The Crucible Where We’re Tested
- colin7931
- May 13
- 46 min read
Today Doug opens the container with David Mykel.
In his open, Doug talks about fear. The way it arrives, has a tendency to stick around and how a clear head can go a long way in scary situations.
Doug is then joined by performance psychologist David Mykel. Through their conversation, Doug and David discuss the intricate relationship between fear and the exhilaration that comes from the wild. They talk about how going outside can foster a sense of vitality and authenticity that is often missing in everyday life.
David also recounts his journey from the precipice of despair and how he discovered healing through the natural world.
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Episode Transcript:
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:00:04.000 - 00:07:11.150
Welcome to Open Container. I'm Doug Schnitzspahn. I'm a journalist, writer, and overall lover of the outdoors.
I fought wildfires, reported on national politics, published magazines, and my fantasy baseball team is better than your CrossFit workout.
On this podcast we're going to have an open conversation about culture, conservation, policy, business issues that matter the most to the outdoor community. Let's get some Fear can make us feel alive. It is one of the things that being in the mountains or in the ocean gives us.
Pitting ourselves against the scariest parts of the wild makes us feel human in a way that we don't feel in the normal world in the cafe, in front of a laptop, watching severance or putting gas in the car. I had one of my scariest moments in the Cascades when I was in grad school.
I was with some friends from the UW Climbing Club and I was going to lead us up a 4th class chimney on something called Chair Peak. It's a beautiful, prominent mountain not too far from I90 on Snoqualmie Pass.
I had the most alpine experience in the group and I was psyched to lead this relatively straightforward climb with people new to mountaineering. We hiked back to the mountain into a massive, quiet cirque. I looked at the chimney and it made me scared.
For some reason I didn't like the look or feel of it, and I felt a sense of dread as I approached it. I'd never really felt this way climbing in the mountains before. I don't know why it scared me.
Anyway, the weather started to roll in and we made the decision to leave before climbing. But the fear I had felt bothered me. The storm made for an easy excuse when it came to turning back, but I felt a sense of shame for my fear.
I spent that summer in Italy enjoying the beach and gorgonzola, gnocchi and art and the Mediterranean. But later when I returned to Seattle, I kept thinking about that chimney. I decided that I had to go do it and I I had to conquer it on my own.
So I went back by myself, energized by summer in the sun and sand and a new perspective. I hiked up into the cirque through wildflowers on a beautiful blue September day in the Cascades, and when I got to the chimney, that fear returned.
I just didn't want to go up.
I had the classic Becky guide to the North Cascades that told me there was a 52 route on the face just to the side of the chimney that looked much better to me. It Looked like the thing I wanted to climb. So I did. I started scaling it on my own, angry at myself that I was still afraid of the chimney.
As I ascended, I got off route. Soon I got to a point that was above my ability level. Certainly above my ability to free solo.
Because that's what I was doing right now, 100ft off the deck. It was a classic lapse in mountain judgment. I pushed myself into this out of ego and fear. Now I was stuck far off the ground, unable to move.
I looked at the hold above me and knew I had to reach for it. I had to go on and make a difficult move. My body didn't want to do it. It refused to do it. I couldn't go backwards either.
It was too difficult of a down climb. So I sat there, unable to go back un. Unable to go forward. Breathe. Breathe. It was all I could do. Focus. Breathe. I moved forward.
I got past the problem and got to the top of a ridge where I found an old belay station. From there I climbed along the ridge and got to the top of the peak. It felt amazing to be alive.
Beautiful despite any stupidity that had brought me there. Heading down, I decided I was not going to go the way I came up. But I wasn't going to go down that chimney either.
So I found an alternate route that seemed right. I gingerly made my way down a super steep gully that I thought reached the bottom until I hit a point where there was nothing below me.
I had cliffed out again. This time far worse. Fear gripped me. Beautiful fear. Breathe.
Survival kicked in and I hurried up on some slabs with loose rock until I made it back to the ridge. Followed it back down, until at last I found a safer route into the cirque below Chair Peak. It felt incredible in this moment.
Incredible to have done this thing on my own. And yet I felt as if I had not gone about it in the right way. I'd been having a difficult time.
When I moved to Seattle, I had a major breakup that sent me spiraling into a dark depression.
And though I was finding myself again with new friends and success in my writing program, and with time away in the Italian sun, that shadow was still with me. Somehow I was able to reassess what it was that mattered to me. And what was going to matter.
I thought about how real power in the mountains comes not from doing things out of desperation, but but out of careful thought. Dumb luck can beat fear sometimes. But it means more to approach these things that scare you with a plan and skills.
Almost a year Later I returned to Cher Peak, this time with a friend who was a better climber than me. Together we went up that fourth class chimney. We did it unroped. Fourth class does not require one, of course, which can make it sketchier.
And he coached me through some moves. We discussed the plan beforehand and it was far easier than I thought it would be. I think this is important to remember.
When we seek out the edge in the wild, we need to do so with clear heads. Not struck by emotion. My guest today understands how to live on the edge and how to breathe through it.
David Michael is a performance psychologist who helps leaders manage burnout and balance by teaching them to think, think, move and breathe differently.
The founder of Sci Fi Performance Psychology, David has over 13 years of experience as a corporate communicator, partnering with Fortune 500 corporations and America's top 100 law firms. When not teaching indoors, you'll find him in the outdoors honing his skills in wilderness, first aid, avalanche safety, and self defense.
Now let's open the container with David Michael.
Okay, well, I'm really excited to have David Michael here as my guest because David is really doing some amazing work in the outdoors, helping people heal themselves in the outdoors and find a better life. And David, the first thing I wanted to ask you is what is the most transformational experience that you've had personally outside?
David Mykel
00:07:13.230 - 00:13:06.450
Well, wow, that's a great question, Doug. I would say there's so many to choose from. You know, I've been, I've been enjoying the outdoors since I was a little kid.
I, you know, we, we grew up poor, so that was one of the things that we were able to do that was free, like, you know, do things like camping and get out there. One of the most transformative. Honestly, man, I don't, I don't know.
I don't think I can pick one because I've been, I've been snowboarding for over 30 years, right? I've been climbing for like 15, surfing for about 10. I would probably say one of. Actually, no, let me take that back.
I would say one of the most transformative experiences I had was surfing the biggest wave I've ever had in Australia. So quick kind of backstory on that. I didn't really know much about surfing, but I moved, I moved to Australia. My friends were all surfers.
They've been surfing since they were little. So about a month ish into my surfing journey, I was still a kook, by the way. So I didn't know what I. Yeah, I didn't know what I was really doing.
These guys were all like really, really good. So they would tell me when to paddle, where, where to sit, when it called me into waves.
And so we go to this place called the, the farm, which is an infamous spot in Australia in New South Wales. And the way it sits is there's these two massive headlands that stop the ocean from coming in and then form it into this big U.
So this big deep water channel comes in and these waves stand up. And so I don't know any better about wave selection or anything like that. And my friends are just usually telling me like, paddle, paddle, paddle.
Like that usually means like go, like take this wave. So we're just. So they give me this smaller board. I was on like a huge 76 to start learning. I'm still learning.
They gave me this little like six footer. So we go out and we start.
We're just sitting out there and where I'm watching these massive waves, like 12 story waves just rolling, these big gigantic slow moving kind of towers. And all of a sudden my friends like paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle. So I think, okay, good, start pointing the board in and start paddling in.
So I start paddling in as fat, as hard as I can. And I go to try to stand up on the wave the first time. And because I was a little in front of the wave, the pressure pinned me to the board. So.
And I've never experienced this before, so I was like, what the heck? So I then I try to pop up one more time. I'm a little bit further down the wave. Same thing.
It's like having like a, like a thousand pound bricks on your back. The last time I try to pop up, I finally get up and I realize like I'm probably halfway down the wave.
So I come all the way down to the bottom and I'm like, whoa. I just, I just made it. I like it made the wave and made the drop.
And then I look back and there's this 18 foot building like starting to fold over and crash behind me. And I'm like, oh my gosh, please don't look back. Right?
This is like one of the things that tell you in rock climb when you're teaching someone, like, don't look down while I'm sitting there going, don't look back. Just look at the shore and ride it out. And so I ride this, this massive wave in and it, you know, finally it crashes down.
I come out of the pocket and I am absolutely losing my mind. I'm screaming, I'm Yelling. I'm like, think I'm on top of the world at this point.
And of course, this was, you know, my little heads up of, okay, wow, you one. You can do this. You can overcome something. I only been suffering about a month, and so I was.
The trust factor and confidence factor was through the roof. And I felt like a surfer for the first time.
So I paddle back out, which the paddle back out is even more treacherous because my friends tell me my inter interpretation is stay away. Stay as far away from the rocks as possible, right? That rocks are bad. They're like, no, you got to get right next to the rocks.
And these rocks are probably three stories tall right next to the rocks, and the rip current will suck you back out. So I begrudgingly do this. I get sucked back out to the back where my friends are all sitting.
And these are guys from, like, Germany, the uk, Australia, Peru. And they look at me, they go, where the hell did you. I was like, did you see that? Like, did you see that?
They look at me, they go, where the hell did you go? I said, I paddled into the wave, like. Like you guys told me to.
And they look at me and they go, now, mate, we were telling you to paddle to the back because this was a huge set and none of us were supposed to take that wave. They go, you rode that? I was like, yeah. And they just look at me with these wide eyes like I'm some crazy American.
And like, I can't believe that you did that. And just to close, but not to go into. There's another story part of this, but I'll close that off.
So I thought, you know, oh, my gosh, I'm a surfer now. I've got my surfing wings under me. I know what I'm doing. I just surfed this, like, incredible wave. And the next wave, I got absolutely eaten.
I got held. I got pinned down for two waves. I literally was, like, seconds away from drowning and dying.
And, yeah, by the time I came up to the surface, finally, with my last gaping breath, I just grabbed my board for dear life, let it push me into shore, and sat in the shore for the next hour and a half contemplating my life that I almost lost, serving the biggest wave ever, served my entire life, and then literally coming the closest I've ever had to death, the next wave. So I'd say that was transformative for me for sure, because it was.
It showed me one what I'm really capable of when I commit myself and I have confidence in myself. But then also the humility you have to have when you're in the outdoors, whether that's in the mountains or in the ocean.
Those things have been there for millions, if not billions of years. The power behind them and the power inside of them to either heal or hurt you is beyond any recognition that a human can appreciate.
Unless you get put into a situation like surviving an avalanche or surviving. What I can at least relate to was, you know, catastrophic wave, pinned down and almost dying.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:13:06.930 - 00:13:31.410
Sure, yeah. And. And as a psychologist, I mean, I think, is there anywhere, there's nowhere else where people can have these kind of experiences?
You know, I'm sitting here laughing at a near death experience, which probably isn't the best thing. Right. But it's something. It feels normal, though, when you talk about an outdoor experience, especially since we're safe afterwards. Right.
But I don't think there's any other place we can confront ourselves in the same way as being outdoors. Right?
David Mykel
00:13:32.540 - 00:14:39.220
Oh, 100%. I think as athletes and as longtime athletes as you and I have been, Doug, that is where we.
That is the crucible of where we're tested in ways that I don't believe we can be tested in other places.
And this is one of the reasons why at Sci Fi, we've decided to use the outdoors in order to be a catalyst for conversion essentially, to get to that next level to let go of anxiety, depression, to, you know, get you to a place where you can have this extreme confidence, but also put you in a place where you realize you're really not in control and that what you do is you focus on what you can control as opposed to what you cannot control. And as high performing men, we're control freaks. So that is something. That is something that's usually out of our scope of practice.
We're like, no, I can control everything.
And when you get in the mountains of the ocean or nature, it just humbles you to get you to realize, yeah, you can control some stuff, but you're just this infinitesimal little blip and you'll be gone in 100 years and I'll still be here.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:14:40.100 - 00:14:54.820
Yeah, you made me think of. Is it Trungpa Rinpoche, the kind of famous Boulder Buddhist, said, the bad news is you're falling out of an airplane with no parachute.
The good news is there's no ground.
David Mykel
00:14:56.050 - 00:14:58.130
Oh, I love that one.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:14:59.090 - 00:15:07.730
That's what you made me kind of think when you were saying that. Right. That we're not in control. And when we're outdoors, we get that experience. Right?
David Mykel
00:15:08.850 - 00:16:25.340
Yeah. I mean, I think it's interesting because I think it's one of the greatest paradoxes and fallacies we face as high performers.
I always use this quote because I believe it's laid in such wisdom and it was spoken by a very wise person. So Buddha said, he's like, we have control up to our fingertips and nothing beyond that.
So I mean, this is, this has been rampant in philosophy, psychology, stoic stoicism. We can control ourselves, we can control our movements, our, our thoughts and things like that.
But past that, you have no control over another person, you have no control over nature, you have no control over outcomes. We have control of the process, but not, not anything beyond that. And so I think nature is this great reminder of that.
And I also think as high performers, it's one of those things that draws us into nature because we're inherently trying to tame something that cannot be tamed. And it's that dopamine rush of like, oh, maybe I can get it this time. Just like I had with the waves.
I had this amazing dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, adrenaline rush. And then literally the next wave that I took, 15 minutes later, I came within seconds of dying.
And that just means the release of neurochemicals in your brain when that kind of stuff happens. Life changing to say the least.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:16:26.140 - 00:16:38.140
Now when you work with clients or patients, whoever, how do you do that? How do you get them to meet these experiences in a way that's safe for them psychologically, safe for them physically?
David Mykel
00:16:39.740 - 00:19:37.580
Yeah. So there's two different ways, right? Because we work with people in person and then we also work with people virtually.
So in person is how I started this company.
This company started as an in person experiential business based on, you know, my 25 plus years experience in psychology, my 30 plus years in high level athletics, including a professional. And I said, okay, how can I get people to get into these flow states with again, minimal exposure? So there's a level of safety.
But also you have to have this fear factor in there too, because that heightens our awareness, it heightens our abilities, our senses. Our senses. So for rock.
So what they, we, we picked this, I picked the sports that I love the most are rock climbing, surfing, you know, Muay Thai and snowboarding. So these are the four, these are called, we are Core four.
And in those sports you have a high level of danger, which means your senses, your senses and your awareness have to be acute and you have to be in what we call our prefrontal cortex. Because if you just, if you Go back to your basal ganglia where your habits exist. You're going to get hurt, right?
Rock climbing has an inherent danger of falling, Thai boxing, inherent danger of being punched in the face, snowboard falling off, cliffs jumps, you know, surfing, drowning. So what the research has found in the flow, the Flow Research Institute has proven this.
When you are just enough out of your comfort zone, but not too much, is when you can experience these transcendent moments. So flow is what we all classify it as, right? Time slows down, you become hyper aware of what's going on, your everything else blocks out.
So when you can recreate that through physical activity, you're now also connecting the mind and the body, which is the ultimate connection that we're all looking for. And you can learn in a whole different way. Now. For me, with my experience, I keep people out of the upper echelon of that intense fear.
Because if you go too far out of your comfort zone, it's all fear, it's all amygdala driven fight or flight. And you can't learn because the prefrontal cortex has to turn off.
And that's been proven through functional MRIs that if your prefrontal cortex is on, your amygdala is off. If your amygdala is on, on, your prefrontal cortexes off. So we use sports as a catalyst and to have fun and to have, and to develop connection.
So oxytocin connection between you and nature and anandamide connection, which are both neurochemicals between myself and my student or patient. And then online, when we do things online, I put people through, I'm a certified personal trainer as well.
I'll put people through high intensity interval training that can literally be up to two to five minutes, as short as two to five minutes, and it still sparks that same fear. I can't do this. This is too much. My body screaming, my brain's telling me to stop.
But then when you push through that, what is a veil, essentially you then can realize, oh, I'm actually capable of much more than I thought I am physically. Why can't I do the same mentally and emotionally?
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:19:39.430 - 00:19:46.470
And you said, you used a word before, you said convergence or conversion. Conversion, you said before, right? You get people. What do you mean by that?
David Mykel
00:19:47.510 - 00:21:08.090
So I guess it's converting from a couple things. One what you think you can do and then what you know you can do, right? Because knowing, I think knowing is a body sense.
As a former athlete, this is where it's like, you know, you train, train, train, and Then you go into competition, and the goal is not to think anymore. The goal is to just trust the train. Like, you know, there's a quote called triple T. Trust the talent.
If you've done all the things beforehand, you just go and compete. You don't have to think about anything. So it's like you almost convert into this high level of confidence in understanding what you can do.
And the other one is that, like, I think there's the inherent sense of danger that we all have. This has been programmed for literally 200,000 years in our amygdala, which is a good thing. We need to have a recogn recognition of danger.
But in our world in 2025, most of the things that we consider dangerous or threats can be an email from our boss, right? Someone calling us at 9:00pm, like, our someone, our sibling or our parent is calling us at 9pm and we automatically start freaking out, right?
Those are the things that we now think are danger, but in reality, they're just perceived danger.
So if you can convert to just recognize things are what they are, and then until you actually engage with it to see if you can handle it, there's nothing to fear.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:21:09.290 - 00:21:38.900
I like that. Well, let's take a moment and kind of go back and talk about you and how you got on this path.
And I know that at one point when you were young, you were on track to become a professional baseball player. We're huge baseball fans here. This podcast, too. And then you, you know, became a business guru. You know, what happened in your personal journey?
How did you get here? Why did those, you know, ways you were headed, successful ways you were headed, how did they not work for you?
David Mykel
00:21:40.100 - 00:28:51.820
Oh, my gosh, it's a lot. But, yeah, I was like, okay, where do we start with that? So Since I was 4 years old, I had one mission. I wanted to be a professional baseball player.
That was it. Like, and, you know, every time you question children, like, oh, what do you want to do when you grow up?
Or even adults now, what do you want to do when you grow up? What most of us don't know. I knew from the minute I stepped on the baseball field, that's all I wanted to do.
So I dedicated my life, 17 years to that solo purpose. And this, I mean, this was something that consumed me. I loved it.
So I didn't mind training every day, you know, going to the gym, going to the batting cages, like. And I, you know, for. For, let's see, through high school, I was one of the top recruited high school players. In all of New York State.
Uh, I ended up having doz dozens of Division 1 scholarships all over the country, which was amazing. And then I ended up playing pro. My first, the transition between college and, or, sorry, high school and college.
Uh, I played for the Florida Marlins organization and then decided like, hey, probably need to like school is a better path for this. I should go on to school. How these scholarships too. Like I said, I grew up, you know, poor.
So this was something where I had a chance to go to college. And then I decided to go to college.
And unfortunately in between my, my senior year, I would go home for like the month that we had and I would train more and I would typically pick up a job as a hockey referee. Cause I used to play hockey and it was a great way to make easy money. I could skate, stay in shape, it was fun.
And unfortunately I tore the meniscus in my knee. Yeah. And so when we realized what it was, I had to have surgery. Basically missed my senior year. And then all the.
I was being recruited by three pro teams at that point to be signed after my senior year. And of course no one wants a catcher with a bad knee. And all of a sudden, like I used to be pretty fast too, so that was an anomaly. I wasn't.
Catchers are usually slow, so I had that as well. So I was a, I was a four tool athlete. And after that it was.
I remember sitting in my bed numerous nights just looking at my knee, which was the size of my thigh after my surgery and realizing hopes and dreams of 17 years was gone, that I had to figure something else out. And so I just did. I did what I think any kid my age and with lack of experience would do was follow the societal blueprint.
And so great, okay, I'm finishing college. Like what do I do next? I have no idea. Because I didn't care about anything but baseball. Like that was it. I was so focused on this.
And then when that was taken away from me, one, I had to undergo what I now realize is identity change, which at 21 years old you, I had no clue what that even was. And I decided to shift to say, okay, I guess I'm going to grad school. Like that sounds right. That's what you do next. That's a cyto blueprint, right?
You finish college and then you go to grad school. So I decided to go to grad school in forensic psychology to the top program in the country.
And that propelled me into a 13 year career in litigation psychology. And then, and this is Probably a transition point. I, I hit all the societal markers that I was told that would matter.
At around 29 years old, I was like, oh, you know, get the car, get the money, get the girl, get the apartment, get the, get the, the, the title, the bank account, the home, all this stuff. You'll be happy, you'll be content. And I got all of that stuff. And at 29, I looked around, I go, there's gotta be more.
Because I'm not happy, I'm not fulfilled, I'm not content. And I think this is what most high performers in the world deal with. This is why we always pursue more, whether it's more.
Bigger titles, more, more vertical, right? More wins. And I, I decided to leave my career, which was supposed to be for a year. I was gonna take a sabbatical.
I was gonna, I was gonna live in the mountains. I lived in Whistler, British Columbia. I was there for the Olympics, which is also great. I got to volunteer as a part of the Olympics.
And I decided after that I would do six months traveling around the world and volunteering and six months. So that one year sabbatical turned into three years.
I end up in Australia my last year, which is how I met some friends living in Whistler that were, when I got done, they said, hey mate, what are you going to do next? I go, I have no, I have no idea. I thought I'd figure it out, you know, now I'm 33. I thought, I have it all figured out.
And that's when I decided to move to Australia and start the first version of what sci fi is now, which is this experiential outdoor kind of learning. And I was working, I was working in a.
What do you want to call it, a community center with at risk aboriginal kids teaching them Muay Thai as a way to vent their frustrations, to gain discipline and motivation and ambition. I understood them pretty well because I grew up in a poor neighborhood with not a lot of great role models and, you know, no, no father figures.
And so these, these kids were doing the same thing and they were just acting out because they didn't have this guidance. They didn't have an outlet for their anger at society or their family or whatever.
Because they were raised the way they do, the ways they were, they were. And it was amazing. You know, I was working with his kids, giving them, getting them off the streets. They weren't outside causing trouble anymore.
They were getting stronger. They were getting, they were getting more communal with one another. They were developing confidence and perseverance.
And unfortunately I had a visa issue, so I had to leave Australia, which put me back to New York, which is where I'm from. I ended up getting a job again. I tried to not go back to litigation because I was like, I'm over this. But I was still very well known.
I had made a good name for myself. And I got picked up, I got recruited to take over a multimillion dollar consulting firm in New York City.
And I had the corner office, you know, again, all the dressings, the car, the girl, the apartment, the, the, the title, the bank account, the salary, the admiration of everyone.
And about a year and a half into that, again, I fell into the same thing that I did before of like, I have all this stuff, but this doesn't mean anything to me. I'm not satisfied, I'm not fulfilled. And I fell into suicidal depression. And I struggled with that for a year and a half.
And in that is when I started creating what is the next version of what Sci Fi is. Was helping high performers deal with the things that we normally deal with. Anxiety, overwhelm, burnout, and then productivity.
To get more balance in my life, because I had it. I mean, I was still traveling the world, spending time with my, my loved ones. Like I was doing all, everything I was supposed to be doing.
I was going to therapy, I was exercising, eating well. But I could not find a program that met me as a high performing man where I needed to be met and that understood me and that gave me results fast.
Because we're also impatient as high performers. And so that's why I created Sci Fi as the answer to my prayers and then started testing it on people.
And seven years and 7,000 people later, we have a successful business that's globally known.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:28:53.100 - 00:29:24.250
Sounds like, I mean, your whole life sounds like a new show on Netflix maybe. It's such an amazing arc. I feel like I want to see it acted out. But the depression stuff is extremely real.
And it seems like more and more people are not, you know, people on your path are not finding what they need. In fact, they're finding the opposite.
And what, what's something people don't understand about depression and, and how it can affect their friends and people around them.
David Mykel
00:29:25.770 - 00:32:03.430
Yeah, so. So, Doug, that's a great question, because here's, here's another part of the, the arc of my story.
I was dating a girl at one point who, who was depressed. This is my girlfriend. And even as a psychologist at the time, this is, this shows how ignorant I was about this. I was like, stop. It's a choice.
Just get out of bed, come and do stuff. Like, we have this incredible life together. We're doing all these amazing things together. It's a choice. Just get out of bed.
Just start focusing on the positive stuff. And I had no idea what it was like to actually deal with it. And for me, depression, what I look at now, I think Jim Carrey said it best.
He's like, depression. Like, depressed, deep rest. So when you're depressed, your body and brain are asking for deep rest. Like, rest from the constant go, go, go.
Rest from the striving for more. Right? I call it the pursuit of more. It's never over because you never catch it. Every time you catch it, there's something else. I call it.
I call it, like we move our goalposts. So, like, oh, I'll be happy when I make six figures and you get six figures. You go, I'll be happy when. Upper six figures.
I'll be happy when I have, you know, this size house. Then it's like, Then you go, bigger house. I'll be happy when I have this title. Oh, no, bigger title.
I'll be happy when I have this girlfriend or wife. And then it's like the prettier, younger, and we're always pushing it off.
And I think the thing about depression for me was taking that deep rest to understand what you really want and what I really wanted, which I wasn't getting. Even though I was making lots of money, I was winning billion dollar cases. I was extremely well known in my field. I had all.
I had friends and family that loved me. I was at, I was, I was in shape, traveling the world. I had no purpose. I was just making people more money or saving them money. Right?
I was affecting people's lives because I was still volunteering. But it was, it was small. And I had this thing inside of me that said, no, you're here for a bigger reason.
And that's why I realized I had to go through. It was a gift from God, me going through suicidal depression for a year and a half where I almost took my life three times. Like, became.
Came inches from it because I needed to go through what I would go through so I could understand and empathize with other high performers to know exactly what they're going through and to say, hey, listen, I have a solution for it that works now. Literally faster than medication, it's longer sustaining the therapy, and you're going to have fun while you're doing it. And that's.
That was literally the birth of Sci fi.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:32:04.950 - 00:32:10.950
And that that solution is getting outside, right? It's. It's experiencing the world in a. In a different way or.
David Mykel
00:32:11.590 - 00:33:38.470
Yeah, part. Well, part of it. Part of it is getting outside. A big part of it.
And this is where I created the B3 methodology, is integrating your brain, your body, and your breath together.
Because as high performers and as people who sit in front of computers all day, people who make their living outside, rarely do we train these three things together. And I call this the paradox. So it's like, Doug, how can. Right now, you and I are using our brain, our body, and our breath at a high level?
Right now we're engaged, we're thinking, we're breathing. The problem is we train these things separately.
So our brain, we sit in front of computers, go to conferences or workshops, and we're sedentary most of the time. Our body, we ask our. We go out in the mountains, we go outside, we go in nature, go to the gym, but we ask our brain to tune out.
Give me some peace for at least an hour. Don't talk to me. Don't. I don't want those constant rampant thoughts happening.
And then our breath, thank God it's involuntary because it happens 22,000 times a day. It's happening, but we never think about it. So my contention is, how do three things perform at a high level together if you train them separately?
And this is where I use the skiing. I'm a snowboarder, but I use a skiing analogy for this. And I say, doug, you know, today's Tuesday.
What if we trained your left arm today, your right arm on Wednesday, your right leg on Thursday, your left leg on Friday, and then I had you go compete on Saturday. How do you think you'd do?
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:33:38.870 - 00:33:40.150
Yeah, all over the place.
David Mykel
00:33:40.950 - 00:34:29.969
Terrible. You'd be terrible. But us as high performers, we do this all day, every day. We ask our brain, body, and breath perform at a high level together.
We train them separately. And so this was one of the big things for me was about before you can integrate in nature, you need to integrate within yourself first.
And then when you know how to do that, you bring out some nature. And it becomes this gigantic catalyst to heat, to actual healing, to a place of acceptance, to a place of purpose.
Like, we tune into something that's bigger than us, and we're actually able to let it heal us as opposed to hurting us, which is, you know, I'm recovering from reconstructive shoulder surgery. I'm eight weeks out, so it's like I even still get hurt in Nature, because I'm not using it at the level I need to.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:34:30.369 - 00:34:49.069
That's fascinating, I think. And I wonder too, you know, as a, as a high performer, right? You can't ever shut it off, right?
Even if you go out in nature, you know, you're like, I'm going to go down in nature. And if you're really a high performer, then you're like, oh, I'd like to climb that mountain or ski that cool water. I wonder who's been there, right?
There's no really way to shut that high performance off, is there?
David Mykel
00:34:51.060 - 00:39:26.120
Yes and no. So it's not about maybe shutting it off, it's maybe about being in a, being in harmony with it.
So one of the lessons I teach at Sci Fi is called balance is bullshit because all of us, a lot of us are. And even though we use balance as our marketing language because people understand it, balance is. Because what does balance mean, Doug?
Balance means everything's equal, right? So two ways to look at this. One, everything's equal in your life.
So we, we, we talk about our core four health, wealth, relationships, and spirituality. I believe those are the four categories in life. If you want to have a, if you want to have a fulfilled life, those four need to be aligned.
Now if we say that, then literally you're trying to keep all those at the same level. And as we know, the more time you pour into your work, this is the most common one. Your relationships, your health start to, starts to suffer, right?
But if you ramp up all these, the same thing, that means everything's a priority. That means nothing is a priority. So if we were, look at this from, you know, I was just at the symphony this weekend. I love classical music.
If you look at the arc of classical music or any music, for instance, it does this, it goes up and down, right? Why? Because if every instrument in that 50 piece orchestra was playing at the same level, so they were balanced, it'd be a cacophony.
It would be like chalk nails on a chalkboard to us. But what do they do? They have harmony. One instrument goes up, one goes down. One gets louder, one gets softer, right?
One gets more faster, one gets slower. I believe that what we need to do is take that harmony and put it into our lives as opposed to balance. Because I'll give you another example.
You know, both of us, we can see about, you know, our chest up now. I'm on a five legged chair right now. Doug, you and I are both really good at balancing. We're high performing men. We balanced our Whole lives.
If you're sitting on a four legged chair, I can knock one of those legs out, Doug, and you would still be able to balance on it. Now, I only see you from up top, so I would look at you and you might be struggling a little bit, but I would be God. Doug's got it all together.
Look at him. He's doing great, right? Knock another leg out. So they got two legs. Doug, you're, you're still really good at what you do. You'll still figure it out.
You'll have the balance right? And on the outside, the facade that I see is you got it all together.
We could even knock three of those four legs out, Doug, and you would still have it together, but you would be working so hard under the surface to maintain this balance in your lives that everything would be strained, everything would be stressful, anxiety, you know, you'd have overwhelm. Burnout would 100% be waiting for you on the corner. And no one would know, Doug, because you'd have it all together on the outside.
Your, your chest up looks like you got it all held together and you're doing amazing. Meanwhile, you are struggling so hard to keep it all together and it's, and you're just waiting for it to fall apart.
And I think that is what all high performers are dealing with. I think on the, on the, on the surface, on the outside, we look like we have it all together. And I coach all high performers, men and women.
When you get in deep with them, you realize how much they're all struggling, how this balance is, you know, has, has really harmed them. Instead they should go for harmony. You know, this month I'm focusing on my health.
My business is going to take a little bit of a hit next, next month. Relationships are our priority. And I'm going to let my health, you know, I'm going to let that fade away bit.
And you just go in these harmonious arcs, which is what the natural patterns of nature have. This is why we have circadian rhythms as mammals. All of us are have. There's ups and downs.
We have ultradian rhythms, which is our rhythm of how we focus. You need to be on, they need to be off. You can't always be on, you can't always be up. You need sleep. You can't always be focusing hard.
You need time for decompression, otherwise you burn out. And I'm an expert in burnout.
I've done it so many times in all three of my careers and that's what I want for Us as high performers now to realize it's not about balance, it's about harmony. You don't have to burn out.
You can do things like little two minute tools and resets throughout your day that can reset your focus, it can reset your confidence, it can reset your, even your, your circadian rhythms, your energy without having to go through, through therapy for years or buying all these special expensive tools and all this other stuff that were being pushed upon by psychology in the psychology and fitness industries.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:39:27.400 - 00:39:54.110
But you just read me perfectly there. I think I'm on one leg right here. Definitely can relate to that. And before we get into those industries, I think I just want to wonder with you too.
When you were, you know, you were in such a bad place, as you said, you know, with depression and all that and everything you added up to, what was, what was your, you know, conversion then? When, when did you, how did you get out of that? What was the first step for you to move to where you are now?
David Mykel
00:39:55.470 - 00:47:01.060
Yeah, so I love the, I love the fact that you say first step because it was actually, for me, ironically, it was a step backwards because what I had been doing is pushing myself, pushing myself, pushing myself. I was in this job where I was working, you know, 60 to 120 hour weeks. So like, really intense.
And I was working in like some of the biggest in the nation. So the cases that I were working on were things that you would see in the news.
Super high pressure, super high stakes environment, bet the company billions of dollars at stake. And I was doing really well, but again, I was doing balance. So I, on the, on the outside, this facade looked like I had it all together.
Everyone was still coming to me for their answers. I've kind of always been a psychologist, therapist for people around me because they see that, oh, I can talk to David about these things.
And for me, the way I was looking to end my life is that I was taking the train to the office every morning. And it was the winter mornings that were the toughest. I was, it's in New York, so the Northeast doesn't see sunshine like Colorado does year round.
And I would just sit there and I watched this train come in at like 50, 60 miles an hour.
And I kept saying to myself, all you have to, like, I was in so much pain and suffering because of the depression that getting through an hour was really challenging, let alone a day, a week, a month, a year and a half. And I just wanted relief from the suffering, the relief from this pain that nothing else was working.
Like I said, I Was going to therapy, I was eating healthy, I was exercising, I was traveling, I was spending time with loved ones. I had a great job, I had great families, great social circles. There was nothing lacking in my life, on the resume life. But I wanted to.
To have relief so bad that I contemplated stepping in front of the train, stepping in from the train and just let. And just. That was it. People would think it's an accident, maybe, maybe he fell into the track. So for me, I would.
I literally got to a point where I would be on the edge of the platform and I'd have one foot hanging over the platform. And all I had to do, I just kept saying to myself, david, just all you have to do is lean in. If you lean in, your pain and suffering is gone.
It's over. And so, thankfully, I was raised by an amazing mother.
She was the only reason why I didn't do it, because I wouldn't want her to have her only son have committed suicide and be that selfish to leave that behind me.
And so my first step, actually Doug, was one step back on the platform, to take that off of the table, to say, hey, listen, yes, this seems like your only option right now because you've exhausted all these other resources, but there is another way. There has to be another way. And that's when I started working. I started creating what is known as Sci fi and the B3.
I started saying, okay, what do I have to do?
Well, I was miserable at my job, but I wouldn't quit because why would you quit a multi, you know, six high, six figure job where you're literally being groomed to take over a multi million dollar company? And of course, I had nothing to do after that. I had no clue what I wanted to do. So how or why would you ever lose that or leave that job?
So thankfully, I got fired after a year and a half. Like, it was the four weeks of the first time in the history of my career I got fired.
My boss brought me into her office and she goes, clearly, you're not happy here. And I go, wow, is it that obvious? I mean, I was still doing my job and still showing up, but like, I was mailing it in and she.
And she's like, hey, you know, this, this isn't working. I think we should go both. I think we should go our separate ways. And it was, it was an amicable separation, like I.
And for her, it must have been so tough because I was supposed to be her savior of allowing her to retire or move into the next, like, legacy mode. Of her career, and I would take the company over. And then I just started what I think.
Thankfully, my girlfriend at the time, she was like, well, what do you want to do today? And I said, I have no idea. I was looking at this existential question. She's like, no, no, no, simplify it. What do you want to do today?
I was like, I want to go rock climbing. It's like, go climbing. Come home, talk with her that night. What do you want to do tomorrow? I want to go climbing.
And I just did that for the weeks and months.
And what started happening is I started realizing how being out in nature and physically pushing myself and then also doing something that was mentally like, acute because I had a focus and I had to be present.
All of a sudden, I like the answers to my depression, the answers to my next step in life, the answers to the lostness that I felt started coming into focus, and I was like, oh, my gosh. Putting myself in these kind of environments, in nature with a. With a fair amount of stress, but not too much opened up for me.
The answers that I had no idea were there. And I said, wonder if I could do this for other people.
And then I started asking my friends and family, you know, around me in New York, hey, come and try this thing out. I got. I want you to see if this helps. And all of a sudden, hundreds of people started. Yeah, the.
They come in with, like, no answers to their problems, completely stuck. And all of a sudden, after the session, these were two hour sessions back then, they would know exactly what they have to do. The next step.
They came up with it on their own. I didn't put it there. I just helped them get out of their way, and they knew exactly what they needed to do.
I even had one client who I worked with where she came to me, and she's like, david, I'm. I'm. I'm. I'm very. I'm seriously depressed. You know, I don't know what to do. I. I actually went to my.
My doctor and I got some, you know, antidepressant medication. It's. It's in my medicine cabinet, but I don't want to take it. She's like. She's like. She goes, I don't think it's going to work for me.
I was like, all right, cool. I bet we can figure something out for you. I was like, have it there. I'm not anti medication. I'm anti medication for a long time.
Medication has its purpose. Yeah. After working with her for about six weeks and we use Muay Thai as her sport. She was cured. She never ended up taking the medication.
And she looked at me, she's like, how is this possible? I was like, when you align the brain, body, and breath together in a healthy way, it's. It's healing.
And then you put us in nature on top of it with that integration, because now you're integrated, so now you can properly integrate. Nothing is impossible. You have all the answers inside of you, and nature is willing to heal you in a way that we can't even still understand.
But this is how you do it. It's not therapy, traditional therapy. It's not medication. It's not, you know, doing all these things that we've had. We've been told to do that work.
Most of the stuff in the psychology and fitness industries are band aids. They treat symptoms, not actual core problems.
And my goal is to treat the core problem so that people can go on and live the life that they actually want to live with purpose, with desire, motivation, and not burn out because there's no overwhelm, because you love what you're doing and you know how to reset yourself just like that.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:47:02.260 - 00:47:24.970
Now, I think when I first talked to you, you told me you also go about it the other way. Right. You take people who are already there, who are spending a lot of time outdoors, maybe outdoor athletes.
Maybe people are already, you know, going from the other way and they're losing maybe the vision of where they are. Right. They're so focused on outdoor competition that they're not seeing who they are and where they are when they get outside.
David Mykel
00:47:26.730 - 00:51:20.440
Yeah. And trust me, I've been guilty. I'm guilty of this myself, is that. Especially now. I've been in Colorado for three and a half years.
I literally live on Copper Mountain. So this is the athletes mountain. So we have all the athletes come here to train from around the world.
And what happens, though, is that just like a high performer off the mountain in the boardroom, we get it. We get consumed with the pursuit of more. I want to be. I want to get more vert. I want to drop bigger cliffs. I want to get, you know, my p. My PR down.
I want to, like, you know, get my. My better. My better time down. And we usually, and especially Colorado, because we are blessed with some of the most elite athletes in the world.
Like, you could be sitting next to someone at a coffee shop and have no idea that person's got, like, three world records because they won't even tell you. They just glaze over it. But what I started finding is that up here, I live in Summit County.
We have five times the national average of suicides, three times the national average of anxiety. And I go, how is this possible? And this is where there's a beautiful documentary called the Paradise Paradox. Or the.
Yeah, the Paradise Paradox, where it says, like, how can you live in a place where people literally from around the world come to vacation, yet we're suffering with depression and burnout and anxiety and stress? It's because I believe after being here for this long and being a lifetime athlete, we typically go into nature to conquer it.
I want to climb that mountain. I want to get a faster time. I want to get down it faster. I want to drop a bigger cliff, get more vert, get more days. You know, all this stuff.
And what we're doing is taking away this healing power that nature has, because inherently, nature, when left by. By itself and to its own devices, it will heal and restore everything it comes into contact with.
This is why animals and plants live in harmonious nature when they're not. When we are not around. And so when. And they've proven this now through different kinds of technology. And also, this has been around for.
You know, the Japanese culture is known. Forest bathing is a thing for thousands of years, right?
You go in the forest and you literally bathe in it, and it just cleanses you of all the stress and anxiety and all the dirt. This is why when we go outside, we always feel so much better.
But if we're doing it in a way that we're trying to conquer nature, right, we lose that.
But if we go in there and we're trying to integrate with nature, literally, like hug a tree, sit still for, you know, say you're on a tree run, which are some of my favorite to do. Take a pause in the middle of trees and appreciate how deafening the silence is, and look up.
You're around things that have been around for hundreds of years. It's literally trying to take out all this negative electrical charge out of you. The anxiety, the stress, the overwhelm, the burnout.
And it's trying to heal you.
And if we can go into nature with an integrative approach as opposed to an escaping approach, like we trying to forget about our day or forget how tough everything is, or we're going in there to conquer it. Nature can't be conquered. It's been around for billions of years. The mountains that we love so much are tens or hundreds or millions of years old.
They're not going anywhere.
And this is when we get Like I said, when we get in the ocean and all of a sudden we're, you know, hit by this massive wave, nature is like, yeah, I just want to let you know, you are nothing to me.
Like, we go on these huge mountains and an avalanche triggers, and all of a sudden it goes from, you know, this small crown to then it's 7ft, 10ft high. Nature will always win.
So it's like, if we can harness the power of nature, like the true power of nature, we can heal ourselves, of life, of anything. I believe. I don't think there's anything that nature can't heal with enough time and intention behind it.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:51:21.560 - 00:51:38.040
Why do you think that is, too. That some.
I mean, I think some people, obviously, faced with that overwhelming power of nature, feel overwhelmed themselves, but most of us instead feel at ease. Right. It actually makes us peaceful to feel. Feel small. Right. Why do you think that is?
David Mykel
00:51:39.710 - 00:53:54.940
Well. Oh, I love that question, Doug. That's a big existential one right there. So what I think. So inherently, we all have. We all know this, right? But.
But because of the lives we live, because of the way we're taught to push and chase dopamine, whether it's through apps or through social media or through porn or alcohol or drugs or sex or even nature, we're perverting all of this, right? So nature, to me and this. Why do we feel so small but yet so connected? Because we realize it's called, like, the oneness theory or the theory of one.
We are all connected, Doug. You and I are connected. The. We're connected. We are. We literally are. The trees, the mountains, the animals, one another. That's.
We're all made up of the same chemicals, the same stardust, the, like, you know, this. The same atoms.
And when we go in nature and we sit there and we try to integrate into it, you start feeling that oneness, and then you realize, you look around, you go, whoa, I am nothing. I mean, this. This tree that I'm about to cut down in my backyard has been here for hundreds of years. I won't make it past 100 at my best, right?
So I think just being around something that. And appreciating it.
And here's the thing that's really tough for high performers, and it was difficult for me for a long time, is slowing down and going into nature to appreciate and to integrate, not to conquer it or have some in some other goal that you have in mind. I think when we're.
We're actually able to sit in nature and feel it, like biochemically we realize that we are connected to it and we realize that we are just a blip in the radar for this and the beauty of nature. And because nature's done this for, I mean, just look at Native American cultures that have been in this land alone, minimum of 5,000 years.
They've used nature to heal themselves consistently of some of the toughest things ever. They've been connected to the land always.
We're living on the land, but we lose the connection because we're trying to conquer as opposed to integrate with it.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:53:55.500 - 00:54:08.630
I love that.
And do you have some moments recently when you felt integration, when you've been able to pause and get out there with everything you've, you've been doing between competing and healing and helping people? Have you had some moments out there?
David Mykel
00:54:09.750 - 00:59:13.770
Oh my gosh, yes. And, and this is the beauty of it, Doug.
These moments don't have to be, oh, I gotta go, you know, a three day trek into the backcountry and be surrounded by nothing and no people.
I'll get that connection when I just drive through the like on 70 from Brecht, essentially Frisco to Copper, where it's, it's one of the most, in my opinion, it's one of the most beautiful stretches of land because you're just sitting here on this road right next to mountains that are 13,000ft tall and you look up and there's snow cover, there's snow covered and there's, there's, there's these trees.
So like I literally, because of the practices that I've instituted for myself, I experience that almost daily when I drive that when I go for a walk and I just look at the mountains in the distance and just like, just feel how majestic they are. One of my favorite ones to do.
And this is the one I teach to all my snow athletes because every, every high level snow athlete I know loves the trees, right? The trees are where the best snow is. Like, you can, you can get days of, days of leftover powder in there.
But what I have done for the longest time is I just bomb into the trees and I'm just, you know, I'm looking four or five turns ahead and I'm not thinking about anything else other than, oh my gosh, this feels so good. I'm locked into a flow state because I have to be.
There's a level of danger of hitting a tree, right, or catching yourself on a, a shark waiting underneath the snow. And what I'll do, Doug, is I'll get in the, I'll get into the middle, and I'll just stop and I'll eat. I'll.
I'll usually sit down and I'll just look up. And when you're looking up in the middle of the trees, you can, you know, the blue sky is there.
Then you have, like, the green trees that are white, kind of casted. And you're going, I am so small. Like, look at all this, like, majesty around me. And then you listen. And I usually ride head.
I ride with headphones almost all the time. Except when I go in the trees, there's silence.
This is why we, you know, when we tell us when we're going over, our friends in the trees, make sure you stay within, like, a line of sight, because you can't hear if you yell to someone. The trees suck in all the. They suck in the energy. So for me, I tell people, I say, listen, just stop for two minutes in the trees.
Stop, dead stop, look up, take five breaths into the nose, out to the mouth, and just see how you feel differently from doing that for two minutes. It's incredible. I'm getting more calm right now, just envisioning it because I've done it so many times, as opposed to normally.
I just bomb through the trees because I'm like, I want to get more runs, more powder before everyone else tracks it out and it turns into a racetrack. So that's one of the things that I teach my clients and I do do every single time I'm out in the trees, is just taking that moment to integrate.
Because nature does want to heal us. It knows things that we don't know because it's been around for longer than we've been around.
So it inherently wants to take that negativity, that stress, that anxiety, all those negatively charged emotions. It wants to balance you out, symbiosis. So literally, what does that mean? Bringing more positive, take away the negative.
So when you could exit the trees just after two minutes and you could feel differently, you can feel content, which is something that high performers. That's like a word. We're going, I don't even know what the hell that word is.
I know what it means, but I never feel it because I'm always going after dopamine. Dopamine, Dopamine, dopamine, as opposed to the chemical I would ask us all to chase.
Or two chemicals are oxytocin, which connects us to others and to nature, and serotonin, which is the one that makes us feel satisfaction and contentment. So serotonin makes you feel at ease. There's peace inside of you, as opposed to dopamine is like that next thing. Because dopamine is anticipatory.
You get dopamine as you're anticipating something awesome, and as soon as you get it, it drops off like a roller coaster where serotonin, it's harder to get to, but once you get it, you're. You're even. You're content, you're satisfied. You are one with the world and all of those around you. And that's why.
That's why medication works on your serotonin receptors.
So instead of going into the doctor's office to get medication, which literally takes minimal 20 minutes to work, and depending on if it's antidepressants, will take up to two weeks for the dosages to get right. Go into nature, two minutes, you'll feel different, not 20.
So somebody saying, we have stuff that's even faster acting the medication and it's more sustainable and it's all around us. You don't run out of it. You don't have to refill your prescription.
The refill prescription is go for a hike, go for a walk, go for a ski, a snowboard, a bike, a run. Go immerse yourself in the water. I did a cold plunging in Rocky Mountain national park this weekend. Oh, my gosh.
Even though it was painful, it was just. It took everything away. I came out and I just felt this elation, and that's what I want to bring to our mountain communities.
It's like, guys, we all know it's because we felt it, but what if you can feel at a different level more consistently without harming yourself?
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:59:15.690 - 00:59:21.530
That's beautiful. Well, David, unfortunately, we are near the end of our podcast here.
David Mykel
00:59:22.570 - 00:59:23.210
So fast.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:59:23.370 - 00:59:38.510
Yeah. But I think we covered so much and so much valuable information and inspiration, I think, for listeners.
But the last question we ask everyone on the podcast is very simple, and it is just, what gives you hope?
David Mykel
00:59:39.070 - 01:02:35.710
I think there's two things that give me hope there, and then one's external and one's internal. The external is that I see people that are way further along on their journey than I am.
And the things that they're doing, the peace they have, the contentment they have, the satisfaction they have in life. Right. So. And they're still out there doing the things they love.
Like, I have friends that I ride with that are in their late 70s, and they're still out there crushing it. I have another friend, she just turned 80. She. She did the El Camino Trail in Spain and Portugal. Right.
She just Stopped running marathons about a year or two ago.
And I see that and I have all this hope because I'm like, oh my gosh, you're almost twice my age or, you know, 30 plus years and you're still doing the things that I love. And you're doing it in a way that has more peace and contentment, integration to it.
The other piece for me is to just notice how far I've come in my journey. I mean, I'm a New York Italian who grew up in the ghetto. I was saying this to my girlfriend this past weekend.
We were on a big hike and I go, I never thought in a million years I could be saying and feeling and doing and teaching the things that I'm currently doing. Like never in a million years I thought I could be this person who has peace in their lives, right?
Who finds contentment in small things, who isn't always chasing, chasing, doing. I'm actually becoming a human being as opposed to a human doer. And I just look back at my path and I go, wow, I did this.
So I know everyone else can do this too. And I was sharing this with my men's group last night as one of my missions. I'm nothing special, Doug. I don't.
I wasn't born with any special talents or gifts. I wasn't given anything to figure all this out. I was. And no one in my family does the development that I do. Most of them, like none of them do this.
And the fact that I was able to figure this out just by just being dog headedly determined to push my way through gives me hope for everyone else. They can do this too.
That this isn't something that is unattainable because of your social, economic status or even your athletic ability or your IQ or your EQ do. Everyone can do this. And it's, it's what I wish for all of us.
Because coming from the brink of suicide and coming all the way back to where I am now and now note and seeing how suicide and depression anxiety are at, at such a head now to know that there's a system out there that works for people like us. It's easy, it's fun, it's attainable, and we can still continue doing the things that we love.
To me, that's all the hope in the world to actually make this place, make it literally a heaven on earth and to take back the paradise that we live in.
Doug Schnitzspahn
01:02:37.470 - 01:02:48.440
Amazing. But David, thank you so much. Now if people want to contact you, if they want to try the Sci Fi program and work with you.
How can they go about doing that?
David Mykel
01:02:49.710 - 01:03:07.870
Yes. So the best way is you can check out our website. So Scifi Co P S P S Y F I Co or Psy Fi nyc. You can check out all the cool things we got going there.
Our YouTube channel has over 600 videos training videos on it. Brain, body and breath training. All free.
Doug Schnitzspahn
01:03:09.870 - 01:03:20.420
That's amazing. I can't thank you enough for being on the show. I feel like I got a free session just by talking to you helped me a lot. Just having you here.
Can't thank you enough.
David Mykel
01:03:21.300 - 01:03:25.540
Awesome Doug. I appreciate you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here and speak to your audience.
Doug Schnitzspahn
01:03:26.740 - 01:03:55.950
Thanks for imbibing Open Container, a production of Rock Fight llc.
Please take a second to follow our show on whatever podcast app you're listening to us on and send your emails and feedback to myrockfightmail.com learn more about Sci Fi and B3 methodology at P S Y F I CO. Our producers today were David Karstad and Colin True. Art direction provided by Sarah Gensert. I'm Doug Schnitzbahn. Get some thanks for listening.
