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Being faced with that at the time, my baby was eight months old. And boy, I did not know what to do. I did not know how to say goodbye, how to leave an infant, not even one years old, and a husband that I loved, a home, a job, a community. I didn't know how to leave all of it behind.
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Welcome to the ownership game with Gary Montalvo. What would it take to get into the driver's seat of your life and leave your mark? The ownership game starts now. What would you do if you were just told that you had three months to live? I'll make it even better. What would you do if you had just been told you have three months to live and you have an eight month old child that is facing growing up without her mother?
That's the crossroad that my guest today found herself in. Refusing to accept the prognosis she had just been given, she quickly devoted herself to finding a way to survive. This led her to discover an entire world of ancient alternative holistic wellness practices that she very much credits to saving her life today. Now, she devotes herself to teaching others what she has learned. Welcome to the show, Meagan Price.
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Hi, Meagan. So I'm excited to have you because we don't do a lot of woo woo on the show. It's not, it's not, we've done a little, we're woo woo at J-Fam, but we don't go down the rabbit hole like I think we're about to go. So I'm excited. And it's not even a woo woo. actually, that's probably one of things that we should talk about because it's like, so much of the stuff you do is like ancient practices that have been around for centuries.
That are rooted in like science and there's a whole physical physics and scientific theory behind what you do. And Wu Wu just seems a little disrespectful, right? But it's my endearing name for, you know, all the- Mine too, I'm into it. No, I'm not. It's hard to coat anywhere with these breads in and like all the crystals and not like lead in with that. Yeah. Come on strong that way, I'm good with that. Yeah.
When I say woo woo, I really don't mean any disrespect. It's just like my endearing name for it. you know, in my traditional background is, you know, I'm a mindset coach. And then I became a business coach because as I started to grow my business and figure out what it took to grow my business, I became really passionate about sharing that with other entrepreneurs. And, you know, as you know, coaching has been moving.
towards more spiritual, towards more of these other holistic practices in recent years, and rightfully so, because they're powerful and so much of coaching was rooted on so much of that stuff to begin with, it just wasn't like out. So anyway, I've been babbling, I wanna talk about, let's introduce people a little bit about what you do, and then I wanna get into, I wanna start with Chigane, I think.
kind of where I want to start. but like give the people a little bit of background about yourself and what are some of the things that you do. The many, many, many, many, many things that you do. I mean, many things. We don't have the time to talk about all of them. Yeah, I love that you guys don't do woo-woo things, because my background is in academics, for sure. My degree is in university studies, which means I got to a point where I'd taken so many classes, the university was like,
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You have to leave. You can't stay. You have to go. Like, it's enough. I mean, like had some like obscene like 360 some odd credits and they were like, why don't you have a bachelor's degree? You've taken every class we offer. I'm like, I just like to learn. I like the way that different branches, even in the academics world, right? How the thoughts fit together. And I like watching how different people learn things. And that skill served me really well.
When I had a health crisis, about 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with MS. And then about five years ago, I was diagnosed with a secondary disease from the medication I was on for MS. And doctors gave me three months to live. That's the prognosis. It's anywhere from two weeks to three months. And it's not reversible. It's where a virus passes through your blood brain barrier and eats the gray matter. And there's no stopping it. There's nothing.
It's just one of the side effects it's possible for you to get. And with MS, right, where it's a chronic disease, you have to be doing something or the progression is going to continue. And so it's a risk I knew I was taking, but being faced with that at the time, I, my baby was eight months old and boy, I did not know what to do. I did not know how to say goodbye, how to leave an infant, not even one years old and a husband that I loved, a home, a job, community.
I didn't know how to leave all of it behind. And so I began to think like your mindset coaching, like how am I affecting this? How can I change this? How can I, there has to be someone out there that has other thoughts on healings besides the only ones that I know. Go and get an annual checkup. I go and I do what the doctors say. There has to be someone else out there. And so I started to do, use this super weird skill of like the love of studying. I wanted to know more.
How does it fit together? How did we get to where we are here today in Western medicine? We got there somehow and like this the full like belief and devotion we have to the scientists. I love that. How did we get there though? There has to be there was some sort of bridge and I wanted to know I want to understand and I believed fully in my heart and in my mind that like I can fix this. I'm very type A have always been like there's a problem. I'm going to fix it. I'm going to solve it. It's not going to be a problem anymore. And so I just dove in.
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And I went first seeking locally, anyone, anywhere that said that they could give more time. That said that they could give more understanding. And so I started to study and I studied like crazy. And then I began to travel the world to study because I recognized that, every culture has something woo woo wee that of how they speak to the energy, how they speak about the world, even about like how
In America, we very much talk about molecules and atoms and cells and that's, mean, that's kind of where we're at, which is great, but other cultures speak about the exact same things in different words and why and how did we get there? And so then I began to study. And again, again, that's a little bit one of those things where they're like, you have learned enough. It's enough. Stop. Let's move forward with what you've got. That's a little similar to my university. And so I studied, I mean, I've studied over 200 different modalities and
traveled the world to do it, studied with some of the most ancient cultures and tribes and places in the world, as well as, I mean, like taking doctorate classes at the local med school, because I want to understand the biology. And I loved Okem the first time around. Like I was into that the first time. I genuinely enjoy that and understanding how it all fits together is kind of what I do now. About two years into my own healing journey, obviously, five years later, I didn't die. I was like...
Wait, wait, wait, you're skipping over a part. I know. After five years later, I didn't die. They rescinded the original, that secondary diagnosis within six months because they were like, well, obviously you didn't die. So it must not be PML. We don't know what it is. And I was like, well, I'm fine now. So let's not worry about it. And we just kind of, we just kind of didn't worry about it. And about two years post that, I suddenly had collected all these modalities and all these different
paradigm shifts of mental accountability and self-forgiveness and self-awareness that I was like, I want to help others. I want others to find this. My resting pulse before, obviously very type A, I was faced with the death sentence and I was like, no, no, I'm gonna make this death sentence, bow to my will. Okay, right, this is very type A. run another, I'm corporate America, I'm into it. My resting pulse was anger and carrying around a ton of perfectionism.
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And to the point of like where I was causing me shame or grief if I wasn't. Before, life before that. Yeah, and it was like my constant role, I like I was so angry all the time and making people feel awful about themselves. That was my resting pulse. Now my resting pulse is joy and peace and just like getting to love with gratitude and it's amazing. And I was like if I could make just one person in the world
feel the shift that I have felt. I mean, that would be my whole life purpose done. I'm good. And it's, so it's been kind of a journey. What started to turn your health around? I mean, you were doing all this stuff. Was there like, like what started to happen that all of a sudden you weren't as sick or sick anymore.
Yeah, that's a great question. And I've never had anyone ask that. Was there like a pivot point?
No, I didn't like wake up one day and be like, I'm, mean, this wasn't like, like one of those faith healers where like they came into it and they just like, and you're healed. I didn't have that. It was just slowly overnight over a course of the last, I mean, now five years where my mindset stopped being so judgmental, stopped being so harsh on and it's easy to see here. Like I'm not
not as harsh on my husband. I'm more accepting of my child being loud. I'm like, those are the, but internally, it's like, I don't have to, I can forgive that six year old girl that said something stupid in first grade and I don't have to care anymore that Shelly probably thought I was a moron and she probably still thinks that, I don't have to care about that. It's not right now. We're gonna leave that, we're gonna leave that in the past. So you just started, you just started not, like, cause I'm just thinking of your mindset.
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I love to get into like, the moment in time because it's like you get this news that you literally have two months, two months was it? Three months to live. And you dive into this, how, I guess it's like, how do you, how did you keep in that space of.
Working towards something and then being in the space of like not knowing if you were gonna die because I'm thinking if it was me and I'm putting myself there, like I'm learning stuff, I'm studying, but like, is there a ticking? Like, okay, it's three months now, looking at the clock, am I out of time? No, we're gonna keep going. You know what I mean? Like what was your, what was happening in that moment for you? this is such a great question. And I mean, like even back when I originally got the diagnosis of MS, so I was 21 and...
I was like, this isn't going to stop my life. This isn't going to affect me. And that's where I was. And I was just like, I'm not going to worry about it. And for the first like four years, I didn't take medication. I like they kept prescribing. I was like, I don't know. I'm good. It's fine. Nothing's like stopping me. I'm fine. Then obviously when you don't listen to your doctors, the disease progressed rapidly and that was very dangerous. I don't advise that. I, I, and even in our practice here, I'm like, please listen to your psychologist.
Your doctor take what they prescribe these are this is what kind of the core of our foundation here but that even then of like my belief that my mind was more powerful than What? How do I say this what? Had been previously done. Mm-hmm. I believe and my very is one of my very core beliefs that I can accomplish anything I've got self-efficacy and self-confidence out the ass
Endlessly that like it doesn't matter what someone's presenting me with I'm gonna tackle it I'm gonna do it with all the perfection and all the beauty that you've never ever even thought was possible and that's kind of a core belief of mine and it was hard there were moments where like I was facing that timeline of like we were getting to the three months and I'm like No, no, I'm I'm in control here. I'm the one that can change this I'm the only one that can change this and I didn't give in and I didn't stop pushing that sometimes that type a piece was really helpful because the other option was
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just stopping and stopping having hope and feeling hopeless and like that there was an end. And I mean, talk about woo-woo-ness. is, mean, about as far woo-woo as you can go. In the industry of holistic healing, we call it clinical hexing. There's been tons of studies done on this of like when doctors give timelines, the likelihood of that person perspiring in that timeline is very high.
Yes, the whole mind over matter thing. That's not that's a right? but when they exactly but when they don't give a timeline or they switch that they like like they Like it's 10 % actually pass within the within a doctor's perspective timeline because they're not It's not their mindset. That's not what they're thinking. They're not thinking this is the end Yeah, and so being very aware of what is coming in is a big piece of what we do here. Yeah
And I'm sure of your mindset, Coaching, too. Yeah, 100%. You've got to change the story. The story is what's running the show. The story is what's telling your body. If I'm telling my body, I only have three months left, that's all I have. I have to make sure I've got my will and all. I've got to make sure. And I'm stopping living because I'm... It's a little bit of a... it's an economic theory. The game theory, right? Are you playing to win? Are you playing not to lose? If you're playing not to lose, you've already lost. I only played to win! I'm...
Where do you think your confidence comes from?
My mom for sure. My mom is, she was a business owner always and she was, mean, all the self-worth issues also come from there too. So I mean, like I get it. But the piece of like never being presented with a problem that I couldn't solve or fix or that I wasn't, I mean like that I wasn't enough to do that. I could fix it. I could solve it. And then repeated success within that framework of like.
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yeah, we talked a little bit about theater before. once had a, I'd never sewn a day in my life, but I had a director in high school ask me if I could make new costumes, because I was a costumer and I was like, of course, can absolutely design new costumes for this. Never stitched a day in my life. I came home, I bought fabric, I bought a pattern and I was like, pulled my mom's old singer out of the, I mean like from the 1950s out of the storage and I was like, I'm gonna sew this up.
And the costume turned out amazing. Repeated success in your own circle. You've always had that confidence. It's not like something that you had to... a piece. That's fascinating. I love it. No, it was not something... And I'm sure you do this in your work too. It's like the idea of... I always talk about confidence comes from repeated behavior, right? Like you do something enough times and confidence, you eventually feel confident with it. Until then it's courage. But you seem to just like...
Or is it courage at times? It seems like it's confidence. It's courage at times. I love that phrase. That's a great phrase because it definitely starts with being like, I could fail. huh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And if I do, I mean like I do and so much of what made me sick originally was the mindset that like, if I fail, I'm not enough. If I make a mistake, I have to be perfect. And if I'm not, and if I don't fit into the mold of what
success and confidence looks like then I'm failing and My body will fail my mind will fail. I'm not enough there. that's a really rough mindset to be born into It made me a high achiever. It made me very Taipei. It made me With that self-confidence, but it came at a huge price. And so it required that every time I start a project I have to be Decently confident. I'm gonna win. Yeah. Well, I feel like that is the
That's a, it's, I don't know if what I'm saying is accurate, but it feels somewhat accurate. If that is the mindset that I think most people are walking around with. And which makes the work that you're doing, the work that I'm doing, I think so key because, and I don't think it's a function of something's wrong with you. think it's somewhat of a human experience.
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part of what being a human and a human body is that experience. you know, some of the, the wool theories is that you actually come back to earth to experience that, right? And that's part of what you chose, you know, to be here so that you can learn that lesson, right? But I, I, I want to talk a little bit about the medical system and the practices and how intertwines because, so a few episodes ago, I had a friend of mine as a guest, name was Jennifer Crisp. Jennifer is a nurse.
And not just a nurse, she was like the head nurse. She was like the head nurse in hospitals creating policies and protocols. She was like a nurse boss. a big career, son's a doctor. She falls and has a concussion. And all of a sudden, she is having to navigate the medical system that she's been a part of her whole life.
to try to get a diagnosis and to try to get taken care of and no answers, doctors don't seem to have, if you don't fit one of the standard boxes of like, heart disease or cholesterol or high blood pressure, if you don't fit one of these standard boxes, if you have anything that's abnormal,
And I see this over and over again, not just with guests that come on the show, but with guests that come in my life, like people from my own life. Anytime they have anything that's unusual, it's like, well, great. Now the shitstorm of tests will start and them poking, trying to figure out, giving you all these different things to try to figure out. Anyway, she gone was one of the things that she, she had to,
basically go create her own like, you know, treatment protocol because there wasn't one for her, even though concussions are somewhat common. Concussions, studies and resources all focus on youngins and athletes, not on seniors. So she didn't have resources and studies and protocols to lean into. She had to really go figure this out and find other people. And she gone with one of the things that she started.
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doing to assist in her healing process. So let's talk about Qigong. What is it? Let's tell the people where it comes from and what are some of the benefits so that people can kind of start to get interested in this really beautiful practice.
So out of all the modalities I've collected, Qigong is by far and wide my favorite. And it's my favorite because of how much it one integrates with the Western medicine. Like it just, they marry each other so well. And I love that. I also love that obviously I like to study and I've never come once with an answer that they were like, well, you kind of just feel that. you kind of just like, have no, there's like a huge long explanation that goes back to the very first time the cell has ever divided.
And then we go from there. I'm like, yeah, okay. I'm into that. Like I like, I like the answers I like of how and understanding that and speaking in vibrations instead of in like one cell or one atom connecting to another. Like I understand that really well. Qi Gong, so that's one, it's one of my favorites that I practice. It's easily my favorite, not one of my favorites, definitely my favorite. It's why I'm getting my doctorate in medical Qi Gong. So Qi Gong has three branches, martial, medical and spiritual. The martial, most people know it as Tai Chi, which is a branch of the
Medical Qigong or Martial Qigong? Martial Qigong is just what it sounds like. It was used in the armies of ancient China. We're talking about over 5,000 years old. So the original records you asked about how ancient it was are 5,000 years old. They come from Huangdi or the Yellow Emperor. You'll often see books about Qigong titled The Yellow Emperor's Guide to. And in the original papers, he describes very accurately about like older records, like records that you can see this in the
previous records and it's like how far back it goes. don't know the oldest records we have belong to the Yongdi or the Yellow Emperor, which is kind of cool. So I mean, we're talking about a very, very ancient art that has been obviously passed down master to apprentice for 5,000 years, which is so cool. And it has similarly has a history of like when China began to Westernize, like having healers that were miraculously healing you, but we wanted to use Western medicine. Okay, we've got to stop.
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And they were hunted very much like our witch hunts here. They were hunted down and stopped and they had to practice in secret or they had to stop practicing all together. And so, so much of the information was lost. In the, I mean, and that when I say that, I'm talking like this is like the 1900s. This is the history of my local Qigong in the 1900s. And then recently we have begun to recollect that information, gather it back together and teach it. And as you've heard, it's come to America. It's kind of a
cool history. So the three branches, we've got martial, which is very traditional of like, I'm going to write, hunt, hurt, protect, and Tai Chi in that same portion is a branch of martial Qigong and how they are different, how martial and even Qigong or Tai Chi are different is kind of an interesting conversation too. Then there's spiritual Qigong. Spiritual Qigong.
is like what monks would have practiced or like Reiki most people in the Wu sphere have practiced or have at least heard of Reiki. Reiki is a branch of spiritual Qigong. Yusui sensei studied Qigong in China for 30 years prior to going back to Japan and developing his schools of Reiki, which we can talk about that more too if that excites you. Medical is the combination of the other two.
It is the structure of martial and the fluidity of the spiritual and how that is going to directly affect your physical tissues, which is awesome and complete an entire body of wellness that can, that marries your mind, body and spirit. So you can move forward together collectively. Yes. To all of that. I love Qigong. It, it's so, it's so in depth of what it's pieces. And again, how this pivots happen.
The tools, I work on so many people, hundreds of people a week and it's so wonderful to have them come in and the exercises I give them seem completely unrelated to what you came in complaining about. Came in complaining about that, you know, me and my wife have a really turbulent relationship, okay? I came in complaining that like I've got edema in my legs and I can't, you know, eat sugar without having my whole body swell. Okay, let's talk about that. I came in complaining because I've got prostate cancer and
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I am in stage four prostate cancer, it's in my bones. And the exercises I give them are like, so we're gonna start by taking a few deep breaths. And people are like, my God. Sound like a crazy person. I get it, I understand. And how those very, very simple exercises, just like when you see Tai Chi in the park, are changing your mind and changing your physical body in a very healthy way. I say all the time that Western medicine is like a band-aid.
It is the firefighters of our world. You go in with a heart attack. Please don't call me if you're having a heart attack for the love. You need to go to a doctor. You have a mess. You need to take the medication. You've got to put out the fire. We've got to stop the burning. you have your leg chopped off, please for the love. If you are suicidal, you've got to go to a psychologist. Like there is steps and places and for you that when the fire is out,
That's when you come see me. That's when we come see you, right? Why? Why did the fire start to begin with? Out of any of the thousands of ways that the energy or the diseases could have shown up, our bodies are basically all the same. We've got two chromosomes, I've got a cell, I've got a nucleus, I've got all these other pieces that are dividing, I've got lymph sites, I've got my epidermis that's protecting my body, I've got liver, lungs, we're basically the same makeup, right? My body is...
very, very similar to everybody else's body. So why did mine show up this way? Why did those cells divide this way? And some of it comes down to nutrition, environment, nature versus nurture, and we can talk about that, but some of it also comes down to like the energetic baggage that I'm choosing to carry on. And how can I change my mind?
to help change my physical thought. And again, moving forward with all three of those bodies, your mental, spiritual and physical. Yeah. I think people, I mean, I feel like there's an awareness starting to develop about the impact of energy and negative energy and the way that we're living our lives. I feel like there's an awareness, but we're still like at the baby stage. there's, there...
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people are really taking for granted just how impactful this is. And we have to look at, you so now it's like one of the first things that I do with my clients, they're coming to me to work similar to what you're talking about. They're coming to me to work on their business. And one of the first things that I'm implementing is like mindfulness practices. Okay, you're gonna start meditating, you're gonna have morning rituals now, you're gonna start journaling, you're gonna start, you know,
like whatever it is that starts, because we just were not designed for this lifestyle. We were not designed to have screens in front of us at all times, to be constantly holding our phones, to have constant notifications and beeping coming out of us. Like everything that we interact with now is designed to be addictive in some way, or form. And...
that is having a massive impact on our nervous system. It is having a massive impact on the way that our bodies are just trying to do the normal things that they were designed to do. And so it's imperative now that we come at it from all these different angles and doing things like this that are outside of the system, right? Like if you, you know what I mean?
Cause it's almost like not, and I'm not putting this down. I do this modality, but it's almost like I'm trying to relax. I'm going to go plug my phone in to walk me through a guided meditation while I'm turning my screen. It's like, okay, but you're in the ecosystem that's creating the stress. know what I mean? Like it's, it's, and I, I, listen, I love me a guided meditation. I love me a meditation. No, no judgment, but
these types of modalities, I feel like, take you outside of the ecosystem that you're in to work it more holistically. And so I just think it's so important that people start getting interested and really curious, you know, about what else is out there because we just were not designed to live this way. We weren't.
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And I mean, like, like you just said, I mean, like I love, don't get me wrong. I love the insight timer. I'm all about it. Like you want to, and it's the, it's such a great way to tap in for the first time. If you're like, I know I need like, I know it's 1000%. But it is all about, it's all about the tools for me. I have traveled the world. I have studied my butt off. I practiced and it went from my, very, very first time I was ever in a class. He asked us to do 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at night. And I was like,
Of what? Of meditation. meditation. 40 minutes a day. 40 minutes a day and unguided, no music, no sound, no nothing. I was like, I'm sorry, if I had that kind of time, I'd have better looking abs. I'd be doing those 20 minute abs and he was like, who has that kind of, 40 minutes a day? And now, I solidly can meditate for nine, 10 hours a day and not even notice. Because it does start and it starts by having the tools of like,
Well, what am I going to do? The only tool that most people have, mean, like those timers or those meds, guided meditations is the only introduction that people have. They're like, I heard my, my sister got a great result or even like, I'm to do, I'm going go get a massage. This is a great tool that you may have, but what other tools do you have? What other tools are you using? Because you just named off six of them, right? We're going to start breathing. We're going to start journaling. We're going to start like disconnecting from the phone. Those types of things are great tools. How many do you have? And the thing is, is that here at Healing Time,
We talk about the tools that you're using like they're good things. Are you drinking every night? This is a tool. This is a great tool that you learned and it was helping you probe. Are you drinking here? I live in Utah. Are you drinking 44 ounces of soda every day? This was a tool. This was a tool that you were taught and it worked really well. It helped you decompress. It helped you release all this crap from the day. I understand how we got here, but those tools will serve you until they don't. And the second they don't,
you I would hate for other people to get to the point where I was where the tools that I had learned brought me to death story and I had to choose my life and my son and my husband or continuing the tool. Yeah. And just, you know, and that's a drastic example of it, which is serious, by the way. I do. I'm strong believer that
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you keep ignoring your wellness and not just your wellness, but your life and your purpose in life and your, you know, the things that you really want to do. And you just like, you know, you keep ignoring all the signs that stuff will come back to you in, in health problems. Like I'm a strong believer in that, but I don't want to skip over that just the quality of life.
like your quality of life, like I think that we're so conditioned that life has to be hard and that life is a challenge and that life is like a struggle. And it's like, really? Like what if it doesn't have to be? And what if you could actually experience peace of mind? know? And even like recognizing, I think that as, and again, this may be a pain with a really broad brush, so please forgive me. don't mean to stereotype. Like as Americans,
we are conditioned that way. yeah. And even like, even conditioned to like be adverse to control without realizing the factors that are controlling us. Cause like we just got finished with one of the most turbulent elections in our young country's history. whether you, it doesn't matter which side you wrote it on and who, when you woke up in the morning with what didn't matter. But that,
polarity, that division, that requirement was controlling the right now. And this is what I tell people is that when I was younger and people were like, just live in the present. There's a quote from Kung Fu Panda of like yesterday was history and tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present. I'm into that. I'm into like, but I thought the present, I was like, I live in the present all the time. What are you talking about? Cause I thought if I took a snapshot of my life,
I could think about any one of these objects and be like, yeah, I'm living in the present. But that means that I can constantly be thinking about climate change, and I can be thinking about world hunger, and I can be thinking about sex trafficking, and I can be thinking about my house needs to be clean, and groceries are so expensive, and I can be thinking. That's not living in the present. That's none of that. being so far removed. None of that. Even like,
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I've got to get this done. We're project done. That feels very present, right? That this I have a deadline. That is not the present. The present is this very breath. This very moment. The word that is coming out of my mouth right this second and the vibrations that my body is feeling because of the my vocal cords are making. I can I live in how it feels to say a word? Can I live in how it feels to take in a breath? And every time I come back to the actual now.
This is wellness. This is how we avoid having to get to, I don't want anybody to have to get to death store, because that was a real thing. I want to avoid, I want to live in prevent, I want to actually have preventative medicine, right? That's what this is. This is preventative. This is how I avoid having to have cancer. It's how I avoid having to have, right? These illnesses, because you're right. If I don't make time for my wellness, I'll have to make time for my illness. And your wellness starts
in this breath. How does it feel when air flows through your lungs? How does it fit? It starts right this second. And how often can I come back to hear? So much to, such a good conversation. And I really, I think what I want people to really know is, let's talk about how to get started and what
people can do, know, like give them some actionable things because I, you know, I, so when you say you can meditate for like nine, 10 hours, bananas for me. I'm still, I'm still at the, you know, 20 minutes. I can probably do 20 minutes. I'm still at that level. 20 minutes is impressive. But here's what I want people to know. It took me years to get there.
It took me years to get there. it was like a real, I'm talking about like, meditation was always one of those things that for my entire life, I was like, it would be so nice if I could do that. Like, it was just a wow. Wow. And I would try it every once in a while. Yeah.
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And I would try it every once in a while and I'm like, okay, I gotta do laundry. I would just, you know, and I'm like, okay, it's not for me. I got an ADHD brain and it's not gonna work, you know? But I would keep trying. I would keep coming back to it. And probably around three years ago, I started my like, my journey down like the woo woo. Like I was like, all right, I'm going down this path. Let's see what's there for me, right? And so I started to pay more attention to how to
meditate, and even then it took me maybe three years of like to get to this point. So I want people to know that it's not like you're just gonna flip a switch and these practices are going to be implemented. Like they're practices, it's a perfect name, practices, and practices require practicing. So let's talk about what
how to get started, what are some ways that, you cause not everybody's a type A like you, right? So not everybody's going to have that like, you know. We're racist about the information. Not everyone's. Yeah. So let's start. So let's start with the first piece of a definition. Often the concept is a misnomer about what meditation is. Meditation, because I mean, we can talk about that a little bit, but why the only types of meditation we know are like the insight time or guided meditations. That is like,
less than 0.1 % of what meditation is. Meditation is any time you are doing something with your whole mind, body, and spirit. Any time you are doing everything with your complete intention, not and so there are, ooh, yeah, stop me if we don't have time for this, okay? There are four different
types of meditation to break it down very soon. You're about to geek out. Go ahead. I'm fascinated about where you're going to go with this. So let's go. So there is yin within yin, quiet mind, quiet body. This is what most people think about when they think about meditating. I'm going to have a quiet mind and I'm going to sit and listen to this guided meditation and my body. So I'm going to lay in Shavasana at the end of a yoga class. I quiet body, quiet mind.
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That's a great type of meditation. Most commonly, like the insight timers, Savasana at the end of yoga class, but like they're even stretching before I get started on a workout. These are quiet, my body is being slow and my mind is turning off. That's only one kind. The next kind is yin within yang. My mind is quiet, but my body is active. Some of my favorite examples of this is when I exercise, when I go for a run, when I go on the treadmill, when I...
When I walk my dog, when I'm doing something very physical and I'm hiking a mountain, that's great example from Utah, we hike a lot, that my body is exerting a lot of energy, but my mind is blank and it's quiet. It's quiet, that's why people love to go out in nature, right? It's quiet out here.
There's yang within yin. My mind is being active, but my body is being quiet. This is some of your more intensive exercises, meditations, where like you might be guiding the energy and you're not just imagining or quieting your mind. It also is the traditional work. Did you go to a nine to five today? Did you work on your computer? This is a great time where my body is quiet, but my mind is create, literally creating, especially if you a creative job, where you're creating new code, creating new product design. I work in a hospitality industry.
Creating events out of nothing. This is my mind is creating. My body is being very still. Okay. So can I turn my eight hour a day work job into meditation? Yes. If I can do it with conscious mind, body and spirit, not forecasting or dwelling on what I did wrong or no, can I stay in the present? Yeah, I can. And it's awesome. The last kind of type is yang within yang.
Active mind, active body. This is Qigong. This is the best one that I use where my body is moving and cultivating the energy and my mind is guiding the energy and I'm doing it mind within. Okay. It is important that you have all four that can you can do all four. And the thing is, that as you noticed, all the things that I just mentioned were pieces you're already doing. These are not new pieces. It's treating the pieces that you're already doing as kind of not something else to check off the list.
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But can I be here? Can I be in this breath?
The other piece about meditation I will give you is that there are three pillars to wellness. As I'm sure you already talk about this, we just use maybe different words, purging, tonifying and regulating, getting rid of the toxic stuff, getting rid of the bad habits, getting rid of the old things, getting rid of the old patterns, the old thoughts, adding new ones, good ones, positive ones back in, ones filled with light. And then making sure that your whole body and your whole mind accept that new pattern.
and work together to move forward. Purge, tonify, regular. So I can do all four of those different types of meditation within and use purging, tonifying, and regulating in every single one. How do you begin to do that? This is the time to ask the experts, because I'm going to give you a couple of meditations that you can start doing right now, but like call, book a session. I do them distance across the world all the time.
Book a time with a life coach. my gosh, they're amazing. They're going to give you these tools. They're going to tell you exactly how to do it, when to do it, and exactly how many times. That's what I need. That's already how I do my life, right? These are tools that I already have. Lean into those things that we already do so well. We can do them. You adapt to the situation and then notice how the situation changes. These are the pieces that are already a part of our life. So within that of...
How do I meditate for nine hours a day? It started with three seconds It didn't start with 20 minutes 20 minutes when they asked me to go from three seconds to 20 minutes It took me a solid year and a half and I just increased it by one extra tool every time I meditated So how many breasts and this is I didn't mean to quiz you but I started started it So let's try how many breasts is the average person take in a minute, you know Could you guess? Hmm No
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12? It's 20. Most people are breathing 20 was the first thing I thought of, 20. That is a lot. That means that you're inhaling and exhaling within three seconds, So the first tool I would give you is let's double that. You're going to inhale for three and exhale for three.
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Inhale for three or more.
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Didn't seem hard. Already helpful. But can you already feel your body coming back? you're usually breathing twice that fast. This is the second piece. It's like you want to make this more intense, breathe in for three, exhale for four. Part of the Qigong training in the doctorate program is that you have to be able to inhale for a whole minute, 60 seconds, and exhale for 60 seconds. One breath should take two minutes. Two minutes! That is so much faster than the regular rate that we're breathing.
And it started by this. didn't start by, let's jump to 60 seconds. It starts by, can I breathe in for twice as long? You just doubled your productivity. Congratulations. That was amazing. Can you do that for three breaths today? Can you do it for three breaths this week? Just once a day, three breaths. When I'm feeling the most stressed at work, come back to this breath. Can I do it then the next week for four seconds? Can I inhale for four seconds and exhale for four seconds?
Can I, every culture that I've studied with, every single one, there's a phrase that, and it changes a little bit based on the culture, but the phrase is the same, that it starts with the breath. And like I said, I've traveled the world, I've studied with so many remote cultures, so many big cultures, but that it starts with your breath. And even in Western cultures, Western medicine, like your breath controls not only obviously how my lungs are working and, but like how my...
red blood cells are able to take nutrients from the food I eat, how my heart rate is running, how my... It starts with the brain. Start here. And then ask for help. Invest in your wellness. Invest in time with a coach, invest in time with a psychologist, invest in time with your doctor. Go get your labs drawn. Like this is a big piece. I'm all about the Western medicine. Then ask for help from, perhaps it's a healer and ask for tools.
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I'm looking for the tools. How can I come back to right now? It starts with the practice, the first one. When I started this practice also, I would put reminders on my calendar. I would put post-its, breathe. I would literally have alarms that would go off on my phone and say, remember to breathe. and part of, this is so key because part of what, part of what,
having your nervous system in shock does, if you actually stop taking a deep breath, your breath stays shallow. Deep breath, your breath stays shallow. Yeah, so because you're in fight or flight, that's one of the things with fight or flight, when you're in fight or flight, you're not breathing deeply, you're keeping a shallow breath so that you can move quicker, so we are actually getting accustomed to not breathing deeply and profoundly. Most people are using only 30 % of their lung capacity. Yeah.
which means there's 70 % of your lung capacity, they're not being tapped in. So I tell people to breathe when you're breathing, breathing in the mirror. Because what you wanna watch for are, your shoulders and chest moving at all? People often, because again, we're not always connected with our anatomy. Where does the breath come from? I didn't mean to quiz you again, but I've already stated the question like a question. When you take a breath, where does it come from? Where does does it come from? Like what's pulling it in or? What's making you breathe?
Yeah, what's like what's causing you to die a friend really? Correct, it is not your lungs. People usually point they're like, yeah, right here. No, it has nothing to do with your your diaphragm and your psoas muscle are your psoas muscle contracts and it pulls down on the diaphragm creating a vacuum. The breath that flows in that's like no, that doesn't have anything to do that. If you're so if your shoulders are moving, it's because you're so is in your diaphragm are no longer creating the vacuum.
The inhale should come from your belly. Your belly should move out because that's right. We're literally creating space for the diaphragm and contract on the exhale. It's breathing correctly as an ab workout. If we breathe here because you're just like you said, we're in fight or flight. We no longer can get the breath in in our body. And so we're using only the top lobe of our lungs to try and create a new vacuum. And that's really hard. It's really hard. It's first of all, it's hard on
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If you've got pain and tension here in your neck and shoulders, which is everybody, start breathing correctly. It will dissipate because you no longer have to use your lungs to create a false vacuum. Your body already wants to do that. It comes from your diaphragm. That's exactly correct, which is awesome. Similarly with, I mean, like hijacking your brain's natural ability to learn. Your brain wants to create new dendrites for you.
That's it's called brain plasticity. Your brain was an even like the IQ system, how we defined your IQ comes from the concept that your ability to learn. It's actually not measuring how smart you are and how much knowledge you have in your brain. It's coming from how fast can you learn and continue to learn and activating that brain plasticity. Your brain wants to develop new dendrites. And if you're not creating opportunities for it to create new dendrites, it will become stagnant. And in that it sends you into fight or flight.
Your heart begins to wall off that pericardium gets actually the sack that holds your heart gets very stiff, very hard. It's no longer flexible and fluid. And when you're in fight or flight, what's one of the first things that stops your bowels, your bowels stop. You're you. I don't have I am running from a bear. I no longer have to take a poop in the woods or pee. I am running for my life. You no longer have to do those things. So I'm like your muscles begin to atrophy because I am driving all the energy from.
those things up to my heart and to pump in my lungs and sinking out of that sympathetic nervous system back into the parasympathetic, slipping out of fight or flight back into rest and digest allows us to move forward. You can't move through it. You have to stop, reset, and move forward with it all together. And so how? The breath is how it starts with the breath is my first, was my first thing.
The next piece was about that brain plasticity. next meditation I would give you is start brushing your teeth with the opposite hand. Brushing your teeth is my favorite meditation I do all day because it's already a meditation I planned in. I'm going to brush my teeth twice a day. It's four minutes. I already know I'm going to do it. I've been trained since I was three to brush my teeth, right? I have to brush my teeth every day, twice. My dentist tells me so. Okay, but switch your hands because one, it's going to feel super unnatural.
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But when you do it with the opposite hands, you're creating new dendrites, new brain cells. It's forcing your body to do something that feels unnatural. It's going to feel super weird and even hard of like, did I get, but my teeth have never been cleaner because I actually have to think about, did I get all the places that I typically get with my other hand? I have to think about it. Then while you're doing that, because this is a great time, usually people do brush their teeth in front of a mirror.
is to stand there in front of your mirror and send love. Think about love. Think about gratitude. When you journal, I hope, I'm sure you offer some sort of like, start with gratitude, Just be thankful. Even just like open your heart and be like, I'm thankful that I'm alive. I'm thankful I've got freaking teeth to chew my food. It could be anything. I'm grateful for my body. my God, I love my body. It's so beautiful. And I love everything it does for me.
I love that I've got a house. I woke up this morning in a warm bed. I woke up with food in the fridge. I woke up with air to breathe and water to drink at the bare minimum. I'm grateful for that. And for two minutes, think about love and gratitude.
This is like a guarantee. By doing that alone, you begin to rewrite the neural pathway and it has to be easy. Your brain has to do wants to do things that are easy. It's called the neurological slide. If you have used been using the same pattern over and over and over again for however old you are, right? 30 years that you're going to have a neurological slide, which means that this is easy. I'm going to keep doing this because a plus b equals c and whoop down the slide. So
you have to create a new neurological slide that's easier than the old one. And it starts with intention. I'm going to intentionally just switch hands. I'm just going to brush my teeth the wrong way. It's going to feel so weird. I'm going to set my timer to take three deep breaths at lunch before I eat. I'm going to set my timer to drink water, a whole glass of water with intention in the morning. Because I start my day, whether you start your day with coffee, tea, whatever you start with, I start my day with water.
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I sit and I'm like, I'm going to drink eight ounces of water right now with my full intention. Not thinking about what's coming next, not thinking about feeling the water pass over my lips, feeling it fall low down my body. What does that feel like? How does it feel? Can I feel my belly? Is it feeling full? Can I feel it pass through me? Is the water cold? Is the water hot? There's so many things to think about with water. Can I live in that moment? Your body has over 11 million messages coming into it at any given moment.
Any given second there's over 11 million messages your brain is sorting through. I'm asking you to focus on one of them. Instead of being focused on the light and how it's affecting my eyes, the trees in the background are blowing in the wind, I'm focused on the lights and how the lights are making that sound and my chair is squeaking and my feet are on the floor and I'm talking to you and I'm seeing how perfectly groomed your mustache is and I'm loving it. I'm like, I'm focused on so many different things. Can I stop that?
just for three seconds, not an hour, one breath, and feel the water passing through my mouth. Can I switch hands and be focused on how uncomfortable that is for two minutes? Yeah, even the uncomfortableness is a meditation.
And then my suggestion after that, those are my two meditations I'm give you. Take a breath and lean into the things that you already are doing. You don't have to create new time. This is not a new thing to add. That's the problem with the insight timer is like, I have to find 10 new minutes. No, lean into what you already do. You already brushed your teeth. It's now gonna be your favorite meditation of the day. You already drink a cup of coffee in the morning. It's gonna be your second favorite meditation of the day. You already are gonna stop for lunch and I'm gonna take three deep breaths before I go. Lean into the patterns you already have and as you do, the patterns will begin to rewrite. I love that.
Love that. I feel like we're just getting started, but we got to wrap up, or this will be the longest episode in the history of the show. Meagan, thank you so much for your wisdom and your insight. You are clearly someone who has devoted yourself to your craft. And I really appreciate that. I feel like there's a lot of a lot of people teaching without mastery. I'll say that. And it's very clear you have mastery. So I just.
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honor you for all the work that you've done to get yourself here. And we'll put your links and stuff so that people can reach out to you if you want to have a session with Meagan. She works remotely, definitely take her up on that because as you just experienced, she is something. it's so sweet of you. You're so kind. It was such a pleasure. Thank you so much. My pleasure. My pleasure. love. Let's have you in the show again soon. I'd love that.
Western medicine is largely organized around the policy set forth by our insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The focus is not really on wellness as much as it is on putting out the fires by either cutting it out or medicating it for the rest of your life. And like Meagan said, if you're having a heart attack, you want the Western medicine. Those are the guys you want running into the burning building.
But don't get it twisted. The reason they're really good at that is because, well, dying is just bad for business. But what happens before or after? Short of taking medication for the rest of your life, how do you prevent the heart attack in the first place? How do you prevent it from happening again? Who supports you in managing your quality of life in a quickly evolving digital world?
How do you work on lowering your stress, staying present and grateful in life, and keeping your body, spirit, and heart in alignment as you go about your everyday life? This is where I think so many of these practices play a role. I said this before, we are not designed to live the lifestyles that we're living today. And society and technology are evolving much faster than our bodies can keep up. This is why these ancient practices are more important than ever.
to help us maintain our quality of life, our health, and our vitality. So whether it's meditation, Qigong, or some other modality, I hope you pick one up. It doesn't matter which one, just pick the one that's calling you. The one that helps you feel good, be present, and most of all, the one that helps you slow down your breath. Because in that slowing of the breath, well, that's where life happens.
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As always, Thank you for joining me this week. I your time is the most valuable resource that you have and I'm deeply moved that you chose to spend it with us. I'll see you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Ownership Game with your host, Gary Montalvo. Make sure to like and comment on your favorite podcast platform as well as subscribe so that you never miss an episode.