Practice #37 - Your Environment Is The Key To Success

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,480 I want to take you back eight months ago. Eight months ago I was pretty well into my 2 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:13,600 self-improvement journey. I was very happy with my results that I've seen so far. I've been going 3 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:21,200 to the gym for almost two years at that point. I had been eating healthy, exercising. My physique 4 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:30,320 was very nice. I've been doing all these things. Very happy with my progress. And then I, at that 5 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:34,880 point I've been really starting to focus on my health. Like all these environmental factors, 6 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:43,120 like estrogenics and all these chemicals that I'm exposed to on a daily basis. And so also at this 7 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:50,000 point I'm still watching YouTube videos. I'm scrolling through YouTube all the time, watching 8 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:58,080 stuff. And there's one video that my friend sent me because he sent me a video called esoteric 9 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,720 sleep guide because he was really focusing on improving his sleep and he thought that that 10 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:09,040 video would be helpful to me. So I watched the video and he's basically talking about all these 11 00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:16,720 different things you can do to improve your sleep. And he talks about like non-sleep deep rest 12 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:23,680 before going to bed. He also talks about your actual room, your environment, your pillow. 13 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:33,040 And then he also talks about how your bed is actually bad for you. And that piqued my attention. 14 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:39,680 He was talking about how most people's beds are actually made of harmful chemicals, harmful 15 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:45,280 materials that are bad for your health. And you're soaking in that like eight to 10 hours a night, 16 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:55,440 every single night. So like basically a third of your life is spent soaking in these chemicals. 17 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:01,600 Now he didn't say like that. He didn't say it like that, but that's basically what he was saying. 18 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:08,800 And that obviously since I was really focused on my health, that piqued my interest. And so he 19 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:20,720 provided a few different solutions. One solution was to get a new bed and he suggested this brand 20 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:26,880 that was that created very like natural beds and didn't have any harmful chemicals in them. 21 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:32,160 But it was pretty pricey. It was very expensive like in the thousands of dollars, I think. And 22 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:39,440 mind you, I am a broke high school student. So that was not an option for me. And the second option 23 00:02:39,440 --> 00:02:47,600 was very interesting to me because it he basically suggested a tatami mat, which is basically 24 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:55,680 where they took grass and wove it together and created a mat out of it. It's basically like sleeping 25 00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:04,640 on the floor. And then he said that the samurai's actually slept on those. So this and I'm thinking 26 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:10,720 to myself, oh, these samurai's like they are hardened people like they are beasts, like they are men. 27 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:17,760 And then I'm thinking like they slept on the floor. So that piqued my interest because one, 28 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:27,040 it's pretty cool to sleep on the floor. Like that makes you a hard person. And then two, 29 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:32,640 it's also helping your health, which is what my focus was at that time. 30 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:41,920 So I finished watching the video. And what do I do? Absolutely nothing relatable, right? You 31 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,960 watch a whole YouTube video and don't take any action. Yep. So I finished watching this video 32 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:55,680 and then go on with my life. And a couple weeks later, I, a couple weeks later, I start thinking, 33 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:01,040 I wanted to start focusing on meditation and I wanted to get meditation actually consistent 34 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:07,040 in my routine. And at this point, I'd been meditating inconsistently for maybe a year. And 35 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:12,960 the reason why I was inconsistent was because I would always meditate after my gym session. 36 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:19,520 So after my workout, I would meditate at the gym in like the yoga studio. And it was not 37 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:27,120 consistent because sometimes the studio would be blocked, like they would be used, or I simply 38 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,960 just would take a rest day from the gym. And then I wouldn't be able to meditate that day. 39 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:40,400 And so I needed a solution on how to actually make my bed or I wanted to make my, I want to, 40 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:45,840 okay, so I needed a solution on how to get consistent at meditation. And so I'm thinking to 41 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:51,520 myself, well, what's the simplest way to get consistent at something? Well, add it to your 42 00:04:51,520 --> 00:05:01,200 routine. And what type, like what part of your day is basically a guarantee to accomplish certain 43 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:07,760 things the morning. So I decided to add meditation to my morning routine. And I'm thinking, well, 44 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:15,120 one issue that I had with meditation in the past was I attached it to a location that I wasn't 45 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:22,160 guaranteed to be at every day. And that was an issue. So the solution was attach it to a, or 46 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:28,080 attach it to a location that I was guaranteed to be at every single day, which was the place, 47 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:33,840 the simplest place that came to mind was my room, because I sleep in my room. So that's 48 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:38,720 basically a guarantee that I'm going to be there every single day. Because I'm at my house, 49 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:44,720 I live at my house the majority of the year, like we only go on vacation a couple times a year. So 50 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:51,680 I'm trying to think like, how can I cultivate a perfect environment for my, 51 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:59,840 for meditation in my room? And a couple days go by where I try to meditate on the floor right next 52 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:08,400 right next to my bed. And it just is uncomfortable. I didn't really like it. And I found that like 53 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:17,120 the situation was not very good. And then so I'm thinking like, how can I figure this out? And then 54 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:26,640 in a moment, in an instant, a flash came to my mind, like I instantly remembered the tatami mat. 55 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:34,000 And I was like, Oh, tatami mat meditation. And then another flash came to mind. I instantly 56 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,640 visualize like this image of my room in the future. I like, or not necessarily in the future, but I 57 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,920 visualized a possibility of what my room could look like. And it was just completely empty 58 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:52,880 with nothing but a tatami mat. And at this point, my room is, it's got like, it's pretty full. It's 59 00:06:52,880 --> 00:07:05,040 got a bed, a fan, air purifier, a drawer, a dresser, like all kinds of things. And my room is not 60 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:12,160 very big. It's pretty small actually. So it actually used to be an office. So it's not too big of a 61 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:21,840 space. And so I basically think like, Oh, that's perfect. I can get this tatami mat and it'll help 62 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:29,600 improve my health. And then it also be extremely beneficial to create my environment for this 63 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:34,960 for meditation, create an optimal environment for meditation. And another thing that I saw in my 64 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:42,960 image, like this vision that I saw in my mind was blackout curtains on my door and my window 65 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:49,760 to block out all the light. So I can have absolute darkness for my sleep, because I was also thinking 66 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:57,760 about how I could optimize my sleep as well. So all of these things, it was a perfect storm of like, 67 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:04,160 three or four different benefits from buying this one thing. So I made the decision, I bought the mat. 68 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:09,200 And I didn't want to go ahead and get rid of my bed right away, because I didn't know how 69 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:14,960 like it would feel to sleep on the mat. I didn't know if it would be impossible to sleep on it. 70 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:19,920 And I also bought the pillow that I went back to that YouTube video and bought the pillow that he 71 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:24,560 recommended, because I found that the pillow that I use, like it was like a feather pillow, 72 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:30,320 it was not very comfortable. Oftentimes, it would leave my head or my neck strained for the rest of 73 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:36,880 the day. So I bought this pillow. And it was a buckwheat pillow that's like adjustable in size. 74 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:43,520 Perfect for me. So I bought the pillow, bought the mat and they came and I slept on the mat 75 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:50,720 in the corner of my room, the only open space in my room for the first night. And I slept 76 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:57,040 fine is all right for the first night. And I loved it. Like I didn't actually sleep that great, 77 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:03,520 because I wasn't used to sleeping on the mat yet. But I loved it because I just love the vibe it 78 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:09,840 created. So the next day, I just went through and stripped my entire room of everything. And I put 79 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:16,720 all of the things that were kind of essential for my day to day living in my closet. So I was putting 80 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:23,680 my like drawer, like my cabinet drawer, and then my dresser in my closet. So now the only thing in 81 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:32,240 my room is my tatami mat and like a fan and like a journal. And that's it. And the air purifier. 82 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:42,080 So I'm thinking like, this is my room now. And in reflection, in hindsight, there was actually a 83 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:50,720 hidden fifth benefit to that, which outweighed all of the other benefits. And this benefit was so 84 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:59,520 powerful that it actually propelled me on a journey that caused me to improve my life and improve my 85 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:08,080 rate of self improvement 10 fold so much more. And it was the simple environment change that I made. 86 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:17,280 Now let me explain. Before my room looked normal. It was just a room that 99% of people had, like the 87 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:26,960 majority of people had. It was common. And as a result, I was holding myself to that standard. I saw 88 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:32,240 my environment and I was like, Oh, this is just who I am. I am common. I'm an average person. 89 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:37,520 And then when I made that change in my room and made it completely different. 90 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:48,160 Now my room is uncommon. My room is a room that only 1% of people have, like not very many people 91 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:57,440 have this type of room. So now my environment, now I'm holding myself to a much different standard, 92 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:02,240 according to my environment. Now I look around and I see my environment. I'm like, this is who I am. 93 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:13,360 I hold myself to a much higher uncommon standard, the 1% standard. So the change to my physical 94 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:21,040 environment actually caused me to hold myself up to much higher standard. And it's also not just a 95 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:26,640 conscious standard. It's a subconscious thing too. Like I wasn't very conscious of the fact that, 96 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:33,680 Oh, this is my room. This is how I am. It was a subconscious thing. It wasn't very some, it wasn't 97 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:39,760 something I was aware of. Even like with my room today, I'm not really like conscious of the fact 98 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:45,920 that I'm holding myself up to a higher like a level that's in parallel to my environment. 99 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:52,640 But it's definitely there. Like I'm definitely holding myself up to a higher level. And so much 100 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:58,400 so that my rate of self improvement improved so much faster. And I was, I found that I was pushing 101 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:05,200 myself a lot harder, a lot easier, just because that was just who I am now. That was just my identity. 102 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:13,040 And I didn't really connect all of these dots until today. Like I do a daily walk every day. 103 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:17,280 And over the past couple of days, I've been really reflective over like different changes that I've 104 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:22,400 made, because I'm trying to figure out like brainstorm this video idea that I'm coming up with. 105 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:31,120 And one of the conclusions I came to was, I have an uncommon room. So now I'm holding myself to an 106 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:40,080 uncommon standard. So that's like, that's the true power of having of taking control of your 107 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:45,680 environment. Your environment is really the standard that you set for yourself. Your environment 108 00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:53,600 sets the precedent for who you become. And there are actually like your that's your physical 109 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:58,960 environment. And I came to the conclusion that there's actually three different types of environments. 110 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,840 There's the physical environment, the mental environment and the social environment. But 111 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:09,040 right now I just want to focus on the physical environment just temporarily because your room 112 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:18,160 is not the only type of physical environment. Your workspace, your kitchen, your house, your home, 113 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:27,440 like anywhere that you're spending time in that's a physical location, like any physical area around 114 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:33,520 you from a day to day basis is your physical environment. And it doesn't have to be a room 115 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:41,440 or a place. It could also be simple things. Like one thing that I realized was like cleanliness. If 116 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:49,520 your environment is dirty, like if you allow dust to build up, or if you allow the dishes to build 117 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:56,320 up in the kitchen, like this is your environment as well. So it could be temporary things and it 118 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:03,840 could be more long term things. So that's your physical environment. And I also want to talk about 119 00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:12,800 your mental environment. And to explain this, I want to bring your attention to, I want to, 120 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:22,960 I want to tell you a story of a man who will call Johnny. Now, Johnny is just an average person. 121 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:29,600 He's a sleeper, which basically means that he goes about his day, like it's a daydream. He's not 122 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:40,480 very conscious or he's not really trying to control his reality. He's just kind of getting 123 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:47,280 swept along life, getting swept along by the current. And this is a very common thing. Like 124 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:55,840 most people are like this. And Johnny, he doesn't control his thoughts. His mental landscape, his 125 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:03,040 like inner mental mind, his like inner monologue and all like everything that's going on in his mind 126 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:11,040 is a wild land. He lets it, he lets his mental landscape 127 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:20,560 shape, ravage uncontrollably. He allows his thought process to be uncontrolled. And as a result, 128 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:31,280 he's living a extremely uncontrolled life. He's living a life that is not very great to live. 129 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:41,920 Johnny, often Johnny does not have very high self control. He gets put into, he actually succumbs 130 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:49,360 to instant gratification a lot. He is not able to discipline himself. He doesn't control his thoughts. 131 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:59,680 And now, now I want to talk about another person, Jonathan. Jonathan is the macho alpha man 132 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:10,000 that everyone looks up to. Jonathan lives such a life of self control that he does not give into 133 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:20,800 instant gratification like Johnny does. Jonathan lives such a life that he, his life is always 134 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:30,640 getting better week after week. In 10 years, Jonathan's life will be extremely, will be so much better 135 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:40,560 than it was. Now, and Jonathan, his mental landscape is very controlled. He understands the importance 136 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:51,200 of Jonathan understands that self control is a law of success. Jonathan also understands that 137 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:59,200 self control is solely a matter of thought control. And with this simple understanding, 138 00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:07,040 he takes extreme care over his mental landscape. He does not let negative thoughts 139 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:15,760 inside of his mind. And he does not allow uncontrolled emotions or uncontrolled thoughts 140 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:26,400 to ravage his mental landscape. And as a result, his life is a extremely disciplined, disciplined 141 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:34,480 and controlled, peaceful, very inspiring life. It's an amazing life, the type of life that 142 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:48,480 people long for. And Jonathan just understands the simple fact that your reality is a reflection 143 00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:57,120 of your mind. And he understands that if he simply just controls his mind, then he will be able to 144 00:17:57,120 --> 00:18:05,680 shape his world into how he desires. And he understands that this takes a long time, but it 145 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:12,000 does work and it does happen. So what's the difference between Johnny and Jonathan? Well, 146 00:18:13,120 --> 00:18:17,600 Jonathan, there's a lot actually, there's a lot of differences. But one key difference from this 147 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:24,000 story is that Jonathan actually controls his mental landscape or his mental environment. 148 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:31,680 He understands the importance of your environment. And he also knows that your mental is an extremely 149 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:39,440 powerful environment. Because I would go so far to argue that it is the only environment. 150 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:49,040 It is the base. It's the stem of the way we live. It is the origin of how we experience life. 151 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:57,200 Your mental environment is primary. And the physical environment is secondary. For many reasons. 152 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:05,120 One reason, your world, the world is a mirror. But also another reason is your experiencing 153 00:19:05,120 --> 00:19:11,120 the world or interpreting the world through your mind. And you can change those interpretations 154 00:19:11,120 --> 00:19:21,280 based off of your controlled attention and your selection of your thoughts. So that's the mental 155 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:27,120 environment. And then I want to talk about the third type of environment, which is the social 156 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:35,120 environment. There is a well known quote called, you are the average of the five people you spend 157 00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:42,000 the most time with. This quote is so well known that it became a household quote. So the point 158 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:52,320 where parents actually warn their children early on in life, they warn them who they choose as 159 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:58,960 friends. Who they choose. They're like, they warn them to carefully choose their friends. Because 160 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:06,960 they understand that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. 161 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:14,320 And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So that means that the 162 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:24,160 people around you are shaping who you are. So all of these, let's say you're hanging out with drug 163 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:31,200 addicts. They are shaping you to become a drug addict. Let's say you're hanging out with 164 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:42,000 people who are addicted to social media or addicted to candy addicted to fast food. Or if you're even 165 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:51,360 less extreme, you're hanging out with the common person, the 99% the average person, you're hanging 166 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:59,360 out with mediocrity, well then you will become that as well. So this is a thing that is very 167 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:06,720 important to understand. Because you, the five people you spend your most time with are shaping 168 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:14,560 you into who you will become. Now you may think, oh, there's no hope. But there is because you can 169 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:24,080 actually choose who you hang out with. But even if it takes a long term effort to change who you 170 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:32,560 hang out with, for example, let's say you are in a financial situation where you have to kind of be 171 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:39,600 around this person for a long term time before you can move on. Even if you're in a situation like 172 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:47,280 even if you're in a situation like that, it's not all lost because there is a principle and it's a 173 00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:56,160 principle of suggestion. So this principle is basically how your environment, everything around 174 00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:03,200 you is sending you information and you're sending it to your subconscious mind. And your subconscious 175 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:09,600 mind takes it literally and the subconscious mind does not have reasoning. It basically takes everything 176 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:15,840 that's said to it and it becomes a part of itself. So that's why the quote, you are the average of 177 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,480 five people you spend the most time with is true because the five people that you spend the most 178 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:28,320 time with are sending you basically information of who you are. So they're basically acting their 179 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:37,360 lives out and then they're simultaneously sending your subconscious information on who you are. 180 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:43,840 So does that make sense? Your subconscious is interpreting all this information and as a result 181 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:51,440 it's taking it and becoming, it's basically taking that information and putting it back into itself 182 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:59,600 and it's becoming that. So the five people around you are sending your subconscious information and 183 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:04,560 that subconscious is basically consuming that information and now it's becoming a part of it. 184 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:10,720 So with that said, that's the principle of suggestion. But then there's also the principle 185 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:19,120 of auto suggestion which is your conscious mind communicates to your subconscious mind. So the 186 00:23:19,120 --> 00:23:24,960 principle of auto suggestion is anything you say to yourself. So that's what affirmations are. 187 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:32,160 Anything you say to yourself becomes a part of yourself. So that's why negative self talk is 188 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:36,720 very dangerous because you're basically telling yourself that this is who you are, whether it's 189 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:42,320 negative or positive. And that's why positive affirmations are very beneficial and good because 190 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:49,280 that's, you're telling yourself that's what you are. And this principle of auto suggestion actually 191 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:56,960 has plays a key part because when you are experiencing the world, you're experiencing it 192 00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:02,480 through your mind. And there are two parts of the mind, the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. 193 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:10,400 And it's the subconscious mind job to basically gather all the information and make it a part 194 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:16,800 of itself. And then it's the subcon... Okay, so the... Since the subconscious mind can't really 195 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:22,480 decipher the information, it just trusts everything that it's given to it. That means that it's the 196 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:31,120 consciousness, the conscious mind's job to protect the subconscious at all costs. So that means it's 197 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:41,280 our conscious mind's job to filter all information sent to us and filter out the bad and only send 198 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:48,640 the good to our subconscious because everything that gets sent to the subconscious becomes a part 199 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:55,520 of ourselves. So with that understanding, we take a look at the quote you are the average of the 200 00:24:55,520 --> 00:25:03,200 five people you spend the most time with. This quote can actually be defended. So let me explain. 201 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:13,040 You can actually fight against that. So the five people you spend time with, they are sending you 202 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:21,760 information through the principle of suggestion. But all suggestion has to get filtered through 203 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:27,280 your consciousness before it can be sent to your subconscious through the principle of 204 00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:35,360 auto suggestion. So that means that all all information sent to your subconscious is through 205 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:42,400 auto suggestion and not suggestion. So suggestion alone cannot make it to your subconscious. So 206 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:52,080 suggestion alone is not dangerous. It's only dangerous when it gets through the conscious mind, 207 00:25:52,800 --> 00:26:02,160 the sentinel guard of our being. So with that said, that let's tie this back to the mental 208 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:09,280 environment because when you're controlling your thoughts, you can control all of the information 209 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:16,080 sent to your subconscious mind. And that's where the social environment plays a key role because 210 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:21,360 if you're in a bad social environment where you're surrounding yourself with negative people, 211 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:28,720 that you don't want to be like people that are not indicative of your goals. These people are 212 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:37,520 basically sending you suggestions and you have a choice. You can either control your thoughts and be 213 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:44,240 impeccable in your attention, controlling your attention and not let any of that garbage in 214 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:54,240 or you can be like Johnny and be a sleeper and just let everything in. So that is the decision 215 00:26:54,240 --> 00:27:00,800 that we're making on a day to day basis. And that is where you can actually defend against your 216 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:07,680 social environment. So understanding that, I want to be careful because you may think that 217 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:16,960 you can now be immune and now it's okay to hang out with whoever you want. And I want to be careful. 218 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:28,240 I want to warn you because your conscious mind will slip up. No matter how hard you try, your 219 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:33,520 conscious mind will slip up and there will be a stream of information sent to your subconscious 220 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:41,760 that you do not want there. It takes years of practice. That's what the monks do. The monks go 221 00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:51,120 out into the temple and they meditate for years just to attain impeccable thought control. So 222 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:57,440 you're not going to be able to just be impeccable in your thought control right away. It gets a skill 223 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:04,400 that takes years to cultivate. And so that's why you got to be careful with your social environment 224 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:12,640 because yes, you can protect against a lot of it if you're conscious and you decide to do it. 225 00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:19,360 But you should only do that in cases like I explained earlier where you can't really make a 226 00:28:19,360 --> 00:28:26,640 short term. Like you can't really change it unless you change it in the long term. Like this is your 227 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:33,040 life for now. So like for example, you're financially dependent on someone. You're basically 228 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:40,240 dependent on them to be there and then it'll be a long term change to become financially independent. 229 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:47,920 So that's why you should definitely focus on your social environment. And in most cases, 230 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,480 you can change your social environment. You can stop hanging out with friends. You can move on from 231 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:59,280 people. But that's the third type of your environment, the social environment. And to recap, 232 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:03,440 this physical environment, the mental environment and the social environment, they're all extremely 233 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:09,840 important and they should all be taken extreme care and attention towards. And they're all connected 234 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:23,360 as well.