So today I'm super excited that , uh , Theo Fleury said yes. When I asked him to join me on this podcast, because I've, I've watched, I've watched basically, I got to know you with battle of the blades. That's when I really got to know you. And that was a pivotal point. My mom was a big fan of battle of the blades and you just climbed in her heart and took hold. So we would watch it weekly. And , uh, and yeah, that was a pivotal time for you. And , uh, yeah .
And, and so I learned more about you through that journey and I'm excited to share your journey , um, and how intuitions has played out with that with more people around the world. So, yeah. Thank you so much and share whatever you want. Well, I can tell you
That that battle of the blades was probably top five things I've ever done in my life , uh, because it was so outside the box. Right.
You know , uh, first of all, the skates were trippy, you know, cause I grew up, you know, I grew up skating on hockey skates and uh, you know, what was really funny was , um, I was at an Easter seals dinner in Toronto and uh , the first season of battle, the blades had just finished and they were talking about season two and Jamie Solei was at the ser seals dinner as well. And she came up to me and said , uh, you should do battle of the blades. And I said, yeah, I should.
But uh , I'll only do it if you're my partner.
Oh, okay . Yeah.
And so, and so Jamie called the producers of the show and basically said, you know, that Theo's willing to do the show, but he's only willing to skate with me. And so we sort of arranged it behind the scenes that we would be partners and yeah, cause we were at the 2002 Olympics when they went through all that controversy with the judges, judges and all that.
And so , um, uh, and then, so I was like one of the first guys to sign up to the show and uh, and so I just finished my comeback, you know, I was making a comeback in , in NHL. And so I , I worked with the Pilates instructor for all man bout nine months , uh, during that comeback and her husband , uh, was the figure skating coach , uh, in the place that, that I , uh, that I was doing Pilates. And so I went down to professional skate here in Calgary and I got a pair of figure skates.
And then , uh, her name was Stephanie and she said, well, you know, my husband's willing to , uh, you know, allow you to skate, you know, basically whenever you want. And so here I am, I , I get in this , uh , class with 10 and 12 year old little girls.
And , uh, uh, and because I had never skated with pics before, you know, the first probably, I don't know, two weeks of me skating with these little girls, it was quite comical, you know, because when, when you catch a toll pick, there's nothing you can do to save yourself. Like you're going down. And , uh, and so here I am, you know, doing edge work and all this stuff with these, with these girls and, and uh, every time I wiped out, they were just like killing themselves, laughing.
And, you know, I had bruises on my elbows on my hips and everything. And I was like, you know, what, if I'm going to do this , uh , for this long, I better get some patties. So , so I showed up one day looking like the Michelin man fully, fully padded up so that every time I fell, it wouldn't hurt because, you know, when I was playing hockey, we were always, you know, lots of equipment and stuff.
But , um, but you know, the whole experience was, was really incredible because not only were you expected to escape , but you know, you were also supposed to act the part because every week had a different theme. And, you know, that seemed to sort of fit with my personality, you know, that , uh, uh, because , you know, being a hockey player, it's the entertainment business. Right. You know, you you're paid to entertain the people.
And , uh, and so, you know, that was my favorite part of the whole thing was getting into character. And , and , uh, you know, I remember what was it, week three or week four. Uh, we skated to , uh , uh, Rick James, his song, what the hell was , oh, yes.
Um, oh, jeepers. Yes . What is it called?
And they put me in a rubber suit and , uh, but it was fun, you know , what , it was my, probably my favorite routine of the whole , uh, the whole show. And , uh, but yeah, and , and what was really kind of freaky was, you know, the shows were live, like they weren't taped. And so when the lights came on, it was like, go time . You couldn't, you know, you to remember every single step of every single routine and every beat in the song had a step to it.
And so, yeah, it was a, it was a really cool experience, you know, and then having David Pelcher as my coach, you know, was, was pretty awesome too. And , uh, you know, the amazing choreographers that we had and all that stuff. So it was , uh , and, and, you know, the actual , uh, building that we , uh , skated in was it was built for the show, you know, and yeah.
And so there was like, what couple of thousand people there every Sunday night , uh, you know, for the live show and , uh, yeah, it was, it was this fun to be, you know , part of it. And then, you know, obviously getting to know Jamie and , uh, you know , uh , the other skaters , uh, you know, these girls are like fear less like fearless.
And , uh, you know, we were, you know, us big, old, tough hockey players, you know, we're always afraid of, you know, hurting these girls because he had no idea what the hell we were doing, you know, so , um, but , uh, but yeah, it was a great experience.
And , and obviously , uh, you know , uh, as a guy that was building his own brand, you know, to have 1.2 million eyeballs every Sunday night on, you know, cause they allowed us to, you know, advertise what we were doing away from, from the sport and my book had just come out and , uh, and all that stuff.
And so it really kind of , um, you know, enhanced the brand building that , uh , you know, that I was trying to do and , and , uh, you know, as a small company, you know, we can't afford that kind of advertising. Right. And , uh, you know, so it was, it was great, you know, from a business perspective as well, to be a part of that show, but you know , more importantly, I think just the whole experience was , uh, you know, was something I'll never forget.
No, my intuitive leap, like really by the sounds of things that you couldn't have been ,
You know, and I think it took a lot of the stigma away from, you know, the, the figure skating and , and you know, how much the guys really sort of , uh, um , had a new sort of admiration for people who do figure skate and , uh , how tough it is, how demanding it is. Um, you know, physically , oh yeah, yeah. Physically, it was crazy. Like, I, I lost four pants sizes doing that show.
Cause we were, you know, we're skating almost eight hours a day because you, you know, you had to learn this week's routine and then you had to also start, you know, the next week's routine at the same time. And so, yeah, it was , uh , it was a lot of hard work, but , uh, it was, it was so much fun. I had a blast every day I was laughing and enjoying myself. So it was really good. Well ,
And that was good timing too, right? Yeah. Yeah. It
Was, yeah, it was perfect timing almost.
Yeah . Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So when , uh, like
When you get your intuition, like to me that was an intuitive leap that led you places you didn't even know you were going to have. So when you get your intuition, does it just sail in your head with a thought, do you just do the next thing? Do you like, how does intuition float into your life? How does it come?
Yeah. Well
I think if you're familiar with my story, I'm not sure it is, but they can look it up because
I encourage them to look it up because, or buy your book is another thing I encourage them to do because
It's it's, but it was , you know, it's interesting that
That one thing just led to another thing, you know what I mean? And, and , uh, and so , um, a lot of people get triggered by the statement is that everything happens for a reason. There are no coincidences, right. A lot of people don't believe that. Right. But I do. And , uh,
We don't always know the why right away is the problem. Do we really need to know the, why ? Do you know what I mean?
Because what do we, what do we ultimately have control of nothing, nothing. Right. And, you know , and so, you know, that brings you into the realm of faith and , uh, you know, believing that there's something greater than yourself running the show. Right. And, you know, when I was in my addictive behavior, which was, you know , pretty much the majority of my life, except for the last 15 years when I've been sober is, you know, the plan always went sideways when I was running the show. Right.
And I always used to say, you know, when I was left to my own defenses and me running my own life was the biggest show on the planet. Right. When I was running my own life or when I drove the bus, the bus always crashed. And, you know, September 17th, 2005, you know, I hit my knees and Wasserman , I surrendered and I gave up control and I turned my will in my life over to the care of, you know, whatever the hell you want to call it.
God, Allah , Buddha, Jehovah, you know, I just call mine the universe. And, you know, the day that I did that was the day that my life started to change. And it didn't change slowly. It changed quickly. Um, because , because, you know, that's been my life, you know, I've never done anything small in my life. And , uh, and then, you know , uh, and then I started the healing process, right.
I started, you know, going down that road of healing and, and , uh, you know, it was kind of blind, you know, blind faith, right. And, but you know, what the program or the 12 step program taught me is, you know, to live one day at a time. And, you know, because I, you know, I don't have control of anything. And , uh, and so, you know, what is today, today is , uh, let me just check here.
I know I have to do that to 5,763
Days later, you know, I have the greatest life you can possibly met, just cause I said, I can't do this anymore. You know, I need to do this a different way. And , uh, and faith and belief, you know, has guided me through this, you know, this , uh, you know, these 5,700 odd days, you know, that's been faith and , and belief that I can change, you know, and then all of a sudden people started showing up who could help me change me. Right.
You know, and , uh, you know, get rid of ego and, you know, learn compassion, empathy , um, no judgment, you know, these kinds of things. And it was, and then it just started getting better, you know, and , uh, uh, you know, one day at a time. Right. You know, and, and ultimately, you know, the goal of, I think every trauma survivor or person who struggles with mental health or addiction, the goal is peace, joy, happiness, and serenity. And how do I get there right.
While I have to, I have to look inward, you know, for that. Cause if I look outward, it's not going to happen. Right. And so, oh, and I
Was going to bring up how trauma can hijack many, many things in life. And I, and to me, it also hijacks your intuition or that connection that you have with, with that, no question God or , or university , it, it like it comes in here. So you can't , well , instead of surviving,
Instead of surviving one day at a time, you start living one day at a time. Right. You know, and , uh , I run a group online twice a month. And last week we talked about, are you living your story or are you telling your story? Right. Cause if you're living your story, then you're still traumatized. But if you're telling your story, then you're unpacked , you're unpacking it. And you're , you're no longer afraid. You're no longer , um, apprehensive. Right. You don't care about judgment.
You don't care about what other people think, because when you use your voice, you know, then, then it gives you the opportunity to heal. Yeah. You take
The power back, right. The dynamic and take your power back.
Yeah. Yeah. That was interesting. You know, the comments that, you know, people, you know, they never really thought of it that way before, you know, so well, and
I've gone through your website and you, do you do these different services. You, you do, one-on-one coaching, you do the group dynamic thing. So what took you from, from, you know, writing the book, being the speaker to being more hands on and in the trenches, w was that an intuitive leap? Was that just to do the next thing?
Cause that's, that changes the whole dynamic of what, of your, of your output really, in a sense , um, and the energy required to do that output when you're, you know, like it changes a lot of the dynamics. So you're, you're still doing, you were, you were doing an amazing service , um, with the book and just your speaking and , and just even having the YouTube platform for people to go find and intuitively for you and your story, what was that shift?
Cause that's, that's a, that's an awesome thing you're doing, I have to say like , uh, during the book tour. Okay.
You know, when I went out to the book tour first, I was like in my pants because I was afraid because I didn't think that I was going to be accepted. You know, the story was wasn't going to be accepted because it hadn't been right. You know, anybody that was talking about sexual abuse , um, you, it was difficult for them. And what happened for me was, you know, I heard all these stats, you know, before I went out on the tour and I really , um, and I wasn't prepared. Okay.
So how do you prepare
For that? Listen, listen, listen. Okay . The, so I knew that I was going to go to Toronto and the first thing that I was going to do is, you know , uh, be in the media spotlight. And I knew that the only thing that the media would be interested in would be to revictimize me at every opportunity they could get . And so , um, and in the media for 30 years at that point, so I was very skilled at being interviewed. Okay. And, but I didn't know anything about the subject.
Like I knew nothing about sexual abuse. I was just a person who had had the experience. And so I had before I was going to Toronto, and so I spent the four days on my computer researching, every single thing I could find on this subject of sexual abuse. Then I found a group in California called one and six, which was a men's section , uh , abuse, online support group. And so I called them and said, you know, like, I'm going out on this book to her, I need support.
I need to be able to reference you guys and interviews. And they said, yeah, absolutely. We'd love to have you a part of this. And so , uh, and you know, I wanted to get his story of hope and healing and recovery, you know, out to the masses cause I had this amazing opportunity to do. And uh, so I go to Toronto and , uh , I do, I don't know , 300 interviews in the first four days that I'm there.
And uh, you know, I'm talking to SportsNet and TSN and every newspaper, every morning, radio show, TV, show magazine, you name it doing . And just like I predicted, yeah . The only thing they were interested in was the gory details of my sexual abuse. And they were victim blaming me and all kinds of crazy stuff. Right. But, you know, they didn't know that I'm a really smart, intelligent guy. And uh, and so every time they set the trap, I didn't tell , okay.
Because I had done a lot of research, guess what? I didn't have to answer their questions. Right. So instead of their agenda, I made my own agenda. Right. You know, one of the funniest things you can do, one of the funniest things you can do to a reporter is because they're not trained to do this, is ask them a question. And when you ask them a question, you can take over the interview and like a millisecond, because they're not prepared for that. Right.
And, and so , um, Hey , you know, watching every politician being interviewed where they don't ever answer a question directly, I knew I was okay doing my own thing. Right. So I got this amazing message out of hope and healing and, you know , uh, really put a spotlight on the epidemic of sexual abuse and, you know , um, and all of that.
And then, you know, I went out on the book tour and I got completely run over, like run over by people, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 people were coming up at every book signing and saying, Hey man, I read your book. You told my story. Me too. Right. And then, and then my phone started ringing. Do you, do you speak publicly about, you know, what happened to you? And I was like, wow , I haven't really done a whole lot, but sure. Why not?
And, and so, as I started speaking, I started going to all these conferences and I started speaking with a lot of experts in the field of trauma, mental health and addiction. And so I basically Velcroed myself to these people and they started teaching me about, you know, about all this stuff.
And what I'm really good at is I'm really good at taking all of this, you know, science and, you know, therapy, psychology psychiatry, and putting it in a nice little bow and making it easy for people to understand.
And then, you know ,
And then I ran into a lady named Kim fell at a conference. And , uh, and what was really interesting was, you know, I'd spent the majority of my therapy working on my sexual abuse that this particular event triggered me the most was Kim was speaking at a conference that we were both speaking at and it was in Winnipeg. Uh, and so I flew in the morning of the conference and I checked into the, and there was a poster of the event.
And, you know, I wasn't aware that there were any other speakers or this was, you know, big conference or whatever. So I looked at the poster and I saw that Kim Barthel who, and she had like 50 letters behind her name was speaking in the afternoon. And most times when I show up at a conference, I just sit in my hotel room and wait till it's my turn that I go do my thing and whatever. But for some reason I felt compelled to go and listen to this lady speak.
And, you know, when you win a gold medal for Canada at the Olympic games, you know, it's really hard not to be noticed. Right. And I didn't want to , uh, interrupt the conference or I didn't want to interrupt the lady that was speaking. And , uh, so I put on my best disguise and I snuck into the back of the room and I started to listen to Kim speak and I was absolutely blown away at the information she was providing to the audience.
And then she put two videos on the board, one of a healthy mom and baby, and one of an unhealthy mommy baby. And I got triggered right then and there, because I was like, you know what? I haven't even looked at my family of origin trauma. I wouldn't even look at my first experience with trauma because everybody kept telling me your biggest obstacle is your sexual abuse. Right. And so, as soon as she was done speaking, I bolted right down the middle of the island.
I said, Hey you, I said, you just changed my life. And I said, I think you'll be working with me for the rest of yours. I said to her.
And so then,
You know , I had dinner with her after I spoke that night and we were sitting there having, we were sitting there having a conversation. And I said to her, I said, you know, I had such an amazing experience writing the first book that everybody's asking me, what do I do now? Right. And I said to her, would you be willing to write a book with me? And she's like, without hesitation, she's like, yeah, I would love to write a book with you.
And so we wrote this book called conversations with rattlesnake where it's a four year conversation between the two of us, basically her rewiring, all of the trauma in my brain. And , uh, yeah. And it was, you know, what a ride that was, you know, it was , uh, it was incredible. And , uh, you know, she's my closest friend now. And , uh, you know, whenever I'm struggling , uh, you know, I just pick up phone and talk to her and , uh, you know, we work it out.
Wow. Yeah. And like the nudges goosebumps, amazing, amazing.
All the people that'll be shared with the , like , so many people shared with that
When you get out of your own way, then things start to happen. Right. You know, we we're , we're continually going to get lessons. Right. And if we don't pick them up the first time they're going to come around again. Right. What if we're awake? Uh, you know, we'll pick up on right. And we'll look at them as opportunities to grow and heal. Right.
So, you know, and you know, and then through Kim, I met Gabor Matay and, you know, like all these unbelievable people, you know, and , uh, I got a great gab or my taste or
Something too . So,
So we meet with Gabor in Vancouver , uh, for lunch. And we ask him if he's interested in writing the forward to conversation with the rattlesnake and without hesitation, she's like, yeah, I'd love to, you know, I love what you guys are doing and all that stuff. So he said , um , I'm speaking tonight. He said, would you guys like to come? And, you know, listen, we're like, yeah, that'd be great.
So, you know, and I was like full out at that time hair, straight back, you know, traveling all over the place or whatever. So we get to this speaking engagement and go get Bora has a very sort of meditative voice. Right . So as I'm listening to his lecture, I fall dead asleep in the chair in this big auditorium. And Kim is sitting beside me and she's like, so embarrassed, mortified. You just said , ask this guy to write the forward to , to our book. And you're sleeping in his lecture.
And , uh, so on the way out, he has like a merge table with books and all this stuff. So I say to the girl, I go this gap, or how many meds ? Meditation stuff.
Oh, lovely . Yeah . It was funny. You can't get more authentic than that, honestly.
And , uh, and then , uh, there was a big opioid crisis , um, in , uh , uh, the blood tribe , uh, which is a couple hours south of Calgary. And so they actually called Kim and I, and Gabor in to do an intervention for two days and, you know, got opportunity to, to share the stage with Gabor. And then I got to actually ride in the car with him for two hours. And it was like, it was unbelievable.
It was so incredibly awesome to, you know, just share space with , uh, with this very incredible human being. So, yeah. So I've had lots of really cool experiences with really, really smart people.
Well, they say we travel at
The same height, you know, those fly with Eagles, you know what I mean? So there you go .
And, and , uh, you know, I'm really attracted to intelligence. Right. You know, because I need my own brain stimulated too , you know? And so , um, but yeah, you know, some of the, some of the things that I've done like Kim and I went and spoke at the world , uh, psychodrama conference in London, England, and we spent four days at this conference and it was on believable. It was unbelievable. Yeah. At Royal Holloway university in London , England . And I was just like, I'm just a dumb jock.
Like, what am I doing here? I think I consider you a translator.
You have, you, you are the sponge of the information and you absorb it, use it, you implement it , you, you then spit it out in a way for , uh , for more people to actually use it and integrate it. So,
So yeah, amazing opportunities have happened, you know, and , uh, but you know, it's all part of the plan. Right. You know, and when you just get the hell out of the way, the plan can, you know, take, hold and take you to places you never thought you could possibly ever get to . Right.
So true.
And so much of the time people don't , uh , people need something big to happen in order for them to get out of the way, you know , sometimes. So if, and why I'm doing this whole podcast is to say, you don't have to do it the hard way, guys. You really don't have to do it the hard way. Don't
Try and do it the hard way I tried the hard way. And , uh, yeah. Just cause more pain and suffering to myself. Yeah. It's , it's , uh, it's just, well, you know, here's the thing it's like , um, I say to people, I go, so do you honestly think that you can change the past? Can you change the past? They go, no. And I say, well, you can change the future right. One day at a time.
And that's the hardest thing as a facilitator of healing is to get people to understand that their past should never be part of their present. Right. And that, and, and, you know, here's how I look at my past is , uh, all those traumatic experiences in my life. What, what did they do for me? Well, they built resiliency in me, right? The adversity builds resiliency. And, and when you have resilience, throw anything at me, right. I'll figure it out. Right.
And , and there in lies the gift of trauma, the gift of mental health challenges, the gift of addiction is when you have resilience, you can move anything. You can move anything. And what's interesting is, you know, the, the young generation doesn't have resilience. Right. And that's our fault because we didn't want them to have the same suffering that we did. Right. And , uh, and so, you know, you look at the state of the energy on the planet right now.
And it's, it's, you know, I feel it when I walk out the door it's anxiety. Right. Because they say, if you think about the past that's depression, you think about the future that's anxiety. Okay. Well, we have no clue what the future looks like, like no inclination whatsoever. And so everybody's living in fear and fear is anxiety. Cause we don't know. Right. Right . And so it's being accentuated. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah . The messaging is, you know, to create more fear. Yeah .
So how do we combat fear, faith belief, spirituality. That's how you combat that. But the majority of the planet is off at God. Okay. Okay. So let's take the three letter. Let's take the three letter word of , yeah . And let's call it relationship spirituality's relationship. That's it at its basic core of what spirituality is, is relationship. And, and I struggled because I had neglected the one relationship always in my life. And that was the one I had with myself.
Okay. And, and so I was always in conflict. I was all , you know, I went into every relationship like this, right. Because I was fear. I was full of fear and you know, all that stuff, I was angry, you know, rage , full resentful, all that stuff. But you know, once I flipped the mirror around and started looking at the other person in the reflection, which was me, and then started to unpack all of my trauma and realized that, you know , actually all this trauma was, you know, gift in my life.
Right. And that , that, that gift could actually help other people understand their own experience, which means that we have to be in relationship with each other in order for that to happen. Right. And you know, one of the things that, you know, the, whatever you want to call them, the elite or, you know, government or whatever it is, government, what did they do? They locked us in our houses. They closed all the rinks . They closed all the churches. Why did they do that?
Yeah, because they know that community to them is the biggest threat. Right. And , uh, you know, there's some donkey in Nova Scotia. Who's , you know, let the cat out of the bag this week and basically said, you know, we don't want people gathering together because we don't want them talking to each other, you know? And , uh, and so, you know, my whole life is team , right.
My whole existence in my life, everything that I learned in my life came from Pete right now they're seeing the team is no good, right. Same teams, no good. You know? And , uh, I find that quite interesting, but you know, that every rank, like every, every small town in Canada has a rank, why do they have a rink? Yeah .
Because it's the epicenter of relationship, you know, attachment, you know, we get everything there, you know, you know, what is church, churches, community, you know, why don't we go there? Cause we see the people that we like, right. It's not about the Eucharist and buck and all that other crap. It's like, you know, I get to see you once a week. You know, we'll make a point of plugging. Yeah . Yeah. You know what I mean?
We share community and uh, and you know, what's interesting , uh, you know, there's all like, there's so many different kinds of modalities out there to heal, but a lot of these modalities are unattainable because of cost . Right. So, you know, I've been doing this for a long time and the most effective cheapest kind of modality is a little thing called group therapy because there's a cost anything. Right. Right .
And use a little word called vulnerability and vulnerability does what creates safety create safety. Yeah . And then when you have safety, that's when the magic of healing happens is when people feel safe. And , uh, you know, I met with several politicians over the last, you know, 18 months and , uh, you know, and the only reason why I meet with them, this is because I go, let me handle the mental health crisis in Canada. Let me handle it, please,
Please .
Yeah . You know, and I said, I'll save you a pile of money if you allow me to, you know, get in there, run with it, you know, because you know, when communities are strong and connected and vulnerable, there isn't a mental health crisis. Right. You know? And, and so, you know, because of these stupid things, you know, we , we have , you know, they, they, they say that these things have made us more connected . Not exactly. You've really disconnected us. Right. Yeah .
Don't have to remember a phone number. Yeah. And so, you know, it's really important that, you know, when this is all said and done, you know, that we get back to, you know, that way of communication face to face, looking in the eye, you know, sharing space, sharing chemistry, you know, all that stuff because that's, that's the key to getting out of this.
Well, and they're , it's , it's funny. I've heard, I think it was Lee Harris say , um, the isolation has actually made the craving for connection stronger. So it's backfired really in a sense. So it'll be interesting to see it . He's also said there's going to be some awkwardness when we get together. Cause it's like, what else do we talk about, how do we like six feet? That's kind of like, where do we go? Right. It's funny. But it's spiritual when I think the human spirit will win. God wins.
Yeah. Right.
If you have faith, if you have faith and there are many stories of God winning many, many stories. Right. And , uh, you know, the dark side is trying with all of its might, all of its mind throwing absolutely everything out, including the kitchen sink. And you know, those of us who are resilient and have experienced abuse and trauma and manipulation and all those things, we already know what it looks like. Right. We know what it looks like.
And uh, and so, you know, you just gotta, you gotta keep preaching the good word.
Yeah. Patients . Yeah. Yeah.
And to me, I just, I just want everybody to listen to their intuition because that, to me is your connection, your relationship this way. Right.
Per se. And that's going to steer
The rest of the rest of the processes because you're just going to be led to do the next good thing for you really. So when I'm working with
My simplicity, the people I work with,
Get the spirituality piece, it's, it's like, it's amazing to see it. You know, when the light bulb goes on, it's never going off once they grasp on the spirituality piece, you know, because yeah, it's physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual. But the spirituality piece is what took me to the next level of understanding and tolerance and compassion, empathy, you know , vulnerability, all those things. Right.
And , uh, you know, I think the greatest untapped resource of medicine is in the indigenous community. Cause that's where I did all my healing. That's what I did. All my healing. Right. Who's
Pumps. I hope you TA I was hoping you would talk about this. So yes, I was hoping if you weren't talking about, I was hoping to bring it up because that it, and the timing of what's going on now is, is that, you know, with respect all the horribleness that's existed, that colonialism has created. And now the colonial, the, the white, all of us are going out crap. Like, you know, how can I help, like the remorse, the, the awareness, all of the appropriate, we'll call it.
Emotions are coming to play. We're hoping that they're genuine. And we hope that they stick around. Um, but the wisdom and the, the all knowing has always existed in the indigenous community. And it's like the patients that they've had with the rest of us in the stupidities of, you know, like you don't need this to be connected, you know, just go out and hug a tree, go be in nature, go , go, listen to what, like go make your own medicine. Yes .
Go make your own medicine or whatever the case may be. So please tell us about, tell us a little bit, if you can, if it's appropriate to share,
If you
Have time, that's the other thing I , I
Don't want . And I , uh, you know, when I started out on this journey, you know, I started visiting a lot of the indigenous communities. And I remember about five years into my sobriety. I hit a wall and I was like, this is what sobriety is. I might as well go back to drinking because , you know , uh, the only thing I'm not doing is drinking. You know, the behavior was the same. I was doing, you know, I was still insane.
And , uh, and so I used to have a hockey school in Calgary, and there was a lady from six nation, which is a Blackfoot community, 40 miles east of Calgary used to bring a bunch of kids to my hockey school. And every morning before I went out on the ice, her and I would have coffee and she was a big fan of Theo flurry. And , uh, um, and so she would tell me about her life.
She's went to residential school and, you know, 40, 50 years ago, you know, she was living on skid row and Winnipeg, you know, and pick yourself up, dust yourself off, you know, went back to school and just became this incredible human being. Right . And the thing that I was attracted to the most was her serenity. I was like, you know what, I want to be that calm and that chill. And, you know, you know, just the way she talked and chose her words.
And, you know, and so I got traded from Calgary and we lost touch. So I moved back to Calgary and I opened up a concrete business. And one day after work, we're all sitting around having, you know, whatever and who walks through the door, shield woman, grandma, Ruth. Okay. And we , we sit down and we pick up right where we left off, you know, and then she's like telling me, you know, and I was newly sober at the time. So she was really happy about that.
But she said, you know, why don't you come up to six guns , start working with the youth and start telling your story and all this stuff. And I was like, sure. And , uh, um, and so like, I hate my birthday yesterday was my birthday. Okay. And I hate my birthday because I grew up in Jehovah witness cult. So I never celebrated my birthday. So I've never really liked my birthday grammar. Ruth has this big birthday party for me out, out on the reserve.
And , uh, and you know, she , uh, I helped set up the teepee. We slept in the teepee that night, the next day I went to my first sweat lodge and then, you know, everything just kinda snowballed from there. But then I started visiting all the different communities all over Canada. So I've been to 420 of the 631st nations communities.
And what happened was, you know, I was there to help them, but they helped me more than I helped them because, you know, I started to speak to elders, to spiritual teachers, to medicine, men, and all these things. And then all of a sudden, you know, the spirituality just felt right. You know, and, and , uh, you know, I hang out with one of the most powerful medicine men in the world down in Cardston Alberta, and his name was Arnold mountain horse.
And , uh, you know, what he tells me is that there's a cure for every disease on the planet because he's, he's adapted. He's that powerful. Yes. Yeah . Wow . And, you know, I, I, me and my wife go and sit in his sweat lodge, you know, maybe once a month, we try to do it once a month. And , uh, it is one of the most incredible experiences you'll ever experience in your life. Like, do you want to be close to God?
That's it because of the sweat lodge is basically you're sitting in mother Earth's womb, you know, and, you know, they heat up the rocks and they bring the rocks in and, you know, it's like a steam bath, but a very spiritual enlightening, a steam bath, you know, where we're praying where we're singing, you know, where we're using the rattles and the drum and, you know, all of these things. And it's just like , it's incredible to be part of it. And , uh , you know, it's community, right.
You know, it's their, it's their church basically, you know, and, you know, I'm a pipe carrier and , uh , you know, pipe carriers are like bishops and the hierarchy. And , uh, you know, we sit, we sit beside the medicine man in the sweat lodge and , uh, yeah, it's , uh, it's very powerful, powerful, and it takes you, and it takes you to places you never thought possible because it gets hock in there. And they say, and not everybody feels the heat the same. Right.
The hotter it is means the more issues
You need to work on. Really interesting.
That makes sense. And it's a , that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah . Like I just, that's why I say, you know, the greatest untapped resource of medicine is in the indigenous community. Right . You know, or, you know , uh, you know, all these shamans and stuff they do in Africa and all these places that , that is very , uh, basic, but incredibly powerful, you know, because these spiritual people are like so powerful and so kind, so calm, so have so much serenity and, you know, faith, and that's just, it's awesome to hang around with them. Right.
Because they're , they get it right. They get it. And when people get it, you know, that's the attraction, right. You know, people who have serenity, that's why I want to hang around with them . I need that. I need them to teach me how to become like them. Right .
And there's the message for the whole planet right now, right there. And so you want to ,
You want to bring everybody together ever been to a powwow ? No. Oh, it's, it's unbelievable. It is unbelievable. The amount of spirituality in that circle, people dressed in their regalia, you know, dancing and the movement. And, you know, it's like when all the drummers are drumming and singing, it's like, you're, you're in a very meditative state. And then you watch the dancers and their movements take you into this really meditative state. Right.
You know, or, you know, go to a Sundance and watch what happens at the Sundance. It's like powerful, you know, so powerful. And it's just basic stuff, you know, basic stuff, Sage, tobacco, sweet grass, Cedar, right. Those are all medicines. They're all medicines, spiritual synthetic, no organic.
Yeah , yeah , yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's never far these days.
Yeah. Because , you know , um , the world has more than enough for all of us. It's the people who are addicted to power who are hoarding it all because they themselves are out of control.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
When you're out of control, when he tried to can do control, everything, control everything. So I say power is the worst addiction you cannot. Yeah.
Very true. Very true. And we're
Seeing it played out in real time, 24 7.
Yeah . Yeah. And
You spoke about the dynamic of positive and negative and, and like, you can feel it's , uh, if you just read
Up on a little bit of history of Trudeau's childhood and all that, he's traumatized, he's traumatized, you know , and what's he doing, trying to get more power, trying to get more control, trying to, you know, and , uh, but you know, we all know that communism, globalism, whatever the hell you want to call, it has been tried 24 times in the history of our planet. Guess what? It's failed every time. And it will fail once again. So have faith, have faith, get on your knees and pray to whoever,
Whoever you want to call it. You know ,
What thoughts become things, thoughts become things.
Yeah. Yup . And
Being present just in nature, when you need a break from all the stimuli, I find just being president nature and being aware of what's around, you can help you not be focused on all that you're being stimulated with.
It's why I love golf. That's why I love golf because I'm out in nature, nature. Yeah . Perfectly groomed fairways and water and trees and sunlight, you know? So yeah . Yeah.
Well, my goodness Thiel , I am so grateful for you coming today and sharing all that you have. This is been fantastic. Um , really, really appreciate your time.
Yeah . No, my pleasure. Anytime I love talking about this stuff,
You know , I talk about it all the time, so, well, maybe
We'll connect again and do another podcast. Cause as time flies, it , it , uh, there will be an evolution to the message. I'm sure there always is. It's ever changing. Always. Yeah . Oh, listen, I look forward to just continuing getting to know you better even outside of podcasts. So really, really, really appreciate the connection as well. It's been , yeah . Well, and
I told you, I'm a huge fan of the maritime. So one of my favorite places that I've ever been to is a place called Cabot where they have that beautiful golf course. Oh.
In Cape Breton. Yeah.
And the day that I played it, it was 27 degrees, no wind. And if there was a , if there's a golf course in heaven, that's it, that's it like that is it. That is it. You know ? And also God , I, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven that day. It was one of the Mo one of the best days I've ever had in my whole entire life.
Wow. Oh, wonderful. Oh, we might have to make that happen. My favorite
Things to my favorite things, golf and the Maritimes,
You know, and
Then after golf, I went and had a beautiful lobster dinner and was sitting, looking at the ocean. That was just, yeah, it doesn't get much better. Not for me, for me anyways. Yeah . Breton
Is magical. The whole place is magical. Drove the , I drove the cab
At trail two , which was wow. Yeah. Unbelievable. It's magical. It's , it's
Why it treasures. We have in the Maritimes, we have to put a few quiet treasures in the rare times . Let's say , even
Though , you know, going up to Newfoundland to like, you know, or PAI or new Brunswick where wherever it's just yeah. And the people are incredible. Like incredible. Yeah . It reminds me of Belfast. When I played in Belfast, same people. They say that Belfast broke off of, you know, totally.
Yeah. One or the other, we are the broke off of them or they broke off of that . Yeah . I don't know what's happened and how it worked in the way back when the plates all move . But , uh, yeah, for sure there is a big like, like , like likeliness , um, between the people, even in the, and the , I was when I, why I got
Sober in Belfast of all places. Yeah. That's right . That's where I got,
Oh my gosh . I went
And played hockey over there for a year. And that's where I just, I was newly sober and then went to Belfast then , so, oh, wow. You know, we'd only play a couple games a week. And so Sundays were usually off. And so we jumped in the car and go to the north north coast and just walk for hours on end because it was like just gorgeous, gorgeous, like insane, gorgeous and green lake green. Like you'd never seen in your whole life . Well, in
Your eyes, we're probably on fire with like a weakness,
Right? Like , yeah . But you , you can't help, but be present
There. There's a magic. I understand in Ireland, like literally the , the leprechauns and all the rest are from Ireland, but there's a magic to any Irish person I've met. There's like this magic ness to , uh, to the Irish it's
Yeah. That's a great place. Great place. Oh my goodness. Savers ,
Like the stories they experiences, they're just, it's been a , you've had such a diverse life, like such an incredibly diverse place. Yeah. It's been crazy. Yeah. But you've got the resilience to handle the big waves. Like you say, like yeah . And , and the presence to appreciate, like when it comes in the good, good, good ways that it's coming. So that's,
Well, I always see now that every time that adversity comes, it's like, okay, I need to learn something here. So, you know , and I don't like, I don't succumb to it. Like I used to, you know, I look, I look at it completely different light . Right? Yeah . Just turn the volume down and figure out why it's happening. Yeah . What's the lesson. All right. Oh , so the lesson here
That is, that is a turning point. For many, many people. That was a turning point for me, it's like, okay, the same patterns happened . Like what didn't I learn the first time and how does this look different? But the same. And how can I change me in order to not have this keep happening? Yeah.
Well, and being an F you know, an addict we're instant gratification, junkies. We have no patience at all, you know? So it's like, you know, to be able to turn down the volume and just, you know , why that happened .
Well , and I saw good format. They speak for two days about his four different books. He came to Shediac and Hey was, I mean, when you speak about me, he's just so authentic himself. He's like, I'm addicted to like music. I've got , I spent $1,500 every day. And then music store down the street from the stints where I was working. And I'm like, you know what? He's so right. We all have an addiction at this point on the planet. I don't think, oh
God. Yeah , no, it's different faces . We're all addicted to something. Yeah.
We really, and trauma's trauma just has different faces, but it's okay . Is that the core of every issue we have in society?
And nobody wants to talk about it.
Well, I am with you. I will talk about it. Cause it's, it, it is. Well, in one sense, if you think like big it's like we all come down here to learn something and we have to, I call it the adults in our life take whole punches and they punch holes in us. And we just have to learn how to fill the holes because otherwise we'd be perfect.
We're not supposed to be perfect on the planet . Here we are . We're not perfect. No, no. Well, there was
One guy that was perfect. Then they killed them . So
Pretty much, right. Yeah . Yeah. You only lasted 33 years or whatever it was. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Thank Kevin. See showed up. Right .
Well, I better get it off to my
Next podcast.
Right. Go get something to eat and drink you . Thank you again. You take
Care of yourself. It was great talking to you again. Love to do it again.
Yeah . Yeah. I look forward to it. I'll be,
Hopefully I'll be traveling out to the Maritimes once. This is all said and done.
Yeah , absolutely speaking somewhere. Yeah. I could probably help you out with that. I have a many connections that way. Yep . Yep . All right. Take care. You too . Thank you . Bye bye.