Can you imagine a life where you wake up for 4 years straight..
every single day..
feeling like you're going to pass out and die at any moment?
That was MY life up until a few months ago.
It happened on a sunny day in Gainesville, Florida. A normal day that turned into one of the scariest days of my life.
I have been a gym rat my whole life. Never skipped a day in the gym.
Many things come along with being a gym rat. You need all of the gear, weight belts, supplements.
The one supplement I was pretty much addicted to was pre workout (my favorite was Total War by Redcon1). The extreme caffeine rush and the warm feeling from the beta-alanine inside of my body after I took it made me feel invincible every single day.
But what happened was, over time, I needed to take more and more of the pre workout in order to get that same feeling until eventually I barely got that same feeling.
It got to the point where I needed to take pre workout just to feel NORMAL in the gym.
Then on this day, IT happened.
I took my pre-workout. But this time it was different. I all of a sudden felt like I was in third person, almost like I didn't have control of my body.
It only lasted a few seconds and terrified me, but I ignored it, because I didn't know what to think of it.
I went to the gym and worked out feeling totally fine, but after I got home and started cooking up a post-workout meal, I got that same "third person mode" feeling.
But this time, it was intense.
It wasn't going away.
My heart started racing like I had just finished sprinting a marathon.
My hands are tingling.
Breathing is difficult.
I sit on the couch hoping that it will go away, but my body is going through absolute chaos.
I came to my roommates room and tried to tell him what was happening, but I couldn't explain it. It was a feeling like my life was about to end and I had no time to do all of the things I wanted to do before the end of life.
I asked him to go for a walk with me around the block until my body would calm down. I decided not to call 911, which to this day I don't know why I didn't do.
The feeling persisted for about an hour until the intense symptoms calmed down and I was fine again.
But, I wasn't really fine (but actually, I was)
Huh? how could you have been fine if you felt like out of nowhere you were about to pass out and have a heart attack?
You see, this experience was my first panic attack.
It was caused by the excessive amount of caffeine that I was taking. I made the decision to abuse the pre workout and it led me to that moment.
But after the intense feelings subsided, there was still something wrong.
It was too late. The fear in my body after experiencing that was so intense that I stayed up all night and the next night, praying that the symptoms would not come back to haunt me again.
I quit brazilian jiu jitsu because I was scared it would trigger the symptoms, I stopped going outside and talking to people much because I was too scared they'd come back.
And guess what?
They did. thousands of times.
I started experiencing the exact same type of panic attack almost every single day from then on for four whole years straight.
(this story has a very important plot twist, so keep reading)
You see, that one single moment left an imprint on my brain. It scared me so much that it hardwired new beliefs into my brain immediately.
The new beliefs were..
"I am destined for an early death, I know because these symptoms keep happening"
"I am weak, If I move around too much the intense symptoms will come back"
"If I work out too hard, I might die"
"If I go out with friends, it might happen in front of everyone"
And I walked around with these types of things in my head for 4 straight years
And you know what? My life was miserable trying to navigate it.
I truly believed these things with all of my heart. Can you imagine what that feels like? To be so scared and to KNOW you are having problems with your body that feel like the end of life?
But after having these intense panic attacks thousands of times, something happened.
I got angry at it.
"If you're so real, why haven't you killed me yet?" I started thinking when I was having the symptoms.
Because after the intense panic attacks happened thousands of times, I finally started to question them.
At this point, I was still terrified of having them, but now I just saw them as an inevitable part of daily life. I was so tired of them that I tried every dietary fix in the world, completely quit pre workout, lowered my stress levels. I was absolutely desperate to figure out the problem.
After trying all of the hacks and tricks, nothing was working. So I just accepted that this problem I was having was a life long one and there was no fix to it at all.
But something was weird.
I noticed, they don't happen during the day. The panic attacks only happen at night.
Why is that? Why do they only happen at night?
The specific thing I was scared of was my heart. I would listen to my heart all day hoping that nothing would "happen" to it while I was sitting there on the couch reading a book or watching tv (which was at time when they would usually happen, so I tried to avoid that as much as possible and stay occupied with work).
After years, I finally decided to figure out what was going on.
My friends and family were telling me it was all in my head, but I didn't trust them. "They don't know what they're talking about" I reasoned.
This next part changed everything..
I got my bloodwork done to see if we could figure out what was going on.
After getting the bloodwork, I was desperate to bring it to a cardiologist to finally find out what the problem was.
"This is it. I'm about to find out my fate." I thought, as I was walking into the cardiologist office
After telling him what I've been experiencing, I handed him my bloodwork results and waited impatiently while he scanned through my results. It felt like an eternity.
Then he turned to me, about to open his mouth to speak...
"Dude, there's nothing wrong with you. Calm down. You're healthy"
Something changed in my body there. I felt it. It was a serenity that I hadn't felt in years.
But while I was so happy that I was fine, I noticed I couple things..
First of all, this moment was just like that first panic attack I had. It was so intense that it immediately shifted my beliefs. Except this time, in a positive way.
This whole time, I had this belief pattern that was putting me through hell for years...
and all I needed the entire time was for a trusted source to tell me that I'm fine.
I also felt conned by my own mind.
The whole thing, the years of fear and pain..
It was ALL A FACADE.
An Illusion.
Bullshit. Not real.
How do I know?
Because after that one conversation with the cardiologist, it disappeared. 4+ months have passed, and nothing. No more fear.
none of it was real.
I have learned that these things I was scared of were simply normal bodily sensations that my mind was severely enhancing so I'd see it as life threatening.
The point of the story?
Our mind is THAT POWERFUL.
If our beliefs are so powerful that they can do what I experienced, what ELSE can they do?
What other beliefs, that are not even true, are severely holding us back from enjoying and growing in life because we have deeply engrained beliefs?
After experiencing that, I now know that any limiting belief I have is a real problem that needs to be changed.
You don't believe you have any business ideas?
No one will talk to you about your product?
Your business will never work?
You'll be poor forever?
You have to be stuck in a job for the rest of your life?
You have to stay in x industry because that's all you know?
You think X is a lot of money therefore you'll never make more than that?
You'll never x,y,z?
Take second to realize that anything you think of that is limiting yourself is bullshit. Just like my panic attacks, they are a complete illusion holding you back in life and if you don't find a way to get a paradigm shift like the one I had, you'll stay stuck for years and years and years.
We have to stop believing the stuff we believe.
As a matter of fact, why don't we promote the fact that if our brain can create such negative consequences, it is also able to create extremely positive ones if we can believe it?
Sometimes all we need is something to break the belief we had that makes us go "it was all a facade"
The end.
PS: this was a deeply personal story, but it ultimately helped me to understand this groundbreaking concept because I've experienced it first hand. We really can change in an instant and stop believing the shit we believe.
every single day..
feeling like you're going to pass out and die at any moment?
That was MY life up until a few months ago.
It happened on a sunny day in Gainesville, Florida. A normal day that turned into one of the scariest days of my life.
I have been a gym rat my whole life. Never skipped a day in the gym.
Many things come along with being a gym rat. You need all of the gear, weight belts, supplements.
The one supplement I was pretty much addicted to was pre workout (my favorite was Total War by Redcon1). The extreme caffeine rush and the warm feeling from the beta-alanine inside of my body after I took it made me feel invincible every single day.
But what happened was, over time, I needed to take more and more of the pre workout in order to get that same feeling until eventually I barely got that same feeling.
It got to the point where I needed to take pre workout just to feel NORMAL in the gym.
Then on this day, IT happened.
I took my pre-workout. But this time it was different. I all of a sudden felt like I was in third person, almost like I didn't have control of my body.
It only lasted a few seconds and terrified me, but I ignored it, because I didn't know what to think of it.
I went to the gym and worked out feeling totally fine, but after I got home and started cooking up a post-workout meal, I got that same "third person mode" feeling.
But this time, it was intense.
It wasn't going away.
My heart started racing like I had just finished sprinting a marathon.
My hands are tingling.
Breathing is difficult.
I sit on the couch hoping that it will go away, but my body is going through absolute chaos.
I came to my roommates room and tried to tell him what was happening, but I couldn't explain it. It was a feeling like my life was about to end and I had no time to do all of the things I wanted to do before the end of life.
I asked him to go for a walk with me around the block until my body would calm down. I decided not to call 911, which to this day I don't know why I didn't do.
The feeling persisted for about an hour until the intense symptoms calmed down and I was fine again.
But, I wasn't really fine (but actually, I was)
Huh? how could you have been fine if you felt like out of nowhere you were about to pass out and have a heart attack?
You see, this experience was my first panic attack.
It was caused by the excessive amount of caffeine that I was taking. I made the decision to abuse the pre workout and it led me to that moment.
But after the intense feelings subsided, there was still something wrong.
It was too late. The fear in my body after experiencing that was so intense that I stayed up all night and the next night, praying that the symptoms would not come back to haunt me again.
I quit brazilian jiu jitsu because I was scared it would trigger the symptoms, I stopped going outside and talking to people much because I was too scared they'd come back.
And guess what?
They did. thousands of times.
I started experiencing the exact same type of panic attack almost every single day from then on for four whole years straight.
(this story has a very important plot twist, so keep reading)
You see, that one single moment left an imprint on my brain. It scared me so much that it hardwired new beliefs into my brain immediately.
The new beliefs were..
"I am destined for an early death, I know because these symptoms keep happening"
"I am weak, If I move around too much the intense symptoms will come back"
"If I work out too hard, I might die"
"If I go out with friends, it might happen in front of everyone"
And I walked around with these types of things in my head for 4 straight years
And you know what? My life was miserable trying to navigate it.
I truly believed these things with all of my heart. Can you imagine what that feels like? To be so scared and to KNOW you are having problems with your body that feel like the end of life?
But after having these intense panic attacks thousands of times, something happened.
I got angry at it.
"If you're so real, why haven't you killed me yet?" I started thinking when I was having the symptoms.
Because after the intense panic attacks happened thousands of times, I finally started to question them.
At this point, I was still terrified of having them, but now I just saw them as an inevitable part of daily life. I was so tired of them that I tried every dietary fix in the world, completely quit pre workout, lowered my stress levels. I was absolutely desperate to figure out the problem.
After trying all of the hacks and tricks, nothing was working. So I just accepted that this problem I was having was a life long one and there was no fix to it at all.
But something was weird.
I noticed, they don't happen during the day. The panic attacks only happen at night.
Why is that? Why do they only happen at night?
The specific thing I was scared of was my heart. I would listen to my heart all day hoping that nothing would "happen" to it while I was sitting there on the couch reading a book or watching tv (which was at time when they would usually happen, so I tried to avoid that as much as possible and stay occupied with work).
After years, I finally decided to figure out what was going on.
My friends and family were telling me it was all in my head, but I didn't trust them. "They don't know what they're talking about" I reasoned.
This next part changed everything..
I got my bloodwork done to see if we could figure out what was going on.
After getting the bloodwork, I was desperate to bring it to a cardiologist to finally find out what the problem was.
"This is it. I'm about to find out my fate." I thought, as I was walking into the cardiologist office
After telling him what I've been experiencing, I handed him my bloodwork results and waited impatiently while he scanned through my results. It felt like an eternity.
Then he turned to me, about to open his mouth to speak...
"Dude, there's nothing wrong with you. Calm down. You're healthy"
Something changed in my body there. I felt it. It was a serenity that I hadn't felt in years.
But while I was so happy that I was fine, I noticed I couple things..
First of all, this moment was just like that first panic attack I had. It was so intense that it immediately shifted my beliefs. Except this time, in a positive way.
This whole time, I had this belief pattern that was putting me through hell for years...
and all I needed the entire time was for a trusted source to tell me that I'm fine.
I also felt conned by my own mind.
The whole thing, the years of fear and pain..
It was ALL A FACADE.
An Illusion.
Bullshit. Not real.
How do I know?
Because after that one conversation with the cardiologist, it disappeared. 4+ months have passed, and nothing. No more fear.
none of it was real.
I have learned that these things I was scared of were simply normal bodily sensations that my mind was severely enhancing so I'd see it as life threatening.
The point of the story?
Our mind is THAT POWERFUL.
If our beliefs are so powerful that they can do what I experienced, what ELSE can they do?
What other beliefs, that are not even true, are severely holding us back from enjoying and growing in life because we have deeply engrained beliefs?
After experiencing that, I now know that any limiting belief I have is a real problem that needs to be changed.
You don't believe you have any business ideas?
No one will talk to you about your product?
Your business will never work?
You'll be poor forever?
You have to be stuck in a job for the rest of your life?
You have to stay in x industry because that's all you know?
You think X is a lot of money therefore you'll never make more than that?
You'll never x,y,z?
Take second to realize that anything you think of that is limiting yourself is bullshit. Just like my panic attacks, they are a complete illusion holding you back in life and if you don't find a way to get a paradigm shift like the one I had, you'll stay stuck for years and years and years.
We have to stop believing the stuff we believe.
As a matter of fact, why don't we promote the fact that if our brain can create such negative consequences, it is also able to create extremely positive ones if we can believe it?
Sometimes all we need is something to break the belief we had that makes us go "it was all a facade"
The end.
PS: this was a deeply personal story, but it ultimately helped me to understand this groundbreaking concept because I've experienced it first hand. We really can change in an instant and stop believing the shit we believe.
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