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Episode 15: Earth – An Invigorated Body

When you think of all the things you tell yourself, you wanna talk about a mind shift change, all the I have to do this, I have to do this. Start saying I get to do it. And watch the opportunities begin to appear. You’ll begin to attract things into those moments that you didn’t think possible.      

Rob Dale, Eric Deschamps, Trefor Munn-Venn

Hi there, my name is Rob Dale, and welcome to the Living Richly Podcast. I’m here with my good friends Eric Deschamps and Trefor Munn-Venn, we have been talking about, uh, li the, the living richly pockets. We’ve been talking about living richly, about living our best lives and having a lot of fun doing it right. , I having a lot of fun doing it.

Uh, we, uh, really do appreciate you joining us on this journey and, uh, many of you have been with us right since the beginning. You’ve been adding your comments and your thoughts and, uh, just thank you so much for that. It really. Mean a lot to hear from so many people. Uh, and we have been over the last number of episodes talking about the four elements, and we’ve been looking at how these elements are part of, uh, not only figuring out, we’ve talked at the beginning about talk, our, our core values and understanding that the importance of really knowing what is it we stand for, what matters to us, right?

Uh, we’ve looked at, uh, the, the idea of our, um, principles. Uh, the principles one. The, the, the elements that make for your elements, your basically what Ari your richest life looks like. Right. Thank you. Yes. Uh, together we’ll get it out, . Uh, and we’ve been looking at what is, what are those things? And, and because if we don’t define them, then we really are just gonna be, we’re we’re without a target.

Right. Uh, but by defining them, we, we can begin to, uh, develop. A blueprint to really living them out and experiencing them. Uh, we then began to talk about these four elements, right? And there is an episode, we’ll put it in the show length. So we encourage you to, to listen to, uh, that explains why, uh, the four elements, how that came about, uh, why it matters.

Um, but maybe Eric, take a second just to explain on a real high level again, what are the four element. And, uh, and then, you know, where we are today as we get into talking about, uh, the body. Yeah. Well, well, as I explained, uh, and we’ve explained in previous episodes on this subject, uh, it, the four elements really emerged, uh, answering the question for me when, when I, uh, identified that being my best self was one of the ingredients, uh, or part of my blueprint to living my richest life.

That when I’m evolving, when I’m growing, That, that really enriches me. Uh, when I began to, uh, then ask myself, well, what does being my best self look like? This notion of the four elements, this, this age old concept, uh, of the four elements showed up for me, uh, and became a framework for me to ask the question.

If, if water represents mind, then what does my mind at his best look like? If fire represents heart, what does my heart at his best look like? Uh, if wind. Uh, uh, uh, represents spirit. Then what does my spirit fully alive look like? And then finally, the earth element, which represents body, what does my body at its best look like?

And that’s probably the of the four elements, the one that most of us, most of our listeners, will be most acquainted with, uh, because it is one area, let’s face it. When people are looking to make a change in their life, uh, often it starts with, uh, their health. It starts with wanting to eat better. It wants to maybe lose weight, uh, start to exercise, take better care of themselves, uh, and we, we wanna be talking about the earth element today.

That’s the, the focus of our conversation. Well, and it, and it is interesting because we’ve, we’ve done this with a couple of the elements where we, you know, will say what you just said there, which is that most of our listeners, this is likely the one that they kind of resonate with. It may not be for you.

Uh, you know, for, uh, again, uh, I, that’s what I love about these four elements is for some spirituality is the one that that’s the door in for, for people or, or it’s mindset, whatever it might be. But I think to your point, probably of all of these elements, The one that we certainly see happening, you know, when we talk about resolutions or, you know, around New Year’s or whatever the case might be, and there’s a great podcast about, uh, there’s a, a great episode about, uh, uh, uh, revolution, not resolution, uh, that I encourage you to listen to, but you, it usually is around the body and I want to lose 20 pounds.

I want to get a bit healthier, I want to eat better. All of those things, just as you said, uh, when we talk about it as a, uh, element. When we look at it from this notion of, of, uh, the earth is the element that really the body ties into, uh, what are we talking about? How do we define earth body as an element in the context of living richly?

For me, it’s about our relationship with our body. Hmm. Um, it can be about fitness, it can be about strength, it can be about health, but it’s about, I think primarily about the rela like for me it starts the flow of the relationship with the body. Right. Uh, I, if you say I have to lose 20 pounds cuz I hate me.

Right. Mm-hmm. Uh, that’s not a great relationship to be starting with. And our ability, I if, if the core premise is, I hate my body. No, it doesn’t matter if you lose 20 pounds if you haven’t changed that actual relationship because you’re gonna do something else that’s gonna demonstrate that you hate your body.

Right? A and so we often, I, I think the sequence really matters. Uh, very often. We want to change our body to start loving. And to enter into a healthy relationship, and I, I’m starting to believe it’s the other way around, right? We need, we need to say, Here I am. Right? Just as I am. What, what would I like to continue to nurture, to strengthen, to care for, to reveal to whatever, uh, but to, to start in that place and then to continue to manifest that and say, how do I bring it more alive so I can live this more richly as, as I work my way through?

Um, so we’re not, we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna be giving, uh, we, we were joking before the. You know, we’re not gonna be giving nutritional advice. We’re not gonna be giving you a workout. Um, you probably should go see your doctor before you do anything we ask you to do , the uh, right. But it is really about reinterpreting what’s the relationship we we have with our body?

Because it, it’s, um, there’s a lot working against that, right? There’s a lot working. There’s entire industries set up to say, you’re not good enough the way you are. Right. Not good, but if you got like this, you could really love you. Right? Like, Hmm. Well, and not only is there whole industry around that, we even see it, uh, our celebrities, uh, our, you know, your Instagram feeds, they’re full of individual.

How many, you know, uh, you see the celebrities, they become a Marvel, uh, you know, an actor and a Marvel. Listen at, you know, you see some of these people, they’re, they’re 50, 55, 60 years old and they’re built, uh, and it’s not c g i, it’s not, oh, I’ve just been working out there. No, you’re, there’s a whole bunch of stuff going into making a body look like that.

Right? And it’s not all necessarily healthy. Uh, we have all this false image of. Healthy is, and we’re not talking about that. We’re not talking about having a six pack and, and, you know, being incredibly muscular if that’s a goal and somebody wants to do that. Right on. Yeah, totally good. Yeah, absolutely.

That’s beautiful. But that’s not what we’re talking about when it comes to the notion of the body in of itself. I love that idea about the relationship you have with your body is certainly a big element of this. What would you add to that, Eric? Well, I think in many ways I, I would, I will echo that a hundred.

The, in many ways, uh, the relationship you have with your body is also an expression of the water element, your beliefs that you have about yourself, right? Uh, the, it’s an expression of the heart, element of radical self-acceptance, uh, right, of loving yourself first before you can truly show up for other people.

And I, I’m, I’m so in agreement that the, uh, the images. Uh, that social media present, that the media presents that Hollywood presents, uh, creates this false notion of what it means, uh, to be healthy, to be strong, um, and so much so that there’s, uh, and this is something I wasn’t aware of. I, I’ve been aware of, uh, eating disorders for a long time, but, uh, there’s a growing trend of eating disorders among young men.

Uh, because they’re, uh, uh, they’re being, they’re seeing these, uh, the, these people on TikTok and, and everything else, and you know, so on all these social media channels promoting, uh, a certain type of, of health that is really not sustainable. For anyone else but the ultra athlete. Uh, and even for them it’s a challenge.

And even for them it’s even for them, it’s a challenge. So I think when we’re talking about, um, the body, we’re, we’re talking yes, we are talking about the relationship we have with ourselves. And when you do begin to. Uh, approach yourself that way or see yourself differently, then you’re want to, gonna want to take care of yourself.

You’re gonna want to be healthier. Uh, I know for me, a big part of you, you guys have heard me say this probably at nauseum, but, uh, uh, I, I refer to this element as being the vibrant vessel. Uh, right that, um, the full expression of my mind and heart and spirit and its best gets expressed, uh, through, through this body.

And so, uh, I want it to be healthy. I, I want to have access to as much energy and stamina that I, uh, what have I said to you? What have my mottos. Live long and strong. Like, uh, yeah. Uh, uh, when I think of my body, it’s best, being youthful and feeling youthful, uh, is important to me. You know, I’m gonna be turning 52, uh, very soon, and I don’t see, yeah, it’s a young pup, right?

Uh, and, and yet I don’t feel that way old enough to drive. I’m almost, yeah, almost old enough to drive, uh, old enough, maybe not competent, actually. Uh, uh, but this whole notion of I don’t feel that way. I feel, I feel, you know, the, the, for me, uh, ex rigorous exercise activity, movement, uh, that active lifestyle, uh, so many benefits, yes, you do feel better for sure.

Uh, uh, your clothes feel, you know, they, they hang on you better. And, and there’s something about that that’s, uh, certainly worthwhile. But it’s more about the, the mental benefits, right? Of, yeah. Of, of the stress release. The energy you get. Uh, um, and, and we’ve talked about this as well, I think of two elements that really connect, at least initially for people.

Uh, is someone, for example, who’s moving from perhaps. A more sedentary lifestyle and begins to, uh, let’s say, uh, exercise or go to the gym and get some support doing that. It’s quite amazing in the early stages when you rec, when you, you, you go through those early stages where there’s so, such significant gains at the beginning, right, right, right.

Of I can’t, you know, give me 20 pushups. You’re like, I can’t even do six. And then a month later you’re doing 20. Uh, and what that does, the physical. Um, um, again, how all these elements are connected. The, the, when you push yourself physically or you exercise and do things you haven’t done before, uh, and all of a sudden it becomes easier and easier and easier, and you can do more and more and more if that is possible.

Uh, if that type of transformation is possible, I think it begins to feed your mind and, and it begins to send a very strong message. That if that kind of change is possible, then what else is possible? What el What else is within my reach that perhaps I’ve thought is beyond my reach? Right? How often do we lie to ourselves basically, right?

Even in a workout, if you’ve got a trainer and they’re saying, okay, one more. You’re like, I can’t, I got no more. And then you do one more. You’re like, always have one more. We’re alwa, which is another way of saying we’re always wrong about what we think we’re capable of, and if we’re wrong, what else is possible that we’re not acknowledging that we’re actually capable of?

And we need to reevaluate that. And so that that, you know, that’s where, as you said before, this is where, you know, water and earth really play together, that mind and body, because it’s now our body challenging our beliefs, right? Because our mindset, we were done and our body’s like, no, I got another one.

Right. I I can do that. I’ve got more of the tank. I’ve got more of the tank. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know what, what do the studies tell us for, for, for men? Uh, are we the long our age, kind of what we’re the average age of, of a male 82. Its 83 80. It wouldn’t be any higher than that. Somewhere in that higher, somewhere in that neighborhood.

I think it’s actually lower than I think, I think women are at 82. 82. Oh, okay. Guys are 78 or something. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. Uh, average lifespan, you mean the average? Average lifespan? Yeah. Uh, you know, I look at the body, I look at this element and how it ties into living richly is when I, when I think of the things that enrich my life.

Um, my body will pl certainly at this stage, my body plays a part in me being able to experience those to be outdoors, to do these things I want. Uh, longevity is a very important thing to me. I, I work out, I’m, I’m exercising every day. I’m, I’m doing daily walks. I spend time outside. Uh, all of those things, uh, I’ve come to really appreciate the difference between, uh, I don’t, my, my purpose in working out isn’t to build muscle.

Uh, I’m, I’m, I’m the oldest of the three of us now. I know that anybody watching by by. A long shot. By long shot. Yeah. You sure? But I know that anybody watching our YouTube channels probably looking going Really? Cuz you look the youngest of the three of us. And I understand that. I get that often, uh, from people don’t get that often.

I tell myself that every morning I look at a picture of the three of us and I go, you look the youngest. Yeah. But you’re 55, right? Uh, I’m 55. Yeah. I turned 54 yesterday. Yes. Yeah. Happy birthday. Thank. The, uh, you’re, and I’ll be 52 in a few months. Few months, okay. Yeah. Right. And so this is about in our prime then, then you’re our prime.

Our prime is about longevity. Yeah. It’s about living and being able to experience life and to allow this vessel that we’re in right. To be able to support. Us on that journey. That’s really, to me, what the body, this, this notion of body is for me, it’s not, I’m not going to build the muscle that I could have built at 25 or 30.

It’s just it, you know, and the, and the quicker as a 55 year old, I, you know, not without using other substances in order to do it, right. Like it’s just, it’s not naturally. Possible. Uh, and, and so it’s recognizing what is and then embracing that and recognizing as movement. Right? And I think the, the more we see it as what are we doing in our physical, the body to allow us to now experience.

All of the other elements that we want to experience for as long as possible, for as long as possible. The way that I see it, listen, the, the reality is, uh, I could st we could finish recording today and I could sit up and never know, step outside and get hit by a bus, God forbid which, which happen, which weird cuz I don’t know how many buses, I don’t, not many buses come by here, but, uh, uh, so, but that’s not a reason for me not to do what I can to invest in my health, invest.

Uh, living a long, healthy life, uh, that well into my, uh, older years. I want to be, continue to be active. I want to continue to have energy and stamina to enjoy life fully, uh, to, to not feel those limitations. Uh, uh, I have one client that, uh, he’s one of his goals. He’s, he re recognizes. I, we talked about the four elements and he went right to this one cuz he recognizes that he’s still got lots he wants to do.

Uh, he’s got goals, uh, uh, personally, professionally, but he recognizes that h he hasn’t been investing very much in the element of the earth element, investing in his physical health. And as a result, his, the biggest limitation he’s running into right now isn’t a mindset one, it’s not a heart one, uh, it’s not even a spiritual one.

Physical limitation where he runs out of energy. He, he, he does not have the stamina he used to have to do the things that he wants to do. And he’s saying, I want to turn that around. Uh, so again, getting deep into, uh, uh, really understanding why this is important to, to you. Um, I think. Part of why so many people set health goals and don’t achieve them is often cuz they just stop at the, the surface goal of losing 20 pounds or eating better, or going to the gym or exercising three times a week.

It’s, it’s more getting underneath the surface to say, why is that important to you? How, uh, is that going to improve and change your life? Um, I think of my kids, my, my eldest daughter gets married next year, uh, at some point I’m sure, uh, you know, um, uh, there there’ll be grandkids in the equation. I don’t want to be that grandfather that’s sitting on the porch watching the kids play.

I want to be down there playing with them. I want to be able to enjoy life as long as I can, as fully as I can. Uh, and that’s why, like you, it’s very important to me to be active. Uh, uh, and, and it’s, uh, it’s almost in, in some cases for me. You guys know how I’m an avid water guy. I’d love to be out on the water.

Um, uh, I’ve got, uh, this year or just last summer, invested in, uh, um, uh, uh, basically touring almost a racing paddle board, uh, standup paddle board. And I’ll go out on that thing for hours and that becomes, uh, and, and like 12, 15, 18 kilometer runs. Right? And, and so it, and for me, it actually hits all of the elements.

It’s, I, as I looked at the things that enriched me, I was like, why do I enjoy. So much I said, oh, it’s because it’s near water. Uh, and, uh, when I’m doing that by myself, right, I’m, I’m lost in my thoughts and I’m thinking, and I’m meditating. Um, it’s a physical activity, rigorous physical activity, so it hits the earth element.

I absolutely love it. So it hits the heart element and in many ways, being on the water for me is very spiritual. It’s probably the most spiritual place I can be is honor near the water. Uh, and so all of a sudden all four elements get activated. That’s huge. And I’m getting all of the physical benefits of, of.

So I think it’s, um, it’s figuring out, again, like we, we said on so many of the other elements, there are some time tested, proven things that are known to work and help on these fronts. But one has to figure out, one, why it’s important to them and two, what works for you. And one of the things that I’ve been, uh, using more and more as I’m working with my clients is moving away from the word exercise.

Uh, cuz that’s become a loaded word. And, and in using the word movement mm-hmm. , uh, so rather than say how might you incorporate more exercise into your life? How might you incorporate more movement, uh, into your day-to-day life? And there are all kinds of really practical, non-exercise type ways that you can incorporate movement.

Cuz the age old adage that, uh, movement is medicine is true. Uh, right when. If energy is constantly in motion when we are not, when we live a very sedentary life, it’s like we’re out of alignment with, uh, the laws of the universe. And so I think we are right. It’s not like we totally are right. Absolutely.

You called it. Yeah. Like, and I think like one guy who describes this really nicely actually is Warren Buffett. I don’t know if you’ve heard this story. He tells, but he said, so, you know, he, he loves chatting with young kids and he chatting with 16 year olds, he said, okay, imagine a genie shows up. and we’ll give you any car you want.

What would you pick? And they all think about, you can have any car you want, but there’s a catch. That’ll be the one car you get for the rest of your life. And the question is, is how will you take care of that car? He goes, you know, if there’s a paint chip, you’ll fix it right away so the rust doesn’t spread.

Uh, you’ll be doing oil changes more frequently than mandatory because it’s the only car you ever get. You’re gonna drive it for the next 60, 70 years. And he said, that’s how we need to look at our bodies. Oh, that’s good. Wow. We got one vehicle. You got this one thing. How do you want to take care of it?

Because it’s going to determine the ride you get. It’s gonna be a big part of determining the ride that you get. Right? And so this piece around how do we want to do that? And I think it’s a, it’s a handy way to think about it is to say, we get this, the body is so intrinsically aligned with every single thing we do.

A thought you have, you think that’s not physical, right? That’s your brain doing things every feeling you have. You go that, well, that’s an emotion. That’s a physical feeling you are getting in your body that’s telling you there’s other things like Absolutely. Well, some describing units feeling as a chemical reaction of the brain.

The brain is the body change, the body is changing and creating. Think of when you’re driving and, and you drive. We’ve talked about driving into a patch of fog, uh, and how not only do you go. Your, your thinking changes your entire physiology. It’s a physical response. You grip the wheel more tightly. You squint the eyes as though that’s gonna help you tend to lean forward in your chair.

Your heart rate might increase. You might start to warm up and start to sweat because your body is pumping All these chemicals, I mean, everything is a physical reality. Everything is physical. Right. And we, we have to remember that. Right. We have to remember, we. Physical being. Mm. And if we’re ignoring that, we’re ignoring who we are.

Right. And ignoring it is also a message to self. Right? You don’t matter. Right. Right. And, and that’s not gonna take you where you want to go in terms of your health, your care, your body, your life, the quality of the experience of all these other things. So imagine as you’re taking better care of your body, as you’re being more appreciative of it, as you’re moving more.

The quality for all of those other things to improve also goes up, right? Because, right. So you, you’re getting all kinds of leverage, uh, around it as well. It’s just so, so incredibly powerful. And it’s interesting cuz for me, if I look back long before the four Elements was a framework for me to kind of measure my, or, or gauge my spiritual journey or my growth journey, uh, I would.

Of the four elements. This was the one that, uh, I picked up several years ago, leaned into the earth element and, and, and, and getting back into shape. Started with running and then I started getting, uh, I was getting, uh, personal training at a local gym. Uh, uh, I lost about 20 pounds. Uh, and now I would say I’m, I’m, like I said, about to turn 52.

I’m probably in the best shape of my life. Uh, I wear the same size jeans I used to wear as an 18 year old. Right. Awesome. Uh, and. They’re probably back in style. They’re probably back in style. So I held onto them rides. Why? I held onto, yeah. Smart. I, I They, they weren’t in style then. No . Listen, listen. I’m even, I’m even thinking of growing the mullet back.

Right? Nice. Cuz uh, I, I hear that. I really wish a mullet catastrophe would be quite So we’re behind that. We behind above that. Yeah. Uh, but I invested all this time and energy, uh, and it feels great. It feels good to feel like, I feel, but I know that, uh, until I started paying attention to the other elements, even though I felt great physically, even though I had more stamina, I felt stronger, felt better, looked better, all of it.

Um, man, my life was still pretty hollow, right? Yeah. Because my mind was off, my heart was off, my spirit was off. Um, and I think a lot of folks again, The thing about the earth element of all the other ones is it has a limited shelf life. Now, I do believe, especially with modern science and all the advancements they’re, they’re making, I think we’re gonna see human lifespan just continue to increase, so, right.

Because of the advancements in science, medicine, all of it. Uh, and certainly I’m a, I’m a, I’m leaning into that. I, as I said earlier, I wanna live my richest. My fullest life for as long as I can. I want to squeeze as much living, uh, into this thing we call life as I possibly can. Um, but it still has a limited shelf life as I get older.

Uh, right. Even with the advancements and even with, uh, in medicine, whatever. I won’t be able to do the things that I do now the same way. I won’t be able to lift as much. I may not be able to paddle as far tho there are natural limitations that come with aging. I do think we can cheat nature. I think we can, we can absolutely, we can hack nature.

We don’t have to just accept the fact that we’re a certain age and, and therefore there’s so, uh, research and bio hack, so, or align with it. Align. So biohacking in some ways is very much about. Deepening our alignment with how things actually work. It’s called hacking, right? It’s probably the, the most wrong word way to describe that.

Cause is it really hacking or is it tapping into the potential? Yeah, that’s been there all along that we just weren’t aware of. But here if we, we invest, if I, if we just finish that thought. So the, the, the, even with all that said, Um, uh, the earth element has its limitations in terms of how far it can take you and begins at some point you start to see some, some of those limitations of age start to show up, right?

And if you’re listening to this as a 30 year old, trust me one day you’ll, you’ll understand what we’re talking about. Uh, uh, however, investing in the other elements, uh, your mind, right, your heart, your spirit. No shelf life there, gentlemen. No. Like there you can continue to build and create and you have infinite capacity, infinite capacity to keep creating the life that you want.

So even in time, as your body begins to age and, and maybe not have the same. Capacity it once had. Those other elements will kick in. And this is where I think folks that invest heavily, uh, into the earth element at the expense of the others, uh, I would recommend you really pay attention to what we’re saying.

I, uh, it’s interesting now cuz uh, for me working out, I work out probably five, six days a week just like you. And, uh, it’s very important part of my life. But as, and, and it’s often in my morning routine is when I do it. Not always, but most of the time. And in the mornings now, if I. Uh, slept in a little bit too much, or if I’m gonna skip something, I will skip my workout.

Yeah. But I will not skip my mind and heart and spirit time because I find that the benefits of that, again, I wouldn’t neglect the earth element completely. Right. But it’s, it’s a notion of, uh, I I, if I’m gonna skip something, I’m in pretty good shape. Yeah. I can afford to miss my workout today. It’s almost actually, but I don’t want to miss.

Mind and heart and spirit. Well, you’re almost, you’re almost, you’re saying you’re, you’re gonna skip your body workout. Right. Not your workout, your spirit workout or your mind workout. And, and because they are all, it re they all require exercise. Exactly. That’s a great, it’s a different type. Right. It’s, it’s, it’s, we’re, we’re constantly working.

It’s interesting how they do, uh, often will. Again, we’ve talked about this with each of these elements, how they tie in together. They, they don’t separate into nice easy compartments, uh, where they all stand alone, they do blend. I know for me it was starting with the body was what got to the mind because I started to, when I hit these capacities and saying, I can’t go.

Any further. I can’t do one, you know, lying to ourselves. I can’t do one more. When you break through that, you realize the mindset around that. I, the, the gym I attend, uh, the classes I go to, which are high intensity training classes. Uh, I work el beside a 70 year old guy, uh, a bunch of 60 year old guys and, and the, they’re, they’re beasts now.

They’re body, body. They don’t, they don’t have the same muscle component or, you know, composition that I have in the same way. I don’t to the 30 year old guys that are in there, but man, I’ll tell you, they can keep. Endurance and their movement and their ability, because they’ve made a commitment to it and it, they all tie in together.

But I think you’re absolutely right. If you, if you, if you ex, uh, if you focus on any of the elements at the expense of the others, right? Yeah. Uh, I think that you miss out on something. Uh, you can have a strong mind, but if your body is completely shut down and, and, and have, uh, you know, broken down, uh, that’s gonna be a struggle.

It doesn’t, you can still live a rich life. It’s just gonna be different. It’s gonna be, you know, so I think the notion of why the body is important here, it, it, it’s as one of these elements they do tie in together. For sure. Well, for me, I mean, when I made a list, uh, when we went back, uh, ear, one of the early episodes, uh, after the core values one, uh, we talked about again, that blueprint of, uh, your richest life and what are the elements of that.

A big part of me of, of what enriches my life when I made that list certainly was exercise and activity and being in the outdoors. And, uh, but learning is also a big one for me, right? Reading and learning, feeding my mind. And so again, when you, when you want to find, uh, activities that really enrich you, think of the ones that touch multiple elements.

So do I love hitting the weights hard? Absolutely. I get a charge from that, right? It, it, it feels good to challenge your body, push yourself through and do something you didn’t think you could add a. Movement that you’ve never done before, that you’ve got to practice and learn and watch your form, and all of a sudden that takes that, the enjoyment of that from here, and it takes it to a whole other level.

Why it’s hitting more than one element. And I think this is the notion that we’re after, or what we’re hoping will, will inspire our listeners is this notion of, as you begin to ask these questions that we’ve been raising with you, Bennett, what matters. What does your, uh, what matters most to you? What does a rich life look like to you?

What does a best version of you along these four elements look like? That you begin to identify activities and, and practices and rituals, which will be a whole other episode on its own, but things that you can do regularly that don’t just make you feel good, they make you feel great. They don’t just dribble into your cup like they make it overflow.

Why? Because for you, They, they hit multiple elements at the same time. Right? Yeah. We’re not checking a box. We’re building a life. We’re build. Exactly. I love that. Love that. It’s, I, I think that’s what we found when we made this move to the farm, right? It was to be outside more. like almost all the time.

The, I love it outside. You guys know it. I’m like out there all the time. The, um, the house is heated with a wood burning stove, so we load wood every day and uh, and we have that great fire smell, which I love. Yeah. And we get. Stars and right that that daily motion here as we’re caring for animals and moving things around is, is that motion?

I, I, I don’t, I don’t do the same kind of training that you guys do at all, but I’ll tell you that motion has been so helpful in healing for me to be out in this place in nature to be shaping it. At the same time, I’m trying to listen to it and understand what it’s trying to do and say, how do. How, how do I work in alignment with that, uh, to improve this, this tangly vineyard here that, uh, uh, uh, I’m working my way through and to bring the thought process, as you guys know, I, you know, we’ll talk about it under kind of practices and rituals, but I, I don’t enter the vineyard unless I know what thought I’m going to repeat over and over.

And then I use those repetitious things to anchor that in. Right. And we can all do that. Affirmations, intentions, and associations. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And then at Thanksgiving, To have, I love this. Yeah. The meal that we have, the, you know, the, we had chicken from our neighbors and everything else that we ate, we grew and we knew exact like we went and pulled it out of the garden, brought it inside, cleaned it, cooked it, ate.

It was just an extraordinary experience. And so part of that for us now is around what are we. Right. And knowing where it came from and what it was like. Right. You talked about the hunters in alone about honoring, uh, the food that they were eating and where it came from. You can do that regardless of whether or not you’ve killed it.

True. Right, right. The, uh, you know, it’s still something you’ve either tended to or brought into your world and it’s going. Help to continue to nourish your body and there’s a gratitude that’s health, you know, healthy with that. A lot of people, they pray before a meal. It’s an expression of gratitude and thanks for what’s in front of them as it nourishes the body.

Mm-hmm. Right. To support. All of the rest that’s happening as well. And there are so many ways we can bring these into our lives. It’s not about the diet or the workout, though. There’s nothing wrong. You wanna change your nutrition. Okay. You want to move more? Yeah. Awesome. Hey, I think we ref referenced this in an early episode.

They did, uh, some research recently, a number of studies to show, you know, to ask the question on two fronts. One, what is the best exercise modality? Uh, or the most successful one, the one that gets the best results. And they also did the same thing on the best diet or the best sort of nutrition plan. And so, you know, they, on the nutrition side, they can, you know, is it paleo, is it keto?

Is it intermittent fasting on the workout side? Is it pushing weights? Is it cardio work? Is it cross training? Like what is it that leads to it? And what they discovered is there is. No plan that has a better track record than another. The single greatest determining factor to success was picking one and sticking with it.

doing it. Yeah, doing it as opposed to continuing to change. And, and, uh, I love how, uh, in our conversation, the whole aspect of nature. Is coming out so strongly, uh, right. Whether it be you at the farm, me on the water, you with your hikes, uh, we all have a, a pretty strong connection to nature. Let’s face it, it’s called the earth element

Uh, right. And although it’s right, mind blown, uh uh, I think when you’re able to combine motion, In nature. Yeah. Yeah. Um, time in na, just time in nature. Just going for a walk in nature. There’s good research on that too, right? The research that shows like taking a walk versus taking a walk in nature and the, it’s off the charts.

The difference, um, uh, in terms of the results and, and I think it’s again, This, we’re so used to, uh, living as digital zombies where we’re sitting on our couch at night, thumbing on our, through all our social media channels, uh right. Admiring other people’s greatest moments, and wondered why we’re not living our own or we’re binging the latest series.

And listen, there are series I love to binge. You said you just binged and, or recently, right? What a great series. I can, can’t wait for season two of and or Yeah. All big Star Wars. We’ll link that in the, we’ll, we’ll that in the show. Well linked to Disney plus directly to the and or show, uh, listen, it’s not about that.

Those things are bad. Of course not. We all need sometimes downtime. But let me speak to the screen time. One of the biggest, uh, things that people say, biggest, uh, uh, uh, Excuses that they give for not investing and, and let’s expand the workout thing, whether it’s exercising the body, the mind, the spirit, the heart.

What is the number one reason people give for not doing it? Time? I don’t have time. Uh, so I look this up recently. Let’s let, let’s uncomfortable for people. Let, let me challenge those of you that are listening, uh, about not having time, uh, I challenge you to just Google. Uh, the average leisure time, uh, available to an average Canadian or American cause.

Actually, it doesn’t matter which one you choose. The numbers are almost identical, and you’ll be shocked about the number of hours available. Absolutely. Do you guys wanna take a guess? Do you know what this number is? I do. Yeah, I don’t. Okay, so it’s between Trev, uh, four and a half and five hours, isn’t it?

Four and a half to five and a half hours daily. So average of five depending on which research you read, but it, the average is five hours of leisure time daily. This means we have five hours available to us, um, uh, to. To invest in ourselves, uh, to invest in our growth, to invest in something that’s gonna be meaningful to us.

Uh, when we did the exercise or started the exercise of what are the things that enrich you, you guys remember we also made a comparison list. What are the things that deplete you? Right, right, right. And then remember I came up with this category. What are the neutral activities? These are the things that ni because there are things that deplete us for sure, right?

They, they, they, yeah, they, they empty our cup versus fill it. But then there are activities that we engage in that are called new. They’re. Neutral. Yeah. Watching TV is one of them, right? Uh, enjoying a drink. Drinking socially can be neutral. What? The, the, the, the, the whatever. You could put a bunch of things in that cat.

Spending time on social media, it’s kind of neutral, but if you start spending too much time drinking, uh, watching television, uh, on social media. Uh, the right, like now we’re moving to, uh, neutral to less than neutral. Right? Healthy to less than healthy. Yeah. You can also take them and say, how do I take this neutral activity and turn it into something good.

Do you guys remember what I did when I first started experiencing my transformation? I’m so glad you said that. Because I had gone through a period like a lot of folks had with covid, with all the inactivity, all the lockdowns limited things that we could do. And I come to realize I had developed an unhealthy relationship with social media.

Mm-hmm. I was spending far too much time on my feed just. Like brainlessly thumbing through and before you know it, an hour, an hour and a half has passed and you’ve done nothing productive and nor has it given you much . Right, right, right. If anything, you’re, you’re kind of left going, oh, I wish this, I wish that you’re comparing yourself with the digital Jones’s, forgetting that all people are posting, for the most part, are their highlights, not their real life, just the highlights.

Yep. And so I began this process of daily, I made a commitment that I am, I’m gonna start resetting my relationship with social media, but every day in my Facebook and Instagram story, I am gonna post an intention or an affirmation. Remember that, right? Yeah. I did, I did that for three months straight, and I used what was a, a, an unhealthy habit to build a healthy.

I don’t do it anymore, nor am I on social media much anymore. But it, the, the daily habit of setting an intention, making an affirmation, and deciding what kind of day that I want. I used an unhealthy habit to build a healthy, it’s alchemy. Right? You transform something into something else. Right. Right. Of that realized and revealed.

A greater value, a greater expression of you. Right, right. So we, we can take it, you know, in a lot of ways it’s, we need to look and say, Hey, what can I take outta the equation here? What is not serving this life that I’m building? Uh, and sometimes the life that we are building, cuz we’re doing it in families, in partnerships and relationships, et cetera, uh, but sometimes there are things.

Stay. And you just say, how do I want to engage with that? Right. And that’s where we’ve got infinite creativity as well, right? Even if it’s like, ah, I gotta do dishes, I hate doing dishes. You might say, well, it’s neutral or negative, maybe , I’m not sure it’s quite depleting you, but it certainly we could put it in the neutral category.

But how can you make it a time together? Can you put on a podcast for example, the, uh, you know, , could you recommend there’s a guy I’ll put one in show notes. Yeah. We’ll put in the show notes. , right? Can we, what else can we link it? Right. What else can we combine it with to turn it into something that’s gonna be more valuable and build the life that we’re after?

Right. I started doing that. Uh, not that I, I, I mean still work from the home office, so I don’t, uh, drive a lot, but started now that things are more open, doing more work with clients on site, um, um, and uh, go out to hockey games and stuff. Yeah. So finding myself more in traffic than I used to be. Right. I certainly don’t miss being in traffic every single day.

I found that would definitely make it in. Uh, my list of things that deplete me. And I remember the first few times saying, oh my God, I can’t believe how bad it is to be in traffic again. And I found myself being in a very negative mindset. And then deci, I, I began realizing, wait a second, I’ve got all this time to myself.

I get to have this time to myself. Yes, exactly. On my way somewhere. And so, uh, I’ve never been a big, uh, audiobook guy, to be honest. I do prefer being able to sit down, focus, and read. But what, uh, I started doing as. Enforcement is books that I’ve read that I really enjoy and I’ve been really meaningful. I now also get the audio version, uh, and as a reinforcement of something I’ve already studied or read or or taken in.

When I’m driving somewhere and I’m by myself, I pop in the audio book and all of a sudden now, What would felt like 45 minutes of wasted time is 45 minutes of brain training time. Well, and and coincidentally, our podcasts are typically about 45 minutes, minutes. They’d be perfect for my minutes, so I’m not gonna be listening to, so like I know what’s happening here.

Yeah. I discourage audio books because, oh yeah. Podcasts would be much. Much better, , much better. So when we talk about, you know, where do, where do people start? Yeah. And, and maybe we could all give a, a, a couple of, uh, maybe some best practices mm-hmm. or some ideas, uh, around where we would start. Uh, a couple that I would suggest right outta the gate is, is, um, stop giving yourself the, uh, the room to talk yourself out.

Starting. Right. Uh, there’s a, I, I’ve heard this, a number of podcasts that do this where it’s, and, and I’ve, and I know I’ve done this for myself, where I’ll, the alarm goes off or I’ll be laying in bed and I need to get up. I, uh, I need to get my walk in. I need to, you know, get moving or whatever. Oh, but you know, I’m comfortable.

And if you give yourself time, you talk yourself out of it. And there’s a, it’s a simple practice. I can’t get over how simple it is and how. Effective it is for me. And that’s just the simple countdown, right? Where, when I start, who is it? I can’t, there’s a number, forget name. There’s, there’s, there’s one particular who does the five second count down.

We’ll find it’s, there’s a good Ted talk around that, but it’s just, yeah. I, oh, should I get up right now? Uh, I, I need to worry out. 5, 2, 3, 4. You. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. , learn to count first and I get. I was gonna go, wanted that, that was Rob Math through, uh, through a first Learn Math . But the notion of you stop talking to yourself about it and you just do that, that would be one of my recommendations.

I would add to that. I would add to that a similar concept is Stop next, weekending. Right, your decision. Stop next. Moning it. Stop next. Doesn’t have to start again on Monday. Doesn’t have to start on January 1st. It can start. It can start right now. If you think again, uh uh, take steps that you know you can sustain.

Take small steps that push you, but don’t swing for the fences on this. Go put your shoes on now. Right? Go while you’re listening. Right. While you’re listening, but like, yeah. Get off the couch, go take away, you know, some simple ways you can incorporate more movement into your, in, into your life. When you, when you, you were out shopping or running errands, don’t park near the entrance.

Park across the parking lot. Yeah. And walk when you’re going somewhere that has an elevator, if it’s not 20 floors up. Take the stairs. Right. So, and you know, it’s funny, so of course Wendy, uh, my girlfriend is, uh, you know, part of what she does, she does a lot of things with four people, but part of that is as a personal trainer.

Yeah. And, and that’s, that’s the running joke with us is we get anywhere near an escalator and if there’s stairs, yeah, it’s, we’re taking the stairs, stairs, boat, up the stairs. But it’s funny how much more activity, so simple, uh, you can get in like. I, I, I wear an Apple watch and sometimes I look at the stats.

I don’t need to anymore. I’ve, I’ve built a rhythm around movement that I’m pretty happy with, and some days I don’t hit the numbers and it’s okay, cuz I’m, I’m hitting a pretty high level of activity. But it’s amazing when I was tracking it, just little changes like. That, and you could see literally add thousands of steps a day just by making small sustainable changes.

Yeah. As opposed to, again, the swing for the fences approach, where you may be able to sustain it for a short period of time, but then you, you don’t, uh, and then you give up and you reinforce this belief in your brain that why bother trying? I can’t succeed, take smaller steps that build confidence instead.

Right. Another best practice that I would, I would, uh, certainly encourage people is change your language. , uh, and you, you, you gave the example with in the car and, and, uh, stuck in traffic right. From half to, to get I have to, to, that’s so that’s a cism. I learned that one from Kate. Yeah. And it’s powerful, right?

When you think of all the things you tell yourself, you wanna talk about a mind shift change, all the, I have to do this, I have to do this. Start saying I get to do it and watch. Uh, your, the opportunities Yeah. Begin to appear, you’ll begin to attract things into those moments that you didn’t think possible.

Yeah. And, and I didn’t get it from Kate. Uh, I, you know, for me it was just, it, it is right down. It probably got from me, I probably got it from you, from Harvard Business Journal, , uh, one or the other. But it there is, we’ll have to tell that story. Something there is absolutely, there is this notion of, uh, when we tell ourselves or I’m not allowed to do that, or I, oh, I can’t eat that cake cuz I’m on a diet.

Well, yeah, now you’re gonna feel like you’re missing. You’re gonna feel like you’re, you know, you’re mm-hmm. . And so when you change your language, uh, talk, uh, uh, speak to yourself and even how you speak to others from that opportunity, uh, standpoint, then rather the losing out on or or missing standpoint is such a shift in, in mindset best practices.

What are some other ones that you guys, uh, appreciate where you are? Right, right. That’s a gray one. I won’t even say love. Just appreciate where you are right now. You’ve right, you, you can move, you can do things, you can get out, you can make choices. You can, uh, go for a walk, maybe a run, a bike ride. You can park further away, you can stretch, you can do yoga.

You can, you know, I know every person will be a little bit different, but you’re capable of so much right now. Mm. . Um, you don’t need to wait to become something or someone else in order to start living this out fully and, uh, let let your body follow you. Right. Um, don’t be checking in on your body to say, am I good now?

Uh, because I’m not sure that answer will ever be enough. It’s the wrong question. Right? Right. You are. Yeah. Accept, appreciate and, and start to, start to start to use what you have. Uh, that would be, that would be my advice. Yeah. That go on a diet lose 20 pounds. . No, don’t do that. Don’t start a 65 day challenge

Right. Truly, I like it. Is that radical self-acceptance. It’s so true. And just saying, listen, this is me now. I’m not gonna apologize for that. I am where I am. Yeah. Yeah. But what I have now is the capacity to choose whatever I do next. Right. Uh, whether it’s go for a walk or a run or take a class or go paddling or I don’t care.

Yeah. Uh, change what you eat. Choose what you eat. Right. Just make it about choosing I Why are you doing it? Cuz I choose to. Yeah. Right. I, I, uh, align the why you’re doing it to your. To your core values, Absolut know. Absolutely. We talk about the notion, I read this recently, uh, the notion of if you, um, you, you strengthen the core, the, the core, uh, physically, your so good, your core is so critical to the strengthening of the body in the same way that your core values are so critical to the strengthening of your mind.

Right? Uh, and, and I love to life really to, to. Uh, and, and everyone understands that from a physical standpoint, it’s true as well. With all of this, if we align this stuff to our core values, the why we need to, we’re, we’re all wanting to focus on our body. The why we’re wanting to focus on spirit, uh, or any of the strong core gives you better balance, better posture, better, better alignment, right?

All of it. I love it. Yeah. Uh, and so what a great analogy. Yeah. I love this one. Yeah. So that, that would be another one. I would have any, any last ones. No, I think again, it’s, it’s, figure out what works for you. Um, put the, even if you just focused on putting down the phone a little bit more. Yeah. Turning off Netflix a bit more often.

Stop observing other people living, uh, a better life. That at least in your imagination, they are living a better life. What, what you’re looking for isn’t on a screen. It’s not on a screen. It’s, it’s in, it’s actually locked inside of you waiting to be discovered and figuring out again. What that looks like for you.

Figure out an activity that is easier for you to do from a like perspective. I hear people say, well, the only way I can get in shape is to go to the gym, but I hate the gym. So I said, do something else then. Right. , right. Uh, maybe you’ll end up at the gym someday, but, uh, don’t. Do something that makes you miserable, hoping it’s gonna make you happy.

Figure out what makes you happy, what fills your cup, combined movement motion, uh, with it, and you’re more likely to sustain it and make a lifestyle change as opposed to what most folks do, which is start, stop, start, stop, start, stop. Yeah. So good, so good. Listen, we thank you so much. Appreciate each one of you, uh, that have been listening, that have been a part of this, uh, journey with us.

Uh, there might be some others that are in your community that are, you’re connected to, that you think would really appreciate, uh, this content, uh, content, uh, to, to look at not only the element of the body, uh, but all of the elements that we’ve been talking about over the last number of episodes. Uh, we would encourage you to take a moment and just share.

This content and to, uh, maybe provide a couple of comments, uh, as you share it with some of your friends and family, uh, and invite them to be part of the journey as well. Subscribe, stay with us. Stay with us. Uh, you can tell we’re working our way through it as well. We’re living this. We don’t have all the answers, but pieces are revealing themselves to us through the work that we’ve been doing and through others that we’re working with.

We’re gonna keep sharing that with you. That’s all for. That’s all for you. Stay with us and uh, make sure to, uh, subscribe. No, you said that already. Make sure to go to our website and if I didn’t mention it, I think you should subscribe. I just thought it very . It’s so important that you subscribe that I felt it was important to say it again.

But we do watch, subscribe to our website, to our website. Go to living richly dot. Slash act a c t. Uh, every episode we’re posting, uh, in the show notes we’re gonna post the resources mentioned, the tools mentioned, the books mentioned. We wanna make as much of the resources that have, uh, the resources that have been impactful for us and continue to be impactful for us.

We wanna make those available to you. Uh, and so make sure you visit the website, sign up for the newsletter, and you won’t miss anything. So again, thank you for taking the time to listen, uh, in with us. Uh, for those of you that might be watching on our YouTube channel as well, thank you for taking the time to watch.

Uh, if you aren’t listening to this while you’re out walking or doing something and you’re maybe just sitting down and listening to this podcast, encourage you to perhaps even now, uh, to find a way that you can, uh, embrace and do movement, uh, into your, uh, routine. And, uh, perhaps you could even start now.

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