Rainn Wilson: From The Office To Soul Boom — Finding Purpose, Spiritual Growth, & Meaning In Life

32:03They have everything. It's all about the thrill of finding pieces that feel like me. And I want you to find pieces that feel like you. There is always more to discover. eBay has millions of pre-loved finds from hundreds of brands backed by eBay Authenticity Guarantee. eBay, things people love. All right, you can do all the skincare, the workouts, the supplements, but if you don't reprogram your beliefs, nothing changes. The Higher Self app is the ritual that makes all the others work. We had the founder on our show, and she basically was saying that you don't need years of therapy to shift your life.

32:41You can clear a money block, a weight block, or even relationship fear in just 20 minutes. They've seen women manifest$2 ,000 overnight, get engaged within two months of clearing a love block, and land dream jobs with massive pay raises. These transformations are insane. She was telling us all about them. So it's not a meditation. It's a subconscious reprogramming backed by science. so you're really changing the way you think and the higher self app is so popular that it's been featured in Forbes fast company business insider and it holds a 4.9 app store rating you should also know it's basically 53 cents a day so it's affordable and I think it's a good one if you're looking to add something to reprogram your subconscious I am all about bettering myself I like to be 1 % better every single day.

33:35So this app is a real vibe for me. Go to thehireself.app slash skinny and get four months free or 30 % off the yearly plan. That's literally, like I said, 53 cents a day to reprogram your subconscious and completely upgrade your life. That's thehireself.app slash skinny. Thehireself.app slash skinny. We had Oscar on the show. Okay. and he came in and we did a whole accounting bit in here in this office it was actually pretty funny and he okay but he was saying like you you guys over time it like became like like a really tight-knit group like a like almost like on a family in some ways like you guys were with each other so often for so long yeah that it's like and i imagine when that ends that's got not only from an identity perspective but also just doing that together for so long that's going to be kind challenging it was it was amazing i remember we had this guest director come on the set once and we were on season like six or seven or whatever and it was in the morning and we were all like hugging high five hey how was your weekend and like just getting along laughing goofing around like and we had been working together for like at that point like 130 episodes into the show at that point and the director was just like oh my god i've never seen this before it's like i've shot on a hundred tv shows i've never seen a cast that loved each other as much as this that's what he said yeah and and then he said like you know i just came from this other show i won't i won't say what show it was and you know and half the cast wouldn't talk to the other cast and they the other half and they wouldn't come out of their trailers unless someone else was there and there was like all this kind of like you know a competition and some people refused to work with other people and i won't say what show it was it's desperate housewives there you go there's your headline on people magazine people.com right there we just had terry hatcher on the show oh i did a thing i did a theater thing with terry hatcher she's wonderful wonderful she's delightful you had a great time and a very talented it seems to me too like that there was almost like a really an energetic vibe of gratitude on the set like It seemed like you guys were so excited, but also at the same time so grateful to be there.

35:53And so it felt like you guys were really just appreciative. And sometimes on a set, you can feel as a viewer when there's diva behavior going on. Does that make sense? That totally makes sense, yeah. I think us almost getting canceled three or four times made us really grateful. Like, oh, we get to do this. And every day was a gift. Are you kidding me? We get to do these incredibly funny scenes? I mean, it wasn't always. Sometimes it was grueling and long days. And sometimes it was boring because you'd just kind of be in the background of each other's shots all day long, you know? And absolutely, we knew we got to be part of something really special.

36:31When you're in the background, I've never asked an actor this. When you're in the background of a shot for like hours on end, are you sitting there like just pretending to do something? Or are you actually doing it? Well, one of the things we clamored for was like, get these computers working, please. So you could do something. So we can at least like surf the web and look at like fantasy football scores. Taylor would not be looking at that. He'd be looking at something else. Uh-oh. Fantasy.com. Not football? Different kind of fantasy? Yeah, different kind of fantasy. Told you. Whoa. HR department.

37:01Uh-oh. So did they get the computers working? They did, yeah. And then everyone's just on the web looking at whatever they want. Part of the problem is they got the computers working and then there was a while when you could play poker online. Uh-oh. you could spend actual money it was kind of then they kind of shut that down i think you can do it in certain states from like that yeah it's legal in some states but not but for a while there was floodgates were open the floodgates were open for a while and i was on these poker sites with like actual money that i had put in like being in the background and then they'd be like we need a reaction from dwight on this and i was like just give me a minute because i went just went all in on this hand and like they're like action i'm like and i'd have to i'd uh that was that was not good so i i stopped that that was very short-lived what was it like for you guys to win all these awards and get all this acknowledgement and accolades was it was it as amazing as it looks from an outside perspective you know the first rush of going to those first award shows first couple of like emmys and golden globes and stuff was was amazing yeah it was amazing and especially i mean think about it i'm like i never made over 17 grand in a year 10 years doing theater in new york and then cut to like five years later and i'm on an emmy winning tv show and going to like the golden globes with like george clooney like it's it's it's you're just like whoa what the you know and it's it's it was pretty crazy yeah but but it is astonishing and people are going to roll their eyes at home but it is astonishing at how then it starts to become work you know what do you mean well you do two three four years of the award shows and like you got to get dressed up and it takes an hour and a half to get in and then you're waiting in these long lines and then you can't get to your table and they you you keep losing the award i lost three emmys in a row and but you have to be there you got to be there and be smiling and like if even if you don't feel like it and it even that starts to become work if you lose like what do you practice your face if you lose in the mirror you have to sit there with like a smile on your face like it's the worst have you seen that have you seen that clip of i don't know if it's real i don't know if it's tell maybe it's real that clip of quentin tarantino when he was when he was up against best director it was it was him and then ben affleck won and it pans the quentin tarantino spits out his water he was like and it just spays everywhere i don't know if he probably planned that or joking or all but it was funny do you have to keep like yeah yeah so you So you're like, and they, because everyone has a camera on them, you know?

39:39And they're like, and the Emmy goes to, and I'm like, and inside my heart is going like, and the Emmy goes to, they're tearing open the envelope. Jeremy Piven. And then it's like, yeah, way to go, Jeremy. Right on, bro. Right on. Do you guys really like have no knowledge of who's going to win until that moment? Yeah, no one does. Nobody knows. When you're at the awards ceremony, was there tons of actors that are really famous coming up to you guys being like, I love The Office? I mean, there had to be like, yeah. I can imagine. That's also got to be crazy. That was amazing. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

40:18That's kind of iconic. Yeah. Ben Affleck was one. He came up to us at the Golden Globes like, love your show, man. Oh, my God. I've seen every episode. How do you know what to do when The Office ends? Did you have a plan? Did you want to take a break? What was your energy when it went away? I was just, you know, again, like it's it's kind of a hard thing for some people to understand because they'll see me like on the street and they'll be like, Dwight. It's like. I'm not Dwight. Right. Like I played Dwight. I get that. For nine and a half years. Of a long acting career. Tons of roles before Dwight.

40:54Tons of roles after Dwight. Like be a little more respectful. like I'm the guy who played Dwight, but I'm not actually that. Dwight is a beet farmer in Pennsylvania, but for a lot of people, they don't quite get that. And I understand that. And I completely understand. So I just wanted to play other cool roles. That's it. You know, I had enough money. So it wasn't really about like, oh, I need to kind of like chase another show. But, you know, I did a bunch of shows that didn't work out. I did a show on Fox called Backstrom. That was a detective show. It did 12 episodes. and then we didn't get high enough ratings and that went away.

41:30I did another show on Amazon called Utopia that no one saw because it was a show about a pandemic that came out during a pandemic. Yeah, dicey. And that was no fun. And I did a bunch of independent films. I did some bigger films and studio films too. But yeah, I wanted to develop stuff. And at the same time, I had this interest in spirituality. So I started a digital media company called Soul Pancake that was a YouTube channel for a long time. And now Soul Boom, I wrote this book Soul Boom. We have the Soul Boom podcast. And so, you know, and we did stuff with Oprah and we did stuff on mental health and that's another interest of mine.

42:12So I really wanted to also do make sure I'm spending some of my focus, not just playing wacky characters, but trying to make a difference in having kind of deeper conversations about what it means to be a human being so there's a lot of my work in the last you know 11 years since the office has been in that space how did you initially become so interested in mental health and the things surrounding all of them can i swear on this podcast because i was really fucked up in my 20s and i went through a really hard time and there's we talked earlier about the artist's way and there's an the author of the artist's way julia cameron has a quote that's attributed to her and as soon as i saw it I was like, that's so brilliant.

42:55She said, I come to spirituality, not out of virtue, but out of necessity. And when I was really struggling with mental health stuff and anxiety and depression and alienation, loneliness, addiction, especially like in my twenties and early thirties, I turned to spirituality as a salve, as a path forward. Cause I didn't know where else to turn i didn't have any money i couldn't afford therapy there weren't like podcasts and apps and all of the resources that there are now back in the 90s and early 2000s so you know it was 12-step meetings and and reading buddhism and trying to meditate and pray and find a spiritual path that really helped me out of some really dark times and i've always had an abiding interest in like, you know, why are we here?

43:55What's the meaning of life? Like what, you know, even when I was a kid, it's like, yeah, but why? Well, we're here, just enjoy it. And you have consciousness and there's life. And then you live 80 or 90 years. Why 80 or 90? Why not 800 or 900? Like what, where were we before? Where do we go after? Like these kinds of larger questions always were a part of my life. And then when I found a spiritual path, it helped me a lot through some difficult times. And I wanted to share that. So what is something that you have learned that you wish you knew in your twenties that maybe some of the younger listeners or even listeners that are struggling right now could, or viewers could benefit from?

44:31Oh my gosh. I guess there's a lot, but there's so much. I think, listen, some really basic stuff that anyone can start with and people, probably your viewers are already on board with this is meditation and gratitude. so I fitfully tried meditation but I didn't have an active meditation practice like I have to meditate every morning for me to have a balanced day I just maybe other people don't I just have to it's kind of like going to the gym you never feel like doing it but then you go and then you know 45 minutes later 14 minutes later you feel no you feel great the rest of the day right it stays with you.

45:14You feel like in your body and meditation works the same way for me. And gratitude, like learning a gratitude practice. I have a text chain with a bunch of buddies every morning. Just turn your mind out of what's not going right to what is going right. And it's a tiny little shift and it doesn't feel like anything. But if you start practicing gratitude and sharing gratitude you know my wife and i do this thing we've kind of we used to do it back in the day and now we do it we're starting it up again which is like three at the end of the day three things we are grateful for about the other person especially being very specific not like you're so kind or whatever but like you were really nice when you'd said xyz and and then one thing that we wish we had done different over the last 24 hours so you take a little bit of accountability for yourself.

46:09Whoa. Are you going to be able to do that? Because we're going to start tonight. We do a thing called like Rose and Thorn with our kids. Oh, wow. Same type of thing. Yeah. And then somebody else said, we got to do Rose, Thorn, and then Rose, Bud. Like with the thing that, what is that the thing that you're working with? It's the thing that like, there's something that bloomed in your day. Yeah. Oh, wow. That's cool. But yeah, we try to do, I mean. But I kind of like what Rain's saying. I think that you and I could start saying three things that we're grateful for about each other. Is that what you said?

46:36And then one thing that we could have improved on and in that and to try and keep it specific like when you brought me that coffee when i was really stressed out that was so nice of you to do as opposed to like you're so kind you're not a big brought like a specific thing and then to say i wish today that i had and it doesn't have to be about the other i wish that i could have just breathed more throughout the day because you know i wish i wouldn't have looked at my phone so much i i wish that i would have given you a hug you know in between podcasts you know something like that but it sounds like also with your gratitude practice you have invited a group of trusted friends into that is that not only for accountability but i guess also to remind each other it and it increases intimacy too because when you say like i'm really grateful for hummingbirds you you're led into someone's heart you're led into their experience of that that they love hummingbirds or they're grateful that their kid came back home from college and you know you went surfing or whatever you you learn about people and we have so many devices and obstacles getting in the way from us connecting and having deeper intimacy and vulnerability you know anything we can do to deepen that is is crucial i also think that the practice that you're saying that you do with your wife that it would be cool to do that in front of your kids too because with my kids when they hear me talking about my husband in a positive way i think that's really healthy so i even think like we should try what he did in front of our kids i think they would like that it sounds like too like even what you told us about your family like just it's important for children to see a loving household and parents i mean if they're if they could see something positive like that's the relationships they're going to later hopefully seek right yeah and so like sometimes you know a lot of parents like go in the room to show that affection or they go in the room to kind of share the argument the kid never really understands what the parents model it yeah one thing i did with our son walter is anytime i struggled i shared it with him so i don't want walter to just see the positive a good one so i would go to him and say hey Walter I just want you to know like I spent a month trying to get this role on this movie and I auditioned and I met with the director and then I auditioned again and I really wanted it I thought I was going to get it and I didn't get it and I'm really disappointed right now and I'm my heart is really sad I'm really hurting and it was it was really hard and sometimes this business that I'm in really sucks and just let him witness that and understand that the parents are they're dealing with stuff and and guess what and then they move on because we get disappointments and we get obstacles we'll get failures even and we move on and that's what builds resilience so the kids need to see that in the parents and modeling that in front of them is so important that's a really really good point to show show what you're struggling with instead of trying to hide it all the time yeah yeah i like you love meditation i would love to know what your specific practices?

49:48Is there a certain amount that you like? Is there someone that you meditate to? Do you just sit with your thoughts? What's your practice? I have the simplest meditation possible. I'll set an alarm for anywhere from like what I feel like for nine to 16 minutes. And I always, I won't say always, but 90 % of the time I do it outside because I find it to be much more powerful outside than inside. And I'll sit in the yard and I just close my eyes and attempt to quiet my mind. That's it. I focus on my breath, you know, let my spine be long, have an open heart, have my palms up on my lap. And, you know, for me, it's this kind of shift that happens when I recognize that I am not my thoughts.

50:39My thoughts aren't me. I spend a lot of time with my thoughts kind of bouncing around like popcorn or like a pachinko ball, you know, throughout the day. But that's not Rainn Wilson. That's just something that my mind does a lot throughout the day. So when I can detach from my mind and almost kind of like see it from an outside perspective and kind of witness myself thinking and then witnessing my mind quieting and witnessing myself being in peace, there's this kind of like perspective shift, you know, in, in Hinduism, it talks about like meditation is like letting your thoughts be like a candle in a still room, you know, and the idea that, that we, our consciousness can be a still candle despite all the chaos around us.

51:29So I get a taste of that for 15 minutes in the morning. I won't say it stays with me all day, but it greatly helps my day. I'd love to do it twice a day. I know people that do it, you know morning and then like late afternoon or early evening and that's that's also a lot of benefit to that i've been doing this trick to my husband where i pretend like i'm still sleeping but i'm actually meditating so our mornings so he gets up and makes you a coffee then so he'll go we have a bunch of kids right i pretend like i'm to pretend like i'm sleeping but i'm really just closing my eyes and meditating it works really good the the kids yeah it's like five three in four months right now so it's our mornings are with you if you have a monkey mind that's chaotic you're so right though being still with your own thoughts is it's like a way to like just clear your mind and and and check yourself almost and it's so helpful throughout the whole day or even just to recognize what you're thinking about constantly and kind of acknowledge that and kind of like be like oh that's recurring over and over like maybe there's more to that a lot of people say well, I can't meditate because my mind is just so busy and crazy.

52:38It's like everyone's mind is busy and crazy. That's not the point. But you witness your mind being busy and crazy, let it go. And even if you just are allowed a few moments of stillness and quiet, that can be enough to kind of revitalize you. You wrote a workbook, Soul Boom Workbook. What is in the workbook that people can do to encourage spirituality, especially in such a digital world. Oh, you mean this little thing right here? That little thing. That I happened to bring with me? Yep. So I wrote a book called Soul Boom, Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution two years ago. Will you read it? Yep.

53:17I love to read. I will read definitely both of them. Do you guys ever listen to like audio books? Because it's on audio too. Do you read the audio book? I did. Okay. Then I can do it. I can't do it when it's the weird narrator. Yeah, the weird narrator. And then. I need it to be like the author. It's got to be the author. I want the book. I'll read the book. So there's that book. And then this is a companion workbook that's coming out now in November 2025, whenever you're listening to this. And we wanted this to be like the artist's way for spirituality. We wanted a workbook that can be your journal.

53:51There's journal entries. There's art. It's interactive. It's about anxiety and mental health. There's a chapter right there. There's beauty, nature, and art. It's finding your soul, finding values, virtues, and morality. It's an exploration of all of these spiritual themes. Whether you're a born-again Christian, whether you're an atheist, whether you're something in between, we want it to be for everyone. Even if you already have your faith, it can deepen your faith. But for those who are on some kind of spiritual journey, we want the Soul Boom workbook to be a catalyst for them to kind of explore issues of the soul and meaning and purpose on a larger scale.

54:36this to me right now in this second of time is more important than ever because the problem is whenever you feel bored or you don't want to sit with yourself people are immediately picking up their phones and they're distracting and and you had jonathan height on your show we did i was listening to his episode that was a great conversation it's so important yeah it's so important it's it's it's a it's a we love talking to him it's alarming in a lot of ways scary but But also what I liked about talking to him is, and with you too, is there are tools and there is hope to kind of navigate through these and get back to kind of some of how we maybe were, I guess, designed to engage on this platform or in this world, right?

55:18And I think there's a lot of escapism going on. And I think some of that escapism is causing stress and anxiety and anger and obviously our attention spans. And so I think this is really important right now. Lauren, I interrupted you. You were talking about on this day and age with all the devices that something like this where you kind of slow down and go deeper and it requires kind of a deeper level of attention. If I didn't have spirituality in my life with everything I do, I don't think I would be able to perform at the level I perform it. I think it's so important. At the same time, it's like I don't want to be preachy to anyone.

55:55I'm just saying what's worked for me is being able to sit with myself in the morning. I cannot wait to fill out your workbook. I'm a huge fan of The Artist's Way. I love the morning pages. is if I don't have space to sit with myself and my own thoughts, I don't have a life. And I think that to me, why moving to Austin has been so good for me is it's almost been like it's eliminated a lot of distraction and I've been able to sit with my thoughts. And so I'm like you when I get asked, what's the secret? What's the hack? It's like meditating. And you could have your own version. I mean, Gabby Bernstein says she meditates for five minutes in the car some people meditate for 20 whatever it looks like just being able to sit still is such an important way in my opinion to spend your time so and let's not forget about nature like sometimes people just take a dog walk in the woods or on a path or in a park or something like that and that's its own kind of meditation and you know nature is everything it recharges our batteries it reminds us about god it reminds us about what's important and where where beauty lies and this fragile ecosystem that we have to take care of and tend with a great deal of attention.

57:12So throughout the book too, we try and always bring nature and getting back in touch with nature as a remedy for all the distraction you're talking about. Can you give the audience a tool that's from your workbook that they could do tomorrow? maybe your favorite something that they could do in the morning when they wake up here's here's a great one we have two ways to use your phones that have spiritual underpinnings one is a sacred photo swap so taking a photo of something that is sacred to you because i love that word sacred like we think about sacred like oh as a church or a cathedral or a mosque or a synagogue or something like that or maybe it's a battlefield or gettysburg or something but there can be sacred a sacred tree you know or a place where you got married or a brook that you stand by you know and remember a loved one or something like that these places can be sacred to take a photo of something that's sacred to you and send it to someone and ask them to send a photo of something that's sacred to them.

58:27So having a sacred photo swap is one. I'm gonna start sending you sacred photos, Lauren. It better be of my face. He's gonna send you pictures of his butt. You know it. I got your sacred right here. But we have another one similar to this of like beauty alert, you know? And it's the same thing. like something unexpected moments of beauty. You'll be in a parking garage and you'll see like the swirl of the architecture and be like, wow, that's like a stem or a leaf or a shoot of grass. Like, and you take a picture and then send it to your gratitude list or to your loved one of like a beauty alert that you saw could be, you know, a dandelion growing through a crack or something like that.

59:13So that we start to attune our minds to see what's sacred around us and to see what's beautiful around us and to be able to share that. That's a way to harness the phone for good. I think that's genius because the more little moments like that that you can be grateful for that are simple, it builds a muscle. Yeah, exactly. And it adds up, just like you said, meditation adds up. So you can only meditate. And gratitude adds up. It adds up. And it does. It gets you to look at the world in a more positive way. We are wired to see things as threats and dangers and as something of potential sources of unhappiness.

59:55We're wired that way. That's what kept us alive for millennium. Oh, a twig snapped. That could be a bear. It's going to eat my face. Or, oh, I'm stuck in traffic. I'm going to be late. They're not going to like me. Oh, did you spin out in your head? Like we're wired for anxiety and the modern world is making it harder and harder and harder to get out from that. And, you know, for all my talk, you know, I, I spent a good deal of my day, like overwhelmed, freaked out. So, you know, these tools that can counteract that natural inclination to look for the worst or look for bad outcomes or to, you know, look for what's wrong or broken or where potential threats are.

1:00:41We have to hone those habits. You do them enough times, they become habitual. Let me give you a hot take. The perfect holiday gift is found on The RealReal. Seriously, I found the most beautiful gifts for both my sisters on The RealReal. They have every single luxury resale item you can possibly think of. The RealReal really has a thought of everything. Not only do I sell my clothes on there, I also find pieces. And like I said, the holidays, I go to The RealReal. If you're unfamiliar with The RealReal, it's the most trusted name and authenticated luxury resale. and it's my source for finding real gifts for special people in my life.

1:01:27I don't like when a gift doesn't lack depth. I want it to be thoughtful and purposeful and this is a really great way to have a gift feel like you really thought about someone. Real gifts are exciting to give because you know they'll be truly loved and sometimes the best gifts are the ones you give yourself. Seriously, I have found the best Hermes vest on The RealReal. I've also found a baby blue product coin purse, even a row trench. They have truly everything. So if you're looking to shop smart because you get up to 90 % off retail, go to The RealReal. The RealReal is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale.

1:02:07With thousands of pre-loved luxury arrivals daily, no one does resale like The RealReal, and no one makes the holiday shine brighter than The RealReal. And now get$25 off your first purchase when you go to therealreal.com slash skinny. That's therealreal.com slash skinny to get$25 off. Start shopping now at therealreal.com slash skinny. Did you know that you can save up to 70 % off on the best brands this holiday season just by shopping at fromrebel.com? So they have toys. They have espresso machines. They have all the brands that you want. They have an espresso, KitchenAid, Le Creuset, all of them.

1:02:44And I know this because I've been shopping on their site. So how it works is every single day, Rebel drops thousands of new products on the site for up to 70 % off. It's like a constant stream of amazing deals, like the ones I just mentioned. There's so many different brands, but you have to add it to your cart before it's gone because it might not be there tomorrow. So what I recently did is I went on and I got my sister some caraway pots. I got my girlfriend a KitchenAid. I shopped with Lalo, which is this baby site that has the best baby stuff. You can really get everything that you're looking for.

1:03:24So whether you're checking off your gift list, upgrading your home for holiday hosting, or just treating yourself, Rebel has it for way less, up to 70 % off. This is some holiday cheer, which we love. Check off your list with some serious savings at FromRebel.com. That's FromRebel.com. This episode is brought to you by Neiman Marcus. When I think of holiday shopping at department stores for the most exceptional gifts, I think of Neiman Marcus. And I'm sure you do too. There's something truly special about the store, and there's something truly special for everyone. They have everything from Bottega Veneta's new bag to gourmet goodies to elegant timepieces, stunning jewelry, ultimate stocking stuffers, and those gorgeous coffee table books.

1:04:12I also love their beauty section. I could get lost in there from their perfumes to their lip liners to their skincare. They really have thought of everything. If you have a friend who's impossible to shop for or a family member, Neiman Marcus has you covered because they have holiday gift guides. They also have a legendary fantasy gift, which is a one-of-a-kind item that surpasses every expectation. And if you need a little help, like sometimes we all do, Neiman Marcus Style Advisors make finding the perfect gift at every price point completely effortless. Everything at Neiman Marcus is just streamlined for you.

1:04:52I have been a fan of the department store since I was a little girl. I shop online a lot with Neiman Marcus. They have me covered. Everything is categorized and streamlined. They make everything so simple. I just like to do a big order. If you're looking for gifts that are guaranteed to surprise and delight, head to Neiman Marcus. Do you guys hear that? That's fresh, new, skinny, confidential drop. Okay, this has been something that I have been working on for the last year. Introducing face towels. Your skincare routine has been reimagined once again. There is no more using butthole towels on your face.

1:05:31There is no more using the towel that your boyfriend has used on his balls. You are going to be using the cleanest face towel on your face with no formaldehyde, no inks, no fragrances, no dyes, no BPA. Okay. Our towels are so thoughtfully designed. They're vegan. They're cruelty-free because your skin deserves the best. I, a long time ago, wrote a blog post about how a lot of people are washing their face and then they're drying their face with the same towels that they're using on their body. Or they're using a towel that maybe has a bunch of, I don't know, detergent in it. So I wanted to create something that was fresh to remove your makeup, to remove your oil without irritation.

1:06:11I wanted it to be buttery soft. I wanted it to be 100 % sustainable bamboo, silky soft. You never have to worry about buildup with these towels. It's just like a breath of fresh air for your face. So how I use them is two ways. The first way is I will cleanse my skin with an oil cleanser and then I'll exfoliate it. And I'll do this in the shower or in my sink. And then if I get out of the shower or I'm done with my sink, I'll take my towel and I'll pat it across my face and my neck to dry my skin off. My skin feels so much cleaner doing it with a facial towel than using some random towel that who knows where it's been.

1:06:50So if you want to support a healthy skin barrier and you want something really sensitive, especially if you have acne or you have hyperpigmentation, this has a really gentle texture. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm such a fan. I've been using them for a long time. I know you guys have maybe seen them in my Instagram stories. Each box includes 50 disposable face towels. And like I said, they're made from 100 % sustainable bamboo. This is the travel size. It's throw in your makeup bag. And then we also have the one that can sit on your vanity. It's a box that you want out. It's so cute. It's baby pink.

1:07:26And I should tell you, the towels are shaped like a doily. So that's fun too. Go to shopskinnyconfidential.com to grab your face towels today. It seems like you're really lit up and excited about this. Like you can feel the energy of you being so excited about it which i think is cool i could tell i could tell yeah it's it's it's almost it's like what you you it seemed like office same thing you had such a passion for your acting and everything but it seems like this is almost like a new era for you that's like it really exciting and i think the world is in dire need of this well you're so kind and i don't say that in a self-righteous way because i'm in dire need of it too yeah i'm just saying like it's it it is so important we're so caught up in scrolling and worried about what other people are thinking and but also let's not let's not forget how broken like our political system is right now yes and how i've seen some clips of you recently talking about and i wanted i wanted to bring this up and and and how disunified it is so what is a unifier between the political left and political right like gratitude and what's sacred and what's beautiful and what we appreciate and connecting heart to heart with people you know the the internet does not underline that so we have we have to really lean into that getting to know our neighbors building community at the grassroots you're absolutely right this is stuff that's really turning me out i'll love to play kooky characters for the rest of my life and i hope i get to getting to have like conversations like we're having now is you know we do that on the soul boom podcast as well like it it i get so jazzed about it.

1:09:07You've done this publicly, but I'm also curious privately, when you have people in your life that come to you and they're highlighting the negative and how terrible things are and the reason things should be, how do you kind of walk them back to a place of gratitude and get them to kind of see the world in a more positive light? What do you say to them specifically? That's a great question. I don't have an answer for that. I don't know what to say to people. we have to look for that precious point of unity that unites us because everything in the world wants us disunited you know jonathan height talks about this all the time but what gets us to click on our phones is outrage so you have these media companies and you have facebook and meta google you know tiktok and and and and all the news companies and entertainment companies you know what is outrages us and is outrageous gets us to click.

1:10:08And the more we click, the more ads they sell. So they're in the business of outrage and they're winning. So if you find yourself outraged a lot, and there are things to get outraged about, don't get me wrong, there are great injustices in the world that we need to deal with. But if you find yourself living in outrage, you have to think about like they're winning. you know these the phones are winning the algorithms are winning you know the the news media is winning the social media is winning politics is winning because partisan politics wants us feeling the same way it wants us outraged at the other the enemy at that person who's wrong on the other side there was a con is a congressman or a senator i didn't i didn't catch the whole thing from tennessee maybe people can look it up and he was talking about how years ago you know left or right, they'd fight like cats and dogs, but then someone's mother would pass away and either left or right, they'd call and say, I'm so sorry.

1:11:02And they'd cry together at the funeral. They still came together. Or they'd fight and cats and dogs disagree vehemently, but then they would come together later and be like, okay, we're going to the picnic this weekend. And he says, unfortunately, we've lost a lot of that. But now because of the attention some of this polarization gets in the business of that polarization, his worry is like, I don't know if it ever gets back to to that because the business to your point from a lot of these companies and scott galloway talks about this all the time of the polarization and the inflammatory content that's out there makes money and it gets us to click click click more and more so he was like i don't know if we're ever going to get back i think it'll get back there if people demand that it gets back there and if they elect people that are good common sense decent people and loving people that want to build bridges and actually be public servants so if we're electing people that don't feel outrage but are actually serving the interest of their constituents you know they'll listen politics will listen but it's it's it's the constituents that are going to drive that conversation i'm going to give you a weird example okay and what alarms me about some of this i'm I'm going to use a Housewives franchise reference.

1:12:16Here we go. So these franchises over the years, like the energy, the fights, the whatever, it gets amped up every year, right? And so new people come on the show. And if you're a new cast member, it's like, well, how do I stand out? I got to come in in an absurd way and create a lot of rage and collateral fights and drama because that's what gets attention. I worry that that's happening now in politics, right? you're getting people that are representing us both sides that know some of that polarization and absurdity is going to get them the most airtime which is then going to get them the most attention which is then going to get them you know in their world more power and i think that like many of these people have figured out how to do that and unfortunately i worry that it's it's the it's the less rational people in that world than you know the maybe the more moderate middle where we all kind of like more identify and so it's like it's almost like rewarded if you yes if you're acting in absurdity or anger or polarization same way in these reality you'll get more news items you'll get more outrage you'll get more clicks even if if you are on the extreme right or the extreme because if i came into one of these housewives franchises like hey i just want to be friends with everyone i don't want any drama and i just want to kind of play they'd be like you're off the show buddy like they want they want that night fear that that is now playing out in our political system.

1:13:30I think though it starts with self-accountability, turning off the news and instead choosing to spend 20 minutes with your own thoughts, putting down the phone and instead consuming all this negative content. I think there has to be some kind of self-accountability that you have for yourself, which is why I think this workbook is so important because you're in charge, in my opinion, of what you see. If I want to put my phone down and put it on airplane mode for five hours before I go to bed. I can do that. Yeah. I don't have to let it enter my space. Right. So I think there has to also be some type of self-audit.

1:14:04Or our friend Gary Vee will say, like, listen, my algorithm is like baseball cards and garage sales. Yeah. Like wine. And like pot. He's like, your algorithm is telling you something about yourself. It's telling you who you are. It's a reflection. It's like it's true. If you get on there and it's just people screaming. It's like looking in a creek. Yeah. Taylor, what if you open his? It's just like. Buttholes. Well-shaped. Twirking. Healthily shaped. oh my god gladly dressed women or uh you're when i pulled up your because i wanted to like prove a point about about taylor's algorithm it is literally all ass like that is all it is i recently rigged my phone to be a a dumb phone so using the screen time on my iphone i gave someone else's screen time password i don't even know my screen time password okay i don't have an app store okay i took off email off my phone good for you so because i was talking to this guy and he had a flip phone i was like i'm not ready to do a flip phone but he's like just because you get an email that means you got to answer it like you're answerable to just all these people that want something from you like and he's right like i'll sit down and look at my emails when i damn well please on my laptop later and I'll spend 15 minutes or half an hour or whatever responding to emails and then I'm and then I'm done I don't want you to be able to kind of get your hooks in me all day long and I took off social media I took off all games I took off the YouTube app I still look at my phone way too much just with texting I took off news I just left one or two news items so I could just get news updates which are the one or two that you left like that i don't want to say because then you can't say anything because everyone's everyone's gonna sue i'm just wondering if hold on no because if i say fox news people will be like oh that's who he is and if i say cnn or msnbc we're like oh that's who he is like so i literally can't say what news sites are on my phone but i try and get news from reliable sources and not biased sources as hard as that is it's true social i took off social media so i still can get i can get podcasts and i have you know google maps and i can people can text me and that's called protecting your peace i hope everyone does that except anyone that works here at dear media keep that email on lock no i i think that when someone comes into your text message or your inbox and expects a response that is being reactive if i don't want to respond to text i'm at the point If I don't want to respond to a text, I'm not responding.

1:16:41Lauren, you're absurd though. You've had the same auto responder of email saying you're working on a project. It's been the same one for six years. Six years. I have an auto responder. So thank you so much for reaching out. I'm working on creative. I'm sorry. I don't want to live in my inbox. And then she will respond to an email chain three months later. Like, what do we got to do here? Like, we solved this three months ago. Sometimes I'll text like three months later. Listen. I think though. I have to live in the moment. More absurd actually than email is the text. because the email everyone, there's like a little bit of an understanding that it'll take time to get to, but.

1:17:12Text people want. They want it right away and I find that actually harder to keep up with because with email you can kind of categorize. I wish there's an auto responder for text. Thank you so much for reaching out. Text is hard, especially now. I'm busy living my life. With these spam accounts that get in, it's like, it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. I'm very. You have a beautiful watch. Oh. But you're wearing it on the wrong wrist. It's driving me crazy. Why is that not on your left wrist? You know why? It drives me crazy. Because I'm left-handed. And I know they make watches. Like Rolex will make one for the left hand so you can wear it.

1:17:43But when you're left-handed... I got you. You don't have to say anymore. And you can't write... But if you were right-handed, I was going to punch you. I'm sick of this left-handed excuse. Every single time we sit down at the restaurant, we have to sit in certain places. I'm over this narrative. I read a statistic. I don't know if it's true that left-handed people die earlier because... Mom, dad, stop fighting. The world is designed for... I'm grateful that you're left-handed. Right-handers, the doors, the way they also dinner... No, nobody wants to sit next to a left hander at dinner because right and left, we're banging elbows the whole time.

1:18:10So I go to the left. I've never noticed once. I've never noticed. That's because I will sit to the left. Okay. All right. So you never get banged on the elbow. But yeah, that's why. And I know it is annoying because the pushers or whatever are supposed to be on the other side. They're designed that way, but I have to - That's tough. Yeah. Yeah. But thank you. Sacrifices we make. Anyway, sorry. No, I love it. That's silly. Looking ahead, going ahead, what kind of legacy do you hope that all of the work that you're doing right now leaves behind? Well, one of the things I talked about in Soul Boom is that we've thrown the spiritual baby out with the religious bathwater.

1:18:46What does that mean? So a lot of folks have jettisoned religion over the last 30 or 40 years, right? In our generation, I'm a little older than you, but my generation and your generation and younger generations. stop going to church stop going to organized religion and in the doing and getting rid of that because there's you know religions have done a lot of bad in the world yeah you know there's a lot of good reasons why people have left their their church or their mosque or their synagogue and but there are spiritual truths that we've also jettisoned that's the spiritual baby we've thrown out with the religious bathwater like the like you know getting back to compassion building community, the importance of family, finding what's sacred, the stuff that we've been talking about, like, you know, understanding that we're here, we have a purpose.

1:19:35There is the, what they call psychologists now called is the saddest thing you're ever going to hear called a hope deficit. Young people have a hope deficit. They don't believe that change is possible. They don't believe that there is hope in the future with climate change, with political division with mental health epidemic. And so we can, you know, spirituality teaches us that there's something larger than ourselves, that we have souls that are on an eternal journey, that we're here for a brief amount of time and that we can be of service to others and bring joy to others. And these are tools that we can use that gives our life meaning and purpose.

1:20:20and you have a generation that is unmoored from meaning and purpose. So these spiritual tools in Soul Boom and in the Soul Boom workbook, I think they're just crucial for our personal development, but they're crucial also for the bonds that we create and the connections that we make, the community that we make. And it's not just an airy-fairy, oh, it feels good, and oh, kumbaya, we should hug more. like they're very specific tools to make your life better and make your family better and your community better and we need it now more than ever this isn't about like convincing anyone to be a part of any church although organized religion has a lot to offer and i'm not saying don't be a part of any church i'm a member of the baha 'i faith and that's very important to me and has brought me a lot of purpose and meaning and focus.

1:21:14But these tools we've kind of jettisoned and we need to get back to them. It's funny because as you're saying this, I'm thinking what I want to instill in my children. And I think one of the number one things is a spiritual practice. I think that's really, really important. And especially when it comes to hope. Do you pray with your family? I don't. I don't pray, but I meditate every single day with my kids in the morning. And why don't you pray? I pray for my family. I pray. I don't, I'm not religious. I wouldn't describe myself as. You don't have to be religious to pray. I pray in my head, but I don't pray with my family.

1:21:55I'd be open to that. Yeah, that might be. First of all, meditation is more powerful when you do it in a group and more effective. As weird as that sounds. We're all kind of like connected. And when you sit in a circle with a group of people that have done brain scans, meditation goes deeper, lasts longer, and is more effective in a group. So you can try meditation. I know you have a four-month-old. How's that going to work? No, the four-month-old loves it. He loves it. By the way, but meditating with a four-month-old when they're calm is one of the most calming things ever. Oh, my God. It's so energetic.

1:22:27It's like a little - Like I did it this morning with them. It's amazing. So Anne Lamont, the great theologian, thinker, writer, humorist, she has a book that I love called Help, Thanks, Wow. And it's the three kinds of prayers. Help, like God help me. Something, you know, creator, spirit, source, love, universe, beauty, science, art, whatever you want to call it. Help me. I'm struggling. Please help. Thanks is like to the universe. Thank you for this. incredible conversation and getting to meet two incredibly well-coiffed new podcast friends thank you universe and wow which is like look at the stars wow is that look at the willow tree look at look at all these butterflies you can share that with your kids is that would you is that praying to you yeah huh i'm that's amazing yeah it doesn't have to be our father thou art in heaven And that's interesting.

1:23:25And that would be thy name, which is a beautiful prayer. But it can be connecting on those three levels. I love that. And you can share that with your children. You know, look at these beautiful butterflies. Where do you think they came from? The creative source that made all of this incredible beauty and love and nature and science and art and music. And thank you for that. Let's just open our hearts to that for a few minutes. It wasn't on my bingo card for Rain to encourage me and to inspire me to pray with the family. I love this. This is amazing. Dwight Schrute got you to pray. No, and I was thinking again.

1:24:03And got you laid. Bringing it full circle. Dwight Schrute got me laid and got me spiritual. Listen, meaning this, I'm very grateful to you, one, for coming on this show and doing this with us, entertaining us making us laugh early days of our relationship but also for helping us think in a deep in a deeper and different way about a lot of this because i think what you're doing is really important and i think more of it is needed so thank you for doing this you guys are awesome you're so good at this you're so genuine well there's not like a fake bone in your body both of you just like the most they are so genuine like what you see what you get and i love that you have good hearts well we i mean funny i mean we like incredible hair very nice i wish you could see their hair it's just incredible we like collagen quotient in this room is off the charts no bullshit we started this show and i tell the audience all the time we've been doing a long time but we started it because we were we're still are trying to figure out the answers to life right and we want to meet interesting people that can help us along and so the benefit we have is we get to meet so many different kinds of people the jonathan heights the world all the people the yak farmers the yak farmers yeah but you you it's i think at the core of it is like you know we get to maybe learn the lesson before it airs right but we're learning at the same like the message here is just as relevant to us as it is to the audience we're trying to present for so in a selfish way we're doing it but also the benefit of a few people listening here and there you guys are so sweet thank you thanks for the kind words everyone go buy your book soul boom but also get the soul boom workbook out now or out soon i don't know when no we're gonna make sure it's it's where you could say out now because we're gonna make sure it adds right up or at least for pre-order though we'll get it all by the way i just want to tell you that if i had heard this podcast yeah and heard you speak and i'll say this on air i would be running to buy this book like I think this is amazing.

1:26:07Wow. I think. That's incredible. I have an idea for you. I'm just going to throw it out there. Okay. Can the next one be for kids? Oh, that's good. I know. I know. Oh, I did it with a co-author, my good friend, Shabnam Agarabi, whom we do a bunch of work together. No, but you know why? As I'm walking out, we like, we need a slow boom kids. Our kids do these workbooks now and they, and they, we get them. And they, and I think. Because my daughter's journaling every morning. She's five years old. Like what if I could give her something that would light her up spiritually at a young age? What if you could start it before we go through all of the, you know what I mean?

1:26:42Like I got to clean up a lot of shit from my, from my earlier years. I would love one for kids. It would have been nice if I could have had a little more gratitude when I was like between that five and 25 range. I would love one for kids. Hey, get a kid exercising gratitude at age five and they're going to have a much richer life. Right? Yeah. Okay. Okay, so please, the next time you come on the show, or you can come on anytime, but the next time I would love to talk to you about kids specifically. All right. To be preventative instead of having to be reactive. Thank you, Rain. Where can everyone find you?

1:27:14Where can everyone find you in your book? Obviously the book, available everywhere. Yeah, go to the Soul Boom podcast, the Soul Boom book, Soul Boom workbook, at Soul Boom on all the social medias and Substack. Don't email him. He won't respond. Do not email me, please. Don't email me either. don't email me if you want to email me you can email michael i'm gonna delete my email app rain thank you for inspiring us for coming on your amazing comeback anytime really anytime anytime you guys are the best i am your new biggest fan i am i am gonna go watch that episode of the the stairs yeah it's called money money check it out good name too for the episode thanks guys