In this one-of-a-kind solo episode, Brendan Fitzgibbons talks with...Brendan Fitzgibbons.
Brendan dives deep on:
RESOURCES
Brendan Fitzgibbons
Michael Singer - Using Every Moment to Free Ourselves
Tony Robbins - Importance of Priming
Patton Oswalt on KFC Bowls
In this one-of-a-kind solo episode, Brendan Fitzgibbons talks with...Brendan Fitzgibbons.
Brendan dives deep on:
RESOURCES
Brendan Fitzgibbons
Michael Singer - Using Every Moment to Free Ourselves
Tony Robbins - Importance of Priming
Patton Oswalt on KFC Bowls
Well, you know, you've got that soul, my brother, why are you trying to hide? In the heart there's a beast that'll keep you bleeding. Learn to let it lie In the walls of a mausoleum in the walls of a mausoleum, and we're all just trying to reach the other side.
Speaker 2:One of the things about spirituality in America in self-development is people are often using it to get something. I don't know if you've noticed this, but almost every self-help and manifestation coach or guru is only bragging about their sales. They'll be like, well, that's a $6 million sale right there. And then I went from making no money to $400 million. All right, you see that table, I sold that for a million dollars. You see that airplane I take it all the time I throw it in the ocean. You see that wife I sold her.
Speaker 2:Right now, instead of watching this video, you could be out there fucking selling. What are you doing? Fucking sales, millions, billions, trillions. I'd like to just offer this thought to everyone out there you never see a video in spirituality or self-help or motivation. That's like I met someone really cool. We had a really great connection and now that person's the most important thing in my life. And you know what? Not really thinking about the fucking sales right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, do you really think that right before you die, you're laying in that bed or maybe you're about to jump off that airplane and you would say to yourself you know what was missing in my life that airplane. And you would say to yourself. You know what was missing in my life? Sales. Maybe our country wouldn't be so obsessed with sales and getting things and money if we all didn't act like it was the greatest thing that could ever happen to you. Is it the greatest thing that ever happened to you? I don't know. Has anybody ever met a woman that could knock you out completely with just one look in her eyes? That's kind of a nice feeling. Have you ever made somebody laugh so hard that they peed? Have you ever said something so nice to someone that you made them cry? That feels like that's pretty good. Maybe we should make a video about that. Some of the most meaningful things in life have no number to them. If you guys want to hear more about this, you can Venmo me. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Welcome everybody to a brand new episode of Spiritual Asshole. I'm your host, brendan Fitzgibbons. I'm joined as always by Willoughby T Fitzgibbons. I know how excited you are every time you drive by Wendy's Taco Bell Kentucky Fried Chicken the one long John Silver's probably still in Staten Island and you see the following sign under new management and your face lights up and you get so excited and you say, holy shit, I was never going to go into this Kentucky Fried Chicken, but now that it's under new management and Dave's running it, this place is going to rule. Sure, all the menu items are exactly the same. Sure, all the fast food prices have gone up 100% since 2019, but it doesn't matter. Dave's here, okay, dave's in charge. This whole entire operation is going to be completely different. Well, guess what? Everybody? That's currently what's going on right now with Spiritual Asso. We are under new management.
Speaker 2:I currently switch podcast hosting providers, which, if you're starting a podcast, it's actually kind of a big deal. Who hosts your podcast? I used to be with Lipsyn and it felt like my very old, out of touch aunt was running my podcast. Like every time I went on Lipsyn's website, they were still using Macintosh computers. Side note why are rental car companies still using printout machines from the 1980s? Does anybody know? Does anybody know what Enterprise's printing budget is? Let's help them out.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited you're here. Thank you so much for being here. A lot of stuff's going on. That's why you haven't heard from me, but we will stay in this space together for a very long time because it's a special place, y'all. This is one of the only places I feel like where I can totally be myself and I don't feel judged. That's because you guys don't talk back, but I have a lot to share with you. Today is also going to be a solo episode, but I have a lot of amazing things to share with you Some funny, some serious and a lot of stuff in between'm really excited. My comedy album is going to be coming out soon and I can't wait to show you guys. I've been working on that. I've been working ona bunch of videos. I'll be shooting some more of those. Follow me on instagram at the underscore brendan fitzgibbons and on youtube. My youtube page is really doing well. We'd love to see you guys over there as well. Subscribe. Okay, let's get into it, because we're here to grow y'all.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I had to move on from my therapist I guess you can use the word fire and that was interesting. I just think it's important that and I was thinking about this With my workout classes too like life is constantly unfolding, right, and your growth is constantly expanding. That's never gonna stop. So you gotta go where that feeling is, and and one of the things that I think that happens a lot is we get stuck in patterns and we're like, like I love my workout classes right now, but even today I was like I don't think I can keep coming here all the time because I got to mix it up. So I was with my therapist for about a year and a half and I felt like we were just spinning our wheels and I don't want to stay stuck in any shit anymore. I really, truly believe in. One of the messages that I've gotten channeled, if you will thought, is that we are meant to move through stuff quickly. This is a high-speed rocket ship train. You're on now, baby, and when you feel like it's time to move on, you should move on, and we don't need to feel bad about it and I'm talking to myself but it's really important to constantly be keeping up to speed, as much as you can, with the amazing expansion of your soul. Yo, that's pretty great.
Speaker 2:Okay, one of the things that I do to keep up with the expansion of my soul is mushrooms, and some of you guys are wondering if this has become a mushrooms-only podcast and I am not sponsored, are wondering if this has become a mushrooms only podcast and I am not sponsored by the Super Mario Brothers, although I would gladly do that and then go to Super Mario Brothers World. Fuck yeah, I recently did mushrooms by myself, as you do, and I was laughing a lot, because when you're in that space and you do mushrooms, you just laugh at everything and you're like I can't believe we're living. Everything is funny. You're like what is this an arm? What is this doing here? I have an arm now. What is that over there? That's a tree. Why is that there?
Speaker 2:I know I talk about mushrooms a lot, even though I don't really do them that much, and then I talk about how much I don't do them that much, which is really good. But I wanted to share this funny, quick thing with y'all. I sent my cousin okay, so I did some mushrooms and I was like okay, it's time to go to sleep and the mushroom trip was like you got two more hours. So I'm just laying in my bed like just tripping all the lights off Willoughby's next to me and I'm like, oh no. So I just started sending my cousin voice messages and she sent me a screenshot of the transcript and one of the things that I do a lot when I'm on mushrooms is repeat myself, just because I think it's so funny and stupid, like when I was in Joshua Tree, I kept saying, okay, just to recap, just to recap. Okay, just to recap. So here is a couple sentences from my mushroom trip. Screenshot Captain's log I'm on mushrooms, captain's log. Why did he say captain's log so much? I'm on mushrooms.
Speaker 2:For the last hour and a half I drove the Toyota Prius half a block to the park so I could sit outside. Was it the smartest thing I've ever done? No, was it the dumbest thing I've ever done? No, it was 11 o'clock. Took the Toyota Prius it was 11 o'clock. Took the Toyota Prius, me and Willie, parked on the side of the road Half a block down from my apartment. I popped open my sunroof and I made direct eye contact with the moon. Turns out the moon has a face. He looks a lot like Marlon Brando. His face was changing a lot, so I'm not exactly sure which Marlon Brando it was, but the moon kept changing faces and I was looking at the moon and I just kept smiling Because I was like holy cow, this giant ninja ball is smiling back at me. So I did this for about 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:I thought this mushroom trip was going to be over an hour and a half ago. It's not. Tell all your friends, tell everyone. Okay. So I keep looking at this photo in my living room of the ocean and the photo keeps reminding me that it's a photo which makes me think. What is it saying to me? Then it makes me think wait a minute, is it just reminding me that it's a picture and then I need to go outside and get a fucking life? Okay, the gibberish just goes on. It's really good, did that for seven minutes. So, hey, maybe you'll be lucky enough to get one for me. You know, if you want to reach out to me at the next time I trip probably like two months from now, all right, so here's some things I want to share with you guys that I've learned that have been amazing these last couple of weeks. Okay, I'm a tremendous fan of Michael Singer. I'm sure if you're into this stuff, you are as well. He wrote the Untethered Soul. He's incredible. Shout out to Andrea Hankles tethered soul, he's incredible. Shout out to Andrea Hankles, as always, for sending me this video. Andrea sent me a video of Michael Singer called Using Every Moment to Free Yourself.
Speaker 2:There are so many fucking amazing takeaways from this speech, but my absolute favorite thing that he said okay, the premise of this entire talk is basically like you are not necessarily experiencing life on a really simple sort of natural level. You're experiencing life through energy blockages and what we're all doing is because of these blockages. We are doing things in order to get rid of them and often we are using spirituality, attaining abundance relationships, to cover up the fact that we have these blockages within us. These are the blockages that we accumulated from childhood. These are blockages from messaging, you could say past lives, whatever you want to call it. Okay, so he basically said like so many people are using spirituality just to cover up for the fact that they have these blockages and I can say completely confidently I have been one of those people Like I'm going to be real honest with y'all.
Speaker 2:A lot of the reason why I do spirituality and I think a lot of us in this country do spirituality is to get something. I think the reason why manifesting is so popular now is because it's about acquiring things, and Michael Singer's like that's kind of sad. I don't really think it's sad. I think it doesn't matter, because we're all manifesting all the time anyway. So to me, it's just like focusing your energy.
Speaker 2:Here's what I will say, and this goes back to my intro from the show specifically in a very American way that is kind of empty and friendships and moments and fun and the ability to appreciate things. There is no price that you can put on that. I don't give a shit what anybody says it is not fun not having money. I am not saying that and I'm also not saying that rich people don't do this, because that's not true either. That's not binary choice. It's not like enjoy your life, be poor, be rich.
Speaker 2:I just think like so much of our messaging and I'm sure you guys are seeing it so much I just don't think we realize how intense it is on the acquiring specifically of money and I would say specifically of a partner, and I do think those things are very important. But like we would all be thinking so differently if the messaging that we were always getting from YouTube and society in our American culture was more focused on nature, friendships, relationships, building a community trust, enjoying the environment, helping the environment, hugging a panda, like these are things that I think if we saw happen more and we saw like if we saw a bunch of aggro fucking dudes sitting around being like and then, dude, I got right in the dolphin's face and I just said I love you, man. And the other guy was like, wow, that's so deep dude, that's great. And then the dolphin looked at me like hey, I love you too, bro. And then the dolphin looked at me like hey, I love you too, bro. And then at that moment I felt really complete.
Speaker 2:But we don't see those videos and we don't hear those messages, so we think like, oh, that's maybe not, that's not on the top of our mind as to what is happiness. But yo, I cannot say enough how much and Michael Singer really says this too that you could have all those things that you think you want. And if you still have these blockages, or if you still have a lack of ability to appreciate the moment, my question for you, or to appreciate it, is does it matter? It matters in the sense of, probably, your safety. But if you're racked with insecurity in a relationship or if you're racked with a feeling of emptiness in immense wealth, does it matter? Just something to think about. The answer is no. See you at KFC, okay. So here's where it gets so kick-ass, and I want everyone to think about this, and I'm going to use two examples of showing this. Okay. So Michael Singer, singer, said because of these energy blockages okay, and that are stored up into your system, you now are not having a primary experience of life. You don't experience things as just happening.
Speaker 2:Right, a t-shirt that has a nike symbol on it isn't just a t-shirt with a nike symbol. Let's say that you were in seventh grade and you could never afford nike shoes. So T-shirt that has a Nike symbol on it isn't just a T-shirt with a Nike symbol. Let's say that you were in seventh grade and you could never afford Nike shoes. So you see a dude wearing and you had to wear the shitty attack forces. So you see a dude wearing a Nike shirt now and you're like you know what? Fuck that shirt. But the truth is the shirt's neutral right and while this might seem like a small thing, it's significant when it's bigger things.
Speaker 2:I have a friend who had a really rough childhood and her dad was a cop and he left her, her sister and her mom and he used to come back with other cops to try and like get custody of the kids and he would just show up and ring the doorbell. And to this day, my friend has had to do all this work to not be scared of doorbells. Okay, think about that. Doorbells are scary. So now when she sees here's a doorbell, that's a scary thing because of a serious trauma that happened to her that created an energy block, which rightfully so, by the way. When I say that you have these blocks, everyone has these blocks, ain't nobody better or worse for it. Okay, this is not a judgment thing. Here's a more recent example.
Speaker 2:I have another friend who started dating a guy and she has a lot of fear of abandonment, which a lot of us do. Especially if you start falling for someone, you start really liking someone. So she's starting to date somebody, Okay, and she was kind of freaking out because she's like oh shit, this is a really healthy relationship. I'm freaking out, like. So she was worried. So she goes over to his apartment and they go to sit down. In the living room on the table is a silver necklace, is a woman's necklace. She sees the necklace and completely starts internally freaking out. Right, she's like, oh shit, this he's been cheating on me, like. Or he's seeing someone else. She goes in the shower, his shower starts crying and she's like this relationship is over. I have to leave this relationship now, get out. I have to go out there now and break up with him. So she goes back down outside or back in the living room, puts her Starbucks on the table next to the necklace and she's just like so do you want to talk about the necklace? And he's like what necklace? And she's like the necklace right there and he goes that's my necklace, I wear that necklace.
Speaker 2:Why I think that's such a powerful thing is because, again, it shows that it's all perception that you're no longer having a primary experience of life. You're not seeing things with fresh eyes. You're seeing things through the filter of your past. And I don't know about you guys. I don't want to do that. I don't want to put my jadedness on anything, and sometimes these filters can be good, but I think the whole point of living is getting back to more of a whole healthy way of seeing things. So don't worry, that girl and that guy worked it out and everything was fine and it's all part of the growth. But I would just like to ask you today what are some things that happen in your life that you are not letting have it be a primary experience because of your very tilted, skewed view of things? I'll tell you a simple one for me, which is kind of funny.
Speaker 2:I love basketball. I love watching basketball because I grew up in the 90s with Michael Jordan. Hell, yeah, I thought I was going to play in the Bulls until I was 16 and I had colored braces. Turns out they didn't want a white dude who had medium to average speed and blue and red braces. Okay, I guess they didn't want them, but to me that's like the heyday of basketball, right. So I'm like watching basketball now with friends and I'm always kind of bitching a little bit about it.
Speaker 2:And I hit me recently, specifically the Knicks. Okay, the Knicks were the Bulls biggest rival in the nineties. So I, the Knicks were doing really good this year. I watched the Knicks game. Everyone's like come on, this is a new fun team. I'm like, all right, let me get, let me just give them a shot, let me just try, okay. So I watched the Knicks game. They were playing the Pacers, I think, and I was like, okay, maybe I could root for them, let me just turn this game on. I watched five seconds of the game. I see Madison Square Garden. I see Knicks fans. I'm like I hate this team, I hate the garden. I hope the Knicks lose every single game for the rest of their lives and that's like a harmless example, but we are doing that with so many things in our lives.
Speaker 2:So here's how you get rid of the energy blockages, because let me save you the 55, 45 minutes of this talk and try and get to the crux of what he says. He says what you have to do is every time that you have something come up in your life let's say it was you find a necklace on a table, let's say the doorbell rings, let's say you're in traffic, someone cuts you, you off, let's say someone doesn't text you back and you start feeling that pit of angst or despair. He said you need to sit with it and allow it to pass through you. And that sounds simple. But he said literally turn and face it and say like okay, I'm triggered by this thing. What's going to happen if I sit with it and give it space to let it pass through? And I have to say that I think it's works. I've been doing it a lot. I'm not perfect. Still things are triggering me, but I think for a long time my thing was always turning and running from it and then being like I got to just positive, think my way out of this or I'll just manifest out of this. And I'm at a place now I don't know about you guys where, like, I don't care, I will just want the most effective thing to dissolve these blockages. I don't think that you will ever, always dissolve all of them.
Speaker 2:Michael Singer argues that you would, you can, maybe you them. Michael Singer argues that you would, you can, maybe you can Fuck it. I don't know. I don't want to limit you, but I do think the more we do it, the more free we get to be. And what's better than that KFC? No, it's gross actually. I went recently. It's terrible.
Speaker 2:Ok, I want to leave you guys on this also extremely helpful thing, and we will return to having more guests soon. I have a guy coming on talking about quantum jumping and other super fun things I'm really interested in. So that part of the show, don't worry, we will be getting back to. But also, hey, not to toot my own horn, but oftentimes and maybe this is not my primary experience and I'm sure that you can be guilty of this too y'all is thinking that other people know more than you and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they don't. So I'm owning up to the fact recently, really going all in on myself and realizing, like, bro, you know a lot, so I have a lot to say share with you guys and I hope you enjoy it because I think you're amazing.
Speaker 2:Tony Robbins is big thing is called priming. So priming is basically getting your body into a peak state to prime yourself for success, to see and be alert for success. So I think that rewiring your brain is the most important thing you can do meditating, anything you can do to build new neural pathways if you want to create a new life, all right. So Tony Robbins did it by a thing called priming and I was completely blown away by this study he specifically cited about priming and how, when you prime your body for certain things, you will then achieve that desired outcome. So here is him talking about the study.
Speaker 3:One study that grabbed me one of the earliest studies I read was at Harvard, and they took a group of people.
Speaker 3:They took two actors, a man and a woman, and had them go rehearse doing an exact presentation over and over again. They went to a mall, a man and a woman and had them go rehearse doing an exact presentation over and over again. They went to a mall, they went to a park, and what they would do is they would walk up to you at the mall or the park and they had a coffee in their hand and they'd say, excuse me, could you hold this just for a second? And they wouldn't ask, they'd hand it to you and look down. So you, so much. And they take it back and they practice having the same facial expression, saying with the same tone of voice, and he used a man and a woman. And they went to 150 people the man and woman one way, 150, another way. They did everything exact identical, except one thing Half the people they handed them ice coffee. The other half they gave them coffee just for a few seconds.
Speaker 3:Now, interestingly enough, 20 minutes later, somebody with a clipboard would come by back through the mall and they'd see you and they'd come up to you and say listen, I'd like to ask you to read two paragraphs and answer one question, and I'll give you $20 for it for our survey. You read the two paragraphs of this little story and then the question was how would you describe the main character in this story? And what's interesting is, over 81 percent of the people who were given hot coffee said the person was warm and genuine in the story they were reading. 20 minutes later, the ones were giving iced coffee 80. Only a one percent difference, variable natural variability. 80. Said the person was cold and calculating and uncaring. Exact same story 20 to 30 minutes later. That's how powerful priming is.
Speaker 2:Holy shit. And I love it too, because I feel like deep down, we're all like no, we're free beings, we're not susceptible to mind control. But totally Think about Vegas. Think about the reason why people stay up till five there because it's totally structured that way. Think about how I remember seeing a rom-com where the couple broke up. I was 24 and the girl I was dating the time afterwards was like I think we should break up, just like sad music. What will sad music do to your day? Or sweatpants If I put sweatpants on, I'm like fuck it. I should just nap today with Willoughby and I don't really need to do anything. I think we need to start paying more attention to how we prime ourselves, and I really like it.
Speaker 2:In the speech he said how his son had a friend who always made him laugh and was always laughing. And Tony Robbins was like you need to keep that guy in your life forever because he is priming you for joy. So surround yourself with people that prime you dog and put yourself in position to start seeing little, small things to remind you that you are on the path to success and growth. Take the things like I will start talking about David Bayer next time around. He's incredible, but little things like start seeing, like, oh, I just got $5 today that I didn't expect. That's amazing. Oh, I got a yes, I got a really exciting meeting coming up with someone. Oh, this person just returned my call and they're super excited to talk to me. Oh, I just made five new connections at this event. Just like, start priming yourself every day and say I'm going to see evidence today as to why things are getting amazing and better for me.
Speaker 2:And one thing I'm doing with Andrea. This is really fun. We should all do this together. Andrea and I, next week, from tomorrow, we are having a Zoom call to celebrate something. We don't know what it is, but we are celebrating and we are going to talk about our wins and we're going to celebrate them and I'm going to prime my brain to toast that shit. So I want you guys to do the same thing. I think you could have an amazing week. All right, I think you're the best. Thank you for, as always. So much for being here. Let's build an amazing community of people having fun, changing our lives and laughing a lot. I think you're amazing. I hope you have the greatest week of all time. I believe there's so much love here for you. I believe that anything you want can come true, and I believe that you're so infinite it's actually crazy. Okay, I also believe Marlon Brando is in the moon.
Speaker 1:You're the best. You bleed and learn to let it lie In the walls of a mausoleum, in the walls of a mausoleum, and they're all just trying to reach the other side.