191: Mind Hacking and Human Evolution with David Bayer

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. David Bayer is a leading expert on human evolution, mindset and business strategy. And he's built one of the fastest growing brands in the personal and business development space. Now, David was recently featured in Success magazine as a leading expert on the next evolution of mindset. His book Mind Hack has been downloaded over 200,000 times, and his recent interview on Impact Theory has had over a half a million views. And his annual event, the Powerful Living Experience, was named a top three must attend personal development event for entrepreneurs. David's work has been referred to as Personal Development 2.0. And he believes that mindset, or the developed capacity to utilize the mind to rewire and reorganize the brain, is in the linchpin of the evolution of human species. Join in today and learn exactly how David Bayer levels up and created everything from nothing. Today I've got mindset coach and business strategist David Bayer, and I'm excited to talk with him. All things mindset. Thanks for being here today, David.

Hey, Natalie, thanks for having me.

So take us back, because right now you're a leader with mindset, and mindset is sort of a trendy word. You know, we see coaches, we see strategists, and everybody goes back to mindset. I'm assuming that you always didn't have it totally together with mindset.

Yeah, I mean, I always had a mindset, but it wasn't conducive to living a life that I loved for most of my life, for sure.

Yeah, tell me about that. Like, who were you before you became successful with what you're doing right now?

Yeah, so I was like an achiever growing up. My dad was an attorney and, like, good grades were very, very important. Education was very important to us. I was in honors education program since, like fifth grade.

Wow.

And so I went, you know, I was going down that track of good student and quote unquote, successful human being. So I graduated from college, I went from high school, then I went to Columbia University. And I always wanted to write screenplays, but I didn't have a lot of career guidance and so in the, in the mid to late 90s, I had this idea for starting a business on the Internet and I did. So I was an early Internet entrepreneur. And So I think 1998 I started my first business. We sold things to college kids for their dorm rooms, Posters, beanbags, lava lamps, inflatable furniture. And then in 2000 I met, I don't know if you're familiar with the Italian motorcycle racing company called Ducati. And I met, I met. So it's a high end motorcycle brand. And I happened to meet the general manager of Ducati North America and he said, hey, why don't you come over and help us build up our.com presence because we don't know what we're doing. So I moved to Italy for two years and then I moved back to the states and in 2004, 2005 I raised a couple of million dollars for a venture backed search engine optimization company that I started then. This was early in SEO. Yeah, so we were, Most people don't.

Even know what that meant at that time.

Yeah. And people didn't know what SEO was. And so we were doing a lot of lead generation. And then around 2008, 2009, like my whole life fell apart.

Oh yeah, yours and a lot of people.

The business fell apart because the way we were doing search engine optimization, Google was getting smarter, we were generating a lot of financial services leads. But the truth is those were all external things. What was really happening was I was. My life had become unmanageable. So I didn't realize it at the time, but I had become a drug addict, I'd become an alcoholic. And then one night in 2009, I'd been trying to control my drinking for a while. I'd stopped for 30 days and I went out, it was called Wind Down Wednesday. And I had, I was like, well, I'll just have one glass of wine. And then it was another. And then it was another. And then the next thing I know I'm out at a club till two in the morning and I woke up the next day. I don't know if I've ever told the story publicly. I woke up the next day and my body hurt everywhere. And I was like, that's odd. Like I've been lifting consistently. It's not like just muscle soreness. I went to work that day, I'm running a company with 20 employees. And I came home that evening and it was around 7:30 at night. It all came flooding back to me that I had gotten jumped at a bar. And had been in a fight. And that's why I heard it was the first time I ever blacked out in my life.

So you had no memory of this that next morning until. That's how. That must have been so scary.

Like, scared the shit out of me. It was like that. That was exactly what I needed. Where I would. I remember saying to my. I started crying, and I was like, I don't. Like, I don't know how I got into this life. And I had had that feeling for a while. Like, I was. I was in this life that wasn't working. And I was working so hard to make it work. And I was, quote, unquote, successful. You know, I mean, I'd raised millions of dollars at, like, you know, 29 years old. But, like, I really knew that things were failing badly. And so fortunately, my, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My brother was in addiction recovery about two years before.

Okay.

He's my younger brother. And I called him and I was like, I don't know what to do. And he was like, well, you're a drug addict and you're an alcoholic, so you need to go see someone. And long story short, I started seeing a therapist who focused on the addicted brain. That's where I started getting my entree into, like, how the brain works and neuroscience and neuroplasticity. And then I started working a 12 step program. And that was my introduction to this idea that there was a power greater than yourself, because I did not. I didn't grow up in a religious or spiritual family. And. And it was at that time that a series of synchronicities happened where within the span of like, four weeks, I went to a bookstore, like one of those Hudson bookstores at the airport.

Right.

I think I had my second appointment with the therapist. I'd gone, like, my second or third 12 step meeting. I was not an avid reader. You know how, like, a book calls from you off the shelf?

Oh, yeah.

At that time in your life. And so I walked over and I grabbed this book, and on the back of the book it said, life is full of suffering. Suffering will happen to you. There's a way out of the suffering. And the way out of the suffering is the Eightfold path of virtue. And I was reading the four noble truths of Buddhism.

Okay.

It was this book called Awakening the Buddha Within. And. And I just grabbed the book, I read it on the airplane, and it talked about suffering. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, this is what I've been Experiencing, But I didn't have a word for it. I was like, this is what suffering is. Then I got back from the trip and one of my employees put a book on my desk called Kingdom Principles by Myles Monroe. And it was basically the same thing Buddha was talking about, which was the same thing 12 step was talking about, but it was through the teachings of Christ. And so then I read that book and I was like, there's something going. Like, there is some structure to life that no one ever taught me. And I ran to Barnes and Noble that evening and I said to the woman at the front desk, I was like, do you have a section in the bookstore for people who are, like, trying to get their lives together? He was like, you mean the self help section? I was like, oh, my God, that's so appropriately named. So she goes, it's over there. And I walk over to the self help section, no exaggeration. In the middle of the aisle, sitting on the ground, is a little book called Think and Grow Rich. I grabbed the book and then that was. That was. I mean, I haven't looked back since.

Wow. So, you know, this is so interesting because. And for anyone listening to my podcast, if they've listened to any number of my episodes, they've heard a pattern that super successful people, they have these experiences of superficial success. Like, it looks amazing on the outside. They're hiding something. Like you were hiding this drug addiction and alcohol addiction. Really, something has to happen to make them question things. And then people go one of two directions. They either keep repeating that pattern until it really hits them hard enough. They have to look at something, or they get the lesson early. Which you kind of actually did.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's interesting, though. So I want to dive deeper into this because a lot of people haven't even recognized that they're in this thing yet. They just think things keep happening to them. They don't understand it yet. Back up to the drug and alcohol. Did you on some level know you had a problem with it when you did, or did it take getting jumped in this memory for you to see that? Did you know that?

I knew there was a problem. I knew that I. I was lashing out at my employees.

Okay.

I knew that I wasn't hanging out with the best friends that I could have. I knew that I wasn't, like, as connected to my family as other families were. Like, there was definitely a disturbance in the force, and then I would just go back into work. Right. Because the idea at that time was all of that can be resolved through success.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So many people have grown up with that belief that they formed so many questions around this. But where do you think that belief comes from? Like, why do you think success driven entrepreneurs develop that belief that like, they don't offer value unless they are successful? Where do you think that comes from?

Well, I mean, number one, it depends on if you grew up in that type of family. Like I was in a, in an education and success values driven family. So, you know, the idea was if I could just grow up and be successful and be like my dad and what kid doesn't want to be like their dad? I didn't know my dad was miserable. Right, right. So it's like, okay, so if I can be like, dad's okay, dad's my protector, or mom is okay and mom's my nurturer. So if I can just be like them. So if you have successful parents, you know, you can move in that direction or you do just the opposite. Right. You rebel. And then we get it from everywhere else. I mean, especially in the virtual world that we live in with social media connection. There's the Instagram lifestyle or the Facebook lifestyle, and people look like they're happy and we're neuro associating happiness with money and success and business growth. And so it's a pretty predominant theme that naturally influences people at an unconscious level until we become aware of the fact that like, there could be nothing further from the truth.

Yeah, yeah, I'm convinced that there is nothing further from the truth right now. And I, and I also believe that when people fully focus on materialistic or appearances around that something does interrupt them at some point. It just happens.

For sure. Yeah. There's definitely a part of intelligent design in life that, that, that conditions you and trains you through this false sense of happiness over time. But then there's a pivot point. And that pivot point is, you know, a lot of people would describe it in different ways. There's a breakdown because whatever you've been doing habitually isn't sustainable. And then we move into that conversation of meaning. Right? Like, I don't mean meaning like the meanings we give the experiences of our life or our beliefs. I mean, like living a meaningful life. Like, what is my purpose, what is my mission? What is my, what we would call my spiritual vision? And it tends to emerge out of this. I mean, Joseph Campbell wrote about this, right? It's the hero's journey. There's a geometry to it in the way that is expressing itself through us that we Go through this. Where the wound becomes the way.

Yeah. Where your pain becomes your purpose. For sure.

Yeah.

So why do you think? Great. Well, I'm going to talk about the addiction a little bit too. Were you. How did you. How does somebody know that they have an addiction problem? I'm curious your take on that, because I'm assuming you said you knew on some level, but I'm also assuming that you also would sort of convince yourself. Well, maybe I don't because I could stop or I don't do it every day or how did. How do you know? How does somebody listening know that they actually have a problem?

Yeah. So. Well, I mean, I can share my experience and relate to it and we can find a theme. But, you know, it got to a point where I wasn't just smoking a joint three times a week. I was rolling a blunt in my car, headed to Starbucks on the way to work with 30 people and smoking half of it and then smoking half at lunch and rolling another one when I got home. You know, I would buy pot from my pot dealer after having sworn I would never buy again because that would be interesting. Then I would smoke it, feel so guilty about it that I fill the bag up with water, take it to a Whole Foods garbage can three miles from my house and drop it in, and four hours later drive back and see if I can get the bag out of the garbage. Like, wow. When you're at that level of addiction, I'm actually really grateful for it. Right. Because it's the more subtle levels that are harder to detect. Like, I mean, this isn't my opinion about pot, but it can be really cunning, baffling and powerful marijuana. Because if you don't go to the extremes that I went to, because I am an extreme person, you can just really low level, numb yourself and disconnect yourself from your higher source. Right. But for me, it was really obvious. I think if you ask yourself a question, is this habit I'm engaged in serving me or is it disserving me at any level? Like, you'll get that answer.

Like two of you're keeping a secret. Like that's a secret. Like if you have to hide something from people, that I think is a big telling sign with anything. I mean, even I look at people that hide doing work from others or hide. Like, I think anytime you're hiding something, there's. There's an issue there because it's not.

Authentic, then it's a great indicator. Hiding for sure.

Yeah. So how did you, when you, you had this realization that night that you got jumped and you realize this, how did you then stop? You mentioned picking up books and stuff, but was this a decision? Did you have to, like, did you have to get help from people? Did you own it to people? Like, what was your process to stop? Because that's a lot of stuff to just kind of quit cold turkey.

Yeah, I mean, it's. I think it's a combination of things. One, everything starts with a decision. So, like, I decided this was not the life that I wanted, and then that opened up the resources to come to me that made my recovery possible. Being vulnerable with my brother and reaching out to him. I mean, I could have imagined a scenario where, like, my ego would have gotten in the way, and I wouldn't have reached out and said, hey, I have a problem. I mean, I'll never forget going to my first 12 step meeting and sitting in that room with a bunch of people who. I had no idea who they were, and I had no idea how this was going to work. But my therapist was like, you're going to go to a couple meetings and you're going to listen to people and you're going to find someone who resonates with you. And at the end, when they raise their hand and say, I'm available for sponsorship, you're going to go connect with that person who. And have a conversation. And I went up to my sponsor and I was like, hey, like, will you sponsor me? Like, sadly, it was the weirdest thing, right? Because I still haven't even registered in my head, like, what do you mean? I. Because, you know, going through 12 step, a big part of recovery is the identification as being an addict. Now, my personal belief and some of the early work that I did in personal development, where I was supporting those in drug and alcohol addiction, is to then disassociate with that identification and associate with it with a future that's greater than you.

Okay.

You know, I'm walking up to my sponsor and he's like, you know, you need to go to five meetings a week. I was like, five meetings a week? Are you out of your mind? So, like, it was structure. It was people. It was the decision. And then I think I'm. I think I was really lucky that I stumbled into personal development at the same time. Because for me, personal development went beyond drug and alcohol recovery. And I just loved it. Like, it became my new. My new addiction. Like, really trying to understand, like, what is this conversation about how I can use my mind to rewire and reorganize my own brain. And how do I, as an individual expression of intelligence connect metaphysically to all intelligence everywhere? I mean, because. So I just got super passionate about something else other than smoking pot.

Yeah, David, what would. Because there's, there are people listening right now that they think it's harmless. Like they drink wine every night, they smoke pot, it's legal now in California, you know, whatever they think it's okay and they think personal development is woo woo or weird. What would you say to that?

Well, I mean, I'd say a lot of different things to it, but. But like I don't want to, I don't want to go too far out for first is whatever you want to do, it's okay. Like whatever you want to do with your life, you get to do with your life. But just know that if you have these glimpses or a vision for a life that's greater than the life that you're living, that there's a reason why you're getting that vision. And so if someone's happy at the end of the day, that's what's important. The challenge with something like marijuana or drinking is that it affects your neurochemistry and so you're not even really sure if you're happy. It's like happy compared to what? Like I was so disconnected to my intuition and to creativity and to inspiration. And the reason why I say it's, you know, kind of cunning, baffling and powerful is like for a while when I started smoking pot, I thought I was being more creative.

Yeah, a lot of people do. A lot of people say that they think they get better sleep or they're more creative and that's what they need.

Right, right. And I just got to a point where I believed that the human being can do that on their own. And that's what I became passionate about pursuing like what is really possible in my own personal evolution and what I can and what I can achieve without any type of like third party technology.

Yeah, I love that I've experienced now, I didn't have an addiction with alcohol or marijuana. I didn't have an addiction with any substance. But being somebody that is ADHD and have been for a kid, I did have a year where I was convinced from therapists, whoever, that I needed to be taking Adderall. And I remember over that year I got a lot of stuff done that doesn't matter. Like I would be hyper focused on a spreadsheet or whatever, just stuff like that. And just like you said, what I realized, and I know now Is that okay? Maybe I can't focus on things I don't care about 10 hours a day without something, but maybe I shouldn't be focusing on things I don't care about 10 hours a day, and instead I work around when my body is most focused and I've learned to delegate things that I'm not good at. So I agree with you that, like, within our human. Within our. We can. We have to look at it different. It's not about tricking the system.

Yeah, maybe you never needed to. And I had a similar story where I think probably for 15 years I was on Prozac or Paxil or Effexor to deal with anxiety, and it was really hard to come off of. And again, I'm not saying don't use medications to stabilize your system. That's what a doctor tells you to do. What I can share is that once I got off of them, my connection to myself and my emotions and what I would call God and other people has grown exponentially.

Yeah, that's amazing. Do you have to stay away cold turkey now? Like, do you never have a drink now or where are you with that?

No, my wife and I have a glass of wine every once in a while. I realized, like, I was using drinking to get into drugs. And, you know, it was sort of a gateway abuse for me. I don't, you know, I don't regularly smoke pot, but yeah, I have glass of wine.

Yeah. So I want to talk more about what you teach and do now and how this serves people, because there's a lot of people that they're intrigued by this and they realize they numb out with things. Because, listen, for those of you listening, it doesn't even have to be a substance. This could be you numb out with too much work or over training or going to sleep super early or whatever it is. There's a lot of.

Social media is probably the biggest one. Your phone.

Oh, my gosh. Totally. You know, it's funny, especially with everything going on in the world, Quarantine and everything. I noticed that I was feeling really stressed and depressed one week. Like, really? And then I checked my phone and I had spent like six hours on average on social media. I was like, wait a minute. Not posting, not creating content, scrolling. And I was like, okay, well, this makes sense. So, yeah, let's talk a little bit.

About the same way. Like, you put your phone down next to you, it's like, grab me, touch me, swipe me.

Yeah, yeah. Then you get lost in, like, someone's opinion about Something and it just changes your whole mood. Yeah, yeah. So what would you. If somebody's intrigued by this and they're thinking, okay, I hear you, maybe I am stuck on something that's helping me numb out, or where would you advise if they start to start shifting out of that?

Where would I suggest they start to shift out of it? I mean, again, I think it comes down to a desire of wanting something more. You know, behind. Behind all of those behaviors is an emotion. And, you know, one of the things that I think makes the way we teach personal growth so simple and why people have been able to apply it effectively is because we talk about. We talk about it in a binary way. And what I mean by that is that in any moment in time, you're either in what we would call a powerful state of being or. Or you're in a primal state of being. And a powerful state is a state like joy, curiosity, excitement, passion, enthusiasm. And a primal state is a state like boredom or stress or anxiety or overwhelm. And these two states are being mapped to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. So you're either in some form of fight or flight. Right. Or you're in rest and relaxation, and you're always in one state or the other, and you're never in two states at the same time. So. So the question is, how much time are you spending in a primal state? Like, how much time are you spending in stress or anxiety or overwhelm or jealousy or comparing yourself to other people?

Wow. And I think the answer to most people is a lot. And then they do their numb out thing to get them into joy or creativity versus, like what you're saying, feeling the emotions, working through it, and learn how to transition. Yeah. So how do you do that? Because there's a lot of people that recognize that they're in boredom or stress or anxiety. Like right now I know that there are.

So.

But they. And if they're saying, okay, I don't want to turn to the numb out, I don't want to pick up social media. I don't want it. Like you said, you mentioned deciding which I get, but where, what do they do then? Because I think there's a lot of people hungry for it. They just don't literally know what to do.

Well, I've heard you talk about this. There's two things you mentioned, right? Like, one is you've got triggers. So you want to take a look at the thinking that's taking place that's causing the emotion because you know, the way the human being is designed. And it's kind of like the movie Avatar, like we broadcast in through the brain as intelligence, having a David experience. But nobody ever really told us how the machinery works. Right. And so, you know, those, those, those beliefs that were formed almost all before the age of seven, before the prefrontal cortex was fully formed, which are just the meanings we gave the experiences of our lives. They, they, they shape the lens through which we experience life. And so the thinking that you're having on a moment by moment basis is always directly correlated to those core beliefs. Right. If you think that you're not good enough, if you believe you're not good enough, you're going to have thoughts of like, oh, I bet she doesn't like this about me, or he doesn't like this about me, or I'm not doing this well enough, or I never do it. Right. And so your core beliefs dictate your thinking and then your thoughts on a moment by moment basis. You experience as emotions in the body. So you feel them, you experience an emotion, and then those emotions either motivate or demotivate some form of action. And then over time, those actions produce results, and then those results reinforce the beliefs. And so the key for people who are feeling like there's more to their life and they're checking out of their life and they know that they're engaged in some form of habitual pattern or behavior that doesn't serve them well, is to first notice that you've moved into what we would call a primal state. Right. Which is kind of easy. Like you either feel good or you feel bad.

Yeah.

And if you feel bad, to know, and this is really about how you get into the work or you get a coach or you go through a program. But you know this and I know this, but most people don't, that the only thing that's causing you to feel that way is your own thinking. So you inquire within, you go, what am I thinking right now? Oh, I'm thinking that this never works out for me and it's causing me to be stressed. I'm thinking that I don't have enough time. It's causing me to be overwhelmed. I'm thinking that, well, I could pick that decision or this decision, and I don't know which one is the right one or the wrong one. And it's causing anxiety for you.

Yeah.

So, Right. The only cause of you moving into a primal state, which is really the only problem, because everything you want comes from a powerful state of being. The Creativity, the inspiration, the intuition and feeling good. So if you were to ask me, hey, what's the name of the game as a human being or an entrepreneur to have a life I love. And I would go, well, notice when you moved into a primal state and used a powerful state, but it's to just know that the only thing that ever moves you into a primal state is not the experience you're having, it's the thinking about the experience. So, so once you notice that you've moved into some form of suffering, right, Then you go, well, what is it? I'm thinking? And you begin the self inquiry process. So, so, so that you know, and that is like, you know what, what, what the concept of know thyself and the huge opportunity right now as we're having this conversation because not only are we in a self quarantine, you can put yourself in a spiritual quarantine and it's, it's triggering all this stuff for people, right? And so you, that's. That stuff is the gold because it's, it's, it's you becoming aware of what you weren't aware of that's been causing you suffering in your life and preventing you from actually living a life.

You were so good. You know, it's so interesting right now because I've always told clients that if they can't, if they're wanting to know why they have, they're addicted to something, whether it's social media, drinking, whatever it is, I have always said just stop doing it and notice what's coming up for you. Because that's, if you stop doing it, it's very clear why you need to do it. Like I'm bored or whatever it is, I need validation. It comes up really clearly. But what I think is super challenging for people and where the missing link is, is if they notice what they're noticing now, the next tendency is to stop feeling that way. So they, it's like this, okay, I got, I noticed why I'm feeling that way. But now this is calling to me because if I pick this up or if I do this, I get back to a better state. So, so that's a challenging step. Is that where you would say, okay, if that's you, I mean, does everyone go to a 12 step program? What do they do? Because like social media, there needs to be a whole 12 step program just for that.

So let me make sure I'm clear by what's the question, because I think I am the question by sharing a story, right? So when I began my Journey of personal development. I told you, like, I had my breakdown. I started working a 12 step program, found this therapist that happened to specialize in how the brain works. I start reading all these books and I go on this journey. And so the journey lasted about five or six years. And so I started reading all the books. Then you got to start going to the events. I did the landmark forum. I did all the landmark, done all that.

Yep.

I heard you talk about this in your interview ala Tony Robbins doing all these programs. And while I understood I was becoming more and more self aware, I didn't know how to change my thinking. And so I went deeper. Don't get me wrong, I had some incremental changes, but like I was still getting triggered and I was still spending more time in the trigger than I would have liked to, even though it was less time. And I actually had this belief that I could escape the trigger permanently. So, so I, so I go on this journey, right? I start going into India. I went to India three years in a row. I'm studying, I'm doing, as you talked about. I'm doing, you know, various forms of chanting or mantras. I'm studying ashrams. I go spend six weeks in Sedona meditating on red rocks. I start doing traditional shamanic ceremony.

Oh, yeah. Do you do plant medicine? Were you doing plant medicine? Okay.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm like. So I'm going down the journey. Right. Okay. So. And ultimately, at the end of it, while there were significant improvements, I was still spending more time in a primal state than I wanted to spend it.

Yeah.

So for me, for me, that's kind of what we've been calling Personal Development 1.0. It's been where the technology of personal development has been up until now. And now what we're really understanding is that this thing called mindset that you started this whole conversation with which you're like, it's kind of like white noise. It needs to be defined. And the way we would define it is the developed capacity to utilize the mind to rewire and reorganize your own brain. And it is actually the key to the evolution of the entire human species. And so this is where this conversation gets really interesting because we're now understanding, thanks to Personal Development 1.0, right?

Yeah.

We're now talking about how to use our mind to rewire and reorganize our brain, which changes ours at the molecular level, at the DNA level, at our epigenetic expression. And so this is the transition of sort of the mammalian reptilian man and woman into the supreme man and supreme woman of the golden age. And I actually think that's what's happening with coronavirus right now, is the beginning of the new development. So, so that's the conversation we're in and that, that, that's where I, we've been spending a lot of time and focus. Because I didn't want to just be a highly self aware human being that was still in suffering all the time.

Totally.

I wanted to know how I could actually change my thinking. And so what you say is, hey, so, so people become aware. How do they actually change their thinking? Yeah, that's the question, right?

Yeah, that is the question. Because they there because what I notice, with myself included, I get aware and then I think, okay, if I don't do this or what's coming up for me, and then I think about it and then I still will want to go to that crutch that gets me out of it. It's like I'm missing a step. So I'm asking.

And it requires, it requires energy, doesn't it?

Yeah.

So you're like, you're like, hey, I've learned how to like be in my center and live my life. And as a result of that, I'm not spending as much time in the trigger. That's why my business is growing, my impact is growing, my vision is growing. Everything about Natalie is growing. Right. And anybody who's doing this. But then it's like, but am I always going to have to do this work around the trigger?

Yeah. Like for me it's boredom. For me, what comes up is boredom. That's where I get to like, where I won't just be with the boredom. So that's mine.

Got it. So what we would, what we teach is that the experience of boredom is caused by one thing and one thing only, which is thinking.

Okay.

Every emotion is simply caused by a thinking that's taking place. And what we found over the course of the last couple of years, it wasn't in the methodology at the beginning, but now we've seen it so consistently that we view it as law, is that the only the quality of the thinking that causes you to move into any form of a primal state is that 100% of the time it's not true. So what's happened is you've entangled yourself with literally a resonance or a vibration created by your own brain activity that's not in alignment with the resonance and vibration of reality itself. And your nervous system is a guidance system to Let you know that you've disconnected from reality.

Wow.

And so now we can test this and test this and test this. And we have, right? Like when? And so the process, I'll tell you a story about it because I think so many people struggle with this. But I had a client I was working with privately, and he understood the structure of what we teach, and he was very good at implementing it into his life. And so he was spending way less time in a primal state. And business was growing and relationships were growing and everything was growing because all that energy is now going into what he wants, right? And he was invited to a get together with, I think it was the vice president of the professional sports team, the number one DJ in Miami. It was down in Miami. And it was like all these movers and shakers. It was like 12 people invited to this dinner. He called me the next day and he was like, hey, I moved into a primal state last night and I couldn't get out of it. Can you coach me on it? And I said, sure, walk me through what happened. And he said, well, I was at this dinner, was like this person and this person, this person, this person. And I noticed I started to not feel good. I was moving into a primal state. And I said, okay, well then what did you do? He goes, well, I know the only cause of it is my own thinking. So I looked at the thinking and I said, what did you find? He said, I found this thinking which was, I don't belong here. I was like, oh, okay, got it. So what did you do? And he said, well, I remember what you teach, that any kind of thinking that moves me into a primal state is not true. And I said, okay, got it. So if I don't belong here isn't true, then what was true for you? He goes, that I do belong there. There. And I go, could you find evidence for it? He goes, no, that's where I got stuck. And so I'm coaching him. And as you've powerfully spoken to before, like this, this is the importance of coaching. I knew him, I knew how to leverage him into seeing the truth. And I said, well, let me ask you a question. Because he still felt like he didn't belong. He was like, no, man. This one real estate developer and then this one actress and then this one. Like there was no reason I should have been in that room with those people. Insecurity, right? So I said, let me ask you a question. I go, you're pretty faith based person, right? He goes, right. I go, I mean, if I remember from our conversations, you believe in God, don't you? And by the way, you don't have to believe in God. It was just that particular leverage for him. He goes, yeah, I do believe in God. And I go, so is your God like the all knowing, omnipotent, omniscient kind of God? He goes, yeah, pretty much. That's my God. I said, got it. So how did your God put you in the wrong place last night? And there was a silence and then he said, oh my God. And I said, what did you see? Because what we find is that when you're actually able to see the untrue thinking is untrue and it clears the space, there's a revelation and it's individual to each and every one of us, which is why it's important to not tell someone what you think if you're going to be a powerful coach. So he said, oh my God. I said, what did you see? He goes, I belong everywhere I am. Now, that is a fundamental shift and reorientation to you and your entire reality.

Yeah, it's really good.

I belong everywhere I am. So what we believe to answer the question is that while there are a lot of different modalities and structures to get us to this, what we believe is one moment of transformation, which is the moment that you see what you've been seeing the same way over and over again differently, which is an actual change in the neural networks of your brain. The fastest way to do that is to actually see your unintelligent thinking as unintelligent. The moment you do that, you can't unsee it. And so the whole structure of what we teach is this very simple step by step process to know that anything that's moving me there are only two states of being. Anything that moves me into a primal state is disconnecting me from myself and everything that I love. And it's only cause because I've entangled myself with a thought that's not true. It's not caused by the experience, it's caused by the meaning I'm giving the experience. And the moment that I can actually see that the unintelligent thinking is unintelligent is the transformation. And so we don't actually believe. Earlier in my work we do a lot of like, go back to my history and find the originating trauma or belief. But the challenge is, is that the reason why we still get hooked in and have to deal with the trigger. This is really important to understand, especially if you've been in personal development For a while is that even if you find the originating experience, all of the connecting experiences still have energy. And so you really have to go back and disconnect the entire structure to free yourself from the present day trigger. Or you just deal with the trigger.

Now that's really good.

Does that make sense?

It makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of people spend so much time going backwards, going backwards, going backwards. And it's. You're like, like you just said, it doesn't really fix it. You have to still it helps it.

Doesn'T it help it. I mean it helps because you then.

You know, you know where it came from. So that's just an awareness. But I don't think it helps change the pattern. Yes, you have to jump into the, you have to jump into the discomfort.

Yeah, yeah, you do. So, so yeah, this is the answer to the question of like how do I not just become aware but how do I actually change my thinking? Our answer would be utilize the philosophy to be able to see your unintelligent thinking is unintelligent. Because the moment you do, there's a reorganization at the brain level.

That's really good. And I, and I love it. You're. Because so many people try to stop things based on willpower. And nowhere in what you said did you mention that. Because I think that's. You can't just put a block on your phone or you can't just not go to the bar. Like I think that is relying on willpower and that doesn't work.

So it's so much, it's so much expenditure of energy, right? Because life is energy, everything we want. Like if you kind of look at, there's several ways to look at the name of the game of life, but one of the ways to look at it is to cut off the various forms of energy depletion, right? So that we can harness all of our energy to be superhuman, right? To have more clarity, to have more vision, to have more intuition, to have more vitality. To live a mission driven life, to just crush through the obstacles. You, it's hard to do that if at the same time you're number one moving into a primal state and you're expending that energy on stress and anxiety and overwhelm. Or you become a self aware person, but you're applying all that energy to try to hold off the trigger.

Well, it's also control. It's a form of massive control and we can't control things. So that's. It doesn't leave room for Error, like at all.

At all. At all? Yeah, it's. I mean, and again, do I do it perfectly? No. But I have enough distance between me and that life. Like, I've really been focusing recently on allowing and really trusting that the geometry of life itself is that moment by moment, life is working for my greatest growth, my greatest prosperity, my greatest evolution. We've been talking right now about how this self quarantine situation is the golden window of opportunity for all of us.

Yeah, it's interesting because some people are taking it on and really reflecting and a lot of people are wasting the time.

Well, it's like you said, if you believe it's an obstacle, then it will be an obstacle. If you believe that it's preventing you from doing certain things, it'll prevent you from doing certain things. And if you believe this is the greatest opportunity for growth in your business, in your health and your relationship and your nervous system and your spirituality in the history of the world, then that's what it's going to be for you.

That's amazing. Yeah, I love that. This has been super helpful. Okay, tell me about what your event and what you do and tell me about all the things that you do if people want to find more.

So I have, I didn't intend for it to be this, but I have a little ebook that I wrote like three years ago and people can get it off our website@davidbear.com and it's called Mindhack. And so it's the foundation of this philosophy and it's amazing. We get emails every day from people like, oh my God, that ebook just changed my life. You know, people have been in personal development for, you know, 10 years.

Yeah, they can just find this on your website@davidbear.com.

Find it on the website at www.davidbear.com.

Okay, awesome.

And then we do an event once a year called the Powerful Living Experience.

Okay, and what's that?

And the URL for that is Powerful Living Experience. It's coming up next March. I don't have the dates in front of me. It's like March 12th through the 15th in Austin. We were actually like the last event, I think on the planet this year before we did have the Powerful Living Experience experience this year. And yeah, it's an unbelievable three day transformational event where you experience the methodology and get together with a thousand plus other mission driven entrepreneurs. Like we're really clear, Carol and I, my wife, you know, our focus is on really unifying entrepreneurs who want to create the new systems and structures that are going to emerge after this quote unquote crisis.

Okay.

Because, you know, we're living at a time where, you know, those of us who have, who have become aware, you know, realize that we live in a predatory systemic world, whether it's the financial system or the pharmaceutical system. We have a child trafficking problem, we have a prison problem. We have a, we have a refugee crisis where it's like we're blaming refugees for the military industrial complex that's pushing them out of their homes. We have a climate crisis and we have a governance crisis. And so we believe that all that's going to be solved through entrepreneurship. So if you look at what I feel we're really being called to do is to help entrepreneurs turn on their superhuman switch through the mindset technology. We teach and then teach the business systems and structures for them to go out and for us to change the world together.

So good. I love it. So where are you active on social media, David? Where can people find you there?

Yeah, I just started being active. So I have my, you know, my David, it's so weird, like fan page. Right. But I have my David Bear fan page on Facebook. I think it's. It's Coach David Bear. And then I have my Instagram, which is davidbear33.

Okay.

And we're starting to put some really good stuff on our YouTube channel. So you can find me on YouTube. Awesome.

And we'll link all that up in the show notes as well, where I.

Hang in the socials.

Sounds so good. Thank you so much, David, for today.

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been awesome. Appreciate you, Natalie.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode 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 at Natalie Jill Fit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Create, creating everything from nothing.