Late Boomers

Merry Intro: 00:01

This is the EWN Podcast Network.

Cathy intro: 00:15

Welcome to Late Boomers, our podcast guide to creating your 3rd act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington.

Merry Intro: 00:24

And I'm Mary Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.

Cathy intro: 00:35

Everyone has a story and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started.

Cathy: 00:52

Hello. I'm Cathy Worthington. Welcome to length boomers. Today, we have as our guest, Troy Hadid. Troy was born in Trinidad, wrote his first letter to the editor at 10, has taught yoga internationally for over 15 years, and has founded several successful businesses, including a hemp store, a waste oil recycling business, and a yoga studio.

Cathy: 01:17

He has walked coast to coast across Central America, navigated the world on a ship, spent prolonged periods in silence, and is continuously seeking to make sense of the human experience.

Merry: 01:30

And I'm Mary Elkins. Troy is the author of a book called My Name is Love, We're Not All That Different, which we'll discuss with him. Troy calls for all of us to bring more intention to the way we live our lives and acknowledges that our actions, words, and even thoughts change the world. I believe that too. He hopes that if nothing else, his words and life will aid humanity, including himself, in remembering what it means to love.

Merry: 01:59

Welcome, Troy.

Troy Hadeed: 02:00

Yeah. Thank you for having me, ladies. It is such a honor and a pleasure to be here.

Cathy: 02:06

Thank you.

Merry: 02:06

To have you. Yeah.

Cathy: 02:08

Tell us about growing up in Trinidad and how you found your life's purpose.

Troy Hadeed: 02:15

Well, I don't I think I'm finding my life's purpose. I think our life's purpose lives in every moment. You know? And I think, sometimes we get attached to what this one purpose is, but then we lose track of your real purpose, which is in living every day in our lives. Every moment has its own purpose.

Troy Hadeed: 02:36

So I am continually continuously discovering that purpose. But, growing up in Trinidad was Trinidad's such a beautiful place. Such an amazing place. But I remember I had one of my teachers come here a few years ago, and, she said, wow. This place really teaches you how to laugh because things don't run as you would expect them to run.

Troy Hadeed: 03:04

Things don't actually go as you would expect them to grow. And, I mean, it is a 3rd world country, so, you know, things don't generally run like this. This you expect them to run. And in a lot of ways, it's a place that someone could say is a little hard and grimy at times, a little difficult at times, but it's a place that is full of so much love. And, it is definitely a place that teaches you how to love if you ask the right questions.

Troy Hadeed: 03:35

You know? So growing up here for me was, I can't say I remember lots of it other than it was really a good time. And I'm still here now, 44 years later, so definitely has the there's something special about this place for sure. I know.

Merry: 03:53

Something special in the air Yeah. And in the water.

Troy Hadeed: 03:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Merry: 03:59

Well, how were you introduced to yoga?

Troy Hadeed: 04:02

I was, that is a interesting story. It was I remember my first real introduction to yoga was at 14 years old. And it I used to go up every in school, I used to give up my lunchtime and go up every lunchtime to read these books with this teacher. And his name was mister Gayediri. And my friends used to make fun of me and say, you've you've given up your lunch time to go and read books to that teacher.

Troy Hadeed: 04:34

Like, what's wrong with you? And I remember when I graduated university, I came back home, people would say, well, what are you gonna do with your life? I'd say, well, I'm gonna teach yoga. Well, do you do yoga? No.

Troy Hadeed: 04:47

I don't do yoga. I wasn't doing yoga yet, but I knew I was gonna teach you. And,

Cathy: 04:53

How odd. That's Yeah.

Troy Hadeed: 04:55

A few year few years ago, not too long, just just before pandemic, I was teaching in Slovakia. So I'm gonna bring it back fully. I'm gonna tell him a nice little story. So I was teaching in Slovakia, and somebody asked me how I came into yoga. And I told them a story about this teacher, mister Gayadin, and how I would love to see or hear from him one day to tell him how he may have influenced my life.

Troy Hadeed: 05:27

And I came back home to Trinidad. And a few months after that, I got this message in my email, in my inbox. And it said, I think I gave you the practice of drama chariot, it's a yogic text to read in 1994 in Fatima college, and it was signed as gayadin So I replied to him. I was like mister. Gayadin Send me your phone number.

Troy Hadeed: 05:54

I need to talk to you So I call him

Merry: 05:57

Oh.

Troy Hadeed: 05:57

And I I got a I got a real story. He says, Troy first called me Sylvan. You're no longer my student. You could call me by my first name. He said, you were actually sent to detention.

Troy Hadeed: 06:12

That's how you first came in my room, is you were sent to detention. And he said, I am not Hindu, and I don't read, and I don't practice yoga. I gave you that book to read only because I happen to be holding it in my hand at the time. He said, but you came up after that first detention, every lunchtime of your own free will to read more and read more and read more and read more. And he said what was really beautiful is that you see I was talking about him for 15 years as having influenced my journey of yoga.

Troy Hadeed: 06:52

He says, but I've been talking about you for the last 25 years. He said, because I've been talking about you as a 14 year old kid who influenced me and impacted me with his commitment to read books and texts that most adults couldn't even read. And he said, how I found you is he now teaches in Ontario, Canada. And he was telling his class about Troy Hardy, this little kid at 14 years old. And they googled my name to see what I've what had come of my life.

Troy Hadeed: 07:25

And he said we have had no contact since 1994 up until that point And he says look at his synchronicity in that you've been talking about how how I impacted your life and I've been talking about how you impacted my life, but we haven't spoken a word in 25 years. You know?

Cathy: 07:47

Isn't that beautiful?

Troy Hadeed: 07:49

Yeah.

Cathy: 07:50

What what a beautiful influence that was.

Troy Hadeed: 07:53

Yeah. Amazing.

Cathy: 07:54

Can you talk a little bit about, because I know you have this in your book, what are your views on God, and what do you mean when you encourage people to redefine their relationship to God?

Troy Hadeed: 08:08

The the first chapter in my book is called redefining God. And, I remember when I was writing it, I was like, are you sure you want to do this? Because it's such a edgy topic. It can take people either way, and, it could turn somebody off of a book entirely. Right?

Troy Hadeed: 08:30

They'd like, open that really first chapter and close your book completely. Right? Mhmm. And I realized that it was so important that that be addressed in the first chapter.

Cathy: 08:43

Mhmm. Oh.

Troy Hadeed: 08:44

Because what this book is about is for My Name is Love. And, it's about how do we define how do we dissolve our obsession with individual identity so we can remember what it means to love. So we can remember how connected we are, that we are all part of one greater collective. And some understanding of god is essential to that, Whether somebody wants to call God x, y, and z or say it's nature or some divine intelligence or call it the universe or maybe God is someone who's formless or nameless, it's irrelevant to me. But the fact that every individual is invited to connect to something bigger than themselves, it's essential.

Troy Hadeed: 09:39

Because if we don't, then I will always be Troy and you will be Kathy and you will be Mary and you will always be separate There will be nothing that makes us seem nothing that connects us to that one sense of belonging to that one collective body so it's so important to me that we connect to something larger than ourselves. Because if we don't, then everyone's gonna live their lives trying to take care of themselves and their family and their personal identity. And we we live and continue to live in a world where we're all separate. And that's not a world I want to live in. I love that.

Troy Hadeed: 10:23

With God, I, I acknowledge that many people I think have PTSD in regard to god because I believe a lot of us have grown up. I PTSD, I speak of very loosely. Right? But I think a lot of us, at least my generation, I think younger generations, they have grown up in in a world where organized religion was forced back to them, and God was put in a box. And, as long as God is put in a box, then you have my God and your God, and we still make God is still separate.

Troy Hadeed: 11:02

It separates us. Imagine that. We've created an understanding of God that separates us. And to me, that is absolutely ridiculous. So so I decided that I've seen so many people move away from God completely because of the misalignments that have been done in the name of God historically for generations.

Troy Hadeed: 11:27

Mhmm. And I don't think organized religion is a bad thing. I think organized religion is beautiful, but I think everyone also needs to be given the right to redefine their own definition of God and their own relationship to God. And I I I am more concerned with bringing people back to God than telling people what God looks like and what name God falls under and what God wants of them. God will tell them that.

Troy Hadeed: 12:01

If somebody cultivates their own connection to God, God will speak to them and God will guide them. I don't have to tell them what God wants of them. God will do that. Mhmm. And I think that I've seen so many people move away from God because, of their experience growing up or their experience at organized religion.

Troy Hadeed: 12:24

And I just want to bring people back to God, whatever that means to someone. You know? I think that is so important that we create a space in which everyone can cultivate their own unique relationship to God, and we can respect that everyone has the right to do that.

Merry: 12:43

Do you think that's one of the biggest issues plaguing humanity today, or are there other issues as well that you think are a problem?

Troy Hadeed: 12:52

I I think it definitely contributes because, you know, we we we grew up in a world where I am born into a body, and my body is given a name. My name is Troy. If I identify this is all I identify with. It's my body. Then my identity begins to expand to my ideas, my opinions, my religion, my career.

Troy Hadeed: 13:22

But I will live my life seeking the preservation of my individual identity. Because if all I identify with is my body, then my body has one certainty. That is death. So I will live my entire life trying to protect myself

Merry: 13:42

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 13:43

With no real con So you

Cathy: 13:45

feel like it's really the disconnection

Troy Hadeed: 13:48

of people? It's a disconnection. It's a part of me. Yeah. We look at the world today.

Troy Hadeed: 13:53

Look at what's happening in the world today on every level with regard to war, starvation. Everyone it's almost like everybody's out for for themselves and their communities to try to defend something that they think is theirs, Whether that be an opinion, an identity, a piece of land, whatever it is. And in fact, it's that nothing is out. Nothing belongs to us. Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 14:22

Some of it is on loan. Some of it is part of a larger collective that we've been asked to take care of, be it a piece of land. But, the reality is that as long as we remain separate, we need to find common ground. And to me that common ground is spirit And however somebody interprets that it's up to them But we need something that reminds us that we are part of 1 humanity and one collective and one creation It's a matter of fact that I call myself a Trinidadian and you might call yourself American. It's really pinned on one point in time upon which borders we draw.

Troy Hadeed: 15:05

Mhmm. But why are we stopping at that one point in time? Let's go further back. Let's go back. If I if we want to trace our ancestry, let's go as far back as we can.

Troy Hadeed: 15:16

Why am I gonna stop at one point in the history of time that makes me separate and different? Mhmm. You know? Yeah.

Cathy: 15:25

And then we get into a whole physics discussion of time and all that. But

Troy Hadeed: 15:29

Yes.

Cathy: 15:30

That's maybe for another podcast. But

Troy Hadeed: 15:32

Yes. I wanna ask

Cathy: 15:33

you about your book. Your book is called My Name is Love. Can you explain where that came from?

Troy Hadeed: 15:40

Yeah. It wasn't always called My Name is Love. It was up to 6 months before publishing. It was called popcorn in my pocket.

Cathy: 15:49

Oh, popcorn in my pocket? Yeah.

Merry: 15:52

Oh. And

Troy Hadeed: 15:53

that's that's simply because very a

Cathy: 15:56

real different focus. Yeah. Yeah.

Troy Hadeed: 15:59

And, that's the name I I came up with when I was 20 years old. I put my hand in my pocket. I discovered old popcorn. I love popcorn. And I said, popcorn in my pocket, it's gonna be the name of my first book.

Troy Hadeed: 16:13

But, but 6 months before publishing, luckily, I have, a really amazing editor and some friends in the literary world. And they said, you know what, Troy? This book carries way too much depth and and life altering content to be called popcorn in my pocket. It just it just it carries too much weight to be called such a light flowery fun name. Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 16:39

And I agreed with them. And, especially when we decided to use this picture on the cover. It's not really a light picture.

Merry: 16:48

It's not cover. Mhmm. Choi is showing the cover of his book with a picture of him.

Troy Hadeed: 16:54

Yeah.

Merry: 16:54

And,

Cathy: 16:56

we've got some picture.

Troy Hadeed: 16:58

Thank you. That's godly, Dato. That's nothing to do with me. But but but the picture you know, what's also interesting, it's one of the first things that I was very firm on when I started writing this book is that I did not want my Piccirany cup. Oh.

Troy Hadeed: 17:17

That was a that was a nonnegotiable. I did not

Cathy: 17:21

want my Piccirnie cup. You failed. You failed on that.

Troy Hadeed: 17:24

I failed. Maybe it's a good thing. Oh, I got my head out my ass in my opinion. I don't know if I could feel it's on your show, if I could say ass. But,

Cathy: 17:34

You can.

Troy Hadeed: 17:34

Yeah. Okay. Great. I got my head out my ass. So in name of in name in name of the book began changed, and we had this cover that everybody wanted to use.

Troy Hadeed: 17:45

I didn't wanna use my editor didn't wanna use it, but but a lot of other voices, did say you have to use that photo. And that photo was pretty much captured by accident. And when I first looked at that photo, I felt like I'd looking into the eyes of someone I hadn't yet met. Yeah. I didn't I didn't see myself in that photo.

Troy Hadeed: 18:10

And, that photo was taken I'm not gonna answer your question. I'm just gonna roundabout me. That photo was taken on the last day of a yoga teacher training when I was absolutely exhausted. I had nothing left. I had nothing left.

Troy Hadeed: 18:28

I had no sense of self to preserve or protect. I was completely stripped of it all. And, I think that is what it takes for us to remember what it means to love. It's for us to get over ourselves, get over this sense of identity, this sense of Troy. And I think only when we begin to loosen a sense of our individual identity I'm not saying it's a bad thing.

Troy Hadeed: 18:58

It's beautiful. But when it has power over us and it governs everything we do and how we show up in the world, That that, what I call the identity crisis, is what is at the root of what is wrong in our world today. So so looking at this picture and the power of it and, the content of the book, there's only one name that really stood out, and that is My Name Is Love. That's the only thing I can identify with is love. Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 19:32

Because if I identify with Troy, then it makes us separate. If I identify as being a man, it makes us separate. If I identify as being one religion, it makes me separate from everyone else. So the only thing deep down that I really can identify with is love and God. And to me, they're one and received.

Troy Hadeed: 19:53

So, so that's why we both cocky title, my name is love, and we're not all that different. Mhmm. Because it's also a reminder that I'm not saying my name is love. I'm full of love. No.

Troy Hadeed: 20:09

I'm saying we all are. I'm saying we just have to get of ourselves and remember what it means to love, to remember who we truly are.

Merry: 20:18

That's so true and so important in the world today because we're all protecting ourselves from what we fear.

Troy Hadeed: 20:26

Yeah.

Merry: 20:26

And love is the opposite, isn't it?

Troy Hadeed: 20:28

Yeah. Absolutely. Fear is a hindrance to love. Now also, Mary, one of the, one of my favorite lines in the book is says that the irony about fair is that its greatest worry is not being able not being able to love or not being loved. Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 20:52

When you look at all fear, it's rooted in that. We're afraid of either not being able to love others or not being loved. That's how the root of all faith. Even if my fear is death, I'm afraid to die because then I won't I won't know what love is. I won't have to be able to love my people or be loved by them.

Troy Hadeed: 21:13

And, yeah, if we if we start to really analyze our fears, and really look into our fears and ask the right questions, we realize that even at the at the root of fear is love.

Merry: 21:27

Mhmm. Changing the subject, probably not a lot, but a little bit. You talk about your privilege. What do you mean when you speak of owning privilege,

Troy Hadeed: 21:41

not owing? No. Owning. Owing. Is it owing?

Troy Hadeed: 21:46

Owing? Owning. All in. Okay. Well, that

Cathy: 21:49

was a typo in what we had. Well, I'm

Troy Hadeed: 21:53

Yeah.

Merry: 21:53

Owing. Owing.

Troy Hadeed: 21:55

Yeah. Not owing. Owning. Like, the owing.

Merry: 21:58

Got it. Planning.

Troy Hadeed: 21:59

Take it. Yeah. Well, I know. But we'll

Merry: 22:02

we'll find out, won't we? What's the difference there?

Troy Hadeed: 22:04

Yeah. My accent can be a little rock sometimes. You know? Yeah. So I grew up, I grew up with privilege in a lot of ways.

Troy Hadeed: 22:16

A lot of ways. I'm male. I'm light skinned. I grew up in a comfortable family. Financially, we're comfortable.

Troy Hadeed: 22:22

I have a education. There are a million reason which I am privileged. I've now come to understand my greatest privilege, and I think a greatest privilege that anyone can benefit from is knowing what love is. It's a privilege of love and security.

Merry: 22:41

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 22:41

Because so many people now will don't know that. And, what I mean by owning privilege is that growing up, I was there for a vast majority of my life, especially up until maybe my late teens, early twenties. I was ashamed of my privilege. I didn't want people to know where I grew up, where I lived. I didn't want people to know what my last name was because I didn't wanna be seen as stush entitled.

Troy Hadeed: 23:13

You know? I didn't want to be categorized in that way, and I was ashamed of my privilege. I would deny my privilege like so many people, and I will do. Mhmm. But here's the thing.

Troy Hadeed: 23:26

As long as we deny our privilege, then it benefits no one but myself. Mhmm. If I have the courage and understanding to own my privilege, then I can put my hand up and say, yes. There are benefits I was born into. It's not my fault.

Troy Hadeed: 23:47

These are benefits I would give on. But I am gonna use my privilege to try to save something bigger than myself.

Merry: 23:56

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 23:57

And I think when we can when we can own and take ownership of our privilege is when we can begin to discover ways in which we can use that privilege to change it.

Merry: 24:11

Just to to Oh. The privilege.

Troy Hadeed: 24:13

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cathy: 24:15

Yeah. Excellent. And when you say that we're far more connected than we could ever imagine, what do you mean by that?

Troy Hadeed: 24:27

So one of the most I think the most memorable points in my life was when I discovered that a little bit of background. I in my yoga practice, I started really connecting to what I would call breath extension. So that is I was deepening my relationship to my breath and how my breath actually works in my body, in all of us. Right? And the way breath works, most people have no idea how breath works and have no idea how to breathe from.

Troy Hadeed: 25:01

But how breath works is that you create space in your body. You don't pull air into your body. That's not how it works. You don't suck air into your body. When you create space in your body, there's a change in volume and air pressure, which causes air to move into you.

Troy Hadeed: 25:22

So it's almost like the breath wants to be inside of us. It's almost like the breath chooses to be inside of us. We don't pull it into us. We just create space for it to enter. And, that landed in a really big way for me.

Troy Hadeed: 25:38

And then I discovered that the word spirit, like holy spirit, It comes from Latin with spiritus, and spiritus means to breathe. So so I began to see and understand and feel that there is a divine agency that lives in the breath. And it makes sense because the breath is in one thing that connects every living being on the planet, even nonliving beings. Right? The air we breathe, whether it be in liquid form or or form, it's the one thing that connects all of us.

Troy Hadeed: 26:24

It would make sense to me that there is some kind of divine agency or intelligence in the air we breathe. And so I envision it almost as a a divine plasma, like a divine sea that we're all just swimming around it. But, you know, and this is why this is why pandemic was such a big deal. Right? Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 26:47

But, but it's so important for us to recognize that, for instance, at some point in our lives, the air molecules that we want in Marion, Kathy Katie or Kathy? Kathy. Kathy. Yeah. Could be inside of me one day.

Troy Hadeed: 27:11

Right? Like, we're on different continents, different parts of you. We're at one island. You're on a continent. We may never share physical space in the same room.

Troy Hadeed: 27:22

Mhmm. But the air molecules that were in me or in you would once be in at some point, it is possible for them to be in in each other.

Merry: 27:32

Yeah. Well, we are connected right now

Troy Hadeed: 27:35

Yeah.

Merry: 27:35

Via the, the electrical, beings out there that are Yeah. Connecting us to the waters. But, talk about yoga a little bit more because people have a varied understanding of yoga and, you know, the we've commercialized it in the western world.

Merry Intro: 27:51

Tell

Merry: 27:51

us what yoga means to you. I think you were talking a little bit about it with opening the space within, but tell us more.

Troy Hadeed: 28:02

To me, you know, the word yoga means union. It means to join or yoke. And a lot of people will ask, well, what are you joining? And then someone might say mind, body, breath, light to dark, myself to god, all kind of stuff. Right?

Troy Hadeed: 28:21

One of my these are all our old teacher's name is Osho. I'm sure you guys may have heard of him. Osho is a spiritual teacher that that came and went. And I can't say I'm a fan of everything that comes with Osho. There's a a movie on Netflix about his life.

Troy Hadeed: 28:37

But, he had some really great teachings, and he see pretty much said that yoga is BS, because you can't join what was never separate. And it was so beautiful. He did not actually mean yoga with BS, but that was his analogy. It is not a joining. It's more like a remembering.

Troy Hadeed: 28:59

It's more like a remembering. Right? Now how I describe yoga is, some people would say yoga is a religious practice. It's not. It can be.

Troy Hadeed: 29:10

Yoga can be a spiritual practice regardless of what anyone's religion is. It could connect them to their understanding of God. But in a nutshell, what I believe yoga is, it's a practice that quiets the quiets the mind and deepens our relationship to breath. That's what yoga is. It's a it's a mental practice.

Troy Hadeed: 29:31

It's a breathing practice. Sometimes we just happen to do it with our body. Right? And in very one of the main teachings of yoga said that yoga is required taking up the fluctuations of your mind. Now when we quiet the fluctuations of your mind, for me, I believe it's when we begin to dial into this dial into god.

Troy Hadeed: 29:55

It's when we can really hear, feel, and understand divinity because your mind stops shouting and screaming. When your mind is shouting and screaming, it's very hard for us to to know anything beyond that. You know?

Cathy: 30:10

Excellent. And do you believe in manifestation and the power of thought?

Troy Hadeed: 30:17

I do, but I don't believe in manifestation. And, I I do, but but not any same way that that new age spirituality might might, portray it. You see, to me, it it makes sense. It's obvious. Manifestation is not this new age thing.

Troy Hadeed: 30:37

Every word, action, and thought changes the world. Mhmm. So every word, action, and even thought changes the world. So if you think about something long enough, you're gonna manifest it in your life. Absolutely.

Troy Hadeed: 30:51

If you think about it and take action to make it happen and speak about it, of course, you're absolutely gonna manifest it in your life. But remember when I told you breath is spirit, I made that analogy. So part of the realization that came for me, at least in my yoga practice, is that I began to see my yoga practice as a form of prayer. It was my intimate time with spirit. So every movement, every breath became a prayer.

Troy Hadeed: 31:25

So even when I teach now, I I open up space for people to connect to their understanding of God and connect to their prayers and intentions. But if breath is an element of God and has a divine agency, then not only is my yoga practice a form of prayer, everything is. Every word, action, and thought, everything I do on a daily basis, that divine agency is moving through me 23,000 times a day. I am a living embodiment of prayer. Now somebody might say, alright.

Troy Hadeed: 32:02

Prayer and manifestation are interchangeable. Sure. I have no problem with that. Whether somebody wants to call it prayer, somebody wants to call it manifestation, all good. But here's a very inconvenient truth about manifestation and prayer.

Troy Hadeed: 32:17

It's not something you choose to do in the morning or afternoon or when you come home from work. We are constantly doing We can't choose when we do it or when we don't. I can't say I'm gonna light and see it and pull out some crystal to go to church and see a prayer and say that that's my prayer time. That's my manifestation time. Sure.

Troy Hadeed: 32:42

But we're also praying and manifesting throughout our day every word action and thought now that realization comes with a massive responsibility a massive responsibility because it means that I might be for instance, I might go to temple, mosque, church yoga practice, do a ritual or whatever, and be very intentional with that ritual or that practice. Mhmm. But if I'm not intentional with the way I'm living my life, then I could be overshadowing all of my prayers.

Merry: 33:19

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 33:19

Only good I'm trying to do in the world. I could be actually doing way worse in my daily life, which is 23 hours or or, let's say, 11 hours of a 12 hour day.

Merry: 33:32

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 33:33

So the inconvenient truth about manifestation and prayers, that is something we are constantly doing. You can't conveniently choose when you're gonna do it.

Cathy: 33:43

Very good point.

Merry: 33:45

Yeah. It's a great point. It's it really shows that whatever we're thinking comes reality.

Troy Hadeed: 33:52

Yeah. Yeah.

Merry: 33:53

So if you had the opportunity to speak to someone anywhere, anybody for 5 minutes, what would you share with them?

Troy Hadeed: 34:04

I would share with them what I let I'd mentioned a little bit previously is how a breath actually works. Because I think what I think when when, when somebody I do believe there's intelligence in breath. And I believe that if somebody spends time with their breath, 5, 10 minutes a day just sitting and breathing properly, everything they need to know will come to them. Everything they need to be shown will come to them. So I feel that, understanding how a breath works in a body, is one of the most powerful things that you can teach or show anyone.

Cathy: 34:51

So shall I to learn?

Troy Hadeed: 34:52

No. Yes. I can show you now in 2 minutes.

Cathy: 34:54

Yes, please. Yes, please.

Troy Hadeed: 34:56

Alright? Yes, please. So but I need to step back, and I know you lose my mic if I move back a little bit. But so I'm gonna come back back and forth. Okay.

Troy Hadeed: 35:07

Alright. Most of us would think that we breathe in our belly. Right? If I ask most people whether you breathe, they'll say, well, in my belly or some people would say in my chest, my belly and my chest. Right?

Troy Hadeed: 35:21

And for so long, we've been told we breathe into your belly breathe into your belly. Right? We've heard that for so long. Well, you actually can't do that. For you to get air into your belly, someone has to stick you with a knife.

Troy Hadeed: 35:35

Air can't get into your belly. The only reason the abdominal cavity expands is because we have our umbrella shaped muscle at the bottom of our rib cage called our diaphragm, and that diaphragm is your main muscle breathing. So when remember when I told you to inhale, we need to expand the space within your body. Because when you expand the space of your body, volume air pressure volume increases, and air pressure inside of you decreases. Does that make sense?

Cathy: 36:12

Yes.

Troy Hadeed: 36:13

Yeah. Yes. So so imagine that I had a box, and inside that box had a set air pressure. If I x if I double each side of that box, the air pressure decreases because the air has air molecules and more room to move. Right?

Troy Hadeed: 36:32

That's what happens when we expand our body. Right? The diaphragm descends into the abdomen. The rib cage expands left to right, and the chest lifts and even a back body expands. So so we need to change the shape of our body in every possible dimension, not just your diaphragm moving and not just your chest lift.

Troy Hadeed: 36:59

But it's almost like we need to expand the rib cage and your back body and descend the diaphragm into your belly and then lift your chest. So when we do that, we expand the thoracic cavity, and we expand the volume of your thoracic cavity. When we do that, the air pressure inside of us decreases. And what then happens is the air pressure outside of us is higher than the air pressure inside of us. So that air moves into us to create balance or equilibrium.

Troy Hadeed: 37:35

Right? So there's a bit of physics there. Two laws of physics you need to understand is that volume and air pressure are inverse due to heat. More volume I create in my body, you lower air pressure inside my body. Then gas has moved from high pressure to low pressure.

Troy Hadeed: 37:55

That's the second law of physics. So when that happens, the air moves into me. So I like to say that we don't actually breathe. We create space to be breathed by an external force.

Merry: 38:11

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 38:12

And I and you say Do you do

Cathy: 38:15

you try to exhale through your mouth

Troy Hadeed: 38:17

or not? No. I I would I would encourage some nose nose nose and yoga, we see nose is for breathing. Mouth is for eating. And, there's an amazing book by, I think he authored a guy called James Nestor, and the name of the book is breath.

Troy Hadeed: 38:38

And he he puts scientific research to the breath, and, they discovered that when we breathe out of the mouth, we actually decrease efficiency of the body. Oh. So it's way he prove actually proves that it's way more beneficial to breathe through nose and through mouth, Even athletes know.

Cathy: 39:02

Thanks for that. Thank you for that lesson.

Troy Hadeed: 39:05

Yeah. Yeah.

Cathy: 39:07

And, Troy, what would you like our listeners to have as a takeaway today? I think we've all learned a lot, but give us a a great takeaway for today. Wow.

Troy Hadeed: 39:21

Okay. This might be a little a little off topic because I don't think we really talked about this stuff, but I'll try to make it clear and concise.

Merry: 39:30

Okay.

Troy Hadeed: 39:31

One of the biggest problems in the world is human relations. Because we take everything personally. And because we take everything personally, we think that everybody is doing everything to us to hurt us, to harm us, to take something from us. Right? And remember, I spoke earlier to the what I consider the identity crisis.

Troy Hadeed: 39:56

That is the I I I, me, me, me. If I understand that I am not truly my body, and I truly understand that within every individual, it's a spark of God. And that spark of God from the day we are born, it picks up conditioning. It picks up experiences, and that conditioning is what makes us who we are. That dictates how we show up in a world.

Troy Hadeed: 40:27

So what I would tell someone with them going into another one of our podcast is this. I would invite people to acknowledge that when we look at someone, a lot of the time, we associate that individual with their actions, words, and thoughts, but that is not actually who they are. Who they are is that spark of God that lives within that individual. And if we can see that person, then we can condemn. You might say, well, you condemn someone's actions, words, and thoughts.

Troy Hadeed: 41:03

You might condemn someone's conditioning. You might condemn how someone shows up in your word, but you can condemn all of that and still love them because you acknowledge that they are not their actions, words, and thoughts. That is just their conditioning. That within every human body is a spark of God, and that is who we all are. And if we can acknowledge that, then 2 things happen.

Troy Hadeed: 41:31

1, you can't possibly do anything personally to me because I am not my body. I would just happen to be in a way in our curriculum to know lies my cross, and, you might end up with you in my body, but it's not personal. Mhmm. The second thing that happens is if I if I come across someone in my life and I want them to change their ways of living, maybe I want to influence their their their perspectives, their opinion to how they show up in the world. The one way for me to make sure that never happens is to punish them and judge them.

Merry: 42:12

Mhmm.

Troy Hadeed: 42:12

And in in one way for me to have any chance at doing that is to understand their conditioning, to make them feel seen, heard, understood, to love them, not their actions, but to love them. And then maybe I could help them reprogram and recondition or at least play a very small part in them doing that. But I would invite people that in our lives that not to see beyond the body, see beyond the actions, the words, and the thoughts, to really see the the seed of God within every individual and then acknowledge the conditioning that came along with that.

Merry: 42:54

Oh, that is powerful. Thank you.

Cathy: 42:57

Thank you.

Troy Hadeed: 42:58

Yeah.

Merry: 42:58

Our guest today on Late Bloomers has been Troy Hadid, author of My Name is Love. Please visit his website, troyhadid.com, and that's troyhadeed.com. And, Troy, you have some things you might like to offer to our listeners and our viewers. What would they be?

Troy Hadeed: 43:20

Yeah. Sure. So I just inspired by my book, I launched a clothing line called we identify as love.com. And, if if, anybody goes and uses the coupon code I am love, they get 10% off. And my book is also sold on our website.

Troy Hadeed: 43:42

It's also sold on Amazon, but if you can also get it on that website. And, I do have links in my Instagram social media profiles where somebody can click on, and they get 7 days free access to a platform called Gaia.com where they offer content and yoga classes. And if they go to beyond yoga tv.com, they get 30 days free access just by signing up.

Cathy: 44:11

And I think they'll find all this by going on your website first.

Troy Hadeed: 44:15

Yeah. All of it's on my website, troyhardy.com. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Troy Hadeed: 44:19

I was just gonna say, you know what? I've been now on probably a 100 podcast, and I just love to say because I don't think listeners recognize that work it takes to having a podcast show and being a podcast host. So I just wanna say thank you to you ladies for the work you do and for giving people like me a voice.

Cathy: 44:42

Oh, that that's so kind.

Troy Hadeed: 44:44

Yeah. Yeah.

Cathy: 44:45

Make me cry. We wanna thank our listeners for subscribing to our podcast and checking us out on YouTube and recommending us to your friends. We appreciate you, and we'd love you to give us a 5 star review. And we wanna hear about your experiences with late boomers and what gets you inspired. We are on Instagram at I am Cathy Worthington and at I am Mary Elkins and at lateboomers.

Cathy: 45:11

Thank you for listening, and thanks again, Troy.

Troy Hadeed: 45:15

Well, thank you, ladies, for having me. Such a pleasure.

Cathy intro: 45:29

Thank you for joining us on Late Boomers, the podcast that is your guide to creating a 3rd act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at lateboomers.biz. If you would like to listen to or download other episodes of Late Boomers, go to ew n podcastnetwork.com.

Merry Intro: 45:51

This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.