From Paralyzed to Purposeful: Spreading Joy Around the World

Well, the perfect person is here on Cash In On Camera today to infuse all of that joyful goodness inside all of us today because Barry Shore is here. So excited, Barry, to have you on the podcast today because your whole world is joy. You are the ambassador of joy. And I'd love for you to share with us your story of how this all came to be. How did you become the ambassador of joy?

Good day, beautiful, boundlessly loving immortal beings and good-looking people. Now, wonderful Sheryl Plouffe, how can I make the categorical statement all the thousands and tens of thousands of people that will watch this video are all good-looking? Because by definition, if they tune into your podcast, that means they're always looking for and finding the good. That's a definition of a good-looking person. Looking for and Finding the Good. I am deeply humbled and honored to be here today. And I would like to share a little bit of the story, if I may. So we'll just jump right in. So we talk about what's called the 3 fundamentals of life because these 3 fundamentals enable you to be happier, healthier, and wealthier. Who doesn't want that, right? And the 3 fundamentals are, number 1, life, your life has purpose. And when you lead a purpose-driven life, number 2 happens. In this case, good number 2, you go MAD. Now, MAD is a wonderful acronym that stands for Make a Difference. Lead a purpose-driven life and make a difference in the world. And the third fundamental is to unlock the power and the secrets of everyday words and terms so that you can find the positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant essence of them and, again, be happier, healthier, and wealthier. So I'd like to share with you one right now that I urge everybody to internalize, utilize, and leverage in your life because it will make a difference for you. And that word is SMILE. Now, SMILE stands for seeing miracles in life every day. Seeing miracles in life every day. Now, Sheryl, I can tell you, when I speak to audiences— just recently came back from an audience of 1,176 people, not a mask there, lots of hugging, lots of uplifting, beautiful things happening— and I'm telling you a story about Barry Shore, and people raise their hands and say, hey, Barry, I've been out for hours, I haven't seen any miracles. I ask, are you here? Can you hear? Can you stand still? I can't do that. Can you walk? I can barely do that. You have water to drink, food to eat, a place to sleep, family, friends. Every single one of those, Sheryl, is a miracle. And the proof is a million people didn't get out of bed this morning. You know why? They died. By definition, if you're watching or listening, you didn't. You have an obligation to live life to the full. So imagine the following. Me standing up in the morning, hale and hearty, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and that night being in the hospital, totally, completely paralyzed. It was not from an automobile accident, not a spinal injury. A rare disease, which I never heard of the day before, Sheryl, took over my body and rendered me a quadriplegic, which means I was paralyzed completely from the neck down. I could only communicate by blinking my eyes. I was 144 days in the hospital. I was in a hospital bed in my own home paralyzed for 2 years. I was in a wheelchair for 4 years. I had braces on both my legs, my hips to my ankles. That was progress. Thank God today I'm able to be vertical and ambulatory with the help of a 7-foot walking wand. So I'm a tripod, not a biped. I still cannot walk up a stair by myself. I can't walk up a curb by myself. I have help 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. But you hear my voice. Positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant. It's all because of this one word. Actually, it's another word. It's a 3-letter word with an O in the middle. And that word, of course, is joy. Joy.

Barry, your story is so inspiring. And I wondered if I could go a little deeper with you. I'd love to know a little bit more about your day-to-day because I know what you represent. You have amazing acronyms, and I love that you shared some of them with us already. But, you know, this is a world where we are bombarded by a lot of media, a lot of messages, a lot of negativity. And I wonder, like, do you watch the news? I mean, do you even take that, those types of inputs in, or are you the person who doesn't really pay attention to all of the bad things that are going on in the world?

So let's use your last point. I do not pay attention to the things that other people call negative because there's no benefit. Now, however, I am not a hermit. On the contrary, I am very outspoken. As Sheryl knows, I attend a lot of seminars, webinars. I give them. I speak to tens of thousands of people every month. And I am out there and I know what's going on. But I will share with you something wonderful, Sheryl, that I found to be quite beneficial. And again, This acronym, JOY. JOY stands for Journey of You. Isn't that great? Journey of You. When you recognize that you can become your own spiritual chiropractor, you're gonna have what I call a shift in perspective. It happens to be the title of my newest book, which is coming out in just another month or so, titled Oh Shift. Now I've been working with people for more than 4 decades. I counted the other recently, over a million people I've worked with in 4 decades. And 97.2% of them, when they speak shift first, they drop the F and the other stuff happens. So you got to be effing careful with your shift in perspective. But let's go exactly to your point. So everybody knows what a chiropractor is, right? Sometimes you feel out of sorts physically. You go in and this person, mesomorph usually, they go, eh, eh, eh, and supposedly feel better because your neck was cracked. And now you're in alignment, right? Well, let— that's a physical. Let's do the same thing in the spiritual. What we really want to do— everybody wants to do this, I do, is I work on it regularly— is you want to align your thoughts in good. You want to align your speech in good. You want to make sure that your deeds are good. So when you are aligned physically, mentally, spiritually in goodness, and you become a channel of goodness— I call it a cog You know, people think of a machine, a little cog, say, well, just a cog. Well, without you, the machine doesn't work. You are the key to making this world a better place. You are the key. This show, by the way, as nice as Barry's show is— okay, it's not about me— as wonderful as Sheryl is, not even about her, it's about you. It's about you becoming the best you possible. And one of the best ways to do that is to, again, be your own spiritual chiropractor. You can do that by listening to podcasts like Sheryl has, to me. I'm the ambassador of joy. I share with people pathways to success so you can learn to utilize stress even to your advantage and learn to live in joy daily, no matter the circumstances. Look, I'm living proof. It took me years, years to be able to sit up and put my feet over the edge of the bed. That was my goal. That was like, visualize, Sheryl. It still takes me 10 minutes to get out of bed today. But guess what? I get out of bed. So it's that ability to think like this. Yeah.

I want to just touch on something that you just said about the stress. Stress is a— it's a part of life. We're never going to live without some form of stress in our lives. So what are some practical things that you can share with others who are feeling that way? They're feeling really stressed out. They feel anxiety. They feel all these things. I know you're a mental wellness advocate. You're a philanthropist, a speaker, an author, podcaster yourself. What are some ways that you could help share a tip or two with someone who's really feeling like, I don't know, the world just feels really heavy on me right now?

So let's look at the word stress. From the way that people do. And then we're going to do a shift. Remember, gotta be effing careful with your shift. Shift perspective and look at how Barry Shore presents it. Okay, buckle up everybody, here we go. So STRESS is a great acronym that stands for Stomach Turning Reality Enabling Self-Sabotage. Ah, do you know what happened? I lost my job. We might lose the house. My cousin committed suicide. The kids are going crazy in the school. The country's falling apart. And that's how people either look physically, or that's how they are internally. And internally, it's even worse because you're really causing damage to yourself. But we're gonna do a shift, and you're gonna internalize and utilize the 6 most important words you could ever learn. These words are: choice, not chance, determines your destiny. Choice. Not chance determines where you're going to go and the trajectory. So let's take this look at the same exact word, stress. Do a shift in stress. Stress stands for stomach-turning reality. It's true, you may have lost your job, you may lose the house, your cousin did commit suicide, kids are going crazy at school, country are— countries are falling apart. Enabling self-success. What did he say? Self-success from stress? Yes. Remember, choice, not chance, determines your destiny. How you choose to respond in any given situation makes all the difference when you can shift your perspective. Now, you ask me, Sheryl, what can we do? Okay, that's very nice, Barry. I love that, but I need practical stuff. Practical. What can I do right now? So we're going to share with people 2 things you can do immediately, which is going to enable you to utilize stress to your advantage and live in joy daily. By the way, SHARE is a great word. SHARE stands for Spreading Happiness and Rejuvenating Energy. I have another book out, it's called The Book of Acronyms. And by the way, my other book, The The Joy of Living, You Deserve It, How to Slay Stress and Be Happy is available for free because you're listening to Sheryl. So she'll put up the URL and you'll be able to get the ebook for free. Let's take a look at 2 practical things you can do. Number 1, breathe. Breathe. Did you say breathe, Mary Shore? Yes. Well, of course I'm breathing. Hello, I'm alive. Yes. We're going to talk about real breathing. There's breathing to live, and then there's deeper breathing to be able to rejuvenate yourself. Now, this is really critical. Uh, again, I've been working with people for more than 4 decades, million-plus people, and when I do this, people say, oh yeah, I want to do it, and you start doing it. I'm going to share with you a program that takes 94 seconds of your life. 94 seconds. And if you do this twice a day, once before noon, once afternoon, it will cause a shift and you will literally be stressless. So let's take a look at this. Again, it's only 4 breaths. What's going to happen is you're going to be able to unclog and open the twin channels of giving and receiving, and you'll experience greater intimacy than you've known in years. 4 breaths. So this is called diaphragmatic breathing. Now, I got to tell everybody, most of the people I've worked with over the years, 98%, they know that it exists. They don't know where it is and they can't spell it. So I just call it tummy breathing. So forget diaphragm, call it tummy breathing. All right? And what you're going to learn to do, and this is available also on my website, it's all free. I share this with the world because that's my mission in life is to enable people to do better and be aware of what's going on is to be able to breathe in through— you know, again, first we have to have consciousness. Sit still. You can do a lot. You want to do a lotus position, great. You would just sit in your chair. You can do it standing. I prefer sitting because it's difficult for me to stand. And just breathe in through your nose consciously, deep breath into your tummy, and then let it out slowly through your mouth. Pursed lips, we call it. And you want to do this 4 times. Now I'm going to share with you another idea. We don't even call it take a breath. It's called allow a Conscious Loving Breath, a CLB. You want to allow a Conscious Loving Breath to come in through your nose, deep into your tummy, and slowly out through your mouth. And you want to do that 4 times. Just again, 94 seconds. Maybe it will take you 100 seconds. And you learn to do this consciously, conscientiously, twice a day, once before noon, once after noon, 11 days in a row. It's really important not to miss a day. Remember, be twice a day, 11 days. By the 12th day of the practice, you'll be consciously aware and you'll be able to touch and access the positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant essence of you, open up the twin channels of giving and receiving, and experience greater intimacy than you've known in years. And you will not stop doing this, and you'll share it with other people. I learned this from a master. Her name was Rivoli Roth. I learned this from her master when I was 22 years of age. And I'm 74 now. So I've been doing this for 50+ years. Wow. I can tell you, even throughout being quadriplegic, it was very difficult for me to breathe. But this made, made a difference in my life. And it will for you. 94 seconds. It's our gift to you. Thank you, Sheryl, for letting me share.

That is brilliant, Barry. And it's so simple. It's free. It doesn't take a lot of time. It's just being aware of what the exercise is and then actually going out and doing it. And I'm going to— I'm going to do that. Actually, what I think I'll do is set a little alarm on my phone for a couple of times a day just to remind me at what point, just for the first initial 11 days, just to get me into the habit of actually doing it. So I love that. And what's interesting about what you just said is that you've been doing that practice since you were in your 20s, which was before you became a quadriplegic. So that tells me that you've had this sort of spiritual, let's say, uh, penchant, uh, and belief before the paralysis. So where did that all come from? Have you always been a spiritual person?

So the simple answer is yes and no. Hello. It takes— at some point, I believe almost every person needs to and does ask themselves the three W's. Why am I here? Who am I? And now that I know something about that, what am I supposed to do? So I was able to do that in my 20s. And I will tell you a quick story. And it was— it's not an easy one, but it's a quick story. If you can't imagine, I had a thriving business in the early 1970s. It was the era of they called boutique stores. I had a boutique store in a place called Boston, Massachusetts, very hip place on the most fancy street in Boston called Newbury Street. I had this beautiful store where we made accessories, bags and coats and hats and pillows out of Oriental rugs. We were carpetbaggers essentially. And the name of the store was Fred. It was very interesting. And we'd written up in Boston Magazine and they said it was a time when boutique stores were all country and I was invited to show in New York City. So the person who headed up the sewing factory and such, we had 6 people working, we were doing very well. Celebrities were buying from us. It was becoming a hip thing. Again, all before social media. Hello, 1970, '71. But we were out there. People were calling us all the time. On the way to New York City, for this show. It was Saturday night, the show was going to start up on Sunday. It was just after midnight and we're traveling New York City on the thruway and somebody fell asleep at the wheel of his car, a huge Buick, and the car hurtled across the median and hit my car, which is a Volkswagen Beetle, head on. Now, those days, no seat belts, no sign. Now, the good news is, of course, the end of the story is I lived, otherwise you wouldn't be hearing me, this would be my spirit talking. But suffice it to say, they didn't know that I would. For a day and a half. Again, the person who was my head of production, so she was in the, in the car in front of me, so she saw what happened, pulled over, and the doctors— they were able to fire people— got me to hospital. Happened to be a great hospital, a small town, and they were able to save my leg and put special things in my body, titanium and all kinds of stuff. But they told you got to get a hold of his parents if you can because we don't know if he's going to make it. So suffice it to say, I did make it. They were picking glass out of my, my head and my body for 3 days. I mean, this was major stuff. And it took another 3 years of operations and a lot of work physically, mentally, spiritually. It was hatha yoga, 1, 2, 3 hours a day and meditating and praying. And it's called PTL— prayer, therapy, and love. And that's when the master, this woman, Rivalee Roth, came into my life and taught me this meditative spiritual breathing technique, which is so simple. And she was one of a chain of masters going back 3,200 years. This amazing woman. I had been prepared for things because I was involved. I was able to be healed physically, mentally, spiritually through prayer, therapy, and love. By the way, two parts of love, Sheryl Plouffe, receiving and giving. I can tell you from personal, it's oftentimes more difficult to receive lots of love than it is to give it. I believe that. You know this, right?

I believe that. I believe that. Barry, this is so much fun, and we could be here for hours talking about joy, you know, because this world needs it. This world needs joy. This world needs kindness. This world needs love. It needs all the things that you represent. I watched one of your recent I think it was an Instagram story that you did where you showed some flowers that were sitting on your counter and all of the— I would just encourage anyone watching, viewing, listening right now, follow Barry because it will liven you up. You know, it's so inspiring to see the positivity that you put into the world. And it's just through your voice and through your actions and through who you are that I think, you know, infuses into us and then it makes us want to go and do the same thing and pay it forward. So I really appreciate that.

I know we're pressed for time, but I want to share one more practical tip.

Sure, go ahead. Ready?

Yes. Learn to love dog poop. Did Barry Sheryl Plouffe say dog poop? Yes. Learn to love dog poop. Okay, everybody, what is he talking about? I'll go right to the chase and just make it quick. But everybody knows what dog poop is. Sometimes you walk by, you don't want to see it. But imagine walking along with your friend and seeing dog poop and you start laughing, saying, What are you talking about? I said, well, I love DOG POOP. I heard Barry Sheryl Plouffe talk about it. Let me tell you what it is. DOG POOP stands for Doing of Good, Power of One Person. And we're talking doing of good. Yes, I love random acts of kindness. That's a wonderful thing. But when you talk about doing of good, I am very much focused on conscientious and consciousness. Because when you do things conscientiously and consciously, it makes a different kind of energy in the world. A higher energy. So doing of good, consciously, at least 3 times a day, conscious, think of things that you can do for others. If you find that it's an opportunity, you do it and then write it down in your journal. At least 3 times a day you did something doing of good. And POOP stands for Power of One Person. Sheryl, I've done this with thousands and thousands of people. I ask people, do you think that you're as powerful as Mother Teresa? People saying, I guess not. You think you're as powerful as Nelson Mandela? Do you think you're as powerful as Elon Musk? Do you think you're as powerful as Mahatma Gandhi? People, no. Well, you are by definition. If the good Lord put you here, you have as much power as any other individual in the world. You make a difference. And when you begin to understand it, like you talked about, spiritual chiropractor, You will not have negative thoughts. You will not complain and blame. You won't have negative speech. You won't have negative actions. And you'll be in alignment. And then when you reach out to 2 people who reach out to 4, to 8, to 16, to 32, to 64, to 128, to 512, to 1,050, and on and on, there's nothing, nothing in the world that could stop that energy. There's no wall, there's no building, there's no mountain, there's no ocean that can stop it. And you're creating a tsunami of goodness in the world. Love dog poop. The next time you see it, say, "Yes, I love dog poop." Well, you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to write your acronym up on my whiteboard right behind me here, just so that I can remind myself every day. That's what I love about the acronyms. And you've shared so many great ones with us today. Because it's easy for us to remember these mantras. It's easy for us to remember these directives of how to spread more joy into the world. And I would love to give you an opportunity to tell us about the ebook, Barry.

Oh, great. So we have right now the ebook, The Joy of Living: How to Slay Stress and Be Happy. And you deserve it, the joy of living. It's available for free. And by the way, underwritten— it's a $14.95 value— underwritten by a wonderful couple. They want to distribute 100,000 copies around the world. They're paying for this. So get the book. In addition, we'll be putting up there— I hope by the time that this goes live, wonderful Sheryl Plouffe, we're going to put up the acronym book, which is also $14.95, and it's available for free. And my latest book, O Shift— remember, keep that F in there— available for free. Why are we doing this? Because we're here to share. You are a sharer. You wouldn't be listening to Sheryl unless you care. You know that what she brings to you is of benefit to you. That's what we're here for. And when we work together and we share with each other, yes, we make a difference. We can tip the balance. It is positive, purposeful, powerful, and pleasant. That's who you are. JOY stands for Journey of You. Your journey is wonderful. Learn how to utilize stress for your benefit. Live in joy daily. Breathe. Love dog poop. Life is wonderful.

Life is wonderful because you've come on and shared these tips with us today, Barry. I just love this. This is so fantastic. I love it because it's actionable and we can remember these acronyms and we are looking forward to your new books. We will go back into the library of your other books. And from one podcaster to another, your podcast, The Joy of Living, obviously worth subscribing to and listening to as well, because that's really what this is all about. It's about collaboration. And I so appreciate you coming on Cash In On Camera today to share things.

Can we do a hug? I'm going to hug you and let's do it. Give a blessing. So HUG stands for Heartfelt Unlimited Giving. On the count of 3. 1, 2, 3. Roar! And our blessing from Sheryl and Barry is go forth, live exuberantly, spread the seeds of joy, happiness, peace, and love. Go mad, go make a difference.

Thank you, Barry. So great to have you on.

Nice to be had.