The Transformative Power of Practicing Gratitude

Unless you are a new listener to the show, then you very well may be fatigued by my show opening mantra. If so, you're out of luck, because I'm going to repeat it here anyway: Each week I bring you the best most forward thinking, paradigm busting minds in health, fitness, athleticism, creativity, diet, nutrition, art, entrepreneurship, personal growth & spirituality…. The goal is simple: to empower YOU with the tools, the knowledge, the inspiration and motivation to take your life to the next level. To help you discover, unlock and unleash your BEST most AUTHENTIC self. I repeat it here because it's particularly relevant to today's guest and topic. I repeat it here because I need to remind myself that in order to make that leap to so unlock and unleash, I must say yes to experiences outside my comfort zone. I must be and remain open to new ideas that are unfamiliar. I must continue to be willing to risk. And I must be willing to experience things that still scare me. There is a truism I find myself repeating under my breath: you cannot transmit something you haven't got. In other words, if I hope to so transmit, by way of this podcast, the inspiration and tools I profess to offer, then I must walk that talk. Otherwise I strike a false chord – my words become inauthentic. And this house I bled to build becomes a mere house of cards, soon to fall in upon itself. After a rewarding 7 days in Ontario with Julie, I’m now traveling alone — in the midst of this extraordinary speaking tour across the Middle East — Beirut, Lebanon and three cities across Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar. Traveling to this part of the world intimidates me. Is it safe? Can I go outside and run without negative repercussion? And how will I and my message be received by cultures so different from my own? I love traveling. I can think of few things that excite me more than getting on a plane for a very long flight to some exotic place I have never before seen. And yet, I am definitely well outside my comfort zone. These are not places that I would ordinarily choose to visit. But that's what makes it so enthralling. I am wide open to the multitude of opportunities they potentially offer. It's about practicing “yes” to the new experiences that present themselves, irrespective of whatever feelings of fear, insecurity, doubt and anxiety that creep up and strive to keep my life small for the sake of comfort and security — emotions I know are underpinned by illusion – what the Hindus call Maya. For me, the practice of saying yes in the face of such fear and doubt has been paying dividends of late. I can't tell you what an incredible experience Beirut has been the last few days. A place in so many ways vastly different from what I expected. Imagine a mashup of old and new. Cote D’Azur meets Arabia. Parts almost indistinguishable from Milan or Paris or Tuscany – très chic European, sophisticated and urban teeming with beautiful, intelligent, curious people I had the privilege of spending time with. There's a reason it's called The Paris of the Middle East. But turn your head to peer behind my lovely hotel on the waterfront and you will see the unmistakable scars of war. The scaffold of the towering old Holiday Inn hotel – once the pride and pearl of the city — looms high yet decimated and rife with bullet indentations and gaping holes from shell fire artillery blasts. Demolished just after construction was completed when the civil war broke out on 1975, the scaffold still stands in a state of utter disreapir as a constant reminder of a different time, and the ever-present instability that underpins the city's elegant, cosmopolitan veneer. As I sit here tonight finishing up this post, I am now writing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 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.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

  Eating well rarely falls apart because of one big failure. It's the daily question that wears you down, like, what am I actually going to make tonight? What's in the fridge? And it's exactly why we built the Plant Power Meal Planner. It's a personalized, plant-based meal planning program that matches you with recipes based on your taste, your allergies, your cooking skills, and how much time you actually have. You build, through this program, a balanced, nutrient-dense plan for your entire household in a few minutes. Then it generates a grocery list for you with one click that plugs right into our delivery partners. All the recipes in the program are built by dietitians with culinary training. Plus, you get your own food coach to help you problem-solve along the way.

• 0:44Rich Roll?

  It's kind of an amazing thing. For listeners of the show, all you special people, we're offering an exclusive $20 off an annual subscription right now. To get it, go to meals.richroll.com, take your quick personalization quiz, and enter promo code RICHROLL20 at checkout. Welcome to the Rich Roll Podcast, episode 85 with Julie Pyatt. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to the show, to the RRP, to the Rich Roll Podcast. I am your host.

• 1:29Rich Roll?

  My name is Rich Roll, and you might already know this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Each week, we bring to you the best, most forward-thinking paradigm busting minds in health, fitness, athleticism, creativity, diet, nutrition, art, entrepreneurship, personal growth, and spirituality. The goal is to empower you with the tools and the knowledge and the inspiration and the motivation to take your life to the next level, to help you discover, unlock, and unleash your best, most authentic self. So, how do we do that? Well, to do that, we kind of got to do things that get us out of our comfort zone. We've got to be open to new ideas that, you know, maybe are unfamiliar, and experience things, or be willing to experience things that just might scare us a little bit.

• 2:13Rich Roll?

  And I'm kind of doing that right now. I'm in the midst of this incredible tour of the Middle East. Right now, I'm in Beirut and I'm getting ready to fly this evening to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. And, you know, I have to admit that traveling to this part of the world intimidates me a little bit. It's definitely out of my comfort zone and very far away from home and I miss my family. And it's a part of the world that I'm not that familiar with. And it's easy to read news stories and sort of be intimidated or scared, you know, oh, there's, you know, trouble in the Middle East or what have you, you know, is it safe? Or can I go out and running without something happening to me? And, you know, how is my message going to be received? Because I'm here for speaking gigs and there's, the cultural differences are, you know, vast in certain places.

• 2:58Rich Roll?

  So I have no idea how, what I have to say is going to, you know, how that's going to be received by people that are coming from, you know, a very different place in terms of their culture. So, you know, the point being that I'm definitely out of my comfort zone right now, but I'm going into this experience open, open to the new experience. And I'm practicing saying yes to new experiences. When people say, hey, come and do this, or come and meet this person, I'm saying yes. When even maybe inside me, I'm like, I don't know, you know, I don't know how that feels. But as a result of doing this, my horizons are being expanded exponentially on an hour by hour basis. And it's been a truly amazing experience being here in Beirut the last couple of days.

• 3:42Rich Roll?

  I've met so many incredible people. And in so many ways, it's so different from what I expected. It's this crazy mashup of old and new. I mean, parts of it look like the south of France. It's sort of this Cote d'Azur meets Arabia. And when I'm walking around parts of town, I could swear I'm in like Milan or Paris. It's very European, it's very sophisticated and very urban, and there's beautiful, intelligent, curious people everywhere I turn. And then right next door to my lovely hotel is the scaffold of the old Holiday Inn Hotel, which, when it was built in the mid 1970s, was sort of the pearl of the city. It was the finest hotel ever built.

• 4:26Rich Roll?

  And right now, it stands absolutely demolished and rife with artillery blast from getting shelled in Lebanon's civil war in 1975. And it still stands completely unbuilt and occupied by the military, you know, guys in camouflage and berets lingering around, armored Humvees with automatic weapons. And they occupy it as a strategic vantage point, given it's on a high point of land in the neighborhood where you can kind of oversee the entire area. And it's pretty interesting, you know? And that being said, I'm just taking all that in and witnessing everything. And I had an incredible run along the water the other day, and I've been exploring the city. I was well received for my presentation, which went really well, and I'm just meeting fascinating people.

• 5:11Rich Roll?

  And as a matter of fact, I just got back from riding for a couple hours in the mountains just outside Beirut. If you go outside of Beirut, like 15, 20 minutes, you're in these incredible mountains that are covered with cypress cheek trees, and it's green and lush and gorgeous. And I was riding with arguably Lebanon's most famous athlete, you know, particularly their most famous adventure athlete, a guy named Maxime Chaya, who's this insane dude. The guy has climbed the seven summits, he's skied to both the North and the South Poles, and more recently, he broke a world record for being the fastest guy. It was a three guy team. They rode a boat all the way across the Indian Ocean, and they did it faster than anybody had.

• 5:56Rich Roll?

  And I think they're the, it's the only three man team that's ever rode across the Indian Ocean. So, anyway, he's quite an extraordinary fellow and quite a good cyclist as well, I would say. We were riding in these mountains, and it was nothing like what I expected. It really felt like I was in, riding through tiny mountain villages of Switzerland or in the Alps with these pitch switchbacks and narrow hairpins lined with beautiful cedar trees and lush green landscape. It was really stunning. So the point is this, I couldn't have dreamed that I would... Even have an opportunity to meet a guy like that, let alone ride a bike with him. And as Casey Neistat said in a previous episode, it's all about investing in experience.

• 6:40Rich Roll?

  You know, learning how to say yes to new things. And this is what I'm doing, and it's paying off, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. So, next up, again, I'm going to Saudi Arabia, I'm gonna go to Riyadh, I'm gonna go to Jeddah, and I'm going to a city called Al Qabar. Not places I would choose to go on vacation, but I really can't wait to see what I discover in these cultures that are so foreign to me. And it's such an honor to be able to present what I'm all about to these people, and it's gonna be interesting to see how it goes, how it's received, you know, what the reaction is going to be. And it's kind of like this recent experience I had. A couple of days ago, I was on France TV.

• 7:22Rich Roll?

  A couple of months ago, there was a French TV crew that came to my house. They filmed me, and then I forgot about it. And then I received word, "Oh, it's finally gonna air." And I had no idea that it was gonna air on primetime television. And it's a show that's called "Les Pouvoirs Extraordinaires du Corps Humain." Sorry for butchering my French, but loosely translated, that means "The Extraordinary Power of the Human Body," which is a pretty cool subject. It was a fantastic experience being on this show. It's a very high-gloss, high-production-value, primetime, French television show that I have since found out is seen by 6 million people. So, it was really cool to be introduced to France in such a high-profile way, and I'm

• 8:07Rich Roll?

  really happy with how I represented my message to that audience. But the show took a little bit of a weird turn. They had a counterpoint to what I was talking about, an expert nutritionist who chimed in with some sort of wary words about adopting a plant-based diet that really, I took, I take...

• 8:31Rich Roll?

  I take issue with sort of, you know, this idea that, oh, if you're going to do this, it's going to be a full-time job. It's very difficult. And if you're a child or a pregnant woman, you really shouldn't do it. It's very complicated. You're going to have a hard time meeting your protein needs. And, you know, rich, it might work for rich, but there's nobody else who's doing it. And just a lot of unsubstantiated claims. And it was frustrating for me to hear that because I had no idea that they were going to kind of undercut what I had to say with somebody else who was taking a counterpoint, point of view. But, you know, I can't control these things. And I understand that in France, these ideas are new, or perhaps they're threatening to their gastronomical

• 9:11Rich Roll?

  culture, or their heritage of great cooking and food. And, you know, at the end, it doesn't matter. It was an honor to be on the show, and this is interesting. But I did write down some thoughts on it. I wrote a blog post about my reaction to being on the show, and you can check that out at ritual.com. If you do, check out the comments below the post. It's really quite fascinating, the discussion that takes place there. In any event, it's been an exercise in letting go, in surrender, and in understanding that I only have control over my actions, and that the result of those actions, how they're received, really isn't under my control. And in fact, it's really none of my business

• 9:52Rich Roll?

  at all. And when I tend to think about it in that way, I can find peace in all of it. I can find gratitude for the experience. And gratitude is today's subject on the podcast. It's been a while, but Julie is now back on the show, I'm pleased to announce, and gratitude is the primary topic of the day. This is a good one. We have great conversations. So I encourage all of you to be open, and allow yourselves to receive some information that might be new to some of you. Maybe not, but maybe. In any event, enjoy.

• 10:38Rich Roll?

  Well, first of all, it's been, it's been a little time since you've been, you've chimed in as a co-host, but we haven't sat down to assess our relationship in a while.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  That's right. It's been, it's been a while since we've even talked, actually.

• 10:52Rich Roll?

  I know.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  I'm very grateful for that.

• 10:54Rich Roll?

  We've been together for many days here in Canada, but we haven't had a conversation between the two of us yet. So what do we do? We have to podcast in order to do that, right?

• 11:02Speaker 01

  That's right. It's the new way to connect intimately with your significant other.

• 11:06Rich Roll?

  Right. Well, the, the truth is Julie and I are here in Canada. We've been together for five or six days, traveling around to a couple of different cities. And we're, we don't have our kids with us, so we don't know what to talk about. Right?

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Is that true?

• 11:20Rich Roll?

  No.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  That sounds very dismal.

• 11:23Rich Roll?

  I know. It's not really true, but it is kind of funny. Like, you know, when, when you're living your life at home, it's so much of marriage and relationship is about logistics and planning, right?

• 11:34Speaker 01

  It is.

• 11:34Rich Roll?

  And so it's very easy to fall into a pattern of just, you know, having this kind of, um, you know, relationship that's all about like, how are we getting from point A to point B throughout the day?

• 11:45Speaker 01

  Well, and more specifically, I mean, it's not, it's actually more of a function of, or a, a result of the amount of things that are going on right now in our life.

• 11:55Rich Roll?

  Right. Well, yeah.

• 11:56Speaker 01

  More than-

• 11:57Rich Roll?

  Our life's really busy, so there's a lot of traffic copping that goes on in order to like, get everything done. Like, no, I can't do that. Why, you know, you're, you're gonna have, how are we gonna do this?

• 12:06Speaker 01

  Yeah. Explosion.

• 12:07Rich Roll?

  Only in my, usually just in my mind.

• 12:09Speaker 01

  In your mind that's happening and then-

• 12:10Rich Roll?

  I'm having explosions.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  I'm completely peaceful.

• 12:12Rich Roll?

  And then you just sit there still and you let me have my process and then I go, and then I go, oh yeah, when I get to the other end of it.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  I'm glad that-

• 12:19Rich Roll?

  It'll be okay.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  It's probably good that I don't know what's going on in your mind.

• 12:23Rich Roll?

  You have no idea.

• 12:25Speaker 01

  No, I have an idea. So-

• 12:26Rich Roll?

  Well, you know, nature rigged it that way.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 12:29Rich Roll?

  I don't think, I don't think being able to, to be telepathic and read each other's minds would really actually be a productive, positive thing.

• 12:35Speaker 01

  I can do that, but I shut it off when it comes to you.

• 12:38Rich Roll?

  Oh, you do, right?

• 12:38Speaker 01

  No.

• 12:39Rich Roll?

  You wanna share what you're reading? Well, I mean, I tend to wear my, whatever's going on in my mind is pretty evident across my face. So you don't have to be telepathic.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  You don't have to be a psychic. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

• 12:51Rich Roll?

  So, yeah, so we thought, um- That we would do another one-on-one podcast and also just as a result of, you know, kind of a couple of the events that we've done over the past couple of days, there's been a lot of love for Julie and when are you coming back on the podcast? We want, we want to hear what you have to say Julie.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  So here I am.

• 13:10Rich Roll?

  So careful what you ask for.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  With mad wisdom.

• 13:12Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  No, the, everybody here.

• 13:14Rich Roll?

  And we probably should have sat down and said, what are we going to talk about today? But we didn't, we just turned the mic on and we'll just see what comes out.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  No, we'll just, we'll just do it spontaneous and let it arise. But, you know, really overall, I mean, we've just been completely in a, in a gratitude cloud since we got to Canada. And just the people here are extraordinary and they've just been so amazing to us. I mean, what an amazing blessing to be able to meet these people face-to-face, people that we're in touch with on Twitter and Instagram and also people we don't know. And it was just, it just really blew me away, blew my mind.

• 13:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's been an incredible experience. You know, I've been lucky enough to do quite a bit of traveling lately and Julie hasn't had the opportunity to go everywhere with me. Most of the trips that I've done have been by myself or, you know, Tyler came to New York. But, but, you know, you did the cruise and you did, you know, we, we went to Coast to Reef together and we've done a couple of things. But I think this trip, you, you got a full blast of what it's like to go on the road.

• 14:14Speaker 01

  Of a real podcast fans.

• 14:15Rich Roll?

  Take the road and take the RRP on the road.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  It's, it's incredible. It's just, it's amazing. And I just, I wanted to hug everybody and connect with everybody. And, you know, we spent a lot of time doing that. And I, it's just, it's an amazing experience. It's really incredible.

• 14:31Rich Roll?

  Right. So what's, what happened was we came out to this area of Ontario originally to do three different events, one of which got postponed. That was in Toronto. That was supposed to be today, right?

• 14:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:46Rich Roll?

  Today's the 4th.

• 14:47Speaker 01

  I don't think we could have done another one.

• 14:48Rich Roll?

  No, yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  We don't have enough energy.

• 14:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it takes a lot of energy. So the first one, we flew into Toronto, we spent the night here, and then we went to Burlington. Which is a city about, I don't know, forty five minutes or an hour outside of Toronto to do this event that was put on by Kevin Brady and Advoc Health, his company. And it was really, it was for, for me to give my presentation, my keynote. And what was amazing about that was that it was on a Tuesday morning, right? Yeah. From nine AM and then there were some events after my keynote. And I thought, who's gonna show up on a weekday morning, you know, to hear a presentation? Like, people have to go to work, right?

• 15:31Rich Roll?

  And they had almost five hundred people registered for the event. Not quite that many people showed up just because of circumstances, I'm sure, but Their boss called them in to work. Yeah, it was in this beautiful theater in Burlington, brand new. I think it's just a couple of years old, a gorgeous theater. And tons of people came and the, and the mayor of Burlington, like, you know, sort of announced me, introduced me, which was great in conjunction with Kevin, who really put, really just put the whole event together because he's passionate about health and wellness and fitness and he's an accomplished triathlete in his own right, as is his son, who he trains with, which is pretty cool. And, and we got to go and have dinner with his family the night before, beautiful family.

• 16:14Rich Roll?

  And, and after that event, after I did my deal, just sort of receiving people and meeting people, it was just, it was so heartwarming and so touching and really just to have people come up and, and share their story and, you know, their, how they relate to, you know, my story and your story and, and their own personal, you know, obstacles and things that they've had to face and overcome and really intimate stuff, right? It's, it's impossible to not, you know, be really touched by that. And the, the consistent theme throughout the whole thing was, oh, the podcast, I love the, I have to drive, I have a two hour commute or whatever, I look forward to the podcast. And I think that, you know, I sit in our garage or our, you know, Or this hotel room?

• 16:58Rich Roll?

  Yeah, or this, wherever it is and, you know, talking to the microphone. And of course, I know there's an audience out there just based on the feedback on social media or comments or whatever. And I get to see, you know, I can see how many people are downloading it. But that's different from actually, you know, going to a place that's very far away from where we live in a different country and to have so many people give us the positive feedback about, you know, what they're getting out of the podcast and what they want to, what, you know, I was sort of asking, well, what do you want to hear? Like, what's missing? What would you like to hear more of?

• 17:28Speaker 01

  And they were saying, more Julie.

• 17:30Rich Roll?

  More Julie. More Julie. And, uh, yeah, it was just, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing. But it's a lot of energy, too, to be present and focused with each person and to, you know, have a, have a, you know, a substantive, meaningful exchange with every single person.

• 17:47Speaker 01

  But it's a worthy use of energy.

• 17:48Rich Roll?

  For sure, of course.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Very worthy use. And you're great. I mean, you take so much time with everybody. And like we said, we already said on another podcast, but, um,

• 17:57Rich Roll?

  This one might go up earlier.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  It might go earlier.

• 17:59Rich Roll?

  Well, I might put it up earlier because we have a long queue of now. And this is sort of present as to what's happening right now.

• 18:05Speaker 01

  Okay, all right. No, so.

• 18:06Rich Roll?

  So maybe I'll put this up in another week.

• 18:07Speaker 01

  So, I mean, you were just so present with everybody and you took so much time and it was so amazing because the line was so long and everyone was waiting just patiently. They weren't hassled. They weren't hurried. They were just waiting. So I think it's amazing. I mean, I met so many people that drove in from far away, you know, from hours away.

• 18:26Rich Roll?

  Yeah, people drove in. I mean, we were outside of Toronto. People drove in from Michigan, from Buffalo, from,

• 18:31Speaker 01

  Montreal.

• 18:32Rich Roll?

  Yeah, Montreal. That's right. Um, yeah, it was really cool. And, uh, and so we did that, which was amazing, uh, and got to get a nice, long run along the lake in the morning in Burlington. And we had wonderful, uh, meals from Lettuce Love Cafe.

• 18:49Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Let's talk about Lettuce Love Cafe for a minute.

• 18:52Rich Roll?

  This little cafe in Burlington. Burlington is a town that you wouldn't on first glimpse think would be a place where you're going to be able to get, you know, super healthy, delicious, plant-based meals. And there's this little cafe right on the main street, you know, right by the water there that just had fantastic food. And we had, we had dinner catered. At Kevin's house the night before the event and then we had, they catered the lunch.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  At the event.

• 19:17Rich Roll?

  At the event and then we had dinner there after the event.

• 19:20Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 19:21Rich Roll?

  So.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  We ate there a lot.

• 19:23Rich Roll?

  Yeah. So, big shout out and big love to, to all the people.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  I mean, the food.

• 19:26Rich Roll?

  If you're in Burlington, you gotta go.

• 19:27Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, truly extraordinary. I mean, some of the dishes that they have on their menu are,

• 19:35Speaker 01

  you know, stand up to anything in LA or New York that I've had.

• 19:38Rich Roll?

  Yeah, of course.

• 19:39Speaker 01

  It's incredible.

• 19:40Rich Roll?

  I think it's a testament to how much enthusiasm there is for this plant-based revolution, the plant power revolution.

• 19:49Speaker 01

  That's right. And there's a bakery also.

• 19:51Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's associated, they're the same people, I think.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. Do you know what the bakery's name is?

• 19:54Rich Roll?

  Uh, I wanna say, uh, I'm gonna get it wrong.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  A name.

• 19:58Rich Roll?

  It's Christina or Kristin's or something like that.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  No, that's wrong.

• 20:01Rich Roll?

  No, yeah.

• 20:02Speaker 01

  It's a, I think it's an L name.

• 20:04Rich Roll?

  We'll figure it out. Yeah, this is, this is why you, we should do research, get our facts straight before we do the podcast.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  We're being real, we're keeping it real.

• 20:11Rich Roll?

  But anyway, yes, there is a, there is a bakery that's the same people behind Lettuce Love Cafe. Um, that's.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  They do a great job. So, thanks a lot. You guys really made our stay amazing. Thank you.

• 20:21Rich Roll?

  So then we went from Burlington to London, Ontario.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  London.

• 20:26Rich Roll?

  Which is like, you know, two hours, two hours and change outside of Toronto. Uh, and it's a college town. It's a really cool place. And when they say London, they're not, they're not messing around.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  They're not kidding.

• 20:37Rich Roll?

  It's like a little London, UK, like they have all the streets are.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  They'll put you in the London Tower.

• 20:43Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Like there's buildings that look like Parliament and all the streets are. Yeah. And the river that runs through the town is the River Thames. And I know that because I went on a run along the river the morning before. I was like, oh, wow, the River Thames. They're, they're not messing around here.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  They're not.

• 20:59Rich Roll?

  The London thing. So.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  They're serious.

• 21:00Rich Roll?

  So, this event, um.

• 21:04Rich Roll?

  Well, the background with this is that when we knew we were coming to the region, we reached out to these friends that we had met, Gillian Mandich and Ange Peters, who have the Holistic Health Diary podcast. And I had the honor of being their first podcast guest on their first episode.

• 21:23Speaker 01

  We.

• 21:24Rich Roll?

  We. Well, you did it too, but on separate occasions.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  No, we were there together.

• 21:28Rich Roll?

  No. What happened was, I did an event in Ottawa last year.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think we were prior to that.

• 21:35Rich Roll?

  They packaged us? Okay. So I met Gillian the first time because she came from London to Ottawa to interview me for her podcast the morning after I did that event, which was like a year ago? No, almost about a year ago. Right. And so we met her and, and, you know, we were both really impressed with Gillian and Ange's enthusiasm and their commitment to the wellness movement. And they're girls that really follow through and are doing some really cool stuff in London. And we both started following them on social media. And so when we knew we were coming to the area, we reached out and said, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna be around, you know, maybe we could, I think at the time, it was just like, hey, let's try to hook up or see you. And then they just took the ball and ran with

• 22:18Rich Roll?

  it and created this whole, basically, one-day retreat in London that was really, you know, there's a lot of things going on. There was yoga, there was the singing.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Crystal sound, healing.

• 22:30Rich Roll?

  Yeah. And lots of vendors and cool stuff. It was supposed to be like this one-day kind of respite from your life to recharge. But it was really oriented around the two of us coming and appearing. And, and we thought, oh, this is cool, great. And, and they sold it out. And it was at this beautiful winery outside of London. And they had an entire dinner that was prepared by the chef at this location who got her cookbook and prepared recipes based, loosely based on our, on our recipes.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Inspired by.

• 23:03Rich Roll?

  Inspired by, of course. And I got to give my keynote and Julie topped off the evening by singing a song with a beautiful cellist seventeen year old boy.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  It was so cool.

• 23:12Rich Roll?

  It was just a really touching evening. And we did, I don't know what the order of the podcast, we're gonna go up, but we did interview Julian and Anne for a podcast, so I don't know if that's

• 23:21Speaker 01

  You're gonna get a lot of us on that podcast.

• 23:23Rich Roll?

  So we're gonna repeat some of this stuff. But it was an incredible, it was an incredible day. And again, it was another experience of really getting to meet people up close and personal and again, hear their stories and, and really connect. And it really just gave me, there's such a through line, like it gave me, you know, a more, I guess it gave me greater enthusiasm for the path that we're on and the trajectory that we're on and to really kind of double down and keep going, you know? The fact that so many people are responding to it and are enjoying the podcast and are getting something out of it of value is, you know, it's incredible, you know? It just, it moves me to tears, it really did.

• 24:05Rich Roll?

  I had, I was very emotional to be able to experience that. And so I think that, you know, it's more than just, hey, you know, people are like, oh, is this part of your book tour? You go around and says, I'm like, not really, it's not really, I mean, yeah, I get to sign books and that's great, but I wouldn't call it a book tour. It's really just, we're kind of going around and connecting with people really through a variety of different kinds of events.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, and everybody always, a lot of people were saying to us, the first thing they would say is, I feel like we're really great friends because I listen to the podcast, but you don't know anything about us or about me. And I just feel like this podcast is that kind of medium. And, you know, we really are friends because if you're connecting to the information at this level, it's like, it's not, it's not like we have to take time to get to know each other. It's like, we're kind of already settled in. So it's a, it's just a really great, so it's a great way to connect and a great way to spread the word about plant-based nutrition and a lot of other stuff.

• 25:08Rich Roll?

  Podcasting is powerful, man. It's, it's really

• 25:10Speaker 01

  It is, so what are we gonna say?

• 25:11Rich Roll?

  I don't know, yeah, like that just puts the pressure on me, like every, now I start getting all Up in my head like, what am I gonna say? Now I have to really deliver, right? But I think that, that, you know, in sort of an overarching way, one of the things that I'm getting out of it is just how, how great Canada is in terms of their interest and enthusiasm for this wellness movement. You know, we're back in Toronto now. We, we had made our travel plans to come back to Toronto after London because there was gonna be this other event, which didn't transpire, but we just decided to, you know, maintain our travel plans and stay here and just have a, you know, day and a half to recharge and get a little bit of work done before and see Toronto before we head back and go to a couple of cool restaurants and,

• 25:57Rich Roll?

  and, you know, Toronto has been amazing for me. I spoke at the last two Toronto Veg Fest, which is like, the Toronto Veg Fest is like the biggest Veg Fest in North America, I believe. It's huge. The, the amount of people that pass through that is incredible. And that was the Veg Fest that, that I went to right when my book came out and kind of delivered my keynote to a large audience for the very first time. And then went back last year and just got such a great response and felt so warm and welcomed here. And it continues, you know, I went out running this morning and, you know, somebody was even running and they like turned around. This woman turned around and ran after me and said, oh, you're, you know, Rich Roll, I gotta get a picture with you.

• 26:40Rich Roll?

  And we're like running and she's holding her phone, you know, and I'm like, wow, you know, this never happens at home. You know, this is cool. I think I'm gonna stay in Toronto. I'm feeling the love so much. So I think that brings us to the real kind of overarching theme and what we wanted to talk about today, which is, which is gratitude and being in touch with gratitude.

• 26:59Speaker 01

  Yes, that's right. And it's, it's just,

• 27:05Speaker 01

  To experience it, it's almost like it's exponential when you touch into it and you experience it. It amplifies like many times over inside of you. And, you know, to meet all these people and to connect at this way, at this level, and to sit with them and listen to their story and find out who they are, the transformation they're experiencing in their lives. It just blessed us, you know, a thousand times over for every single story that we heard. And, you know, I've just been literally vibrating for the last week with that immense emotion of gratitude and being grateful for being able to serve in this way and able to connect in this way.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  And, and I think it just, it really is an emotion or a state that also can be cultivated as a part of everyday living and living for transformation and living in the highest vision of yourself. Because this effect is not unique to us or not unique to this experience. It's with everything in your life. And, you know, they always say if you can cultivate an attitude of gratitude, you know, there's a lot that can be experienced through that portal. And it's always a choice of perception. You can always find something to be grateful for. I mean, yeah, it's where we find a lot to be grateful for in this situation.

• 28:32Speaker 01

  But in every situation, you can always choose to find, you know, that nugget of gratitude which will propel you into a heightened experience and a more expanded experience.

• 28:45Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I think cultivation, cultivating gratitude, that's sort of the touchdown word because gratitude really is a practice and gratitude is something that, that comes hard for me. And it's a concept that I was not that familiar with or didn't really understand until...

• 29:07Rich Roll?

  I got sober and I came into, you know, the programs of recovery and you hear, you know, anybody who's in recovery or knows somebody in recovery knows there's all these sort of slogans, right? These little quips and one of them is attitude of gratitude, cultivate this attitude of gratitude. It's like, yeah, it sounds so trite and silly. And, uh, but it is, it is true, but it is a practice. It's something that you have to cultivate, something that you have to really kind of focus on. Um, you know, for me, my default state is not gratitude. You know, you, you, you have a facility for getting into gratitude much more easily than I do. And even when things are really good in, in my life and I have no reason to complain,

• 29:51Rich Roll?

  which is most of the time, you know, I'm very blessed, especially right now. Um, it's very easy for me to still, you know, look at, I focus, my default is to focus on all the things that are wrong, right? And I think that's a common thing with a lot of people. It's like, yeah, yeah, that's good, but you know, well, you know, I, I'm not going to be able to do that. Why can't I do that? And that guy didn't call me back. And, you know, that's, those are the things that I naturally gravitate to and, and mentally kind of hang on to, you know, these are my reasons why I can't be happy right now. And, and that gets exacerbated if I'm hungry, if I'm angry, you know, or I'm lonely, or, or if I'm tired, right? Which brings up another thing I want to talk about on the podcast, which is

• 30:35Speaker 01

  Being tired.

• 30:36Rich Roll?

  Being tired and sleep and balance and all of those things. But, but, uh, but I think where you can come in and maybe provide some guidance or some helpful tools, uh, is, is on the subject of gratitude, because I think it, for a lot of people, it's, it's difficult to kind of, um, connect with. So what are some of the things that people can do, uh, who struggle with this to help them connect with it a little bit better?

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Okay. Well, um, I mean specifically, so.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  All of experiences is simply a chosen perspective. It's a perception. You know, it's like, it's like, you know, people say, well, is your glass half empty or half full? You know, how are you choosing to look at it? So I think that, um, you know, it's great to acknowledge that, you know, a default is not to be grateful and to be in resentment and to see the negative in everything. And then one step beyond that is to understand that you, we are all powerful creators and especially at this time in history, at this moment, in this energetic field on the planet, we are actively co-creating our reality.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  So what you can do is if you find yourself in a negative looping pattern, or you find yourself looping and you're looking at the lack in any event, situation, circumstance, or person, you can make the decision to stop the behavior.

• 32:07Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Well, see, I think that's the thing. What happens is people say, well, is your glass half empty or half full? Like make it, you know, make it half full and develop an attitude of gratitude. But there's no, what's the roadmap?

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Well, the road, well, the roadmap is first to understand that it is in your power to make the shift. I mean, it's, it's, so if you're doing this as a default, I would say that possibly one thing to consider is that you've gotten lazy and you're letting your mind run you. So you're not your mind, you're your heart and you're, you're much more than just your brain. So the brain can experience looping patterns of thoughts.

• 32:44Rich Roll?

  Explain, explain what a looping pattern is for somebody who's not sure.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  Well, like if you just, you'd, it's like an automatic, like you're on automatic. You're like, well, I always do that. You know, when I always, when I see the dog, I always kick him. No, I don't mean that literally, but you know, yeah, it's like, well, I, whenever I get tired, this is what happens, right?

• 33:00Rich Roll?

  Well, I think a good example are, is, we all know those people that are, they just, you know, there's a cloud over their head all the time, or they're a professional victim and nothing ever works out and they're always pointing their finger like, ah, I didn't get the job, I got fired again, or, or, or even like the guy who always... Always seems to end up in a fight, you know, at the bar and it's always somebody else's fault. And it's like, what's the common denominator? The common denominator is yourself and what you're bringing into the equation. And, you know, if you keep getting that same result, you have to look in the mirror and try to figure out, how are you co-creating or how are you contributing to that? And more often than not, it's that looping, you know, behavior or attitude in your mind of, you know, that guy is more than me, or why can't I have that?

• 33:45Rich Roll?

  Or, you know, the world always wrongs me, or whatever it is, that story that you tell yourself that becomes reality because you're looping it so often that you are perpetuating this attitude that you then project out onto others and onto the world that facilitates that negative result.

• 34:02Speaker 01

  That's right, and I think that a lot of it also comes from fear. Like, fear is in there. That's also, you know, a big part of it. But I think just understanding that you have the power to change any situation in any moment. Like, in every single moment, it's an opportunity. It's a fresh new moment. Almost like you're reborn in every moment. So you can let go of that story, of that program, that I'm this kind of person. Or I'm always resentful when, or if I don't, if, if I don't get sleep, then I'm like this. That is just a story in your head and your body is following suit to that. So you can start to reprogram it and you can start to put a different lens on it.

• 34:44Speaker 01

  And when you see yourself looping, you can make the decision to stop and put a new perspective on it. And so it can be anything from the surrounding circumstances. It could be, um, yes, I'm physically, you know, acknowledging I'm physically tired, but I am so grateful right now for this experience in my life and this ability to serve in this way, that I'm gonna-

• 35:09Rich Roll?

  Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but like- You can say that, like, I'm just putting myself in my own shoes when I experienced this. So I know, I know when I'm starting to loop, right? And I'm telling myself that negative story.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:23Rich Roll?

  And I can point to all of these examples, all these events over time that fortify that story and make it true in my mind. And the truth is, I'm choosing which events to focus on in the past that support that without really looking at anything else in my life that might say something different.

• 35:42Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:43Rich Roll?

  Uh, but it becomes, there's so much momentum behind it. It develops so much power. So putting the brakes on becomes very difficult. And to just stop and say, okay, I'm grateful, is the mere act of just saying that, does that begin to shift it? Because sometimes it's just, is that, you know, those are just words. How do I get in touch with that emotionally?

• 36:04Speaker 01

  Well, I would say the mere act of, of realizing that it's happening and not just being in it. The mere act of realizing that it's happening, like, just like in AA, you, you recognize there's a problem, right?

• 36:16Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:16Speaker 01

  So just the mere act of, of watching it like an observer, that in itself will start to heal it and transform it. The other possible thing that you could, there's, there's a few things, very easy. You could take a breath. You could see that it's going and you could choose to connect to your breath and you could take the longest inhale that you can muster and the longest exhale. And you could repeat that for even a minute, a one minute of inhale, exhale. And it would shift already what's going on. But the thing is, is that your mind or your ego is attached to that, um, to that feeling and it's gonna wanna go there.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  It's gonna wanna be right.

• 37:03Rich Roll?

  Just like the attic wants to, you know, have that drink or go to McDonald's or what have you. It wants to, it wants to feed on that negative thing.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, that negative thing feels good.

• 37:13Rich Roll?

  Basically, what you're saying is you have to give yourself a timeout.

• 37:15Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 37:16Rich Roll?

  You have to put yourself in timeout.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  That's right. You should give yourself a timeout.

• 37:19Rich Roll?

  To reboot the hard, the hard drive.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  And the breath is so powerful. It seems kinda silly if you don't understand it or you've never done it. It's very, very powerful. And my guess is if you did it for a minute, you would be already shifted. It it might still be there, but it wouldn't be there in the intensity that it is. Another thing you could do is you could hum. If, you know, my humming meditation, I I prescribe it for everything.

• 37:45Rich Roll?

  I know you are.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  But you could hum. And that would definitely shift your energy, even if you you don't have to hum for the thirty minute meditation that I have. If you just hummed for one minute, even thirty seconds, suddenly everything would be shifted. And the third thing that I have for you is you could put a rubber band around your wrist. You could say, I'm gonna not engage in negative, that negative programming looping. And you could simply snap, pull that out and snap your wrist, like when it happens. You might need like an ultra, an ultra snapping band.

• 38:23Rich Roll?

  Well, it's kind, yeah. I think it's, yeah, it's like some sort of Pavlov's dog kind of way of doing it.

• 38:30Speaker 01

  It is.

• 38:30Rich Roll?

  Or, you know, on some level, it it almost hearkens back to, um. You know, the the Catholic ascetics that would whip themselves, right? You know what I mean? Like, would they tick the, they.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  So dire.

• 38:44Rich Roll?

  On the back or whatever.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  What do they call it?

• 38:46Rich Roll?

  Self mutilation. What is it called? I forget the term for that, but.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  But no, it's not that.

• 38:50Rich Roll?

  But I think the first thing you have to do, which you alluded to, is to be able to really get in touch with this distinction between your mind and your higher consciousness. And we talk about this a lot, like, you know, I'm repeating myself on this podcast.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it needs to be repeated.

• 39:06Rich Roll?

  But that's the most important thing, because if you don't understand that you have a consciousness that exists outside of your thinking mind, then it becomes almost impossible to stop the looping. Because if you think that that your your mind is you, then you don't know that you have actually the power to control how it's operating. And you don't understand that you actually have a choice about which messages your brain is sending to you. You you have a choice as to whether you're going to entertain and give those those thoughts, those ideas, those images, energy or not. So it's that idea that you that you mentioned, the idea of becoming the observer. And once you understand that there's a dichotomy, right? There's a distinction between these two things.

• 39:51Rich Roll?

  And that you have a choice to look down on your thinking brain and go, oh, it's interesting that I'm looping again on that negative thought, you know, that idea that like, you know, whatever it is, like, oh, I'm not worthy, or, you know, nobody's gonna love me, or whatever it is that is your Achilles' heel. And you can say, oh, I'm gonna put the brakes on that. That's interesting that my brain is doing it. I don't have to believe that. I don't have to entertain that. I actually can tell myself a different story. I can create a new story and let me write down, let me think back on my past and write down all the evidence of things that have occurred in my life that can support this new story and start giving that energy.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  That's right. And if you're very lucky and blessed, like we were and you were this weekend, and you have an experience where you experienced an extreme amount of gratitude, you can grab that again. So when your mind starts looping, you can take a moment, breathe, and drop into your heart, feel your heart, and remember, draw again this experience back that you felt, that gratitude that you felt. And it can be any experience, the gratitude you felt when your baby was born, when, you know, you met your soulmate, you know, when you got your dog the first day, anything, can be anything at all. Draw into that experience and then use that experience.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  Because you can choose to participate in any negative looping pattern, or you can rewrite your own story. And when we're talking about life transformation and what you and I have created together through many years of commitment and creativity and heart and courage and immense struggle

• 41:32Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  And near death, you know...

• 41:37Rich Roll?

  That's being a little dramatic.

• 41:38Speaker 01

  It's not really.

• 41:42Speaker 01

  It may be, maybe in some cases, but...

• 41:48Speaker 01

  That's what we're talking about. We're talking about this is your life. This is your life, meaning everyone's life, whoever's listening. This is your life and you have the power to live it in the manner that you want to live it. So we must start to understand that we are not our looping thought patterns. That those you, the mind is beautiful and should be used. You should be using it. Your mind should not be running you. And if your mind is running you, you're you've you're not in the driver's seat anymore. And all of these automatic things, it could be programs from your childhood, from, you know, society, from, you know, any kind of structures of the ways things were.

• 42:30Speaker 01

  And you're attaching to them and making a story about who you are as a being. And it's all just not true.

• 42:49Rich Roll?

  The the idea of putting yourself in time out and connecting with your breath. Like, it sounds funny, but I think we actually do that. We're hardwired to do that intuitively without even thinking about it. Like, you know, think about, you know, oh, you just had a, you know, your boss just fired you or your boss just told you you didn't do a good job. And any kind of event that's like puts you in some sort of emotional, temporary emotional crisis, you know, there's that idea of like, I have to, you know, you go into the bathroom and you lock yourself in the stall and you need a moment, right? Well, that's what you're doing. Your your your your sort of sympathetic nervous system is driving you to extract yourself from that situation and, you know, you're the hyperventilation or it's like you're

• 43:32Rich Roll?

  breathing because you're trying to, you know, calm yourself down and and get a grip, right? So it's not that different from what we might do.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  If you're in a

• 43:44Rich Roll?

  Consciously, but you're just creating a structure around it like a more proactive

• 43:47Speaker 01

  Well, and a positive, a positive, a positive structure. So not just taking yourself out of the time out and then going and telling yourself how wronged you were, or how right you are, how screwed up everybody else is and how, you know, everyone else is wrong and you're right. A time to actually take yourself out and go, okay, I'm making my own experience and I'm going to shift this and I'm going to choose in this moment to see the highest potential in that experience. You know, if somebody wronged you, or you feel, you know, stepped on or hurt, you can choose to look at that person and say, you know what? That person's doing the best they can. They're just trying to get home. They're just trying to find their way. And like, they kind of stepped on me in the way. And you know what?

• 44:30Speaker 01

  I'm going to choose to just release it because I don't want to be in that negative vibe.

• 44:37Rich Roll?

  Well, and when, by carrying that resentment, you're the one who's suffering, right? It's like, you're punishing yourself for it. Let's say, let's say, just for purposes of example, you really have been wronged. Like you did nothing wrong and somebody wronged you terribly.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, like in a court of law.

• 44:55Rich Roll?

  And the other person is completely at fault, right? So you have, you, you know, you have the ability to have justified resentment or justified anger over that situation. Like that guy did that to me. And you can create a whole story around that. And you can collect a bunch of people who will agree with you, right? And they'll say, you're right. You know, that was really wrong. Like, I can't believe they did that to you. And then it just foments this resentment. But when you think about it, you're the one who's suffering. It's like you're create, you're creating additional suffering for yourself over this person that wronged you. That, the person who wronged you isn't suffering as a result of your resentment. You are. So you're, you're actually making another mistake, right?

• 45:37Speaker 01

  That's right. And I mean, you know, we need to feel our feelings. So, you know, it's not about like, oh, everything's great. And, you know, I feel like you cut my leg off, but I don't care. No, that's, that's not it. So you, you feel the emotion and

• 45:53Speaker 01

  You know, recognize that you feel wronged or you feel hurt, you know, and give your, give yourself like a limit of time, like, you know, I'm gonna feel that, really feel it and get in touch with it and admit it. And then you can choose to redefine it and put it away and let it go, you know?

• 46:10Rich Roll?

  But how do you overcome that resentment?

• 46:13Speaker 01

  By letting it go.

• 46:14Rich Roll?

  Right, but how do you let it go, right? What is the actual practice of, of letting it go and getting into a place of, if you can forgive that other person, even when they're totally in the wrong, that creates a freedom for you, right? But, but that's very difficult to do. Like, how do we, how do we begin the process of walking down that path?

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Again, I think that, I think it's acknowledging the, the truth of the hurt feelings. Like, if you're really pissed, like, really get in touch with that. Like, acknowledge it, don't stuff it, don't act like it didn't happen or that you shouldn't have felt that way. If you, if you feel really angry or really hurt, you should acknowledge it. Yeah, I feel really angry and really hurt. And then you can choose to, um, to release it in a number of ways. I mean, if it was, I mean, what I just said is, is understanding that everybody's just trying to make it home. And when I say that, that sentence, everyone's just trying to make it home, is everyone's just trying to realize themself. That's what their life is about. And we, we're all just providing experiences and reflections and opportunities for that to happen.

• 47:19Speaker 01

  And so, the most important perception that you're having is your own. You know, it's about your own, your own evolution. So, if somehow karmically something, you know, happened in the way where there was an interaction and you were a part of that, you know, you can just acknowledge that that was part of the plan and you had this interaction with this person. And you can choose to depersonalize it. Like, get out of this whole personal idea that it was so personal to you, you know?

• 47:51Rich Roll?

  Like, it was something data against you and it probably didn't have that much to do with you individually?

• 47:55Speaker 01

  Well, you know, and the thing is, is, I mean, everything has different levels of perspective. So, from where I sit, you know, there's a perspective for, you know, something from many different views. Like, if you start to take a bird's eye and you start to pull out and pull out and pull out and pull out, then things look very different. So, that's just a good metaphor for me to understand that if I'm in a situation and it's really painful and I can't understand it, you know, and I can't make sense of it. Um, I can feel my pain and then release the situation to the trust that I have in the cosmos and in the plan that this was, this happened for a reason. I might not understand it right now, but I'm going to release my personal attachment and my connection with

• 48:40Speaker 01

  the other person and the whys and the, you know, it should have gone down like this and why didn't it happen this way? Just let it go, let it go and just, you know, send, I wouldn't say, I'm not going to say send anything, just call in grace. And a beautiful thing that I love is to ask for, um, uh, complete forgiveness and complete forgetfulness.

• 49:08Rich Roll?

  Forgiveness.

• 49:09Speaker 01

  And forgetfulness.

• 49:10Rich Roll?

  Asked to be able to forgive the other person?

• 49:12Speaker 01

  And forget, literally like just disconnect from the whole episode and just release it.

• 49:19Rich Roll?

  A couple of things that are helpful for me in dealing with these situations are, first of all, and I've said this before on the podcast too, but we are, uh, again, another thing that we're hardwired to do is to immediately judge a situation. So this was bad, like this thing happened to me and it's in the bad category. But the truth is, we really don't have, we have almost no information on whether that event was in our interest or not in our interest. We just don't have the information. Like you won't know for years later until, until other things happen in your life, whether something that happened to you set you on a better trajectory or worse. So that's a good sort of mental trick that I use to

• 50:03Rich Roll?

  try to get out of trying to judge a situation. And the second thing is just get out pen and paper, you know, and start writing it down. Like just, just write, you know, write, get out a journal and start writing, this is what happened. Just let it all out. Like, uh, he did that. I can't believe that. Blah, blah, blah. And just write it until you can't write about it anymore. And then, you know, put it in a drawer for a day or, you know, then tomorrow maybe burn it. Or it's a way of like purging that emotion out of your body so that you can kind of start anew.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  I like the burning part.

• 50:34Rich Roll?

  The burning part, yeah.

• 50:35Speaker 01

  No, I like that. That's really powerful.

• 50:37Rich Roll?

  Well, you, what you're doing is you're creating ceremony around these things and those things are powerful, you know? Um, and it seems like, oh, it's, do I really have to burn it? Well, I don't know. It's just an idea, you know? It's a, it's an idea of like, Giving the process meaning, like putting meaning onto that. Like if you burn something, then you really are saying like, I'm letting this go. This is, this has disappeared from me.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 51:00Rich Roll?

  There's something to that. The other thing is, uh, is to implement at least the 24 hour rule, which is-

• 51:07Speaker 01

  To get a, to get a bat?

• 51:09Rich Roll?

  Well, yeah.

• 51:10Speaker 01

  No kidding?

• 51:10Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 51:11Speaker 01

  In a padded room?

• 51:12Rich Roll?

  I know.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  And go crazy?

• 51:14Rich Roll?

  You could do that, yeah. They're just emotions. They're not going to kill you. You should, you should feel them. You shouldn't repress the emotions.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  No, you should feel them.

• 51:20Rich Roll?

  You have to find a way to like, exercise them out of your system in a, in a healthy and productive way. Um, the 24 hour, hour rule is all about not reacting. Like, instead of impulsively reacting to a situation where, you know, your programming just takes over and you say the thing you always say when you're in that situation without thinking about it, is to extract yourself out of the situation and don't do anything for at least 24 hours.

• 51:45Speaker 01

  Is that from AA? Is that an AA principle?

• 51:47Rich Roll?

  It's not, it's not strictly that, but I mean, it's a tool that I've learned in recovery, which is, you know, that guy said that and like, you immediately want to send the email back. Like, you get an email that-

• 51:57Speaker 01

  Like, never send that email.

• 51:58Rich Roll?

  Incites you, right? And you're like, oh, I'm going to show him, I'm going to tell him, he's so wrong. Um, don't do it. You can write the email, just don't send it.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  Never send it.

• 52:08Rich Roll?

  And make sure that like, in the to line on the email, you don't have the name up there, so you don't accidentally send it. Just write it without an address in it, so you can't, uh, you screw up and send it to the person by accident. And, and then, you know, you can look at the email the next day and you'll probably feel a little bit different. You know, but at least don't, but at least that way, you're, you're, you're getting the upper hand on not being reactive. You're giving yourself time to process something before you just do something impulsively. And those impulsive actions usually don't end up in a good result.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's wise. I think that's wise. Except for if we get in an argument and you say, I need 24 hours, I'm going to be like, uh-uh, we're talking about it right now.

• 52:46Rich Roll?

  Yeah, right. That doesn't always work so good either.

• 52:50Speaker 01

  No, but that's a good technique.

• 52:51Rich Roll?

  The other thing was something that I talked about with Asher on the podcast, which is-

• 52:55Speaker 01

  What was that?

• 52:56Rich Roll?

  His thing, his, his, uh, his protocol of implementing the of course rule.

• 53:01Speaker 01

  What is that?

• 53:02Rich Roll?

  Yeah. So you don't even listen to the podcast.

• 53:04Speaker 01

  Honey, I have no time.

• 53:05Rich Roll?

  You have no time.

• 53:09Speaker 01

  I'm writing the cookbook.

• 53:10Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  And books and music.

• 53:12Rich Roll?

  No, the his, I don't know what he calls it, but but basically what it entails is, you know, when something has happened to you and it's not what you wanted to have happen, you kind of, um, you tell the story and at the end of the story, you say, of course, like, like, I got, I got fired from that job.

• 53:28Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 53:28Rich Roll?

  Of course, because then it makes you look at, well, why did that happen? And it makes, I think what it, what it does is it makes you look at your side of the street, right? Because people don't want to look at their side of the street. They want to, they want to take inventory on the other guy's side of the street, but they don't want to look in the mirror and say, how did I co-create this? How did I contribute to this result occurring?

• 53:49Speaker 01

  Mm hmm. And also, I mean, of course, could always, could also be like, yeah, because this is the divine plan and this is my life plan and it's unfolding exactly as it should. So of course this happened.

• 53:59Rich Roll?

  And also to look back at other things that have happened in your past that, that at the time you thought were terrible, but now you're like, oh, thank God that happened.

• 54:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, which is always.

• 54:09Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 54:09Speaker 01

  Almost always.

• 54:10Rich Roll?

  And so that helps you understand that, again, this idea of not having all the information and to try to get into a practice of refraining from, from judgment, judgment of yourself predominantly, but also judgment of others and of situations and what category they have to fall into. Like, why is the human brain so wired to organize everything and label everything and put everything in boxes?

• 54:35Speaker 01

  That's what I keep asking.

• 54:36Rich Roll?

  I know. I like that, though, you know?

• 54:41Speaker 01

  Why do you, why, why, why do we have to know so many details about so many things in the mind?

• 54:47Rich Roll?

  Well, sometimes it's helpful.

• 54:49Speaker 01

  Sometimes it is, like for driving across Canada in a car.

• 54:52Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that was the thing we were arguing in the car because like I'm driving and I needed her to navigate, but she's not so into navigating.

• 54:58Speaker 01

  I just was like, just drive.

• 55:01Rich Roll?

  Like, no, I don't know where I am. You have to tell me where to go.

• 55:04Speaker 01

  Well, you're a very thorough navigator.

• 55:07Rich Roll?

  Well, I like to know where I'm going.

• 55:08Speaker 01

  And you got us here and I appreciate that. I really do.

• 55:10Rich Roll?

  I like to know where I'm going.

• 55:11Speaker 01

  And I just probably would have gotten there a different way, a little bit later, possibly.

• 55:16Rich Roll?

  Yeah, maybe.

• 55:17Speaker 01

  But I would have arrived. But anyway, I appreciate it.

• 55:21Rich Roll?

  So what else about?

• 55:22Speaker 01

  So are you grateful now?

• 55:24Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I am. I'm very grateful now.

• 55:26Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 55:27Rich Roll?

  I'm very grateful.

• 55:28Speaker 01

  No, that's cool.

• 55:29Rich Roll?

  You know, I've had a great experience here this week, so, and I'm excited for the next little part of this trip that I'm about to go on.

• 55:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great. I mean, I think just to wrap that up and before we move on to the next topic, I just, I feel like this, this time is really exciting because as we start to understand more and more and more that we're actually creating our experiences, you can, you can start to observe your mind entering into certain judgments or perceptions about any single thing that's happening. And you can literally rewrite it, reformat it, reframe it. And you'll see, if you even do that one time, within a very short amount of time, even an hour, even a half hour, the feelings and emotions that were attached to the original

• 56:18Speaker 01

  story that you were telling, that was coming in, will just be gone. And then it's, it's not even relevant. It's not even in the, it's not in the storyline anymore. It's just gone.

• 56:30Rich Roll?

  Well, you're, you're, you're overwriting your old story with a new story.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:34Rich Roll?

  Right? So it's about putting energy into that new story. And it always goes back to pen and paper, though, you know, for me, like, I have to write it out. I have to see it. And that practice, not typing on a keyboard, but actually writing in a journal, really, you know, because it forces you to kind of slow down, you know, because you, and it's very tactile, and there's something about that that allows you to kind of connect with it in a different way.

• 56:56Speaker 01

  It is. It's really powerful. It is.

• 56:58Rich Roll?

  So get out your mole skins.

• 57:00Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 57:01Rich Roll?

  So, and, and, you know, that was something that, that Swami talked about when he came to our house, right? The story that we tell ourselves and connecting, like, he used the example of the branch.

• 57:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, yeah, what he was using was, he would say that.

• 57:19Rich Roll?

  Swami, what's?

• 57:21Speaker 01

  Which one?

• 57:23Speaker 01

  Nityananda.

• 57:23Rich Roll?

  Nityananda, right. When he came to our house. So we had this, explain, explain who he is.

• 57:28Speaker 01

  Well, Nitinanda is a realized Indian saint that I studied with for some time. I think in maybe, I don't know, 2006 or I don't know. It was a while ago. But anyway, he was just a very beautiful catalyst for me at a certain, a certain point in my life. I met him and he just gave me some really amazing nuggets of wisdom and I was able to receive them, you know, fully at that time. And he's also the one who named me Ma Ananda Shrimati.

• 58:00Rich Roll?

  Right, which is why you go by Shrimati.

• 58:02Speaker 01

  Which is why you go by Shrimati, because I tried to shorten it so it wasn't Ananda Shrimati. But it's, it was a really beautiful experience. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. And I received that name at a time that I was very, very, very sad and feeling very lost. And it gave me, you know, a tremendous amount of, of energy and beauty and creativity in my life. So, all of my artist stuff and my music, that's why I release it under Shrimati. But anyway, one thing that he used to talk about was just really, really profound is that he would talk about that, you know, we have a story that we tell ourselves.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  So, most likely, the most common human insanity is that humans will live, you know, lifetime of experiences and then they will pick out, their, their brain will selectively choose certain events, circumstances, situations, and they will form a chain of life story around those specific events. When in reality, there are, you know, thousands of moments, you know, tens of thousands, hundreds, millions of moments.

• 59:11Rich Roll?

  Every second is a moment, right?

• 59:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, so everything's happening, you know, all the time. There's all these things happening. When you think about that kind of human experience and the fact that we don't even perceive. You know, we perceive such a small percentage of what's really going on in various different ways. So he would say likely the person, the human, will pick out these serious events and they will make a chain, and he called it a chain because it's most, you know, it's a bondage, really, of their story. And it will be things like, oh, I was, you know, I was never loved when I was a baby. And then the next thing would be like, oh, I was, you know, I was never picked for the team, or, and the next one's like, oh, no one ever loved me, and then, oh, I never had a girlfriend, and then, oh, I was ugly.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  And then, pretty soon, this whole thing is like gaining power, like through this chain that you're making. And also, he said, some people also make a chain of like happy things, but it's much less common. So they'll say, oh, I'm the, I was always lucky, I always win, you know, I'm so beautiful, I always get what I want, you know? And he said, but what he's saying is both of those experiences are complete lies. They're just, they're just insanity made up by the human experience.

• 1:00:24Rich Roll?

  But the person who's telling themselves that positive story ends up, that, that, that perpetuates a more positive life.

• 1:00:30Speaker 01

  It does. That would be a better way to go, but it's still, it's still an illusion.

• 1:00:34Rich Roll?

  Yeah, so it is its own form, even, even that positive idea is still a form of bondage.

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  Still an illusion, and it's still like the, it's the pendulum, right, of the light and dark, this polarized experience that we have, like, oh, that's a great experience, oh, that's such a tragic experience. But the thing in, in consciousness, when you start connecting with your spirit and your soul, is that you're the consciousness that is beneath all of it, and you're, you're never changing, you're, you're forever radiating and conscious and existing and expanding. You're not, so the good and bad is kind of like relative, you're like, oh, well, is it good, is it bad? It doesn't matter, once you've connected with that kind of energy beneath it. And so what he was saying is he would use the word, you know, unclutch. Cause he didn't, you know, it's not a word, but he, um, what he was saying is the same thing that I was

• 1:01:24Speaker 01

  kind of saying in the beginning. It's like, just drop it. You can drop it anytime you want. You're not your mind. You're not that story. You're not that history that you're telling yourself. And so now is the time.

• 1:01:36Rich Roll?

  I mean, he would, to sort of protract along that argument though, his, his sort of idea would then to be, to not have a story at all.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Well, that's the ultimate.

• 1:01:46Rich Roll?

  Like if you're in an Eckhart Tolle kind of state of

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Master of presence.

• 1:01:50Rich Roll?

  Present, you know, a master of being in the now. There is no story.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  There is no story.

• 1:01:55Rich Roll?

  There is no time. There's only, you know, time, time, this human construct that we have. This linear idea of our experience is also an illusion, right? So the story, you know, so, so to really master consciousness would be to get in touch with the idea that, yeah, there is, there is no story. There's no past. There's no present. There's only now.

• 1:02:16Speaker 01

  But see, that's what meditation is. And that's why, that's the practice meditation technique. The practice of getting to a moment where you experience that, not the actual meditation technique, but what, what you might experience some, at some point within that where you're, it's like in our, it's, it's like that line, you know, I'm everything and nothing. It's all, it's, it's, it's like we're everybody. We're all connected. We're all living the same life. And then.

• 1:02:44Rich Roll?

  Yeah. I guess that if you could really unclutch in that way, then that's a big part of how that would reduce anxiety. Because if you're detaching from all of that and you're just in the present moment, then there's no, there's no like holding on to any of that. And that will just immediately sort of reduce your stress level.

• 1:03:04Speaker 01

  That's right. And it's, it's, it's about being in a state of being. So in being, you're, you're existing in consciousness, right? And it doesn't mean that you sit in your cave or your apartment and you do nothing or your house. It means that, you know, I think the, the, the deeper that you get into it, um, the closest that I can describe it is you're living spontaneously.

• 1:03:31Speaker 01

  So, anything that's spontaneous is a worthy action. You know, it's a worthy use of energy. Because it's spontaneous in the moment, it's natural. So.

• 1:03:48Rich Roll?

  I think, I think what happens is that fear starts to crop into this because we do hold on so strongly, so firmly to this idea of identity. What our identity is, like, I'm the guy who does this. And so meditation or these practices are asking you to let go of that. And that's terrifying.

• 1:04:10Speaker 01

  To the ego, doesn't want to let go.

• 1:04:12Rich Roll?

  And sort of a common thing in sobriety is, you know, when you come in, the idea is, and these are spiritual principles that apply, you know, irrespective of whether you're, you know, a recovering alcoholic, these are just spiritual principles that have a lot of power and truth to them. This idea of surrender, right? Like, oh, I have to surrender to my disease. Or I have to, you know, surrender to the present moment. Or surrender to the idea that, you know, I don't have control over people, places, and things. And that's equally terrifying because it threatens identity. It threatens our idea of identity. And I think what most people infer from that is this sense of losing a sense of who they are. Like, well, if I do that, then who am I?

• 1:04:56Speaker 01

  Who am I?

• 1:04:57Rich Roll?

  It's defeat. It's now I'm going to become some kind of, you know, mindless drone who has no control. You know, like that, that's not what it is, but that's where we go, right? And I think that that is what prevents a lot of people from sort of attempting to implement these things into their life. And that's why it's so scary. I think that's the barrier.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the huge barrier because the ego wants to survive and it wants you to think that it's it, that that's it.

• 1:05:23Rich Roll?

  And if I don't have my ego, then who am I?

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Then who am I?

• 1:05:25Rich Roll?

  I'm nobody, so how, can you address that?

• 1:05:27Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, you do have, even in consciousness, you have an ego because you're here in a human body. But I guess it's like the identification with it. So it's not, in my experience, and you know, I'm only where I'm at, you know, on my own journey, but it's not like, once you've connected with consciousness, you're never angry, or you're never, you know, jealous, or you never have an emotion that comes up. You have it come up, but you... You're in, you can observe it. You watch it. You're like, oh, there's that thing. You know, and then you, you know, you make your choice in the moment of how, you know, how to respond to that. You can witness it, or, you know, you can transform it, or, you know, just, you can know what it is. So I, I think it's, I think it's illusion

• 1:06:10Speaker 01

  to think that, you know, that you're, you know, you're never gonna have these experiences. And I've experienced with enough masters and gurus and spiritual teachers and stuff to know that, you know, they all have their humanity. Let's just say that.

• 1:06:24Rich Roll?

  I can attest to that.

• 1:06:24Speaker 01

  You can attest to that, right. I mean, we're all human, so, you know, we have these drives, you know, sex, power, money. It's, it's all there. So, um, yeah, I, uh, and that's, the thing is, is that meditation is really the only way that I know that you can really start to get behind that. And, you know, it's not a jog. It's not a running meditation. It's a meditation where you're actually inquiring, you know, into the deeper aspects of yourself. So, and the thing is, that motivates me, and that is, you know, true for everybody, is all of this is just temporary. It's not gonna be here forever. You know, we're not, that's one of the reasons why I have so much gratitude, and I'm so present, and you're

• 1:07:07Speaker 01

  so present, and I wanted to, you know, put my arms around all these people, and I wanted to look at them, and I wanted to hear who they were. I wanted to do that because I understand that it's, it's fleeting. We're having this beautiful experience. It's not gonna be forever. Nothing's forever. Everything in this world will go away.

• 1:07:40Rich Roll?

  You know, just to kind of, uh, you know, how I relate to all of this on a personal level. Part of this story that I used to tell myself and that I still hold on to, that, you know, the kind of things that you're talking about threaten, is this, um...

• 1:07:57Rich Roll?

  Is this idea of self-will, like I'm very attached to my self-will, like I'm, you know, like the story I will tell myself is, you know, I was never, you know, I'm not a super talented athlete, but I was able to get pretty good at swimming and do pretty well at Ultraman, because I just, I know how to work hard, like I know how to go the extra mile. And I was never the smartest kid, but I know how to buckle down and study and get it done. And I can get the good grade, like, because I'll go the extra mile and I'll try hard. And that's part of how I construct this identity of who I am around those ideas. And, and that's part of a story that I will tell myself, right? And so when you say, well, you have to surrender that story, you know, that, that story isn't exactly true. You have

• 1:08:42Rich Roll?

  to let that go if you want to sort of grow and expand your consciousness. I don't want to do that. I kind of like that story. And so, and, and my ego is attached to that story, right? So it's really about surrendering my ego. And that's where it gets into this idea of like, well, if I do that, then who am I? And that's defeatism. That's, that's, that's like throwing my arms up and, and giving up, right? And I know that that's not true. And I've, I've struggled with that. And I've come to the other side of that. You know, when I'm not consciously dialed in, I'll go back to that story, right? Like it's, we forget, it's, that's why it's a practice. That's why you have to continue to work at it. And can you continue to do it? Or you will resort back to your old story

• 1:09:26Rich Roll?

  or your default. So I think for somebody who's listening, that's a common thing, like, well, that's, that's giving up. So I was hoping you could kind of elaborate on a little bit, a little bit on that idea.

• 1:09:39Speaker 01

  I can try. I mean, first of all, I mean, I think that, you know, the world is really grateful that you have that amazing work ethic and that you're able to go the extra mile. And if you weren't created like that, you wouldn't have been able to do Ultraman, this insanity things, Epic Five, like those things that you do. You, it's part, part of that is within you, which allows you, I mean, I saw you suffer. I saw you suffer so badly on day two of Ultraman, when I crewed for you. And it was brutal. We were silent in the car and I wa, I was with you every single pedal push when you, when your shoulder was sheared off.

• 1:10:19Speaker 01

  And you just frickin' did it. You were, though, it was raining, the winds, it was horrifying. And I just, I, that was like a feat. I can't even, I can't even imagine, like, my personality, I could never do anything like that, ever. And that's the beauty of individuation of how people are created. So, I guess what I would say is, you don't have to leave that. That's a tool for you, and that's something that you cultivated in your life. But when you tap into consciousness, you will understand that you are so much more than that. It's, it's like, the big container of you, the consciousness holds that within it.

• 1:10:59Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm. But on a daily basis, as I go throughout my day, and my mind is doing whatever it's doing, how do I connect with that idea better?

• 1:11:09Speaker 01

  Well, um, again, the same way. By, by understanding and breathing into your heart, and connecting with your consciousness, then you can use those tools without being attached to the outcome, and understanding that this is not your play. This is, as much as, as efficient as you are, and as hard of a worker as you are, all of those things exclusively did not put you where you are sitting in this moment. It's by the grace of God that you're sitting there.

• 1:11:43Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I mean, I think that was what I was driving at, that I wanted you to get into, which is this idea of action versus results. And it's fine for me to, you know, apply myself in that certain way, as long as it's, it's not because I'm clutching on to an idea of how it's gonna turn out, you know? So I think the trick is in releasing your attachment to that outcome. You do, it's like, you do the work, you're not giving up, you're not throwing your arms up in the air. You continue to do the work, it's your relationship to the outcome. Is that a healthy relationship, or is that an unhealthy relationship? And that's what, that's what, that's what makes the difference between whether I'm, you know, angry and resentful, or able to tap into gratitude. Because when I truly

• 1:12:26Rich Roll?

  am detached from how something turns out, then I have a lot more peace in my life.

• 1:12:32Speaker 01

  That's right. And there's a lot more space for the miracle to come in. The unknown, the surprise, the super thing that you could have never imagined in a million years. And the other thing is, that I would say is, Within the process, a good way to gauge if you're in your Dharma is when you're in the process, if you're expanded and you're enjoying it and you're in love and you're having fun, then you're really in your Dharma.

• 1:12:59Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  If you're doing it and you're resentful and you're, you know, thinking you're the only one on the planet that can do this and, you know, and, you know, you're holding on to the control so tightly, you're missing what consciousness is trying to give you. Because by holding it so tight, the energy can't get in. It can't get in to then do some crazy thing where like, oh my gosh, like, how did that happen? And I would ask you right now.

• 1:13:27Rich Roll?

  I mean, the hard, before you say that, though, the hard part about that is that in order for me to get that focused and that intent on something and to work that hard at something, it almost requires that I have some association with how it's going to turn out. Like, I'm doing it because I want it to turn out a certain way.

• 1:13:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, and so I, I say, I always say when I'm, when I'm creating is I, I have a vision, I have the vision, I meditate, I, I feel it viscerally, emotionally, the smells, how it's, how I want it to feel, sort of on every sensory level that I can imagine. And I infuse it with as much love as I can muster. And then I let it go.

• 1:14:10Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:14:11Speaker 01

  So you can, so I would say, hold on loosely. Yeah, do all of that. Vision it, go, yeah, I think I want it to be like this, this could be cool and, you know, identify like, you know, things, places you want to visit or experiences, you know, how do you want to feel? That's why a lot of times I say, identify the emotions you want to feel in your life. Because if you're too attached to your mind, you'll spend all the time Describing the details and you're not feeling it. And it's the feeling that that is the power. That's the most powerful. So yeah, so you're co-creating with your soul or with, you know, everything else that you're interacting with. So it's great to have a vision. It's amazing to have a vision. You know, that's entrepreneurial to have visions.

• 1:14:55Rich Roll?

  When you talk about trying to vision, you know, the emotions that you want to experience as opposed to like, an a specific outcome, like a set of facts, you know, that the outside world, you know, smiles upon or what have you. That kind of gets into the subject of this idea of the drive to be happy. Right? Like this, you know, again, back to this dichotomy of our human experience. Like there's unhappiness and there's happiness. There's satisfaction and dissatisfaction. And how can I be happy? You know, how can I? I want to be happy, but I'm not happy. Right? So what is that?

• 1:15:33Rich Roll?

  You know, what is that? That that innate human drive to be happy all about? And where are people, in your opinion, missing the boat in terms of what they should be working towards? Or how to better experience or tap into that emotion that they're driving towards?

• 1:15:54Speaker 01

  That's like hu- huge. Well, I mean, I would say, again, it goes back to meditation. Because if somebody's, if somebody's not happy or they're striving to be happy, then they might not know themselves. They might not know what makes them happy.

• 1:16:06Rich Roll?

  Well, I think that we do, we do certain things because we think it's going to make us happy when we eventually get to a certain, like when I get that thing.

• 1:16:12Speaker 01

  When I get that.

• 1:16:13Rich Roll?

  I'm taking all these actions because on some future date, the results of those actions will put me in a place where I'm going to be happy. And you're like chasing this dragon or running on this habit trail for your whole life. And you never quite get there.

• 1:16:26Speaker 01

  Well, and also if, if, if you're in that space, I mean, it's not about the destination. It's about the process. It's all about the journey. So that's another thing that I would say, you know, in the daily life. If you're not in joy while you're doing it, you're not in your Dharma. You're, and when I say in Dharma, it's like you're not connected to your heart. You're not in your sweet spot of like where you're supposed to be. So what, and you can, you can find joy in housework. I mean, it's hard for me to find joy in housework, but you could, no. So, um, no, but it's, it's funny. I was, I was writing on my own book today and I, it was, I actually tell this story that when, you know, I got the land to buy the, to build the

• 1:17:08Speaker 01

  house and we had just met and we were beginning and it's like, I got that permit and I went out on the land and I was like ecstatic that, you know, I was going to do this project that I wanted to do for so long and we were starting a life together and, and I asked myself that question. I said, I stood out on the land and I sat down below the house pad and I said, "Okay, if I could snap my fingers right now and the house be done today and I walk in, would I do it?" And the answer was no.

• 1:17:38Rich Roll?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:17:39Speaker 01

  Because it was the process that I wanted, that I, that's, that's where you're getting the joy. So whatever you're doing, if you're doing something today because you think in five years then you're going to be happy, then you've lost your way. Because the moment is now. You might not be here in five years.

• 1:17:58Rich Roll?

  Right. And we, we all know that intellectually, but how can we, you know, I know what the answer is already.

• 1:18:04Speaker 01

  Meditate.

• 1:18:05Rich Roll?

  It's going to go back to what we already talked about, but it's like, all right, so fine, everybody, we all know that. We all know like, you know, uh, you know, we're, we all know that, that we all think, or we trick ourselves into thinking like, if I get that new car, then, then everything will be cool.

• 1:18:20Speaker 01

  And it never is, right? Cause on the desire curve, it's only sweet right before you get it.

• 1:18:24Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Either you get it or you don't, but you get it and then you, you get it and then for five minutes you're happy and then it's like, there's something else that's wrong.

• 1:18:31Speaker 01

  That's like my friend, Dave Hartman, this crazy longshoreman that used to be my friend when I grew up in the rough streets of Anchorage, Alaska. He used to say, "Julie, what happens when you're really hungry and then you eat?" And I'd say, "What?" And he'd say, "You lose your appetite." Because it's, it's a silly thing. It's a Dave Hartman thing. But, um, I would ask you though, I wanted to ask you, what is your experience when you're, when you're taking photographs? What's going on inside your body?

• 1:19:01Rich Roll?

  Uh, when I'm doing my selfies.

• 1:19:04Speaker 01

  Whenever, when you're shooting, whatever you're shooting.

• 1:19:07Rich Roll?

  Oh, I love it. It's very, it's a creative outlet for me.

• 1:19:10Speaker 01

  And are you resentful when you're doing that?

• 1:19:11Rich Roll?

  No.

• 1:19:12Speaker 01

  And are you thinking that you have to control every single detail?

• 1:19:16Rich Roll?

  No, no, I'm just doing it. I'm enjoying it.

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  So you're in the love of doing that and you're extremely gifted in that? Like, I'm really looking forward to you doing a big photography show at some point in your life. I really, really think you're quite talented at that. I mean, I've stopped taking, I've stopped shooting pictures since the last two.

• 1:19:35Rich Roll?

  Camera, when I get that really good camera, then I'll be happy and then I can do.

• 1:19:40Speaker 01

  No, you're doing it now. But I would also say that the other thing that's very, very helpful to us right now in our lives of being humans is to, to try to experience joy as much as you can. So if you're in a, like, let's say you're in a job and you, you don't, you know, you're, you have to work at this place and that's just where you're, where you're at. Try to find joy in your life. Try to make sure you're, you know, you're listening to music, you're taking a painting class, you're doing something that is feeding you, something that is like what your photography is to you, you know? And because you want to experience that joy as often as possible

• 1:20:21Speaker 01

  because you want to exponentially like activate that within yourself so that it becomes part of you and you can access that feeling quickly and readily and it's there. So, you know, your life is your life. It's, it's about now. You're living it now. So find out what that is, whether it's a, you know, like I said, music or, you know, a certain way to dress or a certain way that you, you know, design your home or your room or whatever it is. It's really important to be in joy.

• 1:20:57Rich Roll?

  Yeah, and I think that it doesn't mean, you know, this gets misinterpreted into this idea like, "Well, if you want to be happy and you're unhappy in your job, then quit your job." Like, "Well, maybe you can't quit your job." Like, I understand that, but there's probably something that you could do with your free time that will allow you to tap into that joy. And maybe it's something you haven't done ever in your life, or maybe it's something you used to do as a kid that you haven't done in a long time. You don't give yourself permission to do that anymore. And I think it's about giving yourself permission to tap into that more childlike quality and find what it is. It could be, you know, for me, it was like, "I just want to go outside and run on a trail." Like, it's like, "I want to feel the sun on my shoulders." It doesn't have to be a complicated thing,

• 1:21:41Rich Roll?

  and it doesn't have to completely overhaul how you live your life every minute of the day. It's just about trying to experience some of that a little bit more in your life and to give that some energy.

• 1:21:53Speaker 01

  That's right, but this does remind me of slow-mo, though.

• 1:21:56Rich Roll?

  Slow-mo, yeah. Slow-mo is, uh, slow-mo is awesome.

• 1:22:01Speaker 01

  You gotta put it in the show.

• 1:22:02Rich Roll?

  We have to get slow-mo on the podcast.

• 1:22:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, if anybody knows slow-mo.

• 1:22:05Rich Roll?

  I think, well, I put it out there on Facebook.

• 1:22:08Speaker 01

  Oh, you did already?

• 1:22:09Rich Roll?

  And like, "All you have to do is go down to Pacific Beach, he's right there."

• 1:22:11Speaker 01

  So awesome.

• 1:22:12Rich Roll?

  Easy to find. But I put this on my Facebook page and I tweeted it the other day. But slow-mo is a guy who is a medical doctor who, uh, I don't know, can you explain it?

• 1:22:22Speaker 01

  Well, he says, he says he was, he says he was an asshole. That's his words, not mine. But he said that, uh, you know, he was a physician and he was just into working and, you know, totally, totally focused in that. And then I guess he started to lose his vision.

• 1:22:37Rich Roll?

  He started to have some, some issues where, he had that condition where you can't recognize faces.

• 1:22:42Speaker 01

  It's like...

• 1:22:43Rich Roll?

  And then he was having some weird memory problems, and he was starting to notice that and how it was impacting his ability to, you know, be in his profession.

• 1:22:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, and so then he decided that he was just gonna recreate his whole life. So he closed his practice and moved down near a beach. And he really took some time and really to figure out what it was that he loved to do. And what he discovered is what he loves to do is skate. And that's it. Rollerblade.

• 1:23:10Rich Roll?

  So now he rollerblades up and down Pacific Beach and San Diego pretty much all day. And he's like an icon there, like everybody knows him. And that's, he just does it like all day.

• 1:23:19Speaker 01

  But he's developed this kind of like semi kind of strange flying technique where it's

• 1:23:24Rich Roll?

  He's like on one skate and he's like coasting.

• 1:23:26Speaker 01

  He's connected it all to like consciousness, like he's having a spiritual experience. And he's like skating really, really slowly with one leg up in the air and his arms raised and this huge smile on his face. And they interviewed some people and, you know, they're like, oh, I thought he was homeless. I thought he was crazy. But anyway, it's, it's very inspiring and very sweet and it's really cool. And he speaks about some of these things that we talked about today about how, you know, you don't have to buy into someone else's idea of what your life should be, you know, and you can choose at any time to switch it up. And I would say he has done that to an extreme degree.

• 1:24:05Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's very powerful. It was a, it was a short little film, a short documentary film that the New York Times put up. They do these little op ed movies, like Casey Neistat's done a couple of them. He didn't do this one, but it was a little, you know, biopic, a short little biopic on slow mo that was beautifully shot and it's just a wonderful little movie. And it really makes you, you know, rethink your reality and what's important and your priorities.

• 1:24:32Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:24:33Rich Roll?

  And that doesn't mean that you're gonna quit your job.

• 1:24:34Speaker 01

  You're gonna do slow mo.

• 1:24:35Rich Roll?

  And like start skating on the beach all day long and doing nothing else. But it's such an extreme example that it really forces you to, you know, kind of take stock of your own priorities.

• 1:24:47Speaker 01

  It shows you what you can do. And, you know, once again, it's like, it's, it's your life. So let it be you that you're living it for, you know? And, and I mean that, you know, Collectively with your family and with your children and your partners and your communities, you know.

• 1:25:03Rich Roll?

  And I think these decisions that you make, you know, some of them small, some of them could be life altering, like when Slow Mo decided he was just gonna slow mo skate. It's a pretty big decision, right? You know, whether or not you're making the right decision for you is completely contingent upon your relationship with yourself and whether you've done that interior work and whether you're in a place where you can trust your instincts to guide you in the right direction, because I think if you're disconnected, then the impulses that you're responding to in your brain are not necessarily reliable and they could lead you down the wrong track.

• 1:25:37Speaker 01

  Well, and this is where, again, meditation, it's like you, you know, really need to take the time to connect with who you are and get to know yourself and, you know, not to be, you know, tooting my own expression, my own horn here, but, you know, I have this meditation technique that I channeled and recorded and Rich has on his site, it's called Jai Release, and at the event, we had quite a few people that have been practicing and a lot of people with really amazing results, and the reason that I designed it is because I'm a mom and I have four kids and I'm an artist and I'm, you know, doing all this stuff all the time, and so it's hard to find these quiet, and it's not like I have a quiet life where I can sit down and do it, I have to be able to do something that works with

• 1:26:21Speaker 01

  my life, and this is a 30-minute meditation, if you've never meditated before, it's easy, it's really, it makes it really, really easy to drop into a state where if you do it, if you make a commitment and you do it for, you know, 40 days or even less, I suggest 40 days, you will get messages, you will get in touch with yourself and you will start to transform and you'll start to know yourself more and get more connected, and it was really cool, it was cool to meet all those people that have been humming and, and doing the meditation and makes me happy, it really, really helped me a lot.

• 1:26:59Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's interesting, and, you know, that kind of brings up the, the new Mind Body Green course that I just, that just went live, and this idea of trying to find tools to transform your life and kind of a consistent theme in that, in that program. It always comes back to doing the inside work. You know, it's on a surface level, it's like, how do you set a goal and achieve it? Well, here are the steps to do that. But the first and most important thing, you know, nothing else is, nothing else matters. If you haven't done the foundational interior work to get to know yourself. So that you are connected enough to know that whatever goal you conjure up for your life is actually the appropriate goal for you at that time. Otherwise, it's going to be a lot of wasted energy.

• 1:27:44Rich Roll?

  You may go out and achieve whatever goal you've, you've set for yourself, but maybe that wasn't the right goal, right?

• 1:27:51Speaker 01

  I mean, I would say even, you know, not that you can't do anything. You should proceed with whatever inspires you, but yeah, start meditating, just start doing it. It's, it's, it's going to only enhance your experience. It's only going to help. It's only going to make you stronger, more powerful, more connected to who you are. There's just, it's just amazing. It's going to, it's, it's healing, it's calming, it's inspiring, it's, it's, it's great. It's everything.

• 1:28:17Rich Roll?

  Why is it so hard to sit down for five minutes?

• 1:28:19Speaker 01

  It's really hard and that, and that's why when I found this, this technique and it was.

• 1:28:24Rich Roll?

  It's so painless too. It's like, you know, why do, why do I, I mean, I'll just speak from my own experience. Like, why do I resist it so much? I put, I, I, I, I put out so much energy resisting it and it's so much easier to just do it. And when I do it, my life is better. And yet the next day I'll wake up and I'll resist it again.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  Well, this is again, it's, it's 30, it's like 30 minutes. It's easy to put on your, whatever your device is. And the reason that I love it is the first section is a humming. It's a humming, it's an active meditation. So what it does is it churns up all those thought patterns and all that residue that's going on in your body. So that you might actually drop into a moment of silence. Because I know if you just sit down, you're not really meditating because your mind's just running. So, you know, and that's not to say that, you know, we all have days where our mind is running or where we're more monkey mind than another day. So again, it's like, if you do it over a 40 day period and you just consistently show up and go, okay, I'm going to go do it. I'm going to sit down and put the headphones on, I'm going to hum like, you know, like

• 1:29:29Speaker 01

  a strange person. And I'm going to listen to the meditation and just do it. And then, you know, it works. It's very, very powerful.

• 1:29:39Rich Roll?

  It's easy to meditate and be calm and have a serene outlook on life and be present when you're a monk in a cave. It's a lot more difficult to do it in the modern world, right? And then you're, the minute you come out of it, you're presented with, you know, some challenge or whatever. And I know that when I'm, when I am actively meditating and I'm in that practice, that those challenges, you're, I'm able to meet them and sort of gracefully navigate my way through them as opposed to reacting or relying on that old behavior pattern that always gets that result that I don't want.

• 1:30:17Speaker 01

  That's right. Well, it connects you. It really does. And it provides a lot of clearing of energies and ability for other things to come in and support you that you might not be open to. You might not be able to receive them.

• 1:30:32Rich Roll?

  What do you mean by that?

• 1:30:33Speaker 01

  Well, you, I mean, I mean, one, I don't mean like you, I mean, I mean, one, yeah, because if, if you have thought forms or emotions or trauma or fear or anything that's lurking inside your system, these meditations, they clear that stuff out. So you're, it's almost like a cleaning. And then you're able to listen and, and they're, and just, I mean, what a blessing to just stop talking and stop looking at the device for just half an hour and just sit down. I mean, you could just, just as a, a little breather for your body and your mind and spirit to just shut off the stimulus for a moment. It's only 30 minutes.

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  It's easy. Like, what else takes 30 minutes in your life that you could not do?

• 1:31:25Rich Roll?

  An episode of

• 1:31:28Speaker 01

  Law and Order?

• 1:31:29Rich Roll?

  No, that's longer than 30 minutes. I was gonna say like, you know, what is it? Uh, yeah, I was gonna say

• 1:31:35Speaker 01

  Entourage?

• 1:31:36Rich Roll?

  Three Men and a Baby.

• 1:31:38Speaker 01

  I don't know. We don't watch.

• 1:31:39Rich Roll?

  What is that Charlie Sheen show? I don't know. Shows I don't watch.

• 1:31:42Speaker 01

  How I Met Your Mother?

• 1:31:44Rich Roll?

  Yeah, How I Met Your Mother.

• 1:31:47Rich Roll?

  Yeah, but I gotta watch How I Met Your Mother.

• 1:31:50Speaker 01

  There you go. You gotta choose. Okay. It's a big choice in your life. If you're opting for transformation, then you have the power to choose. And the thing is, is you can't sit there. It's like, everybody has the same amount of time in every day. All of us have the same amount of time. It's just a matter of how you manage your time. You know, and I would say that, you know, you can't get it all from running and training and cycling and swimming. It's all amazing. And I'm bowing down to all the triathletes and all the ultra runners everywhere. And it's still, there is still a place for meditation. A meditative run is great, but this is beyond, it's different.

• 1:32:33Rich Roll?

  It doesn't take the place of, I mean, it is, it is an active meditation, and it does have meditative benefits for me, but it's qualitatively different from sitting down and doing the humming meditation, or doing any other kind of form of meditation that resonates with you.

• 1:32:48Speaker 01

  But speaking of ultra runners, can we just talk about that raven that was on

• 1:32:52Rich Roll?

  On Timothy Olson's back.

• 1:32:54Speaker 01

  Tim's back. That is the coolest shot. He is such a cool guy.

• 1:32:58Rich Roll?

  So, Timmy Olson, who, if you've been listening to the show, you know, he was a guest. He's this insanely accomplished, talented ultra runner, and super cool guy. If you haven't listened to that episode, you must. He's, he's a, he's a beautiful soul, that guy. But he's wonderful on Instagram, posting pictures of all his adventures, running up these mountains. And the other day, he posted a photo of him on the top of some mountain with a gigantic raven perched on his shoulder, like eating something off his back.

• 1:33:28Speaker 01

  He's just, that was insane. That was the coolest photo.

• 1:33:31Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I think he's at one with what he's supposed to be doing. He's merged with his, like, list. The other thing I wanted to, and we'll, we'll wrap it up, but I wanted to tell that story about when we first started doing yoga years ago, when, when we first met at Steve's class, and

• 1:33:54Rich Roll?

  And Russell Simmons used to come to the class.

• 1:33:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:33:58Rich Roll?

  And it was in the early stages of his journey with yoga.

• 1:34:03Speaker 01

  His empire.

• 1:34:04Rich Roll?

  Vegan nutrition. Well, he was already, you know.

• 1:34:06Speaker 01

  He's already pretty big.

• 1:34:07Rich Roll?

  Running an empire. He was already huge, but he was just started to like actively incorporate meditation into his life. And we were riding the elevator, little two-story elevator down with him after class. And he's like, man, if I keep meditating like Steve wants me to meditate, I'm going to lose all my money. He's like, he was all worried. All I do is do yoga and meditate now. Like I'm, I got my eyes off my business. It's all going to go to pot, right? And, and the great irony of that, of course, is that the opposite took place. And he writes about that in his books where, you know, he really made that the number one priority in his life.

• 1:34:48Rich Roll?

  And his whole thing like opened up and exploded even huger than, you know, he ever imagined it would. And, and I think that, that gets back to this idea of surrender and the threat that that poses to the ego. And thinking if I'm going to do these things, then that, then who am I now? And I'm not going to be the guy that I thought I wanted to be or that I'm going to be. It's not that is actually the opposite of that. It is the warrior's path and it is an essential tool in arming you to sort of meet the world on the world's terms. And, and to really blossom into the person that you're meant to be.

• 1:35:23Speaker 01

  Well, and on an expanded level and just from a logical level, if you want to be logical about it. If you know that everything else is fleeting, the body, the houses, the wealth, like everything in this world is going to die at some point. So why wouldn't you spend time cultivating the spiritual connection?

• 1:35:42Rich Roll?

  Why not?

• 1:35:42Speaker 01

  Why not?

• 1:35:43Rich Roll?

  Why not?

• 1:35:43Speaker 01

  Why wouldn't you?

• 1:35:44Rich Roll?

  Of course.

• 1:35:45Speaker 01

  Any, any.

• 1:35:46Rich Roll?

  As Usher would say.

• 1:35:47Speaker 01

  Of course, of course.

• 1:35:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:35:52Rich Roll?

  Well, I think that's a good place to wrap it up.

• 1:35:54Speaker 01

  Are we not gonna go on from here?

• 1:35:55Rich Roll?

  No, we're gonna.

• 1:35:56Speaker 01

  I thought we were doing balance.

• 1:35:57Rich Roll?

  No, we're gonna, we're gonna save that for another episode.

• 1:35:59Speaker 01

  Another one, you think it was good?

• 1:36:00Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:00Speaker 01

  We did that well.

• 1:36:01Rich Roll?

  I think we're good. We've been going for over, uh, yeah, we're at an hour and a half now.

• 1:36:06Speaker 01

  Oh, we are?

• 1:36:06Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's good.

• 1:36:07Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 1:36:08Rich Roll?

  And we're gonna wrap it up.

• 1:36:08Speaker 01

  So see, that was great.

• 1:36:09Rich Roll?

  So cool. And then next time, maybe you can take us out with a song.

• 1:36:13Speaker 01

  Okay, that'd be amazing.

• 1:36:14Rich Roll?

  All right, cool.

• 1:36:15Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:36:15Rich Roll?

  So that's it for us from Toronto. Julie, you're going back home tomorrow and I'm getting on a plane and flying to Beirut, Lebanon.

• 1:36:23Speaker 01

  Oh, I know.

• 1:36:24Rich Roll?

  Where I'm gonna give a talk there and then I'm gonna go to Saudi Arabia, which is gonna be amazing.

• 1:36:30Speaker 01

  Are they gonna give you a?

• 1:36:31Rich Roll?

  It's a great, good opportunity for some, for some epic running selfies.

• 1:36:35Speaker 01

  I think it is. You can be by yourself. You can just run around everywhere.

• 1:36:40Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:36:40Speaker 01

  No, it's a pretty extraordinary experience. It's the third time you're going back.

• 1:36:44Rich Roll?

  I mean, that's, you know, in terms of like a gratitude check, to be able to have the opportunity to travel to these incredible places, you know, foreign places that I probably would never, you know, go to. And to have that be connected to and tied to, uh, spreading a message that I feel strongly about is that's, you know, a good way for me to connect with gratitude and a sense of service, which is really, you know, that, that becomes like the, that's the rudder for the whole thing. So I'm looking forward to it.

• 1:37:14Speaker 01

  It's gonna be an amazing trip.

• 1:37:16Rich Roll?

  That's right.

• 1:37:17Speaker 01

  That's right.

• 1:37:17Rich Roll?

  Cool.

• 1:37:18Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:37:18Rich Roll?

  Um, but I'm gonna miss you and I'm gonna miss the kids.

• 1:37:21Speaker 01

  I'll miss you too, sweetie.

• 1:37:22Rich Roll?

  There'll be some face.

• 1:37:22Speaker 01

  You'll FaceTime us.

• 1:37:23Rich Roll?

  There'll be some FaceTiming.

• 1:37:24Speaker 01

  We'll be FaceTiming.

• 1:37:25Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Selfie timing.

• 1:37:28Rich Roll?

  All right. So, uh, if you're new to the show and this is the first time that you're hearing Julie, the best way to connect with her is to go to her website, shrimatimusic.com, S R I M A T I music.com. And she's Shrimati on Twitter and Instagram. Instagram's really your thing right now though, right?

• 1:37:49Speaker 01

  No, I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it.

• 1:37:50Rich Roll?

  You're gonna start doing more, um, recipe and food stuff. People love that.

• 1:37:55Speaker 01

  I will.

• 1:37:55Rich Roll?

  All right, when you get back. And we are hard at work, uh, in the final stages. I should say Julie, because she's really, uh, put in the mileage on this, on, uh, completing.

• 1:38:09Rich Roll?

  Our first real hardcover cookbook. It's pretty exciting. We've been working on it for a long time. I haven't really talked about it on the podcast, but it's coming together beautifully. It is really a gorgeous piece of work and it's going to have a bazillion recipes in it and just insane.

• 1:38:27Speaker 01

  A bazillion?

• 1:38:28Rich Roll?

  Photography. Yeah, like just the.

• 1:38:30Speaker 01

  A bazillion.

• 1:38:30Rich Roll?

  The photography is extraordinary in this and it's really shaping up to be quite a beautiful book. And we're looking at a fall release for that. And when we know specifically when that's coming out, we'll of course keep you posted as this develops. But we're really excited about that. That's our next big project.

• 1:38:47Speaker 01

  I'll let you know.

• 1:38:47Rich Roll?

  That's coming down the pike.

• 1:38:48Speaker 01

  That's right. And I'm, I'm performing on Friday. This will be after.

• 1:38:52Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that will have passed by the time.

• 1:38:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38:55Rich Roll?

  But you are excited. You're going to, you're going to get to perform with the boys at this pretty big benefit.

• 1:39:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's cool. It's a one heart worldwide foundation. And it's a foundation, actually, the work of Arlene Salmon. And she was actually asked by the Dalai Lama to go into Tibet and open up clinics to support women in healthy childbirth practices. They had a very high mortality rate with women.

• 1:39:24Rich Roll?

  And the reason for that is pretty interesting, right?

• 1:39:27Speaker 01

  Well, I think it's, it was just really basic practices. Like they just didn't have like clean water and just, it wasn't like a huge difference, but it was like a kind of a leap from the indigenous practices into, you know, maybe some modern assistance that, that helped. And, you know, the Dalai Lama asked her specifically to go in. And, and I think she didn't do anything at the beginning. And then, you know, he wrote her a letter. And so she did. So she's opened up all these clinics in Tibet and the mortality rate with women in childbirth went down about 90%. And then

• 1:40:03Rich Roll?

  That's amazing.

• 1:40:04Speaker 01

  It's incredible. And then she was ordered out of the country at gunpoint by the Chinese government. And she was very sad and kind of, you know, went through a moment of feeling a little hopeless. And then the folks in Tibet said, you know, the clinics are up and running and we've taken what you've taught us. And so they, you know, they're here. And so then she decided that she was going to expand this worldwide and go into a lot of remote areas. So I think it's in about 15 countries now.

• 1:40:32Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:40:33Speaker 01

  I'm sorry if I'm, if it's 10, I think it's like 15. And so she heard my song, "Mother of Mine." And she asked me, it's on my, my album on iTunes under Shrimati. The title of the, of the record is "Mother of Mine" and my, the track for that is "Mother of Mine." And she heard it and she just said, "I'm making a documentary right now and, you know, I'd love to have your music in my film." And then they asked me to perform at this benefit. So it's a really cool, it's at an amazing restaurant in Santa Monica, very zen, very gorgeous. And

• 1:41:11Rich Roll?

  And the event's being hosted by Carrie-Anne Moss, right?

• 1:41:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know.

• 1:41:14Rich Roll?

  From The Matrix.

• 1:41:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, so cool. You know, she was at our house. She filmed a movie at our house.

• 1:41:18Rich Roll?

  I know, I remember.

• 1:41:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I've had lunch with her before there. So I'll have to remind her when I see her.

• 1:41:24Rich Roll?

  So it's all

• 1:41:25Speaker 01

  But yeah, so it's just really cool. It's, you know, I feel really grateful because, you know, the, the song is really a, a deep spiritual experience for me. And to be able to sing it with this alignment at this benefit is just crazy. And it's on Mother's Day. So, or, or Mother's Day weekend. So anyway, so I'm really excited about that. Maybe we can put the link in the show notes.

• 1:41:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:49Speaker 01

  So people can donate.

• 1:41:50Rich Roll?

  We will. So the, but the website for, for the foundation is

• 1:41:52Speaker 01

  One Heart.

• 1:41:54Speaker 01

  OneHeartOneWorld.org.

• 1:41:56Rich Roll?

  Dot org, right. OneHeartOneWorld.org.

• 1:41:58Speaker 01

  Oh, no, I have it wrong. OneHeartWorldwide.org.

• 1:42:01Rich Roll?

  OneHeartWorldwide.org. Are you sure?

• 1:42:04Speaker 01

  I'm pretty sure. I'll put it in the show notes.

• 1:42:07Rich Roll?

  All right, I'll put it in the show notes. Yeah, so I'm gonna miss you on Mother's Day and I'm also gonna miss that performance, which is a bummer, but, you know.

• 1:42:15Speaker 01

  Okay, man, I gotta, gotta spread my wings.

• 1:42:18Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I know, sorry. Can't wait until I get back. Can't postpone it.

• 1:42:22Speaker 01

  No, it's cool. Thanks for having me on the show.

• 1:42:24Rich Roll?

  Of course.

• 1:42:25Speaker 01

  I always love to have these experiences and...

• 1:42:28Rich Roll?

  Well, we'll have you back again soon. We'll see. Depends. We'll see what people think.

• 1:42:32Speaker 01

  Okay, we'll see. Be nice, everybody.

• 1:42:34Rich Roll?

  All right. You gonna start your own podcast, or what's going on? Keep talking about it.

• 1:42:37Speaker 01

  Actually, I was asked, I was actually specifically asked by some people this week. Um, yes, I really want to. I'm, uh, I'm finishing, uh, an EP that I'm releasing at the end of the month with the boys, um, called Jai Home. And then I'm, uh, turning in the cookbook and then turning in my book book. And my hope is, is after that, I'll have my website reconfigured for Sri Mati and I'll be able to launch my podcast. And I don't want to launch it and then not be able to do it. So we've, things are getting kind of more balanced in our life a little. And, um, you know, I want to be, I hope to be the first show under you, under the RRP, if you would have me.

• 1:43:21Rich Roll?

  We'll see.

• 1:43:22Speaker 01

  Okay. I'll work on that.

• 1:43:24Rich Roll?

  I think it'll work out.

• 1:43:25Speaker 01

  Okay, good.

• 1:43:25Rich Roll?

  All right, cool. Well, thanks. Hey, thanks for coming by the RRP, Julie.

• 1:43:29Speaker 01

  Thanks, Rich Roll.

• 1:43:30Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 1:43:31Speaker 01

  It's been an honor to spend this time with you.

• 1:43:33Rich Roll?

  Let's go have dinner.

• 1:43:34Speaker 01

  Let's go, you know, do our thing.

• 1:43:36Rich Roll?

  All right.

• 1:43:36Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:43:37Rich Roll?

  Peace.

• 1:43:38Speaker 01

  Peace.

• 1:43:38Rich Roll?

  Plants.

• 1:43:39Speaker 01

  Namaste.

• 1:43:46Rich Roll?

  Hey everybody, that's our show for this week. How'd you like that? How'd you like those lemons? Let me know what you think in the comments section at richroll.com for the episode, the page for that, this week's episode. And if you have a minute, throw a review up on iTunes. We love that. If you are stuck or frustrated with your life and not sure how to get off the dime, maybe you want to check out my new course at mindbodygreen.com. It's called "The Art of Living with Purpose: How to Set and Achieve Goals, Transform Your Life, and Become Your Best, Most Authentic Self." It's over two hours of streaming video divided up into 14 sessions. There's an array of downloadable tools and resources that address everything from

• 1:44:29Rich Roll?

  the fundamentals of transformation, how to properly set a goal, erect a roadmap, create structures, momentum, community, and accountability, and why people traditionally fall off or fall short. Basically, I tried to distill down and convey the essential foundational principles and practices behind every successful sustained life transformation, the things that have worked for me, the things that don't. And all in all, I think it's a pretty valuable toolbox that contains the assets that are required to make the changes in your life necessary to become the person you always wanted to be and deserve to be. So if this feels right to you, if this feels like something you might benefit from, then take a look.

• 1:45:13Rich Roll?

  It's at mindbodygreen.com. You can find it right there on the homepage. What else is going on? The iOS app for iPhone and iPad, that's developing nicely. It's coming along. We've got to fill out a bunch of paperwork with Apple, blah, blah, blah. So it's in the pipeline, and I'll keep you posted on when the release date is for that. But I'm pretty excited about it. It's looking super cool.

• 1:45:36Rich Roll?

  If you want to support the show, tell a friend and keep using the Amazon banner ad. If you use the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com for your Amazon purchases, Amazon will not charge you a cent extra, but they kick us some commission change and we really appreciate that. That has supported us over the last year and a half and you guys have been amazing with that. So, thank you. You can also donate to the show. There's a donate button at richroll.com. And keep it up with the Instagrams. I love it. People have been sharing on Instagram pictures of themselves listening to the show, out on a run, or during their commute, or whatever it is. And I just love getting those throughout the week. So, keep that up, you guys. Thank you so much. And it's a great and easy way, and a fun way, to spread the

• 1:46:19Rich Roll?

  word and kind of tell friends about how much you're enjoying the show at the same time. So, thank you. Go to Rich Roll for... Rich Roll. Go to richroll.com for all your plant power provisions. And that's it, man. I'll see you guys next week. Until then, let's all take a shot at practicing and engaging in gratitude. And I promise you, it'll make a difference in your daily experience. So, I'll see you next week. Thanks, guys. Peace. Plants.

• 1:47:42Speaker 02

  Used to be approval was my thing.

• 1:47:53Speaker 02

  What you think of me was all that seemed.

• 1:48:03Speaker 02

  Important in the achievement of a dream.

• 1:48:13Speaker 02

  In your blue eyes.

• 1:48:26Speaker 02

  Now I see the truths inside of me.

• 1:48:37Speaker 02

  Trying to love myself has gone and made me.

• 1:48:48Speaker 02

  Not for what I thought you wanted.

• 1:48:57Speaker 02

  For me to be.

• 1:49:08Speaker 02

  My heart is open wide. My heart is open wide. My heart is open wide. My heart is open wide.

• 1:49:48Speaker 02

  Trying to make sense of everything in life

• 1:49:58Speaker 02

  Trying to sort it all out in my mind

• 1:50:09Speaker 02

  Love is not a problem to be solved

• 1:50:19Speaker 02

  I'll be kind

• 1:50:23Speaker 02

  Kind

• 1:50:30Speaker 02

  Be

• 1:50:35Speaker 02

  Be