#127: Gerard Powell on Healing And Finding Light Within Darkness Using Medicinal Plants

Welcome to The Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, bestselling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markel. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your Conscious Pivot.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markel, and I am feeling incredibly grateful today. Beautiful afternoon here in San Diego. I don't know where, you know, where you guys are at the moment, whether it's day or evening, or it's beautiful weather or not, but I am feeling incredibly lucky to just be able to look out at a blue ocean, feel in my body in this moment, feel happy to just be alive, happy to be my own age. Not wishing to be any younger at this point today, which is good. My body feels good. Went surfing yesterday and taking good care of myself, which is super helpful. Feeling again as though everything is so purposeful. Life is not easy. We all know that. Business isn't easy. Relationships aren't easy. Health sometimes isn't easy. We've got our aches and pains and our complaints, and that seems to be a national pastime, or at least an international pastime, this ability to complain about our lot in life. But I can say without a doubt, without a shadow of a doubt, that wherever you are at the moment, Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It is good to be alive. And I'm sending that blessing not just out to all of you that are listening and watching, perhaps, but to everybody in this— on this entire planet, whether they believe what I believe or don't, or believe what you believe or don't. We are all one community of people that breathe the same air, are animated by the same source, and are warmed by the same sun. And I feel really lucky today not only to be in the seat that I'm in, to be doing the work I'm doing, but to have an incredible guest on the show, somebody that I've been actually looking forward to this conversation for a while. We've gotten such great feedback on the show for well over a year now, and I've seen the evolution of the show. I've seen the evolution of pivot stories that have been featured on the show, and it mirrors in many ways my own personal evolution. Which took a very interesting turn in April of this year when I visited a Life Advancement Center. Many of you might not know what a Life Advancement Center is. I'll just say it's a very unique retreat in Costa Rica. And the founder of that retreat is a gentleman who is profoundly interesting, at a minimum, real, I think, a gentleman and somebody with an amazing story and a huge, huge heart. Yeah. But he didn't always have a huge heart, and we'll get into that in just a little bit. We'll dive into some things that talk about the journey, literal and figurative journey, that we're all on in life. Resilience. It's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And in times of massive change and disruption, the kind of rapid change that we're all experiencing as leaders, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we have to learn how to not only increase our own resilience but that of our teams. So right now we have a powerful opportunity for you to find out just how resilient you are. Some years ago, my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilience leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. He is a consciousness thought leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and inspirational speaker. He's the founder of Rythmia Life Advancement Center in Costa Rica, the go-to destination for a spiritually awakening vacation experience. We'll dive into what that means in just a little bit. One of the 1%, he made his millions from creating and selling multiple companies, including ThatLook.com, a pioneer in mass market access to cosmetic surgery. He also founded Truthonomics, an online program teaching the skills and insights essential to a life of manifestation. Wow, that's a lot, and there's more that we'll dive into. Gerard Powell, Gerry, great to have you on the show today, brother. Thank you for being with us.

So nice to be here, Adam. I'm so glad that I could share this time with you.

Yeah, gosh, it's been several months since we actually together in Costa Rica at your place. And, you know, I want to dive into a number of different things, but before we do, you've had a very interesting life, to say the least. I read a little bit of your bio. You and I were just saying before we turned the camera on that there was like a 5-page bio that the team sent over, that Jerry's team sent over, because you've had such a, you know, just done a lot in your life and had a lot of personal transformation, helped a lot of other people transform. What's something that's not written in words what I just read that you would love for people to know about you right out of the gate?

Well, I don't even think of myself as those things. You know, I really— that's something that's probably written by our marketing department, you know? I'm just a guy that had an extraordinary experience and like lived to tell my life story. I don't consider myself a thought leader or any of that stuff. As a matter of fact, I'm not at all special, picked, or chosen. I'm quite the opposite. Well, that's

good. Now we can have a real conversation, I suppose. So, I woke up this morning and the words that came out of my mouth after I said my morning mantra, which I'll share at the end, but the next thing that I said, I thought and then I said was, I wonder what miracles are coming today. I've started saying this every single day. I wonder what miracles are coming today. It was an affirmation that came to me. in conversation with a woman by the name of Judy Whitcraft, who many folks know from her Namaste emails that have been out there for more than 20 years. And you believe in miracles, Jerry, don't you?

Very much so, yeah.

Why don't we start there? Maybe I'd love to get your sense of what a miracle is, because I know that's a word that comes up a fair amount.

Yeah, so I believe in miracles. I believe that either Nothing's a miracle or everything's a miracle. And if everything is a miracle, then there's so many different types of miracles, right? A bird flying is a miracle. The fact that ants create their own system is a miracle. I mean, there's miracles everywhere, right?

I wouldn't disagree with that. Yeah, everything is a miracle on that level. So, so if that's the case, if everything's a miracle, How do you distinguish one miracle from another, I suppose? Is there a way to do that?

Yeah, that gets interesting, right? So if everything is a miracle, which I believe everything is a miracle, then there's all these different types of miracles. And some— I don't think some are more miraculous than others. I think we're used to some, you know, and like we're very used to a bird flying over us, right? But just think about The magnitude of that miracle. Just a bird. The difference is we see it every day and it becomes happenstance. Or for that matter, a plane. Like, there's just— the whole thing is mind-boggling. I mean, the least of which should be life after death. That should be like kind of simple. Uh-huh. But there's things going on. If you ever watch a child be born, I mean, there's so much going on. This is— we're living in craziness. Miracles everywhere.

Is it possible that a mere change in consciousness could be a miracle?

I believe that. I really believe that. I so believe that, you know.

I do too. And, you know, this whole idea of where, where consciousness comes from is a part of a discussion that's ongoing. It's controversial. Is consciousness something that emanates from within us? Is it something that is outside of us, almost like in the cloud, so to speak, that we tap into and tune into and, and access portions of. I mean, would you call yourself a less than conscious soul or person at a certain point in your life when you made a lot of money? I mean, you can give your history better than I can. I'll just say you scored at a certain point.

Yeah.

Like financially scored, right?

Yes.

Had more money than you knew what to do with, and it didn't satisfy you. Like, let's call— tick off the things that a lot of people think will get them to a point of happiness. You achieved at least one of those major goals, yes?

Yeah, I believe I did. I, I had a lot of money. I sold a company for about $90 million. Let's say that netted down to $61 million. There was a lot of money, and I was so— you know, people just look at that event, but the previous to that, I always made millions of dollars a year. Yeah, so like the things that I think people say, oh, that should make you happy, Very much don't, in my experience. It's not at all what makes you happy. And, uh, as a matter of fact, it had the opposite effect on me. I had a friend of mine when I first started out in business, and he said, all money is going to do is make your personality bigger. If you're bad, you're going to be more bad. If you're good, you're going to be more good. And that kind of held true for me.

It's a magnifier.

Yes.

So you had a lot of money, and then you got To express yourself. And

then in a strange way.

And then some, yeah. So again, drugs, this sex, you know, just sort of everything to an extreme. Is that fair?

Yeah, everything to a very big extreme. And at the same time, it was drugs and sex and alcoholism and greed. And at the same time, I was married and had kids. It was just a crazy time. Yeah.

Is it hard for you to think— I mean, look, because of the work that you do now, part of how you help people initially is to share the fact that you've been through something, and you share that thing that you've been through, and every week, so to speak, you're sharing the full end-to-end of your story. In fact, I'm even hesitant to sort of— I want my listeners, I want our community to know you better, and yet I'm even sort of going, man, do I want to make Gerry tell his freaking story again? How many times can you tell your story without getting sick of your own story? But I mean, what's another way to come at this, do you think? Let's be creative about how it is that we can let people know just how fucked up your life was at that time, and then what led you to this pivotal moment where you just sort of couldn't get any lower, and pretty much the lights were about to go out, right? I mean, whether they were going out on their own because the universe is merciful and just said, we got to take this fucking guy out because he's such a mess. Or you yourself were like going, hey, how many more people can I hurt? Right?

I'm with you. And it was a little bit of both. I think that, that the universe was aspiring and I was in a whole bunch of trouble, you know, a whole bunch of trouble. The easiest way to say this is just say it in a sentence and just say, here's what my life looked like. That was, I was suicidal. I had tried to commit suicide 2 different times. I had girlfriends out the gazoo. I had tons of money in the bank. I had planes and houses and cars and all those things, boats, all those things that you think are going to do it, and nothing worked. And I was just near the end of my rope. I thought that I was just defective and that I was going to call it quits kind of thing.

So you get to that point, and I don't know if everybody's been to that edge. I mean, I think some people have been. I think it's a slow drip for a lot of folks that just feel miserable, feel low, you know, whether it's kind of a more extreme form of misery or it's just that low energy of anxiety and fear that a lot of people live with on a day-to-day basis. But I think we're living in a world that— I mean, look, we can blame it on social media, can blame it on any number of things, blame it on the people who are running, running our world, right?

Yeah.

But Henry David Thoreau said years and years before any of that, that we live in a world where people are living in quiet desperation. They live lives of quiet desperation. So this is nothing new, right, Jerry? I mean, this is the human condition. Yeah,

I believe in that.

So here you are, you get to this point of kind of looking into the abyss, considering it, even trying to take your own life. What happens? What's the thing that saves you, brother? Do you get saved? Is that the good news in the story?

Yeah, the good news is that somebody else, you know, cared enough to tell me about something that they heard had worked for someone else, which was plant medicine. And, and I went to Costa Rica and I tried it, and I got to watch me being molested by my grandfather, and that explained my whole life to me. And that was on July 4th, 2014, and my life turned around that day. And it really is that clear, is, is on that day My life changed.

Now, the form of plant medicine that you experienced was a little different, or at least it's not one that a lot of people engage right away, right? What's—

No.

Give us a little detail on— because you were— I mean, it wasn't going to be a small thing that could get your attention, is what I'm guessing, right?

I would guess that you're right. Yeah, it was a big thing, and it was iboga, which is a really tough African root. It's hallucinogenic, but its hallucinogenic compound is ibogaine. And, uh, it's rough. It's a very rough thing, you know.

It's a beast.

Ayahuasca is a walk in the park. I mean that, you know, it's a walk in the park.

And you have a guide in this, that particular journey. There's a shaman who not so much takes you under his wing, I suppose, as like sort of sits you down.

Yeah, you're right.

To teach you something, right?

Yes, you're so right though. Crazy, right? Like, just, just crazy.

Well, I mean, you think about it, right? When other people take an interest in us— and I think that's a part of what is really missing for a lot of, a lot of folks— is, are those people in their lives that will do what's required for them? Meaning they will tell them the truth, they will confront them, they will just be there in a big way, even if that means doing what's required not to aid and abet them, not to enable them, right? So, here's a guy you meet in Costa Rica. He's not going to enable you at all.

No.

He administers this plant medicine, right? You take it voluntarily, and then you go off into a different place. Now, I'd like to just talk a little bit about that experience, and, you know, with the caveat for people listening and watching this, that we're going to talk about some crazy shit now, right? I mean, this is stuff that You know, most people might not even believe, and they don't have to. It's not— there's no requirement anybody believe this. It's just for your information at the moment, and then we'll circle back to where it all led and what it's now, the legacy of that journey actually is today, which I think is profound.

Yes. So do you want me to start with the journey, Adam?

Yeah, why not? Let's take a trip. I don't know. Let's take a trip to the moon or something.

Yes. So I took this medicine. And I met this shaman, his name was Mugenda, and he was from Gabon, Africa. And the next thing you know, long story short, I take the medicine and then I'm on the moon, and I'm asking the moon questions, and the moon types, it doesn't speak. And you read those answers, and the thing is being recorded at the same time. And the moon is really kind but pointed at the same time. And I say to them, I'm like, you know, what's the matter with me? I actually said, why am I such an asshole? And because these were questions that were written down, you're so high when you take this medicine, you don't even remember what's going on. That's why they record it, you know. So my first question was, why am I such an asshole? And the moon said she couldn't tell me until I went back and got my soul. So I, I flew back to the United States from the moon, and I went to Malibu, and I found my house. And I looked at my— looked for me within my house and, uh, found me. And my soul wouldn't help me unless I agreed to take it with me for the rest of my life and to defer to it over every decision. Fact. I said yes to those 2 things, then—

So hold on a second. So your soul makes demands on you?

Yeah, it wouldn't even talk to me until I agreed to those 2 things.

'Cause I mean, the dialogue is sort of like, it knows you, 'cause of course it knows you. So it's like, this guy's, he's a liar. He's not, we can't trust him, period. All right, they exact an agreement out of you. I was a lawyer for 18 years, right? So they coerce an agreement out of you.

They coerce an agreement out of me. Yeah, that's true. It was signed under duress, Adam.

Signed under duress, right? So you take your soul back to see the moon.

Yep, and the moon. So then I take my soul, we go to see the moon, but she diverts us to Scranton, Pennsylvania. I wind up in my grandmother's house and I'm watching this. What's super interesting about this to me is that I'm watching it on a screen, but yet I can circle the objects. So what's interesting about this for people that are into the afterlife stuff is that people think, oh well, that's Akashic Records. It would have been If it was me looking out, but I was looking at it. It's not a recordation of my own experience. It's of the whole experience. Crazy stuff, right? Really, I get goosebumps when I think about that. But anyway, I'm watching this go on, and in that moment, honestly, it explained everything to me and explained why I didn't trust men, why I was I had weird sexual things. In other words, my sex thing was that I could never be close, so I would have volume. So I'd never get close to someone, so I'd end up having sex with 5 girls in a day and crazy stuff, but never anything intimate. Never anything. And men I didn't like and I didn't trust and I couldn't— but in this moment, I watched this and I'm thinking, hey, that explains everything. It explains why I'm a drunk. It explains why I'm a drug addict. It explains why I don't trust men. It explains why I'm weird with women. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Explained everything. And so I got done watching this, and I end up going back to the moon. And the short story on this is that that night the moon forgave me. I made a deal with my soul to invite my soul back into my life, and then the moon gave me a brand new heart. A physical heart. Like, I was on standing on the moon with my hands out, my chest wide open, and she gave me a heart and I put my heart in. And that's the— I'll tell you this, Adam, I used to be a business guy. Yeah. If I heard somebody talking like this, I would automatically say this guy is a con man or a flake or a drug addict that's just been telling you this is what happened to me. This is really Real. And I tell you, people always say to me, well, you weren't really on the moon. And I'm like, no, you're fucking wrong. You weren't there. I was there. I was there. And like, I felt the talcum powder on my toes. I was there. Like, I don't know how to say that. So my vocabulary has changed so much over the past 5 years. And if I'm in Denny's and I'm talking to someone, you know, the people I get looked at like, oh my God, this guy is crazy. You know, crazy.

Wow. The pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your Well, it's a context, right? I mean, so it may not be the story you tell somebody on the line at Starbucks. Maybe, I don't know. You're a pretty daring guy, so if anybody could pull that off, I think it would be you. But the moon shows you something, right? The moon reveals something to you. We mentioned it earlier. That explains a lot. So there was an incident of molestation early on in your life, maybe like 3 years old or something?

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, and you had no conscious awareness of this. So as an adult, this didn't happen. Basically, this is an event that did not happen, right?

No. As a matter of fact, when I saw Adam, I screamed out. And on medicine, sometimes you speak in your spirit voice, sometimes you use your mouth. And I said, that didn't happen. And Muganda, who was my guide at that time, said, what didn't happen? I said, I'm watching myself get molested, and I know my grandfather did not do this. And he said— and Muganda said, call your father. So I just said, Dad. My dad had been dead for 6 years at this time. I said, Dad. And the next thing you know, my dad appeared. And I'm like, did that happen? And my father said, don't think you're so special. It happened to my dad. It happened to me. It's just the way it was. And nobody ever spoke of this. It wasn't a topic. It was never ever brought up, you know? Crazy.

The number of traumas that have happened— so in my pivot out of the 18 years of law practice into the work that I've been doing since then, I've met a lot of people, worked with a lot of people. I've heard a lot of stories that each one you might think, you just go, how is that even possible? How can that happen in someone's life? So, the more people I've met, and at this point it's so many people from so many places around the world, different ages, gender doesn't matter, men, women, boys, girls, doesn't matter. These kind of traumas, things happen in early childhood that affect people in such profound ways, affects their whole, their definition of love, their definition of so many different things. So, it's the idea that your life was set on a trajectory as a result of those things is not unusual at all. And even not recalling it or having blocked it, not unusual at all. Right. But what's magical, I think, or even, we'll say, miraculous about the medicine in that instance, is it gives you access to something that unlocks not just an event in your life, but also what could be done. What's the future? So, you're sent to get forgiveness, right? There's a whole aspect of this that involves somehow resolving, creating some resolution out of the incident. Is that right?

Yes.

Does that play out well or, or not so?

I think it plays out well. So I was told this, I was told that, that I had to go and start a center. And this sounds so crazy because at the time I was wanting to open up strip clubs. This was my, my retirement business model was I was going to open up 20-some Gentlemen's clubs, strip clubs, yeah. And the medicine said, the moon said, we're not going to do that and we're going to open up a spiritual center in Costa Rica and we're going to do plant medicine and people are going to have this experience and that's just the way that it was. And I was like, okay. And she said some interesting things too. She said there will only be lightworkers and light warriors that would come to this place in Costa Rica. And since that time, I opened this thing in 20— well, I bought— this is how crazy my journey was— on July 4th. By October, I had found this property and signed an agreement of sale. I closed on it in December.

Wait, the moon directed you to the property though, right? Isn't it like the specifics of the conversation with the moon is pretty uncanny, right?

Absolutely. She said, you know, go to this This is the property. This is the place. This is the thing. She told me what to pay for it.

What you should pay for it.

Yeah, she told me what I should pay for it, which was 70% below asking price.

Yeah,

it was crazy stuff, but it worked. And then it took me a year. You know, she told me I'd get a license to use ayahuasca. She wanted me to use ayahuasca because it's gentler than iboga. And never in the history before in the history of the world has somebody been given a medical license to serve ayahuasca. I got it a year later. I opened this in February of 2016, and we're in 2019 right now, and 6,000 people have been through the doors here, and 95%, 95.023% of them, the exact same thing that happened to me happens to them. Crazy, right? That's crazy.

So fill in the blank on, on that piece of it. So somebody might be listening to this and go, what do you mean the same thing happens? They all go to the moon. They all discovered that they had some deep secret that was hidden from them. No, that's not what you're talking about. What's the thing that happens to 90-plus percent of those folks that happened to you?

The thing that happens is that they experience a merging of their soul and a healing of their heart.

So that's the miracle, quote unquote.

And it is, and it really is. It is the miracle.

Well, I'll say this in full transparency, both— well, it already made it into podcast form of maybe— I know we were set to do an interview sometime in May or June. I ended up doing that as a solo cast to describe my experience of having gone to Rythmia. So for those of you listening and didn't hear that earlier show, I was invited to come and facilitate a relationship workshop at Rythmia.

Uh-huh.

And went, and then had this very interesting experience myself in the sense that normally, having facilitated events and workshops and things all over the world, I've maintained this sort of idea that when I'm facilitating, certainly I don't— well, I'll interact with the participants and attendees because I just love to love on people, and that's my thing is I want to do that. But I don't, let's say, interact in the processes with them because it sort of feels like a conflict. In this instance, I had this thought that I really wanted to experience what everybody else there was experiencing so that I could go to a deeper level in terms of my ability to not only channel what was there to be shared and create transformation in perhaps a way that I didn't expect. I live in a box like we all do. Right. I wanted to just blow out the walls of that box myself. So I ended up journeying 3 of the 4 nights that we were there. And then that experience itself created what I would equate to when you said a healing of the heart. So I had sort of first broken heart at 4 years old, 3, 4 years old, when my dad was taken ill and, and was away for about 6 months. And This whole thing, I was able to come back and see it, experience it, experience what I was going through when all of a sudden out of nowhere my father disappears. I don't know why or what. And you'll see him just in this hospital kind of thing and not know whether he's ever coming home. Yeah, it was terrifying and traumatic. I don't know what else to call it. And so in one of those, those nights, in one of the journeys, that was not just brought to my awareness, but it was freaking— it was forever changed.

Beautiful.

My dad's alive, so I got to also be able to connect with him, thank God, afterward and express what that was like for me and what I recognized about him. It explained so much of the challenges that we had in our relationship at times. It was truly amazing. What I also loved about this place, in addition to it being in such great proximity to a gorgeous ocean. I mean, this is like a very high-end area of Costa Rica with beautiful hotels and things. But this particular retreat itself, the physical surroundings, Gerry, are just— they're impeccable. I think there's a level of— you're a bit of an anal guy in some ways, right?

Yes, very much so.

Very much so? So, the best of that I don't know if that's the word. Yes. Shows up because the place is so ridiculously clean, and the food is so impeccably and lovingly created, prepared, delivered, and the people that are there that are assisting in the facilitation of the experience, for everything from the folks that are facilitating movement, yoga, and the cleanses, and the massages, and all the stuff that's kind of in the genre of Just being a spa, let alone the shaman and people that assist the shaman during the journeys. I got to tell you, brother, you'll never hear any more unconditional support or the review that I'm giving in this moment out of my mouth about anything. I love that.

And I want to tell you what, Adam, a lot of thought leaders come here, they're afraid, and they— some of them like have classes. Well, 90, let's say 80% of them will do the medicine. But you did it in the most brave way. I really appreciate your spirit and who you are. And, and, you know, a lot of times too, people in this business, they get something that I like to— the only words I can know is like a little bit of a God complex. They get like, oh my God, I know, I know everything, I know everything. And you're not that guy. And that makes it wonderful. That if you stay that way, That's how, like, the medicine wants us to be always learning, right? Always open. And it's hard to do. It's hard to do because, I don't know, we think we see things as they are so often, right? But when we get on the medicine and get on the other side and, you know, you're sitting there and there's a purple elephant dancing next to you and you're thinking, well, maybe I don't know everything. You know, like, it's crazy.

Humility is a tough nut. You know, in the Bible it talks about meekness. It's interesting, the words that have the sound or have a pejorative or a negative connotation surrounded with them. What does it mean to be humble, really? Does it mean you're passive, that you let people step on you, or that you don't have confidence? That's bullshit. Right. Because humility is a sense, like you say, that, you know what, I don't know nearly as much as I might think or my ego might delude me into thinking. But that I want to learn more, that there's a lifelong learning and openness to the new information. And so, yeah, one of the big things I think is confronting sort of a fear of being out of control. That's a big thing for people is that they want to just maintain control in their lives. And I'm sort of still recovering control freak.

Good for you.

Yeah. So something like that anyway is just I'd say it's good for the soul, whether you end up with a heart healing and emerging of the soul or not. And in the particular week that I was there, I think you made your statistics, brother, when it was all said and done, and the surveys were done, and what people were sharing about their experience. I would say it was at least 9 out of 10 of the people that were there had that exact, that miracle. Yeah. So, you know, to escape for a week and be treated to, as I said, sunshine and and beautiful facilities and pools and massages and food and love from perfect strangers and every other thing that would, would only make you smile literally from ear to fucking ear. On top of that, you could integrate some of the shit from the past, some trauma, something you didn't understand, some part of yourself that you've been jealous or you've been resentful or you live in regret or you're angry, which is what my thing was. I was a lawyer for a lot of years and had a great vehicle for my anger. And I just got sick and tired of looking at myself in the mirror and seeing an angry person staring back at me.

Well, that's a common thing with lawyers, right?

I'm speaking to a whole lawyers group in September, like a big-ass group of lawyers. So I probably— yeah, you know, never know, maybe I'll make this recommendation to them. But that's the beautiful thing about a podcast that gets— we've been fortunate to have a lot of A lot of people downloading this. And so I'm sure among the people listening right now are people in every conceivable walk of life and occupation, including the law. And anger is not exclusive to lawyers, as we know. We've got a real anger issue in our world. So yeah, and the lawyers, unlike, you know, contrary to what Shakespeare said, you know, the lawyers didn't create that.

All right.

Didn't start with the lawyers.

That's pretty good. I'm going to give you credit for that one. I'll remember that.

So we're going to wrap up, Gerry. I just would love it if you'd share. So your journey has continued. It's not like everything in life has magically turned to, you know, I don't know, whatever you want to call it. You have your own challenges. What do you do these days to work on yourself? What are the rituals that you might have, even a morning practice, if you will, that just gets you set straight? I really hope you're enjoying this episode. of the Change Proof podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today.

I'm an affirmation guy, so like, I— my thing is I get up and I work out And then I do spiritual mind treatments and affirmations for about 40 minutes, and that gets me right. And I, I still do medicine probably every 2 weeks because I take on a lot of different energies here, and I do that. But, but what's so interesting is that how the thing is never— it never ends. And especially if you're in a business of—

That's the good news, right?

That is the good news. You're right. That's the good news. And especially like us, Adam, we're in businesses where we're constantly pointing people to look at themselves. You can't help but be in the mirror all the time yourself. And then that, this is a forever growing business. It's like, you know, as a lawyer, you got breaks, you really did. You got tons of distractions, but in this job, there's no escaping you. So it's a really interesting thing, yeah?

This is probably the warning, right? The warning, the little asterisk that says ignorance really is bliss.

In some ways it is.

Oh, man. Well, Jerry, I'm going to ask you a question as we wind down here. And then, yeah, I'll just ask you this question. So, Jerry, did you wake up today?

Did I wake up today? Yeah. I hope I wake up— woke up every day.

Exactly right. I mean, that wasn't guaranteed when you went to bed last night, was it?

Not at all. Nope. Nope.

So, you know, for all of us, I think this is a reminder that We woke up today. So wherever you are in the moment right now that you're watching this, listening to this, it could be that this is the best day of your life. It could be it's the worst day of your life. It was a blessing. It was a profound gift that you got to wake up because it wasn't guaranteed last night. And as you took your first breath this morning, your first aware, awake breath, there were people in that very same second who were taking their last breath.

Uh-huh.

To me, we all have our shit. That's just the way it is. That doesn't mean you don't work on it, you don't find solutions, and it doesn't mean you have to tolerate it either. One thing's for certain, it's a lot better than the other alternative. My hope and my prayer is that we all get to wake up, Jerry. You get to wake up tomorrow. I get to wake up.

I hope so.

Yeah.

I hope for you too, Adam. Thank you, sir.

And your listeners. Everybody that is taking this in right now, please wake up tomorrow. Wake up your awareness and your consciousness, as well as your physical body, a little bit more tomorrow than today. And then, if in that moment of waking—

Love it.

You feel inclined, because this is the 3-part waking ritual that I'm sharing, and the second part is really just be in gratitude for a moment. It could be that your toe, you stubbed your toe yesterday, and it's finally stopped throbbing. You can give gratitude for that. It doesn't have to be something that's out there or feels untrue for you, but just find something that feels true that you can be grateful for in the moment. And then if you're inclined to do this one last thing, this is a personal mantra. As you put your feet on the floor, you can take 10 seconds, just 10 seconds, and maybe say these words out loud. I love my life. I love my life. What are the words, Gerry?

I love my life. I love my life.

I love it.

I want to tell you, Adam, I love that. Everybody has 2 seconds to do that. That's without excuse. Beautiful.

Been a pleasure, brother. Such a lovely conversation. Everybody, if you enjoyed the episode, please go to adamarkel.com/podcast and leave a comment. Go on iTunes and leave a review. You can go on Facebook to startmypivot.com and let us know your thoughts there as well.

I love this.

Brilliant, brother. And by the way, full show notes, you can find out more about the Rythmia Life Advancement Center. There'll be a link there. You can find out more about not only the program, They've got the way to get there, and all I can tell you is get there. That's my call to action to all of you. Do it, because there's absolutely nothing more important in my view than to schedule a week for yourself to do what can be done under that level of just impeccable supervision. That's the deal. All right, ciao for now, everybody.

Thank you, Adam.

Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over at adammarkel.com/podcasts. For more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot Community on Facebook at pivotfb.com.