Ontological Shock, Following the Holy Ghost, & Embracing Life Without Regret | The Chris Cirak Story

“When can’t regret anything. Life is something to be accepted and embraced.” ~ Chris Cirak

Guest Bio: Author, speaker, and meditator Chris Cirak is passionate about turning sophisticated topics into accessible, meaningful, and inspiring experiences. With an extensive background in design, psychology, and tech, he breaks down traditional teachings to make ancient wisdom accessible and discoverable by modern audiences. His BE YOU mindfulness program helps you gain transformative insights by following a simple, step-by-step approach to reacting less and thriving more. In private, Chris enjoys spending time in nature, playing tennis, and writing music. He resides in Bali, Indonesia.

 

SHOW NOTES: 

• Website: http://www.cirak.com/
• Social Media: @chriscirak
  • IG: https://www.instagram.com/chriscirak
  • FB: https://www.facebook.com/chriscirak/
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/UrsulaEysin/
  • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisCirak
  • Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chriscirak

CORE THEMES, KEYWORDS, & MENTIONS:

• connect to your inner truth, mental truth, chaos environment, military family, belonging, friends, frequent relocation, depression, scarcity mindset, black sheep, breaking the mold, inner child healing, reparenting, free market economics, car accident, German autobahn, doing, doer, overachiever, workaholic, your calling, ontological shock, paradigm shift, inner resonance, inner resonance, balance, inner wisdom, inner knowing, thought awareness, body scanning, time, fear of death, surrendering yourself, meditation, Bali

For more Remarkable Episodes, Inspiration, and Motivation, please visit https://davidpasqualone.com/remarkable-people-podcast/. Enjoy!

Transcript

Ontological Shock, Following the Holy Ghost, & Embracing Life Without Regret | Chris Cirak 

Connecting to our inner truth, an accident on the German Autobahn, an ontological shock. All this and more, right now.

The Remarkable People Podcast. Check it out.

The Remarkable People Podcast. Listen. Do. Repeat. For Life!.

The Remarkable People Podcast.

Hello, friends. Welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Chris Cirok story. This week, you're going to hear from Chris, who's an author, a coach, a podcaster, and he is a great help to people healing from the inside out. He talks to us today about listening.

To the Holy Ghost inside [00:01:00] of us, the inner truth, and we talk about his journey, how he learned this along the way there were catalysts and how, you know, he was stuck at one point for two hours in a crunched up Ford Escott. Escort with a 18 wheel truck on top of him, right? Well, it's on fire. So he had a physical catalyst that helped him out.

But there is just listening to this episode could be the catalyst. It could be a paradigm shift a week from now, but this episode will help you get ready for that. So you know what to do, how to embrace it and how to act on it. Cause we don't want to just be hearers of the word, right? We want to be doers.

So check out this great episode with our friend, Chris, and let's also be thankful for our sponsor today. MyPillow has sponsored the Remarkable People Podcast this season, and they give you a remarkable code. Up to 80 percent off everything you buy at their store. So over 250 products on their [00:02:00] website and whether you call in on the phone, go to their website, when you order anything at MyPillow.

com with promo code Remarkable, pillows, sheets, slippers bedspreads, physical beds that move up and down, anything you order up to 80%. Just by using promo code, Remarkable. And then you're not only saving a ton of money on whether it's a Thanksgiving, Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Money, New Year's Eve gift, whatever it is, you're not only saving a ton of money on quality American products, but you're also helping an employee owned business in my pillow.

Podcast. So it's a win, win, win for everybody. So at this time, get out your pens and paper. Get ready for a great episode with our friend Chris. And don't just take notes, but use the notes. Apply the notes. Reach out to Chris and I. Continue the conversation. We want to [00:03:00] help you. We want to see you have the most beautiful, thriving life possible.

And if you need... Chris's help, reach out to him. If you need my help, reach out to me. Share this episode and all our episodes with your friends and family so we can be the best we can be on this life, in this life, on this world, and more importantly, in eternity to come. So, I'm David Pasqualone. This is our friend Chris.

Enjoy the episode right now.

[00:03:26] INTERVIEW PRE ROLL RPP S9 E903 Chris Cirak 13 November 2023: Hey, Chris, how are you today, brother? I'm fantastic, David. Thanks for having me on. Oh, it's an honor and a pleasure. And I just told our listeners a little bit about you, but I hope they understand you are in Bali right now.

Is that correct? I am. I am. It's the other side of the world. It's pretty amazing though. Yeah. We're going to hear more about that in a second, but ladies and gentlemen, Chris not only has a remarkable story that you're about to hear, but he's waited over nine months to share his story with you just to help.[00:04:00] 

And then on top of it, he woke up. At four o'clock. So he could be at 4 30 AM right now, his time to bring you his story. So get out a pen and paper and know that this is going to be great. And Chris, I know you're going to drop a lot of gold nuggets along the way that people can grow with, you know, take and apply immediately to their life and grow with.

But if there's one truth you want to communicate. One point that if people listen to this entire episode, they can be guaranteed they can walk away with to be a better human. What's that one truth you want to communicate today? Well, that would be to connect to your inner truth. It's a, it's a solid rock solid knowing that comes from within.

It's very different from the mental truth that relies on external comparison and constant validation. And that one kind of drives us crazy. But the inner knowing, the inner truth, that's where it's at. Beautiful. So we'll talk about what the definition of those two are, how the pros and the cons of each are, right?

[00:05:00] But like you said, focusing on that inner truth. All right, before we get there, Chris, everything that happened to your life, good, bad, ugly, pretty, and pretty ugly, made you who you are today, bro. Let's start. Where were you born? What was your upbringing like? You know, mom, dad in the house, orphanage, uncles, aunts.

How did you grow up? Brothers, sisters? Where did you begin? Yeah well the journey began, this lifetime journey began in upstate New York I had a great very fortunate to have great loving parents and very supportive even though we lacked the means, they always made it happen if I showed interest in something.

I did have a lot of chaos and tumult. tumultuous environments just from being like a military independent global contractor brat. And that led to a lot of ungroundedness and not really feeling like I belong anywhere. And. The upside of it was a lot of [00:06:00] exposure to different cultures and languages and perspectives.

I didn't get indoctrinated into one way of looking at life. But when you're a kid, you don't appreciate that so much. You just want to belong and you want friends. You want, you know, people to stay around and not constantly come and go. And, and so that was a challenge. That really accompanied me into, into my 30s, really, until I, I was able to just grow some roots.

Now, when you were a child, did you have brothers, sisters, or were you moving military brat, and it was just you and your parents? I had a younger brother. You know, so much depends on exactly what age and, and whatever, you know, your stage of evolution and maturation is. And the times that we moved were easy on my brother.

And they were extremely hard on, on myself. So it does depend on where you are, if you're coming of age and you suddenly have to Move again. And you, no one knows you. It's, it's much harder than if you're kind of in a [00:07:00] natural transition stage, maybe around 12 where you're kind of stepping into a, a new chapter of life anyway.

So yeah, that, that was a small family, but very tight. So then you're growing up, you got, you, your mom, dad, brother, moving a lot. You're trying to get that sense of belonging as you're going through. Let's just go from birth to 18. Was there anything significant that you want to talk about? leads into what you believe and who you are today.

Well, the middle and later teenage years were very rough on me. I externalized the sense of not belonging in the way that at least I blamed the world, not myself, which, you know, is still not great, but at least I didn't internalize it as something being wrong with me. I just felt like there was there wasn't room for me in the, in the world, but you know, those are some tough [00:08:00] years and there's you know, depression and, and, and really low thoughts about myself and life, but I got through those and, and you know, there were other things as well.

Scarcity, as I mentioned before, my, both my parents emigrated and really lost everything they had in their war torn countries to come to the States and, and, There was just a sense of fear and lack and losing everything. It could all be gone from one moment to the next, which they experienced. That was real for them.

And growing up in that kind of bubble you know, I had to work hard to work through that as well. There was I remember my mom getting a parking ticket and that, you know, ate up that week's budget for groceries and watching her cry. And that, that was just no fun to, to be around such such fragility [00:09:00] and you know, later on, I, I, you know, had to work through that on my own and, and get out of that scarcity consciousness and, and do, and build, and create, and own, and, and just to heal myself and heal the generations.

Cause a lot of this is stuff that we're just imprinted with. And so then we Sometimes we call ourselves black sheeps of whatever environment family that we grew up in, but that's our purpose is to break the patterns. Yeah, and going to that, when you, you know, there's one race, the human race, and all men are equal, but culturally, Every nation has a slightly different, you know, way they view the world.

What was your parents background? Where did they come from to America? Yeah. So my dad's side was, you know, communist Yugoslavia and I would go there as a kid and it was a very different environment than my mom's Czech German background, which was more, you know, socialist commonwealth environment. And then [00:10:00] I returned to the States and, and be more of a, in a capitalistic society.

And so to have this three pronged exposure, you know, all the time, every year, and, and visiting family and so forth. And the circumstances were very different. And the economic fortunes were very different. So I got to see all that very young. I was in the war zone you know, waking up to grenades exploding outside my window.

And and then, you know, some of the, the nicer sides just you know, maybe. The Commonwealth and, and healthcare of Europe and experience that. And then, but also the, the, the rugged individualism of the U S and I kind of always wish that, you know, everyone would get to choose regardless of passport.

Yeah. And then what ages were you in the United States? Did you come over at? Well, I, I, I mean, I grew up in New York and it was up and down the East coast till [00:11:00] around 15, 16, and then a lot of the overseas travel started. And, but then I came back for college and grew some roots. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's actually, it's just a different perspective if you're a child or a teenager or an adult.

So that's really interesting. Now, obviously every listener, we have listeners from all over the world, all different backgrounds and cultures, but you mentioned like you struggle with depression and you struggled with just when you were a teenager, feeling like you belonged. Looking back, talking to your 15 year old self.

Or talking to our listeners who might still feel that way at 45. What advice do you have for them that helped you work through and overcome that? Well, you kind of touched on it. It's called inner child healing and reparenting. So we can, it's a technique to to go back as your mature adult self, that who you, you know, who you are now and [00:12:00] give that younger version of yourself, the love, the care.

the affection and the understanding and the listening ear and and the hug and the presence that you needed at that time but that you know you no one was there to give that to you so you can go back and heal a lot of that stuff and i've done you know many other types of healing modalities just just to free myself from these stuck feelings as i call them okay And then, so now, you're growing up in New York, you start traveling overseas with your family, you're seeing a bunch of different, probably, scenarios that explain a lot of your parents beliefs, right?

You know, they're like, you didn't understand them in some ways, and now you're like, oh, I get why you think this way. Is that safe to say, or am I off base? Oh, absolutely. I mean, you know, we, my dad was completely cut off from his family for the rest of his life. Was not allowed to get on the phone, the line would get cut, mail was censored and, and, or if it [00:13:00] even arrived he never got to speak to any family members again.

That was hard to see and be around and, you know, I remember being a kid when the news came that his father had passed and, and he couldn't even, you know, hear that directly. It's somebody had to tell somebody so that he could hear the news. And you know, those are, those are tough times to be around and, and that was just a generation ago.

So there's continued. Injustice in, in the world today as well. So this, this stuff just gets, the trauma gets passed along and along and I had to do a lot of healing even just very recently to, to heal the, the lineage essentially. You, you can go back and heal your ancestors and just because it does impact you, it comes through to you.

Okay, so then. When you're, [00:14:00] when we might get into this in the, in the episode, as we go down, so let's just continue your story. So you're traveling, you're in your teens, you said you come back for college, where does Chris's life go from there? Well, I was like I said before, I wish everyone could just have a choice to figure out what works for them at whatever time in life.

I was really not, built for, for kind of Commonwealth Europe. I was individualized enough and had, you know, entrepreneurial desires and dreams. And it was just a go getter and not so much credentialized academic or something like that. And What was another incident that was really tough is I got into a severe, severe car accident on the German Autobahn.

I was stuck in a flaming wreck for two and a half hours and airlifted to hospital and so forth and I miraculously just walked away but it, it did impact the timing on a lot of things. I was under medical [00:15:00] observation for a long time for internal injuries or psychological trauma and it just it just kind of put a stop for, for a while.

And so when I did finally come... Yeah, what happened there? Like, were you, was it just everybody's doing 150 and you got in an accident? Were you being reckless? Was somebody else being reckless? What happened there? No, it was it was a hot day and a truck driver either fainted or possibly overworked, but regardless just...

Hit me head on, rolled me up like a sardine can in my 85 Ford Escort. And yeah, I was stuck in there and the truck was on top of me, so they couldn't pull me out. And it was a whole thing. And you know what, the helicopter crew was on a mission that day to, document the for training purposes, the use of the Jaws of Life.

And so they happened to come across my, my scene. And, [00:16:00] and so I have the whole thing documented in pictures and used in the training manual. Oh man. Hey, send me some. We'll put in the show notes on the website so people can check it out. Oh yeah. You wouldn't believe it if you saw it. Yeah. Yeah, man. So you, so you got through that.

And where's your life go from there, Chris? Well, really, then I dove into the doing of things. I think I kind of picked up from my parents repressed dreams or unrealized opportunities. They were just kind of Glad to survive. And I went into just business building, entrepreneur. My first business was a recording studio.

I was a musician. I still am. It's one of my great passions. And recorded a lot of music. Did that the technology of that led me into web and, and coding and and web design. And that really turned into a 25 plus year career. I taught at UCLA, [00:17:00] design thinking, user experience design, and you know, just really leaned heavily.

I'm a, I was a overachiever from the get go. I mean, I've been working from the day I could walk, shoveling snow, raking leaves, babysitting you know, setting up VCRs, bringing in other people's, you know, damaged furniture from the trash and fixing it up and setting up my own little kingdom in my room. So I've just always been a doer.

And so yeah, that was a long period of doing and you know, bought homes, built some wealth and and just just really fully immersed myself in, in, in that world. You know, I think that ran its course. You can only live for goals, external outcomes for so long. And then when the big, that's when the big shift happened is this life.

Life kind of directs you back inward because you need to nurture your inner life just as well. [00:18:00] We'll talk about that. What happened for you that was the catalyst and where did it bring you? Well, you know, I was, like I said, I was overachiever and I'm just you know, my mom would call me a workaholic and, and it got to the point where I was so head heavy, really.

I was just overthinking over planning everything. And what happens there is we create this truth structure of what we believe in, what we think is right and wrong and truth or true or false. And we keep the effort to maintain that structure that. view on reality, just, it becomes heavier and more burdensome as we go along.

And I guess it just reached a point where it collapsed on itself because it was no longer maintainable. And so you know, I had this just awakening phase where just, I had to let go of all my beliefs and and kind of [00:19:00] look at what's underneath.

And then where did that take you? So you have a belief system that's been with you, kind of driving the bus, whether it's conscious or subconscious, and now you're reevaluating life. So what were some of the things that you were facing inside that you had to just say, hey, what's real, what's not? Well, it's what we kind of started out talking about is realizing the, the difference between living through the mental lens, which is outcome oriented, which is judgment based, which is always looking around and comparing what you, what is happening to what you think should be happening so you can reach your goals.

And it's really a manic way to live. And it's really hard compared to. Discovering and really living by your inner truth it doesn't rely on comparison to others. You just have a deep knowing that's unshakable and it's not easy. [00:20:00] I often get the question of, you know, what's the difference between your true calling and just another flippant idea?

And it's that the true calling is usually uncomfortable because it calls you to something implying that you're not there yet. So you have to, you know, step up to the plate, take classes, improve yourself get more efficient and smarter and whatever it takes to, to really realize your calling. And and that's where, you know, the current phase of coaching and mentoring and mindful retreats and meditation and all of that began.

Yeah, you know, the Bible talks about where there's no vision that people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy as he and we can take that there's so many applications of just that one verse, but having a vision, having your purpose, having the clear goal and destination, everything else we can reverse engineer or sometimes just go with the flow.

Where does God [00:21:00] lead? But what are the things that you rep recommend? So you work with a new coaching client and I know everybody's different. But what are some general foundational steps that you recommend to people to help clarify their purpose, what they really love and what they want to do? Yeah, well, the very first thing is to learn to do what you're already doing, but with more meaning, with more intention, with more purpose, with more detail, attention to detail, with more presence.

You know, I often hear like, I want to quit my job, I want to move to a different city, I need a new relationship and all that. Well, first improve the way you engage with the current environment and make sure that you're not Robbing yourself of what's there because what's there could be amazing.

It's just your approach, your, your presence and your attitude towards it are you know, there's a shortcoming there or that could, there could be some growth opportunities there [00:22:00] that that are being asked of you. And so make sure that is in place first, then see if, you know, maybe you do need to change industries or jobs or move to a new city or move to a new country.

It could be anything, but make sure you're in alignment with with the current situation first. Yeah, I think that's super important. I, and again, you can expand, you can disagree, you can agree, but I always try to leave. Even when I consider the worst situation, making sure I do the right thing, I can pull on my head at night and to leave on top.

So if you're complaining about how bad your job is and how bad your company is and how they're hurting your sales, that might be true. Typically, like Chris mentioned, it's an attitude issue, but even if it's true, you leave there being the best salesperson. And then you go like leave at the top, not at the bottom.

Would you agree with that, Chris? Or am I off base? No, I love that. That really hits home. And it's, [00:23:00] you know, it's not just for the company and your relationship to the people there, which is also very important. You never know what that leads to. In fact, I've, you know, most of the business comes word of mouth, so you gotta make sure to.

Keep your reputation all shiny, but then also internally, you know, you've done the best. Like you said, you can rest and put your head on your pillow at night and know you've done your best. That's really important. Yeah. Yeah. So I, we all have bad situations and are dealt bad hands, but it's what we make of them.

And, you know, I don't believe anything happens by accident. There are no coincidences. So if something appears bad, God doesn't cause evil or pain, but sometimes he allows us to go through things to make us better humans. Overall in the end. So now, Chris, you're talking to people and you're letting them know, okay, be where you're at, be the best person you can be, do your best job you can do, be present, but people are like, well, great.

Okay. I'm going to be the best widget manufacturer, but [00:24:00] I'm not passionate about waking widgets. I just got to eat and pay the bills and take care of my kids. What's the next step you have for them? Yeah. You know what? I had that experience in a couple of different things I mentioned earlier. I'm into music.

I also am passionate about playing tennis and travel and so forth. And I had on paper created a life for myself where it looked, you know, pretty perfect and I had a good. work life balance and, and, and enough space and resources to pursue my, my interests. And what I realized was that even when I was recording music, it was with an eye on when this, you know, song is finished or the album is done, or when I get to sell an X amount, or when I was playing tennis, it was like, when I, you know, get, reach this particular level or win a tournament and so forth, I was still living for outcomes.

And. That's what it really sunk in. It's not what you do, [00:25:00] it's how you do it. And you could be washing the dishes, but if you do it with attention to detail, let the detail pull you into presence. Notice the miracle of everything that just exists. That that really is much more important than, than what you're doing.

You could be doing the most fantastic activity in the world. If you're not engaged with it, then it won't fulfill you. So that's really the, the lesson there is, is to do everything with more meaning and intention and purpose. So now where did this lead you? So you're having this discussion with yourself and this is a big shift because a lot of times you're like, yeah, I know that's right, but our habits just pull us back.

We naturally want to go to not even what we agree with all the time, but what's comfortable, right? So how do you break that cycle and the mental [00:26:00] cycle? So you're listening to that Holy Ghost inside you, the inner leading, or how do you reprogram yourself to even just get up in the morning and start a new routine?

What are the tips you've seen work in your life and in your clients lives? Yeah, well, in general, meditation helped me a ton. And the important piece there was to recognize that it's not a separate activity. It's really a state of being that we bring to our existing activities. And so when I started noticing you know, the opportunities that happen all throughout the day, somebody shows up late for a meeting.

Well, that's a couple minutes that instead of being angry at them, you, you use that time to notice the decor, look around, stop to smell the roses, quite literally, and or focus on your breath for, for 30 seconds. These things can have a huge impact. Even in sports performance, I worked with some athletes [00:27:00] and being able to reset yourself between points or between plays has a huge positive impact on the outcome.

I agree. And now, once you had this kind of paradigm shift in your head, talk about what happened in your life and then bring us through to today, Chris. Hmm. Well, first thing. Easy questions, right? So, so simple. I know, but it's great. Well, first, you know, it feels like the rug is being pulled out from underneath you.

And it is because you're having to let go and release all of what you think is true. It's you know, dark night of the soul type of experience. And, and but when it happens, you. You know, the more you resist it, the harder it'll be. So you, you just cling and, and to your wits and try to get through as best as possible.

And that took a while for me. It wasn't a spontaneous kind of [00:28:00] awakening, but it, you know, it, it, it took a good three to six months for, for me to come out of the initial shock it's often referred to as ontological shock when your worldview just shifts and you lose, you know, your whole foundation for, for living and how to make sense of things.

So, But once you get through that, I wish I'd had, you know, more resources, more people, more friends that I could talk to. At the time it just, there wasn't that much available or I didn't see it. Maybe I wasn't tuned into it. And then from there, really, it was started to, I became more selective with clients.

I wouldn't just take on any work. I was working for ad agencies and so there's all kinds of different opportunities there. Some that resonated more than others. I just started living more. Truly to what I would describe as inner resonance and and sticking to it and not you know, I, my inner conscience [00:29:00] was arising in a way that I could no longer go against it.

And talk about, cause some people know exactly, you know, when I was younger, I had a lot of thoughts. I always thought I was always thinking, but when I got saved, when I was 15, I trusted God. With my life, I got the Holy Ghost inside of me and it's a whole different experience. It's like you're making decisions and everything can make sense in the head, right?

In your cabeza. But in your heart, you're like, no, that's, that's not the decision. That's not what you need to do. And there's a easy and clear distinction between the two to understand. I just am having a hard, I have a hard time articulating it because. Sometimes it's hard to articulate something like that unless you experience it.

So when you're talking to people, how do you articulate to our listeners now? Maybe they don't know what you're talking about. How do you [00:30:00] help them to know the difference between cerebral thinking and heart thinking and inner leading of the Holy Ghost? Because, you know, our heart can be wicked and deceptive and we go after what we want and we lust for.

You don't really want to follow that. Our brain is super logical and it makes decisions without emotions and we can hurt people and hurt ourselves. But that Holy Ghost will never steer us wrong, that inner truth. So how do you recommend people hear and follow the inner truth? Yeah, so the act of surrender, essentially, to a higher power and letting go of this control is coming out of the head that the, you know, pure intellect alone can justify any action.

It's it has no conscience. So when we're too much in our heads, then, then we get into trouble. Yeah, if we're completely following just a passion, then, then that, that equally is imbalanced. But there's a truth that [00:31:00] relies that lives more deeply in our body. And it's just that inner wisdom, inner knowing, and really we get in touch with it by connecting to our senses.

That's the, that's the glue to right now. And that's the. You know, the connective tissue between our environment, this, this miracle of life and life force and, and ourselves, our bodies. And to really be in touch with these senses, to really see what you're seeing, hear what you're hearing, touch what you're touching, taste what you're touching and so on.

It's we don't actually do that most of the time. We're living from mental snapshots. If we're in our head, we're living from expectations and projections or things from the past. And that's what presence is, is to learn to really be here now. And that really connects you to that means being in your body and that connects you to that, [00:32:00] that holy force within.

Okay, and let's take that a step further because I agree with you. The majority of the population today are the walking dead. They're not connected. They don't even enjoy food. There's eat, you know, they don't, they don't see beauty. They just see. So, when you meditate, That's not all freakish and and it's not just something, you know, people should throw it out and disregard it.

Jesus meditated and meditated is that deep thought and that contemplation and being single and mindful of what's going on in your body and trying to shut out that exterior world. What are the techniques you've seen work in your life, and again, those you teach, to help people start with meditation, to help people start bringing that alignment and that balance?

Yeah. So the simplest one, I call it thought awareness which is a type of breath work. Where you focus on the incoming and outgoing breath at the entrance of your [00:33:00] nostrils, noticing how the mind comes in and, and starts to pull your attention away and, and how we get lost in thought. And we spend most of our day 50 to 70% of our, our time lost in thoughts and thinking about things that aren't relevant to what we're doing.

So if you think about it, we spend, you know, so much effort on, on health and longevity, and we want a good. quality life, yet, you know, more than half of that time, we're not actually here. We're just in some rabbit hole. So. We can regain essentially a lot of life to be lived, a lot of real time, and by learning to come out of this this kind of addictive thinking, this this monkey mind.

And so it just takes practice, like going to the gym, you, you start to build an awareness muscle. around your thoughts so that you don't get pulled in into every thought, reacting to every thought, [00:34:00] engaging with every thought. Because every thought carries a charge, positive or negative, if you give your attention to it, it then owns you, you, you become the thought.

So if you're giving your life force attention to every thought that comes along, it starts to weigh you down. And so just some, some thought awareness. And I also teach the same thing when it comes to body feelings. So through body scanning, you can start to observe your feelings and learn to feel them fully and come out of reactivity to it all.

Alright, so now, from your birth to today, is there anything significant that we missed in your life? Is there anything you specifically want to talk about? Is there anything that has happened before we trans, like, transition the show into where's Chris today and where are you heading in the future?

Well, I'd say that I was just talking to somebody about this the other day, how we can't [00:35:00] regret anything. Everything happened because of who we were at that moment in time. There's no sense in going back and wanting things to be different or hindsight and certainly no you know, guilt. Life is always a mirror.

The person standing next to us could be witnessing the same situation and they have a completely different take on it. So, we're really only just experiencing ourselves and and as such, our life as it's unfolded you know, usually not the way we planned it, but that's why life is so interesting and it's an adventure is something to be accepted and embraced and really, you know, reflected on what were the lessons, how did this grow me?

Like you said before, growth is uncomfortable. That's the definition of growth. And it has to kind of be there for that healthy tension to exist, but embrace your learnings and your situations and, and they made you who you are today. Yeah, I think that's great advice. And [00:36:00] it's in every area. It's, it's doesn't matter if it's physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, financial, growth is painful sometimes.

Growth is tiring. Growth is, you know, it's easier to lay on the couch than it is to do push ups, right? So it's just, you got to do it. You got to take that effort. You got to be a doer. All right. Well, Chris, what you know, two things. One is... You don't know if you don't know. So is there anything I should be asking you?

Like, Dave, I'm the expert at this and you haven't even mentioned it. Is there anything we haven't discussed that you want to discuss before we transfer into where you are today and where you're heading? I think it's maybe just The, the sense of time which drives this urgency that we're always living for the next moment.

I think that's one of the great benefits of meditation that I found. It just fades into the background. You no longer live by beginnings and endings. The fear of you know [00:37:00] things ending it it subsides and that includes your, your fear of death. And so there's some, there's some great, great benefits to come out of this kind of small anxious place that we're in when we're in our heads and to, to surrender, learn to surrender to a higher power.

Amen to that. I mean, God is the King, right? Surrender to Him and your life's only better. So we might have trials, challenges, but it's always going to end well. So, where's Chris today and where's he headed, brother? All right. Well, today I'm basically designing, you know, writing books, designing programs and teaching in ways that I wish I'd had access to and discovered when I was going through some tough times.

And it's in the books that I write. They're very bite sized and you don't even have to read it front to back. You can just jump into chapters of whatever you're dealing with in life. I organize retreats where we Live life to the fullest. It's mindfulness, it's [00:38:00] breath work, it's yoga, but it's activities, excursions, it's cooking classes, it's senses, it's nature river rafting.

I mean, lots of great stuff. So I, I I enjoy those a lot. And then I speak at, you know, conventions and keynotes and wherever people come together for health and, and mental health, physical wellbeing and, and spiritual wellbeing. Beautiful. Now I've never been to Bali, but I've heard it's off the chain.

Gorgeous. And you're there right now. Are you there for vacation? You there for retreat? Are you there for speaking engagement? What's taking you to Bali? Yeah. So I came here in 2019 and loved it. Thought I'd come back for sure. And then I came back for a teacher training. Last year and within a couple of hours of landing, I just got the, got the message that I'm staying here.

And so I, I listened and made it happen. Beautiful. So you, you live there year round. I thought [00:39:00] you were just traveling through. I know it's, it's my headquarters. Oh, gorgeous, gorgeous. So, all right, well, let's do this. If somebody wants to learn more, buy your books, set up for coaching, just continue the conversation with you.

What's your website, social media, best way to reach you? What's, what's just the lowdown? We'll put this all in the show notes, but if somebody's listening, what's the best way to connect with you, Chris? Yeah, you can always visit my website for the latest. It's sirak. com. That's C I R A K. com. And everywhere on social media at Chris Sirak.

Awesome. Awesome, my friend. Well, I really appreciate you being with us today, Chris. Ladies and gentlemen, like Chris and I have talked about, like you've heard in multiple episodes of the podcast, like our slogan says, more importantly, the Bible says, don't just listen to great advice. Do it. Repeat it each day, so you can have a great life in this world, and more importantly, [00:40:00] for eternity to come.

So, I'm David Pasqualone, this was our friend Chris Ciroc. Chris, thank you again for being here, brother. Thanks, David. Such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Yes, and ladies and gentlemen, reach out to Chris, check out the show notes, and keep us in, keep in touch. Let us, let Chris know, let myself know how this episode's impacted your life, and share with your friends and family.

We're not trying to be famous, but we're trying to make an impact that's positive for your help and God's glory. See you in the next episode, and thank you again, Chris. Thanks, David.

[00:41:00]