Manders Mindset
Are you feeling stuck or stagnant in your life? Do you envision yourself living differently but have no idea how to start? The answer might lie in a shift in your mindset.
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a former Family Law Paralegal now a Breathwork Facilitator, Sound Healer, and Transformative Mindset Coach.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda interviews guests from diverse backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, athletes, artists, and wellness experts, who share their incredible journeys of conquering fears and limiting beliefs to achieve remarkable success.
Hear real people tell how shifting their mindsets and often their words, has dramatically changed their lives.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
Deepak Meets Tupac: Balancing Light & Shadow for a Better Life | 162
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What if the key to healing, clarity, and purpose wasn’t about fixing yourself… but about befriending your shadow?
In this enlightening episode of Manders Mindset, host Amanda Russo sits down with author and spiritual guide Justin Shaw to explore the inner work that leads to real transformation. From a childhood marked by emotional isolation to years of addiction and disconnection, Justin shares how shadow work, source energy, and a powerful “bliss attack” helped him find meaning and rebuild from the inside out.
Listeners will learn how suppressed pain becomes the “shadow” that shapes behavior, how to separate identity from trauma, and why naming the inner critic is the first step to lasting change. Justin also shares the inspiration behind his book Sorcery 1.0.1, a 13-step spiritual guide to awakening, healing, and living consciously.
This episode is for anyone navigating trauma, identity, or spiritual growth and ready to step into a more empowered, awakened life.
🎙️ In this episode, listeners will discover:
🌓 What “shadow work” really is and how to make peace with your inner critic
🌬️ Why most people live on airplane mode and how to turn it off
⚡ The difference between reaction and response and how to shift into conscious awareness
📖 How Justin’s “13 rungs” create a flexible, spiritual path to healing
🔥 Why naming your shadow helps reclaim your power
🌿 How to access source energy and reconnect with your higher self
🎭 The Deepak vs. Tupac metaphor...
⏰ Timeline Summary:
[2:22] – Justin's identity as a "Sourcer" and what that really means
[7:10] – Growing up emotionally isolated and turning to pop culture for connection
[15:45] – Addiction, failed rehab, and the moment he realized healing is more than physical
[25:30] – Experiencing a spontaneous “bliss attack” after meditation and shadow work
[34:50] – Moving to Sedona and receiving the vision for Sourcery 1.0.1
[42:05] – Naming the shadow: How Eminem and Floyd helped him reframe pain
[50:20] – Spirituality vs. religion and why fear-based beliefs fall apart
[58:47] – Turning trauma into transformation by embracing (not fighting) the shadowTo Connect with Amanda:
Schedule a 1:1 Virtual Breathwork Session HERE
~ Sign Up for Virtual Mindful Mindset Mondays HERE
📸 Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
Follow & Support the Podcast:
📱 Instagram: @MandersMindset
👥 Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
Welcome to New Mindset where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life.
SPEAKER_03:I'm your host, Amanda Lisa, and today I am here with Justin Shaw. And I am really excited to delve down his journey today. Thanks for joining me.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you. And thank you for letting me be here, there, everywhere, you're not the magic of the internet.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Absolutely. So uh what's you say Justin is at the core?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it depends on which point in my life you'd be asking. Right now, I like to identify kind of as a sorcerer, which is something I suppose we'll probably get into. But, you know, it's been a long journey and it's been an appreciative journey. And I'm really grateful to be where I am because what I've been through makes where I am extra special and where I'm going even more special. So, you know, the past is does not have to define us or to be who we are, right? Like it, but it can absolutely be it needs to be a part of us, and it is it is there's appreciation from where I've been to where I'm now to where I'm going. And I understand things that have happened, certainly. So that's kind of a very cryptic answer.
SPEAKER_03:Well, speaking of the past, can you tell us a little bit about upbringing, your childhood dynamic, however deep you want to take that?
SPEAKER_00:We don't want to get as deep specifics because you know what, pain is pain, right? Like, you know, what you've been through, what I've been through, what any listeners have been through, there's one thing we share in common pain is pain. And we are very spiritual beings trapped in a very physical world. And that is something that unites us all. It's important to know that there's sympathy as empathy. And sympathy is someone who listens to your pain. Empathy is someone who can feel it with you. And it's important to know that people that I have empathy for people. You know, my childhood was just a quick kind of uh clip notes version. It was a very emotionally vacuum essentially living up in my childhood. It was just me and my mom. My dad was around when I was young, but there were problems in the marriage. He was doing his own thing, and so it was just me and my mom. And she had her own issues, and it was a very isolating place to grow up in for isolating. She had her, she wasn't the type who would leave me with other people, and physically she was present, but emotionally she was absent. So, you know, she would go to her room, and most of our time spent. I wouldn't say we didn't spend any time together because we did, you know, we'd go out together and maybe we'd have dinner or something. She hated to cook, she hated to cook. So, like several times a week, we'd go out to dinner. So we'd have our time together. Most of the time in the house, we'd be separate. I'd be doing my own thing, she'd be doing her thing, and that's just how it was. And there were no brothers and sisters around. So it was a very emotionally isolating way to grow up. And so I gravitated towards pop culture of time period, which was kind of the 90s. That was kind of a time to grow up in, and that's what made me happy. That's the comedy of that time period, the SNL, the Jim Carrey movies, and Adam Sandler, and you know, all these amazingly funny people. That's what I gravitated towards. So, you know, that's what took away my pain. This was a household where the word love was not mentioned. There wasn't any hugging or any sort of thing. My mother was dealing with her own pain at the time. And, you know, like she is just a product of her environment. I blame nothing for her. I love her very much. She's in passed on now. But she did the best she could. And, you know, looking back at her childhood, and I could see, you know, my parents are much, much older than I am. They were 42 when they had me, both of them. So they had brothers and sisters, but they were much, much older. So they were moved out by the time I was around. So it was just us two. And her mother was the only grandparents I met. So there were four grandparents, three were dead. Her mother was the only one I met. And speaking of pop culture, give her watch always sun in Philadelphia, Max mom. This was my grandmother. You know, she was a chain smoking, like constant drinking, you know, like, come give your granny a kiss, you know, like that kind of grandmother, that was my grandmother, and that's the only grandparent I knew. So, like, if that's who raised my mom, I get it, right? So, you know, she did the best she could, but it just wasn't enough. If you do not tell your child you're special, your value, you're loved, they're gonna look for the world for these things. And the world is always gonna tell them they're not special, they're not loved, they're nothing. So that's what happened with me. And this led to 20s, teens, 20s of just a dumpster fire. Just uh it was just a dumpster fire. Drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever, anything to take me out of feeling who I am. But you know, comedy was the one thing that was there, that was the one healthy thing. I found all these other unhealthy things once hit the teenage years. The comedy was really helpful in my grade school and everything, but then I lashed on to these things, and that's what took me. And that's the way it was for quite a while until I hit my 30s and I went to rehab. So I had my first rehab, and that was probably that was late 20s. And I just figured, you know, like you go to rehab and you clean out, and things are fine, right? My problem is that I have these withdrawals, they're physical withdrawals, and I can't get past one, two days, and that's my problem, right? Like, if I can get just if I can just get past these physical withdrawals. And so the first rehab, I did that, and I got through, and they were telling me all these things, you know, like you need more than this, you it's more than just drying out, there's more to it, and blah blah blah blah blah. I wasn't listening, I didn't give a shit, like whatever. So that lasted about not even three months, which which is surprising. It even went that long. And then after that, I was out for quite a while, and so I realized that okay, so there's something to this, there's something to this addiction thing, there's something to this depression thing, there's something to this anxiety thing that I'm not getting. And it's not just a bodily thing. So I go back for a second time, and that was back in LA. LA was the first time I was doing my stand-up comedy thing, which was a complete failure because apparently to be a stand-up comedian, you need to make it through a set standing up, which was not something I was capable of doing at that time. So I came back home to Arizona and was like, okay, all right, let's try this the real way. And I decided to let's actually go for this. Let's see what are they talking about? Like, what do you mean it's more than a bodily thing? Like, you know, I wasn't really into that whole hippy-dippy spiritual thing. And so I go to rehab and do what they say. And what they say there was kind of more of a Christian approach, which was a faith-based center. And so the whole thing there was like I found this kind of amazing feeling, and it's like, okay, all right, you know, this Christian thing, all right, let's give this a try, this A thing, let's give this a try, which I didn't care to before. And they could really go hand in hand together because honestly, it A is kind of disguised Christianity. So they really are peanut butter and jelly. So I do them both, and it works. It works for a time. It's just the thing was it, you know, Christianity and you know, A's this very subset of Christianity, this deep subset. It's not as it's not as it's not quite as in in any arenas the Christianity, but it Christianity to me just seemed like this big fancy mansion, right? Like this big, you've got nine rooms and you know, like 14 bathrooms, and there's a theater, and there's a basketball court, and there's all these amazing things in this mansion, right? But the thing about being living in the mansion is you can't go outside the mansion, you can't investigate outside the mansion, right? Like, because that's all they tell you there's a zombie, there's a zombie apocalypse out there, and you can't investigate. So I lived in that mansion for six years, and I realized that mansion is actually built on a cracked foundation of fear and judgment. And so it started to crumble around me. And that point was my mother's death. Terminal when you get diagnosed, you know, a terminal illness, it's a slow process. But this whole year, this last year of her of her kind of dwindling away was highly traumatic. And it was it, and I realized there was a deep part of that that was because of the Christianity, because I thought because she was not a prick practicing Christian, of course, she was going to a fiery place of death and hell and damnation, and she was going to be tormented the rest of her life. So that ate at me the whole year she was dying. So every time I went to visit with her, it was really tough. It would be nothing like I am now. Like where I am now, I would be kind of like a shepherd in the afterlife. Like, mom, it's gonna be so much fun. You're gonna be out of pain, you know. Like, it's gonna be like taking off a tight shoe, you know. Like, I I'd be a completely different person, but that was not the case at the time. And so after she passed, and I was still this practicing Christian, I just realized like this is not, I don't feel like this is correct. She was a nice person. She has she had her issues, of course, but she was a kind, wonderful person. And there is just no way that they're correct and that she isn't this fiery afterlife. So that's when transition started happening. And once I started questioning myself and my beliefs, not only my beliefs in Christianity as an adult, but my childhood beliefs that were placed in me that you know, like I'm not good enough, I'm not, you know, my parents didn't place any beliefs in me that I was anything. So I looked for the world to that, and the world told me I was nothing. So once you started questioning those beliefs and those adult beliefs, those childhood beliefs, things started changing. I started meditating, I saw a shaman instead of a pastor, and things started changing. I had what I can only explain as a bliss attack around this time. This is about four years ago. And this bliss attack is much like a panic attack if you replace panic with love. So for three hours, I was just this these waves of love and these amazing thoughts were coming to me at the same time. So I had this amazing feeling, and then I had these thoughts coming in at the same time, which I knew to be true because of how I was feeling. And I knew in that moment that I had been placed on airplane mode my whole life. Like I think all children are off airplane mode, but airplane mode gets turned on in them all around you know, six, you know, eight, nine, somewhere around there, and when they, you know, start believing that they can't do something. And in this moment, airplane mode was turned off. And I realized that most of society is on airplane mode. And that my new mission at this point was to try to like that whole raise the consciousness thing, like get people off of airplane mode because they're you don't know what you don't know. And so after that, you know, I still experienced a lot of some, you know, a lot of things that I had to go through at that time, but in the past two years, you know, things have really have especially turned around. And you know, I wrote the book, I have this kind of new mission and this new kind of goal of life and all this amazing stuff that's happening. And it's all because of that, that moment, this kind of turn off of airplane mode moment. So that's kind of the long and short of it. More long, I guess.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Now, this bliss attack that you're describing, did this did you do something before this happened? Or did how did this how did this come to about for you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that's yeah, that's the most fun thing to talk about. So the bliss attack happened because I started breaking down. I started one doing a lot of meditation. At the moment, I was not meditating. So this bliss attack came on out of nowhere. It was after just a gym workout, and I had just come home and I was stretching and it came on out of absolutely nowhere or middle of the day. No reason. There was no drugs, alcohol. There's a lot of drugs and alcohol in my history, but there was none at this time. I was just, you know, like three or four weeks clean. That and that's the craziest part. It's like this felt like an a crazy kind of hybrid ketamine, ketamine like acid kind of feeling trip, but without those drugs. This is the craziest part. And and but what I was doing at the time was I was meditating, even though I was meditating, I wasn't meditating the moment. I was doing a lot of meditating and I was doing a lot of deconstructing of my shadow, which I speak about in the book, that you know, shadow work. And, you know, the shadow is this part of our personality that you know we may not enjoy so much. It's composed of a lot of limiting beliefs and childhood traumas or just traumas in general, and it gets stored in our subconscious and then comes out at these random times. And if we're not, you know, aware of it, it can rule our lives. And so I was doing a lot of shadow work, which is the first rung in my kind of 13 rungs. So the shadow work and the meditation, that's what I was working on at the time when this came on. And the reason I wrote it like this all came together was because it was this signal that was like, you know, put this together so that other people can have their a bliss attack. And this is kind of you know, 13 rungs to have your own bliss attack.
SPEAKER_03:No, that I like that. Okay. And so did you know back then, you said that the bliss attack was about four years ago. Did you know then that you would write this book?
SPEAKER_00:No. So when I had the bliss attack, it was life-changing. I knew at that moment life was going to be different. But, you know, you kind of come out of this the next day, and like a couple days later, I had dinner with my family, and I just told them. I was like, you know, as best as I could, uh like everything is different right now. Like, I don't know what happened. I can't explain it. I don't know why it happened. There's no reason for it, but everything is different. And that's just where it stopped and ended. And it was two years after that, you know, I still went through some stuff, and there was still some traumas I went through in those two years that really brought me to my knees. I mean, including, you know, like I had an ex-fiance that decided to move across the country and then cut me out of the our life and our infant son. So we had an infant son together, and she decided to move across the country and just cut me out. And so, so you know, those things, you know, they're really it's not to say, you know, woes me or anything, it's just those things really bring you to your knees. And it's just they're just things that, you know, that really, you know, make you question. And so at that time, I moved up to Sedona, which here in Arizona is, I mean, really worldwide. It's kind of like a spiritual mecca, right? Like I just felt drawn to Sedona. And after that whole event happened, she moved away and she took him. And, you know, there's just not a lot legal I could do when she's half country away. So it just was something I had to accept at the time and stuff accept now. I believe that it's something that could change in the future, but it is what it is right now. But when that happened, I you know, I moved to Sedona, and the first thing I did was go to Bell Rock, which is a big energy vortex up there, and just put out to the universe that you know, like things are really not going so great right now, right? Like, like things are not as I'd like them to be. So why is that? Like, show me where to go, what do I do? And that was the intention I placed on being there. And in in about six months later, that's when the book came to mind, and a clear vision of where everything is gonna go came to mind. And so it's you know, intention, which is another wrong attention to intention is a big deal, a big deal, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I like that attention to intention.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. Yeah, there's 13 of them. So sorcery, it's spelled with a you, first of all. It's sorcery 101, it's a book, it's out. You can go to Amazon or awakenthesorcerer.com. It's around, and I'm kind of hoping it's the seed that kind of plants the career tree, as it will. But there's 13 of them because sorcery, first of all, is spelled with the U because it's not about wizards and cauldrons and eye of newt. It's about source energy. That is what we're using to heal and manifest a better life, like to heal from our previous trauma and get a better life. And you're using source energy, so S O U R C E. So source. So sorcery 101 and 13 rungs. When I was healing, I kind of thought, I had all this stuff in my mind. When I placed all this stuff out to the universe, it was like, what do I do and what do I go? So I had to have a clear way of like constructing all this stuff that was in my head. I had a lot of jumbled craziness. So, source energy, that energy that explaining source energy to human is like explaining water to a fish. So it would be pretty difficult, right? Like the explained water to a fish. It'd you know, like, well, it surrounds you, it's everywhere, it's you wouldn't be alive without water. The fish still wouldn't understand, like the fish still wouldn't understand, but that's the same thing for it is for us. So that sort of source energy is what I tapped into to kind of create this book. It's ancient wisdom, it's the unified field, it's the quantum field, is a field that can be tapped into by anyone at any time. We are all open to it. You just have to know how to turn off your airplane mode, right? And it's there. And once you tap into it, you know, you can never turn off your airplane mode. You can't turn it back off. That's the deal with it. Like, you you can try, like I did for a couple years. Like, I can try it, but you can never turn it back off. So, this source energy, this energy field is there, and that is what I tapped into. So, it's an ancient wisdom that's been around since the beginning of time, and it simply I tapped into it, it used my subconscious, my actions, my experience, my history, my humor, and came up with this book. And so it's there's 13 rungs because you know, I've I was in alcoholics for quite a while, as I said, and they have that 12 steps, and which is fine, it's but they're very rigid. Okay, they're very rigid. They're like you do this the certain way, like this is how you just like religion. So, like religion is very rigid, and I just feel like religion is kind of archaic, and I don't, I just the problem with religion is that there's so much focus on control that they lose the good stuff. Every religion has this good stuff around it, but then there's all this these rules and dogma and garbage that seems to get the focus, and then so then they're being able to be able to control by fear. Fear and shame are very easily controlled. So, you know, it lost a tangent there, but it's just one of the things that I get kind of passionate about because I understand now that you can take all the amazing parts of each religion and throw away all the laws and dogma and be spiritual. That's the difference between spiritual and religion. And so this whole book came from that, and so there are 13 wrongs, and there's 13 for specific reason. 13 in you know, in our culture is considered very unlucky. So I did 13 because it is actually not unlucky. We have a lot of false beliefs and a lot of things that are placed in us as a society that get programmed into us that we think are bad. And the number 13 is a great example of that. So 13 in tarot actually means death, rebirth, and transformation. It is actually a divine number and very lucky. But if you ask the person on the street, it's unlucky. It's Friday the 13th. There's no 13 floors on hotels, you know, it's there's ridiculousness surrounding 13, but it's all for nothing. It's superstition. So immediately I wanted people to start thinking and questioning uh their beliefs, their limiting beliefs immediately. So that's why I made 13 wrongs, because we have to start questioning the the things we think are real. That's the the biggest part of becoming a sorcerer.
SPEAKER_03:What would you suggest as a first step for somebody to turn off the airplane mode?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the book is a good place to start, certainly. I also offer one-on-one sessions, which is a lot of fun for me because they say eyes iron sharpens iron, no one person is sharpening the other. So this is what I'm meant to do because me helping others is helping my spiritual turn, which is just uh a massive blessing. So I do offer that sorcerer 13 at Gmail, if you want to get in touch with me, but there's that, and then the book itself. But the first thing is to get to know your shadow. That's the biggest one. Meditation and the shadow, which is what I mentioned in the first, those are the first two rungs, and they're there for a reason. They're all equally as important. You know, my 13 rungs are like 12 steps where they're rigid and you have to do them one by one in in order and you can't skip, and they're very fluid, you can go between them. But you know, the first two, between the shadow and the meditation, those two are really good place to start. So that those are the places I can kind of get into it too if you want to, but those are the two places I would say to to the very beginning to start with that the shadow work and meditation.
SPEAKER_03:And when you say shadow work, what do you mean by shadow work?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that's uh this was a term coined by Carl Jung. So the shadow is essentially the part of us that's that's the subcon the subconscious part of us. So if you think of the iceberg model, right? You only see 10%, the Titanic only saw that small percentage of the Thai the iceberg as they were going by, but there was 90% is hidden below the surface. It's actually massive, and that is the subconscious versus the conscious. They say we only need 10% of our brains, which isn't really true. We use our whole brains, but it it is a way to say that there's the subconscious versus the conscious, and that's kind of what that's supposed to mean. It's just got kind of misinterpreted over the years. But the shadow is the subconscious, and so many people are just not programmed correctly. We are all walking program, and once we understand that it gets better to see human behavior, understand human behavior, we have an easier way to not react to it. Once you realize that everyone is just a walking program. So the shadow for people that were not programmed correctly, and a lot of this is childhood. There's a lot that comes in before the age of seven. And there are people out there that had great families and had perfect programming, and maybe you don't have everyone has a shadow, but it may be dormant. So you know, those that were raised in a great atmosphere and found a great partner and have children, your love and your life, well done, keep going. But you're one trauma away from your shadow approaching. So everyone has the shadow, it just may be dormant. For those of us that did not have that growing up or nice things in childhood or adulthood, we have this critic to deal with. And it's just made up of our childhood traumas and limiting beliefs and all that stuff, but it is not us. So we are the awareness of the shadow, not the shadow itself. So people and you know, mind manifested in the way of drug and alcohol addictions and things like that, and others can manifest in especially anger, people with anger issues. So that's the shadow. All of a sudden, there's someone that flips you off on the freeway, and I'm not saying you, but you know, there's someone that flips someone off on the freeway, and that's someone will attach the anger that they have towards their father leaving when they were a child to that middle finger on the freeway and go chase that person on the freeway. And you'll see Yahoo news of this that you know, someone was shot on the freeway from the road rage attack. Well, that had nothing to do with someone flipping you off on the freeway because they've attached their trauma to that middle finger, and now they've chased it off there, and they're going after that person. And so that is the shadow, and that is something that is critically important to deal with, and like everyone has one. So the way I deal with mine, so big into pop culture, so pop culture is a big part of the book. There's a lot of it in there, but the person that deals with their shadow in a really healthy way, Eminem. So Eminem, if you think about it, he has separated himself from this shadow. He calls it slim shady. He is, you know, there's Marshall and there's Slim Shady, and they're two separate entities. And he is able to deal with it in a healthy way. He wraps, and in the way he gets it out in a healthy way without these feelings becoming actions. Because you know, thought becomes a feeling, becomes an action. So he deals with it in the way of like, okay, thought, feeling, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna spew this out as Slim Jady and be someone else and get it out, and that's how I'm gonna deal with my shadow. And so if we all could learn how to deal with our shadows in a similar way, we'd we'd be much better off whether it's going to go boxing gym. His way is to spew it out verbally, but we can get it out in a boxing, you know, there's just ways to get it out, and I understand that's not us. And so that's one of the things I I recommend to people is to name your shadow, like he did Slim Shady, name it and know when it's coming up because it will come up and it will kind of manifest in certain ways, and if you name it and you're separating yourself from it, you do not have to, you are no longer a slave to the shadow because we have a Society but driven by people with shadow-driven people. I like to say there's three positions for the shadow. Okay, if you're driving a car, your shadow is either driving the car, it's in the passenger seat or it's in the back seat. If it's driving the car, these are the people that are homeless and any other struggling, and you know, they're just they can't hold down jobs, they can't hold apartments, their lives are like mine was in my 20s, a dumpster fire. I've my shadow's been east position in the car. That's why I know this. So, you know, if it's in if it's in the driver's seat, it's always gonna drive off the cliff. It's gonna automatically gonna want to drive off a cliff every time. If your shadow is driving the car, it's gonna want to drive off a cliff. If you move it in the passenger seat, well, at least it's not driving. So now these are people like I and I've been at this point in my life where these this is kind of the mediocrity stage where things are fine, you know. Like I had a job, I had an apartment, but I couldn't hold on relationships. I couldn't understand women. I didn't understand, like I had no understanding of like how to have any sort of heli like healthy relationship with people at all. So this is when the shadow's in the passenger seat, so it's still too involved, right? Like it's still talking to you, it's still too involved. And so where you want to move it to, it is in the backseat. And the people that go for greatness and have you know like clear goals and experience amazing things in their lives, they their shadows in their backseat. Not out of the car, you can't get out of the car, and you cannot fight your shadow or hate it, because now you're just producing the same energy that the shadow wants. So you cannot hate the shadow or fight it, you have to love your shadow. I call my shadow Floyd because again, pop culture. The 1993 classic True Romance, Brad Pitt plays a small cameo character named Floyd. And in that movie, he's basically a couch dweller. He just he just he doesn't, you know, the main character in the movie, he doesn't pay rent, he doesn't do chores, he just smokes weed and sits on the couch all day. But the main the main character that you know that lets him stay there because he loves him like a brother and he's not gonna kick him out. He just lets him stay. He doesn't pay rent, he doesn't do anything, he doesn't do chores, he doesn't. But he loves him, so he just lets him stay. So that's my shadow. So I named him Floyd. And so my shadow is this kind of couch dweller. He doesn't add a lot to my life, but I love him like a brother. So I have to let him stay, let him chill on my couch, hang out, and I'll give him some popcorn and check in on him and see how he's doing. But that's the best way to deal with your shadow. And that is the number one thing I would say to people that are trying to make a change. Separate yourself from the shadow and the divine. I call my I like to say I'm a little bit deep and a little bit two-poch, right? Like, and that is the separation of the shadow and the divine, and we have it all in us. We have this, there are no good or bad people, there are only just people deciding to either feed their dark wolves or the white, and that's what happens. So that is the number one thing I would say to people is to start respecting your shadow.
SPEAKER_03:I really like that how you name it. Even just listening to you talk about it, it makes so much sense as it's like a separate entity. When you give it a name, you are like creating a full separate identity for it. So it's it's not attached to you, it's not a part of you, which makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's the best way because it is not you are not that the shadow was created out of a need, which is why it shouldn't be anything bad or it was created out of a need at time that it should be respected and it's there. But if you don't know it's there, that's when it rules your life. Because if you're not aware of it, it's ruling your life. And you know, people in my 20s is wondering why my life was a dumpster fight. It was because I didn't know my shadow, I didn't understand it, I didn't have any idea what that was or what it consisted of. Nothing. But it is not us, it was created, you know, people that see the whole Karen thing, right? Like that in my honestly, like my heart goes out to anyone actually named Karen because, like, holy shit, you must be going through a lot right now. Like, oh my god. But then but the that whole phenomenon, right, is from the shadow. It is like these people and they get caught, and I feel so bad for them because they get caught in these bad moments where their shadow just erupts, you know, like it in these situations where like, whoa, this reaction is way beyond what it should be. Well, that's the shadow reacting to something that isn't actually there. You know, their shadow, you know, these quote Karen's, right? Like they're they're not reacting to the situation that is at hand, which is generally, you know, like a fast food joint or something. They're not reacting to that. They're reacting to their father that left when they were a kid or their mother that used to abuse them, you know, like that, and that's what people don't understand. And there needs to be some sympathy for these people in order for them to get better. And so, yeah, it's hard for me to you know see that because then, especially with social media, it just gets splashed all over. People with their shadows, you know, their shadow coming out, and now it's splashed all over social media, and it's like, God, that that sucks. But it should have an emphasis even stronger. Like you can heal that shadow, and that doesn't have to happen. Because the miracle happens is when you're in a situation like that and you react in a very calm and normal way, and you think to yourself, boy, that wasn't me. Like, like when the healing happens, like that's what happens is you're in these situations that you start becoming conscious of yourself. And it's like, wow, that wouldn't, I wouldn't have reacted that way at all. And so that that's when you start doing the work, and it is work, you know. I don't like to scare people away and say that it's it's really hard work to do all this and this, but like in the military, they say embrace the sub, right? Like, so it's a matter of my 14-year-old nephew, love that kid. So he'll get one of these. He I think his newest thing is like this Lego Death Star, right? So, like a Lego get Death Star. Imagine what that would look like on the floor, you know, like put out that's pretty intimidating for most people. And he puts it out, and he has like 20,000 Lego pieces, and he's excited. Most people, this would be daunting, but he embraces the challenge. And that's the biggest part to changing in health and like wanting to be better is to embrace the sock, take on the challenge and make it something cool and exciting, like he does. Because I wouldn't be any better. I'd see 20,000 Lego pieces and say, no, screw that, I'm out. But he looks at it and is like, no, let's do this. This is gonna be fun. Let's go. So that's the kind of enthusiasm people need to have in terms of change because it's a really exciting where it happens.
SPEAKER_03:I get that. You mentioned you a little bit Deepak and a little bit Tupac. How so?
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's the two sides of me, right? Like it's the reactionary, so the shadow reacts, the sorcerer responds. So Deepak, Tupac, it's the sorcerer and the shadow. These are two sides of us. And I put that as me, I embraced both sides. I've had times where I was very much that reactionary side, and it didn't lead to very good things, certainly. So, you know, to live in, and you know, the natives, the Native Americans say we have two wolves living in us. It's the light wolf and the dark wolf. And the wolf we feed the most is the one that takes over. So for me, when I was feeding that that dark wolf, the drugs and alcohol, just those things, it it's just it made my life just a complete hellfire, awful like craziness. And things were really bad. I say Deep, Tupac, things didn't end too well for Tupac, did it? You know, it he had a very reactionary side, and it was very obvious when you go back and look at it, he had that shadow, and his shadow was controlling his life. It was making it he was in and out of jail, and he could not get in control of his shadow. And then you have kind of the Deepak side, that's the divine side of us, that we're just embracing this like source energy, and you know, Deepak Chopra has 95 books now. Are you kidding me? Like, who writes 95 books? Get out of here. So that's the possibility that we're all we're all capable of that stuff, and you know, we're all capable of anything, and it could be capable of the worst, the best of the best. It's just a matter of belief. So that's kind of where that comes from.
SPEAKER_03:Now, you mentioned you embrace both sides. Is there something that helped you be able to do that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, once I stopped fighting, once I stopped, I started realizing that fighting my shadow was not working, that's when things started to change. So I started to understand that embracing my shadow and kind of checking in on it and putting in the backseat kind of thing and just checking on it, making sure it's doing okay. I mean, it was there's a lot of things in there that, you know, if you keep that shadow in check and it's kind of part of your inner child and that scared inner child, and if you're talking to it and keeping it in check, good things can happen. But if you try to fight it, a lot of things say fight your dragons and fight the demons, they're talking about that kind of subconscious. But if you're fighting, you know, fighting for peace is like shouting for silence, it just gives you more of what you don't want, right? So if you start to embrace your shadow and just accept it for what it is and know that it's there instead of fighting it, because what it wants is a fight, just like with humans out there, there's a lot of joy thieves. That whole joy thieves, like it's they don't have any joy, so they're out to take yours. So they're gonna be dicks and assholes, and they're gonna try to take your joy. Well, it is up to you if you want to give your joy away or not, and that is the same with the shadow. The shadow is a joy thief, so but it is up to you if you want to give away your joy, because it is your joy and you get to keep it if you want to, or you can give it away. And so that's a big word it came from is just kind of this I kept giving my joy away to my shadow and trying to fight my shadow when the reality is that's what it wants. You know, just like that drunk guy at the ballpark that wants a fight, you know, like you see these on video all the time. They want to fight. So, like they want to take your joy. And you know, what pisses them off more is if you give them a big hug. Can you imagine? Like someone who wants to fight you for your over your and you give them a big hug. Like, that's not what they want at all. That's basically a punch in the face. That's you probably even stronger than a punch in the face for someone who wants to fight. Because if you just like say, here, just I think you need a hug. And that's what it came down to with the shadow is like, let's stop arguing. I think you need a hug. That's kind of where it came down to.
SPEAKER_03:I love that analogy, that example, like the mean guy at the ballpark, you think he needs a hug. No, I love that. I love that. Wow. No, that makes a lot of sense. And I think the way you explained it by like really separating the shadow to be a separate person makes it a whole different situation.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it really does. It's kind of the key to healing. That's why you asked what's the first thing people can do. That's the first thing. Get acquainted with your shadow and start to become friends with it. Name it, start to become friends with it, and understand it's not you.
SPEAKER_03:It's not you. That makes so much sense. Thank you so much, Justin. No problem at all.
SPEAKER_00:It's been a blast.
SPEAKER_03:Have you heard of a man named Jay Shetty?
SPEAKER_00:Of course. Yeah. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I always ask, some people have it's either of course, or people have no idea who I'm speaking about. I'm a big fan. He's got a podcast called On Purpose, and he ends it with two segments, and I end my podcast with those two segments as well. First segment is the many sides to us, and there's five questions, and they need to be answered in one word each. What is one word someone who was meeting you for the first time would use to describe you as? Like what is one word someone that knows you extremely well would use to describe you as?
SPEAKER_00:Fun.
SPEAKER_03:What is one word you'd use to describe yourself?
SPEAKER_00:Inspirational.
SPEAKER_03:What is one word that if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset would use to describe you as?
SPEAKER_00:Probably douche.
SPEAKER_03:What is one word you're trying to embody right now?
SPEAKER_00:Holistic.
SPEAKER_03:Second segment is the final five, and these can be answered in a sentence. What is the best advice you've heard or received?
SPEAKER_00:Probably so live life like it's your first day, not your last.
SPEAKER_03:Why is that the best advice?
SPEAKER_00:Because if you okay, so if you think about it, so someone like myself, a last day consists of, I don't know, me getting up, I'm not gonna do my yoga meditation, I'm not gonna go to the gym, I'm not gonna do any sort of routine that I've created. There's a good chance I'll end up at a bar hitting on a woman, and then I might end up robbing a pharmacy because that's because it's my last day. Like, who cares? Like that, that's probably gonna end up being my last day. But if it's my first day, now we're building something towards the future. Now we're like, okay, let's, you know, let's do things, let's create healthy habits, let's work towards the future, let's and let's find this curiosity. You know, if it's your first day, you're kind of curious about things. What is this world? What is this like? So having that curiosity and having the idea of this is this, we're in for the long haul, is much, much healthier for me than living life like it's your last day. Because for someone like me, where I've come from, it's terrible advice. Live life like it's your last day. Terrible advice.
SPEAKER_03:What is the worst advice you've heard or received?
SPEAKER_00:I that that has to be the yeah, it's gotta go in together, right? Like it's it has to be like a two for one. Because yeah, the worst like I live life like it's your last day. Because like that's not good advice for someone like me. It's just that's just terrible advice. So that yeah, I'd I've better just go one and one together.
SPEAKER_03:What is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
SPEAKER_00:I would say, you know, I used to value just money a lot more than money is very important and it is something, but it used to be valued in my life much higher than it is now. So I'd go with money.
SPEAKER_03:If you could describe what you would buy your legacy to be, as if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
SPEAKER_00:I would say that if I could sum up my legacy, I would say that you know, knowledge comes from books, but wisdom is sourced.
SPEAKER_03:If you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be? And I want to know why.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's easy. That's the golden rule. Love others like we wish we you treat others like you wish to be treated, love others like you wish to be loved. That's it. That's really that is the only there's all these religions and all these things, all these rules and laws and all this garbage, and there's only one law, and that's it. Is treat others how you wish to be treated, love others how you wish to be loved. And if we all could work on that, everything would be great. Like, you know, the we joke about this utopia thing, but we could have a utopia if we all lived by that one law, and that's it. If we just had that one law, things would be a whole lot different in this world.
SPEAKER_03:I agree with that. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me. Yeah, no problem. This was a blast. And I do like to just give it back to the guest. Any final words of wisdom you want to share with the listeners?
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh I said before, so you can find me on I just I've been on social media for four years. I just got back on a couple months ago. I'm on Instagram, sourcer underscore 13. If you want to find me there, there's the website, which is www.awaken the sorcerer.com, or my email, which is sorcerer13 at gmail. So anything at all. Like I'm around and I love helping people. But the main thing I guess I want to leave, I would leave people with is that just the statement that the journey is the destination. That's what I really like to hammer into people. Like, the journey is the destination. Everyone's always so caught up about that end result, they're not enjoying the moment. So just remember the journey is the destination.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. It's so true. Well, thank you so much. And I will link all of that in the show notes for people to connect with you directly.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Thank you. Aho.
SPEAKER_03:Aho. And thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of Meanders Mindset.
SPEAKER_02:In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you. I'm voting for you. And you got that. As always, if you enjoyed the stuff, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five-star rating. We both do.
