UNSHAKABLE: Mastering Your Mind in Uncertain Times

Grand rising and welcome to New Mind, where our intention is clear and is to share information for transformation. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you for being here. I always appreciate you making the time. But this episode is going to be different, guys. Just from the set of the tone, we're going to go behind the veil. We're going to talk about something a little different, something that I'm personally experiencing in this part of the world for those of my listeners that are abroad. But it's really inspired and I'm inspired to share with my community here in Dubai and around the region. as well as abroad, really, because I think this is going to be beneficial for everyone going through any form of uncertain times. And to be honest with you guys, there are moments in life where all of a sudden and very fast, everything feels uncertain, especially in times like what we're experiencing here in this part of the world in Dubai. Just only a week ago, we experienced what we call an attack or being in the line or in the middle of a war. And unfortunately, We had to experience what it feels like to be, you know, bombed well and attacked, whether directly or indirectly, but just being in that sense of hearing explosions and feeling a sense of vulnerability and also a sense of uncertainty, right? And we're all human, including myself. I felt a moment where I had to think about How do I, you know, safeguard myself and my family? Especially now being a father and having a little baby child, it hits different. You know, it's not just worrying about yourself. You have a family to worry about and make sure that you're making the right decisions. And to be honest, it was quite an emotional roller coaster experiencing that. Now thankfully, and I say this with absolute gratitude, that we live in a country that is 10 out of 10 in everything they do. And I'm so proud to call this home. Dubai is literally a place where I was born and I'm 3 generations in. And I'm so proud to call this place home because not only because of the space and the place that we live in, in terms of one of the best cities in the world, but also in terms of how the leadership and how the defense showed up and continues to show up to make sure that everyone feels safe. secure, and more importantly, carrying on with life, not freezing, not stopping, and just being in a sense of knowing that you are protected. And I think that's been so beautiful and so amazing to see. And also, it makes me feel even more for those that don't have what we have, don't have the privileges of an amazing defense system, don't have the privileges of being in a place where We are not having to move and to, you know, run away or to be in line of fire literally and being hurt. My heart goes out to all the people on both sides in any part of the world that has to go through war because it's an ugly thing. And in my opinion, it's not even human. It's against our human nature to create war. So the reason I'm creating this podcast today is is really. I want to share with you guys. I did a video the other day on the war, the real war on our attention, and the real war in terms of what's happening to us on a day-to-day basis where we're bombarded with news, social feeds, alerts. And that sometimes can feel very much overwhelming for a lot of people, especially if we're not aware of it and how to navigate that to create a space of balance and to learn and to know what are the tools to regulate our nervous system. So it's truly important. And my intention with this particular episode that I'm doing, the Solar Podcast, is to give you guys actual actionable insights and tools and some know-hows how to navigate this. And the idea here is really coming from the messages I received from my reel video that I shared on Instagram where people were asking me, okay, great. It's good to know. We know that there is a war on our attention, but how do we navigate that? How do we navigate times of uncertainty? How do we navigate, you know, the feelings and the sense of feeling unsafe to search for threats? So again, this is my intention with this podcast, with this episode, is to give you guys these actionable insights. So rewinding the movie of my memory going back to the last few days, even myself, I had to really recalibrate myself and to remind myself of all the tools that I coach personally to all my community, to my tribe, to the people here that I've been doing for 8 years. Part of my work is not only reconditioning the mind, but also understanding our nervous system and how to regulate our nervous system so that we can make the right decisions from the right places, not from a place of fear, but from a place of truth, a place of logical thinking. Because again, you know, I feel we've been experiencing this over and over again. You go back to different experiences from the pandemic, it almost feels the same experience except it's just a different label, right? The uncertainty. What do I do next? How do I navigate? The fear and the suggestibility that comes with these experiences is something that we need to be aware of because behind all of the smoke, literally, is another battle. It's again the battle for our mind, for our attention. And the messages I received from the video that I shared on my Instagram, it really showed me something important. It showed me that people aren't just feeling uncertainty in this world, they're also feeling the sense of uncertainty inside their nervous system because it's resonating to understand the feeling in the body. So again, my intention today is to not talk about politics, not talk about news, but really go deep into the human psychology and what actually happens to the mind and also how to how to navigate this world that becomes uncertain for all of us, including myself, guys. And I really just want to share the knowledge that I have gained over the years from my mentors, as well as from my experience working with people, that perhaps there's something for you to take away from this today. Okay, so first and foremost, let's begin by understanding the brain. The brain is wired for certainty, and human beings are wired For certainty, this is something we need to know fundamentally speaking, right? For safety, for predictability. And this has been going on for thousands of years, guys. Uncertainty often means, or in the past meant danger, and continues to mean danger for many today, right? The brain, of course, evolved with time. But as it evolved, the part of the evolution of us is when we feel uncertain, we have to—it's just the way we're wired. I say this all the time: constantly. Search for threats, but we all know that things are changing and today's world is different. And when we live in times like these with information that we're receiving is about danger, it's consistent, right? Every news is about danger, danger. I mean, the messages I receive from from friends and family abroad, they really think we're in a massive war zone, and it's not the case. We are actually very, very safe here in Dubai. But it just comes to show you that how media and news. can change people's perception and change a whole perspective of people, which creates more fear for people abroad. And people like ourselves that live in Dubai, our families, most of our families live abroad. So they're having to go through the fear itself as well. So it's like fear on both sides, right? So it's a constant. The social media, the alerts, even us, the alerts we get here, and it's coming from a great place to Remain safe, and we get an alert that says move away from windows, etc. Da da da. Even that alert for a lot of people creates anxiety, and that's normal. There's no judgment here, right? But these alerts and these updates are needed. But again, it does create a sense of uncertainty of what's going to happen next, right? And the brain was never designed to process endless uncertainty. This is really important, guys. When I say like it's it's not the way we are designed for. consistent uncertainty, right? And what happens in the brain, there's a small part of the brain called the amygdala, and this small part of the brain activates. And when it activates, it's like the nervous system shifts into what I call the survival mode, right? People know it as a survival mode. And what happens in literally our adrenaline rises, the cortisol rises, and the body becomes hyper alert. And sometimes it's important that we change that because if we don't change that, we stay stuck in those brainwaves. We stay stuck in that sense of alertness, right? This, and of course that affects a lot of things, including our thinking. You know, it starts to, you go survival thinking. Psychologists actually call this the amygdala hijack. And it's a state. And people become more reactive, become on their nerves, they become more emotional. And it's really important that this is something that we are aware of, because I think in order to navigate that, first we need to understand how we work. How does this operating system in our body and how does our nervous system work? And what happens when we are in these states? One thing which you guys need to know, by the way, this state is the highest state of suggestibility. It's a bit like COVID again, like fear, fear, fear, fear, fear. Then The suggestibility is to do that, and people just most people did things that they didn't want to do, you know, and they ended up regretting it. But they did it because it came from a place of fear, and the suggestibility was easy and high to manipulate most people to do things that they didn't want to do. But that's what fear does. It it doesn't make you resourceful. Doesn't make you logical. So the decision-making process gets distorted. And again, the reason for that is that the brain has something called this negativity bias, right? It it naturally starts paying. Paying more attention to threats rather than safety, and this helped humans survive in the past. But guys, again, today it means something else, and that's why I say there is a war on our attention because fear-based information moves through societies much faster than calm information. Right? Think about it. Like the amount of information we're getting, and a lot of it is fake, by the way. A lot of information that's being circulating is also fake. So discernment is important. Responsibility is important in what we share, right? And that ultimately is something we need to all take responsibility of. And we really need to understand that if we zoom out, the war is not just that war, it's the war on our attention. And in the modern world, attention naturally, guys, this is not news for you guys, has become one of the most valuable resources. Because entire industry compete for it. You know, we know this for a fact. But what we forget is the number one decider or the number one factor in capturing people's attention is fear. And it's one of the strongest ways to capture people's attention is create fear, fear content, fear information. And that's how we— you get the masses Operating and thinking and managing their perception a certain way. I always say this, and I said that in the video, that there is another battle happening quietly every day. And the battle, guys, is for your attention, your emotional state, your nervous system. And I want this to— like, I want you to register this as not a, you know, I'm not trying to be conspiracy theorist here or philosophical. It's literally a battle. And we need to understand the certainty loop when uncertainty rises, this loop that we have, this constant uncertainty. The brain is designed to look for certainty. Just remember that. So we check the news, right? We're looking for news. We're looking social media. We're looking for updates. We're looking for alerts because the information that information is what brings us certainty, right? Instead of like creating, you know, questions in our mind. So we look for it. And I've been telling my friends, I've been telling my family, I've been telling all the close people around me, like, give that a break. You know, just be careful that that doesn't consume you because it becomes a loop and the mind will constantly get back into that form of searching in places that often actually creates more fear and we're not even aware of it. So again, guys, my intention with this episode is to really share with you guys some insights for becoming unshakable and how do— what do we do about it? How do we stay grounded when the world feels uncertain? These are some of the questions that came through to me in private DMs from that video that resonated with, with many of you that are here in my community here in Dubai or around. So firstly, let me begin by defining the 3 steps or the 3 aspects that will help you regulate these times and regulate your nervous system. So first is regulating the body, right? So when the body is calm, the mind becomes clearer. So a simple breathing pattern that helps, and very simple, guys, is to always inhale through the nose for a count of 4 seconds, and you hold for a count of 4, and then you exhale for a count of 6. And you have to do that, and you repeat that for a few times, do it over a few minutes. What happens is naturally the body starts to shift from sympathetic to the parasympathetic nervous system. And remember, longer exhalations is a signal of safety. So remember that when you breathe out, you're almost doing double the inhale. Yeah. So follow that. So 4 in, hold for 4, and then double for out. So go 8 out or 6 out, 6 seconds out. Okay. So a calm body is going to create a clear mind. That's what we want. So that's tip number 1, right? Tip number 1 in calming the body. And don't do that while you're on your phone. Like, literally put everything aside, close your eyes, and just do that for a few seconds or a few minutes. That's going to help. The second tip here that I'm sharing with you guys is that you need to regulate the information. Just like food, guys, just how food affects the body, information affects the body. Most people are extremely careful about what they eat, but unfortunately, a lot of people aren't aware that they need to approach that the same way. No one is really careful about the what they consume mentally, and that I'm referring to the information, right? So try the simple rule, what I've been doing, and I'm sharing what I've been doing, right? 2 windows of information per day. So in the morning, check the news, check the feeds that are, that are reliable. Don't go to 10 million news sites or news portals. Just check one feed, mostly something that is reliable, that is, in my opinion, governmental. Here, for example, I'm checking news sources that are reliable. that are authentic, that are real, that are, you know, so I would go check that in the morning and then I would create another window in the evening. Outside of that, I choose to disconnect because constant exposure, especially in the beginning, I found myself, you know, it's creating this tension in my body, the nervous system. I'm feeling it like I'm in survival mode, even though my mind goes, yeah, I'm cool and I'm just checking the news. But in reality, my body is experiencing this, right? So that's the second tip. Then the third is regulate your attention with intention. I said that the other day in the video as well. So your attention is one of the most powerful forces in your life. So whatever you focus on repeatedly becomes your emotional environment. So your attention is a resource to you guys, and you got to ask yourself this question. This is something I was discussing actually with my beautiful wife, and I was chatting to her this This morning, actually, and I was like, okay, so a question we need to ask ourselves is: Where's my attention going today? Toward fear or towards creation? You know, is my attention steering my mind to a place? Is what I'm focusing on something I could control, something that I can manage? If it's something that I can't control, if it's something that I can't manage or I can't change, I'm not going to give it attention, right? So also reminding yourself of these things because. What we can't control, what we can't change, we need to shift away from. And then that helps us return to the present moment. And honestly, in the present moment, we remember that right now we're imagining the future scenarios, and the mind starts asking, what if this happens? What if that happens? Right? But try asking yourself the simple question instead: am I safe right now? Am I safe right now? Most of the time, the answer is yes. And bringing your attention to the now, bringing it back to the present moment, is gold. It literally calms your nervous system instantly because anxiety—I will share this before if you've been following me—is the emotions of the future, right? It's always us predicting something that's going to go wrong. And here is another message: as we speak, we're under alert. So these things, for example, as they happen. Potential risks. There, it's happening live. I'm showing you guys. So this is what we're experiencing here. And it's great because this is a great example for you guys to understand in real time. When we get those messages, a lot of people that don't know how to regulate their nervous system will feel naturally threatened because it's something that comes up, right? It's something that comes up in terms of what's going to happen. Are we okay? So this is super important. These alerts that I'm referring to, yes, they're meant to be because they're meant to keep us safe. But if we're not regulating our nervous system, if we're not calm and centered, these are going to throw most of us out of balance. So remember, guys, my intention is clear with this information, and this podcast episode is really to share. And feel free, guys, feel free to reach out. I'm really happy here to guide you guys. I'm really happy to support my community. To help those that are in need. I'm doing a lot of you know free sessions actually recently with some of my community to help them navigate this anxiety for some. So I'm here to support guys. That's the intention from my heart to my community, to my tribe, to my people. And I just want to remind you guys always that humanity has always lived through uncertainty. There's always been wars. There's always been crises. There's always been pandemics. There's always been economic collapses. Yet humanity continues forward, and I just want to remind you of that. We cannot control every event in the world. It will never be something we can do. But what we can control is our internal state, our inner world, our breath, our attention, our response. How we react, and more importantly, our nervous system. And that was the message for today: is how do we navigate these tips? And this is what it means to being unshakable in these times. So guys, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast, and I want to leave you with this important reminder: the strongest minds in uncertain times are not the ones who know the future. They are the ones who know how to master their state of being. So sending out love to everyone. Thank you for taking the time again. Much love and positive energy.