Youth Mental Health, Resilience & Healing Through Art with Rafael McMaster

What if art could be more than creativity...what if it could be a lifeline for youth mental health?

In this episode, Lunden sits down with Rafael McMaster, creative director, artist, and youth mental health advocate, to explore how art and mindfulness are helping a new generation build emotional resilience. As the founder of Indivisible Arts, Rafael has developed programs that empower youth through creativity, mentorship, and tools for emotional well-being.

We talk about his upcoming book FundaMentaLife Tools (2025), his mission to raise a million conscious youth, and why creativity is one of the most powerful ways to heal from pain, overcome adversity, and step into growth.

If you’ve ever wondered how to help young people thrive in today’s world, or how creativity can fuel healing at any age, this conversation will light you up.

Connect with Rafael:

IG: @mcmaster.peace

Podcast: The New Normal Modcast

Website: https://www.rafaelmcmaster.com/

Who is Rafael McMaster?

Rafael McMaster is a creative director, artist, and youth mental health advocate who has dedicated his life to uplifting youth through a fresh approach to mindfulness and creativity. As the founder of Indivisible Arts, Rafael leads a transformative youth development nonprofit that equips young people with practical tools for emotional resilience and self-control. His unique blend of mindfulness, mentorship, and creativity has made a profound impact on youth across Los Angeles, particularly those facing adversity.

McMaster's newest endeavor, the forthcoming book FundaMentaLife Tools (2025), offers a hands-on toolkit for emotional well-being rooted in the same practices that have empowered youth through Indivisible Arts' flagship curriculum, Creative Wisdom Tools. Whether he's coaching individuals to turn pain into power or guiding teens through transformative creative practices, Rafael brings heart and visionary thinking to conversations about healing, growth, and the future of mental health.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Raphael and the Mission
• 1:30 Awakening at Thirty-Five
• 3:45 Mind Watching Explained
• 7:30 From Mindfulness to Teen Language
• 10:20 Seven Tools Framework
• 13:10 Visualization and Meditation
• 16:30 Building the Program With Youth
• 20:40 Awareness in Daily Life
• 24:30 Acceptance Without Being a Doormat
• 28:00 Empathy Over “Shoulds”
• 31:30 Parent Playbook and Resources
• 35:20 Access, Scholarships, and Impact

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Self-Love and Sweat the podcast. The place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically. Embrace your perfect imperfection and do what sets your soul on fire. I'm your host, London Steusa. Welcome back to the podcast. Today we have Raphael McMaster with us, and I'm so excited to chat with you today. I know that we're going to learn so much about you, so much from you today, but um Rafael's in this creative director space, works with youth, helps them with healing and creative expression. And I'm not a mom, but I have a niece, G7, who I love dearly. And I'm just so excited for you to be here today so that we can have a chat about how to support our youth through healing and art expression. I'm so grateful to have you.

SPEAKER_01: 0:56

Thank you so much for having me, Lyndon. I have a feeling we're gonna have a real good time.

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

Yeah. And I love your sweatshirt. Um, for those of you listening, you can't see the sweatshirt, but for those of you that are watching, it says breathe and learn.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07

Could it be a big one? Breathe and learn. What a mantra. Back to the basics, baby. Back to the basics.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

Yeah. And I'm yeah, I'm just so curious to learn more from you today. And um, why don't we start with how you got started in this space? What inspired you to work with youth and this creative art expression? And how did we get here to this conversation today?

SPEAKER_01: 1:29

Sure thing, sure thing. Well, you know, at age 35, uh, 10 years ago, is when I had my awakening. I was in enough pain, enough spiritual pain and emotional pain and even physical pain, thinking to myself, this can't be all there is, right? Um, and that's when, you know, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Eckhart Toll, Brene Brown, all of these amazing teachers um, you know, started showing up in my life, or I was being able to be open-minded or um I got connected to that message. And in learning that message and transforming, you know, my psyche, my personality, my life, all of the things, my energy. I was sitting there pondering why in the world? This idea of awareness, this Eckhart Toll classic to be the aware observer of the thoughts, this lesson that I am not my thoughts. I'm the one having the thoughts, observing the thoughts. Sounds basic, but no one had laid that at my feet. I was running around as a 35-year-old, stressed out, listening to everything my brain was saying, and feeling overwhelmed by reality without much control over my emotions or my thoughts. And I remember sitting there very specifically on this tool of awareness to be the aware observer of my thoughts, going, I made it all the way through high school and college. How come nobody's laid this at my feet before? And now that I know more, I realize that is kind of what they talk about with mindfulness, but I don't know that mindfulness was brought to my attention in that way where I understood it as my thoughts are like programs, and I am the steward of those programs. I am not the thoughts. And so in that moment, I felt this deep, deep sense of being and purpose and urge that this is my purpose in my lifetime. This is the point of my life, and it's the vision for my future, this life of service. And my point on this planet is to serve through putting these tools in as many youth hands as possible. Because once a person begins becoming living life as the conscious aware observer of their thoughts, understanding their thoughts are programs, and they can change those programs, and that my thoughts now becomes my attitudes and energies later. I'm witnessing hundreds, if not thousands, of kids now here in South LA County that are becoming conscious, becoming awake and aware observers because we have the opportunity to lay these tools at their feet in a way that works, is resonant, and is native to how they think and the language that they use. Locally, the teens here they don't call it awareness, they call it mind watching. Mind watching. They're observing, they're observing the brain, right? Mind watching. In fact, one of them drew an illustration of it that we we put into the book that we just published, right? Where, and I know again that some won't be able to see this.

SPEAKER_00: 4:26

Oh, I love it. It's a for those of you not watching the it's a picture of a brain with an eyeball watching the brain, and then there's like little speech bubbles that say, I'm happy, I'm scared, this makes me angry, I'm so upset. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 4:40

And the deeper understanding, when I'm saying to myself, I'm anxious, well, that is running a program that will make me more anxious. That's at the crux of it. I can't transmute that thought or transform it or transcend it if I am the thought, if I'm enraptured in it. But if there's enough space for me to like, whoa, whoa, I am anxious, that's gonna be make me more anxious. Uh, let me replace that with, ooh, I can feel my anxiety creeping up. I'm gonna use my tools to stay calm.

SPEAKER_00: 5:06

Yeah, yeah. And I I didn't know that you were um familiar with Dr. Joe Dispenza. I love him. I talk about him all the time. I've been to a bunch of his uh meditation retreats and weeklongs. And at that, I love how you said that, where you're like, you got to this point. I think I went to my first week-long retreat when I was like 30, 30, 31. But it was that moment of like, oh, okay, here I am in my 30s, having this moment, this aha moment, this, oh my gosh, why didn't I know this sooner? And I don't have kids. I don't know if you're a parent, but I have my niece, and I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, all these ways that I felt stuck in my life. I want her to have the opportunity to learn something new, right? And this program, I wasn't taught that. It was just like, you got to do this, and this is how you gotta be, and this is the thing, and this is why. And, you know, before uh we we hopped on, you know, you mentioned like, oh, this is, you know, a God thing, this is divine. So I'm assuming you have a spiritual practice, as do I. But growing up in a very traditional Christian household, a lot of the answers were just like, oh, we'll just like pray about it, or because God said so, or because God made it that way. And I think that that just limits our thought process so much. It limits the places that we can go within our mind so that we don't have to feel stuck waiting for something to come and like tap us on our head and make it all go away. It's like, how do we understand that we have this program? And I know you're working with youth and the verbiage and language that you're using with me now is very familiar to me. I hear it, I resonate. Do you come in with that same type of language with kids? Like, how do you help them understand, like, hey, this is mind watching? You know, this is a program. What you're thinking is not necessarily who you are. And that's something I'm working on as well is not internalizing some of these thoughts.

SPEAKER_01: 7:07

It's daily practice. It's daily practice.

SPEAKER_00: 7:09

Yeah. Yeah. So how do we talk to the youth about this? What's that entry conversation? Are they telling their friends and coming to you? Or like, how are you laying that at their feet to use your words?

SPEAKER_01: 7:21

Sure, sure. Well, to practice the tool of awareness, and we we state these as tools. We focus on seven tools. That way it's tangible. A lot of the SEL, the social emotional learning programs out there, they talk about the emotions, about the experiences, but they fall short of putting tangible tools in the person's hand that they feel they can get, you know, more effective at. So very tools-based. And we teach that first tool of awareness, a la ekartol. You are not your thoughts. You're the one having your thoughts, right? Um, and and putting in those terms seems to does resonate with the youth. Um and the, you know, a lot, a lot of the local parents here really just call it this is Dr. Joe for kids. This is what this is. This is ekartol and Dr. Joe for kids, right? And uh me too went to a bunch of his workshops, and I said, okay, then how do we take this week long and consolidate it into you know something that's more tangible and easy to access for a 12-year-old, right? So the third tool we teach is the tool of intention, which is really so Dr. Joe, uh, know what you're shooting for, create a visualization, 3D holographic vision, uh, sight, sound, smell, touch, feel. So you you'll you'll look in our gallery or in our creative space and you'll see 30 youth with their hands on their heart, eyes closed, visualizing full-dimensional intentions of what they want to come true, and then fusing it with an elevated emotion, falling in love with it, right? And uh and instead of ever saying meditation to them, this is a visualization exercise. Instead of them doing yoga, they're doing focused movement, right? And uh so it's figuring out that languaging now. How did we dial in the languaging for this book and this program? Well, we created it with them because all although our our nonprofit, Indivisible Arts, is nine years young, the development of this program began in pandemic. It began with our pod of you know, 18, 7 to 22 year olds when realized, my goodness, this next generation is gonna need some tools like stat. Right. And so then he was working with local therapists and counselors and uh, you know, the head of a local health district, um, executive coaches, a shaman, all of us getting together, say, okay, if we could put seven tools together as a toolkit, what would they be? Now, there's hundreds of tools, so many tools, an endless amount, particularly if you're creative. And we felt seven was a good number that it would feel um, you know, learnable in a way where that wouldn't require memorizing.

SPEAKER_00: 10:05

Yeah, and like easily accessible. If you have a hundred of them, it's like, what are you gonna pull?

SPEAKER_01: 10:10

That's right. Um, you know, but if it doesn't need to be memorized, then it won't be forgotten. And we're teaching these in an experiential way where they focus on one of the tools for 30 minutes in our consciousness portion of our class, which we call Jedi Mind Training. Once again, meeting them where they're at with their language. And then they have a full hour of creative laboratory time where in this 3,800 square foot creative laboratory called Resin, which is our home, our headquarters for our nonprofit indivisible arts, you know, there's a music studio and a fashion lab, which is where I'm sitting right now, design studio, 3D printers, 3D design, spray paint alley, photography, sculpting, pretty much anything you can think of creatively is what we have here. So when they come here after school, they get a full 90 minutes. And the first 30 minutes is mental and emotional health tools and consciousness training. The last hour is creative play. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 11:04

Yeah, that sounds like a place where even big kids want to be, like me. Um, but I want to back up to that first uh tool that you mentioned of becoming aware of your thoughts. And I've worked with people for a really long time, and I know that you have too, where it's like we have this thought and then we immediately react. Like there's no space in between of like, oh, okay, I might be thinking a negative thought about somebody. I might be thinking a negative thought about myself. I might be thinking that I was really funny. I was leaving an audio message for my best friend. We leave audio messages for each other all the time. And I was just like, man, I just like last weekend was full and I just like I didn't even unpack from where I was. I was like trying to clean up the mess of my space and all the things. And she left me a voicemail back and she was like, Don't stress on the mess. Don't stress on the mess. And it was just so funny because that little, that little like whatever little song that she sang, it reminded me of like, okay, there's this mess, and I'm choosing to make it mean X, Y, or Z about me, right? And that moment in time where we can just observe the thought. Like I grew up in a family where, like, if there was one speck on the floor or one dish in the dishwasher or in the sink that wasn't in the dishwasher, I was in trouble, all the things. So understanding that programming of like, okay, well, that's how you were raised. And now you're a grown-up. Sometimes there's gonna be messes, and can that be okay? And even just having that dialogue around those small little phrases. And right now, my boss and our head of marketing for a restaurant company that I'm part of the executive team on, we are doing a 30-day challenge with Dr. Joe, where every single day we write down all of the thoughts that we have that are keeping us stuck, stuck in the past. What thoughts, what feelings? And I was when we started it, I was like a little bit nervous to write down the thoughts. And I started like chunking them up too much and not writing people's names or not writing specifics. And in my head, I'm like, why was I so afraid to write down these thoughts? They're mine. This is my journal. No one's gonna see it. You know, you're just writing this stuff down. So every day we write down all the thoughts, all the feelings, all the emotions of, you know, what's preventing us from being becoming the person that we want to be, what's getting keeping us stuck in our past. And then what thoughts and feelings do you want to feel? What is the, you know, the person you're becoming? What are they thinking? How are they acting? How are they feeling? And then we do a meditation. And that's what I was literally doing right before we hopped on this. I did this, I went out to the lake by my house, sat and did my meditation. I did one called changing boxes, which I'm maybe you're familiar with, a Dr. Joe meditation of changing that box, right? And he says, in the reality where the problem no longer exists. And I love that because it just reminds me of that number one where you say, like, how do we become the observer of our thoughts? That's the way I do it. That's the way I've been doing it. How do you teach the kids to be do that? Are they writing their thoughts down? Are they saying them out loud?

SPEAKER_01: 14:11

No, no. They have, yeah, they have sketchbooks and they have these books that they can write in, right? And so, you know, it naturally might be, okay, you know, I want everyone to write the same thing as you. I want everyone to write down five things that frustrate you. Go. Right. And usually we're doing this particular exercise when we get to the second tool, which is around acceptance, right? Accepting everything as it is and being at peace. And we talk about serenity a lot. And and um, you know, that acceptance is that pathway to serenity and and letting go. And so, you know, that exercise will show up in we'll have, you know, everyone in the class, so usually around 30 youth from seven to 22, you know, write down five things that you find frustrating, annoying, or undesirable, and we do it, and then we they begin sharing. And so, you know, a lot of this, this will, this will occur pretty much every time with the tool of acceptance. Some kid will write down, share. Okay, I hate homework. And everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, homework.

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

Same, same, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:08

Yeah, totally, right? And so I go, okay, cool. So so what does it sound like? When you sit down to do homework, the voices in your head say what? They say, Oh, this is gonna take forever. Why did my teacher assign so many math problems? And like, I hate math, whatever it is, right? So, okay, first off, are you that thought? And the whole class goes, no, who are you? The one having the thought, the observer, right? It's cool hearing them all say it out all out loud, and it's building this culture where they're learning this from each other and it's become normalized and say, okay, well, since you're not that thought, you're the one having the thought. Can you change the thought? Yes. Well, can you change the thought too? Uh, I am grateful I have a free education. I have a teacher who cares about me. I'm gonna go to college, so I need to learn this stuff. I actually like growing and learning, and as soon as I'm done, I can go do something fun with my friends. And noticing that those five thought forms conjoined together as a new program instead of I hate homework, math sucks, it's gonna give a completely different experience of attitude and energy and perspective for the person who's about to do their homework. Now, the value of what we've built is this when a 10-year-old kid hears another 10-year-old kid explain this and then explain, oh yeah, and it totally works. Like it's what I do for homework every day. And then the high schoolers chime in, yeah, this is how I got through college exam or college, you know, um, application process is making sure my mindset is right before I'm doing it, this program will change your life, right? And then in Sanskrit, there's this word kavi, which is the sound of something that comes from truth because it's come from lived experience. The person saying it knows it, and you can tell there's an honesty to it because it's real, because the person's living through it. And so having, you know, high schoolers and other, you know, students their testimony as to the efficacy and power of these tools and the transformation of their inner realm and that this program and this stuff and Dr. Joe and Eckhartol and what we're doing, it works. It really does. If I practice it, right? Sometimes it feels so simple. Is this really gonna work? Yep, it totally does. Just any ask anybody who's doing it and whose life has been transformed because of it, they'll testify, yeah, this is the path. It may seem simple, which is fantastic because then it means it's at our fingertips, readily available. And a person doesn't need daily um uh anything from anyone else to be practicing it daily. And so these kids hearing it from each other and saying it in their own words is then ultimately how we create more of this curriculum and program. And we ground it in the real life examples that they're using because we're hearing it straight from them. So, you know, the the curriculum itself is iterative in that it's continually changing with the times and the examples that these kids are using because that way it's they, you know, being able to talk about acceptance in the term of, you know, at the beginning of pandemic, and you had to wear the mask, and it was like, oh, I hate this thing. It's like a muzzle. And every day when you're leaving the house, you put the mask on, you reach for it, you can feel that icky feeling. But one day you reach for the mask, and it's just like, eh, whatever. You just went with it, stopped fighting it. That stop fighting part, the part of just like, yeah, it is what it is. I gotta wear this at school. Helping them realize, oh, I already know the energy of acceptance that just like go with the flow, it is what it is, surrender. Um, that was an example that a student used that the rest of the students were like, yeah, yeah, that's got it. I get it.

SPEAKER_00: 18:38

Yeah, and I think it's helpful when other students, when other students, their age or older than them, right? It's as kids. Yeah, the cool high schoolers, yeah, yeah, they're telling them, hey, this is cool to do, or I this changed my life. It's very different than you know, an adult coming in when you're already having adults kind of tell you what to do. So that community aspect, I really um yeah, I really resonate with.

SPEAKER_01: 19:08

We had a star local water polo player, uh, Declan, uh, who made varsity as a freshman. And he did all the visualization stuff and did everything like by the book, and he was able to talk to the other athletes saying, like, this visualization stuff totally works. And I'm here to testify to it. That has a tremendous amount of power.

SPEAKER_00: 19:28

I yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I want to go back to your example just a little bit and agree to disagree, but like, how do you teach kids to then not be an acceptance of things that they maybe want to set boundaries on? For example, like a mask that feels like a muzzle. Because to me, I'm like, okay, yeah, if you do something long enough and you're told and then you put this thing on over and over, and then you just become acceptance of it. And not to, you know, get into that bit, but just a little bit, because in my head, I'm like, okay, with my niece, I also want her to be able to have the awareness to not accept things that she doesn't feel are in alignment with her beliefs and values.

SPEAKER_01: 20:05

I I don't think we're in disagreement. I think it's about the subtlety of the understanding of the tool of acceptance. Acceptance isn't about rolling over and and disempowering oneself, it's about not needlessly getting frustrated or irritated about things that we can't control. And the point of the kid who in the local skill system, they didn't have a choice. They had to wear a mask to school. Doesn't mean they have to like it, but complaining and making losing my own serenity over it was not a helpful path. So um I I just I think acceptance is really about knowing what I can change and knowing that complaining and whining about it isn't going to possibly like help my inner serenity. And I need to keep my inner serenity so that I can go get into action about the things I can change. So in the case of them, they didn't have a choice at their school. It doesn't mean they had to like it, and it doesn't mean they said it's I'm a doormat, you know. Well, in the case of bullying, right? If a person's having acceptance that there's a person bullying them, it doesn't mean it's okay to be bullied. It means, okay, I accept that this person is outside my hula hoop and not mind a control. And I accept there's bullies out there, and I accept that this prop person probably feels hurt on the inside. Hurt people, hurt people. This isn't particularly me. I see this bully doing this to other kids too. Okay, now, now that I'm not hysterical and hyperventilating and making it all about I'm the worst person in the world, that's why he's bullying me or any of the other stories or narratives. Now I'm in a position, in a state of clarity, to go talk to a teacher, talk to the principal, talk to the right person and do the right thing.

SPEAKER_00: 21:49

So acceptance isn't getting into the right state to then take action if you disagree or agree in something. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01: 21:58

Yeah, I think if I'm if I'm trying to get into action, but I'm triggered and frustrated, it's not going to give me an optimal result. So if I can maintain my inner serenity so that I then can stand up for what I feel to be right, that is an optimal way to do that. Having acceptance that reality is the way it is, so that I then can work with it to change reality, that to me is a much more effective expression of it than the person who's yelling and ranting.

SPEAKER_00: 22:22

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's yeah, it's a much more effective approach. Um, what is the I think I just, I mean, I'm an open book on my podcast about how I was raised and all the things. And I have great parents and I love them so much. And like there was a lot of like, suck it up, quit your crying. You have to do it anyway. I don't care how you feel, you have to do it, right? And I'm I know that, you know, everyone does the best with the tools they have and as they grow, and you know, parenting now is different than parenting then, all the things, but like, what about a parent now who maybe doesn't live in southern LA and doesn't have access to send their kid there, but they're listening. And it's like, okay, so when my child comes home feeling frustrated or whatever, what's a way to pivot? Is it to have that conversation about not being your thoughts, being the observer of your thoughts? How can, yeah? And I just, I know people listening to this podcast want to change and want tools. And sometimes it's like backtracking on ways that you've been, but I know that, you know, just hushing emotions and not letting them be expressed or whatever, it's not a big deal. Like it is a big deal. And so, how does someone listening, you know, um, yeah, what would be the next best steps based on what you're doing? That we can give some nuggets to the listeners and parents on how they can support their kids being able to uh navigate these tough emotions. I mean, times are also so different than when we went to school and with the internet and social media and all the things. I mean, I just feel like thoughts can really run rampant. I also think, too, about how my dad would always say the five most important words are just surround yourself with good people. And it seems like when you're creating this what the what you've created, the facility, you know, there's just the kids there that are helping and supporting one another, which I know is super important. If you're hanging around, you know, kids who are, you know, making poor choices or reacting off impulses all the time, you know, you're gonna be more of who you're around. So for the parents listening, how can they support their kids and how can they get their kids involved in a more uh mentally healthy environment wherever they're at?

SPEAKER_01: 24:37

Sure, sure. Um, so for starters, we have a book that's available on Amazon, right? It's only$12. What's it called? It's called the Fundamental Life Tools, and these are the seven tools. Cool, right? Awareness, acceptance, intention, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, and connection. And it's meant, it's a workbook, so it's meant to be written in, right? Um, and the the lessons and the tools, the illustrations, all of it have come out of this program, uh, you know, using examples from the kids and quotes from them, but also it's adult grade stuff. Um, absolutely. And so that is an active workbook that they can have that's available. So yeah, that is the fundamental life tools, because these seven tools I do believe are fundamental. Um, and it's a little bit of gap in the wiring of the school education system as far as hitting the note on these seven tools. Um, so that's that's one opportunity. The other is um a bunch of these young leaders here, uh high schoolers, got together this last summer and they built a website, a new platform to make these tools available to anybody else, regardless of where they live. Uh, they called it streamofconsciousness.life. Leave it to a bunch of high schoolers. They actually think that dot life is cool. So fantastic, it's their call. Uh so stream of consciousness.life. Um, and on there, there's a section where I explain each of these tools in a in a five to eight minute video for each. So if you're a parent and you have a kid and you want them to hear about the tools from maybe not you, because we all know the challenge of kids listening to you know their parents, maybe they don't always pick up what their parents are saying, even though we might be saying the right things. So uh that's another area for support that's immediate and exists now. It's still a beta version of the site because these high schoolers are building it, and well, now they're back in school again. But there's enough there where these tools are there and hearing it from other teens and other youth, um, all of those pieces are there. So stream of consciousness.life. Um, and lastly, you know, in real time with students, with kids, with my daughter, with my kids, um it is my first move is show them empathy, uh, just in the form of like having them feel understood. If they come home and they're explaining how their math teacher is a total jerk, my first move is, oh my gosh, I'm sorry, that must be really frustrating. And something happens once a kid just feels heard on that level. They're like, ah, okay, I've got that out of my system.

SPEAKER_00: 27:08

Exhale.

SPEAKER_01: 27:09

Now they can hear better. And and they'll just keep, you know, trying to say it and say it in different ways until they feel heard, even if they're just saying it louder or kind of behaving in other ways. At the core, once a person feels hurt, and we teach this actually as the as the peacemaker is one of our things. Um, you know, if two people are in an argument, just taking a second to be like, okay, so do you feel X because you want Y? And showing them that sense of understanding, oftentimes that other person will be like, Well, well, well, yeah. And a lot of times the argument stops because they just want to be heard. That's why they're getting louder and louder. So showing them empathy, right? And that is a helpful form. You're like, okay, cool. So you're saying you feel frustrated because you want your math teacher to not assign so much homework. Well, well, yeah. Okay. That's the first step. And the second is, you know, and this is how we teach it here is to really, because we have so many teen mentors, right? And so now you got these teens going out and helping other teens with these tools, but nobody wants to be given advice. No one, no one like a person running around, hey, I got these tools, you should do this, you should do that. So we've eradicated the word should out of our vocabulary here, right? And um we try to speak through experience, strength, and hope. And so when my daughter is coming to me frustrated about this thing, I never, I rarely use the terms cool. Well, you should this or have you thought about this? I'll say, because once I start using the word you with a younger person, there's that immediate sense of potential, you know, defensiveness. But if the entire time I'm speaking in I statements, that helps keep their guard down. So, oh wow, yeah, when I was your age, I went through something similar. And what I found for myself was so on and so on and so on. So those two formulas, that a formula of, you know, giving the experience of understanding and empathy, identifying, do you feel this because you want, because there's a want or a need there. Do you feel this because you want this? That's a helpful formula that works probably 90% of the time, not every time, depending on the situation. And then I go into okay, how can I speak from I statements to share experience, strength, and hope rather than giving advice or telling someone how they need to think. And what that does is it maintains the agency and sovereignty of the kid who then feels empowered to transform themselves from the inside out rather than doing things because they're told. And I think we can all as once being kids know that feeling of being told what's up by our parents. And it creates sometimes, at least for me, you know, inner tension of like, oh, do I agree with that or not? Should I just do it because I'm being told? All of that stuff, which is a completely different energetic framework than sovereignty and agency to be able to come to my own growth in my own terms.

SPEAKER_00: 30:00

Yeah. Yeah. And what I was thinking when you were saying that was that's helpful for everybody. Empathy and less shoulds and more I statements. I know that oftentimes, you know, the intention is good of wanting to help the person or solve the problem or help them find the solution. But it's like, that's not our job. Like that's our job is to hear and empathize and, like you said, repeat back to them what you're hearing, ex uh explain a situation where you maybe have gone through something, a lot of I statements. Here's what I would do, here's what I'm thinking, here's what I did. And, you know, then it's it's I think great for kids and just a great human lesson in general.

SPEAKER_01: 30:44

Yeah, then we invite them rather than command them, which has a completely different energy to it. You know, I heard it said that our goal as teachers who serve isn't to wake people up, it's to create a sense of spiritual nourishment so that when they wake up on their own, there's spiritual nourishment and a breakfast, if you will, waiting for them, for them to continue on their path. So it's not about changing other people, it's about laying the tools at their feet that give them the capacity to change themselves because that has a different level of stickiness to it and a different level of strength to it.

SPEAKER_00: 31:22

Yeah. Yeah. And one more question because I'm curious. Like when kids come to your facility, to your location, do they have parents that have gone to like a Dr. Joe retreat? Or are there like kids just struggling with certain things and they Google you and they're like, you gotta go to this? Like, are the parents oftentimes learning a lot through their kids' experience? Or like, what's the journey of a kid? Or maybe I think of two, like church or whatever, church events. It's like, oh, my friends are there, so I want to go. Is that kind of the scenario too? Or how do these yeah, how do these kids come there?

SPEAKER_01: 31:59

There's a lot of different entry points, right? There's a lot of high schoolers who come here for 501c3 nonprofit volunteer hours that is about college resume building. That's a great driver for them, right? And we figured out how to make volunteering super fun and super meaningful and fulfilling on the inside rather than some of the other opportunities out there. So a lot come in through that. A lot come in because they love creativity and art, particularly the high schoolers. You know, a lot of our new students, what happens is I'll receive a text from an upset parent whose kid just got suspended again and they don't know what to do, and the therapist can't see them for another three weeks, and that's just gonna be client intake, and their insurance doesn't cover it. And how quickly can our kid come in? And we don't have much money. How much uh how much does it cost? And I say, Your kid can come today, and we have a scholarship program to take care of your kids so they can come for free. We've turned away zero kids in nine years. I'm really proud of that fact. And then the parents come and they sit in in the back of class, and you have the ones that are already the aware observer, their thoughts, already conscious, if you will, in the practice and know Dr. Joe. And for them, oh my goodness gracious, they can't get enough of it. They love it because it's like kind of what we're all thinking. Okay, how come let's take this and make it available to kids? So we figure out how to language that and really make that resonate. Um, for the ones that haven't really had that experience yet, or they're earlier on the path of their awakening or transformation, um, they're in the back writing notes, you know, fervorously. And because this is this is adult grade stuff. This is, you know, that it's really, we're not um pulling any punches or dumbing it down in any way, rather just shifting the languaging to make it more resonant with someone who's in Gen Z or Gen A.

SPEAKER_00: 33:40

Yeah. Yeah. I just remember when I first started doing this work, I was just like, like it just unlocked something in me. I was hungry and I just couldn't stop. And so I assumed there were some parents that are getting the benefit of their kids being involved in this program. Um, I'm gonna link all the um, yeah, the link to your book and that program that your high school kids um built and how people that are living in LA can get connected with you and all the things. And I just feel like you're doing such great work in this world. It's really beautiful, Raphael. Um, is it what else what is your moonshot? What is your goal that you're reaching towards? Like what is your, what are you just like hungry after now? Whether it's personal, professional, what is the thing that you're that really drives you?

SPEAKER_01: 34:29

Yeah, it's a very, very specific goal. And it's the goal of our entire team and ecosystem here. And the goal is a million conscious youth. Conscious as defined as a person who knows they are the aware observer of their thoughts and not their thoughts. And it's different than intelligent. It's this practice, and a person can know that truth, but not practice it enough to actually be living from that perspective. And no one lives there all the time. I slide back in and out. It's how it is. But to know what it means to practice awareness, we'll call that conscious. So we're shooting for a million conscious youth. We're in the low thousands, but with this platform, that's why the high schoolers wanted to build this platform to begin spreading this message and movement of consciousness. You know, we're looking for support, we're looking reaching out to the world saying, if you believe in this cause, we feel confident we've got a playbook and a blueprint to unfold over the next five years, including this platform, including this is now California state accepted English curriculum. I teach it to foster youth that are in high school as their English class, right? So we have a curriculum that can go in schools and it's already in a bunch of schools here in California. Um, so that's our path, uh, you know, a million conscious youth. And, you know, there's never been a time in this world where that could be more possible. You know, if eight and a half million people can like this dog video on TikTok, whatever it is, we can spread the message of consciousness. You know, it isn't that hard to learn for a person who has the open mind to absorb the lesson, and we're just finding it's spreading like wildfire, well wildfire. Um, and it's a very exciting time. It's gonna be a very exciting this this mission might take three, five, even ten years, and that's okay because at the end, when what we have is a platform with a million conscious youth together, my intuitive sense tells me a lot of beautiful change and societal transformation for the better can occur through a community of youth that are conscious. It's a powerful thing, and this is going to be my life's journey.

SPEAKER_00: 36:32

Yeah, a million conscious youth. And yeah, I'm cheering you on for those listening. Um, you know, get connected with Rafael, get the book, go on the website. If you live in the area, go visit his facility, tell your friends, please come visit, share this space. Yeah, I'll have to come visit as well when I'm in California. I really look forward to it. Um, yeah, I'm just so moved. Great work. This is so awesome and so needed. And I'm excited for the day that we get to celebrate your a million uh milestone. And I think, like you said, what a great time to be alive. What a great time to actually make this possible because of ways that you're throwing bigger rocks in the pond, let's say, by making this curriculum or making this available online or through a book on Amazon. I know that um I'm excited for the day that you reach that goal. Um, I'm gonna link everything to Connect with Raphael, social media, all the stuff in the description. Um, it was great to talk with you today and thank you guys for listening.

SPEAKER_01: 37:35

Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00: 37:44

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Self Love and Sweat the Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode or were inspired by it, or something resonated with you, do me a favor and share this episode with a friend, someone that you think might enjoy this episode as well. That's the ultimate compliment and the best way to make this podcast riffle out into the world of others. And also, you can leave us a review up to five stars wherever you're listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you at the next episode. I appreciate you.