Stop. Catch your breath. Do you feel that?
Most likely right up until now, you were chasing something. Success, love, achievement, your social media feed, your to do list, or even your kids. I’m not sure where it happened in the evolution of humanity, but the vast majority of the human race seems to be in that exact frame of mind. A race.
We’re constantly in a never ending battle with time. Trying to use it wisely. Hoping for more of it. Swearing we don’t have enough.
In those moments of stress, rushing from one thing to the next in the existential race against time, our body replies. The stress-handling systems get triggered and the body prepares for response. Our digestion slows down. Blood flow goes to the extremities. Adrenaline and cortisol are produced. It’s primal as fuck. It’s our biological defense.
This can happen from the subtle stress of information overload, someone cutting you off in traffic, an argument with your partner, getting caught in comparison, or an unexpected change of plans that sends you spinning into anger, blame, and pointing the finger.
Often times, months or years go by before we ever notice that something’s wrong, or that a change is needed. We’re simply just too busy.
Clear goals and an unwavering commitment have the power to propel us forward. My guest today declared that he would win the Olympics in a sport had actually never done. Within 4 years, Jeremiah Brown went from first stroke to Olympic Medalist.
Jeremiah Brown won an Olympic silver medal as a member of the Canadian men’s eight rowing team at the London 2012 Olympic Games. A former commercial banker with a big dream, he is one of few Olympians ever to have started learning his sport only four years before winning a medal at the Olympics. After the Olympics, Jeremiah worked for the Canadian Olympic Committee as National Manager of Game Plan, an athlete wellness and transition program supporting 3000 Olympic, Paralympic, and national team athletes across more than 54 sports. Jeremiah is a Canadian sport system expert, author, keynote speaker, dad, and drummer who has played with award-winning artists. He lives in Peterborough, Canada.
His book The 4 Year Olympian: From First Stroke to Olympic Medallist tells his story from barely escaping an eight-month incarceration for robbery to ten years later standing on the podium with eight other men, now a silver medallist in rowing at the London Olympics. The story of how this fiery twenty-two-year-old without a passion—“an unlit fuse”— found himself learning the sport of rowing and four years later competing at the international level is about chasing a goal with everything you’ve got.
For me this book is about goals. What it takes to stay the course, and sticking with it even against literally painful odds.
In this episode you'll learn
Bar none, the most simple and useful access point to begin creating change in our lives is by shifting how we talk to ourselves and others. Our thoughts and language directly affect how we feel, breathe, act, and so much more.
Today I decided to string together a few powerful episodes where I chatted with experts in language and creating change. You'll hear from four previous guests: Mary Shores, Mark England, Bonnie Kelley, and Rick Hanson.
In this brief format, you'll hear about some ways to start observing your language and self-talk, some simple shifts to make, and how to make change last.
In this episode you'll learn
Trust is not basing your level of belief on evidence. While evidence builds confidence, trust is a feeling first. It’s a sensation. It’s a deep knowing that it will all work out.
The how of trust is unknown. Our mind even tries to figure it out, weigh options, and logically navigate it. While the mind is a powerful tool to subdue the dragon of defeat or assist in walking up the ladder of good feeling thoughts, trust isn’t something you can make sense of. It’s a connection you establish, nurture and grow.
Being familiar with this connection comes with understanding the quality of it. What it is and what it isn’t.
When we land here we trust. We trust that our needs are going to be met. That our caretakers will inevitably come to our aid.
As we are introduced to the world and begin to venture out of the nest we call home, we learn how to navigate our reality. Most of us are taught to think our way through life. While that’s a useful skill, there are other ways to play the game...
Before I dive into how to navigate trust, let’s talk about how it works and why we stop too soon.
If you've listened to The Next Level, you know we've done some shows on language and how our language affects our reality. Language has been an absolute game changer in my own life and continues to be a practice in awareness, choice, and presence.
Another area where I find great solace is through movement and exercise. It just so happens that a good friend and language ninja Mark England just teamed up with Mike Bledsoe to blend movement, language and more.
You may remember Mark England the co-founder of Procabulary who's come on the show twice now to talk about language. Today he's back with Mike Bledsoe to dive into their new joint project Flowstated, where they bring together language, breath, mindfulness, and training to help athletes increase their capacity and so much more.
Mike Bledsoe is the co-founder of #1 rated fitness show Barbell Shrugged, Barbell Business, and host of his current podcast The Bledsoe Show. Mark England is a TEDx speaker and the co-founder and lead presenter of Procabulary. He loves to travel, exchange empowering ideas and strategies and practice martial arts. Mark holds a Masters Degree in International Education and was an elementary sports teacher before developing Procabulary.
Today we'll dive into language, conditioning your awareness, what the Flowstated process looks like, and so much more.
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Loss isn't an easy thing. Whether its a job, the loss of a loved one, or anything that's a major part of our lives, loss seems to leave an empty space. Anything that we invest time in, commit to, or love in many ways becomes a part of who we are, our identity, and when that thing is gone we inherently ask the question "Who am I now?"
After the unexpected loss of her husband at the young age of 45, Kristine Carlson began a journey that she wasn't expecting to take so soon. With two girls to raise, Kristine began navigating her grieving process and who she was now without her beloved in her life and her own journey back to joy.
Kristine Carlson has captivated readers worldwide with her books, including Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms, An Hour to Live, An Hour to Love, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love, and Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Women. Kristine has been featured on national radio and television broadcasts, including The Today Show, Empowered Living Radio, The View, and Oprah. Today, she is emerging as a profound leader in the areas that matter most to the human heart—how to heal and move forward, and how to love.
Kristine is the bestselling co-author of the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff series. Her newest book, From Heartbreak to Wholeness: The Hero's Journey to Joy, is inspired by her own personal journey after the loss of her husband and offers a practical plan to recover joy in the face of grief and loss.
Today we'll dive into the healing process, grieving loss, mindfulness, and more From Heartbreak to Wholeness.
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Understanding what’s important, what you value, is the key to navigating life's many options. Whether you’re trying to decide on your next big project, long term goal, or just whether or not you should go out tonight, weighing your options against your values makes all the difference between making the right choice, or the one that leaves you feeling regret.
Values aren’t something I set out to define. In fact, what was important to me was dictated by others. My Parents, society, social media… the things I thought I needed in my life and what I thought was important… wasn’t really important. At all. Let’s call those False Values.
We adopt false values by blindly accepting other people’s definition of what life should look like… success, happiness, connection, romance, and even who we should be… as our own. Without examining further. Without ever refining or redefining them and truly understanding things like our identity, and how we want to feel once we achieve that thing we’re going for...
Face to face with another individual, we have the opportunity to see their body language, tone, eye movement, and many other non-verbal queues that clue us into how to best interact.
Translating your offline persona and style into the digital arena isn't always the easiest when these subtleties are left out. I know I've certainly experienced this, and maybe you have too.
When equipped with the proper strategy and etiquette, the digital space can seem a lot less intimidating and it's a heck of a lot easier to feel like you're being you.
My guest today, Erin Gargan, is an award-winning entrepreneur, Amazon best-selling author, and digital persuasion expert. She sold her first two companies, Jump Digital Media and PMS.com before the age of 30. In 2010, she founded Socialite Agency, a social media firm whose clients include The Oscars, ABC/Disney, VISA, Target, Siemens, Hitachi, and others. She is the author of Digital Persuasion: Sell Smarter in the Modern Marketplace. Erin helps sales, marketing, and event professionals attract attention and increase influence by becoming more effective digital communicators.
We unpack Erin's story, what it takes to be successful in being heard in outbound marketing and the digital area, and the nitty-gritty of Digital Persuasion.
In this episode you'll learn
Full article at http://jeffa.co/139
We now have the opportunity to fill every waking moment with something… anything. Idle time doesn’t exist anymore. Powering down and turning off comes with this looming sense of guilt that “I should be doing something.” As if our sense of self is not just subtly, but wholly tied up in doing.
The philosopher Blaise Pascal said this:
All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone
A deeper part of us knows that being perpetually distracted isn’t right, but also knows what happens in those moments of quiet. That we’ll actually have to face what we’ve been ignoring for so long. That we’ll come face to face with our insecurities, feelings not felt, and dreams we’ve set aside while we plug away being a model citizen and believer in the good ol’ American dream.
Comedian Louis CK says this beautifully in a conversation with Conan O’Brian about why he hates cell phones. He calls it the forever empty… the knowledge that it’s all for nothing and you’re all alone...
To show up fully as leaders, it's essential to know thyself. Knowing your triggers, what trips you up, along with your strengths and being emotionally intelligent is what will create strong and compassionate leaders.
Jenna Phillips Ballard began her career in 2006 as a certified personal trainer and life coach for celebrities and has been featured on Dr. Phil and The Doctors. Halfway through her career, she realized that she had a bigger calling. She’s on a mission to motivate and inspire as many people as possible to become leaders and make this world a better place.
Jenna wants everyone to truly fall in love with themselves, because Self Love will heal this planet. She discovered the power of Self Love when she made a full recovery from brain damage after waking up from a coma in 2000. Her commitment to making a full recovery depended solely on how she thought of herself, and she realized that her purpose is to empower others to break through their limiting beliefs and create an unforgettable life.
In 2016, she cofounded Ascension Leadership Academy with her husband and together they have coached hundreds of people into their greatness. She is also the founder of Unicorn University - an online membership community where women never spend another day being beige, broke, or behaved.
Today we'll dive into leadership, emotional intelligence, overcoming low self-worth, and knowing your triggers.
In this episode you'll learn
Blame… oh righteous indignant blame. Pointing the finger is easy, and you know what, the more you practice the more you tend to do it.
There are many subtleties to blame. Versions of blame that are quiet and others that are big and ugly.
There’s those passing moments where you can just toss it away, like it never happened. A driver cuts you off in traffic and you erupt for a moment. It’s the rain’s fault that you can’t do what you wanted to do today. Your partner left all the dirty dishes in the sink before leaving for work and you come home to a mountain of filth. The salt is not in it’s usual spot in the kitchen and you’re sure it was your kid.
Then there’s big ass ugly blame. This shows up and owns you. It finds the override switch and your intense anger, rage, sadness, despair… it’s all someone else’s fault, and in some cases, rightfully so. A physical assault or a legitimate injustice. Or at work, a team member dropped the ball on a project causing you time and money...
As entrepreneurs, artists, and transformational leaders, we often think we can do it all. But just because we can doesn't mean it's our best use of time or that it will lead us down the path of fulfillment and greater creativity and expression.
Before her son Kingston was born transformational leader, entrepreneur, and humanitarian Alexi Panos had her hand in every aspect of her business. With the arrival of a newborn, Alexi quickly realized that pioritizing was at the top of the list and with a few choices slashed her working hours from 80 to nearly 20 a week.
A leader in the Emergent Wisdom movement, Alexi Panos was named as one of INC's magazines TOP 10 ENTREPRENEUR'S CHANGING THE WORLD, one of Origin Magazines TOP 100 CREATIVES CHANGING THE WORLD, and is a featured expert in the films THE ABUNDANCE FACTOR, RISEUP and AGE OF THE ENTREPRENEUR. As a bestseller, Alexi has authored the books 50 WAYS TO YAY! and NOW OR NEVER, both by Simon & Schuster.
Today we'll dive into some of the strategies she's implemented to Work LESS and LIVE MORE and even some of the things that get in the way and how she works through them.
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In The Beauty Diet: Unlock the Five Secrets of Ageless Beauty form the Inside Out, internationally acclaimed nutrition and natural beauty expert David Wolfe distills the five factors that lead to exceptional, lasting beauty.
David ‘Avocado’ Wolfe is the rock star and Indiana Jones of the superfoods and longevity multiverse. The World’s top CEOs, ambassadors, celebrities, athletes, artists, and the real superheroes of this planet—Moms—all look to David for expert advice in health, energy, peak performance, beauty, herbalism, nutrition, and chocolate!
David is the author of many best-selling books, including: The Beauty Diet, The Sunfood Diet Success System, Naked Chocolate, Amazing Grace, Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future, Chaga: King of the Medicinal Mushrooms and Longevity NOW. He has also appeared in numerous breakthrough documentaries and films including: Food Matters, Hungry for Change, GMOs Revealed and Discover the Gift.
His Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DavidAvocadoWolfe) and Facebook videos and posts reach millions of people each week around the world with succinct powerful inspirational quotes, news, health information and education. David’s Facebook fan-base is over 12 million strong, making his influence one of the most widely commented, clicked, and shared in the world. David is also the co-developer of one of the world’s leading kitchen appliances: the NutriBullet™.
If you're still feeling the slow sluggish nature of winter as we are shifting seasons, the cleanse and recipes outlined in The Beauty Diet are a great way to hit the reset button and bring back that healthy looking skin for the summer.
Today we'll unpack what David presents in his new book The Beauty Diet and how to begin eliminating toxins and focus more on detoxification instead of just nutrition.
In this episode you'll learn
If you look at nature, every organism has it's role. In modern times, we've become the exception.
From early on, we are taught to conform, to blend in. After starting over at zero financially, after what many would consider a failed acting career, Adam Roa experienced a series of events that eventually led him to the moment of enough is enough. He started to carve his own unique path.
Since then he has gone on to become an artist, creator, and an inspiration in helping to assemble the new paradigm.
In this episode you'll learn
In the spirit of switching things up, I thought it would be fun to turn the tables and unpack some of my coaching experience with Lauren Zander.
Lauren was on the show back on episode 069 to talk about her book Maybe It's You, and today she is back to help unpack a little bit about the coaching process and what doing the work really means.
Before this interview I had a coaching session with Lauren and let me tell you... it was no joke. It was rather enlightening actually and I learned A LOT about myself, my life up until now, and some things I had no idea were operating in the background.
It all started with the HW I did for the session. I was super intimidated at first when her assistant let me know that it would take about 8 hours to complete... 31 pages later, I not only realized a ton about my life, but I actually realized I really like writing.
Today we are going to unpack some of our session together, what I discovered working with Lauren, the power of integrity, unraveling what haunts us and so much more.
In this episode you'll learn
David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought after speaker, and associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. His forthcoming book, Friend of a Friend, offers readers a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections—one based on the science of human behavior, not rote networking advice. He’s delivered keynotes to the leaders of Fortune 500 companies and the future leaders of the United States Naval Academy. His TED talk has been viewed over 1.8 million times and he is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review.
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With a fast rate of change and the pace at which we as individuals are evolving and society as a whole, turning the lens inward and cultivating inner strength is a venture worth pursuing if you want to be equipped to handle life's challenges and develop true self-reliance.
My guest today, Rick Hanson, was on the show back on episode 059 to talk about his book Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love & Wisdom, and the work he does around understanding the natural tendencies of the brain and how to leverage that knowledge combined with practical neuroscience to create change.
Today Rick is back on the show to dive into his book Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness. This book dives into the principles Rick teaches in his online course, Foundations of Well-Being, which has been practiced by around 15,000 students. It's a deep dive to building 12 inner strengths, which became the basis of this book.
Resilient hits the shelves tomorrow March 27th and is already #1 in New Releases on Amazon.
In this interview we will unpack some of the key distinction in Resilient and what it means to cultivate inner strengths while getting your needs met.
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It's pretty tough to deny the fact that we are influenced by unseen forces, energies and frequencies that we can't fully explain or describe from the rational mind. Frequencies, energy, and even emotion are an experience.
Giving more attention to how we feel and tending to our personal vibration and choosing to come from what Penney calls our home frequency is what I would consider a direct translation of what it means to be your authentic self, or that eternal aspect of you.
Penney Peirce was on the show at episode 120 to talk about her book Transparency and this particular stage in the Transformation process. Today we are going to come back around to understand another one of the stages of transformation through Penney's book Frequency: The Power of Personal Vibration.
Penney unpacks and builds some powerful distinctions in here to help us understand what frequency is, different ways to regulate our personal vibration (especially in social situations where we may "assume" the frequency of others), and the importance of finding our home frequency and center.
Through mindfulness practices, meditation, and directing our attention, just to name a few, we can start to bring our awareness to more subtle levels of energy and tap into things like intuition, creativity, and even more peaceful states.
The desire for people seeking more meaning in their lives, have more fulfilling careers, and searching for a deeper purpose are just a few of the ways this desire to integrate the physical and the spiritual are starting to not only emerge, but be the norm.
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I invited Sarah Sherwood back on the show today to talk about adult attachment theory and adult attachment styles. I'm relatively new to attachment theory, but the little I have dug into it helped me start understanding my own patterns of relating and why they exist.
The basic understanding of this theory is that how you regulate and experience yourself is in some ways a product of how you learned to relate with your primary care givers. We develop patterns of engaging with other people and relating based on whether or not our needs were being met and whether or not the world felt safe.
As you'll hear Sarah talk about, we develop behaviors from that experience to relate with other people to ensure we get what we need.
In this episode you'll learn
Karla McLaren, M.Ed. is an award-winning author, social science researcher, and empathy pioneer. Her lifelong work focuses on her grand unified theory of emotions, which revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens startling new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy.
Karla also developed the groundbreaking Six Essential Aspects of Empathy model that makes all of the processes in empathy easily understandable and accessible -- so that people can develop and manage their empathy intentionally.
Karla is the author of The Art of Empathy: A Complete Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill (2013), The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You (2010), and the multi-media online course Emotional Flow: Becoming Fluent in the Language of Emotions (2012). She is also the coauthor (with cult expert Janja Lalich, PhD) of Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over (Routledge, 2018), which focuses on the stories of 70 people who grew up in and escaped from cults spanning a dozen countries.
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Hall’s music, a blend of roots and folk music with hints of inspiration from India, has led him to a series of sold-out tours and collaborations with artists such as Steel Pulse, The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Matisyahu, Michael Franti, Xavier Rudd and Nahko & Medicine for the People.
Trevor Hall’s Chapter of the Forest (2014) and KALA (2015), debuted at #3 and #2 on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart respectively. He is currently touring around the US and Australia. While on tour, Hall collects donations to support children’s education in India.
The Fruitful Darkness released in November of 2017, became the #1 Kickstarter Music campaign of 2017 (#30 of all time out of 53,000 Music projects) and is being released in three song installments on specific lunar dates, culminating in a 14-song deluxe edition release, June 1st 2018.
The Fruitful Darkness Part III just dropped this past Friday, so be sure to pick it up on Spotify or your favorite music platform.
Trevor kicks off his A Night in the Village Tour February 21st in Minneapolis, MN with events in IL, OH, MD, CT, NY and more. Tickets are selling out fast for this special event where Trevor will be sharing songs, the stories behind them, as well as rare images and footage from his journeys to India, Nepal and beyond. You’ll have the opportunity to interact and ask questions at the end of the evening during a Q&A. 'A Night in the Village' will give listeners a unique insight into the inspiration and stories behind the songs of Trevor Hall's life journey.
Trevor's mix of deep spiritual work and the stories behind how his songs came to be are food for any creatives soul and for me has deepened the practice of seeing a miracle in every day life.
In this episode you'll learn
In this week's episode I wanted to share a little story with you because I realized in the last few weeks as I've been navigating some personal challenges in my life as well as some things in business that I that I found myself over focusing on the details... let's call it the problem, the circumstances and trying to move around the known pieces in the box of my known reality trying to figure things out.
If you're in a place where maybe you feel hyper focused on the problem or you may even feel a lot of stress or anxiety or overwhelm in your body, my hope is that sharing this perspective with you will give you some relief by taking the pressure off and being able to see things from a greater perspective.
Have The Vision, Patience, and Perspective Of An Eagle.
Full practice and show notes at http://jeffa.co/126
My guest today Jessie May Wolfe describes HeartRise as plugging into the radiant, integral, soul energy (R.I.S.E)... the electricity of the heart.
Her presence empowers those around her. Spreading light and energy, her infectious spirit connects many beautiful souls around the world.
With a strong creative & corporate background in fashion, publishing & marketing,
Jessie May's experience coaching & empowering thousands of creatives, entrepreneurs, and change-makers worldwide, along with her training in various modalities with renowned teachers, led her to develop the unique impactful HeartRise Method.
As a speaker, mentor, and inspirational guide, Jessie May brings the HeartRise Method to organizations, communities and companies across the world.
Her corporate clients include Soho House, Gen Art, Wework, Wanderlust, Amazon, GOOP, Westside Collective, Parachute Home, Nick Fouquet, Juice Served Here, Health-Ade, Sakara.
Jessie May's heart holds a torch for everyone.
Today we'll dive into HeartRise Method and Jessie May's new book High On Heart: The HeartRise Method.
In this episode you'll learn
If you've ever felt flooded by strong thoughts and emotions, then this one is for you.
Starting to create a healthy distance from strong thoughts and emotions is the first step to creating a more resourceful state where you can lower the stress response and work yourself into better feeling thoughts.
Today I'll distill a practice I use to loosen the hold on these strong thoughts and feelings to be able to tackle the current situation from a more grounded, less emotionally charged position.
These two phrases come from the work of Susan David and Emotional Agility and they are really quite simple. Our tendency when we feel something strongly is to over identify with the feeling. For me and those I've worked with, being able to loosen the grip and see thoughts and feelings as an experience we are having and not something we are has proved extremely useful for creating a mindset that allows for more creativity and solutions to emerge.
The typical response to strong emotions such as anger would be "I am angry."
Susan David suggests using the two phrases:
"I am having the feeling that..."
"I am having the thought that..."
Putting these two tools to use would look like this...
"I am having the feeling that I am angry."
"I am having the thought that what she did made me angry"
Everyone's experience is unique so try these out and play with the variations. You know it's working when you feel the charge start to subside and you can see it more as an experience instead of a state of being.
I get deeper into this in the podcast, so be sure to tune in and leave a comment below letting me know how you're going to put this into practice.
Language is a powerful shaper of our experience. The depth of training and knowledge most of us have when it comes to words stops at basic grammar. I remember when I had my first powerful experience with language and consciousness, and how from that moment forward, my view of language was forever changed.
Back on episode 065 I chatted with Mark England about Upgrading Your Language to Resolve Conflicts at Home, at Work, and In Your Head where we got into the nuts and bolts of Procabulary and how to use language. Today we are diving deeper to go beyond surface language.
Mark England is a TEDx speaker and the co-founder and lead presenter of Procabulary. He loves to travel, exchange empowering ideas and strategies and practice martial arts. Mark holds a Masters Degree in International Education and was an elementary sports teacher before developing Procabulary.
Procabulary builds fun, simple and easy to use tools that help you discover direction, purpose and turbo-charge every goal – from the smallest daily task to life’s biggest dreams.
As we roll into today's show Mark and I both share our own short story of the first time we experienced the power of language and then pull back the curtain to go beyond the surface.
In this episode you'll learn