232: How To Build Relationships with Anyone (Including the Dalai Lama) with Michael Trainer

Namaste. My name is Sahara Rose, and welcome back to the Highest Self Podcast, a place where we discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. As we know, connections are everything in today's world. And that's not just showing up in a networking event and trading some business cards, but to really connect with another person, to get to know them on an individual level and to establish a friendship with them that you can trust them and they can trust you. And this is an art form. An art form that comes so naturally to some people and can be quite of a struggle for others. And someone who's really nailed it is Michael Traynor. So if you're familiar with the Global Citizen Fest, that massive concert that takes place in Central park every single year, that's had Beyonce and Jay Z and all of these insane artists perform, but all of the money goes to raising awareness and helping human trafficking and other global issues. Well, Michael Traynor was the co founder of this entire organization. So he's someone who really holds a high vision and executes it. So he's able to see that vata, that big picture, and then bring it in through the pitta, the execution, and then take it into the kapha, the reevaluation. And he ended up leaving Global Citizen Fest to go on and create his new organization, Peak Mind, which is teaching people how meditation can be used to combat and prevent mental deterioration from his own father having Alzheimer's disease. So in this episode, we talk all about his journey from meditation to Global Citizen Fest. And even more importantly, we talk about how he was able to do this all. And that's through just the natural connections that he created. So he recently had the Dalai Lama speak, speak at his Peak Mind event. I think it was like their first event. And the Dalai Lama came and spoke there, which is just, holy crap, a roli. And it just kind of goes to show that when you're someone who really emits a high vibration and you're positive and you're aligned and you're really there for the right reasons, people come around to support you. And he is someone that is truly embodying this and you're going to feel it in this episode. So without further ado, let's welcome Michael Traynor to the Highest Self Podcast. And before we get started, check out these brands that make Highest Self Podcast possible. This episode is brought to you by uva. UVA is a modernized ayurvedic supplement company that takes certain issues that we have, such as mood, joints, immunity, digestion, and creates these Custom little packets exactly for us. Infusing ancient ayurvedic herbs with modern vitamins and minerals. I take the mood formula daily. It is great if you work a stressful job, had adrenal fatigue, ever suffer from anxiety or even depression. And it really heals you from a fundamental and holistic level. So if you want to try it out, head over to UVA. Y o u v d a.com use the code Sahara and you'll receive 35% off your first order. And they now ship to almost every country globally, so. So check it out. If you live internationally, they may be shipping to your country too. And they just added India. Guys. This episode is brought to you by four Sigmatic. Four Sigmatic is an incredible mushroom elixir company. I proudly drink their elixirs every single day. My favorite is their chai mix. It is insanely delicious. I quit chocolate cold turkey and what helped me was drinking this chai mix every day. And best of all, they use stevia to sweet sweeten it. And there's no sugars like the chai lattes you'll find at Starbucks or wherever else. And the mushrooms are really good for balancing your hormones, helping heal adrenal fatigue, healing your body on an adaptogenic level. So adaptogens really kind of relate to what your body needs. So if you are high stress will bring you down. If you need more energy, it will bring you up. And that's what's so amazing about adaptogens. They adapt to your body. And mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms have a lot of adaptogenic products properties. So you can head over to their website, 4sigmatic.com F O U R S I G M a t I c.com Sahara I have a little shop up there with my favorite four Sigmatic products so you can try it out. And you can also get 15% off any four sigmatic product using the Code Sahara. Welcome Michael, to the Highest Self podcast. It's so good to have you here.

Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.

Well, the first question I would love to ask you is what makes you your highest self?

There's a variety of ways I would approach that question, but I think that what makes me my highest self ultimately distills down to gratitude and being in a perpetual practice of gratitude. You know, there's that old adage which I suppose is a little cliche, but that every day above ground is a good day. And I really try to hold and be an appreciation of the gift that is this life. And I think that when I'm in that place. I am in my higher self. Right. Because as they say, it's very hard to be in the judgment or the ego chatter when you're actually in gratitude. It's. I think it's pretty much impossible. And so the one tool that I think is most applicable that anyone has access to is gratitude. There's a variety of other practices I use to keep me in gratitude, but I think if I were to distill it down to one practice that keeps me and my highest self, it's gratitude.

Do you do any specific gratitude meditations or.

I. So I have. I have a morning routine. It involves. So for me, that looks like I do meditation every morning. I've been practicing. I lived in Sri Lanka when I was 19 and actually studied with an Ayurvedic practitioner for two years.

What's your dosha?

Well, I didn't study, so to be frank, you'll crush me on actual Ayurvedic knowledge. I studied a very particular form of Ayurvedic medicine called Bhuta Vidya, which is actually a rare and somewhat secretive aspect of Ayurveda, which is focused on the social dynamics.

Oh, interesting.

So in traditional sort of Sinhalese culture, there's no word for privacy and there's no word for possession. So your health is seen as integral to the whole. So if one person falls out of balance. Now, obviously most of the Ayurvedic practice was oriented towards, you know, the practice of keeping that person in balance. However, if someone was seen as, as really falling out of balance, it was the role of the entire community to bring them back into wholeness.

Love that.

Yes. But to answer your question directly, I do my meditation in the sauna. So I have a full spectrum infrared sauna. And then afterwards I do a gratitude journal. So I start every day by writing down 20 things I'm grateful for, kind of in that Julia Cameron sort of artist way paradigm where I take myself on the artist dates and then I have my morning pages.

I love that so much. And do you ever write the same things or do you try to think of 20 new things every day?

I try to think of 20 new things every day, but I try not to get into the. The cog. I try not to overthink it.

Right.

So I try not to. I think oftentimes we can. Oh, well, is that good enough to be grateful for? And I actually find the things that are the simplest are the things that I have the most profound gratitude for. And I think any of us can relate to that. Right. It's like the Buddha once said, of all wealth, health is greatest and best. And it's not until you lose your health, that or an aspect of your health that you realize how precious it is. And I feel like I've seen that in my own life. I've seen that in the life of my family. And when you look around, I had a dear friend. I was in Haiti. I volunteered after the earthquake there. And a dear friend of mine named Wilfred Massena lost his leg during the earthquake, and he literally carried it with him for seven days. Of course, at that point, it was gangrenous and couldn't be reattached. But I was with him the day that he received his prosthesis, his prosthetic leg. And most people, it's a bit of an existential confrontation to see, oh, here's this, like, plastic or metal piece that is now sort of to be in service of what was my limb. But his attitude was so awakening for me because he looked at that prosthesis as a new life. He wasn't in the perspective of, oh, man, what have I lost? He was in, wow, what can I gain from this? And literally, within half an hour, he's breakdancing, kicking a soccer ball. And long story short, he winds up starting a soccer league for all Haitians who have lost limbs. And then he starts a soccer league for women and children who are working with pro. He was a welder before. He turns his welding skills into learning how to make prosthesis for other people. And then he's literally asked to come to the US to teach servicemen coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan how to play soccer without their limbs. So he saw his great obstacle as sort of a rebirth. And so, to me, gratitude is tapping into those things that oftentimes we take for granted and even the obstacles before us. And seeing the. The gold or the gratitude in that, I love that.

And such a beautiful example of making your mess your message. And that ended up being the thing that brought him, you know, the most real success after. After that catastrophe happened.

Yes.

So you've done incredible things in your life. And one thing that you were one of the founders of is something that probably a lot of people have heard of, which is the Global Citizen Festival. I remember a couple years ago, I was in New York, and they're like, beyonce's performing in Central Park. I'm like, what? Like, how is that happening? And they're like, oh. And it's, like, benefiting human rights. I'm like, wait, is this actually real. So can you share this a little bit about the story of your involvement with that?

Sure. Well, my background, I did my graduate work in New York City at Columbia, and I was studying international affairs in large measure because I had had this, those two years in Sri Lanka that I referenced earlier. And during that time I was confronted with extreme poverty with people living on $1.25 or its equivalent, which at that time was 1.3 billion people around the world. And I had, during graduate school, I was fortunate enough so I speak Sinhala because of my experience in Sri Lanka. But I actually got a fellowship to study, which is what led me to New York in the first place. Tamil, because at the time, Sri Lanka was in a state of civil war. So I was on the board there for an organization called Sarbudaya, which is oriented towards this notion of personal development through community development. So again, like, was really, really saw some really profound insights into our interdependence, our interconnection, and also how that can be evolved in a community setting. So they're saying was we build the road and the road builds us. And every member of that community was a. Was an integral member of the process, whether it be the youngest child or the oldest elder. And that really informed a lot of my worldview. So fast forward to being in New York. I actually had an opportunity which would have been very, very lucrative. All I had to do, I remember flying into New York. All I had to do was hand over a drive of work that I had already done, and I would have been compensated a very significant amount of money. But it didn't feel aligned to my values and my vision. And I remember landing in New York. There was an event with Tim Ferriss that I was meant to head to. And I just decided, you know what? For whatever reason, I'm not going to follow this path, and instead I'm going to go back to my values and volunteer. And I literally went to the Water Gala, which usually falls around the holiday time. And I'd been volunteering with Charity Water for quite some time. And at that gala, I met Bobby Bailey, who was one of the founders of an organization called Invisible Children and was working with a gentleman by the name of Hugh Evans on what was at the time called Global Poverty Project. And I was asked basically, what would you do to put extreme poverty on the map in the US but also globally? And my initial response was, at the time, there was this sort of prevailing conversation which I call kind of poverty porn, which is, we're going to show you this poor child with distended belly and flies and we're going to guilt you into giving money. And in my view, that's a very broken, almost sort of colonialist narrative that doesn't encourage our sense of shared humanity. And so we really kind of delved deeply into what could a different narrative look like, one that was built on joy and hope and our shared humanity. And so Hugh sort of charged me with this question and I came back with a five point plan, the culmination of which was this platform which is and concert which is now global citizen. And that was obviously borne by an incredible. It showed me the possibility of vision, but also what you can create. We were a very small team when we launched and we didn't have really any money. I mean, I remember literally he's now a dear friend, but I remember literally we met with the founders of Coachella here in LA and we're pitching them on this idea of a concert to end extreme poverty. And I remember taking the. I did a talk at Harvard and I was taking the Chinatown bus to the $8 bus six hours from Boston to New York. And I remember calling Bill Fold and asking him because we needed credibility, we had a big vision if he would back us. And he said, yeah, I'll turn it into our project, to my project. And so we built sort of alignment with a credible music entity. And we also worked early stage with the Gates foundation because we knew that we needed credibility in the social impact space. And so we did a campaign with the Gates foundation around polio and polio eradication as our first campaign and around the Chogam, which is heads of government meeting in Australia, raised $118 million for polio vaccines that actually wound up serving us in more ways than we knew. Not only did it establish inroads with the Gates foundation, but also our first headliner for the Global Citizen Festival is actually Neil Young, who many people don't know, but had polio when he was a young man. And it was really a profound learning. Someday we'll have to break down that whole nine month journey to culmination. But it was a journey of trust, a journey of commitment, and a journey of dedication and a journey of tenacity for a small group of people. And then the amount of people that aligned around us to support was incredible. And you know, we wound up that first year the stage was built around the UN General assembly. So when the world leaders gather to make declarative commitments around what at the time were the Millennium Development Goals, what are now The Sustainable Development Goals, which is the world's agreed upon platform to end extreme poverty. And we created a new opportunity for those leaders to come together. And we leveraged the great influencers of our time and their social channels to build a movement. And the coolest thing I think we did was we turned our great disadvantage, which the reason why we were able to host on Central park was Central park hadn't really hosted a concert on a Saturday since Simon and Garfunkel, which is one of my favorite artists, I think it was 81. And the reason was you can't sell tickets and it's not inexpensive to host an event because you obviously have to, you know, there's health and safety, you have to bring in, there's unions, you have to bring in the police force. So it's not an inexpensive endeavor. But we decided, you know what? Let's make the tickets. Let's make it so people have to take action to earn their tickets instead of buying tickets. And that was actually, in my view, our great innovation because instead of asking people for money, which was the traditional narrative around charity and philanthropy, which is absolutely essential, do not in any way let me diminish the value of philanthropy. It's essential. However, it was exciting to create a new model where we were actually educating advocates that ultimately grew into ambassadors for the brand and that grew ultimately around the world by a multitude of millions. And so.

And what didn't they. I remember doing it was like a certain number of shares. I don't exactly remember what it was, but. And then. But some people got chosen because I'm sure you had so many people who actually did the step. So can you refresh us? What?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a lottery format. So what we did was if you. For example, I created a bunch of films around the issues which were codified in the MDGs SDGs. So, for example, child and maternal health is an issue and an issue that doesn't generally get a lot of attention. And so I hired a female filmmaker who actually went to Afghanistan and, and filmed and brought the issue to life by filming these women giving birth in fairly challenging circumstances. But so much of the narrative around Afghanistan had been focused on the war. And it was beautiful to present a different story. And so that was really what we were intent on. And we, and we shared these little vignettes on Global Citizen as well as through the course of the festivals, interstitial content between the acts. And really what it did was, you know, when someone would consume a piece of content they'd get a point. If they signed a petition with the Gates foundation, they'd get three points. And those petitions were leveraged then to get the world leaders to make declarative commitments on behalf of the world's poor. So year one, we got $1.3 billion in new commitments for programs serving the world's poor. And I left after year four, but I just went back for the Global Citizen Festival in South Africa because the Mandela legacy is of particular value to myself, my family, obviously, the world. But we hosted one around the Mandel legacy, and. And I got to go back at this, this time and just watch sort of what the team has grown. And that Festival leveraged over $7 billion in new commitments for programs serving the world's poor. And it was incredible. Beyonce, she performed our third festival, which was amazing. Jay Z and Beyonce, they also headlined this festival. But you had everyone from Oprah to Tyler Perry, a variety of different.

Do you have to pay these people to come and perform?

No, they. Thankfully, they perform out of sort of the graciousness of their hearts. I mean, they really become part of the issue, and that was actually a large measure. What helped us to enroll these artists was you're basically asking them to do something, but something that has a tangible benefit that isn't contingent on them necessarily reaching out and asking for money. So really, them being in their music metaphorically and literally, and them doing what they do so well, is a catalyst for profound transformation with a multitude of upsides. So it's a win, win, win.

Hmm. I love that, because I think a lot of times these celebrities are approached by different nonprofits who want them to perform or do something for free, and it's probably hard for them to decide, well, what are the organizations I really want to get involved with? So for people who are trying to create some sort of social enterprise, what do you recommend to help your brand stand out amongst the sea of others?

Great question. I think there's a variety of layers to that, so I think having a new narrative is incredibly valuable. I mean, that's. With Global Citizen, we had a new narrative, right. We were doing something slightly differently than it had been done before. So I think innovation is often rewarded. Another example would be Charity Water, which I referenced earlier. When they came in on the scene, they basically said, you know, a lot of charitable organizations have lost trust. So their premise wasn't that there's a lack of generous people, but more a questioning of whether the money that is invested actually goes to the people it's reported to serve. And so what they said is, we're going to give 100% of your donation to the field. And so they cultivated a donor framework called the well that covers all of their administrative costs. And so every public donation goes 100% to the field. And not only that, they tied because they're a water water organization. They started with wells, they now do a multitude of water solutions. But when I built, I donated and raised money for a well, I could literally go on Google Earth and I could see the well where it was drilled. So they call it proving it. So they created a 100% model, and they also proved the donation. And that led. That transparency led to trust, and that trust has led them to raise millions of dollars and serve many, many millions of people. Now, I will say that I don't think. I think there is a conversation that says sort of administration and overhead is sort of bad. And I don't. I don't agree with that. There's another worldview that says if you're trying to hire the best talents coming out of school to solve some of the intractable issues of our time, you can't do that by not paying people. And we need the same level of innovation and insight and intelligence around the globe for some of these pressing problems which will confront all of us. The fallacy of our time is that we are these sort of lone islands and we are all interconnected and interdependent. Pollution that's generated here doesn't just stay here. Right. It travels all around the world. They say in the context of the environment, we are. I mean, I don't want to be dark, but we're amidst a mass extinction. So we really require. I'm hopeful, ultimately. But I do believe it requires all of us to evolve within ourselves, because I believe the world is a manifestation of our collective internal states. And as we rise, I believe that we will come up with the innovations. And to your question, I think it's less about creating these sort of islands in the sea, so to speak, and more, how can we collaborate effectively with others that may have great momentum, Momentum in innovative ways such that we can really build this, if you will. This sort of term that's coming to me right now is the jewel net. I don't know if you ever read the Jewel net of Indra. It's a beautiful Buddhist text, but it talks about sort of our interconnection and interdependence. My vision would be that we create almost a jewel net of different philanthropic organizations and entities that are compounded in their effect. And so I think that isn't to stifle innovation. And if people want to launch their own organizations, I think it's one of the most beautiful and noble and challenging things that you can do. But I think a lot of what's to come is figuring out private public sector partnerships, figuring out how organizations can relate well and catalyze each other's impact and really think about, you know, how do we break down these challenges? And I think there's some, you know, there's other innovative ways that that's being done. Diamantis here in LA has the X Prize, which is rewarding people for their innovation based on solving intractable social issues. So I think as we start to tap into different ways to incentivize and motivate people and channel our energies, you know, there's the famous saying, you know, billionaire, when will we stop celebrating the billionaires that have just raised capital and start celebrating the billionaires that have impacted a billion lives? And my hope is that we start to orient our worldview and start to celebrate those that have impact so that young people, when they're growing up and going to school, think not just about, you know, the rewards of private wealth, but also about the impact of public giving.

And I think it's a really important conversation because right now, a lot more people are talking about personal wellness, and that can exclude global wellness. And we think that, you know, I'm just gonna take my ashwagandha and my goji berries and this and that, and we're so disconnected from where it literally comes from.

Yes.

And, you know, how well are you when your brothers and sisters, you know, not even on the other side of the world, but on the other side of town, are struggling, and it's gonna affect all of us. So I think it's really important for us, especially as the conscious community, to, you know, go out there and to.

Learn about these things 100%. And what I'll say is, you know, your 15 green juice isn't gonna save you. You know, and by the way, not to hate on people who value their health and wellness. I also do a lot to sort of preserve my personal health. But all of us are breathing in this air, right? All of us are drinking this water. And if that water is laden with petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, et cetera, if this air is poisoned, if there's now talk of 5G and potentially electromagnetic radiation, if we're besieged on the outside by toxins, it won't matter how many green juices we drink. And I Think the other piece, which I think really brings it into. Into sharp relief, is what world are we leaving for our children? And what kind of health and wellness will they be exposed to if we don't handle the bigger issues? There's no. I practice yoga pretty much every day. You know, yoga asanas aren't going to protect us in that context. And so that isn't to say it's one or the other, but I think we need to use. I think we need to start thinking inside and out simultaneously.

Yes. And in the Vedas, they say, as is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm. So really what's going on in your internal world will reflect in the external world. And what we're experiencing right now is just a global, what we call pitta imbalance, fire imbalance. So everyone's on edge and angry and irritated. Then internally, they're irritated, angry, inflamed, on edge. So. And you experienced this firsthand and that's what led you to create your company now, Peak Mind.

Yes.

Sharing meditation and speaking about dementia. So can you speak about that journey?

Certainly, yeah. So about three years into global citizenship, my dad, which was a deeply private journey, but my father had been fighting prostate cancer and knock on wood, gratefully, he has. He has. That's gone into remission. But the challenge was he wound up getting diagnosed three years in with dementia, which I would not wish on anyone. And I had to do some soul searching myself. And I said, dad, I'll take you anywhere in the world you'd like to go. And he's a very. He's like my heart. He's a very humble man. So he never asked me. And I said, okay. After about six months, I said, dad, stamp your passport. And I knew he loved history and I knew he loved nature. And so I said, took him to basically one of my favorite countries on the planet, which coming full circle, is South Africa. And it was on that trip, actually, we went to Robben Island. We visited Nelson Mandel's prison cell. And that Christmas I gave him long walk to freedom. And that whole year, as he was sort of losing, I call it losing sight of the shore, cognitively, he would read and reread that book. And one of my most prized possessions, actually is that book which has been highlighted by him am reading and rereading it and writing notes in the margins. But it was on that trip that I said, okay, Global Citizen at that point was in very good stead. Had received a very substantial grant from the Gates foundation. And it's A nonprofit, which is what it should be. But I was, I basically was personal renumeration had never been a sort of a priority and I now had to look at, as I looked at long term care costs and health costs, I was like, wow, this is incredible. And then I looked at the macro global context and I was like, hang on, I've been focusing on diseases like polio and malaria. There's about to be an epidemic of lifestyle borne disease around the world. I mean, I look, nearly half the Chinese population is pre diabetic. Nearly half the US population is pre diabetic. And that's. Those are diseases born of our, of our modern lifestyle. And so I just really got interested in this idea of what are the 21st century solutions for the challenges of our time. And you know, I think a lot of our systems, our education system, our healthcare system, many, I mean, if I break my arm, I'm going right to the doctor, no question. And the education system has done really profound things for me. However, I will say that as we evolve culturally and societally, I think those systems are still based on sort of an industrial capitalist model that doesn't necessarily serve people with the life, all of the life skills they need to thrive in today's environment. Right. Like, you know, I was never taught about compound interest. I was taught algebra, you know, health and wellness. You know, I didn't have, I did pe, so I learned how to run and that definitely helped me. But I was never, I never learned about macronutrients or eating right for my body, you know. So I just think there's a whole new context of conversation that I would like to, I wanted to curate. And on a personal level, as I started to deep dive with my dad, there was profound challenges that come with, with a loved one who you're sort of slowly mourning. And so I retreated into my meditation practice. And having built movements of scale previously, I thought to myself, well, how could I potentially take what I had learned and channel it into something that feels like, for lack of a term, like spiritual compost? Right. How do you take the, forgive me, but the shit in life and turn it into something that ideally grows into something beautiful? And so I did a 30 day meditation cleanse. And on the 30th day I actually jumped live right by the ocean. I jumped in the ocean and had this crazy idea that I wanted to host His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, who, who I did not know or have any connection to for an event because I had been working with my friend who's Nelson Mandel's. Grandson and thinking about, well, what could be done around Mandela Day. And I realized, actually, his holiness Dalai Lama's birthday falls within. You know, I think it's like 10 days of Nelson Mandela Day. So I just thought, well, what if we could do an event with His Holiness and do a campaign to be in the present and talk to other meditators who maybe aren't commonly known about their practice? And so I reached out to folks like Common and Usher, you know, who are meditators but not necessarily known for that. And to make a very long story short, put a lot of faith and conviction and seven months later, was honored to host his holiness for his 80th birthday, which was one of the highlights of my life. And I was able to bring my mother and my father and my sister there and to share in that beautiful moment and day together. And His Holiness led us in meditation and talked about the virtues of mindfulness as well as the cultivation of love. And it was one of the most profound experiences of my life. And it was on that day that I sort of birthed this next chapter, which is Peak Mind. And Peak Mind is really oriented towards applying a lot of the similar principles from Global Citizen, but more to our collective wellness and this notion of impact from the inside out. So exactly as we spoke of earlier, how could you curate some of the great entertainers and teachers of our time to bring people into the house? Right. How do you attract people? I think that many people sort of drop all this information, and it's overwhelming. And my question to myself, which I wouldn't necessarily say I figured out, is, is how does a mom in Wichita, Kansas, with three kids who's always in a state of stress, how could she receive information about meditation? How could it become easy for her or a farmer in China or a woman in Zimbabwe? What are the ways in which we have these global conversations such that it's relevant to the masses? And as you said earlier, and I think this is super valuable, how are we thinking about, even within our own country, the food forests and the food deserts? And how is that being attended to? I traveled to Kenya some years back as a volunteer for the Greenbelt Movement, and there the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai, had started something called the Greenbelt Movement. And she empowered local women to plant trees, and she remunerated them so they were paid for reforesting Kenya and going to that place and seeing the juxtaposition between a girl literally digging in parched earth with a Jerry can trying to dig an inch of dirty water versus a community that had banded together over 10 years and and replanted over a million trees and seeing a family with cattle and their own well and a veritable diverse food forest. So if there was life in one, they'd recover. Just seeing the potentiality of what can happen when people band together and thinking about that in the context of how do we band together both globally but as well as locally, and thinking about some of the challenges as it relates to health and wellness in this community, my interest is thinking about, okay, who are the people, the thought leaders of our time, the peak minds, if you will, that can share information such that it's relevant to all the different demographics and bring them into a conversation that serves us all.

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Yes, 100%. I mean, the Dalai Lama has a famous quote where he says, if every eight year old learned how to meditate, we would cease to see war within a generation. Yeah. And I think that one of the things I also realized was, you know, in my own western worldview, I saw meditation almost like, it's like a luxury. Yeah, like a luxury. It's like a nice to have, you know, kind of thing. It's almost like in our, in our, the way of looking at things, like the same way you would look at like a beneficial, like nutri, like supplement or smoothie.

Ashwagandha.

Yeah, exactly.

Not the multivitamin.

Exactly. And what I, what I, what I realized is I was both delving more deeply into my own practice, but also in listening. Like deeply listening. Especially when we hosted this event because I was like, I want it to be. And it was before the sort of meditation had its, you know, sort of big moment there. But it was almost awkward that I was asking about meditation. Because meditation wasn't seen as separate. Right. It wasn't like this thing you do, it was just part of who you were. Right. Like part of who you are. To ascend into the highest version of yourself, in my interpretation was just, just as you would sleep, you would meditate because those are essential aspects to you being the best version of yourself. And so once I got that, like, that it was like a non negotiable and it was just something you needed to do. Now we know neurologically that when you go into REM sleep, you're actually taking out the trash like your brain like in the context, for example, to bring it back to dementia. That's the state in which like the beta amyloids are removed from the body. Right. It's so, and there's a variety efficacy that happens when you sleep. But meditation as well brings such a deep rest and the subconscious, the relieving of a lot of the subconscious programs which is what drives most of us, right. Because our, our thoughts create our feelings, our feelings create our actions, our actions create our life. Right. It's like so much of that is based in that iceberg which is under the water, right. We think of our lives as the waves, like the weather patterns. Right. But actually much of what dictates our life is the iceberg beneath what we see in that oce, which is our perception. And so how do you start to, you know, and so with my meditation practice I think it started to bubble up some of those, you know, subconscious beliefs and make them conscious and then in that consciousness you can sort of start to contend with them. But I think until we, you know, really commit to that practice, it's yeah, I don't know a better way to say except I think it's a non negotiable.

And do you do like mantra based meditation or what does yours look like?

Like, so I'm, I'm a bit tool agnostic. I've created almost my own practice. I've had the good fortune of studying with a variety of different practitioners and teachers. When I'm talking publicly I just say I anything that you can do that to be consistent in your practice, that garners insight, do that. But for me I started with vipassana, that was my initial introduction. I've also done a Vedic course. So I, I do have a mantra based practice but I personally incorporate other modalities. I've also studied with a variety of healers so that now are part of my. Tony Robbins has something where he calls it priming. I almost look at it in a similar way. Like when I start my day I'm almost priming. So I do like I do an insight sort of breath work oriented practice. Then I calm my mind and meditate. Then sometimes I'll go into the mantra and then I start to do a visualization practice. So it's not a, it's not a sort of traditional meditation so to speak, but it's become my practice and it's, it's my priming for the day.

And I always wondered are guided meditations as effective for you know, brand brain enhancing benefits as being in silence and having Your own mind guide you in the meditation.

So I don't know the. I love to go science based and I love to do research. I couldn't answer that directly. What I will say is I found it profound when I did the research and saw that Harvard released a study that in as little as eight weeks of mindfulness meditation, one literally could change not only the activity, but the shape of their amygdala and their hippocampus. So your amygdala is your fight or flight center. Right. So it's the center from which we're kind of always on edge, especially in this cortisol laid. And our prehistoric brain, which has evolved over several hundred thousand years, is still oriented towards what's predator, what's not. But given modern society, many things flash to our brain like a potential threat. So decreasing the activity in your amygdala is hugely beneficial. And then your hippocampus is the center for your creativity. So being able to literally increase the size and creativity within that aspect of your brain is a profound tool. Right. And so I don't know necessarily how it relates to guided. I am interested in sound and binaural beats and a variety of the different tools that one can utilize to stimulate theta states and deep relaxation. I will also say. And this. Let me finish that off. That said, I personally go in, I have a bit of like a cave. So I go in where there's no stimulus and I'm in an EMF blocking Faraday cage, full spectrum infrared. Now I know this is. Do you know that's not necessarily accessible for everyone. But that's because I've got a little biohackery.

Do you know Luke's story?

What's that?

Do you know Luke's story?

Of course I do hang out. Yeah, Luke's a dear friend. But so I've kind of gone into like the biohacking cave and there's no external distractions, so I have no sound and no nothing visually to distract me. So there's not even glass in, in there. It's like. So that's my own. That said, I've meditated on the back of safari jeeps, I've meditated standing up in an elevator. Like it's not to say it's an. It's like I have to have. But that's my nice to have when I'm home. But I do think that in the context of sound, the ability for sound to affect your brain is so profound. There's a movie I think anyone who's listening should watch called the live inside particularly relevant for me because when I saw it, I was like, wow, music is medicine. And it's a film where they find out the songs of survivors of dementia. And there's a gentleman, an African American gentleman in the film. This. Gotta YouTube this clip. He's sort of left in this corner of this nursing home, and it's. It's super sad. He's kind of dejected, nonverbal. His head is hanging down. And they found his favorite music from when he was a young man. And they put the headphones on his head, and unlike any pill or pharmaceutical of any kind, this gentleman comes to life. Like, he raises up and he's like, I remember 1930 Chet. He starts talking, he becomes verbal, he starts remembering. He. He talks about memories from his childhood, starts to sing. And it happened time and again. And so I think there's ways in which sound in music is medicinal in ways we don't even fully comprehend.

And even smells, too, can bring back.

Very vivid. Yeah, your olfactory sense is actually your strongest mnemonic. So, like, smell is, like, probably the greatest inducer of memory. And so I'm interested to see in the future how we can simulate, slash stimulate different states of consciousness using his.

Book, the Healing Cell.

I haven't read it.

Yeah, he. He speaks specifically about the music bringing back the memory of people with dementia.

Interesting. I'll have to read it because it's of particular interest, but I'm fascinated by that new wave of what will be used as catalysts to facilitate consciousness.

Yeah, it's. It's really fascinating. And now there's such an emergence of sound baths and the binaural beats. And I sat on this, like, kind of thing that played music, but in specific, like, chakra points on your back and kind of vibrated at that, at that same space, the same time while you're wearing the headphones, like, all these cool, you know, experiences that are healing your body just through sound. I know people who had injuries and they kept playing crystal balls near the injury, and the injury very quickly healed.

So, yeah, it's interesting because I still come in with a little bit. Because I moved from New York, I still come in with a little bit of, like, a judgmental edge on what is, you know, sort of seen as the woo woo. And at the same time, I've become so much more aligned to those tools at work. And like, you're saying soundbag pass. At first, I'm just speaking personally. I was like, well, that looks a little. I was a little bit like, I don't know about this. Like, is there an efficacy to this? Like, my scientific brain was like, what's the research on this? And then I did it and I was like, whoa.

Right?

I was like, I don't know what just happened, but, like, the caliber of my sleep that night was so deep. And it was like. It was like a guided meditation. And I have meditation practice, but the depth at which I was able to go, I was like, wow, there's something here. And I hope that more and more people will. My friend Jesse Israel is actually doing something called the Big Quiet, where he's doing these mass meditations. They just did one at south by Southwest with Miguel and, like, a string orchestra and a flute. So I think there will be more. This is what I'm interested in. How do these tools start to be received by the masses in a way that they can have their most profound impact? And I'm fascinated because I think once they also. There's probably greater scientific study as there was with meditation. Some of these even more fringe modalities, especially those that have that sort of scientific verification, will receive acceptance into the masses. And that's what I'm elated by, because I came from. I grew up in Chicago, and it's like when my cousin who lives in the suburbs, who's not open to all this, starts to read articles about it, then they open their mind to it. And I can't wait for those moments to happen.

Right. And I think just spirit and science are really coming together. And now I don't even think the word woo is going to exist 100 years from now, because everything that was once woo, they're going and be like, oh, that's actually scientifically proven, but it was just. We didn't understand it yet at the time.

Yeah, I think so. I think there are some things where I think there's probably like. I'm like, let's test that out, where people make claims. I think that that is the challenge I see, to speak honestly, is there are still. And it's probably less about the modality and more about the practitioner. There's still, for lack of a better term, snake oil salesman. So I'm still mindful of who I. I think that just goes to relationship. Who do you trust? Right. Like, for example, I can say from my personal experience, right. Like, the sound baths that I've done, I have been. Have actually been really profound for me. There's a woman here named Susie that I. That has just sort of been. And we actually did it out. I go to this wolf sanctuary and support these wolves. It's one of the things I volunteer at doing. We did a wolf sanctuary out there and the wolves literally started to howl. And so you kind of get almost into your primal self. It was. And we walk with them onto the full moon. They're, they're rescued wolves from like fur factories, et cetera. So they can't be released back into the wild just for anyone listening. And they have this beautiful sanctuary home. But the sound was wound up being such a gift. Now that said, there are probably people who literally ordered a bowl off the Internet. And it's like, I'm a sound healer. And you're like, okay, hang on now. Like, you know, like just because, just because you've gone to some, you know, and I think that's the, that's the challenge is I think some, some people go to like indigenous communities and appropriate certain tools and come back as if they are an expert in that phenomena. And that's actually the area I think that needs to be sort of cautioned against because oftentimes it's the tool, but it's also the tool with the practitioner and especially in cultural practices, it's the tool with the practitioner oftentimes in a cultural lineage that knows how to hold that.

Yes.

So, so I think, I think you're absolutely right. I think things are going to move towards, towards the scientific validation and we're going to evolve in ways we can't even really even fathom at this stage. Which is what's so exciting. I mean, think about like technology like 100 years ago, right? Like there was like barely a car on the road.

Yeah.

Now we've got like self driving vehicles and, and stem cell. I mean, so I, I can't, in the next hundred years, I can't even fathom what's going to happen.

Yeah, it's, it's amazing. It's such a great time. We all chose to incarnate here, right?

It's a beautiful time to be alive. Yeah.

Yeah. So the last question I want to ask you, which I don't even know if you know how you're doing it, but you have incredible relationships. You know, Dalai Lama, casually, you're like, yeah, I had never met him, didn't have any connection. And nine months later, on his 80th birthday, he's giving the talk for my thing. Like that's like people's lifelong dreams that never get done and you're getting them done. You have relationship with Deepak Chopra and you just interviewed Maria Sharpov on your Podcast and you know, you're just aligned with such high vibrational people. So. So what do you recommend for people who want to, you know, get in touch with these people who have Peak Minds, but it seems so distant for them.

Great question. I don't know that I could distill it down because I'm still actually genuinely in the inquiry as to how it's, how it's happening. I can say in the case of Global Citizen and Peak Mind, I think both of them were attracted that level of talent because it was about something bigger than it was about a bigger cause. Right. So it wasn't about me. It was about how can we create a container which I was willing to sacrifice myself for. In other words, I was willing to put in the. I mean the amount of time we worked, for example, to launch Global Citizen, all of us, I mean we were working 12, 14 hour days and it was never sure. And the emotional context of that. So you see that it's kind of like that, like 10,000 hours where they say overnight success actually took 10 years to get there. Like you don't see the behind the scenes. So I'll just start by saying that including with the, with His Holiness, I mean that was seven months. And there were times when we were like. And it was not because of His Holiness, but we were working. Ultimately got connected to the liaison where it was profoundly uncertain. I also just had to be surrendered to that. Like I had to play such a big, like financially forced. Whitaker's flying in on his own dime. You know, I mean it was a nonprofit event, but just like if there's no replacement, if for whatever reason this profound figure can't make it. So I think there's a couple things. One is commitment. That to me I learned commitment and faith are two of the greatest tools. Because I had to have commitment and I had to have faith because that easily could have gone the other way. I think thirdly, having it be about something bigger than yourself. So with Global Citizen and with the Peak Mind event, it was about serving something hot cause humanity, our shared humanity. And then I think depending on what that is for Pete, for other people. Because I want to be as helpful as possible, I think thinking through what's of value to that person. Right. So this is a totally different example. I'll just take it on a tangent. But to bring it back to that wolf sanctuary, for example, I had no self interest in the wolf sanctuary. I literally went up there. I was actually having a bit of a tough, challenging time in life at the time. Time. And this beautiful horse came up. I love horses, grew up with horses. Docked with me. It offered me the crown of its head, almost like a dog, and let me pet it for like 20 minutes. And then this formerly abused wolf laid down behind me and let me lay with it. And I was like, I don't know what this place is, but whatever you're doing here, I want to support you. And so the founder, who's now become a close friend, just said, if there's anyone that you think could be valuable, whether it be a donor or potentially an influencer, why don't you feel free to invite them on up? And so, you know, though, creating the context, and this is something I've been playing with lately, of events or experiences that are unique, right? Like if I met someone and this actually happened, I actually met Woody Harrelson randomly at a restaurant and we got to chatting and he was like, you know, he's talking about his daughter. And I said, you should take her up to the Wolf Sanctuary. I didn't even go. So I just introduced him to my friend Tao, who runs Wolf Sanctuary. And he went up to the Wolf Sanctuary and brought his daughter and evidently had an epic time. But, like, if you distill that down, wasn't about me. Epic experience, something that was of service to him and what he cares about most. And I'm sure if I now hit him up, he'd probably respond because in his mind, there's a memory that's associated with that connection it's about to come from, right? And same thing, like Moby, I actually now am in a men's group with. Because he came to the Wolf Sanctuary and he had such a meaningful experience and he's like, I'd love to repay. I was like, there's nothing to repay. And. And. But he has a restaurant called Little Pine, a vegan restaurant on the east side. And so he invited myself and Teo, the gentleman who started the Wolf Sanctuary, to come to the restaurant. And he invited Tony Canal from no Doubt. And now we have this, like, ongoing men's group again. I didn't set off with the intention of, like, I wanna. It's amazing, I think, what comes from when you operate from a place of service or, you know. And I was listening to Tim Ferriss last night talk about this. Like, a lot of his great Silicon Valley relationships came from. From volunteering, you know, and so that's one tactical piece where I would say, I think, thinking of what someone values and would be of consequence to them in their life. And what the people they care about in their life and adding value without expectation of return to them in that regard, or thinking of win, win, win contexts. Right. Like maybe it is aligned to something that's of value to you. Right. In the context of, say, Maria. Maria was launching a book. Right. And it's a book that I actually got. Great. It's interesting, my father, she was one of my father's favorite tennis players. My dad and I bonded by playing tennis growing up. And I don't think I shared this with her until we actually had the interview, but I was committed to supporting her with her book because I believed in it. I thought it was a great book. And I reached out to her and she was. That she was in the context of her kind of press tour around her book. Right. So there was something where it's a little bit more tangible. Right. But. But I just launched that episode today and she, of her own volition, tweeted it out. I didn't even ask her. And so that's beautiful. And I think, think about what is of value to other people and lead without expectation by providing them with value. And in my humble experience, it's led to some pretty extraordinary relationships.

So true. And really, being of service is important. And I think the other thing, thing that maybe you're not picking up on is your high vibration. And when you're high vibration yourself, you just naturally attract other high vibration people, you know, because they can feel your energy and they can feel you're coming from this. Like, look, I barely had much of a conversation with you, and I'm like, I want Michael on my podcast, you know, because it's like an unspoken thing. You could just feel someone's just like living on purpose and living with love and gratitude and service and without it even being spoke, without me even knowing how. You can just feel it.

Yeah. Thank you for that acknowledgement and thank you for having me on. I. I feel like I feel just so grateful. Right. And I, and I, I think you're. I think you're spot on, like the high vibration, if that is true, which I'll take it as such. Thank you. I think for me, it's like I just want to keep operating at a higher frequency by doing the work internally. Right. Like, how do I. And I think that's the vision with this life. Right. How do I keep doing the work within to plant the garden so that the, you know, the forest without flourishes. Right. And I think that's, that's another piece of value that I think is like there's times to be sort of in the wild and times to be in sort of the wilderness. And then my distinction would be, you know, the sort of the wild is the world outside. The wilderness is almost within. Or going into nature. For me, that's almost like church, right? That's like taking that time to withdraw within. Enables also the sort of context, setting the fertile ground to then go out and sort of sow the seeds for these beautiful relationships, opportunities, experiences that kind of grow this beautiful forest that we can all thrive in. Right? And I think that's the fallacy of it having to be about us or our individuality. It's like the more we embrace our interconnectedness and our interdependence and work to support each other and create context, containers, experiences where everyone rises, I think the better we'll all be.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your profound wisdom. And where can listeners connect with you and listen to your new Peak Mind podcast?

Ah, yeah, thank you. Yes. So you can find me anywhere online. So peakmind is peakmind.org and I share a lot of sort of unique pieces of content with that community. PeakMind is PeakMind with Michael Traynor on all the major platforms, so iTunes, Spotify, etc. Etc. Please subscribe, rate and review. I'm trying to get up in your game here and see if I can't get it some organic reach with the new and noteworthy. And then yeah, I'm just Ichael Trainor across all social platforms. So love to stay in touch with your audience. I'm so grateful to be connected and so grateful for this time together. So thank you.

Yes. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom with us.

It's a pleasure.

How amazing of a human is my goal trainer. He is someone that is so down to earth, so grounded, so powerful, peaceful. He really is like a Dalai Lama himself, but has also created and accomplished so much in his lifetime already because he's committed to making this world a better place, whether it's through experiences like a big concert or whether it's through teaching people meditation or whatever it is that life throws at him next, I'm sure he's going to put all of his heart into it and people are going to come around that shared mission because he's someone who's able to cultivate those positive relationships. So if you loved this episode, I would love if you could leave me a review in the iTunes store. And as a free gift, I will share with you the first half of my unreleased book, Eat right for your mind body type, simply email a screenshot of your review over to SaharaetFeelFresh.com again Sahara S A H A R AattFeelFresh.com and I will send you over the first half of my unreleased book, Eat Right for your mind body type. Thank you and namaste.