Zach Beach
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Based in the San Francisco Bay Area,\\xa0Zach Beach, MA, is committed to building a world based on unconditional love and connection. He does that as an educator, yoga teacher, poet and writer, and as the founder of The Heart Center love school.\\xa0Author of The Seven Lessons of Love and two poetry collections, Zach regularly leads transformational\\xa0retreats, workshops, and teacher trainings around the world.\\xa0Zach is a certified Yoga Teacher (E-RYT500), Meditation Teacher, Thai Massage Bodyworker, Sex Educator, and Prison Yoga facilitator.\\xa0His online writings have appeared in such websites as The Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, and MindBodyGreen, while his poems have been seen in such publications as October Hill Magazine, The Oddville Press, and The CHILLFILTR Review.\\xa0Zach\'s formal education includes an M.A. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a BS from Northwestern University. Learn more at www.zachbeach.com
Brandon Handley 0:00
Their spirits are dope. I\'m on here today with Zack beech. Zach is an internationally known yoga teacher, best selling author, poet, love coach and founder of the heart center, love school and host of the Learn to love podcast, committed to building a world based on unconditional love and connection. Zack regularly leads retreats workshops and transformational trainings on opening the heart and discovering our loving nature. Zach, thanks for being on today, man.
Zach Beach 0:28
Thanks for having me, Brandon. Yeah, we
Brandon Handley 0:30
were talking a little bit here before and there\'s so many places to connect with, like, where do we connect from? And we connected you, you, you popped over to the podcast website and just said, Hey, let\'s connect. And I think Man, I think that was back in September. So here we are, you know, blast and all the way out of 2021 and 2022. Again, happy to have you on here today. Pretty crazy, right?
Zach Beach 0:52
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. You know, I started my own podcast when COVID happened. And I now have a newfound respect for all the other podcasters out there. I know just how much work it takes to get this out into the world. And we really appreciate the work that you were doing in the world.
Brandon Handley 1:10
I appreciate that. Appreciate that. So, Zack, I like to start this off with the whole idea that you and I we are, I don\'t know, we\'re vessels for Source Energy. Right? And the whole idea is that this podcast, you and I will have our conversation. We\'re gonna have somebody who\'s listening, that\'s going to get a message is delivered through source through you on this podcast to them specifically today. What is that message?
Zach Beach 1:32
That love is why we are here.
Brandon Handley 1:36
Yeah, totally. Let\'s let\'s dive into that one. What does that mean to you?
Zach Beach 1:42
So, you know, I love getting deep into philosophy. I love exploring many of the world\'s spiritual and religious traditions. And something that I always talk about is how almost all philosophy, spirituality, religion always begins with, like a fundamental unease about the human condition. Right? Now, sure, maybe animals have a certain level of sentience to them, but you look at your dog, they\'re so happy, they\'re not worried about the inevitability of death. And they\'re not praising the the treat God or whatever. And what I mean by that is we have fundamental questions about what it means to be here, what it means to be human, what it means to be in this world, what it means to be a good person. And as I have followed this path of inquiry, path of self discovery, I have found that the answer almost always invariably comes back to love that we are on this planet to discover our own nature as love, we are on this planet to open our hearts to the love that is around us. And if we\'re looking to find a deeply meaningful, deeply impactful life, love will take us there.
Brandon Handley 2:51
Yeah, so I mean, let\'s, let\'s, uh, let\'s chase your journey a little bit, right? How did you? How did you end up into this space? How, what was your path that lead to this discovery?
Zach Beach 3:04
For me, my path has always been one of continually reflecting on what really matters most in life. And then simply making sure you\'re living in line most with your values. So for me, that was a process of both yoga and meditation, by learning how to calm the mind learning how to turn within, rather than seek this material world for temporary pleasure, look to see if there is perhaps, and a lasting joy that we can find within ourselves. And through that continuous process of reflecting on what truly matters in life. The answer, again, that I kept coming back to is love. And I realized that what I loved was love. And I wanted to devote my entire life to bring a more love into the world. And this was about 12 years ago. And as soon as I started on this path, I realized how extraordinarily challenging it is to live a life of love. Not only because we all have certain unconscious patterns and conditioning that get in the way of love. But we also live in a society that doesn\'t place love very high on the priority list. It\'s very hard to make a living in this world devoting oneself to love there isn\'t a love Incorporated, that you can apply and get a job that you can\'t go to school and major in love as much as I would love to. I\'d love to just major in love and minor and compassion and study the nature of the heart. But these things don\'t quite exist yet. So once I embarked on this path, I realized I would have to carve out an entirely unique path that was uniquely my own, just as many of your listeners are probably discovering the love that they are, and also thinking about how they can bring more of it into the world. So nowadays, I do think of my work in the world as being on the level of the body, the heart and the mind. So on the level of the body. I love teaching yoga, I love people to connect their bodies to love their bodies. I also love to get bodies to connect to other bodies through partner yoga, Aqua yoga, time massage. And on the level of the heart. I love to write poetry, which to me is the language of the heart and gets us even closer to love than the mind ever could. And then on the level of the mind, of course, I write, I teach workshops. I have coaching sessions and coaching clients. And because when I started this path love schools didn\'t exist. I decided, You know what we need our own love school. So I started what I call the heart center love school, which has public programs and trainings and workshops all around developing the heart. So for example, right now, we are in the middle of an eight week, Mindful self compassion training, which is an eight week course, designed by the researchers Dr. Kristen nuff. And Christopher grimmer always rooted in scientific research and empiricism on what practices really help us bring more kind of kindness and compassion to our selves.
Brandon Handley 6:03
So, sounds like you\'ve been busy. And that\'s a good thing, right? I mean, it\'s your point. You know, I think that if, you know, I can remember God man, like 20 years ago, 25 years ago, and I was working at an auto auto shop as detailing cars. And I\'d found some type of, you know, love, I\'d found some type of connection to Source as they will, this is what I need to do now. And everybody man is looking at me fucking like, what is this guy? Wow. Yeah. So, um, you know, needless, I mean, I, you know, there was some other things involved. But I mean, it\'s same point, like, you find this space for yourself, and you try and share it with others. If you try to share it in a normal setting, we\'ll call it right. There\'s no, there\'s no love Corp. Not yet. But, you know, we share it with like, just your regular run of the mill people like yeah, that\'s not gonna work. Right? You\'re not You\'re not gonna be able, you\'re not gonna be able to find that kind of life. And so it sounds like, you know, you put a lot of time and effort into this and, and found some ways that you can live in, in love and, you know, teach others to at least find love within themselves. Right. That\'s fine. Love. I love all of the ideas that was it. Major in love and binary compassion. Right? But even before that, why don\'t you give me a little bit of like, you know, Zack, who were you before you fell, you know, fell into the space and found that for yourself. So that we have an idea of like, who was his act before you Zack now, right? You know, there\'s always that question. Who were you before you were born? Zach?
Zach Beach 7:43
Yeah, the Zen Cohen. Yeah, show me your original face. Show me who you were before your parents were born. You know, we do live many lives right in one lifetime. And you know, when I think about the average person in the world, I do think of as living from shoulders up, like caught up, in our own thinking, lost in our thought, believing everything, of course, that this room, ruminative mind conjures up for us. And by and large, that was me growing up in this cognitive centric society. So indeed, before I entered into the world of following my heart, I was told that in order to live in this world, you know, by my parents, that you had to have a job, right, and you go to school and you major in that discipline, that\'s going to give you the job, it\'s going to give you the paycheck that and then you spend your free time, you know, evenings and weekends doing what you actually enjoy. Right? This is what I was raised in. So I was actually a chemical engineering working for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, before I went on this path, and I was not in touch with my body, I was not in touch with my inner space. And it was literally just a back injury that got me into this practice of yoga. Because I was at a concert with my girlfriend, and she needed to see so I was like, Oh, let me demonstrate how strong I am. And I lifted her up and then suddenly realized I shouldn\'t have done that and herniated a disc in my lower lumbar. And I remember my physical therapist was like, You know what, you should try yoga. And I was like, yeah, right yoga, I can breathe in a room by myself. Thank you very much. And of course, once I took a few classes, I realized just how much it transformed my life and simply like on a physical level, for example, I learned just how tight my body was. And I had never really like even just realized that I was in a body before that, right my whole education system, you sit in a desk and you suppose to exercise the mind. Never did the body come into it. So when I came into my body, I discovered Of course not how how totally imbalanced. Everything in my body was this was tight. This was weak. This was loose. So the injury was a wake up call. Right. And I think many people experienced this in their lives. They experienced that really challenging, perhaps painful circumstances. that wakes them up, right. And if it didn\'t happen, then it was going to happen at some point in the future. So as I was balancing my physical body, the muscle groups, the joint structures, of course, that balance began to overflow into all the other areas of my life, I began to get in touch with my emotions, the energy and motion passing through my body, I began to observe the thoughts in my mind discover that the mind as they, as we say, is a great slave but a terrible master. And of course, discover the aspect of our being that goes beyond sensation beyond emotions beyond thought that we might say is our spiritual aspects of ourselves. So I still have that like technical background, I still love the rigor and discipline of intellectual pursuits. So I will always find myself reading, exploring, learning new courses, traveling around the world, studying from whoever and whatever it is, I can, while also recognizing that as Eckhart Tolle, he would say that spirituality is anything that goes beyond the continuous movement of thinking. Our Mark Epstein defines it as spirituality is anything that transcends our personality, right. Or sometimes in my classes, I do this quote by Jose Saramago. And he says, inside all of us is something with no name. And that something is who we are. So it was that process of yoga, the process of turning within that I discovered other dimensions to my being at of course, go beyond anything that was taught in any school or any book.
Brandon Handley 11:36
Sure, sure. And I get it right. So I mean, it\'s great to know because the transformation, you know, who you are today, wasn\'t always wasn\'t always me, you know, we all it\'s, it\'s funny to say, because it\'s more of like a sort of, like a rediscovery of who you are, and who you\'ve always been, but like, you know, you kept yourself shielded from it, like, you know, so you were cerebral and you worked on all your, you did your you did what you were told, right, here\'s the program, follow the program, okay, I follow the program. And then somebody else is like, Hey, here\'s another door, you might want to go through and check this out, like what is in here? Right, like, what is happening, and then, you know, that just kind of leads and takes on a life of its own. And it sounds kind of like, you know, that\'s what happened to you, right? happen for you. Right? And he has kind of opening, you know, life opened up for you. And you discovered all this. I one thing that I would love, love for us to cover if you if you if you want. Let\'s talk a little bit about you know, your heart centered school, right, your heart center program. And I\'d love to hear how you work with other men specifically, because I think men probably have have more of a challenge connecting to their heart center than than women. And then, you know, what\'s that look like for you getting what\'s, what\'s something? Is that something that you work on?
Zach Beach 13:04
I do love working with men, but it\'s always hard to begin working with him. Right? Particularly in the yoga world, I\'m used to having a vast majority of my classes being female identified, right? I even did a training one time, there\'s 20 of us in the three week training 19 students was the 21st. So 19 female students, I had one female teacher and I was the only guy. So definitely in the yoga world. It\'s like 8020, about 80% female identified and then 20% Male identified. And I always do wonder, like, you know, what is it about our upbringing, about our conditioning, about our society that prevents men from feeling comfortable or desiring to go into these spaces. And a lot of it just has to do with kind of the way that yoga manifests physically in our society. Like I always think it\'s so interesting when you go to the gym to see how gendered the workouts are. Like, in general, men are looking for that triangle shape. They\'re working their arms, their upper body, women tend to be looking for more of like a hourglass shape, they\'re working their glutes and other things. So I think a lot of people do think that yoga is just for flexibility just for skin just for toning the muscles and that sort of thing. But I was also this way, right? I was also not in touch with my emotional world, back in the day, so I do love helping people along that that path and helping people get in and helping men get in touch with their emotions with opening up. Now, it\'s always just like, it\'s all always generalizations, right? Like there is a stereotype that men are in touch with their emotions, but I have met countless women who have no idea what\'s going on in their emotional world. And I\'ve met countless men who are deeply sensitive, deeply in touch with their bodies and deeply in touch with their emotions. So what I do sometimes emphasize is like, there are some general differences between the sexes, right? I could say on average men are taller than women, right? That wouldn\'t be too controversial. But that doesn\'t mean that within that, within each gender, there\'s more variance than there is between genders. Right. So there are countless men who also struggle I also, you know, Coach couples, and there are many couples where the man is the person the person more in touch with their emotions, more community communicative, then, of course, the female. And even in like same sex couples, you still have variants in every relationship is going to be somebody who\'s more this unless this who wants more of this and wants less of this. So the same dynamics happen no matter what kind of relationship that you are in. But working with men is is really beautiful. And it\'s something that, of course, the world and our society needs so much more of. Like, there\'s this general idea that like women are more romantic than men. And women are the type of people that love romantic comedies. But what actually happens is that men tend to want relationships more tend to want to commit more tend to want to take things to the next stage more. And a huge reason that is, is because most men don\'t have other people that they are emotionally close with in their life. And their partner, their wife, their girlfriend is like the only person that can be vulnerable, vulnerable with only people they can confide in emotionally. So then, of course, they want that relationship. Meanwhile, many women, most women have more people that they can share with, they have really close friends that they tend to be more deeply vulnerable with. So what\'s also nice working with men is once you get men to say open up to other men or other people or other family members or other other friends, it also does take pressure off of their, like primary partner to be their sole, like therapist. Or like so. You know, emotional confidant like in the partnership and to build that community where it\'s so so needed. Right? We Yeah,
Brandon Handley 17:13
let me jump there real quick. Yeah, if you don\'t mind. It\'s I mean, yeah, absolutely. Right. And I\'m, like, man, gotta do a better job of finding that community. Right, whatever, whatever that looks like. Primarily, though, so what I guess when I say get in touch with their heart, and men, right, not saying that they\'re not emotional, but how to get them to, I guess, be more heart centric, right? Is that something that you work with? And, and I get, you know, that there are going to be women that are, you know, just as cold and just as analytical and just as cerebral? I think, as men can be. Right. And I think that\'s a kind of like, a Western civilization bit. Right. But you know, specifically, kind of, I guess the question is, what is it that you do with men to help them to get in touch with their emotions, and feel safe, to express themselves and be vulnerable around other men? Or even within their own relationships? Is that some work that you do?
Zach Beach 18:20
Absolutely. And it is really important work. And I\'m sure even many listeners to your podcast are doing the same kind of work. And it\'s always individual in terms of like, where you\'re going to start with this person, like what is the most effective strategy exercise that\'s going to help with this person. And it and while it is true that like yet, on average, you know, men are certain men are a certain way and women are a certain way. But what\'s also been amazing is you probably, you know, know about this, when they talk about the law of attraction are that, like attracts like, is that as I\'ve gotten deeper into this work, I continually meet other amazing men who are also doing amazing work in the world. I recently just had on the podcast got seveal, who has this book called Big Love, so you can check them out. If you\'re looking for more more guests on this field showed up and he\'s just like, his whole meshes is living with a wide open heart. Right? And in terms of like, baby steps, how do we get somebody to be more heart centered? We start with a body, right? We start with the simple stuff, we\'re not gonna be like, Alright, let\'s go on. Let\'s be vulnerable right here right now. Right? We have to slowly transition from being in our heads thinking everything that we think caught up in the rational mind believing that the mind is the only way to kind of live in being in this world. And being in our bodies, right, slow down, feel the breath feel the earth beneath you. Because on the way there of course into the body, we will eventually get to the heart and in fact, the spiritual journey sometimes described as a journey of 18 inches from the head to the heart. So I do think the first step for to become more heart centered in one\'s life is not focus on the heart, immediately focus on the body, focus on cultivating this connection between with your own temple right for this source your own temple for the divinity that you are, which requires a slowing, which requires a stillness of the mind. And embodied movement practices can be really helpful in this regard like Qigong, Tai Chi, Yoga, simple breathing exercises, more and more people are getting into breath work and Wim Hof, or anything like that. Anything that gets you into this breathing, vibrating experience, will also tap you into a natural, a natural aliveness that happens, the more we are in our body. And then son suddenly, once you plant that little seed, and once that seed starts to grow, then you do get in touch more with of course, your emotions, right? We call them feelings because we feel them. Right. So one of the best ways to really get in touch with your feelings is to tap into the sensations that you associate with him. Right? So you\'re feeling angry? Where does anger manifest in your body? Right? So as you\'re sitting in meditation, it\'s wonderful to start with a simple sensation, focused meditation practice, just your breath, maybe do some body scans. And that\'s what we call the first foundation of mindfulness, right mindfulness of the body, right? And then we can do do mindfulness of our emotions, right? That\'s like the next step, or like layering. So then you\'re like, oh, wow, like, you know, how does this feel in my body? Where does grief? Where does sadness, what is anger? What is happiness, we\'re just joy, where do these things manifest in our body, and I\'m really sensational level, right? So mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of emotions. And then once the mind is calm, once the body is settled, then you can think about opening the heart. So those are the three steps, calm the mind, tame the body, open the heart. And that\'s where the real magic happens. But it takes a while to get there.
Brandon Handley 22:20
So it\'s just not something we can do in 21 days. You can do T\'s and C\'s and right because there\'s always like, there\'s always like, you know, Do this, do this program in 21 days, and this will happen type of thing. And I\'m certain that there\'s no, you know, we talk about being general and life\'s different for everybody. It\'s possible. I\'m certain as some of you could have this happen in 21 days, but it\'s something that you need to put some time into. And maybe a big fan of the Buddha quote, or we talks about, you don\'t squeeze the rose the rosebud, right to get it to flower, right. So you have to kind of give it that same you have to give that patience and nurturing and allow for that space, while still wanting it to happen without putting pressure on it to happen.
Zach Beach 23:09
Yeah. But the lovely paradox of it all, like when you finally let go of the thing having to happen, that naturally happens on its own. I have seen extraordinary transformation happen in 21 days. But it\'s highly dependent on the person, like how long have you been on this path? How open are you to the path, right? It\'s like Jon Kabat Zinn has this thing. And he\'s like, why do we need to practice mindfulness for an hour a day? Because the other 23 hours of the day are unintentionally practicing mindlessness. For sure, a lot of sure. Anyway, it\'s like How deep are you going? How involved are you? How much work are you putting into it?
Brandon Handley 23:53
But right now I get it. I get it. So you found your space, you found your place? I think a question that we would all ask, are you making a living by being loving? Right now? Would you say you know what I mean? So I mean, because that\'s, I think one of the one of the big pieces of this podcast is to say, Hey, listen, I can find myself I can find my spiritual space. And I can weave the truth of who I am into everything that I do and still have success. Mm hmm.
Zach Beach 24:27
No, it\'s absolutely true. I mean, for me, my work and my life are so intertwined. I don\'t even know when one stops and the other one begins. Many people have their 40 hour work week. Once you leave work, you\'re done. But for me, it\'s all wrapped up into itself. And, you know, there\'s nothing as nothing is as fulfilling as following your heart. Right? I think the two most important times in a person\'s life are the day we are born and the day that we discover why. And one of the best ways to love yourself is to be true to yourself. figure out why you are here on this planet while you incarnated into this physical form at this point in time, and to discover your unique purpose in life. And earlier, when you were talking about the working on a car, are you talking about like doing car work? As thinking about this common story, we often talk about what happens or what transformation happens when you truly know your purpose. And I\'ll give you the truncated version. But when a person walks into a town square, he comes upon one person and asked them, What are you doing? And with a grumpy look on their face, they say, I\'m squaring the stone, leave me alone. Okay, go to the next person, what are you doing, and they appear to be doing the same thing, but they say I\'m making money for my family in my house, leave me alone. And then you go to the third person, and the third person says, with a twinkle in their eye and a smile on their face, I am building a cathedral. And we always have want to keep that higher vision that we have for the world and the work that we do in the world. So yes, I\'m making a living. I\'m loving it. I just came back from a 21 day training in Peru.
Brandon Handley 26:15
Has it worked? I\'ve actually
Zach Beach 26:16
leaving a wonderful group. Nice. But it\'s because it comes, you know, it\'s coming from the center, it\'s coming from the heart.
Brandon Handley 26:25
Right. And that\'s one of ways it is truly like, one of my favorite stories, right? And I think one of the challenges for me, and I\'m sure for plenty of others is shifting that mindset, right how to shift your mindset from, you know, I\'m squaring a stone, right? Leave me alone, to building a marvelous cathedral for all the world to see. So I think that that\'s certainly a challenge. Because a lot of us again, we get the, you know, go to school, go to work, do your job, you know, pay the bills, and you know, keep your head low type of thing. Right? What I\'d love to hear from you is a, and just in context of this conversation, is there an exercise or a way that you share with some of your clients that help them to see the larger picture of themselves in a larger picture and what they\'re doing? And then be? This would be the next part is how do you you know, when you told your parents, hey, I\'m done with the chemistry. I\'m gonna go do love. You know, let\'s talk a little bit about what that was like, and kind of overcoming the fear to step into and follow your bliss, follow your heart and what that path look like, Huh?
Zach Beach 27:47
Yeah, you might have heard that phrase that, like we spend so much of our lives climbing up a wall only to get to the top and discover that it\'s the wrong wall. And, you know, I do feel very fortunate that I kind of discovered that, like, the life that I was leading wasn\'t the one I was supposed to be at a relatively early age, you know, in my early 20s, to discover that like, actually, you know, I\'m not really happy here, this isn\'t service serving my highest good. This isn\'t the reason I was put here on this earth. So let me try something else. As you mentioned, a lot of it does involve a kind of deconditioning. Right? We\'re put on all sorts of expectations, understandings, and it does come from our society, it does come from our culture, but it possibly it was comes from our parents, right. And even the most well intentioned parents, they gave me the best advice because it applied to them when they are growing up. But the same advice won\'t necessarily might apply to you. And I do often think that like activity, like the, you know, the general work that we do without purpose is just a drain like, we don\'t have that higher cathedral purpose than the day to day drudgery. The day to day work just becomes a drain on our energy. And you asked, is there an exercise that I do to help people gonna get in touch with their purpose? Absolutely. Like, do you want to do it right now?
Brandon Handley 29:14
Do it really as long as as long as it doesn\'t take 21 days, Zach, I\'ll,
Zach Beach 29:19
I\'ll do a really quick, truncated version of an exercise that I that I love to do. And, you know, if the listeners are, if you\'re driving right now, you don\'t need to close your eyes, but it just goes like this. And this is the quick version. So you close your eyes, and you picture yourself in front of a vast expanse. Perhaps you are on a cliff overlooking the ocean, perhaps a mountain overlooking the land, perhaps a prairie overlooking a vast field. And it\'s a beautiful day you feel the sun on your face, the sky is clear. There\'s a cool breeze passing by, and you feel at peace in this place. And from this place of peace and calm, you can ask yourself, in my heart of hearts, what am I really looking for in my life? In my heart of hearts, what am I looking for in my life? And then sometimes I go deeper and I add in my heart of hearts, what am I really looking for? In my life?
Brandon Handley 30:49
And so if I come out of this, are we still going we\'re still in
Zach Beach 30:54
exercise. Now. That\'s the basic exercise right? So involves a few things. One, first, we clear the mind. That\'s what the visualization is meant to do. It\'s meant to calm still the mind. And then you get in touch with the body. You\'re like, how does you know you feel the sun, you feel the breeze, you feel a sense experience of being in your body. And then you tap into the heart space? And then you ask yourself and allow, right I\'m not writing it down that you ask yourself and allow that the answer to naturally arise. And I love doing this exercise because no one says, in my heart of hearts, I want the Ferrari, I want the mansion. I want the MIT this many commas in my bank account. And I go around and share with people after this simple exercise. They say I want peace. I want love. I want security. I want to love myself. Right? So this is the beginning thinking about like, what really matters most in our lives, like, what am I really seeking? What am I really looking for? And then we figure out what we truly care about the most and then we try our best to live in line with those values.
Brandon Handley 32:05
Yeah, so it\'s not Excel spreadsheets. You know, you know, it\'s it\'s love, it\'s peace. It\'s acceptance. It\'s family. It\'s, you know,
Zach Beach 32:17
a long lining.
Brandon Handley 32:18
Right? Yeah. And so, yeah, I guess getting somebody into connection with that. And is that kind of like where you plug in? Okay, now, how is what you\'re currently done? This is how I would do it. I mean, Zach, just out of curiosity, right? Kind of house. How\'s what you\'re doing right now already aligned to that? Can you make that alignment? Right? I mean, can you see that kind of key make that connection? Right? Because you got you got everybody\'s hobbling around the same rock. And everybody\'s doing something a little bit different, right? And it\'s almost like if you tell yourself, I mean, shit, that\'s all we\'re doing. Anyways, we\'re telling ourselves what we\'re doing anyways, look, I\'m looking down here, I\'m pounding on a rock. I\'m looking down here, you know, feeding my family. I\'m looking down here, and I\'m building a cathedral, right? So anyways, no matter what, we\'re already telling ourselves a story. We\'re telling everybody else the same story that we\'re telling ourselves. So if we can change the story, and attach a little bit of our own purpose, well, what I\'m doing today with this rock is I\'m I\'m helping to bring love into the world. With this rock today, I\'m helping to bring you know, peace in the world, right? With his Excel spreadsheet, you know, I\'m saving lives somehow. Right? So is that one thing that you do? Or would do you do something else? Because I mean, it\'s great to feel this. But when I leave your, you know, your presence today, and I\'m outside the yoga shop, how can I apply this outside of that?
Zach Beach 33:42
Action? Is what you\'re talking about? Yeah, doing things. Yeah. So So, so far, basically describe a four step process. And you see this across many circles and in very similar ideas is you tame the mind, discipline the body, open the heart, clarify intent. Right. Now, tip number four is the setting of your intention. And this is why intentions are so powerful is because they\'re so open ended. Right? My intention is to love more. My intention is to help others rather than like, my intention is to make $1,000,000.10 years from now like a direction like a goal, a goal that\'s future directed and intention is something can bring into this moment, right now. And then explore it in a myriad of ways. Because once you do, you\'ll discover places, things, experiences you never even would have dreamed of. Right? Your mind just expands as you continue to follow your intention in a million different ways. Now, after you set your intention, then you go into another little feedback loop. So after you set your intention, then you do what we call a ticket step. Right? You do what we call some sort of action and you\'re out could have some 510 15 year plan in mind, right? But it\'s how can I live fully in line with what matters falling in line with my intention with this action. After that action, you accept what is. And you see clearly. So you\'re like, I\'m gonna love myself today you\'re in bed, right? Then you go to the mirror and you see is it and you\'re like you ugly son of a, suddenly, you haven\'t lived fully in line with your intention, right? I\'m gonna be at peace today. And then your boss walks in and they drop something off at your desk and you think ah, you get angry, right? So this is where the iterative process of our awakening happens, we set our intention, take a step, see clearly accept what is and then we go back. Right so tick, not Han says the most important thing is to remember the most important thing. And I sometimes think of mindfulness as re mindfulness, always reminding ourselves of where we want to come from how we want to respond to the situations in our life, and what really, truly, truly matters. And I will also say that we are told things like follow your bliss, which I don\'t usually say that the word specifically but for now we can keep it or follow your purpose, listen to your heart, etc. And what few people tell you is that following your heart can sometimes be extraordinarily in convenient. You might listen to your heart, and it might tell you to quit your job might tell you to get a divorce, I might tell you to sell the business, sell the house move to a new city, like you might need to make radical changes. I was in a training one time and I was talking to a student and she\'s like, You know what, Zack, I need to leave my partner. And she had come to this realization that, you know, he wasn\'t living in line with her heart and with what matters. And that sometimes doesn\'t involve huge, drastic life changes, quitting the job quitting the partner, that sort of thing. So earlier, we talked about self love. And an important part about self love is boundaries. So sometimes you set up healthy boundaries, and then we realize certain people in our lives are constantly violating our boundaries. So we have to remove them.
Brandon Handley 37:20
Now for sure, I\'d love to get back even to the the idea of right of making these kinds of radical shifts in our lives. Again, yeah, I mean, you went from, you know, being a chemical engineer to the love guy. What was that? Again, let\'s talk to share how, you know, when you share this with your family, when you share with your friends with, you know, what did that transition look like? Because that\'s another piece that a lot of I think people may struggle with, you know, was there a fear that you had to overcome to share and to take a step into that space? share that journey?
Zach Beach 38:02
Um, yeah, it\'s a wonderful question. I mean, you bought it my parents, and, you know, part of the reason I\'m I love guy is, I\'m so lucky to have had the love that my parents offered. And I do think much of my work is just my way of balancing the love that I received from my own mother. And even like, my book on Love was like, dedicated to her. So I do remember, different times in my life, I\'ve created different paradigm shifts, and I\'ve told my parents that and their most common response is, whatever makes you happy. And the profundity of this response not lost on me, particularly because when we talk about, it\'s easy to get pie in the sky, like, you know, even listeners might be like, Who is this, you know, hippie, whoo, guy telling me to love everyone. And for me, love is a very grounded reality and perspective that we can bring. And for me, love is a desire for somebody to be happy, right and desire for somebody to accept themselves as they are for their dreams to come true for them to find joy in this life. And we can extend that to everyone, right, so. And so this is, you know, what my parents would say, they would be like, whatever makes you happy, like, we just want you to be happy. And that, to me is what love is all about is wanting someone to be happy. So with your partner, for example, you want them to be happy. So you might do things that will make them happy and bring joy in a smile to their face. Now, by and large, you will find that if you do, most people are comfortable with constancy. Most people are afraid of change. Right? So I remember I was even working in the corporate world and I had a co worker and he had been in the same cubicle in the same office down the street from his house for 30 years. And that was him. That was his life he had is in anytime anything ever was ever going to possibly change even in the slightest hint, you could just see the anxiety and the fear, right? So there is a certain level of comfort in the known. And we all have this. So yes, if you and it\'ll be foolhardy. Like even if you are in debt, no money in the bank, like don\'t quit your day job just yet. But by and large, we do have a fear of the unknown, and other people will tell you not to do the thing that you\'re doing. Like I\'ve traveled all over the world, and people tell me all the time not to go to places, you know, don\'t go there, it\'s dangerous, don\'t go there, you\'re gonna get sick, don\'t go there. You know, there\'s violence. And most of the time, they\'ve never been to this country, they\'ve only read a few things on the news, and they have totally incorrect appraisal. And here\'s the thing, I believe humanity is good. I believe people are fundamentally good on the inside, I believe that our nature is love. And my travels around the world have done nothing but confirm that reality, I have seen nothing but the good in people no matter where I have gone in the world. So there is a matter of shedding certain conditioning, there is also a matter of just recognizing that even if someone tells you not to do something, it comes from their own background and their own beliefs. Like there\'s always different stories around what it really means to kind of let go of certain societal conditioning that keeps us in place. Now, you might have heard the experiment. I don\'t know if this was a true experiment. But you might have heard experiment about monkeys in the electrified banana. There\'s like five monkeys in a cage. There\'s been no bananas at the top. They\'re electrified. So anytime they touch it, they get electrocuted, right. It\'s time to switch out a new monkey. And of course, the old monkeys teach them don\'t touch the bananas, right? They\'ll they\'re, they\'re gonna electrify you. Eventually, they replace all the old ones with new ones, and they turn off electricity. So now none of the new monkeys, no. Other monkeys were there at the beginning. But they\'re all afraid. Right? They\'re all afraid of those bananas, because they\'ve been taught that by the their predecessors before. So again, many, you know, elders, they lived in a different world than we lived in, and maybe what their advice is, and what they\'re telling you was true. When they were going up, but for us, not so much. We can discard it, we can let it go.
Brandon Handley 42:33
Not right, for sure. For sure. Right. You know, there\'s, there\'s, I\'ve got two kids right now. And sometimes I\'m like, you know, I\'ll just shut up, right? Wait, what, what, what applied to what apply to me at their age, so it doesn\'t apply to them? Right? It\'s like, it doesn\'t even make sense to kind of, you know, kind of walk them through some of these things. I love the fact that you know, you\'ve been all over the world and everybody\'s like, Hey, don\'t go there, you\'re gonna, this isn\'t gonna turn out, blah, blah, blah. But here you are. So um, you know, you made it through. So, you know, there was no fear then, into stepping out,
Zach Beach 43:11
there\'s always fear yourself. I don\'t want to say that I have no fear. But there is this acknowledging, acknowledging it and moving beyond that.
Brandon Handley 43:20
And your close friends and other relatives outside your family, your parents who wanted you to be happy. Everybody was like, Yeah, rolls it.
Zach Beach 43:30
No, absolutely not. But that\'s the thing. You kind of get new friends after a while. As your circles change as your priorities change as your life changes, as like attracts, like, as you seek out people that you know, that you can be of service to that they can be of service to you, as you walk on this path of awakening. This is where the idea of the Sangha, like your like minded spiritual practitioners, your community comes in. And although the spiritual path is deeply personal, it doesn\'t happen alone. So having one Sangha, having one\'s community is so important on the path. And indeed, you know, once you shift from thinking that you know enough booze and drugs and partying is going to provide you lasting happiness, to realizing that sitting still and noticing your breath for 20 minutes is one of the most fascinating and enlightening and joyful experiences in being human, then your priorities shift, right and your friends shift. Now some of them come with, but we\'re on our own path, right? All over Sure. Our own path is unfolding according to our own unique karma. And I all often warn everyone of this spiritual ego, right? There\'s a huge tendency to think that because you\'re on your path of deepening your love or quieting the mind that you are now better than other people not on the path you are somehow more evolved more conscious. And this is, you know, there\'s so much spiritual ego we see nowadays on social media on The superstars, you know, in the world, that it\'s always important to be mindful that you\'re still not better all because you meditate or do yoga or drink green juice, you are no better than anyone else on the planet. Your Your path is just unfolding uniquely, according to your karma. And just as their path is unfolding, according to their karma.
Brandon Handley 45:23
Yeah, absolutely. Right. Well, whatever my path is, it\'s certainly it\'s mine, right? Whatever yours is, is yours. And, you know, it\'s like, we\'re on the way to see the Wizard. You know, we all just, we all just kind of connect on the Bridge Road, and we all have our certain things that we\'re working on. So I appreciate it. And you know, look, guys, anybody\'s tuning in and listening right now, Zack does a lot more than you know, coming in some of the stuff that we\'ve talked about, up to now. You know, you\'ve got the retreats, you\'ve got the you know, Thai, massage, bodywork, or sex educator, prison, yoga facilitator, these are all things we didn\'t really touch on, I wanted to touch on some things that I thought, don\'t get as much attention in the spiritual space, spirituality space yoga space is and a lot of that is, you know, you put a finger on it, right? We talked about it, you know, one out of 21 people who are seeking, you know, connection to their body, soul and whatnot. And that\'s one male, that\'s you out of 21 people, you know, going for your instruction. So what is it that\'s keeping men out? And what are some things that men can do, specifically, and listen, this isn\'t tuned out to women, but like, I mean, again, if you pull up spiritual podcasts, my guess is that you\'re going to see the same ratio. Ones, that one to 20 is the one one being the male, to 20 Female perspectives. And so I think it\'s really important to get the male perspective out there in the spirituality space, to share that it\'s, it\'s okay, to get in touch with who you are, it\'s okay to feel vulnerable, and being a vulnerable space and, and connect without losing your man card. So, you know, that\'s the some of the stuff that I you know, so thank you, Zack, for sharing what you shared today. But also one of the listener know that you do so much more than that outside of that. So if you don\'t mind if, if you\'re good with it right now, I love to ask you a couple different questions. As I told you, before we started the podcast I think of this a little bit like spiritual speed dating. Right? You know, there\'s going to be a listener out there who\'s been like Zach has hit every chord in like my being, I\'ve got to reach out to him. Only if he answers these next couple questions correctly. So correctly. Spirit spirit, spiritual bachelor number one. Um, you know, since you come from like this chemistry background, I\'d love to hear your answer on this. What is the relationship between science and religion? Hmm.
Zach Beach 48:00
So this is speed dating, I\'ll say got 30 seconds to answer it. So I\'m gonna say there\'s a totally unnecessary bifurcation between science and religion that happened about 500 years ago. Before then these things were one and the same. Around the time of the Enlightenment, they split. And right now we are on a mission to bring it all back together is that they are not two separate entities, they work together so well. And to me much religion is not rooted in ritual or memorizing texts or doing what the authority figure at the front of the room does. Religion to me is rooted in positive emotion and social connection. So science two is in its infancy when it comes to positive psychology. So if you\'re looking for joy, or wonder grads who love forgiveness, you\'re gonna find a much better Wisdom Teachings in religion than you will science and by joining these together, we\'ll be on the right path for humanity as the future goes on.
Brandon Handley 49:11
We\'ll have to see what your crew thinks about that. So spiritual, Bachelor Number one, thank you for that answer. I think it\'s great, right? positive emotion, talking about the sciences even as they are right now. I always, you know, even psychology, right? Like how young are some of these sciences that we\'re trying to pry apart the mind with that have really existed for like, years and years and years before like, we decided to put like pen to paper and you know, so it\'s interesting. Um,
Zach Beach 49:40
there is psychological text routing into the nature of the mind written 2000 years ago in yoga and romantic philosophy.
Brandon Handley 49:49
Right, we\'re just we\'re playing catch up. Yep. What is our greatest distraction?
Zach Beach 50:00
humanity\'s greatest distraction. The greatest extreme distraction in general, I\'ll just say in general is the external world. By and large, the spiritual path is one of discovering their inner space is just as vast as our otter space. And some people can go their whole life with ever once closing their eyes, pausing the breath and looking within. So this external world will distract you with all of its pleasures and all of its social media and technology and entertainment. But the true path is an inward journey.
Brandon Handley 50:38
I heard you mentioned a little bit of law of attraction earlier, we I think you touched on it, right? So when we do this enter journey, and what\'s inside is reflected on the outside. What? How does that work for you?
Zach Beach 50:49
It shifts our entire awareness. One of my favorite phrases is when a pickpocket sees a saint, he only sees the saints pockets. So what we see in the world is absolutely every reflection of ourselves. Earlier, we talked about our stories, and how shifting our stories shifts our entire experience. So too, we all have our perspective. We all have a worldview. And by shifting our internal perspective, the entire world changes. I know many well intentioned activist who wish to change the world. And I tell you, if you want to change the world, change your own perception of it. Yeah,
Brandon Handley 51:26
it\'s um, it\'s pretty crazy how it works. You know, it\'s absurd to start Wayne Dyer but he talks about what you know, change what you see change what you see, whatever, you know, just like you\'re saying. It\'s an amazing shift. And it can bring you I guess, whatever it is, you\'re looking for, right? And this context, you You and I were talking law, we\'re talking peace, we\'re talking balance. And if you can find that within yourself, then you can find it outside. Right.
Zach Beach 51:57
Absolutely. You\'ll find it everywhere. Ideally, right see in the world, I mean, is an absolutely reflection of who you are.
Brandon Handley 52:03
I mean, I think you see whatever it is you\'re looking for. Right? Right. So that Zach, it\'s been a pleasure having you on here today where can you know where can I send people find more about you?
Zach Beach 52:16
So I\'m really easily found on the internet. You can just go to Sac beach calm so that\'s the AC HP AC H Beach, just like walking on a beach. Like beach calm is my main hub, but you can also find me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Brandon Handley 52:31
Zack Yep, thanks again. Thanks for being here to
Zach Beach 52:33
thank you, Brandon.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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