And I said, Okay, that sounds really good. And then it started, because I’m saying, Okay, fine, I’ll take care of it. It’s four o’clock in the morning, I’m just going to go back to sleep. And the universe says, Uh, no, you’re not. You’re going to sit down. As a matter of fact, you’re going to write the full intro. You’re going to write the first full promo, and it’s going to be a few minutes long. And I said, Alright, fine. So I got up at four o’clock in the morning, wrote it all out, and I started doing podcasts. I joined a group that both of us are involved in, and they directed me to Krystal. I asked Krystal to be a guest on my program toward a better life. And Wow, we hit it off and we just have so much in common. We have so many cool things to talk about.  

I went through the same thing with Krystal when she first came on my podcast saying, Okay, so when do we really start the podcast? And we had probably, I don’t know, know, 20, 30 minutes  on the phone before we actually started. So I appreciate Krystal’s insights into helping people, helping people where they are, helping people to help themselves, and learning that life really can be a truly enjoyable experience if you look at it that way. And if you choose to look at it from a negative perspective, guess what you’re going to get. And I said, You know, we have so many different things in common that we can do with that so this is cool. This is awesome. 

Krystal Jakosky:    I love you and I want to put you in my pocket and just carry you around with me. Thank you for the boost. One of the things that Kevin and I have the opportunity to really connect with and is dear to my heart is actually the native path. And so today, in the interest of bringing more awareness and more understanding about possibilities and different healing modalities that you guys can dive into, finding your peace, finding your direction, finding your life, I really wanted Kevin to come on and talk about his journey with that native path so that you guys can understand a little bit more, because some of us are really drawn to it. I can tell you that any time I hear those drums, I am bouncing and walking around right along with it, because there is something that speaks to my heart and soul, and it brings me joy to be in that area. So Kevin, what drew you to the native path? Tell me about a little bit of your background and what brought you to that new place?  

Kevin Pennell:    I became really curious about how the indigenous people worked in close harmony with the world around them. They saw the trees as their brothers. You see the animals as their brothers and sisters. They would call the trees, not trees, but they called the brothers, called them the tall ones. Would call the stones, the rocks, grandmothers and grandfathers. They would go into a sweat lodge or they’d call them the stone people because they were the wisest people, because these stone people have been around for thousands of years. And the only way that we have to communicate is if you’re really in tune with stuff. You’re walking a long garden past some place, maybe out in Colorado or Texas or Minneapolis or wherever you might be in this little stone. You’re just drawn to it and you say, I got nothing, but it looks cute, so I’ll pick it up.  

And you, and if you actually tried to tell that person, you do know that that stone just talked to you, Right? They’d say, Yeah, Right. What planet did you just fall off of? But I was always intrigued by the natural world, and I’ve always been intrigued by all the beauty of the natural world. And then I found myself just getting interested in that. And I started to say, Well, I wonder if I have any native blood in me. And I said, Well, you know, and at the time I was living in Broward County down in Florida, and we had a pretty big library. The library in Broward County was huge. And they actually had an archive section, and you could go in, believe it or not, Krystal, you could go into there and you can look up the original manifests from the original Mayflower.

Obviously they’re micro-fish, but it was amazing. We’re talking about handwriting Okay. That they had preserved from some place. And I’m going to just casually conclude the other, you know, and the curiosity part comes in. Oh, I wonder if Pinnell is in the right place. Yeah. 1637, third Mayflower, there’s a Pinal. I went, Oh my gosh. My family’s been here since 1637. And I know my dad had told me that, you know, the other crew came in from Wales, around sometime  in the mid to early 1700s, because our ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. So, geez, you know, common sense will tell you, I’ve got to have native blood in me. Right. I’ve been around here for three to 400 years. It’s got to be native blood in me. Right? So I started that path and I started chumming around with different folks, and I was really drawn to a couple of folks.  

One of those people as a person, I wrote about. The book is Two Feather Spiritual Seed Planter, and it’s written by Kevin Laughing Hawk, which is my spirit name that he gave me. But when Kenny and I first met, and this is shown in the book, when Kenny and I first met, I went into that guy, and I’m just talking with him because I was curious, and at the time I was doing news for local a radio station, and I said, You know, I wonder, I’m not really into the idea of interviewing this guy for a program, but I did see him identified in a local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun, I think it was. I sat down and I talked with him, and I just said, You know, you’re an interesting man and I would really like to share a little bit more with you.  

He said, Sure, by all means, what questions do you have? And that short little time ended up being two and a half hours, difficult to do with you. Well, if you knew two feathers, you’d see that we’re on the verge of destruction here for taking up time. Oh, wow. Both of us just went on and on and on. And one of the most significant things that he said to me, he looked at me and he said, I do have a question for you, Kevin. I said, What’s that? He says, Do you know who you are? And I said, Well, sure. I know exactly who I am. I’m Kevin Pennell,  I’ve been a pi, I’ve been a cop. I was in radio, I’m in radio now, and you know, I’ve done this, I’ve done that. I’ve done, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do you know who you are? And I said, I, I don’t. He says, We’ll go to that later. And he told me also, You know so you write news stories? I said, Yeah. He says, You know, maybe someday you ought to write a book about me or write a book about us. And I went, Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. Like, I’m going to do that. 10 years later I did.

But, you know, so that’s the process. I was, you know, Kenny and I got together and I looked at him as my, my good friend, my brother, my teacher, my mentor. We are convinced that we were related in a past life, and we’ve got proof in our hearts and our spirits that that’s very, very true. And if I had a picture of him someplace, I would try to pull it up here to show you, because particularly in the cover of my book, and if you go to Amazon, you can see it. And people would look at that picture and they’d say, Well, it’s about Ken two feathers. Why did you put your picture on the cover?  

And I didn’t. That’s Kenny, that’s how close we looked like each other. And when I was living up in Maine I’d be on the street walking along and somebody’d holler across the street, and this is a little village up there called Bethel. He would holler across the street, and they would say, Kenny. Kenny. And I’m looking around Flood, trying to find Kenny. I can’t see Kenny anywhere,  I turned around and then said, Oh, wait a minute. You’re not Kenny  

They were talking to me. Things for a compliment. Yeah. Thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate that. Nice thoughts. But Kenny taught me so much about this stuff, and I was still convinced that I was Native American. You know, after all, I’ve been here for 300 and something years. My family’s been here that long. I mean, my gosh, I’ve got to be Native American, Nope. Few years ago, Vicky, who’s my partner, got me one of these DNA test things, and I found out that I am Scott Welsh, Irish, and a little bit of German. And here’s the cool part that I didn’t expect. I’m also a Viking.

That answered a lot of questions for me, because if you go into some of the history of the Carolinas and some of the Virginias, you’ll find out that a lot of the intermarriages that took place a couple of hundred years ago with the Cherokee people, and it looks like they would intermarry with Celtics. If you start looking at the Celtic traditions, and you look at them in comparison to Native American ways, both of them honor the earth, both of them look at the spirits of the world, the spirits of the animals, the spirits of the earth, the spirits of everything. And that’s enough common ground to cause a beautiful relationship between people. So instead of turning my back on it saying, Well, you know, I’m not Native American, I’m a human being.  

And that’s what Kenny would tell you. He says, there is no such thing as a Native American, an indigenous person, this, that, the other, we’re all human beings. And that is the essence of it, is to become a human being and a true human being as someone who not only honors the earth, but they honor people and they honor others’ ways. And that continued the journey. But it wasn’t until about a year or so before Kenny crossed over that I came to the realization that, Nope, I’m Scott Welsh and Irish mostly. And I’m okay with that. But in the midst of all of that, what I learned over a period of 15, 20 years of exposure to some of the indigenous people, particularly northeastern woodlands, Kenny was a penobscot and Sarney. You have Pinco, Mick Mack, Ma,  Paqua, you know, all that group that’s up there in Maine and New England. And I sat under his tutelage and learned a great deal about sweat lodges, about getting, giving a name about the significance of having a spirit named significance of the sacred pie, significance of the giveaway. All those beautiful stories and how I made them a part of me. And in sharing that book, I encouraged other people to do this as well, from a standpoint of not becoming a Native American, but to become a better human being. So there’s the short version.

Krystal Jakosky:   The question of, do you know who you are? Is a terrifying question, I think, for a lot of us. I mean, on the one hand, absolutely, I’m so and so, and this is what I do, but do you really know who you are? And to be sitting, you were drawn to indigenous people, you were drawn to the Native American ways. And to have this person sitting there asking you such a deep question You said, I’m Kevin Pennell, and I do this and this, and this and this, But inside, were you freaking out?  

Kevin Pennell:   Oh, yeah. 

Krystal Jakosky:    How did you move from, was it in just that one interview where you moved from where acquaintances and we’re checking each other out, and I wanted to know more about you that you automatically moved into, I want to take you under my wing. Or how did it change from just these two people meeting to, you need to learn more about who you are, and I want to teach you?

Kevin Pennell:   It was one step at a time. In the book I talk about asking for a teacher or looking for a teacher, and it was still a curiosity. And I’m a curious person. I’m a very curious person, underscore that several times. And curiosity can be a blessing, could also be a curse. In this instance, it was a blessing. And the curiosity continued that Kenny says, Oh, we’ve got a Native American gathering coming up. Next month they have what they used to call down around Dad city, They called it the full moon ceremony. And it was beautiful, and it was on the full moon. And you would, we would have all these different people come and, and it was intertribal and even those that were not native and yet called to it, and don’t let me forget, I want to go to that in a second. Their essence was drawing me toward a deeper understanding of these people that were so beautiful and so wonderful. And I said, You know, there’s got to be something here and I can’t quite figure it out. So I kept going back to Kenny and talking with him. This wasn’t just one conversation. And to answer your first question, I’m sorry, was, you know, did you at that point in time realize that you were the student and he was the teacher? The answer is no. The universe knew it.  

Universe knew, it’s taken us this long to get you two guys together crying out loud. You have no idea what a pia this has been.

 And as we moved along, I started hearing about gifting tobacco and asking for a teacher. And really what that means to ask an indigenous person to be your teacher. Kenny taught me a lot as far as being very traditional in some of this stuff, and I’m not dissing anyone for any of this, but, there were people that if you wanted a teacher, then you not only gifted tobacco, but you gifted money. And if you wanted a sweat, you gifted money. It just goes on and on and on. And I’m not I’m not dissing anyone because that’s just their path. But the way that I was taught is, if I want a teacher, I gift them tobacco. If I want a sweat lodge, I gift them tobacco. If I want them to awaken a spirit pipe for me, I gift them tobacco. Why tobacco?  

It’s bad for you. No. What it is, is, is it actually, the smoke is lifted with our spirit thoughts in the smoke to creator to the universe, to the ancestors around us, because that’s how the prayers are lifted. That’s why so often tobacco is looked at as a sacred herb, because its essence, the smoke as it’s burned, lifts our prayers and our intentions to the universe around us and the ancestors. So you would gift tobacco. And after a month, I’d say, I realized I really do want to know more about this. And I ended up gifting Kenny Tobacco and asking him to be my teacher. Part of that entailed, when you asked someone to be your teacher, you are like, I still use the term today. You’ve opened the door. You’ve opened the door to what you’ve opened to allow that person to share with you what they find to be the most benefit for you to be a better human being.  

And guess what? Some of those things they tell you, if you’re a good teacher, you may not and you probably won’t like. Because they tell you stuff that is better for you as a person. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it was all actually roses. As roses have thorns, Kenny upset me enough a couple of times that I wanted to punch him. I’m not kidding at all. It just irritated the crap out of me. And he had me, I’m gonna steal your term. He had me own my shit. And I really didn’t want to own my shit because it’s my shit. It’s not somebody else’s. And it’s so easy to say, that’s your fault. You just don’t want to admit to it because it’s your perception. Yeah. So after a while, I became his student, he was my mentor. So he was my student, I was his student, I was his man, he was my mentor. I’ll slip on that because the interesting thing is, when you get in deep enough with somebody, the roles do reverse. You establish a beautiful relationship that is beyond words.  

And as he would say, I’m not sure about our timeframe here, but if you can do this while we’re talking, I’m going to find something since it is going to be shown on YouTube, there’s a beautiful little story if I’m allowed to do this. Okay. 

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah. This is your podcast. Well, it’s my podcast. You are my guest. You can get to do what you want. 

Kevin Pennell:    If I can do this in a camera. Okay. So I’ve got, There we go. I’ve got three dots here, right? Yeah. Okay, So now I’m going to take this, I’m going to draw a couple of lines here, and here it is again. 

Krystal Jakosky:    Further back, hold it further back so we can see it better. There we go. Okay.  

Kevin Pennell    So when we’re here, this is you and I talking to you, Krystal. Okay. Yeah. But the relationship that we’re forming also forms another relationship.  

This is our higher selves communicating and they’re communicating in terminology. We cannot identify, we cannot communicate because we don’t know, we don’t understand that language. So in a higher form, you and I are communicating. And that’s how Kenny and I were, and that’s how all relationships are. If you really look at it, and it’s when we have these types of relationships that people should understand that. I don’t want to go down this road because it’s a whole nother podcast. But if you are in a situation where you need to end a relationship, this needs to finish or not finish, but you’d redefine it.  

Because you’ve had that communication at that level. And so you have to figure out a way to make it real, to make it a good thing. And one of the things that we’ve used, I know some people think about affirmations, and I got an affirmation years ago, and this was not native, it was not indigenous, but it came from a spiritualist that I met down in Florida. He was an elder in a group down there. And the words go, you put a name or an object in the beginning of this affirmation, you’d say, Jack, I now release you to your good. The good of one is the good of all. Now keep those three little things in mind that I just showed you because Jack and I have had a relationship. But now we need to shift that relationship. So the I that I is the divine side of me, the higher self that I now release you to your good, I now release you to your higher self.  

I now release you to the good intentions that you have. The ultimate result of that is in doing so, you help everyone and yourself included, because the good of one is the good of all. And that’s how you do stuff. If we realize that it really helps our relationships a lot more, so you can see where I can, we can really go to town on that. So that information was shared with me in that it’s so important that we really do get the picture of what it’s like to have a relationship with someone and to be integrated with that person because we are not just linear, but the whole picture. Yeah. So we’re embraced together in that whole thing.   

Krystal Jakosky:    There’s a ton in there. And I was trying to quietly and discreetly take some notes because there are so many things that I want to jump back to. I do the same thing. So, I love the illustration when I am working with a client or when I am being taught with somebody. I have, I have for a long time, 20 years, been very aware of my higher self. And there have been plenty of times that my higher self has been talking with the other person’s higher self. Then I understand. So it helps me to see their perspective. It helps me to see their point of view, why they feel a certain way. When I’m working with a client, I make sure that the conversation between my higher self and myself is very clear. So that if there is information that I need to give to my client while I’m teaching them how to listen to their higher self, it’s a very sacred and beautiful connection that you can build and you can really honor like yourself with your higher self and understanding and trusting the information that you get from them.  

And as a teacher and a student connection, it’s even more sacred and special because of the added depth of the relationship that can happen because of the fact that you’re willing to spiritually connect together. My husband has this phrase, he says, the student becomes the master. And I think that goes to your comment that, that it does, we shift for a little while. We become, we are the teacher or we are the student. And after a little while, we are going to shift and we will be the other, we will be the student or the teacher on some level in some manner. And it’s a beautiful give and take because we’re all human and we all have experiences that we can share to help change lives in beautiful, gentle, and not so gentle ways. Some of the best lessons that I have learned are the ones where I just kind of want to flip the finger and say, Screw you, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.  

Kevin Pennell:    And then I have had those clients who they don’t talk to me for a week or two because what I ask them, what I am inspired to ask them from my eye or power saying, Hey, you need, you need a bigger nudge than what you’re willing to accept right now. So I’m going to say this. And it really upsets them. It’s really infuriating. And yet they always come back and say, thank you.  

I needed that. I wasn’t willing to accept that. And the way that you did that was so fabulous. It hurts like hell. It pisses us off. And yet those moments, as long as we’re still saying yes, and, and I’m going to choose into this, then we’ll see what happens and where it goes. And I’m really grateful for you, that Kenny was able to push your buttons.

Krystal Jakosky:    Am I? You have no idea. He, he came in, I’ll go ahead. No, you’re good. No, no, no. Please. You had a question. I want to because I will ramble forever.  

Kevin Pennell:    No, I was, what I was going to say was actually to the audience and the fact that oftentimes those people who are so challenging have the biggest lessons. They have the biggest opportunity for shifting, for growth. If we step back, take a moment and ask, Okay, what am I supposed to learn? What am I being shown? How can I deal with this? Instead of shutting down and putting that wall there and a million locks and everything else to push that person out of our lives, maybe we step back and say, Okay, how can I learn and how can I grow and how can life be better because of this really frustrating moment that I am experiencing? So friction is good.  

Krystal Jakosky:    It is something, somebody ought to come up with a line like breathe in and breathe out. 

Kevin Pennell:    Right. Thank you.  

So a little while back, I want to bring us back to this because I wanted to come back and you mentioned that you wanted to come back. The whole concept of you thought for sure that you had Native American blood in you, that you were somehow related to that. And then you go in with Kenny two feathers and you’re learning from him. And you said you wanted to return to this concept of the fact that you actually don’t have, and yet you were learning from.  

So in some work that I had done on my own and thankfulness to others, for what it’s worth my background, degree is in theology. And I did a flip some years ago and I will not, again, I’m not going to put anybody down because they go to church because that is the level of spirituality. That’s the way you achieve your level of spirituality that  you feel that you’re growing from and that you’re getting a lot of benefit from. And that’s fine. It’s just not who I am anymore. It was part of my process. I don’t regret any of that. But all that being said, I’m leading into something. And that is that I strongly believe in reincarnation Now, I believe in it so strongly that I can tell you that there were incidents in my life where dreams that used to come to me after I had made a shift and I had made a change that was needed in my life, Guess what happened to those dreams? They stopped because I made the change that was necessary. And I realized after I had had this one, I had one dream that was, it was to the point,  it would actually become nightmarish and it would wake me up. And it was scary. I’m sure people have had these kind of dreams where you would have a dream where you either you want to punch somebody and for whatever reason, everything goes into slow motion and you can’t quite get your fist into it where you need to go stops  

Yeah. Or you have the other situation, which was this one that I had a spear in my hand and I was native. I was a pueblo and I had my spear and we were being invaded and I knew that I had to do something and I just kept trying to move forward with this. And it’s, I’m going to kill you. I’m going to do this. And nothing will ever happen with that. I had a past life regression done by a colleague of mine and came to realize the reason why I had such a hard time with that is because that’s not what happened. Oh. I was a spiritual leader of that group, and I had taken the vow to be a peacemaker, and that meant that I didn’t raise arms against anybody.  

And the truth came out that I watched my family get killed. Wow. And that was tough. And after I realized what was involved with that, I saw for the first time in that juncture, a real essence of what I was in that life. Not only had it been that, but I also found that there were some roots in the Kwa Nation. And because I was, I talked with somebody one time and we were just having a great time, just like you and I are having a great time right now. And we started singing some wonderful songs and some of the songs that just came from the heart just came from Spirit. I’m just going at it. And the lady that I was with at the time, she says she just held her hand up and she was black feet and Polish.  

That’s a good combination. She said, You need to stop right there. And I said, Why? What? You know, what did I do? And I’m still, this is like three or four years into my, two or three years into my path on some of this indigenous people path. What did I do? Did I offend you? And she, No,  have you been around K people? And I said, No, I’ve never been around Kwa people. Where are they? And she says, Well, you know, up Midwest. And I said, Okay. So what? She says, Well, you’re singing in the K language. I got nothing. And again, I did some more work. And I’m, I’m comfortable with that, that Kwa. And some people say, Oh, you’re just one of those frilly, fufu people that just believes in anything and everything.  

But what I’ve got also down deep inside of me is a real sense. And it was brought into full light when I saw, and I heard from Kenny, but I heard about a story that was given down, I believe by the Hopi, and I can be wrong, but something about that there are so many souls who are out there from the 500 nations that occupied North America. There are not enough bodies for the souls that have crossed over. And so some of those souls went into the people of today, the white people, and those that have the hearts and the minds ready for this sort of thing.  Okay, I can accept that or not, all I know is this. I’m going to move along with the way that time feels. I’m the most comfortable. And so, I will talk about, you need to be very wary of being too comfortable because you know, you can get so comfortable that you no longer grow. But comfort in this act, I would say not comfortable, but content with the concept that I’m confident that I’ve been in native in the past. And that’s why one of the reasons I gravitated back to this is because I see the connection between my true heritage of the Celtic people and the inherited or reincarnated heritage of my native side. So yeah, it’s beautiful. It’s powerful stuff.  

I’m searching for the right words at the moment because there are a ton of thoughts and ideas going through my brain right now. And I want to say these words in the most respectful and honoring way that I can. We are drawn to different things. We are drawn to different ways of life. And it is all an opportunity to learn and grow. It is all an opportunity to find compassion and expansion with understanding a different culture, a different way of living, a different state of being. And this is, and I would like to mention that not by way of just Native American and indigenous pupils. I’m talking about people who live differently than us. Maybe it’s someone who chooses religion and the structure that that gives them over spirituality. Perhaps it’s someone who has a different societal belief, right? Whether you’re Republican or Democrat or all those things.  

Perhaps it’s someone who is lgbtq plus versus someone who is not unaware of it. Somebody who is deaf and in that community and culture and somebody who is not and is trying to learn how to respect and honor the different cultures and ways of living around us. And I think that by learning about it, inviting that in from a very respectful and honoring space, we learn so much more. And just like you are the student, you may also become the teacher and help people recognize that you’re not out to get them and that you are more balanced and that things are okay and whatnot. I think there’s this huge opportunity for all of us to come together in this compassionate, gentle space. If you are drawn to the beliefs and the feelings and the teachings and the culture of indigenous people, I encourage you to dive in.  

I encourage you to respectfully dip your toes and send out to the universe and say, Hey, can you send me a teacher and help me meet the people that I need to meet so that I can start walking on that path? Because the only way you will find that person is if you do open up. Kevin and I were talking about the concept right now. Kevin’s very much in this. Yes. And what else can I do? And if you say, yes, I would like that teacher, and what else can I learn? How many things shift? 

You bet it does. Just be ready for the ride. I think when you are working with someone within the native community, as an outsider, I would say this, I felt truly honored when I was living out in the southwest living, living in Arizona. And I found the sweat lodge to be so beneficial for me as a person. And it really did a lot for my heart, my spirit, my soul, and what a wonderful group of people they were that were there. It was on the Pima Reservation. And if you’re familiar with Phoenix, that’s pretty much really close within the city limits of Phoenix. But they were Pima, there were Pima and there were Navajo. That was pretty much it. Those two people, excuse me, there was Apache, there were Apaches there too.  

And the sweat lodges that I had been to up to that point were a big one for me was 10, 15 people. This sweat lodge alone was probably, I’m gonna guess it was, it was elliptical. So it was probably pretty close to somewhere between 16 and 20 feet long and probably a solid 12 to 14 feet wide, big sweat lodge. Wow. And I thought a big sweat lodge that we would have had a really heavy duty sweat lodge had 12 to 15 stones. No, we had somewhere between 48 and 52 stones in that sweat lodge. And everyone in there, you could just feel the spirit in there. And I faithfully went there for my own sake. I mean, because I needed that in my life at that time. I had drifted a little bit. I’m still on the path and still doing it, but I’m still being pulled into other stuff and we can maybe go into that later or go into another podcast. But we all will drift from time to time off of our given path. And sometimes it’s done for different reasons, but in this one, I felt really good that it gave me that grounding that I needed.  

And literally out of the proverbial blue, the leader came to me and parenthetically the leader and his wife actually helped young men and women on the PMA reservation with substance abuse. And they used the sweat lodge as a vehicle to help them overcome substance abuse. So it was pretty powerful. Yeah. He came up to me after I’d been there for some months, he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, Can I speak with you for a minute brother? And I said, Sure, what’s up? He says, You know, we have another sweat lodge. I said, Yeah, I, you know, coming next Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever it was, he says, No, no, no. He says, We have a family swat lodge every Sunday and I’d like you to start attending.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Oh wow.  

Kevin Pennelll:    That blew me away.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Literally invited you into the family.  

Kevin Pennell:    Yeah. And no ceremony. It just was what it was. And I also had the opportunity, one of the Apaches in the group came up, put their hand on my shoulder one day and then said, we have a very special thing. And we’d like, and this is after I had been invited to go to the Sunday sweats, because it was at one of those Sunday sweats that he came to me. And let’s face it guys, I don’t look native  

And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says, Are you familiar with a very special Apache dance where a young woman is ushered into a young lady and is ushered into womanhood? And I said, Yeah, I’m a little familiar with that. He says, Well, we have a young lady who’s doing that. This, you know, whenever it is, he says, we’d be honored to have you. And this is the one where you would have the dancers, and the brain’s gone right now. Hopefully it’ll come back. Wink wink, nudge, nudge Krystal, maybe you can help me out here. But you have the special dolls that you can buy at gift shops and they’re the really cool looking dolls that you get. And they’re Hopi basically. Yeah, well the Apache have them too, just so you know. And  I went to that dance and they had the bonafide ones. They didn’t have the tourist ones because you can go to either one of those dances in Arizona and this one you were stopped on the road when you were coming in saying, who invited you?  

I told them and they said, Okay, you can come in.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Okay, fine. We’ll admit you. What I want to know, and I want my listeners to know, what is the purpose or the intention behind the sweat lodges?  

Kevin Pennell:    Good question. There’s a chapter in the book about that.

Sweat lodge. I attended the sweat lodge basically to– how do I start with this? Sweat lodge is an opportunity for us to bear ourselves to the universe and to cleanse ourselves from whatever is holding spirit back. Black Elk and his nephew, Frank FOLs Crow also had the same thing. And that is that with sweat lodges, you are given the opportunity to bury your soul and to go down deep inside and reveal to you what you need to change. Fools Crow talked about being a hollow bone and there’s a workshop that I’ve done before called Becoming a Hollow Bone. And interestingly enough, to me it’s also one of those central truths like love because the Dalai Lama talks about becoming, believe it or not, he uses the term becoming a hollow tube. But the hollow bone is just simply this.  

That you get rid of the stuff that’s inside that bone to allow more spirit to come through that’s unobstructed. And to give the analogy, they give the example of a plumbing pipe that if it gets clogged, the water can’t get through and you have to unplug it. And so the Sweat lodge is one of the vehicles that can be used to help rid ourselves of the stuff that’s within our being, within our bones that will help spirit to come through better. That’s one of the parts. But in most cases it’s  an opportunity to be cleansing and beautiful. That’s what’s done. And that’s another piece that I was taught if you want to have a sweat lodge. I was honored in being able to be taught how to do a sweat lodge and I’ve poured a few sweat lodges.  

The way that I would do a sweat lodge was somebody would come up to me, and this is how Kenny taught me and others chimed in with the same thing, is that you come up to me, you give me tobacco, and you give me a reason why. And I’m not trying to be a jerk, but if somebody comes up to me and says, Oh, I want to have a sweat lodge because I want to know what it’s like. No, why do you want it? It’s like the same question, Do you know who you are?

If you give me a good reason or if you give that elder a good reason and tobacco, there’s your way. And typically what I did was somebody would give tobacco or somebody would give Kenny tobacco and he’d say, Give me a few days to talk with the spirits. And that’s what you do. And my thing was, he taught me if I wait three times to come back through. And the third time it affirms that. In fact, if the third time doesn’t come at a certain length of time, then it ain’t going to happen. It’s just not meant to be. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a sweat, it just means that I’m not supposed to be the one to do it. Or maybe you’re not supposed to have one. So there’s no money exchanged, it’s just your gift of tobacco. That’s the way I was taught. And you typically break bread afterward too. There’s a lot more to it than that. Does that answer the question?  

Krystal Jakosky:    No, it’s a fantastic answer and I very much appreciate it because it literally brings everything back to intention and spirituality and being connected with source, being connected with the universe, being connected with spirit, whatever that phrase is that works for you. So Native Americans, indigenous people, some people are going to do sweat lodges, and that is how they connect with that spirit. And other people are going to go to organized religion. That is where they have that connection with that higher power that brings them the peace and joy that they need. It all works for everyone depending on where you’re at and what you are seeking and what fills your heart and gives you the answers that you need in that moment. And so I love the intention behind it. I love the purpose behind it. It’s I am seeking, or I would like to connect or I need this, and because I need that, I am going to seek for answers. I’m going to seek healing. I am going to find somebody who can help me move forward and be better in my life than I already am right now. So thank you for that answer. Thank you for sharing.

Kevin Pennell:   Part of it is, the magic word that you used is something I used with students when I teach not only workshops, but  when I teach in massage school and when I teach whatever, intention is key. Intention is critical. So it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, you need to look at the reason behind it. Yeah. And you need to really say, Am I doing this for the right reasons? What’s my intention? What am I really engulfing in this? What am I really putting into this? What kind of energy am I putting into this? Yeah. And if you’re working with someone, side note massage therapy is, is if you don’t have the intention when you’re talking with somebody, or excuse me, when you’re working with someone and you’re doing the massage with someone, you’re doing the body work with someone, any of the stuff that we’re talking about, even if you’re doing counseling or if you’re doing anything like that, and if your mind is not totally focused with good intention with that person, don’t think for a second that they won’t feel it.  

You don’t have to say it. Words don’t have to express what’s really going on. And if we’re human, we’re going to do this, but if my brain is on, well, geez, I wish this interview would get done because I’ve got other things to do. If I let that intention come out in that, going back to the little three globes I had, and if your higher self picks up on that, guess what? You say, Okay, that’s good. See ya. And I never hear from you again. But it’s the side. The other side of that is if you’re a body worker and you are totally committed to this person and you’re not thinking about your rent, you’re not thinking about, Oh geez, this is this person again. And you’re not thinking about, Oh, what am I going to do this weekend?  

And if you’re not, you know, all the little thought monkeys coming in and if you’re not sidetracked by all that, guess what? They know it. They know when you are connected to them. And then the magic really happens because they say, Wow, I don’t know what this is that you’ve just done with me as far as a massage is concerned, or whatever the case may be, but it’s the most fantastic, most beautiful, most awesome experience. And I will come back and you say, Okay, great. And I will, It’s just magical when you do that because people want that. I was talking earlier today with someone and they said, You know what people are starving for right now. I mean, we’re doing this on a podcast, we’re doing this on YouTube, but they really miss being together. Actually touching each other. And it’s that communication that is so important. But anyway, ramble on intention next.

Krystal Jakosky:    No, you’re good. I’ve also noticed for me personally, I have done ti massage, meaning I am a trained ti massage therapist. And so I have often found that when I am in it, and this goes for, I mean, you brought out massage therapy, but I think that this goes for almost any action that we’re doing. If you focus on the action that you’re doing and you are really in it, I am cutting these vegetables and I’m getting the same size. I’m sanding wood, I’m chopping wood, I’m working on a client. If you focus on that and let everything else go, it actually becomes a meditation. One of my favorite things was to be working and losing my mind in what I was doing and having that intentionality and the fluidity because I was just present in that moment. And that presence is what brought me peace, is what brought me more energy to continue with the rest of my day. And so intention, the presence and things are completely different. So Kevin, what are you doing now? 

Kevin Pennell:    I’m talking with you. You ask, I mean.

Krystal Jakosky:    Like these days, I mean you and I could shop talk forever, you guys, I’m telling you Kevin and I could do a year’s worth of podcast and probably not touch on the same subject twice. And that’s fantastic to find such a gift like that. So I sincerely thank you for having me on your A Better Life podcast. And then I really thank you for being here because I really wanted to talk about the native way of life and their love for the earth and their connection to the world around us, because I think it is so absolutely beautiful. I feel that draw and it is one of those things that speaks peace and joy to my heart with all of the other things that we have talked about, but not necessarily on this podcast. What else are you into these days? Like what else are you doing in life?  

Kevin Pennell:    Well, I do have to share one other little thought with Native American stuff. It just came to me and I would just want to honor that, that if you are a person listening to this, watching this, and if you’re being drawn in that direction, be you white or be you native. And if you are drawn in that direction and you start to seek out someone, know this, that eventually, if you’re doing it for the right reasons, with the right intentions, it goes back to the old saying, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. But at the same token, when you find that teacher or where you find that person, you don’t just run right out and give them tobacco right on the spot. No, just take your time, go slow. Take it to somebody who has been there. Oh dear. You know, I want everything and I want it right now. Because that’s the way you do stuff, right? No, take your time. Be patient would be one key word. Another key word to keep in mind is love, trust, and thankfulness.  

Honor sharing, caring, giving, loving. That’s the ones that I’m trying to run in my brain. But that’s what we would say all the time to love, to share, to care, to give. We’re coming up on a season called, of course, Thanksgiving. And I have a podcast coming up that’s going to be on the Thanksgiving address. And if you have an opportunity to look up on Google or listen to the podcast, it doesn’t matter to me. It really doesn’t. What’s most important to me is that you look and find the Thanksgiving address. It was as it was delivered by the Iroquois people. Because it’s beautiful. When I did it the other day, I got emotional. It just really hit my heart when I would listen to my really good friend Mike Douglas giving that information to me. He was the main preventative skill school.  

Hope you don’t mind my sharing that. But, thankfulness is so important to be thankful for the air that we breathe. Be thankful for the life that we have. Be thankful that we are old because we could have died young. Be thankful for the simple little things. Be thankful for the person in your life. Be thankful for the people in your life. So what am I doing now? Well, I am enjoying doing podcasts. You’re talking about being focused on stuff. People really, my partner can’t believe it about how I can sit down with my audition software and I can spend hours editing. You can share that information with Avery. I can just go away. I mean, hours will go by and I’m just sitting here going on. 

Yeah. But I’m such a big picture person and yet at the same time I can be very detail oriented when I need to be. In Native traditions sometimes that’s referred to as mouse medicine. But anyway, so I do my podcast, I do some instruction, I do some workshops. I am a massage therapist who sees people here in Asheville, North Carolina, Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, I have  people ask, even if you’re a massage therapist and your listener watching this, and some people will ask me, Well, how many massages do you do a day? And I typically am going to do two to four, and that’s my happy place. Yeah. Could I do six? Yeah, I could, but I wouldn’t last. I’ve been doing body work of some level or another for about 22 years, and it can be done.  

So I do the massage, I do podcasting. I walk in nature. I love to get out and about. I just like being when I can. Through our other conversations, Krystal knows that we’re into cars a little bit. And I do have another podcast called the Driving Experience. I’m really into BMWs, and racing. I used to race, but I don’t race anymore. Just because, you know, I’m not going to say I won’t because I don’t know, but I just like to live an active life. We are currently living in a senior community while we wait for our house to be built. And we tried this for a while and, Krystal, we can’t do it. And I’m not putting anything down, but I, I cannot be that old person. 

Just can’t do that. Nope. Just can’t. You’re not ready. No. And, I don’t know that I ever will be.  There was a teacher who taught, she was actually responsible forTrigger Point Therapy, and her name was Janet Trave. And Janet continued her work as a massage therapist and, and doctor up until about three to four months before she died at the ripe old age of 96. Oh, wow. I intend to beat her record. So I gotta go good. But just stay active. And if you’re older and if you’re a senior and you feel like, Oh man, I just know, just stop doing what you’re doing and go out for a walk in the woods, bathe in the woods.  

 And no, don’t take a tub with you for crying out loud. I’m talking about being one with the forest. But, you know, be active. Get around young people and, and just be and enjoy life because that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to learn. We’re here to be filled with joy. We’re here for contentment. And I mean, if you look at the Dalai Lama that still does live things on occasion, and I saw something the other day and I realized he’s pushing 90 years old. And you look at him and he’s still smiling and he’s still going around and he’s still happy and he’s not dejected, he’s not down. So yeah, let us see. What else do I do?  

I build things. I stay active and I let my brain stay active.

Krystal Jakosky:    In all of that activity, in all of the things that you’re doing and loving and enjoying, what is your favorite or most unique? 

Kevin Pennell:    Geez.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Activity for self care.  

Kevin Pennell:    Oh, good one. Yay. Wow. 

Krystal Jakosky:    I don’t know what you thought I was going to ask.  

Kevin Pennell:    You know, I didn’t. What’s your favorite one? Oh God. No.  

Krystal Jakosky:    No. What’s your favorite, what’s your favorite way to take care of yourself and rebuild, regenerate? Because you’re doing a lot. You’re out and you’re functioning. What do you do for you?  

Kevin Pennell:    I will answer this with a line that I’ve used for years. It’s four words, go with the flow. What I mean by that is, today I missed my run and I missed my walk. Because I’m doing two podcasts. One I did, and one I’m being done. What was that? 

So I could get all upset about that or I could look at this as an opportunity for me. Because that’s what this has been. Yeah. You know, I’m sharing with Krystal and this is me time, this is what I want to do. But the rest of that part is for self care, and I’ve taught, and I have a workshop that I do with this, but self care is one of the biggest things for self care is awareness.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yeah.  

Kevin Pennell:    You know what’s missing? So I might fill that void with going out for a walk in the woods. I might fill that void with doing some Tai Chi and Chiang. I might start to do the ch style 48 and I might get through half of it and start saying, Oh, I’m good with this. Yeah. And you know, I want to go with the flow to what generates within me, the sense of being me and no one else. And if you look at that book that I wrote, one of the things that came up in that book was, I am a chameleon. True, true story. Or I have been where, because of my background, and this will really spin us off and I’m not gonna go there but because of the way I was brought up a long time in a residence or a place or a community was two years when I was growing up, two years mostly it was like 18 months on average.  

Wow. And we moved and it was no regrets, not upset, no problems. But it’s funny because what that taught me to do is how to connect with people like that. And I could make a connection. I could get that. But in order to do that, I had to be like them. Listen to that. I had to be like them, not like me, like them. Why? Because in the way that I thought, it made me more comfortable around them because I’m like them. But then is when I really got the message that Kenny was trying to ask me years and years and years before, Kevin, who do you think you are? Who are you? And I went, Wow. And that’s when the change really happened. And people say, Geez, would you do that again? I said, I would try to avoid it like the bubonic plague, but I don’t regret a bit of it because I had to go through that. I had to do that change. So back the to question, what do you do for self care? I listen to the still small voice in my heart. When I used to, when I’ve signed off on my books before, I would say something to the effect of, let your heart and spirit guide you because they’ll never let you down.  

Let your heart and your spirit guide you because they will never let you down your heart, your spirit, not the other persons, but listen to your heart within and go with that. And once you get that message, you can maybe find that what you want to do today for self-care is meditate. I do that. I can meditate for a few minutes or I can meditate for two hours. I’ve done both. I can go down that road and we’re not going to go there, but you know, meditate, Tai chi, Chiang Reiki. I can get lost doing massages. That can be, believe it or not, be my self care, giving a massage. And of course receiving a massage because that is also self care. But you’ve got to take care of yourself. If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else is going to.

Krystal Jakosky:    You are, you are echoing so many things that I already say and I absolutely love it. It’s like these gigantic exclamation points coming down saying hello. Hey guys, remember self care is the conscious and intentional act of taking care of your own needs. And it could change from day to day. It does not matter. What matters is that you are letting your heart and your spirit be your guide because they’re not going to be false to you.  

I mean it’s like bam boo. Yeah. Bring it on. Meditation, you know, meditation is the moment that you tune out the world and tune into yourself. You tune into the breathing, you tune into the moment and you let everything else go. 

Kevin Pennell:    I think one of the things you should do with part of the self care is change it up. Don’t try to do the same thing every day. Because if you do the same thing every day, it becomes a habit. And before you know it, a habit becomes a rut and you are only different, you know, do you know the only difference between the rut and a grave? Both ends are knocked out. That’s the only difference when a rut and a grave is where you haver both ends knocked out.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Wow. Okay guys, let’s stay out of the ruts. I have one more question for you Kevin. You’ve already given us a really good one. So who are you is a great journaling question. I love to leave all of my listeners with a journaling prompt or a question that they can think about and really answer. And who you are is amazing. Is there another one that you can think of that you would love to encourage people to explore?  

Kevin Pennell:    What have you done for self care for yourself today? 

Krystal Jakosky:    Okay. Just today.  

Kevin Pennell:    For the whole week?  

Krystal Jakosky:   It doesn’t have to be huge. It’s one little thing today. 

Kevin Pennell:    What have you done for yourself today? 

Krystal Jakosky:    I have, I have loved having you here. I have loved chit chatting with you. I really hope that everybody out there listening has enjoyed listening to us as well, and that you’ve been inspired and that you are leaving this session of this podcast uplifted and smiling. I am. I love Kevin. I love just the way that it’s so free and easy to talk with you. How do people find you and are there any last tidbits of wisdom or words of knowledge that you would like to share with people?  

Kevin Pennell:    So I would say first you can contact me through my website, which is toward better life.com. If you want to reach out to me, just write to me at kevin@tortaboutlife.com. I am available to do consultations and stuff like that from time to time. I haven’t mentioned that, but I do, I have done that and I will be more than happy to do it. so that’s the two easiest ways to do it. You know, if I go into phone numbers and stuff. When we get acquainted, you can have my phone number and we can text. That’s fine. Yeah.The easiest thing is toward better life.com and Kevin toward better life.com. And that’s an email and the website. That’s the easiest way to do this. And if you’re in the western North Carolina area and you’re looking for a massage, you can still do the same thing. I’ll just direct you to who to contact to get a massage. I think I would leave people just with those same simple words that if I can get them again in my head properly, and that is listen to your heart and spirit because they won’t let you down.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Amen. Oh, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for sharing with me and starting my day off so beautifully. So Right. Thank you. 

Kevin Pennell:   Thank you. Pleasure’s all mine. We’ll do this again.  

I hope this moment of self care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m Krystal Jacosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. And I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe in. Breathe out. Until next time, take care.  

I’m going to figure out this, this whole thing, I’m going to figure it all out. She thought I was a little crazy about that. But, I’ve always had an interest in my mind. So when I got into the chiropractic school, I also took on other studies outside of the school of energy medicine and, and learning different energy modalities, studying spirituality, studying universal laws. And I wanted to get to this thing that was something I could work off. I studied quantum physics a little bit, just,  from a conscious perspective of what kind, and how quantum physics was supporting some things. I really wanted to grasp that. So I was like a sponge. When I became a chiropractor, I ran my own business.  

I had a fear of all the finances back in the day. So I studied all the best business people and so forth. And it took me about five years to hit my financial peak. But then there was a point where I was exhausted, burned down, and fatigued. I got to the point where I said, I need to stop learning stuff for a minute here. I need to stop reading 80 to 120 books a year. Either you stop listening to podcasts and videos all day long. I need to just center myself and just focus on what I already know. And let’s just start Digg. You know, if I’m the creator of my life, if I’m the greatest, if I am created in the likeness image of God, I should be able to create my life and success the way I want to do it and experience it rather than being told how it should be like the grind, the hustle, and so forth.  

So long story short, I ended up applying these principles and within a year I was working less. I was making more. All of a sudden I was less stressed. I wasn’t burned down anymore. And I haven’t had burnout in six years. And it was one of those things where I’m like, holy cow. And I say, you know what? Entrepreneurs need to know this, business owners need to know this. And so I started to put a little system together of mindset and other principles of what I’ve done, but also how to tailor it, to be so individual to help the individual to thrive. And that’s kind of where I’m at now in my life, that’s what I’m doing full time as we speak.  

Krystal Jakosy:   Hm there are so many things I want to go back and touch base on in your story, in your life, and where you’re at. You said that as a kid, you had this fear of being sick. Do you know where that came from?  

Vic Manzo:    You know, I think it was the energy around me. I’m an empath and it was one of those things where I can just feel people’s energy. Here’s an example. The news puts out mosquitoes and the West Nile virus and they talk about what it can do. And every time I got a mosquito bite, I would freak out. I would start to pay attention. Okay. Am I getting dizzy? Am I lightheaded? Am I this and my that? I think it was because I felt like I didn’t have control, you know? And I think that’s where it comes from. Because a lot of my power was taken away as a kid. And so having that, I felt like this was just another thing I couldn’t control. That’s where that whole shift of understanding, okay, what can I control?  

What can I do? When it comes to my health, how can I handle this? And I didn’t really get those answers until I was in chiropractic school. Then all of a sudden I was like, oh I got health now. Now I’m not afraid of anything. Now I’m not afraid of diseases. COVID came around and I’m giving my patients advice on certain things. And they’re just like, aren’t you worried?  I would tell them once you understand those principles, then all of a sudden, it’s the same thing as spiritual principles. That’s what I love about this stuff is that it’s not just me saying something from a health perspective, it’s also a spiritual truth. I’m losing my train of thought about where I was going with that.  

Now darkness and light are what I wanted to talk about. it’s one of those things where yeah, the darkness can’t exist if there’s a whole room full of light. So it’s the same thing in health. If you have a hundred percent health, there’s no such thing as disease, it can exist. It’s impossible and no one’s at a hundred percent, but you can get your chances to be as high as possible you can. And so that’s where it took away that fear, but I really believe it came from not having my power, always being taken away, and always feeling like there was always something going to be, taking something out there because I was so conditioned and used to having that.  

Krystal Jakosky:   I have a similar experience where I ended up becoming very germophobic.  I was containing myself to the point where that was something that I could control. It felt like it just kept burying me more and confining me even more and holding me back even more until one day I recognized what was going on, thanks to a fantastic counselor. And I was able to totally shift that. So I get it when we’re in that space and then something has to happen, something changes and we’re able to learn something new. You’ve talked about chiropractic and how it’s not just physical, it’s spiritual or energetic too. Can we dive into that a little bit more?  

Vic Manzo:    Yeah. You live your life through your nervous system, right? So everything that you experience has to go through the nervous system. Now everything in life is a vibration of frequency and energy. So when your brain-body is in better alignment, the vibration energy, and the levels of where you are higher, they’re raised up even more. In chiropractic, we talk about something called tone. This is 1895, beautiful new stuff, right? That’s when chiropractic started to exist and the creator always talked about the tone of the Bo the nervous system and that whatever the tone is at that, and basically the way I interpreted how I read it is it is just vibration. Because tone is very similar to that. When you can raise the vibration of the nervous system higher, every single cell and everything else is going to go with that.  

Now we all know that when you’re raising a vibration that’s consciousness and even in the early 1900s, I think it was 1908 or 1909 might be in 1905. In the first decade of the 1900s, they said, chiropractic’s whole purpose is to connect God with humans and to realign us to be more in alignment. Now, when you think about that for a second, this is where my coaching comes in. Because I’ve taken this philosophy. That makes perfect sense. Because when we are in alignment with ourselves, with our true authenticity of what we want to create, our soul’s purpose, when we truly have that alignment, our vibration is higher. Our emotions are higher, we feel better and we manifest easier.

That from chiropractic can cross over to there. But it’s one of those elements when you have a higher level of consciousness, there are different aspects of the brain that are elevated. So like the prefrontal cortex, which is right behind your forehead, when you can access that part of the brain and have more wiring go there, you’re calmer. You know you look at someone who doesn’t get affected by the distractions of life. That’s like a Sage, that’s a mystic. I’m not saying chiropractic creates those. Please don’t take it that way. What I am saying is it gives the opportunity. The thing about chiropractic is it doesn’t treat or do anything, in the sense of treating an illness, a disease, a condition, or a symptom, or help you come to a more elevated consciousness.  

What it does is give the opportunity and potential to create that. There are other factors you have to add into the mix because chiropractic isn’t everything, but it’s one of those things that give it the ground-rooted support. And if we can keep everything in alignment with the nervous system, communicating properly, no interference whatsoever, that life force that flows through you. In chiropractic, we call it innate intelligence. People know it as the soul life PR, whatever you want or Chi. So all the same thing. What we’re doing is trying to have that intelligence move more freely. And when it can move more freely, you’re going to be able to access higher levels of consciousness, higher levels of information awareness, especially when you tap into that prefrontal cortex, your executive center, that’s our future planning. You can make a choice and then see how it plays out. And you can really tap into those kinds of things. When you have a good, balanced, nervous system, all of a sudden you can see things more in a positive mindset. You can see things more in a way that you’re not going to be so influenced by fear. It’s going to be harder because you’re more resilient to those kinds of things.  

Krystal Jakosky:    I’m eating this up. Everything you say. So in alignment with so many different things, I’m like, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I love it. I think we, I, many of us forget that we have that power, many of us forget that we have the ability to tune in and come more into alignment. And sometimes we have no clue how to even do that. You went into chiropractic, you learned about the soul, the energy that she, that PR you learned about bringing all of that into alignment and then you burned out, and then you turned to life coaching and spirituality. What was the chain of events that happened there? What really went on that made you go I’m at the top of my game. Oh no, I’m gonna change course because I’m done.  

Vic Manzo:    Sounds crazy. Right?   

Krystal Jakosky:    The face. Right? I get that now.  

Vic Manzo:    Yeah. So here’s what I mean, after five years I hit my financial peak. I’m doing everything. I’m being told to be a successful chiropractor, family, wellness, and chiropractor. I’m a holistic practitioner and I’m doing all that. I’ve been told, to listen to the best, the top entrepreneurs and business advice and self-help personal development. I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do. And it was like an uphill battle all the time. I always felt like it’s always something I have to constantly be grinding away at. And it was, I told my wife this is not what we created. We created a practice that wasn’t really what we wanted a hundred percent. I had a coach who wanted to meet people where they are, you know?  

So I decided if they are going to come to you, it is your recommendation how to help them. And if they say, Hey, I can’t commit to that, but I can do this, meet them where they are. It’s not your health, it’s their health. And I thought that was great advice at the time. I look at it now and I decided that’s not great advice because if you think about it, if you’re a master at something and you want to learn from the master, if you go to the master, the master tells you, Hey, this is what you’re going to have to do to get to that level. You know what? I wanted to only do half of that because I think that’s just what’s going to work better for me. The master’s going to look at you and say, you know what?  

Then I can’t help you. You won’t be a student of mine. And if you go anywhere, if you go into sports, you go to the best person for sports or in any aspect, you either do what they tell you because they know how to get you there or else you’re not going to be a part of their program. And so I was like, why am I leveling myself down to meet where they are? Yet I’m getting frustrated because the results aren’t coming in neurologically, not symptom-wise because symptoms will still help. They would see their symptoms be gone. The interesting thing is once you don’t clear it out of the nervous system, it will show up later in life or it’ll show up somewhat differently. I was just getting so frustrated because I’m so passionate about what I do that I was like, no, no, no, I need to make a change.  

So we literally took a 40% hit on our business. It was our choice, me and my wife. We started looking at patients who weren’t following the curriculums properly or struggling with things or just choosing whatever their insurance covers. That’s what they were coming in for. And I say, you know what, listen, we’re going to be making some changes and I really want to help you. I was being very sincere about it, and I tell them if it just doesn’t work, that’s fine. Let me connect you with another chiropractor who’s more lenient on care. We’re kind of making some of these transitions. And so we took a 40% hit and then we also cut our hours from 26, 28 to 18.  So all of a sudden we’re doing a couple of double whammies here.  

But we turned it around and it was really the big thing for me out of all that was, choosing my success because I was tired of being told what I had to do and what success was. I guess I just got so burned out that it was time to say, I really started challenging myself. I don’t want to say God, but I started challenging myself like the universal law says this and this, these things say this, and spiritually says this. Quantum physics says this, however, I see what it’s going to be.  Wayne Dyer and these people and all these things are saying all these things still. I’m not experiencing that in my life. I’m gonna put 100% into that. And it has to be true. My mind should tell me if I put my mind to it. Anything’s possible.  

I’m taking everything I’ve learned and I’m going to apply it to this. This is how we’re going to go forth. We shifted to pediatrics six months later. We rebounded back from a patient volume-based standpoint. Then the second year we were back to where we were financial. It was one of those things where success became so much more at ease. I didn’t stress about anything anymore. I was just having fun in the office. I started to understand the principles of how you focus on your intention in your vibe every single day. How do I feel every single day waking up? What’s the energy that I’m bringing to the table? It’s not about what I do. It’s about my being this. And so I started to visualize in my head how I wanted to be, what chiropractor I really want to be every day I would visualize that.  

And what does that feel like? How am I walking into the office? How am I talking to my staff? How am I connecting with patients? I mean, I’ve seen 50% of pediatrics. That was my patient base. And it was one of those things where, how am I interacting with the kids? And, just being in this bubble space of love, excitement, and joy and creating a space of healing. And that’s all I focused on. It was a blast for the next six years because it was something that I truly enjoyed. But the key point of why I made that transition into business coaching was because some people ask me if I liked what you were doing, you have a huge practice. You were very involved with the community.  

 I have a long list of awards and all these other things. My reach was small because in a com I was in a town of 16,000 people. I saw less than one per a 10th of 1% of that population. And I thought where does this reach? And I don’t want to play small. I want to play big in life. I’m going to go all out. And if I fail or I don’t make it, that’s fine. But at least I know that I did that. I tried. That’s where business coaching came in because I was like, I can coach chiropractors. I can coach entrepreneurs. I went into coaching entrepreneurs. I started and now I’ve been coaching chiropractors also. And it’s one of those things where I feel like my reach is just a little bigger. Now when I’m working with an entrepreneur or I’m working with a chiropractor, it’s one of those things where I feel like now my reach is getting a lot more expanded and that’s kind of where that big transition came and, there are lifestyle perks to it too. And all these other things, but that’s kind of the main ones.  

Krystal Jakosky:   So you have literally lived. One of the quotes that I saw was that there are no rules to live except the ones that you create. You absolutely live that now.

Vic Manzo:   Yeah. Do you mean I’m testing it? No, no, no go. I’m sorry.  

Krystal Jakosky:    No, no, you’re good.  

Vic Manzo:   No, I’m literally testing that out because it was one of those things where you look at life and just like the observer effect in quantum physics, it’s what the researchers were looking at. When they went to look, at the light particle light wave, the wave part turned into a particle. And every time they were looking at observing, I kept doing that. And so manifest and I  manipulate the energy with my mind. There are no rules to live because it’s only what I create because really at the end of the day if you think about it, it’s our thoughts and our emotions and what we put focus on. It’s what we believe really at the end of the day, that can either put you in a prison or it can give you the freedom that you desire.  

And we all have the power to choose the one that gives us that freedom. And I didn’t realize that in business, I had so many limitations I was putting on myself and it was but that wasn’t me. That’s not how I wanted to run a practice. Then it came to a point where I challenged what I did in my relationships. I’ve done that with my health. It’s one of those things where I’ve learned that especially like the law of attraction, a lot of people talk about this. And I always tell people that the law of attraction works. It always works. But what I’ve learned is that once I became authentic with myself and what mattered most truly to me, we could talk, about you is your soul’s purpose or what really fires you up, or what has a deep meaning to you when you apply that to it all.  

That’s when the law of attraction really works. At least that’s what I’ve experienced in my life. Because I’ve done the whole emotion. I even did visualization with it. And yeah, I would get some results, but when I started to think, no, what really matters most to me, what do I want to create? I say forget the noise. That means not listening to anybody else. Like this is what matters to you. Find people that maybe align with you on that. Sometimes you’re on an island and if you’re on an island, that’s fine. You’re doing something actually amazing then, but it’s staying true to that truth and knowing that you deserve it, you’re worth it 100%.

Krystal Jakosky:   I just kind of get goosebumps. I love listening to you because it’s so right on. It’s so spot on it’s so, Hey guys, listen, did you hear that? You have the power to choose what makes you free. You have the power to create the reality that you want. You can visualize it, you can create it, you can live it because you’ve decided to. So this is all about the mindset. 

Vic Nabzi:    All about all things to come.  

Krystal Jakosky:    You’re good. All things come back.  

Vic Manzo:    I was going to say all things come to this: start in the mind. That’s what I was going to say.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Yeah. See guys, we’re in tune. We got this. We so got this. Tell me about the be, do, have, and how we’re doing it backward. Let’s talk about this for a minute.  

Vic Manzo:    Think about it this way. I heard about be, do, have when I was in chiropractic school. When I was in chiropractic school, it was one of the best in the world at the time. And it was great. Because the leader, the president, would bring some really prolific speakers and we were mandated three times a trimester to listen to speakers. I was so happy that they did that.  One of the things I remember hearing, it’s one of our principals at the school, but I’m going blank right now. But it was something that I didn’t realize I was doing backward. I’ve heard this all my life. I will wait. I cannot wait to have a million dollars if I want a million dollars.  

Oh my God, I would do these things. Then I would be happy. Right. Or I can’t wait to have this business because, and I used to say this, I had a small office. My first office was only 758 square feet. It was really small. I kept telling myself, yeah, this is great. I can do things here, but man, I cannot wait to have that big 2000-plus square foot office, then I can do these things. And that is backward thinking because what you’re doing is you’re putting yourself in a trap that you’re going against the grain. You’re going against the universe, how things actually work. The laws work. If the law of vibration and the law of attraction, if they’re really true, you have to be first before you get to the doing and the having.  

And so a lot of times people think, I have to have this or that. Entrepreneurs are great for this.  Sometimes I work with chiropractors and they’ll I just have to, if I get this next thing, then all of a sudden I can do this. And then I can be that chiropractor that I want to be. I’m telling them, to stop the trap. That’s a trap, you’ll never get there because you’re working backward. There’s a slim chance you can. But it’s just going to take a lot of effort and work and you’re going to go through a lot of sacrifices to get to that point. Now the model is, I was sharing earlier when I was saying  I was seeing myself as what chiropractor I want to be. What does that look like?  

What does that feel like in visualizing my office, I’m doing the being side of it? It’s just like, I do this in my relationships. What kind of husband do I want to be? Right. It’s not about how my wife responds or what she says or what  I don’t care about. It’s about me. Who am I showing up as? What’s the feeling? What emotions do I want to have because then what happens is the more I center her there, I get my vibration to harmonize there. And when I can get there, then when I start doing things, I tell a lot of my entrepreneurs, when you get to the being side, you really hone in on the doing effortlessly. It really is effortless because you’re in alignment. You’ve aligned.  

You got to that vibration. Everything is your vision, your focus, your thoughts, emotions, all that is in tune to be in a higher vibe. And all you have to do is just do something when you do it. It’s like, holy cow, this blew up. How the heck did this happen? And I’ve had that happen so many times. I’m still conditioned. I’ll train my clients to say how did this happen? What the heck? Oh no, that’s resistance. Don’t say that. It’s that being element first of who that is. And to share with the listeners, it’s an easy thing you can do. You can just visualize and just see what that is. Feelings. What you’re seeing yourself are the emotions you want to experience in that process.  And doing that, like my coaches just tell me all the time, if you want to be this type of chiropractor, who do you have to be?  

How do you have to show up? Right? Who’s that been like, how do they think, how do they move? How do they do this? All of these are different processes. And you create that in your mind. All of a sudden you’re thinking, okay, I feel right. because you can’t just think it. I used to do that. I’m a drive type, a driver personality. So for me, it always just thinks it, great, done, got it. But then it’s like, hold up, slow down, take a step back. You have to feel it to make sure it’s right.  You have to feel it to know that I’m in alignment now. And there are your emotions always here to guide you. Once you get into the being, the doing is very simple and they just come effortlessly. 

I tell people, sometimes I call this effortless success and some people look at me like, what do you mean effortless success? You’ve got to put work in. I say, oh no, you have to get into the law of inspired actions. You have to do action in some form Goliath. David could have prayed. He could have prayed all day to take out Goliath but eventually had to pick up that stone and throw it. But notice how simple, big, old giant, he takes a little stone and just throws it and knocks him out. That is effortless action. Right? Just you, there was a beingness that he was focusing on and he did that. I try to use that as an example, but that’s one of those things where when you look at it, that’s the trap that the majority of people are living in. I thought it was only 26 years and I saw the trap in business at 30 ish. Now I’m at a point where I could pick up on it faster. I don’t need to have this first. I just need to be first and then just stay in this place. And the other side will come.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Yeah, there’s this, I love it. There’s this concept about how the brain, the subconscious, doesn’t always know truth from reality, right? So if you are visualizing something and you are bringing in every sense possible, what does it smell like to be there? If you are wanting to be in a space where you’re by the ocean and you’re what kind of job you have whatnot. Does it smell salty because of the sea air, what clothing do you feel like you’re wearing? What do you see? What colors are there? What kind of food are you eating? How many senses can you feel, what emotions are you having while you listen to the ocean that’s coming and waves pass? It’s the more senses, every bit of sense that you can bring into that visualization of being, and literally feeling yourself on every level, from your taste buds to your fingertips, to your emotions that are within to the thoughts that go through your mind when you are in that space.  

Like every bit of it, if you can bring every bit of it and just make yourself feel that literally, figuratively, it can change everything just because you said I’m going to be that for a minute. And once you are that you love how that feels. And it feels more like you really are there, which makes it easier to do in order to just naturally flow and you’re going downstream instead of fighting. You’re not pushing that Boulder uphill anymore. You’re really just kind of getting, oh yeah, baby, I’m in it. So I love it. And thank you for illustrating that and thank you for talking about it because we forget to do that. We forget to stop and say, oh, wait a minute. And I don’t know that any of us have been taught that we had nobody say, Hey, do it this way instead, visualize where you want to be, feel where you want to be so that you can actually know if you’ve actually seen it in your brain. If you’ve actually felt it with your emotions, it already exists. You’ve created that reality.  

Vic Manzo:  It’s so true. I love how you got to all the senses, right? Because you want to do that. And you know, I tell people all the time, you can try to see your reality from your physical eyes and from your five senses. Just say, this is my life, but you can also go in your mind’s eye, what we call imagination, and you can create that whole life there. The brain doesn’t know the difference between either. And that is the power of what we know now with what visualization can do. A lot of studies have been coming out and it’s been fascinating to see the different things of just how powerful that is to tap in. Yeah. And get into all those senses. The more neuro, neuro-fi neuro aspects you can fire the more that you’re going to create, that attraction.  

And like you brought up too, the feeling where the feelings are great, because then all of a sudden when you’re there, the beautiful visualization is that you’re training your body to feel what that is. Then when you’re making an action or making a choice, you are aligning yourself with that. You’ll get that feeling of some sort. Yeah. And when you have that, now, you know, you’re in alignment. That’s what I try to teach my clients all the time because it’s one of those things you have to get out of your head. I don’t want you in your head. We’re way too logical. We’re way too left-brained. I mean, we’re in an information era, right? Oh, I’ll just Google this, right? Or I’ll just be, but no, that’s not how this works. Do you know?  

And it’s where you have to get out. So everything I’m always teaching is outside of the left- brain trying to go into the right- brain. It’s amazing when they get this. I’m like, no, no, no, you just saying, you get this, meaning you got it in your mind. They say, what do you mean? I said you’ll understand. I can’t, there are some things I just can’t explain, but there’s a feeling to it. You’ll know. And then when they finally get there, sometimes it’s a month, three months, five months,  whatever it may be, then they’re just like, oh my goodness. I know what you’re talking about now. You see how you can’t explain it with words. So I can understand what you’re saying.

Imagine my side. Trying to explain that to you. I can only guide you in a certain way. And then you’ll just know. It’s like how do you know you’re in love? I just remember I asked that. How do you know you’re in love with someone? Oh, you’ll just know. That means nothing to me. I need to know some factors here. Until it hits you and then you say, oh, that’s what they meant. Okay. I got it now. Yeah.  

Krystal Jakosky:  Yeah. And it’s absolutely different for every person. Right? So you can tell them, you should feel this, but in reality, they’re different from you. They’re gonna feel it in a 

different way. They’re going to feel it in a different part of their body or in their brain or wherever they feel it. But it’s going to feel love is different for every human being and being in that space of where they want to be. You can’t explain that to them. And yet they’re going to know they’re in love.  That is so hard to put some of those concepts into words and we end up wordless, which drives us crazy. It’s like a parent saying because I’m the parent. That’s why <laugh> no, I mean, this it’s a good thing. Yeah.  

Vic Manzo:  I’m a hundred percent with you.  

Krystal Jakosky:    So yeah. Can we talk about the matrix for a minute? 

Vic Manzo:  Yeah. What would you like to know?  

Krystal Jakosky:    Well, what is it?

The first one. So the matrix is a real step. It’s human collective consciousness. That’s really what the matrix comes down to. And for those who don’t know, that’s just all the thoughts, the emotions, and the focus of every single human on the entire planet, of what they’re putting their energy towards. That gets averaged out and becomes the matrix. Now I remember my spiritual journey is to hear people talk about the matrix all the time. Oh, we need to escape the matrix and this and that. I was always like, what the heck is this thing? I love the movie, The Matrix. It was one of those things where as I got older and it evolved more and had more experiences, I started to understand that the matrix is not bad.  

It’s just what it is. You know, it’s always going to exist. It doesn’t go away. It’s not just humans that have it, animals have it. And it’s on other planets too. It’s just the average of all the different vibrations and energies. What the matrix does that makes it unique is that if we don’t set the intention on our day and try to continue to focus on our vibe and where we want to be, when you don’t do that, like Benjamin Franklin said that when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And so what ends up happening is now all of a sudden, the energy of the matrix is going to bring circumstances and situations to you because it’s always there and always existing. There’s something called the lobster effect or the crab effect, whichever one is titled that.  

But for some reason, though, I like the lobster. It just makes more sense to me, because I’m used to seeing lobsters in a tank. If you have three lobsters in a tank and one says, I’m tired of this life, I’m hopping out and going to see what’s out there. When it starts to go up the wall, for some weird reason, the two other lobsters are going to grab that lobster and pull it back down. That happens continuously, over and over again, this is what the matrix will do to you every single time. If we’re not aware of this and not only does the matrix have its own vibration, it also has its own conditioning.  

So it conditions us in certain ways. And so when you have that whole aspect, if you’re not breaking out of this subconscious and being aware of how you are conditioned and how you’re being influenced by the matrix, then all of a sudden you get pulled into what I call modern slavery, but it’s just a mental prison because now you’re wondering why can’t I achieve this? Why can’t I do this? Why is this happening to me or whatever those resistant questions are because you don’t realize that it’s the matrix influencing you? Now it may not be the main matrix because there are also sub matrixes underneath it, like North America, Africa, and Australia. But then you also have the different states in the United States and you have different towns, cities, you got different family units, friend units, all those get broken down to the most minute one. 

The most micro is you. I’m the best for myself and everyone else. And so it’s all this conditioning and layers that are built that build up to create that matrix. It’s always influencing its energy, it is always there because of the law of vibration, and the law of association, these are different laws that will resonate with that vibrational frequency. In my third book, I talk about something called de metronomes. This is fascinating stuff. I highly recommend everyone go Google metronomes it’s  M E T R O N O M E  S. What these things are is, let’s say 120 things and they just rock back and forth, but they’re random. They make clicks as they rock. And what will happen is, they’re all off beat.  

And then all of a sudden, with about a minute and 45 seconds for a minute, 55, it’s roughly around that time frame. They all go and sync and they stay that way. There is nothing influencing it. There’s nothing like it. So it’s kind of freaky in a sense because there’s nothing controlling those mechanisms. They’re just running on their own and all of a sudden they will sink. It is like a tuning fork. If you have a tuning fork in one corner of a room and you have one on the other side, when you strike that tuning fork, there is going to come to a time and place where that vibration and the other tuning fork are going to resonate at the same vibration. That’s kind of how the matrix works in every essence and it’s our job and our role to experience that freedom and the things that you want to truly enjoy and be fulfilled in life. We have to rise above the matrix and be focused on that every single day.  

Krystal Jakosky:  Okay. So excited. So many little lines going, connecting with each other right now because we were talking earlier and you mentioned how in chiropractic, you felt like you needed to no, it wasn’t that you needed to, you felt like you could ed, as a higher frequency, we were moving everything up a little bit. And if the matrix that is around you is at a certain frequency and we decide to vibrate up, we decide to come to a little bit higher frequency. You also mentioned that we are affecting everybody else around us. So if one person in that matrix says, I’m going to be a little more hopeful, I’m going to be a little more excited, I’m going to be a little more focused on the fantastic life that I really want. Then it’s actually going to affect everyone else around. It’s more than just the ripples on the pond. Then other people are again, attracted to this new vibration and you can all together lift the vibration, the frequency of the matrix that you’re in at that time.  

Vic Manzo:    Amen to that. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. And this is like in my book, I talk about how I talk about what’s your potential and how to unleash it and, and for your listeners, very simple and easy, whatever you can imagine in your mind is your potential. You can’t imagine something, you cannot see it in your mind. You can’t visualize something and then not be able to attain that. That’s just how things work. But the importance of what you’re bringing up is that if we can have more people lead more fulfilled lives, we do create a ripple effect. This is how we shift the matrix. The people have the power. You’ve heard this many different times when it comes to government versus all these other things.  

Right? But when it comes to the matrix, we do, we are the essence and the power of it. What happens is there are players in the matrix because the more eyes and the more people you can get it focusing on something and having an emotional response. The more control you have is how you get to know how politicians work, government works. I’m not bashing, this is not to be getting negative or conspiracy. It’s just that the more eyes you can have on people, looking at something and focusing there, the more that those people influence the matrix. They have more power because they have more influence. This is why people and celebrities do something and it just creates a whole mass ripple effect of how people follow or like TikTok.  

There are all these TikTok trends that happen. Why? Well, look at the mass views that will be there 40, 50, 60 million, that’s conditioning. There’s a vibration to that. People say oh cool, we’re going to follow that. But what people don’t realize is even when it comes to presidents and leaders, I always say that it doesn’t matter who the leader is because the leader only exists because of the vibration of the people. So if you want to change what you see in government, if you want to change what you see in a corporation, you can change it.  In my third book, I talk about all these issues and issues we have in the world today, where you have massive plastics in the ocean.  

We see species being more extinct and forests shrinking like crazy. We have more diseases going on in the world. I said it’s because the total vibration of the matrix is under-supporting life. As long as we stay under that level of supporting life, this comes from the work of Dr. David Hawkins, power versus forest, he talks a lot about this. And under 200 or 204, I think it’s 200, but anything vibration VI, anything at a conscious level under 200 does not support life. And I say the matrix of humanity right now is still under 200. The only reason why I know that is because if you look around, look at how many more diseases are coming out, we went through a pandemic, look at all the species. If we want to change that action, we focus on what we’re just going to do.  

You’re fighting something that’s beyond. It’s way more powerful than you. I learned this when I went into chiropractic school because when I went there, I was so mad at big pharma. When I started to see the game, I started to understand what that matrix is and how that’s a controlled mechanism that affects people’s health. And I wanted to fight it like crazy. I realized that I’ll never win. I just won’t. Then I said, you know, what I can do is I can be a role model for that. I’ll live a different life than with the standard Normas. Then, hopefully, people see that and they start asking questions. When they start asking questions, then I can teach. And if I can teach, then they can learn. If they learn, then all of a sudden I can raise their vibe and we can create a ripple effect that way.  

So that’s kind of how, when it comes back to the power of us, no matter what that is, if we can change our vibe and raise it up, we raise the matrix and suddenly you’ll see more consciously evolved corporations and businesses starting to evolve. We’ll start to see more solutions that will come out of nowhere. It’s not like we’re not hidden. It can be, but at the same token, they’ll just come out. It’ll be like a new discovery. Oh my God, we have this new discovery. I always laugh. When I hear new discoveries that are good. We’re moving in the right direction because they’re always ill. That vibration, it may not be me. It may not be you, but it may be someone who’s very passionate about solving some problem. And they just couldn’t do it. Then all of a sudden the vibration rises. It gives them the opportunity to create that. That becomes a ripple effect. It always stems back down to us  

Krystal Jakosky:    On an individual level, did you guys get that? Did you hear that? Are you digesting how this comes down to one person and that one person is you? You can’t change anybody else. You can’t make anybody else do what you want them to do, or be better. You can change yourself and in so doing, attract other people to your new vibration, your new level of life, and joy and happiness. Yeah, let’s do that. I’m already vibing up. We got this, we totally got this. 

Vic Manzo:    I love it.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Earlier you talked about light and dark. Can darkness be an ally?  

Vic Manzo:   Absolutely it is our ally. Life is a contrast. That’s why, as a soul, we come here to this earth university to experience contrast because, in the world, it’s that one-sided coin. It’s always just the light, it’s pure light. There’s no darkness. There are no low vibrations. There are no low energies, no low emotions. If they do get low emotions, they don’t stay around long because we’re in this higher vibration, which is a different dimension, different planes. But when we look at the darkness, and in my own journey, I always try to figure out things ahead of time. So I didn’t have to face the darkness and it’s all in my life. It all seems up to the first five years of my business. Once I hit that five-year mark, I literally said, I’m going to let life teach me.  

I’m going to stop learning. I still listen to podcasts. I still listen to videos. I still read books, but it’s so much less than what I used to because what I do now is leveraging the universe or leveraging life. Because if you really understand, we’ve been taught again, conditioning. I’m really big on this right now. We’ve all heard the statement, go chase your dreams, go after it. Right. It’s one of the worst pieces of advice to give, because if you understand this one principle above the law of vibration is that what you seek is also seeking you. Les Brown talks about this when he’s talking about the thing called death, hospital bed or death, deathbed speech, or hospital bed speech.  

But what he’ll talk about is when you seek for something that you want to crave for yourself, this idea may be a book, a business or whatever may be, you’re giving that to the person who’s giving life to that. And that wants to live that, that idea, that book, that it wants to have an existence. Now I’m not not saying it’s a living entity. Some people look at me and say that there’s no soul there. Just go with me on this, because Les Brown says this so beautifully,  there’s an entity there and it wants to live. So if you’re giving life to that, it’s going to come to you. It’ll come to you and say, okay, let’s do this. Let’s make this happen. And the universe is going to help you with that because it’s going to create situations and people and circumstances to get you to that vibration, to experience that. 

 But a lot of times it’s one of those things where we know, if we let the darkness in, if when I started to do this, the darkness, all of a sudden, I got more wisdom in one year than I did in the last five. It was just amazing because then all of a sudden looking and going, I keep seeing this pattern show up. This is like the second or third time I’ve seen this. I think I need to focus on this. Thank you universe. I’m going to work on this. What book do I need to read? What podcast do I have to follow? Is there a program? Is there a coach maybe I have to hire, what are the things I need to do to help me get better at this? Or be more aware of this and how can I evolve?  

When I started to do that, this is what I meant by effortless action or effortless success. You don’t have to figure it out. Let the universe guide you, let life guide you because it’s so much love that it gives to you. It’s so much that it wants to support you and, and give you all that you can, even when you may think it doesn’t want to support you, it’ll still show you that you’re right because that’s how much it loves you. It wants to support every aspect of what your desires are. And it really took a different perspective on my life. I took a step back. Now, when I work with clients and tell them this stuff, they think that’s genius. I see you. How much less stress you are just thinking about?

Do you realize you have to figure it out? It’s going to come to you. I mean, even with my books,  I have a goal of writing 30 books in my life. Now, if you asked me what the stages of that are, I have no idea. It was probably like a month or two before decoding the matrix came to me. What was it? Back in the fall. It was right before I was moving to Knoxville, Tennessee. All of a sudden, I’m the matrix conditioning man. We just went through a ton of stuff with COVID. There was a lot of misinformation going on. And if you spoke outside the matrix of what was being told by the main narrative, you were humiliated, stuff, and it’s not saying that there wasn’t sharing truth or anything like that.  

It was just, that you couldn’t share another story. It was the main narrative. And that was it. If you went outside that realm, you were going to get bashed like crazy. This is a prime example of the right decoding, the matrix conditioning. It just came to me and let me get settled in. I’ll start writing my book. In March, or the end of February, I started writing the book and I didn’t have to think about it and I had to try to figure it out. It just came to me. What’s the first chapter,  what is the matrix? All right, let’s go with it. And I just went and I wrote this book so quickly, but it was again effortless because I didn’t try to force it. I wasn’t saying, oh, I need to get to this book. I’ve been behind. I haven’t written a book in two years. It just came to me and I wrote the book and it was just cool. So that’s the kind of thing in our lives that we can let lead us. And the darkness is always there to support us. It’s gonna help us to heal on what we need to work on, what it has to help us become more aware of who we already are.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Yeah. I love your statements about chasing the dream, we’ve always been told to chase the dreams. I just wanted to go back to that and just sit on it for a second, because you’re told to chase it. So if you’re chasing it, how often do you catch what you’re running after, when you’re running after something, the visual is that it’s always ahead of you and just out of reach, and you’re never actually going to catch it. So if you are chasing after something with the belief that I’m not going to catch it, I just have to keep chasing it. It doesn’t get you anywhere other than frustration and depression and the old familiar thoughts, I’m not good enough because I wasn’t fast enough or I wasn’t whatever. If you switch that around and you say, no, no, no, no. I’m going to allow this to happen.  

And I’m going to have a mindset being this is going to happen, and I know it’s going to happen. I know that it’s possible. I’m just going to see how it goes. I’m going to raise my vibration to that spot and say, I’m ready when you are. Then the first chapter of a book just pops into your head and says, Hey, this is where you’re going. Now. You don’t have to chase the wrong word. Think about the words that you are using. Are you embracing it? I am embracing my dream. I am moving forward in this amazing thing. That’s here because you’ve chosen to switch that narrative. You’ve chosen to shine a little light in that darkness and say, you know what? I don’t like the idea of chasing. I don’t really like to run. I’m not a runner so I’m not going to chase. I’m going to change that.  

Vic Manzo:   I don’t relate.  

Krystal Jaksky:   Yeah. I’m going to change that and say, no. I’m going to sit back and enjoy a little bit of nature and see what happens. I’m going to believe what I already am and see what comes. And that literally shows you the two sides, the lightness, and the darkness. It shows you how you can banish what you really don’t want and embrace what you see and the possibilities in the amazing stuff. I love this conversation. You are so fabulous. Thank you for being here today. 

Vic Manzo:    Oh, I appreciate that. No, I’m happy to be here. You know, another thing I wanted to mention, is that another aspect about us is we’re spiritual alchemists. I talk about darkness and light, because even whatever you face, whatever darkness that is, it could be trauma. It can be a situation, a divorce, or a loss of a loved one. You even have the power to transmute that energy into something of life. You can choose what that’s going to mean for you because it’s how powerful we are. We get to choose our life in every aspect, you know? And so,  that’s something I learned,  it had taken me a long while. I learned this. I said you know what? This happened to me. Okay. I realized life has no meaning, except the meaning you put on it once you grasp that, life has no meaning at all, except whatever meaning you put on it.  

I mean that from the deepest level. When I first heard that, I realized that life has meaning. I got that. No problem. It’s just what I put onto it. But it took me four years, all of a sudden to go crappy. I thought I knew that, but I didn’t. Now I know what they’re saying. Holy cow, this is mind-blowing. Life is just life until I say, this is good and this is bad or this is great and this is not, or this is whatever it is. I get to choose that and I can, so then I started to learn that no matter what happens to me, no matter what I can always see, I can turn that into a win. I can turn that into an experience. I can turn that to serve me because at the end of the day everything’s always serving you  

Krystal Jakosky:    Yes. My brain just went blank because we talked about so many good things that I’m trying to process them all at the same time and still keep this conversation going. My mind is blown. Like yours has been. Is there anything else that you really want to share with our listeners?  

Vic Manzo:    I kind of shared it already, but it’s something that’s been a big message for me that I’ve learned and I’m testing. I’ve been testing this out for the last couple of years and it’s been that no matter what the universe is always there to support you and guide you, there is more support than you can ever imagine. The key thing is, just take a step back and slow down. We’re so rushed in life that even doing nothing is still doing something. And that is something I still haven’t mastered. My wife will tell me you need to learn to slow down even more. I say I’m working on it. I’m getting there. I come from workaholics. So I have to work through conditioning.  

I always had to be doing something. I like to do things whatever they may be. But to be able to just take a break and just reconnect and just slow down. Sometimes we need to do more of that and then take that opportunity to see how life is really a blessing for you to see the beauty in life and even the hard times or the hard moments. Look and see how that’s really serving you because when you really take that mindset and shift your perspective to say, okay, maybe this is serving me. Let me take a look. What you seek is what you’re going to find. When you seek for what is serving you, you will find it just as much as you can seek what doesn’t serve you.  

You’ll find it there also. So why not choose the one that you can seek, that’s going to serve you and look for that? When you start to do that, you’ll start to have a greater appreciation for life, a greater appreciation for the things that show up in your life. And when you have that, you have more gratitude. Gratitude is the doorway to accepting or receiving more. I got caught in this trap thinking I could just do this and it would be that way. It’s an energy place you have to come from. And when you continually start to do that, you change your neurology around and it totally will transform your life. So look at life as a beautiful journey, rather than as seeing it for how some have been seeing it in one way or another.  

Krystal Jakoskky:   Beautiful. I usually ask people for a journaling prompt for my listeners at the very end, and this is going to be your journal and prompt guys, take that moment to stop and see how life is actually serving you. You see how there’s that gift, see how it’s supporting you and giving you exactly what you need at this moment. Write it down. Doesn’t have to be a big, long story. It can just be bullet points. It can be single words, but take a moment to reflect on that. I have another question for you. What is your favorite kind of self-care? 

Vic Manzo:    Ooh, this is a good one. Because I do a lot. We’re talking about cryotherapy. That’s one. My favorite one is I meditate every day in an infrared sauna. That for me. I don’t know if heat is very therapeutic for me. It’s something that just grounds me. One day I’ll maybe figure that out. I don’t need to figure that out right now. But meditation is the biggest thing for me. I’ve been practicing for about 16 years now. And it’s something that allows me just to reconnect with myself. That’s the whole purpose. When I meditate, it’s not about anything else, except just connecting with that essence. That’s going beyond being Vic Manzo and just being there is so grounding.  

So always a reminder for me too, to know that this is just a short-term experience. Let’s make the best of it, but also remember the greatness of who I am and so forth. It’s kind of like awakening from the dream in the sense that when I do that, and that’s one of my big ones, I do a lot of things. I exercise a lot. I eat very healthily. There are a lot of those self cares, but if I had to pick one that is the biggest for me, meditation has to be it.

Krystal Jakosky:   You’re a man of extremes. You like cryotherapy and being frozen. And then you like the inference on it being super hot. Then you like meditation in the middle. That says, let’s tune out the rest of the world and tune into your own soul. I love it. That’s absolutely beautiful. Hey, how do people find you?  

Vic Manzo:   So you can find me on my website. It’s my hub. So empower your reality.com. I have free resources there. If you’re a business owner, you want to hop on a call, I can do that. I have a free coaching call, 30 minutes there. If you want to catch me on my socials, go to the bottom left of the website. I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. That’s where I play. I’m sharing daily stuff almost daily there. Just little tips and little snippets of things to help you elevate your life one way or another.  

Krystal Jakosky:    Fabulous. You guys heard it here. Go check him out. Vic, you are fantastic. And I love your energy. I love how you’re just encouraging everybody to vibe up and embrace life. As they see it becoming something bigger, something more, let’s raise that vibration of the matrix and life will be so much better when we start doing that. So thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your time and your energy with us today.  

Vic Manzo:    I was, I was delighted to be here. Thanks for having me.  

Krystal Jakosky:   Thank you. Okay, guys, you heard it. Go check him out and we’ll see you here next week again on Breath In, Breathe Out. 

I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m @krystaljakosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In, Breathe Out. Until next time, take care.