And whether it be a festival or some event, some party, some DJ's coming to play some there's always something going on and it was cool because in San Francisco you have such a mix of cultures from different parts of the world in one part of the city here in Chinatown. And then you walk a couple

9:11 blocks here and tourist area and you walk a couple blocks and its Rich, upscale walk a couple blocks and it's ghetto. And so, you get all these different experiences of things that you wouldn't normally try just by being there.

9:23 And so having that opportunity to have some of these cool things to do was a lot of fun. Yeah, San Francisco really is one of the most beautiful cities. Yeah. America it's beautiful. The people are wonderful. It's also expensive.

9:39 Yeah. And it's intense and fast pace a space and I guess that would be. My next question is, so after a couple years of work in the The job. And, you know, 22, 23 years old, making really good money working hard weekend warrior. What's what happened next?

9:55 How what was? Yes after about five? Five and a half years working at the consulting firm? I came to the conclusion that this is not what I wanted to be doing. This is not how I wanted to live. My life was flying every weekend to different parts of the country.

10:10 I was on an airplane. Going to Atlanta going to Texas, going to New York, Florida for the week and then flying. For the weekend. And so there was a lot of travel opportunities, which was quite incredible. But after spending two hundred fifty nights, so year in a hotel it got draining on me and I started looking towards the managers and the people who were running the firm and they ended up working more so as the longer you were with the firm the more

10:39 you worked so never it never stop, never stop until I had this kind of wake up Epiphany. Like if I continue this, I'm going to be in their shoes. Shoes. That's where I'm going to be. I'm going to be pulling in a million plus a year, but for what?

10:53 Yeah, and a lot of them had broken families, not married. Never got to see their kids or anything. And it was just not a trajectory that I wanted to be on long-term. Yeah, it's the this typical hamster wheel Rat Race and they also may be the the golden handcuffs this technology. Yeah, they get you.

11:12 I mean there's so many perks at this firm, you get covered on all met. Full dental like full-scale benefits, you get your paycheck and then during the week, you don't have to pay for anything. Everything's on the client bill.

11:27 Yeah, and so you're not spending any money, so yeah, pocketing at all and then you're buying all nice things and they just keep lowering you in with this nice fancy lifestyle that you get to live you flying first class everywhere, you're getting upgraded all the time. It feels really amazing and really you feel powerful and it's exciting.

11:47 Eating but at what cost? Yeah I think that's that's such a great question to ask and I think a lot of people begin to ask that question and that is a wonderful life for a lot of people I have friends that have that life and they're happy like they really they are designed for that they that that's a blueprint. That works for them and for them it just seems to be Their life path, right?

12:15 That wasn't for you. So, one hounds that was I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. Let's switch things up. I have a tendency to, you know go into something full head on first, do it. And then if I don't like it, switch it up.

12:28 Yeah. And so I ended up joining my first startup in San Francisco. And I was, I think the fastest higher they've ever had, I had my application given to them by a friend and two days later I was hired. Wow. All over the phone.

12:45 I was had the application given to him on a Thursday morning and then I flew home Thursday night after interviews on the phone came into the office Friday morning and then by the end of the day, they had given me an offer and that was just it shook things up because I was like, I was not expecting this to go this well, or this quick. Yeah, but this gives me an opportunity to stay in San Francisco and kind of build a more stable home here where I'm not flying all the time.

13:09 I was a pay cut and it wasn't as As I don't know, High scale of a job and as much luxury and it was definitely a change of pace, but I felt like I was ready for a new adventure. I was doing really well at that firm, I knew where that life would leave me and I was like let's switch it up and see kind of what happens here. Yeah.

13:31 So then I found myself at my first startup which was just a complete 180 of Consulting Consulting is very type. A everyone's very structured very Very intelligent, smart people, everything is working properly, everybody knows.

13:48 There's standard operating procedures, everybody knows how to follow. We get to the startup and it's, you're making it as you're gone. The trains going 100 miles, an hour and you're building and on the tracks while you're on it.

14:00 And it's going crazy. There's kind of like this podcast. I don't like this podcast, you just do it and it was actually a lot of good learning lessons from there. You just start and do it as before I would have been. Okay, we're going to plan everything out. I'm going to do a start-up, I'm gonna spend years planning and it just you can't do that in San Francisco or with these startups.

14:20 You have an idea you got to run with it, you get money, you get people, you get them together and you make it work and then what parts are not working. You fix eliminate quickly. Yeah. Thanks, our limits or eliminate, you have to, you have to be willing to adapt very quickly at a fast pace. And there's probably a lot more room for creativity. Yeah.

14:40 Versus the Consulting career, but it's not quite the same right arms of. Yeah. And that's one thing that I loved about it. I was able to switch what I was doing in consulting, which was technology, Consulting and implementing Erp systems at different Fortune. 100, Fortune 500 companies around the country. So, putting in back-end systems that run their operations such as Finance or general ledgers or marketing. These different technological systems that are used to run the business and we would go into

15:11 these companies and they already have an established. This business of how it operates and it was just making the technology match their business. Yeah, we're as I come to the startup and it's we don't know our processes.

15:21 We don't know how this all works. So you have some scale to create those processes and so I compare it to being like a painter, to some extent where you have a blank canvas and you get to draw in the lines and start creating your own reality of what you want.

15:40 And I was able to use a lot of the practice best Practices and knowledge that I learned during Consulting that, I would see these companies run into and that they could have avoided five, ten years ago and and avoid implementing those now.

15:54 Yeah. So if I saw something Askew and I was like that's going to come back to bite Us in five years, I would know to put some effort into and fix it so it's great training for becoming an entrepreneur. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

16:07 And a lot of long hours and wearing many hats and there's not like dedicated persons like you do this And you do that. It's everyone's trying to chip in and do work, which is very helpful, but sometimes there's too many cooks in the kitchen and there. Yeah.

16:21 Different teams running parallel, that don't even know they're working on the same project. And then you have a launch of, like, say a marketing platform or a brand or ad campaign or something, and you're have two teams running on it. They don't even know the other teams running on it and then all of a sudden you have two very different campaigns about what to go with. so it made it very Yeah. Very different and very fast-paced than consulting, which had a lot of benefits, but

16:54 also, that's what I started working a lot and I was trying to keep up with the pace and no matter how I learned, no matter how much you fast you work, there's always going to be more work and it took me a while to learn that one because it Consulting you had your list. This is what you had to do when you finish it, you're done for the day here.

17:14 It just never stops. It was it just never ends. Yeah, I think that's a really going to be a very common thread with all the people that we interview in this podcast. So maybe what are some realizations now that you're a few years older and you're removed from it just that type of environment? What what does it start to do to you if you don't have your head on straigh?

17:37 Yeah, not completely passionate about it and it's not your dream. Maybe you're building somebody else's dream. That's what I always like to say. Like you, I feel like I'm spending 12 hours a day to build. Somebody else's dream and it's not necessarily my dream, right, right. How does how does that eventually begin? How did it eventually begin to affect you? Not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Yeah.

17:59 And as I began to create this canvas and paint this picture, it became my own creation, my own baby, even though I was creating something for somebody else and building someone else's dream, the project that I was working on was like my baby.

18:16 This is what I'm working on. So, Become very emotionally invested and I want to make sure it goes right. I want to make sure it goes smoothly and I put in so much time and effort making sure of this what I give up is the energy. I mean you only have so much energy that you can function on in a date and a life.

18:38 Yeah and if I'm spending all my energy on work different parts of my life, such as friends, family relationships, different things that are Part of a normal human life, begin to receive less of a priority and so I noticed that I was skipping friends birthdays or Gatherings and get-togethers or so tired from and burnt out from working within the dead when it want to go do things or when it want to eat dinner or I was just a really emotionally draining because I was always thinking

19:10 about my project and what comes next? And how do I accomplish that? And that's it's a Down. Of thinking because even if you complete what comes next there's always something next after that. Yeah and so I began to become very emotionally cut off for my friends. I had a girlfriend at the time, it began to separate us as I became much more invested in my work than her and our relationship.

19:37 And it became something that just overtook my life, I would work. And then when I'm not working, I would be on my phone being a uber and be Responding to emails, I would get home at night. If I got 30 minutes, I'll get some more work done.

19:52 Yeah. Wake up in the morning. All I got some emails. I'll punch these out before I get to work and so it really takes all your time and your energy that you could be putting towards other things and you only have so much. And so that really opened my eyes about prioritizing what is important in your life and he's looking back. Now, do you see the link between perhaps how you were raised and how growing up?

20:17 A house like that and then getting a job like that. It's almost like the perfect fire for you as a young man to just completely run yourself into the. Yeah. Absolutely. Because I wanted to be a perfectionist. I wanted things to be perfect and work and I was raised in a sense to get my school work done and complete everything and do it. Well, and once I started working a job like this, it was just a recipe for disaster after a while. I ended up I mean, it's starting

20:48 to work 12 14, 16 18 hour days, there's days, I slept at the office, it's just easier than going home and sleeping for a couple hours and it really became draining on me as I lost sleep as I lost and emotional connection with people and really alienated myself from my friends group and kind of what I wanted to do. Yeah.

21:12 Yeah, so so let's talk about the deterioration of Brent and and what began to happen because I know it actually got significantly worse. Oh yeah, so from there, I ended up leaving this job. I just had enough. It was too much. I couldn't take it all on.

21:31 There was some events that happen that really just fueled the fire. For example, my manager ended up moving to Amsterdam where he and started building a team there. But we opened up a new location over there and what happened was instead of him, just moving there and taking all his responsibilities. Now that I was here and the next one in line, I ended up absorbing so many of his responsibilities and so it just became so overwhelming.

22:03 I was ignoring my girlfriend. We were having problems and it was just I was diving into work more. Yeah, and I ended up Having the explosion of everything because work wasn't working out even though I would want to put more and more hours into it and the quality of my work was diminishing because I was so fatigued emotionally mentally that in deities. Yeah, they're right.

22:28 And it was just became too overwhelming for me and I started building up a lot of anxiety and a lot of anxiousness about getting the work done and because it wasn't getting done and it wasn't getting done it. Quality that I was used to I became more anxious about it which was causing more problems and it became this self Desiring.

22:50 Yeah prophecy that ended up just exploding one day and I would just I just couldn't take enough, I lost my job, my girlfriend and my home all in one week, it just came to a big halt, I just couldn't take it anymore. I ended up breaking up with my girlfriend leaving my job and because we live together losing my home all in the same week and I thought if I could leave my job, I could get back to a mental state and get something going.

23:22 But it just all This exploded at once. And and that's not even the full Rock Bottom because that was just proud. That was just the moment of impact. Yeah. And then after that, I think he's as I know things began to unravel even more. When you're out your outside, life fell apart and then you're inside your body actually began to break down, correct? Yeah, so for the three months after that, I was, I did not want to work, I was depressed.

23:52 From breaking up with my girlfriend we have been with, for years. Depressed, I had to move out of San Francisco. I went home and lived with my parents and literally just slap. Oh, how old are you? 27 26, 27. The Humbling thing moving back home is actually really nice because they were that gave me the space to have this time to rest and recuperate and it was an ego drop because I had to move home with my parents, but I knew it was only temporarily and it gave me space to sleep in to

24:22 rest and to recharge my batteries that I needed. So desperately much. And it gave me time to kind of reassess my life of what I want. And really look at what was important to me. Because now at our been in San Francisco for the first job that wasn't working out.

24:43 Now the second startup that wasn't working out as what do I need to change to fix this? To be happy? Did you have any type of spiritual practice at that point? Or was it just? No, absolutely not. No, no time for that. I didn't know what that was now. Yeah, it was All about work and then some physical activity and then go home, eat and everything had to be productive, everything I did had to be make money or be productive or do something to enhance the business side of my

25:15 life. And if it sounds so now that I haven't lived in America for three and a half years, it sounds so American, yeah, everything is du du, du du du sous-titrage, you can consume. Yep, So that you can consume right? Yeah, I can relate to it so much. Even as a yoga teacher in Los Angeles, there was just such an emphasis on that and then and then that thing that dream becomes its own little hamster, wheel, right? And you have to ask yourself like is it really worth it? You know I I love teaching yoga

25:53 so I can work a 12-hour day and come home and be happy, right? You know those you up exactly but You know, if you're a professional athlete, like a guy like LeBron James, you know, or somebody like that is, you know, he's not going to not work incredibly hard because you have even given an opportunity to have a dream life, right? And yeah, for think, for some for some people that is the dream life, but it wasn't your dream. So then what was the next?

26:22 Yes. So on your journey, I ended up Getting an offer for another startup, a friend that I had at that first startup had come to me with an amazing opportunity. He said I've seen the work that you've done at before and how dedicated you are and how good you are at doing what you do and especially when it comes to Building Systems and operations.

26:45 And and thinking about things logically, I was great at it and I loved it. I was just wasn't in the right environment and so he ended up setting up this is after a couple months of Being on a break and off ended up setting up an interview and kind of pushing me and nudging me to come down and interview for this place.

27:03 And at first as a huh, I don't really want to do that and he just kept nudging, me and as okay, I'll come down and just check it out and see what you guys are doing. And I ended up almost missing the interview and canceling.

27:15 The first one, which would have just changed my life forever. Yeah. Ended up going to the interview and just knocking it out of the park and they loved what I was doing. I just come back from a vacation. Ian's I'm growing my hair out a little bit. Longer had some hippie Vibes going on that started to show and they were just like who is this guy? Just comes back on vacation just waltzes in here and knocks this interview out and yeah he's got to be awesome and so ended up going through this interview

27:45 process, kind of not taking it seriously. So you crushed the interview because you were spiritually, Recharge out. Yeah, it's a knot on a spiritual level, but spiritual always recharge recharge, your able to be yourself and kind of not give a fuck and I walked in the interview and just killed it, right?

28:05 Which is such a lesson that like, when we are in a state of relaxation, right? And open Consciousness, you can the quality of what we do goes up so much versus trying to do seven things at once, right? Having no energy for absolutely.

28:21 Yeah. So having this time to recharge, Really just enabled me to be able to relax and just live life being flow. And it really showed off because I was able to just tap into my natural abilities, talents and knowledge and just go with the flow for the interview.

28:39 Yeah, which is a lot more relaxing than practicing and studying and doing interview questions and being all tied up and trying to perform and trying to make yourself presentable and trying to be. Be, you know, the best of the best you can do that naturally, if you just be yourself.

28:58 Yeah. So I think From what I'm hearing though. There is still a lesson that you haven't learned yet, correct? Because you you were relaxed and open, then you went right back into the same environment and just ran yourself into the ground again.

29:15 Yeah, right well it's the the hit the past, I knew it's what I knew how to do. I was really good at it, I enjoyed doing it. Yeah, and this new opportunity gave me a chance to have another blank canvas and to build something on my own and I had a lot.

29:31 More freedom here, which made it appealing and a lot more support which so, when once I first started the position, it was very supportive and helpful to get me going. And what I needed my team was willing to help and I had the freedom to build things the way I wanted to, or needed to, for the best of the business. And so I ended up dedicating In about 2 years there three years working and building and for the first year year and a half, I was all drinking the Kool-Aid

30:10 company mall and this is awesome. Like it's great. I'm a lot more relaxed and I was coming off that recharge and still draining what I had built up but at a much slower rate and over time the company started again because it's a start-up started growing really fast.

30:29 We went from I think 70 people when I was there too there's like over 1,000 now on. It just has grown at it much. Yeah. And it put immediately put me in a position of power and influence within the company because I was there from the start.

30:47 I knew how things worked. I was setting up a lot of the operating procedures and I was, everyone was very dependent on what I had built and had created after about two years their two and a half years. I remember they were having we were having Aim company meeting and the one of the executive teams made a joke about me that they needed to take out an extra life insurance policy on me. Because if anything were to happen to me, that I, the company wouldn't explode have

31:17 put explosive? Probably loved hearing that. Yeah, well I loved hearing it but that was also an eye-opener of. Yeah. Oh like I'm such a lynchpin here. It's if something happens to me seriously something is not good. So because of the perfection Isn't that made me made you put even more pressure, on yourself versus taking it as a compliment, which is what I think he was actually trying to do, right? It's interesting.

31:41 And so that's kind of the Turning Point turning time. When I started really investing more time and energy to make sure things go smoothly and it started causing anxiety and causing stress because things needed to be done, right?

31:56 If something were to happen, it's on me. And I became a bottleneck for many things which Is compounded to the anxiety and stress that was coming from the normal day-to-day job. And I reached out to my manager and my team is what we need to hire some people because I'm getting really overworked and I need some help.

32:17 This is this is growing a lot faster and becoming a lot more work than I can handle. And I was able to recognize that and see that. Yeah, but because we were a fast growing company. It took us months to find someone to come in and Help. This didn't want anybody.

32:34 There was a strict, very strict hiring process for this company and they wanted people that aligned with the company they wanted. You have to have a position, has to be rewarding, you have to want to do it, the company needs you, and you got to fit the culture and this is just not your typical place. It was just shoeless place and so people didn't wear shoes in the office.

32:57 That's cool. It's like it just like pissed off. Yeah. Just like the Bali office, my And I are going to run you into the ground. That's our plan, by all 15 hours a day, working for the rat race for belly. I hope I've learned by now and so I would work more and more, and more and put time into what I loved and my passion.

33:18 But it became more and more overwhelming. And eventually because of the Perfections and you it's really it's really that, that quote, I figured who said it, but perfectionism is the highest form of self-abuse because you're sick. Exceeding.

33:32 You're so good at your job, but more and more pressure. You're putting on yourself. Yeah, underneath it. There's maybe a sense of inadequacy, at least the Omni speak from my experience, overcoming perfectionism, which was a massive shift in my life when I was able to overcome perfectionism, everything changed for me and, and perhaps that's what it was for you. It just really seems like that.

33:58 For those perfectionist Straits were Killing you, right. Literally, literally, yeah. And as I spent more time, there my emotional, energy went down. My spiritual energy, was completely drained. And I started to have effects on the physical body. Like what, and what was the, what was the worst moment? I want to like, put us in a moment that you remember, where it was really your lowest point before? The actual physical injury was there it was. There are men.

34:31 It'll or emotional Rock Bottom. Yeah. It was Thanksgiving the last year that I was there and I had built this program that interfaced with our back-end system. So transferred, all the information between our systems and it was very critical that this thing ran, right? And if there was any problems it was detrimental to the business because it was loss of data loss of transactions. It was very important at this ran, right? And it was something that

35:02 somebody else had built and I had modified and kind of made work and as it worked for the time being while I was there but over the time more and more people had signed up. So it started reading reaching the limits of the capacity of what it was able to handle because with technology when you transacting one, two, three transactions versus a hundred thousand transactions. A day, there's limits are speed limits. There's processing power.

35:32 And so we started reaching those limits and I was on vacation which is I think the first vacation I'd really taken for a long time to visit my sister out in Tennessee and while I was out there, it was her birthday and something had gone wrong with this program and it was part of my thing coming out.

35:50 There was I'm not going to work this my time off. I need some time off to rest and recharge and that I get ended up getting a code. Red, Red Alert. Shit's going down. You need to fix this and I was remote. So I was far away, I couldn't be with the team. It was my sister's birthday, and I was like, this is this is killing me.

36:11 I have to do this because my job depends on at the company, like this stuff depends on this. So I can't say no. And I ended up having to work many hours of her birthday. She was upset because I had come out there to see her and spend time with her for her birthday and it was emotionally draining for me. And at that time, I started developing really bad back pain and back spasms because of just long hours of sitting and of the distress being in that time and

36:41 that's really where the first pinpoint of the downfalls started. Yeah. Okay. And then how bad did it get in terms of the lower back pain? Yeah, so it started out with some spasms. I wasn't able to stand up or sit down from a chair and 27 years old when he seven and you were healthy too. Yeah, I looked healthy.

37:03 Yeah, I looked healthy and hit the gym. I had a six-pack I you know ran and lifted weights. So so on the outside. A man of 27 years old, weightlifter the six-pack and Couldn't stand up from a chair, right? Yeah. Had trouble standing up sitting down and started with spasm so that your, my back would get into these muscle spasms, which is your muscle becoming really tight to protect the spine.

37:29 Yeah. And it's still get really tight and it would get so tight that I couldn't stand up or sit down, or if I was in a position. One time, I remember getting a pot out of my cabinet and I had gone down and it went into spasm. And I laid on the floor for hours because I couldn't get up and my girlfriend at the time was at work. And I just had to lay there.

37:46 I couldn't move and I just laid on the kitchen floor for hours. So literally the on are very primitive level. The brain was sending signals to your body. Something is trying to kill us. Yeah. And you were tightening so much that you just froze, right.

38:01 And then it and yet ended up that defense mechanism actually got. So Overheated over wired your body begin to shut down, right? And it, my body was sending me signals. The first start with pain and spasms, and it was saying right alert stop doing this.

38:18 But because I had this job that was number one priority. So I have to get this done, I need to ignore the back pain. And so, I went to the doctor, got some pills from muscle spasm and just work through it, of course, bills bills.

38:31 Yeah, solid problem with pills. Yeah, they wouldn't work somewhat, but it would get me through the day, and then I would be able to relax. The weekend. And then it was always by the end of the week. By the end of the day, it was the worst.

38:42 And by the end of the week, it was the worst. And then I would have a couple days off to lay in bed and relax and then my Monday I was somewhat ready to go. But doing this week after week, by the time Monday came around, I was less and less and less ready to get into the to get into a sitting position. Yeah.

38:59 And so this became significantly worse from back, spasms to ended up developing sciatica down my right leg ended up Up having numbness and tingling down my legs. I can't feel my toes and got to the point where I was not able to lift my leg, and I had what you call a drop foot and I couldn't lift my leg. So I trip over wires.

39:21 I couldn't walk up and down stairs. I had to use a cane. How scary was that really scary? How it was? I mean, I'm an athletic person and I wanted had a history of running for 20 whole ordeal or not 07 not ever way. And I can't get up a chair.

39:37 I can't sit down for longer than a few minutes. And so, even going to work was difficult because I would have to spend 40 minutes in the car. And so it eventually became, I was working started working from home. One, two, three, four days. And when I would go into the office, I remember one day I went into the office and it was so painful that I took some pills to get in got into the office. And when I got there, I had a back spasm and it became so tight and so painful that I had

40:06 to kick. All out of a conference room all day and I clear the whole conference room the whole day. So I could lay down because I couldn't sit back down to go home. I couldn't like it was too painful I couldn't get back in a car, to go home.

40:21 So I was literally stranded at work. I couldn't work. And so all day just laid on the couch and the conference room and that was like, wow, this is really getting serious. And so this is like Rock, Bottom Rock, Bottom. The previous Rock Bottom was going home and Licking your wounds with your parents and then you went back. And now this is rock-bottom guy gets a little deeper than that. So this is all started working this way. So I went to the doctor and went

40:51 and got MRIs, ended up seeing multiple doctors about my condition and Mirai x-rays different spine, a spinal surgeon. A neurosurgeon different Specialists about the different parts of the body and it all came back that I had in several and Bulging herniated discs in my lower back and a couple other back problems.

41:14 Disc problems and what basically had started to happen is my lower back, had started to give up, there's too much stress and pressure on it from sitting these long hours and my back was trying to protect it. My muscles and my back but because I had been ignoring the problems and had just kept working and taking pills. And by the way this way This time I started taking morphine to get through the day and I've become addicted to painkillers. Would you say no?

41:43 Not at all. You lucky thing, you got hated those things. Yeah, they were so easy to get off. By the time I got off of Amazon him for eight months, but by the time I was done with them, as they just ruined my motivation to do anything and I mentally wanted to get off them so bad but I needed them to get through the day and to get going because at one point around Rock Bottom is I ended up working from home permanently and staying from home and not leaving my bed for weeks months.

42:12 I've seen my apartment for three months and all I would do is either go to physical therapy walks and that was about it. And so it became just so debilitating that I was not able to perform and I couldn't go to the office, but I could work from home. I could be in my bed and I could lay down and I bought a really nice fancy bed.

42:34 Spent a couple like seven, eight grand on a new temper. Look, bad with the movable parts that can had a remote. That would set me up and down. Oh nice. And then a desk for my bed that hung around and swiveled in front of my bed. So, even all that's going on.

42:51 I said, I'm not listening to you body. I'm still going to work and still move forward. And I just adapted and bought the things I needed to get through the day rather than addressing the problem. It sounds like the universe was really banging on your door and trying to get you to learn this. This lesson.

43:08 Yeah. And you're very stubborn stubborn and wanted to perform and do good at work and so I'm your parents to. It's like it's also like yeah raised in that environment to for success success and I'm sure you're like, my parents love me. Your parents love you, but it's also like when we take that that attitude of Excellence, which I think is a positive attitude, but then you combine it with the lessons that we have to learn in our 20s Excellence turned into

43:36 perfectionism. And perfectionism self-destruct, right, right. And, and I was raised to hold myself up to very high standards to, and I had to learn a similar lesson in my life, where it wasn't Excellence. It was perfectionism. And it just destroyed me.

43:53 Yeah, so yeah, it's really interesting to hear your your, your journey because mine is so different. But so similar and it's all that toxic perfectionism mixed with the intensity of The American Life. Yeah and do see the lure of the million dollars and the power and the fancy cars and all of it that really comes that were programmed to believe is the carrot.

44:23 You know, that that leads to happiness or the the care that the dangle in front of us, right? And this is where I was just not listening to this lesson and I wanted to do and produce and I'm finally at my company for three years. Doing well and a position that I was like. This is my dream position.

44:41 This is what I want to do. I'm I have a team now. I'm the company's growing like crazy. I'm killing it at work. I love what I do. This is awesome. I don't want to give this up, but my body was saying stop. Stop don't and this anymore and I just wasn't listening. So the more I didn't listen, the more my body was just okay. We're going to we're going to teach you a lesson. Yeah.

45:04 And so, after a couple months of being in Bad and can't get up. I had to have people come over to help clean up for me to do my laundry. I couldn't see friends, I couldn't go out to eat dinner at restaurants because that involves sitting down or getting in a car.

45:20 I literally could not move from my bed and I ended up really having a wake up call that this shouldn't be happening. I ended up going to 14 different. Doctors all saying that you have these disc. Columns and the only way to fix it is to get surgery.

45:41 And I look around, I'm 27, I would go to these doctors, he's pain management places and everyone else. Therefore the same problem is in their 70s 80s and I'm like, why is this happening to me? This is not, I don't believe in this and the more I started looking into my problem and rather than running away from the pain and started tapping into it and listening to it the more it opened up like ho this Maybe this has something to do with what you're doing and

46:10 working and how your lifestyle is and really had an eye-opening to, okay? Maybe I should just stop working so maybe those moments where you started listening to the quiet voice, yes the ego voice, right? Really thinking in shift and tapping in and not taking my morphine and actually listen to the pain and feel it and like have a conversation with it.

46:33 Yeah. And talk to my body internally. And this is where I started to build some spiritual Polity and my mental connection with my body started to grow as I listened to it, and ended up coming to the decision that I needed to not, be working and sitting down.

46:50 And I had scheduled surgery. I think all the doctors are telling me, this is the only way to go and it's scheduled surgery to have the my disks cut off. So I hadn't had that. Yeah, and I just didn't want to do it. I was like, this is crazy that I'm this young and the this is ha. I mean, why is, why is this and I ended up? Leaving my job.

47:16 On disability said I can't do this anymore, I can't work. I need to stop this and within a couple weeks of not sitting down and working every single day, I got like 20 percent better and so it was like a signal like whoa, this can get better as able to actually go on walks around the block chords to do this. Do do do started practicing yoga by literally standing on the mat and opening my legs, and that was my yoga. Yeah, and he's getting into like

47:42 child's pose or cobra. That's like all I could do not even cold or sinks at that time, it's that and this is gave me the motivation. Like this can change this can get better. It's not have to be this way. I don't maybe not have to get the surgery and it came to a day before the surgery. I was able to walk around and go on walks and like in a much better motivated, mood, like maybe this can change, this can happen and I called my surgeon and said I getting better, it's nowhere near complete. but I

48:14 don't want the surgery, because the more I read about the surgery, the more it's it's Bad. I mean, it's something you're cutting off a part of your body that you can't. That doesn't go back. You can't replace and it's your foundational. It's your spine, it's not something that. Yeah, it's well, it just seems like and I personally, and I'm sure you as well.

48:36 I'm not against Western medicine, nothing wrong. Absolutely not all. Except that within Western medicine, there's usually an attitude of, there's a problem and let's fix the Problem with pills or surgery versus well, let's rewind this and see, where did the problem come from and can, can we cure the problem by not doing those toxic behaviors?

49:04 And I think a lot of the problems that a lot of people are dealing with, can be solved with a massive, not a massive, but a significant lifestyle shift. Yeah. And that obviously worked for you and I've seen it work for so many people and that doesn't mean that I or you or this podcast is against Western medicine, but also looking at other ways, natural ways to heal yourself in the body wants to heal, right?

49:35 The body wants to operate at an optimal level but it can't, if you're sitting at a desk and 12 hours a day, it's not possible the right time and resources and energy to heal and in the, my body can do miraculous things and And that's where I believed I had surgery before and after that surgery, I said I'm never getting surgery again and six eight months later, this was coming up and yeah like this isn't happening.

50:00 Don't believe in it. I know my body can heal. We do research online and find a. 1% of people can get better from this and I made the decision. You're the one percent, I'm the one percent. Yeah, you go to rallies. You tell people I'm in the 1%.

50:16 Yeah, I am the one percent or not even a 1%. Tenth of a percent. Yeah, because Western medicine really looks at just the problem and you have this one problem and we're going to fix this by doing something to it. Whether it's surgery or pills and master problem, and I got introduced to this Eastern healer that I saw in San Francisco. Who opened my eyes to this Eastern philosophy of. There's a larger picture.

50:40 You have this one problem but it's all connected to everything else. And yeah, you're having back pain. But what's that coming from? Is that from stress? Is that from your lifestyle? Is that from That desk, like, is it something that you are doing in your living? Whereas the Western philosophy was. You have back pain?

50:57 That's because your disc is bulging. Yeah. And so cut off the disc and it's solved. Yeah, Eastern philosophy. What lifestyle, he's causing the disc to bulge. Yeah. And so I ended up getting hope that I could fix this and I wanted to do this and I can surgery the day before surgery and went on this healing Journey for the next two, three. Years of overcoming, this disability and fixing my back through mostly are all natural remedies all-natural X. Yeah.

51:29 Stress Management. Healthy living, right. By this time, I was still on the morphine and still using physical therapy and which was helpful. I'm doing different remedies and was had a couple epidural shots which are like steroids for your back.

51:49 They were Twenty-five thousand apiece and I had five of them and it was something that was beneficial for a couple weeks but then the pain would come back. Yeah. And I really started addressing the bigger picture, which was me working in sitting and, and sitting, and really sacrificing my body to do something.

52:11 Yeah, and I ended up leaving the job, went on disability and and said, I can't do this right now. I, this is just Like what my options were as to get the surgery, cut it off, be back and I would be feeling good and back to the job that may cause a million bucks, man. And so that didn't make sense to me to go get surgery to be out of a job that was causing this in the first place having that understanding just didn't make sense. And so I said, I'm gonna give

52:40 this a try. I'm gonna go six months, eight months, almost like you were on the hamster wheel and you literally broke your back and you couldn't get on it. You fell over. Yeah, and you're like, oh maybe I can't actually go back. This this wheel was killing me.

52:55 Yeah, so there's not really much of a, right? There's a big like wake-up call and it dropped me. The universe. Just smacked me knocked me off and then I had the realization. I don't have to get back on that thing. Yeah maybe there's another path.

53:10 Maybe there's like not a wheel. Maybe a journey or a path that I wanted to do and it was something that I've been pursuing since the first job when I realized I didn't want to Have this life all planned out for me and I'll grade and understanding. And so maybe there's a lifestyle where it's new and it's exploring unknown paths and traveling to something new and greater than myself.

53:35 Yeah. So then yeah. So I guess that's the, this is the moment, the moment in which you really decided to change and to Rebel young the rattle. Yeah. And I came to the decision that my life was not Not meant to be sitting behind a computer and I don't want to be sitting in a desk.

53:54 I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm not going back to that willing to do anything. Whatever it took, whatever to not go back, write that right? Like I could like the option was there, get surgery. I'd be back in a couple weeks and I'm back to doing what I was doing.

54:07 That was definitely an option. Yeah. And I could have had that and been right back in it, but I've had this wake-up call several times now and I suppose finally listening like maybe that's not what I need to be doing. Because I might get that surgery, I'm going to be back working that job sitting down again and what in a couple years and I can have another surgery or my back is going to be fused.

54:30 Yeah, this just doesn't make sense to me. I don't want to go down that path and so, I started really taking my physical therapy. Seriously, going several times a week, doing Aqua therapy and the pool going on walks a lot of walking and started incorporating yoga and different In techniques, like the McKenzie method which was really focused on creating space in my joints and, and extending the spine so that my disk could essentially slip back in.

55:03 Yeah and what, I've everything that I was doing was tightening all the sitting weight lifting running was tightening all my muscles and squeezing and making compressing compressing was making it stick out. So the idea was if I can do that it will just slip right back in yeah.

55:19 And so So every day I was doing therapy couple times a day I wake up and do my exercises very determined like when I decide on something I am all in. Yeah, so how what would you say to other people that might be struggling with something similar? Like what, what allowed you to find that inner resolve within yourself that like, no matter what? I am going to heal myself, I'm going to get rid of these. These toxic behaviors and begin to live a more healthy life. But would you say to you just

55:47 probably people listening that can relate to this store? Absolutely. You got to give it your all, there's no foot in foot out. It is all in and you got to be making willing to make some sacrifices and changes that you didn't realize that you could make like, you can like leaving your job. That's killing you.

56:03 If that's the case. What else? More like, more specific steps in a specific doing exercises multiple times throughout the day. Leaving, things that are hurting you, but you want to do, for example, I knew getting in a car and sitting down for dinner.

56:20 Honor I was hurting me, I could go do it, but it was hurting me. And so I had to give up relationships that I had with people that I would go regularly out for dinner for drinks and I couldn't meet with people, I had to give this up.

56:33 Yeah. And I said this is not aligned with my healing process. I need to cut it out. Now, I need to not go in a car. Yeah, I got to figure that out. I get if I can walk there, I can go there. I gotta see if I got to get in a car for longer than 20 minutes.

56:47 No, it's out. I think that's a really Common lessons that in order to Really Leave The Matrix or get out of the Rat Race, you have to do things that are very Against the Grain. Yes, be willing to stay home. Be willing to say no to certain social events that the rest of the world is doing to change your diet, absolute change your exercise patterns to commit to morning routine or whatever it is. It requires a lot of resilience right? Because, you know there's that

57:15 krishnamurti. Quote it's no measure of good health to be well adjusted. Do a profoundly sick Society. So the more we're in that Society while trying to heal and live our best life, the easier it is to get sucked back in.

57:31 So so yeah. Yeah. Just telling people like, you have to go all in you, no matter no matter what. I will not go back to this no matter what, I'm going to start living a healthy. I'm going to probably weightlifting was not good for you so you had to do other things that.

57:48 Yeah so there's something that on the outside. Is healthy but for your body was not working, right? And yeah, so then after, after committing to this for six or seven months, is that the point in which you, you decided to go even further out of the Rat Race and leave the United States, what happened then? Yeah, that wasn't really intentional. I came to the conclusion that San Francisco is way too expensive for me and for what I was trying to do and he'll I needed to not be around

58:17 distractions of friends and cultural events. It's social, Gatherings because that just made me want to do that, which was not heal. And I said, I need to just get out of San Francisco. And so I moved out and moved down to Southern California for to a friend's house of mine, where he was him. And his family was so amazing to give me a place to stay during this time.

58:43 Yeah. And I'm so appreciative for that, for that space. That I could be somewhere where I am. Supported and I have the ability to have healing modalities around me where I can access and be away from distractions and be in a place that I essentially want it to be. Yeah.

59:05 And so during that time, I started doing a lot more yoga and I have a good friend of mine and Drew Seeley. Ended up having a yoga teacher Yoga Retreat, one week, Yoga Retreat in Bali. Yeah, and it was his first Retreat. And I've known him for a long time and it was like, Hey, you having this Retreat.

59:25 That's awesome. I want to come support you. It's yoga. I'm just learning yoga like, I want to explore this and check this out because I found that yoga was being super helpful to my healing. Yeah. And and then it was in a place that I've been wanting to go ball which was pretty incredible. And I saw this opportunity to do this and Okay, I'm going to go, there ended up booking a flight for, I think, two weeks came to the yoga training, got here and

59:57 said, why do I have to do everything that I was doing? Why can't I just be here? I can do all my healing here. I can do my yoga, I can do my physical therapy, I've access to good, healthy food, it's in an island with sunshine and there's not cars. You can walk around and be on a motorbike and everything that I could do back there, I could do here with less effort, less cost and be somewhere, beautiful.

1:00:25 And the cost of living is in the cost of living is refraction of San Francisco. So I was like, I could live for a month in San Francisco or a year out here. Yeah. And this was a big help, especially when I didn't have an income now.

1:00:35 Yeah. And so, I really took my life and flipped it upside down and really analyzed it and started to dissect my life of what I was doing and wanted to re-engineer it. And I wanted to find out I did What I was going to do for money but that wasn't my concern.

1:00:53 It was question. I did. You have a bunch of money saved? I ordered at least a small. Yeah, enough. Yeah. You you had enough saved in San Francisco that save you money. Yeah, save your money. Get out of debt. Yeah, anybody who's listening to this, get out of debt, particularly credit card debt, any kind any type of high interest consumer-based debt, get rid of ya and save your money if you're going to do this, if you're going to jump out of the Rat Race, my parents taught me that to have Slush

1:01:20 fund or rainy day fund. And I had I think about enough money to live for a year without working. That's in San Francisco. Yeah. And I'd saved up money and which is really helpful. At this point our I can bring it to baldy and multiply it.

1:01:34 Yeah. And so, I started re-engineering my life saying, I don't know what I'm going to do for money, I have enough to get me going for a little while, but I want to re-enter my re-engineer, my life didn't do something that I want to do and create something that my life is worth living.

1:01:50 In a place that I want to be and really create that life where I'm happy and I'm enjoying and finding myself a lot more. And I know once I do those things and do what I love that the money will come because it's just a matter of thought.

1:02:08 And I didn't want to go to a place and start the whole Rat Race over of just living for a paycheck and then taking that paycheck and spending it on the weekend and goods and things that I don't need. I wanted to reverse it and say, I want to build a life that I need, and then I want, and then I'll figure out how the money and it all works later, and it will all happen because I'm happy and living a life of purpose and doing things that I want to be doing.

1:02:34 So, I'm going to find an Avenue for that. Yeah. It's I think it sounds like it all happened because you had an equal amount of adventurousness and risk-taking, but also, you were practical enough to save your money. Spend responsibly to not get into debt because that's a huge part of it to write.

1:02:54 Like you're not, you know, the the world doesn't have its foot on your throat, right financially, that's where it gets you, when you graduate college it's by all the fancy things name-brand things, don't save your money.

1:03:06 Go have fun. Yeah and then five ten years into it, you have Long's you have debts, you have credit card debts, you have a car, you have all these things that you literally cannot leave at that point because all of this will crush you. Yeah.

1:03:20 And I was fortunate enough to have the foresight to not. Do those things in advance and kind of live below. My means and save some money which really helped enable where I was able to go afterwards. Yes, so what would you say that once you moved here to Bali life is not perfect and Vale, it's great here, it's wonderful. But what are some of the adjustments that you had to make in terms of Attitude shifts or learning how to support yourself here.

1:03:51 Now, like, how are you supporting yourself now, are you yet, supporting yourself or you still living on your savings? Just, let's talk about some practical. Yeah, things in terms of just day-to-day life. I would say go with the flow and life goes on as a big part of living out here. Yeah.

1:04:10 That you need to learn that life will be okay. It's not going to be perfect and things are definitely different out here. Things don't always go your way. You don't have access to all the amenities that you had before all the things that you want to buy aren't available here in such Capacity where you could just go out and buy things.

1:04:35 It wasn't as easy not as convenient. Yeah. And do you could get things out here for sure but you have to learn that you can live with all tile, all these things. Yeah and all my, I put all my stuff in storage, came out here with one backpack.

1:04:49 I one suitcase and a backpack and really found that I can live a lot more minimally with less things and be just as happy, they made a scene in minimalist back. Yeah, that's awesome. And I'm not that minimalist. But yeah, I do believe that I don't need, there's things that I need and I want good quality and those things in my life and then other things, I don't necessarily need to have.

1:05:14 Yeah. And it's been an adjustment of the mentality to live out here because it's not so much of a fast-paced go-go-go produce life. It's more of a go with the flow and things happen and that can be too. Much here 20 can be too much just like I think place like San Francisco or New York or La can be too intense. It can be to, like floaty here.

1:05:40 Yeah, you know. So I know from experience that there are times when it's too much rights to slow here. Like I want that intensity. Right. Little bit of. Yeah. Struggle is actually good. Right? As it keeps a sharp. It keeps us on our toes, right?

1:05:56 I think that's it's a very masculine thing. Yeah. To actually want to be slightly uncomfortable. Second, it's a healthy masculine thing, and would be very, it can be a very flowy, very feminine, very flowy. But when I came out here, that's what I needed. Yeah, it's something different and I know how to be productive and go go go.

1:06:15 But I needed to swing the pendulum the other way and balance out my life. Yeah. And to find a place that worked for me that I could do that was essential and creating a life of Happiness was happy and healthy. It was my number one criteria. Want to be in a place where I could do my healing and work on my back and do my exercises and be in a place where I am enjoying life and want to live life and not it's Monday. Oh, it's I got another list.

1:06:49 I've got that and I do things that I will want to do rather than I have to do and whether that be a social thing or something. From business. And I'm able to create a lifestyle that is enjoyable. And I find just exciting to live.

1:07:10 Yes, it's given me the energy to pursue now. Pursue passions that are going to help financially support me. Yeah. And create a place that I love living and doing things that are not necessarily productive. Like for example, I've taken up Fire spinning recently.

1:07:30 Yeah, which is definitely not not. It's something that creates money and creates wealth, but it's just living in the moment and being passionate about what you're doing. Yeah, which is amazing, it's beautiful. And same thing.

1:07:46 I've now, that I've been able to strengthen my back, I've was introduced to acroyoga about a year year and a half ago at this point, and it was something that was very difficult for me to start. I always saw it as like, that looks awesome. Like, what are they doing?

1:08:01 Like that looks like such a fun playful thing to do, but my back. No way I can do that. No, no. And so I strengthen my back, I started healing and getting in a place where yes, I could do it and I would ended up starting very slowly.

1:08:17 And now a crows been weekly almost daily passion of mine that I'm heavily involved in here and really part of the community here and it's a big part of my My life here. And it's not something that's productive or makes money and something just for enjoyment, and for the playfulness and connection with another human being, and really able to actually, now that I've been doing it for a while, to really help strengthen my core and my back and keeps me strong and

1:08:47 stable and does it in a playful enjoyable manner that I like to do. And so now that I've found that some of these passions of what I like to do, like acroyoga and fires. Spinning, I'm able to find Avenues to support myself. So it's all along my master plan of creating a life that I want to live and now figuring out how it's going to support itself. And I've really been working hard on creating a strong Acro yoga Community here.

1:09:14 Yeah, we're having weekly classes and jams bringing people together in the community. Also, introducing new people to acroyoga hosted a retreat to write. And yes, that's a long goal for a couple of weeks once the world. Yeah, open.

1:09:27 Yeah, and I start off. Offering Retreats here, right? That's that's the idea and I hope my first Retreat and it was way more successful than I thought. It would be ended up being like 13 people coming amazing. Which was I was like, well, I love hosting things and planning things and bringing people together and this just happened so much inflow that it was. It didn't seem like much effort.

1:09:50 And that's where I know. I'm hitting a sweet spot. Yeah. When it's something that just naturally happens and that's what I'm trying to find. And So eventually I want to Continue doing this and hold more Retreats, I have a festival up and my mind would be an amazing goal. And I know as long as I am working on today and in the moment and whatever I'm doing right now that the next step is going to present itself.

1:10:15 Yeah. And if I am focused on what comes next and in the future then I'm not working on now. And so if I want to get to that next step rather than worrying about that worry about now do it. Well do it all in. And the next will come.

1:10:31 Yeah. And so that's already starting to happen and like I don't I came here not knowing what I was going to do. I like how to support myself how to financially be? I knew that would happen in that would appear if I do this work. Yeah.

1:10:44 And so that's starting to happen. And I've also with my back doing, after yoga is a really big challenge because you're in a awkward position laying on your back. And so I've created amazing back support. Edge for the lower back.

1:11:01 Yeah, that's me there. Yeah, it's called the acro back which is a catchy fun name. I like. And it's basically a two layers of foam that goes underneath your lower back and supports you for Comfort, but also support on the ground. And if you have tight hamstrings are tight back, I just alleviates the stress and takes that pressure off your spine and gets absorbed into this pad.

1:11:25 Yeah, and so I've gone through several prototypes of this and finally have a The production of different products that I have and it's been a big hit people. Use them their wow, this is awesome. I'm like yes, I know. Yeah and it if I didn't have that back injury and pain, I probably wouldn't have come up with something like this, but because I'm hypersensitive to how my back is, I've come up with this product and it's just been really popular and it's

1:11:52 exciting to produce something like this and give it to the acro Community here and eventually, the world. Beautiful. Yeah, I think just in closing, let's hear about what an average day is for you now living in Bali. Indonesia.

1:12:10 I know every day is a little bit different, every day's different, what it looked like from the moment you wake up and to the moment you go to bed. What's your practice? Not just your physical practice. But what other things are you doing to stay emotionally mentally fit?

1:12:25 Yeah, what does that look like for? Yeah. there's, Every day is different to start off, but every day is a blessing and incredible out here and I really started to Value the importance of recharging and sleep is huge to me. Now it's a priority and I make sure I get enough sleep. Yeah, it wasn't before and it was killing me. And now I it's it's a no question. If it's going to impact my sleep I won't take it. Yeah.

1:12:56 And so I see now, without an alarm clock. I wake up naturally. That's by Design because I want to wake up and I wake up, feeling refreshed, I feel good, I get my full sleep, I always dream and always have really intense vivid dreams and I know this is where my body recuperates and it's better. And so this is a priority.

1:13:17 So I wake up in the morning, could be 9:00 could be 11:00. It just depends on my sleep cycle. Yeah. And typically, I wake up, I have a smoothie in the morning, a big protein smoothies, do So, I get the nutrients, I need with different mangoes and bunch of different fruits and really make sure I'm nourished from the inside. And from there, the day could take many different terms but usually involves acroyoga or a yoga practice, our could be a class that I'm holding or a part

1:13:54 of sometimes. There's different filming or photos that need to be taken. Working something during the day. That's usually something. Yeah, towards this Acro back or the acro yoga Community. Right? And then, by the afternoon evening is when I usually go on a sunset walk, which is, I cannot stress, the importance of yaks days, walking in nature, walking in nature. Is it just a great way to de-stress and relax? And I don't bring music or anything and I just go on a walk and that's usually 45 minutes or

1:14:30 an hour. Yeah. Yeah, and again, that is a priority. I do it almost every day and if I'm not walking, I have now started introducing running, which is another way to stay physically in shape, but also mentally stay clear.

1:14:43 Yeah, and I've been listening to audiobooks, which are quite in a credible way to have a positive feed of information that you can have and stay away from just the junk that's out there. And so Refreshing my mental energy and physical energy.

1:15:05 At the same time is quite incredible and then and the evening, having a just a wonderful meal. I cooked almost all my own meals and it's always vegan vegetarian. Lots of greens, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables. That I've bought here in Bali, spend time cooking it time into the meal and not just something microwave or like pasta or something real quick and easy.

1:15:31 And then, by the evening, I'm usually, so just ready for sleep and tired. It's could be chilling out spend a lot of time chilling out on my bed. It's, I like to lay down. I have a heating pad through a nice for my back. So I take care of it and just really taking the time and energy for and me to rest and recharge. And if there's ever a day that I wake up and I'm like, I don't feel good today.

1:15:57 I want to take today off or no Notice that I'm getting worn out. I'm 100% into that and so Mondays, I don't do anything Mondays. My name is our day off which is incredible to have that capacity to do that. And that's again, something that I made a priority, they are have a day off, it is just essential to recharging and that's definitely something that I've learned that you need to be able to live this life and to give your energy, you have to take care of yourself and you need to

1:16:29 recharge So that's all built into my life, which is, and then when I go after things, I'm ready for it. I'm now I'm like full capacity full batteries. I'm charged. I'm, let's go. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah. Well, I think that's just an amazing store and I think you were definitely a rat race, right?

1:16:49 Yeah, I'm a rebel number one Rebel. Yeah. Amen man. Well, thank you so much for being our inaugural guests and being a part of this podcast with us and let's just have a Day. Yeah, this is amazing. Thank you so much for tuning into the Rat Race.

1:17:05 Rebellion podcast. I am your co-host Paul 20 do when Creek, we created this podcast with the intention of really bringing awareness to the gifts that come when you travel the world and next year in 2021, I have a bunch of events coming up in February 20 21, we have a 200, our yoga teacher training in Bali, Indonesia. And then, in June, I have to Retreats one in the south of France and one in San Santorini, Greece. If you're interested in any of these experiences, you can follow me at t0, do yoga guitar,

1:17:37 on Instagram. Send me a message or you can visit elements of Power Yoga.com for the teacher training. Have a beautiful day, namaste.