Let's Keep Talking with Braxton Gilbert
Talking with you about how life is healing & growing me!
Let's Keep Talking with Braxton Gilbert
Vedic Meditation & Nervous System Healing | Nico DiMattina
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Nico is so full of life he's nearly bursting off the screen. In this episode we talk about mediation, acting from a place of centeredness, and overall emotional well being with things like processing pain and developing sensitivity to truth in your life. Enjoy!
Chatgpt said this is what we talked about:
Your mind can explain your pain for hours and still never touch the real release. We go straight into what changes when you stop trying to “think” your way to certainty and start working with the nervous system, the body, and the heart.
We talk with Nico Dimatina about Vedic meditation and why mantra-based practice works like training wheels: you use the sound silently, it fades, and you land in real stillness. From there, we unpack why long-form meditation teacher training focuses so much on stored trauma, emotional baggage, and the subconscious patterns that run your reactions. Nico walks us through a full rounding sequence (toning, gentle yoga asana, shavasana, breathwork, then meditation) and explains how practices like alternate nostril breathing can help the body feel safe enough to unwind.
We also zoom out into the bigger life questions: alignment versus achievement, why external success can’t manufacture deep fulfillment, and what it means to “surrender” without checking out of your responsibilities. Nico shares a vivid story of asking for direction and having “Dubai” drop into consciousness during meditation. From qigong and meridians to psychedelics as plant medicine (with strong emphasis on guidance and integration), we keep bringing it back to what’s practical: cultivating a steady inner baseline, then living from it.
If this hit home, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s stuck in their head, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What practice helps you come back to your body fastest?
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Opening Question: Where Are You Needed
SPEAKER_01Do it. Yeah. When you talk when you talk about uh traveling the world to elevate consciousness, um how do you determine where you're needed? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's a great question. This is where uh I've got a good story about this actually. Last year, please, I had just come out of my uh India meditation teacher training, uh, which was a one-year uh training with my teacher joining. One year. One year, yeah. And well, actually, longer than a year. This training was one year, but I I'd been training from 2018 where it was.
SPEAKER_01I find you I find you very interesting, so I'm gonna pop in a lot just and get specific on certain things. Um India training on um meditation, yeah.
Vedic Meditation And The Mantra
SPEAKER_00Vedic meditation specifically. So Vedic meditation, it's very different to mindfulness-based meditation. Vedic meditation is where we utilize a mantra, which is a sound vibration, and instead of saying out loud the mantra, which is what you typically do with mantras, this technique is very different, very subtle, where you think the mantra, you silently repeat it in the back of the mind, and then eventually that mantra begins to dissolve, and all of a sudden, there's just silent stillness, your mind goes completely empty, no mantra, no thoughts.
SPEAKER_01Like a training wheel of sorts for like give it something to really focus on, and then until it's no longer needed.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Training wheels is the best analogy. Yeah, yeah. You use it until you don't use it. It's like you jump in the Uber to get from point A to point B. You don't stay in the Uber, get out of the Uber, jump out. Same thing with the mantra. We utilize it until we don't need it anymore.
SPEAKER_01What was that like uh for a for a year being in uh you were in India? You went there for this for this um this education, yeah. Um, how what are the different layers of education you get on that topic that would constitute being there for a whole year?
SPEAKER_00So, for context, I I wasn't uh I wasn't in India for the whole year, but I was in India for the start of the training for the first month, and then in India at the back end of the training for the final month, and then in between, 10 months in between, we're on Zoom calls every week with
A Year Of Training For Trauma
SPEAKER_00our training. So now here's the thing, right? You know, to answer your question, we often might think, oh yeah, you can just get certified to teach meditation in a weekend course, right? Sure. How how difficult is meditation, right? School.com, s k-o-l.com. Yes, yes, it's amazing. And there are so many good online platforms, right? And there's you can learn on YouTube, you can learn on these other apps as well. Awesome. So, not to negate any of this. However, the true magic of this human experience. So I'm also a human, I'm not just a meditation teacher, right? Now, why am I saying this? All of us humans have got a similar human experience, similar challenges, navigating the fear-based limitations of our thinking mind. Yeah, and we all have these things that we call a nervous system, which holds deeply stored trauma and emotional baggage. So when people think about mastering the mind, mastering the mind, that's awesome. You cannot master the mind if you don't master your nervous system. It's impossible because this is where the trauma is stored. The trauma's not in the mind, the trauma is lodged in the nervous system. So, back to your question what do we do in a whole year in a meditation teacher training? We tend to the nervous systems every day and all of this trauma that is in there. We don't even know that we've got some of the stuff in there, but it's in there. This is the stuff that we call in the subconscious that's um impacting our behavioral patterns. Notice the last time you had a short fuse and you blew up with anger. Boom, there's trauma in the system. Nervous system needs to be clear this stuff. This is not a you know, you've got to master your mind and master the anger. It's actually clear through compassion, through love, through stillness, through presence. Clear this nervous system.
SPEAKER_01It does seem like the mind is the um just like the symptom of the of what the body is holding on to.
SPEAKER_00Boom. Yeah, you know it, brother. 100%. So this is what we learn on that one-year training. You know, we go deep. The best teacher is gonna be the best student. The best student is the one who's been able to sit with themselves long enough to clear their trauma for it to come to the surface, to clear their emotional baggage, to get to a place of centered groundedness, finding that inner peace and inner power.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I know that from like just from the content that I've taken in from yours, um, like it seems that that's the like that's the start point, right? Like that's the base point of then you can begin your creative offering to the world or your business or that kind of thing. Um, are there other therapeutic modalities involved in the releasing trauma from the nervous system, or is it generally in just the mantra type thing?
SPEAKER_00Nah, it's a great question. So
Rounding: Touch, Movement, Breath, Stillness
SPEAKER_00when we are in these trainings, we have this beautiful sequence. It's called a Vedic round, a rounding sequence, R-O-U-N-D, round, rounding. So this sequence was cognized, was created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who was the master teacher who taught the Beatles to meditate when the Beatles went to Rishikesh in India in 1968. Now, so this is the you know the techniques that um you know uh I teach this the Vedic meditation uh teachers, and um basically the sequence is you begin with toning, we call it. It's like a it's like a little self-massage, right? You're sort of here with the heart, you tone your head, your face, your arms. You basically touch every part of your body, and it's not just a random touch, it's full presence, full presence with your hand, full presence with your arm, full presence with your armpit, full presence with your heart, full presence, you know. So this is a very powerful. We do this for maybe two minutes, you know, two, three minutes, very short, not long, a few minutes. Then after the toning, we do about a 15-minute yoga asana sequence. Asana is the movements of yoga, right? Um, so this movement though is very specifically designed not to over-stimulate you. You're actually doing it ever so gently. So you're not overstretching. Whenever you feel the stretch, you just pull back a little bit. Now, what this is doing is stretching the fascia, but not too much where it feels overly stressed, it feels safe. When it feels safe, here's the magic which I'm I know you're alluding to here, right? Which is the somatic healing, right? So we utilize the movement to help clear some of the tension in the body and to stretch you a little bit. Then after the 15 minutes of the movement, the next part of the sequence is shavasna for two minutes, corpse pose. Then you come out of the corpse pose, the shavasna, for five minutes. You do a breathing technique, a sequence of fast breathing, alternate nostril breathing, out, out, out. Yeah, you do that for two minutes fast, so that floods yourself with a lot of oxygen, a lot of energy. This is where the stimulation occurs. It's you're like purifying. Then, after the two minutes of fast breathing, you do three minutes of very slow breathing. Now, this imagine emptying all the way out through your left nostril, and then inhaling fully to the max with your left nostril, and when you hold, then you exhale out through the right nostril to empty.
SPEAKER_01What's the thought process behind that alternation of the nostrils?
SPEAKER_00Yes, great question. So we are beings that have two sides to us masculine, feminine. We have two channels, the masculine and feminine channel in the yogic wisdom tradition. We call it the Ida and the Pingala, which are representing the masculine and feminine uh energy channels. That's the best way to look at it, energy channels. So when we do one breathing through one nostril, you're balancing that channel. Let's say your feminine channel. Then when you do the other nostril, you're balancing the other channel, the masculine, the polarity, the feminine. And so when you do that really slow, you are balancing your left and right hemispheres of the brain, and your whole body comes into balance and a deep sense of calm. And remember, we've done this before we've even begun the meditation, right? We've done the movement, we've done the integration of shavasna, then we've done the breath. Then after that slow three minutes of breathing, then that's when we begin the Vedic meditation utilizing the mantra. You're already in a very deep place. And then the mantra again takes you even deeper. So then you do 20 minutes of the meditation, sitting upright, back upright.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Then after the 20 minutes, 10 minutes of final shavasana, corpse pose, laying on your back. This is so powerful, the shavasna. Right in yoga, you have a 60-minute yoga class often. It's too short to be able to have uh well, they focus too much on the asana, the movement in yoga, and they forget the eighth limb of yoga.
Yoga Sutras And Samadhi Explained
SPEAKER_00There's a great book here, um, the yoga sutras of patanjali. Have you heard about this book? I have, please. Yeah, this is a game changer. Every yoga teacher training in the world gives this as the recommended book list. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. So Patanjali was a great master. He lived about 800,000 years ago, like approximately that time. And um this is when that sort of thousand years ago, you said? Yeah, yeah, about that time. So long, long time. And um he recognized that this wisdom had been lost. People had forgotten the practice of yoga and dharmic living, you know, living aligned with your heart, aligned with your purpose. People had forgotten how to harness, you know, the nature, you know, how to clear and purify their mind. People had forgotten how to get into their body, right? So he created this book, which was just a very simple boom, eight limbs of hey, this is how to live. This is how we can harness our energy, this is how we practice every day to sustain this state of inner peace and this postures. Well, postures is one of the limbs, but then it's breath work, then it's bringing your senses inward to meditate. And the final limb of yoga that's um Patanjali uh outlines is the final one, is called samadhi. Samadhi. Have you heard about this word before? Samadhi. Maybe. So I'll spell it first. S-A-M A-D-H-I. Samadhi. Break up the words. Sama D. D means intellect, sama means balanced, balanced intellect. This is our ultimate state of consciousness as humans. Now, they don't teach this in yoga classes, baffling, they just teach the movement, the movement is the first step.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you are you moving in? Are you leaning into the idea or highlighting the idea of the intelligence of the body when we reach that state of centered centeredness?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. When we're in that state of centeredness, our body has got this natural healing intelligence, this natural intuitive intelligence.
SPEAKER_01What's the what are the words people need to hear to have them consider more of the healing and solution to ailments that plague us, whether it's chronic emotional pain, I would say in that that domain, primarily for the point of this question. Could be more so in the release of the body instead of the piling on of more knowledge and and and information.
SPEAKER_00It's a good question. So, yeah, what would people need? Yeah, because yeah, true. Knowledge at this point in the game, we're flooded with too much knowledge. That is not the answer right now. The answer is, you know, what's gonna anchor people to get back into their body to practice to know that this is you know where the magic is. So
Get Out Of Head Into Body
SPEAKER_00for me, a little reminder, I use a little tagline, which is get out of my head, get into my body, get into my heart. Yeah, this just reminds me, it anchors me when we get confused in our uh thinking mind overthinking, we get a bit lost. We forget, we we lose clarity. So, in order for me to maintain clarity, I remind myself, Nico, get out of your head, get into your body. How do I get into the body and why? How do I get into the body? Movement, dance, exercise, right? Whatever movement, make sure it's joyful. Don't just, you know, if you can't go to the gym, don't go to the gym and do your movement, go for the walk in the woods, go the walk up the mountain, get on the bike, whatever, go for a swim, you know, move, just move your body.
SPEAKER_01And it seems like the clarity that we're seeking to is almost like a natural state of. I think you're actually you mentioned it in one of your uh pieces of content about acceptance. Yeah, there's a deep acceptance that then gives way to this piece of being. And you really I know that I've struggled with that, like find trying to find certainty in the mind and thinking my way to certainty instead of just being present with what is and widening my heart enough to accept it. Uh, I think that one of the things that maybe Michael Singer writes in his book, The Untethered Soul, says something like the mind shatters when it doesn't like the truth of the heart.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Ooh, I love that book, Michael Singer. Um, both both books, actually. The the uh sorry, yeah, the untethered soul. I don't think I've read his next book. Um, which is a lender experiment. Yes, I haven't fully finished that one. I've read a bit of it. Yeah, it's a wonderful one.
SPEAKER_01Okay, what a what a cool story, man. Like just a guy that uh the whole thing is like him just deciding to give his yes to whatever life asks for him. And he ends up like you know, just doing stuff he doesn't really want to do for a while, and then he ends up building that company uh medical manager that they that sells to to WebMD for three billion dollars. And the whole time there's a thing in uh a Latima in in Florida, like with no shoes on.
SPEAKER_00That's amazing. What a life, what an experience, what an experiment. Hey Brax, just wait for one second. I just want to plug in this light. I realize that the light, I just need a bit more light here. I've got a light, but I just realized I didn't have the light um properly on, so just bear with me.
SPEAKER_01No worries.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, yeah, just um I want to circle back to um because yeah, I think it's such a great question. We we get a bit like confused on where uh uh where to anchor ourselves and what to do and when to do it. And so we we said about you know, get out of the head into the body, but um why? And you you alluded it to it, right? You tried to get to the answers and solve the answers with your mind thinking about it. This is where most people try to do this. Now, Einstein had a great quote: No problem was ever solved in the same consciousness that created it. So, in other words, you can't solve the problem from the problem state. This is the downfall of most of our humanity. We're trying to solve our problems by thinking our way through it. That's the problem. The problem is we're in the mind. The answer goes beyond the mind into your body, into your heart. Gratitude, great practice to get into the heart very quickly.
SPEAKER_01I think that one of the things that helps me tremendously here at um Nico is that I remind myself what I'm after is a feeling, and the feeling is in the body. So if I'm up here and I'm anxious and I'm stressed, what I'm at what I'm after is a feeling of certainty. And the certainty is a feeling of safety in the body that says, I have been through really challenging things and I made it through the other side. Here I am in one piece, and I'm sure that whatever comes, this feeling of groundedness and breath is something that I'll return to, or uh safety. The feeling of safety in my body is what I'm after, not imagined safety in the mind. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Boom. I love it, Rex Brexton. That is such beautiful wisdom for all of us to hear, you know, and that's that's where the safety is here in our own hearts, in our own bodies, always.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's like um, I think that's probably just it's always a really good come-home reminder for me. And because you do, you get you try to get lost in the mind, you try to solve it in the mind, you try to think yourself through it when what you're thinking yourself to is trying to get to a feeling, and that feeling is something you can generate right now, and it though you'd be better off spending your time instead of thinking, spending your time practicing and deepening the groove that accesses that feeling inside your nervous system already. Yeah. For a lot of people, though, Nico, like why do you feel like that they don't want to go inside and feel is it from past experiences or trauma or pain or things stored? Is it scary in there?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Well said, it absolutely is for people. As soon as you sit still, this is probably the biggest challenge that people face with meditation if you haven't dealt with any of your unresolved trauma and deeply stored emotional baggage, you know. And this could be a breakup, you know, from five years ago, or you got bullied in the schoolyard when you were 10 years old, and you're still carrying that in your nervous system. So as soon as you sit to meditate, guess what's the first stuff that comes to the surface? Yeah, all of that. And of course, it's uncomfortable. Sometimes it's very painful, it doesn't feel good. So people are like, Why would I meditate? Because it doesn't feel good. Here's the thing where the knowledge comes into play. The Vedic wisdom tradition, right? The yogic tradition shares with us sat, chit ananda, sat, the truth, chit, consciousness, ananda, bliss. The truth of our consciousness is bliss. Our natural state of being is bliss. So, with this knowledge, plus the practice of meditation and the yoga asana, the movement, and the breath work, we can sit in meditation, witness all of these deeply stored, unresolved emotional baggage and traumas come to the surface and come out, release out of our system. Then after your meditation, you come out of it and you think, Wow, I feel clear in my mind, my body feels calm and at peace, and I feel quite energized.
SPEAKER_01For the people though, that are just starting this, Nico, they don't feel that way yet. They're they're still on level one, which is I feel overwhelmed, stressed, and and freaked the fuck out because it's scary in here, and I don't feel like I'm big enough to be able to metabolize these emotions that are coming up.
SPEAKER_00And this is what's great about having a teacher with a good technique, with an amazing supportive community. This is a game changer. Have you ever played um sports growing up? Team sports, Brexit? Yeah. Amazing. What do you love about team sports as like your team? What do you feel when you're in the team?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's always good interacting with other people, like a common goal. You know, you feel like a nice sense of camaraderie.
SPEAKER_00Boom. Nice sense of camaraderie, a feeling of support, family, home, safety. Yeah, so when we have that in our community, we're all going with a shared similar goal, which is expanding our consciousness to realize our true potential, our true divine nature, to master our mind. Master when you master your mind, you master fear. When you master Nervous system, you master fearlessness, you master peace, you master groundedness and centeredness, right? Then we're really connected to our creative intelligence that's flowing through us, and that's that innate intuitive intelligence. We all have it. So it's layered to this.
SPEAKER_01What do you mean you master fear if you master the mind?
Love Dissolves Fear And Reframes Success
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So in our natural state of awareness, our baseline, you know, we mentioned before that the yogic wisdom shares with us that our natural state of being is bliss, our natural state of consciousness is bliss. In this bliss, it's also a state of love. When you're in a state of love and bliss, fear completely dissolves because you're empowered, you're in your power, and fear just dissolves. You embody fearlessness because, yes, guess what? We're all gonna die. None of us are getting out of here alive. Isn't that a beautiful reminder to just get on with living? Why are we fearing the inevitable? Yeah, nothing to fear. All the spiritual masters have said, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. What are we afraid of? Be in love when it's my time to go, it's my time. I'm gonna live fully in the now, fully with my love, giving my full energy, and there's nothing to fear.
SPEAKER_01Do you think that a lot of the reason that that doesn't seem to get taken up a lot by people that hear is because of the mythology we have in our modern society, is all about like what you want on the other side of accumulation, achievement, and something external. We don't hear a lot of like people reminding us that you can instead decide to go in, like even there are the scriptures, the kingdom of heaven is within. You can you can establish a sense of peace and love and nirvana inside, and then from that place, then you can go. I mean, that's really cool part about it is that from that place, then you go and start gifting, and then the whole thing becomes much more like a blissful exchange.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So you've nailed it here. So the kingdom of heaven is within, heaven is right here, right now. Not when we die, we go to this place. It's here now. Bliss, heaven, same thing. It's here now, it's inside of us now, always. Yeah, state of consciousness, state of consciousness, right? Christ consciousness, it's a state of consciousness, right? Krishna consciousness, it's a state of consciousness, and and so this consciousness, this state is our natural state, and it's always here within us, always. So, our goal is to purify the blocks that are limiting that, right? That are blocking us from accessing that. So that's our goal. So goal for everyone. You asked before, what's gonna help people like do the practices? Well, connect with how you want to feel. Personally, I want to feel full power energy, baby. I want to be charging, and guess what? I don't drink coffee anymore, Braxton. This energy that you're feeling is completely natural. I haven't had any sugar to lift me up, I haven't had any coffee, no stimulants. This is our natural state of being. So, this is what's cool about having some teachers and some mentors around us who are embodying that experience or that state of consciousness. And it's not to say, hey, I'm I'm better than anyone else. There's no superiority here. This is hey, we're all one. I see you, I see you, brother. I see that you and I are similar and you're a different uh aspect of me, you know, different versions of me. And so this is where compassion comes into play and being like, hey, if I've gotten to a certain state, I feel obliged now to share this with as many people as possible to help them help themselves. I can't help anyone, they can only help themselves. You gotta just meet me halfway, right? There's a lot of wisdom out there. We've got to just know where the right place to look is. First place to look is in your heart. This is gonna be that intuitive wisdom that's gonna guide you, like how it guided you to me, right? There was an energy that we felt, uh a resonance of truth, a resonance of inspiration, a resonance. There was something there. What did you feel when you came to my page on Instagram? This guy's interesting.
SPEAKER_01I want to talk, I want to talk to him.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and what was it interesting? What felt interesting? What was the something that that felt if you can remember? I know it would have been a while ago, but that first time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's I just think there's a lot of truth in um the wisdom of when we talk about moving from that place of stillness inside. That seems to be the thing that called out to me the most.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, beautiful, beautiful. And then so this loops back perfectly to that point you made just before, which was we in our societies, our education system, it's been leading us to focusing on external achievements. Yeah, yeah. There's nothing wrong with external achievements. However, let's get very, very clear. These external achievements are not the source of our deep inner fulfillment. I want to repeat that because people need to hear this. This is why you see billionaires who are feeling empty inside. Our achievements externally are not the source of our deep inner fulfillment and deep inner peace and contentment. Yeah, we need to do that work internally, cultivate that state, and then watch our internal state start to impact our external achievements because what you said, you start to bring this fulfillment to the world rather than try to get from that experience, you're giving to the experience.
SPEAKER_01That's such a different frame, Nico, and I appreciate you touching on that, man. Like the um I don't feel good, so I'm going to try to achieve enough to feel better becomes empty. The next layer, the next chapter in that one, I think, is like, I don't feel like achieving anything because I've noticed that there's an elusive quality to any achievement, and I will never feel any different than I am now. And then the third one is like, okay, well, then if there's nothing I can consume to bring into my body that will make me feel different, how can I begin to touch on alignment inside? And like you said, purify the blockages, clean the blockages out that are limiting me from experiencing heaven, experiencing bliss, experiencing love. And then I think the fourth and final chapter is like, now you're back in the game because now you have something to give instead of ravishly searching for something to get.
SPEAKER_00Oof, yes. And all of the masters say the secret to living is giving. And you know, so the secret to living is giving. Now, the first thing is though, as you said, we've got to find that stillness, we've got to clear the blocks that are keeping us away from that stillness, because then when we find the stillness, when you clear the blocks and then you find that stillness, guess what's in the stillness? This is where your unique gifts start to emerge. Clarity comes. So you asked me before, right?
Surrender And The Dubai Download
SPEAKER_00Your first question was Um, you know, how do you know where to go in the world? So we didn't get a chance to answer it. So the answer is last year I'm sitting in meditation. I had been very clear with the universe. I could feel when I was in Australia, my home country, I could feel that Australia, the energy of Australia wasn't meant for me to be there.
unknownRight?
SPEAKER_00I could feel it. Something just didn't feel aligned. You said the word aligned before. I love the word aligned. Everyone needs to have this word as our main word to remember alignment. It's going to help with our careers, our relationships, our health, our energy, alignment, everything. So I asked the universe because it didn't feel aligned being in Australia. It was like a um, I was there until the next chapter, and I didn't know where the next chapter was. So I asked the universe, please send me clarity on where I should go. I said, I'm surrendered, I'm open, use me, be I'm being of service. I know what I've got to share and offer. I'm ready to give it. Put me where you where you think is best. That's what my my clear connection, what I shared to the universe. Then, like with all manifestation, let it go. I didn't, I wasn't keeping ruminating on it. Where's my spot? Where's my place? I was meditating one day, my mind is completely empty. I'm in this state of stillness, and all of a sudden, Dubai pops into my consciousness very clearly. Dubai. Now I laughed because a few years ago, if you were to said Nico, you'll be living in Dubai. I would have laughed in your face, Braxton. I would have said, absolutely not. Why would I want to live in the desert in this perceived place of uh superficiality where they're just focused on money and just you know, very it seems a bit soulless, you know. And I don't want to hang shit on Dubai, but that's a lot of the perception that I had, and a lot of other people have. You know, now remember what was my question to the universe? Please send me, you know, where I'm needed. I'm I'm I'm ready I'm being of service, I'm ready to give. Put me where you think is best. Boom. Universe said Dubai. So I said, okay, universe, let's do it. I went to Dubai within the first day or two that I was there. Extraordinary support of energy from the universe. So much flow. I'm like, this is exactly where I'm meant to be right now. This trained me in this moment because you know, we've got layers of building up trust. Yeah, there's layers to this trust, deepening trust, deepening, deepening. This was when I fully surrendered to the universe because I could feel the energy. The universe has got my back. I just need to get into the stillness. The universe, the divine intelligence, the creative intelligence will inform me, will share with me this insight of what to do next. I don't need to think about what to do next. Just be still. The answer will come.
SPEAKER_01I think for a lot of the people that are listening, there maybe they feel like it might be a hard thing to resonate with being led by the direction of the universe, because that to me feels like that connectivity you talked about to the flow of life, to truth, to you know, a pure consciousness that then allows you to like feel being led by the flow of life instead of like kind of directing it yourself is a byproduct of that stillness that you're teaching through the Vedic meditation, which is on the other side of facing the internal state, which is something so many people struggle with, you know. Uh, it's funny that you haven't read this surrender experiment, man. You don't need to, you're living it, bro. This is like um you're doing the path. Hey,
Qigong, Psychedelics, And Integration
SPEAKER_01something I wanted to talk with you about to make sure that I get the chance to dance around a little bit was Qigong. Um and actually, let me get you to like real quickly answer one thing in the movie Chigong. Um have you always been have you always been deeply feeling intuitive, feeling connected to a sense of purpose in life, or on that journey, kind of the alchemy, or is it or have, or was it more of a superficial experience for a bit and then it kind of transitioned at some point?
SPEAKER_00Correct. Yeah, so it was a superficial experience for a lot of my life, um, where I wasn't really connected to my emotions or that fine level of feeling. However, in saying that, because I didn't have the awareness at the time, and when I say this, this is for the first 26 years of my life. 26 years, I didn't have the awareness of my um my thoughts and my fine level of feeling, that deep emotion I couldn't really feel deeply.
SPEAKER_01Which for the first which for the first four years, no one's gonna blame you for Nico. You gotta eat your plane feel absolutely, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00And this is what's cool about working with with certain people because I worked with uh an energy healer, and I remember we're doing the work, you know, we'd have a session maybe once a month, and I had a session with her for about four years, once a month for four years, right? And I could feel there was so much medicine in these sessions, and she said one day, Nico, you just got to feel into it, and I said, Natalie was her name. I said, Natalie, I don't know how to feel into it. I got a bit frustrated. I'm like, how do I feel? I don't know how to feel into it, and I was frustrated. She said, Nico, patience, be patient. It's coming. Keep doing you're doing the right things, you're moving your body, you're meditating, you're being in nature, you're eating cleanly, right? You're doing the right things. Just be patient. So I was, and sure enough, maybe a year after that experience of me getting frustrated, of my inability to feel deeply, all of a sudden it just dropped in. I was still too caught up in my mind when I was still working with her, and then that year later, I realized oh, my mind is now being pacified and tamed, and I dropped into myself. And when I dropped into myself, then I could feel more. So to answer your question, uh, you know, the yeah, sorry, go on, we're gonna say something.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna say, I was gonna ask you if you're uh open to share about it. In my experience, psychedelics have been helpful in facilitating that process because of the the structure, the belief structure of the brain that's hardened for the first 20 years of the life. And uh has psychedelics been something that's been helpful for you and become in more of a feeling person?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So I want to preface this by saying psychedelics, magic mushrooms, uh, ayahuasca peyote, these are the three uh that I've done in San Pedro, uh Wachuma, have been great medicines, they're not drugs, they are great medicines, plant medicines, with when used with intention, with the right guidance and facilitation and support, yeah, can be very powerful to help break through blocks that we have in our mind and our bodies. Yeah, now I say that I had seven years of daily meditation practice prior to having my first ayahuasca experience in 2019. And what that did, the meditation prior to the plant medicine, was the meditation helped bring to the surface and clear a lot of the baseline level of um unworthiness and trauma that I had with myself. So I'd already cleared a lot of it prior to the coming to the plants. Then the plants just gave a bit extra clarity and reminded me. They got me to see the colors of life and to see the inner workings of energy and that spiritual realms, the unseen realms. It gave me more access to that. And so I recommend it for people to break through. And then we don't need the plants anymore. Once you have enough practices established, so I don't use plants anymore. You know, it's um yeah, it's not a part, well, I'll never say never, but it's like it's it's not a part of my uh yeah. I've got practices that can cultivate this state now without needing to ingest anything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a teacher, right? Not a crutch. And a great teacher. I think that for anyone who has not ex not um used the medicine of psychedelics, and I do totally want to echo what you said with intention and also with guidance, those are two things that will make that a much better experience and safety, obviously, test whatever whatever kind of thing, what kind of substance you're taking. Um, the other thing on top of that is, or in addition to that, is um meditation and a lot of the somatic stuff we're talking about, like being the felt states in the body, working with the state of the body, tending to it closely, being present with it, I think really does train you well to be ready for an experience like that that takes you past the familiar physical experience and into kind of thrusts you into more of a deeply emotional, uh nonlinear, uh energetic feeling. Um, and so yeah, if you're if someone's thinking about doing that and they haven't yet, maybe some meditation for a bit, even if it's just a month of sitting with yourself quietly for five minutes, 10 minutes a day, it helps you cultivate like a nice place to do that.
SPEAKER_00Um so just on that, I'm just lighting some Palo Santo right now. And this is a great, you know, for anyone who's not familiar with Palo Santo or Sage or why in India they're burning so much incense, right? It helps clear any of the negative spirits, the energies that are around in the atmosphere. So before doing any plant medicine, you know, we're and and all the time when you come from uh uh outside in the world and you get home, do a little, they call it a smudging. Beautiful to clear your energy, right? This is where we really start to harness to clear energetically, emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually. We're clearing on all levels, and this is what meditation will also do. It's gonna help clear on all levels. And um, and I love your suggestion, Braxton. Absolutely. Before doing any plant medicine, it's highly recommended to establish a daily meditation practice to be able to sit with yourself first, and then you're gonna be able to receive the medicine of the plants much better and the teachings much better, and you're able to integrate the experience much better. This is the downfall with a lot of plant medicine communities. They they don't teach the meditation part and the integration part enough.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And too, like I think about it like uh, you know, a really, really beautiful um medicinal experience of sorts can really clean you out in a lot of really good ways. And if you have someone coming to your house to clean your house, you do tidy up before they get there so they can get to the real work, you know.
SPEAKER_00So uh best analogy. I love that so much.
SPEAKER_01Yes, cleaning a house, yeah, beautiful. Man, they're gonna power wash it. Absolutely. Uh yeah, man. So qigong. Yeah, qigong, man. That's something that uh like uh just to kind of tell you where I'm masking from, like, yeah, for the last year and a half or so, it's been like a uh I'd say every day for like nine months, like a 10-15 minute qigong practice, mainly working with like foot breathing and uh learning to circulate the energy through the body. And that's impacted the way that I have, I think it retrained my body how to breathe and how to be in my body, really like lower my consciousness. Um, which if you're listening to this and you're like, fuck you mean lower your consciousness. Like uh, you know, you put your feet on the ground and just while you're listening to this podcast, you become aware of your feet on the ground, you know, just kind of your attention isn't less of just scattered around and it starts to just subtly settle a bit and your attention is drawn a little bit lower instead of just kind of like all the pain. Go for it.
SPEAKER_00Can I pause you there for one second? It's funny about the use of words, how they can be misinterpreted. So, in that case, instead of maybe saying lower our consciousness, I would use awareness, bring our awareness down. Yeah, but then because what we're doing really is expanding and heightening our consciousness. Um, but we're just bringing our awareness or our attention down to our feet, you know, and that's what's so good about qigung. It's such a grounding practice. So sorry to interrupt, but yeah, keep keep going.
SPEAKER_01Please add anything. Is is what you see more so that the awareness is kind of here and you're you're stretching the bottom of it to encapsulate the feet too.
SPEAKER_00Yes, boom. More uh wholesome, inclusive of the whole experience.
SPEAKER_01Which that's also seems to be a really interesting um like subtlety to a lot of the qigong practices, and just like when you're adding in different bodily awareness facets, so like be aware of the feet, be aware of the knees, be aware of the back of the head. Not like you're swapping to different spots with a flashlight, now you're aware of this, but instead you're trying to see if you can expand enough to be aware of them all at the same time. Yep.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. So, so here's the thing about the um qigung and meditation, how they're linked. Most people, if if they just started a qigong practice right now without any meditation, a lot of people, the mind, let's say someone says, bring your awareness to your left knee or to your feet, to your feet. But then the mind's thinking about what you're about to eat for lunch, and then the mind's going to that work list. We haven't yet purified enough of the mind to be able to sustain our awareness. This is where things like qigum or body awareness practices can be challenging for people. What we do with Vedic meditation is we start with samadhi, that place of even steady intellect, the unbounded consciousness. We start from that. So we expand your consciousness field first, so and which purifies the mind. Then we say, Hey, connect with the breath, connect with the body. It's easier because your mind has been already purified. So that's that's our approach, inside out. Whereas qigung, then it makes it easier because it's so powerful, qigung, to move. You know, that's what ultimately we're doing is learning to harness energy in our body. And this is what qigung means, you know, the refined skill of harnessing our life force energy.
SPEAKER_01And it's what you're talking about there, Nico, that you're saying it's helpful to cultivate some sense of like a stillness practice in the mind before then you begin to lend that awareness to the state of the body. Yeah, big time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. If you're a longtime qigung practitioner, you don't need that anymore. But early on, yeah, we really need to like purify this because there's just so much incessant overthinking, overanalyzing. And that's the block. It's blocking our awareness to be able to connect with all these parts.
SPEAKER_01I love something you said in one of your um pieces of content uh on Instagram that uh saying, like, my my brain's too active to meditate. Like, I can't meditate and my brain's too active, my brain won't shut up. It's like saying I can't stretch because I'm too stiff. You need to. That was really clever, man.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, my very yeah. It's nice to use a bit of humor, right? Because when we use these analogies, that's why I love your analogy of cleaning the house. It's so true. If someone, okay, if the divine, if God is about to knock on your front door right now, what would you do? You would clean up the house just to make it a bit prettier, so it's welcoming for your guest. We should be living like this every day. And a good analogy here is the mind is the mess, the mess in your home is like the mess in your mind. So we need to tend to the mess, purify it, clear it, and then yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You can sink in, man. You gotta clear the floor. You can't you you gotta hoarder floor, man. You can't get you can't sink through it into the body, it's too cluttered, man. Yeah, yes, qigong. Like what I'm interested in to chat with you about, dude, is um define qigong? Yep, so energy product, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so yeah, first let us break down the word qi, qi is is pronounced qi, qi, it means life force energy. Isn't it interesting? That in the English language we don't have a word for this, we just say energy, but people are like, what kind of energy? Electro, electric energy. Uh, people don't know in English, so in India they call it kundalini, which is qi, life force energy or prana, prana is another name, kundalini, life force energy, prana, p-r-a-n a prana. So all of these eastern traditions are very aware of this life force energy, and the other word, so qi and then gong, g-o-n-g means the refined skill. The refined skill of cultivating our life force energy. So, this is it. Qi gong is an energetic practice, a movement practice, a breath practice, an awareness practice. It's a very all-inclusive energetic practice to energize ourselves, to open up, to harness more energy so the body has is is open, calm, and has got this free flowing energy running through it, which is our natural state of awareness.
SPEAKER_01How
Meridians, Emotions, Forgiveness, And Karma
SPEAKER_01is the how is like how would you compare and contrast the nervous system and the the uh what do you what do people call it the grid of sorts of the of the meridians? Yeah, like could you explain with the meridian part and then maybe compare and contrast how emotions are processed via the nervous system or the or the meridians, or like where we go to when we're trying to work on metabolizing difficult emotions and and and purifying and reaching higher states of energy?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, beautiful. So, firstly, I want to say that I think there's gonna be someone more expert in this space to give a better definition than me, specifically around the meridians. I've got decent knowledge, but there's gonna be an expert who can explain it better than me. However, I'll give you my uh my awareness, my understanding of it. The meridians think of it as a highway of information, a channel of information. And this highway, this channel stores emotion. So if we don't have a mechanism in how to release this emotion, and a way to look at it is emotional baggage, it's weighing us down. Emotions should be felt and processed, and they move through you. Emotion should not be held on to our human experience. Everyone's holding on to their emotions for way too long. This is why we have mental health problems. Look at the look at the animals. Most of them do not have any mental health challenges because what do the animals do after they've had a traumatic experience of being chased in the wild? What do the animals do? They shake their body, they shake it out, it's gone.
SPEAKER_01Something to say about that, I think is really helpful, Nico, is that the emotions get stored in our body based on the story we tell us, tell ourselves about the emotion. And one of the most recent examples I can tell in my own personal life is becoming comfortable with anger, specifically in short, no, don't do that. I don't want that. Not for me. Like those moments where having a very much people-pleasing setup in my nervous system, those felt like things that I wasn't supposed to do, wasn't supposed to be mean to people. And when I used to do those things, I would then ruminate on it. That I'm not supposed to be that way. And then that would give me this heaviness emotionally that then I would reinforce the next time it comes up. And now, without the narrative around it, that moment comes up, you say, No, don't do that. And then that moment passes with the clock on the wall. You know, it just goes with it, and then you're still fully here, not in the past.
SPEAKER_00Boom. This is everyone needs to hear that one minute and repeat that because that is the ultimate awareness of recognizing that we are our own worst enemy, and and we ruminate on these things. I was plagued. Okay, so this is why I stopped drinking alcohol, by the way. I've been eight years, no booze. Eight years. Thank you, bro. And uh no boobs.
SPEAKER_01You said no boobs or no booze.
SPEAKER_00No, no booze. I'm a lover, I'm a lover of the the feminine, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. But in this case, no booze, b-o-o-z-e, no booze, eight. And I realized that the silliest shit I'd ever done in my life was always under the influence of alcohol. So I realized with that expanded awareness now of daily meditation for a few years, I realized, you know what? Alcohol is not my best friend, alcohol doesn't have my best interests at heart. And I'm done with it. I'm done with it. I know I didn't need it to have fun because I'm a fun guy, and naturally, we're all naturally blissful and joyful when we get to our baseline. So I knew I didn't need it to have fun. And so when I took the alcohol out of the game, um, I realized though, there were a few moments, things that I had done whilst on alcohol that I was deeply ashamed by, that I had deep regret and I had shame and guilt around it. Now I remember there was one thing that I did and it plagued me for about three years. I had this, you know, it was still there because I hadn't fully processed it, accepted it, I hadn't fully been compassionate to myself and the situation. I hadn't forgiven myself yet. I was still holding it on myself. Now, the person that I had wronged had probably already forgiven me and moved on. But I hadn't I hadn't done it for myself. So here's the thing I want to just finish this this loop here. One of the greatest superpowers that we have as humans is our ability to be compassionate to ourselves. Compassion is the gateway to forgiveness. Forgiveness is the gateway to liberating ourselves from all of the past, deeply stored emotional baggage of the guilt, of the shame, of the regret.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's the it's so important, man, to give yourself grace and to turn to yourself with the same loving comfort you would give a friend and say, Hey, yeah, not your best look. And uh it's really, really good that we're able to see that. That's the progress that you're able to look back and say, Yeah, not my best look. Cool. Let's step into that, let's move from that and let's learn. If not, it it's bound to be repeated. So we're a better man because of it. I totally know what you mean, man.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and just that last bit, you're a better man because of it. So I want everyone to hear this. You are not a bad person. Anything that you've done in the past, you are not your past. You now are the person with this past experience, this wisdom from the experience, and you have chosen, you've made a clear distinction. I am not that version of myself. I take responsibility that I did do that, and I take full responsibility and ownership, and I choose to be compassionate and let that go. I know who I am now, this is who the person I am now and who I choose to be moving forward. Boom. You've now won the game of that past. It's cleared, it's done.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and because if you if you would have known that, then if you would have known what you know now, then you would have made a different decision that moment. And that's the that's the that's the point right there. And yeah, I think that's just there's such a freedom in that, man. So I'm glad you highlighted that.
SPEAKER_00Um just last just last thing on that, because I feel our society punishes people, right? And and puts them in a in a bucket. Oh, this person did that forever outcast. Now, what's interesting in a place, uh some of the tribes in Africa, whenever one of the tribesmen, one of the people in the tribe, have done something wrong that is not aligned with their nature, their true nature, they instead of punishing them, they bring them into the circle of the community and they remind the person of who they really are. You are a loving, compassionate being with this amazing creativity. We love you, and this is who you are. And then instead of feeling punished, they're like, Oh, yeah, that thing that I did, that's not me. I did that because I was in fear, I wasn't embodying my true nature. This is what we need to start to do as a society now. I love you. The Hawaiian prayer is hopano, yes, which is similar to this, it's a bit different. It's basically I I'm sorry. I forgive you, I love you, thank you. Beautiful. I'm sorry. I forgive you. Or please forgive me, right? I forgive you, please forgive me, right? I'm sorry. I love you and thank you. Thank you for the experience, thank you for the lesson, thank you for the wisdom.
SPEAKER_01You know, that that I love you too hits hits different, man, because like you know, the worst feeling is to feel the disgust from someone when they close their heart towards you because of a mistake you made, and to feel someone say, Uh my heart is open to you, I feel safe with you. And part of that, it's really cool that you can bring that to your relationships based on how you own it. Do you own the mistake you made in a way because, like, you know, you can kind of tip into some Carl Jung's stuff here, where you're like, you know, better is the man who knows his darkest impulses and embraces those and then consciously chooses not to act upon them than the one who has no idea what he's capable of. Yeah. And um, you know, that's a there's a degree of safety. I although it might be a little counterintuitive, there's a degree of safety around someone who identifies with more of some of the capacities for um, you know, malevolence and chooses to not be that than someone that says, I could never and I would never, because that's probably the person who is on the pre-side of that mistake that would teach them that they are capable of hurting other people.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So here we go. So that's where as we progress on our journey and we accumulate experiences, some desirable experiences, some undesirable ones. This is where, right? And it's like it happens, it's all good. This is what we call karma. Karma is we're all on this journey, and the universe, some people think karma is punitive. Karma is actually corrective action. It's like the universal mechanism where the universe just gently taps you back into alignment again. And if you don't listen to those gentle taps, the universe will start slapping you a bit harder. Yeah, all right. And so this is what we call the cosmic joke, you know, the cosmic dance. Like, can we laugh with that and be like, okay, where have I not been listening? Where have I been ignoring the universal signs? The signs are all around us, by the way. We just weren't aware to detect them. That's why I focus so much on meditating every day. Keep expanding your awareness so you can start to detect all the signs. The signs are everywhere. So you can right now, expressing to me. Yeah, sorry, alignment. Was it?
SPEAKER_01So you can so that you can live in alignment, so you can skip the suffering of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, correct. Yeah, correct. And the suffering is a part of the journey until then you no longer suffer and you're in this state of heaven and bliss moment to moment, it doesn't go away. It's just a steady continuum. And compassion, though, is the greatest teacher for me and many great teachers. Patience is another one, but compassion is the real big one because with compassion, if you truly embody compassion, you can truly now let go of the past. Most people are still ruminating in the past, they've got that stuck emotion in there.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't exist anymore, man. And uh the only reason it does exist is because you're holding on to it, you're afraid to feel it. And one of the coolest things I think that's really empowering is that you know, because you're a better person on the other side of those experiences, whether it's experiences that you did and now you learn from it, or it was things that happened to you that were happen happened to you when you were less experienced as a person and you were not able to metabolize that painful experience. The easiest example would be like childhood abuse. You were a tiny person, they were these huge giants that were doing this thing to you, and you couldn't understand it, you couldn't let it go. You're bigger now and you're safer now, and you can bring that feeling up, and you'll find that you have the capacity to unpack it and then relieve yourself of it because you're because you're more experienced, because you're a grown-up now, which is really really cool stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_01Nico, man, I've got um I've got so many wonderful jot downs from our conversation. And uh, I sincerely, it's um I feel it very strongly, brother, that you are uh live a life on purpose, you're doing the damn thing, and uh I commend you for that. I respect you, man. And I just I really appreciate your time today. It's been really awesome to be able to chat with you.
SPEAKER_00Amazing, Braxton. Thank you to a fellow brother. I see you, brother. I love your line of questioning. I love feeling your heart, your curiosity, um, your passion for what you're doing and sharing this wisdom with the world. So thank you, my brother. I'm here to support every step of the way for you, for your community. And um, you know, keep on keep on listening, keep on purifying the mind, keep on coming into this place, get out of the head, into the heart, into the body, and life is just going to get exponentially more blissful than experiencing that heaven on earth, baby.
Courses, Instagram, And India Retreat
SPEAKER_01If somebody listens to this and they say, I like the way Nico talks more than Braxton, I want to listen to more Nico stuff. Uh, where should they go to get more of what you're sharing with the world?
SPEAKER_00There's no never any comparisons, by the way. I've got you know if they if they listen to this conversation and go, I'm gonna go with it.
SPEAKER_01Where do they go, man? What's the where should they find you on Instagram or on the website? You got another uh course coming up with uh teaching or what?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the Instagram handle is Nico Dimatina, N-I-C-O D-I-M-A-T-T-I-N-A, Nico Dimatina. That's the best place to find my content as well as my courses. I I host um two Vedic meditation courses per month, so one every two weeks. And the course is a four-session course where you'll learn the mantra, which has been given, handed down to us by these wise masters, you know, over thousands of years. This tradition has existed. So it's a long, long uh ancient wisdom tradition. And so it's great to learn from a teacher, right, with the right technique on exactly how to practice, plus having the support of the community all around you. We've got an accountability thread on WhatsApp that keeps you accountable to daily meditation practice. We help you build a habit of meditation for 60 days and beyond. And so, yeah, we'd love to have you part of it and um and to yeah, keep on uh establishing yourself in your true power and that inner peace. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.
SPEAKER_00And last thing, Braxton. If anyone is interested about going to India, I've got my upcoming India retreat in Rishikesh, September 24 to October the 2nd. I run two meditation retreats a year in India. This place is magical, northern India in the Himalayas, the uh the mountains, so peaceful. And you have one week. The karmic accelerator, yes. Yes, my brother, it's powerful. Yeah, awesome. Thank you for having me, brother. Take care, man.