Lessons Lived Michael Puente

#14 Lynn Burnett, Understand the roots of the issues you care about.

Lynn is a former high school history teacher and youth mentor.  He is the creator of CrossCulturalSolidarity.com & the White Antiracist Ancestry Project.

LYNN’S LESSONS:

1) Help build the world you’d like to see, with people you admire.

2) Understand the roots of the issues you care about.

3) Put your body into diverse spaces, and build solidarity across difference.

NOTABLE QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE:

If more people collectively across the country can understand all of that history, I think that we can move forward to build the kind of world that we want to see.

I feel like one of the key things to living a life that has a sense of purpose is to be able to wake up every morning and to know that there's something that you care about, something about the world that you would like to improve. You know, if we wake up in the morning and we know that we're working to make the world a better place, I think that that is a really positive feeling to have.

No community is perfect. This is something that I've discovered too. So I think if you're on a quest to find the absolutely perfect community, that might be something that you can never find.

I could say that was an experience for me to have; if I hadn't put my body there, I would never have had that specific type of experience of myself, which was a big moment of waking up for me. I was teaching incarcerated kids in Arizona and this is where I started teaching history because the issues that they cared about were all racial justice issues. And I found that to help them understand the roots of the issues that they cared about, I could help them understand those issues through history.

We have to be willing to ask the question, “Is it okay for me to be here?”

It's important that, when we're putting our body in an organizing space, the primary thing would be, “Is this something that we really believe in? Is it something that we're really committed to?” Then, it is a matter of checking out when the meetings are and asking how you could be a service, and letting people kind of direct you towards how you can show up in a way that they would appreciate for their group.

https://crossculturalsolidarity.com/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-white-antiracist-ancestry-project


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Don't be afraid of Change
NOTABLE QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE:

I was always believing that there's a bigger something out there, that's been just a big support and guidance for me so I felt just safe with following my heart. If I ever did anything that wasn't true to my heart, I didn't stick with it for a long time.

All my life, as long as I've followed my heart, there has been guidance and things just came in when they needed to come in.

As soon as you have to justify something or explain something it's from the head, but If you are in a place or with a person or with a decision from your heart, you don't need to justify it. You're just like, “That's what I want to do.”

As much as I like things to stay safe and the same in some respects, it's much more beneficial to me and in my life when I remain open to change.

The brain can only perceive what it's losing and not what it's gaining. And with my own personal work too, as it's always scary, when I let go of something that doesn't serve me anymore, it's like a part of me dies and I cry and I let go of a piece of me that I don't have used for anymore.

As soon as I let go of something that I don't need anymore, the universe sends me something bigger, better, and more precious than I could have ever thought of. And that's why I personally can't believe in being afraid of change anymore.


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I was a bit of a troublemaker, I was always like cutting classes was hanging out with the wrong crowd, but it just felt good to me.

I really wanted to take a look at trying to do some sort of plant medicine to talk a third eye view of my life and what can improve or really face these problems that are occurring in my life that maybe at times I'm not so aware of.

All all the lessons that I learned through life, of sacrificing in order to find love or be in partnership was really not what the key ingredient is… it's to always follow your heart, follow your heart, stay in integrity

Don't worry about the world understanding you. It's about you understanding yourself.

So many people are in such headspaces or confusion. They're trying to understand their lives and they'll question yours.

Why wouldn't I want to just stop and like get to know who I am, every little bit of it and discover who I am and experiment with art or cooking or creation and you know, we were gifted this life and why? Why try to have everybody else understand it. Just be fluid in it.

If you can just follow your heart and know yourself, then you're going to be living a much more easeful and satisfied life.


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Roop travels the world teaching athletes of all backgrounds how to use movement as a diagnostic tool and mobility as a tool to improve performance. "Everyone should have the ability to maintain their own body without reliance on others." Roop is a husband and father.

ROOP’S LESSONS:

Be conscious of the paths available to you.

FIND ROOP AT:
jagroopsihota@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/roop_sihota?lang=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/roop-sihota

NOTABLE QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE:

I've been able to continually evolve my thinking about movement and coaching and to a practice now where I'm working a full time gig but still get to spend a lot of time at home, which was a huge must for me when it came to professional life.

Life became about going from A to B to C to D thinking that if I'm not happy at A, if I get to B, I'll be happy. Well, if I'm not happy at B, if I get to C… I was chasing a carrot. Every time I got to that carrot, the carrot wasn't big enough.

I became so extreme that I could not enjoy being around other people that were living the life they wanted to live because I always felt like I needed to put my finger on it and say this is how you should do things. People genuinely did not like hanging out with me because it was just too difficult to be around me.

If I died tomorrow and there was one message that I could leave behind for Avia, it'd be, “When you are thinking about doing something, don't do it just because somebody told you to.”

The question that I ask myself is, one, am I going to enjoy doing this? Am I having fun doing this?

For the first time to be able to recognize that I haven't figured it all out and to be okay with not figuring it all out.


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Yoni Shechter is an entrepreneur, business strategist, and technology expert, who is obsessed with optimizing systems, wellness, and longevity. Yoni is co-owner of MIA to SF, head of strategy & marketing at Primal Goods Co., and co-host of The Modern Cavemen podcast.

YONI’S LESSONS:

1) The obstacle is the way

2) Dream big and write it down

3) Have a routine

CONTACT YONI AT:

yoni@miatosf.com

SOME QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:

If you're not growing, you're dying to some extent.

When I'm calm and I'm fed and I'm well-rested, I'm building a more resilient self in thicker skin and also with more skills.

All those obstacles are the things that we're stressing out about in the day to day life. And it's just basically the obstacles-- I've got to take care of this shit, so I'm going to go take care of it now. Deal with it, then you're not worried about it.

A lot of times, some goals will be impossible to achieve in one year. If you think about five years down the road, you can think bigger-- what do I want my life to look like? Cause you know what, in five years it's actually possible. If I start working on it now, in five years I can actually get to this specific place.

What would my life look like in a bigger picture? Am I gonna have kids? Am I gonna have dogs? Am I going to live in a house? Am I gonna live in an apartment? Are we going to have one car or two cars? How many hours a day am I working? How many days a week am I working? Or a month? How much money am I making? ... We're talking about five years down the road.

So I've written down my stuff. My life plan is clear and allows me to do more of what I want to do, whether it be the movement practice, spending time with my family... All of those things that I figured out are very important to me. How can I make them happen? … Give yourself five years.

If you're in a routine, you're kind of conscious of things even though you're letting the routine actually help you not be conscious of what you have to do… You're able to be conscious of what you're doing while you're in it cause you're not worried about what's happening next.


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Harold Plasterer has been a mechanic, dairy farmer, Ferrier (shoes horses), jockey, and blacksmith among other professions.

HAROLD’S LESSONS:

Don't take yourself too seriously

Don't get caught up in chasing money.

I started out at 12 cleaning stalls in a horse farm and learning how to ride. And from there I did any number of things in the animal industry. I've always connected well with animals, cows, horses, dogs... things like that.

It was like riding a thousand pound rocket with no stop and no go.

I would work two days straight without sleep, just trying to make money, just trying to succeed. And now I'm closer to the “out” gate than I am to the “in” gate, and I see things a little differently… I don't think anybody would write on their tombstone, “I wish I would've worked more.”

If I had to do it over again, I may have gone to college or a trade school or traveled… taken the opportunity to see the world a little bit before I got all caught up in the melee.

I've learned to open my heart. That's what the message is for me on this retreat. It's been over and over again. I feel way more connected than I've probably felt ever in my life.


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