Kevin Palmieri shares his powerful journey from contemplating suicide to finding purpose as a podcaster and speaker, revealing how facing fears consistently led to transformation.
• Raised without knowing his father until age 27, developing deep-seated feelings of inadequacy
• Job-hopped from gas station attendant to construction, making excellent money but feeling empty
• Reached rock bottom in a hotel room contemplating suicide while preparing for work
• Left his high-paying job to pursue podcasting full-time despite initial financial struggles
• Experienced worsening anxiety and panic attacks during his transition to entrepreneurship
• Overcame anxiety not through medication but through repeatedly facing his fears
• Discovered his purpose isn’t podcasting itself, but being the person he needed at his lowest point
• Maintains authenticity and relatability as core values despite growing success
• Breaks down massive goals into small, manageable steps rather than focusing on the mountain top
To learn more about Kevin’s work, visit nextleveluniversity.com or email him directly at kevin@nextleveluniversity.com.
Transcript:
Speaker 1:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, sylvia Worsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, sylvia Worsham.
Speaker 2:
Hey, lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Worsham. Welcome to Released Out Revealed Purpose. And today is Kevin Palmieri, and we don’t really know each other that well, but we will get to know each other. We met on podmatchcom and, for those that don’t know, it is matchcom, but for podcast hosts and guests, so they pair us up based on the topics that we love to discuss, and I know that Kevin and I have a great interview set up for you guys. His story of transformation is one that really needs to be heard and, just as a side note, we will be talking about suicide, so if that’s triggering for anybody, just FYI, but without further ado, kevin, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3:
Absolutely, sylvia. Thank you so very much for having me. I appreciate it. Anybody who’s heart driven and is trying to do good in the world, I always appreciate those conversations, so I’m excited to see where we go today.
Speaker 2:
So tell us where you’re hailing from, Kevin.
Speaker 3:
I live in New Hampshire. It is sunny and it’s going to be 79 degrees today. There’s a big smile on my face for those of you just listening.
Speaker 2:
We were in the 70s here in Austin, texas, on the Pickleball Corps, which is nice for what we are used to in May. Yes, we’re doing time frame we’re always in the 90s and we’re dying a heat in Austin, so I don’t envy you. I actually am very happy that you live in New Hampshire and that you have those wonderful temperatures. I appreciate it, but I do know that you have a very powerful story to share with us. So, without further ado, please step in and share with us your story of transformation.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so I always just to add context I was raised by my mom and my grandmother. I didn’t know my dad. I didn’t meet my dad with the understanding that he was my father until I was 27. So from a very young age I think, I was instilled with doubt. I was instilled with fear and I think the biggest thing was I was instilled with I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I will never be enough. So outside of that childhood was quote, unquote, normal, whatever normal means to you. That’s usually what I say, because there really is no normal.
Speaker 3:
Things get kind of weird for me in high school because I knew I didn’t want to go to college. It just didn’t make sense. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and it just didn’t make sense to pay somebody to help me figure that out and honestly, I didn’t have the money to go. Nobody in my family really knew how to do it, so I kind of felt like I was on my own. So I got my first big boy job at the local gas station and I pumped gas from 6 AM till 2 PM. That was my job and I was also training to fight professionally mixed martial arts at the time. So that was a unique career path that I was trying to do. But I job hopped after that. So I worked at the gas station, Then I was a personal trainer, Then I cleaned bathrooms, floors and toilets at a hospital overnight. Truck driver, forklift operator all these different jobs because I was trying to figure out what am I supposed to be doing? What do I enjoy doing? What am I good at? So eventually, Sylvia, I got an opportunity in an industry called weatherization. For 99.9% of you, you don’t know what that is. It’s kind of like construction, that’s the best way to explain it. But I went from making like $15 an hour to anywhere from $60 to $120 an hour and I remember thinking this is the thing I’m supposed to be doing. Every decision I made up to this paid off and now, quote unquote I’m going to be successful and I’m not going to be insecure anymore, and this is awesome.
Speaker 3:
So, if you fast forward a few years, when I was 25, I had a great job, as I alluded to, my girlfriend at the time was a model.
Speaker 3:
I had a brand new car, I was getting ready to compete in a bodybuilding show, so I was quite literally in the best shape I will ever be in Great friends new apartment, all the things but internally I was miserable and I was depressed and I was anxious and I had massive insecurities and massive self-doubt. My girlfriend’s up leaving me because I was just a shell of a man and I just was not supporting her in the way that she needed to be supported and she did the right thing. But when she left I fell into the trap that I think many of us do is just thinking you know what? I’m not going to work on me If I just go make even more money, all these problems should dissolve. So unfortunately I did that and I made the most money I’d ever made. But I remember when I opened my final pay stub that next year I remember thinking I have lived most of my life life probably all of it unconsciously. The opposite of unconscious is hyperconscious so none of that yeah, and that’s even in the dictionary.
Speaker 3:
I didn’t even know it was in the dictionary. I thought I made it up, I thought I was bright and and uh, but I wasn’t.
Speaker 2:
I wasn’t as I appreciate it I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:
I wasn’t as bright as I thought, unfortunately, so I started a podcast in 2017 called the hyperconscious podcast that was me dipping my toe into oh interesting, this is fulfilling. It’s way bigger than me. There’s purpose, there’s mission, there’s there’s voice, like there’s something for me here, and I fell in love with it, as I fell out of love with my job because I, very honestly, was only doing the job for money. There was no deeper purpose. I wasn’t passionate about it. I wanted to get paid, and it paid really well. So I fell in love with podcasting. Still have to go to this job that I absolutely hate.
Speaker 3:
So my mental health really started to take a turn. So my anxiety got worse, my depression got worse. I was literally homesick before I left to go to work because we traveled a lot, and it got to the point where I was six hours away from where I lived getting ready for work. One morning in a hotel, alarm clock went off, sat up, slid to the edge of the bed, was lacing up my work boots, and the best way to explain it is there was 10 televisions on in my head at the same time and every single one was on a different station, and it was just you got lucky to get this job. You’re never going to do this again.
Speaker 3:
If you ever left, what would your friends think? If you ever left, what would your family think? And the loudest one was are you going to leave this job and go be a podcaster? And that does not seem like a really good direction for you. And it was in that moment where I thought to myself well, if I was just to take my life, I would take all my problems with me, and that’s what I call my rock bottom basement moment, and that was the lowest I have ever been, and there really was only two ways to go from there. Luckily, I had someone that I really trusted, who I felt comfortable reaching out to. He gave me some really good perspectives, some really good feedback, some really good advice, and then I ended up leaving that job three months later and I’ve been doing this podcasting, speaking, coaching full time since 2018. That’s where a lot of stories end, but, honestly, after I left my job and went full time into this, things got worse.
Speaker 3:
My anxiety was worse, my self-doubt was just so, so heavy Imposter syndrome, limiting beliefs. So really, the last eight years has been a journey of going inward, figuring out who I am, who do I think I am, who do I think I want to be, who I actually want to be, and it’s been a really really challenging journey, but also probably definitely the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my entire life, and I would not change anything if I had the opportunity to.
Speaker 2:
So how has it been challenging for you to turn inward? Why do you say that?
Speaker 3:
When I started this I was very naive to all of the internal struggles that I was going to have to deal with. So we got I don’t want to say we got successful fast, because that’s not true, but we had the opportunity to interview some pretty successful people early on, to interview some pretty successful people early on, and I had so much imposter syndrome. I was so nervous, I was so scared, I went way too fast outside of my comfort zone for way too long and I was just always in fight or flight. I was having panic attacks for the first time in my life. I didn’t know what that was. I had never had a panic attack before.
Speaker 3:
So I was just freaking out internally of all this uncertainty, all this growth. What am I doing? I don’t belong here. That was a really big thing. And I think the other thing is I had to be very honest with myself about how my ego was trying to protect me. So if I came across somebody who was very confident but very centered, I wasn’t ready to admit that they were just way more confident than I was. I needed to find a reason that they were confident or make an excuse. If that person’s not confident, they’re arrogant, because it makes me feel a certain way so better better, better about yourself.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, like putting people down in your mind.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
This is all going on internally to kind of be able to even the score so that you could have interviewed them right 100% and continued. Yeah, and that makes sense. Yeah, it is something that all of us fall trap to. I call them ego traps, but it’s because it’s based on limiting beliefs.
Speaker 2:
I call them ego traps, but it’s because it’s based on limiting beliefs. We know that when we’re little kids, we have these experiences in our subconscious mind or unconscious mind. Some people call it both ways right. It has no filter, so it takes all these experiences in and it forms these beliefs that are not necessarily true now, as an adult, versus when you were a little kid and it was your mind’s way of protecting you, because the one thing that we crave when we’re little is security. So as we grow up, we, uh we tend to take those beliefs with us without realizing that we’re doing it because we don’t know how the mind works. We know that the beliefs are the promoters, they’re the ones that drive our thoughts, those thoughts that you’re an imposter, you know. Why do you think you can do this? And that leads to a big feeling of doubt or others.
Speaker 2:
I think doubt is the biggest one when it comes to I’m not enough and, from that space, one when it comes to I’m not enough and from that space we create these habits of falling into these patterns of control or patterns of behavior to control our circumstances.
Speaker 2:
And so we do these things, like you were talking about, to kind of offset it, offset that doubt so that you could move forward.
Speaker 2:
But it’s a false sense of security because it is not based from a space of love. When we are operating from love and operating from abundance versus scarcity, we are definitely in our, in our alignment to our ego or spirit and our soul, and that space is where we really thrive. But most people get stuck in the ego phase because it’s they don’t understand how the mind works. But once you do and you start moving through these beliefs and and dispelling the truths, dispelling these lies and saying, well, that’s not true, and here are the experiences today that dispel that belief, it becomes easier than to shift that over, empower the ego, because the ego is not the problem. The ego is your self image. So if you have I’m not enough belief systems, it’s about shifting it over to I am enough, without having to do that thing in your mind of putting someone down because they are more successful than we are, Because I think that’s the biggest thing we’re finding in today’s world is people are they can’t.
Speaker 2:
We’re supposed to be collaborating, not competing with each other, Even men versus women. There’s this thing. There’s a book that’s really good for women out there. It’s called Keys to the Kingdom. I can’t remember the author’s name right now off the top of my head, but it talks about the stages that men go through. Because men have more identity than women do, they know right away what their identity is. Women struggle with it more because we’re the nurturers you guys were the hunters back in the caveman days. Biologically, because we’re the nurturers.
Speaker 2:
You guys were the hunters, like back in the gay man days right so biologically we’re very different, but in society they pin us one against the other, and we’re not meant to be pinned against each other. We’re meant to collaborate with each other because we have like women have more intuition versus men, have more identity when we work together and you share with me what you know and I share with you what I know. I mean we thrive together, right, but it’s when we start like the imposter syndrome and all that starts to mess with us and that’s where we start competing with people you know and we actually get stuck in these situations that really if we work together we would actually move through that stage fairly quickly.
Speaker 2:
But, we don’t. So you know, I love your vulnerability. I’m sorry. I like that, You’re like that you’re good, you’re good um, but I did want to point that out because the belief systems is really tied to anxiety a lot. My I suffer from anxiety myself and I have add and I have ocd, but at the root cause of it is anxiety. So I don’t know what it is yours. The root cause is anxiety and then from there depression so I actually the other way around.
Speaker 3:
I think it’s depression, because depression runs in my family okay, so it’s a yeah, depression runs in my family.
Speaker 3:
I had never really experienced, I’ll say this, I had never really labeled it as anxiety until I had my first panic attack. And then I called my mom. So we were, we were traveling for an interview and again at this point I was broke. Everything we were doing was going on credit cards and I am somebody who had such a trigger around travel because my other job required I spent a year on the road to make a hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 3:
So I we were in a hotel in florida and I remember, like my chest trigger warning for anybody with anxiety because this might trigger it a little bit my chest gets super tight, my throat gets super tight and I used to have really bad asthma as a kid. I thought I was having an asthma attack. Used to have really bad asthma as a kid. I thought I was having an asthma attack. So I called my mom and I said I think I’m having an asthma attack and she said you need to go to the hospital. I said I don’t have insurance, I’m not going, I can’t go to the hospital like I don’t have money to go to the hospital. So my business partner went and got me like vicks vapor rub, so I could put it on my chest, so I could prove to myself that I could actually breathe was he, he Hispanic?
Speaker 2:
I’m just curious.
Speaker 3:
No, no, no, no, no, but it was. It was just terrible. It was terrible and that was the first time that I did research and I was like, oh my goodness, that’s. Those are all signs of anxiety. Interesting why? Oh, because I’m so far outside of my comfort zone, and I have been for so long, that it’s become detrimental. My body is trying to tell me to slow down and I just didn’t listen.
Speaker 2:
Unfortunately, yeah, it’s exhausting. I had a major. What triggered my anxiety was after I nearly lost my life in 2012. And I remember when I first got back to Brownsville because I used to live in South Texas I had to have my mom sleep with me at night because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up and the anxiety got worse and worse. But it was the trigger.
Speaker 2:
Because what happens with anxiety and this is something I’ve learned from JP Moreland he’s a college professor in California, but he came and spoke at our church years and years ago and he wrote a book which is phenomenal I finding quiet. He had generalized anxiety disorder and to the point where he was, um, pretty much under house arrest, Like he just could not leave his house. So bad. And the second time that it happened to him, God came to him and said you’re not going to go through this again. You are a college professor, You’re going to research anxiety and you’re going to write a book and you’re going to, you’re going to get out of this and you’re going to teach others how to get out of this. And and I used his book a lot to kind of guide my son, my 20 year old, through his anxiety, which is really bad.
Speaker 2:
But the trigger for me, what he taught me, moreland, was when you already have anxiety in your genetic profile which I do uh, it can get triggered by a major event which in your case you had a major trigger, and it could also be the modeling too that triggers it.
Speaker 2:
So you have, like I had the modeling at home because my father was anxious. He was a doctor and as a surgeon he saw so many things and so it would freak him out like if we jumped on a trampoline or we went swimming with dolphins or whatever. Everything was like it would trigger him. And so modeling and a major turning point triggers it and and then from that point on, anxiety kind of takes center stage and from there is where everything can go downhill pretty quickly. So that’s why I asked you I was like, is it depression or anxiety? But JP Moreland, if you ever want to get it, it is a. Really it’s a book that you need to kind of take your time with, because he takes the role of the spirit, the soul and the mind and what anxiety is doing with all three.
Speaker 3:
I appreciate it, I think. Appreciate the recommendation really good.
Speaker 2:
It’s a really solid book. But yeah, I was like, oh, I need quiet time for this one. Tough to get through, but please continue, because you’re you’re getting to the part. That’s really really good. So you did. You go to the hospital?
Speaker 3:
oh no, you got vicks I got vicks yeah, I got vicks, vapor rub, and I laid in bed and watched james bond and just tried like it was literally just a moment to moment I can breathe. I can breathe. The next day we got up and we drove five hours south to southern florida to do the interview and I slept the whole ride and then, yeah, we went, we got in an elevator, went up to like the 30th floor of this guy’s house and it was like all right, now it’s showtime. Here we go and let’s do it. Let’s just do the best that we can. And that was my initial understanding of what anxiety was and sort of how to work through it. I didn’t really understand at the time. Now where, whatever it is seven years later, I don’t deal with it almost at all anymore I don’t, what did you do like with?
Speaker 2:
because anxiety is a big animal you know like a big one and it’s usually tied to the neural pathways in our brain. What moreland discussed was naming it, calling it out, which helps with ocd too. Calling out the all or nothing or whatever kind of issue it is, and then meditating. Meditating like five minutes and 10 minutes, 15, like that, and you start increments. And where it really made a huge difference with his research was over 20 minutes of meditation daily will start reducing anxiety and creating new neural pathways where you’re teaching your mind that you’re in control, not the other way around, because that the problem with anxiety is that it’s the mind, the ego, the belief systems kind of messing with you and overwhelming you. And that’s the OCD side of things, like the constant thoughts that just they’re, they um, intrusive thoughts. They just come at you and I would tell my husband I was like you have no idea what goes on in my head.
Speaker 2:
You have no clue how much discipline it takes for me to tell my mind. No that’s not true and call it, and then just try to quiet my mind. And quieting could be meditation, could be prayer, be a walk in nature, be anything that actually gets your nervous system back into the present moment, because the thing with anxiety is it’s either in the future or in the past.
Speaker 2:
And so it’s bringing it back to center. So it’s like namaste, like you got to stay in the future or in the past, and so it’s bringing it back to center. So it’s like namaste like you, gotta stay in the present moment. So I was curious how you did it. Do you know?
Speaker 3:
that’s a great question, because I, if you said, hey, we’ll give you a billion dollars if you can write a book on how you did it, I would say like you’re gonna have to keep the money because I don’t know I would say, reflected on it, reflect on it and then come back to me I trust me, I’ve been asked that question so many times I don’t.
Speaker 3:
I really dedicated myself to personal development and I’m convinced. I’m convinced what happened for me was I just continued to push my comfort zones further and further, and further, and further and further, and now it just takes so much more to make me anxious. Okay, I just feel really I mean, I’ve done 3000 of these it’s like I’m not going to be anxious before this. I have so many reps. So what used to make me anxious in podcasting doesn’t what used to make me anxious, and speaking doesn’t really anymore. I think I’ve just done so many reps on repeat that I’ve just taught myself, kevin, you’re way more. You’re way more in control than you think you are, and even if things do go horribly wrong which occasionally they do you’re still in way more control than you think you are. So I think it’s just been. The prescription for me was just do the thing microdose fear, and then when you, you micro dose fear over and over and over again. Eventually your comfort zone and your learning zone and your anxiety zones get pushed way out. That’s the best answer I have.
Speaker 2:
And you know what. You would be right because that’s what most psychiatrists and most therapists recommend is especially for OCD is you facing your fears? Yeah, like whatever’s making you anxious and fearful of the future. You just do it and you do it, and you do it. It’s kind of like the. I can’t remember. There was a movie. You’re pretty young, I’m in, I’m 50. The bodyguard with um Whitney Houston, whitney Houston and, uh, kevin cosner, and there’s a scene where the dad is explaining to, I think, the sister, or whitney houston, when they’re up in the cabin in the woods, like my son he’s, you know he used to be afraid, but he just faces his fears. And as you were speaking, that scene was playing over in your mind, because that’s what we do with our fears.
Speaker 2:
If we face our fears, they don’t have control over us. If we hide behind the fear man, it just. It takes off from there. You’re just. It’s a choice. This is where the conscious ability of your mind can actually help you with your thoughts. The thoughts, attitudes and choices are part of your conscious ability of your mind. So when you start having those thoughts, what I would recommend for people to do is exactly what you did Face your fears. And, number two, talk to yourself. Stop listening to yourself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Talk to yourself. Tell your lies to go somewhere else. Use your choice words, you know somewhere else. Use your choice words you know and just keep going. And the more you do that, the more you face it, the less power they have over you. It’s just a mindset shift. It does not require a lot. It requires a choice.
Speaker 3:
It really does. I always think of it kind of like a domino effect. So what I do is I try to look at the most recent and relevant proof that disproves my limiting belief. So what is the most recent and relevant thing, based on what I’m about to do, that disproves this weird feeling that I’m going to have, because I know that’s kind of how the flow of it is? Then, the next time that fear, that insecurity, that anxiety comes up, you have recent relevant proof. But on the opposite front, if you get the opportunity to do something that scares you and you don’t do it, the next time you get an opportunity to do something that scares you, you have recent relevant proof that you shouldn’t do it and it becomes this compounding effect. So I think for me the best example I can give this I got an opportunity last year to go speak to a mastermind it’s like a $50,000 a year per person mastermind with a very successful host.
Speaker 3:
When he reached out and asked if I wanted to do it, I was sad that he asked me because I knew I had to say yes. Sad that he asked me because I knew I had to say yes and it it was this. I know if I really want to be the person that I say I want to be. This is an absolute yes, and I have to do this, and this is something that will level me up internally. I’m just super afraid to do it.
Speaker 3:
All I think life is is a it’s a constant juggling act of. You get an external opportunity, you have to elevate your internal self to do it, then you do it, and then you get a new external opportunity that’s beyond your current capabilities At least you think so and if you just rinse and repeat that forever, you get really good at things that you once thought you could never be good at, and I think that’s that’s why consistency has been so important for me. In quote, unquote success and fulfillment, because I just do it more than I thought I was ever going to do it, and now I feel way better than I ever did. Is it that simple? It can be, yes. Is it that easy in practice? Maybe not. I think that’s where it gets challenging.
Speaker 2:
Well, I think where it gets challenging, honestly, is the fear of the unknown for some people and their need to control their circumstances. That’s a pattern of behavior that gets formed early on in our lives and it really is tied to a belief. That’s kind of driving that and it’s something I discussed with a therapist yesterday when I interviewed her on the podcast and she was talking about the analogy of a trapeze, because she took a circus class with her daughter. I was like that’s so fun and she said you know, think of this analogy you have to let go of one to grab the other one, but in that moment that’s that decision, because you can have all the awareness and all the knowledge in your mind.
Speaker 2:
But now you have to do something with it and actually act. But now you have to do something with it and actually act. And that release of one to the other is, I think, where most people get stuck, because they like to control their circumstance. They cannot control what’s going to happen and they cannot let go. And that, I think, is where they miss the joy between you and I, because there’s so much joy on the other side of that fear. But you do need to move through it. It doesn’t just poof, magically happen, it doesn’t just come to you. You attract things into your life based on what’s going on on the inside of you. If that imposter syndrome is actually taking over, you’re going to attract a lot of that.
Speaker 2:
But if you start to clear that out, like right now, I’m in a stage of my life where I’m clearing out the remnants of that fear. I’ve asked God to just sift out all these things. My goodness, the assignment he has me on. I’m like are you kidding me? I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this. But it just requires this radical obedience, because I know that on the other side of that, because I’ve lived it, there’s this immense joy and freedom that I can have if I just stay obedient and I and I do what he’s asking me to do, because he’s always got my back Right. Uh, but I’ve’ve lived that. I’ve lived that so many times in my life and in so many dark chapters. And when I look back on my life which is what I did with my first book I was reflecting. I saw his hand in everything.
Speaker 2:
But you know, when you’re living it, sometimes you don’t you feel alone in this. You’re’re never alone. Um, just for those listening your intuition, your, your soul’s voice, it’s always there guiding you. And when you, when you tune into it, when you really like turn inward and stop looking for your answers outside of yourself, you really start to move a lot easier through that space. You know that has you stuck Because for him, nothing’s impossible For us. We look at it and it looks like an impassable mountain and that’s what overwhelms us and keeps us like holding onto the trapeze and like shaking. But I love how you, the tips you’ve given about just doing it and being consistent All those are tips. I know that we’ve talked a tad about your purpose. What?
Speaker 2:
do you think it is? Is it seasonal or?
Speaker 3:
do you see?
Speaker 2:
it changing or is it permanent?
Speaker 3:
I feel like my purpose is to be the person that I needed when I was sitting on the edge of a bed. I feel like for me, because a lot of people say, oh, your purpose is to be a podcaster? No, no, that’s not my. That’s the vehicle. The vehicle is my. My voice is the vehicle. The purpose is to be the type of person to be approachable, to be someone who feels safe to have deep, meaningful conversations with. Like that.
Speaker 3:
It’s very important to me and this is something that I’m genuinely afraid of. It’s important to me to be relatable, because relatability often creates connection through vulnerability. It’s very hard to be vulnerable with something you don’t relate to and as we get quote-unquote more successful, I’m afraid of that. I genuinely am. I’m just a regular dude who works incredibly hard and is very consistent for this mission. But, yeah, simply put, I need to. It’s not even I want to. I need to be the type of person that I would have resonated with when I was riding the struggle bus and debating on whether or not I wanted to be here anymore.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that’s tough, that’s a tough road, it is a tough road.
Speaker 3:
For sure, but.
Speaker 2:
I love the fact that you are getting very solid in what your purpose is and what your mission is, because when you step in there and then just you have what it takes right. You have the hardworking ethic. For sure, and you have all the tools available. It’s now putting them all into use and saying, okay, I’ve already learned that lesson, I don’t need to learn that one again.
Speaker 3:
You know, I mean like why am I?
Speaker 2:
doing this to myself again right, which is what my husband kind of reminded me of, uh, a while back, you’re the one that’s putting yourself in that cage I haven’t put you there and the more I reflected on, the more I realized he’s right.
Speaker 2:
I have put myself there and I haven’t accepted certain parts of myself, parts of my journey, and the more we accept that, yes, there are times that anxiety will kick in, especially if it is a genetic thing, and I now have determined, like I’ve done the genetic testing and, yes, I have very low dopamine, which means I’m going to have anxiety and focus issues which is what I’ve had my whole life.
Speaker 2:
So that makes sense Biologically speaking. It makes sense. Now, with that, what do I do? I have all these tools. I can meditate, I can pray, I can and my anxiety really since 2020, when I made it a point to not let it take over my life. When I made it a point to not let it take over my life, I started to meditate. And for an ADD person to sit there and have to quiet your mind, that’s something like a whole different skill set. But I sat there and I told myself I’m going to do this and I started really baby steps two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes. By the time 2020 ended, I was at an hour of meditation and my anxiety had plummeted, like it was so amazing, and I was like, oh my goodness, this is like such a breakthrough. I almost went up to Moreland and like Dr Moreland and give him like hundreds of kisses.
Speaker 2:
I’m like thank you, thank you, thank you, because I was just someone that was mottling this anxiety to my kids and I didn’t want that, because I started to see them pick up on it and that broke my heart because I thought I should know better.
Speaker 2:
Right, I should know better, but I did. I started making the changes and then I started sharing with my family what was working and sometimes, when they listen, it works. And when you know and I get phone calls from my 20 year old mom, mom, I have this anxiety and I was like, okay, let’s go through the steps, like what can you do to go back to the present moment?
Speaker 2:
let’s just do our breathing exercises, like just take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it for four seconds, blow it out four seconds later and do it again and just tell me what you’re smelling, what you’re feeling, what you’re seeing, what you’re.
Speaker 2:
I need you to come back to the present moment because, your mind is taking you to the future because he has ocd and it’s like the what ifs and they’re just the rumination and the, and I suffer from that too. So I I understand, I totally get it, but I love how you’ve reached your purpose and your podcasting and you’re having these deep conversations. Any last minute tips that you want to leave with the listeners of Released Out Reveal Purpose.
Speaker 3:
I think it’s kind of the through line of what we talked about. Most massive things are just broken down into bite-sized bites and I think everything, anything you really want to accomplish, is just a series of small steps. And I think for a lot of us, we look and we see the top of the mountain and, to your point, we say we can never get there. Nobody goes from the base to the top. That’s not the way it works. It doesn’t work that way. In order to go from the base to the top, you develop skills and you develop habits and you develop awareness and you work on the internal stuff, you work on the external stuff. So, yeah, break it down into something small, something sustainable, because I think you’re going to be way more successful, fulfilled, because I think you’re going to be way more successful, fulfilled and joyous. If you do that, anyway and honestly, you’re probably going to get way further.
Speaker 3:
I think it’s if you are afraid of something, you don’t have to go. If you’re afraid of heights I’m not saying you should jump out of a plane, I’m not saying that that could be a goal. If you want to do that in 10 years, awesome. I would say, do the thing. That is a constructive amount of fear chasing and if you do that long enough, I’m telling you, your life will look completely different in the next couple years. But to your point, earlier we, you got to show up for yourself to do it, and it’s not easy, but it can be simple.
Speaker 2:
It can be simple and so joyful, like Like really, the joy that’s waiting for you and the freedom on the other side is so worth it is through the journey. So I I really appreciate you coming on here. Kevin, if I wanted to hire you for a speaking gig, how do I find you?
Speaker 3:
Our website is called nextleveluniversecom. It has all this stuff there. The podcast is called Next Level University. It’s on all the platforms and then I just give my email out. If you have questions, comments, concerns if I can be of service in any way, kevin at nextleveluniversecom is my email. I do my own email so you will hear from me if you respond.
Speaker 2:
Well, that’s awesome. I like hearing that because there’s a, and you’ll hear from me directly too. So that’s there’s, and you’ll hear from me directly too, so that’s me responding and you’ll see it sometimes from my phone because I’m on the go same same time. So, uh, these kids keep me busy, podcasting keeps me busy, writing books keeps me like, extensively busy and lots of focus there, holy moly. But, um, I really appreciate you coming of course it’s my pleasure sharing your amazing story of transformation.
Speaker 2:
Even the darkest of chapters I know the listeners have released out reveal purpose, are gonna. They’re in for a treat for this interview and for those listening. Remember matthew 514 be the light. Have a wonderful week, stay safe. Love you all. Bye now.
Speaker 1:
So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a $25,000 private VIP day with Sylvia Worsham herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.