What's happening guys? This is episode 5 of the Prime live podcast or technically the first episode of the Prime live podcast since my last name change from the AC podcast that the primary podcast. So hope you enjoy the first episode of the primary podcast. Let's get stuck into it. This episode is sponsored by a product that I absolutely love is called Spoonful Botanical. So I've been using this product for the last six months and I just want to give you a little background on the product itself. This is an all-natural.Homemade food product that helps with inflammation and age recovery. It's basically a blend of high quality herb spices and fermented fruits, which have renowned properties to combat inflammation and can be taken on a daily basis. The product is actually inspired by ancient Indian wisdom. And there is currently no other food products like it on the market. I was actually introduced to the product from a friend of mine because I used to get a lot of pain in my knees when running and it was mostly when I was doing long distance running and I found it wasn't able to run. Run for like three or four days later. I couldn't run the next day and my knees were all inflamed and my joints were inflamed and since taking the product over the last six months. I've actually noticed a huge Improvement. I mix it in with some Greek yogurt. I throw it into my tea at night or just take a spoonful whenever whenever I'm in a rush and it's absolutely delicious. So for me, it's a great preventative way to fight any inflammation that you might have and it's a great way not to take any anti-inflammatory drugs. So I really do. I recommend this product to any athletes or anyone who wants an all natural way to improve their well-being in general. Please check out their product online at Spoonful Botanical duck calm and we can get a full list of their stockists or you can order directly online on their website. So let's get stuck into the podcast. My guest today is an international speaker life coach and Pharmacists and his name is Jack kavner. So Jack is probably one of the most uplifting and positive guys. I ever had the pleasure of spending some time with and this is me being completely honest ii o Madam in the coffee shop. He had a big smile on his face and his energy was infectious. It's just one of these guys. You just always want to be around because he'll just lift your energy and your mood. So I just want to give a little background on his story before we get stuck into the podcast in 2012, Jack Havana suffered a life-changing spinal cord injury leaving him with 15% muscle function. This ignited a passion to explore aboard his own and others potential in the years since he's become an ordered life and performance coach speaker and pharmacist. Motivated to help others live more lined fulfilling lives. He was included in a list of 50 incredible people who are shaping modern Ireland in 2017 and was awarded as one of the ten outstanding young people of the year in 2019 as a dynamic individual who is doing inspirational work. First episode of the podcast Jack and I are raising money for spinal injuries, Ireland. So please do check out my link in my bio of my Instagram where you can donate through the GoFundMe page spinal injuries, Ireland is the only support and service in agency in Ireland for people who have sustained a spinal cord injury and their families. They provide a person-centered service to assist people to engage fully in society. If you can donate a couple of Euro or as much as a couple If it is worthy cause and his amazing group of people, it would be much appreciated. So without further Ado. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the great Jack travel. All right jack cabinet, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Sir, how are we and we're good. We're good. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on thank you. So Jack I first came across you couple of years back when I was scrolling on YouTube and I came across your tedx talk. And I was completely taken back by obviously the event that happened but more so your mindset around. How are you? How are you approaching life now? And I love the quote that you had at the very end. But just to give the listeners a bit of context what happened in 2012, and how was your life kind of unfolded from that moment? Yeah. So I really think that I was at a stage in my life and coming towards the end of my teenage. Here's where like everybody I'd pushed out against the limits of my own Comfort zones and my parents and my teachers and everybody else's on a gun through a phase of like really questioning and trying to figure out who I was and how I fit in in the world and I was starting to come up with some reasonably good answers and around that time. One of the biggest things that I was interested in was windsurfing and off for the summer. I would go down and work as an instructor. In the west of Ireland in a place called collage tishka. It's an Irish College down in demolished. And I remember on one of the first days down there that summer cycling off to the beach and I was one of those ideas scenes. Where as you look back down the beach the only Footprints in the Sand or your own and the sun was gently setting over the breaking waves, and I just can't myself in that moment to kind of just smiling. And I realized that I was really content with where I was with where I was going and the people that were around me and I was kind of comfortable myself in a way that I hadn't really been and at the end of this dot summer which was about 8 weeks later. I went away on a holiday with about six or seven of my best friends at Portugal on on that first day. Like I done all summer ran down the beach dived into the water. Or a wave not realizing just how shallow the water was and when I hit the bottom on my head collided with the sand and I broke my neck. And so that was very much a pivotal moment in my life. And I ran from this free independent young guy to really having the rug pulled out from me and Phaedra way and in many ways everything changed. I'm in other ways. Nothing changed at all but to give your listeners some context and now I am a wheelchair user and that is a small part of my identity. But I do use a wheelchair I have about 15% muscle function. So my shoulders biceps and wrists work. I don't have any hand function and I'm paralyzed from the armpits down. So I get around I use a manual wheelchair. I have as I just left it out in Alex's Hall here an electric bike that I clipped my chair that helps me get around outside. I drive I live a very expansive life and in all areas of my life, but it's been quite a journey from that moment on the beach that day and to where we are today, and it was just just like Either they and it was back in 2012 wasn't 2012. So I just turned 20 actually two weeks before that and is my man. It was a sand dune wasn't a rock was it? No, so it was the Sun Bank and the waves broke over the Sun Bank and when I dove over the wave there was basically just like a foot of water. So in that moment like I my head collides with the sand my whole body just goes limp. If you feel like the subtle click in the neck, I wasn't in pain was no pain no pain no pain just heat and my neck and but I was face down in the water and I could move so and luckily enough. I read on your website, or was it one of your blog's you have your like you're a trained lifeguard lifeguard? Yeah. Yeah, and so I had so much experience in the water from growing up. Healing and kayaking and windsurfing and all the rest of it thought I was actually remarkably calm and I just kind of had this moment nearly time kind of slows down a little bit and I was super aware of what was happening. I thought about my my family. Yeah. I was just going to ask you was it this did life flash before your eyes in a moment. Yeah, and it's funny I often use that phrase and and you only see it in a movie or whatever or hear about it. In other people's stories. But yeah, you kind of have that moment of realization of what are some of the more important things and I thought that the guys on the beach and God will they get me before I black out and and if they don't like what does that mean for them? How will they carry that going forward and luckily luckily not too long later Stephen, but his hand and under my shoulder and pulled me up and I said what are you playing at? And I said Steve. Look I hit my head think of damage my neck, and I can't move and he dropped me back in the water thinking I was joking apart as soon realized that I wasn't you won't let that one down here. I'm sure how did the red one. How was the rest of the day look like then? So yeah, the guys took me from the water laid me down on the sonde and like kind of an insult. Always chaos into it from there. Some of the guys run to get the help of lifeguards to get my my details that my passport things like that from the apartment. But at the same time some of the others just lay on the sun beside me normal conversation. You know, how do you normalize a scenario like that? And it wasn't long before an ambulance crew arrived and they strap. Hope they brought me to an ambulance and kind of add a point to fear really set in because the door is closed. They wouldn't let my mates come with me. And that was kind of the first time that I really felt kind of broken and alone and they brought me to a helipad and at that point I was knocked out or else I went unconscious. I don't really know but I woke up the following day. And my first memories are I was in intensive care at that point. My first memories are counting the eight screws in the light fitting above my head kind of delirious. Then I became aware of a metal cage around my head tubes going in my nose and down my throat keep my vitals going keep me fed and unbreathing because I couldn't breathe for myself and and Point I remember not too long afterwards Gareth one of the guys walking around the bottom of my bed and I was greeted by this smiling but tear-filled face and I couldn't speak but I'm a loaded the words. It's going to be okay, and that was really my first decision. It was an age response on and it's kind of record now to the way you're living your life at the moment, I believe because I remember watching that tedx talk a couple. Couple years back and just as I said before, I was kind of taken back by your whole response on what happened and how you're dealing with life. Now. I need your full of life and your approach to it and how you responded to what a lot of people would say is a you know to catastrophic it accent. And so going back to then your time in the hospital. What what what injuries actually did you have and exactly and So very simply I damaged my neck and I broke the fifth vertebrae down in my neck. And essentially what happened was when I hit the sand the one above it and below it pushed it in and it cracked in half and I pushed in on my spinal cord and unlike other parts of your body. Your spinal cord has a very weak paucity to Regenerate itself. And so basically, I just have Scar Tissue going across my spinal cord and at the C5 level we're just stopping the messages coming down. Now the knock-on effects of that are pretty severe a bit of scar tissue in other parts of your body doesn't mean a whole lot but this is stopping some of the vital message is getting down and it's pretty remarkable. How resilient your body. How resilient your body can be in a scenario like that like and there's still the amazing things it can do and how it functions. So in the rehab what that really look like was my first job was to learn to breathe or made it to come off the ventilator and then it was to begin the Journey of learning to reuse this body that worked in a slightly different way and as Lee demanding as that was like it was much more of a mental challenge because once again I had to go back and answer a lot of the questions that I'd come up with good answers for as a teenager all over again and in doing that I questioned how I fundamentally change as a person and I realized that I was still the exact same person but - I just uncovered different parts of myself on and I think that sounds true for anybody. When either you face a big challenge or you take on a big challenge you realize that you're capable of more than you ever imagined possible and that you've got reserves and capacity and to rise that you you never previously envisaged. So yeah, that's that same a big thing. You are fearless like a child. I love it. Yeah, so I shared this story about either as a child. That we were told in Primary School the following week. We could bring our bikes in on at that stage. I was riding the bike with my stabilizers and over that weekend. I spend every waking hour or minute and practicing on my bike and we got down to one stabilizer and by Monday morning I was going in with no stabilizers on the bike and I The tide talk I think by by saying what people didn't recognize when I had this injury was that there still that little kid inside me. I wanted to cycle without my stabilizers and that was kind of a bigger metaphor for my life and and you can see it now. I mean, you're you're full of life and I meant it today big smile on your face. You couldn't stop smiling. You know, you could meet somebody on the street your mates and they could be in a bad mood. But I just love that energy out of it. It's fantastic and I saw in your speeches and and your talks and your other videos that you're doing. So what what what I'm trying to work what makes you how do you keep that positive mindset or what? We what we are techniques I suppose when you are going through. Okay. Let me rewind maybe back to the time. Did there's a five stages of grief? I don't know if you maybe did you go through those stages? Yes. I'm so happy you brought that up because I was going to call you out on the positive mindset. I very much I would phrase my mindset as being an optimistic realist. Okay, so what I mean by that is Look, I recognize that we all face challenge Strife adversity tough times times where things do not go as we would like but I'm also an optimist in the way that I look at that because I also see the possibility and the opportunity and the magic that lies in people and the world and so with that as I went through the years. Early years after my injury. I had seven years this year actually since it happened on those early years were very much. I was grieving as you do after any kind of trauma or any kind of sense of a loss and you have to grieve for the life. That was so that you can live the life that is and if you don't grieve for a properly you get caught in the loop of of being stuck in the past of trying to in some way bring that into the present and and failing to acknowledge that that reality is a little bit different than that now, but I had to I had to go through that trauma on grieving process and there's five stages as you said and you can feel them over the course of a couple of months or a year or years and then at different times you feel all of them. Within space for a couple of hours and gradually though and last stage is as you go through the bargaining and I'm so on you gradually come to some sort of acceptance, but that really only happens after you go to the depths and the darker places and I very much did that I really remember the summer that so it would have been coming. A up on a year after the injury and I spent seven months in a hospital and I came home. I moved back out into the countryside a lot of my friends at that stage. We're going the way on Jay ones and I was in that Loop of comparing my life as it should have been based on my expectations to where to where it actually was and I always Caught In the comparison Loop of looking at the things that my friends were doing and should have been doing And they should not put their lives on hold in any way for me compared to where I was on that was so jarring. I felt like my freedom had been ripped away from me and such a big big way. I was still really come to terms with things and figuring out everything but I really had to sit with that reality of how things actually were and when I did that I went pretty deep into a dark place under was days and weeks at a time where I couldn't speak to people but more so I wouldn't make eye contact because I just really didn't want people to see the that deep existential angst that I was experiencing and it was that raw heartfelt pain the groveling feeling that numbness that you just can't really put words. Jean and gradually I started to come through it. And the reason that I believe I came through it so well and and look it's a cycle and you peel back the layers and I'm and over time you think you've dealt with things and just as you're getting to a great place, the rug is pulled out again, and you peel back another layer of fur, and it's that ongoing willing. Yes, God is so important to explore yourself and the depths of yourself because the deeper you go and in One Direction, it gives you the capacity to go hire black open the other direction. I really think it's like a heart rate monitor. You have to experience the highs and the lows as you go along and that's what teaches you are alive. And if you don't go low, you don't have the perspective of what it means to really understand what it is to be high. And so over time and I started to come out of it and really I believe that what pulled me out of it was this bigger Vision that I had and you mentioned it earlier and when I was in rehab I decided that I needed a bigger Vision. I need to be inspired by a bigger vision and if you just think for a second about what the word inspire means it means to breathe in and And so this vision would become the Breath of Life for me in some ways. That would it would be my Heir or my sustenance or oxygen when things got off. I'm the inspiration Came From the Inside Out I suppose on at that time as I was Learning To Breathe and rehab that Vision became to get back to college the following year which was a mountain to climb, you know at that time. But 13 months later, I found myself living away from home and back in college. That's unbelievable man. Mmm. I'm look to the outside world that look like a massive success story. Well, it is absolutely is. Yeah, but I mean to have that Vision. Yeah it extremely I think it's an extremely strong mindset to and I suppose it goes back to the going back to the importance of having that vision and having that those future goals because we Something to reach towards then we're not really moving in the right direction at all. But I do I do think it's important to say like at that time. It was I was barely surviving like I got back to college and at that stage. I hadn't figured anything out and it was taking me three hours and the assistance of two people to get up in the morning. Yeah hours DM. Well three hours to go through the bits and pieces that I needed to do. do the added bits and pieces and like I'd be so exhausted by lunchtime that I would just fall asleep and a table somewhere because I was too tired to physically go through the act of getting into bed and like that's kind of level that we were at that stage and but I knew the biggest reasons I went back to college was by putting myself in that stretching environment and so not in the comfort zone but in the stretch Zone and being Surrounded by by environmental cues, like friends and academics things. I would stimulate me and support me that I had a lot of those sort of points of connection that I was missing and otherwise on they would be my buffers as I sort of struggle true, but I was also studying Pharmacy which is pretty intense degree and I knew and that as part of this bigger Vision, I'm just for sheer day-to-day practicality that I couldn't like continue to have a rate regime where it took me three hours to get up in the morning. And so all of those things kind of got me to a point where I started to look at habits and routines and different approaches to thinking and things like that. And for example now I have my routine down to like just over an hour and Look, I still need a bit of assistance in the morning getting open but together to get up and ready for the day, but that's a mammoth difference and it means that my spinal cord injury now as a very the way I've set myself up as like quite a small impact on my day and how I live my life. I loved your whole metaphor or analogy of to move forward. You have to kind of deal with your past and step into the the that darker unknown place. And the next question. I was going to ask you was from moving. This say those five stages of grief from denial to acceptance between those. What did you gravitate towards? Was there any pillars did you move? What what did you need is a human being in the in that state. Did you find yourself picking up new? Viewers new habits and was a connections with people. I suppose an emotional level. Also, I think a big thing that you need. Well look you you named one of them there is is a willingness to unwillingness and an environment where you feel safe enough to be vulnerable. I'd look every part of me was vulnerable. I thought stage it was kind of undeniable but but that when you're ready or when you're given the gentle push that you you can express some of what you're going through and some of that emotion is one thing but a big thing that I needed at that stage was it was hope like some sort of role model dot that I could hold onto and I think for all the negative things about the internet and and so on door Let's go to bed it on one of the things for me was that it allowed me to seek out these role models that that gave me hope at that time. So I was pretty bullish actually about finding people online that were were in similar scenarios to me or had been through like massive adversity in their lives and had come out and they weren't just surviving but like they were really thriving in a way that was meaningful for them. And I saw those people out and I and I approached them and got to know these people and I learn from them and I read their books and I watch their movies and they gave me a part forward when when times were really challenging. So so that was a huge thing was like I needed to have The Hope dot was I had this bigger Vision I needed some form of evidence to keep that candle of Hope alive that long it can be done it can be done. Yeah. So Jack, how did how did you end up studying life coaching? Yeah. So this is something that evolved over a couple of years. I as I sought out role models and people to instill up and Hope to me and back into my life. I started gravitating towards people that were coaches and speakers as well as other role models and From them I learned a huge amount but I also said wow, isn't it incredible that they have the capacity to to help shift. Someone's perspective to instill something in that person that they might have needed at that time to reshape their mindset and to help them to move towards something that's more meaningful to them and It was also all the stuff that I needed at that time. I started reading their books like devouring and their podcasts and videos on YouTube on it was a world that I was spending more and more time and yeah more and more time throwing myself into and I wanted to be that person for someone else. I So felt that I huge amount of things that I could give and share and I really want to do that. And so over time I explored different areas. I was reading an awful lot of psychology. I was reading an awful lot of personal development at work and really a lot of work about just human human existence and performance and things like that. And I'm the natural fit was for me to go and train absolutely zero region. You can add so much value to my mean what you've gone through is just it's It it's funny how things work out. I suppose isn't it? It's like sometimes the worst of the worst things that can happen can lead to different paths and to help and you can help people go if they're going through the same Journey, whatever it might be if it's more of like a mental side of it or psychology side to it or if it's any tough situations or times they're going through. I mean, you've kind of gone through it all in terms of mentally and physically and I love your I love Your your tagline on Instagram and it is what is it again? It's something about helping people bring out the magic within themselves. Yeah, I got it bro how people bring their magic the door of that's it. That's the one. Yeah. I really believe that everybody has their own unique talents skills and ways of showing up in the world and I'm all of these things that make them entirely unique. Totally different anybody else on you can brand all of that together as that individuals magic and in my eyes anyway, when it's when they're expressing themselves and showing up as who they are for the world for themselves, you know in the world for themselves. They're going to be performing at their best and helping people. It's a top into that is is key. And there's this idea that every person is both a masterpiece under work in progress at the exact same time on I really love that because for me it's like when you're born the odds of you being born are one in four hundred trillion, which one in four hundred trillion, like it's insane. Like there's clearly a reason that each person was here. Like there's a reason that that sperm won the race that you know what I mean? Um, And yeah, everybody has their own unique values unique strengths interests, and I'm from from the moment. You're born then you're the world start stopping away. I thought you know and chipping away and you become socially conditioned and on so on and so much of society takes us away from our Essence and really I'm about helping people to get back to their sort of truest core and And helping them to bring that to the world more often because like you think why would you think people aren't being their authentic selves as you would call it and he spoke about that before but yeah. Well a lot of this is about authenticity and and that's hard because it requires vulnerability. It requires bravery to begin and then courage to continue. It requires stepping over the line of fear repeatedly. there's so many elements that that are there and there's there's belief systems and stories that we tell ourselves and get told that we can are conditioned by life events, like things things that happen to us when we were younger when we were powerless that then go on and shape us and we tell ourselves well as a child the story that gives us some sort of control is O it Just be me or it's my fault or I'm a bad person or I'm not good enough and these kind of things go on and they have such destructive force in our lives that that it's only when we really start to peel back this on explore these things that we see how they how they infiltrated every part of our lives and and like it shows up as pain and people don't like to experience that discomfort. Effort and so you you find that people try to numb that pain in different ways, whether it be repeated dopamine hits that they get off Instagram whether it be going for the one or two drinks on a weekend and find in yourself and absolute Heap whether it is been watching porn whether it's like going from relationship to relationship. These are all ways of like nomming and taking yourself. From yourself whereas a big part of this and look we already touched it. It's like it's coming to terms with its grief. It's coming to terms and sitting what yourself and long enough to feel that discomfort. And as you do you can start start the process some of it and when you do you just realize I don't have to buy into this I can be free and I know you're big into Peter crown and he speaks a lot about this kind of stuff. Yeah, I only recently kind of came across from and yeas. I love his work. Yeah so far. Anyway, it's very powerful. Mmm, and that's kind of he's kind of like tipping into the clinical hypnotherapy that kind of work like diving back into your past and kind of restructuring stories and reframing different scenarios in your brain that Label us as people are your own identity you form your own identity of what has happened in the past. Yeah. Yeah. I'm Tony Robbins would say one of the strongest human desires or needs is to remain consistent with your identity. So if your identity is that you are a high achiever. I'm things start to go subtle things start to go wrong in your life. Like it's little stress yet. It's not long before Stress and Anxiety and And and the Whirlwind that that surrounds all of that and just slow spiral downwards and like I I think a lot of the work for example that Peter Crown does and it's fascinating is he sort of liberates people from the cages that they put themselves in from the past so that they can exist more in the present and they're not so worried. Like they they know that they have the capacity to deal with what's coming in the future. Yeah, like I started studying a little bit of NLP and it's a lot of it is ya know. Linguistic programming it's your inner critic your inner voice what language you're using on your self describing yourself and it forms this it surrounds you in this kind of box that you can stretch out of because your youth in a way to find yourself as a person and it's the language you use is that it's also the people we hang out with the beliefs that we have. It's the stories we create and I think as you know as we started we bought Studied life coaching and we were at the Art Institute wasn't it? Hmm Isaac Kingston College. Yeah, but I think it's kind of breaking down those barriers and letting showing people what they can achieve what they can bring to the world. What what what can they break out over their own beliefs and barriers and I think it's a really valuable valuable thing to offer what you're doing and and you've you have gone through a huge amount of of ups and downs as you say That you can now offer that to people and whatever struggles are going through. I think it's so totally taking people away from this like a fear-based judgment way of looking at the world where where everybody's looking at me while really they're not like people are so preoccupied with their own lives that they're not I'm helping you helping anybody to maybe reframe the way they see the world and interact with the in a more open and abundant. Way and that might sound a bit woot some people but really it's about an openness. And again, this phrase will will seem a bit whoa, but like it's coming from a place of Love rather than place of fear, and you can name that anyway that you want but like that's a primal like energy vibration in terms of how you show up. This is how people pick pick you up you said when when we met at like straightaway, you picked up all my energy and my smile Well, like as I go around the place and if I'm coming from that kind of a place that's what's reflected back to me. Like when I smile at the person who's handing me a coffee from behind the counter like she's smiling back at me, you know, if I give her a negative energy like it's far easier for her to give me that back as well. And so really we create the world that he existed. And it's hard. I'd like that a lot of responsibility comes with that when you realize that when you get those new insights in that level of awareness, it comes with sort of a level of responsibility because you actually realize well as an adult I'm in control of this but also coming from a place of more openness rather than a fear-based place like allows you to exist more in the present. It relieves you from worrying so much about the future because you know, like when that happens. I will actually be able to manage with that like as a kid. He developed all these amazing skills you like as a child. You naturally have growth mindset you are open. You're curious. You're resilient you're persistent your, you know, when to rest you're emotionally open and available and emotionally honest, you're completely authentic and every way and really big one is fearless. Yeah, and I'd like Understandably kids need to be taught healthy boundaries and things like that around around that like a Fearless mentality. They just don't yeah. Absolutely. I mean, yeah, it serves a purpose to a point but like healthy boundaries. Yeah, but like when we start realizing that actually if you've made it this far you can handle nearly anything and on you don't have to handle it all at once. It's like the more you stay present in the moment. The more capable you are of responding well and like like they say how you respond and act and and your daily habits today predict your future and if you're coming from a place of like compassion and gratitude and being more open and loving for yourself and others like that paint pretty nice picture of a future for you. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of has a future path to care of something that that you can go towards. I am talking about being in the present just going back to Peter Crone until there's a great quote. He had is is like when we're living in the mind or living in either in the past or the future. And when you're living in the present your you're putting your your attention to your surroundings and your senses here. Do you think in this day and age? There's a 19 it's it's people are living in their heads and awful lot. If we to go by that matter for what what techniques are when you when you were going through that moment when you were going through that period How did you stay in the present moment? How did you not dive into your head and think about the past or the future? Was there any techniques or tips that you could give to the audience and how you stayed in the present moment and he focused on the nail? Yeah. Well, oh this is like a journey that goes on and on and on when I'm speaking about for example with teams and things about well being one of the biggest things is I talked about like the level of stimulation that we all get and Particularly from online environments like we're just being bombarded all of the time. So one of the biggest hair practices for me to develop was to learn how to quieten my mind and when you do that, you're bringing yourself more into the present so that began with journaling. Now, what is journaling journaling is simply asking yourself questions and taking the time to answer them. It's pretty simple. So the big thing and gouging Yeah, but it's like we know we know all the people around us on the celebrities online and the people we follow on Instagram far more than we ever know ourselves on you sit down and you start asking yourself these questions you realize some amazing things about yourself some hard things and things get revealed pretty quickly Journal journaling was amazing for me because it helped me too. Start to put together the pieces of the puzzle and what were my trigger is what were the things that that were beneficial or or or not in my life? And I'm as time went on I got to know myself better that level of self-awareness is something that it just expands and expands and there's always new layers to it. But I without doing the work you don't get any of the benefits. So journaling was the first thing and I have I am like a diary / Journal like a physical one on one that I keep on Evernote on my phone and laptop and I can access that anywhere anytime and that will be like a depository for ideas or for answering questions or things like that. And the second thing that I did was I started to do and breathing exercises. And I know you recently had someone on speaking about breath work, but breath work is like the Step towards meditation from my point of view anyway, and meditation can seem very out there and hard to to Grapple with and it is a practice. It's something that you develop over time, but for me breath work and just focusing on my breath was a real way of like centering myself and taking myself out of my head and into my body and all that kind of work. And I mean, it's very much present focused as well, which I loved. I'm then deterred piece that really helped me to sort of quite my mind not even quite my mind, but just to develop. An awareness on to watch my mind. That's very good point. Yeah, I point I think was making aware being aware of your thoughts more. So yeah, like I read you ever might read a book Michael a singers unfettered. So I'm halfway through its great book, isn't it? Yeah, I gave it to my friends recently and Yeah, it's the best book. I've honestly I know this might sound cheesy Earthly Shay, but it's the best book I've ever read. Oh, yeah personal development herb mindset book I've ever read the first four chapters. I read them three times like before I moved on I'm like this. This is said so simply put it's so simple, but it is blowing my mind. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazed. And And he as he said he simplifies it like it and to a point where you're like, Wow, this is this is so easy. How did I never noticed before and it's in this an Incredible Book? Yeah, but when we recognize that like God mind chatter that's going on is not us. It's it's it's a conversation that's happening all the time in inside of you. It's not actually you that it's an incredible book. But um, but when you run you start to realize that and you can just watch this, Conversation that's happening in your mind you realize that we're all a little bit nuts and it's a much more leveling feeling and wave operating in the world. Yeah. I actually got in the audio book as well. So he listened to in the cap I need but you know, it's that's that's something that's really changed my life and it was my fiancé's mother who gave it to me. It's just changed my life completely. Yeah, it is one of those it's a practice more so you can't just read the book. I don't think and then just know what for life you kind of have to go back to it and read it again and our degree and my uncle was the person that told me about it and he said that he leaves and on this kitchen table and like every week you'll just open a new chapter and he's been doing that for years, you know. Yeah, it is great. It is great another book that was wonderful for me was It's called fear by take knock on. He's a Buddhist monk on it's about it's about letting go of fear and it's about that the present moment. The Green platform was was one that really shaped me. So written by an Irish guy called Declan coil and if essentially says that like we can frame any event in our lives on either green or a red platform. The event is just an event. It's neither good or bad. It's how we perceive it that makes it so absolutely perception. Yeah, it's a big thing Mmm Yeah. I think I heard an amazing things said by Seth Godin recently. He said a book is the best value you will get anywhere in the world because here is a piece of work that somebody has poured 6 months to a number between six months or number of years. And two, you can buy it for what 10 15 Euro. Yeah, and if you gain like two Pearls of Wisdom from that person's experience or what they have to say ducking entirely reshape your life. So I wanted to bring up a recent post actually with your XO robot that looked at looks great. Looks is it something that you have at home or is it so for? XD the ekso bionics robot. It's it's kind of like the future now. It's it's in the exoskeleton that dot was designed originally actually for soldiers to be able to carry more weight without putting extra strain on themselves. And then they realized it was Tara periodic applications for this and so they redesigned so that it can help people for example with spinal cord injuries or other neurological issues or things. Like Ms. Or stroke or things like that to and to train to walk to relearn and the movement patterns and things like that with you with robot assistance. And who is this a who's has developed by your made by this? So it's by the company is called ekso bionics and they're based in San Francisco and California. Let's so so it's been on the market for maybe a 10 years now in in teasing Lee Advanced forms, but and I've used this since oh 2013 I had access at different points to get to work. But now they've got a program based in DCU and in in Dublin and they're they're training people and I'm doing research at the same time. So it's brilliant. There's like a full-time. There's one full-time in Dublin know that we can get access to and Yeah, I need to be psychologically. It's as good as real as it is for the body, you know, well, it's amazing. And is it is it like a paid service or is it is it supplied by DCU? So at the moment because they're doing research it's fully funded. Okay, which is phenomenal and the idea is that it will under the fully trained and physio round and Langan is his name he was The rehab for a long time he was a senior physio injury up on now, he's dedicated himself to this and so it will get to the point where he will be training people and up and you can come in and maybe use the second robot ideally on paper session but and for the initial phase while they're doing research it's free, which is pretty incredible amazing. That's great. It's a great service, isn't it? Incredible? Yeah unblock people are supposed to be up and walking. Ting it's common sense. It's only going to do good things for people will this help your movement in any way or is this so I can frame it for you this way? I'm at the moment. I have what's known as a complete spinal injury. So that means that there's minimal message is getting through my spinal cord other people will have what's called an incomplete incomplete spinal injury, which means that there is Residual and movement and that they can control and it's particularly beneficial for people like that because they can build that level of control but there's a turd and school of thought which is around neuroplasticity. And this is the idea that just like the brain can learn and develop and reshape based on the environmental cues that gets I'm training data gets soaked on the spinal. Board and body people know that that makes sense in relation to if you go to the gym and you stretch your body it responds by getting stronger and and you train over time and your body adapts. Well, the thinking is is the same with spinal cord that the more you train over time new Pathways form and you strengthen those Pathways. So for example, I have my level of sensation changes and things like that after I've been walking So yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, and what just different parts of your body or do you have like God I I particularly have increased and awareness in different parts of my legs and things like that. That's amazing. So it look for the benefits. We're going to keep doing it. Yeah for sure absolute. That's that's great. So I wanted to just finish up because I know working tight for time. So thanks very much for calling. I really I ate it and I hope the listeners are able to get some value from it. Of course they will but I wanted to finish up on what advice if you to give three tips on how to get through a tough time. What tips would you give so I have three my three biggest lessons that I that I share in some of my talks. I'm the first one is everybody has their shit. It's just boxed in different ways. So going down the street my challenge or my my shit is very obvious. But what I can't see is that like Mary from across the road struggling with anxiety and barely got out the door that day that Joe bloggs is financially struggling that not a person's parent was As with condition or they've lost someone they loved the list goes on and on and on someone's struggling with their sexuality. Whatever it is, everybody has their challenge their adversity their shit. It's going to hit at some stage and nobody gets away and it's all relative as well based on your life exposure. So that puts everyone on a very Level Playing Field actually 'and it's for me when I kind of came to terms with that it gave me a lot of Solace when I was going through more challenging times. So that's the first one the second thing is the Power of Choice that over time the choices we make dictate whether we survive or we thrive in our lives and I mean small choices that we make day in day out so saying yes or no saying I can't or I can't I will try or I won't and they're the small decisions we make As to how we start our day how we interact with people how we talk to ourselves. When we look in the mirror. These are the little things that compound over time to shape your vision of yourself your world that create your world and that really dictate how you're going to show up for yourself and everyone around you and in a relatively short space of time your life can go from a place where the stroke Google is very real to where you are creating things that you could have only dreamed of and I'm seeing life in a very different Manner and so that would be the second thing. Is that the power of your choices? is really yeah not to be taken for granted the third and probably the most important thing comes back to the whole idea of magic is that each one of us is entirely unique and this lesson is essentially impress yourself. We're doing a disservice to ourselves if we compare ourselves to anybody else. Everyone is on such an individual journey and . That idea Dot may be the only person we should compare ourselves to is who we were yesterday is something that I found really beneficial. It's often said comparison is the thief of joy and I really do think it's true and I'll finish maybe with with something that I wrote at a time in my journal when I was having a bit of an existential crisis, and I was really grappling with what it means to be. To be human and to live well, and so I don't what I wrote is there is no right or wrong path just a series of events that gives us a flavor of what it is that either sets are hard to light or dampens are so what I do know to be true is that in life that is not always a smooth ride and a world that is more disillusioned disconnected and full of people wearing masks than ever before the bravest thing that any person can. Possibly do despite the challenges they may face is to bring their authentic selves to the world and that that is when the magic will happen. So really I I would wish people The Bravery to begin and the courage to continue in removing some of those masks on connecting with people and yourself more and slowly that sends of disillusionment worse. Start to dissipate but it takes courage to begin and our bravery to begin encouraged to continue while Jack that was inspiring to they'd at least without a doubt Jack cabinet. Thank you so much for coming out to the podcast. I really appreciate it. I am I hope you guys enjoyed listening to it and Jack just to finish off. Are you taking on anybody as anyone as clients or? At the moment. Are you where can they find you and online? Is it are you doing speeches and talks as well? So just yeah, so I'm doing a lot of speaking at the moment and I am taking on some new clients in the new year. So please do reach out if you're interested the best way to get me at the moment is on any of the online platforms Jack Cavanaugh IRL. It looks like Jack having a girl. When you write it all down but no sir. It's Jack Cavanaugh, Ireland as oh Jack have not IRL. You can shoot me an e-mail art. Hello - Jack - carbonite.com on my website stairs Well, Jack - Calvin a.com and it's being reconstructed at the moment actually, so bear with me but yeah and your sex change. Yes. Next year's the best luck with that. Thank you very much exciting times lat Good stuff happening. I look at thanks very much Jack and happy Christmas gift happy as the very Christmas to you. Okay. Thanks very much for watching. Bye. This is episode 0 or the introductory episode of the AC podcast. My name is Alex Collins and I am a life coach and advanced clinical hypnotherapist and in today's episode. I just wanted to give you a really quick summary on what you can expect from listening to the show. So first off in these podcasts, I will be having in-depth conversational. Use with athletes High performers psychologists entrepreneurs coaches trainers or just anybody who has an inspiring story to share. So in the process of speaking with these people I want to try and dissect and dig deeper into their philosophies their principles their beliefs and their mindset and trying to understand what makes them really Excel and drive forward in life. I want to try and learn as much as I possibly can for my guests and hopefully there will be some actionable takeaways that you can identify with and use in your own. In life if it's anywhere from strategies to tactics life hacks habits rituals or even some of the motivations that they have used. Now, there will be no real structure or timeframe and how frequent episodes will be released, but I will be sharing all the podcasts information on my social media platform. So please do check in on a sea life coach both on Instagram and Facebook episode 1 will be released next week and I have some amazing guests lined up over the next few weeks and few months. I'm really looking forward to this new podcast. And engaging with you all on different topics, and hopefully you can take some real value from it, or at least just leave it a curious or intriguing you thought so guys. Thanks for listening and until next time. Take care.
I have been dying to share this episode with you all because I truly think it’s gonna blow you away. Jack is one of the most uplifting and positive guys I have ever met in my entire life and I was completely taken aback by his story, his journey, and his outlook on life. His mindset alone will make you think twice about what small things we all worry about in our day to day lives. • In 2012 Jack suffered a life changing spinal cord injury which left him with only 15% muscle function. This ignited a passion to explore both his own and others’ potential. In the years since, he has become a noted life and performance coach, international speaker, and pharmacist, motivated to help others live more aligned, fulfilling lives. • He was included in a list of “50 Incredible People Who Are Shaping Modern Ireland” in 2017 and was awarded as one of "Ten Outstanding Young People of the Year" in 2019 as a dynamic individual who is doing inspirational work. • For this episode of the podcast, Jack and I are raising money for Spinal Injuries Ireland; please see the link in my bio where you can donate through the GoFundMe page. For the cost of a cup of coffee, you can help make a difference for victims of spinal injuries here in Ireland. • A special thank you to the sponsor of this podcast, @spoonful_botanical. Website: www.spoonfulbotanical.com 