Welcome to Dare to Dream. This is Debbie Dashinger. This show has been nominated for two People's Choice podcast awards for a Webby award and was recently listed in Welp Magazine and we thank Welp for listing us as one of the top 20 best podcasts to listen to this year. This show has been around starting on radio and then parlayed into podcasts 14 years.  Keep doing it. I read it all. Believe me, we all need encouragement, whatever field we're in and so it is for me as well. So thanks for hanging with us low these 14 years. I would like to thank the sponsor for the show, Dr. Dane Here and Access Consciousness. They do brilliant energy work out in the world. If you want to be a facilitator, take a class anywhere. Go to drdanehere.com as well as accessconsciousness.com and I'm Debbie Dashinger. What I do out in the world is I teach speakers and healers and coaches and entrepreneurs the time effective steps to write a highly engaging page turner book. I do this through private sessions as well as through group writing class. If you are interested in either, you can reach out on my website, DebbieDashinger.com and just contact me there. And especially if you like to join the writing class, we have two new spots that just opened because two of our participant authors are publishing their fine, fine books. And so though one of those spots could be yours, if it is in your wheelhouse to write a book and you don't know how and you don't want to throw a lot of money and time at it, go to DebbieDashinger.com slash visible visionaries. You can learn more about the course there and it's D-E-B-B-I-D-A-C-H-I-N-G-E-R.com slash visible visionaries. This episode today is about the inner workings of age and basically we're going to be talking specifically about aging which if you are breathing, you just lost another second of your life. And so you are on this train as well as I and my guest who is Connie's WEG, PhD, who's a retired therapist and has contributed articles to Esquire magazine in the Los Angeles Times and holds a doctorate in depth psychology. Connie is the co-author of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow, author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality and a novel, A Moth to the Flame, The Life of Sufi Poet Rumi. Her latest book is The Inner Work of Age Shifting from Role to Soul. It extends shadow work into late life and teaches aging as a spiritual practice. Connie's been doing contemplative practices for over 50 years. She's a wife, a grandmother and was initiated as an elder by Saging International in 2017. After investing in all these roles, she is practicing the role and the shift of role to soul. To learn more about her, go to her website, cognizweig.com. That's cognizweig. And with that, I welcome Connie to The Dare to Dream Show. It's so great to have you. Thank you so much. I love that intro. I appreciate it. Absolutely. There was a lot of great things alone in that bio. So I just got to start with the spirituality of aging. Thank you, first of all, because I don't think I've ever seen that.  In fact, a contrer, right? There's a plastic surgery and the, you know, looking a certain way, there's a lot of pressure. So what is Connie, the spirituality of aging? Well, you're kind of starting at the top. Can I give that some context? Of course. So as you say, we're kind of surrounded by a just messages. There's a worship of youth in our culture, and a demeaning of older people. We see this kind of messaging in our healthcare system. We saw it during the pandemic. We see it in the media when older actors are patronized or put down. We see it in all of the institutions in the workplace when people are forced into retirement. So we absorb this messaging beginning very early in our lives as children. We absorb this, no positive models of elders, all this anti-ages messaging. And so all the research now shows that kids actually believe it's terrible to get old. And as we go through the lifespan then, we're carrying that internalized ageism with us, and it starts to affect how we feel about ourselves. Well, I hate the way my body looks and these wrinkles are terrible. And I don't want to work so hard. And so who am I now? The sound spiritual question returns. And I've coined this the late life identity crisis, because that's what happens, we start to ask these essential questions again. So, in every spiritual religious tradition all over the world, the teaching has been that later life is a time for contemplation. It's a time for looking at all of the knowledge and lessons we've learned through our lives and digesting them and passing them on to next generations. And it's a time for prayer or meditation or some kind of preparation for death. We've lost that teaching, we've lost that knowledge in our culture, which as we said worships youth, but also worships success and achievement and productivity. And so once we get past midlife, and some of that starts to change, who am I and this is what happened to me? Who am I if I retire as a therapist and I'm not the shadow expert anymore. So that's a spiritual question because it returns us to our essential nature. If I'm not the roles. If I'm not the CEO, or the mother, or the teacher, or the salesperson or the nurse, who am I? Who am I underneath the roles or the masks or the or the doing. What's for each of us to answer on our own. I would say I don't know how old you are, Connie. But in your bio, it says that you are initiated as an elder, which is beautiful and researching you. You are very productive. So I want to be careful with that word because I don't mean what you were saying earlier.  So can you talk about that? What kind of choices you've made so that you know what's next on your path? Well, that's such a beautiful question. So I have 72 years of life experience. And I really feel it's a privilege to have lived this long because not everybody gets to. But I had inner work to do to be able to feel that way to be able to get through my own internalized ageism and denial. And so what I teach in the book is that's the first step. The first step is breaking through our denial of age and where we truly are now and denial of the value of our age. Because we can't really find that. We can't find the treasures of this stage of life if we're in denial. So for me, you know, and just my personal story, I learned how to meditate when I was 19. So I've been doing contemplative practice for five decades now. And I've also been doing psychological work for that long. So my life has really been about my development and my service as a result of that development. My books, my activism and so forth. But in my late 60s, I noticed a kind of a shift. As I was tuning in to my self talk, my internal dialogue one day. I noticed that I was feeling disoriented and kind of restless and wondering as you said what's next for me and how I would find that. So I started reading widely in the aging literature, positive aging, conscious aging, successful aging. It has all these labels now. And what I discovered was that there was no material that included an orientation to the unconscious or the shadow, which is what I teach. I was talking about the impact of internalized ageism from the unconscious on our body minds on our psychologies in late life. And so I just kind of it took a few years, but I realized that there was another contribution for me to make. And what's interesting is, I went through that both the intention of it and the execution of it differently than I would have at age 40. So I was writing books in my 40s, but with a kind of a midlife heroic drama, right, a lot of attachment to success. Ego's agenda was running the show, like most people at that stage of life. I'm having a different experience now. It looks like I'm working hard and really busy. And in some way I am. But internally, I feel quiet. And I feel less driven and less attached to the outcome. Yeah. And more interested in how I can serve people and how this transmission will affect them, rather than the results for me. So there's a state of mind when we become an elder in which we do differently. It's not that we stopped doing. I'm not advocating, you know, I talk about shifting from doing to being, I'm not advocating not doing or not volunteering or not mentoring or not grandparent. I'm not advocating stopping. What I'm saying is that there's a quality of awareness that we can bring to our doing as an elder that we never could before. It's an internal experience. Have your friendships or your sense of community changed as you've aged. I've lost a number of very close friends. I lost three friends while I was writing the book, very close to me. And I write extensively about that in the book. I would say that, yes, it has changed. I would say that my marriage is fantastic and happier and more fulfilling than ever. My grandkids, I did not have children, but my grandkids through my husband are just the surprise of this stage of life for me. I have a few very close friends and lots and lots of acquaintances because I'm teaching so much now. And I'm in the conscious aging universe and the baby boomer universe, you know, and the Jungian universe where I meet a lot of people in the depth psychology world. I would say since the pandemic, and Neil and I have been kind of on our own a lot other than the grandkids, it has shifted. And that's okay with me. I think there's a difference between introverts and extroverts and how we age. We really get a lot of juice from going inside like I do. And extroverts got to get their juice from outside right from other people and from from their activities. So there's lots of opportunity for that for elders these days, especially online there's lots going on. People can ask me about that if they want to. But yeah, so for me, yes, these relationships have changed in a lot of different ways. Okay, very powerful and I relate to a lot of what you're saying. And I just want to harken back to something you said earlier about the differences between how we age male female and so forth. And as somebody who was a professional actress before I got into radio 1314 years ago, I was a professional actress and singer.  It was very difficult for me to see fat balding men who became very famous playing all these amazing character roles. But it wasn't so much for women there was just so much pressure about how you looked.  I want to be very clear when you're a woman, not so much as a man. It's not true almost in any other European country. They very much often honor the aging woman. And yes, it's just different. I've lived through this and just chose not to play the game at a certain level. And and definitely the extra version, that's very interesting about how well an introvert can go through a time like the pandemic. Yes. And really relish that time because that's your time. Right. Yes. And for those of us who thrive on connection and I'm definitely one of them, although I need my cave time now and then, but basically thriving on connection. Yes. Very difficult. Right. Yeah, a lot of loss. Right. I know. I hear you. Yes. So, you know, the ageism in the film industry has been so painful for so many people. A lot of women have called it out. Sometimes I think it's changing, you know, there are a lot of statistics about it through the Annenberg Center at University of Southern California where they study this. They study gender and age and they even came out with a study recently about Latinos in the film industry. So they look at the discriminant different kinds of discrimination and I thought it was kind of changing for a while but I think that it just kind of was a blip. So, the, the, that means a lot for actors in their careers but guess what else it means for the whole population. There are no models of elders in the media who are thriving and smart and enjoying themselves. I remember when I was growing up this TV show all in the family and Archie Bunker would be patronizing his wife Edith in the most terrible ageist ways, and that's what I grew up with. And so the media has this responsibility because it's, it's educating but it's also subliminally educating viewers. It's messaging even unconsciously what's beautiful, what's intelligent, what's valuable. And so there's a real, I think, ethical responsibility there which they are not keeping at this point. Oh, I like that. I like that you speak to that so much because that is very true. What we see, what we are delivered as to what is acceptable, whether it's the color of one's skin, the gender, the choices of sexuality, male versus female, all of that. Yeah, there's a big responsibility in media to really show the spectrum of who we are. Right. Yeah. Right. And yes, please. You mentioned gender differences. So I didn't focus on that in the book, but you know people have been asking me about that. So the book is organized around the inner obstacles that are unconscious in us about aging. So the first one I mentioned was denial, and I call that the inner agist. But there are these other shadows or unconscious inner obstacles. So think about how much men identify with being independent and strong and heroic providers. And what happens when that begins to diminish, or they get a serious illness and it just is taken away, and they become dependent and tired, you know, and unproductive. So that's what I call a shadow of age. And with women, it tends to focus more on self image and appearance. What happens when that starts to diminish with age, which inevitably it does.  It's genetic. There's nothing I can do about it. So what I can do about it is how I relate to it. How I feel about it, really accept myself and know that I am not my appearance. I am not how I look. And there's like this freedom for me from caring about how other people see me at this stage of life, which I know for people in the media is really hard because there's all this reinforcement about image right. So male dependency and female self image in our culture are really scary and full of charge. And some of the issues that I work with in the book about how to really move towards self acceptance. How to really move toward embracing what we're given in our circumstances. And I like to say age is our curriculum. So whatever it is we're given, there are tools for working with that and growing and learning about ourselves. Yeah. So you write in your book that age is a lens through which we can view other crises. Can you speak to that? What do you mean by that the lens through which we view other crises? Well, look at what happened during the pandemic. When ageism in the healthcare system became so visible, and people were openly saying, you know, those people are in their 80s, let them go. And doctors were having to make decisions about whether to save people in their 80s or people in their 40s. Age and healthcare are constantly interconnected in all kinds of ways that haven't really been visible to us and are becoming more so now. There are only about a thousand geriatricians in our country, people who specialize in old age. There are gerontologists, but they're not trained in psychology. So they're not trained to help people move from senior to elder, you know, like this book is offering. They don't have the tools to do that. So age and healthcare are intertwined. Age and mental health are intertwined. There's a large percentage of the baby boom population that is, has substance abuse problems. And even high rates of suicide and depression. Yeah. So mental health. Well, some of it is financial circumstances. Some of it is untreated emotional mental disorders. Some of it is isolation and loss. You know, losing the only person you care about living alone, having no help having not having the means to get help. Age segregation in our living situations. So the kids may be across the country. Yeah, they could be living in retirement communities or nursing homes where they're not happy. Even climate change, older people are more susceptible to the effects of climate just as we were with the pandemic or still are. We're more susceptible to heat and heat stroke, more susceptible to disability. So let's say there's there are floods like we just had with the hurricane. The older people can't don't have mobility. So there are links to every kind of issue that we're looking at now. The social safety net, you know, a report just came out about when social security is going to become insolvent. And all of the debate about Medicare and poverty, the poverty levels. All of the sort of social and political issues, we can look at them through the lens of age and there's a lot of research to do that now which I found interesting. But that's, you know, there are a lot of books about that. This book is not that book. This book is about aging from the inside out. It's our subjective experience of moving past midlife 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, our subjective inner world and how to wake up inside that world to who we can become now. Life is not over. If we stop working, or if we lose a friend, there's still tremendous potentiality for this stage of life and opportunities to be creative, to pick up a dream, a creative dream that we might have lost, you know, when we had to earn a living. That's why I always wanted to paint or I wanted to write that novel or I wanted to play an instrument. And so people are picking up these things now and exploring in this stage of life. So, and as I was saying, there's this freedom from our roles and responsibilities that allows us to be more authentic. Perhaps even become who we really are. Because these roles kind of held us in limited bandwidth, limited emotional bandwidth, limited creative bandwidth. Now, we have all this time with the new longevity, the longest time ever in human history between retirement and the end. It's the longest time unprecedented. So we need to ask ourselves, am I going to do with all this time? And who am I now? Who am I now? What do I really believe? What are my most important priorities? And how can I live those out now so that I'm fulfilled at the end so that I don't die with regret? I'm going to offer a quote from your book, Connie, which speaks to what you just said and then transition into how we can find the treasures. Because these are sobering, what you're saying and important. So here's a quote from Connie's book. Loss of mobility and chronic illness are widespread, particularly in older populations. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that two out of five Americans over age 65 have a mobility disability. One in five has diabetes, 40% are obese, and more than half take medication for hypertension. Among men, 70% will suffer in a large prostate by age 70. Among women, one in eight will develop invasive breast cancer during her lifetime. In addition, because women tend to live longer, they are more likely to experience life-threatening illness later in life. When it's harder to recover and sometimes also harder to pay for health care, very, very sobering. So if we have lost our guides, and this is the state, not everyone, clearly you and other conscious aging folks, which is beautiful are setting the stage for us. If the majority of people are aging without a map, how can we find these treasures at this stage of life? Well, so the picture that you just transmitted is kind of dark. Yeah, bleak, right? It's bleak. It's focusing on the decline, what we call the decline narrative, the idea that we're going downhill. However, there are millions of people now who are not experiencing the stage of life that way. They are healthy in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s, even athletic, creative, lucid, right? And in some cases productive. So there are these two visions that we have now of decline and possibilities. And they sort of, these two visions kind of butt up against each other. And so there are a few different levels of response I want to give you. One is for me, the bottom line, learn a spiritual practice, whether it's prayer, meditation, centering prayer, chanting, Zen, whatever it is from your tradition or beyond your tradition. And here's why. Because when you learn to calm yourself down and quiet your mind. When you enter yourself, you have a refuge inside. You have a life raft that you can go to whenever one of these challenges hits that you listed. You have a life raft, a quiet, still place where you can connect with yourself with your intuition, and you can be still. There you can act. Okay, the second thing is, there are many people with physical limitations who are still enjoying life. And I was astounded to read in the book called The Creative Age by Gene Cohen, which is all about creativity in late life. How many famous artists and musicians were in their 70s and 80s with physical handicaps when they created their genius works. So look at the title of your show, Dare to Dream. So what I'm suggesting is, let's not let things stop us from daring to dream about what's possible. My friend said to me this week, he's 73, he's published 25 books, and he said, I never wrote that novel that I always wanted to write because I couldn't afford to I had to pay the bills. Now I have to write it. And that novel is still there waiting for him inside of him, calling to him. And he knows if he doesn't do that, he's going to die with regret. So, you know, yes, we have challenges, yes, we have limitations. We may have pain, we may have loss. And what does that mean it's very individual for each person. There's a lot of trauma in my own life. I also took care of my father with Alzheimer's and watched him transition into a wheelchair and watch something else. He never complained. He never became a victim. He never failed to smile when I walked into the room. He really taught me about, you know, an attitude to have as an older person with illness. I got goosebumps when you said that. I'm caring for a mother with Alzheimer's right now in a facility in a wheelchair. So I very much relate and much to your very positive point about what's possible. The story of the famous artist Grandma Moses is that late in her 80s, she used to knit. That was her thing. And her fingers became so gnarled. I assume it was some kind of arthritis, but they didn't know what to call it back then, but she literally was incapacitated. She had to give up that which she loved the most. Nothing else to do. So she went out in the barn. She somehow stuck a paintbrush in these very gnarled hands that wouldn't cooperate and started painting. They put these paintings she had done up in a local coffee shop. And an art dealer was passing through this terribly small town. His rural town saw the paintings and said, who did that? They introduced him to Grandma Moses and the rest is history. Until she was 100 and something, she was painting. She was contributing. She was doing something amazing with her life. It didn't stop her. It redirected her path. Yes, it's not beautiful. It is really important, I think, for us to keep hearing these kind of stories. And so for you, someone who's been inducted, if you will, as a spiritual elder, how do you pass your wisdom on to people who are younger? How do you suggest that we do? Well, the book is my legacy, and it's really filled with all kinds of tools and practices for people who want to do the inner work of age. How to do a life review. How to do emotional repair in your relationships. How to do spiritual repair with the divine. You know, just all kinds of things in there, how to meditate. When I'm actually with my grandkids, here's what I found. They live in a very chaotic house. And my grandson at 10 years old is already anxious. You know, I can see this. So, and there's nothing I can do to interrupt the family dynamic. It's not my, my job, right. So what I do is I sit with him.  And that he's sitting in the shade, and I'm still. He can absorb the stillness from my body. And he can feel a different energy and a different way of being just by sitting next to me. You know, everybody says join the kids on their devices and do the games and join their world and stuff. You know, and so we've played on YouTube and all that. But I think this is the most important thing that energetically. It's the experience of a body next to him. And so it's a nonverbal transmission. You know that I'm extremely hopeful about all the young climate activists who are taking on the climate crisis. Absolutely. And I'm in awe of them and what they're trying to do now. And how they're trying to really wake up the people, the baby boomers, the people in power who have the authority to do something. So there's intergenerational work going on around the climate crisis in this country and I think in other countries in Europe as well. There's intergenerational work going on around literacy. Mentoring of all kinds. So, you know, what I did is I kind of chose by writing a book about the shadow about the unconscious beliefs and images around age. I chose something that fit me and my skills and my interests at this stage in my life, because I educated myself as I did this. And so I think that's what I would suggest that everybody do find your expertise, your gift and leave it as your legacy. If it's a video memoir for your family about your life, you know, if it's a sculpture, if it's whatever it is, if it's a poem, you know, find a way to express yourself and express your love. It's really important to express your love and leave that with the family and if you have a larger community like a religious community, or a political community, find a way to participate where you have a voice because the moral voice of the elder is really needed now. It's really needed for perspective. You know, because in midlife we're sort of living in the moment in the circumstances of the moment. We have a long view now. And not just a long view of the past but of the future. So we're considering future generations now in a way that younger people, or midlife folks typically are not. Look at generations are now because the climate crisis woke them up to that. You know, their claim that they don't have a future is a big psychological shift in young generation. Yeah, we didn't think that when we were kids. So, um, so those are some ways to leave a legacy. Never underestimate the power of a grandparent. I'm here because of it for sure because I have beautiful grandparents who in their way gave me what I could not get at home and was very close to them. So kudos to you for, you know, it's always that ripple effect. You don't know even that one beautiful life of your grandson, how that will create change. That's right. Him out in the world. So I applaud you for that. And the book piece, you know, this is why I do what I do.  It is many people's dream, like your friend who's this gentleman who's 73 who said I never wrote that book. And it's still there. It's still calling. It doesn't go away. Yeah, so important to do. And so we talked about these aging limitations that are impelled on us, right, society, pictures, lineage, media were blasted with this. How can we release these getting older images and information, everything about the body decline, the mind decline, you know, what your lifestyle is going to be like what you can and can't do and so forth. What if instead we want to be very pro choice, very pro aging, and creating much like you were talking about the people are active the people who travel the people are contributing and dreaming and creating. How can we step into that to release the other we've been shown. Well the first step is becoming aware of it. Becoming aware that we've internalized ageism as a figure in the unconscious. And then beginning to work with that figure in my method which is called shadow work. So that's really what the book is about how we work with these internal figures. So, one of my clients called her kind of inability to slow down the driver. So she was a lawyer she was burned out. She couldn't stop she couldn't rest. She couldn't take care of herself she never had a relationship. She was possessed by this driver figure in her unconscious for lots of valid reasons, actually in her family, but there was a point at which it didn't work anymore. So we did shadow work with this figure of the driver, and as she became more and more conscious of it and saw the consequences of actually allowing it to control her. She was able to change gears. There are a lot of examples of that in the book about how to identify that part of you, how to work with it, and how to let it go. So that, yeah, I want to know how she's doing. She did not retire. She changed to a small law firm that's nonprofit and working for the community where she can work lesser hours and spend a long time taking care of herself so she's practicing yoga and meditation now. She had never done. And the last I spoke to her she was dating someone which is really new. So it's, you know, it's not about how it looks on the outside. It's about the fact that on the inside, the driver wasn't running her life anymore. Yeah. That's beautiful. What's possible. Yeah, that's right. What's possible if we dare to dream. And so as somebody who's written a book for elders, elderly, etc., and here you are an elder in a spiritual sense, are there practices from your book that you can give examples of any developmental tasks that we can use to become a positive elder? Well, I would say that doing a life review is a really fabulous process. And I kind of walk through it step by step in the book. So there's the traditional life review about the things we've lived out.  What has not been lived out? What has been repressed into the shadow? And what do we want to reclaim now, like my friend's novel? What do we want to live out now that we didn't get a chance to do when we were empire building? Emotional repair. In who, who is in our lives in which with with whom we need to give or receive forgiveness? It's available to do that now. What are our spiritual beliefs that may keep us afraid of death? So facing mortality is actually a big task, right? But what are our spiritual beliefs about it? So I was working in my practice with the man who was doing Buddhist meditation for many years.  And as he entered his late 60s, it was freaking him out. So what are the spiritual beliefs that we may want to revisit now? And what are our images of the divine that are hidden in those beliefs? There's so many practices. I don't know. You know, I think there's a chapter on spiritual practices that gives the advice of how to find one that fits for you. How to find one that's right for who you are now. Not maybe you meditated in your 20s or 30s. Not back then, but who you are now and what you're looking for now. And how to recognize the resonance with that practice or that teacher or that community because some people want to do it in a community. So how to watch out for the shadow issues that come up in religious communities. So there are a number of tasks to become an elder. And there I'm sure there are more than I wrote about in the book. There's a way to kind of sit with each chapter and kind of digest your own life material and uncover what you've learned from it and really look at how you want to pass it on. Wow. So good. Cleaning that space, like all this cleaning and adjustment and redirection. These like honestly at any point in one's life. This is a game changer. Yes. That's right. And you know, Carl Jung who was one of my teachers as a depth psychologist said that the meaning and purpose of the afternoon of life is different from the morning. If we continue to live as if we're in the morning of life, then there's damage to the soul. So there's a lot of letting go that needs to happen with this transition we spoke about letting go of old roles and identities. Letting go of some values and beliefs. Letting go of relationships that no longer serve us. Right. So there's a lot of kind of letting go and tuning into your own, I call it soul but whatever you call it. A tuning to yourself so that you can get the messages from within about what you're longing for. What you really need now and you can feel fulfillment then at the end of your life. You can feel fulfilled. That's the promise. And complete. That's what I got. And complete. And complete. There's a chapter on life completion. What does that mean for you as an individual? It's a really important question. Absolutely. Yeah. I love what you said. Next week I'm featuring Dr. Tony Nader who is the head of the TM organization. Yes. And it's actually prerecorded but it'll be released next week. I used to practice TM for years and then I couldn't even tell you when everything shifted but it did. And other choices got made and then it wasn't two times a day. It was once a day. And then the once a day became a bargaining. Should I do my to do list or this and before you knew it I was so deeply into the not meditation that the best I could do each afternoon was lay down for a 20 minute nap. Literally. I'm conscious. Yes, that's right. And although that was beautiful for my body to have that nap. I was really aware that I was missing out on something spectacular because I think once you've immersed with consciousness and the all you know that experience. So just listening to him and he was certainly not speaking to me but he was speaking to me. And I really heard and I thought at you know at this point in my life how could I not and somebody who's just gone through two stem cell surgeries on her body and and I am in the process of continually learning how to be more calm and relaxed and and to give my body the space and capacity to fully heal and I really got meditation plays this huge part how could I not. So I have been I put it on my to do list because I'll do it but that's how it's got to start for me like that I see the words and then I'm like oh yes okay at this point I disengage and I go meditate and I'm grateful for your reminders of this the importance of this and I hope that folks are listening to you really also hear the part about the emotional cleaning the where do you need to make your men's because I can tell you this is a life changer I've done it and many times doesn't mean it's comfortable or easy or we all want to look at this stuff but when we do unabashedly it will change every dynamic and the load we carry around energetically dissipates that's right that's so true everything I really deeply agree with everything you're saying I didn't know you've been ill I'm sad to hear that I know that I also started with TM in the late 60s and ended up having my issues with it and moving on but I feel so grateful that it started me on the path and as it did for millions of people. And I think that what you're describing about kind of losing contact with your meditation practice more and more until it's gone is a very common experience because our culture it's a workaholic culture we live in and we get so caught up in the doing right so and we get identified with the doing. So in as we recognize that the time horizon is limited. And there's a kind of an urgency as we become more and more aware of our mortality. We need to pick up what's most important to us and if that's your spirituality then it's important to find a practice that really takes you deeply inside and allows you to begin to shift from role to soul. Connie so may I ask you then when you call the practice you have now contemplative. Can you explain what that means or what that is like. Well, my lineages Vedanta which is the same as the TM lineage it comes out of India it's particular part of Hinduism. But I've had other teachers now and received other initiations and other practices. It's not that my practices contemplative I guess I could say that usually contemplation contemplation means thinking about something. That's not what meditation is about for me. It's not about the contents of awareness. It's about pure awareness sitting in awareness without contents just in the silence. So I can I can go from a very very busy day now and sit and cross my legs and just draw into a vast silence because I'm a practice meditator I mean I've been doing it right I've been doing my homework. So from that silence I have other practices that I do. But when I say contemplative it's mostly in contrast to doing. So we're not physically active and we're not goal oriented. We're basically just still and people can do different kind of practices in that stillness. Some people might do prayer some might chant you know bother Tom you know I did a lot of interviews for the book with spiritual teachers from Buddhist teachers Christian Jewish. Can Wilbur and they all describe the practices they do now in late life and it was really interesting to me to hear how their practices have changed over their lives as mine have and and why they're doing what they're doing now. So there is a contemplative lineage in every tradition, even though sometimes it's hidden like in Judaism it's hidden. In Christianity it was hidden until Father Thomas Keating came out with contemplative prayer. In Islam you know it's mostly Sufi practice, but there are mystical and contemplative practices in every tradition. And then the magical thing about this time we live in is those are all available. There's nothing hidden anymore. All these practices are available they're out there people are teaching them. And so it's and so my suggestion is just that you look at what you're drawn to read and explore talk to people and explore, you know, and see what feels like a fit for you. You know, okay, this is what I need now. And when you feel that and when you hear that, stay with it for a while give the practice a chance give it some time to cultivate that silent awareness, and then you'll find that you want to meditate. You'll find that it actually calls to you it's attractive, rather than a nuisance, or an interruption. It's not an interruption for me. I actually really look for like I had four interviews today. So I really look forward to my meditation. Now, it will shift my whole state, so that my evening is, you know, stress free. And I'm so grateful for that. I'm really grateful for that. I'm grateful I have a husband who meditates with me too. Oh, that's yummy. That's really cool. Yes, unique. And so you were speaking about all of the mysticism that's available to us and earlier you had made mention that there are online opportunities for elders. Can you speak to that a little bit? Well, Saging International SAGE-ING, Saging.org is a beautiful community of elders with all kinds of webinars, and a lot of them have spiritual teachers offering practices. They're also holding a big online conference next month at the end of October. Elder's Action Network is more for the extroverts, the folks who are interested in social activism and service, and they're engaging in voting rights, in racism, in climate. All kinds of things, and there's a beautiful community of people there, and they're all over the country and you can work with them online. So those are two examples of communities that are elder-oriented. I also saw this week that, you know, Jane Fonda, who's 83, is launching a new organization for elders who want to fight climate change, and it's called Third Act. And she's hooked up with Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist, and Bill McKibben, who founded 350.org. And the three of them are forming this organization for elders around climate change. So there's a lot going on and it's not difficult to find if you just Google around. That's awesome. That's great because there's a lot of voting power in trifecta you're talking about, so that makes me very happy to hear. And Connie, this is Dare to Dream. So what do you next dare to dream? What are your future dreams and goals? Well, right now I'm kind of surfing a tidal wave on this book. And so I'm not really focused on the future at the moment. I'm just kind of here one step at a time. We moved recently. We moved from the mountains to the water. And so our intention when my book kind of settles down is to start getting into the water more with kayaking and maybe some catamarans. We have saltwater pool here and I'm going to learn how to swim again. My husband's already doing it and get exercise that way. And I'll probably start dancing again, which I was doing last year before the pandemic. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of kind of creative outlets waiting for me. My husband is a bass player in a rock band now. And at the same time, I know that for me, I'm going to be doing more meditation. So it's kind of a mix of different things. Outward and inward. Yes. Beautiful. And congratulations on the book. How can people get ahold of you? How can they find out more and get your book? Well, the book is available everywhere on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, indie books, if you like indie books. I'm teaching at East West Books and Boulder Books. So it's available in those independent stores. And they can also go to connieswag.com. There are lots of links there. I'm teaching a lot of workshops over the next three months. So if you're interested in online workshops, you can find those on my website. connieswag.com and on my Facebook page, which is Dr. Connie's Wig. And on LinkedIn, you can find the webinar links everywhere. Z-W-E-I-G for folks who are interested. And Connie, thank you so much for the work you're doing and for coming on the show today. I'm so glad to have met you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, honor. And I end today's show with these quotes first from Louise Hay. Know that you are the perfect age. Each year is special and precious, for you shall only live at once. Be comfortable with growing older. And then from Helen Mirren, your 40s are good. Your 50s are great. Your 60s are fab.  Subscribe to the Dare to Dream podcast so you can hear this weekly number one transformation conversation. Next week, I am featuring Dr. Tony Nader. He's the CEO of the global transcendental meditation organization appointed by the Maharishi himself. If you love the podcast and you like to see myself and the guests and I urge you to do so, go check us out on YouTube. Subscribe there. YouTube.com slash Debbie Daschinger. And remember, don't just dare to dream. Dare to make all your older, aging, elder, beautiful, wise choices into your reality. Thanks for joining us today.


Boom So I'm gonna give some of you here welcome to another video guys so into this video We are going to talk about two stocks that I'm actually buying and again guys these stocks are long-term stocks So this is not something that you're going in for a quick swing trade or you're looking to make some some quick cash This is holding long-term So I'm accumulating the stocks because I see the long-term potential and when I say long term I'm talking about between three to five years where I plan on sitting on the stocks and not even worry about it So we're gonna talk about those stocks into this video But before we get to the guys who are new to the channel We took about how to earn money how to save money how to invest and build wealth That's something that interests you go ahead and hit that subscribe button and the notification bell So you don't miss out on new content. So it comes to investing you have to think long term So again the stocks I'm gonna talk about today This is stocks that I've covered here on the channel on the past but today again I want to kind of break it down to you guys because for me I'm looking at long term for this particular stock So I might really buying the deeps on these stocks and keep adding to my position because I am anticipating that Three to five years these stocks will be where I Inticipate that there would be so let's jump in and kind of take a look here and see Which of the stocks I'm talking about so the first one that I have here on my list is Sofi so this is a stock that we've covered here on the channel I told you guys that these guys are actually changing the way Banking is done. They have this whole model of consolidating everything into one big bundle where you go in You have all these different options as far as so far investing the personal loans Student loans money, which is just like your regular checking account and savings account Home-blown credit cards and the list goes on so they have all these things and most recently They just got a prover to have a national bank. So so far. It's gonna have a bang as well So to me, this is huge for them, but the stock has actually taken the beating of late So again, which kind of give me an opportunity to go in a lot of people don't even know about this company yet But more and more millenials are moving towards to the point where they don't really care about the big banks You don't have to walk into your Regular big bang to go do transactions and most often they're not even when you go there The process is very slow and boring here. Everything is online Automated and most very fast and I think to me that's something that millenials love And in fact, they're they just got a prover to have their own national bank I think it's huge for their business model So I'm actually buying a lot of sofai because I like the stock. I mean where it's calling you trading right now I mean in three to in three to five years Anticipate that even if it double or triples in value that would be massive So I I'm not messing around with this one. So as we're doing this video, you can see here So far up on the day looking really good So I 14 dollars squeeze all the way to a hive about 16 30 or 16 45 and then turn around and give back all those gains to right now sitting somewhere about 14 82 or 83 after our so again for me I said a bind is when it was at $15. So if you guys remember I did some videos here on the channel I told you guys it squeeze up to 20-something pull back down and then if we go back just the last few days notice where this thing came down to $12 so I picked up a few shares here at 12 when it came down here And then you know look at that balance. So if you if you just bought here at 12 and watch this squeeze all the way to this high of $16 that would have been awesome. But again after me anything on their 15 was definitely a buy so I like where I'm sitting with this one I don't have quite enough shares yet But my goal is to keep building and keep adding to my position. So I really really like so far So let's go take a look here. The next one is NVIDIA so a lot of you guys know NVIDIA Remember I did some videos here on the channel when they were going through that split and I told you guys This is a good stock to buy and back there when they're going through that split I was kind of mad because I didn't have NVIDIA before then so it's it's kind of No, it was a gift that did the split so that a lot of you guys actually got in on the action So if you do watching those videos, I can actually hook it up here on the YouTube card So you guys can definitely go check that out But it really not gonna do any good because that's a long time ago But now my focus is looking into the future. Why am I so focused on NVIDIA right now? I'm looking at NVIDIA because we're moving to this new space the metaverse and The a lot of this is high graphic intense And so I must in my again This is my personal take here and with my experience working with computers Is that the future is not going to be CPU anymore? I think the future is going to be GPU because if people are doing You know the building applications that are high Graphic intense you need kind of like a GPU to do all that processing So NVIDIA comes in and they have already established themselves as a Really strong player in that space So even though NVIDIA is actually pulling back now I think for me it's a buying opportunity and again if it keeps pulling back I'm gonna keep buying because in my personal opinion There is no metaverse without NVIDIA. That's the way I see it So you might think otherwise, that's totally fine, but I see it. There's no metaverse without NVIDIA So if all these other companies are banging on the metaverse I think somebody should start keeping an eye on NVIDIA because NVIDIA is gonna power a lot of that So if you can see how people live in the richer world, you create You know your avatars and people are creating all these Games and people have you know a whole community out there All that stuff needs to be powered in so GPUs are gonna come in handy They're gonna get really expensive. So again, if you haven't already I think NVIDIA will be a good one to get into so as I see the deep I keep buying So as I was recording this video, you can see where NVIDIA opened up for the day And it was just completely bleeding even after hours. It didn't even stop after hours. It's currently 7 at 237 So if the trend continues, we might see NVIDIA go test on the 200 again for after a long time That would be ideal. That would be a really good shopping opportunity if we can go test on the 200 And again, we know where NVIDIA has been before these talk is actually gone all the way to 700 Before pulling back before they are split and then now squeezed to over 300 now pulling back and sitting at these After hours at 237. So It wouldn't surprise me if it pulls back a little bit again and get on the 200 Which makes it even more and pricing for some of us to jump in and even buy some more shares So those are the two stocks that I'm actually loading up because I see a ton of potential I do stocks just gonna turn around tomorrow and start Squeezing back to the upside I'm not certain but as far as long term. I'm putting on my long term Investing hat here where you buy the dips. It doesn't matter keep buying the dips and Holding it long term because the stocks that I've done that have outperform my entire portfolio Each time you buy the dip let it ride in three four five years The returns are just incredible. So definitely keep an eye On these two if you haven't already so again, let me know in the comment section Which of the stocks do you currently have in your portfolio? Do you have so so far or do you have NVIDIA or we have both again? Let me know and in the comment section if you're new here We took about how to earn money how to save money how to invest and build what so that's something that interests you Go ahead and hit that subscribe button and the notification bell so you don't miss out on your content Also guys if you are looking to get set up with investing, I keep saying these there's free money out there Right now Momo has a promotion where if you sign up and deposit any amount of money You get five free stocks in and also we both has the exact same promotion You sign up deposit some money you get free stocks at no cost to you Go out there sign up take the free money and put it wherever you want You want to buy some so far or some NVIDIA take that free money and ghost We go go put it to work and make it work for you So again, I'll put the links in the description below and as always guys do your due diligence.


What is going on everybody is Stas here. Welcome back to another video. So I wanted to hop on here this afternoon and talk about four ETFs that I personally trade during extremely volatile times in the stock market. So I have a couple of notes here on my phone regarding all of these four ETFs that we're going to be talking about on this video. So let's just get right into it guys. If you enjoy this video, feel free to hit that like button. If you enjoy the content and you want to see further content for me, consider subscribing and let's get right into it guys. So the first one that I want to talk about and you're probably familiar with this one if you've been watching my videos over the past couple of months and that one is TVIX also known as Credit Suisse, NASSOV, Velocity, SHS, DAI, ETN guys. And this is one that's probably the most volatile one out of the four that we're going to be talking about in today's video. And this one you can see in the ticker actually trades on the VIX which is a volatility index and it typically goes up in price when the overall markets are heading down in value, right? The S&P 500 for example, we noticed it's been selling off over the past couple of days. We've had some rebound days here in the recent future over the past two or three days and what did TVIX do during this time period, right? Take a look at it. We spiked from $19 all the way to about nearly $32 per share and as the S&P has been recovering over these past couple of days, TVIX has been falling, right? And notice how the VIX here which is a volatility index when the market is going crazy when we're seeing swings of 70 points down on the SPX one day, you know, a 70 point down the next day, 500 points down for the Dow, the VIX is going crazy, right? Take a look at the VIX here from $12 all the way up to $18 on the 6th of May. We literally had a push from $15 all the way to $23 in the matter of a couple of days. Excuse me. And this is during the time period where the markets were falling drastically. So this one TVIX guys, it's pretty much a 2X leveraged ETF, good for when the markets are extremely volatile and it trades on the VIX, probably again the most volatile one out of the four we're going to be talking about in today's video. So the next one is actually one that I ended up trading today. I got out of my position about an hour ago and that one is TQQQ and this is actually a leveraged ETF that trades, I believe 3X leveraged on the NASDAQ 100. So let's say the NASDAQ, which is the NQ here, let's say it's going up 30 points in a day, like it did at one point today, I believe if we go on the one day, one minute we can see, you know, we had that big spike, let's say it goes up 1%, you can expect the TQQQ ETF roughly to be up about 3% versus the 1% up for the NASDAQ. Does it always work perfectly in line in terms of the 3X? It doesn't to be completely honest with you, but most of the time it's roughly 3X the movement of the NASDAQ, the NASDAQ 100 here. And if we're going back over to TQQQ or TQQ, however many Qs there are, sometimes I say 4 or 5 Qs, sometimes it's 3, but all you need to know is it's 3 Qs after the T, right? That's the ticker symbol. And we can notice over the past couple of days, let's say the 20-day one hour, you know, as the markets have been going down, TQQQ has been going down as well. So it pretty much just follows the movement of the NASDAQ, right? It's going down when the NASDAQ is going down, it's going up when the NASDAQ is going up, right? And this is a bit more volatile than the fourth bull ETF that we're going to be talking about here in a little bit. And remember guys, these are volatile. They're not really meant to be held overnight. You can lose your butt on them, right? They're pretty risky. And they're mostly meant for day trading, right? Intra-day plays, let's say the market's up 3%. You can expect roughly a 9-10% gain on TQQQ. Q, however many Qs, again, I can't really count in my head. And this would be good for that situation, right, when the market is going up. And let's just break down a trade that I personally made today very quickly, right? On the one day one minute here, we noticed this big spike. And at this point in time, if we go to the NASDAQ on the one day one minute, we can see the big spike that we saw, right? We noticed at about 75-30, I believe, we popped up, we pulled back. I got in right around this time period on the TQQQ, ended up selling roughly at about 61-15 in terms of the price on TQQQ. And guys, that was about a 1.2% gain right there when the NQ moved roughly like 0.3%, 0.4%, right? I believe I got in at about $60 roughly and let's say $0.30 up to about $61.16. Yup, you can see roughly a 1.2% gain on the TQQQ ETF. So that's pretty much how it moves, right? It trades on the NASDAQ 100. It's a 3x leverage ETF. It's going up when the NASDAQ is going up. So the next one we're going to be talking about is actually the reverse of TQQQ. It's SQQQ. And SQQQ also trades on the NASDAQ 100, right? But instead of going up when the NASDAQ is going up, SQQQ is a short ETF. It's going down when the NASDAQ is going up and it's going up whenever the NASDAQ is selling off at a 3x rate, right? So let's say the NASDAQ is going down 1%, you can expect the SQQQ ETF to be down roughly about 3% or up 3% roughly, right? So we can see here on the NQQ or the NQ rather, you can see it's down about 0.43% right now, popping over here to the SQQ. Again, it's not exactly 3x, but we can see the SQQQQ is up about 1%. So it's up about like 2.5 times what the NQ is down. And if we're looking on the 20-day charts, you guys can get a bit better of an understanding here. Take a look at the movement, right? It's been going up as the NQ has been selling off, right? That's pretty much the basis of this ETF. And remember, this is a very volatile ETF just like the TQQQ, not as volatile as TVIX, but I'd say if TVIX is tier one in terms of volatility, you know, QQQ and or TQQQQ rather and SQQQQ, they're tier two of volatility. And this next one we're going to be talking about, it's not a leveraged ETF, but it's still a bull ETF that tracks the NASDAQ that you can play when the markets are volatile. And that one is QQQ. No TQQ, just 3Qs. And again, this one is not leveraged at all. It's trading on the NASDAQ 100 and it pretty much goes up when the NASDAQ is going up and it's going down when the NASDAQ is going down, right? So it pretty much just follows the NASDAQ. Not crazy movements here because remember, it's not leveraged, meaning it's just moving, you know, the same way as the NASDAQ, right? Roughly here, right? We can notice the minus 2, 8% here. If we go to the NASDAQ, it's going to be roughly the same, right? Minus 3, 7%. Again, not the exact same, because it's just not the exact same, right? That's just not how it works to completely is roughly the same, right? Remember that guys. So that's pretty much it, right? We have TVIX, which is Tier 1 Volatility. That one can literally run 40% in a day. We actually saw that a couple of days ago where it did have a 40% day. Tier 2, we have SQQQ, TQQQ. One's a short, one's a bull, right? TQQQ is going up when the NASDAQ 100 is going up at a 3X leveraged rate. SQQQ is going down when the NASDAQ is going up and it's going up when the NASDAQ is going down at a 3X leveraged rate. And those, again, are Tier 2 in terms of volatility in my personal opinion. And the third one is more of a safe ETF known as the QQQ. And this one is actually the only one out of the bunch. I might as well just mention that in this video that you actually can hold long term, right? Because a lot of these other ones, you know, not to get too into depth on that because it'll be hugely long video. It would be a very long video here. But the other ones experience something called decay, right? They decay over time, which is why they're not really meant to be held over time because you're pretty much just losing value month after month, year after year through the decay, right? I was reading online on TVIX, you literally lose like 15% per month from decay or something like that. Don't quote me on that. But literally, guys, you're losing money from decay. The three ones, TQQQ, SQQQQ, TVIX, these are literally meant to be very short term plays, you know, mostly day trades. You can swing them for a couple of days. You can get away with that. But anything more than like a month, two months, you know, a couple of weeks, that's not going to be good for those. But TQQQ, rather, it's not leveraged. Again, this is one that you can hold for the long term. You can swing trade it for a month or two months, and you can hop in and out of it in terms of when the markets are volatile for day trading, but their returns, they aren't as great as, you know, some of these leveraged ones because TQQQ is just simply not leveraged, right? You're not going to be making as much returns as you would make on a TQQQ trade or a SQQQQ trade or TVIX trade. But I figured I'd still mention it in this video to offer some safety in terms of, you know, an ETF to mention, right? This one's more safe. It's a bit less volatile again due to it not being leveraged. And that's pretty much it, guys. If you enjoyed this video, let me know down below in the comments section, what do you think about these four ETFs? Do you trade them? I would love to know. If you enjoyed this video, feel free to hit that like button. It really supports me and supports the channel in general. And subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet subscribed. Hit that notification bell. I'm uploading content here pretty much day to day throughout the entire week. Saturdays, there may be a video, sometimes not. And every Sunday, I talk about 10 stocks that I'm watching for the upcoming week. And I also take requests from you guys on every Sunday about stocks that you want me to talk about. So I'll catch you all in the next video. I hope you all enjoyed it. Have a great day. Peace out.


What do you believe are some of the craziest feats you can accomplish when it comes to playing fighting games? Do you think it's landing the Daigo Parry in 3rd strike, or do you think it's completing the hardest combo trials in King of Fighters? Me personally, I believe one of the greatest things you can do is land a full team sweep in any team battle mode. Something that was made even harder in Street Fighter 6's team battle mode when you have the option to carry over health. That means any damage that one fighter does to you will carry over into your next match, healing only a minimal amount between sets. Landing a full team sweep here is a testament that you are just on a different level. And one of those players that is on that different level just happened to swing through the last time I hopes that a team battle set, and this is what happened.  My god, the pressure is crazy, but the defense was pretty good, didn't panic, hasn't hit a button until just then. I thought that was a cross for sure, I'm confused. Sure you're out of the corner, but the follow up is where you're going to get found, fireball comes out, got to keep at that fireball range. But wait, maybe the mix up is what really matters, 10 keeping him away, doesn't want to go for any obvious fireballs. The wall, what seems so far is now so close, bounces off it, takes a swig during the lag, drives through, tries to push a button, but Jamie just pieces him up. Big guy goes down, but that was a lot. That was definitely the look of a master rank, Jamie, that was a lot of buttons flying out. We're definitely looking at a circus, here we go, we sent another platinum after him, somebody's going to have to dig deep, land a couple of DPs. Oh, nice jump to get out, has him in the corner, drive impact, but the reaction was actually insane. The reaction was actually insane, I can't believe he reacted, I can't believe he comboed that. Sandblast, Sandblast is definitely going to be a key tool in this matchup, drive impact, doesn't react. He only has one bar of overdrive left, but he's built two, EXDP comes out, this is important. Remember in this format, any damage you do is a massive win for the team. No DP comes out, amazing combo, back into the corner, no cross up, great defense from Luke and a tech to boot. He's got him burnt out, what's he going to do on block, here comes the super and that's the perfect response to that. But I got to be honest, I was impressed with Sercas, that defense was huge. I just think Dump Stinker's reaction with that super was a little, I'll be honest, it was unexpected. Okay, this is crazy. In this format, it's definitely a feat if you sweep in this format, but if anybody can do it, it's looking like it's got to be Jamie here. He's playing a clean game of Street Fighter, Kimberly a little unsafe on block there, but great defense. Good patience, but everybody's patience has a meter eventually, you're going to run out of patience eventually. Good block, but a grab, it didn't come out, punish counter, huge damage, another grab, Street Fighter 6. Not another grab this time, instead just a light conversion combo into a super, and it combos as well. He's using the bardo, take this. Oh my goodness, you've got to wonder, he might actually be able to go through this. I never saw it, I didn't see it happening like this, but also I couldn't have never expected these combos. The conversions, the defense, it's all there. Great dashback though by Crimson. You've got to wonder, Jamie might have Drive Impact on the mind, oh my goodness, what an air to air option for a conversion. Crimson couldn't block the low there. Trying to jump out of the corner there probably gets grabbed, has to look out, he might shimmy him. Jamie, there's the Drive Impact off the wall, why do you get that much damage off Drive Impact on the wall with Jamie? That is crazy, that is crazy. Jamie is clocking in, and with a full health win there, he has nothing to recover making this a completely even experience. I never want to say when something is over, because you learn not to believe in things being over, but with this format, I just can't see a 1v5 winner, especially when you have to go through this Jamie. But Nexus has done incredible things before. Damn, just everything has been lad, bro, everything has been lad. He's taking swigs. Nexus, keeping his face, oh my god. Okay, find your feet, Nexus, find your feet, he's in his alcoholic version.  He's four drinks in, he's not the same person he was four drinks ago. He's got him in the corner, misthrow. Oh my goodness, it comes out. He's letting his hair down, he's, don't take the deal, Nexus, he's experienced in hand-to-hand combat. And we have just seen it, folks. Jamie wins. That was a five-man sweep. That was a five-man sweep against all odds.  Hey, bro, there's no shame in that, that was a master-ranked player. Oh my god, his favorite is ranked matches. Bro doesn't even, he barely practices. My god, he's learning as he fights. Hey, I noticed you haven't liked the video yet, or maybe you have. I'm just kind of jumping in, being annoying. But like and subscribe if you like fighting games, I'm trying to hit a million subscribers. Thank you, I'm just here for my boy Cricket. Oh shit, Cricket has a lot of fans. Let me have some fun. Let me have some fun. Cricket, the man with a million fans. Bro's got an audience rooting for him, but Kenny beat big guy, team leader. EX Sandblast, that move is crazy. Controls so much space. A jab does catch him in the middle of his wind-up punch, though. Jump in on Ken, couple of hits on block, has him in the corner. Drive impact, gotta be an option he's gonna go for. I knew it. Something about Cricket I could tell he wanted it.  Big rad to follow it up. Big guy in the corner. Jumps away from the grab. Drive impact, but for some reason that grab just went... Or maybe he didn't grab, maybe I saw it wrong. But Cricket with an amazing performance. You know his boys are popping off right now. Cricket, huge first win, huge setting of the pace. Oh, it's the Lukening. It's Luke time. It's just a Luke on Luke action. Sandblast versus Sandblast. Keeping his space goes for another pair. He knows those Sandblasts are coming. He can feel it with his Luke sense. EX Sandblast, huge.  Rising uppercut that means he's got plenty of time to punish. Doesn't get much, just a single hit. Oh, dashing, jumps to grab. Neutral jump, big. Finally, he's back with some overdrive meter. Text to grab. Cricket has too many fans to lose now. But with, whoa, I didn't even know Luke had a move like that. He dodges the XDP. Corner for corner, but now he's burnt out again and this one's gonna recover real slow. This is gonna be real slow. Wait, a super to retaliate. What an option by the Luke-o-ning. Boom, divorced. He's got him. Rising uppercut, neutral though. I don't know if I agree with that one. The super was sick, but the rising uppercut left him at his disadvantage. Sandblast comes out and leaves him just too available to punish, but Cricket definitely took some damage. It really was Luke time. Cricket's not gonna recover all that. This is where Dev Mags has to step in. He has to say, enough is enough. Cricket's gotta go. What a huge super though. That was insane. Great response. Here we go. Dev Mags with his Kimberly stepping up to the plate. He's gotta find a way to put this Luke away. This is Lucas from Street. Can't find the time to punish that. No anti-air. Goes for a slide. He's gonna be looking for moves like that. Just quick pickups. There it is. A little bit of damage goes a long way. He doesn't have to land any big combos. One drive impact would be enough. Well, one drive impact combo.  There it is. That's exactly what you wanna see. Big punish with the drive gauge. Dev Mags beautifully played. Was looking for that one moment. All he needed was one moment and he found it and capitalized. You've gotta appreciate Dev Mags and the Luke-ening and big guy for softening Cricket up. This is the start of something beautiful. Can Kimberly keep this pace going though? Another Luke. It is Luke's season. Another Platinum Luke steps up to the plate. Can Dev Mags at least get half? If not put him away too. Dev Mags has seen their fair share of Luke's. Rising up, got misses again, but no time to punish. Big EX comes out in the corner. Misses a grab. Misses another grab. Oh, it's over. Luke's going in for the tackle. The bar's being spent. This in itself could be an opportunity for the next player to come up though. Sir Cass gonna finish. No need to recover any health. He didn't lose any. And now it's Nathan's turn to step up to the plate. It's like a revolving door of Luke's. But here he is. Nameless Nathan, the ma, the myth, the legend. Roam buttons out, wants to keep that space. Sandblast definitely going to be a statement in this match. Comes in swinging again. Rising uppercut. The jump in pressure is just a little too crazy. You're too many options in the corner. Drive impact from Nathan. I like the option. Another, wow, that was crazy. EX, there you go. Take a little bit of health off. Drive impact, but nice jump away. No hit from it, but the grab, he's in one grab range now. Tatsu, that's gonna be punished for big damage. Couldn't get that much health off Sir Cass, but if anybody could get out of this situation, it would be dumb stinker. We've seen him do the 5-0 sweep, but is there a difference between having no pressure of being the starting person and all the pressure of being the last hope for your team? And also he's playing Luke. Everybody's playing costume two, Luke, they love it. Stinker, great overhead, dash in. Keeping pressure up on guard. You gotta wonder, is there just something different about the energy? Couldn't get an anti-air there, jump in. Sir Cass landing a good combo. Stinker, EX is it. Jump in. Couple hits on block, drive impact comes out. Big opportunity. You might at this point want to even blow some supers. Three bars, can't find the option. I'm stinker, almost, another jump in lay-ins. And this level three comes out. Is this enough? Could this be the end? It is, my goodness, it is. Sir Cass, he even said in chat, he said, I'm going to win, and he's done just that today. He's taking it, he's taking it all. He said in the chat, I said I like that confidence and the confidence has come back in full. Final round. Here we go, Sir Cass, he wants the 1v5. He wants all the smoke, but SMY is not going to go down that easy. Got him in the corner, drive impact comes out. What's the punish? I'll take the DP. That's a good bit of damage. DP comes out from Luke as well. Perry comes out, nothing of it. Fireball game, back to the corner, nowhere to run, but he doesn't want to run. He was setting him up for the back throw. Luke unfortunately escaped very quickly and now he's getting his own grab off. Ryu's going to have to find the way out. Next to grab, ends a medium kick.  Oh my goodness, return fire. Sir Cass wanted that smoke, but he found up a man not afraid to throw out some drive impacts as well. Back to the corner though. He's kind of scurrying a little bit. Drive impact comes out, but finally response from Cass. This might be the game in the corner. And that guy's jamming back there. This Luke costume looks like such a jabroni. People do like costume too. Honestly, once they start adding more costumes to this game, it's going to change the game. I don't know, man. I want like, like businessman Zangief. All right, Sir Cass already half on health. That's the power of this format here. Just because SMY didn't get the win doesn't mean his team can't appreciate what he was able to do. Has my half health. The Lukening has played this matchup before, I think. What a parry, perfect parry. Oh no, oh, drive impact. No reaction to it again. There's the rush down in the corner. Critical art available, but is this going to kill? It just might three far spent. It's Luke time, but can the Lukening participate? Oh no, he burnt out into the grab. Sir Cass takes him down. Chaos going to have to come in here and try to stop this. You don't want to let him run too far with this. That confidence is a big deal. Chaos on the modern Luke. You'd love to see it. Those same blasts are going to be coming out fast. Air to air. Sir Cass is going to take it and push through the drive impact. Rising uppercut, he's gaming. Fashed in the corner, he loves to go for it. Nice, air to air goes chaos his way. And attack. Drive impact, but he couldn't go far enough. He tried to get behind the seat of the drive impact, but you can't drive away from your problems. Oh my God, he's mastered the rolling kick. Critical art available, but he extPs wide open for a punish and that's all you need. Sir Cass on very limited health, but he's still going to walk away with another win. Cricket has to stop him. The man with a million fans, Cricket himself. He said he won V five. He did. He created this story, but can he finish the job? Sir Cass said he wanted the one V five and he's close to getting his way. EX same blast. Oh, way to play. This is the Luke mirror match. You got us. He drives it back. What an option to beat that. He saw him cock back and now he's got him right where he wants him. Luke combos. No punish on the jump in. Sir Cass only has a limited amount of life to his name, but he's finding all the options. He's got a couple of good looks. Pressing buttons. He's got to leave himself safe. Over extends just a little bit, but just a little bit is all Cricket needed to wrap it up. Oh, that dog is pissed. That dog in the background was a Sir Cass fan. He was pissed. Now while Sir Cass didn't get the win, nobody can be mad at him. Bro got a lot of wins for his team and then got some damage on top of that. That's all you can ask for out of a team lead. Ken master is going to step up to the play here. Big guy. Big guy on campus. Big guy in the custom room. Oh, left himself a little open, but drive impact didn't get there in time. Fireball game going to beat out the EXA and blast up until the second one. Don't underestimate that move. Oh, nice. Got him in the corner. Drive impact. It's big time. Oh, no super comes out. Didn't want to spend the meter. Fireball, fireball, play that game, play that game. You've got all the overdrive meter in the world. Ken, you got to use it.  Dash is in. The cricket seen it one too many times. Low on health and low on meter. He's got nothing to his name and Ken's going to make the most of it. We've definitely hit the strong suit. Oh, here we go. The man that once 1v5'd an entire lobby with one health bar. He had one health bar and five coronas in his pocket and he 1v5'd a lobby with it. Can he do it again for his team?  Oh, oh my goodness. One health left on Ken. EXTP could come out at any time but he doesn't find the way. He starts it off with a perfect. It's the final round. Ken Austin get a bit of damage on stinker. At this point, you've got to start thinking that you've got three characters on your team. You might as well use it. Once again in the corner, drive impact at least gets him out of there but the jump in goes unpunished. He's tearing through his health bar. A super comes out but that's, oh it actually lands. It all no corrected or did it. Did my eyes see that correctly? Austin with the insane performance. He's going to get some damage off on him. Now he's going to play the fireball game. I don't disagree. Make him come to you. Play that game. If nothing else, get some health off him. Get some meter off of him. Oh, big whiff. That's all you need, a little bit of time and stinker's going to find a way in. Huge pummel. That's going to be the round but I can't fault Austin. He got some damage off. This is crazy. How much of that health is he going to regen? Will it even look like Austin left a mark? I actually don't know. But here he is. The man, the myth nexus himself and on Marisa too. So he has those armor moves to get some damage and there it is. The armor moves. Even if he can't walk away with a win which he very well might, at least he's going to get his. He going to get his before he get God. That's for sure. Oh, but then again, dump stinker, one drive bar to his name. He's using it to dash in. He's not afraid of the burnout. He goes all in all the time. He's got three bars. He knows to use it now. He's trying to build up some extra bar. Hand to hand combat. Counter that. Hold that. Hold this. In the corner. Half your health far left. Starts with a low. It's the mix. One mix left. You get grabbed. Now it's really a one touch game. What do you got? Taxi. Jump in. No armor on it. It's wide open. Dash in. Dump stinker. While he is a little bit hurt, it just, I don't know. I don't know if that is enough. But YP stoic definitely has the health lead. The diamond Ryu we've seen him play. He can play a clean game. He's got to find a way to clutch up. Think you're missing a little bit of health but I think he's just evened it up with that. Air to air. You've got to block. Low is coming at you fast. They got a jumping medium. Nobody can blame you for that. In the corner. This is where we've seen things go awry. Jamie's pressure jumps away from the drive impact though.  Ryu definitely in the driver's seat of this match now. Jamie finds a way to sneak in a little drink. An amazing air to air option. How does he do it? How does he react? Onus is on YP to find a way out of this corner again. Dash in. He's going to do it with offense. Jamie's burnt out but has the combo priority. Off the ground. You've only got a limited time. Misses the grab but finds another one to take the game and clutches up for his team. He does it again with four wins in a row. And in this format it cannot be understated just how hard to do that is. Wow.


We are back at the 6th annual Mustang Gala. My name is Cameron Summers and I'm here with... Jaira Choppy. Okay, Jaira, what grade are you in? Do you play in sport? I'm a sophomore in the men's track team.  Yep. So this is your first Mustang Gala? Yep, my first one. How do you feel about tonight? It's pretty exciting just seeing all my friends get nominated for awards. I got nominated for one myself and just having a good time. Congratulations, congratulations. What moment do you think in your career puts you on the spot to get this award tonight? I would say during the indoor max championship but I got all regions, so sometime during that period. That's a big accomplishment for your first indoor? Yes, sir. It's very nice, it's very nice. You look amazing tonight. I really love this powder blue colorway. What was your inspiration behind this tonight? I have my own clothing brand called Amore Moda. So if you see right here, I put it on my button up and I just love the color blue. Anybody on the track team you'd want to shout out right now? I'll say Jubelo, he's a freshman but he's doing amazing out there and like can't wait to see what he has in store. OK, all right, well thank you for your time. Of course. Hope you enjoy your first Mustang, guys. Gotcha, thank you.