GTR: Green Living, Podcasting, and Martial Arts with Meredith Medland

Transcript

Sean Daily: Hey everybody! GreenTalk today is sponsored by Audible,
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being an Audible listener. Check it out!  Sean Daily: Hi and welcome to
GreenTalk, a podcast series from greenlivingideas.com. GreenTalk helps
listeners in their efforts to lead more eco-friendly lifestyles through
interviews with top vendors, authors, and experts from around the
world. We discuss the critical issues facing the global environment
today as well as the technologies, products, and practices that you can
employ to go "greener" in every area of your life.  Sean Daily: Hey
everybody! Thanks as always for listening in to GreenTalkRadio from
greenlivingideas.com. This is Sean Daly and I’m very excited about
today’s show because it’s, ah, special in several different ways. One
is that it’s episode number one hundred, so yay for that! That’s a big
milestone for us on the show… very excited about that. And it’s just
a number, but you know, numbers have meaning to us as human beings. But
I’m also excited, more so because I have a very special guest today,
Meredith Medland, who is another independent media journalist like
myself, working in the green and sustainable living space. She’s also a
podcaster and a blogger. So, without further ado, I want to welcome
you, Meredith, to the show today.  

Meredith Medland: Thank you so much for having me! I’m glad we’re living green! 

Sean Daily: Yeah definitely and I’m glad. I was recently a guest on
your show, which is the Living Green Show, which is on the Personal
Life Media Network and you were very kind enough, you were kind enough
to introduce me to those folks and what they’re doing and, ah, I was
familiar with your show because it’s a very popular show on iTunes, one
of the premier, really "green" shows of any kind that is out there, on
the internet or otherwise. And so, you know, you’ve definitely been an
inspiration to me as a journalist with your show. And I really love
your format. One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about listening to
your show is that you interview, on your show, eco-printers,
eco-entrepreneurs, even celebrities. But, what I really appreciated
about it is the fact that you get to know the people behind the
business, not just about, sort of the facts and the, you know, which
are important of course, what’s going on with the business, but also
the person, sort of what their personal motivations are, their
connections to green living and things like that. So, I thought in
honor of having you on the show today, I’d turn the tables a little bit
and adjust the format to really get to know Meredith Medland. Now, if
you don’t mind that… 

Meredith Medland: Oh! Thank you so much! I don’t mind at all! 

Sean Daily: Yes, an homage, as it were, to your format. Well, why
don’t we just start with, why don’t we start with podcasting. When did
you first start getting into podcasting? 

Meredith Medland: I started getting into podcasting when I was
working for Ad-Tech, and you can learn more about Ad Tech at
ad-tech.com. And Ad-Tech is the largest digital marketing conference in
the world. They have conferences all over. And I was their director of
marketing and one of my, the chair of Ad-Tech at the time was Susan
Braghton, and she was doing a podcast on industry with industry
speakers. And I was able to do podcasting in association with Webmaster
Radio on the floor at Ad-Tech events. That’s how it all started.  Sean
Daily: Yeah then. That’s a great show, a lot of smart people there in
the advertising and marketing space and definitely is a show that’s had
a lot of "green" influence lately, too, as we’re seeing across the
various industries. Yeah. So, I’m also curious. I know that you’ve had
quite a character arc, as it were, in your life and in some ways I know
that you and I have had similar character arcs. They’ve been similar in
certain ways in terms of podcasting and martial arts, which I hope
we’ll talk a little bit about later on.   Definitely talk about our
other love. So, Meredith. I know from our previous discussion that
you’ve studied meditation in Bhutan, after having spent, like myself, a
number of years in the internet industry. Can you tell me how that
impact you? 

Meredith Medland: Oh sure! So, I started out in television and radio
in my early twenties and in college. I have classic degree in
advertising. And went into the internet industry, selling online
advertising banners. Then, moved to the industry in a few different
positions, heading up the internet division for The Sharper Image, and
then as a director and analyst for Jupiter Research in their consulting
arm. And it was, I had the wonderful experience of being with Jupiter
before they went public. And so I was able to take some of that money,
a few years later, and do some exciting things. And so, the one of the
first trips that I took was to Bhutan, which is the um, their Gross
National Product is happiness and they are a kingdom. And they are
fully, a full Buddhist kingdom, which is unusual because the Chinese
have gone into other countries. And I was able to study with one of the
top scholars of Tibetan Buddhism and go into some of the temples and
look at the old Sanskrit scrolls and see a festival that happens once
every hundred years that attracted lots of National Geographic
photographers. But on top of all of that, I got a very, very deep
education in the framework around Tibetan Buddhism as well as the
education and the experience of what meditation can do to clear my mind
and my soul and just make me feel more connected to my spirit.  Sean
Daily: And so after that, which sounds like a very profound experience
that you had. When you came back, to sort of go back into the work
world, what were your thoughts at that time? How did that change
things? 

Meredith Medland: Well, I came back and actually about a week and a
half after I returned, I had scheduled a workshop to go to and it was
called the Landmark Forum. It was with a company called Landmark
Education. And you can learn more about them at landmarkeducation.com.
And so I’d had this dream since I was fifteen of being a motivational
speaker. And I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to be speaking
about, but I figured I could figure that out in California. And so I
had… 

Sean Daily: It’s a good place to go and find yourself. 

Meredith Medland: Exactly! And when The Sharper Image offered me
that job in San Francisco, it had a press component and I studied
graduate coursework at Northwestern University in PR and Crisis
Management as a spokesperson. so I’m actually a trained spokesperson,
once a member of the National Speakers Association. And this all was
happening in my early and mid twenties. Probably a little too soon,
actually. And so I didn’t really have the years of experience or the
content. And so I had contacted Landmark Education ’cause someone had
heard about, or someone had told me about them, and I knew they did
some sort of motivational/personal growth work, although I didn’t know
what it was exactly. So I was going there to check out the event and be
their next leader. Well, that, it turned out to be phenomenal education
and that turned into probably about six or seven years of personal
growth development. Maybe seventy or more workshops in all varieties of
different things. I spent most of my IPO money on that development and
was really able to go on an extraordinary journey, which included
highlights of being certified by the National Academy of Sports
Medicine as a personal trainer. And being certified as a massage
therapist, taking transformational body work and shamanic healing
work. 

Sean Daily: You’re a true Renaissance woman, I have to tell you. I
like to think of myself as a Renaissance man, but I think you best me
in many, many areas there. Next you’re going to tell me about your time
in the conservatory with music, I think and I’d really be blown away!
But please, continue. 

Meredith Medland: My friend, Joel, is teaching me some stuff on the
guitar right now and I’m looking forward to play around the campfire.

Sean Daily: I figured that had to be in there somewhere. Please continue, I’m sorry. 

Meredith Medland: Oh no! Not at all! So, the point of the story is
essentially, all these tools came together and I started doing a lot of
coaching and facilitation and personal training and I taught yoga. So I
really went into a journey of my body. And it was really being, it was
really coming from my own internal experience and desire to have a
really physical body experience. And then I had a very significant
shoulder injury, which enabled me to look at other opportunities. Like
a computer and sitting at a desk. Because all of a sudden, I couldn’t
pull the leg up on a body on a massage table or wasn’t able to teach
yoga anymore. So the beauty is, what happened then, is I started going
back to work. And that’s when I started as the director of marketing at
Ad-Tech. And it was there that I formed the accountability consultancy
that founded called "3 Outcomes" which integrates a lot of the
components of things that I’ve learned. So that’s what got me here. 

Sean Daily: Great. Well good! I want to talk more about that and a
few other things. We’re going to take a quick break to go to our
commercial sponsor and we’ll be right back with Meredith Medland, who
is a podcast and blogger and the host of the "Living Green" show and
the founder of 3outcomes.com. And we’ll be right back. 

Sean Daily: Alright! We’re back with Meredith Medland, who is a
podcaster and blogger and the host of the "Living Green" show. And
Meredith, when we last left off, we were talking about the 3
outcomes… Actually I had a question before. I want to hear about 3
Outcomes, but I also had a question about your Living Green show, the
"green" podcast that you do on the Personal Life Media Network. And
just, I want to mention too, for anybody that’s listening in, that the
url for that show, you can find it at livinggreenshow.com. Is that
correct, Meredith? 

Meredith Medland: That’s correct. You can go right there and if
you’d like to see all the other great shows on the Personal Life Media
Network, you can go to personallifemedia.com. 

Sean Daily: And I have to, full disclosure, that, in through your
good graces and Susan and Tim Braghton, who run the show over there,
run that network. We actually are moving. I’m happy to announce, this
is another special announcement, beyond having you on and episode
number one hundred that we are officially moving over to the Personal
Life Network with this show. With GreenTalkRadio. So, thank you for the
introduction over there and we’re looking forward to joining the
network. 

Meredith Medland: My pleasure! You’ll be… this is great for all
the listeners ’cause as a listener, you’ll continue to get really,
really high quality from Sean and also you’ll be able to get
advertisers and messages that are really giving you offers and
opportunities that are unlike what you might find in traditional media
because they directly meet your needs. 

Sean Daily: Yeah they’re contextually relevant, as they say. So I’m
curious about, speaking of the Living Green Show. Tell me what you’ve
learned about, sort of, press interviews and intimacy with guests in
the process of launching and running and hosting that show. 

Meredith Medland: The most significant experience I’ve had with
Living Green Effortless Ecology for Everyday People, as that’s the full
title, is the sense of effortlessness. And there was an interview I was
doing with Suzanne Sterling. I believe it was episode number eight and
she is a musician and she was also a longtime friend of mine, more of a
peer, and I’ve taken singing lessons with her before and she’s also a
ritualist. and I was going into the interview and we were doing it in
person and I knew what I really wanted to ask her was how do you call
in the four corners, North, South, East, and West, in a ritual? Why do
you do that and what’s so miraculous about that? And I’d known that was
a basis in a lot of spiritual traditions and in a lot of shamanic work
and reclaiming or other organizations… 

Sean Daily: And things like Feng-Shui as well, isn’t that correct? 

Meredith Medland: Yeah exactly! But I knew about it loosely, but the
most important thing that I’ve learned through podcasting is to ask the
question that is on my mind. To trust myself so deeply that I could
look her right in the eyes and have that intimacy and be so vulnerable.
Because what was really happening in my mind, prior to this moment, was
I really should know this. I’ve probably read it a number of times.
I’ve got Star Hawk’s books. I, you know, like it’s very basic material
that I feel like I should know by now. And, in that moment, I realized
that, number one, it was my energy as well as hers being expended for
the show. Number two, at that point, I wasn’t being paid. This was all
my own resources. And number three, the only way that people were
having a good time if they were listening is if I was having a good
time ’cause I was directing, essentially, the show. 

Sean Daily: Yeah. No. That’s so true I’ve had very similar lessons
myself as the, you know. I think it’s similar when you’re selling a
product or a service, you have to be the, you have to be the customer.
Because if they’re not, or the listener in this case. Because if
they’re not getting it, whether it’s a product or service, or you’re
not getting it, why would they? And so if you’re not having a good time
with it, why would they? It extends into that as well. So, yeah, no,
that makes a lot of sense to me. So, well, please continue. 

Meredith Medland: So you learn how to have a good time. 

Sean Daily: Yeah, well, you know you can’t fool people. If you’re
not interested, truly interested in the topic, I think that unless
you’re an Anthony Hopkins-level actor, it’s going to be really hard to
mask that, energetically speaking. You can kinda walk through it but…
So I think it’s important to choose, you know, good guests and topics
that you’re interested in. You know, something that you just said, too,
is important, too, and I think it ties in to being in the moment is
that we, it’s easy to sort of script things to be safe and secure and
ground yourself. And that’s why it’s always good to have sort of your
idea of where you’re going and set the intentions, but I think that you
miss the magic of the moment if you don’t stay present in listening to
somebody whether it’s a conversation or a radio interview or whatever
it might be.  Is that that’s where the magic can happen and I think a
lot of magic happens in the detours, not necessarily what you thought
you were going to talk about or hear from a guest. 

Meredith Medland:  When we’re really present with each other, magic does happen. 

Sean Daily:  And that’s a lot right there.  I’ll tell ya, that’s a life lesson in itself. 

Meredith Medland:  Well, that’s what happened in that interview
because then I ask Suzanne about what she would do to call in the four
directions and then just decided, you know, I just got over the bump of
like, ok, I’m going to ask her.  And then, she ends up, in the episode,
actually doing about a three minute meditation to center every listener
on the earth.  And it was absolutely phenomenal.  It’s episode number
six.  And I still listen to it because it’s literally evoking the
elements of our world and demonstrating it. 

Sean Daily:  That’s really cool. 

Meredith Medland:  And if you look at Tibetan Buddhist philosophy
and other spiritual philosophies, many people believe that we’re
actually transmitting data to one another and transmitting experiences
to one another.  And so, the show offered listeners a direct
transmission of some of what I believe are the most deepest connections
to the spirit and to the energy that holds the interconnectedness of us
all together. 

Sean Daily:  Well, what I think is cool about that, too, is that
encapsulating Eastern thought processes in a sort of a Western thought
or media capsule content.  Because I’m into things like steampunk.  You
know, of taking old things and, you know, of modernizing them and sort
of reaching that balance.  So to me, that’s a very steam punk cool. 
And if you don’t know what a steampunk is, you’ll have to go onto a,
listeners listening, you’ll have to go onto a Wiki or Google
"steampunk".  It’s kinda interesting.  But, yeah, no, I think that
that’s very cool and it’s very unusual content and unusual in a good
way.  Because I think that so much of what’s out there is very similar
regurgitations of the same information over and over again, so
that’s… 

Meredith Medland:  Well, and it’s actually becoming more and more
common.  In another one of the episodes I did, number twenty-one which
was "Wiggley Wigglers:  The Digital Farmer and the Spiritual Practice
of Urban Composting", something very similar happened.  And the
interview was with this woman, Heather Gurienge.  And basically, they
have a real working farm with about eighteen people, some family, some
outside workers, and they use the web to digitize a podcast with her
son.  And they have a calf being born and they record it on the
podcast.  And they also discuss "how tos".  She told me all about
Bokashi Buckets.  Do you know what those are? 

Sean Daily:  I don’t. 

Meredith Medland:  Oh! Ok, so you definitely, I think you and your
listeners would want to know this.  Ok, they’re called Bokashi
Buckets.  It’s B-O-K-A-S-H-I.  Bokashi bucket.  And it’s literally, you
can get it for fifty dollars online, and there’s actually a link on
that episode page, on livinggreenshow.com.  You can get it online. 
It’s a plastic bucket and it’s used for composting. Particularly in
urban apartments or areas, it works great.  I have one in Santa
Barbara.  And the Bokashi is a whole bunch of different materials
together. And you get it in a bag and you put it like you would compost
ingredients, on the bottom of the pail.  And then there’s a flat bed
with holes in it and you put your beautiful, you know, red pepper tops
or the inside seeds and whatever peels you have.  Or a tangerine peels
or an apple core and then you sprinkle more Bokashi on.  And it creates
compost within this plastic bin.  And it’s really little.  It’s maybe a
foot by three feet on the top.  And it’s this incredible thing that
Heather Geringe turned me on to and it makes my life a lot easier.  And
I just love telling people about it ’cause it makes composting so
simple.  Sean Daily:  And it’s great, too.  I love that because it also
facilitates… I had not heard of this.  And if facilitates composting,
as you said, in an urban environment.  Whereas most people think and
we’re very fortunate to be able have the compost bin outside in the
backyard and all that.  But I like the ability to be able to extend
that into an urban environment as well. 

Meredith Medland:  Yeah and there’s this spicket at the bottom, and
that’s how you clear out all the water and all the ingredients, the
liquid.  And you can use that liquid to clean your bathroom tub. 

Sean Daily:  Oh very cool! 

Meredith Medland:  It’s like a, it’s a natural cleaner 

Sean Daily:  Wow! 

Meredith Medland:  It’s totally amazing.  It doesn’t smell.  It’s not gross.  It’s all good, so… 

Sean Daily:  I love finding out about things like that, so thank you for sharing that. 

Meredith Medland:  My pleasure.  Thank you. 

Sean Daily:  Well, so, I’m also curious.  I want to talk a little
bit about… Actually, we’re going to take a quick break here.  This is
a good spot to take a pause and we’ll be back with Meredith Medland,
the host of the Living Green Show.  We’ll be right back.  Sean Daily: 
Ok, we’re back with Meredith Medland.  We’re talking about Meredith and
her show, the Living Green Show and also want to talk a little bit
about, Meredith, about your business, 3 Outcomes.  I was interested, I
was intrigued, actually, when I first listened to your show and I went
to the bio and ended up on your 3 Outcomes page.  I know that, um, or I
think that that’s your consulting business.  But what I was fascinated
by was your process that I read about, which was… ‘Cause I really
believe in setting intention that, you know, that a lot more
productivity comes from life, regardless of what you’re doing, whether
it’s personal work or work-work or whatever it is, by setting your
intentions in advance and by sort of future thinking things and that
manifestation through thought and clarity.  And so I noticed that is
what seemed to be a lot of what you were talking about with 3
Outcomes.  Can you tell us about that, specifically?  That business and
it’s genesis? 

Meredith Medland:  Yes!  So 3 Outcomes is a system that allows
accountability, intention, visualization, and collaborative teamwork to
happen within a group of people.  I’ll just tell you what I’m up to in
a few days, ’cause it’s an exciting way to explain 3 Outcomes.  I will
be MCing the first annual, or the first birthday celebration of a
company called Wholo Genesis, which was founded by Brooks Cole, who’s
also the founder of Wholo Cosmos.  And you can learn more about Wholo
Cosmos at wholocosmos.com.  And he actually happens to be the designer
of the Personal Life Media website, just as an aside.  And what I’m
doing in preparation for that is working with each of the team members,
of which there are about twelve for this event, as well as the
different financial investors, to specifically create outcomes.  I scan
the system… go ahead. 

Sean Daily:  Oh no.  I was just going to say, so, and these are the specific outcomes that they’re for, to… 

Meredith Medland:  Exactly.  And so, in this particular event, the
outcomes are being written for what’s going to be happening at their
investor party.  And we’ll get together at three o’clock and then we’ll
get together again at nine o’clock.  So at three o’clock, we state our
outcomes, all together in a group.  The event happens, and those
outcomes are working in the background and pulling those experiences
towards us.  And then at nine o’clock, we’ll all voice our 3 Outcomes
again, and hopefully, we’ll be celebrating.  Because the outcomes have
been written and communicated using the smart formula, which you and
your listeners may be familar with.  Have you heard of that? 

Sean Daily:  I have, yes. 

Meredith Medland:  Ok, so this is about making specific and
measurable, realistic goals that are time-based.  And so what I’ve
found is that this mixture of new age intention visualization that I
got exposed to in my body-work-Shamanic days, as well as a true desire
to have teams collaborate and know what they’re doing and why they’re
doing it.  Along with as desire to celebrate, a desire for teams to
have goals and have a vision that they’re all living into.  3 Outcomes
came together and it’s… The system has been used by Adzilla, which is
one of the first ISP-based ad networks, at Ad-Tech this year.  They
used it.  At Urth TV, which is U-R-T-H dot T-V, has used it.  And many
other companies, the Omega Institute, who you may also know.  And it’s
just, it’s really exciting to see what happens when people take the
time to put intentionality into an event, a sales conference, a trade
show.  And when there’s three outcomes that are the key outcomes for
the group, supported by three individual outcomes by each member of the
group, there’s an alignment that I’ve never experienced before in all
of my corporate work. 

Sean Daily:  Well, you know, it makes so much sense to me because,
regardless if I think how somebody sort of slices that and analyzes it
and comes up with, you know, how it works, whether you’re coming from
more of a scientific background or, you know, a more sort of left brain
versus right brain sort of approach to it.  It makes sense on all
levels.  Because, you know, even if you just look at the logistics of
your day, if you’re not clear about what you want to get done, you’ll
find yourself, I think most people find themselves sort of drifting off
into, to tangents and really coming back and saying "I really didn’t
get done what I wanted to get done."  Whereas, if you create clarity,
you know, it galvanizes the mind and focuses your energy and your
productivity, whether it’s in an individual or in a group session,
setting, as you’re talking about.  So it just makes sense to me, I
think, that it’s something, that, ah… I know that, anecdotally, it’s
worked really well in my own life, so, yeah.  I think that’s great.  So
this is basically a … do you have a … is there a patent involved in
the process or anything like that, that you developed? 

Meredith Medland:  There’s not a patent at this standpoint, but I
do, I do feel like I’m willing for anybody to, to do it, and it takes
the people that are trained facilitators, of which there are several in
the 3 Outcomes system, to do it at this point.  And you know, and
that’s something that may be down the road. 

Sean Daily:  Yeah.  Well, good.  We wish you luck with that and I’d
be remiss in not mentioning the website, too, which is 3outcomes.com. 
It’s the number three, then the word outcomes, dot com.  We’re going to
take a quick break to go to our commercial sponsor and then we’ll be
right back with Meredith Medland… And you know Meredith, with the
time we have left today, which is just about, I think we have just
under ten minutes and I really wanted to talk to you about something
that you and I share in common, which is a love of martial arts, and
sort of, as you put it really well, the inner ecology that’s going on,
which I think is very important.  Can you tell us about how you support
your own inner ecology within the martial arts world and in general? 

Meredeth Medland:  I would love to!  So, one of the most important
things in my whole life is the, well THE most important thing in my
whole life is the experience I have in my body.  And depending on how
the experience is going in my body, it definitely shifts and changes my
emotional state.  So eating really solid and good food, wholesome food,
and having a regular fitness practice, as well as getting outside in
nature, are the fundamental tools that build a foundation of what it
means to me to be living green. 

Sean Daily:  Yeah, well put.  And I have to just say, ditto.  I mean
I don’t know what else except ditto.  I’ve had such a similar
experience and I’m really curious because I… My own personal
experience has been that, you know, by eating good foods and all these
things, other than what we expect in terms of health return, it also,
sort of, unblocks the signals.  Whereas things like sugar, and the
various toxins that you can put in your body seem to sort of block the
signals and emotional, physical, and otherwise, and sort of bend and
skew us and the physical exercise if very grounding.  I don’t know
about you, what you do.  I know that we both practice martial arts.  I
know that your a Hapkedo practitioner.  I happen to practice Kung Fu. 
Doesn’t really matter.  It’s all sort of, you know, forms of the same
thing and, in many cases, stemmed from the same original arts.  But you
know, if I can do something, even like a trail run, what happens is I
go from the cluttered mind, the monkey mind as they call it, I think in
Yoga and in other disciplines, to this total clarity and, all of a
sudden, I organize.  I sort things out.  I feel grounded.  Endorphins
definitely happen, and that’s part of it, but, you know, it’s also just
this complete peace that comes over me that lends itself to the rest of
my day or even my week.  And I hear you saying, you know, some sort of
similar things, that, that kind of profound effect.  So it’s good to
know that I’m not alone there.  So, tell me about, specifically, about
your experience with the martial arts, Hapkedo, how that came into your
life, and how that’s affected your life. 

Meredith Medland:  The… It came into my life by a surprise.  It
wasn’t expected.  A friend of mine had a job in Santa Barbara and I was
living in Marin at the time.  Or actually, living in San Francisco at
the time.  And the founders of a company called Intro Network, which is
a social media network, are both black belts, Kimberly and Mark.  And
they were working out at this dojo and my friend Ted was there and
started doing Hapkedo and I came to visit him in Santa Barbra.  And I
came into the dojo to watch his belt promotion.  And let me just say
that martial arts was not something that was really in my frame of
reference.  I was thinking maybe comparer or salsa or… I don’t have
like a lifelong pull towards martial arts.  I had no idea what I was
going to see when I got there.  But what I did know is that Ted had
sent me an email.  And it had caught my attention and he started out by
saying "Things are starting to change with me.  As I go into the dojo,
I look above me, and I see hanging black signs on the wall.  The words
on those signs are:  Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, and Indomitable
Spirit.  And above those signs, there’s one sentence and it says ‘we
are a black belt school.’"  When I saw those words in that email, I
knew there was something that I needed to explore.  So I got on a
plane, came down and saw his belt promotion.  And as I watched the
adults and the children and people of all different body types, all
different ages, all different levels of charisma and smiles.  I saw
that there was, there was an energy in the room.  I actually remember
where it was.  There were some chairs and there were, there was an
audience. And there were kids.  And they were dressed up in these gees,
these martial arts uniforms.  And the interaction that was present in
the family units at that belt promotion were unlike anything that I had
ever seen in families at musicals, or at soccer games or basketball
games.  This practice of Hapkedo and many other martial arts forms,
enables families to come together and do a spiritual practice, a
physical practice, and to have a development, a personal development of
confidence.  And in addition to that what’s beautiful about my
particular dojo and the hapkedo that I study is that the master of the
school, his name is Master Dave Wheaton.  And he and his wife run the
school.  And I’m able to essentially surrender because I know that he’s
able to teach me something that I don’t know.  I don’t know what my
next belt level will look like.  I’m two-thirds through my practice
before I receive a black belt.  And the level of attention and presence
that he calls out in me when he says "Attention!"  And also the warmth
and the care and the love that I experience when he’s teaching me, or
when other classmates are teaching me.  Or now I’m in the top of level
two, so this has definitely been a new experience of doing much more
teaching in the school that I’m used to and helping my fellow
students.  The camaraderie and the community, the community that is
nestled around inner strength is something that only I’ve seen martial
arts give people access to. 

Sean Daily:  Yeah absolutely.  I’ve had, you know, pretty much a
mirror experience with yours.  The study of martial arts, particularly
when you’re fortunate enough to have a good teacher is, can be a very
transformative experience.  Physically as well as spiritually,
emotionally.  I mean really, every way.  It’s really holistic.  And in
ways that are really difficult to understand or explain to people that
haven’t studied.  But you know, you put it very eloquently, except
maybe to tell people if they’re out there and they’ve considered it,
that there are so many different art forms that are available.  You’ve
mentioned a few.  We’ve mentioned a few.  The ones we study, which are
more external styles.  And there are so many internal styles out there,
like Zingy and you know, it’s not about punching and kicking
necessarily.  Although it all should have its roots in martial
application if it’s a true martial art.  But there are so many
different… you mentioned caperer.  Which is based on a Brazilian…
the slaves would hide their martial art in their dance and so it has a
very flowy, like dance moves.  But it looks like dance from the outside
but it actually has martial application embedded in it so they could
practice their martial art and not raise the hackles of the slave
owners as it were, and so… There just is so many wonderful arts out
there.  It’s really a cultural library.  A living cultural library. 

Meredith Medland:  Well one of the things that’s most interesting to
me about that example that relates to the subject of green, is there’s,
there’s a lot, I hesitate to say this, but I’ll call it out.  There’s a
lot of fear right now.  Going around in communities that I’m involved
in.  And a lot of concern about the nature of the planet and where
things are headed, and, depending on which view you take, there’s
obviously a lot of different opinions.  And what I notice about that is
that there’s an opportunity for me to but into fear, around what my
life will look like in the future, I’m thirty five.  And what that will
look like for my children, and where will I live and would I want to
live in a community.  And there are conspiracy theories and there’s,
you know, all sorts of different information that we get access to now,
particularly with the internet.  And there’s two things that martial
arts has done for me that allow me to have more peace and serenity in
my life, particularly as it relates to the global economy and the green
movement.  The first is, I’ve participated in a self defense course and
self defense is part of my hapkedo training.  You can also find out
more about self defense courses at modelmugging.com.  I don’t have any
experience with them, but I do know that url.  Or you can learn more
about what I’m up to at kickboxers.com and I’m sure my studio would
refer you to studios around the world, of which there are many, that my
master has started.  So participating in a self defense course allowed
me to interact with another human being who was padded in a very thick
suit, and see what would happen when I engaged in feeling fears that
I’ve had either as a child or throughout my life or, whatever it is. 
Feeling the feeling of fear and persevering.   

Sean Daily:  Yeah.  That’s… I knew what you were talking about.  I
have a good friend here in town who does that class with a guy who
comes in, wears that suit, and does a women’s self defense class.  And
I was privy, I was very fortunate enough to watch a class like that. 
And what the process that facing those very primal fears, which may
even be triggering back, you know, actual events in a person’s life and
working through that. And it’s just… Talk about transformative, I
mean, it’s amazing you know.  I’ve watched… And this particularly,
this is not certainly relegated solely to women, but, you know, I think
there’s just because the physical intimidation between the disparity,
typically between the strength of a man and woman and the control and
fear that can come up around that.  It’s an enormous thing for women to
be able to overcome that and gain that confidence and, quite frankly,
be able to open up a can of whoop tail on a guy, you know, without fear
of hurting them.  To find that, to find that space in themselves, where
they feel like they can protect themselves.  They feel like they could
tap into that energy and just to sort of remove the barriers and be
able to tap into that at a very primal level because we do have an
animal self and that animal self is called upon in a situation where
you’re in fear or you’re being threatened or your life is being
threatened or whathaveyou.  So, yeah, that’s great. 

Meredith Medland:  And often, we’re most afraid of how powerful we truly are. 

Sean Daily:  I agree with you on that.  I think that people are
afraid to let those walls down.  We stay very controlled.  Very well
put.  I think that that’s something you tap into.  And one thing I’ve
found in the study of martial arts is that as you go along, it’s hard
to explain, but what happens is the more power, control, strength,
technique that you have, the less you would ever want to use it.  It
doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t use it, if you needed to, but you don’t
feel like the offender, the aggressor, but rather what you feel is an
inner sense of peace and control that "ok, I can handle myself" and you
become of less of a mind about the worry and the fear energy, which is
what I think you were saying earlier. 

Meredith Medland:  And there’s also an added benefit that I’d like
to share before we go, with your female listeners, which it is also
incredibly sexy.  And that’s something that we may not, you may not see
that when you’re watching Bruce Lee movies or learning about martial
arts or hapkeo or the other things, but I’ve got to tell you.  You
know, I’ve done my share of pole dancing and Burning Man events and
lots of fun and crazy dance parties, but the ability for me to use and
contain and appropriately present my sensual energy because I know my
boundaries and I know my capacity and I have an increased and
heightened sense of awareness, both where there’s pleasure and where
there’s danger.  I am able to be a full, full version of myself,
knowing that the training that I’ve put in over the years will
ultimately keep me from having those fears that I once had. 

Sean Daily:  Yeah.  Definitely, definitely holistic.  Well that’s
yet another check in the benefit column so, I appreciate you sharing
that.  Well, Meredith, it has been a pleasure.  We’re out of time
today, unfortunately.  I can talk to you for a long time.  I always
enjoy talking to you, on or off mic.  So, I just want to sign off today
by saying thank you again for being on the program with us.  Meredith
Medland has been our guest.  She’s the host of the Living Green Show at
the livinggreenshow.com.  She’s also the founder of 3 Outcomes, the
number 3 outcomes dot com.