023: Thriving in Turbulent Times: Your Path to Resilience

In this episode of Body Over Mind, hosts Stephen Yeh and Mike Chang delve into the challenges of staying centered and relaxed amidst the chaos of our rapidly changing world. From the impact of AI on society to claims of government possession of alien technology, the hosts explore how external events can create fear and uncertainty.

They emphasize that fear is not caused by these events but rather exists within us, making us susceptible to fear regardless of the external circumstances. Mike and Stephen discuss the importance of taking responsibility for our emotions and taking action rather than succumbing to fear and blame.

Listeners are encouraged to shift their focus from complaining and blaming to identifying practical solutions and understanding that they can handle whatever life throws their way. The episode offers valuable insights into building a mindset that can navigate the uncertainties of the modern world with strength and resilience. Tune in to discover how to respond intelligently to the challenges of our times.

Connect with Mike Chang:
- Instagram: @mikechangofficial
-Youtube: Mike Chang
- Website: www.flow60.com

Connect with Stephen Yeh:
-Instagram: @iamstephenyeh
-Twitter: @iamstephenyeh

Transcript

Stephen: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of body over mind. This is your host, Steven Yeh, with your co host, Mike Chang. And today we will be talking about how to stay centered, how to stay relaxed and peaceful throughout all the crazy stuff that's happening in the world right now. That can include just the absolute fastening of changes happening with AI and how that's going to shape humanity and how we operate and things like that.

To even let's say the recent news of government officials on the stands saying that they have possession of alien bodies and they have alien technology In their hands is what does this all mean? And what are you supposed to [00:01:00] do when things are changing so rapidly? And it just feels like there's not much grounding.

There's not much like something that you can settle in on. It just feels like it's getting very chaotic, right? So with that said, looking around, I noticed that people are much more on edge. People are much more fearful in general, in some ways, they're almost needing to just give up and just say, Hey, I don't know what to do.

What would be some alternatives to that? What can you really do to approach the current world in a situation where you can still feel strong and solid? Mike, what would you say to that? 

Mike: These events that are happening, it's not the reason why people are in fear. People are in fear because they have fear inside.

They blame the events as if it was the causation or [00:02:00] something. But if none of this stuff was happening, then they would just have problems with other things. The rule of thumb is when we have fear inside, then everything we become afraid of. If it's not one thing, it's another thing. If these things are happening, then we say these things are making me afraid.

Okay. And if these things aren't happening and suddenly everything's okay, then I'm afraid of something else. I'm afraid my wife is going to leave. I'm afraid my son's going to get hurt. I'm afraid the business is going to crash. I'm afraid I'm going to get sick. I'm afraid, et cetera. That's the thing we got to remember about fear.

We have to remember something not just about fear, but emotions altogether, the way we feel. There's a general rule of thumb. It's one of the principles that we talk about a lot in class and in the programs. We are responsible for the way we feel. And it's not anybody else's fault.

It's not anybody else's causation. We're the ones that are carrying the [00:03:00] emotion. So therefore we are responsible. So then when we realize this, these things are still happening. I don't know much , about the news. I don't really watch it, but you're telling me about it. So I'm sure they're happening. So things are happening and they'll continue to happen, but we don't need to respond with being afraid and freaking out.

Like some people might be. Doing and if somebody was to happen that way, it's because it has nothing to do with the thing that they're afraid about, this is important because if they think the solution is to see a different, to try to fix something on the outside of this, there's no point.

It'll never stop. It's always going to be something else. It's always something else. It's all, it doesn't matter. Someone wants to come 

Stephen: to you and say, Mike, that's all great. I get it. Fear comes from inside. That's where we feel it. But at the same time, housing prices are getting ridiculous. Can't afford a house [00:04:00] anymore.

Rent is getting absolutely crazy. The price of food is rising. I still need to pay and take care of my kids and all this, but at the same time, it's very tough. I am scared. I am fearful, et cetera, whatever it is. 

Mike: That doesn't even matter that they're scared and fearful. There's something that needs to do.

There's something that needs to happen. If they don't have money, go make more money. If you don't have money, spend less, cut down your lifestyle. There's no issues. The only issue is when people go, I'm scared and , I don't know what to do. I'm freaking out. I don't know what to do. That's the actual issue that somebody has in reality.

There's no issue. It's very straightforward, right? I can't afford the rent. Okay. Do you want to afford the rent? Yes. Then it's pretty obvious what you need to do, go make some more money and go cut down your spending. The combination of those two, right? [00:05:00] It's really like the solutions are very simple, but the issue is that people are afraid.

That's why I brought it up in the beginning. People have fear, the problem is not the prices it's raising, it's not that there's these crazy things going on in the world, we'll just call it that, that's not the issue, because that will continuously happen, if it's not one thing, it'll always be another, but the issue is that this emotion of fear actually stops a person from doing something that they're fully capable of doing.

All they have to do is just go work. Then what? I don't know where to find a job. Go look. You don't know where, go look, start asking everybody, you know, get out there and go, who's hiring? Brush up on your skillset. If you feel like you don't have the skillset or settle for something that's lower and work your way up, gain the experience.

Right. , I don't think it's something that somebody doesn't really know how to do. I think it's something that's pretty straightforward and they really just sat and looked at it. They go, [00:06:00] you know what, this makes sense. And that is ultimately what they need to do anyways, no matter if they sit there and they get afraid about it and , they vegetate about it for a while.

They're just wasting time at the end. They still got to do this thing. The only reason is that they, when they wasting time is because the fear is getting them to be stuck. They literally don't, they have inaction. 

Stephen: What I'll also say that comes up a lot when I see these things is that let's just say people are freaked out, but at the same time, they start to get into this blame mode, Where they're like, you know what, back in the 1950s, , people had an average wage of this and home prices were only like 50, 000 and now it's like a million.

So there's just no way to afford the housing nowadays. And it's designed this way to make us into slaves or whatever it is. And they're starting to blame whoever you want to say, the elites or whoever they're saying, Oh, it's that way. So I don't even want to play [00:07:00] this game because it's what's the point of playing it because it's designed this way.

Mike: And some people opt out from playing the game, right? They go and find a piece of land, go and build a house, live off grid. Even that in itself, they still got to go and pay the game. They got to go buy that piece of land. They got to go have the materials and the means to go and build this property, build the off grid set.

Right. So they still got to play the game. You can't, that's the thing. It's, you can't just walk away from the game, this game of life. You're in it. You want to end yourself, but you can't, some people do. But if you don't want to do that, you got to be in the game, but you don't have to play in it fully. Yeah.

You watch a commercial and say, oh, go buy this awesome car. You may go, yeah, I'm not going to do that. Someone goes, buy this clothes. Even it's 10 times the price of another clothes, but it's a cool brand. You may go, I don't want to play this game. Yeah. But there's still some games that you're still going to play.[00:08:00] 

Where are you going to go and get gasoline? You're going to go build a, a engine that runs on water. You could, yeah, but if you know how to do it. So ultimately it still boils down to, there's something clear that a person needs to do and the more that a person focuses on doing the things and they don't get caught up in the complaining and the blaming and the fears.

Then they're able to move forward and get things done. Once a person devolves this type of mindset, which is not just in the mind, it's the combination of the body, right? It's releasing that fear. Once this person develops it, it doesn't matter what the heck is happening. It really doesn't, it doesn't matter because whatever's happening, there's only two choices.

There's something I need to do right now, or there's nothing I need to do right now. And it's always just going to be like that. And now it doesn't matter what happens in life. We know we can handle it. But if we don't get to that point, then it doesn't matter what's happening in life. Everything's just going to feel [00:09:00] scary.

And we're going to feel, we're going to feel like we're always need to protect ourselves, always looking at the what ifs. Because it's a lot of things going on right now. And I think a lot of people need to, people are moving towards it right now. My social media is like blowing up right now.

It's like just, we're gaining about, I don't know, 10, 15, 000 followers a day. Jesus. It's a lot of people coming in because these things we're talking about, it's like people are experiencing this. People are experiencing this and they're like, yeah, I'm not going to look at the old paradigm anymore. I know that there are ways to go ahead and change these things within.

I know that there's no point to go ahead and blame. I realize that, but I need to know how to change because it's so hard to be able to change. I only know that there is a way out and that's all a person needs to know is that there's a way out and I'm willing to do what it takes. And then they'll find the answer because the answers all exist out there, but they have to get out of that blame and they have to get out of the inaction of being scared.

And then from there, they can open things up because they can go and [00:10:00] find the solutions. And then as more things are coming up, suddenly we're having alien spaceships come by. I mean, I don't know. I don't keep track of this stuff. Now, the thing is when all this stuff is happening, we can actually respond intelligently.

What does that mean? That means not responding in fear. Fear is what gets people to be controlled. It's like cattle. It's like the cows don't want to run out here. So you scare them and they run that direction. You scare them and they run this. And then before you know it, , they run the place where you want them to go.

People are the same way. We have to let go of this fear. So this way we can be free and we cannot be manipulated and controlled by. Things that are happening now, therefore things will happen the way they do, but we don't have to constantly respond in a expected way. That's the thing. When, if we really want to go and live our life fully and not have our freedom taken away, we need to let go of fear.

We need to [00:11:00] not be afraid of the unknown. We have to not be afraid of feeling uncomfortable, not be afraid to think that we're not good enough. We have to let these things go. 

Stephen: Is that a natural phenomenon? From just, being human, or do you feel like it's more manufactured from society of feeling so much fear inside?

Mike: I think it's a combination. I think , we have the ability to feel these things. Society plays a massive part. I think if a person was living on an island, when they're not around much people, or they're just around a very handful of people, their development will be very different because they don't have the same influence.

But because we live in this world and we're looking for the validation, we're looking for the praise, and we're looking for the attention. And therefore when we get it, it makes us feel good and vice versa. I think over years we developed these things, we developed the things that if we don't do a good job, people are going to look down on us, or we're [00:12:00] going to look down on ourselves.

Now we start to have fears around performance. Fear is about taking action. Fear is about showing up. Fear is about saying what we really think. Because we think what we say is stupid or something. We think that we say something, if it doesn't sound the right way, if we mess up, that somehow the, people are just not going to like us, people are just going to think all these things up, they're going to judge us, and then now we can't handle it, you know, these things are manufactured, they're developed over time.

But again, this is just part of the game. Our parents are part of the game. We're born into this family. So what do we do? Exit out and we go, mom, I don't want to live with you anymore. I'm five, but I'm, I don't want to live it. It doesn't happen, which is, is part of the life that we are in.

There's no problem with the life. These things happen. We, at some point in our life though, we need to realize what's really happening inside and we just need to make these changes. So to go back to what you're saying with [00:13:00] everything that's going on currently and what's going to be happening in the near future, you're saying that you, we have to be intelligent in terms of the actions that we take.

Stephen: And in order to be taking intelligent actions, we need to be out of fear and out of blame, out of kind of the lower states of consciousness and start to operate in, how would you even explain this? If you're not operating in the fear, in the blame, what would you say would be the most ideal state to be?

To operate in life. 

Mike: Operate in peace. What does that look like? Most people don't even know that they are operating in fear. Not until it becomes so obvious. They can't deny it. They can't look away. It's so obvious. When a person is presented an opportunity, a lot of times a person will pick the opportunity that's less, and then they'll [00:14:00] justify.

But if they're presented with two opportunities and one will give them more and one will give them less, why would any person pick less? And the reasons for it is they may feel like they can't handle more. fear 

If a person is offering it to them, then they must think that they can handle it. And they're in this person's mind, they're going to be justifying why less is okay. And this is just a random example, right? But this would just be a random example on how people are acting through fear, but they don't realize it because it's responsible for all the choices we make.

And sometimes when we are taking less than what is, we have opportunities, we don't take it, or we take the. Less route, even when we can have more, even when we want more, because more, it connects to the goal. It helps us get to our goal faster. Instead of taking it, we go, no, no, I don't want it. I don't want it.

We'd run away from it. And we justify it. People have opportunities all the time. People have no idea. Their opportunities they have are so [00:15:00] vast, but they constantly walk away from it. They constantly say no. Someone gets invited out to, to go have a meetup with that person and they go, Oh, no, it's okay.

Because they're in fear that maybe they're going to waste their time. They're in fear that maybe this person's not going to think highly of them and that they need to go ahead and level up before they go out and meet this person. That's such an important thing that could affect their career, that can connect them to the right people and give them the right opportunities.

But they don't feel enough. So they may go, Oh, wow. Oh, that person. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. Actually. Yeah. Give me a few weeks. I got these things going on. I just don't feel really good. I need it. I need to be a hundred percent. They'll come up with all these reasons, but all these reasons, all of this choice there is fear.

They're just choosing from fear. I'm afraid of what people are going to think about me. I'm afraid this person I find really important. I don't want to see them now because they're going to think less of me. So I'm going to wait until I'm better. [00:16:00] That is called acting through fear. When I used to work in the gym industry and I asked people to go join the gym and they'll tell me oh no no oh my god yeah I can't I feel I'm too out of shape to join the gym what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get in shape I'm gonna work out first I'm gonna get a little stronger feel better and then after that I'm gonna come in and I look at him I'm like aren't you joining the gym to do that what do you mean you're going to wait to do that that doesn't make any sense you But that decision, people will say that, and they decide like that based on fear.

The fear of not being good enough, the fear of being looked upon, looked down upon, the fear of being embarrassed, all of this is fear, but in their head, they may logically think this is a good idea. And when in reality, it makes no sense at all. This person hasn't been able to get in shape for as long as they can remember by themselves, and now they want to just continue to do it by themselves until they do, and then they go to this gym.

It doesn't make any logical [00:17:00] sense. Yeah. But that is what happens when people are in fear. They don't see things logically. They don't connect the dots anymore. They just start to make up random things that just seem to make sense in their head. 

Stephen: So let me ask you, in those cases, in those moments, Like what you said, the person may not realize the fear and their justification to them at that moment could sound absolutely like real and true.

Right? So , how would that person become aware that's actually going on? And to notice it, because if you don't even notice it and you're not aware of it, you're just going to continue going down this path. The path that you're going down without any changes. 

Mike: First step to being aware is to slow down your mind, start to relax the body, [00:18:00] because the mind will be really busy and the mind is, and the body is really agitated.

The body is really nervous. So we got to go and relax the body. And therefore then we relax our mind, our mind starts to slow down. And then when it starts to slow down, our awareness naturally increases because our awareness is not trying to go ahead and process all this information coming through. So now it's less information coming through.

So therefore it's easier to process. And when it's easier to process, now we're able to, have a different perspective. We're able to see more.

So to become more aware, we need to slow down our mind. And when we slow down our mind, we have more available attention. And then to slow down our mind, we have to relax the body. And when our body is more still, our body is more, more relaxed. Our mind can be more still. And then when our mind can be more still, we can take that attention that was in our mind and we can place it to the present moment.

We can place it to what's happening. We can be more [00:19:00] aware. Of how we are feeling our total amount of awareness increases. So we have to take the attention away from our mind. So someone goes, what do you mean attention in the mind? Then I would tell them, do you hear a voice in your head right now? And they go, and at that moment there'll be nothing and they'll keep thinking and they go, okay, there it is.

Okay. So that what you just did is you brought your attention to your mind. So now take your attention and place it into your body and feel so place it there and that part place in your stomach feel that area. So naturally when a person does that, they take their attention away from their mind.

They place it into their body. So it's just a directing attention. So then when we do that, when we take the attention away from our mind and then we place it , into our body, we increase our awareness. If we want to do it more, we can take the attention and place it on the outside, then we increase the awareness of what's going on even more on the outside.

Because we need to be aware of what's on the outside and we got to be aware of what's on the inside as well. This is [00:20:00] both presence. But the key thing here is the awareness. So we got to take the awareness away from our mind. We got to stop thinking about all this stuff and take our attention. To the present moment, inside the body or outside.

Stephen: And if we were to circle this back to just all the stuff that's going on around the world right now, and it feels like it's just so heavy and there's just so much going on. What you're saying is if we are to come back to the body, if we're to relax the body, become more aware and conscious, that'll help to bring us more into a peaceful state.

but I can totally see someone just saying, Hey, that's all great. And well, that maybe I'm a bit more peaceful, I'm more peaceful inside, but it doesn't change the fact that I still got bills to pay. There's still potential wars going on outside and all of these things [00:21:00] that just because I'm getting more chill and relaxed, doesn't solve those issues.

That's actually happening in the real world. 

Mike: It solves. What it solves is the fear for a person on the inside. Now they've become more chill and relaxed. When they become chill and relaxed, they will see the real world differently. They'll stop seeing it through fear. Up until then, people are viewing the world and their life and themselves through a layer of fear.

So therefore they try to control the world. They try to control other people. But when they let go of this layer of fear, Now they see the world differently. The world may be happening the way it is right now, but we see it differently. We're not scared of it because whether you're scared of it doesn't matter.

It's going to happen [00:22:00] anyways. So therefore you could either react with fear or you can react with clarity and confidence that you got what it takes to be able to handle it. And whatever happens, because you can't do nothing about it anyways, most people that are thinking are just, they're just complaining and they're not doing anything.

They're just complaining all day long in their head and sometimes out loud to other people, which means they're not doing anything. , they're not making a difference. So why complain? Why complain? You want to complain? Jump on a stage with a large microphone and complain. Yeah, go ahead. Put yourself out there.

You want to make a difference, right? Go put yourself out there. And now people don't. Oh, wow. I just wanted to complain. Now, you're right. You wanted to complain. You didn't want to make a real difference. You want to go make a real difference? You go and say what it is that you're saying behind closed doors.

Now you say it in front of everybody. 

Stephen: Actually, a lot of people like doing that. 

Mike: Not enough, [00:23:00] they, they don't do it enough. They do it like one, two, three. It's no, you need to do it every day. Build that large microphone. We got social media, it exists. It's right here. It's available for everybody. It's free. So technically a person get on every day and talk and share.

And instead of complaining behind closed doors, go ahead and share your thoughts on what's happening and what you think should happen in order to solve the problem. And now we move from complaining, which is not doing anything to actually taking action towards creating a different outcome. 

Stephen: Let me ask you, this is, this will be my personal question on that would be, okay.

So let's say, for example, you're saying, Hey, if you feel like complaining, grab the mic, go on YouTube, go on TikTok, whatever it is, and actually starts speaking out about this. In my perspective, though, it's one, it's great. Okay. Awesome. You're starting to [00:24:00] express yourself, but at the same time, wouldn't you say that?

And this is getting a little bit off track of our main general conversation. Still blind. Wouldn't you say that for someone to do that, they're basically like spilling their own BS inside. What, whether it's fear or whether it's just nastiness or whatever is inside that's bottled up. They're just.

Vomiting it out into the internet universe. And if that happens, I don't feel that it's actually very helpful for them or the people receiving that. 

Mike: If they do that, then they start to move forward from the fear. They stop complaining in the backend and they start to move forward and start to do something about it.

That's the whole equation. All somebody has to do is do something about. The things they want to do, the things they want to [00:25:00] change. That's all a person needs to do. And they're going to feel satisfied. They're going to have purpose. That's it. Not everybody needs to go and be a content creator or influencer.

That doesn't matter. But people, the ones that are complaining about things, that's because they complain because they don't like it. If you don't like it, change it. And if somebody doesn't want to change it, then don't complain. Cause if you don't like it and you don't want to change it, then that means you're okay.

You're supporting the problem. So if you're supporting the problem, why would you complain about it? That would be weird. That's one person who's saying this is bad. And then on the other hand, their action is directly supporting that. 

Stephen: I guess what it comes down to I guess it, it could come back again to maybe, let's say, like fear, right?

One is the fear of, for example, they, they started to share these things. One, one aspect is no one's listening. No one is even seeing it. No one's caring, whatever that is. On the other spectrum of it [00:26:00] is if it really gets noticed, maybe there's also fear of, Oh shit, I'm actually getting heard, but maybe now there's going to be tons of opposition that I didn't want to deal with in Now, maybe people are starting to come after me and they're going to try and find ways to knock me down and put me in jail or whatever the case.

I would say that's actually a pretty damn big fear for a lot of people, especially for those who want to oppose. 

Mike: It's the same equation. It's still fear. So the question is, so they're afraid and this is happening. Okay. So what do they want to do about it? It's really simple. are you okay with the fear?

No, I want it gone. Okay. Then go do the work and get rid of it. That's really it. And it's a double edged sword because if I'm afraid, I might be afraid I'm going to fail. I'm afraid I don't have what it takes. I'm [00:27:00] afraid of looking at the thing that I'm afraid of. It's double edged sword, right?

It's this paradox thing. So we need to be able to, at the moment of inspiration, move forward. When we need to be okay with moving forward, like an inchworm, just one little inch at a time, one little centimeter, just a tiny bit at a time. We got to be okay with it. It's the only way to be able to move past these things.

Stephen: Okay. And there we go. Essentially, it continues to come back to changing the way that you feel about things, regardless, whatever the heck is going on out there. Whether there's some type of elite that's trying to take over the world or some alien invasion or AI taking over, whatever it is.

But at the same time, it really just depends on our own perception of all of this happening, right? Essentially, none of this is like good or bad. It's happening, and [00:28:00] then we get to choose. If you're in a more centered state, then you get to choose how you actually respond to whatever is happening. And then you just make the best choice for yourself, for your family, for the people around you and when you're in more of a peaceful and centered state, you just want more betterness for not just yourself, but for those all around as well.

And then that's going to start to vibrate throughout 

Mike: and 

Stephen: that's it. 

Mike: Yes, agreed. 

Stephen: so Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode of body over mind If you want to find Mike in his, he has his YouTube channel. He has his Instagram, Mike Chang official, and we just got him started on TikTok where we're just putting, he's not fully on there just yet, but we're starting to at least get the ball [00:29:00] rolling and putting some of his old videos on there.

So if you want to support him in any of those channels, feel free to do that. And we will see you guys on the next episode.