SSP 018: Joa Rivas – Gain Clarity & Purpose Through Training Your Mind, Body And Soul

I'm always amazed by the amount of people that just show up into your life when you step into your highest calling. When I say highest calling, I mean just following your heart and doing what you love. And in this podcast episode, I've got one of these people who just basically just showed up into my life. And I was captivated by the work that she'd done and her experience so far that I wanted to bring her onto the show and share some of her wisdom with you guys and, and this person, her name is Joa Rivers. And Joa walked into the Soul7 clinic one day when I was working. And I'd known her for a couple of weeks and almost felt like I'd known her for a lifetime when we sat down and did the interview. So just a bit of background about Joa. Joa is she's a posture specialist and a personal trainer. And basically Joa was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 15 years old. And it's kind of took her down this path of trying to find her optimal health for herself through healing her spine. But this has also led her to become a personal trainer. And she works with individuals ranging from absolute beginners to experienced athletes who have an agenda. So she does lots of group sessions, one on one kind of stuff. But it was more the mindset aspect as well that was so unique about Joa. She incorporated the physical component so well, but also the mental component. So she had the full mind, body, spirit in her work. And she has some amazing stories and traveled all over the world. So I'm excited to share this episode with you all. Enjoy.

Welcome to the State Shifters Podcast.

Joe Rivers. Welcome to the State Shifters podcast.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here.

It's a pleasure to have you here. And we met only last week. Yes, you walked into the Soul7 clinic. Our mutual friend, Bob Berman, you were one of the first clients from Soul7.

Yes, 2013.

2013. For people who don't know, I work at Soul7, which is a frequency clinic here in Yorkville, Toronto. And we're sitting outside in the beautiful University of Toronto Gardens and we're going to have a chat because we connected and we realized that we have a lot in common and that our paths, we're trying to promote similar message through the work that we do. And I was inspired by your story. I'm inspired by the journey that you have taken so far. Do you mind giving people a little bit of a background about your journey? Because you've only just got Back to Toronto. You've been traveling around the world. How did this all start?

Well, thank you, thank you, thank you Jordan for inviting me here in my hometown. I would say because it's been journey that I started in Venezuela, that I'm actually from Venezuela. And I was so blessed that the universe opened the doors of Canada after so many years traveling. And I became a Canadian about eight years ago. So basically this is home for me, like a hometown. Even though like I feel like I have traveled so much, that home is where you feel at peace. Right? So you could feel at peace anywhere. But Toronto is definitely some type of, of a special place that I always feel connected to great relationships and to where I started to build my awakening process. And that's how I went to Soul7 in 2013 and I met Bob, who is an amazing influencer in my life and also in the community of consciousness and creating this open vortex to anybody to explore their own emotions and their own limitations and fears and to let them go in the past and then to start a new path of freedom. Let's say if that's a good way to explain now that you asking me about my background beside Toronto. I have been traveling before Toronto. I actually live in States and I spent three years in states. That was my first experience after Venezuela when I was 19. I decided was this, uh huh. I live in California and then I live in Chicago for about three years there. And it was a great experience for me to start. It was very difficult for me because I didn't speak any English as you know, my accent is that Latin accent. It's been a nice journey in terms of like learning from cultures. So after spending three years in the States, I look into another place to visit and to stay. And Toronto was that land that opened the doors for me to expand myself. And I became a Canadian in 2012, I believe or 11. And that really opened up the doors for me to explore the world in a bigger level. So I went to Australia in 2013. I did a big transformation in my journey and I decided to put on the side my business that I was running and everything was running well. But I needed to take a break from, from my routine. I needed to just separate myself from the day to day. How can I say grand? Yeah, it was more like a routine that I was able to see beyond the actions that I was doing. I wasn't being grounded, I wasn't being filled and fulfill my desire. So I was missing something definitely. And I was turning 30. So it was like a big a Big moment in my life that I was kind of. I was feeling I was becoming an adult. So I say before anything happens, I want to go to Australia. Because I think Australia is one place that I always had in my mind. When I was 15, my dad gave me a book. And this book was called the Voice of the Desert. The Voices of the Desert by Marlon Morgan. And the book is about this journalist that goes to Australia. It has a lot of controversies, this book, because a lot of people said that she kind of like there is a good and a bad things about the book. But I tried to take the best of the book, which was the experience of being away from the nun, working on a place that so far from this journalist. She was from States. She goes to Australia and she gets to experience life with aboriginals there. And I love the experience. Even though there has a good and the bad support. I took the best out of it. And I say, oh, maybe I could also experience something similar. If I just take a break from my routine and I travel so many miles away from my normal life, I could maybe start exploring parts of my myself that I haven't been able to do because the distractions that I have in the city. So I did it and I spent one year in Sydney. It wasn't an easy transition. It took a lot of steps and it was very difficult to leave home and go. It was like a huge. It was crazy because people say you live in your business, you go in there and you don't even know what it is. But I had this desire, internal, like an inner voice that was telling me to do it. I definitely cannot regret for what I did. I had a great experience in Sydney. So you are from Sydney?

No, I'm from Perth.

From Perth. So I was in the other coast. I got connected to the nature that was my main intention was to be connected to the water intentionally. I wanted to be close to the water. So I live on Manly beach in front of the water. It's a surf town. I was walking bare feet every day. So I was practicing everything. I forgot about shoes because I wasn't needed. I just walked to the beach and meditate there. I took a program of Deepak Chopra. So it was very good. And I learned this program that was about synchro destiny. I really loved it. It was about opening. Opening yourself to explore and to see sometimes coincidences that are happening in your life and signs that can make your life with more sense. And then like track the steps and track the points and make sure that you kind of like, very in tune and very present with each step. And I notice a change in my behavior and my actions. After the year in Australia, I moved to Singapore and I lived there for two years as a health coach. And I had a time where I could transform people physically. It was a great experience to be there with great coaches around the world. I learn, I educate the Singaporeans, and I also look at myself with all the interaction with everybody there. So it was a great experience. And then I got again the inner call to leave Singapore and to come back home. And basically that's why I'm here now.

So your work before you left, what was that? You're working as a personal trainer? Yeah, back home.

So I being a yoga teacher since 2000, and I would say about eight. A yoga teacher, right. And I started becoming very interested in more areas of fitness and wellness. So I study nutrition programs, I did training programs and, and I just noticed the more you study, the less I knew and the more I needed to know. Like, the, the more I study, the less I know. So it's like, wow, this is a very expanding field. And I still learning, it's a constant learning every day. So I oriented my practice to my skills. I. I have a bachelor in education, so I am a teacher. I love educating. Since I'm a kid, I always want to be the teacher and I love that, that part of myself that I have, that desire of teaching and never keeping secrets of what I know. I like to share what I know. Things that have worked on myself or with my clients. I always share it with nothing to be hiding in my world. So basically I oriented my skills into doing things that are meaningful for others. So I became a health coach out of the years in putting together all these little pieces of studies and practice that I have. So before I left Australia, I already have my business, which is JOA Fitness, which basically I was offering services of two individuals and two groups about being healthy. So optimizing their health either by. By finding a nutrition plan that fits their life or trying to improve their digestions and understanding what food goes well or not. And then I also continue practicing the yoga part, which is a big part of my practice, which yoga is not just the yoga of movement yoga for me. I started when I was 15 with the book that my dad gave me about yoga, but is more about the whole philosophy of life, which is like there is seven elements and one of them is meditation and devotion. So there is so much. It's much deeper than the asanas. Like most of the people Know in the western part, the asanas, but it's much deeper. Like meditation is much important than moving. So if your brain cannot be focused, you cannot move your body. So I actually, I was lucky enough that I started doing yoga from books. So I didn't even know how to move. I could see the people moving in the pictures, but I never had to experience after four years. So I knew more about the philosophy than, than the movement. The movement came after and I understood how complex it could be and how, how, how deep can be the practice. Yeah, that's pretty much.

Yeah. So one thing that I resonated with you was the. Through the body, you were able to access deeper realms of your consciousness and you tapped into your true nature, which we were discussing yesterday. It's beyond the body and beyond the mind is our true essence. And when we connect with that, we fill ourselves up with this tremendous amount of life energy that we want to go out and share with other people. So at what point for you? Because for me personally, I was big into working out and training my body religiously. And it wasn't for some time, until perhaps when I discovered yoga as well, that I started to tap into the spiritual side which I gained access through the body. How did this kind of realm open up for you?

Well, if I tell you the truth, I think I'm always being in to with myself since I'm a kid. I'm always being, asking why am I here? Always since I'm a kid, I always my. I always been in that curiosity much deeper of what I can see physically. I was five years old. I used to ask my, my sister, like, why are you my sister? Like, why my parents are my parents? Why do I live in this house? Doesn't make sense for me. So sometimes I used to get in this stuff and I couldn't understand. I have to have dreams, very like vivid dreams of, of things that were really strong. Like sometimes I used to dream. I used to be an army guy that used to get. I used to get trapped and killed over and over. So I was a kid having those dreams I couldn't understand. And I had a lot of, especially through dreams, my dad and I, I used to wake up in the morning and tell my dad my dreams and he used to try to help me to understand what was it because I was just in this world that I was a kid, but having experiences that I couldn't understand. And my dad and my mom, they're not spiritual, so for them it was just not even easy to explain those things. To me and I was just lucky that along my journey I could find help and experts to explain to me these little things and with my own self studies. So I think it's something that has started since I was created and I think if it goes the way as I was created I always, I think that's very important. I was created with love. My parents desire me very bad. Like my mom had two years of treatments to hug me. So I'm coming from a very source of love. My mom and my dad deserved me. For two years they did treatments. Finally I was conceived and then it was very hard pregnancy that I have to born premature. So I was always like so precious for my patterns. So. So I think because I was cultivating like I was a seed and the seed was cultivated with so much love. I mean I'm so blessed to be coming from that, from that source of love. I think that recreated a lot of who I am now. Definitely who I am now. It's just a seed of love that was created from the moment that my parents had the desire to have me.

So you competed in bodybuilding for five, five years, was it?

Yeah. So I competed in 2012. I started competing and I started with an organization was like the easiest organization to start, to practice, to get the feeling of being on the stage. I'm not sure if I told you the truth after my experience as human. If I did it out of my narcissism or out of my inspiration, I'm not sure but I know it took a lot of discipline. It took a lot of habits and a lot of actions to get there. To be on the stage, it takes a lot of commitment and I learned a lot of good stuff. Then down the road after competing 10 times I wasn't sure if that wasn't. That was the message I wanted to give to people. Unfortunately there is a lot of you know, like pressure, pressure and ego and the social media and all this happening now. I very hard on the kids and on the teenagers. So I think after 10 times competing, I think my intention that was to show the symmetry of my body and how my body could evolve from being like a skinny girl and having scoliosis and showing how well I could be feeling and being able to competing among other people that didn't have scoliosis and all this. That intention kind of faded away after trying so hard for 10 times. That's why I decided not to compete anymore. Now I'm still, I'm still coaching athletes which I'm very excited to bring some athletes this year, for the competitions this year that I am preparing. But my journey, I think is completed in terms of my message because I try to have every single action with a intention. So I think my intention has been fulfilled in that terms.

So I'm trying to. Because for people who are listening and viewing this, how does that transition come about? When you go from competing as a bodybuilder to now integrating this holistic approach to your training and your coaching with your clients, how do you then, if someone comes to work with you, do you integrate that in the gym to start off with and then outside the gym?

Well, I think the most important for me as a coach is to understand what the person is approaching to me. They approach to me because they need. They're looking for a guidance. And I try to listen to exactly their needs, what they actually are looking for. So I set them up from where they want to be to where they are to where they want to be. So I always make sure the intention is there, clear. Right. Because it's not about me, it's about them. If they really want it, I will make their route the best in. Within my skills, within my scope of practice, I will try to do the best, but they need to be clear of what they want. So if I have clients, that's the question, right?

Yes.

If I. If I have a client that wants to compete, I always make sure, like, what is your comp. Like, what do you want to compete for? If they explain to me, well, I want to compete because I want to have more discipline or like, because I'm a little bit shy and I think being in front of people will break that fear of like a public fear. Then I understand. I explained, and then I also explained the whole route of competition because there is a big part of understanding that it's not like three months goal, it's like a whole year goal. So like how far do you want to take this serious? Like, do you want to go to a pro level or just looking to just step out on the stage? Right. Because you don't want to cause any imbalance on your body. So if you want to go all the way to pro level, I try to visualize the bigger picture. Like, look, you're going to be here on December 2019, so let's set it up for that day and also how to integrate that into your life in a real way that once you stop your life, it won't be a disaster. Right. So slowly, how to eat healthy, understanding that you can be an athlete, but in a way that you don't have to crash your system. That happened to me at the beginning. I tried so hard and I give it all out and I, I, nobody told me about what happened after. I like what happened after a show, like, how much are you going to eat? If you are planning to compete again, how would you do it? So I think it's very important, not the ending goal, but understanding the journey and every day enjoying the everyday journey, understanding that life will continue after that. Right. So I think that's important.

How does someone get clear on that end goal? Because I know from the context of the health industry and the bodybuilding industry in particular, I sometimes think the end goal is not thought of enough from people. And I know for me personally, it wasn't until I started questioning why I was going to the gym, because as a young teenager, I'm going to the gym to lift weights, to look good. When you start to ask why long enough, you start to get to a point to go, wait a second, there's an underlying fear here. For me it was a fear because it's a fear that if I don't look good, people aren't going to like me. Yeah, I won't be accepted. I won't fit in. Yeah, I won't find love. So how do you get clear for people to find out what it is they actually want when it comes to working out and life in general?

As a health coach, I have online clients where I don't have the access to help them and supervise the training sessions. So I usually, in the questionnaires, on the initial questionnaires where I get to know the person, I try to understand where they're coming from. If they have a background in sports that really enjoy or they have, they try to gravitate to a certain discipline that they love. You know, not everybody wants to be on the gym indoors. Yeah, not everybody wants to be around other people. Some people want to just want to be moving their bodies alone. So, So I kind of understand that and I try to be very, I try to listen a lot to what they are looking for and setting up a program that will suit their personality and their goals and the results will come. So I think I don't obligate anybody to come to the gym. There's because I am pretty holistic. And I always tell them, if you want yoga, yoga can take you in a path that you can get fit. If you want to be doing Pilates, also if you want to practice Tai chi is you actually don't want to exercise, you Just want to walk on the beautiful beach. Then you. You do it, you know, so it depends on what they really want. And then in terms of training, I definitely suggest the woman after 30 to train, because the only way for us to stimulate muscle is by creating some resistance. And I always remind my clients, I'm 33 years old, and I definitely can feel like the more muscle I carry, the healthier I am. And it's a way to rejuvenate your body. So when we start losing muscle, we're putting ourselves in an aging stage. So it's very important to keep muscle. I'm not asking to be a bodybuilder or to eat so much protein and collapse your kidneys, but. But I'm definitely suggesting to people to lift some certain type of weights because it's how our body can be. Stimulating and preserving the muscle will preserve your jowl. So I think everybody would get benefits from keeping the muscle. And it doesn't have to be an hour. I always say you only have 20 minutes. 20 minutes is just enough to stimulate your body every day. You don't need to do so much. So as long as you enjoy it, you play your best tunes and you exercise. And the way as you love it, then it's fine.

Yeah. And then that cuts through the ego element straight away. When you're training to feel good, not just to look good, of course, that's the fundamental shift, what happened for me. And that's a great point. People take note. If you start to get over 30, all the more reason to keep training.

Yes.

Because I'm still quite young. I'm not 30 yet. I'm 24. But even just now, when I go and lift weights, there's something about the way it makes me feel.

The hormones release.

You can't compare that with anything else. So it doesn't even have to be for the look. I think the look's just a byproduct.

Well, yeah, I mean, when you're happy with yourself, eventually you just will show that your eyes will show true. You know, you don't have to be hiding. Your eyes will be showing who you are. Your smile is going to be a genuine smile. And we all have beauty. We all have beauty. We all like, made out of the same, you know. So as long as you cultivate that love inside, eventually you will start glowing on the outside without, you know, just effortlessly. So I think less pressure in how you look and more into what are you feeling is more important. The feeling will actually release the beauty on you.

100.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree. So the physics, we've covered the physical component now. So for people who are listening, who may not necessarily have their own physical exercise regime in place already, you said women especially to start exercising. What if people are a little bit afraid of going to the gym? Can they, can they incorporate a physical exercise routine without going to the gym?

For sure. I mean, like I was just telling before, there are so many ways to move the body lately. There is a lot of studies that shows that it takes certain amount of time and commitment for you. So functional movements, which is actually movements that we do on the daily basis, like squatting launches, we do it all the time to pick up objects, to carry our groceries from our market. So it's so useful to be able to feel strong and not depending on anybody or a nurse in the future. So you don't need a gym. Gyms are getting so popular and sometimes they don't even pay attention on you. So you don't. A gym is a great way because some people really feel stimulated by being around other people working out. You always can bring and have a tribe, a community there, which is nice. Look at all these flies and things. So. But there is so much. It depends where you live. Like those people that live in a hotel, places like weather that that allows you to be within nature. I think that will be the most natural way, of course, to be. It's just exercising outdoors. You don't need more than your own body. If you want to add some elastic bands and some like, if you want to do trx, if you like that, or it's so easy to incorporate equipment that doesn't require big amount of, you know, like, machines to bring. But I think the most important is to train your mind. So when you train your mind with meditation, with visualizations, with understanding who you are, then training your body is the easiest thing ever. Training the body comes naturally because it's how we supposed to do. We're supposed to move.

Yeah, well said, Joe. And this is one thing that I realized recently with the gym is you can turn the, you know, to work out into a meditation through. Because this has been. Arnold Schwarzenegger said this. He said when he's in the gym, his attention goes into the muscle that he's working. His full focus and attention goes into that area. And there's been proven scientific studies now to show that when just through the act of focusing your attention on the muscle group that you're working, you can boost your muscle size by like muscle strength by like 15 or something like that. So when you're in the gym, treat that as mind training as well. Like, for me, it was just like focusing on what area of the body's been worked right now and then putting my attention there, just like Arnold did. And through the act of doing that, I'm training my mind to hold my attention on the body.

Yeah.

And that's what meditation is, bringing your attention within into the body.

So totally there is a big connection between our thoughts and the muscle they actually studied that says when you train looking at the mirror and your muscle, because you're so focused on that the.

Mirror does have a purpose. It's not just to admire it.

Yeah. That you. So, yeah. But then it's also important to listen to your body when it tells you, hey, are you over training? That's very important. Are you over training and having some respect to your bodies? Because if you don't respect your body, eventually it's going to break. And when it breaks, and most likely it's going to stop you training for a long time, which I happened to me before when I punish myself by training hard. You know, like, there is a lot of things in my mind and I don't know how to cope with it. And then I just go to a gym to release the tension and I'm actually, actually punishing my body. So there is a big connection on respecting the body limitations. And before it breaks. Right. When it breaks, it could take you a long time. Like, there is a point in my life that I got so many injuries all over my body, I needed to stop training for one year. It was so hard mentally. Not to train was like a mental injury to understand. But in that year after, so, like, I was like a little horse. So, like, trying so hard to train and I stopped totally. I understood that you really need to listen to your body and not abuse your body. Like sometimes we abuse of our bodies. And that year, it took me in a journey of meditation. So I realized when you meditate without. You just meditate, you concentrate on meditation without exercising. For one year, you actually can go deeper. Yeah.

For one year you didn't exercise.

Yes, I was forced to do it. I lost like seven kilos. Everybody's like, wow, what happened to you? I was forced not to train. My body forced me. I couldn't move my arms. I had a cervical problem that I have pin and needles on my left arm. I had tendonitis on my right arm. I tore my triangle over here, my wrist. And then my legs were also having some issues with my hip. So I Couldn't move anything. And I realized that I needed to stop. And within my meditations, my body told me, look, I gave you so much. You're taking me. Since you born, you just take me and you don't respect me. And you, you abuse me to a point that now you can do anything, now you gotta meditate. So I put all my intention to meditation and I understood. A lot of things came to me because I wasn't focusing on training. So I've been following a lot of monks and they say the monks that go to monasteries, they always tell people that they are so far away from, from families, from money, from everything. They just give all their time to meditate. So in that mindset, the meditation is fully, fully given to, to that. So definitely it makes a difference. It happened to me for a year and I'm happily back to train with respect and I understand what I have to stop. So I'm a little more present and it was a great opportunity to, to dive into meditation for, for real.

So what does your meditation practice consist of now? Because I love meditation and it wasn't until I started training the mind just as much as I was training my body, which is when I started to notice my connection with the spirit and holistic. And meditation is such a massive component for me. Whether it's necessary for everyone, that depends on the person. But how does it, how does your practice, how is it involved and what does it consist of now?

Well, meditation. I started teaching meditation as part of my yoga classes. It was like 10 minutes of, at the end of the class of meditation. So I have to study how to become a meditation teacher. I used to get so deep into it. I started in 2008, so I've been teaching meditation for 10 years. But I never really got into the meditation. I guess because I was always in a city with so much stress. I practice and all. But I think I never really, really, really fell in, in tune with it until I went to, to India and I went to practice on ashram. So I guess just because the ashrams have so much sacred energy, like so many people come with intention of releasing and being present and feeling all this compassion with no identification. I felt a lot of changes in terms of my meditation practice. So I now practice a meditation that is based on. It's called yoga meditation. I am very hyper personal. My personality, it comes with a lot of energy. It's something that is my essence. I can understand it. I don't want to control it. I just want to understand it and see what serves me or not, if I'm too hyper, if I'm hurting myself somehow, I try to step away and then try to help that person that is hurting. So in this moment, my meditation is tuning with my energy because I have so much energy in this moment. I think every stage of our life could take you to different meditation practices. But in this moment, I feel identified with this meditation that since the moment I practice, I felt like I felt grounded. And it's a meditation that lasts between 25 minutes and 30 minutes, and it's done four hours before eating. So the recommendation not to have any. Anything in your stomach, just liquid. And it's based on different breathing techniques. So there is like seven stages of breathing on this meditation. So because I'm so active as I'm hyper, the breathing kind of like it keeps me in the moment. It's really tough to be meditating and thinking on nothing. That's like super, super hard because once you close your eyes, your mind, it has like 50,000 thoughts in the moment. So it's so difficult to just think about breathing. It's just the more you breathe, the deeper you can connect to the meditation. So I really like this meditation that changes the breathing techniques, like from one nostril to another nostril. Fire breathing, there's so many type of breathings, plus it also integrates some movements with my body. So I like to like mobility on the wrist and certain things. So this meditation, I learned it in India. I practice it since last year. I've been doing it like every day. I'm. I'm open to do it two times a day if I have time. If not, I do it once a day. And. And basically it has also some chanting. So includes chanting and breathing and yoga. Yeah, I like this one.

Yeah. Beautiful. And that's, that's the best thing to do, is to experiment with different forms of meditation, because there's no one size fits all. And breathing is a certain way of connecting deeper with the body. And yeah, the fact that you've integrated different forms like that, it's cool. So again, try meditation. Try different forms. Find the one that works best for you. So I want to. Because I want to touch on, travel for a minute. Because traveling is something that has really helped me and opened up my perspective and seen. It's allowed me to step into the unknown and practice being okay with not knowing how my life is going to unfold. And I truly believe travel is one way of practicing that. You have traveled far and wide. You've been to India You've been to Australia, Singapore, all over Canada, Born in Venezuela. How has travel, travel helped you connect with your soul? And what would you say is the biggest lesson you've learned while traveling?

I don't know. You have to explain because the traveling part has been a desire since I'm a little kid of leaving home. I have no idea why I left home when I was 19. I wanted to leave home when I was 15, but my dad didn't allow me. He's like, you need to have a career before you leave home because if anything happens, you need to cover your things, right? I was like, okay. My co parents, I push all what I could do. By 19, I already have my degree. I had a bachelor degree in education in computers. So I took my degree and I left home with $300 in no support of my family. Because in Venezuela the markets are closed, like the financial markets. You cannot send money out of the country. So since 19, I've been supporting myself, my journey, being responsible of my actions. Traveling for me, it just takes me out of the familiar environment so like out of my comfort zone. So it pushes me to, to develop skills that I don't see. When I have everything easy to get, it connects me to cultures and people. So usually when I travel, I like to get to the kitchen of people remotely far. Like when I went to Vietnam, I went to this small town. It was about four hours away from a small village. These people were living there like they had two houses and the next village was like three hours later, like away. So it's like so far from each other. So that was such a grounding experience where you get to see these people, they have no tv, they're just there living life the most natural way. The kids have no PlayStation or any fancy technology and they still developing their skills. So they do handcrafting and they are just the same like us. It's just with less materialism, you know. So I like that. I like to connect to the real and raw life, you know, that's what I usually like. When I travel, I'm not the person that goes into fancy places. I'm more into the raw and the real life of other people the same. When I go to India, I love to go into like little kitchen people that I just meet and like, show me how you cook. I love cooking, so I love that. To experience the food and cook with people, traditional cooking in where they live, I love that as well. And traveling experience, like the biggest one I think when I went to Uluru, when I went To Ayers Rock. It was very beautiful experience because it was so remotely far from the world. And I had that dream when I was 15. It took me 15 years to get there. I think that's something that I always will remember. And it was very full of energy and sacred vibration that very hard to explain. The only way to know is to be there. I think that will be one of the memories that I will keep with me and I will tell my grandkids about what I have done. But I think everywhere where I go, it's always an experience I love. Every place that I have visited, there is certain places that have caused a little bit of an awareness. Like when I went to Cambodia, it was very tough because, I mean, in Venezuela there is a lot of kids on the street, but in Cambodia, it's a little bit over what I was thinking that was happening. There is a lot of abuse, a child abuse. And it's very difficult to see this with your eyes. Like, you cannot have a normal dinner when their kids asking for food. And then you can see older people taking them to hotels and you cannot do anything about it. This is actually happening now. So I just stayed two days in Cambodia. I couldn't take it. I couldn't see this happening in front of my eyes. The kids are just commercialized there. There's not much I can do. They have nobody to protect them. They're just there. It was just so hard for me to see, and I couldn't do much there. So if I ever go back to Cambodia, it will be with a foundation, something that I will just contribute for the community. It's just very tough. I think that's one of the toughest situations I have been around. And the rest is being just exploring landscapes and loving every culture. So that's pretty much.

Yeah, beautiful. I think. Yeah. Traveling just has so much benefits to offer, both from a mind, body and soul perspective. What advice would you have for someone who's thinking about traveling and exploring but they're not sure where to go or whether they're a little scared to take that leap and leave a job or leave home?

Yeah, for traveling, I think anybody can do the traveling as long as they. They have an intention. And I go with the flow. You know, I have certain schedule, like I want to visit certain places, but I just go with the flow with not much expectations. I'm not telling people to serve me. In a way, I respect it. When I went to China, it was a little bit of a shock as well. But I'm nobody to judge the culture, that's how they live. And it just teaches me how different we are sometimes and how blessed and how I could appreciate more my culture, where I'm coming from, where we have so much equality and we have so much acceptance to each other. And like in Canada, we have such a freedom that not everybody has those rights, you know, so it just give me that contrast, but it doesn't give me any voice to be joshing or pointing fingers. So that's what I learned. Like, when I'm in certain places, you're like, wow, like, what is this? But I don't have to. I'm there. I'm actually so blessed that they opened the doors for me to see that, but nobody to judge it. I think that's something that I've been always trying to. To learn. And my experience is always just to enjoy every single day of my traveling and the pictures times. It's funny because at the beginning when you travel, if you're not a traveler and you just start traveling, you want to take a picture for everything. Then your phone and your cameras get full of pictures. So I realized that I'm trying to be in the moment. I take one or two pictures of things that I really find. Like, it would be nice to blog it or to keep it with me, but I try not to do selfies on every single part. Like pictures of everything. I can find a picture like that just on the book or on websites. So I try to be more in the moment and forget about the pictures and things like this. I think I try to just value that I'm actually there.

So, yeah, yeah, I think you bring up a really great point about being in the moment. And I know presence and present moment awareness has been a big part of your life. Yeah, and such a great, massive part of my life because I read Eckhart Tolle's book and you were completely changed my view on the world. And I realized that all the answers that I ever wanted are available in the present moment. You just have to learn to be still and silent and listen. And through the present moment, you're actually guided by an intelligence far deeper than what our minds can comprehend. I feel for me, it was a practice over time that unconditioning my mind to thinking about the past, worrying about the past, thinking about the future, and training my mind to be more connected with the present moment, which means it doesn't need to think all the time. So I know you've incorporated that kind of way of living as well. And how do. How does someone Start to live in the present moment because it gets. It's a word that gets thrown around a lot. But living it is another thing.

Yeah, well, living in the present moment is being such a.

Cheesy new agey.

Yeah. Everybody's like being there now, being the present, but not being. Everybody lived that life. And I think I started lately from my own awareness of how I was running my life. I was always in a race looking to be married at a certain age. I was looking to have kids at a certain age. I had this preconception thoughts about how my life had to be because the traditions of my country and my family. Then a lot of things didn't go the way as I wanted, you know, so all my expectations were not fulfilled. Then I, I crashed, you know, I crash, I hit the bottom. And it took me a lot of years to reconstruct my thoughts. So I was willing to, to. To do it to very important. Right. Because people can tell you but you have to have this desire to do it. So it took me, I would say the last five years of being married myself and putting a lot of effort myself with self studies and hiding experts of understanding what was happening to my brain. That I wasn't being present, I wasn't being enjoying my now. I was always looking to what was next. So I was grasping something. I wanted to go for the next, I wanted to go for the next. So I'm now always remind myself to be in the now. There is an amazing book by Eckhart Tolle that is the power of now. Like if you haven't read it, I recommend you 100% to take it. It's so simple to read. Even a kid, a children, the children can understand that. It's so easy. You can read it on any page. You just take the book, open the book and any page will talk to you. You don't need to go from the beginning to the end. So being in the present, it just takes time. I mean I cannot explain to you until you actually ready to do. But the very first key of being in the present is to breathe. Yes, breathing is the most important. A lot of people live on a shallow breath, suffocating their lungs, not being aware of that. Because the breath is the first thing that comes into your body when you're born. And this is the last thing that comes when we die. When we die as a process of living as well. Death is just life in another level. But physically it will happen and we have to be ready for that moment. And I think if you breathe with conscious, then that's when the present will come. Anytime you feel suffocated, then you got to identify something's happening there. And then you may have to take deeper breath. So I think breathing is, for me, like, technique number one. And. And also understanding that we have, like, three people inside of us. We have, like, the mind, the thinker, and the watcher.

Yeah.

So it's super simple. I have one of my clients who is an actress, and she's trying to do a lot of things, and sometimes I feel like she can see beyond the beautiful person that she is. She gets very stressed out. Stress out. Like, everybody gets stressed. But. And then I tell her, imagine this. Imagine that you have a play, right? The play is your life, what's happening every single day. And then you have the actress or the actor there, and then the script is there, and there is a director. So you are kind of like the director. You can see the script and you can see the actress, but you don't identify to anything. You're like, you want the play to go well, you just want to run. You don't have to try to just let the actress play and feel the emotions, but don't attach to it. You know, same with the script. It is what it is. It's happening there. So accept it, but don't get attached to it. So it takes time to, like, understand, like, am I attaching myself to the emotions and I'm not letting them go so the universe can keep unfolding new chapters or like new plays and, like, are you giving yourself a commercial break? You know, so I like this type of analogy that I usually give to my clients in all their. Of their ways, how they work, because then they can understand. It's true. It makes sense. You know, I do the same thing with a chef. You know, like, it's like cooking. You know, you have the ingredients on the meal, and then you. You have to just taste the food and just enjoy the flavors. And don't, you know, if the food goes wrong, then make another one. You know, don't even get worried about it. So I think life could be easy as soon as you understand this. But I think if you can get the book of the Power of Now, that's the best. Yeah, it's so easy. You need to read it all. Just read some pages. You're going to fall in love with it. I'm sure you're going to go for the whole book and tell everybody. There's many books out there. I think this one is a great book. There is another book called the Seat of the Soul. That one is a very good book as well. Yes. Yeah. And then there are many. I mean, I would have to say so many. There is one that is called Many Masters, Many Life. The messages of the masters that goes deeper into like past life and explaining so much about how we are. So I think the less attached you are to like things and understand. Oh, this person comes to me, it teaches me something. I'm just understanding and then let it go. And if it comes, nice. If it doesn't, I already in my next, you know, in the flow. So just be on the flow, breathe deeper and enjoy it. That's it.

Yes. I think the key is you have to realize that you're the director, not the actor. Yeah, that's the main thing. That once you figure that out, you kind of lose this. Lose the attachment to outcomes.

Yeah, you just observe, you know, like in yoga, in yoga meditation, we say you are the observer or the witness of what's happening. But it kind of like the hardest part is like sometimes like, oh, it affects, it's affects, it's affecting me, you know, but it affects you once you are attaching to the past or the press or the future. Right. So I always say if you are in the present, then the past or the future, the past is just a memory and the future is just you imagining something that you want to achieve and want. But it's not even happening. So why are you worried about something that is not even happening? So just be in the present and the rest will flow.

That's right. When you, when you're connected to the present moment, you're flowing with the evolution of nature, consciousness, the universe, totally. And that's when you get those, the inner guidance, the inner voice starts to.

Talk to you and people come to you. And then you will be get surprised with so many alignments in tune with the same force of energy. So then life is just flowing like.

You know, when you're in the flow. Right. When you're in the flow of life, it almost feels effortless. And I, I strongly believe, like I used to think my dad would tell me, you don't, you know, you don't get anything without hard work. You have to, you have to get put in the sweat to get, to get the reward. I kind of realized that there's not really like that now. You don't have to work very hard. You shouldn't. There shouldn't be any suffering or struggle involved with whatever you're trying to achieve. Because when you're in the flow.

Yeah.

Everything sort of happens.

Yeah, but then you're talking about resistance, right? Because you create resistance. Then. Then you are going against the water. So it's just swim, you know, it's like playing the music and dancing. You're just dancing with the flow, dancing with the music, letting the things happen how it's supposed to be. Eventually life will unfold that way.

Exactly. I mean, I don't want to say, obviously you don't need to work hard to achieve things in life, but for me, what I classify as work now is not work because I love doing what I do. So it's no longer work. It's me doing what my heart's calling me to do. So totally, there's no resistance in what I do. So essentially there's no struggle or effort. So that's what we're trying to say when we live in the present moment. You're connecting with your heart's calling, which is.

Yeah, well, you do it from your heart. So then every action, working is not working. It's just like doing something that you really love. And it happens that you're getting paid for that. So that's pretty how we. We can get in tune. And every single career and profession in life is needed. So it's great when you can get in tune to your profession because then. Then you're giving the possibility to the world to. To really appreciate that, you know, so it's. It's great. You become meaningful to others and you can contribute in the. In the world. So, yeah.

What advice would you have for someone who hasn't quite figured out what. What their place in the world is yet? They haven't really heard that in a voice just yet to know. I don't really know what I want to do. How does someone figure that out?

That's a difficult process. You know, it's a very difficult process. The person first has to come to me to ask me that. You don't get advice to somebody that is not asking for an advice.

Let's assume everyone listening to this podcast is ready for this advice.

So I, I think the first step is to be willing to and to be curious and ask. And that's what I know. So if they ask me, if you asking me because you are curious, then I could tell you to take a break from what you do. And even though you think, oh, but I need to make money, you know, like life is about making money. Like, if I don't work, I can make money then, you know, if you're going to Put your life one day away. Let's say you want to really get into yourself, then it's going to be hard for you. You're going to be running in a trap of hamster, I would say. I think one of the best things is to probably read a book. Especially this book that we talk in the Power of Now I think will be so useful. I understand we have to pay bills and everything, but definitely taking a break somehow. So taking a break. The book could give you a lot of guidance. If you're just taking a ride on the subway and it's an hour ride and you just hating that you have to take this commute so long. But at least that hour could be beneficial. If you just take that hour to read the book. That can start being like a teaser for your brain to understand that life can be easier if you just make the right. Not the right, but you can change certain things. So maybe just write down certain things that you want to improve and the people will come to you to help you if you are willing to change. All of a sudden you're gonna get messengers and signs and angels that come to your life to help you. Like there's always gonna be somebody there open to help you. So I think it starts from your own motivation to improve and to change and to shift your energy towards something that is more meaningful.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, if someone's already willing to ask those questions, I feel like that's. Or it's already gonna happen.

Yeah. I believe on journaling, actually, like, I would say read a book for sure. Like this ones that we're recommending. There is so many others that we can add. But journaling, like, sometimes we have so many voices inside of ourselves. We have the actors, we have the script, we have the director. All of a sudden comes a commercial and all these things like, what is this? So I definitely. If you can write down, get your journal a paper, anything, write down your thoughts, you know, and if you have things like resentment or any type of hatred or negative emotion that you're carrying from the past and anything, just write letters to people that they are there and you are just licking these negative things towards others. I think journaling is important. So there are a lot of techniques on how to journal. You can always have a little gratitude book of three things that you can thank life so you understand the life we have. Also things that we could be grateful of. And they are like fear letters that you just write. Fears that you feel and what do you actually. What is the fear coming from? Is it like a limitation, physical limitation, it's just a mental limitation or like old pattern that you've been following since you were a kid or maybe even your parents have the same pattern. You just learn it from there. So I think journaling will be one of the best techniques I have done myself. I still do it. I have my vision board that I see myself from now to six months. I used to do it from now to a year when it happened that I start accomplishing the things faster. So I now do a vision board of six months from now while I go depending on how I feel. Sometimes I spot myself in the middle and from the middle it comes like all the areas of my life that I want to improve or I have specific goals. So sometimes I meditate and I get this like I want to make it like an spiral.

Spiral.

Spiral. Spiral will be like planets, like a cosmos. So it depends. You know, sometimes we have these crazy ideas and I think as long as it's yours and it's meaningful for you and you're like connected to it and you have all these intentions set up. We have set up dates just like deadlines and certain things that keeps you aware that there are certain times that you need to accomplish things. So you have actions. Right. So you don't get, you don't, you don't get overwhelmed because you know it is possible. You have to have action, do the actions to get there. And that probably will be a good way for you to accomplish and to change what you are now and to be where you want to be.

Yeah, I agree, Joe. And yeah, I agree with journaling. I'm a big journaler. Journal all the time. Something about crystallizing your thoughts to paper that makes it all the more powerful. And yeah, yeah, it certainly helps, especially goals and intentions.

Yeah.

So I want to be mindful of your time job because it's getting late here.

Correct.

And before I ask the last question, if people want to work with you online, where can they connect with you?

Yes. Well, people can find me on social media as my name with fitness as JOA Fitness. That's usually my Facebook, my Instagram. They can send me emails on Joa J O A@joafitness.com Joa fitness.com and the website is there, it's joafitness.com so everything is your fitness.com. they can find me usually in Toronto now. And I'm planning to do some retreats in other places. So far it's going to be Victoria, most likely Mexico and some other places. So for now, I'm putting all my intention, all my effort in Toronto. After three years, I'm super excited to put together projects and to meet my old friends. So I'm having a great time now.

I love it.

Yes.

So, Joa, people who are listening, they've come this far. They've listened to this whole podcast. What's one thing or you can. I'll allow you to say two things.

Yeah.

That you want people to take action on after listening to this podcast. If people want to get serious about change in their life and, and really break through some the inner barriers are holding them back. What are some things they can take action on straight away?

Yeah. I think number one is if you really have a balanced life, can you put in your now, like, how much have you taken and how much have you given to the world? If you haven't given to the world, I think it's a good time to start giving to the world. So my second one will be to serve. I think there is a big lack of awareness on that topic of serving. There is a lot of people saying, I'm meditating, I love meditation, I go to my yoga classes. But then there is not much of a service, you know, so start serving others. There is a lot of communities created that are waiting for you to be part of. You can always take one hour, volunteer for a cost that means something to you. You can create a foundation of fundraising that it will be important if it's your birthday, everybody on their birthday, they want to have a big party, they want to drink, they want to get drunk, they want to travel. But what about you and your next birthday? You make up fundraising and then you give whatever you collect to a foundation, let's say, of kids, to create a program of education. Isn't it like the best way to celebrate life by serving life? I mean, so that's something that it took me years to understand that I was such a taker in my life. You know, I was taking, I took my body, I took from my patterns. I just take and I keep taking. I'm breathing air that doesn't even is my air. And then I always try to think, like, how much am I giving to the world? You know? So I think that's my biggest reflection for people to ask themselves, am I actually creating balance in my life between giving and taking?

Beautiful. Find balance, find a way to serve. It's a great, great takeaway. It's a great question to ask each day. How can I serve today doesn't have to be a big thing. It can just be a little thing, but correct.

Yeah. Even with actions, you know, it doesn't have to be with money. A lot of people like, they relate serving with money, like just give me money. But actually not serving with your actions is very, very. It goes beyond money because it's just energy and so much and there's so many foundations out there. I'm from Venezuela. I'm supporting a community of kids between 1 to 7 years in my country to provide them food, offer like breakfast and lunch and to provide support to their teachers to be able to be there with them. In my country, there is 1,500 kids. This is something that being started when I was 15 and now it's growing, it's getting bigger. So I cannot ignore what's happening in my country. I cannot wait for the government to take actions. So if we all can think about little communities that need some help on any way from your actions to financial support or creating, creating bigger events that involve other people, then this world would be way, way better than now.

100 agree. Thank you so much for joining me on the State Shifters podcast.

Thank you.

Absolute pleasure. Take care.

All right.

There we have it, guys. Another episode of the State Shifters podcast Undusted. Hope you you enjoyed this one. And as always, please share this with a friend or family if you took something away from it. And most importantly, leave some feedback. Rating a review on itunes that really goes a long way for me. And be sure to subscribe to keep updated on when the latest episodes are coming out. You can subscribe in this page. Just throw your name and email in and I'll stay in touch. See you in the next episode.

It sa Sam.

Sat.