Sleep Crisis and Restful Health Recovery with Robert Sweetman

Sleep Crisis and Restful Health Recovery with Robert Sweetman
Guardian Grange
Sleep Crisis and Restful Health Recovery with Robert Sweetman

Dec 11 2021 | 01:26:14

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Episode 3 • December 11, 2021 • 01:26:14

Show Notes

Lack of deep, restful sleep is a major crisis among the military and verteran community which too often throws medication at the symptoms leading to a growin list of problems. My friend and fellow SEAL Team 7 veteran, Robert Sweetman, jumps on this episode to discuss the sleep inadequacy issue that affects so many, and shares a wealth of knowledge that anyone can use, along with his nonmedicated, empowering approach with the Sixty Two Romeo mission to improve veteran's mental health through sleep.

This is a very interesting and empowering episode not only for veterans, but for all people who suffer daily from a lack of sleep leading to grogginess and energy crashes that are too often covered up with caffeine by day and sleep medications by night.

Join us on this podcast, and get motivated to take back the rest you deserve with a more holistic understanding of why sleep issues persist and a natural trajectory toward recovery.

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Find more information about Robert's sleep program and technology at his websites:

https://www.restnode.org/

https://www.existtribe.com/

And watch his Sixty Two Romeo program mini documentary here: https://vimeo.com/644132452

 

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 00:00:01 What's up friends and fellow humans. Thanks for tuning in to the guardian range podcast. Pardon in any, uh, audio anomalies that may exist in this episode, but I just got a new back book and only just realized that when I sat down to record this podcast, that there's no USB port. So I'm just, just, uh, flying with the computer mic and hopefully it records some decent audio, but regardless the content of this episode is awesome. So I know you're going to pull some good information from this one, and I hope you enjoy this episode is all about sleep health with my buddy in seal team seven veteran brother, Robert Sweetman and his conscious company called exist tribe, which he started to help people improve their health by creating better sleeping habits for more complete deep sleep without medications. This interesting conversation, they get into the sleep science behind his innovative 62 Romeo program, which leverages their rest node existential technology along with some of the obstacles preventing people from getting proper restful sleep and our shared visions for the future. So before jumping right into our chat, I wanna say thank you to Dr. Brauns for supporting this episode, and please help spread the word by sharing this podcast with your friends and family who might be interested in improving their sleep. And following along with this exploratory podcast, as we continue about improving each other's health and the health of our environment with creative innovations to manifest more natural synergies in our everyday life. All right, let's jump on in. Yeah. How you doing brother? Speaker 1 00:02:00 I'm doing great. I really appreciate you taking some time to meet with me. I, and really enjoying this chapter of my life, uh, because it's a lot of, um, self exploration and spirituality, you know, coming out of the teams. I think all of us need a little bit of that. Uh, but for me, you know, I'm facing new challenges that I hadn't faced before and I'm finding new insights about myself kind of digging deep, um, and you know, really expressing myself in a way that, uh, I can help others. And that, that provides a lot of meaning for me too. So, Speaker 0 00:02:36 Yeah, man, that's awesome. I think, uh, you know, I've ex had a similar path and I know a lot of, a lot of, uh, a lot of our bros from our have been going through similar stuff, you know, new challenges, insights, spirituality, like what kind challenges have has, uh, coming up Speaker 1 00:02:58 Well finding meaning in life. You know, I talked to my life coach about this recently. I feel like my existential crisis is in finding, uh, a path to heal others and the real purpose in that. Right. So obviously, um, helping others sounds like a good thing, but, um, at the end of the day, uh, how much should I impact others' lives and how much should I let, um, sort of life just carry out on its own? And so I, I dig pretty deep into that. And my natural inclination is to build this company exist tribe and help a ton of people and perhaps make it a big company, but is that my own desires being expressed, um, or, uh, is, am I really helping people? And by helping people, am I, uh, changing the path of their life? Do I have the right to do that? Speaker 1 00:03:57 And so the easy answer is yes, I should help people. Yes, I should change lives and, and make the world a better place. But this exist, existential crisis really goes, you know, boils down to the philosophy of, you know, part of life. Uh, I think is a bit of a, of a simulation and very little is within our control. Right. So I don't know. I, um, I ponder on these, these deep philosophical topics and the more I learn and the more I, you know, I'm exposed to these different, uh, knowledges, um, I have to go back and reflect on, uh, the choices that I make each day, Speaker 0 00:04:37 For sure. Yeah. That makes sense. And like, so if we're going into, like part of life is a simulation, which, you know, I've, there's a lot of talk and discussions around that. And part of, part of the issue that I feel is that language is so limited. So we're using words that kind of mean many things to describe something that's maybe a bit beyond that. Um, but when we get into, like, let's just say, okay, there's a simulation, but then we're here in this reality to experience and to do things. And so like for me personally, I think that, um, I am here to be the best version of myself that I can, and to help create a environment that is, you know, not just a, a great environment for myself, but for those people around me and that, you know, whether that's a similar or what in my mind, um, it's, uh, it's the, the journey is important. Speaker 0 00:05:52 You know what I mean? Like the destination is, I'm not so concerned about, uh, a fixed point I'm cons I'm, I'm focused on walking a path that is true. And, uh, that's kind of, it's really how I live my life. I just kind of go with the flow. I say that a lot, you know, I just, uh, flow, like I have an intention and <affirmative>, I kind of just drift in that direction and as life happens, then I, you know, maneuver accordingly. Um, but yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about, uh, like what you're doing with exist tribe. What that's all about Speaker 1 00:06:35 Exist. Tribe is all about, um, helping people become better versions of themselves. So I love that you said that, and the way that we do that, the, the focus that we've really honed in on is sleep. And, you know, if you talk to Charlie Morley about lucid dreaming, it opens up a whole nother perspective on, you know, what goes on in our subconscious and perhaps, you know, in terms of lucid dreaming, like the engagement of the prefrontal cortex during the dream state, but to kind of put that, you know, maybe for another conversation, um, what we specifically focus on is the neurological function of sleep. How does light sound impact brain function? And what we've really delved into over the last 18 months is, uh, behavioral and psychological, um, you know, aspects to sleep. And it turns out that all of these things are so important that when we put them together, uh, like this 62 Romeo, uh, child, uh, that we recently did that we're able to have a profound effect on, uh, you know, folks sleep. Speaker 1 00:07:45 And if their sleep gets better, their relationships at home get better. Their, you know, muscle recovery gets better. Their psychological state gets better, everything gets better. And we know now that, you know, sleep or lack of sleep or the lack of good process during sleep is associated with every, you know, major health issue that we know about, you know, specifically we can talk about, you know, uh, amyloid beta buildup within the brain tissue and the function during deep sleep. When you know that cerebral spinal flu comes in, the brain actually can reduce in size by as much as 60% allowing that, that fluid to get in there and rinse away those toxins, that plaque buildup, and it takes that away and processes it in the body, right? Because the lymphatic system only comes up to the next, this process of pulling that out, then washes the brain for lack of a better explanation. Speaker 1 00:08:43 And then what's left over is a refreshed brain with new immune cells that come in there. But what we know is that if that doesn't occur and, you know, sleep does, uh, you know, the processes of sleep do start to degrade. As you get older, past 60, we know that there's less deep sleep, which specifically is what we're talking about. So if you're not getting the, the right amount of deep sleep, uh, then you can't wash away those plaques. And there's, there's also like towel protein plaques that build up from TBI and stuff like that from, uh, you know, blast exposure. But when this plaque builds up in the brain, we know that that's causing Alzheimer's, we know that's causing ility issues. And so there's that, that clear link, uh, and it's debatable. There's a lot of sleep scientists that aren't quite, uh, convinced. But I think right now, at this point in, in science, the, the evidence from my perspective and is overwhelming that, you know, that plaque is causing ility or Alzheimer's, uh, the removal of that PA plaque is a, a function and a process of deep sleep. Speaker 1 00:09:45 One of the things that happens as well as muscle recovery and human growth hormone and all that other stuff. Um, and so when we dig into this, um, that's what we're focusing on. How can we help people get better sleep? And, you know, I was very nervous, uh, going into this study recently that we did that. I don't know if, if what we're going to do this, uh, this challenge that we're going to offer people, is it really gonna make a difference? And so the way that we measure that is through, uh, subjective measurement and objective measurement, right? So the subjective measurement would be something like a sleep journal. So people say, Hey, I felt like I had good sleep. I thought I got this many hours of sleep. The objective measurement, we use a sleep measurement device for this particular study. We use something called AOC cardiogram. Speaker 1 00:10:35 It was made by a cardiologist originally, but now we can use it for sleep. So basically think of it like a earthquake sensor, and it's so sensitive that it can detect your breathing and your heart rate and all of these different things. And the algorithm says, oh, well, you know, you got this amount of deep sleep and you can't fake it. You can't like cheat the system or, you know, manipulate the, so at the end of this study, what we found is that we were able to increase deep sleep significantly. We were able to increase REM sleep or dream sleep significantly. And also probably for us, one of the more important things is the time to fall asleep or sleep latency. We reduced the time to fall asleep significantly. When I pitched this to, you know, Dr. Rachel Markal, who's, uh, sort of, you know, in charge of sleep for the Navy, she's got a sleep lab over at point Loma. Um, she was, you know, taken back by the data. It's like, wow, now we didn't have a control group. And this wasn't an IRB approved study. That's the next step. But the results of in the data we're compelling, we have something that is really making a difference and, oh, by the way, there's no drugs, there's no supplements. This is all natural. So I feel like we're on the right path. And if, if my mission in life is to heal people, uh, through sleep, we're doing it. We're finally making a difference. Speaker 0 00:11:57 Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, it's very, uh, it's very powerful. Like even, you know, beyond like we're talking about data and science, but even as, you know, we both know intuitively deep sleep has a massive impact that we've seen, like, cause we are doing such high performance tasks and getting very little sleep charging through things and, you know, your willpower and motivation can drive through a lot of that stuff, but it eventually starts taking tolls and adding costs, you know, to your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Um, it's, uh, it's really cool what you're doing, man. Like, so this, this, what you're talking about was that the 62 Romeo challenge was that this, the, the study results that you're mentioning. Speaker 1 00:12:44 Yeah, absolutely. We called it six, two R for six weeks to sleep restoration. And, you know, we love our acronyms in the military, but when I was on a podcast with the scuttlebutt show, um, max bloom called it 62 Romeo, that's the natural thing to call it right. Overcomes. And so that kind of stuck with it. So 62 Romeo is the name, uh, it's a six week program, which I'll tell you the secret right now, the secret behind the whole thing. And the reason why we structure over six weeks, it's, it's not a heavy load on any one day, but across the six weeks, what we're doing is establishing new behaviors. And we know that it takes, like if you go to the gym at the first of the year, like a lot of us are gonna do, uh, make our new year's Eve, uh, commitments. Um, we know that it takes, you know, three weeks to six weeks in that ring to create new habits. And what we're trying to do is not just create new habits within the person, but a physiological response. The body is getting used to that. And now the body has its own routine has its own habit. And that's when we start to see lasting results. Speaker 0 00:13:51 Yeah. That's, that makes so much sense because I mean, essentially through the, the way we live our lives created habits that are not in line with optimal sleep, you know, everything's based on productivity and, and making things happen. Um, and sleep kind of is on the back burner. You know, there's the whole I'll sleep when I'm dead type mentality. Um, but it's like anything you go to the gym, the rest is where you're actually growing and recovering, you know, you're, you're breaking down, you're, you're creating, you're doing living. And I mean, for a long, long time with my wife, you know, I'm sure you're the same. Like I didn't really give sleep much thought, you know, it's like, you get tired and you crash out and otherwise it's just driving as hard as you can, or just, you know, doing whatever. But sleek was sleep was just a, a, a, an afterthought, you know, or if, if any, if anything, um, but I can tell you, like for myself personally, get coming out of the military, you know, just with the, the various times that we were doing what we did in the teams, like our circadian rhythm was all outta whack and we're just not in sync. Speaker 0 00:15:09 So I'd be up at like maybe two, three, you know, am, and then not fall asleep and then wake up in the middle of the day and just all kinds of stuff that was in my mind, creating like even foggy, foggy thoughts, um, not as lucid ability to communicate or even find words. And my memory I felt was so Liping short term. Um, and I definitely feel like through other healing modalities that I did and just getting really good sleep that I'm blessed to have now, uh, really helps. You know, my, my thoughts are lubricated. I like to call 'em slippery. So everything's kinda moving and grooving in there. But if I left back onto, when I wasn't getting really good deep sleep, I mean, I was just in a fog, you know, motivation was lower, get agitated, more quicker to anger. Um, and yeah, I think as, as part of a healing journey for any human being like your sleep is, is the most important. One of the top, most important things that you can be focused on that I don't feel gets whole lot of attention in most circles. Um, how did you, how did you arrive at, you know, sleep is where you wanted to focus? Speaker 1 00:16:35 Well, so, uh, I'll, I wanna get to that question, but I wanted to say a little bit about, uh, you know, deep sleep and REM sleep. So deep sleep is really where we have memory consolidation, right? We have some memory consolidation is happening as well as athletic, uh, learning, right? Whether it's, um, martial arts or a particular instrument that you're trying to learn, you can work really hard on it. Uh, but then you have to sleep on it. And that's where all those, those, uh, things just come together. Uh, and you have a solid memory formation, but there's also emotional memory <affirmative> and there's emotional, um, things that need to be sorted out. And if we take a look at UHT D or PTs, as we like to call it, um, you know, these really turn into these mind loops, these, these memories that are just on repeat, and we have these, especially if it's traumatic, we have these traumatic memory that are coming back and they can haunt us and they can cause all types of issues, you know, just in a amygdala response and sympathetic nervous system engagement. Speaker 1 00:17:45 And so, you know, if we start to look at how does REM sleep or dream sleep, uh, work on that? Well, if you are not getting enough REM sleep, then you don't, you're not able to sort out the memory consolidation as it, uh, pertains to these emotions, right? We have these emotions tied to, um, these traumatic memories. And so when you, you get into this REM sleep, and it's interesting because there's studies showing that if you have poor sleep before a traumatic event and, and perhaps poor sleep after the traumatic event, you're more likely to suffer from these recurring thoughts of, of the trauma. And so I believe that a lot of this and, and some of this is, is we don't have the technology to sort of prove it. Like we can't quite see dreams yet, uh, when analyzing a patient, uh, where they're in that state. Speaker 1 00:18:37 But if you're able to get into your dream sleep and you're able to sort through these, these traumas and really start to, um, allow them to, to occur in a safe space where there's no constraints, there's no constraints of consciousness in the physical world. Um, these sort of linear tracks that were kept on while we're awake and we're conscious, then once those nightmares, once those thoughts are able to be sorted out, then no longer does that loop tear arise you, uh, throughout the day. And so sleep health is super important. And the irony is that, um, a lot of the things that we do throughout the day, um, cause us to have poor sleep, whether it's negative sleep thoughts, whether it's negative sleep behaviors, whether it's environmental stimuli that impacts the neurological function of sleep, which is where, you know, my research started. Um, so I just wanted to kind of, uh, talk about that a little bit, but, um, we can get back to the question that you asked. Can you rephrase that? Speaker 0 00:19:47 Yeah. Um, so even before, like you, even before I go back to that one, it's, it's, I'm just noticing like a real, um, from my perspective, like a paradigm shift in the way that trauma is even, um, looked at in healing modalities, because a lot of it is, is attempted to be done in the awake state, you know, through therapy or medications, or, um, being basically busy in the mind. There's there, there are other modalities too, of like meditation and plant medicines and different things that kind of take you out of that, but you're still, um, there's conscious awareness there. And so this is really getting to the, the SUBC the true, real deep subconscious programming and doing work in that space, which is really pretty unique, which, which brings me to that question of like, how did you get into this area of sleep as a focus for healing? Speaker 1 00:20:55 Well, there was a traumatic event that happened in my life, and this is just my perspective. Uh, but one of my platoon mates, uh, from alpha platoon back at seal team seven, Ryan Larkin went down a dark path. And when I was sort of in his presence and observing, uh, sort of this spiral, what I noticed was that the Navy was prescribing him ambient and we won't get into PTSD, TBI, and the, the psychological, uh, stuff and, and sort of my beef with the command and how they were treating, uh, the psychology piece. But just my observations were that, you know, the Navy was issuing him ambient, which they did for all of us, and that became, uh, his way of going to sleep. And when he didn't have ambient, perhaps it was alcohol and cell, if I've been guilty of using NY quilt to go to bed, uh, before I knew, uh, how damaging that could be. Speaker 1 00:21:53 Right. And so we find these triggers, uh, to sedate ourselves to sleep, but it's sedative and do sleep. And the problem with that is we're not able to get, uh, depending on the sedative, uh, you know, marijuana really impacts REM, right? So depending on the sedative, we kind of use that crutch to trigger ourselves into sleep, but it's sedative and do sleep. And our body can't go through the processes. Some of the stuff I kind of touched on a little bit, and when it can't go through this processes, you're not getting full restorative sleep. And so the net effect is when you wake up, you feel like crap, right? You're not fully recovered, so psychologically or physi, uh, physiologically. And so when you're not recovered and you feel, um, like you're lagging, well, what do you do? You turn to monster, you turn to caffeine or stimulants or whatever, uh, or you're just, uh, dragging throughout the day. Speaker 1 00:22:44 And so these behaviors, um, turn into, uh, very damn for your psychological state. And so what I observed was this sort of spiral, and this is just my perspective. Uh, Frank, his dad has, uh, a different perspective from his experience. And so I'm watching this whole thing unfold in, in a lot of this, I had to go back and unpack and kind of remember, um, you know, when, when someone commits suicide, um, a lot of things happen like for me personally, I had a lot of emotions. I felt depressed. I went through a stage of grief and questioning, like, how could this happen to someone that I, I felt like was a better seal than me, a more accomplished team guy. And so I'm looking at myself at the time. I was a new guy when I was in the platoon with I'm like, well, geez, if, if this rock star can do that, then I'm probably next. Speaker 1 00:23:39 Right? And so when I came outta that fog, I, I took a look at everything that I remembered. And so I started going to doctors at Balbo and everybody I could talk to psychologists and neurologists were probably the most helpful, uh, even though, uh, pulmonary tends to get most of the sleep patients. And the result of those conversations was like, yeah, you know, mental health is very close, tied to sleep health. And these behaviors can cause you to go into this really damaged state. And so my best estimation of the whole Ryan Larkin suicide, and, and by the way, he was awake for five days before he did, it was that sleep was at the center of this. There were other comorbidities, right? The TBI, the PTSD, but my focus was on sleep. So I looked at, is this a problem in the seal teams? Speaker 1 00:24:32 And yeah, it absolutely is, is this a problem in the Navy? Yeah, it is. Is this a problem in the entire military? And when you look at the Rand report on sleep in the military, uh, by Dr. Wendy Trel, who's awesome. Um, it shows a very dark truth that, uh, the leadership doesn't have a choice, but to kind of ignore in a way, because it's not something that we have the tools to kind of address right now, we're built to be machines and warriors and go to war and do exactly what we're told. Sometimes we can liken to upon on a chest set. Right? So sleep is really, you know, kind of, it has to be a personal objective because no one else is gonna do it for you, right. You have to kind of fight to get good sleep. So that's my motivation. I continued this passion and this motivation, and, and perhaps there was even a little bit of anger at his death, but I used this energy to drive towards, um, understanding. And so I went to grad school, I wrote some papers on, um, sleep and I focused on building sleep technology. And I've been a bit obsessed with this for the last four years. And so now, today, where we're at is really a culmination of all of my experiences leading up to this point. Speaker 0 00:25:54 Yeah, man, that's fuck. I mean, that's, that's a powerful story and you can really feel, uh, your passion behind it. And, you know, that's something that the system, not just in the, in the military, but larger society really lacks compassion and caring about what might be called like minutia or not. So, you know, no one really cares what's going on in someone's dream dream world or sleep or unconscious part of their life. Uh, everything is being met, measured, um, what they're doing in their waking wives. And it leaves a big void of unknown stuff. And like you were saying earlier, you can't, you know, see into dreams and use scientific instrumentation to write specific reports that really speaks to the heart and soul in a lot of, a lot of this stuff, but you can definitely see, um, someone's or your own personal sleep, leap health by some of those indicators you were talking about, you know, like with, uh, if you wake up and you're just groggy headed, I've definitely been in big portion of my life where like every day I woke up, I didn't enjoy waking up because I wanted, I felt didn't feel rested. Speaker 0 00:27:18 Right. So that right there is a sign of inadequate sleep. Whereas now when I wake up, I'm just awake and like ready to go, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't wake up with an alarm clock. I don't, um, I don't have any regrets of waking up and like, oh man, I wish I could have slept like a little bit more or something like that. I'm, I'm through my path. I've just fell into a groove where I'm getting really good sleep. And I can just, just add another perspective of how valuable that sleep really is. And, you know, on the, on the other end of that pendulum, like during, I don't take any caffeine products, you know what I mean? I don't take any energetic boosters to get me through the day or to like increase my motivation. Like I kind of just, uh, me personally, I'm really focused on doing everything as natural as possible, you know, eating, eating the right foods. Speaker 0 00:28:21 And, and I do work with, and, uh, plant medicines and, or I like to call 'em earth bake sacraments, cuz there's more than that when you get into the fungi and the, the animal stuff. But, um, at the end of the day, my journey has been really focusing on being as natural as possible. And I really like that the medicine that you're working with is sleep itself and you're just using indicators in creating habits to use, to help people become empowered within their own ability to have quality sleep. I mean, that's something like that's something that is, um, really, uh, groundbreaking in a way that society kind of, doesn't like to, to, uh, promote because there's nothing that can really be exploited there. You know, when someone is empowered to sleep and they're using tools to get back into a natural rhythm, them that benefits them. That's like, that's true empowerment, you know? So I'm really, uh, I'm really excited to see how, how things develop and to hear like where this, where this, uh, came from, how it's going. Um, and so looking at understanding all this, like if you were to look at what you would consider, I don't, for lack of a better words, like a win, like what would you consider the ultimate win with your, the path that you're walking? Like, does that look like to you? Speaker 1 00:30:04 Well, if you ask, um, guy McDermot, everything is medicine, right? So if what we are doing is medicine, then I would say the hugest win is in that we've proven that our medicine works and, you know, we can't help, but notice that this is a, a very pharmaceutical controlled space, right? And so we're going up against some of the big dogs. And so that's, that's a huge barrier. And you know, one of my mentors told me that, you know, it would cost a hundred million dollars in mark marketing to get the rest node. Uh, and then we have this subsequent 62 Romeo program that surrounds it. It would take a hundred million in marketing to educate the public on what the heck is it that we're doing. Right. And I agree with that, the education is a huge piece of this. And so our solution to that is to deal with folks one-on-one or in groups of 20 or whatever. Speaker 1 00:31:05 And our education modality rather than spending a hundred million, is that we're going to offer the 62 Romeo program. And if you do the 62 Romeo program afterwards, you're educated. Right. And so that's how we're kind of approaching this. Um, I think it's important to point point out that, you know, I, from probably Aristotle time, the development of science, the scientific method in our, um, using our intellect to dissect, uh, things in, you know, sort of a mathematical manner is that we left behind the acknowledgement of conscious. And I think you and I are probably in that the same space here where we're acknowledging consciousness and we're exploring that. And so one of the cool things is while you know, the, the rest node that we built and the, which is completely custom, we built it from the science that we found and the 62 Romeo program. Speaker 1 00:32:03 Yes, they are S we did let, uh, science draw, you know, you know, guide our artistic hand if you will. But one of the unique things about what we're doing that you probably won't find anywhere else is that we are acknowledging consciousness and the tools that we're using. We're always keeping that in mind in bridging that gap. And so that's a part of what we're doing, and I think that's why we're so successful at this point with this first, uh, pilot study, I is because we're doing what, uh, creates the greatest result, not what creates the greatest passive income, AKA the pharmaceutical business model, right. We're doing something that heals people and that they can walk away with lasting behaviors, lasting results. That the, the goal is that they can take this and run with it for the rest of their lives and live a more fulfilling life. So, Speaker 0 00:32:57 Yeah, no, I mean, that's, that's right on man. And I feel that's like consciousness. You're, we're definitely in that, in that space of consciousness, you know, I'm using, um, utilizing our natural environment and doing purposeful work within that to help connect be people back to just these natural rhythms and patterns that bring into consciousness, things that are beyond the pragmatic scientific model, you know, like that's, those are science as a useful tool, but it is a tool, you know, know. And so for a lot of, uh, society like this, science has been put on such a pedestal that it's become a religion in many, um, instances and people have this, uh, you know, saying of like, well believing in this science, whereas that's not a very, it's not a very accurate way to use that tool because that tool is not built on belief. That tool is built on observation and, you know, re repetition and really drilling down analytically into why things work and being able to explain things from that perspective. Speaker 0 00:34:18 But, um, consciousness is so much more than that. That's just one aspect of consciousness that this modern Western society have, uh, have kind of latched onto as like the end all be all of like what it means to exist in our minds. And it's really interesting, you know, the dollar signs that people attach to things like, oh, it's gonna take a hundred million of marketing to reach people, which in, in one respect. Sure. But what is that really representing? What does a hundred million mean to me that a hundred million dollars is energy, right? And so you are the work that you're doing essentially is worth a hundred million, regardless of whether you're paying marketing marketers to like spread your message in like the traditional creative ways of reaching people who are otherwise disconnected from the purpose of the mission, right? It's the, the marketing game is really trying to catch someone's attention and capture it in a brief moment of time and peaking interest to move through a pipeline, to eventually get to a sale. Speaker 0 00:35:37 And that's one way of working with energy and moving consciousness to a certain awareness. But I really like how you're choosing to go with it, which is working with small intimate groups of people, where there is actual compassion and care in a, a relation there since humans need community and relationships to, to thrive and even live, you know, definitely to thrive. That is, um, something that really gets discounted because before most organizations or people get to that point, the money lot comes up and it's like, oh, well we need, we need X amount of dollars before we can start working as opposed to like, Hey, here's our, here's our intention. Here's what we have to work with. And let's just start sewing seeds at the smallest scale and growing organically and letting the results create a magnetic type of amplification where like people experience results that positive energy permeates through the collective consciousness, through people's relationships and networks. Speaker 0 00:36:53 And then that awareness builds in a way that you really cannot buy with marketing because what marketing cannot do is create trust like true trust in, in, uh, a way with integrity. It, it mimics it, it can create, um, illusions and perceptions of it. And it's not, I'm not just here to, you know, trash talk marketing, but it definitely is just like how the pharmaceuticals have become a crutch, you know, um, marketing is that same way. That's like the, the primary mode of communication within this economy is to market your stuff, to make a sale, to rinse and repeat, and to build something and go into, into that, that, uh, that same pattern of behavior. And, and again, like you're the whole premise of this is breaking, breaking patterns, creating new ones or identifying broing patterns and healing those patterns with, with new ones and creating proper pathways and even how you're going about it is breaking in another pattern and creating a new one, which I think is really awesome. Speaker 0 00:38:02 Um, the, you know, I, me personally, I'm, I'm very against, uh, my per my own personal use of any pharmaceutical product, unless I was in a situation where I had no other options, you know, so I'm, I'm, I'm not, I don't, I'm not gonna say that they should never be used, but I definitely know from experience throughout my own life with other people. And just what I observe around me, that there is a massive overreliance and over prescription of medications. And so how do you, how do you, how do you see and feel like the, the use of, um, medications? Obviously we talked about Ambien, which, you know, we know the effects of that, but like other medications, cause there's a lot of stuff I think like Zoloft or this, or just supplements like, um, uh, the little gummy bears with melatonin in them or whatever, you know, mm-hmm, <affirmative> even, uh, something like, like, uh, marijuana we chatted about like some people use that to fall asleep. So I was wondering like, what are your thoughts on the D types of medications? Because they're not all created equally, you know, a, a pharmaceutical to a supplement to a, a, a, a plant have different energies and characteristics to them. Um, but they can, there's a right and a wrong, you know, there's a, there's a, a best way of using a tool and there's not so great way of using a tool. And I would, uh, be interested if you had any clarifying thoughts on that. Speaker 1 00:39:43 I do. So, you know, our bodies in our lives, um, move sort of in cycles, just like the earth. And we have, you know, we ebb and we flow and sometimes we have a hundred year storm within our body. Maybe we lost somebody, um, you know, to death or we go through divorce or something traumatic. And I, I think that there is a place for, um, different types of, you know, medication. Uh, but in terms of long term use, I'm not a proponent of using substances to, um, to try to elicit good sleep. I think you're going to have more negative effects in most cases than you will positive, especially just the psychological dependence. Right. But when we look at the, the pharmaceutical emergence of sleep medicines, and by the way, some medicine are FDA approved for sleep, which is a whole nother topic, right. Speaker 1 00:40:41 And some of them are not, uh, FDA approved for sleep. However, um, you know, medical doctors are able to use their own discretion in prescribing drugs. So they may prescribe a drug that is not FDA approved for sleep so that the person can get better sleep. That's the intention, right. But we went from a place where, um, barbiturates were the primary sleep, uh, medication, which can be very addictive, um, and can cause death that there's a number of issues. Uh, and then we went into benzos, right? And these benzodiazepine class of, of sleep medications. And, you know, I think those were a, a big improvement. Um, but then we went to these non benzos, which is kind of what we have now, and they're less habit forming, but at the end of the day, this is, um, I think more of a business model than a healing solution, uh, for these pharmaceutical companies. Speaker 1 00:41:33 And none of the data that I've seen shows that long term use of these drugs, um, helps in any way with sleep. Uh, in fact, I think a lot of the true, uh, data is being, um, hidden from the FDA reports. So, you know, I, I'm not a big proponent of pharmaceuticals. I, in any way I don't take pharmaceuticals. Um, but I am sort of like in the American Western medicine surgical sense, I am open to taking medications. Um, if there is an emergency or if there's something that requires, uh, those drugs, but yeah, the proliferation of the, of those drugs in America, I mean, look at the opioid crisis, look at the dependence. I mean, don't even want to get into the greatest wealth transfer in history where I think we have more billionaires, um, specifically from the pharmaceutical companies over the last couple years than we've ever seen, um, crazy money floating around. Speaker 1 00:42:30 Uh, we won't get into that, but so these slow sleep medicines, okay. If you're stuck on a sleep medicine, I would recommend that you consult with your physician and have a real talk about what is the purpose, what's the goal here, right? Because we know that there's solutions lasting solutions within your own body and your behavior that can, uh, solve these issues that you're trying to cover up with drugs. But then when we get into melatonin, you know, maybe more natural, uh, which by the way, melatonin is produced, uh, in our brain, by the pine gland. Um, a lot of people don't know that you don't need to take a supplement unless you have a melatonin deficiency, something wrong in your brain, which can't happen with aging. Right. Um, but we have melatonin. We marijuana, unfortunately we have alcohol and, you know, like I mentioned before, NyQuil, so just talking about marijuana there's, uh, studies that show that it impacts, um, the brain function of, uh, dream sleep. Speaker 1 00:43:31 And so, you know, I, I don't recommend, um, M on up if it's going to be used because of, uh, and, and I'm not giving any medical advice at all, but my personal opinion is that if it's gonna be used, um, to help you, uh, curb, uh, you know, chaotic thoughts and help you get to sleep over a short period of time after a traumatic event, I completely understand, right. What long term usage is not the solution. And there's a bit of a cult and a following in a sort of, you know, a lot of people are very pro-marijuana and I'm not against marijuana at all. Uh, but we're specifically talking about the use as applied to achieving sleep. So, you know, alcohol damages, your deep sleep, marijuana damages, your dream sleep, uh, melatonin is essentially hormone therapy. Cuz if you're taking, by the way, this completely unregulated, it doesn't matter what it says on the bottle. Speaker 1 00:44:23 There's no one checking to see the actual dosage. A lot of people are taking 20 milligrams when truthfully you probably only need like two or three micrograms, right. Um, if you're supplementing, but our brain produces that, uh, the melatonin. And so unless there's a problem with our brain, for example, jet lag, we have a circadian disruption there and perhaps our melatonin production is happening later than when we want to go to bed. Okay. I understand supplement with, with melatonin. That makes sense. Uh, but then when we get into more, um, you know, earth, you know, plant based, uh, type of things like magnesium, um, you know, there's a ton of stuff that we talk about in the 62 Romeo program. Um, you know, even like Kiwi like eating the skin of the Kiwi, there's some pretty compelling that show, um, you know, very good results from taking, um, different types of magnesium, uh, Dr. Speaker 1 00:45:19 Andrew Huberman over at Stanford Huberman Huberman labs loves to talk about some of those supplements. Uh, I really enjoy his podcast. Um, but you know, still, what are we getting back to? How much is, you know, how much of this supplementation is placebo? How much of it is it psychological and what type of psychological connection are we associating with the act of taking this, this supplement, I need to take this supplement because this is the only way that I can go to sleep. Okay. Over time that, uh, becomes a fact in your brain. And the truth is in most cases and every single person is different and their sleep situation is different. But in most cases, you know, coming from my side of the house, we don't need the supplements. What we need is good behaviors, good thoughts, and controlling the environmental stimuli that can impact our brain function. Things that, that stuff is very difficult to go control. You can't control noise pollution outside of your house in terms of how that, uh, how your brain is receiving that. Right. You put in earplugs, you can't hear it as much. Well then yeah. Now it's less of an issue. So I hope that's a good perspective, uh, for you on the, the drugs and supplements. Speaker 0 00:46:32 Yeah, no, that's great. And, um, yeah, it really gets into, um, what I look at in a lot of Western medicine, you know, of, of, uh, chronic issues is just really masking symptoms. And so that I've really get into the root cause. And like you mentioned in there, like there's a, there's a business model at work that is in my mind really con at a, at a conflict of interest with true healing. And because you don't get that, that mailbox money, if people are cured of something as opposed to symptom management treatments. And so it's definitely a, a battle going on, you know, in this, in this, uh, socioeconomic environment where like interest with a lot of money, have a lot more representation because they can buy it, you know, they can afford to do studies. They can afford to omit data from studies or to intentionally not fund certain studies that may highlight realities, that point consciousness in the direction that is not where that business model wants their, uh, their crop to go, essentially <laugh> their, their crop of conscious. Speaker 0 00:48:10 So it's very, uh, it, it's very interesting, you know, when you start going down these, these, uh, roads and it becomes even polarizing because certain people feel that they, when they have their symptoms lessened or numbed out that they to the substance or to whatever methodology is use as well, that is what gives me a little bit more peace in my life. And so I'm going to defend it in anything that, that points to a possibility that those things may be in fact, or prolonging the issue is met with, um, a certain amount of hostility and regression. And that is, uh, some interesting waters to navigate. So have you, have you encountered any, um, resistance in your pursuits in your, your, uh, your, your journey of healing in this way? Have you encountered anyone who's who's or any groups who have just been, not that I'm asking for names or anything, but just has it happened where people are kind of trying to downplay or, um, suff it out? Speaker 1 00:49:33 No, no resistance. Everyone is coming, coming to the table with open arms. Uh, when I did, you know, we know that the CDC is saying, you know, we're in a state of sleep epidemic, a third of the country, which should be about 110 million people are short sleeping. Now it's debatable as to, you know, as, as a blanket statement, what is short sleeping, uh, because the recommendations of seven to nine hours of sleep, um, can be, it can be different for each person, but it's a pretty big problem. When you say a third of the country is short, sleeping, short, sleeping leads to all types of problems. Um, if you listen to Terry Youngblood, the CEO of, uh, sleep me, um, she talks about how, you know, she likes to sleep six hours. Okay. So that's her chronotype. That's how she functions. Uh, but if you get less than six hours, uh, of sleep for two weeks, uh, almost, you know, everyone will be, uh, have the same cognitive performances if they had a blood alcohol content of, uh, you know, legal intoxication with alcohol. Speaker 1 00:50:33 Right. Hmm. So I haven't received any, um, sort of, um, you know, I do, I do get the naysayers because the, the MDs don't have as much training on sleep. Uh, the PhD specifically in neurology, or if they focus on sleep, uh, really are the ones that focus, uh, on sleep. Uh, and they are a bit, few and far between, but I do get, um, different, uh, sort of responses to some of our social media postings and stuff like that. I think there's a lot of points that can be debated, but across the board, um, everyone wants help most do not want to be on the drugs, um, in our, you know, our own internal, uh, surveys, uh, I think somewhere around 98 plus percent of the team guys are having significant sleep difficulties. Um, there's definitely a, a very small percentage of guys that they get it. Speaker 1 00:51:26 They have been dialed in since, before they join the military and they get great sleep. And those really are, um, you know, statistical anomaly they're on the outside of the be curve, but for most people, uh, that go through the Navy seal training and come out the, the backside, they're going to suffer with sleep. You know, I just talked to John MCIL, somebody who I, uh, Meki who I respect immensely. He does a lot of the mindfulness and meditation stuff. Uh, and, and he, you know, is telling me about his own sleep challenges. And it's just all of us have these sleep challenges. And so while I don't think the rates are quite as high for the, you know, general military population, um, I think most military, uh, and according to the Rand report on, uh, sleep in the military, it's very bad. Um, but I think most veterans are suffering. Speaker 1 00:52:17 And so, you know, when I say, you know, I haven't received any, uh, sort of, uh, blockers or objections, the focus where we're at right now has really been on veterans. And so when I'm going to these people, like I said, you know, most of 'em are, are struggling with sleep and I can offer them a solution that doesn't mean they have to be on, you know, the VA's, uh, sleep medication program for the rest of their life. They, they, you know, receive that with open arms. Now, will I receive the same love from the general population? We will see, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I have a positive outlook on that. I think that we're probably gonna get the same response. Uh, but we won't know until we sort of, a lot of this is evolving, we're growing very rapidly. And so I think 20, 22 is gonna be a very, uh, revealing and positive year for us. Speaker 0 00:53:11 Yeah. I, uh, I agree with you, man. I think, I mean, trauma, trauma management, trauma healing from, from traumas is just becoming more of a holistically thought about topic, you know, and I feel like the world is ready to, um, make some, some leaps and bounds, you know, in our, in our near future, because a lot of the old rigid ways of doing things, thinking about things, um, have had their foundations cracked. And it's not that they're necessarily all inherently wrong or bad, but the, the lack of willingness in some circles to look at other ways of doing things, especially when it challenges a paradigm or something, um, you know, it's like, oh, where's the, where's the evidence. Where's the studies. It's like, well, if you're doing something groundbreaking, like it's the leading edge, it's the tip of the spear. So the experience is one of your, is the most advantageous, um, feedback loops that you can get, right? You're, you're, you're, you're probe and into unknown territory in a lot of areas and getting feedback. And then that is leading to further development and studies and research. And, uh, just, um, overall knowledge, that's expanding, you know, ways of ways of being ways of existing. I think that's, that's a cool, uh, name, the exist tribe. Where did you come up with that name? Speaker 1 00:55:03 Well exist. Tribe is the name of our company, and it is, you know, DBA, right? The actual name of our corporation is existential technologies. And it's a bit of a play on words because an existential crisis, if you look back to, you know, Adam Smith or Manuel cant or whatever, you know, an existential crisis is very much the opposite of technology, right? And so when we say existential technologies, and I've had a few debates on this, um, Speaker 1 00:55:38 We are saying that we acknowledge the industrial revolution and how technology is causing a, uh, negative impact on our lives and perhaps an existential crisis that we are not even aware that we're battling. And so existential technologies is all about, um, you know, if technology is the problem to say it simply then we're using technology to sort of battle some of that problem. Uh, and so it is, it is a bit confusing and hard to say. So we dropped the, uh, existential technologies. Uh, I've had to say that too many times over the phone with, um, you know, somebody and they're like, what? So we just changed it to exist tribe, but in adding, you know, exist tribe in adding the word tribe, uh, we specifically did that because what we're trying to do is provide a community, right, because that is what humanity is all about. Speaker 1 00:56:37 Right. And so I think it's important, you know, not to get into boring and stuff like that, but I do have a very strong position on how to build this company. It is a C corporation. It's not a nonprofit, right. Um, a lot of the nonprofits, um, you know, unfortunately end up with, uh, you know, I'm not even gonna go down that road, but, uh, C corporations have a lot of, uh, mechanisms in place that can either be used for harm or they can be used for good. And so the way that we structured this, and I, you know, used the Feister foundation as sort of a sounding board and a, and a guiding light into how to create a conscious capital corporation. Um, the people that work with me in this company own the company, the, uh, investors that have put money into our company are all people that believe in what we're doing. Speaker 1 00:57:31 We used a crowdfunding platform called Wefunder. And so everyone who has, uh, skin in the game, right, are people that believe in the mission, because the last thing that I wanna do in this chapter, my life is build to successful company and sit on top of an icy tower and collect all the revenue. And just everybody else is, is peons note, we're all in this together. Everyone should have an equal share. And as we grow, the, the, the whole point is to grow. Our impact is to grow our exposure and build a larger tribe. And so in order to do that, we have to take into account the, the reality of economics and, and how these things work. Because the new wealth, if we want wealth equality in 20 21, 20 22, we can't look to the government to issue us land like we did, uh, in, during the creation of the United States, right? Speaker 1 00:58:22 It's all in equity, within corporation. And if you are a, you know, executive and you have a significant share in a company that can create great wealth for your family. And if you're an employee, perhaps at the lower rungs, and you get a paycheck, the moment that you get fired, the company has a business or whatever, like that's done, that income stream is done. And you'll always be on that hamster wheel striving to make a paycheck begging for a, a, a pay raise. So the real way to distribute wealth and wealth equality, right? And I know this is getting a lot of pH, uh, philosophical economics, but we must allow the people within the organization to have shares in the organization. They must have shares. Now, it doesn't have to be the same amount of shares. I think each position within a company deserves different amounts of shares, but this is a way to end wealth Aqua, uh, equ inequality, uh, by allowing the people who break their back to build a company to have shares in the company. And as the company grows, so does their wealth. And now we have sort of a distribution that's not top heavy, right? Speaker 0 00:59:33 Yeah, no, I agree. I'm, I'm a hundred percent with you on that. I think that's, um, a beautiful way of using the exists thing, infrastructure to transform, uh, the whole paradigm, you know, and that's really what, I'm, what, I'm, what I've been working on. Cuz I obviously started this as a nonprofit for its mission. And part of the reason I did that is like, you know, what is a non it's, just another corporate structure that has a mission of, uh, doing work. Um, but at the end of the day, it's, it's another corporation set up as a nonprofit. And the reason I personally did is just because in, in order to achieve the objectives that I see, um, I, there's just a lot of challenges in agriculture where the costs are of, of doing business and just land appreciation, all this stuff, which is really a product of one product of, uh, devaluing of the currency, um, is making it extremely difficult, especially when you're adding onto top of different regulations and this and that. Speaker 0 01:00:45 And so it's really cool to see creative ways of using, using, using, uh, the existing technology for lack of better words, the te like the companies, the corporate technology that exists. But also, I, I really like the deeper meaning behind the name in existential technologies because, you know, English language is funny in that there's many words. That mean the same thing. In few words, that mean many different things, you know, the same word, that means many different things. And, uh, that word technology everyone's thinking of like, you know, machinery, electronics devices, but I, I like existential technologies cuz to me it also means like the inherent technologies we have within our biology, you know, and our own consciousness, the tools that we have that are soft and discounted and sleep is one like sleep is, uh, is a, a tech, a techno in many ways you can master certain things and sleep, especially when you get into like Luci dreaming and all that stuff. Speaker 0 01:01:49 So I really dig the, the deeper meaning behind that name. Um, and also how you're, how you've constructed the cons conscious capital company with community as a central theme, because that's really, I mean, we're right on the same page with community is what it's all about. And if people are investing their time and labor to a company to provide whatever service it is to that company, we, we, society looks at it as like, well, it's an employer employee relationship, but really getting around all the, the, the language tricks that, that go on, like people are investing their energy into the company, whether that's someone, you know, greeting someone at a door, picking up a own, moving stuff on shells, you know, anything, whatever, whatever can go on in a company like the, the people who are actually the human capital of that organization, uh, uh, under the, the current model a lot of them just get thrown, treated like disposable, you know, and I think that's actually pretty disgusting. Speaker 0 01:03:02 And so it's really cool to see new ways of viewing things, because a lot of times what happens in consciousness in these patterns is people just say like, Hey, you know, this is just the way things are. And so this is just how it is, but nothing is just how it is. Like every, all of the, this stuff didn't exist. <laugh>, you know, a couple hundred years ago and you get the like thousands of years and things were completely different. And so nothing is ever just what it is. It's what we make it. And I'm definitely in my, my purpose and intention here is, is, is transformation to identify I problems and just create improvement, you know, like instead of moving in circles and, and doing one step forward, one step back type things to kind of break those patterns and create an upward spiral of momentum, um, and live in a, do you use a play out word live in, live more abundantly, but it's true. Speaker 0 01:04:08 Like if you're, if you're living in a, a scarce mindset where the, the, the creator of a thing has to receive all the benefit, and then that, that benefit in terms of money and energy is stored somewhere like that. To me, it creates energy blockages, and it leads to a lot of the issues that we're dealing with because you get into lack of purpose, creating anxiety and feelings of, and people's lives. And that can lead to really dark places, which obviously we've both, you know, experienced, um, friends who've committed suicide, you know, which is like the ultimate, um, uh, tragic kind of ending that can, that can happen or punctuation. Um, and I, and I think that just living with more compassion and purpose for something greater in this experience than the material goods and things that we have, but to actually live from a place where the energy of just being in existing is a joy and, and brings peace, not only within yourself, but within others. Speaker 0 01:05:33 You know, my, my, my, my, uh, my measure of success is, you know, I have a certain, I have a piece within myself, you know, and, and if I can extend that like a candle to another candle and through my interactions, other people can feel a piece within themselves or more peace to me, the, at is that success to me. And I don't care like of any numbers or other metrics attached to it. Like if, if I, if I can walk into a, into a room or meet, meet a, meet another human being, and we have a true, honest connection from the heart, and we both feel good about whatever happens in that interaction going forward. And then that spreads to other people that to me, is transformative, uh, success. And I really feel that you're on the same path, you know, from working from a different angle. Speaker 0 01:06:36 So I'm, I'm really excited to, to see where this, um, to see how it improves, um, and to, you know, potentially work together on some stuff cuz part of what part of what we're doing at guardian range is obviously healing the helping to heal the earth, um, in using that as a means to heal each other, you know, veterans and build community around that. So it's not just about veterans, it's really about human beings and, and tapping back into nature and using that to empower ourselves, to find peace, you know, find peace and, uh, and create peace and create abundance through food and, and, and giving. Um, but to do it in a really a new model for, uh, for society, you know, it's not like completely reinventing the wheel. It's going, going back to what worked for most of humanity in a lot of ways, with a deeper understanding of where things can take turns, uh, not such, not such good things, you know, creating traumas and all that stuff. Speaker 0 01:07:47 And so we have the benefit of, uh, a very wide awareness, you know, understanding where we are at, why, where we are in time, the history we came from, the potentials of our future, if we continue to things without compassion and care, and really what I see as like a, a great potential for a beautiful reality in the future, obviously there's, um, there's a lot of stuff to work through <laugh> in, uh, in, uh, human consciousness, but, uh, overall I feel really, um, good about the way things are going, despite the struggles that are still going on. Um, what are your thought that's? Speaker 1 01:08:35 Well, SA guru would say that, you know, life is about suffering until it isn't. And it really is a profound thought because, you know, gosh, how much a life is just suffering. And some of it is brought on ourselves. I feel like, you know, some of us might even have an addiction to suffering, uh, but life is all about suffering and we have to deal with those things. But I think what he meant by, until it isn't is until we realize that sort of transcendence is the purpose of life. And what I mean by that is that if we are able to reach a point in our life where we acknowledge death and we acknowledge, uh, the futility of, of life and that a lot of it's suffering and that we can only control ourselves. And then you can sort of transcend in, you know, not getting into the spiritual aspect, but, uh, transcend into the village, elder you, if you will. Speaker 1 01:09:37 And that's, I think a lot of what we're missing these days, where are our village elders, where are the people who have lived life and are now, uh, reflecting on things and giving us advice as, as young people. And I'm very quickly becoming, uh, not, uh, in that category, but, um, of young people, but that I believe is where I, um, where my sites are, uh, focused on is how do I become, uh, the person that is wise and can offer guidance and help others, um, whether it's through this sleep program or just through, you know, uh, relationships or, or just through my actions. So I agree with everything you're saying as well. So I think this is a, a great chance to connect and I look forward to all the possibilities, um, of, of confluence and collaboration with us. Speaker 0 01:10:32 Yeah, man, I really like what you said about the elders, because they do have, they have literally, um, an ocean of experience that is unfortunately, um, just kind of thrown away and, and neglected and looked at as like, you know, well, their time is kind of past in society in general. It's like the time has passed and we're focusing on like the, the right now, cuz it's not even like the, they're not, it's not even so much of a focus on kids. I feel like children and elderly are the most neglected and the people who are within our, you know, what you would call like, uh, productive adult age within this economic system are given the most weight and looked at the most. I idle tree, which I don't think I tree is, is should, should be in the equation, but you see it all, all, all over the place where people are just really idolizing certain people who are living in their prime, um, who may not be the best places to seek advice. Speaker 0 01:11:52 Whereas if you listen to someone who has lived a complete life and they're on their way into a transition beyond this life, it's like, that's a lot of, um, lost. That's a lot of wisdom that's not being respected. You know, there's a certain amount of re respect your elders that should be there and is, and, and, and the same with the children coming on. The other end of that spectrum where it's like that is life coming in. That really doesn't deserve the weight of a lot of trauma that's being put on them by society. And, and like a lot of these argumentations and these, these, uh, these aggressive energies that are coming up where everyone's trying to be, right. You know, it's like the, the child comes in and there's sponge for energy on this earth with limitless potential. And there's this chaoticness, which maybe has a lot to do with the lack of sleep. Speaker 0 01:12:59 You know, I, I think a lack of sleep is, uh, a bigger problem than, than, uh, we're even defining here. But, um, I really think like with E with everything that has gone on we've, we have this gift of reflective awareness, you know, things got paused, things got stopped for better or worse. There's been a bit more breathing room and we have the ability to move forward in a way that is not going to continue to make this same mistakes that an UNC that a more unconscious society would've made. Right. Because we've had the benefit of sitting in a, in a, in a, in a stillness, some level of stillness despite the chaos that exists. So really like what, uh, your, your path of, and your, your focus of being that wise, elder, who has the ability to give. And I think that's a beautiful reality that we can move to and, and are going to where the younger generations and of whatever time that we're in actually have the respect and the interest to listen to, to that experience, because that's how, that's how real conscious evolution happens. Speaker 0 01:14:29 You know, like if, if that wisdom is being passed on from generation to generation, a lot of improvements can happen. And a lot of mistakes don't need to be made. But if we suffer this state of, um, amnesia where knowledge is not getting passed down efficiently from generation to generation and the same patterns of behaviors keep playing out, um, it's just, it's something I reflect on a lot. And, uh, I feel that consciousness has stagnated for quite some time, despite the industrialized advancements in technology and all that stuff. Um, I feel that the growth of consciousness has been stunted. And I think we're at a point in time where there's gonna be some growth spurts and there already has been, you know, I know from some of the communities, I mean, just seeing, seeing the, the stuff just even re you and you and I conversing right now. I know, like back when we're in the teams, I don't, I mean, I've always been philosophical, but where we're at and what we're talking about right now, I don't think is what we would've been talking about back then. <laugh>, you Speaker 1 01:15:42 Know, no way. Yeah, exactly. Speaker 0 01:15:44 So it's pretty cool to see just within our own lives, that the, the evolutionary progress that we've made, um, and like, with, with that, um, what is for, for someone listening right now, who's struggling with sleep. What is the, this one piece of the, the single best advice that you could give to that person who's just struggling with sleep in their lives right now? Speaker 1 01:16:18 I would say, uh, you know, that's a very deep question because people have different, uh, sleep issues, right? It's a huge bucket to throw everybody's problems into. But I would say if I were to just make one statement, it would be to forgive yourself and yourself, uh, to sleep, uh, getting rid of those negative sleep thoughts and replacing those with positive sleep thoughts. Speaker 0 01:16:45 Yeah. That, uh, easier, easier said than done for sure. But I, I, I agree with that, that statement, the forgiveness, um, people are very hard on themselves, you know, and that, that creates those, those pre sleep thought patterns that make it very difficult to sleep. I know a lot of people struggle with that, especially coming from our background, struggle with, uh, getting into that relaxed state that allows deep sleep. Um, yeah. Forgiveness is powerful, man. It's, it's really powerful. And it's, it's one of those things. Like a lot of people can look at that and be like, oh, that's such a trite thing to say, like, forgiveness, but it really is true, you know, um, it, because it's a letting go of emotional weight and baggage, if it's done truly. Um, and it really has tremendous benefit, man. I, I hundred percent agree with you there, but it, it, like you said, everyone has different, different reasons and issues. Speaker 0 01:17:56 Um, but I think that was a solid answer, solid answer. Um, and part of that, part of getting to that state is being living a more reflective life, you know, not just living in way is that are completely reactionary and busy mindedness. You know, a lot of people, they, they work at whatever they're doing, you know, drink. Like we used to drink like fishes, you know, crazy amounts. <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative>, um, and then just, we're always keeping ourselves busy. So we don't deal with the things that need to be forgiven, which is another obstacle that is, you know, um, possibly paradoxical, cause it's like, you know, people want to heal from something. And so they're, they're, we're the tools that we're given are to, is to numb out, to run away instead of feeling through it. And I like the saying that, you know, healing comes from feeling, you gotta feel the heal. And so it's, uh, it, it's, uh, a very, just powerful state of calm that you can it into, through forgiveness. So thank thanks for that piece of advice. And now where can, uh, folks learn more information about like this 62 Romeo program and connect with, uh, exist tribe and, and how can, how can we best help you out in your mission? Speaker 1 01:19:31 Yeah, we, I think the best place to go is rest node.org, R E S T O D E dot. And, uh, there, you can kind of see, um, this thing that we built. Um, and then there's another page on there about 62 Romeo we're creating another webpage folk is just on the 62 Romeo, but that's not live yet. Um, so that's just kind of a, you know, we also have exist tribe.org. Um, so either one of those is fine. Uh, you can kind of dig in and, and see what it is that we're doing. Um, we're actually gonna open up, uh, to the public here pretty soon with the 62 Romeo as a sleep coach program. Uh, and we're building out a team of sleep coaches because we're gonna be able to do, um, larger classes, support more people, and really start to chip away at this sleep epidemic. Um, it's occurring in every first world country right now. So pretty excited about that. Speaker 0 01:20:39 Yeah, no, that's exciting, man. Um, I'm excited to learn more, you know, dive in deeper. I really like what you get going on on, and it just fits into, um, fits right in with everything that, that I'm doing, you know, or working for. And I feel that a lot that's that society is moving towards and this, this holistic way of living more healthfully, you know, instead of like just living in a way that is somewhat O oblivious to best practices to maintain health. And we just kind of fall into a state of where it's like, okay, now I'm unhealthy. So now I'm gonna go start looking into how to be healthy again, or how do so this problem. And I think it's a very, um, it's a reaction that's created a very proactive, um, way of living healthily and I think that's awesome. And the, the community aspect is, is, uh, so needed in like these times that are just, <laugh> like there certain, just, uh, energies, just trying to keep everyone divided, not only from each other by different identities, but within themselves. And, you know, uh, it's, it's, uh, unfortunate, but it's, it's caused by a lot of, uh, tensions that are hopefully gonna be solved, you know, through this, that focus on people's personal, deep, inner work that can permeate out to, uh, others in their lives. And this, uh, this point in time that we're going through gets a lot better in my, so I'm honored to have this chat with you and, uh, see where you're at and it's, uh, beautiful work that you're doing, bro. Speaker 1 01:22:43 Thank you. Likewise, I appreciate that. Um, and I just realized I'm looking at our website, the rest, no.org, um, that the marketing team has posted the, uh, the 62 Romeo, um, documentary on there. It's only 16 minutes long, but I think it's really impactful if people wanna watch that. So we have, it looks like we have a lot of good content on, uh, re.org. So just check that out. Speaker 0 01:23:12 Awesome. Yeah, definitely check out re no.org and, uh, I'm excited to chat in the future. Um, do a little recap and see, keep checking back in, you know, it's what it's all about. It's kinda supporting the, the good causes with this, this platform here, um, to really connect on a human level, um, with some cool stuff that's going on and you're definitely doing some really cool stuff out there. So thanks for the chat. Speaker 1 01:23:41 I appreciate it. You too, have a wonderful day mark, and, uh, I'll catch you soon. Ma Speaker 0 01:23:45 All right, bro. Have a good one. Speaker 1 01:23:47 Take care. Speaker 0 01:23:50 Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the guardian green podcast. And thank you for your support in sharing this episode with your friends and family. Guardian gr is a registered nonprofit 5 0 1, <inaudible> three. So if you'd like to support this pod and our work to healing through regenerative, agriculture, environmental restoration, and community building with a deductible, our website org for more www do R D I a N G R a N G E, where you can send a one time or recurring donation. If there's the first episode you've listened to, I invite you to listen to the very first episode titled the vision veteran healing to your nature and community with mark Matts Mattel de floor, where I get into my background as a Navy seal and why I'm on this lifelong mission to protect natural resources, strength communities, and uplift veterans with a renewed sense of purpose. Speaker 0 01:25:05 In addition to our focus of facilitating individual and community healing through working in nature, we're also so in the seeds to build what I call a family oriented community focused decentralized network for a soil based economy, our intention is to help create healing spaces for veterans and to serve local community centers for projects that build deep rooted relationships and inspire a stronger sense of community for generations to come. I invite you to follow along with these podcasts by subscribing and sharing this content to help expand our reach. And I want to give a heartfelt thank you to every person who has shared, donated or provided feedback or encouragement, and none of this could be possible without a community participation. So please feel free to jump in and connect with us on social media, which you can [email protected] or simply, uh, just search guardian range. And we should pop up. Thank you for showing up and participating in this journey. As we work to help transform the world into a more beautiful, healthy, and friendly place. One community at a.

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