20 Solcast - Episode Twenty: Spirituality, Affirmations and the Chakras Explained

Welcome to the show, Soulcast. Um, it's been a bit of a hiatus. Sorry for that, been pretty hectic. And I mean, worldwide it's been pretty hectic, you know. A lot of stuff going on, uh, the election of course, but on a grander scale, a spiritual awakening is occurring, I think, in Western culture. Now if you've been feeling, you know, particular surges of energy, uh, more of an in-tune kind of flux with the feeling of society at the moment, You know, a lot of people are feeling that. A lot of people are becoming more aware that the fight that we find ourselves in against the powers that be, whether they're corporations or just very rich people with nefarious controlling desires for the, for the rest of the population, there is a level of you know, spiritual warfare that's going on between the light, love, and fear. The two opposing good and evil, if you will. If you have felt this on some level, it is kind of manifesting and showing itself to a lot of people, to the point where I've had conversations with friends that before, maybe they weren't as spiritual or they dismissed that kind of side of it that are now opening to the idea. And I think this is partially because, you know, that our traditional, completely logical, scientific Western viewpoint of the world and everything is maybe not working out as well for us without considering the spiritual side of things, the energetic side of things. I know for a fact that over the last few months, my, you know, more focused study and awareness of this realm has brought untold benefit into my life. And, you know, we'll be talking a lot about that in this episode. We'll be talking about chakras. I have a lot of interest from you guys about just breaking them down, what they are. It's a fairly simple concept. And one that actually does, you know, relate to the scientific, if you will. So a lot of good info there, um, and a bit of a first steps to get into the chakra world. We're also going to be talking about physiognomy, which is the study of physical appearance and how that relates to personality in people in general, in animals, in nature overall. To the point where if you get good at it, you can, for the most part, barring any obvious exceptions, predict someone's personality and their temperament from their outward appearance. And that has a lot of benefits for people, or for you to just know about. But I think it is just, again, inherent instinct that we have as a human and just, I guess, as animals in general. If an animal is to look at a big scary tiger, usually the big fangs, the kind of predator walk, all of that signifies to us, okay, dangerous, stay away from that fella. Whereas if you look at a sheep, you know, nice cute little lamb, probably is not going to have as much of a threat to you. So that's kind of the basis of physiognomy, I think, and that it has far-reaching, uh, connotations to it. So another big topic for this podcast, uh, but first I just want to— as we're going to be releasing these fairly often now, I want this to be a part where we take gratitude and just stop. And if you're listening to this walking or just at work or whatever. You can do it wherever you are. Just want to stop whatever you're doing and really pay attention to how your body is feeling in this moment. Are there any areas of your body which are particularly tight? How's your neck feeling? Have you done any neck rotations or head movement side to side recently? Just get blood moving around there. Super important, I think, for the neck and spine to be moved, whether that's through the practice of yoga or just stretching or whatever, because the spinal cord and obviously its attachment to the skull and the brain is, uh, the cerebrospinal fluid that moves up and down the spinal column and in the brain. Your brain is suspended in, uh, that's hugely important to promote the kind of flow of that because it's responsible for moving the waste products out of your brain, the metabolites of your body in general. So always check in with your body. How's your spine feeling? If you're sitting in an office desk, uh, as your main job, then every now and then, you know, it really helps to just move your body from side to side, stretch up, you know, proper posture, uh, whenever you think about it. If If you can do that, you know, 15, 20 times throughout the day, it all adds up. So really promoting movement of the spine, thinking about moving each individual vertebrae with your back muscles at each level of the spine. Kind of got sidetracked here, but yeah, we're paying attention to the body and just checking in with how we're feeling. So if there is an area of your body that's feeling particular— particularly tight, let's delve into it a little bit with some breathwork. In through the nose, 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and then hold for 4 seconds. And we're going to do a few cycles of that, okay? Thinking about where we want the breath and the oxygen and that release of tension to go, wherever that will be for you. And release. And breathe in. And out. And in. 4 seconds. And out. Just going back to the point of, uh, the spinal column movement. When you're breathing through your nose, you should know that we try to— or I recommend breathing through your nose at all times. But when you breathe through your nose, your using the diaphragm to breathe, uh, compared to mouth breathing. You're not engaging the diaphragm as much. When you're breathing with the diaphragm, you're actually getting a movement of the bottom of the spine and the skull as well. And that movement is going to help to circulate the cerebrospinal fluid, uh, up and down. That's fluid dynamics, bro. Physics. Um, so make sure that you're breathing through the nose when we're doing these breathing exercises, and in general. Super game changer. If you're sitting at an office desk doing work, you can feel a bit more fatigued or anxious without realizing it because you're breathing through the mouth. So a good tip for that is to tape your mouth if you're not in an office, working from home or whatever, especially for sleep as well, to tape your mouth so that you are ensuring that you're only breathing through the nose. Don't diaphragmatically, uh, and that's just going to be much better for your body overall. So I hope we're all feeling a bit more centered, a bit more aware of our bodies and in touch with them to delve into the first topic for, uh, the Soulcast today: affirmations. Affirmations, I feel, are literally magic spells. Everyone that I've introduced it to has perceived, you know, progress in whatever it is that they affirm. We choose affirmations like, I am successful in whatever it is I choose to do. Money flows to me effortlessly. I bring a positive energy to everyone that I meet. Nothing gets me down. If you can internalize these, repeat them, believe them, then they become reality. I'm telling you that because I want you to do it, and I'm telling you that because I want you to improve in your life. And this is a game changer. If you get involved with it properly and really put the effort in and suspend your logical sensibilities for the most part, which I had to do when I first started, the rewards are boundless. Whatever you believe becomes. You might see this with your friends or family. They're always repeating negative affirmations or negative stories about themselves. I'm not good enough. We'll never be able to make that work. I have a bad back. I always get sick. These are negative spells that you are casting on yourself every time you repeat them. Your subconscious doesn't know the difference between reality, or, you know, everything is reality, but let's say the reality that we can measure and whatever, and it's right in front of us. Your subconscious doesn't know what's actually happening compared to what's being visualized in your head. If you are constantly reaffirming these negative things where you are bringing, you know, either physical ailment or illness into the body simply by believing that that is true, whether that's, uh, you did get a cold once and then you thought, "Oh, I'm always sick," and then it just becomes this thing that you're repeating to yourself, that is going to increase the likelihood that you get sick. If you believe that you recover quickly from everything, uh, illness-wise, that is going to speed up your recovery. If you believe that you are unconfident, that you're not a good public speaker, then you will never become a good public speaker. It's often a snowball effect, as with all of these things. That if you have one negative experience that then, you know, you feel a lot of shame or you feel a lot of anxiety when you recover, when you repeat this experience in your head, that alone of you going back to that experience and putting your body back into that stressful situation over and over again where you have, let's say, failed or didn't get the result that you wanted to, or you were embarrassed or something, Again, your subconscious does not know the difference between, okay, that happened years ago, but it's just being replayed in my head. Your subconscious thinks that that's happening again. If your subconscious thinks that that's happening over and over and over and over again, eventually you're going to internalize and strengthen that negative connotation. So first of all is to make sure that you are not telling these negative stories to yourself, to your subconscious. Stop the negative affirmations, whether that's, you know, I'll never make enough money to afford that, I'll never get a girlfriend because I'm ugly. All of these things become as true as you believe them to be. And if you don't like something about yourself, you can change the story that you tell yourself about it. It's as— it's, yeah, it is straightforward and it's simple depending on how ingrained and solidified that these beliefs are. In you, it will take time to get rid of them, just as it took time for them to cement in your head. So every person I've introduced the idea of affirmations to has noticed, you know, increased focus, a more spiritual energy, higher energy in general, higher physical energy, because as, as we know, spiritual energy is linked to physical energy. To affirm means to make a positive statement and move towards something of value to us. You can affir— affirm your spirituality, your values, your relationships, uh, your body, your finances. But you should always be consciously aware of what you're affirming. If you're unconscious of what you are affirming, you could be affirming the wrong things. And moving towards them without realizing that this is, you know, a practice that can be changed for your benefit. Your subconscious does not know the difference between real and imagined events. It just responds accordingly. You can use this tool to your advantage once you know this. Think about when you're watching a horror movie. Consciously, in your waking mind, you know the movie is fake, You know you're watching pixels on a screen, but you get an increased heart rate, maybe you sweat a little bit, you get anxious and your body tenses up all the same. Your subconscious brain is reacting as if you are in that situation running away from the monster, whatever it is. Now really think about that. You know you're watching a movie, but it doesn't matter to your subconscious. Knowing that, we can actively create a mental framework of positive affirmations that will bring benefit into our lives. With repetition, affirmations sink into your subconscious mind. You start to believe them, and when you believe them, they become your reality. The first step is to sit down and truly consider what it is that you want. What is it that you don't want anymore? Without this core framework of what you value, what you want to improve, it's harder to create meaningful affirmations, uh, that aren't just general ones. Affirmations that you sit down and you write about that are going to be relevant to your life, they begin to overwrite any self-limiting or negative beliefs you have about yourself or not being able to do something. Perhaps you really, really want to be a writer, but you think, "I'm not good at writing," and so that negative self-talk prevents you from even starting to write. The idea is to consciously create these affirmations, replace them with positive thoughts and beliefs, which then install confidence, belief, positivity, ambition, energy, and more. Then when you have that, it's much easier for you to do the work, practice whatever it is that you want to, you know, achieve. Because without that inner self-belief, you can't even take the first step, if you're constantly repeating yourself that, you know, you're not good enough to achieve what you want to do, then you're never going to achieve that. You're likely just negatively impacting your life and mind. On the grandest scale, the universe is a conglomeration of energy and information. By bringing attention and focus to particular areas and exhibiting action within this, you're directing energy to that particular thing. Where attention goes, energy flows, good or bad. It's up to you what you decide to focus on. When af— when— so affirmations, when are you going to do them? I like to do them upon waking up and before bed when your brain is in that theta wave state. Uh, no screens, of course. You're just— it's you, yourself. Maybe you've stretched, you've meditated, you're in that kind of calm Zen mode. And then you have your list of 5 or 6 affirmations that you want to smash out and repeat and say out loud, usually in the same intonation so that they stick in your head. You know, I bring positive energy to everyone that I come into contact with. I bring positive energy to everyone that I come into contact with. You can do that over and over. I guarantee you that if you sit down and really put some thought into this and do it repetitively, you feel this, you know, I have clients that I do this with. They feel this charge or this surge of spiritual energy that they're almost as if their soul is speaking back to them going, hey mate, this is good. You know, they've never felt that kind of surge of energy before. They're instantly more focused and whatever. And even if it's just cutting through the bullshit of your day, starting and finishing your day with these focused goals, if you will, even that, besides all the spiritual stuff, even that is going to make you more owned in on what it is that you want to achieve. You don't have to just do them morning or night. You can do them. I like to do them in the car if I'm driving somewhere. You can actually say them with, cause there's no one around really, cars are pretty much soundproof, but who cares anyway, really speak them and give them some oomph. And you know, how often is it that you will really use the volume of your voice and speak from the stomach and have some strength and you know, you're rallying the troops in a way, just being yourself, but That's a good place to do them. Uh, in the shower when you don't have anything else to distract you. Okay, every time I get in the shower, I'm going to repeat to myself, the only opinion that matters is my own. Money flows to me effortlessly. It's as simple as that. Repeat what you want to affirm. Your subconscious will react accordingly. Couple this with focused work each day and doors start to just fly open left and right. And I mean that literally. There's no— it happens a lot quicker than you think. Um, you will see beneficial changes in your life, uh, within weeks. All it takes is for you to initially get rid of your logical, more scientific mind for a second and give it a go. Because I know that me doing it, I've seen results. Other people doing it, they love it as well. You know, we're all human, we all have access to this spiritual realm. We just haven't really been exposed to it or taught about it. For bodybuilding, it's still relevant. I effortlessly put on muscle and lose body fat. When you believe that, it's gonna happen. I am high test— high testosterone. I posted a tweet the other day that said, you know, if, if you affirm that you are high test I believe that your testosterone will increase as well. And it sounds bullshit, trust me. A couple guys instantly messaged me after I tweeted and they said, dude, when I affirmed I am high test, my balls started squirming like it happens when I'm sunning my balls. Tell me that that's not an indication of something positive. And if, if something is working because you believe it, then it doesn't matter how it works or what the mechanism is. All that matters is it's working and cool. Hey, that's great. If the symptoms of your illness and your disease get better because you are doing affirmations, do you think you're going to stop and be like, well, uh, because that was, uh, affirmations and not a medication that my doctor gave me, then you know, I'm gonna stop doing it. No, it doesn't matter. Whatever advantage you can get in life across the board, as long as it's not harming anyone, do it, utilize it. If you believe that drinking chamomile tea is going to improve your sleep quality, guess what? It's going to improve your sleep quality. This, this idea overall is so powerful, and to not take advantage of it to not at least give it a go when I'm telling you that it works would be silly. So I want everyone that's listening now to make sure that they put some affirmations down, write them, repeat them, affirm them, believe them, and I guarantee you're gonna see something great happen because of it. I'm gonna go bust out some push-ups. Let's try and hit 50. Should be able to do that in one set. Uh, we'll see. But go get some push-ups and come back, and I will see you in a bit. Welcome back. I didn't get quite to 50 reps, but, uh, I haven't really been doing push-ups, so that makes sense. But I'm not making excuses, just being honest with you guys. I didn't get to 50. Hopefully you just hit your max. Uh, good little pump, bit of blood flow. As always, the more time that we can spend physically moving the body throughout the day, the better. If you've been sitting down, even Every hour, just get up, move the body, shake it around, uh, do some squats, do some push-ups, pull-ups if you can. Super good, not going to contribute to overtraining or anything like that. So, second topic, uh, got a lot of interest in talking about this in a bit more depth, and that is the study of physiognomy. Physiognomy is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. Have you ever seen a guy and you just know what he's going to be like? And a couple minutes later, he opens his mouth and yep, he was annoying, or, you know, a rule follower, or snarky or something like that. And you can just tell from their face, usually a little ratty, you know, don't smile too much. People in general that have these less than friendly internal personalities, they tend to display it on the outside. They say not to book, judge a book by its cover. And I agree, always give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Always go into meeting new people with, you know, an open heart and without judgment. But there is a whole biological study of physiognomy that talks about how you can, for the most part, predict people's personalities or their— what's the word I'm looking for? Their internal dispositions by how they look or, you know, how they dress. And part of that is, you know, what kind of groups they identify with. If a guy's wearing, you know, workout gear, you can tell maybe that you would have a common interest of working out, or if he's jacked muscular physiognomy is, is always a big part of it. Um, but we're, we're mainly looking at inward emotions expressed in outward appearances. People that are spiritually angry, upset, or negative are usually going to display that. They're not going to be smiling, they're going to be frowning. You know, everything's, uh this annoying thing to them. Everything goes bad for them. I believe that we have internal instincts that warn us around when we're around these people, when we come into contact with these people. Going back to what I was talking about at the start, biologically we have to have some initial, uh, initial threat detection based on our first impression of what we see of, uh, the outside world. Otherwise, if we didn't have that, we would have been eaten by a saber-toothed tiger because we thought it was a cuddly dog. You know, you need to have that distinction. Appearances do relate to character. Alexander Walker, uh, the guy that studies this and writes about this, he claimed that the face was the mirror of the mind. Muscles that surround the features being more or less under control of the will. Now, facial muscles don't really get a lot of discussion, really, because they're— for the most part, you don't see them similar to how you see a bicep muscle, or you don't really train them. So, but there are in fact so many different tiny facial muscles that will have microscopic effects on the expression of the face, oftentimes revealing someone's inner feelings, even though they might outwardly be saying other things, lying. So understanding physiognomy on the whole is, is good for just social interaction, understanding that, you know, someone can be smiling with their mouth but not smiling with their eyes. Their eyes aren't crinkled. They don't have that sparkle and that open happiness that comes with a genuine smile. It's this, you know, fake attempt at a smile and it doesn't look quite right. And everyone has that instinctual knowledge and understands that, you know, when they see someone that maybe they look kind of robotic and their communication is not authentic and you kind of get a weird heebie-jeebies feeling. Because of that. Certain muscles around the nose and upper lip cause the wrinkling of the nose skin, which we do when we're expressing disgust or if we detect an unpleasant smile. You'll notice too that when the nose wrinkles, the upper lip lifts or wrinkles involuntarily with the nose. It's all connected. The muscles of the head and the mouth are responsible for a variety of expressions, of course, and they The control of the lips is important for speech. The risorius muscle causes the horizontal spreading of the mouth into which we call a smile. The opening and closing of the lips, mastication, wrinkling, smiling, and frowning are all the by-play of muscular activity. It then stands to reason that if someone is using particular muscles more than others, then there will be hypertrophy and atrophy of the corresponding muscles that are using more or less, just like anything in the body. You can gen— generally look at someone's physique and maybe recognize that they're a sprinter because they have disproportionately large legs, uh, if they're a shot putter by large shoulders or physical a physical worker, a laborer, if they have developed forearms. This is all physiognomy. Our character is reflected and denoted in each feature according to how we use, abuse, or allow it to lie dormant, unused. If someone's smiling all the time because they genuinely want the best for other people they're happy with their life, they're happy with their relationships, they always tell the truth so they're not in arguments, that will correspond to those particular muscles being more developed on their face than otherwise. If someone is always lying, always in strife and causing arguments with other people and, you know, selling people out because they're trying to get ahead, That state of being will result in different muscles being stronger and weaker in the face. The whole body is physiognomically expressive. The head, the face, the trunk, you know, your core. If you're always defensive, you tend to be, you know, shrunken in and protecting your inner organs subconsciously. Your hands, your feet, the way you walk, your voice, texture of your hair and skin. You know, think about the Chad walk. Um, you know, there's a confident stride that some people can walk like because they are genuinely confident. They don't feel scared of the stuff around them, whether that's socially or otherwise. So they're open, they're relaxed, and that is a recognizable demeanor which, if you study and develop, uh, you can learn to predict what people are going to act like just on how they look. Throughout nature, there exists an unlimited variety in the shape of living things. The differences in the form and structure of different organisms always correspond with the difference in character and function. The slender stalk of wheatgrass couldn't support bones. The face of the tiger denotes its predatory manner, as does that of the lamb. The eagle is the counterpart to the dove in external form as in behavior. The slanted eyes of the eagle compared to the open, non-threatening eyes of the dove. So There are laws in physiognomy, and one is that these external forms vary in accordance with the differences of internal character. Even among animals, you might think the horse, but within the horse, the character, build, and movements of the dray horse differ greatly from those of the racehorse. They have two different functions that have been selected for over time, resulting in different physical appearances. The lion differs from the deer, the leopard from the hippo, the dog from the pig. This confirms the law of physiognomy, or one of the laws of physiognomy, that configuration corresponds with organization and function. So this is just straight-up evidence that within the realm of, you know, our bodies reflect what we spend the most time doing. Our demeanors reflect our internal character. And if you pay a bit of attention to this, you look at someone that's confident in your social circle versus someone that's nervous, there are common factors at play. And being aware of those amongst people, especially the more, more the subtler facial stuff, can really help in social situations in general, being aware of someone that might be lying, being aware of people that might be, you know, just trying to get something out of you or not genuine in their emotion. It can also kind of serve as a basis for the people that you want to hang out with and spend more time with. And I'm not saying only judge someone based on their physical appearance, but just be aware of it. It is a real thing. You know, you can look at the studies that they've done where they will average conservative voters' faces versus leftist voters' faces. There is an inner quality of the person which corresponds to their physical beliefs. For the most part, if someone is bigger and jacked and fit, they're going to be more likely to be conservative on average. That happens with guys. But it's important to be aware of this, uh, because it is useful, it is real, whether or not you want to believe in it or not. The, the other side of physionomy is exercise. Obviously, exercise increases the muscular development in the size and power of certain limbs. If you're a blacksmith, you're going to have a jacked, you know, one side of the arm compared to the other because you're hammering with your dominant arm. You know, the man using the pick. The hands of certain manual workers increase in speed and dexterity through practice. A piano player's hands, very slender and delicate, and just— they're able to play the keys at a level that if you know, for me, I have fatter, longer fingers. I wouldn't be as, you know, you wouldn't pick me as a piano player. But, you know, the legs of the ballet dancer, the gymnast, all confirm that the external is developed and changed by the internal. Every motion, thought, and action, according to its power and the extent of its repetition, may engrave a feature of the face, for better or for worse. The other side of this is everyone's seen a person that might not be classically physically attractive in the face, but the warmth of their soul that shines through their face makes them so much more attractive and you can just tell from the get-go that this is someone that you can trust. This is someone that is going to experience and exude love, uh, for you or anyone they come into contact with because they are inherently happy with themselves and genuinely do want the best for everyone. You know, it kind of goes— relates to the affirmations thing. Whatever you spend your life believing, thinking, and doing manifests itself in the physical world. Your physical form, your physical circumstances, your financial circumstances. If you believe that everyone is out to get you and that the world is cruel and dark and, you know, everyone is out to get you, then that's gonna happen. You're going to bring it upon yourself. So be aware of physiognomy. Be aware in yourself that you are not manifesting this negative mindset and therefore facial features, because it's just going to end up putting away— putting— pushing people away. Physiognomy, a couple of books to read. One second. There's Physiognomy Illustrated, Joseph Sims is a good one. Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford. And then if you want to get into the more, you know, actually the art of reading people, by Kuyen Tran, the obviously the Asian history of facial reading there. So another good one, a great book that I've read is What Everybody Is Saying by Joe Navarro. That's more body language, but a super powerful book to add to your knowledge. It's really good at, you know, just making you aware of the things that people do on average when they lie, or if they're feeling uncomfortable or uneasy or happy and receptive and whatever. That can translate to knowing if it's good or not to ask a girl out or things like that. So that's a book that I also recommend. Okey dokey. Uh, the next topic that I wanted to discuss is chakras. The chakras are the energetic centers, uh, in your body. There are 7 of them. If you're not spiritual as such in this sense, then this concept will be harder to accept. So just be open to this idea. Again, like the affirmations, be open to it on the whole in order to feel it and progress in this arena. What you believe becomes. If you believe that this is a practice or concept which you can delve deeper into and connect to on a spiritual level, it will be so. If you dismiss it as BS, woo-woo, then you'll never open yourself up to the many amazing benefits that knowledge of the chakra system aligns to. There is a reason that people have talked about these systems and concurrently discovered these in different societies. Because they are part of the human experience. They've been around for thousands of years and discussed by the most spiritual of people across all different cultures. Just because we haven't delved into it and proven them with Western scientific studies recently does not mean that they aren't real. Additionally, I would even say that the old wisdom that has survived being lost to time is usually the most solid knowledge. They're these key uh, broader concepts and ideas that people have figured out are good spiritually for the human. So your consciousness, your experience of being, represents everything that's possible for you to experience. All of your senses, all of your perceptions, all of your states of awareness, can be divided into 7 rough categories, and then each of these categories are associated with a particular chakra. Chakra is spelled C-H-A-K-R-A-S. Chakras. The chakras represent not only particular parts of your physical body, but particular parts of your consciousness and your awareness of your mind. When you feel a tension in your consciousness you can feel it in the chakra associated with the part of your consciousness experiencing the stress, and in the parts of the physical body associated with that chakra. If there is tension in a particular part of your consciousness, and therefore in the chakra associated with that part, the tension is detected by the nerves of the plexus associated with that chakra and communicated to the parts of the body controlled by that plexus. When the tension continues over a period of time or reaches a degree of intensity, that manifests as a physical symptom in the body. The symptom that you're feeling serves to communicate to you through the body what they have been doing— what have you been doing to yourself in your consciousness. When you analyze that learn that and change your beliefs or change something about your way of being, they are able to— you're able to release the stress that's been creating a symptom and help return to your natural state of balance and good health. So there are 7 chakras, and the early stages of awakening these chakras, um, it's good to visualize or perceive them as wheels of light or local kind of auras of various colors. I'm going to go through the, uh, locations, the colors, and physical functions of the chakras, uh, just a little summary of each one. Each of the main— of the 7 main chakras discussed, uh, are associated with one of the 7 endocrine glands or the endocrine system on the whole. So this is the scientific biological relation. Comprises a number of ductless glands. This is the endocrine system, is a number of ductless glands that produce hormones, which we know act as chemical messengers secreted into the bloodstream from particular organs to stimulate or downregulate physical processes. By adjusting the hormone levels, the endocrine system works to maintain the body in a state of optimum health. If your endocrine system is out of whack then, you know, you're going to be experiencing problems related to that particular endocrine gland. So the chakras are linked with these glands responsible for creating the hormones. The fact that— I just want to stress this— the fact that there are— before we, you know, we had names for these endocrine glands, that these— this idea of chakras, okay, this, this energy center is related to your digestive system. Um, that I, you know, that speaks to me alone that this stuff is true and relevant and should be discussed and, you know, researched. The link between the chakras and the glands, it really emphasizes the holistic nature of health, uh, something that I stress hugely. You know, it's not just your food, it's not just physical exercise. It's the mental, it's the spiritual, it's everything that contributes to your holistic pie of health. Uh, and you know, the chakras really, they help create a framework for you. Um, when I'm listening through these chakras, if something sounds like it relates to you, I recommend that you kind of delve a bit deeper into that particular chakra There are certain foods that boost, um, the endocrine system in that area, or the chakras. There are certain activities, usually related to, you know, exercise, sunlight, breathing, pranayama, yoga, all of those things. Um, but the main thing is to make sure that we're maintaining a balance in our emotional and mental state, as well as our physical diet and exercise, as they're all deeply interrelated. The chakras located in the lower part of our body are our instinctual side, and the highest ones, coming up to the crown chakra, are more mental and spiritual. The chakras can have various levels of activity, and we can call them open if they are considered to be operating normally. If they're closed, they're, they're not operating well, and they can also be underactive or overactive. If a chakra is overactive, it usually means that another chakra is underactive. So to retain balance and make sure that they're all firing normally, uh, then we would say to just open all of the 7 chakras and make sure if, if, you know, your lower chakras aren't operating, that's creating something else, um, elsewhere in the body. So here are the chakras. Root chakra, which is, um, at the coccyx, coccyx. It's perceived as a disc of red light and controls the urinary system. The root chakra is about being physically present and feeling at home in situations. If it's open, i.e., working correctly, you feel grounded, stable, secure. You don't distrust people, new people. You feel present in the present moment and connected to your physical body. The root chakra, your, you know, your roots are there. Similar to if a tree has roots, right? If you tend to be fearful or nervous, your root chakra is probably underactive. You easily feel unwelcome. If this chakra is overactive, you may be very materialistic and greedy, might be obsessed with being secure and safety and resist change. So if that sounds like you, delve into the root chakra and the ways of opening that. The sacral chakra— obviously we're moving up the spine here. The sacral chakra is 3 to 5 centimeters below the navel, perceived as a disc of vermilion light. The sacral chakra governs the sexual organs, the ovaries, the testicles, bladder, bowel, and lower intestine. This chakra is about feeling sexuality When it is open, your feelings flow freely. They're expressed without you being over-emotional. You know, you feel good just telling people how it is, not in a rude way, just sharing your feelings, you know, without judgment. You're open to intimacy. You can be passionate, lively, no issues dealing with your sexuality, no shame there. Um, when the sacral chakra is open, working properly. If you tend to be stiff, unemotional, can't loosen up, you've got a poker face all the time, you don't smile too much, the sacral chakra is underactive. You're not very open to people. If the chakra is overactive, and this will be a lot of people, you tend to be emotional all the time, perhaps too emotional. You might feel emotionally attached to, uh, to people and hypersexual. In a way, if that's overactive. So if you feel like you are overly wearing your heart on your sleeve and suffering because of that, then your sacral chakra could be said to be overactive. The solar plexus chakra, around the navel, perceived as a disc of blue or green light. When I say perceived, what I mean is that when you delve into this meditation chakra stuff and the yoga traditions and close your eyes and visualize— and visualizing be meaning you're bringing attention to and awareness to and thus energy to that area— you can perceive each chakra as a disc of a particularly colored light, and that helps to cement and connect to that chakra. I don't know how it works, but I will, will tell you that it does work. Uh, and we'll get to my story about the third eye chakra later, but, uh, anyway, solar plexus chakra, perceived as a disc of blue or green light, uh, it governs the stomach, the upper intestines, the upper back, and upper spine. This chakra is kind of related to asserting yourself in a group, in your social circle. When it's open, working properly, you feel in control, you have sufficient self-esteem, When it's underactive, you tend to be passive, indecisive, probably timid. You don't get what you want. And if this chakra is overactive, you are domineering, probably even aggressive if, if your solar plexus is too charged up. So if that's you, look into rebalancing the other chakras to bring this one down a bit. The heart chakra, nearly at the top here, near the intersection of the median line and a line connecting the two nipples, perceived as a disc of intense red or golden light. And obviously heart chakra controls the heart, the circulatory system, the thymus gland. It's the center of compassion, love, group consciousness, and spirituality. If you have circulation problems, um, then look into fixing the heart chakra. The heart chakra is about love, kindness, and affection. When it's open, you are compassionate, friendly. You work at having good, strong relationships in harmony. If your heart chakra is underactive, you're cold and distant. If this chakra is overactive, you're suffocating people with your love, and your love probably has selfish reasons. You're not loving from a place of no condition. You're loving because you expect something back from someone else in response to that love, which you might think that your overwhelming and domineering love is, I just love them a lot. But you have to take a step back sometimes and think, am I loving them for them, or am I loving them for me? And that's quite a thought-provoking question, because if you're only in a relationship and only loving someone else because of the love you receive back, that energetically is different to the love that you can give to people without condition. And when you're loving without condition, because you know you have an abundance of love within your own self, for yourself and for everyone, that love communicated has a more magnetic and strong attraction than love given because you're actually scared of losing that other person's love for you if you don't love them enough kind of thing. That's a different topic really. Um, the throat chakra, guess where it is? It's in the throat. Perceived as a disc of violet light, and this controls the respiratory organs. It's associated with the thyroid gland and the center for sound communication, speech, writing, and thought expression. Also relates to the mouth, teeth, tongue, and jaw. The chakra is about self-expression, talking. When it is open, you have no problems expressing yourself, and you might be doing so in a creative way. Public speaking or, you know, writing, whatever. If this chakra is underactive, you tend to not speak as much, probably introverted, shy, um, not speaking your mind. If this chakra is overactive, you tend to speak too much, usually to dominate and keep people at a distance, and you're usually a bad listener if this is the the case. This one is pretty interesting. I've heard stories of people getting over speech problems that have plagued them their whole life once they have a focused endeavor to clear their throat chakra. And one thing that blocks this chakra, certain activities we can do can improve or downregulate the function of these chakras. So for the throat chakra, if you're not speaking the truth, that's going to block the chakra and that's going to impede your communication overall. Telling the truth— if I could, you know, give someone one piece of advice for their life, always tell the truth. So many issues and problems and heartache and stress will just be avoided and not even created in the first place if you just tell the truth. Do you want to go to that party? No, sorry. Do you want to go out? No, thanks. Do you love me? Yes or no. The games that we play with ourselves and the Beatings that we give ourselves for not having the courage to speak the truth in a situation that we know we should have spoken the truth in. All of that ends up blocking this energetic center and can lead to issues of expression in the future. So super important one. They're all important, of course, but the higher we get up the chakras, the more, uh, I guess if you have digestive problems, you're not going to think, oh shit, maybe my root chakra is, is, uh, is underactive. But if you, if you find yourself not being able to speak properly, not telling the truth, then it's likely going to impact your throat chakra. The third eye chakra— this one's super interesting— between the eyebrows, just above, commonly known as the third eye. A lot of people have heard about the third eye, and it's this spiritual center, this, uh, energetic space above the eyes, and it's perceived as a disc of white light, a very bright white light. This chakra controls the functions of the pituitary gland as well as intellectual activities. It's said that when this chakra is awakened, one meets their own divine self, the true self, and I would definitely stand by that. The third eye chakra, associated with the autonomic nervous system, it's the center of psychic power, spirit energies, higher intuition. The pineal gland, skull, eyes, brain, nervous system, the senses. This chakra is about insight, visualization. When it's open, you have a good intuition, you know you know, your gut feeling is always true. You might tend to fantasize and creatively visualize things, which is an important life skill. If you want to manifest something in your life or improve, you first have to create it in your head. And when we create it in our head with specific goals, then we can then work towards manifesting that in our lives. You have to create it in your head first, otherwise it doesn't happen. If the third eye chakra is underactive, you're not very good at thinking for yourself, and you may tend to rely on authoritative people. That, of course, being a huge thing at the moment, um, in terms of the whole COVID shit. Um, you really do need to think for yourself, analyze your own data, look at what's happening versus what's being told, because you never know what is going on behind the scenes, who is telling you what to believe and why. They might not have your best interests at heart. I would argue that they don't. And just for, think of yourself in general. If you have some people who might be very, um, it might seem that they believe very strongly in what they're talking about and that they know what's going on. But if that doesn't line up with what you're seeing and what you're processing behind the scenes in terms of of, you know, facts you might read or statistics or whatever, then it's very important to have this third eye chakra functioning so that you can think for yourself. If it's underactive, you may also be rigid in your thinking, relying on beliefs too much, and you might get confused easily. If this chakra is overactive, you might live in a world of fantasy too much, and in excessive cases, sometimes hallucinations are possible. So you can see with all these chakras how too little, too much can swing you either way out of state of balance. The third eye chakra, I felt in myself open, uh, before I even knew what chakras were. It was this weird feeling around, you know, center of the eyebrows, the upper mid part of my head. That if I focused in a particular way and brought awareness to this space, it's almost like, you know, it felt like there was a little gland or space in there releasing something into my brain with which was positive flowing energy through my head, which then, you know, transmitted the rest of my body. And I now recognize that as my third eye chakra opening once I've done discussed, you know, read about it. But, you know, this happened to the car, in the car, when I was just meditating or whatever by myself. I didn't know what chakras were. So for me to arrive at that point without knowing all this shit just cements to me that, okay, this is the real deal. And, you know, everything that I've read and incorporated in relation to it has helped me and rung true. So yeah. Yeah, the crown chakra, the final chakra, located at the top of the head. This chakra is the king chakra, overall control of every aspect of the body and mind. This is called the Gate of Brahman, uh, in some Indian spiritual circles. Uh, when this chakra is opened, one can leave the physical body and enter the realms of the astral. The astral realm. The chakra is visualized as a large disc of golden or rosy light. It's associated with the central nervous system and pineal gland, the center of enlightenment, dynamic thought, truth, and oneness. You know, it governs the top of the spinal cord, the brainstem, the pain center, and nerves. The chakra is about true wisdom, being one with the world, When this chakra is open, you are unprejudiced and quite aware of the world and yourself. If it's underactive, you're not very aware spiritually. You're probably quite rigid in your thinking. If it's overactive, you're probably intellectualizing things too much. You may be addicted to spirituality and ignoring your bodily needs. That's the thing with this. So I'm, I'm heavy on the spiritual side, the mental side, because a lot of people are stuck in the physical realm. But there are also people that are so into the spiritual realm, but they don't take care of their body, they're not exercising. And you know, it's all about the balance, it's all about being aware that the body is this holistic system that we have to be aware of, that exists not just in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm, the energetic realm. By activating and awakening the chakras through the right methods, uh, you can really evolve into and enjoy the higher realms of being. Human. Tantra yoga offers pretty systematic methods of awakening these chakras properly, uh, so look into that. Read about chakras in general. I highly recommend. Hopefully this breakdown helps you out, and if you are in yourself finding that some of these issues, uh, are displaying yourself, that there are chakras that relate to them and therefore problems that you can fix. That corresponding with the affirmations and playing around with the mental side of it, I think, can, you know, serve as a framework for healing most issues that people have, um, that may have avoided or evaded you through traditional Western methods of of medicine. So there's more to it than just drugs and going to the doctor in terms of our health. And I really hope that you kind of delve into chakras a bit more. And I will stop being spiritual now and, uh, go into a few more nitty-gritty questions from the audience. We'll be right back. Okay, we got some, uh, Soulcast listener questions here. Eating before bed is something that I think everyone does, but is it a detrimental practice? Also, how soon before bed would be too soon to eat? Well, a couple of things here. Is your eating before bed gonna be the making or break factor, uh, that determines whether you lose weight? Probably not. You do the majority of your food eating throughout the rest of the day. I would advise for sleep quality that you have your larger main meals— dinner usually— um, ideally 2 hours before you go to sleep. Um, the movement of the body promotes digestion. That's why I always recommend going for a 10-minute walk after we eat. So when you have a large meal right before bed and then go and lie down, you don't have gravity acting in the same way. You don't have the movement of the body pushing the food through the digestive system. So if you go straight to bed after a huge meal, that can impair your digestion. Um, something else to consider is that blood, uh, gets pushed to the digestive system after a big meal is eaten in order to assimilate the nutrients that you digest from that meal. Uh, so having it— all the blood kind of into the digestive system just before sleep is not optimal either, as you want the blood circulating throughout the whole body. So 2 hours before bed, have like your large main meal. I would say, however, that right before bed is a good time to have like a small carbohydrate meal, uh, if you're trying to put on weight. And it also provides blood glucose levels for the brain, which is good for sleep. So a small banana, a glass of milk— I love to do half and half milk and cream with glycine, bit of honey, even turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, all mixed together and heated up in a saucepan— is a beautiful one to have before bed. So large main meals 2 hours before sleep, if you're trying to put on weight, definitely recommend having a small snack, uh, before bed. But likely it does depend on your goals a little bit. Um, kind of related is, uh, the intermittent fasting window. If you're doing that, I recommend eating earlier on in the day and then finishing your eating window earlier in the evening. Some people tend to wait all morning until they hit like lunchtime, and then they'll eat in those 8 hours. And that tends to mean that we're getting more food in our bodies towards the end of the day, which again is not good for sleep. So shift that forward, eat breakfast upon waking, and then finish your eating, you know, 4 PM if intermittent fasting window is something that you want to get into. Uh, tips for great shoulders. My favorite shoulder exercises are the standard overhead press, military press, barbell. Uh, a great complex that I like to run is doing a heavy 4 sets of 10 or even 8 barbell shoulder press superset with lateral raises with dumbbells. And you have to go quite light because if you're doing 4 supersets of that, uh, then it is a pretty quite significant burn pump you can get. You want to make sure that you are not sacrificing on form even when you are doing these supersets. So that's what I like to do for my shoulders. Uh, handstands are great because whenever you are building flexibility and strength in those kind of extended scapular protraction movements, that's going to mean your rear delts are engaging more It's going to mean that your posterior— sorry, anterior deltoids aren't overactive, which is, uh, unfortunately prevalent in a lot of lifters. If you're smashing a lot of chest, a lot of incline press, uh, or just pushing in general, and not as much rear delt activation and work, then you can become a bit unbalanced there. So great shoulders, make sure that you're doing, uh, mobility work. So that you can get that proper activation. Uh, dead hangs are a great one for that. If you just raise your hands on some kind of, you know, even a doorway works, and then you slowly push your chest forward but keeping your shoulders, you know, they get pushed back by having your hands attached to the door. You can do the same thing with the broom handle. Or a stick, if you just hold it shoulder width apart and then bring it above and overhead and then push backwards, and that's going to be opening in the shoulder girdle overall, which is super beneficial. So I like to do, yeah, the barbell shoulder press superset with lateral raises. Uh, rear delt exercises are key. Face pulls are a great one for that. Again, the inner shoulder muscles as well, uh, the external rotation and things like that of the shoulder. You want to make sure that you're loading that, just as like we want to make sure that we're loading every— and strengthening every muscle in the body. So look into internal rotation strengthening, super key. That's going to make sure that your pressing is, is a lot easier as well. Um, yeah, great shoulders. You want to They're kind of the, the way that we get that beautiful V taper, which is what every guy wants when they start lifting. Um, the shoulders, at least I feel, tend to respond a bit better to lowering the weight and doing more higher reps and then burn out the pump, etc., because they're quite a delicate joint. Comparatively to the back and, you know, the hips. So going heavy is good sometimes, but you don't want to overdo it. You always want to make sure you're balancing out with the rear delt activation and strengthening the inner shoulder, strengthening. Um, I have a shoulder strengthening and mobility guide. If you're on the mailing list, you would have got it by now, but if you haven't got it, then just send me a message on Instagram or an email and I can flick that through to you. It's just a few pages of exercise and mobility work for the shoulder, which will be helpful. And getting your first pull-up— this one's funny because sometimes I'll hear people say, 'I can't do a pull-up, I'm bad at pull-ups.' 'Oh, do you ever train pull-ups?' I'll say, 'No.' Well then, how are you going to be good at pull-ups, brother? It seems simple, but if you can't do one pull-up, break it down. I would say get onto a pull-up machine, uh, where you have the base. Usually there's like dip bars and a pull-up bar and then a cable weight pulley system with a platform, and you can add enough weight so that you can, you know, lift 40% of your body weight in the pull-up motion. So it's kind of like an assisted pull-up. And you can do that with bands as well, tied on the top of the pull-up bar and the bottom, and you can kind of put your knees in, and that helps the elasticity to pull you up. So if you can't do a full pull-up from body weight, then focus on breaking it down. Do assisted pull-ups. You can do lat pulldowns to strengthen the lats, uh, your forearms. Of course, everything that is involved in the pull-up motion, if you individually strengthen that with bicep curls or whatever else, then that is going to correlate to, um, being able to initially or help to do that first bodyweight pull-up. If you can do a few pull-ups but want to improve your pull-ups potential, then I recommend not doing sets of sets to complete failure. Say you can do 5 pull-ups total max before you can't do any more. Rather than doing 5 pull-ups do 3, but do several sets of 3. You'll end up getting more reps total of the pull-up doing that than you would if you really push yourself to get 5, and then you're going to experience form breakdown when you're on the upper end of exertion. So break down your pull-up training into maybe 70% of what you know that you can do total max reps. Smash those out, you know, feel fresh, feel like you're not totally destroying your back each time. Repeat that and do that more often, and that will translate to, once you've rested and recovered, being able to do 6 or 7 pull-ups, hopefully. So a few pull-up tips there. Uh, how to start deadlifting alone? I'm not trying to fuck up my lower back. Trying to set PRs alone. So I always, always recommend YouTubing. You know, YouTube is one of the greatest collection of form exercises that— or form of exercises visually that you have free access to all the time. Even if you're in the gym, if there's an exercise that I'm not sure I am doing properly, or back in the day when I was learning everything, I would just pull up a quick exercise, compare it to how I looked in the gym. If you record yourself is a really good one. You have a phone, you have a camera. A lot of the time, if you're by yourself, you don't pick up on things because you can't see yourself while you're doing the exercise, in a way, especially with things like deadlifts. Um, always drop the weight. If you're first learning an exercise. Get the form right, make sure you're engaging all the muscles that need to be engaged. Don't instantly go to a heavy lift because you think, oh, deadlift should be heavy, I need to test myself. No, no, start with just the bar, get the movement right, make sure you're contracting the right part of your back, make sure that you do have a straight back rather than rounded. Some rounding is going to happen it's just natural. But when it's excessively rounded, that's when you hurt yourself. And it always happens from doing more weight than you're comfortable with. And that might take, you know, that might be a hit to the ego because you have to lower the weight considerably to learn the form properly. Even if you think you're doing an exercise right and you're lifting, sometimes if your form isn't right, then when you do correct your form, you can lift a lot less. And that's harmful to our egos. We don't want to lift less, we want to look big and strong. But I guarantee you, in the long term, the proper form means you're going to be utilizing the proper muscles. And what do we want? We want to develop the muscles. We don't want to lift the most weight to impress no one. That's, you know, no one's looking other than ourselves, really. So as with all exercises, if it's a new one, study form on reputable exercise channels online. Break down and really be aware of what muscles are firing in the act. You know, if, if you're doing bench press but you're only really feeling your, your shoulders, Google how to activate chest more while benching, or try a different exercise. This is why, similarly, I don't try and set personal records for the most part in the one rep max area because you are— if you are by yourself, you don't really know exactly if your form's breaking down. You don't have a spotter for the most part. Most people will be happy to spot you as well if it's a trainer at the gym, or just a quick, hey mate, uh, can you just watch me catch this bench press if I— if it's about to fall on my head? But if you're lifting by yourself, I would just say, um, take it a bit easier. Lift in the 8 to 10 rep ranges so you're gonna have a bit more leeway. You're not kill yourself if, if you drop it, and you're not going to push your body to those upper limits, uh, that red line range where you're going to end up hurting yourself. And that's for the most part how do you avoid injury is stick to the form, don't lift excessively heavy when you're by yourself and you're not experienced. But any exercise has the capacity to develop the body when done correctly and with the appropriate strength and with the appropriate mobility. Similarly, every exercise has the capacity to hurt you if you are doing it wrong and you're not engaged in the movement and you don't know what you're doing. Um, no exercise is inherently worse for you or more dangerous than any other. It just, for the most part, deadlifts get a bad name because people attempt them with heavier weight than they should. Um, maybe the mid-back, the lower back isn't as strong as they think it is, so they overcompensate. And then when you overcompensate, your balance gets thrown off and ding, you, you end up pulling a muscle, whatever. So yeah, it is a bit of trial and error, especially when you're first starting lifting weights, but that's how you learn. And as long as you keep the weights low to begin with and just take it easy— Rome wasn't built in a day. Keep on progressing. Film yourself. Message other people that you know are knowledgeable about this stuff to see if your form is good. These are all things that we can do to ensure that we are progressing well and setting, you know, progressively overloading and setting records for ourselves, but not in a way that's going to hurt ourselves. So yeah, thank you for your questions. Www.solbrah.com, there is a section where you can submit questions or topics to the Soulcast. We're going to be banging out these, um, a lot more in the coming weeks. So if I don't, angrily message me and remind me, but I will. Affirm what you believe, it'll happen. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Soulcast. Appreciate each and every one of you listening to me ramble on. Uh, yeah, I do appreciate you listening. Um, I'm going to be launching a new coaching program probably in the, in the new year. So just to be aware of that, um, if you're interested, send me a message. It's going to be an 8-week program. It's going to be physical routines, mental development, spiritual development. All of the good holistic stuff, affirmations, you name it, consults with me one-on-one. Pretty excited to launch it officially. And yeah, if you can send me a message, I can put your name down. Subscribe to the email list that we have, SolBrah.com. You can sign up there. That way you're not going to miss anything that I'm doing if you're interested. So peace and love. Appreciate you being here, and I'll see you next time. Bye!