In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with James Heppner about his morning routine, learning in order to simplify, how to figure out what no longer works for you, vibration plates, red light therapy and much more.
In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with James Heppner about his morning routine, learning in order to simplify, how to figure out what no longer works for you, vibration plates, red light therapy and much more.
Announcer
Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.
Ryan
Hey, James, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How are you?
James
Hey, how are you?
Ryan
It's good to have you. It's good to talk with you again. I was on your podcasts, and now you're on mine. I like doing these kinds of swaps. It's really I find it really fascinating. I want to hear your story I want to hear your morning routine, your personal development, your journey, all of that in the next 15-20 minutes. So let's kick off with you telling my audience of morning upgraders you know who you are and what you do for a living, and give us the biggest wins happening in your life right now.
James
Thanks for that. And perhaps this is the best part, too; for those of you that have ever tuned into my podcast, my talks are a little longer than 15-20 minutes, but I love this. So you threw down the gauntlet, the challenges here, and we're gonna get it done. I love it. So thanks. And you know, I like to think of myself as an artisan of experience. And my passion is just purely to create and transfer more, you know, transformational experiences for myself and others as a way to just really explore what it means to truly live. Years ago, I founded weekly wins and losses, and I help people on this platform, helping people in their journey to embracing all of life. And that's right, all of which is both wins and losses equally. And why do we do this? Let's be pretty obvious. We all want to activate the place where we gain the courage needed to do difficult things. We all want to learn to pivot and how with power and poise while gaining that mental and emotional mastery needed to truly live that fulfilled life that we all crave, right? And, really, who wants to wait for the storm to pass? We all know people during COVID who waited for COVID to be over before they did much. We observe these things. And we say, well, why instead of waiting for the storm to pass, why not instead jump at the opportunity to engage now? So, of course, engaging now intellectually and with a heart and not just throwing stuff around. But actually, looking at what does the world need more now? And instead of waiting to do some but now, instead of waiting and hoping and praying and all of this stuff, there's something that we can participate with. Now, if we choose to? What did you ask what's a win that I've experienced recently?
Ryan
I think we hope for my audience just to know the full story. You own a bunch of businesses, too, can you just give us a quick rundown on what that was?
James
So used to own a land development company and custom home construction company. And I also own a bone density clinic. So those are the three pieces that had several moving pieces within them. So I only currently only have investments, and I work one on one and in group settings within this personal development work, and it's within wins and losses. The program. They're excellent.
Ryan
Okay. And then the biggest one happening in your life right now. What does that look like?
James
That's a really good one. I think what we're doing now, right here, is the biggest win, to say, is collaboration. And I think you and I talked about this just briefly, but I'll unpack it perhaps a little bit more. The way I'm going to answer this, I read a while ago that the best things in life come when we take in the growth in our life. So the things that we really want comes, of course, in areas of discomfort. And that discomfort comes when we look at the areas that we say we don't want. So it's an old, unwanted, it's an old, unneeded. And of course, those are things that are the old, unsafe things, and we take those things, and we observe them, and we say listen, for me to go from where I currently am to where I want to be what's required. And I came into this very simple philosophy, it's simple, but it's harder said than done. Because, let's be honest, you choose things that are unsafe because it helps you get to where you currently are. And so to move beyond it, you have to revisit and say, is it really true that me holding this value and this belief of it's unsafe, and also unneeded, unwanted? Is it really benefiting what I'm doing here, and again, you look at what you currently have, and what you currently have reached and accomplished sure is beneficial for there. So do not blame it, who has to go beyond and so to make safe other people. And it's kind of hilarious because I work that I've done this now for since 2012. It's been 10 years working one on one and in a group setting with people, but literally to make other people in collaboration safe. And so I'm on your talk, and I'm collaborating with you right, and so I have just discovered so much joy unfolding in real-time and experiencing myself while I experienced your nuance in my life and how it resonates in the US, you know the two of us just pinging off one another to grow, so I think that's been the biggest one of my life. Just a choice, your choice to make something safe that was once dangerous.
Ryan
Yeah, I agree on the collaboration; like doing this podcast, you know, it doesn't feel like work. You know it is work, of course, it's a lot of work, but it doesn't feel like it's the biggest, you know, I know I'm putting out content that's going to help people. But then to your point that collaboration is meeting, and I think about the last 92 guests I've had, I think it is now, it just different. I mean, different people, people that never would have met and some cases collaborating where, you know, on their podcast or on my podcast, but regardless, that connection, that collaboration it does, it fills my cup. And so I think that's kind of piggybacking on what you said. So I want to find out about your morning routine; I already know kind of what it is. And it's, it's, it's a good one. But I want to put a pause on that for one second. And I want to ask you a question. Since I've been on your podcast. And we've talked before we start recording; I've gotten to know you a little bit. And I was telling you before that you're I find you at least to be a deep thinker, meaning, like, if I asked you a question, you've got a very layered response that connects the dots as you think of things that I would never have thought of. And my sister had exactly how to articulate that. But my question is, how do you do that? Is it a skill set that you have tips around for my audience? Have you always been like that? I don't know what, what does that answer look like for you.
James
Well, just to give you a bit of context, thanks for the question. I don't think I've ever been asked that question. So I like this in it helps me to bring to the surface what's really in there. And so why do you and how I do what I do? And it's, it's a really good one. What's interesting is Mike, the first thought that comes to mind is, I don't know, what do I do? I just do what I do. And that brings to heart that I once used to deny myself the right to feel that what and who I was and to love myself first was a good thing. And so I would blame myself, I would find fault, right? Instead of looking for where I could hold responsibility and enjoy and appreciate life and experience it and go deep. I would look at it going, and why am I like this? Because let's be honest, we all know this. If you ask somebody to think oftentimes, they'll get mad at you because thinking requires energy. And so people go listen to my libidinal energy, it's been invested, it's been taken, it's already been used, or it's, or its the allocation is going there. And now you're asking me to think here, I never, I never scheduled this, right? And so ask people to think, and they typically, oftentimes, can get mad at you. And however, ask people where you tell them a joke. And what will happen, they love you. Okay, so tying that together with there's a little thing, a little dynamic, which I just call how to best translate your value to the world. And I'll just make it easy. I'm not a reductionist by nature. But I'll say I'll make it easy, just creating two groups of people, one group of people they learn so that they can complicate. And they do that because that's their solution. Because if you don't complicate, then maybe people never come back to you for repeat business. The other way around is you learn to make it easier to simplify. And so you really want you're the kind of person that's authentic open, and you just want to share, and you because you really want to help and you're thinking to yourself, I want to make it as simple as I possibly can to get people the outcome that they really crave. And so how would I do this? Other than that, I would share it all but share from the context and the way that data understand it. So even with my answer, you ask a short question, my answer is becoming long. And the idea is never that I desire to complicate. Because if you desire to complicate the answer, then oftentimes, you're solving for significance, meaning you're just trying to be about yourself. And the idea is I'm trying to make really simple, but the only way that I know how to make it simple is to go to the, to the infrastructure, go to the depth find the thing beneath at all, that creates everything. And so I find, for example, and I think I've mentioned this to you before, but I don't find myself engaging in social media. Why because those platforms don't make room to navigate nuance; if you try to navigate nuance on social media, typically, you're gonna get in trouble. Okay, so, so you just don't do this, right? So you know, I think I was able to say I was born with interest, my son who's, my son who's 15, who was born with high functioning autism. And they do say high functioning autism and autistic, and I've never been tested. Well, I mean, are and for your audience. So I have no idea. But I have worked on myself ferociously. So some of this, it is a natural craving to be like what's beneath it, because I love thinking, you know, I've always loved that part. However, the part that allowed the thinking, the layers, and the little bunny trails to tie together is that I began to accept, instead of blaming myself, that I used to lose my way constantly. And then I blamed,d and I shamed myself into the space. Whereas and now what I look at, as I say to myself, This is how I made and I enjoy this spot. And again, this is the best way that I know how in my style, to take something that the world is wondering about and unpack it in such a way and tie it together so that there's something they can do about it and the simplicity. So when you say a tip, well, if I would look and think of a tip, I would say, you know, and I'm 46 years old, so one of the tips that I have really one of the things specifically in life There's typical, you know, the first half, and then the second half. The second half doesn't need to come at 40. Typically it does at 40 or so. And that's because you have gone through a life experience that isn't just simple anymore, and you just can't solve it. You can't manage, fix or control it anymore. It just isn't gonna work. You can't help it cross the finish line you carried on your back; you can try it's not gonna work. So typically, men, and women, in the second half of life, the entry of that stage, realize they got to do something different. And so there's specific work that will have you lean into, so for me, I love father Richard Rohr. So I was raised in a very Christian home; my dad is mega, and my dad is a pastor of a mega-church. I am a believer of sorts, but I am now inclusive; I'm not exclusive. So I make room for different ways of being loved to be the ultimate thing. But I'll say this; you have you absolutely have to come to a place where what you appreciate is leaning into listening to what the other person appreciates and then going directly for that. So I don't know if that answers your question at all other than to say, this is just who I am. I've developed some things. Father Richard Rohr, for those of you who want to check it out. And what he's about is decoupler, looking at your life, and answering the call of what has once worked for me in life, and then writing that down. So listeners, if you want to do that, and then after you've written it down, you'll know which of these things that I wrote down that once worked for me, currently no longer do. And that's the shift right there. And the shift happens, where you're going to realize that much of the first half of life was built on answers. And much of the second half of life, if you want to live really well, is built on questions, and questions energize you the same way that answers energize you in the first half of life.
Ryan
Sounds like a good journaling exercise, for sure. Love it. So you've got a pretty intense morning routine, And that's with things that I didn't know were or thing. And so, and you know, my morning routine is very short. And yours is you've got multiple things you do. And I'd love for you to share with my audience, you know, what you do in the morning, to start the day off on the best foot possible; I think it's really interesting.
James
So I'll try to make it as simple as possible. And so, my morning routine involves a few things; the first step of the morning is to activate my discomfort. That's the first thing. So there are a few proponents that I do within that number one is I do an ozone treatment and an ozone treatment. And you know, I do rectally, so it's a, you know, it hits the whole system. And I have this little ozone device and put it in my bag, and then I just, you know, ignore injected oil or like, you know, through the rectum. And what it does is it brings out a slight fever response. So it basically hormesis, so your body will go into a slight fever response, and your temperature will rise slightly. And it's actually ozone that is the infrastructure to your health. ever add an adjunct to your health, that's the foundation of your health, meaning not a specific treatment, but the treatment that will make all other things more powerful. Like I take supplements, different things, all those on is the thing that will make everything you do that much more powerful. So I do ozone. And after the new ozone, I hop on my vibrating plate, and I have my red light therapy flashing behind me. Flashing charges yourselves. If the lights are static, you do more on healing. So if your muscles are starting to do that, I typically don't have sore muscles I work out, but I just do, you know, like a workout that doesn't draw so that I go through pain, I build strength differently. But anyway, so while I'm standing on the vibrating plate, the one thing that I love about it is that thing I think vibrates or moves you What is it 18 different positions at the same time? So your body is constantly being thrown off balance constantly. And so I'll balance on with one leg, and I'll do some stretches on there. And what I love about it is it wakes my body up and makes my body go okay, okay, are you awake? Are you awake? Because here's the thing, we only ever gained strength. If we're off balance, if you as humans who are listening to this show, they can vote when you're walking, which human walks on two legs at the exact same time. It doesn't happen. A kangaroo, perhaps a human not. So your strength comes when you initiate your discomfort, your strength comes when you're out of balance. So even my workout, I actually do that on that vibrating plate later on that, you know, later on in the afternoon. The third thing I do is hop into my sauna, which like the ozone, elevates my temperature core body temperature, so it's an infrared sauna. So I heat up from the inside. It's really like it's it gets about 170 degrees on the outside. So when I'm in, you know, temperatures that but it heats the cells from the inside, and I'll drink roughly eight to 10 glasses of water, and I'll sweat it I think most of it's out, so I'm in there for about an hour 10 minutes at 170 degrees and then I'll either hopping ice bath before helping us on off or after. So ice bath with ice in the tub or a shower, and so the first stage of my day is really activating my discomfort. My more The routine is actually what it involves. And so this is for all your, you know, you know, for all you listeners, whether you have an ozone device, a vibrating plate, really what I'm getting at is putting yourself first. So I do have established non-negotiable routines. However, they're not militants; rather, they're flexible people go, Well, what does that mean? It sounds like they're contradictory; you're flexible. But you've just you've established a nonnegotiable? What is that? How do you reconcile those two? Well, when I say flexible, when I wake up in the morning, I put myself first and all things meaning, sometimes I do my ozone and vibrating plate and sign in the morning, sometimes I do in the evening, I listen to what my body calls for. So I tune into my cellular frequency, basically, and listen to what my cells will have an aura ring; I have all these measuring things, but, and that was fine. And I still use them. However, I listen to the feelings of what's happening in real time. So my routine basically does this, it puts myself first. And so whether I do these activating my discomforts in the morning or some of them in the evening, what I'll say is this before I start my day, in the office, the one thing that happens when I say put myself first is I feed and flood myself with gratitude in love. So the few exercises, I have marked on what I'm grateful for, I've worked on what it is that I most appreciate, what it is that I most appreciate and love about myself, and what is it that I know I want to maybe grow through today. And then I do a little devotional, just a little reading, you know, it's a non, you know, it's a non-faith based, but it is a spiritual base, and it stretches me, I'll be honest, it stretches me to own my masculinity well, so I critically assess, you know, in relation to power, how I treat women, how I treat those that have less power, less money, whatever it ends up being. So I do these really deep things. And I really flood, the receiving part of me and the giving part of me, and the reason I do this is love is a circle. So unless you receive and give, it's not complete; it's not love. So I make sure that I'm full, I'm bathed in love so that when I begin my day, I'm not looking, Meaning I'm not actually becoming a taker in the world. But I can just be, and I can just help people be where they're at, enjoying myself where I'm at. So I don't have to answer your question, but that's the shortcut I can bring. So here you go.
Ryan
No, no, it does mean it's like, as many morning routines I've as I've heard that those are the ozone treatment and the vibrating plate. I just never, I never, I've never heard about those things. That's why I want you to talk about it. Because I like to expose my audience to a variety of different elements of a morning routine short to long to everything in between. And so I appreciate you sharing. Do you feel a difference if you don't do it? Maybe not one day, but a couple of days in a row?
James
Great question. I used to feel ashamed if I didn't do it. Because as you'll notice, in my answer earlier, I said no, I'm militant; I used to feel ashamed. So that was the emotion; of course, I had to answer the question, what is it that I want to feel? What is it that I really do feel? I'm like, do I really enjoy doing these things? I just asked myself a question. Like, actually, I really enjoy it. So here's the thing, if I didn't do it, then why would I say that? I feel ashamed that I didn't do it. If I enjoy it, it's just like, No, I just didn't do it that day. It's just there's no other reason I just didn't do it. But I'll tell you something. What do I feel when I do so if you asked me if I hop on so into your point to your listeners, ozone? For example, I could talk about any of the other ones, but I'll just speak about the ozone and the vibrating plate. The vibrating plate, oh my goodness, that son of a gun, instead of having an afternoon cup of coffee at four o'clock or two o'clock and you know, half-life a coffee stays me for six hours, whatever it ends up being, instead of doing that you hop on the vibe plate. And you vibe on there for 10 to 14 minutes. And you got energy surging through your veins; the vibe plate flushes your lip; your lip has actually no circulation pump. So unless you get on something like that, your lymph isn't moving. Your lymph isn't moving at all. So do I feel something? Absolutely. With the red lights behind me? Well, I've done an experiment just using red light therapy. Again, they use the red lights that I have, and you can find them by the way at truedark.com search for your guest's type in www.truedark.com, or you can go to other more pricey ones I found these, and you know Biohack my way, and so the inventor of the pricey company he's got this other company builds exact same products. So I just built this wall of these things. And I got the lights on, and I'll tell you something, they actually use these lights in surgical wards so if you have a wound or wound if you have an incision and before they pull it off inside of you. So let's say it's a body part, they'll put this red light shining on that area, and they'll bring healing, okay, so if I ever have, and I have Zima, sometimes I'll put it on those areas, and it just heals dramatically, my sister had tennis elbow, and there's some really wonky with your elbow, she used the red light. I'm not here to sell anything other than to say, you know, you couple, and so I utilize the vibe plate and the lights, you couple that together. And what I like to do is I like to maximize, so I have it set up where I don't have to double my time I'm standing on the biplane while in Maxim, doing that wherever I go, I want to maximize, you know, not an anxious presence and not thinking I'm going to run out of time, I used to think my old philosophy life was, I just hope I get everything done on my life. And I'll probably be one of these people that's going to slide into the grave sideways, be like, whew, well, Boy, I sure hope that I got everything done. But now I'm kind of like going, You know what I'm gonna get to whatever I do, I'm just gonna be as smart as I can, with my time or whatever happens. I think it's gonna be exactly enough time. So there you go.
Ryan
Man, this was a super fascinating conversation. James, I'm sure people are gonna want to reach out to you to learn more about what you do. If that's the case, where should we send them?
James
So firstly, I'm creating a whole bunch of audiobooks. So that's gonna be coming shortly. And so you're going to be wanting to look out for those things. I'm also going to be relaunching I have weekly wins and losses live call. So anyone can come to enjoy the call and hop on, where we explore time, and whoever wants to share, they can share a win from the week and soul loss. And then we do this work where we are all about not converting it into a positive and meaning not convert away from a negative, or convert from a positive into like something different. What we literally are about is taking whatever we have been dealt with and energizing ourselves to participate in wanting what's directly in front of us, which means we get to engage with it. So that's coming up shortly. However, for those just in a really simple way, you want to come for the rest of your life, visit www.Jamesheppner.com. So that's spelled J-A-M-E-S-H-E-P-P-N-E-R.com, or you can email me directly at coach@Jamesheppner.com. So let's see. Oh, ach@jameshealthcare.com
Ryan
Perfect. Thanks, James. Thanks for everything you shared. Appreciate it.
James
Lovely. You take care. Oh, one last thing Weekly Wins and Losses podcast. Just remember. Sorry.
Ryan
Oh, yeah, we'll link it up in the show notes. Thanks, James.
James
Okay, take care.
Announcer
Thanks for listening to the morning upgrade podcast. Please subscribe and review. And don't forget to visit us at morningupgrade.com for more content.