Why The OBSTACLE Is The GIFT: How To Hear Your Soul Contract's Voice | Joseph Anew + RUNGA

If you don't go fight your battles, if you're always open heart full time, no matter if it kills you, if you don't go do what you're supposed to do on this planet, you have an energy inside of you. And the obstacles that you face in your life are there to test that energy, to galvanize it. And if you avoid them, it turns.

In what's making you itch.

I learned that I need to be the strongest person that I know. I walk into his house and I had what was definitely my first, like, spiritual awakening.

But how do you know what you're supposed to do?

The only choice there is to listen. What are you pulled to? What are you drawn to? What are you. What can't you get out of your mind?

Joe, it's amazing to have you here, man, in the studio.

I'm so excited.

We've spent so much time together at Runga, which we're gonna talk about, and I have, like, three big things that I wanna cover today. Fatherhood being one of them. But to start. Good lord. You have had quite the trajectory lately. A name change, a podcast name change. Personally, you've changed your name. There's been a lot going on. When I did research on you, you were working with Spartan. You were eight years of head in sport and training at Spartan Race. I actually did a Spartan race one time. And then I was like, okay, I'll never do that again. Cause it was so hard. That's the truth. That's the truth. But, man, great to have you in the studio, man. Welcome to the show.

I'm so glad to be here, man. It's. It's a real, like, honor. I. You are amazing at what you do. You are. I listen to your podcast and I just think this guy is a master. He's so good and he preps so well. And I feel sitting here a little bit, like I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. You know, it's like I've been like, I've, you know, so many of my friends have sat in this chair or bet on this show, and I'm just excited to be here. And I'm excited to share whatever comes up, because I think my one ask of the universe before we hop on is like, I just want everything to come through. And in the way that is that it's meant to, but in the way that it's maximally beneficial for your audience. Because when I was just driving over here, I was like, I feel like Josh and I could talk about a thousand things which we have, and I've.

Always wanted to record them. So we just, like, get to record it.

Yeah, exactly.

Which is amazing. Yeah.

Let's go, brother.

Well, you know, I was thinking about how I wanted to jump off, and obviously, fatherhood we'll talk about, but this phrase, intuition, intuitive warrior. We had a really special guest on the show Busy Gold, and we had this back and forth together about instinct and intuition, and that was from the feminine perspective. So how would you define this? You know, with the name change and actually being an intuitive warrior, I think of a warrior as, like, heart open, but also they could kill. That's a real warrior. But for you, like, and all you've been through and the changes and even the TBI that we're going to talk about, you've had quite the story, man. This is why I love podcasting. I get to dig into your past and take out things that I think we all can learn from. How would you define intuition? How is it different than instinct?

I love that. I love that question. And, you know, I think. I think when it comes to intuition. And by the way, I love how, you know, the way you look at warrior as well. Like the intuitive warrior, like the heart open guy that can.

Leonidas.

Yeah. Yeah. In a way. Right. And I think part of my intention, what's cool is, like, I think today it is more challenging to follow your intuition than ever because there's a lot competing for our attention. There are a lot of forces at play that are affecting how we interpret our intuitive senses, and, of course, our conditioning and our upbringing. Speaking of fathering. Right. So how well were we taught to trust our heart or to listen to our gut? Right. And so when it comes to intuition, I think a lot of the more academic definitions of intuition are essentially around mastery. So, like, if I study to a certain depth and gain a certain amount of knowledge, I then can trust my intuition because I've spent 20 years in the field of fitness. And so when someone asks me a question about the Aerodyne bike, my intuition is probably pretty good. And that's kind of how the more academic side of things defines it. I think, for me, I think that there's a little bit more to it than that. And I think that there's a little voice in all of us, and I think that intuition is a muscle, a little bit like willpower. Right. So willpower, we say it sort of fatigues the more you use it.

Yeah.

You know, and that's why we need to find things that don't drain our will. Right. Because will is obviously the big, the greatest force we have, right? It's this thing that no matter what God's plan is for us, no matter we could. Will. I could be an astronaut if I wanted to be sure, right? And that's Will. And so if I wanted to be an astronaut, like, that's gonna. Like, that's a lot of work. I couldn't even get in the Air Force because of my head injury.

Right.

You know, it's like. So when you look at Will as a muscle that fatigues, the more I use it, intuition is actually a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it. Right? But I think from a very young age, from the time from our first Christmas when, you know, we got the Christmas sweater, we didn't really like, but we had to tell Grandma, Grandma, we loved it.

That's a good analogy.

We, you know, we. We learn silence, this voice inside of us from our higher self. But as I've become a father, and, you know, I lost my dad a few years before becoming a father, and all of this transition and all of this change, I felt myself even in my former job that you mentioned, like, using a lot of my will, and I said, like, what starts to happen, you know, once my dad left this planet? What happens if I start, like, listening and surrendering a little bit? Because it's so tiring being in your will all the time. And so that's kind of been my life over the last four or five years. And so getting back to your question around what is intuition? It's. It's the sense inside of you that, that when you contemplate whatever your whatever's on your mind, it makes you feel stronger. It makes you feel stronger. And you can actually test this through muscle testing, right? You can actually even just interlocking your fingers and pulling on them, think of a lie, they'll come undone. Think of something that. Think of your son. You will get stronger. So I have been using practices like muscle testing along with meditation and breathing to put as much stock into whatever it is that I'm feeling with the appreciation, depending on the intensity and the magnitude of whatever I'm feeling, that in this non earthly plane, in this energetic reality we live in, I love Paul. Check says, we are fish that don't know we're in water. So realizing that there's also no time or space in that realm. And so when you get this intuitive sense, like, I started to think about a lot of the changes that have happened in the last six months, like in 2017, and it was just now that it was like, now I have the strength. And so that intuitive warrior, yes, they're strong, yes, they're following their heart. But the warrior piece to me is the warrior that's fighting the battles, not in some far off land, but in here. Because when you start to trust your intuition, follow your heart and trust your gut, you're at odds with a lot of your conditioning that rests up in the head.

Holy shit. I think Thoreau said most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I would even say most humans, yeah, because we're at war with like the instinct, the intuition. And of course, instinct is connected to what vibration we're carrying. And it's such a great, great way we started this conversation, man, because Dispenza has been a huge part of your life. I mean, I had heard on one of your cast that after you got back, you started quoting Tesla and you had said that the future of healing comes down to frequency and vibration. And that to me is 100% truth. When I feel like I'm in a good vibe, which creates my tribe, I know that beautiful things are possible. I know that I can operate more like you had just said, from my intuition, from kind of that calm cadence inside of a warrior. I don't think Leonidas was in a hurry for anything. He was just leading life. Same with all the great Stoics. They weren't in a hurry much. And there's a really cool thing that we can all learn from you on this. Like the cadence of a hero. The cadence of a true warrior has to have a connection to this really soft voice where the instinct can be like a barking dog, but the intuition is like a subtle whisper and we have to actually clear away a bunch of crap. We have to get rid of a lot of things in order to hear the intuition's voice. When you were working at Spartan, did you ever think that you would have your own event, that you would have this massive change, that. How long had the name change thing been coming, which we're going to talk about, like, go back eight years ago, 10 years ago. Was the intuition online like it is now? Or was it like 90% instinct?

Gosh. So things are, as you said, like this, this element of patience and I guess foreshadowing the name change thing a little bit like Leonidas. Leonidas went to that battle knowing he was going to die, knowing it was a, you know, futile effort. Right. But he knew that his sacrifice would unite Greece and that they would. That was their only chance at surviving this invasion. But he Knew that the success of his actions were years after his sacrifice. And so as I've kind of looked back at the last decade or longer, things are making sense today. And I'm starting to get a glimpse at where I'm going. And part of the name change is my old identity couldn't hold that container. I needed to change. I need. And my son had a lot to do with this as well. To go where I'm going, to go where my soul is taking me right now. I need to stand on my own two feet. I need to. I need to be stronger. I need to have my backbone aligned. I need to have my mind, body, and spirit aligned. I need to be all that I can be with no strings attached. And that's a big part of this, this new direction now as it relates to Spartan. So I actually, around 2008, I started to have some health. Health issues because I had fractured my skull years earlier and had this horrific accident and huge trauma. And there's so much trauma there and. And this accident, no, just a freak. Something fell on me.

What?

And crushed me.

Well, like at a construction site.

It was so. It was a basketball hoop, like a permanent town city basketball hoop that was made out of cement. Just toppled over and landed on top of me.

Did you get a nice payout?

So, no, actually.

Wow.

And. But in that, when I. When I look back, everything happens for a reason. Right. So, interestingly, and of course, a lot of people ask, like, you know, and I, I know I keep foreshadowing the name thing, but, like, you know, what's. What's this mean for my family? And that situation, that horrible accident, I was on my own. So when you can only imagine how hard it is on parents when their son is, you know, looks like you could be a vegetable. Right. And I will say that I felt very alone. I felt like I knew I was coming out of this and I was going to be 100% and I didn't feel like many other people did. And so that was really one of the first times that. And again, this is making sense later that I learned that I need to be the strongest person that I know. I need to be the person that, you know, the wind can't topple over. I need to be the person that doesn't need any outside support. In fact, my interpretation of this, I'm going to make everybody around me stronger with this. And so fast forward, I was in such a rush with that meaning. And I think when we have a trauma or an accident, assigning meaning is One of the most important pieces of the puzzle. And so even as a young kid, assigning that meaning to that experience led me to convince the world that I was fine very quickly. And it really wasn't all that fine. And it caught up with me years later. And so that was around, that was 2008, 2009. So I went back and I got in some with some really good doctors. And you know, at that time I was in my 20s and you know, they told me I would be Michael J. Fox by 30. That was a quote from a doc. Because I was having a lot of mostly right sided issues as it relates to movement, involuntary movements, muscle contractions, obviously my mood, very depressed and just having a lot of like post concussion type issues. A lot of brain scans and the plates and things in my head are fine, but my body was starting to, to wear down a little bit. And so fast forward to like late 2010. I've been in this place of like recovery. And by the way, when I started to realize I was going to get through it, after about a year of various forms of therapy with neurologists and some great docs in Boston, I mentioned on every podcast, Dr. Peter Pacoco, Dr. John Marchese. When I started to see the light and that I was going to come through this too, I fucking, I just left, went to the Caribbean, moved there and lived on the island of St. John for a while.

By yourself?

Yeah, by myself.

And how old were you then?

20. Probably around 20. I could do the math, right? 20, 18. Yeah.

So in two decades of life, you had to fortify the lone wolf archetype inside of yourself. Where was parents? Like, where were the parents at this time?

Yeah, my parents were home. But see, here's the thing, man, we can talk about parenting. I know we keep getting back to it. Like I, I love my parents, I forgive them for whatever. Like they, they weren't strong enough. Got it for me. And I'm connecting with that, that, that boy again right now, right in this next chapter of life. But it was very contained. Like my, my energy was very contained through my teens and you know, not getting hurt was. I knocked my teeth out multiple times. I got multiple concussions, I fractured my skull, I've dislocated both my shoulders. I got in a car accident, broke my ribs. Like, so I've basically the first. Like, I was in a car once, Josh. This is my third near death experience. I was in a car. My parents had a, like a piece of junk car that was like, had broken down and it was Kind of like in the back of the yard. And I was like, I'm getting rid of this fucking thing. So I get in this thing and I just start driving it to the junkyard. And I'm on the highway on an overpass and a wheel falls off this thing. The axle like, broke and all of a sudden the wheel falls off. I'm on an overpass, the car ends up, like, just going completely berserk. My whole life flashed before my eyes. I said bye to my whole family. Had a full, like, DMT experience. I've never talked about this ever, on any show. And the car stops. I'm facing backwards in the fast lane and I wake up and I have a split second where I said I'm alive. And just then there's an 18 wheeler because I'm facing the wrong way. So I'm in. I'm sorry, in the middle lane and there's an 18 wheeler coming directly at me. And he's like seemingly 10ft from the car, about to just completely smash me and he swerves into the fast lane and somehow misses my car. And I was like, holy shit. I still, I was managing a franchise of gyms at that time. I went to work. That was on my way to work. I got rid of that car and I still went to work that day. So this, like, this warrior was just like, crazy in me. So anyways, in late 2010, my college professor, who really got me into endurance sports throughout my college days, he calls me up and I had not been running. I had really. I had been just walking and breathing in the Caribbean. And he calls me, he's like, hey, you remember that lunatic up in Vermont? I used to try to get you to do that race with me. And I said, the Death Race. I'm not doing the Death Race. I'm like, lucky to be alive right now. I'm not going to do an event called the Death Race. He's like, it's doing the Death Race, but it's only 5k. It's only a 5k race, so you should come down. And I was like, you know what? Like, I haven't even been running, but that seems awfully cool. I wouldn't mind going, I'll throw a spear and jump over some fire with you. And then, you know, fast forward. I fell in love. And, you know, then I was, why.

Did you love it so much?

Connected me, man, body to the earth, my body, the earth, my mind. So back when I'm. I'm a kind of intuitive guy, right? Like, I Just like, to follow my heart. But when I was in school for exercise physiology and I got really into marathons and shit, that's a very, like, type A activity. It's like, yeah, I know I'm going to finish because I tapered perfectly. And I'm having, you know, I'm going to drink this bottle of sodium every 45 minutes. I'm going to drink this bottle of water every 15 minutes and my heart rate's going to stay at 180 minus my age. And, like, there's all this, like, nonsense that's like, propping up your, like, performance and your mindset, right? Well, when you're crawling under barbed wire and you're like, scraping your ass on the ground and you're, you know, like, throwing spears, jumping like, you don't have heart rate monitor, you don't have a goo pack, you don't have a bottle of water. So you're just completely in the moment. You're just completely in this, like, this simulation, this, like, simulated hardship. Like, all of a sudden I'm like, Leonidas, right? Yeah. And was huge for me. I mean, so you were, like, addicted.

To this feeling because it was connecting you with your breath, yourself, the earth. At what point did you link up with the founder and then really run the show with him that day?

Yeah. So then it was like, for, for Dr. Jeff and I, it was like, no one knows. Like, at the time, people were like, is it like triathlon? Like, that would be their question. Right? So it was like people had no idea how to train for it, no idea what it entailed. No idea. Like, because they wanted to type a it. They wanted to be like, all right, I want to go into this, like, intense war, like, you know, simulated event, but I want to know exactly what I need to do to, to, to study up and to train. And so that's impossible. But on the same token, we can teach people to climb ropes and throw spears. And so we went all in and started really creating, like, a lot of videos on YouTube and a lot of content just to help people get the confidence to show up. Because you said it right? Like, you showed up and you finished. Yeah, but in the early days, man, like, 50% of the people that signed up wouldn't show up, but, like, 95% of the people would actually cross the finish line. So there was this huge disconnect. All you have to do is show up and you'll get through it. But showing up is like, you know, half the battle.

So you have to face this huge Dragon inside of yourself, which is like, you know, we've heard this before about the cave you enter holds the magic that you need, or the cave you enter, the one that. That you fear the most. It holds this wisdom for you. You guys know the quote. You've heard it before, but, man, like, actually doing these hard things with this lone wolf mentality that you had and these accidents. I didn't know that story at all about the overpass. And now I'm just like, okay, so tbi, massive broken bones, like, lots of physical issues in the first two and a half decades of your life. And then you go to something probably the most physical in the world. I mean, maybe the 20x or like the Navy SEAL training, like the Kokoro stuff with Mark Devine, that's maybe a little harder ye. But still like, like. So it seems like for the first entry into the world, your life was filled with physical construct of suffering and pain and injury. What was the backlog that was created emotionally with that? In other words, you had these things happen to your physicality that were really. Would probably take most people out for a long time. What was the emotional backlog that maybe you're still paying off?

Gosh, man, I might cry. So let me. Let me tell you this story, Josh. So. So my grandfather was like a father to me. He was amazing. He was a amazing guy. And he. So I went to his house. He passed away, you know, many years ago now. And I had this. I had a feeling the story was going to come up. I didn't know how, and I just, like, knew it was gonna. It's another one I've never told on a podcast. And so I was driving to his house. So when he passed away, like, you know, my mom got his house in Florida or whatever. And so I was in Miami with Spartan, and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna drive up there and just. I haven't been to that house in, like, at least 10 years. And this was probably 2015, around 2015. And I walk into his house and I had what was definitely my first, like, spiritual awakening. Like, this huge upload of the mistakes he made. And he was a saint. Ask anybody in my family. Leon, my son's named after him. Leon was a saint. He was selfless. He was literally the kindest, most amazing man I've ever met in my life. And his body was falling apart. His arms, like, he had such crippling arthritis that his arms were made out of metal. And he would still pitch me baseballs, right? Like, that's this guy. That's him in a nutshell. His wrists were so deteriorated from the arthritis that he had metal rods from his elbow down and he would still throw me baseballs for as long as I wanted it. Slug, right? Just this incredible guy and I walk into his house and I have like a massive spiritual awakening that if you don't do what you're supposed to do and like, everyone wants to be a good guy, everyone wants to be a loving father, everyone wants to be. Everyone wants to leave a legacy of kindness and compassion and love and. And he did that. And I'm. I won't take away from it. But there's a certain. The upload was if you don't. If you don't go fight your battles, if you're always open heart full time, no matter if it kills you, if you don't go do what you're supposed to do on this planet, you have an energy inside of you. And the obstacles that you face in your life are there to test that energy to, to galvanize it to. And if you avoid them, it turns in. So was this like a voice that.

You heard or was it a knowing dude?

It was just like a upload.

And when you say upload, was it an actual voice that you could hear?

No.

Okay.

It was like in my own head.

It was you talking. It was your higher self talking to you.

It was my God talking to you. It was, yes. And like, this is, this is when my mother and I started to take it, like, separate direction. She thought it was nuts, but she, she then for the next two days, had like a crippling migraine because she thought I was losing it. But I had this massive upload that if I don't do what I'm supposed to do, if I don't follow this, like, I have so much energy inside of me, like, if I. That will turn inward. And it already had my whole life, right? We attract, we pull, right? There's no accidents. And so it was this crazy upload. And the wild thing that was 2015, the first year I did a Runga event. And three years later, I try to buy a book. I'm really into Ram Dass. Try to buy. I'm buying all Ram Dass books and reading them. And then I try to buy Paths to God and Amazon, like, won't let me buy Paths to God. And I'm like, Amazon, like, just let me buy this. So I go over, I get over to audible and I get it on audible and I hit play and it says, if you haven't read the Bhagavad Gita, this will make no sense. Like, first paragraph is like, go read the Bhagavad Gita before you read this. And when I read the Bhagavad Gita, it was the upload. It was freaking upload that I got. It's saying the same thing. Like, Arjuna. Not sure if you're familiar with it, Josh, but, like, Arjuna is in this moral dilemma where he's being. He's a warrior and he's being pulled into battle, but on the other side of the battlefield are his cousins and his. And his family. And he's like, I'm over here and they're over there. I can't fight this battle. And God Krishna is like, you have to go fight this battle. You have to. It's your Dharma. It's what you have to do. And so I guess that's what I'm getting at in a long winded way of answering your question is like. It's like I'm starting to realize that, like, if I don't do something with this body and this energy and this mind and this heart and this gut and this. This fatherhood energy. Yeah. Like, if you don't do what you're supposed to do. I've already lived that life.

Yeah, but how do you know what you're supposed to do? What do you mean by that?

If you don't go do what you're supposed to do on this planet, you have an energy inside of you, and the obstacles that you face in your life are there to test that energy, to. To galvanize it, to. And if you avoid them, it turns in. Right.

What's making you itch? To quote Alan Watts, what's making you. Makes you itch. It's one of the best sentences in the world, right?

It is. I love it. And, you know, it's. And I think there's a. There's a few other things I think. I think a lot of people are close. So here's the thing about Spartan is what I'm. What I'm learning now. And one of the reasons why my heart started to just wear and tear in that organization is that in the beginning, I was in it, and then I was behind a desk running it. And so as my heart started to wear, I'm supposed to be the guy in it, you know? So a lot of people miss the mark like that. Yeah, a lot of people, they listen to their dharma, they love music, but they end up doing the business of Music, Right? It's like you're supposed to be behind the piano.

Absolutely.

And so there's this. A lot of people. There's like an aiming issue, like ready, aim, fire. Right. It's like we aimed a little off and we fired because, you know, we thought we had to go to school to be something that paid well. So we got a degree in business and, like, you know, finances or whatever.

The way I describe it is you have your job, quote, quote, that makes you safe, which is a total fucking illusion, because there's no such thing as safety. To live is to die, and to die is not safe. And then on the side, in the little box, we put our dream. And we check on it every once in a while, like Jeff, just to make sure it's okay in there, but we never actually open it and use it. And for you, for you to actually use it. And Runga, which I've been to, is one of the best events I've ever been to, is the most intimate, loving biohacking pretty much think about any wellness event in the world and then take that to the next level and make it really small and intimate. That's kind of what it felt like to me. I'd never been. I've been to a lot of events that was very, very special. That is your dharma in a big way. And also your coaching and everything that you do with the Intuitive Warrior podcast. There's something ins of you that is both, I believe, when I feel into you, like still healing from pain and also loving what you do from pleasure. Like you're. You're in full duality. My experience of you and. And to go back and pull the E break in the first 10 minutes when I was talking about Tesla, you had said that this frequency aspect really shifted for you with Dispenza. I've had so many friends that have had really profound experiences by doing the Dispenza workshops. The level 1, 2, and 3, as you create what you're going to create, Give us some insight, give me some insight on this aspect of frequency. How do we make frequency less woo woo and more practical, even though everything's woo woo.

Right.

How do we make it practical? What was your exact experience of Dispenza and how do you see frequency now compared to pre Dispenza? Right.

So I love how he says, become the frequency of change. And this is what planted the seeds that, like going back to Joseph not being Joe anymore. And this is also tied to Arnold Patton, who was kind of like Dispenza before Dispenza. And like, before Oprah had Eckart Tole, she had Arnold. Right.

This is your personal coach that you've worked with for.

Yeah, yeah, Many years. Many years. He's. He's still alive. He's about 100 now. And. And I'm no longer working with him. He's an amazing guy. I'm not sure if he's working with anybody. When you're 100, it's like, gets pretty tough to, like, coach people and, you know, but he had a profound impact on me. 2017, 2018, mostly. But I love what Dispenza says in some of his meditations, which is, become the frequency of change. And when we look at, like, things like spontaneous remissions of cancer or anything else. Right.

Creating your dream, living your dharma, all.

These things become the frequency of change. So, and a big part of it too, is like, is like, if Josh wants to, you know, be something in the future, like, and this gets into even Tony Robbins, it's like, okay, so if all of your dreams were. Came true, how would you walk? How would you talk? How would you. How would you feel? How would you emote? What would you drive? What. What kind of pants would you wear? Right. Just do that now. Like, become the frequency of change. And that was something that just really stuck with me. And of course, having a pretty solid background in Kundalini yoga as well, Like, I'm pretty familiar with Dispenza's approach. It's a very Kundalini based approach, but he's combining it with just really high impact and empowering guidance that puts you into this incredible emotional state. And I love what he says about, you know, the thought sends the potential out and the feeling pulls it back.

Oh, that's good.

Can we.

Can we go into that a little bit more?

Yeah.

So essentially, our meat radio, which is the brain and then our meat suit, which is the conductor, we send out a thought and then it comes back and there's a feeling and a thought process.

Yeah.

Go into that.

Well, we have our. Our meat radio.

Yep.

But we have our meat magnet in the heart.

Yes.

And so even at runga events, I get on the phone with everyone. We get, you know, it's an application based event. And I get on the phone with almost everybody because I want to see who's being, like, magnetically pulled here. Verse. Like, I could, you know, I could use a hyperbaric oxygen session.

You know, who's gonna go in there and actually drain the energy from the field because it's so Intimate. You have to be careful about exactly who's gonna go because you end up, like, making best friends.

Exactly, exactly. And it's so important. So making sure everyone is in that magnetic, that heart centered, that, that really, that, that like, unavoidable tug from our website or, you know, a podcast, that's. That's really what we want. Because when you put 50 of those types of people together, then it's pure magic. And almost anything else we do is going to be amazing. But we do a lot of amazing stuff, right?

And there's a coherence there. You know, I know that we both studied heart math and breath work and tuning the heart and the mirror neurons. There's a coherence in groups that you can try to be a symphony orchestrator and make it happen, but it either happens or it doesn't. It can't really force that coherence. It's just something that you intuitively, to use, you know, the name of your podcast. You sense it and then it either happens or it doesn't. You do your best, but over the course of time, your intuition gets sharpened and you start to make decisions from that intuition. The frequency aspect is fascinating to me though, because I'm like, okay, we all know about Loa and the Secret and Law of Attraction. Is there a difference, in your opinion, after going through Dispenza's work, between Law of Attraction and true sending and receiving messages on a higher frequency. Is there a difference or is it just different nomenclature to describe them?

It's. It's different approaches, Right. You know, it's different approaches to the same concept and different approaches to cater to different audiences as well. Right. And so one of the differences of like, the Secret or Think and Grow Rich or any of these books, it's. You're very focused on, like, what you want. And it's not that you shouldn't get granular even if you're in a dispenza, but to me, like, in Dispenza, you're. You're looking for a more broad version of this change you're looking for. You know, a lot of people are looking for, for healing and things. Like, you're not looking for like a Blue BMW by September 5, 2025. Right. So there's this. You want to sort of, in my opinion, like, you want to become the frequency of change and see what's there. Right?

Oh, so it's more of a curious intention rather than a dogmatic. It has to be. It has what I felt from Loa, I'm gonna get $27,000 January 1st. I'm like, yep, that seems a little forceful to me.

Exactly.

Doesn't seem like it works for most people, honestly.

And it's depressing when it doesn't work. So there's this, like, you're in a space. You're. No time, no space. Right. And so there's this like, in dispenza. I just, It's. It's a much. It's very scientific and there's a lot there and there's a lot of backbone. But. But ultimately you are trying to, in my opinion, become the frequency and see what the universe has for you. And sure, he teaches how to hack it. If you want to make sure you, you know, have 10,000 in your bank account by, like tomorrow, like whatever the thing that people wish for is. But to me, it's a much more crack wide open and see what's here, which I. Which I really love.

That was before the birth of your son, correct? Or was that after?

After.

That was after, yeah. But.

Well, I've read his books for. For years and years. I think he's. I think he's awesome.

In order for you to have the transition into fatherhood that you had.

Yeah.

And also. Which we're still going to dive into the name change and also, you know, your father leaving the planet. In order for you to have Leon and be here in the world and hold the space, you had to go through what you call the cataclysmic event. So you're in the hospital. It was like this rite of passage in the middle of lockdowns and theater. And where were you exactly? I believe you're in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg.

And so take us to the hospital. Because we had plans for Nova. Those plans didn't exactly work the way we planned. And that made me go through a crucible to which I would not wish upon anyone. But we made it and we're more loving and we actually see the forest through the trees. We understand what this life is all about now in a much more grand way that I could never seen unless we went through what we went through as a couple for Carrie and I. So in. In this hospital. And I can't even imagine what you had to have gone through in the middle of fear based propaganda and people's amygdalas being hijacked and being in a hospital where people are freaking out and all that stuff like, take us there, because I think a lot of people can understand what that might have shifted inside of you to hold more space for Runga. For Amelia, for Leon, for your whole life.

Right, Right, man. So, gosh. And the birth story, you know, is. It was wild. So we had the full plan, right? You know, we were in la, where we lived. You know, we had. We went through Berta Bushnell's amazing transformational birth course class. Like, which is. I highly recommend her class to anybody that's having a child.

Is that where you have a baby? Next to a lake on a lily pad with no one else around?

No.

Or is it different?

No, it's different. So this is like a prep course, and it's. It's to prepare for the unknown. It's to prepare for the unknown because everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face, right? And so for us, we had this perfect plan. We had, like, the home birth thing, the doula. We had, you know, went through the course. We, like, we're in la, we had everything, like, getting ready, and we were due in May 2020. Well, we don't have any family within 3,000 miles or 7,000 miles of LA. And when the COVID stuff started in February, we'll say 2020. Yeah. We were like, what are we gonna, like, if everything is gonna, like, be crazy and, like, lock down? Starting to see the writing on the walls. And I think you also, like, when you have a baby coming, like, your Spidey sense, your intuition is even greater. It's amazing. It's, like, so amazing.

That's more of the intuition that. Where there seems to be a common theme. Theme in our convo about intuition and what. What that actually feels like.

Right.

What it provides.

Right. So intuitively it was like, well, what are. What are our options? Like, what? You know, do we sit and wait? Do we. And then, like, Emilia's folks are like, you know, we have, like, they have an apartment in Luxembourg, and Amelia was still. She's still a citizen there. And so we're like, shit. Like, so our options are, like, be in California and, like, maybe have the birth we want, but we don't even know what's allowed. Like, what's going to happen? What's going to, like. Or go there and live in this apartment and have, no matter what happens in the world, our family right there with us through the entire birthday. And so we made the decision in early March 2020, maybe it was like, March 15th, we fly to Luxembourg, and basically, while we're in the air, Europe closes for 90 days. So we were. When we were booking our flights, we were not the last flight to Europe, but when we were in the Air. We were. And then they sealed all of the. The borders for 90 days. And so then we were. We were in it. Fast forward to the birth in May 2020. And it was. It was wild. It's wild. I don't want to take away any of the story. And, and, you know, I won't go into. I won't tell my wife's story, which is obviously. I get it.

Yeah.

A Something she worked through for a long time. But for me, like, the warrior was engaged for sure, and there was a lot of wild. So essentially, it was a very, very challenging, very challenging birth.

What was the most challenging?

They. Well, first of all, you know, they. They made. They. We were basically locked in. Made her wear a mask through the entire birth, even while she's pushing. And, and if it, when it, if it, like, if it, like, slid down, she. She threw up at one point, and mid. They start screaming at her to. It was. It was insane. Like, it was, like, actually insane.

And the insanity of telling someone that because their vomit is spraying everywhere that they should wear a mask. This is the absolute fucking delusion.

Yeah.

That we allowed ourselves as a society, as a world to believe with this in heinous theater, this Covid theater bullshit.

It was insane. And then. And so my son, you know, I, I. I'm right there. I catch him, right? I, you know, after five minutes, I cut the cord myself, which was beautiful. But then I was like a fucking Heisman Trophy winner.

Like, you got the baby in one arm.

You're just like, yeah, man. Yeah, it was. It was insane. And, you know, and gosh, I. It's so funny because I'm like, I hope my wife doesn't get super upset with me on this, but, like, here's. Here's a funny story for you, Josh. So. So we wanted to. My wife is vegan, but, like, we still, like, our doulas and such, had told us, like, you have to, like, get the placenta, and then you, like, get it encapsulated and, you know, or you, like, drop it in a smoothie or whatever. Like, that's not a thing in Luxembourg, and it's definitely not a thing during.

COVID and anything here in Austin either. We had to fight for our placenta. Well, we had to fight for her placenta. It wasn't mine.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I'm a Heisman Trophy winner. I brought my own glass Tupperware container, got the placenta into it against the. The will of everyone in the room, would not let us leave without, like, you know, so I'm trying to basically break out of this birth room now with my son and get my wife into our room to, like, recover. And there was all sorts of things that they wanted to do to the baby that I've researched and wasn't happening.

That's right.

And so we were in there for, like, hours. And as I'm like, you know, just bring me the damn papers to sign. Like, bring me the damn papers to sign. We finally get to a room, and due to Covid, they tried to lock us in a room for. For four days after the birth. So the Warrior Warrior kicked in.

How did you not just throw bed pans and start tossing syringes at pe? How did you not go into full Alpha warrior mode? How did you maturely handle that?

Yeah, it's. Did you do that? I don't know, but. Well, you realize when you have a newborn. And by the way, like, I was so grateful, like, as soon as he was born, he was on the boob. He latched right on. He was basically on the boob for his first, like, 24 hours of life. He was amazing. He was awesome. And so I say I was a Heisman trophy winner, but most of the time, he was on the funny visual. It's exactly what it was. It's the baby. It's the only visual that I could. That I could tell you. So you know what's in the best interest of your new son, and you know what's in the best interest of your wife, and you know what's in your best interest too. And that's like, not get. Not to get arrested and not to, like, create. But the Warrior is definitely engaged. And so fast forward, first opportunity, I broke us out of the hotel, broke us out of the hospital, and showed up at my in laws house. And they're like, I thought you weren't gonna be here for a few. I'm like, hey, let us in. We're here. And so. Oh. And that was the thing. I. When I had the opportunity to leave the hospital, I forgot the placenta in the room.

Oh.

So they called. Very upset that we broke out of the hospital and. And even more upset that we.

Did you end up getting the placenta?

No, I was not going back.

They just thought. They just took it. All right, look, I, I, first of all, I respect your story so much. And there's a huge part of it where I connect to because we had something actually quite similar here in America.

Wow.

And what I will have to say is we're going to link a Resource below. Yeah, there's a physician that helps, helped us tremendously. His name is Dr. Nathan Riley, OBGYN. OBGYN, yeah. And so shout out to Nathan, because when we went through our story, that I'll let Carrie share and I loved how you navigated that. I think you did a great job. I think Amelia will love the way you did it. Because there's such a sensitivity when it comes to birth. Because really, birth has been robbed from women, birth has been robbed from women, it has been robbed from the family. And there is a multi hundred billion dollar industry, it's not just a billion dollar industry of very high level plasma stem cells that are pulled from the cord specifically and the bag, the placenta. And these are considered medical waste. Quote, quote, can you fucking believe this? That a placenta and a cord that has some of the most healing platelets inside of it that that nature in her infinite wisdom provided to us. Those things are tossed into a dumpster as medical waste. Like, just let that land for a moment. Good God. And then there's really savvy business people that come in and they say to the hospitals, well, we'll dispose of that for you. And then they sell those platelets for tens of thousands of dollars behind the hospital's back. It's a whole trifecta of mafia interaction. That's really what's going on. So y' all can do your searches and figure this out for yourself. I'm not here to tell you what's right and wrong. I'm just sharing my experience. But Joe, you're just sharing your experience. Yeah, but this is the most sinister part of western medicine that I have ever touched with my own two hands. Yeah, it is the most sinister part. How did you make peace from that? And still are you making peace?

We're at peace.

Beautiful.

We have a beautiful kid. I have, you know, just like you, beautiful family, beautiful son. So great. Every single day. I am just overwhelmed with love and gratitude for this kid and my wife. And I know there's also, you know, there's a, you know, in yoga and in a few other kind of traditions. There's also like the birth tells the story that the son or what? Or the child. So like, in other words, for me, the warrior that came out at the birth. Yeah, well, I need to be prepared to be that warrior for this kid for his whole life. So how you come into the world is often reflective of the journey that you're going to have. And so for us, I'm also preparing for that. Like, okay, so Like, I'm going to protect this kid. Like, you know, like he's Jesus. Like, I'm going to protect him like he is. He is this sacred. Incredible. And I'm not going to take no for an answer.

Yeah.

So being ready for that and welcoming, you know, whatever I need to do to keep this kid maximally safe is. Is exactly what I'm doing.

And what you just share is the true embodiment of what we're talking about with, like, the. You could use the archetype of the humble warrior, or in your case, the intuitive warrior or the integrated warrior. Like somebody that can have a big bandwidth of striking with a knife and being at war when they need to, but then also having the capacity to be still and to be present and to be intuitive and feel what's needed to happen instead of white knuckling or forcing something to happen. That bandwidth that, like, plus minus. I think that's what frustrates women the most about us men is. Is to the degree that we've built that capacity to switch. To go from, like, masculine, feminine, hot, cold, hard, soft. Like that is. I think I heard Esther Perel say this. We have never in the history of humanity asked so much about each other, asked so much from each other, especially with men. Because back in the day, you and I just had to, like, make the money, come home, and everything was good, right? Not the case anymore. We're going to make the money. We're going to come home, we're going to write you a poem, we're going to make sweet love to you, we're going to take out the trash, we're going to handle all the good shit, and we're going to listen to what you have to say in nonviolent communication. There's a lot there. There's a lot to unpack there. And I think about the ways that you and I are being challenged. It's really a gift. It's a gift that we have. We get to do all this stuff. I know sometimes I get into the doldrums of, like, oh, I wish it was easier. And then I'm like, that's the wrong question to ask, or that's the wrong thought process to have. It's actually about, like, how do I celebrate this? Because my father, Dan and. What was your father's name?

Jerry.

Jerry. So Dan and Jerry came from a different generation. And for all of us out there, our father and our mothers, they came from a different generation. So this is not about shaming them. This is not about making them Wrong or blaming our outcomes of our lives onto our mothers and fathers. It's just not. Because that doesn't solve anything, and it doesn't really give you any solutions.

Right.

But there is something to be learned about the challenges in the way that you've had to integrate the intuitive warrior versus the challenges that Jerry and my father Dan had to go through, and the way that they maybe missed the mark in some ways. And how can we have compassion for them and understanding for them as we parent our own children, as we're fathers to our own sons? When your dad died in 2017, that's what really kicked off maybe a third or fourth dark night of the soul for you. What happened there?

And again, it was energy. So there was. There was definitely a sense of. There was a massive sense of loss, and not in the way that I was expecting. It was. Is your father still.

He's still with us. I mean, I've had a ceremony where there's a loving kindness burial that took place.

Okay.

But he's technically still alive.

Okay.

But he's been buried with kindness.

Okay.

Yes.

Got it, Got it. So for me, I was standing. You know, I was my own self, and I was standing on my own. Right. But when he died, it kind of exposed the. The loss was like. It exposed a part of me that maybe I did have a kickstand. Maybe him just being on the planet was filling a little part of me that I wasn't aware of, that, like, I was outsourcing a little bit of my responsibility or outsourcing a little bit of my energy or outsourcing a little bit of my decision making or whatever it might be. And all of a sudden it was gone. And I think there was also a part of me, without going too deep into my story, that I think I was waiting my whole life for a certain thing to happen.

When you say certain thing, what do you mean, certain thing?

We'll just say some sort of father, son emotional healing and bonding. Yeah. And I think no matter how dark, no matter how someone. How close someone gets to the end, like, consciously or not, like, you're still waiting for that, but when it ends, you finally realize you're never gonna get it. You finally. You finally realize that. That you're on your own. You're on your own to heal, you know? And so I think that awakening was pretty profound, that realization that. And I immediately. And it's when I started working with Arnold, because in a way, he was like a hundred years old. I always say he's like 100. Because I don't know exactly how old he is, but he's. He's up there. But in a way, it was like a replacement.

So you felt a surrogate father archetype come through. This is a common theme with myself and JP Sears and a lot. Even Paul Check himself.

Yeah.

Has said that exact phrase. We look for the father that we didn't have. So we know how to father our own children in a loving way without shaming them. All right.

And. And so that. Yeah, that's a lot of processing. And to your point, Josh, it's like our, our parents and their parents did come from a different generation with a lot of, lot of stuff going on. Right. And a lot of traumas, you know, even like Great Depression or Holocaust. Like, there's a lot of, like, things that impacted them and put them deeper into certain patterns and, and belief systems or limitations or traumas. And so you and I, like, we've got some work to do because that lives in us.

Yeah.

Right. All that. It's up to us to say no more. It's up to us to not let that continue. Right. Because the last hundred, 150 years, you know, there was some stuff that went on and the, you know, family systems and all sorts of issues.

Sure.

And so for us, it's not. You can't play that you got to assign meaning to everything. Right. Why did things go down the way they did? What was the meaning? Well, the meaning was because I'm going to be the best dad for this kid that this world has ever seen. Right. I'm going to. I'm going to do literally everything in my power to, to end that generational nonsense and to look at myself in the mirror and to process every emotion consciously that I feel on a regular basis. I do this with some frequency, and I'm just going to do whatever I need to do. And so that's been the meaning for me. That's been the journey.

And the meaning comes with joy, too, because I know this is deep. And probably people, if you haven't taken a deep breath, you may as well take one right now, because we just presented some serious concepts. Right. So we can just do a deep breath together.

Yeah.

Joe, you have a TED Talk that has over a million views. It's about the power of breath, the physiology. And I loved how you started it. You said to everyone in the audience, hold your breath. Tell me how long you can live.

Right.

It's such a simple thing, you know, but I noticed even in my own nervous system and probably the people watching and listening with us too. Like, check in, everyone. Like, did you notice that when Joe was sharing or when I was sharing that there was parts of you that became activated that maybe constricted your nervous system and, and made you stop breathing? Big awareness for me and for all of us. And so I'm, I'm curious. What joy have you afforded by going through the uncomfortable shedding of your father's death and of all the things that you've been through physically? In other words, what did you gain? What is the joy and the greater capacity for love because of that?

Abundance, man. Just, I, I, as I tell those stories, and a lot of those stories have never told on a podcast, and, you know, this is a very, like, trusting space. And I really, you know, I just, you know, you. And I just. It's great. Like, I love hanging and I love chatting, and so I felt like it was time to, like, let those stories out. And as I'll, as I will kind of go into some of Arnold's practices, I suppose it's like when we are born, we are abundant, we are joyful, just like Nova, just like Leon. They're joyful, they're abundant, they're happy. And the game, the lived experience is us going far from there and coming back. Right? And that's, that's the duality. That's the, that's the journey, right? It's like if, you know, like Buddha, right? If everything is perfect all the time and you never leave the castle walls, then you don't actually have a frame of reference for the good in your life.

It's the vacuum of nature that creates the beauty of nature. You have to have the dark, otherwise there'd be no reciprocal of light. I know it's easy to intellectualize this stuff, but, like, really, like, if nobody's heard this concept before, like, please do a quick search on true duality. Just understand duality. Like, we, we actually need all these villains. We, you and I needed to go through this.

Yeah.

You needed to be there when your father died. You needed to have the download in your grandfather's home. You had to have all this happen.

Right.

Otherwise you wouldn't be Joseph Anu. Right? You wouldn't be who you are.

Right? Right. It's. And realizing that. So now, in answer to your question, like, every step, every. Every millimeter of, you know, progress I make in. Into some healing and some processing, it's immediately filled with love and abundance for my family and for what I'm here to do. And I'm I feel like I've gone through a lot of crucibles and pain in my life, and it's because I'm guiding people through theirs. That's what Ranga does. Right. It's. It's this transformational experience that helps people kind of step into their own and step into themselves. And people say all the time, I can really be myself here. It's like, wow. Like, that's the most amazing compliment that we could get.

Yeah.

You know, how do we. How do you leave here and keep being yourself?

Or how do you find a part of yourself in a space that's safe enough to do so that also happens to be fun because a lot of the stuff we're talking about, it can be so sucking to the bottom of the ocean floor.

Yeah.

It can be so jarring to the nervous system. And I find that here in Austin and Encinitas and maybe all the big spiritual places in the United States, there's this like almost pressure, like existential pressure to heal your deepest wounds and to do the deepest work. And it's. And it's that force energy that I'm. That I got rid of this year in February when I changed my podcast name. And I feel that with, quote, doing the work. And I also feel it. I'm curious how you feel. I feel it from Byron Katie's questions, her model. I feel like there's a shaming element there and it could be, you know, a lens that I'm seeing it through. But I've also talked to a lot of people about this and I think there's degrees and situations that tools are called for. In other words, like nonviolent communication might be great. Or some lessons from the Bhagavad Gita might be great. Or maybe Byron Katie's work for this specific trauma situation that might be great to get somebody out of the fear based amygdala and back into somewhat of their body. The tools that you've developed along the way that, you know, we did sound healing at Ranga, we did meditation, ice baths, oxygen chambers, like, you name it, y', all, it's there. The link is right below the podcast, by the way. So if you guys want to join me where I'm to be there in like, I think three weeks or four weeks from now when this podcast is live. So please, like, time is of the essence. Like, click below. Because this is more than just a physicality thing. This is like an emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, even financial. Like, there's people that I'm sure go to your event and they leave and they're more whole and complete within themselves. And then they show up to their husband or their wife or their children, and then they show up to their work more full and everything seems to, quote, be more in flow. But there's a time and a place for these tool sets, right? These emotional and mental tool sets. What are some of the ones that you love using yourself with your family and your work? And, you know, they can be anything. They could be from Dispenza or not. But there is a time and a place for the ways that we use tools to process things. And in a way, if we use the wrong tool for the right time, we're probably not going to get the most healing result.

Right on, brother. Yeah, I love that. And I think that that's, you know, that same striving energy and. And my wife talk. My wife and I talk about that a lot. And there's this importance of, like, being in the world and, you know, processing and. But not identifying with a lot of the things that maybe we're trying to heal and not forgetting to live in the world and, you know, not getting addicted to ayahuasca and like, turn that energy into something else. And this is kind of. It's interesting because it creates just another block. So if we think about, you know, whether it's the chakra systems or dispenser calls them the energy centers, you know, there's all this energy flowing up and down the body, and you need to identify, you know, where that energy, how that energy is supposed to flow and where it's getting blocked. But if you. If you keep looking back and if I keep, you know, going back too much into my wounding, then I'm just going to, like, create a detour and a block in trying to heal. So it's like, where does that energy need to go? And so for me, it's like mountains. Like, I'm getting back into mountaineering and getting back into climbing because that was. That's a big thing in my life that I've always been drawn to. And that's where the energy needs to go. It's not. I don't need to go process this stuff on a deeper level. I need to go utilize that energy, that rude energy into something amazing and creative. So. But, you know, as it relates to the tools, and I think what you said is so amazing. And when we look at this, it's very easy these days to get, like, distracted by, like, the latest and the greatest. And it's. It's fun to look at health and fitness and wellness as going forwards and backwards at the same time, right? So we're going forwards and everyone knows how we're going forwards. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers you can have in your house now. Red lights you can have in your house. You know all of this stuff, right? All of these biohacking modalities that, you know, didn't exist 15 years ago, right? Now, a lot of people have them in their homes. And so that's amazing. And those are incredible therapies. The things we can inject to make you younger, the supplements we can take to optimize our health and to cure nutrient issues or deficiencies. Like, it's all just incredible.

I never thought I'd put a coconut bullet in my butt.

Yeah, man.

Never thought I'd do that, but I do that now. Well, the lumital blue and. Oh, yeah, Sandman from Dr. J. From Dr. John.

Dr. John.

Anyways, I digress.

That's it, man.

We never thought we'd do some of these things, but they're available now, right? All this stuff, even the stuff here in the studio, it's like, I love it. I think it's so cool, but it's not the panacea, right?

And fortunately, we're also going backwards at the same time, right? And when we look at, like, the order in which these healing modalities kind of entered this plane at this time, right? You had, you know, meditation and sound and breath. The yogic postures were like the last thing that wasn't where yoga started. Yoga, living a life of selfless service is yoga, right? And so when you look at, like, yoga's around and everyone goes to yoga, but then, okay, now we're hitting breath. Well, that means sound is coming. And we're going to get really into sound and eventually we're going to find ourselves back into just stillness and meditation. And of course, everyone knows this and there's apps and things to make it a little bit easier, but that's where we need to get, is that stillness but sound, and you mentioned it earlier, is a specific tool that we use at Ranga that I think is just incredibly healing. And in fact, it has to do with the name change as well. Because, you know, our yogi Teige out in la, who we practice under for quite some time in Kundalini, use a lot of mantra like, you know, the number of times I've sung brakay raka nahar is probably in the thousands, right? And so when you want to make a change in your life and this Gets into the frequency of change. And Spenza, when you want to make a change in your life, you need to employ the power of a thunderbolt. So what does that mean? It means we need sound and vibration. It's the vibration that heals. It's the vibration that we need to rise to. It's the vibration that can. And Tesla said the same thing. And so when you look at. Why does yoga use gongs and singing bowls? Well, you know, we know the singing bowls are, you know, target specific chakras. You know, we know the gong just emanates like an oh, but it's, it's there for 60 minutes straight and just radiating and just permeating every cell in your body. But specifically when it comes to the sending the signal out and then pulling it back, sound and vibration is everything. And so I guess real quick to get back to the question, you know, at Runga we have a select group of people that come through an application process that I talk to personally that we, that we really get into their hearts. They come in, there's this incredible energy and then we go backwards and forwards at the same time. You walk out of a gong session, you know, our Sarah Bahadur who does our gongs, he's got two full size gongs. You walk away from that and go get a shot of nad and jump in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. So there's this, there's this incredible transformation where you're capitalizing and utilizing the full spectrum of healing modalities. And not saying one is any better than the other, but when you have them all in one place in the dense period of time in a very safe environment, that, where, that, where that heart coherence is present, it's just like a, it's a massive, massive upload. But getting into vibration and mantra and sound, it's a very power. It's almost a freakishly powerful source of energy and healing.

Why do you think that is? Because I think about, we could answer with physiology and intellectualism and science about the cells and moving, or you could even talk about the sound plate where there's. I forget the technical term, but if you place sand on a disc and you put specific sound frequencies underneath it, it'll actually form geometric shapes.

That's amazing. I've seen that shapes.

So that's definitely going on with our blood and the very microscopic cells in our blood. So it's one thing to say like, oh, sound healing, it's kind of woo, woo, whatever, maybe you just get to relax. There's a whole other side of this that science cannot. Tries to, but cannot explain. Right. This frequency healing.

Right. And it's. Well, and. And I guess let's talk about HRV real quick because I think it's kind of a cool parallel, right, where like, remember that. And this is actually part of birth as well. Like, you can try to plan, but everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, as Mike Tyson says, right? So understanding that birth is not something that you're going to be able to control is sort of the beauty of it. And. And women want to have more kids because it's just. That's their rite of passage. And men used to have a rite of passage as well in a lot of these societies and cultures. And now we don't have that rite of passage. We don't have that hierarchical male relationship.

Set unless we do a vision quest.

Unless we do a vision quest. And that's a. You know, you and I are doing things on our own to kind of simulate what would have happened. But when we look at anything science can put in a box, so, you know, as an example, like, we know the difference between like a per. Like a natural birth in a living room with dim lights. And, you know, we know the energy and the magic that's created there, right? And we know the outcome. Let's say you had a scheduled C section on a certain day at a certain time with big white lights, and it was very. But the outcome is, you know, oh, well, look, it's a baby here and it's a baby there, right? So that's kind of like science, right? Where like, ultimately, if the sound frequency was put into a perfect box. And by the way, Dispenza does a pretty good job at it. If it was, it's still a bastardized version of it, right? So why I said HRV is a pretty neat place to kind of like symbolically approach this is because I think a lot of times, and you mentioned my TED talk, which is about variability. And you know, science says it's the variability in, you know, time between beats. And if it's high, that's good, and if it's low, that's not so good. And but in reality, it's this incredible tool where it is the. It is the way it is literally the signal that the heart is using to tell every cell in your body what the hell is going on. Because your heart knows a lot more. I can't remember Heart Math's research on this, but it's like the heart is like gives off like 80 times more energy than the brain does.

Yes.

And 80% of the communication between the heart and the brain is heart to brain. And if you ask young children where their self is, they point to their heart. And if you ask adults, they point to their head. Right. So there's this, like. There's this freaking thing that's going on. We know we're born. We know the beauty is all in our heart. We know the heart is the true brain. And so when we look at heart rate variability, there's something called the blood pressure wave. And what this does, this is the reason why I think anger, fear, and sex or sexual energy, those are like, the three strongest emotions that can, like. That can, like, switch in a second, you know, like, joy is. Is amazing. And that's where we're supposed to live all the time. And if maybe if you, like, you know, someone, like, wins the lottery or something, maybe they get a similar burst of joy. But, like, we're survival creatures that are designed to, like, you know, kind of be on the other end.

You really think we're supposed to live in joy all the time? All the time.

If we're doing it right, I mean, that would be great.

Then that takes away from the yin yang that we talked about earlier.

I know we have to have some.

Of the light and some of the dark. There's got to be the push pull.

There has to be the push pull. But when I look at. So Siri. You met Siri Bahada?

Yes.

Like, just look in his eyes. This is our yogi at Runga who does the gongs and things. And, like, he smiles with his eyes. And, like, I just look at this guy, and, like, I want that.

Yes.

Like, I want that like, full time, you know?

But he still wears sneakers, which I think is cool. He's not on the hill floating with the purple £20 rock, right neck.

Right. He live. He lives in the world. Well, I'm laughing because I don't know what the hell. And I know he shops at, like, thrift markets and things like that. But, like, there's a photo. He was leaving on the third day, and Emilio was like, we have to get a photo. And so, like, him and I and Amelia get a beautiful photo at Ranga. And his shirt has a grenade on it.

See, this is the duality I'm talking about.

I know it. I know it. But I look at that picture, I'm like, why does the yogi. Why does our yogi have a picture of a grenade? He's teaching us. He's the Zen master That smokes. Right? He's the. He's the. That's his, you know, maybe his duality. So the blood pressure wave is the signal that basically sends the information around our body. And so heart rate variability is ultimately a reflection of the blood pressure wave. And the beauty is that's kind of how blood circulates. And if we're angry, there's a very certain wave, and if we're. If it's sexual energy. So ultimately, HRV is actually a reflection of our mood, not just our health. It's the. It's kind of like a 1C. It's kind of like our average mood for the past month. That's really what heart rate variability is. And so the interesting thing about that, when you look at heart rate variability, it's better to have. And I'm just using arbitrary numbers, I know every system is different, but let's say 100 is the best. You'd be better off having 75 all the time than like 90, 30, 80, 35. Right. So there's this, like, you actually want some consistency in it, and you want to have that elevated average. So as it relates to the frequency of healing, there's a lot of ways we can kind of look at it. But whatever we look at, we just have to know we're fish that don't know where to water and that every thought is sending out a signal. But some of the things and some of the reasons why yogis, as an example, do so much mantra, especially in Kundalini and practices like that mantra, yogas, Kriya yogas, is because they know that's what they're doing. They're manipulating. It's also why so many yogis change their names. So after a bunch of years of practicing, my wife was given a name, Priya Shanti, right? So there's this, like, they didn't think I was cool enough, but, like. So they get.

Until you changed it on your own.

I went it on my own. But they do this because. And it's a little bit like Ram Dass, even Muhammad Ali, who didn't want to be Cassius Clay anymore, because ultimately we have 83 acupuncture points on the roof of our mouth, and every sound we make emanates a frequency.

This is why when you and I hear the truth, it quote, lands, right? And in spiritual circles, that turn, did that land, that land for you? It either lands or it doesn't. And by land, it means that it reverberates with the position in the cells that we're welcoming in that truth, because that's the truth that lives in that cells anyways. So truth knows when truth hears or speaks because it's there whether we talk to it or receive from it or not. But when we get the connection, it's so special. It's like, ah, that's it. It's like. It's like this explode. It's like the supernova.

Exactly.

I mean, it's so amazing. And we either. We either get it or we don't, right? There's no substitute. People try to will the substitute, but it's either there or it's not. And there's some mystery in that. There's some beautiful mystery in that.

And that's life. And it's, it's funny, right? Like we have a, a friend down the road who's like dating and stuff, right? And she's just like, you know, the guy is like, has one, two, like, but I just don't know, like checks all the boxes, like, you know, good job, whatever. Right?

Yeah.

And it's so funny because that's kind of what you're saying. It's like there's always a truth and there's always the science or the, the things that we have. We're the boxes we're supposed to check. But the reality of our existence is it's like intuition and heart is really the only path. But.

And by intuition and heart, don't you also mean we're half beast that has a biology and we're half spirit that lives in the suit itself. In other words, like you're Joe, the soul inside of this body that carries the soul around to have this experience. And you probably, I don't know how you feel about this, attracted your wife so that you would heal all of these things within yourself. She is a perfect mirror, like a Rubik's cube for you that without you trying to intellectualize it, she same thing. Carrie, with myself brings up all the stuff that you didn't even know was in there. Not because you're supposed to be tortured or you're supposed to suffer. It's like you're not supposed to suffer. You can suffer, but you don't have to for so long. And these lists with dating, oh, I'm gonna get the top five things. He's got to have this much income, he's got to be this tall, he's got to have all that. That is such a neck up approach to loving and dating. And it's probably what kept me out of relationship deep intimacy for so long. And it wasn't until I found Carrie and really saw the mirrors of how triggered and all my stuff would come up that I actually knew she was the one. I was like, you're. You're the mother of my child. I just knew. I mean, I knew it right away. Did you have a similar experience? And can you talk to people about. You know, a lot of our conversation is this intuition, this having. Having a heart open, but also not having your heart so open that you get taken advantage of and abused. Like, being a warrior and having the balance of both. What was it like? And how did you attract this woman in that was able to hold you through all these different stages? And then at the end of that, there was Joseph anew.

Right, man. Right. I love it. And I think you and Carrie have. I think we're super similar. So I met my wife in Austin. She went to law school at ut, and for some reason, she was at Paleo Effects out of a vegan at Paleo at the time.

She was a vegan at Paleo at the time.

She was like a raw vegan at Paleo Effects. And it was like, there was a million reasons. She wasn't supposed to be there. And she ended up there somehow. And she literally came to my Booth for about 20 seconds and walked away. And I told my buddy I was with. I was like, I'm gonna marry her. And a year later, we went to paleofx married. And so the. And I didn't.

Damn.

There was no. And I. I didn't even necessarily believe in love before that. I didn't even. I didn't know what was out there. I didn't really have an answer, but I was like, oh, wow. And it was higher. Total higher self. And I know it was because, like, I'm not like, here's the thing. And this is part of the beauty of being in that intuitive heart open, higher self, where when you know you're on your path and you're starting to see the future, you can create and do things that your conscious mind never would have been able to come up with or do. And so for me, like, I was never, like, not, like, a smooth, like, pickup artist, right? Like, good. Yeah. Like. Like, consciously, like, if I was at a bar and trying to pick up a girl, like, it just wasn't gonna happen. Like, I just. Like, it's not me. But with her once a day later, I. I tracked her down at the. At the conference because she was actually with Omeka Organics, which is, like, an amazing company. They make, like, cbd and Some other stuff. And so I go, and it's the third day, it was Sunday. And I knew it was like now or never. And like, I was, was pretty sure I was supposed to marry this girl, but I wasn't gonna like, freak her out and say that.

How are you so sure? What was that for you something you can't explain?

Can't explain.

This is the difference between science and spirit.

Yeah, I. And it wasn't even necessarily like, here's the thing, it's like my, this is kind of a parallel to a lot of the way these things work in no time or no space, right? It's like my intuition, my intuitive sense was, I'm gonna marry her.

Right?

It wasn't a sarcastic thing. It wasn't like, I say that about every good looking girl that comes up. Like, just like, boom. But immediately, Sunday, 4 o', clock, thing ends at 5. Whatever time it was, I'm in the moment. So, like, I got a glimpse at the top of the hill. Like, I know the top of the mountain is I'm gonna marry this person, but immediately I came back down to the ground level and it's like, I just got to get the date, like right now. I just got to get her to see me in the next, like 24 hours. Like, that's it, right? And so I have my backpack on and I'm like, hey. Like I said, like, hey, so you know, what are you up to tonight? Or something like that. She's like, oh, I'm just going home. And I'm like, oh, well, you know, we should, we should go out. We should, you know, let's get a drink or something. She's like, oh, maybe that was your.

Pitch, we should go out or something.

I said something like that. Like something.

You're definitely not the Casanova.

Not the Casanova. Okay, well, but here's where the Casanova kicked in. Because if I, when I started, like maybe losing the battle, a little bit higher self, okay, we got to figure this out. So I say like, hey, why don't, you know, why don't you just take my number? She goes, my phone's dead. So I'm just getting, I'm just getting like, I'm just getting like beat down. And then I said, and I had my buddy Jake, who was with me, he had a portable charger that was in my bag. I was like, here's a portable charger. So take it and tell you what, let me, let me text you in a little while. So we, that was the end of the conference. Like give her the portable charger. Right. And she answers my text later and somehow came out to see me and the rest is history. We were married a year later.

It's almost like sincerity is what is subsequent to honesty. So there's an honesty of like vibration.

Yeah.

And I'm just unpacking this with you in real time. I don't exactly know where this is going to go.

It's okay.

So there's like some type of honesty that cells are expressing to one another, another that God is expressing through us. And I don't mean again like some man in the sky, but there's something there. And then there's the like vulnerability of that where you're kind of fumbling around. It's like, well, we should go out or something. It's so honest. It's not this premeditated pre planned canned pickup where you're going to neg her and approach the set and do all this wonky. It's just so honest. And I wonder sometimes, like this concept of free will and this concept of like, are we actually just experiencing the free will that we already chose? Kind of like in Matrix 2 where he goes into the room and there's uncountable televisions with him being there, uncountable times approaching, really the conductor of the symphony of life. And it's a very deep question for me. I don't really know the answer, but I will say that there's clues and maybe I don't ever have to know the answer of why love exists or why we're with one another, why we're with our women, why people choose each other. I do feel, and I wonder how you feel, that we choose the partner that is going to level us up to the point where the things that are hurting us, the things that are causing us the most pain on a subconscious level that we may not even know are there are going to flesh those out. I think that's what this is all about. I feel that's what this is all about. And it's not all spiritual. It's not like this, oh, you're with somebody that's a perfect match. Because that's not true. You can be with somebody that you fight with all the time. It ain't the perfect match. Love is not enough. Otherwise divorce rate wouldn't be 80%. There is something else where people believe in one another and they also believe in the humility of learning how to love one another too. What do you feel about that?

I think you're spot on. And I'VE had this same thought that a part of me, you know, Emelia chose me and I chose Amelia. Right. And I think that I love the idea of, like, I don't know if you've read, like, Journey of Souls.

Is it. Is it like the difference between soulmate and twin flame?

No, it's like. It's like we're all here for a very specific purpose. Like, we're here to learn in this lifetime very specific lessons. And there are certain people along the way that we're supposed to remember that are beacons, that we're supposed to say, oh, my gosh, yes, go with this person. And those say, I don't know, 10 things throughout our entire lifetime are the map. And so that's why being open intuitive is actually so damn important, because maybe it doesn't make sense.

Damn it, Joe. You're right, Joseph.

You can call me Joe. My friends can call me Joe.

Well, I'd rather call you Joseph, because this is the new version of you.

I appreciate that.

You're right, man. There. There is something about this intuition. But if we, if we're stuck in the wide open position with just our heart blasted wide open 24 7, that doesn't work either.

We see God and everyone. That's wonderful. But as long as you got to have these, these people that stand out or these experiences. And maybe this relates to deja vu. Who knows? Like in Matrix 2. Right. But I have had that exact thought that Emilia creates a container in our home where I've been able to process stuff that I never was going to process.

That's right.

I was never going to let that out. I was never going to go there.

It's not going to happen at the end of a Spartan race all the time. Maybe sometimes.

Right.

I've had some pretty cathartic experiences after marathons or I've had a lot of emotional awareness come up.

Yeah.

But not every time.

Right.

It takes the right kind of container, like you're talking about.

Yeah.

Through a person that. Do we choose them? Do we. Is it fate? Is it destined already? What do you make of that?

I think. I think I'm mixed. I. I can see both sides, but I. I actually do believe that it may be pre orchestrated, it may be destiny, it may be fate. Right. And I'm still figuring that out. And as you said, maybe we will never know all the questions, but all I know is like, as it relates to the Gita is like the obstacles in your life are there for a reason and you would never be matched with an obstacle that you can't handle. Right. That's just not how nature works. It's not how the universe works. It's like people that, you know, have a really easy life.

They're.

Well, they, they don't have. They couldn't handle more than that. That's what they need to figure out, what they need to learn in this life. But people that have a lot of obstacles in their lives or traumas or injuries or whatever the case may be, it's like those are the things that you're being matched with. And so you can finally get to your power to flow. You know, you can finally get there. But I resonate very deeply with the. The relationship being a container that allows us to, to heal on the path to being the best contributor to this unit, Unity.

I have a sense, and I know you've quoted this on your site, you talk about the key to finding purpose and gaining mastery lies in our own continuing education. That's never ending. And I think about that and I. And I feel like there could be a plus sign on top of that because there can be such a academic pursuit of the answers in life that actually, in a paradox, you would be blocked from ever having them because the mind is so hungry that it just wants to consume all these essentially thoughts, information. I always say that the mind gives and receives information and it keeps us safe. That's pretty much its job. There's nothing else that the mind does but the heart and the soul is so different. Like, in order for us to have this conversation today, there had to have been much, much more than just your degree, your academia, my education, meeting each other at the table of information. There's way more to real connection than that. And this is, I think, the scale of Lady Liberty, where on one side there's science and on one side there's spirit. And I wonder if that's changed for you. You know, this compass for purpose, this thing that you talked about in your site, is it always about continuing education? And is education really just another way of saying exploration?

Exploration. So when you become educated, you're putting blinders on. So in a way, the knowledge in your head, and this relates to mastery of a specific. It's kind of like the medical system, right? Like, don't ask a cardiologist about your broken leg. Right, Whatever. Right. It's like, so when you, when you tunnel deep or when you continue to pursue education in a very narrow field, like, if I just want to be the best kettlebell person in the world, there is a law of There's a rate of diminishing returns, but you're also blinded to what else may be out there. Right. And so, and if you look at people like da Vinci or, you know, even Newton, as you said, exploration, these people were musicians, they were scientists, they were astrologists, they were geologists, they were artists, they were creative. So they were creating master or they were creating magic in, in one field. But it was really due to their, their well, roundedness and the fact that they were exploring. So the education never ends, but the education is not necessarily in a narrow vertical that just goes on forever. You know, it's funny because actually, as it relates to health and fitness, you know, after almost 20 years, it's like, okay, like, you know, I don't need to learn anything more. Like, and I know that might sound. But like, for the job that I do with people, like, I don't need.

To learn anymore about movement patterns or macros or periodization.

Exactly.

Or prepping and all that.

At that point, it's just like ego.

Yeah.

It's just like trying to like, you know, be able to talk on podcast for an hour about macros or about.

Sets and wraps, or about how fascia overlays the sarcomere and like, you can go so down the rabbit hole that you, you literally lose.

Yep.

The forest through the trees.

Exactly. So, yeah, I think it's that exploration and, and I think the biggest piece is not realizing. So for me, I told you, like, I have to. I'm stepping back into this mountaineering piece where I'm going to start climbing mountains again and, and doing some big summits and things like that. And who knows how that's going to spill over into my father fathering or my business or my teaching. But I'm not trying to control. I'm not doing it for the fatherhood. I'm not doing it. I'm doing it for me.

Yeah.

And that's going to offer me the perspective in my other disciplines that will be unique to me. So when you look again at, like somebody like da Vinci, it's like, it's like the breakthroughs that maybe he had in his painting. Well, was obviously related to his expertise in math. Right. So it's like. But he didn't necessarily say, I'm going to learn math so I can be a better painter. I think that's part of it.

I think a big part of da Vinci, too, was that he was truly in the art form. He was actually engaged in what he was doing. And I don't know his personal Life. I don't know most people's personal life because I wasn't alive, I wasn't their friend. But I will say about you and about this conversation and really just about Ranga in general, this event that we've touched on so many times.

Yeah.

Is that there is this exploration there, there is this curiosity and this playfulness and that is what's missing from so many of the, I guess you could say head centric conferences even like the Tony Robbins. Like there's a certain dogmatism to. I'm not here to speak poorly about Tony Robbins. I know he's changed a lot of people's lives. But there is this playfulness that I think we all need. And something that I was feeling when you were expressing was if you were able to, if you like hop in a time machine or something and just go back to when you were 17, 18, 19, and maybe there's a 17, 18, 19 year old watching us right now going through some similar things that you've touched on today. If there was wisdom that you could scribble on a paper and put in the pocket of that young man, what would that wisdom be?

Well, gosh. So I thought. I've thought about this a lot. And when I look at my life, like I wouldn't change a thing. So I know the meaning and the purpose behind everything that I've been through. And I wouldn't be who I am without it. I wouldn't be the father that I am for my son without all of those experiences and all of those learnings and things don't make sense until you look back at them. And that's like the forest through the trees, right? It's like climbing a mountain and looking down at the path you took. Well, you look how you did that. Like that was amazing. You couldn't have done that on purpose. Right. And so I think that's when you're young and you're 16, 17 and you're trying to figure it out. It's again, think about ready, fire, aim. Right. Jeez. Ready, aim, fire.

I think that was like Todd Durkin that said that, which I disagreed with. Right after.

Ready, fire, aim.

Ready, fire, aim. I'm like, that's backwards.

And a lot of. Yeah, I mean, well. But that's what we're forced to do as a 17 year old because you don't know yourself. You don't know what you want to go to college for. You don't know what you want to do with your. You don't know what you want to be when you grow up, but you have to go to college next year. So it's ready, fire, aim. And a lot of people now, I mean, even people that come to Runga and they're, you know, they're in big pharma or they're working in these, you know, these areas of the world that they're not fulfilled by, and they're, in fact, very uncomfortable in, and they're trying to, like, start a business or whatever. So they're aiming at 35, 40, 45. And so at 17, I would say everything in your life is happening on purpose. Everything in your life is for a purpose. And remember that there's no time or space in Dharma, really, right? And so right now, your focus is to follow your heart, to find your true friends, to take good care of your body, to get as physically fit as you can be in a reasonable amount of investment, and do await further instructions, because I think those are the people that really find themselves, and they really end up happy, and they end up in happy marriages, and they end up as good dads, and they end up being successful. But when we go to college and everyone has to be a doctor or a lawyer or a, you know, something that pays well, it's like, you lose the magic. And again, we're born. Everyone has a genius. And I love what Eben said at Runga last year. He's like, and it's where we started the podcast where I said I could be an astronaut if I want to be. Yeah, but you're not supposed to be. That's the thing. It's like, sure, you can be anything, but you're not supposed to be, man. Like, I'm here to help people transform. I create, as you said, a playful environment where they can literally have the world at their fingertips. All of the healing, all of the community, all of the nourishment that they could ever need to heal whatever's going on or to just get confidence in their new self. You know, I was at a conference the first time I told a group of people that my name was Joseph instead of Joe in 37 years. And it was like, fuck, it worked. These people call me Joseph now. They didn't say. You don't go by Joe. They just said, oh, fuck. Hey, Joseph, what's going on? Hey, it worked. All right, let me do it on a bigger scale. So when people come in, they say, you know, I can really be myself here. Well, try it on. Try yourself on for this time that we have together. As you nourish yourself with Just incredible modalities and nourishment and food and people and friendships and community and cold baths and hyperbaric auction chambers and new fit and all the things that we do. And then go home and. And sustain it and give yourself a little momentum and confidence in that new path. That's what I'm here to do. I want people to live free and happy. And so that's what I would tell a 17 year old. It's like, be patient. You don't have to have all the answers by your 18th birthday.

Do you think that you at 17 would have listened to you right now?

Yeah. Why? I think I'd be on the top of Everest right now if, if, if I had heard that advice.

Why is that?

Because I got caught up in the have to go to college thing. Right. It's the last thing I would have done. Like, I was forced. Right. So, like, and whatever. It was great. I met some good friends. I know a lot about exercise and, you know, it's all good. But yeah, I think kids are, you know, I think that's like the peak of their curious years. They're like kind of an adult, but kind of a kid. They can get away with a lot. They can make mistakes.

Yeah.

A year. They'll remember those years for the rest of their lives. Like going from 37 to 38, like, not a huge thing, but going from 17 to 19 is obviously massive. So, like, I just think that those years, especially like that year after high school, two years after high school, it's like the most important time to like, go have fun.

Yeah.

And to like. Yeah, dude, you did it. You just made it through 12 years of indoctrination.

I would, I love, I loved our conversation today so much. And this is the kind of conversations we have either in a traditional format or just like laying on the grass at Runga. So y' all need to join us if this is something you're resonating with. Where is the link where they go, by the way?

Yeah. So the actual website, rungalife.com and then just click Events and the. In the gathering. Okay.

Rungalife.com and it's Ranga, like Chaturanga. But it's more than just Runga. Like Chaturanga.

Yeah.

The name. Right.

Yeah. Do you want the whole story?

Well, give us the brief one because the deep one maybe you can share with people when they arrive.

Yeah, So I will. So, yeah, I came up with the word, but it was based on this metaphor of my life in Chaturanga because I was Taking these brutal yoga classes with a teacher named Jules from, she's from Fort Lauderdale and she taught yoga at the first runga event or two or three brutal, like 120 degree, like more than Bikram hot, like two hour vinyasa flow classes that were just so unbearable. And I knew that if I made it to Chaturanga, I would survive the class. But if I tapped out before Chaturanga, I was in for a very long savasana. Right. And so my life was that like when the Spartan hockey stick happened and we went from like a bunch of guys messing around to like 20 countries and a bunch of money from Reebok and you know, 2 million global participants like that hockey stick, like we went, we grew to like 250 employees, like almost overnight. But like there was a lot of days and nights where there was still like 10 to 10 people.

Yeah.

So like I was so burnt out. And so it was, it was a job that I could do 11 months a year, not 12 months a year. So I knew I needed for my own health like December to just like be a down month where I like go to the beach or I do yoga. And so when I realized that, and that's what run when Runga began in 2015. So I'm in her class and it was a metaphor for my life. Like, if I can just make it to November, if I can just make it to Thanksgiving, I'm gonna survive the year and I can do it again. But if I don't, then who knows what'll happen? And so when I was going to name the event, I was like, chaturanga. And I was like, oh, that's too kind of, it's kind of hairy. Let's just go with Ranga.

Runga.

Runga. And then people start. It grew like it was like wildfire. People like Runga.

It's easy to remember. And I wonder, you know, I went to this thing with Deepak Chopra, La Costa, the Omni and Carlsbad once and they gave us a class on like the primordial sounds. Primordial sound meditation. And the word ranga. It has a interesting primordial sound. Like you talked about the actual acupuncture points on our roof.

Vibration.

Vibration. It has a unique sound, so maybe that's why it's growing in popularity. And final question for you, man. It's a big one. Take as much time as you need because I've really loved the answers you've given. When we look at this construct of what? Well, living well or wellness I feel from you that you had to go through a lot of unwellness in order to find wellness or what well being actually is. And even in the advice you gave to your 17 year old self and the people watching us that are going through their own pain and my heart goes out to them because I can flash right back to when I was 17, 18 years old, 19 years old. It was hell. It was literally hell on earth. And you know what I need at that time is I just needed the voice of wisdom. I just need the voice of truth. What is your wisdom and what is the voice of truth around wellness for you now? You know, how do you, how do you live your life well, how do you define wellness?

So in situations like these, I often, I often say wellness is the effect you have on others. So like if I walk into the room and you are uplifted, I like to think that you would be, that's a sign of my wellness. But if I walk in and you have less energy than you did before I walked in, then like, then I'm a vacuum, right? So I try to, I try to do the work so that I'm not a vacuum of any kind for anybody, you know. And so that's kind of like a little bit of a guiding light. But I think ultimately wellness is like, you know, when you, when you close your eyes, where do you go, you know, half full? Is the glass half full or is the glass half empty? And I think we're born, and it's, it's half full and we're born abundant and we're born joyful. And the path is to get back to that no matter what we've, what we've gone through. And wellness is that, it's that, it's that belief, it's that, it's that abundant mindset, it's that joyful mindset, that loving mindset, that overflowing mindset where I have everything I need and more so I can help others because my cup is full, right? And so that's the sort of goal and then what do we need to do? And of course on a day to day basis, like that fluctuates. I've had a guy that's been kid I went to school with when I was a kid and like we talk, you know, with some frequency because I'm, I try to give him what I can and help him out and it's been like two months and he texts me that and I'm just like, I can't, can't talk, right? And I'VE I mean, I'm turning down a lot of other stuff too, but, like, he stuck out to me because it was like my cup wasn't full. Yeah, my cup wasn't full.

Your. Your cup was being emptied. I'm going through this right now with a friend, actually, who I don't want to be friends with anymore because I feel more empty every time I hang out with them.

Right.

And so it's a hard conversation to have, but it's a necessary one, isn't it?

Right.

It's a necessary one to just. What is the gift of honesty that we can give to a friend about the way you just define wellness and how we show up empty or full? I mean, that is big. That is like ultimate courage. But then after that courage comes peace, right? There's peace after that courage.

Well, and there's also. There's a lot of peace in telling this person, in my instance, where I couldn't give him 20 minutes of my time because my cup wasn't full and it was. It was going to put me a little bit empty, right?

Yeah.

Because it's giving. It's very much giving. So having the strength to say, I'm sorry, I don't have the strength. I don't have the bandwidth to get on the phone or to give or anything else. And so in a way, it was empowering, and in a way, it created a mutual respect that maybe wasn't there, maybe it was. Right. But I think that there's a certain. When you're a giver, right? And I think a lot of us in this space are very empathic and we're. We love to give and we love to elevate people. We love to lift them up and will it be give all we can?

Which also needs healthy boundaries as well, otherwise you could be exhausted all the time. There has to be, like, bright line boundaries on the giving, which is the.

Grandfather story, which is like, my puppet didn't have any boundaries. It was just like, give all the time until it kills you. And so setting some of those boundaries, I think is. Is amazing. But as it relates to, you know, the other person, I think that the more you're in tune with your own frequency and vibration, the more clear your friends are, the more clear the people that are radiating in. Right? Because if you're a magnet, like, who's radiating in, right. And who's radiating out? And if someone's radiating out, like, don't. You said earlier, like, don't force it. You know, let it. Let it go. And then who knows if in the future it's. It's more of a magnetic thing, but, like, that's sort of this, like, waiting and, like, seeing what comes through.

And in a way, if you're honest with somebody, when it's the most challenging to be honest, it is the greatest possible gift you could give to that person's growth, because maybe no one else has the balls to tell them in a loving way that they're a taker or that they are a drainer of energy for people. I think that's really awesome, man. One thing we didn't talk about that I'd love to say goodbye with is as you step into the world is Joseph, what does that feel like to you? What does that mean to you to be Joseph Anu? We'll link a really beautiful email, with your permission, that you sent to your inner circle about the nuances of this story. But I felt like it would be a great thing to say goodbye with as everyone else is going through a death and rebirth process this year in 2022, I feel like I have Faux Show. So Joseph Anu is now here. Joe distefano is gone. There is no more Joe distefano. What does that feel like, and how is that going to guide you for the rest of 2022 in your life?

Well, it's. Gosh, it's. I mean, this is a long one. We're going to go another hour. I'm just kidding. But so in many ways, it's my own rite of passage. And it feels amazing. It feels amazing to me. It's like I'm embodying what was always there fully publicly. I'm not rejecting any part of myself. I'm not denying what comes up for me. I'm not. I'm stepping into my own and myself. And I love that. I think it's. It's beautiful and it's challenging. Don't get me wrong. It's. It's no joke.

I mean, especially because you're 37.

Yeah.

At 37, you're like, I'm gonna change my name at 37. That's rare.

Yeah. I mean, well, especially nowadays, right? Because it's not like I live in, like, you know, a little village where only 20 people know me. Like, you know, I've got a million views on my TED Talk. Right. It's like, it's. There's so much that, like, let me.

Just write to Ted and be like, can you change my name on your. That'd be cool.

Yeah, I'll do it right after the Social Security office. But the. So in other words, there's like the thing. And this is part of the intuitive warrior is like there's like the thing, like the actual change and then there's all the. We attach to it. Like, well, what about. What if people no longer can find my business because they, they've really liked my TED Talk and now or my social media. I have all these followers and you know that's going to be so much to hold and half of them are going to think I'm not.

Who cares?

Who cares?

Who cares if you don't feel good doing it?

Who cares?

Fuck that.

That's. Well, that's what gets people stuck. I mean, that's what keeps people stuck in all sorts of shit.

Absolutely.

And so in many ways, it's a rite of passage for myself. As you said, like your vision quest. It's like, I'm not going to die with regrets. I'm not going to be like, hey, I really felt called to, like stepping into my own when I was in my mid-30s. I wonder what would have happened if I did that, right? And dude. And this is where the dispenza stuff comes in. Like, the thing with spontaneous remission as an example is you're literally changing your DNA when you get into that like gamma brainwave state. You are literally changing your DNA. Like, is going weird right now. Like, I smell different, dude. My wife is like, you're like body odor is. Smells completely different than when I met you. Like, I just decided. I drink a shitload of coffee. I just decided, like, whatever it was, I'm not counting the days, but like all of a sudden I'm done with it and I might, I'm not like, it's not a conscious choice.

Yeah.

Like, my DNA is literally changing from the inside out. It's fucking bananas. It's crazy. It's crazy, but it's, it's like dispenses telling the truth. Like, you literally change. You literally. Your DNA starts pumping out a new identity and that creates a whole new future. And all of a sudden, and it's so interesting. Can I tell you one more thing? So I started to really step into this mountaineering thing when I met Amelia, right? I was like gonna climb Everest. I. I had just done like Mount Washington in the middle of February, which is if you Google world's worst weather comes up. And I had just really started stepping into that when we met. And it was this incredible life change. And I basically put that whole thing on hold, right. Unconsciously, I Fell in love for a couple of years. My life became like, just how do I keep her maximally happy and amazing and in her. She's younger than me. All I wanted to do was to help her find her path because law school, like, beat the hell out of her. So now I joke. She's like the most educated chef yogi ever, right? Dual jurisdictional law degree for the uk, London and ut. But the crazy thing is, is, as you said, like, that relationship has allowed me to heal a lot of my wounds and. And realized that I had a lot of wounding that I didn't even know about. And that's been the journey, really, almost since we met. It's been crazy, right? And now look, now I'm stepping in. So now I'm going back to where I was five years ago, but totally renewed, totally refreshed with a totally new reason for doing everything I'm about to do. And it's her and him, right? It's my son and her and any other future kids that. That come down the line. It's like now I have a completely different connection. I'm not doing it to escape. And I think if I started climbing before we met, if I started setting out to climb Everest and some of these seven summits, I think I. A part of me might have been doing it to escape certain things, but now I'm doing it to live more fully. And that's been the beauty of the journey these past, like, five years.

Well, there's an entire podcast there which maybe we can link below this one as to what mountains you climb when you're feeling good about something and not trying to hide. That's awesome, Joseph. What an incredible conversation. You guys. Look at Joe's work. Come to runga with us. Rungalife.com is the website. Oh, my God. And if you miss it this time, there's another round, too.

Buckle up.

So if you can't make it in a month with us, there'll be another one. Yeah, but, yeah, buckle up. And also, thank you, man. I'm feeling a lot of gratitude, not just for the fact that I get to go to Runga, but also for just the space that's unfolded here. I knew it was going to be good because we had to reschedule it three times whenever there's interstitial tension, like people have to reschedule stuff multiple times. It always is amazing. And this was definitely the case, man. So much love and appreciation for what you do with Runga and for how you showed up on this podcast and just in life, man, we covered a lot of ground. I'm sure we missed some things, but at this point, I will say from my heart and Joe's heart to yours, that we're both wishing you love and wellness. And we'll talk to you soon on the next episode.

Thanks, guys.

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