Eric Bauberger, BS, CSCS, is a Holistic Life Coach and Motivational Singer-Songwriter. In an effort to be "successful", he pushed forward with a split life as a hustling personal trainer by day and a musician struggling with his purpose by night. But after the passing of his sister Jessica in 2018, he experienced a profound shift in his connection to himself and the Universe, which led him to a new purpose within his music and his desire to contribute to the collective. Eric was able to find a gift within the tragedy by applying the art of surrender and gratitude that he had been practicing for the simple sake of seeking relief from his chronic anxiety. These tools proved to be much more powerful than he perceived them to be. This not only granted him grace instead of grief, but an unshakable calling to pursue his dream as a musician in a bigger way than he ever imagined. He now runs his own life coaching business, EZENFLOW, works part-time, and infuses his original music and poetry into workshops that teach practical tools for living life more easily and with flow. The guidance he provides is ultimately to help others tune in to their most authentic selves by understanding the rhythms of the mind, body, and spirit and how to create inner and outer harmony.

Shawna and Eric spoke about 

16:46 The fact resourcefulness is more important than resources.

27:48 Goals and acknowledging what might be blocking you.

33:35 Seamless ways Eric integrates self care into his life.

36:40 Three component process to move towards clarity & creating what you want.

The guidance Eric provides helps others tune in to their most authentic selves by understanding the rhythms of the mind, body, and spirit and how to create inner and outer harmony.

 Best way to connect with Eric: https://linktr.ee/ezenflow

https://ezenflow.com/ 

We put a pin in the band from earlier times Moon Days –check them out here - https://moondays.bandcamp.com/

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Shawna Rodrigues 0:07

We can find guests and messengers in unexpected places. And today's guest has a profound story of how he navigated his path, and now helps others navigate theirs.

Shawna Rodrigues 0:19

Welcome to The Grit Show. Growth on purpose. I'm glad you found us. I'm Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm honored to be leading you on today's journey as part of this community, growing together as seekers and thrivers. Are you enjoying the original music we have as part of today's show? I'll tell you a little more about it at the end. I'm sure you aren't surprised it's connected to today's guest. Eric Bauberger is a holistic life coach and motivational singer songwriter who guides self aware individuals to tune their minds and bodies to create ease and flow to the most authentic self. He uses the principles of music to inspire others to move their unique rhythm, tune into inner and outer harmony, and access the melody of each individual's life purpose. Welcome, Eric. I'm so glad you're here today.

Eric Bauberger 1:09

Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here.

Shawna Rodrigues 1:11

I'm so glad you're here today. You have a really great story. And I'm excited for us to kind of walk through that. So music, obviously, there's a talent and interest there. And then you were also a personal trainer at one time. Can you tell me a little about those two pieces coming together?

Eric Bauberger 1:25

Yes, so I was a wrestler in high school. So working out, training, being coached was a big part of my life. Because of the many injuries that I endured from being a wrestler, I needed to learn how to rehab myself. And by the time I finished high school and went into college, I thought it would be great if I could be a physical therapist because I have experienced physical therapy a handful of times now. I got my bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, and then started working as a PT aide or a technician. So while I was gathering all this great information from physical therapy, and how to move functionally and how to heal the physical body, I was becoming aware of the importance of having someone to coach you on these other aspects as far as the mind and what we put in the body. So I imagined that being a personal trainer or fitness coach, whatever you want to call it would be a meaningful next step. So I transition. I studied for an exam. And then I started working as a personal trainer for some time.

Shawna Rodrigues 2:29

So my fiance was also a wrestler, and he definitely has evidence of those injuries that definitely go with that training as much as he loves that. That's definitely a hallmark but also a lifelong, caring for exercise and his body is that they came out of doing that as well. So that's very exciting part of your background. Tell me about the music piece and how it played in during this time.

Eric Bauberger 2:53

Music was within my natural way of being as early as I could remember, my dad is a guitarist, my mom was an artist. I have memories of driving to the beach with my brothers and my parents in this blue minivan listening to The Beatles, and The Who and Cat Stevens, and we were singing along, I always think of my younger brother and I, we of course like little boys you imagine pretending to be different superheroes and different characters, we would pretend to be John and Paul of The Beatles. And we would like harmonize with the vacuum cleaner. It was a great time. And so by the time I was seven, I got my first guitar. My dad taught me how to play. And so I've been a musician this whole time, but I did put it aside for a while as I was a wrestler. And then once I got into high school, I created my first band with a few close friends called Moon Days. And we started writing music together and we started recording and performing and it kind of all blossomed in this roller coaster like fashion from there.

Shawna Rodrigues 3:51

Oh, that's very exciting. So how long were you, the Moon Days together and performing together?

Eric Bauberger 3:57

Shawna Rodrigues 4:16

Yeah, then we're gonna have to link to your guys's music, that it's so exciting. I'm excited for that to be part of this. We're gonna get to a lot of amazing things, Eric, but we have to keep track of that too. Because that's a fun little detail. I like that.

Eric Bauberger 4:28

Put a pin in there.

Shawna Rodrigues 4:29

Yeah, we'll put it, we'll put it in and it we'll make sure you guys get to, to link back to that. What happens to your life to shift away from the personal training and kind of take things to a different level for you?

Eric Bauberger 4:39

It was a really smooth and gracious unfolding I like to think of it as. I was always very anxious when I was in high school. My pits were just wet all the time. My wrestling matches. Many of them were inhibited by this fear of losing that I had and I didn't realize that I had this performance anxiety. And you know, eventually I got past that and was able to perform well. But as soon as I got on to the stage to perform again, it was so much worse playing in front of people a song that you wrote from your heart, it's really challenging.

Shawna Rodrigues 5:17

Yeah.

Eric Bauberger 5:18

And I felt very stifled for a long time. And I got to this point of stress in my body that I thought something was physically wrong. I had a tremor, when I would try to control some of my movements. It was in my shoulders, my hands, even my face. So I had all this testing done. And it showed that nothing was wrong. And that a neurologist that I worked with, said what he thought it was in my head. And that was kind of my first insight that, you know, my body is physically expressing the symptoms, with nothing really to show other than perhaps what's going on in my mind. Eventually, I found myself in the right classroom with the right teacher who introduced me to meditation. And that eventually, I was in my dentist office, and she handed me a book, because she noticed I was grinding my teeth.

Shawna Rodrigues 6:07

Really?

Eric Bauberger 6:07

Yeah.

Shawna Rodrigues 6:08

I love that your dentist did that. That is really great.

Eric Bauberger 6:11

Yes, I love, I don't go to that dentists anymore because of my insurance, unfortunately. But, it was a wonderful office where these people remembered every six months, you'd see them and you pick up the conversation as if no time had passed. And so my dentist gave me this book called The Power of Now. And it's by Eckhart Tolle. And as soon as I started reading it, my mind began to silence. And I became aware of my own presence and aware of the part of me that was keeping me in this anxious state or the ego that's always kind of in a survival mode or trying to protect you. So I began to understand why I was anxious and how I could override that anxiety at least temporarily by bringing my attention to the moment. So this was the beginning of practicing meditation more regularly and discovering other teachers and gurus and books that were pointing towards me or the individual as the source of their experience and the source of their suffering. So I'm still being a musician, I'm still struggling to perform, my awareness is expanding. I'm working in a PT office, beginning to work as a trainer, and all these things are unfolding. And I'm beginning to talk to people from this place. I'm infusing these lessons that I'm learning into just regular conversations. But the most basic theme that I came to understand through all these things I had been reading was this idea of surrender. And that we suffer when we cling, we suffer when we resist, and when we judge them, when we hold on, and we release that when we just let go.

Shawna Rodrigues 7:50

Yeah.

Eric Bauberger 7:50

You know, it's a trusting surrender.

Shawna Rodrigues 7:53

Yes.

Eric Bauberger 7:54

Shawna Rodrigues 9:54

Yes, it just started blossoming, how everything started coming together. There were very tragic event that you've been able to hold on to those things that had come into your life really made it something you can navigate in a whole different way. So is that when you started transitioning to coach people more individually to focus on that part of your work?

Yes. So slowly, but surely I started infusing meditation and different tools with people within their training sessions.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, so I could recognize when someone needed to meditate, and I recognized that I had an ability to guide people in that way. And I knew all these concepts. I knew all these ideas of, okay, if you want to suffer less, there's this approach. This is an exercise. And I had developed these daily practices that helped tune me to my own rhythm and helped me discover my own melody or my own authentic expression. So I'm learning these things and practicing them myself. And I've been getting to teach other people. And then I realized, okay, maybe I want to start advertising myself as a life coach, like as supplemental to the personal training.

Yeah.

And then I discovered a life coaching program to certify in because I want it to be official.

Yeah.

And this particular program, it's called the Institute for Coaching Mastery, run by a woman named Alyssa Nobriga. And she called me forward to step into the greatest version of myself and took everything that I was beginning to know and really put it all together in this really grounded way, because I was getting very spiritual, but I didn't know how to ground it for every day, terminology and use. And she taught me just that. And so I shifted to being more of a life coach with, you know, the physical stuff, being supplementary, because exercise and movement is important. And the more that I was coached, and the more that I healed my inner blocks, and integrated these emotions, and my mindset and my desires, the more music came through me and the more I realized how important it was, that my music needed to be a part of my everyday work. And the way that I teach people, I needed to remove this divider in myself between the coach and the musician. And I'm slowly letting that unfold in new and exciting ways.

That is so wonderful, this may be integrating all the best parts of yourself to express themselves in a way that's really is a gift to everyone else. And that is really everyone's goals to find their strengths and their gifts and find a way to put them out in new and exciting ways. So tell me, how have you come up with that you're working on to put together all of those guests to kind of present to the world?

So first, I was using lyrics that were influenced by the books I had reading. So I'm like, Okay, this is a message, it's pointing to this idea that people could grasp and if people could take it or leave it. When I became a life coach, I knew that I needed to do some kind of workshop to introduce myself to people, to help people understand the methodology I was using, the place I was coming from and what was accessible. And I thought there was no better environment than this to infuse my music into the stories I was telling. So I would tell stories, teach practical tools, share with them insights, but use my songs to really cap off each story or really embody the emotional energy of what I was trying to get at and to also lift up the energy of the people I was giving the workshop to, because music has that effect. And something that happened that was very beautiful, was I was writing a song about the nature of the universe. And people say that you can't really describe it without taking something away from it. When you talk about the essence of what a human is, or the essence of what life is, you really can't label it or turn it into form. It escapes that. It's, it's shapeless, it's formless, it's infinite. So I began writing a song about that, just kind of, you know, very poetically describing the nature of the universe or what in, in some Eastern traditions they call it the Dow or, or the way of things. And as I was in the hospital with my sister, I realized that that song was describing what I was experiencing with her, and the way that her love was so formlessly, and boundlessly, reaching me and connecting with me still. So I changed the word it to she in that song, and the song called, She is Home, became the first song of this new project called Raya, which means flowing, which is again an ode to that the flowing uninhibited love of my sister, beyond her physical body. Tying that all together, this song also inspired a lot of poetry to tell the story of that experience, to really create context for that song. I love explaining what led me to that point, like, it wasn't just like, Oh, I'm creative. I'm gonna write a willy nilly. But no, it was this whole process that got me to that point. And I realized, like, Oh, I could tell my whole life story, in poetry. And through the songs that I've written throughout the years of these different moments of realization and expression. And doubt all the human emotions, I've captured some of them at some degree throughout my experience. So I realized that this way of telling my story poetically and through song can be a teaching device, or can be a guide, because I'm pointing to a level of truth. I'm telling my story, which is infinitely unique. And the emotions that I experienced are universal. The hardships, the challenges, the obstacles, that's what everyone experienced. So I slowly realized that this project that I began to put together, and I was like, oh, maybe I'll write a musical at some point, I just like, let it go aside, I'm like, I need to bring this back because this is going to be a really great way for me to authentically express the mindset that I'm coming from. And I'm doing it in the most again, authentic way possible through my music and my poetry. So that's in the works right now. And that's what I'm planning to release. Hopefully, by the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, what I'm calling a self help rock opera that's intended to point people back to, again, the greatest version of themselves and those deeper truths that everyone could tune into.

That is so exciting. What do you think was the hardest part about trying to put it into the musical form and to have it be a rock opera, but it's been the biggest challenge with that?

Myself.

Really?

Yeah, I needed to realize that there was a part of me, blocking myself from bringing that out into the world. There was a part of me that didn't believe that my art was enough of a service in and of itself. That it was purposeful enough to put out, when I needed to read different books, I needed to be coached into knowing that every person is creative. And no matter what medium, whatever they express through that medium, will have some degree of resonance for another person to feel another part of themselves and witness themselves or be pointed to some aspect of themselves. So I needed to realize that it was worth putting together and releasing, and at first, it was really big in my mind, and I needed to put it just in an audible form first. So it was more tangible to me, because I kind of made it this big, grandiose project to where it's like, oh, I don't have you know, the resources to do it. And then I realized, I have everything I need. I've released albums before, it's going to be an album, but it's going to be an audio book at the same time. I don't, there's no reason to not do it. So I needed to get out of my own way, and bring it into reality. And not just in this Google document, the word sat for a long time.

Yeah, it's a lot of work to put all that together. And to sustain that process.

There's this idea of resourcefulness. Where people don't think that they have the money to do something, they don't think that they have what they need to do something but it's not so much a matter of what resources you have, but how resourceful you are, and how aware you are of everything that you already have within your reach to serve your deeper purpose. And I happen to have the right friends who are musicians, who are engineers, you know, we've already tracked one song, and I haven't spent $1, because they're happy to record it, they're happy to write the other parts to it. They're happy to help me bring it to life. And I don't know if it's because they believe in me and my purpose, or if they just liked the music, or if they just like playing music, or they're just being good friends. But all around, the coaches, the family, the friends, everyone has been slowly supporting me as I bring this into fruition because it's ultimately up to me to see it through and give it direction and be the leader of it, because it's not going to create itself. But I've had all the resources I needed all around me all along.

Yes. And once you finally believe it's possible, and put yourself in that position for all those things to come together, it's amazing how those things can fall into place once you have that alignment. They come from places you don't expect sometimes, and you're able to put things together when you would think, oh, I need to come for this money. But really no you need to start doing the work. And the things will happen once you start moving in the direction of what you want to be doing. Those things can fall into place and it could happen for you.

Yes, and that theme with money that's been recurring for me where you know, several times or at least three major times, I could remember where logically speaking or looking analytically at how much money I had at the time, I should not have made some of the decisions that I made. But I chose to make them anyway, trusting that everything would be okay. Like I moved into my first apartment, as I was losing one of my jobs. And as I just got a new car, and then I moved into my house, when, again, my bank account, they probably would have said, No, but I'm like, I have just enough to make that work. And then again, my coaching program, I'm like, I don't have it. But I'm really excited to do it. And it was so liberating, not only once I decided to invest in myself, that's a huge, energetic shift. Once you, someone decides to invest money that may think they have no business spending on themselves, once someone makes that decision, there's something very freeing about it. But also tuning into the trust in yourself that even if you do make a mistake, even if that isn't the best financial decision, to have enough trust in yourself that you will land on your feet, and you will recover and you'll be okay. And that's when you get the wings of freedom is when you make that trust fall or you take that quantum leap, you have to jump without knowing. And there's another thing like jump and the net will appear. That's such a huge theme for me. And I get, I'm getting chills right now talking about it. But you have to trust that you got to just jump even when things don't add up. And it'll work out if you're following your heart.

Yes. And going to that direction. Yeah, that's a great thing. I think a lot of us have that scarcity mindset. Were so busy watching the dimes and doing those pieces that it's important to start looking at the evidence of all the times you made it happen. And all the times it did work out. And I think I had a friend of mine when I was trying to figure some things out, say to me, like Shawna, you're so good at manifesting things. And I paused and I said, No, it's not. What are you talking about? She's like, your house, that house you bought in Yakima, that you want it for so long, like you made that house happened. And I can only think of like how long it took. And but I'd forgotten that I did that, right? And my immediate relationship that I have now that, yes, I did say I wanted that. And yes, I got that. And yet I do make things happen. It's so easy to focus on small things that didn't really matter. Those are the important things that made the important things happen. So I can make things happen. So that's what I need to focus on, and not focus on the things that were trivial. And remember that I can do this, and I can make it happen and stop worrying about all the little details, because all details will get you distracted and get you in that scarcity mindset, is it if you remember, no, I can do this. I've done this, like this is what I need to pay attention to.

Yes, and that's a beautiful tool that I'm familiar with is to come up with examples of how you've done something similar to what you're trying to do if you're feeling blocked or overwhelmed. And that helps you tune into the energy of that next step. And you begin to become a vibrational match for that next step, when you're like, Yeah, I did this, I made that work and you begin trusting yourself. And you feel grateful that the universe actually works in that way. And you lift your vibration and all the apparent obstacles seem to disappear. Sometimes we need to go broad rather than really detailed, because the ego will be like, looking at all these details and looking at it in that way, you can't see the potential. But if you could remember, yes, I've done this before. And it's possible to do it again. And you just keep your attention on the emotion that you imagined you will feel once you experience that thing you're, you're moving towards, you're in alignment with it, and the steps will show themselves and everything unfold seamlessly.

Yes, somebody once explained to me that if you were to add on a stick, and you suddenly appeared next to the lake, you were trying to get to, you had no concept of the person who picked up the stick and moved it to the lake. There's something that from our vantage point, we cannot see and cannot understand. But those things can happen. And so to stop trying to figure that out, I just tried that there's a way. The stick can get to the lake and that you can't see or understand and but ended up moving that but the ant has no concept for so things beyond the understanding you just have to trust and know where you want to get and that there is a way that you can't even imagine sometimes that things can allow you to work out. So knowing where you want to go and start moving in that direction is the best you can do.

Yes. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I love that. So tell me about this, is it Ezenflow? Is that the name of your program that you have?

Yeah, so Ezenflow is what I call my coaching and musical entertainment business. Obviously, the word flow is in there because that has been this theme for me coming from this place of non flow. When we're in an anxious state we're not flowing with ourselves. So this idea of flow has been paramount in my understanding of, of the body, its physiology and nutrition, the mind, the emotions, the nature of the universe and all flows and then I put the word Zen in there, because Zen to me, or the definition of it that I remembered most was Zen is about just being natural, and being spontaneous, being human. And that's where a lot of us find our issues when we don't allow ourselves to be as we are. Even when we're angry, when we're sad, there's all these different, you know, components to human behavior that we've come to judge. And we're a spirit or this energy, whatever you want to call it, where it's just as much human. And we're having a human experience that we need to allow ourselves to be human. So Ezenflow, E referring to energy, it's also the first letter of my name, Zen about being your natural, spontaneous self. And flow is allowing it all to happen, it's going downstream, making it easier.

Okay, that's a great way to put it together, definitely, it all adds up. So when you were first making this transition from all these little steps between a dentist handing you a book and you recognizing that you were having physical symptoms, that was your body, manifesting what you're experiencing, in your mind that needed to have a way to get your attention, because I believe that's what happens when we have these physical symptoms. It's our body saying, okay, pay attention, you don't pay attention to your soul in your mind. There's other parts of you you're ignoring. So I'm going to give you some symptoms where you do pay attention. And so when you start to recognize the way to fix it, how do the people around you kind of see that transition with you and kind of understand your move towards understanding what was happening with you?

Well, I, that's a great question. Thank you, I think people were first, reflecting back to me the type of energy I was, while training them. People always like mirrored back, you're very calm, you're very peaceful, you see very intune, or whatever it is, and that was very helpful as I began to demonstrate to people the type of work that I do now and the place I'm coming from, and how important it is for whatever your goals are physical or non physical.

Yeah.

So I was like a private contractor where I would just work out of different gyms. And then I slowly started to build my own practice. And then the pandemic was one of the best things that ever happened to me, because it helped me realize that people like to train virtually. I could work from home. That's what I began doing. And as I was going through my certification process, I was working with people already, that became very open to including this new type of work in our programming together.

That's very exciting. And when you get that well rounded piece can definitely make a difference for you to see those different ways of approaching your wellness.

Yes.

So what are some of the first things you've addressed with people to help them to get to a better space?

I always start off with what we call a clarity session. To help people get clear, some people don't know what they want. So I try to help them really get clear on what their specific goal looks like, whether it's something with their health, whether it's with their job, or any aspect of your life, how do you physically describe that goal? So for me, for example, I wanted to be a life coach. And I didn't define it yet, I didn't get specific enough to have more accurate direction. So I started to get more specific, okay, I want to be a life coach, I want to work part time, virtually. And I want to somehow use my music in that. I help people get clear and specific on what they're looking to create. But more importantly, I help them tune into the emotional or energetic and you know, emotion is energy, everything's energy, but to get tuned in to the intrinsic, energetic value of that goal. So for me, I was asked, What do you imagine you would feel if you became this life coach? And I'm like, oh, man, I would feel really free. If I could talk to people all day long about what I'm already reading about, and thinking about all day long, what I'm really passionate about, I would be really free. And then very important to is to help people recognize where they are in relation to that goal. So like a good GPS, right? The difference from a map is that a GPS shows us where we are in relation to the destination. So it's like, okay, like, how much am I have this now? I'm a personal trainer, I coach people, I'm not too far away. And so it's another example, if someone wants to lose a certain amount of weight and say that ideal weight is them being at 100% of their vision, what percent of the way are you there? Where are you in relation to it, and then to help people see what is blocking them what is in the way of you experiencing that now, and that's the access point. That fear of failure, that doubt, whatever part of you is resisting the movement forward is the part of you that needs to be addressed. You can take all the action you want towards this bigger vision, but if you're not looking at the part of you that's keeping you from vibrationally matching that reality, it's going to be much more upstream. So, so again, I help people see, how do you imagine you would feel? And for me it was free. And what's blocking you? And so the question you could ask someone is, what do you fear would happen if you reach that goal, or what do you believe is keeping you from reaching it? So what I didn't realize was that I was afraid that if I didn't work for other people, and I had my own program, my own business, that that would be a lot of responsibility, and that I would lose my freedom. But that was subconscious or unconscious. Right? So, so again, one foot's on the gas saying freedom is that way, and then my fear is putting the, the other foot on the brake, saying, you already have enough freedom, that's going to be a lot. So I was ,stop and go, stop and go or not taking big steps. So to understand that that fear wants my freedom too, that helps me shift from judgment of where I'm at, to compassion. And once you start to make that shift from resistance to allowance, that energy begins to move, just bringing your awareness to it, lets it begin to move. But again, we've matched together the emotional energy or the intrinsic value of that goal. And then we understand how the fear or the block is also kind of trying to attain the same thing just in a less effective way. And that really allows them the two parts of you or us to come together. And now the question is, how can I respect this fear or respect this deeper desire for freedom now, as I move towards this goal. Okay, I can make sure that I don't work more than this many hours a day, I can make sure that I resource or I outsource some tasks, I can make sure I delegate, I could build a team if I need to, I can make sure that I have a lot of free time to do yoga, and to walk my dog and to read. So you start to create this, this template for you to experience what you want to experience now, as you move forward towards that bigger goal. So for me, one of my personality types is an achiever. And my weakness is burnout. So my medicine throughout my coaching certification, and through creating this business, is learning how to slow down, how to rest, how to have fun, I take myself on artists days where I'll go get a burrito and then go to a comic bookstore and just, you know, check out what action figures they have just because it, it nurtures me. So it's all about finding this balance between doing and being so you can experience now, what you want while creating that change, and it becomes seamless, and everything that you do becomes aligned. Your actions become aligned with that. So everything that I needed to do, to become this, needed to be aligned with freedom, and being my most authentic self, because that was another intrinsic value to me.

Oh, that is wonderful. I love all of that. I'm going to listen back to this multiple times, because that is extremely valuable. And I think that even as we each experienced that, and as hard as it is to get to our underlying fears and insecurities that are holding us back, we don't know, we all don't know that we're all experiencing that. And so to be able to be honest with ourselves and in our community about that is a very valuable thing. So thank you that was so valuable. And as we transition because our time is getting short, we next talk about self care, which is amazing because you kind of started to give examples. So one of your self care is burrito, comic bookstore. Isn't talking to yourself. Do you have some other examples of ways that you integrate self care? Is music part of your self care routine? What else do you do for self care?

Yes, I've realized that playing my original music and listening to it really gets my vibration high. There's something deep inside me that, that likes that. Each morning I lay on what's called a Shakti mat, which is this acupressure mat. I lay on it for about 20 minutes, and I'll listen to different frequencies or I might even listen to an audio book but I just relax and I breathe. And I lay on this mat somewhere else in the morning I might do 10 to 15 minutes of yoga and tai chi, I call it yo chi.

This is meant to say.

I try to journal most mornings. I take a midday nap. I go for a walk with the dog. I read, I ride my bike. And most of those things could happen in a single day. But it's this rhythmic dance between working with someone or doing something on my laptop or focusing on the business and then taking care of myself or just doing what feels good in that moment. And I'm really learning to tune in to myself and ask, okay, what do I really need right now? I could use a nap. I'm gonna put some earplugs in and lay on the couch. And I'll set a timer for however long and baths with, with Epsom salt in the winter, going on a hike in nature, just walking barefoot through the grass. The possibilities are endless.

I love that. It's okay, good, everyone, earmark this part of the episode, go back, listen to Eric, give us a great list of ideas for self care in those days, you feel a little stilted and kind of just take in that vibe he's giving us that self care is important. And you can integrate it and listen to how happy his voice is and this is how you feel when you do it. They love it.

And it's essential. For us to be most productive, we need that right balance of self care and self nurturing to be as productive and creative and everything else that we want to be.

Yes, I love that. I love that. And one of the things we do here at The Grit Show because we do care about self cares, we actually have a series of coloring books that we have called the Color of Grit. And for each of our guests, we actually send you a coloring book as a thank you for being on our show. Yes, so you get to choose if you would like to have the Vintage Mermaid and Magnificent Ocean. Or You've Got This, which is funny and inspirational quotes. Do you have a preference?

Hmm, I think I like the funny and inspirational quotes.

I like it. Alright, well, we will get you a copy of the funny and inspirational quotes. And so you can definitely can share, you can use that yourself. And I want to see which one's you like best. So say like this quote, this quote was good. I like it.

Yes, thank you so much.

And the other thing we like to do for our listeners is to give them something concrete to walk away with. And so I think that some of what you were sharing towards the end is something good for us to reiterate about the clarity piece that you talked about. And so for them to get an idea of what their goal is, do you have some activity or what they can do actually listen today to kind of work on that clarity piece for them? So questions they can ask themselves about their goals that can kind of help them get clear.

Yes, I want to offer a three component process as simply as I can.

Okay.

To first get clear and as specific as possible of what you're trying to create. You can write an essay, but get clear and specific and use all of your senses as if it's a day in the life. Oh, I'm waking up next to my partner with the sun coming in my room. I'm brewing the coffee, I love the fresh grounds and you make what seems uncertain or unknown, more known. Write it out, you visualize it, you see it, you smell it, you taste it, you touch it. That's one to do, to at least visualize it, but with clarity and to make it at least 50% believable. So if it's a little more than 50% believable, the ego or the unconscious mind will begin to, you know, try to

sabotage

yeah, sabotage. Exactly. So at least 50% believable. But as clear, as specific as you can. And visualize it, you could make an audio recording of it and listen to it every day, you could write it and reread it. There's all different ways, but the visualization, the creation of that vision. Step two, imagine how you would feel to have that, and tune into that emotion. Okay, so recognizing, if I had this, I would feel this. And noticing what that emotion feels like in the body. It feels light, it feels spacious, it feels tingly, it feels warm, right? And get tuned into what the body signals to you when you identify the intrinsic value of that. So step one is to visualize, to be clear and specific. Two is to get into the vibrational reality of it, to feel that energy in the body. And then three is to take a clear and simple action step towards that goal.

Right. So identify one single step, once you know the direction you want to be going and then start moving in that direction.

Yes, and the easiest, most simple thing and another example, I knew I wanted to be a coach. So my first thing was, okay, I know this person that has her own yoga business, I'm going to get coffee with her. It's something as simple as that, where it doesn't have to be an actual physical creating of a business, but something to gain more insight. And we want that action to be aligned with the emotion or the energy, the vibrational frequency reality of that goal. If I imagine I'll feel really free and authentic in this business, I need to perhaps take an easy step that feels freeing and that feels authentic that is in tune or is in harmony with that.

Thank you so much. It has been so valuable for you to be here, Eric. If people want to connect more with you, what is the best place to find you?

Thank you for asking. You could either go right through my website, which is ezenflow.com, which is E-Z-E-N-F-L-O-W.com. Or I'll provide the link for my link tree account, which will have my website, my Instagram and for all the platforms that my music is on.

That is great. They also get access to your music, I love it. And this is great timing. Because you also have a song that is releasing on, August 18, which is the end of this week. So if anyone wants to learn more about that, they can look it up on your website or link tree as well. The song you're listening to right now is Wherever You Are, which was also part of our intro. Music that Eric is generous and let us use on this episode. So you can get a sample of his music just by being here. As part of our launch month for The Grit Show, we are giving away 10 coloring books and a $50 gift card. There's a link in the show notes or you can get more information on that if you follow us over on Instagram, @The.Grit.Show. Part of the entire process gets you on our mailing list and get you free samples of our coloring pages. Lots of good stuff. Thank you so much for being here, Eric. It was a joy to interview you.

Thank you so, so much.

For all of you out there, we value you as part of our community. I'm going to keep on reminding you. You are the only one of you that this world has got and that means something.