What if the one thing holding you back from living your most authentic life isn’t the world around you, but the beliefs inside your mind?

In this latest episode of Raw & Radiant, podcast, I sit down with David Martel, host of Seeking Truth with David Martel, podcast to explore how conscious breathing and questioning the norms can lead to radical transformation. [TAP HERE TO LISTEN]

David’s journey from addiction to truth-seeker is nothing short of inspiring. But it’s his ability to shatter limiting beliefs and push beyond societal conditioning that truly lights up this conversation. If you’re ready to challenge what you think you know and step into a higher version of yourself, this episode is your blueprint.

Breaking Free from the Cage of Limiting Beliefs 

One of the key takeaways from my conversation with David is the power of recognizing and dismantling limiting beliefs. We often move through life confined by invisible barriers—beliefs about what we should do, should be, and should want.

David shares how, early on, he felt trapped by societal expectations and the pressure to conform to a life that didn’t resonate with his truth. He describes the process of peeling back the layers, questioning his deeply ingrained beliefs, and how that led him to move beyond addiction and into a place of personal empowerment.

Quote from David: 

“The biggest step in my transformation was learning to question everything—especially the things I thought were non-negotiable truths.” 

Conscious Breathing: The Gateway to Self-Awareness 

In our conversation, David also dives deep into how conscious breathing served as a pivotal tool for his personal growth. Often misunderstood, conscious breathing isn’t just about relaxation—it’s about reconnecting with your body, breaking through mental blocks, and accessing deeper truths.

David explains how conscious breathing opened doors to self-awareness, helping him tune out the noise of societal expectations and tune into his authentic desires. It gave him the clarity to confront limiting beliefs, see the world from a different perspective, and most importantly, embrace his truth.

Facing Fear & Embracing Discomfort 

No transformation comes without fear or discomfort. As David and I discussed, it’s in the moments of discomfort where the magic happens. Fear, as David put it, is nothing more than a signal pointing us toward growth. Instead of shying away, he encourages us to lean into it.

Quote from David: 

“When I encounter fear, I see it as a signal. It’s telling me that growth is on the other side.” 

Breathwork, conscious decision-making, and the willingness to question everything are the tools that helped him (and can help you) break free from the mental chains that keep us playing small.

Practical Steps to Shatter Your Limiting Beliefs 

Ready to start breaking down your own walls? Here are some practical steps inspired by David’s journey:

 1. Identify Your Limiting Beliefs: Take a moment to list out what you believe about yourself and your life. Question where those beliefs came from. Are they truly yours, or have they been programmed by society, family, or past experiences?

 2. Try Conscious Breathing: Use breathing techniques to calm your mind and connect with your deeper self. Notice the thoughts and feelings that arise—this is where your inner truth starts to speak.

 3. Embrace Discomfort: Growth doesn’t happen inside your comfort zone. The next time you feel fear or discomfort, ask yourself, “What’s on the other side of this feeling?”

 4. Question Everything: This was David’s mantra—always be questioning. Don’t take things at face value. Challenge the narratives you’ve been told and the ones you tell yourself.

Final Thoughts: You Hold the Power 

In our chat, David reminds us of a simple truth: You hold the power to rewrite your story. No matter where you are on your journey, you have the ability to break free from limiting beliefs and step into a life of empowerment, freedom, and truth.

So, I leave you with this question: Are you ready to question everything?  →  If so, it’s time to start your own journey of seeking truth.

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If this post resonated with you, don’t miss the full episode with David Martel on Raw & Radiant.

We dive even deeper into his story and share more tools for breaking free from limiting beliefs. Listen to the episode [HERE].

And if you’re ready to explore the power of conscious breathing, check out my upcoming breathwork sessions [EXPLORE MORE HERE].

TRANSCRIPT:

Victoria Starr:
Welcome to Raw and Radiant, the podcast that ignites your spirit and empowers your soul. Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey? Here, we give other women permission to embrace their truth, to find the courage to choose themselves first. Because guess what? You are not alone. Join us in this massive journey of empowerment and courage. Together we'll illuminate your inner spark, empowering you to embrace the radiant light within and show you how magical you are. It's time to unleash your potential and make a difference in this world. Are you ready to step into the raw and radiant version of you? Hello, welcome back raw and radiant tribe. I am so excited that you are here. Thank you for joining me. And I have a very special guest today. I'm super, super excited to have David Martel on the show today. David is the host of seeking Truth with David Martel podcast. And let me tell you, I went down on a binge this morning, listen to his podcast and how they are so inspiring, how they allow you to really question society, question what you're thinking, question the reality question, what you have been programmed to think. And so I am so excited to have him here to have this organic, vulnerable, authentic conversation and just Just to bring in to this space an expansive conversation. David came into my space from my dear soul sister, Ashley D. Adam, who they have a connection through and that's for a different time. But I am so grateful to Ashley for bringing us into each other's life. And thank you for being here, David. Introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about you.

David Martel: Thank you so much for having me. I am really happy to be here. I'm really honored that you invited me to have this conversation, which I have no idea what it's going to be about, but I'm excited about it. Yeah, so I've got this podcast that you've mentioned. It was born out of some work I did with Ashley, out of breath work. It was something that was knocking on the door for a long time. I was resistant to it. And it kind of yelled at me. And during the breathwork, I thought, yeah, this is kind of ridiculous. Like what else is going on for me? And I just kept like turning it away and criticizing it. And eventually by the time I would session was done, it was like, that was the thing. It was like, all right, let's do this. And Um, so that's kind of my passion project. I am also a financial planner and have been for like 17 years or something. Um, and then also recent recently, uh, started a development company as well, building, uh, rentals with, uh, in my community. Um, I am clean and sober and in recovery for 23 and a bit years now. Married father of three boys and yeah, just all about truth, whatever that truth might be, knowing that I may never actually get to it, but happy to be on the journey.

undefined: Hmm, I love that we're just going to start with that what is truth. So first of all, I just want to tap into breath work and how So freaking powerful breathwork is and knowing that Ashley and I are on this soul's mission to facilitate breathwork for as many people as we possibly can to open into what is truth to open into questioning everything, which I love your quote is question everything always be seeking and I really really feel I have truth bumps right now, like full body goosebumps, like just recognizing that breathwork gives us that ability to get out of our own fucking way to be able to question to seek the truth, right? Yeah, yeah. So what does that mean for you is question everything always be seeking?

David Martel: Yeah, and I think, you know, the I could start, I guess, just with recovery, getting clean and sober. My biggest problem with getting clean when I was 20 years old was just understanding that there's something bigger than I. There is something greater that maybe wants to help me, that wants to have unity with me. And I was really resistant to that. And I learned that the only reason I'm so resistant was because of my pain, my ego, my self-centeredness. And one of the key ingredients, so from that, what became really important was to always be seeking and it was this bigger truth, this bigger power that exists beyond my limited belief. And so today, what that means is it can be wrapped into so many, every area of life, like literally every area of life. I mean, what, and even if we have a conversation today that we believe is based in truth, that possibly is a truth that 5% of the global population might, only 5% might be aware of, I would still say that, you know, we're probably still only scratching the surface, right? And being open to what more might there be. And I think that what that does is it facilitates an important ingredient for me and that's humility, right? Like it just allows me to remain in this place of humility that like everyone who comes into my life, every piece of information that presents itself could be teaching, could be an ingredient that this universe is wanting to put into my mix. And I think that that's the basis of the show. I think I was really upset during the pandemic. I was bothered by a lot of things that were happening. And I quickly caught myself realizing, hey, anger, judgment, you know, all these are not like I'm never justified to be angry or to resent like there's no excuse in this world that's going to qualify my anger and resentment. But I have this unlimited capacity. And all the excuses necessary to love and to forgive. And so, you know, I quickly was reminded of that and thought, you know, I got to get back into living in the solution in all of this, right? And I think that that showed me that this always be seeking or that, you know, how truth really is applied is in every area of life, right? Even in business, it never ends.

undefined: Yeah, it never, it does, doesn't ever end. And that's, that's, that's the beauty of this. We're just going to call it right now, this game reality, right? We talk about this matrix game that we're in. And I, first of all, I want to celebrate you for your sobriety and for finding your truth and finding, seeking your bigger, higher power, whatever that is. And like really stepping into being an authentic person and having that awareness to question, to seek and not stay stuck in the paradigm of the program of what we should, and I air quote, should be thinking and doing and having the house with the white picket fence and the 2.5 kids. And what does all that mean? Like who said that's what we're supposed to do. And so that is so beautiful to be able to witness another human on this journey that has that understanding that there can be so much more. And there can be, if we just open our eyes and allow ourselves to, to question and to step back and to observe and to have the duality of both. And I love that you bring in the fact of that humility of the love and the forgiveness too, because, um, that is so important to have that love and forgiveness and most importantly for yourself too.

David Martel: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I always, I always, you know, I don't want to go too deep in it. Well, we could go deep into this, but like, I think that the way that I was able to learn love and forgiveness for myself came through the practice of applying love and forgiveness to others. And I never checked this, but you know, I once heard at a retreat, a quote from Einstein that there is just one of us. And when I think about it on like almost like a quantum physics level, if there's just one of us, then no doubt is it possible that as I exercise love and forgiveness for others, I'm also doing that for myself. And if I get a little bit more intentional with loving and forgiving myself, the result is that it probably becomes a lot easier to love and forgive others. I don't know about the chicken and the egg thing, but just for me, it started with a little bit with others and being able to see that, oh, this is also possible for me. And then as I did it for myself, I wanted to do it more for others.

undefined: Yeah, it becomes that reciprocity to and being that we're all energetically connected. I mean, you know, we're connected to earth, we're connected to the plants, we're connected to the sky, like we're all this energy, we're just living inside this meat suit, right? And we're moving about in this meat suit. And so if we can connect that, those dots that being energetically connected, it is that reciprocity of, I forgive you, I love you, whatever capacity that is, and then it is received within your own heart and it is received within your own body too. Yeah, yeah. So give me I want to go down like, I want to go down these making conscious decisions, the belief system, what values limiting beliefs, self imposed limiting beliefs, compromising your beliefs, like, I listened to one of your podcasts this morning, I'm like, this is fully lighting me up. And I would love to go down that direction for this conversation.

David Martel: Yeah, absolutely. So At some point in time, I realized that I had these limiting beliefs in my life, right? So that, you know, it took a lot of time and work, but I started recognizing that, you know, I live, I'm confined by limitations in my life. And most people believe those things like where I live, I have to live here or where I work, I have to work. You know, or I have to have these relationships in my life. But the veil was lifted with, you know, lots of work and inventory taking and searching and sharing and that possibly these perspectives can be changed. Right. Wayne Dyer says that, you know, or said, if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change. Right. And and so I became a real big believer about, so I would say that at first also, like I'm really huge on practical living, like how are all of these spiritual principles, all of these beliefs, like how are they practically applied to my life? And so one of the ways that that flushes out for me is how I break through these limiting beliefs. And so the practical way that I've done that is I can identify that I've got this limiting belief, just identify what it is. Perfect example is that I was living in Toronto, Ontario, And I believed that I had to live there. I had my first son from my first marriage. We had this 50-50 arrangement and we all just agreed we're always going to live within this particular area. So I had this limiting belief I have to live there. And it includes other people. It includes a legal document. It has to happen. And so I learned that identify what the limiting belief is, put it aside, you're not deleting it, you're not ignoring, you're just saying, hey, you know what, I'm going to put it aside. And if it wasn't there, what would I actually do? Like, how would I carry out with these desires? And so for me, it was about like, okay, well, that thought process took me to where would I live? And so my wife and I just looked at all the different places we could live. you know, it's ours to choose, like ours to discover. And so we discussed a few different places in the world, narrowed it down to staying within Canada, a couple of places within Canada, and basically brought it, we boiled it down to two places. And we, you know, went as far as like looking at real estate, looking at what neighborhoods would we live in. And this takes like, I think it was probably five months, it was New Year's Eve, her and I do this intentional work and then I put the limiting belief aside, let's make these plans, let's have this conversation as if, and I think it was June or no, it would have been July of that year where my ex-wife She just randomly approaches me and says, Hey, we need to have a conversation. We're thinking about making a move. It's pretty far. I just want you to know I'm super flexible, super open. And I'm like, okay, yeah. Great. So am I. Where are you thinking about going? And it turns out one of the places she was thinking about going was one of our choices. And so like, you know, this is a, I was just like, no way. So are we. And so like, let's communicate, you know, fast forward to the future. Here we are living in this city that we've dreamt of and, you know, wanted to create for ourselves. Fortunate or unfortunate, my ex-wife didn't end up moving here. My son, who's the oldest of that marriage, he's 16 now, he chose to move with us and lives with us full time. He goes back and visits her every now and then. But the point is, that was an outcome that seemed absolutely impossible for me. And all I did was, I'm going to put this limiting belief, I'm just going to put aside, and I'm going to do the work of envisioning and building in that vision of what would that look like? And, you know, my desires, the emotions aligned with that. And then it became a reality in my life. And it's I've done this so many times, like over and over again.

undefined: That's so beautiful. I mean, some people may call that manifestation, some people may call that future, future focus. I mean, I know you are a fan of Joe Dispenza, like he does the same thing, you put the energy behind what the desires are, and then create that reality. And then like things align, life aligns. And so I love the fact that you put those limiting beliefs because so many of us and I say that us because I do too. We vacillate back and forth. We're in this human body. We're in this condition programming to believe in our limiting beliefs, right? But also it's that awareness of being able to step back or put it aside and go, this is a limiting belief. Do I believe this? Do I want something different for me? And that's where the empowerment and the expansion and the evolution of our humanness happens.

David Martel: Yeah. I think that I've lived in this limited place and in that limited place, there's my perception of other people, the perception of my own abilities all becomes very limited. I try to live in a place where it's like, I just want to make my future bigger than my past. It doesn't have to be financial. It can be financial, right? learning and discovering what bigger means requires the removal of these limiting beliefs, right? There's one of my old favorite books, not old, but it's old to me, I guess, is The Four Agreements. There's like this book that's like a work guide for The Four Agreements, and it's like creating your book of law. And it was one of the first exercises I had done that was like, here, just list all of your laws, which to me are limiting beliefs, right? Some of these things are imposed by our culture, society, our parents, whatever the case is, and then just create that list. And it's like, this is basically like the rule book of how I live my life. And I haven't had any input on what those rules are. right? And it starts to like really unravel this compromised way of living and in so many areas of life, right?

undefined: So many areas of life. I'm going to drop that link to that book, the four agreements into the show notes for anybody that's listening and has not read it. It has come up into my awareness several times now in the past couple of years. So it's definitely going to be on my to read and to do a list too. Oh, yeah. I mean, just to have that visualization of what those those limiting beliefs are and and the rules and to recognize to that, hey, where did that come from? Who told me that? Was that a generational thing? That's something that I'm sitting with, too, is seeing and witnessing like this generation of my parents, that there was the belief you had to work nine to five. You had to stay in the same job for 20, 30 years. You had to you know, create this, this stable, same home for the same amount of time too. And like, as I am now going on two and a half years of being a full-time nomad living in my van with my chocolate lab, Olivia, like I've completely busted those limiting beliefs. And let me tell you, it is still scary. I still get that. Oh God, wouldn't it be so much nicer and so much easier if I went back to the house and then my mind goes. No, because then you got to do taxes and then you got to pay electricity and then you got to pay the water bill and then you got to do all these things. That isn't not, that is not where I live and my highest vibration. So I think that's what it comes down to for me, David, is that. Does it align with you and does it allow your soul to expand? Does it allow your light to shine? Does it allow you to be the best version of you that you can possibly be today? Right here, right now?

David Martel: Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's, I'm always going to probably keep finding that there's more, you know, more layers to unravel, right?

undefined: Well, and that's the gift too. That's the beauty. Like I'm celebrating you to say that because there always is going to be more to unravel more layers to let go more. I mean, that's growth and evolution. And when we stay in the confines of the same, same in the box, I'm air doing the box sign, that that's when for me, the mundane is and and the complacency is and that's where I find myself not fully enjoying life.

David Martel: Yeah. Right. Yeah, it's interesting to that you mentioned this pull to go back to a home or to place of comfort, right? It's it's great that you're able to share that because I think it's a good example as well. I experienced that in business all the time. In business, for the past few years, I've been pushing myself in the direction of discomfort and I continuously feel a pull to go back to comfortable. And I understand that maybe it is generational, maybe it's imposed upon me from a young age or self-imposed throughout life, but the beliefs that are there are really the basis of what creates that comfort. And ultimately, it's just a perception, right? I think the faith aspect of, I don't really know what I believe as far as higher power FYI, but the faith aspect of that tells me that I'm okay no matter what. It's going to be all right. The fact that I might not be okay still might just be a problem of perception, right? And so these limiting beliefs could be creating the idea of comfort, but it's really not that comfortable.

undefined: So true. And I want to drop into those that are listening that there is no guilt or shame or judgment that David and I are placing upon you for being in a reality that you feel this comfort in, that you are in this home and that you've been in for 20, 30 years. That is okay. That is your reality. I want to give you that permission slip that if that feels good for you and if that's what lights you up, then yes, you do you. And also like there also is this illusion of discomfort because generally discomfort is associated with fear, anxiety, the unknown. But if we detach ourselves from those feelings of what we have been told, that is fearful because we don't know what's on the other side. Like, can that be the comfort?

David Martel: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I want to just add a note as well. I think it's great that you just mentioned to listeners, right. That like their way of living. we're not judging that. It's not something I do enough in my show, but I want to add to it is that I will continue to find areas of my life in which I have compromised living, if you want to call it that, as dramatic as that might sound. I still am uncovering that for myself. Just because we are the ones having this conversation, there's listeners thinking like, oh, I could never do that. It's like, no, I still struggle with, I can never do that. And the challenge is just that, you know, I want to work through that. And maybe because we're talking about it, it sounds easy, but it's not by any means an easy thing. It's super simple, but it's extraordinarily uncomfortable sometimes. And like you said, scary, right? And I think that's why I mentioned faith is that I've learned that fear is really just the absence of faith, and it's absent in my perception. It's absent in my thoughts. If I make it present, then fear becomes substantially less, and maybe even eradicated. So yeah, for listeners, like, I just want to encourage you guys that, you know, this is a journey. It's not like, just a destination of like, yeah, I don't compromise the way I live anymore. Right? It's like, you know, how about, how about you? You work on one thing that you can identify you've compromised and tackle that. And then you experience freedom and it snowballs from there. Right?

undefined: Yeah, yeah. So true. So true. Hmm. I had something I was going to say, drop in what you're talking about. And it just totally went away about the compromise and about the fear. Oh, what I was going to say is about the fear aspect of it. You do something that's uncomfortable. You do something that gives you a little bit of fear. Like fear is just simply energy moving through the body, right? We've labeled it this fear. And then the word fear has gotten this negative context behind it. But I have found that when I have done and leaned into the fear, almost as if it's like this big, massive iron gate, and I'm trying so hard to push it to break through to the other side. And once that iron gate opens, that's where some major life, huge lessons and growth and involvement happen. So it's almost sometimes like if we can look at the word fear as this challenge, like, okay, what could be on the other side? What veil could be lifted for me to see something new and something different?

David Martel: Yeah, yeah. And it's, well, I use the acronym false evidence appearing real, right, is that there's nothing real about fear. And similar to you, if I see fear, it's really just a, it's it's evidence or it's a hint of the direction I have to head towards. And when I was doing that breathwork with Ashley, what came to the surface for me is that I was overly concerned about what others will think about me, how others will judge me for making this podcast. Up to this point, I had lived a life where it was like, if anything, I would boast on the fact that I didn't give a shit about what people thought about me. During the pandemic, I don't have any judgment against people who did what they had to do and get the job or whatever. But I was surrounded with friends working out every day that they skipped the line to get the job as quickly as possible. And then got to a point where it's like they didn't want to work out with me anymore because I was like, well, let's give it a few years and see how it works out. I'm not at risk. It's fine. I'll just wait. I'm not against it. I'm just going to wait. That changed for me. Eventually, I was kind of like, oh, wait, why are people hating on me? Because I'm not getting it right away. Things changed for me. And I got to a place where I was like, okay, I got to let go of people judging me or caring about what people think about me. And so when I got to the breathwork, and that's what came up about the podcast, I was like, wow, I actually still give a shit about what people think about me.

undefined: That's human nature. Really, no judgment.

David Martel: Sure, but I was like, hey, fuck that. I'm going to do the show, no matter how uncomfortable this is, no matter how scary it is. And look, I'm going to be honest with your listeners, my show, some episodes are awful. The sound is terrible. content could be shit, sharing the screen, all this stuff. I have no technical experience. I have no editing experience whatsoever. I'm just figuring, I was like, oh, I just did my first in-person interview with an upcoming artist who's in recovery and that was the content and the basis of it. I rented the equipment. I spent money to fly out and meet with this guy to like just my own, I don't make money on my show. And it was like the worst quality episode I've ever done in my life.

undefined: But you learned, like that's the thing. I'm sure you were fearful going into it, like there was some anxiety and unknown.

David Martel: Yeah, exactly, right? It was a lot of fear and I pushed through regardless. I mean, I was on the way, we were, you know, we land on this, it was Vancouver Island. We land, a beautiful place. I brought my 10-year-old son because he's a huge fan of this guy. And I'm driving there, like just, I feel like I'm getting holes in my stomach, right? Like it was, And initially I was like, no, I'm not doing this because I can't do it in person. I've never done it in person. And it just, that thought is screaming at me that I've been training myself is like, this is the fear. This is just fear. Like just, just do it. Just, just go. Because I can't, I cannot just submit to the fear. Then I'm living a result that's been compromised. Right? And again, to the listeners, look, I lived and submitted to fear for so long in so many ways. I'm not unique in any way, shape, or form. I'm not different. I don't have some kind of superhuman strength. I just made a choice that I can't just surrender to fear. And the outcome was what I feared. Okay. And this is, this is the beauty of it is that it's like, even though that was still the outcome, like it's okay.

undefined: It's okay. But there were lessons in it too. Like there was so many beautiful lessons. I'm sure that we're in it like a, like, look at how you showed up for your son.

Victoria Starr: Hmm.

undefined: Look at how you showed up to do the hard thing when he probably felt you're uncomfortable, your fear, your anxiety, like kids are wise. Like we talked about it. Okay. So beautiful. You, you were able to have this conversation that probably like I would have never been able to have with my daughter when she was growing up because I didn't know any better. And that's okay if you don't know any better, but look at all of the beauty that it has presented for you and this growth. And that, like I said, he got to meet this. Um, you know, a star, whomever it is, like he was super excited too. And you got to fly to Vancouver Island, which I was just there a few weeks ago and it's magical. Yeah. There's so many lessons. And I think the biggest one that I'm seeing right now, David, is just the fact that your son got to see you do something hard and uncomfortable and that gave him courage and bravery.

David Martel: Yeah, no, you're right. And I think, you know, that was kind of conversation my wife and I too, is that, you know, it's like, this is uncomfortable. This sucks. Like part of me really doesn't want to do this. Um, and my son at the time didn't know it was even an option on a table, but I was like, I really want to do this with him. Like, I think this would be amazing for him. Right. And it was, it was an amazing experience. It was something that, you know, we got to have dinner with the band, went to the show and all kinds of stuff. It was really cool. Got to meet, you know, like see the farm he lives on. And, and, uh, and I think the, To the point though you're making is that even though what I feared is what happened, there's like this ripple effect of like things that occurred there. I connect with the drummer who's finishing his master's in psychology while on tour with the band, like crazy stuff, right?

Victoria Starr: Who would have thought?

David Martel: Yeah and you know the manager he's got a long history of recovery too which is really cool and but also just practically like I'll never do an episode that's that terrible ever again because I know what I did wrong right like you know it's like I learned. Now it's like, oh, I want to do more in-person interviews, and I want to master the shit out of this and make it better. That becomes the fun now. In the past, with my limited beliefs, I would have done this, and then all of a sudden, I would have just put a check mark on this belief, like, yeah, I'm just not good enough. I'm sick of this. I should just quit. Instead, it's like, oh, I could do so much better than this, and I know how to do it so much better.

undefined: That's the growth and evolution and I just want to drop into to the listeners that we all have this, I call it the monkey mind the toilet bowl swirl where our mind and our ego goes down. that toilet bowl and starts to swirl and come up with all these thoughts and no I can't do this and I shouldn't do this and this is how I can get out and like it literally goes down the toilet bowl. And it's that subconscious mind that's trying to keep you safe. It's doing what it knows how to do to keep you safe. It doesn't recognize that there could be growth and evolution behind it. So just know that if you see and witness your mind doing this, something that's super powerful for me to do is take myself a step away from the situation, go sit in nature, go sit and connect to my breath, go sit and connect to the energy that's around me and allow my mind to soften and even Do a breathwork session or, you know, do something that allows you to calm your nervous system and to see from the outside looking in, how can this be so much better for me to step into this, be brave and courageous and do the hard so that the next layer isn't as hard and it becomes less and less hard.

David Martel: Yeah, and I think it's even the hard part, right, is it's like hard I've learned represents more the unknown, right? And, and it's like, and if you can change the wording on that, like I found that like, it's like, okay, this is just an unknown experience. I don't know how it's going to go. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's on the other side. And it's just an unknown, right? So it doesn't have to be fear. And it also doesn't even have to be hard. It's just that it's like, I got to do tasks, accomplish tasks that lead to a result or an outcome. And, and, and And at the end of the day, I will avoid doing those if I live in a limited belief by seeing that as a hard thing or as a fearful thing. The biggest part is that I think it unlocks this aspect that is just unlimited, right? Like there's just no more limitation when you start to play with that and you start exercise. So for me, it had to start really, really small, like just being able to pay my bills every month. Because when I started in this industry and my financial planning business, the first couple of years I was making nothing and accumulating debt and you know, I just didn't know how I was going to buy groceries. So I had to start really, really small. And then it drove me all the way to the point of like, wait a minute, I think this is actually more like a game. I think like, how big of home runs can I hit? Really? It was like, I started playing with it that way. Like this belief of this, the goal of like just leaving Ontario and moving to closer to the Rockies, was kind of a game. I was like, let's just fuck around with it a little bit and see what happens. And you know, here I am. And I think it just, there is no limitation to it. It's then drives in the importance of like, what do I actually desire? What do I truly, truly desire? Because that's what I want to pursue, right?

undefined: That's so beautiful. What do I truly, truly desire? And it's not what people have told us what we should desire. What do I truly, truly desire? And that comes with sitting and getting quiet and listening to your soul, not to the monkey mind, but listening to your soul, to your inner knowing. So something that I know is very prevalent, this statement within, well, just between you and me and Ashley is something we like to say is the power is within us. The power is within us. And that is just such a beautiful thing to recognize and to remind yourself that when these feelings come up, these uncomfortable feelings, well, the power is within me. Like I can choose either way and that's okay. And that's my choice and not shame or guilt or judge yourself after you make XYZ choice.

David Martel: Yeah. I would add that my show sometimes will travel to the conspiratorial subject matter that exists in our world. And I would say that one of the things that I've come to understand, and again, I can be very wrong and more truth will be revealed with time, is that nearly everything I've come to understand about the structure of society war, religion, you mentioned working nine to five, going to school for the first 13, 15 years of my life, all these things that seem so mandatory and so structural. I've come to understand today, for me, one of the truths is that all of these pieces are in place to prevent me from really knowing the power within that we have and really limit my understanding of that power, right? Like all of it. If I am comfortable enough, if I'm willing enough or desperate enough, I think was maybe my cue, is to look behind the veil, then I can start to understand this truth about how powerful we really are. That's why I've discovered playing with this power and creating these things in my life. To add to the point of what we desire, for me, it was almost process of elimination. Like, oh, I'm not actually really into fancy cars. I couldn't care less about that. We build this big ass house that we live in. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not really into that either. It's like, what am I really into? It's like, I just want people to wake the fuck up. And we all realize how powerful we really are. I want to enjoy the relationships I have in my life. And I think that that is, what's fleshing out for me, but, but it's first starts with recognizing how powerful we really, really are. And the intention of that goes behind distracting us from that. Right.

undefined: Yeah. Let's go there. I'm so ready to go there. Let's go to the group. Think the trauma-based mind control, the unconventional or the disruptive, because I know you're a big fan of Joe Rogan. And so am I, and he is definitely that shaker in that stir. And I mean, let's talk about that trauma based mind control because, um, I, I love my dad dearly passed in 2018, but definitely of that gem generation of the trauma mind control. And it's like all he knew and that's okay. I'm not going to judge or shame, but that's all he knew. So I feel like there's this, and I hate using the word awakening, but I feel like there's this new. Knowing that is being revealed to us that, and they feel like it really happened when When the job situation and the whole world shut down, I think that really opened a lot of people's eyes. Small majority people's eyes to what and how we're being controlled.

David Martel: Yeah, I agree. And I would say it is a small majority. I think that a lot of the people that I knew that believed they were forced to get it, because I will say to people that I work for a fairly large corporation in Canada who wanted me to upload my QR code, And whether I had a fake one or I didn't have one at all doesn't really matter, but I just told them to fuck off and go fuck themselves. And I was okay with getting fired. I didn't get fired though. But the point is, is that I think a lot of those people that did it, and this might be tying more to trauma, is they would all agree today that they wish they didn't get it, or most of them. They would all agree that some fishy, weird, questionable things are happening in our world. But I think if we experienced something similar, maybe slightly different, that they would all comply again. And it's part of the trauma of how quickly we forget things that happened. Thank God. I don't know why sometimes. I'm like, I don't know why, but I haven't forgotten. I won't forget. I did an episode, I think it was my second episode ever on Groupthink. For anybody who does check that out, I didn't spend a lot of time on Living in a Solution, but there's a follow-up episode to it. I played a video and it was like how people got tricked into doing this exercise in a doctor's office. And every two minutes or every minute there's a buzz, a bell that goes off and everybody stands up and then they sit down. But it was all filled with actors originally. And with time, all the actors leave and then non-actors are coming in to the point where The non-actors are all standing up without instructions as to knowing why or how. They're just doing it because that's what everybody else was doing. They just stand up and then they sit back down. I think that it's part of our thinking. We want to be tied to community. We want to be accepted by people. We don't want to be judged. I think that the small group is pretty small. Then there's the rebellious people. I call them my far right friends because I'm not really, I don't know what I am, but I'm just, but they're my friends because, you know, they own guns and I'm cool with those guys.

undefined: But you're just a guy seeking truth.

David Martel: Yeah, exactly. I think that there's an aspect of groupthink that plagues those camps as well, though they might not have gotten the jab. The ingredients of groupthink are still applicable and preventing us from living in a solution where I think that unity can exist. Through that unity, then we can have that small percentage actually grow to a bigger percentage.

undefined: Yeah, so maybe at this point, David, if you could explain a little bit more about what groupthink means.

David Martel: Yeah, social conformity is another big one. So I had gone down the rabbit hole Because the pandemic specifically, trying to understand why did people comply to the way that we did? And so one of my close friends and mentor, who's a huge fan of healthcare in our country and all the medical society, I was upset that I wasn't getting the jab. And I tried to explain it to him. I gave him back the doubt. I had the conversation. And then he says to me, he's like, David, so you mean to tell me that you think there's a group out there that is organizing all the media, organizing all the professionals to have one message? I was like, yeah. And how is that not obvious? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying.

undefined: Yeah, how is it not obvious who's behind it too?

David Martel: Right. So I, you know, and I mean, there's evidence for that. There's the trusted Trusted something initiative, TNA, Trusted News Initiative is what it's called, TNI. TNI is a paper published by the BBC, and it includes a list of all of the media companies and internet companies, tech companies, everybody who's agreed on one specific message for the pandemic. It's there on the internet, TNI, BBC, it'll come up. And I was like, yeah, I'm not talking conspiracy here. It's a real thing. So that really drove me to this person is intelligent, this person is experienced, somebody I respected for many years. And I thought, what the fuck? What is so different about me than this guy? And so groupthink is… I went on this research and what I found is that we want to socially conform. It is really comfortable. for human beings because of our nature, because of our predecessors, is that we want to be a part of a group. Being individual alone is so scary for all of us. And I think that for those of us who were able to find a small collective group of people that were like-minded or who weren't sure about the job, whatever degree it was, probably gave us some kind of breathing room and we're able to get through it without that pressure. I think also for me, I grew up in a very insecure childhood environment. My mom was an alcoholic. My dad had moved away and left. I lived in government housing. I was living in threat all the time. So I had to question everything from the beginning. I never felt truly safe. But as I grew and got older, I learned that like I'm okay, you know, and I don't need to live in this insecurity. And so when the world went through the pandemic, I think that those are just characteristics for me that ultimately played out and were able to save me from that. But I will say that I'm still susceptible to groupthink, like just because I understand it, just because I've researched it, I am still so susceptible to it. And another practical example, sorry for the rant here is- No, that's okay. I love it. We had, well, Ukraine, Russia as an example, but the Israel-Palestine situation. Everybody's picking a side. Everybody's And my thinking, and it's hard because I work in the investment world as well, I can still catch my thought process picking a side. It's like, no, don't pick a fucking side. And I'm not a big fan of Trump. Maybe I'm more of an RFK Jr. guy. Maybe. I don't know. I'm a non-politician guy, and maybe that's what Trump's got going for him. But the thing that Trump said that I love, And when he's pushed and pressured with this question, he's just like, I just don't want people to stop dying. And it's like, whatever his motivation is, I don't care. But that point is massive. What about unity? When was the last time we ever had a politician talk about unity? How about we just all get united? We're so divided. This is ridiculous. We need to work towards unity because that's what saves our ass in the end. That's what saves lives, right? Yeah. Yeah. the thoughts that I can catch in myself, if they result in judgment or division, that should be the first red flag of, fuck, I'm getting sucked into groupthink, and I need to maintain the work. And the work for me is to be focused and centered on that quote that I first said, whether it was Einstein or not, is there's just one of us. There is just one of us. And if I am shooting and killing somebody, I'm doing that to myself. And groupthink is so automatic. And I really believe that there are groups, forces in our world that play into that. And that's how they maintain control. And that's why people completely sacrifice their entire life living nine to five, commuting, not seeing their kids, doing a job they don't desire to do, living a life they think they have to live so that these groups of people can remain free and powerful. Right?

undefined: Yeah. Yeah. I did it again. I mean, I call it the matrix. I call it the program, the people that are running the game. Um, for me, when I recognized that I didn't want to live in the box of nine to five anymore, my stepdad passed away at the age of 59 of pancreatic cancer. And he was, he was like months away from retiring. Like he wanted to retire and travel the world. And then it was over literally over. And I'm like, I don't want to come to that age and not have lived my dreams and not have lived to, I don't want to say my standards, but to what I desire. And so for me, that really activated the shift in my reality of saying, OK, do I want to do this? Do I not want to do this? And honestly, truthfully, that took me 20, no, it took me 10 years to recognize the next step that, oh, I am in this group. Think I am in this program. I am in this box. OK, another layer gets to be healed. It's not every day that you recognize it. It can be 10 years later. It can be 30 days later. It's just that evolvement of always questioning. Yeah. Yeah. Why? Just question why?

David Martel: Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's work, right? It requires, and I mean, I can't help myself. Sometimes I joke about it and that's like, I'm just a nerd. I got to look into it. I just can't. I'm just not okay with not knowing. Yeah. And sometimes it's fun. The next episode I'm working on, I don't know if it'll be when I record, but I'm going to do it. It's about the moon landing. Did it really happen and why didn't it happen? And it's not a catastrophic event of whether it happened or not. It's more about The work identifies the template and the process of thought to escape what you identify as the matrix. That's why sometimes on my feed, there's a lot of Rogan stuff or whatever. There's a lot of fun stuff, but it brings followers. It engages people to think. But ultimately, the work and the truth is that, look, am I being used in division here or am I choosing to be empowered within unity, within the oneness of all of us? And if the more of us can plug in to being united and to that power that is within us, then I believe that is the path to the greatest freedom that our humanity's probably ever experienced, right? Or that we know of, because maybe we did have it before and it got stolen again, who knows, but yeah.

undefined: What are, so a little side note for the listeners, what are your tools that you use when you do find yourself trapped into the groupthink? What tools do you use to, in a sense, take yourself out of that groupthink paradigm?

David Martel: I love it. That's a great question. That's the one that I tried to practically break down a little bit in a follow-up episode because my then nine-year-old was like, you know, Papa, you didn't really focus enough on how, how to get out of it. Smart kid. Super brilliant dude. Yeah, he's fucking amazing. Number one, the easiest number one step. There's steps to take. But also you can just skip all the steps and go right to divide versus unity. What is the thought that I can encapsulate that is unity-based versus divide-based? And because everything that will come to us will be based in divide, right? But some, I'm going to admit, it's kind of like the financial markets. Every time there's a crash or a correction, you never see it coming. It's always something new, right? You'll never know. So similar to this, the brainwashing, the manipulation, I think it's more manipulation and deception. We never know, right? Because a pandemic was really tricky for me. I was a rule follower. I wore my rat mask at the very beginning, and then eventually I was like, hey, what the fuck's up? So number one is humility is the most important ingredient for everything, and I have to be willing to seek to understand the other side. So St. Francis' prayer, I'm not Catholic by any means, but his prayer is kick-ass. And the second part of that prayer just says that, help me God, that I will always seek to understand rather than to seek to be understood. Help me seek to love rather than to seek to be loved, or help me seek to forgive rather than to be forgiven. So that practice of that, seek to understand rather than to be understood, is huge because If I, like my mentor that I referred to earlier, just shut someone like me down and I refuse to even consider what the other side is saying, I'm locked in. I'm locked in, no matter how ridiculous it is. So I'm not a flat earther. I don't mean any disrespect to the listeners who might be. I've always appreciated that camp because What it takes to come to that belief and then to hang on to it is extremely impressive, right? And I have tremendous respect for that. All I'm saying is I'm not there, right? But I'm more than happy and I enjoy having conversations with those guys because what they believe is such in contrast to what it is I believe. And I don't have to humiliate them. I don't have to make them less than me. I don't believe they're less than me. And fuck, for all I know, maybe they're right. I have no idea. I mean, I kind of have an idea, but I could be very wrong about that idea. The point is I have the humility willing to exercise this conversation in a place of unity and love and respect. Number one, it has to be that way. I have to live in humility and I have to consider the other side. no matter how extreme it is. I'm going to make one up. Well, I don't know. I think Russia and Ukraine is pretty extreme. We're both in North America and we've for decades and generations have believed the Soviet Union and Russia is this specific boogeyman, maybe leaders are, and we have to do everything possible to war, right? for some generations, that's a really, really difficult one to break. No matter how difficult it is, I have to exercise that humility and I have to be willing to look at the other side. That's number one, I think. And then number two, it's being open to – I would formulate this as a question of always asking, what is real? Or maybe people conform this for themselves, but my process is understanding that everything I see can be fake and not fake news, but maybe fake news, that's part of it. The judgment I place. I might be placing it without knowing I'm placing a judgment. I might have these preconceived notions about things and I'm not really fully aware of it. I have to be open to the possibility that the way that I'm interpreting this world and the information, that that interpretation is wrong. There's this famous book in the recovery movement called A New Pair of Glasses. The premise is that basically, I can just wear a new pair of glasses and life looks different. And I think that when looking at the information, so I've looked at both sides now and I want to evaluate, I have to be able to be open to the possibility that everything I'm interpreting can still be incorrect.

undefined: Yeah. Be unbiased. Yeah.

David Martel: I think that that's where a lot of people get overwhelmed. The average person will get overwhelmed. I've taken many people through the conversation about World Economic Forum and Trusted News Initiative and all of these things to help them understand what's happening in the world. They're like, okay, wow. Dude, I believe you. This is crazy. But I just want to put my head back in the sand. I can't handle this shit. That's way too much. That's why I would say just skip to the next So the very first point I made is that we have to understand the difference between divide and unity. And it starts with your own mind. Am I contributing to division in my thoughts or am I contributing to unity? That's it. That's the most simple way. And I believe, I'm not an expert on this, you're probably way more an expert than I am, but whatever thoughts I'm having, there is an impact. on the world and the reality we're experiencing. And that's why I think personal responsibility is so extraordinarily important. And so even with Palestine and Israel, I was like, You know, there's guys that manage my money that are rooting for Israel. And then there's friends of mine in recovery who are rooting for Palestine. And I'm like, shit, like people are getting killed and murdered on both sides. These people have been like, whose land is it first? And you know, and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, wait a minute. None of those thoughts are unity based.

undefined: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. I love that and just humility, the love and the respect and is it dividing and conquering or is it just having an open awareness to what the possibilities for both side could be? That's my interpretation of what you said. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah. All right. So, I know we could keep going and I know we'll do another episode with Ashley because that'll be really super fun and juicy. But one question I always ask all my guests before they leave the show, and it's a surprise question, is if you could go back to a younger version of you, at what age would you go back and what would you tell yourself?

David Martel: That is a really good question because it also ties into if there's anything I could change about my life or my journey, what would it be? But yet everything that I've gone through has contributed greatly to who I am today. But I think I know the point. In recovery, there was a time where suicide was a viable option for me. It felt like it was the only option. Thankfully, I chose to just try recovery and see what happens. But the journey to that outcome probably is highlighted when I was 14 years old. And I remember it was after a spree of partying and drug deals and violence with people that I was sitting in the morning, I was outside, I was having a smoke and I was reflecting and I was recognizing that there was this significant gap between who I was inside and who I was behaving outside. And the gap just kept getting bigger and bigger. And A part of me wished so badly that people could just know who I really was deep down inside, that they would love me, help me, appreciate me, understand why I'm doing all these other things that I don't really want to do. It was a huge compromise to, you know, whoever, like I actually cared about people. And when I was violent and behaved the way that I did, I've often felt terrible, but I would go back to that 14 year old dude in that backyard. And, uh, I wouldn't try to change his path forward from there on, but I would just like to, I just want to remind him and ensure that no matter what, to never ever jump in front of that oncoming snowplow that I kind of came very close to doing. I think it was so close that I'd want to just randomly appear like, dude, I'm from your future. I'm you. You're not going to stop what you're doing right now, but no matter what, don't fucking off yourself. Just hang in there and it's going to be amazing. I think that's like, and I'm living the reality right now and there's probably millions of them coexisting and there's one of them where I did take the jump. I just want to create as many more of those realities as possible where I didn't make that jump and I'm living this life that I'm living today.

undefined: Thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for being open and vulnerable so that we can see your heart. We can see that 14 year old boy and just send him so much love and know that, yeah, he is so worthy of living the life that he's living now. So thank you for that. I appreciate you.

David Martel: Thank you.

undefined: Thank you for having me. Yeah, of course. So where can the listeners find you?

David Martel: Yeah, so on Instagram is Seeking Truth with David Martel. You can follow me there. There's a link there as well to my Spotify, but my show is on Spotify, YouTube, and Rumble. YouTube sometimes is limited, and if I post an episode that gets flagged or that I think there's no point even trying to post it, There'll just be like a one minute video that directs you to Spotify or Rumble. So those are the two platforms that I've found have been great. And then also you can email me at seekingtruthwithdavidmartell at gmail.com.

undefined: Love it. I'll drop all those into the show notes. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, your knowledge, dropping in all the truth bumps and the goosebumps and the expansion and the growth and being the magical soul that you are. So until next time, everyone, thank you for joining. I would be so greatly honored and would love for you to get this episode out into as many people as you possibly can. So if you could like, follow, subscribe, share and go follow David at seeking truth with David Martel too, so that we, I know, I can feel that we're on a big, massive mission just to speak our truth and to allow you to see that there's so many other ways to live this game reality. So until next time, everyone, I will see you on the other side. You are the heart and soul of Living Raw and Radiant. Take this energy, this courage, and infuse it into every moment of your life. Remember, you have the permission to choose you. I invite you to stay connected, keep shining your light, and continue to embody the essence of Living Raw and Radiant. Together, we are igniting a movement of empowerment, authenticity, and soulful living. Until next time, my friends, keep living your soul's desires.