Mind Over Masculinity
Let’s stop asking men to "man up" and start asking how we can lift them up. After all, mental health is not just a women’s issue or a men’s issue—it’s a human issue.
Take the first step today. Talk, listen, and advocate. Together, we can make a difference.
Mind Over Masculinity
Breaking Free: From Medical Nightmare to Spiritual Liberation
Imagine carrying seven "incurable" conditions—bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, chronic migraines, arthritis—and being told by medical experts to accept a lifetime of pain and pills. Then imagine becoming completely free of all symptoms and medications within 14 months.
This episode features Baba Sham Sally, founder of Beyond Head Trash and the Inner Healer School, who shares the profound transformation that occurred when he discovered the power of present-moment awareness. After suffering for 38 years, Baba reveals how a simple meditation practice led him to a life-changing realization: "I have thoughts, but I'm not my thoughts." This single insight began a healing journey that left his neurologists completely puzzled.
What makes this conversation so powerful is how Baba dismantles our conventional approach to healing. Rather than trying to fix himself through endless treatments and medications, he learned to surrender to the innate intelligence within his body. "I never tried to heal myself," he explains, describing how true healing comes when we stop identifying with our conditions and connect to what he calls our "perfect spirit."
For men struggling with physical or emotional pain, this episode offers a radical perspective shift. Baba explains why sitting in silence might be the most courageous thing a man can do, and how a simple five-minute daily practice can create profound change. He shares practical techniques for separating from pain, trusting your inner guidance, and discovering who you are beyond your diagnosis.
Whether you're battling chronic conditions or simply feeling stuck in your mind and body, this conversation will challenge everything you've been taught about healing. Your body is listening to your beliefs every single day—are you ready to change the conversation?
Subscribe to Mind Over Masculinity for more conversations that explore what it truly means to heal, grow, and thrive as men in today's world.
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Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Mind Over Masculinity, the podcast where we strip away the noise, get real about the chaos inside our heads and explore what it actually means to heal, grow and thrive as men in today's world actually means to heal, grow and thrive as men in today's world. I'm your host, avik, and today's episode is something special Like. If you have ever felt crushed by a diagnosis, overwhelmed by the pain, or simply stuck in a body or the mind that felt like a battlefield, then this one's for you. So joining us is a powerhouse of healing and resilience baba sham sally.
Speaker 2:So welcome to the show hi avek, good to talk with you.
Speaker 1:It's a pleasure to be here lovely, lovely, great to connect with you. So, uh, before we start, I'd quickly love to introduce you to all of our listeners. Dear listeners, uh, baba sharm sally. For 38 years he lived what most world I mean, uh, most everyone call a kind of medical nightmare like bipolar disorder, multiple sclerosis, then chronic migraines, arthritis, you name it. It's there. So it's labeled as incurable by the system and told to accept a life of pain and the pills. But instead he choose peace, not the fluffy kind, but the gritty, the uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, the radical kind that comes from going within. So he's now disease, free of all the meds and walking around a cane, so without a cane. So he is the founder of beyond head trash and the inner healer school and vibrant soul society. So, with over 600 videos, two books and the tribe of over 20 000, he is a proof that diagnosis isn't the destiny, it's just a data. So I'll not take much of your time, dear listeners, let's jump in with ponarali pavashamshali.
Speaker 2:So, welcome again and so, yeah, pleasure to be here. Aveeck, yeah, I went through quite a bit, but you know my diagnosis did not define me after a while yes, exactly that is.
Speaker 1:that is what to learn from, for sure. Yeah, so I mean, uh, what I understand? Like you weren't actually battling the bipolar, so you were carrying a full stack of chronic conditions, so how did it impact your sense of identity? I mean, like, did you ever ask, like, who am I beyond this pain?
Speaker 2:No, I never was. When I was really sick, I never had that question of who am I? I was completely identified with my thoughts, my beliefs, my body. So it was always like I am bipolar, I have multiple sclerosis, I have arthritis, like I was really identified with my labels. I am a man, I am this age, you, you know. Whatever it was that label that was me, I was that. I didn't understand that. I was the aliveness of the body, the one who sees through the eyes exactly understood.
Speaker 1:So um like, uh, I mean, at that point did the shift happen. I mean, when you realize that I'm not my diagnosis, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the real shift happened when I found meditation, and through meditation I discovered I have thoughts, but I'm not my thoughts, and this was a huge realization for me. If I'm not my thoughts, then a huge realization for me. If I'm not my thoughts, then well, who am I? Even when I was dealing with bipolar and I was suicidal in my 20s, my psychiatrist never once said to me why are your thoughts true? Because he himself wasn't awakened to his deeper nature.
Speaker 2:He too was identified with his labels, his body, so as well, stepping away from the mind, the body, and to see that we're this, the aliveness of the body. And if this doesn't make sense to individuals, look at pictures of yourself through the ages. Look at you as a baby, a toddler, a young child, a teenager, a young adult. To where you are now, you had all these changing bodies, but where did you go? The real? You was the one who sees through the eyes, the one who is listening. But we're so identified that we are the body, but we're not that, because we have all these changing bodies, we can't be the body. We're the energy that animates the body, we're the divine intelligence that's having this experience exactly so.
Speaker 1:Like um, also like uh. That moment of separation I mean from being the illness to being the observer of it is so key for the healing. So I think a lot of our listeners need to hear this, that it's possible.
Speaker 2:Right, it is possible, because one of the things I tell individuals is I never try to heal myself. So you say I need to heal myself. The mind starts going into like how do I do this? And trying to figure things out. And it really takes a lot of effort trying to understand. Like, how can I heal this body? Well, the mind doesn't know how to heal the body. It really doesn't, it's just taking guesses. Oh, maybe this will help, maybe this will help, maybe this doctor will help, maybe this medicine will help.
Speaker 2:Well, the real answer is within us, that we are that divine intelligence connected to the infinite creator. And once we can let go of the mind as the source of truth to realize the true source of truth is within you, connected to all that is connected to the creator. All the answers are within you, but we're constantly taught to seek outside of ourselves. The answer's out here, someplace. Maybe it's in this medicine, maybe it's in this doctor, maybe it's in this book. Maybe it's in this doctor. Maybe it's in this book, maybe it's in this video.
Speaker 2:We need to put all this away and just say I am my answer and having that very simple practice of going within, like when I began meditation, it was five minutes a day. That was my practice. Even today, I only sit for 10 minutes and just to learn to be here in this moment, to center myself, just to understand that the real you, the essence, is always in this moment. The mind is rarely here, it's always dwelling in the past, looking back in the past or future, guessing. The mind doesn't like to be here to understand that you're sitting right now, your feet are on the floor, that you're listening, that you're aware of your sensations, that you are the awareness. So spiritual awakening is simply stepping away from the body and mind and realizing who we are. It's diving into that deeper truth that we are the aliveness that animates this body.
Speaker 1:Exactly so, like you found your way to the inner peace through meditation. So that's not usually a first go-to for guys that are dealing with a level of pain. So, uh, what made you take that leap?
Speaker 2:yeah, what take? What just took. The leap was for me was to understand that I simply read that meditation brings inner peace, and like I need inner peace. So there was really no leap. It was just being more curious that, oh, meditation, meditation brings inner peace, all right. So I need to meditate so I can have some inner peace.
Speaker 2:Because I was completely stressed out with life. I was completely overwhelmed because my health was in a continuous decline. Even though I had a team of six, seven doctors, my health was getting worse and worse and worse. Then I had this army of doctors, three neurologists, and my health was getting worse and worse that I had this army of doctors, three neurologists, and my health was getting worse and worse. I was taking more medicine. It was getting harder and harder to walk around, to function. So I just had this extreme stress and I just wanted to get rid of the stress. I just want to enter peace, no stress, I want to get away from the stress.
Speaker 2:And once I read that meditation creates inner peace, I'm like sign me up, let's do this, let's meditate. But I had no instructions on how to meditate, which was perfect for me as a bipolar with ocd tendencies, if you told me how to meditate. Oh, you're breathing, your posture, your hands, your affirmation, whatever it may be, your chant, and it's like none of that would have been helpful to me because it would have kept me locked into the mind. Am I saying this right? Am I breathing properly? Am I holding my hands properly? All that would have kept the mind engaged, and it's really about just learning to relax, that there's no instructions on how to relax, we just relax. We put everything aside, we relax and we sit quietly. That was my meditation practice and then, eventually, when the mind would start thinking, I would just come back to my feet, feeling myself sitting, and I was learning to be present. That's all meditation is. Is really a skilled relaxation process of staying present amazing, so like um.
Speaker 1:So I mean, did you, did you face doubt or resistance, like from your yourself or others? So when you choose a more spiritual path to the healing, yeah.
Speaker 2:So when I chose the path for healing, I didn't even know I was choosing the path for healing. I was listening to myself that, oh, I need to do yoga now. So I signed up for yoga. After I heard that, you know, the big shift for me was realizing that it wasn't my thoughts. But then I was asking well, if I'm not my thoughts, who am I? And then I heard a voice say perfect spirit. I'm like that's it. My spirit is perfect, your spirit is perfect. The audience listening has a perfect spirit as well. That's always illuminating our path, that's always guiding us.
Speaker 2:But the mind is interfering, because the mind thinks it knows best and the mind's primary function is to keep you safe If you're diving into an unknown area, that is unsafe to the mind. So it doesn't like those changes. So we'll resist that. But once I heard that voice perfect spirit I just trusted either this voice, this knowing, and I just followed. So when it said to do yoga, I did yoga. And when I did yoga, it was very difficult because my mind had all those excuses that you have no balance, you're not flexible. But I didn't listen to that, I just trusted it. I'm meant to do yoga. And six months of doing yoga, no more came. You know my balance was coming back online because the spirit within me, within all, knows our way forward. Even though your mind is protesting and resisting, we have to learn to surrender that deeper essence and realizing I have the light within me. It's guiding me on my path. That's unique to you because you inhabit this body, you know what the body needs to heal, to recover, to come back into harmony.
Speaker 1:Got it so like. I mean, society programs us to chase the external solutions, but there's nothing deeply masculine about the courage it takes to sit in silence and face yourself. That's the um warrior walk. I'd say yeah, so yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's very hard to face yourself, because there is a prison in philadelphia, you know, called eastern state penitentiary, and what they discovered? They had their prisoners in self-isolation. They were just by themselves all day long. And they discovered, they had their prisoners in self-isolation, they were just by themselves all day long and they went insane. They went crazy Because they didn't know that this had all this mind chatter and they would actually go crazy. So that's why we suggest individuals who start with a small practice three, four, five minutes so when the mind starts getting chatty, you just come to be in present. When you can no longer bring yourself back to your presence, you get up and you do something different. Otherwise you're making the mental story stronger and stronger and stronger and you will go true very true.
Speaker 1:So um, I mean also, you say a diagnosis is information, not the destiny. That's a bold mindset shift. So how do you help others truly believe that when the symptoms feel so real?
Speaker 2:all really, yeah. So the first thing I do with individuals is really get them to experience who they are. So I'll leave them through a simple meditation and get them to deeply, deeply relax. And I'm not saying this relaxed person is you that doesn't have the stress, the worry, the anxiety, the fears, because all that's in the mind, the mind has as a story, expectations, demands. But once we remember that we are the relaxed individual, the peace and just having that direct experience and when I get people into this direct experience it's rather interesting.
Speaker 2:They could be in a high level of pain but when they're really relaxed, returning home to who they are, their pain diminishes. So I've seen this quite a bit. People can be in extreme pain and when we do this little process in five, 10 minutes, that eight level pain, seven level pain, is like a two or three, because there's no mind interference of giving that fuel and I call it the pain body. So we just need to relax into our true self and the pain may drop away if it's rooted in the pain body. So that's where I help individuals is come back into this moment, because all your power is here and all the spiritual teachers will tell you all your power is in this moment, but we're too busy seeking and searching for the answer already within us exactly so uh, okay and uh so.
Speaker 1:Was there a moment when your body actually started responding like uh, holy shit, this is working, working moment?
Speaker 2:yeah, so, yeah. So there was never, because once I heard that voice, it's a perfect spirit. I had a knowing. Then all my health challenges were over. So there was no like. I just understood that the body needed to recover Once I heard that voice. So it wasn't like, oh, this is working. It's like, oh, the body is recovering. And I just noticed the body was getting better and better and better.
Speaker 2:The more I was just being in this moment, winding down my medications, getting off the cane, all these things I needed to do for my seven diagnosis that were defining me was just like, um, it was just just looking back. You know, the 14 months is like wow, because my whole journey was about 14 months for the body to fully recover. And even so, my neurologist at the last end and I had all the testing, all the blood work and my gans were clean. My blood work was clean. He did a physical physical exam and he saw a nonspecific hand tremor that everyone has and he was completely puzzled because he was in the medical system. He wasn't a spiritual, awakened individual. It was just like, okay, well, how did this happen? And he questioned me for 45 minutes trying to understand what I did, and I basically just said, I just listened to myself, I just trusted that I needed to do yoga, I needed to drink more water, less TV, less meat, and I just had these insights and I would just follow that, like, we all have these insights on the diet that we should be eating, but the mind will have other ideas because the mind wants the addiction to sugar or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:That's not good for us. The mind's addicted to that. But we know naturally within us the diets we need to eat, the exercise that we need. But the mind is always seeking out that pleasure and avoiding ourself and the difficulty of life. Pleasure and avoiding ourself and the difficulty of life. It's escaping into the pleasure of the sweets, the TV. That's not helpful. Not taking walks, because whatever reason the mind's giving that the weather's not right or whatever the mind story is that's preventing you from taking that walk or going to the gym or doing that yoga class or Pilates class or taking that meditation, because the mind thinks that's too much work, it's too difficult and it doesn't want to give up the routines. The mind likes the familiar.
Speaker 1:Exactly Lovely. So I mean, definitely our minds are powerful, but hearing stories like yours reminds us that our bodies are listening to our beliefs every single day, so that's very important, yeah and uh. So so you have. You have now got this incredible platform like two books, a school, a podcast, thousands of followers. So what drives you to keep showing up and sharing a story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because in my own personal life I suffered for 38 years and I'm seeing lots of people that are suffering. And you don't need to suffer. I nearly took my life twice because of that mind. And that's where we need to go, beyond the mind, beyond the head trash which is. The head trash is all those negative stories that we're not good enough, we're not worthy, we're not deserving, we don't have the right skills, we're not the right sex, I'm in the wrong country, and the mind has a thousand and one stories that are not true, that are creating a limitation. So it's really about to help people get away from that suffering, to live a life that is happy and joyful, regardless of what's happening in life, regardless of what's happening in the body, our circumstances. None of that has to define us. It's finding that place of joy within us and from the place of joy, life changes, life comes more into balance and we just enjoy life for the enjoyment of life, without a story to define how life should be.
Speaker 1:Is there still healing happening for you today, even after the symptoms are gone?
Speaker 2:Well, the body recovered from all those diseases, but we remind individuals that, even though we're spirit, the body will still malfunction at times. You know there's been many spiritual teachers that had a stroke, a heart attack, other issues, because things happen in the body. That's what the body does. It malfunctions over time if we don't take care of it. Even if we do all the right things, the body can still malfunction. You can walk across the street and get hit by a car. You know there's all sorts of things that happen.
Speaker 2:So once we know who we are, though, healing happens quicker, because we're not defined by the body being sick, injured, whatever it may be. We don't have a story with it. We just know that, whatever the body's facing, it all begins with me. All healing starts with you. That deeper essence so yes, that's what I'm doing with this inner healing school is yeah, we're looking at your current health challenges, but then I want you to learn how to tap into your own healing strength, because life happens, you're going to get sick sometime in your life, you're going to have an injury, but you'll have the skills that when this occurs because it will occur you will know how to face it. You won't be defined by it. You're like, oh okay, the body is doing this right now, the mind's doing this, we know how to correct it. You're like, oh okay, the body is doing this right now, the mind's doing this, we know how to correct it and we just trust ourselves so, uh, like, uh, I mean differently.
Speaker 1:It's a secret sauce for sure, healing is interdestination, it's a relationship and with yourself, your purpose and, uh, the people you are meant to serve. So, yeah, definitely. And uh, some people hear your story and think that that's amazing, but it could never happen to me. So what do you say to those skeptics?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's always skeptics. 90% of the people don't believe I could heal myself and they still are in doubt that I was misdiagnosed and all these stories. It doesn't really matter. It's just really to understand that you are spirit. Until you realize you are spirit, you are going to be defined by the society and the mind and whatever your belief system is will be your reality. So if you're convinced that you cannot heal, that you can never have a joyful, happy life, that will be your reality. So it's finding that natural joy within you, regardless of the situation, what's going on in the body, because once you come into spirit, things do fall into balance. It's not my job to convince somebody. They can hear my story, they can follow me or not, and I understand where they were.
Speaker 2:I had to have an experience to shift me out of that reality because I was a 38 year old, sick and disabled, so I was a couch potato, used to watch a lot of tv but used to watch ghost hunting shows. Then I went on a ghost hunt and then I had a paranormal experience that caused me to shift my reality, to see life differently. I felt someone sit next to me that wasn't actually there. So I had that ghost experience of like, oh, spirits are real and that curiosity, like, okay, what is the spiritual world here? What is the spirit which led me to read a book from a medium, which led me to meditation, which led me to getting out of the mind, which led to healing, was having that. I needed that direct experience and some of the teachers will talk about this, that we need a quantum shift of our perspective, the shift into a new reality. So for 38 years I was completely trapped in the doctors, medicine, the diagnosis, that was my reality. There was no way out of it. I had to go in that ghost hunt to have that experience, then question that experience. So I needed that quantum shift.
Speaker 2:But most people are stuck in that until they have that quantum experience and to be curious about it, nothing will shift. And a lot of those individuals are having those experiences but they're dismissing them like oh, why'd the radio kick on? Why am I hearing this song? You know universe is trying to get your attention we don't be aware of. So notice your radio plays a certain song. Or out of nowhere you see something that doesn't make sense. You need to dive in and be curious, because without curiosity it's really hard to make a change exactly lovely.
Speaker 1:So, uh, and what's the first small step that you would recommend to a man who's stuck physically, mentally or emotionally?
Speaker 2:if you're feeling stuck, you have to just learn to sit quietly. You can do like a mindfulness practice when you're just sitting relaxing. Just look around at the room. Notice when your mind gets into the story. Just notice I'm sitting, my feet are on the floor, having a really stressful, difficult day. Just focus on your feet on the floor, just sitting relaxing. Just focus on your feet on the floor, just sitting relaxing. You'll notice the stress start to diminish because stress is being fed by your thoughts.
Speaker 2:If you keep rehashing the same day over and over again, you're going to get more and more stressed from the difficult day. But if you just learn to be here, relaxing and keeping yourself present like my feet are on the floor, my wife is wearing a red shirt you're just noticing what's going on around you you'll naturally settle down because we're either in the thoughts or we're here in this moment. So the simplest practice is just learn to be here in this moment, to notice that you're sitting your feet on the floor. When the mind starts rehashing the day, which it does our future guests, we just come back. I'm sitting with my feet on the floor exactly lovely, lovely, that's really great.
Speaker 1:So, um, I mean, your journey is. Journey isn't just inspiring, it's actually liberating. And also you remind us that, no matter what the chart says, like what the doctors say, I mean what society says we are not broken, so we are not stuck, we are not doomed. So, to every man who is listening or maybe you'll be listening if you are carrying the weight of diagnosis or feel trapped in your mind or body, take this episode as a sign. So you're not your pain, you are the power that transcends it. So check out Baba Shams in a healer school, dive into his YouTube and podcast and follow his work with the Vibrant Soul Society and you will find tools, truth and the transformation. So, until next time, this is your host, aviksa, reminding you that healing isn't about being tough, it's about being true. So keep rising, brothers, peace. So have a great day.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Vivek.
