Changing Alternative Medicine: The Ayurveda Encyclopedia With Swami S. Tirtha

Welcome to the Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, best selling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markell. 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.

Welcome back, everybody, to another beautiful day in our lives, another wonderful episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm so happy that you're here to spend time with me and with the rest of our community. What a blessing. As every new day begins, I think it's a perfect moment. It's the. It's a divine moment. It's the optimal moment, so to speak, to be in gratitude. I woke up this morning, I was a little tired and I thought to myself, well, do I. Do I want to feel tired or I want to feel grateful? And I could very easily have just said, you know, I'm okay to feel tired. And that's true.

I don't want to deny what my.

Body was telling me, but gratitude is a much. It's a much bigger energy, it's much more powerful energy. It's definitely our choice at all times. I remember reading an OG Mendino book recently, actually was reading it and rereading it and rereading it, which is the Greatest Salesman in the World. And then there's another book called the.

Greatest Miracle in the World.

But in the Greatest Salesman in the World, OG puts out this proposition that it is the person that allows his or her thoughts to control his or her actions is actually weak compared to the person who allows or cultivates actions to produce thoughts. In essence, that we take actions to produce new thoughts. And so for me this morning, my action was to put my feet on the floor, to stand up and declare out loud, I love my life. Because that put me in a mindset of gratitude. Whereas before that, my body was saying, ah, I'm really tired. I don't know how grateful I feel as I'm craving more sleep in this moment. So hopefully that's something that you all can identify with. I think we all can. So what a beautiful day. What a blessed day. I feel lucky to be here with you. I feel so appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to be able to speak into this microphone. And I know some of you are watching on YouTube as well, so you get to see my bit of A tired face today, as well as the much more exuberant and lit up face of the guest that I have to share with you today, somebody that I think you're going to enjoy. I know I have enjoyed this gentleman immensely in the short while that I've gotten to know him and I've get to share him with you now is a blessing to me as well. So in just a moment, we'll be back with Swami, sometimes known as the Orange Cowboy, and we will find out exactly what that is all about in just a second. So stay tuned. Awesome. Awesome. Take a break from whatever you're doing. If you're on the treadmill, that's cool, keep doing it. If you're on the elliptical, keep doing it. If you're at work and you're staring at the computer and you're listening, maybe just for just little bit, for a few moments here, slow down the multitasking, whatever you're up to, if you're driving right now, listening to it in the car, wherever it is, take a few deep breaths, keep your eyes open. Of course, if you're operating any machinery.

Keep your eyes open.

But we're going to have some fun today. I have, as always, as is the case, always, I don't know where these conversations will lead. I have a sense of, of course, everybody that we bring on the show has a great pivot story, and this gentleman is no exception to that. So let me, without further ado, share a little bit about his bio and then we'll get right into it. Swami is the number one best selling author of the Ayurvedic Encyclopedia, Natural Secrets to Healing, Prevention and Longevity. When Swami was a young person, a younger person, I'll say both of his parents were tragically killed in a car accident. He transcended this adversity in profound ways through discovering the light within. Swami has been teaching meditation for over four decades and has had several wonderfully enlightening books to his credit. He's presented to the White House Alternative Medicine Commission and has spoken to international medicine schools, medical schools, including Johns Hopkins. What I want to do right now, Swami, is sort of dive right into your pivot story. But before we do that, if you could share anything, obviously you've been doing this work for a long time and I probably left a lot of salient details out. So if you could fill in the gap in your, in your bio for us and what it is that you're passionate about right now, then we'll dive into the meat of your pivot story.

Which would Be so much fun for us, Adam. Joy, joy, joy. It's a welcome. It's a joy to be here with you. And I look forward to. I already feel, as you said, from just knowing you a little bit, we've really connected, I think for me. Let's see, where can I fill in the gaps? The. So well, some of the gaps that relate to the pivot. I went to India, I met my guru there, and a few years later, he recognized me as a swami, as a monk. That was a huge pivot leading, getting me to India. That was the dessert, the reward, if you will. And I got an invitation to go to the Amazon rainforest and that the shamans there recognized me as a natural born shaman and healer again. Another wonderful outcome to a huge pivot choice. Nowadays, the biggest news, really, and one of the reasons I'm really excited about talking with you is having a foot in both worlds. The foot in the spiritual world, a foot in the real world, so to speak, the 3D world. And what I mean by that is. And there's actually prophecy in the. In the shamanic world, they call it the eagle, Condor prophecy. And where spirit and science come together. Eagle is science and condor is spirit. And to be able to talk about one of my passions is joy and how joy is really a leader's best friend.

Wait a second.

This is cool.

You just said that joy is your passion. I think sometimes things that are so obvious are. Are really profound. I think that's. That's a pretty interesting statement right there. That joy is my passion.

It is. And people, it's the age of celebration. First off, I know I'm throwing a lot at you here, but people. There's actually research that finds that people are feeling guilty of being happy in this world. And our natural expression. Look at any child, they're naturally joyful. And then we were programmed out of it. It's happening less and less. The millennials got treated much better that way. The whole world, I feel, and the shamanic world around the world has this prophecy that we are now in an age of celebration, and it'll really kick in in 2020, but that's it. And so for anybody who's doing good work, we have conscious thought leaders around the world. And then what happens is somewhere along the way, we forget about the joy that got us started. And the joy is kind of diminished or left or put on the back burner until I do this. Now we have this opportunity where joy is flooding the gates for us, and all we have to do is be aware and go ride that wave. Surf that wave of joy. Yeah.

I don't know if you're familiar with Brene Brown's work a little bit, but I mean, wonderful work in the area of vulnerability and how people deal with shame. And one of the things that I remember her saying was that it's easier for a person at times, or I won't say at times. I think her studies show that people feel more comfortable in, in their pain than they do in their joy. It's tougher for them to be seen in joy than it is for them to be seen in pain. So I'm coming out of left field with this, but.

Oh, this, this is. You just asked the pivot question. So I don't know if you have pivot questions, but that's a pivot question for me because that's. I always look for the cause. I call it the causal, the root of an issue. And pivot is another good word for that. And I've had even to this day, because as we're growing into the age where we'll all be comfortable celebrating. I mean, like you said, I'm human and there are things. It's not like I got someplace and you know, you guys, I'll help you get here. And because I don't come. Not down there. It's not that we're all clearing stuff and I had a clearing and I heard myself say, well, if that's feeling better, we have to find something else to be. Have a problem. And it was an awakening to go, whoa there, there's something I can work on because we've been, you know, who are you to be happy? Look what your ancestors went through. You've got that kind of programming, you're not worth anything. Or if you don't get all A's, you're not worth any. We had so much programming in the old age that who we, you know, think of the times. That's another thing I get a lot more lightly is I remember my childhood when I was pure joy and I'd get beat up or laughed at or. And I think we all had that somewhere along the way.

Right?

That's.

I don't want to sort of confuse joy with silliness, but when I think of being a child, I think of being childlike, childlike joy is that it's unconscious, but not in the way that we sometimes think of unconsciousness. It's. It's that lack of being self conscious, right? Not thinking, oh, geez, I can't, I can't, I can't get dirty in the mud or splash in the. You know, in rain puddles or whatever it is, or make silly faces or. Or say whatever comes to my mind. Right. Because I get away with that. They don't even think, jeez, I'm getting a mulligan here for doing something that's natural, which is simply to be expressive of the feeling and the emotion that's present in that moment, which, when that emotion is joy, it's happiness. It's pure happiness for no reason. It's joy for no reason. It's passion and energy, you know, wild and uncontrolled energy. Yeah. We're told from a very early age, stop, Know, settle down, or, you know, maybe there's something wrong with you. Maybe, you know, whisper, whisper. Maybe this kid needs Ritalin. Yeah, yeah, I said that at the exact same time.

That's a lot happening today. Yeah, that's happening.

This is.

You know, we. What you started by talking about when you woke up, you made a choice. So I call that a mini pivot. Right? You made a mini pivot in the morning.

Oh, it's not a mini. For me. Okay. That's the actual pivot.

That's okay. So.

So that's your pivot.

And. And now a child, they wake up and pivot into that. No, they wake up in that joy. They just bound out of bed. Oh, my God. Another day in Disneyland. You know, it's. Holy cow. And that's where we're getting back to. And. And it's gotten to the point where there's enough people out there who see me in the joy and go, whoa, that's cool that it's. I'm saying, all right, you know, I don't care if there are people who want to put me down or laugh at me. In fact, I say when they call me crazy, I go, good, I'll put that. There's another crazy badge I'll put with the rest of them on my chest. I know I'm doing something right when people call me crazy.

Yeah, I'm in. Look here, this is wonderful because. Well, just. It is. I don't. It's wonderful. Go bigger, right? How do you know, swami? How do you know? Or how do you have that knowing? Because when we say no, when I say, how do you know? What comes up for me is ego. I go, here's another one of these ego questions with an ego kind of an answer. Maybe, but you have a knowing inside of you. Not the know as in, we should listen to you. You're an authority. You're an expert, quote unquote. I'm no expert, and I don't want to be perceived in that light either. But I have certain knowings based on, you know, gotten to a certain age. I've had a few experiences in my life, had a few pivots. You know, Randy and I have been married a long time. We have a bunch of kids. We've made enough mistakes that I have certain knowing. And I don't even think, look, you can have knowing when you're eight years old. I mean, right? You have a knowing that we are becoming a more. That we're moving, or that our world is leaning toward light or leaning toward a more enlightened view of life and more joy and these kinds of things. We're talking about this. This essential pivot of the mind. How do you. How. How do you believe you know that? Or what's the reason? What cultivated that knowing inside of you?

Yeah, so this is. Adam, this is another great concept that we're now talking about, which is the difference between brain knowing and heart, or experiential knowing. And experience to me is everything. And it was one of those things that school really bummed me out when I was a kid, because it was all, this is smart. And I said, but I have to experience things to know. I have to go through things enough times to go, this is how it works for me. It may not even work that way for you, but this is how it works for me because of my astrology sign, because of where I was born, because of my height, whatever. So experience is everything. And so when I was a kid and I smiled, people would pounce on me or laugh at me. Now when I walk through the airport looking like this, people stop and say, can I take a picture with you? Orange is my favorite color. All the baggage handlers, every airport I go to, thank you. Orange is my favorite color. I walk down the street in New York City, and this guy reaches out and he says, thank you for bringing color to my life. So I know it's not a knowing, it's an experience that people are responding. They say, you just. You walk in the room, and I'm happier. And why? I don't have to do anything other than be happy. This makes me happy, and it makes other people happy. Effortless. Help. It's the lighthouse. So I tell people, you're the lighthouse. When there's a ship out there that needs help, you don't turn off the light, go downstairs and swim out to help the boat. No, you leave your light on shine, your light is effortless. And part of the joy is for me. And this may be a little bit woo woo for some people, but it's an experience. Spirit or angels or a higher source shows me when you listen to that advice, like the angel will say to me, would you like to do this? Now? They don't say, do this, would you? They invite me. And I've learned the hard way that when I say yes, they do the work for me. They raise the tide and all ships rise.

All right, so I got to show you something. First of all, for those of our listeners who are hopefully not looking at anything as they're driving or operating or whatever they're up to, describe how it is that you're dressed at the moment and how it is that you're dressing around the world when you're traveling.

That's right. Good point. So I am. I'm a monk from India. And not that my guru told me to do this, but monks in India wear orange. Orange robes, orange shirts, orange hats. And I started wearing orange because when I saw it in my head, it brought me a lot of joy. And then I found the T shirt at the Gap, and I found a hoodie at the Gap. Before you knew it, I was head to toe in orange. And I said, well, you know, I'm a little bit embarrassed, but I'm also a monk, so, hey, you know, the work. I'll honor both worlds, east and West. So now I have. When I moved up here, it was so bright. I needed more than a baseball cap. I had an orange baseball cap. So I wound up with an orange cowboy hat, which is a nice wide brim. And I'm upstate New York, and it's very bright, so it just works. And I love it. I don't know, there's something about the cowboy spirit, the freedom to just be in nature and to be one with now, you know, there's a whole other side of cowboys, but this is the essence of the cowboy spirit.

When we were kids, I mean, five, six, seven years old, what did we want to be? What did we play? I mean, that's it for a guy. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what it would be like. Well, I shouldn't say that. We have three daughters. So I remember, you know, our girls, they got. They played dress up. We played dress up when we were kids. And being, being a cowboy and being an astronaut, being, you know, all those kinds of things were things we did without any self consciousness about it.

Right? Yeah.

So as you. You're. You're in the role in the Persona of the orange cowboy. Right? That's the brand of that.

And that happened organically. Adam. I was taking courses a couple of summers back at a place called Lilydale, which is a. One of the top two or three mediumship camps in the world. And Spurts came to me and says, if you'd like, you can deepen your mediumship, which I was born with. So I went there, and one of my teachers, Lisa Williams, she had some psychic TV shows in the country. You may remember her. One day, she said to me, wherever I go on campus, everybody says, did you see that orange cowboy? Did you see that orange cowboy? So the universe spoke, and it brought such joy to everybody. I said, you know what? Why don't I just call myself that? Because it makes everybody happy. And why not? It makes me happy.

So what's fun is we get to share this with everybody as we're experiencing it right now, which is the synergy between us, which is, you know, I love. I love the fact that the universe always delivers the perfect guest, the perfect time for this show. And I would believe that anybody listening feels like it's the perfect moment for me to be listening to this particular content at this time. It always seems to be the case. And I wanted to show you the picture. So I'll put it right up here on the screen, and you can see it.

A lot of teddy bears.

Yeah. And do you see the color in the background?

It's orange wall.

Yeah, exactly. And what it says above is more love.

Oh, wow.

And this is a picture of our teaching studio. So we have a. We do programs, typically public speaking programs, but we do some marketing programs as well. And so the ent, with the exception of, well, I should say, two of the four walls. So half of the entire space is orange. And so it's just one of those.

Four walls to paint then.

Yeah. Well, I think if we walked into an entire room of orange, there might be something else happening. But that's probably more joy than we can handle. And we got to work on ourselves. As we become more enlightened, we'll paint another wall.

You know, that's its levels. It's like karate belts or something. You know, when I was a kid, my mother put an orange carpet in my room for my whole childhood.

Is that right?

Orange curtains, orange carpet. Wow. Talk about weird things.

And I want to. I want to take a little photo right here.

Okay. And then I want to show you the photo. This is. This is Pretty cool. But.

So this is what's behind in. In the studio we're in right now. I don't know if you can see. There's an orange chair back there, too.

Okay, I see it's something orange. Yeah.

Great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Oh, pretty funny boy, I tell you. Well, go ahead. If you could, Swami, let us. Let us know a little bit about your pivot story. I mean, we've all got them, and some of them are these beautiful, elegant, graceful pivots. And you go, oh, my goodness. I was just. I was inspired to change my direction, my career, or my life in some way. And this is where I am today. And a lot of times those pivots are not quite as graceful at the time or elegant in the time, and they're a bit tough. Would you share what your pivot or. I know there's not just one pivot, but the most poignant pivot in your life. Share what that was like for you.

Yeah. And I will say that I have been, after thinking about this, preparing for our interview, I realized all the pivots were different levels of pivots. So what I'll start at when my first pivot came as a result of 10 years of development, so I was probably about 7, 8, 9 years old, and I started having these dreams at night that I'd be separated from my parents. Very disturbing dreams. Different parents, different people would say, where are your parents? Or I'd come home in another dream from Vietnam, which I was not in in real life, and my parents moved and didn't tell me, and just. And then, ultimately, around the 10th year, I was in a car with my parents, and my vision went blank. And I just started crying. Says, I don't want you to die. And then when I could see again, they looked at me and go, what are you talking about? And then within the year, they did pass. They were in a car accident and they died. So at that point, aside from the grief and the tragedy, eventually I could breathe a little bit, and I said, how did I know that? Who was talking to me? Because this was back in 1972, and we, the Beatles, went to India to meditate. That's the only thing we knew. I mean, now we have yoga on every corner. Back then, we didn't even know what meditation was. So I had all these dreams. You know, these. These dreams. I had these questions in my head. How did I know that? And what is this? Nobody talks about this. And now that I was sort of free of being the child, the son, I really Pivoted at that point, that was my first pivot to say, I'm going to jump full step into this meditation world. Like, I started reading and things came to me. My friends brought me Carlos Castaneda books, Be Here now by Ram Dass. And then there was a meditation lecture on our campus, and I attended that. And I said, oh, this is it for me. And I. I was in school for radio, TV and film. And after the third year, I was pretty much not interested in that. I was really only interested in the spiritual stuff. And so I changed schools and I went to a meditation school, finished out my college, and then became a meditation teacher and spent the next five years meditating one to six hours a day, learning to levitate, and just going deeply into that whole process until spirit. This is now pivot to hearing that voice saying, all right, it's time to come back to the world. And it was like, but I just gave my whole life to this spiritual world. Where am I going to go? I have not. You know, I just knew. So. So pivot one was the inner voice to choose to go to spirit. Pivot 2 now is hearing the inner voice to just go into the unknown, which is very scary because every group has. Even spiritual groups have peer pressure. So when you're in a peer pressure group is like, we're the only ones. We're the best ones. If you leave here, you're going to. It's going to be a sin against God. Or. So I had all that on one side of me. The other side was. All I know is I need to leave here. So I just went home, like a blank slate, like unknown, and had to listen to everybody laughing at me going, oh, you made a mistake. Now you're back home. Blah, blah, blah. Didn't matter. It didn't even faze me hardly, because I just had to follow that inner voice. And I came back in the world for five years, and really what was happening is I was pivoting. Spiritual world, 3D world. Spiritual world, 3D world. And after five years in the television industry again, I felt I had to jump back into the spiritual realm. So I quit my job. And that last moment, I had two cats and I had to give them away. And it was a rainy night. I was handing these two cats to somebody in front of their house, and it was like, well, out of a movie, it was like, oh, my God, I can't do this. But I know if I stay in my job, my life is just decaying away. The other option is take a step into the unknown. Because at least maybe I'll have a better life. So the next pivot step is choosing the lesser of two evils. Choosing an unknown for a known that's safe and comfortable, but it's not even really comfortable. It's just boring and empty and no future, no life. So then I went to India and that's when I met my guru and started visiting every year. And eventually he recognized me as a swami, which was really a pretty cool thing. Then I came home and I started Ayurvedic. This is where I was learning Ayurveda before that, started a school in Ayurvedic medicine. And again, it was like, I don't know if it was really a pivot. It was like in the middle of my head, I saw a bottle of herbs. And it was like spirit saying, start a herb company. So having no business, you're going to like this. I had no experience in business. I grabbed a piece of paper, I was in a hammock, resting. And that's when the thought came. Paper, pencil, and calculator. And I figured it all out and I said, wow, I can actually break even in this business. Woo hoo. That's how I started the business. I can survive.

Almost like Dr. Dre with, with this. It wasn't, it wasn't sneakers, it was speakers.

Right?

You, you got the download. It was herbs. Maybe, maybe not a three billion dollars. Well, not a three billion dollar business at the moment. Who knows what the future will hold? But you were, you received this guidance that, that's, that's base for you.

Yeah. And I opened up a shop and I used some money that my parents left me. And this is when spirit kept coming to me. This isn't quite pivots, but it's. You talked about the word faith or belief every time I ran out of money. And it's like, well, this is the last month. I can't pay the bills after this. And I didn't know what I would do. And then all of a sudden my accountant would call and say, oh, I found some money from your parents. I'm going to send that over to you. And that happened three or four times over five years until I started to say, I get it, I get it. I'll just put my faith in you. God, Lord, Spirit. And that was, that's what I call faith. Faith from experience. Faith that this is when I choose to listen to my heart or to my inner voice, to spirit or what do you call it? Things just work out. It's unconventional If I look around for support, I'm not going to get it, so that's okay.

Would you call that surrender, Swami?

Yeah, in surrender based on experience, not blind faith. That's a real big difference for me.

Say more about that if you could, because I think there, there is a challenge that we all face at certain times whether to surrender and what does it mean to surrender and is that blind faith or something else? Yeah.

Is surrender giving up or is surrender opening up? And for me, it's, it's surrendering to. It's like a. It's like a scientific experiment. It's replicable. Every time this happens and I get that message and I listen, things work out. So, you know, it's at a.001% likelihood of air, margin of error. This is really working.

You know, I don't know if this has been the case for you or not, but for me, I feel like I fall. I fall off the faith horse and I get back up on and I fall off and I get back up and I fall off and get back up and it's amazing to me. And I get a little angry at myself too, because Spirit. And I'll say God, because that's the word that I use. And not in a religious sense, but very much in a spiritual sense that I know I'm not alone. I know I'm supported. I know this is all very purposeful and nothing about it is random to me, my viewpoint. And every time I lose faith in my faith, every time that I forget what I, what I know by experience is true, real truth, I get forgiven. I know I get forgiven. There's never a time when, because I lose faith or forget what I've learned. There is that my spiritual father, I'll say punishes me or said, you know, there are circumstances for sure in the natural world, in the physical world, there are circumstances for when we forget things, when we don't remember our experiences, we make the same mistakes again. We'll seek, I mean, we will receive consequences for sure. But I'm always forgiven, always. When I'm willing to remember my faith, in my faith, things that you could call or I could call or I will call. Miracles occur all the time. So it's like that money, as you said, that just shows up, oh, my goodness, there's some more money from your parents, there's some more money from this or, you know, there's a refund on some, some tax you paid that you overpaid or some insurance that, and you go, what? Where did that come from, you know, or some other things where it's so clear that I'm being supported, that we are being supported. And is that what you mean when you say surrender? It's surrendering to the knowledge that we are. We are. There's these everlasting arms, these arms that are holding us, supporting us at all times. Is that what you're saying at all? Or is it something else?

Surrendering, Basically, as you said, it stopped fighting. The help that's there for you, the divine help that stop surrendering. It's like if you're on a. Using the surfboard analogy, here comes a big wave and you get off the board and you put it sideways and try to resist the wave instead of get on your board and have a great ride in. So surrender is really surrendering to your own blocks. Stop blocking yourself, get out of your own way. Those are words that. Surrender may not even be the best word in this concept. Align yourself is another good word. Yeah.

I love the book. The. So Michael Singer is one of my favorite authors, and the Surrender Experiment is one of his books. I prefer, personally prefer the Untethered Soul, but I love the surrender Experiment. And that was challenging for me, this idea of surrender, because as you said earlier, it's not resignation. Surrender doesn't mean quitting or giving up. In fact, to me, it's the only way we ever lose at anything is when we actually quit or give up. But surrender is something different. And it is very much. I think the analogy of surfing is wonderful. I'm a Pisces of water, water man. And I love to be in and around the water all the time. And I surf. And you're right, you put the board, if you. If you have the board facing parallel to the shore, or let's say parallel to the wave, you'll get good and you get clobbered, basically.

Wiped out. Yeah, big time.

When the board is perpendicular to the wave, you might get wiped out. That. That can happen. You can fall off the board, but you also have this incredible opportunity to allow a force that's so much greater than yourself. The wave. The force of the wave is so much greater than the. Than. Than whatever power or energy this has, or the surfboard has almost no power in and of itself, but as soon as it's placed in the wave, you place yourself in that position to be. To be taken, to be supported. That energy can. Can bring you places you never imagined, which is miraculous, to say the least.

Yeah, I think. I'm just thinking I was being shown surrender is like just Agreeing to stand in a space where you're going to meet God, because there's no time, there's no space, there's no external. It just stay. I see. What I see is right now, you and I are standing at a crossroads in, like, a little Spanish villa town. And at the. In that crossroad, because we don't know where to go. We don't know where we are. And God shows up and says, oh, great, now, so it's so great to chat with you.

To me, that's surrender in a space where you're going to meet God. What a beautiful way to explain what surrender is.

Yeah.

My goodness.

That. That's. It's all in turn.

Thank you.

Pleasure. The spirit just gave me that so vision, so I shared it.

What are the. So you were identifying what I think was four parts or about four parts of your piss. And I love when we break things down, people. I think it's. It's helpful when we have things broken down into pieces. So would you just state what those four parts of the pivot are for you?

I'm very much about showing how the mechanics of something works because it's replicable. So the first, as I said, was listen to your inner voice. Second is when you have two choices, and the known is not. You know where you're headed if you do nothing, if you don't take action. And the unknown, you don't know. Like you said, you don't know if you're going to wipe out on the board or not. But there's the opportunity that you can succeed. So pivoting, too, is taking the lesser of the two evils, choosing the unknown, even if it's a small step, the third pivot, I call the nth degree pivot. And now, because it's a new level, because we're starting to have that true faith and of our experience that we can think forwardly now instead of backward, you know, getting over something. We can say, well, what if I can move forward before the backward pivot even comes to me? So if I'm about to meet you in my heart, I want this to be love. I want this to be joy, I want this to be miracles. And so my heart says, okay, what would the nth degree be if I wanted to be the best experience with you? What would that feel like, look like? And my heart just goes there. So the nth degree. I always look to the nth, to the. Oh, what's the goal? Okay, you know, the cavemen put the pictures of the animals on the cave walls to see and spearing them, they saw the goal. So seeing, visualizing the goal. I call that the nth degree. If thinking positively brings us positive results, what would the best result be? You know, just. Just forget all the steps and go right to the ultimate goal. So the ultimate goal is you. And I become so enlightened today. Your. Your listeners become so enlightened today that the world lifts up 100%. Okay, now, I don't know what that means, but in my heart, my heart gets it, and I just jump into that. So I jump into that pivot. I. I'm now proactively pivoting myself.

So is another way to say the nth degree the best conceivable result, at least from the standpoint of our perspective?

Right, Exactly.

Beautiful.

And then it's always better to. Than even that, such as the synchronicities. We're saying the same word at the same time. This is the first interview ever that we've done that.

So it's like, cool.

Yeah, we are really in sync. And then the. The last pivot, now that I'm seeing, like you said, you woke up and you pivoted. You chose to pivot to a positive pivot. It's. That's kind of the thing. Same thing. Now I'm being shown a new pivot. So as the world enlightens, we keep growing. There's no end to enlightenment. There's no end to love. There's no end to joy. And I'm starting to as I. So I wake up in the morning, and I force a smile if I don't feel like smiling, because science, neuroscience tells us it creates happy hormones in our brain. So, okay, you know, smiling in that. Smiling in that stretching for the positive stretching. Now, I used to stretch and close down my old programming. Now I'm stretching. I'm being shown stretch to open up. And even this morning, as I was doing that, I started to see angels, and I started to see myself with wings, and I started to see myself flying. And it was like, wow, this is a new thing for me to imagine. So I'm calling this pivot to become one with spirit, if you will. It's so new. It's just developing. So I'm really stoked to share what's literally happening to me now because I love to see. I love to be with people in the mechanics themselves, to see them go through it. And so I'd love to be able to share that with people now. So now how do you develop this new pivot? So everybody's going through a new pivot or a pivot. So one is the gratitude like you talked about. The other is just have the awareness or say thank you for letting me have that wonderful angelic for flying experience today. So, you know you're going to get more of that. It's a whole new level of breathing of oxygen. And the closest thing I can call it is the pivot to oneness.

Let me see if I've tracked the. These four parts. They're beautiful and, and I'm going to. I'll do it succinctly and if there's more you want to add, please do that. Number one, listen to your inner voice. Listening to the inner voice. Number two, choosing the unknown. And that is, that is remarkable. I, well, I'll save my commentary. Choosing the unknown is number two. Number three is thinking forward the nth degree, the best conceivable result that we can create in the moment. And fourth, to become one with spirit, the pivot to become one with spirit, which lifts us out of whatever our limiting our own self limiting thoughts and beliefs and, and experience has been even. So we're, we're free of all bounds really of our mind and in our, our physical experience.

Yes.

Yeah, they track that. Is that the.

Those exactly what I've said just took me longer to say it, but absolutely, yes, perfect.

I'm usually the one that takes longer. It's fun to recap your, your thoughts than my own.

So the tools are looking at light. Looking at the light. Listen, looking at your visions, being aware of, you know, they're so natural. I'll say the light vision, your feelings, what you hear, you know, a voice in your voice. And I want to say that for people who might think, oh, well, he's got this gift or something. It's so natural, it's right in front of our noses that all of us do it. It's a part of us. So I'll give you an example. When I moved upstate, a friend of mine said to me, oh, I'm going to be on interviewed on a psychic radio show. Why don't you listen in? I go, all right, you know, I know him. I don't know what psychic radio is. And I hear them talking about their psychic gifts and I say, well, is that what psychic is? I've been like that my whole life. That's no big deal. So I want to, I want to really give value to your listeners that we all, it's that natural. We just, we have not been pro. We've been programmed to Ignore it or to destroy it, or to put it down or to devalue it. That's the only reason that we think we don't have it or that it's something not special.

Yes. And in personal development experience, let's say the experience I've had both being in personal development as a student as well as as a trainer and a teacher at times. And what I've discovered is a lot of people just don't trust themselves. Like when we, when we work with people, whether it's in the, the things they're pivoting into in an entrepreneurial space, their new business or they're speaking, they want to become public speakers. You know, these are kinds of things that we find we work with people on. The deep rooted stuff that stops them or sabotages them again and again is a lack of self trust.

Yeah.

And I think a part of what you're just, you're bringing up is that we've been programmed on some level not to trust that inner, that inner sense. Innocence.

Yeah. You know, sense, inner sense that there has to be. There's somebody outside who we have to go to, whether it's the prophet or the government or the banker or the teacher. It's all in us. It's all in us and it integrates outwardly. But it's, you know, mothers have this mother's intuition.

Exactly.

Guys have it too. But when guys are in charge of the kids, they develop father's intuition, you know, whatever the need is. There was an article I read, it was either Inc or Fast Company that The most successful CEOs are the most intuitive in the business world. It's all the same. There's all one. That's the, one of the beauties of this new age science and spirit, business and empathy, helping the world. And the millennials, you see that that's the new way that they're going to change the face of business in that way.

I think millennials are more self, self aware than we were and that's just the consequence of evolution. They'll be more self aware, they'll be more evolved than we were, clearly. And they're also, I think, more self trusting. They trust their intuition, if you want to call it, or their instincts or their gut, which is maybe a more secular way that people refer to the same concept. But self trust is really the root of this. Right. That intuition isn't necessarily something that's coming from outside, that we're given by our creator or given by something else. It's something that's cultivated inside of us, then we learn to rely on or trust that that self guidance on the inside is actually the correct guidance for us, even despite the fact that maybe people around us might say otherwise. And there are things that are contrarian in, you know, in that would drive a different result if we were following the herd, let's say. And when you talk about successful business leaders, they typically are not the ones that have followed the herd. They've denied the voice or the call of the herd. And people said, well, you're nuts, you're crazy, and this will never work. But somehow they followed their guidance system anyway.

And that's the beautiful Steve Jobs quote from that famous iconic commercial. He says, the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

Yeah, beautiful, beautiful Swami, in the last few minutes that we've got here, and I would love to continue this conversation, maybe we'll have a part two. I think that would be really lovely to do. What are the types of rituals? Or is there one particular ritual that, that you've adopted? And by ritual, I think the listeners to this particular show know we're talking about consciously created habits, master habits, you might even say. So not something of a religious nature, but a ritual that you've created or adopted to help you to be in that space of intuitive knowing. I couldn't think of a better place to have taken this particular conversation than to the place of self trust, because as I said with, with all the work we've done with folks, if I could. Well, there's two, there's two things I would wave a magic wand, and the first would be self love because it would take care of the second, which is self trust. But when you do begin to trust yourself, you also begin to love yourself more. I'll share my ritual in a moment about self trust leading to self love. But what are some of the rituals you've created? Created or one in particular?

Sure. So as you ask, spirit is showing me like a lotus or an artichoke, multi layers. So it's holistic. That's the first thing. It's not just so there's, there's wellness, there's, there's money, there's social, there's environmental. So there are multi, there's spiritual. So there's probably five core areas of life, health, wealth, the family, life purpose and spiritual connection and nature and things like that. And so to self love and to self trust. You do things in each of those areas to support your energy, your joy, your health. So for example, Ayurveda I teach a program to help people learn what the Ayurveda is the science of life science about how to live according to the principles, the universal laws. Which foods are good for you personally? Not for everybody. Not all vegetables are good for everybody. Some vegetables will cause you gas and this person, they're just fine with. So it really makes like a tailored made suit. Ayurveda helps you with your foods, your aromas, your color, something for every sense. So you have a foundation that your physical and emotional self healthy. So that's one way of loving and trusting yourself. Thinking about energy, medicine, thinking about nature, thinking about looking to the light, listening for what's the biggest thing I could do to impact the world. All of these levels. What's the best way I can be with my family and friends. And they're all. They will all line up and they will weave together in a lotus, in a loomed blanket and in a tapestry. And so instead of one thing, I open up and say for the highest good. Like I'll say before the show started, I said silently this. Let this be for the highest good. I don't know what that is, but I'm open to it. And sometimes it'll be more family oriented. You know, your astrology states will say, today's a good day to be with your family, today's a good day to be with business. So just go with the energies that flow. It's a dance. It's the cosmic dance of life. And it's kind of a samba, if you will, you know, it's a kind of a smooth, flowing, energetic ebb and flow in life. And some days, whatever is presented to us. So stay in their hearts, stay in that trust with God. And every day something new is presented to us. Today it's interviews. I have like three interviews today. Yesterday I had none. So today, this is the day for that. And I hear the angel bells are going off. So what a great way to call.

It the angel bells. I'll never list. I'll never hear someone's phone or my own the same way again. I get annoyed by that kind of thing. That's the only.

That's the shamanic being aware of validations from nature there.

And there's the validation for that right on the truth.

I will do. I did a house reading. Energetic. I do land health clearings and things like that. And I help this guy, he has houses. Are we doing time? Am I getting too.

We've got about two minutes to wrap. Yeah, absolutely.

So I helped him hit. He. He rents Houses to the college students. And in one particular house, always there was a legal issue. So I went and I cleared it out. And when we were done, there was not just one raptor in the tree, one buzzard. There were five in the tree. I said, look at that. That's one. Validation times fives. I did all five of your houses. Look at that. So if you hear church bell rings, I've given presentations and seminars, and I'd say something, and all of a sudden the church bell would ring. I told a group about how I did this, and the phone rang. And the phone rang right then people call people. One woman, I teach a beginner's meditation program, and we talked about forgiveness, and we did a meditation on that. At the end of the course, the woman says, look, I just got an email from the woman. I just learned to forgive. And she invited me over. Yes. And the bells are going off now, so the angels are going, go, Adam. Go, Adam. Go, Adam. They love your pivot. It is such a wonderful word. And I just. I'm so grateful you even had me consider about it, because all these wonderful things came out from it now.

Yes. This beautiful conversation today.

It's been a great show.

So enjoyed our time together. I want to say a couple of things. In wrapping. In wrapping up, and of course, in the show notes, there'll be information about. About you, Swami, and what you're up to and where people can find out more information and follow and. And do all that, which is wonderful.

I have a free meditation, a Tibetan bowl meditation I created. If you're on my website, you just sign up and download that.

Love that. Fantastic. Yeah, we got an incredibly rich community, and they're very. I would just say, very open to a lot of different things, because pivoting is. It's a. It's sort of a way of life when. When we take the look at the essence of it, it's. It's the small changes that create transformation for ourselves. It could be a change in our mindset. It could be change in the food that we're eating or the exercise we're doing or the way that we forgive or don't, or how we love. And oftentimes, it's small changes. That's what we see. It's not big, major things. Yeah. They're dramatic. They make for good TV and viewing and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, it's just not been my experience that you need to create a massive change to get transformation.

Yeah, Tweaks. Little tweaks. Yeah.

I love Marianne Williamson, when she's defined in the past, defined a miracle as a mere change in consciousness, I think that is a miracle.

I wanted to just say that to finish up the whole story and come full circle. I've written a screenplay, a comedy about shamans and trusting your. Your heart and all of that. And I've got a Hollywood producer and director. And we're now, we're just looking for investors. We're going to make it ourselves, so we keep the vision intact. So we went from college and radio, TV and film to spiritual to both.

Wow, beautiful. Well, just the journey continues, so it's perfect. I want to repeat for folks that. That maybe didn't get to write this down or commit it to memory when it was said earlier, Swami, you had a beautiful download, I'll call it that, but an inspired thought, which was to define surrender as standing in the space where you're going to meet God. Stand in the space where you're going to meet God is a beautiful way to define surrender. And that's something that I intend to share.

And I.

And I want to think about that. I want to feel into that as well as what you said just a few moments ago, which is that in terms of the ritual, the way you perceive the world, you think in terms of all is for the highest good. All for the highest good. So I like things that are usable. Sometimes things are, and sometimes they're not. I would suggest that the folks in our community listening to this, watching this right now, that you give this a try. You try this on for size. All for the highest good. It could be that you're about to eat your meal. I love to pray, put love into my food, and I say things or I think things when I'm about to eat. You could, before you eat, think, all for the highest good. When you meet someone on the street or you meet someone in the supermarket, or you're about to get on a phone call with. With somebody maybe you care for, maybe somebody you don't care for. You could think to yourself or say out loud, even if you'd like, all for the highest good. You're about to get on stage. We meet people that are working on that aspect of their business, or you're going to give a presentation of some kind. You could think even in the midst of your nervousness, the nervous energy that you might be feeling. All for the highest good. Swami, that's just so beautiful.

And it always works out. When I'm about to make a call, especially an uncomfortable call, I say for the Highest good. And that person changes in that call. It's an amazing call going on stage. It just. It works every time.

It's just putting. I mean, we can go on and on and on about what this is, but it's love.

Yes.

Everything is a. I think everything that is the best of everything is a prayer. I don't know how else to put it. Everything for me always results in some form of prayer, in some form of gratitude. So once again, I will bookend our podcast here, our show with gratitude. Gratitude for you, Swami. Much appreciation for you, who you are as a human being and for your time this morning and the time we got to share together and the ways that this time may well transform the way other people are thinking about things in their own life. And yes, those angel bells are just confirmed, dear.

Ring, ring, ring. All your listeners are now going to be transformed. The angels just confirmed it.

So here's what I get to do in this position that I occupy at the moment. I get to set an intention for everybody, for you, for me, for all of us, that we get to wake up tomorrow. There's three steps to the ritual that I practice and that I've shared with people in many places around the world. So the first step is that we wake up. We wake ourselves up in our physical bodies, but our mental and emotional and spiritual bodies as well. We wake up a little bit more tomorrow than we are even today. And that will make tomorrow an even better day, which is a very. When we think about the nth degree, we think about thinking forward. We just have to be a little better today than we were yesterday as a human being. And if we do that, man, oh, man, the compounding effect that Einstein called the greatest miracle will take full force in our lives. We'll feel that. We'll see that. So we wake up tomorrow is step one. Step two is that you can immediately be grateful in the moment of your waking. I get to be grateful in the moment of my waking because I know as I take that first breath, that first conscious breath, that there are people who are taking their very last breath in that moment. And that makes that moment sacred. There are also people, brand new beings being born, taking their very first breath in that moment. So it makes that moment very special, holy even. So we wake up, we're grateful for whatever is, whatever it is that we feel grateful for, including that breath. And then if you're inclined to say it, stand up, declare it out loud. I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. Everybody have a beautiful day, a blessed day, a blessed evening, wherever you are, and we'll see you again very, very soon here on the Conscious Pivot. If you've not yet subscribed to the podcast, please do that. Leave a review, Go on itunes and leave a review for us. Obviously you can get access to all of the episodes on itunes or@adammarkelle.com and if you've not yet joined our Facebook community, where all of the other glorious Pivoters seem to be cultivating or hanging out and sharing their incredible Pivot stories, very similar to the story that we've been talking about this morning, Swami and I. Please feel free to do that. You can go to StartMyPivot, the StartMyPivot Facebook community. The Hack. The quick way to get there is to go to pivotfb.com takes you right to the front door of that Facebook page. We will see you again soon, everybody. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of you, your day or evening. Ciao for now.

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