74 Finding Your Voice, Finding Humanity: Transforming Pain into Purpose with Rob Daniels

00;00;02;10 - 00;00;19;28

Cherie Lindberg

Hi, I'm Cherie Lindberg and welcome to Elevated Life Academy where we share real stories of healing, hope and transformation. Tune in to hear how everyday people are rising above and lighting the way for others.

00;00;20;00 - 00;00;41;25

Cherie Lindberg

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Elevated Life Academy and I am your host, Cherie Lindberg, and we have Rob Daniels with us. We will let him introduce himself and talk about his healing journey, his new book. And as you all know, we just see where the conversations take us. So welcome, Rob.

00;00;41;27 - 00;00;46;20

Rob Daniels

Thank you so much for having me, Cherie I pronounce it like that, right. Cherie Lindberg..

00;00;46;21 - 00;00;47;26

Cherie Lindberg

Sure, sure.

00;00;47;28 - 00;01;06;12

Rob Daniels

Cherie Lindberg and I remember having you on on my podcast and months ago. So I'm grateful for you to to do this. I know you have. You're the expert in brain spotting and that's, I think, a very helpful therapy. So good on you for spreading awareness on that and living your purpose with that. That's amazing.

00;01;06;19 - 00;01;26;15

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. Well thank you. And you're doing you're living your purpose to. And that's why I wanted to have you a reciprocal have you back. Because I think it's really important for people to hear how people create purpose in their life and how they're trying to share that with the world. So tell us a little bit about yourself and how are you doing that?

00;01;26;16 - 00;01;50;04

Rob Daniels

Rob is Rob Daniels, but that's the stage name for the last 20 plus years or so in in broadcast radio in Canada and maybe even some in the US as well, depending on where the border frequencies pick up a certain radio stations like I'm on currently a Niagara Falls region station, which could get into upstate New York. Where else could?

00;01;50;08 - 00;02;13;25

Rob Daniels

When I was on in Toronto, there's a huge it just had a monster signal off of the sea and tower in Toronto that you could get parts of the station in Buffalo, too. So that was kind of neat. So I guess you somehow wind up by consequence of being an American broadcaster, I guess you could say to an Canadian broadcaster at the same time, Rob Daniels is the stage name, but my real name is Robert Schatz.

00;02;13;27 - 00;02;35;20

Rob Daniels

And yeah, I mean, I've, I've done a lot of radio broadcast over the years. I've done a number of different podcasts now in and out of employment opportunities and just where I feel it could most be suited and trying to go after what the world needs most. I feel deep in my heart and along with hobby type podcasts, I've done.

00;02;35;22 - 00;03;14;27

Rob Daniels

But really, I think where I find my niche and maybe you have as well, because I see you've done a lot of writing yourself too. Is just visiting the deeper parts of ourselves and getting comfortable being uncomfortable when it comes to writing. And I find with my lace creation getting very euphoric in certain atmospheres when writing and it's become, I feel like every person that has a job that has to do with their voice, their voices, their purpose, their voices, what brings in their their paycheck every week is that they should visit writing.

00;03;14;27 - 00;03;45;28

Rob Daniels

Anybody with a voice that is using it towards their life and and trying to make a living with it, should visit writing at some point in time and see if they can make something of it. Because I think that's the root of our voice, and that can bring the most, deepest, most meaningful purpose in helping others, which I feel like we're here and supposed to do as as human beings, it's essentially how we get slotted into society is it's not about us.

00;03;45;28 - 00;04;08;05

Rob Daniels

It's obviously we got to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. And, you know, we can go into that conversation to where I go ups and downs with that. You know, I feel like I, I can have like my, my uncle in my like as a fly on the room in the room here on the wall because he's I would think to myself, well, Rob, are you taking care of yourself so you can take care of others?

00;04;08;05 - 00;04;47;20

Rob Daniels

And I do try my best, but it is an ongoing daily challenge for myself. And my biggest helpful, I would say distraction at times is trying to help others. But I think, you know, I've seen these different quotes from Robin Williams before, the great and the late, great Robin Williams, who said something along the lines, I can't remember the exact quote, but you know, the ones who are going through the most pain are the ones wanting to help the most because they don't want others to have to feel what they're going through.

00;04;47;22 - 00;05;17;18

Rob Daniels

They just want to. The ones that want to help the most are going through a lot of pain. And essentially, I have found using my pain to help others has been my forte for just in my motto for trying to get through the daily struggles, to try to align myself with not escaping life. But I often like to say, don't take a vacation from your life.

00;05;17;19 - 00;05;36;03

Rob Daniels

Take a break from your life. When it comes to your holiday time in your profession, you know, take take a break from your life. Don't take a vacation from your life is what I like to say, because I feel like my my journey is I want to find out what it is that makes me get out of bed in the morning.

00;05;36;03 - 00;05;53;01

Rob Daniels

I wanted to do something helpful and that I don't even want to have an alarm. It's like I know that I need to live within my, you know, whatever the the internal clock is so that I know that I'm here. Okay? It's time to serve others again. Here it is, I can't wait. Gotta have my cup of coffee.

00;05;53;03 - 00;06;25;08

Rob Daniels

Got to do some exercise, move my body and let's go. And, you know, stuff like that. So it's been that type of a journey. But I try to be patient with myself at times. But I have to say, it's not easy in the last decade or so because I was in a car accident and being in a car accident, not people, you know, you see a lot of stuff on the news where it'll be like the ticker in the bottom right hand corner of like, you know, there was a car accident on this freeway or this highway, and then you don't hear about it again.

00;06;25;11 - 00;06;44;13

Rob Daniels

And then it's like it becomes yesterday's news, but yesterday's news. Then all of a sudden you're in the medical system, and these people's lives are changed forever that people don't really know about. And it just we just move on. But people's lives don't necessarily. They'll never be the same. And in a lot of cases, a lot of circumstances.

00;06;44;13 - 00;07;12;07

Rob Daniels

So I've struggled with that because I do rely on the medical system a lot for getting through my day, because without a lot of the medication, there's no other way of saying it. I envision myself like, you know, here's my arm. Just give me the death penalty. That's like, if I did not have the medication to survive every day because I that's how bad and extreme the pain is.

00;07;12;08 - 00;07;30;26

Rob Daniels

And that's what I try to shine the light on, is that we never know what anyone's battling every single day. And yes, you could have good days, but a lot of it is is mixed with just trying to stay levelheaded, trying to stay in the middle and never get too high and never get too low because you don't know what the next trigger could be.

00;07;30;28 - 00;07;55;10

Rob Daniels

Your nervous system is not really regulated because there is a lot of medication that does that to you. It heightens anxiety. To yeah, yeah, you have to constantly be juggling that. So that led me down the road of again, yeah, having to rely on the medical system. And I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that where they, they never feel the same again.

00;07;55;10 - 00;08;16;04

Rob Daniels

And I you know, I'm at that point of I've talked to top surgeons before and they've said, if you can just stay on the medication, I and you can manage it, I would do that and not do the surgery because the surgery is not guaranteed. You don't know what other wounds you're going to open up when you're trying to cover up another.

00;08;16;04 - 00;08;53;01

Rob Daniels

And so it's like you're sort of put in that corner of you, you don't have a choice. And so the consequence of trying to live daily well unfortunately counteracts in a lot of ways. So you have to really. That's why I thought I named my podcast awareness because it's constant, vivid self-awareness of how to balance your day so that you can manage and cope and still excel and be resilient while battling all this stuff, because you don't want to just sit there and mope all days, like, what do you do to distract peacefully, calmly, in a way that is helpful to others?

00;08;53;06 - 00;09;19;27

Rob Daniels

That you're not going to lose your mind because, you know, like, I can't see myself wanting to live directly in New York City where everybody, not everybody, but a lot of people can't sleep because of sirens. And they need to have that type of lifestyle where anything that sort of heightens my anxiousness or nervous system, I try to steer clear of if I can't, there are challenges in life.

00;09;19;28 - 00;09;42;22

Rob Daniels

Obviously that can derail that, but you can't. It's hard to get out of that. It's it's, you know, I can think of all kinds of scenarios of my 12 year old daughter pushing all kinds of buttons with, with our family. And she's the best thing in the world does. But the average parent, let's say that doesn't, that has a regulated nervous system, is pushed to the brink with those buttons, let's say with a child.

00;09;42;22 - 00;10;02;19

Rob Daniels

And you got to think when you already have that nervous system that's being tested daily through medication, it's not easy. It's on a different level to cope and to manage these situations. And you do the best you can, but you're going to you're going to win some, you're going to lose something. So it's been yeah, it's been a painful journey.

00;10;02;19 - 00;10;23;18

Rob Daniels

But everybody's got pain. But certainly mine is not your everyday aches and pains like I cannot go throughout life daily. It seems like without a lot of medication and I and I'm going through a lot, I would say even like I'm going to my doctor soon to talk about I think this is a real thing. Is is food, grief.

00;10;23;24 - 00;10;48;04

Rob Daniels

I'm dealing with a lot of food grief because that's another punishing part of this disease. Nerve damage disease and peripheral neuropathy. Complex regional pain syndrome is what I have. If people are wondering what I'm talking about, this type of pain, it's nerve damage. It's low back pain. But it's I'll give you a scenario just the other night, a little bit of like I'm wearing a blue Jay shirt now.

00;10;48;04 - 00;11;09;05

Rob Daniels

I do a little a little bit of like customer service type security type work at, at the ballpark for the Blue Jays on some of their home games. And I was just the other night just because I hadn't slept well, I was you know, you get that part where you're craving, you're craving the foods you shouldn't be having, and it's late at night.

00;11;09;05 - 00;11;35;20

Rob Daniels

And, you know, I ended up having just two slices of pizza and a small popcorn because what else are you supposed to have at the ballpark? I mean, there's not that much of option. So that to just give you an example of what the pain will feel like instantly within five minutes, I feel like I have shreds of needles and crushed glass growing in between my toes.

00;11;35;23 - 00;12;01;23

Rob Daniels

All of a sudden, once that food hits you. So imagine that you have like spiciness and extra toes growing that are shards of glass in your shoe as you walk, and that can be quite uncomfortable to that. So an average person, right. So that is all happening in your brain, but there's nothing there. But that's the sensation all of a sudden when you screw up with food, you go to a Super Bowl party.

00;12;01;25 - 00;12;19;27

Rob Daniels

You may as well throw in the towel I am done, I am toast because can't have the food. You got to bring your own food. Or if you do decide to have food, then you have to understand you're going to be taking opioids to get to bed in the middle of the night, likely because the pain is going to wake you up for whatever it is, a stronger Advil.

00;12;19;27 - 00;12;45;03

Rob Daniels

And, you know, tore it all is what it's what it's called. So there's all kinds of medications I have access to because of all these issues that derail my daily living every day. But I find a way to still try and do the things I love and try and but that's just an example of, you know, going back and I'll get to what the pain turned into purpose can be in a moment here.

00;12;45;03 - 00;13;14;25

Rob Daniels

But that's an example is what? So if you stay on a whole foods diet, like you're eating your, let's say, whole wheat bread in a sandwich, typically your chicken is grilled chicken. Or maybe it can be breaded at the most, but not like fried. You can have mustard in your sandwich, let's say with a chicken sandwich. A little bit of ketchup and not much ketchup will also potentially derail you pain wise.

00;13;14;25 - 00;13;43;26

Rob Daniels

If you don't watch how much intake you you take in certain amounts of cheeses will throw off the pain. You got to be careful of how much cheese you have. So this is what I'm getting at. Is that my extreme being mindful of myself is trying to turn into what the world, I believe really needs to unite on a level where we are doing the work daily to unite as a common humanity.

00;13;43;26 - 00;14;04;29

Rob Daniels

And so that's my story every single day is that fight to the cabinet and to worry that I'm going to be punished every single day if I have too much, a little bit too much salt. And we're not talking about punished by your waistline growing a couple inches for your belt to be expanded, we're talking like punished. You cannot go to sleep at night without extra drugs.

00;14;04;29 - 00;14;35;24

Rob Daniels

The pain is going to wake you up. You have the cortisol is going to rise. You're going to have more anxiety. You are going to feel more anxious when you get up. The generalized anxiety can get tougher to deal with. So you got to do everything to fight this every single day. So exercise, meditation, intentionally living where you are, forcing yourself to not have alarm bells in your mind when things go off.

00;14;35;26 - 00;14;58;08

Rob Daniels

Like it's easier said than done. But if you are intentionally living that if something's not done in the house, if something is not clean right, or you're running late, you're sitting in traffic, oh well, I'll go. I can't, nothing more I can do. I know my internal insides want to challenge me with that, but nope, I'm not going to I'm not going to entertain it.

00;14;58;08 - 00;15;22;25

Rob Daniels

And that's the type you have to live with or else. Because also nerve sensitivity heightens pain. Also, when you don't have sleep enough, sleep when you are extra anxious and act like, excuse me for saying this, maybe like a typical New York and New Yorker who's going to honor their horn 15 times in traffic. There's usually something that's happened to them earlier in the day that's bothering them.

00;15;22;25 - 00;15;40;11

Rob Daniels

That's going to pass that over to the next person of stress, because I don't think if you're just sitting there, I mean, it's obviously you got an appointment to get to or something happened earlier in your day that's going to make you honk the horn 15 times to try and get the person to to move or you're stuck in traffic.

00;15;40;11 - 00;16;03;22

Rob Daniels

So all of this being said, what can I do? What can I do with this pain? What can what is it that I can try and entertain daily? You know, it's it's therapy to just talk to you, to just get the message out, to just say, this is why I internally do whatever I can to try and not judge others to the furthest degree possible.

00;16;03;23 - 00;16;22;18

Rob Daniels

You know, what I judge, for the most part, is the food that's going in my mouth in terms of how much you like the taste. That's basically where my judgment zone is at. I don't know if it's also the ketamine that I take for pain, that that is also reduced my ego to like this or I just I don't want so many things.

00;16;22;18 - 00;16;51;29

Rob Daniels

I don't think this person should do that or that person should do this. I would never make an intimidating boss because I just think it was like, all right, well, you know, I could never be that person where I want my child to be what I want them to be. No way. It's kind of like, what's going to give you that same brain health that I found in the last four years writing this book that is going to make you say, you know what?

00;16;51;29 - 00;17;10;07

Rob Daniels

This is the distraction I need. This is where it's like, I don't even look at the time and the day is over by now because I'm like, this is the work I'm entrenched in and I need to do because I feel like this is the work I need to be doing. It's a lot of psychological, daily assessment. Being mindful of myself, I teeter totter in my mind.

00;17;10;07 - 00;17;42;07

Rob Daniels

I mentioned my uncle earlier about because I've talked to numerous psychologists and my family doctor and such, and I don't know if I'll ever go on on the medicine for anti-anxiety medication. If it's something that needs to help me to in the future or now, I don't know, I'm kind of like at I'm at that. I'm not really sure I'm doing everything possible to fight what I have holistically and the way I know how to best with my mind where it is.

00;17;42;07 - 00;18;06;14

Rob Daniels

But it's hard to say. It's because it's there is a lot of stuff challenging it there. But I do try and do everything I can possible to stay regulated. The exercise, the eating well for the most part. But I do struggle like a lot of people, you know, you're salt intake or you want to have a sweet treat or something after lunch.

00;18;06;14 - 00;18;28;01

Rob Daniels

But yeah, going into essentially what I did with all this in the last four years and just how I'm sort of trying to make amends with this. And because it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere, it's it's with me to stay unless there's a miracle that I don't know of. I've been told either you guys have a center in the US.

00;18;28;01 - 00;18;56;27

Rob Daniels

I'm not sure what it's called. It's a clinic, the Mayo Clinic, but I've never experienced that. But I've gone to a top five hospital in the world that did a lot of testing. I mean, it's three hours of testing to tell me my condition is non reversible, but you never know. You never know. But right now, what I can tell you to help the public and to and what I say in my book to something along the lines of is just to to try and not lose hope, not give up.

00;18;56;28 - 00;19;19;24

Rob Daniels

Do the things that do make you happy. Don't let it overtake your life. Be okay and allow with yourself to exit certain situations in your life that like in the moment, let's say that is not good for your nervous system at that time. If you have to take a timeout and leave the house and go breathe somewhere, go to a park.

00;19;19;25 - 00;19;57;16

Rob Daniels

If wherever you you know, because pain is it's a real thing that I feel like the biggest thing we can do with it, if we're not getting the answers we want, is to find a way euphoric, that it can have the ability to help others. And it's something that's I'm okay with saying this. I know there's a lot of friction in the world of how it's perceived now, and but I was listen, I had anti-Semitism against me in my when I was a teenager, and I actually lived in the US playing on a partial baseball scholarship.

00;19;57;16 - 00;20;23;26

Rob Daniels

That was a story I shared in my first book, Beyond the Mic, which was available on Amazon. But I had a lot of the stuff you see in the news going on nowadays on American college campuses happened personally to me 20 some odd years ago, and that was another trauma. To see that all re-occurring 20 years later, I was the most shocked I had ever been traumatized again.

00;20;23;26 - 00;21;04;04

Rob Daniels

So I it's so good getting to why I'm saying this. The Judaism that I, you know, I'm reformed Jewish. I don't really practice a lot, I do I have meetings every now and then with my community rabbi just to talk about life and how it's going, and that a lot of what I'm doing is considered God's work. And so essentially what this book is and what I've tried to live by with my work, especially in the last ten years with writing, has been using my pain to help others, which is suggested in, you know, it's part of Torah values with the Torah is to use your pain to help others.

00;21;04;04 - 00;21;26;21

Rob Daniels

And that's what I spent the past four years doing. You know, I never really talked much about it. I found that it was my calming zone. I wanted to zone out with it, get euphoric with it, lock myself in in Airbnbs. I did it just because I know great writers had done it. Just lock myself in hotel rooms to work on this project.

00;21;26;21 - 00;21;45;27

Rob Daniels

I closed myself off in small studio spaces. I wrote in libraries, coffee shops just to find with vivid awareness. Where do I get my best? Where do I feel? And some days would be different, like where you get your best work done. It all depends. I mean, now it's a nice day here in Toronto. If it's and it's got a little bit of a fresh breeze in the air.

00;21;45;27 - 00;22;03;17

Rob Daniels

If I found a nice little nook in the forest with a picnic table, I wouldn't mind doing some work there for like an hour. It all depends on if you're an artist like that. You kind of like you really appreciate and want to challenge where you are doing your work, because I feel like that has a big impact or a small impact to some people.

00;22;03;17 - 00;22;43;11

Rob Daniels

That to me it was, where can I try and see if I can get some better work done? Do I like this zone better than that zone? Do I like calm music today? Do I not like it? And so I did all this for, you know, four years with this vision in my brain that I was obsessed over, which was being this whole, like, if you think of what I'm saying in retrospect to you about if you were to be with me and a few other people that say at a park in a summer and it's good weather and the lake is nearby and there's a barbecue going, and it's like, I've given you some

00;22;43;11 - 00;23;03;16

Rob Daniels

material today of, okay, well, here's how I can be mindful of Rob. I know he can't have like, this salt intake. There's a whole bunch of foods that he can't have. Maybe I can just ask him. I get a little list here if I'm going to do the barbecuing, or if I know someone else is barbecuing. What is it?

00;23;03;16 - 00;23;27;10

Rob Daniels

You can't have Rob and Boom Yuval automatically just done the work as to how we are uniting again, you've all of a sudden have started to live with more of a focus on others other than just yourself. And that's the whole thing is where I was experiencing this in my life, where people weren't really there, like, yeah, come on, Rob, go do this and go do that.

00;23;27;10 - 00;23;48;03

Rob Daniels

And it's kind of like, hey, Rob, sign up for a marathon. I can't run a marathon. I've got like pins and needles in my seat. Like, I can go on a daily walk, a hike. But they're not being mindful of what I have experienced. And I feel like in order to live like this, and I'm trying to twist the plot a bit now that I'm in it, challenging people's mindsets.

00;23;48;06 - 00;24;09;14

Rob Daniels

If they're not going through it doesn't mean other people are not. This is the real thing. I've heard people say, well, yes, sports are the the Blue Jays. Last fall during the World Series were the team that united us. They were you know thank you Canada. Thank you Blue Jays for uniting us again with baseball and the Blue Jays.

00;24;09;16 - 00;24;31;14

Rob Daniels

And I'm like yeah you know what. That's and that could be said in any city in America. And I'm trying to get that across it to Americans to like you know, they see how sports unite them. And they go to 110,000 spectator stadium, and they're all wearing the colors of their favorite teams. And yes, that unites us on a certain level with their team at the surface level, sports communities.

00;24;31;14 - 00;25;06;04

Rob Daniels

But what is the daily work that we need to do each and every single day as a human collective human beings, every single day? What do we have to do daily to unite again after what has gone on in these last seven years, with everything that you can think of, Covid or politics, the wrong thing that is said in campuses and this and that and anti-Semitism and whatever race that's been manipulated in the news and who's not feeling, you know, that they have things that are fairer because of their ethnicity.

00;25;06;04 - 00;25;50;06

Rob Daniels

And so that's what this book right here is, is all about. So it's called being mindful of others the key to Humanity United. So I was thinking about this forever and I wasn't going to be the title. The title only came into me probably in year three of writing this out of out of four years with four years of a vision, but I and so what it is, is a collection of short stories, and they're all about different ways of how we can be a little more aware of others other than just ourselves shining a light on certain invisible conditions that, you know, I touch on OCD topics, I touch on, you know, Covid story.

00;25;50;07 - 00;26;19;12

Rob Daniels

They're all fictional stories, with the premise being it's in the preface, what it states like how I feel like we can all be a little more gentle and kinder to one another. Again, by raising awareness in certain mental health conditions that are out there that are typically invisible, that we don't really know what's going on and we don't pay attention to it enough, and we're we're too quick to assume or we're too quick to pass judgment.

00;26;19;12 - 00;26;42;02

Rob Daniels

And it could be even the smallest of things. But to the person that's living it, it's still kind of like, I just wish you wouldn't say that. Like, kind of like, here's an example. Like when I was working in an office, I had worn these cushioned flip flops around the office, but they're made of yoga mat underneath for the feet so that it doesn't feel like I'm walking on nails as much as I typically.

00;26;42;02 - 00;27;01;24

Rob Daniels

And if I wear those, those flip flops. So alongside the medication, those flip flops help me. But someone will come up to me in the kitchen at work and they'll be like, Rob, what are you wearing? Flip flops? It's December, it's going to like snow any minute outside. You're wearing flip flops today. There it is right there. That's what I'm talking about.

00;27;01;26 - 00;27;23;19

Rob Daniels

The assumption, the judgments that are not necessarily. Maybe you're not. You're not thinking, you're judging. It's just you're not living mindfully of others. You're just mindlessly going about your day and putting off remarks. I know you're trying to make casual conversation, but more casual conversation is, hey, how's it going? You know, and did you get up to anything last night?

00;27;23;21 - 00;27;43;14

Rob Daniels

You know, do anything different on the weekend? You know, that was out of the ordinary, something like that. But those comments, when you go through it as a chronic pain, I don't want to say suffer because I don't want to suffer, but a chronic pain patient, that's the ones I want people to be like, can we flip that switch to be like, no.

00;27;43;14 - 00;28;07;07

Rob Daniels

And there's a lot of those stories in here that bring awareness to these certain conditions that they're not just mine, but other ones and or other situational stories that I feel need awareness from Covid, what we did wrong during Covid in terms of our mental health towards others, and so their fictional stories with the premise of them being very real, of how I want.

00;28;07;08 - 00;28;35;26

Rob Daniels

I'm trying to coach people through mindset here and trying to get people to be better to one another by living with more of a focus on others other than just ourselves. And what does that mean exactly? What does that mean? Is it? Well, it's you know, I can think of three things that come to mind, which are a part of my podcast series that I come up with is Compassion and acceptance accepting, you know, we are accepting of others.

00;28;35;28 - 00;28;54;19

Rob Daniels

Your hair is pink today. Oh, tomorrow it's purple. That's great. You want you like, change it. You like to change the colors of your hair. That's that's cool. If you like to do that instead of that looks so lame. Why would you do that? Like every second day? Like just your natural hair is just where your hair naturally.

00;28;54;20 - 00;29;17;02

Rob Daniels

Like, that's what looks good on you. And even though that may be the truth to you, to them that might be their coping mechanism of what they like to do. So why even make a judgment call? Just be like, oh cool, I notice you and you're matching to it. Matches your blue sweater. That's cool. Did you do that on purpose or you know, so this is a difficult switch to to flip for.

00;29;17;04 - 00;29;42;14

Rob Daniels

I find more if I look at society in a way in North America, and it's going to be a difficult sell for a lot of America. And I'll say, even, you know, whether it's small town America, I've dealt with personalities in various parts of the United States, but that's my goal. That's my deep, meaningful, purposeful goal because of how much I also love baseball.

00;29;42;14 - 00;30;03;29

Rob Daniels

My dream is to get to American campuses and speak about mental health at campuses, in classrooms, at mental health organizations, to flip the switch in how we show up for one another, and then on the side, if I'm lucky, in the evening, go watch an NCAA baseball game or go watch, you know, an American ballpark, watch my Blue Jays play in Cleveland.

00;30;03;29 - 00;30;30;05

Rob Daniels

If I was lucky enough to talk at the University of Ohio earlier in the day, that's my dream. I love I want to, but I feel like America needs this mindset and this mentality more so than ever than any other country or Delta. I mean, Canada needs it too. Don't get me wrong, we need it to. But from what I've seen, what I've experienced in my years and living, I love the United States of America.

00;30;30;06 - 00;30;51;20

Rob Daniels

I don't want to see it's all apart, I don't. I love it for its sports, for the deep, meaningful people out there that are making an honest living, that are trying to do good in the world. That's that's wonderful. This is more so I feel like what I can help out with is bringing this conversation to classrooms to help what we saw in the news.

00;30;51;20 - 00;31;17;05

Rob Daniels

I don't think we need to see people gallivanting on GMC trucks and whatever those vehicles or, you know, tinted windows, huge vehicle Escalades outside American campuses, waving flags at each other on different sides of different countries that have nothing to do with the United States. And it's either one one side of the street against the other. And you would see this at numerous American college campuses.

00;31;17;05 - 00;31;50;27

Rob Daniels

And this is all a mental health thing. This is a mental health crisis that we are going through, and I am here to chip away at it one step at a time, one moment at a time, by wanting to bring this conversation to classrooms and flip the switch in the brain of where they feel entitled to, I have to be this way, where it's my way or the highway, or get the heck out of here where we cannot be our own beautiful self while accepting others.

00;31;50;27 - 00;32;17;21

Rob Daniels

As long as they're not being violent to you or against your, you know, boundaries and just be of acceptance because there's so much beauty in the world, everybody, there's so many different things that are that go on. But there is a lot of hatred out there towards certain cultures, societal norms. And, and I feel like we could do a whole lot better in how we show up for one another.

00;32;17;21 - 00;32;39;00

Rob Daniels

And it's and it's just shown that what it's what what the world's been like these last few years. So my goal is to, is to change that is to step into classrooms, talk to American students, talk to Canadian students. And because this was a this was a learned mentality that they picked up along the way. And it's not that you cannot unlearn it.

00;32;39;00 - 00;33;16;06

Rob Daniels

It's going to be uncomfortable to unlearn. Just like I go through certain things with my OCD. And sometimes we win, sometimes we don't. It could be a daily thing, but if we're trying, that's that's all we can ask for. And but if we could just if I could just get people to erase that part of where they feel like at the end of the school bell, when the school bell rings, at the end of the day, that they have to stand on a different side of the street, waving a different flag than their own country against some other organization or religion or whatever it is on that type of day that they don't have to

00;33;16;06 - 00;33;20;15

Rob Daniels

do that, and they can spend their time much more wisely instead of doing that against one another.

00;33;20;18 - 00;33;43;20

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah. Well, Rob, I want to thank you for coming on here and just want to highlight some of the the things that that you've said is that as a person living with chronic pain, that you've had to learn to be very mindful day to day to keep yourself regulated and so that you could keep showing up kindly, you know, towards others and mindfully towards others.

00;33;43;20 - 00;34;09;02

Cherie Lindberg

I hear you talk about, you know, turning your pain into purpose and also presence. You know, learning to be present and compassionate, have consideration for others and also accepting of others and some of the things that you know that you've dealt with in your life. Because like you said, you never know what somebody is dealing with on the inside.

00;34;09;04 - 00;34;34;14

Cherie Lindberg

Right? There's a lot of invisible disabilities that folks are dealing with that, that we're not even aware of. And it sounds like this. You know, your book Being Mindful of Others. The key to humanity uniting is you're trying to wake people up to get past the conditioned responses, to get underneath them to, you know, wake up and live in your higher self.

00;34;34;15 - 00;34;59;19

Cherie Lindberg

I mean, that's basically, you know, what I'm hearing, trying to help people see what this is doing to them and their connection with others, and how much connection and uniting is needed. So I really I really hear that. And that's a really, really big goal. And I hope that you get to speak at these campuses and share your story and help people wake up, because I agree with you.

00;34;59;19 - 00;35;20;08

Cherie Lindberg

I think we live in a world right now where we other people a lot, and by othering people, we suffer. We're we're creating our own suffering. And by just being being mindful and coming back to our heart, I think there's a lot that we can do to be accepting and loving and kind towards each other.

00;35;20;11 - 00;35;42;29

Rob Daniels

Yeah. And I think what like the and what I mean by that, by what level I'd like for us to get to and people might practice this now, maybe they don't like it depends on how deep of the thinker you are and and what you've gone through yourself. Again, this is this is a lot of higher practice for people that are already with chronic pain challenges.

00;35;42;29 - 00;36;07;13

Rob Daniels

But you don't have to suffer from chronic pain challenge to be mindful of others. So the two situations I think of, and one of them I highlight in the book, is say it's meet boarding a bus in rush hour and there's not a there's not a seat left on the bus in rush hour. And then someone orders all of a sudden leaves at the next stop.

00;36;07;13 - 00;36;28;16

Rob Daniels

There's one seat left. I was I'm lucky enough to take that last seat, and I've been walking like 3 or 4 blocks already, and my chronic pain is killing me. But I'm invisible. Chronic pain. Nobody really thinks anything different. Oddly, of of any, you know, 75 other people that are slammed in the bus. But I'm sitting there and I'm in pain, but and I just walked three blocks and my chronic pain is acting up.

00;36;28;16 - 00;36;49;04

Rob Daniels

And then the next stop, all of a sudden an elderly man boards the bus and he's he's got a walking with a cane, and you see him and you see him limping and I'm like, I'm in so much pain. But then I'm like, let's insert. Do you want to take the seat? Because I can see you're struggling. And he's like, no sir, no, young man, you have it.

00;36;49;04 - 00;36;56;00

Rob Daniels

It's okay. I can get through it. No, I insist, take the seat. No, I insist you sit there and if we can get to that level.

00;36;56;01 - 00;36;56;23

Cherie Lindberg

Yeah.

00;36;56;28 - 00;37;16;18

Rob Daniels

Of being mindful of others, that's where I want us to be. And the other, the other example I think of is when I go and let's say, for example, I pick up my child at school and there's like maybe 2 or 3 wheelchair parking spots that are at the school. And I already see that two of them are taken.

00;37;16;18 - 00;37;38;00

Rob Daniels

There's one left at the end of pick up school, or it's like the the middle of the afternoon. Someone may need that spot. I do have the disability. How do you call it license the the for wheelchair spot. But what I practice doing in my mind is there's only one spot left and it's like, Rob, how's your pain today?

00;37;38;01 - 00;38;03;15

Rob Daniels

Is it really that bad? Can you go one block down and then walk to the school to get your child and leave that spot for someone that may actually be in a wheelchair? And I'll be like, yeah, you know what? That there's only one spot left, so I'm going to leave it and I'm going to walk that one block, even if I do have a little bit more pain, because it's just one more block and I can do that, and I'm going to be living with more of a focus on others other than just my son.

00;38;03;23 - 00;38;37;16

Cherie Lindberg

Well, yeah. And I hear you talking about flipping the script and really getting people to think about others. We do have an epidemic of self focus, being able to look at other people's situation, being considerate, being mindful of it. So I hear you challenging us to do that, Rob, and I just want to thank you for coming on and sharing your story, and I hope you do end up going on the on the campus and being able to watch some of the games, because it's I can hear how much you enjoy sports.

00;38;37;16 - 00;38;40;24

Cherie Lindberg

So thank you for your time today. We appreciate it.

00;38;40;24 - 00;38;46;09

Rob Daniels

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you. Give me the platform and I look forward to keeping in touch.

00;38;46;17 - 00;38;52;09

Cherie Lindberg

Awesome. Thank you.

00;38;52;12 - 00;39;16;15

Cherie Lindberg

Thank you for joining us today on Elevated Life Academy. Stories of hope and healing. As you move back into your world, I invite you to take a breath and hold on to whatever stirred something in you from our podcast today. Healing isn't always loud, but it is always sacred. Whether today's story Open Your Heart, gave you a new perspective, or just reminded you that you are not alone, it matters.

00;39;16;15 - 00;39;36;27

Cherie Lindberg

And so do you. Keep choosing alignment. Keep trusting your becoming. And remember the elevated life isn't perfect its present. If this episode resonated. Share it with someone who needs a little more light. And if you're ready to go deeper in your own journey, you know where to find me. Until next time, stay ready, stay rising and stay you.