WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice.
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You should seek the services.
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Of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted up,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you
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to do the same.
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Jeff, welcome to the show.
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Hey, thanks for having me.
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Hey, I'm really excited have you on the show. I
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think the things that you're talking about are so fascinating
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and I think it will be such value for the
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audience as they listen and understand your perspective on this.
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What I'd love to ask you, though, is how did
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you get to this point? I'd love for you to
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share with the audience your story of what brought you
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to this point of awareness and obviously wanting to help
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other people. Yeah.
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So I've been involved in martial arts and the meditative
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arts now for about thirty six years, and I got
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introduced to the meditative practices in a bit of a
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roundabout way in that I was a nineteen year old kid.
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I wasn't looking at all into wanting to do meditation.
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In fact, when it first was presented to me, I
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was pretty far from wanting to do it. And at
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the time I was very much into Western boxing and
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I used to go to a boxing gym just a
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few blocks down the street here from my academy. And
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at a boxing gym, if you're not familiar with how
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they're run, usually it's not like your traditional fitness class
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in that you might have four or five coaches in
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the gym, and each one of those coaches has three,
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four or five fighters that they're working with at any
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one time. Well, at this particular gym, one of the
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coaches there was a very well known coach who had
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worked with national and world champion level fighters, and I
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really wanted to get to spend some time with him
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and have him help me with my boxing, and so
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I would show up every day when I knew he
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was going to be there, I'd work hard and try
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to get him to notice me and try to get
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him to spend some time with me. And after about
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three or four months of following him around, he finally
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started giving me some tips. And you know, every time
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he told me anything, I treated it like it was gold,
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and you know, I'd do the best I could to
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get it down and really put my effort into it. Well,
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it was only about maybe two or three weeks from
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working with him when he told me something that changed
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my life forever, and that he said, you know, if
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you really want to be a good boxer, you should
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start doing meditation in Taichi. And here I am, this
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nineteen year old kid that doesn't know much of anything, thinking,
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you know, isn't taichi for like older people in the park.
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How's that going to help me be a better fighter?
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And I had a lot of respect for him though,
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and I took on the practice and it's changed my
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life in many ways. And through the years. Running my
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academy now for thirty years, I've had over twenty six
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thousand students come through the academy, and I have literally
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heard hundreds of stories of how the meditative arts has
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positively influenced people's lives. And that's kind of what gives
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me the energy and the inspiration to, you know, write
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my last couple books and create my online program and
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just try to get this message out there and help
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as many people as I can.
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Well, And was there an aha moment that you know?
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Everybody kind of does their own thing, and there are
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times such as yourself, which I just so greatly honor.
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And that's one of the reasons you're on the show here,
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is you know, all of a sudden, you're maybe right
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when you were twenty, but wanting to really touch the
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lives of other people and make a difference for them.
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Was there an AHA moment for you? Or did it
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just kind of come naturally?
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You know, there was two things that kind of guided
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me in this direction, and one of them was something
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that that same coach said to me. And he told
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me when I was really young. He said, you want
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to create a life and not make a living. And
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at the time, I was the first kid in my
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whole extended family to go through college and I got
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two degrees in less than four years, and everybody thought
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I was going to go out and do something important
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and get a big job doing something. And I kept
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having in the back of my mind thinking about creating
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a life, and nothing I could think about with my
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degree made me feel like I was creating a life.
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I felt like I would be following making a living,
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and so I decided to follow the path of teaching
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the meditative and the martial arts, and that was kind
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of my first push towards this direction. And then later
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as I started running the academy. You know, we have
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our meditation program here where we do tai chi chi
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gung sitting, meditation, standing meditation, breath work. But then we
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also have external martial arts that we do like Brazilian
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jiu jitsu and boxing and Mui Thai, and so through
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the years there's been competitors that we train in jiu
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jitsu and Mui Thai, and it's always been fun to
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take them out and have them do well, and it
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feels good, you know, to put your time and energy
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into somebody and have them be successful. But what I
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found is is that through working with the students coming
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in through the meditation program, is that they're coming in
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with illnesses and stress disorders and panic attacks, anxiety attacks,
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even thoughts of committing suicide, and they use this practice
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to transform their lives. And I've seen so many people
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come in and adapt these principles and seeing this, you know,
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these life changing benefits and things that they get from
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adopting this practice, and seeing those is what's really fueled
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me and given me the energy to like just really
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want to one be the best teacher I can be,
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which is why I've spent you know, my whole career
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traveling around the world, studying with teachers all over the
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planet and trying to be as educated on the subject
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as I can, but all so following this path and
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trying to help as many people as I can.
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Well, and I know you mentioned on your website that
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you know, you really have appreciated the Eastern tradition and philosophy,
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and I assume that part of your travels brought you
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to Asia and where you really got that, and talk
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a little bit about that and how does how does
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that differ in your opinion from what you experience in
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the US, and what what's the difference and what's it?
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How's it affecting people one way or the other.
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Well, you know, there's a there's a lot of differences
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in the culture as far as the methods in the
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meditative and martial arts, because a lot of that comes
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from the Eastern culture. A lot of that is ingrained
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into the meditative and martial arts here in the States
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as well. It kind of it just depends on the
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source and the teacher that it came from as to
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far as you know. And the funny thing is is
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something that you wouldn't really expect, but you know, some
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of the most advanced teachers I've ever met are from
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the States, you know. And and it's since information is
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so easily attainable now, you get people that are able
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to travel all around and train with different teachers. And
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a lot of times, what I found is in some
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areas that people kind of do it more as a
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hobby and less as like a career or something where
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it's kind of their life's mission to go in and
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really dive into it. And so when you find those teachers,
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it's it's a blessing and a rarity. You know, there's
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not there's not as many of them out there, and
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so I think when you get to that level of
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a practitioner. It doesn't really matter what part of the
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world you're in. They're just you're just lucky to find
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that person.
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Well. And as you talk about martial arts, and obviously
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for you this all integrates together with martial arts and
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meditation and so forth. But for many that are listening,
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I'm sure today they're not into martial arts. And so
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do you find that these principles can be separated from
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the actual practice of martial arts and still be incredibly
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effective for people in their lives?
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For sure? You know, and most of my students who
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do our meditation program aren't into the martial arts as well,
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you know. And you don't have to be in the
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martial arts to benefit from meditation, you know. Within the
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meditative arts, I kind of break it down into five categories,
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where you have the athletic side, which teaches you awareness
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and timing and the ability to relax and focus and
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to be a better athlete. Then you have the therapeutics side,
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which is great for balance and stability, flexibility, strength, dealing
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through injuries. You have the medical side, which you know,
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all of Chinese medicine is based off of chigunk theory.
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You have the philosophical side, and then you also have
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the spiritual side. And so people are drawn to the
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meditative arts for any one of kind of those five directions.
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And you know it's you. We have people coming in
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here to the Academy that fit all five of those categories,
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and you would adopt different practices for each of them,
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and it can be very effective without having the martial
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artss of backing.
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Okay, And I know again I've enjoyed your website as
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I went to look at it. One of the things
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you actually talk about is three areas meditation, mindfulness, and
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fluid movement. And I appreciate what you're talking about there,
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and you kind of explained to the audience what you
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mean by that and how it all integrates together. I
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know you've mentioned it a little bit, but let's get
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into it a little bit deeper.
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Yeah, So when I talk about meditation, there's you know,
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a lot of people think of meditation as sitting there
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and counting your breaths and trying to acquiet your mind,
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you know, And while that is meditation, I look at
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the meditative arts as a pool of different tools that
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we can use and it can involve many different sitting
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and energetic practices, to standing meditation, to movement meditation through
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chigung or tai chi or yoga practices, all of these
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could be what I would call different sources for developing
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a ritual practice. And a ritual practice is kind of
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like the core of any meditation practice, and it's that
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time when you set a little bit of time aside
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every day, and maybe it's twenty minutes, it's maybe it's
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an hour or whatever that is for you, and you
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do your meditation, and it's meant to be a time
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where you turn off all the screens, you turn off
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all the audios, and you can just turn your focus inward.
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You know, one of the things where I see a
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lot of people getting distracted these days is you know,
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there's a million videos out there on YouTube, and you
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know all these different audio programs and apps that you
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can get that teach you meditation. And while all of
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those can be a good source in a way to
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learn specific practices, and some of them a lot more
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than others, but where people get I think misguided, is
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that they substitute their ritual time every day to listen
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to an audio or watch a video and they use
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that thinking that that's their meditation time, when really that
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hinders their progress, because you know, the meditative arts are
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often referred to as the internal arts, and they're called
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that for a reason. The internal arts means it's a
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time that we can turn our focus inward and listen
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to our thoughts, listen to our physiology and our body
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and how things are moving. And if we're focusing on
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an audio program or looking at a video, we're really
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missing out on a lot of that awareness and sensitivity.
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So for that ritual time, it's best to not have
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anything around and really just kind of focus on that.
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Then we have active practices, which are a lot more
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into that kind of mindfulness category that allow you to
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integrate these practices into everything you do, because the meditative
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arts is meant to be a way of life and
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a lot less of a hobby that we do once
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in a while, and so with these active practices, they're
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great because you can do them every hour, every ninety minutes.
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You can do them when you're standing in line at
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the grocery store, when you're walking down the street, and
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they could be as simple as doing some easy breathing
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exercises or maybe some spinal rotations or simple movement practice,