Thriving Artists: The Daily Joyride with Robyn Cohen

How T.V. Actor & Author Boise Thomas Practiced Rewriting His Story And Saved His Life

• Robyn Cohen • Episode 4

Share episode

In this enlightening episode, Robyn Cohen engages with her longtime friend, Boise Thomas, exploring his multifaceted career as an artist, environmentalist, and transformational coach. They delve into Boise's journey from sports casting to becoming a recognized name in comedy and television, and his current dedication to theater. The discussion also touches on profound themes such as the importance of practice, the significance of creative exploration, the impact of living a spiritual life, and the transformative power of journaling. Boise opens up about his experiences with depression, suicidal thoughts, and how he overcame them through writing and spiritual practice. Robyn and Boise share valuable insights and practical tools to help listeners unlock their own potential and find joy in their lives. Boise's wisdom on the power of repetition, spirituality, and the importance of childhood passions offers profound inspiration. Don't miss this episode brimming with actionable insights and soulful reflections.

Connect with Boise:
YouTube: Boise Thomas’ YouTube Channel
Website: boisethomas.com  Explore Boise's latest venture into playwriting with 'E=MC²,' and his recent portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in the real life story of Einstein and Charlie Chaplin.
Boise’s Book: https://www.howsyourheartguide.com/ How’s Your Heart? A User’s Guide For Building A Better Humanity
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boise.thomas/
Podcast: https://podimo.com/shows/boise-thomas-finally-has-a-podcast-podcast
Voyage LA Interview: Meet Boise Thomas of How’s Your Heart in Venice

------------------------

💕I’m so happy you’re here! 

To connect with me, just email:
 Robyn@CohenActingStudio.com 

Or visit the website at:
https://www.cohenactingstudio.com

👉 Group classes and one on one coaching are available throughout the year!

Ready to jump in?

🎉 Get the creative ball rolling with our early bird pricing! If you sign up by January 10th you’ll save $100 with our New Year’s Special! Just email me to lock in your spot:
Robyn@CohenActingStudio.com
Or sign up on my site:
https://www.cohenactingstudio.com

💫Whether you’re joining us virtually or in-person, the experience promises to be as unique as you are!

👉 Follow me on Instagram: @RobynCohenActingStudio.
- Enjoy ongoing inspiration, updates, and a peek behind the scenes!

🎊In appreciation for all you do, I made you a special MP3! It’s a Free Audio Guide called: '5 Proven Ways to Peace and Power,' that promises to infuse your days with ease, calm and strength. (in under 7 minutes!) 

FREE GIFT!👇
https://mailchi.mp/cohenactingstudio/free-gift-to-freedom

---------------------------
TRIGGER WARNING:
The following episode discusses the topic of suicide. Conversations about suicide can be troubling or overwhelming for some to listen to. If you, or someone you know, is thinking about suicide, please call or text 988 to connect with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Trained professionals are available 24/7 to provide support and guidance to help you. You can also call your local County Crisis Line number, or call 911.

Robyn Cohen:

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Daily Joyride podcast. I am your host, Robyn Cohen, here to fuel your day with energy, infuse it with joy, and share powerful stories that will ignite your courage. Spark your spirit, awaken your perceptions, and inspire and encourage the once in a cosmos you to create a life that you actually love living. So if that's your jam, buckle up and let's ride. Here we go! Hello, bright lights and welcome back to The Daily Joyride. A podcast, that's not just a conversation. It is a passion party. It is a celebration of artistry and the human spirit. I am your host, Robyn Cohen. And today is all about diving into the depths and the range of what it is and what it means to be a human being. and no one does being human better than my dear friend, my creative comrade, my spirit animal guru, Boise Thomas. It's always a delight to offer a canvas here where art meets heart, and today's chat with Boise is no exception. But before we become completely enchanted by his gripping tales, I have some thrilling news that's too hot to trot to keep under wraps. Starting January 28th, Get ready to ignite your acting prowess with our scintillating, yes scintillating, six week acting workshop. The ultimate gateway to mastering your craft and embracing your potential, like all of it. It's a fusion of online exploration and onstage magic. Tuesdays, we'll bring the virtual energy to our first four classes, and then we'll light up the stage in person for our last couple of sessions in our beautiful West L. A. theater. And I invite you to grab this creatively cosmic opportunity with our early bird special. If you sign up by January 6th, I'll lock in your spot and you're gonna save a hundred bucks right at the top of the new year. Just drop me an email at Robyn@cohenactingstudio.com. Robyn's with a Y, and I'll get you in or sign up on the site, www.cohenactingstudio.com. Whether you connect from your home or you're with us on stage, this experience promises to be as unique as you are. And now. Drum roll, please. Let's tune in and get our socks knocked off. You're gonna need new socks after this. by the amazing, Boise Thomas. Hello, hello, and welcome back to the daily joyride. I'm so excited. We just had the best dance party. Boise Thomas is a dear friend of mine for decades. I clocked it. It's, it's actually, It's two decades pretty much on the nose that I've known you, Boise. He is an incredible human being, artist, magic maker, transformational coach, colleague, creative sprite, and um, just a dear and loving friend for most of the time that I have been on The Left Coast. So a little bit about Boise Thomas. Boise is a multi hyphenate He was born and raised in New York and found his way to Los Angeles via England in 1997 after a decade working in sports casting and adventure travel. From 1999 to 2017, he fulfilled his 20 year vision by becoming a comic at the Comedy Store for several years, acted in 144 TV commercials, count them, hosted a Discovery Channel series, which we'll get back to and signed with a big bodacious agency and just to expand a little bit on Boise's passion for environmentalism and hosting 13 episodes of Alter Eco on Discovery's Planet Green TV, this was a show that was in fact dedicated to sustainable living and having a world that can work and live and breathe for everyone. Speaking of which, Boise is as mentioned, a transformational coach and a marriage counselor, integrating spiritual practices with practical strategies, guiding individuals and couples toward profound personal growth. In 2017, he pulled a geographical, I love that. He pulled a geographical, period, and traveled for two years to write a book and self published in 2020. How is your heart? How's Your Heart, really? Not how is your heart, but how's your heart? A user's guide for building a better humanity. which is his personal, hand illustrated manifesto for healing from depression and suicidal ideation. Currently, Boise's highest excitement is having gone against the advice of others by writing, producing, and acting in his very first play. Ha ha ha ha ha! E equals MC squared. Or do we call it E equals MC2?

Boise:

Squared.

Robyn Cohen:

I love it. E equals MC squared. There it is. For those of you watching on the YouTube channel, he just put up beautiful artwork, which you did everything because he does everything. This is Einstein meets Charlie Chaplin. Einstein's

Boise:

plural.

Robyn Cohen:

Einstein's plural, his wife as well, meets Charlie Chaplin a fascinating true story of the relationship between these two iconic or three iconic humans. He is currently in rewrites and pre production to put the play up on both coasts in Los Angeles and back east. So join us as we explore Boise's multifaceted career, his dedication to fostering a better humanity and the harmonious blend of his artistic talents with his commitment to personal and environmental well being. And I just want to, I pulled up one quote that was in Voyage LA that I just loved that you shared, Boise, if I may. In Boise's words, uh, What is success? This was the prompt. What is success or successful for you? His reply,"Success is practicing something long enough, others ask you to teach them how to do it. So success for me is becoming a teacher. What the student quickly realizes is the teacher became a master only through the practice... and failures. They mastered something not because they are special or talented, but because they never gave up."

Boise:

I'm so glad you, I'm so glad you shared that quote. I forgot about that. That was so many years ago. And my word for 2024 was practice.

Robyn Cohen:

Oh,

Boise:

that could

Robyn Cohen:

be the title of this episode, that could be the whole episode just about this quote and what that

Boise:

like, if I have a say or a vote, I practice.

Robyn Cohen:

Ah, okay, you do have a say and a vote so you win. Um, because the guests, they break the tie. So if I went the right, so, um, Oh, Boise, there's so, there's so much to it and to you,

Boise:

this is a three hour podcast, right? It really

Robyn Cohen:

is. I mean, it's a three hour podcast, which we're going to likely do in three parts, but for today, you know, a lot of the people listening are. In the arts or they're creatives or non creatives or creatively inclined and I'm wondering sort of how, how your life blends together in the way that it does to be such a mover and shaker and all these areas helping so many so many different kinds of people and sharing the work that you do with so many kinds of people. What is it at the root? What is it at the root that you want to share with these people from all walks of life, whether they're your acting students or you're teaching them about, you know, how to successfully end a marriage? What is it that ultimately you're wanting to provide for people?

Boise:

Well, that's a great question. And thanks for having me as a guest today.

Robyn Cohen:

I'm so excited.

Boise:

I think the, I think for me it's, um, you know, I just, I, I just wrote something that I, that I shared, um, about writing and how important I think having a journal is. I was never a diary kid. I, I always threw out my notebooks when I was done with them. I never kept them and I never shared what I wrote. But recently, The last seven, eight years, I've noticed that, you know, writing is powerful and I don't mean like typing on a keyboard. I mean, actually like, here's my current notebook. You can see like, what's not used yet. Right?...Is that little strip like a, like when you tear into the earth, you can see all the layers of the history of everything. So right now I said, I have about 30 pages left, which is perfect because I want to finish this journal by the time the year's over. I start my journal on the back end. I have all this stuff about the play. And on the front end is all this stuff about my life. So I start my personal journal from, from the front. And then whatever I'm working on, I flip it over and start from the back so that I don't have to have more than one journal with me. And it, uh, it segregates the two worlds, the world of my creativity and the world of my day to day affairs. So I would say right now, you know, to kind of merge in this, this notion of practice, success. And your question, if you could posit it again, was: what

Robyn Cohen:

is it that you ultimately at the root of all of this creativity and generosity on your part, what do you want to give people?

Boise:

Yeah, I think, I think, uh, I think I want to give people, um, the experience of You know, discovering, like, what is it you're here to share, like, what is your talent, right? And, and it, when I was a little kid, my idol was Shel Silverstein.

Robyn Cohen:

I just

Boise:

wanted to grow up and I wanted to be Shel Silverstein. Like some people want to be listening.

Robyn Cohen:

That's, that's, Uh, A Light On In The Attic. That is, uh, Where The Sidewalk Ends. Yes.

Boise:

Giving tree. Giving tree magical. The Missing Piece, right. And the thing that people don't know about Shel Silverstein, because he was an adult that wrote for children. He was Uncle Shelby when he wrote for kids, but as an adult, he was the most frequented person at the Playboy mansion. He lived on a boat. In San Francisco, you know, his boat looked like a, look like the equivalent of like Barbara Eden's I Dream of Jeannie, her little bottle. Imagine that for like a bachelor that lived on a boat in San Francisco back in the seventies. I never

Robyn Cohen:

knew that. I never knew any of that.

Boise:

He also penned most of, if not, uh, the majority of the songs by Dr. Hook and The Medicine Show, which was a band from the seventies who wrote like Sylvia's Mother, Sharing the Night Together, you know, all those love songs and ballads. And it's kind of predates yacht rock. It was like Dr. Hook was one of my favorite bands. My dad used to play them on the eight track and his pickup truck. Um, and if you kids don't know what an eight track or a pickup truck is, just ask AI and it'll spit out a really cool. Dodge with a, with a little eight track in there. Um, and, uh, you know, Shel Silverstein was a Renaissance man. You know, he won a Grammy. He won an Emmy. Um, never won a Tony, never won an Oscar, but he was really just expressing himself in the world through art, through illustrations, through music, through the written word, um, played guitar, just loved to share art in the world. And when I was eight years old, I remember telling my mom, she got me a copy of"Where the sidewalk Ends" in 1977. I still have the copy to this day and it's got my mom passed in March, but she wrote in it, you know, to me and my sister, Merry Christmas. And, uh, it's in pencil, it's in her cursive, and it's dated at the top, Christmas 1977. And I told my mom after I got that, I said, I want to be a Renaissance man when I grew up. She asked me, what do you want to be when you grow up? I said, I want to be a Renaissance man. She goes, do you know what a Renaissance man is? And I had to stop because I didn't know what one was. I went, well, it seems like someone who could do anything they want. And could do everything they want. She said, that's a pretty good definition of a Renaissance man. So while everyone doesn't strive to be an artist, an illustrator, an author, a playwright, an actor, a TV show host, a counselor, somebody who's interested in how's your heart, you know, not everybody has that path, but my path since I was a very young boy, I just wanted to express art in every possible way and really be able to do all the things. So I want people to find out what is their gift. What's the thing inside of them. You know, you and I are very steeped in Joseph Campbell's hero's journey in the 17 beats of the monomyth and everybody goes through something. And on the other side of that, something they fulfill the quest, right? Frodo throws the ring in Mordor. Um, Alice in Wonderland, she, you know, she gets the, I was going to go Wizard of Oz, but I was just about to conflate Wizard of Oz and Alice, but basically Dorothy, Alice, pick your favorite hero. Holy grail,

Robyn Cohen:

Monty Python, you know.

Boise:

Exactly. At the end of that journey, the hero goes to share the gift that they got with the village or with the, with their community. And ultimately that's what I, what I want, for people to discover their unique gift that, that they have to share with their community.

Robyn Cohen:

That is so beautiful because at the end of the day, I think it's right there for people or it's something hidden in plain sight, but we all want to explore and explode what we came here to do. What do you tell people that don't experience, in their day in, day out lives, they don't have the experience that there's any access to that. Most, a lot of people that we meet don't know that anything like that is even available. So how would you help someone that's like, Hey, Boise, I want to be you when I grow up. I also wanted to be a Renaissance man. You, I mean, the, the, what you generate humanly and creatively for the planet is not, it's, It's unmatched in, in terms of people that I know, what you put out there for people in the array of ways and means and in powerful and profound and impactful ways in all of these forms of creativity and transformation and your generosity with that. I don't know anyone who does it as much as you or as well as you. What are you telling people that don't feel like...Hmm it's not me. I can't go out and just make a play. I can't go out and write a book. I cannot, there's no way, you don't, you don't know me, you don't know who I am, you don't know my situation. What do you, how do you provide access for people that don't see it, don't see that that's possible?

Boise:

Yeah, I would say, you know, everything's a remix. So none of us are coming up with something original, right? We were dancing before the episode here, uh, rocking out to a song from 1983. Shout out to Stetson Sonic. And, uh, and it was a remix of it, but it's still the same song. It just has a little modern twist on it. So I would tell people to, um, you know, go back into your past and look at when you were like 13 or 8 or 5 and ask yourself, what was inspiring me then? Like now, if you just say, what was your influencer, people are going to think like, Oh, the person I watch on YouTube or the big booty gal on Instagram or the podcast that I listened to to help me feel better about my childhood. That's not the kind of influencer I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you go back to when you were five or eight or thirteen, kids today excluded, we weren't looking at screens. We were reading books. We were listening to records or tapes or eight tracks. In my case, we were listening to our teachers. We were in school. We had mentors. We had coaches, after school program, art teacher, dance teacher. Like that was my life after school. I didn't want to go home, be alone because I was a latchkey kid. Both my parents worked. So I would go and find communities of things to do, whether it was the rec center, whether it was after school athletics, art club, whatever that was. Um, so I would say go back into your past and look at your influences, your real influencers, your books, your music, your movies, and your mentors, and make a list of those people. And if there are people that you had contact to, when I wrote Shel Silverstein to say thank you in April of 1999, finally, I got the hit like, Oh, I'm going to be 30. My life's changing. I'm out of my Saturn return, you know, look it up, and I'm going to write Shel Silverstein a thank you letter. By the time I did, he'd already died. He died in May of'99. I missed it by like a month. So write thank you notes to the real life human beings that you can get an address for. And you know, everybody can send, you know, Taylor Swift or, or, uh, Justin Bieber, or, you know, a president, a letter, but send it to your guidance counselor, send it to your grandparents, send it to your coach in high school, send it to your college professor, somebody who knows you better than just being a fan, right? So I would, I would say that to people because from going back into your past, when you're five years old, you're eight years old, you're 13 year olds, even when you're 21, your, your, your mind is still malleable. Our brains don't get done developing till we're 24. So those early years, the first two decades of our life, we're still discovering and learning. We don't know who we are because we're not fully formed. We're not fully cooked yet. So go back and look at the things that inspired you, the things that lit you up, music, movies, mentors, and books. And from those, I believe people find what their gifts are. And that's, that's a really fun exploration. It's one of my favorite things to do. Good question. Thanks.

Robyn Cohen:

Oh, I think that

Boise:

question was like set up like a softball, but that is my favorite thing to do with people.

Robyn Cohen:

Oh, and there's so much gold in that. Getting back to that. You know, childlike, the childlike joy and the passions that we had for whatever we wanted to do. And there was a moment, I'm sure for all of us, I don't know what that moment was, but there was a moment when we believed we could do it. You know, there was a moment when we did believe we could do it. And so using that as a resource, because that's as part of you as. as much as part of you as any other cells in your body that that happened. That there was a time when you were like, I'm four years old and I'm going full-tilt-boogie as I did. Right. Right. And I'm just, you know, um, I didn't have a, I didn't make a choice. I didn't make a choice about being, uh, in the arts. It was kind of like, when did you know you were a girl? Like, when did you know you were a boy? It just was always there. Although there were when I, we had tickets to, the Kennedy center in Washington, DC, which brought in big Broadway national tours. And I was about six years old and saw Guys and Dolls with Nathan Lane. It had just been on Broadway and it was at the Kennedy center. And I, I remember not being able to move out of my chair at the end of the show. I was like, I was like struck with bolts of lightning so powerful. They were the beginning of the fire that was going to generate my entire life. I didn't know that at the time, but it was further imprinted when my parents finally got me up out of the seat. They're like, Do you want to meet the actors? And I was like, what are you talking about? And they're like, the actors that were in the play. Are you, do you want to go say hello? And you know, you can get them to sign your program. And I had no idea what they were talking about because these people did not seem like human beings to me. They were some, they were, they're singing and dancing and storytelling at the top of their game, at the height of their field, Broadway, in the world of live theater, musical theater, and they led me to, um, down the Hall of Nations, to the stage door, and these women and men started pouring out and the women had, um, stocking caps on their heads because they had taken their wigs off. So they had wig caps on, they were wearing like, so they looked like aliens with huge eyelashes and makeup and jeans. And I was like, They're people. They're, what are they doing right now? And my mom's like, they're going to eat dinner because they have another show to do at 8pm. They're going to do it all again. I was like, what are you talking about? And so it was in that moment I realized that this was actually something that people did for their lives. Like, what do you want to be when you grow up? We would be in elementary school and we would have the doctor visit or the lawyer or the teacher or the, or the carpenter or the plumber. What do you do? How do you do it? But this was no person, superhuman, uber Herculean artist had ever dropped into my elementary school to be like, it's career day. Do you ever want to be on broadway Like just hadn't happened. So it hadn't occurred to me. And when it did, I. I think that changed everything, um, as evidenced by sort of the trajectory of my life after that age and sort of the, the serious, like in some ways it became serious. That it was a moment of great inspiration and phenomenal joy, but something dug in and got lodged in my psyche about, like, if this was a job, there was work to do. So from a very young age, I was, like, pre-professional. training programs than professional training programs while I was in high school. I went to Juilliard, you know, I kept the practice, Boise, it's what you shared off the bat. It was like, I realized that it was the repetition that was going to be the mother of the skill. So I, I, I decided to go full tilt boogie. I don't know if I decided I just did. Um, and I, I wanted to ask about, because this means a lot to, I think, a lot of people who are, um, really looking to do something meaningful, whether, um, It's in arts and crafts or whatever their chosen vocation is, with everything that you do, have done, are currently doing and creating, and with all the joy, with all the inspiration, with all the help and resources that you give to people on the daily, day in, day out, thousands. I mean, it would fill, it would just fill football stadiums of people, the amount of souls that you have touched and continue and with your book. And I mean, it's my, the question is, Are you enjoying it? And if so, these incredible accomplishments and milestones, how? How, how do you, or do do you, do you make sure, or how do you make sure that you actually enjoy the magic that occurs as your life to anyone watching.

Boise:

That's really great. You know, what comes up right away is, uh, you know, having just done my first play, right? In your beautiful introduction. I, I wrote my first play. I produced my first play and I acted in my first play. You know, I did TV and film and. Stand up and improv and one man shows and all that stuff. But I'd never been in an ensemble with a cast. I learned upstage, downstage. You taught me"on the boards!" Last week when you're like, I'm on the boards too. And I came and saw your show. You were six years old last night. It was amazing. You know, I saw the little girl that didn't want to get out of her chair at the Kennedy center last night, pumping her fist and, you know, moving the logs. And it was so inspiring. Um, How it stays joyful for me, you know, there's two things. One is, uh, I'm never satisfied, you know, there's the Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille, right?"There's only a queer divine dissatisfaction that keeps us from marching, makes us more alive than the others," right? So there's that piece, right? And if you're not familiar with Agnes DeMille and, and, and, uh, and, uh, And, and Martha Graham, you can just look up Bodhi in, in a point break played by, um, Patrick Swayze, the late great. And he says, uh, um, what do you want to be like one of those zombies in those metal coffins on the freeway, just driving to and from their job, you know, the ex presidents are surfers and they rob banks. Right. So it's the same energy of that quote with Martha Graham as what Swayze's character Bodhi is saying in point break. Don't. Don't let your soul buy into what the paper is selling. You know, there, there's a lot of things you can do in the world, but I don't know anybody who's really wealthy with money. Who's really happy. And I think I learned that at a young age. Yeah. I mean, they'll tell you, Oh, I'm happy. I can buy... They're bored. They're trapped and they feel guilty that they've won that game. And I believe that's a zero sum game being, being financially. wealthy, like stinking rich. I'm talking like billionaire rich. I'd like to be rich. I can handle that. I'll give it all back. I'll live. I'll live simply. I've always lived simply, but I just don't think that's the game for me. The game is keep my soul alive, keep feeding it. And that's where my joy comes from, from trying big things that I've never done, like doing the play. Now I'm more excited than ever because now I got to figure out I've written a good play, but now I need to figure out how to produce and put up a great play. A play that wants to go to Broadway. By the way, I just learned that off, off, off Broadway is three blocks off Broadway. So look, I'll take, I'll take the basement of a Chinese restaurant, four blocks off Broadway. If that means we get to go be off, off, off, off Broadway. Right. But the joy part that I wanted to also share is, you know, working in theater, I realized why I waited till the very end to work in theater: theater people, are challenging. Their brains go faster than mine does, and mine goes pretty fast, but I've never met. Yeah, that seems impossible. But I mean, I can't, I can't hang theater people are too fast for me and my brain goes really fast. Maybe it's because I just turned 55 and I'm slowing down a little bit. But the other thing is the personalities are really big. And I had a challenge with one of the personalities and in that challenge, the way I stayed happy was one of the nights I was walking to the theater because I put it up in my hometown of Venice and I was staying up, you know, 10 minute walk away, 11 minute walk away from the theater. Great to walk to the theater. Look forward to doing that off, off, off, off Broadway or off Broadway or on Broadway. It doesn't matter. Or in Scotland,

Robyn Cohen:

Scotland, which is off continent Broadway in Scotland, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I've directed there. I recommend it. Just put your application in. You will be in Scotland by next summer. Thank you. Okay,

Boise:

great. All right. Good. Um, thank you. Uh And I, I, I realized I was unhappy going to the theater because I, my idea, and I didn't have a fantastical, you know, imaginary delusional fantasy about theater. I had no idea what I was doing. So it was all brand new. It was totally fun, but challenging personalities. You know, I was walking to the theater. I really was sad. I didn't want to be, I didn't want to be there. I was like, why am I not having a joyful experience doing this thing that I had to do? Just like you said, I have to do this. Whatever these aliens are, that's what I have to do. And I picked up the phone and I called a buddy of mine who's a theater guy in New York City. And I just talked to him for like 10 minutes on the walk. I said, I'm really struggling. He said, okay. And we put it in perspective, you know, that I spent$16,000 of my own money to basically do what was a glorified table read six workshop performances in front of 400 people total. We had about 60, 70 people per show. And why would I allow my feelings To get in the way of this tremendous accomplishment and this amazing experience I'm getting of venturing out into this brand new realm of entertainment, which is the original, the live theater, break a leg, you know, foot candles, upstage, downstage, project. Like there's no other theater other than the campfire that is older than theater. So I'm humbled. I'm happy. And I was supported. By people who understood what I was going through. And I turned the beat around and I, and by the time I got to the theater on that 11 minute walk, I had sorted myself out to get back in the joy. And then I just didn't interact with the people that were triggering me, the people that were bothering me, the people that were, I perceived as going through something that made it difficult for me to enjoy my own experience. You know, I created the sandbox. I brought the toys and I invited the people. Why wouldn't I want to be the one having the most fun?

Robyn Cohen:

Gosh for those of us taking this in, what I just got is, through whatever means, whether that's shoving it into perspective, calling a friend to shed light on a new perspective, like that, using your mind to talk to your brain is, it's so powerful and sounds possible for people. Like, let me put this into perspective. I mean, I think there are ways to do that... on psychological, human, spiritual levels on the daily in our meditation practices. But that sounds, it's just, it's such a brass tacks way to be like, let me take a pause. And before I start reacting, in that pause, in that space between stimulus and response, I have a choice. And seeking a person, a place, a tool, uh, you know, something that you have in your handy dandy notes section, just quotes that you have for yourself that you read that are going to put it into perspective again, you know, I think that's great. We can have a toolkit that does just that because I can hear how that freed you up to enjoy this process that you had earned. You had earned all to have the right for all, all the joy in the universe, you know, all the sunbeams and deserving of all the, the beauty and the sun rays, and the applause, and the admiration and all of it, so, Speaking of perspective and putting things into it when we can, you are, uh, you're such a divine creature. And one that when I think of I simultaneously, I think of, um, when I think of Boise, I think of a spiritual guide. I think of a, a zen teacher, student, master. I think of someone that is connected to the energies that are all around us, though they may be hidden in plain sight. I think they're all around us. And I think of you, Boise, as someone that is like actually tapped in on a level that again is beyond anybody I know. And, can you talk a little bit about how your life is both transformed and molded, how it's shaped, how it's, how your spiritual life and practice is your life in all the things you're doing and how we can get a taste of that and maybe look to bring some of that world in which you move and delve and shake and dance into our worlds? How we can get access?

Boise:

You really do know me because this is what I love to talk about and I'm going to use the G word. Okay, G O D. And what that means for me is guide of divinity. And if you look up the word divinity in any dictionary, whether it's Oxford or Merriam Webster or unabridged, your favorite, your old, but anywhere you find the word G O D, you'll get interpretations that are religious in nature or 2000 different faces that human beings have created to describe that name that we choose to call this divine ultimate what Einstein called the cosmic creator. Okay. He said there can only be one Creator because to have a personal God defies the laws of physics. So he said, the more I study science, the more I believe in God, but there can only be one God because having multiple gods is in physics is impossible. Only one thing can create everything from nothing. And that was what Einstein was working on at the end of his life was the unified field theory, which I believe he was trying to mathematically demonstrate what is love, what is God. So for me, what God is, is the guide of divinity, anything that guides you to the third definition of divinity, which is that which is good, divine. So for me, Guide of good, whatever sends me to something that is good. That's God. Because where there is good, there is God. And if you just think about that extra, Oh, like, Oh God, just move the O in between the G and the D and you got good. So whenever I say, Oh my God, I take the my and move it over and put the O in with the G and the D. And I got my good is my God. So wherever there's something good happening, I gravitate. It's like a magnet. I go to that. If I see kids having fun, or I see adults that are holding hands in public, I'll, I'll stop them and say, Excuse me, I don't know if you know this, but... Holding hands makes you live longer. They've done scientific studies that if you hold hands with your partner, you will live longer than if you don't hold hands with your partner. So that connection, that unified, unified field theory of that energy actually is a, as a practice of life extension. That's way easier than, you know, juicing vegetables and, and intermittent fasting. Just hold someone's hand. You know what I mean? So where I see good, I see God, but again, I don't want people left with God, like the face of God, love Jesus, love Buddha, love Krishna. But those are the only three gods I've really studied. And I'm getting my PhD right now in metaphysical ministry from the university of Sedona because I want to understand God. So in my spiritual practice that you're pointing to and giving me the opportunity and the platform and the opportunity to reach people with this message is: there's four people in the play, the Leela, India, the Indian Sanskrit word for play is Leela, L E E L A. And there's a song like wheels on the bus go round and round. When the kids in India sing it, it's, they sing it like this, Leela, Leela. Life is just a play. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Leela, Leela, Leela, Leela, Leela, Just a play. And they go over and over and they just sing it. There's no end. It's the song that never ends version of the Indians, you know, Eastern Indians, native children's song, Leela, on the bus.

Robyn Cohen:

Wheels on the bus go round, round, round. Oh my

Boise:

God. Yeah, it brings you joy and everybody knows the words and eventually, even if you're in a bad mood or you stubbed your toe or you failed a test or you didn't get the snack, you'll jump in eventually. After a couple rounds, you're like, Leela, Leela, you know, like you'll get in there. So in the play of life, there's four characters. There's you, the others, people watching, me and your Leela, you and my Leela, God, the guide of divinity. And then this other thing. That you can call it whatever you want. You can call it the ego edging God out. You can call it the devil. You know, the devil made me do it. You don't want to be responsible for your actions. Oh, the devil made me do it. Right. So my grandmother used to say, Oh, don't, don't let the devil get you or whatever that negative conversation...like you said, wow, you used your mind to watch your brain, the separation, the gap, or what my meditation called meditation teacher, called the witness. So if you can get the watcher and the witness up above the surface monkey mind, and then you can detach or separate from the ego, the edging God out. So the four characters in the Leela to wrap up this spiritual thought is you got yourself, you got the others, you got God, and then you've got, Hey, it's my sister calling. And then you've got the, the, the ego or the devil. Right. And that's edging God out. So for me, there's three sources of joy, myself, God and others. And then there's a source of joy that's like, if it's easy now, it's probably going to hurt later, but if it's challenging now, it's probably going to bring me a lot of joy in the long run. So the easy things tend to be propped up by the ego or the devil, the really the quick money, the fast relationship, the low calorie cheap gas store snack. Those things tend to give you the immediate payoff, the high, the euphoric sense of like, Oh my God, this is so good. But the thing that's more challenging, like juicing the carrots first thing in the morning or giving your first hour of the day to your meditation practice or sitting down and Journaling when you're really angry and you just want to react to the other or you want to harm yourself, you know? The suicidal ideation the depression the self harm the all the feelings that's in the ego category. How can I get right with what's good? What's good about my friends? What's good about my family? What's good about myself? And make space for the dark. So that's those four characters in the play are how I true myself up to my spiritual practice. And every morning, you know, giving that first hour of the day to God, the guide of divinity, so that I can guarantee that the next 23 hours I get back are in service of whatever the message was in the meditation. Light the candle, it's a couple of ohms, wrap yourself in a blanket, sit upright, don't turn your phone on, bang your little gong, your little bells, ring your little bell, and don't look at your screen, first hour of the day, and then pen to paper, to try to capture what was the message. And then if I can live true to that message, and if I've been carrying my notebook around. If I forget the message, I can look it up, you know, And this morning's message was, um, bless them, those people in the world that upset me, the 57 wars on the planet, bless those people that are trying to, you know, be right about something. And God, just continue to give me that, the ability to change my own thinking so I can be a good person. And that was this morning's message was to just bless them change me. And that's what I would say, you know, is, is a practice again, practice, the theme, and writing. And giving that first hour of the day to whatever your spiritual connection is, whatever your guide of divinity, whatever your higher power, your ultimate consciousness, even if it's nature, go to the beach, go to the forest and be with whatever that is for you.

Robyn Cohen:

I am just bathing in this wisdom and these gems. They're so magical and yet so practical. I can, I can go and do everything that you just shared about. Um,

Boise:

if it's hard now, it's rewarding later, but the practices don't have to be hard. If the practice is hard, find a different practice. You know?

Robyn Cohen:

Yeah.

Boise:

That's great. And then build. Yeah, build. And you were brilliant last night. People don't know what I'm talking about, but I'll, I'll drop it in the comments or something last night. So many, so many questions about this constitution play that you put up or this piece. It's really a, it's really a piece, but how you got off book. You know, what you used as reference for your own, you know, replacement and the repetition of it. And the thing at the end is that part of the, is that part of it, or did you add that? Like what, uh, and I've already got, I'm, I'm trying to put together a bus from the West side to come to North Hollywood next weekend. Um, but it's really important that people remember that you have a choice. You don't have to be a victim and no one gets to say what you do with your body, regardless of what your passport says. So

Robyn Cohen:

thank you for thank you for that is so powerful and really getting, drilling down with what you just shared. No one gets to tell you. That's, uh, that's huge. It's why I'm doing the play. It's why I think I'm going to keep doing the play. It's why this may be the only play I ever do again.

Boise:

That's like, that's great. I love that you said that because we know you're going to do more, but it puts you all in, like you burn the boats like Vikings, right? You burn the boats, you're like, this is it.

Robyn Cohen:

I do. I want, I think, college campuses, just get it. I think there isn't a soul that won't find themselves somewhere, like in your play and like what you just shared, somewhere in this story. There's not a soul that's not gonna identify with some aspect, with some character, with some essence, with some teaching that they're not gonna learn from and experience and feel their shared humanity with. So thank you for, for reflecting that back about last night's show. And thank you for coming to the show. Thanks for showing up. That's another thing. Showing up. Showing up, showing up. So many great creatives and artists and geniuses and wizards like you, Boise, talk so much about. Just show up.

Boise:

And hey, look, it took me, it took me 55 minutes to drive to the play, right? That was hard. It took me 27 minutes to get home. That was easy. So again, to make the point of the practice was going to see you put up that brilliant piece. It took something to get there. And when I was there, I was like, Oh my God, this is so great. And the drive home, I was floating. So a perfect example of doing something that's challenging on the front end. the payoff on the back end is way better because it took something.

Robyn Cohen:

Yeah, that's it folks. There's your prescription from the to be Dr. Boise Thomas to be who is currently getting his PhD, his, his doctorate in Sedona. And, uh, so, so let me ask you this. Yeah. You're force of nature. I mean, it's so obvious. It's just coming through the pixels and in the energy and the, in the sound vibrations that you're making. We're all privy to it. What would, have you had a cataclysmic moment or two that has set you off, uh, in the direction of your life, of your created dreams come true. I mean, has there been a, a soul boom for you or a couple that have launched you in to becoming you. And if so, if you wanted to share any of those moments.

Boise:

Yeah. Soul boom. I mean, I'm pretty out about it because in the, in the 2020 book, you mentioned my book, How's Your Heart. Um, it's still not on Amazon yet. So like people like, how do I get it? Like, I don't know. You go to the website, you order it. And then I sign it. And it'll

Robyn Cohen:

be on the show notes. It'll be on the show notes as well. Of course, of course.

Boise:

I've been struggling to get it on Amazon because I'm a bit of a control freak and they keep wanting me to correct the margins and, and there's like artwork everywhere. So it, it bleeds every page goes into the bleed. And the, the AI computer robotic printing press is like, no, will not, I won't print this. It won't look right. But it doesn't understand like, that's how the book is. It goes off the page. So I haven't quite found out how to do that yet, but it's all in due time. It's fine. But in 2020, when I published the book, um, and, and, and got like a couple of thousand copies out in the world and sold them and signed them and all that stuff. Um, in that chapter 13 of that book, I talk about my, as you said, soul boom. I've never heard that phrase before. I love that. So the, my soul boom was, um, in, in January of 2017. I was real, I couldn't sleep. I was sleeping about four hours a day and it won't go deep into the details because it's in the book, but it didn't matter if I went to bed at eight, I woke up at midnight. If I went to bed at midnight, I woke up at four. If I went to bed at four, I woke up at eight, couldn't nap, couldn't get back to sleep. And every two hours I broke into a fit of hysterical sobbing and crying for 20 minutes. And the reason why I say it this way is because it was like clockwork. It was like a German train. It was like, you can count on it. And, and after about a week or two, I stopped sleeping in my bed and I was couch surfing and staying with friends. And at one point I actually started staying with my former wife who, we'd been divorced for four years. And I went and stayed with her for a couple of days because I had nowhere else to go. You know, I had nowhere else, Richard Geer, right? Officer and a Gentleman, like get out of my, Get out of my military, get out of my Marine Corps. He's like, I got nowhere else to go. Like I had nowhere else to go. And ultimately, uh, a woman I was seeing at the time gifted me an hour with her therapist. And I hadn't sat with a therapist for like a year or two. And the therapist at the end of the session, I was looking at the clock. I go, here we go... She's about to check in because we've got like a minute left. She goes, all right, so what do you want to do? I go, I don't know what to do. And she said, all right, well, the way I see it is you have three choices. You can go home and be alone. I said, no, I don't want to do that. She goes you can go find another friend. Go sit with them. I go, no, I don't want to do that either. She goes, or you can go to the hospital and check yourself in because you're so exhausted after three and a half weeks of this, that you're starting to have really negative thoughts. And the conversation that I kept having Robyn was, what's the point? What's the point? To any of this. And I'll tell you if you're out there and you've never had a depressed suicidal thought in your life, the last question you want to get in bed with with your ego is what's the point, because you will lose that conversation to your ego and you'll go looking for a gun, or you'll go looking for a great place to drive off the PCH into the ocean, or you'll think about hanging yourself. You'll think about how many pills do I have to take? And then you start Googling things. How would I do it? That's a very slippery slope. So when I started thinking about how would I actually end my own life? That was my sonic boom. And then I drove to the hospital that day. And I checked myself in to UCLA medical center in the emergency room. You know, there's nothing more humbling than filling out a clipboard. And it says on question seven, it says, why are you here at the emergency room today? And you write, I'm thinking of killing myself. So in all the spiritual, amazing, life coachy movies, music, poetry, wherever there's that moment where the hero, he or she, or they, or them says, I thought about ending my life. And then they have this epiphany like, Oh, not only is the idiot about to kill me, but the idiot's about to kill the guy that's taking his play to Broadway one day. And if this idiot gets his way, he's going to kill all three of us. The person I was, the person I am, and the person that the guide of divinity wants me to become. And in that moment in the hospital, that's when I realized I don't belong in an emergency room with a bunch of people having psychotic breaks in reality. I belong, um, in the world. I, I pulled a geographical, I traveled for two years and I wrote the book and it took me every day of those two years to write that book. But that was my sonic boom. And it's chapter 13 of How's Your Heart. And I don't pretend to give people a recipe for how to not kill yourself. But my hope in the book when people read it is that they get to preemptively experience their own Suicidal ideation because I ask people when I lead seminars when I do Panels when I host anything or whenever I'm in front of a group of people and it's appropriate I'll say to the people, I have a question, How many of you have thought about killing yourself? And the people that don't raise their hand I say, okay I just have to stop for a second because everyone whose hand is down, You're not being honest with me because I just asked you, have you ever thought about killing yourself? And even if you never have, you just had to think about it just to answer the question. So everyone's hand should go up. I'm not asking, are you depressed? Are you sad? Or do you want to publicly out yourself as somebody who grapples like I used to with crippling depression? I just spent weeks in my house with the blinds drawn. Not showering, not eating people, leaving food on my doorstep. So I know what that place is like. And I haven't had Robyn a suicidal thought knock on wood since probably, well, suicidal ideation to the point of like that kind of clinical depression since August of 2023. And the source of it is the writing because every day I wake up and I realize I can write myself into right action. I can right my mind. into being right. I can write myself, right the ship, right the car, you know, right the story. And the story that I want to finish when my time is done here is one where people say things like you've been so generous to say today that I got to impact stadiums full of people. And I don't believe I'm done yet. You know, and I lost 13 people in my life this year. My mom, couple mentors, people in my book, four of my favorite people all died within 150 days of each other this year. And then another eight or nine people shuffled off the mortal coil within 150 days and forced me to go become a death doula, which is a whole nother thing too end of life care, wrapping people in a shroud, oiling their body, sitting with the dead, not shipping them off to the mortuary so they can be pumped with chemicals or burned to ash, sitting with the dead for hours, sometimes days, and letting people grieve and mourn because most people have never seen a dead body. And I've seen a lot of dead bodies in the last couple of years. And that's where we're all headed, but not by my own hand, right? By the hand of, of the guide of divinity. So thanks for letting me go way out into the ethers there and then come back because a son, a soul boom is what I wish for everybody. I wish on your worst day, you asked the question, what's the point? And then you put pen to paper and create anything that's better than putting an end to your own life. And I know that it's a, it's, it's an epidemic out there right now, mental health, and it's only going to get worse. You know, it's not going to get cured overnight. It's not going to get cured alone with prescription or therapy. It's going to take, everyone's going to have to create their own ritual, but it begins with righting your mind. And, and writing, writing your mind. Get a good pen and a good journal. Yeah.

Robyn Cohen:

I'm

Boise:

Soul Boom! I love that!

Robyn Cohen:

Boom! It's Soul Boom! I, I believe it's the name of Rainn Wilson's podcast, Soul Boom. Oh, great! Love it! Um, and, Boise. This is, I am, uh, I'm, I don't wanna say overwhelmed because I'm absorbing. Well, you're very light,

Boise:

you're very, you're very bright. You're very light, so I know you know the darkness.

Robyn Cohen:

Yeah.

Boise:

Because you don't get to be this bright. You just don't get to be this a good driver until you have a couple of accidents. You don't get to be, you know, a very talented person until you fail a lot and experience a lot of, you know, failure is what success will give you, you know, really it's, it's the other side of success is you're just, you're someone who's failed more than anyone else. So I know, you know, the dark, because again, last night was, I watched somebody bring a group of 50 other people to life in 90 minutes and everybody, nobody wanted to go home. Nobody wanted to leave. You know, and that's the mark of somebody who's turning on their own light. So that you can see the light inside of you. So I get, you got a little, you know, paused there with, with like speaking, but it's because you know, that dark, you don't get to be that light without dark. So, yeah,

Robyn Cohen:

true, true. That true. That, and this is a very, um, thank you for that acknowledgement and reflection. And this is a. the wealth, the richness of this conversation is, uh, is really, again, unmatched. And I, for people that, this is very practical, but for listeners who are like, I don't have the energy to write, I can't write, I'm not going to, I don't have a pen, I don't have a journal. I'm in the middle of the woods. I, like, literally, what, is there another way that we can, is there another? A form in which we could write, do we, can we speak it out loud? Do we talk to God? I mean, for people that maybe they can't write, there's some impediment, whatever the case may be, if we can't actually take pen to paper, which I see, I feel isn't, it's invaluable. But if for some reason, there's something that that's the thing keeping us from getting over the wall, what, what can you offer those folks? In terms of, I'm not a writer, I don't want to wake up and write, I don't have time, you know,

Boise:

My, my mind went to, you said if they were out in the woods and they didn't have a pen or paper. Well, in the woods, there's two things you can find in the woods really easily. Leaves, And rocks. So maybe a leaf would be for like everything that's light in your life. Like, I love that. I woke up today, 89, 000 people die in their sleep every night. They think they're going to wake up tomorrow and they don't. So whenever I wake up, I'm like, I won the lottery. You know, it's, it's, it's very small odds that out of 8. 4 billion people, you're going to die in your sleep. It's like point 16 zeros. And then like one, eight seven or something. It's a very, very small percentage of people, 89, 000 people in 8. 4 billion. But for me, every time I wake up, the first thought I have is like, yes, I I'm, I'm back. I have another day. So that would be the leaf, light things that you could stack or collect. And then the rock would be something that's like a rock in your shoe, a pebble. It's heavy. It's hard. It's, it's, it's changing, but to our eye, molecularly, we can't see the change in a pebble or a rock, unless we looked at it in a river every day for 50 years, we'd see it shrink, right? But that's not how our brains work. So the pebbles, you can make a pile of pebbles for all the hard days and then a pile of leaves for all the light days, because that, that's the resource you have, you know, and then you could, you could Invite people, your whole village, say, Hey, let's make a pile of leaves. And every day at the end of the day, we'll look at the two piles, how many rocks, how many people had pebbles and how many people had a light leaf day. And then we can just say, okay, that was today. And then the next morning, you know, we sweep it all away and we start over because that's really all we got anyways, is the, is the next day to start over, but today's the only one we get, as far as we know, so that's what I would say to people that don't have the, the fancy stationery shop down the street where they can buy their three dollar pen, you know?

Robyn Cohen:

And, and in that vein, this, this methodology, this idea of rewriting your story. Can you say a little bit about that in the journaling process, whether that's with pen and paper or rocks and leaves? What is this about rewriting your own story? Like, how can people make that into like a, they could put that in their toolkit and actually whip it out. What does that look like?

Boise:

Well, you know, and the other thing, and again, because the book's not on Amazon and I'm not on a book tour. And even though I'm an author, and even though I made some music on Spotify, I don't consider myself a musician and I don't consider myself somebody who's pitching a book. But in my book, what I delve into with people is the, the sum of who you are is the previous two selves that has existed before who you are today and how I use those markers and I alluded to it earlier in the interview today was you look at the Fibonacci numbers. So the Fibonacci sequence, these numbers here at the top of this postcard. It's 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34. Those are the Fibonacci numbers and it's actually the Fibonacci sequence. And I believe that those numbers don't only exist in nature in a swirl, a seashell, your DNA, that we flush something down the toilet and you watch it do the spiral, the wave crashing, the tornado from space, whatever it is, right? You can mathematically extract any swirl you see in the world. And you can find those numbers. You can also find them in the, the leaves of a pine cone and the seeds inside of a sunflower. I haven't looked at this, uh, and, and counted, but this is, I always have an orchid on my desk. We talked about aliens, right? Actors and being, you know, I think green eyed people, I think we're from somewhere else. So, you know, good to see you. Good to see you again with my glasses on. All right. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. There's eight flowers on this. Okay. And there's three leaves. So that follows the rule of the Fibonacci sequence, eight and three. And in the middle, there's five in our bodies. One, two, three, it goes one, two, three, One is it's the sum of the previous two. That's all you got to remember. Okay. So Boise is, by

Robyn Cohen:

the way, for those listening, Boise is pointing to his fingers that's right. So if you type in construct

Boise:

human anatomy and you typed in Fibonacci sequence, human anatomy, your finger is the sum of the previous bone. So the tip of your finger is one, and then the middle part of your finger is one, and those two, one plus one equals two, which is the length of the next bone from your knuckle to the knuckle on your hand, and then that whole finger is the length of one, plus one, plus two is three. And that's from your knuckle to your wrist. And then that whole finger to your wrist goes to your ulna, which is your wrist to your elbow, and then that goes from your elbow to your shoulder. So 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 is the way the body is measured and it doesn't matter what your body type is. Everybody is different, but nobody is, is exempt from the Fibonacci sequence. So the part I want you to remember, if you remember any of this from today is: the sum of the previous two is how you get the number in the Fibonacci sequence. I'm 55 years old this year. I am the sum of who I was at 34 when I met you and who I was at 21, which is when I really kind of entered the world as an adult when I was done with college. And I went out into the world as a working sportscaster and a professional and a radio DJ, and then eventually an adventure tour guide. So if you want to go back, if you don't have leaves, you don't have rocks and you're not sure how to rewrite your story, to your question, go back and mine the gold of your past. No matter what age you are, go to the nearest Fibonacci sequence number below that age. So I'm 55. I happen to be right on at Fibonacci number, but up from age 35 to age 54, I looked back to who I was at 34 and who I was at 21. And those two versions of myself informed me. Who I was going to become and to hang in there and remember that it's going to get better. And in life, it gets worse before it gets better sometimes, let's be honest. But, you can find those numbers anywhere in nature. And they're my guide. Whenever I see one, one, two, three, five, eight, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and then into infinity, I know: 144 TV commercials. I lived in Venice for 21 years. I lived in my house for 13 years. I'm 55. So all those numbers this year showed me it's time for a big change. And even though it was hard to move out of my house and hard to lose those 13 people that died in my life this year, I saw it as a gift because the universe is conspiring in my favor and God does not want me to suffer. God wants me to find joy, but joy is available when we experience our suffering. And there's your Zen Buddhist principle of the day. Life is suffering, but suffering is optional. So find your joy, find your bliss, follow it, live your happiness. And if you're struggling, pick up the phone, find somebody who can listen and hear you out. So that's what I would say about that. Wow. And have an orchid on your desk. I don't work for the orchid industry, but I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. I love my orchids. Okay.

Robyn Cohen:

Okay. Wow. Thank you. This is like, uh, this is the treasure chest. We've all been sort of, it's like in Goonies. And they've got the map in Goonies, and then, there it is. And he's down there in Goonies, and they're in the caves, and he's like,"This is our time. Up there, it's their time." Because they want to stop. They're ready to stop the mission. But the young boy says,"Up there, it's their time. But it's our time down here. This is our time.""Willie, we got to do it. We got to get the gold!"

Boise:

I have a coin and on the coin one side says yes, and the other side says no. And if I really get stuck, I flip that coin because in zero space where gravity exists, if you flip a coin and you flip it over, God always will give you the answer that you want because God can make it turn one more time to make sure that you get your answer. So when in doubt, flip a coin, heads or tails.

Robyn Cohen:

I'm levitating with the power, uh, the joy, the, wisdom of this conversation. I'm vibrating with the truth of it. And, um, and I know you said, you know, this is not about your book, but your book, but this is, and every single soul who's listening in on this, um, wants to read Boise's book and, and share it with their friends and families and figure out a way, figure out a way to choose their lives and choose joy and write their stories and get up again and again and know that freedom and joy and full self expression and creativity are on the other side of that wall and more. So, okay, so, Boise, and we will put it in the show notes, but can, where can people listening in where can they find you? How can they get your book? Today? Uh, where can they find you in the world leading seminars, teaching? Your next plays? How do we stay in touch with you and deeply connected to you for the rest of our lives starting right now?

Boise:

Thank you. Well, um, you make me wanna give everyone my phone number, but let's start with, uh, website. The website's Boise thomas.com. Boise spelled like Idaho, B-O-I-S-E and pronounce Boise, and Thomas is my last name. So boise thomas.com. Um, there's Instagram, uh, Boise dot, Thomas or Boise, period. Thomas, um, Einstein's Meet Charlie Chaplin is the hashtag. You can find that on my website too. Um, how's your heart? Guide is the website for the book. Uh, that's also through Boise thomas. com. And, uh, you know, anywhere you type in Boise Thomas, you'll get all the little places where I live. And, you know, for the last several years, I've just been healing myself and hibernating. My word for 2025, and I celebrate my birthday as my new year. So every October 12th, I'm a Libra, that's my new year. So my year, my word for last year was practice. And my word on my birthday this year, just almost two months ago, you know, to date that the cast, you can pull that out if you want. But my word for the next year of my life, age 55, is visibility. And I'm making myself visible to the world after really hiding, healing, living in the shadow, not really coming out, you know, and now I'm, I'm making myself available to the world and saying, look, this is who I am. Take it or leave it. This is the story that God gave me to tell. I held the book and the pen and God did the rest. So as far as the Einstein/Chaplain story goes, that is going to take me as far as it takes me. I'm here to serve it. Like a parent serves a child or a human walks a dog or feeds a cat or holds a baby. I'm here to serve that being until it says, I don't need you anymore. And, uh, and until that ride is over, that's really what my life's about now. So Einstein's meet Charlie Chaplin, that's the hashtag online and boisethomas.Com is is really the home for all my things. And I just updated my website again in this last couple of weeks. So yeah, so it's current. Thanks Robyn. You're great.

Robyn Cohen:

I want to have a whole conversation about visibility and the messages that you have been no doubt receiving from the angels smiling down on you even now and Mom and your teachers and your guides, and I feel them raging through you. I would regret it,

Boise:

Robyn, if I didn't read this quote from my acting teacher, because I know countless people study with you in and out of your, your acting classes. The, the late, great Sal Romeo, of the friends and artists theater and the sidewalk theater in Burbank was my acting teacher, taught me Meisner, Stanislavski, the method, got me, you know, the white screen and close your eyes and meditate, like that guy brought me to the edge of the darkness of my life so that I could see my light and I, and I would regret it if I didn't read a quote from Sal Romeo who passed away six days after my mom. So the two of them are standing on my shoulders, whispering in my ears, telling me just keep going. We'll see you on the other side. Here's the quote from Sal. Okay. You ready? Yes. And you've said all of this in this, uh, in this beautiful hour we've spent together, but this is how Sal says it."I don't think there's a better tool in the world than repetition. The fluid exchange of emotion to learn how to listen and get your attention on the other where it belongs instead of on yourself." And that's, that's Salvatore Romeo. God bless his heart. And I love you, Sal. And I'll see you on the other side. And I know that he's with me because before he died, I didn't have a play. And when I went to his memorial, all I kept thinking is, I have to get this story out. And the day after his service, a friend of mine came over and said, well, you know, it's a play, right? It's three people in one room talking for an hour. I was like, Oh. And the rest is history. So thank you, Robyn.

Robyn Cohen:

so much. God bless you. What a, this, what a gorgeous, this is Sunday. We are, we are creating this episode with Boise on a Sunday, which, you know, is typically often thought of as God's day. And thank you for bringing the magic and the majesty and the power and the presence of divine love into this conversation and into the world. I love you so much. I appreciate you so much. And I can't wait for The next, and the next, forever. This is the kind of conversation. This is like the only kind of conversation I want to have.

Boise:

That's right.

Robyn Cohen:

To be continued.

Boise:

Yeah.

Robyn Cohen:

I can't say it any better than that. So we're going to sing it out. Thank you, Boise. Thank you. Thank you much, much love. So we completed the call and I'm just, I'm just, I'm going to put some show notes in and just some of the takeaways that are just right there: the power to choose that we stand in the crossroads and we can choose a leaf instead of a stone. We can also look at our lives and see the, monumental value, the worth that you are, that it's, it's time to stop robbing, robbing the world of that, of that beautiful gift, the treasure chest that is you. That in terms of our creativity, we can look to our own child like dreams and fantasies, and what did we want to do when we were just, you know, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old, and the world was our oyster, and the point of today is, it still is. It still is. The world is still your oyster every day, every moment you get to decide that it is. The, the practice and Boise was very clear. This is, you know, part of the title of this episode. Practice. The practice of I'm going to get up and whether if I have an hour, great, but if it's five minutes, I'm still going to get quiet and start to observe my thoughts and create that space and separation and mindfulness so that I can start to course correct and start to captain the ship of my day, by, you know, choosing the kinds of thoughts and ideas and what I want to believe in. So I loved all of that. There's so much more, uh, but what a beautiful conversation and exploration into what it is to be a human being with all of our troubles and our worries and our pains and regrets. But knowing that joy and freedom and self expression is on the other side of that wall, the ego. The edging God out. On the other side of that, if we can set the ego aside, glory, glory, glory be, hallelujah is available to you. So God bless you on this Sunday and on every day and every moment of the week. I'm with you. Let's go. Let's do this. Let's get after it because this is your time. This is your time. In every sense of the word, this really is our time. See you on the next ride. Bye bye. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Oh my goodness. What a heartfelt and motivating conversation. Boise just rocks. He's like a treasure chest of knowledge and inspiration. Just dropping gems wherever he goes. so enlightening. Speaking of light, as we look to the blazing bright creative horizon ahead, don't forget about the upcoming six week acting workshop starting January 28th. That's going to totally amplify these new found insights into actionable growth. whether you're ready to explore the online realm Or join us in person or work with me one on one, I love it all. It's all about enhancing your craft, your confidence, your creativity, and exploding what you can do with your God given gifts. Let 2025 be a cornerstone year for you becoming everything that you are. Just email me at Robyn, Robyn's with a Y, at cohenactingstudio.com or visit the website at www.cohenactingstudio.com. It's all in the show notes and let me know you want in, and then I'll save you a spot And for ongoing inspiration updates and a peek behind the scenes, feel free'cause it's free to follow me on Instagram.@RobynCohenActingStudio and join this luscious community of artists and humanitarians and let's keep this creative party going. Also as a token of appreciation grab a listen to my free audio guide, five proven ways to peace and power Designed to infuse your days with a sense of calm, strength, and equanimity. your journey is one of the most beautiful gifts you have to offer the world. So I invite you to share it courageously. Keep stoking that creative fire, pursuing your passions and letting your unique brilliance shine. The world awaits your luminous impact. Until next time, stay inspired, keep your eye on the prize and let's light it up together!