Mindfulness Mode

Andre Young is a Professional Speaker, Author, Leadership Trainer, and Founder of You Evolving Now, LLC. He worked as a Mental Health Therapist for 19 years, played sports at every level from high school to professional, has been an employee, a business owner, and self-employed, and has written 4 books focused on enhancing Leadership & Work/Life Harmony. As Founder of You Evolving Now, it's his mission to enhance Leadership and Work/Life Harmony for organizations, leaders, employees, and teams with his high-energy, interactive, culture-changing leadership training programs and speaking engagements; allowing a professional and personal evolution!

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Contact Info

• You Evolving Now, LLC.
• Website: www.youevolvingnow.com
• Podcast: You Evolving Now
• Book: EVOLVE By Andre Young
• Book: 7 Ways to Lead: Evolve Professionally & Personally By Andre Young
• Book: The Leader’s Toolbox: Tools to EVOLVE your Leadership … and that of those you’re leading By Andre Young

Your Life Prior to ‘You Evolving Now'

• I was a mental health therapist for 19 years. I spent 15 years in alternative schools and partial hospitalization settings. That was great working with kids, adults, and families. I did outpatient, marriage counciling, individual and group work, and was in psychiatric facilities.
• It was a great ride and I loved doing it and I thought I would retire doing it. I have to say, if you're in this profession, great for you. I felt out of love with how the system takes care of the caregiver.

What Were The Challenges You Faced?

• Caregivers do a poor job of taking care of themselves. We are givers. So the system would do best by taking care of you as well. Overall, it was a real struggle. Then I started to come up with some of my own concepts. To be honest, I burned out.
• Now I get to talk on stages and help organizations and help people lead through or prevent burnout. Sometimes you can't prevent it, it's there. So if it's there already and it's hit a few of your people, your leaders, your organization, your team, how do you lead through it? It is possible.

What Have You Learned From Your Children About Mindfulness?

• I have a 22 year old daughter, a 19 year old son, a 14 year old son, and a 3 year old daughter. All of them are always my forever babies, love 'em to death. They taught me about patience. If you have mulitple kids, you know they are all different. In my experience, the one who is most challenging is the one who is most like you, and the one who is least like you. You love them. When I did my book, Seven Ways To Love, I explained that love is a verb, something that you do. Most people depend on the feeling.
• You love your kids, that comes with having kids. How you do love, needs to be more intentional. The book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman changed my life. I asked everyone in my family about their love language and found out their top two.  And I learned them. And you ask every year because it can change a lot. You don't want to be speaking somebody's old language.
• With my kids, I'm words of affirmation and I'm quality time. I love spending quality time and giving words of affirmation to them. My daughter told me, tell me you love me and leave me alone. My two sons are quality time and my 3 year old is play, she's quality time.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
• App: n/a

Related Episodes

• Work Smarter Not Harder Explains Sabrina Runbeck
• Work In and Work Out To Cultivate Energy; Greg Schmaus

• Three Keys To Juggling Work and Family; Connie Benjamin

Special Offer

Amber Fuhriman is an attorney, Certified NLP Trainer, Speaker, and Success Architect. After realizing that her entire identity had been tied up in being an attorney, Amber has spent the past 5 years, pushing her own boundaries and learning about how our past experiences affect our success. Now, in addition to practicing law, Amber uses her NLP knowledge as well as her experiences with grief, professional success, and physical challenges, including a 24-hour endurance obstacle course race, to help other business owners and entrepreneurs gain clarity on what they want finally live a life and business they deserve.

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Contact Info

• Company: Success Development Solutions
• Website: www.successdevelopmentsolutions.com
• Podcast: More Than Corporate

Most Influential Person

• Her Dad.

Effect on Emotions

• Growing up, I was always the kid that was too emotional. I was the kid that wanted to hug family four or five, six times before I left I was the kid that said goodbye a bunch. I was the crier. I'm still the crier. I feel like my friends just carry around tissues with them because they know I'm coming.
• Mindfulness has helped me realize that that's not a weakness. Mindfulness has helped me realize that it's okay to feel those emotions and express them. And that too emotional isn't really a thing. But to close off is.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I do believe that breathing is related to mindfulness. I also believe that when you are in the middle of the time you need it the most. If one person looks at you and says Just breathe, you want to punch him in the face. So for me when I have people who are struggling with anything where they need to slow their mind down, while I do tell them to breathe, I tell them to count first, because that's what made a difference for me.
• For me, it was math problems, I would do math problems in my head until I forgot what I needed to breathe about. And then I would do breathing exercises, because I feel like when it when you're completely overtaken with emotion, whether that be anxiety or panic or fear, whatever it is, that when you breathe, sometimes you can't turn your mind off enough to make the breathing worth it. But multitasking is a myth, we can't do it.
• So if you force your brain to focus on math problems, your brain can't focus on whatever it's afraid of. And then as soon as you forget what it is that you were doing math problems for, then you can breathe to recenter yourself.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life By Mark Manson
• Book: I Hope I Screw This Up: How Falling in Love with Your Fears Can Change the World By Kyle Cease
• App: Spotify

Bullying Story

• My mom, and I have an amazing relationship now. And she has listened to my podcast and we have these conversations. So I'm not saying anything I wouldn't say to her. When I decided I was going to go to law school, her response to me was, I think you should pick a less ambitious goal because I don't want to comfort you when you fail. And to me, that was my mom telling me that she didn't believe in me.
• That was my mom telling me that I wasn't strong enough. And that was just one of many things that I have internalized and become the victim of because of my own mindset.
• I graduated from law school and I graduated at the top of my class passing the bar for the first time building this amazing career. And I still never felt like she supported me. And then I went through NLP.
• I learned that statements are never about me and always about her. And what happens is she grew up in a different generation where going out and doing something like going to law school and moving across the country on her own. She couldn't see herself as being capable of doing those things. So the statements that she was making towards me weren't coming from a place of hatred or anger or lack of support. They were coming from a place of her not knowing how to support me because my actions were something she couldn't relate to.

Related Episodes

• How To Discover Your Career Purpose; Sean Sessel
• Passionate NLP Instructor Teaches How To Be Limitless; Serena Denmark

• Quantum Healing and NLP For Body and Mind Transformation; Beth Sutherland

Special Offer

Brandon Leibowitz has operated SEO Optimizers since 2007; a digital marketing company that focuses on helping small and medium-sized businesses get more online traffic, which in turn converts into clients, sales, and leads. The mission of SEO Optimizers is to “see all our clients succeed to their maximum potential online; using all possible online marketing channels that have a positive return on investment.”  Brandon has a podcast called ‘Get More Sales and Leads Using SEO’.

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Contact Info

• Company: SEO Optimizers
• Website: www.seooptimizers.com
• Podcast: Get More Sales & Leads Using SEO

Most Influential Person

• The yoga instructor who introduced me to yoga meditation.

Effect on Emotions

• Mindfulness helped me be more relaxed, although you can't always be mindful. Sometimes  you're angry or upset and it's tough to be mindful in that moment, but I try to sometimes just be more aware and to be more present and not just be thinking of other things. That is tough to do, but it's helped and I'm slowly getting better.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I have done meditations where you do different breathing exercises like breathing in, holding it in, letting it out for a certain amount of time. If I do deeper breaths, I'll kind of feel like it eases it out a little bit. And so definitely the breathing and the breath has a lot of power. And I need to look into that more and learn about different breathing strategies, because there's so many out there.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment By Eckhart Tolle
• App: Headspace
• App: Insight Timer

Bullying Story

• At middle school, I got picked on by other kids in PE class, for not running fast or not being as quick as other kids. Definitely it was tough to know how to deal with that all throughout school. I feel like almost everyone gets some form of bullying.
• But Middle School definitely and a little bit high school had a little bit of that and it's tough to deal with at times. But you gotta know that this is only temporary. It should be over eventually and then you'll be on your own. In the real world at least you're not trapped, like in a school where you have to be there for eight hours a day, five days a week.

Related Episodes

• Build Your Resiliency In Tough Times; Lisa Winston
• Booster Shot of Happiness; Soren Russow

• Tune In To Your Teens’ Passion; Jonathan and Renee Harris

Special Offer

Last weekend I attended the Archangel Changemaker Event at Beanfield Centre in Toronto. It was a 2-day event put on by Giovanni Marsico. I’ve attended the annual Archangel Event since about 2016. The live event didn’t happen during COVID, so last weekend was the first in-person gathering since 2019. Today I’ll tell you a little about this awesome event. There was a long list of speakers so I’ll mention a few of them.

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1/ Steve Sims

First, I was excited that Steve Sims was attending as a speaker. I interviewed Steve back in 2018. His episode was #360. He is a guy who has worked with Tony Robbins, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson and made incredible things happen for these and so many other people. He has planned events, arranged for people to meet, and generally led a fascinating life doing things that most of us wouldn’t even dream of. I was able to talk to Steve and get a photo with him and I’ll tell you he was really personable and approachable. If you want to check out Steve, find him at www.SteveWSims.com and you can listen to his MM interview by going to www.mindfulnessmode.com/360

• Book: Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen by Steve Sims

2/ Stu McLaren

Stu McLaren was another speaker who had an interesting and memorable talk. He encourages people to start a membership site. He’s been helping people start membership sites since 2008 and he’s helped a huge list of ppl become successful by using this strategy. . He is a fellow Canadian, also from Ontario. He talked about several people who had created interesting membership sites including Art2Life Academy, The Twisterhood where they make balloon animals, and Tony’s Acoustic Challenge where Men Over 50 play the acoustic guitar together. Stu had a segment during his talk when he got people in the audience to participate in a sing-along of the song, Every Little Thing by Bob Marley. Towards the end of his talk, he told us about his non-profit organization called ‘Village Impact’ where he builds schools in rural Kenya for underprivileged children.

3/ Danielle Laporte

Another speaker who had a powerful impact on me was Danielle Laporte. I’ve heard her speak before and again, she was incredible. She started by talking about acceptance and how her definition of acceptance is ‘wonder and awe tinged with respect’. She talked about fear and how we all create our own fear and that we should not try to avoid it. She said we should practice loving kindness with our doubts and shame. She said we should all ‘choose loving thoughts’, and that ‘energy follows thought’. She said to think about this question: How do I want to feel?

Danielle has a new book coming out in October called, “How To Be Loving: As Your Heart Is Breaking Open and Our World Is Waking Up”. I encourage you to purchase the book, I know I’m looking forward to reading it.

Book: How To Be Loving: As Your Heart Is Breaking Open by Danielle Laporte

4/ Jim Kwik

Jim Kwik was also speaking on the weekend, and I’ve heard him before as well. He started by talking about how we can all ‘Upgrade Our Brain’ just as he teaches in his book, ‘Upgrade Your Brain: Learn Anything Faster and Unlock Your Exceptional Life.’ He talked about three M’s: Mindset, Motivation, and Method. He said Mindset represented possibility, motivation was about purpose and method was about the process. He said, “If you fight for your limitation, you are going to achieve them.” He also talked about an effective formula for life which is PXEXS3. That represents Purpose times Energy, times small, simple steps. He emphasized that the key to achieving success is taking small simple steps consistently. I would like to have Jim and Danielle as a guest on Mindfulness Mode.

Book: Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain by Jim Kwik

Suggested Resources

• Book: A Walking Life: Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step at a Time by Antonia Malchik
• Book: Leadership Unleashed: A Great Dane's Wisdom for the Business World by Dr. Ann Gatty

Related Episodes

• The Mindful Movement; Sara Raymond
• Mindful Movement In Addiction Treatment; Kendra Kirane
• Experience Transformation With MindTravel; Murray Hidary

Sifu Rubia discovered the benefits of Tai Chi as a way to heal herself, and she has been a consistent student and practitioner ever since. An orphan born in Bangladesh, Sifu Rubia has navigated the scars of deep loss and trauma creating intense anxiety in her body and mind, including the traumatic loss of her body to a miscarriage which brought her to her first Qi Gong class where she discovered the healing and strength building power Qi cultivation firsthand, Because Qi Gong & Tai Chi have helped her overcome barriers attached to grief and loss, Sifu Rubia decided that she wanted to be able to pass these benefits on to others, to teach as many people as possible just how accessible these ancient technologies are, and how much they can help people of all ages take control of their physical and mental wellbeing and bring light into darkness.

Since then, she has accumulated hundreds of hours of teacher training, including Yang Family style Tai Chi, Yoga, and Iron Shirt Qi Gong. With over a decade of teaching experience, Sifu Rubia has transformed hundreds of lives, giving students the tools to maintain health, rejuvenate their bodies and recapture youthful energy and equanimity in their life. These modalities are truly sacred spaces where one can self-regulate and heal. Using all that accumulated

knowledge and experience, teaching in community centers, drug, and alcohol rehabilitation centers, private group classes, as well as public speaking engagements at both local and national corporate functions, Sifu Rubi has created an incredible Tai Chi Fundamentals for Beginners course that is the perfect start to

your journey to a new, healthier and more balanced you. As she says to herself, “The whole world needs healing now. And that journey starts within ourselves.

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Contact Info

• Website: www.weiwutaichi.online

Most Influential Person

• First Tai Chi teacher and Zazie Malanga

Effect on Emotions

• Breath, breathwork, hands down, learn how to breathe, learn breathing technique. And then your emotions are temporary. But when you're in them, you think either that they're forever, but they're temporary. So learning how to move through them through your breath.

Thoughts on Breathing

• The simplest one is one hand on the heart, and one hand on the belly called belly breath. That's the simplest, but for me has been the most affected at any point in time, and do it wherever you need, if you're in your car, and you're stuck in traffic, and just take a moment and can reconnect to your breath really deeply and mindfully.
• There are some fire breath techniques that help, move stagnation from the body. So that's really a good one as well when you want to energize as opposed to soften.
• And then there's alternate nasal breathing, where you alternate breathing in and out from one nostril, and then switching over. So those are the three main ones that I work with. But there are plenty of others out there as well.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind By Dr. Peter Wayne
• Book: The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu (The Essential Wisdom Library) By by Lao Tzu and Brian Browne Walker

Bullying Story

• Bullying, as a woman and a woman of color, I feel like it's a constant state of affairs. I've been in the world of business for a very long time, I've managed multiple businesses, and I've owned multiple businesses. So the constant confrontation, of being up against the patriarchy, to me is constant bullying.
• I'm sure every woman can relate to that, whether you're a woman of color or not. Then I come back to how these practices have helped me soften my inner being and have put me in touch with my Yin side because when you are in the business world, you're all young energy. And that's fine to get work done and get things going. But it's imbalanced.
• If you can't find your softness and your femininity, whether you're male or female, then you're doing a disservice to yourself. So these modalities have helped me to soften my energy.
• Besides being present, it's soft that will always overcome the heart. So it's the softness of the water, but the consistency and the persistence of the water that cuts through the rock. And I'm quoting, the Tao Te Ching, this is not me. This is not my realization so in that sense, my mindfulness practice has helped me with that, and then, in meditating more on it further.

Related Episodes

• Healing With Tao Calligraphy; Dr & Master Sha
• Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Mindfulness; Master Lama Rasaji

• Tao Te Ching Philosophy; Jessie Kanzer

Special Offer

Nellie Harden is a Family Life & Leadership Coach who focuses on helping parents eliminate power struggles with their daughters and help them grow into confident, wise, and respectful young women that are actually ready for the world! Nellie is a wife and mom to 4 daughters, an author, speaker, podcaster, homeschooling parent, and adventure chaser. She has a degree in biology and psychology and a diverse behavior background from humpback whales in the South Pacific to teens and parents in homes across the world. This mom believes in a life of intention and making dreams and goals realities. She knows that the best way to help the world is through one living room at a time!

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Contact Info

• Website: www.nellieharden.com
• Podcast: The 6570 Family Project

Most Influential Person

• Brené Brown

Effect on Emotions

• Instead of emotions, being in the driver's seat, I've been able to step back and see where the emotions are coming from because before they're an emotion, it's a thought.
• So if we look at our thoughts more as a busy airport, and we're taking the ones and sitting in the plane, if you will, of the ones that we're choosing, and then we're on the flight, we're actually feeling something about it, we have power over that choice, right.
• I know emotions can get carried away super quickly. I've definitely experienced that today. But understanding that I am choosing to have this, and I have a lot more control than I ever thought I did before has been very empowering. Because you can step out of the emotion then, and look at it from a third-party point of view, instead of just being in it and having them rule you. And then your behavior, if you're sitting just inside of the emotion, is all over the place. So

Thoughts on Breathing

• I think breathing is so important. I like to do this square breathing. That's the way that helps me, it has a visual with it. So
• I'm a very visual person, a visual learner. So if I can, breathe in the top out and then in and out and just keep going around the square, it gives me something to focus on in my head. And you can always find usually always find a square around you somewhere. So
• So I do a lot of square breathing. It's also being able to cleanse your brain because thinking about when you're watching a movie or a suspenseful part or something like that. So many times I find myself not breathing. That's a good clue right there that when I'm stressed when my emotions are high, I'm actually not breathing. So
• And so when everything gets calm, you're like, Oh, thank goodness. Right. And so that's a natural cue to me that if I want to be in a state of calm, then I should breathe as though I am calm.  So

Suggested Resources

• Book: Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience By Brene Brown
• Book: The 12-Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months By Brian Moran
• App: Hormonology Menstrual Cycle Tracker

Bullying Story

• I've been on the side of bullying. I was never popular. I went to middle school with perm bangs and straight hair. I believe I was in seventh grade which is a hard time for everybody. build peace into parenting
• So there was a boy, I really, really liked him and he was part of the popular crowd. And so the word got around that I liked him. And he so he wrote me a note. And he said, meet me by your locker at such and such a time. And I really, I really want to talk to you and had a heart on it.
• So I primped my permed bangs and went all there and stood at the locker. And at that point, there was a crowd. I mean, this was like an after-school special-type story. But anyway, he came up. And he just said, “Did you really think that I would like you, of course, I don't, and walked away.”
• And then everyone was just laughing and, of course, I was crushed. I was so embarrassed. And then I had to go to school with these people for the next seven years. That was always such a gleaming story in my head.
• I had to keep going to class, I had to keep going to school, I had to keep saying hello to these people and not be rude. Funny enough, we're Facebook friends today, you only behave out of what you know. build peace into parenting

Related Episodes

• Debbie Cundy Owen: Skilled Life Coach Resolves Family Conflicts and Stress
• Connect With Family Through Mindfulness, Says Orlando Magic Cameraman, Clem Harrod

• Three Keys To Juggling Work and Family; Connie Benjamin

Special Offer

Shane Mahoney is the founder of Lugos Travel and a luxury travel expert who has personally crafted thousands of authentic trips for travelers. At Lugos Travel, each itinerary is heavily researched with local references, data points, family tours, and recommendations. Lugos Travel is the only company in the industry to provide custom luxury travel itineraries (good for any day of the year) in under 30 minutes. With zero questions up front, Lugos Travel successfully customizes trips by fitting each traveler into 1+ of 4 archetypes (savor, excite, explore, and pampered). As an expert who has been in the luxury travel industry for over ten years, Mahoney has dedicated his life to connecting and reconnecting loved ones by crafting travel experiences that surprise and delight his clients.

Mahoney has lived in exotic locations such as Spain, Borneo, and Australia and traveled to over 22 countries worldwide. He has a thirst for adventure and has driven Baja trucks, gone Paragliding, Parachuting, and high-speed rollerblading at over 50 miles per hour. Mahoney’s greatest passion is to create excitement in other people’s lives and to foster great relationships through the power of travel while streamlining the traveling process making it stress-free and enjoyable.

Listen & Subscribe on:

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Contact Info

• Website: www.shanemahoney360.com
• Blog: Shane's Blog

Most Influential Person

• Sam Harris
• Dalai Lama
• Thích Nhất Hạnh

Effect on Emotions & Thoughts on Breathing

• Probably my favorite way (to deal with emotions) is three deep breaths. As soon as you feel yourself getting emotional, it's just being able to realize that the last thing you want to do is take three deep breaths. Mindful Travel
• But it's also the best thing you can do. I've been instituting that with my son since he was born. I think realizing how my dad was quick to anger, I had to realize that I too am quick to anger. And so mindfulness for me is about being able to pause and just give myself and my body a moment to be my true self. Mindful Travel

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Art of Happiness By Dalai Lama
• App: Wake Up App

Bullying Story

•  I don't feel like I've ever been a bully or been bullied. Maybe a little bit in my family life.
• In this business, it's very much about relationships. I need my partners as much as they need me. So, I have seen previously lots of other companies that engage with partners on a very superficial level. And I think when you go into a business contract, without having a contract, it can be very difficult to get the results that you wish to have.
• But we take that relationship very seriously. And we have contracted our own contract that we share with our partners in all of our countries that defines exactly what a Lugo's travel experience is, what does it look like? What is expected?
• Do we have cold bottled water in the limousine when you pick us up? Like, these are the small details that I feel like, you can be disappointed if you didn't set an expectation. So I don't know how that fits in with bullying. Because honestly, I look at it as like, it's preparation.
• It's all a preparation game. If I'm prepared, and I'm bringing my best self forward, then I know that my partners and the experience for my clients will be fantastic. And it will live up to what I believe it should be. Mindful Travel

Related Episodes

• Your Presence is a Superpower; Elizabeth Tripp
• The 7 Laws of Mindful Living; Vernon Foster II

• Three Simple Steps To A Balanced Life; Trevor G. Blake

Special Offer

Dr. Amy Novotny founded the PABR® Institute with the mission to provide pain, stress, and anxiety relief to those who seek a naturalistic form of treatment when other treatment methods have fallen short. Her unique approach comes from her experience treating in a variety of settings and with a wide range of patient populations over the past 12 years. Her background in orthopedics, sports, geriatrics, balance disorders, nerve injuries, and most recently, chronic pain; and influences from coursework at the Postural Restoration Institute gave her the foundation to develop this treatment method to address a wide variety of painful and restrictive conditions. The methods she knows have helped countless people reduce and eliminate pain, stress, anxiety, orthopedic surgeries, sleep issues, and the need for medications. 

Dr. Novotny has co-authored two Amazon #1 Best-Selling books: Don’t Quit: Stories of Persistence, and Courage and Faith and Success Habits of Super Achievers, which share her journey on how and why she developed the PABR® Method. Her ability to speak French and Spanish has allowed her to communicate with and help various clients from all around the world, including France, Mexico, Central America, and South America. 

Dr. Novotny has a variety of interests including running 40+ marathons, running 10 ultra marathons (including two 100 milers), completing an Ironman triathlon, and photographing wildlife and landscapes all over the world which has led to several of her images being chosen as Photos of the Day, most notably National Geographic Your Shot World Top Photo of the Day.

Listen & Subscribe on:

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Contact Info

• Company: PABR Institute
• Website: www.pabrinstitute.com
• Book: Don't Quit: Stories of Persistence, Courage, and Faith
• Book: Success Habits of Super Achievers

Most Influential Person

• Jim Rohn

Effect on Emotions

• I am highly less emotionally reactive. I pause a lot more. And I would say that my ability to respond has been less bit based on fear, and more based on solutions. So I'm not so emotionally reactive, because I'm more mindful.

Thoughts on Breathing

• When you breathe, you want to be able to feel your breastbone, melt in as you exhale, and feel your belly spill out. When you do that, it will help bring all of your attention to your body. Therefore you can feel everything relaxed, allowing you to be mindful of the present.

Suggested Resources

• Book: Don't Quit: Stories of Persistence, Courage, and Faith
• Book: Success Habits of Super Achievers
• App: Calm
• App: Headspace

Bullying Story

• I was bullied as a child, I was somewhat popular during some times of my life, and other times I wasn't. And so I've been on the receiving end of being bullied and it's a hard thing to go through. I think when it comes to mindfulness regarding that when you're on the receiving end, it's hard to do anything other than to be in a freeze-mode or think how do I run away? 
• And in terms of the person who's doing the bullying, I think there needs to be some awareness that that person is hurting somehow. They're lacking attention so they're seeking attention. They're seeking to assert themselves, because somehow, they're not getting that attention, or they're getting bullied themselves at home. 
• I think we need to look around us and say, How are our own interactions affecting others? So many times, we may be using our words that really create some hurt and other people, and then they go to someone else. And they might bully that person just to be able to feel some type of satisfaction for the hurt feelings from a different interaction. 

Related Episodes

• Don’t Let This Habit Steal Your Life; Roman Mironov
• Inspire With Habit, Determination, and Confidence; Nathaniel Carroll

• Winning Habits and Routines; Mads Friis

Special Offer

Zach Mathews is the author of Climbing Your Self-Discipline Tree, which challenges readers to envision their loftiest long-term goals, then put together a concrete plan to achieve them. He is a freelance writer, online self-discipline coach, and blogger on zachmathewswriting.com. A few years ago, he made the jump from a successful career in the Sports industry to fulfill my dream of being a full-time writer. Now he wants to help others do the same with their dreams!

Whether you have aspirations of starting your own business, losing 50 pounds, climbing the ladder at your current company, or any other type of goal, my book can help you realize the essential steps to prepare, produce, and persist. Each of these will help you achieve your wildest dreams and enjoy the process. He was born and raised in St. Louis, but currently, he and his wife reside in Tampa, Florida.

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Contact Info

• Website: https://zachmathewswriting.com/
• Blog: Zach Mathews's Blog
• Book: Climbing Your Self-Discipline Tree: The Three Stages Essential for Accomplishing Any Goal by Zach Mathews  

Most Influential Person

• His dad

Effect on Emotions

• I think it's just having the power to self-regulate, never let yourself get too high or too low. I would just say, keep your emotions in check. I was talking earlier about being a father and self -regulating when he's screaming and everything like that. It goes the same way with your personal and professional career. You just have to level yourself out so that you can produce. Intermittent Fasting

Thoughts on Breathing

• I do think it's important. Where it's most important to me is in my workouts, and I like to do yoga, to make sure I maintain my flexibility and breathing is huge for that. Those two things alone especially have shown me the power of inhaling and exhaling and the fact that most of us, because we don't think about our breathing, are probably breathing wrong.
• My father-in-law actually read a book entitled, Breath, and it just kind of talks about the role that breathing plays when we sleep. If your mouth breathes, it's actually bad for you, and there are some repercussions.
• So the book explains how to train your body to not breathe through your mouth when you sleep anymore, but through your nose, but I don't pretend to know everything about it. But from a workout perspective, breathing is vitally important because even exhaling can help your body perform and kind of get adrenaline going and everything that your body needs to perform. So it's very important from a performance standpoint. Intermittent Fasting

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, Mike Chamberlain, et al.
• App: Notes

Bullying Story

• I was bullied growing up. And often, it's unfortunate. The bully isn't typically the big scary person that you see. It was my friends, it was the people, the friends that I had closest to me in school.
• They would call me stupid. Part of that was because I just didn't apply myself and didn't care to get good grades. But they called me stupid.
• I was kind of the butt of the jokes a lot. That was in elementary and middle school, and as I got into high school, I didn't even try because I'd been told by my friends for three, or four years that I was dumb, I was stupid and I couldn't do it.
• So in high school, I didn't even try, I barely graduated on time, and I was one credit short of being held back a year. Looking back, it was the way that I processed the shame on myself. But the bullying aspect is talking about mindfulness, being more mindful of just how strong words can be, especially in formative years.
• They really think that I was stupid. Now, did they really think that I was dumb? Did they think that if I couldn't get straight A's, or really good grades? No, but just saying that just to play the cool kid card, and have someone to unleash their personal self-doubt. It's kind of a way to get that off their chest.
• But just understanding and being mindful of the power that words have. Fortunately, for me, I was able to overcome that. And I had parents that loved me and believed in me, and good teachers that refuse to give up on me otherwise my life would have looked a lot different. Intermittent Fasting

Related Episodes

• Your Presence is a Superpower; Elizabeth Tripp
• Don’t Let This Habit Steal Your Life; Roman Mironov

• Mindfulness is My Diet Focusing On Nothing But Positive Thoughts; Olympic Boxer Daniel Hayes

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Lindsay Lees is originally from Los Angeles but with dual citizenship in the UK. She grew up in both countries and went on to study Creative Writing. First earned a B.A. in 2008 from Manchester Metropolitan University and later followed by an M.F.A. in 2017 from California College of the Arts. The Willing is Lindsay’s debut novel. She currently lives a quiet Southern life with her husband and a houseful of pets. Writer's Mindfulness

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Contact Info

• Website: www.thewillingnovel.com
• Book: The Willing by Lindsay Lees

Most Influential Person

• Her mother, a clinical psychologist Writers

Effect on Emotions

• It's easy for me to allow my anxieties and my insecurities to paralyze me. So coming out of that; focusing on yoga, breathing, and becoming more centered is really life-changing.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I enjoy breathing techniques. Pranayama things that you learn in Yoga. There's the Dutch guy, Wim Hof, who does breathing techniques, and they're fascinating, and his whole life meeting and learning. What that practice is about is it's very expansive and it can shift your mood in a very short period of time, and that can be essential to be able to overcome certain things.  Writer's Mindfulness

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Willing by Lindsay Lees
• Book: Walking Meditation: Easy Steps to Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
• App: Abide: Christian Meditation

Bullying Story

• When you are an adolescent in a position where you are less capable of standing up for yourself less confident. Growing up was challenging because I didn't feel that I had so many things going on in my personal life and in my family life that I couldn't share and that I didn't understand completely. Writer's Mindfulness
• That made me different from the kids in my classroom and who I was growing up. So I wish that children could not let those self-defeating thoughts and those insecurities become their identity in a way.
• Then influence how you view yourself and understand that the person that you are back then is not going to be the person that you are when you grow up and you're capable of developing new ways of thinking, your understanding of the world, and how people really view themselves and try to belittle others because they don't feel good about themselves. That's their only way of coping. Writers

Related Episodes

• An Overactive Mind Achieving Balance; Daniel Hess
• Music for Mindfulness; Dave Combs

• Mindfulness in Motion; Nita Sweeney

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