Have you thought about what power lies within nature and how we can learn from nature's wisdom? Welcome to an exciting episode, where we peel back the layers of convention to reveal the extraordinary story of Garett Renon. Garett, a former gym owner ...
Have you thought about what power lies within nature and how we can learn from nature's wisdom? Welcome to an exciting episode, where we peel back the layers of convention to reveal the extraordinary story of Garett Renon. Garett, a former gym owner and personal trainer, steps off the beaten path to explore uncharted territories of personal growth and understanding.
🌱 Garett's remarkable journey takes us from the world of weights and dumbbells to a profound exploration of plant medicines and spiritual herbalism. With a foundation built on over 20 years in the fitness industry, Garett's evolution reflects the power of embracing new avenues for personal growth and understanding.
🌿 Plant Medicines and Spiritual Herbalism: For the past 6 years, Garett has ventured into the realm of plant medicines, uncovering their healing properties and tapping into the wisdom they offer. His journey has led him to a one-year sama (social diet) with the Shipibo tribe of Peru, defying conventions and delving into a unique path of self-discovery.
🍃 Ayahuasca and Self-Exploration: Notably, Garett's exploration also includes the use of ayahuasca, a plant medicine known for its profound effects on self-discovery and consciousness. Discover how this entheogenic journey has influenced his path of personal growth.
💪 Pine Pollen and Natural Wellness: As we explore Garett's transformation, we also delve into the natural effects of pine pollen on testosterone levels. Learn about the potential benefits of this natural product in enhancing overall wellness and vitality.
🎙️ Podcast Host and Inspiring Conversations: As if that weren't intriguing enough, Garett is also the host of the podcast "The Deeper You Go The Weirder It Gets." Join us as we explore his journey from fitness to fulfillment, the lessons he's gathered along the way, and how he has harnessed the insights from his transformation.
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🔒 Disclosure: As always, we're sharing this episode for informational purposes and personal inspiration. We do not provide medical advice or endorse specific practices. Garett's story is a testament to the power of embracing change, and we encourage you to explore your own unique journey.
🎧 Tune in to this enlightening episode with Garett Renon and discover the extraordinary path from fitness to spiritual exploration.
Remember, sharing is caring – inspire others by sharing this transformative journey with them!
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Anya Smith:
Hello everyone, welcome to RightOffTrack, the podcast where we explore the remarkable journeys of individuals who have dared to embrace unconventional paths on their personal success journey. Today, we're thrilled to introduce you to Garett Renon, a former gin owner and personal trainer with over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. Garrett's journey took an unexpected turn as he embarked on a profound exploration of plant medicines and spiritual herbalism. For the past six years, he's been immersed in, he's, For the past six years, he's been immersing himself in the world of plant medicines, uncovering their healing properties and spiritual insights. But Garrett's journey doesn't stop there. Currently, he's on an extraordinary one-year sama, a social diet with the Shipibu tribe of Peru. This unique experience challenges conventions and leads to unparalleled personal growth and understanding. And there's more. Garrett is also the host of the podcast, This podcast is a portal of self-discovery, a quest for reaching our highest potential and a dive into the very fabric of our reality. So let's embrace an open mind to a different perspective. Get ready to expand your horizons, embrace your unique journey and tap into your limitless potential. If Garrett can explore these uncharted territories, why not you? Without further ado, welcome to the show, Garrett.
Garett Renon:
Thank you. Excited to be here.
Anya Smith:
I'm so excited.
Garett Renon:
Hahaha.
Anya Smith:
I wanna share a little bit of a deeper context on this episode. So here you were actually my personal trainer
Garett Renon:
There it
Anya Smith:
and
Garett Renon:
is.
Anya Smith:
we did kickboxing back in the day.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, yeah, we met in my gym and, uh, I mean, we did personal training for at least a year, if not longer.
Anya Smith:
Yeah, yeah, you're like, we need to increase that booty strength. Squat, squat, squat.
Garett Renon:
Exactly.
Anya Smith:
I don't know if it's gotten that much better. I need that help. But since then, so much has happened in your life, in my life, and I'm just really fascinated by the quest you have undertaken. So I know there's a lot to share, but could you give us a glimpse into how you went from being in the fitness industry and then being a gin owner and now to where you are now on this incredible quest?
Garett Renon:
Yeah. Um, so it was actually kind of a very wild ride and, um, some of it was on purpose and some of it necessarily wasn't on purpose. I, um, as you know, I had a gym for seven years. It was a, it was a kickboxing gym and strength training gym and did a lot of personal training and we were very successful, but there was a issue. One of the things was, is we were part of a franchise and it was a younger franchise and to kind of make a very long story kind of shorter is we ended up in our seventh year of operation kind of started to butt heads with the gym owner or the franchise or and so long story short lawsuits started getting thrown around and I kind of, my whole life fell apart. I ended up losing the gym, ended up getting a divorce, ended up basically losing everything I had and went through, had to go through bankruptcy. And so essentially went through like three years of hell. And, but there's always a bright side to things like this is one of the things is it freed me up to then... start a new life, so to speak. And so as I was going through this, I had kind of started to get involved in plant medicines right before all this went down. And as I was embarking and beginning this plant medicine journey, it really struck me as kind of the missing piece in a lot of human potential and human development. I mean, that's why I had the gym in the first place was. One, I love fitness, but I love helping people become the strongest version of themselves. And I love helping people become the best version of themselves. And in that gym fitness journey, I always felt like there was something missing as far as the mental component and then even the spiritual component. I see it as like the mental, the spiritual and the physical. So anyway, when I lost everything, I kind of had this decision, well, what do I do? with my life? Do I go back into the fitness industry? And I thought about that. I probably could have been successful. I had a lot of clients, a lot of people that were still supporting me, but I felt like I needed to do more. I needed to go deeper into self-discovery. And so plant medicine kind of seemed like path for that to not only develop myself, but then also learn about that and then figure out how I can bring that missing component in to my life and then help get back on track, so to speak, of helping people become better versions of themselves.
Anya Smith:
Oh my gosh, so much has happened. I honestly didn't even know everything that has happened. I mean, I had a sense that a lot has changed since I last saw you. And I know that we were both in touch when the whole situation of the gym happened and the transition
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
happened and some of that. So thank you for sharing authentically a full story and kind of the values that shaped and kind of the potential. So I'm really curious, like the journey that got you into this whole plant herbalism. space, right? I don't think you
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
go out inside from your normal day, if I'm like, oh, you know what, I'm fascinated herbs and herbal medicine and nature. How do
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
I take that one step further? Do you mind sharing like what got you into the space?
Garett Renon:
Yeah, I mean, so one of the things that I'm working with, one of the particular plant medicines is ayahuasca. And that actually popped up on my radar screen close to 10 years ago. And back then, it's probably even longer now, but back then nobody really knew what it was. And now it's a lot more popular and most people have at least heard about it, even if they've never done it. But Like I had mentioned, I've always been fascinating in reaching your full potential and maximizing this human experience. And so I was hearing some very fascinating stories about people going down to the jungle, drinking this very interesting tasting tea, and then having these life altering experiences and coming back. being completely changed and having new motivation and new insight and a lot of hearing of people of starting businesses or completely transforming their life for the better. And so at the time my life was still pretty good, but as we know, it can always be better. And so I figured I want to try this. So I kind of just went strictly out of curiosity. I learned. later on in my journey that a lot of this is for, it's for a lot of things, but a lot of people do it for healing of certain traumatic events. I never reached out for it because of that. It was just strictly out of curiosity, but then once I got into that world, I realized it was a whole universe and university of information. So then I just became more and more fascinated with what it was.
Anya Smith:
And for anybody listening, whatever your experience has been around this space, I invite you to have an open mind because to me, it's actually interesting to you said there's been a lot more interest in this space. And now when I'm growing my connection, I have a PhD student who is studying psychedelics and effects of things like ayahuasca on the human brain.
Garett Renon:
Uh huh.
Anya Smith:
We are so open and very accustomed to being exposed to medicines, like drugs, that we don't fully understand. given over the counter or prescribed to us. I'm like, okay, yeah, cool.
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
No worries about the million side effects that could potentially be exposed
Garett Renon:
Right.
Anya Smith:
to us. But they're like, oh no, but not that stuff. Not that
Garett Renon:
Right.
Anya Smith:
stuff that's like psychedelic or like ayahuasca because it's out there. And so if you're listening to this and like that's your perception, I totally can respect that. But I also invite you to have, but nobody mind like, what is potentially a different perspective? Where can that be healing? And it may not be right for everybody. Like I haven't tried it, I have my own, like I'm a little, hmm, that sounds scary,
Garett Renon:
Hehehe
Anya Smith:
interesting. That's scary, you know?
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
But that's why I want to have these conversations to explore, like, how has that helped you if you don't mind the kind of what's the potential there that you're trying to uncover and help others with?
Garett Renon:
Well, I mean, the potential there is limitless. And I don't even think we've scratched the surface on what the potentials of this are. One of the things that you kind of mentioned was, I mean, you take our, look at our normal society, our everyday society, and it is not a healthy society by any stretch of the imagination. A lot of people are very soul-sick. We got obesity is rampant. Go downtown to any major city, drug abuse, depression, mental illness. Yeah, it's just, so like our society is very sick and our doctors and our medical system are completely out of touch with reality. They just provide you a pill. They're essentially drug dealers that just provide you a pill to mask these symptoms and they never... And most of the pharmaceuticals that people get just numb you. They turn you off. They desensitize you to the reality of your life. And that's, they just put a bandaid on a bullet hole. And so, so yeah, the potential is, is huge as far as helping you discover who you are, getting to the root of your issues. We all have issues. We all have traumas and... putting a bandaid on a bullet hole is not going to solve the issue. You got to figure out, hey, why do I keep getting shocked? And so, um,
Anya Smith:
metaphorically, hopefully
Garett Renon:
right.
Anya Smith:
metaphorically.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, hopefully metaphorically, but you never know these days. Um,
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
so yeah, so that's, that's kind of it is to help and, and also to realize that, um, we have everything we need on this in our lives. The earth can. provide for it, all the medicines, all the pharmaceuticals, where do you think they come up with this stuff? They're all derivatives of plant medicines, but what they've done is they've gone down and they've bastardized what these things are and they've extracted certain key elements, forgetting about the whole holistic approach of the full plant and then actually the holistic approach of diet and exercise and all that. everything making it a whole complete package. So yeah.
Anya Smith:
And can I, I respectfully listen to everything I wanna add. I do respect people in the profession of medicine. I do respect medicine has a place. My personal sense, I don't advocate for people listening to be like, oh, stop what you're doing and don't go. And we can disagree on that, that's totally fine, right?
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
But where, absolutely fine. My sense
Garett Renon:
Thanks for watching!
Anya Smith:
is like, why can't we empower one another, right? I believe that people want, especially in the medical profession, wanna help people with the tools they have available. And it's just like, how can we power, you know, understanding and knowledge from the earth and some of the things that could be gained there and not be apprehensive, like, and just favor one side or another? Can we find a balance where we're helping everybody who wants to help others, like whether it be medical professionals, and also utilizing what we have available? I also find it fascinating, like, oftentimes, if we are skeptical about these things, but there's so much ancient wisdom to it. Like, right? Like not everything that's old is irrelevant. Like we have focused on like what's in the moment, what's right now, what's trendy.
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
But then you go back to different cultures with generation of wisdom around, you know, whatever it is, you know, like using medicine, using herbal stuff that helps. And like, that's fascinating to me that like we favor the new and the trendy things, but forgetting that there's also really insightful power in like ancient wisdoms that have worked and have been tried by people.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a good point. And I think that's one of the issues we have with our society, especially in this technologically advanced society that we have that we think that we are on the precipice of human development and human understanding of things. But like I said, the proof is in the pudding. And yeah, there's several people doing well, but the majority of the population is not doing well.
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
Depression, suicide, like it's a very sick society. So we need to kind of step back and kind of suppress our egos and thinking that we have it all figured out and go back to some of these ancient ways. And depending on what you believe and how far of a deep rabbit hole you wanna go down, but there's a lot of belief that some of these ancient civilizations might've even been more advanced than we are today. I mean, you take a look at the pyramids of Egypt and... Mexico and South America and Central America and some of these ancient technologies and you know, we have no idea what these things really are and we have no idea how to even build these things today. We have these very general concepts and ideas that are taught to us by schools that are ran by the system and We think that just because someone with some letters behind their name told us, oh, this is what it was, we believe that's what it is. But so I mean, I think one, we have to kind of all of us have to take a step back and remove our ego. And I think to kind of answer your question, there can be a middle ground. But one of my favorite quotes, I got a lot of favorite quotes, but one of them
Anya Smith:
I love it.
Garett Renon:
is the road to hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. And so I think, and I'm not saying, and there are some things that modern medicine can help with, not a lot. I mean, really I'm staying away from most of it unless I get into some major car accident and I need some reconstructive surgery or something, but other than that or whatever, but I think it's not necessarily the individual doctor's faults. I mean, they get into it for the right reasons. This is where that. quote comes in, they get in it for the right reasons because they want to help people and they want people to become healthier. But it's a whole system of they get into a lot of debt going through medical school, a lot of debt, and then you have the whole American Medical Association. And so then oftentimes it's a system and you get trapped in this system where all of a sudden you come out of medical school and you're $500,000 in debt. And if you don't play ball, then you will not be able to get a job to then pay off these debts. And so then you kind of get stuck in this system. And then, like I said, there's an ego aspect of people not wanting to admit, hey, maybe I'm wrong or maybe there can be other ways. So there is a balance, but I think it takes everyone an understanding to be like, And how do I help find that balance and taking an honest look of, well, maybe the things I'm doing are not right. Or maybe there's other ways or maybe there's a way to use both plants and pharmaceuticals,
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
but you have to be open to it and not immediately on either side just say, oh, this is no good. I don't
Anya Smith:
Absolutely. I think
Garett Renon:
know
Anya Smith:
they
Garett Renon:
if
Anya Smith:
say
Garett Renon:
that's
Anya Smith:
like
Garett Renon:
making
Anya Smith:
this.
Garett Renon:
sense.
Anya Smith:
It does. I think they say like the sign of intelligent person is the ability to take in information and like not accept it all as truth.
Garett Renon:
Yes,
Anya Smith:
Right.
Garett Renon:
I
Anya Smith:
And
Garett Renon:
love
Anya Smith:
especially
Garett Renon:
that quote.
Anya Smith:
in society where we have like, well, I'm paraphrasing probably, but in society where there's so much information, like whatever you think about, like this topic, like it's just powerful to like, think for yourself, right? Take what you get, test it out, apply it to your life, like make your own decisions by testing information and not accepting it for tooth just because of fancy titles or whatever, right? Like
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
it has to, even like different medicines, like even different herbal medicines probably gonna be responding differently to individual's body, right? So even in the sense like that something could be good, there's also an individual factor to it to test that and what's resonating with you, your body, your soul, wherever you're at in life, right?
Garett Renon:
Right, and you know, you have to be, and like I said, you know, some people, it's not their fault they're getting trapped in these systems, but you have to become, you have to open your eyes to the reality of things like pharmaceutical companies, and that they're, it's a billions dollar industry, and it makes a lot of money, and it profits off of people getting sick and keeping people sick. And I mean, unless you're living under a rock, and especially what's happened over the last few years, you can... you can tell that what was going on was never about health. It was never about helping you become better. It was about keeping the money train rolling with these pharmaceutical companies. And then you look at a lot of the fines they've had to pay and a lot of just the actual reality about side effects. And these things just get suppressed because people... don't want to open their eyes to it and then the mainstream media and so it takes an effort for you to look outside, to think outside the box and look outside the box.
Anya Smith:
Yeah. And to your point, sometimes your journey, it took exploring something a bit out there, right? Literally venturing out to a different part of the world
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
to kind of find this community. And it's not mainstream right now, although I am fascinated by the fact that there's more research happening on the effects of psychedelics, the beneficial
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
healing factors, like microdosing, whatnot. And I think that's amazing because it's good to just have options and research what that could actually do. because then you're taking it from an obstacle, like, oh, this could be helping me, and I have this story, to more concrete, like this could happen. And if that can even potentially even save somebody's life because they had maybe a traumatic experience and help. So why not be open to something different? And with that in mind, I would love to hear what inspires you now on this journey. Hey, could you give us a little bit more information about what you're doing right now of this amazing one-year Sama, which I'm like. I didn't know what a Sama was when I reached out.
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
I'm doing a theater Sama. What is that? And why are you undertaking that?
Garett Renon:
Yeah, I'll answer that. I just as you were talking I thought of one other thing and you were talking You know, you'd asked me about how can we kind of bridge the gap and you talked about you had a friend or someone who's doing Research and doing psychedelic studies along like those that's the that's the method like those people are doing The Lord's work so to speak it's those brave people that are and that work is growing of that they're in the medical industry or they're taking on these, actually looking at it through the scientific lens and then speaking up and then saying, hey, there are some benefits to that. So it is happening and I do encourage that. And so the people that are in the medical field, that they can start opening up and start spreading that word. But yeah, I just wanted to bring that up. because that kind of sparked that idea. But yeah,
Anya Smith:
Absolutely.
Garett Renon:
so the, the Sama, that's a, that's a good question. And I'll try my best to answer that. So the Sama is a very unique thing in the, the Shipibo tradition. And so the Shipibo was basically an indigenous tribe from the Amazon basin in, in Peru. And There's a lot of indigenous cultures that work with ayahuasca. The shipibo tend to be considered by most people the best and have some of the best relationship with ayahuasca. In fact, a lot of people believe that the language they speak, shipibo, is actually the language of not only ayahuasca, but the language of the plants. And so... What they believe is it's this deeper level than just plant medicine. They believe that plants have an intelligence and a personality and that they can teach us things, that they can be our greatest teachers, that they have a lot of divine wisdom behind them. They're essentially like, I almost think of them as like the spirits or the angels of Mother Earth.
Anya Smith:
Mm.
Garett Renon:
And plants are always speaking to us every day, but we cannot hear them because our modern lifestyles are so bombarded with stimulus. How often are you on your phone while checking email, while watching TV, while listening
Anya Smith:
A lot.
Garett Renon:
to music, while driving, while, you know, and I mean, I don't know the exact. quote or the exact statistics, but there's something that like within a week or a month, we take in more stimulus than our entire than our ancestors did over their entire lifetime. We're just bombarded and because of this see plants speak to us, but they speak very subtly. And so you have to start and so that the process of the psalm is you make a connection with a specific plant and there are. thousands of what we call master plans or teacher plans and each one of them has their own Kind of strengths and weaknesses and each one of us can teach different things and you take them for different reasons Just like you would take different medicines but what you do is the psalm is the practice of connecting with a specific one for a specific amount of time and when you do that you go through this whole process of restrictions. So you're supposed to minimize what you eat. So right now I can only eat trout, chicken, bananas, oatmeal, rice, lentils, no salt, no seasoning, no nothing. It's very hard. I've lost like
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
almost 20 pounds. I'm very weak. And then you want to reduce the amount of input. So the amount of reading I do, the amount of social media, the amount of all that kind of stuff. And so you're basically going into isolation, removing all your stimulus. So then you can connect with this plant. And then this plant comes in and teaches you a bunch of stuff. And oh, by the way, I can't have sex for a year. I can't be intimate with anyone. It's,
Anya Smith:
Brutal.
Garett Renon:
it's very hardcore. Yeah. It's, it's brutal.
Anya Smith:
So the question is like, why put up with that?
Garett Renon:
Well, yeah,
Anya Smith:
That's quite
Garett Renon:
well, so
Anya Smith:
a commitment.
Garett Renon:
the it's a very strong commitment. And most of the time, you don't have to do it for a year. Most people don't do it for a year. You can do it for as little as two weeks. That's what most people do. I'm doing it for a year because this is what's considered an apprenticeship and this is what's required to eventually start working with these and being able to start lead, leading. ceremonies and doing that kind of thing and actually conducting. But you do it because, you know, think of it like working out, right? A lot of people could say, oh, working out sucks. It's hard. You sweat. You get sore. You get tired. It takes time away from other things. Why do it? Well, because you can be stronger and the stronger you are, the better your life is. And so it's... It's part of a sacrifice to help become a better version of yourself. But like I said, I'm doing a very extreme version of this and not everyone even needs to, so to do a Sama, you can get a lot of benefit from just doing a Ayahuasca ceremony, but it's kind of like, it's like levels level one, Ayahuasca ceremony level two is doing small. plant samas and then again you can sometimes the other reason you do samas is it's not just for learning it can also be for healing
Anya Smith:
All
Garett Renon:
so
Anya Smith:
right.
Garett Renon:
if you have major trauma in your life if you if you were abused as a child or whatever it is that these things can help you overcome these traumatic events in your life if you have illnesses and so yeah you know I would ask like why do people take like to cure their depression when maybe they could.
Anya Smith:
Because it doesn't require no sex for a year.
Garett Renon:
It's true. It's true. You have all the...
Anya Smith:
Just kidding, just kidding. But you know what's funny? Right before this, I was talking to somebody and just like she's developing her farm and doing this amazing work. And I was just marveling how much wisdom there is in nature without us even talking about this conversation. But they talk about how your mental health, just being exposed to nature helps your mental health, right? Regularly going out and seeing green, Larry, and that surround
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
in itself can be healing, right? Different cultures, I think the Japanese culture embraces that. where you go in nature and that helps you heal. But also, I do think about it, especially they say, if you sing to a plant, right? How you talk to a plant will influence how it grows. So something
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
so simple, and you can look it up, like they talk about how if you play music to a plant, it will grow better. If you take two seeds and one you talk negatively and then you talk positive, they will grow differently. So
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
something that we take for granted, oh, it's just a plant. And I'm not saying I'm gonna stop eating plants or whatever, but I'm saying there is higher wisdom. in the world and it's just interesting to see that perspective. And there's also like inspiration that I take, like I think about trees, right? And we talk about like how if a tree is nimble, it's flexible by its structure, it's more likely to be resilient to stresses of the wind and whatnot. And it reminds
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
me of also just metaphors that we take into our life, like whatever you believe about that would then derive from nature or you compare it to like a tree that's very stiff. and rigid and that means it's actually more susceptible to getting destroyed by any kind of strong winds because they can't withdrew that. So where there's different levels of inspiration from like just actual like research and things that seeing how nature responds to certain things, which is incredible to just driving metaphors from nature like, oh, that's peaceful or sometimes like I go outside when I'm like I'm super overwhelmed and I go up on this beautiful little scenery place like which I'm grateful to have. But then you're like, I'm really a little speck of nothing. Like that mount
Garett Renon:
Right.
Anya Smith:
is going to care what I'm doing. And sometimes it's nice to be felt, to feel insignificant around this nature that has this internal wisdom and is
Garett Renon:
Uh-huh.
Anya Smith:
self-replenishing, self-serving. It's there without your presence and will be there. And it's kind of also healing just like quiet your craziness, whatever you think about this. Like there's so much to drive from nature and its wisdom.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot there. Um, what you said, you know, one of the aspects is stress. Um, being in nature, connecting with nature, getting out, going camping, get grounding, putting your feet in the ground, um, disconnecting from the crazy city life significantly lowers your stress. And one of the things I see with people, you know, these quote unquote high performers, um, they're doing all these. fantastical things at their job and all that stuff, but they are just bombarded with stress and they're always on their computer and always checking email and doing all this kind of stuff and anytime you get someone like that and you put them out into nature and you're able to you always feel better. You immediately feel better. You sleep better. And one thing I should say is like, and we can get into this a little later, I'm doing a social diet, which is not. Typically, especially if you do like a two week or a one month Sama, typically you go down to the jungle and you stay down there at a center and you stay in a little jungle hut with no electricity and no Wi-Fi. And again, it's just to connect you to the frequencies of
Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.
Garett Renon:
nature. And that in itself is very healing and just allowing you to just recharge and connect. Like, see one of the problems we have... is we think we are a part of nature or we think we're separate from nature when the
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
reality is we are nature and we are just connect we are just as connected to nature as the plants or any of the animals but we've completely removed ourselves from that and again
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
that's why we're so soul sick but one of the interesting things that you mentioned about singing the plants and then that can actually help them grow well in the shipibo tradition we sing We sing in ceremony
Anya Smith:
Hmm.
Garett Renon:
and you sing and the plants are coming through you. And that's how you express the energetic energies of the plants is through. Singing because everything is energy and everything is frequency and vibration. And
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
your, your voice is a way of projecting the, it's way of taking energetic frequencies and, and spiritual aspects and manifesting them into the physical world. So. Not only. does singing to your plant help it grow better or talking to it positively, but that's how the shipibo interact with plants. So that's extremely, that's really cool. And then one other thing I just kind of wanted to say, yeah, it's good to get into nature and feel insignificant. But I also feel like there's a balance there of if you connect with nature, you feel part of it and you're and you actually are not insignificant that you are a part of this ecosystem and I sometimes think that like this idea of feeling insignificant is not a good way to always look at things um because then it can lead down a path of like well I'm so small that nothing I do matters but everything you do matters you are part of a very delicate ecosystem and so sometimes I think it's better to like And I understand what you're saying, but I think it's sometimes better to be like, no, I am a part of this and everything I do from my thoughts to my intentions, to how I treat my neighbor, to how I live my life, this all matters and it has a ripple effect.
Anya Smith:
How's your singing voice?
Garett Renon:
It's very interesting because I've never had any musical talent my entire life and I remember doing one of the first times I did a ceremony and was listening to the singing and I should say it's, I mean some people do sing very beautiful but it's more chanting and having it sound beautiful is not the purpose. But obviously everyone wants it to sound beautiful and it does
Anya Smith:
right?
Garett Renon:
sound beautiful, especially if you can, even though it may not like if I were to be like, hey, here's my new song and you just listen to it, you might be like, that's not very good. But
Anya Smith:
Ha ha.
Garett Renon:
given the context, like if you were
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
on the medicine and you could feel the power of the plants and you could feel the power behind my voice and what it was doing, then you'd be like, oh, that's the most beautiful thing you've ever heard. But
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
it's been a work in progress and... Yeah, I remember when I kind of had the idea that I wanted to do this, I was always like there was part of me is like, I want to do this just to see if I can do it. Can I like,
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
actually seeing to a room full of people and not have them like their ears start bleeding or something and but no, it's like I said, I'm not going to necessarily impress anyone with a angelic voice. But I think
Anya Smith:
America's got talent.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, I'll probably skip that.
Anya Smith:
New version, new version.
Garett Renon:
But I think if you heard it, I think you would be like, hey, that's all right. I can feel the... I mean, at the very least, my version of success would be like if you heard me singing in that context, I would more be like not so much caring how you thought of my voice as opposed to being like, no, oh my God, I feel way better. Or as you were singing...
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
this whole universe opened up and I got all these insights about my life. And so that's always the goal.
Anya Smith:
I love it.
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
And then to your point, something I mentioned about being removed from nature, or like, I think what I meant to say is, insignificant in the sense like those worries and fears and distress, just
Garett Renon:
Nice.
Anya Smith:
reminding yourself that part which seems so overwhelming in our head is just a tiny fragment of reality.
Garett Renon:
Right, yeah.
Anya Smith:
So if that's helpful, so like take it from any point that's helpful to you from what Gareth said, from what I said, like again, the point is there's so much beautiful. magic and being embraced of nature and kind of letting it be part of your life journey, your healing journey, your personal motivation journey. There's a lot to gain from that.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, no, I
Anya Smith:
On
Garett Renon:
agree.
Anya Smith:
that topic
Garett Renon:
I agree
Anya Smith:
that
Garett Renon:
with what you just said. I agree with that. So
Anya Smith:
Okay,
Garett Renon:
that's
Anya Smith:
cool. And
Garett Renon:
good.
Anya Smith:
we can totally disagree. I'm okay with disagreeing, agreeing, it doesn't matter,
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
like different perspectives, like we should be open. It's so healthy, and part of the reason I wanna have this discussion is like, it's healthy to have different perspectives. Like, let's stop, like, just avoiding difficult conversations, disagreements,
Garett Renon:
Yep.
Anya Smith:
like let's actually share that, and people can make their decisions for themselves. That's a whole different topic.
Garett Renon:
I agree
Anya Smith:
But
Garett Renon:
with that
Anya Smith:
anywho,
Garett Renon:
too.
Anya Smith:
one thing, one thing I wanted to ask you about, like, Now that you're on this journey and remind me how far you're going to think you're like half a year, like what is your hope like you know you want to this is apprenticeship right but what's your
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
hope for like helping others as part of like getting through this journey?
Garett Renon:
Well, so yeah, I'm eight months in to a year. So kind of gotten the home stretch.
Anya Smith:
Wow.
Garett Renon:
But my purpose or my hopes from this is like, this is a real life version of the hero's journey. If you're familiar with that, the Joseph Campbell idea of the hero's journey where you're venturing out from your comfort zone. and you're going into the unknown and you're taking on challenges. And the idea of that is that through those challenges, you discover gifts and you receive gifts. And then the true hero's journey is then at some point you venture back home and then you share those gifts with people. And so that's the goal is to learn about this, not only for myself and make myself better and healthier and stronger. but then to come back and share what I've learned and spread the message. And this is what the plants want. It's one of the things I've learned on this journey that it's not a coincidence that 10, 15 years ago, nobody knew about ayahuasca and now everyone does because the plants are reaching out. The plants are very aware of what's going on and they see what's going on with the destruction of. of the rainforest and the destruction of the planet and the pollution and the war and all that kind of stuff. And I feel like the plants, they need us just as much as we need them because we have the ability to manipulate our environment. And so the plants are kind of being like, hey, if we don't teach these dumb idiots to stop killing each other and destroying the planet, we're done. Everyone's done.
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
Obviously nature will continue to go on without us at the end of the day. It doesn't need us probably as much as we need them, but it's reaching out to be like, Hey, we need to wake people up. Like, you know,
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
I keep mentioning the, our society, this is not a society that is awake and, um, so I think that that's my goal is to help spread the message of the plants and help get people more. in tuned with nature and more in tune with the frequencies and harmony and live this life more in harmony and it needs to be done. I kind of feel like we're on a razor's edge right now and if we don't make a change now that this thing, all these comforts that we think we have that are just, that we think are abundant, it's held together with duct tape and chewing gum. And so we need a mass awakening. We need people to open up their eyes and start waking up. And so that's the goal.
Anya Smith:
And you mean that more of like an I am woke t-shirt.
Garett Renon:
Well there's a difference between waking up and being woke. I do not agree with the whole woke culture so. Yeah so
Anya Smith:
I'm shocked, I'm shocked, I thought you would be totally into it.
Garett Renon:
yeah, let's be clear, there's a completely difference between waking up and woke.
Anya Smith:
Oh, I can definitely see that. And you know what's interesting again, we talked about getting on to nature and the trends that are being normal, I'm seeing celebrities talk about like how they're walking on the earth to help with their like magnetic, magneticism of the earth, like it's gotten lower, right? So it's actually when we walk barefoot, it helps
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
us recharge that magnetic feel. So there's actually more and more people who are like popularly proclaiming the things that they're doing, which align to what you're saying.
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
Right? Like that
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
connection, they're doing ice baths, right? All these things that help your body get exposed to certain conditions that help it thrive. Same way that
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
if we ingest and like the thing that's funny to me is like the thing of like, for example, working out, right? We do it a certain amount of time and some people are amazing at it and they get these amazing bodies, but we forget like how much what we actually input in our body makes a difference. Like
Garett Renon:
Okay.
Anya Smith:
we're eating probably a lot more than we are working out unless you're a particular kind of person, which hey, no judgment. But like that's the thing is like what we ingest in like the medicine, like the herbal can have such a profound impact because what we're putting in actually influences everything external.
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
So I think there's great power to what you're saying, like the influence of like herbalism, like whatever you choose to see it, like there's great impact into what we put in because that will influence a lot of things that happen externally, what we see physically and how we feel also day to day.
Garett Renon:
Well, right and that you know that because you what you take in the you know input you What you come in comes out right garbage in equals garbage out or good stuff in equals good stuff out and
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, you know and it is good seeing that they're there. You know I am very even though I feel like we're on this edge of Kind of self-destruction the good side of this is I am seeing a an awakening and there does seem to be this massive Awakening happening in a big movement of people's eyes opening and you know thinking and even another thing about connecting to nature as you're talking about food and made me think about the use of pesticides and
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
And you know, it's a bad Thing. I mean eating organic helps but even better is like growing your own food because even organic that term can get very shady of what actually is considered organic or not and If you go down that rabbit hole, there's a lot of, a lot of food, a lot of healthy food is actually very harmful and, and even poisonous to what's actually going on. And so that's kind of what I'm saying is like, we need people to be like, well, we've gotta wake up because it's like, now I can't even, can't even eat vegetables a lot of times without having to worry about these pesticides and chemicals and hormones and all that kind
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
of stuff. And so we've just lost the connection.
Anya Smith:
Yeah, it was interesting. Again, the person I talked about nature, she was mentioning how they're trying to sustain an organic farm and how it's almost like cost prohibitive to try to do that. Like
Garett Renon:
This
Anya Smith:
when
Garett Renon:
is...
Anya Smith:
you're trying to do it, because it's so expensive to do it, there's so many impediments that you have to deal with, whether it's like bugs and pests, like pests, obviously trying to, but it that's really good. It comes like it always becomes like there's a privilege in a society where you get better health and exposure to natural remedies when you have more money. And that's why I think there's a kind of a trend of people. who are celebrities, they reach a certain point in life where, and I like them sharing those examples of where they've, you know, they have the money and now they're thinking, well, I wanna live a good life
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
and I wanna live, like my body should be thriving and I wanna like reverse aging and do all the things. And it's funny, like they're at that point, now they're focusing on the things that you're talking about. They're taking advantage of it, taking meticulous health kind of experiments, eating the best organic food, all the things, but that shouldn't be exclusive to people who have made it and have now the money. to do it, right? It should be more
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
publicly accessible and not a privilege to do it. And
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
I love that you're sharing ways to make it accessible. So let's dive into that if you don't mind. Like what can people do who maybe aren't ready for full on commitment to your level but like maybe want to experiment with a little bit of like this taste of flavor, like what can they adapt in their life to kind of start seeing the benefits of like herbal kind of, you know, not supplements, I would say like, but just like that. Anything that you would recommend people who maybe can't commit to this full lifestyle, but want to try something, some of your learnings that would benefit them.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, well, you know, that was a great point you made about it's seeming like it can be cost prohibitive and it can to a certain extent. I think though, one of the things is like that I've learned about this journey is, is it's going to take like, you have to fully unplug from the Matrix. We are all trapped in the Matrix and we are, we are. we are trapped in a prison that we can't taste, see or smell. And so a lot of reasons why that seems to be cost prohibitive is because we're trying to solve the problem by using the same methods that got us into this problem. And so we have to think outside the box. And so one of the things is what I call, like we gotta redefine what success. looks like and this is not easy. This is very hard to do because it's basically ripping you out of the matrix and making you look at things completely different but that redefining success could mean a lot of different things and it's a complete lifestyle shake-up and I get it you may not want to do it. I mean it could be something like maybe it's going in on a large piece of land with several people. and then trying to form those types of communities or downsizing how you live now. Because we've got this whole, we live in this material world and we think we need all these things to make us happy. We think we need material things. We think we need the latest car, we need the latest gadget, and we need a bigger house, and then we need the vacation house, and we need the boat. And so what happens is the more money people make... they end up just spending more money and so they never get ahead. They just have more nicer things and so they look like they have more money but the reality is most people are living paycheck to paycheck and so it, and there can be some more concrete things that I could try to talk about but I think the first thing is you have to kind of redefine like what it is and I mean the first thing is it's baby steps. Another
Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.
Garett Renon:
quote I love is a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And, and I've been guilty of this too. And the mistake everyone makes is you see where you're at now in living your life and you've got your bills and you've got all the, you've got your job and you've got kids and you've got all these things and, and you can't see how do I go from there. to living on a sustainable farm. And it seems almost impossible to make that transition. How am I gonna make money? How am I gonna? And in some ways it is almost an impossible thing, but not if you just take steps. You take the steps. I mean, the first thing you can do is start growing your own food, maybe getting chickens, start talking to people. You know, and so, I mean, I don't know how to do it, so to speak, but. We have to get out of this idea that success means a bigger house or a nice job
Anya Smith:
Mm-hmm.
Garett Renon:
title or X number of dollars in the bank because none of that matters if you're overweight, if you're on depression medication, if you can't function, if you're crying yourself to sleep at night with a glass of wine. Like none of that money or any of the shiny objects matter. So it's, yeah. Taking an honest effort to be like... And so another way to do this too, that I've kind of been working on, is you can make a list of things like what are the most important things to you. So I just did a podcast episode of about the story of the Mexican fishermen. Have you heard about
Anya Smith:
Yeah,
Garett Renon:
that?
Anya Smith:
I saw that. That was your last one, right?
Garett Renon:
Yeah, have you heard the actual story?
Anya Smith:
No, I'm sorry I didn't yet.
Garett Renon:
No, I mean, it's okay. I mean, well, other people have said it too. So it's not that you had to listen to my podcast. But I could tell it real quick, it's a very short story.
Anya Smith:
Please, please go for it.
Garett Renon:
But it kind of puts things in perspective. So basically there's this, an American businessman, he's vacationing in this small coastal village town in Mexico. And so as he's sitting there on the beach, he sees a boat come in and the boat is, there's just one guy on the boat, a Mexican guy, and he's got a lot of fish. And so the guy, the American goes up to him because he's very impressed and he's like, wow, that's a very impressive catch. How long did it take you to catch all that? And the Mexican said, oh, it just took me a couple hours. And the American said, well, how come you didn't stay out there longer? And the Mexican
Anya Smith:
Yes.
Garett Renon:
guy says, well, because I caught everything I need for my family's immediate needs.
Anya Smith:
Hmm.
Garett Renon:
And the American said, well, um. Well, what do you do with the rest of your time? And the Mexican said, well, I sleep late. I play with my children. I take siesta with my wife. And in the evenings, we go into town, we eat dinner, we drink wine, and I play guitar with my amigos. And I live a very fun and fulfilling life. And
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
the American said, is like kind of scoffed and said, I'm an MBA and let me help you. What you should do. is you should stay out there longer. You should fish more, catch more than you need with what you, and then you sell off that. And with the proceeds from those extra fish, you can buy a bigger boat. And then with the bigger boat, you get more proceeds and then you buy multiple boats. And then
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
all of a sudden you have, and then you stop selling to the middleman and you create your own cannery and you start selling directly to the public. And he's like, I can help you with this. He's like, of course you're going to have to move from the small coastal village to Mexico city where you'll run your empire. And the Mexican says, wow, so how long do you think that's going to take? And the businessman says 15, 20 years. And then the Mexican says, well, then what? And then the American says, well, now here's the best part. Then you can IPO your company. You can when the timing is right, you can go public IPO your company. You can sell it for millions of dollars. You can make a lot of money. And the Mexican says, wow, millions of dollars. Then what? And then the American says, well, then you can move to a small coastal village where
Anya Smith:
Ha
Garett Renon:
you could
Anya Smith:
ha
Garett Renon:
sleep late, play with your children, siesta with your wife. Go into town, drink wine and play guitar with your amigos. And, you know, it's very like simple story, but the idea is like the Mexican was already living. the life.
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
And the big takeaway is the American was not, money was not the end goal. The end goal as the American suggested was being able to live a life that you could spend time how
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
you wanted. And see, we think about like, if this was a real story, it's like the Mexican fisherman probably lives in a smaller house and probably doesn't have what we would consider nice things. but he's living a life that we would all trade for.
Anya Smith:
The quality,
Garett Renon:
And so
Anya Smith:
yeah.
Garett Renon:
the quality, and so, you know, what that story kind of tells me too, is oftentimes the things we truly want and need, we already have, we are just blinded by this idea that I've got to make millions of dollars and I got to do this and I got to do that. And
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
so I think that's the way of how you change your mindset of like, what's, if Like what's more important to you spending time with your family or making a lot of money? You remember the clock is ticking and you don't get that time back. So at some point all that, you know, and I do this breakdown on my podcast that let's say he did that. Well, in 15, 20 years, his kids are, they're already out of the house. So all that, that's gone. You don't get that time back. Is why he might've got a divorce because of the crazy business lifestyle. I know I did.
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
and all his friends are gonna be gone or whatever, you know, so.
Anya Smith:
Did the thumbs up appear on your screen?
Garett Renon:
I don't know what that was. I saw some blue.
Anya Smith:
That was so funny, a thumbs up appeared on your screen out of nowhere. That was
Garett Renon:
Yeah,
Anya Smith:
not me! That was not me!
Garett Renon:
I thought maybe you had some
Anya Smith:
No,
Garett Renon:
applause
Anya Smith:
no, no.
Garett Renon:
or
Anya Smith:
That was so random. Huh.
Garett Renon:
I just broke the internet because I'm speaking truth over here.
Anya Smith:
Oh
Garett Renon:
Yeah,
Anya Smith:
wow,
Garett Renon:
I have
Anya Smith:
I
Garett Renon:
no
Anya Smith:
don't
Garett Renon:
idea
Anya Smith:
know what that
Garett Renon:
what
Anya Smith:
was.
Garett Renon:
that was. Well,
Anya Smith:
Hilarious,
Garett Renon:
you know,
Anya Smith:
hilarious.
Garett Renon:
that's...
Anya Smith:
I was not thumbs-upping that, but I appreciate it.
Garett Renon:
Can you
Anya Smith:
It's
Garett Renon:
even
Anya Smith:
so
Garett Renon:
thumbs
Anya Smith:
interesting.
Garett Renon:
up here?
Anya Smith:
I don't think
Garett Renon:
I don't even,
Anya Smith:
so. I
Garett Renon:
I
Anya Smith:
don't
Garett Renon:
don't
Anya Smith:
know
Garett Renon:
even.
Anya Smith:
what happened right there, my friend. That was so random. But it was funny. I have these episodes where I do have entrepreneurs and everything, and that's the same message, meaning find your own success
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
and find your values and live them because we don't like to talk about, you can die tomorrow,
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
right? Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and we're so forward-focused that we're... we should also see what do we value right now. And I'm not perfect at it, but I try to dig, what can I value right now? What can I be happy with right now? Because success is not in getting more, it's being happy with less, right? Like
Garett Renon:
100%
Anya Smith:
that's where you really find that. And the more you can appreciate less, then things that happen additionally, that's only bonus. But
Garett Renon:
Yeah.
Anya Smith:
you don't need that as a dependent for your state of being.
Garett Renon:
Yeah, let less is more. I mean, you know, one of the things I've learned with hanging out with a lot of the shipibo is By our american standards. We think that they're living a bad life with no electricity and all this kind of stuff um in shacks and not having a lot of material things but You see that like there's so much there's always laughter. They're always laughing They're always joking and they're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I don't want to Um, but we've all got our issues, but, um, yeah, I mean, like you said, it's less is more. And I think that's, that's the trap that everyone's been caught up in. And that's the, that's the matrix. And that's the con we've all led into is that we think more is more, but actually less is more it's removing things. And, and if you're able to remove all these extra things, because the other thing I talk about in my podcast in that particular episode is growing your business or your enterprise also takes more money. And so it's not like you just skyrocket up to success Ville. So that becomes with a lot more money, a lot more, a lot more money also requires more money to then pay more employees and to pay more bills and to, and then the bigger house costs more money. And so, um, yeah, we've got to just redefine. our relationship with money, redefine what it is. And I mean, for me, I would rather live in a smaller house and drive a cheaper car and be able to do whatever it is I want to do with my time than be a slave to some corporate job working 80 hours a week, constantly checking my emails, stressed out, and staring at a computer screen all day.
Anya Smith:
Yeah, I'm curious and like we can just give this like, I hope that there is a balance, right? In the sense, like, I hope that like I'm trying to build this in obviously like there's an element of growth to it and I am working a lot. But to me, I also see a purpose behind it. Like, my
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
mission is to share stories like yours and other amazing guests, like to inspire people to like challenge their definition of success, right?
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
And sure, like that has a cost and like I want to grow. But to me, like that aligns to my purpose of like, helping a platform that inspires others and having opportunities to give back to nonprofits and think if I'm meaningful. So I hope there is a balance, although maybe I'm naive, around being able to grow intentionally, right? Not just because it's the money, but because of the purpose and seeing money as a tool to purpose,
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
right? Versus as the objective in itself. And I'm looking at time, one thing I did wanna ask, so I wanna know, again, what can people... who are just like still living their day to day lives, like what can they implement or kind of add to their life right now? Like, all the
Garett Renon:
Mm-hmm.
Anya Smith:
less is more to kind of help them. You mentioned one thing about pine pole and like are there other like elements like that have value to our day to day lives that you want to share?
Garett Renon:
Yeah, yeah, I'd love to talk about that. And I want to mention something that you just brought up. Yeah, there there, there is a balance 100%. And I think, like, there always is a cost. Like, um, it's kind of like what they say in the fitness industry, it's like you suffer now in the gym, or you suffer later while you're overweight, or and on pharmaceuticals, but either way, there's always a cost. And I think that like, yeah, there's nothing wrong with people building businesses and there's nothing wrong with people. You're always going to have to kind of work hard. There's always a sacrifice created or required like there is no growth without sacrifice and hard work. So that's always going in. So I'm not promoting a life of ease. What I'm promoting is a life of you chasing your your passion and doing something that you want to do. And because like for me, like I'm, I'm sacrificing a lot, you know, I'm, I'm living in a trailer down by the river and I've completely disconnected from normal society. And yeah, and I got to figure out how to, because there's a reality, I got to start figuring out how to make some money so then I can start to provide. So there's always these things. But it's better that you're going after your, you're going after your true self and you're doing things with the purpose of intention as opposed to just making money, right? Like if your goal is to help people and you've got to work 80 hours a week and you're truly doing that, well then, you know, God bless you. But if your goal is just how do I maximize profits, then you need to take a long hard look in the mirror. But. Yeah, so, yeah, I wanna talk about pine pollen a little bit because this actually came to me from one of my psalmas I did. I've done multiple psalmas over these past six years and I was dieting a plant called morosa, which is a very, has a lot of feminine qualities to it. So a lot of heart opening and helping you get in touch with your emotional sides and kind of open you up energetically and heart opening. So very cool. And so I was really interested to see how what I was going to learn from this plant. And it was funny, because it kind of taught me completely the opposite of what I thought. I thought it was gonna help me get a little more in touch with my feminine side. And it was like doubling down and be like, no, you need to look into testosterone and you need to kind of ramp things up.
Anya Smith:
Huh.
Garett Renon:
But I realized that it all kind of came back around. So there's one thing that I don't know if you know, this affects both men and women, but more so men, but it's both. And you know, because despite what they tell you on mainstream media, there is a difference between men and women. Um, but so testosterone is in significant decline in men and women, but specifically in men so much so that the average 30 year old of today has 60% less testosterone than the average 30 year old of just 30 years ago. And this is really bad because testosterone is responsible for drive, focus, motivation, general well-being, building muscle mass and even sex drive, right? And so you think about, like I've mentioned numerous times, how many people are depressed and unmotivated and overweight and sickly and... There's a whole host of reasons of why testosterone is low. And some of it, a lot of things we've mentioned, pesticides, sedentary lifestyle, just environmental pollutants, plastics,
Anya Smith:
Stress, stress
Garett Renon:
stress.
Anya Smith:
maybe?
Garett Renon:
Stress is a huge one.
Anya Smith:
Yeah.
Garett Renon:
And then even a lot of the wacky kind of modern ideology we have where we're kind of suppressing these ideas of masculine and feminine. I mean, it's so bad that saying the words masculine and feminine can trigger people. And we're actually at these energies are at war because I feel like we're at this spiritual war. And so, and this is where it kind of came full circle for me is by learning about testosterone and learning of ways to boost it naturally, masculine aspect that can also help simultaneously raise the divine feminine. And we need to
Anya Smith:
and I'll see you next time. I love it. And a book fell off the branch. Which is, sorry, English. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar, so just in case. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't change at all since we worked out. pulling it up. Yeah. What does that happen? It's just like, it's those plants. It's those plants that are just coming in and that's so interesting, huh? Sorry, so you're selling this and how do you use this? Let's see. Every day? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha, that's very respectful of you. I love it. And I know we're over time. I just want to summarize, was there anything we missed? And I'm really curious because obviously you are somebody who has been working out his whole life, you're a personal trainer, kickboxing, all of that. And now obviously you're transforming your body through a Sama, but for somebody who might just find this information for their physical health, for their desire to be in great physical shape, any other tips for them who might just find, oh, I'm curious about this because your wisdom with your experience that can apply there. Yeah. Yeah. Show your butt kick exercises. I'm sorry. Dog wars. I've had a dog wars before in my life. I love it. I should check it out. I hope the audience just hears like there's maybe you came in here like, oh my gosh, I don't know where this is gonna go. Ayahuasca or like that sounds a little out there. But I hope you see there's actually just a focus on balancing your life and bringing things into it that could actually bring you more peace and more happiness day to day instead of like embracing the normality of always being stressed and trying to achieve this like common success of money and title and what not like. What if we actually reflect on that? Is that serving us? And see like, is there opportunity to find more balance between the spiritual, mental and physical? And again, it's not extreme in itself. Like to Garret's point, there's things in there that you can embrace that are very moderate, right? They're very doable, but getting curious and being open-minded to what works for you can really change your life. And hopefully, for the very least, can it hurt if you're at a place where you're constantly stressed and unhappy and the things that you're achieving aren't making you happier? what would the harm be in trying something different where it might actually bring you more joy and content and peace to your everyday life? Explore, explore, whatever it is. It may not be ISQ right now. Maybe it's yoga, mindfulness. Maybe it's something down the line that you want to explore further or just do the research in that space and see if that's interesting to you, right? Like you can reach out to people like Garrett and ask them questions or listen to his podcasts. Again, it can be him, it could be others, but having the curiosity just for a better life, a better you, is very powerful. And Garrett, for like a time, you've been so generous on your social diet to be on this podcast. So I want to ask, I'm going to of course include all the kind of references to your podcast and everything, but how should people connect with you if you're open to it? And anything we missed that you want to touch on before we go to our three short-fit questions. interview your plants. I think when we were working out and you did your first thing, you said like, ayahuasca finds you. And that took me to heart, like that experience, like if it's not there for you, like that's fine. It may be something that just comes into your point of life where it's like, it may be a line to you at that point. Okay, okay, I love this. This is so fun for me. I hope people challenge their perceptions got something new out of it. Even if they disagree, that's fine. But let us know what you thought I welcome your feedback on our socials. If you are interested about this and or know somebody who's curious about like share this with them. I love seeing the shares. I think that there are so much value that can be happening when we share things that excite us and our learnings from these episodes. So appreciate that. Okay, when you're ready. I have three last Short bit questions and then I'll let you go. Okay, first one is, I'll let that car pass by. From, from, no worries. So first one is, success to me is. My current purpose. No, I love it. Okay, if you feel like answering it, answer it. If not, we'll go to a different question. My current purpose is. Okay, last but not least, in the positive sense, going off track is. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's power in having these conversations and showing what is no longer serving us. Because there's a lot that's no longer serving us and we're in the habit of just keeping at it because that's how it's been. Ultimately, the detriment is to ourselves. So if we actually reflect and just be like, hey, it's okay if I change because there's a whole stagnant, and I'll wrap up, there's a whole sense of stagnancy that we should be like, where do you want to be when you grow up? as if we're like one point of defined life kind of status when we grow up and we're that person. Like, no, we're always growing, we're always evolving. It's just a fallacy to say like, there's kind of a completion point and that's who we need to be at all times. So embrace this process of exploration, wherever it might take you. It will probably be different from myself or from Garrett or anybody else in the podcast, but again, there's huge power and understanding what does no longer serve you. So if that's one thing that you take away, explore that and let us know what you think. And Garrett, I really appreciate your time, your authenticity. Best of luck to you wrapping up this summer. I look forward to updates on that. And for everybody joining us, thank you so much for coming right off track with us. We look forward to having you on another adventure with us. Take care.
Former gym owner/personal trainer. Over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. Now on a journey of learning about plant medicines and spiritual herbalism. Have been working with plant medicines for just over 6-years. Currently on doing a one year sama (social diet) with the shipibo tribe of Peru.