September 20, 2018
Akshay Nanavati is an entrepreneur, a high performance athlete, and a global thought leader. He overcame drug addiction, alcoholism and a bout of depression so intense that it sent him to the brink of suicide. In a fleeting moment, Akshay made a life changing decision to flip his life upside down. He has since built a global business, run ultramarathons, climbed mountains in the Himalayas, skied 350 miles across the world’s second largest icecap and fought as a U.S. marine in Iraq. He also wrote the book on FEAR - a book he entitled Fearvana which was so inspiring that the Dalai Lama himself, wrote the introduction. Akshay is now on a mission to run across every country in the world to raise awareness of his concept of Fearvana. He is scheduled to run an 11 day marathon across Liberia this October.
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Effect on Emotions
- Oh, mindfulness has been a game changer. It's allowed me to be with my emotions and transcend them.
- One quick story is in relationship to survivor's guilt. I struggled with survivor's guilt when I came back from the war. I lost a friend. I let that guilt consume me in many dark ways through alcohol and all these kinds of things that drove me to some dark places.
- I felt I didn't deserve to be here; I didn't deserve to be alive. But now my guilt is an ally. I still feel it. I have a picture of my friend that says on the wall and it says, this should have been you. You earned this life.
- So mindfulness has allowed me to be with that guilt and be okay with it and channel it to something useful.
Thoughts on Breathing
- I'm starting to get much more proactive, you know, through yoga and through my running because I'm really working on it a lot more.
- I also recently learned from my friend about the Wim Hof breathing method, Wim Hof, The Iceman. So it's starting to get much more proactive.
- Before that it was just really through deep breath and meditation, but it's definitely something I'm working on now. Enhancing to take my running and my life to the next level.
- My nutritionist friend Anthony, he had studied with Wim Hof, so he taught me a little bit about the Wim Hof breathing method and I mean on my second try, I held my breath for I think two to two and a half minutes. I'm not somebody who could do that. Like for some people it might be nothing, but for me I was never able to do that. Like that was not good at that.
- But just through this technique, I was blown away by how long I was able to hold my breath on my second try of doing it.
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Bullying Story
- This story is kind of awful. I'm not proud of it. But there was this one kid in Singapore, he was this little Indian kid and I used to kind of tease him a lot on the playing field. It was nothing serious, you know.
- But one day it got pretty serious. We were in the class and I essentially was the leader of this outfit where I got every kid in class; boys and girls, even the girls to get up and essentially punch this kid.
- The poor kid was obviously helpless, I mean, this is the entire class. He left the class crying. I still pretty vividly remember it.
- The whole class got in trouble, but they knew that I was the leader of this little band of bullies. I was suspended from school for a few days.
- Needless to say, my mom wasn't too proud of me. I wasn't too proud of it as well, but that was the one that stands out because that one was pretty awful to subject a kid to.
- So I actually apologized to this guy years later on facebook. I remember him saying something along the lines of, I've learned to let that go and I'm in a good place, but you should let that go as well.
- So it was very sweet of him to say that. It didn't leave long lasting scars, thankfully. And he said you should let go as well. So I was like, thanks for saying that man. I'm glad you're well.
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September 17, 2018
Katie Krimitsos is a mom, wife, adventurer, podcaster, business strategist, seeker and change maker. She's committed to brightening the light of women around the world - through her Biz Women Rock community, which supports Women Entrepreneurs - and now through her new podcast,Meditation for Women, guided meditations that are specifically created with the special journey of women in mind.
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Effect on Emotions
- Mindfulness has clarified my emotions and slowed them down. It has detached the emotions from who I am and what my actions are going to be and it's really slowed down that process. My actions and who I show up to be is a lot more intentional.
Thoughts on Breathing
- Oh breathing is huge. I think it's probably the core of my mindfulness practice. It's the core of everything for me. So there are times where the very first thing that I'll do is just stop, close my eyes, take three deep breaths. And even just that allows me to find that pause and get centered. It's huge.
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Bullying Story
- Actually have a reverse kind of a story which I think is really interesting. I am the mom to a two and a half year old, very strong willed, very opinionated, very chock full of personality, little girl.
- So [she's] two and a half and she goes to school a couple days a week and there have been a couple instances where she's hitting and she's like, you know, kind of like somebody takes her toy and she hits or you know, she didn't want somebody to touch her so she hits, right.
- And I have found that this is a very uncomfortable but necessary for my husband and I. We have already had this conversation of like, dude, she's one of those kids who's going to go after what she wants.
- She's the one who walks in the room with a class full of kids who are like a year older than her and she will take over the room, which is a great skill. But we both realize we really have to make sure that we're watching this so it doesn't turn into bullying. We [believe we] can really massage it into all the great skills that are a [strong leader].
- So that was the most recent experience that I've had with really recognizing it and needing to teach her those lessons of when it's okay to be physical with somebody. I mean, I don't want my kid to get beaten up either.
- I don't want people to just take from her and that can be okay. So I want her to learn how to stand for herself and when it is not okay. So that's the most in my face bullying thing that I'm super aware of right now as a mother, oh my goodness. And it's, it's scary because I'm in charge of that.
- And so for mindfulness, obviously mindfulness for me and Chris as parents and being aware of that and needing to deal with that in the moment and actively trying to teach her what to do when you get angry and how can you breathe? And we do that.
- [We tell her] hey, when you're mad, you know, stomp your feet and take a deep breath. And sometimes if she's really mad she'll be like, no, I don't want to. But you know she's learning that.
- So she's learning to take a deep breath, do the pause, so that you can see what's going on versus what the emotions are driving you to.
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September 12, 2018
DeRu is the Founder of the Global Zen Consciousness Conference, the Founder & Chairman of the Global Zen Alliance, and a Kungfu Grand Master. He has served for over 10 years as head coach of the U.S. National Sanshou Team and is a Technical Chairman for the Pan American Wushu-kungfu Federation. His vast Kungfu experience has resulted in him being known as the “American Godfather of Sanshou” around the world. He has spent time sharing and teaching Zen Consciousness, which advocates daily conscious meditative action to heighten and expand one’s consciousness. He is also dedicated to bridging the gap between theoretical physics and Zen consciousness.
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Most Influential Person
- A past chief monk in charge of the Shaolin temple
Effect on Emotions
- Oh, it's beautiful. You know, sometimes of course you get angry, you get upset. But normally for me it's 30 seconds. And then I get over with it.
- You know, human beings react to things. Then I breathe back to my knowledge state. That's just mindfulness.
- To me meditation is a conscious mode and back into the conscious mode. But most people probably are in reaction mode all the time.
- But I think when people do meditation; I do three hours a day, two hours a day, minimum one hour a day, every single day, seven days a week for 50 something years.
Thoughts on Breathing
- I like to breathe into my abdomen and just listen to my breath and get into that meditative mood right away.
- And then I see things in a different way a minute later and totally different from a minute before.
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Bullying Story
- I know a lady, her name is Pat and she's 81 years old. She was 81 years old a couple of years ago. She came to do some self defense with me and to learn how to survive as an 81 year old, single who sleeps by herself.
- I told her a couple of things. The first thing was, you have to meditate everyday to be mindful, to be conscious. That way, if anything happens you won't be chaotic and you'll be free of fear.
- Then there was a 20 some year-old boy who came into her house and put a gun to her head. She said, 'how dare you, I know kungfu'.
- And then she changed her mindset from the fear to kungfu mindset. That's consciousness. That's mindfulness. And the kid was just scared.
September 10, 2018
Sharon Lynn Wyeth has accomplishments to her credit in many fields, and one of them is education where she has benefited thousands of students. She has worked in many different capacities in education. She's been in nationally syndicated programs as well as the President of the United States Yearly Conference for the 50 governors. Sharon has used her innate gift of intuition combined with her keen observation skills and reasoning mind to create something called neimology science. Neimology science is about understanding someone's personality or characteristics.
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Most Influential Person
- Eugene E. Whitworth, Author
Effect on Emotions
- I can handle very stressful situations very calmly and keep my thinking clear and I really give it, (mindfulness) credit also for giving me a lot of creative ideas and a creative way of handling different situations.
Thoughts on Breathing
- There is an interesting book that is saying how the author went and and interviewed only people that had lived more than 120 years or more than 200 years I think is what he ended up with. But his goal was over 120 years. And in that book it says, how do we breathe and what did he learn from these people that were really old.
- What he learned was that they spent hours everyday just on their breathing exercises. And so I learned different breathing exercises by reading that book. The book is called, Breaking the Death Habit by Leonard Orr.
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Bullying Story
- I saw so much bullying when I was growing up that I think that's the reason I spent the 18 years developing neimology science because I was seeing the benefits of it.
- [I could see] that it could help people know how to handle different things, but I really got to see bullying grow when I was a teacher and I would watch how kids would shame other kids or make them feel less than.
- They would make little snide comments like, who are you, who do you know or just this, this niceness. And they're so subtle sometimes that I think a lot of people wouldn't catch them.
- I love teaching middle school and that's where bullying really comes out. That's just a tough year for everybody.
- When I would watch a kid make some kind of awful remarked to somebody else, I learned to say to them, wow, I just heard what you said. And for you to do that, you must really be in pain yourself or you wouldn't want to be causing somebody else that kind of pain.
- And is this happening to you in school, out of school? Would you like to talk with me in public or private, but we need to discuss this because your level of hurt is now coming out to cause other people pain and that's not appropriate.
- That's how I would handle that. But I will tell you, because I grew up where so many people were being bullied, we learned to defend ourselves and how to talk back right away.
September 6, 2018
Marc Guberti is a digital marketing expert. He is an entrepreneur and an author with over 80,000 online students. He's the host of the Breakthrough Success Podcast where he and his top-level guests teach you how to take your business to the next level and achieve your breakthrough. His latest book is called Content Marketing Secrets and it teaches people how to create, promote, and optimize content for growth and revenue. Marc is a social media columnist for the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals. He coaches business owners on how to grow and monetize their online businesses.
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Most Influential Person
- My parents and my family. My mom, father, brother and grandparents.
Effect on Emotions
- Mindfulness keeps my emotions in check. Sometimes your emotions can run a little wild based on current events. It helps you think about good times and puts a bunch of things into perspective.
[show-notes-emotions]
Thoughts on Breathing
- Breathing is something I do very unconsciously. With running I have a very specific way of breathing; in through the nose and out through the mouth. Apparently runners are supposed to breath in and out through the nose but that's a little too hard for me.
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Bullying Story
- I don't have a specific bullying story but being a Red Sox fan, sometimes Yankie fans can get a little, well not all of them, but some of them ... In some of those situations where that happens, mindfulness can help you hit the pause button. It's harder when there's an outside force trying to get your attention. If you get good at doing that with a bad outside force, you get a lot better over time and you just tap into your self-worth. That's something I believe we're not doing enough. There are a lot of people, myself included, where we have this line of accomplishments and we only look at what we haven't done. If anyone's trying to shatter you, just look back to your accomplishments, to things that make you feel proud and feel really good about yourself. You can bring those things to light. Realize you have this impressive track record and then words don't mean anything. If this is more of an internal battle, you'll be able to use this to propel yourself and get to the summit.
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September 3, 2018
Bob Younger is a photographer with a thorough understanding of interconnectedness. His passion for photography began in grade school when he received a Brownie Starmite camera at Christmas. Gradually, he moved to larger format cameras, slowing down and adopting a mindful approach to photography. He discovered the value of building an emotional connection with his subjects. Today, Bob teaches how to achieve a deep emotional connection between photographer, subject, and photograph.
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Most Influential Person
- Richard Rohr has probably been one of the biggest influences in my life. We've attended a number of his conferences and read a number of his books and listened to a lot of his work on CD. https://cac.org/richard-rohr/richard-rohr-ofm/
Effect on Emotions
- Mindfulness is a standard. I would probably tell you I used to operate right at the edge. It didn't take very much [to get me there].
- Even if Sandra [my wife] said, can I ask you a question? That would emotionally put me at the edge or over. So mindfulness and meditation have moved me to separate that a whole lot further away and I'm not really sure where the edge is right now, but I haven't been there in a long time.
Thoughts on Breathing
- This is where meditation has really helped. It's because I realized that a breath is now and, and it's sort of the smallest part.
- It started the smallest piece of life that I can sort of separate out from the rest. And so I've learned that breathing, whether it's during meditation or whether it's just during the day, whenever I'm doing it enables me to say no, this is the breath, this is right now.
- Take a breath and then let's take the next breath. And so I've been able to bring myself back to this particular moment in time, this breath. I used to count in meditation one, two, three.
- I was always getting discouraged when I realized there had been a whole lot of breaths in there that hadn't been counted. And when I choose to count, I just only count to one because one is all you've got right now.
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Childhood Story
- I don't ever remember being secure in who I was. I wasn't stupid; I did ok in school. We moved around a lot. I went to three different elementary schools, two different middle schools, and four different high schools.
- Growing up for me was moving around a lot and kind of making friends, but in retrospect, I realize I really never developed any close friends and I'm not in touch with anybody I ever knew growing up. I never established a community.
- I was never a part of a community as I was growing up. I was always alone because if we were someplace long enough, I was probably getting ready to move anyway.
- I learned to adjust, but I also never developed long-term relationships that many people did when they grew up and went to the same schools with the same people.
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August 30, 2018
Natasha Todorovic-Cowen is the CEO of National Values Centre Consulting and is the owner of the brand, Viral Dynamics. Natasha is all about helping people and businesses change. She has helped corporations with dysfunctional teams and incongruent leadership move to new levels of success. Natasha has personally endured massive levels of change in her life. She lived in three countries before the age of seven and then later, in adulthood, experienced two acquisitions and an industry that disappeared overnight. She has delivered over 100 SPIRAL DYNAMICS® Programs in 14 countries and continues to help teams learn how to meet their organizational goals. She holds an MBA degree and has worked extensively in the field of neural-linguistic programming.
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- Company: Spiral Dynamics
- Website: SpiralDynamics.org
Most Influential Person
Effect on Emotions
- Mindfulness has affected my emotions by allowing me to notice the initial sparking emotion.
- Far too many of us are feeling feelings about feelings, and that's a form of affect phobia. By noticing the messages in that initial spark, we get to understand our reactions and what we need to know quickly, rather than letting things spiral out of control.
Thoughts on Breathing
- So we were talking about the PTSD, and one of the things I did when I was having a reaction was a long four count in, a four-count hold, a four-count exhale, and a four-count hold. And I did that until I could be present in the room again.
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Bullying Story
- Actually, my husband and I were subject to over a decade of bullying and it was rough.
- It was very tough because some of the stuff that we did with spiral dynamics was very confronting to a certain group of folks. Sometimes we'd be in our classes delivering the spiral dynamics content and we'd have some of those people in our classes. I had PTSD for a number of years and this situation would get so bad it would trigger the entire PTSD.
- Now, if you've got a room with 30 people, you can't go freak out. So what I did was, I internally noticed the reaction, noticed the panic, and noticed the fear. I noticed it come up inside me and acknowledged what that was and asked myself, 'Okay. Is this person asking you that question because they're trying to get you? Or is it because there's a sincere desire underneath there to learn something or to explore something?'
- Once I was able to be mindful of their intentions, where they were coming from, and the origins of what it was that they were trying to explore, I was able to let that emotion or that reaction simmer down some, and then become fully present for them. Sometimes I had to ask them a couple of questions just to get myself grounded in their world, their experience, and their reality to be fully present for them. But that was one of the ways that I dealt with that.
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August 27, 2018
Ben Feder is CEO of a large gaming enterprise called Tencent Games and formerly was CEO of Take Two Interactive, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. In an effort to revitalize his sense of purpose and rebuild family relationships, he dropped everything and left his fast-paced Manhatten life-style to an exotic island for a year of growth, including a new level of mindfulness, meditation, and artistic expression.
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Most Influential Person
- Eric Langshur, author of 'Start Here'
Effect on Emotions
- They skew much more positively than they used to and are much more optimistic.
Thoughts on Breathing
- Breathing is the center of my mindfulness practice. My mindfulness practice amounts to three things. It's yoga, meditation, and art. In terms of yoga and meditation, [breathing] is integral to the practice, and in terms of art, probably not so much, but I wonder what would happen to my art if I actually incorporated [breathing].
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Bullying Story
- My daughter was bullied in school and really suffered terribly. She would come home and either cry or fight with her brothers and we wouldn't know what it was about until towards the end of the evening, when you'd kind of find out what happened in school.
- It oftentimes wasn't anything specific. It was an eye roll from some girl and you know, all of a sudden she became devastated.
- By taking her out of that environment and putting her into an environment where she absolutely flourished, we noticed that she could have a positive experience, so that school was obviously the wrong place for her.
- A few years later, as she's a young adult now, or a teenager. She's just this utterly different human being. It just looks so amazing to watch. I'm sure some of that may have happened anyway, but taking her out of that toxic environment in and of itself was probably a mindful approach.
- So, I don't think you need to like, get up and go to Bali and have that experience, but taking her out of a toxic environment, provided you can put her in an environment that's not toxic, A, is beneficial, and B, it shows her that her parents are paying attention and are concerned and caring and doing the best thing for her.
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August 23, 2018
Amina AlTai is a branding and marketing expert in the fields of nutrition, fitness, and mindfulness. She believes that being nourished & having a healthy bottom line are intrinsically tied. After several years of pushing her physical limits in order to achieve business success, Amina experienced burnout and developed two autoimmune diseases and a whole host of food allergies. She realized being physically and emotionally healthy meant her business could thrive too. Now she pays it forward and teaches others how to fill up in all the right ways: in business, and in life.
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Most Influential Person
Effect on Emotions
- [Mindfulness has] tremendously affected my emotions. I think life is always ebbing and flowing, right? And so it's up, it's down, it's up and it's down.
- And I think if we're not prepared, if we're not trained, if we're not mindful, we can go along on that rollercoaster so when life goes up, we go up, when life goes down, we go down.
- But mindfulness allows me to witness what's happening in my life without riding the rollercoaster and that is just tremendous.
Thoughts on Breathing
- So anytime I do any sort of a speaking or presentation, I will make sure to layer in additional breathing exercises in addition to my meditation practice. There's so much research on how it mitigates performance anxiety and just bringing ourselves back to our breath is everything.
- You realize that you've been in a state of fight or flight all day trying to get a taxi, commuting, whatever it is, and then you bring yourself back to your breath and it's just this moment of profound stillness.
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Bullying Story
- I was obese as a child and I was bullied really badly at school for my thighs and I wish at the time I knew that it wasn't about me.
- I wish that meditation would have helped me tremendously because instead of me clinging onto these ideas that I was terrible because of my weight and my size and what I looked like, I wish I would have been able to sort of watch these emotions, these thoughts, sort of as if I was a passer by.
- [I wish I could have imagined I was] just sitting on the sidewalk watching them go by. Instead I was clinging onto them and, and believing that this was to do with me and my identity.
- So, yes I wish I had known about mindfulness and meditation.
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