Transcending Religion: Amrit Singh’s Journey to Self-Discovery

Dwight Heck 00:00:00

You. Good day and welcome to Giveaheck. On today’s show, I welcome Amrit Singh. Emmett is a high momentum life coach. He uses techniques and strategies based on his extensive knowledge and experience of meditation, habit development and spirituality. He has been coaching people for over 25 years in German, Many, India, USA and Mexico. He helps clients figure out what they want most in life and what makes them happy and then guides them into creating a new and hyper successful reality for their life. I’d like to welcome you to the show. Amarit. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.

Amrit Singh 00:00:45 Thanks for having me. Awesome to be here.

Dwight Heck 00:00:48 Yes. I’m excited for this conversation. At just our pre conversation before I hit record. It’s time to wake up. Society, in regards to so many things that you stand for, in regards to what you do for people, in regards to who you are, what you project out to society. And the misnomers and the misinformation that’s out there today in the world needs to be given a helping hand and drive some of that ignorance away that we have going on. But where I like to start, Amber, is that I talk to people. And I want people that listen to understand your origin story. And I’m not talking just about your back end story, what happened to you when you became an adult. I want to know your earliest recollections from your youngest memories of your childhood, all the way to where you are to now, and you can share whatever you would like. Because I find that the more people hear somebody’s origin and vulnerability, the more they know, like and trust the person individual they’re hearing. So could you do me a favor, my friend, and share with us your origin story from your earliest recollections to where you are today?

Amrit Singh 00:02:00 Wow. Okay, so that’s a big one. But I think what really stands out for me the most is that when I was a young child, I was always extra sensitive, extra empathic. I had a hard time. I was just telling someone the other day this thing where I never like to eat meat. So my parents had this thing where they wanted to trick me into eating meat. They’ll give me, like, sausages or fish filets with the stuff on it, all the stuff which didn’t look like meat. And I would eat it because it tasted okay. But as the second something looked like meat, I was just like, I’m out. They put a fish on the table, I wouldn’t touch it, cutting my steak, and the blood was coming out. They’re like, no, it’s not blood, it’s meat juice. I’m like, this looks an awful lot like blood, and I’m not eating that. So I had this deep love for animals and just for my surrounding and for plants and for everything. And this other funny story which happened with food was that one day was a normal lunch. And we had this nice beautiful pudding, vanilla pudding on the table. And I remember this like this was today, it must have been like seven, eight, I don’t know. And my dad was like irritated because I wanted the pudding before I wanted to eat the other food. And he’s like, no, you won’t like the pudding anyway because this has sardines in it. And I’m like, okay, I’m not eating the pudding. I’m done. And so we ate our food and then afterwards my mom was serving the pudding and I was like, no, I’m good, thanks. I don’t want any of the sardine pudding. And she’s like, well, what are you talking about? He’s like, yeah, my dad just told me has sardines. It’s like, no, it doesn’t have sardines. And he goes like, no, it’s a joke. It doesn’t have sardines, you can eat it. I’m like, I’m not eating it. I did not eat that pudding. So for me, this is how strongly I was connected to this sensitivity. And then actually a couple of years later, I remember again with my dad, I can already see a pattern there where I was like upset about something, crying. I was on a trip somewhere in God knows where it was, in Alaska, in Argentina, or wherever, my dad would take these world tours, right? And so at some point when I was ten, he started taking me on them. And so I was crying and he tells me, oh, come on, don’t be such a little whatever. He said sissy or girl or whatever, like, in his mindset makes a lot of sense to say to that little boy who was crying. And I remember in that moment just being like, okay, fuck this. I’m going to toughen up today, here and now. And so I pretended to become this really this tough guy, right? And I put on this tough guy persona and so my entire preteen and teen childhood was about being the tough guy. It was always the one who could drink the most and would jump off the craziest thing and wear the black leather jacket and treat the girls shitty and be like, oh, I’m so cool, and I’m doing this and I’m doing that. All these things which I kind of, like, lined up in my James Bond persona, which I was trying to copy. Like it was kind of a mixed probably between Rambo and James Bond, right, that’s about my 15 year old self could come up with. And so I was this tough guy for a long time. And then I remember someone telling me about yoga and I think I was on the 1819 somewhere and I was like, oh, tough guys don’t go to yoga. It’s so gay to go to yoga, right? That was about the level of my consciousness, not to express it in that way. And then somehow he got our whole friend group together. So 20 other tough guys were going also. I was like, okay, I can go to yoga. The other 20 tough guys go. And then I really connected at such a deep level where I really came inwards and I really connected with myself and with my true identity. And I was like, oh shit. Hope no one saw that’s going to completely mess up my tough guy persona. And then it got so confusing because then I was practicing yoga, but I was being the tough guy. But then I was starting to feel all these sensitive things again. Then I was able to choose vegetarianism instead of eating meat and I was like, oh, I’ve been wanting to be a vegetarian since I’m five. This is perfect. Then the other thing, I always had long hair, so I kind of like that fit really well because in the yogi Singh world, we don’t cut our beard, we don’t cut our hair. I’ve always been wanting to not cut my hair. This is perfect. I’m loving this. So I really fit right into this new experience. But I needed to integrate these 1012 years of being the tough guy, which doesn’t have emotions, which never cries, which is never upset about anything, and I can just, oh, I just punch in the face like that kind of energy. And so that was really challenging. That was really, really challenging to let this fake persona grow and to let it go out of my life and be like, hey, there is something behind that. Which this eight year old, this seven year old, this six year old was already expressing and always happy and smiling and always in a good mood. And then this tough guy was always in a shit mood and always upset because life sucked as a tough guy. So that’s kind of my quick five minute summary.

Dwight Heck 00:08:00 That’s awesome. So you talked about your dad and the fact that you obviously had a sense of humor sardines in the pudding, right? And then he became the world traveler. I don’t know how old, we’re probably similar age. And I’m in my fifty s. And I know my father grew up in a specific time where he’d be that kind of guy to give you a little bit of whap on the back of the head or a kick in the butt and don’t be a wussy, don’t be a sissy, all that sort of toughen up. And your sisters can get away with this or do that, but you can’t.

Amrit Singh 00:08:44 Exactly.

Dwight Heck 00:08:45 So many of us go through that. But those listening, you can maybe relate or not relate, but it is part of the journey of growing up. You develop specific things based on the patterns of our parents. Whereas you basically broke free and it took a while. That tough guy thing, the leather jacket, which I thought the way you explained that was pretty good. But look at one thing that changed in your life. All it takes is one pivotal moment to change our path. One pivotal moment of you going with a bunch of tough guys and checking out yoga to reconnecting to your sensitivity to realizing you are that vegetarian from five years old. It’s a great way to put it, though, because how many of you listening feel still trapped in the past? You’re trapped in the past of what? Your parents, your friends, maybe a pastor or a spiritual guide or priest or somebody that’s said something to you that is opinion based, it’s not necessarily factual, and you live your life based on that without ever searching and looking around and noticing the wonders of the world and the wonders that are around you and driving your own stake in the ground and saying, this is who I am. This is my plot of life and this is the journey I’m going to go on. So kudos to you. I appreciate you sharing that. And yeah, I love that pudding with sardines. I used to hear similar things to that where people would because I wasn’t a big fan of sardines myself growing up and there was things that I didn’t like, but I always ate everything, otherwise my dad would be like, oh my gosh, you’re in trouble, boy. All right. That made me smile because then you didn’t even eat it.

Amrit Singh 00:10:50 No, I didn’t. And I tried. I didn’t.

Dwight Heck 00:10:54 Yeah, no, that’s funny. Your dad thought he was being funny, but you just showed your conviction. I was going to say stubborn, but you showed your conviction. You’re not stubborn, are you? Not at all.

Amrit Singh 00:11:08 Minor. It actually came in quite handy on my spiritual path because I was able to just say, like, I want to wake up at 05:00 in the morning and sit and meditate for 2 hours. And I could just turn that on and do that every single day and not miss a single day no matter what happened. And so that came in really handy.

Dwight Heck 00:11:31 Yeah, because again, you had your convictions. You made promises to yourself. I tell people that all the time. The number one person you have to please is the person you make promises to first, which should be yourself. And those promises you make can be something as simple as making your bed in the morning. And for you it was getting up to meditate for a couple of hours. Perfect. We don’t have to explain and justify ourselves to everybody anytime in our lives. All we got to do is to me, you just got to be a kind, compassionate you mentioned that’s one thing, actually, I wrote down here, you said you’re empathetic. I consider myself and I didn’t realize until a few years ago that I am an empath. Can never figure out why I was always up and down in my emotions because I picked up on everybody else’s stuff and I held onto it and I didn’t know how to once you understand who you are as a person, is my point. You can better live a life on purpose, not by accident. Right. Which is my mission. Yeah. So, Emirates, so many are confused with what exactly spirituality is versus organized religion. What is your take on what they are and what are the differences that you see between the difference between spirituality and religion?

Amrit Singh 00:12:54 I see huge differences, and for me, I’m in a tough situation because I look the way I look. I got the beard. I got the turban. I actually follow quite a lot of the Singh religious practices, which I see more as a lifestyle choice rather than a religious choice, because I really don’t see myself as a religious person. I don’t like doing the religious stuff. And I would even go that far and say, I don’t consider myself a Singh in the standard definition of in a religion. You’re a Christian. You’re Muslim. You’re a Singh. Whatever. I wouldn’t want to put myself in that bucket, even though I wear the beard and the turban and I read the prayers and I follow a whole lot of the lifestyle practices and the lifestyle choices. But it just feels so limiting to be in one of the buckets. And so for me, I rather see myself as a spiritual seeker with a beard and a turban, which I both love, to the point where I’m like, it doesn’t matter if I’m a Singh or not. I love having a turban on. It feels amazing. It’s a great way to have long hair. For all the people listening out there who do have long hair, they know how rough it is to have long hair. One blow of wind, you have it in your face. You drive in a convertible, it flies forward. It’s so rough. And with the turbine, it’s so convenient. And I always love my long hair, but I never knew how to put it together. So when I was younger, I just had a ponytail. But then when I first time tied a turban, I was like, oh, my God, I feel amazing. And then I sat down to meditate with my newly tied turbine, and suddenly I felt so much more in touch and in connection, and I was like, I want to wear Turbine. And then people are like, oh, you’re a Singh now. And I was like, I guess I’m a Singh. It took me 20 years to get to this point where I’m at right now, where I would honestly consider myself less of a Singh and more of a spiritual being having a human experience. And so for me, that’s where I met with a religious aspect for the spiritual thing. I think we’re all spiritual beings having this human experience, and we all experience it differently. Some people go into organized religions, and it really helps them help me for 20 years was tremendous. It really gave me structure. But with any structure, there comes a point where in order to keep growing, you need to break that structure, and you need to keep expanding. And I think there’s one of the biggest, biggest challenges of organized religions is that people get stuck in it, and they cannot expand further into their true identity in that way.

Dwight Heck 00:15:51 Yeah, the problem is you’re right. You talk about identity, organized religion, and I’m not saying that all organized religion is bad. I’m saying organized religion tries to pigeonhole us or put us into encapsulate us into what they want us to be. And we already have that. Growing up with our parents or whoever is our people we focus on that is guiding us to the journey of life. They want us to be them. They want us to mold us in their image. Right? You hear that all the time in organized religion. Live in the image of for example, I’m Christian, so live in the image of Jesus. Well, I believe in Jesus. I believe in Christianity. I’m specifically a Catholic Christian, but I treat faith, and I wrote this down when I was listening to what you were saying. I treat life itself and my faith like a buffet. There’s things I like about organized religion, just like you. I love what you had to say. There’s things I like about organized religion, but I like some of the structure of it. But I don’t like the structure where they want you to be a little automaton robot and you do everything the same way. A lot of organized religions, it’s all script. It’s all rope, or what they call rope prayer. There’s no thought process in it. So I realized that when I was a young person myself. And I’d pray. I pray every day. And the difference is now I actually listen up here, and I try to say it out loud so that my brain actually when we speak out loud, you know that yourself. You actually hear things differently. It feels differently. It settles on us differently. And I actually listen to the words, and I actually give those words what they deserve, right? They deserve my attention being present. And I find a lot of people, like, I was in church this past Sunday, and you look around, and they’re just speaking out. Here’s another prayer. Okay, so everybody saying it. Are they really connecting to it? Are they there because their parents did it and they did it? They’re doing it. Are they doing it because they truly connect? People say to me, Why do you go to church? Well, I feel for me that’s solace away from my home where I pray, for me to go pray somewhere else. There’s a community of people that are like minded there that I hang out with. Do I hang out with the thousands of people I go to my church? No, there’s a specific segment that understand my buffet mentality. You go to a buffet. You don’t eat everything. If you try something, you don’t like it, you don’t eat more of it. Well, why can’t we treat organized religion like that? Just because this organized religion is inside of walls in a box saying it’s supposed to be this way doesn’t mean I have to follow it. So I love what you had to say about that structure is good, but if you stay in that structure, you’re stuck, and you don’t find your own journey. You can still take some of that stuff along with you. It can be a passenger, but like the buffet, only the things that satiate you.

Amrit Singh 00:19:04 Yeah, no, totally. It’s like a little bit like a sapling growing, and you put, like, a wooden structure around it to protect it and to allow the tree to grow up really nice and straight. But if you do not remove that, at some point it will start choking the tree to death because the tree wants to keep expanding, and you have that metal clamp on it, which was perfect when it was just a sapling gold right. And so that’s that same thing. To be able to know when you’re strong and centered enough to expand on your own.

Dwight Heck 00:19:41 That’s awesome. I love that analogy. I’m going to steal that from you. I like that. Yeah, no, that’s perfect. So embrace. So many spend their life trying to accomplish things, and before they understand and complete what they’re trying to achieve, they just up and quit. Their success could be right around the corner, and they can’t see it, and they don’t have the right associations and structures. I see this happen in people’s search for meaning and faith as well. They don’t necessarily put the effort in and will quit and try something out and continue this for the rest of their lives. Start quit. Start quit. They never really succeed and excel at anything in life, let alone a true spiritual connection. Why is it important for one to be disciplined when they’re on a spiritual journey, when they’re trying to figure out where they fit in this world?

Amrit Singh 00:20:35 What I would say is it’s a quote from the Dalai Lama, actually. And he spoke about that when he was asked if people should leave their religions they’re coming from and start following Buddhism because they were so inspired. And he said, when you want to dig for water and you start digging a hole, and then after a week or two, you don’t find water and you go somewhere else and start digging a hole, and then you go somewhere else and start digging a hole. And after a year, you dug 25 holes, and you say, there is no water here, compared to the other guy who just kept going in the same location and kept going deeper and deeper and deeper, knowing that there is going to be the time when he’s going to hit water. He’s just going to have to keep going. And so I love that analogy because it really allows me to understand that when I connect with something in a disciplined way, where I show up digging on that dirt, which is dusty and dry and it doesn’t look anything like water, I keep going more and more and further and further. Rather than picking up and being like, oh, I saw that guy over there who dug and he found water, so maybe I should just dig for two days next to him and then be like, no water here either. So I’ll start again somewhere else, right? So for me, I found that my self discipline allowed me to go so deep with one practice I committed myself to that ultimately I don’t need something else. People often ask me this and say, okay, so I just have to do Kundalini yoga and meditation and follow the Singh lifestyle. And that’s the best I said, Definitely not. There is a million pathways. All the pathways lead to the same center point, to the point of source, to the point of being and expression, which we’re all the same. Doesn’t matter if you’re digging from Islam side or you’re a Jew and following those disciplines or you’re Christian. You just need to stick with it. And that’s where the self discipline comes in.

Dwight Heck 00:22:50 I love that. Stick with it. I’ve seen so many people jump from organized religion to organized religion because something is said or presented to them that they are offended by. And that’s like life. People will look at one bad thing and they forget about all the good that surround them, surrounding them. So that could be Christianity, Islam, Jewish, it could be whatever the case may be, people, they quit so easy when they get their feathers ruffled, right?

Amrit Singh 00:23:22 And it goes right back to your buffet example, because it’s like me getting offended that there’s meat on the buffet and saying, I’m not going to eat from this buffet because someone put a plate of meat on it. Walking away from this beautiful food which could have nourished me for weeks and months and years to come, and I could just have chosen to not touch the meat. Come on, it’s not that complicated.

Dwight Heck 00:23:48 Well, yeah, exactly. I have a couple priests that I’m really good friends with. I’ve actually gone to the Middle East with a deacon and a priest that I still associate with and communicate with. They know exactly how I think about religion with the buffet thing. I remember talking to one of them about it one time. They just sort of chuckled and said, really? That’s a cool way to think of it. They didn’t judge me because no matter who you believe in, what you believe, and if you are listening and you believe in nature and you praise trees or whatever the case may be, at the end of the day, judge not, right? Just judge not. Just figure out what you want to do. And the people you associate with in life if they do not make your heart sing and make you feel good and have the warm and fuzzies at least a majority of the time you’re around them, even if that’s in your organized religion, if it’s a consistent thing and not a you thing, then maybe you need to change. But it doesn’t mean you even need to change that same organized religion. Maybe you just need to go to a different church sometimes you can go across as you and I are talking about, you can live in one specific state or in our country province and go across the border, and it’s completely different. It’s just like, whoa. Accept the fact that life is full of challenges, character building moments, and don’t always run away from things. Learn to understand and see if that one understanding makes it so that you get it, and the rest is all still copacetic and good in your life. You don’t have to run to another faith. Like you said, just accept. And that’s what I’ve done. And I have friends ask me all the time, why don’t you leave and go do this? They believe in this and they believe in that. I said, yeah, but I don’t I have a buffet mentality. I don’t like it, so I leave it there. But I like everything else. There’s still enough, like you said, there’s still some wonderful food to feed you for days, weeks, months, years that I can stay satiated, right? So I love how you put that. Thank you so much. How do you feel, though, that spiritual discipline that we’ve talked about and thinking about that, how does it literally help a person become a better version of themselves, in your opinion?

Amrit Singh 00:26:11 By applying that spiritual discipline to yourself first. Don’t apply your discipline to trying to take care of your kids, to trying to be a good husband, to trying to be a good employee, but apply it to yourself first. And it’s a little bit what most people can relate to is brushing your teeth. We all brush our teeth in the morning, and it’s not fun to brush your teeth. It’s not fun to floss. It’s not fun to do any of those things. But the reason we do it is because we don’t want to go out in the world and stink up people. And people look at us like, okay, weird guy, right? But it’s just this small act of discipline, and the small act of commitment to yourself makes such a tremendous difference, and you do it every day. You don’t even think about it twice. And when your personal practice becomes the same thing, where you’re like, but I haven’t sat down and taken care of myself. How can I rush out into the world and start doing business and doing all these things and going shopping and dropping my kids off and doing a million things right? But how can I be with myself first? And how can I make it that important? Like I would taking a shower, brushing my teeth, or putting on clean clothes.

Dwight Heck 00:27:36 That’s fair, right? Basically, discipline in general, it’s not even just spiritual discipline. It’s just that as we talked about, even the discipline of you saying you’re going to do something, you’re getting up at 05:00 A.m., you’re going to meditate for 2 hours. One of my disciplines is having gratefulness and a gratitude exercise before I even step out of bed, I make sure I make my bed. There are certain disciplines that I follow that make me feel what’s the word I’m looking for? Stable, I guess. Make me feel more grounded. Connected. Yeah, grounded.

Amrit Singh 00:28:17 And guess what it is now, this discipline you’re practicing is a spiritual discipline because it grounds you. It connects you. It connects you with your higher centers. It realigns your chakras. So guess what you’re doing? You’re practicing spiritual discipline. People have a hard time with putting it together and saying, oh, yeah, I’m a disciplined person, but I don’t do spirituality or religion. It’s like, dude, you do it every day when you make your bed. You do it every day when you brush your teeth. You are a disciplined person connected to your identity, how you want to present in the world.

Dwight Heck 00:28:51 Yeah, I like how you put about brushing the teeth. Part of my gratefulness and gratitude is and some days I forget until I’m actually brushing my teeth. But I’ll thank God for me. People can thank the universe, whatever they want to do. Thank karma for all that that I care. I only care about how I look at it and the fact that I have fingers and those watching on YouTube, those listening, I’m wiggling my fingers. I have gratitude and gratefulness because I have arms and fingers, that I can take care of myself and be able to brush my teeth, that I have the ability to brush my teeth, that I have the products to do it with, a sink, a bathroom, where so many people in the world don’t. So I’m grateful. I have gratitude for that. And you’re right, it is a spiritual thing because it does brown me. It does recenter me every single day. And it keeps the wolves at bay. It keeps the negativity of society, and they’re boohoo woohoo the ones that are stuck on the hamster wheel of life and everything’s negative. And like we talked earlier about, people stuck following media all the time and they live their lives like that. Me, I focus on connection to me and appreciation for the fact that I have hands, feet, that I can walk, that I can still not every day, but some days I’ll be thinking I’ll just be laying there in bed before I get up. And I’ll have gratitude just for the air that I breathe. People just take things for granted, whereas I just super appreciate. It because I’ve lost so many people in my life that didn’t have the opportunity to even be where I’m at. And there’s so many people in society that I’ll never meet that never have the opportunities that I have. So I better be grateful and have gratitude, right? Especially.

Amrit Singh 00:30:41 That’s the beautiful thing about gratitude exercises. It comes back tenfold, and it uplifts you, and you walk around with a smile and with expanded energy. Why would you not do two minutes of gratitude exercises?

Dwight Heck 00:30:57 It doesn’t take long.

Amrit Singh 00:30:58 People say, 30 seconds, people say, how.

Dwight Heck 00:31:00 Long does it take? Well, some days I have worked late, and I’ve been like some people. Normally, I always wake up before my alarm goes off. I always set an alarm just to have that fail safe. But sometimes I’ll wake up and I’ll lay there, and I’m just kind of in a stupor, and then I realize, oh, it’s time for me to actually get out of bed. Oh, my goodness, I forgot to do my gratefulness gratitude, and I still have to get out of bed, so I’m doing it while I’m brushing my teeth. Nobody says where I have to do it. I define my reality, right? I define my connection to being the ultimate version of me every single day. And I’m not perfect, right? Most of us aren’t. So each day, I get another shot to start over and smooth out the edges of my template. Or maybe that day, that template was really good. I did it well. And the next day, it’s a little bit you know what I mean? It’s awareness is what I’m getting at, right. Being aware doesn’t mean that, okay, I’m aware of it. Oh, I’ll do it tomorrow. No, still do it, but now do it while brushing your teeth.

Amrit Singh 00:32:15 And it’s about developing a habit of gratitude, and the longer you practice, the more part of your life it becomes. Then even when those sucky things happen, you can get into gratitude and you say, I know five years from now, I look back and I can be grateful. Yes, I’m suffering right now. This is super rough. I don’t think this could be any way a happy memory in any way, or something positive. But I know that I’m grateful for having my hands, having that air, having my set up at home, and now I can use that like a cushioning blanket to know that I am well and I’m protected and I’m taken care of even while I’m suffering.

Dwight Heck 00:33:06 Yeah, it is good, though, as you mentioned. It’s a comforting thing to have those habits, to have things that we can, because so many people are like I talk about the hamster wheel of life. They’re caught on that hamster wheel because they don’t know anything else any different. They climb back on every single day, and they get off, and they just live a life where they’re not stimulating their mind, their body, their soul, they’re just living. They’re really the walking dead. They’re going back and forth and just waiting for that time for their ticket.

Amrit Singh 00:33:43 And they know it too. And that’s why they want to get as quickly back home, so they can grab their cold beer, turn on Netflix, and then maybe smoke a joint because it’s the only way how they can function and say, at least I had that 2 hours at night where I was kind of making my own choices. So the rest of my life it’s all on someone else’s hamster wheel, right? So at least I have my own little hamster wheel while I sit there eating my chips, watching Netflix, getting stalled.

Dwight Heck 00:34:14 Yeah, and there’s people there can be I tell people all the time that life can be full of moderation. So there’s a difference between addictions, being addicted to things and being stuck in that rut and on. Like you said, that mini hamster wheel. Now, if people want to do that once in a while, binge watch Netflix and they want to smoke a joint or do whatever, eat chips, good for you. But hopefully you’re doing it on the other side of after you’ve accomplished and worked on things that are going to better your life, that are going to move you forward. And that is just specific entertainment for you. It’s not your lifestyle. That’s where I see there’s a big problem in society today, is their lifestyle, their time that is free outside of the big hamster wheel of being controlled by others and trading their time for dollars is so controlled that they forget that the time outside of their traditional environment of work or career or business is theirs. It’s precious. Now, you can use some of that precious hours to do what you’re talking about once in a while, but hopefully it’s not a habit because all it does is ingrain you and stick you really where you’re thinking, oh, I can’t wait till the end of the work day. So like you said, I can get onto my own little hamster wheel and then I can do with those three things you talked about and hopefully it’s not controlling your life and it is entertainment part of your life. That’s what I want to tell you.

Amrit Singh 00:35:45 And it’s very easy to see the difference because if you can wait to get home to either drink your beer or smoke your joint or do whatever you want to do, then you are addicted no matter what you tell yourself that you’re not. And then it is a habit and then this habit controls you. If you can say, oh, I can go for two months and then at a party I can have a couple of glasses of wine and I enjoy it and it’s super fun. That’s something very different. And I think the big problem people have is that they throw it all in the same bucket and say, oh, it’s drinking alcohol. Or not. It’s smoking weed or not, right? It’s this if you can make that difference. And this is what I love so much about the American Indian culture. They were smoking tobacco, but they were not smoking a pack a day. They would smoke it in ritualistic settings, and they would honor the tobacco plant, which is one of the most powerful plants out there, and they would connect to it, and they would understand that it needed to be shared, and it was this powerful ritualistic thing. So am I coming along now saying, oh, yeah, tobacco is bad? No bullshit. Nothing is bad about tobacco. Nothing is bad about alcohol. Nothing is bad about marijuana. But the problem is when you use it to cover something up, which you don’t want to look at, you’re having a problem no matter what excuse you’re making up in your mind.

Dwight Heck 00:37:16 Yeah, because it’s a mask. You’re wearing a mask. And I don’t want people listening or watching, and especially my loyal listeners that have heard me talk about it. I am not perfect. I’m a working project the rest of my life till the day I take my last breath. So I’m not here to judge anybody, and neither is Amrit. We’re just sharing the fact that in life, you have so many choices to climb out of the rabbit hole to succeed. And you can do things in moderation. Just try. If you’re stuck in a lifestyle of anything that we’re talking about or things that we haven’t maybe mentioned, reach out to somebody like us and just have a discussion and a talk. That can be the baby step for you to change, to learn gratefulness exercises, to learn about meditation, to learn about yoga. You’re never alone. Only when you choose to be alone, right? There’s so much information out there in society. If you’re nervous, don’t like talking to people, it’s a great thing called Google. You can find out so many different varying opinions. You can watch videos. But end of the day, though, life is a choice. Whether or not we’re going to be stuck or not.

Amrit Singh 00:38:35 It’s a beautiful thing that it’s a choice. And I want to take it a little bit away from the alcohol and the cigarettes and the drugs, because I know a lot of people really are attached to that. And it’s a little easier to understand when you talk about sugar or caffeine. You drink 20 cups of coffee a day, and it’s the only way how you can function and operate in this world. And if you for some reason can’t have your first cup before you get out of bed and your whole day goes to shit, you have a problem. No matter what you tell yourself. If you live off candy bars and Coca Cola because that’s how you take an energy, you have a problem. And it’s okay to have a problem. There’s no judgment in there. It’s not like, oh, I’m so much better because I don’t do it. I’ve been there. I’ve been in all these places.

Dwight Heck 00:39:30 Me too.

Amrit Singh 00:39:30 And I know how it feels. And that’s why I feel also equipped to talk about it. Because if I smoke a joint in a realistic ritualistic setting where we all sit together and it’s a beautiful thing, and it’s in a connection with a meditation and some chanting, whatever, I smoke the joint. But if I just smoke a joint at ten in the morning just so I can make it through the day, somehow, I have it’s. A crutch. Exactly. And I like that even better than having a problem. Do you want to walk for the rest of your life with a crutch? Go ahead, it’s okay. We still love you the same. But if you want help with this, you want to say, like, I want to try something different. I’m realizing how it’s affecting my lungs. I’m realizing how it’s affecting my health. I don’t want to have my kids see me smoking wheat twenty four seven. Then make a change. And if you can’t do it alone because it’s too hard, get yourself an ally who stands by your side. And this can be a good friend, this can be a trusted advisor, this can be a coach, whoever it is, but get yourself the help to go to where you want to be. And if that’s the perfect version of yourself, then be happy with your crutches and keep hobbling around. That’s okay, too. No judgment.

Dwight Heck 00:40:58 Yeah, obviously there’s no judgment. Because, bottom line, we all have the right to make our own choices, and then we live within those choices. And I would never judge anybody that if they want to come home every single day and have a beer and watch Netflix and eat junk food, if that’s the reality that they’re comfortable in, the reality that they think they’re happy in, who am I to judge the fact of what their happiness is? The only person that can control Dwight’s happy is me. The only person that can control your happy is you. I’ve been in that place where I’ve been stuck in the valley of despair and wallowing in misery and using addictive personalities, and you talked about coffee and stuff. I love coffee. But I realized at one point in time in my life that I was drinking way too much of it. I was one of those couple of pots a day, and I quit coffee for absolute years. Then I remember going to my mom’s house. She stopped asking me if I wanted coffee. When I’d get there, you want a coffee? And all of a sudden she says, Would you like something to drink? She didn’t ask me for coffee. I said, well, actually, I like coffee. I thought you quit. I said, I think I’m going to have a cup, because I kind of think about it and I miss it. But I’ve had a place in my life now where it’s not going to control me. I’m going to control it. And that’s the way it is. I have a cup of coffee as people watching. My kids bought me this for Christmas present, and I drink one of these a day. After that, if I have anything else later today, I’m drinking herbal tea.

Amrit Singh 00:42:35 Yeah. There you go. And suddenly you are using it in a healthy fashion, and it’s not your crutch anymore.

Dwight Heck 00:42:42 Yeah.

Amrit Singh 00:42:43 Applies for everything.

Dwight Heck 00:42:45 100%. I love this conversation. You’re a great gentleman. You’re very good at sharing. Right. I appreciate it. And the vulnerability and the way that you explain things is really appreciated. I can imagine my listeners are quite enjoying this as well.

Amrit Singh 00:43:04 I’m enjoying it a lot, too.

Dwight Heck 00:43:05 Yeah. Thank you. Amrit, you have been studying now, I want to say this correctly. Kundalini.

Amrit Singh 00:43:11 Yes.

Dwight Heck 00:43:11 Correct yoga for over 30 years, which you have found gives you the greater ability to deeply understand and connect with your clients. What exactly is Kundalini Yoga, and does it differ different a lot from the yoga practiced in North America?

Amrit Singh 00:43:28 It does. It’s a different way to practice yoga. It’s not so much based on the physical postures with many of the other yogas, if it’s hatha ashtanga or those very traditional forms of yoga. Not so much with the new things which have developed over the last 30 years, but with those traditional practices, it’s very much about your physical body. It’s about your physical flexibility. It’s about being able to hold certain postures, developing strength. So in order to master that kind of yoga, that takes you 1520 years of dedicated practice several hours a day, which is possible, and then it becomes very spiritual at that point. It goes into when you’re suddenly able to do this physical aspect and then suddenly made the meditation easier, made your spiritual connection easier, made your spiritual discipline easier. And that’s why the yogis back in India used to practice it, because it was an excellent tool to connect deeper with your own spirituality. It’s not like that today anymore. Today yoga is about wearing your little Lululemon pants and putting on the nice makeup and going and having a cute looking but I’m not complaining.

Dwight Heck 00:44:50 Again, you do you, I’ll do me is the way I complain.

Amrit Singh 00:44:55 I don’t mind watching it either.

Dwight Heck 00:44:59 Hey. Yeah.

Amrit Singh 00:44:59 Of course we are not complaining here.

Dwight Heck 00:45:01 Right.

Amrit Singh 00:45:02 But Kundalini Yoga uses yoga practices, but very basic ones. I mean, you and I could sit down right now and practice a Kundalini yoga set because you would have the ability to do the exercises on day one. So it’s that approachable which is what I liked about it a lot, because, again, I would have not stuck with the yoga practice, which would have taken me 15 years to perfect, but this very simple approach of Kundalini Yoga worked for me. So Kundalini Yoga uses the physical techniques to open up your chakras, open up your energy pathways and prepare your physical body and your energetic bodies for deep meditation. So the Kundalini Yoga aspect is really just a tool to meditate properly, because, like probably many of the listeners and you yourself know, too, when you do not have a solid, regular meditation practice, where you meditate several hours a day to sit down and say, I’m going to meditate for 30 minutes right now is torture. Your mind will do all kinds of things and distract you, and stuff happens, and you’re like, okay, meditation is not for me, which I think is the biggest misconception people have in this world, because we as human beings or as spiritual beings having this human experience, we are meditators. We’re meditators by birth. When you ever before we were born in our mother’s womb, all we did was meditate. Then we were born. And when we’re nursing with our mothers, we were in that moment. If you ever watch a baby nurse, you see in what deep bliss and meditation that baby will go and expands that energy all the way to the mother. The mother will go into deep meditation and expands the energy to everybody in the room because it is such a powerful and profound moment of calm and meditation and deep connection. So all of us know how to meditate. So all this being explained now, we’re using the Kundalini yoga to open up those energetic channels and then going into the deep meditation. And so in Kundalini yoga, we have a lot of different meditation techniques for different purposes. Something for the heart or for the brain, or for your third eye, for your intuition, or for your stamina, or there’s even one for earthquakes. There’s all kinds of meditations our teacher has given. And so these meditations, these preparation is done through Kunalini yoga. And then you can go deep in the meditation, which, again, it’s a human ability we all have.

Dwight Heck 00:48:02 Wow, that’s a great breakdown of exactly what a person can do. Right. As you said, it’s a stepping stone or person to open up to meditate properly. And it’s something that’s approachable. It’s easy to learn on day one. And I like that. I like that it’s simplistic, but yet it has extreme value. It’s not so simplistic that it’s just like you said, somebody dressing up, putting on Lululemon, and heading to a studio to do these poses and do this and that, and there’s no real intent. It’s just vanity, really. Right? Again, the people that want to do.

Amrit Singh 00:48:47 That, we don’t mind. Yeah, but you want spiritual inaction, and you want spiritual depth. Kunalini yoga is amazing.

Dwight Heck 00:48:57 Again, I’m not against people that do yoga, because, again, I have clients. I have friends that are yoga instructors, and it’s great for them. It does awesome things for them. But again, many people do a lot of things for vanity. Even people that go to the gym, they’re not necessarily there they don’t understand.

Amrit Singh 00:49:18 Same thing.

Dwight Heck 00:49:19 The end result is they get some physical fitness and it’s good for maybe their cardiovascular, depending on what they’re doing, and good for their muscles and good for exercise. But they really aren’t there for that. They’re there for the vanity of it. Right. So connecting to that spiritual side of yoga, I think, is a great thing, and I appreciate you breaking that down. So one of the things that I wanted to get into, I have many friends over the years, we talked about this before hitting record over 30 plus years that are Singh. Right. You did mention a little bit about this, but I’d like to get a little bit more into it. Many do not understand what Singh represents, nor why they specifically wear a turban. You talked again a little bit about the turban holds up the hair, but there’s an actual reason why a Singh will wear a turban. Right. Whereas other people, I have friends that are East Indian that wear turbans, and they don’t represent themselves as Singh. So can you tell the listeners what exactly is a Singh in the sense of what is a Singh? What is a person that I guess I can’t remember the word, but not baptized or been indoctrinated? Yeah. What is the significance of the turban and what it represents in the Singh faith? And why would somebody choose to go that path to wear the turban and be recognized as a baptized Singh?

Amrit Singh 00:50:53 I think I want to answer this question in two parts. The turban is a tool being used by the Singhs, like you all brought it up. Other traditions use the turban, too. So I want to talk about the turban separately. But being a Singh means being a spiritual seeker, being someone, being a lifelong learner, living a certain lifestyle, in my opinion. Unfortunately, we turned it into a religion, which I’m not happy about because I personally feel it’s more of a lifestyle choice. For example, it says in the Holy Scriptures of the Singhs, you shall rise early in the morning and recite God’s name. Now, that’s a beautiful thing to do if I want to if I do it out of guilt and shame because someone else might guiltrap me about it, it is a horrible thing to do. So I want to rise early in the morning and meditate on God and my connection to source, no matter if I’m a Singh or not. But it’s a great thing. That’s one of the things which is in there. Another thing which the Singh scriptures talk about. The beginning of the scripture is IQ on card. There is only one Creator, and that Creator is the source of everything. That applies to being Christian, that applies to being Muslim, that applies to being Singh too. And it applies to the Hindus and the Buddhists too, even though they have it a little bit broken down in a different way. And the Jews, too. So it’s the same thing. Another thing from the Singh religion is that we don’t convert people. That’s a big one where we don’t go out and try to get others on board. Singh religion was developed out of a necessity 500 years ago in India, where in the northern part of India, in the Punjab. We talked about it earlier, where your friend Haman is from, too, in the Punjab, there came the influence from the east. I want to show it from the right side here now, because I’m going to be mirrored. And then the Hindus on the bottom in the Indian subcontinent, right? And so they came together in the Punjab and they lived together. They ended up being neighbors, they ended up being friends, they ended up hanging out, meeting each other, working together. And then they were like, but we can’t really celebrate together. We can’t pray together, our kids cannot marry. We cannot even sit on the same table and share a meal together because our priests will be upset that we’re sitting with a lowly Muslim. And that really became a problem because humans tend to want to connect. Young generations, 1617 year olds tend to want to connect. And guess who they want to connect with? Old story of Romeo and Juliet. It’s exactly the same thing. So out of that came this necessity to say, how can we live a spiritual lifestyle? How can we live a connection with God as a spiritual being without having to surrender and let go of our Muslim beliefs and of our Hindu beliefs. And out of that came the Singh tradition and say, like, hey, let’s just be a good person. Let’s make that our highest principle. Let’s live in a pure way. Let’s make that our highest principle. Let’s serve the people in need, which need help and support, rather than just thinking of myself the same as in every religion around the world, it’s always about giving back. So I make myself more prosperous, more expansive, more full, more brighter, everything so I can give back more to the world, not so I can sit in my little cave and be like, oh, I’m so happy, I’m so bright and shiny, right? No, I want to give this back to the world. And so I work on that. And so that’s kind of where the Singh tradition came from. And again, I’m really struggling with this religious thing, but in today’s world, it just makes it so much easier to say, oh, we label it a religion, and now suddenly I can wear my turbine in the airport and they can’t ask me to take it off unless they take me to a separate room because they understand that they would offend my religious beliefs. So I go for it.

Dwight Heck 00:55:24 Yeah, I get what you’re saying. We live in a world, though, that everybody wants to label. And as you mentioned, I love how you broke that down. And explained it, because listeners, again, I’ve been friends in that community for more than 30 years. One of my best friends in the world that has mentored and guided me, was born and raised in India, went from there to England, from England to Canada. And I’ve learned a lot over the years from his wife, his family. And then they don’t even live in where I live anymore. But I live in a community where I live in my little what they call a keyhole crescent or cul de sac. There are 16 houses, and twelve of these houses in the 16 houses are all East Indian, and I love them all. I knew specifically when I moved here because I accept everybody for their choices. Their buffet choices are not my right to judge. And they believe in different things and Harmon, when him and I have talked about it, because, again, he’s a young guy, he’s 25, his dad’s my age, and his dad is really connected within that, as you mentioned, that spiritual side of it, the lifestyle of it, him and his wife embrace it. I appreciate it. They know I’m Christian. They appreciate me. There’s no judgment. That’s the way life should be. You do you, I do me as long as I’m kind. And I tell people all the time, they’ll say to me, well, I can’t really connect to organized religion, or I don’t really connect to necessarily God. Or there’s people that are atheists that don’t believe in God, agnostic that say there’s no proof of God. The list goes on. Labels, labels, labels. And I’ll just say to them, have you ever heard of something called the Ten Commandments? Yeah. Take out the fact that Christians believe moses brought down from God the Ten Commandments, blah, blah, blah. Do you know anything about Ten Commandments? And I might talk to him about it, and I’ll say, you know what? There’s ten rules that really if you can follow those ten rules, you’re going to lead a pretty good life. You’re going to treat people with respect. You’re going to get what you sow. So there, that’s your stick, right? Just follow those rules. And if you don’t like one of those ten rules, that’s still your choice. That’s your buffet of life, right? People overcomplicate it and realize, like you said, you mentioned somebody saying things about how you need to do stuff when you need to get up, how you have to meditate. You can’t sit at the same table and eat with one another because the priest or whoever, your religious educators, your teachers are going to be upset. Well, guess what? I’m here to tell you that’s, okay? If other people are upset with your life choices, you’re the one that you have to go to bed at night with your choices. They don’t.

Amrit Singh 00:58:33 But that’s the beautiful thing of 2023. It’s okay. 500 years ago, you might end up beaten and chased out of your own village or hung. You made the wrong choices.

Dwight Heck 00:58:47 Right.

Amrit Singh 00:58:48 So I think we are living in this luxurious world today where we can make our choices, where I can walk out on the street with my beard and my turban and not get beaten up because I look like someone who’ve been on the news. And so that’s a beautiful world to live in.

Dwight Heck 00:59:08 And there’s still a lot of ignorance out there, though. There’ll still be people in times where you travel where you might get treated poorly.

Amrit Singh 00:59:15 Yeah, I still get it quite a bit. I’m just saying, like, when I look back to our ancestors 100 years ago, people on the fringe or who were not native from the country where they lived and who had a different skin color or something, the amount of shit they had to eat, I mean, it’s ridiculous. You think about that, that’s our grandparents and our great grandparents who were the ones, like, dishing it out left and right.

Dwight Heck 00:59:39 Absolutely. So, Amarit, if you had to give our listeners one last closing message, what would you tell them in regards to giving a heck and never giving up?

Amrit Singh 00:59:52 What I would say is honor yourself first. Honor your choices. Honor your kindness. Take responsibility for your life. Stop blaming surroundings, other people for your unhappiness. And 100% learn to take responsibility. Stand up for yourself, do what you need to do. And know that you already have all the answers inside of you. You don’t need to find the answers in some religion or some spiritual path or some friend or your significant other, but it’s all there. So you just have to learn how to listen. And that’s what I love about deep meditation. That’s all it is. All you do is listen and you’ll hear the whole universe speak to you.

Dwight Heck 01:00:47 That is so true. I look at people that pray, and there’s nothing wrong with praying, but prayer is you expecting a response, right? Whether it’s divine intervention within your thoughts or it’s just your thoughts coming out. And I love that. How you put that. You’re meditating to get an answer. You’re feeding yourself and you’re listening at the same time. It’s connecting to your core self. And on top of that, if you’re a spiritual person and you believe in God, could be God talking to you through that, right?

Amrit Singh 01:01:25 Exactly.

Dwight Heck 01:01:26 Whatever works for you is basically what it should be. So I love that. Honor yourself first. Great last message. I appreciate that. So our time is almost up and I want to respect our listeners and your time. However, before we end, can you please tell the listeners what’s the best way to reach you?

Amrit Singh 01:01:45 Probably the best and easiest way is to just find me on my website. It’s coachingnow info. I’m sure you can just put in the show notes. But the way I would recommend for our listeners here to find me is on TikTok because I’m having such. A blast on TikTok. It’s so much fun. I’ve been posting for over a year now, every single day. I built two accounts up now, and it is such a raw and authentic way to connect with people. And it’s so different from Facebook and Instagram. I still have funny because I sound like a TikTok advertisement. I’m sure they’re not, but I’m having so much fun on TikTok as an old man because it’s a lot of teenagers on there. But my kids are even making fun of me. They’re like, you’re more on TikTok than we are. It’s like yeah, but I love it. And it’s like, this is the new way to connect with the world. There is no other platform where you can connect in the same way as through TikTok.

Dwight Heck 01:02:52 Absolutely. Yeah, I hear you. I have a TikTok account as well. I don’t post to it as often as I should. At one point in time, I did. I used to do daily live videos, but after it’s going to be in May, it’ll be coming up here. It’ll be a year since I quit doing it. I had posted 837 live videos every single day. Every single day I’d hear something from somebody and I decide that’s the topic I’m going to talk about, and I just wing it. I didn’t say nothing. I might write down the thought, like, talk about this in the world, or talk about that, and that would be it. And then I just click Start live and I’d start recording. And then I’d share it to different platforms and TikTok. I’ve been bugged for a long time, so I only started doing TikTok maybe the last six months of me doing these videos. But you’re right, TikTok is a total different experience. I even find that the audience you have with Instagram versus Facebook versus Twitter, it’s all different. Not everybody thinks the same in each platform.

Amrit Singh 01:04:03 And I never got into Facebook and Instagram because it was kind of big. Ten years ago. I was living in India was not my focus at the time. But now coming back into the Western world and interacting with people just for me, what happened last week is one of my videos went viral. And that was like, such a strange experience. When you suddenly have half a million people watching a video, you post and you get 100,000 responses. It is psychically. On one hand, very exhilarating experience, but on the other hand, also like, oh, my God. Imagine stepping on a stage with 50,000 or 100,000 people and everybody goes quiet and looks at you. You’re like, oh, my God, shit is real.

Dwight Heck 01:04:59 I’ve got the cookie. That’s what I think of. I’ve got the cookie that everybody wants. When you get to that point where so many people are connecting and congratulations on going viral with that post. I went on to your social that you had represented in your profile, and I added on TikTok so I’m going.

Amrit Singh 01:05:20 To have to go watch that.

Dwight Heck 01:05:23 I’m going to go watch that one.

Amrit Singh 01:05:25 Which went viral, was actually a part of a podcast. So if you feel inspired and you want to put together a little double.

Dwight Heck 01:05:33 Video with I do do videos. Like, if you take a look at my TikTok, I post podcast stuff on there. I posted stuff yesterday.

Amrit Singh 01:05:43 Send it to me. I’ll put it on my profile and maybe get another one.

Dwight Heck 01:05:47 Yeah, I can send you whatever. Actually, my production company does a couple an autogram videogram, and now I have an online software that I purchased that actually goes through and finds it’s an AI. It finds specific things and you can create the up and down. You can create just you, or you can create side by side. If you go and look, you’ll see. I don’t know how many I posted on TikTok, but I’ve been playing around with it. So certainly I will send them off to you when this goes live. And, yeah, I appreciate your time. So thanks for being on. If you have any last closing messages.

Amrit Singh 01:06:26 No, thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun. Let’s do it again someday.

Dwight Heck 01:06:31 Yes, I appreciate that. So thanks so much for being on Giveaheck Amrit. I appreciate your time and sharing some of your experiences so that others too, can learn. It is never too late to give a heck.