29: What Physical and Emotional Intelligence Looks Like Today – with Josh Trent
“You don’t know what you don’t know. These blind spots infect so many of us until we have the courage to look deep inside; that’s where the shadows produce all the things that can really move us forward.”
“You don’t know what you don’t know. These blind spots infect so many of us until we have the courage to look deep inside; that’s where the shadows produce all the things that can really move us forward.”
– Josh Trent
Guest Bios:
Josh Trent (@wellnessforce) is the Founder of Wellness Force Media and host of the top-ranked iTunes podcast, Wellness Force Radio, with 2M+ podcast downloads and over 500 high-level interviews with some of the most respected minds in the health, wellness and self-help industries.
About This Episode:
In this episode, I have a very enlightening conversation with a personal friend of mine, wellness entrepreneur and host of the popular Wellness Force Radio Podcast, Josh Trent about what physical and emotional intelligence looks like today, and provide some simple practical tools that will help you let go of things so you can move forward in life.
I talked with Josh Trent who has more than 17 years of experience researching and training people in physical and emotional intelligence. Over the years, Josh has given me guidance in the digital media space, and it was an honor to interview him on my podcast show.
I learned more about his background. Born in La Mesa, CA, Josh grew up with a single mom on welfare and said he didn’t have the coping skills at the time to deal with the demands of stress. After graduating from high school, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life and hadn’t acquired the physical and emotional toolset he needed to thrive. At 21, he was 280lbs, in a relationship he hated and in a career he also hated.
“The universe was giving me all these signs that the transformation was coming and yet I wasn’t listening,” he said. “One day, I was drinking beer and looking at my stomach and then slammed down the party cup and said, ‘I’m done. There’s more to life than this.’”
That “this” would start him on an 18-month journey to lose 80lbs, change his environment and enter the fitness industry.
“I sold everything I owned and moved to Hawaii; however, just because you change your environment, it doesn’t change who you are,” he said.
He got burned out and went into the corporate tech world and “got the gift of being fired,” which put him on a new entrepreneurial path to where he is today.
I asked him what his ‘supposed to’ was.
He explained, “I was trying to figure out what I was actually doing here on planet Earth. Most of us find it, but not necessarily in a way that connects you to your strongest purpose. My ‘supposed to’ was making money and getting a safe job, exactly like my mom and dad, but maybe a bit better, but not rocking the boat too much because it would make the family look bad.”
What specifically happened in that drinking moment that inspired change?
“My soul was screaming at me so loud I couldn’t ignore it anymore,” he said. “I had enough of not being connected to who I am… Stress is like a vice. Stress is cumulative. We can only experience so much stress to our nervous system until we have breakdowns and energy starts coming out sideways. Energy coming out sideways is where disease and addictions can come from.”
He explained that when your heart is not lined up with your head and body, that misalignment prevents the law of vibration from coming through.
One of the key conversation takeaways was: “It takes spiritual, emotional and physical COURAGE to be able to even ask the question to ask yourself: ‘Who am I?’”
According to Josh, sometimes if you don’t have the clarity of what you want to do, just pause and assess where you are and ask yourself if that’s where you want to be. You find clarity in doing the thing.
Josh eventually left the fitness industry and worked on his soul.
“I let doubt creep in like a virus and put my dreams aside,” he said. “I got the ‘safe job’ in the technology corporation world. When I got the gift of being fired, I had this surge of fear but also a surge of awakening.”
That awakening led him to where he is today and fueled his mission to provide people with the right tools to move them forward.
I asked him what his advice would be to those who were recently let go from a job or who have put their dreams in a box.
The most powerful thing they could do, he said, was to take a massive breath through the nose six times and really take time to feel all those emotions. “Give yourself a permission slip to feel what you feel… Don’t pacify your emotions… There’s so much out there if you’re willing to feel the bottom of the well.”
Then Josh shared some simple, practical advice to create profound shifts in your life and move forward.
#1 – Do breathwork and meditation.
#2 – Take an emotional inventory (specifics are explained in the episode).
#3 – Make a plan and share it with people who really have your back when you’re grateful but also when you’re angry.
Josh referenced the BTFA Loop, which is:
- Belief (either yours or from somebody else you inherited)
- Thought (your belief turns into a subjective piece in your mind)
- Feeling (that thought creates a feeling in the body)
- Action (the quality of your life)
Your action comes from a belief that either serves or does not serve you. So, it’s important to unpack all those thoughts and feelings so you can understand your actions.
Josh shared about the Wellness Force, which is on a mission to help men and women understand physical and emotional intelligence so they can live their life well. He explained that true intelligence (nothing to do with how smart you are) has three distinct phases:
- 1st phase: Your ability to be a hunter of intelligence (gathering info, going to conferences, doing online workshops)
- 2nd phase: Application (bridge between the first and third phase; trying on / doing the things)
- 3rd phase: Embodiment (authentically making it a part of who you are)
The main problem today, he says, is being able to apply or embody what we already know. “This movement is about healing mental health. Stop running awareness campaigns. We are already aware… we need to now apply and embody them… We need to have a courageous conversation about it.”
I asked him to share his perspective on breathwork.
He explained that the only thing we can control when it comes to our stress is our breath. It is the only automatic and voluntary system that we have control over, which allows you to tap into your emotions and relieve acute stress.
“Do not let people trample on your dream because eventually you’ll start to listen to them,” he said.
Josh just launched Breathwork.io, a guided breathwork and wellness program, so be sure to check it out if you’re looking to calm your mind and reduce stress.
“We are infinite beings with so much potential that if we can connect our heads to our hearts there is so much possible in this world if we just believe and say so,” he concluded.
Mentions:
“The Body Keeps the Score” book
“Power vs. Force” book
Gretchen Rubin – The Four Tendencies