Why Most Men Fail: David Binns on Overcoming the Silent Crisis

I was lost, confused, wildly overweight. So I actually had $60,000 worth of debt. I had $1500 in my bank account and I had rent due of $900. And I quickly turned my entire life around. I'm talking in like three months. When we were in Costa Rica with you, I was down in Costa Rica, completely miserable. I got this big fat title selling tons of real estate. I'm signing all these agents to the brokerage. It's like, wow, everybody in the real estate industry would love to be able to do this and have this got to go. I can't do this. And that's when I made the decision to no longer tolerate.

Welcome back to the Path podcast where we share inspiring stories of people who've gone through pivotal journeys in life and are now on their path to purpose. Today. I have my dear friend David Binns joining me, who I've known for a decade now. He is a former Landmark education facilitator. He is a peak performance coach helping men tap into their true potential. And he's an all around amazing man. I'm honored to have my dear friend David join us here today for this conversation. Mr. Ben, it's good to see you.

Hello. It's been about two, two and a half years in the making trying to do this podcast.

This is true. And joining us in the studio today is Samya as well. So you might hear her from time to time because she wants to go outside, but she has to stay in here with us. So, yeah, so, yeah, it's been like two and a half years we've been trying to sit down to have this conversation and as we know, everything happens when it's supposed to. And had we talked two years ago, probably would have been a very different conversation. But keep. Given the journey that you and I have been on the last couple years, I think the conversation we're gonna have today is gonna be really valuable for both men and women, but especially for those guys who are looking to really tap into their peak performance in all aspects in their health, in their business, in their mindset, in their relationships. And I know this is something you and I totally geek out on, you know, health optimization and biohacking and all the things that we can do to make sure that the hardware is aligned with the software. As our health coach, Spencer Copen likes to say, you know, it's one thing to upgrade software with the coaching and the mindset and all the things we could do to upgrade, you know, up here, but if the, if the hardware, the body, you know, is not aligned, is not online and on track with the mindset, then you can only go so far. And I know this is something that both you and I have been through as we are. You know, I'm pushing 50. You're how old again?

43.

43. Okay. Yes. I got a few years on you. Young, Youngin. You look younger than me. And. Yeah. And I know obviously the last couple years has been a roller coaster for a lot of people. And I think for the first time, people are actually realizing, like, what does it mean to have a regulated nervous system? Like, what does it mean to, you know, not always be in fight or flight? And again, from both our personal experiences, there's things I know we're going to share today that's gonna be really helpful for people because we take this very seriously, you know, to operate at our at an optimized state so we can really show up fully for the people that we serve. But before we get into that, you know, I would just love for you to just give the viewers and watch your listeners just a little bit of background on who you are and what led you to this path that you're on now of serving and helping other men.

The original part started back when I was a kid, and I realized after seeing a man that was about 6 foot 7 on TV with really big white teeth named Tony Robbins, I never will forget that time I saw him on tv, and I was just like, wow, he gets to do that? And that never left my mind. And I started picking up Tony Robbins books when I was like 13, 14, 15 years old. And fast forward, I got into the real estate business back in 2006, and I started in commercial and corporate real estate. And I was chasing that opportunity of potentiality because all the men that I worked with were making 7,800 million bucks a year back in 2006. And I knew I didn't want to do that, so I left and I went over to the residential side of the business. But that pivotal moment of when I made that change really put me on the trajectory of where I am now. Because when I left commercial real estate, I was lost, confused, wildly overweight. And in a business such as that, you're never gonna make any money because people know that you're not. Okay? So why would I bring him in on files? So I actually had $60,000 worth of debt. I had $1,500 in my bank account, and I had rent due of $900 in 10 days. And I had no idea how I was going to figure it out, but I left. And then from there I went over to Keller Williams. And during that time I really began to get access to the real information around manifestation. And I quickly turned my entire life around. I'm talking in like three months. I was doing deals and this and that. And naturally my personality was more suited to the residential side of the business. And from there, over the years I was top 25 in Canada with Keller Williams multiple years in a row. And then I became a program leader at Landmark and which started years before that. But that was really where my passion for transformation came in. My passion for purpose, authenticity, the truth, people's truth, my truth, your truth, the truth where I could be in access to other people, which I always knew I wanted to do to living a more fulfilled, purposeful, authentic life. And then I became a senior program at Landmark where I was one of 191 people around the world who led a specific program called the Self Expression and Leadership Program, which as you know, was one of the hardest things I ever did because it's literally the Navy Seals boot camp of the personal development space. And it was the greatest gift. From there I had an opportunity to be the Vice President of Professional development and Growth to help bring Berkshire Hathaway Home Services into Toronto. I quickly built that company and then realized when we were in Costa Rica with you in 2021, I was down in Costa Rica, completely miserable building this. I got this big fat title selling tons of real estate. I'm signing all these agents to the brokerage. It's like, wow, everybody in the real estate industry would love to be able to do this and have this. I gotta go, I can't do this. And that was another decision that I made where I walked away from a huge title in the real estate business. I walked away from being a full time real estate agent. And that's when I made the decision to no longer tolerate living a life so far out of alignment, which has really put me on this trajectory of, of leading people predominantly in the real estate industry because I'm so familiar with it, but also not, you know, I work with men who are entrepreneurs and things like that. Because I know for myself I can't go back, you know, that with nightlife, like you just couldn't go back. Right. And that's really the summary of what brings me to where I am today. To predominantly lead men through various programs that I have in business, but also in their peak performance, mixing the world of logic and the world of the frequency domain which you and I are going to talk about, which is really the duality of hardware and software to bring those two worlds together. And I think it's a particularly relevant and important conversation today given the compounding of information available to us at any given time. It's not peak performance, is not a game of the intellect, it's not a game of hacking AI. It's none of that. It is bridging and bringing into harmony the logic domain of the mind and the frequency domain of the invisible of what happens within us. Said another way, it's the hardware and the software. So the more that I've gone deeper into that world, the more my life expands, the more I expand. And I have certainly learned through various exercises and lessons in life, the intellect will only get us so far. Information will only get us so far. There's something else.

Yeah. And first off, thank you for sharing that and, you know, your impressive resume of all the things you've done and been through to get to this, get here to this point. And you know, what you share is so important to understand that the intellect and the mind and our thoughts can only take us so far. And then there's a wisdom in the body, there's an intelligence that lives within us that most people don't know how to tap into and even don't like to listen to until the body has to start screaming the messages to you. And I think that's something that a lot of people are experiencing these days because, you know, grind, hustle scale 10x, all that you know, is really celebrated in today's culture. And entrepreneurs are pushing themselves hard, not realizing that the grind and the hustle will serve you only to a certain point. But when you start to tap into your flow, when you start to bring the mind and the heart into coherence and you're choosing how to structure your day and how to work in a, in a flow that lights you up, you're going to make more money, you're going to feel more alive, you're going to be healthier, and most importantly, you're not going to be depleting your life force energy. And you know, I speak to this a lot because, you know, about, I guess about a year and a half ago, working with Spencer, I did the true diagnostics test to find out, like, how old am I actually biologically? Because, you know, Even though I'm 49, I found out through the test that biologically I'm 35 and I'm aging at a rate of 0.8 per year and I have very healthy telomeres now, I didn't know any of this. Like, I have lived a healthy life for, I mean, for the majority of my life I've always been healthy and working out, eating fairly well, meditating, breath work. The compounding effect of all of that has resulted in me having the biological age of 35 and you know, and the, the rate of aging of 0.8 per year. So I am learning more about it now because I'm fascinated that, okay, well, if I can age at 0.8, what do I got to do to get it down to 0.6? And what I'm discovering is part of the reason why I've aged well is because I've lived a very selfish life. And what I mean by that is I've really lived life on my own terms, doing what feels good to me, not allowing myself to feel stressed, because I'll just remove that situation or let go of whatever I need to in order to release the resistance or any sort of energy sucking element to it. And, and I think that's where most people, they get stuck. They're living life with resistant resistance, resentment with frustration, and they're actually working against their flow. And if you're not in alignment with your flow, that's going to. It's like, you know, you're driving a car, but you're towing, you know, £2,000 behind you. You're gonna move forward, but you're moving forward with burning extra fuel, extra energy, right? And you can keep doing that when you're young, but when you get up into your 40s or 50s, it starts to. Parts start to break down, right? And that's where working with someone like Spencer or Sanjeev at peak human or, you know, any one of these facilities that actually help you figure out, okay, well, you might look healthy on the outside, but what's really going on in the inside. Because obviously, as we know, the mind and body are not separate. What's happening in the mind has a direct impact on the body. And I know you have been on a bit of a roller coaster with that the last couple years and just figuring out your physiology. So I'd love for you to share a little bit about what you've been through and what you've learned as a result of the different stressors that you've been dealing with over the last couple years and the impact it's had on your body 100%.

So as you know with me, there has never been a hesitation for me to talk about something, go look at something, hire a facilitator a spiritual coach, a therapist, like to get what I need. On the software side, I consider myself an anomaly as a man because most men won't go there. There is nowhere I won't go within me or my past and talk about in an appropriate container. And I mean nothing. It's no holds barred. But there came a point where that became unproductive. And it was actually after a conversation with you where Adele was there and said, sweetheart, you should maybe reach out to Spencer, like she also knows him. And I was like, yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense. Now I think it's important for context, for the contribution on here to share. Why with out going through without going into all of the details, because it's just not something I want to talk about with such specificity publicly just yet. We went through, as you intimately know, a wildly stressful situation for the better part of two and a half years where I was having to turn into a Navy seal. And I don't say that lightly to protect myself and my family we were dealing with. I'll just leave it at that. It was a constant daily compounding of the threat that I was under and that we were under compounded with the after effect of what happened here for what, two, two and a half years. And we all know what I'm talking about. There was a lot of different factors, but it was the compounding of persistent daily threat that overall left me completely depleted. And the better part of six months it has been for me to embark on this process and I'm coming to the tail end of it. But as a result of this situation, I am on the tail end of working through clinical PTSD while still showing up for my clients, still showing up for my family, myself, going to the gym, et cetera. And I don't wish that on anybody. This was the hardest thing I ever went through, but I now know it was also the greatest gift. And I do not say that from some social media spiritual bypassing. I have done the work to genuinely connect to the true gift that this has been. But the real learning in all of this is I have the software element covered. I know what tools I need, if I need something, I know who to reach out to, etc. Like I got that nailed. The thing I didn't have nailed was the awareness around the hardware. Now what's the hardware? The hardware is our hormone levels. And I often joke like, when do men ever talk about their hormones? It's always about women, their cycle, their hormones. It's an awareness thing. I Actually find it quite funny now. And you know, it's our hormone levels, our physiology, et cetera. I'm not a doctor, I'm sure there's lots more. But the real key fundamental lesson in and profound insight for me was around the data because there's so much speculation online, there's so much information online about men in trt. You know, you see all these jack dudes online and they're either telling you they're on TRT or they're not telling you on TRT. And by the way, when you see a 48 year old man completely shredded and ripped, that is not natural, period. The end. So going in to work with Spencer, my lens was, I would suspect that it's trt, I need to go on TRT or some testosterone supplement, when in fact it was the complete opposite. When he said, I got your blood work, my first question was, what are my T levels? And he said, you are superhuman. Your blood levels came back that of a 25 year old. And I was like, then what is it? He goes, we'll get into it on Monday. We get into it on Monday. And he said, your blood work is phenomenal. However, we do have a very serious issue here and that serious issue is your cortisol. You basically, and I use the word basically very intentionally, don't produce cortisol. The other insight I had around that was my whole lens of what cortisol.

Was.

Was not accurate whatsoever. There's often a narrative like cortisol is a bad thing. You don't want too much cortisol. I've learned so much about this and it's the hormone of life. If you don't have cortisol, you're dead. You know, you're missing it. You know, testosterone goes down, you're not going to die. But like it is the hormone that keeps us alive. And this whole other world opened up for me inside of one of the fundamental principles I bring to all of my coaching, my life, working with everybody that I work with. And if there's one thing people are going to take away from this today, I hope it's this. There is no mystery whatsoever to why you have what you have, why you don't have what is wanted. There's no mystery whatsoever. There is a source to everything. There is a source to your life. There's a source to my life. There's a source to that light. There is a source for everything. And what I've really distinguished around all of this is I know what the source of why that happened to My cortisol and my adrenals. I'm very clear. These stressful incidences compounded over, let's just call it three years. Yeah. Nobody should have to go through that kind of stress. That was the source. But is it? No. What is the source that actually created that situation which then impacted my cortisol, which then brought me here today? That's the inquiry that I've been in and that's the work is getting to the source of why that situation happened. And as that situation happened, that impacted my adrenals and my cortisol, which then as lived in reality, affected my day to day life. This is where just like reading a book, obviously acquiring knowledge, very important. But the fundamental principle that I really want to get across today is getting to the source of it. You know, in the context of also what we're talking about today, there's all this mystery out there of men's mental health issues. There's so much mystery. Oh wow, this rate and that rate is triple of women and blah blah, blah, like go on and on and on. It's like, what's your point? There is a source to it, there is a reason for it. We may not have the time to get into that today, but it's under the same principle that I'm committed to communicating is that however you're, however a man is feeling or however a woman is feeling or what they, what they have that's unwanted in their life, why they feel the way they do, why their marriage isn't working, why they're overweight, there is a source to that. And another great example of this is weight loss has nothing to do with going to the gym and nothing to do what you're putting in your mouth. And it has everything to do with what's dictating what's happening behind you that has you be think and act that way, then the gym and your diet can actually make a difference.

Thank you for sharing that. And just what I feel is the bigger challenge is the fact that men aren't connected to their feelings. They're not willing to look at the source. They're constantly keeping themselves distracted and busy and in the hustle, in the grind, in the doing. And they don't want to actually look in their shadows, look at the source as to what is actually creating this imbalance within them. Because A, they don't know how to, they're not equipped to do that deep inner work and B, they're also avoidant to actually feel the pain, to be vulnerable and to be open and this is why men's suicide rates are so high, because they don't feel safe opening up. They don't know how to ask for help. So they push it all down until they can't anymore. And then they go into depression. Their cortisol is low, their T levels are off. And then their mind, their software already has the virus. And then when the body, the hardware starts to glitch and malfunction, now it's a fast downward spiral. And I think to your point, rather than self medicate or, you know, start taking the pills from the doctor, even though that can be helpful if you're willing to do the inner work, to identify the source as to what's having me feel this way, what's depleting my energy, and then be willing to do something about it. That's. That's how we heal for the long term. Not just a band aid solution with whatever we've been prescribed. And I think that's why the work that you and I do, and even the. There's a paradigm shift in mental health care for men and women, but really more so, you know, for men. There's been a big push because people have realized like, like a lot of men are taking their own lives or they end up addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever it may be. So I think that stigma of working with a coach or a therapist or, you know, getting whatever mental health support you need is really shifting. And I'm excited for that because as we know intimately, there's a lot of men out there suffering. So for those guys out there who are wanting to perform, wanting to optimize, wanting to 10x in scale, that's great, you can do that all from the mindset, but only for so long if the body's not aligned. And I think that's why now, you know, you're starting to see these men who are in their 50s or 60s, who are worth a lot of money, they are pouring a ton of their resources into the research to understand, okay, not only do I want health lifespan, I want health span, you know, and for example, one of the gentlemen who's really into it, Don Walker, who, you know from former, I guess, president of Magna, he's deep into the biohacking life longevity space because, you know, I've said many times, I know I'm living till 120, but I want it to be a healthy 120. And for me to get to 120 is why I chose to work with Spencer, knowing, like, I got 50 coming up and I've lived a very healthy 50 years. I want the next 50, 70 years to be just as healthy. But again, if the body's not aligned with the mind, then it will only take me so far. And that is where I feel a lot of men are still quite ignorant to what's available to them because, you know, peptides are relatively new. Stem cells have been around for a while, but have not been accessible due to price point. But then, you know, again, those are supplements or solutions to situations. But going deeper into the source, you know, understanding energy, vibration frequency, understanding that our thoughts affect our energy within our body, you know, cancer, our cells that have gone rogue because they're not in the same harmonic frequency as the rest of the cells. And, you know, people are now starting to make the correlation between mental health and physical health. And that if the mind is sick, it's only a matter of time before the body gets sick. You know, and books like when the Body says no or the Body Keeps a Score, you know, these are really important books for people to understand the mind, body connection. And if you want to achieve an optimal state in life, it's not just about peak performance from your mindset. It has to be peak performance in the body and optimizing the health as well. Because otherwise, as we said before, it could only go so far. Right?

100%. And then, look, there's a few different ways that we can cut it. But one of the fundamental principles that I have learned over the years in being in the transformational space is you can't escape life, you can't cheat life knowing that we can't cheat life. When see men watching this, they know something's off. They may not know what it is, but they know something's off. It's not an awareness thing. They know they got to deal with stuff. The fundamental thing that needs to be there is an understanding that you can't cheat life. I'm not saying take three months off and go heal yourself. You can do it. Awesome, Amazing. Go do it. What I am saying is there's two ways people make true change and create transformation. One, it's a conscious decision. I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I'm doing this. So I'm going to call Zerach, I'm going to go work with this therapist. I'm going to go do this program.

Whatever that may be, as a choice you need to make every day.

Correct. Or two, your life, not you, your life will ferment a crisis for you to actually go Deal with it. You know, you see these stories all the time where a man at 50, beautiful family, he's overweight, bang. Has a heart attack. That is his life fermenting a crisis for him now to come in and be a triathlete. Rich Rolls, a great example, you know, addiction, you know, booze, this, that, the other high flying lawyer, entertainment lawyer in la, you know, his addictions to various things caught up to him. Yeah, yeah.

You can only ignore it for so long. You know, the body will give you the signs, give you the whispers, give you the nudges. And if you don't listen, then the body starts to yell. And if you don't pay attention, then the body just gives you a backhanded slap. And then you realize, okay, I have no choice but to listen now, right?

Yep, exactly. And with wherever anybody is at, who's watching or listening, this right now, it doesn't have to go that way. Everyone's journey starts somewhere. Your journey started somewhere. My journey started somewhere. And the thing that is foundational for a man to allow you into his vault is trust. Every man I work with, every program I lead with men, the thing I make abundantly clear is that what gets said between you and I, or within all of us does not go anywhere. It doesn't go to your wife, your dog, the squirrel, no one. Okay? And the moment you create that real condition of trust, a man's gonna open himself up and he's gonna make himself available for himself to be supported. And given that the environment, nationally, internationally, on social media, the government, like the entire environment is the antithesis of that. Yeah. And people really need to recognize that's on purpose. Now. I'm not going to go down some crazy, you know, ran up, right? Like, come on, like here for it, it's fine. But my interest has always been in the truth. And it takes something to stand there. But if we think that it's by accident, that would be living in a giant illusion, because it is not. When we actually begin to understand, at whatever stage, that this is not an accident, because there is a source to everything, then that allows men, that allows us to then disconnect from the narrative and actually go get ourselves what we need. Yeah, but the thing is, in my study I've put together, this has been going on. Where we are today has been going on for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years. And in particular, when we look at after World War I and after World War II, men were brought home. Millions of men, highly traumatized, packaged up in a suit, put on A noose, otherwise known as a tie, and shipped off to an office to be turned into a money making machine. Completely displaced from their feelings, their emotions not taken care of, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And that's a whole other podcast, but it even started way before then. But the idea here is that where we're at, once again, it's not a surprise and it's certainly not a mystery. And the only way out, the only way out through it, the through being the access point, is totally up to them. But that man listening to this needs to have a condition of trust that is impenetrable so he can actually feel confident and safe. Because looking at these things, talking about these things for men, yeah, that's not safe. There is nothing more threatening to a modern man than talking about his feelings. Not some guy pointing a gun, not this, not that, not financial crisis, nothing. The thing that is the biggest threat to the modern man is opening his vault and share and discover, learn, feel, emote. That is like, no, no go. But it's the place that guys have to go to.

Absolutely. And it's only scary because they've never done it before. You know, it's new for them. And I'm sure as you've had this experience many times, you know, hosting men's circles or, you know, the dinners that I host where I get 50 guys in a room to open up and talk about real things, they'll say, I feel so much lighter after. And that was awkward at first, but by the end, they feel so relieved and so inspired because they realize, oh, okay, I can actually open up and share and. And I don't feel like I'm weak or I don't feel like I am.

So let me ask you this, though. Why do they feel that way?

Why do they. They.

So they come into it, let's just say one of the dinners that you host just for men, they come to you saying, wow, I feel free, I feel excited, I feel joy. Why do they feel that way?

Yeah, because they've believed that it wasn't appropriate, it wasn't manly, it wasn't strong for a man to talk about his feelings because they grew up with fathers from the old country who grew up with fathers who, you know, never talked about anything because, you know, they're coming out of World War II. It's about food on the table, roof over the head. You know, we don't have time to talk about feelings and emotions. It's like, hey, go to work, make money and provide. That's It. And our fathers grew up with fathers from that mindset. Now the shift has now happened where, you know, we're first generation Canadians growing up with personal development, Tony Robbins. And, you know, for. For the first time, I would say it's only been in the last 50 years that men have actually had permission to open up and speak about their feelings. It's really been in really, I'd say the last 20 years that men's mental health and personal development coaching has lost a bit of that stigma. And. And men are now realizing, hey, it's okay to open up and share because they're also hearing about their brothers and colleagues killing themselves. And, you know, I work with men as young as, you know, 18 to 26 to right up to their 50s. And I can tell you, this younger generation of guys between, like, 18 and 28, they're much more open and vulnerable because they're now being. Being born to fathers, parents who were born in Canada. So there's something in, I would say, the cultural shift. Yeah. Which is nice to see. Yeah, there is.

And I think with what I was pointing out before, it comes back to the adage of, why do they feel that way? It's because the truth will set you free.

Yeah. Right. Okay, I got it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because I had the pushing it down and liberated. They feel liberated.

Right. And they're in a private.

Yeah.

Confidential, trustworthy container where they can actually say what there is for them to say.

Yeah.

The things that men have said to me and have never gone anywhere is fascinating to me that I was on a call with a client the other day and he said the exact same thing to me. He goes, dude, I can feel myself coming alive again. I've never talked to anybody about this stuff.

Yeah.

That his wife's a raging alcoholic. That. That he's basically the mother and the father around the house. He never. Like, I could go on and on and on and on and on. He's never talked about it.

Yeah. And just having someone to speak to, just having the ability to express and emote and move that blocked energy that's been pushed down is so healing that often as coaches, we just have to sit there and listen and ask a few questions to invite them to open up, and it just comes pouring out because it's been pushed down. And, you know, it's funny, at my dinners, a lot of times, the guys who are kind of most resistant to it are the ones that don't stop talking because they're like, finally, oh, my God, I can share. And I Can speak and nobody's judging me. And this is like a free space. And as you know, this is why men's circles are so important, because for guys to be able to come together, bunch of brothers just open up, talk and share, even that in itself can be that like, catalyst that has them realize, oh, wow, I have some stuff to work on now. I know obviously men of different ages, different backgrounds, different professions have all faced their various stressors over the last three years. And you know, we, you and I both have, thankfully, due to the resources we have and our passion and desire to overcome these different elements that have been messing with our energy from time to time. I'm curious to know what have been some of the most helpful practices and modalities that you've used that's helped to bring you back into alignment. Because between the software and the hardware, you know, the.

At the infancy of this particular journey, meditation is not something that I'm new to and it's something I really doubled down on. And as I navigated the totality of this journey, I was actually arrived at a point after that where I actually couldn't meditate. I was in so much pain. So for me it was about space taking some time off. Now people can get really rattled about this one, like, oh, it must be nice for you, or wish I could do that. You can. It was not ideal for me, but I resolved for myself that it was the thing I needed to love, nurture and take care of myself after this insane situation. Macros, following a macro protocol, you know, tracking. I've never been like a tracking guy when it came to fitness and food. I was just, you know, go out and run 30k, go to the gym, Like I just go do my thing. That has been a really big support system for me. And I would say the last one, which interestingly enough was like the linchpin was journaling. I literally sat and journaled around this particular situation for a week. Standing in the principle of what I said earlier, there's no surprise, there's no mystery. And I got to the source of what it was, which I shared with you earlier. There's three fundamental sources here which I am at work on. And one of them is around software, one of them is around hardware. And next is this whole new relationship to spirit, to God, to the universe. Not from some concept, but actually embodying the process of faith, trust, letting go. And I said this to you before we got started. I wouldn't have said that to you 12 months ago, two years ago, but the Thing I resolved in this process was that the intellect. Yeah, that'll just keep perpetuating the problem. The only other way is to actually not perpetuate the problem and connect to something higher, which has been a beautiful journey. Yeah.

And, and you know, thank you for sharing that because many of those practices are sort of my go to tools as well that have allowed me to work through in the different challenges that I've experienced. And I would say one of the most profound for me was learning about somatic awareness. Because I feel I know for sure, myself and many other men are so disconnected from, from the neck down, what's going on in the body, allowing themselves to listen to the wisdom in the body, to feel into the pain, to feel into the discomfort, the resistance, the tension in the body, that blockage, that sharp pain you feel in the hip or that pain in the unexplained pain in the shoulder, like all of these, you know, issues that are happening. It's the body trying to tell us something and being willing to slow down in space, breathe, meditate, connect to the parts of the body and allow what is there in the body that needs to come up. What is there that I'm not listening to, that the body has to say? And again, because most men are so much in their head and they're just, they're just going to power through it, they're just going to keep going. They don't have that somatic awareness of being open to listening to what our body has to say. And we can only ignore those messages for so long.

Yeah, it's the, the default mechanism is to operate inside of the intellect, go to physiotherapy, go for acupuncture, go get a massage, this, that, the other, when that has very little to do with it. And I'm obviously not a health professional, but I'm certainly not new to the transformation space and what you're saying. I'm going to share a couple of different quick examples. The first one was I had this pain in my left shoulder for years and I thought it was maybe from, you know, my fitness journey, which really took off in 2016, but I instinctually knew that that wasn't it. And then in a ceremony with you, it was abundantly clear to me that that was the energetic transfer from my grandfather who was shot twice in the left shoulder In World War II, the first ceremony I ever did. For years I had this pain in my spine between my shoulder blades. Go to the chiropractor, they're like, oh, you need a Stand up desk or you need to stretch. Okay, great, thanks. And I mean that from a place of. I appreciate the contribution, but I knew it was that wasn't it. That was the energetic transfer of guilt which had me curl over. And in that ceremony, it disappeared. I was on a call with a client the other day and he goes, yeah, I'm going to go for physio and get this. I've got this pain on the top of my foot. And I said, don't bother. He goes, what? And I shared him all these examples and this was this whole world that opened up for him. And part of his assignment right now is to be with himself and nature in silence and ask his body, what is it that. That you are communicating? Sure, you get in an accident and it really impacts your body. I get it. But the body keeps score. There is an energetic transfer of trauma that occurs. That guilt was literally sent over to me from somebody else. Not literally, but through their guilt passed on to me. I had another ceremony where I was in Costa Rica with Mike, and for years my left leg was in excruciating pain. And in that ceremony, it became abundantly clear to me that so many people around my life were trying to hold me down. Don't go, don't go. Stay here, Stay stuck. I've always been the risk taker, the, you know, the entrepreneur, things like that. And from all facets of my life, these people are holding me down. And I literally let them all go. All of that energy disappeared. My shoulder from the last ceremony with you here, nothing. It's gone. And don't waste your money on those things. I'm not saying they're not helpful. Like the chiropractor, I'm a huge, you know, keep your body in alignment. Great. Awesome. And if you're dealing with some kind of pain in your body, you know it's there. Your neck, your chest, your heart, whatever it might be. Ask your body, what is it that you are attempting to communicate? Or what is it that you want me to hear? What are you trying to tell me? And it's not a game of the intellect. You might get the answer a week from now, but your body now knows you see it and recognize it. And it will provide the answer in time.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a simple process, but it requires the vulnerability and the courage and the willingness to just sit in the pain. Because often that energetic blockage that's creating that pain, there is a memory, there is an experience that that has been suppressed and pushed down that you actually are afraid to see, afraid to feel. And that energy will stay blocked in your body, and as you said before, it'll ferment into something that you can no longer ignore. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know that you and I have both been through our fair share of challenges and circumstances that have facilitated massive growth in our lives and in our careers these last couple of years. And you know, for every challenge that I've been presented with to overcome, I knew, like, God is giving me this challenge because I can handle it, I can overcome it. And what I learn is going to allow me to serve at a higher level. And I truly believe that. And it has allowed me to reframe and have an empowering perspective over all the crazy shit that I've been dealing with over the last couple of years is like, okay, this is just another opportunity for me to level up, you know, as you said before, with the Navy seals, if the Navy seals ran the same obstacle course week after week, they would never elevate. But, you know, year after year, their training gets harder because that's how they get to that level, right, of that high performance peak, you know, is only through doing the rigorous training. And that's. And that's what we're going through, and that's what we've been given because we can handle it. And, you know, I'm. I'm grateful for your friendship, for your brotherhood. You know, I'm proud to be on this path with you. You know, it's been. It's been a beautiful journey. Like, our journeys are kind of going in parallel, very similar in ways, like same, same, but different. And, you know, I just want to say I appreciate all the support you've given me, you know, all the wisdom and guidance and, you know, and. And you're a reflection, you know, like, all the things that I hear that you share, that you're going through is such a beautiful opportunity for my own self awareness. So I just want to thank you for that.

Yeah, thank you. You know, one of the things I deeply admire about you is you do not have a judgmental bone or fiber in your body. And that is something I deeply cherish in our relationship. And the last thing I want to say is you got to live it to lead it.

Absolutely.

You live it to lead it. I live it to lead it in my own way. And the whole idea here that I live inside of, it's about my truth. Your truth, our truth, the truth. Because when we set ourselves free, everything is possible. And if there's a man who's watching this, who's new to going inside. Know that it's safe. The conversations you and I have are not normal, but we reconciled early on that it's safe.

Yeah.

And find yourself the appropriate container to explore that inner world. Because it is an unquestionable truth, whether you're an NHL hockey player, you play from Real Madrid, you're playing professional tennis, you're in real estate. Whatever it is, Peak Performance is a hybrid in harmony of the software and the hardware.

Couldn't agree more. Beautiful way to wrap up this inspiring conversation of just understanding that harmony and the necessary unification of the two. Because the mind and body are not separate. We are one energetic being. And. And I'm happy that more people are realizing this because that's how we're gonna heal ourselves and that's how we're gonna heal the planet. So I want to say thank you for being here, David. It's been me drop in and yeah, man, I'm happy to be this on this path with you. And I know that we are going to continue to make a massive difference for men and women and the children on planet Earth.

There we go.

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