017 | Hack Your Way To Happiness w/ Luke Menikmati

00:07
Hello good people and welcome back to Life is Sound. There's not many people in the world that I can say I've known as long as this guy. And we live in a crazy time where you can still keep in contact with people that you've not seen for a while. But the amount of time I've known this guy, I'm 36 now and I would say it's got to be at least 33 years. Which is, there's not many people I can say that with apart from probably family members.

00:36
which is incredible that he's even sat here today and we're blessed to be able to do this. Today I've got Luke Menikmati. He's been a character in my life from nursery, primary school, high school and beyond. And to see him on his journey of what he's done in his life as a creative and where he's at now with his mindset and I think we're very aligned on.

00:59
kind of how we're approaching life and the things that we're trying to do. And these are the people that I really want to come and have these conversations. So I just want to say a big hello to Luke today. If you want to just introduce yourself to the listeners, who you are in your world. And then we'll jump straight into this. Yeah, Luke, I probably class myself as a creative in kind of a multiple fields. And it's quite broad. It spreads out across different stuff. And

01:27
I think maybe what we might talk about is kind of how I try and keep that creativity going but also try and keep kind of a straight mind in what's going on and stuff that me and you have spoken about separately. And try and got myself through tricky periods of my life, you know, me and my personal stuff where I'm kind of struggling with discipline and those kind of things.

01:57
actually had to dig deep and almost fight my way back out of it. Yeah. Um, and I just think it's important, especially now, especially with everything going on that we, that we kind of have the conversation about. Yeah. About that stuff and about the things that people can do. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, to, to, to help themselves and doesn't necessarily always have to be, um, like, um, speaking to professionals, although that is.

02:26
mega and I have done that, but it's a case of kind of doing other stuff for yourself and getting on that. Yeah, I think you reaching out, well, however we had the conversation, I think you might have listened to the podcast and messaged me and I was like, bro, come and do it. And you're like, yes, sure. So we got into that conversation. I was like, let me think about a topic or I like to kind of like shape something for a conversation before someone shows up.

02:56
And you were like, I want to talk about hacking positivity. And I was like, oh, that's a great way to look at things because everything we try and do when we're working on ourselves is literally just to try and get to a better place, which is more to the, you know, the spectrum of positivity. I suppose it is. I suppose it is. All these disciplines, you know, even if you go and talk into a therapist, which I've done in the past, but all these things I've, you know, tried outside of professional help, the things you discover in your own path.

03:25
your own journey, we are literally just trying to hack back into the positive space. So when you said that, it got me really fired up and excited because this is exactly what this podcast is about. What have you been through and like what, how did you get out of that? Yeah, yeah. And I think maybe could spin it back to to to probably starting with nutrition from years ago. And it's something that whether I had been

03:54
kind of wanting to better myself or wanting to improve my mind state or not. I've kind of was always interested in how, how different diets and how different things that you could do or take or whatever can, can help the body and help you perform and help you mental state, all those kinds of things. So it kind of started off down the path. And it's been a crazy journey of going from different diets.

04:24
trying vegan for a year, trying meat eater, carnivore, going down kind of keto and every different route to try and not even trying just interested in all right what is my specific body type doing and also what is all the research saying, what research do I need to do I want to leave out, what research do I want to take in because you know that there's so much information out there.

04:54
can't trust it all. It's all that. But it started from super early on so always been kind of, not always actually, but maybe after uni. Went to uni in London and was living there for a bit and I think after that I came back and it was put on my radar. Obviously I had finished uni and

05:21
done well there and got some work and was kind of focused on that. And it wasn't just about living in kind of random ends of London. I was actually back in Manchester working and although I love London, Manchester is kind of good to ground yourself before you do other stuff. And it kind of started there. So I was going, okay, what vegetables, what fruits, what this, that, and it moved on.

05:51
quite quickly to looking at juice fast, juice fasting, looking at... So this is quite early then, like what age would you say? Maybe, maybe... 22, 23, so not that early. I wouldn't consider it very early, but maybe we're talking it's 10 plus years ago. You're invested, yeah, yeah. That's kind of early depending on who you look at, who looks at that kind of stuff, but...

06:21
So yeah, juice fasting was one thing, tried that. Doing kind of three days, five days of just juicing raw vegetables, mainly some fruits. And having that only over three times a day over a period of however many days. Great for detoxing, great for energy boosting. Obviously your body doesn't have to digest the food. It just, it gets the nutrients straight to the...

06:51
to the system, all those kinds of things. So this is the stuff that I was looking into. And I do still swear by it, like I do, I don't necessarily go full juice fast or whatever, but I do swear by properly, I would consider only using organic fruit and veg, but, and your own juicer, not going to somewhere that's juiced it, and like had it sat on a shelf or in the fridge for-

07:19
you don't know how long dated or not, do you know what I mean? It's that kind of stuff. If you can do it yourself then, you can do it yourself, juices are easy to get hold of. Yeah. And found that the energy levels from that are just like sometimes through the roof, depending on what you use and if you combine it with exercise and I think that's another one is physical exercise is another Brian one, which is obviously gonna be...

07:48
going to be much more accessible to a lot more people and people are on it. It's nice to see that people really are on it now, moving towards kind of your hot yoga, your running, your gym. Gyms are packed out always now, which is obviously great to see and people know that it's proven business to kind of get your feeling.

08:18
starting it all those years back, is that something you've consistently kept up throughout your life? Is that like a practice of yours? Do you go, right, I'm feeling like this, so I'm going to do a three to five day juice cleanse? Or is it something you implement on a daily basis? There was a time when I would pretty much do a juice every, I would either do juice or a gym every day. That's a t-shirt ready to go.

08:46
I might get a little run going. Sipping on Jim and juice. Bring me in Mo, bring me in. He's got his notepad ready. Got the notepad, notepad, cut it. So it was that one or the other day. Yeah. And I think maybe that was the time when I was, when I first started turning to it.

09:13
to help with the headspace, the mind space and the energy, because I was feeling that it would bring about positivity as well. So both of those things combined, you can't really go wrong. Yes, good combo. It's just two very simple things that someone can do. And I would be more inclined to go physical exercise now is more what I prefer to go to.

09:42
But I have a juicer and every now and then I'll do one and feel great again. Do you know what I mean? But combined with other info on diet and that kind of thing, your thoughts and approach on stuff forever changes, or I do. And I'm kind of more focused on what specifically is the...

10:12
should I be eating that would make me feel good as well as and also juicing. It takes a bit of time and cleaning the thing out and all that kind of stuff. That's part of the battle isn't it? Well this is the thing, it's about applying that time if you want to. If you're going to go the extra mile, go the extra mile. As well as it depends on other stuff and there's other stuff that I'm doing at the minute that's kind of, that fills the gap maybe is it.

10:41
It's crazy how we talk ourselves out of these things because something as small as, oh, it's really difficult to clean in that bit where it chops the fruit and veg. You hate this part. And then doing that over a few days, you're like, ah, just I'll have a juice tomorrow instead, all of a sudden you're not juicing anymore. Think, thinking about the age that you approach this. What was the reason you started to think about how food will change your mindset? Because, you know, when we're living young and

11:10
probably a lot faster than we are now. Probably the last thing a lot of us think about, a lot of it's just, you know, drink, drugs, sex, like the things that we all do when we're younger, way quicker, even though we probably still partake in a lot of those things now, but was it something negative that happened in your life or was it more just intrigue of, I just wanna see how my brain ticks when I apply this thing to my body? There are some positives to getting older, but.

11:38
they're obviously out some negatives to getting older as well. That's part of it. 100% is part of it. You just find yourself with a little bit less energy and if you know ways that you can increase that. Like I genuinely feel as...

11:55
I genuinely fit because of what I wasn't doing years ago and what I am doing now, genuinely feel fitter and healthier and stronger. Yeah, you look today when you turn up as I am, you look good man. Like you can see like you're putting in work, which is in a testament. Cause a lot of us can say, I'm doing this, look at my Instagram, I'm juicing. Like lie a little bit to the world. Cause you know, I'm guilty of this. Take loads of pictures and videos of that one juice and blast them up. Smash them up after it. Well, I'll keep posting.

12:24
It's different angles of that juice over there. Different lighting. Yeah. But one thing that's beautiful I'm realizing in these conversations, the people that are showing up to back where my mindset is and just say, hey, you've been thinking about this. Here's the person to show you to step on the path. So we're only 12 minutes into this conversation. I'm realizing why you're here today. It's because where my mindset has been and me shifting out of bad habits.

12:53
You know, years ago, letting go of smoking weed, you smoke loads of weed. That's gone. Don't drink alcohol. Never really had an attachment to that. There's nothing in my life really apart from sugar, which is damaging to me. And I'm at that point now where I'm ready to, you know, I've done a lot of fasting. I enjoy fasting. I find it a great discipline. Now I'm really battling those sugar demons. So while you're here, I'm like, Luke's the guy that's going to get me over this line. I think.

13:20
Well, and I'd spin it back to you with the, with the fasting is, is one thing that I know I've got friends on friends that, that do it. And really, really subscribed to it. Got friends, um, good friend, Danny, who does, um, five to seven day dry fasting. Wow. Do the whole, he's been fasting for years. Like don't get it. It's, it's not like.

13:45
Everyone knows, don't just do that straight away. They'll be doing, he's been doing it for years and I've done single two days not dry just with the water and kind of test to it. My body starts to really want that that's grand though after a bit so not as much as I might have wanted to.

14:14
to do is the fasting one. But as I know, again, it's from experience. It's just next level and the science behind it, it just makes a lot of sense. Like if we go back to caveman times or basically times that would more, would be more natural to what our bodies are like. So we are basically the same as we were hundreds of years ago, but without what's going on now, we never would have eaten.

14:43
breakfast, dinner, tea, never had snacks, never had any of that stuff. And for a lot of the time people would eat a big meal on one day and they would miss the next day, possibly the next day after that. So it makes sense that the body then uses that time to regenerate the cells when you're not eating for the next day after you've had that first meal and, and it, and it would make the whole thing just, if you look at it, just on that level, it does make a lot of sense. And that is exactly what's going on. The body's been proven to fight.

15:13
serious illnesses in that time when it's fasting and yeah, I cannot speak to that enough. Trusting the intuition, the magic that our systems are capable of. None of us get a manual. We're just in it and then we learn from generations before. You've got to think about food industries that have come in. They want to make money off you. So we're going to tell you, you need to eat breakfast, lunch and tea. Well, what's breakfast now?

15:41
not for a lot of us but some people it's corn flakes that's what it's presented as yeah like corn flakes it's just like quote unquote peasant food and that's supposed to get you freshened up and ready for the day yeah i don't think so and it's like um through advertising salty through that shiny advert from 150s it's entertainment now it's not nourishment it's not nutrition it's just to entertain um i get quite i get worked up about it a little bit

16:10
with having a little one, having a daughter and she's of course, she's surrounded by me and family that show what's good to eat, what's great, what's positive, what's going to help and explain all of these things, all the reasons, but it's hard man when you've got the colorful packaging and the children. All the things we had. Exactly. Toys in your cereal, waiting to get that reward to eat the sugar and the thing we've

16:40
just grew up on in the night. She's a little sweet monster as well. She loves the sweet food and loves all that stuff. So of course it's a battle. It is a battle. But look what's going on. Like it's pretty sad to see that companies are basically just trying to feed people really not healthy and not nutritious food for a lot of money and pushing that over. What?

17:09
could be eating and consuming for energy and especially growing children, man. It's like, we could go into another old podcast on that one, but everyone knows where we're going with that. It's just, it's just not, it's not on it. It's not fair for children to be have that pushed on them. Do you know what I mean? It should be, we could be talking about what will be bringing energy and life to someone growing. But.

17:37
It's a separate one, but it is, it's high into the nutrition. This is the thing with, with Dean's conversations, you can easily break off down to, you know, one subject, which is, could be a whole other, I was discussion. And I think even you saying that, you know, you probably wanting to do better for yourself because to impact the world, like you got to be that person for your daughter, you can't be telling your daughter, like don't eat those things. First of all, cause we at them, we probably didn't know any different, but.

18:06
she can't witness you, hey, don't do that. And imagine me guzzling some of that stuff and then saying. Just drinking syrup or a kind of coke or something while telling her not to do that. And saying, and then try and give it the high horse big and about, I know why it's bad, well, why are you drinking it then, dad? So it probably is a bit of a cycle that spins it back and you're gonna have to hold space for other people.

18:34
And your little one and whatever else. Yeah. It's all that for me as well. It's all the unlearning. So most of the time when I do this podcast, the earliest I will record is 11. Cause I feel like people's minds need to work up and sit into the day before you come and have a discussion. And I record probably between 11 and two. So I don't eat before those times. So today I was like, I've got two podcasts in a row. Maybe I can fit some food in before. And I was like,

19:02
You don't, don't eat till four or five anyway, you'll be fine. Yeah. And then I get like awareness of satirical sometimes with my stomach, like rumbling if someone's hearing that. But the discipline of starting fasting, and this is not me saying I'm a hundred percent, you know, set with my diet. I'm a vegetarian. I've been vegetarian for about eight years. I know these things are probably lack nutritionally that I could be a lot better with sugar is my go-to thing. But what I noticed with.

19:30
The cravings and what the mind does in relation to your body. I'd say after about a week and a half, two weeks of not having sugar and just eating one big meal a day, sometimes I'd even at the weekends, I'd let myself go. And I'd be like, right, you can have a pizza that's your treat, but during the week you eat healthy and you fast. So I'd have a one hour window of eating. I do quite a strict fast. When you tell people that they're like, Oh, I couldn't do that. They project this thing onto you. It's like straight away is I'm like, what if you could?

20:00
Well, and just touching on that, it's not necessarily them in the wrong for thinking and feeling that way, it's how we've been conditioned over years. It's a lifelong programme. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as we know that intermittent fasting is the best thing that you could be doing. Yeah. Getting work done first thing in the morning before you've started throwing loads of food on it. Food is great, but it's like you say.

20:29
exactly what you're saying, choose the times to put that in. And then again, we've like, can't eat for this and that. Obviously people do long fasts. We saw David Blaine do the 40 day. And of course that's not healthy to be doing that stuff. But there's people that, David Blaine is just an easy one to mention because people might remember him and might remember what he did. But there's people do that across the world all the time.

20:59
Same with water. I remember hearing that you would literally die if you didn't drink water for three days. Of course, we know that's not true. I remember people telling me that you would die if you ate four, five bananas. Come on now. It's like this kind of stuff. You start to think when you get older and you go. Yeah, when was the banana ration? Someone came up with that. Bananas were running out. Well, bananas are cheaper, though. Energy packs.

21:26
So it makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Just don't have people wolfing them. You can eat Loda, Coco Pops or whatever. That's the thing, isn't it? This is what I was going to say, like, the sugar battle is fasting for me. About a week and a half, two weeks in, I notice my brain then switches and I can look at anything containing sugar and I go, eww. And the craving stops and I'm in this mode now where I just want to be this person.

21:55
and I'm grateful. And then life happens. Something goes, here's a bit of life. Here's just something difficult to deal with. Yeah. And your brain goes, all right, I need comfort now. This fasting thing is really like a lot because extra stress is coming in. It was fine, but here's some, here's a heavy load. Well, and then it's, you feel like you want to go for some entertainment for a little minute and it's not, it is kind of natural. Little sugar hug. But then once you get that, you go, oh, that's not bad. I have another one tomorrow.

22:24
And then now you're detaching from the fasting program that you've gone into. Another thing is with me fasting, say I fluctuate about stone, stone and a half. When I'm eating whatever I want, I'll be up to about 14 stone. It's probably like the heaviest I get to unless I was really feeding myself. When I fast, I can drop a stone and a half of that. And I just feel a lot better. And I walk around, I can feel the weight off me and my mindset's clear.

22:53
My dog's been quite sick, so he'll keep me up at night. But when I'm fasting, the balance is I'm not getting optimum sleep, but my body's not processing food so it can handle the lack of this over here. That's been a really interesting thing to witness as well. I think when you just touching on the sleep as well, it kind of

23:13
I think sleep is a big one. And I've actually just recently noticed, not happened for, well, up until this point, but I've just noticed recently, if I skip even say two hours of a usual night, like I'm written off to some degree the next day, like it's really starting to, whether it's because I've been pretty religious with it for a good while, to the point where

23:44
I'll try and stick to a set time of going to sleep and I don't have any electrical equipment in my room or anywhere in my space and don't have alarms to wake me up. So I'll wake up from light coming in the window and just sensing that time. If I've woken up 10 minutes late, then I'm 10 minutes late for what's going on. Body what it's sent the 10 minutes. You know what I mean? Or if it's early, then there's extra stuff that can be done. If it's early. So it's...

24:13
stuff like that. But then like you say, if you're keeping on that natural, healthy level without the sugars, you will be able to deal with a bit of extra, if you've got some extra work or you've got something going on or you want to go out, see some people you want to go, you're traveling somewhere and the flight and this that, do you know what I mean? Then obviously you want to fall back on the facts of your body being able to handle a lack of two hours sleep or whatever because

24:43
you've not been, like you say, smacking load of sugar. Back on the sugar one, like I've, one way I've kind of approached it is just, is having sweet stuff, but not the wackiness, not the wacky sweet. So like, getting agave syrup and mixing that with, in small amount with something else or like whatever. Do you know what I mean? That kind of.

25:12
that kind of stuff or going more the fruit one and looking at that as a sweet thing or there's obviously natural bars, you can get all those kind of protein bars even sometimes that help like healthy bars that might not be amazing in terms of sugar but at least they're not like a Mars bar or Snickers or something. I remember the last time I went down that route.

25:39
I can't see yesterday and this is, this is a big battle for me. I, so I'm starting a microdosing journey tomorrow. I'm on a program where like set out, everyone's doing it together. And so I'm, I am technically fasting, but in my mind, I'm not fasting. It's just what I'm doing at the moment naturally. But I know when, when I get into something and I commit to it, I'm like, right, microdosing starts here. So I don't, I don't want to know what microdosing and sugar feels like.

26:08
I want to feel what microdosing feels like. And for the way for me to get there is to make sure my system is clean and I'm moving and I'm committing to being more physical with my body and letting a clean system process the thing that I'm trying to understand, which is psychedelics in a small amount.

26:35
to quite a lot of stuff is that compounding of the positive. So if you've got a reason to not do the sugar and the reason to not do the sugar is something that's also gonna benefit you, then it keeps that thing going. Starting doing martial art training with friends of mine maybe a year or so ago and kind of just upping the amount we're doing and going to see different practitioners of different stuff and training with them, that kind of thing.

27:05
It ups the reason to go gym, ups the reason to get stronger and fitter and healthier. I don't ever want to be in a situation where I'm exhausted or I'm tired. There's no risk. It's not like cage fighting at this point. Do you know what I mean? But it's more I don't want to be exhausted in a space where you train in with people that are on some levels and some aren't on other levels. I want to be on the top level I can be.

27:34
so that I can train and do what we're doing and spar and all those kind of things without energy being depleted or without having the lack of strength that you might have if you'd not been gym twice that week or if you'd skipped it and gone out getting pissed or if you'd skipped it and just been sat on your arse eating pizza or whatever. All those kind of things are always going to tie in.

28:04
And it goes back directly to that, which you're talking about where you're cutting out the sugar. Amazing thing. I couldn't even think of a better way to approach the microdosing, to not have the sugar in there meddling with what it's going to do. And the microdosing courses are great. I've done them a few times. I remember it's a bit of a random story, but I always hold back to it. I've been doing the course for a bit.

28:33
And I never really feel that you don't, I'm saying you don't like me personally don't feel like tripping off, off, off doing a micro dose each day. And that's not, that's not the aim is it? It's kind of, it's an internal thing and it kind of is subconscious pretty much for me, I find. And, um, and I was just like halfway through this course and one day I just, I just felt this, this mega urge to just.

29:00
completely like got my entire living space and just, just no real reason. I just, it felt really like not right, not clean, not tidy, not anything for me. I spent like two full days like taking bags out, just removing stuff from the space, just like taking things, eBay selling it, this that, and just went stripped it back and like been doing bits of looking into minimalist living and.

29:29
kind of decluttering spaces and all that kind of stuff, but it just, it gave me that kick up the arse and I was like, right, yeah. And just did it and it can only have been that because it was the first time I'd done a course and you just kind of could just see it working on my psyche. Do you know what I mean? And it's another one of them hacking the positive. It's a big thing and it's space is energy where you put things in a space. So think of Tetris, you got Tetris blocks in a square room.

29:59
Where you put things is where you block the energy of that room. So it's a big thing where I've looked around in my apartment recently. And it's a strange thing as an adult. I like that. I like that. The Tetris thing. Yeah. Free flow. Man, this is beautiful thing about these conversations. You say something, it triggers a thought that comes out, let it go. And the conversation flows. It's, I've been thinking recently, like as an adult, life seems to be, and you don't notice this as a kid.

30:25
You tidy up, you turn around and everything's a mess again. You're like, are you joking me? I did this yesterday. And that minimalist approach, I think is great. And it's something I've been aware of, not that I've jumped into it, but very aware of, do I need this anymore? What is that serving in my life? It's just clutter and mess. And there is something when you look at clean space and design, your mind just goes, oh, that's really nice. And there's a weird thing as a creative that you probably experience as well.

30:54
There's also a point we can live in where we're in chaos. Say this desk was just chaos, but you know exactly where everything is. Yeah. And someone comes in and moves some stuff and you're like, whoa, you messing up my creative flow. These two worlds I've operated in throughout my creative time. It's everything clean and in its place. And I noticed sometimes when I'm at home, I just go around and move things and get everything straight. I'm like, don't know if it's OCD or what, or I just like things to be a certain way. But then I've, I've all also been in the space where.

31:23
I could have a desk like this, just like cluttered. But I know when I need that tool exactly where it is. Yeah, it's kind of, I could see that working in like an artist's studio or whatever. And obviously you're an artist, so then you're in your studio and you're in spaces where then that does make sense. Like paint pots and if we just merging that to mean musical equipment, but.

31:48
Sometimes just wires, like a look around and go, how have I let it get to this? And then you clear it and it's like a full reset and you're like, oh, that's it. And then over time it all just, and then you've got to keep undoing the, the, the amount of stuff you just accumulate and in that space in front of you. Well, I think it's important. I've been, I've been watching people that are extreme on it. So it's like they own a desk and then like cut the ring. That's it.

32:18
nice apartment wherever showing you around the space and it's literally bare. There's a desk and a computer on it. Obviously it just relates to the work that the person is doing, designer but not necessarily methodical and getting drawing and all that kind of stuff, all digital stuff, all the digital design that you're doing. So that does make sense. And it's like you can obviously take it

32:45
as far as you want to take it when you see people living in that space. So that this guy obviously got a nice bed and got the covers on the bed. It's like sleeping on a wooden floor, like taking it to ridiculous extremes. But apart from, apart from that, like the apartment was, was empty. He was showing me around his place and I was like, wow. Okay. And it's seeing that you kind of going, well, it's possible to go that far with it. You could bring it back, bring it back. And.

33:15
That was kind of implement a bit into your own world. Well, that was kind of where I was going that day by stripping everything out and I'd since moved from that place and I see it as luckily it was unvarnished where I moved to. So I barely took anything. I took that as an opportunity to go, right, okay, there's barely anything in there. So I'll get the bare minimum. So in my room is, is my bed and that's it. Yeah. And then.

33:43
anything else can be in the other places, work stuff and whatever, but it's clean white walls and the bed and the windows and that's it. Cause then it's like, that's a clean area to, you're in there for a good, good amount of time. Just rest really around that right space. Bedroom is just a bed. What do you do in your bedroom? Like just, I'm in bed. It's what you're doing most of the time is yeah, is rest. So it's like, do that. And then obviously you can lie in and all that kind of stuff is, is elsewhere.

34:12
in the place, but I've found that being positive for the head as well. It's undoing all the learning again, like us growing up in the night is, you know, video games in our bedrooms, small TVs, spend a lot of time in your bedroom playing computers. You know, then you get a bit older, lazy teenager watching TV in bed, early twenties, probably doing similar things. And now we're at these ages where we're probably reflecting on different approaches to mindsets and...

34:41
we're probably becoming way more aware of our mortality as we get to these ages. Like what can I do to be the best version of me whilst I'm here? Because life is really short. And when I think, you know, Luke's the opposite me now, like how long we've actually known each other. We used to run around primary school. I've got a photo and I was gonna try and find it. Oh, that was, yeah, that was the thing. I was gonna try and find it. And it's, we're in like the first year, first and second year of primary school, but like you'd come over first.

35:10
for tea or whatever after that. And you were down, me and you were down the playground. It was when you could wear your own clothes for school. So we had like mad graphic, like Mickey T-shirt or whatever. Yeah, you realize the time you need because everything just screens that time. Yeah, but it couldn't have been older than, could not have been older than four. Yeah, that's incredible. So to see your journey and where you're at now, because these things that you shared with me along the way.

35:38
And it's probably, we've probably opened up like conversation and there's other people like in social spaces online that we realize, oh, you think a bit like me. Oh, you do too. All right. Well, we'll start sharing some information and I'm sure we could go into a rabbit hole of that, which would probably be like 20 other episodes of this. But what are some other things that you've done? Because I know you've delved into things like that I'm aware of, you know, cambo, that's something I said I want to do soon and what are the other things that you've, you know, tried and

36:07
jumped into like hacking that positive space and stressing your body to do so? Um, again, it was, it was kind of a process from the nutrition and the juicing and, uh, I also, I owe a big, big part of it to a good friend, Danny. I mentioned before, um, he first introduced me to, to cambo and the idea of it. And I was always on that level and always interested in plant medicine and microdosing and.

36:37
those kind of things and me and him had kind of just always been talking back and forward about nutrition and whatnot and he'd been talking about doing this and he was an early practitioner at the time. So it was a friend straight in the mix there that was doing it. So I was like, okay, and looked into it. But there was trust there as well. I kind of,

37:05
there's always been a mist, a distrust in me for, for what we've just been speaking about with what we seem to be fed as in information and food, what's supposed to be nutrition, it really isn't, you can see not, and then a trust for natural ancient remedies and things that people have been doing for hundreds, thousands of years sometimes and that's basically what cambo is and it...

37:35
just a brief one on it, I'm sure people will know what it is, especially nowadays, but some people won't. You basically take excretions of poison from the back of a giant tree frog in the Amazon jungle is where they live mainly. You take little blobs of that, you put burns into the skin and you apply those small blobs of what you...

38:02
someone would class as poison because it's poisonous to keep people and other animals away from the frog but it's actually got peptides and it's it's classed as medicinal. That's the stuff that's inside this uh inside the excretions and put that into your system and you basically sit around with a group of people and you sing and you open ceremony and you go through the whole um the whole

38:31
have someone hold the space and cleanse the space and bring in prayers for the space and you apply that and you basically drink water and you've purged the water, throw the water back up out of the system and it's a powerful detox basically it's a powerful way to detoxify the system of anything that you that might have accumulated over the time and I swear by it and there's

39:00
And since doing it, I've had countless friends come with me to do ceremonies of it and had other friends speaking to one of my best mates yesterday and she just recently went and did it. She was talking about the amazing experience that she had. And of course, it's not very fun for around a 20 minute period in the middle. But then afterwards it's like...

39:28
Um, the headspace and the energy levels and, and, and, uh, and kind of the springboard that it, that it gives you after the, after that, after that, after doing it. And the next day and the next two weeks, if you continue on down, what you might class as a positive way of living and gym and exercise and eating right, can just continue on and you just, you've refreshed.

39:57
So basically it's a body and mind reset is how it might be advertised or spoken about by someone that might have done it. You were one of the, not, I didn't hear about it through you, but you were one of the first people that I think that acknowledged, yeah, I've done that. You should try it. And I was like, yeah, I'm definitely going to do it. I think for me, I want to lean into a bit of psilocybin, microdosing, step into the world of, you know,

40:26
What I'm classing as medicinal mushrooms and feeling that energy. Once I step into that space and sit with that for a while and see the impacts of it, I feel I know cambo is going to be quite an intense, intense journey. And the intention I definitely want to do it. There's a bit of apprehension there, which I think is normal. Well, yeah. And I remember you kind of, I've done it must be about 20 times now. Really? Yeah, a lot. And there's always apprehension, but you've always, always fight and push myself.

40:55
push myself to do it, but I keep going back. And it's that thing of when you know, when you trust something, you've done it that much and you know, people that have done it that much and you know that it's been used and done for hundreds, thousands of years and it's been like one recorded death because someone had some, um, completely separate ailment and issue. And it, do you know what I mean? It was a heart thing that

41:25
being brought on, it's like, okay, well, one in thousands and thousands, it kind of, and the fact that you, it almost works like clockwork. So as soon as you feel it come on, it is literally 20 minutes ish and then you're like, okay. And it's, it's, you can kind of, you can, you can put up with it when it's that. I remember watching some of the Bruce Parry tribes, Bruce Parry does tribes. I don't know if you've seen any of them. And, and, uh, and he's, he's

41:54
like Mr. just kind of gets in the mix and does it all. And I remember him doing one and it was 24 or 48 hours of him in this state. And it was like, and the shaman and whatnot were saying it lasts however long it lasts, you don't know. So there's no end in sight for this, for how you feel him. You can just see him like.

42:18
going under crackers in a tent somewhere. Whilst being filmed as well. Whilst being filmed. Because it was a while ago, it was like a full mounted camera on your shoulder with a bright light. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, wow, with this, when you can compare it to that, and that stuff that I'd been watching from before that, so it's like, it was kind of, and I'm a bit of a nutcase when it comes to those kinds of things as well. I kind of just threw myself into the mix and was like, oh, well, whatever. But.

42:47
Like you say, it was after the microdosing and whatever. So it's like those things were already done first. I think the psilocybin, if we go onto that one, it's, I kind of respect what that can do. And the research that has been done into that is getting more and more mind blowing in terms of like its medicinal benefits. And if you've heard of...

43:16
Paul Stanitz, he's Mr. Mushroom, basically. He runs around with a mushroom hat. He is the mushroom guy. And the work that he's doing on this stuff is next level. This is the crazy thing about what I was saying, the people showing up. So I'm like, right, I'm going on this microdosing course and he's something to microdose. So obviously we probably know mutual people and stuff.

43:46
And it was a bit of resistance of getting mushrooms from someone who I know was the guy to get mushrooms from. I was like, Oh, I'll find my own person. Like just see if I can. Anyway, I didn't. I ended up going to the guy that was recommended. And when I sat down with him, came crawling back. Oh my God. I sat down with him and what I'd been thinking about that day was very, uh, movement oriented, um, moving the body intuitively, uh, thinking very much about why men would struggle to let go.

44:15
physically in front of other men, unless it was of a physical way. So imagine many intuitively dancing in front of each other, like just letting the body sway where they would. We would find that quite difficult to do in front of other men. And I went to get mushrooms from this guy and I sat with him for an hour and a half, and that's all we spoke about. And I was like, how? I've just turned up. You're a complete stranger. Don't know you. I've sat with you. We've clicked on a few things and we've ended up speaking about.

44:44
So movement and like intuitively moving your body. And he was like, mushrooms have called him to be very aware of that moving intuitively. And he said, you made a really interesting point. Cause I said, I think at some point I want to gather with more men that are like-minded and you'll see women like ecstatic dance in front of each other quite easy. And I'm not saying let's do, you know, that, but if you think about how we get taught, how to move our bodies, if we go to a club.

45:14
There's normally three types of people. There's someone that's really comfortable in dancing and wants you to see them doing it. There's someone that doesn't really want to dance. And then there's someone that will kind of let go, but they don't fully let go because they're scared of being judged. That's a program. And that's a thing that we have. And I think men would feel quite silly doing that in front of other men. So just, just on that one. Um, I love how you got notes for everything.

45:42
I'm actually just looking down, I'm not on that, but it's one that, it's something that I've done as part of group work with people. Amazing. Is the ecstatic dance where you play the music and it'll be broad daylight and you, with new people that you've met and done that one. I've done a couple with my little girl as well, like for Sober Rave basically, that's slightly different. It's not, you're not there as doing it, kind of.

46:14
like self-improvement or mind space type situations. You go in there and obviously loads of kids and babies and stuff like that. So it's that way, and it is that thing, like you said, it's that initial one is very difficult, especially for people in the West to open up to and go down because look at how we dance, usually in the West, it's when you've had loads of...

46:43
fucking tequila's down you and it's pitch black. Very rigid and it's very like stiff to like sometimes it's not but for the most part yeah if like you know if it's like 3am in a Wetherspoons or something it's like what are you expecting there come on Eileen and people stomping about it's like it's not you know it's not capoeira is it? In them gaffs. Well there might be one guy in Wetherspoons in capoeira you're like checking one. Yeah but that's it.

47:13
But yeah, like approached in that way. And it's like you're saying, when you're talking to this guy and I'm guessing you would be going on to kind of say, this is the right guy, because you've got this conversation about natural movement of the body. And when you think about it, it's an important part of our experience as a human. It really is. It kind of spins back to the training, the boxing, the jujitsu, whatever you wanna.

47:43
kind of look at if we're talking about like combat scenarios or whatever. That's, that's actually a way that, that men can, can do that stuff. Cause it's, it's, it's, it's movement and a lot of it is, it's got to be flow state and it's got to be almost like a dancer. There's a lot of fighters you, I'm sure we could look at and go, yeah, they are like dancers, but they, but they control the body and it's, it's used to attack as opposed to used to just kind of move through the space around them and.

48:12
And that's actually a way, there's actually, there's, after all the stuff that we're kind of talking about, there's actually, it's one of the ones that's up there with the thing that's helped my mental state more, is, or not even helped, because like I'm kind of in a positive space, but yeah, fuck it, it helped, but. But.

48:41
but improved and strengthened basically is doing that, is getting together for a shared goal is one thing. In a group is another thing, whether it be men or mixed or women or whatever it is, there's something massive to be said for getting together as a group of people that you might do as a tribe back in hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago. It's what we would have done. And that's, and you're going back to that natural.

49:10
state that the mind and the body would have been in and doing those things would have just been second nature, is second nature for tribesmen out there and a lot of people out there not just saying that it's only people that do it out of necessity that do these things but it's it is massive and it's a sense, it's a type of expression and

49:39
And of course it can be used for however it can be used for. And it's good to know that kind of the confidence it brings knowing that someone can handle a situation is big, but it's bottom line, it's basically a form of dance. I would just mention capoeira and that is where it's the type of fighting technique. It's been interesting watching you share videos about, you know, in yourself, of yourself in those spaces.

50:09
And having a chat with, you know, the guy who I went and got mushrooms with from, we were talking about a lot of it's how things are packaged as well. So you might get guys, he's like, I know people in the MMA world that I could show a yoga teacher doing these specific poses and they'd be like, come on, I don't deal with that, but I could show them pretty much the same identical thing delivered through Muay Thai.

50:35
with them doing very similar poses. Friend of mine does it when we're talking through, he's been doing martial arts for years. So like I said, I've been doing it maybe a year and a bit. If we break it down, I'm shit, but I'm there to get involved and getting them into them. I don't mind too much about sharing my process from being very beginner.

51:01
And early on in what I would see as a journey to get him to where I am now, but similar to that friend of mine or basically go that ball. Those movements that you can do there is essentially Kung Fu. And that is essentially this. And the way that you might maneuver someone's hand away in a defensive move is Tai Chi. And Tai Chi is actually the base for a lot of martial arts.

51:29
different disciplines in martial arts as well. And it's exactly ties into that. And it's, I would actually argue that maybe that someone with an open mind that does the training would probably do yoga as well. Probably does those things as well. The integration of the flow and movement and how that's gonna loosen you up to be Tai Chi is energy movement, isn't it? You're flowing, you're moving. So if something comes in, how do I just?

51:58
guide that out. That's essentially it with way more reflexes attached to it. Yeah. And I used to do Thai boxing when we were in high school for a couple of years, something I wish I really would have kept up because I really enjoyed it, especially at that age when you know, you can do pretty much anything you want to do. I was, I said this the other day, like I'm like, I just thought that I didn't do this from when I was super young. We were obsessed with football. I remember, I was just obsessed with football and kind of...

52:27
But if my eye was, if I was pushed towards that instead of football, like we were getting pretty good at football, we were getting pretty good at other stuff, like imagine, like we could be really, really good at that. I think to push yourself at these ages though, when you feel those physical things changing, you know, your body is changing at these ages and life is just moving really quick compared to previous years. It's like, well, the year's just gone like that.

52:57
I think pushing yourself in those spaces, I think I've got a couple of issues in life once they resolve and responsibilities change. I'm definitely going to come and step into these spaces with you man. I really enjoy that. Tapping back into that movement, energy and being around people. Just hearing you talk about, you know, a like-minded goal connected with people, especially as, you know, locked down as taught is that we're all becoming quite isolated. And someone like me, I work from home pretty much all week.

53:24
The weekends are more out. I'm interacting and podcasting. I'm seeing family, friends, during the week spend a lot of time on my own. So I have an awareness of that. There's people out there that just don't have the awareness of like how isolated the world is becoming so hearing yourself. We're being pushed to be isolated as well. Exactly. It's by designing it. So connecting in a tribe sense, whether, you know, you go into ceremony or you come into like throw a few jabs at each other and probably take a few licks. Like, like these things are necessary. And.

53:54
I love the fact I've got notes here and I've not used any of them. Like I love the way the conversation's flowed and gone.

54:03
Would you say that everything you apply, I know you said, you know, probably the movement has been one of the biggest things that helps you hack positivity. Well, for those reasons that we were just saying, it's on multiple levels. Yeah. Because if, because you get stronger, you're getting fitter. To then go and learn new techniques, learn new things every single time. It's the beauty of going and kind of.

54:30
starting it maybe like year and a half or whatever ago is like I'm still going with people that are obviously been doing it for a long time and yeah they're teaching you stuff every single time or and you find that you're teaching other people as well like there was it there was a time when I was helping out with the classes that a friend of mine does and just helping teaching the kids that come because it was kids class and adults class so I get to show everything I've

54:59
It's like a comedy sketch. Boom, boom. Just out in the air clean. But Luna would go for the kids. Yeah, yeah. So then when we'd go together and we'd do that thing. Yeah, that's incredible, man. So I would guide who she's working with, give the rest of them the ability to guide the older kids and the 13, 14 year olds who were absolute killers, by the way. It's terrifying. And then.

55:29
and then get involved with Luna, obviously, and roll around with her. And she's dainty and you'd see her as being a kickboxer, but she actually loves the wrestling and the jujitsu and everything. So she loves getting into that. And like, yeah, she can take her back like no one at this, at this point, she's only eight. Those are times to learn it. It's like locked into memory then, isn't it? Well, and it's in a place where it's really fun for them as well. It's not aggressive. It's not.

55:58
You know what I mean? It's not, it can be depending on whether you want it to or whether it's like a mutual thing as you're older when we're all doing it as adults. But as kids, it's like, it's tag and it's, they get roughed up, do you know what I mean? But nothing that a kid can't handle that age. It's just like, and nothing that's not gonna happen in playgrounds and stuff like that. So it's like the resilience is then being built.

56:28
confidence is then being built for a dainty girl. She's diddy for her lack of age and stuff, but she won't take no shit. She doesn't care and doesn't get worried about that kind of stuff. And it's partly down to that. It's a great teaching at that time, I think. And all these things that you're doing, do you feel like it stops you going down, your mindset going to a darker path or maybe even blockages with creativity?

56:58
Do you feel like it kind of keeps you at an optimum place? Well, that's another thing is it puts, if you put in these things, a lot of this actually started from me putting training and putting gym and whatever in the way of going out and getting turned with friends or, do you know what I mean? Maybe going and going to a restaurant that might not be serving up the best.

57:26
types of food and it's like eat what you want, do you know what I mean? There's no issue with eating anything really, but as long as it's reduced and if you're putting things in the way of I'm not gonna go and have a massive pizza for lunch because I might wanna do this in the evening. There's been a bit of that and it has been a bit of a, of a way to move away from that stuff. It's always a.

57:55
is always a one in the back of my mind, personally. Like I am, I kind of had been known in the past or known to myself to be able to kind of have a drink and have another one and then have another one and maybe go a bit too far with it. And it's important to kind of, especially now, as we're talking about getting older and we've got more things that we wanna do, we've got more creative stuff we wanna do. It's like...

58:25
the less of that, the better. I would argue none of that. Like you've said to yourself, it's like, I personally would always champion not drinking at all. But it's something that I'm always kind of looking towards and working on, but it's, but I'd kind of, like I say, champion that or talk about that being.

58:55
definitely the way again I've listened to a lot of stuff and info and the science behind what alcohol can do to the body and the mind and sleep pattern and all that kind of stuff and it's bad news man it's like and again it's it's that's like the adult suite or it's the adult vice and it's readily available if you think I was saying this to someone the other day I was just stopped and thought and thinking about

59:23
how many places it's possible to get alcohol when you're stood in the centre of town. Yeah, it's wild. It's mental in it when you think about it. Food and food makes sense because everyone kind of eats but you can get alcohol. You could like spin around and be 60. And no one questions about nothing. No, exactly. You just walk in and just drink yourself to being on the floor and then the last you to leave. It's a wild world we live in. No one questions it. But if you're drinking and you're not gonna be starting off revolutions every weekend, are you if everyone's getting...

59:53
tuned in and or forget the revolution thing like just being you're not going to become your 100% your best version of yourself you're not gonna um put those those things you've thought about wanting to do into action that day you're gonna leave it till the next day and you're gonna maybe do something else the next day and it's that

01:00:22
It's that thing in it. Consistency in it. Really putting the work in and how have you navigated the, as you grow as a person, some people love to see it. Some people find it really difficult to watch other people change and shift. How have you navigated the voices that you might've heard like, Oh, Luke, you're so boring now. Don't do this now. Like, yeah, come on, come and do it. People that might by no fault of their own, try and drag you back into all patterns and behaviors. How have you navigated that? That's it.

01:00:51
That's something that happens a lot, but not, I don't witness that though. I'd know that that happens a lot. But, um, but for the most part, people that surround myself, um, are more on, on the path that we might consider ourselves to be on. But even if they're not like,

01:01:15
straight, narrow and disciplined to the max and they've not drunk for two years and whatever, they're in that place where...

01:01:26
would never really be a discussion about alcohol, never be a discussion about going out and doing this or going out and doing something that I would maybe class as being negative for the mind state or whatever, it would be...

01:01:42
maybe it's by design, maybe I've decided to not speak to as much the people that that might've been doing that. Yeah. And it happens. Yeah. Surround yourself with the right people in it, the people that are going to confirm your life choices and reflect it back at you rather than. Without saying the cliche thing, basically that's, that's where I was going with it. Yeah. Yeah. Bro.

01:02:05
Today, I found it super inspirational, man. I knew we were going to have a good chat. I just didn't know to this level. So I can't wait to like listen and for this to land with people as well. I appreciate you saying that. And to sit here 33 years later and have these conversations and see where we're both at in life and know we've both had rocky roads along the way. It just blows my mind. Like it's a blessing. It's a true blessing to both. Well, it's nice that we're in contact a lot. And like you say, there's...

01:02:32
maybe four people on Facebook that I speak to, you being one of them and it's like, and we're back and forward with sharing ideas and sharing stuff that we've found, books, podcasts, like videos, whatever it is, and obviously we'll continue on. Stuff that lands with you and it's shifted your mindset. I think this is really important. This is a beautiful thing about social media. You cannot see someone for five years, but you're still connected to them. When you start sharing information and use information in a healthy way, hey, this impacted my life. Hey, this-

01:03:02
help me and then you start integrating ways of thinking. The access to information now is can be used for good and it can be, it can be super positive. It's just very, it's just easy for a lot of people and it's easy for me and it's easy for anyone, like not saying that it's not to, to slip down a path of, of the clicking and the scrolling and the doing all those kinds of things. It's about being

01:03:30
just at least conscious of the fact that that's what is there for, is to take your attention away and is to keep you in, keep your attention, it's the attention economy in it. That's definitely, that's oil now is the attention. Attention now is the oil of the past or whatever. And yeah, but the flip side of it is like you say, there's so much access to decent information to find out.

01:03:59
info about stuff that I know loads of people that parent and pre that generation really didn't have. It was just distributed to them and this is what you get told. You get fed to the news and people watch the news and you get tiny pockets of information about stuff that's been decided to be given to you. Whereas now we can go and find the information that we want and we can also go and

01:04:29
we can go and check it ourselves. We can go and check the information. We can go and not just take things at face value, whether we liked the person that said it or not or whatever. And that angle of it is powerful. And that is, yeah, if it can be used for good then. I think that's what we share a common thing in. Like we can observe and get out of our own way in terms of judging someone who's presenting the information doesn't mean I have to fully believe it.

01:04:58
Yeah. But that person might have an interesting point, which conflicts maybe this belief system over here. Now, if I think about those things together, what can I cherry pick from this situation and apply it to a wider, broader picture of everything in general. And there's probably a million rabbit holes, me and you could go down, but I love the fact we've kept it very much about hacking positivity and I know you'd be back here and we'll have more of these chats. So I want people that are really, not just on a similar

01:05:27
wave or mindset, I want people from all perspectives. It's like you said, changing the mindset. I've actually been in plenty of positions and situations where someone said something and I've gone, oh shit, the argument, mid-argument, I've changed my mind. Yeah, which is okay. And I agreed with them. Yeah, which is okay. I've actually agreed with them, not had any ego about it. I've just gone, shit, yeah, I fucking, yeah, okay. And when you practice more of that, you realize how much resistance and unnecessary belief systems

01:05:56
you might have just from a place of ego. So I appreciate this today, bro. I really do, man. It's been amazing. And where can people find you? Even though we're not really spoke about what you do in the world, Luke is by his own life and his world is a high level creative in terms of design and output and fashion. Like where can people find you and what you do? Everything spans out from probably from my Instagram account. So it's just many mighty.

01:06:26
And I'm saying this to a lot of guests and I mean it every time, but next time you want to come and do this, so you feel like, oh, I've gone through this, this has been a big shift. Just drop me a message. Or just a completely different topic. We could go down, do you know what I mean? Just a different angle. Yeah, 100%. That's one bit ticked off, boxed off. And I think this is an important reminder. This is the thing of the podcast. For the listeners, I know you guys will enjoy this because everyone's here pretty much to shift the life.

01:06:55
want to do better. So it's just a reminder that if we can optimize these things and keep them going, we don't always have to wait for life to be in the darkest of places before we move out. It's like, how do we keep life moving in the right way so we handle those darker spaces better? But big thanks to Luke today. Appreciate it, bro. It's been a pleasure to connect with you like this. Yeah, it's been an honor. Yeah, same, bro. Appreciate it. And remember guys, no matter what you're going through, we can always get back to that place.

01:07:22
and maybe we can just start doing more things that are just going to keep us in a place where maybe we don't even have to get back from somewhere. We can just stay here in a place where it feels like life is good, life is sound. Thanks a lot for listening. We'll check you on the next one. Stay blessed.