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Welcome to the School of Greatness.
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My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
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And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
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Thanks for spending some time with me today.
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Now let the class begin.
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Welcome to this special masterclass.
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We brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today.
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It s going to be powerful.
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So let s go ahead and dive in.
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What is the greatest strategies you ve discovered in the last couple of years of, you know, managing stress, overcoming it, facing it, that some people can start to learn how to implement as well?
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Okay, so I happen to be
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in my opinion, one of the world s leading experts on anxiety because I struggled with it for a long time.
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And a couple of our kids have had profound bouts with anxiety.
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And I learned things the hard way.
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And so everything I m about to share is not medical advice.
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It is life tested wisdom from having to dig myself out of mental holes and messes thanks to what used to be very chronic anxiety.
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So first, let me explain what anxiety is.
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It is an alarm in your body that is designed to agitate you.
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That s all that anxiety is.
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It s an alarm in your body that is designed to agitate you, to wake you up.
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because that alarm wants to get your attention so that you can focus on giving yourself what you need in that moment, okay?
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I also wanna preface what I m about to teach everybody and to share with you by saying that a lot of this I have learned recently.
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And one of my favorite experts on this subject is somebody you should bring on the show.
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His name is Dr. Russ Kennedy.
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He wrote a book called Anxiety Rx.
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And I have, for the past two years, been in talk therapy.
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And I have been in guided nervous system therapy like the EMDR.
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I have also done some of the psychedelic modalities in a therapeutic setting, MDMA and ketamine, in terms of my own nervous system.
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And I ve also started adding cold exposure.
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You re trying it all.
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I m trying it all.
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Whatever it takes.
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Because I am so sick
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of living inside a body that feels on edge all the time.
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And I m tired of having a mind that basically is on a constant campaign for what s wrong.
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So I made a decision that I was gonna jump all into this space two years ago.
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So weekly therapy, EMDR, the ice cold exposure, which is learning how to tolerate basically fight or flight and calm yourself through breathing and through the exposure.
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I have done the guided psychedelic stuff in terms of smoothing out my nervous system.
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and learning how to truly, I guess, heal and reprogram my body as it relates to past trauma, and I ve done traditional talk therapy.
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And so from Dr. Russ Kennedy, one of the things that I learned recently that is just amazing is that all anxiety comes from one source.
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What s that?
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It is when your original alarm went off as a child, and you probably don t even remember, because it happens even in moments where you re nonverbal.
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It s a moment of separation from parent.
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So the original alarm that you felt, because that s all that anxiety is.
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Anxiety is an alarm that s designed to wake you up, okay?
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Because you need something.
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So if you and I are driving down the street, Lewis, and all of a sudden a car swerves in our lane, you will feel a wave of adrenaline and anxiety.
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That alarm goes off to get you to wake the up.
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And turn the car.
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To be on alert.
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Yes.
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But when that car is no longer in our lane, the alarm disappears.
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So for people with generalized anxiety, or you feel like you re in a chronic state, what s happening is you have an alarm going off in the background all the time.
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That seems exhausting.
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It is exhausting.
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And so what s happened for the majority of the population in the past two years, because we are not designed to live with that much sustained uncertainty, is that you right now, I personally believe every human being, unless you are in therapy attacking this, or you have a massive meditation practice,
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I believe every single human being right now has their alarm turned on internally.
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Because for months on end, it was sustained uncertainty in the news and a brand new experience with the lockdown.
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And so of course you went into an alarm state.
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In fact, for those of you that are working in an office where you re still on Zoom calls,
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from seven in the morning till seven at night, that is a company whose culture is in an alarm state, right?
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Everything s an emergency.
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Everything is on fire.
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Everything is constantly changing.
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And so what I ve learned is this.
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And so that original source is separation, okay?
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Separation meaning you have an experience as a child,
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where you feel separate from the adult and the love that you needed.
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There is a situation that makes you feel nervous, and then you feel like your parent is not reassuring you.
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That s how it begins.
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This is what I learned from Dr. Kennedy that has changed my fricking life.
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This is actually what our episode is about, the fourth episode.
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It s two hours long.
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We unpack the whole thing.
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It s just one mind-blowing thing after another.
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So I, for years, Lewis,
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Chronic anxiety.
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I would attack it in my thoughts.
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I would interrupt thoughts.
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I would reprogram thoughts, and it works.
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It works to attack the worries, but it doesn t get to the source.
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So it s limited, it s like a service level work.
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It s part of the toolkit.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, it s part of the toolkit, right?
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And so, you know, I d get worried about something, I d be like, five, four, three, two, one, and then I d think about something else.
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Or I d reprogram it and I d come back.
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But of course it comes back because you will always have moments in your daily life that give you a wave of alarm.
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And by the way, anxiety is not just like feeling on edge.
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Anxiety is anger.
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Anxiety can be withdrawal.
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Anxiety can be any friction in your body
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it manifests differently for different people.
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And so it s like when you go from a state of peace and calm to a state of being in hyper alert, that s what anxiety is.
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And it s this alarm that s like, whoa, whoa, whoa, pay attention.
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Now, most of us are afraid of it or we don t like it.
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And so we try to ignore it by drinking.
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or ignore it by being busy, or suppress it by just looking at people.
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But it s like this alarm in you that something s up, something s up, something s up.
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Like, I don t like that.
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Like, something is trying to wake you up.
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So... And what does chronic anxiety feel like?
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It feels like having... It feels like you re a car that s at an intersection.
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And the light goes green.
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and your feet are on the gas and the brake simultaneously.
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So like you re revved inside.
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For anybody that has childhood trauma, it can be an experience, Lewis, and I m sure you can relate to this, of like being on edge waiting for the next shoe to drop.
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Having your thoughts be five or six steps ahead.
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Never being in the room that you re in because you re thinking about what s next.
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It s very, very common to have very few memories from childhood.
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or from your 20s or your 30s, if you have chronic anxiety or you have some sort of trauma that you haven t addressed, because if you re constantly on what s next, anticipating what s coming, you re never in the room where you are to make those memories.
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And also when your nervous system is in a state of alert, the cognitive functioning of your brain is impaired.
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And so you re busy looking for what could be wrong.
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And you might be thinking about the meeting with your boss tomorrow instead of being in the room that you re in.
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Yeah, and it s really hard to create from a stress state.
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You can t.
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It s very challenging to be creative and flow from stress.
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Yes, yes.
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Now look, it s challenging because it also fuels busyness and drive.
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And being worried about something can be very motivating.
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And so it was for a very long time hardwired into my success.
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And it kept getting rewarded and rewarded and rewarded.
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Because you re getting results.
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Yes.
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In the external world.
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But in the internal world, you re still feeling anxious and stressed.
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Always.
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That s why it s never enough because I m not even here to enjoy this conversation.
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I m already thinking about the thing I need to do at two o clock.
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I mean, I m currently not doing that, but that was my lived reality for a long time due to childhood trauma, due to these feelings of being separate.
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And so here s the huge aha moment.
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So number one, anxiety is an alarm.
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Number two, your anxiety is from a moment
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where you feel separate, okay?
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You could feel separate from yourself.
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You could be walking into a huge presentation at a venture capital firm and you feel separate from the people that are now going to watch the presentation.
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So you start to feel that wave and that on edge, that alarm go off, right?
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And the alarm is designed to get you to wake up because you need something in that moment.
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And here s the kicker.
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I always thought that anxiety was about what s wrong, okay?
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Anxiety is the little Louis saying, hey, I need a little reassurance right now.
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Hey, I need a little love right now.
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That s all that it is.
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And when you can teach yourself in moments where the alarm goes off, Louis, to not race up to your head
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and start negotiating, it s going to be fine.
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These venture capital people are going to love you.
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That helps on some level to be like, no, I m excited to do this.
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I got this, to coach yourself through it.
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But if you really want to transform your experience of life, go from the shoulders down.
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Notice that there s an alarm going off.
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Then I want you to realize it s the little you.
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saying, I feel a little nervous right now, could you just tell me I m gonna be okay?
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And I ve gotten to the point where I can just put my hand right here, find the spot that feels right for you, and literally give yourself a little love, as stupid as that sounds.
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And that alarm goes off.
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It s freaking nuts.
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It s learning how to parent yourself, the wounded child inside of you, you being the adult in the room.
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It is, and the big game changer though,
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is that it s about needing love from yourself.
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Because if you re experiencing anxiety,
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You are not, you re also blocking yourself from love and from assurance and from the that you need.
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And you might not have gotten as a kid.
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What happens if you put your need to be loved on someone or something else?
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Then you lose control of it.
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Because it s always depending on, do they accept me?
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Do they like me?
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Do they invest in me?
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Do they hire me?
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Yeah, do they invest in me?
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Do they hire me?
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How do I do?
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Like, is my podcast rating high?
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Like, every day you are going to experience moments where that alarm goes off because every single day in life there is something that will trigger insecurity or feeling separate.
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You know, one example I can give you that s really simple is I was invited to a little, like, party in my new community.
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And it may be odd to people to hear this, but even though I m extroverted,
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I still get nervous when I walk into any kind of networking meeting or any kind of room with a lot of people in it where I m gonna have to introduce myself.
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There is an experience of feeling separate from everybody.
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And so even walking into a small gathering at somebody s house where I know everybody, the point of which is for me to get to know people better.
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Walking in, I could feel the alarm going off.
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And having just learned what I learned, I was like, oh, that s interesting.
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I m feeling this noticeable separation.
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And all I need to do is be like, oh, you got this.
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Like, it s OK that you feel a little nervous.
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You can take a breath.
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You can walk in there when you re ready.
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It s going to be good.
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Like giving myself exactly what I needed, which was a little love and reassurance.
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It completely went away.
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Right.
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It s powerful.
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It s really powerful because I think most of us that experience waves of anxiety hate it.
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I hate it.
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I m like, I hate this.
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Like get rid of this.
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Why do I have to be out?
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I m going to have anxiety forever.
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And the truth is that when I, yes, you need talk therapy.
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Yes.
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You need to use the five second rule and interrupt the habit of worrying.
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And yes, you need to.
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reprogram a different way of talking to yourself.
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And yes, you need to go and high five the mirror, which by the way, is also neck up because you re taking a physical action that then triggers new programming up here.
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But it all begins with an alarm in the body.
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So if you want to heal this, you have to start to go neck down.
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you need to start to learn how to, in those moments, not be annoyed or scared of the alarm, but to actually turn toward it.
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So that s number one.
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Go toward the alarm, know that it s a call from the little you, needing a moment of reassurance or love, and you ll start to spot it all the time now.
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And not needing the reassurance from others, but yourself.
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No, from yourself.
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Because if you only rely on others, and they don t give it to you when you need it, you re going to feel anxious.
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Yeah.
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Well, think about this.
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If I were to start to cry right now and tell you that I m super anxious, and something s happened, and na-na-na-na-na, what would you do?
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I would support you, and comfort you, and give you a hug.
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Yes!
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And ask how you re feeling.
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That would make me feel amazing.
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But we don t do it to ourselves.
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Or if you re alone and you don t have that person with you, how do you handle it on your own?
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You hug yourself.
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Literally, take a towel and go like this.
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It feels like a freaking hug.
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Put your hands on your heart and take a couple deep breaths and tell yourself what you would tell somebody else.
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And the alarm disappears because it s not trying to tell you that something s wrong.
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The alarm of anxiety is telling you that there is something missing right now for you.
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And what s missing is a feeling of safety and a feeling of like deep connection with self.
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That s all that s missing.
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And so when you reframe it as a way to let love in and that it is a way to let love in from yourself,
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you start to change the way that your body experiences moments that trigger you from childhood.
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And so, like, I think so much of what I am trying to put out into the world is this notion that everything needs to start
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with addressing these feelings that we have.
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Like for me, you want to change your life, there is a very simple formula that s not easy to do.
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You need to take action before you feel like it.
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You need to take the actions that the person that has what you really want and deserve in your life, you need to take the same type of actions before you feel like that person.
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You must act first.
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Period.
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That s how you change.
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When it comes to healing your body and when it comes to anxiety, you have to, instead of running away from it or numbing it, because the anxiety feeling is triggering you to grab the alcohol.
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It s triggering you to get very busy and start running errands, or it s triggering you to turn on the TV or hit the vape pen or hit the joint or whatever.
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And that feeling could be boredom.
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It could be a sense of overwhelm.
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It could be insecurity.
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Like, because think about what happens.
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Let s take the example of you re dating and somebody hasn t texted you in a day, they left you on read, you know, like you start to get that wave, the alarm goes off.
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Because what do you need?
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You need some love and reassurance.
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But what we do instead is, you know, you see that you re still on read and you grab the vape pen.
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That is you dealing with your anxiety in a destructive way.
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What do you do?
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You like start scrolling through social media, which makes you insecure.
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That is you trying to distract yourself or numb or whatever, this uncomfortable feeling that you don t know how to deal with.
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When really that feeling requires one action, love.
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Love from self.
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But why is it so hard for so many people to love and accept themselves?
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Because when you were a child, love was transactional.
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You were taught.
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that if you re doing what I want, I love you.
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We all do it.
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I did it to my kids too.
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I didn t mean to.
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We all parent.
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We try to parent through connection, but we tend to correct our kids a lot.
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And so you learn that if I m not doing what you want me to do, then you don t like
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me right now.
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You don t love me. 
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And we learn that if we are getting into the right school or we re getting good grades or our team is doing well in sports or we are interested in medicine because dad s interested in medicine, that that s how you earn love.
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And it s very hard to, with day-to-day life, not do something that fucks your kids up.
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Because they re- Even if you re being conscious and healthy and all the right things, it s hard.
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Of course, because you can t read their mind, you can t- You don t know what they re perceiving and how they take your conversation and what you said and what you didn t say.
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Yep, yep, yep.
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And they are learning by observing and absorbing.
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And so that means that there are gonna be moments where they deeply need a hug
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and they need a quieter tone of voice and you ve just slammed your laptop shut and you ve just yelled out something because of somebody being like a jerk to you at work.
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And your kid was standing behind you and needed something.
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And so I think that that s why we don t actually know how to love ourselves.
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You have a way that you deal with pain.
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Because when you feel disappointed, that is a form of pain.
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And a lot of us either withdraw from it, or we try to expel it in some way.
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Or you try to outrun it.
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Yeah.
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Another thing I was thinking about as you re saying this is kind of like figuring out what your main currency is in a relationship.
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Why you want to have a relationship.
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And your main currency in life.
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For me, at this season in my life, my main currency is peace.
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Wanting to create and experience peace within me and within my relationship.
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Because the world is gonna have challenges and disasters and adversities and my business, there s gonna be things already thrown at me in my life, but in my relationship I want peace.
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So that was, and she wants adventure and exploration and fun and all these things, but she wants peace as well.
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So I m like, okay, cool, I m cool with all that as long as it s peaceful too.
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You know?
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Well, one of the things that I m working on right now, and I don t have the answer to this, is I, you know, obviously I know I married an introvert, right?
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And Chris is the definition of peace.
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I mean, the guy is a Buddhist meditation instructor.
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He is getting a master s in transpersonal psychology right now.
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He leads men s retreats.
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He s a yoga instructor.
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He works for hospice.
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He s about to get a certificate to be a death doula.
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Like when you talk about somebody that is deeply spiritual, grounded, introverted person,
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who really connects with people one-on-one, that s my husband.
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And so the thing that I m really trying to figure out in this next chapter of our marriage, because I feel like in many ways we are in the beginning of a second marriage, because we have done so much work on ourselves, and our kids are now grown up, and there s this opportunity after 28 years to really look at each other with fresh eyes, right?
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It s so beautiful.
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And so I, instead of, there s two things that I want to share that have really helped me.
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One is, instead of focusing on the things that I don t like about Chris, right?
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And there are plenty of things he does not like about me.
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If he could wave a magic wand, I would change this about my wife, Mel.
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One of the things that I ve done is to say, well, what is, like, describe two moments
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where you just felt that like, oh my God, this is my person.
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And so there are two moments and there s a great exercise to do.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like just think what are those two moments that really encapsulate like just that flood of peace and love and safety and connection.
2
SPEAKER_00
And one of them for me with Chris is this.
2
SPEAKER_00
We had just met and we were meeting to go out to dinner after work in New York City.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I was standing in front of that Flatiron building on 23rd.
2
SPEAKER_00
I love it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I looked up Fifth Ave and I could see Chris coming.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he was wearing a suit and he had a messenger bag slung over his shoulders.
2
SPEAKER_00
He had Ray-Bans on and he was rollerblading and weaving in and out of traffic.
2
SPEAKER_00
Cause he grew up as a ski racer and he s like a big adventurer.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he had this huge smile on his face.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was like strength at play.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right, that was what I felt.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then the second thing that came to mind is that when we first got together, we almost like a couple months after knowing each other, we went out to Utah to meet his best friend who was already married.
2
SPEAKER_00
And Jeff and Darce live in Idaho and like, they re basically pioneers.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, they hunt, they fish, they like live in a log cabin, built their own house, like they re fricking amazing.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so we went fishing and there was a freak snowstorm that night.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so literally it started snowing as we re cooking dinner, like in June, dude.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I m thinking, what have I gotten myself into?
2
SPEAKER_00
So I go back to the tent and I m rummaging around for a sweatshirt of some kind.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I noticed my sleeping bag is warm.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I flipped the bag open and Chris has filled up one of those Nalgene bottles with hot water he had boiled on a campfire and stuck it in there like a hot pocket.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right?
2
SPEAKER_01
Very thoughtful.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so those are two memories.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I came up with this.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s doing an act of service for you.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because that s what he wants.
2
SPEAKER_00
So he s doing the thing he wants.
2
SPEAKER_00
No kidding.
2
SPEAKER_00
And meanwhile, I m ignoring him and telling him he s so amazing.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he can t even hear it because he wants acts of service.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so, because his parents were at home, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
Growing up.
2
SPEAKER_00
So he, so I developed an avatar for the behavior in Chris that I love.
2
SPEAKER_00
I call it my trip leader because when we re out hiking, when we re on an adventure, Chris is in charge.
2
SPEAKER_00
He has strength at play.
2
SPEAKER_00
He is a caretaker.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s 55 steps ahead of me.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m the yard sale in the back.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like that is when he shines.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so it has been super helpful for me to remind myself that he s a trip leader.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because it makes me take a step back.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it allows him to take a step forward into his power.
2
SPEAKER_00
So that s one thing that I ve been working on.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the second thing that I m working on is this sense, you called it peace.
2
SPEAKER_00
And we ve talked about this sort of mismatch.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the mismatch being that you might speak different love languages.
2
SPEAKER_00
You might have different values or a different lifestyle, extrovert, introvert, all that kind of stuff.
2
SPEAKER_00
That if you are going to work to close that gap somehow without changing one another, realize that your marriage.
2
SPEAKER_00
doesn t have to be everything and it shouldn t be.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so for a while, I started to get nervous because Chris is very introverted.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, we live in Southern Vermont on the side of a mountain now.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I started to realize I m actually sad here all the time.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like a part of me needs this spaciousness, but I have to be around people.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have to have the buzz.
2
SPEAKER_00
I need to go do something.
2
SPEAKER_00
Not every day.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I started to realize, well, wait a minute.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t have to turn Chris into like the party guy.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can have my friends be that.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can have work be that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like I can fill that in different areas instead of being frustrated that this one person isn t filling everything.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so really recognizing, I think, what somebody s capacity is, allowing them to step forward in certain roles, but allowing them to be themselves and step back in others and not punishing them for it. 100%.
2
SPEAKER_00
That is something that I ve been... Chris is better at it than I am.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, he s way more forgiving, he s way kinder, he s more patient.
2
SPEAKER_01
Sure.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he s probably creating boundaries just like you are in your area, which is key.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know what we ve spent the last three therapy sessions talking about?
2
SPEAKER_01
Boundaries?
2
SPEAKER_00
Nope.
2
SPEAKER_00
What?
2
SPEAKER_00
A new puppy.
2
SPEAKER_01
Getting a new puppy?
2
SPEAKER_01
One of you wants one, one of you doesn t?
2
SPEAKER_00
The whole family wants a puppy.
2
SPEAKER_01
But you don t?
2
SPEAKER_00
Chris doesn t.
2
SPEAKER_01
He doesn t.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
Do you know why?
2
SPEAKER_01
Because he knows he s gonna have to do all the work.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yes!
2
SPEAKER_01
He s like, I don t want this.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m already doing all the work.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for the dog that we got two and a half years ago.
2
SPEAKER_01
Exactly.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s already like, two hours of my day is going towards the dog activities, while you guys are off working and doing this and running your lives, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a lot of big responsibility.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, because the puppy is an example
3
SPEAKER_01
bigger themes.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he doesn t want to abandon himself to please others.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that s probably what he s done for 26 years, not with everything.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m sure it s not like all like that, but this is what I had to learn in the last two years of therapy too, is just like, okay, I was always trying to make someone else happy because they were never happy with who I was.
3
SPEAKER_00
They never accepted me, so they always wanted to change me.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I would change who I am to try to please them.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then after months and months and years, you re like, I m just abandoning who my real nature is for one human being and dimming my light.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m not trying to blame anyone here.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is all my responsibility by choosing and staying in relationships.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it s not their fault.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s my responsibility to exit or to know this when it happens and have a conscious conversation calmly and take responsibility and say, no, I m not going to do this.
3
SPEAKER_00
Are you okay with who I am?
3
SPEAKER_00
But I think creating those boundaries and not abandoning yourself is such a key element to healthy relationships.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it takes a lot of courage after 26 years for him to start speaking up probably about what he needs.
3
SPEAKER_00
As opposed to just saying, okay, it ll make all my family happy, I m gonna do this.
3
SPEAKER_01
He was trained as a kid that his needs don t matter.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s really good for him.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so it s incredible.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s absolutely incredible.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s a huge gift.
3
SPEAKER_01
to have this side of my husband showing up after all of these years.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s a huge gift to me to actually have a partner that s helping me heal and be softer and have somebody take care of me.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s just incredible.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so, you know, the thing is, is that the wrong relationship magnifies your insecurity and your emotional dysregulation.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the right relationship with a lot of work helps you heal.
3
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
3
SPEAKER_00
How should we manifest?
3
SPEAKER_00
the dreams that we have inside of us.
3
SPEAKER_00
And what s your thoughts about the law of attraction on how to apply it the right way or?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, well, I think the law of attraction and manifesting are the same thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
So law of attraction for everybody who has not read The Secret is simply your thoughts become things.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s true, we ve talked all about how when you have a negative self-talk, it tends to draw
3
SPEAKER_01
more of that to you.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think about it like lint in a dryer.
3
SPEAKER_01
Once negative stuff starts collecting, it collects a lot more.
3
SPEAKER_01
We can also talk about your brain filter or something called the reticular activity system and how it is a live network that filters the brain.
3
SPEAKER_01
We ll dig into that deeper, but let s do surface level right now, manifesting law of attraction.
3
SPEAKER_01
So here s what everybody gets wrong about manifesting.
3
SPEAKER_01
Everybody, at least kind of in the mass market, what you re trained to think about when you think about manifesting is vision boards.
3
SPEAKER_01
And when you hear the word vision boards, you think about the big stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
Should you have big dreams?
3
SPEAKER_01
Of course you should.
3
SPEAKER_01
Should you dream of building a mansion on the ocean if that s your thing?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
Should you dream of the log cabin?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
If you want a Lamborghini or the new Ford Bronco, should you buy?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, yes, yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
If you want the family, if you want the body, should you think about?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, absolutely.
3
SPEAKER_01
Here s where everybody goes wrong.
3
SPEAKER_01
You dream about the end.
3
SPEAKER_01
You make this gorgeous collage of all this stuff that has nothing to do with your current life.
3
SPEAKER_01
that literally as you re sitting in your studio apartment with the cat box that hasn t been changed in two weeks.
3
SPEAKER_00
No food in the fridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
No food in the fridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you re looking for a job and you re staring at a mansion going someday, it s gonna make you feel like a loser.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because the gap between where you are and where you wanna go, it seems insurmountable.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so what happens based on the research is when you only visualize the end game, Lewis, it s demotivating.
3
SPEAKER_01
At first it s really fun to like have a bottle of wine and make your like collage.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna visualize, I m gonna slap this up.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s my vision board, it s fabulous.
3
SPEAKER_01
Law of attraction, baby, come on.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna think about it, it s gonna come to me.
3
SPEAKER_01
Okay, I ve been doing this for two days.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m still in this apartment with the cat box that needs to be changed.
3
SPEAKER_01
The way to visualize properly is to visualize the bridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
between where you are and where you need to go.
3
SPEAKER_00
The bridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, and particularly the horrible stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
So let s use your example of the marathon.
3
SPEAKER_01
The vision board would be Lewis crossing.
3
SPEAKER_01
The metal.
3
SPEAKER_00
The metal, exactly.
3
SPEAKER_00
High fives, yeah, I did it.
3
SPEAKER_01
High fives, yes, I did it, exactly.
3
SPEAKER_01
That will not help you because when you hit mile 13 on the actual race and it is sleeting rain.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re saying, why am I doing this?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, it feels nothing like that thing on your vision board.
3
SPEAKER_01
You re going to start a negative dialogue.
3
SPEAKER_01
I can t do this.
3
SPEAKER_01
My knees hurt.
3
SPEAKER_01
This is not what I thought it was gonna be.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m not ready for this.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t train for this.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m running New York.
3
SPEAKER_01
I trained in LA.
3
SPEAKER_00
Are you running in New York?
3
SPEAKER_00
LA.
3
SPEAKER_01
Okay, good.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, then at least you trained in the right weather.
3
SPEAKER_01
So on and on and on, and you are going to tank yourself.
3
SPEAKER_01
What you do by visualizing the bridge is you train your nervous system and your mind.
3
SPEAKER_01
to do the hard work.
3
SPEAKER_01
So you should visualize not crossing the finish line, but what is it like to be at mile 12 when your batteries run out on your earbuds?
3
SPEAKER_01
I m serious.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you keep going.
3
SPEAKER_01
What s it like when your shoelace breaks and now your heel is lifting and you re starting to get a blood blister at mile 17?
3
SPEAKER_01
What s it feel like when you wake up and it is pouring rain and you visualize yourself running anyway?
3
SPEAKER_01
That way, when you visualize the work, you are preparing your body for it, so you re not resistant to it when it comes.
3
SPEAKER_01
Isn t that cool?
3
SPEAKER_00
I think it s great.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a story that I had, George St.
3
SPEAKER_00
Pierre, who s one of the greatest UFC fighters of all time, he said that he always puts himself in the most uncomfortable situations in practice leading up to the fight.
3
SPEAKER_00
the hardest situations to get himself out of where his arms are behind his back and he s facing against the mat in between the fence and he s just getting punched in the face.
3
SPEAKER_00
He s like how do I get out of this?
3
SPEAKER_00
He s like visualize that and seeing how can I get through this where it seems like I just want to tap out.
3
SPEAKER_00
Instead of tapping out, what s the process for figuring out how to get through it?
3
SPEAKER_00
To then raise my hand at the end, victorious.
3
SPEAKER_01
Totally.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so you are literally building up almost like this resilience and this muscle inside of you to do the work to get the thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
So yeah, create the vision board, but make sure in addition to crossing the finish line, you have somebody running in the rain.
3
SPEAKER_01
You have somebody who, you have an alarm clock that says 513.
3
SPEAKER_01
You have these images that show the stuff that you don t want to do.
3
SPEAKER_01
So like for people who want to launch a business, for example, like a lot of people that I m sure follow both of us are dying to launch a business or interested in being an influencer, social media or making money online.
3
SPEAKER_01
And what you visualize are the checks.
3
SPEAKER_01
or you visualize the money you re gonna make, or you visualize how cool it s gonna be when you re a lifestyle entrepreneur, whatever the hell it is.
3
SPEAKER_01
Don t do that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize working a day job and telling your friends that you re not gonna go out tonight because you re working on something.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize making cold calls and being told no.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize not going to that party because you re staying in on a Saturday and not going to the barbecue because you re putting in the work.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize sitting in a seminar and learning from other people.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize watching YouTube videos.
3
SPEAKER_01
Visualize your first ever course failing miserable.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like literally that s the sort of thing that you want to visualize yourself doing and pushing through because that s gonna help you do the work.
3
SPEAKER_01
Isn t that cool?
3
SPEAKER_00
I think that s great.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, visualizing.
3
SPEAKER_00
So in order to manifest what you want, don t just visualize the good things happening.
3
SPEAKER_00
Visualize the bridge, all the things that s gonna take to get there.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, and the hard parts of the bridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
Because then you re ready for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Then you re like, I didn t expect this to be this hard.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it s still going to be hard, but you re less likely to quit.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_00
So what have you done in the last five years to help you manifest after the first book?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you doing this as well?
3
SPEAKER_00
Or kind of once you get on a rhythm and build momentum, does it become easier to manifest in your opinion?
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, so I am constantly training my mind to work for me.
3
SPEAKER_01
And there s this little trick that I talk about in the book that is all sort of the beginning of having a high-five attitude.
3
SPEAKER_01
And a high-five attitude is the ability to catch yourself when you re going mentally low and to flip yourself back up into a high-five attitude.
3
SPEAKER_01
The thing that I know to be true is that you cannot control the things around you
3
SPEAKER_01
You can t control what s gonna happen.
3
SPEAKER_01
You can t even control how your nervous system might respond or what thoughts might pop into your head.
3
SPEAKER_01
But you can always choose what you do next and what you make it mean, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
And so that s where all the power is.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so I do this thing where I, this is again, it s gonna sound so dumb, but it s a way for me to introduce you to the power
4
SPEAKER_00
that your mind has to change in real time.
4
SPEAKER_00
We ve talked a lot about negative self-talk.
4
SPEAKER_00
And part of the reason why negative self-talk is so crippling is not only because you ve repeated it for so long and now it s a pattern, but it s also because you have a filter on your brain called the reticular activity system.
4
SPEAKER_00
This puppy is the keys to everything.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s remarkable that most of us have never heard of it, we ve experienced it, but we don t know how to use it to our advantage.
4
SPEAKER_00
So first let me tell you what the RAS does, then I m gonna give you an example of when you ve experienced it in your life, and then I m going to explain to you how to use it to get what you want in life.
4
SPEAKER_00
This is like the super attractor manifesting, and it also works for,
4
SPEAKER_00
Interrupting negative self-talk, like it s gonna supercharge all the work you re doing with the mirror and interrupting thoughts.
4
SPEAKER_00
So first, let s talk about the RES.
4
SPEAKER_00
So the RES, imagine a hairnet on your brain, only it s like electric.
4
SPEAKER_00
meaning it s alive, okay?
4
SPEAKER_00
Now, the RAS has one job and the job is block out 99% of what s going on and let in 1% of what s going on.
4
SPEAKER_00
Our brains at this moment in history are having to process about 34 days worth of cell phone data.
4
SPEAKER_00
in one day.
4
SPEAKER_01
Crazy.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s crazy.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so your RAS has a monster job.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like a bouncer at a bar.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re not coming in.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can come in.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you ve experienced this.
4
SPEAKER_00
So have you ever shopped for a car?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
So what s the last car you bought?
4
SPEAKER_01
Tesla.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, Tesla.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, fancy.
4
SPEAKER_00
Louis house.
4
SPEAKER_00
I like that.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, I never had a, I never had a nice car until three years ago.
4
SPEAKER_01
I had a $4,000 car for five years before that.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I was like, you know what?
4
SPEAKER_01
I have no Bluetooth.
4
SPEAKER_01
I have no, it s like, I just needed an upgrade.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was a 1991.
4
SPEAKER_00
Dude, you deserve it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I had a 1991 Cadillac and I was like, okay, let s buy a car.
4
SPEAKER_01
So I bought a Tesla.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so before you thought about buying a Tesla, you drive down the road, you don t really think about it.
4
SPEAKER_00
The second you re like, you know, I think I m interested in a Tesla.
4
SPEAKER_00
What do you see everywhere?
4
SPEAKER_01
Teslas.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes, everywhere.
4
SPEAKER_01
Everywhere.
4
SPEAKER_00
My husband just bought a pickup truck.
4
SPEAKER_00
I never even noticed him.
4
SPEAKER_00
Now I m like, there are baby blue pickup trucks everywhere.
4
SPEAKER_00
What is going on?
4
SPEAKER_00
That s the bouncer in your brain.
4
SPEAKER_00
And let me tell you how this works.
4
SPEAKER_00
There are only four things that automatically get through the bouncer in your brain, the RAS.
4
SPEAKER_00
Number one, your name.
4
SPEAKER_00
So you ve experienced being in a crowded place and somebody s like, you think you hear Lewis, and you re like, huh, somebody call my name?
4
SPEAKER_00
That was the bouncer in your brain.
4
SPEAKER_00
The second thing that always gets let in is any threat to your safety.
4
SPEAKER_00
So there are loud noises all the time, but only ones in close proximity make you go like this.
4
SPEAKER_00
That was the bouncer in your brain letting it in.
4
SPEAKER_00
The third thing,
4
SPEAKER_00
that gets let in is when you sense that your partner is interested in sex with you or somebody else.
4
SPEAKER_00
You re like, Chris, stop looking at her, you know what I m saying?
4
SPEAKER_00
You kind of pick up on the signals.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s the bouncer in your brain.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the fourth one, and this is where, this is the billion dollar thing that everybody needs to know.
4
SPEAKER_00
The bouncer in your brain lets in whatever you think is important to you.
4
SPEAKER_00
So when you get intentional about telling your brain what s important to you, like I m interested in a Tesla, your brain s literally like, oh, let all the Teslas in, come on in.
4
SPEAKER_00
Here s the downside to this.
4
SPEAKER_00
If you have told yourself that you are a bad person for the last 10 years, guess what your brain thinks is important?
4
SPEAKER_00
Examples that mean you re a bad person.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I m gonna give you a very specific example.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I personally don t think I m a bad person.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t think I m perfect, but I know I do my best, I mean well, I don t have that story about myself at all.
4
SPEAKER_00
I used to, but I don t.
4
SPEAKER_00
And let s say I oversleep and I miss the dentist.
4
SPEAKER_00
I miss the dentist appointment, I m like, ugh, I gotta pay the 25 bucks, I gotta reschedule that thing, that kind of blows.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s all I think, and then I go on.
4
SPEAKER_00
My daughter, who constantly beats herself up and says she s a bad person.
4
SPEAKER_00
This is a real example, by the way.
4
SPEAKER_00
She oversleeps, misses a dentist appointment, and it becomes, see, I always screw everything up.
4
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I m a terror.
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I m always messing things up.
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I m like everything that gets let in.
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Confirms that you re a bad person.
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She finds proof and evidence.
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Yes, that s the bouncer in your mind I m here to tell you that when you get intentional about what you want to think about yourself it Changes in real time what your brain lets in and what it doesn t yeah that helps you with the other things that you re doing the high-five in the mirror I m not thinking about that
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The pathetic mantra, hey, you know, just because I missed the dentist appointment doesn t mean I m a bad person.
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I m doing the best I can here.
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Give myself a break.
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High five.
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You know what I m saying?
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Shake it off.
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Get back in there.
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Well, it s true, right?
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Because it s these little things.
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Somebody cuts you off.
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Somebody reaches for the last thing of cereal that you wanted to buy at the grocery store.
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You think it s like a sign that the world s out to get you.
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This is all your story and your mind skewing the world to prove all of the stuff you keep repeating.
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And the only way to get a handle on it is to start acting the opposite, like high-five yourself, even though you don t feel like it, interrupt the crap that you keep saying, put your hands on your heart and settle your body down.
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All of these things are things that somebody does when they care about themselves, when they think they deserve to be treated with kindness, when they think they deserve support, and when they realize they need it.
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And when you start to build yourself back up, you ll show up very differently in other relationships.
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You know, if you tolerate this kind of treatment from yourself, you ll tolerate it from other people.
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It does begin with you.
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And when you create boundaries and you don t abandon yourself, then you won t abandon yourself with other people either.
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You won t let them cross the boundaries.
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Correct.
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Like if you stand in front of the mirror every single morning and you re like, I look like crap.
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I am not good enough.
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I m unhappy with my life.
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And then you step into a relationship and somebody leaves you on read and they ghost you for three days.
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Like you come to expect that because that s how you believe you think you deserve to be treated.
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When you stand in front of a mirror and you re like,
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hey, you re awesome, we got this, I got you, I know it s hard, we re gonna go do this, or hey, this is a big day today, I ve got this huge presentation, I am going to destroy this.
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You get into it, you re excited, then you re creating momentum for yourself.
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Otherwise, what, you re gonna stand there and be like, oh my God, I m gonna screw this up, I m not prepared.
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It s like the negative morning routine.
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it leads to negative actions.
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So this training thing, training your RES, so here s what I want you to do.
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Starting tomorrow, after you wake up and make your bed and kind of settle your nervous system and high five yourself after setting your intention, so now you re like sending yourself into your morning routine in a totally different way with a calmed down nervous system and intention and this boost of feeling supported and loved and celebrated, I want you
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to find one naturally occurring heart shape as you go through your day.
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Okay?
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Yeah.
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It could be a stone.
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It could be a leaf on the ground.
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It could be a cloud shape.
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It could be a coffee stain.
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It could be an oil stain on the floor of a garage.
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It could be a spot on a dog walking by.
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I want you to tell your mind, let s find a heart.
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Let s see if we can find a heart.
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And something weird s gonna happen.
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You re gonna see something.
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And then I want you to literally supersize what s going on in your brain.
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And what you do is when you see the heart, I want you to then take a moment and literally congratulate yourself, like feel like, oh my God, I found it.
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Like whatever you believe in, God, the universe, like greater connection, you put that there for me and I found it.
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And I want you to feel this kind of wave of, that s kind of cool.
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I just saw a heart.
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And then that positive thing.
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Remember how I told you the bouncer in your brain pays attention to what s important to you when you get your nervous system celebratory involved that.
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makes your brain really pay attention, just like trauma makes your brain pay attention.
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So you supercharge the experience by celebrating it and then look for another one around.
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I see hearts all day long.
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And what happens when you start to play this game is you will start to realize you are walking by an entirely different world every single day because you re not looking for it.
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There are opportunities, there are signs,
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there are mile markers on your path that you are literally tuning out.
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Yes.
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And we can all sit
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in this moment, Lewis, and look back and see how the dots of our life connect us here.
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The coolest thing about practicing the high five habit, this training of finding hearts and the high five attitude is that you start to ground yourself in the idea that this too is a dot on the map of your life and it is leading you somewhere incredible.
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And when you start to have that kind of high five attitude,
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that there are signs, whether it s the little hearts that you re now seeing, or it s your ability to catch guilt, or people-pleasing, or insecurity, or the negative self-talk, and be like, nope, not going down, not thinking about that, five, four, three, two, one, let s get that high-five attitude back, I can do this, I can have my own back, it s not gonna be perfect, but I can keep going.
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And you were just talking about how you never truly learned how to love yourself in your own skin, and you started this daily ritual, this habit of high-fiving yourself in the mirror,
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I mean, you ve lived a pretty full life right now, but you feel like really you ve never truly learned how to love yourself, but now you feel like you know how to?
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Yes, I do.
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Why did you not know how to love yourself in the first place?
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Oh, that s a big question.
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I think that most of us are not taught how to love ourselves just for being.
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alive.
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For existing.
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For existing, thank you.
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It s always like we have to accomplish something.
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Correct.
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And then we can get love.
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Yes.
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It s the same thing with happiness.
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Like you re chasing it and you think that if you achieve something you re going to get it.
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And you also, or at least I, felt the most loved when I was little when I was achieving something.
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And, you know, I think that most parents kind of fall into this camp.
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And it s really interesting to write a book about this and sort of trace back how we go from being little teeny babies that would crawl up to a mirror and put our hands up and kiss ourselves and love the sight of ourselves to being a self-loathing adult that stands in front of a mirror and either ignores or criticizes your very existence.
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And I believe that a lot of this has to do with the fact that so much of what you learn as a kid is if you do what I tell you to do, then I ll like you, then I ll love you.
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And so much of your existence becomes complying, fitting in, not making people angry.
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You learn how to sort of go in and out of spaces, belong to groups, make sure people like you and you stop
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focusing on how you were born, which is looking in a mirror and liking yourself.
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I hope you enjoyed today s episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today s episode with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.
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Share this with a friend on social media, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well.
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Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.
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I really love hearing feedback from you, and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.
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And I want to remind you, if no one has told you lately, that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now, it s time to go out there and do something great.