"Perfect Mode" invites you on a transformative odyssey to discover the extraordinary within the ordinary. Hosted by the dynamic duo of JClay, a rapper with a spiritual twist, and Troy Washington, a realtor with a mindset of abundance, this podcast is a sanctuary for those seeking to elevate their existence. Together, they explore the realms of personal growth, mental clarity, and spiritual enlightenment, offering unfiltered insights into living a life unchained by societal expectations. Tune in for your weekly dose of inspiration and embark on a journey to align with your highest self.
If I reminded you that you are perfect, would you argue me down or step into and we explore the world without limitations. I'm Jay Clay, rapper, a spiritual teacher, with my co host Troy Washington, your friendly neighborhood realtor. Let's be real. So let's be perfect.
Troy Washington:Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Welcome to perfect mode. Welcome to perfect mode.
Troy Washington:And first off, let me start by telling y'all that we love y'all. We're grateful for the opportunity to be anywhere sharing our thoughts, hopefully, in helping you realize that you are perfect. And the only reason and I mean the only reason you would think that you're not perfect is if you're looking at this person on the side of you and saying, I'm not them. But guess what? You were you, and that's all you need.
Troy Washington:You are numero, uno, unique. One of 1 cannot be replicated, duplicated, none of that stuff. You just gotta understand how special you are. George, Troy, Washington, your friendly neighborhood, real estate broker, And I have my boy, Jay Clay, spiritual rapper Ed, teacher, and we're about to talk about how to have a perfect perfect perfect week. What up, Jay?
JClay:Yeah. What up? What up? Happy day. Happy Sunday to all my perfect people in perfect land, doing perfect things, loving the perfection of all and, yeah, another week to to to get it.
JClay:Quick shout out to our patreons. Make sure you check out that link. Join support us. We give you a shout out. You can can be able to vote on episode ideas and, you know, be part of the conversation even more.
JClay:So appreciate y'all on that. Click that link though to to join us. Also though, but with this perfect week, we're kicking it off with a fast. Y'all know we do the fast every Monday, but not only that, we also do it the 8th, 9th, 10th of every month. They happen to overlap.
JClay:So we got a nice beautiful 3 day, fat water fast that I would love you to join us. And it's doing the eclipse. You know, the eclipse is tomorrow, so it's like perfect energy, the spring energy, the newness, all of that.
Troy Washington:So shout out to Jeff, and I appreciate you, fam. And then what's up, Latrice Hampton? I appreciate you joining us today as well. But, yeah, man. When you talk about the perfect week, I want to also insert the fact that though we're talking about this, this is something that we're actually going to be going into ourselves for this week.
Troy Washington:So that way we could in turn have the perfect week with you. But, Gojay, you know, how you wanna go ahead and kick this thing out?
JClay:Yeah. So I I was thinking I was like, okay. Because it because it there are some tasks that you need to do, and then we're gonna go over each one. Oh, yeah. Appreciate that again.
JClay:Yeah. Do you wanna start with the weekly or the daily? It's easier than it sounds. But
Troy Washington:Yeah. I I would say let's start with the daily. And again, we're talking about daily tasks that we can institute into our life to have the perfect day that will turn into the perfect week. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:So the the the bulk of the daily things come from a book called Miracle Morning. I think that's the name of it. By I should have remembered his name. But what he talked about was this thing called SABERS. It's an acronym, s a v e r s.
JClay:Then were gonna go through them in, individually. We've done them before. They do work. Falling off doesn't mean that it doesn't work, but it's it's cool to do. And the idea is that you wanna do these for a total of an hour at least a day.
JClay:And and I'll explain when we go in. So the the first one that you do is silence or meditation. Start your day off in the in the morning. You just
Troy Washington:you just wanna be silent.
JClay:Just listen. Just be. Just go ahead and do it like something.
Troy Washington:And and I just want to just, you know, say that this is the s in savers. This is the s in savers. It's silence. And funny enough, man, again, one of these things that I don't feel like I'm gonna have to try too hard to institute into my life is the silence because the funniest thing is whenever I wake up in the morning, before I decide to ever move, I literally just lay there in silence and try to, meditate on the way that I wanna feel when I actually do step out of the bed. But go ahead, Jay.
Troy Washington:Yeah.
JClay:Yeah. And it it is there's multiple ways to meditate. I know sometimes some people might listen to prompts, meditation prompts, or, like, guided meditations. I like to do silence and and clearing of my mind completely where there are no thoughts. Sometimes thoughts still come and then you can watch them and let them go.
JClay:But when I reached the level where it's perfect silence, like, it's just I mean, noise was still going around you, but it is something about that that just I don't even wanna say it it sounds bad to say emptiness in your mind, but when your mind is just clear and empty, it's like everything is in focus, but nothing is in focus.
Troy Washington:So in contrast to what you do, and I like that too because there are sometimes where I'm meditating. I do wanna have that emptiness, but in my mornings, my reset to myself is and I and I and I've told you this before, was making myself remember the truth. Yeah. And me remembering the truth and my silence is that I'm amazing because for whatever reason throughout the days throughout the weeks, we tend to look at ourself as less than because of everything that's going on around us. And I don't mean in a necessarily a detrimental way, meaning, like, where I'm walking around thinking that I'm not amazing, but, I walk around in the sense of lacking feeling that I'm not as amazing as I know that I should be.
Troy Washington:And so when I wake up in the morning, when I'm sitting in silence, I'm meditating to myself that I'm amazing until I'm able to comfortably get up and feel the words that I've actually said. And I might say it to myself a 100 times. I might say, man, you're amazing. Well, first, the first thing I gotta say is, man, thank you for, you know, letting me have another day. And then from there and, again, this is all internal.
Troy Washington:After that, it's literally like, Troy, you are amazing. Troy, you are amazing. Troy, you are amazing. And, again, the the reason for the repetition in me meditating is because I don't always feel that way. And so I'm gonna tell myself to change my mind before I make a move, but go ahead, Jay.
Troy Washington:Yeah.
JClay:And I and I will say in in that that it kinda it's kinda both meditation and affirmation. It kinda falls in the in the affirmation category. So I will still say if you can, even after that, like, just see if you can just get to a period of just silence. And the reason being is that, we don't we're not always aware of the number of thoughts that come into our mind at any given moment. And I've talked to many people that they say that they can't turn up their thoughts.
JClay:They say like, thinking is just it just is. It's always gonna happen. I used to think that way too. And it but it's something about when you reach the state of no fault. Like like, I I don't even know how to explain the clarity, the peace, the the the joy, the ease.
JClay:And even when you're in it, you you start to think. Like, you're like, wow. This is amazing, but then you realize that's a thought too, and you you wanna kinda Thinking about not thinking. Exactly. Like and and that but that's part of it too.
JClay:Like Nah. I know. It is a process. When you first start sitting in silence, part of you is gonna rebel. You gonna rebel like, man, this is stupid.
JClay:Why am I doing this? I wanna I wanna move. But when you finally just sit down, the next step is you gonna start getting all these ideas you never had, and you're gonna wanna get up out of that silence and put them into action right away. But I would still say maintain that silence at least for the time that you allotted for yourself.
Troy Washington:So I'm gonna ask you a question because, I think that the listeners need to hear this. And again, I I know exactly what you're saying by having a complete, thoughtless experience. Right? But it's easier said than done. Right?
Troy Washington:Like you said, you know, for somebody trying to do that, they are literally sometimes even when you're thinking about not thinking, you won't even recognize that. If we hadn't said it, that wouldn't be something that you would easily even recognize. You would just be thinking, okay. I'm not thinking about nothing. Okay.
Troy Washington:I'm not thinking about nothing. Right? But the question that, I have for for us to answer for the listeners is, how do you work on that? How do you work on clearing your head for you to to recognize number 1 and then also clear that out?
JClay:Yeah. What's crazy? I I never thought about it like this before, but it's actually through forgiveness. And it this is this is a cool way to practice forget like, self forgiveness. So when you're in this meditative state, like I said, thoughts are gonna come.
JClay:And and after a while, it's almost like your ego is is is testing you. Like, man, I want you to think this thought because this thought is worth thinking right now. And so you you're like, oh, I didn't think about that before. And you wanna go down that that trail, but forgive yourself for doing that because, like, after a point, you might get mad. You you might get mad at yourself.
JClay:Like, man, I I I was so I was feeling it. I was in this peaceful state, and then I started thinking, and then you're harping on that you just thought, which is even further thought instead of just saying, you know what? I forget myself. Let me try again. And and and and it could be a series of a 100 a 100 in a row.
JClay:Let me try again. Let me try again. But eventually, you will get better at it. It might not be day 1 of this week. It might not be day 2 of day day 3, but you will eventually, the more you do it, get better at it and reach this state not even when you're meditating, but just when you're just out about in the world.
Troy Washington:So and I I wanna add this to it, and this is the practice that I have for myself in order to accomplish this exact same thing that you're talking about. Because I love the fact I love the fact of forgiveness because that's a double edged sword. You get to practice forgiveness outside of it too. So that's just a whole another conversation. But, the other piece to it for me was, focusing on my breathing.
Troy Washington:Now, again, focusing on your breathing is a thought as well. Yeah. But what happens is when I started focusing on my breathing only and my meditations, that shut out everything else. And now the only thing I was thinking about was my breathing. But by repetition, the breathing became natural, and so that also disappeared as well.
Troy Washington:So, you know, that's why I love the breathing meditation where you have to count it in a sense or, you know, time it in a sense because, eventually, you stop thinking about everything else and then you focus on the breath, and then the breath just becomes natural because we do that all the time anyway. But that's just my thoughts on it. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And like you like you said, forgiveness is the added bonus. What you just touched on is the added bonus because that's the key to peace is is when you breathe slowly, you are at peace. You are at rest. And if you're in a situation where it seems tense, but you're able to maintain that slow breath where you're just like, just, you know, as slow and peaceful as you can.
JClay:It will translate into your reality too where that situation isn't that stressful anymore. And I'm I'm glad you said that because that is a perfect way to to start getting into that that space where everything else shuts off. So, yeah.
Troy Washington:So let's go ahead and get to the a, baby.
JClay:Yeah. Let's get to the a. The a in sabers, s a v e r s, which is affirmations. And I know you already touched on it, so I said go ahead. Just just reiterate on how that impacts your day.
Troy Washington:No. That's funny that you say it because, again, I know we got stories upon stories, but I'm I'm gonna keep it short since we kinda went in on the the s a little bit. But, again, when I start my day, the first thing that I'm trying to remind myself because, again, this is something that I I've seen in myself. I also see it, with people around me, and you can either buy somebody just day starts. You know, some people don't wake up full of love in their heart.
Troy Washington:And I don't mean that in, meaning you waking up like, oh, I love the world or but we kinda tend to wake up tense and upset about what the day holds. And that's part because we forget who we are. We forget how amazing it is to to have another day. We forget how, blessed we are to be able to experience something new, even experience something that we've experienced before. IE I'm not an advocate, but, I mean, for some people that don't have any means for income.
Troy Washington:That is a great thing and so for me the first thing that I do when I wake up every single morning is tell myself that I'm amazing because because I know that I forgot and I know that I can get out the bed on the wrong side of the bed. I know I can have a negative outlook on the things that I have to come like oh, I got a lot of work today do today Something that small, which in the grand scheme of things, it it doesn't always necessarily mean a negative thing, but we're taking a negative viewpoint or vantage point of it when we say it like, oh, it's a lot of stuff versus saying, man, I'm glad I got so much to do today. My life is full. My life is complete. I get to experience the same thing or new things, or I can approach this a different way.
Troy Washington:So I think that, reminding myself every day how amazing I am, you can say whatever you want to. I'm great. I'm amazing. I'm I'm blessed. I'm lucky.
Troy Washington:You know, however you want to be, I guess, present to yourself because that's all it is. It's a presentation to yourself. So that way, you will know exactly who you are and what you're capable of, but go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. The the the coolest thing to me about all of this with affirmations is so sometimes a person can say words that just get us outside of ourself. And so we can use that same logic to get into the the self that we wanna be. And with words, you are deciding the words that it gets you there, and you are repeating it in such a way that it becomes part of you. So the the the first part is you wanna pick words that resonate with you.
JClay:So for example, let's say I have an affirmation to say I'm a quadrillionaire, but then every time I say it, I'm like, I'm not really because look at my bank account. It's not a contrarian. Not like you that that affirmation took you to the opposite of what you wanted. So you don't wanna word it like that. You might wanna say I'm preparing myself to be this or or I will be this or I am stepping into this.
JClay:This what what whatever variation you need to set in order that you believe it and then just start saying it over and over. So, sometimes, like, you can say it all in one go. Like like like you did, Troy, when you say I'm amazing. I'm amazing. I'm amazing.
JClay:Until you know it in your essence and you're ready to start your day. Or something that I do is I I've got this app that I downloaded. It's called prayer minder. It's on, iOS. I don't know if it's on Android, but you can set different prayers or affirmations throughout the day and the frequency of it, and they just pop up.
JClay:So the the the reason I like to do it this way is because I usually want to be in states of being throughout the day, but I'll forget about the affirmations that I said that morning. It's like, man, that's in the morning. I need it right now when I'm in the thick of it. And sure enough, it pops up and it's like, oh, yeah. I relax into that state of being, and then I can take on my day from that that viewpoint.
Troy Washington:Now funny enough, I just wanna give an example because, again, the the reality of it is so so number 1, I love the fact that you said make sure it's something that is realistic to you. Because if you cannot make yourself eat, it doesn't have to be fully realistic because, you know, dreaming, is a part of life. Living to I mean, aspiring to do things is a part of life. So there can be a little bit of a challenge to it. But if you say I'm a quadrillionaire, there is a lack of belief in you that's going to just it's it's so many different elements you have to overcome in order for that to be real.
Troy Washington:But the the reality of it is if there's an inkling of a belief in it, you your body and who you are will function or move accordingly. And this is simple enough. You know, it been many times when I felt like my knee was hurt, right? And it may have or may not have been hurt, but the way that I walked all day was in favor of the need that I felt, like, was hurt. Like, I would not step so hard on that foot and my and and and it's something that you do subconsciously.
Troy Washington:But vice versa, the the cool part is whenever I wake up in the morning and then I've told myself I'm amazing enough time for me to to wake up in the in in the mood. Again, everybody doesn't know, what I've said or what I've done, but there is a different aura about me. And there have been plenty times where and, again, I I can't quantify what it is because there's no way for me to really describe it. But those days, it seems like everything seems to go my way. And it it doesn't mean that I I I got some money, but it's just the way that people approach me.
Troy Washington:Hey. Hey, Troy. Good morning. You know, the conversation because there's something that I'm emanating from myself that allows that allows that to come back to me. So, you know, I definitely believe in the affirmation.
Troy Washington:Go ahead, bro.
JClay:Yeah. It it was cool, like, even what you said. So and I noticed this too. When things happen to you throughout the day after you said your affirmations, you might ask yourself, why is this happening? And then you remember, like like like, why are people reacting to me like that?
JClay:Oh, I am amazing. And it and it just it allows you to see examples of this in your reality because because everything is is here present right now, but we only see through the filter of the beliefs we have. And so we're we're changing our beliefs so that we can see new things.
Troy Washington:Look. One one thing before we go to the v, man.
JClay:Yeah.
Troy Washington:I I told you this. The the the day when it hit home for me now mind you, nobody ever opens the door for me ever. Like, ever, bro. Nobody ever opens the door for me. And I still remember this.
Troy Washington:I pulled up to the bank. I literally was at my car door. I was parked in front of the bank, but it wasn't it wasn't close enough for you to hold the door open for me to to come in. Right? And then on top of somebody holding the door open for me, it was a woman.
Troy Washington:Now you might think that when me, you know, she might have thought I was handsome or maybe wanted to say something to me or anything. Right? But me looking at this occurred, now number 1, the that I was being intentional, and I literally told myself that I was amazing all all morning. Right? So when I pulled up to the bank, I get out the car.
Troy Washington:I see this lady standing at the door. So I think she's holding for somebody else that's gonna come out. And then I walked on up the door, and she let me go in and she was like, hey. I hope you have a good morning. And I was blew away because there was not nothing else after it or anything.
Troy Washington:She just went her way. I went my way. But I told myself, then I was like, this is exactly what I get. This is what I deserve because, I allowed that to be true for me right and, it's just it's just one of those things, but man I just had to throw that out there for you.
JClay:And so so yeah. Now let's let's move on to the v in savers, s a v e r s. The v is visualization. And visualization, it it just goes down to it in its simplicity is seeing is believing. When you see something, you you believe in it more.
JClay:It's like, oh, it's there. I I see it. And you can be a part of that. Like, you can you can visualize yourself in certain situations so that when these situations come, you're prepared for them. And it it could you could do this with anything at all.
JClay:I I've done this with with some extreme things, things I used to be slightly terrified about or whatever. I I visualize myself in those situations. And when it was time to act them out, it was nothing. And and be because you're practicing it, it's like you're you're bringing yourself closer to that situation as that situation is coming closer to you.
Troy Washington:So I want to tie this in a little bit with the meditation as well. Right? So, you know, we were talking about clearing our mind, but at the time when you're in the focus of clearing your mind and you're meditating, it's always a great time for visualization. And, I wanna tell you one meditation that I did that helped me to be specific in my visualization because I think that's where a lot of people lack. Well, at least that's where I lacked it, and I feel like people are like me.
Troy Washington:So there was this one meditation where I did and they you know close your eyes breathe and they said I want you to imagine a fire burning in your foot, not a fire that's hurting for you, but like a glow. And then they they they they they move. They say move the fire from your foot to your knee. Move it from your knee to your midsection. Move it from your midsection to your arm, and then oh, and so and so forth.
Troy Washington:And so while I was meditating, it was very difficult for me to like, I can imagine my foot. I can imagine the glow, but I cannot imagine it moving up. And it took practice and practice and practice for me to start to do it. But what that translated into was I was praying one night and I know about being in prayer, I was not visualizing I was so generic that I really didn't I couldn't visualize what I was seeing. So I would always think about about the glow, the glow moving up.
Troy Washington:And so in my prayers, I literally will pray something, and then I will say, but what does that look like? And then I will go back and say the same prayer and add more detail. And then I will say, but what does that look like? And then I'll go back and add more detail to that until now the picture is so vivid that I can't unsee it. And so, you know, I I I definitely, when it comes to the visual, like, visualization, sometimes they can be nonspecific.
Troy Washington:Try to be as specific as you possibly can. Go ahead, bro.
JClay:And and I I love that too because, you know, a a lot of people believe in the effects of time, and they don't wanna waste time. And by being specific, you know if something matches what you want or not immediately because it's like, no. I see it like this in my mind. I I have faith in it. This doesn't match.
JClay:I don't need to waste my time with this particular opportunity. And when you do that, like, you can you can just be more focused and your your whole life can be, I want this. I want this. I wanna focus on this. Like, you you can be in the state of being where everything is great.
JClay:Everything is heaven around you. Everyone is heavenly. Everyone is nice. But it starts with what you want. Like, do you really want that?
JClay:Do you really wanna be in a world where everyone is happy, everyone is nice? And I know some people don't. And but but when you're real with yourself, you allow even that to be okay because you might be in a situation like, why is this person mad at me? Oh, I said I I wanna be, you know, around people where they're sometimes angry and things of that nature. So allowing yourself to visualize yourself in any situation at all helps.
JClay:But with a warning, try not to visualize yourself in situations you don't wanna be. Like the like, I wish somebody would because if they do this, then I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna and you're bringing these these conflict stories to you, to your life when you really don't want.
Troy Washington:Funny funny, it's 2 things I want to touch on. So so funny that you say visualizing yourself in situations that you want 1, and this is something that I experience all the time with my kids. Like, they will say, like, we're finna get ready and do something. Use basketball as an example. I knew I was gonna miss that shot, Oh, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do that.
Troy Washington:And so, you know, I always, you know, try to teach them. Just think about you doing it because you're more likely to do it if you decide that it's an option right. So you know that's that's that's uh-uh a big thing I think for all of us, we sometimes go in a situations. Not giving ourself a chance and so when it comes to visualization and and articulating your thoughts, the one thing that II know for a fact that using your example that you said about being a quadrillionaire, a lot of people can't imagine what a quadrillion dollars looks like Right? But the the things that we are more apt to obtain are things that we literally can look at and be like, I know this to the detail so much that it's impossible for it to not to be impossible.
Troy Washington:Like, it cannot not be real because I know every detail about it. And if you feel that way about something, there's no way that you cannot create it or put yourself in a situation. And, again, pointing to everything that you have in your life currently, you were able to visualize that to its finest detail. And the things that you can't, you are always reluctant to move on. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And and before we go to the to the e, in Sabers, I I wanna say that to your shot example, Like, I I've never considered myself a shooter in basketball. I always said I'm a defensive person and stuff. But then I was like, let me think about it. Like, what would happen if I told myself I'm a shooter and then I I visualize myself making all the shots?
JClay:I didn't end up making all the shots, but my percentage was high. And people even asked me like, man, you've been practicing? I haven't been practicing, but the but I told myself that I can make every shot that I shoot. And just seeing that, like, seeing the ball go in made a huge difference. And it's like, why not apply that to everything I do before I do something?
JClay:Why not visualize the the outcome that I want? Don't don't be focused on it. Like, I I I'm not expecting it, but I I intend for it.
Troy Washington:Bro, just, again, using those examples, man. Look. There has been a season that my kids have gone to, and we've lost every single game in that season. Like, we lost all the big games in that season. And after every game, I would tell my kids that we were better than the team that we played against.
Troy Washington:We just made a lot of mistakes. Right? And and so much so that they believed it. They believed that we were always better than those teams. Whenever we met those teams in the playoffs, we beat everybody and went to the championship.
Troy Washington:Everybody that we lost multiple games to in the season. I'm talking about multiple. We would go and beat them in the playoffs. So, you know, I I definitely know that you allowing yourself to know the truth and that you're amazing. Visualizing what that looks like is definitely key to your success.
JClay:Yeah. So now let's go to the E in savers. I just wanted to pull it up so everybody sees. So again, just to say the S is silence or meditation, a is affirmation, b is visualization, and then going to e, e is exercise. Daily exercise.
JClay:Now the the thing is with, like, this whole savers thing, the idea was a miracle morning. You wanna do at least a hour a day of this total. So if you split everything up evenly, what's that maybe? 10 minutes per each thing in savers? So people might think, like, 10 minutes of exercise is nothing.
JClay:That's not true at all. Like, 10 minute if you're not doing 10 minutes right now, 10 minutes is everything. And it doesn't you don't have to go all elaborate. You don't have to try to run as hard as you can, jump as high as you can. You can just start very simple.
JClay:Start where you at. Start with what you wanna improve on. You can just start stretching. Like, whatever it is, just to just add that that 10 at least 10 minutes. You can go up to an hour.
JClay:You can go up to 3 hours, 4 hours, whatever you want, but don't discredit not doing it at all, if you haven't been doing it at all. Like, even 5 minutes is beautiful.
Troy Washington:So, to that point, I'm gonna tell you about my own journey. So on January 30th, I was not exercising at all. I just wasn't, you know, I kinda hurt my foot in November, and I stopped running. December, I was just like, you know what? Whatever.
Troy Washington:And then in January, I was just like, okay. I guess I gotta get back to it. I gotta start doing something. So my my goal was I downloaded an app that you, sent to me, the workout app tracking workout tracker. And they had this, challenge on there that said do a 100 push ups a day.
Troy Washington:Now I can do a 100 push ups in about 10 minutes. You know what I mean? If I break it up, I might, you know, do 25 or 30, which will take me, like, you know, 30 seconds or something like that. But nonetheless, I said, okay. You know what?
Troy Washington:Let me just do the 100 push up a day challenge. And so this is what happens in my 10 minutes every single day. So number 1, it was a challenge. I was like, oh, it's gonna be crazy. Tough 100 push ups.
Troy Washington:I don't know if I can do it, but nonetheless, I started doing it, and I was consistent with it. And then maybe after 2 weeks time now mind you, I'm forcing myself every day to do this. After 2 weeks time, I saw a change in my body. So now, there's 10 minutes that we're talking about has sparked a level of love in myself. It's crazy as it might sound.
Troy Washington:Right? Now with just that little spark of love that I've gotten to myself, now I'm not necessarily looking for the changes in my body, but I'm celebrating the success that I've had. And every single time that I was able to complete a a day of a 100 day push ups, I was ecstatic with myself. Like, I can't believe I did this. Again, not necessarily worrying about the outcome of what my body looks like in it.
Troy Washington:And I and I want to say I am satisfied with that. So now what ended up happening is on a daily basis, I have a challenge that's in front of me Even now that feels difficult, but I look forward to it. There's a there's love in the looking forward to doing something. There's love in the completing it and then there's love in the results and when you wanna talk about, adding to your perfect week, at look like exercise does that for you accomplishing something small every day especially that's gonna be beneficial to your health per se is it's there's no value that I can actually place on it, but go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And I can attest to that too. Like, there there's something about being able to to move with ease within your own body. And when you exercise, not only does it allow you to start moving with ease better, but the the the motion of exercise, your mind isn't focused on whatever problems or sad things that you let your mind to be part of. So it's kind of a meditation in itself too.
JClay:It's it's a it's a it's a meditation. It's a affirmation. It's a visualization. Like, it's it's all of those rolled into 1 because you get to embody a more powerful self both both physically and mentally. And, and and I'll even say similar to to your story in January, you know, I I started something too.
JClay:I was like, man, let me let me get back on it. And I started doing p 90 x. Something I hadn't did in, like, over 10 years or something. And the 1st week or 2, like, each each each workout is, like, a hour long. I probably only made it maybe 40 minutes on one of them and the rest probably 20 or 30 minutes.
JClay:One, it was even 10 minutes, and I was like, nope. But then, like, on that 3rd or 4th week, I started completing them. That that 5th, 6th week, I I started thriving in it. I started wanting more and having improvements on on everything. And it just it it just adds to how you feel.
JClay:And and so so so again, I'm not saying you have to go super hard, but that that little bit will add up even if you just stay at a little bit for an extended period of time.
Troy Washington:And and I'll say this as well, bro. And I want to, you know, go back to the Sabers real quick. You know, he said, you know, essentially, that's 10 minutes per deal. Right?
JClay:Yeah.
Troy Washington:Per per acronym of savers. Right? But the idea here is to do it. Right? So if you do want to complete your 60 minutes, an hour a day, which will be 10 minutes on each one of them, shout out to him loud.
Troy Washington:We appreciate you joining us today. If you do wanna complete your 10 minutes and you just again, doing a 100 push ups was difficult for me. And maybe you might can only do 5 minutes. Then I'll apply 5 minutes toward visualization to see myself doing the other. Like, I would still utilize that time to move myself toward the 10 minutes that I I'm going for.
Troy Washington:And then, you know, I kinda wanna add to the love that I feel every single day even when the because, again, I don't wanna act like push ups has gotten any easier for me. There's a mental challenge that I have every single day that says Troy you're gonna do this today and I look again. I'm in love with myself for being able to overcome that challenge. I'm in love with myself with finishing it and I'm also in love with myself before the results but the beautiful part in in it all is my 10 minutes has turned into 20 or 30 minutes because now once I get past the push ups, all the other exercises that I wanted to accompany that I've thrown in the mix because now I'm in the routine, and I wanna feel that love all over myself all the time. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And I'm glad you said that because what we'll find out and what we already know is that every habit comes with its cousins, its friends. Like like like you start any habit at all, it's gonna have related benefits that that come along with it that you just did not expect, and it's it's cool. Alright. Let's go to the r.
JClay:The r is reading. Reading, reading, reading. And you can get far reading 10 minutes a day. Like, you can you can finish so many books. Back in the day, I I wanted to read the bible, you know, cover to cover.
JClay:And I think I started with, like, 10 minutes a day. And before I knew it, I I was done. And if you say you don't have 10 minutes, you probably go to the bathroom at least 10 minutes a day every day. Have whatever book you wanna read on the toilet. Read that book.
JClay:Like, it it
Troy Washington:it it
JClay:it it it could be whatever you want. It could be a self help book. It could be a fantasy book. It can be just something you wanna read on. I just whatever it it is, the the benefit is it it gets you outside of yourself and your own thought patterns to consider consider other thought patterns, and sometimes you can just learn new things about yourself by reading a book.
Troy Washington:Question for you. Now is there any difference between actual reading it and listening to a book? And I'm a I'm a tell you the reason why after I hear your answer.
JClay:Yeah. I I I went back and forth on this. I think so. I think there's a difference. You do?
Troy Washington:Okay. So so okay. Go ahead. Go ahead.
JClay:The the the the reason is when you because I I I've done both. Something about a physical book. It holds your attention more. When you're listening, you're allowed to do other things while listening. Like, you can wash dishes, you can drive, you can do that, which is still a benefit, but when it's when it's when it's there and it has your total focus, you can assimilate it a little bit better.
JClay:But but but if all you can do is listen, listen instead.
Troy Washington:So the reason why so number 1, I want to give some value to what you said about holding attention because I 100% wholeheartedly agree with that. And I also know it to be true, but I'm also gonna change my mind about it in time. Now and when I say change my mind about it is I'm going to say that, eventually, I'm going to be able to listen to a book and allow that to be my complete focus. Ma'am, right? Now the reason why I wanted to bring it up is because I'm a book listener, But I also understand the value of holding a book too because, you you literally having to look at a page and read it and hear the words in your head is a thing.
Troy Washington:It literally is a thing. I I I I get it. And the reason why when you're listening to a book, you can hear the words in your head, but you can also hear other things. But when you're reading it, for some reason, reading it to yourself makes it louder than everything else that you hear because when I'm reading something, I can still hear my kids, but I'm louder. When I'm listening to a book, I can still hear my kids, but it's kinda on even playing ground.
Troy Washington:Right? The other thing is, when I'm listening to a book, I am easily distracted where I would have to go back and relisten. I'm a relisten. I will relisten to it until I hear it, right? So that's the reason why I give to the word even though I know that it's going to change for me.
Troy Washington:But for all the people that are book listeners like myself, it still serves its purpose like he said, because one thing that I do know about me listening to books, if I am able to shut out all the things that are around me, I'm able to get outside of myself, which is a point that j Clay made, and it opens me up to what the universe or the world has to hold for me, which in in in turn, makes me realize how small we can think sometimes. And so, whether you're reading or listening, I still encourage you to do either one. Just make sure you put that time aside because being able to get outside of reality or even if it's a self help or even if it's a uh-uh drama or whatever the case being able to hear those words to allow yourself to get outside of what you can normally think is very important and I wanna read what him said as well, he said. Personally, I don't like reading books. I think a lot also feel I think a lot also feel the same.
JClay:Yeah. And, I I wanna bring up about, like, something about reading books is, well, one, if you're looking at the world through only your perspective, you're extremely limiting your potential. And I know that might seem crazy, but but no. Like, the the more perspectives you consider, the more of the whole you can experience. And, but you you but we're you you also touched on something, Troy, where you said you can hear the word yourself in your head.
JClay:There there's a book called A Course in Miracles that I feel like kinda launched my spiritualness, that I that I I highly recommend. And when I came to this book, I said, this is I I deemed it. I was like, this is truth. I need to learn all of this. And I read each line out loud.
JClay:The reason I read each each word out loud is because I wanted to hear myself speaking these truths. Because not not to say that I thought falsely of myself, but I knew that if I could hear myself saying these truths, it's gonna it's gonna empower me to be more truthful more and more and more and more. And and I I I stand back behind this decision. Like, if there's something you come across that that really impacts you, hear yourself reading these words out loud. Like, read it literally out loud and just watch that it has the double effect of affirmations, visualizations, meditation, all of that rolled in 1.
Troy Washington:And so so I wanna add a little bit to this because there's a keyword that you said, and that's perspective. Right? Like, seeing other perspective, kinda helps you to formulate, or recognize and and further bolster who you truly are. Right? Give you a broader, reach of what you can do.
Troy Washington:And so this is I'm I'm gonna say, like, watching a sci fi movie. Right? You can watch a sci fi movie, and you can be grounded enough to know what to me, this is not real. And now I can think outside of my box and go wherever the universe can take me based off my own beliefs. Now the only reason I'm pointing these things out because I'm just saying this for people that don't like to read books or people that don't wanna listen to books.
Troy Washington:You also if you're on social media and and we're talking perspective here, you can also read people's posts. You can also read people's, tags. And and the only reason I I I I pointed out being confident in who you are, which is gonna come with you being silent, you having affirmations, you doing all these things in savers to be grounded, reading people's, what status is, he can give you a perspective as well because you can see what people are thinking or understand why the people are feeling a certain way about the world and so you know again III wouldn't encourage that to be your main. Place of reading. But if you need to read in it, reading traditionally is not your thing, read statuses.
Troy Washington:I've gained so much perspective looking at other people's thoughts than I could ever even quantify because it's really a makeup of who I am today. So, you know, I I I throw that in there as well. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And and and to that too, I I wanna say caution because it's it's nothing to be cautious of. But if if you know that certain beliefs and statuses will trigger you in a way that will cause your day to be worse, then I wouldn't start there. And I and I would I would start with something that'll get you to learn how to not react negatively to, you know, certain things. Like, the the key the key to to reading and loving what you read is to pick something that you actually wanna learn.
JClay:Like and and when you do that, it's it's that simple.
Troy Washington:And and that's the reason why I lead off with talking about sci fi and then also grounding yourself of who you are. Yeah. Because you you don't want anything to stray you away from the pathway that you're trying to take. And, but again, to the point that you were making, sometimes things that are not along your pathway can give you even more perspective in the pathway that you're trying to take. And, you know, one thing that I know that we talk about on this show, if you pray to be a peaceful person, how can you know that you're peaceful if you're never met with the opposition to choose the peace that you're seeking?
Troy Washington:And so when I think about these statuses and again, the key here is reading to gain perspective and understanding so when I think about reading these things that could stray you away if you're not grounded and understand it could not be helpful to you. But if you know decided today that I'm amazing and there's not gonna make me check my mind for being amazing today, then I'm up for the challenge of anything. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yes. And the last of the daily because we we got some weekly ones for you too, but the last of the daily things is scribing in sabers. S a v e r s is the second s, which is also journaling. Now this one, if there's anyone that's watching this as an expert in journaling, I would love to for you to comment your your tips on it. Because out of all the ones we mentioned, this is the one that I I can honestly say I don't do as much as I should.
JClay:I I I will say, like, every day, I kinda flesh out my ideas, get them out there, but it's not in a maybe a a controlled way or in in a intention led way. And I and I've heard, like, many benefits of of journaling. So what I'm willing to do, like, I I am gonna go at it with good intentions this week and make sure I do it and just see, what what can come from it. Go ahead.
Troy Washington:So I I would honestly say this that's the one that's been the most difficult for me as well. It's the one that's been the the biggest challenge in, and I'm I'm gonna tell you the reason why. There's a couple of reasons. Number 1, time. I always feel like I don't have time to write down my thoughts or my feelings throughout the day.
Troy Washington:But I had to sit back and think about this. And, when I was younger, actually, when I first got with my wife, at nighttime, I used to sit in the bed, and she would ask me what was I doing. But what I used to actually do was I would do a rundown of what I did for the day. I would literally be like, okay. I woke up this morning.
Troy Washington:I did this. I did this. I did this. And she was like, well, why did you play it back? And, I I would always tell her at the time, it was a memory exercise.
Troy Washington:I wanted to make sure that I had the capacity to be able to recall everything that III did right and I didn't realize that that was a form of scribing, but I wasn't physically putting it down but the second part to it when it comes to timing me feeling like I don't have enough time. Just trying to figure out what actually to write because I know what to write but transcribing my entire day is not realistic in to me. Right? And so trying to figure out what highlights if I'm saying that every moment of my day is important, should I put down is a big, big, big, big thoughts for me. But like you said, I'm going to be intentional this week.
Troy Washington:I'm shout out to to own because they put a journal app on our phones here about a month ago and I'm gonna I'm I'm I'm gonna test it out, and I'm gonna just use key points. But if anybody is a professional at, journaling, you know, we're definitely looking, for your your, you know, advice on how we can handle that.
JClay:And I will say too that I've seen sites where they have journaling prompts. They even have journal notebooks with different prompts per day. One that I I will say was helpful, was, like, writing 5 to 10 things you you were grateful for that day. And I and I I I've done it, and I I appreciated it, but then I fell off of it. So I I need to find that right balances if I'm gonna journal at the beginning of the day, the end of the day.
JClay:The beginning would probably be best for me, which again is called the miracle morning. So it it might be 10 things you were grateful for the day before or just in that moment. Yeah. I'm yeah. I am willing.
JClay:And that that'll probably be my reading for the first few days of just reading on the benefits of journaling and just seeing how I can apply it successfully.
Troy Washington:No. I love it. So I think now that we got to the end of it, let's kinda go through each one of them again and what they what they are, and then we'll go to the weekly, you know, weekly. So number 1, silence. You know, starting your day in silence.
Troy Washington:Number 2 is, affirmations. You know, telling yourself the truth. And I like to always say, it's telling yourself the truth because we just tend to have forgot, you know, what the truth is. And you can go with, VE and I go RAS.
JClay:Yeah. VEV is visualization. Visualize it. See it. Seeing is believing.
JClay:See yourself in the positions that you wanna be in. See yourself amongst the people you wanna be in. See yourself in experiencing all the things you wanna do. Exercise is like and all of these are daily exercises. Exercise is just you're just practicing it physically.
JClay:You're you're practicing out everything you wanna do. You're going through the motions. You're you're filling your body. You're you're making it stronger. You're making your mind stronger like e, exercise.
Troy Washington:And r is for reading, you know, spending a little time every single day, to read, you know, just to give yourself different perspectives, see outside of, you know, what you're internalizing all the time, and then last scribing. You know? It's it's a lot of different ways you can go with this, but literally, I like your example by, you know, writing down the things that you're grateful for or you're thankful for throughout the day. You know, you could actually go into, you know, key points of your day that you wanna highlight, but definitely, writing it down and, you know, just how to to to go about having the perfect day. You know, putting it together and having some type of system so that way you can make sure that you're hitting key points, and and and your daily activity.
JClay:Yeah. And and again, just to to say if anybody wanna read wants to read more about this, Sabers comes from a book called The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, I think is his name. I could be wrong, but it's called The Miracle Morning. It's it's very famous. So now let's get into the the weekly.
JClay:It's just it's just 2 of these, things that you can do with 2 instances of 2. I'm calling this, a one one note or actually, no. That's the wrong one I'm showing. A one and one go hard and don't. So what this is, this in this week, you got 7 days.
JClay:I want you to pick a day that you're just gonna go hard, like, as hard as you can on everything. Like, you you you do everything with intention. If you work your workout that day is gonna be a a tough workout. You're really into it. All your tasks, you're really gonna be present and and do them.
JClay:And then on the flip side, one day where you don't do anything, like, where you you're just relaxing. And if you still you're doing the daily exercise, for example, it's a low impact. It might be a walk. It might be stretching. It might be yoga.
JClay:It might be something like that. But everything you do, you you you do it from a relaxed state. You're just allowing yourself to be. You're not worried about meeting deadlines. You just you're saying, hey.
JClay:I'm gonna have a rest day. I'm gonna take this day for me.
Troy Washington:I'm a I'm gonna highlight the don't more than I'm gonna highlight the go. And the reason why I'm gonna highlight the don't, the don't is the thing that gives you the power, like, and I mean, it has to be a unapologetic don't. See, there's a lot of times when we decide to do the don't, and then there's a lot of mental ramifications that are tied to that. And what I mean is you will beat yourself down thinking about what you should be doing, what you're missing out on, what's gonna be behind, all of these different things that kinda, you know, the cousins to the action. You know, as you said, so you got to you have to make sure you give yourself a don't day for real, and and and be unapologetic about it and forgive yourself for anything that you feel like you may be lacking in that day.
Troy Washington:And I think that kinda gives you the power, but you always have the power. I don't wanna speak no untruths here. But you're you're open to the power to go super hard a day. Because if you know you have a day where you just don't really have to think about it, it makes it that much more easy. But go ahead,
JClay:If you and I I wanna stress that unapologetic unapologetic nature. Like, tell people, tell those around you, like, hey. Just so you know, on this day, I'm doing nothing. I'm I'm I'm relaxing. I'm, you know so, like, you can you can prepare those around you.
JClay:And it it's it's something so special about that. Like, it changes everything, and it makes you it it refreshes you for the next week. So it's like you're so it's like let's just say it's at the end of the week or in the middle. It refreshes you for the the rest of that time. You're ready to go hard the next day.
JClay:You're ready to to, like, yeah. Let's let's do it because you you allowed yourself to just kinda be and and and rest.
Troy Washington:So I'm a read what, Hemlai said, and I'm gonna tell you my thoughts on that as well. He said really inspiring, gonna remember Sabers for a lifetime. And we appreciate that, man. You were just reinforcing it for us as well because these are things that we're gonna do ourselves. But the example when when we talk about being unapologetic, the the example that I like to always bring up is there are sometimes when I wanna watch a show right and when I wanna watch that show, there's a lot of other things that I could be doing at that time.
Troy Washington:And while I'm watching that show, I could be sitting down trying to enjoy it, and all I'm doing is thinking about everything that I'm supposed to do and I end up pausing the show and rewinding it because my mind is taking me somewhere else and. That is not seeing myself to enjoy what I'm saying that I want to enjoy. And so when you think about a don't day, you cannot, anything to creep in to not allow you to do just that and don't. Because if you're allowing those things to come in, all you're doing is pausing your don't day and putting it off to another time or another moving into another location, and that's not something that's going to propel you on your due date. Go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. And so for the for the final pair of things, this this should be a daily thing, but I know it can it can be challenging for some at first, and I wanna kinda ease people into it. But it makes a profound difference on just life in general. And no complaints, no judgment. So the the complaint part is no matter what it is, it it could be anything.
JClay:It could be something like you stubbed your toe. No complaints. Like, you're like, don't tell don't be like, don't don't make a scene even to yourself, like, not complaining about it. It's it's just it happened. And the same thing with judging it.
JClay:It's it's kinda related to it. Like, don't judge that experience of a toaster. That means, like, oh, my toe gonna fall off or something. Like, no. Don't attach any meaning to it or anything at all that happens.
JClay:You're gonna you're gonna witness a lot of things that happen on the day you choose to not judge, but don't attach any other meaning. You can even say, I don't know what it means, but it just is.
Troy Washington:What I would attach to this weekly no complaints and no judging again. This is kind of like something that you're going practice on a daily basis, really, outside of savers is recognize complaints. Because we do it so much unconsciously, you don't even realize when you're speaking or verbalizing a complaint. And I think that lies gonna be important. You might not think that I don't know something as simple as this water taste funny.
Troy Washington:It's a judgment or a complaint. It's so small that we don't allow ourselves to realize something. So if something doesn't taste accordingly, just go get some more. Like he said, I I just think that making sure that we are caught just in of the things that we say and think is very important, but definitely no complaints. The one thing I'll tell you on the days when I choose not to complain which III try to practice that as much as I possibly can.
Troy Washington:It's funny that the thing that I'm complaining about didn't change, but this still is the happiest day of my life. It's it's it's you know whatever it was that I was concerned about. It's still there, but because I chose not to allow that to be a focal point, it makes my day so much better. And and I'm gonna just again. It's it's so many things that come up not having money at certain times or just anything like I will.
Troy Washington:It's going to make your life so easy. But go ahead, Jay.
JClay:Yeah. I I wanna read what, and the house said, it's hard to do when I am at work, LOL. And him now say, I just wanna listen choice rapping at last. And, and and I'll say that the thing about to to that's hard to do. The the thing to remember, the the reason why no judging and no complaining is so powerful is because we are creators.
JClay:Like, everything attracts everything based on stuff. So, like, if if you have a habit of complaining about things, the world is gonna say, oh, you love complaining. Let's bring you more things to complain about. You you, you know, like, you love judging things negatively. Let's bring more things to to give you to judge negatively.
JClay:And when you don't do this, there's a loud AC on and then all of a sudden it cuts off. You didn't notice the AC before until it cut off, but you knew it was just that much more peaceful. That's how it's gonna be. That's how your days are gonna become when you're not judging, you're not complaining because you won't even notice things to judge or to complain about. You'll only notice the things to appreciate and how everything works together is, again, it's it's an exercise.
JClay:It's an affirmation. And even in journaling, it will give you more things to to appreciate. And the word appreciate is not appreciate by example. Like, when assets appreciate, it means it gains value. And your world will become just that much more valuable to you.
JClay:And you, like, you wouldn't wanna live any other way. You can be like, why would I ever complain again? I could just be in this space of, again, heaven. So yeah.
Troy Washington:And and I wanna add to that in the house, and I'm just telling you from a standpoint from when I was actually going to my corporate job. So number 1, like I just said, if if water taste funny, you just go get some more. Don't complain about it. I'll I'll just kinda look at the alternative When I was actually getting up in the mornings and dry getting in traffic, the thing that I hated more than anything in the world was traffic. I hated it, and I literally would complain or be mad about that the entire time.
Troy Washington:And the the the the the craziest thing about it like Jay was saying when you appreciate something, meaning I'm bringing I'm bringing credence or I'm adding value to it because of how much attention I'm paying to it. There was always something else in traffic that made me more upset. How they have a wreck right here? The speed limit is 25. Like, I was so hyper focused on it.
Troy Washington:It was becoming more and more a part of my life. And then one day, I said, I'm just not gonna complain about it anymore. But get it, Troy. It doesn't matter. And the first thing that happened was my mind opened up to something else.
Troy Washington:And what ended up happening was we created a mastermind group. And in those mastermind groups, I literally would wake up and give we we would talk and give, positive affirmations, give advice every single morning. And before I knew it, because I wasn't focused on traffic, I literally was at work every single day, and I never even realized that I had traffic anymore. Now, again, the circumstances by which I was so frustrated with never changed, but what changed was me. And so I know how difficult it is not to pay attention to traffic while you're in traffic because you're in traffic.
Troy Washington:But when I stopped giving traffic my attention and complaining about it and and judging it, gave me something else that built me as well as others up. So, just find out what your alternative is. If I don't complain about this right now, what else could I be doing with my time? What else could I be doing with my mentality? What else could I be doing to grow?
Troy Washington:And that'll open up a lot of different doors for you.
JClay:Yeah. And and to I know we we we long time to wrap it up. This is when I meant to say the one one no no. Like, one one day you go hard. This is a recap.
JClay:One day go hard. One one day don't. It's it's gonna just make everything perfect because you you get the side where you're proud of yourself. You're like, man, I can't believe I went this hard and I did this. Then you get the side, like, man, I finally got the relaxation I needed.
JClay:And the no no. No complaints. No judging, and it is it's beautiful.
Troy Washington:Yep, man. So, I just, I guess, cap this out by telling y'all, man, we're grateful for everybody, that joined us today. Everybody that's gonna watch us later and let y'all know that without y'all, we wouldn't be here. We'd be doing something, but we definitely wouldn't be doing be here. And y'all help us to become better.
Troy Washington:Y'all help us to realize that we're perfect, and we hope that we do the same for you and allow yourself to not judge anything differently. Shout out to my girl Shani. Appreciate you joining us and and and being a part of this as well But just remember that you are perfect, man. And, you know, there shouldn't be anything that points you in any other direction. And, Jay, you can go ahead and take us out, bro.
JClay:If I reminded you that you are perfect, would you argue me down or step into your perfection perfection? Welcome to perfect welcome to perfect where there are no excuses, no expectations, and we explore the world without limitations. I'm Jay Clay, rapper, rapper, and spiritual teacher. With my co host Troy Washington, your friendly neighborhood realtor, let's be real. So let's be perfect.
JClay:Anything. Perfect. Everything.
Troy Washington:Anything. Anything.
JClay:Perfect.
Troy Washington:Perfect. Perfect.