#31: Dealing with Uncertainty and Limiting Stress | Gurpreet Gill

Hello everyone, Floris Gierman here. On today's episode of The Extra Mileage Show, I have a conversation with Gerpreet Gill. She's an intuitive energy healer and a breathwork practitioner. Through her own experiences, she's become specialized in healing from trauma in a variety of ways. On The Extra Mileage Show, I have conversations with different guests about ways to become a stronger, healthier, and happier athlete and human being. Your mindset and stress management are very important elements of this as well, especially right now. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, I wanted to have a conversation about stress, uncertainty, and dealing with trauma, but also some of the positive changes and positive impact that can come out of this situation. Last week, I came across a beautiful poem written by Gurpreet Gill that was powerful and thought-provoking. And I knew our paths were meant to cross. I hope you enjoy our conversation that starts with Gurpreet reading her poem.

There is so much fear, and perhaps rightfully so, about COVID-19. And what if? If we subscribe to the philosophy that life is always working out for us, that there is an intelligence far greater than humans at work, that all is interconnected? What if the virus is here to help us to reset, to remember what is truly important? Reconnecting with family and community, reducing travel so that the environment, the skies, the air, our lungs all get a break. Parts of China are seeing blue sky and clouds for the first time in forever. With the factories being shut down, working from home rather than commuting to work, less pollution, more personal time, reconnecting with family as there is more time at home, an invitation to turn inwards, a deep meditation rather than the usual extroverted going out to self-soothe, to reconnect with self. What is really important to me? A reset economically, the working poor, the lack of healthcare access for over 30 million in the US, the need for paid sick leave. How hard does one need to work to be able to live? To have a life outside of work, to face our mortality, check back into living life rather than simply working, working, working, to reconnect with our elders who are so susceptible to this virus, and washing our hands How did that become a new thing that we needed to remember? But yes, we did. And the presence of grace for all. There is a shift underway in our society. What if it is one that is favorable for us? What if this virus is an ally in our evolution? In our remembrance of what it means to be connected, humane, living a simpler life, to be less impactful, more kind to our environment. An offering from my heart this morning offered as another perspective, another way of relating to this virus, this unfolding. This evolution. It was time for a change. We all knew that, and change has arrived. What if?

Beautiful and powerful words. Thank you very much for sharing that. It was last week that I came across this, and the whole The world has basically been turned upside down since the outbreak of the coronavirus. And typically on this podcast, The Extra Mileage Show, I speak with many different coaches, running experts, but even nutritionists and people focused on limiting, limiting stress. And I thought this was such a powerful statement that impacts everyone in the world at this point. And in today's episode, I wanted to take a deep dive into the topic of how we can all deal with the current situation. How, how is this impacting different people and how your mindset can play a very important role in this situation as well. And when I reached out to you, I was so fortunate that you were very open to have a conversation and And I want to welcome you to The Extra Mile Show.

Thank you so much, Floris. It's really an unexpected delight and really an opportunity to share the space with you. Completely unexpected, and, and here we are. So my invitation to us is to dive in and to explore all sorts of possibilities as we move through these amazingly challenging, unprecedented times of change.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I want to take a little bit of a step back and just explain from my own perspective some of the things that I've seen and experienced in the last few weeks and months. From there, I would like to hear your perspective and how you have been coping with the situation as well. And so we produce a lot of our goods in China for our running clothing company. And very early on, we already heard that this coronavirus was very serious. From there, we saw travel to Europe. We have family in Holland. And from Italy, the situation got out of control rather quickly. Here in the US, not that much attention was given to it yet. Like, you started seeing some of it, and then all of a sudden that changed rather quickly when about last week it was the school started getting closed, people started going to the store, started buying all of the inventory up, like toilet paper was getting sold out, the bars, restaurants being mandatory closed. So a whole lot of change that all of a sudden is impacting everyone in the world in different stages as well. And so for us right now, it's a big reset. All of a sudden we are homeschooling our kids, everyone is working from home, but also there's the fear and insecurity of what is happening right now. Left and right, people are losing their jobs, people are getting ill, people are afraid of getting ill. Yet there is a lot of beauty coming out of this situation as well, where people are embracing each other again, where people are there for their neighbors. People are starting to have deeper conversations again and really figuring out what they have been doing and how they're going to get through all of this. And so these are just a few of the things from my end, and I would love to see how you've experienced this kind of coming on in the past few weeks and what's on your mind.

I really appreciate your share, Floris. I also work from home, but I see clients here privately, so, you know, that has shifted big time. And then taking another step back from that, I follow— I like to read news and not watch it, and became also aware of what was happening in China and how it was moving into Europe and into Italy, and I have been sitting in curiosity of what's going to be happening here. I'm originally born and raised in Canada, and then also monitoring the Canadian response to what was happening. So kind of taking a global perspective of, oh, this is in my field of awareness, and it feels like, it feels like we're in a little bit of unawareness in the States, and feeling care and compassion. And, you know, am I being a conspiracy theorist? Am I like, am I Am I overreacting? And at the same time, feeling a lot of, uh-oh, change is on the way and I don't think we're prepared and how can we prepare? So there's been, in this community here, I live between Boulder and Denver in Colorado, in this community here, you know, same, I think it was when the schools got shut down. That's when people went, wait a second, what? This is unprecedented, what's going on? And I feel like that was the moment people started, you know, lifting their heads from the everyday busyness, right? The everyday fullness of, wait, there is something bigger going on here. And then the restaurants have been closed and, and, and so A lot of change, a lot of upheaval for the day-to-day normal, and at the same time, you know, holding care for those who are absolutely financially in a place where this is, you know, can I pay my rent, can I not, am I going to get evicted, am I going to have a home, to the people who, you know, it's a lot, it's a big, it's like a big for every single person on this planet. Life is changing no matter what our situation is, and it's not to spiritually bypass anything at all, but man, we are all feeling it. So in my world, I'm not seeing my private clients here, I had clients who were flying in, I had clients who are local, and that just all has been put on hold.

What, what type of client work is this? Can you explain a little bit more what it is that you're doing?

Yeah, absolutely. So as a result of crazy happening in my own life, two near-death experiences in like 20 months, so less than two years, I've had my own journey, and what that journey has resulted in is really understanding trauma and really understanding when life falls apart and life is like, whoa, what is happening? Which is happening collectively right now. So as a result of that experience that, you know, God, grace, the divine, great creator, whatever you want to call it, gifted me, I am a conscious breathwork facilitator, an intuitive energy healer. You know, it's like, what do you call yourself? Labels are so funny. And so with conscious breathwork, for example, the people who show up here are people who are, who either are like, enough, my life has to get better, enough of whatever their chaos has been, whatever their level of trauma has been. So from war vets to abuse survivors to, you know, really immense to also people who are very open to their spiritual journey. So we access altered states of consciousness, we use altered states of consciousness through our breath. It's a sober modality, it's a safe modality to access the subconscious where all of our programming is, the fear body, for example, and get in there and, and clear it and bring it up to date, if you will. So instead of the the fear of, or the trauma from whatever it was you experienced 2 years ago, 20 years ago, to bring you here to the now. And then doing intuitive energy work coaching with that. So that's what I get to do right now. It's not what I went to university for. Yeah, I got 3 degrees from a great university, and the universe had different plans. The universe definitely had different plans. So, so people come here from all over. And what a blessing, truly.

Yeah, I can, I can only imagine that in this time, even so much more than in other times, people are looking for answers or looking for some somewhat of stability or ways to cope with this. And you have, like you have mentioned, like previously in 20 months experienced 2 near-death experiences. I would like to, if you're open to sharing that, hear more about this and also how you dealt with it, what some of your learnings were throughout this process.

Absolutely. My life is an open book. You can ask any questions you want. I will, you know, I told my mom when I was very young, this is kind of a funny thing, um, tell my mom you can ask me any question you want, Mom. I promise I won't lie. So be careful what you ask. And With that, I am an open book, please. Yeah, absolutely.

That's good. What was— what was— yeah, no, no, I'm not— I'm gonna go for it, but I will be respectful, respectful, obviously. Um, the near-death experience that you encountered, or the two near-death experiences, could you start out with the first one? What happened in, in how you reacted to it.

Hmm. Yeah, so what I have a desire to start with is that the ripples from those two events continue today, and I'm still working through my own layers of stuff as stuff comes up. And so there's a desire to just be really real of, you know, where when stuff happens, we live it in a variety of different ways. And it informs our experience, right? So the first experience was I had taught, I was an educator for 14 years. I taught French immersion in Canada. I taught math, science, social studies, all that lovely thing stuff in French. Here in the States, I was teaching French and science at the high school and middle school level and an adjunct professor at CU Boulder, like doing the things that we're supposed to do in life, you know. And I had had this feeling in the pit of my stomach for 14 years of this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. But, you know, I need to pay my bills and I need to— I don't know how to do anything else. So one day, this is when my awakening happened. I say one day God showed up in my life. One day the universe showed up in my life and said, uh-uh, no more. Which was I was sitting on top of, you know, the desk with my feet in the seat, and the rule in my class was all is welcome as long as respectful, and as long as you say it in French, it's cool, you know. So one of my beautiful souls that I was blessed to teach, she said something that was so asinine, so crazy, that we all bust a gut laughing. She said it in perfect French, and what ended up happening was that my desk tipped over backwards and I hit my head. My head slammed into a table behind me, and so I saw a flash of white light and I was— I went unconscious. I was gone. Not for very long, I don't think. I don't know. I came to and I was like, my first thought was, what the— my second thought was, oh my God, the kids.

And so you hit the back of your head on the table or the neck? Oh wow.

Right here. Yeah. So that, that story is a story in and of itself. And the short of it is, is that was pretty much the end not pretty much, it was the end of my career as an educator. I had a serious, severe traumatic brain injury, and you know, I was so injured that I didn't know I was injured. One of those things. And with it also came a neck injury, and my doctors in Canada— I ended up going home for care— my doctor in Canada, he walked in and he said, what happened to you? And I didn't even— I hadn't even said a word. And the short of it is he said, you know, he goes, "Hey, I'm really glad you're still here with us. Based on your injuries, I'm not quite sure how you're functioning. And who prays for you?" And I thought, wait, what? This is a Western doctor. Wait, prayer? Where did that come from? And he said, you know, either you should be a vegetable or you should no longer be here. So that was the first. And what that meant was my brain got turned off. What that meant was essentially for 6 to 7 years, my brain hurt to think, you know, sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise. So like being in self-isolation has been a very normal thing for many, many years as my being has healed and what, you know, my brain needed to turn off. And it was so hard because I've been such a geek in so many ways. Like, how do I let this go and how am I going to earn a living? And he said, he said, let your career go. Trust that the universe is going to step in for you. You, you are meant to be doing something else. He goes, it is a miracle that you're still alive. So that was my first.

Wow. What a deep story. And this happened 8 years ago, you said?

This happened in December of 2011.

Yeah.

Yeah. And it's, I've just completed my 8th year in December of 2019, my 8th year of healing. And he had said, it's going to take 8 years for your brain to come back online, Gurpreet. Don't push it. The more you push it, the longer you're going to extend your healing process. And I was like, oh, okay. He was right. I, you know, we do what we don't know. And so I tried pushing and it would kick me in the butt again and again.

So you had to let go, you had to surrender.

It was a massive learning in surrender. I had to let go. And I'm going to be honest, I sucked at it. And so the universe stepped in again, and it was September of 2013 when I was living in a canyon, in a different canyon in Boulder, Colorado, and we had the catastrophic floods of 2013. And I was living in this tight, narrow canyon, and the short of it is, is the dry creek became a raging river. And the raging river ended up flooding our cars and, you know, taking away the culverts and we ended up being in a very dire survival mode. Am I going to live to see tomorrow? I don't know. This is crazy. Cars are floating by, propane tanks are floating by. There's a motorcycle stuck in a tree. I'm not quite sure how it got up there, what happened last night. And I was at my neighbor's cabin right next door, and the short of that is, you know, when you're stubborn, the 2x4 didn't work, let's bring the 4x8. We had the mountainside behind the cabin gave way, and we had a mudslide come crashing like a high-speed train came crashing through the house, and they were all, they had all chosen to be, to go to bed and I had chosen to stay awake. And this is when I say, you know, I've met the presence of angels. There was a force that pushed me the heck out of the way. I didn't move myself. I just kind of was like, whoa, what just happened? And a tree was coming right at me, and it pierced the window right where I had been sitting. And so that was a moment of everything in life as we knew it. So my brain was already kaput, and now my car is gone, my house is gone, the land is gone, everything about the world as we knew it has shifted, is gone. It is absolutely a disaster zone, and we're all injured in our own ways. And oh my God, we survived to live the next morning. Right? And that— and that— those two events, they were so traumatic. And I could go on, we could talk about 4 hours just about those two things. Those were such life-dissolving, life-changing— how am I going to pay my bills? My brain hurts. I don't have a place to live anymore. I don't have a car. How am I gonna take care of myself? That came through so strongly. And step by step, you know, step by step, my family was like, come home, come home. And I was like, no, no one in Vancouver, British Columbia is gonna understand what I've been through. I need to be here. So immensely challenging, crazy, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. And 8 years later, and again, this isn't spiritual bypassing, I am grateful for those two events. They took me out of my usual and said, uh-uh, something different awaits you. And I think we're in the process of that right now.

I can't even imagine when indeed all of those things are stacking on top of each other. And it's one thing that an individual event like that happens, But it is more indeed the security blanket that gets pulled from under you, right? Like your, your job, you don't have stable income coming in, no housing, all the basic needs basically. And you already have dealt with that twice now. And so I think indeed we are now at this crossroad where a lot of people are experiencing basic fear that they have never experienced in their life before. Insecurity about if they're going to have a paycheck, if they have not been laid off already, if they're going to get paid next month, how long they can pay their bills, and/or if they're going to get sick, if their family is going to get sick. Yet I think we're all in this processing phase right now on how, how to deal with that. And so I'm curious to hear from you, what were, what were some of those things that you did that did help you to get through this situation? Like, how did things change for you?

Yeah, you know, I kid you not, I feel like I've been in training for today. I've been in training for this moment. Like how many people, especially in like the Western world where we have such safety, on so many levels. And then in particular in Boulder, Colorado, which is like this immensely privileged master's degree everywhere kind of place where we are so used to control, and then to have control utterly stripped away. Like, I now know what happens to a body when you're in a life-and-death situation. Like, I now know these are things that, you know, we don't experience in the West. So To your question, I absolutely believe that we are in this moment collectively of control being stripped away, of all the structures of how we have created safety in our lives being stripped away. And how did I get through it? You know, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, it was really freaking hard, really incredibly challenging, and What I know is strangers showed up. I call them the army of angels, you know, and these are the angels in physical form showed up and they shoveled my deck and they packed whatever was left of my house and they moved stuff into storage for me and they brought food and I was like, who are you? Where did you come from? And there was like this absolute presence of people that nobody in the community knew who just showed up and were like, how can we help you? You have— we can't even imagine what you've gone through. So I call it the kindness of strangers, you know. It was immense. And so I ended up living for a year and a half at a neighbor's house. They had a spare bedroom and they knew what position I was in, so they were like, come on in. And I was like, no, no, no, no, I don't know, I don't really know you. You know, that thing of not being able to receive. And I finally said yes. I was just— it was either sleep in my car or yes, thank you. So I ended up Staying with them for a year and a half, and then it was time to leave. And then it was again a hard place of maybe I'm gonna go live in my car on a piece of land up on a mountain that somebody had. And every single time it has been this, no, I need something more stable. Something would come up, something would come up, and it was— and again, grounding into I trust that my life is working out for me. I trust that there is something greater happening here. I trust that there is a pure divine infinite intelligence that is holding me and I am so desperate for help. You know, here's the thing. I come from a family who's, you know, middle class. I come from a family who's relatively safe and all that. I've chosen to live in a different country from them, and then to be in a place of, dude, my life has just fallen apart. So what did it do? It was having faith of taking that next step, not knowing, but taking that next step and trusting that, you know, it will come up to meet me. And it has done that over and over again. And I say, you know, miracles happen all around us every single day. And do we notice them? And so when we are forced to let go of control, when we are forced to surrender to something greater, then we allow space for miracles to happen. And sometimes that means strangers, and sometimes that means, yeah, I'd love to sleep on your floor in your clothes. Like it got really, really bare bones survival, primal, basic for me.

And all of a sudden, a lot of the noise that people have been worried about are also disappearing at that time. And indeed, it goes back to that, what do I need to get through? One takeaway to add to what you're saying here is the kindness of strangers or the kindness of others. I'm noticing it even now firsthand already, even on my morning run. I went out to run for an hour this morning on the trails, and normally it is trail runners saying hi to trail runners, and that's about it as far as for kindness. I sometimes see runners or hikers saying hi as well, but a lot of road runners typically just look grumpy and they don't necessarily say hi to each other to that same level. But now it seemed everyone outside was very polite and very kind to each other. And the first few days when this first happened, I remember going to Trader Joe's, to the store. I'd bought some stuff and then a few days later I ended up going back to— and the first time when I went to the store, there was still quite a few groceries. I just bought some, a few additional things. Then a few days later when I went back, there were lines outside the store and the shelves were empty. And I will not forget that when I looked around, all of a sudden I saw some older people with fear in their eyes and they were looking scared. And people were— this was when it just happened, and people were all like not that polite to each other yet. And it was— I was surprised to see that at that point, that people were really focused on their own. Yet in just a few days— now it's a week later— I've seen a shift happening where people have come to some extent accept of, all right, we're all in this together right now. We're gonna go through this for the next few weeks, few months. There's probably not gonna be— it's not gonna go back to the same norm as it has been. There's gonna be a new norm. And all of a sudden, the kindness in people's eyes. And even when I had a conversation with a few friends on Zoom the other day, some of them were sharing that all of a sudden they had a real conversation with their mailman that they had never talked to before. All of a sudden they had deeper conversation again with their parents. And all of these beautiful things that came out of it as well, which I thought was very powerful.

Yeah, and that's— that is one of the beautiful silver linings of this, of remembering our humanity, of remembering you may be my cashier, but goodness gracious, I am so freaking glad you are here being my cashier. And let me actually meet you heart to heart, soul to soul. Let me actually meet the allness that you are rather than, hi, how are you? You know, let me 'Let me tap my card, let me scan it,' but not really connecting. And now people are connecting. I was in the grocery store the other day, my best friend was here, and we needed some eggs. We wanted to make French toast, and there was like, you know, so I just reached over and I'm grabbing a carton of eggs, and this older gentleman, probably in his early mid-70s, looks at me and he says, 'We're gonna be okay. We're gonna get through this together.' and I stopped and I looked at him and there was this upwelling of emotions in that moment, you know, it could be tears, it could have been tears and it would have been had we continued the conversation, and I looked at him and I said, "Thank you, I am so right there with you," and that shift of you're not just a worker, you're not just an employee, you're not just a whatever, but you're another human soul, and let me actually recognize you. Let me see you for real. And we are at this, you know, there was two critical pivot points of transformation in my life. One was the head injury, one was the, um, the mudslide. And I woke up the day that I posted that poem, that offering was the 11th, and I woke up that morning with this Oh, we are at a pivot point collectively. We are at a pivot point globally, and people are freaking out. And let's offer from a place of like, babes, I've been through an immense amount of crazy in my own way. Other people have their own crazy. Let's offer a perspective of something different that's— that other than fear, other than anxiety. We will get through this, and if it means that every single bedroom in my house is filled with different people, great, you know. We will come together, and we are coming together. And one of the things when I moved here in 2002 to the States, one of the things I noticed right off the bat was people are immensely kind and generous in the States. It truly are and have been. And then there's like this weird static that happens, right? And I feel like that static is clearing and people are coming home to what is really important.

Yeah. And that, that, that transition to come to that realization has been something I'm fascinated by, how quickly that has changed, because about a month ago, It was still seeing conversation about, ah, the Tokyo Marathon has been canceled. Ah, now this marathon has been canceled. And people were still thinking that, all right, an event with 20,000 people, like, oh, we can still have it happen, why did it get canceled? To all of a sudden the whole priority shift of like, all right, my local school is closed, the restaurants are closed, I'm on lockdown. And so just seeing that transformation happen as well. And then different people dealing with this situation all in their own ways as well, where some people are going like, what is the worst thing that can happen? Some other people are taking a step back from 40,000 feet. Other people are becoming very serious, want to have group conversations with others, whereas others want to deal with it their own way. And I see some people dealing it in a humorous way as well, where that is their coping mechanism. And just everyone like finding, finding their own way to deal with the situation.

That's— Yeah, we all have our pillars, our threads of needs that are woven into our tapestry. Like, if this is taken care of, I'll feel safe. And so some people are preppers and some people are survivalists. And some people are, "I need to go for a hike today," and some people are, "I need my toilet paper," right?

So spot on.

We've gone from, as you said, like 3 weeks, a month ago, to, "Oh, these events are being canceled globally. Er, what's going on? Er, this is messing with my life," to, "Okay, we're not on lockdown here yet, but I figure it's imminent," you know, and that we are Forget about events, our lives are shifting, and can we— so here are the two things, like, can we, for the greater good, can we step out of our selfishness of I need to go for a hike, I need toilet paper, I need a case of toilet paper, whatever it may be, can we step out of our day-to-day, very individualistic lives and step into what would be for the benefit of the collective, what would be for the greater good. It means making sacrifices. It means changing the way we live day to day. And for the people who are preppers, awesome. For the people who need their toilet paper, awesome. Like, can we hold compassion and love? So instead of waging war with people on an energetic level where we feel disgust or we feel like, ugh, disdain. Why would you do that? So instead of waging energetic war, can we hold them? Can we hold everyone in the depths of compassion, in the depths of mercy, in the depths of grace, of you are doing whatever it is your system needs to feel safe? And I honor that.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I want to share a few of the things that, that I have been doing from my end, and I would love to hear from your end as well. So initially, when, when all of this went down, and I almost count this as the moment we went on true lockdown as far as for schools closed, stores empty, that to me I almost see that as not week 1, but that was the, the really the pivotal week of everything changed in my direct environment, right? And so initially I was noticing that I was glued to the media almost in the point of wanting to know what's going on. Typically I don't watch the news much at all, um, because I notice sometimes the negativity and how it impacts myself. So I'm very strategic with the input of information. Yet all of a sudden that went out of the window, and I saw myself checking my phone much more frequently, watching the news much more frequently. And automatically with that, the main purpose was just to find some stability on, on information, of trying to get to terms of what's actually happening in the world right now. Yet that also caused my resting heart rate to increase, my stress levels to increase. My rhythm and routine was all over the place. It was then after a few days that I realized I need to step away from some of this, set aside blocks of time that I'm not checking my phone. I should try to go to bed at a reasonable time, get my 7 to 8 hours of sleep, do my daily meditation practice even though my kids are around in the house and whatnot. We're now trying to get the kids involved involved and doing the meditation with them and just making it like just a flexible, more, more flexible mindset and being kind to myself as well instead of beating myself up about some of the things that are not going right.

Yeah.

But yeah, just making a few of these adjustments just by self-observation after I was journaling, just to put some thoughts on paper and realizing what I'm doing right now was too much all over the place. So I needed to kind of take a step back and see what's working in my daily life. And all of a sudden I felt a sense of calm coming into me again. Then having a conversation with some of my other friends who were also dealing with the same situation, hearing how they were dealing with it, and that brought back kind of the, the chaos from there. And then I think the other thing that I think naturally people look at is how am I financially doing if I'm not having any income right now? Like What is my lead way right now? How many months can I pay my bills? And for some people who live paycheck to paycheck, this whole situation is different than people who might have a buffer of 6 or 12 months or longer than that. But I'm very curious to hear how you have gone through this situation, especially given your background that you have gone through, like, pretty big events in your life already.

Yeah. Thank you for that, Floris. I appreciate your share. You know, I think anyone who says— well, let me put it this way. Even with everything that I've gone through, there's still the wobble, right? There's that moment where the fear kind of clamps in for a bit, and I'm like, whoa, I need to, you know, here's my list of things I need to do, and I need to barricade, and, and I'm like, ah, chill. There, I followed a similar pattern where there was that that moment of, oof, we are in this globally, that moment that I have experienced in my life over and over again, well, twice, and in softer ways, you know, a few other times, that we are collectively and globally in this, and how can we be of service, right? So What's coming through is, you know, it's almost like my mind just did a brain fart. It's like, wait, what did Floris just say? There is this, like, it's a— there is this sense of if we allow the fear, the what-ifs, the burden of futuring to really take over then it has a direct impact on our energy bodies, on our immune system. Then we're more susceptible to whatever happens to be going around. And if we can stay in the present moment, in this moment, the kitten I just adopted is running around lopsided, you know, my, my aloe vera plant is growing beautifully, the sun is shining, the trees are treeing, The birds are chirping, the birds are at the bird feeder, and to come and to really, like, I had to sort of like pull myself in a way away from the fear body into what's happening in this moment right now. All is well in this moment, and even if I were sick, I would figure it out. And so by coming into this present moment My heart rate has stabilized because I was also noticing I was starting to get into that survival short shallow breath, the fight, flight, or freeze, right? There was like this fight energy coming up. I have fought this before, I can do it again. And I was like, nah. So my breath has stabilized, my being has stabilized. Can I take a deep breath? And when the wobble comes, which it comes, it, you know, it makes a tour. Of my being every once in a while. When the wobble comes, I bring myself back into this present moment. Right now, all is well. There are no, you know, there's the what-if scenario. What if there was— what if society breaks down? What I've experienced is when things fall apart, we have the opportunity for light to shine through in ways that it hasn't ever shone through before. And we could lean into, oh my goodness, maybe society can fall apart, or we can equally lean into miracles are happening everywhere. People are absolutely transitioning, people are absolutely suffering, people are absolutely dying, and not taking anything away from that, that is our call to live life right now, right here. So instead of already 6 months down the road, all is well right now, and I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, But I trust tomorrow will take care of itself tomorrow.

Yes, absolutely. We have been noticing many things of what you have just said right there. And as much as I would thought that I was being present previously, I have noticed a whole nother level of appreciation and presentness around my family and around my kids. And around— here's one example. We do homeschooling right now, and in the afternoon, like, we have— we are taking the kids to the local trails. And I've been a photographer for 15, 20 years, even before people were taking photos with their phone. I've always been a documenting— I always enjoyed that. And so when we are out and about, the other day it was pouring rain and the kids really love jumping in the water. And normally we're like, oh no, you're gonna get dirty. And this time it was just me and the kids and they jumped in the water and we all jumped in the water. And instead of me documenting A to Z the whole thing, I took a few photos, put my phone away. I was 100% 100% present. And I think so many times, all the beautiful moments that we are experiencing, a lot of people are in documenting mode. They'd rather take a photo of the birthday singing of the cake instead of truly being there. And I think that awakeness, what you're describing, many, many people either have already experienced this more are going to be seeing this. And so this is where I truly hope, because I see some people also that are not very open to change or who are fighting it. Like, until you can kind of accept that new reality and, and that for everyone it's going to be the unknown, it's, it's almost going to be extra challenging at that point.

So Yeah, there's the, you know, we have gotten into this big documentation mode, taking pictures of everything, Instagram, whatever. And to what you speak to of putting the phone away and let me, inviting ourselves and inviting those who are around us to be present in this moment here. Let's really enjoy this cup of tea instead of having cup of tea in one hand and my phone in the other. Like, let me be present with this cup of tea and let me be present with with whatever beauty is unfolding around me. And that, like, that moment, I actually took one picture of it and I too put it away. My best friend was sitting on a chair outside, the kitten was inside, the cat, my older cat, was outside. They're all like hanging out in, in the same vicinity, so they all fit in one picture. And there was this moment of, you know, you can use whatever language you want, that the divine grace, you know, capital G grace, God, the infinite pure intelligent energy of the cosmos of this universe is present in every moment. And can I get out of my own way? Can I get out of the static of phone, internet, news, what's going on? Can I get out of my own way and can I invite myself to appreciate the delicious of this sublime moment. And if this is the last sublime moment I have, and if I were to contract this tomorrow, I will— this sublime moment will feed me and nourish me in ways during the hardship, during the illness, in ways that I can't even imagine. So it's an invitation to keep coming home. And I— and those of us, me included, I fought. I didn't know any other way. I was type A personality, achiever, success, you know. I didn't know any other way of being. And so when the head injury happened, I continued doing even though it was hurting my head. And then came, instead of the 2x4, came the 4x8. And when the 4x8 happened, I literally found myself on the floor at a friend's condo who had like picked me up after the helicopters had dropped us off. She picked me up and I was on the floor in her bedroom. I was so injured and I was in such pain that there was this moment of, I give it to you. This is far greater than anything I can possibly try to control. So help me, guide me, show me with every breath, with every moment. Please, how do I move? How do I, how do I get through? Like, how do I navigate through this? And what helped was asking for help, receiving help. And like, I, I literally had the clothes on my back, period. That's it. And a cat. I was that woman getting onto the calendar on the helicopter, getting rescued from a mountaintop. And I had the clothes on my back, and her partner said, here's some cash, here's a credit card, here are the keys to our car, please just like don't even think twice about it. And that was such a moment of grace, of wait, you don't even really know me and you're willing to offer so much of your own heart self And so, yeah, you know, here's the thing, we need toilet paper or we can use water. We need food, right? We're figuring out bills and there are some certain tangible concrete things that we're all in the process of figuring out and I trust, and I trust that we will absolutely figure it out. If it's not from the government, then we'll help each other out.

Yeah, I see, I see so much creativity coming out of this, the community coming out of this. And, and one of the things, all of a sudden everyone is in this together, right? And so we're starting to see the digital happy hours, we're starting to see the digital having breakfast, lunch, or dinner with a group of friends. I've connected recently with 20 friends in a group from 5 different countries, from the US, Canada, Europe, Australia. We were all— we hadn't talked to each other in a while and we're well overdue to connect again. And here we are all in the same boat, all sharing what we're going through and how we're dealing with it and having a laugh about some, some of the positive things that are coming out of it as well. Like, yes, there's a lot of seriousness in this and there's definitely pain and suffering, but eventually that is going to pass as well. Yeah.

And the more stubborn we are, the harder it is. And the quicker we can— it's not passive surrender, it's active surrender. I actively choose to surrender to the flow of this moment and the freaking great mystery and the unknown. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. The easier it becomes to be present. And how beautiful, like, things fall apart so the new can be reconstructed. And we, and many of us, I was, you know, living a life that was very structured, very much, you know, it was to make a paycheck, but it wasn't my heart's desire, it wasn't my soul's passion. And so part of what I also do here is People come like, what is my life purpose? And here we are in this place of there is this beautiful pause that we're being gifted in a time of great suffering. And there is this pause of what, how, what are these creative juices that I've been told weren't worthy, that didn't create money, so forget it, it's not worth it.. But those same creative juices are what are creating connectivity, community. And I see you, you're not alone, even if you're 10,000 miles away from me. And there is the pivot into something new.

Yeah, it is really a forced slowdown in time, looking at yourself, taking inventory of yourself. What are some of those things that after the basic fundamentals are met, you're going to be stuck inside probably for the next while? What are some of those things you're going to be doing? Do you want to pick up meditation, or do you want to do it more consistently daily? You've always wanted to make certain art pieces, learn how to play piano, whatever, whatever it might be. This is one of those moments. I think we're going to look back At these, the next few weeks, for the rest of our lives, we're gonna remember 30 years from now the coronavirus outbreak and how the world came to a halt and the good, the bad, the ugly, and, and the different things that we learned along the way as well and how it changed our society.

Absolutely. And the creativity that's coming forward, the connectivity, that all the projects that have been put on hold And you bring on, you bring up that very beautiful thing of connecting here, right? So instead of going out here, connecting here of what are those places within myself that I have skated around? What are those places within myself that I've been avoiding? And if I have 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, I don't know how long this is going to go on, at home with myself, eventually I'm going to run out of projects. Eventually I'm going to And this is, I feel, an invitation from the greater to sit with ourselves. And for those of us who are living paycheck to paycheck, yo, I'm not seeing any clients right now, you know, I'm also like, okay, cool, let's see what wants to happen. To still— we have, we have, you know, there's— we have taken a lane that has taken us to a place outside of ourselves. To find soothing. And this is bringing us home. And you know, you've heard people say the universe has collectively sent all of us to our rooms. We're in a global vipassana where the invitation is to get really quiet and to— where, where, what, how, within, who am I? I'm not on this planet to just work a 9-to-5 or a 9-to-9. Pay my bills and then wait for retirement to live. My tomorrow is not promised. I've experienced that twice now. My tomorrow is never promised, so can I be here now, present? And this is a moment that is absolutely a global shift in humanity's evolution. So do those art projects. Don't worry about making money from them. Write whatever it is you've been wanting to write. Don't worry if people are going to see it or not. What is your heart's desire? What is your— and what is like— and to reconnect with self on a soul level. We are far greater than these physical bodies that we inhabit. Yeah, right, totally. Who am I beyond my physical body? So, and to connect, you know, I have a conversation with my mom almost every day, and there's moments where she can annoy me And there's moments where, you know, listen, she's a traditional Indian mama. She's got very strong views, Britta. This is what you should be doing. And how can I still reach out from a place of love and connectivity of, thank you, Mom, I appreciate what you're saying. And, and, um, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what wants to happen, right? So we've— there's a coming home coming in so many ways of how we have fractured and splintered from a really basic way of being with self, being with family. How many people don't want to go home over the holidays and be with their family because it's going to trigger me? And I say, thank you for being my trigger. Thank you for activating me so I can look at what unhealed parts of myself are coming up. And then the last part is it's bringing up fear in such a huge way that we can actually sit with our fears. What is this fear? Where did it originate? And it's allowing, it's bringing an invitation for healing, right? I'm scared of my neighbors. Well, why am I scared of my neighbors? How can I shift this? I'm scared of not having money. Well, what if we don't need money? What if we start bartering? I don't know. We allow for infinite possibilities. Yeah.

So, wow. I do want to be respectful of your time. I know we've been talking for quite a while here already. Um, I would, I would like to have two closing questions over here. One, I would love to dive in a little bit more in your breathwork, um, and if you have anything to share there. And also any closing thoughts that you would like to share for, for not just athletes, but anyone dealing with this situation.

Yeah. Thank you. So I come from a lineage where I grew up with breathwork. We call it Simran. And my parents would have 20, 30, 40 people show up at 2:30 in the morning and they would breathe together. And as a young girl, I thought this was just normal, right? 2:30 to 5:30, when the veil is the thinnest between realms and dimensions. Yes, I grew up in a very mystical family, right? I'm just going to put that out there.

I love it.

And then I said, oh, hell no. And I went the scientific method route as a teenager into my 20s and 30s. And here I am full circle of our breath. You know, when we think about it, what is the thing that is actually breathing us? We don't actually breathe ourselves. When we're sleeping at night, there is a force force and energy that breathes us. There's a force and energy that has our hearts beat and circulate our blood. So absolutely, there is this coming home to whatever you want to relate to the greater infinite power. And breath is our life force energy, and breath is prana, and breath is what lives us and brings us to life. So when we're in stress, we tend to go into super shallow breath. And so here's my invitation. This is the breath that I use, and you can breathe it through your nose, through your mouth, however you choose. This is the breath that I invite us to pull when we're noticing ourselves starting to wobble, getting off center, to come home. I, I pull it through my mouth. It's a powerful inhale, a gentle release. It's connected. I'll do like 4 to 8 of these, maybe 10 max, if I'm having a meeting, if I'm noticing I'm anxious for some reason, like, just come home, come home, honey, come home. And it's something like this. It's really simple. And then to feel it all the way into like the depths of our belly. So if it starts here, and then with every breath to invite it deeper and deeper into like all the way to the pit of our belly. Breathe me, you know, fill my sails, guide me, show me infinite breath. This medicine that we breathe every single day in our lives, thousands of times day, breathe me so that I may be present in my life in this moment, and so that I can be of service. And service starts here, right? Let's make sure I'm well taken care of so that my ripples— so I can be present for others. Maybe it's the UPS guy, maybe it's the cashier, maybe it's the whatever and however it is that I can show up. And that breath is simple, it's straightforward, it's Easy. It's a powerful inhale, gentle release. What you're not doing is you're not, you're not pushing out. Gentle release. Do 4 to 8 of those.

And that, that alone, becoming conscious and aware of the breath and doing that a few times throughout the day, it's already a reset to connect to that present moment. And I've noticed personally that the resting heart rate last week being up definitely 4 or 5 beats. And even on my runs, I'm trying to run some of these at math low heart rate, and even there, some of the heart rate being elevated. Yet accepting some of what's going on, surrendering, and then even integrating some of these breathwork throughout the days, all of a sudden you see the resting heart rate come down again. It is fascinating how the body and mind is connected and how it all works that way.

Right. We've talked about the mind-body-spirit connection for so long. And here is the call from the universe for us to really ground in. And you can do that same breath through your nose. You don't get as much of the yummy oxygen, you know? So I choose to do it through my mouth. And it is a beautiful reset. Let me, let me be present here and now. And there is absolutely the worries, and the worries at this point are greater than me. The worries are way, way, way greater than me. 6 months from now, if we're still in this, which I hope we're not, but if we are, then some other systems will come into place for our grace for our benefit. And I trust right now, you know, the same way the infinite intelligence lives in a seed and that seed becomes this massive, you know, oak tree over 200 years, that that same infinite intelligence is present in this unfolding and it will reveal in perfect time. It's not for us to know what's going to happen 6 months from now, right now, or even 6 days from now. Or 6 minutes from now. So can I, can I let go of that modality of control? Can I trust that infinite intelligence? It's the same intelligence that had us form in utero, and we're in a different in utero right now. We're in a global in utero, and we trust, and sometimes we wobble, and then that's when we hold each other and we call and we do these Zoom calls and be like, hey babes, I see you. I see you and I witness you, and I'm not here to say, you know, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. I see you, I hear you, I feel your pain. I'm here to listen, I'm here to hold you, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I think this is a beautiful invitation for us to grow up from the very me-centric into a collective, let's take care of others, community-centric. If we are only as strong as the weakest in our society and the weak, if we're not taking care of them and they have this virus and then it can spread, then it's shifting the me-centric of the society into something, you know, like 2-year-olds, very me, me, me, me, me, and then by the time you get to your 20s, 30s, 40s, 70s. We're growing up as a society.

That is indeed the, the, the one message that I would like to share with people out of this as well, is how are you looking to positively impact not just yourself but others throughout this entire situation unfolding as well.

It's a, it's a call to self and it's a call to service at the same time.

Yeah. Yeah. Where can people find out more about you? Like, you, you have a nice website and I see you're posting, um, similar posts as well on your Instagram and your Facebook page. Can you share a bit more?

Yeah. So I have a website. It's one of those things where I'm like, uh, who wants to have a website? But I have a website and it's, uh, gurpreetkgill.com, and it's, you know, it's there. Reach out. I'm just about to put a link up of— it's a sliding scale by donation from something really, you know, a small amount to a large amount if you want, whatever. Connect with me if you want. If there's any desire to reach out, connect. It's— book in a 20-minute, 30-minute session. And I'd be happy to connect with you wherever you are, however you are feeling, to meet you exactly where you are from the place of grace. Great. And my website, and then there's Facebook and there's Instagram. And, you know, I've been like a, I don't like social media kind of a person, and I don't really tend to my website, and here we are. So my website, GurpreetKGill.com. My Facebook is facebook.com/breathworkforhealing, and then Instagram is Conscious Breathwork with a G, just the letter G. So reach out, there's a contact form on my website. Reach out, you can email me. I would love to connect. Apparently we all got some time.

And I'll absolutely make sure to link to that in the show notes as well.

So Yeah, and this is from my heart to yours, my heart to the collective heart, my soul to the collective soul of we are all in this together. We will find our way together. And if I can be of service, I'm here.

Beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. I absolutely appreciate it. And I really hope that we can continue the conversation again at another point to down the line.

I would love that. I would love that. I think this will be like section— we'll just pause here for now. And I look forward to when we intersect again. Thank you so much. I am so sincerely grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you for listening. I would love to hear from you. What is the current situation like in your country and how are you dealing with it? Also, what was one lesson or key takeaway from this episode? Episode? Please let me know in the comments on YouTube or in the Extra Mileage Facebook group. Coming up next week is another episode of the Extra Mileage Show with Triathlon Taren, where we'll take a deep dive into heart rate training for running, cycling, and swimming. Please be safe out there, and wishing you and your family all the best.