Please note, this is an automated transcript so it is not 100% accurate.

Guy:
One of the most crushing moments of my life ended up becoming one of my greatest blessings. Because if I’d got what I wanted at the time, I would’ve missed some of the most meaningful experiences of my entire life. And that’s what I wanna share with you and explore on this podcast today. Let’s do it. So as you might know if you follow my podcast, I get to be in front of a lot of people, uh, through the work I do and While we all come with different reasons for coming to a retreat or coming to an event, uh, what we tend to notice, we can kind of put them into three categories. People are either lost in overwhelm.

Obviously, there might have been some kind of occurrence that has happened within their life, and it’s creating a huge amount of that feeling of overwhelm. Uh, people get lost in the noise, which can create stagnation, noise, stuck. There’s so many decisions. What do I do? I don’t know. And, and noise, overwhelm, they can kind of seem similar, but sometimes our, our lives are so busy and noisy, we don’t see the way through. And also then you can categorize people that get even lost in success. They’re lost in the m- the chase of the materialism, the career, the corporate career, entrepreneurs, business leaders. There’s a drive, there’s something underneath that that’s pushing them forward, and ultimately could even be distracting something that’s trying to get their attention all along, a wound that might have been held.

That was, that was for me anyway, uh, along this journey. And when we start to think about the soul, the heart, and our, what’s for our highest good, not from what the construct of the security and the mind and the way the body’s been conditioned to, uh, when we come against that, it can feel very scary resisting it, and sometimes it can feel like we’re free falling and don’t know what to do. Well, a long time ago, I made the commitment to myself to actually honor my heart and soul and listen more to that perspective and think of the bigger picture and not just instant gratification Alleviate the fear so, uh, I can then get on with my life.

But I really think of what is actually the shifts that are happening, uh, with humanity and people in general. We’re being asked to look at ourselves at a deeper level and have the courage to actually honor the heart and the soul aspect of ourselves more and more, which of course will, uh, ripple into more kindness, compassion, love, joy, and peace, even though that can feel like a million miles away, uh, for people that might be watching this, I don’t know, you know, just generalizing. But one thing that’s been coming up for me, and I wanna share this story hopefully to inspire you to, really reflect on some of the choices and decisions you might be making in your life, was that I remember I was living in London. this was going back to like 2002, 2003, so I was in my late 20s and I was living in Camden.

It was a cool part of town But I was miserable, to be honest with you, and I was in this place of waiting. I’d spent my 20s backpacking, living in Australia, and through, uh, avoiding, I guess, the wounds within myself, because I didn’t even know that at the time, uh, what I was actually trying to search for, I ended up, ended back in London and I applied for residency of Australia due to my unhappiness within myself and lack of self-belief and self-worth, which is in reflection, looking back at the time, that’s what was actually happening, even though I didn’t admit or own that at the time. I was in this kind of waiting phase of putting my life on hold, which in some ways created more misery. I don’t know if you know anything about applying for a residency in a different country, I just thought that I didn’t know what to do, so I thought that would at least give that a go and be the answer.

And ultimately, I was running away from myself, uh, even though I didn’t know it. So I’d kind of put all my eggs into this basket, if you like, and, 11 months later when the residency application came back to me, I got turned down and I was crushed. Honestly, I, I can still see myself there standing opening that big envelope saying, “Your application has been denied,” and there was a big denied, uh, stamp on it as well. And I couldn’t, I, I couldn’t work it out why, and I’d followed all the prompts. And in those days you had to go to The Strand in London to speak to someone. So I went up there and apparently the person that had given me the form to fill out actually had given me the wrong form.

Can you believe it? And then I filled it all out myself. I painstakingly put everything together for the application myself, sent it off. And when they told me this, when I went back to visit The Strand, they also told me that the person that denied me in Australia could have actually just told me this and sent me a new application form, uh, but they just denied it and closed the case. So that meant I had to go through, uh, the whole experience again. And honestly, um, I was crushed. I was crushed. So what I decided to do, ’cause I was working as a plumber still in London, uh, was reapply but use a solicitor. And I remember taking the application form to the solicitor and they said, “Oh, it’s, it’s already looking good.

And what, why do you need me for?” And I told them what happened. So I paid them And decided to take off, and I went traveling, uh, for a year. Basically, I went to Nepal, I went to Asia, I came back to Australia, ended up living on a mate’s couch for a while, just really in no man’s land. And even then, that I knew I was keeping my- keeping myself busy from something I couldn’t even put a finger on at the time, that something was brewing in- inside me, and I just didn’t know how to articulate it. But it was formulating this space of trying to figure out what actually really matters in life. Knew my application would be, would, would be getting there soon. and I decided to go back to the UK to actually start making some money again as well, uh, so I could save and, and bring it back ’cause, you know, plumbing paid pretty good money.

I, I was pretty good at it, even though I didn’t like it, uh, at the time. I was fitting, uh, luxury bathrooms. So what’s– where am I going with all this? So ultimately, when I got back to Wales, I realized that there was a lot of tension within my family as well. My, my dad had kind of worked away most of his life. From my upbringing, there was always– we, we grew up in a very, um, uh, challenging environment. Not– my, my parents were always very loving, but the council estate, our relationship with money was always challenging. You know, there was always, there was always, like, this feeling of lack and never enough, and it was hard.

I’m very grateful for the life I, I grew up with, don’t get me wrong. But reflecting back, it was tough. And my dad had got into debt, and he ended up working away and coming back so they didn’t lose the house. So there was always this underlying current of, uh, financial scarcity, paying off debt, and never enough. But it was driving my dad’s health into the ground, and he was still working, past retirement. He was just a truck driver. And when I got back, I’d been so immersed in my own Pity me story, it kinda came to the forefront around this, and I, and I really wanted to somehow, for the first time in my life, not put myself first in this, where I, I felt like I could actually make a difference in my parents’ life.

And I knew at some place it might even give me peace. But the challenge was, was that there’s no work in Wales. There’s not really, um… You know, you’d have to go away and that, but I wanted to come back home and, and help support my mom and dad to, so we could re-jiggle a few financial things around, do that, and just basically help them out. But then the old plumbing firm that I was working for wanted me to go and work for them. I had the opportunity to go and work in Spain. It was really good money. My application would have been coming through very soon, and I was convi- I kinda knew I was gonna get it this time, ’cause I learned from the mistakes last time.

And I f- found myself torn. So the, the mind, the security, and the self was like, “Go for the money, guy. Save up. G- go to Australia. Get yourself a good base and go.” And e- my mom and dad were kind of like leaning into that idea, but my heart and soul, there was an aspect of me that knew that maybe I can just surrender into this and just be useful, and not put myse- and, and lead with actually a contribution. Because I knew at some aspect, it was interesting at the time, that maybe it’s gonna heal a aspect of me as well. So I decided to go back and I said, “Look, if you can afford to feed me and, you know, r- put me up, uh, I will, uh, I’ll help fix up the house, and I’ll help be useful. I’ll put a new bathroom in for you,” ’cause, uh, they needed that at the time.

And I went back, and what happened was my dad actually then retired and came down. We’d reorganized some finances from the house and just made things easier for him, where he could just breathe a little bit. And that summer, we ended up building, uh, a shed together in the back garden. And boy, I get emotional thinking about it. And during that time, it was such a bonding space for me to really do something, like, with my dad that I never actually had done before in some ways. You know? And I, and, and I know for a fact that he got a lot out of that as well, and then we, we ended up moving on into doing the bathroom, and I was there, and he became like a bit of a laborer for me and helping me out as well, and we were doing the roof.

And what happened was I started to, I forged a, a, a deep connection like I hadn’t had before. And then from the financial side, what happened then, my uncle had seen the work I’d done on my, um, mom’s house, and he was like, “Oh, will you do mine? I, I’ll pay for you.” And then I did his bathroom. And then a good friend of mine was building a house in, in Neath, in town, and he was like, “Would you, would you work on my house and do mine?” And all of a sudden, these opportunities started opening up, and I was actually making pretty reasonable money and what I would have done in London when doing these things as well. And that was just from surrendering into my heart and soul.

And when I then left and moved back, moved to actually Australia many years later, I was still in this quagmire of, um, trying to make my life work, trying to think my way through things. And a long story short, once we– I started my supplement company, 180 Nutrition, and that started to get off the ground, my dad got really sick. And I was still in a position financially when I was struggling, but I put all my kind of energy into doing something and creating something that was of service, that was actually of to, to what I believed in the, in the health and fitness industry that was making a difference.

And I believed in it so much. And during this time, it was a real tension and struggle, and I would go back home to Wales where my dad was, and I’d go and visit him, uh, uh, him in hospital every day. And during that time as well, I, I was listening, funnily enough, to Steve Jobs audiobook, had just literally landed after Steve Jobs had died, and I was listening to that. And even what was coming through on that was everything Steve Jobs had created and had, he still was sick, and he couldn’t resolve that. And there was a lot of self-reflection onto the things, what, what actually matters? What meaning… Uh, what are we doing all this for, right? What is our heart and soul wanting to express through and create and experience in our lives, and the wisdom that we can take from the, the essence of that?

Because ultimately, no matter what we do or what we achieve in our life, we ain’t taking any of that with us. Only what, how we’ve lived, how we’ve expressed ourselves, and embodiment, that embodiment of wisdom, ah, that we, as we live and grow, right, through our lives. So When my dad, uh, finally passed, uh, after, you know, hospital visits and everything, and I would go and sit by that shed and really feel into that. And even last year when I went home to help my mom was moving, move- finally moving house and a lot of the memories of those things that had passed, I went back and I, I s- that shed was still there. And all the memories and all the connections and all the depth that hold represented for me became a very clear compass in my life.

So my compass wasn’t comfort and security. My, my compass was always been my heart, my soul, trusting in something far greater than ourselves, having the courage to lean in and do that. Sorry, I’m just, I’m just winging it here. I’m just putting this out there. Uh, I’ve just… Anyway, um, and honoring that. So the investment and the courage to not take the security of that space and time within my comfort zone and what that investment actually gave back to me with that time is priceless. No amount of success, money, or drive can replace those moments. So as I continue to move forward through life, I become very conscious of what actually wealth is And what are we doing it all for? And normally underneath all that, there is normally, if there’s an internal pull in different directions of one thing will go in one way and one go in the other, it’s because those aspects aren’t aligned, that we might have drifted or lost our way in that.

You know, wealth for me, the number one wealth is your health. Without your health, how are you gonna experience life? Yes, there’s financial wealth. It’s great to have money, but it’s certainly makes life easier, but it’s not the, the complete answer. What about relationship wealth? What about wealth of time? Yeah. There’s many ways of looking at wealth. So what I now look at is those areas of my life and ensure spiritual wealth. You know, it’s the core fundamental for me of it all now that allows the other areas to blossom, and doing that. And along the way, I’ve ensured through that I’ve had good people around me, seek mentors and guidance from those that are ex- and have live in a full expression of themselves, not from just a materialistic place, but actually from a heart and soul’s perspective, from an embodied perspective.

And those things are key. So if there’s one takeaway message for this solo podcast today that I wanna share with you, uh, and the reason why I speak from here, because I, I, I feel we as humans are craving it. Like, the, the amount of inauthenticity I’m seeing through social media and feeds and people putting things up there that are driving a certain narrative based upon how we should be, it, it, it’s, we’re clearly lacking it , you know, uh, in our lives. Um, any- anyway, uh, bringing it back. So if there’s a f- i-i-if there’s a message that I wanna share with you today is quiet the noise, give yourself space, and start to, to lean into where those quiet pulls are wanting to guide you. Start exploring that. Put yourself around people that nurture that in, encourage you to do so. Be vulnerable, be open, be honest, speak your truth.

The world is craving it. Be that version for the world. By doing so, you’re giving other people permission to be themselves, too. And to me, that’s how we’re really gonna create a much more loving, kind place in our families, in our environments, and all around us. Be the change that you wanna see in the world. Have the courage to lean in. Develop that muscle. Who knows where it’s gonna take you? One of the most crushing moments of my life, which was having my residency turned down, became one of my br- greatest blessings now looking back. And ultimately, as I go through life, I certainly don’t want to live with any regret.

Not so much regret of the mistakes I made, but from r- regret of the things that I didn’t listen to, that my heart and soul was calling. Let me know if this helps, this podcast. Bit different. Wanted to share the, all this with you, and, uh, yeah, if you want to find out where we are in the world, what we’re doing, there’s links below. We also have the Inner Self Mastery community, where people, we connect a couple of times a month as well on there, and there are definitely roadmaps and guidances that can help you find the space to listen to your heart and soul more as well. And yeah, I’ll catch you soon. Much love.

I’m standing here right now in Lake Taupo in a beautiful retreat space, and there’s a vast difference between an intellectual experience and passive listening to a fully embodied lived experience, ’cause that’s what retreats can do. They can help you land, start to truly reconnect to yourself, to others, to nature, and to spirit as well. There’s so much in it. That’s why we created Live in Flow, and that’s why we are so passionate about getting this work out there and bringing people together. If you wanna find out more when our next retreat or event is coming up, just check out the link below.