Interview With Shiraz Baboo

Hi, guys. This is Donny Rouse and you are listening to the podcast One Life. So today I have a special friend with me here today. This is Shiraz. Shiraz is an award winning author, international speaker, and reality shifting specialist. Shiraj has helped hundreds of business people rewrite the reality. He teaches them to recognize that your reality is just a matter of the stories you tell and you've been telling yourself throughout your life, and that you could change any or all of these stories, resulting in business breakthroughs, improved careers, higher incomes, as well as better relationships along the way. So without further ado, you can actually visit his website@shiraz shifts.com S H I R A Z S H I f t s.com and without further ado, Shiraz, why don't you say hello?

Hey Donnie, thanks for having me on. It's great to be here.

My pleasure. So kind of to give you a little bit of backstory as to why I chose to even have Shiraz on this podcast. So Shiraz I've worked with in a network, in a business group, and Shiraz, when I was raising some questions as to what, like, things that were getting me stuck, Shiraz raised his hand and said, you know what, listen, I think I could help you. Let's jump on a call. And one of the things that Shiraz does is he kind of, he has a very good ear at listening to the stories that you tell yourself, which that in itself is a very, very, very, It's a talent you have to build. So by hearing these things, and as in, we were in the conversation, and you can, you can, you could interject at any point, we were having a conversation, and as I was going through the stories as to why certain areas of my life were working, he would call those stories out and say, well, hey, well, is this really it? Or, you know, is this it? And then going through his own process, which I'm sure we'll cover in a little bit, getting you to say, okay, well, is this something that the story that you're willing to let go, and as a result of letting go, choosing to let go, you feel this kind of like this little bit of a lightness kind of come like, like, oh, wow, you feel like you lost a few pounds. But then there were also those instances where you didn't, like where you say, yes, I want to let them go, but then you acknowledge that there is some weight there, in which case you had to dig a little bit deeper because maybe it was a different belief that you didn't address. So Shiraz, if You want to kind of give a brief overview, kind of tell people about what you're about, what you do, how you work with, and what got you started.

Okay, so it's basically work with people how you would talk about it. I can tell when your conscious beliefs match your unconscious beliefs. So that's a really cool trick to have because I know whenever you're lying, and I don't care if you're lying to me, I care if you're lying to you. So if I'm working with someone and they've got a money issue and they say, you know what? I'd really just like to double my income this year, oftentimes it's like, nope, you don't. I know you say you do and you think you do, but that's not coming up as true. And then we start digging down and finding out why they don't want to double their income. And there's all these reasons that could be out there. And, like, money issues. There's some really common ones. Like, if I double my income, then there's going to be all these people saying, hey, you have money now? Could I borrow it? Can you invest in my project? And you're like, I don't want to deal with those people. And your subconscious mind looks for the simplest solutions to problems you don't want to deal with. So if you don't want to deal with people asking you for money, the simplest solution is not to have money so they can't ask you. And so consciously, you don't pick this up. You're like, I want the money. But unconsciously it's like, nope, this is nice and safe. Or it could be that if you have the money, I'm working this hard to make this much money. It's going to take twice as much work to make twice as much money. I don't want to do that. So you keep blocking yourself. Or if I make the money, what if I lose it? Like, one time I had a lot of money, I spent it frivolously. I had nothing to show. I don't want that to happen again. So if I don't have the money to spend, I can't make that mistake again. And there's reason after reason after reason that can show up on just something as simple as, I'd like to make a little more money this year or double my income this year or whatever it is. And once I make you aware of what's going on, then you're in the position that you're like, okay, you know What? That sucks. Let's not do that anymore. Let's change that belief. And when you are actually in that space to change it, that's when you get that feeling. And yeah, it's cool, it's fun.

So people who aren't familiar, like maybe they haven't kind of like this is their first insider. Well, a story, what's a story? How do I develop these stories? And like, so the story is really essentially a belief. But do you want to kind of give a brief explanation as how do people acquire these stories throughout their life? Where do they start building up like all this negative self talk, all these negative beliefs that are bringing them to their current reality?

So the way I look at things.

Is a belief is just something you believe is like the sky is blue. But a story is a belief that repeats over and over and over again. So if you ever say, this always happens to me story of my life, every time I try this, those are stories that you are stuck in. And you can have good stories and bad stories. I know a lot of people have. I always find the best parking spots and I'm like, that's a cool story, but let's go for something bigger. Like my bank account doubles every year. That's a cool story to live in. And so for me, this came from being trapped in a story for almost two decades and that was that. I developed rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 22. And we tried different things to help alleviate the arthritis, but number one, well, it's genetic. So there's just nothing you can do about it. You're just going to have arthritis. That's a story I got told. And so I bought that. And then for me it's just like, well, how do you get rid of arthritis? I'm looking for trying to fix what I thought was the problem, but the arthritis was actually the symptom of another problem. And that's what I found for a lot of people is people are trying to fix what they think is the problem, but they're actually working on the symptom. And even if they take care of the symptom, the problem's still there. So it will show up again or in a different way because you haven't solved the problem. And this happened to me a couple of times because the arthritis went into admission. I thought things are going to be well, but I hadn't solved the problem. And then when the problem reasserted itself, it just came slamming back again. And so the actual problem was that I felt I was responsible for everyone in my life. And I found this out working with a coach overseas. And when he told me that, I just looked at him like, no, I don't. I know I'm a responsible guy. I don't think I'm responsible for everyone in my life. He goes, you don't think that consciously, but you've created this subconscious belief that you have to be responsible for everyone in your life. And I said, okay, well, let's say that's true. What the hell does that have to do with arthritis? That's. They're completely unrelated. He goes, well, no, you don't want to be responsible for everything, but you'll feel guilty if you're not being responsible. But if you're lying in bed in pain, you don't have to be responsible for anyone. And no one can judge you for it. No one can call you out. They can't say, get off that bed, out of your pain, and take responsibility. So it's a solution for a problem you don't even realize you have. I was just like, what? Because that just seems so crazy to me at the time.

But I thought about it and I.

Said, okay, okay, so this is it. If that's what's going on, then all I have to do is say, I'm not going to be responsible for anyone but me, and I shouldn't have arthritis anymore. He goes, if you mean it deep down that you're not going to be responsible for anyone except for you moving forward, then you should not have arthritis anymore. You won't have a need for it. I'm like, okay, that's what I'm going to do. And we just finished the conversation, and I went about my day. I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning, no pain, no inflammation, no sign of the arthritis. Now, the damage done to my body was still there, but I was just like, what the hell just happened? It's just gone. And that's because I actually got rid of the problem instead of the symptom. And then I learned that this works for everything. This works for illness, this works for money, this works for relationships. This works for success, right? And when you start to address the actual problem, everything else changes. And sometimes it can change, sometimes so big and so profoundly, it feels like magic. Like, for me, it's like I just woke up the next morning, it was gone. Years of trying all these things. Nothing worked. I have a conversation with this guy, boom. So I try to do the same thing with other people now in that I'll have a conversation with people, find out what the actual story or belief is, get rid of them, and then your life changes.

It's so interesting. So I didn't know that that was actually part of your backstory. So. I had Lyme disease. I had a Lyme disease pretty much from the moment I entered high school all the way into, like, mid. You know, past college and probably around till, I believe, like, 2000, 2013. And I remember saying, like. Remember hearing the power of stories through, like, a Tony Robbins event that I'd gone to? And I was always kind of, like, nervous around. People would be like, oh, well, you know, what's going on? And I hated repeating the story like, oh, I have Lyme disease. I hate it, like, because I knew, like, once you acknowledge it, now you're caught in telling that story. But then I heard one doctor say something like, you know what? Something usually happens sometimes when people are in their 30s. Like, the Lyme all sudden just disappears for no reason whatsoever. And he's like, we don't know why. It's just, like, this phenomenon. So, like, that. That seed, like, that. That planted seed and had, like, was allowed to fertilize and sprout. And when I was in Brazil, I went there in the best shape of my life. Came back in one of the worst shapes of my life because of the caipirinhas. I was drinking, and doctors were like, you know, shoving all these antibiotics and all these different drugs, trying to figure out what to make it work. And I felt lousy. And then at one point, I said, you know what? I was like, screw this. I was like, this is enough. No more. And I stopped, you know, like, I got off the antibiotics. I just changed my diet. But that declaration of this is it all of a sudden, like, nothing, you know, since then, nothing? And. But just. But, you know, had. Maybe had not in that. That story that, oh, well, you know what? People in the 30s, it somehow just disappears, you know, that was seven. That was eight years ago. Right. So I was in the. I was in my 30s. But having that. That seed planted actually, I believe was probably something to say, oh, you know what? I don't have to hold onto this. I can let it go.

Yeah.

So then how about. So, like, we like the stories that get in a way about living. So, like, the one life is about living your. Your true self, like, following your heart, doing those things that bring you joy. Where do people get stuck along the way? Like, what are the biggest. When people are living, like, lives of, like, where they're just kind of Comfortable. I don't even want to say mediocre. See, because everyone gets in a funk. Like, but what are those. What are the common threads that you. That you hear through the people you've worked with that have been holding people back as well as maybe, like, so if some people out here, like, can't work with you, like, what are some steps? Like, some just steps they could actually put into place or to start to break down these stories and see what's, like, the real underlying story.

There's oftentimes it's just what you're saying, because sometimes you're saying things that you think are cliches. It's just what people say.

But anything that comes out of your.

Mouth, especially if it's a cliche, you repeat, that's running in your subconscious, right? So you have to watch what you're saying. You're saying things like, oh, you know, you know how it is. Two steps forward, three steps back. Oh, my God, what are you creating? Right? You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. I've heard that say that expression, they're not living the best lives when they're in that story. So pay attention to what's coming out of your mouth, number one. Number two, most of the stories that I have to pull out of people come from parents or the greater family unit. And it's either because their parents have that story and now they've been around it for so long they've inherited it, or because their parents had a different story and they're in resistance to that parent's story. And the funny thing is, when you're in resistance to a story, you're not actually creating your life for you. You're creating your life out of that resistance to someone else. And you're not being genuine. And that's going to affect all your outcomes. But we get these stories from our parents. There's four major ways. If you are told a story, you can buy it. So you get told, you know, at 30, it just goes away. Okay, I'll buy that.

Why not?

Works for you. There's actually watching the story unfold, like watching what happens to your parents, watching what happens to friends and buying the story from that. There's being in the story and.

Yeah, and then there's.

There was a fourth one, I can't remember. Those are three big ones, though. So the big thing to remember with stories, though, is we have what I call an authority filter. And it's basically this filter of all this stuff comes in what do we believe? What do we not believe? And it doesn't exist when we're born. So we just take in everything from our parents, from everyone around us. And this is what's true. This is how it works. This is how life goes. But then eventually we get this filter and we turn it off in the presence of an authority. And that's where you have to be careful, because if that authority doesn't know what the hell they're talking about, you've just turned off your filter. Whatever they say goes right into your brain. And this can be horrible, even if the authority is a good person.

I've worked with Bob Proctor, and one.

Of the top life coaches in the.

World always gives amazing advice.

He's changed so many people's lives, and I remember one time he said, you should always be traveling business class. You deserve it. You deserve to not be cramped up and live a life of luxury.

But I had my authority filter turned off, and I just took that in. And so I started traveling business class, business class everywhere. And I watched my bank account dwindle and dwindle and dwindle because I'm spending all this money on business class flights.

Whenever I'm doing my travels.

And what he meant to say was, you need to build your income and your abundance to a level where you can apply business class without thinking about it, because you deserve to fly business class. So the message was there, but I took it in in a different way. I took it in out of context, and it screwed me over because I dropped my authority filter and didn't think, oh, you know what? That doesn't work for me at this moment because of the amount of money I'm making.

So that's a very interesting point. So even when you have. So even when you have a story which might. You. You might think is empowering, there's also. There's layers to the story where, you know, like, you may have, you know, like you just said, like. Like you deserve first class. But if you don't know, like, all right, well, what is it, you know, if you don't have a different story leading up to that kind of. That main story, now all of a sudden, you're. You could be hurting yourself.

Yes. Yeah.

It's fascinating.

I was lucky. I figured that out before it was too late.

Yeah. Yeah, thankfully. But although it must have been really nice, I've. I think I've. I've got upgraded to business class a couple times, and it was. It was. It's much a much better experience. So then what are some practical ways then for people to. So like, alright, so I know I want, let's say I'm not even aware, right? Like, I just feel like, you know, I'm not moving forward in my business the way I want. Let's not even go there, right? Because this is all about living like your one life, about following the heart and people wanting to take steps to maybe like to start a career, something that's they're passionate about or maybe just take that time to live. Maybe like, you know, to travel to the place they want to go or if you want to go, even like more granular, even just taking that moment of time for themselves in their day. Right. Because how many people even do that? Right? There's always rushed anywhere. What are the beliefs that are preventing people from like to, from immersing themselves in the present moment and just saying, you know what, I'm doing this because I want to do it.

Mm. Well, part of is what you said, it's. They're not being in the present moment. So a lot of people spend their time in the past through regret or.

Anger or whatever the hell happened in.

The past or in the future, in anticipation of stuff that's going to come up, whether it's good or bad, and they're not fully present. And the funny thing is, if you, if you've heard spiritual talks and the way things work, there's nothing but the present. So when you're taking your mind out of the present, you're taking your mind away from the only actual reality that there is for you. And what is interesting is most of the time things are amazing in the present. So there's people that are like, oh.

You know, it's not because I've got.

To pay my rent and all these bills at the end of the month.

And I don't know if I'm going.

To be able to do that. I've got to make sure that's taken care of. And I don't know where the money's.

Going to come from.

And I'm like, but right now you don't have to pay them, right? Well, no, not right now. So everything's okay right now in this moment everything's fine. So no, but I've got these things in the future. No, that's in the future. Right now everything is fine. And if you go from moment to moment, the amount of right nows where everything is fine far outweighs the moments where, oh, now it's time to pay that bill. Do I have enough money or Now I have to talk to this person I don't want to talk to or whatever the situation. There's so many amazing present moments, but you're too much. Oh, I hated what that person told said in the last lecture. Oh my God, now I've got to go deal with my in laws next week. And he's just like not here where it's cool. So that's, that's a big part of the problem with the, with the stories.

When you're stuck in a story, there's.

Usually two questions you want to ask yourself.

Number one, what is the advantage to being in this story that I'm not seeing? Because I found this. You're not in a story unless you're getting something out of it. And the other one is, what's the horrible thing I think will happen if.

I get out of the story like that?

You choose a story because if it wasn't serving you in some way, then it wouldn't be your story.

Yeah. And sometimes the simplest answer for why I'm in the story is because I get to be right.

Because if, if you're talking to people about it, then every time it happens, you get to be right. You get to say to people, look, happened again. And you get this charge out of it. You get a hit of dopamine in your brain because you get, you were right and you're happy about it. Even though on the surface it's like, oh my God, again, right Underneath it's like, I was right. See, I was right. And I've seen people sacrifice being happy, being wealthy, being healthy, being in relationships just to be right. And it's amazing how addictive that thing is. Just right. I'm always right. Look at this. There I was right again. And I offer the choice, well, what.

If you were wrong?

There's no way I'm going to find the love of my life this year. Oh, I was wrong. There's no way I'm going to make a million dollars this year. Oh, I was wrong. Would being wrong be so bad if that's what happened?

So you said too. So, like one thing we're saying, all right, knowing that you get a belief and that there's always something that you benefit from it, otherwise you wouldn't hold it well over the other ones. All right, so like in the case with your, with your first class, your first class ticket. So if, if the surface belief is not really the actual belief that's controlling, what questions would you put? Like, would you offer readers or listeners to say, okay, well, what are the questions? Like, what's the process? So if we're going through to. So let's. Let's play. You're talking to your little brother, right? And he's like, shiraz, I. You know, how do I work through this where, you know, you're so busy, where I don't get to, you know, I don't get to have the time with you. I want, you know, I love you, brother. And. But he's like, what are the series of questions that I could ask myself? You know, regardless of the area of life that I want to focus on, what are the questions or the steps I could kind of break down, where I could start to break down, you know, the belief, like, piece by piece, to get at the underlying issue.

It's.

I mean, it is just what I was saying. It's like, what is the advantage? What is the strange little benefit? So I'll give you an example. There was one time I was at my sister's place, and I could see she was upset about something, so I said, well, what's going on?

And she goes, well, I went for.

This audition for a TV commercial, and they haven't called me back to let me know if I got it or not. And I said, well, they didn't call you back. You didn't get it.

That's how it works.

She goes, no, no, no. I've talked to other people that were at the audition. They've called everyone back and said yes or no, except for me. I went, oh, that's interesting. Why don't you want them to call you? She goes, no, I want them to call me. I said, no, because if you wanted them to call you, they'd call you. They're not calling you for some benefit to you. And she goes, there's no benefit in them not calling me. I have to know if I get the commercial or not. So on the surface, it no sense, but I said, just take a step back and ask, why would you not.

Want them to call me?

And she thought about it for a while, and then she finally said, maybe I'm not ready.

I'm like, not ready?

Not ready to be in the commercial? She goes, no, I. I've just started my new business and I've got a few clients, but what if they. I get the commercial and they schedule it on the same time that I've got to deal with my new clients? I don't want to cancel all my new clients in a new business. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. And I said, is there Any way you can reschedule the clients? And she goes, well, I don't want to. I said, but yeah, but if it comes down to it, if it comes down to that small chance that this one commercial you're filming for one day happens to be on the exact same day as you have a client, can you reschedule?

He said, yeah.

And I said, okay. So that's not that big an issue, though. You'll feel a little uncomfortable, but you get to reschedule.

And she's like, okay.

And I said, is there anything else? And she thought about it. She goes, what if I get more commercials? I'm like, what do you mean? She goes, well, my husband was just in a. I think it was, bank of Montreal commercial. And the feedback on the commercial was so good, he got a recurring role in that commercial. So they kept calling him back doing different commercials. What if that happens to me? And I'm like, okay. So now this is just. The commercial thing has just grown in her mind. Not in actuality she hasn't even found out if she's got it, but in her mind, she's now got multiple commercials and they're conflicting with her business. So I said, listen, it's your decision. You can take the commercials or not take the commercials. You can reschedule things. You can always make it work. It's your business, it's your life, so don't worry about it. And she's like, okay. And I said, so is it all right if they call?

And she goes, yeah, okay.

It's okay if they call. And the phone rang right then, and I said, pick it up. It's them. And she goes, it's not them. There's no way. And she picks it up, and it is them. And this is the crazy thing about how our reality works is when you let go of the block, everything shifts. Somehow by her not wanting them to call, she was keeping a person across the city oblivious to the fact that she had to call my sister. And as soon as the belief shifted, the person went, oh, my God, I haven't called this person. Called her right up. It's crazy how powerful it is, but it's that digging. You've got to keep digging and digging. What else is the problem? What else is the benefit? What's going to happen? She had that horrible outcome if she got the commercial, but it was a bad outcome if she didn't get it, because then she doesn't get any money, right? So the best solution in her mind was, we'll just stay in Limbo.

So for that's now the first of all, that's awesome. Yeah. I had a similar experience like that with my coffee company where I was the beverage that I bottle. I was trying to figure out a solution to handle just a certain part of the process. And I'd kind of been like resisting it, never going back. And all of a sudden, with everything at ease and not really thinking about, all of a sudden I came in and the moment in time that it happened, I was actually ready for a new story because I was looking for different answers as a result of that something that had been there being very vague, but the solution that had been there the entire time, all of a sudden now I was ready to, ready to receive it. And so we discussed. All right, well, it's a matter of realizing that you have a belief and that there's always something to benefit from that belief. Otherwise you wouldn't hold on to something that is a negative. There's always some benefit there. And then secondly, you had said that if you want to break down the belief, you have to say, okay, well what am I getting it, what am I getting from holding this belief? Right? If you're not happy with your body. Right. All right, well what do I get from holding on to this belief that it's difficult, it's challenging to lose weight, whatever it may be, and then just keep probing down, asking, well, what else would I benefit? What else would it benefit? And just keep breaking it down to list all the benefits. And then as a result, after you've listed all those benefits, what is the, what is the follow up question to be? Okay, is it a matter of just sometimes just seeing it to say, okay, worry. These are all the things that are holding me back from the thing I want. What is the to reverse it now and say, okay, well, how do I let go of this stuff? So this way it's no longer holding me down, but I gotta, I get, you know, get moved past is and.

You have to build them all up. You can do it as you hit each belief, but you're like, I'm, I'm ready to let go of that belief. I'm done with that belief. When I work with people, I ask are you willing to destroy that belief? Or if it's a story, are you willing to step out of that story? You don't need to be in that story anymore. And when there's that actual yes that they mean always shifts. And it's just amazing to see the shift and to see the reactions because you will. I'M not going to say. Well, because some people aren't as aware in their bodies, but most people, I say 99% of people will feel some sort of shift in their body.

Yeah.

It's like, what the hell was that? Something just moved. Like something feels weird.

It's.

And it's you letting go of that belief.

Yeah, no, I remember in our conversation, our last conversation, that. Exactly that exact same thing. So, right. So now we are, we have like, all right, putting it down there and then deciding, okay, do I want to hold on to this? Is this going to. Or is this a belief that I want to hold on to or is this something I want to let go? You choose to let go. But now we have like, you know, in our everyday lives, there's literally hypnosis going on at all moments. Right. Because you turn on the television, anything you, any information audible, I mean, any sense that we take in is tell us, saying, telling us something about the environment or telling us something one of worse to believe in, like a commercial. And I guess the next question I have for you is, all right, well, how do you attune or become aware and like fine tune your, your sensitivity to picking up on these, these stories that are going on in your life and going back to that future moment is like, well, anything that's projecting out, anything you project out is a story because there is no future. I mean, so knowing that it's a story for the future, if it's positive, then you can hold on to that. If it's negative, then you can choose to make a different belief. But what's the, like the. How can people start to become aware of these different stories that are surrounding them, you know, maybe even the stories of others and not to take them in and to say, okay, well, I just heard myself repeat this. I'm more aware now. How do they create that awareness?

It is getting into a place of observer mode when you really get it into your brain that everything is stories.

Absolutely everything is just a bunch of stories. And what reality is, is the. What the majority of people have agreed is true. That's how we define. That's how you should be defining reality.

Yeah.

So anything can change in reality. And that's why you can get like, have a huge depression. But there's some people becoming millionaires because they're in a different reality from everyone else.

Right.

And when you realize that and just start to see everything in stories, you can go, oh, that's an interesting story. Look at that story. Oh my God, I'm in that story that person just talked about that I have that same belief or that same story, and that's just a story. And you figure out which ones work for you and which ones don't. And then you just start stepping out of it. Because you can step out and step in of stories actually really, really easily once you get to this space. But you have to remember it's just as easy to step in as it is to step out. And someone can just make an offhanded comment. And sometimes the effects can be so profound, like you could do. I remember I did it to myself once. It was so amusing to me. Not in the moment, but afterwards, is that my arthritis started to come back in a big way. I was just like, okay, what's going on now? I knew at that point it's a story behind it. I don't know what the story is, but it's causing me to have the arthritis. I was looking at different areas of my life, and then finally I realized what happened was I was in the shower one day and I was shaving. And I'd gotten into the habit of shaving in the shower when the arthritis was bad because then the heat hit my body and loosened up the joints while I was shaving. And then I just washed my whole body. And I'd be more flexible to the whole body. But I never got out of that habit. I keep shaving in the shower. It's just convenient.

And that's a habit now.

And what popped up into my mind is, I don't need to be doing this. I'm wasting water just because now it's just the enjoyment of having the shower on while I'm shaving. And that guilt of wasting water while I was in the shower made my arthritis come back. So now I had a reason to still be in the shower and shaving or otherwise, I just have to go and stop being in the shower when I shaved. And then I realized, look what I just did to myself. It was one offhand thought about. And it stemmed from someone talking about energy conservation and not wasting things. And that topped up, hit me in the mind. So that story just sort of flowed into that. And then I'm like, oh, my God, it's okay. You can do this. Step out of the story. And like, almost instantaneously, the arthritis went away again. So sometimes it can be insidious, how it creeps up on you, but every time it does, there's some benefit. My benefit was I didn't have to feel guilty about having to shave in the shower. People do a lot to avoid the possibility of guilt and shame. That's the thing I've discovered from the most people. It's always the avoidance of guilt and shame or just even the possibility. So if you feel like, you know, what if I get up on stage and I just bomb? And people are like, why is that person up there? They don't deserve to be up there. Then you'll create a story that keeps you from getting up on stage. You'll get sick before, or they'll get the times mixed up, or something will happen to keep you from being up on that stage. And a lot of times it won't look like you're avoiding the stage. It just looks like things are happening and there's nothing you can do about it. But it's to avoid the possibility of shame. You could get up on that stage and just kill it and have an amazing time. But what if I don't? And then the guilt. I've seen people that one of my clients. I can't get my business going. You know, it gets to a certain point that it just doesn't go past that point. And sometimes it goes up a little, but sometimes most of the time it doesn't. And I can't figure out what's going on. And it turned out that she had a little sister and she felt guilty for outshining her sister. So she always kept her income at a certain level, slightly above her sister. So took her sister to become more successful for her to become more successful so she wouldn't go into guilt. Amazing how the stories we create for.

Ourselves, I mean, so it brings up. There's a couple of things that I wanted to pull from that. So one with. With regard to noticing your story. So it's really. When you have. Your brain waves are going a certain way, so, you know, like, alpha is more relaxed. I think I believe you. Correct me if I'm wrong. That beta is the one where your mind, like when you're in fight or flight, is that.

I think, yes.

So when you're in like. So one of the. One of the most important things when you're doing this kind of work and you want to become aware of those stories is the relaxation of your body getting into a place where you're slowing the brainwaves down, where you feel more relaxed. Because from a relaxed place, that's when you could start to look at the stories being told. Because once you're in fight or flight mode, I mean, you're. There's no possible way now, like in Fight or flight, you hit when you're. When you're trying to look at a story. Now all of a sudden you're hitting the resistance because you're not. You're not. You're not being objective and looking at it from, like, from a. From a third person, but you're literally looking at it and you're. You're in conflict with. With what is. So it's. I think it's very. You tell me if your experience. But I think it's challenging to try to change something if you're in that fight or flight or in those beta brain waves. But you have to get your body to relax first. And as a result of relaxing, and all of a sudden, it's like putting Windex on a dirty window. All sudden you start to see everything clearly, and the stories you tell yourself start to be more clear.

Yeah. And the thing that comes up is just. You were sort of alluding to it. If you have an emotional reaction to something, then you're not calm. You're not in that calm state because that's what's happening. You're in. To a smaller, large degree, you're in fight or flight. Because that's what that emotional reaction is, whether it's anger, whether it's fear. Right. It's just like.

And when you realize, okay, every time.

I have an emotional reaction, that means I'm triggering a story inside me, then you can start.

That's power. That's. That's a good point. That is a very good point. I'm glad you said that.

But that's.

That's the big thing. And so people sometimes, like, sometimes they're like, things will go on, and you just don't seem to react or don't care. And I'm like, it's not that I don't care. I'm just observing and taking it in without going into that emotional reaction, without getting pulled into a story. And that just makes life easier for me. But we've been trained. Oh, if something bad happens, you have to be outraged. You have to be in a certain state. You have to do something. And I'm all for doing something about things that go wrong, but for me, it's just like, oh, that shouldn't happen. We should do something about it, as opposed to, what the hell? Why would they do that? And there's all this emotion bursting forth from people.

And it is not that I become.

Unemotional, but just now most of my emotions are happy, joy, playful, and I'm sticking around there rather than in anger. Frustration and all those other lower, lower.

Frequency emotions and everything really, you know, when you, when you give yourself the power to realize that everything is a choice. I mean, I know it's, it's easier to say that rather than to like. Because when you're, when you're all wound up and you're, and you're, you know, and that trains left the station, it's challenging to, can be hard to get to stop. Um, as it relates to this now, I. So I was at, I was using my friend's facility to do some sample roasting for new coffees that I'm going to purchase. And while I was there, I met another friend of mine who. Well, to my friends are there one of my friends who had been in the industry for far before I had been in the industry. And when I, when I started, he was kind of like mentoring me. And I would say, I would say that when I first entered the industry, like, I was kind of like the shining star. I was kind of moving up in a fast trajectory because it was like the passion I had. I was just pushing out there. And then when I met this friend, I thought of myself like I was going to. I noticed the story I was telling myself is that like, oh, I'm like, I'm kind of like a newbie in this or that I didn't have the experience that these other people had had. And like I, when I became aware of it, I was like, well that's, that's interesting because I noticed, I noticed first like the shift in my body, like that my physiology change. And then when I became aware of it, I was like, well, you know, that's, you know, it's not, it's not true. Like there are many reasons why this story is not true. But then like I would, I would fix the physiology and change it, but then it would go back fix it and then I would find like that story trying to make its way back. And I don't recall where I was going to go with this, but yeah, noticing like the point you made, I love that it was that noticing whenever there's an emotional, whenever there's an emotional shift and like, you know, like that, that strong emotional urge. Not in a good way either. Right? Like that's the, that's like the, the, the red flag saying, hey, something needs to be looked at a little bit deeper here. And the same thing can be said with your physiology when you go into a state of like really lousy physiology. It's the same thing as like that feeling inside, like that shift now shifts your mood, and that's the time where you have to be aware of saying, okay, well, what's going on here? And sometimes just being able to change the physiology and notice and bring awareness to it will actually slowly start to, like, unravel that knot and loosen. Loosen its grasp on you.

Yep.

And one thing that you said there that just sort of popped out was when people feel trapped.

Right.

And one thing I've found with a lot of people is they create that trap for themselves because people have a tendency to go into binary thinking. So it's this or it's this, and those are my only two choices. And there's always an infinite number of choices. But you've decided this is it. I actually worked with a woman once, and she had cancer. We were looking at what was going on, what were the reasons for cancer. Then I just put a scenario out there. I said, well, what if the cancer was gone tomorrow and you could just go back to work and live the normal life you had before? She looked at me, she goes, I'd rather die than go back to that job. I'm like, oh, well, now we know why you have cancer. You just stated it. I said, well, what if you get another job? No, I'm just the only thing I'm trained for. I don't want to lose my pension and then excuse after excuse after excuse to make sure the only two choices were death or that job. And it was interesting because it wasn't even, I just want to have the cancer till I retire, and then I don't need it. The only choice she gave herself was, I would rather die than go back to that job. And it was just fascinating to me to see that manifestation and the amount of force she used to keep it to only those two choices and nothing else. And most people don't do it to that extreme, but they do it. They just like, here's my choices.

I've actually. When I left corporate America, I vowed. I actually. I think I use those exact words verbatim. And now that I'm like, well, thankfully I have my own business now, but holy crap. Like, thank God I left corporate. Or, I mean, I wouldn't doubt that something similar like that would have happened because I would have made myself sick just from. From being unhappy.

So we're.

I know you have a time limit here. We have, like, five minutes, or what do you think you have, five, ten minutes?

We're good.

Okay, so looking at. Let's kind of wrap. We're gonna, like, kind of bring it all together and wrap it up for the person who, you know, maybe like stories that. This is an entirely new concept. Like, the idea of, like, being aware of the stories they're telling themselves. And it's kind of like recapping everything we just said and. But I want to kind of like, say it in a way where, like, people can, like, they can know where to start looking in their life for these things. And I mean, roughly, it's probably like the gap analysis, like seeing the areas of your life that aren't working, but, like, developing our. Well, how do you. Where do you start to look in your life? And then going through the process again and saying, okay, where do I start to look? How do I identify these things? What do you do when. All right, you've, you've identified this thing, you've identified the source, and. But now you're around people, you know, the environment you're in is all supporting this, this, this belief system and now trying to break away from that belief system. Like, if you have to live with these, maybe we'll. We'll skip the other stuff and we'll do a quick recap. But now you're in an environment where everyone around you like that. Maybe it's like in the family, like you said. Like, you know, a lot of the beliefs we have come from our family. So you have all these people who are holding a belief that is no longer in alignment with you. How do you hold yourself? Like what. How do you operate in the, in this, this ecosystem with this new belief so that you don't, you know, you don't kind of regress and buy back into this negative belief or this false belief.

Okay, so solution. I always said, first off, if you can pull it off, get out of the environment. Okay, But a lot of people think I can't get out of the environment. Again, that's a story. But it's about letting everyone else get uncomfortable with who you are becoming. Because I've seen this happen over and over again, is we shift beliefs and you're this new person. You let go of a bunch of things, and then you go back to your old environment and everyone gets uncomfortable with you. And it may even be that they're happy for you, but they're just uncomfortable because you're not who you were before. And so you can feel that discomfort. And so in order to make things better, you go back to who you were so that everyone is comfortable and no one's any better. There's no success, there's no change. But everyone's comfortable back where you were.

So you have to be willing to.

Let everyone be just completely uncomfortable with you. And you have to be willing to be uncomfortable with yourself. I actually had a client that he said his whole story was something goes wrong. Like almost every single day something goes wrong. And we found out, I can't remember what the reason was. We got rid of that belief. And then he called me three weeks later and he said, okay, we need another session. And I'm like, what happened?

He goes, everything was going right.

And I'm like, that's a problem. He goes, it wasn't at first, but the longer things went right, the more anxious I became because I'm so used to them going wrong. So when something finally went wrong, I actually went, oh, it was just. It was a relief we got to do it again. And that's why I've actually created a program where I'm hitting people twice a month to make sure they stay in that new space and keep moving forward rather than get out for a while.

And then get hit by the other.

People'S beliefs, your own uncomfortability, and slide back to where you were. But that's the thing, is to stay strong in those new beliefs and eventually everyone will get used to the new you. And then you change again. They all get uncomfortable and then they get used to you. And the more you do it, the more comfortable the change becomes and the more they get used to you changing all the time. So then they're just used to you changing. They'll get uncomfortable if you're not progressing, which actually works to your advantage at that point.

I like that. That's actually one. So understanding that like the discomfort is a part of it. I'd experience a lot of that stuff even when I, when I. When I travel and I think we discussed this when we had spoke, I said, well, you know, when I'm travel, like there's a different reality than when I'm back, you know, back home, there's a different reality. So I was creating. There was two different belief systems happening and both in how I interacted with people, how I conducted my own, how I conducted myself versus back home and feeling that there was. There was a role or a cast, like a cast that I like, a role typecast, a role that I had to fulfill. So I think that that is extremely powerful. Knowing that anything, that anytime you're changing, there's always going to be discomfort there because it's new, it's not something you're familiar with yet. And as a result of changing into a new identity. There's always going to be that discomfort until you assume, until you are, you know, feel like you're. That that role belongs to you.

Yeah. And this is something that stops a lot of people, especially when they're starting a new business or a new career, is they're still in the mindset of I'm. I need to become that. And when you have to become that, you're not in your mindset of I am that you're. I need to become that. So you're still keeping yourself out of it. And when you say, okay, you know what? I'm ready now. I am this, it actually affects the reality around you.

A lot of people are slow on the transition part, and that doesn't work.

All right, so in the. In the few minutes we have left, because I want to give you some time to kind of, you know, know, tell people how they can get in touch with you and work with you. What is, like, if there's one, like, nugget of information that you. You feel like would leave, like, the greatest impact on the person listening to this podcast episode. What is the one piece of advice you can tell to give somebody to, you know, help them take those. Those first steps, which are always the hardest steps, like, to make those first steps, like those first few strides so they could start to create a new reality for themselves.

I'd say keep in mind that everything, absolutely everything, is beliefs and stories. And the more you are just observing it, the more they'll start to stand out. So you can become aware and then decide which ones you want to change. And it's that simple. Like, here's the thing. It's really simple. It's not easy, right? If it was easy, everyone would be living the life of their dreams as like.

Right?

But this is it. As soon as you start to look at the stories and see them play out and hear it in other people's stories and talks and the news and whatever, you. You'll start to go, oh, okay, here's a bunch of stories that don't work for me. Here's these ones I'm actually in. I'm going to be done with those now.

All right? And if you want to tell, like, you know, tell the listeners, if they want to, you know, if they want to learn more about this, this concept, like this. This kind of this philosophy or, like, the ideas behind stories, if they want to work with you, how can they do that? How can they get in touch with you?

If you want to work with me, you just go to shirazhifts.com if you want to learn more about what I do and actually learn how to do it, you can go to energeticmagic.com and on the Energetic Magic website, you can find in the menu free webinars that go on each month. We do it the last Monday of every month and you can come out and experience it for yourself. Check out what I do and the.

Difference between Shiraz shifts and Energetic Magic.

Shiraz shifts is if you want to work with me directly and help, I'll shift your beliefs. Energetic Magic is if you want to learn how to do energetic magic, which is what I call my modality.

Awesome, awesome Shiraz man. Always a pleasure. Thank you so much for, you know, for coming on to the show or the podcast. And I, I know I came away with some. Some good nuggets, information, some like, aha moments and just kind of reminders to be aware. Like, as you were, as we were just speaking, like, these little, like, flares were going off in my mind. I'm like, oh, crap. So, you know, it's not, you know, you could do it once, but you have to remember, you have to kind of practice it in order to really, really incorporate it and to really live the, you know, that. That self that. That we're trying, well, trying to aspire and create. So, again, thank you so, so much for, for coming on today. I appreciate you. I see all the blessings, I hope all blessings. I see the light in you, man. You're an awesome dude. And I look forward to speaking again soon.

Okay. Thank you for having me. It's been a lot of fun.