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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for personal values when dealing with each other and even within ourselves.

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Where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries and finding belonging.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are your people.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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I can understand how you got to where you are, what you believe in, and that's perfectly fine.

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We can have a debate about things.

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I think that is really important, no matter where you are.

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Debating is always better than just trying to project your own biases onto anything.

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Alrighty folks, welcome back to Transacting Value, where we're talking about instigating self-worth, educating, empowering, encouraging everybody to better understand that we can validate ourselves, we have self-worth, we can rely on ourselves, we have something to offer, namely as unique a perspective as possible.

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In some cases, those perspectives that uniqueness, becomes the topics of legend and folklore.

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In this particular conversation, I'm talking with Jamie Ryder.

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He's a copywriter out of the UK.

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He actually has his own company.

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We're going to talk all about those things and how those influences culminated in his book Japanese Fighting Heroes.

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I was background, I was perspective.

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Directly is influencing UK culture.

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Now we're directly applied to the US as well.

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Good Thanks for having me on today, really interested to see what kind of conversations we're getting into from that angle of self-worth and just overcoming adversity in various contexts, because there is a lot of things going on in the world at the moment.

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I think if we all can define our paths in a way that makes sense to us from any mental health routine, that's just so important in today's world.

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Yeah, definitely.

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The majority of my audience is obviously based here in the US, just for context and some sort of relatability, especially since most of them are, frankly, none of them.

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But you and I can see each other.

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Let's start with some introductions and set the stage here.

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Just take a couple of minutes.

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Who are you?

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Where are you?

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Where are you from?

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What sort of things have shaped your perspective as it applies to all this?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I am based in Manchester in the UK.

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My background in mental health is quite far-ranging but from a young age, mental health was always quite an important topic for me, based on my particular journey through life, which I'll get into in a little bit, but that really focused in on where I go from a marketing standpoint and how my journey spliced in with writing as well, because creative writing and writing in different formats has always been a path that I've tried to walk from various different directions.

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But I think it's always good to, I guess, have some kind of North Star in your life and if you can really pinpoint one thing that you want to do, it's that's certainly useful for like moving forward through life and step by step.

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Yeah, I totally agree.

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I think in my case, especially as it's applied to mental health, podcasting and being able to talk to people and all things considered, as an adult, learn to socialize or maybe relearn to socialize, but from a point of view of me, more authentically than, say, as a kid, where you try to pretend to be friends and be something, maybe that you're not to fit into groups podcasting became my therapy and my creative outlet to do those things.

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I'm curious, though in your case it's writing right, so what got you into writing?

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Well, what didn't get me into writing?

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I probably about because I've always liked, you know, pop culture.

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I remember like reading lots of books about different topics, particularly in like the fantasy genre as well.

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Like I remember like getting really sucked into things like Lord of the Rings when I was very young.

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I just love that idea of you know, some kind of escapism that we can just step away from what's going on in life, particularly when you just learn as a kid.

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That was probably the book that got me.

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And then I've got into various other genres and I started to like things like comics and anime, particularly with that Japanese leaning as well.

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And then I can't really remember when I started writing, but that was just something to like focus my thoughts through, like school building.

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It is something that I never thought I'd want to do as a career initially, but it's just something that I'd always been passionate about and I've followed that ever since.

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And so now you've made it an actual profession, right, you have a company that focuses on copywriting.

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Yeah, indeed, so I'd always come from a creative writing background and then I went to university to do like a degree in creative writing than a master's, and then I wanted to look at it from that marketing standpoint as well.

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So that's how I learned about copywriting, and I've done that over a background of about 10 years up to this point.

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Congratulations.

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That's huge, thank you.

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Yeah, I think being able to find something, one that you're passionate about and interested in, is great, because there's plenty of people that don't even get that far and then finding a way to monetize it and turning into something that you can make a livelihood out of is huge.

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Your company, Stoic Athenaeum, has, I'm assuming, mostly corporate clients.

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You're a B2B type focus.

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Yeah, so it's a mixture of B2B and B2C, particularly with that mental health aspect and like a wellness and a HR leaning, for example, because I don't know if you're aware of this, but I'm quite focused on this idea of like well-being washing, and it's particularly prevalent in the UK at least, where a business might profess to want to talk about mental health but there's not really any substance behind it, whereas I would like to dig into the logistics of that to make sure it's actually all aligned internally before any kind of like messaging goes out, whether it is turn and force website stuff like that.

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Then you can really come from that more authentic place, particularly if it is to do with like a wellness program that needs to be implemented into other businesses.

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Sweet.

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There's a lot of that aspect, I think, when it comes to people too.

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And I agree with you in business, I've never heard the term well-being washing before, but now that you're describing it a little bit more clearly, I think it applies to people too.

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I mean, we do it all the time, like I said earlier, as kids it's sort of excused because we're just imitating what we see and thinking about what we might know, or to try to fit in or whatever.

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But I think as we get older it gets difficult to figure out who we are, what we bring to tail, what are your strengths?

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In my case, my active duty contract with the Marine Corps here in the US just ended a couple of months ago, and so I had this, like I'd say, the second or third time in my adult life crisis point, and I don't necessarily mean financially I did okay enough to prep for that but mentally in my own head to try to figure out my role in society has changed.

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What was my identity without the role?

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And I started processing over a few months especially how and what and where I was presenting myself, in which ways, to try to better identify.

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Like you said, more of a well-being for myself, but what I was putting out into the world you know publicly or not quite so far-reaching as a podcast, just in my interactions with people in town or whatever.

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And you talk a lot about that individual type journey, stepping away from corporations for a second.

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And you talk a lot about that individual journey more specifically throughout your book, Japanese Fighting Heroes.

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So I want to jump into that for a second Now.

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First of all, a couple maybe more glaring type disparities.

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Like you open the book, for example, saying am I even qualified to write about this Because I've never been to Japan?

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Is that still the case?

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Yeah, so that was just for a bit of an aside.

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That was like the biggest question that I thought about when I was writing this book, because I think it opens up a wider discussion of how an individual might interpret different cultures, particularly if they've not experienced it like being there in the moment.

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But then from another angle, that is where I thought we all have our own subjective experiences of all of these concepts that we come across anyway.

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So I think you can still celebrate a culture, celebrate an idea, by looking at it through your own filter and then, once it's out there in the world, you don't really have any control of it.

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Then it becomes yours, but it also becomes the point of view of the reader or the people who will have that idea transmitted to them as well.

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Well, that's social connection, I think, at its simplest definition, isn't it Everything we put out into the world as we have conversations?

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It's out of our control how people interpret what we put out there and what they think about us.

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You know you mentioned something in your book.

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Actually, let me clarify this.

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In a sense, yes, so the focus is larger than live characters, particularly from Japanese history, like the samurai, for example.

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But I wanted to blend the mixture of the short story, the legends, the fiction with it, but then also put in the fact about how these individuals were actually liking their real life and all of the romance and the stories that have been told from about them through various sources as well.

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Okay, so we have a few of those and I think to some listeners around the world this may be sort of a shocking fact, but the US actually has cultural folklore isolated to the states as well.

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It's not all global influence, like I don't know Johnny Appleseed, for example, or Davy Crockett or these types of frontiersmen and nurserymen growing the country, but in Japanese culture they're deeply rooted right.

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Some of these folklore heroes of legend are two, three, five thousand years old.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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I mean it's fascinating like how the Japanese, particularly today, still revere some of these characters that talk about like.

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Just to give an example, Japan's most famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, who I write about, is revered by business leaders today, particularly from his book of five rings, where he delved into like martial art, strategy, psychology and how to live a morally virtuous life for the period that he was living in, which was around the 1600s, the Sengoku period.

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But a lot of that wisdom is timeless.

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It doesn't really matter what part of the world you're from, you can pick that out, but the way that he still is interpreted through like martial arts and various other contexts is just so fascinating.

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All right, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Contact the VA to review your disability compensation at va.

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gov/disability.

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He couldn't obviously have written it from any other point in time.

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So how is it possible that any of these stories are written down are still?

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resonant today because times have changed so drastically.

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How is that possible that there's any relevance at all?

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What's your opinion?

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Yeah, I think, but I think it really comes down to the writers of the book of five rings.

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And the idea of like the samurai code, the Shido as it's called, is quite a complex subject.

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So you might think of like samurai myth being quite romantic, particularly in the Sengoku period and everything that Musashi was talking about.

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But then you get into like the 1800s where the Edo samurai the Edo period of the 1800s was where the country closed down and then these descendants of the Sengoku samurai were living in an age of peace.

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So they didn't really have much better to do than look back at the past with like rose tinted glasses.

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So they essentially rewrote history with their own stories and really tried to do quite a bit of revisionist history as well.

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And then that moved forward again into like the Meiji era, where it's more of the modern period of Japan, where it's opened up again to the West and it's becoming like an identity crisis almost.

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So again the samurai myth changes again and how we look at things and people like Musashi today we have seen it come out of the Meiji era and a lot of that has been influenced how we look at that kind of pop culture too.

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So I really do think it comes back to how all the writers have interpretations of people who wrote down works earlier in history, and then people just make their own decisions at the end of the day.

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But I think you also have to look for the facts as well as the romance.

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No matter what you're looking at, I think what's interesting, despite these changing identities you were just talking about, especially over time, looking back through history, like you said, it's all going to get rewritten eventually.

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Somebody's going to interpret it differently because after so many degrees of distance, nobody remembers what it's like firsthand.

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So, to that extent, what survived?

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This myth, for example, of the samurai?

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What carries through to now?

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People think of samurai, honorable sense of duty, loyalty, courage.

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Why is it the values that stuck for continuity?

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Why have the stories changed but the values have been constant?

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What's your opinion on that?

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Yeah, that's a really interesting question and I don't really think that kind of thing is just isolated in Japan.

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I think it's more of like a universal thing really, because if you look at things like in the West as well, like ancient Rome and ancient Greece, you had these philosophers who put down all of these really important tenets of courage and wisdom and all that, and I think there is just something about the human spirit that just wants to gravitate towards these virtuous concepts I don't think virtuous is probably the right word to say in today's culture, but more like resilient characteristics, that things around does always change.

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Society changes, but our innate sense of character is essentially timeless in what we look at.

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So I think that is why people still look at the myth, the samurai, through those core tenets of courage, loyalty, respect, because everybody can understand that you don't have to understand the culture, but you can understand the ideas and that is a timeless piece of wisdom.

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Hmm, okay Well, so let's take a quick second.

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I'd like you to talk a little bit about Kintaro, if you're okay with that, but for everybody listening, in Greek and Roman mythology, Kintaro essentially is more paralleled towards Hercules and his growth, upbringing, trials, life.

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So, Jamie, I'm curious, in your perspective, as it applies to Kintaro, what sort of aspects as his role has changed, based on historical reference and stories and things about his legend have changed and shifted.

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What sort of aspects about his character have stuck and why is he arguably one of the more famous international folklore cultural type icons or that persona?

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Yeah, but again, interesting question.

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Like I said, in the book I do draw a reference to Kintaro and Hercules because I think they're quite analogous characters.

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This idea of like the strong boy who becomes, like this, ultimate hero in their cultures and in Japan as well, like this idea of like Kawaii culture, this cuteness is sort of a part of Kintaro's legacy as well, where this white blend of like cute themes with like strong manliness is sort of like an incongruous thing and it makes sense in the context of that culture, whereas with Hercules we're more known for that like manliness, of like the hero's journey.

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And I think that is where those like connections really come across and how they both like come together, because in the book as well I do write about this thing, about the past that both of them had to come across.

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Like Hercules, there is a very famous myth where he comes to a crossroads and there's two goddesses, vice and virtue, either side.

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One of them says you could love a really easy life and you know you'll be fine for the rest of your life.

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But then the other goddess says life will be hard but you have got the opportunity to work for it and it won't be as easy as the other path, but you got there on your own through that hard work, through that discipline.

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Similar to Kintaro, he could have spent a life in the wilderness, being quite shielded by his mother, by his animal friends and the folklore.

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He was called to serve his country, serve his nation in a time of great upheaval.

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As these legends go and how we interacted with other folklore characters and I think the idea of the crossroads is universal as well in multiple cultures, and how we all go through crossroads in life.

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Yeah, yeah, having the temptation or vice, for example.

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I think that fork is regularly occurring and I can't speak to any other country, this is just my perspective here in the US, but I think there's a lot more public sentiment surrounding that debate more currently, right now, especially given it's an election year for us.

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You know, which way does the American sentiment fall, which way does the American character as sort of a unifying human spirit move and how is it represented globally?

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I think it's a conversation a lot of people are going to have more regularly over the coming months.

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At the time of us recording this, obviously being here in March, there's a lot of things that are up in the air right now, given that debate and given that crossroads, but in this innate sense of character that you brought up, and the influences, for example, that Kentaro moved through and obviously chose this path of virtue as a result, despite a few other affairs, like you mentioned in your story, and a few other things that come up through those trials, I think more predominantly prevailing because he was falling back on these characteristics and qualities and virtues and values that he was standing on, and I'm not saying that's a new concept, this is in fact, as you pointed out, thousands of years old.

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But I'm curious what does all that do for you?

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All right, so this is a segment of the show called Developing.

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Character.

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And so, for anybody new to the show, this is a segment of two questions and, Jamie, they're both entirely from your perspective.

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As vulnerable as you want to be, it's totally up to you, and if your answer happens to be yeah, I don't know, that's fine too, no problem, all right.

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So my first question, based on everything we've talked about so far, all these influences and research that you've obviously conducted to write your book, build your business, consult with clients has to have done something for your worldview and perspective.

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So my first question is let's start with the baseline.

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What were some of your values growing up that you were exposed to, that you were brought up around, or that you just remember the farthest back?

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So the first thing that really comes to mind for me is family.

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My family have always been really close, and I saw that modelled by my parents, who've been together for a long time as well.

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So I think internally that always wanted me to focus on.

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It doesn't really matter where I go, but I want to be loyal to a cause or loyal to something that I believe in.

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So I think having that early nurturing system really helped me going forward and then it sort of developed over time into all the principles of resilience and trying to help other people see that in themselves too.

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Okay.

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Well, I think resilience goes a long way and that's probably more enduring than acute.

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But just for the sake of argument here, let's press on to the second question then.

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So, as I said that, what are some of your values now?

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Times changed, plenty of influences.

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You've done your own research and started to process the world on your own.

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How has it shifted?

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What are some of your values now?

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So I always like to look back and say, if I could go back and talk to myself, maybe like 10, 15 years ago, like what would I say to myself?

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The fact is, you've got to be more open minded and I would say that I always thought I was maybe a bit closed off in what I believe, but that was probably because things going on around me as a teenager were quite stressful.

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And I would say to myself look, it's going to get better.

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There is always going to be uncertainty out there, but you just have to keep pushing forward and go back to that North Star that you're looking at and you're writing now.

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That's going to move you forward.

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You don't really know what the journey is going to be like, but just appreciate that and have that self-worth, have that self-belief and continue to push ahead into the unknown.

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Alright, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:21:13,946 --> 00:21:49,098
I'm glad you said that because something you mentioned earlier has sort of got me thinking.

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And actually, in fairness, it wasn't earlier in this conversation, it was when you were initially talking to our producer about coming onto the show, and I think there's even aspects of this in your book.

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But you had mentioned social anxiety and, to a certain point and I'm not trying to place this on your words in your mouth, I'm just framing my perspective here for a second out loud.

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I think, to a certain degree, when it comes to writing, podcasting, acting, any of these types of portrayals of what we see happening around us gives us intentional distance to process at a pace we're more comfortable with and so like.

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For me, podcasting has given me an ability to better manage my own social anxieties and how to talk to people, because there's more of a structure now.

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But to talk about if I can't think of something, because we have something in common to discuss at the forefront of recording.

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How have you found writing to help you better identify your own self-worth or your own place in the world and process your own anxieties and deal with those kinds of things, despite intentionally putting distance between you and readers.

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Yeah, that's a great question, yeah.

00:22:59,051 --> 00:23:05,008
I would say like it's like a muscle that you exercise over time, but journaling has always really helped me.

00:23:05,008 --> 00:23:14,684
Actually, I go back to this really from the point of the pandemic as well, because that is when, like I got quite anxious again, as I'm sure a lot of us did, when we were all closed off and like locked inside.

00:23:14,684 --> 00:23:18,855
You know, there wasn't much for me to do beyond just writing and getting my thoughts down.

00:23:18,855 --> 00:23:24,037
So I just wrote down like three positive things that I did in that day, step by step.

00:23:24,037 --> 00:23:34,431
I didn't really matter what it was, but I could look back at it maybe like three months down the line and think here is where I was, but here is where I am now and you can see that journey mapped out.

00:23:34,431 --> 00:23:39,787
But then I might have also written down three things that I wanted to do a bit better, or maybe something.

00:23:39,826 --> 00:23:42,335
I could have tried this if I was talking to this person.

00:23:42,335 --> 00:23:46,054
Maybe I could let go of this certain thing and not, you know, overthink it.

00:23:46,054 --> 00:23:58,671
So just trying to write down things in a structured way sometimes, or even do it in a more free flowing way too, can help, just depending on what my mindset was like and even just writing fiction, like some of the stories that I did in the book.

00:23:58,671 --> 00:24:08,944
That is really great just to kind of put some of my feelings down into the characters because you know, as an author you are putting some of your own subjective opinions into what you are writing about.

00:24:08,944 --> 00:24:16,253
So you can think about how these characters might have acted if you were in their shoes or things that might have been able to put distance to.

00:24:16,253 --> 00:24:21,244
So those are some of the ways that I like to use writing to deal with things like anxiety.

00:24:21,345 --> 00:24:28,912
when they do come up, do you think there's aspects of you in those characters, despite relatively established legends already around them?

00:24:29,685 --> 00:24:33,816
Oh yeah, I'm sure that there is parts of it where I put some of my own thoughts into it.

00:24:33,816 --> 00:24:38,180
I, with the research, that was always about separating the fact from fiction.

00:24:38,180 --> 00:24:45,808
But I openly admit that with the samurai, I really bought into the romance when I was younger because that started off.

00:24:45,808 --> 00:25:00,876
And I even say that, look, it's okay to enjoy the romance, because that is important, but also understand it in context, and for me context is everything, because it will help you adapt to a situation or help you feel comfortable in any kind of uncertainty.

00:25:01,585 --> 00:25:01,905
What do you mean?

00:25:01,905 --> 00:25:04,666
Context In life, for example?

00:25:04,666 --> 00:25:07,476
I understand direct and indirect context clues in a book.

00:25:07,476 --> 00:25:12,144
You can sort of piecemeal the sentences, meaning or intuitively understand a bit better a story.

00:25:12,144 --> 00:25:14,031
But does that also apply to life?

00:25:14,726 --> 00:25:14,987
Yeah.

00:25:14,987 --> 00:25:32,096
So in when I say context I mean like in any situation in life, if you are like talking to somebody and you don't really know much about them, I would just like ask them questions just to know more about their background, and that just helps me get to know that person really rather than just trying to talk around like small talk kind of thing sometimes.

00:25:33,048 --> 00:25:35,615
Okay, just for, like, a deeper understanding of somebody.

00:25:35,615 --> 00:25:42,798
Okay, so how do you do that, though, when inherently, you only have your own biases and perspective to fall back on?

00:25:42,798 --> 00:25:47,311
How is that even possible To better derive context for somebody else's perspective?

00:25:47,311 --> 00:25:49,036
How do you broaden that out?

00:25:49,036 --> 00:25:49,696
Yeah, what do you do?

00:25:50,226 --> 00:26:01,846
Yeah, so I start just by asking like open questions to see what their perspective is, and then something that I really like about all these like wisdom traditions that I've like internalised over the last few years that's.

00:26:01,846 --> 00:26:11,828
I do believe that's helped me be more discerning in terms of like filtering opinions that I might not necessarily agree with, but I can at least take on board and actually try to relate.

00:26:11,828 --> 00:26:18,198
From that point of view, I can understand like how you got to where you are with what you believe in, and that's perfectly fine.

00:26:18,198 --> 00:26:23,526
We can have a debate about things, and I think that is really important, no matter like where you are.

00:26:23,526 --> 00:26:28,276
Debating is always better than just trying to project your own biases onto anything.

00:26:29,144 --> 00:26:33,835
Well, okay, I mean I disagree to a certain point in certain circumstances.

00:26:33,835 --> 00:26:43,914
Again, for context, I think when it comes to a safety or security point of view, pattern recognition and in that respect biases have a place, right.

00:26:43,914 --> 00:26:53,094
But for clarity, and please correct me if I'm wrong, I think in this particular context of our conversation, we're talking about just communicating with people, right, correct?

00:26:53,094 --> 00:27:07,351
Yeah, okay, and so when communicating with anybody, you have no idea who's going to read your book, you have no idea the people that your business clients are going to hire or what your indirect lessons are going to accomplish.

00:27:07,351 --> 00:27:08,909
Right, there's no way to forecast that.

00:27:08,909 --> 00:27:15,857
So how do you make it as specific and custom tailored as possible and still broad and applicable?

00:27:16,446 --> 00:27:18,453
Yeah, that is the open question that really.

00:27:18,453 --> 00:27:25,491
I mean, I was writing from my own perspective but, as I said before, I have no control over how those ideas will be interpreted.

00:27:25,491 --> 00:27:29,556
You know, I've got the audience that I wanted to write for, and if they enjoy it, great.

00:27:29,556 --> 00:27:35,128
But if somebody else from a different perspective might learn something from it that resonates with them, then that's great too.

00:27:35,984 --> 00:27:37,791
That sounds like it would cause its own fair amount of stress.

00:27:37,791 --> 00:27:41,631
That doesn't make you anxious, just the unknown, the uncertainty, the gravity of that.

00:27:42,333 --> 00:27:44,813
Sometimes, yeah, but you know I think that is the.

00:27:44,813 --> 00:27:46,220
You know is a writer.

00:27:46,220 --> 00:27:53,009
That is just the risk that you take, really, because you know anything you put out into the world you have no control over how it will be.

00:27:53,009 --> 00:27:55,915
You know responded to and that is perfectly fine.

00:27:55,915 --> 00:28:03,513
Maybe when I was younger that made me a lot more anxious, but the more I've done it, the more I've kind of worked that resilience muscle and you know it's fine.

00:28:04,424 --> 00:28:06,249
What did you adopt?

00:28:06,249 --> 00:28:10,810
I guess perspective, or you know a fidget spinner, what's your mental fidget spinner?

00:28:10,810 --> 00:28:14,012
What did you, what did you adopt to learn to start dealing with that?

00:28:14,012 --> 00:28:15,076
Because there's plenty of people?

00:28:15,076 --> 00:28:18,756
Even before this conversation, I still get anxious because I've never met you.

00:28:18,756 --> 00:28:20,349
I don't know how this conversation is going to go.

00:28:20,349 --> 00:28:30,368
Right, I've got a rough map of what we're going to discuss, but beyond that I still got to take a couple of minutes before I hit record and say, okay, just exhale for a second, just process, control what you can.

00:28:30,368 --> 00:28:34,750
You know, and I've got this mantra that works for me, what worked for you in the beginning.

00:28:35,472 --> 00:28:43,576
Yeah Well, first I want to say that that's that's great that you've got that routine for yourself, and it's always great when people have their own like unique things that work to them.

00:28:43,576 --> 00:28:47,214
For me, certain philosophical concepts have really helped.

00:28:47,214 --> 00:28:50,212
Like you mentioned, that thing of you can only control what you can control.

00:28:50,212 --> 00:28:58,894
But what really set me down this like writing path with this kind of Japanese stuff was learning about philosophy through stoicism, for example.

00:28:58,894 --> 00:29:02,493
So I like the idea that you can only control what you can control.

00:29:02,575 --> 00:29:09,972
But there's lots of like mental techniques in that school of thought that have really helped me, for example, like something called the view from above.

00:29:09,972 --> 00:29:25,468
So if I'm feeling quite anxious or out of my depth in a situation, I'll try to like picture myself outside of myself for a minute and then just try to appreciate the fact that probably a lot of other people in the world or in that environment are going through similar feelings.

00:29:25,468 --> 00:29:43,393
So if I can sort of slowly come back down to myself in the space of like a few minutes, do that breathing, do those like mental techniques in a in a repetitous context, then that can help me sometimes, and then also doing the journaling thing as well, by preparing for what I'm going to say, or just try to go with the flow a bit more.

00:29:44,345 --> 00:29:46,108
When you're talking about view from above.

00:29:46,108 --> 00:29:52,694
I don't want to trivialize it and say just an out of body perspective, but that's essentially it right.

00:29:52,694 --> 00:29:55,672
You just take a step back and try to take everything in totality.

00:29:56,314 --> 00:29:56,734
It doesn't.

00:29:56,734 --> 00:30:05,791
Yeah, I mean the view from above can mean a few different things, like I've heard it like created as like sort of an actual projection kind of thing, if that helps people like visualize it.

00:30:05,791 --> 00:30:08,383
Because it is about that visualization aspect.

00:30:08,383 --> 00:30:26,990
For me it's just like trying to take a bigger top level view of things and not think about it from that like very personal context is just taking as much of a step back as possible and trying to look at things objectively rather than subjectively and then trying to think about what actually happened in that situation and that has helped certain times.

00:30:27,704 --> 00:30:29,704
In hindsight or foresight.

00:30:30,626 --> 00:30:35,037
A bit, both because you can still try techniques and it might not always work in that situation.

00:30:35,037 --> 00:30:41,755
But at least if you've got the basic principles, then that is always my first level of like to go back to.

00:30:43,307 --> 00:30:45,814
All right, if folks sit tight, we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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00:31:47,855 --> 00:31:58,567
Because you can still try techniques and it might not always work in that situation, but at least if you got the basic principles, then that is always my first level of like to go back to.

00:32:00,265 --> 00:32:11,615
I've got quite a bit of listeners now actually that are coming from a it's a veteran owned radio station and a nonprofit here in the States that listen to the show and that tune in.

00:32:11,615 --> 00:32:18,570
And one of the most common aspects whether it's in retirement or just separation out of the military being military veterans.

00:32:18,570 --> 00:32:26,932
And I guess you could apply that to any sort of frontline position law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical techs type, teachers even.

00:32:26,932 --> 00:32:33,416
But is this like identity crisis because it's in transition?

00:32:33,416 --> 00:32:37,414
Right, everybody's going to work in those positions for a long time.

00:32:37,414 --> 00:32:46,654
I'm sure there used to be more people that would work in a hospital for 40 years, but now generationally it's not as common of an aspiration.

00:32:46,654 --> 00:32:58,247
Same thing in the military Samurai were for life, now arguably in different class, I guess you could say, but infantrymen in the military are not.

00:32:58,247 --> 00:33:05,037
So, going through that transition process and trying to figure out what does that look like?

00:33:05,805 --> 00:33:12,413
I heard an interesting perspective, or I think it's an interesting perspective, the other day and you just happened to mention astral projection.

00:33:12,413 --> 00:33:13,086
Someone bring it up.

00:33:13,086 --> 00:33:37,008
So this idea of being able to take your consciousness and transcend something, to be able to view whatever a scenario is from a different perspective, astral projection is fantasy, right, it's been done in sci-fi, it's been done in movies and it's like this magician's best kept secret type, potential or skill set.

00:33:37,008 --> 00:33:48,971
The theory that I heard just recently, within the last couple of weeks, was, regardless of whether you believe in creation or a big bang or any of that kind of stuff, this is not meant to sound spiritual.

00:33:48,971 --> 00:33:51,732
This is, I guess, counterintuitively meant to sound physical.

00:33:52,865 --> 00:34:18,255
All of that cosmic energy at one point, protons and electrons and neutrons and everything, whatever else quirks, I don't know, not a scientist, but everything else moving through our bodies daily, regularly, in physical space today hasn't changed and I think if Isaac Newton has had anything to say about it, if energy is neither created nor destroyed, it's only ever changing in different forms.

00:34:19,005 --> 00:34:51,192
And so to take this is the theory to take all of that cosmic energy and all of that input and all of the sort of imprinted memories and experiences on each of those subatomic particles over all time, and have them shoot through our brains, and then we have to say I don't know what to do with that, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed, I need to process this, and there's this chemical reaction and imbalance to these things happening in our brains, the theory being that it's that transmission and that transference that causes neurons and synapses to work.

00:34:51,192 --> 00:35:07,492
So do you think, based on all of this resonance that you're finding in Japanese culture and folklore, that you've had some sort of a cosmic experience, some sort of a cosmic influence in being able to come up with all this and having an interest in all this?

00:35:07,492 --> 00:35:09,791
Or is it just the uniforms look cool.

00:35:11,128 --> 00:35:11,992
Interesting question.

00:35:11,992 --> 00:35:15,094
I would say there's a couple of elements to that.

00:35:15,094 --> 00:35:25,403
First, maybe I wouldn't describe it as like a cosmic sort of feeling, but I certainly feel like myself, through writing about this kind of stuff, has changed me in a way.

00:35:25,403 --> 00:35:40,297
That's made me feel more adventurous, more open-minded and just willing to push myself out into the world a bit more, because in that research I've discovered things that I hadn't really expected to discover just from the kind of things that these people might have gone through.

00:35:40,297 --> 00:35:47,311
And I figured out like, oh, this I can sort of picture it from, like what's gone in my life and how this resilience can all come together.

00:35:47,311 --> 00:35:50,253
And it was just like a massive history note as well.

00:35:50,253 --> 00:35:51,952
I was like, oh, this, this is super cool.

00:35:51,952 --> 00:36:05,597
Anyway, I mean, I can write about this, it's fun, it's not work, but I feel my own character like changing by writing about it for the better and trying to see the world more clearly in ways that I didn't really think about when I was younger.

00:36:06,125 --> 00:36:08,432
You feel like you're losing yourself in the process.

00:36:08,432 --> 00:36:11,534
I mean, you said changing for the better, but change is inevitable.

00:36:11,534 --> 00:36:12,666
Like we just said, energy is.

00:36:12,666 --> 00:36:14,833
It's just constantly changing people, right?

00:36:14,833 --> 00:36:15,594
Absolutely.

00:36:15,594 --> 00:36:20,235
Have you lost yourself in that process, in being more open-minded and learning about other cultures?

00:36:20,235 --> 00:36:21,599
Has that caused you any problems?

00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:23,005
Mentally at least?

00:36:23,596 --> 00:36:33,788
Yeah interesting and I actually I wrote like a social post about this like a few weeks ago, based on one of the characters from the book, and I think it's important for, like creativity.

00:36:33,788 --> 00:36:39,007
One of the characters, the father of Japanese short stories, rinasuke Akuta Gawa.

00:36:39,007 --> 00:36:45,882
He wrote over about 150 short stories in his lifetime and he is like one of the greatest writers of all time in my opinion.

00:36:45,882 --> 00:36:54,496
But he also suffered from a lot of mental health issues that he was never able to overcome in the end and he unfortunately he took his own life at the age of 35.

00:36:55,179 --> 00:36:59,547
So that made me think of the idea that, you know, creativity is like a double-edged sword.

00:36:59,547 --> 00:37:19,840
On one hand, writers, any creators, we want to create, we want to have these open expression for ideas, but on the other hand, sometimes it can become like a subsistive need where we want to create and sometimes we might sacrifice other things, whether it is our physical health or mental health, and we might not always be aware of it.

00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:34,628
So I think in research, it's important to take a step back and actually, through writing about Akuta Gawa and his life, that made me realise that perhaps it was focusing too much in a certain thing and I needed to take a step back from that.

00:37:34,628 --> 00:37:44,847
So yeah, I would agree that I did lose myself to a little bit, but I was aware of it and I could sort of come back to myself and still see it as like building my character for good.

00:37:46,155 --> 00:37:59,152
I like that a lot and the mental health you're mentioning and again, I can't speak for anywhere else, but I think here in the US every time I hear mental health it sounds like this played out term now that gets overlooked because it's everywhere or seems like it's everywhere.

00:37:59,152 --> 00:38:00,889
Mental health is important.

00:38:00,889 --> 00:38:03,934
And then you get eye rolls and yeah, I know, got it, Thanks.

00:38:03,934 --> 00:38:07,592
And then you need to take care of your mental health just as much as you take care of your physical health.

00:38:07,592 --> 00:38:09,742
Okay, yeah, great, Cool, I know that.

00:38:09,742 --> 00:38:10,686
Thanks for telling me again, Doc.

00:38:10,686 --> 00:38:20,565
No problem, you get these types of especially through, like the Veterans Administration and moving out of the military a lot, you know, post-traumatic stressors and all these other types of aspects.

00:38:20,565 --> 00:38:33,610
But at least to me and it sounds like to a certain degree to you it's really just finding a creative outlet or self-expression to become more aware of yourself, this, this know-thigh self-type principle.

00:38:33,610 --> 00:38:36,940
Am I putting words in your mouth or are we sort of hitting a wavelength here?

00:38:37,623 --> 00:38:47,704
No, I would agree with that because I think you know, know, thyself is a cliche for a reason, but I think everybody is on that perennial journey of trying to discover what they know about themselves.

00:38:47,704 --> 00:38:53,989
And I do also agree with your thoughts on, you know, oh, mental health is a God hear about this again.

00:38:53,989 --> 00:39:08,380
But I think it's also important to clarify that, while you know, having these stories of resilience are important, it's also important to celebrate, you know, the positivity that's going on around people as well, because not everything is like add in.

00:39:08,380 --> 00:39:10,447
Mental health is great to talk about.

00:39:10,447 --> 00:39:10,750
What is.

00:39:10,750 --> 00:39:22,568
You know you're happy about it and particularly whether it is a well-being thing, you do have to like, celebrate it in all aspects, but also understand that people are in like, certain levels, whatever they're dealing with.

00:39:24,295 --> 00:39:28,596
Well, I suppose then there is some truth in that saying when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

00:39:28,596 --> 00:39:36,391
I don't know that it's necessarily timing as much as it is awareness at that point, because every individual could be their own student and their own teacher to a certain degree.

00:39:36,391 --> 00:40:05,500
Yeah, so I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and dive into a lot of this stuff, but really, for the sake of time this is my last question If anybody wants to find out more about Japanese fighting heroes, get in touch with you to work in, to pull you on and become one of your clients, to just follow along what you're doing in Manchester, follow along with you on social any and all of these aspects of what you're doing for humanities and social sciences and influence and impact.

00:40:05,500 --> 00:40:06,603
Where do they go?

00:40:06,603 --> 00:40:07,969
How do they track you down?

00:40:08,550 --> 00:40:09,333
Yeah, absolutely.

00:40:09,333 --> 00:40:09,394
So.

00:40:09,394 --> 00:40:13,289
You can find me in a couple of places for all of my Japanese centric stuff.

00:40:13,289 --> 00:40:28,701
You can go to Yamato magazine, which is my publication for all Japanese culture Yamato magazinehomeblog, and for my copywriting around mental health and other topics you can go to Stoic Athenaeum and get in touch with me through Jamie at stoicathenaum.

00:40:28,701 --> 00:40:29,864
com.

00:40:30,588 --> 00:40:32,373
All right For everybody listen.

00:40:32,373 --> 00:40:40,510
I appreciate you putting that out, and so for everybody listening, especially if you're new to the show, depending on the player that you're using, scroll down and you'll see see more.

00:40:40,510 --> 00:40:42,659
You'll see show more, something to that effect.

00:40:42,659 --> 00:40:54,373
The description for this conversation, the links for Stoic Athenaeum and your model magazine are going to be in there as well, so that should hopefully make that process a little bit easier for you to track them down, Jamie, again, I appreciate the opportunity.

00:40:54,393 --> 00:41:02,581
Man, I love your perspective and, truthfully, I just started working my way through your book maybe 10, 15% through it so far and I love it.

00:41:02,581 --> 00:41:08,585
It's super digestible, it's easy to get through and, despite what I was expecting to be super religious, it's not.

00:41:08,585 --> 00:41:19,005
It's not overly alarming or anything, but there's a fair amount of lessons and parallels that you're making very, very well articulated, actually, and very easy to understand.

00:41:19,005 --> 00:41:20,048
So I love what you're doing.

00:41:20,048 --> 00:41:24,568
In fact, I hope you keep doing it and maybe even consider a sequel for other cultures.

00:41:24,568 --> 00:41:27,320
If that's something that's in the future, I think it'd be pretty neat.

00:41:28,063 --> 00:41:29,469
Oh well, here's a spoiler.

00:41:29,469 --> 00:41:36,179
I do have a follow up to the book that is coming out later this year, which is to do with Norse culture, but I won't say anything more than that, oh man.

00:41:36,561 --> 00:41:37,364
Okay, all right.

00:41:37,364 --> 00:41:43,190
Well, when you decide to say more than that, come back on the show and we'll tell everybody about it, or maybe just after it's published.

00:41:43,190 --> 00:41:56,623
But I think it's a super cool idea of trying to communicate cultures in a way that still breeds resonance and shows that it has impact, and shows that it has influence and that every individual can learn something without totally devaluing whatever senses of self we already have.

00:41:56,623 --> 00:42:04,838
You're in a really powerful position, man, and if history has shown me anything, what we put in writing generally outlasts what we have to say.

00:42:04,838 --> 00:42:07,184
So I think you're in a super powerful position.

00:42:07,184 --> 00:42:10,219
Congratulations, especially because it's something you enjoy doing.

00:42:10,780 --> 00:42:12,346
Yeah Well, thank you so much.

00:42:12,346 --> 00:42:27,061
I appreciate your perspective as well and, to just say, the show that you have is great, all the guests that you've had, many diverse perspectives and everything that you put in out there, people will learn more, so I just encourage you to continue what you're doing with this as well.

00:42:27,422 --> 00:42:28,927
Thanks, dude, I appreciate that.

00:42:28,927 --> 00:42:32,163
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00:42:32,163 --> 00:42:42,382
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00:42:42,382 --> 00:42:45,516
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