Episode 15

How To Visualize like a Monk: What is Meditation and Visualization w/ Niki Vinogradoff

Do you want to visualize like monk? We discuss the strengths and impacts meditation and visualization can bring to you without needing to move to Buddhist Monastery. Our conversations continued into how to lead from productive flow and overcome any obstacle by using the best 9 mindfulness principles and tools.

Niki Vinogradoff developed his entire life from the 14 years of visualization and meditation experience. He is focusing the Mediation of Mindfulness through his entire business where is is leading teams and working with business owners from around the world.

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More on Niki Vinogradoff

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niki-vinogradoff-553179125/

Transcript
Brian:

Welcome back my mindset explorers today's guest is going to bring you

Brian:

more information about visualizations and meditations than I can even

Brian:

express in this one minute intro.

Brian:

He's lived in a Buddhist meditation center.

Brian:

He's got 14 years of visualization and meditation experience, and

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he is leading teams for 10 plus years working in his own business.

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On top of that, he is a professional coach as focused in neuroscience based coaching.

Brian:

He's really been able to explore the energy of mindfulness in helping people

Brian:

become visualization experts that can overcome any hurdle in their lives.

Brian:

My conversation with Nikki, we get into the works of it, man.

Brian:

I will say that we talk about things that change my life things in practices.

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Started integrating into my own life and rewriting my programming and conditioning

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and what I thought mindfulness meant and what visualization meant.

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And the tips he gives on how to visualize they're worth listening to.

Brian:

So this episode is packed full of information, be sure to stick around

Brian:

through the entire episode, cuz there's not a dull moment throughout it at all.

Brian:

And without really further ado, I don't want to keep you from it.

Brian:

Let's get into the.

Brian:

All right, Nicky, it's really exciting to have you here.

Brian:

I'm really pumped to be able to have you on the show.

Brian:

I know that we've been in contact outside of this show.

Brian:

Being able to really have you on the show and dive into what you have to bring.

Brian:

I know in your years and experience, you've had a lot of skills around

Brian:

visualization and meditation and mindfulness, and even lived in

Brian:

a Buddhist center for a while.

Brian:

So I really excited to have you here, but first off, I

Brian:

wanna say thank you for coming.

Niki:

Thank you for inviting me and I've always into our economi.

Niki:

And I think the name of your polygraph is so created, gives such a good con context.

Niki:

The art of mindset says like the science and art of mindset.

Niki:

So looking forward, seeing what.

Niki:

Useful things that come out.

Brian:

Yeah.

Brian:

It's gonna be a really fun conversation we're gonna have.

Brian:

And I like to always just have our guests and our listeners relax into the show.

Brian:

And the best way I can see us doing that together is if we churn back the wheel

Brian:

of time and we go back to who was Nicky as a kid, who were you on the playground?

Niki:

I was the kid who was probably overly curious.

Niki:

How to get into exciting situations in a ways that necessarily wasn't

Niki:

ones that the neighbors and the older people wanted to have.

Niki:

And probably also to be honest, little bit of exac story stories might have

Niki:

been flying from my mouth and the playground, but like the main inmates

Niki:

I have is building dams out of.

Niki:

Out of not snow.

Niki:

Also from snow, but from sand that I remember enjoying that song was

Niki:

like castles and dams and so on.

Niki:

That's a

Brian:

lot of creativity, right?

Brian:

A lot of flow in the mind and figuring it things out and asking a lot of

Brian:

questions for those that might not know.

Brian:

Where'd you grow up?

Brian:

Where were you from?

Niki:

Yeah, right in Finland, which by the way, five times in row on top of the

Niki:

happiness ranking just came out again.

Niki:

And yeah, I lived in a, or I was born in the capital housing and lived in a small

Niki:

town called Lakehead with 30,000 people.

Niki:

And don't know what else to, what else would I tell about that?

Niki:

That's where I grew up in.

Niki:

That's still a fairly okay.

Niki:

Sized town for fin.

Niki:

30 a thousand people.

Brian:

Yeah, 30,000.

Brian:

That's a pretty good, it's still small enough and quaint enough that you

Brian:

get to know each other a little bit.

Brian:

If you're working in that kind of, but it's also still big enough that

Brian:

there's still, sometimes you'll come across people you don't know and

Brian:

things you don't know and haven't experienced grow growing up through that.

Brian:

What was your go-to then?

Brian:

What were, what was Nikki involved with the most?

Niki:

I.

Niki:

You would say soccer, but football.

Niki:

I played both of them, but really I it's, I was just talking with my wife

Niki:

about this is that we live in this very safe village, but somehow we wouldn't

Niki:

very easily send our daughter anymore to just play out and in the forests.

Niki:

But.

Niki:

back in those days.

Niki:

It's not like I'm super old or anything, but we are all the time playing around

Niki:

in the forest, playing ice hockey, somewhere, walking on a eyes on the leg.

Niki:

All of I doing something outside, like catching box, irritating, the

Niki:

neighbor's dog and running away from it and stuff like that's what we

Niki:

were that those yeah, what was my go?

Niki:

Those were.

Niki:

All that I'm doing some sports, but also there was already involved.

Niki:

This let's say deeper aspect.

Niki:

Like I remember already those moments as a very small kid and

Niki:

even three, the eight year old, where I would really wonder about.

Niki:

things like debt and bound lessons of the universe.

Niki:

So that was also there.

Brian:

Wow.

Brian:

Yeah.

Brian:

Those are heavy topics to be thinking about as a kid.

Brian:

And so you said that's something that was always a part of you.

Brian:

Was that something you were up brought into where an upbringing, if somebody

Brian:

raised you into bringing this awareness to you, or how did that kind of boil.

Niki:

That's that in some way, that's always been a little bit

Niki:

of mystery to me is to think like, where do these things come from?

Niki:

Because already when I was three years old and I saw the first dead person

Niki:

with my own eyes, my great grandfather, because the tradition was to have the

Niki:

casket open and all in that moment, I realized that my parents will die.

Niki:

And I was thinking about those things and I don't, they didn't come from my

Niki:

parents or I don't really know where.

Niki:

Came from, I remember like vividly remember moments

Niki:

from very early childhood.

Niki:

Where is this?

Niki:

This sense of awe of this sense of whoa?

Niki:

I remember, I think I was two years old.

Niki:

My parents told me I know it from that I saw, I guess I constantly saw a big train.

Niki:

I remember in that moment, like some kind of sense that, whoa, there's

Niki:

something so much bigger than.

Niki:

So that but if I look back, I have no idea where those things came from.

Niki:

Don't know where they came

Brian:

from.

Brian:

They just pulled up.

Brian:

Yeah.

Brian:

There's parts of us that we have these inklings, these ideas, these hunches,

Brian:

that kind of stem our curiosity to go out there and find the answers.

Brian:

And sometimes we don't find the answer at all or ever.

Brian:

And that's part of the mystery and the journey of it.

Brian:

All I wanna ask as you grew up, I know I had people in my own life, but did

Brian:

you have anybody that was influential in your upbringing that you would say?

Brian:

The reason I am, who I am now is because of.

Niki:

That I think four people come to my mind and I wouldn't probably

Niki:

say even a few years ago that my parents, because it wasn't my

Niki:

parents, I didn't realize before.

Niki:

That my parents had this extremely subtle, deep baseline influence on me,

Niki:

which I'm forever thankful for because they always encouraged me and they never

Niki:

put obstacles in the front of me, or you should be this, or shouldn't be this.

Niki:

So that's almost, I see them in differently than there's two other

Niki:

person that I will now mention is my grandfather who was still alive.

Niki:

Think he was the one who instilled some kind.

Niki:

Wisdom or this desire for tradition or something deeper.

Niki:

And then my eyes hockey coach, he was just so amazing on the level of mindset.

Niki:

And this always, since he became my coach, when I was 11 and he

Niki:

made us do let's put it this way.

Niki:

He was so good leader that he want.

Niki:

That he created a situation where we wanted to pull everything from us and

Niki:

he was able to put us through three, four hours of crazy exercise and

Niki:

practice and we would just love it.

Niki:

And just second up.

Brian:

Yeah.

Brian:

That's fascinating as those people that it.

Brian:

Yeah, that bring up parts of ourselves.

Brian:

And like you said, the baseline component of something that you don't

Brian:

even realize, where you're talking about an upbringing and not getting

Brian:

in the way of you and saying you can do good things and you can have that.

Brian:

So I'm wanna fast forward the wheel a little bit.

Brian:

And go into the future to a point not too far, but I wanna know what kind of

Brian:

mindset you had graduating in high school or coming out of high school or coming out

Brian:

of early development and early education.

Brian:

And where do you go from there?

Niki:

Yeah, not good mindset.

Niki:

I think let's say around 16, 17, I feel like a little bit lost my path.

Niki:

It became somehow important to me to belong in the crew of people who were

Niki:

I don't know if I've always been bit wild, but not in a way that would be

Niki:

actually harmful, but I would say around 15 or 60 and I started hanging out.

Niki:

It was, I think part of this anger that this bit growing in me, because I

Niki:

felt that I had so many questions and I felt like there wasn't answers that

Niki:

somehow society, religion and so on were just going in this status quo mode.

Niki:

And I had all these questions and I felt I never even was heard that wasn't

Niki:

ever answered or taken seriously.

Niki:

And that took me into a path where.

Niki:

I started reveling, like started doing actually pretty stupid things.

Niki:

And I'd the only time from my life.

Niki:

I would say, where would I say between 18 and 22, that I'm was necessary, but

Niki:

I, that my mindset wasn't very good.

Niki:

That it was big struggle with when what I deeply felt.

Niki:

And what I was actually doing.

Niki:

I was reading a lot of books about spirituality and science and whatever

Niki:

there was back then about praying, but outside, I was doing stupid

Niki:

things like drinking, tos, getting into trouble with Polish, trying

Niki:

some trucks a lot, mainly weird.

Niki:

And then.

Niki:

Thank whatever.

Niki:

Thank God.

Niki:

Thank universe.

Niki:

That part of me, the deeper part of me broke through when I was 22.

Niki:

And I really like this left that, which wasn't easy to leave that group of

Niki:

people, but that was that's the only, I would say era from my life where of

Niki:

course, I guess I it's good that I went through those things because I definitely

Niki:

discovered that there's nothing.

Niki:

Like nothing in those things that I experienced, that would be.

Niki:

An answer to anything.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

And I think

Brian:

There's parts of us and I like to always attest it too.

Brian:

We have these struggles in our lives and we have these lows and

Brian:

we go the wrong path if you will.

Brian:

And we walk that path for a while and sometimes we have to do that.

Brian:

So we can gain an experience of.

Brian:

What it's like to do that way we can connect with another person that is there.

Brian:

Now, when we're on the other end or the other side of things

Brian:

looking outward or outward inward.

Brian:

But I wanna ask, you said there was a moment that shifted you.

Brian:

Was it like outside moment?

Brian:

Was it a, how did it happen?

Niki:

It was a slow build.

Niki:

So I would say between 18 and two, one, like every week and smoking weed,

Niki:

getting drunk, doing kind of stupid.

Niki:

Things.

Niki:

And then there was this one day where I really haven't shared this with,

Niki:

but I never did any other drugs, but then there's this one week and where

Niki:

I decided to go all out with mushrooms and ectasy and stuff like that.

Niki:

And that was for me almost like conscious kind of let's see what

Niki:

comes out of the mind when I do this.

Niki:

And nothing pleasant came out of it.

Niki:

And still for some time I hang around.

Niki:

Same people.

Niki:

And then was one very specific moment where I was a balcony

Niki:

on it, of my friend's home.

Niki:

It was 3:00 AM.

Niki:

And at that point I, I had always stopped Ely drinking and smoking.

Niki:

Like they can completely sober and I looked around 3:00 AM.

Niki:

Everybody has passed out.

Niki:

And then there was this rap song by LIC.

Niki:

I don't remember how he's pronounced this rap song came from.

Niki:

Loudspeaker saying, stay away from the waves of the world

Niki:

because shit is deep and so on.

Niki:

And in that moment I was thinking like, what am I doing here?

Niki:

What am I doing here?

Niki:

And I worked home in that instant and it was winter in

Niki:

Finland, middle of the night.

Niki:

I walk 10 kilometers for about two and a half hours.

Niki:

It was minus 200 decrease, but I was just so okay, that's it for me.

Niki:

And.

Niki:

from that moment on I just caught myself off that group of people, which

Niki:

created of course, this slightly strange situation that I went from big group of

Niki:

people in the having just few friends.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

Wow.

Brian:

That's quite a story.

Brian:

You have these I like to say tic.

Brian:

Istic moments in our lives that kind of shift and change us.

Brian:

And we have an opportunity to awaken in that or shift into

Brian:

it or push outward of it.

Brian:

I want to see if there was something that led you to say, you know what,

Brian:

let me actually dive into these spiritual books even more I want to go

Brian:

live at a Buddhist meditation center.

Brian:

What was that about?

Brian:

How did you say this is what I need to.

Niki:

That's again that I just simply my conscience or something from this within

Niki:

was saying man, this is Matthew you.

Niki:

And I followed that voice.

Niki:

And then for two years, from 23 to 25, only thing I was

Niki:

doing, I would work exercise.

Niki:

Read spiritual books.

Niki:

I didn't have TV or anything back then.

Niki:

It wasn't like you would have four that I would be scrolling.

Niki:

I would only write things, read and do that for two years.

Niki:

And then one of my new best friends who worked in the same restaurant,

Niki:

I used to work as Seth as me.

Niki:

He with him, we started talking about spirituality and mind and

Niki:

like the universe and existence, and both of us were practical.

Niki:

So we didn't go into critical, practical, but critical.

Niki:

Like neither one of us was into like, let's just, I don't know,

Niki:

whatever believe and do something.

Niki:

And with something, and one day he went to this Buddhist meditation center.

Niki:

And by that point I had read a lot of Buddhist books and I really liked them.

Niki:

Emphasize the self discovery and that you need to get in your own

Niki:

experience of how the mind works.

Niki:

And it's not about believing in the things, but still always one of my

Niki:

big obstacles has been my arrogance.

Niki:

And so I really resisted going into the Buddhist center.

Niki:

But one day I was at DACA.

Niki:

I guess I have gotten as far as I can on my own.

Niki:

So I might as well go and try it.

Niki:

And then when I went to the center, I had this feeling of I'm home and

Niki:

the people were not only normal, but they were really cool, interesting,

Niki:

bright people from lawyers, doctors, construction, yard workers, teachers,

Niki:

or all kinds of ranges of people.

Niki:

And when I met sat down to meditate for the first time, it.

Niki:

The best way I would describe it.

Niki:

It felt like coming home, that would be the best way to describe it.

Niki:

Everything that for the past on my, in my life had been like coming up finally,

Niki:

it was like, oh, all here it is here might be that some answers, I would say

Brian:

that's fascinating to be able to do that and have that

Brian:

experience and step into that.

Brian:

And it's something that I too would want to experience and feel what that's like.

Brian:

And maybe even some listeners are wanting to know what that's I'm curious to know.

Brian:

I know you spent there almost four years coming a little shy of four years.

Brian:

For those that are looking to have that experience and go into a silent

Brian:

retreat or into a meditation center, a Buddhist meditation center.

Brian:

What would you say to somebody?

Brian:

Do they have to live there for multiple years or is it something that

Brian:

they could do in a month or a week?

Niki:

So first we quicker this.

Niki:

This thing with, that's a really good question.

Niki:

This thing was between going into monitory for retreat and

Niki:

living in lay Buddhist center.

Niki:

So if you want to go into monitory and so on, you gonna go

Niki:

for silent retreats for months.

Niki:

And so on up to you, I lived in a.

Niki:

We would say not one, but living meditation center,

Niki:

meaning that we are lay people.

Niki:

We work.

Niki:

And that center was for everybody who wanted to still remain in the

Niki:

society, but wanted to still go to the retreats, learn about mind.

Niki:

And we would teach also businesses and schools or

Niki:

meditation and Buddhism and so on.

Niki:

So in that sense there's no.

Niki:

Something you should, or you have to do if you want to have the experience.

Niki:

And of course for me, we could say that it wasn't a choice that I could have

Niki:

made because in that center you are voted and accepted through the community

Niki:

and even through the theater, because there's a big responsibility to be there.

Niki:

There's no, let's say one experience that I could give advice on, but I

Niki:

would say that whole living there really enriched obviously one thing is that

Niki:

when we are in our spiritual journey and.

Niki:

How would I say, we have this doubt about, am I the only one doing this?

Niki:

And does this mean that I have to become some like crazy, like impractical

Niki:

person who doesn't live in the society.

Niki:

It's very useful to have with you people.

Niki:

Who have the same questions, who also, who can have lot

Niki:

more experience than you have.

Niki:

And you can see that how well they function as human beings.

Niki:

That's one thing that might teacher are always emphasized.

Niki:

Like you please don't become some person who's converting everybody in the border

Niki:

and be practical, be useful in the.

Niki:

Yeah, I

Brian:

bet that was a lot of influential moment, probably something

Brian:

that's very influential for people to see and gain that experience.

Brian:

And maybe even thinking about trying to do this at home, and I know now you're in the

Brian:

meditation experience cornerstone, right?

Brian:

You, this is what you offer people and mindfulness as well.

Brian:

So someone that is just trying to and says, I can't even.

Brian:

My job, my state, my country, wherever I'm at, I can't go off to doo do this.

Brian:

What would you say to those people that are trying to shift that mind into

Brian:

this state, but they wanna Le stay at

Niki:

home.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

You definitely don't.

Niki:

You don't need to go one after or in robotics meditation

Niki:

center actually smarting.

Niki:

You need to do.

Niki:

I think one of the things is to first to answer or ask ourselves and to.

Niki:

I don't know, differentiate what are, am I in a part of like growth of

Niki:

performance or, and do I want to also discover the deeper layer of existence?

Niki:

Do I want to do them both or just one or the another?

Niki:

And I would say that if they want to use meditation, mindfulness as for our

Niki:

crowd, for our mental wellbeing, for ours or our clarity of thinking, then.

Niki:

I would say it's enough that it's very good to speak with somebody who has

Niki:

experience because there are so subtle things, as you Brian know, there's so

Niki:

subtle things insiders that is very difficult to not fall into and so on by.

Niki:

It's the starts reading a book, but then if we, if they want to go even deeper

Niki:

and the spiritual part, then especially to have some people around us that have

Niki:

some experience, but let me try to be practical with that question is probably

Niki:

the first question to ask ourselves is why do I want to start meditating?

Niki:

Why do I want to have this?

Niki:

Because that will already give us a lot.

Niki:

Clarity, why am I, by the way doing this?

Niki:

And that really gives us some guidance or where we want to go.

Niki:

And as a final thing to this one, why like I am biased of course, but why?

Niki:

I think it's so important usual to have some person who has a lot of

Niki:

experience from how to praying the benefits of the meditation in daily life.

Niki:

Is that what I see?

Niki:

For example, a lot.

Niki:

There's the apps and there's some meditation theater, which is great.

Niki:

However, they all offer this one, one fit for all solution, which

Niki:

definitely when it comes to meditation.

Niki:

There's how would I say, for example, if you have very creative and active

Niki:

mind, And then somebody offers you a meditation to only calm you down.

Niki:

It's actually not very useful to you.

Niki:

It's almost like somebody's a surfer and there's big waves, better teach the

Niki:

person how to serve the waves than teach them how to try to calm down the ocean.

Brian:

Yeah, that's a really good analogy there.

Brian:

I wanna say maybe somebody that doesn't know that answer, if they ask that

Brian:

question and maybe there's a listener out there, somebody that you've talked

Brian:

to in the same way, they say, why do you want to do this meditation?

Brian:

Why do you want do mindfulness?

Brian:

And they say it's because I've seen other people.

Brian:

Have good success with it or it's changed their life.

Brian:

What would you say to those people?

Niki:

I'd rather ask them that.

Niki:

What is it that you saw in those people?

Niki:

What, especially like it changed their life.

Niki:

It has been, could affect what did you specifically notice and then

Niki:

that resonated with you because that will define or how to give

Niki:

direction to what to do next week.

Niki:

If somebody says it seems that they have less anxiety.

Niki:

Okay, then there's meditations and there's path that tells you dump and anxiety.

Niki:

But if somebody says it seems like their behavior changed.

Niki:

They're more energetic.

Niki:

They're clear in their communication.

Niki:

They seem to have discovered something deeper inside them,

Niki:

then then you might want to.

Niki:

Because how would I think it's very useful to also look at mindfulness

Niki:

as a totality of three things.

Niki:

There's the view.

Niki:

We would say, that's the mindset.

Niki:

How do we perceive things?

Niki:

What our tendency, how do we approach life?

Niki:

And then there's the meditation, which is like a Chi.

Niki:

For the mind and laboratory for the mind where we understand how

Niki:

our mind works, and also develop this mental energy and stability.

Niki:

So we can more deal with life.

Niki:

And then there's the action, which is how would I put this is to become quite

Niki:

conscious of what kind of thinking?

Niki:

No, not what kind of, but rather become conscious of how does my present thinking.

Niki:

Dealing with emotions, acting in the world and speed.

Niki:

How does it actually affect me?

Niki:

So if we have those readings and some guidance, whether it's quotes

Niki:

or mindfulness quotes, then I think we are really well covered.

Niki:

So hopefully that answers the question.

Niki:

What I would, I it's not that I, what I would do, but what I do with my clients.

Niki:

is to first, if the, if a client comes to me and I want to start me, I

Niki:

think it'll take three to four hours before we have really gotten to choose

Niki:

a meditation for them that I record and create and write down for them

Niki:

because first, what do they want?

Niki:

How does their mind work at the moment?

Niki:

Because I have clients that are very calm by nature and for them.

Niki:

They might want to develop more energy, but they have this

Niki:

quality or strength of calmness.

Niki:

And then I'll create meditations that don't go against their strength,

Niki:

but builds up their weakness.

Niki:

But then I have clients who are entrepreneurs who have this idea, that

Niki:

idea, and this thing going on, and that thing going on for them I'll use

Niki:

that strength in the meditation so that they become better at serving.

Niki:

Their mind rather than calming it down.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

I think that's

Brian:

really powerful in knowing how and what you want to do.

Brian:

And I think that's where a lot of lost in translations.

Brian:

Take place, right?

Brian:

They think, and I want to get your definition personally, but I wanna know,

Brian:

I think the translation gets lost in what meditation is or what mindfulness is.

Brian:

So in the easiest way possible, how would you define those in their complexities?

Niki:

Okay.

Niki:

That's a really good question.

Niki:

The easiest way to find them.

Niki:

I would say it is the gym and laboratory.

Niki:

Not that you really go in, but your di not usually our direct

Niki:

attention is to go to figure out everything about the outer world.

Niki:

But what if we simply see how the mind, see how our mind functions so that

Niki:

doesn't take over us and then this mental energy and strength that we can

Niki:

be present, but that's not a very, what would be a lot better, to define it.

Niki:

Is that being allow.

Niki:

True mindfulness.

Niki:

You guide yourself to be in this mind state that whatever act you do, thinking

Niki:

speaking, or actual physical action, that it really comes from your whole being.

Niki:

Because when we act from our whole being, when we're connected with.

Niki:

All our actions are very informed, but nothing clumsier clunky way.

Niki:

Not okay, now I will say this work and then I will move this.

Niki:

And, but it's really flow would be probably the best

Niki:

way it's like mindfulness is the ability to live from flow.

Niki:

Whether you are in tragedy or you are having a triumph or normal daily life.

Niki:

Three attempts.

Niki:

The last one was the best way to describe it.

Niki:

Yeah.

Brian:

yeah, it's a complex topic.

Brian:

It's a complex thing to nail down.

Brian:

It's very lucid.

Brian:

And it's like you said, it's a flow of a state.

Brian:

So getting into that was something that you probably gained a lot

Brian:

of in the Buddhist meditation center and learning how to become.

Brian:

Focused and neuroscience coaching and all the sorts I wanna ask when are the

Brian:

strengths or what are the strengths around visualization in these parts?

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

So one of, I recently I look back into my, in the coaching training

Niki:

with neuroscience based and now with 14 years of visualization, I

Niki:

of from my own experience and with clients, of course, I see it works.

Niki:

And I have some sense of why, but just recently I was reading.

Niki:

And so I'm going to almost quote or explain how visualization and

Niki:

why it works, because I think it's really cool what that is covered.

Niki:

So when we are visualizing, which doesn't mean that we are trying to force image

Niki:

is necessary just like right now, if everybody who's watching this or listening

Niki:

this, if you close their eyes and if you imagine an ice cream or your loved.

Niki:

You don't see like with your eyes, but you still gonna have them in your mind.

Niki:

Anyway, let's say that on Friday, you are going to have a very difficult

Niki:

conversation and then you imagine, oh, there it'll be difficult because

Niki:

I will have to speak my truth.

Niki:

I will stick to my truth and boundaries.

Niki:

The other person will not like it, but I have to do it because otherwise

Niki:

I bit betray myself and that will be even worse, but I'm still afraid that

Niki:

what if I don't hold on to my truth.

Niki:

So what we can do there is we literally imagine in ourselves in that situation,

Niki:

how will it feel when the conflict comes?

Niki:

Okay, how would I want to.

Niki:

Even if the feeling comes, how do I want to feel?

Niki:

And we are in this visualization, it's really important.

Niki:

We are embodied, we are in our body.

Niki:

And then we imagine, how will it feel after we set the truth?

Niki:

How will it feel one hour later?

Niki:

And then this column starts coming.

Niki:

Then we imagine ourselves in the situation.

Niki:

But this time we are like a, we are watching it from the ceiling

Niki:

or we are watching it from.

Niki:

Then I, for example, would ask the client.

Niki:

So imagine now there's that you there's, that you future

Niki:

you, is there now speaking, truthfully, how are they speaking?

Niki:

How are they soldiers?

Niki:

They're relaxed.

Niki:

That's what the clients often say.

Niki:

How are you speaking?

Niki:

What can we see in your facial of expression?

Niki:

Okay.

Niki:

How does it feel to see yourself like that?

Niki:

Okay.

Niki:

Now go back into, imagine being in the body.

Niki:

And do it again.

Niki:

Now look at it from outside again, and why this is powerful is when we are embodied,

Niki:

when we are embodied in our imagin as an activist, the mammal brain, which is

Niki:

responsible for emotional Mo motivation when we are in neocortex, which is why

Niki:

it's very useful to ask a person who was stressed out to see the situation from.

Niki:

Because Neo cortex can do that, which is if we think about it, how crazy it

Niki:

is that we can imagine things like that.

Niki:

And when we look at it from outside, if we look at our behavior, amazing

Niki:

thing happens is that the mammal brain.

Niki:

Connects the positive emotion into the behavior.

Niki:

And the new behavior becomes very much incentivized and prioritized

Niki:

because now Mara and Neo basically have met an agreement.

Niki:

Let's do this behavior because it will feel good.

Niki:

So that's why this volatilization works because it will, not, we

Niki:

know this mysterious reprogram your brain, but that's what it means.

Niki:

We connect emotions.

Niki:

And we can generate emotions.

Niki:

We really can.

Niki:

We connect those emotions with new behavior, and we imagine them from

Niki:

the body and from outside, and they can become quite quickly the new

Niki:

pattern, which is just amazing.

Niki:

And everybody can do it.

Brian:

It's incredible that we can do that.

Brian:

And what we used to think was old or not old science, but what you

Brian:

had to do when you were a kid like neuroplasticity and rewriting your brain

Brian:

and all these sorts, it's coming out to be that, no, you can do this anytime

Brian:

of your life whenever you choose to.

Brian:

So if somebody's choosing to do some visualizations, they've listened to this.

Brian:

They've seen it before.

Brian:

They've got a lot of content around visualization and they want to do it.

Brian:

How often should they.

Brian:

Visualize in order before or whenever the episode of the event

Brian:

in the future is gonna take place.

Brian:

How often should they do

Niki:

it before it?

Niki:

Yes.

Niki:

So ideally, and really, if they think about, it's not so much, if we can

Niki:

just doing five minutes per day, when it comes to what's my vision

Niki:

for life and how I, what am I going to do about it tomorrow or today?

Niki:

If we even imagine ourselves going towards our vision, feeling it.

Niki:

And so on five minutes a day will become so big part of us.

Niki:

So there's no, again, I, it comes to, what do you want?

Niki:

We could say, do you want to live life where mostly in the flow then?

Niki:

Okay.

Niki:

Can you invest one hour into it?

Niki:

And if the one if Buron says I can.

Niki:

Then we, okay.

Niki:

What's better use of your time.

Niki:

What are you going to do with that one hour?

Niki:

And likely you'll find that they'll be anxious.

Niki:

They'll be doing some low level activities, low level, according to them.

Niki:

So again, it depends what we want.

Niki:

It's one hour per day might sound like a lot, but if we sleep eight hours we

Niki:

will be up for my BA math is really bad.

Niki:

And that 16 hours, it seems like it is possible to do at least 15 minutes out of

Niki:

16 hours because it, it's almost Let's say our mental energy, our mental statement.

Niki:

Let's say it's a fireplace.

Niki:

Then if you can, for 50 minutes per day, gather wood and keep the fire going.

Niki:

It seems like that's pretty good investment.

Niki:

So

Brian:

is it five minutes before bed?

Brian:

Five minutes when you're waking up, are those the best times these

Brian:

dream states for visualization?

Brian:

I, they

Niki:

are best because when we wake up, whatever it.

Niki:

You wake up, but if you wake up at even seven or earlier or something,

Niki:

if you can allow yourself to not do what's else done that, then the mind

Niki:

is very, maybe say it's very flexible.

Niki:

It's very mind is in the state or the brain is in the state where you

Niki:

can mold it quite nicely for the day.

Niki:

And again, all these things.

Niki:

Science based.

Niki:

So if you read, for example, what our praying does during the night, it's so

Niki:

much work, goes hundred in the night.

Niki:

And if they can do five minute visualization before going to sleep,

Niki:

you can imagine it's like telling your praying Hey, here's some, here's

Niki:

a plan here's material for you.

Niki:

Can you work with.

Niki:

And the praying will do the work.

Niki:

That's not a law of attraction or anything like that.

Niki:

Our praying really works so much during the night.

Niki:

Yeah.

Niki:

You spoke on

Brian:

the strength of prayer and I'm curious, is that, what

Brian:

is the mindset there behind that?

Brian:

If somebody is trying to pray and they are praying or they wanna pray, what

Brian:

how does it, how is it actually showing that it's working or we are seeing that.

Niki:

in the Eastern spiritual systems that are very much experienced

Niki:

based that emphasize experience, not F even then the further you

Niki:

go, more prayer becomes part of it.

Niki:

And one might us like why like R and you experience based using them to fade.

Niki:

And that's because in west we have a little bit funny idea about prayer.

Niki:

It's almost like I'm here.

Niki:

I don't have these things.

Niki:

Dear God, could you give me these things?

Niki:

Could you give me these things?

Niki:

That's our approach, but if, but that can still in some way work

Niki:

how would I put this is okay.

Niki:

I'll focus on one part of the prayer.

Niki:

However, you'll do it.

Niki:

Why it's so powerful is that it'll remove the ego out of the way and

Niki:

it allow, will allow us to open up.

Niki:

To parts of us that are a lot more powerful that are, that the

Niki:

ego is always in, in the way.

Niki:

If you look at the level, if you look at it on the level of the praying

Niki:

where you could say that ego is the master product of Recile and mammal,

Niki:

praying, sometimes ego is functioning.

Niki:

Sometimes it's not, but it's a product essentially of reptile brain.

Niki:

Mom will pray.

Niki:

And if they can pray or relax and open up to something, it really will light up

Niki:

the Neo cortex and allow us to allow the best qualities in us to come forward.

Niki:

Because the limitation of the, I don't so often talk about

Niki:

ego because what does it mean?

Niki:

But so maybe to explain a bit ego is the tendon and to focus only

Niki:

on things that are short term.

Niki:

Comfortable.

Niki:

In every way, possible moves out of discomfort uncomfortable things.

Niki:

That's essentially what ego attempts to do.

Niki:

And that's why it is so limiting.

Niki:

I would say that

Brian:

ego is an interesting part.

Brian:

And I have to say if I have an understanding why and why I think.

Brian:

Prayer works in relation to that, is it is a larger self, right?

Brian:

We're praying to God, we're praying to the universe.

Brian:

We're praying to an energy larger, bigger than ourselves, a source,

Brian:

whatever you're praying to that prayer is in a belief pattern of it's not me.

Brian:

So it's outside of me.

Brian:

So that is going to be likely to take place.

Brian:

But like you said, you're pushing that ego aside and you're allowing

Brian:

and believing that those things, since you prayed, can be and can happen.

Brian:

And then you start to subtly traditionally subtly change your

Brian:

behaviors, your actions, and next thing you know, Your life might,

Brian:

your prayer might have come true.

Brian:

And that could be the universe.

Brian:

It could be God, it could be all the sorts, but I think it's an, we're

Brian:

an active role in that co-creation component of we intent our, and

Brian:

we believed in letting that go and in that with the ego and with

Brian:

information and around mindfulness and figuring out how to practice it more.

Brian:

If somebody is looking for to get more into meditation and more content

Brian:

around it, that is simple to understand and provides prov pro productive

Brian:

actions and basically practical steps.

Brian:

Is there somewhere they can go?

Brian:

Is that something that you offer?

Niki:

So a few answers to that and something you said that

Niki:

was really important about moving the ego to the side.

Niki:

I just realized that I didn't actually.

Niki:

Use that then more healthy by the.

Niki:

Actually when we open up to something bigger, the idea is not to remove the

Niki:

ego, but this ego finally surrenders and aligns itself to something bigger.

Niki:

That's actually that is, we could say that is the end of the unhealthy ego.

Niki:

It's not that we kill it or get rid of it, but the ego finally

Niki:

surrenders to something bigger.

Niki:

And yes.

Niki:

So for example, if we are planning to start meditation.

Niki:

One thing I know that I can provide a lot and I have other resources,

Niki:

even if the person doesn't want to go into 1 0 1 coaching, but

Niki:

I'm go, I'm not going to leave out some things that would be useful.

Niki:

So Dr.

Niki:

Cho Spencer, so let's say I'm ed for 14 years and.

Niki:

Done a lot of retreats with meditation masters.

Niki:

My teachers are from Tibet and I would say there's a lot there.

Niki:

And I'm saying that only to give more credit to Joe Spencer,

Niki:

because I met Joe Spencer's work after 10 years of meditating.

Niki:

And I would say it was like, I was so happy to read his books

Niki:

because it was like create here's a UPROSE that most ERs can use.

Niki:

And make sense and his science based.

Niki:

So that's why I like his work a lot.

Niki:

Maybe I'll get there one day with books.

Niki:

And so on.

Niki:

I know I can provide those things with his work is amazing.

Niki:

He's done really great work.

Brian:

Yeah.

Brian:

I would say that the anybody that's trying to again, figure

Brian:

that out and any, anything that.

Brian:

They're wanting to get into mindfulness and meditation and getting into the flow

Brian:

and allowing themselves to, like you said, I like the, that analogy is the ego

Brian:

surrendering to a larger portion of self for God or something bigger than itself.

Brian:

That's all very powerful things.

Brian:

And I think that's something that a lot of people might struggle with.

Brian:

And I.

Brian:

Too, we're coming to the tail end of the show, but I like to always get

Brian:

some people to some understand some practical steps and also figure out.

Brian:

Where you're going in your journey of mindfulness and

Brian:

meditation and what you offer.

Brian:

So what is something that, that you're, that you offer or you're offering that

Brian:

individuals can go and find that can help

Niki:

them?

Niki:

So I, my flagship course that I'm really proud of where I have poured everything

Niki:

in though is called energized mindfulness.

Niki:

If it.

Niki:

Basically teaching people how to truly live from flow every day.

Niki:

And it covers nine it's nine weeks and it covers nine very specific steps.

Niki:

And these steps are, let's say quite lot of research experience with clients,

Niki:

experience myself built based on that they're built in the way that covers

Niki:

the whole complexity of who we are yet.

Niki:

It's not complicated.

Niki:

And basically.

Niki:

Nine steps, where we build vision, builds energy and direction for the life.

Niki:

Then we build a plan that serves the vision because often people

Niki:

get confused in this tool.

Niki:

And then when we have a plan and a vision, then we want to make sure

Niki:

that our mindset, the way we think is actually clear that we are not the

Niki:

person who is lost in the thought, but actually can think, and then

Niki:

learning how to manage our emotions.

Niki:

When we have thoughts, four things.

Niki:

Then we can look into ourselves and okay, now that I have this

Niki:

covered, how do I live a daily life that really covers my whole life?

Niki:

Okay.

Niki:

If that's how I want to live my daily life, what are the habits that will

Niki:

really root all these things into my life and then learning some tools and

Niki:

stretching our minds even further is basically to the steps I take for me.

Niki:

When I say spiritual practice, it's almost same as saying.

Niki:

I'm looking what's under the hoof of my car, like how the engine works.

Niki:

It's for me, it's the most natural part of life.

Niki:

It's not a special or separate part.

Niki:

And in that area, I'm becoming more and more again, the student.

Niki:

And I'm really enjoying that.

Niki:

I have my regular one on half hour meditation that I do every day.

Niki:

And then I do a bit of yoga.

Niki:

and I'm going to say it, but I do really aim to become enlightened

Niki:

so let's see how that will go.

Niki:

And then when it comes to how I'm the creating all this quoing mindfulness

Niki:

into my work, I'm what I really want to see is especially leaders and

Niki:

business owners with any people.

Niki:

Who have discovered this mental stability and all the things that they have inside

Niki:

and that they can bring them practically into the world, but especially that

Niki:

they can be examples in the world that look, you are really gonna be

Niki:

stable, energized, and clear person.

Niki:

Even when things get really difficult, that's my mission and

Niki:

energized mindfulness course.

Niki:

I would say that's.

Niki:

Best way at the moment.

Niki:

I know how to make that happen.

Niki:

I love

Brian:

it.

Brian:

I love it.

Brian:

I love the and good luck getting enlightened.

Brian:

I think that's a hefty goal and it's gonna be well worth it, but

Brian:

it'll be a lot of fun along the way.

Brian:

I wanna ask one, one last question.

Brian:

We'll wrap up the show here, but I wanna say if you had one piece of advice

Brian:

that you could give to a listener or to your younger self, what would it.

Niki:

Like truly, really make sure you have a vision for life that

Niki:

encomp encompasses who you want to be for others, for yourself.

Niki:

What are the qualities you want to live for?

Niki:

What truly makes a meaningful life to you or not in the sense that

Niki:

you need to go find the answer, but you actually discovered the answer.

Niki:

And essentially, I would say, make sure you have a vision

Niki:

that you every day connect with.

Niki:

I without vision everything.

Niki:

There's no con of course it's a little bit of big statement, but without vision

Niki:

for life, there's no context for anything.

Niki:

It's if we don't know who we want to be, what's important.

Niki:

What our values then how do we assess life?

Niki:

How do we decide what action to take?

Niki:

If we don't know the direct.

Brian:

True.

Brian:

You have to know which way you want to go.

Brian:

Where do you want the boat to sail?

Brian:

Where do you want your life to move forward?

Brian:

And that's the vision and that's the idea.

Brian:

And then you gotta plan how you're gonna get there.

Brian:

Granted, you can always change directions.

Brian:

You can adjust, you can pivot.

Brian:

But you need to have a destination in mind and along the way, Nick,

Brian:

it's been awesome chatting with you.

Brian:

We've gotten into visualization, meditation, mindfulness, some great

Brian:

tips and tricks on how to incorporate it in each of our own lives.

Brian:

And I wanna say always a pleasure and thank you so much for coming on.

Brian:

Thank you

Niki:

to Brian.

Niki:

I think you are a really good example of Sam definitely looks are like, has.

Niki:

Presence of somebody who's very mindful and present with great questions and

Niki:

you're like, you're so articulate with how you express yourself.

Niki:

So thank you very much for that.

Niki:

I really enjoyed it.

Niki:

Great questions.

Brian:

And that's this episode of the art of mindset with your host?

Brian:

Brian S.

Brian:

Before you leave.

Brian:

I want to ask if you don't mind going down and following and subscribing

Brian:

this show, if you haven't already also be sure to leave a review, it always

Brian:

helps us grow this podcast and get more people in touch with their true mindset

Brian:

that can unleash their own potential.

Brian:

And if you want more information or wanna receive a newsletter that I send

Brian:

out every Monday, be sure to go over to Brian sage.com and sign up for that

Brian:

weekly newsletter, where we provide you with insights and how to improve your

Brian:

life with a mindset tip and as always.

Brian:

Stay curious, keep

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The Art of Mindset
Find the Lost Art of Mindset deep in the minds of successful Leaders, Innovators, and Entrepeneurs from around the world

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Brian LeSage