The Joyful Journey of Self-Discovery with Martyn Williams

In this uplifting and insight-packed episode, Rachel Fitzpatrick sits down with adventurer, author, and coach Martyn Williams for a conversation that feels like equal parts wisdom, wonder, and a good laugh with an old friend.

Together, they explore what it truly means to be “in the business of yourself.” From navigating tricky family dynamics to inviting more joy and creativity into everyday life, Martyn shares the intentional practices that keep him grounded, inspired, and wide open to possibility. Expect stories from wild adventures, reflections on spirituality, and gentle reminders of how humor and perspective can shift everything.

This episode will leave you rethinking your routines, reclaiming your inner storyteller, and remembering that joy is not an accident — it’s a practice.

🎙 Favorite Moments

“I feel like I live a very joyful life.”
“How do you stay in the creative space?”
“We can auto-correct our narratives.”

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

Hi! Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Fitsin Project. I am Rachel Fitzpatrick and I am so happy that you've decided to come in to today's session. I have someone who's like super cool, and I've never spoken to anybody like this man before in my life. His name is Martin Williams, and he is the first to lead expeditions to huge extremes like the South Pole, the North Pole, and Everest. He's got an amazing travel story, and he spent years as a monk. And you guys just have to listen to this whole entire episode because I'm telling you, this man is um he's just such a delight. He's just a delight to hear and to be with and to be in presence with. It was just so sweet to get to be around him and talk with him and get to learn about him, honestly, and and his ways. And he's just got so much information to share. So I hope you enjoy him as much as I did. I'm sure you absolutely will because you're here and you're part of the Fitsies and the community, and it's just so awesome to have you and join. So either way, um, before we get into it, I do want to say there are some things I've got going on. Saturday the 15th, 10:30 to noon. I've got a presence over presence workshop. And I'll talk a bit about it in this podcast to give you a little bit more clarity around why it would be awesome for you to sign up and see me on Saturday with Celissa and my mom as we walk through what it's like to really hone in on your emotional stance as you walk into your holiday season. So anyway, that's coming up. And if you're interested in the mentorship that I have been doing with Kathy Heller, I've she's running a real fat special right now. It's like$27 or something like that for the month of January. And that's how I started with her this year. And I'm telling you, I let me just give you a short version laundry list of things that's been going on in my life just this year, as I reflect in literally on the spot. I've gotten my podcasts, I've gotten engaged in Europe, by the way, in Queen Mary's Gardens, by the way, by the way. And I received a promotion with work, and I've um had a lot of other great things going on, like my very first retreat with my yoga, and I also just started um my 300-hour yoga teaching. So I'll be a 500-hour yoga master at um the beginning of next year. So either way, um, take it or leave it, but there's a lot of change that can be had. There's a lot of greatness that can be had, and it starts with you, and it starts with your one foot in front of the other and following your breadcrumbs of the things that give you the most delight and bring you the most joy. So um with me and my life and how it's turned out, I'm so pleased. I'm so grateful, and I'm beyond thankful. So I wish you the same, and I hope you enjoy this episode with Martin, as we had such a good conversation. So, either way, without further ado, here's Martin. Martin, welcome to the Fitzin Project. How have you been?

SPEAKER_01: 3:56

I've been great, thank you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to this, Rachel.

SPEAKER_03: 3:59

That's me too. Me too. So you're a guy full of adventures, and you have tons of stories to share. And I'm actually hoping that you'll at least share a few of your favorites with us today.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

Correct. Yes, yes, yes. I'm I'll be happy to.

SPEAKER_03: 4:17

Uh so with the Fits in Project, um, I really love getting into the business of yourself. And I want to start, start there. And what does that mean to you when I say uh you being in the business of yourself?

SPEAKER_01: 4:33

Yeah, I mean, for me, it really means I feel like I live a very joyful life, and I need practices that that keep on enabling that space, right? And so I really see the business of me is having practices and awarenesses that help me function in those spaces all the time, you know? So really that's the business of me is that. And then that's one aspect is me, then the other aspect is me and the world, right? And so how do I want to relate to the world? And I'm feeling very much in a space where, you know, I have ideas and energy and my sharing of beauty to give to the world. And so how do I do that? What formats, what what ways do I give that crack? You know, so that's one of the things, you know, to be on a podc podcast like this. I feel like this is a way of giving back, you know? Or giving Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 5:27

Speak to my soul. I feel like that's my biggest contribution as well. Like just I coming from a place where I wish I had known some of these things a little bit earlier, and then being able to share it to maybe someone who might not be at my age or whatever, may not may not have heard it yet. Like, here's the gift, the best gift I have is through my time and my voice is.

SPEAKER_01: 5:55

Also, um, even though we've heard we might not have heard it yet, or we might have heard it multiple times, but often hearing it again, constantly evolving. So we hear it in a different context each time, too. And so something that res that we didn't resonate with six months ago or five years ago, said by a different person, a different place, different pime, all of a sudden it's a like a light bulb goes off, right? And we go, oh yes, now now I got it. Now I and it can shift our perspective on it can re-literally rewrite history at times, can't it? You know?

SPEAKER_03: 6:29

Yeah, absolutely. So what are some of these practices or what's the overarching perhaps let's see, what's the overarching theme for you and giving back, and then some of the practices that keep you instilled? That's like a twofold question, but we can run off that.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

Okay. Well, maybe I'll start with the first bit about what sort of keeps me on track is that, you know, as you've as you know from my bio, I've done all these wild, wild things, and I really see that I look at it from the perspective of I'm I'm either in survival brain or creative brain. And when I'm in creative brain, joy flows, ideas flow, I act on things rapidly. When I'm in creative brain, I'm either either fighting or flighting or freezing, right? And you know, and so that would be procrastination on the freezing side. It would be whether I'm object, you know, fighting can be mental fighting as in I don't like this, I don't like that, judgment, etc., etc. So how do I stay out of that aspect of the brain and in into this more creative way of being? And so for me, I really find that setting up the morning is super important. And so I actually, when I first wake up, I normally laugh very deliberately. And I learned because I was a monk in India for for many years, one of the practices we we would do there is a meditation, we would laugh for 49 minutes, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 7:55

That's very precise in time and what a thing to do for 49 minutes.

SPEAKER_01: 8:02

Mm-hmm. And so what would happen is that first of all, what people you know, because we do it in groups of like 100 people, right? And so, and it would start off with people feeling a bit, you know, insecure. I don't normally laugh, all that sort of stuff, and then then people would start to laugh. And if it was done for 20 minutes, then people would end up in a very joyful state after the 20 minutes. When we did it longer, by by minute 20 or 25, people would start triggering to emotions of sadness and things like this, then go through them, then fall back into laughter again. And then eventually, by the time you reach 40, you know, that 40, 50 minute stage, really there was just certainly for me, I just felt like bliss was flowing out of every pore in my body, you know? And the world looked different. So so really I see that this comes back to a more fundamental aspect of of how I f see we we can function in life is that we can change our perspective on on events, on situations very rapidly when we choose to. But we're conditioned to say that, oh, you know, um the loss of, you know, a you know, a car, a job, a partner, death in the family is, you know, it's categorized as this is six months long, typically, this is a year long, loss of a job is six months, all these, and we tend to believe those, but we don't actually question them. But when you actually question them, you find out actually, no, no, no, that's we can change state very rapidly if we choose to. But we're can t we're typically not can we're not choosing to look at it through that lens. We're typically just stuck in the lens of this is what I learned, this is how I did it. Oh, yes, I'm sad because equized, right? And so so often our initial perception of a s of a of an event and how our body responds to it um is from a fully unconscious response. And we tend to just do it automatically and we'll do it for years, but we can actually shift and look at it from a different perspective very fast and have a have a change, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 10:05

Absolutely. Yeah. I think pers perspection perspective, perspective is key. Um there used to be uh a shirt and it was a 40 days that we did in my um where I went to yoga school at 502 Power Yoga, and they made these shirts and it would be shift your perspective. And it was one of the very first times that I remember hearing that. Perhaps, like you said, I've heard it for for my entire life, but maybe the first time I really paid attention to it was when I was practicing yoga and understanding what shift your perspective truly meant on my mat, and I embodied it in a physical form, then and only in that moment in time was I able to really pull it out off my mat and practice that actual mantra. So yeah, it it was very um eye-opening to say the least back in the day when that first came up into my life.

SPEAKER_01: 11:08

I'll give give you an example too from um you know, often people drive to work and they, you know, they go say you're driving for 30 minutes to work and you get stuck in traffic one or two days a week, and the unconscious people would tend to be grumpy, upset, blah, blah, blah, etc., etc. But if they're chatting to a friend and their friend says, well, you know, why not use that time to learn something? Learn a language, chat to your wife, um, you know, um, listen to a podcast, can you just shift that? And all of a sudden the person goes, Yes, I can. And then what was an unconscious pattern which would have functioned for years, every time traffic, the default upset, right, is now stuck in traffic. Oh, now I know what to do. I'm learning Spanish, and the Spanish is improving, whatever it is, but literally we're changing behavior over the would have happened for years in an instant, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 12:02

Yes. Uh feel that in my soul. One of the things I know that you and I have in common is I have one thing in common with you. And that is physically, right? I have physically one thing in common with you. I feel like we have a lot of things in common philosophically, but physically I got to go on a hike. And I did a whole podcast about it and everything, and how like that was one of the most strenuous mental things I have ever done, let alone what it did to my body. But but it was very um emotional and very mental for me. And uh how I caught myself saying, like, I I can't do this, or I'm not made for this, or how I caught myself talking to myself during those like moments of what I felt like I was never gonna get out of there unless a helicopter came and got me. But you have gone on loads of these like excursions and things like that. And how do you come into this not fight or flight, but this creative space when you're in the midst of Mount Everest, literally? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:12

I mean, really, your example is so true. And that so it became very obvious to me when, especially when doing repetitive, you know, like say skiing to the South Pole every day, it's 10 hours into a headwind, uh minus 10, minus 20, 5 or 10 miles, and you just it's really just you, your body, and the brain, right? That's all the distraction. So when it's that simple, I could really see how when my thoughts went to what the heck am I doing here? I wish I was, etc., etc., my performance dropped off. I would literally go slower, right? And or when I go into daydream, as I wish, you know, I was wish I was back on the beach and somewhere or other, my performance would drop off a little bit less. It would still drop off. But when I was totally present, and so when I was totally present, the ice crystals and the snow crystals were just vibrant and multicolored, right? And the landscape was gorgeous, and I would just be filled with beauty, right? And then then I was just flowing across the landscape. Typically in everyday life, we don't have that, we have so many bombardments, we don't get to observe it that closely, the effect of thought on the body, you know? But it was really obvious to me that wow, when I'm present, totally present, you know, I just there's a whole different way of reacting. Then having seen that, then moving into everyday life, I see more and more that, um, say, for instance, with a car crash, some incident like that, if I'm triggered by it, I'm now either grumpy or upset, blah, blah, blah. If I'm totally present, I'm available to help myself, help other people, you know, solve. So I really see that that even though it's, I mean, it's such a a commonplace expression, be present, but it's it's very profound in what we access when we are present. And when we when we start realizing what we're accessing when we're present, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 15:08

This is such a gift to this exact present moment. And I'm not trying to be punny, but that was punny.

SPEAKER_02: 15:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 15:16

But um coming up with the holidays, right? And how you said, you know, we're not that close to it every day because we allow things to bombard us, which I like to call like a hijack of emotions or a hijack of your day, you know, a bombardment, however you want to say, but we're coming up with the holidays, and I find this to be such an important thing right now, um, and all times, but specifically right now, because where we come into being around family who may not agree about our everyday lives or may not have the same political thought process or leadership process or whatever it is that is in different. And that's to me a hijacking of your emotions and your present moment and how you can get into that like clash, and then you're all all of a sudden in that fight or flight moment without even realizing how you got there, right?

SPEAKER_01: 16:18

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:20

So this was very timely because I'm actually leading a presence over presence. Oh, those words in, yeah, on Saturday. And it's a workshop online, but it will it's cultivating these ideas and how to move through that. But I'd love it to know, like even outside of your excursions, maybe even talk about your holiday experience and how you've been able to hone in on that piece even.

SPEAKER_01: 16:49

Okay. So maybe I'll answer it this way in that often as you talk about it's the family dynamics that that are causing the potential to cause issues, right? And so there's a um a um I'll give you an example then from a coaching client of mine who came to a male came to me and said, you know, um, my wife, you know, she's a is a B I T C my ex-wife, sorry, is a B I T C H, right? And so pretty rude comment, right? And so I asked him, you know, well, what's going on? And he said, well, you know, she's super bossy, da-da-da-da-da all this sort of stuff. And so, and somehow or other I asked him, Well, how old do you think she's behaving? He says, Well, he's she's behaving like a five-year-old, like a spoiled five-year-old. And I'm my thing to him was, Well, how old are you behaving? And he goes, Oh, I'm behaving like a four-year-old. That is like yes, but uh meanwhile, he had a five-year-old daughter, right? So I said to him, Well, how would you be when your daughter is displaying these same behaviors? And he said, Well, I'd be I would question, I would help, I would support, I would hug. Oh, so is that possible, you know, with your ex-wife? And at first it was no. I said, But you're an adult, you're not always a four-year-old. How would the adult you be with her? And so, you know, basically that couple of minute conversation changed the trajectory of his relationship with his ex-wife, and they're now super good friends, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 18:26

Like indefinitely, if you could have that shift of perspective. That's such a key move, you know, just bringing it back into that. Such a key move.

SPEAKER_01: 18:36

And so I really see that often, you know, especially in the family dynamics, it's we're triggered back to early age, right? And so, and our and our parents are also or or brothers and sisters are triggered back to certain situations. So, you know, the parents typically are on in, you know, I'm still, you know, I'm still a young parent with a young child, but now meeting my adult child, and I want them to behave like like they behaved when exatrex. So we have all these, all these patterns that are, you know, that are playing out, you know? And so so often I see it's especially as you go into it, step back and look at what's my role in this, how have I been behaving, uh, you know, and just own the behavior. I've been behaving like a a four-year-old, a five-year-old, or you know, a spoiled brat, or whatever you want to label it, or or a domineering, or what what whatever it fits into. Just and then and be kind with yourself about that. Wow, I have been, oh wow, holy smoke. And yeah, even that's the even that level of ownership will start changing the dynamics.

SPEAKER_03: 19:45

I love that. So you're a coach as well, and an author, and an adventure seeker.

SPEAKER_02: 19:52

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 19:55

So, what was one of your biggest adventures that taught you the most? most. Like what if you could put him on a on a rank, what's your one, two, and three? And what were the what's what's the lesson of number one?

SPEAKER_01: 20:08

Going to the going to the North Pole, we're going by dog sled and it's a f it took us 55 days, which is almost two months. And the temperatures was super cold at times, minus 65, things like that. And so it was so variable that on one day we'd in 10 hours of travel, we'd do 20 miles across the landscape, you know, dodging various obstacles, things like that. And another day we would come up up against pressure ridges that would be up to 60 feet high and we'd have to work our way through them. So in 10 hours of travel we'd do three miles. But then at night once we'd put the tent up, we'd drift back. We were going against the current, the ice would drift back a mile for a net gain in 24 hours of two miles. So not to get disheartened Yeah. Yeah that's when I would be like flight helicopter come give me wow so uh there was a we what just you and your pups or you and there was a yeah there were four of us you know myself two you know two Norwegians an Australian you know and and so I guess the um how that plays out in life then is when we're going for a big goal, you know, because we all set big goals right so when we are going for a big goal you know we are going to get disheartened you know the thing will not look like how we planned it, right? This is the essence of the story is that right we never knew what we're going to account next day. We planned to go 20 miles, we did two, right? So that's an extreme example but that's how it happens in life you have certain goals it doesn't work as you plan how do you not fall into how do you stay in the creative space of like what's the alternative? What can we do? Or even let's just rest right um versus you know the moan, the groan, the um running away, giving up, all those sorts of things, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 22:09

Very much of like what like listening to your body and listening to your current experience.

SPEAKER_01: 22:15

Like the presence, you know in some ways watching the mind noise. So in some ways if we're very logical about it we'd we'd be going if we're super logical we'd be going, oh today was a real mess up my mind will probably go into horror stories. Let me instead relax and just be present with my surroundings which are you know which are beautiful typically you know there's beauty to be found. As soon as we we we look at what is around us, we can often fall into beauty very easily you know oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 22:47

I think that's one of the best parts about I'm gonna go back to what you said about having a morning ritual right so like before you start your day even with the hijacks of getting the kids together and getting them out the door I speak from that on a personal level but also like your dogs even down to the dogs also speaking from a personal level but it's just like before my feet hit the floor like what can I do to attune for my day? You know, I'd love to know what your morning ritual consists of to keep you in such a healthy mindset.

SPEAKER_01: 23:24

Great. So as I mentioned earlier start off with laughter right in in bed and you know typically just for because I know it works, right? So just you know just giggle to myself for for two minutes, then get up and then um typically a morning you know my wife and I uh we both meditate and and then um as we're moving around the house we'll be singing songs together and we'll be singing goofy songs too and ch throwing in words you know about you know whatever's on the table, you know, an apple or you know switching words around just making up stuff, right? And we'll also you know we'll also just be dancing and running around too. Literally I'll sometimes just run around run around the kitchen just for fun, you know? And because I can see how much joy that is that's right exactly yeah I saw in India again we did these other processes this I'll explain this one to you where um and we'd do this with a hundred people right and everybody would be blindfold and we'd have background noise people howling and screaming and all this sort of wild noise then we would connect with fear or emotions in the body we'd allow ourselves to feel them then we would shake and we'd make sound. And I saw that that was just a tremendous way to release tension and and um you know anxiety all those sorts of things you know so just taking that and applying that but more randomly of just movement just shaking movement just sort of in a being in a happy very deliberately giggly space you know it's like a cross between kundalini yoga and laughter.

SPEAKER_03: 25:06

Like if you brought laughter uncontrollable laughter into yoga it would be kundalini yoga yoga see what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01: 25:15

I pick it up what you're putting down but it's also unstructured I have to you know now it's time for kundalini yoga and the first move is blah blah blah it's just what's flowing in the house in the moment you know creative flow like back to that constant creation. That's right yeah actually it's a good way of putting it I hadn't looked at it through that lens yeah yeah that's awesome that sounds like a very joyous house you live in and then as I chant with people in my coaching I really do see that um the more especially you know uh parents and people with dogs the more we can plan for the timing of things um that can make us that that can because often as pe as I'm chatting with people they're reporting to me well you know every morning is a rush you know every morning is a stress and so really my question often back is well what can you do to to pre-plan for that? What can you do to arrange it so that um you know the um there's an agreement with you and the child about certain things, you know, and and and agreements but that are flexible and that you can joke about when when the agreements are not met, you know, rather than you know the other way around. I think you know totally where I'm going.

SPEAKER_03: 26:38

Yeah absolutely I don't we're know exactly where you're going. Yes, absolutely. I I was reading the other day one of my friends he's um insurance owner and he it just turned 39. So his gift to everybody on social media was putting out a list of 39 things that um people could take or leave but it was a gift for him to give it to people but one of his things that I I remembered specifically was planning. And if you pl if you were going to go to the gym, plan your gym bag the night before so that you can make it to the gym and it's kind of like a trick of your mind, right? And and it is it's it's um no one where you're not just like gonna up and go with the flow, right?

SPEAKER_00: 27:27

Well that's right, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 27:29

That way there can be an actual process. But as you said too like the on the flip side how to laugh about that if it doesn't go as planned. You know? Like let that go.

SPEAKER_01: 27:44

Yeah exactly that's what I again um I've been using in my coaching using the word try quite a bit you know as you um as you experiment with something try you know Rodin's saying I'm going to I'm going to go to the gym you know for you know every day for a week you know tr let me try to go to the week. That way even though we're giving ourselves out we're also lessening the the mental chatter around you failed. You know it's yeah yeah it's the failure chatter is is very strong in most people.

SPEAKER_03: 28:14

That's a huge point to have I mean just even as something as small as like my son for example, he's like I'm I'm really shy. I'm shy I'm like I don't know where he came up with that. Because I'm not shy. You know like none of us are shy. But um he's like I'm shy and it's like I really need to change that narrative with him as to be like I am practicing my voice you know and it's not I am shy I'm put in this box that I will never be able to make it I'm always gonna fail if I speak up all these things. But like you said that shifted perspective of I am practicing my voice. Something so small.

SPEAKER_01: 28:54

Actually I've got another example of that somebody again came to me for um for coaching and she was saying you know um I am always um I am always sad. And so I said okay so let's look at that and how sad are you in this moment? And she was going well you know six months ago I was you know I said on a scale of one to ten right so well six months ago I was minus two. Oh well how about this moment? Well okay it's seven okay so you're not always sad. So next time we chat let's look at some events in your life over the next and tell me how they were on this scale of ten being you know fulfilled right and so next time we chatted well you know I went and volunteered um at a gardening project and I was a 10, you know? And then and she listed off these things was you know eight, nine tens. And so all of a sudden we're breaking up the narrative into very discrete chunks of just actually so even as I'm chatting with her, then she moved on about another topic was um feeling unsafe right and so again she said I've felt unsafe all my life and she's she has the narrative of childhood history except and it's all true her childhood history is true, but she's talking about unsafe and so I again the same thing I asked her I said well just start noticing start asking yourself how am I on the scale and again over two or three sessions she said I'm noticing actually just by asking the question I feel safer.

SPEAKER_03: 30:29

Yeah like that awareness that first question of where are you? How are you feeling and if you can put a name to it if you can name it you could change it right that's right yes yeah and you can perceive it if you can name it. So it it's so much in that it's such um a huge step and I'm um actually I'm moving into the space of um being a an empowerment speaker. And I feel like these are like the key nuggets like these little takeaways you know and I love how you were like let's look at this trend of you over time because it's it's so real where you can all of a sudden give yourself this title you you are giving yourself this um affirmation that may not be true but over time is the only way that you're actually going to see how false the narrative really is. And we never know what that read is as being inside of a pickle jar, we never see the ingredients of ourselves until we remove ourselves out of the pickle jar and can then read the label, you know so I feel like that is awesome and like a way to come into that is with awareness. So then what would your next steps be in that? I feel like we could write out a whole step of of just Martin like you wake up you laugh and now you're self-aware you might write some songs later with your wife actually I just want to bring it back a little bit to you and your son.

SPEAKER_01: 32:16

And so often what I've seen is when I'm chatting with my wife about things and when I'm even using a scale and and it becomes if if he if we gamify it so for instance if you know if he says you know I'm shy and but I don't want to be shy and you say oh okay well let's just if it's now a game then you can say how shy were you today? When were you the most shy, how was that? And he'll go, well it was minus two when Freddie said whatever to me. What was your what was your least shy? Well that was when so and so spoke. You do that for a few days and the behavior starts to change. Because now he's he's you know he's sort of identified it and we auto-correct. This is what I see often we you know we have the ability to autocorrect you know just by but it when it's a game and you're laughing and you go oh yes I know I do the same with my friend who's sometimes a bit bold or you know I can you know when we can relate and and soften it up until it's a conversation and a a progression then things things change very dramatically you know so it's not an issue it's a progression.

SPEAKER_03: 33:28

Yeah that's that tracks for sure I could I feel like I could already see the future with him on how to make that a game and it's then he's like ah I'm gonna win because he's like so set on those things. I could talk about him for hours as most people in my podcast in my listeners they know they're they're probably like carry on we already know back to you Martin Okay so yeah so so back to your question on some what else during so during the day I mean typically I'm um I feel very fulfilled when I'm moving my body too.

SPEAKER_01: 34:07

So typically first thing in the morning we'll go out for a walk and if often it'll be you know quite a it'll be almost a stroll and just chatting and looking looking at the landscape and just being joyful, you know? Or sometimes it'll be you know I also enjoy very physical stuff. There's a scramble next to me that is highly remote with canyons and little climbing sections and I can sort of trot around that, you know? And then typically at the end of the day we'll go to a lake there's a lake close by and we'll go paddling on the lake. And again sometimes it will just be slow paddle strokes looking at the landscape, looking at the birds and other times I'll be enjoying sort of paddling hard, you know, type thing. Yeah. And so for and again you know I know that many of the listeners have these very you know if you have the dog or the dogs the multiple dogs the multiple the multiple jobs and the multiple children how do you in there um have time to move physically or get quiet and so I really do see that for instance if you are doing any exercise it can also be a meditative space when when we approach it from a a level of consciousness. So and typically what I see there is that say for instance you like to go on a treadmill for or run for or go for a walk for for say 20 minutes, if you look at the natural progression often the first five or ten minutes you're processing what's going on for the day I'm upset about this, I'm happy about that, what do I do about this? You're doing planning and learning logistics. Then the thoughts slow down then the last um five or ten, you're often quite low thoughts. And if you look at this from a meditative space how do we so we can very deliberately make that last five or ten so first of all we can make the five the first five or ten more effective by just going, let me look at my m mind noise from the point of view of a to-do list, not a psychological analysis. So let me just run through the to-do list, get that sorted out. But if I as soon as I start going in to moan or complaint about this or that or let me drop that. Let me just be with my to-do list. So we do that then once we move into the next section certainly the last section what we can do is for a meditative exercise is like just just see everything, focus totally on sight, but without labeling because the the mind typically wants to label for safety, right? I don't like that person, you know that's dangerous. Let me go here then everywhere. But instead when we just go let me just see everything without labeling now we're in now we're actually in a really good meditation right and the one is let me hear everything again without labeling. So these are things we can do that will really help us, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 36:58

Absolutely there is this song and I so terribly wish I remembered the name of it and the person that sings it but it's I'm so terrible at that but um one of the lyrics of this song is if you can only see five colors you're blind or three colors you're blind and if you can only hear five tones of music you're deaf. And what I love about that is you you hit it on the head. You were like you're labeling it right and when I bring people into my yoga class I really try to announce like from the get go you're here you signed up for this you have nowhere else to be in your mind or physically for the next 60 minutes. Let's flow with intention let's flow with presence let's be here be here now and it seems to always just like it's like a turnkey when that happens like you make that mental agreement of like I'm here these things they can wait that it will not burn if no one is going to die and if they have there's not anything you can do in 60 minutes from now anyway. So like it's and I say that lightly but also like not like but really but it's like be here be here now and you can turn these physical activities into a meditative state from just acknowledging that place.

SPEAKER_01: 38:28

And then yeah so um and then also with um I think this again as I chat you know as I chat with people and coach more I'm realizing there's certain moments in the day especially with children that are prime moments. And if you know they're prime moments then you can really work them to the maximum. And one is when children come home from work. And so often you know I speak with people who um they continue to work when the child comes home you know then they they they stagger out of the work and they're bringing work with them into the into the the home environment all that sort of stuff but and I chat with other people who one person says uh five minutes before the child arrives home my ch my children come home I go and lie down on the bed. Right he says then I get up before they get home then I'm ready to greet them and I'm totally present with them. And I found that with age as the ch children increase in age so their willingness to interact with me and the shortness of the interaction gets shorter and shorter. And so if I'm not there when my child, my 14 year old walks in the door, if I'm not there's almost their interaction for the rest of the night. If I am there, they can tell me a story or they might just greet me but it's um it's it's it's prime time basically so how do we optimize these prime Moments with maximum consciousness. Then the same thing with bedtime, too, you know, how do we optimize that? And then the other one is mealtime. And then how do you optimize those? And um some of the things, some of the tips I've heard from parents are, you know, so when we start getting into conflicting topics at at supper time, the family will have an agreement about a word that they all, you know, so one is hot potato, right? A bunch of I've heard this from a bunch of parents. They use the word hot potato and it means everybody, hey, just drop, you know, let's let's all relax. We know this is going in the wrong direction. Let's everybody take a deep.

SPEAKER_02: 40:37

Take a deep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 40:40

So we really see that there's there's these these moments that we can capitalize on, which provide immense quality of life to both the children and the parents, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 40:50

Yeah, yeah. I fullheartedly agree with that. I just from my own experience in growing up, I yes, as you say those words, I'm like replaying in my head because my mom and dad, they've always been so clueless about how did we get off the hook? How did we win the parent lottery, you know, with my brother and me? And this just hit fresh off the off the brain was when we got home from school, like they weren't there, but they had dinner. We ate dinner, we had a a nighttime routine, and it was a routine that was held even all the way up through now. And now we're adult children of theirs. But if we ever go out to dinner or we go to dinner, it's always we're at the same table. We're always having that conversation, and it's always been an open conversation. So I that, yeah, I mean, tracking that over time is exactly how that happened, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 41:55

Sweet. So yeah, but good.

SPEAKER_03: 41:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 41:57

Well, that's a that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 42:00

Thank you for sharing that. And I do want to know, so I want to go back into your book, Sure Let's Go. And I was telling you a little bit before we got on. I haven't read the whole thing, but I do have it with full intention on getting into the entire thing. But I found it on some of the pages where I was flipping through. It was to be very comical, but it's about all of your fun like adventures and everything. So, do you want to talk to us a little bit about that and how you landed into that?

SPEAKER_01: 42:31

Sure. So um, I mean, that's a specific would you like to hear a specific one of my adventures that really sort of I enjoyed?

SPEAKER_03: 42:38

Yeah, like what was the one that inspired you? Like, yeah, we're writing this book.

SPEAKER_01: 42:42

Okay. So, you know, as a mountain guide and you know, doing it for 30 years, people have always said to me, trips on trips, well, you know, you should write a book about that. And so, and but it was always the next mountain to do or the next place to go, all that sort of stuff. So I never got time until eventually Maria my wife said, you know, you have to do this. So she I recorded a bunch and then she worked on the book. But it's funny, I it's saying in 30 years of wilderness travel, you know, we're talking Everest, Pole, South Pole, minus 60, all these wild things, right? The stories that really stand out are, well, I'll give you, are often the funny ones. So we were doing a canoe trip with a group of people, and it was a river that had never been done before. And so I'd researched all winter on the map where this river was and how it flowed. And um, so the group flew in. Meanwhile, they had never canoed before. So first of all, we'd land on a lake, we teach them canoeing, right? We head across the lake, we get to the mouth of the river, now we're teaching them river canoeing. Then we go down the lake, so down the river it comes to a second lake, and we were going to leave our canoes and then go into the mountains and climb a peak, right? And this peak hadn't hadn't been climbed either from this direction. So a lot of unclimbed stuff, or unknown stuff. So we get everything ready, go to sleep. In the morning, a porcupine has come into camp, and porcupines like salt, so it had nibbled the salt on people's boots, and so some people's boots were damaged. Um we were going to leave stuff there while we went up into the mountains. So we thought this is a real problem, you know, this porcupine could eat piles of stuff. So we looked around and lo and behold, there was a porcupine. And it was it was about, you know, it had snuck off, it was hiding under a tree. And so we realized, well, this lake is long and thin, we could maybe move it. So we got out our paddles, and we um when you know, when a few of us surround them the porcupine on two sides with paddles, the porcupine moves away. So now the porcupine's moving away is you know, not very happy about it. And we move them down towards the beach, right? And on the beach, there's there's a willow tree growing up. So he gets the willow tree, climbs up the willow tree. So we, well, this is great. So I jump in a canoe, paddle it underneath the willow tree, and then my friends on shore now are shaking the tree, the porcupine falls off in the boat. We think, great plan, porcupine's in the boat, I'll paddle it across to the lake and deposit it. You know, brilliant plan, right? But we hadn't account for the fact the porcupine is now very, very upset. Yeah. And he's getting and he's coming to my end of the boat full speed. And the boat and the canoe is quite narrow. There's not enough room for two of us, right? So I'm standing up, the boat is rocking from side to side, I'm about to fall in the water, and meanwhile, I'm using my paddle like a hockey stick trying to stop this porcupine. Until eventually we we agree on a truce, and I paddle a porcupine across the lake, you know, drop the porcupine off, he goes off into the woods. So then we head off, we think, well, well, just in case there's a second porcupine around, let's string all our packs up. So we string all our packs from a very high line from two trees, right? So now our packs are like 20 feet up. It takes us a couple of hours to do this. So we go up to the mountains, we come back down, but we walk back into camp. There's something funny on this line. And my pack that I left behind had got a canvas back to it, and it's right in the middle of this line. But a porcupine has nibbled off every every inch of canvas on the back.

SPEAKER_02: 46:26

No.

SPEAKER_01: 46:27

So we we think, we're not sure, that it was the disgruntled porcupine that was determined to get revenge.

SPEAKER_03: 46:35

The disgruntled porcupine came back after you. That's a karmic evolution.

SPEAKER_01: 46:43

It must have hand you know, hand hold along the line, right? To get to my pack, nibbles my pack, and hand holds away off.

SPEAKER_03: 46:49

He was having a day. He was having a good day. That's right, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 46:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 46:54

Oh man. So I've got one more question. Um, as you go through and you've been through so many adventures, and you've had so you've got a lifetime of beautiful stories. I mean, from your years of being a monk, from your years of travel, leading, leadership, coaching. Um, what is your spiritual connection to live this fulfilled life?

SPEAKER_01: 47:22

Ah, so really, having spent all that time in India, I've you know, I do see that um oneness, you know, oneness resides in with in in me. And so um and um so that's very logical, right? That's a very logical statement. One oneness resides in me. But you know, I I I feel it, and also I also feel um an emptiness as well, an emptiness about um, you know, I don't need to inquire about does God exist, could God not exist, whatever, etc. etc. I just feel like there's a just a beauty inside, you know, that that radiates out. Meanwhile, though, you know, in all my experiences, I have, you know, I've absolutely, because I've you know studied with Aboriginal people in sweat lodges, you know, the spirits of Aboriginal people, angel cards, you know, the angelic realm, you know, the you know, the Buddhist divas all exist, the Hindu in Christianity, you know, Christ can be called upon. You know, so there's this this there's worlds that do exist, right? And they're available to us. I mean it depends which ones we want to connect with, but we can connect with them. So there are worlds we can connect with, and then there's also just an inner wisdom that we can we can access to, you know?

SPEAKER_03: 48:48

Yeah, that's beautiful. I love how you just put that out. That's great. That's really great. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 48:56

So again, from my from again back to the listener, my thought would be if if this is an area you want to experience, my thought would be first of all, put it out. Just say, hey, I want to experience more more of these, I want to I'll put more spirituality, say as an example, or whatever language works for you, and then just put that out and just watch as things, then you will pull things in. You'll find yourself um you know reading a passage from the Bible, reading a passage from the Quran, reading a Buddhist text, or having you know an you know, an angel reader appears to you, or you know, somebody comes into your life who says, Hey, have you ever used tarot cards? You know, whatever, whatever, you know, but just if you put it out, thing the you know, the universe will pull things you will pull things from the universe towards you to guide you, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 49:51

I agree. 100%. I can feel that. And I do think it is about the intention behind it, you know, and the attention that you give to it. Um, you can pull in uh negative experiences just like you can positive, as you just were speaking earlier about the sad girl. You know, her life felt so negative and so sad all the time. But once you started pulling in the positive and keeping attention on that with an intention to see it, her life changed. And it's a total different perspective, just kind of bringing that back in. So yeah, I love that. So thank you so much for sharing that. Um, can you let us know how can if my listeners want to work with you as a coach or um they want to get your book, can you let us know how we they can contact with you?

SPEAKER_01: 50:43

Sure, yes. Um my website is enlighteningadventures.com. And um the book is is uh is on there too, or go on Amazon and and look up you know, sure let's go Martin Williams. Nope.

SPEAKER_03: 50:59

Perfect. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 51:02

And I'm happy to yeah, I'm happy to answer questions from any of your listeners.

SPEAKER_03: 51:06

It was such a gift for you to be on today. I mean, I think it's amazing. You are just a joy. I can see you just like you light up in storytelling, you light up when you speak about coaching, like you're truly in your calling and you can tell, you know, and it might be because you wake up laughing every day, you know. Which I love that because I love that story. Now I need to meet your wife. Oh, well, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01: 51:35

Okay, well, thank you. Yes, it's been fun. I've had a good all right.

SPEAKER_03: 51:39

So, am I right or am I right? Wasn't he just a gym of a guy? Like, oh my gosh, I just want to give him a hug. But yeah, you can catch Martin on his website. That is in the show notes, and he's absolutely phenomenal. He's got his own coaching business. He's written the book, Sure, let's go. And he is just one of those guys that like you really just want to get to know more. Um, he's absolutely amazing. He's from Liverpool. So if you want to know more about him, just reach out to him, send him an email, get in contact with him. He's super approachable, man. And I know he's gonna absolutely love it. Tell him that you were sent to him from the Fitzin project, because that would be another delight, right? Like, how much fun is that? Like keeping us all connected. So, anyway, um, other things that you'll find in the show notes, we have the presence over presence. I've got Kathy Hiller's um promotion right now for January to start your manifestation journey and how you want your life to be. But also, um, if you all are familiar, maybe you're not, with Jen Liz, she has a podcast and it's called uh fuck around and get paid. So excuse my language, but that's what it's called. And it's a very, very awesome um podcast if you're trying to scale your business, if you're trying to um gain some clarity of what's going on. So go check her out because she's one of those that I really enjoy listening to. I really like her a lot, and uh she's got short bits and of golden information, and the more the merrier, right? So, and if you're at it, if you're curious even more, she's got this expansion room going on, and believe it or not, I am in that one too. So I've got my hands in a lot of pots, but that's just how I roll. If you know, you know. But anyway, let's bring it in, let's settle it in and sealed today's podcast with one beautiful home.