Kyle Smith: Unconventional Wisdom on Fitness, Awareness, and Living Authentically

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:00:01]:
Welcome back to the Weird and strong podcast. I'm your host, Jeremy Gernsteiner. And today we have a special guest, Kyle Smith, otherwise known as Dapper dude Kyle. We get to talk about where his path has brought him into the coaching space and all of the weird and interesting things that he has discovered and found for himself. So without further delay, let's get weird. Welcome Kyle Smith to the Weird and strong podcast. How you doing today, man?

Kyle Smith [00:00:29]:
Dude, I'm doing pretty, pretty good. The weather's a little chilly, the sun's barely around, but overall I'm doing well.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:00:37]:
That's fantastic. The listener is listening to this because this will be coming out in mid December. They'll be definitely feeling that, unless they live somewhere tropical. Yeah, we're getting into that season, that time of the year. Before we dive in, I've got a weird question for you. Are you ready?

Kyle Smith [00:00:56]:
Yes.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:00:57]:
Awesome. If you woke up tomorrow and found that every single man on the planet could only communicate through interpretive dance, how would you adapt your communication style and your coaching methods?

Kyle Smith [00:01:15]:
Hmm. Hmm. I would. That's a great question. That's a fun one. That's a strange one. Yeah, I would. I would probably.

Kyle Smith [00:01:35]:
Well, for myself if I was communicating well, I probably learned a couple different languages because, you know, salsa is like the language of love. But then again, Kapoya is a dance martial art, so I guess it would depend on what I'm going with. But if I were to coach Macarena, obviously.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:01:55]:
You just Macarena everything.

Kyle Smith [00:01:57]:
Yeah. But you know what? Breakdancing would definitely be up there on my list of at least dance moves that I would want to learn. I'm not sure how the utility, actually, the utility would be pretty sweet. And I think coaching people dancing would be really tough.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:02:12]:
Yeah. Might be something to try at some point or like, just like a fun, fun exercise. We'll get a. We'll get a room of coaches together and we'll coach each other only using interpretive dance.

Kyle Smith [00:02:24]:
What's the worst that can happen? Has anyone asked you what your answer is to that?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:02:29]:
No. You're the first person I've asked this question to.

Kyle Smith [00:02:31]:
I would love to know what yours is.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:02:33]:
Yeah, I just. I would dive in. I did study a bit of dance in my day, so I do have a little bit of background to be to not just wiggle and try to figure it out. Not that the structure or anything matters all that much, but a bit of physical awareness and people who come out of the fitness space, which you are from that world as well. We tend to have some body awareness that helps with a lot of that, too. Having some dance background helps with that, too. And looking back, you know, we have previous guests like Ben Walker, who was in musical theater, and so be interesting to hear him answer that question as well.

Kyle Smith [00:03:21]:
Nice. Do you switch up the questions for the guests?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:03:23]:
I do, yes.

Kyle Smith [00:03:25]:
Oh, nice. Cool.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:03:26]:
Sometimes they're a repeat, but most of the time, there's something a bit new and. Yeah. So something else that we talk about quite a bit on this podcast is in the ways that people show up unconventionally. What are their strengths? What are the ways that make. What are the ways and the things that make them weird? So, Kyle, how do you show up in the world unconventionally, and what makes you weird?

Kyle Smith [00:03:53]:
Well, you know, one thing that's been a repeat, one. One thing that's been a repeat has been people find the way that I think to be interesting, and that's. And I don't know, maybe just because of what I'm interested in when it comes to the mind and the combination of. Combination of things. Well, it all started with a question that's, like, where it really started. But the way I think seems to be interesting to folks because, honestly, I have no idea. But the main. The main reason.

Kyle Smith [00:04:35]:
The main way I got my thinking, I'll talk about my thinking a bit, and then maybe you can. Yeah, but the way that I think is very. It's very. It has. I try to create or try to find myself in the way I think is also a reflection of my state of being as well. So I try to think and be in a state where it's energy neutrality. So it's. I really like.

Kyle Smith [00:05:13]:
I really like thinking. Thinking in expansiveness. Like, the mind does not have any limitations to the thoughts that we can have or the possibilities that we can conjure up. It's interesting because we understand the rules of the world around us, like our reality that we experience. And I think until, and I believe that people are taught what to think rather than how to think. And that puts a glass ceiling on the potential when the mind can have an unlimited capacity. So it's like we may be a physical body, like, we could be a planet, but our brain is the universe, the universe as a bigger whole. And the way they.

Kyle Smith [00:06:04]:
The way that I think is, I don't know. It just breaks down. It breaks things down to the simplest component, because I think overcomplicating things is simple, and people are really good at overcomplicating things. But when we actually reverse it and pull back. We can simplify things down to the smallest part. And in my opinion, the main reason we don't try to simplify things that could be seemingly difficult is because we do not want to address the truth of that simplicity. Because then it makes it easier for us to feel shame and guilt for not living and being. And interacting in alignment with that.

Kyle Smith [00:06:48]:
So there's like. So there's like that resistance to trying to simplify things because we don't want to simplify things so much so that we actually have to do the thing that we talked about doing.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:06:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. So to, like, summarize and maybe paraphrase some of the things that you're talking about, you know, looking at, let's say perhaps a person is having a very tough time and either making a decision or trying to find a way forward, feeling really stuck in their life, feeling like they're really lost, and they have these. These thoughts that they feel stuck on, and they. It's swirling around, swirling around, swirling around. And you're saying that because we're trying to. We're trying to constrain and control of what we can control of that simplicity. Looks like that when we take that step back, we can actually see it for whatever the easy or simple step forward would be to get us out of that is that totally.

Kyle Smith [00:07:48]:
We go from a place of perception to a place of perspective. So we go from being in it to being over it.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:07:54]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Kyle Smith [00:07:57]:
That's a great paraphrase.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:07:58]:
Thank you. Thank you. You know, on a personal experience, like seeing this happen for myself many times over my life, but even recently, I was struggling with this idea. Struggling. Trying to. Trying to make the. Trying to figure out a solution to a problem. And there's a phrase that I've used over and over again, is this idea of the tyranny of the urgent, like, it has to be done right now, and I have to get it done.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:08:29]:
I have to solve this puzzle by Friday because there's timelines and there's things on the line, there's skin in the game, whatever you want to call it, and creating that external pressure for ourselves. And then the moment that I was able to step to the side and let that go, oh, then the solution came and presented itself in a new way. So for you, as you've discovered this, is this something that was really natural to you that you just did on your own, or was there some sort of a path that you came to, to start to find and see this way of thinking for yourself that others find so interesting?

Kyle Smith [00:09:14]:
I think there is a series of things for sure. I really dig a lot of philosophy. I like researching all sorts of cultures, all sorts of different religions, all sorts of different forms of spirituality, all different sorts of psychedelics. So there's a collection of things that have certainly contributed to my thinking process overall. But if I were to put two points in time where they're the most significant, one would be the world's toughest mudder in 2016. And that one was because I really pushed the body. So after that point, I came up with a philosophy that in order to. In order to build up the mind, we got to break down the body in a sense, because when we are not working in alignment with our thoughts, with our brain and our body, then they're out of alignment.

Kyle Smith [00:10:17]:
So the way I look at it is that it's the head, the heart, and the intuition, the human consciousness, the animal consciousness, and the higher consciousness. So I break it down to that kind of a thought process. And then if you have your mind wave far one direction and your body the other direction, then things are not going to be able to alignment or align. And so when things are out of alignment, then that's the time that's appropriate to recalibrate. So when I was able to give myself that opportunity to recalibrate those two points, where I was able to say to myself, wow, in my. To my standards, in my opinion, I was just being a pansy ass motherfucker, when realistically, for me at that point, it's actually for that lesson from there is any sort of misery that I'm experiencing is most likely due to myself first and less to do with the surrounding environments, circumstances, news, people, beliefs, whatever. So that was the first part where I was actually able to recalibrate the brain and the body. And now I found, like, much simpler ways to do it.

Kyle Smith [00:11:26]:
That was just a lesson that I took away from there. Yeah. Now it's just breath, work, cold exposure, a bunch of other stuff like that, you know, that everyone likes to try out nowadays. Yeah. But then the thing where I really started deep in deep diving, I was out for a walk, and then the thought that popped in my mind is the question of. Or it wasn't a thought, it was a question. And the question was, what is the truest truth? And I was pretty intrigued by that. And then I created a framework in order to figure out what that would be.

Kyle Smith [00:11:57]:
So my framework would be, it has to be unbiased, so I have to have it so that it's not just subjectively my existence and my reality, where this truest truth would be the truest truth, it had to be the closest thing to a truest truth I can come up with or that I can learn about and then integrate. So I had to think of it from that unbiased standpoint. I have to separate myself from it. And then I had to also realize that. And over time, things I've been learning, it just made things. It's simpler now. But what I've been figuring out is that there's just. All of us can embody dualities at each point.

Kyle Smith [00:12:42]:
So we can have happiness and we can have anger, or we can have happiness and we can have sorrow, we can have rage and we can have love. And one thing that I learned through this point is that the truest truth would be energy neutral. It wouldn't be one or the other. It's kind of like, yeah, it wouldn't be one or the other. There would have to be a neutrality into it because a true truth has to fit all sorts of categories. So it's. So it takes up a couple of little spots. I have a very.

Kyle Smith [00:13:13]:
For the most part, I am very unbiased for a lot of things on, other than, like, two things where I have a hard line on, maybe two. Maybe two things where I have a hard line on. And from there, it's just organizing the brain, creating mental frameworks, and then teaching myself how to organize the brain so that it could be more effective and efficient and have more utility. And the thing that's kind of neat with it is folks that have neurodivergent thinking can resonate with it. And I think that many folks that have, now, I've not been tested for it or anything like that, but I think that many folks, I definitely hit the qualifications, though, for the certification of ADHD, but I think that most folks that have the most struggles with ADHD are trying to learn how to handle their mind by people that don't process as quickly. So if people can learn how to utilize what I view as a gift, as like a superpower, like processing speed is a very, very useful tool to have. So if we can actually harness that processing speed and then be able to keep everything constructive, then we can go with it, because focus the muscle. And we have just, especially in like 1990 and up, most folks that struggle with focus have allowed their focus to atrophy rather than train it and strengthen it.

Kyle Smith [00:14:45]:
So then, yeah, it's just kind of breaking things down from there. But it was a question of the truest truth that really got things going, okay.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:14:52]:
And that was. You said that was. That came through in 2016 or close.

Kyle Smith [00:14:57]:
Around a little bit later on. So 2016 was the body one that was the toughest mudder, and then this one was about two years ago.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:15:05]:
Okay.

Kyle Smith [00:15:06]:
Yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:15:07]:
And was there a specific event that. That, uh, led to that just, uh, walking?

Kyle Smith [00:15:13]:
Yeah, yeah. I was walking out, and it just kind of popped in my mind, and I'm like, oh, that's an interesting question. So I kind of dove into it. Yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:15:20]:
Little wisdom comes through.

Kyle Smith [00:15:22]:
Totally. And that's what it feels like, too, because me trying to figure out what the answer to that question is, which I got, like, a couple pretty decent ones, but trying to figure out what this was, has created a state of serenity and a lot of peace, internal peace. And it's recognizable in the people I spend time with as well. So that kind of thought process and that vibe and that energy, that creativity, that perception of possibility has been really beneficial. So it was kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:16:01]:
And so in looking at, you know, for, you say, 2016, you have the physical version of this, and a couple years later, you have this. This mental realization of looking for the truest truth. You know, what were you. Were you always a unique thinker growing up, or was this something that had evolved from these events?

Kyle Smith [00:16:28]:
I think the putty wasn't there, but I'm just learning how to shape it.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:16:32]:
Sure.

Kyle Smith [00:16:33]:
Yeah. Like, the. The marble block was there. It's kind of like when Michelangelo did the statue of David. Someone was like, how did you see it? How did you see the statue of David? And he said something along the lines of the statue, or David was already in there. I just had to remove the rest.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:16:52]:
Remove.

Kyle Smith [00:16:53]:
And so it's kind of like. That is a process of elimination and refinement. Yeah, yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:16:59]:
And what's that? But what's that adventure been like for you? Like, what have been the notable stops on that adventure for you towards this.

Kyle Smith [00:17:09]:
One notable one that just popped up? So I'll go with this one. I was walking with my girlfriend, Kendra, and we're having a date night, and I experienced a moment where it was just complete silence in my mind, and it was just. It was like the most peaceful and joyful moment. Like, it was just a moment where it was just serenity, and there was no. There's no thoughts, no nothing. And that's one point that really stuck out, where it was like, whoa. So that one pointed that. That was kind of cool.

Kyle Smith [00:17:48]:
That was a really neat experience. And then, let's see. I would, you know, I would think. I would think more so from, like, a kind of a spiritual sense on this one, since I got the head, the heart. The head, the heart, and the intuition. But I had a really solid, like, three. Three arc, what feels like a three arc story journey with some pretty solid psychedelic trips that I've had. And that's also really opened up a lot of thought process as well, because what it does is it removes those perceptions or the conscious or unconscious beliefs that we have adopted or decided to adopt from whoever else.

Kyle Smith [00:18:29]:
Fill in the blank. Even our own shenanigans, our own. Our own b's, our own belief systems. Yeah. Oh, did I answer the question? I forgot what?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:18:39]:
The question. No. Yes, we'll come back. One of the things you're talking about in this. In your journey with psychedelics and looking for the truth or looking for the truth? Truth. Like, trying to find understanding in an inherently unintelligible world.

Kyle Smith [00:18:58]:
Yeah, that's a great paraphrase there.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:19:01]:
Thank you. And then in looking at that of, do you have moments now where you look back and you thought you had it figured out, you thought you knew what the truth was, and then that changes and you realize that perhaps you understood only a facet, or maybe you completely misunderstood? What, like, how. How has that process been for you?

Kyle Smith [00:19:27]:
Pretty interesting. Yeah. Actually, you know what? There's been. There's certainly been a lot more times where. Not a lot more, but there's pretty solid chunks. Actually, there's. There have been some thoughts where I found myself in a state of being where I didn't really think or I was not, like. Like, aware of it beforehand, so.

Kyle Smith [00:19:55]:
Ooh. Okay. So some things. Some things I. One couple things I had to switch up was the. Was the idea of our addiction to suffering. I think that we have an addiction to suffering, yes. I think that when it comes to kind of, like, the opposite of the tyranny of urgency that you said, I think that when we are able to resist the temptation or the desire for us to struggle, then we remove resistance, and then we are left with discomfort.

Kyle Smith [00:20:36]:
Yeah. So that was one thing that I definitely had to go with is like, oh, you mean I'm the one that's resisting the things that I got to do in order to get to where I want to go, which everyone does it, and still to this day, I do, too. And it's just having. The thing that's different is having the awareness and then acting in alignment with that awareness rather than trying to fight that awareness, because that. That just leads to a whole host of troubles. So that was one thing where it's like, oh, it's actually like, it's actually a part of the human condition to understand suffering and to struggle. And we are in a cognitive, and we're in an evolutionary misalignment between what are, what we are capable of or what we are programmed for, which is survival and everything. And then our environment in the North Americas at least, is very abundant.

Kyle Smith [00:21:30]:
And so I had to learn that, or I had to relearn how to behave in a place that I am not programmed for. And so by being able to do that, I actually work now with the sweet spot where it's not overzealous, desiring gluttony, and it's not scarcity. Like monk style. I have a monk mentality, but in this kind of surrounding world, where there is peace, there is alignment, there is participation, there's practice, and there's persistence, but it's towards a bigger goal, a bigger desire, and there is more purpose than there is pleasure. That's where I need to switch. I needed to shift my focus from a pleasure focused civilization to a purpose driven decision.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:22:39]:
Yeah. So cutting. Cutting out the hedonistic tendencies of our western culture, to your point, of the monk mentality, without the deprivation of needing to feel like you need to run off to a cave somewhere and wear the scratchiest robes possible that are flea infested or whatever image people have of that vow of poverty that all kinds of monks of different cultures take?

Kyle Smith [00:23:11]:
Totally, yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:23:12]:
There is something to be said about adopting the practices and mindset of people who do go to that level of an extreme.

Kyle Smith [00:23:22]:
Totally.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:23:23]:
It's very interesting. And looking at that, like, looking at from you when you, like when you were a teenager, did you ever imagine that this is the path that you would be on, or this is where you would be? Not necessarily today exactly, but like, is this a path that you would ever had ever envisioned for yourself of being somebody who's hopping on a podcast and talking about the power of the mind and where we are from, a species point and culture, evolutionary and needing to find a way to react to what does our biology say versus where we think we should be as a species?

Kyle Smith [00:24:03]:
Nice. Good question. I like it. 16, not sure. I know. I've thought back on 22, but I'll go back, I'll go. I'll keep this one fresh. We'll go to 16.

Kyle Smith [00:24:19]:
You know what? My 16 and my 22 are pretty close. Actually, when I was 22, that was more so when I got into like a drinking, my drinking phase.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:24:29]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:24:30]:
And then there was that. You know what I think if I went. If I went back in time, right? And let's say, for example, like, it was only, like, a time bubble. Like, I could go back in time and I can chat with my younger self, and it wouldn't affect anything.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:24:48]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:24:49]:
It would just be, you just have.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:24:50]:
A conversation in its own sterile environment.

Kyle Smith [00:24:54]:
Yes, yes. Because I don't want to change anything that's going on. I don't want no butterfly effect shit going on. But, you know, one of us, it's actually pretty funny. So one thing for sure, because I stopped drinking for 100 days, and then that 100 days turned into a year because I was on my bucket list. And now that one year is almost two years, so that's one part. So not drinking. And I.

Kyle Smith [00:25:22]:
My family likes to party, man. Like, yeah, we can party hard.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:25:27]:
I get it. That's. I think it's a byproduct of cold cultures when there's not a whole lot else to do, then sit around and drink when it's totally freezing for, you know, nine months out of the year.

Kyle Smith [00:25:40]:
Yeah, I think you're totally right, dude.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:25:42]:
I get it. And, you know, here in the states where I live, in the Dakotas, and then Minnesota, Wisconsin, it's all pretty much the same.

Kyle Smith [00:25:52]:
That's hilarious. Yeah. That's cold color. Yeah, that's right. And then what was another thing that my younger self would be pretty surprised by? He'd be pretty surprised that I'm not in a restaurant industry, and I don't think he would be surprised by what I'm doing, because I was really. I was. I got a pretty young start when it came to fitness overall. Like, my dad was.

Kyle Smith [00:26:16]:
I remember, like, being, like, six, seven years old, doing push ups with him in the living room, my grandparents place. So that part, I don't think I'd be very surprised. Actually. This is a pretty funny one. It just popped up when my cousin and my cousin, that was when the masco Zorro came out with Antonio Banderas. Oh, yeah. And, you know, when Anthony Hopkins, the original Zorro, he's training Antonio Banderas, and he's doing, like, planks or push ups over top of the fire or the candles and stuff.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:26:42]:
Yep.

Kyle Smith [00:26:42]:
I legit did that with all my cousins.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:26:46]:
That's funny.

Kyle Smith [00:26:46]:
So apparently there is some sort of thing that makes sense in there, and I think one thing that'd be really funny. Cause my buddy calvin actually pointed out, too, is. Cause I was, like, pretty straight edge back in the day, like, the original. I had just the usual negative kind of biases towards, like, smoking weed, for example. That's different. That's significantly different.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:27:13]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:27:14]:
I'm much more of a partaker of the can of weeds than the drinking, than the cannabis. Yeah. Yeah, dude. They're actually pretty fucking good, too.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:27:23]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:27:24]:
And that one would probably be one where it would be like, he'd probably be like, oh, you fucking stoner. And I'd be like, bro, I'm more useful than you've ever been. Which kind of is a weird thing to say, but yeah, yeah. Just how you will be.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:27:41]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:27:42]:
Yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:27:43]:
It's interesting, you know, in, you know, in looking at that, the help, the more straight edge self, the getting into fitness. Is it in looking back, are you surprised that you ended up where you are?

Kyle Smith [00:28:01]:
For the fitness part, not so much. For. Yeah. For the fitness part, not so much. That's one thing I think I was. Where luck comes in is I was lucky enough to just happen to have a parent that was into it. Same with my mom, too. She likes to keep herself active as well.

Kyle Smith [00:28:22]:
Walks all the time. And you know what? We were chatting the other day because I was asking her a question about things that I do or things I've done in my childhood that took me no effort to do, because what we do in our childhood is an indicator of what are, like, the things that we're pulled towards where we can find ourselves in a flow state, the easiest. And so I asked her the question. I was just pondering this and I asked her and she said that even at two and a half years old, I would walk an hour to 90 minutes from one side with my parents. Of course.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:28:58]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:28:59]:
I wasn't by myself, but one side of it was like West St. John to Milford. And if anyone's familiar with that, then they would know. But it was. It's about. Basically about an hour walk. So even walking, I've always been, and I still, like, I walk a stupid amount. That's been really consistent.

Kyle Smith [00:29:15]:
So fitness for, I don't think would be too much of a surprise. It's been pretty embedded early on, so now it's just a natural part of my personality.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:29:25]:
Yeah. But the rest, the rest of the journey, from mindset and psychedelics and adventures to group meetups with crazy people in Richmond, Virginia, like those were surprising to you or would have been surprising to you as you look back?

Kyle Smith [00:29:44]:
I think so, yeah. Because it would have been interesting trying to explain how I help people because at that point in time as well, there is. It sounds funny, because it's kind of like talking about all the old days where there was less accessibility to the Internet and stuff like that. So it'd be interesting going back and actually saying to my younger self what the opportunities are for how you can have conversations over the Internet. Yeah, stuff like that. I think that part would be interesting.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:30:21]:
I mean, even rewind back ten years and doing something like this wasn't necessarily even all that possible. I mean, there were versions of it, but it wasn't the norm. Like, you know, I'm trying to remember back exactly when the podcast even came out, but it's less than 20 years old. The idea of a podcast, just the idea that you can have a conversation downloaded to a device somewhere and listen to. Listen to this conversation just like you would tune into a radio show.

Kyle Smith [00:30:54]:
That's so crazy. Hey, yeah, yeah, it's pretty mindful because back then you would have to have like a whole studio setup or something along those lines, but now it's just so easy, so convenient. But I think it would be all.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:31:06]:
The navigation of how you get everything to itunes and, you know, people who, only people who have pod iPods can get it. And so if you didn't have an ipod, you didn't get into podcasts. And like, yeah, it's, now it's so, so widespread. I mean, even. Even YouTube isn't. Is less than 30 or less than 20 years old at this point, too.

Kyle Smith [00:31:28]:
Yeah, I believe so. Because it was like, yeah, I don't know when the dates were going to go with that.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:31:32]:
I think it was like 2000, if I'm remembering this right, because I was. I was in my second year of college. It was dating myself. It was about 2005.

Kyle Smith [00:31:42]:
I think that's accurate.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:31:43]:
Yeah, fall of 2005. Because I remember being in the dorms and we're like, there's this thing, this new thing called YouTube that you can watch videos on the Internet and it's like, okay, and you can.

Kyle Smith [00:31:59]:
Who's gonna do that?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:32:00]:
Well, I was like, of course. Let's see. Let's check this out. You know, and those were the heady days of MySpace. And there was no, I mean, I think Facebook was just like just around, only for college students at that point. Like, these were. It was a very different everything. Very different world, period.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:32:19]:
And talking just. And touching on something that you had started to discuss in talking with people who are of the neurodivergent flavors of being that are, there are many of.

Kyle Smith [00:32:33]:
I've been told, spectrum everything. Everything has a continuum from point a to point b and back.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:32:40]:
Yeah, we're all plots on a graph somewhere.

Kyle Smith [00:32:44]:
Exactly.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:32:45]:
In looking at that of like discovery for yourself as somebody unofficially ADHD or neurodivergent, and looking at what you've learned and studied of human patterns and all of these things, what are the ways that you have been noticing for yourself of how some of those things do come up you can use as a superpower?

Kyle Smith [00:33:10]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. So first thing, actually, you know what I would say, going through and understanding the cycle of flow, the flow cycle, where it goes struggle, then it goes release, then it goes flow, then it goes recovery, when we actually know how the brain can function, can function, right? It's not does function or could function, then we can actually prime ourselves and our environment to work in conjunction with that. So if there's a lot of noise, then that, to me, it's a process of elimination and becoming more aware of the things that are priority and things that are not priority. One thing that I think is the most important thing for every human being to learn, and I believe every human being does, I think that this is one of my universal truths or my truest truth things, is that a consistent thing that everyone learns at some point in their time, and it could be at the age of ten and it could be on someone's deathbed, but it is the, the idea that everyone has to like you, or everyone has to get along with you, or that an individual has to change who they are in order to be around a group of other people. And the thing is, is that I think that we are pulled towards groups of individuals, even if they're unsavory, because we have not talked about the relationships within the self. So I know that I can go out into the woods and be all good by myself, but that's also something I trained. So it's going from dependent to autonomous.

Kyle Smith [00:35:05]:
I think from a neurodivergence standpoint, this is a cool way of putting it. So to understand the continuum. Here we go. Okay, this is going to probably be a sweet tangent, but if we think of a continuum, a lot of folks find that, or that I chat with that have adhd or have a neurodivergence, they find themselves seeing that as a limiter. And so then they're muffling their minds with medications, so they're trying to be normal, when in all reality, people should be thinking faster. Because in my opinion, the way that we think is in alignment with the speed of our environment that is evolving. We physically may not be able to evolve very much but like I was talking about before, we don't have, we don't have an ethereal, uh, boundary of space in our mind. We do have space.

Kyle Smith [00:36:01]:
Like, if we have a whole bunch of thoughts and we have. If we have 60,000 thoughts per day and we're only, and 40,000 of them are on repeat, then we got to clean up what those repeats are. So I think, I think cleaning up the clutter is always very important, but I think when we have the ability to have neurodivergent thinking, that creates an environment with more effective and efficient problem solving. So why? Why is it more effective and efficient? Well, let's look at the opposite. There's convergent thinking. Convergent thinking is one problem to one solution, while divergent thinking is one problem. Multiple routes to the same solution, or.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:36:47]:
Even a many to many relationships.

Kyle Smith [00:36:50]:
Exactly. Exactly.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:36:51]:
So it's a much more networked and interwoven perspective versus if then. Then this.

Kyle Smith [00:36:57]:
Yes, yes. So that thinking process, and just not putting my perceptions onto it, like not putting my. My own subjective opinions of how I think the world should be, I'm aiming to make sure I don't put that, or I aim to make sure that not too much of that noise seeps into what I believe to be my truest thoughts. Because it's our conscious, it's our human being that's going to get in the way of what we can actually do. So if those little lingers, little things like, you can't do that. It's like, why the fuck not?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:37:44]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:37:45]:
And so it's being able to basically counter and debate with your own internal thoughts, your own internal dialogue. And the way I like to put it is if a thought or a part of dialogue comes up, I ask myself if this is a non functioning or a functioning opinion, and then from there, I can actually break it down even further.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:38:07]:
Yeah, there was, I was just reminded of this. I believe even just this morning I was doing a little, little trip down memory lane of some digital communities that I was a part of. And I've thought about this often. This is a tangent before I get to the thing. Go for it is at some point I feel like we're going to have digital archaeologists that are like, uncovering the layers of all the things of the culture and looking. We don't have all of MySpace anymore. We lost a big portion of those servers, but things that are still online. There are some websites that are still from the early nineties that are still online as they were and were not changed.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:38:54]:
We have things like the Wayback Machine archive, the Internet archive of being able to take a look at what did a website look like? What was the content like back in 2000? And like, I feel like we're going to have, just like we have archaeologists in the dirt, scraping through and digging through, I feel like we're going to have that in our digital footprint, especially as we get more and more connected. Tangent over. As I was doing that for myself, playing a little bit of personal digital archaeologist, I was reminded of a thought of one of my coaches from probably about six years ago now, maybe seven. And one of the things that she had brought up was, how many questions do you ask yourself a day, internally, in your mind? How many of those do you actually answer?

Kyle Smith [00:39:48]:
That's it. That's a good one. I don't know exactly how many questions I would go through in a day, but I know that I don't answer a majority of them.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:39:55]:
Yeah. And so it's like, what if you took a day and wrote down every time a question popped into your head? This could be an exercise. I've thought about this and I've been like, okay, I get the lesson. I feel like there's a challenge here for yourself. Myself and the listeners of take a day and dedicate. Have a pad, a notebook, whatever you need to your notes app on your phone. And every time you start to come up with a question in your head, write that question down and see how many of those you can actually answer. Be interesting to see.

Kyle Smith [00:40:35]:
That's a neat. That's a neat thought experiment. I think that's a good one. I think that's also a good one that could work in, like, a developmental space as well, because then you can think. So if you're able to. I don't know, you can really. You can really go to the. You can.

Kyle Smith [00:40:52]:
I think. I think we're just one, as I'm just blubbering over myself.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:40:58]:
It's all good.

Kyle Smith [00:40:59]:
I think that with that thought, write down every question and actually answer them.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:41:09]:
Or see if you can. Because. So we talked about this on another episode with Justine. Arsenal. That's episode 31, if people are looking back at it. We had a conversation we brought up. There's a phrase that popped out of me in the new Amazon series Rings of Power. I love all things Junior Tolkien.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:41:31]:
I'm a big old nerd, as most people can figure that out pretty quickly. There was a quote that popped out at me. So it was about a year ago that this came out now, and I was sitting in my office writing some exercise programming, and I had this on in the background, and the phrase was something to the effect of talking about unanswerable questions like this. I forget the exact quote. What cannot be answered hollows out the mind, because you don't know where it starts, you don't know where it ends, you don't know where the middle is. If you can't answer it, it continues to take up more and more and more space. So if you have a brain full of unanswered questions, how clearly can you make decisions? And how clearly can you experience or perceive your own reality?

Kyle Smith [00:42:20]:
My answer to that would be, not very well.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:42:22]:
Yeah, I like using up, using up a lot of processing power. If we talk about in the technical, you're using a lot of cpu cycles for junk processing. It's just they're running processes that don't actually contribute to the actual whole.

Kyle Smith [00:42:38]:
Totally. And it's like if it's those repeat. If it's a repeat question, and if the question has not had the time to be answered, then it's just a question that's going to be taken up space the whole time until it's either answered or rejected.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:42:59]:
Absolutely. Yeah. There's any. There's so many ways that you can look at that out. Like as a point of vulnerability for myself, of sharing an idea of lately, looking at the. We talked about this a little bit before in starting the podcast, of struggling to launch a new business and launching a new coaching program and working to get those first clients, especially when, especially if you don't necessarily have a backup plan. And in taking a look at that, of all the questions that start to come up with the fear that surrounds that, what if I fail? What if I don't make it? What if I don't get those first clients? What if I give up? What if I have to go and ask my parents for money, or I have to ask others for help? Like, again, those are all questions that until you actually ask them, they have no answer.

Kyle Smith [00:43:52]:
Very cool.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:43:53]:
And so then it creates this. It creates. I'm using that as my personal example of that. And I'm coming to this, as we're talking about this, of a bit of enlightenment or wisdom, whatever you want to call it.

Kyle Smith [00:44:09]:
The intuitive universe is just pumping knowledge into your brain. Yes.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:44:13]:
I mean, that's, that happens so often at this podcast at this point of where I go, well, you know, even if nobody else listens to this episode, I got what I needed out of it in a bit of a self serving or selfish way of oh, I saw something that I actually needed here. And who knows? Again, this is going to go into the archive of the Internet somewhere. And who knows? Somebody a thousand years from now may uncover this conversation and go, what the hell were they on about?

Kyle Smith [00:44:44]:
Yeah, totally. Yeah, I think that's cool, man.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:44:51]:
And so for you, in thinking through this, of this idea of questioning and having all of this extra space, do you have any personal practices or things that you use in your coaching practice to help people who maybe stuck in this torrent of overwhelm or stuck in this tornado of questions that they can't seem to answer?

Kyle Smith [00:45:17]:
That's a good one. Journaling, for sure. And I switched up journaling to be known as spellbinding. It's a little bit cooler. Yeah, so it's. The binder is full of spells. I'm sure you're familiar with where that inspired. I think my process for it is pretty simple, where it's just gaining awareness of the thoughts, period.

Kyle Smith [00:45:43]:
So I like to do, or I like to have it where it's an energy awareness of what goes throughout the day. So when we can look at our energy and if it's going up or if it's going down, usually there's something that started or a thought that got that process going. So let's say it's the simplest parts where when we're thinking in a place of abundance, even just thinking in a place of abundance, we're going to behave more abundantly. We're thinking in a place of scarcity, we're going to behave more scarce. And in that, it's just the thoughts that we have on repeat that we just need to become more aware of. And then not only, you know, what it's coming up with, the thoughts, or being aware of the thoughts, being aware of the repeat thoughts, understanding where that thought came from, whether we came up to it ourselves or we adopted it from someone else, which is more so the case, there's very few times where it's like an original thought. And I don't know what that saying is, but it's, um. I forget what it was.

Kyle Smith [00:46:58]:
It had to do with the stoic philosopher, but everyone. Now I'm going to Butra, I'm going to switch it up, but after the self awareness, then it's going through and figuring out where it came from. So it's like, I can't do this. Well, who told you that? Well, it was my grade two teacher that said I was in the dumb class. Okay, so does that mean that you're incapable of writing? No. What evidence is there? Proof that you've written? Well, I've written a couple cool things. Okay, so that is a non functioning opinion. It is incorrect and you have the evidence to back it up.

Kyle Smith [00:47:39]:
So then that way people get to relieve themselves of the burden of carrying that conversation. They just relieve it. It's just gone. It's just gone. And then that way, when we can clear those things out, you can actually recognize it in people's demeanor. You can see them, like, lighten up where they're thinking in a much more constructive way. And I don't even think it like, people don't have to think in a positive or negative way. It's thinking of in a constructive way that I think is the approach that I prefer the most.

Kyle Smith [00:48:16]:
And then after figuring out where those things came from, make peace with those things or make peace with those adopted opinions, and then from there, figuring out, okay, so these are the rest of the opinions. Are they functioning? Non functioning. And then separating those. And then another thing as well is being able to switch the non functioning opinion to a functioning opinion. So I like to call it like, not transforming, transmuting it. You transmute from non functioning to functioning. And that creates more space as well because it's kind of like, it's kind of like music. So if we all have frequencies, and if one thought produces one frequency and we have another thought that produces another frequency and another thought that produces another frequency, then that's going to be a mishmash, but not in a good way.

Kyle Smith [00:49:10]:
Not in a good way. Like a really erratic kind of thing.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:49:15]:
Yeah, you get something that's really dissonant versus.

Kyle Smith [00:49:18]:
Exactly. If we get all of our thoughts going, we get harmonious. Yes. We get harmonious. And when we have that harmony, then that's good. But before all of that, we have to make the decision to do so. So if we don't make a decision to do so, then we're still creatures of whim rather than beings of will.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:49:40]:
I like that.

Kyle Smith [00:49:42]:
So it's not deciding if we don't decide to. If we don't decide to commit to the coaching program. I'll actually speak on this one myself, too. Yeah, because might as well. You share some stuff. I'll share some stuff.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:49:53]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [00:49:53]:
But for the program that I want, that I'm working on, that I want to do eight weeks evolution, I find myself just having non functioning opinions and dialogue. And thankfully, Kendra's here to help me out. Like, just say, like, well, she asked me a lot of questions. She helps me with questions quite a bit. Yeah. But most of it, most of the things that's preventing it is an indecision to really freaking buckle down the hatches and become the captain of the ship and just give her. I'm playing, I'm playing a sailor when I should be, or could be, not should, when I could be playing the captain. And I think when there's that moment when we have decided, and it's interesting because we can decide it and the brain just like flips it and that looks for everything in accordance to the decision that we have made.

Kyle Smith [00:50:41]:
If we decided, right, if we decided that neurodivergence was bad for us, then we're going to behave in a way that's going to be bad for us. If we decide that neurodivergence is good for us, we're going to behave in a way that's good for us, and then it's just figuring out the rest of little pieces around there. I think when the decision, then the awareness of what those thoughts are, that's preventing the decision going into fruition. Once we have awareness of the thoughts, we figure out whether it's functioning and non functioning and figure out where it came from, make peace with it. And that's very important, too, is making peace, because if we have resentment, or at least if we make peace, then we get to balance out the continuum and then we find ourselves in that energy neutrality. So for myself, the goal is always energy neutrality. It's not happy, it's not sad, it's joyful, it's not angry, it's not love, it's compassionate. And then within those, you have like the other components as well.

Kyle Smith [00:51:45]:
So you have like some things that I think of or that are reminders for myself is you cannot be compassionate and judgmental at the same time. So when we develop that self awareness of when we're being compassionate, when we're being judgmental and in which circumstances are we those things, then we can actually deconstruct our own life experience and show up in a way that's a little bit more in alignment with the person that we wish to be rather than the person circumstances inspire us to be.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:52:18]:
And I mean, there's, there's so much there, too, of even looking at what you're talking. Energy neutrality. I've had discussions with other coaches and friends in looking that too of different aspects of ourself. If we're only ever giving credit or indulging the negative thoughts or focusing on our negative qualities or negative aspects, we tend to get a certain result that's fairly negative. We only focus on the positive. That may serve us well for a while and work really well. What I can imagine is that when we're blindly get this idea of toxic positivity, we're blindly focusing on just that. We stunt ourselves because we can only grow to a certain point.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:53:13]:
Because if every day is a sunshiny perfect weather day, you don't have that contrast to measure against. And it's hard to grow from that.

Kyle Smith [00:53:22]:
Exactly.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:53:23]:
Whereas we can look at both sides, we can look at the whole version of ourself and become really integrated into that, of using and embracing the negative components of ourselves. We talked earlier in the, before we hit record of this idea of fear and excitement, of starting a business and being an entrepreneur and getting on that path. Some days it balances 51% to 49% and it swings back and forth, and those 2% change can make it feel like it's the biggest swells in the ocean. We're still on the nautical theme and where if we can still keep all of that going, we can still keep that and hold that as a whole, as a whole being or a whole person, and learn to even love that in its wholeness. That's where I believe that you get to this, this sense of energy neutrality that you're talking about.

Kyle Smith [00:54:19]:
I completely agree with you. Yeah, I completely agree with you to latch onto that, too. You're absolutely right. Because when we're down, we're down. When we're up, we're up. But the thing that's always important to recognize is that that's always a pendulum swing. Yeah, it's just a wave, right. And there's going to be energy neutrality.

Kyle Smith [00:54:41]:
And I think instead of having the high highs and the low lows, getting that wave a little bit tighter. So it's not like, wow, wow. It's more like, I think that that's a good place to be on that one. And dude, if we didn't experience the shitty shit, we would never understand how good the good shit is.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:55:04]:
Exactly. Yeah, but I mean, and to bring this back to something that you were talking about early in the podcast of our attachment to suffering or struggle and things like that, something I always, I come back to so often, and it pops up so often in my conversations with people. You know, there's this guy that lived a long time ago, I think it was called the Buddha. So the root of all human suffering is attachment.

Kyle Smith [00:55:34]:
I agree.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:55:35]:
So, like, our attachment to feeling, our attachment to feeling bad, or our attachment to feeling comfortable in the moment, because really, that's what we're talking about, is I'm comfortable where I am, even though I hate it. And that means I'm secretly in love with it. Yes. I'm secretly in love with feeling the way that I feel right now, even though I don't like it.

Kyle Smith [00:55:57]:
I don't like it.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:55:58]:
And so my attachment to that concept or my attachment to being in this state is what helps keep me stuck here. And it's when I can, you know, there's all kinds of interesting ways that you can explore that for yourselves, like give yourself permission to indulge in that, you know, as the. The book existential kink would call it. Like that kinky, weird version of yourself that really loves to really feel bad.

Kyle Smith [00:56:32]:
And you know what I think? I think understanding that it's there, understanding that is there is cool. And it goes into integrating the shadow as well. It's understanding that that is a part of you, but it is not you. And there may be parts that we look at ourselves and we're, like, not the most fond of, but we also have the opportunity to look at those things with more love and more compassionate in order to achieve that sense of wholeness. I think wholeness is probably the. The main thing that I really like is wholeness and quality, well being and. Yeah, man, dude, attachment can, like, really fuck you. Like, you can mess you up real good, because that's what it is.

Kyle Smith [00:57:35]:
We're attached. Whatever. Like, whatever. We're eventually, you know, what if we looked at the things that create the most suffering in our existence is probably the stuff that we're most attached to, or at least. Yeah, something like that.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:57:55]:
I have an interesting thought in branching that into it. So much of it is we think of attachment as maybe a relationship, some things, a job, a situation, a reality is. So much of this is we are attached to the thought or the story of what we considered or what we've held onto. And so in reality is. So if we have something you talked about of viewing yourself as somebody neurodivergent or with ADHD, viewing it as negative or a positive, either way, you're right, because whatever you perceive your reality to be and then you become attached to that story that you've told yourself have being a conjugate of is. So I am this negative aspect of ADHD, so created identity. I'm attached to it now. I cling to it because that's what gives me meaning, and it gives me validation of who, what I feel.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [00:59:01]:
And there are many deep things there that I believe that people can explore that. It is definitely strange. It is definitely not. When we are so consumed with the day to day with what can be possibly popping up on news media, social media, or our email inboxes, our messaging services, we're so connected and we are so easily distracted through all of this that it pulls us away from that ability for that introspection to actually explore those things. And even to your point, of the shadow of, like, this is a version, this is still, it's not you. And it is you. It's a part of you. And it's, why is it here? Why is it showing up? What does it actually need? What is it actually providing me? And how do I find that answer for myself of what do I actually need in this moment? What's the direction forward? Rather than trying to get all cerebral and try to think your way out of a problem, that, again, maybe you're just asking the wrong questions.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:00:10]:
You've got questions swirling your mind. You're asking the wrong ones, or you're not directing them at the right person or version of yourself.

Kyle Smith [01:00:21]:
Yeah, I like that. I think that's the perfect opportunity to be able to write down all the questions and actually answer them.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:00:29]:
Exactly. Come back to our hypothetical challenge for everybody to write down all the questions in one day. I'll tell you this. I'm going to pick a day this week or before this episode comes out for sure. And when it happens, you'll know because I'll send you a big old list of questions.

Kyle Smith [01:00:50]:
I'm cool with that. You know what? I might actually do the same thing as well, where if a question pops up, no matter what it is, I'm probably just going to put it down so that way I can just have a little bit more awareness. Because this is another thing, too, is that with the questions that are popping up, we can actually put them pen to paper so that they're out of our mind. And then I think that I believe something that's cool that comes along with that is because if we're looking at the words right, I like to think of words, or the way I explain the words we speak are like the ethereal macronutrients of our minds. So just like our body carbs, fats, and protein, our brain uses the words that we feed it. And the reality we experience is a reflection of the foods that we eaten. Eaten.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:01:45]:
Interesting.

Kyle Smith [01:01:47]:
Yeah.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:01:47]:
Yeah. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna keep that one to knock around in the old brain for a while, because that one is an interesting like of, like, uh, again, it's your thoughts are your, are the diet for your brain versus, that's the food you, it's the food your brain eats.

Kyle Smith [01:02:00]:
Yeah, man.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:02:01]:
Yeah. And in, in your thinking centers and in that regard, yeah. Super cool. You talked about this a few times, and other guests have talked about this. I've likely talked about it as well. This idea of awareness, like, in looking at awareness as a tool for self development, what's the, we talk about it very often in our communities and whatnot. But what do you, for you, in your practice as a coach or for yourself, what has the increasing amount of awareness, how has that actually served you going forward into continuing to develop yourself?

Kyle Smith [01:02:50]:
How has developing awareness served me? Yeah, how has awareness served me?

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:03:00]:
Or that aspect of maybe not having that type of awareness before and then starting to develop these higher, or flexing that focus muscle, as you put it nice, into this sense of awareness of what are my tendencies, what are the types of things that I do? How has that driven you forward? Or how has that affected the way that you've continued to develop.

Kyle Smith [01:03:28]:
Hugely. But going into more detail.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:03:32]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [01:03:40]:
We cannot change the trajectory without some degree of awareness. And I say change the trajectory because I think some folks will say, I want to fix this. Well, you're not exactly broken. You just went down a trajectory that is not exactly in alignment with the person that you want to be. Awareness comes in and it's like, oh, I can actually pivot this trajectory. So there's not like a fixing of anything. It's just a readjusting of priorities. So awareness helped with that priorities.

Kyle Smith [01:04:15]:
It actually created a place where, or an internal dialogue of where is it that I have awareness? And in that awareness, what are my intentions? So I'll go, awareness, then I'll go attentions. Because if we have good intentions or ill intentions, that to me, is the differentiator between speaking to someone and saying words and how they receive it. So if there's good intentions behind the words that I or you say, people are going to receive it better than if there is ill intentions behind the words that you and I say. So awareness, in that capacity, awareness has been able to. Dude. Yeah. Awareness is a crazy tool. So awareness is capable of helping someone readjust in their nutrition, in their headspace, in their sense of self, in the, in what.

Kyle Smith [01:05:24]:
What they actually care about. Because if we don't have awareness, then we're just, here we go. Awareness is a prerequisite for us to live a life on our own terms. If we do not have awareness, then we are living a life on the everything else terms.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:05:43]:
Yep. Life is happening.

Kyle Smith [01:05:45]:
We don't have.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:05:47]:
Life is happening to you.

Kyle Smith [01:05:49]:
Yes. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So for me, awareness is like. I think that that's what people think of when they think awakening. Or there's another one that I find that. Yeah, you know what? I'm gonna go with this one. I think there's a solid degree of, like, pretty chill awareness, but then there's monumental awareness.

Kyle Smith [01:06:16]:
And I think that from the base to the highest point, awareness is all freaking awesome, because we're able to transcend ourselves the more aware we become of ourselves. And I think that, yeah, awareness is a prerequisite to us transcending who we believe ourselves to be into becoming another version and then another version and then another version. Because one thing I know for sure, at least for myself, is the more awareness I become of myself and of what is the truest truth or of other individuals or other things, the less I actually know. But I'm also not scared of that because I know what not knowing is like, and that's scarier.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:07:08]:
Yeah.

Kyle Smith [01:07:10]:
Now that I know.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:07:14]:
These are fun, fun puzzles that you can. I love to. It sounds silly on the surface, but people who get it get it for sure. Of the. Some days just sitting on the couch and thinking myself into something, I get it. We talk about this idea. You can think yourself into a good mood. Most of the time, we're thinking ourselves into a bad mood.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:07:42]:
And so it's like, if I can think myself into a good mood, where else can I think myself? And you look at what humanity is capable from a creativity standpoint, that we sell ourselves short more often than not, in my opinion, myself included in this. Like, I will raise my hand first right after saying that I've definitely been there.

Kyle Smith [01:08:05]:
I'll go, too.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:08:06]:
Yeah. Of limiting myself of what I think is possible because of boundaries or constraints that I put in my own head. We can't do this because of this. And so being able to flex all of that thought processing, especially if you do, are a little bit on the run, a little hotter on the brain resources side as a neurodivergent, that it truly can be something that's. That's a superpower beyond what you could ever imagine.

Kyle Smith [01:08:39]:
Just learning to train it.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:08:42]:
Exactly.

Kyle Smith [01:08:43]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As we ask some good questions. Sorry, go ahead.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:08:49]:
Thank you. I've had a little bit of practice, and it's always a constant practice of learning how to ask better questions. And as we start to respect our time and the listeners as well. As we come up to the end of our time together today, any final thoughts or any. Any words of wisdom that you would like to impart on the listeners?

Kyle Smith [01:09:13]:
Yes. Be sure to keep up the kindness. And even when times don't seem the most kind, you can still keep up that kindness, and at least you're going to feel good at the end of the day.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:09:35]:
Yeah, I love that. I know you mentioned you were building a program. What would you like to promote? Make the listeners aware of how can they get. If they're interested in learning more, how can they get in contact with you?

Kyle Smith [01:09:48]:
Sweet. The program. Well, to get in contact with me, Instagram is the easiest dapper dude Kyle.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:09:55]:
One of the best Instagram handles I've heard in a long time.

Kyle Smith [01:10:00]:
I put it there as, like, now. Yeah. I put it there as, like, a characterization of an individual that I wish to become. Like, it's a manifestation kind of thing, but it's slowly becoming a little bit of a nickname. I think more people call me dapper dude Kyle than not. Yeah, well, not too many, but it's pretty sweet. But yeah, that would be where to find me. That's the easiest place to find me.

Kyle Smith [01:10:23]:
And then my program is eight weeks to evolution. It is a physical and mental fitness program. And the reason why I say fitness and not health is because it only, health only encompasses one half of the duality of health and illness. And if we're only paying attention to health and we're not paying attention to fitness as a whole, then we have a biased approach. I would like to have a mindful, soulful, physical balance of energy neutrality where they're still working hard, of course. Yeah. It's eight weeks. Nutrition journaling, narrative architecture, and nutrition.

Kyle Smith [01:11:12]:
Oh, wait. Nori said nutrition, working out in the gym. And it's actually for folks that would want to do, like, if they like, 90 minutes in the gym per week. The idea is small input with higher intensity, but mostly resting and recovery as a priority. So that's pretty cool, man.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:11:29]:
Yeah. And so as this comes out, if you're interested in learning more about that, get in contact with Kyle will have information about that on how you can learn more and get in contact with them in the show notes. Thank you so much, Kyle. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for the rad conversation, and thank you so much for just being you. I appreciate it so much.

Kyle Smith [01:11:50]:
Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Jeremy Gruensteiner [01:11:52]:
Yeah, and I appreciate you. Well, thank you. Thank you. And a much appreciation to you, the listeners, for listening to this awesome conversation just like many others. And until next time, stay strong, folks. And most importantly, stay weird.