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Ben Greenfield Life

The One Component Of Fitness Most People Neglect (Meditation, Plant Medicine, Yoga, Sex & More: How Ben Greenfield Trains For The Spiritual Disciplines).

Ben Greenfield Life

Ben Greenfield

Education, Fitness, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2019

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As I age, observe great thinkers and philosophers, and continually seek wisdom, I've become increasingly convinced that caring for one's spirit is as important - no - more important than caring for one's body and brain. After all, long after our muscles have atrophied and skin has sagged, long after our brains have degraded and accumulated with plaque, long after our blood vessels and nerves have become clogged and weak and long after our relentless pursuit of fitness and longevity has become a vain effort, our spirits can be just as strong and bright as ever. Yet, sadly - especially among those immersed in physical culture, fitness and biohacking, it seems that the spirit is the most oft-ignored component of our human vessels, quite frequently shrunken and shriveled from a near complete neglect of the spiritual disciplines...

...disciplines such as meditation, gratitude, prayer, fasting, study, fellowship, celebration, charity and all those elements that most of us know are important but somehow shove to the side because, let's face it, life gets busy and it just seems far more practical and immediately useful to go hit the gym rather than sit cross-legged on the floor meditating breathing, spending an extra ten minutes in bed journaling, or prioritizing a family dinner.

As I mention with increasing frequency the importance of the spiritual disciplines, I'm often ask how I personally incorporate these practices in my own life.

So, similar to how last week I shared with you the nitty-gritty details of my own nutrition supplementation program, in this podcast I'm going to delve into how I weave everything from yoga to breathwork to plant medicine into my own life. I in no way profess to be an expert in these matters, and although it is my goal over the next ten years to become as spiritually fit as I am physically fit, and to focus perhaps even more on the spiritual disciplines than I currently do on the physical disciplines, I hope that a few of the insights I've incorporated into my own life these past several years may serve you well in your own pursuit of spiritual greatness.

During this podcast, you'll discover:

-Why value spiritual disciplines in the first place?...6:40

  • Focusing only on physical health and wellness can be quite shallow
  • Spiritual exercise/discipline is just as real and vital as physical
  • Caring for our spirit is just as important, if not more so, than our body and brain
  • Attachment exercise from Awareness by Anthony Di Mello
    • Think of something or someone to which you're attached
    • Say, "I really do not need you to be happy; I can be happy without you"
  • Happiness is a state of non-illusion -- the absence of an illusion

-How Ben has educated himself on spiritual disciplines...13:00

-Ben's morning spiritual disciplines...19:27

-Ben's sauna practice...37:45

-How Ben manages stress during busy and intensive work days...44:45

-End of day spiritual practices...47:28

  • Gather for family dinner (big factor for longevity in Blue Zones)
    • Meditation, activation of para-sympathetic nervous system ..."I'm aware of my body I'm smiling at my body I'm aware of my food I'm smiling at my food I'm aware of my company I'm smiling at my company"
    • Centering breaths
  • Games for family dinners
  • Finish up remaining business while family cleans up and gets ready for bed
    • You dwell on and dream about what you've dwelt on during the day
  • Family bedtime
  • Self-reflection journal (a la Ben Franklin amazon links...)

-Spiritual lovemaking...57:50

  • True, tantric, spiritual sex is oft ignored in modern society
  • Backjack chairs - chat for 5-15 minutes prior to lovemaking, sleep, etc.
  • Couple's plant medicine therapy
  • Holotropic breath work (Renegade Pharmacist offers this)
  • Ben's massage setup
    • Blast body w/ Whole Tones by Michael Tyrrell
    • Ketamine and oxytocin intranasally, occasionally w/ THC
    • PEMF table by Pulse Centers

-Areas for improvement...1:09:00

  • Participating in local charitable causes
  • Share your gifts -- make your service enjoyable
  • Strengthen connection w/ local church community

-And much more...

- BGF podcast with Der. Andrew Weil

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Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for me about the spiritual disciplines? Leave your comments below and I'll reply!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, you know that this

0:06.5

pursuit that a lot of us engage in to go climb our own personal mount Everest

0:10.9

man, it can get empty just because like you're so incredibly fulfilled when

0:16.5

it's a deep spiritual connection between you and another being and that's really

0:20.1

a difference between animals that have sex and humans that have sex right and I

0:24.5

talked to God in and my exact prayer every day is this.

0:28.5

Health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking, and much more.

0:38.1

My name is Ben Greenfield welcome to the show.

0:42.7

Today is a solo soad of the Ben Greenfield Fitness show.

0:54.6

I hope you enjoy it.

0:56.7

Before we bounce into it, what I would consider to be a topic very relevant to the

1:00.9

holidays in the new year, I want to tell you about partying because there's

1:06.0

some big big parties coming up.

1:08.3

If you're anywhere near the New York City or the LA area, the big boundless book

1:13.3

launch parties are happening.

1:15.9

So in New York City, it's going to be at the assemblage on January the 16th and for those

1:22.0

who are in LA, I've got a party in the 29th, I've got a party on the 30th and I've got

1:26.3

a party on the 31st.

1:28.3

So if you go to boundlessbook.com, you can pre-order the book and get all the cool

1:35.1

bonuses that are in there.

1:36.8

But if you want to see where all the book parties are and the time of each of the book

1:40.9

parties in New York City or LA, you're welcome to bring cool people.

...

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