Developing The Spartan Mindset, The Power of Psychedelics, & Working Your Stories:

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Intro

On this episode of Auxoro, Zach talks with his buddy Dave Robinson about storywork, endurance racing, and his Kambo practice. Dave is the definition of strong: body, mind, and spirit. We hope you get a lot of positive takeaways from listening to his life experiences and worldview as you continue on your own journey.

Key Takeaways

Dave talks about his experiences with Kambo:

Kambo (or sapo) is a substance that derives from a poisonous frog and is used to rid the spirit of bad vibes, clear toxins, and boost immunity.
6:07 – “It’s a very benevolent substance. You can get out of it what you seek from it.”
Kambo is applied during a ceremony where the top few layers of skin are burned away and the substance is applied directly to the burn and soaked into the bloodstream.
Dave emphasizes the importance of taking it for serious medicinal purposes and not just to mess around.
8:54 – “When you’re doing a hard thing it’s much easier to embrace that hard thing and mean it rather than when you resist it.”
Once the Kambo is applied, the reaction is very quick and discomfort can last for 15-20 minutes.
12:40 – “A lot of things in my life right now are not nearly as hard as a Kambo experience.”

Discipline is easiest when you love what you are committing to.

Dave is on a streak of moving his body that has lasted 1,650+ days.
He finds his motivation in thinking about who he would be if he didn’t do the thing.
16:26 – “It’s the only thing that matters – the health of you and your loved ones.”
Dave likes the streak concept because it helps with motivation and accountability.

The best ways to motivate yourself when your feelings don’t align with your actions.

Dave often keeps going only because he doesn’t want to have to tell his friends that he broke his streak.
Dr. Huberman has done a lot of research on neuroplasticity and what happens when you stick with the frustration until you fulfill the contract with yourself.
24:32 – “If you can breathe and smile, you can get through it.”
Once you get past the first 5 minutes, you can get into a flow.
29:22 – “Doing those hard things consistently builds an internal knowing.”
Dave and Zach both realized at some point in their lives that they didn’t care what people thought.
They chose to be weird instead and they hope that many people are also embracing their own weird during quarantine.
39:15 – “Quarantine gives you permission to be more you.”
Don’t hold yourself to other people’s timelines.

Dave discusses Spartan racing.

Spartan is a brand of obstacle course races.
42:48 – “An obstacle course race has a lot of different elements to it and I think that’s what drew me to it.”
A few races in, Dave shifted his mindset from completing the race to competing in the race.
45:05 – “There’s no such thing as an unrealistic goal or dream – just an unrealistic timeline.”
Efficiency is a big deal for Dave because he is lazy by nature, but he learned that he can be strategic and put in the work.

He has found that tire pulling is a beneficial practice:

Dave has been tire pulling over the last few months to increase his power-to-ground ratio and to get into the heart rate zone for endurance.
He says that anyone can do it, but that where you start out depends on where you are now with your fitness.
51:50 – “Ultimately, being fit is about doing work and recovering from it.”

What is the biggest obstacle that Dave has had to overcome during Spartan racing?

Endurance has probably been Dave’s biggest challenge.
53:21 – “I don’t care as much about being a world champion as I do about just being competitive with myself.”
His mantra during Internationals was “My lungs are strong. My legs are strong. My heart is strong. I’m enduring.”
57:40 – “I don’t have a floor for myself. I don’t have a ceiling for myself.”
There is an intense amount of physical pain that Spartan racers have to endure by ignoring their body’s signals.

Dave once participated in a 50-mile trail race.

1:03:56 – “In order to commit to some (thing) that you think is impossible, you’ve got to have a deep ‘why’ behind it.”
Dave breaks down what happened to his body at different milestones in the race.
It took him 2-4 months to fully recover from what that race put his body through.
1:09:55 – “Double or triple the amount of time you thought you were going to take to sign up for that next race.”

Storywork is used to pull people out of dark places.

1:18:34 – “We all use words and those words help us create meaning.”
We have little awareness of the words we use and the impacts they are having on us.
Those words create the stories we tell ourselves because perception is reality.
1:20:20 – “I’ve found that storywork is the throughline between all other aspects of health, wellness, and personal development.”
Most people are working on the framework of a false story that are creating limiting beliefs.
Dave has people write down what happened, read it out loud, read it at 70% speed, drop into a processing state, and then he helps them translate their words and begin to move forward.
1:29:27 – “Pepper burns twice.”

If you are skeptical of storywork, here is what Dave has to say:

1:32:02 – “Those healthy holistic habits are nothing without a solid foundation of your internal dialogue.”
It is important to focus on the vessel and love yourself, which will start a life-changing process.
1:34:25 – “Doing the inner work leads to the greatest amount of freedom.”

Dave and Zach talk about their positive experiences with psychedelics and cannabis.

1:36:30 – “I took the medicine. The medicine is working.”
While alcohol is a poison that will lead you to lose your inhibitions and kill you if you drink too much of it, certain psychedelics and cannabis dosages allow you to open yourself up to yourself and receive a greater level of clarity.
They can help you marinate in happiness while being reflective and can be a net positive for most people.
1:48:44 – “A lot of us live on autopilot and choosing to live on purpose means that you’re taking things off of autopilot and examining why you do things.”

Connect with Dave:

https://www.workyourstories.com/

https://www.instagram.com/getstrappedstaystrapped/

Resources mentioned:

“Sapo in my Soul”: https://www.amazon.com/Sapo-My-Soul-Mats%C3%A9s-Medicine/dp/0692353496

Kambo Cleanse: https://shamanicsupply.com/

“Atomic Habits”: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

Dr. Huberman: http://www.hubermanlab.com/

Auxoro Newsletter: www.Auxoro.com/source

Auxoro on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/auxoro