Brandon Beachum on Different Perspectives on Spiritual Growth

what we do. We think things that hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent, and creative effort to make a life worth living. This podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in the right direction, how they feed their good wolf m Thanks for joining us. Our guest on this episode is Brandon Beecham, a podcaster, entrepreneur, writer, philosopher,

and truth seeker. He's the host of the Positive Head podcast, which has amassed over twenty million downloads and reached number two in the spirituality category on Apple Podcasts. Brandon recently launched a new late night style consciousness elevating talk show called Optimistic, as well as his first book, The Golden Key Modern Alchemy to Unlock Infinite Abundance. Hey Brandon, welcome to the show. Hello, Hello Eric, Thank you so much

for having me. It's a pleasure, yes, and it is a pleasure for me to be on your show because we are recording a joint episode. I am excited about that. It's been a few years since I actually did the same thing with on it a couple of times over the years with Positive Head in. You know, for me, any time I have the chance to be a little bit creative and mix it up, I usually jump on

that chance for better or for worse. But my past experiences have been really great doing this, so I'm excited to have the one you feed in Positive Head podcast mash up awesome. Well, I am all for honoring both the traditional and the novel, and so to honor the traditional, I'm going to read the Wolf Parable and ask you what you think about It is a place to kick off because we've always done it, and you know, some

streaks are worth keeping. So in the parable, there is a grandparent talking with their grandchild and they say, in life there are two wolves inside of us that are always at battle. One is a good wolf, which represents things like kindness and bravery and love, and then there's a bad wolf, which represents things like greed and hatred and fear. And the grandchild stops, thinks about it for

a second, looks up at their grandparents as well. Which one wins, and the grandparents says, the one you feed. So I'd love to ask you what that parable means to you in your life and in the work that you do. It's so relevant in my life and in the work that I do. I'll share a little bit as an answer. Go back to two thousand fourteen. I'm standing in front of my at the time, probably seventy five employees or so, and I'm standing in front of all my employees giving a talk about the importance of

the thoughts and what's happening in our head. And I said, if I could only take the positive thoughts and the negative thoughts and see them at the end of the day, and who knows, maybe even have some cool new technology where every time I had a negative one, it zapped me a little bit and and just helped to point out a you're off track here I would know the outcome of my future if I could start to see that these positive thoughts were far outweighing the negative ones.

And I had a young guy run up to me afterwards who had just started working with us. He said, Brandan, there is something like that. My psychiatrist told me years ago to where rubber band and snap myself every time I had a negative thought, and it helped me tremendously. And I thought, huh, what an interesting idea. I'll go home and look for a rubber band and just try this out for myself. And I found a head racket elastic that would keep my racquetball racket on my hand

if it's left out. And I was like, oh, this is elastic, and what do you know. It says head on it. It's for a positive head, I'll you know. And that's literally how the podcast was born, with this whole idea of feeding that positive voice in your head and having a technique or or method for doing so, and in my case, almost sevent episodes later of talking about that, so the fact that we're doing a mash up is perfect. Yes, seventeen episodes, that's amazing. You know.

One of the things that I wanted to explore with you a little bit is kind of what you just said right there, which is this idea of positive and negative thoughts. You've interviewed a lot of people. I've interviewed a lot of people. I have feel like I've got a little bit of my finger on the pulse of where the spiritual psychological self help movement is and where it's going. And there's been a real trend towards allowing everything that arises in our experience to arise in our

experience and to be okay with it. You know, that aligns with your message. How do we do that as well as what you just sort of said, which is like, all right, positive thoughts, good negative thoughts, snap myself with a rubber band. How do we honor both those things without slipping into the word that's being used these days, which is toxic positivity? Yeah, yeah, what a great question.

You know. I talk a lot on my my show about relative truths to apparently contradictory things that both hold true depending on the vantage point from which one is speaking. As an example, you and I are separate. We can make an argument for that that most people would agree with. We can also make an argument that you and I are one in the separation between us as an illusion. That's a little more of an esoteric, you know, phil esophical point, But I would definitely be happy to make

an argument for that. And so both vantage points are true, it's just relative. And so I think there's a little bit of that here with toxic positivity. I think it's funny because everything in our reality is a mirror of sorts too, so I think the idea of toxic positivity can become toxic in itself. It's just, you know, this idea that you know you shouldn't reach for seeing the silver lining or for for me. You know, I always say the only thing that we really have control over

is the story we tell around something. You know, why is this happening for me? And for me? I've really by training myself too. It doesn't mean I can't have a negative thought or feel down, or feel bad, or feel off or feel depressed. And when I do agree, if you land there, allow it to be what you resist,

persist what you accept, You move through. And these emotions, energy and motion are going to move through us at times, certainly end if we can catch it early enough before the momentum builds a lot of times, it's just training to, you know, catch yourself. Then you can head that off from needing to go there if it is there. As my friend Matt con says, whatever rises love that, you know, can I be the space for this? As Zakart totally says, So you know, not pointing a finger and saying bad

and good. Rather what am I going to sort of train myself for? And I think you know a lot of people we will say expectation as an issue. I think attachment to the expectations is the real issue. We have all kinds of expectations with a healthy sense of detachment this or something better, what's for me will be

for me. If I have something challenging I'm meant to go through and I'm meant to you know, really be in the depths of despair, then I'm going to you know, embrace that and not push it away and label it as bad. So I think that's where we really get hung up as when we start saying I should never have that experience, because you absolutely are going to have that experience, And that contrast is what gives anything meaning.

It's actually a necessary component. You've never seen a great work of art without shadow in it, and we are our soul's expression of art, I believe. So it's a dance. I'd love to hear your thoughts of course on that too. Yeah, well, I like you and very much into the idea of absolute and relative. It's something and Zen we talk a lot about you know, the doctor and the two truths. You know, you hit it perfectly there. From one angle, this thing might very much be a challenge or a problem, right,

and from another angle, everything is okay. One of the things I'm so interested in is how do we know what approach, what tool to use at what time that's going to help us the most. Because we're all really different and we're all really changing. So if we're like, well, any negative thought is bad and I'm going to get rid of it, there may be a period of time that that's a useful exercise. If you're just overrun by constant negativity, I mean, that might be useful. It might

also not work for you at all. So everything that I propose, everything that people that come on the show propose, I think is I love the way you said it from a certain perspective is useful. And so where somebody is starting from and what their tendencies are really has a lot to do with what's the right approach to work in their way through the challenges that they're facing.

It's the same idea you hear people talk about spiritual bypass, like, Okay, yep, spiritual bypass probably not good if I'm using spirituality to avoid my feelings, and deep spiritual insight that gives me a sense of equanimity in the face of everything is a beautiful thing to be cultivated. So I don't think it's either or, And I think early on I was looking for more clear answers like should I do this, or you know, should listeners do this or should they

do that? And what I really come to, particularly with you know, coaching hundreds and hundreds of people and running people through programs is we're not all built the same, you know, we're not all conditioned the same. There's there's so many variables. You've got to kind of find, all, right, what's helpful for me now, and know that what's helpful for you now probably may not be helpful for you in the same way in six months, because you'll be

a different person. Yeah. Absolutely, I like the idea that you know, sometimes people are hung up on I came here to be happy, right, yes, and you came here to be sad and angry and hurt, and you came here for the full gamut of emotions. There is no happy without sad, up without down, left without right, hot without cold in this dimension anyway, And so it's necessary that contrast. So when you can appreciate all of the contrast, now you're moving into a state of really an expanded perspective.

You're you're seeing the bigger picture. And I like to say, you know, we're not always going to be happy, but we can find our way pretty quickly to being peaceful about what is. Accepting, we can be at peace. And if I can be at peace with what is, because I understand, even though I chose, my human level consciousness chose this is what I envision happening in the direction I want to go, in the expectation I have, and

something totally different and challenging arises. Okay, I trust that the way I say it is, I'm doing to dance with my higher self to create my experience. And there's a lot that goes into that soup of creation and manifestation and whatever is going to appear, even though I may not have chosen it from my level of awareness, I trust it. One of the keys in in my

new book, The Golden Key is trust the mystery. And so I may not know exactly why, but I trust this process of my life unfolding, and that brings me peace. And what I've often found is when I can move into that state, actually your challenges can transmute ultimately into blessings. It sometimes may take a while, and you may not even see that until beyond this life, who knows, or it might be a day or a week or an hour. But it's sort of like you probably heard the story

of the Buddhist farmer before. Yeah, oh yeah, it's one of my favorites. Yeah, it's so good, right, And so it really helps to kind of tie this up in a bow that we can all wrap our heads around pretty quickly. There's an interesting point to what you just said, and I think it's an important point. If you view the world and reality as existing beyond what we see here in these zero to a hundred years that most

of us are going to live. If you have that viewpoint, in that belief, you can start to go maybe this is all working towards quote unquote my ultimate good. When you only have the advantage of this lifetime, I think that becomes harder because I look at things that happen and I go again, I'm with you, You've got to trust the mystery. Like I don't know why things happen the way they do. But I see a child born into torment, abused or years and dies and You're like, well, okay,

what the hell do I do with that? You know, how is that for anyone's better or higher good? And I think that's where some of the law of attraction stuff gets difficult for me. Is it starts to imply that child somehow brought that on themselves. And that's kind

of where I get hung up. But I'd love to get your thought on that, because I know you think about these things really deeply, and I know that oftentimes the law of attraction is presented in a way oversimplified way, and I think of it probably in an oversimplified way. Often it definitely can be presented in an oversimplified way. I had a guest recently on my show who said something that I agree with it. I also think it can be deeply triggering and troubling for people. And it

is that there are no victims, only volunteers. And when you start to play with the idea that we're eternal beings, you know, I wasn't created on my birthday. I always write people on faithbook or whatever, and it's their birthday, Happy three D, incarnation and versary. So I believe that's the day we came in. So when you look at law of attraction, and I talk about this in my book The Golden Key, is like, it's much more complex. Then.

Let me sit in the corner, you know, Indian style for ten minutes and think about a ferrari and it's going to pull into my driveway. It's like, no, the soup of creation is much more complex than that. You know, what is the vibrational offering? That which is like unto itself is drawn right, water seeks its own level. So if everything is vibration, and of course science and physics support this, we know this like is attracting like in some way, shape or form. Well, okay, over what time

period are we talking about? And is it what the vibrational offering I've made today or last week or last year when I was ten years old, or now you start getting into this idea of beyond this physical life, parallel lives. Right, if, as Einstein pointed out time as an illusion, you shoot me in outer space and bring me back a day later, I'm a day older and you've been gone for a hundred years or something like that,

we know that it's relative. So that implies then that my fifth birthday party is happening on another channel that I'm just not tuned into. So uh, you know. And so now you start talking about past lives and all these things, and this this soup of experience. To me, that makes the most sense as to why we're seeing

the things that we're seeing. The child that was born into something that is horrific, and I don't want to diminish that or try and say that that isn't just tragic from one perspective and very very challenging for all affected by it. And what if this is an eternal

being who is choosing. It's like if I'm a fractal of the one source consciousness God in a sense, and so is everything else, and eternity is all there is and love is what it is that it's core, well, then it's just like having your favorite dessert for two nights in a row. Okay, it's it's good. How about weeks in a row, how about two months? How about twenty years in a row. You're gonna hate it. It's

gonna become disgusting. But I always share the story of when my brother Uh and his early twenties, he got a ticket. He didn't pay for it, he was irresponsible. He forgot about it. Years later, he got pulled over by a cop and they said, you have a warrant for your rest. They took him to jail. Now he's the most he's the most sensitive soul I know almost, And so this guy in jail, it's just like not

a match. And I believe it happened for him. And he was there four days or something like that, And I remember they let him out at twelve oh one pm so they could charge one more day for him. After midnight, I went and picked him up, brought him home and made him some food. And now he's had a lot of fancy meals in his life, but at that time I cooked him a hot pocket. It was two in the morning, after days in jail. If you ask him to this day, what is the best meal

he's ever had. Guess what it is, hot pocket at hot pocket, It's that if you start looking at all of us as eternal beans, and this is just you know, one zoom in of of a much larger narrative, perhaps you contemplate that souls want to experience the grit and the grime, and and at the end of the day, you know, it's sort of a game that sources playing with itself, I believe, And we're all actually untouchable. We

can't ultimately be heard. I forget who said it. They talked about you know, stepping out of this life is like for a soul stepping out of a movie theater that they've had enough of. So, you know, like the book Journey of Souls, I really like I don't know if you're familiar by Michael Newton. He did hypnotherapy and would guide people through to pass lives and then okay, you died in your past life. Now what? And he would document the whole very scientific in his approach to

of how the other side is structured. So you have this very broad view of existence. Since the soul and eternity that we here, this is everything, this body getting hurt or dying is the ultimate thing that you know, tragedy from my narrow scope of a vision. So I know that's sort of a long winded speel about it, but I do believe there are no victims, only volunteers. And I also understand how that can be deeply triggering for someone who's had something challenging. And it's not I

don't say that to diminish anyone's experience. I just believe at the end of the day, when all the puzzle pieces go back in the box, there will be an answer. There will be a reason, and it will be an answer that you co wrote and co orchestrated. Yeah, I'm one of those people that here's that statement and finds

it triggering. But like you, I feel torn here. And this is maybe the relative in the absolute again, right on the relative level, I think the world dishes out all sorts of horrible things and and we should do what we can to respond to that suffering and be kind and be compassionate, and you know, not blame victims

and do all that. And I've had moments where I have connected to something far greater, bigger, deeper, more timeless and unitive that have also told me or given me some leanings towards some of the things that you're saying, and I intellectually and and maybe even my heart is drawn in that direction. And so this is one of these things I kind of bounce back and forth on, like what okay, understandably, so what do we do with this? Ultimately none of us really know right what happens after

we die. We are all speculating, right, I mean, even people who were saying they did it, you know, Okay, I'm not saying they didn't, but we can't prove they did either. And so you know, sometimes I move very much into the this is it is all there is, and we need to respond in that way. There are other times I can be a little bit more a

bigger perspective. But what I do think is interesting is that regardless of whether you want to say you believe version A or version B of that story, the principles that would cause you to live in a wise way, I think are the same with either viewpoint. Right, with either viewpoint, we know that a broader perspective is almost always helpful. It's almost always helpful to zoom out and say, can I see this in a broader context? That love

is the most important thing. So I think some of this to me becomes metaphysical speculation, and it can become very helpful to say, all right, and I like what you've done in your book because i've I've I've read it, and again, some of the metaphysical ideas, I mean, I'm not sure I'm on board with that, But the actual idea of how to live in this world and how to orient I'm like, I'm totally on board with So at the end of the day, maybe it's not that important.

I don't know. That's a great point. And you know, the way I like to kind of think about this is, Okay, my theory is is that I'm one with the creator that created, creates and animates all things. Right, I'm a fractal of source consciousness, and so are you, and this is how we experience ourselves throughout eternity. I play Brandon, you play Eric. Maybe next time I play Eric and you play Brandon. Who knows? And so that's gonna be

a good rod for you. Man, I can't wait. So, you know, okay, if I'm the creator of my reality, abercadabera translates to I create as I speak, Right, like I'm spelling. I'm casting spells. My words are my wands. If I tell the story, this is how it works. And I am creative in my stories that I tell literally so powerful that reality matches me in some way, shape or form. It's like, Okay, great, this story feels good. I al would say one of the greatest test is

what kind of results does get you? If you take this perspective on what kind of results does it does it give you? There are people out there who are really torn up about the tragedies and horrors of this world. I look at them, and I agree with you, Let's do everything we can to right any wrongs and ring love where there is hate, and on and on it goes. And these things that are happening, I find a sense of peace that there will be an answer, and that

it's happening for us, not to us. And so the results that the perspective bring me our sense of peace and empowerment, and so I think that's important. I had a I had an experience um a few months ago that this makes me think of that was really powerful, where me and my partner was deep in in the Covid chrysalists as i'd like to call it, and we're

going to get some some food. And I live in Los Angeles Venice Beach area, and there's a lot of people experiencing homelessness, you know, Venice, there's a lot of that. And we're driving down this you know, kind of this area, Rose Avenue where there's a lot of restaurants and things, and I see this this man walking and he's in you know, sort of tattered clothes and things that I see a lot, but but his gait was so zombified.

It was like it just kind of took me back, like, oh my gosh, that's like it's like a zombie, you know, like wow. And then I fell into that moment of poor guy, like oh that's awful, you know, me judging his experience in this case, you know, feeling sorry for him. Someone else, my bomb should get a job, you know, all these variations of perspectives. In this case, I was feeling sorry for this individual and judging it as wrong or it's too bad. It shouldn't be happening from my,

my narrow perspective. So we drove by him a few blocks down. We'd go to get food. They're seeing everyone outside at this point in time still, and so we're out on the on the sidewalk and ordering our food

and waiting for our food to come. Ten minutes so past I forget completely about this guy, you know, that had been walking on way back a few blocks earlier, And all of a sudden, I look over and he's standing five feet from me on the sidewalk and he just stops deadness tracks and he looks me dead in the eyes, the clearest eyes I've ever seen, and here's this zombie and and he looks at me, goes, hey, how are you doing? And I was like just kind of taken aback and I'm like, I'm doing fine. How

are you? He goes, oh, I'm doing just fine, and he winked at me and then kept going. And in that moment I got full chills. And my partner pointed out he was wearing the same jacket I was wearing, and it was like, who am I to judge this man's experience that that soul isn't experiencing what it needs. And that's the message for me. It felt very like you hear about angel encounters and things, and you know, I had another guy on my on my show a

couple of years ago. His whole thing, as he said, he could see people's higher selves, and so he would walk around the streets of San Francisco and send love to people experiencing homelessness, and all of a sudden, this man's higher self appeared to him and said, do I look like I need that from you or want that from you? And it was shocking to him and really jarred his perspective. It's kind of like, who's karma are you getting in the way of trying to fix or

think that there's something off here? And that was a very powerful experience. It's for me that I think I felt like there was some divine intervention in his demeanor. You said we create our reality, and I think my modification to that you and I are slightly different, would be, I think we co create our reality, right, Like, I

like that better. Actually, I would say that's your correctness saying that Sometimes when I hear this line of thinking that like everything is for the best, the accusation that is often made that and that I sometimes go, yeah, I could see that is that it is people with privilege who do that, And I think there is truth to that. And we have seen how a focus on a spear ritual life and a deeper connection. It's emerged from people in great poverty as well, and you know,

all kinds of different places, you know. I think Victor Frankel, I mean, he shows up in about every book I read anymore, Victor Frankel and neuroplasticity. Like I'm like, like bingo. If I was gonna play uh psychological spiritual self help bingo, Victor Frankel neuroplasticity would would be near the top of the list. But I think what's so inspiring about Victor Frankel is he's taking these ideas and he's saying, look, I took these ideas to the worst possible place I

could be in. And it's not that it made the situation un horrible or un awful, but it gave him tools and ways of coping that are really powerful. And I think that's why that story of him resonates so powerfully with all of us, because it goes you know what, Yeah, it's easier for me to say I'm a co creator of my reality, that I make the meaning of my life. It's easier for me to say that when my life is going pretty well. I mean, like, yeah, of course, you know, it's hard to get a whole lot worse

than the life he was living. And yet he was still able to say, I create my meaning. And that's why that is so powerful. And that's why I think again, whether we want to like it or not, we are a co creator of our reality. We are making meaning out of everything that occurs. You know, we can't not do it. I don't. I mean, I think it's a part of the brain that just doesn't really turn off. But recognizing that that's the process that's happening and then going, okay,

is there a different way to think about it? Can I open my perspective a little bit wider? Can I at least recognize this is through a lens? I mean, there's so much power in that, so much and I think there's deep truth in the idea that it's really the only thing we do have choice over from one perspective, is is the perspective that we bring and speaking of privilege and all those things, absolutely right, and it empowers you to start to see, you know, it's like, oh,

my basic needs are met. I can focus on philosophy or something else, and you know, I'm not in this horrific situation. And that's absolutely true. And I would say, those who are experiencing more privilege, how do we help others to expand their perspective as much as possible and not to diminish what it is that someone else's experiencing. That's a very tricky business. We've got to be really

careful with that. And it's it's like Dr Wayne Dyer said, though I can't be sick enough to help sick people, I can't be poor enough to help poor people. And so you start to think, Okay, why is this person having a particularly challenging experience? And we've all seen it, the ones who's really really challenged, like Victor Frankel who come out stronger and better here and our huge inspiration.

And then you have those who have something challenging it turns them into a murderer or you know someone who just we've seen both stories, right, And you know, I love the quote smooth seas never made for a skilled sailor,

and we came to be skilled sailors. So you see someone who has experienced a lot of hardship and it's like, wow, perhaps your soul is a badass, and you really are in this lifetime, you wanted to really overcome incredible obstacles and odds, and as a result, I do believe the greater one toils for their freedom, the greater the sense

of freedom that's attained as a result. And so you start to kind of take that all into the equation and it's sort of like, Okay, yeah, we're gonna run the race two, but you know, I'm going to give you a big lead. Uh. You know remember that in school, where like certain instances where one person would get to be way up, you know, based off whatever judgments of oh, this person is too fast, this person is slower about

my head start all of that. I think all of that is playing out here based off of algorithms or perspectives that are beyond our comprehension. And to me, it's just trusting that that is happening. Like I said, it brings me a deep sence of peace and empowerment, and that is an indicator that for me, I'm on the right track with something. And I've seen it bring a

lot of peace and empowerment to others. And I've seen these perspectives, you know, adopted by others who went you know, from thirty years clinically depressed, nothing could help them suicidal to complete turnaround, and it's like, what kind of results to adopting the perspectives get you? That that speaks loudest. Let's pivot just a little bit and talk about intention. Your fourth key is align your intentions. The first principle in my spiritual Habits program is related to intention. Let's

talk about it a little bit. You know, first, for you, what does that word mean? Why is intention important? And what is it? So I referenced in the book The Covid Chrysalists, we're going through a great shift and change on our planet where something old is dying and something new has been born, and it definitely isn't pretty for the butterfly halfway through that process, and if we equate our own existence, you know, I mean the journey of

the butterfly itself. I mean it starts out consuming everything, and that the caterpillar consuming everything in its path. And I was telling my mother this story, and she's like, you're so right. My geraniums I've had for years are

being completely devoured by this caterpillar. And then at some point an imagine l cell pops up in the caterpillar, and it is viewed as an invader by the caterpillar cells and stamped out, and then another one pops up, and then more pop up, and over time enough imagine l cells are able to pop up without getting stamped

out by the caterpillar cells. They start working together and that's when the shift comes within the caterpillar, and then it goes into the chrysalists and the caterpillar cells melt into a goo that actually fuel the amount jannel cells so that the butterfly can be born. So isn't that interesting? All the pain and suffering that the caterpillar precipitated and destruction become the fuel for this beautiful creature that helps to pollinate and create more growth to exist. It was

a necessary part of it. So when you equate that to us, I believe we are entering a new time on the planet and there's a lot of upheaval as we transition into the collective butterfly and and as we get into the butterflies world. I believe, more than ever,

intention is important. You know, in the past, if it was, if the season was, uh, we're supposed to experience more separation from source, and you know, the masculine energy is dominant during the cycle of our evolution, and therefore someone can come and be a warmonger and destroy and take all the resources from others. And that's a time when in this story the narrative that it made sense and therefore that intention worked to be you know, mim me instead of we we we because we were in a

in a time where that was the predominant energy. And I believe we're coming into a time now where, more than ever, our intention is so important because everything is

energy in the butterfly's world more than ever. If you want to know the outcome of what you're going to get, you can look at what foundation is it built upon, and what is the underlying intention, What is the the reason, what is your why that you're doing what you're doing, And it's a shortcut to knowing in the butterflies world, I believe as to what your ultimate outcome will be. And my dearly departed grandmother, my brother hinks he had a visitation with her a few years after her death.

This is many years ago. And at the time we were in a band and we were, you know, dreams of making it in the band, and you know this whole thing. So my brother all of a sudden has this experience where he feels like it's a visitation for my dearly departed grandmother, and he uses his airtime with her to ask her for an oracle reading. He says, move. We called her move. Well, you know what's going to happen with the band? What's gonna happen with my band Kundalini?

And she said, Brian, you're going to get out of it exactly what you put into it. You know that wisdom from beyond the veil. Perhaps he just holds true. It's like, you know, if you want the shortcut to knowing, what is the intention? And Gandhi said, if you want to find yourself, lose yourself in the service of others. And I believe that holds true because there are no others. So we have the opportunity to give away what we

want for ourselves in some way, shape or form. And that's where our deepest fulfillment is going to come from. Because of the ultimate nature of reality, that always doing it to self and therefore must feel the energetic repercussions of whatever I'm putting out. And so in the book of Course I get into and then there's you know, these relative truth there's the ultimate intention of source that we're swept up in this co creation or our higher self. So I'd love to hear you speak to this as

well well. I think the part that where you said you know our intention is our why you know it is I think the heart of it for me, like why are we doing the things that we are doing? What really matters to us? And I just think that that is a thing that, given the pace of our society and given the nature of life, that a lot of us don't think about very often. I say to coaching clients sometimes like if you want success in life, I think there's sort of two things you gotta figure out.

You gotta figure out what really matters do you, and then you've got to figure out how to live that way. I see a lot of people who can do one or the other. They can act like they're acting like they're just the effort level is they're like they're they're working hard, whether it's on their family or their job, or they're you know, they're working hard. They've got that part. And then there's other people, you know, more the dreamers, right, they've got all the intention but they have no idea

what to do with it. They know what they really want or what matters. And so I think if you can combine those two things, which is, Okay, this is what really matters to me, Now I'm going to live that way. It's a lot better and sometimes with intention. For me. The thing I've been working with people on and I work with in my own life all the time is reconnecting the actions that i'm taking back to

why I started taking them, because we get lost. This happened to me I was a parent, and I would find myself in the I have to do these things for my kid. I have to do these things for my kid, right and now it's an obligation and it's a it's a it's this whole thing. When I stopped and I go like, well, I don't have to take into soccer practice, Like why am I taking him to

soccer practice? Oh? Because I love him and because I think that, you know, team sports might give him X, Y and Z and boy when he smiles when he's running down the field with that ball, it warms my heart Like, Okay, now I've reconnected something I'm doing that's sort of shifted into obligation. I've reconnected it to what really matters to me, and even without changing any behavior, which sometimes we have to do, I've sort of realigned my insides back towards what really matters. Yeah, it makes

so much sense. I've put a quote from Carlos Castaneda and in my book about this, because I know we've talked about co creation. It's like, from one perspective, I'm Brandon. From another perspective, I'm part of a I like to say, kind of like Russian nested dolls. And so what's your phrase about a fractal? I like that one. We are all fractals of the one source consciousness that creates and animates all things. That is a line I can get behind.

It's really empowering. And you know, Carlos Castaneda speaks to this raider game being played with you know, this nested intentions, and he said um in one of his books. In the universe, there is an unmeasurable and indescribable force which those who live of the source call intention. Absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent

by a connecting link. Sorcerer are not only concerned with understanding and explaining that connecting link, but they are especially concerned with cleansing it of the numbing effects brought about by all of the concerns of living at ordinary levels

of consciousness. I would say a sourcer a source or someone aligned with Source, and that greater intention of how do I empower others and bring everyone up and help everyone move into a state of peace and equanimity is as much as is possible and meant in this flight. What are your thoughts on I'm down, I'm going to set intentions, and I wake up in the morning and I think about my intention and either one of two things happens. One is it just feels really flat. I

just can't generate any emotional psychic energy around it. Or the only thing that I feel like I want is something that you know is quote unquote selfish. Right, it feels very much like it's you know, yeah, I want my intention to be oriented towards love and beauty and kindness. But my intention today is like I want my boss to get run over by a train. I mean, I'm not saying it's even that bad. You can get my gist, which is like my brain doesn't seem to want to

go there. You know, what do I do with this? I think that's a really great question, and I've certainly been there many times. And what I do at this point is trying to force anything is just It's like, you know, what we resist persists. If I'm resisting my state that I'm currently in, all I'm doing is giving it more energy and power. It's like what we accept, I believe we can move through. And when you start to view yourself as a wave and emotion is an

energy and motion. Okay, this isn't the place that I would like to be right now energetically, and thankfully, I know this too shall pass, and this is a part of my process of I'm in the process of getting back to the state that I want to get in. I'm running the mile and I'm a quarter of the way in, but I know it's inevitable that I hit and it may be painful in the meantime, but knowing that it has a shelf life brings me some sort

of peace and the less resistance that I offer. And you know Abraham Hicks Esther Hicks, so you're probably familiar with, speaks to this is like, look, you're not gonna go from feeling really down to really up in five seconds by thinking of positive thought, you know, forcing some positive bs. But what you can start to do usually is be aware, be the observer of the state that you're in, accept and love yourself there and say, okay, this is this is okay, I'm going to accept myself. This is a

part of being human. I'm gonna be with this, And maybe I can reach for a more neutral thought. Maybe I can reframe what I just thought. You know, it's the end of the world. Things are awful. Maybe it's not the end of the world. Maybe I'm being a little overly dramatic. Maybe it's just a little inconvenient. As you slowly start to consciously navigate yourself out of this,

it's gonna start by going more neutral. Once you get neutral, as she talks about, now you're no longer going upstream against flow of source, and now you as long as you're not swimming upstream, you're good because you get swept up in the stream of goodness ultimately and peace. And so I really like that. It's like I don't even necessarily have to be so good at being you know, incredibly positive and optimistic. I just need to not get

too caught in those potholes, you know. And by the way, I'm gonna get caught in them sometimes, and that's okay too, And when I do, I'm gonna do my best to bring awareness to it and then start reaching for neutral thoughts. You know, a lot of times I think it's as simple as Tony Robbins talks about changing your state changes your experience. So how about get up and go walk in the sunshine for a few minutes. Stretch your arms over your head for three minutes. You know, our brains

are parmesses. It literally releases all these different chemicals that change your state. And so a lot of times we get so austin a mental chatter and it's like you move some and it's incredible how much that can have an effect. I like everything you said there, which speaks to sometimes there's an incremental approach to things. And probably the most common phrase that I use on the show is sometimes you can't think your way into right action. You have to act your way into right thinking. And

this is exactly what you're saying. You know. It's corollary is for me is you know, depression is something that I've kind of gone around with a few times, and depression hates a moving target. When it's there for me, I'm just like move, it doesn't even matter, like clean the house, go outside, go to the mall. I'm not I guess I'm not going to the mall, right, although I must be getting old, because this is what I've

thought a bunch of times this winter. If we weren't in the middle of a pandemic, I might ask my friend if he wanted to go walk around the mall, because I want, I want to move, I want to walk, but I don't. Man, She's yeah, I'm sorry everyone, but I agree that. You know, there's these little actions that we can take that move us a little ways forward. And I agree to you. It's difficult to go from like I'm all the way down to all the way up.

And I think sometimes the nature of the self help movement, even the spiritual movement, in a lot of cases, seems to indicate that these practices are so transformative. And they are, but they're typically transformative over a long period of time. There are exceptions to that. There are exceptions to that. But what I think happens a lot is someone goes all right, I don't feel very good. Things aren't well. I've heard that if I do ten minutes of box breathing,

I'm gonna feel awesome. So they sit down and they do a useful practice like ten minutes of box breathing, and they don't feel awesome. They might actually feel a little bit better, but they're not triangulated in for that subtlety. They're looking for way better and they don't get it, and then they go, I guess that's not for me. So then you know, next time they feel bad, it's like, well, I've heard maybe vipastina meditation is good, so let me sit down and do a couple of minutes. You know.

I do. I do ten minutes of a pasta for the next week, and I don't feel great. But again, I might feel a little bit better, but I'm not tuned to that subtlety, so I go, that's not it. And and the same thing with thinking positive thoughts. We are in such a spiritual, psychological self help marketplace, and I'm part of it, right. I mean, I am putting the goods out right, so I'm implicated in what I'm saying that I think a lot of times we just jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump. Yeah.

And so you know, that's why we developed the Spiritual Habits program, is to say, look, let's take some core principles, let's take some behavior change principles, let's combine them, and let's start living more deeply. And so I'd love to ask you my favorite question right now, or I would say the question that's most on my heart that I'm trying to solve, which is, how do we get the average person? And by average person, let's just say the person who's got a forty hour a week job, maybe

they've got kids. They're busy people, right, They're not going to drop out there, not going to the monastery, but they want to live a more connected life. I find the biggest problem is that even if we can get to a point where we're like, I'm meditating every morning for fifteen minutes, great good work, a lot of people can't even get there. That's very positive, But the rest

of the day it's all gone. How do we integrate this into more of the moments of our lives when we get busy and we forget what a great question. You know, for me, I happen to be surrounded by a lot of people and the transformational festival scene kind of a lot of people who are not working the nine to five who are you know, music producers and festival producers and working on self help programs with people and lots of medicine journeys. And I have a lot

of that in my in my world. And as someone who's serial entrepreneur and you know, had hundreds of employees and you've been a doer my whole life, I found myself annoyed with the community a lot. I live in a co living space, so I've had a lot of that community around me in the last two years especially, and I found myself annoyed a lot with some of these perspectives, like, yeah, you know what, I don't need your help. I have all these things on my plate.

I don't need distance reiki from Afar. I don't need to hire you to send good energy to you know, how about help clean the bathroom, you know, or the rubber meter? Right, how about like, you know, thanks, I'm all good on distance reiki from you know, paying you to meditate in the corner or something. Um. But but one of the things that it's really interesting about this community,

and one of the things that I love. Is the only thing I'm really good at, and a lot of these people are good at is telling good stories about themselves and the universe and the nature of reality um one with the source consciousness that creates and animates all things. I'm a fractal of that source consciousness, right, And as a result, it's all possible. Possibilities are endless. I'm a

master of time and space, you know. I think it's O show said everyone should meditate at least twenty minutes a day unless you're two big zy, you should meditate for an hour, right, And it's like so you Actually, I find as I start playing with some of these concepts that it's all so malleable, you know, it's so malleable.

And the X business partner went from suicidal and taking a sixty thou dollar a year job three years ago to having over thirty million dollars in the bank and on his way to being a billionaire because he is so expanded in his view of what is possible. I believe when you come holding your bag of sugar to be filled, it will be examined to see how large it is. What story are you telling about the nature

of the situation in which you find yourself. So if you find yourself in a story of forty hours, here's where the limits are. Here's abrecadabra. It's true. I'm not going to take that away. And if you can start playing with some of the ideas that you know you're the lead actor and actress and director and your own private yo U universe, you play with that idea and you surround yourself with enough people playing with that idea, or you know, maybe you're not at a hippie commune

like me where everyone's thinking and talking like you're. But there's plenty of books. Go go read Neville Goddard from nineteen fifty where he's telling stories that are incredible of people, you know, walking every day and tuning into the vibration of owning this most expensive building in New York one

day and then it happens in dramatic fashion. I mean, some of the stories that are real, that have happened to people as far as manifestation and co creation and bending space time in order to create new opportunity for themselves, they're incredible. So if I'm taking those stories in all the time and surrounding myself with this suspending disbelief enough.

There's a great Netflix documentary called Miracles by this guy Darren Brown who's an incredible like hypnotist illusionist, and he's making fun of faith dealers in it, like mocking it, but then doing it. And I believe it's happening because he suspends disbelief enough to create that potential in that person who can now read the newspaper who needed glasses thirty seconds ago, or you know, but Shard talks about uh, he calls it permission slips. Whatever, permission slip, you need

to suspend disbelief enough to create the miracles. And I believe that's what was happened. There's a narrative around Jesus perhaps that then, oh, he creates miracles and he does Oh yeah, I heard it. I saw it. Oh. And now of the person hearing that, it's like, ah, he does cream. Oh, now I'm in his face. And now I've created the container in the permission slip for it too to be possible. And so start creating a container

that makes some of these things possible. And there's plenty of good reading and stories out there that will leave you in all and wonder and take that along with the story that the place that you find yourself is the I believe, the perfect jumping off point to become more. There's a guy I had on my podcast named Derek right All. You may be familiar with him and be great on your show. He's Easy's podcaster, author and a

guy was you know, waiting tables. If you go back and search the Positive Head archives, I've had him on a few times, one of my favorite guests. It just incredible ideas, and his story was he was an actor who hit hard times. He went from having gigs to waiting tables and serving his former colleagues, and it was he was embarrassed and depressed, and then he had the realization, like it, I'm gonna be the best waiter there's ever been, and he's just started just putting a hundred and eleven

percent of his heart, mind, soul into it. All of a sudden, he started getting in trouble at work because he was showing everyone else up. They finally turned on him and asked him to leave. He went from finding himself at this job that two months later on a private jet going to teach a course on how to do this sort of thing and now he's wildly successful, and so he literally elevated himself out and created conditions vibrationally where he was no longer a match for that

level of job because he is vibrating it. It's such a higher degree different our different degree that which is into itself is drawn water seeks its own level. So the way or out of your current situation is radical appreciation for where you are and finding the beauty in it and pouring yourself into it fully and finding that that moment and that humdrum job is as divine as any other thing that ever has been, could be, or

will be. And if you're able to pull that off like Derek did, then as he also talks about, not the law of attraction, he talks about the law of emergence, It's all already in there. Within the acorn is an oak tree. If the little boy takes and puts it on a shelf, it's not going to become an oak tree.

If it's in the right water, the right sun, the right conditions are created, what is in potential within the acorn must emerge, and inside of each of us is that oak tree waiting for the right conditions to emerge and then you'll find yourself miraculously, Like many many stories, how in the world. I go to Starbucks and I hit it off with this person I happen to talk to, who's a billionaire who invited me to come to his new company, and all of a sudden, I'm in this

whirlwind of a new life experience. That sort of thing happens all the time, and it is possible for each and every one of us. And the way out is fully into where you are, because where you are is the perfect jumping off point to lead you to where you can in potential emerge two Next, Yeah, I think that idea of the way out is through is so true.

It's so interesting, you know. Hearing you talk and then reflecting on my world views, I would say, I'm I'm a little bit more practical, And I do not mean that in a positive way necessarily, right, I'm not saying better or worse different by any stretch of the imagination. Right. You know, I look at someone like Derek Rydell and I go, Okay, well, yeah it does happen, but it doesn't happen to everyone. But back to the point we made earlier, I actually don't think that where it goes

is a important is the way it goes. And what I mean by that is what Derek did. Any of us can do. The results may not be in two months we are a billionaire on a plane. That is wildly improbable, not impossible, but improbable. But most likely, at the very least, we will have more meaning, more connection, and more fulfillment in what we do, which is the

ultimate wealth. That's right. You take the same action, you take the same approach, you know, and it is that going deeper and that appreciation for what I have and where I am and whatever that is is really difficult

to do. It's really hard, and I think it's really valuable because I know there have been times in my life where I have had that mindset of deep appreciation for where I was, and I was very happy, and I was happy with having way less than I have now at certain points, right and then there are other points where I have been like, I'm not happy with what I have. I have more now than I've ever had, and I don't mean money wise, I actually have less money.

You know, I walked away from a pretty lucrative corporate job to do this, But I'm doing fine. My point being it's a mindset, right, It's an ability to be here, to be present. You know, one of your keys is B B B Right, How do I inhabit where I'm at more fully? Because honestly, that is all there is is where I'm at right now is the only place that I can have happiness or fulfillment or peace or anything is by it's going to happen right now or now or now. That's where it's at. And yet that's

so easy to say and far harder to do. Easily said. Uh, and it's a lifetime to become a master of such a thing. And you know, I think there's a reason books like be Here Now and Power of Now are these greatest bestsellers of the last hundred years in the self development world, because there is so much power there and it's the only place that power resides. I mean, show me your past, you can't. You can tell me about it, you can show me a picture, any of

those things, but it's like it's just not it. And we all know that our memory is unreliable at best, you know, hopefully we know that. Lots of people still don't, I think know that, and they're difficult, but yeah, yeah, well, if you don't, then uh, yeah, you learn learn exactly and we filter tons of things in and out, you know, uh is the way our brain works and our our memory. I mean, your past isn't here, your future is never shown up exactly like you envisioned it. There is no past,

you know, there is no future truly that exists. You're always in a now moment, like you said, and so naturally the only place you have any sort of control or power is in that now moment, and to get really personal with it is is like you can do your best to affect the now, to look and feel the way you wanted to feel, and great, it's easy to pat yourself on the back and feel great about it when it shows up the way you envisioned it.

And where it's more challenging is when it shows up in a way that you didn't envision And that's where your opportunity to become that you know, skilled sailor comes in, right where you get the opportunity to work out that muscle to become someone who Okay, I'm going to trust this process. I'm gonna be here now, I'm gonna I'm gonna know that the answer to what to do next. I don't need to know twenty steps ahead. I just need to know what what what feels most aligned for me? Now?

Where can I set my intention that's pure and good and just follow that inner guidance? And you realize that inner guidance is more powerful than any podcast or book or you know. That's your direct except can you feed he's he doesn't know what he's talking about? Yeah, right, that's the only one. That's the only one other than that, Yes, trust your after trust your under guidance after that. Yeah, so you know, the present is the gift. It's called

the present for a very good reason. And when we start looking through that lens telling that story, what results does it get us? I found it to get me really good results. Yeah. Something came to me. And I don't know if you would agree with this, but I thought, I've loved this conversation, right, I loved it because you and I sort of see things differently, and yet we

arrive at this very commonplace and I love it. And I thought, you know a phrase I've often said, and I'm wonder if you agree with this phrase, that everything turns out for the best. I would say, when you can see the whole story is my friend puts it jokingly, in the end, we get the girl. You know that's not my friend, you know, you know, it may be lifetimes for that story to play itself out, but I believe, yes,

ultimately it's happening for a good growth. Yep. My sort of core philosophy is more not everything happens for the best, but that we can make the best out of everything that happens. And it's all. It might be two different sides of the same coin. Speaking about it felt right, absolutely absolutely, But but that I think is, you know, it's just at the end of the day, what you

just said is true. We are brought to moment after moment after moment after moment in life, and we are called upon to make the wisest response we can, and the more we do that, the better our life is. And I believe a lot of these challenges are blessings.

You know, there's a lot of evidence that I speak about this in the book to like simulation argument that we're in a in a simulation and this is a game that are higher self sort of created, and so you think of it in terms of a video game, and you get to the boss at the end of the level. I mean in my case, you know, I talked about creating that magical sort of perspective opens up a lot, and for me, I'm surrounded with a lot

of that. So I always ask for stories of synchronicity or serendipity on my show because I love hearing them and they kind of fuel my child like wonder. And it's like the Bible verse about the only one I ever quote. Lest she become like a child, you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And I believe that's heaven is here and now if we choose to have that childlike wonder, And so for me, I'll have a lot of incredible amount of synchronicity like or or spiritual breadcrumbs.

One or is around my birthday. It's you know, my dad was twenty eight and had me on his birthday July and it's his grandmother's birthday. My great grandmother and her mother died on that day. My business partner baby mama and grandmother soul mate I met on that day. Her boyfriend committed suicide on that day before me. His name was Anson, and all my relatives are from ants in North Carolina. With that birthday and on and on

it goes. It's like a ten minute story, right. So I I look at these things and I say, ah, there's there's these reflections that it's you know, me reflecting me back to me in some way, and I am super empowered to make my life magical. And the more I tell that story, the more it continues to reflect back to me. It's like just making it up, and then it's a self fulfilling prophecy. It all kind of

leads to the same same result in a way. Right. Yeah, Well, we're all making it up to some degree, I think. I mean, I just honestly think we're creating meaning because that's what we do. But reality is something that touched in its most real form, doesn't have a story attached to it. It just has this core energy slash unity to it. I'm not articulating that well, which is exactly the point, because when you touch sort of ultimate reality,

there aren't words. It's a wordless experience to a certain degree. So I agree, let's pick the stories that give us the most power in our own lives, the stories that lead us in a direction that feels good and positive and helpful. Yeah, the alternative is is rough, and it's

just it's challenging enough doing that, right. I mean I look at people who don't have this sort of optimistic outlook on reality that I think I have, and I'm like, man, I feel for you because it's challenging, you know, seeing through this lens, much less thinking, you know, feeling disconnected and it's all for naught and it's all lost and you know, no wonder there's so much depression. Yeah, it's

a tough view. Well, I think you and I both try and keep our shows to about an hour, and we're about fifteen minutes past that, so I would say we wrap up. Do you have any normal way of wrapping up your show? You know, I have a couple of Like I always ask a story of synchronicity, serendipity, positive paranormal story. If anything comes to mind that you feel inspired to share, I'd love to hear it. And then I have my cliche closer as well, which is

a sixty second question. So all right, I'll give you my story of this. And I'm suspicious of my memory and things that happened a long time ago, but this is the way I remember it. I was in sobriety the first time, and I left the house and I went out and I tried to go to a meeting, and for whatever reason, the meeting wasn't there. I was riding the bus at the time, and I really wanted to use that day, and I took the bus back.

I was staying at my dad's house after I got out of treatment, and I was going to go in the house and find some money and go get high. And I remember the phone ringing and it being the pastor at my mom's church, who was a man I loved. I mean, I never was that involved in the church. I never really believed it, but I always in him,

just saw this beautiful spirit. And there he was on the phone at the time that I most sort of needed and was saying a prayer for like God help I don't want to use, and got the phone call. So again, you know, my skeptical nature is like you know, but but from a synchronistic standpoint, it's a you know, so perfectly time, perfectly time. Certainly, I'm not sure if my you know, how my life would have unfolded, you know, had I gotten high that day, I just don't know,

you know. And that was it could be a different timeline. That was a big moment. Yeah, and if we if we take the parallel world's theory one version, we did go get high that day and you know who knows where he is, but probably not anywhere good. So real quick, I was sharing the birthday thing and I kind of got off track with that. I view it sort of like a video game. A lot of these challenges and and so here this co living space in Venice that

I run, I had someone show up. I've had two people show up here with my birthday, and one of them showed up and it was the most challenging. It was like if my shadow showed up with autism, a bit of autism and you know, some real serious substance abuse issues, very aggressive. I was ready to shut the place down over this person who became such a disruption to the house and you're talking to people living here and you know a lot of events and it was

just it was very sad. I'd put a lot into getting and then I remembered, oh, if I get the lesson that I'm supposed to get from it, I don't need to figure out how to get him out. Because he was like, I'm not I'm not leaving. I'll take your room, and you know, like you can't drag me out, and it's COVID, you can't and there's no eviction, there's

no you know. And I remember, if I get the message and the lesson, there will be a natural separation from what's needed here, right, And so it became clear to me that it was not allowing him to trigger me into a state of you know, he's very like and I can be very you know, and it would just like escalate each other. And my partners, like Brandon, only deal with him via text, you know. We luckily we went away for the holidays. I asked him to leave.

He's threatening, all these crazy messages, just calm cool, Nope, nope. If I get this, he'll naturally leave. And then all of a sudden something came up, new job offering, you know, stayed away. This is my idea to leave. I'm out of here, thanks and gone. And the day he left, it was like a tornado at the house. So I am in southern California. We get very little weather, you know,

and it was clear as it could be. I was about an hour down the road, clear as it could be, sunny, and people who are here like it was wild, like a tornado hit the place. Not a real tornado, but you know, it blew everything off my balcony and people are the house felt like I was going to blow down.

The story I tell, whether it's true or not, is I think there's a lot of parallel path life energy there that I passed this test with this character in this moment, and I cleared that energy up, and it's like a vacuum coming in, you know, and just energy moving. And so I got on that because one of the questions that you asked was, you know, how do you deal with um these really challenging things and and you know what's going on here? And I view it as

a as a game a video. I mean now, I always say in him and I are in good terms now, and I view him as the boss. At the end of one of my levels of leve alone awesome. What's the standard sixty second closer? Sixty second closer in sixty seconds or less? What is the meaning of life? According to Eric Zimmer, I'm tempted to just be quiet for sixty seconds and just let the clock run out, and just let no one, let the silence be the thing. So there you go. I'm gonna leave it at silence.

I'm gonna leave it as unanswerable. I like it. No one's ever done that. You can see why I ask it. It gives you a lot of insight into the person. Really, it's like cliche and silly and it's like, you know, it's that's a good answer. Awesome, if it's okay. I would love to offer my book as a gift to

your listeners. Sure, yeah, yeah. If you guys want to get the audio and or e book my book, The Golden Key Modern Alchemy to unlock infinite Abundance, you go to Golden Key dot gift dot g I f T and if you use the code when you feed, you can get either both audio and ebook for free. Yep, that is a nice gift. Physical book you'll buy, but yeah, you know body or e book. Yep, absolutely pretty awesome. We'll put the link to that in the show notes. Well, Brandon,

thank you so much. I've enjoyed this co experiment here. Let's co create cool. I think we're a really good match. You know. It's like it's like slight variations that are complementary, and it's been an honor to to co create with you. If what you just heard was helpful to you, please consider making a monthly donation to support the One You Feed podcast. When you join our membership community. With this monthly pledge, you get lots of exclusive members only benefits.

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