EP 191 WTH?!?: Revolutionary Optimism with Dr. Paul Zeitz

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Welcome back Everybody. I am Dr. Greg Eckel and this is what the health Today's topic is. Revolutionary optimism, the way to walk the path of love. And as a subtitle and ignite the spark of imagination. My guest is Dr. Paul Zeitz. He's a preventative medicine physician position and he's identified revolutionary optimism as a way for each person to walk the path of love and ignite the spark of imagination. Like many Americans today, he's struggled with depression about the state of our country and the world. He's worked for decades to develop practices to unlock himself from his own demons and connect with others. He's living each day as a revolutionary optimist of which we have bonded on already as I'm a radical optimist. And he's excited to share his book with others who are on the path to confront the problems in their lives, in society. A little bit of background. In 96 he went to Africa to fight the HIV AIDS crisis. What he saw there inspired him to get involved. For the last 35 years, he's been an activist and movement builder. He's trying to help others who are also inspired to make a difference in the world. He is a massive release of his hashtag unifi us coming out on July 14th. Welcome aboard, Dr. Paul.

Hey, Dr. Greg. So honored to be here with you. Thanks for having me.

Indeed. And I really, I like this connection around the revolutionary optimism. And it's hard to be optimistic for some because of the doom and gloom cycles and you know, the crisis News Network and the programming that is out there. But you know, as you mentioned, you're living in the swamp waiting for the sunshine and I think that you are. I think it may be coming. So tell us what you're up to and why you wrote this book and these, this momentous occasion of the the release of July 14th as hashtag unify USA.

Yeah, thanks, Greg. I am a human who's living through these times and I've been struggling over many years of recognizing the super crises that we're facing and the seemingly inevitable path of destruction and violence that we seem to be moving into. And I feel like we have violent revolutions that are moving with great velocity and that could be seen on the streets with gun violence and mass shootings. It could be seen in the mass incarceration system that we have going on in our country. It can be seen in the largest military industrial budget ever in human history. A trillion dollars a year, 750 military bases beyond what anyone thought imaginable. And the Wars. We know what's going on with Ukraine and in Israel, Gaza and the possible flashpoint in Taiwan, China. I mean this is bananas. And we have, we have the opportunity to heal and repair and create a new way forward. And I'm just excited that people are like interested in revolutionary optimism. I wrote it as a handbook, a seven steps for how to live as a love centered activist. And I want you and your listeners to take a deep breath and just pause. And you already are love centered activists. You're already there, you got an A plus. Like you're already, your ripples of your love that you're implementing are already working. Like the self love, the love that you do for your family, the actions that you take in your community and whatever you do in our world, all those are ripples. Every love centered action counts. And I just want to honor and praise everyone for all the love centered work that, that's our action that's already underway. And let's start with that.

Yeah, yeah, that is, that's lovely. So you know, you do write about these seven steps in the book and I do encourage everybody to get the book in the, and the workbook because it does give a lot of hope. And you know, you start out like you just started there of just take a breath, realize it's go time, right? So that's your step one. And you know, it's as if we were incarnated for this time. You know, I looked back, I was born in the 70s, 1970, and I look back, I was like, gosh, I missed that generation where you know, there, there was talk of unity, consciousness and consciousness expansion and more love, etc. Getting away from just a profit driven approach or you know, kind of a rape and pillage thought process of not really an abundant mindset. You know What I mean, Dr. Paul? And so you, you've got this.

You.

Know, revolutionary optimism and I, I want to catch some more of that for myself and my listeners. So tell, tell us what you're cooking over there, sir.

Yeah, so I'm a preventive medicine physician. So I come at it from perspective of human well being and human flourishing. And I, I've had my own struggles in my own journey. So I've done a lot of work on myself. I'm privileged in that way. I've had a good education, I had a lot of love and I've like had a lot of healing. So what I wanted to do was offer a handbook that I wish I had when I was 10 or 20 or 40, even 60. I would have taken it.

Yeah.

And what you. I, I should warn you, I should have started with this. It is highly contagious revolutionary optimism and there is no known cure or vaccine. I knew it. As a doctor, I feel like it's my responsibility to warn you.

It's informed consent, right?

Well, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's out there now. Yeah. So it's really walking the path of love. As you said. The first three steps are really about self liberation. Walking the path of love so we can unleash our full capacities, our full agency, our full vision and our full way that we want to create our lives. That's the objective of that. The step four is called peace crafting and it's the art of relating to other people. Like how you and I are connecting, how you and I are connecting with your listeners, or me with my wife and kids, or me at a work meeting or whatever. I'm always in the practice of peace crafting and I created this during this last year so I can share more about that. The last three steps of the book are about our collective liberation. It's about unlocking our imagineering and sparking peaceful revolutions and unifying and bringing that love centered path that we're walking internally and unlocking our liberating our minds actually of the oppression systems so that we can create this collective liberation. Like right here, right now. We have, we're in a moment of peril and possibility and it's go time. We got to do it now. So that's really. And I wrote the book also because humanity, all of us are going through a passage. It's tough times. We're going to be going through disruptions and crises. And I really believe in the thread, one of the main threads through the book is we're in this together. We are. No one is alone. We can only do this together. And so that's a big part of why I hope, and I'm starting to see some evidence of it actually. The revolutionary optimism is starting to churn out there. It's having a positive effect in certain places already and I hope it spreads rapidly and wildly.

Well, give us some insight. What are you seeing? What is happening? What are the signs of life there?

Well, I did my first public book event two weeks ago and I got an email from one of the people who I only met there. I had been in email contact with her, but I never met her before in person. And she sent me this most beautiful message. She said, thank you Paul, for such a heartwarming talk yesterday. My Significant other. And I spent the entire rest of the night discussing the points that you made about tending to our inner dragons, building a life operating from a place of love and radical honesty, and especially the exercise of imagining the world's generations from now knowing the fight is worth something. There was a lot to sit with when you said that opening up to different perspectives doesn't equal agreeing with them and how vital this is to humanity and unity. Wow. So I was like, wow.

Yeah.

My, my. One of the ideas that I had was that this book can spark conversation.

Yes.

Locally, like in and globally. And so her reporting out a conversation with her husband exploring these issues, I was like, bullseye. That was the goal.

That's gotta feel really good. As the author of that, the. So that component, you know, it can be scary for folks, especially in our cancel culture, reactionary, you know, who speaks loudest world where we have leaders that are more like bullies. You know, we've lost that, you know, kind of the. The guides, you know, we have. We have folks in very influential positions that use the most powerful positions on the planet to divide, to belittle, to name call, to bully. And it just is like, what in the world, like, could they please heal their inner child to actually lead us in? Like, there could be way more love and abundance around the globe if we had some leaders that would wake up to that and speak into it. So that's your whole movement of hashtag Unify usa. You're calling for a national open people's convention to select new candidates and approve a declaration of interdependence. Yes. So that's coming up.

Yeah. So when I was working on revolutionary optimism and I was in a training program, actually I was a physician, preventive medicine. And then later in life, the last few years, I had a spiritual life throughout my life. And I've done deep dives into many religions and practices and all that. But then I. I entered a spiritual leadership immersion program and I was ordained as a Shir Hashirim rabbi. Shir Hashiram is the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon. And that really is about the path of love. Love between us as people, but also love with the vertical, the Great Mystery. The. Yes. Whatever we call it, people call it different things. I call it the Great Mystery in the book. And I didn't know you were. I could have a relationship with the Great Mystery, but I actually can, and I do. And that's part of. That's step three is accessing unified consciousness, I call it. And knowing that we can Developing that muscle and then, you know, tapping into it, deploying it as needed when necessary. And I, I, I walk around with this handbook. I walk around with the book because I'm using the practices. As you said in the opening, I'm living as a revolutionary optimist. And it's fun, but it's challenging. It's hard work. None of the, none of what I'm saying, none of these steps is easy.

Right.

And that's why what you said about the journal and workbook, I totally support the idea of people using that. It has a space for writing your notes and all that, but it also has guiding questions for groups. So to do it with a family group or a work group or a spiritual group or a civic group or whatever group.

Lovely.

It's a way of deepening friendships, actually, and really getting to know people. And then really the goal is building beloved communities so that we can be in this together.

I love that. Will you speak a little bit more for accessing unity consciousness? Because that may be a new concept for some folks.

Well, it's what you said earlier about unity consciousness, and I think we've all had experiences of that sense of interconnectivity. I feel like every human's had it at some point or another. Like, I've had it. I've experienced it, like at a funeral. Like, I get an altered state of, Like, I see the arc of my life and I see a bigger picture. Or when a new baby is born, I get like there's another kind of part of my brain that's experiencing things differently in nature. Like when I go to the Grand Canyon or when I see beauty. It's called nature mysticism. Or people get a runner's high when they're exercising. That can alter or spiritual practice. Chanting, meditation, yoga, all those things. We also have it on that, you know, through that. So whatever bag of tools you want to use to access it now, it's available. Now, some people don't even know it's available. Some people do know it's available. My part, the book, the, the part of this book, it has practices about my, you know, some practices that I use, like a hallelujah chant or things like that. And so you're not limited to what I'm proposing here as practices, I think, but I do offer a Breathe to Connect tool. I offer a chanting praise tool. I offer a laughing yoga tool. I'm a trained laughing yoga instructor, and I really love laughter.

Yeah.

Because we need to bring joy in all this, number one. Number two, what do you think the most. What do you think is the universal human language?

The universal human language? Is it laughter? Did you sent me.

I've traveled all over the world, 65 countries.

Yeah.

People love to laugh. Literally everywhere.

Yeah.

And it's a way of connecting with people literally everywhere and anywhere. People of all walks of life, you know, so I'm really a big believer in that. And then I share stories, a personal story where I was in a very difficult circumstance and I got triggered and my inner dragon was raging and I. I got like. I went into a fight or flight mode, and I was like, okay. I saw. I saw how my body. I saw what was going on inside of me. That was kind of step two work. And I had awareness of it. And then I was like, okay, let's test out this accessing unified. And then I did, and I was in the middle of something. I can tell the story if you want.

Sure. I would love to hear.

Really worked. And I was like, wow.

Please do share.

So I. In November of last year, like about a month or six weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, I was born a Jew. And I believe in the value of every life. It's a concept that I'm strongly adhering to, which is that every human life is of equal value. Every human life is a spark of the divine. And there's no hierarchy, there's no ranking. And so it's been a very painful time. So I felt like I had to explore multiple perspectives and I had to learn. I had to open myself up as a revolutionary optimist to hearing and learning what the other side was. So I went to the march on Washington, the Palestinian March on Washington, 500,000 people. There were a bunch of Jews, Christians, all religions were there, but it was dominant Palestinian and Arab Muslim folk. And it was very crowded and very massive, much bigger than people thought. And I was able to listen and learn. I didn't agree with everything that got said, but at one moment, I was sitting there. I was with a couple of my family members, and then we got separated. So I was kind of by myself, and I was standing by this fence, and I got, like, panicked. Like the Hollywood movies of the jihadists. And, you know, that tape played, and I thought this guy was going to stab me or this guy was going to. I thought I was going to get killed. And I had a panic attack. And I was literally about to run home to the metro and get out of there, and I said, wait a second. Let's do the hallelujah chant. And I closed my Eyes. I did a practice, I went into the great, I connected with the great mystery and I calmed myself down and I opened my eyes and I went, oh, wow. This is the beauty of humanity. This is like these people are speaking their truth with agency and freedom in the heart of Washington D.C. and it was like that is actually the vision of our country, which is to allow for free speech, free assembly, free articulation of perspectives. And I was like, I was blown away by the beauty of that. And I, because I felt I fell in love with everyone there, actually. I was like, I get why you're there. I understood why they were there. And I just realized that I almost missed all that. I literally almost didn't experience that.

Yeah, that's really beautiful and a great lesson. Thank you for sharing that story with us. It's very timely. Right, because we have a major election this year and a lot of division. I recently was on another podcast platform and they asked me what, what's the last thing that you want to share with people, Dr. Greg? And I said, well, you know, you're under the influence of propaganda when you can other half the population, if you're othering any other being on the planet, you're under the influence of propaganda and you're being manipulated. And, and I think having, you know, there's a theme that's emerging on what the health is, these tools for self embodiment and our own moral compasses from our divineness, you know, from our greatness as humans, not as the lowest common denominator, but as the highest common denominator. And one of the things I'm realizing I, I will usually before we go live, I always say an intention which I'm going to share now and then we can go from wherever we want. But I always say for the highest great good, may our listeners and viewers get exactly what they need to out of this conversation. And it is my intent, I just like to be explicit with you and with them now. So just know if you're, you're hearing these words, you're in the right place. And this message is for you. So I want to thank you, Dr. Paul. Where else? So this imagineering, this, this piece of envisioning what that future is because we're fed a lot of visions of dystopia and tragedy and war and, and you know, that gets stuck in our collective unconscious. And so who are the beings besides yourself that are envisioning that more abundant, more loving future that you know, we are all interconnected on one planet and, and with love Driving the bus. I mean we know love wins, but we don't. I don't want it to be too much suffering along the way, more suffering because we've had so much of it through time. So this, this aspect of revolutionary optimism and then in practicality where besides the books and the manuals and these conversations.

Yeah. So imagineering.

Yeah.

My answer to that question, I think is look in the mirror for yourself and for all your listeners. Let's look in the mirror and look at the journey that you're on and look at all that you're doing and receive praise from the great mystery for all of the beauty and all the love centered action that you take. And imagineering, step five is I, I don't, I don't have a favorite. I love them all. But yes, Walt Disney created that term, imagineering and it was part of his way of unlocking imagination. And we have the Disney phenomena. And what I did was create it in the context of revolutionary optimism. The first part of it is unlocking our radical imagination, our revolutionary imagination, our visions. And the more I share about it, I realize I'm not the only one that has big visions and big ideas for transformation. So what I have learned is that I got shamed. I call it exuberance. Shaming. People would quiet me down. Don't say that idea. That's not acceptable. That's outside the bounds. And so I try to create a safe space for let's let it out and unfold it. And also I went into a good explanation of the limiting beliefs that limit us from unlocking our full radical imagination. And those are self inhibitors, like how our mind works. That inner dragon telling us we're not good enough or what we're doing doesn't matter or whatever story my, your dragon tells you. That's the kind of stuff mine tells me. Then our family, you know, family unit, our culture from our, that we were raised in, they are, they have limiting beliefs, kind of inner dragons coming at us. And then the community and the geography that we live in. There's cultural norms within wherever we're living. And then collectively society, like you were saying about the social media and the news cycle and the Hollywood, the violence and all that that is propagated through all those, those all stimulate the oppression system and the limiting beliefs. So by unpacking that a little bit and exploring that, you start to be able to see how that's operating within you. And then you get like excited because you have these big ideas and you're not limited anymore. The second half of it is building love centered movements. And the idea. I give 10 best practices for building movements. It's a. It's building on the idea of we're not in this alone, we're in this together. So don't try to like change the world by yourself. Build a movement and then figure out your appropriate role. I help people prioritize and clarify their role. There are practices and tools for doing that.

Oh, lovely.

Yeah. So that's imagineering.

I love it. And then of course, then coming down to 6 and 7, is this sparking peaceful revolutions here? So as you spark that movement, it really is bringing love into the conversation and then unifying. The unifying is what, where we wind up with.

Yeah. So the sparking peaceful revolutions is really building on the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Who's over my shoulder, and Gandhi and politics of love and many other leaders who have done this journey of transforming the love that we create when we self liberate into. There's an alchemy and a chemistry to unlock that into collective liberation. And peaceful resistance is a big part of that. He Martin Luther King called it nonviolent direct action. And it was really regular people, faith based people, churches. The whole civil rights movement was organizing churches basically. And so those people said, enough is enough. He played a catalytic and a leadership role. But it was the people, the women, the children, the men that were workers and so forth. They're the ones. Everyone said enough is enough. And they rose and went into the streets. The other part of it that we've learned now is that we need about 3.5% of the population or about 30 million Americans on the streets. Like we had at the George Floyd murder response we probably had about that then. That was the largest protest in U.S. history. And that went global, by the way. And the bigger step we have to climb is we need about 50 to 60% of the general population who is supporting peaceful resistance from their homes, from their offices, from their churches, from wherever they are. And I really try to explain those kinds of different roles that people can play. You can, you know, your buying power from your computer is part of peaceful resistance.

Yeah.

And not everyone has to do what I do. I go and get arrested and get burned in jail and get tortured by the system and all that. But that's because I have the privilege to be able to do that. And I'm kind of fearless now as a revolutionary optimist. But I don't think everyone should do that. I'm not even sure I should keep doing it. Sometimes when I'm doing it. I kind of wonder why I'm doing it, but I feel like there's nothing else to do to create the world that I want. I think that's the best way to do it for me right now. So love it.

Any last parting words for our viewers and listeners?

Yeah. The unifying is step seven. That's about inner unifying and collective unifying. And I offer pathways to do that. And I really invite people to explore revolutionary optimism. And check out unifiedmovements.org to learn more about the Declaration of Interdependence, which we hope to announce on July 14th. And we're also hoping to announce that July 14th will be the first annual National Day of Interdependence. And we're, we're going for it.

We're like, love it.

We're running this experiment. We're going to see if we can catalyze a peaceful revolution.

Oh, here, here. Well, yes, we're, we're behind you. We're with you. We're going to help get the word out, too. Dr. Paul, thank you.

Thank you.

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