SUMMARY KEYWORDS
qigong, feel, work, people, practice, energy, chi gong, body, chi, slow, moment, breath, absolutely, lee, masters, called, bali, meditation, talking, great, Lee Holden
SPEAKERS
Lee Holden, Julia Malcolmson, Martin O'Toole
Martin O'Toole 00:36
Took part in a survey this week. And 46% of the people involved in the survey said that they were wanted their podcast to be 20 minutes or less. Wow, it was asked what does that say?
Julia Malcolmson 00:56
Well we're getting shorter and shorter attention spans, but I don't think you can. I mean, you definitely would struggle to to get your sentence down to 20 minutes let alone your podcast
Martin O'Toole 01:08
I do like a little ramble, don't I? Yeah, I mean, that's, I think that kind of sucks. And she sort of went on and said, Wow, this is a real shame. And then somebody else sort of had a lot of pop up me on this thread. And I mean, in you know, that's just what we want.
Julia Malcolmson 01:25
We get you know, for some, some aspects within life, we need things to be bite sized, so that we can get the benefit and get some new skills. But I think podcasts is something to sit in, sit and listen to, or stand around and cook to
Martin O'Toole 01:40
something to actually properly imbibe. We talked about life hacking on a few episodes, and I'm kind of I'm getting a little bit grumpy about life hacking and growth, hacking, and bio hacking or biohacking is quite good, isn't it? But, you know, shortcuts everywhere. Everyone wants a short? Can you just give me the short, shorter version? No, I actually can't.
Julia Malcolmson 02:03
But I suppose we both know firsthand that you can't have an instant result. Anything that you do within the healing realms, or improvement and self improvement. It takes time. Absolutely. no quick fix.
Martin O'Toole 02:17
No. Well, I've said this before as well. There's no silver bullet. Anyway, that was a tale of Well, for me. How are we doing deals?
Julia Malcolmson 02:27
And to be honest, not 100%? Not even not even 50%? I don't think actually,
Martin O'Toole 02:34
on a scale of one to chipper. Where are you?
Julia Malcolmson 02:42
Three?
Martin O'Toole 02:43
Wow, this is really? I mean, I know we're all about being totally honest and authentic on this show. But you know,
Julia Malcolmson 02:52
okay, well, maybe.
Martin O'Toole 02:56
Maybe for what why are you so low?
Julia Malcolmson 02:59
Because for someone I know the reasons that I've decided to partake in the same 43 Day Detox detox that you are doing, and for various reasons, but I felt you know, why not? Let's reset the body. I've got to get rid of some blood sucking parasites that have been living inside me for who knows how long?
Martin O'Toole 03:20
And for those of you listening, going, Oh, that's a bit yucky. But what is she what she doing with herself? Newsflash, a great many of you listening will actually have parasites inside your body. You just don't know it. This has been a major revelation to both of us.
Julia Malcolmson 03:38
Well, yeah, and I mean, I've known I've known that I've had parasites for a long time. I've lived in the tropics for most of my 30s. Just haven't ever got around to doing anything about it.
Martin O'Toole 03:49
Well, you're doing it now. So welcome. Thank you. Yeah, I'm conscious. I've been whinging about the stupid 43 day detox. Too much on the podcast. Sorry, listeners. I know, it's probably of no interest whatsoever. But I should say obviously, there are ups and downs. The plus side at the end of this will be as you say, a total physiological reset.
Julia Malcolmson 04:14
And we are definitely not hacking it.
Martin O'Toole 04:17
There's no hack. I actually forget everything I said about hacking earlier on. I could I could manage a detox hack. But now this is an intense programme of of 100% natural natural medicines, isn't it? It is and making some dietary food. Yeah. reframing how we consume in future I for one, I'm going to do my utmost to stay off caffeine as a result of this, this detox.
Julia Malcolmson 04:47
Well, you know that I'm very pleased to hear that.
Martin O'Toole 04:49
Yes. Well, I'll miss it. But there are other things that will gladly replace it and in my body and mind, I'll feel better So yeah, well, fair enough. I think we're we've both had a bit of a mad week in that regard. And, you know, it's okay to, to not be okay,
Julia Malcolmson 05:10
isn't it? Yeah, it was actually sort of mainly explains why we're not feeling so great. So we both had an appointment at the clinic, which is in the town where we used to
Martin O'Toole 05:20
live, basically, this one of the, almost the southern point of Bali. So seven o'clock in
Julia Malcolmson 05:25
the morning, we had to get on your motorbike and ride for three hours to the clinic for both appointments, some intravenous drips, which four hours in the hospital, four hours in the hospital, and then a quick bite to eat. And then we were back on the bike. And at that point, we both had crack and headaches. Yeah, I was on day one of my cycle. So I had terrible cramps, which were it was a big one, it was made worse by the bike. And about 40 minutes into the ride, I could not take any more. I was about to pass out. So I had to hit Martin on the shoulder and asked him to stop the bike, and then sat on the ground by the side of the road with my head on my knees.
Martin O'Toole 06:05
Yeah. And I was thinking she it? What am I gonna do, I've got like, another two hour to an hour our ride. Anyway, long story short, we were we were both super under as a result of these IV infusion. So for those of you that don't know, if you have supplements and vitamins, etc, mixed into a cocktail, plugged into your arm via an intravenous drip you your body takes the supplements on in an entirely different way. Right. So probably the best way to explain it would be if you were popping vitamin pills on a daily basis, there are actually only so many vitamin vitamins your stomach can take on board right before they flush it out. So the body then doesn't actually ingest really absorbed very much know exactly. Hence, you go straight to source. And you you di direct inject into the vein. That's actually a sort of sound engineering expression, by the way. So they've been giving people infusion infusions of vitamin C since the 1950s. Because it's an incredible, natural, antiviral. Yeah, that's a little fun fact for you guys, because they don't tell you that in the regular hospitals.
Julia Malcolmson 07:39
But it's also you know, it's worth remembering that we Yes, we're not feeling good. And we're doing something that you'd imagine would make you feel good. But we've all been taught to see the reactions in the body as negative. But when we have reactions like this, it's actually our body system working and it's working with the intravenous vitamins. And in the long run, that's going to benefit us and we'll feel better.
Martin O'Toole 08:03
Yeah, but I suppose this is back to that conversation that keeps coming around to do with hacking. And I suppose with modern medicine, allopathic medicine being the way it is, we are, we're used to just saying, I've got a I've got a symptom. Can I have a pill? Yes, there's a pill boom, it's gone away? Well, it hasn't necessarily gone away, the symptoms gone away. So yeah, the alternative is to do it to let the body do its work, which is what we're talking about here and, and support it to do its work. Yeah. And so while the body is doing its work, it's essentially detoxifying, it's battling a virus or an antibody or antibody. Parasite foreign body is the word I was looking for. There were a lot of bodies in that sentence. Body, body body. And yeah, you've got to give your body the chance to do that work. And how do we do that? It's not on a motorbike, six hour round trip, four hours sitting in a hospital and buzzing around the wonderful 50 shades of green, that that is the Balinese countryside,
Julia Malcolmson 09:18
but on the bright side, it didn't rain. But anyway, this long winded conversation about our trip down south for our IV drips, was actually to apologise for our performance.
Martin O'Toole 09:30
And we're always apologising to the folks at home that we weren't good. Well, we know we pretty much sucked in this interview. And that's because we just weren't feeling great. Unfortunately, we had zero sleep because we got back. We tried to sleep, you had your cycle. And then we got back up and carried on. The show must go on, et cetera. And we had a chat with the wonderful incredible Lee Hall. Walden,
Julia Malcolmson 10:00
we did and he was brilliant.
Martin O'Toole 10:03
Well, he's a professional broadcaster and presenter. And frankly, he ought to have just taken over the how to die happy podcast.
Julia Malcolmson 10:10
He said it's on what did we talk to Lee Holden about?
Martin O'Toole 10:14
We talked about all manner of things with Lisa Lee is an international Qigong master. Chi Gong is the study and management of one's own bodily energy. And Lee's actually widely regarded and respected for for being instrumental in bringing Chi Gong and the Taoist teachings from the east to the west, and he was all over American Public Television for years, I think, doing this doing these little segments where he was essentially giving people condition based workouts. So we talked about Qigong, obviously, we talked about meditation, we talked about mindfulness,
Julia Malcolmson 11:03
and also lots of other things. He is a father of four girls,
Martin O'Toole 11:08
which is a pretty mean achievement.
Julia Malcolmson 11:11
Yeah. And one set of twins, and his youngest isn't infants. Her name's Harper, and we actually got to meet her. She's very, very cute, isn't she. And he's also written many books, released courses. And more recently, the Docu series, the superhuman experience, which you've actually been assisting a little bit with.
Martin O'Toole 11:34
I have, I've been working with the superhuman experience for quite a while now. And it's a phenomenal Docu series, following the exploits of David DESE. As he meets some Well, frankly, incredible superhumans who can do things that you only see in movies. And Lee narrates the whole show. And he also interviews some of the leading minds in in human transformation. Yeah, the guy is a powerhouse.
Julia Malcolmson 12:09
Yeah. And I hope that we'll actually get to speak to him again soon. Me too.
Martin O'Toole 12:13
And I think the thing I was really chuffed about from our discussion with Lee was every few minutes, he would just throw in a little practical utility. And as everybody knows how to die happy is all about stories and practical utilities for the arts of living and dying. Well, well, every few moments in this episode, you will hear an expert healer, throw in some absolute gems.
Julia Malcolmson 12:41
Yeah, he was very good. And even when he talked to us about the breath. He was just it wasn't it wasn't even doing a guided breath session. But as he talked, I just found myself slowing down my breath breathing in and out through my nose and just instantly felt better.
Martin O'Toole 12:59
Yeah, well, he's got a he's got a really silky voice as well as I'd like a big hug from Lee.
Julia Malcolmson 13:04
Yeah. What a good presence.
Martin O'Toole 13:10
Anyway, should we get on with it? Yeah,
Julia Malcolmson 13:13
let's have a listen.
Martin O'Toole 13:15
I hope you enjoy this because we did despite the fact that we're not 100%.
13:21
Martin O'Toole 13:54
So Lee, I'm reliably informed. You recently had some fun travelling with your infant on a long flight. What's the story there?
Lee Holden 14:04
Oh, man, you know, you think this is gonna be fun. Let's take the baby who's 10 months on a trip for six hours on a plane. So you know they have a whole lot different idea. That was her first international flight. My partner heading I took her to Cancun, Mexico. Nice six hours flight from San Francisco. And you know, the way down there was easy. And even the passengers around us were like, Oh, the cutest baby ever let us hold her and you know, we had a great time on the way down. On the way back we had some very stuffy you know, I don't I mean, it'd be like, you know, internationally snobby, but there were some stuffy French passengers and they just did not want anything to do with the baby. So they were sitting next to us and in front of us and the baby was just like, for good solid hours screaming your head off and I was like, let's just breathe and relax. This is part of travelling with baby. Yeah. And you know, I had to do my job. I techniques on the plane flight and you know, after an hour it was all it was all good.
Martin O'Toole 15:06
Yeah. I can imagine well, but obviously you've got how many kids? Have you got? You have three four kids, three kids,
Lee Holden 15:14
I got 4, 4 Girls specialists that make girl.
Martin O'Toole 15:18
You're a lady maker. And so this wouldn't Was this the first not the first time you've taken an infant on on an international flight then
Lee Holden 15:28
why it had flashbacks of taking my twin two year olds that was 11 years ago to to Hawaii. And you know, it's all great for the first four hours and then, you know, right after that all sudden, they both decided to go absolutely bonkers. They did not want to be in the flight anymore, you know? And, yeah, I remember that. Well, I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. It's not as easy as you might think, to travel with infants. Yeah, you know, I was I was telling my partner, it's a rite of passage. You know, sometimes you just got to do it. And you know, it's okay, that other people around aren't okay with you. And you just got to get comfortable in that in that position.
Martin O'Toole 16:09
Well, it sounds like sounds like all of your training came in very handy at that point.
Lee Holden 16:15
It did. Yeah, it did. Absolutely.
Julia Malcolmson 16:19
I always feel for parents on planes.
Martin O'Toole 16:21
You always?
Julia Malcolmson 16:22
Feel for parents on planes. It's,
Lee Holden 16:24
you know, when I travel by myself and I see parents on the plane, I'm like, Good job guys. You got this Don't worry about us. And if you need a hand, let me know. I think
Martin O'Toole 16:34
I remember flying from Heathrow to LA and I was on was fortunate enough to be in on a British Airways flight and I was in I was in the posh bit you know, the business class pods. And nice and it was in the main it was it was all empty. And we we'd had this was back in my hedonistic days, and we'd gone to LA for a weekend and we'd had an incredibly hedonistic weekend. And very little sleep. And even though the whole business class section was essentially empty apart from us with our hangovers, there was a family with a with an infant and the infant was screaming, I think the whole flight and and they put the kid right next to me. Which was, that was a test and unfortunately, in those days, I wasn't mindful in any way, shape, or form. So I don't think
Lee Holden 17:29
I want to hear about some of your hedonistic days. But, you know, we can be hedonistic and other ways now, you know, like, being super healthy and charged up with energy is quite a hedonistic activity in a you know, it's really the yin and yang of it.
Julia Malcolmson 17:45
Completely.
Martin O'Toole 17:46
Yeah, I totally agree. I think these days it's, it's more hedonistic to be championing wellness in in some ways because it's it's so commonplace now to be hedonistic, with alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and bad food. Bad food food that's not necessarily good for you, I suppose. But yes, I was I was a I was a an alcoholic and cocaine addict for a long, long time, probably 20 years. I was hard drinking and using drugs. And I'm four years sober in February. So congratulations. Thank you, sir. And coming to Yeah, coming to barley Of course as part of that whole process. And as you probably know, barley is the island of the gods it's it's the one of the healing centres of the world, isn't it? Yeah.
Lee Holden 18:42
Oh, man. You know, when I first went to Bali in 1993, and 94, and I just was like, I was blown away by the energy there and the power and the culture and the arts and the energetic arts you know, in our in our superhuman Docu series, we have a few of the masters from Bali and man I have some great stories about healers in Bali, some some strange times, some incredibly energetic times and met this is there's a lot going on in a very small island.
Martin O'Toole 19:17
Where did you Where did you meet the healers in Bali? Where about?
Lee Holden 19:21
I was in I was training in Ubud. Yeah, but, you know, beautiful rain forests and rivers and river rafting and that mountain area.
Martin O'Toole 19:32
Yeah, and I think Ubed actually translates as healing doesn't it?
Julia Malcolmson 19:37
Yeah, I think Uber is medicine. Medicine right?
Martin O'Toole 19:40
That's That's why I didn't know that. Yes, so Well, this is almost at the centre of the island isn't it is a word made famous of course by Julia Roberts. Well not Julia Roberts originally was the name of the lady wrote the book Eat Pray Love.
Lee Holden 19:56
Oh yeah, Eat Pray Love. I remember the name but I'm not sure About the Author. No.
Martin O'Toole 20:01
Oh, we're doing her serious disservice here. Anyway, Elizabeth, she's
Lee Holden 20:07
got enough popularity. I think people know who she is more than we do. Probably
Julia Malcolmson 20:11
Elizabeth Gilbert.
Martin O'Toole 20:12
Elizabeth Gilbert. Well done. Sorry, Elizabeth.
Julia Malcolmson 20:15
I think we have Jules here. Yeah.
Martin O'Toole 20:18
But yeah, ouput was actually built in the 1800s. So it's actually kind of it's not that old.
Lee Holden 20:26
Zero place. Yeah, it
Martin O'Toole 20:28
is stunning place and I was
Lee Holden 20:30
at the I forget one of the kings water palace. And I'm gonna guess right now Tirta Ganga. I think I got that right. Yeah, I pulled that right out nice. And it was a water palace and we stayed at a house there and swam and then did a scuba dive to a shipwreck and mana was just, you know, magical times there in Bali.
Martin O'Toole 20:51
Yeah, this, I think there are a couple of shipwrecks. You can dive up in the north a nomad, which is where we okay, we're actually going to take up scuba diving, I think we're going to try it. We've we've never scuba dived, so we're going to try scuba, okay. And if we enjoy it, we're going to try free diving.
Lee Holden 21:07
Oh, yeah, scuba diving is great. Because it's like, you're, you're in a really different world. It's like, you just submerge, you're weightless. You're floating. And there's, it's just, it's very peaceful. And you know, you know, these techniques of breathwork. And Qigong and relaxation, they come in handy when you're in this different environment, because if you slow down your breathing, you stay calm and relaxed, and you don't use up all your error.
Martin O'Toole 21:31
Yeah, I well. And actually, funnily enough, I was, too, because you mentioned the superhuman experience. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But I was doing the breathwork practices, the breathwork workshop practices, the David recorded. And and I noticed there are similarities with that with that particular type of breathwork. And what freedivers do to oxygenate their body before they dive right. Is Yeah, my right in saying that's actually the same practice.
Lee Holden 22:06
You know, it's a very similar practice, maybe with different intentions, right? Because the freedivers their intention, often oxygenate their bodies that can hold their breath longer. And these practices, they are energetic cultivators. So we're converting breath into energy to lifeforce and their their mindfulness techniques. Sometimes I've heard David describe it as true mindfulness because you, you get the breath to slow down, when the breath slows down, the mind slows down. So the intention, the practice, it starts to vary in its intentionality. And then in some techniques,
Martin O'Toole 22:44
yeah, that makes sense. But of course, you need you need that mindfulness to to be able to overcome the body's reaction to what you think is having no oxygen when you're free diving. So understand. And of course, your body is absolutely filled with oxygen. It's just that it's not in your necessarily in your lungs by that time. Makes it. So we were obviously speaking of superhumans. So you and I know each other from working together on the superhuman experience. Yeah, which is an incredible documentary and interview series. I wonder if you might talk a little bit about the superhuman experience for our listeners?
Lee Holden 23:24
Absolutely. I mean, this whole project, this documentary Docu series, it's originally started off as a documentary. And I was a, let's say, an associate producer. You know, this producing team from Australia, they called me up and said, Hey, do you do you know anybody with extraordinary abilities? And I said, Yes, I know people with extraordinary abilities, but I know a guy who knows more people than I do. So let me put you in touch with David for DESE. He's a colleague and our good friend of mine. And basically, this team had a pretty significant budget for a documentary. And they went off and filmed for good three years. Some points I was part of that filming. Other times, I wasn't sometimes, you know, we were in Bali, Australia, Russia, Bhutan, you know, all over the place, China. And we found, you know, the martial arts masters that did extraordinary things, we found the Russian psychics that just absolutely blew our minds, the Tibetan masters, the Balinese healers, and we just wanted to find the best of the best in this particular arena, healing arts, martial arts, mind over matter kinds of practices and see what we can discover. And, you know, the results were extraordinary. Even the stuff we didn't capture on camera was I would say probably even more extraordinary, but a lot of the Masters a lot of the people that we knew, trained with, they just didn't want to be on camera. Yeah, and that was fine. And we you know, of the, let's say, 100 or so, Master We probably captured 15 of them on on film.
Martin O'Toole 25:05
And but as you say that it's an absolutely epic collection of of beings. And and they all have varying incredible, shall we say skills? But of course, also, I think you also discovered through this process that they all share very similar practices.
Lee Holden 25:27
Yeah, that's right. And I mean, whether we're in Tibet, in China, in Bali, we found, let's say, a connection between the practices that they all did. I mean, there's definitely a variety of practices, and they all have their own techniques, and culture that was built into him. But, you know, breathwork, as we were talking, was one of those things, they work with breathing practices, different body postures to transform breath into energy, in a variety of different ways. And that was a common thread that we found other common thread was, how do we, how do we take our and use our minds in ways that are unusual, you know, meditation, for example, was one technique, but to really see the mind as the ultimate tool for shifting reality. And, you know, it was a little bit like, you know, in the matrix where, where they said, Do you want the red pill or the blue pill? Do you want to see things a little differently? And you meet some of these masters and they definitely shifted your reality.
Martin O'Toole 26:36
I love that movie. I often say that was a documentary.
Julia Malcolmson 26:40
Yeah, I think
Lee Holden 26:43
like that in so many shifts in my perspective on that,
Martin O'Toole 26:47
that whole thing? Yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to the new one. Actually, there's a new one coming out.
Lee Holden 26:52
That's coming out, right. Yeah, matrix four at some point
Martin O'Toole 26:54
I know. Apparently, this sort of drops a few more truth bombs concealed within there. Within an Action Adventure, Fantasy, sci fi, movie,
Lee Holden 27:03
or documentary is a little bit like the matrix. A lot like Star Wars, you know, those, you know, feeling the force kind of movies and sprinkled in with some Harry Potter
Martin O'Toole 27:17
sounds like a sort of thing I want to watch. So yeah, one thing I was really taken by with the superhuman series, and and also, it's something that we discuss very often on this show with our guests, is you've managed to bring together a number of people who are collectively helping to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. And I wondered, I wondered how someone like you feels having been in having been a Qigong master and, and, and an acupuncturist and a Chinese medicine expert, and someone who has been immersed in these ancient arts for a long time. But fast forward now to 2021. And we've got all of this technology available, and of course, the internet. And of course, then the science that seems to be exponentially growing to to provide evidence around this was a long question, but, but But I wondered how I wondered how it's how it feels for for someone like you to be able to, to see the science supporting your work.
Lee Holden 28:33
Yeah. I mean, it is absolutely extraordinary. And it was always polarising. Right. It was, like, you know, the Eastern medicine, the energy arts, the holistic kind of side of things, was often at odds with Western medicine, and even evidence based kind of factual, objective science. And, you know, things are coming together in complementary ways in, in really unbelievable ways. And in our Docu series, that's why I wanted to go interview the scientists and you know, I talked to neuroscientists, and cellular biologist and doctors, and, you know, it's all part of this series where I interview these people. And I say in there, you know, sometimes these energy masters and the meditation experts from the east aren't even as mystical as a quantum physicist, because quantum physics right now is just blowing our minds. And if we start to see the theoretical quantum physics, physics, put into action by these energy masters, it gives us clues on to how to live our best lives and tap into the human potential. And so I think it's about really not saying, you know, finding what really works from the east and the west and starting to bring them together and you've seen that happen a lot these days with, you know, biohacking and meditation. It's All part of that human potential movement that's unfolding in these new and fascinating ways. I love it, I think, you know, I, some 10 years ago opened up a clinic and one of my partners was a Western medical doctor. And she was a holistic doctor. And we we did complementary medicine, where, you know, we took a patient, and we treat them from both perspectives. And wow, did we get great results. And I just feel like that is the future of where things are going to get that evidence based, objective scientific, Western technology in the mix with these ancient arts that are so powerful, and they work so well and on working on our inner universe. And from a subjective perspective, you know, let's not throw out the subjective prep practices, because they're extremely valid in these masters from four or 5000 years ago that we're talking about energy and the nature of the universe. We're finally coming into alignment with them in our scientific perspective, and which blows my mind and how these masters could tune in and capture the nature of reality from going inward. You know, like Lao Tzu, The Great Dallas philosopher said, go within and without leaving the house, know the whole universe.
Martin O'Toole 31:25
Yeah, Lao Tzu , knew a few things right.
Lee Holden 31:29
He did know a few things.
Martin O'Toole 31:32
The Sufi poet Rumi, he, he also said, maybe you are searching among the branches for what may only be found in the roots. And he's what? Well, he was a phenomenal writer, wasn't he? So he's, I love him. I mean, yeah, totally. Well, that's, that's one of the things we want to do really, with the how to die happy podcast is to bring together this this vast collection of ancient wisdom because the point I'm constantly trying to make is that from Buddha to Jesus to Lao Tzu to Rumi to Eckhart Tolle later, I don't even young Pueblo these days we we've always had these incredible seekers, seekers of knowledge these people who who had tapped into inner wisdom and and and shared it it was all it was always there to share. And and I think it feels to me like now more than ever, there's, there's there is an opportunity for us to reacts us a lot of that.
Lee Holden 32:47
No, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I think that's, you know, these ancient mystics and spiritual teachers, it's, you know, how do we take what they've taught and make it applicable to our modern life and not put a whole bunch of dogma around and you know, you know, heard somebody say, you know, God gave man spirituality and the devil sent
Martin O'Toole 33:13
you into religion power, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Lee Holden 33:16
Yeah. And we just get that we get how do we have that direct access and so that we can become our own best masters and have direct access ourselves and take take these spiritual teachings as guidance as a tour guide of life these people have lived it they've tapped into something and now how do we make it practical and applicable for ourselves? Is
Martin O'Toole 33:38
the concept of omnism Have you come across that it's talked about it a few times on the show now but essentially on ism professors that the that no one religion is the truth, but there is truth in all religions Yeah, I really subscribe to that I was actually brought up a Catholic so so when I was a kid, you know, that's kind of an it's it was a fairly oppressive sort of upbringing in that regard, you know, obviously a lot of dogma attached to it, but I would never have class myself as spiritual in any way shape or form because especially having had spirituality stuffed down my throat. You when you unfortunately, when you're born into a religious family in a religious community, you don't really have a choice do you don't you don't get to choose that religion. You just are that religion? No. Right. And so I'm, I'm a lapsed Catholic now but yeah, I spent many many years after that. Not with no interest whatsoever in spirituality, although I was how do I say this? I was in tune with To the ethereal, I think so I could see stuff and hear stuff that other people couldn't hear and see. And when I was when I was a child, I was constantly astral travelling. So, yeah, it was always there, you know. So it's this, it was always it was always tugging. But it was only when I was in my early 20s that I did, actually, I did acupuncture with a meditation guide. And she, she took me into a guided a deep guided meditation where I met my higher self as you do, and, and I asked my higher self, what I was here to do, and my highest self said, you're here to learn to love. And this was age 24, drinking a lot of the time and beginning a career in her drinking and drug use. So I kind of, I kind of had this momentary message in, which was profound, it was absolutely profound. But then I sort of put it away and spent 20 years again, not in touch with my spirituality.
Lee Holden 36:03
Yeah, right. But once you have that experience, it doesn't go away. It's kind of always lingering and talking to you and whispering to you. It's not as it's not as loud as the normal voices in your head. But if you get quiet, it's there. whispering and, you know, calling when you're ready. And, you know, I had a really interesting, profound experience. And when I was 15, I was doing some guided visualisations for, you know, I was a soccer player at the time. So I was, I was doing some mental visualising for my games, and even for schoolwork. And, you know, just lying in bed, listening to this hypnotic voice and recording breathing slow, all of a sudden, I felt so much energy. And at the time, I didn't even know what the term energy Qi prana was. I was just lit up and being lit up. I was curious, it sparked my curiosity. What was that I wanted to have more of it. And it wasn't until I was wandering around in some spiritual bookstores that I found some books on Chinese medicine and Qigong and I said, Oh, my God, these meridians, energy pathways, the chakras. That's what I felt at those times. And I became curious, and I started diving in. And then there's systematic ways and energy science, really behind these techniques and tools to really bring forth those experiences and make it practical, work with it, get skilled at it. You know, Chi Gong Gong means skill at working with energy. So there's techniques to develop the skill at taking those experiences that we often are fleeting, that come to us, but then we don't know where to fit them into our normal reality. We get skillful at working with them, and then they become tools that we can lean into, during tough times, stressful moments when we need healing. All that comes,
Julia Malcolmson 37:57
could you talk a little bit about Chi, what it is how it works, and how we can benefit from better understanding it.
Lee Holden 38:06
Chi, I mean, this is a great concept. And it's really a concept that is built through Asia. You know, we have, you know, there's many different words for lifeforce energy. So in China was Chi in Japan, it was key in India prana. And then when we look at native cultures, and Hawaii, and you know, all different places in the world, they have a term for it, but we don't have a term for it. You know, I was, I was talking to a Western doctor, and he said, you know, what, Lee, I know, you do this stuff with chi and blah, blah, blah, but I just don't believe in that kind of stuff. I don't believe in Chi. And I was like, you don't have to, you know, do you believe you're alive? And he was like, Well, yeah, that's self evident, of course. And I said, Well, what do we call it? What do you call that aliveness? And can you explain it? He's like, no, nobody can explain it. And we don't have a word for it. Well, I said, That's exactly right. The Chinese just call it chi, it's lifeforce energy. It is the spark behind your heart. Nobody knows where that comes from, you know, about nine weeks in utero, all sudden your heartbeat starts. And that's like a match that learns how to light itself. It doesn't. It doesn't operate in normal physics terms and normal energy. And then your heartbeat is like a match that regrows itself and then lights itself again and again and again. And we're just talking about the heart. We're not talking about your consciousness, your soul, your spirit, the light in your mind, we all close our eyes and go to sleep and there's images. Like there's a projector and our mind, where does that light come from? We don't quite really know. The brain. Everything about you is a mystery. So they gave this word chi. And in Chinese medicine, there's 360 Different kinds of chi. I'm still trying to figure out if that plural of cheese cheese or not. I don't think so. It's just many kinds of cheese. Now, it's as simple as food, right? Food is a kind of chi. That's called goods. She breath is a form of chi. Nature is a form of chi, sleep, water, everything. And then they mix together and they form different kinds of chi. And that makes up who you are. There's the chi of your mind. There's the chi of your emotions, there's the chi of your body. There's the Chi that we have together, right? We all feel energy from each other. And when it's good energy, hey, we have a good connection, we have a good vibe, that's a particular kind of chi, or we go in and we feel an agitated energy. That's a different kind of chi. And so emotional energy, for example, I feel like people are very unskilled at working with that emotional energy between each other. And emotions, like food can be either toxic or nurturing. And how do you work with that energy? Remember, I said Gong is to work with. And so we can work with diet, we can work with breath, we can work with relationships, we can work with nature, in skillful or unskillful ways. If you're skillful, it feels good. If it's unskillful, it doesn't feel so good. And so Chi Gong really is a practice of working with all of life's energy in more skillful ways, more and more skillful ways, as we learn about energy. And then we talk about, let's say, spirit or healing. And there's ways to work with energy in those particular realms as well.
Martin O'Toole 41:20
So how does one begin the the long journey of of understanding Qigong?
Lee Holden 41:31
Let me say this, you've already begun because your life and then that life lessons have already educated us. Now, we can either be more skillful, let's say, you know, there's certain people that are really skillful with their bodies, you watch them professional athletes, you watch performers who watch dancers, in what, wow, how do you do that? They're very skillful, working with the energy of their bodies, but maybe not so skillful, working with the energy of emotions, or mind or spirit or relationships. And so there's different layers. Now, Qigong practice is really, it's a movement, exercise practice, mainly geared towards health. And so when you work with energy, you work with health, and it's at its root. And so Qigong was called The Art of preventing disease and prolonging life. And it comes from an ancient medicine. So prevention, prevention is high level medicine, it's what it's focusing on health as opposed to sickness. And that's what this ancient art did. In fact, when you would see a doctor, a doctor of Qigong, or Chinese medicine, you pay them as long as you're healthy. As soon as you get sick, you stop paying, you stop paying when you're sick, because their job is to keep you healthy. And here in the West, unfortunately, nobody gets paid and less people are sick. And now we have a very high level technology of medicine, but more sickness disease problems than ever before. People might be living longer, but they're not living their best lives. And so when we see technology, working with this holistic medicine and Qigong practice, if we can work them together, that's when we really discover high level vitality, and living in a high vibration.
Julia Malcolmson 43:19
Yeah, and we've actually recently been having some acupuncture and we
Martin O'Toole 43:23
haven't I pitched, I pitched our acupuncture, acupuncturist and said, if I'm not feeling very well, does that mean you do this for free?
Lee Holden 43:34
Yes, me to do that.
Martin O'Toole 43:35
Did I tell him exactly what you were just recounting? And he said, sadly, sadly, Martin, that's not the way it's gonna work.
Lee Holden 43:44
It's a modern world. I always thought that this would be a great programme where we bring these ancient practices back into, you know, even some insurance companies that your your price goes down if you join a gym and exercise. I mean, we all know movement, and breathing and meditation are very good for your health. In fact, you know, meditators, on average, have a have a biological age, 12 years younger than their actual, is that right? And so we're sitting down and just meditating. I mean, you're just, you've just increased your longevity by doing meditation practice, and not not only that, you know, Chi Gong is like meditation, yoga, and Tai Chi all blended together in one. So I feel like you just get so much incredible benefit.
Julia Malcolmson 44:30
Interestingly, I had a blood test the other day, and the doctor looked at my blood with me. And he said, Oh, you might call this prana. You might call this chi. I call it lifeforce. But and he could see in my blood, my lifeforce, so he was saying, Oh, do you do a lot of breath work? What is it that you do because you're increasing that lifeforce energy within your blood? And I've never been able to actually see that before. So to see it on a screen was fascinating. Yeah, I think he's
Martin O'Toole 44:57
referring to the activity as fascinate To blood, but then Jules is a is a yoga teacher.
Lee Holden 45:05
Yeah, absolutely an Indian Chinese medicine. Blood is a form of chi. It's called Yang chi, which, you know, of course, blood is part of lifeforce. And it's the most what they call in Chinese medicine, the most substantial form of chi, you can see it. And they say that blood is the mother of chi. It's like it holds it in. Which makes sense because blood what does it do? It holds oxygen. And then that oxygen gets released. And so that every cell in your body gets that oxygen. And without oxygen and breath work, you know, even food doesn't turn into energy. I mean, food it becomes inert without oxygen without breath. So breath is that catalyst that creates the combustion into lifeforce energy Li,
Julia Malcolmson 45:54
you were highly instrumental in introducing Qigong and other ancient Taoist teachings to the west. And it feels to me that more people than ever are now turning to Qigong and other practices. Assuming you agree, what do you why do you think this is?
Lee Holden 46:10
But mean, a part of it was just that I had a passion for talking about Qigong in ways that Westerners understood, and I wanted to create programmes and DVDs. And I mean, back in 1997, I created my first VHS tape, qi gong for fitness because I was teaching all kinds of Qigong classes into health and fitness clubs all over the Northern California area. And then I said, You know what, I got a friend of mine, and he had some Hollywood experience, we went out to the woods, I said, I want to do the Chi Gong right in the middle of the river, because water is an expression of energy. And when we move our bodies like water, we circulate energy. So we built this plank, and I stood right in the middle of the stream. And we filmed all the exercises. And it was that inspirational idea that became a catalyst, because then I showed it to other people, and eventually became a show on public television. And it was one of the best movement shows or the most popular movement shows, in public television, television, and 2006. It was in, you know, 50 million households and all the top 10 stations. And it had a nice long run. And I think that's what was the catalyst. And I made it condition related. So I did chi gong for stress. I did chi gong for low back pain, I did qi gong for upper back and neck. So a lot of people were like, Yeah, I got low back pain, what's this Qigong stuff. And so it started to take root in that and because people were saying, I started doing Qigong to clear tension in my back, but now I'm sleeping better. And now I have more energy. And now I deal with my kids better. And I have, you know, more focus and clarity and work. And so the side effects of your practice, were all beneficial. Unlike, you know, maybe a pharmaceutical commercial, where you're, you're taking this pill for, you know, high blood pressure, but then the side effects are your eyeballs glowed, you know, fluorescent green and your teeth fall out. And this, that, and the other thing, the side effects of Qigong are all very positive. And it is an empowering practice, because you get to be your own best doctor, because going through the Western medical system, so many people are frustrated, not only in pharmaceuticals and the side effects, but sitting in a doctor's office, waiting long hours, and then you get a quick visit with a doctor that sends you to another doctor who's a specialist in your particular problem. And it can be a long process. And by the time you actually get treated, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So these are practices you can do right now for yourself, because we all have amazing healing potential within ourselves. And if we could get that lit up, we become our own best doctor, we become connected to source energy, and we prevent problems from arising by doing our practice.
Martin O'Toole 49:00
It's a great way to position it, I think when you when you start to look at conditions, and then to match Qigong with conditions. I was actually watching one of your one of your videos this morning. Seven, seven minutes of seven minutes to magic. Seven minutes stir magic. Yeah, seven minutes of magic. Yeah, you're a great one. Yeah. Because you're standing on the on the platform in, in this beautiful serene lake. And yes, I love the way you've, you've managed to position Qigong in such a simple and accessible way. And I suppose that's exactly what you were saying, isn't it?
Lee Holden 49:39
You know, that that's people were saying, You know what, I don't have I don't have 30 minutes to do a practice. I got kids, I got work. I mean, if you want me to do this, you got to make it. You got to make it relevant. This was this was a good friend of mine. He's a literary agent. And he was like, I love Qigong, but dude, I need it under 10 minutes. Okay, this seven minutes is the amount of time to To create that transformation of energy, I just said his magic. And he said, there's our book, seven minutes of magic, and we wrote a book on it. And then we also made a DVD of it, and PBS picked it up. And we did seven minutes of magic as a show. And, man, people love that. Because they're like, hey, seven minutes, that's the amount of time I hit my snooze button. And it works. And once you try it for seven minutes for, you know, a few weeks, you're like, how do I get more of that, and I want more of that. So then you try, you know, your half hour your hour practices and but if you can just get seven minutes in a day. And then when you have more time you get your 20 minutes or two an hour, it works phenomenally well. It's that consistency is that movement is that breath work, and keep that energy circulating, because energy like water, when it moves and circulates, it doesn't get stagnant.
Martin O'Toole 50:49
It's funny that you, you know your friend was was talking about not having that that time. It's something that we've talked about a few times on the show is is is how these days, people just cannot apparently make any time for mindfulness and physical practices, despite the fact that arguably, this is the this is the stuff that we should be spending all of our time on, or at least the lion's share of our time, so that we can feel better and be held happier and healthier. Our second guest was a chap called cow on array. And cow wrote several books. The first book was called In Praise of Slow. And cow frequently uses the phrase book, by the way, I read it Yeah, it is a wonderful book, isn't it? He's a wonderful man. And he constantly uses the phrase, the virus of hurry. So I was wondering, from your perspective, how important is a slow and patient mindset, especially in today's rushed and time poor world?
Lee Holden 51:49
Well, everybody's wanting to create moments, right? We want moments of high energy, of deep connection. And we're rushing around and postponing it. I mean, if Carl's book was called, you know, like, procrastinate, happiness till retirement, you know, that's what everybody's doing. But really, what we want is happy moments. And if you can create happy moments each and every day. You know, slowing down is the antidote to a Western, busy, stressed out mindset. Nobody really wants to be busy. If we think about our best moments, our best moments are when we can relax, sip on that fine wine, watch the sunset, have a moment with your loved one, you don't want to rush through those things. So it's an interesting thing. It's not that we always want to go slow, but we just want that balance of yin and yang, we want to be able to slow down when we can and have those deep moments to connect where energy really elevates, we feel connected to our loved ones. And and we tune into that joy and happiness that are that have potential in this moment.
Martin O'Toole 53:00
Yeah, and that's actually that's a good place to start for people, isn't it just to tune in just to take a moment to be present in whatever way that works for anyone? I just taking one deep breath in and out one conscious breath is a meditation, isn't it?
Lee Holden 53:17
You know, when we slow down, you know, there's strategic ways to slow down because it's actually what we want to create. I mean, if we think about, oh, my gosh, what do I really need, I just need to, I want to slow down, I want to sit on the beach and a warm sun and feel that warm breeze, I want to, I just want to have a moment to be in the moment and relax? Well, those are available to you each and every day. But you have to co create them. And so there's some strategic ways to do that. And by how do we slow down our minds? Well, we can just tell our heads, Hey, slow down, he stopped thinking, because the mind is in this pattern of free association. And it's always on. So we need to pay attention to something that's slower, or we need to slow down our physiology like moving slowly, as part of like a Chi Gong or Tai Chi practice. It coaxes your mind into slowness, and then your mind slows down, then you fall into the moment, but you're not falling asleep into the moment you're falling into wakefulness. And as you wake up to the moment and you wake up to energy, then you wake up to what's possible in this moment, because all things are possible in this eternal present moment. So these things start to unveil themselves as you slow down as you relax your mind as you turn down the volume of normal thinking and turn up the volume of the silence that's available to the mind as we slow down.
Martin O'Toole 54:47
Yeah, so the way you just described it as a wonderful way for us to take control of our own body and mind and when I first started meditating, I'd had three nervous break had downs and had lots of businesses and, and obviously I'd a very unhealthy lifestyle anyway but as a result, I was always in my mind, suicidal and depressed and all of all the other good stuff that comes with that sort of lifestyle. And I would actually, when I first started meditating it imagine putting gaffa tape on the mouth of this thing, this this yabbering thing inside my brain. I know, right and obviously absolutely not meditating because you're you're visualising gaffa tape in your, your ego. Whatever works. Well, the gaffer tape worked and eventually the monkey, the monkey got in the backseat and consciousness took over some driving for a change so, so suddenly, the monkey was no longer driving my earth rover, which is what I call my body. So yeah, let you say whatever works perfect.
Lee Holden 55:56
You know, visualisation is good, because visualisation places attention on something. And so, as we start to visualise something, energy starts to move. And that's the saying in Qigong practice visualisation moves the mind, the mind moves the Chi. Nice. So we work those steps. And that can really help.
Martin O'Toole 56:15
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Julia Malcolmson 56:17
And a little bird told me that you are the happiest person, he knows, from your experience, what are the ingredients to living a happy and fulfilling life?
Lee Holden 56:26
What you know, that's, that is very nice. I might know who that little bird is. You might know, happiness is an interesting energy. It's something that we are not highly hardwired for, you know, we're really hardwired for survival, and stress, and future projections. And when we start thinking about the future, we're hardwired to worry about it. We're hardwired to think about the worst possible scenario. So happiness actually takes training, to tune to dial in your consciousness in different ways. Because it's an interesting phenomenon. And I wouldn't say necessarily, happiness is the goal, but we want to have more experiences of happiness of being on that station more frequently. And it's it is a choice, then it takes some training. So that's what I think is good for people to know. Because it's not just something that just naturally comes in modern life, you know, we're not trained for it, nor are we hardwired for it. So you have to take charge of your own formula to happiness. And it's about slowing down, it can be about creating more moments, it's about being conscious and, and really getting in touch with your choice maker and saying, you know, what, these are the things that are going to make me happy or feel happy today. These are the people that make me happy to be around. These are the activities that make me happy, and you choose them over and over again, and you weave them into your responsibilities and everything else. So that you say, You know what, today I really created several moments of really deep joy, or of deep connection or blissful experiences. And as you stitch those together, they start to create a tapestry in your life where you can say, Man, I feel good. And the tapestry has context. You know, it's not that you're always happy. But you know, happiness, because you also know, sadness, and you know, challenges and you know, stress. And you can quickly transform the energy, let's say that frequency into something else. So when you're feeling down, you know how to turn the dial, when you're feeling anxious, we know how to clear it and turn it into something else. Because that is the key to working with energy is knowing that energy is always in this process of change, and emotions, ie motion, energy in motion, if you can have your fingers on the dial and tune into what frequencies you want, all of a sudden, you're in those positive vibrations more frequently. Why really sound California vibrations.
Martin O'Toole 58:58
I love it. I listened to you for hours. It's an interesting point you make about about happiness, obviously, well, this show is called How to die happy, right? And that the whole point of the podcast is, is to share stories and practical utilities for the arts of living and dying. Well, the idea being what inspired me to do this was i i read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, I don't know if you've read that. One and I that and obviously then that got me into the Tibetan Book of the Dead and just got me understanding a whole new perspective on how to live and that is to to prepare for a happy or peaceful death. And of course the the thread that holds the whole thing together is the 10 common deathbed regrets and that is a very sad list of regrets when you hear it so the the intention with the show is for us to share well to get wonderful people like yourself on to to talk about how you can bake some utilities or practice practices into each day to ensure that you are being more mindful, you are looking after your body you are expressing love from an open heart. You are being more authentic. And actually, you mentioned Lao Tzu earlier on I dug out a quote from Lao Tzu on happiness. This is a good one be content with what you have. Rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is nothing lacking. The whole world belongs to you.
Lee Holden 1:00:38
Profound, right.
Martin O'Toole 1:00:40
Yeah, that guy was channelling he was he was tapped. He was tapped into the force. The force because we didn't mention the force. You mentioned not everybody else's version. But you didn't mention tattoo ween they call it the force in Star Wars that they
Lee Holden 1:00:55
had yet Jedi. Yeah, of course. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think George Lucas is brilliant, brilliant storyteller. But he did talk, he did tap into these ancient cultures. And in you know, I mean, it's very Chi Gong and what he's doing and I, you know, I've met some masters that you would say, Wow, you should be in Star Wars, but you're a Real Life Jedi. I mean, that's just incredible. And that's, that's what we all are capable of. It's not just for Star Wars. But we can tap into that for ourselves in a variety of different ways. I mean, we all have our own innate talents, that these are seeds of potential. And it's like, how do we water those seeds and give them life so that they grow and take root within us?
Martin O'Toole 1:01:39
Well, as you say that there are opportunities for us to all tap into the Jedi within us. One of these common deathbed regrets is I wish I'd taken better care of my body, which I suppose if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that a lot of people feel that way. And certainly, having mistreated my body for over 20 years. I'm certainly in that camp. Now. I've just hit 46. And I've got some health problems I'm trying to deal with as a result of that all of that Hedden ism. For those of us who can relate to this particular regret, what practices can do you think we can adopt to begin this process at any age,
Lee Holden 1:02:19
I mean, you can only start where you are, that's the first thing and just like, relax, you just forgive yourself. For what you've done in the past, you did the very best you could and then this drop in to right now. And if you can get relaxed in the moment, you have a clear starting point. I mean, it's like opening up the map and saying somebody, okay, I'm right here, here's where I'm at in the map. And there's where I want to go, if if we're not clear on where we're starting from. And we have all kinds of regrets. And we just kind of, you know, twisting and turning in our mind is really wrapped up in the past. And we're wasting a lot of energy, a lot of fuel in our tank to be able to get to our desired destination. Now, you can start simply, with better breathing, if you learn how to breathe better, you're going to learn how to cultivate more energy. It is huge, because everybody's talking about diets. And this and that. And the other thing is, the first place is breath, because the breath is the quickest source to energy. And you can go days without food, but only minutes without breath. And so it's a much quicker source of energy. So start with improving your breath, you take 20,000 breaths a day, but not all of those breaths are created equal. And if you start improving your breath, you're going to, you're going to bring in more energy. So let's just talk about breath for a second. If you breathe slower, through your nose, you're going to chart to change your nervous system out of stress mode into relaxation mode. So Breathe Slow, about five seconds, on the inhale. About five seconds. On the exhale, do that as frequently as you can you get out of stress because stress is about 90% of what causes illness, they say 89% of all primary doctor visits are rooted in stress. And that is emotional stress. This is an interesting fact. Because Western medicine before 20 years ago said there's absolutely no connection between your emotional stress and your physical health. Yeah, and it's very untrue about 90%. So if we can manage our stress, we're already taking a lot better care of ourselves. So breath and movements moving your body. What is the saying now sitting is the new smoking you sent too long, it is not good for you. Nobody gets on a plane for 10 hours and gets off and say God I feel so good. I just rested for 10 hours in a confined small little space now it feels like all tight and you know movement is key to health. So if you breathe and move your body in strategic ways, you're already doing so much benefit to your health and vital Then we could get into diet and herbs and meditation and stuff like that but breath and movement, it movement that feels good. You know, that's a that's quite love Qigong. It's it's not hard. It's moving that feels good. And you start a practice and 20 minutes later you feel amazing,
Martin O'Toole 1:05:15
huh? Yeah, I think that's really solid advice for for entry level utility practice.
Julia Malcolmson 1:05:22
I slowed down my breath just listening to you then anyway.
Lee Holden 1:05:25
Well, we need those reminders, you know, we really do need those reminders. Yeah, just
Martin O'Toole 1:05:29
hang on a minute. I'm in fight or flight again, for some reason, I'll just barely breathe for a moment. As as you know, we have a segment on the show. Every week, I'll be my guest. And we do have a guest question for you. So let's hear it. Okay. Please. We love that song.
Lee Holden 1:06:09
Martin, you've got a great voice. Oh, that's
Martin O'Toole 1:06:11
very kind of you say unfortunately, it's not me. It's the incredibly talented, incredibly talented Dwayne forest from Canada. He's on tour at the moment. And he recorded that for us while he was. Where was he? I don't know where he was.
Julia Malcolmson 1:06:25
He was in Europe. Someone wasn't he was in Italy. So that's
Lee Holden 1:06:27
nice. I like your copy of that. Well, yeah.
Martin O'Toole 1:06:30
I'll send it your way recorded if you've recorded the how to die happy theme tune as well. Oh, nice. Yeah, it's beautiful. Okay, here's the question from Sophie in London.
Sophie 1:06:42
Hi, Lee. This is Sophie calling from London. I'm really interested to hear your answer to this question. Because I take yoga and daily meditation is quite important into making that difference to my daily levels of energy and resilience. Which having a really busy life in a city like this really relies on maintaining a really healthy body and mind. But of course, busy city life also, really depletes that quickly within me. And sometimes I can fall into a rut where I feel I cannot make the time or have the time or space for mindful practices. So do you have any top tips for managing this? I know it should be as easy as just do it. But it can often feel really hard.
Martin O'Toole 1:07:33
Thanks, Sophie, that's a good question.
Lee Holden 1:07:34
Great question. You know, and really, it's it's that saying, you know, these things are simple, but not easy. I mean, we could say, you know, take a deep breath, be mindful, stay in the moment, let go of stress. But wow, it is hard and people are extremely challenged each and every day we come out of a yoga class, you go sit in traffic and next thing you know, you're you're frustrated you're yelling at the driver just cut you off. And man all sudden, you're hijacked again into into a into a stressful circumstance. And how do we how do we then regain our composure and find our centre? And you know, we can always come back to the moment you know what the thing is, is our heads and our thinking usually get us out of that state that Sophia was talking about? So here is a question that I want you to ask yourself, when you notice that you're in a stressful state. And you knew just ask yourself this, you just say, Where am I? And then I want you to answer the question for yourself. You say I'm here, because it's here is the only place you can be. But then take it one more step. How do I know that I'm here? Now that is an important question as well, because now I can pay attention. Well, I feel the chair at my back, I noticed the pictures and the furniture in the room. Now all of a sudden, my mind is paying attention to something other than what I was irritated about. And you can do that in 30 seconds. Wait, wait a second mind. I know I'm future planning. And I know I'm worried about the stock market, or what I'm going to have that meeting with my boss tomorrow. But actually, where am I because most of your problems aren't happening right here. And now 95%, maybe more of your problems are somewhere in the past that You're reliving or some future projection, that probably will never happen. But we're living in we're taking that stress of some future moment. And we're bringing it into our present moment. And so by asking ourselves, where am i You're bringing mindfulness back to the moment and you answer I'm here, how do I know I'm here and you take your three, let's say take three sentences, what you see what you hear what you feel, and you just make one statement about each of those. And now you've reset. Now you've gotten back to the map of where I'm starting from. The next thing you can ask yourself is now what do I want to go where do I want to create from this moment forward in my day, and you just keep practising and you're not always going to be successful, but then you can always come back to the moment drop into that inquiry and drop into a nice deep slow breaths through the nose, and reset and start again. It's not about perfection. It's about excellence. That means you just keep doing it. And you keep practising and pretty soon, you have more and more moments where you feel grounded, centred and happy.
Martin O'Toole 1:10:15
What a wonderfully simple opportunity for people just to check in. Thanks for that, Les. I thought that was a really easy utility for people to pick up on, regardless of where they are. And you don't need to be wearing yoga pants to do any of that stuff that lead you said, you really don't.
Lee Holden 1:10:31
I mean, it helps to be wearing your T thong, but you don't have to be.
Martin O'Toole 1:10:37
Chi Gong Chi thong I like it.
Julia Malcolmson 1:10:40
Certainly countless books, TV shows, documentaries, workshops and courses. He's a busy man. Yeah, very busy. What's next for Lee Holden?
Lee Holden 1:10:51
Oh, you know, that's a good question. I am working on a new book. You know, Hey, guys, I'm thinking of doing a podcast on my own. Because I've in this Docu series, like I said, I had the opportunity to interview some, some incredible, you know, thinkers, and I want to, you know, bring those interviews that I've done it out into the world with a podcast, you know, I'm working on some children's meditation stories where I tell stories, and incorporate meditation into the story for kids before bed. That's what I've been doing with my kids for, you know, the last 13 years, and I haven't had a lot of fun doing that. And I want to do is make that more available and give other parents some techniques and tools because we always want to give our kids the best and have them meditate. And they're always interested in doing meditation, like we know. But if I incorporated into a story where the character in the story says, take a deep breath, all of a sudden, I see all the kids take a deep breath because it's in inter woven into a story. So those are some of the projects.
Martin O'Toole 1:11:55
That's a wonderful project. Yeah, that's something close to Jules heart. I know because Jules is also a kid's yoga teacher.
Lee Holden 1:12:04
Oh, okay.
Julia Malcolmson 1:12:05
Yes. Yeah, you
Lee Holden 1:12:05
you know, you have to do something different with kids than you do with adults.
Julia Malcolmson 1:12:09
Yeah, it's always about creating stories, taking them on adventures, pretending to be whatever creature or animal they want us to be. It's, it's so much fun, but it actually teaches me more about yoga.
Martin O'Toole 1:12:21
It's a funny thing to listen to, because when she's doing it online, I'm kind of jumping around like, pretending to be an elephant or something.
Lee Holden 1:12:30
That's beautiful
Martin O'Toole 1:12:31
to keep so great to keep this small
Lee Holden 1:12:33
practice called the Five there's a Qigong practice called Five animal frolics. And I just did a workshop with on it and filmed a section with my kids as well. So that was really fun.
Martin O'Toole 1:12:44
Nice. Well, I for one will most certainly be subscribing to the Lee Holden podcast. So do let us know when when, when you are ready to go with that.
Lee Holden 1:12:56
nominee, I'm gonna give to get some notes and feedback from your expertise.
Martin O'Toole 1:13:02
I'm not sure I could be classed as an expert. I've definitely got all the gear but I'm not sure if I've got any idea what I'm doing.
Lee Holden 1:13:08
You're halfway there. Right? What we're having fun doing it. So
Martin O'Toole 1:13:11
you know, in the end, that's really what it's all about. It's just about having fun and and talking to people like you can you can give some who can give your your unique perspective on on these practices and shares share this magic. And that's, you know, it's a great gift. What you have is a wonderful gift. And I see this, this podcast has been a platform for that I've, I've always said since I started working on this, if this podcast helps just one person then as far as I'm concerned, it was worth doing. Now that was before I started doing all of the production as well. Now, actually, it's taken off taking up a lump of my life, but but I really enjoyed doing it. And I think yeah, having people like you on this show just makes it all worthwhile. And thank you so much. We're super grateful for you, for you making time to come on the show today.
Lee Holden 1:14:09
I appreciate it. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it so much. Thanks.
Martin O'Toole 1:14:13
And I if if anybody listening wants to find out a little bit more about the superhuman experience we have a we have a little profile on Lee on the website. So it's how to die happy podcast.com forward slash on dash, the dash show and there is a link there to the superhuman experience your other website as well though, which is
Lee Holden 1:14:37
holden holden Chi Gong. Yeah, hold it in Chi gong.com Qi Gong and Qigong is spelled Qigong, Qi gong.com.
Martin O'Toole 1:14:47
That's well worth pointing out. Well, thank you, Mr. Holden. We are immensely grateful for your time and your your magic.
Julia Malcolmson 1:14:56
Thanks so much, Lee.
Lee Holden 1:14:57
I appreciate it. Let's Let's go make magic Take care guys
