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78. Gabe Nosseir - The Spirit of Sport
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This is episode 78, where we welcome Gabe Nosseir to the show. Gabe is a dedicated father, coach, shamanic practitioner, entrepreneur, and mentor with a passion for helping others unlock their full potential. Holding a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling, he has successfully coached soccer teams and players at every level, from youth and college to semi-professional and professional. In addition, he has built thriving businesses in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Gabe’s unique ability to blend shamanic philosophy with the physical demands of sports offers a fascinating perspective, sparking a deep and meaningful conversation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Pursuit of Infinity Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Pursuit of Infinity, a podcast where we journey into the landscapes of consciousness and beyond, diving deep into the realms of psychedelics, metaphysics, and more.
00:00:11
Speaker
This is episode 78, where we welcome Gabe Nosere. Gabe is a dedicated father, coach, shamanic practitioner, entrepreneur, and mentor with a passion for helping others unlock their full potential.
00:00:24
Speaker
Holding a master's degree in mental health counseling, he has successfully coached soccer teams and players at every level, from youth to college to semi-professional and professional.
00:00:35
Speaker
In addition, he has built thriving businesses in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Gabe Nosere's Background and Philosophy
00:00:40
Speaker
Most interestingly though, Gabe's unique ability to blend shamanic philosophy with the physical demands of sports offers a very fascinating perspective, which sparked a deep and meaningful conversation.
00:00:53
Speaker
But before we get to it, as always, you can visit our website, pursuitofinfinity.com, where you can listen to the podcast through our integrated media player. If you'd prefer that over Spotify, Apple, or Audible, any of the other podcast platforms, we are on all of them.
00:01:07
Speaker
You can also find all the places you can follow us there and reach out to us using our email form or our audio feature. Give us a follow on Instagram at Pursuit of Infinity Pod and head over to our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash at Pursuit of Infinity, where we post all of our episodes and shorts.
00:01:25
Speaker
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00:01:41
Speaker
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00:01:54
Speaker
Thank you for listening. And I hope you enjoy this episode.
Coaching Philosophy and Consciousness Integration
00:02:12
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to Pursuit of Infinity. I'm your host, Josh, and today I'm joined by Gabe Nosere. Gabe, thank you so much for joining me today. You're welcome, Josh. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
00:02:23
Speaker
I appreciate it, man. Now, you have an expertise in two of my absolute favorite topics. Those are consciousness work and shamanism and also athletics. So take me back to the very beginning. How did this all start for you?
00:02:39
Speaker
Oh, man, that's a how far in the beginning do you want to go, first of all, because I can go back to when I first started playing soccer. As far back as you feel necessary. Yeah, so i I'm half Brazilian, and so soccer's been in my blood for generations, and very much in the culture. I was born in Brazil and just raised in that environment, even though I lived in the US pretty much most of my life, I still had a lot of Brazilian influence. So I started playing when I was young and then I had a somewhat extremely average playing career and eventually found myself coaching right out of high school. And then I was a much, much better coach than I was a soccer player.
00:03:27
Speaker
So I got into that and I really became addicted to getting better and better and better at that and realized I had a lot of skills, natural skills to help people achieve more of their potential.
00:03:41
Speaker
and That's something that I feel I didn't receive as a player. had good coaches, but they didn't unlock what needed to be unlocked until finally I was able to unlock it much later.
00:03:55
Speaker
you know and Every athlete goes through that. They have to essentially do it themselves. but um i I started coaching with the intention of wanting everyone I worked with to make sure that they felt or didn't feel like I did, like they had so much more to give.
00:04:13
Speaker
So ah even though i I didn't have a great playing career, that really thrust me into helping others and to coaching. And so I coached for many years.
00:04:25
Speaker
I fell in the soccer industry. I ended up starting a business while I was coaching ah an indoor soccer arena. And that continued to build and build build over years and years and years. And I was coaching this very high level youth soccer team that was nationally ranked in the top 10 for the last three years of their age group.
00:04:48
Speaker
And, When I was coaching them, I felt this call to consciousness. And I had studied psychology in college and ended up getting a master's degree in counseling.
00:05:01
Speaker
And so I was applying these tools while I was coaching this team. And i remember the very first book that kind of like set the tone into a deeper level of consciousness was the four agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
00:05:15
Speaker
And at that time, my team was, they were 16 year olds and, you know, as I said, they were nationally ranked, so they were a little arrogant and thought they knew better, as most 16-year-olds do. and they kind of started this A couple of players started a little bit of a revolution within the team.
00:05:33
Speaker
and um i started I was reading this book, so I started reading it to them. so Every day after practice, I would read a few pages to them and And really, they could start to see how they were applying the things in the book to their their lives, especially be careful with your work, right? That was one of the big things because they weren't. So It's really interesting to kind of combine those two, you know, that i we do the field coaching, then I do essentially the consciousness coaching after the fact.
00:06:04
Speaker
And I feel like it really had a big influence.
Career Transition and Shamanism Exploration
00:06:06
Speaker
You know, we had some people leave the team, some new players came on. And actually, one of the players that started this, what I call a little bit of a revolution, 16-year-old boy revolution, ah ended up coming back to the team and apologized to me and saw ah kind of the influence of his words and what they And He was sincerely apologetic and we're very close. He was actually part of a group that ended up buying my business, my indoor soccer arena.
00:06:32
Speaker
So I was yeah very blessed um to have run this indoor soccer arena for close to 20 years and was just ready to get out. I felt this big call to start to do something deeper.
00:06:45
Speaker
So I started working with a transformative life coach and really opened my eyes to a much deeper world and especially what I now call metacognitive awareness. And that's the fact that our thinking is always creating our reality in the moment.
00:07:02
Speaker
So I started working with this coach. I became trained by him, did his program to become a certified coach and slowly started to sell off parts of the indoor soccer arena.
00:07:16
Speaker
And then COVID hit and it was, we were one of the most strict States here in New Mexico. So we ended up being closed down for 14 months and In the middle of that, I went through a massive like transformation ah within myself. I went through a massive dark night of the soul and really like brought myself ah to a level of awareness that something deep needed to be healed within me and habits needed to change. I think COVID kind of did that for a lot of us, specifically lockdowns, where we were isolated socially, physically, ah for us, recreationally here in New Mexico for quite a while.
00:07:56
Speaker
And so I decided to sell the business ah and I reached out to one of my former players who got this group of couple of the other ah guys from the team that I coached.
00:08:08
Speaker
And they said, all right, yep, we'll buy it from you. You just need to wait till we're open. So yeah know we had to wait a few months. And as soon as we opened, we transitioned to um the them taking over the business.
00:08:22
Speaker
So um in the middle of all that, once I was kind of going through my dark night of the soul, I got introduced to shamanism um through my former partner who started doing this one-year shamanic studies class.
00:08:35
Speaker
And then I decided to do the ah class as well. It was really profound and life-changing. So was doing the life coaching I had the business experience, soccer coaching experience, working with athletes, more on the month the mental side of things, the spiritual side of things as well.
00:08:56
Speaker
And then added in the shamanic element as well. And now, you know, all the pieces are of the puzzle are kind of, I can see them now and putting them together into this next chapter of my life.
00:09:08
Speaker
So that's the the short story of the long story. I love it. I love it. um What was the basis of the revolution that these kids formed against you?
00:09:24
Speaker
So they thought um at that point, you know i and I had coached this team. If I were to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't do it the same way. ah But I coached this team from the point when they were nine years old.
00:09:38
Speaker
and continued with them all the way to 18 years old. And that's kind of a no-no in soccer. Kids need like fresh ideas and you know um that fresh voice. So you know we didn't have all the same players that we did from when they were nine years old at this point.
00:09:52
Speaker
But essentially, you know we had some new guys ah guys come in and one of them was only on the team for a couple years, but essentially he was saying, Gabe can only take us so far and we need someone else to take us to reach our potential.
00:10:07
Speaker
So, um you know, he's told this to some of the other players. And then i you know, I took it upon myself to start reading this to them, the four agreements, but also I took it.
00:10:22
Speaker
um to push me to be like, you know what, I'm going to listen to what they're saying, because they feel like maybe I'm not, essentially, they're saying I'm not good enough for to take them where they wanted to go, because they're very competitive.
00:10:38
Speaker
And so I said, all right, let me be a better coach. And um so I kept pushing myself, which I was already doing, but you know apparently I needed to go further. So I didn't take it so personally, even though I was really upset with him.
00:10:51
Speaker
um So you know I continued my education with soccer coaching and to be a well-rounded coach, because it's not just about what you do on the field. that There's so much more to coaching than the X's and O's.
00:11:06
Speaker
And so, um and it's ironic that, you maybe not ironic, but it was justice in my head ah that we ended up making it to the regional final that year, you know, in the way youth soccer works, all the state champions west of us and north of us, at least we're in New Mexico. So we're kind of like that bottom right part of the rectangle, but we play all the state champions west and north of us.
00:11:33
Speaker
And so we ended up losing a really heartbreaking game to Cal South team, which, you know, Cal South is always one of the ah top teams, or at least it was the, the landscape of youth soccer has changed so much since I was coaching, but essentially this is what was going on back then. So, you know, we were close to reaching the national championships.
00:11:54
Speaker
So, you know, I think I proved to myself that I was able to do it and, You know, oh for me, I'm the type of person, if somebody doubts me and I have passion about what I'm doing, then I'm going to make myself try and master whatever I'm doing.
00:12:13
Speaker
Yeah, and there's a very important lesson there because not only are you pushing yourself to master your craft, but you're recognizing potential flaws within your game, potential flaws within your coaching style. Because some people, you know they would just look down at their subordinates and say, like I know better than you do. you know But you were able to sort of take their information, even though they were younger, their subordinates, um and grow according to their criticism, which I think is just a great thing.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah. You know, ah kids, and they were 16-year-olds, but they were still kids. you know They are always giving messages to us if we're listening.
00:12:54
Speaker
you know I have children. I have a 10-year-old right now. um I have a 24-year-old who I raised since she was seven. and I'm not her biological father, but I'm her father in every other way.
00:13:06
Speaker
And both of my children taught me so much in my life. And you know at first, especially with my daughter, I was taking things personally, right? And I was trying to be the the one saying, no, i'm I'm the superior person in this relationship. You need to listen to me.
00:13:24
Speaker
And um with the help of her therapist and going to family therapy, I learned like, oh, she's actually communicating with me, not always in the most helpful way.
00:13:35
Speaker
most beneficial and constructive way, but she is telling me something and I'm the adult here and I'm the one who needs to change and to evolve. And i was lucky to do that with her and it's benefited my son tremendously who he still teaches me as well, you know, of like, Hey, when when I'm pushing too much, um you know, he will let me know.
00:13:58
Speaker
But it's also, you know, I have to take into account too. Like sometimes, you know, the parent does need to push the child just enough. to continue to move forward. But with at least with my personality, know, it's a matter of being very conscious of how much to push him.
00:14:14
Speaker
With working with athletes and soccer players, it's much easier to push them because it's my job. And I don't have to worry too much about the unconditional love that needs to go behind parenting a child.
Parental Influence in Competitive Sports
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'll tell you, man, I wish that I had coaches that were more like you, ah because I'll tell you, I've had some hardheaded coaches in my day. I grew up from first grade all the way to a um senior in high school wrestling.
00:14:43
Speaker
And then after that, I i ah had a little bit of an amateur boxing career, too. um And I had some coaches that, you know, were very hard headed and did not have any sort of an idea of the work of consciousness or the types of ah philosophical belief systems that um are found in books like ah The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz, fantastic book.
00:15:07
Speaker
um So, yeah, I think that is so beneficial because that's missing from not only sports, but that type of philosophy is missing from our educational system as well. And, you know, as we know, the educational system in this country is often tied directly into our sports teams.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. ah The conscious revolution that's been happening and that kind of has excelled since COVID, at least in my opinion, and the opinion many other people, is going across all platforms of life, ah including sports. You're seeing coaches you know that are much more aware and much more conscious and trying to balance that kind of blue collar mentality that you and I grew up with.
00:15:53
Speaker
with coaches right that you just push yourself to limits and you don't talk back and you just suck it up and those kind of things uh coaches nowadays are much more aware not all of them not 100 of the time of course because they're humans right and we're all in our different kind of levels of where we're at with our our awareness and our consciousness but overall the universe is asking for our planet our people to increase their level of awareness. So of course, it's going to go across all fields. And that's what I do. And what I have taken it upon myself to do is to be the guy on the bridge that's helping people from the sports field come over to the more conscious side of things, because I've lived in both worlds, both the super, you know, sports performance and drive type areas, and then also the conscious revolution, consciousness revolution that's going on right now.
00:16:49
Speaker
Did you have trouble ever with the parents of the kids you were coaching? Just be laughing is an answer enough. Yes, it's funny because I actually dedicated long part of my, a short part of my journey as a coach to specifically that.
00:17:10
Speaker
I started a podcast called Clarity for Parents of Athletes. And it was all because it was propelled by my experience with with coaches and, or I'm sorry, with parents.
00:17:23
Speaker
And, um, You know, anytime you have a high level, anything, and it's youth are involved, the parents are going to get involved too, especially when there's a pay to play model, um which I had.
00:17:36
Speaker
So my parents were paying money to travel. And, you know, like I said, top 10 in the country, college scholarships were at stake. So there was a lot of parental interference, which was uncomfortable, of course, but.
00:17:51
Speaker
you know It motivated me to have a really cool podcast. That's a good thing. um yeah you know as a As a wrestler, a lot of my teammates had issues with their parents you know because you have a few different types of parents. You've got like the very laid-back parents who are just hanging around. you know They come to the matches and they're there to support their kids.
00:18:16
Speaker
Then you have the parents who are like very supportive of their kids, very loving, would never miss a match, are always there in the corner trying to support their kid.
00:18:27
Speaker
And then you'd see some of these parents that were just insane. And you could tell that, I don't know what the dynamic was, you know trying to maybe psychologically analyze them if they're like living through their children or if they're just...
00:18:42
Speaker
They just get overly upset when their kid would lose. And with a sport that is so individualized as wrestling was, the gamut was ah wide ranging. And sometimes you would see some real like severe cases of so of abuse.
00:18:58
Speaker
and public abuse at that. And then those types of parents were the ones that would often aggressively approach coaches. i've got it i mean I've got so many stories, um you know some actually including my parents too, which were it was ah quite uncomfortable for me. um Have you ever had any parents like come at you and like maybe not violently, but you know aggressively come after you for something you may not have done or may have done on the field?
00:19:27
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. There's one that came came to mind right away. we were my team was in phoenix They were the time. And we were playing a big tournament. It was SC Del Sol President's Day Tournament. It's like pretty big tournament.
00:19:46
Speaker
And in our bracket, we were playing the Arizona fourth place team. So the semifinalists from Arizona. We also had ah region four semifinalists from Arizona. So the state champion.
00:19:59
Speaker
um And who else did we have? We had a region two semifinalist from Ohio. And then we were region at that time, we were region for semifinalists also. So three regional semifinalists and then this fourth place team.
00:20:16
Speaker
And we started with the fourth place team from Arizona. So this was kind of our easiest game of our bracket. And i you know We were winning the game. I don't know what the score was, maybe four or five zero.
00:20:32
Speaker
And I pulled out one of my forwards, who is one of our better players, but I wanted to give him a break. He wasn't the most physically fit for a tournament like this, where you're playing you know two games one day, two games the next day, and then a semi and then a final.
00:20:49
Speaker
It's a lot of games. Um, so his dad, um, so after I pulled this, this player off one of my, my other forward, cause I played with two forwards at the time.
00:21:00
Speaker
Um, he stayed on and he scored like two or three goals, had maybe an c assist. I can't remember exactly. And so after the game, you know, i think it ended up being like seven, one or something like that.
00:21:12
Speaker
And I'm walking to the parking lot and the dad comes up to me of the player that I benched. And it wasn't bench. It was just resting him. And he, this guy went off on me, you know, and I'm like about how I pulled his son off and that he's fit enough to play all these games and, you know, and then was insulting the other player that was scoring these goals and,
00:21:34
Speaker
I was like, well, I was really perturbed and upset um by him. And we ended up winning the tournament. you know um And, um you you know, so again, justice kind of prevailed at that point, you know, but yeah. Yeah.
00:21:52
Speaker
you know I've had i had another run and actually ironically with the player that stayed in like a couple years later, his dad approached me before the tournament even started. ah In Orlando, this was like one of the biggest tournaments ah in the country is called Disney Showcase. And His dad approached me in an elevator as I was heading into a team meeting with the boys before the tournament and was just asking me if I was going to mess around with the lineup and this and that like I did in this previous college showcase, which is totally different than a tournament. it's just getting
00:22:24
Speaker
players out there in front of college coaches. So there's no need to win or lose, you know? um So yeah yeah, you know, when their, their minds, their stakes are high, right.
00:22:35
Speaker
um Now I can see they were approaching me out of fear, right. Fear that something wasn't going to happen for their son, right. That they lose an opportunity. And ah both of these players ended up having, you know, one of them went to college. The other one went and played professionally.
00:22:51
Speaker
and so you know, It's amazing what parents will do because they're humans, right? um So it's amazing what humans will do, I should say, especially when it comes to their children, if they have some sort of fear.
00:23:06
Speaker
And I can empathize from from that. I can't empathize the behavior, but I can empathize the fear that that is behind it.
Understanding Shamanism's Roots and Practices
00:23:14
Speaker
um And that's the part of, I think, this revolution of consciousness is to become more aware of our fears and what are they pointing at.
00:23:23
Speaker
And essentially that we're not trusting in somebody or trusting in the process ah for ourselves or for our children. And that's a tough thing, but that's essentially, that is the game right now.
00:23:37
Speaker
ah that's That's, everybody is playing and some people are highly aware of it. Some people are somewhat aware of it, but maybe not understand the magnitude of it. And some people completely unconscious to that fact itself.
00:23:54
Speaker
So are you still working with younger people or are you working with older people, professionals? What's sort of the gamut of the age range? ah All of the above. um You know, I've yeah worked with my work is primarily best for children.
00:24:11
Speaker
players 14 and older, 14 is really pushing it um because it you know the brain development and the idea behind these things, like the frontal lobe needs to be developed in order to feel this like critical thinking.
00:24:26
Speaker
And so, ah yeah, it's from youth players up into professionals that I've worked with. um But really, anybody can can use this stuff. Yeah, one of the main things that was super interesting to me about you was I went to your web website and it just said like shamanic practitioner. And I'm like, whoa, shamanic practitioner. Like, all right, because I myself study shamanism.
00:24:51
Speaker
And I love to ask people who claim to be shamanic practitioners, what does shamanism mean to you? Because I mean, the definition of shamanism can be very, very wide ranging. So again, I pose the question, what is shamanism to you?
00:25:07
Speaker
So to me, shamanism is has its roots in indigenous wisdom and and culture and the lineage behind it. There's a deep, deep connection to nature and all the allies, the spirit animals, the elements, the trees, everything, you know, everything around us.
00:25:29
Speaker
And the idea of the fact, i love to use this metaphor of like the force, right? That we are the force. We are spirit and your spirit and everyone around us is spirit.
00:25:42
Speaker
Everything around us is spirit. We're all interconnected and there's no separation, right? um And then there's also the idea of working through your ego to operate more from your essence.
00:25:58
Speaker
And I use ego as just the term, you know, because there's healthy ego, but then there's also unhealthy egos. But, you know, for... The sake of how ego is typically used, I'll just keep using that, but you can say the false self essentially, right?
00:26:13
Speaker
That we operate from the false self, which is out of fear. And then our essence is operating from love. So it's basically um looking at your fears and working through them in order to achieve operating from your essence much more, which increases your personal power. Shamanism, there's a big piece of it, is developing your personal power because we're spirits, so we're frequency, right? So it's like turning up the dimmer on a light switch so we can vibrate a lot more when our power is strong. And we can develop power um physically by what we put into our bodies, um we can yeah which includes plants and plant plants.
00:26:54
Speaker
medicines, or both the psychoactive, but also the non-psychoactive medicines as well. They're so powerful in themselves. You don't always need to ah go into the outer space world in order to their astral plane, in order to gain power.
00:27:11
Speaker
But it does help um yeah for some people, not everybody. um So ah another big part of shamanism, what I've found that we call them bid for power in our community.
00:27:24
Speaker
And it's doing something that's going to push you mentally, physically as well. um It's just like, you know, when you're ah training for wrestling, I remember I never tried to wrestle.
00:27:38
Speaker
ah But when you have those pegboards, right, that you're climbing up the wall with those pegboards, right? And there's a tremendous amount of upper body strength and core strength. You know, it's like training like that so that your wrestling match will be easier.
00:27:52
Speaker
Right. So the bid for power is doing something that's extremely uncomfortable physically, mentally, emotionally um in order to really flourish spiritually when you're back on the ground and on the mat of life, so to speak.
00:28:06
Speaker
You know, and and then you end up flourishing physically as well because you're like, oh, I've already been here, done that. And so those are kind of, to me, the foundations of shamanism as well. And then, of course, you do need ah to operate with an altered state sometimes. And like I mentioned, plant medicine does help that, but it's also you can do breath work. Meditation is also altered states as well.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, I love the connection you made between the difficulty of putting yourself through a sort of, we'll say, an initiation. you know Whether that initiation is shamanic through plant medicine or physically through working out, that these things are all sort of initiations. And I feel like initiations are missing from our society. um So I think it's really important that you merge these two things Very important facets of initiatory action.
00:29:02
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, we're in a state now that, at least with parenting, we have a lot of helicopter parents who want to protect their kids from any kind of discomfort.
00:29:17
Speaker
And, you know, yeah we want to protect them from obviously life threatening things or some some kind of physical harm. But, you know, what i when I work with parents, which I've done a lot of workshops with parents, I tell them of like, OK, think about the times in your life where you became a stronger person.
00:29:35
Speaker
It was always through some sort of like difficult situation in your life. Right. And they say yes. And I say, OK, why would you want to take that kind of adversity away from your child?
00:29:47
Speaker
and And so, you know, life has its initiations, but also you're right, like there are certain initiations that indigenous cultures ah used to put on their children, right? So that they could become Stronger people as they became adults, whatever it was, some sort of hunting by themselves um or, you know, some kind of nature solo where they're, you know, have to fend for themselves for three days or vision quests, different things like that.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, vision quests being, at this point in my life, ah the most interesting types of types of initiations for me. you know I had plenty of you know different varieties of initiations you know throughout my my life, but the most interesting by far have been through plant medicine.
00:30:40
Speaker
Has plant medicine experience changed you in any ways? Have you delved into that world pretty deeply? Yeah. Yeah, i laugh again because it's kind of one of those questions that are like, oh my goodness, yes.
00:30:54
Speaker
Tremendously. you know I started very recreationally in my days and and even then I could see the impact that plant medicine had even though it was for recreational and activities. you know And then when it got into more intention and consciousness-based activities,
00:31:15
Speaker
ah things started to go up. And then when I started yeah studying shamanism, then it became about deep intention and also ah combining it with my my work or my ah educational background as a counselor.
00:31:29
Speaker
Then it really became about healing, healing deep wounds. And it's had such a profound impact. ah significance on my life. I can't even like really find the proper words to describe it. It's just, it's maybe I can try, but, um, an old client of mine, um, he, were having a talk recently and he was saying, um, he was talking to somebody else about plant medicine and I just happened to be there. And he was saying, it's like 10 years of therapy in one night.
00:32:03
Speaker
And, it That can be true you know um for a lot of people. it's so It's had such an amazing impact on my my life. I'm just very grateful for the medicines, but also i'm grateful for the my therapists and also different practitioners who have helped me kind of put the pieces, you know, because plant medicine essentially like shatters big part of you.
00:32:30
Speaker
And if you don't have somebody to support to you, especially ah ah neutral professional, which I found is very helpful, you know, to kind of make sense of all the pieces.
00:32:41
Speaker
And essentially, it's like, you know, it shatters like a puzzle, right? And then you're putting the pieces back together, but it looks like a different picture. that's where the help comes in. and that's what I urge anybody doing plant medicine is to make sure you have proper support afterward.
Unconditional Love and Consciousness Journey
00:33:00
Speaker
And you're not just going in like, okay, I'm going to go drink some ayahuasca and then, you know, have a very brief integration with the group. And then I'm on my own because the real work can appear for weeks and months after any kind of ceremony or experience.
00:33:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And you know you mentioned earlier that plant medicine is not for everyone, and I wholeheartedly agree. i i like to say that psychedelics and plant medicine are for anyone, but not for everyone, because they really require you to bring a certain something to the experience. And that certain something is very dependent upon your needs, who you are, what you've been through.
00:33:45
Speaker
your level of maturity at the time, your intentions. I mean, there are just so many moving parts and the experiences can just get so insane that you have to have a grounded support system, as you said, before, during, and after the experience. um And if you do it correctly, as it seems like you have, you know, they can, as you say, shatter your reality. And then what's left when you put the pieces back together is this just purity of compassion and love. And I've heard you say it on other podcasts and recordings before, you know the importance and the impact of unconditional love in our lives.
00:34:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's what it's all about. And we can have a hard time achieving that because it's hard to have unconditional love for somebody if you don't have unconditional love for yourself and that's where it all starts um and is a big part of of my work and right it's because it's like you're trying to get to a goal of unconditional love and you can get there in little moments you can feel that and that's the beauty of medicine is it shows you right you like take a peek behind the curtain you're like oh this is what unconditional love feels like because
00:35:05
Speaker
the plants have unconditional love, you know, the animals have unconditional love. They're beautiful models for us. Um, and when you end a ceremony, you essentially like kind of close those curtains back up sometimes.
00:35:23
Speaker
Uh, it's hard to have them open all the time, but essentially after medicine, you can like with enough practice and with enough conscious intention, keep those, the curtains open more and more and more.
00:35:37
Speaker
And even then it's still sometimes you need reminders because, We're humans, we're going to have judgments and opinions, or we're going to have feelings and, you know, we can get lost in our story, lost behind our thoughts so easily with the right drop into unconsciousness second again, even if it's for a brief moment that we have to kind of pull ourselves out and we're like, Oh, yeah, I forgot I'm supposed to love everyone unconditionally.
00:36:02
Speaker
You know, yeah. which can be a really always that always does remain though right it's like you open the curtain up you close the curtain but there's still just like a little peak of the pure light of diamond luminosity that you know peaks through and then when you remember that light and you feel it within your being you remember oh wait You know, when I'm starting to feel pissed off, maybe I should be more compassionate toward myself and everyone else.
00:36:31
Speaker
It's just that little inkling. It's like a little seed that gets planted in the back of your mind that you can't forget. You know, I hear people always say, you know, once you open that door, you can't fully close it. And that can be kind of just destabilizing for some people, but I find it immensely comforting.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah. I will never forget when I started my one-year shamanic studies program and one of our teachers, he said essentially that was like, when you start on this path, like you can't get off of it.
00:37:02
Speaker
And if you try, you're going to be in big trouble. You know, it's essentially like taking the red pill from the matrix. Like your eyes are open and you're like, okay, I can't ever see the way it was in my mind ever again.
00:37:17
Speaker
you know And that can be a really hard hard thing for people. I was reading a book ah that talked about, and ah gave a story of some man who was so like aware and and consciousness or about um life and and spirit that he couldn't take it.
00:37:35
Speaker
His intuition was so like sensitive that he ended up having to drink alcohol in order to numb himself from being so awake and essentially falling back into being plugged back into the matrix.
00:37:48
Speaker
um It's a hard thing to take. Once you start on this path, like it's really a lot easier if you hold yourself into high integrity and you walk the talk. You can't just say like,
00:38:02
Speaker
you know, I'm this and then not show that you're that, you know, and even when you believe that you're that and believe that, you know, you're walking the talk, you still have to question yourself, you know, because like, it's so easy to fool yourself and that's right. Or spiritual bypass comes in.
00:38:22
Speaker
So ah yeah, it's, ah you know, it's, it's so interesting, at least for me, where I'm at currently, you know I've seen taking the red pill, well, many red pills.
00:38:34
Speaker
And you know i I now see people living in their unconsciousness. and And I watch behavior.
00:38:46
Speaker
I'm very careful with my judgments of others you know because that's a big part of my past. And you know and again i'm human. um So it's a matter of seeing somebody where they are and still like having that compassion.
00:39:01
Speaker
And for that, you've talked about. And every time I find myself spun up about somebody or a certain situation, i come back to compassion. And I have ah actually in my, my ah garden, I have a statue of Quan Yin is, you know, all about compassion and ascended master.
00:39:22
Speaker
And, you know, I go and I pray to her and I ask her to fill me with compassion. And she does every time. Sometimes it's through a test of like, here's this situation. now what are you going to do about it? And when I find myself having compassion and sometimes receiving knowledge from my therapist or from others, or just some sort of insight, when I drop into compassion, it just like,
00:39:49
Speaker
really helps me to operate back into a place of essence and and unconditional love.
00:39:59
Speaker
Okay, we had ah some technical difficulties there, but I believe we were on unconditional love. So let's start getting deeper and into unconditional love. Yeah, you're right. It's all about returning to unconditional love. And you know, that's a hard thing to to do when we're humans and we have ancestral patterns and traumas within ourselves because all those things, all of our programming, some that we didn't even, you know, sign up for in this lifetime just kind of came to us um from people who have been dead for generations, you know.
00:40:36
Speaker
um And of course, the things that we experience in our lives, the traumas, they do keep us from that unconditional love and ah You know, what I've found for me is anytime I'm having some issue with somebody or some situation, you know, I call on my allies and that's a big part of shamanism. One of my allies is Quan Yin. I have a statue outside in my garden. and You know, I do my prayers, especially prayers with Mapacha, with Peruvian tobacco um that, you know, I do the Bill Clinton. I don't inhale it, you know, just, you know,
00:41:15
Speaker
pull it in my mouth and then blow it out. But you know i I often pray to Kuan Yin and ask her to fill me with compassion. and And more often than not, she does. And in one way or another, where it's some sort of test, we're like, all right, you want compassion.
00:41:32
Speaker
Here's actually a test. And this is how the universe works, you know especially when you get into the plant medicine field. It's like, all right, you asked for this. this is what's going to look like. It's not going to be all easy and you know unicorns and rainbows. you know It's going to be like, here's a test for you to develop that.
00:41:51
Speaker
And I've been blessed enough to, have again, have practitioners, have a great therapist who is able to dissect things and to show me certain things for me to decide to have that compassion.
00:42:06
Speaker
and that unconditional love because it's always a decision you know you can't just be like okay i'm gonna wait for somebody to inject me with unconditional love no it has to come naturally and it's so much easier to do when you can have that compassion for yourself and that unconditional love for yourself and to forgive yourself for all the things you did when you were less conscious you know um What I've found for me personally is that where I'm at in my stage of my development and evolution is that I can see other people operating from a more unconscious version of themselves, or at least where they are currently, maybe through my judgments, maybe through, you know,
00:42:55
Speaker
um the lens that I'm seeing people, but it's essentially where I'm at in my development. But I can see these people mostly based. I try not to project. I try and just observe behaviors and how they're communicating.
00:43:09
Speaker
And to me, that shows a lot. So I i can see people, you know, kind of, treating their bodies certain ways, treating themselves in certain ways, treating others in certain ways.
00:43:21
Speaker
ah So I can see them now. And also I'm able to both see them as is and also have that compassion for them of where they are and to love them unconditionally.
00:43:33
Speaker
And the balance of like, hey, I can love you unconditionally as spirit. um And I can hold strong boundaries you know if I need to. And so it's like this little blend, which right now, you know, I'm not, a don't, I wouldn't call myself a master of that, but I'm working towards that of being able to see kind of what I deem as like destructive behavior or unconscious behavior, whatever you want to call it, but also loving them unconditionally at the same time.
00:44:02
Speaker
And also saying like, oh, I can love you unconditionally and not allow this into my life if it starts to come into my life.
Shamanism in Western Culture and Sports
00:44:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the most important balances that shamanism does teach you. And one of the ways that we hold ourselves back.
00:44:21
Speaker
um And it's interesting, you know you see shamanism is like reaching its tentacles into Western culture at a higher and higher rate as the years go on, it seems. um So as that's beginning to happen, I personally feel ah responsibility to show people and to teach people about what it actually means, what shamanism actually is.
00:44:43
Speaker
um So how do you show the quote-unquote uninitiated what shamanism is?
00:44:52
Speaker
you know It's a case-by-case basis, of course. um It depends on how open somebody is. If they flat out ask me, then I'll do it. and i'll I'll say as much as I feel is necessary to come out. you know Sometimes...
00:45:11
Speaker
You know, this may be my judgment of myself, but sometimes I feel like just spirit is speaking through me, you know, which I am spirit, but you know what I mean? Like, you know, where it's not really me that's that's talking. I'm just kind of channeling something higher.
00:45:28
Speaker
um Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. um But... um you know i Again, it's a case-by-case basis. I don't go out and say, well, a big part of is plant medicine. You should go drink some ayahuasca and go to the Peruvian jungle and work with shamans. I don't say that kind of stuff.
00:45:48
Speaker
um But um where everybody feels connected because they can relate more to this, it's the understanding and the awareness of the false self ah versus the essence, because we all have that.
00:46:06
Speaker
And there's not one person in this world that's not born with ego and with this the false self kind of running, steering the ship at times in their lives.
00:46:18
Speaker
And there's not anybody born without essence. yeah We're always born with the two of them. So that's something that they can relate to. That is quote unquote shamanism. a big part of shamanism but it's not necessarily you know too woo woo for them you know um And from my experience, people can understand that their frequency and there's something more. and i think ah so many people are out there craving that, craving something deeper for themselves, whether it's, you know religion for some, um which I think is essentially just, they're looking for spirituality through religion, you know, but I think so many more people are looking at true spirituality right now.
00:47:04
Speaker
you know, And that's the foundation of all religions, really. And then that's like the shamanic world right there, right? It's the foundation of all the religions operating from your heart, loving everybody, including yourself unconditionally.
00:47:18
Speaker
you know So um people can really relate to it and they're craving it. Yeah, I do see that too. um my My teacher always says to, as you kind of said earlier, meet people where they're at and show them instead of tell them.
00:47:39
Speaker
a lot of times through this path of shamanism, psychedelics, plant medicine, it shows more in your actions and how you've transformed and how you've changed as evidence to the potential for the power of transformation with these medicines. And, you know, he also said to me one time, I asked him, you know, how do you describe these things to people who aren't, you know, even open to it?
00:48:08
Speaker
um And he said, first, you start with an in the box conversation. you know You say, hey, these things have shown me you know a new level of happiness or a new level of love and compassion for the people around me. you know My job is easier now.
00:48:23
Speaker
I can handle stress easier now. My anxiety has lessened. And then people can say, okay, wow, that's interesting. um I've never experienced anything in my life that's actually affected my level of anxiety you know to the degree to which you're you're saying.
00:48:36
Speaker
And then you ask them, you know, are you willing to take this conversation out of the box now and talk a little bit further, you know, about what this stuff is? And some people are willing to, some people aren't.
00:48:49
Speaker
um But, you know, i think your language and the way that you discuss it and talk about it is very productive. It's a very good way to break it into the Western materialist mind that has been so prominent for hundreds of years, you know, in this country.
00:49:06
Speaker
Well, thank you. um Yeah, I you know feel that was kind of one of my my gifts I was given in this lifetime, or yeah depending on what philosophy you believe in that I chose in this lifetime, um was the ability to touch people differently.
00:49:27
Speaker
among a wide range of races and cultures and socioeconomic statuses um and to deliver those messages differently. I'm a Gemini, so, you know, communication is a big thing for Geminis.
00:49:43
Speaker
And, you know, Also, I feel like my background has really helped tremendously. you know i My father is Egyptian and he immigrated to Brazil and met my mom. So I'm Brazilian and Egyptian and i moved to the U.S. s and primarily raised in the U.S. s So Through my childhood, i had this belief that I was never Brazilian enough when I was in Brazil because I was mixed.
00:50:14
Speaker
In Egypt, I was never Egyptian enough. And in the U.S., I was never American enough, which is kind of ironic because you know we're the melting pot of the world. the world right but i still didn't feel like you know the typical american know with lighter skin and you know light hair um But what I realized later is that I'm actually can meld into all the different, all those cultures um because i was light skinned enough to still relate to a lot of American people.
00:50:55
Speaker
um But also like the know African Americans and Africans and African Europeans and feel connected to me because they know there's something like a little different, but I'm like dark enough to relate to them.
00:51:08
Speaker
And, um you know, same thing with the Arab, like, oh, you look Arab. I'm like, well, yeah, you know, i'm Egyptian. And, and I lived in Egypt for a little while and and in Yemen, or at the time it was South Yemen, it was an ununified.
00:51:23
Speaker
yeah um So I realized I'm more of i'm like a chameleon, you know where I can relate to so many different cultures and again, socioeconomic status, because I've lived in, like my parents were divorced and I lived in you know a lower socioeconomic status with one and a little bit higher socioeconomic status with the other. So yeah.
00:51:45
Speaker
That led to me to be able to communicate also across different cultures as well. And it's really helped me just naturally. I didn't plan on this. It just kind of happened naturally to be able to impact people on both sides of that bridge that I was talking about, the consciousness bridge and the athletic bridge.
00:52:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, and again, i know as I said earlier, I think that that really is such a perfect way to bridge you know these initiatory experiences and the consciousness work because I think what people underestimate about athletics um is its ability to promote consciousness work in itself. you know i've I've done some of my most intense consciousness work you know when I'm you you know wrestling or when I'm boxing. you know when When you're in the ring with a person who is coming at you and wants to hurt you, and you have to defend yourself and hurt them, you are taken to some of the deepest places that your mind and your body can go.
00:52:51
Speaker
And that's where some of the deepest consciousness work and some of the deepest growth is there. And I mean, I've always said, you know, I've never played soccer, but I have always respected soccer players to a degree. i mean, because...
00:53:08
Speaker
Soccer players have to be in the most immense shape to run up and down that field and maintain your composure, maintain your technique is so difficult.
00:53:21
Speaker
And it takes a very special type of person to be able to do it. And I think that applies to many, many athletic endeavors. here Yeah, all of them, really. I mean, you have to push yourself and go through grueling experiences in order to thrive and to be successful.
00:53:40
Speaker
And everything really is like a, it's a deep spiritual experience, you know, especially when you go through trials. And what I found um as ah especially a competitive coach and um when I was competing as a player, which I still did up to just recently,
00:53:58
Speaker
was you when you're faced with adversity, like how are you going to respond? And that's something that I love doing and love to not just do for myself, respond for myself, but get my teammates involved.
00:54:13
Speaker
to be on board with the same thing, but like, all right, this is what we're going to do. And I'm going to lead by example here. And that's the beauty of team sports. And you can do that in life as well. There's adversities all over the place. Sports just happens to be one platform.
00:54:29
Speaker
of it, you know, and that's the one i I'm extremely drawn to. But there's adversities all the time of just like, all right, I'm going to use my expletive here and say shit happens sometimes, you know, and how are we going to deal with it?
00:54:42
Speaker
And this is what we're going to do. You know, and there's so many things that I learned from sports. i Just like something happens. I had to like i remember ah the second we were in the regional final two years in a row in the second year.
00:54:57
Speaker
my best attacking player broke his wrist or maybe just above the wrist in the regional final, you know, and this is like 800 people watching us. It was intense. And I'm like, all right, there's no time to like do anything, but how do we solve this situation?
00:55:14
Speaker
You know, and we solved it. um And that's just how life is, you know, and you can train your emotional regularity to deal with circumstances, you know, to deal with those adversities that come up, you know, and, and it's, you know, everything is a spiritual experience and that's what you felt is wrestling. I'm sure. Right. It's like that deeply,
00:55:38
Speaker
spiritual like feeling there's something beyond the physical you know and that's how life is and that's how i i also tell people about shamanism is like a big part of a practitioner when i do a shamanic healing is like we got to focus on the physical the mental emotional and the spiritual side if even if we can't do it all in one healing, essentially, if you have some sort of injury, ailment, whatever, you have to address those four things or else it won't heal fully. you know And even then, sometimes it might not, but you have to give yourself a chance and focus in on those four elements.
00:56:13
Speaker
And that's how sports is, right? There's a physical element, there's a mental element, there's an emotional element, and there's a spiritual element.
Resilience and Learning in Sports and Life
00:56:19
Speaker
And right now, the spiritual element is becoming more and more profound, and the spotlight is shining on the importance of the spiritual element right now.
00:56:29
Speaker
Yeah, i could not agree more. Also, the concept of preparation, you know, whether it be through shamanism or sports, you must prepare and prepare and prepare more.
00:56:40
Speaker
You've got a train yourself, your body, your mind, and bring ah certain aspect to the experience. and And, you know, it's also funny, too, because you can train all you want, whether it be in a sport or within a shamanic ceremony, and things happen.
00:56:58
Speaker
might not go the way you thought or might not go the way that you hoped. And during that experience, again, whether it be in a ceremony or you know during a game, you have to learn the skills necessary to be able to pick yourself back up and continue on.
00:57:14
Speaker
And then also the ability to lose. you know My coaches, one of the greatest things that I've ever been taught from my coaches was the ability to lose gracefully. Because you're not always going to win, no matter what you do, sometimes you're just going to lose.
00:57:30
Speaker
And it's so important that when you're knocked down to have the ability and the mindset to be able to get back up again, again, we know whether that be through you know any sort of mental work or physical work.
00:57:43
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's the big bid for power, right? That I talked about a while ago. And that's a huge part of shamanism and those initiations. There are so many like natural initiations in life, you know, that happen.
00:57:58
Speaker
And training is a huge part of that. As you mentioned, you have to make your training be extremely difficult in order to make your competition be much easier and to be able to handle all those things, you know, as much as possible.
00:58:15
Speaker
it's natural for life. You have to do that in general. So I learned that luckily early. ah Well, maybe i could have learned it earlier, but you know I really learned ah in college, especially towards the last couple years of my college experience, putting myself in difficult situations.
00:58:33
Speaker
And every time I did that, I became ah stronger person. I learned that especially in grad school, um doing my counseling degree of having different things, different opportunities that I took and working with different types of people where I was like, all right, that's making me uncomfortable.
00:58:52
Speaker
So I'm going to do it because it's going to push me to be better. And it always did.
00:59:00
Speaker
Definitely, definitely, Gabe. And man, I appreciate your perspective, your insight, everything that you're doing. ah feel like people like you are pushing the world in a positive direction.
Conclusion and Offerings
00:59:13
Speaker
So I really respect you for that.
00:59:15
Speaker
um And as we begin to approach our hour mark here, I'd love it if you could just share anywhere people can find you, any offerings you might have that you want people to be aware of. Yeah, my website is aclearmind.com. So it's not clear mind, it's aclearmind.com.
00:59:34
Speaker
And I have a list of everything that I offer from shamanic healings to programs, coaching programs that I do with individual athletes.
00:59:45
Speaker
And also i have workshops that I do as well. And I can do those either in person or remotely. And those are really, really deep and profound things. um And yeah have my social media links on my website as well. ah you know Really, I'm here to serve people wherever they're at.
01:00:06
Speaker
And that's kind of my my task. My life task is to help people flourish and to really tap into their innate abilities.
01:00:19
Speaker
and to essentially increase their level of power and through awareness. So, you know, it doesn't have to be an athlete. It can be a ah parent of an athlete, or it can just be somebody who doesn't like sports at all and just wants to grow as a human being.
01:00:36
Speaker
So you'll find a lot of different things, unique things that I do on my website. Again, it's at clearmind.com. And thanks for the opportunity, Josh. Appreciate it.
01:00:47
Speaker
I appreciate it man. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.