00:00:01 - 00:00:49
Hello and welcome back. This episode I call "Are You Ready to Lay Down Your Sword?" Now, something has been shifting in me and my intensity over the last 6 to 8 years, I would say. And there's no question, in my mind at least, and I would guess that it has everything to do with what we've been talking about in this podcast series, what is in the book Shine, and again, it's this shift from being fear-based to love-based. And in that shift, experiencing more peace and less angst in that intensity that I mentioned.
00:00:49 - 00:01:38
With that said, there was one big experience that just happened to me that put an exclamation point on this shift because there's lots of things that have happened in the shift, but this one is specifically around laying down my sword. And so the experience was in Sedona. So my wife and I went to Sedona, stayed at an amazing place called Miamo, an incredibly spiritual place set in the mountains, just an amazing experience top to bottom, start to finish. So many really cool things happen. But it's this one experience that put the exclamation point on today's topic.
00:01:39 - 00:02:16
And so as I was choosing the treatments that I wanted to experience at Miamo, they have everything from massages, different kinds of bodywork, different kinds of spiritual experiences, healers, I mean, the whole gamut. You're literally choosing from 40 different things, and we basically did one of those each day. Well, there was one treatment, practice, experience, whatever you want to call it, that was called a past life regression. So it was a 60, 90-minute session, scheduled it 90 days before we went.
00:02:17 - 00:02:41
And so here comes the day and the time for me to go do this past life regression. Now, with that said, I did one of these about 20 years ago, and it left me a little skeptical. It was interesting, kind of cool, but it just left me skeptical. And I probably would have never done another one had it not come up the way that it came up leading up to going to Miamo at Sedona.
00:02:42 - 00:03:19
So there I was. I went into the treatment, the experience, and this one was definitely different. This one was definitely very vivid. And I'm not going to go into great detail with you on it because we'll lose the point of this podcast episode. But basically, there were three past life experiences that I experienced during this treatment. I'm just going to focus on the first two because the third one, while very vivid and powerful, is just not relevant.
00:03:20 - 00:04:08
And so the first one, I was a gladiator, and I was in the Colosseum, but it was after any fighting. I was retiring. It was very clear that I was retiring. And this, again, was very vivid. And so there was one more little battle that happened, but I then kind of rode off into the sunset, for lack of a better term. There was actually a period that I went to prison, which was very strange, but 10 years. But I basically came out and resided in a village, peaceful. I was an elder and just a world of difference between fighting in the Colosseum as a gladiator and then being this elder gentleman, if you will.
00:04:09 - 00:04:44
The second life experience was probably somewhere around the 1500s, I would guess. But I woke up in a suit of armor, and it was the end of a battle because I was picking myself up from a field. I walked back to what seemed to be a hut that I lived in, and I took off my suit of armor, and I laid down my sword and never fought again. Got married, peaceful marriage, kids, and just kind of lived in a village.
00:04:45 - 00:05:09
So if you're catching the theme, there's these two vivid experiences where I laid down my sword, where I stopped fighting. There was a point that I just stopped fighting and just lived this peaceful life. I believe we came from somewhere and we're going somewhere. I believe we come around again. That's just my belief. And again, I'm not preaching anything here.
00:05:09 - 00:06:05
So with past life regressions, past life experiences, it could possibly be my subconscious or my ego, I think more subconscious, making up a story. But nonetheless, these two stories, whether it was my subconscious making it up to show me something or I truly went back in time, suspend disbelief on whatever it was, regardless of where it came from, it came from somewhere. I wasn't expecting it. I wasn't looking for it. So wherever it came from, it was this vivid message to lay down my sword. And it wasn't like shocking news because, like I said, it's been building. It's been showing up for the last six to eight years where, again, I'm just becoming more peaceful, less angst, less intense.
00:06:06 - 00:07:11
We're going to now move to the point of this podcast because I think you get the message. In those past life regressions, obviously, I laid down my sword. Obviously, that then left me to ponder. I'm sitting in Sedona at the foot of mountains with this beautiful opportunity to spend a lot of time in meditation and hiking and thinking. I looked back on my life and I saw how I have been fighting my entire life. I thought back to age 15 when I put on my suit of armor, after my trauma and my childhood and life, just kind of feeling like it's beating me up and I need to now protect myself from life. I put on my suit of armor at age 15 and I just went to war. I went to battle. It was time to fight this game of life. And as I've shared in the past, it's a great 35-year run of building empires and fighting wars and winning battles and winning wars and all that wonderful stuff.
00:07:11 - 00:07:39
But in my reflection, I did something else. I was sitting and I was journaling. I'm going to literally read to you from my journal as I'm reflecting back, seeing when I put the suit of armor on, realize how I've been fighting my whole life. And here's what came up. So I realized, first of all, the first thing I wrote was, "I've been fighting my whole life." And I'm hoping some of you can relate to this. I hope this is the day you needed to hear this message.
00:07:40 - 00:07:57
Then the next thing I wrote is, "I've been fighting for attention my whole life." I was the middle kid growing up. I fought for attention my whole life. Fighting for love. So there's this wise man said to me 25 years ago, "You're here to fight for love."
00:07:57 - 00:08:25
I've been fighting for love my whole life, not only in relationships, but in business, putting the love in it. Everything we're talking about, it's fascinating when you look at how this has evolved into Shine and everything we've been talking about in these podcast episodes. But I've been fighting for love my whole life. I've been fighting with loved ones, friends and family my whole life. There's like a handful of people, just a couple, three, that I tend to argue with, fight with. Ugh.
00:08:26 - 00:09:02
I've been fighting for what's right. I've been fighting for the greater good. I've been fighting for a cause my whole life to put a dent in the universe. I've been fighting for entrepreneurs. Ugh. When I took over the family business and I fought to save the family business, I fought to save Dad's company. That then led me to see my entrepreneurial dad and the pain he went through. And then I spent the rest of my life fighting for entrepreneurs. That's what I do all day, every day, is fight for entrepreneurs.
00:09:03 - 00:09:31
Fist fighting. I fought from age 15 to 23. I've been in more fist fights than I can count. I've lost track. I've been punched in the face and I've punched more faces. Now, whenever I share how much I fist fought in my earlier years, it's really important for me to give a disclaimer. I was always defending someone. So I was either defending a friend or I was defending myself. But I've been in a lot of fist fights. Been fighting my whole life.
00:09:32 - 00:10:04
I've been fighting my demons. Again, everything we're talking about in Shine, fighting my shadow self, fighting my trauma, my wounds. I've been fighting my ego. Now that I have this awareness, I can see the ego battle that goes on. And fortunately, my ego continues to relax and it's less of a battle. And then my guard has been up. Like I said, at 15, putting that suit of armor on, I've been defending myself. I've been defensive. I've been protecting myself from supposed harm, from judgment.
00:10:04 - 00:10:25
And last, I've been fighting the many contradictions and paradoxes of life. I have this internal battle between all these contradictions in life. I'm now learning how to float above, observe, and not get caught up in the pendulum swing. But I've been fighting that my whole life. Fighting, fighting, fighting.
00:10:26 - 00:11:07
So I share all of that in such vivid detail in the hopes that you can relate to some of it, not all of it. Maybe there's just one of those that maybe hit home for you. Hoping some of it resonates with you because I know I'm not alone. And so now in this state, as I continue to evolve, ascend, dissolve the ego, find more peace, fighting, it just all seems silly to me now, especially arguing. It's like arguing, I now am able to laugh in an argument, sometimes inside, but just to kind of remove myself from the argument.
00:11:07 - 00:11:41
Now, I love a great debate. I love a great discussion. So that is still there. It just doesn't have to be the intensity. There doesn't have to be shouting. It's like arguing and fighting just seems silly to me now. Don't get me wrong. I am still a warrior. I am a peaceful warrior. I'm still passionate. I'm still driven. I'm still motivated. And I intend to make an impact on this world.
00:11:41 - 00:12:26
There are still causes. There are still people to help. It's that it's a love-based approach now, not a fear-based approach. It's about consciousness, awareness. It's about being in flow. It's about managing energy. It's about manifesting things instead of brute force to build everything. Now, maybe it's because I'm getting older and my testosterone is dropping, but I really don't think that's it. I don't think I'm alone. I think there's something bigger going on here. I think there's a bigger shift happening, and I think it's happening to all of us.
00:12:27 - 00:12:56
There are still physical threats out there. Don't get me wrong. If someone were to try and harm me or my family, I will pick that sword back up in two seconds, and that 19-year-old fighter will show up in an instant. And so with that, I leave you with the question I started with. Are you ready to lay down your sword?
00:12:57 - 00:13:10
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. And please tune in for the next episode. Until then, we wish you all the best in freeing your True Self. Stay focused and much love.
