Mindfulness Mode

Steve Olsher helps you get crystal clear on your what; the one thing YOU were created to do. Steve is the New York Times, best-selling author of What Is Your What?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do. He is also the author of the internet technology book of the year called Internet Profits. Not only is Steve a speaker and an author, he's a world class coach, he's a wizard at teaching how the on-line world can create profit. He's the chairman and founder of Liquor.com. Steve's most recent live event in San Diego is called the New Media Summit where he used his genius to line up forty successful podcasters with 150 people who were thirsty to be promoted on-line as podcast guests. This was a world-class event. Contact Info Website: www.ReinventionRadio Podcast: www.ReinventionRadio Live every Thursday from 12 noon to 2:00 pacific time Book: What Is Your What?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do by Steve Olsher Book: Internet Prophets: The Worlds Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online Get Your Free Copy of Steve's book at What is Your What Most Influential Person My wife. Effect on Emotions For a long time I was actually pretty on the level in terms of not a lot of crazy highs and not a lot of crazy lows and that sort of thing. Over the past 10 or 15 years or so I've really been able to experience tremendous highs and tremendous lows as well. I think that the depression and darkness that I found myself in back in 2013 when I really felt like it was time to throw in the towel on everything. I think it has to do with expanding the mind into areas where I wasn't able to go prior to that. It's an interesting double-edged sword. Thoughts on Breathing I have become much more aware of breath and the importance of breathing. Even over the last few years, I think it's one of those things that is only born out of maturity. There's something to that. From my experience as a speaker and a coach and just being in business in general, it really boggles my mind how one very deep breath can completely reset everything. That's a fairly new phenomenon with me; to become that aware. Suggested Resources Book: What Is Your What?: Discover The One Amazing Thing You Were Born To Do by Steve Olsher App: The Timer on my phone Bullying Story I've got lots of bullying stories.  The biggest bully I've ever had in my life would be my older brother. He's six years older than me. We haven't spoken ... let's put it this way; my wife and I have been married for 20 years and she's never met him. Reality is that he is the single biggest bully that I ever had to contend with in my life, physically and emotionally abusive as well. As we get older we become more clear on the life that we want to create for ourselves and eliminate people, places and things from our life that don't serve us well. I recently had a business partnership with someone that's fairly well known in the internet marketing space and I remember a couple of times during that partnership where he really lost his stuff, he really lost his mind. He had big, huge kind of screaming tantrums. The first one was on the phone. I'm not saying that he was wrong with what he was upset about but his presentation of how he was expressing what he was upset about really just manifested as a big, huge, screaming hissy fit. I just kind of chalked it up to, maybe it was just a bad day. Everybody has their off moments. About a month later we were at the Traffic and Conversion Conference and if you know Ryan Deiss's company, they had this big event called Traffic and Conversion and there are thousands of people there. It is a pretty large event. It's held at a fairly large venue, a hotel in this case. We were in a public area of the hotel, a little bit off to the side. There was an issue with something related to a launch of a new program that we were working on and we were coming up on the deadline for that launch and there were a few things that needed to be done. He's kind of a control freak about things and my understanding of something was that it was waiting for his review and approval and his understanding was different. When I had said, we're waiting on his approval, he just basically had this huge blow up. And what that looked like was, he literally stands up and is towering over me with his finger in my face and he's just literally yelling at the top of his lungs, basically, just really losing his stuff. I like to think I have a pretty long fuse. Back in the day, not so much. But nowdays, it takes a lot for me to lose it. I've been training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for the better part of 16 years. I've got a lot of friends who fight in the UFC. I've been around that world for the better part of two decades. If push comes to shove, I'm not going to simply back down from you, and that's kind of where we went. I just was like, whoa, this is not happening; not here, not now, not ever. I stood up, and so now we're face to face on this thing and basically, being the more calm of the two, I literally just stood up, looked at him as I needed to look at him, and walked away. I called him the next day and said, look, it's fairly clear that the writing is on the wall here. We're done. And I will tell you right now that we're done. We'll finish up this launch and we'll launch this program and that's where it's going to end. And I will tell you that, for the better part of the last 15 years, I've eliminated people from my life who treat me like that because that's not how I will stand to be treated. I do not have people in my life who treat me like that. He's not going to be a continuing part of my life for any period of time past this launch and quite frankly, if he ever gets up in my face like that again, we're not just going to be talking at that point. I promise you, point blank, as clear as I can make it. And so it was one of those conversations where he tried just basically saying, oh yeah, let's get you grounded, you seem upset. And just doing this whole spiritual bend on me and basically I'm just like, you are the least spiritual person I've ever met in my life. You are the least grounded person I've ever met in my life and frankly you're the biggest hypocrit of anyone I've ever met in my life. So we're done and I will just simply say this. I don't think you know who I am if you think that's something that I'm capable of tolerating, because I'm not.

Jacqui Letran is a multiple award-winning author and a vibrant, passionate thought leader, mentor and speaker. She has helped thousands of teens and youth turn their lives around by changing their mindset to one where they truly believe success and happiness are possible, regardless of their current circumstances. Trained as a Nurse Practitioner, Jacqui has made full use of her life experience and training to successfully transform clients. Jacqui just returned from the Great American Book Festival and Literary Classics' Book Award Ceremony to receive a Gold Medal for her book, "5 Simple Questions to Reclaim Your Happiness". The book also won a Silver Medal from the Readers Favorite category. Contact Info Website: www.JacquiLetran.com Book: 5 Simple Questions To Reclaim Your Happiness by Jacqui Letran Book: I Would But My Damn Mind Won't Let Me by Jacqui Letran Note: Jacqui is looking for beta readers of her new, yet to be published book, Unleash Your Inner Superpowers. Click on 'Join My VIP Launch Team' at the top of her website. Most Influential Person Robin Duncan (My mentor) Effect on Emotions Mindfulness has effected my emotions - everything. Right now, I'm living in North Carolina and by Sunday, big hurricane Irma might hit North Carolina and I can get drawn into that negativity and that fear, or I can stay mindful and present, stay calm and prepare for it and make decisions that are going to be more beneficial for me and not have a knee-jerk reaction out of fear. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is everything. Your breath is your life force. When you take that moment to connect to your life force, things change. The physiology in your body changes when you're taking that time to slow down and be intentional with your breath. Suggested Resources Book: The 5 Love Languages: The Secret To Love That Lasts by Dr. Gary Chapman Book: 5 Simple Questions To Reclaim Your Happiness by Jacqui Letran App: The Spire Breathing App (www.Spire.io) Bullying Story [In my book], I share my stories of being the 'bullier' to other people and I also briefly share how I was bullied in the medical setting. As a teenager I was seeking help, I was scared and rather than having any kind of support or compassion, I was bullied. I was made to feel even worse about myself. Those are two examples of how I bullied others and how other people bullied me. I want to present something that I don't think a lot of us think about as often as we should. That is, we are our biggest bulliers. Everything that I experienced back then was because of me. I was the one who said, 'I'm stupid', to me. I was the one who said, 'Don't do it, you're not good enough'. 'You don't fit in'. 'You are inferior'. I was telling myself all of that and I told myself that so much that I believed it. I would love for people to just pause for a moment and think about how you've been bullying yourself and what you can do to stop that.

Lorraine Crowston is a certified life coach, a speaker and an author and is particularly interested in helping people deal with their food demons. Lorraine has worked as a chef, a computer network instructor, a trainer and a project manager. Lorraine Crowston has bundled all of her life experiences into a package where she helps people achieve physical and emotional health in playful, easy-to-follow steps. Her book, 'The Devil's Food Cake Made Me Do It', is a great example of Lorraine's unique way of viewing life and helping people. Contact Info Website: LorraineCrowston.com Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn: @LorraineCrowston Community: GoRead.com  (Lorraine has an author's page at GoRead.com) Book: The Devil's Food Cake Made Me Do It by Lorraine Crowston Most Influential Person Jenny McKee (One of the women I do a lot of networking with) Effect on Emotions Mindfulness has caused me to be a kinder, gentler person. I don't have to be the manager. I don't have to be the hard, make-all-the-decisions person. It's been a lovely journey. I'm really liking being able to sit back and just take it easy. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is so interesting because I've just finished doing an audio book. It's the audio version of my book. I've taken a voice acting coach and I also do Yoga. Breathing is part of all of those things. When you're recording an audio book, you try not to breathe too loudly because it will pick it up and it has to be cleaned up later. But when you're doing Yoga, it's a totally different thing. You're making sure you totally focus on the breath. Suggested Resources Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Book: The Devil's Food Cake Made Me Do It by Lorraine Crowston App: FatSecret.com Bullying Story I was the smallest kid in the class. I don't term it quite so much as bullying, but I was definitely teased quite a bit. I was very fortunate, because I was the youngest of six, so once I got home I was safe. I had a whole crew of people around me that kept me safe. It was my safe haven. I think that a lot of the times, I look back and think about these people who had bullied me or teased me at the time and I sometimes wonder what was going on in their household. If they are feeling powerless at home, this is their was to regain power and so they're going to look for the person that they think is the most vulnerable and bully them. Unfortunately what happens, in my case it didn't work. I had five older siblings that picked on me. What I think happens is that they look for the most gentle soul who won't fight back. That's really a shame because these poor gentle souls are the ones who take the hit a lot more. They don't have that hard core to fight back and so it is much more damaging to them than what may have happened to me when I was growing up. My mom stopped protecting me and so I had to fight my own battles, so in a way, internally in my own house, I had to stand up for myself or find the means to navigate through the whole family dynamics. I had the tools for it. Imagine if I had been an only child where I'm closeted and maybe a gentle soul and I wouldn't have received those tools to sorta say, hold on, I'm not going to be your victim, I'm not going to take the bullying. Back off. Then you get those very bad situations.

Dave Crenshaw is the master of building productive leaders and has transformed hundreds of thousands of business leaders worldwide. He has appeared in TIME magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have received millions of views. He has written three books and counting, including The Myth of Multitasking which was published in six languages and is a time-management bestseller. His fourth book, The Power of Having Fun, releases September 19th, 2017. Contact Info Book on Amazon: The Power of Having Fun: How Meaningful Breaks Help You Get More Done by Dave Crenshaw Website: DaveCrenshaw.com Book: PowerOfHavingFun.com Blog: Pick Dave's Brain Most Influential Person Steven Covey (Author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) Effect on Emotions Mindfulness has given me a lot more stability from someone who does not naturally have that kind of stability. The focus of mindfulness creates the stability of emotion. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is not as much of my mindfulness as it should be, but I am aware of it and when I do it, it is helpful. I use counting more than breathing. And the power of the logic of the numbers to steady my thoughts back down. Suggested Resources Book: The Myth of Multitasking: How Doing It All Gets Nothing Done by Dave Crenshaw Book: The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield and Les Hewitt App: My Calendar People are addicted to apps and they believe that having the next new phone or new app is going to make them productive. In fact, it is not the app, but how you use it; what the underlying principals are. Bullying Story I've got two stories and they're both related. I grew up as somebody who, at least I feel, was bullied quite a bit. Part of that is the personality. Part of that is that I grew up in an environment at home where I was subject to a lot of emotional and verbal abuse, constantly, and so I did a lot of things at school which were ways to get attention and ways to get people to like me that were just not normal. And so it put a target on my back and it was really hard for me to deal with. What I gained from that personally was empathy for others. I really strongly dislike when I see others getting judged or diminished because they are different. Bring that to just last week. My son is twelve and is just starting Junior High. All of us who have been through that experience know how difficult that can be. He's a really good kid and he's also really sensitive. I said to him, Straton, I want to tell you something that I wish someone had told me going into Junior High. I said, 'You are going to see kids doing things that are rude, they're going to say things to you that are not nice. What I want you to understand is, they are all just trying to figure it out. They don't know what's right and what's wrong. They don't even know what kind of a person they want to be yet. So when you see that, don't take it personally. It's so easy to think, oh, they're picking on me. But instead, just say, that's somebody just trying to figure it out, and just go, there it is. Just be nice to them and move on, because my experience is, those same people who acted like that, the majority of them, ten to twenty years from now, they regret the way that they acted, or they completely forget about it and they become people who are well-adjusted, nice, kind adults.  And so, my perspective is, we need not take that personally when those kinds of things happen. That's just part of other people going through the process of learning and growing. I had it happen to me this week. I had somebody send me a nasty message about my book. The initial reaction is to personalize it and say, I'm going to be offended by this. But what I did was, I flipped it around. I thought, what if I said that to him in the workplace. Usually I don't respond to this, but for some reason I decided to respond. And so I said to him, 'Imagine if I came into your workplace and I said that to you, over your shoulder. Can you feel how ugly that moment would be? And If I saw someone say that to you, I would tell them to stop. Because I believe in you. As a human being, you should not be treated like that. So if people are treating you like that, I'm sorry that that's happening. I think a lot of times, if people lash out like that, they're doing that because other people are treating them that way or because they feel insecure about their life. So the approach I tried to take as an adult, is to turn it around and say, I support you; I care about you.  

Dana Pharant is a Master healer, life strategist, published author and past CEO of a near 7-figure business and former Dominatrix. Dana is a transformational coach who uses dynamic tools for rapid change to your mindset. She uses her kick-ass energy and ability to perceive, pinpoint and pop the problem limiting you, your body or your business while having fun. Contact Info Website: www.DanaPharant.com The Dominatrix's Guide to Inner Power in Business Blog: Dana's Blog Podcast: The Inner Dominatrix Podcast Most Influential Person My first energy healer teacher who really taught me to connect with the energy itself. Effect on Emotions That [Mindfulness] has been massive for not being caught up in them [my emotions] and allowing myself to expand out so that I can drop off all of that baggage and garbage. Thoughts on Breathing The breath is so critical for getting you connected because it allows you to really feel in your body. Oxygen is kind of important. Suggested Resources Book: I don't recommend a book for mindfulness. Mindfulness is more of a kinesthetic experience and reading books puts you into your head, so I'd suggest people to find guided meditations or music with binaural beats. Just start that process instead. App: Macaroni Union Album "Weightless". This is fantastic for taking your brain waves into the theta state. I like to put this on and go for a barefoot walking meditation. Bullying Story The bullying story that comes to my mind is; it was grade one or grade two and being out in the school yard and of course one of the things with the Jehovah's Witness religion is the door knocking. Everybody's familiar with that and so the kids in the school yard would taunt me and say that my father sells vacuum cleaners because we were going door to door. They did this for weeks and it was so annoying and finally I punched one of them. Mindfulness probably would have been a better plan. I may be a little too fiesty.

Bryan Falchuk has an amazing story; he went from being obese and depressed to losing over 100 pounds and running marathons. He’s faced the trauma of nearly losing his wife to illness while their young son watched. He became vegan in just one day. He got his masters from a top school and rose to a senior executive position in a successful business. He’s transformed his life and developed an approach to help others do the same that he teaches in his best-selling book “Do a Day: How To Live A Better Life Every Day”. Contact Info Website: www.DoADayBook.com Book: Do a Day: How To Live A Better Life Every Day by Bryan Falchuk $4 Discount on the Do A Day Book For Mindful Tribe Social Media: @DoADayBook / @NewBodi Inc Magazine Columnist Bryan Fulchuk Most Influential Person Rich Roll (Author and Ultra Athlete) Effect on Emotions Mindfulness effects all of my emotions right now. It's what keeps me able to handle everything that's thrown at me. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is a very centering exercise. It released and brings you back in. I find when I'm less mindful, a few very deep breaths pull me right back into the moment. Suggested Resources Book: Open Heart, Clear Mind: An Introduction To The Buddha's Teachings by Thubten Chodron Book: Do a Day: How To Live A Better Life Every Day by Bryan Falchuk App: Headspace Bullying Story I mentioned I was the fat kid. So, was I bullied? Yes, very much so by plenty of people. I think I'm very lucky because there were a lot of people who didn't bully me as well. There were a lot of good friends. The story I will tell you is not from that period in my life. I wasn't the blatent [obvious person] who was going to get picked on. In the role of being a successful senior executive, I can tell you, the grass is not green anywhere. We all struggle. Just cause I've had success doesn't mean everything's easy. I had a situation where someone was essentially trying to take me down. It's someone who's very well respected and used to be a litigator so they know how to attack people and how to make a case. It's a person who's been pretty successful at that. Whether they are aware of it or not, they were essentially trying to get me fired. It didn't happen, which is good. The key reason is, it's all in how I responded in the moment. Historically, I would have gotten really riled up. We were in a meeting where .... I knew it was coming. The attack came full force and they were quoting a lot of facts that were not actually facts. They were just statements of things that they put out there as facts and then everyone sort of nodded and said, that's interesting, or that's true. None of it was true. And so the question for me was, how do I respond? Historically I would get defensive and argue back. Guess what? It doesn't tend to work out so well because you're feeding into what's making that bully thrive. They're thriving off negativity and the confrontation of it. So if you give that right back to them, you're just amping it up. So what I did instead was, I kept very calm. I've been studying Buddhism and I was in the midst of my early days of studying it. This was a really good and strong early test but it worked. I kept mindful about one very important fact about everyone in the world. Ultimately, we all seek to be happy. That may not feel that way in that moment and you may think, that person doesn't want to be happy, they just want to hurt me. That's a very, 'the world is doing this to me', kind of view that doesn't help you. The reality is, that person wants to be happy.

Kallen Diggs is an author and also host of the syndicated show, Reaching The Finish Line. He is passionate about reducing the high levels of unemployment by helping people achieve their goals. Last year, Kallen lived in 3 countries, walked 65 miles on Spain's Camino De Santiago, and completed a Vipassana meditation retreat (12 hours of meditation per day for 10 consecutive days). Contact Info Website: ReachingTheFinishLine.com Get Kallen's New Book (on sale): ReachingTheFinishLine.com/buy/NewBook Most Influential Person David Hawkins Effect on Emotions It has increased my ability to project positive emotions Thoughts on Breathing The slower you breathe, the easier it is to bring you down to an alpha state or a theta state. If you're breathing faster, you probably will increase your likelihood for that mental chatter to continue to exist. Suggested Resources Book: Power vs. Force by David Hawkins Book: Reaching the Finish Line: A Practical Guide to Discovering the Champion in You by Kallen Diggs App: Binaural Beats App: Remente Bullying Story When I was younger, Bruce, I was the oddball in school. Kids would talk about, "Did you listen to this new CD" and I was talking about, "Did you watch the last episode of National Geographic". I was like the total nerd, and yes, I was bullied, and kids would throw things at me because I wasn't cool. In reality, I think as we get older, we all bully people in some form with our ego. We project our ignorance onto other people. We get this perception that I'm smarter than you, you're not smart, you should listen to me. Some people do this in obvious ways and other people do it in more subtle ways. The key is, if we can get a better grasp of our ego, we can transend the ego. That's when we'll be able to show more love, compassion, and be more at peace with other people. I think there are a lot of people who have arisen to a point where they have made peace with their ego and are transending it, but there's a lot of people that haven't. They still struggle with it, and ego still dictates their life, and unfortunately, through their decisions they're subconciously using their ego to project their ignorance onto other people. That makes people feel inferior, jealous, and all kinds of other things.

Andy Ramage is the co-founder of Aalpha Energy, one of the largest independent commodities brokerages in the world. He is also co-creator of One Year No Beer, also known as OYNB. This is an alcohol-free challenge you can embrace for 28 days, 90 days and even a year. Eliminating alcohol from his life caused him to lose 42 pounds and cut his body fat from 28% to 10%. He is totally passionate about being fit and healthy. Andy meditates and exercises daily and has studied habit change in order to succeed at his amazing goals. Oh, and did I mention he’s also a master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming, aka, NLP and he’s studying for his Master's Degree in Positive Psychology. Andy is also a Mindfulness-Based Awareness coach. Contact Info Website: OneYearNoBeer.com Blog: Take the 28 Day Challenge Book: 28 Day Alcohol-Free Challenge: Sleep Better, Lose Weight, Boost Energy, Beat Anxiety by Andy Ramage and Ruari Fairbairns (To Be Released Dec 28, 2017) Facebook Group: OneYearNoBeer Instagram: OneYearNoBeer LinkedIn: Andy Ramage Most Influential Person Andy Puddicombe (Co-founder of Headspace) Effect on Emotions I'm so much calmer. I was a classic red-head in many ways, so that (the temper) was part of my character makeup when I played sport to win and had that super passionate energy around me. Mindfulness has helped me quell that and I'm now a much calmer person to be around. Thoughts on Breathing Breathing is everything. That is my anchor. Breathing is what I go to. I have experimented with every type of mindfulness you can think of, but really my practice is just on the breath as my anchor. Suggested Resources Book: Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan For Finding Peace In A Frantic World by Mark Williams App: Headspace Bullying Story  When you are playing football at a high level at the young age of 16 it is super tough. It's not an element of bullying as such, but it is so cut-throat in the sense that every bad pass, every bad tackle is almost overwhelming to you as a young man because your life is riding on this thing. You're dreaming of becoming a professional athlete in your field. I remember clearly around that age of 15 or 16, I was almost crippled with performance anxiety in so many ways because every time I would make a mistake, it would haunt me for the next 15 minutes whilst the game was going on. This is where mindfulness for me is so beautiful and so powerful. If I'd had the ability to just let that go and actually come back to the moment and concentrate on what I was doing, I know I would have been a better professional and a better player. I would have been able to let that error go. It's the classic case of, when you're worried about that problem that has just passed, you're not using all your mental capacity. Then you make another problem, like another back tackle or another bad pass. All of a sudden you've snowballed. You've gone from nowhere to this negative spiral. I had no idea of mindfulness at that stage in my life. In my younger days, this would have been so helpful to have known how to let these things go.

Dr. Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, an effective, fun way to memorize foreign language, vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more. Dr. Metivier writes books and creates training for anyone who needs to improve their memory. What separates him from other authors on memory skills and development is that he doesn’t focus on long strings of digits or training for memory championships. He offers simple techniques for memorizing the information that will change your daily life: foreign language vocabulary, names and faces, material for tests and exams. There’s no hype in his training, just techniques that work. From hobbyists looking to memorize facts, poems or more to anyone wanting to master another language, Anthony loves to see memory techniques take root and flourish. Contact Info Website: www.magneticmemorymethod.com Gift for Mindful Tribe: www.magneticmemorymethod.com/mindfulness Most Influential Person Gary Weber Effect on Emotions It has really evened them out. I have had clinical depression and bipolar disorder so my moods in the past have been all over the place. Now I have a real strong through line and have exactly that gap where I am able to sort of live in the future. I mean, I live in the future already because I'm in Australia but now I kind of live in the future of my physical and mental responses and am able to just sort of see it before it happens. Not every single time but more and more consistently and not get tied up in creating a big story about it or even being in it. And I have now been able to function without medication for a year and a half now. So that's been great. Thoughts on Breathing They say always return to the breath. If you get lost that's the place to go. I've just been so blessed that I encountered things in the early 2000's like Russian Martial Arts which are so breathing focused that I've just spent a lot of time with breath and just noticing that so much tension is held by just not breathing. And then starting to create greater circulatory has helped so much from treating tension and preventing it from developing in the first place. Suggested Resources Book: Happiness Beyond Thought by Gary Weber, Waking Up by Sam Harris App: An unconventional app would be your brain Bullying Story I was around a lot of bullies. I sort of had the where with all to stand up to them and part of that may have been just my own recklessness. I had a good batting average of just putting them in their place and I was able to surf the danger zone between the jocks and non jocks but I kind of had alliances with everybody but it did have a little bit to do with being a little bit off kilter and crazy and not really caring because my home background was so bad that what could Troy the Jock possibly threaten me with. I saw bullying a lot and I did respond to it. I did have one fist fight that I was in and lost as a result of standing up to bullying but we ultimately became friends and had some interesting discussions after that and I wonder if a lot of this is out of our control. We're biological units with raging hormones and things happen, so mindfulness would start for me there with just helping humans get a better sense that what's happening to them in these situations is largely out of our control. and we don't really have as much free will in it as we think because of the units we are in. If you can get a gap between your physical response to things and the actions you take then a lot of that can stop. The bully can catch himself in a moment of bullying that he maybe wasn't aware of and the bullied can respond differently because they're aware of how their bodies are responding before their mind directs action.  

Dr. Gary Richter is a holistic veterinarian who focuses on the integration of holistic and general practice veterinary medicine. He's passionate about educating professionals and pet owners on the benefits of integrative care. The safe and effective use of medical cannabis in dogs and cats is central to both, Dr. Richter's medical practice and educational outreach. By integrating medical cannabis with other conventional and alternative therapies Dr. Richter has been able to improve the quality of the lives of pets living with medical conditions ranging from arthritis to inflammatory bowel disease to cancer. Dr. Richter has been practicing veterinarian medicine in the San Francisco Bay area since 1988 and in 2015 was awarded the title America's Favorite Veterinarian by the American Veterinarian Medical Foundation. Contact Info Website: www.drgaryrichter.com Free Bonus: send an email to bonus@petvetexpert.com Most Influential Person My wife, Lee Effect on Emotions It affects my emotions in the sense that I use it to center, particularly at times in my professional life, when things can get intense and stressful. There's a lot of emotion at some times and that emotion can end up getting dumped on the veterinarian. I use mindfulness to help keep me centered and able to focus on what I need to do. Thoughts on Breathing It's not necessarily something that I consciously think of, but it absolutely is something that helps keep one centered and helps you stay calm and focused in a chaotic and stressful environment. Suggested Resources Book: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff App: No app Bullying Story Dogs don't bully in the sense that they don't do anything with malice Dogs do have a hierarchy where for one reason or another a dog will feel it needs to step in and play the dominant role, whether they feel threatened or that their space is being invaded. You know you certainly see that. Someone might bring their dog into someone's home and the dog who lives in the home may feel a need to defend their home and then there is an altercation. There is a way to prevent this. If you have 2 dogs who have never met before then introduce them on neutral ground, like to a park where nobody has to feel defensive. That way they can do their own thing and get acquainted so when they go back to somebody's house there is less likely to be an altercation.