187: Conscious Approach to Physical and Emotional Intelligence with Josh Trent

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet? Or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Raised in a broken home with genetics and all the odds against him, Josh Trent found solace from emotional pain by excelling in high school sports. Now, he didn't know it at the time, but this was the start of a cultivation for a lifelong obsession with his personal wellness. Something Josh today believes that we all deserve to have at the highest level. Now, as a child, Josh Trent always wondered how things worked. His curiosity was never satisfied unless he could pull something apart and put it back together again. He believed that to deconstruct was to understand. And so in his personal, professional and wellness paths, it has been exactly the same. Now, since 2004, Josh has been on a wellness journey in search of what he says is the truth. The truth about how to embody more focus and time and to best serve others. How to contribute and how to make a difference. The truth about how to embody more energy in the mind and the body and to be fully present and more physically and emotionally intelligent so he could live well and leave a legacy for all of those that he loves. Now today, Josh Trent is the founder of Wellness Force Media and he's host of the top ranked iTunes podcast, Wellness Force Radio. Josh has spent the past 17 years as a researcher, a trainer, a facilitator, discovering the physical and emotional intelligence for for humans to thrive in our modern world. After publishing over 300 high level interviews with some of the most respected minds in the health, wellness and self help industries, Josh has been spotlighted in major wellness media outlets such as Onit, Spartan, Sealfit and Paleo fx. Join in today and learn exactly how Josh Trent leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today I've got the one and only Josh Trent with me and he is the founder of Wellness Force Radio and Wellness Force Media and they do conscious content that help men and women discover physical and emotional intelligence. And I was dying to jump in and talk with him today because. Josh, thank you for being here. I'm assuming you didn't always have it together with those topics.

No, I did not. And I have not always had as much Intelligence as I have now. And by the way, intelligence is not how smart you are. So there's a whole story there.

All right, well, where do we start? Like, how did you even get to where you are? Who were you before all this?

I was raised in east county here in San Diego, and I was raised by a single mom, and I was raised on welfare. So we're talking, like, food stamps, kick syrup, blocks of cheese. No real healthy foods.

Wow.

Yeah. My dad left home when I was real young. I was born premature. So, like, literally. Natalie, Jill. From the beginning, the cards were kind of stacked a certain way. And I found myself at a young age using a drug that many, many people in health, wellness, personal development use. And that drug was called food. And I used that drug for the majority of my adolescent life. So for whatever reason, whether my soul chose to come into the situation or whether spirit guided me or whether it's all random, whatever you want to believe, I came into this world with some pretty challenging circumstances. And it wasn't until later in my life that I found health and wellness and fitness that opened the door to me to wellness and transformed me the most.

Sue, it's interesting because you said you grew up on welfare and food stamps and all the things, when you say food was your jug, was it like you were just doing cheap food because it made you feel better? What was your mom teaching about food? What was your conversation around food as a kid, especially if you were having trouble affording it? I'm imagining, sure.

Well, everybody's just a mirror of the consciousness they have in a current moment. And you could say that in another way, we only are modeling the example that our parents give us. So when our parents don't know, we can't be angry at them because they don't know and their parents didn't know. So my parents did not necessarily have the best physical or emotional tools to meet the demands of this really crazy world. And so flash to any single mom's life. You know, single moms have one of the hardest jobs in the world and raising two young boys with a mental illness. She was manic bipolar when I was young. I can't think of a more challenging time for a woman to go through. And so through a lot of journeys I've done with breath and with plants, I've been able to have deep compassion for that woman, and I still do. However, sometimes the best that parents can do isn't good enough, and that's okay, you know? And, like, having forgiveness and using that tool of forgiveness is something That I think comes later on in life for us. But. But when I was there, when I was growing up, I needed a way to feel peace in the chaos. And I found that drug of food, because food was a way where if I was scared, if I felt unsafe, if my mom was having an episode, if I needed a father figure and he wasn't around. Fill in the blank. Being bullied. Food is a very, very powerful drug because, as you know, it upregulates serotonin and dopamine, carbohydrates, all these different things. And it was a way for me to give myself a deep breath before I knew how to breathe properly. And so my little child soul, my little teenage soul, he just needed to feel safe. Yeah, that was what he did, was find something which is really what all addiction is. Addiction is the. Is the lack of human connection. It's the lack of connection with oneself, or it's the lack of connection with somebody that you trust, somebody that's raising you and helping you. So that's what I found.

It's so interesting you said about addiction, because I know a lot of people will look down on people with addiction to something, and I always. I look at it very different. Like they're just looking for love like everybody else. And that. That addiction to whatever that is, whether it's the food, the drugs, the alcohol, whatever it is, work even, it's people's way of getting love, is what I see. It's their. Or their way of numbing out, not thinking about how they don't have love. That's how I view it.

Yeah, I like your view. Because the real space that we operate in is either love or fear. And I know that this is something we hear all the time. I'm not shouting the same horn just because I'm saying that everything boils down to love and fear, because that's actually it. And sometimes these things, you know, Michael Pollan in his work, he calls them platitudes. You know, love is all there is. Love is all there is right through. But are you actually doing it? Are you actually creating a life from a place of love? And are you loving yourself? That's the hardest thing. That is the hardest thing, I'm assuming.

Especially when people don't. Even if they don't have a good example of that or what that even means.

Right, yeah. So here again, we're modeling. So we're imprinted at a very young age. Whether you believe in past life or not, in this life, we're just modeling. We're all modeling. Everybody's going off of the success of people they respect, love, or care about. And so that's how we learn about ourselves. And in that same model, it's like if we're learning bad lessons from people who learn bad lessons. Well, as Alan Watts says, it's all wretch and no vomit. You know, nothing ever happens. It's just raising kids based off of how you were raised until here. Here's the key. Something happens that wakes you up, something happens in your life. It's a death in the family, it's a huge divorce, it's being totally SOL and not knowing how you're going to pay your rent and having to have a soul searching moment. Those are the moments that wake people up. And typically it comes through pain, not pleasure.

Totally. Okay, I have so many questions for you now, but I want to backtrack a little bit because you mentioned that your mom had. She was a single mom struggling financially, but she was also manic bipolar. So talk to me about that. And as a kid, did you know that that's what she was struggling with? And how was that affecting you?

No, I think as a kid I was just like, what's going on? What's, what's happening there?

Like, mom's one minute and she's depressed the next. Yeah.

And look, we. Everyone has good days and bad days, Right. But what. The mental health month is coming up in May, and there's something out there that is just. It's still a stigma around mental health. Most people don't know what to do with it because there really isn't a lot of clear answers. It takes time, it takes presence, and it takes investment of energy to really get to the bottom of why mental health even exists. So it's a deeply philosophical conversation. I love your question so much. I think we would need an entire podcast to really explore, like, why mental health is out there in the way that it is now. But bringing it to my mom's story and me as a kid, when kids don't know what's going on, they're going to please. Kids are pleasers. They, they seek peace, they seek connection. So what happened when I was young is I fell into an attachment style that is called anxious attachment style. There's anxious, there's secure, and there's avoidant. If you look at the three major attachment styles, there's many subcategories underneath those. But the anxious attachment style seeks to make peace, seeks to make everything right, seeks to make parents happy. So I adopted that anxious attachment style When I was young. And it definitely followed me into. Into adult life, for sure.

Oh, okay. So talk to me about that. So you said anxious adult style. I'm assuming this ties into sort of your awakening about what you've. What you ventured into now.

Yeah, yeah. The anxious attachment style is when I'm not feeling safe in myself, I try to make other people. And this happened all throughout my teenage years and in my 20s and even in my early 30s, where I would always only feel okay if the person I was with as a partner or if my friends or even my parents were okay. In other words, I'm not okay unless the person across from me is okay. It's a very codependent, anxious relation and.

Something you really can't control.

Something you can't control unless there becomes a greater degree of awareness. And this is the real work. Like, you want to talk about leveling up? Leveling up ain't always sexy, especially when you start looking at the parts of yourself that have been in the shadow. And so what I got to do in the last five years is really explore that shadow. And there was some stuff that came up that was painful, but there was some stuff that came up that was really relieving.

You know, how did that happen? Because I think most people don't want to go look at themselves in the shadows like they're. They're avoiding through whatever their addiction or whatever else, or just saying that it's nonsense. What forced you to start looking at that?

The results that I was getting.

Tell me about that.

The results that I was getting. So this is for all of us, because my story is a mirror of many people. So if we're not happy with results, it ain't the world, it ain't other people. It's us. You know, the common congruent factor is us. So I kept getting results where relationships weren't working, finances weren't working. You know, being an entrepreneur, trying to white knuckle everything, not receiving support, not trusting. Not having the circuitry in my mind to really trust and support.

And what was the conversation happening with all that? Were you blaming other people? Were you blaming relationship? Blaming the economy? Blame. What were you. What was the conversation?

Well, fill in the blank. I mean, it was basically I was just upset. I think I was just upset with. With life, right? Yeah. Like, why is a big one? I would say the biggest one was money. The biggest one was money. And this is a conversation that so many people are having now because we're all waking up to the fact that money is A unit of energy. Just like the time that you and I spend with each other or the water that we drink, like it's all energy. It's not woo woo. I mean it kind of is, but. But it's more science than woo woo. And so what I was receiving, the feedback I was receiving from life based on my attachment styles and based on the shadows that weren't being lit up was my money, my health and my relationships were not in alignment with my soul. I knew there was something more. I just didn't exactly know how to get there. And this is a big gem. If we're angry and if we're not receiving the results we want, trying harder isn't going to get you there. Oh yeah, white knuckling and trying harder is not going to get you there. It's pulling back the reins, taking a breath or several and starting to look at the things that were possibly covered up by ego.

I love that you just shared this because, you know, I've done over 180 interviews on leveling up and then I've got my own story of rock bottoms to success. And I will tell you over and over and over again I hear the same thing, that it's money, health and relationships. And it's almost like we'll have a knock at the door of one of those things. Like some one of those stops working and if we don't get the whisper there, the next thing stops. And it's almost like it takes that trilogy of all three things to stop working for us to then be open to looking at ourselves.

Amen. And I'm not religious, but like that's so true. Like the way that you explain that think about all of us. Like there's a moment actually I was working in corporate America. I had left the fitness industry. I was a trainer for 10 years and I had my, my mom had to go in a mental home for six months and I lost my corporate job. I mean, in six months this all happened. I broke up with my ex girlfriend, my mom's in a mental home that then I'm sleeping on my friend's couch overlooking the Costa golf course.

Yeah.

And I'm like, what the hell's going on?

Yeah. You know, it's like all three have to get affected for us to wake up. Because if just one gets affected, we're not, we're like, okay, it's the other person or it's gay.

Hendricks talks about this in Finding Joe the documentary. And he's like, sometimes the universe will tickle you with a Feather. Sometimes if you're not listening, it'll crack you with a sledgehammer.

Oh, yeah. And so been there.

And that's. I think this is why you and I can relate and resonate is because, man, it's in those moments where we just have to surrender to something bigger.

Yeah. It's so funny, Josh. I have the tattoo surrender on my arm. I don't know if you can see it. We're on video. I tattooed that on my arm after I had that realization because it was. I wanted to remind myself that when we're going through that stuff, we do need to surrender.

This is why I can't wait to spotlight your story as well. Because the way that everyone achieves success and is through a unique path, but damn all the universal problems, you know, the health, wealth, relationship, the surrender process, and just really submitting and surrendering to what is. That's universal. That's. That's not different for anyone. It's just our resistance to it that. That allows us to suffer for longer.

Okay, so let's talk about the resistance because there's people listening right now. They're like, you guys are smoking something right now. What are you talking about? Because my finances are a problem because of my boss, or my relationship's a problem because my husband's a jerk. So help listeners understand what they need to look at when things are not working in their lives. Because there's a lot of people listening right now that one or all three areas are not working. In these areas, what do they look at?

So what I'm about to share, the ego is going to light up for us and it's going to say, that's too simple. But I promise you, if you just take what I'm going to tell you in a minute, it can change your life. It really can. Love it.

Let's go.

You take a piece of paper. On the left side of the paper, you write 10 things that you're deeply grateful for. I'm not talking about faking it. I mean like real things that when you think of them, you light up like a Christmas tree. Write 10 of those down. On the right side of the paper, you write 10 things that are causing you absolutely the most pain. And, you know, could be your boss, it could be your husband, your wife, it could be the relationship, it could be your uncle, it could be your mother in law, your father in law, whatever it is, just list them out and take an honest inventory here. All we're doing is taking emotional inventory. Then take a moment. Take six deep Breaths, because that changes your physiology. Then ask yourself, what am I absolutely most grateful for from those 10 things? Then on the right side, circle the number one that you know is causing you the most pain. And then pause. Then call a friend and tell a friend what you just did. And then ask that friend for support on how you're going to take steps to change that one thing out of 10 that is actually crushing your soul. And as you do it, depend on your friend that you were vulnerable enough and courageous enough to reach out to, and then tell them why you're so grateful. Because why you're so grateful is the fuel to change the thing that's causing you the most pain. So that's what we do, ladies and gentlemen. Like, it seems so simple, but if you do it, if you actually do it, it's not going to be easy. But that's the simple path.

Yeah. And. Okay, guys, you might have to rewind and play that, like, again two times to get it, but I will. I love what you just shared. And I also know with everyone I've interviewed, gratitude was a key part of the method to overcome things. So I think you're onto something with that. Because if we're not seeking gratitude in our lives, we're not going to attract more gratitude. I believe if we're just focused on all the things not working, we just attract more of that.

Well, and here's the even more challenging thing. And this is going to stick for all of us. It's probably the most challenging thing to practice gratitude when you're suffering. That's a learned behavior. Like, if you're a single mom and you can't pay your bills and your kids are screaming or you're just a human being and everything stacked against you. The last thing that your reptilian brain is thinking about is practicing gratitude. Like, the last thing your brain wants to do. But there's something between that gap between the brain and the heart, you know, and we're all figuring out what that is. I know you just had experiences down in Costa Rica around this, and so have I. We're all figuring out what's in the middle, between knowing and doing. There's a massive gap there. Like, just because we know we should practice gratitude doesn't mean that we actually do it. And so I explore this a lot with Wellness Force. Like, what's the middle look like?

Yeah, what. Let's talk about that. Because that is. I'm struggling with that, too. Like, what do you do in that? Knowing, doing. Like. Like, you start to see that there's an issue, or you start to see the truth, or you start to see, but you don't know how to get there. What is the right thing to do in that middle place?

Yeah, this is a really good question because it's a laser and it points to one of three things, like personality types. For us, whether you follow Gretchen Rubin's work or not, I'm an Obliger personality type. And so Obliger personality types, they seek to make harmony, they seek to serve. They. There's also personality types where they're more rebellious and then there's personality types where I forget the name of it, but they get things done. They're proactive. They get things done no matter what. So it's identifying me. Yeah, probably. So it's first of all identifying, like, who are you? Like, what's your personality type? Have you journaled on this? Do you know yourself? Know thyself, know thyself. That's the first thing. Because if you're trying to cross that gap between knowing and doing, and you don't know you, like you don't actually know yourself, it's going to be impossible for you to jump because you're not jumping from anywhere that feels solid. So knowing yourself is a process that is a lifelong journey. I wish, I wish there was like some PDF I could say right now it doesn't exist. There is no PDF to know yourself. It's this long term journey. So once you've done the work to know yourself. And that can come from listening to this podcast, reading books, being curious, having a hunger, like having a thirst for knowledge about what works for other people. You know, success leaves clues, as Tony Robbins talks about, like, take some time, take three years to really do that. And then when you're in that gap between knowing and doing, you'll start to know who you are. And when you know who you are, you'll know how to do the things that you know you want to do. In other words, like, if you know yourself, you can get to where you want to be faster. It seems like it'll take longer, but it's actually the biggest shortcut in the world is just to take the long road in knowing yourself. So that's the first thing. And then how you actually cross the gap is you set up frameworks for accountability. This is why coaching exists, this is why groups exist. This is why even a podcast exists or Facebook groups, because there is something in the brain where we're wired to be part of a tribe. So Jason Silva talks about this Empathetic wiring in our brain. When we're part of tribe, we seek to connect with tribe. And so if I'm promising tribe, I will do blank by this date. And you actually have a date that your health, your wealth, your relationships, like, you have a commitment that you've declared out loud. There's a massive accountability layer there because the reptilian brain is. That's fighting you to get the things done is also going to be fighting you to get the things done because it doesn't want to look bad in front of the tribe. So in other words, it's an external framework for accountability where it's not just about you. Because honestly, if most of us are left to our own devices and we're not serving others, we're not accountable to ourselves. We're probably going to just chill and eat popcorn on the couch because that's fun. Who doesn't want to do that?

Do you find? I'm curious. I find, and I'm wondering if you do that, like, when things are not working in my life the way that I. It's usually because I am making it about me and it's not about other people and serving them. And like, what you just mentioned. And I'm wondering if you have that connection. Like, whenever. Literally, like whenever I'm like, okay, things are just not working. It's like. And I really look at it, I'm like, well, am I serving others right now or am I making it about me?

You know, what you just said is really powerful. And I also want to put a slice of compassion onto it because I think it's really easy for us, especially people that like to achieve or people that want to create success or people that are leveling. There is a dark side to putting it back on ourselves and saying, oh, I'm not. I'm being selfish and I'm doing it for me. What if you just need to relax more or what if you actually just need a rest? What if your physiology and your nervous system just needs to be held for a moment? That's okay, too. But also there's the other side of it where, yeah, we do make it about us. So it's a balancing act. It's the duality. So it's up to us to know ourselves, to know, am I being lazy and am I making this about me? And do I really. Am I scared to go on a stage? Am I scared to look stupid? Am I fill in the blank that I'm being selfish or equally as powerful? Do I actually just need to rest Right now, you know, am I intuitively trained to know when I need rest and when I need recovery?

That's good. So, Josh, take me through. Like you. You started as this child with all these things. You obviously, at some point, things were not working for you. Your money, your health, your relationships. You went through this process, I'm assuming, like, of you kind of knowing and like, before you were doing sort of figuring this out, how did you end up coming up with Wellness Force? Like, where did that come from in that space? Or was it where. Tell me about that.

Well, I love thinking about this because nobody's asked me that in a long time. So that's a great, really cool question for me to feel. And it was. I was a trainer and I wanted to break out of training one on one. And I was just so burnt out by the fitness industry because I knew that people weren't coming to me.

I have no idea what that's like, by the way.

Exactly. People weren't coming to me to get healthy. People were coming to me for connections. And I felt like I was more of a therapist than a trainer.

What an interesting.

Yeah, you feel me? So I was in this place where I was like, I know there's something more, but I don't know what it is. And I bought Wellness Force because I just. I was at a coffee shop and my friend was talking about, like, energy and power versus force and the fact that we're all born as sentient beings. We're all born. Well, right to the degree that we're born. Some people are born with conditions, but we're all born with a certain amount of wellness. And that wellness is actually what makes us whole and our whole life. I feel like we're returning to the wholeness, either either long way or short way, depending on what choices we make. So Wellness Force is just simply tapping into the force that's inside of all of us. We are all a force of wellness in this world. It's just, are we waking up to it and are we claiming that power within ourselves? And so at the coffee shop, it just hit me. I went on GoDaddy. I bought the URL. This is like 2010 when there were still URLs to purchase. And I bought that and I put my dream in a little box for four years. And every year when I was working in corporate America because I just needed to get paid. You know, I went down that road of, like, scarcity. Like, I just need to make money. And if I make money doing something, then, then I'll Be okay. Because after fitness, I didn't know what else I wanted to do. So I went to work@active.com, which is a endurance sports company, the registration software here in San Diego. And I found myself just every morning waking up and I was like, God, I feel like my soul is dying, you know, sitting in a cube doing somebody else's dream. And I got the smack of getting fired, which was the most beautiful gift ever. It was the most beautiful gift because when I got fired, I was dreaming.

You didn't see it as a gift when you first got.

Definitely did not feel like a gift. But, but that's what led me to, when I was talking about La Costa Golf Course, that's what led me to the reckoning, you know, the waking up happened when my relationship, when my money, when my career and my health, everything was just completely decimated, you know, and that's when it was like, okay, I made the decision, Natalie Jo. I was like, I'm either going to die. Like, truly, I'm either going to die and be homeless and follow this dream, or I'm, I'm just going to. Those are my only two options. Either the dream on one side or living on the streets, sleeping on couches, and literally just committing to doing whatever it takes so that I don't have to live someone else's dream ever again.

So let me ask you a question. When you say this, and it's a question I always have for people when they talk about this rock bottom spot. Why do some people hit that rock bottom and spiral even worse, like get depressed, suicidal, go that direction, really start spinning out. And some it's an awakening. Why? What do you think makes that difference? And did you dabble with depression with or not spot?

I'm just closing my eyes, so I can really feel your question. I think the determining factor, I think that the big thing when rock bottom happens is to what degree do I love myself and to what degree am I willing to go get the support I deserve? That's it. I mean, it sounds real reductionistic.

And I say that because I've lost, gosh, I can't even count, I mean, at least five friends to suicides over the years. And I, and I always think back to, gosh, they were just in their rock bottom spot and they could have had that hero's journey. It could have come on the other side. And I'm, I'm just wondering because I know there's people listening right now, that they're either in that spot or they, they know Somebody that is. And this could be really a life saving conversation. And I'm just wondering what could, what do you know from that spot that could, could make the difference for somebody? I'm just. And maybe you don't have that. I'm just, I'm just wondering if you do, because I know there's somebody listening that, that, that, that would make a big difference for.

I feel like we're in a really delicate space right now. So I want to honor it.

Yeah.

And if anyone right now is having thoughts like that, I want you to take a massive deep breath and just breathe it out. And just know that you are half physicality, you're half beast and you're half spirit. So if your mind isn't feeling well, if your body isn't feeling well, immediately address that first. Just go there first. Seek help. There's hotlines, there's taking a walk. Like literally change your state. Changing your state can change your life, can save your life. Just change your state. When you're in a better state, that's the first thing to do. Then when you're in a better state, then start being creative and start calling in the support you deserve. But sometimes, like, you know, you really touched me with this question because I've also had people in my community that I've lost and they chose not to be here anymore. And so what lights me up and what makes me have that kind of lump in my throat as I'm speaking to you about this is sometimes we don't have the answer. Sometimes, Nelly Joe, like, we just don't know. Like, spirit has its plan, the world has its plan. But what I will say is this. Every single person has free will. And when you stack free will on top of life events, there's the recipe for either success or for the other side. And so there is something to be said about what does that person's life been like up to this moment where they're feeling this way? How was their parents? Did they feel supported? Were they abused? There's a huge recipe there. And then on the other side of it there is this magical factor. And I, and I do believe that that magical factor on why people choose to stay is because they have some kind of a connection to a higher power of some sort. Of when they lose that connection to a higher power of some sort, that's when they don't think there's any other way. But I promise you guys, it's there. You just, you just got to breathe into it.

Yeah. And I don't mean to Bring up such a dark thing. But I swear that, like, came through me. I was thinking I was gonna ask.

It's a part of life. It's a part of life.

I just know, I know that a lot of people that listen to self help or listen to my podcast, listen to anything that's there, there could be in that space. And I wanted to honor that because. Because there's so many. I can't tell you how many times every interview I've done, they had this rock bottom but other way. And I always, I know it's a knowing to me, there's something amazing on the other side of that for people when they can, when they can walk through that.

Yeah. And it's. It's the fire.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not laughing, I'm just laughing at sometimes how mysterious this life is. This life is so mysterious and there isn't always an answer. And something in a journey that happened for me last year with, with plant medicine, I was asking like, well, what's the whole point of this thing? Like, what are we doing here? What is it? And the message that I got back was, you don't get to know. You just get to enjoy here and be, wow. That was it. Because my logical mind, I'm like, I want to know the answers, I want to know the formula, I want to know the recipe. Give me the 12 steps. What are we doing here?

Not surrendering, Controlling the logical.

Yeah. So I wasn't, I didn't have the. I didn't have the knowledge that I have now. And none of us do. Every single day we're getting more intelligent and something that came up for me that has been a godsend. I got this before I did Mark Devine Seal Fit event and it is tattooed on my arm and it's.

What does that mean?

And that's Italian for if I can breathe, I can choose.

Oh.

So if I can like take a deep breath, let it go. If I can respond to my environment, if I can say poso respirade posse, then I can, I can make a choice from love. I can actually do it. But if I'm holding my breath, then I'm going to shout at my partner, she's going to get upset. If I'm holding my breath, I'm going to not be as present in a business meeting. My breath, I'm not going to be connected to you here. Like, it's a constant reminder for me to, with a closed mouth, just breathe in through my nose as I'm with people, you know, just Just do it.

Okay, so now that you just brought that up, let me ask you about this because I've heard for. I'm 48 years old and I've heard for years, like, if I'm worked up or whatever, like, just take a deep breath and I would, like roll my eyes at it. Like, we need to take a deep breath, like, go away. My husband said that to me all the time. Take a deep breath. And my daughter laughs at it. But I've recently discovered breathwork and I. And actually it's the very thing that is able to get me to meditate. I was not able to meditate before I learned that. So can you speak into that a little more since you just kind of brought that up? Like how that ties together breath and then like what you even do with breath work.

Yeah. So this is powerful because breath, you know, the autonomic nervous system that probably has come up on your show. I mean, you have a massive fitness background. So autonomic means automatically, it's the only thing in our body that it does it on its own and we can control it. So it's the only lever that we have for stress, period. We can't digest our food faster, we can't make our heartbeat faster, we can't make any of our organs do their thing because they happen automatically. They're autonomic. But with breath, like, this is the coolest thing. When we can consciously control our respiration, we can tune our nervous system more to parasympathetic, which is meaning rest and digest. When we're stressed, when we're holding our breath, when our blood pressure is elevated, when we're angry, our dial is shifted over to sympathetic, which is fight or flight. So those are the two branches.

I've never had it explained that way. That's really, actually fascinating. I never thought of it that way. You can't like consciously speed up your heart or you can't make your liver work faster, but you can absolutely control your breath. You're right.

It's the only lever we have that's automatic and it's also manual. So that's the coolest thing. If you're a logical person, if you're a science based person. Now if you're more of a spiritual person, if you're more of an emotional person, what happens is if you consider yourself to be an empath or if you consider yourself to be an hsp, highly sensitive person, you can use breathwork as a tremendously powerful tool so that you can prepare yourself to succeed in business, to Connect with partners, connect with friends, prepare for social events. Because when you do certain rhythmic breathing patterns, and a lot of them are different than we have in our breathe program, when you do these specific patterns, they can elevate creativity, they can down regulate stress, they can prepare your physiology for exercise. I mean, the gamut is huge on the different styles of breathing. But most people know breathwork as Wim Hof. Most people know breath work as catharsis breathing, where you sit or you lay and you breathe for 30 minutes and you cry, you scream. That is breathwork. But there's three big gaps of breathwork. There's the daily meditative practice, which is probably more like what you did to prepare for your meditation, where it's like five minutes, it's rhythmic, then there's just.

Even, just even focusing on breathing in through your nose. Now through my mouth. Like just taking that slow for five minutes will put me in a meditative state.

Absolutely. And what's even better is like, then there's the second category, which is strategic. Right. So that's more like acute stress management, which is really what we cover in the program. So acute stress management is when you're going up on a stage, you're about to get in an argument with your spouse, you have anxiety that you're dealing with, you have a fear of, fill in the blank, some type of phobia. There is specific practices that for stage breathing, you can do nostril breathing, alternate nostril breathing, or activating the left and the right hemispheres of the brain that can help you be more creative and be without as much stress on stage. So those are big.

How do you do that? One is like breathe in through one nostril and out through the same, or alternate. Or what do you do that without?

Yeah, so the way to do that is you just cover a nostril, you fully inhale, you fully exhale, then you switch, you fully inhale, you fully exhale. But this is the big thing. When you're breathing in through the right nose, you're activating the left hemisphere. When you're breathing in through the left nostril, you're activating the right hemisphere.

So not to get like alternate that it turns on your brain, Is that what you're saying?

It helps to connect the hemispheres for creativity. Yeah. So that's the big one with that. But honestly, what all of us can do, no matter what, and this takes no money and hardly any time, is we can all do a full exhale and do six full belly diaphragmatic breaths. And what that means is you exhale all your air. You stack your shoulders on top of your hips. You have a straight spine. You breathe in through your nose slowly and you watch your belly push out. So you go. And when your belly pushes out as hard as it can, you take a little more sip and you hold it for a second and then you breathe it out. You breathe it out, you watch your belly come back in. You do that six times. Six full belly in, belly out breaths. You will shift your physiology. You super oxygenate your system. You're able to respond to life.

I have a really random thought that just popped in my head, so I'm just going to say it, even though it's going to sound wack.

A noodle.

Yeah, I'm starting. I am not advocating cigarette smoking, by the way, but I'm wondering when people are addicted to smoking, if they're also addicted to the breath because they're taking conscious, deep breaths in and out.

You know what? I think you don't need a Google search to say you're right. I would say that a lot of addiction is tactile, whether it's like sex or food or drugs or drinking or.

Like a bong hit. Like, I mean, you think about your table. I'm just saying, like that breathing though, might be less the drug and more the breath.

I think you're. Well, when I was a kid, you asked me about my drug with food. I really just wanted to go like this. Everything's okay. We're all just looking for everything to be okay, aren't we? Yeah, that's really what this is. So I think you're right. I think it's a big one. So this breath work has a huge attention span in our wellness and personal development world right now because, gosh, everybody's just. We're all up to our ears in books and seminars and courses and therapies. We just need something we can do every day for free.

Yeah. You guys, I really thought breath work was like, I didn't understand it, but I'll tell you, I've change on this. This is like, it's part of my daily life now. Like, I'll do it when I'm driving, I'll do it when I'm laying down, when I'm trying to go to sleep. It's changed. It's. I didn't realize how accessible and easy that is. And it's like it fixes everything. It really does. It's like. And I noticed personally, like, if I do different methods, like if I'm doing it fast. It can greet my energy. If I want to slow down my energy, I can control that. It gets me into meditation now. It even helps me enjoy yoga, which I can't. Who am I even saying that like? I never liked yoga, but if I focus on my breath, it changes a lot for me now.

Yeah, because really what you're doing is you're just being present to what is. And that might sound a little woo woo to a lot of people that are like hard charging in life, but when you're here, when we're just. When we're just. When you and I are right here, we're not thinking about later, we're not thinking about our bills, we're not thinking about our kids, we're not thinking about anything. We're just like, oh, I'm just connecting with this other human. Or I'm in yoga and I'm just going to see how far I can breathe into this pose. That's where the juice of life exists. That's where everything in life that's fun ever happens is right then when we're not distracted by anything. And I think breath gets us there.

Josh, do you think it matters what method or if you use, Like, I personally like breathing in through my nose more than I do my mouth. Like, I find if I do these deep breaths through my mouth, it makes me cough sometimes. Like, does it matter, do you think?

Yeah, it does. I mean, it's physiologically proven that our nose actually has the fibers inside of it. Our nose is built like a spiral. So the way that our nose is constructed is a helical design. So we're meant to breathe in through our nose.

Okay.

And the key on this, the physiology behind this, is when you deeply inhale through your nose, you're activating that stress response so you're actually absorbing your stress when you exhale. It's rest and digest. It's parasympathetic. So our wires, our fibers that are connected to our vagal nerve. The vagal nerve is connected on the back of the cranium. It runs all the way down our spine. It innervates the diaphragm. So when we take a huge belly breath and we breathe in through our nose, we're electronically signaling our nervous system to relax.

So when, like when I just did a class last week, I was at Rhythmia and I did a class and they did it. It was like an hour of in through your mouth does what? What's the benefit of doing it that way?

That's different. That's more of like a catharsis breathing.

Okay.

So what I was speaking about is more like acute stress management, meditation, prep.

Okay.

That's more of a rhythmic, rolling breath. For what you were doing, you were. You were going into what's called intermittent hypoxia. And intermittent hypoxia is when you're slowly losing blood oxygen concentration. And the key on that is that when you shift the body into that state, you can have catharsis and release.

That's why you get, like, the pins.

And needles, the tetany and. Yeah, like the crab hands. So that's what Bruce Lipton talks about in his book the Biology of Belief. Right. And so our tissues store memories. No matter who you are, the science is unreputed on this. Like you, me, all of us, we store things in our physical tissues. So when you're doing breath work, especially this longer catharsis breathing, which, by the way, only should happen with a skilled practitioner.

Okay.

I would never recommend somebody does catharsis breathing on their own. There's just things that can go wrong there. So what's happening there is totally different than acute stress management or in, you know, meditative.

Good to know. Okay, so there's. There. They both have a place. They're just. They're different things.

That makes sense. Yeah. All three are powerful, but, you know, you need the right tool for the right moment.

Yeah. Okay. Gosh, so much. So much information here. This is really, really helpful. So. Okay, so tell me more about, like, Wellness Force and what that you said you had this vision for it. It was like you kind of.

You.

You paused, you. You stayed in that place of, I know now what do I do for a while. What did. When did it come to you and what is it now?

Well, it came at that coffee shop, and I took hold of it once I got fired once, I actually. Once I actually took the reins, and I was like, okay, I'm really going to do this, and I'm willing to die for it. For real. That's when everything shifted. And so when I first started, it's funny how we all go through changes, because as we approach the path for the dream, a lot of times that path gets super windy. And so for me, what happened was when I started, I wanted to use technology. You know, I wanted to use, like, the aura ring or, like, Fitbits. And there was this coaching platform that I used back in the day called Nudge. I mean, when I first started the podcast, I was doing anything and everything I could to keep it alive straight Up. I mean, anything consulting. I did some consulting for the fitness industry and for Power Plate. And, like, so I was just everywhere. And what I promised myself is that I wouldn't quit. And that's actually the determining factor for all of us is no matter how bad it gets, you know, just. Just literally promise yourself you won't quit. Like, be willing to sleep on a couch and don't quit. So. So Wellness Force had its evolution, where at about two years in, I just reached this kind of second rock bottom moment where, like, my money wasn't good, I wasn't necessarily growing and things weren't going in the right direction. And I got a tip to get this coach, his name's Rocco, he's in Vegas, and I go spend a weekend with this guy, and I got one gem from him that made all the difference in the world. It's funny. Like, we can invest a bunch of money and then we hear one sentence and it makes our entire investment worth it. Like, that's what happened with this guy. And he was like, what are you most afraid of? Sharing? And I was like, well, I'm most afraid that, like, I have this podcast that's about wellness and tuning into this force that we all have inside of us, but I'm also not sharing about my struggles, and I'm not sharing that I'm, like, not healthy myself and that I'm broke and that I'm going through the shit. Yeah, great, we'll do that. Start doing that.

The scary stuff.

Start sharing about that. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like. And he had me do this exercise where I wrote down all the qualities I'd want in a partner. And he said, great, now that you've done that, write down those same qualities for business, and then write down the same qualities for yourself. And what came from this was this moment, this gem where he looked at me and he's like, what are you actually doing now that you've done these exercises? What are you actually doing? And I was like, I'm just learning, and I'm sharing my learning with other people, and I'm just trying to be as honest as I can about it. And he's like, yeah, you're discovering intelligence. He's like, what kind of intelligence are you discovering?

Yeah.

And I was like, you know, the body, the mind, the soul. And he's like, physical and emotional intelligence. And when he said that, I knew that that was going to be my life's work forever.

I love that.

That was it. Yeah. So that's when it became like, oh, this is my journey of discovering physical and emotional intelligence. And then I later learned, like, intelligence has nothing to do with how smart you are.

You know, what's fascinating and what I'm taking away from this, and I'm sure people are picking up on this, is that, like, you can have an. Like, you said there was. You talked earlier. It's something I say all the time. In fact, right before we even started recording, I had a post that I was about to do about between the space between the knowing and the doing. So that you, like, brought that up. But I think that you. That is that space. Like, you knew what you were moving towards. You knew you wanted to create Wellness Force. You didn't fully know what it was looking like or how it was coming to fruition, but you stayed in that space. Space of, like, I know, but I. It'll unravel, and it'll unfold as it does. And then it actually did, and then it hit you. So it's like, it wasn't like an overnight. Like, I have an idea, and tomorrow it's doing all this success. It's like, you really. That is that space is what I'm hearing.

Yeah. And to be honest, that repeats because I'm in that same. Well, I'm in a different version of that space. I'm not in that exact space now, but I'm definitely at a point now where I'm like, okay, what are we pivoting into? Like, what's. What feels the most fun and what feels the most needed in our world? That's actually the magic right there. Like, what brings me joy and what does the world actually need on a tangible, practical, market level.

Yeah.

So that's what I'm leaning into now. And I think as. As creators, as anyone that runs a business, either as an entrepreneur or just anyone that runs a business at all or helps run a business is, like, tune into that question at least once a month. Like, am I doing something that I at least enjoy most of the time, or is my main mission something that I enjoy and does the market actually need it? Because the guy. You got to have both. You can't just be on the top of a mountain meditating because you love it, because then nobody gets served.

Totally true. Gosh, this is so good. I could. I could. I have, like, so many questions, but I'm thinking. I think I'm going to confuse people if I keep going further. So. Okay, what can people find at Wellness Force? Tell me where they should go. Check you out. And start like what, what should they go check out over there?

Well, the best thing that they get to go to is is wellnessforce.com 21 that's the morning 21. It's a program we put out. It's absolutely free. It's a free program. Everyone can go download it. Wellnessforce.com M21 it's six practices that I've gotten from 300 plus episodes. I basically I took tools of Titans and Wellness Force and I compressed them down into the most concentrated wisdom I could possibly find and I put it into six practices. There's a seven day breathwork challenge from all my years of training in that guide. So you guys can go down that. Wellnessforce.comm 21 it's 21 minutes or less for you to have an amazing morning. And here's the thing, if you actually do it, it will change your life. You just got to do it.

I love it. This is so good. Where else can people find you, Josh?

So the Wellness Force podcast, which Natalie Jill will be a featured guest on this year, to be determined. It's going to be a spotlight episode. And also you can go to wellnessforce.com wellnessforce.com, we have all these tools for the physical and the emotional and we also talk about the spiritual as well because that's part of wellness.

I love that. And then where are you on social media the most? Where do you spend time there?

If you do, you can, I mean my, my personal Instagram is Trent_sd but honestly, just type in WellnessForce on Facebook or on Instagram or just go to our site. We have a contact page.

I love it.

And yeah, if I said anything where you're like this guy's crazy, let me know. Or if I said anything where you're like I want to learn more, let me know that too.

Thank you so much Josh.

Thank you.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.