2 Practical Ways to Enjoy Time By Yourself & Overcome Feelings of Loneliness

Today, I’m sharing a deep and meaningful conversation with Mason Spector and Peiman Raf of the Madhappy Podcast - a show that aims to create more conversation around mental health by illuminating the full spectrum of mental health, the highs and the lows. I get to share my journey as a monk, the valuable lessons on how to purify our ego, master our mind, manage our emotions, and live in service of others. We also talk about the difference between being alone and feeling lonely, and why it is important to always find time to be by yourself to reconnect with your thoughts. And finally, we dive into how our actions positively and negatively impacts the people around us and how we should deviate from external validation and instead focus on self validation to help tame our ego. Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 02:09 What are you proud of yourself for? 04:22 What was your childhood like? 09:55 Unlearning the values that you practice 12:43 When being good doesn’t get you anywhere 15:22 From taking an undergrad class to becoming a monk 21:29 Using your gift in service of others 28:23 Defining loneliness and solitude 37:39 Why did you leave monkhood? 41:43 Trying to get back into the world 43:52 Living a life that positively impacts others 49:13 Ego is fueled by validation 51:42 One advice you’d give your younger self 54:00 What makes you Mad Happy? Like this show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & tag us so we can thank you personally! Do you want to meditate daily with me? Go to go.calm.com/onpurpose to get 40% off a Calm Premium Membership. Experience the Daily Jay. Only on Calm Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  more connected, and more engaged with the road ahead. It's why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand and has won more 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus Awards than any other car brand as of July 2026. Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Visit MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a second-hand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them.

• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process, and once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet, be less wasteful, and maybe make some extra money along the way. Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees. So you keep every dollar you earn. I remember one incident where one of my best friends in school, one girl at school told him I was talking bad about him, which I definitely was not doing. That storms in to the field, comes up to me, starts punching me in the face.

• 2:13Jay Shetty?

  I'm on the floor, I've got bruises all over my eyes. And I remember looking back at that. I almost started to observe human behavior early on. I'd say where what is it that that person's going through? That's making them behave that way. Rather than asking the questions, why me? I think I started looking at, well, what's happened to them?

• 2:35Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to On Purpose. I am so pumped that you're here with me right now. I want you to take a moment and just honor yourself, acknowledge yourself. I want you to keep showing up for yourself, but I want you to thank yourself when you do. And every time you tune into On Purpose, you're appreciating yourself, you're investing in yourself, you're growing yourself. Now, I interview a lot of people. I love my solo episodes. But every now and again, I like to share an interview that someone did with me. I find out when people interview me, I get to share more of myself, you get to learn more about me, and some really fascinating insights come out that wouldn't come out sometimes if I was planning a session myself

• 3:19Jay Shetty?

  or scripting a session with myself. I find that when I'm being asked questions, I'm connected to my intuition, I'm channeling more, I'm in flow, I'm in the zone. So this is one of those special interviews. It was with Mason and Payman out of Mad Happy, if you know the brand. Love these guys, they did a great interview. I'm excited for you to listen to this one. There's so many insights that came out, like I said, that I'd never thought of before or hadn't put into words. I really hope you enjoy it. I can't wait.

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Well, thanks for coming on, Jay. We like to start off every episode with a prompt from our journal. Obviously, journaling is like such a huge practice with so many mental health benefits. So we always like to start off the show with that to kind of get us all on the same page. Today's prompt, which Payman will answer first, then you go and I'll close this out, is what are you proud of yourself for?

• 4:10Speaker 02

  I think for me, just I've been trying to use my phone less, especially at night. And I've been doing a little bit better. I would say I'm still not all the way there, but that's one thing I'm proud of myself for. So, yeah. What about you, Jay?

• 4:22Jay Shetty?

  I'd say that the thing I'm proud of myself for recently is I haven't seen my wife for around four months. And I think we're so used to, obviously during the pandemic, being together with each other every day. We loved hanging out for like a solid two years, but she's been working in London. And I've been in L A and traveling and we haven't been able to find time to see each other. She's coming back in a couple of weeks, which I'm excited to see her after that long. But I'm really proud that I'm proud of both of us for having just communicated really effectively while being apart for that long. And not having moments where we argued about silly things or we were able to understand if the other person wasn't available.

• 5:05Jay Shetty?

  When we were free, there's an eight hour time gap between London and L A. So it might be around five months by the time we've seen each other. And I'm really proud that we've continued to feel more in love and I miss her like anything. And I just can't wait to have her back.

• 5:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's amazing. That's crazy. That's a good answer.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, for me, I recently started working out for like the first time in my life. I think physical activity and exercise has always been kind of hard for me. I think because of my ongoing depression, it's just like hard to really like motivate. And I went to the doctor for the first time in a while and he said that I should start to put on some muscle. So I've been lifting for the first time and I never felt like that guy or really felt like masculine or or strong in that way. And I think it's it's really given me a lot of confidence and has made me feel a lot happier. And Payman gives me my workout, so so I'm grateful for him for being my little pseudo trainer. But yeah, I'm proud of myself for for keeping that up for a few weeks now.

• 6:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's.

• 6:05Jay Shetty?

  I love that. I can relate to that, too. This was the first year that I really started getting in the gym for for physical health, too, as opposed to I love playing sports.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:14Jay Shetty?

  That's pretty much what I've done my whole life, but this is the first year. So I can very much relate to everything you just said.

• 6:19Speaker 02

  Well, that's a great way to kick it off. Jay, I'm wondering if you could give us a picture of like your childhood and your upbringing. We always like to start there because so much of your early lifehood, life and childhood experiences shape your life. So curious. About your early life.

• 6:36Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, so I was one of two kids. My parents were immigrants. They moved to London. My mom moved from Yemen to London when she was sixteen. My dad moved from India to London when he married my mom, so probably he was probably in his like mid twenties. And I went to a school in my area, which was pretty rough and tough. I was bullied for being one of the only Asian kids at school and being overweight as well when I was growing up, so. Went through a lot of bullying, got beat up a bunch of times. I'm talking about like when I was like six, seven years old. Through till about, probably about like, yeah, about ten years old at elementary school or primary school, as we call it. But what I remember from that time is

• 7:19Jay Shetty?

  my mom just giving me all the love in the world, working super hard, cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, dropping us to school, picking us up, helping me with my homework. Just I've I've always felt this flood of love from my mom. And I think that my capacity to love today comes from the fact that I received so much love from her. And and still do till this day. And my dad was more aloof and disconnected from my life. And at the time, it was hard, you know, it was hard when I'd be at a swimming class and I'd look up to see if my dad was in the stands and he'd be like reading his newspaper or you know, completely uninterested or you know, when I was playing rugby for my school and I'd look to the sidelines, but my my dad wouldn't show up to the games and

• 8:05Jay Shetty?

  when I was growing up, I think that affected me at the time and I would think, well, look, everyone else's dad's there, everyone else's parents are there. And actually, as I grew up, I now feel a sense of gratitude for it because it allowed me to do what I wanted to do for myself. And so now, when I look in hindsight, it's a different experience, but during that time, I think I went through a lot of common things that people go through, whether it's bullying, disconnection. But the thing I remember most from my childhood is my mom's love for sure.

• 8:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I'm curious, because I actually immigrated to the US when I was six, um, from Italy and my parents are from Iran. They immigrated to Italy and then to here and I always talk about just like that feeling of feeling different and even though you weren't an immigrant, I'm sure you felt that and like probably internalize that through the bullying. Is that how you were thinking about it growing up? Like, damn, like, why am I different? Like, why is my skin like this? Why is everyone like, you know, the same? Like, how are you thinking about that?

• 9:02Jay Shetty?

  At that time, I don't even know if I had the capacity to ask those questions because I was so young. And so now, when I think about it, I almost feel like at that time, I just thought, I didn't even ask, why is my skin or why is that? It was just like, why is this happening, right? Like in general, or like, or like, why am I going through this? And I remember one incident where one of my best friends in school, we were in grade four, so I would have been like, what, like seven years old or something like that? And I remember that one girl at school told him that I was talking bad about him, which I definitely was not doing, that that's not the kind of person I am. And he had a really short temper, so he stormed in, this is my best friend at school,

• 9:45Jay Shetty?

  storms in to the, to the field, comes up to me, starts punching me in the face, I'm on the floor, I've got bruises all over my eyes. And I remember looking back at that, just thinking like, wow, like, you know, I almost started to observe human behavior early on, I'd say, where I was like, wow, it's so interesting to see how people get triggered. It's so interesting to see how people act out of character when they're in certain scenarios and situations. I thought, how incredible is it that, what is it that that person's going through that's making them behave that way? I think those were the questions I started asking. So rather than asking the questions, why me? Or why am I going through this? Or what's wrong with me? I think I started looking at, well, what's happened to them?

• 10:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:29Jay Shetty?

  Right? Like, what's going on with them that's making them act that way with me? Because I'm just trying to be a good kid. I was teacher's pet, I worked hard, I was well behaved, I followed all the rules up until fourteen. And so for me, at that time in my life, it was more like, well, what happened to them? Like, what did they not have? What structure did they not have? What support do they not have that's making them act in that way?

• 10:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, I can relate to you with your, uh, dynamic with your parents. I also kind of moved around a lot as a kid. My, my biological father had left me and my mother before I was one years old. And then she remarried this man who, technically my stepdad, but raised me as my dad. And even growing up, I was so close with my mom and she really modeled what it was to. Show love and care about people and like how to go about your life. And my dad, who I found out later that he was gay at the time, but was experiencing a lot of rage and like things that were very confusing to me while he was dealing with his own stuff. And he wasn't that kind of model for me, was a bit more absent, like how you were explaining.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  And I feel like the way that that's manifested for me in my life has really been to be much more kind of empathetic and sensitive. And like I said at the beginning during the prompt, right? I, growing up, I never really felt like a man, quote unquote, or I have a problem with anger. I've like never yelled at anyone in my entire life, right? All these things that I'm still unpacking because it really was my mom who was modeling the world for me and how to behave. I'm curious for you, just with that dynamic between your mother and your father, how you feel like that kind of manifested into your adult life and like how you grew your personality and way to see the world?

• 12:05Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, that's such a great question and, and thank you for sharing your experience too. I really feel like it was similar where my mom had this big heart. She was highly understanding, very compassionate, very empathetic. And I think I adopted a lot of those traits as well. And because I saw her working hard, like, you know, she was working a job. She was the main breadwinner. She's taking care of me and my younger sister, like she's supporting us. I gained so much empathy and compassion for women, mothers, people who are just trying to make everything possible. And I also saw that my mom was quite non judgmental and non critical. And so I think I adopted some of those traits as well, where I looked at the world for

• 12:46Jay Shetty?

  what it was and I didn't try and judge or place my opinion onto other people, but observed why they behaved, they were. I think my mom was highly forgiving. And I think so I developed a great deal of forgiveness and tolerance by, again, like you said, mirroring her behavior. And then of course, there's the natural unlearning of certain parts that, that don't work as well, or that don't fit so beautifully as well. And so I think what I've learned is that you have to go through this journey where at one point in life, you take stock of the values that you practice. And you have to ask yourself two questions. Where does this value come from? And do I want to keep it?

• 13:30Jay Shetty?

  Do I want to make it mine? Because most of our values are adopted from our parents, our teachers, our friends, our family. And so getting to that point of saying, well, what are my values? Do I like them? Do I want them and do I wanna keep them in my life? And so I think when I started to make that transition, that's when you start becoming your own person and you start to recognize that, you know, our, our parents, and we'll do the same when we become parents, your parents give you what I call gifts and gaps.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  Mm hmm.

• 13:59Jay Shetty?

  Right? Sometimes your parents give you gifts and they're beautiful and then some of those gifts have gaps. And some gaps don't have any gifts. And it's up to you in life to fill the gaps, to repeat the gifts, to make the gifts yours, pass them along. And I think that's what I found most interesting about the journey of life, that everything was designed for me to learn something specific. And when I'm able to learn that, that experience now becomes meaningful and a powerful part of my story.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  Hmm. Yeah, it seems like you're pretty in tune with like yourself and your emotions, especially as a child. And I'm curious, like, as you got older, right, like, mental health is not something you think about when you're six. But you said, like, when you're fourteen, and I think you started like misbehaving in class. And I, was that like the first time that you like consciously remember like going through a challenging time in your life? And can you paint that picture for us and then how that led to college and, and beyond that?

• 14:54Jay Shetty?

  Well, I think I had this model of life where I'm like, I've been a teacher's pet. I've ticked every box. I've worked hard at school, but I'm still bullied. I still deal with racism. And teachers are still, you know, picking on me or taking shots at me and it doesn't feel fair. And so it was almost like I've been good and that hasn't got me anywhere. So let me be mischievous and silly and playful and rebellious and see if that goes anywhere. And so I think I was chasing a thrill, but I didn't realize that the greatest thrill of life was purpose. I didn't know that at fourteen. And so at fourteen, thrill came from being the class clown. It came from being the class rebel. It came from being involved in the wrong circles. It came from going against what your parents say.

• 15:38Jay Shetty?

  It came from doing the opposite of what was the right thing to do. And so I think that came from a sense of seeking purpose without me knowing.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:47Jay Shetty?

  And I would say that at that time, I wasn't being myself. I was now playing up to be like the people that I thought were cool, or that I thought were the right people to imitate, or the people that were trending, or the people that had influence or clout. And so you spend your whole teens kind of trying to mirror that person. I almost feel like zero to ten, you end up trying to be the person your parents want to be. And ten to twenty, you try and be the person that your friends want you to be. And then twenty to thirty, you realize you don't want to be either of those things. And then hopefully in your thirties, you start being the person you want to be. Right? It's kind of like, that's, that's, I mean, I'm, I'm stereotyping and simplifying, but I feel like that's been the journey that I've been on at least.

• 16:30Jay Shetty?

  And I, I realized that you have to go on that journey in that way, because you learn valuable lessons at each step. So for me, those teens were very much me trying to be like people that I thought were cool or respected and recognizing that that, that didn't quite have it either.

• 16:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I had a similar experience where I was really good um at school, even when I moved here, I didn't speak English, but I learned it quickly and I was really good in school. And I think I was bored with that in some ways and like, was still trying to like, connect with, with other people. So I was doing like the class clown things too, all the way through like eighth grade. And it was funny because it, the purpose thing you just brought up, I think I could really relate with that, because like, I got purpose from like, doing well in school and from like, making jokes and like, people thinking I was funny and like, more the external validation, which I think is like, pretty normal early on. I'm curious, and then like, I also had a similar experience where I went to undergrad business school. I'm curious like, how you made that decision?

• 17:26Speaker 02

  And then eventually how that led to you like, going on that journey to becoming a monk, because obviously those two things seem very opposite.

• 17:34Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I think I did what every sane person does after going to undergrad business school, which is uh, becoming a monk. Uh, I'll, I'll explain it, I'll track back. To be honest, when I was in my teens, the, the subjects that resonated with me most were art, design and philosophy. Like, that's what I fell in love with. And so I would spend more time at art class and in the studio, and I would spend more time on online on Photoshop and, you know, I'd, I'd constantly be working on art. It's, it's what I fell in love with and what I was attracted to. But then there was still that voice inside my head that said, art is not a career. Right? Design is not a career. Philosophy is not a career.

• 18:14Jay Shetty?

  And because I'd had that ingrained so deeply within me, I was like, well, then I should go get a degree that has a career behind it. I would say in my teens, I didn't know it was possible to be anything else apart from a doctor, a lawyer, or a business person. Like, I almost didn't know, as silly as it sounds. I just wasn't aware that there were that many careers beyond a few set careers that had been laid out by friends, family members, and people around me. And so I went there, honestly, just because I thought it would line up a safe career opportunity. Now, when I went there, I still realized that there were things I was more interested in. So I got deep into behavioral science and I started doing electives in arts and antiques markets and like

• 18:58Jay Shetty?

  all of my dissertations and thesis were all about fascinating subject matters, even though I was there. But I think the most important thing that happened is I would go and hear people speak. And this is before podcasts, right? This is before podcasts. It's before YouTube. This is when you actually had to go to physical spaces to hear people speak. And it was before TED was big. TED was obviously around. It just wasn't a big deal at the time. And so I would go to my university to hear people speak, or go into the city to hear people speak. And I was invited to hear a monk speak by some of my friends that had been getting involved in meditation and mindfulness. This is back in two thousand and six, so very early days.

• 19:41Jay Shetty?

  And I was just like, what am I gonna learn from a monk? Like, I was super skeptical, super cynical. Didn't know what monks did, didn't know what value monks could add. But I made my friends promise that we'd go to a bar afterwards. Like, that was my state of consciousness at the time.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  Deal, yeah.

• 20:00Jay Shetty?

  My friends were highly persuasive, so they agreed. So we went to this event. I'm thinking, I'm just gonna be looking at the clock, trying to get out of this space. And the opposite happened where I was staring at this monk as if he was the most beautiful woman in the world. Like, that's how fixated I was. And he was wearing robes, he were, you know, he was from India, he, you know, it it wasn't that there was anything externally attractive about him. It was just that it almost felt like I'd met someone who had the frequency and energy that I didn't even know I was looking for. And this is something that I really believe in, that not everyone needs to meet a monk.

• 20:40Jay Shetty?

  But I do believe today that we rarely meet people of different frequency and different energy. We follow the same people, we watch the same people, we hear from the same people, the media covers the same people. And we could hear deeper stories about those same people, but we don't often hear those. So I'm not saying that the same people are the issue. You could hear deeper journeys and deeper elements of their background and walks of life. Or we need to be exposed to new minds and new thinkers and and people that we don't recognize. Because that's what gives you the opportunity to go, oh, there's something out there that I know nothing about, but I'm attracted to.

• 21:24Jay Shetty?

  And that's how I felt. When I met a monk, if you asked me, if anyone ever said to me, Jay, you're probably going to become a monk for three years of your life. I probably would have thrown my beer bottle at them, right? Like, that would have been like, you know, it would have been, I would have laughed. No, I wouldn't have thrown it at them. I don't want to hurt them. I I would have laughed. It would have been, it would have been ridiculous is what I mean. It would have been, you know, preposterous to imagine that that would be a path I would take. But I got so attracted to him. And then during my time at college, I was interning at investment banks and consulting companies. And I was going to spend time at the monastery in India. And so I did my first split test or A B test. And I realized when I graduated that the life of living as a monk was far more fulfilling than

• 22:09Jay Shetty?

  the life of working in the city. So I turned down my corporate job offer and I went and lived as a monk. And it was because of two things. Two things were important to me when I chose to become a monk. The first is I wanted to understand how I could purify my ego, master my mind, and live a life where I could actually manage my emotions. And I saw that monks could do that, and I wanted to learn to do that. I felt that that would be one of the most valuable skills for myself and my experience of life. And the second thing, and the reason I did it, is because monks were serving. They were helping others. They were contributing to society. And I thought to myself, that seems like a worthy cause.

• 22:54Jay Shetty?

  That's what I want to do with my life. So those were the two reasons that that took me in that direction.

• 22:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think that the note of being of service is something that I think about a lot, being in sobriety and recovery. Obviously, that's a huge part of the program. And I think where I've found myself feeling the most fulfilled and the most connected and really the most myself, and I think a lot of what we try and do at Mad Happy too, is obviously giving back and educating people and sharing our own experiences to inspire other people to speak up. And I, I, I think being of service is truly how the life that I want to lead, when I really think about what makes me happy. And, and I was wondering if you could just explain kind of what that monk was saying that day a little bit, and then almost what life as a monk kind of looks like. I think when I think of a monk, you know, I think of just kind of like a Buddha on

• 23:43Speaker 01

  a hill, like just like not talking all day. And like, that might be what a lot of people think of it as well. And what, what was it actually like? And, and what were those first things that you were hearing from him that were really uh, kind of opening your mind?

• 23:54Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, he was saying that the greatest thing that a human can do is to use their gifts in the service of others. That you use this life, this body, this mind, this heart that you have, in order to improve the lives of others. And you can only do that when you learn to purify yourself of ego, of arrogance, of pride, of elements in your life that block you, of envy, of illusion, of these things that block you from serving people with a full heart. And that really deeply resonated with me because I could see people who are well intentioned, but then their ego got the better of them.

• 24:39Jay Shetty?

  Or I could see people who wanted to do good in the world, but then they couldn't take care of themselves at the same time. And so those were some of the things that resonated with me and obviously I had to spend more time with him. And there are different monk paths. So what you just said about a particular monk path, there are those paths. I chose this particular path because it was about self and service. There are a lot of paths where it is just about being silent. So our mornings would be silent and our days would be service. But a lot of paths will be fully silenced or fully serviced. And I chose this path because I felt that both were important tracks in our life. And so we'd wake up at four AM every day and morning meditations collectively would be four thirty to five.

• 25:24Jay Shetty?

  Then five to seven would be individual meditation. Then seven till about eight, eight thirty would be a class on the spiritual literatures. And then eight thirty would be breakfast. And then from like nine thirty onward, it would be a mix of daily chores, uh, going out and building sustainable villages, going and helping villagers with their daily tasks. Uh, it could be going out and feeding the homeless or, or children at school. So the day would be spent being with society and being present with people who needed that support. And of course, there were elements where we would go and pilgrimage and visit these five thousand year old temples and go to these incredible places across India that,

• 26:09Jay Shetty?

  you know, haven't been visited or seen for, for thousands of years or. It's this beautiful thing that I read about recently, which, which I'm encouraging more people to experience. Scientists call it the awe effect. And awe is something we all get to experience. We experience it when we see a beautiful scenery or you're in nature. Or like I'm saying, when you visit a five thousand year old temple. And awe is defined as when you feel small, but connected to something bigger at the same time. So you feel really insignificant. You get to experience humility, but connectivity at the same time. Yeah. And I got to experience a lot of that as a monk where you felt so tiny,

• 26:54Jay Shetty?

  but you felt so big. And powerful and capable. And I think that that juxtaposition of ideology is is what we're all searching for. We we don't want to be big on our own, alone on a mountain top. No one wants that. No one who has achieved success is happy being lonely at the top.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:14Jay Shetty?

  And at the same time, no one wants to be depressed and alone and left with nothing and feel like they have nothing to offer the world. So I think if we can all experience awe, not just through external visuals, but through the cultivation of that inner space of I'm really tiny, but I'm a part of something really big, which makes me really significant and insignificant all at the same time. I I think that's just a really beautiful place to live. And I'd say that that's one of the key things I learned during that time from an internal standpoint.

• 27:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, as soon as you said that, I thought about the first time that I went to Yosemite and just like standing in that valley. And it was such a significant awe effect of of I feel so small, but so connected. And I find myself with nature, especially because it's so kind of mysterious and and and there's no answer for how this got here or what it means or or any of that. And I feel like that's where I really feel the awe effect so strongly when there's not a clear answer. I think that those are the most beautiful parts of life to me where I can feel the most connected, where there's not like, there's no right or wrong, there's no winning, it's just it can't be explained. And like, that's where the most kind of beauty I find is for me.

• 28:25Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I mean, what you just sparked something for me. I mean, we are nature, and I don't think we observe nature enough. I think we observe machines more than we observe nature. And so we are starting to think like machines, i.e. productivity, goals, targets, list, checks, systems, processes. But we are nature. And if you look at a tree, a tree has all different branches going off in different directions, it has roots getting nutrients, it sometimes is giving out fruits and flowers, sometimes it's shedding and it doesn't do that. Like, a tree is not confused in autumn or fall going, why are my leaves falling?

• 29:08Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 29:09Jay Shetty?

  The the tree does that naturally. But if we go through a phase in our life where we feel like we're shedding or things are transitioning, we get scared because machines don't change. Right, this microphone looks the same in January and it looks the same in December. But nature doesn't look the same in January and December. And if we're nature, then that's more of what we're gonna be like. But we're trying to be like this microphone. We're like, I don't wanna change. I just wanna remain the same the whole time. And so I, I think there's so much more than even awe to be gained from nature. Where it's like, we are nature. If we observe nature deeply, we can actually flow and live life much more naturally and simply than being attracted and attached to machines and machinery.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. You talk about, um, you know, the power of being able to spend time alone. I think it's like something that's like a lot harder. And I even, I talk about this a lot, like even when I'm alone, I'm like listening to a podcast or like doing something where it's like you're not actually alone, just with your thoughts. And like the challenge for me of just like driving home, not playing music or not, you know, it's always like so hard for me. And I, and I try to do it every once in a while to just, because I know it's good for me. And it always feels good when I get to my final destination. Cause I obviously thought about a lot of things that wouldn't have come up in my own head without giving myself that space. So I'm curious about your time as a monk, cause it seems like the morning time was spent like being more by yourself, even if you're surrounded by others.

• 30:34Speaker 02

  And then the second part of your day was like being around others and like in service. So I'm curious like what you began to think of that and the importance of spending time alone in that process.

• 30:45Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I think that's really fair, what you've said. We've, we've made loneliness and being alone the enemy since we were young. If you went to school and you didn't have someone to sit next to, you were called the loner.

• 30:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:00Jay Shetty?

  Right? Or if you threw a birthday party and not many people showed up, you were considered unpopular. Even though today as adults, if we had five people show up to our birthday, we'd be happy because we realize that that's probably the amount of people that actually know us.

• 31:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:15Jay Shetty?

  Uh, if you get invited to a wedding and you don't have a plus one, it's like, well, you didn't bring a plus one, you didn't wanna bring someone, right? Even now, when I haven't seen my wife for a few months and I go somewhere, the number one question I get asked is where's your wife, right? It's like, it's so, it's so abnormal for people to see people alone. And there's an amazing author called Paul Tillich, who writes that there are two words in the English language for being alone, but we only use one of them. So it's loneliness. And he says there's another word and it's called solitude. And when we were monks, we were taught to practice solitude, not loneliness or being alone.

• 31:55Jay Shetty?

  And so Paul Tillich writes that loneliness is when you feel weak on your own. And solitude is when you feel strength when you're by yourself. We've been getting so many amazing reviews for the Daily J, my new daily guided meditation series on the Calm app. You might have heard a couple of snippets on the podcast for a few weeks. So in case you haven't had the chance to check it out, I just wanted to share this review from Caitlin, an elementary school teacher from New Jersey. Here's what she had to say. I have over nine years of experience in the American public school education system, including teaching throughout the pandemic. Over the past two years, I've seen extreme cases of anxiety in my students like never before. Many of these children have never experienced these feelings before

• 32:39Jay Shetty?

  and most are not even sure of what they are feeling. My school district has spent a great deal of time focusing on social emotional learning, SEL, through this school year. We try to teach coping skills and focus on teaching kids how to deal with their feelings and become the best version of themselves. As someone who has also been experiencing the many anxieties of the world today, I have recently downloaded the Calm app, thanks to my mom. My mom and I are big fans of yours. And once she heard that you will have seven minutes of Daily J each day, she encouraged me in doing this. Your meaningful ideas and meditation have quickly become part of my daily routine, so much that I've begun incorporating some of them into my SEL morning meetings with my third graders. If you've ever wanted to meditate with me,

• 33:24Jay Shetty?

  join me on the Calm app for the Daily J, a daily guided meditation where I'll help you find calm in the chaos, plant beautiful intentions for a happy, abundant life, and simple steps for positive actions to get you closer to the life of your dreams. Meditate with me by going to calm.com/j to get forty percent off a Calm Premium membership. That's only forty-two dollars for the whole year for a daily guided meditation. Experience the Daily J only on Calm.

• 33:57Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. I know how important every hire is for a business. If you need to make the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed sponsored jobs helps find quality candidates when you need them most. You can reach who you need based on whatever criteria you're looking for, like skills, certifications, or location. In fact, people are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast.

• 34:40Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Amtrak. You know that feeling when you're already tired and you haven't even gotten there yet? That's where Amtrak comes in. Leave the driving behind and settle into a comfortable seat with plenty of room to stretch out. Catch up on work with wifi, grab a snack at the cafe car, or just sit back and enjoy your favorite podcast. Choose a seller or Northeast Regional and get there without the stress of getting there. Visit amtrak.com to plan your next trip. This episode is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve.

• 35:22Jay Shetty?

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• 36:01Jay Shetty?

  What I find is really fascinating about solitude is that it's a time in your life where you get to make sense of your own thoughts, your own feelings and your own emotions. Most of the time, we're using other people as sounding boards for our thoughts, our emotions and our feelings. Now, that is healthy in therapy. That is healthy in coaching. That is healthy in conversations like this. But we also need time and space to do that with ourselves, to refresh, to recalibrate, to resynchronize with ourself. That's what solitude allows you space to do. Solitude also allows you to hear your inner voice.

• 36:43Jay Shetty?

  If you're only always listening to music or TV or shows, that voice becomes your voice, or that noise becomes your voice, and you lose the ability to check in with yourself and go, how does that feel for me? So often, when I'm in solitude, and when we were monks, it was the idea of, could I sit with a thought and genuinely discover how I feel about it at the core, regardless of how everyone else feels about it? And you can only do that in stillness and silence. You can't do that when you're constantly surrounded by lots of people. And so, we've never been trained to do that. We've been made to believe that you'll be happier,

• 37:24Jay Shetty?

  you'll be more social when you're around people, which is true. But what I find is that if I want to make my mind up about something, I find it, you're much more likely to hear your inner voice and know where to be guided by learning that practice. I'd say everyone has that loud voice in their head when they're young, and we've drowned it out or pushed it aside so much that it's got quieter and quieter and quieter. When someone says, Jay, I don't hear that voice. I don't hear myself. It's because it was so loud when we were young, when it was like, don't do that, do that, try this, don't hang out with that person, do this. You don't need to do that. We just went, no, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna do this

• 38:06Jay Shetty?

  because I think it's the right thing, or I think it's cool, or I think it's the thing I'm meant to do. For me, solitude is about building that habit of asking yourself, how do I feel about this? What's important to me? What's meaningful to me? What do I truly want to pursue? Without the noise, without anyone else's voice or opinion?

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, for me and and P, I'm curious how you feel about this. Like, I feel like as I've gotten older and we've grown this business and and I've gotten into a relationship and I have five brothers and sisters, like anytime I'm expressing myself or making a decision or thinking, it's almost impossible for me not to consider these other people, right? Or like, well, how is this gonna make my girlfriend feel? Then what are my business partners gonna think of me? Then like, what about my sibling? And just like all that. And and I find it really difficult as I get older and there's more kind of stakes and pressure of life to be able to really be selfish in that way and like make a decision just for myself and not really worry about anybody else because it could potentially have such a direct impact on so many others, you know?

• 39:11Jay Shetty?

  Well, I want to respond to that because I think that's a healthy trait that you have. And I I wouldn't discourage that. So to give a nuance to what I said, I think it's less about even making the decision, but it's about being aware of what it is that you want and need.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:26Jay Shetty?

  And then being able to process the discussion on the outer layers of who else is involved. Rather than what we do is we usually ignore or are completely unaware of what we need.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:38Jay Shetty?

  And then we we just avoid it, right? So I I agree with you. I think what you're sharing, I actually find beautiful and wonderful. I think it makes someone a wonderful human when they're aware of other people's needs and other people's concerns and and interests. But I think you can't be fully yourself in that if we're not aware of the first thing is what I meant.

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:01Jay Shetty?

  So thank you for sharing that because that helps me contextualize a little more.

• 40:05Speaker 01

  No, for sure.

• 40:05Jay Shetty?

  Sorry, I wanted to hear from you as well.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, go ahead, P.

• 40:08Speaker 02

  It's a good thing you just brought up. Um, I, um, you know, I started going to therapy last January, which I always talk about on the show, and it's been very informative for me because my therapist is like the science side and like the spiritual side, which I found amazing. Um, and, you know, he's like a a big meditator, talks a lot about the energy stuff that you brought up earlier, Jay. And and I think for me. When Mason just brought it up, I was thinking, oh, wow, like, I only think in the way of like, me and everyone else versus like just me first, um, which I think like could be a very valuable skill to develop and just see like how often that is the same decision I would have made otherwise versus not,

• 40:50Speaker 02

  you know, and like I could still keep going with that decision. That's more the middle ground for now, but I think the awareness piece, like you said, Jay is the most important part.

• 40:57Jay Shetty?

  We just think of life as like yes and no, black and white, this or that, right? It's very binary. So it's like, I either focus on myself or I focus on everyone else. And actually, life's more like that logo behind you where it's circles.

• 41:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:14Jay Shetty?

  And so you have you, then you have your family, then you have your friends, then you have your community, and then you have your podcast audience, and then you have the wider world, and life's more like that. So life isn't either or. It's almost like starting from this central point and then cascading and emanating outwards, right? And so I think the challenge is we've been brought up to believe that it's binary.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:37Jay Shetty?

  And, and it's not binary. It's almost like concentric circles that keep expanding out, and that energy that's created within is, is gonna move outwards.

• 41:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'm curious, like, I know that after a few years, you decided to leave the monastery, re-enter society, and at the time, like, how were you thinking about, one, how'd you make that decision? But two, how are you thinking about like what your life, you know, what was in store for your life? Because I imagine before, you know, you had a very different view of like success and like happiness and life. So how did you come to that decision?

• 42:10Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I think leaving was, I've always described it as one of the hardest decisions of my life because, you know, when I became a monk, it wasn't this celebratory thing. It was like, you know, most of my extended family were like, you're never gonna make money again, you're never gonna get a job again, you're never gonna, no one's ever gonna date you again, like you're committing career suicide, like you've been brainwashed, like you're wasting away your parents' hard work, you're wasting away your education, like, it wasn't, I didn't become a monk under like happy circumstances. I became a monk against the grain.

• 42:46Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 42:47Jay Shetty?

  I had friends who- Didn't understand my decision and didn't wanna talk to me anymore because they didn't understand what I was trying to do. They were just like, well, you've changed and, you know, now we can't talk about the same things, so we have nothing to talk about. So I lost friends from that decision.

• 43:01Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:02Jay Shetty?

  And so when I left, I was like, was everyone right? And the decision I left for was actually that spending time as a monk gave me so much self-awareness that I realized I wasn't meant to be a monk, that I wanted to share what I'd learned, that I wanted to pass it on, that I wanted to speak about it in lots of interesting, exciting ways. I wanted to pair it up with science because I loved behavioral science growing up. And so I had all these ideas of how I could help people who came from the same backgrounds and walks of life that I did. And I recognized, I was like, that desire wasn't a monk desire in terms of the journey of a monk. And so that's like one of the hardest

• 43:44Jay Shetty?

  things where you feel like you left everything to get married to the love of your life, i.e. the path of being a monk. And now you go, oh, wait a minute, but that doesn't make me a monk. I might need to break up or get divorced. And that's what it felt like. It felt like a divorce. And I remembered my teacher saying to me as well that they felt I could share what I'd learned better if I moved on. And that was a really stressful, pressurized situation because I now moved back to London, to my parents' home, aged twenty-six, and I was in twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of debt, eighteen thousand pounds roughly at the time. I hadn't had a job for that amount of time, so I had no work experience.

• 44:25Jay Shetty?

  All my friends were like getting mortgages, you know, dating and serious relationships or growing. They were doing well in their careers. They were getting promoted. And I'm coming back with nothing to offer. Then I applied to forty companies and get rejected by every single one of them before an interview because, surprise, surprise, no one wants to hire a former monk, right? They're like, what are your, what are your transferable skills? Like sitting still and being silent? We don't need that. So I'm almost like, oh my gosh, was everyone right? Everyone was right. I did waste my life. I I did mess up, you know, and so it was a very and and again, I didn't know who the Prime Minister of England was. I didn't know who won the World Cup. And, you know, I hadn't listened to music or a TV show like I didn't know how to do

• 45:09Jay Shetty?

  small talk anymore. Imagine, imagine you haven't done small talk for three years.

• 45:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:14Jay Shetty?

  Like you literally forget how to have a conversation because so I was, I felt really out of touch. And on top of that, my health had taken a hit because as a monk, I'd been like practicing all sorts of fasts and crazy meditations and my health was quite depleted. So I was also low on, you know, from a physical point of view, and we all know that that can massively impact you from a chronic fatigue point of view and even depression. And so I was in in in quite a difficult space. And so leaving was, yeah, leaving was one of the most toughest things I've ever done. And it's only all in you. Like, it was all for me. But, yeah, it wasn't easy at all.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then after that, I guess, what was the moment where you kind of got back on the horse, so to speak, or like, kind of had your first big break of realizing, all right, there's, there's something here and I can kind of take what I've learned and really build something out of this?

• 46:03Jay Shetty?

  So it took 10 months when I left to get a job. Right? It took 10 months of applying, being unemployed, figuring it out, living in my parents' home. It took 10 months to get a job. And those 10 months included, the first month, I just didn't do anything at all. And then the next nine months, I was waking up and meditating again, practicing everything I learned as a monk.

• 46:27Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 46:27Jay Shetty?

  Going to the library, reading books about business, studying philosophy again, trying to just get back into the world.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  Right.

• 46:33Jay Shetty?

  And I remember 10 months later, I went to this, I got this job finally, I went to this networking event at the beginning of the job. And I remember the activity was pizza making. So it was like pizza making groups so you can network and connect. And I was like, what am I doing here? Like, it was the biggest culture. I was like, what am I doing? Like, I didn't know what to wear. I was like, is this too casual? There was like, you know, it was like, business casual. And I almost, I was like, oh, my gosh, what do I wear? Like, what's in there? What's not?

• 46:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 47:00Jay Shetty?

  And that was the moment when I started that job, I realized something really important. I realized that I wasn't five years behind everyone. I realized that I'd learned lessons that put me ahead. And when I say ahead, I don't mean ahead of others, I meant ahead in my own understanding. And so even though I was 26 and everyone who started that job was 21, I was like, no, the lessons I learned as a monk are going to be my. My armor, they're gonna be my strength. So now let me recognize how to apply this. So I've always realized that my life became good. That moment changed when I started applying everything I'd learned, rather than trying to push it away.

• 47:39Speaker 02

  Hmm. Hmm. And I think you talk about this idea of like conscious capitalism, which I, I think in, in, in many ways, like very much is aligned with what we're doing. Because like we always say, like we're, we're a business and we hope through having a successful one, we can make a big impact in the world. We could spread awareness, raise money for mental health, all of those sorts of amazing things. I'm curious how you came to that realization. Was that sort of like the bridging of like your earlier interests? How did you come to that?

• 48:07Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, that's a really great question. I'm glad we're talking about it because I think spirituality and money are often uncomfortable conversations for people to have. And I would say it was an uncomfortable situation for me because when I started what I was doing, I honestly started with the intention of I just wanna help people. I just wanna serve. I'm just gonna create stuff that's gonna improve people's lives. And as I started to do that, I realized that if I wasn't able to create a business or a venture, I couldn't create structures to scale, amplify, grow both the message or a team of people that also get to live their purpose.

• 48:47Jay Shetty?

  So today, when I've been able to connect and synchronize those two worlds of spirituality and business or conscious capitalism, as you said, you start recognizing that, oh, actually I can do more good with money and use money for more good.

• 49:07Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 49:08Jay Shetty?

  That includes living a life for myself that allows me to live in abundance, creating jobs and opportunities for other team members who now get to live in a purpose-led organization. Like everyone who works with me on my team loves what we do. They believe in mental health. They believe in conscious business. They want to create opportunities and products and businesses and content to help people. So now you've got all those people who are helping, right? And then on top of that, everyone else who gets to be impacted. So for me, I recognize that if I lived in a world where I Didn't connect spirituality in business or impact in business. Then what would end up happening is I would have enough for me, but then I wouldn't be able to scale,

• 49:53Jay Shetty?

  grow or make a difference in the world to the extent that I wanted to. And so I had to rewire my relationship with money because I grew up in a family where we always had just enough. So I grew up plenty of days in my life, months, years, having zero dollars, uh, zero pounds in my bank account, like consistently. And I always had just enough. And when I started to realize that just enough is fine for you, but what about all the people you want to serve and create opportunities for? Uh, it's been fun figuring it out and I'm still figuring it out and I think you have to be, you know, careful with it. But, you know, last year, this was one of my favorite things. Last year, my wife and I read a statistic that,

• 50:34Jay Shetty?

  you know, one person was, I think, dying from COVID every five minutes in India. It was, it was pretty bad. And we decided to organize a fundraiser within twenty four to forty eight hours with all of our friends and community and, you know, amazing people that we had that, that supported it. And, you know, we had like everyone like, you know, Shawn Mendes got involved and Ellen got involved and, and then we led this online fundraiser and our audience delivered. And we raised like across twenty four hours, literally twenty four to forty eight hours, we raised five million dollars. And that event cost like fifty to sixty K to put on online production, all that kind of stuff. And I was just thinking like, we would never have been able to do that. And I just felt so grateful. I mean, that was nothing. I mean, you know, India had far more challenges than five million dollars could solve.

• 51:19Jay Shetty?

  But I just felt grateful that that made me feel like this is what we were able to do because of everything else that existed.

• 51:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think this like notion of like money can actually do good. I think people are just like not as open to it right now. And, and, and that's fair. I think everyone has their own relationship with it, but I think some of the companies who have. Made the biggest differences like a Patagonia, for example, like they've done very well as a business to be able to give back more and more every year. To, you know, make the planet a better place to live for everyone. And so I think. It definitely is possible and it seems like you're doing a great job of it. So, congrats.

• 51:58Jay Shetty?

  Well, no, I, I think I'm trying, I'm learning, I'm, I'm growing, I'm trying to figure it out and. It's definitely my intention, like it's, it's intention and action is there, like it's what we believe in, it's what we want to do.

• 52:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:10Jay Shetty?

  We, we worked, we've worked very closely with um. Pencils of Promise, which builds schools across the world, right, to provide education. I've worked with them consistently over the last few years and. We've provided education for thousands of children across the world, like stuff like that gets me so excited. I'm like, yes, like because of our platform, because of our, this is what we get to do, right? So it's almost like you have to do all these things that you have to do to get to do what you want to do.

• 52:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 52:35Jay Shetty?

  And I think we live in a world where we only want to do what we want to do and it often isn't that easy. Often you. Like, you know, I interviewed uh Matt Damon recently on the podcast, on, on my podcast, On Purpose, and. He's been directing all of his profile and, and energy and passion. To providing clean water and access to water and sanitized water to people across the world. Like that's what he's directing his. Brand, his fame, his popularity to, and I think it's incredible, right, to see that. So.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  Definitely.

• 53:05Jay Shetty?

  There's a lot of people that I admire in this space.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  Definitely.

• 53:07Speaker 01

  Uh, one more question I had, going back to the ego thing, I know you said that was one of kind of the first principles that really drew you. To the monk during that conversation. Obviously, you can't explain it uh in a short amount of time and it takes a lot of work, but. What are sort of the practices and the steps to really being able to work on. Quieting your ego and, and kind of diminishing that in a way to be more of service and, and, and. Live a life more for others because I feel like that's a real struggle for me and obviously it, it sounds very easy and peaceful to say, but. In practice, what are some of the tangible steps that that actually looks like?

• 53:44Jay Shetty?

  Well, I think what I might say might, or at least the step one, might sound kind of counterintuitive, but. Ego is fed, the ego is fueled by. Validation and the chasing of validation and clout and external.

• 54:05Jay Shetty?

  People, things making us feel good about ourselves.

• 54:08Speaker 02

  Right.

• 54:09Jay Shetty?

  And to really, the first step to taming the ego is self-validation. Is learning to validate the things you love about yourself, appreciate about yourself, acknowledging your own weaknesses, acknowledging things that you're working on. The antidote to ego is honesty, because the ego lives in a lie and an amplified version of self.

• 54:36Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 54:37Jay Shetty?

  Whereas true living is in living an honest life of these are my weaknesses, these are my strengths, these are my flaws, these are my skills. And I think we're scared. We actually think ego means I don't even think I have skills. I don't even think I have anything to offer. And that's actually not true. The truth is saying, I do have these skills and I also have these challenges. I do have these strengths and I also have these weaknesses. That's how you start breaking down the ego, because what's really tricky about the ego is it can make you feel like the best of the best. It can make you feel like I'm the best in the world. And it can do the opposite. It can make you feel like you're the worst in the world. It's just inverted ego. And so, and neither of those are true. You are not the best in the world, right? Me included, all of us.

• 55:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:20Jay Shetty?

  And you're not the worst in the world either, because no one's the best of the worst. We're all just humans with complex emotions. And so acknowledging and embracing your complexity and the juxtaposition of things that you end up becoming is the first step in order to purify your ego, because you're honestly embracing and accepting yourself.

• 55:42Speaker 02

  Yeah. My last question, then Mason will ask, the two questions we ask everyone, but if, you know, you said, you know, zero to 10, 10 to 20, 20 to 30, thinking now back to your 30-year-old self, like one bit of advice that you would give yourself if you could go back, what would it be?

• 56:02Jay Shetty?

  If I could go back to what age?

• 56:03Speaker 02

  To your thirty year old self.

• 56:05Jay Shetty?

  Okay, so I'm thirty four right now, so.

• 56:08Speaker 02

  I guess not that many years. I guess there's not that much time, but still.

• 56:12Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, no, four years ago. I, I, I feel like, uh, I think it's always been trust your inner voice, like trust your intuition. You know, trust your gut. Don't get distracted by shiny things, new things, other people's opinions, expectations, obligations.

• 56:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:28Jay Shetty?

  Just, just, you know, trust, trust what you always wanted to do.

• 56:33Speaker 02

  It's always good advice.

• 56:34Speaker 01

  Pete, what would be your advice to your twenty year old self?

• 56:38Speaker 02

  Um, yeah, I mean, I think it was pretty, pretty dead on, Jay, when you said earlier, just like zero to ten, it's like more parents, ten to twenties, more friends. I think when I was twenty was when I was first starting to like, begin to think for myself and less about friends. I always think like, the first few years of high school and the first few years of college, I was still getting acclimated. So it was more just like doing things because like, it made me fit in more. And I think towards the end of college, I was just starting to like, branch out on my own more and I've done more of that each year. So I would just, again, tell myself to like, don't be afraid to start that earlier. I think like I thought I had to follow this path. I went into banking before we started this also and

• 57:18Speaker 02

  a lot of that was just following a path instead of like, understanding what I wanted to do for myself. And I think I've, I understand that more, more and more each year now. So I feel good about that now at twenty eight and hopefully I can keep that up.

• 57:30Speaker 01

  Good.

• 57:31Jay Shetty?

  So awesome.

• 57:32Speaker 01

  All right, Jay, uh, our final two questions. The first is if you could nominate anyone to come on the Mad Happy Podcast who's been a big inspiration for you or who you feel like has a really powerful mental health story or journey, uh, whether you know them or not, who would it be?

• 57:45Jay Shetty?

  I think what Simone Biles did, I, I don't know her, but I thought what she did in sport last year was

• 57:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:51Jay Shetty?

  pretty incredible. And Naomi Osaka as well, both of them, like for what they did in terms of sports and performance and mental health. Again, don't know, don't know either of them, but I think they would be.

• 58:03Speaker 01

  Totally agree. Yeah, definitely two, two leaders in the space that are, that are huge inspirations for us. And, and, and finally, Jay, what makes you mad happy?

• 58:12Jay Shetty?

  Haha, I'm gonna give an answer that hopefully is less predictable. Football, soccer. I'm a massive Manchester United fan.

• 58:19Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 58:19Jay Shetty?

  Playing soccer, playing FIFA.

• 58:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:22Jay Shetty?

  Being on a soccer field, watching a game of soccer, like anything soccer related makes me mad happy.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  Did you catch that Madrid comeback the other day?

• 58:30Jay Shetty?

  I did, I did. I did. I watched the highlight. I didn't watch the game.

• 58:33Speaker 01

  That was insane.

• 58:34Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. I love those moments. I love those moments of comebacks and underdogs.

• 58:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. You talk about an off act, like being in that crowd. That's an off act right there.

• 58:44Jay Shetty?

  Totally. That's mad happy.

• 58:46Speaker 02

  Well, Jay, thank you so much. We really, really appreciate you coming on. I know that our audience will love this one. We love it. And thank you for everything you do. We listen to a lot of the podcast episodes. So keep it all up and hopefully next time we'll do it in person.

• 59:00Jay Shetty?

  Definitely. I'd love to meet you both in person. Congrats on everything you're doing with the brand. And I'm so grateful to have been on. Thank you to your amazing community who's listened to today. And I really look forward to hanging out more, man. Thank you so much to both of you. And congrats on everything you're doing.

• 59:14Speaker 01

  Thank you. Likewise.

• 59:15Speaker 02

  Thank you, everyone. Talk soon.

• 59:16Jay Shetty?

  Thanks, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with the guys at Mad Happy. I really hope you enjoyed it. And just thank you so much for all the reviews that are coming in. I hope you saw me posting a ton of them to my stories on Instagram. And if you don't already follow us on TikTok as well, make sure you do, because we're posting a lot of great clips from the video episodes on TikTok. Thanks so much, everyone.

• 59:49Speaker 03

  Mr. President, my company foreme of the explosion on our rig.

• 59:53Speaker 04

  On October 2nd.

• 59:54Speaker 03

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all keep the blame on me.

• 59:59Speaker 04

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess, and Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:00:06Speaker 03

  What would happen if I stopped going? You stop, you freeze in there, that's what.

• 1:00:10Speaker 04

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:00:13Speaker 03

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:00:15Speaker 04

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:00:20Speaker 05

  Espolone Tequila. Balanced. Delicious. 100% acave. 0% ego. Just add ice, lime, and your mouth. For real margarita, ride the rooster.

• 1:00:30Speaker 04

  Espolone Tequila, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof. Copyright 2026, Campali America, New York, New York. Drink responsibly.