Navy SEAL Reveals How His Tough Mom Made Him Unbreakable

💥 Former Navy SEAL turned Master Healer Christopher Maher joins us to share his remarkable journey from trauma to transformation. Born bow-legged with both legs broken at just two days old, Christopher endured unimaginable childhood abuse and tragedy before finding his path to the elite Navy SEALs. After facing life-threatening hypothermia during training and later battling severe physical pain, Christopher embarked on a healing journey that changed everything.

In this powerful conversation, Christopher reveals how generational trauma creates stress that keeps us trapped in fight-or-flight mode without us even knowing it. He shares his experiences living in a cave in complete darkness for 28 days, fasting for 44 days, and developing revolutionary healing techniques that have helped countless people-from CEOs to professional athletes-break free from their own trauma.

Christopher's story is both tragic and triumphant, demonstrating how to use past suffering as fuel for transformation. Learn his practical steps to reduce stress, improve wellbeing, and ensure your final years aren't defined by accumulated tension and toxicity. His message is clear: "When humans feel good, they do good."

Check out Christopher's book "Free For Life: The US Navy SEALs Path to Inner Freedom and Outer Peace" and find more resources at truebodyintelligence.com.

Find Christopher:
👩🏻‍💻 Christopher's Website: https://truebodyintelligence.com/
📕 Christopher's Book, Free For Life: https://truebodyintelligence.com/free-for-life/

Chapters:
00:01 - Introduction to Christopher Maher
00:49 - Christopher's Early Childhood Trauma
03:04 - Meeting Christopher Maher
03:20 - Born Bow-Legged: The Beginning of Pain
05:34 - Family Background and Childhood Abuse
07:31 - Depersonalization: Ejecting from the Body
08:32 - Childhood Struggles: Bedwetting and Stammering
09:42 - Path to the Navy SEALs
11:38 - Why SEAL Training Felt "Easy" After Childhood Trauma
12:43 - The Loss of His Mother
14:16 - From Milton Hershey School to SEAL Training
16:34 - SEAL Training and Nicknames
18:26 - Women in SEAL Training
20:12 - Near-Death Experience with Hypothermia
22:42 - The Beginning of His Healing Journey
24:33 - Learning to Ask for Help
25:37 - Introduction to Rolfing and Structural Integration
28:34 - Living in a Cave for 28 Days and Extended Fasting
30:05 - Christopher's Message: Breaking Free from Stress
30:42 - First Steps to Alignment and Healing
33:22 - Finding Alphabiotics Practitioners
34:02 - Message to His Younger Self
35:06 - Christopher's Book and Resources
36:05 - Future Free Tools on YouTube
36:39 - Meeting Christopher's Brother
37:23 - Closing Remarks

📲 Connect with Our Hosts:
Stacey: https://www.instagram.com/staceymgrant/
Mark: https://www.instagram.com/mark_lubragge_onair/

⭐️ Watch/Subscribe to Gurus and Game Changers on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GurusAndGameChangers
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#NavySEAL #Healing #Wellness #TraumaRecovery #StressManagement #PersonalTransformation

Transcript

00:01 - Stacey (Host)
I just feel very grateful that we're able to do this, that I get to meet people like Christopher Maher. 

00:07 - Mark (Host)
Yeah. 

00:08 - Stacey (Host)
Because I would never have met him in any other circumstance. That's so true I get to do this podcast and that man is next level incredible. 

00:18 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, he flew in from California to be with us. Former Navy SEAL, he's a master, healer, master healer. We sort of explore both of those worlds in this podcast. The stories from Navy SEAL he's a master healer. We sort of explore both of those worlds in this podcast, the stories from the SEAL world In such trauma. It's horrible what he went through. 

00:35 - Stacey (Host)
He was born bow-legged, both legs broken at two days old, ended up having some unthinkable, unmentionable abuse by his babysitter, who he trusted. 

00:49 - Mark (Host)
Yeah. 

00:50 - Stacey (Host)
And then transcended. He used it all. Right, he used it all. To be what he is today, to empower himself to get into alignment, and now he teaches others how to let go of their generational trauma, which we all have at differing levels. 

01:04 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, from somebody who's been through it. He did it himself and he's doing it for others, and there's so much learning in here. It's one of those where you sit back and you just listen. 

01:14 - Stacey (Host)
Right. 

01:15 - Mark (Host)
He's got such a cool, soothing voice. 

01:18 - Stacey (Host)
I love his voice, and his book, which is called Free for Life, is incredible. I listened to it it and I was so glad I did so. I could get to some of the stories from the book, because there's so many. 

01:28 - Mark (Host)
So good, so good, he's in a cave for 28 days. 

01:31 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, there's so much to this thing. He just got back From another right Another cave in the dark and he's done extended fasting, like 40, 44 day fasting. 

01:40 - Mark (Host)
I mean, look, the intensity of a Navy SEAL apparently never goes away and he's approached his life since then with that same intensity, no matter what he's doing. This is a fun story. It's a tragic story. No, I mean it's a fun episode Because we did have some fun. 

02:00 - Stacey (Host)
But it was a tragic story that's turned into a very powerful, purposeful direction, and I think that anyone can learn how to break free from their generational trauma and get rid of their stress. 

02:06 - Mark (Host)
Get rid of their stress. 

02:07 - Stacey (Host)
In order to be a better human being. 

02:09 - Mark (Host)
Yeah. 

02:09 - Stacey (Host)
To feel better. And he said if you can do this, the last 10 to 12 years of your life won't be miserable. And he can. I think he's guaranteeing it. 

02:17 - Mark (Host)
He's guaranteeing it. Yeah, he can prove it. He said that early on and we all need to know that. We all need to know this information and we got to listen to him today and I'm just I really hope you'll all listen as well. They're very fortunate to get good access for sure, so enjoy. 

02:35 - Stacey (Host)
Christopher lee maher. 

02:35 - Mark (Host)
Hi, I'm stacy and I am mark, and this is the gurus at game changers podcast today's guest, christopher lee maher, former navy seal, current master healer. He knows firsthand that these stressors what they can really do to you day after day, year after year. If you don't resolve them, they can become something far worse. You get stuck in this fight or flight mode without even knowing it. 

03:04 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

03:05 - Mark (Host)
Until you have a ticking time bomb inside of you. Christopher, thank you for joining us. I can't wait to have this conversation. 

03:10 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I'm happy to be here. I listened to your book and I was riveted. Yeah, Free For Life. The subtext is the US Navy SEALs path to inner freedom and outer peace. 

03:20 - Stacey (Host)
Right, what really got me in the beginning, the way that you came into the world. 

03:25 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Children only have so many memories of their childhood, yeah Right, but the ones that I have when I was really young are all very traumatic. Right, I was born bow legged. My mom was a bit obsessive, compulsive, and she wanted the doctors to straighten my legs out until they broke my legs mid-thigh and casted me. So you can imagine that a child's nervous system is super, super, super sensitive. Right, it's like as fragile as a butterfly's wings. Right, it's very different than adult. Think about breaking a child's femurs. 

04:00 - Stacey (Host)
I can't imagine. Yeah, very, very, very. They wouldn't do that now, right? Very, very true. You would have a question very true. 

04:06 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I mean, no, there's no need to do it. You could simply just massage the muscles that attach from the sits bones all the way down to the lower leg and you could reduce that tension really quickly. So she brought me home with cast on my legs Most of the wrestlers that I work with they're legs most of the wrestlers that I work with they're they're they're bow-legged. Partly of what makes them really good is because they have a distinct lateral advantage. If they're bow-legged right because they can, they can drive a lot of force to the outside right. But in the end it made my my legs very strong. That became a really good runner. 

04:41
The was this is that my legs as an adult? Well, they look straight right. But the problem was is they never took out the tension that caused the legs to be bowed in the first place. So I was walking around like someone who had straight legs thinking he was flexible, but really I was not. I was not, and then I ended up with a bunch of lower leg, mid thigh, hip and shoulder injuries because of it. 

05:10
The world was very different then. Like you didn't see a lot of interracial relationships, right? My mother was Irish, my father was African American, and so her parents didn't even know that I was born. 

05:23 - Stacey (Host)
They didn't know she was pregnant. 

05:24 - Christopher Maher (Host)
They didn't know she was pregnant. She got pregnant, okay, in Philadelphia. Oh, Okay, stayed here, had the child and then moved back home and left me with these people. 

05:34 - Stacey (Host)
What did she tell them? I have no idea what she told them. 

05:38 - Christopher Maher (Host)
But after my brother was born, she was like hey, I have another kid. 

05:43 - Stacey (Host)
Wow. And then she came and retrieved me after Ryan was born. Oh, my goodness, yeah, but your babysitter wasn't that nice of a lady, I guess. 

05:52 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I. I think she was stressed right. 

05:54 - Stacey (Host)
So the irony is now I help people who were stressed she was having a break from reality right, and so you said in your book that you loved to watch the matches right, so I'd light a match right and I would just watch it burn down. 

06:09 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Now, as a child, you have no idea because your mind's in a precognitive state of function at three years old that that flame is going to eventually get to your skin. So the flame gets in the skin and I'm just like ow, and but one time she saw you. 

06:24 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, she saw me. 

06:25 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Well, she had an orange polyester rug and then there were a lot of black singed holes in her rug and she lost it Right, picked me up, put me on top of her left hip, dragged me downstairs and she just turned on the gaff stove and she just Put your hand in it, in she put my hand, both hands right, so you can see. 

06:49 - Stacey (Host)
Right, you can see like yeah, I still have all that. 

06:53 - Mark (Host)
Well, oh, how old were you again? 

06:56 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I was three, three years old, in a quarter years old did anything happen to her accountability, accountability. I remember going to court one time, but that's all I remember of it. The biggest issue was is that if she burned my hand, she put Vicks Vapor Rub on the hands. 

07:14 - Stacey (Host)
I think she thought she was reaching for Vaseline. Yeah, it's like napalm. Even that would have not been good. 

07:19 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, which was then. Yeah, so that was a very difficult experience and then you passed out and yeah, and then I passed out, and then I just ejected from my body and I just basically watched reality from above you remember that? 

07:31 - Mark (Host)
yeah, because something that traumatic will eject someone out of their body so you experienced that and you remember, oh yeah, at that young age, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember entering back into my body. 

07:43 - Stacey (Host)
When was that? 

07:43 - Christopher Maher (Host)
that was when I was about four and a half years old. 

07:46 - Stacey (Host)
It took that long Because you were in the hospital right, I was in and out of the hospital for years. 

07:50 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I had my last surgery in fifth grade Hold on the summer of fifth grade. 

07:56 - Mark (Host)
Let me make sure I understand the timeline. She did that to you when you were three. Yeah, your spirit ejected from your body. So when you're depersonalized, you're just floating above, so about a year and a half, about four and a half years old. 

08:08 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Not unconscious. I was just out of my body. 

08:11 - Stacey (Host)
Disassociated. 

08:12 - Christopher Maher (Host)
It's called being depersonalized. 

08:14 - Mark (Host)
That's the actual, correct term. You were walking around. You weren't on a hospital bed. 

08:16 - Stacey (Host)
No, my body was walking around and still doing things, but I'm observing reality from outside of my body, because it feels too unsafe to go back in. And at about four and a half, how would you trust? 

08:27 - Christopher Maher (Host)
anyone after that, for sure. 

08:29 - Mark (Host)
I mean, I'm wondering that it's horrible. 

08:32 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Well, think about it, I ended up being a bedwetter, right. I ended up biting my nails down to the nub right, I ended up being a stammerer. So the other kids are like going to the board and okay, what do you know this, jake? And they're saying what they need to say and to get to me and I'm like I can't get a word out because I can't relax. 

08:58 - Stacey (Host)
What did that feel like? 

09:00 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I mean for me. I don't think it bothered me that much because for some reason, and I don't understand why, when I was at Milton Hershey School in Hershey, pennsylvania, no one ever teased me about the stammering Didn't one teacher tell them, they couldn't? 

09:15
She pulled all the kids into the kitchen and said if I ever hear one of you teasing this boy because he stutters, you're going to be on the gravy train. And the gravy train meant you had to do all the dishes and all the chores and then we were outside playing and we loved if you were on the gravy train because we didn't have any chores to do. 

09:36 - Stacey (Host)
You were an athlete a decorated athlete right. Then you ended up at college. Were you playing? You're playing sports in college, correct? 

09:42 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yep. 

09:42 - Stacey (Host)
Football. 

09:43 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Track and field. Track and field. Track and field Yep. 

09:45 - Stacey (Host)
And then you decided to go into the SEALs, like how did that happen? 

09:50 - Christopher Maher (Host)
So the timeline is. I was going to go run track and field at Shippensburg University and I was hanging out with some kids from Reading who ran the truck, the SUV, into a tree. 

10:05
Oh and I injured the top of my right foot oh and so when I went to shippensburg university there was no way I was going to be able to run, so I ended up running to the frat parties instead and I started drinking and developing my social life from there. And then I sort of put that off to the side and that kind of derailed me a bit, because I think if my foot was normalized I would have joined the cross-country team and the track and field team and I would have been in sort of like a healthy structure. I was there for two semesters and then I was out of school, and then I moved back to the town that my mom is from, and then I was out of school and then I moved back to the town that my mom is from, I used some of the resources from my trust fund and I opened up a sandwich shop called the Hoagie King. What I opened up, the Hoagie King I'm doing that for about six months and you have to get up at like 4.30 in the morning to get down to pick up the cheese, the meats and the breads from Pottsville. 

11:12
And after about six months I was like no, I'm done with this. Yeah, this is done now. This was not the vision I had when I was looking out the window at Milton Hershey School, staring off in the space and having a fantasy of what my life might look like. There was a biannual magazine about SEAL training. I saw the, which had, like I don't know, four or five or six boat crews of guys running down the beach with telephone poles on their shoulders, white t-shirts, green khakis and black boots, and I looked at that picture and I was like that's for me wow. 

11:38
I don't know what's going on. I read it from cover to cover. 

11:42 - Stacey (Host)
I would love to have done that. That ain't me. Yeah, it was. 

11:45 - Christopher Maher (Host)
It was just like I would probably have rung the bell, though I don't know that I could have lasted. Yeah, although I'm saying that I was a 58 year old, maybe as a 22 year old, yeah I look the thing about seal training is really simple if, if you have a reason to be there and you don't mind being uncomfortable it's fine and I think this is where, having my hands burned and growing up with a lot of childhood trauma and having a mother who had borderline my mom had borderline personality disorder that's tough, okay, and so she was Tinkerbell and then she was Godzilla, but you didn't know when she was going to shift from Tinkerbell to Godzilla, right, but when she was Godzilla, like she was Godzilla, and I think that prepared me for SEAL training and at an emotional level, it made SEAL training very easy. 

12:33
There's never once in my head was I was like, oh, I'm going to quit. It was just like you, just endure. 

12:39 - Stacey (Host)
Right, cause you're used to doing that. How old were you when your mom died? 

12:43 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I was seven years old. 

12:45 - Stacey (Host)
Was that a sudden thing? 

12:47 - Christopher Maher (Host)
That was a surprise, right? Because I was sitting on a couch. She handed me a Bible and she handed me a bag of Jolly Ranchers and she said if you don't hear back from me in the morning, I want you to go find Peggy McElhenney. And I was like okay, and then she walked out the door. She walked out to Route 61. I think she contemplated what she was going to do for a while and then she stepped into the middle of the highway. 

13:16 - Mark (Host)
A. 

13:16 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Strowoman's bread truck doing its deliveries smashed into her and she died of a ruptured liver upon arrival to the hospital wow yeah, so she? She meant business, she wasn't joking around, she was suffering yeah, ah, don't you wish you knew what you knew. 

13:34
Now then yeah, because this is part of why you know part of the driver for what I do is you know people who are suffering. I have helped a lot of really complex cases. People who have endured through things that I endured as a child are very successful in the world. Okay, it's like um ceos, surgeon generals, fortune 500 companies, professional athletes directors, producers, highly successful actors. You know a lot of these people if you dig into their background. They've gone through some very difficult stuff between womb and 13 years old. 

14:12 - Stacey (Host)
You were in that basement, you saw that magazine cover and then you just report. 

14:16 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I literally just read it again and then I read it again, and milton hershey was a little too structured for me. It was like every minute was accounted for, like at 7 15 we're eating breakfast, at 7 30 we're cleaning up breakfast. At 7 45 the van's leaving for school, school starts at eight o'clock, and it was just. It was that same routine again and again, and again and again, and so the monotony of that for me was just too much. I was a dreamer. They didn't get me and the school wasn't set up for someone like me to function. 

14:46 - Stacey (Host)
Really, really, really well, like a creative brain as a creative brain, so I just needed space. I feel the same way. Routines, I've gotten much better, but I used to never drive the same way home twice. Really. 

14:57 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, I'm still the same way. 

14:59 - Mark (Host)
You're a really routine guy. I'm very routine. 

15:01 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Oh, you're very routine. 

15:02 - Mark (Host)
What's the most efficient way to eat breakfast? What's the most efficient way to get home? You've always been like that. Yeah, I think so. It's all about time, no Time and efficiency. 

15:10 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Mine is what's the most route on the way home. 

15:14 - Mark (Host)
That never occurs to me. 

15:15 - Stacey (Host)
I'm taking that drive and have I gone this way like 400 times this week, like let's not go this way, let's go another way, even if it takes me longer. 

15:22 - Mark (Host)
Oh, if it takes you longer, what are you doing? I don't know. I just can't do the same road. 

15:27 - Stacey (Host)
You're never going to understand the way we think, but I'm just like Chris. 

15:32 - Mark (Host)
I love that. 

15:33 - Christopher Maher (Host)
So when you look at the hem, and the way to answer this is like there's two hemispheres of the brain. Well, the right hemisphere is emotional and creative and spacious, and those who are left brain dominant are practical and pragmatic and efficient. That's how the brain runs, that's it but that already lets me know that she is right brain dominant and you're left brain dominant. 

15:56 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, I imagine so For sure, but it works well for partnerships right, which is why it's 1,000%. 

16:01 - Stacey (Host)
Okay, so back to SEALs. 

16:03 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I showed up to SEAL training you know what? Two weeks early. I was still on vacation. And so he goes how many pull-ups can you do? And I was like I don't know, six, 20? And he was like you can do 20 pull-ups. I got to like 18 and he was like, nope, that doesn't count, he doesn't want me to get to 20. So he was a. That was an interesting way for me to enter into seal training, because he was a character did he end up liking you? 

16:33 - Stacey (Host)
yes, yeah, of course he did. 

16:34 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, yeah, it's always that you guys remember this show Chico and the man. 

16:38 - Stacey (Host)
Oh yeah. 

16:39 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, so he called me Chico. Did he so the whole time in training? That's funny, everybody gets a nickname. Yeah, everybody gets a nickname. It's like, hey, chico, and. 

16:47 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I'm pretending like I don't know who he's talking to who. 

17:01
I'm talking to Chico, you better get over here. And I'm like no, I'm not Chico, chico, get your ass over here now. And I was like I stepped forward. So he was always joking around with me and and I think he could sense I was a little bit nervous. And then I went to a restaurant to eat lunch the brigantine and I didn't know that his wife worked at the brigantine and I didn't know that his wife worked at the brigantine. So I'm sitting there eating. She's like oh, where are you from? Like I'm in seal training. She's like how's training going? Like, training's great, except for, you know, there's this instructor, you know. She's like who's the instructor? I'm like mr egan. And she's like well, what did he do? And I'm like Mr Egan and she's like, well, what did he do? And I'm like, well, he's just such an asshole. 

17:39 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my gosh, she set you up, right, she set you up, she knew who you were. 

17:44 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I don't think she knew who I was. So I'm there and she's like, well, I'll have to tell him when I get home that he's an asshole. Oh my gosh, Right in the next morning, seal training I. 

18:01 - Mark (Host)
I walk in and he's like he comes over and he's like I heard you're trying to have sex with my wife, oh my god. And I was like what? No, sir, that is the I was. I was just having lunch. 

18:09 - Christopher Maher (Host)
He's like I got my eye on you, chico. Oh my god. So yeah. So the most people think the instructors at seal training are like deep into your throat. No, they're like comedians. They're like joking with you the whole time, because it's their job to see if you have thick skin. 

18:26 - Mark (Host)
Let me ask one more SEAL question. Go ahead. We were talking earlier and I said should they change the rigorous physical demands to allow more women to complete SEAL training? And you said no, no. 

18:40 - Christopher Maher (Host)
So my feeling is, as women start to shift genetically and these newer demands that are passed on to their bodies, 40, 50 years from now, I think women's bodies might be able to handle SEAL training. But in the end, what's going to happen? You're going to spend a lot of money, you're going to spend a lot of time, you're going to spend a lot of effort for someone not to get through something Because physiologically the stress and the demand is too great, and the truth is you can't change SEAL training from the way that it's done, because you're going to war. 

19:15
Yeah, it has to be as intense as it is as it is and the last thing is we can't control her menstruation cycle, and so when she's bleeding she's a problem. 

19:26 - Stacey (Host)
Because sharks, because of dogs, because of dogs. 

19:29 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yes, because of dogs. The dogs will track her down. 

19:32 - Stacey (Host)
Oh, I see They'll see her? 

19:33 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yes, for sure, they will smell her blood Never, oh, I see, they'll see her yes, for sure they will smell her blood. Never thought of that. Interesting. How about that? Never thought of that. Yeah, so you want menopausal? 

19:39 - Stacey (Host)
women. 

19:41 - Christopher Maher (Host)
You said, because of sharks we want menopausal women, but those menopausal women have what? 

19:44 - Stacey (Host)
Oh, some of them are badass, though they have weak bones. We've seen it right. What factory where great content feels right at home. Located in beautiful Wayne, Pennsylvania, our creative rental space offers high-end tech in a space that feels like your best friend's living room. Book your session or a free tour at mainlinevideostudiocom. And back to the show. Did you almost die when you had hypothermia? 

20:12 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I had what's called ventricular fibrillation right. So my core temperature dropped to like 87.6 degrees. We were in hell week and you want to get to Wednesday night. Because if you get to Wednesday night hump night, then you know you're pretty much going to get through hell week. And if you get through hell week your chances of getting through SEAL training are really really good if you can get through the classroom stuff and not make any safety violations. 

20:41
So we're in a semi-circle and the instructor's over here and every guy's got to go around and tell his best joke. Right, they got a campfire going. I can't believe it. It's the light of fire. We're warming up One of my buddies, another cat from Philly, and Sean says man, how come you're not shivering? 

21:02 - Stacey (Host)
Everybody else is shaking like a leaf, because you'd been in the water for a while. Right, yeah, for a while, yeah. 

21:07 - Christopher Maher (Host)
How come you're not shivering? 

21:08 - Stacey (Host)
I said man. I'm hot. What are you talking about? Uh-oh. 

21:12 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I'm feeling good. We're by the campfire and the instructors took every one of our paddles for the boats and they set up this maze and they said listen, if any one of you knocks down one of these pedals, you're back in the ocean for five minutes for every paddle that gets knocked down. Oh my gosh I was the last one out. I knocked over every paddle you were just you were, I was literally I could, because I didn't have any blood in my extremities anymore. 

21:39 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my God. 

21:40 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I completely lost out of my balance. And then this instructor Valderrama. He just basically said all right, let's go to the truck. And he's a big guy, big, strong forearms, and he was squeezing on my traps as hard as he could. I couldn't feel it anything, oh my God, and then they and he was squeezing on my traps as hard as he could. I couldn't feel it anything, and then they gave me a thermometer up the old Keystone Yep. 

22:03
And they saw the core temperature was too low. And then the instructors stripped down and they hopped under a blanket with me. To try and warm you up To try to warm me up, because you have to warm you up subtly. And then they took me to the hospital and they dumped me into a warm tub and they slowly increased the temperature in the tub and then I woke up the next day. Of course I was bummed. I didn't make it through hell week, so I had to go back. 

22:29
Oh no, at the beginning of training again. 

22:32 - Stacey (Host)
So that's tough, that was tough. You've had this generational trauma you would call it yeah you woke up probably a lot of days, but one day in particular, and you had pain in your body. 

22:42 - Christopher Maher (Host)
That was so severe that you called your buddy yeah. 

22:45 - Stacey (Host)
And you said I need to. You know, you asked for help which? 

22:47 - Mark (Host)
I think, is incredible. 

22:49 - Stacey (Host)
You said, you brought over a juicer and a yoga. 

22:51 - Christopher Maher (Host)
And he brought over a yoga mat Yoga mat. Yeah, I didn't know what a yoga mat was. This is 1999. So imagine 1999. I don't know what a yoga mat is. 

23:05
So that was the start of your journey, starting to heal journey, which now you teach other people how to do. Yeah, my healing journey. I think the first thing that I needed to do is I needed to be able to, to get comfortable with asking for help, because I never asked for help. I was somebody that I helped other people. They needed help, but it was very difficult for me to go. Hey, I'm suffering because at Milton Hershey school, everyone had to do all the other chores that everyone had to do. There was no preferential treatment. You couldn't be like oh, I'm not feeling good today, can I lay in bed? So I had had this mindset. Now imagine going to the military and going to SEAL training you think they're giving me? 

23:41 - Mark (Host)
more leverage or less leverage? 

23:43 - Christopher Maher (Host)
They don't care if you're sick, if you're ill, if you're in pain. If you want to get through this program, you suck it up and you move on. And, yeah, that made me resilient. But the thing that had become a gift had turned into a curse. So I created a bunch of limiting beliefs that I had to work through, and the first thing I had to work through was one, admitting that I was in pain and I was hurt, and two, admitting that I actually needed help. And so I did what I considered to be vulnerable at the time, which was to ask someone for help, and he helped me. And what he helped me realize is that I was toxic and I was tight and I was sick and he was fit and he was healthy. And we both went through SEAL training at the same time right, we were both on the West Coast SEAL teams at the same time. And here I am struggling and he's prospering. 

24:32 - Stacey (Host)
Right. 

24:33 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Right, because I was going to the bar and he was going to the yoga studio. 

24:38 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah. 

24:38 - Christopher Maher (Host)
And that was a wake-up call. By the time I got done my drink, I realized he was healthy and fit and I was fit and toxic. I got into rolfing. Jeff came over, brings a yoga mat. We're out there doing the stuff. He's getting in all these wild positions. I couldn't get in any of them, in fact, it was so laughable he was laughing at the same time. 

24:59 - Stacey (Host)
He's never done yoga. Oh, you haven't done yoga. 

25:01 - Mark (Host)
Okay, I can't get in any positions. 

25:02 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, so you're the same as me right, this is what he needs to hear though. 

25:06 - Christopher Maher (Host)
So I couldn't get in any of them and I was a little bit frustrated. But I thought one point I remember my mind created this belief like oh well, he must have been born that way. Yeah, flexible, right Versus strong, yeah, and. But I didn't consider. Yeah, he went through the same things that I went through. But look, the truth is he put the time in to make himself better and I didn't. I put the time in to make myself worse, and the end result of that is joint pain. 

25:35 - Stacey (Host)
And then what's rolfing? 

25:37 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Rolfing is called structural integration. What they do is they use their elbows and their shoulders and they have 10 specific sessions to remove tension from your connective tissue. 

25:48 - Stacey (Host)
It hurts right, it's not like a massage. 

25:50 - Christopher Maher (Host)
I would say it's where I first learned how to meditate. 

25:55 - Stacey (Host)
Because you had to like put your brain in Because you literally have to like I've been that way in a therapeutic massage before. I was like does? 

26:03 - Mark (Host)
it hurt? 

26:05 - Christopher Maher (Host)
yeah, it was very, very, very, very intense. I made it through my first 10 sessions and um, and I thought, okay, I'm hopeful, things can change. I figured out that all my gifts in high school were from my family, had something to do with my sports teams and running and all that. All the gratification I got from the ladies was from having a nice body and always touching me and, oh, you're so strong and so I built this, I feel you, yeah, you understand, stop it, you too. 

26:42
That made me really start to evaluate my decisions moving forward, and so, then, I spent all of my money, all of my time and all my effort finding anyone who could help me reduce the amount of pain that I was in I think stacy mentioned to me that you can see an aura of a person is that you're? 

27:04 - Mark (Host)
seeing the energy that they're putting out. Yeah, so what is stacy's aura? 

27:08 - Christopher Maher (Host)
well, it depends for me. 

27:09
I'd have to get into a state sitting across from her and we would start like we would start tuning into her eyes and then what would happen is her energy would shift and I would be able to see her energy first, and then I would see her body. So when I start taking tension and stress out of someone's body, initially all I see is like this coffee table that we're looking at, all these sharp lines. As you start removing tension, you can see all of the energy around them and you're actually interacting with their energy first, instead of this dense, negatively conditioned body that's been negatively conditioned for thousands of years. People forget humanity went through the dark ages. If we were in the dark ages right now, do you think that by yourself you could get on your horse and buggy and drive to town to sell your milk without being kidnapped, killed or raped? No, a man had to have a sword. 

28:06
you had to have a sword which was visible to anybody who was going by you on a horse, because that would let them know that I can take care of me, my family and my wife. Do you have to do that now? You just hop in your car and you go to work. So, even though we aren't under those same stress loads in our environment, genetically and epigenetically, your body's still telling you the same story. Your body's still telling you that you're not safe. 

28:34 - Stacey (Host)
I love this. I love this, I believe this. I was fascinated when I read your book and. I still am, and there's just so much more about you too. How you learned Chinese medicine? How you lived in a cave in the dark for 28 days. 

28:47 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, I just got back from that cave. 

28:49 - Stacey (Host)
You did it again. Yeah, oh gosh, we have to hear about this for 28 days again. 

28:53 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, for 28 days I went into absolute darkness. Well, I, I went in for a couple weeks in absolute darkness. I just got back from thailand and I was meditating. I was by myself this time and I was meditating and stretching and fasting and, you know, putting myself back together, because every year you accumulate more stress, more tension. 

29:16 - Stacey (Host)
You could probably do that because you've fasted for many more days than me. I'm not a faster. 

29:21 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, but you fasted for how long? I fasted for 44 days, I thought it was 53. 

29:26 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Well, 44 days plus fasting in and then fasting out. So you enter in and then you exit slowly, that is far more than seven, only the 44 days. 

29:35 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, by the way, if you fast for that long. 

29:38 - Christopher Maher (Host)
by the time you get to day 30, the only thing you fantasize about is food, my bad. 

29:42 - Stacey (Host)
Because we talked to somebody who hadn't eaten for 40 days. He said it was easy, he was 23 or 24. 

29:48 - Mark (Host)
He felt he was carried by a current. 

29:50 - Stacey (Host)
Yes, like he wasn't a struggle every day. 

29:52 - Mark (Host)
He was just moving. 

29:53 - Christopher Maher (Host)
No, no, like the first, I think probably like day six you're like in a struggle. But once you get to like day eight, nine, 10, you're in a flow. 

30:01 - Stacey (Host)
I do want you to tell us your message and what you want people to know. 

30:05 - Christopher Maher (Host)
The thing for everybody who's listening to know is that every single human is full of stress, it's full of tension, it's full of emotional, psychological and energetic distortion and heavy loads of toxicity and if you refuse and you avoid to clean those out, the last 10 to 12 years of your life will be difficult and there's no reason for that. 

30:34 - Stacey (Host)
What would be the first step for someone who, I'm sure, people are listening? And watching who know that they're not in alignment, but it seems so daunting. 

30:42 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, the first step. One is just to go to your bathroom or your bedroom, sit in front of the mirror and have a come to Jesus conversation and just ask Jesus like, what are the ways in which I can improve my body and my brain, my spiritual life, my emotional life, and would you be willing to guide me and show me the way? And then open your heart? Because when you're doing that, you're admitting that you're full of faults. Okay, and now you're in a state of vulnerability and after you get done that conversation, go have a conversation with a real person and tell them hey, my neck hurts or my back hurts or my wrist hurts or I'm not sleeping well or I got really poor digestion or I've been constipated for five days. Because someone is going to know, someone who can help you. 

31:37
And now you put yourself in the assertive position by connecting to Christ, you put yourself in the receptive position by opening up and admitting that you need help. And so now, in those positions, you're going to invite someone in to help you. The third step, which is the easiest, is you have to break your addictive relationship with the daily acceptable drugs Nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs, recreational drugs. You've got to break your relationship with those and start to build a more holistic life. The last thing if you get your food right and you become receptive, you simply need to work on getting a good night's sleep. 

32:26
I would love one, because if you get a good night's sleep and you're eating the right food, you're going to feel good, and when humans feel good, they do good. 

32:34
They do good and when humans feel bad, they do bad, and what I mean by that is this If I feel bad, when I wake up, the first thing I'm going to reach for is a cup of Joe. The cup of Joe is going to amplify the amount of adrenaline and cortisol that's running through my system. And now I'm going to be over-engaged and overly focused and I'm going to start missing things. I'm going to get all the stuff done on my list, but guess what? I will have forgotten Valentine's Day. I'm going to get home and my wife's going to be like hey, did you forget something today? What do you mean? On my list. 

33:09
I got everything done, but you're going to miss the emotional things right, and so focus on getting a good night's sleep. Do whatever you can to take care of your body. 

33:20 - Mark (Host)
Oh, this is the last thing. 

33:21 - Stacey (Host)
Oh no, keep going Okay. 

33:22 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Find an alphabiotics practitioner, you could go to alphabioticsorg or alphabioticsnet and they will help you get out of fight or flight through a real simple process. And the first alignment is the most important because it's the very first time your nervous system, your entire life, from womb until now, is going to be out of fight or flight and it's going to change your reality. 

33:47 - Stacey (Host)
If you're looking back at that little three-year-old boy who's in the coma unbelievable. Knowing what you know now, what? What do you wish? Someone had told you then. 

34:02 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Everything's going to work out. Yeah, everything is going to work out. I mean, I personally believe I was put here to go through everything that I went through, to produce and create everything that I did, because before I was born there wasn't a system out there that if you were born bowlegged we could straighten your legs. And guess what? I created A system that can straighten any kid's legs who's born bowlegged and or knock-kneed. How about that? 

34:29 - Stacey (Host)
You created that, yeah, wow. 

34:34 - Mark (Host)
That's wild, you are incredible. Thank Wow, that's wild, you are incredible. Thank you, you really are. 

34:37 - Stacey (Host)
Thank you, thank you for what you do, thank you and thank both of you. 

34:41 - Christopher Maher (Host)
This is great. This is my favorite interview. Sorry for all the other podcasts that I've been on, if you're like if you're the in person is the way to go. 

34:50 - Mark (Host)
This is the way to go. 

34:57 - Stacey (Host)
And that's why we're so great to make the flight to get here. We really appreciate it. I feel you, I you know, I feel what you're trying to do in the world and it's just, it's phenomenal and I'm so glad you get to help people at penn state. Yeah, and your book yes. Please tell people how to find it yeah, free for life. 

35:06 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Go to my website, truebodyintelligencecom. That's the place to go pick it up yeah, and. And get the auditory version. 

35:15 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, it's really good. 

35:16 - Christopher Maher (Host)
If you're someone who likes you know you like to take notes obviously get both and take notes. But the key is you have to realize that this is not a self-help book. 

35:28 - Stacey (Host)
This is not. 

35:29 - Christopher Maher (Host)
This is like I'm just giving you the information so you can at least make an informed decision. If you don't have the education around stress and how that creates disease or disease, however, however you like to think about it then you're only going to continue to keep doing the things that you're doing. But at least if you have the information, you can make a really good choice. 

35:53 - Stacey (Host)
It's really good stuff. Pick up the book. Thank you so much's. Really good stuff. Pick up the book so much thank you, pick up the book and it's and and I listen to the audio version and your voice is so calming oh, thank you and so peaceful and the other thing. 

36:05 - Christopher Maher (Host)
the really great thing is, this year I'm going to be building free tools that I will make available on YouTube, for because a lot of people that I work with are successful professionally in spite of their own suffering that they're going through, and I want to make sure that every Jane and Joe on the planet has an opportunity to be able to access these tools that I utilize to get myself out of the hell that I was living in. 

36:35 - Mark (Host)
It's amazing. Well, you're doing great work. Yeah, we really appreciate it. 

36:39 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Yeah, so happy to be here. We will see you soon. We're going to see you again. Hold on. Before we go, I want everyone to meet my brother, Ryan. It's okay. 

36:45 - Stacey (Host)
But you look great. 

36:46 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Okay. 

36:47 - Stacey (Host)
It is great to meet you, hey Ryan, my brother is my favorite person in in in the world we're very, very, very, very different. 

36:58 - Christopher Maher (Host)
Uh, we're like we're polar opposites, similarities though, yeah, yeah and I just I mean clearly he means the world, he's awesome. 

37:06 - Mark (Host)
Tell right, yeah, he's awesome so I'm sure the feeling's mutual absolutely we don't have. 

37:11 - Stacey (Host)
We don't have a microphone on ryan. Oh, we don't have a microphone on Ryan. Oh, we don't have a microphone on Ryan. Yeah, absolutely, it's funny too. 

37:18 - Mark (Host)
So that's great. So thank you, thank you. 

37:20 - Stacey (Host)
Thank you for bringing him. Yes, thank you. This is awesome. 

37:23 - Mark (Host)
Love it All right, you guys have a great day. You guys have a great day you guys have a good day, we will see you soon. 

37:33 - Stacey (Host)
You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the gurus and game changers podcast while you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, see you next week.