Yeah, makes for a busy, productive life.
And I love what you're talking about.
I can't remember.
It might have been, I got to give a shout out to a couple of past guests.
So Jared Button was on the show recently.
I highly recommend checking his episode out.
Probably one of the most centered peace drivers,
happiness through suffering, like very,
very cool concepts that you don't hear talked about often and very poised.
And his delivery.
And then there was Rain Zeben, a holistic coach out of Australia area,
New Zealand, something some some east, I guess it's east.
It's a globe that's round, but we call it the east, right?
Part of the world. But they they both,
one of them mentioned the concept of not looking in the rearview mirror at life
or trying to drive forward while looking at the rearview mirror.
I was like, oh, that's really deep.
That's really deep and profound.
And, you know, letting go of that so that you can move forward and not not.
And he talked about the destructive nature of journaling.
Watch out. That was really interesting because everybody talks about that.
Always being a positive, but.
You know, prudence in all things, I guess.
So do you have three resources that you recommend provisioners?
We dive in and we talk about inner work,
moving from trauma to the trail of fulfillment as our best self.
I mean, you're very articulate in how you go about.
Creating a fulfilling life, and I love and appreciate that very much.
Like, OK, there's some deep wisdom here.
What resources would you recommend first?
Ooh, first, I would recommend your body.
Oh, that's a good one. Yeah.
You know, before that's a really smart answer.
Yeah, you are always going to be your number one expert at you.
Your life is not meant to look like or be exactly like anyone else is.
And so bringing people back to themselves, back into their own authority,
back into their own intuition, into their own decision making.
You are always your number one expert.
And so when I work with people, I'm just I'm guiding them back to themselves
and to the expert that lives inside of them.
We all have one, and it's this inborn wisdom of our physical vessel.
It's always trying to communicate with us.
It is always giving us the correct answers.
It is always full of information that we can use to make the correct decisions
for ourselves. And so always and forever, you are your number one expert.
Wow, that is deep.
We're going to have to come back to this because sometimes I think my body's lying to me
or leaving me in the dark.
So we'll come back to this because I wonder if other people feel the same.
But I know it's supposed to be able to like, you know, trust it and know what to do.
So it's very, it's very good.
OK, what's resource two and three?
Dr. Gabor Mate, I adore him.
I adore his work. I adore the the way that he's leading
really important conversations that are filling in really large gaps
that have been missing in in psychology, in in medicine, just in being human.
And he's one of the foremost thought leaders on trauma, on addiction, on ADHD
and really bringing in like the childhood developmental pieces.
And I just I feel so expansive when I when I hear him talk.
And I love, love the work he's doing.
I love that. In fact, I see that he was just on recently the Diary of a CEO,
which is a phenomenal podcast.
And it's got a big title. This is I regret my interview with Prince Harry.
So there's all sorts of drama baked into that episode.
But cool. That's that's a fun one.
And again, those listening in, I am absolutely a fan of that show.
What's number three?
Number three. Oh, man.
I have lots of other people that I respect and admire and appreciate.
As far as like bigger names and like doing the work.
There's several Dr. Steven Porges.
He is the developer of Polyvagal Theory.
Dr. Peter Levine.
Basil van der Kolk, he wrote The Body Keeps the Score.
There's a theme here.
Yeah, I'm seeing the theme.
They're all doctors. I'm just kidding.
I know it's deeper than that.
So what is the theme, though?
Let's point it out for those who may not be catching the theme or know.
Yeah, it's it's back to the first piece.
And that's that our body is such a magnificent vessel
and has so much that it is capable of.
It is so adaptable.
And I think that's the theme.
I think that the way that we I know that the way that we approach our body,
especially from like the programming perspective of our society, is
so counterproductive.
And I know for a long time personally, like I resented my body,
especially because I lived for a very long time with chronic pain.
And that is still kind of intermingled in my experience.
And so for the longest time, my body was my enemy.
You know, my mind wanted to go places.
I wanted to do things. And I thought of this as like a hindrance.
Right. And it's actually like it has all of the answers.
And it's done so much for me.
And the way that it stores repressed trauma, repressed
emotional experiences and the way that it's formed to keep us safe.
There are so many different systems that are operating inside of us
at all times without our instruction.
That is it's just mind blowing.
The things that these these bodies are capable of.
Right. Absolutely.
I agree with that. And one thing that strikes me a common core.
Now, I'll look at this as I learn more about the doctors
that you just recommended and the resources is I love that you turn to mentors
as your resource, not necessarily the resource
that is the watered down version of the mentor itself.
Right. Any book is just a fraction of the original creator.
And so that's really neat.
And I have a feeling these mentors empower you
rather than control you.
You know, if they're guiding you back to listen to your body,
they're not telling you I am the answer, you know, as much as giving you
the empowerment to know that you have it.
And that is something that I absolutely look for in resources
and confidence and mentors.
Anybody who tells me what to do or tries to control my vision,
you know, isn't necessarily again, they can't see the lens of my life.
So it's it's a very limiting way to try to guide people.
So thank you for that, Meridyth.
We're going to come right back on.
We'll dive into Meridyth's vision.
We'll talk about inner work.
We'll be talking about moving from your trauma to the what I call
the trail of fulfillment or the path to get there as our best self.
And we'll be right back, everybody. Take notes.
It'll be fun. All right.
Welcome in to Vision Pros Live with Jackson.
Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders
who are building fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up, everybody?
Welcome into another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame, founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I'm very excited to have Meridyth Driskill on the show today.
We're going to be talking about trauma and fulfillment, as I mentioned,
and being our best self.
And we're going to try to get into some depth of how to dig that out of ourself.
Also, how not to be scared or afraid of doing so.
We'll also talk about we'll try to dive deep into how Meridyth and I
can also up level our own ability to dedicate ourselves
to our trail of fulfillment as our best selves.
We'll have some fun coaching each other in the process.
So in addition to that, before I move into our topic,
I always like to give resources that have been helpful to me.
One of them is a podcast guest named Melissa Gray, who became a client.
And she is with the LawSpot.
We are now strategic partners in addition to our client relationship.
And the big reason why is I spent too many years operating as a business owner
and seen thousands of business owners operate without legal protection by their side.
Now, don't get me wrong.
We did have when I had my twenty thousand dollar lawsuit when I was at Restaurant Connect,
somebody tried to steal our name.
We had legal counsel, but we hadn't done our full due diligence.
So even though we won that trademark lawsuit,
did we really when we spent twenty thousand dollars we didn't have on it?
And every time I had interviewed different attorneys in business
and people who could collect, collect or protect intellectual property and
and help us in certain scenarios, I never felt comfortable with not only the advice
that I didn't understand, but the general attitude and feeling of working with that entity.
I never felt even like a number was like, well, you know, we either work with them or we don't.
They weren't very good at helping us feel like we were a valued client of theirs.
I cannot say.
I have to say so much, actually, about the value of Melissa Gray
and how she leads and what she's up to.
I hope you take the chance to hear her episode.
And also, if you do not have legal counsel that you're comfortable with,
just consider talking to her about what she's up to and how she's building out
the spot on business blueprint to help you simplify your legal matters.
Then there's Andrew Sosa, and he's not a client.
He just came on the show. I really appreciate his program.
His program is called Recovery Unplugged.
As Meridyth and I were just talking about the programs,
I call them the watered down version of the individual or the leaders
because they're the byproduct of what that person studies, right?
That doesn't make the book Harry Potter bad.
It doesn't make the programs that we build bad.
What I'm saying is dive in as deep as possible when you find resources
and people that can help you with your growth.
Recovery Unplugged is all about helping people overcome addictions.
And with COVID, they decided to move their platform to an online virtual version
and create experiences online that did not used to be available in the past.
And they incorporate music into their processes.
They also have a 24-7 hotline to help people.
So if you have somebody that you know that is going through an addiction
and they could use help with that, that's exactly why I'm putting this on the show.
We all know people who struggle with stuff.
We know people who don't belong in society. They feel that way.
They feel like an outcast.
They're trying to escape life through different means of substances.
Could be Netflix, could be SBN, could be alcohol or drugs.
I highly recommend reaching out to a program like this
and seeking medical advice, rather counseling and advice on what do I do
in order to inspire and help my loved ones maximize
and fill their potential and probably escape the darkness
that they may be going through.
In addition to that, we always want to talk about and bring out the Water Project.
The Water Project is something that I don't really have to think about, so I choose to.
I have access to water every single day,
but I never want to forget that there's millions of people out there who do not.
And so we constantly talk about the Water Project and we give back to it.
And the neat thing is when you give to one of the communities
that the Water Project shows you can give to,
you then receive email updates about what's going on with that project.
You get to see the status updates.
You get to see it come to fruition.
So when you see these kids who don't have access to clean drinking water,
they have to leave school in order to go get water for the community
or for their families or the parents have to leave work in order to go get water.
It puts a tremendous amount of stress and pressure on an already struggling economy.
Once they're able to produce that water well,
you see these people celebrating it as though it's Christmas Day.
It's one of the neatest experiences, the most humbling experiences of my life.
It's just looking at these pictures and thinking, man,
I have never once had to go through that.
Now, we've all been affected by COVID economics.
There's a lot going on in the world.
So if you don't have the ability to give back,
my hope is that if you think of somebody who might,
maybe just tag them in and share this with them,
maybe just share it with your own communities.
And if you have a cause that you feel is more important than this,
or is something that you want to draw attention to,
do not hesitate to use our platform to promote it.
Go ahead and drop it in the comments.
Let us know what you're up to.
Maybe it's something that I will also rock the mic about
and talk to people about and say, hey, here's another cause
that we can go about giving back to.
We've got 8 billion people in this world to help,
and it doesn't hurt to give a little bit more
and to go about doing that and helping each other out.
So without further ado,
we're going to bring Meridyth Driskill on board.
We're going to be talking about the easy, wonderful life.com a little bit,
maybe a little bit about her brand transition as well,
and how she's able to service as a holistic wellness practitioner.
So, Meridyth, thank you for joining me on Vision Pros Live.
Thanks for having me.
Absolutely.
So holistic trauma resolution practitioner.
Let's break those words down for people a little bit.
I'll let you lead.
Just describe that title for us if you don't mind.
Sure.
Well, holistic, I look at it from two different perspectives.
Holistic being natural, we're not using pills or artificial means.
We have all of the tools within ourselves to heal,
and so we employ those tools.
Sometimes we just need guidance to learn how to do things.
And then holistic, I also look at it as like the whole, right?
We're not just a head.
We're not just a brain.
We're not just a body.
We're not just a soul.
We're not just an energy system.
We're all of these things.
And to create sustainable transformation,
we have to look at the whole organism, the whole human.
You don't take your car to the shop and say,
I put gas in it and I don't understand why it's not running.
And it's like, well, what about like
the radiator and the motor?
There's all these pieces.
And so in our society, when we look at how we treat humans,
everything is so compartmentalized.
You go to a head doctor.
You go to a heart doctor.
You go to specialists.
And it's like, what about the entire organism
and how it functions as a whole?
So that's that piece.
And then trauma resolution.
Basically, I help people to live from their hearts
instead of their wounds.
And that looks like being able to be fully expressed,
authentic, setting and holding healthy boundaries,
not self-abandoning, people-pleasing, perfectionism,
like all of these patterns that we get stuck in
that are a result of trauma.
And then how do we instead collapse those patterns
and insert my three pillars,
which is safety, connection, and fulfillment?
Absolutely. All right.
So I'm a big fan of shifting the focus
from trauma to the fulfillment.
I don't know if that's right or not.
I know how it's helped me in my life.
So I'm grateful that you have that as part of your vision.
But Tanatha, to define your vision for you,
what is your vision for those that you serve?
For the people that I serve,
it's literally safety, connection, and fulfillment.
It's how do we actually make sure
that we're not just creating a new environment?
It's how do we create a felt sense of safety within the body
so that we are safe enough to connect with ourselves,
to connect with our own emotions,
to feel those emotions in a healthy way
and not shove them down and store them in our bodies
for them to later on manifest as physical dis-ease.
It is how do we create the safety for us to connect
with our own emotions in a healthy way
to create community, friendships,
family, healthy relationships?
A lot of times that looks like learning how to do things
that weren't how you experienced them in childhood.
A lot of times what we're taught
and how we're taught to operate in a relationship,
it's modeled and it's not the things
that we want to perpetuate.
So it's learning new relationship skills
and then fulfillment.
With no expectation, no societal conditioning, no nothing.
Who do you want to be?
What lights you up?
What do you wanna talk about?
What do you wanna do?
What makes you feel alive?
And how do we incorporate more of that into your life
so that you're experiencing fulfillment
and you can do whatever it is that sets your heart on fire?
I love it.
And speaking of that, what sets your heart on fire for you?
And what's your vision for yourself?
Elaborating on those details a bit.
Well, there's personal and professional
and as a recovering workaholic,
well, I'm gonna answer the personal first, travel.
Travel lights me up.
I love traveling.
I love seeing the world through different lenses,
different cultures, different languages, nature.
So traveling and nature, those two things combined.
I'm just like so happy.
I don't know if you can handle me.
How was Peru, what was your favorite part?
I can't pick one thing.
I hiked Andes for two weeks with a shaman
who was incredible.
I think that the most,
my favorite part, I think what I learned about myself
in the context of being able to travel,
I learned how resilient I am.
I learned how much joy and energy
there really is in my body.
And I learned how to connect to that
and how to move that and keep that a consistent mill
instead of damming it up.
And yeah, I learned that I'm a really good time.
Oh, that's awesome.
And do you have a travel destination on the horizon?
I have several.
I'm going to Dallas on Friday.
I am going to Hilton ahead this year.
I'm going to the mountains, I think twice.
I think next month.
Yeah, I live in Tennessee.
So we're heading to Gatlinburg with the kiddo.
It's a secret for my birthday and for like school.
Try not to go viral.
Try not to blow up.
Oh my gosh, that kid,
he could find anything on the internet.
It's terrifying.
Yeah, we're going to the mountains a couple of times.
My assistant who is also my best friend,
she's helped me build my business over the last five years.
She's flying in in two weeks from Australia.
So got a little piece of Australia coming here.
And then I'm leading a group of people
back to Peru in April.
That's awesome.
That's okay, time for March, April.
So a year from now.
Yes.
I'm going to stay in that case, okay.
I get lost in my months very quickly.
All right, well, that's a beautiful vision.
It sounds like a lot of fun.
And let's dive into a darker subject.
So what is the worst leadership experience
that you've ever had?
We have a lot we could choose from.
Macro versus how micro do you want to get?
Because I've got a lot to say.
Well, it's your time, your vision.
So whichever you feel is going to be the most helpful
to those who are listening.
I'll trust your lead.
Man, I mean, I have personal experiences with leaders
who didn't lead well.
And I think that ultimately
the worst leadership experience ever,
I'm going to have to come back to me.
I have probably been the worst leader of myself at times
that I could have been.
And that has been the thing that most impacted my life.
And it was also based on what I thought leadership was,
my relationship with leadership.
I was raised in a very narrow-minded,
very religious Southern Baptist family and community.
And so there was a very, very narrow idea
of what leadership looked like.
And it was usually an older white man.
And no matter what, you had to yield to that.
And then it was also God, right?
And like a very narrow concept of what God is
and a very specific context and relationship
with that leadership and with that vision of God.
And ultimately like that,
I think made me a worst leader for myself
because I was disempowered.
Because I always thought that someone else
should be leading me.
That I was a world-class victim, right?
The victimhood mentality was just refined on my end.
And it was always like praying to God
for God's gonna fix it.
And then not doing anything about it.
So I saw a lot of that growing up.
Like, oh, just give it to God, give it to God,
give it to God.
And it's like, what about my power?
Like, what about me actually getting up
and doing something to change the circumstance
or to change the situation or to change a pattern
or to take responsibility for something?
So yeah.
Interesting.
A lot of that.
Oh no, it's huge.
It's such an interesting,
it's a difficult conversation for people to have
in today's world that's so polarizing about events
and about how these different life experiences
come together.
I'm gonna ask a pointed question.
You're welcome to take it any way you want to.
But so there's, you know, we can grow up in homes
where there's controlling white male.
We can grow up in homes too where like religion domination
or cold like behaviors, you know, dominate the environment
or atmosphere.
Would you say that's led you to be anti-religion, anti-God?
And now like, oh my gosh, our religion is evil and bad
or is there room for harmony and balance
related to self-growth, self-empowerment
and perhaps relying on an external being
or maybe not external, maybe that's not the word for it,
but you know, a being that's higher than oneself.
What are your thoughts on that?
Sure.
It definitely led me into rebellion for a long time.
And that, I mean, like that's just one of my
very strong parts.
Like if I'm not perfect, then like the rebellious
comes out really quickly.
So I definitely rebelled for a long time
and it was because when I asked questions, I wasn't met.
There wasn't dialogue.
It was, no, it's just this way because we said so.
Shut your questions down.
And so I felt silenced.
It's another really great way to bring out
the rebellious part of me.
So I left the church for a really long time.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
I thought it was evil.
It made me uncomfortable.
I didn't want to be around it because it felt like
rejection and suppression.
And so for a long time, I wanted nothing to do with that,
with God, with Jesus, with any of the religious constructs
that I was raised in.
And I did a lot of traveling and I explored
a lot of really interesting conversations
with people from different religions
from all around the world.
And what really leapt out at me was that love
is the center of all of it.
And there's so much that's getting lost in the messaging.
There's so many things that are prioritized
over the message of love.
And it is not God that's doing this, right?
This is very much the creation of humans.
And so when I see religion being used as a way
to control people through the mechanisms of fear
and guilt and shame, I get real spicy.
And just in the last few years,
there has become room for God to come back in
and for me to be able to connect to God
and to have my own experience of God
and experience God in everything
and the magic and the beauty of that.
And I think, I know, I feel there's so much power
in connecting to something higher than ourselves
and getting to have a spiritual connection to ourselves,
to our own divinity, and to all that is,
is I mean, I don't want to do life without that now.
That's cool.
It sounds like it's a constant opportunity for exploration
and expansion.
What is there?
Not an absolute like, oh my gosh, this was wrong,
so now I will only do this.
But there's layers and processes of discovery that go on.
So thank you for willing to put yourself out there.
As far as worst leadership experience goes,
it's powerful to take accountability
for every situation we are in in life,
or at least our potential part in it.
So I hope other people can understand the value
of doing that while, again, keeping your confidence
and like who you are and you emulate that.
I think you have a great appreciation for yourself.
I hope you do.
That's what I see.
And that's what I would always hope for anybody
who might throw themselves under the bus, so to speak,
right as the world might portray that or the news.
But yeah, that was a very good example.
What is your best leadership experience?
What's the best leadership experience you've ever had?
I just think of this, a certain type of leader.
I can name specific people, Tahwiti, Colwiti.
Those are two friends and mentors
who are incredible leaders.
But I think the qualities that I respect the most
that allow me to sink into a trust from a place
of like being led is being willing to be seen as imperfect
and not hide that and just say like, I'm a human
and I'm figuring it out and here's how I'm figuring it out.
I love being able to see the two people
that I just mentioned, Col and Tahwiti,
they're in Austin, Texas and they're incredibly,
yeah, they're brilliant human beings.
And I was at a conference that they were doing
and they got into an argument.
Their husband and wife, they own this business together.
They do these trainings together
and they got into an argument and they paused everything
and they sat on the stage together
and they worked through this argument together
and in front of everyone.
And it was the most beautiful example of leadership
that I've seen because it was like,
I mean, their work is so embodied, right?
Like I'm going to be my whole fully expressed,
most authentic self at all times, including my big emotions.
And I get to do that in real time
and also show people how you can do that,
how you can communicate differently,
how you can be your fullest self
and have all of your emotional experiences
and do it in front of people and do it in a way
that inspires people to grow and do things differently
and look at things differently.
Then that was just an incredible experience to witness.
We were all really grateful that we were able to see
this like fight play out on stage.
Oh, that's amazing.
Again, I'll go back to that word context.
That can be such a dangerous and hard thing to do,
because it takes two to tango in that reality.
And so that can go very poorly, very fast
with a person who's not on the same page about doing that.
Somebody can quickly feel disrespected and feel like,
whoa, what are you doing?
That's my vulnerability to talk about or share.
So I would have loved to have been involved in
and seen that too and seen how that played out.
And because the way you describe it says that
there was a magical, like holistic feeling
about this experience.
And that takes tremendous leadership
to be willing and able to do.
So if this was your last opportunity
to share a powerful lesson with the world,
what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn
from your experience?
So much of what I've been feeling and moving into
and deeper into and just navigating lately
is the power of the body.
And we live in such a cerebral culture
where our intellect and our productivity
and our performance and our brains are so,
so very important and pedestalized
that we live from here or up here in a state of dissociation.
And there's so much richness and so much magic
to be had in life just by coming back into the body
and being available to experience all of your emotions
and to learn how to navigate those with grace,
with skill, with ease.
And like just the richness of life
when you get to be inside of your body
and to feel it all and to be present for it
all the good, the bad, the ugly, right?
Like all of it, just the preciousness of being alive
and having the ability to wake up and drink coffee,
to book a trip, to hike mountains,
to enjoy time with your kids.
Like just all of the magic that's available
and even the tiniest moments when you get to be present
in your body and available and available
and open to the entire experience.
It's a big concept.
I don't know how many people listening
would consider themselves cerebral or intellectual,
perhaps a lot, but bear with me for those of you
who are going on this thought process.
You know, I grew up super emotional
and with five older sisters and my mom, right?
Emotions are pretty high in the house with a bunch of women.
And in addition to that, I was the youngest
of all my siblings.
And so it was easy for my stepbrother to,
you know, he's two years older than me.
And he loved to point out how much smarter he was,
you know, at that time.
An older cousin, same thing.
And so I grew up thinking that I was almost pure emotion.
And it turns out, you know, StrengthsFinder 1.0 learner
was my number one trait.
And I've turned to my more cerebral part of existence,
like a strategist, business and all that too.
So now most people think I'm purely strategy.
And when I take off those external forces
that wanted to find me, you know,
and look back and feel my own life
or think through my own life,
I've always felt like, oh no, those go hand in hand.
Like those don't separate, you know,
they're part of the process.
So when I hear you say like separate the brain
or the, you know, the thought process, the cerebral aspect,
I'm like, you know, yeah, we are so plugged in.
We are constantly thinking about the time of the appointment,
how much time is in the clock for the show, you know,
who I have to coordinate for next, you know,
what strategy has to come into place for X, Y or Z,
even what programs come in on TV,
when is the NBA, you know, playoffs happening?
Like there's so much that is constantly going around.
What book am I gonna read next?
What posts am I gonna make?
Do I share this picture with that picture?
There's so many thought processes that we take for granted.
What are we gonna eat?
What are we gonna sleep?
You know, some things like that come up too.
You know, am I gonna go to the store, get groceries?
It just never ends.
So like I can see the need to disconnect from a lot of that,
but I would love to hear your thoughts, you know,
your expertise on this.
What does that mean to you to kind of disconnect
from the brain and how do we balance that
with or the cerebral and how we balance that with the rest?
Yeah, I wanna clarify not to disconnect from the brain
because again, that's part of the body.
That's part of the machine and we're grateful
for the whole thing in its totality, right?
So it's more of just like,
instead of always making decisions from the brain,
cause it's gonna be a 50-50 crap shoot,
it's learning how to be in the present moment.
Like all of those things that you were talking about,
they were either like past or mostly forward focused.
And so when you're really, really forward focused,
how much of your bandwidth is going to something
that's not the present task?
So it's actually just reclaiming the thoughts
and bringing them into the present moment.
And it's like, okay, actually, what does my body feel like?
How do I feel on this call?
How do I want to feel on this?
I'm hungry.
Okay, cool.
So your body's communicating to you.
So if you were to go and get a snack right now,
and if you were to eat this, I wouldn't care personally,
but also like then you get to tell your body like,
hey, you're safe.
You're not in survival.
I'm going to listen to your cues.
I'm not going to bypass you.
I trust you.
You can trust me.
That deepens and fortifies that relationship of trust.
And I don't know if you feel this way,
but how I show up as a business owner
and I trust myself is radically different.
Yes, absolutely.
It's huge.
Confidence and the influence of that
by keeping our commitments and staying safe and all that,
it has a massive effect on our ability as a business owner.
For sure.
And a massive effect just in like,
am I keeping my commitments?
What about your commitments to yourself?
Are you rested?
Are you hydrated?
That's one of the fun things about that hungry thing too.
It's like there's, again, there's layers
of listening to this stuff, right?
I remember listening to Jim Gaffigan talk about
how he hasn't been hungry in 20 years.
He's making fat jokes about himself in this moment.
And I remember feeling that and being like,
oh my gosh, I can relate to that.
And then I was like, wait,
hunger is my metabolism talking to me.
And it's okay.
I'm not starving.
And I'm not depriving myself of food.
But is it my body telling me like,
hey, cool, I'm getting rid of excess?
You know, there's a fine line, of course,
between again, the starvation, deprivation,
and allowing your body to process the,
I don't know what you'd call it, the nutrients.
I'm not going Dr. Jackson on anybody today,
but you know what I mean?
There's like a, there's a good thing.
There's a good balance to being hungry
and not always being full.
Yeah, and being hungry and being full
are like opposite ends of the spectrum.
There's a nice little middle area.
And it's also like, if I'm super present with my body
and I know what I have coming up,
then it's like, okay, great.
My body's really hungry.
What would make my body feel best right now?
Ooh, some protein.
Oh, a piece of fruit.
Oh, you know what?
Actually, I need some carbs right now.
And then it's like,
it's literally just like being in the present moment,
the body is always giving us more information.
And the more present we are,
the more present we are in our bodies,
the more we have consistent and reliable access
to this information so that we know
what our physical body needs
so that we can clearly communicate and articulate
so that we can take powerful action
and meaningful steps that move the needle forward, right?
So that we're adequately prepared for our mission.
And we're always up here
and trying to make decisions from up here,
thinking about the next thing.
Oh, I shouldn't have said that.
Oh, what does this person think about me?
Like, no, how do I feel in my body right now?
How does my body feel right now?
Oh, I'm feeling unstable.
Okay, there's some wavering here.
Okay, let's sit with that.
Where am I feeling that?
Okay, okay, I feel that in my gut.
Where is that sense of wavering coming from?
Where do I feel unstable?
What can I stabilize more?
Oh, okay, it's this thing in my business.
Great, okay, what's there?
Okay, I don't like how I showed up as a leader.
I could have done this better.
I need more stability in myself.
Okay, great, great.
And instead of like getting caught up in the ego stories,
getting caught up in the mind of,
oh my God, I can't believe you did that.
Oh, you failed at this thing
or you could have done this better.
Who do you think you are?
Like instead of the runaway train, right?
It's literally just like what feels unstable.
Oh, it's me.
It was how I showed up in that.
Okay, great.
How can I show up better?
Instead of what does it mean about me?
I'm gonna beat myself up.
I'm the worst, right?
It's okay, how do I clean that up?
How do I show up differently?
What would it require for my body
to feel really stable in that?
Okay, envisioning that, like me showing up
in my highest capacity as my highest self,
how would that feel in my body?
How would I feel?
And then feeling that.
The cerebral nature of these questions to me is what,
that's the fun argument.
That's the fun debate about like you didn't learn
to ask those questions as a baby.
It took a serious sincere amount of education
from an external standpoint to grasp those concepts.
And so you're 100% right.
And I guess each one of us has the opportunity
and the need to dive in and say, okay, wait,
what do we need?
But also where do we lack the words or the knowledge?
Because you mentioned carbohydrates,
you mentioned proteins and those aspects.
And I'm like, ooh, I need to do a better job
of educating myself.
And the difference between those,
much like a child is like, I'm hungry,
I should eat the Snickers, right?
Oh, I'm hungry again, I should eat another Snickers.
Now it's like you go after your cravings.
But business owners are so guilty of this.
Just as much as a child is of, oh, well, I need growth
because I don't feel good.
So let me just go buy a software
because I'm gonna pretend I'm a chief technology officer.
I'm gonna solve that problem with the skills I don't have
and make all these assumptions.
I'm just gonna feel it forward.
No, you're not going to win.
Just feeling that forward,
there is an education component that also belongs
with the spiritual and the logical, I guess,
those things go hand in hand.
And they prepare us to make these better choices.
And so the inner work that goes on to be able to listen,
in my opinion, also has to be combined
with that thought of best self, right?
Best self being, what am I going to,
for me it's, am I centered with myself
and also am I progressing?
And doing what, making the relationships
that will cultivate a great relationship,
rather a great life for myself,
as well as looking at how do I exercise my purpose?
I mean, what is my purpose here?
And am I diving into that
or am I allowing others to control what that looks like?
What are your thoughts?
Well, there's a few different pieces that you said
that jumped out at me.
And one of them was like the best self.
And anytime I hear someone say like my best self,
I'm like, okay, so if you don't show up
as your best self today, how much do you judge yourself?
That's a great question.
My answer to that is actually,
it's one of my favorite topics.
Part of being my best self is also being
my best at forgiveness.
And what does that mean?
That means that if I have a negative experience,
a lot of people would say, well, sleep on it.
I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll fix things in.
Like, no, my best forgiveness is forgiveness.
Bam, like I'm done.
I'm forgiving myself now so that the very next moment
I can move into being my best self yet again,
without having to indulge in a self-inflicted rut
that is arbitrary based on a timetable
that doesn't, in my opinion, really exist.
Right, it's like, no, I'm just going to move
right back into that.
Yeah.
That would be my definition.
I like that.
I like to use infinite self.
There's like a Meridyth that has zoomed out
and can see it all and knows exactly how she wants
to show up and how she needs to show up
and what she needs to say and what she needs to do.
And so I like to just, she's the person
I'm always checking myself against, comparing to, right?
But not from a place like you.
I like that a lot, the reframe of being
the best at forgiveness.
Yeah, like having compassion towards myself.
So much change.
This is one of the biggest ruts that I see people
getting stuck in, and it's like the discipline,
the hustle, the force into their best lives,
their best selves.
And it's done from a place of like self-loathing
and I need to be different.
I need to be fixed.
I need to be better, do better.
And that's like, we're being driven.
Well, there's another culture part of that too,
where a lot of other people are very focused
on being better than.
But they wanna be the best.
So now it's not only a competition against self,
it's also a competition against eight billion others.
I mean, like how daunting.
I don't have any need to be better than anybody else.
If I just show up as my best self, right?
If that's what I can do, then I can very much appreciate
whether I won or I lost, if it's a competition,
right, basketball or something like that,
because I've done what I needed to to prepare
for that competition or that moment or that experience.
And I'm going to therefore be happy with the result.
But there's some conditioning probably with mindset too,
to say, you know what?
I'm going to allow myself to appreciate where I'm at.
And Namaste really taught me that.
That was the book,
Feelings Buried Alive Never Die.
Very, very good therapeutic book.
And she talks about how Namaste means
myself honors yourself and change.
So I am perfect how I am.
You are perfect how you are.
And change is perfect.
And I was like, huh, that's, I don't know,
it just really set in with me.
I was like, I can dig that for sure.
No matter who says like, what, you just said you're perfect?
That's like, you can struggle with that.
Bless you.
You know, you're good where you are.
I'm good where I am.
And I'm going to keep moving.
And I'm going to keep moving forward.
Yeah, there was a while when I was like in my conversations
of like trying to figure out life and God
and all of those things.
And I love Buddhist psychology.
I think it's really interesting.
And so I went through this phase where I was like, wait,
well, I very much understand the value of like learning
to be okay with all that is as it is.
And that's like a very Buddhist philosophy base.
Like, you know, be good with it always be good with all things.
And, and so then I was like, but what about like, okay,
I can do that.
I can be present with my joy, with my sadness, with my rage.
Like I can be present with all of those things.
And I want to create different, I want to create more.
I want to do more.
I want to see like, I'm so inspired by human beings,
like seeing people in American Ninja Warrior.
I'm like, they're like humans that have Olympics, for example,
like anything is possible.
If these human beings can do like 38 swirly bird,
jumpy flippy kicks on ice, on tiny little blades,
then like I can go to the gym today, you know?
But it's like, humans are just so inspiring.
And it's like, I want to be okay with everything as it is.
And I also want to be a conscious creator.
I want to be the captain of my ship.
I want to see how far we can go.
I want to ride this till the wheels fall off.
I want to squeeze all the juice out of it.
And the more I do that, the more I'm like,
I want everyone on earth to feel this way.
And it really gets to like down to clearing out the trauma
and all of the things that keep us
from being able to enjoy this.
And it's like, I had an experience
with plant medicine a while back.
And I literally, God told me, I gave you a nose,
I gave you eyes, I gave you skin, I gave you a tongue.
I gave you all of these things for you to experience pleasure.
What are you doing?
All of these things are for you to experience pleasure.
What are you doing with it?
Are you experiencing pleasure?
Or are you just digging in the dirt,
looking at your past, looking at your current self,
finding ways to beat yourself up,
finding ways to judge yourself.
All of these things are right mind and ego stories
where we're not being present in the moment to the smells,
to the sounds, to all of the possible ways
that we could experience joy and pleasure in the moment.
And it's like, that is what this life is about.
It's about, I think creating whatever it is that we want
that is beautiful, that feels good, that feels connecting,
that feels joyful.
And like it feels so good to be in the body
and to have access to these experiences.
And it's like, what a gift.
What an absolute gift to be able to smell the flowers
that are blooming right now,
to hear the birds chirping and the wind chime.
Like if we, like so many people get so focused
on like performance and metrics
and pushing things further and further and further.
And it's like, if you were really, really happy
with yourself, would you do these things
to the extent that you do?
Because ultimately I think that,
I think that trauma is the root of all of the things
on this planet that suck.
So war, corporate greed,
all of these things I think are trauma-based.
And if we had more leaders who were resolved
in their trauma, who knew how to feel their feelings
and then not let their senses of inadequacy
or childhood stuff come up and like,
I have to have the most, I have to have the highest sales.
I have to have the most money accrued.
I have to have the most boats.
Like whatever it is, like you're just trying to validate
some very hurt, small part of you
that needs those things in order to feel loved
and acceptable and like you are worthy of existing
on this planet.
And so if we have more leaders that are resolved
in their trauma, that know how to feel their feelings,
that know how to be in their bodies
and that know how to experience joy,
I think we're gonna have people creating
from a lot cleaner place energetically
and that are looking around like,
oh man, I've got more than what I need.
How can I help other people create this?
How can I help other people like what you're doing
with the water project?
Absolutely incredible and amazing.
I just think that when we're not living from our trauma,
we get to live from our hearts.
And I know that human beings are incredibly compassionate
and amazing people.
And when we're not connected to our heart
because we have to guard it because it's not safe,
because our heart has been hurt before,
that's when we're operating from like,
driving the metrics.
I see so many entrepreneurs reach such high levels
of success on paper and in finance and their bodies crash.
And it's like, okay, well, you were really successful
in one way, but you completely wrecked your health.
And that's because you were ultimately trying
to earn something, right?
Get some validation, love, approval, ego story met, right?
So that you could think about yourself in a certain way
so that you could tolerate yourself
in any given experience so that you can accept yourself
as a human being on this planet.
And you cannot be intimate with yourself
because in order to have done this,
you had to bypass so many of your own things
that were coming up your own body, right?
Like, I know I need to eat a protein right now.
I need to eat some carbohydrates right now.
Like I see these entrepreneurs just like bio-
I'll give you a Buddhist answer.
What?
I'll go with the Buddhist answer of maybe, right?
It depends on the person, right?
And their elements.
So I would also add a giant if,
before a lot of what you said,
if you were doing those things from the point of pain
or from the point of trauma.
I think that's a really important correlation.
Those people who do the 32 jump flippy things
that you talked about, for instance, right?
There's a lot of pain, suffering, friction
that has to occur for that strength to be built up.
And it's not necessarily all built up from trauma.
Right there, there's also this purpose side.
And I love what you said when you wrote it too.
And you also just talked about it in great detail
in a very great fashion.
So my vision is that every human on earth
is fed, clothed and hugged.
That was cool.
Imagine a world where everyone is fulfilled
at peace and in total acceptance.
I'm sorry, I pulled the best thing out from,
but I realize it didn't pull it from your words.
And total acceptance of who they are.
Now imagine the number of violent crimes
and wars that would exist in that society
or would not exist.
That's a big shift, right?
I truly believe that if enough people have the courage
to do the inner work, this reality is possible.
And so just centering all of that,
I don't think that you were saying
that growth and metrics only come
from a position of trauma.
No.
And those who are stuck with that mindset,
they're like, oh my gosh,
that's where my fulfillment comes from.
That's my value and worth is the external achievement.
That's a sad day.
Because there's so much more to life than that.
And that's what I see you bringing to the table
to those who are listening.
Is that fair?
Yeah, absolutely.
Because I know that I personally,
I wanna have more money than God.
And that's because I want to go do really cool things
with that.
Are you doing the things necessary
to put yourself in that wise steward position
to achieve, and how much time do you have?
We've gone over a little bit.
I don't wanna, I've got Steve Ramona next.
So shout out to Steve Ramona of the podcaster.
You have to check that out.
Serving with a, doing business with a servant's heart.
Excellent, so we've got a meeting in three minutes.
So I'm gonna have to wrap this up.
I don't want to.
I wanna continue this conversation.
But what everybody just heard Meridyth talk about
was having the purpose, purposeful drive
of wanting to give her whole heart and soul,
to not only like achieving what she wants for herself,
but also making sure that this world
becomes a better place for all those
who do go through struggles and traumas and all that.
And I love that.
I look forward to catching up with you further
about that as well.
And I wanted to have a deeper conversation
about what that looks like and means.
Because does that mean we bust our butt
until we die tomorrow because we haven't achieved that goal
like within the next 24 hours?
Or what does the balance look like on that?
And how do you define that as a visionary for yourself?
Because we're, most of us who've gotten to the point
where we're at least willing
to consider ourselves as visionaries or we have a vision,
oh, that's a daunting reality to deal with.
It's like, man, what am I called on to do today
versus tomorrow?
So we'll have to end on that.
But those of you who were encouraged,
inspired by Meridyth's story, what she's up to,
we're gonna put action steps in the show notes as well
so you can follow along and see
where she's gonna take you to next on this journey.
Feel free to skip mine her next episode in that process.
You can reach straight out to her and find out,
do you wanna go to, excuse me,
do you wanna go to Peru with her next year?
Do you wanna get involved in this Dallas trip
that she's going on?
I'm sure you can just ask her online and see.
She might say yes, she might say no.
And then if you'd like to be a guest in the show
as well and discuss your vision, top right corner,
click on be our guest, apply.
And if your vision is to help and serve others out there
and then come on and tell me about it.
Let me know what it is.
We happy to try to get you on the show.
And if there's anything you wanna add, Meridyth,
before I wrap up, I had to do a hard stop
and I don't like to do that to people.
All good.
I'll just be very brief.
The human mind is absolutely incredible.
I learned this from Peru, these civilizations,
these structures, these intricate things
that have been created.
And it's the thing that I learned was like,
when the head and the heart are bridged,
anything is possible.
Humans are incredible.
We're capable of anything.
I'm a huge fan of that concept.
So those of you thinking about it,
go think and feel about that.
See how it feels in your head and heart.
And we will see you on the other side.
Take care everybody.
Thanks for joining in.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision.