Hey friends, you're tuned in to the learn or be learn podcast a show where wisdom meets curiosity in order to discover the human experience. I'm your host, Shiva D. And remember, you either learn from or you learn from now, let's get back to the show
what is up friends welcome back to a another podcast episode on the learner be learned podcast from yours truly Shiva D. And without further ado, let's just jump right into it. Today is a book episode on the editorial whisper series. And today's book is called the Miracle Morning by how Elrod crazy funny side note, I was telling a friend that I had just finished this book. And he was and he told me that one of our mutual good friends is actually good friends with the author. So let's see if we can try to get him on the show at some point. But without further ado, let's jump right into this episode. This is a really great book. I can't emphasize this enough. And I don't say it as frequently as perhaps maybe I should. But these book episodes don't do the books justice. But they're better than nothing, because I know not everybody likes to read or has the time. So I just want to share good points, key takeaways, actionable items that you can implement in your own life. And that's what these book episodes are all about. Or the editorial whisperer series. So in the book, it starts off with the author's life and how he had felt like he was on top of the world. He had everything he had, he had a relationship, he had his dream car, great job with great pay, he was relatively young, everything was going great. Then I believe he got into a severe car accident fell into a coma. And then the doctors told him it'd be difficult if he ever walks again. And somehow, he didn't go deep into it. But he lost his relationship in that same time span, after post tragedy. And he felt like he hit rock bottom. And he said was really difficult to get out. And that's why I believe these Miracle Morning steps that he tells us these best practices, I think is what will change your life. He actually became a coach and started implementing this with his clients. And then he felt the need to write a book because it started helping so many people. He started reaching, he started gaining traction and having speaking gigs. So he realized there was a lot to value. There's a lot of value to bring here. So he created this book called the Miracle Morning. And the biggest takeaway here is that he coins this acronym savers, s a v e r s, which stands for the six practices that how recommends for transforming your morning routine. So let's start with S S is for silence. I will actually give you all of them so you can refer back to it if you need. So S is for silence. Silence meaning breath work, meditation, the importance of starting your day with a calm mind. You know, dedicating five minutes in the morning to meditation retreat, or deep breathing exercise I think is really important. If you're into breathing, there is Wim Hof, really great source for breathing exercises. But I highly recommend although I recommend both I highly recommend meditation that I talk about a lot on this podcast. As you may or may not know I'm currently taking a master's in Ayurveda and integrative medicine, which is Eastern medical philosophy and practice. It's basically a holistic approach looking at the mind body and spirit to heal somebody and I love it I can't wait to share more about it in the future has a lot to do with this idea of conscious being. you're aligning your doshas, which is you know, your energy centers in terms of your biological makeup. Right. And I resonate so much with this philosophy. I mean, it's such an old ancient medicine that you know, something that really upsets something that's really unfortunate is Western ideologies have almost diminish the importance of long standing history. Whether it's religion, spirituality, meditation, Eastern philosophies, herbal remedies, you know, nowadays because the way Westerners and I can speak from experience because I was in it, science and especially Western ideology uses reductionist thinking. So they reduce something to its simplest form. And if it cannot be proven, it therefore does not exist. Right. So if you cannot prove it with fact, then it does not exist. But there is a significant flaw in this formula, because West also runs on capitalism. So if nobody's funding it, it ceases to exist anyways, and nobody wants to fund something that doesn't make money. Right. So here we are in this feedback loop of problems. But you we're starting to see light on many, many old ideologies and philosophies coming back, right, which is really exciting times. For example, the idea that one idea that fascinates me is walnuts. They are composed of 70% fat, which is 70 30%, right? of its biological structure, makeup. And apparently, that's like almost the exact percentage of its composition to our brain. And then if you look at the walnut, it looks very similar to a brain even dissected. Right? So how can the composition of a tree nut look similar to the brain also have the same composition, molecular and nutritional composition as the brain macromolecule composition as the brain, and then also be good for the brain? In that kind of crazy. And there's many, many observations of this, let's look at carrots, if you dissect a carrot, it looks much like an iris dissected, and the beta carotenes and carrots are good for your eyes. That's interesting. And there's so many more, I'm not going to get into it, because the point of this is about miracle mornings. But the reason I bring all this up, is that I don't want people to dismiss the idea that something that's old and not funded, doesn't have value. I think anything that has a personal experience attached to it has value, if you believe it has value that it has value, right, because we've even seen in many, and many of studies, that placebo groups can often skew results. Because somebody's imaginative belief is strong enough to do that. And this book that I'm currently reading called PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Dr. Maxwell, beautifully demonstrate this, this guy's incredibly smart, smart author. And he talks about how the brain that the human brain cannot distinguish between imaginative understanding and reality. So if you truly were to believe your hand was submerged in cold water, then you would start to see the physiological change of your hand temperature changing, isn't that interesting. But first, you have to truly believe it. So anyone that says, ah, that's, you know, that's BS, it's not going to happen. Or, of course, it's not going to happen because you believe it's not going to happen. The key word here was you have to truly believe, for the physiology to change. You know, something that can also help with your mornings is caffeine. And I know in today's day and age, everybody's all in a way jittered up on caffeine from coffee, like Starbucks and such. But I quit caffeine about six months ago, and it particularly coffee to be specific. But I realized even at that point, sometimes I need that productivity boost. I do need some caffeine. But I knew if I go to coffee, I get that jitters, I'd get that almost an ADHD feeling that I'm just kind of all over the place bouncing around my heart will start palpitating really fast. So I decided to go towards tea. But often tea doesn't have that much caffeine in it and it won't have nearly as much as coffee. But it gives you that well balanced caffeine effect from the entirety of the plant of the tea leaves right. One plant in particular matcha has been really good for improving that. And matcha in particular has had a high amount of caffeine as well as black tea. But there is this product called Magic mind and they are the sponsor for this episode, but I tried out their product they let me test it out and they had this proprietary blend where they basically created this blend of kortesis mushrooms, Lion's Mane mushrooms and these neuro Tropix ashwagandha turmeric and blended it together and gave you this shot with matcha in it and has about 55 milligrams of caffeine so this neuro tropic plus this caffeine gives you this and ashwagandha gives you this stress reduction focus and concentration and the energy you need. So for days that I know that energy, I found that that's been really helpful. And, you know, I'm really glad they let me try their product. I will say the only slight con is on the slightly pricier side. But I'd say it's pretty matched for what you get in a cup of coffee. Right? So
you spend $5. At Starbucks, I'd say it's pretty matched towards that, but gives you a better well rounded effect. And it's probably better for your health because they don't use, you know, non organic milk like Starbucks does, or refined sugar syrup like Starbucks does, or other coffee shops for that matter. Do. They use you know, organic products, organic agave, I always look at ingredients. And it looked really great to me. And you know, after trying it, I thought is really great. So other than that one con, I would say this, the product is absolutely great. So I would never share a product with you all that I didn't believe had its value. Because I never want to sell myself for some money, I will not go down that path. It's not worth it to me. As someone who is an aspiring entrepreneur and businessman, I have values that I will not break and one of them is that. So I'm never going to lead you astray. And if I ever do, I will. I will bring it up. Because your trust and your belief in me and you investing your time in me is important to me. So if you guys are very curious about trying this, they are giving us a 56% discount for the learner be learning community, which is super awesome. So you guys get to basically try it for half off compared to those who bought it on Amazon. You know, even Joe Rogan has advocated for it, he enjoys it. So if you guys are curious, go to magic mind.com/shiva. And the coupon code is Shiva 20 S H I V A two zero Shiva 20 at magic mind.com. Go ahead and give it a try. You get it for half off, if you're curious, and you want to give it a shot. So thank you magic mind for letting me try the product. And thank you all for hearing me out on this if you're curious about the effects of you know, if you ever need a boost in your morning, right, but anyways, let's get back to the idea of miracle mornings and growth and what to do to have the most productive day right? Anyways, meditation super important. In my master's, we're learning Transcendental Meditation, very popular form of meditation, with countless studies in countless benefits from cardiovascular health just stressed everything. If you're interested, go to T m.org. I'm not affiliated, I just love what they're doing. And one of the key founders of this program and TM has taught many celebrities in the West has taught many people, from Oprah to Ellen think her name is Ellen DeGeneres or something like that, to the actor of Wolverine, what's a Hugh Jackman, many, many people, everybody that has learned it, including these celebrities vouch for its significance in their life. So silence, super important, I believe it's really underrated. And then then you immediately move into affirmations is where you have positive self talk, and you set your intentions. So the actionable step here would be to write down and recite positive affirmations tailored to your goals and aspirations. You know, even the author mentions this it's a little gimmicky at first when he tried it, and he felt like, Oh, what is what's going on here? This feels really stupid. Why do I feel like what's going on? You know, this was really stupid. What am I doing here, and you know, I'm gonna lie, I felt the same way. But if you truly take a deep breath, and read your affirmations and truly believe in it, I'm starting to see the effects myself. I've been doing this miracle morning for the last few weeks. And the affirmations are one of my favorite parts of the day. Because it's such a soothing self talk. And it reaffirms that this is what I want, and I can get there. Right. And although these are very personal, one side note is your affirmations to change over time. So once you accomplish something, you can move it and change and make a new affirmation. And these are very personal, but I will share one with you all just to give you an understanding of how I construct one and how you can construct one as well. I'll do the podcast affirmation. So I have seven. This is one of them. The affirmation goes my podcast is a beacon of inspiration and change. With every episode, I touch lives, spark conversations and make a positive impact. Its growth is a testament to the value I bring and the difference it makes in the world. Now imagine saying that every day and what that start to do to your brain, right because I think what is it? We run on autopilot for most of our day we run on our subconscious And our subconscious is programmed by a default comfort mechanism. So whatever we continue thinking is what we will continue thinking. So you actually have to make a conscious effort to think differently. And I think part of the subconscious is the one that's telling you that this is stupid in the first place. Shiva This is stupid. Why would I say positive things to myself, let's just go back to sulking and doubting yourself is that what you really want is that you really want to go back to the default of doubting yourself? Or do you want to wake up every morning, enthusiastic, ready to tackle the day with positive affirmations about your goals, your life and things you want? Whether it's wealth, relationships, the podcast, you know, all sorts of things, confidence, you can have affirmations for many goals. So write a few affirmations try it out. I really love this one. really underrated. But let's move forward. So we did S A now V. V is for visualization. Another great one I love doing, I use the app craft for it's for iOS, mainly. But I love visual, I love this one. So basically, I create a little vision board of what I want to see in the next year, or next few years. And I attach photos of everything that I am envisioning. And for me, what seems to really help with visualization is music. For some reason, music helps me get into a mood. Obviously, specific types of music matters as well. So I'll look for upbeat, you know, type of music, and then I'll look at my vision board smile. envision that that's me right now. You know, I have the thing that I'm looking at, I have the thing that I want. I've obtained the goal that I want. The podcast has reached the goal that I want all these things, right. So you have your vision board, a little jam out music session, I love this sav portion of the day. It's quick, it's easy. It takes no more than 10 minutes, if you only have 10 minutes in your day to do this. And what are you really doing right? Like, we're not that busy. Even the president United States has to take some time for self care. So the excuses and I'm busy, it's it's not important, is what it really is. Right? It's all about priorities, because we make time for what's important. So if you really are ready to change your life, I recommend this book and I recommend the six steps in this acronym savers. So moving on to the fourth one is E. E is for exercise, I'm actually not going to get too deep into this one. I think I've talked about this plenty. And a lot of us already know that there's so much benefits to exercise from stress to mental clarity to resilience. And, you know, David Goggins talks a lot about this and is a is a beautiful example of this. So exercise huge, you don't have to do a lot, 30 minutes minimum a day, cardio at the very least, yoga, very important, I would say, yoga is very good for mind body balance and connection. It's something that I've been trying to get into a little bit more kind of, and I do some cardio, some a little bit of weights, body movement exercises, things like that. So getting up getting moving is really important. I'll do a little bit in the morning, and then I find I have more energy in the evening to work out. So I prefer evening workouts, but I'll do cardio in the morning just to get my heart rate up. And then R is for reading. So I actually take a break here and I'll go shower before I read. Part of me feels like it breaks the momentum. But at the same time, I don't like being sweaty, and then sitting down to read. So that's just how it has to be. Obviously you can move this in orders that you want. I'm considering moving reading. And then the seventh option, which I haven't gotten to yet don't don't jump the gun.
Before exercise, but we'll see. Anyways, reading reading at least 10 minutes a day, something motivational, something educational, personal growth is what I recommend, if you want to become your next best self. I read things on business, finances, financial literacy, personal growth, mindset, productivity, these are kinds of books that I go towards generally. Right now I'm reading PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Dr. Maxwell, great book. And Okay, last one last but not least, as scribing. So we have sav e r s. Last s is scribing. Writing down journaling, reflecting gaining clarity. An actionable step here is to keep a journal and write your thoughts goals and things that you're grateful for you Morning. Gratefulness is the number one must in this exercise of scribing. If you can't even write, if you can't get to your goals, or your thoughts throughout the day, at the very least write three things you're grateful for, and then shut the notebook and move on. Right? Because this is the most important part is it's something that I've noticed, start to change my demeanor, start to change the way I think and react and act. The things the way I react and act when I'm expressing gratitude every morning. So that's helped me. Right? So we have silence, affirmation, visualizations, exercise, reading, and then scribing. So now, wrapping up the episode here, but Shiva, wait, what if I don't have all that time in the morning, and this is actually a huge problem that he brought up in the book that many of his clients would say, I don't have an hour to do for all this. Right? I don't have an hour. Okay. At the very least, spend six minutes. And do one minute of silence, one minute of affirmations, or at least one affirmation, one minute of visualization. One minute of exercise. So push ups, jump jumping, check something, read one page in a book, and write down one thing you're grateful for in your notebook. This is if you absolutely have no time in your day. But this is to keep that habit going. Because in atomic habits, which I bring up all the time, they mentioned that James clear mentions that if you miss two consecutive days in a row, you start to actually lose that habit and that momentum of building it. So at the very least, do six minutes, if you've missed one day already, so you don't miss two, because once you miss two, you are significantly more likely to drop the habit altogether. So that's just some words of advice. But what he told his clients was you have to figure out a way to get an hour into your day to do this. And the best time to do it is to wake up an hour earlier. And you know, not everybody's a morning person, most people aren't in this author was one of them. But he highly recommends you wake up an hour earlier just to try this out. He actually went to the extent of saying that he asked his clients to do this. And much like himself, many of his clients loved it so much. They actually took two hours in their day to do it. Can you believe that they actually would wake up two hours earlier than they used to, to get all of this done, and and develop such a strong momentum for them to tackle the key things that they need to do in their day that it helped build this consistency. And consistency is key. If anything you get from this episode, I believe being consistent on this savers method will transform your life and your morning routine. So I challenge you all to start your day with this miracle morning journey and share your experience with me. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Please share this anybody that's trying to create a morning routine that would benefit from this idea of savers for their morning routines. And hopefully let's see if we can get the author on the show. Love to hear more about the ideologies behind this and and things like that. So, thank you all for investing your time with me and I hope you got some value out of this. And remember everybody you either learn from or you learn from thanks