HemoLife Podcast
Welcome to the HemoLife Podcast, where we explore how to live an elite life while managing a bleeding disorder or other rare conditions. Dive into educational, entertaining content with stories of high achievers, expert advice on mental health, nutrition, and exercise, and the latest relevant news to elevate your mind, body, and soul.
HemoLife Podcast
Breaking the Habit: Rewiring Your Brain for a Better Life with Hemophilia
Breaking free from limiting beliefs could be the most powerful treatment you never knew existed for chronic conditions like hemophilia. In this deeply personal exploration, host Elia Aguayo and his guest Jay dive into Dr. Joe Dispenza's transformative approach from "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself," revealing how our thoughts literally program our reality and our physical health.
The conversation takes a powerful turn when Elia shares his journey from being told what he couldn't do as a hemophiliac to becoming a competitive bodybuilder who now rivals the influencers he once thought were untouchable. This isn't just inspiration—it's a roadmap for anyone feeling trapped by their diagnosis.
We break down the seven-step process that can rewire your brain, from becoming aware of your negative thought patterns to creating new, empowering neural pathways. Jay explains the fascinating science behind how emotional states can literally reprogram genetic material, while Elia offers practical implementations like setting affirmation reminders on your phone and practicing 100% accountability for everything in your life.
Perhaps most compelling is their discussion about pain perception. Rather than accepting the "rules" about how we must respond to pain, they challenge listeners to question everything—including the notion that disability might be your only option. Through vulnerability, intentional practice, and persistent belief in your potential, you can transform not just your mindset but potentially your physical experience of chronic illness.
Ready to break the habit of being defined by your condition? Take their challenge: identify one limiting belief, create a trigger awareness for when it arises, reject it, and replace it with a thought that moves you closer to the person you want to become. Your brain has more power than you think—it's time to use it.
Thanks for tuning into the HemoLife Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs a spark of hope or encouragement. Follow us on Instagram @HemoLife_Podcast and YouTube for updates, guest highlights, and behind-the-scenes content. New episodes drop regularly—your story matters, and this is just the beginning.
Welcome to the Hemolife podcast your gateway to transformation and empowerment. Hosted by Elia Aguayo, we're diving deep into the world of rare disorders, unlocking the full spectrum of your potential. Each episode, join us as we connect with pioneers, wellness experts and true survivors. They're here to share powerful stories and invaluable insights, from mental resilience to physical health, community news to life-altering strategies. At Hemolife, we provide the tools you need to excel and inspire, prepare to elevate your life, learn, laugh and grow with us. Let's embark on this journey together.
Speaker 2:I just got back from HFA. It was really fun, man. I got to meet so many really cool people and a lot of people went up to me and said that they listened to the podcast and it was super encouraging because we just started. That's so cool, right, yeah, so, yeah, so I mean I like I told you I was on the phone.
Speaker 2:I was on the phone one time and I was just walking from one hallway to the next and I had four people that I've never met and they were just telling me encouraging things I've had. You know, I went to the bar and the hotel Guys were talking to me there. So I know that this project's going to be super meaningful to everyone and I'm just super excited because, you know, the early stage is kind of hard. I wanted to release it and just kind of tell people, give people like a prelude of what's to come. So really we haven't dug into what the show is really going to be like in the future, but it's going to get better and better. Hopefully we can get all these technology things squared away. And yeah, one guy actually his his name is Rocco, I believe, and he he's an older guy I wanted in the older generation and he brought up a good topic which was being on disability, because I know a lot of hemophiliacs consider going on disability at a certain point in their life and there's so many hurdles with that. And he said that usually you get denied your first time and you know sometimes you have to get a lawyer and then there's limits on what you can make. But there's other stipulations with that too, and you know, I've heard for me personally, I went through a time frame in my life where I thought that I was going to have to go down that route, because there was times I couldn't get out of bed and I was just emotionally, mentally, physically, just drained and thought I couldn't do anything. And but then there was something inside of me that was like man, can you live with yourself? And saying that you know, this is all you're capable of. And I think the book review that we're going to do today actually kind of jumps on those points. You know, because a lot of those guys maybe they think this is all incapable of. So hopefully we can break some of those limiting beliefs that people have and maybe inspire them and give them real actionable things to make some changes. We don't grow until we change. Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, hopefully you can join me one day on one of those conferences you know had, I know the next one.
Speaker 2:The next one coming up is the coalition for hemophilia b. But you're not a b, you're an a, correct? Yeah? So you're not part of the cool kid group, unfortunately. I mean, they don't make you prove it. Maybe we can just say hey, you know, yeah, he's a b, he's a b, he's a b, you're a b in my book. We're getting in trouble now, oh man, but yeah, condition, the same blades, exactly what's the difference?
Speaker 3:really come on. Why don't we're?
Speaker 2:getting in trouble now, oh man, but yeah, jay Condition, the same blades, exactly. What's the difference really? Come on, why don't we just all shake hands and come together? You know we don't really need to be segregated. That's funny, well, yeah, so go ahead. I'm not sure what the last recording caught, so why don't you just tell everybody the book that we're going to review, review why you're passionate about it and what people might be able to take away after they hear us talk about it in a little bit?
Speaker 3:The book we're going to review is called Breaking the Habit of being Yourself by Dr Joe Dispenza. Essentially, this entire book is written to help you change yourself and you think about who yourself is. And you're actually a program set of 60 000 thoughts. You think every single day which most of those thoughts are not true, but essentially, subconsciously, all of these thoughts are programming you to a sense of a normal sense of life which is just seems to be a lot of stress. So the whole point of this book is to analyze that stress and emotionally change the way you react to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and just kind of getting rid of those limiting beliefs, those preconditioned ways that we think of ourselves from the household we grew up in, the religion maybe our parents brought us up in the school that we went to. There's so many different elements that go into what makes up a person and creates their beliefs. But, like we were talking about hemophilia, wise, right off the bat we're set with the limiting belief no, you cannot do this. No, you cannot play sports. No, you cannot do these physical activities. And then that creates a downward spiral that affects us forever.
Speaker 2:And then eventually we get to these positions, like we were talking about disability, where we're like hey, this is my best option, but we only get one life to live. We get one life, and do you really want to settle saying this is my life, my life is disability? No, man, we all have this creative energy, this the spirit inside of us, this purpose, and we have the courage to let it come out. But yeah, so what's really cool about this book is it ultimately breaks everything down to seven steps, and those seven steps are it's going to be what we talk about today and then give a personal experience about our own lives, our own stories and actually how to implement these steps on a daily basis. Percent of our reactions are repeated. I thought that was a really cool statistic too.
Speaker 3:Throughout the book but yeah, so let's essentially not changing at all if we're all doing the same, the same thing we're, we're in that same loop every single day. Yeah, yeah so how do we break that? There's no way we can change Right yeah.
Speaker 2:So one of the yeah, I was just saying like. So one of the first things that we have to do is we have to address those thoughts and we have to become aware of them and we have to understand the power of our brain, based off of what this book was saying and you know like well, I think we underestimate how powerful our brains are and you know, if we can take quiet, quiet time throughout our day, become super aware of these thoughts that we have, then that's the first step to changing. What are some things that you do to kind of find that quiet time, that quiet space? Is there a certain place that you go to on? What kind of practices you do to kind of really hone in on those thoughts, those things that you want to change?
Speaker 3:essentially, breathing exercises and daily mad meditation allows me to essentially just cut everything out you know 60 000 thoughts. It allows me to shut them all off and just start to begin to create the thoughts, feelings and the emotions that I do want to feel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because essentially we all know stress is not good for our health, but yet we live in a constant state of stress every single day yeah I just say that you know, if, if, if stress is powerful enough to make you sick and break down your genes, that one you can break the negative habits that you do have and just physically change how this reality works for you, based on how you're being.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like one of the first steps you know they say it's induction. So it's, you know, addressing those thoughts, sitting in a quiet place. Become aware and remember how those thoughts made you feel. So maybe for a hemophiliac it could be they have a bleed and then their first thought could be lots of different things. It could be why me, my life sucks, I'm like the whole victim mentality, and then that right there could take you down a bad hole. So that could be one of the first things, first thoughts that you address is like hey, but you have to become aware, so I'd be like man. Every time I get a bleed I'm saying this to myself, I hear these words in my head. So make that your first example. You know, essentially I can make that the first example, so you can take that thought and then sit down and be like you know what. I don't want to feel that way anymore. I don't want to feel like a victim anymore and I want to get rid of that thought. So that's that's. The first step is induction.
Speaker 3:Where's? Where's the magical rule or law that says you have to react to pain in a specific way? Exactly?
Speaker 2:That's great. That's actually a really good point.
Speaker 3:You have to react to it how they want you to react to it. You know, I've just changed how I react to pain, where I just feel left. But there's no rule saying saying I can't. I mean, well, I guess there's so bad.
Speaker 2:There's nerves in your body that say this freaking hurts, it's like I don't like the way this feels.
Speaker 2:I get it, you're talking some high level ninja shit. Now, jay, you're already going way above our head, man. But it's true, though it is super true, what you're saying. I mean, I'm trying to like break it down as much as I can into elementary levels, but you're so right on that, because I remember, whenever I was going through so much pain with my ankles, I could not work out, couldn't go to work anything.
Speaker 2:I literally got to that point where I was like changing my own thoughts on how, each step, every single step that I took, I would feel that excruciating pain, and I just started changing my thoughts and allowing myself to be like. You know what, this pain's not going away, it's not going anywhere, but I'm going to change the way I approach it, and I started, you know, that's when I got really hard into the gym and I started, even though my ankles hurt, I did cardio anyway, and I I did in kind of a really weird psychotic way. I told myself I like this, I like it's okay, this pain, it's okay, I don't care. You know, like. And it's. The crazy part, though, is is you do start changing your perspective and your outlook on pain and you just it's almost like an acceptance. You just say you know what, I don't care, I'm going to be in pain, but I'm still going to chase my dreams, I'm still going to live the life that I was meant to live. And because I used exercise in that mindset, I got to a point where I started building muscles around those joints. I started walking better.
Speaker 2:It's huge, man. It's just all these points that we're going to go through. It's just so crazy how simple maybe it sounds at times, but how big of a difference it really makes in your life. These little bitty things and that's what I want people to see is that it's not these major steps that you have to take these major actions. And anyone can implement these. You don't need money, you don't need a special resource. You just need your brain, what's inside of your head, and understand the power of that, so that you can manipulate it and craft your own life, become the author of your own life again.
Speaker 3:It's your brain and your awareness. How much of this world takes your attention away from you? You know we got this. You know there's sports, celebrities, stress at work, just stuff. How much of your attention is just off of you and on stress, on stuff that doesn't doesn't even matter at all? Yeah, you take that attention, put a bag like on you, you can begin to change things. But if you, if you're not aware of it, you just don't pay attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so first, so first step first step be aware, be aware of the power of your brain, be aware of these thoughts, understand the narrative that you're speaking to yourself in your head and then, one at a time, start addressing those. So recognizing was step number two. It's noticing your emotions, your states and your reactions, and once they become visible to you, then that's when you can start implementing the change. So it goes beyond hemophilia. Obviously. It could be how you react to your partner in certain scenarios, or your partner pisses you off. Okay, all of a sudden you, you react in a way that maybe isn't a part of the values that you want to hold yourself to, the standards that you want to hold yourself to. It's be super aware of those moments and then, if it becomes a pattern, then you address it. You address that pattern and it's going to take intentionality, but it doesn't take as long as people might think. You know just daily practice for a month and all of a sudden, that daily practice is going to turn into just a natural behavior and then you don't have to fight that anymore. So, kind of like, pick one battle at a time, the one that gets you the most. Address the dark side. You know, maybe it's a dark side.
Speaker 2:That used to be the case for me. I used to have bad anger issues because of hemophilia. I had to address it and say you know what, maybe I am this way because of my environment, how I grew up, my lack of support, my, my lack of family system, that I had, their education, everything it all played a role in it. But when I became an adult and wanted to take my life back, I couldn't just suppress the dark side and suppress that monster. I had to say no, I'm going to put you right in front of me, right on the table, and we're going to figure out what this root cause was and I'm going to change that behavior and then you're no longer part of my life. I know that I've changed so much. I feel like I worked so hard and I became so intentional of changing. I need to reintroduce myself to people every six months. Hey, I'm LA Aguayo, you don't know me.
Speaker 3:No dude.
Speaker 2:I've known you since you were a kid man. You used to be this little asshole, this little shit kid. You did this and this. You got into fights you, whatever. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't even know that guy. Hi, I'm LA. This is the new. This is the new me. And the thing is about. The hard part is is that everyone else that knows you from the past, they're going to want to keep you right there in that bubble. That's it they're. They don't. They're not open for change. But once you become more intelligent, more understanding, people can change. It just takes a lot of intentionality and actions.
Speaker 3:And that's where people don't like to change much, because it's not instant gratification, it takes time, it takes work. People want it now.
Speaker 2:I hear it all the time and one of my rules of thumb is that I don't participate in that kind of speech, that kind of talk when I went to HFA. I'm talking to all these people and everyone has an opinion about somebody. People have an opinion about me Anytime somebody tries to give me a bad opinion about somebody else. Because I know the capabilities of the human brain and behavioral change, I don't participate in that. I'm not going to encourage that kind of behavior. You know they'll be like oh, this guy man, he's no good man. He's always doing this. I think about the positive. Okay, cool, how can I be a leader in his life? How can I be a mentor in that person's life? How could I personally accept him? And then that'll be the change that he needs. We need more people out in this world who are accepting of growth, of human growth. We all are going to make mistakes If we start undigging all the skeletons in your closet.
Speaker 3:You're not going to like it either.
Speaker 2:Some people put themselves out there more than that, but sometimes the people that look the most respectable in the community behind closed doors you don't know who they are and vulnerability is one of those steps you know that we're going to be talking about. So the second step, it says, you know, recognizing.
Speaker 3:we talked about that third step admitting and declaring so being vulnerable right there the word vulnerable, open to change, and just kind of start forming a new image of who you want to be admitting to yourself of what you have moved down, you know the bullshit of what you have been, and just trying to emotionally decide and change to who you want you want to be and just work every day towards energetically thinking like that person would, acting like that person would, reacting how that per person would like, like a new habit, and eventually you'll be that new person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you have to. If you can't accept what you've done, if you can't be real with yourself, you'll never change, you know. So I just just go ahead and just put it, put it out there. One big thing for me that I've learned throughout my journey of change self-development, you know, leadership, development was accountability, and I forgot where I learned it, but it was all about taking 100% accountability for everything and like making that a practice. I remember practicing that for at least three months. So basically, let's say, they shut off your electric, you know, or you know, something happens, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Maybe you get hit by a car or something and it's somebody else's fault, but it's. It sounds kind of wild, but it's like a practice. You take accountability for everything. Your wife forgets something. You take accountability in that your kids mess up. You take accountability in that it's a practice and it's crazy what that will do for your life because you start to take back control. Okay, well, maybe the electricity did get shut off. Well, I wonder what I could have done to prevent that, you know, I wonder if maybe it was something that I did. I wonder if you know, I could have messed up whatever. I don't know the exact analogy to use right now, or maybe you're like you said your wife forget something. Well, I wonder if maybe I could have done a better job of reminding her. You know, I guess I guess I could have wrote a note or something that's. Instead of like constantly putting something on everyone else, practice you taking 100 accountability and see how your life changes for that you know once, once you experience that, your mind's going to be like what?
Speaker 3:no, you know, your mind's gonna, yeah, automatically be toward, be moved towards, stress and you're going to start to think more stress, stressful things, feel, more stressful shit, just make your mind worse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I love that. And then step four, which we both really loved when we were reviewing the book, was surrendering. So you must let go of everything you know and be open to new ideas. So I mean, there's just so much with that. I mean it's basically just understanding, I guess, the potential of the brain and what your thoughts can do, and the way you were raised, the environment, everything, the religion that you know, everything. What if you had the opportunity to choose all of that? So you just let it all go, Just say I'm going to let it all go. Everything I was taught, learned, my preconceived conceptions on anything, it's gone. And from this moment forward, I'm going to surrender all of my learnings and be open 100% to some new ideas.
Speaker 3:You have to be because, essentially, everything that we learn, we're essentially not allowed to question it, we're just told to learn it. This is what it is, so just blindly accept what it is. You can do only one sense of the world around you when there's so much to see, so much to think, so much to experience. You can't actually experience based on this one perceived set you've been given to see the world with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, question, do the opposite of what we were taught. Question everything, everything, and see where your mind goes. See what you start to learn. One thing that I think of right now was my parents got a divorce early on. My dad had new children, so I have brothers, and my mom didn't put us into any specific religion, but on my dad's side they were all Jehovah's Witness, and if you know anything about Jehovah's Witness at all, they have very, very strong beliefs and very different beliefs, and we would have all these conversations with each other about who was right, who was wrong. Well, based off of everything that we're talking about, of course, everything they say is going to be correct. That's what they've learned.
Speaker 2:But I try to tell them, like what would have happened if they would have made you a Buddhist, lutheran, catholic, and we would have the same fight and you would be correct, no matter what it was. You would be correct in your mind and I would tell them I'm actually kind of blessed. I feel blessed in a way, where I wasn't taught to be a certain way and I actually went on my own journey where I experimented with a lot of different religions and I wanted to see what truly connected with me, connected with my heart and what were my own beliefs. So in a way, my lack of structure that I had growing up gave me the ability to find myself, even though it was a lot harder and I'm not really saying there's anything bad with structure. But all these things do give us a fixed mindset on how things are, and I just believe that one part of the adult journey is to question everything and see where it goes.
Speaker 3:If we don't question things. We're just left to what we're told, and we've experienced in this world now a lot of what we're told is just not true. So we're just being told how to see the world based on facts that are not facts, One perceived notion on how to perceive the world around us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So. After surrender, the next step would be observing and reminding so a lot of times. Once you like hone in on something that you want to change, hone in on a thought or behavior and you're working on it, take time each day to observe it and you know, see, recognize when your old self comes back, it's okay, right, like failure throughout this process is okay. You can just constantly be looking out for it. And then, after observing, it's kind of along the same lines as redirecting. So as soon as you observe those behaviors, it's totally okay and you just kind of redirect and kind of go back to the basic steps again. And those basic steps could be things like you were saying earlier, from daily meditating, focusing on your breathing, just really giving yourself some time, quiet place to be in, to hone in on if you're getting better or not. So that's totally part of the process right, right.
Speaker 3:Write down the thoughts you don't want, want to have in order to pay attention to what you're trying to change. You need to write down what you're trying to change. So when you think those things you like hey wait, I wrote down this morning I was gonna change that thought and then just write right then and there immediately change the way you react to it. To do that every single day and you will begin to essentially reprogram how you experience the world yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I talked to so many blood brothers and there's so many of them are out there struggling. They can't see the light at the end of the you know, can't see the light at the end of the tunnel and they don't know those first steps. And we're literally gonna those first steps and we're literally going to. It seems so simple. Right, we're just breaking it down, but it's being vulnerable, taking accountability, addressing the dark side, addressing these thoughts, addressing the negativity that you tell yourself every day, understanding that by not addressing it, you're digging yourself into a deeper hole. So I love this man.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is something so simple for people to follow and we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the things that we do on a daily basis, but the last step is creating and rehearsing. So making it a habit and that's kind of like what I want to get into more with you is some of your behavior, so I'm going to talk about mine too. But why don't you talk about some of the daily things, the daily steps and maybe your journey with finding control over your thoughts and making change? What does that look like for Jay?
Speaker 3:What that looks like for Jay. I think I explained before earlier on that I've always had a belief as a child that we have always had the ability or potential to achieve more than we've ever been told. I can't explain why I've had this thought. I've just had this innate thought we're meant for more than just what we're doing now. We're meant for more than just what we're you know. Go to work, come home, go to sleep. Repeat that until you die. So what that has turned into me is I have refused to believe the facts that I'm told and I just try to believe based on what I feel, based on what I have seen and also, with this book, based on new information that I have learned. Within this book it doesn't get into a bunch, but in one of his other books it actually gets into the science of how your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions can reprogram your genetic material. It's the most fascinating thing. So, essentially, the more you reprogram your emotional state, the better your health is going to get.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome. Love love, love, love love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, one of the big things too that stuck out to me was the limiting belief part, and you and I were talking about it earlier, about it takes one person to kind of change the limiting beliefs for everyone, and that's something that I personally have done with my bodybuilding career, and I remember 10 years ago when I was on social media documenting everything nobody posted hey, this is my name and I have hemophilia Right, it was like it was.
Speaker 2:It was like you. Everyone was ashamed of it during that time. That wasn't something that you put on a profile. It was like no, I don't want anyone to know about this. You know, I just hit a point where I stopped caring. I stopped caring about what other people were saying and I made myself vulnerable and that opened me up for for change. And we talked about the story of Roger Bannister. You know one of the first people to run a mile under four minutes, and everyone thought it was impossible, you just can't do it. And then in the Olympic games he went ahead and achieved that. And then right after him.
Speaker 2:A ton of other people started to achieve that, and so that's what I wanted to do with bodybuilding. You know, I I never thought bodybuilding would be my platform. It just honestly, it just happened. But it was an extreme enough thing that would gain attention. And that's what I realized and that's why I just kept on pushing, and pushing, and pushing. But I realized, man, I wanted to develop myself into becoming the guy that I wish I had in my life when I was a kid, because I didn't have anyone to look up to, I didn't have anyone pushing their limits, pushing their mind, pushing everything. And that's what this whole thing is about. Now I've gone on this 10-year journey and I truly believe that, with having a chronic disorder, you have to be elite. You have to be prepared to be an elite individual and ready to handle all these situations and, like today, we're breaking it down for people, because all this stuff, people do need to have the expectations that this is a long-term vision. It's not going to happen overnight. I know vision it's not going to happen overnight, but it's crazy If just doing these things for a couple of weeks at a time it'll you'll see some significant change that will make you
Speaker 2:begin to see it, you'd be like man. I'm a believer. One thing for me about my morning routine is, you know, I like to, I like to find a quiet split, a quiet space, you know. So I, first of all, I believe in morning routines. I believe that you need to prime your day in order to be ready for everything, in order to show up as your best. So I like to, you know, find a quiet space to reflect. And then I have a journal. I do love to journal a lot, and the first thing that I do is my gratitude list, and when I'm writing down everything that I'm grateful for for the day, I make sure to not just write it down but to say it out loud and then, after I say each one, to actually close my eyes and like, let it sink in. It's like today you know, I'm thankful for.
Speaker 2:I'm thankful for my job, I'm thankful for my family, thankful for this house, thankful for the clothes that I get to wear, I'm thankful for the food that I get to eat.
Speaker 2:But you know, if you speed through that, you miss that emotional connection that is really going to help help you. So take your time, read it out loud and then, as soon as I'm done with the gratitude list, I jump right into my values. I think going over this is super crucial every single day, because you never know what kind of situation you're going to encounter. You know it could be a fight with, you know, a friend or your spouse, or you get into a difficult situation where you have to solve a problem and if you're not primed mentally to handle that, then who knows where these conversations lead to and what outcome you get. But if you sit down and say, hey, this is the person that I am and this is the person I aspire to be, so my values are I'm a godly man, I'm ambitious. I'm the person I aspire to be, so my values are I'm a godly man, I'm ambitious, I'm loyal I'm focused, I'm driven, I'm a family man, I'm kind, I'm generous.
Speaker 2:Let all those sink in. And when these situations start to happen, you've already told yourself what kind of person you're going to be. You already told yourself how you're going to show up in this scenario. You're not going to just wake up and let the world show you how you're going to respond. You take control and say, no, this is the person I'm going to be, this is the way that I respond in this scenario.
Speaker 3:And then it's okay. Whatever you say, I am or I am not, you're setting it up. I think we talked the other day and you said whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right.
Speaker 2:You're absolutely correct, exactly, yeah, man.
Speaker 3:I love that stuff. When it comes down, you're talking about being persistent, being an elite. This journey of obtaining conscious control of my health has been hard. I've gotten insulted by friends, kicked out of a community I've known for a long, long time, but yet I've experienced things with this reality that tells me things aren't the way they actually were being told they are aren't the way they actually were being told they are.
Speaker 3:So I've just I've, I've, I've kept strong, kept persistent, learned, learned more, applied more, and I am where I am now and I can still concretely say hey, uh, what I'm doing is completely possible for anyone to, to to achieve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if you're, if you're someone who lacks self-confidence, going on this journey alone will create so much confidence, because who doesn't want more control in their life? Control on how you're going to react? I'm not going to let this person upset me today. I'm going to go to work today and this person does the same thing to me every single day and it pisses me off. Be ready for that. Tell yourself okay, this is going to happen, but I'm taking back control over my life. That Tell yourself okay, this is going to happen, but I'm taking back control over my life. My wife, man, my wife whenever I come home, she's going to say let's go get some ice cream. Okay, cool, you know that. Be ready for that. Remind yourself why you don't want to go. Do that Maybe just whatever.
Speaker 2:I could go down a whole rabbit hole and I'm not going to, but just, it's all about preparation and the confidence that you can have and taking back control of your thoughts.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, so the values and affirmations, I stopped doing them as much, but I know, whenever I was in my rock bottom timeframe is what I call it Whenever I was suffering a lot, whenever I didn't have that confidence, I started practicing affirmations, and I would actually have about five to 10, and you can do anything as far as putting them on your mirror. And I remember one time I created a poster, right, and I had all my affirmations on there, and then in the middle, I put a circle mirror in the middle of that poster and I hung it on my wall. And the goal was, or the idea was, that I look at myself, I look in my own eyes in that mirror while I'm reading off those affirmations. And you want to structure all those affirmations as if that is already you or if that is already accomplished, right, Like I am strong, I am capable, you know, I'm smart, I'm loving, I'm kind, I'm enough, you know, because you want sorry you.
Speaker 3:You want to set yourself aside from, I think, these things you know I'm going to achieve them to the new thought of I have already achieved them. You want your energy, your emotions to be that of it's already done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and we don't realize I mean all this energy, all these little bitty thoughts that seem like they don't mean much mean everything, and it's a frequency that you bring off into the world and the world reacts to the frequency that you are creating. So you have to change that, you know. So, after you know affirmations, you know I think that's a huge one. I the my last tip that I want to give people is that I actually set reminders in my phone and I was showing you that before we got on for the show, and those reminders go off three different times throughout the day.
Speaker 2:So utilize technology for your affirmations, set those things that you're working on and for me, especially within bodybuilding, sometimes you don't get the results that you want right away, and so I wrote down your efforts and energy will be rewarded. And at two o'clock every single day, boom, it goes off and I look at it and say, okay, yes, I, my efforts and energy will be rewarded one day, and it could take years, two, three, four years, five, 10, who knows. But just keep on saying that to yourself. That's taking control over a scenario instead of waiting for life to give you a reward so that it validates, you know your works. Remind yourself that play the long game.
Speaker 2:It's all about playing the long game in life. You know everyone, like you said earlier, everyone wants that short term gratification, what's the word?
Speaker 3:Is it?
Speaker 2:short term gratification. What's the term?
Speaker 3:Instant, instant, instant.
Speaker 2:Instant, instant. Everyone wants the instant gratification. What's the term?
Speaker 3:instant, instant, instant, instant everyone wants the instant gratification and and that's not what life's about, you know never has it's been you gotta put forth that work. You know, like, like, like you, you know, have you gotten to to your size by going to the gym for a week?
Speaker 2:no, and I? What's crazy is I remember years ago following all these influencers and just being like, wow, that's insane. I could never be that. You know at first, that's what you think sure I could never be that. But you know, I went on this journey already of, you know, taking control of my thoughts and I've competed with some of the best competitors in the world. Now, you know, and I and I'm sure people might look at me now and say, you know, I can't achieve that, so it's just, it's just wild man can't get that big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've even gone back and looked at those influencers and now compare myself to them. I'm like shit, I can take them you did it yeah. And there was this one mindset quote and it said work so hard that your idols become your rivals. Yes, I love that. I've heard that one. I love that. So don't just look at these people that you enjoy like. You can be that person. You know it's going to be your own version of it, but you can't.
Speaker 3:You can, you can be your full potential and it's as easy as it is hard. I mean, true, you know you, so you know your own shit, but how hard is it for you to get over your own shit? You're pre-conditioned into your own. You know your own shit for your whole life, so you've made you, so how hard will it be for you to get over you? Yeah, and that's how hard or easy, easy it is waiting in. When you're set to change, you're gonna change, but when you're not ready to change, you're still gonna. Can continue the same old loop, yeah, until you're prepped. So change, you're still going to continue the same old loop until you're prepped.
Speaker 2:So I challenge everyone to get rid of all the beliefs that you've had, open up your mind to something new and hone in on the person you want to be, and take it one at a time. So come up with one thing first and say you know what, like I do talk to myself like this, I do tell myself that I'm not enough, whatever, whatever that thought is, I don't know what your thought is. Find a quiet place tomorrow, when you wake up the next day. Find a quiet place, sit down, close your eyes, do some deep breathing and really listen to the thoughts that are coming across your head. Identify them, be vulnerable enough to accept those, bring them to light, start making a change, start saying I like to look at it as like a trigger moment. You know, make it a trigger.
Speaker 2:So as soon as that word happens, boom, a trigger goes off in your head and you go oh shoot, I told myself this one thing. So, but be ready, be ready for that trigger moment. So identify what you're working on first and then, when that trigger happens, have your defense right up and tell yourself okay, I'm not going to, I'm not accepting that thought that I just thought, say that first. Even I don't accept that thought and replace it with a positive thought, positive emotion, a thought that takes you closer, one step closer to the person that you want to become. So I challenge you guys to do that and if you guys have any questions, reach out to me. And, jay, I mean we're, we're happy to talk about anything and you know we're here. We're happy to talk about anything and you know we're here.
Speaker 3:We're here to support you guys. Any final thing I'm here, the one thing I am. I'm very, very persistent. People tell me I can't. Please tell me I can't, because I'm just going to find a way to prove I can yeah, I love being told I can't because I know I can't, doesn't matter what it is or how crazy it sounds yeah your belief will set up what you want to achieve.
Speaker 2:You have to believe it. Yep, all right guys. So get rid of all of your eliminating beliefs and take back your fucking lives. Yikes, I'll bleep that out. I'll bleep that out for all the.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Hemo Life Podcast. Today's episode hopefully inspired you and provided valuable insights to enhance your journey. Join us again to hear more incredible stories and expert advice from our community. Make sure to subscribe and stay connected with a group of extraordinary achievers and pioneers. On behalf of LA Aguayo and the entire HEMO Life team keep pushing forward, strive for excellence and remember you are the architect of your own destiny. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired and continue on your path to an elite life.