The Adventure of Loving, Appreciating, Savoring & Trusting Life

The Adventure of Loving, Appreciating, Savoring & Trusting Life

Love and Relationships
Mindset
Entrepreneurship
Leadership
Health and Well Being
Freedom and Fulfillment
Travel and Adventure
Passion and Purpose

David, an American by birth, has chosen the city of love and pleasure – Paris, France - as his home for the last 30 years.  He spends his life searching for love and creating abundant sensorial experiences everywhere he goes, wherever and whomever he finds himself with. 

As the Sensorial Guy, and inspired by his own romantic personality, he inspires others globally to connect to each other in meaningful ways.  To find joy in the everyday, create moments of romance daily and find pleasure in the small details and nuances of life. 

Always from his intensively creative perspective, David expresses his love for life through writing, poetry, dancing, creating delicious meals in his professional home kitchen, gathering, and hosting people, and helping others transform from the stage as a storyteller.  

His work for the larger part of the last decade has been in developing his Sensorial Intelligence™ à programs, events, and lifestyle ~ which has been the catalyst for the creation of this heart warming first short story, Dance of the Love Caterpillars. This storytelling gem is a universal romantic love story between two caterpillars, an inspiration to lovers and would-be romantics of all ages.

David's Website: https://davidbrower.com/book/

Gifts:
https://davidbrower.com/gifts/

You will find on this page your special gifts from David.  

Exclusive first 5 minute teaser audio clip of #1 Best-Selling “Dance of the Love Caterpillars"

Downloadable pdf "Alivefulness™ Checklist: 
Six steps to feeling more ALIVE every day of your life.”

Special deeper dive webinar with David: “Make a Masterpiece of your life in 3 steps, without losing yourself on the way"

Special Discount: 20% off your first individual session with David (45 mins @ $ 150.00) 

Enter the code MOIRA2021 in the notes field when you schedule (New Clients only).

Moira's Website: http://moirasutton.com/

Create the Life you Love Community: https://www.facebook.com/CreatetheLifeyouLove1/

Transcript

Welcome to the Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast, a journey of self discovery and
transformation. Moira Sutton and her amazing guests share real life stories, tools and
strategies to inspire and empower you have to create and live your best life. Come along
on the journey and finally blast through any fears, obstacles and challenges that have
held you back in the past so you can live your life with the joy, passion and happiness that
you desire. Now, here's your Host Create the Life you Love, Empowerment Life Coach
Moira Sutton

Moira 00:59
Welcome to our second season episode 32. The Adventure of loving, appreciating
savoring and trusting life with our very special guest, author, speaker, poet and coach,
David Charles Brower. David, an American by birth has chosen the city of love and
pleasure Paris, France, as his home for the last 30 years. He spends his life searching for
love and creating abundant sensorial experiences. everywhere he goes, wherever and
whomever he finds himself with as the sensorial guy. I hope I'm saying that right. And
inspired by his own romantic personality. He inspires others globally to connect to each
other in meaningful ways to find joy in the everyday, create moments of romance daily,
and find pleasure in the small details and nuances of life. Always from his intensely
creative perspective, David expresses his love for life through writing, poetry, dancing,
which I love David, creating delicious meals in his professional home kitchen, gathering
and hosting people and helping others transform from the stage as a storyteller. His work
for the larger part of the last decade, has been in developing his sensorial intelligence
programs, events and lifestyle, which has been the catalyst for the creation of his
heartwarming first short story, Dance of the Love Caterpillars. This storytelling gem is a
universal romantic love story between two caterpillars, is an inspiration to lovers, and
would be romantics of all ages. So without further adieu, I'm so excited. I would like to
welcome our very special guest, David Charles Brower. Welcome, David.

David 02:45
Hi, Moira, lovely to be here. We both have been looking forward to this.

Moira 02:51
Yes. We trust in life. Don't wait because you had electricity issues down there last week,
when we were going to have our heartfelt conversation. So we just trust, and that's, that's
perfect. Okay, so let's dive in here. David, when you were growing up, you state that you
were an overly self conscious, small but very athletic kid. And you grew up in Beverly Hills
and in a family that was connected to the entertainment world? What was that like? And
what were the feelings that you you went through? Because you talked about isolation?
And how did that help? Did that all affect your sense of self expression? And your self
belief? And how did you start to heal parts of yourself and heal the emotional pains that
you experienced? That's a big question, David, I'm a big chunker but that's how I think.

David 03:43
Okay. I'll give it my best here. Yeah, there you go. So, yeah, I mean, I grew up in, in Beverly
Hills, and, you know, pretty, pretty good situation. I mean, everything in life is relative. And
I wouldn't say we were on the richer side of the train tracks or anything like that. But you
know, life was, life was fine enough. They said, I mean, you know, I was a very small kid, I
was under five feet tall, until I was about 17. And that wasn't such a big problem when I
was in grammar school. But once I got into high school, four different schools feed into
high school four times as many people and everyone started getting bigger. And so me
who was absolutely passionate about sports, I was, you know, everything for me. You
know, I just couldn't make the cut in anything. And so everything that I loved in life, mostly
athletics and sports and everything I'd lost and so with that I lost sort of connection with
friends. I lost kind of feeling that there was a connection with girlfriends and like be lovers
visibility, and oh my god, he's an athlete and like, my whole life, kind of got cut off and
then I lost a bunch of friends who started you know, smoking pot and I couldn't really keep
up, I get sick all the time. And I just kind of couldn't hang out with them. And they just kind
of let me go. And, you know, I spent probably a year and a half with not really any friends,
I kind of hung out with another guy who was kind of lonely also, and we rode around on
his scooter and smoke clothes, and, you know, whatever. And, you know, I had to sort of
create from there a life outside of high school, I had to do sports outside of high school,
got into Taekwondo and come at like six o'clock in the morning and do running in the
morning, because I couldn't be in any other athletic activity. And so it was, it was so
painful for me at the time. And, you know, I look back, as I've looked back on my life, so it's
quite a long time ago. And I just realized that, you know, these experiences, formed who
we are, if we're lucky to transform them somehow, by a love of life by a trust in, in our own
sort of destiny, and that things are going to work themselves out. And that our, our
differences and our failures and our are lackings, and, you know, all these pains are, can
turn into something really beautiful. And really, it feels like to me, that's what happened,
because I turned very much towards realizing I would have to find other ways to connect
with people, other ways to stand out. And I would actually be creating somewhat of an
original existence, I would be, you know, not following everyone not doing as the Joneses.
And consequently, even like comparing less myself to others, which was dramatic there. I
mean, I would go to school, in high school, in the beginning, didn't even have a car. And
you know, people are arriving in Lamborghinis, and Ferraris and Maseratis, and Porsches,
that are, you know, 16 years old, right. And, you know, every, every week, there's two or
three people wearing a bandage over their nose, because they've gotten a nose job. And
so it's just like a sick amount of money being thrown. And being used by and lived by
people didn't earn the money, it's the parents who you know, kind of have the money. So
it really twist you're head, a lot of my friends heads got twisted. And some, I think it was
the beginning of mine being able to kind of step away from a standard path live a normal
kind of life, so to speak, which led to when I got to college, I was studying political science,
because of course, political science is the most creative space and profession you can be
in, we all know this. And so I would, you know, write papers and things and just make up
arguments. And, and I got straight A's, it was pretty, pretty hilarious. But I realized there
that I was heading towards law school, because I fled kind of their careers of my parents
are in the Hollywood and theatrical side of the business, performer side and business side.
And I was so self conscious, and so afraid of criticism. And I just felt that I wasn't enough,
because I'd been told there wasn't enough, there wasn't big enough. And just, you know,
I'm a sensitive Leo, I guess, and maybe an empathic person. And it just all of that just
really got to me. And so I didn't want to fall into the path with of my parents in that sense,
I didn't want to be, you know, perhaps criticized or taught or have to go through the
process of learning to be an actor or a singer or a dance or something with with my mom
or saw is this Maria Karla figure who spoke five languages and sang opera, you know, is, it
was pretty daunting to feel that I would have to live up to something like that. And
frankly, all this stuff that I'd done sports wise, the sports that interesting, the most were the
ones that were kind of freestyle, I loved roller skating. I love paying catch the man with
the ball. So instead of sort of playing football, you'd like just hand me the ball. And I'm
trying to run and try and catch me. So interestingly, I was already starting as a young boy
to kind of just be different. So anyway, I get I studied to get into law school from UCLA
after political science. And I take two preparatory courses, right, the two main
preparatory courses, you can pay them like nobody does this, right. Like I'm preparing like,
like, like, it's never enough. It's never enough. And of course, I do horribly, horribly on the
test. And that was a crazy awakening moment. That was this lightning bolt. That said, This
is not your path, stop forcing and pushing. You need to go and roam and explore and
literally escape this context in this environment, and go in your own hero's journey and not
follow the crowd. Who's much of them or are hypnotized anyway? Or conditioned or you
know, there's a destiny that they don't want But they're just going into, because that's
what they do. That's what people do. And so here I am, three weeks after get out of
college where all my friends are either going to graduate school, or have a job or
something, I'm getting on a plane with a one way ticket to go to Paris, France, to basically
get away for a year, year and a half, you know, kind of saying, I'm going to come back and
go to law school still, in spite, you know, what happened. And, you know, that was sort of,
like key beginning of my life. And you know, that was 30 years ago, in the month of April
this year, 30 years, and I never moved back. I never moved back full time to live in the
United States after I left it. At that point, I've worked with American companies, I've
traveled there a lot for business and for holidays and stuff, but I never, I never moved
back. And I built a life, which very few Americans do, literally. I mean, there's less than
100,000 Americans that live in France. So probably half of them are retired people. And
the other perhaps even people, and I mean, residents are probably people are not really
there for that long. You know, maybe they're there for a year or two, because they want to
experience Paris, or they're on a mission for some company, or UNESCO or, you know,
something like this. And I've been there I you know, 30 years. So So yeah, that's a big piece
of the the beginning puzzle. I don't you want to pause for a moment? I think.

Moira 11:36
So you were you were 22. And you made this one way purchase, like one ticket to go one
way. Why Paris, France? You sound like you had traveled a lot of other places. Was that a
place for you that you were drawn? Because it it you know, it's sort of romantic and
people have these images of Paris friends? Is that why you chose them? Or did you have
other places you were going to look at to?

David 11:56
Well, firstly, I traveled a bit inside the United States and maybe to Toronto, and probably
Tijuana. But other than that, I hadn't traveled anywhere. I had very, you know, educated
illuminated worldly parents in a lot of ways. But I hadn't really traveled I'd never been to
Europe. And so it turns out, I was either gonna go to Spain or France, Spain was because I
spoke Spanish was the first second language I'd learned. And for France, you know, the
mystique of France. I mean, like even today still, like, how many times do we hear people
say, going to romantic escapade to Paris, the pace of pleasure is Paris. You know, if I had
a dream life, I'd moved to Paris. If I want to become a writer, I've moved there, you know,
but yeah, it's just like all of this stuff kind of going on, particularly for Americans. And part
of this actually is a parentheses is for my dad's generation. Right after the Second World
War, there were about 100 black and white movies made by Americans in the studios.
They're about romance and love and pleasure that took place in Paris France, which like
99% of them were filmed in studios, right? Not filmed in Paris at all. So anyway, close the
parentheses there. And the link is that my dad had in the early 70s tried to produce a
movie about Simone de Beauvoir, and John Paul Sartre, the guy who created
existentialism philosophy, and their love affair. And so he'd found a lawyer who would
help get the script to Simone de Beauvoir. Turns out the story never got made. But he kept
that relationship. And, you know, 20 years later, suddenly, he calls his lawyer friend and
says, Do you think you could give my son a, you know, an entry job or a mail boy job or
something, to just kind of get his foot in the door there for a few months. So with a student
visa was something very easy to do. And that's what decided that I would go there. I had
no interest in going anywhere else on the planet, because I had no idea at that time,
about anything outside of where I grew up. I was living in such a mano cultural, ghetto.
You know, which is a good getter to be and I'm not saying it isn't, but nonetheless, you
know, pretty, pretty same old, same old, you know, kind of life and people and
environment and experiences. And, you know, I had no idea there was all these different
cultures, and worlds and languages and foods, and like, you know, how people manage
trash cans and dog poop. You know, what bus the bus stands or like, and you know, how
men and women relate with each other, and how people dress. And yeah, I mean, so
many things that are different. So I really knew nothing, but that's why I went to Paris was
because of my dad's Help there. And then after those three months, I, I met someone
when I was there who helped me get the next job. And then just kind of things kind of
carried on until, until I, I kind of circled back into the entertainment business, which
couldn't really get away from me because my heart is a creative artists heart, a
storytelling heart, kind of a performance showman. You know, that's part of me, it's also
part of what I grew up in, and ended up heading back towards the entertainment business
without really realizing it, and getting a job with Disney and the publishing division, right
around when they launched the park in France, as well as the - it was like around Lion
King - which is like the biggest, biggest movie ever at the time. Right? great time to be
there. Except there's this massive company. And I was great. I was working with Europe,
Middle East and Africa. I started to travel. I met a beautiful French woman. We actually
got married so I could get papers and stay even though we were in love and trusted each
other. And, yeah, I mean, professionally, it led on for five years. And at some point, you
know, you get to a point these kinds of jobs and things, which was great, but I kind of
looking up above me and saying like, whose job do I want and like there's nobody in the
whole company whose job I want. And so you know, my, my passion, desire, originality,
had kind of outgrown, staying there, no matter you know how good a situation it was. And
so I left for a five person company. Also in the entertainment business distributing
programs to Latin America. We distributed the Jim Henson catalog, you know, the
Muppets and all that. And other things. And I became the, you know, the marketing
director, if you wish. And we dealt with Latin America. We distribute all this to Latin
America from Paris, totally crazy. So went from this massive multinational to a five person
startup. And then after five years, we got bought out by German company, went public. I
became the international VP of Marketing. And that lasted about a year until they
basically kicked me out because they had other plans. We stuck in Paris and didn't want
to move. And yeah, I'd in between been looking for something and actually fell up on
IMAX, the big screen cinema company, and worked for them for 10 years as they grew
from, I mean, you know, I'm actually in Canada. Yes, yes. And I had a glorious time working
for the world's really premier entertainment technology company for immersive you know,
sensorial cinema. Really the greatest I mean, for a certain time. The tagline was see more,
hear more, feel more, right? I mean, oh my gosh, hear I am, the sensorial guy. Don't make
them wince.

Moira 17:54
Isn't that interesting.

David 17:55
And so anyway, so all this time, I stayed because I was married to a beautiful loving
woman that I was I adored, and we'd started you know. We'd built a life. Very big French
family. And I loved it there. I love the food, I love the travel, I love the you know, five to
seven to 10 weeks a holiday year. I love being surrounded by so many different cultures.
And you know, that like living and loving life and pleasure and time off. And like all these
things that relate for me that kind of mean a successful life. I loved and I love still, you
know, so so yeah, I stayed there. And still I'm still there.

Moira 18:41
I know that part of the reason when I followed. Now it's interesting when you said where
you went and everything else because when I was in my 30s I've always liked travel and
culture and food and people and diversity and you know, I wanted to go to Australia and
back then you have to apply for like a work visa, I'm really, really convince them that you
are going to stay which I did at the time and then that fell through for some reason. And I
ended up I was in England and I came back to Canada for a course in something called
NLP neuro linguistic programming. And that's where I met my husband. So it's interesting
how things unfold if you just allow to follow you know, the flow and that.

David 19:20
Oh, and I love that Moira. That's one of the when I look back on my life, I say the greatest
moments of advancement and discovery in my life happened after me allowing myself to
explore and wander and saunter and roam. And somehow one way or another that brings
me back to my heart. It brings me back on my own path, not someone else's version. And
you run into serendipitously you run into by destiny you run into divinely whatever it is,
right? and these are the opportunities and it almost feels like you're have available to see
them and recognize them. Because you're not, you know, caught up in in stuff. Tat's not
what you should be cut up in. You know,

Moira 20:11
I know, we're both on the same terms with that, because you know, my crazy life you love
on your terms. You know, we're both about that, because it's not somebody else's, it's not
your parents, your sister, your brother, you know, it's what you want, and what you desire,
because I truly believe what you put on your heart, your desires were put there for you to
go explore them to live them. And you know, to really honor that and what you truly love,
but definitely on your terms. And instead of like you when we're younger, or something we
want to be like, not maybe I never wanted to be like the Joneses. But you do have that,
when you're younger, you know, it's growing up your self esteem and what you look like
what you feel like all those things. Then you get to a certain age. And that's, that's not that
important, really, at least not for everybody. But some people might still be exploring
differences with that, and having a hard time. But everyone's very unique. And we all have
a unique path and a gift to you know, to bring out to the world and contribute. So living in
Paris, I heard everything you said about the you know, pleasure, beauty, and you're in
touch with your senses every day. Tell us what Paris taught you about diversity and the
differences of people. I would like to hear that from you.

David 21:22
Well, one of the the great moments I remember early on after I'd been in Paris for three
months, I was actually traveling around Europe, I found myself in Spain, I was in a
beautiful medieval village called Ronda. And I was alone, I'd left my friends who I had
been traveling with and I went out dancing, like you would have done. And, you know, I
find myself in a nightclub underground in its old cellar. And like, all night long, for three
hours, they played Spanish music. And, you know, everyone is singing along to most of the
songs. And it was this unbelievable culture shock for me, right to say like, wait a minute,
where I come from doesn't own culture, where it come from doesn't isn't the world culture.
You know, they're way more and way different. And just as valid other expressions at all
levels, food arts, lifestyle, I mean, it's just, there's so many ways to live a life. And there's so
many different cultures, and there's so many different expressions. And so that was a
massive moment for me to realize that, like other people can love something, as much as I
love my culture or my music, you know, and that's great. I'm like, so happy for them. Even
if I know nothing about it, even if I don't like it, I mean, it doesn't doesn't really matter,
right? So you know, to have the respect for that, to honor that to notice and see that. And
Gosh, maybe even you like it, maybe there's something to appreciate, well, suddenly, you
start to learn all these different cultures. And in Paris, you're surrounded by so many, you
know, within two hours of flight, cheers. There's 25 countries, including even Africa, just
about. So Paris has a lot of mixed cultures and people and in jobs, you're surrounded by a
lot of different mixed people. And they're, oftentimes are very close to their language and
their culture, because their countries not too far away. Or maybe their family is moved
there also. So you know, there's that. I wouldn't say Paris is the most international place
for food. That's changed a little bit, but French food is so dominant. And so fundamental.
And so, you know, so impressive and so, so eclectic. I mean, there's so many, you know,
300 plus cheeses already, right? You know, in all the different kinds of wines and I mean,
the, the endless myriad of, of dishes, and the, you know, sincere attachment to the
agricultural diversity of what's, what's created there. And so, you know, there's already so
much there to experience when it's good, and there's a lot of good places to eat, when
you know where to go. And also, when you cook at home, I mean, outside my place, 50
yards away here, I have an outdoor market, on two sides of the street for 300 yards, right?
Beautiful. So every, you know, every three days, every two, three days, I can go and get
fresh food from artesanal, mostly artesanal. You know, entrepreneurs really, or
fishmongers, or meet people, etc. So there's a lot of that. I've always, you know, when I
came to Paris, I did not do the expatriate life at all. I surrounded myself by French people. I
wanted to learn the language, the culture. I married a French woman. And so the diversity
started to form around there and it wasn't that I didn't have some expatriate friends, but
my focus wasn't necessarily on that. And I'm significantly committed to the idea that the
richness of our life comes from the diversity of experiences and people and foods and
drinks, you know, all these sensory sensorial experiences that we can choose, and offer
ourselves. And I would even say probably even more significant, which is not necessarily
Paris related. But, you know, I've traveled since I moved to Paris, you know, massively
around the world. And so I've had, you know, unbelievably exotic, interesting, rich
experiences that have been fundamental to who I am, that have been, you know, life
changing, and how I experience the world, how we see the world, how we respect and
honor other cultures, other perspectives, other ways of being in you know, and living. So
suddenly, yeah, Paris for that has been very good. On the other side, I mean, Paris is very
strong culture, very strong you know, attachment to the language, they want you to kind
of fit in, you know. It's a, it's a centralized system. It's very paternalistic, in how it's run, you
know. There, there's a certain rigor in the way that they want things to be done, etc,
alongside this sort of Latin kind of craziness. So, you know, it's kind of a balance to, to find
in there, all of that. But, you know, everyone comes to Paris, I can't tell you how many
people you know, Paris is what the second or first most visited city in the world. So it's
your, your people come to you. And so the diversity of the world comes to you and you just
open your dinner table if you want. And, you know, you have unbelievably enriching mixed
blended experiences, where people can bring their richness, their culture, their originality,
and share with you a way of being in in knowledge and, you know, their version of loving
life. And it's so enhances the way that you experience the world. You know, it's like, you're
getting dopamine hits, by having just an evening with people sharing their lives, it's so
great. Like, like, like mindedness is so overrated for me. Like, I need to go, let's go hang out
with like minded people. Like you kidding? I get that what they mean by that the same
time, I'm like, well, you understand, that's why the world has all its problems. Because like
minded people only hang out with like minded people. And they don't want to hear from
non like minded people. You know, I'm saying, so it's like, that's a little bit of a conflict. But
maybe that's a conversation for another day.

Moira 27:43
So you've coined this term 'sensorial intelligence'. So is that what that is, is what you're just
talking about, with the richness and experiencing in life and food and just all experiences,
because that's a really neat term that you've coined. So if you can expand on what that
means to you, and our listeners can learn from that. And then how can they begin to,
what's the first step she was tell somebody to start implementing this into their life every
day? Because a lot of people get stuck in, you know, we're gonna talk about that a bit
boredom or no excitement and they're just sort of going through the motions without any
emotions I talk about. They've kind of lost that sense, because they're overwhelmed or,
you know, they just don't know where to go back to that. If they even had it at any time.
How do you teach people that and just expand on that a bit?

David 28:34
Sure, I mean, about sensorial intelligence, I feel like the world has become very black and
white, you know, it's lost this diversity, this nuance, this range, this fluidity to dance within,
you know, different experiences. I mean, you know, like a light switch, I don't just want an
on or off, I'd like to have a variator to let me adjust the light to how much light I want to
have, in the moment, spontaneous, strategically planned, whatever. But to have that
choice to be able to variate my experience, my reaction, my sense of what's happening,
my perspective, the meaning I give it, the value, I give it, the importance, I give it the
fundamentalism, the essentialism that I didn't actually bring to it. So on one side, it feels
like you know, the world can be lost in this perception that pleasure is a is a hedonic, you
know, like Jim Morrison over the top crazy drug crazy sex, like addiction level, you know,
way of experience where like, what like we get so lost in that just pleasure for pleasure
sake, that it kind of loses its, its, its really its value in some ways. And, and almost we
become so used to that, that we can't sort of, you know, leave that at like, that's the only
way we find meaning is suddenly only doing stuff at such an extreme and taking drugs or
whatever it is. That, you know, we get lost. On the other extreme, you know, there's
knowing your intelligence. And I feel like that's a little bit too, you know, Cartesian, it's a
little bit too logical. It's a little bit too rational, perhaps a bit masculine. Too sort of
planned maybe a little bit too strategic, not very serendipitous. And it's just sort of another
extreme. And what I'm really seeking searching and living and sharing is there's, there's
sort of a middle road that we can dance within. And the only way to get good at dancing
with this, and it's kind of a way of dancing with our emotional reaction to the world, our
psychological reaction, you know, etc. And so, the way to find the middle road that I
found is really to get more intimate with your senses. And what I mean by that is, through
your sensory experiences, you start to notice and observe things much more than if you're
caught in your head in some thought, or you're in some space, that's only around thinking.
And so what happens when we actually go into the embodiment, we go into the feeling,
we go into the emotion of it, and we sort of start this more conversational relationship,
within ourselves and with the world and with others, in a way that makes it so that we
have a much bigger palette of expression, experience, feelings, emotions, and then we
start to not run from things when we experience we get kind of a little bit out of fight
flight, or freeze, you know, we can we have a little more agency over ourselves, to stretch
ourselves to dare to live more, an open life, open minded, open hearted, and to love
because we're willing to live without regrets, and we want to get stronger in life. And so for
me, it's you know, it's it's how do we how do we do that, and it's a sort of form of
mindfulness. I call it alivefullness, but I'll get to the that. You know, it's a certain form of
mindfulness, this sensorial intelligence, where it's really the, the way you get there is you're
just really checking in with yourself first, you know. I'll be riding up the mountain path on
my bike, the one that I've taken 25 times 100 times, and I'm kind of lost in thought. I'm not
really there in the present moment. And so I need to get myself to the present moment. I
need to trigger that and basically ask myself, you know, am I here? And, and suddenly,
you know, start focusing on my breathing and sense my heart and, you know, feel my
body moving and, you know, suddenly say, Oh, yeah, I am here I, I am with myself, and
present to my self. And once we kind of get there, you know, you can say that you are
here. And when you are here, then you can ask yourself, well, where am I? You know, what
am I doing? What am I experiencing? And this is when you can kind of use your senses to
look around, well look at these beautiful trees. I can feel the wind brisking across me. It
feels kind of chilly, because I'm sweating underneath my shirt, and you're like, wow, I can
feel my legs. The power in my legs and in the muscles kind of working. This feels so great. I
really like this, you know, and you kind of go through that sense. And then you know, you
want to ask yourself, "What are you appreciating?" Now that you're really here to
appreciate it fully. And you're getting the most out of the moment, you're like really
maximizing? Because you've brought yourself through your senses back to this moment.
And then it's like, well, what am I appreciating about this to externalize that, from what
you're kind of saying to yourself and in your head, like, Oh my god, yeah, this is I'm so I'm
so loving this feeling of freedom on the bike, you know, this, the movement, and you know,
the way that it's making me breathe heavy, because I don't get to really get my breath up
that high during the day, this is really the one moment where I get to kind of push myself
and stretch myself, you know, so you just kind of go through, you know, the appreciations
that you can have, which is kind of a certain form of gratitude, but it's a little bit different.
And then you know, the expression of that comes in the savoring of it. You know really if
you can, like value, what you're experiencing and give it meaning and celebrate it and get
that smile on your face, right? Like oh my god, how bloody lucky am I to be cycling
through this forest with clean air? Loving it, it's the middle of the day. No one else gets to
go biking during the middle of the day. You know, I'm absolutely loving this right and to
really get your into a space of abundant feeling in your body, about what's going on and,
and so it's kind of the pathway that you work through, getting back in touch with yourself
to get back into this abundant state. And really, for me, it's been a way to throw it off
hedonic adaptation, which I'm sure you know about. But it's as you know, this cognitive
habit of sort of cataloging things, and experiences that we have. So that we don't have to
really think about it becomes sort of an automaticity for us, which is very useful, a lot of
ways you know, to go on autopilot. But if you're eating dinner every night, and you're so
used to just sitting and sitting in the same spot, and never making it a celebration, or
special or extra tasty, tasty, or daring to do something you haven't done, or you're not like
shaking up by drinking, you know, different kinds of wine, or, you know, we get into the
sort of groundhog day no matter what the level of your life is, right. And so the way you
got to, you got to kind of snap yourself out of this, by really getting into a state of
savoring, like how good it is. And this has helped me thwart off anxiety and feelings of, of
scarcity, you know, like, like, Oh, poor me, you know. But I'm here enjoying oysters, that I
you know, went and bought on the ocean side, myself, and I've opened myself, which is
such a gift to be able to do that. And you know, I've made a beautiful table, and I'm kind
of celebrating, and just making life like an ongoing celebration, because at the end of the
day, you know, life can be long, but life can be short. And the people we love in our lives,
the jobs we have, the capacities we have our health, our relationships, everything can
change in a moment's notice. This is the nature of life, this sort of impermanence. And if
we can embrace I believe, we can embrace the sense of appreciation and savoring, and
real presence, so that we know we're not taking for granted, anything that we
experienced in life, especially the people and ourselves, that no matter what happens in
their life, we'll be resiliently ready for it. And on top of it, we will have opened our senses.
And so our experience to kind of stretch ourselves, maybe to experience things that make
us a little bit uncomfortable. But we've been doing it for so long. And we've started to do
that emotionally because it translates. And so we're living really a full life with way more
expansion and ability. And I would call that strength really, and emotional resilience and
range. Because we're living this very kind of diverse open life, that's pretty daring. To to
do. I mean, cold showers is kind of another example of this, you know, kind of choosing
voluntarily to create austerity in your life, when you have hot water to say, I'm going to do
cold water, which is super healthy, you know, go see your doctor, but I was super healthy
experience to have. And on top of it, it teaches you that your head is thinking all these
things, but you can do it anyway. And at the end afterwards, you kind of feel good about
it, and you celebrate it. And on top of it, if you really get into the sensorial sensai level I
would call it you actually find pleasure in almost a form of, of equanimity pleasure, if I can
call it that, in actually taking the cold showers. You've done it, you know so much that you
actually and you valued it so much. And it has meaning for you so much as you've chosen,
and created in practiced and cultivated this, that suddenly in your life, you can dare to do
so many more things, just even by little steps doing more and more and more and more.
And you live away more expansive, colorful, joyful experience of, of life. Like I hang out
with a lot of artistic people. A lot of people don't have anyone in their life that you know, is
artistic, you know, that plays a piano or sings or then again, people are hiding their
talents. You have a dinner party, if someone knows how to sing, and you're not having
them sing at the end of your dinner party to share that healing that joy with others is a
great word in French. I'm sure you know this because you're fluent in French right Moira?
There's a word called allegresse which is shared joy. It's when you're externalizing and
sharing the joy and at the end of the day, we fill up our cups, you know, so we can share
and this is what it's this is what it's really about. So, so anyway, it's been for me sensorial
intelligence has been this pathway. A way to enable and empower others to live more
daring lives, where they stretch themselves in ways that can be driven through a doorway
of pleasure. And yeah, it's, it changes the quality of your existence of every day, almost
without changing any of the decisions you're making. Afterwards, of course, making other
decisions comes, I think, because the moment you get more present to yourself in your life,
you start to realize actually what you like and what you don't like, what you have a
preference for, and what what are kind of shades of grey that you can explore in. You get
more curious, you start to have conversations with people that are more intimate, that are
more you know, kind of stretching and getting them to share a little bit more about
themselves, because you're also sharing more of you. You're loving more them and what
they're doing what they're sharing, and they're loving more. And so there's like this, this
wave and vibration that you're raising, by living in, and from a sensorial intelligence, and
for me, it means you're kind of loving, you're loving more the world, not just your kind of
conditioned, you know, maybe a little bit, vanilla ice cream, narrowed down version, which
is kind of driven by, you know, let's streamline this. Let's life is transactional, let's just get it
done, you know, let's, let's crush it, let's, you know, all these kinds of things that make it so
we're not smelling the flowers. And my gosh, I mean, if there's anything more important
than just being here, and smelling the flowers, and being really present to that, and being
totally embodying presence, with the people that you love, and in the work that you do,
and all of this makes for a world where I feel we love the world more, and we have a
bigger capacity to deal with, with trauma crisis, and the serendipity that life has. And we
can dance a little bit between security and adventure a little bit more. As you know, I
really love of course, the work of a dear friend Esther Perel and her erotic intelligence, a
lot of, you know, similarities in some ways, and what I talk about, about living this life that
is, you know, more playful and colorful, and expansive. And yeah, you need to be kind of
bold, to be who you are, to share who you are, and to let others be who they and they're
sure of, and overall have a relationship that you love in spite of all of that.

Moira 42:47
Wow! That's That's wonderful. You've pretty much answered all the things I was going to
be asking you so I'm glad you just shared from your heart exactly what you were feeling in
the moment. Because there's people who they say they don't even know what their
passions are, or they don't know how to discover them, or they don't know how to make a
big leap. Oh, how scary is that? What would your advice be there for those people
because I know I shared with you that, you know, 32 years ago, my my love of my life and
soulmate Cliff, and husband, you know, we sold everything, bought a sailboat, and we
lived in the Bahamas, and that was 32 years ago. And we still have the feeling from that
every day and him diving for fish and spearing fish and lobster and the people and we
were the healthiest. You know, you walked everywhere, it was just such an adventure. And
now we're, you know, we didn't know if we were coming back. We bought a one way
ticket, with you, and we just didn't know when we were coming back. And you know, this
time, we're stepping into a new experience selling our house, we're not sure where we're
going to go. But we do know, you know, what some values that we have that we want to
be in alignment with is nature and water and great food and community and also privacy
so we can have our own time, along with having conversations with people in that. So how
do you share with your people that you talk to, for them to follow their passions? Do
people come up to you and say, I don't know what my passion is? I don't know how to do
that. Do you have those kinds of conversations?

David 44:22
Yeah, those kinds of conversations come or people don't believe that they can actually
spend more time living their passion, passion. Obviously, a lot of people don't believe they
can make a living living their passion. There's lots of things that you know, I just want to
come back again to everyday living. For me, if you can't find a way, I don't know you like
to play piano and you can't find a way already just to spend more time, invest more time,
create more time, steal more time, negotiate more time, do whatever the heck you have
to do to get a little slice of that more frequently. And to get the experience of being in that
more frequently. So I mean, that's, I think it's just, it's also a choice a decision of priorities
at a certain level, and people live more or less busy lives. But nonetheless, there's always
an opportunity to make one choice over another, and to make to find a way to make that
happen. And, you know, there's this kind of story, I guess, it's a young monk that comes up
to the master monk and says, "You know, I want to move to a new city, I don't like the
place from living." And the Master says, "Well, you know, you're, you know, he says, You're
not really passionate about where you live, you don't, you can't find a way to like". And
he's like, "No, I don't like it and I want to move somewhere else." And Master says, "Well,
you're not going to be happy where you are moving either." So you know, it just begs the
question. Have you really found creative ways in making your decisions and choices and
lifestyle designing around your environment, your relationships, what you nourish, and
educate your mind and heart and soul with how you invest your money, where you spend
your time. If you believe that you're doing that in the way that is passion, makes your life
passionate, then you're living a passion life, as far as I'm concerned. If you're looking at
your life, and you're saying that that's not the case, then we need to find a way to offer
you some moments of passion. And already, like, do you know what that is? And you
know, if you do, well how do we find a way that you can experience more of that, and
maybe for some people, they have a want or desire for something that they haven't
experienced? That's well, you know, we've got to find a way for you to get an experience
of that. And not just, you know, a little moment, even though that's instant, because
usually the beginning period, of something can be, you know, a little bit exciting, probably
very shortly, but suddenly, we get very daunted by the realization of the ownership of, and
the responsibility of actually, you know, living that passion or taking the time to do that
thing. So, takes a little bit time actually to experiment with something before you actually
know if this is what you want to do, what you want to kind of continue with or pursue. So I
mean, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing replaces, experiencing what you believe you
want to spend and invest more of your life with, and to come in it at it with sensorial
intelligence presence. So that as you're experiencing it, you're giving it your full
engagement, you're giving it the best opportunity for it to develop, potentially into
something meaningful, and valuable in your in your life. If you you know, you love to
dance, but every time you go there, All you think about is your work. So you're not really
there, and you're not really getting the experience. So you go to Kung Fu, or you go
swimming, or piano class, or, you know, I don't know, you know, if you're not really able to
bring yourself there, because you can't let go of all these mental thinking attachments, I
just feel you're gonna have a hard time getting the most out of it. I mean, for me, like, if
there's a life hack to learn faster, to experience faster, it's obviously presence, you being
self aware, to bring yourself back to a state of presence. And as you know, my route is
very similar to meditation. What I'm talking about, and I use the word alivefullness,
because what we want to be is in a meditation in real life. You know, what is meditation,
it's an intimate, quiet moment with ourselves, to explore within us and to be with
ourselves. And okay, there's various different versions, but it's that rendezvous with our,
with ourselves. And what happens in meditation our thinking goes crazy. And we need to
train ourselves to gently let it pass like clouds, and gently pull the puppy dog, puppy dog
back of our awareness to starting again, to start again, and being gentle with ourselves
and compassionate with ourselves. And allowing ourselves to realize that that's probably
not going to stop the thinking. But if I can train my focus and awareness to be someone to
guide to be guided fluidly somewhere else, and I get better and better at doing that. In my
regular life, I get better and better at not focusing on the negative things not focusing on
the, on the certain things that you don't want to and you start to develop an ability to
focus more on what you do want to. So yeah, it's that's kind of how I approach passion
and like you've demonstrated in your life. At some point, you need to really consider
making a leap potentially where you cut off all other possibilities, so to speak, you burn
the bridges. You know, you get on that plane with a one way ticket. And you actually let
let yourself discover what will happen. And you know, what's what's greater than that?

Moira 50:17
Yes, yes.

David 50:20
Not everything needs to be planned, right? Most plans go wacky. I can't believe public
companies that list on the stock market, they come out every year with their strategic
plan and everything. Like nothing gets accomplished at the end of the year. You know,
they're spending all this money because they have to justify, and for most of them or a lot
of them. Like it never goes as planned. It never goes as planned. And I'm

Moira 50:47
Sorry, I love the idea that when people say, 'Where are you moving?' Yes, we're exploring
Nova Scotia and we're exploring some areas. But then again, you know, we might go
explore BC, and then explore some other areas and then make a decision. We're not sure
how that part's gonna unfold. And we're not too worried about it. I totally trust in the
universe, the universe hears what I'm saying. And who knows what that looks like. And I'm
okay with that. I kind of like it.

David 51:12
Yeah, and I think precipitated decision sometimes. I mean, you have to dance with this.
Absolutely. But, you know, selection is, is a quite fine art. Right? Whether it's selection of a
loved mate, whether it's selection of your work path, whether it's selection of where to
move, you know, due diligence has a value. Nothing could be better than a due diligence,
and actually you and going and spending some time in a place potentially through
various seasons. It's almost like, you know, you have a relationship with somebody you
want to go camping and create difficult scenario, and you wanna have an argue with
them, right? You want to see like, the different experiences of what it's actually like, before
deciding like, like, you know, let's go to Nova Scotia or BC or wherever, let's immediately
buy a house and then we'll see. No, no, well, that's, that's crazy. It's absolutely crazy.
Experiment, explore, but do it, you know, you know, fully there. And I think people don't
give themselves permission enough to kind of make drastic decisions, sometimes
impulsive, potentially, with not enough heart and soul and like feeling and sensing
information, intuition, and instinct, you know. They said, "Don't let me decide." I mean,
that's, there's so many ranges of the spectrum. You know, let people be successful,
whatever way it works for them, for sure.

Moira 52:34
We have so much here to cover, David, I'm thinking I'm gonna have you back. Looking at
this, I know they're like with a dive into the alivefullness, but we also know that they can,
they're going to be able to go to a link and get that information from you about, you
know, comfort zone expansion, meaning making conscious adventures, all those things.
And we can go into that another time. I do want to touch base though, in this interview -
and the next one we can expand. As I said, your beautiful book "Dance of the Love
Caterpilliars; an Inspirational Romantic Tale of the Adventure of Loving and Trusting life."
How did you come up with that? Why did you write a fiction book? And who do you want
to read it and the messages you want them to take away? Big chunker question again?

David 53:20
You're good at those. So, you know, I mean? So in about two years ago, I must today, a
couple of days ago, I had a dramatic life experience, which was losing my beloved French
wife of 27 years. And after she passed away, I went on my own self discovery, roaming,
you know, trying to get back to David's, you know, sexual, creative, vibrant soul. And, you
know, went off and did lots of different things from Burning Man to Vipassana, Vipassana,
you know, 10 day 110 hour Silent Retreat.

Moira 54:13
Wow.

David 54:15
Doesn't get more non sensory than that, whereas Burning Man with absolute sensory
overload. And, you know, went to South Africa jumped off the highest bungee jumping
bridge in the world there and boot krons 216 meters. And just kind of let myself roam and
explore and kind of find my way towards my, you know, next evolution, so to speak. And
during that period, I came up with this, you know, this allegory. I almost want to live life
more as an art form. Then, let's say a science or theory or you now this type of thing, and I
was just wondering, 'How can I write something that would be, you know, a healing for me
a metamorphosis that would remind me of what I had lived through, and what potentially
my life could I could live through again.' Who knows in life. And be something I would
want to read again and again, something I would want to listen to in a narrated music
format, that would remind me again, and again, that life is full of serendipitous moments,
things we are uncertain about things we do not control. And that change and if there's an
impermanence, of existence of relationships of, of jobs of us. I mean, so many things, right.
And so, yeah, I wrote this as, you know, a way to express that I want to live with an open
heart. I don't want to live a life of regret, or, you know, ongoing sadness or grief, or, you
know, a woe is me, or, you know, Oh, poor David, or, you know, getting caught in some sort
of scarcity, sense, around love and loving and romantic relationships. And that this story
would serve me to remind me that, you know, any moment you can meet a new love an ex
love. And it could be, you know, some random serendipitous thing you didn't expect would
happen, they didn't expect would happen. And suddenly, there you are, and life is
suddenly again, evolved, and changed in. You know, this only happens really, if you go out
and explore if you, you know, open up your heart again, which is another way of opening
and exploring. If you explore within yourself, and you don't hide away from the pain, and
you let things flow through you, and you do the work that you need to do with and for
yourself, and you bring yourself to a place of trusting life again, to the point where you're
not fearful, you're not, you know, oh, I'm going to get hurt. This is too scary, this is too
much for me, this is not enough, this is, you know, all these other things also, or even being
in a place of comparison. And, you know, the book wants to remind me, and I hope
everyone else that, you know, living is full of loving life, which involves trusting it, and that
anything can happen, and we need to dance with that. And metamorphosis may come
and it's a choice, or maybe it's not a choice, and overall along the way, you know, the
imperative, our, our, our moral obligation to life. If we love life, if we say we love life, that
we want to be able to savor all of the sensations and sensorial adventures, and an
emotional range of things and intellectual thinking and all of this, that, that we are
exposed to in life without closing off and becoming, you know, a hermit or somebody who,
who is suffering because they can't open up and they can't face what life has brought to
them, and or when they're pursuing success or their ambitions, etc, that they can't quite
get there. Because they're, they're not able to, to savor that this chaos is, is part of the
adventure of life. And so savor it and enjoy it and get pleasure out of it. It's going to be
purposeful, you know, and live your passion, follow your passion, if that's what's meaning
for you. Have the courage to dare and stretch yourself. And yeah, overall, savor it, have
fun, make it playful. It's going to be meaningful if you're present. If you're open to
possibility, if you love with a full, pure, real heart, you cannot live with regret. Whatever
happens, you will know that you gave who you are, to yourself, to your loved ones to the
world. And for me, that's living a fulfilling purposeful meaning life and in the end, a
performance life. And so I wanted to write it for people that you know, some having a
similar situation to me doesn't really matter with anyone who's loved anyone who is
experienced loss of some sort, anyone who maybe is being challenged to love life again
and to trust it again, and to to open themselves up to experimentation and exploration
and, and you know, trusting the magic of what happens when you open up to like, what
can happen here, what are the gifts in today? And you start to open and see things. And
as you experience more, you start to stretch yourself and you try those five kinds of
cheeses that smelled so bad in France, you would have never eaten them. And suddenly
you are. And like life, you suddenly reason like we talked about in the beginning, the
diversity of life, that there's a full offering, and that we will find love again. But we need to
be love ourselves. And we need to love. Life is the demonstration of being love of loving
ourself. The greatest demonstration is that we are externally loving life. It's not just a
facade. And it's a genuine smile with soulful eyes. That ideally, of course, is kind and
generous, and empathic and compassionate, even though life is doing life. And we're all
kind of you know, students of facing the different challenges as we're trying to achieve
something, you know, get something to happen, hustling, whatever is happening. But
overall, to just savor it. Because I can tell you, me having lost the love of my life. The only
reason I don't have any regret is that we fully lived and loved and savored each other in
the life that we had. And didn't let the moments just pass by without celebrating as many
as possible, making them qualitative and pleasurable. And, you know, nourishing to our
souls and our hearts. So, when you live like this, and you're fully present to life and loving
it, you know, you live a life you love.

Moira 1:01:56
Like you also live the life you love and love the life that you lead. I love that.

David 1:02:02
I mean, that's the whole thing about this idea that, you know, there's two sides, it's, you
know, it's kind of a universal law thing, like we're talking about this monk story. Like, if you
can't love the life, you're you're living how can you live the life you love and vice versa?
Right? And or, if you can't find the value in a life, that's already pretty good, in a lot of
ways, or you can't find the things in the life that are good, you know, why is that going to
be different down the road? It's not. You're going to do the same thing when you get, you
know, successful or whatever result or outcome that you know, you're going to be looking
for what's missing, what's lacking? You're going to be saying, I need more. you're going to
be in FOMO. You're going to be in comparison. So already you need in your current world
to be in this, you know, this place of abundance and gratitude and appreciation and
savoring and these types of things

Moira 1:02:56
I used to do, I created something called gratitude dance when I spoke on cruise lines. Cliff
and I both spoke cruise lines for about five years. And I got people up and they loved it it
did this arm movement thing and all that but I got them to build up in you know, it's all
around gratitude, you know, and it was a lot of fun for people and I noticed I watched one
of your videos where you to celebrate at the end of it for a company and I thought man
I've done celebrate for on the cruise line. I also did Black Eyed Peas, "Tonight's gonna be a
good night". So really, people got up and danced.

David 1:03:31
My sister!

Moira 1:03:33
I think so we have dolphins and all the stuff. I would love you to read choose a passage
from your book. I love author's reading from your voice. Just a segment from your book
that you thought would be really good as we come to a close of our heartfelt conversation
today.

David 1:03:58
Give me a moment.

Moira 1:03:59
Yes, no, for sure.

David 1:04:32
We don't want to give away the punch line. So why don't I read this? This page here this
passage? It's kind of in the middle of the the book in Yeah, I think it's a it's a beautiful
moment in the story two caterpillars. wondering about this, you know, metamorphoses
that's imminent. "What if we tried to connect our cocoons together by a thread? Do you
think that we could pass through to the other side, and then become a husband and
bride? Most of us caterpillars will spend 30 days in the cocoon. Some are faster and do it
in seven, and others stay more than a year. I wonder if we really get this choice? What is
life choose for us? And what if our timing is all off? We come out from the mysterious
cocoon ride. And we're not together, side by side. I've heard rumors that we will change
colors, your pink and my blue will become black, orange, and white."

Moira 1:05:54
So beautiful, so beautiful. And I have read this book several times. And I gave it to my
husband right the other day and my mother and I believe it's a beautiful book for
somebody to have the size of it, just to keep to remind you about trusting life and the
adventure of love. Thank you, David. David, can you share via you're welcome to thank
you so much. Could you share with our listeners today, you've created a special gift and
an offer for them just for them. And I appreciate that. Because I appreciate my community
also, and know that all the links where you can find David, and your amazing gifts will be
below this episode in the show notes. So David, if you could share that that would be
wonderful.

David 1:06:37
Sure. I believe I believe there's three things that we put on there. Is that right there?

Moira 1:06:41
There's something like that. I'm looking at it.

David 1:06:43
Yeah. So one of the one of the tools I wanted to just share is a is a PDF download, which is
a an alivefullness checklist that can bring you into this. How do I live with more
alivefullness in my everyday life that you can you can download and use which is a useful
and you know pleasurable, purposeful and performant document. The other thing I
prepared specifically for for you, the listeners here Moira's podcast is to offer, I think it's
the first five minutes of dance of the love caterpillars the audio version, which I've not
offered to anybody. And so to give you a sense, it's my narration. And what makes it really
unique and beautiful is you know, it's told them a storytelling kind of fashion. While it's
accompanied by an original piano composition, by Viara Ivanova Dietrich, and it's just an
exquisite an exquisite piece of music really, really married well with my narration. It's just
a it's a beautiful, lovely piece. I don't know if Moira you've been able to, to listen to that
yet.

Moira 1:08:08
I listened to part of it. It was beautiful. Thank you so much.

David 1:08:12
And then lastly, I've just offered you know a very friendly Moira special price for any one
on one coaching sessions that someone would like to experience with me. So there's a link
there to set that up.

Moira 1:08:31
That's very generous of you. I really appreciate that. David, thank you so much for sharing
from your heart and soul your wisdom on the adventure of loving, appreciating savoring
and trusting life. Namaste. Thank you.

1:08:50
Thank you for listening to the Heart Soul Wisdom Podcast with Moira Sutton. I hope you
enjoyed today's episode. Please join our community at moirasutton.com and continue the
discussion on our Facebook page, Create the Life You Love. You will be part of a global
movement connecting with other heart centered people who are consciously creating the
life they love on their own terms. Together we can raise our consciousness for the greater
good of humanity and for our planet.