Last year I decided to make my own Halloween costume, just for something fun to do with my daughter, and to hopefully win the "Best Costume" prize at our neighbor's Halloween Party! (PS- I did win!)...
It was a toss-up between the PiggyBack illusion costume or this Man In a Box "carry" costume... I decided this one was easier to create on my own. In this video I show you everything I used to build it and take you through the full process, as well as the finished product. Looking forward to having some fun with this on the weekend!
I now consider meditation to be the foundation of healthy, balanced living. This video will briefly explain the benefits of mindfulness meditation and will demonstrate how to meditate as well as how you might incorporate meditation and mindfulness into your daily routine, including formal, informal, and intensive meditation practices.
You can download several free guided meditation audio / mp3 resources at the following links:
I hope you enjoyed the video. If you have any questions or comments post them below. If you liked the video, give it a LIKE, & subscribe to stay updated on upcoming content.
This is a basic home workout for beginners using your own bodyweight as well as simple, inexpensive accessories such a stability ball and resistance bands.
After warming up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSs8ZPHIsc0
SuperSet the following exercise pairs:
LOWER BODY - Lunges with Ball hamstring curls
UPPER BODY - Resistance Band (or TRX / suspension straps) Rows with Pushup Variations
CORE - Plank Rollouts on Ball (or V-Sit Ups) with Ball Knee Tucks (or Lying Knee Raises)
First of all: Inhale... slowly fully hold, now nothing... Surrender / Release, Light, Love, Flow, Dissolution, Disintegration, Integration / Oneness, All, Nothingness, Unity Consciousness, Source.
And then... welcome back. What now?
The guide offering this medicine tuned into where my "head" was at and felt where my energy was moving and our conversation before this experience was simply perfect. What was meant to be.
I was in such a good place to receive the gift of the toad by the time I inhaled the medicine... "Nothing is in this pipe but pure love."
More words for what has no words: After inhaling a wave / surge of intense light / LOVE / energy rushed over me - into me - through me - with me and I flowed into it... becoming it. I am that. I am.
No time. No thought. No senses. No memories. One with all nothing void everything peace love light awareness consciousness emptiness eternity.
Coming back to physical awareness 15 minutes later? (or after an eternity of 'no time') I remember sitting up as if in a dream and chanting intensely "LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!" feeling the words vibrate through me rather than my speaking them. I NEEDED to move that energy through me! And then I collapsed... spent.
Once I became aware of my body again the first words I remember saying: "I just want to LOVE more."
And then it hit me... intense deep heart-felt true belly laughter! For several minutes I couldn't stop laughing until my abs hurt and my eyes teared. "I get it!" LMFAO!
"So that's it?" I asked him. "Yes, that's it," he laughed.
"So... all that to come back around to see what already is. I mean... that's always already been this. It IS what it IS."
The Cosmic Joke. So fkn brilliant, hilarious, beautiful and simple. I love it. I really truly love this life.
Many of my clients enjoy using boxing pad work drills in their workouts (as HIIT/tabata intervals, etc), and I wanted to learn a few more drills and techniques to help keep it interesting for them. I also wanted to brush up on my own technique, so I asked my friend Jason Van T of Precision Striking to join me for a collab on Boxing Padwork for Fitness.
Be sure to check out JT Van on his channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/tripleVVV3/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/precisionstriking/ as well as his website http://www.precisionstriking.com where you'll find tons of excellent resources and info for boxing!
Also check out the collab I did for his channel at:
I hope you enjoyed the video. If you have any questions or comments post them below. If you liked the video, give it a LIKE, & subscribe to stay updated on upcoming content.
An effective warm up can improve your performance in your workout or sporting activity as well as prevent injuries. However, some common methods of warming up (such as passive stretching and LISS cardio sessions) can actually increase risk of injury and reduce your strength and performance.
This video demonstrates how to perform a simple variation of a progressive dynamic warm up as well as core "activation" isometric exercises that you can perform before a workout (or other physical activity) as a safe and effective way to prepare your muscles, joints, and nervous system for training.
In this article I wanted to expand upon my first experience with the compound called DMT... to go a little further with some insight to accompany the video I recorded immediately after the "trip". First of all, here is the video (keep in mind it is a little longer, as I recorded it primarily for my own benefit, to help me recall the key points of the experience later):
What Is DMT?
Although this video is a deeply personal account of my experience, I hope you found it interesting and potentially even helpful. Now let's take a more general look at DMT. Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a naturally occurring compound found in a variety of plants in animals. It is believed that this chemical is either produced, processed, or stored in the pineal gland and it's levels are considered to be highest during REM sleep, certain intense experiences, birth, and death. To get a thorough understanding of DMT I highly recommend you watch the documentary "DMT: The Spirit Molecule":
While it is difficult to define the DMT experience, many users describe several similarities. Keep in mind that, from my understanding, one's experience can vary depending on how much of the substance you take in, how well your body processes it, what your state of mind and body is like at the time, how you interpret your experience, what your intent is with the experience, your environment, etc. Having said that I would like to expand from an article that I found interesting discussing several "stages" of the DMT journey. First, here is a link to the original article that I will be "borrowing" some of these thoughts from: https://www.sociedelic.com/the-3-realms-of-dmt/ I want to give him credit for sharing this insight.
The 5 Phases of My DMT Journey
Building from that framework, I wanted to briefly share what felt like five distinct phases of my own DMT experience. This is simply to help me integrate this journey and provide some sort of rough framework, without trying to box it in. It's important to allow some flow to this sort of experience.
1: Pre-Flight Jitters
This is where I experienced tremendous apprehension as the DMT began to take effect. The face of the person who was guiding me became pixelated and then dispersed into the room in a rush of colors and geometric shapes and repeating fractal patterns. I felt “hang on, here I go” and I became overwhelmed at the intensity of rapidity of the onset. I heard myself saying “it’s OK, I wanted this. It’s for my good.” (Whether in my mind, or out loud). And then, words were no longer available. Having had this experience, I can also imagine that if I choose to repeat it (which I expect I will, one day), I would likely experience this apprehension even before inhaling, because of recalling the intensity of this experience.
2: The Gateway
The Gateway felt like the passageway from this physical realm to the next level of awareness. This for me was expressed as a very intense, shifting, turning, colorful tunnel of light... a tube filled with many eyes. It was so overwhelming it literally took my breath away... caught me totally off guard. From what I've read, some will find themselves stuck in this stage. I can see how that can happen, as it was not only somewhat "scary" to let go and travel to an even higher level, but it would also be easy to get distracted by the beauty and awe in all of the "visual" stimuli in this "tunnel" or gateway. Here you may experience visions, disorientation, unknown entities, etc. How much of the medicine you were able to take in can also play a role. Once I was able to completely let go of the physical realm, forget about my body and brain, and give up any resistance, I was jettisoned to an entirely new level at a blinding speed. If your goal is to explore the outer limits I believe you need to stop trying to analyze and hold onto your physical experience and surrender completely.
3: Blast Off
Once I was propelled upwards through this gateway of energy and light, I was in an even more complex, colorful, expanding cylinder (or dome) of color, light, energy, shifting geometric shapes, repeating patterns, and "experiences". It was like a HUGE letting go... almost like dying or leaving my body, which was very intense but ultimately a positive release. This occurred very quickly and with great intensity initially and there seemed to be SO much awareness to take in or learn so rapidly. But not in words... it's like the shapes or colors were information I was absorbing by just "experiencing" it. After feeling I was here for a very long time, I began to feel I was being gently carried into different experiences, undulating back and forth, being shown amazingly overwhelming and beautiful things and absorbing something useful from this. It was euphoric!
The article I linked above described this stage to be a passageway or link between the soul and the heavens. It certainly felt like that. The author suggested that most people who reach this stage will progress to the next, but if not it's not necessary a bad thing. This realm offers fantastic insight and introspection, and even if one were to slowly settle back down into earthly consciousness they can still reflect on their life with an impartial perspective. Again, whether one goes further could also be the result of inadequate intake of DMT. Either way, I couldn't imagine that there was anything beyond this experience... but there was more...
4: No Man's Land
After one deep breath I broke through to another level, which was incredibly expansive and profound, but I don't recall any imagery or anything that I can describe from what I experienced there. It's almost like an amazing dream you know you just had, but you don't remember the details... as it's just on the tip of your consciousness. I've heard of some people describe having experienced ancient cultures, exploring cities made up of advanced machinery, and even meeting beings such as elves, aliens, or angels. I have no recollection of specific imagery such as that myself. I have no words for this experience and perhaps my current consciousness is not able to relate the vastness of what was absorbed here, but I do know it was profoundly positive. Could this realm be the connection to the "core" of the universe? I have a sense that this is where "anything" is possible. I still miss it.
5: Coming Back Home
As I slowly felt myself come back into my body and become more aware of the physical world, I was still very conscious of my connection with the Universe. I've described my post-trip experiences in my video (top of post), which included feeling like the universe was speaking through me, feeling as though I was growing and overflowing with incredible power and energy, and many realizations related to the power of love, gratitude, being present, and letting go.
I was overflowing! As my guide described, "This man's seen a double rainbow!" LOL. (If you haven't seen the Double Rainbow Guy you gotta watch it - below). That was my reaction... completely overwhelmed with an out-pouring of laughter, yells, tears, and awe. Although it did also leave me with a feeling of deeper understanding of "what it all means".
Double Rainbow Guy Rocks!
This was where I was able to intellectualize a few aspects of what I experienced. It felt like I had an epiphany. Even in the days following this journey I have been able to process and integrate what I learned in even deeper ways. I've also been hungrily reading, listening and watching everything I can related to spiritual awakening, quantum physics, personal development, becoming more aware, the power of meditation and breathing, being in the moment, etc. Now many of the concepts I’ve studied over the years are no longer just intellectual ideas…I just KNOW. The reality I entered on DMT was more real than this physical reality. The tricky thing is that this physical "system" we live in (this matrix) can tend to hypnotize you back into a dazed routine. Old programming can start to take over again and fool us into thinking our old stale limiting beliefs are “real” again. The key now is to never "forget"! So it will be helpful to establish new habits and daily practices (meditation, breathing exercises, awareness exercises, binaural beats, visualization, reading, studying, etc) within a relaxed attitude of flow (don't "force" this). Thankfully, now that I've seen reality from this perspective I will always have that to call back on... which is the main reason I created this video and blog post (as a reminder). Now I want to grow from this and continue to become more aware, more at peace, more thankful, more full of love, and live more fully. If I do decide to use either ayahuasca or straight DMT again, it will be when I feel I am ready to gain even more insight and personal growth (and when I'm prepared to accept the overwhelming intensity of it again!). I expect it will feel like going “home” again.
