Ep 19 Finding the Door Back to Essence A Conversation with Matt Zembruski

Welcome to Remembering the Forgotten, a space where leaders think out loud without polish or performance. No scripts, no personas, just the quiet clarity that emerges when the noise drops and the mind is free to speak for itself. Today, I'm joined by Matt Sembruski, a people-centric AI transformation strategist Founder of AI Agility and host of the AI Accelerator podcast. Matt has spent more than 30 years helping organizations navigate change without losing what matters most, the people. From manufacturing and financial services to telecom and technology, he's worked across startups and Fortune 500 companies. Guiding leaders and teams through agile transformation, talent development, and now practical AI adoption. What sets Matt apart is his insistence that AI should not replace human thinking, but strengthen it. His work focuses on turning AI from a source of overwhelm into a true thought partner, one that unlocks productivity, clarity, and measurable business results while continuing to develop the people doing the work. And with that, my heartfelt welcome to you, Matt.

Thank you very much, Markus. It's my pleasure to be here.

Wonderful. So before we begin, when I use the word coherence, I mean a state where nothing inside me is pulling in a different direction. Body, thoughts, emotions, and actions are aligned, and I'm not being driven by fear or urgency. And when I speak of stillness, I don't mean peace or quiet. I mean the place in you untouched by pressure, noise, or performance. The place that knows before the mind thinks. And that's the layer I'm inviting us to meet from today.

Excellent. Looking forward to it, Markus.

Likewise, Matt. So let's kick it off. Where in your life do you meet the you untouched by expectation?

On a daily basis, I meet that when I wake up and meditate as part of my practice. And that's where I— there's no noise from the world, or minimal noise from the world. Sometimes there's remnants of, you yesterday that come in, but I quiet that and move into a place of the way you just described stillness and coherence. I would think of it as like a raw connection or a clear connection to your soul outside the body, outside the mind, just your soul, your light within. Yeah. So, that's, for me, that's connecting to that in the morning is very, very important. Ideally, I hold that with me throughout the entire day, almost as like I'm inside a bubble that is commanded by that, and I let the noise of the outside sort of come in, interact a little bit, but I'm protected at my inner core because I want to hold that clarity and that focus. And my true essence, which is all, which is all nonphysical. And I want to hold that throughout the entire day. So I start the day with that being a priority and then connecting in with that and aligning my mind and eventually the body with what the soul's purpose is and my soul's intention. for that day. And I, and I, I get clarity by listening, by listening in that stillness.

That is deep.

I

love

it.

I love it. So let me paraphrase, probably for the audience to understand, as well as to see whether I get it right. And then what if I got it? Instead of waking up and giving your mind the rein, you tap into your soul. The soul then basically is in the rein. It activates the heart, and then the mind gets the rightful place, which is a guide and not the driver. Seems to resonate.

Yes, that's exactly what it is. And it's a discipline, Markus. It's not—

It is.

You just described it logically. And if we were all robots, I guess, robots with emotions, I guess you could logically follow that pattern. But it's a practice. And I think that's something that I'm very passionate about is the element of practice and positive habits like that. Because the more you do it, after you've done it 1,000 times, 10,000 times, It starts to become more effective.

It is interesting, and I kind of warned you before we started the conversation that this is probably something different than you are known to, because I will dare to challenge a few things and make us think. Is it possible, just as a possibility, is it possible that it actually does not take us thousands of repetitions to get to that point way faster and more and more continuously that it actually becomes almost a permanent with— like, for most people, it is like noise, some flashes of stillness. But is it possible to actually go into stillness and have some flickers of noise? Like literally switch the ratio. Because when I heard you now, and probably most people who listen think, okay, this actually takes me into my lifetime. And if I believe in another life, probably the next life as well. But what if it would actually be possible to make it your baseline? How does that feel?

Yeah, that's— and that's what I strive for. And I think, um, if we were much younger, if we were 5 years old, 6 years old, I think it's very— a lot faster and easier to trust whatever guidance is giving you, whether it's your parents or whether you're just closing your eyes and thinking about it, to drop into it. It's as adults that we need to let Let, let shed this noise that is stuck to us like Velcro. Shed that layer by layer, and you can do it. There are, there are ways to do it faster, and I'm, I'm constantly exploring those to go faster and deeper.

So interesting. Now you're opening a venue which is so fascinating. You use trust in regards to the gatekeeper. To get to the lower, which you had when you were 5 years old. Tell me more.

Yeah, I watched this in our granddaughter here, who's 9. I've seen her grow up from birth to 9. And I've— when her, her mom, our daughter, teaches her how to meditate, and her daughter is a yogi, our daughter's a yogi. So she teaches meditation. and practice and a lot of good things like this. And, and I notice physically, mentally, spiritually, the daughter, because we are blessed with a healthy home and relationships, the daughter trusts the mom. So when she goes into it, the daughter can drop into meditation, she can drop into prayer, she can drop into even like, just like, you know, as you watch like a young toddler or baby go into a squat. Mm-hmm. It's very— their spines are erect and their hips are deep and they're down.

It's

a natural position, right? As we go through life and we're not using our bodies as naturally as a baby or as we were born, there's things to unlearn, to unwind, things like that. So back when you're 5 and you trust the bigger people around you, your parents, It's— hopefully you have a trust there. If you have a trust there, then you're able to blindly just follow the directions and go into it. You're not distracted because you have that full trust. And eventually, as adults, that trust could be with God or a higher power or other, other influences and things like that, and ultimately with yourself. It's trusting yourself as your connection to your higher power and your true soul, where you have everything inside you, which a lot of people have said over the years in various texts. But to actually live that, breathe it, practice it—it's it's that trust that's really important. So if somebody, if somebody like I always I make the joke around my house, Marcus. Like there there's certain things that. That we all—we're all imperfect as humans, right? Like oh, if I—if I—if I thought a little differently, then this would happen for me, right? I would attract that in and things. And—and I—I joke around. I was like wow, if—if somebody is—is trying to make something happen, but they have this like negative thought pattern or—or belief or whatever that just stayed with them through their whole life, and they're not making as much money as they want, not as successful, whatever—if that person was hit over the head with a rock and knocked out. And came up and woke up with amnesia and someone said, oh, you're a brilliant, super successful person with millions of dollars in the bank and you're amazing with people and speak on stages and whatever your thing was, you would be that person, right? So then your mind would be aligned with what your potential is instead of your mind getting in the way of your potential. So that's why I think it's important to find your way to trust. I think trust is a really key element of it. And some, some adults age 55, 5, or anywhere in the middle, or 105, you know, some adults have it more naturally than others. But once you trust yourself, then you can— your soul— then you can start to open up your true potential. And if you let your soul drive where you're going forward, then you have the ability to override your mind and the noise and these things when they get in the way, because there will be noise, there will be challenges, there will be things. But the mind and, and the body even tend to impose these false limitations on us because we only have our 5 senses or 6 senses, whatever, however you want to count them. And the senses are limited. The senses are just, you know, whatever they are. We can't hear the same as dogs can hear. Right? That doesn't mean the sound didn't happen, right? It just means we, we didn't hear it, so it didn't, it didn't come into our universe. So, I think about this a lot. So, what are— where are we at from a soul's purpose perspective? Where are you at? Like, where, what do I feel about that? How am I serving the world? How am I serving, uh, you know, humanity, Earth, people, and planet? What does that look like? And that's because that's really important to me. I go deep on that with my practice. Mm-hmm.

So let me translate again. I love it. And I go a step further than just translate. If I hear you correctly, please correct me every single time when you hear something that you did not mean or did not say, okay? The actual culprit Is that when we're born, we have all we need in us. Okay, we're in agreement with that?

Yes.

It's almost like we have the seeds for our entire executive function, which means creativity, intuition, all that kind of stuff, right? Okay. Then there are either 2 ways. One of them is traumatic, that it happens like this, that the soul is being heaved out of its seat and gone somewhere in you, or probably even outside of you. Or it seeps in very perversely, more and more and more, that It's almost like acid pushing the soul out more and more. And the acid actually becomes your substance, meaning your thoughts, your concepts, the methods that are being put into you. Basically, when you're intellectualized too soon,

Hmm.

when you're socialized too soon, which probably won't happen to your granddaughter, I believe. So what happens next is we are actually delegating what would be ours to anything else.

Yes.

And now I risk something even to God.

Yes.

Even to God. Because there are some people who say, I am God. I don't go that far. Because I'm not the creator, whatever the creator is, right? Probably, I think it's a she, but that's a different topic. But we literally have created so many scaffoldings, which we have designed and declared as, this is us. So the noise basically holds us back from realizing what the soul really is. The soul is our essence.

Yes.

The soul is basically the seat where all the executive functions wait for you. Because you see what is so interesting, I had a realization recently, Matt, The place where I was at 9 and a half before that so-called trauma happened, paired with the 40-something years of experience that led me to 53 now, equals the ideal.

Mm-hmm.

But only the experience from 9 and a half to here is only half of the equation. And will lead me into depression sooner or later. That's a given, right? Because it gets darker and darker and darker and darker. Like, the less light you have emanating from your own inside, the more darkness actually comes. So look at the world, we'll see it daily. I think it's— I'm not exaggerating. So what if now it is actually possible? And, you know, I follow up with my initial question. whether it really takes those thousands of repetitions, or if there actually is a way to this essence, and that the essence becomes the driver again. And I'm sure many who, you know, watch the show or listen to it are actually hoping that this could exist. Are you familiar with the book Think and Grow Rich?

Yes.

Okay. So Bob Proctor is the guy who made millions or probably today, hundreds of millions with his book, with that book. And one thing always, always, always, always left a kind of a weird whiff in the air when he showed it takes repetition and repetition and repetition and repetition And I was fortunate to have 2 guys in one of my mastermind groups who were students of his, of Think and Grow Rich mastermind, like first level. And the other one had no clue about it, had read it way, way back, and I just read it once. So I said to those guys, hmm, it doesn't make sense to me. This can't be it. Something so fundamental can only be reached on a temporary level. And then I said something which I believe blew quite some fuses in my friends. And I said to him, look, isn't it that we are actually on a hamster wheel? Running, running, running, running. And what we're actually doing is we are embellishing that hamster wheel to make it more comfortable. The more money I have, the more comfy I make my comfort zone, right? And only recently, Matt, then I give it back to you. Only recently, a female manager opened my eyes to the real truth. Brace yourself for what's coming, because I believe it is humans running in a hamster wheel. And that already felt quite uncomfortable. He leaned forward and said, Markus, it's not humans running in a hamster wheel. We humans have morphed into hamster and believe we are hamsters. Hey, for me, it was a eureka moment. And I said to her, how is this possible? Is that true? She said, Markus, you're in the US now for about a year. I lived here all my life. I've been in management positions basically my whole career.

Mm-hmm.

And yes, it is. It would be impossible for a human being To bend so much, to basically break your own will to do something which somebody else tells you is beneficial for them as a human, impossible. So a manager basically morphs into a hamster so he fits or she fits into that hamster wheel. So now I understand, Matt, This is a little bit provocative, why some people say it takes repetition, repetition, repetition, because what really happens is, and I played it further with a friend of mine, and I said to him, look, when we meet, what actually happens is I encourage you to take one of your little hamster feet, put it on the ground, And when you put that little hamster foot on the ground, you just morph into a human being right away. So basically, when I meet people, they morph from a hamster into a human being throughout the conversation. And when we say goodbye, what happens?

Hamster.

Hamster, right? Hamster. So when I heard that, and this guy is a dear friend of mine, when I heard that, he literally said to me, Markus, I'm a product manager. I am, you know what, like a consultant. And I have 10 different hamster wheels at the same time simultaneously running. And I run back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. And I said, no wonder you burned out. No wonder you are burnt out. So now think about it. If we start with this perspective that no, sorry, we are not human beings. The maximum we are, we are human doings, human achievings, human wantings, human desirings, but furthest away from beings, morphed into the size so we fit into the systemic hamster wheel. What if we actually had the intention to find out more? How does it feel if I actually would put my foot on the ground and have this experience more often? And by the way, this is what I'm doing with stillness. I am not practicing stillness.

Hmm.

What happens if somebody needs, it's like, like a dome coming over us, the noise stays outside. And as soon as the noise is outside, guess what? That person can be human.

Right.

So I believe it is not necessary to have those repetitions, but it takes the courage to admit at my age, 53, I wish I was a human being. But I admit, I'm actually a hamster. Let's think about what this means. What does that trigger in you? I'm curious.

Yeah, so a few things, Markus. Number one, I think it's an interesting perspective with the hamster to human. I would even go beyond that. I would almost think hamster to soul. It's like your soul, your essence, your essence, however you want to look at that. The way you just described it, I agree. There's systems out there. I think everybody's different. We have billions of people on this planet. I agree with you that it is possible to do Much faster. Okay, and I'll give you, I'll give you, I'll give you an example. So the gentleman, you know, have you heard of Wim Hof? Right. So Wim Hof, he's internationally known now, right? He's in his late 60s, done amazing things, and people who, if they're interested, they can look him up because you're familiar with him. I'll just share. He was someone who was trying to get out of being a hamster and be more human, be more connected with what I would say like his essence, his soul.

Mm-hmm.

And for him, it was walking into a frozen canal with really, really cold water. And he had just, he had just lost his wife and he's taking care of his kids, he's a young father, a lot of things in his head, a lot of noise. And he was feeling the pressure of being the hamster To use your words, in a lot of different areas of his life.

Mm-hmm.

And he struggled for a while. What he found to break that quickly, not with thousands of repetitions, but to break it quickly, is he saw this almost frozen— his pretty frozen canal, and, um, and the water very, very cold. And he said, you know what, I'm just going to go in. I'm going to take my shirt off, go in with my shorts. And go in and step into the cold. The body has a reaction. I'm not going to get into the physical aspects of that and and what happens, but mentally, that was where he went in there. He says, "I want to go in. I want to turn off the noise. I want to become my essence. I want to connect to my essence." Because it was so noisy between his mind and his essence, or between his human and his hamster. It was so noisy. There was so much in there. He couldn't get back to human. And he stepped into the water and was in there for maybe it was a minute first time. I don't know, but a minute's a long time when the water is about 35 degrees Celsius and 0 degrees centigrade, or one or two centigrade. It's that's a shock to the body. But what he found is he found instant stillness, instant connection back to his humanity, back to his essence. And that for him was like drinking fresh water from a thirsty man in the desert.

Mm-hmm.

Like all of a sudden, oh my goodness, the clarity, everything that came in for that. So that's an example, regardless of age, somebody who just trusted an instinct to try something. And this is where I think it's important. That's why I used the word practice earlier. I think it's important for people if they want to get closer to their true essence Right? They're more than five years old, or they didn't have a good upbringing. They had early trauma in their life. Whatever it is, if they want to get back to their true power, they want to find the shortcut paths to do that. And for everybody, it may be different. And there's been brilliant books written about you know finding your one of my favorite authors. He's he's passed away now. I forget his— Dr. Ken Robinson, I think is his name.

Okay.

He wrote the book called the— I think he called it The Element, but it was about finding your true purpose, finding your true soul, connecting with your humanity, your essence, as we're talking about. And he used examples in that book which I thought were brilliant. It's okay, somebody who's in— we're all in a system, right? We're all in this noise of humanity. That's out there. We're talking about connecting in to yourself. Why are you here? What's your purpose? As you said, it's all with you when you're born. So depending on how you are are going through life and what traumas you experience or what what bad influences you experience, even good influences, it may be taking you off the path of your greatest good, your highest and best good that you're here to give to the to people and to planet, to your parents, to the To everyone around you, there's a lot of things that can distract you from that path. And in the book, he talked about Sir Ken Robinson. I think he was I think he was knighted actually, but brilliant individual. And he talked about

nope. I think I just lost your sound.

About there was a young girl who was good.

Yeah. Now you've lost it again.

Better? Better? Okay.

Yes. Now it's back.

All set. Okay.

Because now I remember who Sir Ken Robinson is. He did a lot of education. Brilliant person. Totally know who he is. Yeah.

Brilliant. So he is a story

Now you went off again. It's not back yet.

Sorry, a story that in one of his books— not back yet. How about now?

Now you are. Yes.

Okay, good. All right. Hopefully it stays back. I don't know what that was, but hopefully it stays back. So Sir Ken Robinson, in his book, The Element, He talks about an example.

Now it's gone again. It's probably the connection somehow.

Maybe? No?

Yeah, now it's back.

All right, we're back.

Yeah.

Okay. Hopefully, it stays back. Okay. So, I apologize to the listeners for the technical difficulties. Sir Ken Robinson, in that book, talks about a story of a young girl who's about 8 years old. She's struggling in school and her mom gets called into the principal's office with her to talk about this, like how, you know, she's struggling in school, she's really not paying attention, and she's not getting good grades, but she seems to have so much potential. So the mom and the principal are talking about this, and they said, okay, why don't we have a private conversation? Because the girl was there too, the young daughter. Why don't we let her stay in the office, and then we'll step outside so we can have a more private conversation about this without being away from her for a few minutes? And let's do this. And the principal had a theory About why the daughter was struggling in school. So before he walked out, and you may remember the example, before he walked out, he turned on his little radio that was in a little bit of music that was in his office. He just turned it on and he said, I'm just going to play a little music. We're going to step out for a few minutes. We'll be right back in. So he stepped out and he had one of those offices where he had a window there so you could see. So he went out and he went and was talking with the mom and they want— he said, I just want you to watch your daughter for a second. And the music was playing, and the daughter got up from the chair and started moving to the music a little bit, and she started dancing. He says, he says, the reason your daughter's struggling in school is because she's a dancer. She's not here to do the math and science and, and sit in a chair and read. So, long story short, is an example about bringing out your inner essence, right? Uh-huh. Her inner essence was about dancing, was about movement, was about music. So for her, they moved her into a dance school, and it's— I think it's based on a true story, but anyway, it's in his book. Moved her into a dance school, and then she flourished. She flourished. And if she needs to learn something about, uh, math or finances or other things like that, if you learn it through dance and then it comes in, it's a lot easier and you're more receptive because that's your true essence. So that's one example. I think there's a lot of— I, I know there's a lot of shortcuts. That can be taken. For Wim Hof, it was stepping into the cold. I challenge anybody out there to turn the cold water in the shower at the end of the shower. I do it every day. Sometimes I go in cold plunges because of Wim Hof. He inspired me. You never want to move into the cold. There's this human element of survival you don't want to step into, especially when you're not— you're not with a wetsuit, you don't have any, any clothes or protection on, and the water is going to get cold. But the mind is the only thing that slows you down from turning that water to cold. And so what I found, if you want to do it just like Wim Hof, you just step right in, you flip it quickly, you're in cold now, and then you just breathe and you relax. And now you can get close. So that's a shortcut. So I say this on purpose because you asked about thousands of repetitions. If you want to do it the slow way, you can get there with thousands of repetitions. If you want to do it the fast way, you You look for shortcuts that will work for you. Music is another shortcut that works for me because I love music and certain kinds of music. I've had to discover this through trial and error throughout my life. Mm-hmm. But now that I know this, it helps me connect in with that essence and reconnect to that if I get off.

Where can I send my check to? Because you gave me more answers than you actually think. I always wondered, what is it about Wim Hof? Because whoever I met, they have become disciples of his, and sadly, their lives have not changed much. And I never understood why, because Wim Hof didn't seem to me one of those gurus who just does it because people want to get used to cold, which he started doing more and more, right? At more extremes. However, his origin story is the key.

Yes.

What he actually did is short-circuited his inner paralysis. This is what he's done. It wasn't about getting his body used to cold and then change his whole biochemistry. It was very simple. I am in paralysis after I've lost my wife. I am lost. And the only thing that his inner essence told him, go into that river, Because it will jolt you out of it.

Exactly.

Is that correct?

That is exactly correct. Yes.

So you see, and I'm absolutely in agreement with you. And one little clarification. You see me distinct— distinguishing between human and human being?

Yes.

Human is exactly what it is. It is the origin With your original design, with the soul intact in its seat. So when I talk about being human and that man put his little hamster foot onto the ground, he immediately is in his essence. All the noise still outside. This is the beauty of it. So Wim Hof and us much more closer than I ever dare to believe because his initial intent was basically to find a way how to jolt and short-circuit his inner paralysis. And it was made into something which initially was never meant to be.

Right.

Which is, yeah, quite typical for so many different things, right? So now I begin to, begin to love it. So basically, if you think about it, we are in this constant condition. Wim Hof couldn't stand anymore. So now you have the key. Finding that short-circuiting your inner paralysis moment, which brings you in connection with your essence. And unlike many people believe, your inner essence actually starts collaborating with you. So when the light starts gleaming, more and more light is pressing through these little openings, you know, through the chalting gets little openings, and more and more and more. And the more we actually chalced it and Basically, jolting you in a paralysis can work quite easily. You know my question, which most of my clients meet me when they say, is this as good as it gets? Or isn't there more to life? Right? And the biggest jolt you can do is to say to your system, what if there is? Please show me. There is nothing from your mind level reacting to that. The mind is just quiet.

Mm-hmm.

Because now the mind understands, I have been in charge until now, but right now is something sacred taking place. And when we do this on a constant level, Then I believe we can literally save ourselves of those 10,000 or 20,000 or 100,000 repetitions. Then we don't need all those cold plunges because then we understand it's a short circuit your inner paralysis moment and not something that should become vogue. But I'm wondering, had Wim Hof made that much money, If he had a captive cure. I don't think people are looking for short-circuit your inner paralysis moments. They're looking for biochemistry change and whatever takes place then, right?

Yes, exactly.

That's why I ask you where I can send the check to, because it is exactly what it is. It is the short-circuit your inner paralysis, which literally leads Because, you know, the soul, the soul is our essence. So the human aspect is when the soul starts taking on its rightful seat again. And that is the permanence. Not trying to calm my mind constantly, because that's the repetition stuff. Trying to calm my mind. No. It's actually making sure that the soul trusts us again in ways it should and it wants to, and actually takes its rightful seat. And think about all these people who ask, is this it or is there more to life? What do you think if somebody sells their company share and suddenly has half a billion, with a B, dollars on his bank account? Is this a guarantee to be happy?

No, it's definitely not guaranteed to be happy. That's just a perspective.

And that person reached out to a friend of mine sobbing, crying. And I said to my friend, look, it's clear why he does it. He has no purpose. So he has fulfilled every single thing a human being could wish for outside. And now his soul says, This is not it. There is more. And that's when the journey begins inside. And you know, it is this beautiful story where the essence is a human being only goes on that journey when that person is ready. Otherwise, it will never go there. Because people sometimes say, look, Isn't it possible that people actually can abuse what you do and what you teach? I said, no, it's not possible unless someone is ready. I can talk to that person as much as I want to. They can have all my curriculums that don't exist. They won't change. And this is one of the reasons why I have these conversations, Matt, because there's so many people out there. They have tried every single thing from Goa to in whatever they want to go. And they don't find the solutions outside. Because the real job, I believe, as humans, is to allow the soul to go into its rightful seat again. And then the mind actually says to you, you know what, Matt? I bow to it. I become a separate executive function that works in the whole combination of being human. So now we understand why I asked, where can I send the check to? Because this is like a revelation session with you. You cannot imagine.

Incredible. Yeah, it's wonderful. We— I'm blessed to be in a household where we talk about these topics a lot, Markus. We have a number of adult children and our granddaughter in the house. And we're always talking about these topics because they're very, very important. But most people don't feel safe to enter these conversations regardless of age, depending on where they are, whether they're in a networking group or whether they're in a home or whatever. So, a lot of people don't feel safe. They don't have the trust. They don't have the space being held for them to get into these conversations. Yeah. But it's important. It's important for, and some people do it on their own, right? They have like,

yeah,

like Sadhguru, if you know his story, when he was younger, when he was younger, he was just standing alone looking out into the, into the world, into the sky. And he had his epiphany. He had his, his, his, his spiritual experience, which changed the entire path of his life. So he was alone at the time having this. Some people have these shared experiences. And then they get to another place. A friend of mine, his son is very, very passionate and skilled at rugby player. Okay. At rugby, and he's in his, I think, 20s now. Maybe he's about 20 years old. But he is incredibly successful in rugby. That is his essence. Like, he is out there. It doesn't matter if he breaks a bone or this happens. He's just playing more rugby. It's not about the pain from the bone. It's not like rugby is his essence. So, it's beautiful. My friend told me the story of that, shared me some pictures of him as a little boy up to today. And I think it's amazing. Amazing. I think about this a lot, Markus. It's important for— I believe it's important for everybody to come home to their essence, to their soul, to their human, as you're saying. In order to live your highest and best life. I want everybody to have the opportunity, and we all do have the opportunity to live our highest and best life.

That's exactly the thing.

As you're saying, be open to it. What if there was more to life? What if you could experience a greater life? What if there was more to your enjoyment that you can have? on this planet right now today.

Yeah. And there is almost like, it's almost like he has a wonderful dish with the most luxurious ingredients. But that one thing is missing. And it makes it bitter without it.

And

that's how most people walk through life. It doesn't matter how much money they have, how many cars they have, how many houses or boats. No, it doesn't matter. It will never be enough. It is that little ingredients. And that's the essence. And I think the essence goes a little bit deeper than that. But I believe this is a topic for another story. But I believe everyone can make it permanent. And it's not needed to be thousands. thousands of repetitions again, if we actually invite the soul to tell us what the more is and how to unite us again. Because let's be honest, most of the times it's our mind that is us. Especially in the Western world, we have become our minds. Let's be honest, we don't even focus on the body anymore. It's just the mind. That has become our God. But now when we actually begin to understand, sorry, there is another part that we've totally neglected since we were maybe 5 years old. And from time to time we have these little glimpses of intuition and, you know, stuff we do not understand. Sorry, that is the one thing that should be governing our lives. Intuition shouldn't be like a magic thing from time to time. It should not. It should become permanent. And my message to anyone who listens is absolutely, there is a way to it. There is. There really is.

Yeah, there's a lot that can be done. There's a lot that we can all do. And I think it's It's important to find your door, your door that you can open back into your essence. And that looks a little different for everybody. And if you're— I would say if anybody is listening to this and they're having challenges doing it on their own, that's the purpose of get around a group, get around a mentor, get around somebody or a group of people. where you can experience new things in a safe way to find the door that works for you. Because again, for some people, it's music, it's sports, it's different things. You know, with physical bodies, there's a lot of philosophers that talk about, okay, it's important for the humans to get exercise and to do mental and emotional and spiritual and intellectual exercises, all these things. Mm-hmm. But how do you know which exercises are best for you, right?

Absolutely.

Because the people who— like my friend's son who plays rugby, he's not thinking about a workout when he goes to do a rugby game or train for a rugby match. He's, he's just in the flow. He's loving it. He's in his pure essence. So if we all find things that we intellectually— I, I have a— it's the back of a book I got when my son and I went to Zion National Park. The back of the book says Go where you feel most alive. Beautiful. I put that up right in my home office, so I see it every day. I think about this. Go where you feel most alive. If you want to have better body health, what makes you feel most alive? Is it walking? Is it running? Is it kickboxing? What is it? Is it hiking in the woods and breathing the fresh air? But find what matters to you intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, physically. And I think some people may find that when they're 5 years old and stay with it, right? Other people may not have it when they're 95 years old. And for them, I say, keep experimenting, keep trying new things, do something to find those doors that once they're open, they're absolutely beautiful because there is more. As you say, what if there was more?

Mm-hmm.

There is more, and it doesn't have to be hard. Once you find the door, it's an easy path to more enjoyment, more fulfillment, and you're nurturing your body, mind, and soul, and you're more connected to your essence because you've found that. You've found that door that works, which is essentially the shortcut that we're talking about.

It's beautiful. You actually mentioned it 3 times now. Rugby is not the essence. Rugby is the door to the essence. And that's where I had this little, I don't compute yet. But that's exactly it. If we talk to this 20-year-old boy or young man, what happens when he plays rugby? That's when he taps into his essence, not directly itself. Directly is the door. That's so fascinating. Wow. So Matt, if someone is listening, feels lost in the noise, what is the one thing you want them to remember is still true?

The one thing is that there is Tremendous power and beauty and potential that's inside you, in your essence, in your soul, however you view that. But there's a lot more that you have to enjoy life and live life fully and connect in with your true essence. There's a lot more than you think that is there. So find— be as— give yourself the opportunity. I was going to use the word discipline. Discipline helps if you're struggling with the opportunity, but give yourself more opportunities to connect with your inner essence and discover that power that's within you. Because when you truly find How to connect with that and express that, you will have more, more happiness, more bliss, and you'll be sharing more of, of what you're here to share than you could even imagine is possible. Now, these are the, the people who have done this. These are the people we look up to. These are the people they make movies about and write books about. You have the same inside you, and you've heard that before. But the, the path is find the path that works for you. If you're not there yet, then continue experimenting, continue trying, and reach out to people who are friendly, trusting thought leaders in this space or communities that can give you a safe place to experiment and play and, and go deeper within yourself to do that. So the one message I would have Is that there's a lot more power and capability and happiness inside all of us. And to access that, it's right there. Just find the keys to that door and enter into it and start to express it. And it doesn't have to be— don't put pressure on yourself. Relax into it, find the path, and just keep moving.

Thank you for this conversation, man.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate being here, Markus. This was absolutely wonderful conversation, really. I learned a lot from you throughout it, and I'm excited for, um, uh, for, for to hear what people, uh, how we can help serve people better with the messages that we're talking about in this.

Likewise, you're very much welcome. This was Remembering the Forgotten, a conversation held in clarity, not performance. If something in this exchange helps you see differently, carry that forward. And if you want to dive deeper, I invite you to have a look at the description of this recording.