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WHY ARE YOU ALIVE

Why are you here? You had a 1 in 400 trillion chance of being born… so why you?

We’re not here for a long time, were here for a good time. Since you’re here for a short time what’s the point of your life? Do you believe that your life has purpose or are you just randomly breathing air on Mother Earth in this tiny galaxy? We all have different beliefs and opinions on why were here in the first place. So where do we go after we take our last breath? Well depending on your spiritual or religious beliefs we all have a different idea of what happens after we die and you’re here reading my blog on my website so I’m going to give you my opinion on the point of life. Allow me please…

I have this hunch , this feeling in my gut that we are all part of this massive game ran by God. He is testing us. He is testing us to see if we can win and winning means that we are continually perpetuating the circle of life. As of right now global climate change, political warfare, capitalist greed, and racism is what’s holding us back from winning the game and in the future there might be even more problems that arise. Our ultimate test from God is to see how long we can last on Mother Earth because as of right now it seems as if human kind and the health of our planet are in a rapid decline. 

Regardless of your religious beliefs unless you are atheist you probably have some concept of what God means to you. I have a ton of admiration and respect for anyone of any faith because faith is what contributes to our moral compass and values as a person and the more faith you have in God usually the better of a person you become. It’s as if the stronger your relationship is with God the more hope you have in humanity as a whole and that is something that benefits all of us. So wether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or a religion I failed to mention I respect your beliefs and I’m genuinely happy for you.

But again since you are reading my blog post on my website I’m going to tell you my opinion on God and for all intensive purposes of this post I want to say that my idea of who and what God is has changed dramatically over time and what I believe today July 27, 2021 might change again in the future. So here it goes…

God is not a person, god is not a spirit, it’s bigger than that. God encompasses everyone and everything including animals and plants, wind and oceans. God is pure love, bliss, peace, and joy. God wants the universe to thrive. God wants countries to get along. God wants our planet to breathe deeply and live infinitely without worrying about carbon emissions, global warming, and plastic in the ocean. This game that God construed has finally reached the last level which is the introduction of the human species, the ultimate test. Thousands of years ago when humans started to recognize their own mind and strengthen, their consciousness is when we discovered love and hate. It’s when we started to communicate with written language and colonize our tribe. Humans started to preach religion and invent objects that would make life easier to sustain and more convenient. However, some of these inventions are slowly damaging our Earth. God is testing us to see if humans and animals, our oceans and forests can all live in harmony and we are failing miserably. 

So let me get back to the point.

Life is short. Your life is short. Life goes by in a blink of an eye and if you compare your 75-100 years on earth to the billions and billions of years that the whole universe and life has been around you realize that you are here for an even shorter amount of time than you originally thought. Because we are here for such a short amount of time I believe that its important to make the most out of our life. And that is the point, MAKE THE MOST OUT OF YOUR LIFE.

People like mother Theresa, Socrates, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King are remembered through history and are spoken about and written about in literature because their short life and what they did while they were here was extraordinary. They defied the odds and turned non believers into believers. They left a legacy and helped shape the world that you and I live in today by making a massive impact on the world and human evolution on a much deeper level. THEY MADE THE MOST OUT OF THEIR LIFE.

It’s clear why these people were born, so why were you born? And if these people weren’t born to break the rules and shape history than what were they born to do? And if you believe that they weren’t necessarily born to do anything then why did this happen?

Feel free to email me your thoughts on this blog post – I love to hear peoples opinion on topics like this one.Zacharyrance@gmail.com

In the meantime here are some questions to think about….

It is said that you had a 1 in 400 trillion chance of being born in the first place, so do you think that God chose you to be born over someone else or do you think that you were just randomly born? We’re you “you” before you were born, meaning were you conscious prior to infiltrating an egg in your mothers uterus or are you conscious the moment you leave her womb? Your heart was beating prior to being birthed on your day of birth so clearly you were conscious then.. so if you were conscious in the womb than were you conscious prior to being in the womb?

Billions and billions of years ago…

Is that a thing? Does billions of years ago even exist or was there a finite moment in time when “it” just started to exist? I’m not talking about life, I’m not even talking about the Earth… I’m just talking about “it”. The stars and gas in space – has it always been there? Like forever?

Before the Great Big Bang Theory was the universe just empty or were there extraterrestrial beings and aliens roaming outer space? If we knew that aliens existed would you live life differently?

Whats the point of life? Aren’t we all just here and then we die?

Why did all this happen in the first place? Was there another scenario where life didnt exist? Do we have an accurate depiction on history

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Awareness Blog Uncategorized

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Mindfulness isn’t difficult – we just need to remember to do it!

– Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices.

First of all, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness by definition according to google is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

What can mindfulness do for you and why is it so important?

Mindfulness will optimize every human experience you have on Earth.

Mindfulness will allow you to enjoy your food more and mindfulness will open your eyes to the beauty of the trees. Mindfulness will give you the Earthly massage of the wind blowing against your skin and mindfulness will help deepen the relationship with the people you care about most.

Mental Health benefits of mindfulness…

The two most common mental health challenges that we all face are anxiety and depression. Where anxiety is thinking too much about the future, depression is thinking too much about the past.

Anxiety…

It’s 2021 I think its safe to say that we all deal with some sort of anxiety – whether its anxiety about future work deadlines, contracting an invisible virus, stress due to an illness, family issues or what Donald Trump is going to tweet next… oh wait nvm. Anxiety is simply being too worried about the future, the “what ifs” about life. What if I get Covid and die? What if my family member gets Covid and dies? Future stress in the household because of tension rising. All of these things give us anxiety no matter how big or small so lets focus on preventing future anxiety by living more in the moment – the only problem you have is the one right in front of you right now.

Depression…

We all deal with some sort of depression. We all get sad, it’s part of life but, what are the highs without the lows?! Sometimes our lows linger for a little too long and we begin to really become and identify with our sadness and this ends up turning into our personality – que depressed state. It’s easy to find something to be depressed about… your money situation, your career, seeing other people on Instagram looking like they are having more fun this summer than you… the list goes on and on. In order to fight depression and prevent more depression from coming into your life you must live in the moment and remain present right here, right now. Stop thinking about the past, it’s over, time to move on Charlie!

Exercise 1:

Are you depressed about your money situation? Good, take action right here right now to take control over your finances. I wrote a great blog about how you can take control over your personal finances and you can read it here: PERSONAL FINANCE.

Living in the moment to prevent future depression is the best way to deal with being sad about the past so do something about it! RIGHT NOW!

What does depression and anxiety do to our body….

Over 10,000 years ago when we were hairy and ugly cave men walking on all fours we lived a very simple life. Hunt, gather and have sex. Our only job was to hunt food and procreate. Even though it seems like a fairly easy task there were man-eating predators that we had to watch our backs over. Sabertooth tigers and man eating reptiles were always on the lookout for human flesh and during this time humans started to develop a “flight or fight response.” This fight or flight response turns our body into Superman mode so we can fight or run! Our body puts digesting food, fighting disease, and regulating our body temperature and heart rate on hold so it can focus all of its attention on either outrunning this tiger or going to war! Well over the years, magically, our body through survival of the fittest, changed its DNA to elicit this flight or fight response and encode it in our new DNA so that next time when we were in trouble from a sabertooth tiger coming after us for it’s warm dinner we were ready to act and act fast. So what does fight or flight response have anything to do with mindfulness, anxiety, or depression?

Well, fast forward to 2021 and we still have this flight or fight response and our body is physically breaking down because of it.

Why is this important…

When our body is constantly in flight or fight mode our central nervous system is sending signals to the rest of our body – the digestive system, the immune system, and the cardiovascular system etc., that we are in DANGER! DANGER DANGER DANGER DONALD TRUMP JUST TWEEETED FLIGHT OR FIGHT DANGER DANGER DANGER WHAT IF YOU DONT GET THAT WORKTASK DONE ON TIME DANGER DANGER DANGER YOU MIGHT GET COVID AND DIE DANGER DANGER !!! This is the signals that our brain is telling our body when we are living in the past or worried about the future. The brain is there to protect you and to do this it draws upon past experiences predicting what the outcome will be and sending you signals to act according to those past experiences. In order for our central nervous system, brain, and body to do what it does best and heal and digest and nourish and rest it must not have to be constantly in fight or flight mode.

How does this have a negative impact on our physical health and what does this have to do with mindfulness? Good question….

I am not a doctor. Whether you believe what I’m telling you or not the fact is we are living in a time of the world where chronic mental stress is at an all time high. This chronic mental stress is causing us and our family members diseases and illness. The importance of dealing with stress is not as important as preventing it and one of the best ways that you can prevent more chronic stress is through becoming more mindful of the present moment. One of the best ways to be more mindful and present in the moment is through a daily meditation practice or reminding yourself to be mindful. Meditating can literally be as little as 5 minutes a day. Time set aside where you just sit and acknowledge your thoughts and focus on your breath. Mindfulness reminders can be as simple as a post-it note on your bathroom mirror or on your car dash reminding you to live in the present moment.

5 ways you can be more mindful:

1. implement a daily meditation practice.
2. take 1 minute just to breath before or after getting in your car or elevator.
3. when you take a shower or wash your hands remember to be mindful and feel the water dripping off your hands or body.
4. watch the birds and lose all thoughts…
5. watch youtube videos on other mindfulness practices!

Mindfully written,

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Blog Optimize Your Life Uncategorized

CHOICES

We all make choices. We choose what we eat, we choose what time we wake up, we choose to have that last alcoholic beverage before we drive our car but how much do you actually stop and think before you make your choices? The simple fact is that every single time we make a choice it’s not black or white, what I mean by this is sometimes we choose to not choose. 

“If you seek tranquility, do less. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it you’ll have more time and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, is this necessary.”

– Marcus Aurelius , Meditations. 

An example of choosing not to choose…

Sometimes, we make choices just because we feel obligated to. A friend asks you to go to that party or event, you really don’t want to, you know you’d be much happier just sitting at home relaxing reading a book because you had a long week at work but you feel obligated or maybe you just aren’t good at saying no – ever been in a situation like this? I have friends ask me all the time to go on the boat this weekend or take a spontaneous trip to Mexico and before I say yes or no I ask myself, do I really want to go? I should either be excited to go or not want to go at all but going just because you have nothing better to do is a terrible way to think about situations when presented to you, I’ll explain why.

The way of the Essentialist

The best way to make choices is to use something Greg Mckeown calls “extreme criteria.” We make thousands of choices every single day and every choice we make is either getting us closer to the best version of ourselves or taking us further away from becoming the best version of ourselves, there is no in between. One of my favorite personal growth books ever has a simple explanation on how we should make our choices. In the book Essentialism by Greg Mckeown the author discusses something called “extreme criteria.” Extreme criteria is a way of making choices that explains decisions should be answered with either a “Hell Yes!” Or “Hell NO”, there is no in between. It’s either serving us and bringing value to our life or it’s providing a disservice and bringing you down in life. There is no middle ground here – to help you understand it better I’ll write it a little more clearly. When presented with a choice your answer should either be “Fuck yes I’m doing that” or “Fuck that shit, I’m not doing that”, now does it make sense? This is a strategy that I have adopted to almost everything I do. From what I eat to what I do on the weekends. I have adopted this way of making decisions and it has made all the difference. Greg Mckeown’s book is a NYT Best Seller and for a really good reason, the book is really good, I mean really, really good. It’s the essentialist attitude, everything in life is either essential or non-essential there is no in between. Simplifying our life or as the new age calls it “minimalism” is one of my favorite concepts and I have adopted this practice in many areas of my life. From wearing a white shirt almost every day, throwing away my clothes I haven’t worn in months (definitely years), getting rid of random things in my house, owning only 2 pairs of shoes, cancelling most of my subscriptions, and focusing on only those things that bring me more happiness and health. I’m able to keep the most important things at the top of my list when it comes to where my time, energy, and attention flows. The concept of Essentialism is so popular and becoming widely adopted. We seem to be taking on too much too often. We try to do everything at once and end up giving our time and attention to the wrong things. 

If you had to make a list of all of your priorities or most important things it would look something like this:

  • 1. Health
  • 2. Happiness
  • 3. Family
  • 4. Purpose
  • 5. Career
  • 6. Golf 
  • Etc

How often are you choosing something else that doesn’t fit in this list or how often are you prioritizing one over the other? When we choose to drink soda or skip another workout we are compromising our health. When we are at the dinner table spending time with our family we are not present because we are on our phone. When we say yes to obligations to things we don’t really want to do we are sacrificing our happiness for someone else. 

  • Friend invites you to a party? HELL YES or HELL NO 
  • Want to eat that second piece of cake? HELL YES or HELL NO
  • Choosing to watch another episode of Bachelorette? HELL YES or HELL NO
  • Want to sign up for a Marathon? HELL YES or HELL NO

It’s that simple. Use extreme criteria when making decisions and choices and you will start to incorporate more essentialism in your life.

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Blog Podcast Uncategorized

Psychedelics & Personal Growth with Transformation Coach Albert Monachese!

ZACH: Albert 

ALBERT: Hey, good morning 

ZACH: Good morning how are you? 

ALBERT: I’m well how are you? 

ZACH: I’m doing very well, thanks so much for coming to the Life Coach Zach podcast. 

ALBERT: Super excited to be on, man.

ZACH: Very cool. For all of you guys listening that don’t know Albert. Albert is a coach helping individuals grow spiritually and transform their lives. He’s founder of the Clean Consciousness Formula and he’s @personalgrowthacademy on Instagram. So Albert, tell us more.

ALBERT:  First of all all I just want to say thank you so much for having me on, I’m really excited to get to talk a little bit about my mission and my journey, what got me to where I am. So how it all kind of started (I’m going to keep this part of little brief) but from a very young age I didn’t perform as well as all my friends in school so at some point my brain decided that I wasn’t smart so I made all these really young decisions like I’m going to work construction. I’m going to focus on being popular and you know partying and I’m just going to get a high-paying construction job and kind of go on from there. I got out of high school and I entered into the trades immediately. Didn’t even consider going to college. Once again I was heavily invested in being popular and partying and all of this and that and very shortly after that I just started to find myself feeling very unhappy even though I was making pretty good money in the trades. My friends were in college and I was making really good money off the bat so all my friends…  No one really understood why I wasn’t happy because everyone was just equating it to like the money I was making. I was very very unhappy and that led me into a series of terrible relationships and into a very deep depression and drug addiction. That led from you no, alcohol and blow and overdoing it and blacking out drinking and then it actually ended up taking me into like the depths of an opiate addiction. I was doing painkillers and heroin and I was in a place where I did not think that I could ever transform my life in such a way to have more. I had accepted the construction job that I hated. I accepted the amount of finance I was able to bring into my life. I accepted that I was maybe only going to be able to attract certain kinds of women. So that led me into a two-year-opioid depression. At the end of the two years when I finally hit the point of like I’m willing to do any f****** thing possible to really change my life. I looked into doing some Psychedelic Retreats.  I ended up doing ibogaine which is a very strong psychedelic that comes from Africa and I did it in a ceremonial setting with shaman and that literally gave me the craziest connection and the craziest mindset and perception shifts that I have ever experienced in a short amount of time. Like from then to now I’ve had many more shifts but it’s taking time. This was like, you know, I went on the one Journey experience and like my whole entire perception of life was flipped upside down in one night. I stop using heroin. Stopped using opiates like instantly. But I did continue to you know, drink a little bit with the boys and hit the odd line here and there. I tried all rehabs, and I went to every therapist and every Alcohol Anonymous meeting, I went to everything and nothing clicked for me. Then I had this psychedelic journey and I realized that I hold the keys. I’m able to take any area of my life and change it. Once I had that realization I deep dove into personal growth. Had a couple of other psychedelic experiences. I deep dove into meditation. I’ve read every fu**in personal help, growth book you could read, read them multiple times. I just really started to apply everything I was learning into my life. And one thing after another I was able to change every single area of my life to the point where it’s been 5 years since I’ve touched an opiate, and it’s been over 3 years since I’ve had a drink or done a line. I was able to attract the most perfect, most supportive partner for me where I’m in like the most perfect marriage now. I was able to attract a career change and more finances than I ever had working in construction. And I don’t work, I work from home now I just have an online coaching business, so I was able to completely change my career, completely change my financial life, completely change my relationship life and completely change the way I feel about myself. So I then decided to go to Peru. I went to Peru and I did Ayahuasca and DMT with some Shaman’s and from there I decided that I was going to f****** get online and start making my life about service to others and that’s when I created Clean Consciousness. I wanted to offer people a way of recovery that wasn’t the traditional methods. All the traditional methods of recovery, I call them the disease model, which is they tell you you’re diseased. They tell you you’re an addict for life. They pretty much give you all these limiting beliefs but they don’t teach you how to move past addiction. It’s like people get clean time but they’re still an addict. They still have all these limiting beliefs, they’re life doesn’t really change beyond they just got clean. I’m clean but I’m still miserable and I still can’t change anything in my life. I just accepted that I’m an addict. Accepted the limiting beliefs and got clean right? Which is great, it’s a win, but I was looking for more. I just figured it out, like I said earlier, that the keys were within myself. So I created Clean Consciousness and I started working with people in recovery and I started helping them make changes in their lives. That blossomed into me starting Personal Growth Academy where now I am open to working with anybody looking for transformation in any area of their life. Right now I’m offering specifically towards people who are looking to make changes and attract a perfect partner. Perfect relationship. So yeah that’s kind of like the basis of what happened. Like I said now I’m 5 years clean and I don’t hold any of those limiting beliefs. I don’t define myself by the past. I defined myself in my vision of the future and I’ve completely let go of the addiction and any sort of limiting beliefs that I held around that. I’m at a point where I’m just completely excited because what I’ve done in the last 5 years is so amazing and I want to share it with people. I just can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next 5 years you know what I mean? Even things like, you know, you reaching out to me. The story behind me manifesting my wife was crazy because… I’ll just give you a brief one on that. Broke up with my last shitty relationship and I told myself that I’m going to be single and happy first and if I do ever enter into another relationship it has to have certain requirements. It has to meet X Y and Z. As soon as I made those strong decisions I literally bumped into my wife at a music festival in the potty lineup. We started chatting and I spent the whole festival with her and we’ve been together now four years. We met in August at a festival and that October we flew to Vegas and eloped, two months later and now we’ve been married four years and I literally, I made these decisions. I had a picture in my head of what I wanted or else I was just going to make myself happy, I was going to focus on being single and happy and then this relationship just fell in my lap. So much cool shit has transpired in the last few years for me.  And beforehand, I had already been married and divorce once prior. After that marriage I was in a slew of shitty relationships up until I made these choices and then I manifested this perfect relationship. So, like I said, I want to help people, whomever is having struggles in any area of their life, find a way to go inside, go internally, do the internal work to then manifest the reflection of them on the inside. If that makes sense.

ZACH: Sure, makes complete sense. Albert, first of all I want to say congratulations on getting over your addiction and getting past everything that was bringing you down and blossoming into this new life, this new person. Dude honestly, really congratulations. I’m super proud of you and it’s super inspirational.

ALBERT: Thank you Bro!

ZACH: It’s inspirational for people like me who, you know, I do have my shit together, but there’s so much more for me to accomplish. There’s so much more awareness that I can turn inside and there are so many more experiences, whether that’s with psychedelics or a trip to Peru or Ayahuasca DMT. These are the things that I am very open-minded to. These are things that I have been, not passionate about, but interested in over the past couple of years since getting into mindfulness, since getting into meditation. Since learning about the universe and how we’re all connected and how, you know magic mushrooms or Ayahuasca, some of these natural herbs or whatever you want to call them, can really open up our mind to our purpose. They help ground us.

ALBERT: A lot of people are under a misconception. These are not like party drugs, they’re not like going out with your buddies and doing mushrooms or doing DMT Ayahuasca, like these things are like in ceremonial settings and very very spiritual and you go in with an intention and you always come out of it with a lesson. A lot of times they’re not fun. They’re just so beyond intense, like I wouldn’t call them a fun experience you know? They were amazing. Life changing. And I’m open to having other experiences down the road myself also, but I wouldn’t be like Whoohoo like it was so fun… Ayahuasca! It’s very very intense and very eye-opening and it’s crazy how it can create such a massive shift in the way you think. I grew up and I was like the most egocentric, most disconnected person you could ever meet and I was never happy. Then I did these things, I made my connections and I found God, not in a religious sense, I found spirituality, found my internal non-physical self through some of these things and then also my own work like meditation and shit and it just completely f****** changed my life! Even after getting clean. Shortly after I went vegan, so it’s about four years in January that I’ve been vegan. I’ve literally been able to change every single area of my life. So many people have limiting beliefs that they can’t f****** change what they have going on and they accept what is… Even if they’re not happy right? And they will convince themselves that they have to appreciate it and they have to be happy and they should feel lucky for what they have even though deep down inside they don’t f****** like it and want to change it. They want more but they’re scared to ask for more.  They’re scared to ask for these changes, because maybe they will disappoint themselves if they ask for more and they don’t get it right? So people are like… ohh, I’m content. I’m trying to break people away from that and have people really really dig deep and figure out what the f*** they want and ask for it, you know? 

ZACH: Yeah, so let me ask you a question Albert. I want to go on a guided journey. I want to take psychedelics. Where do I find psychedelics? 

ALBERT: Well, because of my past with partying I had a couple people that I was able to kind of reach out to, to see if they can point me in the right direction. Going to Peru, I found the most reputable tour trip into the Amazon. I didn’t just land in Peru and find some dude on the street and be like, yo, like hook me up with Ayahuasca. That was planned through an Amazon Retreat trip, you know? It’s hard for me to really tell you how you’re going to source these out on the street. At the end of the day these things are drugs. 

ZACH: That’s a conversation we can have off the podcast. My point, is this is something I want to do and I know that there are professional ways to do this, whether that is a guided journey or an Amazon Retreat in Peru with a Shaman and things like that.  I have done shrooms before. I’ve done shrooms 3 times in college. When I went into that experience, it was like me and some fraternity buddies. Hey, let’s take some Magic Mushrooms and hang out all day. We walked around campus, we sat in a dark room with a laser pen, listening to some crazy vibey music and it was so much fun. The next day I did wake up with a bigger purpose of life and I felt more grounded. And I didn’t really have such an attachment to all the superficial things that I cared about prior to my journey. I wasn’t in the same place as I am now and when you told me your story, and I’m not going to say it’s very similar to mine, yours was way more intense and way more impactful, you’ve accomplished way more as far as just like a life transformation you know? I was dealing with severe depression after I was on a reality TV show and for the last five years, just like you, I woke up at 5 a.m, I’ve meditated for 20 minutes, I’ve gotten 1% better every single day whether that means one extra rep at the gym, one extra page in a book, I mean I’ve read 34 books this year. I read about 30 books last year. I’m addicted to personal growth just like you. I’ve read every single book pretty-much but there are plenty more to read.  I’ve become a lot more passionate about spirituality and I’ve become a lot more passionate about consciousness. You and I have a lot in common when it comes to that. Really being aware of our thoughts, where our thoughts come from and how we’re able to manifest our goals and dreams, you know, by being aware of this. Controlling our thoughts which change our emotions. Which raises our frequency. Which projects out into this quantum field. This is the natural law of attraction.  This is a real law just like gravity. Just like any other relativity, whatever you want to call it. This is a real thing, Law of Attraction. So I’m really really passionate about doing that and I think I’m just scratching the surface and I would love to work with you and I would love to learn more about your coaching and how that can not only help me, but the audience is well.

ALBERT:  Yeah man we can absolutely talk about that further. What you were saying about the laws of attraction and frequencies and embodying a frequency of what you want to manifest in your life before you have it. These are all the things that I’m also into. For a lot of people out there who are struggling to find a spiritual connection you tell someone… oh, Laws of Attraction and they just kind of think, oh yeah think positively. It goes way way deeper than that and it gets into the frequencies and the f****** quantum field.

ZACH: Science… It’s real.

ALBERT:  Yeah you know what I mean? I’m just kind of obsessed with that whole area of learning and like I said I know that there’s so much more to learn. At the end of the day no matter what your experience is your experience is your experience and my experience is my experience and my experience is a reflection of how I value myself. It’s a reflection of the internal me no matter what. Until you can make that connection and take responsibility for your life on that level? You’re only going to have f****** surface-level changes. You’re not going to actually transform your life. So yeah that’s actually a huge part of my mindset section is like just f****** taking responsibility for your experience and making it happen. 

ZACH: Yeah, nobody’s perfect. We all have our demons, we all have our vices. I’m sure there are things that Tony Robbins is working on beating. At the end of the day, hiring a coach, and this is one of the reason I started this podcast, because Mentors have been so impactful in my life and I’ve gotten so much value from these Mentors, whether that’s reading a book by Dale Carnegie, or watching a youtube video from Dr. Joe Dispenza. 

ALBERT: He’s my boy!

ZACH: Dude, he is by far one of my top two favorite authors. He is incredible. “Becoming Supernatural” is such a great book dude. 

ALBERT: It’s one of the most powerful books I’ve ever read.

ZACH: It really is.

ALBERT: I do his meditations on the regular.

ZACH: I do his meditations on the regular too. He has a heart coherence meditation, it’s like 13 minutes long…. Feel the space between your eyes, feel the space underneath your chin, feel the space between your knees. You can feel the quantum field. You can feel the quantum field in between your knees. There is space there. Just like there is space between the computer and my face right now. There is space between the entire universe. Long story short, Mentors are so important, so someone like you can definitely help me become more conscious and be able to control my future and everything that’s going on in my life so I’m very excited to have a conversation with you off the podcast.

ALBERT: Yeah, I’m super excited that you reached out and that this all worked out the way it has.

ZACH: In the meantime I am going to find some magic mushrooms. Let me ask you a question… 

ALBERT: HAHAHAHA

ZACH: No I’m deadass serious, Let me ask you a question.  When you had your psychedelic Journey that ended your heroin addiction and created a different path to an addiction of personal growth was that psilocybin, was it DMT, was it LSD?

ALBERT: It’s called Ibogaine.  It’s a tree bark from Africa that you eat and it last extremely long it was like 16 hours, a complete like introspective look at myself plus a look at the cosmos.

ZACH: Sounds lit.

ALBERT: It really was, but like I said I wouldn’t really call it a fun thing. I honestly see myself doing Psychedelic Retreats in the future. I’m just trying to figure out the logistics of it and how to make it like legal, cuz I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m not trying to do illegal shit, you know what I mean? So once I figure all that out I potentially am going to be holding my own Retreats.

ZACH: Awesome I’m there, put me down, I’ll pay a deposit, I’m there. 

ALBERT: I do know of a couple people locally here that have some Retreats that I could probably get you on their email list. They’re like legitimate ceremony retreats too. It’s not sourcing drugs out on the streets, not like that. I can see myself holding Retreats locally and then I would like to eventually be holding maybe a 4 day or even week long retreats in Costa Rica with a couple psychedelic experiences and then meditation and yoga and vegan plant based whole food, the whole f***in thing.

ZACH:  I want people to understand that these drugs that were talking about these are natural drugs that come from the earth. They are Gaia. If you don’t know what gaia is, gaia is the life of the earth. The earth is a living breathing organism and these drugs (I’m using air quotes) come from Gaia, they come from the earth. I feel like God is kind of just pushing us in this direction. That hey like this is what’s really going on. All this surface-level s*** Biden, Trump election and you know, all this bipartisan, and I don’t wanna get into politics at all, but there’s just so much surface-level s*** okay. The freaking 2020 election is the most surface-level shit ever. None of these politicians are accomplishing f****** jack shit! They’re not doing shit. They’re taking money from people and they don’t give a f*** about us honestly guys. I’m sorry if I’m hurting anyone’s feelings or anything but you know let’s really turn our attention inwards and start experiencing God.

ALBERT:  Those two dudes Trump and Biden those guys need psychedelics more than anyone.

ZACH:  And on that note LOL…. Albert it has been a freaking pleasure having you here this conversation went so well. I’m so elated that we ended up connecting on Instagram and doing this podcast and we’re absolutely going to do another podcast where I follow up with you on my guided journey with psychedelics 

ALBERT: Damn right, I’m super interested bro.

ZACH: Is there anything else you want to leave the audience with today? Obviously go follow Albert on Instagram, @personalgrowthacademy. Is there anything you want to leave the audience with today?

ALBERT: You were touching on Mentors earlier and I’ve had my mentors that I’ve paid for for the last two years and that is another way to find exponential growth in your life. This whole life coaching mentoring industry that is blossoming and blooming is honestly the way of the future. Internal work, spirituality and personal growth is what is going to take humanity to another level. Not the surface level bullshit you were talking about earlier.  And with that man, I hope you have an amazing week and let’s book another podcast.

ZACH: Absolutely and I love what you said about finding a mentor and becoming more deeper in your life. It’s obviously going to move humankind in the right direction. Someone who doesn’t know literally anything about this. Pick up a book by Echart Tolle, you know, pick up “The Power of Now”. Pick up “The Untethered Soul” by Michael Singer. These are like beginner books that will blow your brain. 

ALBERT: Yeah, the inner roommate analogy in “The Untethered Soul” like that completely changed the way I looked at the voice in my head and that actually created the disconnect where I was able to detach from the voice and be like… “that’s my ego…. that’s not me” Also “Power of Now is one of the most epic books as well.

ZACH: I like “A New Earth” a little better than “Power of Now” for some reason but I was literally on a call with a Life Coaching client yesterday and he was having some trouble with his anxiety and XYZ and some self-conscious type issues and I was like, those thoughts in your head? You need to objectify that and personify those thoughts as a person! We now call that person Joe! We don’t f*** with Joe. We hate Joe. Joe doesn’t shut the f*** up and when Joe wants to open his mouth? We punch Joe in the f****** jaw! And that’s how we live our lives. 

ALBERT: Joe gets throat punched. 

ZACH: Joe gets f***** throat punched. And when he does we’re able to peel off the layers and live our true selves. We’re not humans having a spiritual experience, we’re spirits having a human experience. And that’s something that I think more people need to understand. The awareness that you’re inside your body, you’re not Albert and I’m not Zach, I’m the awareness that I’m Zach. 

ALBERT:  Exactly. Even with the “Power of Now” and anxiety, you were talking about one of your clients having anxiety. All that anxiety is all fake, that’s all shit he’s making up in his mind. His ego is making that up because the future doesn’t happen, everything is a series of infinite NOWS that we live. We don’t live in the future. We create these anxieties for ourselves because people don’t have all the understanding. Your brain is creating all that story in your head. It’s not real. You can disconnect from it. It’s amazing.

ZACH: And the more you identify with it, the more you believe it, the more power you give it. The more your feeding it, the more power you’re giving our ego. 

Dude, we could talk all day. I know you’re a super busy guy. I’m going to pop some Magic Mushrooms in the next couple of weeks or so. I’m going to let you know how it goes.

ALBERT: Yes, please do that.

ZACH: To all my audience listening go follow Albert on IG @personalgrowthacademy. Albert, thank you so much for coming today and I will talk to you soon.

ALBERT: Thank you so much for having me. It was such a great experience.

ZACH: It really was. Alright Albert, talk to you soon my guy.

ALBERT: Bye.

Connect with Alberta on Instagram @personalgrowthacademy

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“Jesus Christ Is Now My Boyfriend” with WNBA Hall of Famer and Confidence and Faith Coach Chantelle Anderson

ZACH: Hey Chantelle?

CHANTELLE: Hey Zach, how are you?

ZACH: I’m doing really well, how are you?

CHANTELLE: I am good… I am good. Happy Thursday.

ZACH: Happy Thursday, How’s your day going so far?

CHANTELLE: It is going wonderfully, how about yours?

ZACH: My day is going pretty well. A couple of speed bumps in the road, but it’s a beautiful day and I can’t complain. Just super grateful to be living in South Florida. Where are you located?

CHANTELLE: Oh nice, I love South Florida, I lived in Miami for about 8-9 months, so I love South Florida. I am currently in San Diego. 

ZACH: San Diego, I’ve been there twice. San Diego is beautiful.

CHANTELLE: It is, it reminds me a little of Miami honestly.

ZACH: Yeah, absolutely, although I think the weather in San Diego is a little better.

CHANTELLE: Yeah, much less humidity.

ZACH: Yeah, much less humidity. When I went to San Diego the weather was incredible, it couldn’t have been better. I’m super happy to have you on the Podcast, welcome. 

CHANTELLE: Yeah, thank you, happy to be here.

ZACH: So for all of the audience and the people that are listening, Chantelle Anderson is an Author, Faith and Confidence Coach. So Chantel tell us more about all that.

CHANTELLE:  Yeah, so for the last about three and a half years I have been going to corporations and teaching a Confidence and Leadership Curriculum that I wrote. That has been fun, now covid-19 has changed that a lot but I’m still doing some Executive coaching online. I also oversee the online Ministry for the church that I’m a part of and I do that and then I am an author and a faith coach, so I’m writing my first faith based book, which will be a hundred devotionals to help people through really hard times which, listen, I just wrote the book I needed this year hahaha. In the process of working in the ministry, I help women get closer to God by building their faith and their confidence in their identity.

ZACH: So how can women get closer to God?

CHANTELLE:  Oh man that is a loaded and deep question, but a very simple answer is to date Jesus. I always say people expect to fall in love at first sight with God and that just doesn’t happen. But when we, just like in real life, just like any other relationship, if we spend time with that person we get to know their character and then we will eventually fall in love with them. So how I started on my faith walk and getting to the point eventually where I am today where I help women with theirs is I just started dating Jesus. I started setting aside time to read the Bible even though at that time I didn’t even believe in it to be honest. But I was like okay, maybe god is somewhere in there, so I just started reading it, intentionally, and I eventually fell in love with the author.

ZACH: Wow, so how does one date Jesus?

CHANTELLE:  Just that. Like when you are dating a person right? You schedule it. You set aside time for that person. You do it regularly. You talk to them regularly, you communicate. You listen to them regularly. So it’s just applying those same aspects to your relationship with God you know? I start every morning with what I call a quiet time. I’ll read my Bible and I’ll pray before an hour to two hours depending on what I’m going through and you know it’s just setting aside that time and prioritizing that relationship.

ZACH: Yeah I was going to say just making it a priority, making him a priority in your life. For someone like me I was raised Jewish, my whole family is Jewish, but I’m very open-minded and I actually have been to church multiple different occasions with multiple different people. Whenever someone really shows me their gospel in their faith and how committed they are to Christianity or Catholicism or whatever religion it is. I respected it so much.  There was one guy I met when I was selling Life Insurance, his name was John Maples and he was so passionate about his relationship with God. And that was something I really admired and was kind of jealous of. I was like, how do I get that relationship with God. How do I create that underlying unconditional faith that God has a plan for me. I started going to church with him. Every Sunday for three weeks we went to Church together we got breakfast in the morning and he would kind of just coach me on how I can live my truth, with God and it was really great and I enjoyed it so much. Fast forward to today, I don’t really identify with a religion. I do believe in God. I love God. I see God in myself and in the birds, in trees and in the ocean and I see it in the people fighting for humanity in general. But how does someone like me, and I don’t want to assume anything, but Jesus isn’t someone who doesn’t play a part in my life. I’m just going to be honest and transparent. How do I become more faithful and how do I have a relationship with Jesus if that’s something that I wanted and why is it something that I would want in my life? 

CHANTELLE: Wow! Great question. First of all thank you for your transparency and honesty. I really appreciate it because I think people are hesitant to admit how they really feel because they are afraid they are going to be judged, so I think it’s really brave that you would even say that.

I grew up in church. I looked around me and I saw people who looked like they had these amazing relationships with God, but similar to you, like I just didn’t feel it, you know?  I don’t feel this and I’m not going to be fake. So I left and I went and I did life on my own and you know what I realized in coming back to the faith after years and years (that’s a much longer story for another day), but what I realized was I had been in the church, but I hadn’t been in the Bible. When we look for the church to fulfill a role that God himself can only fulfill, we’re making the church our idol. So sometimes we can go to church and even we can talk to other people about our relationship with God but we haven’t really gotten deep into his word and the Bible, even if you don’t believe it, the Bible isn’t just a normal book. It changes your heart.  I didn’t believe it when I started reading it but it changed the way I looked at things and eventually I fell in love with the author. And so I would say just start reading the Bible. The best place to start is the Gospel of John because John was the closest Apostle to Jesus and when you’re getting to know anyone you want to get to know their heart and John talks a lot about Jesus’s heart. So read the Gospel of John and really get to know who Jesus was. How you would have a relationship with him and why you would want to have a relationship with him is because of who he was. The fact that he loves you unconditionally, he died for you. He wants a relationship with you regardless of anything that you have done or continue to do on a daily basis. So that’s why. You know? Like that’s the best news ever. We search for that approval and that love from so many other places. I know I’ve looked for it in my relationships, in my career, in my self-actualization, in journaling and meditation, all these things and it’s like. I already have that love from Jesus. I just have to choose him back, you know?

ZACH:  Oh my God that was a really good answer and what I learned from that answer is that I won’t know unless I try and in order to try the first step is opening the Bible reading John and learning about John and learning by John’s heart. Even if I don’t go to church every Sunday and even if I don’t raise my children to be Christians or Catholics there’s something to be learned from someone who has a good heart that means well, that loves his neighbor and that cares about people and that is following what God wants him to do. That’s something that I am going to do is I’m going to give it a try cuz I got nothing to lose. 

CHANTELLE: Oh my gosh I’m so I’m so excited I don’t know exactly where you are in South Florida but from being in Miami, I actually have several friends there that do the same thing I do as far as like I Faith Coach with women, so I’ll help them actually build their relationship with God and it’s free just because it’s changed my life so I want to help as many people as possible. Depending on where you are I know people in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, so I can connect you if you’re interested. 

ZACH: I’m definitely interested and that sounds incredible, thank you. It’s ironic you mention it, when I started going to church with John (it’s ironic that his name is John), When I started going to church with John, he inviting me to one of his brotherhood meet ups and we would read a passage or a verse from the Bible and we would all talk about it. And there were a lot of people that were battling and overcame addiction or battling and overcoming a bad divorce with their wives. We all experience these hardships in our lives, whether big or small, but we are all battling our own demons. We all sin, I sin all the time. I have confidence that if I follow God, not necessarily Christianity, but if I follow God and I work on cultivating a better relationship with him and if I’m intentional about trying to get closer to God everyday, then it will be easier to fight these demons.

CHANTELLE: For sure, for sure. I love what you said just there. 2020 has been a hard year for a lot of us and I went through one of the hardest things in my life this year in losing my father.

ZACH: I’m sorry to hear that.

CHANTELLE: Thank you, yeah it’s definitely been a struggle, but the thing that has kept me able to continue to live this life and kept me connected to the earth has been my faith in God.  And you’re right, we all struggle with demons, we all struggle with things we have to fight every single day and the Bible and my relationship with God has become the way that I fight, the way that I do it.  Yeah, one of the things I love is in John, when Jesus calls, there are people following him and he turns around and he’s like “what do you want?” and they are like “yo what’s up? Where are you staying?” They ask him where he’s staying. His response to them is “Come and see”. He could have said obey me, he could have said give up your life, he could have judged them for their sins. He could have said anything. Instead, he said “come and see”. He invited them to come hang out with him. And I think he did that because he knew that when they hung out with him then they would eventually love him. So that’s what we need to remember is that we don’t have to — you don’t need to want to be a Christian, you don’t need to be like Oh I’m so in love with God, or I’m so in love with Jesus, you just have to be willing to come and see.

ZACH: I like that. Yeah I’m willing to come and see. I’m going to open the Bible and I’m going to read John and I’m going to see what he has to say. 

CHANTELLE: Yeah…. I love it!

ZACH: John, what’s up? I’m Zach, Chantelle said you’re a good dude, what’s Poppin?

CHANTELLE: LOL OMG

ZACH: There’s is so much more I want to talk about but I think we should save that for another podcast but I wanted to tell the audience that you provide faith and confidence instruction through your YouTube channel private Facebook group, email list and you also offer courses and events for deeper learning and more intimate community experience. Can you tell the audience where they can find you and all these incredible resources.

CHANTELLE: Absolutely, you can find me on my website confidentlyhis.com. You can find me on Instagram. I’m always on Instagram @MissChantelle. 

I will be giving away. I’m doing a very special give-away next week which I’m excited about. My first book of devotionals will be launching at the end of next month and I’m very very excited about that as well. Follow me on Instagram to stay up to date on that. 

ZACH: I’m on your website right now and I’m subscribing so I can start getting not only the emails, but access all the resources and to the devotionals?

CHANTELLE: Yes, I’m writing that now and it comes out at the end of November.

ZACH: I just got the ten scriptures that you sent me and I’m going to read one of them to end this, how does that sound.

CHANTELLE: Yes, for sure.

ZACH: This one says “For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you” Isaiah 41:13.

CHANTELLE: Oh my gosh, I love that scripture because we all need help. If we believe God who he says he is then if he is holding our hand, then we have no reason to fear. 

ZACH: Awe… That’s the epitome of faith right there.

CHANTELLE:  I remember it all the time when I’m going through a hard time. I’m like, okay I’m going through a hard time but God is here he’s holding my hand I don’t have to fear because he promises to help me. 

ZACH: He’s got you, he’s got your back. And you know I think now more than ever we can all benefit from having a little more faith in God cuz there’s a lot going on right now. So let’s all just have our faith in God and just do our best. Just do your best, everything will work out. You got nothing to worry about God’s Got Your Back.

CHANTELLE: For sure, for sure.

ZACH: Chantel it was a pleasure having you this was an incredible conversation I’m sure the audience really enjoyed it as well. Everyone go check her out on her website confidentlyhis.com 

CHANTELLE: Zach, thank you so much, I appreciate you having me. I just wish you the best in everything that you’re doing, you’re an amazing conversationalist.

ZACH: Thank you so much, and you know what I am going to let you know after I read John from the Bible and we’re going to get back on another podcast and we’re going to talk about it.

CHANTELLE: Totally here for it.

ZACH: Sounds good, Chantelle enjoy the rest of your week. I wish you nothing but all the health wealth success and happiness for you and your friends and your family today tomorrow the rest of the year.

CHANTELLE: Awe Zach Thank you same to you… God bless!

ZACH: God bless.

Chantelle can be found at Confidentlyhis.com and on Instagram @MissChantelle