Remarkable People Podcast

Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation

September 28, 2021 David Pasqualone / Christian de la Huerta Season 4 Episode 402
Remarkable People Podcast
Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation
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Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

EPISODE OVERVIEW: 

Did you hear the one about the young boy that was so painfully shy growing up that he never really felt he fit in anywhere? You know, the one where he felt so isolated and alone, but it only got worse each day because he lived in constant fear that his life and/or family could be taken away from him at any moment. Why you ask? All because he grew up under the bondage of communism in Cuba and his father supported free market economics and the American way.

In this remarkable episode of the podcast, you'll hear the true life story of a young man who struggled with issues of power, self-doubt, and relationships; and ended up living for years in a self made prison of doubt and pain. See how this man found his voice thru a journey of personal transformation, and you can too. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the remarkable story of Christian de la Huerta!

GUEST BIO: 

With 30 years of experience, Christian de la Huerta is a personal transformation coach, TEDx speaker, and author of Awakening the Soul of Power, described by music icon Gloria Estefan as, “a balm for the soul of anyone searching for truth and answers to life’s difficult questions.” 

FEATURED QUOTE(S): 

  • “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

SHOW NOTES:  SPECIAL OFFERS, LINKS, GUEST CONTACT INFO, & OTHER RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Special Offer: 

  • Visit Christian's website at https://soulfulpower.com and sign up for his free email list, and you will receive a sample chapter, power practices and guided meditation on Trust.

Contact Info:

  • Website: https://soulfulpower.com/
  • Facebook Group (Unleash Your Inner Hero): https://www.facebook.com/groups/290440885360555/
  • Book: https://soulfulpower.com/Awakening-The-Soul-Of-Power-Book
  • Virtual Coaching Group: https://soulfulpower.com/offerings/retreats/adventures-in-transformation/
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christiandlh/

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Ascending Together,
David Pasqualone


THE NOT-SO-FINE-PRINT DISCLAIMER:

While we are very thankful for all of our guests, please understand that we do not necessarily share or endorse the same beliefs, worldviews, or positions that they may hold. We respectfully agree to disagree in some areas, and thank God for the blessing and privilege of free will.

Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation | E68

[00:00:00] The remarkable people podcast. Check it out.

the remarkable people podcast. Listen, do repeat for life.

 Hello friends. I'm David Pasqualone, and welcome to this week's episode of the remarkable people podcast, season four, episode 68, the Christian de la Huerta story! 

Christian and I had a great conversation that you are going to be. All of us can learn and grow from one another. And in this episode, Christian talks about his upbringing coming out of communist Cuba, the effects of socialism and communism on countries, his experience as a personal life transformation coach for over [00:01:00] 30 years, speaking at TEDx conferences, writing books that Gloria Estefan wrote the, the endorsement for right.

Great episode, tons of fantastic content that I hope we can all grow from and not like our slogan size. Let's just not listen to it, but do it, repeat it so we can have a great life in this world and it turning to come. So I'm David pastor alone. Enjoy this episode. Ash Christian nine questions. If you have them please rate and review the podcast, make sure you're sharing this with your friends and whether you're watching on YouTube or your favorite podcast player, please subscribe enlightening us.

It means the world to us because the more likes we have, the more listeners get the same great content you're here now. Not for us, but to help each other. Enjoy this remarkable episode with our friend [00:02:00] Christian.

 Hey, Christian, how are you today? I'm doing well, David, thanks so much for having me on the show. Appreciate it. Oh no. I've been looking forward to it. You and I have been trying to connect for a couple months now and it's been my crazy schedule on this side. You're super busy, but you've been like on top of it and I had to cancel on you one.

So I apologize. So ladies and gentlemen, like our inter said, we have Christian with us today and it's going to be a remarkable episode and he has great value to share with us. So what we're going to do is like the podcast story always goes, Christian is going to start from his childhood, bring us through his story.

I talk about the good, the bad, the ugly, what he had to face, what he achieved, but also the practical steps of how he did it. So you can too. So Christian at this time, my friend, can you please share with us your remarkable story so we can learn and grow together? Okay, thanks so much. Well let's say [00:03:00] let's start in the beginning.

I was born in Cuba lived in a communist country for the first 10 years of my life. Which is, was very informative because there's so many things that we take for granted for here in the states. And in the west, not only in terms of like things that we can have access to, but in terms of rights that we take for granted.

And it's interesting that I, I write about personal empowerment and what it means to live heroically in the 24th century, because I was in a communist regime in a totalitarian, in a dictatorial setting you have. Next to no personal power. It's, you know, the state pretty much owns you and tells you what to do.

And when you can account do, I was also raised in a very Catholic environment. So another very hierarchical power structure in which, you know, power is, comes from the top down and you pretty much are told what to believe and what train and withdrawing and, and that's [00:04:00] just the way it is. And when we came over to the, to the peanut, but I'm really grateful for that experience of having been raised in a communist regime because we had a TV, but there was nothing worth watching in terms of programming.

So we grew up playing outside and creating our own games, inventing our pastimes. I grew up reading and for that, I'm really grateful because developed a lifelong love affair with books. And when I came over to the states, that really helped me to pick up the, the second language and learn English. And I was like, really good stuff.

No, it was kind of shy, introverted kind of painfully. So like to the degree, David, that I was in high school, I had pretty, pretty much a four Pono. I had a one B in high school and I didn't set up to do this intentionally, but looking back on it, I know that I got that one B in my last year, it was a subconscious sabotage of my grade point average, because at that point there was no way [00:05:00] there was absolutely no way that I could have gotten in front of an auditorium, filled with hundreds of people and delivered the valedictorian speech.

I just wasn't up for that. And what's empowering about that story is that these days I speak all over the world, spoken on the TEDx stage You know, I've spoken at a bunch of universities. So I could say that I'm a professional speaker. So that the point being that any, any fear, any obstacle that we've allowed to, to hold ourselves back to be held back by all that stuff can be healed and it can be overcome.

Yeah. Isn't it crazy how your biggest weakness turns into one of your greatest strengths, right. It's amazing how God does that. Yup. Yeah. That's interesting. And the other thing that, that, you know, that I would also like to share about for your, that they could be supportive to your audience is that my [00:06:00] adolescence was one long depression.

Like I really didn't fit in and I didn't, I felt different. I felt like there was something wrong with me. Like, you know, many other adolescents also do and, and these days. No matter the details of my life. No matter the circumstances, whether a relationship works out or it does it a project succeeds or it fails in quotes.

I never questioned my sense of self. I never questioned my self worth. And that's also profound because having been working with, with people on issues like that for self-esteem and self doubt self worth and how to transform those insecurities into confidence it's like, they'd know how to do that.

I know how to support other people to do that because I, that it's so many ways that that's the bottom line of what's holding us back is that self-made prison that we find ourselves stuck in. Now, do you think that isn't unique that usually if someone is. [00:07:00] Struggling with what you're struggling with.

Like, you know, fear of public speaking and shyness, there usually is some self-worth issue. So it was very unique. I don't want to jump ahead in your story and, and, you know, cut, cut ahead and jump in. But where do you think that came from? Was that something that gone innately put in you or did your parents really give you value?

Did they really support you or were they unsupported? Cause that that's unusual to have that kind of combination? Yeah. You know, I think most people have self-esteem issues and, and even with, you know, with our parents, you don't have very loving, very supportive parents. And I've also worked with many people who have it.

But it's just part of, part of the growing. You know, the young, young minds that didn't know any better either. We were told something by our parents or teachers in a moment of overwhelm just reacted and didn't know the effect of those words would have, or we misheard it. We took something on personally, [00:08:00] like say for example, our parents may have gotten divorced.

And even though it may have had nothing to do with us, we took it on like, how could daddy leave? Didn't daddy love me. And then we misinterpret misunderstand words and actions and take them on. Right? So, so the, the next step of, of somebody in that situation would be like, well, what's wrong with me?

Doesn't that he love me and had nothing to do with us. That daddy left. I knew that wasn't the case in my life. My parents stayed together until he passed. But one thing that I think may have influenced in my case, My parents in Cuba were counter revolutionaries. So, you know, there were, there actually were conspiring in cahoots with with the us to, to, you know, to counteract Castro and out of their part of France.

Most of them, they were the only ones who didn't, you know, who weren't shot or who, or, or who spent 20 [00:09:00] years in prison from their perspective. That was all the miraculous. But one, one effect that I think had on us as kids, even though we didn't really know what was going on at that point, but there was this implicit message of kind of don't.

Don't let yourself be seen too much, right? Because there was real danger. Yeah. Real danger. Not like today. If we have listeners from over 80 countries and different backgrounds and even in America today versus 50 years ago, different world, different generation. But you had legit real fear of being murdered tortured.

It's not like an American health club prison. It was bad. So it was a real thing. Like I'm not kidding. Like even as a kid, I remember there was a close friend of the family who wasn't prison, who was that? Who was a political prison. I remember going to visit him in prison. I must've been, I dunno, seven, eight years old.

So it was a real thing. [00:10:00] Yeah. And it carries with you through childhood to, into adulthood because you have that it's so. Impressionable. And it's so heavy as a child. That's not so natural. You should be facing that. Yeah. I can't even imagine living with that every day, thinking my parents are trying to do the right thing and we may be murdered for it, or we may be put in prison.

So when you were doing that, how did they teach you? Did they just say, keep your mouth shut? Is that what your instructions? Well, it wasn't that direct. It was, it was more kind of like an implicit like I don't remember them saying anything directly. But it was the kind of thing that you just kind of picked up.

Like, I remember. Like, I mean, it's hard to explain what it's like to, to believe, to live in a communist country. Like, like here's an example what's chewing up to us here in the U S or in the west, you know, nothing where we stick a piece of gum in our mouth and we spit it out and don't even think about it.

We had it better than most people because we had, you know, my dad was a, was a doctor [00:11:00] and they had friends. My parents had friends who worked in foreign embassies. So once in a while, because of those connections, we get you know, we got a pack of Chiclets. I don't know if you remember the little, you know, little Chiclets and absolutely because, you know, we were a large family.

We were nine kids. We'd split the Chiclets between the kids and chew it all day. Then at the end of the day, we're going to glass of water with, we put a little bit of water at the bottom, put a toothpaste. And stir it up and put our gum in there. So it'd be minty again the next day and then hide it. So my mom wouldn't throw it out and keep it going, you know, for two, three weeks until she found it and throw it out.

And, and that's just like one example of things that we take for granted here. Cool. So, okay. So continue with your story. So you're growing up in this kind of environment, and then again, we're just going to chronological. Is there anything else during that time that was significant that we need to talk about [00:12:00] before we move on in your story?

Well, yeah, I think, you know, I think it's a to continue with that theme before we move on too far from that team of, of the stuff, the fears because I managed to get through through college without getting in front of a room on delivering. And yet I always had a sense of mission. Like I, I knew I, I had, you know, something, some work to do in this world, something that was going to make a difference.

And, and that kind of showed up in, or I interpreted in different ways at different points in my life. So out of college, I realized that, you know, if I'm going to fulfill that mission, I've got to get over this fear. And I signed up for a public speaking course and hated it. David hated it, detested it because for 14 weeks and had to get up in front of a room and deliver three, two minute speeches come Monday.

I was already angsting about it. I was already worried I was already [00:13:00] losing sleep over it. But what happened, you know, like midway through the course of just from doing it and doing it and do it, it stopped being such a big deal. And I think when we. But that's a great way that we can understand how to get over our fears.

You know, there's, there's a misunderstanding that to be fearless means that we don't feel the fear and that's not what it means to be fearless means that we no longer allow fear to hold us back. Right. So, so there's a, there's a book called feel the fear and do it anyway basis in Jefferson. And here it is in 60 seconds, imagine concentric circles.

So this, the center circle represents our comfort zone. So, so this is what we're comfortable now being in the world, being with other people et cetera, just like our comfort. Every time, we take a little step beyond and we stretch ourselves beyond that comfort zone. So we do something and it could be a tiny, tiny thing, or it could be a huge leap, [00:14:00] but we do something that's going to stretch us and put us in some degree of, of discomfort of risk.

And that means emotional, psychological. So we stretch ourselves outside of that comfort zone. And it could be a simple thing. It could be saying, yes, I'm going on a coffee date. It could be, you know, overriding our fear and going for the job interview that we don't know that we're actually quite up for.

So every time we transcend that fear, that that keeps us stuck in situations that are not fulfilling for us. And sometimes soul devouring. We stretch ourselves beyond the comfort zone and the thing is that every time we take one step, it doesn't shrink back let's. So if we take even a baby step every week, imagine that.

By the end of 52 weeks, we're going to be our comfort. So it's going to be way expanded. And even before I understood the concept, that's how I got through my, got over my fear of speaking, just doing it a little bit at a time. And like these days when I get up in front of you know, speak to auditoriums, you know, hundreds and [00:15:00] a couple of thousand people and sure, like I'll, I'll, I feel butterflies right before we get on, but, but it doesn't hold me back.

And as soon as I start speaking, they just go away. Yeah. And that's thank you for sharing that Christian, for you listening to. There are statistics all over the world. They've done multiple studies. There's people who on average fear, public speaking, more than death, right. It literally has ranked higher.

And for those of you listening, I didn't, if you're watching the podcast on YouTube, you're seeing me smile at a time. And Christian, I don't want you to think I'm laughing at what you're saying, because I agree. 100%, I grew up super American poor, and I grew up with no support and a really dysfunctional family.

And I had a terrible field speaking, but oh yeah. I was introverted until my senior year of high school actually. And then when I went to college, I felt God was [00:16:00] calling me to be a businessman and I knew I'd have to speak a lot. Well, I got all the way into my, I did two years of engineering and then I did marketing the other three and got my degree.

But I remember thinking, dude, you gotta get over this. You're about to go into the world and you're going to have to speak for presentations. So nobody taught me this. It's just like, I really just felt like God saying, you gotta do this. So I'm like, what am I worse at than public speaking? And I thought singing, that's the, that's the thing I'm like worse at, in life.

So in my senior year of college, I signed up, actually I take it back. It might've been, I had two seniors cause I switched my major. But anyways, I signed up for a voice class and all the people in it, it was like 20 women and one other guy. And they were all, that was her major drama. And three times a week, I had to go in there and humiliate myself.

But I tell you what, when that class was over, [00:17:00] I had no fear of public speaking because I mean to this day, I still get nervous before I speak, but not that crippling nerves. Cause I'm like, if I can humiliate myself in front of 20 beautiful women and the teacher and one of my friends, I can do anything.

Right. But so what you're saying is spot on when I personally, I was never taught, but I experienced it and I'm laughing because you reminded me of 25, 30 years ago of me standing up there singing songs that were, that is funny. We have so much in common. If you would've asked me that, then I would have said, what am I worse than, than speaking?

And I would have agreed singing. Yeah. Yeah. What about direct? The other thing I'm terrible at is navigation. I am horrible at directions. I can go to the same person's house 50 times and still need. Like a visual memory sense of direction. Oh man, not me. If you put me in a city grid, find my way. No problem.

But if you put me in the woods, I will die. Lost in the woods is just crazy. [00:18:00] It's curious, but go back to your story, but that's why if anybody's watching the podcast, they're like, why is Dave smiling and laughing at Christian? I'm laughing at myself because what he's saying is a hundred percent true. Like if you have a fear face it and keeping yourself up a literally each day in a good way and then you'll end up overcoming it.

So thank you for sharing. I didn't take the, I took the smiling ass understanding. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well just in case, just in case. Cause another thing too is I mute my mic while you're talking. So if there's ever a delay between my response, I'm not zoning out. I'm just going to push the button faster. Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

And I love you Sherry, part of your story to. Yeah, it just, that's how this podcast is, man. We're just friends and our goal is to help each other grow and our listeners, and then they help us. It's just a beautiful community. So go on. So you're in school, you're public speaking, you know, inch by inch. It's essentially an elephant one bite at a time.

You're just taking it and growing. And then where is, where does your life go from there? Let's see. [00:19:00] So, so, so here's another, I think another aspect of it that might be supportive to people which, which I think has to do with, with life purpose. So through my twenties, I like had, I kind of struggled with, with the religion in which I was raised because it really had no room for me.

So like other people, you know, I throw out the baby with a baptismal water and throughout my twenties, you know, confusing it confusing. I didn't know that, that I, that I didn't know, there was a difference between religion and spirituality and that particular manifestation of that religion. Didn't, you know, didn't match who I, who I was.

So through my twenties, I developed, I focused on professional development, my personal growth and, and come to the, you know, so I was approaching the end of [00:20:00] my twenties. I started to think there has to be more to life, got a very enviable life. How did the cushy job I was making decent money? I had sports car condo on the water and, and yet, you know, a sought after socially sought after professionally.

And yet the more that I had, the more that I thought, you know, I've got the, has to be more to life than all of this. And so it kind of went through a period of searching and because of that, That sense of mission that, that you and I shared was also was still in there under the surface. And so I still had, I think that was the reason for my disc satisfaction.

And I know how many people, you know, are out there who share that sense of, of, of knowing that they've came here to do something and yet have sold out for the illusion of security of a biweekly paycheck. And, and so that's where I was, you know, it's like I had a decent job, but I was representing something that I didn't really [00:21:00] believe in anymore.

And so I started this whole phase of searching and I actually spent a weekend in which I didn't listen to music. I didn't watch TV. I didn't read, I just stayed in the question of, you know, what do I really want from life? And so anytime I'd have an idea and I wasn't evaluating, it could be something petty, it could be something about making a difference in the world.

So I started making a list and adding to it, adding to it, got up to like a hundred things. And then I started eliminating, what do I really want from life? And I got it down to three after the weekend. And it was something like, and Hey, just to not interrupt you, but for if you're listening, this is one of those practical steps that Christians are unpacking, listen to what he's doing and how he's doing it.

Go back and replay that because that's a beautiful method to really isolate your purpose. Exactly. And then also the. Man that TV's it could be a blessing, but it's normally occurs. And I don't know [00:22:00] about you, Christian, but for me in the most productive times of my life, I'm never watching TV and it's not even conscious.

And then when you watch that TV, it's just a life sucker. So you can watch podcasts from when you're watching Netflix and Amazon prime all day. There's an issue. Right. But going, I didn't want to cut yourself. I really appreciate you jumping in and pointing that out, but you're unpacked. Yeah. You're unpacking gold.

I want to make sure people get, that is the, that is my attention for, cause I know many people struggle with figuring out what am I here for? And this is what worked for me. And, and like people like wondering how do I know what my purpose is? This is that's a whole other conversation that we can get into.

Cause I do do a retreat on that and help people discover that. But here's how, how I did it. And, and, and so. Once I eliminate, once I really got clear about what I wanted from life. It was something like I wanted to fulfill my potential, like what I was really here for. I want it to, [00:23:00] to discover my purpose and fulfill my potential in every sense of the word, like spiritually, which I had neglected for a few years, intellectually, emotionally, physically.

And then I wanted to travel and see the world and meet people from all different cultures and worked with and walks of life. And I put my list away. I don't even know what, where it, where it is. It's probably setting at one side of what am I box. I think that going through that process of getting so clear was catalytic and it had an effect.

And within six months of that, I found myself in this weekend intensive that changed my life. I understood I in that weekend. Understood what the ego mind is and how it keeps us in that self-made prison of fear and limitation. And I have a degree in psychology. My dad was a psychiatrist, but this understanding, which, which derives more from Eastern thinking and Eastern philosophies changed my life and [00:24:00] combined with breathwork a healing modality that, you know, I was not a track to get a PhD in psychology.

And when I discovered that healing modality just switched switch tracks, it just, it was so profoundly healing for me that I, I just an eye opening, but I had to do it again. And I had to make it available to others. And that's what began within six months of that, I had quit my job, sold my condo, give it away.

You know, most of my belongings were sold them and went off on a spiritual journey, like in discovering, you know, who I was and what I was here for. And that was the last job I ever. Yeah. In the education. I have a huge, I find value in learning and knowledge and truth, but institutional learning has its limitations.

For sure. And it's interesting that you got to this point and your real growth came [00:25:00] outside of the institutional learning. So I'm not saying you shouldn't go to college, but I think that institutional learning has a lot of limitations and a lot of theory without practicality. Is that what you saw, why you detracted from that, that direction in life?

And I'm grateful for my education. Like I loved, you know, like I went to an all boy Catholic Jesuit high school and they're amazing educators like, but more than so I, and they actually kind of coasted through Collins because I had such a powerful. Private education. And, and, but what I think, what I learned the most from them was, was how to think and how to process things and how to study, how to learn.

And, and, and, but yeah, you're right. A lot of that information that I got in high school and colleges, it wasn't very practical. And that's why in my, in [00:26:00] my programs today, my, my, like I have a virtual coaching program that I had to develop last year because of the pandemic, you know, after doing retreats for 30 years, suddenly it's like, oops.

And, you know, it came from what pandemic. I went from a hundred thousand miles on a plane to zero. And so start earlier this year, I had to, I launched a virtual coaching program and part of that. Was really important for me was that the, that, that what I, that I structured it in a way that it wasn't just about passing information on that I developed.

So certain parts included into the system or what went to the city, wove into the system practice practices and, and, and a system of accountability so that it was actually about transformation, not just information. So I think you're absolutely right about that. So that's an important point. Yeah. So now let's go back then let's go back [00:27:00] to where you transfer in your life from high school to college, you know, the, and then where does your life go from there?

Well, when, when I went through that process of getting clear about, and quit my job and sold my condo, I went on this spiritual journey, took me to Hawaii. I lived there for six months. Then I moved to California, ended up there for. 20 years before I move back to Miami. So 10 years ago where I'm based now and just one step led to the next and, you know, that's, I started doing, working with people then the, in the arena of personal transformation started little by little, you know, small groups, which led to workshops, which led to retreats.

And that's what I've been doing now for the last 30 years. Just traveling all over the world you know, teaching transformational experiences, focused on relationships that actually have a chance at working [00:28:00] focused on personal Powerment and how we step into power in a way that's not about hierarchy, fear, control, force, domination that doesn't require us to step on anybody, push them down in order to.

Feel powerful and life purpose. That's what we're talking about earlier. Like how do we know our life purpose and how do we remove the obstacles, the ways, how do we identify and let go of the ways in which we have been playing small and hiding our light under a bushel and, and really stepping into what we've come here to do.

And there's so many people, I third, like 70% of people are disgruntled in their current life. And they're the walking dead. You know, you hear all these terms and names for those listeners who are like, man, they're good people and they're strong, or, you know, they're great people in there. They have qualities and they have abilities, but you know, first they're probably mindset.

They're stuck in that prison you talked about. And then they're like, well, I don't even know what to do. I don't know what my purpose is. [00:29:00] How would you encourage them? What would be the first steps I'm going to take to emerge until. Yeah. And, and, and, and that is tragic. You know, how many of us sell out for that illusion of security of a biweekly paycheck?

Because, you know, if you tell me, well, I'm making quarter of a million dollars or $500,000 a year, then, then we can talk about selling ourselves. But most of us are selling ourselves away more cheaply than that. And, and the tragic part of that is, you know, to me, it goes to the question of what are we going to place our trust on because one of the, one of the, without minimizing the tragedy of the pandemic and all the lost lives and, you know, the, the economic impact and all that stuff, if we pay attention, there are blessings, there are opportunities to learn from the pandemic.

And I think one of them that I'm already witnessing people benefit from is. You don't w what was initially a tragic thing or a [00:30:00] curve ball from life? You know, people who lost their jobs, companies close their doors. Yeah. Like unexpected and not a fun experience, but many people took that as an opportunity to go within and to like, ask themselves the question right here I am, and that sucked, and I wish it hadn't happened.

And what am I going to do in response to that? What am I? So they took the opportunity to go within and really ask themselves the questions of what they wanted to do with their lives. And, and that, from that perspective, it was a blessing, which, which is a great, you know, it's a great attitude to have towards life.

Because if, if we walk, one thing that we can count on is that life is going to continue throwing curve balls, our way things that we just not gonna see coming. And. So one way to respond to that or to show up in response to that is to be walk around in fear, just [00:31:00] waiting for the next shoe to drop and feeling victimized, right.

Feeling done to by life. Whereas, you know, that's, that's the reality that, you know, that that's, that's one thing that we can't count on continuing to happen. But if we reframe that, if we rethink that, if we change the mindset, as you're, as you're talking about, and we say to ourselves, you know what, no matter what happened in the past, no water, no matter what happens going forward, I could always choose how I'm going to be a response to that, how I'm going to show up in response to that.

And, and just that simple reframe changes everything and pops us out of that victim mindset. And it's a, it's a much more empowering thing because as long as we're. Holding somebody or something outside of us, responsible for our state of being, you know, as long as we're saying, you know, if, if, if mom had bit this way or a dad had [00:32:00] done that, or the teacher or the minister or society or, or, or system, right?

Like, like sexism or racism or homophobia or whatever the system is that we're holding responsible for our state of B for keeping us where we are, then we're just giving our power away. And so that simple reframe, like, right, that I didn't see that coming. I wish it hadn't happened. And here we are, what am I going to do about it?

How am I, how am I going to show up in response that gets us out of disempowerment into an experience of empowerment? Well, let's take a moment there because I think this is a huge topic you're hitting on in most people's lives. They get stuck. Trapped in the victim mindset or, and they're legitimately hurt.

I mean, they've legitimately been injured and damaged and there's some that I actually, what's interesting that we're talking about this. I feel like there's [00:33:00] some kind of theme that God is trying to convey to our listeners and myself. There's a difference between natural disaster and personal harm. And what I mean by that is there's people who suffer, you know, they got to Ms.

Nobody caused that, but that's tough to accept, right? That's a a physical battle that Barra miracle it's deteriorating their body, but nobody harm them. But then you have other people that, you know, their spouse had an affair or, you know, they were raped and you know, that was personal harm. So the acceptance, you know, there's a hurricane and you lose your home.

It's an act of just nature. So. When you're saying we've got to change our mindset. I agree completely. And when you're saying we can't have that victim mentality, I agree completely, but for myself and all the listeners, how do you really think we can transform our mind and get out of that? How do we accept life and move on?

How [00:34:00] would you recommend us do that? Yeah, that's a powerful question. I mean, that's, that's like, you just went for the father for the juggler. Like that is the why beat around the Bush, man. You know, that's with people that have done my work that is too that's. I think that is the deepest and hardest thing to overcome if we're talking about a journey of personal empowerment.

And yeah, you're right. It's you know, and this is not about minimizing anybody's trauma or saying. I wasn't saying that at all. I'm just, of course there's a different aspect to having to forgive versus knowing this is just, this is just nature. I can't change a lightning bolt, but yet that dude freaking raped me and I want to kill him.

There's a difference. And you just pointed to the second big one, you just went for the other juggler or the other side of it forgiveness. Right? That's the other big one. But let's, let's do the victim mindset [00:35:00] first. So, so again, like stuff happens that shouldn't happen and people deal with, like, I deal with people like countless, countless people over the last 30 years who, who experienced the kind of stuff you're talking about, rape and sexual abuse.

And I mean, that's, those are the kind of curve balls that you don't illness. Like a pandemic, like maybe a handful of people in the world saw that predicted that this pandemic was coming. Most of us didn't the far, far majority of us didn't see it coming. And so that's the kind of stuff that I'm talking about.

That stuff is going to happen, that, that we have no control over and one way to deal with it. It's like, oh my God, that sucked. And then we, we kind of use that as an excuse for keeping ourselves stuck, where we are. The other attitude is like, you know, like, like a Stephen Hawking, you know, like look at what that man accomplished in spite of the physical limitations that there's so many, so many story after story, after story of people who have overcome [00:36:00] incredible obstacles and challenges.

So these are exemplars for overcoming stuff. To me who, the person who best exemplifies popping out of, out of victim mode is Victor Frank. The Austrian psychiatrist who spent years in concentration camps, you know, lost everything, like everything like his property, his family he couldn't use his education anymore.

His, his practice, his pregnant wife, soulmate profound kind of relationship. And being in a concentration camp, you know, like being a psychiatrist, he would ponder like you would like it started observing and studying why, well, why some people seem to survive and others didn't and he realized the more he absurd that it had nothing to do with intelligence or education or socioeconomic status before hat or culture or physical strength or beauty.

None of that stuff mattered in there. [00:37:00] What seemed, you know, in that sense, it was a great equalizer. What seemed to matter, what seemed to make a difference. The people who seemed to survive are the ones that had a sense of purpose. So it goes back to what we were talking about. So we wrote a book called man's search for meaning and I was blessed to hear him speak in my AP psychology class in high school.

And before he passed. And, and one thing that always stuck with me that it was such a powerful way, is that, that guy, you know, he, they took everything away from him and, and we're not, we're never going to get what it's like to be in his concentration and concentration gap. There's no way for us to really get it.

No matter how many movies we may have seen, or, or how many books we may have read every human right, is stripped from you every little choice. Like we take for granted, you know, am I going to get up at six 30 or am I going this news for 30 minutes? I'm going to have oatmeal. Am I going to have. Eggs for breakfast.

I'm not going to wear my red shirt or my blue shirt just, [00:38:00] and those are the minor choices, right? Not to mention the big ones, you know, what, what am I going to do with my life? And what am I going to study? And am I going to get into this relationship or not nothing. Right. Everything taken away from them, every choice taken away from it, except for one.

Right. And that's what he said. They could take everything away from him for me, except for one thing, my ability to choose how I'm going to be in response to that. Like bam. Right. If, and, and not again, not to minimize anybody's anybody's trauma, but if he can do it there in that setting, we can certainly do that in our lives.

I agree completely. And how do you recommend flicking that switch out? Cause it's not easy. You have a lot of bitterness. You have a lot of anger. You don't want to flip that switch. You don't want it for. But how have you found through your own life and working with clients to just let [00:39:00] go, just let go. And yeah.

Yeah. And, and a great exemplar for that is, is Nelson, Nelson, Mandela. You know, who said that if he had found a way to forgive in his heart, not just, you know, hypothetically, but like do forgive in his heart, the people who kept him in prison, he would still be in prison because it's a state of mind. Right.

You can be free in prison and you can be imprisoned. Like so many people were talking about who feel imprisoned by the circumstances of their lives, living in a free country with choices available to them. So it it's a state of mind. And so forgiveness, you know, that's the other tough one. That's the other big one, because sometimes we have to, if we, like, we've heard this right, that we forgiveness is for us.

It's it's not for them. So it doesn't excuse what they did. It doesn't rationalize it, it doesn't make it. Okay. It's not about them because the thing to, to get about forgiveness is as long as we're [00:40:00] holding somebody over the fire for what they did or fail to do our hands also getting burned right. Were our hands also in the fire with them.

So that's a visual for us to get that forgiveness is for us. And, and it's tough. It's tough, man. That's why I write that this stuff is heroic. You know, that's why this book that I wrote awakening the soul power is part of a series called calling all heroes, because the, what we're talking about, David is nothing short of heroic to hold onto what they did.

It is easy. Anybody can do that, right? Majority of humans do that, right. Hold on to being right. And I will never forgive them. And so anybody can do that. But to forgive what feels unforgivable is nothing short of heroic. And here's one way that I learned from a teacher that I studied with that that makes it doable.

So forgive two syllables, flip them around, give for what, what [00:41:00] we're doing when we forgive we're we're giving space for the other person. And sometimes for ourselves is even more difficult, right? So we were giving the space to be human, to make mistakes, to fall short of the mark, to make a horrible mess of things, even to royally mess things up.

So this go and this heart's back to understand that what the ego mind is, which is a whole other conversation. But the ego mind went to law school. I say, you know, it's, it's very, self-righteous it appoints itself, judge, jury, and prosecutor. He knows exactly what you did that was wrong and what the punishment should be, and sometimes even make sure to deliver the punishment.

And so what we're talking about is just in giving for, is stepping back from that self-righteous stance. Right. And just putting in even a little question, mark, like just putting in a maybe [00:42:00] and so say to ourselves, you know what, I can't even imagine doing what they did. I cannot even see it, that I would ever do anything like that.

But maybe if I had been raised. In that family, maybe if I had been raised in that culture in that time period in whatever, you know, whatever the details, maybe if I didn't have their brain biochemistry, who knows what was going on with a brain biochemistry, who knows how they were raised and their parents before them and their parents before them, who knows what kind of trauma was passed on from generation to generation.

Maybe, maybe I might've done the same. And, and, and just putting in that maybe begins to soften that harshness, that harsh judgment and self-righteousness of the ego. And again, just to say it again, it's not about making what they did. Okay. It's not about rationalizing it. It's not about does it mean that we have to be best friends with them and go to [00:43:00] brunch with them on Sundays?

Does it mean any of that? We can have really clear boundaries about ourselves, about what works for us and what doesn't it, who we hang around with and who we. And, and what's good for us. What's not, but from my perspective and experience is, is forgiveness is key to freedom.

Yeah. Listening to you. Was I, again, it's very, very powerful. I felt very convicted. I mean, there's a lot that I struggle with because I am that person that it's like, love care about people, you know, just let everything go. I can. But when somebody does cross that line, it's like this just burning just flame inside of me to get like justice.

And it's like, that's not right. You know, justice is my vengeance is mine and say it the Lord. And in my flesh, you mentioned that, you know, like judge, jury [00:44:00] executioner. So I'm here being convicted. So thank you convicted in a good way. And I need to adjust myself But, yeah, I know that when I had the most peace and joy in my life was probably in my late teens, early twenties, I would go back to thinking exactly what you said, no matter what somebody did to me, I'd be like, you know, there's a reason they did that.

I'm an, every human is capable of anything. Like, I mean, Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, some of the worst humans on the planet that we talk about in society, you and I could have done the same thing. Our listeners could have done the same thing. If we were raised the way they were raised, we might've been worse.

You know what I mean? So I'm not like you justifying anything they did there. That was wrong in every way. But I know what you're saying until we walk a mile in their shoes, we don't know. I'd love that. I love the, how you framed that. And here's the way to like, to make it extreme. You know, like probably nobody listening to this podcast on, on improving ourselves and [00:45:00] making a difference in the world is what.

Become a terrorist, right. That to wrap our bodies in explosives and walk into the middle of the malls, like nobody hears about to do that. So, so, you know, we have a huge middle Eastern listenership, so you could have people really struggling to find true. So Krisha may be speaking to you or interesting.

And, and I mean, we have our own share here in this country too. It just looks different so far and there can be terrorists all over the world. I wasn't just pointing out and there are, that clicked when you said that and here's, and here's so-so right. It's really hard for us to get and to relate with a terrorist, but here's, here's the thing like, have we ever terrorized ourselves?

Right. And that's that harsh, inner judge, that critical voice inside that terrorizes us and drives us crazy. It's so harsh and so cruel. And the things [00:46:00] we say to ourselves, we would never, ever, ever say to anybody else that's so that that's the inner terrorist. That's the ego mind. And so, yeah, you can say it's not the same thing, but it begins to soften that the judgements like the, I would never do that.

It's like, wait, you know, it depends on how we're looking at it. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's good stuff. I mean, this is a good introverted to look into. I'm losing the word here. Introspective looking introspectively, man. I tell, I told Christian, if you're listening before the podcast, I was up late working. My mind is not, my mind is not firing on all cylinders.

Thank you for filling. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So continue with your story, brother. You're you're moving through life. You're developing, you're growing from your past to today. What have we missed? That's significant to talk about the can for you, you know, talking about publicly can help our audience [00:47:00] grow.

What else have we missed through your past to today before we go into where Christian is going in the future? Yeah, well, yeah, I've been, I've been living my purpose, living my mission for the last 30 years. And I'm glad I don't have to choose between, you know, an intimate, romantic connection with, with another human being of, of a relationship.

I'm glad I don't have to choose between that and my work, but if I did, there is no, no doubt in my mind. Like I don't have to even consider it for a second for me. That's what gives me a sense of, of meaning and purpose. You know, and I hope that by now, You know, the, the audience, your, your, your, your audience has lived a long enough to realize that there isn't anybody out there that's going to make us happy.

Right. And how unfair to put that responsibility on somebody else, like you are going to make me happy. It's like, wow, that's, that's intense. That's an intense responsibility. And I also hope [00:48:00] that, that we've all lived enough to, to realize that there is no amount of money, no amount of power in the sense of the way the world looks up power, which we can get into that conversation about power or to there's no amount of money, no amount of power no amount of worldly success.

And, and how often, you know, how many more. Like successful celebrities, politicians, do we need to see witness, you know, with all the power, all the money that you could have access to and they're miserable. They're thin-skinned, they they're developed problems with drugs and alcohol and substances. They take their own lives.

Right? So I, I hope that we can learn from their example that there is no amount of worldly stuff that's ever going to fulfill us to. W what I've learned for myself, what, what fulfills me is what I'm living my purpose. Right. And, and my capacity to love that, [00:49:00] that those are the things that I would encourage people to, to focus on.

And, and that's all part of that introspection, right? Because you were talking about, because there there's no way. That we can have any of that. There's no way that we can have relationships that really have a chance of working. There's no way that we can have a sense of personal empowerment, a life that's filled with meaning and purpose, unless we're willing to do that.

Work of going within and figuring out who we are, what we like, what we don't like, what we're passionate about why we do the things we do, why understanding the patterns that sometimes, you know, focusing back on relationships. Now, sometimes we get caught and stuck and stuck in these patterns of relationships that feel like, like so touch.

It feels like in your mind, I've been in this, I've been in, I've seen this movie before might, might be with a different actor, but it's the same boring movie. So why do we get stuck in these patterns of relationships that. That, you know, have a, how was attracting and falling for people who are not a [00:50:00] match, people who are not available.

And, and so that's a whole area of my life that I've also done a lot of work in it's like, it, it all comes from like self knowledge, because if you like, even, like, it's almost cliche to say that if you really want to find love, you've got, it has to come from self love first. And that can only come from self now.

Can't really love you. Another till you love yourself and you can't really love yourself until you really know yourself. So yeah, both of those they bleed over into not just the personal world, but if you're listening professional, I mean, there's people who are listening to Christian right now, and you're saying, I get it on a personal level.

You know, you'd go cereal, abusive relationship to abusive relationship, and you don't even realize you're doing it. And then there's the other person that finds yourself going to career after career, after career or you're into the same problems over and over again. [00:51:00] And a lot of it is our mindset and our mentality.

But some of it is you're drawn to dysfunction. Cause that's all, you know, so that's where you feel comfort. Not that it's good. Not that you want to do it, but you're like, okay, the unknown scarier, subconsciously you're thinking the unknown scarier than this. So I can handle that. So you go back to a bad boss, you go back to a bad boyfriend or girlfriend and that's, that's terrible.

So Christian, for those first off, you don't have to agree with me, but that's how I see it. Do you see it that way? And then do, how do you escape that? How do you break the great, yeah, because if we, if we want to be, if we want to be free, if we want to have those lights, that work and relationships, that work, we gotta be honest.

Right. And we have to start by realizing that there is one common denominator in every one of those relationships, whether they're personal or professional one, word's going to hurt ladies and gentlemen, hang on. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that's. Now say the word [00:52:00] survey it's ourselves, right? That's the one common denominator.

So why do we do the things we do? Why do we keep stuck and attracting certain kinds of people, certain kinds of relationship and call you on the psychologist, you know, said that, that we attract people into our lives and we create situations in our lives so that we can heal aspects of ourselves that are, that are blind spots that we can't see.

And so there's, you know, that's another, we're hitting all the tough ones today, David you know, that there's a psychological mechanism called defense mechanism called projection, which means that I judge and I make wrong over there. What's also here. And, and, and that's what he's talking about.

That if we, if we want to be free, if we want to have, if we want to use our relationships as the way that they support our own personal growth and healing and transformation, it's a pretty safe bet that if it's there, it's here. Yeah. And another way to interpret that [00:53:00] in everyday layman's terms is a lot of times I'd see that the people I couldn't stand to be around had the characteristics that exemplified what I hated about myself.

So a lot of people like, man, that person is so annoying. Oh, if you really dig deep, what's annoying about that. Okay. Well, they're like this and I may not be living like that now, but that was a characteristic of what myself, I hated that I was running from or something, you know, or trying to defeat or whatever.

So that's interesting you say that. And then I do want to point out one more thing. That's kind of, it's a lateral topic right now. Portion of our audience globally is coming from a Christian worldview, which is my worldview. But as soon as they hear the word psychology or they hear Freud or call UNE, they shut down.

So listen, if you're listening to this interview and you're tearing Krisha and I talk about psychology, let's say God [00:54:00] creates everything. And the study of the mind is psychology. Now there's people who go off in their crazy nuts. An attorney, you could have a good attorney or bad attorney, a good doctor, a bad doctor, a good psychologist, a bad psychologist, but God made the mind and God made the body and there's foundational elements.

That's just truth. So when we're talking about psychology like Christian, you said you have a degree in psychology. I went back and got a master's in psychology with a focus on executive leadership because I just wanted to understand people better. And I'm not saying I agree with everything. Christian's not saying he agrees with every day, but what we're seeing is there's a lot of just basic human knowledge.

And I always go back to this. If I'm building a shed, if I'm building a house, if I'm building a mansion, construction principles and practices, different scale, But all the same foundation you start and you build the same way. So with psychology again, we're not saying it's all real, it's all true. Listen to everything it [00:55:00] says.

Cause I can go bring you down a bad path of life. And you're, you know, you're snoring, cocaine and sleeping with your mother. But what I'm saying is there's a lot of truth that God made that everybody's pulling and taken from. So don't shut down when we're talking about certain things, research it. And like the Bible says study to show yourself approved a Workman under God that Nina Notley, not the ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth.

We're always supposed to be studying, working our own salvation with fear and trembling, meaning just finding our peace with God. Like he's real. He's true. He never changes. And like Christian said early in their episode, he had a hard time with the religion and different, you know, the Catholic church and the way he was brought up.

That doesn't mean God's changed. God's never wrong. God's never evil. God has love. And yeah, a man may make a religion and say, this is how it is, but that's not God. And we need to make sure we keep that clear. God is love. God is good. [00:56:00] And our relationship with him is what's the right religion is to help us grow in that fellowship and communion and to keep us accountable.

But man, look how many religions there are. I mean, look, how many churches there are in your town? And I remember I grew up in a small town outside of Boston. And remember when we had phone books, do you remember those Tricia phone books, little town of 30,000 people. And I went through one day and counted the denominations listed 26 church denominations, not churches in a town of 30,000 people.

So religion will almost always get you off the beaten path. But relationship with God never was. So thank you for all the topics you're bringing up Christian and keep, keep going. But so, and you're going real, really going for it. So they, they, whatever you're here, they got all the other big, all the big ones.

No, that's why I always say listen to the show. It's not me. It's just, it's just you and us and God and our [00:57:00] audience. And we're here to help each other grow and it just gets better. So if you're not listening to a whole episode of the podcast, you're really missing out because Christian 10 minutes from now is going to say even more valuable stuff.

So keep listening. Yeah. And you're absolutely right. You know, re religion and psychology are not incompatible. In fact, psyche, a written meant soul originally in Greek. So it's just about understanding the mind, which is part of who we are. And yes, God made if, if, if, if that's your system of belief So the only thing is to, to remain open, right?

Like at least consider the possibility. And then if it doesn't work for you, then of course, by all means don't take it on. But an attitude of openness is, is fundamental in life. And what what's true what's of God what's of love will be there on the other side of the questioning process. And, and, you know, it's nothing short of heroic to be willing to question it's [00:58:00] nothing short of heroic.

Yeah. And I want to add one thing to that because I know you mean it, but I want to make sure the listeners, because we just, our country area is a different country and a political stance, but don't open your mind so wide your brain falls. Okay. There's a lot of people who are morons and they're believing so many lies right now in our country.

Politically socially, economically. What Christian I believe is saying, and what I believe is truth is we should always be searching for truth either. I'm right. And you're wrong. You're right. And I'm wrong, or we're both wrong. And we need to find truth, right? So be studying, be researching, be testing.

And like Christian said, be open to different thoughts and opinions and worldviews, but test it in, search it and see what is consistent. What is true? What is meshing with the way God made the world? The [00:59:00] fundamentals of reality. Don't just take things blindly, because I listened to people say things these days and they're out of their mind and there's this generation of not thinking.

And it's like, okay, listen, two plus two is four. I don't care what you say. And I'm watching the society say certain things and do certain things. And it makes zero sense, not even close to reality. So I just wanted to add that in what Christian saying is having an open mind is true. Be flexible, you know, Jesus himself, things that the, the religious people would never even consider doing.

Jesus did because it was right. Yeah. But don't have such an open mind that you lose track of reality and believe a cult and your swollen Kool-Aid down in Texas, around Africa, powerful David it's. And you're so right in this current times in which we live with, especially with the internet is I get so hard to there's so much crap.

[01:00:00] And so many lies being, being put out. There's like, how do we know? How do we know? And we've got, you know, to me, it's, it's got to go back to going within and we've gotta be willing to, to do the work and be open to bursting out of the bubbles. If we're only getting our information from one source. It's like we've, you know, Dan we're limiting ourselves and that's all that I'm saying is just be willing to question.

And we've got to do that if we want to reach over to and heal this polarization that we're experiencing, not only in this country, definitely in this country, but not only in this country which is, seems to be getting worse and worse. And it does not have a good ending. If we continue on this path of making an enemy of anybody who thinks differently it doesn't have a good ending, so we've gotta be willing to do the heroic work of at least opening up to the possibility of.

Having a conversation with somebody who thinks differently and, [01:01:00] and ultimately like, like the truth it's going to be found within. Right. And, and that's what I mean that on the other side of the coin, what's true. What's of God is going to be there on the other side of the questioning process. And so just to be willing to do that heroic work of questioning is, is to me, I don't see a way around it if we want, if we are going to survive as a species, otherwise we're gonna blow each other up in the name of God, tragically.

Yeah. And the other thing, the attitude in which you ask the question, like I tell my kids, you can ask me any question you want open book, completely transparent. I want to answer the questions you have about. But there's a difference between asking a question and questioning someone, having that spirit of anger and like, just that, you know, I don't, I, I don't know if I can communicate what I'm saying, but you know what I'm talking about.

When someone questions you just to cause a conflict or start an [01:02:00] argument, or to be contentious, that's wrong. That's just a punk wasting time. But if you have a legit question asking and someone shouldn't be upset to answer a question, you need to not just know what you believe, but you need to know why, but you know, there's people out there who ask questions, even again, go back to Jesus.

We talked about Jesus a lot. In this episode, there is the scribes and Pharisees who would ask them questions just to try to trap them or starting trouble that's wrong. But if someone said, you know, how can I know to be saved? How can I know right from wrong? How do I know what's real? That's perfectly fine.

That's what God wants. He wants us to search for truth. Right. Yeah. Totally in alignment and yeah, it's that prosecutorial self-righteous questioning that has an agenda. That that's not what we're talking about. It's what we're talking about is an honest from the heart being willing to ask ourselves, why do I believe that?

And, and does that ring true to me in my heart, in my [01:03:00] gut? Not just because somebody's told that to me. It's, it's hard stuff like we're living in tough times and I don't, you know, that there's so much stuff and misinformation going around that for me, the only way that I I'm going to land on it, what's true for me is, is within like spending time by myself and, and asking the hard questions and see how my body feels, how my high, my heart response.

And I believe personally, and again, you don't have to agree with me. I believe a hundred percent. There's absolutely. But the world right now is trying to say, there is no absolute truth and that opens a can of problems. I don't care if you're a Christian or not a Christian, if there's no fundamental truth and it's a free for all.

And that is not how I see the world. So, I mean, like I said we're getting into a lot of topics we're going deep and wide, but let's get back to your story. We'll go back to your story. So where's Christian first off. Did we miss anything in your story or anything else you want to hit on with value? [01:04:00] Like did you like, no, I really think this is important.

Or do you want to get into where's Christian today and where's Christian going? Wow. I think, I think it'd be supportive to your audio to, to get into this discussion about power. 'cause that's yeah, we, I think most humans struggle with this question about power and, and, and. And we have an ambivalent, conflicted relationship with power.

So like we want it. And yet part of us feels like, oh, I don't know about this. And no wonder, because all we got to do is turn on the news on any given day and witnessed at least one abuse of power and add to that, you know, combined, combined with the fact that we've been conditioned to believe that power is a bad thing, right?

With quotes like power corrupts and absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. So, and what good-hearted person wants to be corrupted or what to abuse others? Add to the mix. The fact that we've been conditioned to believe that the emotions are weakness, that they're [01:05:00] bad. We hate confrontation. We, we run away from conflict.

And what happens is that we end up giving our power away so that inherent God given power that's inside each one of us, nobody can give it to us. Nobody can take it away. We are the only ones who can give it away. And the tragic tragic part for me is that we give it away for lane reasons. We give it away and we settle for less.

We play small for an illusion of security, for a false sense of acceptance and, and for morsels, for crumps of pseudo love. And, and, and the important thing to realize is that there is a way that we can step into power. That is a match for who we are, and, and to realize, for example, That quote, power corrupts with specifically addressing political power, like worldly power, not the personal power, you know, interpersonal power, which is what we're talking about, what we [01:06:00] confuse at all.

And we give it all away. It was meant to stress the needs for checks and balances. It wasn't meant to say that you can't have a position of leadership, right? Yeah. It's like the separation of church and state people. 98% of the time that phrase is used, it's used inappropriately, correct? The founding fathers were saying the government shouldn't control the establishment.

They establish a religion. You know, there shouldn't be a church that controls the country, but they were believers and they had moral ethics and they said, this constitution is built on morality and God. And if you take that out of our society, our culture and our society will be. But people are like using that and abusing that.

Yes. It takes more rally out of the world and the schools and the politics. And it's craziness. It is yeah. The weight or impose it yet. Yes. Ding, ding, ding, ding on the nose, right? Yeah. So if you're a man, we're [01:07:00] going to have a second followup episode on politics. Cause that's a whole other world, but go on.

I didn't want to cut you off, but I did want to point that out. It's just, people take a grain of truth and they twist it and that's directly the model scenes used since the garden of Eden thou shall not surely die if you eat the fruit off the tree. Well, yeah, physically you're not going to die, but spiritually we're going to die.

So Satan's always taken a grain of truth and twisting it. And I had a friend who was using his eighties and he looked at me one day and I'm not from the south. And he's a true Southern boy. And he said, rat poisons, 99%. Good. And I was like, what? Yeah. Have you ever heard that before? And I lived in the south for three years in Georgia and I never heard that.

That's hilarious. Yeah. And he said rat poisons 99% good food. Why say there's only a little bit of arsenic in it. He's like, the rest is good food. I'm like, damn, that's powerful. It like blew my mind. I was like, wow, that's really [01:08:00] powerful. But yeah. So if you're listening, rat poisons 99% good food, it's only 1% of the poison that kills you.

Yeah. Keep going, keep going, man. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so that's the reason that I wrote this book is that there is a way that we can step into personal power. That is a match for who we are that doesn't have to corrupt us. That doesn't have to make us abusers. That doesn't mean that we have to push anybody down, step on them in order to feel powerful.

And so that's why I write, I write about worldly power versus spiritual power. And and to be, to be clear, don't, it's like that's a whole other conversation that we can get. What is, what is spiritual? And, but, so to just to let people where I know where I stand today in the category of spiritual and profoundly spiritual my whole life is, is driven by spiritual principles.

I just don't belong to [01:09:00] any particular organization and for our audience, how do you define spiritual? Cause everybody might have a different, if I said the word. Yeah, every single listener, some will have a positive reaction, some have a negative reaction, you know, zero three connotation and denotation denotation is a dictionary definition, connotations the emotional feel.

So when you say you're spiritual, define that to the audience, how would it be? That's a great question. So, so here's how one way that I look at religion and spirituality, religion comes from the Latin root , which means to bind to rebind. For me, in my experience with the religion in which I was raised, that felt restrictive.

And again, it didn't have room for me. Spirituality on the other hand comes from the Latin root speed at it, which means you know, it, it's interesting. What's interesting about that route, that from that same route, we get both respiration. And inspiration. So in many spiritual traditions, the same word can [01:10:00] mean breath or spirit.

And, and in many of the sacred texts, there's that image of, you know, the breath of life of God gave them life through the breath. So for me, spirituality is more about that. It's it's more about, it's more about my own personal experience about the, the living breath inside me and my personal relationship to it.

And so I take, you know, I, I respect them all. I honor them all. And frankly, I challenged them all too. Because not all traditions as, as they're being expressed today or leading people. To having that direct personal relationship with, with the sacred, with God, with spirit. And your, so I take, like, if we look at the fundamentals of every tradition, there's something really beautiful and valuable about them which has not, and has very little to do with dogma.

Right. So, so, so for example, here's from Hinduism, there's a concept in Hinduism [01:11:00] called Nama state. Which means that the, the, the, the God in me, the sacred in me, the, the beautiful, the love in me sees and vows to, and recognize us that in you, right? Like if we lived by that principle, like how, what a different world would we live in?

It's like, if I see that in you, how can I steal from you or harm you or rape you or invade your card? A, it's a, it's a very different perspective. And so I've spent time in this, in this question of what it means to me. And for me, the spiritual part is it's my own piece of sacred real estate. Like if we are going to believe, you know, what, what they tell us that God is omnipresent, that God is everywhere.

Then that means that God is in every one of us. So, so that's what spirituality means to me is getting in touch with that in me. And, and how do I live by those [01:12:00] fundamental principles? Yeah. And it's kind of like, I guess if this is new to you, I'm closing my eyes. Cause sometimes I think better with my eyes closed.

But again, Pershan tell me if you agree or disagree with this, but if you had a man who went out and had 30 kids, those are all his kids. That's his flushing. But now he needs to spend time with each of those kids to have a relationship. So you could have the genetics you're born and you're of the creator or of the father, but you need to have that relationship now to have that closeness.

Is that a good way to put it, or is that, would you disagree with that? And I'm not getting the connection. Are you saying that each one of those 30 kids is, is a religion? Like God created a. Right. Okay. So we're all God's creation. So like those 30 kids are all that fun earthly fathers creation. [01:13:00] Okay. But now to have a good relationship and to have fellowship and to have communion and to have that joy and that peace and that love, we need to spend time with one another and we need to trust the father and we need to, to be in fellowship with him.

And, you know, if we want that, that's what I'm saying. Like, just because you have 30 children doesn't mean you have a good relationship with almost you spend time together and fellowship, and there has to be that acceptance like that trust. Yes. And we've got to get beyond this hatred of each other and fear of, of anything that looks or thinks different than we are, or expresses itself expresses love differently than we do.

Because you know, it's, that's what we're risking. That's what we're getting stuck in this tribal way of being human. That's good. It doesn't have a good ending. So, you know, it's what I call the theological pissing context. My God is bigger than yours. And it's like, how, [01:14:00] how many times do we need to see that this doesn't lead to a good place?

How many, how many more religious wars do we need to experience? And to me that is an abomination because God is not about that. God would have nothing to do about killing each other and fighting each other in, in his name. It's like, DOE I refute that. That's not the, that's not the God that I know. And a lot of times I think you'd agree.

That's the man's side using God's name as an auspice for their evil. You know, it's like, they're saying, I'm doing this in the name of God, but really they're doing in the name of selfishness and greed. And I don't think whether you're a believer in God. Like, whether you've trusted him as your savior, where they're an unbeliever, I don't care what religion you are.

I don't think it'll ever be a time where there's not conflict on this earth. Men will always be men, meaning mankind will always be greedy. They'll always be wanting more. There'll always be selfish [01:15:00] until God comes home and we have a perfect world versus re-established. I think you're right. We need to fight for that world.

We need to be part of the solution, not the problem. We need to love each other. But I think there's a realistic aspect that we need to take on that it's like, while we're doing our best to achieve that, we have to be realistic. It's never going to happen. You know, they'll always be poor. They'll always be rushed.

They'll always be sick. They'll always be healthy. And we're always trying to fix the balance, but it's just part of the broken fallen world. I mean, do you agree with that or do you think it can be. It's really hard to see how it could be, but I have to believe that it's, that it's possible. And that that's what we're working towards.

You know, heaven on earth. I have to believe. I have to believe that that it is that there is a way that we can find a way to live with each other in spite of our superficial differences. And, you know, the, the tragic part, what really sad me David, is that [01:16:00] we share 99.9, nine, 9% of our DNA. So we talk about different races that doesn't even cut it.

There's not enough DNA difference to be considered a different race. I'm a racist completely. I mean, I'm just being honest and I have a t-shirt it says a hundred percent racist because I love the whole human race. There's only one race when anybody res thank you. I scratch that out. It's like, what race are you?

I put human on every form. Because you're freaking moron. If you think there's more than one race and I'm this meat blunt wake up, this is one of those societal things. That whole concept of race is made by people to devise Christian and me and you. One race, different nations, different cultures, different worldviews, but we're all people, one race.

That's it. By the way, cross, I got out of putting human. Yeah, I do it every single time. My [01:17:00] daughter got mad at me. A couple of she blew her knee out and I crossed it out. It's like, what race are you? I'm like. And then ask the next question. Like, what are you like white, black purple blue. And I'm like tan, you know what I mean?

We're all a different shade of tan. There's one world, one race. And what's funny is two things we talked about today. I actually own the domain one world, one race.org, and I don't use it. And then I have the what I believe in y.org, two things that I want to start in the future, but I haven't. And we're talking about both.

I think, God, I love it, but yeah, but you're right. There's one race, the human race. And it's like, and I'm not trying to be, there's a difference between animals and people, but dogs, a dog's a dog, there's different breeds of dogs, just like this different nations of people, but they're all dogs and I love dogs.

Right. And people, I don't care if you're from China or if you're from freaking like, you know, Australia, or if you're from [01:18:00] Latin America somewhere, it's all people, we all have the same point. Like you said, 99.9%. But that shows you the beauty of God too. Does it? If you flew through it, if that 0.01% of DNA is a huge difference between a man and a monkey, like, I don't believe in, I believe in adaptation, like we adapt to where we're putting because God made us great, but I don't believe we came from monkeys.

It's two different species, right? Two different re that would be, but if we're going to talk about that, we shared 96 point something percent of with chips and 50% of our DNA identical to bananas. Yes. Yes. But that's what I'm saying. But in that, so in, let's say that 0.4%, right. To us, that's so small, but there's billions of changes that God crammed into that 0.4% and we're completely different and men are different.

All right. Monkeys that are different, a rock and a [01:19:00] man is different. You know, a tree, a mushroom, God created it all. And like, we talked about a shed, a host, or a man. There's foundational principles to create them all. But that last second, that little DNA switch, that makes a difference between a bird and a beautiful baby girl or a beautiful boy.

You know what I mean? It's just the divine creation. All of it. Yeah. I didn't mean to cut you off, but that's, I am with you when people say even pastors or, or, you know, people say from the pole, like from a political place as race, race, race, race, race, I'm like you're dividing the world. You literally are just enabling people to believe.

This is true. If you're jamming the term. As there is different races. There's not, there's one race. You said it very well. I love it. And let's go back to the breath. There's one breath, right? Like where does your breath end? And my begin, we're all breathing the same recycle breath. And, and, and let's even take like a little step further.

There's an element called argon [01:20:00] that's immutable, which means that it doesn't change. Right. So unlike oxygen then when we breathe it in, it comes out as a different thing as carbon dioxide. When we breathe in our gut, It comes out as the same identical, boring argon that's been around for eons. What does that mean?

That means that, that the argon that we're breathing right this minute, it's the same Oregon that went through the lungs of the saber tooth tiger and the wooly mammoth and the pterodactyl, this very same Oregon that was breathed by the ancient Hebrew prophets and the indu and the Hindu saints. The same argon that went through the lungs of the Buddha and Confucius and loud soup, the same Oregon that was breathed by Jesus and Mary Magdalene and mother Mary, and by every prophet and light, light carrier and truth speaker and every high, the highest scientific and artistic and [01:21:00] religious people throughout history.

Right? So that, that, just that other way of talking about how we're all interconnected. And that we've got to start thinking, shifting the way that we think about this, us versus them. And that we've got to think about all of us on this hurdling through space on this tiny, tiny, tiny pebble, because if the planet is going to be fine, you know, it might take a million years or a few million years, life will continue in some form.

Consciousness will continue. Maybe it turns out to be a, an intelligent, enlightened cockroach planet who knows whether we make it, that's what we're facing right now, because we're just now beginning to witness whatever it is that we have unleashed on the environment. Yeah. Yeah. I was laughing again, if you're watching this, because as soon as you said that between our earlier conversation with the screens and the pandemic, you know, Christian's whole world changed from traveling 130,000 miles a year to being behind a [01:22:00] screen.

And then you set a planet with just cockroaches. I instantly, for some reason, connected jet receive a movie wall. I did it. Everybody's fat watching TV, not doing anything with their lives. And there's like one cockroach or a robot on earth. Right. I don't know why I just connected that, but there's a truth that might come out of this.

Right. But no, listen, man, God. And like the argon, you know, I thought energy can either be created or destroyed. That's a law of thermodynamics. That's like a fact, you know what I mean? And then are gone. Like you said, it keeps going well, how did God make it? So it keeps going. He put trees, trees, sucking, carbon dioxide, blow out oxygen.

It's just a beautiful system. God created. And like you said, you just got to keep making the world a better place each breath and know that all humans are one race. God loves us all. And we do our best to love others. So that's, that's great, man. So with all that said, [01:23:00] where's Christian today and where are you going?

How can we help you get to your next destination? You know, I, I often ask myself not often, but every once in a while, what would I do if I won one of those big lottos? And I guess buying the ticket would be a good first step. That's awesome. I love those there's jokes about that all the time.

Yeah. But I always land on the same answer, which is I would do exactly what I'm doing now. I would continue doing, I would just do it in a much bigger scale so that I could impact a lot more people and, and make a bigger difference in this world. So, you know, like many people I had to pivot and I'm offering a lot of, a lot of my work virtually.

I will go back to doing the retreats, like lack of retreats, as soon as, you know, I'm scheduling some for the end of this year, for example, and for next year. But I'm, I'm really appreciating the opportunity that that this virtual coaching program, because of two things you know, people I noticed over the years that people would come to a weekend with me and they have an amazing life-changing experience.

You know, they see themselves from a different perspective [01:24:00] and, and if they don't have a support system, if they don't have like regular practices to keep on connected, it's very easy to get distracted by life. Like we're talking about the distraction of TV and so many distractions. It's very easy to get sucked back into the day to day and forget, and little by little if, if we don't have that support system and a system of accountability, Then it's that, those old voices of fear and self-doubt and insecurity and the self-sabotaging behaviors and patterns start creeping up again.

And so what I'm loving about this opportunity of a year long is that I get to spread out the teachings piecemeal. So it's deliverable deliberate a little bit, a little bit of content each week, but here's what here's, here's the key. Here's what. Develop make it interactive. So every week they have a little bit of content and their practices, right.

Practices designed to apply those teachings to their lives because that's, what's going to change, you know, [01:25:00] shifted, like I was saying earlier from information to transformation. And then the others, the other thing that I'm appreciated appreciating about the system is accountability. So every couple of weeks they have an account, they have a coaching call with me and, and it's a very keeping the smalls, the groups kind of intimate and small 20 twenty-five people to, to keep that sense of family and supportive family that are both going to keep us, you know, how does hold us by the hand and keep us accountable, keep us doing what we said we're going to do to ensure that we achieve the goals and the dreams that we identify in the beginning of the year.

That that's what we. And, and so that's coming forward. I'm also going to be started translating this book, awakening the soul of power to, to Spanish. So, and, and increasing. My vocabulary. So that's one way, by the way, which I'm using Netflix university to expand my vocabulary because it's my first language, but I've done all my studies.

It says age 10 in English. [01:26:00] So, you know, indebted day to day, it's easy to, you know, like if I can't think of a word in one language, I'll throw in it from another one. But if you've been talking to, he knows five languages, but like the combination of. Yeah, it can be, it can be messy. Yeah. But if I'm going to be doing podcasts, for example, in Spanish, I can't do that.

I have that. So I've gone a bit intentionally doing these Spanish speaking series from Spain and Mexico. So that, and I do it intentionally, like, I'll pause. What did they say again? And then I'll look it up and write it down too. So intentionally as a way to educate myself I'm also working on the second book of the series, which is on relationships.

Like how do we attract and create relationships that work. And then the third book, the year after that will be personal and life purpose, which we'll also touch upon today and that conscious leadership that you also referred to. So that's, what's coming up in my [01:27:00] world. Awesome. Now, three quick things.

One is there. What can we do to help you get there? You know, buy your book, take your class. Coaching too. Are there any special offers you want to share with our audience? You don't have to, but it's totally fine if you want to. And then three got one more topic. I actually want to rewind because you said something in that close that it, like, I think it's a very important point.

I think we should have people listening. So first, what can we do to help you any special offers and we'll get to my last rant. Yeah. Buy the book for sure. It's life-changing and again, take, you know, some of it you probably won't resonate with, but take from it. What's going to serve you. Leave. Leave the rest behind.

So the book is available, wherever books are sold, right. You can get, and I have the book, I have the book right here in my hand. Yeah. And actually I do have another question. You had a quote by a woman that, you know, she might be a little, little, well [01:28:00] known Gloria Estefan and just, you know, I started this book.

I've been Christian gave me the Liberty of giving an extra three weeks. So I could read this before our interview, but I started reading it and I put it down because like I've told you and other episodes as my listener and I told Christian, I don't want to know a lot about my guest. When we say before we speak, cause then I feel like it's not as natural and organic is getting to know one another.

So I got into this and I got to chapter five and I'm like, I'm stopping. I'm like, I'm stopping until we talk. Then I'll go back and finish it. But the book was well-written, it's personable. It's got like a workbook type of questions, lots of movie references and illustration that people will get and connect with today.

So I, what I've read so far, I really enjoyed, I didn't want you to think I ignored it and you were kind enough to send it to me even in sign the front, but talk about real quick that Gloria Estefan, how do you know her? Not many people you meet, you know, Gloria Estefan. [01:29:00] I don't know her personally, but, but here's, I actually, I actually.

Court at her for three years, which is another, if your solicitor to, to, to take you another takeaway, it's like, if you believe in something, stick with it, you know, because we were so fickle that we, we give up too soon. I quoted her for three years. And so I here's a story about that. I, I read somewhere that she was going to be honored at some gala down here in south Florida, in Miami, where I live.

She lives in Miami beach and one of the islands in honor to Miami at sarcasm guys. So, and she's an amazing person. Like she really contributes a lot. It gives a lot back to the community. And I heard she's a wonderful person, humble, accessible just real, like a real human being. And so. I bought a ticket, went to the gala.

And at the end of it, I made a beeline to make sure that I spoke with her before she left. And she was, she was there just very accessible talking to anybody [01:30:00] that came up to her. And so we connected, you know, the fact that I told her that before Gloria was Gloria bef when it was Miami sound machine that used to play at my high school bands dances down here.

So we laughed about that. I told her a little bit about the spoke that I was working on. And how does has a particular message about the apartment of women? I thought you'd be interested. And so she gave me her managers business card. That's the part that took two years, you know, cause of course he's doing his job.

He's the guard, the guard dog. And so several emails, no response. And then I, then I thought, all right, let me rethink this. You know, the book, as I said, it's, it's, it talks about what it means to live heroically. These days where we don't have a horse hitched outside on the arms and the demons dislikes that the ones in our own heads.

And so I said, all right, let me reframe this email. I rewrote the email. I said, you know, you know about heroism. So I put myself in her shoes, like what's going to touch her heart. What's going to inspire her. And I said, well, you know, about heroism, the way that you overcame your bus accident and the [01:31:00] injury, your back injury, you know, you may not think of yourself as heroic, but it has been a source of inspiration for millions of people across the world.

And then I did some research and found out that her dad had been a counter-revolutionary revolutionary, like my, like my parents. And then he joined, you know, the us military here in exile. So I said, you know, the sacrifices your father made and, and, and, and my my parents made are nothing short of heroic freedom for the sake of freedom.

And, and I said, and then I spoke about her generosity. Cause I read about her. She had helped so many other Latino artists, you know, break through. And so I honored everything true. Right. I didn't lie. It wasn't buttering her up. It was just acknowledging what's what's soap and you researched sure.

Sincerely and got to know exactly the laziness. Exactly. That's the point, right? Like, like I had to like figure out what. Inspire her to like, I wonder how many requests you guys, you know, how many people want something from her? So [01:32:00] I had, I had to do something that was going to stand out. It was going to touch her, her heart.

And so I sent that email and probably four months go by and nothing. And it was about to go to presence, I guess I'm just going to give up and then that little voice inside, right. To the set. All right. Just one more try. So at another takeaway, listen to that little voice inside. And so that's all right.

Just one more email. And I wrote, I wrote the manager one more time and I said, Hey, look, listen, I'm not stalking you. I just want to make sure you're getting my emails and I have to go to press. And then he, this time he wrote back and within the hour, he said, look, he she's about. Halfway through your book and she's loving it.

And can you give us another week? Of course we would've given them another month.

Yeah. So, so that's the point, right? If you have that sense of belief in what you're doing, don't give up, persistence does pay. And so to go back to your other question the book is [01:33:00] available at Amazon, your local bookstore, wherever books are sold, get the book, it will change your life. And again, you don't have to believe everything that's in it.

Just take what works for you. Yeah, you and I don't agree on nothing and we never will. No humans. If you agree with everything, somebody says, there's a major problem. And you're thinking exactly. I mean, seriously, if, if, is. Yes. I agree. You're probably in a cult, get the hell out. So, you know what I mean?

You want to make sure that you have healthy, healthy conversations, but go ahead. And then now special offers. So yeah, if they sign up to be, if you go to my website, which is soulful power.com and we'll put a link in the show notes, thank you so much. And if they sign up to be on my email list, which, you know, we all know how easy it is just to click on unsubscribe, if it doesn't work for you, but if they do that, they'll get a a sample chapter.

They'll get some other power practices that you were talking about that, you know, designed to, to make a [01:34:00] difference in our lives to apply the teachings to our, to our lives. And they'll get a recorded lesson about trust and. You know, which goes back to what we were talking about earlier, what do, what, what, where are we going to place our trust?

And, and, and a guided meditation about helping us to trust in these crazy chaotic uncertain times in which we live. That's awesome. Thank you so much. And so for our listeners, check that out, go to Christian's website, or you can check out the show notes, if you don't know how to spell it, click on it and we'll get you there.

All right. So I got one more point. I want to make, see if you agree or disagree, because I think this is huge. We live in a cancel culture, and I think this is mega unhealthy. And you mentioned something that like, you know, sometimes we don't get along with people, but I think that's important because we need to be able to say, okay, where are they coming from?

And why are, why are they the way they are, even if I can't [01:35:00] stand them because I've personally found, and I'm not kidding, I can think of. Two individuals from back in, you know, our childhood and high school, we hated each other fist fights bats. I'm talking head, slammed into cars. And to this day we've been lifelong friends and yeah, like one guy he's in my will.

So if I die, he handles all the money for my children. And for four or five years, we would like punch each other and hit each other with rocks. I mean, violence and hate amazing. But the thing is, I believe that everybody's in our life for a reason. The good, the bad, the ugly. Right. But in this cancel culture, like, I don't agree with you.

So I'm going to defend you. I'm going to shut you down. Oh, you shouldn't be on Facebook. That's not a fact. That's not a fact check. [01:36:00] I hate fact checkers, not the people, but the whole concept. Like, okay, listen, we, if you're not thinking yourself, if that's a fact or not, there's an issue there. Right. And it's all part of this cancel culture.

So I think there's a huge importance of having people you don't get along with us because that challenges us to know who we really are, what we believe in why, and maybe we're wrong. Don't want to say that. Right. Maybe we're wrong about something. So what are your thoughts on that to close this episode?

Do you think it is important that you just framed that David. And the humility that's implicit in that I don't remember if it was in our, when we talked, you know, before we started recording or we spoke when we first connected a few months ago, whether I read this on your website, but you said you described yourself as a self appointed Guinea pig for anything you promote.

And I thought, wow, wow. What a, that is such an attitude of openness and humility, [01:37:00] right? That, that what's implicit in that, to me, it's just the willingness to at least consider it, at least look at it. And, and that is such a, to me, such a healthy attitude. And that's that attitude is what's going to help us get over these superficial differences that keep us separate.

And at some point we've got to ask ourselves who is benefiting from keeping us separate and at each other's throat, right? Because that also relates to power to the conversation about power, which is a huge conversation that, you know, we didn't have really time to get into it. Today. But, but yeah, a bit sick.

I just wanted to honor that in you and to that is the opposite of castle cultures. Like yeah. You're going to disagree with people, but sometimes like , I love that example that you were talking about sometimes are the people that we get, our goat are going to be our greatest teachers. And if we just add, have the [01:38:00] humility to ask ourselves, how do I do that?

Right. And what, what, what they're doing like really bugs me, but guarantee you that the more that whatever they do is bugging us. We're doing that too in some way. And it could be really subtle. It could be in relationship to self. But, but if we're, if we're willing to shift that and just rather than cancel people out our lives, cross them out of our lives.

Because I think that is a, you know, a modern day crucifixions. Like, I, I don't like them. I hate them. So I'm going to cross them out of my life. And. If we continue doing that, we're never going to get over this and we're never going to find Pete and we'll be able to find peace in this world and call me an idealist, a hopeless idealist.

But I believe that somehow we can do this. Yeah. And first off, thank you for your kindness. That means a lot. I mean, I really appreciate you. And then going back to our topic. Yeah. Like if someone doesn't agree with you now that I want to make the distinction too, if you have someone in your, because you're a professional Christian, I'm a [01:39:00] professional, but we're also humans and it's not separate it's together, but if someone's in your organization and they're on that, Okay.

I'm not seeing except on ethical behavior. Right. I'm not seeing except immorality, but if someone's a little belligerent, like, okay, I'm going to bring it up just straight up. I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal. Okay. Donald Trump, he's a polarizing figure. You may love his personality or you may hate his personality, but I don't care about the personality.

I care about the character in the action. So if someone doesn't like, like, I know a lot of people are like, I love the decisions Donald Trump made an office, but man, I can't stand his personality. Okay. We'll look at actions, speak louder than words. And some people are annoying. That's it? That's all there is to it.

[01:40:00] You gotta take the good and the bad. But the thing is like with. With what we're talking about with cancel culture. If you're not watching this podcast right now, Christian behind him has a piece of art. It's a beautiful piece of art. I don't have that brain. I am not an artist. If you had me running everything, it would be very black and white bear, very strategic, very systematic, very engineering, very boring.

In a lot of ways, you wouldn't have beautiful art. And then if you had an artist, do everything, you'd have these gorgeous buildings, but they'd fall apart because nobody engineered them. Right? So we need all types of people in all types of thought process. And if you look at anything, when you have conflict, it makes it stronger.

You break a bone. What happens to your arm? It's stronger. You have in, in [01:41:00] construction, you know, When sometimes the materials crack, they actually heal like a human body and get stronger. So we got to have conflict. And if you work out right, you go to the gym and you lift weight and it tears a little muscles within the muscles heal stronger.

So listen, stop being such a weirdo, stop being so weak, stop being so freaking, like, I don't know. How would you describe it, Christian? I'm not a nice guy. I'm like very self-righteous or living in a bubble. Believe me that we've got all the answers. Nobody has all the answers. Yeah. And don't be like, oh, they offended me, dude.

You know how much we, everybody gets offended. Just get used to it, man. If you're not being offended on a daily basis, you're living in a bubble. I mean, that's just all there is to it. So listen, I'm not saying offend people. I'm not saying it's right to be offended, but don't be freaking surprise, man. If right now I say something that's offensive to crusher and he says it.

We should call each other out on it and then move on with life and he can punch me in the face and be like [01:42:00] later. Hey, damn, that was a good hit. I want to go have a cup of coffee. I mean, it's just, just suck it up buttercup and let's go on with life and the dental. David, let me just, just, I really honor you because you know, we, we spoke about this before we, you know, both of you to be on the interviews.

Like we know we're not gonna agree on everything. And yet today we've had a great conversation, but what beautiful back and forth and beautiful, you know, different aspects of the prism through which to look at the human experience and value to help. Yes, we were both driven by that, right? So what are the points of commonality?

You and I are both come from that place of, of love and service and wanting to help others and to make a difference in the world. And we do it the way that we best see fit. So thank you so much for having me on the show. Thank you for, for, you know, the openness to, to entertain the possibility of differences.

I, I, I had loved our CA our connection, so appreciated the opportunity and loved our conversation. And, and thank you. Thank you for everything that you [01:43:00] do and for, for who you are. Oh, no man. Same thing, man. It's been fantastic. I look forward to continuing the friendship and, you know, to my listeners and the remarkable community to your listeners, you're going to pick this up.

I'm like, oh, I want to know more about Christian. You know, hopefully you guys can all get along and have a cup of coffee. CA we're in the same, you know, LinkedIn, we're in the same town. Let's get together, you know, hang out. It's just what it's all about. I mean, you know, like again, we just go back, what's more important than God loving.

Love one another and live the life and this that's it. So with that said, thank you, Christian, for being on the show today, you truly are a remarkable person. Ladies and gentlemen, like our slogan says, don't just listen to this content, but do it each day. Repeat it. So you can have a great life in this world and an attorney to come.

We love you. I'm David Pascoe alone. This was our friend Christian. Enjoy this remarkable episode. Check out his book, check out the special [01:44:00] offer. He offered you. Check out the sponsors that support this show to keep us on the air. God keeps us on the air, but he uses them to pay the bills and I go back, listen to our other episodes and then be ready for next week.

We love you. We'll see you soon. Ciao.

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(Cont.) Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation
(Cont.) Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation
(Cont.) Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation
(Cont.) Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation
(Cont.) Christian de la Huerta | Escaping Communism, a Self Made Prison, & Fear thru Personal Transformation