Living Fully in the Present: Insights from Billy Mandarino

Welcome to the Transforming Lives panel podcast, where we explore the journeys and insights of individuals who have embraced transformative paths. In this episode, hosts Sharmin Prince and Mitzi Dadoun are joined by Billy Mandarino, a best-selling author and speaker dedicated to guiding people towards present moment awareness. Billy shares his personal journey from overcoming trauma to discovering the power of living in the now. He discusses how this shift has led him to a life of abundance, fearlessness, and infinite possibility. Through his teachings, Billy aims to help others break free from the constraints of time and stress, encouraging them to embrace their true limitless selves. Join us as we delve into Billy's inspiring insights on shifting from fear to freedom and stepping into your highest potential.

Speaker 2
Welcome to the Transforming Lives panel podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Sharmin Prince.

Speaker 1
And I am your other host, Mitzi Dadoun.

Speaker 2
And before we continue, just join us in a brief breathing exercise so that we can be grounded and centered with each other. Now take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Deep breath in, hold it, and let it go slowly. Deep breath in, hold it, and let it go.

Deep breath in, Hold it, and on the exhale, just let go of everything that did not serve you today. Deep breath in, and out. One last time in, and out. Thank you for being grounded with us.

Thank you for being here. Today, our guest is Billy Mandarino, who is a best-selling author, speaker, and dedicated novice. guiding people to unlock the power of present moment awareness. His groundbreaking book, The Novice, distills profound wisdom from his personal journey, offering readers a transformative path to abundance, fearlessness, and infinite possibility.

Beli's mission is to help others break free from the constraints of time, stress, and limitation. Teaching them how to embrace their true limitless selves with a unique and engaging approach He reveals how living fully in the now is the key to creating an extraordinary life. Join us as Billy shares his inspiring insights on how to shift from fear to freedom and step into your highest potential. Welcome, Billy.

Would you like to add anything to your bio?

Speaker 3
Mitzi, you're a light of the world. Sharmin, you are an equal light of the world. I love you both. I don't even, I know you that well, but I love, I feel like there is no disconnection between the spirit and the energy field that connects everyone.

And thank you for bringing us all into that presence, Sharmin.

Speaker 2
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And my first question for you, What was that moment where you experience, or what was that experience that forced you to embrace the now as a lifeline?

Speaker 3
Wonderful question. It is always answered in different ways because truly being in the present moment, different things come through. And we live in this linear chronological timeline where we are all kind of caught in this physical time that is illusionary. And when I found the present moment to be this vertical, eternal, divine moment, And it was crossed with that linear time, that present moment, that sweet spot, that crossification was the now.

And so many times in my life, I'm sure you both can agree with this, you find yourself caught up in the chronological time, thinking about the past, worrying about the future, living out of your highest self, which only lives in the present moment. Only divine minds live in present moment awareness. There is no time. and the heavenly realm and the highest selves of what you come from, what you return to, it never lives in past-future awareness.

But as we are all human beings having this incarnation, we get caught up in our trauma, our pasts, our disappointments, our hopes, our wishes, our desires. That was me up till I was about 20 years old, when I was almost 19 to 20. I had a traumatic event that happened in high school. I was a pole vaulter.

I broke my pole. I hit my head on the back of that box where the pole goes into and had some brain trauma. And then it just seems like from that moment on, I was so caught up in having to overcome past trauma. That trauma was one that led me from a childhood trauma where I was a divorced kid of six with my mom and dad and having to pick which parent to live with.

And then that was a trauma. So I just, when I broke my pole and I had that brain injury, it seems like all the traumas were culminating into this one physical trauma that made me aware of all the trauma. So from there, I'm 57 now, but from there, I just, I led this journey knowing that I was meant for so much more than living in this past trauma, worries of this trauma carrying over to my family and to my children. all these worries had come and culminated under this physical trauma.

So I started on this journey back then. And it was about how can I find the most powerful teachers in the world to help me learn how to deal with my trauma. And in that pursuit, 20-30 years deep into it, I found some great teachers, Eckhart Tolle, of course, Jesus Christ in the New Testament, Neville Goddard, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer. I just was in this deep dive from that accident that led me on this path, that has led me to this moment now, where in 2017, when the book The Nowist was downloaded from my highest self, connection to the highest part of me, That brought me into full

awareness of what that 19-year-old boy was experiencing, and that flash of enlightenment. In the Zen tradition, they call it a satori, or a flash of enlightenment, and how you realize and you awaken to this physical body, but you also awaken to your highest self, which is what everything is connected to, where it returns to, what it comes from, what your calling is in this incarnation is to connect back to that self that is the truth that does not live in time. Thus, the now is was born and I've been continuing serving people around the world through teachings, live events, concerts, one-on-one coaching.

It's about creating this legion of now is and that's my biggest mission in Dharma in this world.

Speaker 1
So was it literally sort of like in that moment when you had that accident where you felt it or that was sort of the moment that you identify where things started to shift.

Speaker 3
Well, Sharmini kind of asked, what was that quintessential, that moment, that quantified moment, that quantum moment, if you will, where it took me out of my physical awareness? That was the moment. From there, I've had other satori. That was the initial satori where I woke up to my false self, the ego, right?

I love how Wayne Dyer calls the ego, the E-G-O, edge in, God out, your ego. My ego had run my life, solely run my life up to that point. and my whole world was was stuck in accomplishing. I became a, I was a severe people pleaser from that trauma from childhood when I was seven having to sit on that stand and pick my mom or my dad with six kids having to pick which parent to live with.

It just all, and that flash of enlightenment, it's a satori in the zen tradition where you're a flash of awareness. It gave me a glimpse, a very brief glimpse and to something bigger than my ego. And it started that journey. Then there's so much, and the book is a spiritual memoir about how I found the present moment to be the most powerful, life-changing moment of your day, that we all spend such a fraction of our time, physical time, in the present moment.

We're always future traveling, looking for outcomes, trying to compete with the Joneses, living in this outcome focus, instead of living in present moment awareness. divinely connected to God in the oneness. That's right. 90% of my day I live in present moment awareness.

10% is worldly duties. And that ratio is what I teach, what I purport, what I inspire people to live through and give them techniques and concepts, precepts, rules to live by to help them get into that ratio.

Speaker 1
Could you share some of those concepts that you're talking about?

Speaker 3
There's so many. There's 12 or 15 in the book, but there's a series of Challenging prayers, I guess you might say. The nowest meditation is a simple four-prayer meditation. It takes one minute.

But that's the one I always like to start with, because when you can start with a prayer, that beautiful prayer that Charmin opens up with, which is a breath. Breath is the quickest way to get in the present moment. Connected to your body, detaching from the outcome of physical time, living in the most magnetic part, which is your heart. When I breathe, part of the book is teaching heart breath, how to breathe into your heart.

Breathing from your heart, which is this powerful source of your body, as if it were a lung. Breathing present moment awareness in. But the beautiful thing about the nowist meditation is it's four prayers. And when you can master that meditation, you can do it with your eyes open.

and a convergent prayer, a divergent prayer with your eyes closed. And that prayer gets you out of physical time. It gets you what I call above the planet, hovering above the planet, three miles above the planet. It's a visualization.

It's your imagination connected to your breath, connected with a mudra. There's an arm motion, there's a mudra and a mantra. That prayer to me is if you want to learn how to drop into present moment awareness as an active way of life. You can go to billymandarino.com.

We've got 600 videos on our YouTube channel that can teach you a lot of these concepts, but that now is meditation. Speaking of all the different modalities that we have, that's a very powerful one. I think for people interested in what is this now is life. What does it mean to be a now listen?

I'm not, it's nothing new. Eckhart Tolle, Jesus Christ, so many wonderful teachers I've talked, Ram Dass, Be Here Now, so many great books about living in present moment awareness. This is my spiritual memoir of how I found it to serve my life emotionally, socially, spiritually, financially. It just helps me connect to the truth, which is this present moment awareness.

Speaker 2
So, Billy, I'm listening to you and it's, It feels like a spiritual journey and where you find your infinite self. How can you speak about becoming your infinite self?

Speaker 3
There is a 12-week program that I love to take people through, which is called Becoming Your Infinite Self. It's a one-on-one journey I take with you. It's a 12-week program, an hour and a half to two hours every session. But to do that, it starts right here.

If you want to learn the Nowis Meditation, if you want to start learning how to reprogram your subconscious mind, which happens right before you go to bed, Before you wake up in the morning, it's your subconscious world. And I'm sure both of you know this, but your subconscious world, 95% of everything we do is done with our subconscious mind. We're not even aware of it. So reprogramming your subconscious mind is how you can find the present moment as a way of life.

It starts with your habits, morning rituals, evening rituals, daily rituals. That's what's so powerful about the Nowist meditation. It's a one-minute prayer. It's a meditation you can do while you're driving, while you're walking, before you go to bed, when you wake up.

It's about habits. William Wordsworth said, Habits rule the unreflecting herd. Most of us don't reflect on our habits. We just get up and do the same thing we did the day before.

40 or 50,000 thoughts that we have. We have the same 40 or 50,000 thoughts yesterday. We're going to have them tomorrow. People don't interrupt their pattern.

I'm just here to scratch that record so it can't play again. Interrupt the pattern. Let's start something new to work on that subconscious programming so more can show up in your life that you really want attached to what you really want in your life, which is ultimately be your highest self, the best version of your highest self.

Speaker 2
What's the the biggest illusion or limiting belief one would have to dismantle in order to get there.

Speaker 3
Do you know what the name of God is? I'm going to speak a little biblical text, if you don't mind. That's OK. In Exodus, Moses was given God's name.

It's only given one place in the Bible. I am that I am. That is the name of God. And then how do most of us use our I am's?

I am not enough, I am tired, I am sick, I am broke, I am lonely. You're basically blaspheming more than you've ever blasphemed in your life when you start applying that I am presence to yourself, to your problems, to your limitation. to your lack. I am not enough is most people's subconscious programming.

When you can change that vernacular, when you can change that powerful word, I am enough, into an inculcated energy source in your body and connect to it regularly, then it becomes who you are. I am enough is something I've had to work on for my whole life. I'm a recovering people pleaser. I know it.

Coming from trauma, coming from childhood trauma. It's just that rear view mirror, you're constantly flicking and you're driving down the road and you constantly will check in the rear view mirror. Well, I'm driving this car down my life and I occasionally will glance up there and I'll see some trauma back there. I just have to stay on that 95% of that windscreen headed forward with my present moment awareness focused on what I want in this moment and not looking back.

A lot of people live their entire life driving that car looking in the rear view mirror and you crash every time.

Speaker 2
Billy, if I trained my brain to think I am not enough or I was told I'm not enough. So I was socializing that environment where I believe it because I was told that I am not enough. I grew up, I lived it, I lived in limitation. How do I change that?

Speaker 3
Sharmin, once again, we go back into subconscious programming, conscious patterns. So I'll tell you a quick story about how powerful interrupting your subconscious pattern can be to your present moment awareness and how you live in chronological linear time, because that's really the deep work. The deep work is to give in present moments where I give your full attention to present moment, vertical, divine line time, crossing, crossing your physical life in these times. I was born.

I'm 57. How much time have I spent living in present moment awareness? A fraction of my 57 years have I spent. It's literally been a decade that I've spent as an obsessed person living in present moment awareness in the way of life.

Most of us don't take that time. This is a new concept. The problem is we just live so much in the physical world that we lose it. Our subconscious programming.

That is the key. So recently, I'm a real estate professional. I'm a property manager and a realtor. And I'll tell you a really quick story about how to interrupt that pattern and how I did it intuitively.

See, I believe our intuition is the greatest gift God has given us. The power of our gut reflex. You have a choice to make. You have a person to connect with, a business deal, a relationship, an opportunity.

And you think your thinking mind is the line. Your feeling is the truth. That gut intuition is what has guided me out of so many problems in my life. But it took me a long time to drop that awareness from here into here, getting into that more powerful energy chakra, which is the heart being the most magnetic part of the body.

So being a real estate professional, I had a few real estate transactions that were happening. And then January 1st, right before the holidays, they all fell apart. All three of them disappeared. And I thought, what is it in me?

I'm doing a good job. I'm taking care of my clients. I'm working hard. I'm doing all the correct things.

But these all has never happened in my 18 year career that had never happened. So I thought, OK, there's something in me subconscious or something. My point of attraction is causing this. I take full responsibility for what's happening in my life.

And that's step one. Most people don't want to take responsibility. They want to medicate it. They want to drink it or work it out or do something to accommodate that distraction mentality, so they don't have to deal with it.

But if you can drop into your awareness, you say, wait, something is going to come up, an idea, a thought, a synchronicity, a sign will show up, a spiritual breadcrumb will show up. But if you have the awareness and the eyes of awareness to see these synchronicities, I had the awareness to instantly go, wait a minute, these three properties fell out of escrow for something I attracted. So I realized, okay, I need to go on a fast. So what I did, I went on a three-day water fast.

And once again, if you go back to the story of Job, in the Bible, Satan and God had this contest. They said, hey, Job's only faithful to you, God, because you give him everything. He's got beautiful families, wealth, he's good-looking, he's got all this power and this social power. So God said, I don't believe that.

I think he'd be faithful no matter what. So God takes everything away from him. Job loses everything, his family, his wealth, his health. and then he basically becomes destitute, but he doesn't give up his faith.

So God then rewards him with double of everything that he had lost. So back to my story, these three escrows fell apart, and I went on this three-day water fast, and I went on a deep meditation. I detached from physical world, and I realized I had to interrupt my point of attraction. There was something going on, not in the conscious world, but in the subconscious world.

So by interrupting that pattern 30 days later, Three days later, not every single escrow became back in place. Five escrows came back in place and all five of those escrows doubled the potential income that I was getting. And they all are about to close. The last one closes in July.

And that's just a small story about how you can get your subconscious mind. You have to know intuitively what you have to do. It could be go to the gym. It could be make that call.

It could be go do something you don't want to do. Go to the unknown. That's where the growth is. The unknown.

If you can go in that unknown zone and you pay attention to your awareness, you will be guided. You'll know what to do. I just tell you that story because it's recent with me. It's never happened to me in my life.

And I feel like it's just a small story compared to the story of Job. and you are connected to the I am presence, you have the power, you are the I am that I am God was talking about. How do you use your I am's and then how do you take responsibility for them?

Speaker 1
So when you were going through that three-day water fast, were you still going about your day-to-day life and business or were you primarily of meditating for that three days or like what did that look like?

Speaker 3
So my wife and daughter, we have a beautiful 18-year-old daughter who's graduating from high school in a couple of days. And our life is, we're blessed with this wonderful life together. We have a cute little dog, Pepper, she's 11, and we just have this beautiful life. And my wife and daughter are like, you can't do this.

They know me as a spiritual, crazy, nowist guy for the last decade, teaching people, traveling the world, speaking, doing live events, and my band, writing music and performing music. I've just been so obsessed with bringing people into this nowist prowess, if you will. I said, hey, I got to do this. They both know I was pretty disappointed in this kind of loss, if you will, for our family, because our daughter's going to college.

This was going to be funds to help support her college. And it all just fell apart around New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. And I said, I got to do this. So I had to live my life.

I'm a property manager. I had lots of business to do. I still have everyday take care of my wife, my daughter, my dog. I still have my businesses and all the things I have to do.

I just did it as if I was doing podcasts. The same thing. I still lived in my regular life. It's just I was doing the nowest meditation constantly.

I was living in meditation. I was doing it with my eyes open, which might be a new concept to some of your viewers or listeners. But you can meditate effectively with your eyes open. If you can focus your awareness and your breath and centered of awareness can be outside with your eyes open, it's possible.

I've just learned that as a science and kind of as a new technique. So I could live in my daily life having no nutrition but water for three days. But something happened. My body went into autophagy.

which basically means your body starts to eat itself, which is a very healthy thing to do, by the way. Your stem cells upregulate in your body, which changes the epigenetic expression of your DNA. Are you both aware of what that means? Yeah.

So, yeah. Exactly. Very Joe Dispenza, right? It changed my epigenetic expression of myself.

So, I believe that gave me some positive adrenaline, some dopamine, some neuroepinephrine, these wonderful chemicals were just upregulated, which changed my focus. It also changed in what I visualize. I would visualize detaching from the outcome. It was easier than you think.

Yes, physically your body's going through a process, but it's very healthy. So many different ways that serves your physical being. But more importantly, interrupt the subconscious programming I had going on that I wasn't even aware of. I just looked at what was showing up in my life.

People could do it if you have a divorce or a breakup or a health condition. If you have some things that you feel wronged or hard done by, or someone disrespected you or broke your heart. I mean, I'm not a medical doctor and full disclaimer, if you're not in great condition, you should not do this mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically. But this interruption of my pattern changed my entire outlook on the power of taking responsibility for what shows up in your life and then taking action on it, but doing it in a meditative and a spiritual way.

Yes, it's a physical deprivation of food nutrients for your body, but what it fed my soul and then what showed up afterwards. I can't wait for more people to experience what I experienced by attempting to do this, but also study up what it means to do a three day water fast, how it can affect you. But I live my regular life, Mitzi, to answer your question, I just live my regular life.

Speaker 2
What would you like to leave with our listeners and viewers?

Speaker 3
I just want to say thank you from my most magnetic part of my body, which is my heart, which is connected to the soul. I just thank you both for this really turned on, switched in conversation. I brought a lot of good things through your beautiful questions to people that we get to serve. We get to be the life of people in this.

And I'm just grateful. But if you want to find out more about the teaching, about the upcoming movie we're working on, you go to billymandarino.com, myname.com. And it all links out to all of our social media. We've got, like I said, almost 600 videos for free on my YouTube channel.

And then we've got LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram. But if you want to find out what our film is about, you go to fornowfilm.com, F-O-R-N-O-W, film.com. And you can see what our movie's about. It's helping people emerge from trauma.

And that's the greater mission I have with The Now, is to help people in trauma because I don't know if you know but two-thirds of the planet has an unresolved trauma they don't even know they have because it's subconscious.

Speaker 2
Thank you once again for being here.