Maya Raichoora: Train Your Mind Like a Muscle—A Masterclass in Mental Fitness

31:32No. Will it give you a better chance of achieving that? For sure. Will it make you a more bolder, braver, confident person that believes in themselves? Absolutely. and that is priceless so I always remind people that it's really not about just that end bit it's about who you become on the way and if you look at athletes athletes that focus on just the winning or losing tend to not play as well because they're so focused on the outcome that they forget the really high performance is in the present moment it's in the process it's in the growth it's in who you who you are and so it comes back to again like we all hold that traumas those limitations those beliefs that can stop us but if you can in that journey start overcoming them and realizing that if you wash away all those things underneath you are absolutely someone capable of anything that is the real I think point of life's journey that bit well it's interesting too as as

32:35Darin Olien:as I'm hearing you um all of the trauma did a lot of great shit yeah yeah you know I mean it carved a lot of stuff that without it I wouldn't have had yeah but it's at the same time like needing to carry it forward like your phone call like oh I can I can have an outcome that's different so I can step into it I don't need to carry on trauma in order to kind of go I feel like I'm in the next chapter of my life and and now all of this stuff is kind of like it's coming up and it's like wow what a not comfortable sometimes um and that and that's kind of this weird thing with life like life's not comfortable no but we might as well give it a go right and so kind of going i'd love to pick pick apart some of these and illuminate some of these techniques that you have so we can because i'm sensing there's there's there you you have a different view of some of what visualization is what the techniques and there's a couple in here that i'm really yeah keen to understand because because yeah i'll i'll i'll let you uh reveal that because the negative side or the revelation of, hey, see however you describe it, but what could not work or, you know what I mean?

34:13Darin Olien:So like prepare almost for that as well. So anyway, what's these five techniques and why do you believe that they are different or more powerful or more effective? Yeah. So these aren't my techniques. Firstly, I, through my research, realized that visualization has been out there for centuries, right? Stoicism, Walt Disney, Einstein, but then also, you know, the latest sports psychology as well. So really what the book does and what I do in my work is bring together the five techniques that really give you a great toolbox for your mental fitness. So one, we have outcome visualization, which is where you are seeing the result in advance.

34:53Like for your goals, let's say an athlete sees themselves with a trophy. they show themselves, okay, I can do this. I can be a winner. Then we have process visualization. This is where you use mental imagery to make a skill, a technique, a task better, faster, more effective. Huge in sports because you could mentally rehearse, let's say a golf swing, like 20, 30 times in the mind and get it really effortless and perfect. So that when you're there, it's muscle memory. Because remember the brain doesn't know the difference between what's real and what's imagined. I use this for public speaking. I use it for sports, but you can also use it for just processing your day as well.

35:33Darin Olien:So when you go, so just illuminating that technique a little bit. So let's say you have a meeting, let's say, so it's close your eyes, five minutes, just go in there, feel the energy of it all, see the experience, the emotion, the connection that you want to have happen. Yeah, take today, right? I have never met you in my life. I'm literally in a new country. And it's like, I could have walked in here quite nervous and just being like, oh, hey, like, you know, we don't really chat. It's nerve wracking, of course. But in the car, I took just a few moments to close my eyes and think, right, Maya, how are you going to walk in?

36:12What's the energy you want to bring? Just to start priming my brain and body to be like, yeah, it's going to be unfamiliar. You don't even know what the room looks like, all these things. But because I did that there, when I'm here, it's like oh i remember my brain's been here before so it can just be in a bit more flow or you know less nervous and that goes if i'm you know talking in front of thousands of people i will do that visualization maybe five six seven times so that when i'm on stage my brain and body think we've done this seven times so it's muscle memory um there's a comfort to that because you're stepping into something that's actually not new then exactly exactly that and that's why athletes really rely on it because when you are trying to perform the best you can you don't want to be thinking you want to be able to trust and we to trust your training and that's why process visualization is incredible it's so so good for that um then we have creative so interesting when you talk about pain creative visualization is great for managing emotions pain disease injury So I used creative visualization for when my colon was in pain.

37:21I always used to describe it like, I used to say like, it's like razor blades, just like, you know, cutting me and like fish, like biting me. So then, exactly. So I then closed my eyes and I used to literally visualize that scenario. I used to visualize these piranhas like biting me and, you know, be painful. But then what would I do? in the visualization, I would shoot all the fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I literally, exactly. No, I know, but think about it. The brain doesn't know the difference. Right. She wants real and imagined. So I started to influence my pain. It's not that it just went away.

38:06Right. But with time, I realized, oh, wait a second. I have control over this. So if I said, if I was just saying, my, just try and like stop the pain or try and think about something else. no no no hold on no exactly that and then eventually i was able to work with my cells work with my body even like a really simple example if you just close your eyes for me now and just imagine that you are at home in your kitchen so just see the furniture the colors and now go to the fridge open the fridge and there's half a lemon on the shelf and you just hold it in your hand, a bit cold, tough skin. You can see that it's yellow, bright.

38:46And just start smelling it. It's fragrant, juicy. And now take the lemon and drop by drop. I want you to squeeze it into your mouth. And it lands on your tongue and it's like so sour. But it just like the ripples in your mouth, like the cheeks go a bit weird and tingly. Your saliva starts to really increase. Now keep squeezing that lemon. Taste the juice of it. It's so tangy, so citrusy. Maybe a pip comes in. It's a bit bitter. Good. Really taste it. Okay. And open the eyes. Right. Were you able to, you know. Yeah. Right?

39:24Darin Olien:Things start happening. Okay. But you're not actually eating a lemon. Right. So you can see that, you know, just in 20 seconds, your brain and body both react. So creative visualization is a brilliant way to really connect the mind and body. Now I don't use it for pain, but I'll use it for managing emotions and things like that. Then we have negative visualization, which is where you see worst case scenarios. Either you see yourself overcoming it, but some people are also really motivated by the fear of that worst case scenario. So depending on how your brain is wired, I would guide you through a particular one.

40:03Michael Phelps very famously you know saw a lot of things going wrong in his race and his coach would be like to him now in your visualization what do you do so then when it happens and it did in Beijing his goggles filled up with water and not only did he win the race he got the world record and in the interview they were like what and he was like I have been in that situation so many times in my mind. So I didn't even flinch. I knew I had to swim 75 % of that race completely blind. I knew that. Whereas most people, they'd be like, should I take them off? Like, you know, they'd panic a bit. He didn't do that because he knew he's been in that negative scenario before.

40:48So that's fascinating there. In stoicism, they used negative visualization to basically it's quite it's quite intense but you imagine you lose everything you lose it all family money friends everything and you realize like what life would be like and then when you open your eyes the amount of appreciation it gives you life-changing um and then we have explorative visualization it's the most undocumented and unknown uh it's what the likes of Walt Disney, Einstein, Nikola Tesla used. Disney called it imagineering. So engineering your imagination, where you tap into a part of your creativity that can help you problem solve or create new ideas in a very different way.

41:36So a good example is Einstein, if he was making a decision, he wouldn't just make a decision. He would visualize like he'd be on a train and there are two tracks in front of him. One track goes down this way, the other is this way, but he would make that decision then if I went down this track what would happen and then by doing that when he wakes up he's like okay this is another decision I'm gonna make so like a two

41:59Darin Olien:decisions and they are represented in the train track and then he could play that out yeah and that's called like metaphorical visualization so but these are all found in their like diaries and their you know their quotes that are years and years back so when I was doing my research that's when I realized I was like wow they're basically doing the same thing different words and different application. And so now when you look at those five techniques, you can use them for so many different things. Decision-making, sharpness, techniques, public speaking, sports performance, goal setting, habits, all of it.

42:36And that's why I love the technique. It's super versatile.

42:39Darin Olien:And the more you do it, the quicker, like you said, like I'm just in the car. I'm like, I'm going to a place I haven't been, to a person I haven't met. Just go in, feel it out. I used to do this. I don't know how I stumbled on it, but I used to do this when I'd go into meetings. And actually, I don't know if I ever told him that. So there's a reverend, a spiritual reverend, Dr. Michael Beckwith. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I know him. So I never met him. Okay. But I was doing a documentary in Bhutan, and this is like in 2007. You know where Bhutan is? Yeah. It's a tiny little country smashed between China and India and surrounded by the Himalayas and beautiful.

43:25Darin Olien:And so we got wind that he wanted to get into film and stuff, so he took a meeting. So I just sat in the parking lot and visualized us already connecting. No shit. I walk into the room. He grabs my hand. He goes, I know you. We never had met. Oh, wow. And so that kind of thing, another one that just when you're saying golfing. So I don't golf. I used to when I was kind of a kid in high school, and I love it, but I got way too much shit to do, so I don't golf. But I was in between a trip to either South America or Southeast Asia with a business partner, and we were taking a layover in Central America.

44:11Darin Olien:And we were at this hotel who happened to have a golf course, and he liked to golf and I'm like I haven't fucking swung a club in 20 years so literally in that morning just for the hell of it I just closed my eyes and felt myself hit the golf club I shot under par oh I love it like I it was unconscious yeah it was to the point where I was witnessing laughing yeah just hitting this thing and like I just got a birdie like that's not it's crazy yeah how power and i still forget like like i'm pissed off the fact that i haven't been using it enough just talking to you you know i do and i think i think that's the crux of it right is that like a lot of people we can see it as this like magical tool that it's like we visualize this thing and then it happened but when we start to see it as part of you know everyday mental training it becomes a non-negotiable right and that's where you really get the um the benefit from it because in a similar way so take these pool workouts right when i heard about them i was like oh my gosh no you sound really intense so i kind of intentionally just looked on youtube i was like right where am i going to be what is the kind of vibe and then i took a few moments to be like my just actually visualize yourself underwater holding your breath and i held my breath in the visual in my own visualization but i was just in bed and all it does is it means that when i'm there i can actually show up as a braver version of myself thinking oh hey i've done this and that's why like you know f1 drivers they'll close their eyes they'll hold the steering wheel and they will actually rehearse the track before they've even done it and so it can feel like magic but all you are doing is you are priming your brain to essentially open up um your muscle memory and what's really fascinating here is there's another part of the neuroscience with visualization that i think is kind of scary which is the mirror neurons yes and that is the things we are observing or watching or listening to your mirror neurons are activating as well so that's why like if I was actually eating a lemon now and I was like you know you probably still react thinking oh my god yeah because your brain is like oh wow I'm also doing this but now think about the sort of things we watch or the programs we see people like failing or crying or bad relationships then we are literally observing this which is why the people you hang around all the things you are inputting in your brain rewire it the whole time um and there's a great story of a basketball coach I think his name is Andy P I can't remember the surname and he spoke about how his team had always wanted to go to the world and they had a chance but they'd never been so a lot of them were like oh yeah but I just you know I don't know what's going to be like and yeah but we've never played on those big stages and so what he did is in their dressing room or changing room.

47:25He just put a TV there. And on repeat, he played videos of teams of the world, just playing. It wasn't their team, just random teams. And very subconsciously, these people would come in there and just be watching it. And it was very clever because what they're doing is they are now saying, hey, this could be me. And because they play baseball, they're like, actually, yeah, I would do it like this, whatever. So very subtly, this coach was so clever to put it in there so that he was priming the team to be like this is possible for you see yourself there that's why i tell athletes to watch people better than you watch your best performances back because you can

48:05Darin Olien:keep them training yourself to be at that level yeah so it's it's so exciting yeah i mean oh my gosh there's so much we can preempt and and you know for you and and what you've discovered what's the difference because obviously manifestation can start getting into a bunch of stuff where some left brain person's not going to go there or not going to understand or not wanting to do or whatever. It can get weird. And listen, I've been involved in a lot of stuff over the years. Ceremonies and gurus and all, you name it. I'm game. But at the same time, this this is very very practical so when people start creating I kind of know the answer by what you even said because you get so many different layers to this but what's the difference between manifesting your dreams what you see when social media has some dude for 10 seconds talking about manifestation and what you're talking about with visual visualization yeah with an s yeah the other day i said it's meant to be with a z and they were like what does that mean yeah like what do you mean they're like z and i was like no as in what yeah anyway um it throws you yeah i was like so i get this question a lot and i appreciate it because i am a huge believer in manifestation which is why I'm very confident in saying that they are very different.

49:46So manifestation to me is this broad idea that we can create our own reality. If you can think something, you can create it, not through magic, but just through the possibility and therefore you then do the hard work, right? However, would we ever say someone like Michael Phelps manifested 23 golden medals? Would we ever say that? Right. No. But he visualized all the time. So where's the difference? One, the only place where I really think it overlaps is the outcome visualization piece. Because yes, I'm asking you to see the result in advance and a lot of people in their manifestation practices will use visualization.

50:30Now, it's not because when you visualize it, it definitely happens. No, sometimes there are those coincidences, which is why then people say, I manifested this partner into my life. but really what's happening is you are wiring your brain to see new opportunities you are wiring your brain to focus on success or specific people or whatever it might be and that's really where i see the overlap when you look at process creative negative explorative none of that is about manifestation in fact negative visualization is a manifestor's worst nightmare right because i'm asking you to actually rehearse everything going wrong.

51:12So that's one aspect, the actual theory. The other reason I think it's really important is because how you frame a technique will change how you use it. And I think manifestation is this quite trendy topic of like, you know, the beginning of the year, or only when you want it, that's when you bring in manifestation, right? but really something like visualization i frame it as a mental fitness tool because your mind is well half your health if not the most important part of us right as soon as we wake up your thoughts dominate everything your emotions your habits and so if we can start seeing this as a tool to integrate into our everyday life just five minutes that's all i ask you are going to get so much stronger so much more resilient so much more braver more confident and who doesn't want that yeah and so i think it really is about seeing this as a tool a psychological and neurological brain training tool versus i think manifestation is like a philosophy it's a concept it's a broad idea that we can create things into our own life yeah and it

52:26Darin Olien:gets into which i don't know if we know but the plasma of reality the magnetic fields yeah i think there's that clearly we're magnetic frequency generators tesla was clear on that right and And there is a lot of that going on, but, or and. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, something's opening up the field. For sure. That, that for sure, this, it has to start here to open up that other possibility or else nothing. Outcome visualization, yes. Process, none of that. That is simply science. But outcome visualization is interesting because when I was doing my research for the book, So Neville Goddard, I think, is one of my most favorite writers on this.

53:15And, I mean, he was way beyond where any of us are right now. But the way he spoke about visualization was very much about that. It was about the field. And even Joe Dispenza brings this up. But, again, this is outcome. Process is really just muscle memory and pure neuroscience. Creative is actually using the placebo effect. That's what we're doing there. we're using imagery to work on your body and your pain and your emotions um negative again is a performance tool but also you are using perspective changes and time changes to help you and then explorative is it's actually more about a creative process so again we're not manifesting anything there's no outcome we're simply problem solving or creating this is a weird insight that I just got as you said like it it it's like it's here's an example of it going wrong yeah someone wants a manifestation right and they win the lottery yes okay okay so they got the the the

54:20Darin Olien:the dream reality so but they have no physiological or brain mapped understanding of that situation and it absolutely collapses on itself full stop all the time. Right. Right? They don't have the network set up to understand, you know, all of your family members now want handouts, the visualization of what could go wrong. They have no space to understand that. So it's like if you really wanted the manifestation, do you really want it without the other parts of the visualization and the mental muscle? Yeah. That's the truth. And I think you putting that together in what we're talking about is so key because I've never heard anyone put it together in this way.

55:17Yeah. And I think a really good analogy is visualization can be a really great tool to like see the end of a movie. but you've still got to write the script you know the end of the movie is going to be really motivating it's going to give you direction um but at the end of the day you now need to write and create the script and that's not to say you can't be and own that but the point is is just because you see the end of the movie doesn't mean you can now just chill and the script's just going

55:49Darin Olien:and do itself well I made my vision board right yeah and I'm just gonna sit back and yeah and there's that action and that work and that muscle absolutely and and I think that's it and that's why doing just outcome visualization is not enough right it's actually the process visualization that's really going to help you in your everyday actions and then of course shit happens in life so you're gonna feel anger you're gonna have heartbreak and that's where things like creative is going to happen or negative. Like a really good example of negative actually that I thought was pretty fun was, so I had this client who's like an exec in a tech company, really high performing.

56:31We had this one vice, which was smoking. And he was like, my, I've tried to stop this for so long. I was like, okay. So I have worked with a lot of people on their habits and one of the first things we do is well let's imagine what life is like without you smoking you know be inspired by this type of person you can be and he felt so good and he was like this is who I want to be two weeks later smokes again I was like okay that didn't work then so then I was like why don't we try negative visualization and I guided him through this process where I asked him three years time you smoke a pack a day and I want you so I gave him the worst case scenario and I really want you to just describe to me what does your life look like and you know it was the hospital visits his kids didn't talk to him at this point and like his fingernails were yellow it was it was really intense and he was like crying so you just let him vision that came to him so i give him prompts right but i like it when they get to create it

57:37Darin Olien:for themselves as well he instigated that negative and i'd say like oh so you know how's your health right now he's like oh no yeah like i'm you know i ended up here whatever he has not picked up a cigarette for two and a half years because that one scenario created this like rude awakening to be like, I do not want this in my life. And I could get it. I literally could get it. And I think that was also a moment for me to realize we are really motivated by fear as well. And that's okay to a certain point. Now, as he has not touched a cigarette for a long time, then it was about now thinking, okay, how can you now go further and visualize the person you want to be?

58:21And so you can really see how you can be agile with these with the right direction um yeah and just change

58:28Darin Olien:how you think feeling before because too much of the negative can lead to rumination don't do that yeah that would be you don't want to do that regularly negative visualization i would do for every one negative visualization you do maybe do 10 of the other ones right because you want to practice that side because the amygdala and all of these fear responses and all of this stuff is kind of hardwired what oh shit what's gonna happen and like so you have to we're already geared for that shit exactly you're doing it now you're doing it literally now like you know we we do our brains are wired to keep us safe so it's doing its job the thing is that negative wiring is not going to help you achieve your goals or help you win a championship or just be a better mother and that's really where you've got to think right how can i now direct my imagination in a way that's going to serve me what's your best outcome for yourself personally a visualization that kind of has blown you away um you know no one's ever asked me that that's amazing i oh gosh i have so many to be fair um obviously i would imagine yeah yeah so i do 14 visualizations a day takes an hour oh wow yeah so you could just go specifically as if it's happening and you go down the list yeah and i've stacked it now over like now eight years but like how someone can lift heavier weights that's kind of where i'm at i think obviously the most meaningful for me is being able to see that image of me healthy again i think i will never because i i didn't know what it would feel like to not be in pain or to walk again that was really big for me um but one of my favorite ones i don't know it's on my oh actually let me show you okay you see that it's the background of my phone okay um i created this on ai about two years ago because i was like i'm i was basically creating a character for myself and i wanted to see who she was and every day i would visualize her and she is like her avatar yeah she's like half monk half beast she's like epic on stage but she's very peaceful right and i would always visualize right how does she walk into a room how does she interact with people what does she feel like and i was in amsterdam maybe like two weeks ago and i was on stage and i was in this blue suit and i was like shit you want to show people on the camera yeah I was like, this is, and I'll show you the exact moment because I took a photo of this exact situation.

1:01:12Now, is it magic? No way. Every day I was wiring myself to be more, look at this.

1:01:22Darin Olien:Come on. Yeah. I don't know what that is. That is wild. Yeah. And it was just like, you know, you have every, every. moment to start creating who you want to be so when I say outcome visualization it's not just about goals as in things it's also about your character who you want to be and so many people like to be my I want to be more confident I want to be more brave and I'm like well what does that mean how do you walk into a room what's your body posture like if you can start training your brain to you know as soon as you wake up this is how I'm going to live out my day you will start training it and then you trust it it's not fake it till you make it it's train it till you trust it wow that's key dink yeah that's a and it's over that's that's a big one yeah it is it is because that's what the brain is it's constantly about training right and like you said before it's already doing it now so you might as well step in yeah and like reorient it towards the path that you really want.

1:02:25Yeah. And I think, you know, I think we can all agree when you grow up, people will give you the labels. They'll say, oh, you're the funny one or, oh no, like you'll never be able to do that. You're just not the type of person. A lot of people say, oh, I'm just, I'm just made that way. Right. Just the way I am. But it's like, no, it's not. You can change anything. You can, like I'm unrecognizable from two years ago, not in a bad way, in a way that It's like I've invested in my character. And again, these things are priceless because who you are and how you feel about yourself and the self-image you create is everything because you will never, ever, ever outperform your self-image.

1:03:13Sometimes you will, but then you'll always self-sabotage again to go back to your self-image.

1:03:19Darin Olien:Baseline. Exactly. but for so many of us our self-image is made from social media from what our parents told us from us trying to fit in to be popular or to be you know wanted or belonged but then if you ask yourself who do I actually want to be what is my self-image how can I take more ownership over it it's amazing what life can be like yeah it goes from it's programmed and you're just doing this And then the sentences come out where this is who I am. This is what I am. This is what I do. It's just what we do. Yeah. And you're just further solidifying that status. Yeah. It's back in the victim, right?

1:03:58It's just like life's happening to me. You just got to deal with it.

1:04:00Darin Olien:Yeah. You can and feel free to, but. Yeah. There's other choices. Yeah, exactly. There's like a whole menu here. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Have fun. Yeah. And so out of curiosity, after you started visualizing feeling better and then, you know, of shooting the piranhas um yeah how did you heal yourself so that started it obviously yeah i think um so i obviously did a massive combination of things and i had really exhausted every medical option there was some illegal things some legal you know i tried everything um i guess what it really came down to is i went back to what does it mean to be human and ultimately it's a good question you know it's the basics basics what food am I eating and I was put on so many diets carnivore low fiber celery juice sunflower and spinach seeds it was the weirdest things right and then I was like let's just have whole foods foods that grow and I really stuck to fruits and vegetables and that's what I still have like steamed no fries I think I'm just like really steamed.

1:05:12But then I also realized that my environment's a big thing. The people I'm around, the stresses, the toxicity. And, you know, I'm a very, I'm an attached person. Not anymore, which is great. But I used to feel things so deeply. And like I'd hold grudges and playing badminton very competitively. I would hate losing. And so much resentment built up in my stomach.

1:05:36Darin Olien:Probably a lot of empathy and just this is who I am and I receive all of that. Yeah. Yeah. Like a sponge. So I had to be really selfish. I had to have amazing boundaries. Also really working on my self-talk and belief. But really the crux of it all was definitely the mindset because there was so many situations where I should have and could have. And I still don't get why I didn't give up. you know like i was there telling myself you're gonna get healthy you're gonna get healthy and my bloods are like you are so unhealthy you are so unhealthy right all my inflammation on the face of what you're visualizing it the reality hadn't caught up yet and you'll have moments like that especially if you're using it for quite like you know big things but i had a choice like am i gonna believe these statistics maybe i should every doctor was telling me i should or am i gonna to listen to my body.

1:06:32And my body was telling me that like, I'm just a bit misguided. Like I'm in pain. And the pain was telling me to like, listen, but when you're on medication, I couldn't hear it. I really couldn't hear the pain. Yeah. So then I had to kind of let myself feel it, which is very scary, come off a lot of these steroids and be like, right, let's try it. And, you know, I am,

1:06:55Darin Olien:Which is by itself gnarly because our health care system is masking a bunch of stuff. Yeah. And largely the tuning fork of us like you just described. So then to I want to be out of pain, I want to be out of pain, medication, medication, medication. But then going, wait a second, I can't hear. So then to be in a little more pain potentially so that you can listen. That's a warrior shit right there. But it was the piranha thing. it made me realize I can say to it bring it on it gave me just a little bit of I guess exactly you love that you're like you know um but I think it is that because it really was a matter of um trusting myself but I also wasn't delusional like I did say you know if I try this and it doesn't work within like three six months then Maya go and get the surgery because you're just playing with fire now and it's true um and that surgery is a big deal huge especially at the age of 17 yeah you know like it's it's a life change and I think what I will always say is I never claim that right this particular thing healed me because I understand that there are people suffering out there who are desperate for cures and we hear words like incurable healed and it's like that's all you want.

1:08:23But all I will say is that there is an indirect correlation between me having a very strong mind, a positive mind, a hopeful mind and me getting better. But there is an absolutely direct correlation between me having a negative mindset, feeling like a victim, feeling like I had no hope and me staying ill that I am absolutely certain of so for me I was like well I might as well give myself the best chance and I allowed myself to see me studying at uni and playing badminton again in the university kit I allowed myself to do it because it's the thing that kept me going it was like my north star um and of course I was putting in the reps every single day step by step, tiny action by action.

1:09:14I went to every like Joe Dispenza, Tony Robbins seminar, but I couldn't go in person, right? I'd be like bedridden, just listening, trying to just, can I understand anything? I think this comes back to your first point you brought up today, which is that you can listen to every podcast. You can go to every teacher. You can read every book. But if you do not do it, nothing changes. Nothing. And that's just the truth of it.

1:09:44Darin Olien:That's no, there is no shortcut. There's no biohack. There's no. You've got to take the stairs. You can't take this elevator. And, but we live in a world where we're starting to see these elevators. Right. You know, it's like, oh, but take this, do this one like mushroom trip. And all your anxiety will be gone. Ayahuasca, mushroom, blah, it's going to give you the answers. And I think it can sometimes, but if you want sustainable change where you are in full ownership and you have a really um close relationship with the mind and body you have to do the hard inner deep work yeah you know just just speaking on the the plant medicine stuff because i i did ayahuasca 25 years ago oh yeah and it showed me revealed some stuff and then it was difficult let's just leave it at that but so I I revered it then and I revere it now but I never had explored it again and what I've seen is multiple all of this stuff people doing over and over and over over again and and the truth of the medicine I humbly believe is the outro what you're doing after how you're how you're implementing because the reveal it's a reveal for sure and there could be and can be some healing within it yeah but it's a reveal it's it's a master reveal right whatever that is deep inside your psyche or person or whatever and then not doing the work and then just doing it again without implementing without doing the steps and that's again the difference between manifesting a lottery and letting your life fall apart or this application of integration of action and understanding this whole system but it requires the work and yeah and I think um one thing I will say I can imagine a lot of people listen to health wellness you know personal development content and it just feels really overwhelming to think where do I even begin where I don't have time to do all these things I can't wake up at five jump in an ice bath meditate for two hours then visualize then have all my smoothies right what I would say is strip it back completely and I do not mind if you don't start with visualization I'd be such a bad expert if I was saying this is the only route forward no the point is start with something so small become the type of person that can commit to just one practice for at least 30 days even if it's a few minutes and you're just taking a few deep breaths but we over complicate it we make it so extreme and that's why you see people will spend like all their year being really stressed unhappy then they go on this one retreat and they're like I'm solved but then you're back in the same life and you repeat the same mistakes and so it really comes down to what is the tiniest thing I can do day to day that will bring me and yield me the most impact if you can start with that question you'll realize it's so small it's so small it might just be having a healthier breakfast it might be saying one thing you're grateful for before you go to bed start really small keep with that for a month and then you can add on to it yeah small things added up over time is like yeah exactly they're just little moments but you get to choose the moments but I love the whole idea of muscle I love the mental muscle thing because if you allow yourself to do it in the car ride over it's it's now you realize oh it's a tool I can easily grab I'm I'm there to use it at any and all time and it is it is for sure probably the most powerful Yeah.

1:13:48And like, even just as you said that today, I just clocked again that in the pool, I'd done these 20 reps. And then he was like to me, my one and do 30. And my brain is like, my, you can't do 30. But I quickly, with my eyes opened, I just saw myself pushing the 20 mark, feeling really uncomfortable, but getting to 30. Just took me like 10 seconds. I was like, you know what? That's it. I did 31. Okay. I did 31. one. And it's cool because your brain will give you every story and every reason to protect you. Like, don't do it. It's dangerous. Whether you are, you know, when we feel like an imposter, it's like, don't do it.

1:14:27You don't deserve to be here. You don't deserve the success. Your brain is doing a really good job. It is healthy and it's doing what it's meant to do. But you have to be the one to show it. But look, what else is possible? Or I do deserve to be here. And that really is where you now master the mind. And I always say your mind is like a puppy. If you don't train it, it's going to shit everywhere. It does. It shits on your career, your relationships, your self-confidence, right? But the aim isn't to have the puppy on a lead the whole time. The aim is can you work with it, be in harmony with it, love it, yes, work with it, feed it well.

1:15:12That's really where the joy is. You have a relationship with this puppy where you can trust it. Yeah, it's going to keep shitting otherwise. It really will. So think of it like that. But a lot of people are just like, oh, I just can't control my mind. I just want to get rid of these negative thoughts. That puppy will bark. It will cry. Let it. But learn what are the tools to help it. That's key.

1:15:35Darin Olien:Tools right there. Yeah, exactly. Maya, you're the best. This was incredible. This is like a master class in visualization. good I'm glad thanks for the work you're doing what are you excited about now I mean obviously the book's coming out and that's a big lift that's a that's no joke I acknowledge that because that's a that's like giving birth to a lot of stuff and it's intense yeah and and the book was the reason I wrote it is two things I was like this will help me get better at my craft and I really do believe it contributes new knowledge to the space and I think that's exciting um the thing I'm excited about is my big big mission in life is to make mental fitness as common as physical fitness so I see soul cycles I see Barry's I see solid core I see gyms why do I not see places where you can walk in and come out more confident where you can go in you can train your mind for a marathon you've got on the weekend and you can feel ready for it so it is a big big mission but I really want to build like the mental fitness for the high street where you are like this is damn cool and I love to train my brain I love that yeah interesting question what do you believe or feel with VR as a as a tool a technique I mean yeah you can go in but also you can set it up to like see it like literally yeah and i've seen you know with stroke victims they use vr in hospitals where they'll just it'll literally just be an image of like them walking or a foot moving so in those cases i think it's brilliant and i think it's a great activation to something but i can't deny that we have these incredible supercomputers with us why do we have to rely eye on technology to do it and the funniest thing i remember was in covid and it was in london and there's a great big park called regent's park beautiful very green and there's a company that did this like mindfulness um training or you know to help you feel calmer and you go to regent's park you put on these vr goggles and it shows you nature what and i took a moment to be like, do you know where you're standing?

1:18:00You're standing in nature. And yet you are telling people to put on goggles and see nature. And that was the moment I was like, why, why do we need technology when your brain can literally do this?

1:18:13Darin Olien:The most advanced thing on the planet. Exactly. The only reason VR would be good is if you have aphantasia, which means you can't see images. VR is a great way to get into it and start the practice, but really you won't be then improving the skill of the brain and your relationship with it that's the difference and the muscle that's a real muscle it's like like you're like watching someone do a arm curl and you're not doing it yes there's mirror neurons that's what VR would do really well um but ultimately for you to really train it and you be intentional with it because you get to then change the images isn't that cool like you're the one that gets to choose actually let me go a bit bigger yeah and that's really where your power and as you get more comfortable with it then you can push yourself yeah exactly exactly that amazing thank you for this and i know people are going to love this and um stay in touch yeah absolutely thank you thanks for amping up super life today thank you