Finding Presence with David Romero

This is episode 296 of the Empowered Team Podcast.

Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast, where.

We explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life.

And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider.

Welcome. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast. I am so fortunate today. While we're recording this, this is Earth Day, and I get to have David Romero here with us. And it's been such a exciting opportunity to have you with us here because you have this background that makes me go, wow, it intrigues me. Makes me go, that's a real interesting life. And so I'm very compelled to learn more from you. So, David, welcome. I'll just give a quick little snapshot. You're in California. You have a military background. You were doing all sorts of things with the US Air Force, including sending rockets up into space and doing other amazing things that, that kind of shock me. But you left the Air Force as a captain but transitioned into medical sales. So you've got this interesting background in military, which I know that takes a lot of rigidity, structure systems. And then you go into the western medical back the system, which is sales and looking at any sort of pain management, doing what else, orthopedic medicine, spine pain, that kind of thing. But deviated from that to take a look at more Eastern medicine, more of a holistic space, and now having such depth in training from your yoga practices for over 10 years now, I understand really, really diving deep into yoga and serving people from more of a perhaps spiritual meditative practice and, and now even into psychedelics. So this is a very, very interesting thing to me because points to learning a lot of different things. It points to. I think it's called shoshin, which is beginner's mind and really continuing to learn and absorb. So the first thing I want to tell ask you and, and tell our audience from your mouth instead of mine is where what led you from the, the military to medical sales, to yoga, to more Eastern studies, like, how did this all. What caused this journey?

Great question and thank you, thank you, thank you for such a beautiful introduction. I would say the answer, the honest answer is following my heart. I followed my mind and I followed a lot of other people's voices outside of me for a very long time. And while I am deeply grateful for those voices and the learning lessons I learned along the way, a lot of my life has been leading me down this path towards understanding love, understanding service, understanding connection, and really understanding how to heal as naturally as possible. And if I can be honest, Too, one of the reasons is because I, I, my mother transitioned from cancer when I was 18 years old. And to lose someone that is influential like that in your life at such young age does leave an impact on you. And she was very much into the more holistic. She was a drug and alcohol psychologist in the U.S. navy. And I feel like I am following down a little bit of a path that she led. And as I continue to move forward, things make a lot more sense for me when I move from my heart. So right now, just, just traveling down that path.

So first of all, that must have been so, so profound and impactful at, at such a young age. So as a young male, at 18 years old, you lose your mother, you must have felt so lost. And yet that was probably, if I'm to guess, probably around the time that you really got into the military. Is that, is that, was that part of what had you go down the path of the Air Force and some of your military education and experiences there?

Sure, part of it, yeah. My, I, my whole family, military background, biological father, stepfather, mother, even my brother were all Navy. So I was born into a military family. That's what was familiar for me. So, of course, through conditioning, we go through what's familiar, familiar. And I got accepted to the US Air Force Academy when I was 17 or 18. So when she passed away, I was actually at the academy. It was the end of October, beginning in November. I was already deep in it, my freshman or four degree year they call it. And I was very fortunate to have a coach who was supportive. I was running competitive, NCAA Division 1 running, so I had my sport to kind of keep my mind off it. But the truth is you don't necessarily see the impact of that until you start looking at the habits and behaviors that you develop as a result of not necessarily being able to deal with the emotional state at that time. So when you do go through a loss or a traumatic situation, you tend to put blocks up and walls up and just try to push through. So whatever feelings may have been there, there was a lot of suppression of that. And to be truthful, it lasted for the better part of one and a half decades before I really started examining what, what was this sadness and anger and stuff I was experiencing really all about.

I love how you've articulated this because so many of our listeners come from a background of sport or come about from a background of business leadership. So there's, that's primarily our listener group. And, and what often happens with the type of high achievers that are in sport or in business is that there's this tendency to stuff the feelings or buffer the feelings with action. And the high achievers, especially love action, love doing the things, but it may turn into this over action in order to not feel the uncomfortable feeling. And it sounds like that's what your young, you know, sad, angry male self was going through this hard time. And really how do you deal with it at that age? You've got a lot of energy, you know, you're young, you run, you work, you, you do the things until you realize that it's not working. And you said a decade, decade, decade and a half. And I don't think that's uncommon because there's so many, there's so many women and men, but people who kind of wake up after the span of time. And I say wake up because they realize that what they've been doing to, to find fulfillment perhaps, or find peace or find love or find connection isn't providing those things. And they realize that it's not going to come from something outside of themselves. It may have to be searched for within. Is, is that part of what you experienced? And, and if so, how did you discover that you weren't gonna, you weren't gonna escape the sadness and the anger unless you actually took a look? And I'm putting some words in there that may not be accurate. So what was your experience?

My experience. Those are great words, by the way. And my experience was going to. First the experience of it. One, I knew it was coming because my mom was very vocal. My mom articulated things very well to me. She was clear about it. She had me read lots of books. I understood death at a very earlier age than most, I would say. So it wasn't like I didn't know it, it was a potential. But I think one of the issues was, is that, you know, going to a service academy, you know, in the, in the US there's four. There's West Point, there's Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, then the Coast Guard Academy. You're. It's a predominantly, at least at the time, I think there was about 3,200 men and about a thousand women. So very testosterone driven. Lots of just like, I would say unhealthy masculinity at the time. I know it's changing now, but it is what it is. I look back in good memories upon it most of the time. And what I experienced was that when we don't necessarily have models to, or examples of how to deal with our feelings or emotions and for a lot of men. That's very difficult because here's this feeling that's unknown. I don't know how to find the words for it because it wasn't really given an example for me. So now trying to articulate it and explain it is very difficult. And then there is the fear of being judged. There's the fear of being made fun of, teased, you know, so what do we end up doing? We end up relying on these habits which can be addictive habits. I used to drink a lot. So you drink or we go for things that stimulate us. I was a huge adrenaline enthusiast. So anything that I could get my hands on, going fast, whatever it may be, in order to not deal with this underlying operating system or feeling that just didn't want to deal with the uncomfortableness. It was an escape measurement rather than, hey, let's get curious about this and what's this really all about? I, I have since then and it was about, I would say when I turned 36, where actually it was when I turned 34, there was major changes that started to take place. That's when I started moving out of the more allopathic medicine model and moving more towards eastern models of going. Everything I'm doing is just treating the symptoms. But I know that there is something much, much deeper beneath the surface. Let's start looking at that.

Oh, well, first of all, thank you for sharing this the way you have because I think so many men have gone through something like this and women as well. And you talk about the maybe masculine environments that may not have been the most positive for examples of masculine, the potential for masculine environments. And I was in one of those. And then the women become like the masculine they're supposed to be in that environment. And the men are continuing to follow what might be almost childish behavior instead of, instead of evolving into their own wise selves. And it's this environment of do not feel, but rather stuff it or make fun of it and, and then man up per se. But. But manning up isn't an actual, right, real description of what a man or a true, a wise man or a wise woman could actually be. So I'm curious as to how, because this is the thing that, that. And of course, if I say how your how is going to be different than someone else's how. But for you, how did you learn how to get perhaps out of your head more into your heart, start feeling the feelings, process some things you were experiencing? How did that happen for you in order to, to get where you are now? Because now you are so courageously vulnerable. You're very much about having people experience love and experience presence. So what, what were you able to do when you're in the midst of drinking, running? You know, maybe you're a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I know I love competition. The harder the better. If I wasn't podium placing, then I'm not even going to enter the race kind of thing. Like extreme, extreme kind of stuff. So, you know, I. I think I can resonate with some of the things you've described. I. I probably stopped drinking in my 20s because I drank so much in my teens and early 20s. You know, like the extreme behavior because of the extreme pain or just not knowing how to deal with extreme pain. So for you, what led you to your heart? What led you to true healing in your own experience?

I. I would first start to say that for whatever reason, I mean, I know the reasons at this point, but at the time, I couldn't hold a relationship very well. It was. I was a serial dater at the time, and I was finding that I was just replacing one thing with another with another. And I really wasn't doing the work at that time, as they called doing the work.

What is the work? I'm working all the time. What are you talking about? So hard.

Yeah. And like, why is it. I know. Why aren't things coming my way? Uh, but the truth. Yeah, Exactly. I worked 70 hours this week. How many did you do? You're weak. You know, all these, like, little conversations we have. But I. I recognize that there was a. There was a huge work life imbalance. There was an engagement in activities that were unhealthy. There was hiding behaviors going on. There was, again, an inability to be able to hold a relationship. Everything was being taken personally at the time. I couldn't just sit with someone else's feelings. Other people's feelings made me uncomfortable. There was this constant need to just be checked out and constantly go, go, go, go, go. One of my old mentors and dear friends used to say, stop confusing activity with achievement. That's a James woods quote. But I. I eventually showed up to the gym one day and a dear friend of mine pulled me into a yoga class and was like, I think you need to try yoga. And I was like, yoga's for girls, like, mindset going into it. Please know the listeners out there. I do not believe that now at all.

But at the time, meanwhile, you're really. You're really thinking. You're such a. Why would you do that?

Exactly. I get it.

I know I know. I know how the male brain works. I've been there.

Like, you're so weak. And. And the thing is, is, like, five minutes into the class, the teacher has us in a position, and I'm looking around, you know, front leaning, rest, as they call it, the military. And I'm like, holy. Like, these girls are strong. Like. And I'm shaking, and I'm like, okay, this is not what I expected.

Don't look bad. Don't fall down.

Yeah, just. Just act cool. And. And. But I felt so good afterwards, and the teacher was so kind and, like, respectful, and it just made me want to come back again. I was like, hey, I can do this. This felt really good. And I started meeting people in the community. And so after my third or fourth class, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna. I'm gonna sign up for a yoga retreat. I'm gonna see what this is all about, because in my life, and you probably get this too. It's either, like, go 100 or you're not gonna go at all. Yeah. I was like, we're gonna go. And I'm glad that I followed my instincts on that, because I. I ended up going to a really beautiful yoga retreat up in Ojai. And it was there that I had set a personal intention that I wanted to become a yoga teacher. This was in 2010, I believe. And I met some really amazing people on that. I'm still friends with them to this day. And after that, there was a period of time of just practicing and training. And I will say, at first, it was about the peacocking of. Hey, look how many cool poses I can do and how strong I can be signaling.

Oh, yeah, I'm so good.

Yeah. There's a. There's a great book called Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by a Gentleman by the. He's a teacher by the name of Chung Yong Chungpa. And he talks about all this stuff that we do and, you know, our posturing and, you know, wanting to look, you know, athletic and muscular, because that's what, in our mind, the projection is what the rest of the world wants to see. And while there is a percentage of the world that wants that, truthfully, what people really want is to feel safe. They want to feel heard, and they want to be seen. And true yoga is not about the practitioner. It's about connection to the moment, which means connecting with what is present in front of us. Took many years to get to that point. Still working on it, but. But I ended up getting my certification my first two certifications in 2014, went on to teach, got picked up to teach it, University of Southern California. Started teaching yoga, yoga philosophy there, then started teaching stress management and then got into moving into getting into mental health, which is where I feel a lot of what yoga and mindfulness is really all about. So I, I will say, long story short, that it has been just slowly polishing the mirror and polishing the stone day after day, showing up for your practice, letting go of the expectations of what it's supposed to look like, and rather than getting caught in expectation, recognizing that, you know, this is what my yoga is today or this is what my mindfulness practices today is, can I be centered in my heart and let my heart speak rather than letting the overwhelming noise of the head that can be there be the, be the first, first one to speak?

I love how you've described that because doesn't it, doesn't lim. Eliminate the brain? It basically acknowledges that I always say our brain is going to keep popping thoughts like popcorn. They're just going to keep coming. And that doesn't mean that we can't still, it doesn't mean that that's wrong or bad. It just means that there's still that opportunity to be aware and sink into our heart and see if we can find and choose the thoughts that are going to align with what our heart really, really wants or what our heart really says. And I think that so many people, because we tend to biologically want to be binary, then it's, it's this or that. Oh, you're either in your head or you're in your heart. Well, it doesn't have to be this or that. It can be allowing the head and allowing an opening space for the heart as well. And, and there was something else you pointed to about presence and it was, it was. I know what it was. It was that the peacocking and that what people really want is to be understood, to be heard, and especially to be safe. And, and the peacocking, if I were to look at that through the lens of what people want, the peacocking gives the exact opposite of that because it's not necessarily authentic. And what people want is to see that authenticity because then that points to presence, it points to, to safety. It points to seeing who you really are so that then people can feel like they can be themselves or they, they are safe or they are in the moment with you instead of with your version of what you think the world should be. So I, I really love those descriptions for, for just people to be able to feel understood in their journey. Because you giving your example is such a great way for people to see that. Oh, it's. It's not just this way. It's not just. And. And what you've described it as is polishing a stone. It is practicing every day. It's not. You know, I notice for myself that if I'm. If I've been another pattern that I haven't seen for maybe weeks or months, and I think that that's an old pattern or that's not going to exist anymore, and then I see that pattern again or see myself in that pattern, and then the temptation is to go, oh, you know, what's wrong with me? Or what's wrong with this? Or what's wrong with this pattern or this scenario? But really, it's. It's the. That. This ability to go, okay, what's going on here? What is. What do I need? What does my heart need? What is I. What. What. What can I do just to be with this right now and breathe and be and whatever that looks like. So that's. That's my little reflection on some of the things you've said.

Yeah, I was going to add to that, too. So many people think that progress is this straight line, point A to point B. And the fact is, is that I look at it more in frequency. I mean, to. To think that it's going to all of a sudden disappear because you went to a workshop over the weekend or because even if you've been practicing for years, isn't the case. I mean, we're human where we have conditioning, we have triggers, we have, you know, things that are going to make us potentially revert back to this old version of ourself. And we don't have to judge that. As one of my teachers says, you know, it's. It's really about acknowledging that that's still there. That's part of your humanness. But that doesn't define you. It doesn't, you know, has the power to pull us in if we, you know, ruminate on it and, you know, start attaching to it again. But what I found is that when we've really done the work, yes, those thoughts can come in. Just like, you know, you know, a car can go past us fast on a freeway or, you know, you know, something's going to pop up in our life. It doesn't mean that, you know, that's who you are. It's just. Okay, let's see. Let's. Let's just do a little fit check here. What's your Progress with this. Here's the mind tossing you something. Are you going to get pulled in with it or are you just going to be okay? I see you, I got it. Yeah. I've built up some, you know, tools in my tool belt where I can now navigate this and I don't have to get pulled back into that, you know, behavioral action again.

It, it's, it's, it does point to a greater awareness. And I'm curious just for our listeners, because everybody's on their own, whatever their point in whatever their journey is going to be. No, you know, there's no end point. There's no right point or wrong point. But in order for people to feel like they're not alone, I think that when you describe some of the symptoms of serial dating or over drinking or overdoing or whatever, the things you, you said I was finding I was this, I was finding I was that. When we looked at that and you're describing these symptoms really of an underlying problem for you or the experience you were having, what are some of the symptoms now for you? Having practiced more heart led, more of a heart led life, or more of a healed life, what are the symptoms now? And what I mean by that is that, you know, a symptom of a great sleep is that I might feel refreshed the next day or I might feel more focused or clear. What is, what's. But we don't talk about that. We talk about our reasons why we're late, but we don't talk about the reasons why we got to somewhere on time. We talk about what's messing up our life, but we don't tend to talk about what's making our life amazing. So what are some of the symptoms that you have in your life now based on the practices that you've been doing?

Great question. The first is honesty. There's no fear around being honest. Because I know that if I'm pausing for a moment and just speaking from my heart, I understand people are going to take it, how they want to take it and how they've been conditioned. But I always know that when I'm choosing to speak, I'm choosing to speak from a place of love or courage or joy or understanding. I don't enjoy speaking from places of pride and anger and resentment anymore because it's just I already know what that's going to do. And because I've had experience with that, it's like, okay, I am going to choose my highest route whenever possible. Doesn't mean I don't have human Moments. But I think one symptom is, is that I. We constantly choose courage, we choose vulnerability, we choose neutrality, acceptance, reason, understanding, love, peace and joy, rather than choosing shame, grief, guilt, apathy, fear, you know, anger, that type of thing, pride. So I would say the one is choosing these higher, quote unquote, vibrational ways of living the next. So. So honesty is a huge piece, living Honestly, I'm never wanting anything out of anybody anymore. Before, when I was really selfish. I don't feel this selfish impulse, like it's about me. And I have really fantastic talks with my wife about this because if anything can teach you something, it's your relationship that you're in. It's like holding a mirror up to you. And my wife is very, very powerful and I respect her immensely. And she's not afraid to hold a mirror up to me because she sees the best in me. And she wants that for me, and I want that for her too. So I find that another symptom is we cultivate people in our lives that will be honest with us, that won't just kiss our ass, that won't just pander to us, that won't just tell us what we want to hear. They will be fully truthful with us because those are the people that we want to have our backs. And I feel that when we start to develop communities like that, communities that don't mind being seen, because, listen, the only way we get better is if we show our cards. And, you know, I'd rather people see that than, you know, be secretive or hiding something. So I find that I don't hide, hide anything anymore. I sleep really well for me. My. I. I'm. I fall asleep within 30 seconds of closing my eyes. I'm a great sleeper. I'm a deep sleeper. Nothing really keeps me up anymore. I don't find that I'm idling in my mind. Not much keeps me up. I find that I trust the universe a lot more or trust God more. I trust something that is bigger than me. And I know that if I am acting from a place not acting, but living from a place of service, because acting is putting on an act. To actually be in service means you put the act down and actually stepped into unconditional giving. But I find that another symptom is being able to serve without worrying about what's coming, what's in it for me. So there's a selflessness that comes with it. Another area that I found a symptom is you're able to receive. Many people have a hard time Receiving. They've never been taught how to receive, but what they don't understand is you have to be able to receive in order to give. And if you're constantly giving from an empty space, then you're giving from an empty tank. And how pull of vibration is that really? Is there resentment that may be there? Is there tiredness? If you're giving from a tired place, then, you know, I would want to give you rest. Please put your, you know, come down, relax. So that would be another symptom. Another symptom that I find, and this is more of a subtle one and maybe a little bit woo out there, but animals will start to come up to you more Children, I, I believe children see way more clearly than adults do because they haven't as much conditioning. But children will treat you differently. They won't be as scared of you. Elderly as well too, will appreciate you more. There is a beautiful external reflection that starts to take place the more that we live in our hearts. And these are just some of the basic symptoms that I see. We start to treat. We start to eat better as well too. That's a huge symptom because now that I love my body, why wouldn't I want to feed my body the best food possible for it in order for it to be able to serve? It's a, it's an, it's a cause and effect. If I'm putting good things physically into my body or through my eyes or through my ears, then I'm also going to be able to respond with a healthier response to a situation. But if I'm filling my eyes and ears with fear, if I'm filling my body with processed foods and things like that, I am, I'm still living in a sleep state and in an unaware state. That's not a judgment on anyone. That's just that, okay, I know that if I eat this, this is going to make me feel better. Why wouldn't I want to feel better in order to show up better for other people? So those are some of the symptoms and there's a lot more out there. But I want to give you the, the space to be able to share too.

No, this is, I love this. This is, it's so profound to just hear how easy it is for you to articulate that. And part of what I'm hearing when you say it is that in the interactions and in the love, there's less transaction meaning. You're not, you're not exchanging something for something. You're just being or giving or being and and that's very different from how we're either taught or how our society operates in that this gets traded for that. And that's one of the fundamental ways that we grow up, most of us as children, in that you act this way and then you will get the pat on the head or the hug or the whatever way. And so then we learn that if we're like this, then we get something called love that we desperately need versus just being loved no matter what. That's not as common in, in my experience of life as the experience for most people of some sort of transaction. And then they grow up continuing to try and get their needs met via transacting in the world, and it ends up feeling very draining. So that, that's part of what I'm hearing with the symptoms in that and that of course you're going to sleep better, of course you're going to eat better, of course you're going to trust more. Of course you're going to understand your incredible interconnectedness with everything that exists. It's, it's really profound in, in so many ways. If people are listening to this, they're probably, you know, this, this podcast is about self mastery. It's about people being able to practice that self mastery and typically in the context of being able to serve others, because most of the people that we're working with are leading other people in some way or another. Maybe it's their family, maybe it's their business, maybe it's their coaching of other athletes or, or those scenarios. So you, you realize that, that you've learned a lot, you've absorbed a lot, you've gone through a lot of learnings with mentors and in yoga, you've also experienced some psychedelics. You've also gone on different types of retreats where when you think of things like cannabis, psychedelics, foods, what, what are we missing as a Western society in, in healing our hearts, healing our bodies, healing our minds. Like how, what are some of the biggest things that you think are missing in how Western society is approaching healing or approaching life or living? What's there for you that way?

Well, I would say there's several key missing pieces on the Western. The way the west approaches in, into nobody's faul. I don't like to point fingers on this stuff because I feel like anything in life, it's a learning lesson. But one thing for sure is what we put in is what we get out. And for the many, many hours that, for instance, physicians go to med school, the American Medical association only requires 21 hours of nutrition. 21 hours. Several years ago I looked this up and the average accredited school actually only does 19. And recently I looked this up and worldwide it's only 11 hours. And so I feel a huge piece of this is putting the right things into our bodies and understanding that and being able to articulate it. There's. Yes, there's a lot we can understand through blood tests and stool samples and spit tests and all the diagnostics. I think all of those things are very, very helpful in understanding. But the other thing with the west is that we try to put everybody into a box and everybody is unique in their own conditioning, whether it's through genetics or epigenetics. Remembering the genetics are what you are born with physiologically and epigenetics are the habits that we develop based off of our environment, our families, sociologically, communities, our religious upbringing or absence of that. Again, not good or bad, it's just what it is. Having a greater understanding of that at an earlier age in our life presents a healthier impact for us. But unfortunately we don't start to learn these things until we go through a dis ease state. I don't ever call it disease, I call it a dis ease because I sense that most, most, not all, but most dis eases are a result of psychosomatic disorders. Something psychologically is taking place. It's a habit or an action or a self talk that we have that is now leading to this symptom of dis ease inside of us. And it shows up in different places. If we're holding on to anger, it's going to show up somewhere. Grief, sadness, whatever it may be, it's going to show up. So one is, I would say, a greater understanding of how nutrition affects us and foods affect us. Another piece is we really should be. We dumb things down to children. Children are very intelligent. We need to start speaking to them more as adults, not treating them as, as babies in, in this world. However, they need to learn to play. And one thing that we have not done enough is let kids play for longer periods of time. I do feel strongly that this school system that we have, especially here in the US from K through 12, there's no breaks for play in community. There's, I mean there is, but it's not enough. What they're learning, I feel could probably be focused more around understanding general human biology and anatomy as well as understanding the mind, understanding their capabilities and also understanding limitations from the past around that there is. As far as helping with presence, I do Feel that people would benefit a lot from having more downtime. To be able to practice things like meditation. In meditation for a lot of people is very, very difficult because it's this far out thing and understanding. And I do know that the more that we start to get still and understand what self really is, because for a lot of people, they think that self is that little voice inside of their head. And that's not what self is. Self is something so much greater than that. But unfortunately, we just get caught up in that little tiny voice and that little tiny voice is telling us we're not enough. That little tiny voice is shaming ourselves. It's guilting ourselves. And you know, what do we do with that? Well, we want that voice to go away. So we, you know, try to treat the symptoms of it and treat the noise of it rather than really developing and understanding. And the only way to understand it is through love. We have to love those parts of ourselves. Another area is, is we've all been through different life experiences of shame, of guilt, of. Of apathy and grief. And it's looking back in reflection more of those parts of our lives in learning to unconditionally love ourselves through those moments. Because if we could have done better, we would have done better. But we didn't. However we made it to this point and because we made it here, let's give ourselves some grace, let's offer a little bit of forgiveness. And that's the second piece, as I would say another piece at least is forgiveness. Learning to radically forgive ourselves. Understanding our own humanness. That we're going to make mistakes, that this projection of perfectionism out into the world. We have to stop that. You don't have to be. You're already perfect. You don't have to pretend to be perfect. You don't have to put on an act. So you look perfect. You already are perfect. And I already hear a lot of arguments some people may have around that. Well, you're saying that because of this, that and the other. But the truth is like I've done my own self work about it. I've. I've seen my own ugly. And I learned to love that aspect of myself. So, so forgiveness, love, nutrition, how we're feeding ourselves through our relationships, redeveloping our communities. And I think you kind of know this, but you know, look at the five people you surround yourself the most. Those are our most influential people. If those people are, you know, sick or unhealthy or hurting or resentful or whatever that's going to Rub off on us. It has an influence on us. So sometimes it also means that we have to let go of things that are toxic in our lives or aren't feeding us well, or at least approaching it in acknowledging that that may be there. Because if that influence is there, then it has a propensity to cause a lot of other states of internal dis ease as well too. And that can be mitigated. But we just have to make the time to look at that. And you had mentioned about things like psychedelics and where I see things like that in there and I'll add my 2 cents around it, I feel that the indigenous that there are many, many tribes and cultures that have walked this earth that have looked at natural ways of healing. I do know that more modern medicine took occurred around 1912 in this country. That's when more academia started being established for good reason, because people are selling snake and just trying to make money off of people. And I understand that piece. But to take the power away from the person to tell them that they can't heal themselves, that, that, that they need something synthetic. When the truth is is that the earth has given us natural things to be able to heal ourselves. And all it really takes is investigation and maybe opening up a few websites, say PubMed or the NCBI website, where there are literally thousands and thousands of papers written, peer reviewed, where you can just put in a few keywords and look at okay, what are long term, short term effects? Is this the right thing for me? Things like cannabis, I feel natural. Cannabis can be very, very healthy for people if used the right way. But a lot of people have to look at understanding are they using it to check out, are they using it to check in? If we're using things to check out, then that's not the right thing. If we're using it to check in and go, okay, let's see what, what I'm having a bad day, what's that bad day all about? Or I'm feeling anger, what's that anger all about? To understand things like cannabis, that can be a useful tool in helping. However, a lot of cannabis now has been hybridized in. So now you have higher and higher levels of thc. And I don't think that's the answer. I think that the closer we can get to nature where it's been undoctored by human hands, that's where we're going to get the best results. Things like, you know, ayahuasca, which I have had very beautiful experiences, I worked with, with over, over three years and was trained in. It's a wonderful medicine, but you have to be ready for it and you have to really know how to sit with yourself because when you undergo sort of these psycho. Somatic. I'm sorry, the, the psychotropic experiences, it's going to bring things past our, our minds are very, very powerful and there is some stuff stuck back in there that, you know, if you're not in the right mind space, if the set and setting aren't right, then you know, it's going to bring up some very uncomfortable things. But the truth is, is that whatever is there is just in the past. It's not who you are today. It's just what may have been an underlying operating system. And if we make the conscientious choice to look at it, to get clear with it and to make a choice to say, you know what, I'm no longer going to hold on to this. I'm going to choose to release this now, we've just opened up a whole new pathway. We've just cleared the field to be able to walk because that no longer is controlling us. So things like that can be very powerful. Psilocybin mushrooms. I mean, we're seeing more and more talk around this.

The.

There are a number of veteran organizations, there's a number of house bills being passed to help veterans with this. And I've seen it firsthand how powerful these entheogenic nootropic plants can be. And if they're worked with in the right set and setting, with the right oversight, with the right heart in place with it, what they can do is beyond what any, any modern medicine can do. But you may have to make sure you have the right diagnosis for it and you have to have the right coaching around it as well too. So I think that there's a lot of different things, you know, as they say, many paths, one source. So there are many paths to get there. For some it may be Buddhism. For some, it may be Christianity. For some, it may be Judaism. For some it may be plant medicine. For some, it may be yoga. For some it may be a, you know, all of it together in working with it. But as long as it's helping us return to our hearts in is as a place to work from and function from and connect with. I think that that is the best, the best, one of the better routes to go.

It's interesting, I appreciate you sharing because ultimately that's what, that's what we're. That's the healing part. That's the healing part is Returning to our hearts and, and everything else that is there, whether it's yoga or meditation or, or psychedelics or all of those are there to help us be able to do just that. I'm sensitive to time here. I want to make sure that we don't go too long for both of our sakes here. But I want to really let you comment on something else. I know I'd asked you about where you see things going in your field. However, I'd like to deviate that question just a little bit to how you know, when you. When you speak of presence, when you speak of love, when you speak of healing, when you speak of where people are and, and what are some of the tools but some of the needs that we have, what do you think AI is going to bring or do or instigate or cause when it comes to us, when it comes to artificial intelligence, and you know, where we already are now versus what's coming with the world of AI?

The answer is it depends. And I think it depends on who's controlling it, and it depends on the algorithms in place. And I feel that if it is an AI that is not focused on separatism and it's an AI focused on bringing us together, then it's an AI that will utilize all of these things. Now we're starting to get into things like sentience and something to be able to think for itself. But the thing with AI right now is that AI was still developed by a human mind. And so AI will have still some limitations. Yes, it will be nebulous in many, many ways, but there is still, I feel, a missing link around it, and that is heart. Do I feel that that is something that can be developed? Absolutely, if you have more programmers that are building these applications behind it, that are building these things from the heart and whatnot. I feel that AI, for instance, and I've used AI chat, GTP things before in my past to be able to write pieces that bring a whole bunch of things together in order to do that. But there's still a human heart behind it. So I feel that there will be a blend of, you know, human heart, mind in AI nebulous mind together. What it can be used for is potentially unlimited. But at the same time too, I would say, you know, there is caution, I feel, around things like control. My goal in this world is not to control people, control. There still is an ego piece. I mean, unless you come to my yoga class and I want to control the environment. So that's a safe place, of course. But I don't want to control you. All I want you to feel is loved, but that's not controlled. I'm not trying to control you in that. I just want you to have this internal feeling of, of peace, of love, that, that you're a good person. And I feel if that's the kind of work that, you know, we're, we're set out to do, and if AI is there along with us on the ride, then AI can be an absolutely useful tool to be a mirror for us to say, hey, you know, I heard you say this, right? You know, I, I'm just checking in with you. Is this really what you really meant? Because, you know, that's where I think AI can be helpful too. Does that, I hope that answers your question.

It absolutely does. I've been doing some deep dives in it, into it and, and I'm writing a book on leadership in AI and ethics in AI and so I am very curious about other people's experience and perceptions. And it's very much that it, it right now is a mirror because it's, it's generative, it's, it's learning from us. It's now beyond what anybody programmed. It's now at a space of. It's, it's just continually learning and it's learning from us our dark, it's learning from us, our light. So it's, it's a very interesting thing. And I love just your description of blend of human heart mind and potentially having that unlimited. Because it absolutely could profoundly support the heart led thing. So I, I think that's, I, I love to hear what you, what you think about it and, and just having that caution around control as well. Well, I, I really think that we could go on for another hour or two or three because there's so much to uncover and perhaps we will in the future because I think we could touch on relationships, I think we could touch on work environments, I think we could touch on experiences and healing. And they're just, I think there's so much that we could offer the audience. So I'm sure we will meet again at some point. I'm so grateful to have you for this amount of time so far because what you've shared is so insightful and I think is going to be so helpful for so many people navigating their own journeys and having the courage to be able to step into a heart led space versus the temptation of just action or just being in their heads. And you've so beautifully articulated your, your thoughts and your wishes. So I really appreciate that. Thank you so much. And I hope to speak again soon.

Thank you. I. Thank you. And I. I wanted to just add one thing if that's okay. I. I wanted to give a very special thank you to my Bay Club family because they were the ones that invited me to this interview and to put me in front of you. And if it weren't for just the hundreds and hundreds of students in the many, many students that followed me throughout Covid and were on YouTube and you know, Bay Club set out a program, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here. So thank you all for your love and support. You are, you are a big piece of my family and I am so, so grateful for, you know, the outpouring of love that you constantly give me in my classes. So thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Love that. I love that expression of gratitude towards your community and those who really help make you able to do what you're doing. And if people want to reach out to you, specifically we have on Instagram the Yogi doctor on Instagram illuminating your life and also your email if people want to reach out to you. D Gromero dgromero02mail.com and we'll put these in the show notes as well so that people can reach out to you directly if they want more information about what you do and how you can serve them or their communities as well.

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate you.

You're welcome. I appreciate you. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team podcast, you'll love being on the Empowered Team. The Empowered Team is our group coaching and accountability program where we provide the tools, skills and community for you to grow your self mastery as a leader and optimize your results alongside other leaders. The Empowered Team runs year round to learn more about our leadership coach consulting for business and our Empowered Team group coaching. Head to www.theempowered.ca empowered learn-more. That's www.thempowered.ca empowered learn more. We can't wait for you to join us. Let's go.