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Either as well. A little while ago, we asked all
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of you to please send us some of your stories,
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whether it's spiritual awakenings or experiences that you had, and
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we got one that I love and I have to
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share with you. So this is what this episode's all about.
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So sit back, listen into what Chad experienced, and you
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might find yourself going, oh, here we go. Chad writes this,
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When I was a child, I had it in my
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head that I was supposed to have superpowers, Not in
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the way most kids dream about it, but with a deep,
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inexplicable certainty, almost as if I had possessed them before
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and was trying to understand where they'd gone. I was
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convinced I could move things with my mind and communicate
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through telepathy. Society eventually taught me that it was impossible,
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but as life would reveal, the impossible is never impossible.
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Profound stories. Mine begins with a challenging childhood. I was
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a hyperactive kid who struggled with authority. Blessed with a
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mother who, despite her rheumatoid arthritis, embodied kindness and gentleness
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and was a terrific mother. Her boyfriends, however, brought darkness
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into my life, especially after one leveled up and claimed
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the title of stepfather. The mental and physical abuse became
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my unwonted companions, compounded by a traumatic incident with an
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uncle in law that I dare not mention in order
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to not trigger any of your listeners. Living in constant
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fear shapes child in ways that echo through decades. Another uncle,
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one that I respected and loved, unknowingly setting to stage
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for my future, told me at age seven that I'd
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be the first in the family to go to prison.
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Those words would follow me throughout my life, though not
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in the way I imagined. Seeking escape, I found solace
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and alcohol at a young age, trying to stay anywhere
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but home. At sixteen, I found refuge with my best
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friend and his mother. School became an afterthought, and while
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I started running with the wrong crowd, some inexplicable force
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kept me just shy of serious trouble. Unlike many my companions,
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even in those dark times, I maintained this peculiar ability
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to radiate joy and help others. People did often take
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advantage of that giving nature, but the act of helping
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still filled me with purpose. Nonetheless, with alcoholism running through
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my family tree like sap the progression into addiction felt
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almost predetermined. By twenty two, I had transplanted myself far
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away from Michigan, where my past was painted onto every interaction.
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I had to a sunny Florida, where the traumatized seemed
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to shine bright here, as shown an every news headline.
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Here I became a bartender and predictable, a full fledged alcoholic.
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I was lean, then, confident in my appearance in life
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had a way of presenting opportunities, like my first Florida love,
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who convinced me to give education another shot and believed
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that I could do more. Armed with my ged I
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entered art school, beginning an intense four year juggling act
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of bartending, drinking, and education. Unlike my high school days
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of skipping classes, yet somehow still easing the tests, I
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approached college with genuine dedication. That drive led to graduation
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in three and a half years with a nearly perfect
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four point zero, only slightly marred by life's inevitable curve balls.
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My uncle's dismissive prediction kept fueling me. I developed this
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beautiful obsession with proving people wrong about my potential. The
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corporate world of my early thirties brought success tinged with irony.
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While I consistently delivered exceptional work as a graphic in
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motion designer, always the go to person for premium clients,
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my body was silently rebelling. In just three years, drinking
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helped me gain over two hundred pounds. My frame, unaccustomed
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to such weight, felt like a foreign entity. Confidence crumbled,
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self loathing grew, and thoughts turned dark. Little did I
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know this suffering was merely the prelude to a deeper transformation,
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albeit one that would push me to death door, only
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to knock and run away. The journey point came around
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Saint Patrick's day, shared with a friend who was fighting
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similar battles of weight gain from too much consumption of
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the Irish syrup. After one final celebration, I embraced sobriety
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in a modified Kido diet, no sugar, under thirty five
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grams of carbs daily. Fifteen months later, I'd shed two
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hundred pounds through sheer determination. But as my physical burden lifted,
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the emotional weight I'd been drinking to suppress came rushing
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back with a vengeance. My brain, I discovered, had been
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locked in fight or flight mode for decades. The constant anxiety,
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the hypervigilance, always scanning for exits. These weren't just quirks.
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They were survival mechanisms I no longer needed, sobriety meant
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facing these truths head on. But I was still trying
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to ignore my brain's desperate warnings. Do you know what
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happens when you ignore your brain like that? It painfully
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reminds you? Boy? Don't I know that? Chad? Well? The
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pain began as a subtle baseline in my lower back
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before orchestrating a masterpiece of agony throughout my entire body. Chad,
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you are quite the writer. Everything below my chin became
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a battlefield of sensation, from my fingertips to my toes,
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each nerve ending singing its own song of suffering. Arms
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and legs felt as though invisible hands were constantly wringing
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them like wet towels, twisting and opposing directions with relentless force.
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My back, well, that became a special canvas of torment,
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as if dozens of ice picks had taken up permanent residence,
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each one driving deeper with every breath, my heart beat,
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setting the rhythm of my own fading soundtrack. To call
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it extreme, agony would be like calling a hurricane a
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light breeze. The timing of it all seemed especially cruel.
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I just met the love of my life. It was
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building a future filled with promise, where my brain remained
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steadfast in its conviction that danger lurked around every corner
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for that first year that the silent track was stuck
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on repeat, pulling me under His doctors were left scratching
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their heads. Every scan came back clean, every blood test normal,
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a picture of perfect health on paper, while I was
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drowning in a sea of pain. The eventual fibromyalgia diagnosis
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arrived like both a revelation and a sentence. I remember
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thinking rather naively that it couldn't possibly get worse. When
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every inch of your body is already screaming in pain,
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you assume there's nothing left to hurt, no new territory
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for pain to conquer. But I should have known better
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than to underestimate my brain's creative potential. After all, I'd
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built my career on thinking outside the box. Why wouldn't
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my brain be equally innovative in finding new ways to
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command my attention? Have you ever experienced shingles? Imagine that
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heightened skin sensitivity where even a gentle touch feels like assault,
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then expand that sensation across your entire body. My brain,
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in its desperate attempt to be heard, had turned my
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skin into an instrument of torture. My wife's touch wants
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a source of felt like burning matches against my skin,
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turning the thing I desire most to ease my suffering
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into a weapon against me that would break anyone. And
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it did, just not in the way you might expect.
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Instead of surrendering, I found resolve. Having survived so much already,
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I wasn't about to let this be my undoing. I'd
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ended up going to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, but the
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words didn't change, hearing once again that my condition was incurable.
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They did, however, offer behavioral therapy, claiming up to a
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sixty percent pain reduction after four intensive weeks, eight hours
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a day. But as a business owner, I couldn't simply
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disappear for four weeks. That kind of absence would be
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in watching my client base evaporate. Without clients, there'd be
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no business to return to, no income to sustain me
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outside of that, and more importantly, as someone who'd made
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a habit of achieving the impossible. I wasn't just interested
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in managing the pain. I wanted it gone. And if
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that wasn't enough, Life and its hilarious sense of humor
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gave me an addictive personality that had let me down
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the path of pain medication dependency. But even in that darkness,
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there was no way that was going down that path.
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A had nap with how far I had come. Something
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deep within me rejected the incurable labor, and I refused
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to accept this as my new normal. Determined once again,
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I set out to prove them all wrong. After exhausting
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countless conventional approaches in some non conventional ones, I just
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gave up and did something so radical and so crazy
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that I never thought I'd ever be able to do.
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I stopped everything and simply just shut the f up
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and listened. For once. I sat in silence, closed my eyes,
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and gave my brain the attention it had been screaming
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for my entire life. I connected with every part of
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my body, acknowledging our shared trauma while affirming our safety,
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our worthiness of love, our right to peace. Nearly three
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decades of fight or flight conditioning doesn't dissolve overnight, but
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through persistent meditation, mindfulness, and self love. Something miraculous happened.
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The pain stopped within three months. It was just gone.
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I had achieved the impossible, curing my incurable condition. I
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knew getting off pain medicine was going to be hard,
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but I kept telling myself that if I didn't stop
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taking them, my brain would give me a physical reason
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to have to take them. I wasn't about to let
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that happen. So that day, the same day that I
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noticed that the pain was gone, I quit taking the
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pain medication. Well, this might be where you'd think my
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story ends, but it isn't. This is where my story begins.
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Fascination with the mind's potential consumed me. Meditation and paying
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attention to my thoughts had me experiencing precognitive glimpses to
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simple things like knowing who would appear at my door
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even if I didn't know them. This led me to
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a profound realization. See my lifelong ability to instantly read
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people's intentions, detect deception, and know the type of person
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they were wasn't universal. I thought everyone had this ability.
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Discovering I was a psychic EmPATH opened a door I
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couldn't help but walk through easily opening other abilities. Childhood,
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me knew something that I didn't. I did have a superpower.
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My quest for understanding led me down countless fascinating paths,
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delving into ancient knowledge, quantum physics and mechanics, alchemy, evolution, archaeology,
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and the subtle energies that connect all things. I explored
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every religion, studied, ancient alien theories, metaphysics, and anything esoteric
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I could find. This wasn't just casual curiosity. It was
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an insatiable hunger to understand the deeper mysteries of existence.
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I became a certified past life aggression and hypnotherapist using
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the QHHT method, and began taking psychic meadership classes at
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a local spirit shop. Beyond my empathic abilities, I discovered
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I was clar cognizant, possessing a profound knowing that transcends
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ordinary intuition. During medium readings, when I connect with someone
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to understand their essence, their journey, their struggles and triumphs,
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their insights flow with remarkable accuracy. It's not just intuition
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nor educated guessing. It's as if the information simply appears
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in my consciousness, fully formed and precisely detailed. Learning to
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trust this gift, to embrace it with confidence despite its
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unconventional nature, has been one of my greatest challenges. When
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it's just there and there's no woo woo in sparkles,
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I find it difficult to go with it. That is
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where my journey is currently, and the pages for tomorrow
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are still yet to be written, and for once, I
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am truly excited to find out. The Skeptic Meta Physicians
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podcast has taught me some new techniques and insights that
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have helped build my confidence in my gifts. After finding
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particular resonance with one of the episodes, I left a
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comment sharing how it had inspired me with confidence to
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give my first to ROW reading. The opportunity came with
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my wife's friend, someone naturally skeptical, agreed to be my
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first subject. As I conducted the reading, she just sat there,
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nodding and smiling, a response that would typically make me
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second guess myself, Yet I remained grounded in my confidence.
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What I thought was reserved skepticism melted away when she exclaimed, Wow,
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that is exactly what I needed and was really accurate
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for what I'm doing and trying to do in my life.
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That moment of validation, especially coming from someone who approached
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the experience with healthy skepticism, reinforced that my gifts were
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real and meant to be shared. You all helped me
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with that confidence with your recent to Row episode with
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the founder of Biddy to Row. If I could give
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one message to all that are listening, it would be this,
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It's not the struggles and dark times we go through
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that define us. It's how we react to them and
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what we do afterwards that make us who we are.
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Believe it and it shall be. And lastly, weird, well,
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that's the new normal. This is a true story and
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I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed
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writing it. Chad, I love your story. Thank you so
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much for sharing it with us. You don't seem very
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very different than me in a lot of ways. I
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actually am also clear, cognizant, and yet have a very
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difficult time embracing it. You're right, there's no will with
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just kind of just there. And I've actually said to
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Karen a couple of times, I'm getting this like this,
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but I'm not. I don't know if it's real or
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if I'm just making it up. And almost every time
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when we go to verify the facts, they have seemed
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to have come to be true. So keep at it,
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don't lose hope, don't feel like you're making it up.
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The more you use it, the more confident you'll become,
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the better you'll be at it, the more you'll be
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able to help others with this gift that you have, yes,
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your own superpower. All right, chat, thank you so much
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for sending us over. This was a wonderful read. And
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if you out there are listening and you have a
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similar story or another story that you feel the audience
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would really benefit from listening, to send it to us.
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Send us an email Skeptic Metaphysician at g dot com.
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You could always reach me at will at Skeptic Metaphysician
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dot com, or you can always reach out to us
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to our contact us page on our website. However, Chad
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alerted us to the fact that you can only send