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Stay Sparked #4 - "Evolution of Art & Avatars"
7 Plays3 years ago
Can new AI tools help us to visualize and manifest the highest versions of ourselves?
Are we ready as a culture to see just how magnificent we are!?!?
Halcyon, Janus, and Betsy have all been cultivating the Radically Self Expressed avatars for many years. In this episode we talk about the viral new tool, "Lensa," and how powerful a superhero self-image can be.
SHOW NOTES:
App is called "Lensa" made by Prisma Labs
Betsy's post about her non-digital Avatar:
https://www.facebook.com/betsy.finkelhoo/posts/pfbid02UdwHrgYydjmMBGd3B5RzqMDt93wMvw1R5G7YSEjU9TUZho5BviFPs7exApsEdRunl
Artist Betsy mentioned: Autumn Skye
HOSTS
JANUS REDMOON is a 10-time Burner, and has spent the last several years as an advocate for psychedelic medicine research and treatment. He is the founder and CEO of NuWorld Nutritionals, a nutritional supplement company providing mushroom-based, all-natural products to improve and maintain health for both body and mind.
*Listeners use code "sparked" to get 10% off!
http://www.nuworldnutritionals.com
BETSY FINKLEHOO is a healer of massage therapy, CranioSacral and Dharma Coaching. She is an 8 year burner and has spent the last several years seeped in the personal development world, cultivating her passion for transformation and growth. Her recent project, The Power Affirmation Journal and virtual group empowers women to cultivate self awareness and healthy habits so they can live in greater freedom, mind body and spirit.
*Listeners use code "sparked" to get 10% off!
HALCYON is full-time Love Ambassador. He is the founder of Hug Nation youtube channel and daily zoom gratitude circles. He is co-founder of the Pink Heart Burning Man camp and the 1st Saturdays project for people experiencing homelessness. In his free time he coaches groups and individuals on how to live joyfully and authentically.
My book: book.styn.net (or on Amazon)
MASSIVE Thank you to Dub Sutra for their beautiful opening music. Check out their incredible music catalogue online.
https://dubsutra.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Staying Inspired
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Stay Sparked.
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On this show, we explore how to stay inspired in the modern world with the most profound lessons from Burning Man, psychedelics, relationships, entrepreneurship, spirituality, travel, and more.
00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome to Stay Sparked.
00:00:19
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Today we're gonna be talking about self-love, creating our avatars, and some new tools and technology that may or may not be helping us in this
Meet the Hosts: Betsy and Yanus
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path.
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Before we get started, I wanted to introduce my co-hosts.
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Betsy is a coach and a healer.
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She is the creator of the Power Affirmation Journal.
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It is so awesome to have you here, Betsy.
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Betsy, welcome, and what are you grateful for today?
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Thank you so much, Halcyon.
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I am so grateful to be here, first of all.
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And secondly, I will say I'm really grateful for my morning practice.
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Right before this, I got to drop in and do my practices, which always just make me feel so good to start my day.
The Power of Gratitude and Connection
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So really grateful for the time that I get to spend with myself in the morning.
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Beautiful.
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Thank you.
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I know you're so dedicated to that and it is so inspiring.
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So thank you for that reminder.
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Also here is Yanus.
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Yanus is the founder and CEO of New World Nutritionals.
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He creates a mushroom-based supplement that is changing lives.
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Welcome, Yanus.
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What are you grateful for?
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Good morning, Halcyon and Betsy.
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Today, I'm grateful for...
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my friendships.
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I have had a number of really quality conversations of late with some really wonderful individuals that I've loved and known for a long time, such as you two.
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And it's been really good to get a lot of different perspectives on the state of the world these days and have some really
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you know, quality conversations around that.
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So it's been, yeah, it's been a fun, it was a fun, yeah, last few days and it's been great.
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So I'm definitely grateful for that.
Spreading Positivity and Embracing Uniqueness
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Wonderful awareness of gratitude for those connections.
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I am grateful for a opportunity I had this weekend to practice as being a love ambassador.
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I was at a large gathering called Winter Nights in San Diego.
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And I passed a young woman, some adolescent with half bleached hair, and she had the
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the stance of a woman going through adolescence with difficulty.
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And I just had this calling, I should say something.
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So I kind of walked around, tapped her on the shoulder and I said, excuse me, I couldn't help but noticing that I think you're a weirdo and I'm a weirdo too.
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And I just wanted to let you know that being a weirdo is awesome.
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And she kind of like lit up and her mom was kind of like, and so I said, can I give you a sticker?
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And I gave her a sticker and her mom a sticker and gave him hugs and then went off into the night.
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And I was like,
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I have a feeling that that's gonna be good for her and I wish someone would have done that for me.
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And I just was just glad that I'm at a place right now in my life where I can take that risk and put that into the world.
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Awesome.
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Love that.
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Talcyon, way to go.
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Spreading the light.
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And so as I was doing that, I was wearing a massive pink furry coat.
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I was just going to say.
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And my pink hair and was looking a little bit like a avatar version of myself, which I've cultivated for
Exploring Digital Avatars and Self-Expression
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a long time.
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And so that is a good segue into this topic.
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It was brought to kind of the forefront of my thinking because of this new app that launched called Lensa.
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And honestly, I got I made the decision that I was going to make it public and post it, even though there's a lot of reasons that people are afraid of it.
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And I've had a number of people after seeing me do it, have done it.
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So I kind of feel a little bit like a pied piper with maybe some potential responsibility.
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But but I think that the
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The topic of this brings up a lot of interesting things about cultivating our avatar and embracing this highest, best version of ourselves.
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And YouTube people are some of the people I have witnessed go through this in a powerful way for as long as we've known each other.
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So I first... Well, let me just say, Yanus, was there something that made you decide, okay, I'm going to try this digital tool?
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Honestly, it was probably due to the fact that you and several other people I know were kind of posting these images and they were just so cool.
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They just looked really good.
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And I was like, that looks fun.
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And so I thought about it and then right around the same time,
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I was seeing a number of people who were kind of naysaying the whole enterprise for a few reasons we can get into later.
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And after kind of weighing it out for myself, I'm like, you know, I'm going to go ahead and try it.
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This looks fun.
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So I'm not going to get too caught up in it and everything.
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But I did.
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Yeah.
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And I, and those, the images that it's kind of spit back at me were really something.
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Um, yeah.
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And that's yours.
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Definitely.
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Yeah.
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And I don't know if we want to get into that now.
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Um, well, let's get into it in a second.
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I mean, cause I, I had, I had some experiences looking at it where I'm like, I feel amazing gazing at this version of myself.
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And then before we get into that too much, Betsy, you posted something in response to this kind of trend with a picture of you that was not manipulated.
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And so could you speak to what you posted and what you talked about in that post?
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Sure, yeah.
00:05:47
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First of all, I just want to respond and say I actually thoroughly enjoyed looking at both of yours as well.
00:05:52
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It was really funny, both look so beautiful.
00:05:54
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Yeah, and so I think I went through a bit of a process on my own reflecting on whether or not I wanted to participate in this app.
00:06:06
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And I was really reflecting a lot on my journey in self-expression and also especially through the Burning Man world and culture and so many of the opportunities to dress and express myself with all kinds of flair.
00:06:22
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I think that that's such a beautiful gift that I've gotten to experience and see so many of my friends do.
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And so I decided that I actually, I had this photo of myself that I hadn't posted that was from Burning Man where I was wearing a beautiful headdress and painted my face and I felt really beautiful.
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I felt like I was the avatar and I hadn't posted it.
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And honestly, I was kind of feeling like not ready to post it.
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You know, it's been many months since I took that photo.
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And then when I saw all these avatars coming out, I was like, oh, wait, this is actually it's a safe place to share the celebration of who I am and my in my exuberance and my creativity and my color.
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And then I did a little more self-reflection around, well, how do I want to post this and how do I want to share this?
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from a place of honoring everybody's choice, because you can see that there is definitely a little bit of a debate in this conversation around to do this or to not to do this.
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And there's some judgment on some sides.
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And so I wanted to actually celebrate this beautiful opportunity for us to see ourselves
AI Art: Inspiration or Replacement?
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in this new light.
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And my hope is that now that people are seeing themselves with this
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AI version of themselves, which is highly fashionized.
00:07:41
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It's like so much fashion, right?
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All the costumes and the jewelry and the face paint and the,
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coloring of the hair that people are getting to see themselves my hope is that it inspires more people to start to dress in their own expression of self on a more regular basis and so i wanted to share a picture of myself dressed up in my own avatar and it felt really good because then i started seeing people posting actual pictures of themselves in their in their colorful expressions in their light and their magic
00:08:12
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which is really cool because I feel like that helps us to kind of like pop out of the mundane, right?
00:08:18
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The pandemic especially kind of gave us a lot of people that more like, let me just dress down.
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You know, there's not really much to do.
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So I'm just going to like wear my yoga pants all the time or pajamas and just like kind of go with the cookie cutter kind of look.
00:08:32
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And it's so exciting and wonderful to see people dressed up like healthy.
00:08:37
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And the first time I saw you over –
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Over a decade ago, when I moved to San Diego, you were walking on the street.
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I was in a car with a friend and my friend knew you.
00:08:45
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And I saw you with your pink jacket and your pink hair and you had your Burning Man bike.
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And I was like, something came over me.
00:08:52
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Like, who is that magical being?
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And it's a spark.
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You were a spark for me.
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And so how can I be a spark for others in my expression of my avatar and out in the world?
00:09:04
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Yes.
00:09:05
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You know, and that's I mean, so we talked about this a little bit in episode two, and I encourage you to go listen to that about radical self-expression, the Burning Man principle and how powerful it is as a tool of activism in the way that you were saying.
00:09:17
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I mean, one of the reasons that I've been called to risk judgment by being a expressed avatar of myself in the world is that it does give people permission to kind of
00:09:27
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take that risk.
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And I think what we're seeing now with these portraits is that instead of a guy on the street on a pink bike, you get to see yourself as that potential inspiring thing.
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You get to see motivated by your own ideal self.
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And I've had a lot of people say, it's unhealthy.
00:09:46
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No one can live up to the standard.
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Everyone's going to be disappointed in themselves.
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And I'm like, I don't think so.
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I mean, we've been looking at
00:09:56
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airbrushed fake versions of celebrities for a long time.
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And I think that's way more unhealthy than a celebrated idealized version of ourself.
00:10:04
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So I think that there's a lot of reasons to be having these conversations.
00:10:08
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But overall, I feel like it is a manifestation of this
00:10:13
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a tool of self-esteem.
00:10:14
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You know, my imagination cannot paint myself as powerfully as this tool can paint me.
00:10:20
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So now I'm holding this vision of myself in a more crisp way than I ever have.
00:10:26
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And I feel like it's a manifestation tool.
00:10:29
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You know, I can visualize the superhero version of myself more powerfully than I ever have before.
00:10:36
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Yes, you start to move differently.
00:10:38
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Yeah, yeah.
00:10:39
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I want to just touch base before we get too far away from it.
00:10:43
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It's a really astute point that Betsy is making about the timing of this coming out.
00:10:49
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Like we're all just coming out, like you said, of like dressing down, staying home, sweatpants, onesies, just really dressing ourselves down and not having a real reason to dress up or to get made up and things like that.
00:11:04
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And then now things are opening up and have been opening up for a while.
00:11:08
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But this technology comes along that allows us to do the future version of glamour shots from the mall, where it's just press a few buttons and upload some photos.
00:11:22
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And we look like the highest, most beautiful version of ourselves.
00:11:29
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And the thing that I think was great
00:11:33
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was, uh, and that was my own, my own process with it was like looking at it and be looking at these images, some of these images, cause some of the images are like, you know, we've got like eight fingers and like, uh, yeah, you know, third eye coming out of our cheek and something like that.
00:11:46
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So they're, they're certainly not all perfect.
00:11:48
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So I think that's actually pretty good to kind of keep us in check.
00:11:50
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They're like, Oh yeah, that's also, that's also me.
00:11:52
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Uh, but, but seeing, uh, some of these, some of these like really exemplary, um, photos of us, like you've got one in your background halcyon of, um,
00:12:02
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I remember seeing and seeing and really seeing yourself in them be like wow that that is me whoa it's like all right I've you know it definitely it definitely put a pep in my step it definitely it definitely kind of kind of lifted me up a little bit not that I and I wasn't in a space of needing it but I felt good looking at those things not looking at those images.
00:12:24
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Yes, I would love to piggyback off of that because the evolution of where we are going, right?
00:12:31
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Can you imagine what artists felt when photography came out, right?
00:12:37
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Photography is now getting, there's an evolution of the photography, right?
00:12:41
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Versions of ourselves.
00:12:42
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There's this evolution of art.
00:12:43
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Right.
00:12:44
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And for me, I have spent some time modeling.
00:12:47
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So maybe about a decade ago, I was with somebody
AI Portraits for Transformation
00:12:51
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who's an incredible photographer who started taking photos of me.
00:12:55
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And at first it was really awkward and uncomfortable and being in front of a camera.
00:12:59
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And then he would
00:13:00
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show me a photo of myself with some slight edits and lighting and and i remember having these moments going oh that's me and when i saw that reflection of me through his lens and the way that he portrayed
00:13:17
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my beauty, I noticed myself start to stand differently and move differently and think differently about myself.
00:13:25
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It was a major shift.
00:13:26
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And the more that I started to do modeling and get comfortable in front of the camera, I would actually have these really profound breakthroughs in seeing these photos of myself.
00:13:36
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Like this one you have in the background, Halcyon of yourself.
00:13:39
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This looks like, to me, it's like your higher self.
00:13:43
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And I have one that is – it's a photo, but it's been edited with like a cosmic background and there's like some cool sacred geometry on it.
00:13:51
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And I actually have that up in my space from time to time to remind me of my highest self, my cosmic self.
00:13:58
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And when I look at that, it helps me to get out of my own way, right?
00:14:02
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When my ego is talking or if I'm doubting myself.
00:14:06
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looking at a picture of myself where I'm empowered, it's like, oh yes, that's who I want to be.
00:14:12
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That is who I'm calling in to be in the driver's seat.
00:14:16
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So having these avatars to reflect back to us, this version of ourself, I hope, yeah, like Yonis you're saying, it gives us this beautiful opportunity to go, oh wow, I actually am pretty beautiful and magical and I have the potential to
00:14:32
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be that warrior or be that king or queen or fairy.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:37
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And I think you took, there's this amazing like fashion and hair and these things, it's like you've been stylized or, you know, styled by these incredible, incredible talented, magical things.
00:14:51
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I actually, last night, I put some, I put some blue and purple in the tips of my hair because I saw this AI version of myself.
00:14:57
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I'm like, Ooh, I like what my hair looks like in that.
00:14:59
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So I'm gonna, I'm gonna go take it as inspiration.
00:15:02
Speaker
You know, one of the things there's been this conversation about the frustration of what does this mean to artists?
00:15:07
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You know what?
00:15:08
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And I think as you mentioned, you know, photography changed painting.
00:15:14
Speaker
And I think that this changes the way that certain art looks, is going to look.
00:15:19
Speaker
But I think an important thing to remember is that like you can get an absolutely perfect plastic set of dishes, but there's people still love ceramics.
00:15:31
Speaker
You know, there's always going to be a need and a value for things that have soul and things that have the artist's energy in it.
00:15:38
Speaker
These do not have that to it.
00:15:40
Speaker
They are, they are a avatar tool of, I think of
00:15:43
Speaker
manifestation, but they are not the same thing as something created by an artist that has the energy of a creator in it.
00:15:52
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Absolutely.
00:15:53
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Yeah, I actually had right when I first started seeing these, the first person I thought of was one of my most favorite artists.
00:16:00
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I'm a collector of many of her pieces is Autumn Sky.
00:16:04
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And her style has primarily faces.
00:16:08
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She paints beautiful faces and many different expressions of archetypes and just profound detail.
00:16:15
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And she's just
00:16:16
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An incredible visionary.
00:16:18
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And so I thought of her because now there is this technology that is, you know, changing people's faces and, you know, making art out of people's faces.
00:16:28
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And I think it is a really, it's going to bring up all kinds of different things for different artists.
00:16:32
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And by no means would I stop being a collector of her art because there is
00:16:38
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this AI out there.
00:16:39
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Like I absolutely love her art and I love other painters.
00:16:43
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I'm also a collector of other visionary artists and it doesn't change my love for that, the craftsmanship of knowing that these are brushstrokes by somebody that put their love and their talent and their skill and their time into, there's a frequency, right?
00:16:59
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It's just a different, a different frequency.
00:17:01
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And I feel, I want to jump in here and say that I feel like
00:17:08
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I agree with that.
00:17:09
Speaker
And I want to
00:17:11
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I think it's real quick for us to jump into a binary of like, it's like, this is better than that, or this is more of whatever, this has more soul than this other thing.
00:17:23
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And I think, you know, both things can be true.
00:17:26
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It's easy to like, to the point, like no one's ever going to, just because photography came along, people didn't stop collecting painting.
00:17:32
Speaker
People didn't stop painting.
00:17:34
Speaker
I don't see people stopping.
00:17:36
Speaker
I don't think anybody's going to like, now that we were able to create this AI art thing,
00:17:41
Speaker
very easily.
00:17:43
Speaker
I don't think people are going to just abandon other forms of art and jump into this.
00:17:48
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I don't think it's going to supplant anything.
00:17:50
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I think it's just simply an addition.
00:17:53
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to the realm that is considered art.
00:17:57
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And I've seen some artists, kind of there's some backlash against it from people I considered and respect as like being wonderful artists.
00:18:04
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And I've seen just as many artists absolutely love it.
00:18:08
Speaker
And they're like, this is a tool.
00:18:10
Speaker
Like there's a question like, well, is this gonna put graphic designers out of business?
00:18:13
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And I've seen a number of graphic designers be like, this is fantastic.
00:18:16
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I love this.
00:18:17
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This is just another tool that allows me to do what I do.
00:18:24
Speaker
And I feel like it's important to, you know, kind of to kind of reject the binary and be like, okay, so I love this stylized AI version of myself.
00:18:38
Speaker
And I love this like photo of me from back when I'm covered in dust and, you know, from 2004 or whatever, or this other
00:18:46
Speaker
painting of me with my friend, you know, whatever.
00:18:48
Speaker
I think we can look at all mediums and enjoy and appreciate all mediums without having to, you know, denigrate one of them over the other.
Embracing New Technologies Responsibly
00:19:00
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Yeah, and I think that there's, you know, behind me, I have a picture of me that is one of the lens of portraits.
00:19:06
Speaker
And on my other side, I have a portrait that I commissioned from an artist named Janelle Despot that is a portrayal of me that is not looked like a photograph, but it is a essence of me that is interpreted through her creative mind.
00:19:20
Speaker
And it has a very different impact on me, but similar.
00:19:23
Speaker
They're both these ways of like,
00:19:26
Speaker
finding an image of myself that is beyond what I see in the mirror.
00:19:33
Speaker
And I had somebody actually, I commissioned somebody earlier this week to make a digital painting myself.
00:19:40
Speaker
They were like, hey, I've got this new thing I'm doing.
00:19:42
Speaker
And I said, sure, I'm always trying to support artists if they're, and
00:19:50
Speaker
And I posted what they created for me.
00:19:52
Speaker
I linked to them.
00:19:53
Speaker
And then later in the week when I posted the lens, they wrote me a very angry note saying like, you say that you're trying to help the homeless and support artists, and now you're going to put me out of work and into the streets.
00:20:08
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And I'm like, wow, I...
00:20:12
Speaker
I think it can be both and I understand why you're so threatened and why this could be so difficult.
00:20:16
Speaker
But I kind of feel like you can wish that the world could stay simple.
00:20:24
Speaker
You could wish that we didn't use screens and you could wish we didn't have the Internet and we didn't have washing machines for our clothes.
00:20:33
Speaker
But this is the world that we're in.
00:20:36
Speaker
And so you can fight it.
00:20:38
Speaker
or you can surrender to it.
00:20:41
Speaker
Like Byron Katie says, you can fight reality, but you'll lose only a hundred percent of the time.
00:20:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:49
Speaker
And that, that whole, you know, thing is it's, it's a lot.
00:20:56
Speaker
It's, it's a lot.
00:20:57
Speaker
And I, and I, I appreciate where somebody like that is coming from.
00:21:01
Speaker
And I also feel like,
00:21:04
Speaker
Not to get too in the weeds with it, but a lot of people who were not complaining when the rideshare apps came and supplanted taxis, it wasn't a lot of people crying about the taxi drivers.
00:21:18
Speaker
We were like, all right, this is a new thing.
00:21:20
Speaker
It's better for me.
00:21:21
Speaker
It's cheaper.
00:21:21
Speaker
I'm going to do that.
00:21:23
Speaker
Same with Airbnb.
00:21:24
Speaker
Same with...
00:21:26
Speaker
Netflix, same with like all these apps that technology made a thing like easier and better to do.
00:21:32
Speaker
And there were some people that rejected it and there's a lot of people that embraced it.
00:21:38
Speaker
And I think a good question is like, okay, so who do I have to be or who do I have to become or what do I have to do for me to feel good about embracing this?
00:21:46
Speaker
What do I need to change?
00:21:48
Speaker
So it really, again, it comes back to self.
00:21:51
Speaker
And not really, like you say, like Byron Katie says, like fighting, don't fight reality.
00:21:56
Speaker
Like, okay, this is where we're at.
00:21:57
Speaker
So, you know, we can, we can, we can, you know, gnash our teeth and, and, you know, shake our fist at the sky at the end of all that, you know, where, you know, you're still in the same place.
00:22:08
Speaker
What are you going to do with, uh, in this new world that we find ourselves in?
00:22:12
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
00:22:13
Speaker
I feel like I really like to speak to the point around the difference of the filters that we've been kind of dealing with over the last few years that kind of put this airbrush look over our face to make ourselves more beautiful, but sort of in a deceitful sort of way versus this new version of filters that provides an opportunity for us to be
00:22:34
Speaker
colorful and vibrant and in these costumes.
00:22:39
Speaker
And it's like very obvious that we're trying to change the way that we look.
00:22:42
Speaker
It's not this like, oh, I'm ashamed of my, the way that I really look.
00:22:47
Speaker
So I'm going to put this like this glossy filter over myself.
00:22:50
Speaker
So that way I feel good about myself.
00:22:52
Speaker
It's a totally different approach in my perspective around self-confidence and boosting self-esteem.
00:22:59
Speaker
Because I think that we all have felt that way when you saw that first time you've ever seen an airbrush filter on yourself.
00:23:06
Speaker
Oh,
00:23:07
Speaker
Oh, wow, I'm kind of beautiful.
00:23:08
Speaker
Right.
00:23:08
Speaker
But then there's all this judgment that comes on.
00:23:11
Speaker
Right.
00:23:11
Speaker
And so here it's kind of permissioning us to put that filter on and to feel good about ourselves.
00:23:16
Speaker
And it's okay.
00:23:18
Speaker
And then also we get a chance to celebrate each other in that, in that expression of art.
00:23:23
Speaker
Right.
00:23:23
Speaker
Like when I saw both of yours and all of the people I've been seeing, I was like, whoa, oh my gosh, you're so beautiful.
00:23:29
Speaker
Wow.
00:23:30
Speaker
You're so magical.
00:23:31
Speaker
Oh my gosh.
00:23:31
Speaker
I love that one.
00:23:32
Speaker
I love this one of my friend.
00:23:33
Speaker
Oh, I love this one of you.
00:23:35
Speaker
And it's a celebration of each other in a way.
00:23:39
Speaker
I also think that there is nothing deceitful about it.
00:23:42
Speaker
I don't look at any of these and go like, oh, is that?
00:23:46
Speaker
I mean, I know that that is this
00:23:48
Speaker
idealized version of them.
00:23:51
Speaker
And I can appreciate that.
00:23:52
Speaker
I'm not going to next time I see you go like, wow, you look nothing like your AI.
00:23:58
Speaker
What happened?
00:24:01
Speaker
Exactly.
00:24:01
Speaker
It's like, like, let's be real.
00:24:03
Speaker
We love filters.
00:24:05
Speaker
Right.
00:24:05
Speaker
And the old filters that kind of just mask who we are, right, are kind of like hiding behind something, right?
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:14
Speaker
I've heard a few people say that they do find it to be discouraging and depressing to see the idealized version of themselves, which I think speaks more to this process of self-esteem and finding, you know, what do we project about ourselves into the world?
00:24:32
Speaker
What do we struggle to actualize?
00:24:36
Speaker
You know, someone pointed out this incredible, this woman, Trinity, in a thread, she said,
00:24:42
Speaker
You know, Carl Rogers had a lot to say about this topic.
00:24:45
Speaker
Humanist psychology with a theory that the closer our self-image and ideal self are to each other, the higher our sense of self-word.
00:24:52
Speaker
So it's this idea of this can be a way for us to transcend the walls of our self-image towards self-actualization, which is, you know, the humanist psychology idea of that's our highest purpose once we get our basic needs met.
Cultural Shift: Self-Love and Confidence
00:25:08
Speaker
I feel like, you know, when it comes to
00:25:11
Speaker
you know, the transcendent nature of, you know, these images.
00:25:15
Speaker
That is a thing that I've seen over the last few days that is concerning to a lot of people.
00:25:20
Speaker
They're feeling like, oh, this is like,
00:25:22
Speaker
It's leading us down this path, like we're losing our humanity and like we're doing, you know, for whatever reason.
00:25:29
Speaker
And I can't help but just immediately, like the thought comes to my head, like, you know, this ain't that deep.
00:25:37
Speaker
You know, we can enjoy it.
00:25:39
Speaker
We can play with it.
00:25:40
Speaker
It's fun.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's a tool.
00:25:42
Speaker
And it doesn't have to mean that we're, you know, our...
00:25:45
Speaker
there's, I mean, there's other stuff that might be indicative of, uh, you know, our AI robot overlords, uh, coming, coming for us.
00:25:52
Speaker
I don't, I don't know that this, I don't know that this is it.
00:25:55
Speaker
Um, I think it's, uh, it's, it's a reason that we can, you know, you know, we can tap into.
00:26:01
Speaker
And again, uh, to what housing was saying is like, you know, when we, when we, when we see our idealized versions of ourselves or like our, our,
00:26:12
Speaker
our highest version of ourselves for want of a better term.
00:26:15
Speaker
And we can come to embody that on a regular basis.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, we feel good about that.
00:26:20
Speaker
I think that's why some people come out of Burning Man so lit up and so jazzed because they were really embodying who they are for that entire week, especially if you've gone for a couple of times and you kind of get the hang of it.
00:26:32
Speaker
And then you could go just drop in there and just be like, boom, this is me and be celebrated for that for like a week.
00:26:38
Speaker
And then you come back here, and this is why, you know, how soon it's like, oh, this is my world.
00:26:45
Speaker
There's nothing different happening on the playa that's not happening on 36th Street, what have you.
00:26:51
Speaker
So, yeah, so that's, you know, whatever gets us there, I think is where they've taken note of in celebrating.
00:27:02
Speaker
And I think that there's...
00:27:05
Speaker
our reality is determined by the way we visualize it, you know?
00:27:10
Speaker
And so I don't think that we're really bound by the hard specifics of, uh,
00:27:18
Speaker
the way light hits our eyes.
00:27:20
Speaker
You know, like I see my friends, every time I see them, I am not looking at every dot on their face and re-imagining them.
00:27:28
Speaker
I have an image of my friends.
00:27:30
Speaker
Like when I'm with a lover in the dark, you know, I have a idealized version of them that is way beyond the way they physically represent in the world.
00:27:39
Speaker
And so I kind of feel like this tool is a way for us to
00:27:44
Speaker
tune our mind's eye into a way beyond the physical.
00:27:48
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:49
Speaker
Which I think is really powerful.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yes, connecting to someone's essence.
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:54
Speaker
Right?
00:27:54
Speaker
Because if I close my eyes and I think of a friend, I don't think about the texture of their skin or the bags under their eyes the last time I saw them, you know, or like the negative things that like so often we're like, oh man, I feel so ugly or whatever.
00:28:11
Speaker
I don't remember those things about the people that I love and care about that are in my life.
00:28:15
Speaker
When I tune in and think about them, I think about their essence and who they are and their hearts.
00:28:21
Speaker
Right.
00:28:21
Speaker
And that's what I think these are helping us to see like, oh, wow, I actually I have this ability to express an essence.
00:28:28
Speaker
Right.
00:28:29
Speaker
And I think that there is something really beautiful about this.
00:28:32
Speaker
this conversation too, because, you know, in this, what I see as a revolution of self-love, right, we're coming into a time where we're learning to love who we are and hopefully eradicate a lot of the depression and the unworthiness and this, you know, this negative self-talk
00:28:52
Speaker
Right.
00:28:52
Speaker
There's more and more tools available and coaches and healers and therapists that are really promoting what it is to truly love ourselves.
00:29:02
Speaker
Right.
00:29:02
Speaker
And now in social media world, it really brings about this shift in perception around what is ego and what is it to post a picture of yourself being beautiful?
00:29:14
Speaker
Is that conceited?
00:29:16
Speaker
Is that coming from a place of like, oh, look at me, I'm I'm good or I'm better than or whatever.
00:29:22
Speaker
But if it's coming from a genuine, authentic place of like, I celebrate who I am, which Halcyon, you're a pro at that.
00:29:28
Speaker
You let yourself shine.
00:29:30
Speaker
You allow yourself to be fully in your expression of your radiance and your ego and your beauty and your message.
00:29:38
Speaker
right?
00:29:39
Speaker
And it's not always so easy for everyone to do that.
00:29:41
Speaker
We're learning how to love ourselves and allow ourselves to be seen in loving ourselves and honoring ourselves, celebrating ourselves.
00:29:52
Speaker
So this is, I think this, this app is really doing good things.
00:29:58
Speaker
It's pushing the edges for us in a lot of different ways.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
And real, real quick, just kind of, uh,
00:30:06
Speaker
touch base on that is that we're in a time where back in the day you had to look a certain way in order to be celebrated for how you look, um, and for who you were, frankly.
00:30:17
Speaker
Uh, and we have really gotten to a point.
00:30:19
Speaker
It's one of the best things about the time we're living in now is that everybody gets to be celebrated no matter your, your race, your gender, your, you know, whatever your physical appearance.
00:30:31
Speaker
Um,
00:30:33
Speaker
That that gets to be celebrated like, OK, you might be you might be 300 pounds, but you get there's lingerie for you now.
00:30:39
Speaker
You get to you get to look sexy.
00:30:41
Speaker
You get to feel sexy.
00:30:42
Speaker
That wasn't that wasn't true five years ago, but that's true now.
00:30:46
Speaker
And we get to we we all get to celebrate that.
00:30:49
Speaker
And this is not like this, this technology that we've been talking about.
00:30:54
Speaker
It's available to everybody.
00:30:56
Speaker
And you can, you don't have to, you know, already be close to like the physical ideal to use this.
00:31:05
Speaker
Like I've seen this, the same app being used or other versions of AI technology being used to create
00:31:13
Speaker
visions of elderly people, like really old people, like 80, 90 year old people, like just sitting in a park and laughing.
00:31:20
Speaker
And it's clearly an AI image, but it's like, wow, it's like, it's really fascinating to see how this gets, how this is being applied to all populations and to all people.
00:31:29
Speaker
So it's not just about celebrating your highest self.
00:31:33
Speaker
It's really, and this is the interesting thing about it, but people say like, oh, I don't see your soul in there.
00:31:37
Speaker
It's like,
00:31:38
Speaker
Look, look harder.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, there's look harder.
00:31:40
Speaker
There's there's like the fact that this technology is getting people's essence out there.
00:31:46
Speaker
Like this is like there's people who are like, these are these are my photos, but I don't see really see me in a lot of them.
00:31:51
Speaker
And their feedback is like, no, I totally see you.
00:31:53
Speaker
And like most of them is like, this is what we see.
00:31:56
Speaker
And what we're seeing is the essence coming through is that less the physicality.
00:32:00
Speaker
So I ran my grandfather through who passed in 2007.
00:32:03
Speaker
I saw those.
00:32:04
Speaker
And the images were incredible.
00:32:06
Speaker
I get chills just now.
00:32:07
Speaker
I just got chills.
00:32:07
Speaker
It's like there's one with him, like clouds all around him, you know?
00:32:11
Speaker
And it looks, it's so him.
00:32:13
Speaker
It's him like as an angel.
00:32:15
Speaker
You know, you're sparking something for me that I actually feel really passionate about.
00:32:20
Speaker
And especially in the theme of this podcast around staying sparked, staying inspired.
00:32:24
Speaker
I believe that when we hold the people in our lives high,
00:32:29
Speaker
then the people in our lives have an opportunity to rise into that, right?
00:32:34
Speaker
It's amazing when we are around people that believe in us, right?
00:32:39
Speaker
There is something that happens within us, right?
00:32:42
Speaker
And to be able to have this as an opportunity, when you look at your friend's pictures online, or you look at a person even in person, and you go, wow, you're amazing.
00:32:55
Speaker
You're so amazing.
00:32:57
Speaker
they can start to light up like i know personally like helsine your gratitude at the beginning when you gave that girl that like compliment of being weird when somebody has come to me in my journey especially if i have felt insecure or uncertain about myself and somebody says wow i really i see you i believe in you you're amazing you're beautiful you're all the things at the acknowledgement right when somebody holds that space for me
00:33:21
Speaker
then I feel myself just soften and rise into what another person can see of me.
00:33:28
Speaker
And so my hope is that we all can celebrate each other's beauty in these art forms and these different expressions, whether that's a photo or an image that has been generated with new colors and costumes and really fan each other's flames in a positive way and say, hey, like, wow, you're amazing.
Personal Journeys in Self-Love
00:33:50
Speaker
keep doing what you're doing, you're amazing and help to clear some of the self-doubt and insecurities and depressions and frustrations.
00:33:59
Speaker
I think that there is, we have some deep cultural pressures that we are encouraged to
00:34:08
Speaker
look towards negative things as they is more real.
00:34:12
Speaker
Like if you get too optimistic or you see yourself in too high regards, people say, you need to face reality.
00:34:18
Speaker
It's like, well, you know, part of reality is this amazingness that is me.
00:34:24
Speaker
Part of the reality is this incredible possibilities.
00:34:26
Speaker
And I think that anytime we have supportive friends or networks or communities or
00:34:33
Speaker
maybe a digital portrait of ourselves that helps us to see that, you know what, reality also is this miraculous possibility.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:41
Speaker
And we get to play in it.
00:34:43
Speaker
Let's play, right?
00:34:45
Speaker
How can we enjoy this life and be in this like incredibly dynamic world, right?
00:34:52
Speaker
And play is such an important part of it.
00:34:54
Speaker
And it feels like that this, this technology is giving people an opportunity to get creative and get play and think outside the box and see themselves in new light and,
00:35:03
Speaker
It's really amazing.
00:35:06
Speaker
Well, I have been enjoying playing with you guys very, very much.
00:35:09
Speaker
Before we come to a close, any closing thoughts on this?
00:35:14
Speaker
Well, we'll never close it, but maybe some final thoughts on these, our manifestations of our avatars in digital or non-digital ways.
00:35:25
Speaker
Yes, I have a spark.
00:35:28
Speaker
I would say that the closing piece on here is to give ourselves permission to express through dress.
00:35:35
Speaker
Put on something you haven't worn in a while that makes you feel fabulous.
00:35:38
Speaker
And also in that regard, support local artists.
00:35:41
Speaker
You know, I put on these really fun, fabulous earrings today because they make me feel really just magical.
00:35:48
Speaker
And they were made by a dear friend.
00:35:50
Speaker
And so I love getting to support local artists and visionary artists while also getting to express myself in my own avatar.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:00
Speaker
And speaking of that, depending on where you at one time you were listening to this, it could be the holiday time of the year when we get pulled into the obligation to buy things for people.
00:36:10
Speaker
And the way to get out of that is to buy things from artists.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:15
Speaker
You know, you can get a win, win, win.
00:36:17
Speaker
Make the person that you're gifting to feel great.
00:36:20
Speaker
You can make the creator of the art feel great and then you can feel great and you can turn the obligation of the gifting season into just a amplification
00:36:29
Speaker
of goodness in the world.
00:36:32
Speaker
Which is a great approach.
00:36:33
Speaker
It's a win-win-win all around.
00:36:37
Speaker
And yeah, it's a,
00:36:39
Speaker
It's a brave new world that we are in and it is really, and things are coming at you fast.
00:36:44
Speaker
Things are coming at us fast.
00:36:45
Speaker
And so we can do all the things.
00:36:49
Speaker
There's no real, I don't believe there's a choice to be made.
00:36:52
Speaker
Like we can do the new thing, which is great and it's fun and it's easy in a lot of ways.
00:37:00
Speaker
And we can continue to support artists.
00:37:02
Speaker
We can continue to be artists and know that,
00:37:07
Speaker
as long as we're following our hearts, the universe, the universe, you cannot, you cannot go wrong following your heart.
00:37:13
Speaker
It doesn't matter what avenue you're going into.
00:37:15
Speaker
So, so just stick with that.
00:37:18
Speaker
The universe has your back and you are always supported.
00:37:21
Speaker
It's all to your benefit.
00:37:22
Speaker
So just yeah, just keep being true to yourself and you're going to find yourself in a good company.
00:37:31
Speaker
This is a I think today actually is the 21st anniversary of me registering the domain name cocky bastard dot com.
00:37:40
Speaker
And it was a time when I was pursuing self love at a time when I was struggling with self esteem.
00:37:46
Speaker
And as I tried to express online the idea of being the protagonist of my own epic myth that I think the Internet gives us that tool and these new tools are extending that possibility of being the protagonist of our own epic myth.
Tools for Well-being: Supplements and Journals
00:37:59
Speaker
But
00:38:00
Speaker
if i mentioned the idea of self-love people were for sure going to call me a cocky bastard so i just kind of owned it and so i think it's beautiful that i'm celebrating this uh 21st birthday as so much of the world is stepping into this acceptance of their potential and their self-love and may we all be cocky in in our celebrations of self and our communities
00:38:27
Speaker
Oh, before we close up, Yanus, where can people find you online and what is your offering for the world in case they want to do some shopping?
00:38:39
Speaker
For anyone who wants to do some shopping, you can check the show links for the website for my company, which is newworldnutritionals.com.
00:38:48
Speaker
It's N-U-world nutritionals.
00:38:51
Speaker
We have a line of nutritional supplements.
00:38:54
Speaker
Our premier product is called Micromicill Plus, which is an excellent product based on all natural ingredients, mushrooms, amino acids, herbs, ingredients.
00:39:05
Speaker
to help anything with the brain, help with your mind, help keep you focused, alert, relaxed.
00:39:13
Speaker
It's good for, you know, reducing symptoms of like anxiety, depression, ADHD, things like that.
00:39:19
Speaker
It's a really good supplement, especially this time of year to kind of help you, keeps you calm, keeps you focused, lets you get stuff done.
00:39:27
Speaker
So, which is, we can all use a little help with that sometimes.
00:39:30
Speaker
So yeah, check it out, newworldnutritionals.com.
00:39:34
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:39:35
Speaker
How about you, Betsy?
00:39:37
Speaker
In a very similar vein, I love helping people to feel good about themselves in a different way.
00:39:43
Speaker
So my company is called Power Affirmation, and I offer a journal that helps with positive self-reflection, reprogramming, limiting beliefs, which
00:39:53
Speaker
essentially helps us to feel more relaxed and at ease, reduces depression, helps to cultivate a greater sense of self.
00:40:02
Speaker
And the journal is prompted to help you really get into a practice of consistency and programming our thoughts in a way that can help us feel really good.
00:40:13
Speaker
So yeah, you can check out power affirmation.com to find the journal.
00:40:17
Speaker
And also I empower people virtually to go through the journal together and working on building a community of affirmation enthusiasts.
Conclusion: Affirmations for Personal Evolution
00:40:28
Speaker
Unbelievable.
00:40:29
Speaker
And I heard a rumor that maybe there was a discount code for listeners of this show.
00:40:34
Speaker
Is that is that true?
00:40:37
Speaker
Yes, maybe for both Betsy and myself, I believe the code would be Sparked.
00:40:43
Speaker
Put in Sparked.
00:40:45
Speaker
Yay, awesome.
00:40:46
Speaker
Type in Sparked in the discount code and you will make my cat very happy.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yay, so look at this.
00:40:53
Speaker
We're back to win, win, win, winning.
00:40:55
Speaker
So thank you.
00:40:57
Speaker
Before we say enjoy this day, Betsy, would you close us with an affirmation?
00:41:03
Speaker
I would love to.
00:41:05
Speaker
In the spirit of celebrating who we are and the evolution of who we are becoming, the affirmation is, I love who I am and I love who I'm becoming.
00:41:16
Speaker
Say it with me.
00:41:17
Speaker
I love who I am and I love who I'm becoming.
00:41:21
Speaker
I love who I am and I love who I'm becoming.
00:41:25
Speaker
I love who I am and I love who I'm becoming.
00:41:28
Speaker
One more time.
00:41:29
Speaker
I love who I am and I love who I'm becoming.
00:41:33
Speaker
Remembering that we can celebrate who we are and this beautiful evolution of who we are becoming.
00:41:39
Speaker
Thank you, Betsy.
00:41:40
Speaker
Thank you, Yonews.
00:41:42
Speaker
Stay sparked, everyone.