Episode 144: The Self Healing Series - The Mind Body Connection & Healing Back Pain with Michael Galinsky - Part 2
Happy #๐ก๐ฒ๐๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ช๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ in our Self-Healing series. This week, the ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐! ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฑ hosts PART 2 of Erinโs conversation with Michael Galinsky: filmmaker, cinematographer, photographer, musician, and owner of Rumur, a production and distribution company. (In case you missed Part 1, tune in to Episode 143!)
Erin and Michael continue to dissect the role our mental health plays in our physical health through the lens of ALL THE RAGE, a film Michael co-directed about Dr. John Sarnoโs holistic, trauma-informed healthcare perspective.
ICYMI โ Your Post-Episode Homework: Take today's episode, marinate on it, journal about it, share it with a friend, because the purpose of today's show is to make you feel like you are not alone. The purpose of this series is to make you understand that healing can be possible with the power of your own mind. That what we put into our brain tells our body a story.
And if you can heal your mind, you can heal your body, and then you can help others heal.
Press play now, and get ready for a conversation that doesnโt skimp on โahaโ moments.
About Michael Galinsky:
Michael is a filmmaker, photographer, and musician. Along with his wife Suki, heโs produced six award-winning feature films and dozens of shorts. His latest book of photos is called Malls Across America, published by Steidl-Miles. Michael is a contributing editor for International Documentary Magazine, where he writes articles about filmmaking and distribution. Raised in Chapel Hill, Michael graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Religious Studies from New York University. He previously played bass for Sleepyhead.
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Connect with Erin Diehl:
Email Erin: info@learntoimproveit.com
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief โYes, Andโ officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. Sheโs a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, โget comfortable with the uncomfortable.โ Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We canโt wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 144 Transcription
Erin (00:02):
Improve it! Peeps. All right, we are back with part two of this episode with Michael Galinsky, all about the mind body connection, healing back pain, reprocessing, or processing unprocessed emotions. And I thought that this episode, again, needed two parts because it's so important. We're talking about a lot of stuff today. And I just wanna set up this caveat that some of this might be triggering for some people. So just understand that we are talking about childhood and trauma and unprocessed emotions in our bodies. So listen in a safe space and know that this book is a part of a self-healing journey. This film is a part of a self-healing journey, and that today's guest is again, a part two of an episode that came out last week. So if you haven't listened to part one, make sure to do so. There's also some language in today's episode, so if you're with the kiddos, put some earmuffs on.
Erin (01:13):
Now, we talked a lot about in this very first episode, Michael, how the film got made, Dr. Sarno, but I wanted to really hone in on Sarno himself before we dive in, because Dr. Sarno came to understand this problem and predicted the epidemic of chronic can beginning in the 1970s. Now, when he compared his patients' charts, he found that more than 80% of patients had a history of at least two other psychosomatic illnesses like ulcers, migraines, eczema, or colitis. And he thought that the stresses of life might be causing the pain. When he talked to his patients further, he found that most of them were perfectionists who put themselves under unreasonable amounts of unconscious pressure to be perfect and good. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Dang. Here she is. So, I want you to really listen to today's show because I know a lot of us resonate with that.
Erin (02:16):
We are lifelong learners. We care about our people sometimes putting the needs of them before ourselves. We want to show up in the best way possible, put our best foot forward, constantly be learning. So just know that that was a lot of Sarno's work was that underlying issue. He found that a lot of overachievers tend to drive themselves to have chronic pain through this disassociation of unprocessed emotions. So when Sarno suggested to his patients that they make the connection between their emotions, including their tendencies to put themselves under extreme pressure and their pain, they rapidly improved. His visionary insights revealed that the unconscious mind was activating the automatic nervous system, and that the repression of unconscious rage was a major contributor to pain. Over the course of his 50 plus years in practice, he developed and adapted his treatment into four bestselling books, which have been translated into over 30 languages. Again, Michael Galinsky was a patient of Sarno Hez father was a patient of Sarno, and Michael got to interact with Sarno quite intimately as they created this film.
Erin (03:37):
I can't wait for you to hear part two. Let's just dive right on in and get to improving it with Michael Galinsky, the amazing, brilliant mind behind the documentary, all the Rage. Are you a leader searching for new and innovative ways to drive employee engagement and team morale through the roof? Do you wanna create a company culture where everyone feels seen, heard and valued? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business Improv edutainer, failfluencer and Professional Zoombie who is ready to help you improve your it, your IT being the thing that makes you, you think of me as your keeping it real professional development bestie who is here to help you learn from your failures, stand tall in your power and improve yourself so you can improve the lives of others. Oh, and did I mention that we are improving your IT through play? That's right. I am an improvisational comedy expert who uses experiential learning to help you have your aha haha moments. Those are the moments when the light bulb goes off and you're laughing at the same time. So grab your chicken hat, your notebook, and your inner child, because I'm gonna take you on a journey that is both fun and transformative. Welcome to the Improve It Podcast.
Erin (05:13):
I wanna make sure we tell our audience too, just about TMS and just how you can heal through identifying these psychological factors without drugs, without surgery, without exercise. And part of this, what I found really fascinating, and this is where I think a lot of people will resonate, is that we talk, he talks, Sarno talks a lot about how it's a lot of self-motivated and successful people are prone to t m s. And you were talking, you got the house, you had the kid, you had this successful career, you had all these things going, and that's when you had the flare up of back pain. Can you just talk a little bit about the psychological aspect of the perfectionist, the overachiever and how it relates to t m s And if you identified with that as well.
Michael (06:10):
Absolutely. So when, when you read Dr. Sarno, what you find out is that he, so he was dealing with back pain and he was, had been taught all the standard care stuff like physical therapy, bedrest, traction. That's what they were doing. And none of it was really working. So he went to look at the data to see if there was any that supported it. And there was none. It was just what people had been taught and it was standard. It was, it just what people did. And it, there was no data to say that work. And he saw that it didn't. So then he looked at his patient's charts and he found that 80% of 'em had a history of other psychosomatic issues. Right. Like migraines, colitis, other stomach issues, skin issues, things like that, that had previously been discussed as being stress related ulcers.
Michael (06:56):
Right? Yeah. So then he went and he started talking to his patients more, right? Like we were saying at the very beginning of this, what's the first thing you should ask? What's going on in your life? That's what he started to ask. And he found that almost all of them would bring up something that was incredibly stressful, but would immediately dismiss it. So, you know what's going on in your life. Do you have any stresses? Well, I mean, my, my mother-in-law lives with us and it's, it's really wonderful because she watches the kids, she makes dinner sometimes. Yeah. But that must be really hard, right? To like not have your own space. Well, it is a little. And then finally getting them to admit that, yeah, it's really enraging. Wow. Well, I think that's a source of your back pain because you're living in a situation that causes you constant rage, but you have no way to deal with it. Oh, wow. Okay. And then they would get better.
Erin (07:44):
Yeah.
Michael (07:45):
They didn't have to do anything except recognize that was, you know, at the beginning of his practice, he found that happened a lot. And he started to have incredible success, just getting people to reorient. Then he actually found that people were getting stuck and so he would send them to a therapist and that he, he had therapists who understood what was going on that he worked closely with. And then he realized, you know what, people need to be able to talk about this. And he developed the journaling process and then he's had small group meetings and then he had success panels. So he was building all these tools that people could use, but the guy is doing it in a dark cave by himself with no colleagues to bounce any ideas off. So he was ha struggling in the same way, like he was in an completely enraging environment for 40 years, but having to do it all by himself.
Michael (08:29):
Yeah. But even that gave him insight. Cause he, he would often have psycho issues and he would to go sit and think, oh, it was that meeting and then that issue would go away. Right. And so he just kinda insulated himself and just, you know, and even in that, cuz the culture wasn't ready. What's exciting now, right? Is there are so many other doctors like Dr. Clark who wrote, that's another book I found right when we started the movie. So we started the movie, there was nobody doing any of this and there was no, none of this was happening, right? There was no awareness. And you know, then you have someone do the ace study, right? That was started in 91, I think it came out in 99. And it wasn't until about 2010 that anybody started to pay attention to it. And the ace study is the adverse childhood experience study in which they, I think they had 80 patients.
Michael (09:19):
They asked 10 questions about possible adverse childhood events, which would mean like a divorce, single parenting, a drug addicted parent, other, all kind of different, a parent dying when you're young, if you had four or more adverse childhood effects, you died 20 years earlier, you had like 150% more chance of getting, that's, that's an exaggeration, but it like wildly more high chances of getting heart disease and cancer. So, but it took a, and and you had such a huge broad swath of people that it, it made it clear that these adverse effects affect everybody and they may manifest in different ways. So that's the beginning of trauma informed awareness, right? And there were people who understood this, but that's the science that started to show it. But it took years and years and years for that move through the field. Now it's, it's general, there's a general awareness that trauma affects us.
Michael (10:17):
We talk about trauma-informed all the time. That word was not in use when we first made the movie, which was now six or six years ago, almost seven years ago that we put up the movie. So yeah, it's almost seven years. So it's like in that time awareness has risen. And so actually I'm finding even more that the movie connects with people because there's less resistance. It makes sense. Just like, you know, you said it's like the reading the book then watching the movie is the perfect combination. Cause you read the book and people read the book and say, well, it makes sense, but it's not really doing it. Then the film kind of helps you sometimes forces you to have an emotional experience. And that emotional experience is really an awareness. I, I know I'm just on this train, but I'll tell you one other thing. Like yeah. When I go and show the movie and like, I did a lot of touring with the movie. At first, every screening someone comes up and says, literally it's word forward. I don't mean to bother you. And I go, oh no, it's fine. And by the way, I feel it, it's right here. Cuz you paying attention and you become kinda more, you're like, it's all stuck right here. And they're like,
Erin (11:22):
Yeah. Oh. And then they
Michael (11:23):
Start crying.
Erin (11:25):
They, oh, I could cry.
Michael (11:28):
We're permission. We're not, we're not permission to be emotional in public, but so in it stuck. And they were like, I don't understand it. I'm like, no, no, I'm aware of it. It's right here. Right? And they're like, yeah, it's okay to feel that. In fact you kinda need to, and they may, sometimes they can't. But I'm like, it's here. I see it. We, we have this awareness. Go home, you'll deal with
Erin (11:51):
It. Yeah. And you're pointing to your heart for those of you, you who, who aren't, we're not having on video, you're pointing to your heart. Yeah. And that's, that is like that right there. That permission, that word. I love that word so much. And I'm, I'm reading into the Wilderness right now by Brene Brown. I like, you know, all these self journey books. And she talks about giving herself permission slips. And I feel like that is really what you're giving is yourself a permission slip to dive into the things that you've disassociated yourself from through work, through perfectionism, through whatever it may be. It looks different for every person Right.
Michael (12:29):
To feel that's because you were punished for it.
Erin (12:34):
Yes, yes.
Michael (12:35):
You know, and, and again, it's, there's no, there's no value in blaming our parents for that because we have to remember Right. Our parents, when I were talking about that trauma of World War and World War ii, at least for me, my generation, that was my parents. Yeah. Right. They like my, my father's family, his parents came over from Lithuania in 1908 and in, and I only after his death researched this, but there was in 42 there was the countless prog pogrom in Lithuania where every Jew was killed by their neighbors. The Germans marched in, they handed out axes and shovels and they said, you know, if you kill your neighbor, you can have their house. And that's what happened. And you know, my dad never talked about any of this. I don't know it, but I look back and like, oh, obviously that word came back when he was about eight years old.
Michael (13:24):
And there must have been so much trauma in that household. His parents also came over as traumatized people as eight-year olds fleeing poms then. Right? Sure. You know, and, and then he wanted to be, he was a psychologist, right? My mom was a social worker. But they never really dealt with their own. Right? Yeah. So, and, and that made me even more cynical. Cause here are these people saying that this is what they deal with. And they were, they would, they were really inappropriate in a lot of ways. Right? And they weren't they had some difficulty with being present and loving in a way that children need. And yet ire awesome parents. And I'm, that's not to say they're terrible people. It's more that awareness. Like, oh, well that's where that comes from. And it's, this gets even more interesting cause when my wife and I actually, at the time I had the back problems the first time.
Michael (14:11):
We also had a dog who was difficult. Pit buller was awesome dog. But he was also difficult, right? We just got a puppy pit bull rottweiler. And, and I had no intention. I was like, my kids are about grown. I don't want a dog. My kids were wanting a dog. No. Then I saw a woman holding this puppy and I was like, oh my God, that puppy's so cute. And she's like, oh, well you can have it. I was like, no I can't. And it was impossible cause I held the dog for half an hour and I said, there's no way I was not having that dog. Right?
Erin (14:39):
Oh my God.
Michael (14:40):
But then I got this I, I, so I posted, I'm gonna have this dog. And a friend of mine who I didn't actually really know, just a Facebook friend was like, Hey, I'm a dog trainer if you need some advice. And so he sent me down the path of positive dog training, no punishment. Because the punishment does not help you ignore the things that you don't want to happen. And you heavily reward the things that you do. And you have a happy, settled dog. Yep. Who knows what is expected, but doesn't get punished for what's not expected.
Erin (15:11):
Yep.
Michael (15:12):
It's crazy because even this process is helping me to continue to be a better parent, to be more aware of just like how the energy, like you may not, this is the thing, right? We think of punishment as like I'm yelling at you, but punishment can also be a quiet and contained rage. Like your behavior is unacceptable. And that withholding of, so there is this issue of you, you ignore it. But like when you actively ignore as a parrot silent treatment stuff, things like that. Cause you're not doing the right thing. It's really painful for the children. Again, we didn't know it can't blame people, but you can't ask people to remember it or now own that and continue to, to self-heal. Even as 70 year olds.
Erin (15:54):
Yeah. To be
Michael (15:55):
Old. Oh yeah, you're right. Like I hear you're not blaming me, but I can see, and actually if you try to talk to your parent now and you do it as a gift, right? I'm not blaming you, but I'm aware of this and I've learned from it. It may help you. They may not listen, but it may help.
Erin (16:13):
I love that so much. And I think that a lot of the behavioral things that you're talking about, they show up as parents, they show up as leaders, they show up as team members. They show up in so many different ways. And I feel like the positive reward, the rewarding, the good behavior. I'm a parent who have a three-year-old right now. Like I'm doing the exact same things that you are doing with the dog training and it's actually working. And I feel like I respond well to it.
Erin (16:46):
Hey, improve it! Peeps. I wanted to interrupt your learning really quick to thank you for turning into this show. Now, each week myself and the entire improvement team are working tirelessly to give you the content you deserve to help you youth play to become your best self personally and professionally. Now, if you wanted to return the thank you, that's okay. You don't have to. But if you did, would you leave us a five star review on iTunes? It takes two minutes to leave five stars and maybe a comment or two on how this show has impacted you. Just scroll to the bottom of this show on iTunes and you'll see the opportunity to leave five stars. Now, once you do that, please send a screenshot, take a screenshot from your phone and email it to info learn to improve it.com. That is info learn to improve it.com.
Erin (17:43):
This way we know it's from you. We will be drawing one name per month to send an Improve It podcast care package too. This care package is the bees maze. It will include branded goodies from the show, some of our favorite books and products from previous guests and a few more surprises. So thank you for the opportunity to tell you Thank you. And if you want to thank me by leaving a review, then I will say thank you by potentially sending you a care package that shows our full appreciation. So thank you for thanking me and we thank you will really like the goodies in the care package. Okay. Back to improving it. Thanks.
Erin (18:30):
What I love that you said in that was that giving that gift, if you've had challenging conversations with a parent or a teammate or a coworker saying, you know, I'm aware of this. I'm not blaming you. That language is so fantastic. I'm aware of this. I'm not blaming you and here's how I'm moving forward. I think for so many of us, that could be a really awesome, tangible thing to do when we feel unprocessed emotions come up that we've buried deep inside us and we have those aha moments of, well that's why I'm feeling this way and perhaps that's why this is causing me physical pain. I can understand them, I can forgive that person, forgive myself. Most importantly,
Michael (19:16):
It's easy to hear that and go, oh, that should be simple. But it's not even when you bring it up, say with your parent, right? Like, this is something I wanna address with you and I'm, I'm working really hard not to blame you, but I can tell that I'm feeling angry, so please, you know, be aware that I'm aware of it and I'm really trying not to do that. Cause you know, this is an uncomfortable thing because then we sometimes put the pressure on ourselves to do it perfectly. Yeah. But if we can acknowledge that we're not gonna do it perfectly and that, that might inspire them to kind of inadvertently react. Right? It's this long process. There's a, there's that holistic psychologist on Instagram.
Erin (19:55):
Oh, I love her. Nicole Para. Yeah.
Michael (19:57):
Right Nicole. And that all of that advice is incredibly useful. Yes. Every time it's always useful and yet it's still difficult. Yes. And so, yeah, I, I think that's a really great if, if anybody's working on this stuff to just follow that because it's really well laid out and you know, but it's also very personal to her as well. So yes, this stuff is personal. So sometimes maybe it's, it's not gonna really fully apply to us, but that's her being, her personal journey, which is a little bit naked, but it crosses into that weird space where it's, oh, it's the expert, but it's also personal and those are hard. So we also have to be able to not fall into whatever thing. It's like. So some people, for instance, like Dr. Sarno, we'll go back to what we're saying his diagnosis was called TMS or syndrome, will call it the mind body syndrome.
Michael (20:46):
Use that same terminology. And the problem is with anything is people can become very like pedantic and very stuck in these ideas. Now you have to do it this way. But really, so the, the first line of our film is the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, shape our sense of who we're, and that's foundational. If we realize that we're telling ourselves a story about ourselves. Now some of that story is literally written in our genes. So it's a story that feels so profoundly us. But that story is a self-protective story. It's written in our genes because our genes are filled with trauma. And trauma tells us behave in a certain way to stay safe. And sometimes that safety isn't actually safe. It protects us in the same way that, you know, being in a little dam protects us. But in that little dam, we don't have resources if nobody's bringing resources and we have waste and we're gonna leave in the dam if we can't leave the dam.
Michael (21:44):
So we want the protective space at times, but we don't wanna stay stuck in that protective space. And, and the reason I'm bringing this up is tms, that was a way of kinda illuminating these ideas, but we don't wanna stay stuck in last line of the film is when Dr is leaving his office, he says, it all comes down to one simple idea. The mind and the body are intimately related. That's it. That's it. That's the whole story. The problem we face is in modern 20th century now, 21st century culture, we have divorced those two things and said they aren't connected and it can't be causing your physical illness. Your thoughts can't cause you illness. It's just not true. Now that doesn't mean that your thoughts are the only thing and there's nothing physical going on. But if we don't understand how the story we're telling ourselves about ourselves shape our body, we're we're
Erin (22:41):
Screwed. Yes. Oh my god, Michael, see, this is, you're, and that's why we need storytelling to lay this out for us. Because you can read a book and you can have your own picture. And the picture that you painted for us is so perfect from start to finish. I'm so freaking thrilled that this film exists. I'm so thrilled that you took your own journey, that you brought us into it, that you shared it, it feels naked like you said. And I'm sure that you hear from so many people that you've changed many lives because of it. You came on this show today and you're hopefully gonna change more lives from people all over the world. Let me ask you this we always say is the last question on this show, improve it is the name of our podcast, name of our company. The it is your purpose. It's the thing that you're meant to do. It's the thing that you're put on the earth to bring. What is Michael's. It,
Michael (23:37):
It's complicated, right? I have a drive to wanna help people. And that can be frustrating if people don't wanna be helped. So part of the the thing, the first question people ask at the end of the movie, how are you now? Are you healed? And I said, I, IM in a large degree, but we all have this same disease and it's called being human, right? Yeah. There is no cure for being human. We, you know what it going to kill us in the end, right? We are human beings and we are going to die. And it's, it's interesting, right?
Erin (24:08):
No truer word spoken right there. <Laugh>. Yeah, <laugh>.
Michael (24:11):
But you know, I'm actually, I'm doing a little struggling with that right now. I'm, I turned 54 in a couple of weeks and you know, my mom died a few years ago and you know, I'm just more aware of my own mortality and that in itself is stressful. So I'm having to process that. But the point of that, me bringing that up is we're all human is when we know you have the disease of humans, you can begin to treat that disease right? And you want, you can be healthier. And the way you do that is you continue to grow. So like when people say, are you healed? Like no, I mean yes and no, right? Like I don't have the same problems that I did then. But new problems arise. And if we, if we stay in this kinda getting to some destination, then we're, we're ne you know, you're gonna always feel like you're failing cause you can't reach that destination. Or you may reach that Dees destination say, I don't have to work at this anymore. And then it will bite you in the again. So the idea is just to be able to stay aware and, and to constantly grow. And it's like interesting in some ways. I'm like, God, I wish I could make that movie now because I know so much more now. But that movie was in that time and place and maybe there's another movie to follow.
Erin (25:20):
Yeah. Make another one. Yes.
Michael (25:22):
Yeah, it's hard. I mean actually I am starting another one and it's connected to what I was saying about genes, right? Like this stuff is written in our genes so we can kind of blame our parents for the, their behaviors. But they were behaving the way they were cuz it was in their genes and cause they were not brought up in very healthy environments as well. But those genes are really profound. So when I got outta college, I was a bike messenger, I worked for this animal rights guy, I did some production assistance and I was a sperm donor. And when I had two kids, I went into the hair salon on the corner and the woman there was like, you gotta go for your boy. And I was like, holy. Probably have some, because when I was a sperm donor, we grew up, my, my generation is grew up in the seventies, free to be you and me. It's all nurture. Especially like my father was psychologist, my brother was a social worker, it was nurture, which I was cynical about cause they weren't great nurturers, but it was like you, if we just, if we educate children properly with love and care, blah blah, they're all gonna be fine. And I heard a lot about, you know, adoptive kids looking for their birth mother, never a birth father. Cuz you thought it was the nurturers because they were in that womb, right? Not true.
Erin (26:39):
Wow.
Michael (26:40):
It turns out that the father's teens are just as important as mother's genes. And I became aware of that and that also those children need a connection to their biologic. It, it's the same thing as the, the trauma of like being told, oh your birth parents don't matter, but internally, you know, they do. Or you weren't even told you're adopted. Especially you're not told you had a sperm to parent. Right. You, your body knows there's something that's not
Erin (27:06):
Yeah, yeah. Right.
Michael (27:07):
And so I started a long project about that and I have all these characters I followed for years. But three years ago now, almost four years ago I was actually in the emergency room with my mom. She had pneumonia and I didn't know what was happening. I got a text from my cousin saying, Hey, I just got off the phone with your daughter Holly, do you remember you were a sperm daughter?
Erin (27:26):
Oh my god.
Michael (27:28):
And I was like, oh my god, that's her grandmother that's dying right there. But I texted her and said, I can't talk to you tonight cause I'm in the emergency room, but I'll call you mom. So I called her the next day, three weeks later we met and
Erin (27:43):
Oh my God, there's
Michael (27:44):
No way I wasn't her father.
Erin (27:46):
<Laugh>. Oh my God.
Michael (27:48):
She's now my best friend. Oh. And she's so much like my mother who she didn't get to meet,
Erin (27:54):
Unfortunately. Oh. But
Michael (27:56):
It just tells you so much. Cause we, I I didn't nurture her.
Erin (28:01):
Yeah. Like yeah, yeah. So much in your gene. Yeah, she
Michael (28:05):
Had very difficult kinda childhood. Her mom was a little bit difficult but also awesome person. But it was very, it was very fraught. And she's the first person in her family to go to college. So when she met me, she was like, oh, now some of this makes sense. She just got her PhD, she's already got a job at like a, a tenure track job. I mean, she's just like driven, like my mom, my mom was a pioneer of social work. So she's now a, she's definitely a pioneer in the field of like climate communication and planning.
Erin (28:35):
Wow. Michael, that is incredible.
Michael (28:37):
Right? And so there is, so the, it is a continuation is that movie gets made, which, you know, it's a long process. Part is I didn't film with her at all because I knew that, that the camera would interrupt the process of getting Yeah, for sure. So now I think we're ready to do that, but it's really wild just how much, and also like I have, my older daughter and her are so similar. Wow. Didn't have any siblings and daughter never met anybody. Like, and so they're best friends.
Erin (29:06):
Incredible
Michael (29:06):
For my 20 year old to meet her 30 year old sister, you
Erin (29:09):
Know. That is incredible. Thank you for sharing that. That is incredible. That is incredible. Okay, well I can't wait for this movie. I can't wait to share this story with our audience. I can't wait to just continue to watch the amazing things you put into the world. So tell people where they can find you if they wanna learn more.
Michael (29:30):
Yeah. Well our website is rumor.com r uu com. And our most, you know, after all the rage, the next big project we worked on was this film about, or a series that's on ESPN plus about the Savannah Bananas. And the reason it's actually really great, because what we tend to do as filmmakers is we follow people who are pushing against systems. And you know, as I said, I was always kinda, I was always against systems and my dad was very cynical as well. But like, he wanted me to go into a system cuz the system was safety and I was never able to. So all of our films follow people fighting against some, I mean, it's the hero's journey. Every one of them. Our first film is Horns and Halos about a guy a punk rock publisher trying to republish a discredit of George Bush.
Michael (30:13):
Our second documentary was about some cop searching for serial rapist. And our third one is about a guy fighting against the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, which is where the Brooklyn Nets stadium is. They built it on top of his house, which was taken by him in a domain. And you know, then we have all the rage. So it's always these people fighting against expectation and they're always gonna face all this resistance. The truth is, truth will rise. And so when there are, you know, difficult things, we need people to resist power. The key is triggering out how to kind of resist power without creating negative neg. It's hard. And that's, that's what the goal is, I think is how do you notice there's something wrong? And then don't fall into your trauma and go like that. Instead think, okay, what's wrong here? How will I change this again? Sometimes we're gonna resist when in fact, oh, like we're gonna try and push against a wall without looking around the corner and think, oh, there's a door.
Erin (31:12):
Right? Yeah. Yeah.
Michael (31:13):
You know, and I guess that's the key is figuring out is there a door somewhere instead of how do I knock down this wall?
Erin (31:19):
I love it. Okay. Well I'm so honored Tiff had you on this show, and I'm so proud of you for just challenging resistance, putting yourself out there in the world and showing up with your story. Thank you so much for being a part of the Self-healing series and we'll, we'll put all the links to everything that you mentioned in the show notes too. Thank you Michael, so much.
Michael (31:39):
Right. And, and here's the really amazing thing just as the last little moment, but like here we're right, your podcast is the Self-Healing podcast. You're not alone.
Erin (31:48):
Yeah.
Michael (31:49):
There's a lot of people like you. And that is not to diminish it, it's to actually lift it up and say, you guys are all connecting and everything you're saying we need, it can't be just one person saying it, it's gotta be an army of people saying, Hey, this is normal, this is necessary, this is expected. Let's shift the culture. And, and we're reaching, reaching the tipping point, right? Where your voices are spreading and then you're connecting and, and now it's, it's really a shift that's taking place.
Erin (32:17):
I love it. Thank you so much for being here and for all of your wisdom, like for real, thank you for just being you and being a light in this world and connecting us all. Thank you.
Michael (32:27):
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Erin (32:42):
Improve it peeps. This story continued to divulge as and Mike when I conversed. And I hope that in sharing these part one and part two episodes, that you were moved in some way that you thought about your life differently. You thought about some of the pain that you might be carrying with you and how that translates into either physical pain, mental health issues, anxiety, and how that connects you to the work that you do, into the people that you lead and to the people that you care for. And I want you to take today's episode, marinate on it, journal about it, share it with a friend, because the purpose of today's show is to make you feel like you are not alone. The purpose of this series is to make you understand that healing can be possible with the power of your own mind. That what we put into our brain tells our bodies a story.
Erin (33:54):
And if you can heal your mind, you can heal your body and then you can help others heal. The energy that you put into you is a direct correlation that you're gonna give out to the world. And as the leaders, parents, friends, siblings, partners that you are, it is your responsibility to put the right energy, the right effort, and the proper amount of time into yourself. There is no other time. The time is now. I'm holding such space for you. I am caring for you. I am sending so much light and love to you. I hope that this Self-healing series has guided you to your own inner greatness, your own inner light. We're gonna dive into one more Self-healing series episode next week. And this one's a much lighter one, so get ready and then we're gonna talk in February all about self-love. Because in order to show up for the people in our lives, we need to show up for ourselves first. Self-Care is not selfish. Self-Care starts now. I am so proud of you and I want you to keep improving. I want you to fail. I want you to fail, fail, fail and fail fast and fail forward. And I want you to remember that this world needs that very, very special it that only you can bring. I'll see you here next week. Thanks for going on this journey. Bye.
Erin (35:39):
Hey friend, did you enjoy today's show? If so, head on over to iTunes to rate and subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Now, did I mention that when you leave a five star review of the Improve It podcast, an actual team of humans does a happy dance? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. So leave a review for us on iTunes, screenshot it, and send me an email at info learn to improve it.com. I'll send you a personalized video back as a thank you. Thanks so much for listening. Improve It Peeps. I'll see you next Wednesday.