When Growth Stops Working (Athens, Greece)

You’re doing the things.

Meditation. Yoga. Breathwork. Maybe even energy work.

So why does something still feel… off?

Why aren’t you feeling more calm, more clear, more like yourself?

In this episode, I’m coming to you from Athens, Greece, in the middle of ancient history, to share a realization that might completely shift how you think about your growth.

Because here’s what most people won't tell you:

👉 Some practices are meant to be stepping stones…not lifelong solutions.

And if you’re still using a tool you’ve already outgrown, it won’t just stop working — it’ll start frustrating you.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why “good” practices stop working (even when you’re consistent)
• The hidden reason you feel stuck despite doing the work
• The difference between foundational tools and next-level tools
• How to recognize when it’s time to evolve your approach
• Why modern life requires modern practices

Key Takeaways:

• Not all practices are meant for every stage of your life
• Feeling stuck is often a signal—not a failure
• Growth requires upgrading your tools, not just repeating them
• Time matters—what worked 1,000 years ago may not fit today
• You’re not broken…you might just be ready for something new

If This Hit Home…

If you’ve been doing “all the right things” but still feel:

• drained
• frustrated
• disconnected
• or like something just isn’t clicking

Then it might be time for a different approach.

That’s exactly why I created LEAP (Life Energy Activation Process)

A 4-minute practice designed for your life — not a monk's.

Ways to Go Deeper:

👉 Learn more about LEAP:

https://justinwenck.com/leap

👉 Join an upcoming workshop 

https://justinwenck.com (see upcoming events)

👉 Reach out directly:

podcast@justinwenck.com

Ready to stop just understanding this work… and actually experience it?

Join Justin for a live, in-person 60-minute experience designed to recharge your system across your body, mind, emotions, and energy.

📍 Ocean Yoga, Pacifica, CA USA

 🗓 May 2nd | 1:00–2:00 PM

👉 Register here:

https://clients.mindbodyonlin

Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!

Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go to https://www.engineeredtolove.com/ to learn more!

Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com.

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Transcript

Justin Wenck: 0:00

Today I'm going to be talking about a really great topic, because I know many of you that you know, watch my show, follow me, listen to the podcast. You're all about improving your your health, your emotional capabilities, your communication, and, you know, your spirituality. There's a lot of things, and you probably have some practices like, maybe you do yoga, maybe meditate, maybe you do like an energy practice. And yet, many of you probably are not quite where you would like to be with respect to, you know, some of these things that I've I've mentioned, and so today, I'm going to be talking about why it is what you've been doing might not be getting you the results that you would like. You know why you're not feeling more calm, more connected, more at ease, more in tuned, more empowered, more confident. And I'm going to talk about why what you're doing isn't working, and how you can get it to work or push to something that does work. And I'm doing this today, from Athens Georgia. No wait, Athens Greece. So got the Acropolis right here behind me, the Parthenon is there, and some other cool stuff. So yeah, this is from Athens Greece. So let's get started. Are you ready to live a life with enough time, money and energy have relationships and connections that delight you? Are you ready for the extraordinary life you know you've been missing? If so, then this is the place for you. I'm a best selling author, coach, consultant and speaker who's worked in technology for over two decades, I'm a leader at transforming people and organizations from operating in fear, obligation and guilt to running off joy, ease and love. It's time for engineering emotions and energy with me. Justin Wenck, PhD, what is it that maybe you do, or you've thought of doing, but maybe you have never been able to get into it, or maybe you've done it for a while but stopped. But either way, it's just there's, you know, like meditation, you know, yoga, tai chi, chi, Gong, lots of things that, you know, we're all told, like you do this, it's going to help you, you know, feel more relaxed, more calm. It's going to help you, maybe get your your spiritual side, more in tuned and connected all these benefits. And I know many of you probably do have these practices, and some of you probably are even doing them continuously, yet he just feels like something's a little off. And I just had this realization while I was here in in Athens of why, of why that is because I'm here of a place that many consider to be, you know, the start of a lot of civilization, incredibly ancient, right, like this Acropolis and the things built behind me, I believe, built somewhere, you know, 2020 500 years ago. Yet, in many ways, that is both it's very old, but then also it's relatively young. Like, there really are things much, much more ancient in the world, and there are some of those things even more ancient, just just here in Greece, you know, 5000 8000 maybe even more, right? Yet, we're also, you know, living here today, because it's like, I'm here recording this on, you know, on a phone, a MacBook, and gonna upload it using Wi Fi. And there's, there's cars going around and beeping and honking. And so we have this mix of, we come from, you know, some very ancient times and places, yet we have modern technology. And the previous episode, I talked about life energy and that really a lot of the practices that you want to be working with, they all, they have their root in working with with life energies. And just like many of these, you know, temples and places of sacredness, they were all built with the intention of connecting with various forms of life energy and working with it. And, you know, from the land and from the people's intentions and things like that, it just because that's how it was created doesn't necessarily mean that's how it is today. And just like with many of your practices, and I know some of you are probably going like, ah, Justin, I was tuning in because I wanted, I wanted to hear the fourth. No way. Well, it'd be the fourth in the series, but it would be the third best value of the six best values to have in 2026 and so for those of you that tuned in, for that, keep tuning in because it's coming. I'm ready to record that next after this, actually, because I'm super excited about recording and revealing it. Just I this came to me, and I'm like, this is so important for where I am and for where you are. And for where we are in this time in history, because a lot of the stuff that has worked and maybe has worked for you is not what will work now and will not work going on into the future. And it's not that what you've learned or what you've been doing, has is wrong or didn't have any benefit. I again, I really feel this is like a great place to be doing this from, because Athens, you know, just Greece in general, a lot of a lot of things that, you know, we take for granted day to day. Like some forms of mathematics were created, you know, and 1000s of years ago in these times, you know, like Pythagorean theorem and Aristotle and all sorts of, you know, great contributions to mathematics. And so I really feel like mathematics can be a good analogy. So I'm not going to, we're not going to get too much into math, but we're just going to use it as analogy for the practices that maybe you've learned and done. Because the thing is, pretty much, I guarantee that everybody you know that's connecting with the show right now you've you at some point, learned your addition and subtraction, right? And you know, memorizing and practicing with memory, with addition and subtraction tables, hugely beneficial. You know, what is that? Early grade school, something like that, like second grade, somewhere around there. Then at some point it's like, okay, let's now that we got addition, subtraction, time to move on to multiplication, right, and division right? So that comes a little bit later. And then at some point it's like, Okay, we got that. Like, let's start. I can't remember what comes first or second. It's been so long I've done so much math. But like, let's just say that. It's like, okay, well, let's, let's try that. Let's, let's do a little bit geometry, right? Like, triangles and shapes and angles and and then, okay, then maybe it's time for algebra, right? So, like, Okay, well, let's see if something's missing. How do we find that utilize? And it's all building, building on top of each other, the addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. It's getting utilized in these higher levels of mathematics. And some people it's like, hey, addition, subtraction, multiplication, like, that's that's all I need. Just came back from going to the farmers market here in Athens. And I'm telling you, this is the biggest Farmers Market I've ever seen. It was literally, like half a mile of vendors all selling various produce and things, and there's fishmongers. And I was like, Oh, now I totally understand why going to, like most of the supermarkets here, there's not a lot of not a lot of produce, often not a lot of selection, because here the majority of people still buy and sell their produce at farmers markets. It's not, it's not, oh, this is the fancy you know thing to do, like, look at me, aren't, aren't I cool, which is very common, at least in a lot of the cities in California, is find it funny that it's usually like, if you've, you only go to the farmers market if you're, you know, you're well off enough if you make enough money, if you're don't have enough money, there's no way you would afford a farmers market in California, you go to, you know, a grocery store, you go to, like Walmart or something like that. But here, here the local farmers market is where you go for the best deals. It's not only the best deals, but it's also the best selection, the best quality. And, you know, there it's the, you know, the they're doing the math and the subtraction and all this stuff, like, in their heads. A lot of these, a lot of these produce vendors, it's like, you know, they like, know how much it is, and they got it down yet, my guess would be, is that many of them, you know, they if it was like, oh, let's talk about calculus, or let's talk about geometry, or like, no, no, thank you. And my point of that is, is that, you know, for different people, different amount of mathematics is, is adequate. Yet for other people, like for for me to become an electrical engineer, I had to keep going in the world of mathematics. I had to start learning, you know, calculus and in differential equations, and then, you know, some crazy format, discrete mathematics and all sorts of things, different base, base number systems, and not just base 10, but, you know, binary and octal and hexadecimal, all these different things to do, and doing math and those forms. So lots of because that's what was required for me to do, what I was meant to do as an electrical engineer, is going to these advanced mathematics. And it's like, okay, Justin, what does this have to do with my yoga practice, or my Qigong, my Tai Chi, my my meditation that I've been doing. What I'm saying is is if you are meant to be an incredible engineer, and all you do is spend time doing your addition and subtraction tables, and maybe you think about multiplication a couple of things. Things. One, you're not going to ever become that engineer, that scientist, that mathematician, that whatever you're meant to be. And the second thing is, it's likely going to become really frustrating, really dull, really boring, because you're meant, you're meant to move on to something else, right? It was meant to be a stepping stone. It was meant to be part of a progression, and you got stuck. And many of the practices, for many people, it's a great practice, but it's it was never meant to be the final practice that you were meant to do, and it was not meant to be something that you do every day for the rest of your life. Is meant to be a stepping stone in your progression to become the person, to find the practice, to do the things that allow you to become who you're meant to be, both, you know, professionally, interpersonally, and spiritually. And so if you've been finding that these practices that you've been doing day in, day out, and maybe they don't stick, there could be a reason they don't stick because you're meant to find something else. You're meant to find something different. And even at this point, you might be wondering like, well, what is what is that something different? And the fact that you just start asking that question is huge. That means now you're open, you're open to finding something that could work, could be different, could be the next stepping stone, or could be the thing that is the thing for you, for you for the rest of your life, that's going to support you in what you're meant to do. And so we all like to think that, Oh, if it's something old, then there must be something to it. And I'm not saying that there isn't there. Often is, yet often something old is something that was meant for a time and a place or part of a progression, right? Kind of like, let's use, you know, telecommunications here as a as a little bit of example, like the the way that telephones used to work. It was great at the time. It got us interconnected at one point, but then we upgraded. We went from analog ways of connectivity for telecommunications to digital forms. And it's one of those that we can still do the analog form. And sometimes people do it, you know, kind of as a learning activity, or maybe they're in a place where that's just all, that's all that's able to be done for whatever reason. Yet, if you really want to maximize, you know, what you're able to do nowadays, you get into the digital form of of telecommunications, and then in there, there's all sorts of different things as well. So what I'm getting at is now that you're open, now you can start to think, like, what are the other ways that I could try connecting to and being open to other types of practices. And if you did listen to the previous episode or watch it on YouTube, which I highly encourage, especially the ones where I'm, I'm somewhere cool, like here in Athens, Athens Greece, where I've, I've currently got the Acropolis behind my shoulder, you know, I was talking about life energy, and that I've developed an incredibly powerful tool for working with, you know, life energy, which is incredibly important, but it also works on the other levels of your physicality, your emotionality, and your your mental state. So it's an incredibly powerful tool that will absolutely change your life. And so if you're now open to like maybe it is time to try a different practice, I highly encourage you to try my life energy activation process or LEAP. I will be doing it live coming May 2 in at Ocean yoga in Pacifica. So go to my website. We'll make sure the link is available yet. I'll also start offering this, you know, more places also doing online yet. I would encourage you that if any of this is resonating and you're like, oh, it's time to try something new, don't be Don't, don't wait for me to, you know, come to you. I This is an invitation Come, come to me and go Justin. I want to learn this thing. Because, you know, I got some stuff in the works, and sometimes it's just like, Oh, if people want this, I'll, you know, prioritize some things over over another. Or we'll just set up and do a one on one session. Or we'll create a group thing together sooner than later. Because I love getting this to people. I love sharing it. And a lot of it's I just trust that I'm getting it to the right people at the right time, in the right ways. And so if you're letting me know that, hey, this is something that I want to find out, because this is something where, once I teach it to you, one it's designed for people living today, because a lot of the practices, a lot of things that were designed for people living 50, hundreds, 1000s years ago. And, like I said, times have changed. Like, you know, it's one of those things that I'm not saying. Don't carve out an hour to meditate. If you can, great is going to do a lot of good stuff. Yet, there's a little bit of like it's in this day and age. It used to be you had nothing but time. But now we've created where there is a scarcity of time. And so how is it you start to create more time as you start to get more calm, more centered, more aligned, more in tuned, that time starts to become more. Available for the things that matter truly to you. Yet. How do we start doing that? And that's what my leap practice. Can do it because it takes just four minutes to do the practice, which literally, I do it while I'm cooking eggs sometimes. Or, you know, I do it well, it's like, Oh, somebody's like, Oh, I just need a couple more minutes. Like, I can do the do the practice, where it's other things I found, because I, trust me, I've tried it all, done it all, and again, gotten much benefit. Yet this I've developed for people like you that are busy and you want to do something, and you want it to be powerful, and you want to matter, yet you don't have a lot of time, because you're living in today's age, and you want to be impactful. This is about having impact for yourself, for the people around you, for the entire world. And it doesn't take me long to teach it. I can teach it. And I'm finding about one hour is great because then it lets me explain, you know, the nuances, the what to look out for, answer questions. So in just an hour. And the thing is, when I teach it, it's like you have an entire retreat in a day. So it's like a day long retreat in just an hour. Again, because, you know, people often had a lot more free time. So you could go spend a day to learn an entire thing, like, if you got it great, go do it yet. Wouldn't you rather if you could learn something in one hour that's going to change your life just by doing it four minutes whenever you do it, so you could do it daily, or more than once a day, or at least, you know, a few times a week. How does that compare to maybe the other practices that you've learned? Like, are you even able to do them once a week, or even more than once a week? Or is it just sometimes you're lucky if you get to do it once a month, and then occasionally it's, I'm gonna go do a big, a big retreat. Because honestly, spiritual, energetic, physicality, practices, just like working out at the gym, it's what you do daily, or as close to daily as you can, that has the big impacts. It's not the, you know, the big the big push, right? Because it's like, if you go run a marathon, it's like you ran the marathon, but you really didn't, you know, you really didn't shift your body. But if you begin running a little bit every day, going to have a big change on how your musculature is and your cardiovascular and all that stuff. And that's what the practice like this is leap. It's incredibly powerful. The more often you do it, the more benefits. Yet, even if you just come and do the practice, it's going to have some big changes in your life, and not everybody's ready for that. And that's okay, because, again, as I was saying, these these practices very much like mathematics. They're not for everybody, right? Not everybody's meant to, you know, do differential equations. Not everybody's meant to learn, you know, complex optimization mathematics. We need all types of people. We just need some people that it's like you do that addition, addition, subtraction, multiplication, super fast, because, because you're feeding us, right? You're there, getting the produce, making sure that we're all fed. Hugely important. Just different people doing different things. Yet, if you're listening to this, and you've been doing practices, and they just aren't landing, or they're not getting you where it's like you know you want to be, there's just something off. There's and how do you know something's off? If you're if you're tired, if you're frustrated, if you're sad more than you should be, if you get frustrated, if you feel burnt out, any of those things, it's indication you're probably not where you're meant to be. And so it's probably time to try something new. It's time to step up to something a little bit more advanced, a little bit more modern. And that's what my life energy activation process is all about. So what's landing for you? I'm super curious. Like, is there some practice you've been doing? Like, has it been yoga, some other type of energy practice? Has it been a form of meditation, because, again, it's not that any of the things are wrong, it's just maybe it's time for you to have a new tool in your toolbox. And again, you know, once you have more tools, you'll start to know, oh, this is the go to tool every day in my life for what matters to me. And oh, it's so great I have these other tools at other times in my life, or just maybe that I now have things to share to other people, right? Because, again, you know, it's I'm so fortunate that I've done so many other tools, one for myself and then to suggest to other people, depending on where they might be at, right? Because it's sort of like, if I'm, you know, annoying as many different forms of mathematics that I know now, if I just, you know, go, oh well, you just apply calculus to it to everybody I meet. It's like, well, that can be overkill, right? It's like, I should be aware that there's that there's, oh well, you just need to, you know, you just need to divide those numbers like, that's all you got to do. And, oh, okay, let me learn that much easier, right? So, just such as with these, these practices. So I'd love to hear, you know what you're thinking, how it's house landing. Are you curious? So send me a send me an email. Connect with me on one of these platforms. So you know a Justin Wenck PhD on all the socials, and, I think podcast at Justin Wenck Calm, if you want to send, send an email. Yeah, real. Excited to hear what you think. And again, Justin Wenck, com slash, Leap, leap for the life energy activation process. Yeah, get on the list for that. But if you want something sooner, because, again, why would you want to wait for something that's going to change your life for the better than just, you know, reach out make sure that we can get this to you as soon as possible. Otherwise, if you are in the Bay area of California, May 2 absolutely come check out my my workshops only one hour, and again, you learn this process that only takes me four minutes to practice. So thank you with that and good day. Thanks for tuning in to engineering emotions and energy with Justin Wenck PhD, today's episode resonated with you. Please subscribe and leave a five star review. Your feedback not only supports the show, but also helps others find us and start their journey of emotional and energetic mastery. You can also help by sharing this podcast with someone you think will love it just as much as you do together, we're engineering more amazing lives. You.