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Welcome to the Healing Our Politics Podcast!
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Guest:
Reggie Hubbard is the founder of Active Peace Yoga, a former Capitol Hill strategist, and a respected leader in the wellness space. As a Yale graduate and board member of multiple organizations including Be Here Now Network and Elected Leaders Collective, Reggie blends political activism with ancient wellness practices to guide leaders in healing from burnout and stress. He teaches at esteemed institutions like Kripalu Institute, TED Stage Summit, and Wanderlust Festival, focusing on the power of yoga, sound healing, and mindfulness to enhance well-being.
Reggie Hubbard is the founder of Active Peace Yoga, a former Capitol Hill strategist, and a respected leader in the wellness space. As a Yale graduate and board member of multiple organizations including Be Here Now Network and Elected Leaders Collective, Reggie blends political activism with ancient wellness practices to guide leaders in healing from burnout and stress. He teaches at esteemed institutions like Kripalu Institute, TED Stage Summit, and Wanderlust Festival, focusing on the power of yoga, sound healing, and mindfulness to enhance well-being.
About the Episode:
In this episode, Reggie Hubbard shares his transformative journey from high-pressure Capitol Hill work to becoming a leader in holistic wellness. He discusses how burnout and poor mental well-being in public service nearly broke him, and how discovering yoga and sound healing helped him reclaim his health. Reggie explores the ancient activist roots of yoga and how it can help public servants build resilience, process trauma, and embrace their authentic selves.
We delve into Reggie’s personal transformation, how well-being affects leadership effectiveness, transforming anger into healing, simple tools anyone can use to foster inner peace and mental clarity, and why the wellness world is accessible to everyone.
Reggie also shares how spreadsheets can be a surprising tool for personal accountability and wellness.
Key Topics Discussed:
· [00:01:51] Reggie’s stroke recovery update, plus details on contributing to his GoFundMe campaign
· [00:03:05] Guest Intro
· [00:04:08] Episode Intro
· [00:06:45] The impact of Active Peace
· [00:07:23] At our worst we…
· [00:09:05] Destroying myself…
· [00:10:25] The power of non-coercive support
· [00:11:50] The seeds of trauma
· [00:15:20] Reggie’s experience of unconscious bias
· [00:19:30] Radical and uncomfortable responsibility
· [00:22:01] “Thank you for how poorly you treated me”
· [00:24:35] Waking up
· [00:25:31] Dark night of the soul
· [00:28:51] The interconnection of healing
· [00:32:12] Reggie, the civics teacher: “Mr. Awesome”
· [00:34:41] Reborn Day
· [00:35:15] Cold Turkey’s stablemate
· [00:37:17] Cultivating external support for internal change
· [00:38:29] Reggie’s weight loss accountability system
· [00:39:38] Where to do from a weight loss plateau?
· [00:42:35] (ESP) Extrasensory perception
· [00:45:30] Balance > outcomes
· [00:46:12] Reggie’s wellbeing practices
· [00:50:07] Build an institutional memory database
· [00:54:28] Sponsor: The Elected Leaders Collective
· [00:56:53] What is yoga?
· [00:59:31] The history of yoga
· [01:01:39] Commonalities amongst all yogic practices
· [01:02:45] The Active Peace method
· [01:06:21] Resilience is built in adversity
· [01:07:44] The palace of privilege
· [01:10:10] The transformative nature of trauma
· [01:11:27] Me, me, me –> we, we, we.
· [01:13:25] Cancel cancel culture
· [01:16:26] Irradicating delusion
· [01:17:05] The power of (imperfect) progress
· [01:19:20] The CURSE of comfort
· [01:20:47] An act as BOLD as LOVE
· [01:23:17] Wellbeing “malpractice”
· [01:28:20] Gateway drugs to wellbeing
· [01:29:40] Turning your breath to medicine
· [01:31:11] Stress in the face (relief)
· [01:35:39] Closing Question: Making my place
· [01:38:41] The Leader’s Handbook Newsletter
· [01:39:41] Reggie’s stroke recovery: contribute to his GoFundMe campaign
· [00:41:05] Sponsor: The Elected Leaders Collective
Key References and Resources Mentioned:
· [00:04:10] Active Peace Yoga – Reggie’s wellness platform
· [00:15:22] Kripalu Institute – A leading yoga and wellness retreat center
· [00:15:45] Be Here Now Network – A platform for mindfulness and spiritual teachings
· [00:20:25] Wanderlust Festival – A major festival for yoga, mindfulness, and music
· [00:59:31] Traditions of yogic practice:
· [00:43:30] Gong Hits for Peace Instagram – Reggie’s sound healing Instagram channel
· [00:56:45] TED Summit Reggie’s talk
· [01:09:10] Vinyasa Yoga
· [01:20:47] Jimmy Hendrix; and act “as bold as love”
Where to Find Reggie Hubbard:
- Website: Active Peace Yoga
- Instagram: @oreggieglobal
- Sound Healing: Gong Hits for Peace
Where to Find Host Skippy Mesirow:
- Receive Support at the Elected Leaders Collective ElectedLeadersCollective.com
- Follow on Instagram www.instagam.com/skippymesirow
- Book a free Clarity Call to see if coaching is right for you
Episode Sponsor:
Helping You Heal Our Politics
The Elected Leaders Collective (ELC) organization is the leading US-based provider of mental well-being training for public servants, conducted by public servants and the world's best mental health and human optimization professionals. With ELC Training, you will learn to rise above and become the political healer you were meant to be, improving your well-being in the process.
Contact the HOP Team:
Do you have an episode idea?
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We'd love to hear from you!
Contact our team at jesse@healingourpolitics.com
Your input helps us create content that matters.
Creators & Guests
Host
Skippy Mesirow
Skippy Mesirow is a prominent leader, certified Master Coach, and founder of the Elected Leaders Collective (ELC) and ELC Foundation. ELC leads the US in mental health and well-being training for public servants, recognized in The Apolitical Foundation's Mere Mortals report, and named as one of 26 worldwide political well-being "Trailblazer Organizations." A transformational leader in political innovation and wellness, Skippy serves on Gov. Polis’s Natural Medicine Advisory. Skippy’s work has been featured in numerous podcasts and publications, as well as main-stage speaking engagements for organizations NLC, YEO, CML, MT2030, Bridging Divides, and Fulcrum, highlighting his significant contributions to mental health, community, and policy reform. Alongside his professional achievements, Skippy lives in Aspen, CO. with his partner Jamie where he enjoys running ultra-marathons, road biking, motorcycling, international travel, culinary arts, Burning Man, and lifelong learning.
Producer
Aaron Calafato
Aaron’s stories are currently heard by millions around the globe on his award-winning Podcast 7 Minute Stories and on YouTube. Aaron is a co-host of Glassdoor's new podcast (The Lonely Office) and serves as a podcast consultant for some of the fastest-growing companies in the world.
Editor
Jesse Link
Jesse is a strategy, research and partnership consultant and podcast enthusiast. A 2x founder, former Goldman Sachs Vice President and advisor to 25+ businesses, Jesse brings a unique and diverse background to HoP, helping to elevate the range, depth and perspective of HoP's conversations and strategy.
What is Healing Our Politics?
Hello,
I’m Skippy Mesirow, host of “Healing Our Politics,” the show that shows you, the heart-centered public servants and political leaders, how to heal our politics by starting with the human in the mirror.
Healing Our Politics, “HOP,” is a first-of-its-kind show that provides tools and practices for mental well-being, health, and balance, specifically for public servants so we can do good by feeling good and safe in our jobs.
HOP brings together experts, scientists, doctors, thought leaders, healers, and coaches to share their insights in practical, tactical, actionable ways specifically tailored to the public service experience for you to test and implement with yourself and your teams. Episodes feature intimate conversations with global leaders about their self-care practices and personal challenges, providing insights for a more holistic, connected approach to leadership. Whether you're a Mayor, teacher, police officer, or staffer, this podcast will guide you to be the best version of yourself in service to yourself and the world!
Sign up for our once-per-month Leader’s Handbook newsletter to receive an actionable toolkit of how-to guides on topics discussed on the podcast that month to test and implement in your life and with your team: https://leadershandbook.substack.com/
Hello. My name is Skippy Meserew, coach, former elected official, and lifetime public servant. Welcome to Healing Our Politics, The show that shows you, the heart centered public servant and political leader, how to heal our politics by starting with the human in the mirror. It is my job to sit down or stand up with the best experts in all areas of human development, thought leaders, coaches, therapists, authors, scientists, and more, to take the best of what they have learned and translate it, specifically for the public service experience, providing you actionable, practical, tactical tools that you can test out today in your life and with your teams. I will also talk to leaders across the globe with a self care practice, getting to know them at a deeply human and personal level, so that you can learn from their challenges and journey.
Skippy Mesirow:Warning, this is a post partisan space. Yes, I have a bias. You have a bias. We all have a bias. Everybody gets a bias.
Skippy Mesirow:And I will be stripping out all of the unconscious cues of bias from this space. No politics, partisanship or policy here, because well-being belongs to all of us. And we will all be better served if every human in leadership, regardless of party, ideology, race, or geography, are happier, healthier, and more connected. This show is about resourcing you, the human doing leadership, and trusting you to make up your own damn mind about what to do with it and what's best for your community. So as always, with love, here we go.
Skippy Mesirow:Friends, since the recording of this episode, Reggie suffered a stroke that shook us all. Though he is on a miraculous journey of healing and recovery, he was literally leading meditation and sound healing sessions for his nurses in his hospital room and is learning the lessons of health, healing, gratitude, faith, community, and the power of love delivered by the stroke. The truth is we all heal best in community. For those of you interested in and able to contribute to the healing efforts of Reggie Stroke recovery, please consider contributing as I have to his GoFundMe campaign. You can find it at gofundme.combackslashflikefrank, backslash reggie, r e g g I e, dash Hubbard, h u b b a r d dash recovery.
Skippy Mesirow:One more time, gofundme.com backslashf backslash regi dash Hubbard dash recovery to help this magical soul on his healing journey so he can come back into the world and be there to help heal and uplevel us. We have a big episode for you today. I am trying to match that energy. I sit down with expert in yoga, Reggie or Reginald Hubbard. Reggie is the founder of Active Peace Yoga, a Yale graduate, smart cookie.
Skippy Mesirow:He is a teacher, speaker, and translator, more on that later, who graces the stages at legendary places such as the Cripalu Institute, the TED Stage Summit, and so many more. A former top level staffer and strategist on Capitol Hill himself, Reggie now spends his time helping those of you still in service deal with the physical and mental challenges that he once endured in those roles. Reggie serves on numerous, numerous is not a big enough word, boards, including but not limited to the Elected Leaders Collective, Wanderlust, the Be Here Now Network, Buddhists and Yogis United, and literally so many more. In this conversation, we dive into waking up to bourbon and going to sleep with eczema. Wonder if any of you guys are still experiencing that.
Skippy Mesirow:How our internal reality manifests in our physical health, how to transform anger into healing, yoga's ancient activist roots and how to come back to them, common misconceptions about yoga or who it's for, Reggie's daily practices, his method of behavior change, being unapologetically you, and why it is the only path to true acceptance, how you can use spreadsheets for my data nerds out there. This one's near and dear to my heart to empower your well-being, and why the wellness world is for you. I hope you enjoy this deep, real fun, big and authentic conversation with my friend, Reggie or Reginald Hubbard. Thanks for being here.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah, man.
Skippy Mesirow:Genuinely. This is so awesome. It was really fun to get the opportunity to kind of sift back into your past and your journey in preparation for this and just add some color to my direct experience of you. And I'm going to do the intro later, right. That's going to come on afterwards, but, but you're this like big personality and you create such a impact and a presence, but it's really in the starting to understand the subtleties and nuances that are behind that, that I feel like I've really come into more intimate understanding of you.
Skippy Mesirow:And through that, just immense appreciation. And I just adore what you do, man. It's so cool.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. I remember when, we were on the boat last year and you took my class and you were like, I get it. I'm like Mhmm. People think it's simple. No.
Reggie Hubbard:It's not. I mean, it's easy, perhaps, but it's complex. Right? There's some complexity in the simplicity because we live in a world that's way too uptight, way too connected to anything other than yourself. And so all I'm really trying to do is the truth of yoga and Buddhist practice, which is just like, can you have a sense of awareness of yourself, be rooted in that sense of awareness from a loving place, and then share that with other people?
Reggie Hubbard:Mhmm. Yeah. Three simple invitations. Everyone makes it so difficult.
Skippy Mesirow:I remember what really hit home for me on that boat at Summit was, yes, my physical body was doing yoga, but that's not what it was about. It was about you through owning your space, owning your own method of this thing that can be so stilted, so suburbanified, as I think I've read you'd say.
Reggie Hubbard:Oh, yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:But owning it as your own and the permission structure that that gave, I watched it give everyone, myself included in the audience, to just fucking be them. Woah.
Reggie Hubbard:It's great. It's the best part of my jobs. Yeah. Plural.
Skippy Mesirow:So, we have so much to get into. I have, as I always do, a whole mess of notes, but I thought it would be interesting. You tell me if you agree as a starting point because Doctor. Go
Reggie Hubbard:for it. Doctor.
Skippy Mesirow:We are both people who inhabited high consequence service jobs. We've both lived personal journeys that have gone through struggle. So, we've both felt the downsides of those roles and come out the other side. And we both are in a, I don't know how you just said it, but a place of being willing to embrace and own all of our truth.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:And it might be fun to volley back and forth some of the behaviors
Reggie Hubbard:Okay.
Skippy Mesirow:That we individually enacted or experienced at our worst in service as it pertains to our mental well-being and then switch to our best, just to give people, like, a framework of, like, what it was and what it could be. So does that sound good?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Go for it.
Skippy Mesirow:Alright. So I'll just start at the top. I used to order 2 supersized meals at McDonald's for lunch and sometimes with an added double cheeseburger.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. I used to drink bourbon for breakfast and smoke parliament lights for lunch.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. I would have bourbon in particular or some hard alcohol every single evening.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. I, there was one stretch of 2 years where I probably averaged 2 and a half, 3 hours of sleep per night.
Skippy Mesirow:I was at, 4 to 5 hours for about a 4 year span.
Reggie Hubbard:Yes. No. I reject yeah. It's over. Goodbye.
Reggie Hubbard:Thank you for getting me here, but not
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. Yeah. And my 4 to 5 hours were made possible because of heavy cocaine use.
Reggie Hubbard:It took a while for me to understand how I was destroying myself. Mhmm. You know what I mean? Like, I've heard that the yogic path, the Buddhist path, or whatever path it is, or spiritual path for those of you for whom those two words give you discomfort. You'll a, I you'll be alright, but b can come up me, but b whatever.
Reggie Hubbard:You have to unlearn what people tell you is true. Mhmm. You know, I I had the blessing of teaching a bunch of 25 year olds yesterday, like, new campaign managers, and I just came in, Skippy. I came in and was like, listen. To organize health care campaign for the general election.
Reggie Hubbard:I have recently set up a 501c4 for criminal justice and safety reform. I am on global boards for whatever. These are my methods, and I have done them this way. If you still think after this conversation that you need to drive yourself into the ground, I ain't trying to change your mind, dawg. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Like, you know, you'll learn that you're not invincible, and I'm just blessed that in my twenties thirties, the body's resilient and the ancestors are kind. Right? You know, like, I don't I'm not really trying to convince you to do something. I'm share this I'm telling you all the wisdom gained in this gray beard Mhmm. And these gray hairs.
Reggie Hubbard:And if you care to pick up the wisdom, you'll have a great life. If you don't care to pick up the wisdom, it's not for me. You know what I mean? I think that that as an as a adviser, but also as a teacher because I teach that way as well. Like most people are like, please come to my class.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm like, I don't care if you come or not. I'd love for you to come. You are welcome to come. And if you don't come, I'm not gonna beg you to come. Like Prince and Jimmy Hendrix are my patron saints.
Reggie Hubbard:It's all dope. You know what I mean? Like, I've been consistently awesome for like 6 years. Yeah. Like, in this yoga and meditation thing.
Skippy Mesirow:I heard you talk about in another podcast experience. I I don't remember if you shared the name or if you would. It doesn't matter to this, but there was a I think it was a woman Mhmm. Who had invited you over a number of years into her yogic or asana practice, and you just kind of rolled your eyes. My interpretation were like, whatever, lady.
Skippy Mesirow:That sounds great. I'm moving on.
Reggie Hubbard:It was spicy. Yeah. It was spicy. It was really rude. Absolutely.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:But when you were ready, she was the first one you went to. Right. Because she extended that invitation not from a place of coercion or need or selfishness, but just from compassionate opportunity.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. I felt like I was in recovery, not to belittle recovery, but I was just like, you know, once I started practicing yoga, I went to her and I was like, thank you for mentioning this to me because it has done everything that you told me that it would do. But I was in a wounded place and was speaking from that wounded place and it put harm upon you. You were offering me generosity and compassion, and I was caught up in my own stuff and responded in a way that I would not respond now. So thank you for planting that seed.
Reggie Hubbard:Like, I wanted you to know that it's not born fruit.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. So I wanna talk about your personal transformation, mind as well. I wonder where the seeds, not of healing, but of the challenge were planted.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:What were the experiences that led to? Certainly for me, whether it was my addiction or my reckless behavior, I now can see that those were the symptoms or presentations of the trauma I experienced when I was younger. And I wonder what what your seeds were.
Reggie Hubbard:So I've had people ask me, they're like, you know, you just kinda fell into yoga super quickly, and it's because I've to some extent, I've been having I've had a spiritual practice for 45 years. You know what I mean? I grew up in the church. And, wow, I'm nowhere near as dogmatic as I've been in other cycles of my life, that did give me a sense of faith. It did give me a sense of being part of a greater whole, and it did give me the desire to serve others.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? You know what I mean? Like, I've never really had I have a big personality but low ego. Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:You know
Reggie Hubbard:what I mean? Like, those kids I taught you yesterday, I was like, I'm a lot. Like, I come at you. You know what I mean? Without apology.
Reggie Hubbard:But it's not rooted in like me, me, me, me, me. It's like, this is what I got going on in the world. If you wanna be down, I'll tell you. If you don't wanna be down, peace and blessing. So I think that me going to church from, like, 5 years old planted the seeds of discipline, planted the seeds of surrender, like, planted the seeds of devotion Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:And service. Right? So I think that that foundation is critical, especially for me as I've sought to process the ridiculous ride I'm on right now. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just like so because people have been like, you've only been teaching yoga for 4 years.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm like, I don't really I mean, maybe
Skippy Mesirow:Overnight success in 2 decades.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Right. Right. Right. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Just like nail business in my twenties, conquered politics in my thirties. You know what I mean? So just like, this is my new
Skippy Mesirow:When a tsunami shows up on the beach, you don't go, man, that wave got big fast. No. There was an ocean behind it. Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Exactly. Right? It's just
Skippy Mesirow:a shock
Reggie Hubbard:that allows the potential to manifest. That's what I say as a first seed. But in them, to be honest, you and I have talked a little bit about this, like, being black in the United States and having to unlearn the toxicity that they foist upon us was another seed to, I would say, transformation. Right? So when you are told consistently that you are worthless, know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:All of these things that happened to you send you spiraling. And luckily for me, spiraling, which was once self destructive, has now been self curative.
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm. Because people hear these sort of generalizations of how it's tough to be a black man or a colored person in this country.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:And I think most of us accept those things as true, but it can feel very obscure or abstract. And I wonder even if it takes you a second to, like, just see what memory comes up, Is there a specific instance that you could remember that would be kind of just more some something that someone could grab onto more tangibly?
Reggie Hubbard:Mhmm. I, I went to Yale undergrad. First in my family to go to school, double major, all the things. Right? You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:And, like, worked in product manager for a while. Like, one of my homies got me a job. I killed it. Reggie, you'd be a great salesman. I'm suck at sales.
Reggie Hubbard:He was right. I was wrong. Right? And then started working in politics after that Florida governor's race. And after 3 years of being in the pressure cooker of presidential and gubernatorial politics of Florida, I wanted a break.
Reggie Hubbard:And so at that time, the Association of Yale Alumni, they were doing a shift in the way they, contacted alums that was more like campaign based and constituency services based than whatever they were doing. And I thought as someone who worked for the Association of Yale Alumni as an undergraduate, who was an alumnus in good standing, who was on the AYA board of not directors, but I was an I was an at large delegate and working in Florida, like, advancing democracy whatever. I thought naively that as a Yale alum that that would be a slam dunk. Oh, you ain't got no black people? Right on.
Reggie Hubbard:Skippy, I didn't get the job because the then white male director in an interview asking the following question. And this is why I say spiritual practice, and I was a philosophy major too. So I've always had a bit I don't think I even understand how smart I am sometimes because of the way that I process things, the way that things will come up to me, but with also gratitude for the ancestors that he whispering to me. I'm in this interview and something's just not right. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:And so the guy, his name is Mark. I'm of the opinion if you don't do dirt, you ain't gotta worry about people talking about you. So his name is Mark. So Mark, he just had this look on his face, and so something came to me, and I was just like, Mark. And it was, like, the 3rd and final interview.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So I had met with the university secretary.
Skippy Mesirow:You spent the time.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. You know what I mean? It was, like, the final one. The threshold, so to speak. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:And so something's off, and I asked Mark. I was like, you know, Mark, you've been kinda quiet. Anything on your mind? He had just gotten back from the Dominican Republic. So me understanding energetics even then, I was just like, he's kinda jet lagged.
Reggie Hubbard:So if there's some scoop there, his his tiredness, it will be the truth serum. Right? You know, he can't be on guard because he's jet lagged. So in retrospect, totally played him. Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? Like, so have, like, an instinct. He'll say so played himself. And he was like, well, Reggie, you know, sometimes you come across as intimidating. What are strategies you use to navigate that?
Reggie Hubbard:Which means Mhmm. I'm intimidated by you, motherfucker you're not gonna get this job thanks for playing. So at that point, I was like, what? Like internally, but externally, I answered it twice. I was just like, sir, okay.
Reggie Hubbard:As someone who unnecessarily has been acutely aware of his size and color for many years, like, I have created a way of interacting with people that assures you that I'm here for your self interest not my gain. So like I've been able to conduct a way of being that is of service to both of us not thinking that I'm harming you or scary. Right? And people are, oh my gosh. I was like, yeah, y'all never thought that I did.
Reggie Hubbard:You didn't have to. And then I looked him dead in his face and I was like, and sir, I got this thing called charm and charisma. Maybe you've heard of it. Looked him dead in his soul. I'm almost like, if you're gonna be, like, a weasel like this, I'm a stand on business, lick you directly in your heart, and call you a coward.
Reggie Hubbard:So how does a Yale alumnus in good standing who worked for the AYA from his sophomore year of college not get a job with the Association of Yale Alumni?
Skippy Mesirow:So interesting. As a coach, I'm always looking and listening for what I, as an individual, in any situation, no matter how unfair, wrong, etcetera, is. Like, what what can I learn from it? What can I can do from it? I know it's a perspective that you follow, and I just I wonder about
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:You know, these insane eddies and torrents that happen in society within our own heads, where clearly this individual has come in with some preschedule programming that harms you. Also, it creates, or it logically can create an anger in you, which then validates the fear that person has and both sides leave worse off.
Reggie Hubbard:Absolutely.
Skippy Mesirow:And it's such a mental prison.
Reggie Hubbard:So that's why yoga and meditation are so sacred to me because, like, I've started to bear witness. Like, once I got into practice, I started to bear witness to and I I keep a journal. I've kept a journal since, like, 1992, and so I've been writing for years. So as I revisited some of my old journals in the beginning of my yoga practice and meditation practice, like, I could see how the consistency of practice forced me to confront the way that I was responding to situations. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Because, like, I adopted my yoga practice when being gaslit by some white chicks in Denver. You know what I mean? Like, they hired me because I was multilingual connected to all these other things. Then I get there, they're threatened, and they put me, like, under the organization. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:And so I felt anger, like, welling in me, like, the dragon was about to, like, burn people. But I was just like, you know, Reggie, something within me was just like, you need to try this yoga thing. And they used to you, like, you played around with yoga in DC for about 30 days. And so there's a lot of yoga in Denver. Started practicing every day because my job sucked.
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? And so, like, what ended up happening is that the more they heaped their hatred and insecurity and all these other things on me, luckily for me, the anger would rise. I would go to asana practice, work out, like, the toxicity, keep the energy, write my journal, and I just built this whole virtuous cycle in a terrible situation. And what ended up happening is that when I was fired from that job 10 months later, the level of grace and I will say spiritual sophistication that showed up, I was like, woah, this yoga stuff is magical. Like, they find me be a text message, they ask me for an exit interview, and I was just like, y'all know good and well that we don't need an exit interview.
Reggie Hubbard:I really don't get along. You just fired me via text message. Right? Like like so there's no need for us to talk, but I was like, I wanna thank you. And they're like, oh, for what?
Reggie Hubbard:I was like, thank you for how poorly you treated me. You gave me wisdom. Mhmm. You gave me my spiritual practice. Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:So the toxicity which you threw at me gave me the discipline to find my healing. So thank you.
Skippy Mesirow:When you were first in that position and placed at the bottom of the, you know, totem pole, so to speak Yeah. And anger was the response, generally, beneath anger is fear. Mhmm. What was the fear, if you had one?
Reggie Hubbard:It was not fear per se for me. It was just like, here we go again. Here we go again. Damn. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Like, I had known these women. We had worked together the year before. I had one of their highest functioning sites. So it wasn't like I applied, and I don't talk about this often because it's not whatever. So the nuance of the story is I knew them.
Reggie Hubbard:Mhmm. We had worked together the year before. At one of their highest functioning sites. So it was a natural progression for me to go from highest functioning site to program manager. It's natural.
Reggie Hubbard:So get there, day 6, someone gets in their fields and they're supposed to, like, attack Reggie. Like, you know, this nigga's a threat. So, like and so it wasn't fear. It was just, like, even here, like, even among my friends, I'm being killed because of my race. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:It's just like, again, like, when can I just be who I am and not have to worry about your white bullshit, yo? Like, so it was basically just going
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And I think, I mean, if I were to put myself in your shoes and everyone has different reactions to everything, you know, my thoughts, whether they're conscious or not, would be like, why am I not being valued for how I'm showing up? Am I going to continue to waste years of my life?
Reggie Hubbard:Sure.
Skippy Mesirow:Do these people even care about me? And, like, those things hit me right in the chest.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. If there were words for it, that's probably, like, a coherent articulation stacked with decades.
Skippy Mesirow:Right. That's not how you feel at this time.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. You know what I mean? But, like, it's that. Yeah. But here we go again, man.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm in my early forties, yo. Like, I'm supposed to change the world. Like, you know what I mean? This is not, you know, so
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:I felt like now that I'm, like, pretty advanced in my not advanced, but, like, really disciplined for decades in my spiritual practice. It's like those times for me were the sensei. Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. So you talked about that, like the my words, not yours, but the waking up to the poor mental well-being condition.
Reggie Hubbard:Sure. Right?
Skippy Mesirow:Because because at first, the water that you swim in is the only water you know. Yeah. Right. When I was drinking every night, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't know how bad I was feeling relative to how I could.
Skippy Mesirow:I didn't recognize how big of a impact that was on the £240 plus I was carrying around. I didn't, you know, I just didn't know it wasn't different. It was how I was. It was how I was unconsciously dealing with the situation. And the truth is all that shit helped until it didn't.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Right.
Skippy Mesirow:It did. The body, the mind has an amazing way of trying to care for us, but it doesn't always have the most upgraded operating system.
Reggie Hubbard:Sure.
Skippy Mesirow:And eventually, like your phone, if it gets too out of date, stops working, and some really nasty things can happen. So what were the moments of becoming aware for you, and what were your some of your first actions or changes internally?
Reggie Hubbard:Just from 2010 early June 2010 through 2013. So it was like a 3 year stretch where it was the dark night of the soul. Everything was going wrong. Everything.
Skippy Mesirow:Going wrong is in air quotes if you're listening, which is important.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Right. Like, and I say going wrong in air quotes because it had to happen in order for me to be where I'm at right now.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? So fire, it was my fault, as I was writing my graduate school thesis. So I'm broke because I'm in graduate school, like the Euro had surged against the dollar, so my dollar reserves shrunk by 30% because of the geopolitical situation. Right? So all these different things were happening.
Reggie Hubbard:Grandfather passes away, break up with like a serious girl, like all these things happened, like thing after thing after thing. Then there was like the global recession, graduating into that job market, calling in political favors. No one had called me back. It was all these things that were just stacking, and I did not know necessarily that I had started to internalize that. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:I had started to wed external circumstances with my value.
Skippy Mesirow:You were associating the external outcome with what you deserved at that point, basically, or what you thought you were worth?
Reggie Hubbard:More or less. It was just like, well, I just wasted all this money in graduate school or, you know, just you start questioning everything that you've done. Mhmm. Friends who you had supported, don't return your phone call because they got these fancy jobs in the you know, all of these things started to happen where I got so upset and depressed that, I barely left my house. And I called one of my homies.
Reggie Hubbard:I was like, look, ma'am. You're one of my best friends, and I have to get this off my chest. And I need you to promise to not overreact to what I'm about to say. And he was just like, oh, who? I was like, no.
Reggie Hubbard:No. No. No. No. If you go off on a tangent, mister Lloyd, I'm gonna hang up the phone, and that's not why I called you.
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? So he was like, so well, what do you have to say? I was like, it's really hard to be alive right now, man. And he was just like, wait. I'm like, shh.
Reggie Hubbard:I have to speak that because it's in my head. Mhmm. And because it's in my head, the echo is so loud. And, like, that echo combined with the inability for me to catch a break is really about to set off a chain of events that I don't really wanna deal with. You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Just like, if I don't get this out of my head and declare this as put a stop to this, then I don't know, man. Like, it was it's really hard to be alive right now. So me articulating that to him kinda kicked into gear the philosophy major. So I started to get curious about the way that I process the world.
Skippy Mesirow:Why do you think saying it out loud kicked that off?
Reggie Hubbard:Because it left my head and and was spoken and and was out. If it stays in here, it bounces off each other. It becomes the the countervailing norm. And then if it comes to countervailing norm, then you proceed a good like, according to that countervailing norm. So speaking, it got it out.
Reggie Hubbard:And I was like, now that that's out, what's really going on in there? So I started to deal with the disappointments, to deal with the way that I use food and alcohol as a coping mechanism. I started to understand and study the connection between diet and mental well-being and all these other things and hydration. So all the things that people tell us to do that we don't do are essential. I started to pay attention to that.
Skippy Mesirow:I'm curious what that process was like for you because I would bet, and I don't know this to be true, but I would I would bet of people listening, diet and alcohol are the 2 things that are the greatest struggle and the most overlooked. And at least for me, that was a 100% the door in. I really think if it wasn't for a few key decisions where I just made a hard line in the sand, sometimes for reasons of vanity, honestly, and sometimes for reasons of athletics. Like I was, being an athlete's a big part of me, and I stopped being able to do the things that I love to do. Right.
Skippy Mesirow:But there was a few moments where I just made some hard decisions and started to make changes that really cracked the door, everything for me. And I mean, I had probably 10 different iterations of yo yoing with diet and trying different things before something landed. Alcohol was different for me. It was more like if you stood on top of a tall building and threw a ball as hard as you could, the trajectory of that ball was my alcohol consumption. Like the decline started very slowly, and then it and then it yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:And then went to near nearer at 0. But it took a long time to get out there.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. That's funny.
Skippy Mesirow:What was your journey like with those things?
Reggie Hubbard:So start to understand that the way I'm processing things is part of the lens I use now in my activist work. I was like, what if the way that we're responding to the problem is the problem?
Skippy Mesirow:Yes. Great question.
Reggie Hubbard:Real talk. Like, what if the way we respond to what we bear witness to gives rise to the unthinkable things that we bear witness to? So I started to do that in accordance to my own mental well-being, and so I applied for this job. I made a1000 or $1100 the 1st year after business school going to a prestigious business school in an Ivy League undergrad. That is mental torture.
Reggie Hubbard:Mhmm. You know what I mean? Especially if you're a guy. You know what I mean? Like, I'm living in my mom's house because I don't have any money, And how am I gonna make it?
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? So, like, making $1100 as someone who's, like I was, like, 34 at the time or something. So, like, whatever. So just the entire system was just hard for me. Applied for this job that should have been a slam dunk and got the same, oh, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Reggie Hubbard:And in the end, I found out who it was. It was someone who was a donor's child or something like something one of those things in politics, and I lost it. And so, like, I've done all this work and I had lost it and just totally just felt because I had created the space in my body, felt the, basically, toxic hormones that were arising. And I was just like, oh, so you're sickening yourself with this response too. So I had enough space to notice that.
Reggie Hubbard:Then the universe being who they are, the only job I could get was as a civics teacher. And so I was helping these kids. I was a contract teacher making, like, a $145 a week. Love the kids. The kids loved me.
Reggie Hubbard:I had a woman come up to me, and she was just like, oh, so tell me about your teacher certification. I was like, I've never done this shit before. And she was just like, what do you mean? I was just like, I've I've never done this before. She's like, I've been in teaching for 30 years and the way the kids respond to you.
Reggie Hubbard:And I was like, listen. I just treat them with respect, and I don't tolerate no bullshit, and I'm super honest. Mhmm. You know what I mean? Super honest.
Reggie Hubbard:And if they like it, well
Skippy Mesirow:Probably three things they don't get much. Right.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Sure. And so I'll say, that's my secret to success, whatever. So that week, we've done a week long program, and the highlight of the program was getting kids together to plot out an organizing strategy. So we're gonna do this, and then we're gonna do this, this campaign, this campaign, this campaign.
Reggie Hubbard:Man, these kids wanted to do a healthy living meetup or something like that. And I'm like, you don't wanna plot a way to get rid of a, like, fascist dictator. You know what I mean? Like, you you know what? No, Reggie.
Reggie Hubbard:We wanna we wanna do, like, a health center and all these other things. Skippy, the kids that year called me mister awesome Mhmm. Through their prompter. They said, we don't wanna call you Reggie. We wanna call you mister awesome.
Reggie Hubbard:And I'm like, well, shoot. Like, if that's what you wanna call me, you wanna say no. Whatever. You know, mean like for sure. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:No. Right? No. More. No.
Reggie Hubbard:Stop. But keep going.
Skippy Mesirow:Hold these mirrors.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So for about 10 minutes, I'm trying to talk about the idea of doing this health thing, and then I was in my mind, and I'm like, yo, you're not being mister awesome. You're being mister terrible right now.
Reggie Hubbard:Like, the kids wanna do this, and why are you responding so negatively to this? Right? So the Harlem Shake was hella popular, man, and so we all did this thing called the veggie shake. Like, I I painted tomatoes on my face and wore this big thing, jumping around, whatever, whatever. That's awesome.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? And so went home and was just like, okay. So we need to deconstruct why you had such a visceral reaction to them talking about health. And so went deep and, on April 1, 2013 Says reborn day? Yep.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Yep. That was just like starting today for the next 6 months, strict vegan cleanse, hard. People, I can't do that. And I was like, I don't I mean, peace to you. I'm not telling you what to do for you.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm telling you what I did for me. And, like so when I quit smoking, it was cold turkey. Right? And so I just have people piss on Libras all the time. They say it takes us a long time to make up our mind, but here's the thing.
Reggie Hubbard:When we do make up our mind, you will never get me to think something different.
Skippy Mesirow:So that's interesting. And everyone's gonna have a different orientation to shift, whether it's the dimmer, the hard stop. So it's not to say this applies to anyone, but for someone who knows that they too have a predisposition to hard lines and hard decision making. Mhmm. What are some of the things that preceded that decision that if people were aware of it, they could perhaps cultivate or expedite?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Do your research. Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:You know
Reggie Hubbard:what I mean? Before I went on this 6 month thing, I read a lot of books, I read a lot of articles, and made some decisions, and told my god brother he got me some New Balance sneakers. You know what I mean? So, like, told people, hey, I'm doing this. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So please know that when you offer me something, I'm going to politely decline for a while. Mhmm. This is something I have to do for me, and I'm telling you. So not everyone cares to the degree that you care. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So I had to announce it to essentially create a buffer of safety for myself. Right? So accountability, 1. But 2, also, giving people a chance if they did care to not put their habits in my face while I'm really struggling with making a hard decision. Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:When you cut sugar out of your life or you cut all these things out of your life, the body craves. You're dropping weight and then you don't drop weight because the body does what it does. Right? So there are all these mental tricks that you have to adjust to when you're detoxing and also, like, losing weight. And then there's all the inner narratives that show up.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So, like, you're walking into fire to cleanse and purify and those sorts of things. So you basically have to tell people for me. I was like, so I'm walking into this fire. Please don't turn up the heat too much.
Reggie Hubbard:It's gonna be hard enough.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And they innocently. Right? They're just trying to be nice friends, offer you something, but just remove the minefields from the demilitarized zone and public accountability. Like, we will do this.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:What else did you do, if anything, in your environment? I know for me, for instance, the grocery store is the last stand. I get a list. I fucking put my head down. I buy the shit on the list.
Skippy Mesirow:Nothing else goes. Once I'm out the doors, I'm good.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. But
Skippy Mesirow:if I bring something home and it's in my cabinet, I have no ability to do anything. Right. Yeah. The Trojan horse is in the house and I am fucked. So what Right.
Skippy Mesirow:What other environmental things helped you during that period?
Reggie Hubbard:I just read a lot. So I kept my mind busy in the pursuit of what I was doing. So I had like this really color coded spreadsheet and all these things. So it's funny because it doesn't look like I would be the color coded spreadsheet kinda guy.
Skippy Mesirow:Well, homie, I am and I mean, look to my left and right, so we come in all forms.
Reggie Hubbard:No. I know. Like, I remember when I got my, 500 hour yoga certification, they were like, Reggie, eat of it. Shh. I gave them, like, this whole spreadsheet and, like, compendium and all these other things.
Reggie Hubbard:And they were like, oh, I was like, this hippie went to Yale and has an MBA. I can aggregate information for display.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. So what was on this spreadsheet, this healthy diet spreadsheet? Do you remember?
Reggie Hubbard:Miles walked per day, caloric intake, vitamin and nutrient tallies, hydration, diets, you know, what I ate.
Skippy Mesirow:You're looking at what you're ingesting, total calorie consumption, macros looking for some kind of balance, your hydration, and your your physical activity in the form of walking. This is a while ago, but do you remember how you initially benchmarked those goals?
Reggie Hubbard:By how I felt.
Skippy Mesirow:And how did you shift them over time? Or did you?
Reggie Hubbard:Well, I mean, it was all numeric at first because I'm getting into this thing, trying this thing out, whatever whatever, and there was a correlation at first between activity and weight loss and those sorts of things. But when the body stops losing weight, then you've gotta be like, oh, god. This plus this ain't this no more. So is it that you kept it up with no weight loss? You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:So it's just as things shifted in the body as biophysiology changes and those sorts of things. So if you're solely based on losing weight and the body plateaus for 6 months, then what?
Skippy Mesirow:Which is, by the way, very normal. Right? Especially if you're starting out as significantly overweight, the first pounds are actually the easiest ones. It gets much harder further down the chain. Was that your experience?
Skippy Mesirow:Did you hit sort of a plateau or multiple plateaus along the way and regress?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. I went from, like, 3 plus 270 in, like, two and a half, three months.
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:And was it 270 forever? Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:Do you have any sense now of why you got stuck at that number or some of the contributing factors? If you wanted to go under, maybe that was just where you wanted to be and that was good.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. No. I mean, body just was adjusting in retrospect. Right? That's where we were.
Reggie Hubbard:We were recalibrating. That's what it was. And it was actually a good experience for me because that's where the discipline came in. I was just like, so now the test is can you continue to do it when you're not getting the desired outcome in as quick of a play?
Skippy Mesirow:Which ultimately, to your point of everything being a teacher, is such a blessing because the truth is while losing weight might not be easy, it's easy relative to keeping it off. And creating new habits, not just new intermittent behaviors, much more challenging. And so, you had a forcing function desired or not to do that.
Reggie Hubbard:You're right.
Skippy Mesirow:And so, when you think about yourself now in terms of diet and exercise, what's your current practice and how does that show up in your in your being?
Reggie Hubbard:Well, I had a, I had a pretty major ankle injury Mhmm. 2 years ago. I had to shift. I couldn't move really. I could do like static asana and those sorts of things, but there was no cardio at all.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? And so that sucked for me. Right? And so I was just like, oh. So what am I gonna do to not get sick because like I can't work the body to relieve toxicity or whatever.
Reggie Hubbard:So in that case, I played more music, became like deep meditation dude.
Skippy Mesirow:If you are, listening to this, you are. Reggie is in the middle of a museum of his own making filled with all kinds of musical instruments. There are gongs. There are singing bowls, I mean, there are things that I can't name, but it's remarkable, so the evidence is clear.
Reggie Hubbard:But what that did so now that I'm in better physical condition, I started walking again the other day and I was like, wow. So I could walk and it's not 2 weeks before I can walk again kind of thing. Right? So let me walk in terms of just, like, brisk and whatever. I have such an understanding of the breath now.
Reggie Hubbard:Like, I was okay. So the body is still working its way back in, but can you stay focused on your breath and start to create, like, a system of breathing that normalizes your nervous system? Because this is a shock. Someone who used to run I used to run like 5 k a day. I just laugh at myself.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm like, so walking a mile this is okay. Stop it brain. Nice try. You had a bum wheel or whatever. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:And all the things that go along with that. So now as I reengage, I focus on the breath. Like, I focus on, like, sounds. How's my body feeling? Is there something going on that I can hear now?
Reggie Hubbard:Right? Because when you play that much sound, and this was evident in the sound classes I teach, I was just like, what we do here is basically play down the impact of the sight and the mind on your overall sensory experience. Awaken the ears, awaken the sense of smell, and these sorts of things because that balance creates extra sensory perception. So ESP is connected to the senses being imbalanced. Like, as a society, we think, we see too much, and we think too much.
Reggie Hubbard:We don't smell like, we don't use aromatic scents and it's in the olfactory scents on the brain. The auditory impact on the brain, we don't even think of that. So, like, sound and those sorts of things, as the body gets back into shape, I can get out of the mind, be like, oh my god. This blah blah blah. And I can, like, oh, that's an interesting smell.
Reggie Hubbard:Like, I can keep the mind curious because of what I just went through. So as I reengage physically, it's like a merging of both experiences.
Skippy Mesirow:So funny. I'm chuckling while you say that because
Reggie Hubbard:I
Skippy Mesirow:have experienced this summer as a solo field, but we're in the say everything zone. So one of the relationships I was cultivating this summer was with the San Pedro cactus and really working on my identification with my masculine body, with my emotional states, with my rudeness in nature. I had a day where I went out and did a a ceremony, really long bike ride to follow, and I was still in a semi altered state. And one of the things that psychedelic medicines can do are change the way that your senses present, so whether that's sight or otherwise. But all of a sudden, I swear to god, Reggie, I was like a golden retriever.
Skippy Mesirow:Like, scent was 10 times higher than it had ever been.
Reggie Hubbard:Wow. I hope you knew it was flowers.
Skippy Mesirow:I left the highway I was riding on and just took off my shoes and wandered into the forest and was just leading by smell, every tree bark, every piece of moss, every riverbank, and it was just this unbelievable kaleidoscope of information that I literally walked past with no ability to notice most of the time. And the ability's gone. I could go to the same place and I wouldn't smell the same way, but the memory is like trapped in my cells now. And the recognition of the, as you said, extrasensory perception as possible remains. And it's it was such an impactful experience that I don't think I've ever shared with anybody.
Skippy Mesirow:Now the whole world knows.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Well, I'm good at that.
Skippy Mesirow:I appreciate that. I do.
Reggie Hubbard:The finer point to that though is that, health is as much about balance as it is about outcomes. A lot of people who are physically in shape and spiritually diseased
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:You know, the part of my teaching is to put my size 14 foot in the ass of, like, the spiritual community. Right? There are a lot of people who are spiritually healthy, but, like, they have comorbidities as citizens.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. They've become so detached from default reality that they're not leveraging their internal state for the betterment of others. I see that
Reggie Hubbard:a lot. Which is the point.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. So I wanna get there. Before we jump into yoga and the practice and the ancient roots of yoga, which I really want to, I just wanna kinda break down what is your current set of practices. Like, on a daily, weekly basis, what are the things that you're doing reliably for yourself, your own well-being, and how does each of them serve you?
Reggie Hubbard:So I have sound bowls at my feet in my house. So when I wake up in the morning and my feet hit the ground, if I'm not stepping in the bowl, I'm reaching for it and playing, literally setting my vibe at the top of the day. So rather than, like, doomscrolling on my phone, I'll even play again. Right? So I can doomscroll on my phone, hunched over like a turtle with a shallow stifled breath, but instead I sit super tall, eye softer close and play.
Reggie Hubbard:So as I awaken, it's literally infusing my body with this tone, with this sentiment. Right? So if then afterwards, I look at my phone, I'm not like, oh my god. I'm just kinda like, oh. Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So it sets the tone quite literally for how I engage with the world. So I do that before I go to sleep and before I wake up. So consistently. Some level of physical practice now, like, now that my body's in better shape, it has been essentially I used to do that all the time, so I've missed it.
Reggie Hubbard:So I try and walk. I try and do more physical stuff, but also with appreciation for the nuances that I now know about my body because of the injury. I'm not trying to do what I once did. I'm trying to do what I can do now. And then do what I can do now, creating a new foundation, so maybe I can explore what I once did in the body that I have now as opposed to conflating what a lot of people do.
Reggie Hubbard:I once ran 5 k. Yeah. But you didn't, like, roll your ankle and whatever. You know what I mean? And stretch all the stuff.
Reggie Hubbard:It's kinda like a mindfulness of body experience as I exercise. Right? So what's going on here now? We haven't done this in a while. So if I put this pressure is it the shoes?
Reggie Hubbard:So trying to, like, see all the nuances so that I can equip and resource myself both in terms of, like, shoes and activities and those sorts of things, as well as what I can physically do.
Skippy Mesirow:Beautiful. Anything else on a daily or weekly basis that is important to your mental well-being at this point?
Reggie Hubbard:I check on people. I tend to spend a lot of time in darkness by myself. It has become that way, right, because of the arenas with which I spend a lot of time in are very energetically taxing. Right? And so, like, I spend a lot of time playing sound by myself.
Reggie Hubbard:So in so doing, I try and share sound clips with people. It's kind of like ministry is my practice. Meaning, so if someone crosses my mind, I'll send them something, whether it be sound or are you okay or those sorts of things. Like, that is a practice for me. Like, that is something that as if someone comes into my conscious awareness, I don't believe that's on accident.
Reggie Hubbard:Not not the way that I'm living now. Right? So, like, if someone or something is a I'm okay. It's kinda like refining intuition.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Oh, Reggie, you'll never believe this came at the right time. Okay. I mean, I do believe it, but like it's good to hear it. Mhmm. It's a practice.
Reggie Hubbard:It has made me a pretty kick ass strategist. It's made me a pretty kick ass political operative because of the things I sense. Yeah. So that's a practice that's more on the esoteric side, but it's just like, if you come to my heart and mind, I'll say what's up. And then if you're just like, oh, man.
Reggie Hubbard:This came at the right time. I'm like, okay. Where are we going with this one?
Skippy Mesirow:Is there anything in your wellness or well-being practice at this point you're using a spreadsheet for just to make me giggle?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Every class I teach, every interview I give, every phone call I have is date, time, topic, duration, blah blah blah.
Skippy Mesirow:And for what purpose or to what utility are you keeping that data or capturing that data?
Reggie Hubbard:Institutional memory. Noticing for instance, I've kept this data since 2014. Every yoga class I've ever taken, every yoga class I've ever taught. Everything. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So it's wild because it's now 10 years worth. I'm like, woah. This is a lot. Right? But I can see the evolution of my teaching practice.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? I think you know that I'm, like, flirting with manuscripts and those sorts of things. Right? So, like, that data, when revisited, I'm like, oh, so you had a season of this. Or I can see now the first sound class I taught.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So I can be like, okay. So you started offering this as a teacher here. Right? So it just gives me, like, a broader understanding of the ridiculous explosive path that I've been on.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And I could imagine for me doing something like that because I had this experience semi recently. I had to write my first resume in, like, a decade, which is a terrible process, but, like, also such a gift that that's the first time I had to do that in a while. In going back through all of the projects I've been part of, all the companies, all the it's like, oh, shit, man. I've done a lot.
Skippy Mesirow:But in the moment, it can feel so stuck. It could feel just so resistant. And so I imagine having a compendium of your work to frequently see gives you the perspective of how far you've come, and that's really cool.
Reggie Hubbard:It fills me with gratitude. Right? Like, it fills me with gratitude to see for a variety of reasons. I don't take many other people's classes anymore. 1, because it's not really my style.
Reggie Hubbard:I don't really do a lot of vinyasa stuff. I just got better things to do with my shoulders right now. You know what I mean? So that does I'm not hating on anybody who does that. Just for me, I don't wanna teach it.
Reggie Hubbard:I don't wanna do it. It doesn't serve my needs right now. But I can see if I'm teaching too much because now as an election year, I've kinda been pushed back into my political life. So I can be like, okay. I need to turn this down.
Reggie Hubbard:And it's also all my appointments. Like, all the things I say yes to are there. So I'm okay. So now that I'm doing this thing on Capitol Hill, that's a busy March, Reggie. That's a very busy March.
Skippy Mesirow:Tap the brakes.
Reggie Hubbard:And also, I mean, the last thing I'll share about that is from an entrepreneurial perspective. It caused me to be more discerning. Right? Because it's also amount of money made on this thing. More for just like line of sight Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:Than other applications or whatever. So I can see, okay, you're doing this for this, and while you love it, can you do more of this than you do one of? Mhmm. It allows me to see how I may need to augment. Now I'm now in a season where it's busy in Reggie land.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? And so can it be busy in a way that gives me rest, like, gives the LLC the support it needs financially, but also gives me the space and it creatively to continue to be who I am and do what I do?
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. You can balance the realities of a healthy life from income to service, to personal enjoyment, to relaxation with one observational tool. It's kind of the panopticon of your life. Right.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. Yeah. I'm always mixing up weird metaphors here. So, yeah,
Reggie Hubbard:that's cool. Whatever. Right. It's true though.
Skippy Mesirow:And now a quick break from our sponsors, and we'll be right back to the show. This episode is supported by Elected Leaders Foundation donors, Marilee Upton Spatz and Larry Spatz, shout out fam, at the silver level and at the gold level, the Pates Foundation, Family Foundation. Thank you all. We could not do this without you. And if you want to hear more of this content, you can support too by going to elected leaders collective.com, clicking the little donate button, and receiving your tax benefit.
Skippy Mesirow:The Healing Hour Politics podcast is brought to you by the Elected Leaders Collective, the first leading and most highly recognized name in mental health, well-being, and performance coaching for elected leaders and public servants designed specifically for you. Now don't be fooled by the name. The Elected Leaders Collective is not just for elected leaders. It is for all public servants, staffers, volunteers, government, nonprofit, whole organizations. This is for you.
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Skippy Mesirow:Use it today and become one of the brave political leaders healing our politics. Use code hashtag political healer by going to www.electedleaderscollective.com and starting today. That's www.electedleaderscollective.com and starting today. Okay. So now I'm going to shift just a little bit and ask you maybe the dumbest question you've ever gotten, but actually, I think a really important one, which is, what is yoga?
Reggie Hubbard:That can be answered many ways. It is a series of stories, postures, myths and legends, techniques, sacred scriptures, all these sorts of things essentially designed to bring peace to mind, body, and spirit so that we all can be of service to liberating suffering within ourselves and other people.
Skippy Mesirow:Say more about that last bit because those are not necessarily the things that you got in your last core power ad. No offense, core power. It's when I started doing yoga.
Reggie Hubbard:Thank you for your existence. You have helped me on the campaign trail many times.
Skippy Mesirow:A 100%.
Reggie Hubbard:Because you're the only thing in the town. So my shit. So the yoga is more than asana, which is the physical practice. Asana is the physical practice. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So in the west, it has become, I would say, degraded to a purely physical experience When from my understanding and from the teachings that I've experienced, the physical experience is meant to give you access to consciousness which is your true nature. And from this place of consciousness, you can make art. Right? Discern wise action to be of service to yourself or other people. And it also leads to an understanding that we're connected in the heart space while we seek to separate ourself in the head space.
Reggie Hubbard:Because the first in in, Patanjali's yoga sutra is the first thing in the yoga sutra isn't yoga is meant to give you hella likes on Instagram and a nice ass so people can give you compliments. That's not the first yoga sutra. The first one is like yoga is meant to steal the fluctuations of the mind. The essence of the practice is to steal the mind. And so the physical practice is to get the body in a position so that you can work on stilling the mind.
Reggie Hubbard:And then when you still the mind, you're connected to consciousness, you're connected to the source of creativity, you're connected to the source of all these things, which is us. It dissolves the myth of ego. It dissolves the myth of, like, oh, it's all about me. It's basically a reminder of our connection. We're in this together whether we like it or not.
Reggie Hubbard:So the best thing about yoga for me and the root word is union, to bring together. So to bring together mind, body, and spirit, to bring together people, to bring together everything to the source, which is consciousness, love, grace, and service.
Skippy Mesirow:When yoga was initially practiced, you may not know this, but hearing that the meta intentions are around union, around setting the mindset for the individual, but also for the collective, was it practiced in a collective? For instance, is it something you would have done with a family or with, organizations so that those members could come together? Or was it something that whether practiced individually or in group was really intended to prepare the individual for whatever collective they sought?
Reggie Hubbard:I think it's both from the South Asian perspective. Yoga is practiced in families and in community and those sorts of things. I've also studied Kemetic yoga, which is yoga, derivative Egypt and Kemet. In Kemetic yoga, the scribes, the holy people, did physical practice to offer the wisdom from on high through. So they would do physical practices to increase their wisdom to be of service.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So and there are different iterations. Right? Because yoga has been around for 1000 of years and in multiple cultures. So there have been different applications.
Reggie Hubbard:So there are some for whom it is a solitary, monastic, aesthetic experience. It is some for whom it has been a gateway to Kula or Sangha, which is a group of people being in community and in service. And there are thousands of different types of yoga. So the yoga of sound, which is what I play around with. It's called nada yoga.
Reggie Hubbard:There are all these different aspects of yoga. So to answer your question, it has changed over time from my studies and my understanding, but I do know people who and it's actually been one of the highest blessings of my teaching practice is to have people from South Asia come to me and invite me to come practice with their family in India. This guy is in integrity with all this stuff, like, you should come to New Delhi and blah blah blah. I was like, let me fix fascism in the states first. Let me do a couple things in the states, then maybe I could come help you with your community and be and be of service to your community.
Skippy Mesirow:If I were, like, a anthropological astronaut investigator landing on planet Earth, couldn't speak the language, couldn't talk to anyone, and I came upon a yoga practice, but I have no idea which one it is of the 100 or thousands of practices. Are there particular things that I would observe that would be common to all yoga practices?
Reggie Hubbard:Fluidity and movement and energy and the stilling of the mind.
Skippy Mesirow:And so then just to kind of parse it out and use my devil's advocate brain, what separates or distinguishes yoga from, say, qigong, or would that be considered a yoga practice?
Reggie Hubbard:It's contemplative movement practice. Like, qigong has its own lineage and geographic affiliation, typically.
Skippy Mesirow:But shares a lot of constituent pieces, would you say?
Reggie Hubbard:It can. Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:It can. Yeah. I'm not familiar with any of these. I'm just curious. So knowing that there are these commonalities of yoga, but also distinguishing characteristics and knowing that in my limited experience, active peace yoga, Reggie Hubbard yoga, significantly different.
Skippy Mesirow:Other than the Patron Saints, and amen to them, what are some of the distinguishing qualities of what you do and what you have built?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. So I think you hit it on the head earlier in that my teaching practice wasn't born until April 4, 2020. So it was born in the guts of the pandemic. Like, it was born when the world stopped. So my teaching is derivative of that experience, meaning very focused on energetics.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So I got started teaching through a dot on my computer. Right? So I basically had to throw my energy through a dot on the computer and land with folks. I'm grateful for that experience now because I'm actually quite adept at it.
Reggie Hubbard:It's about creating connection beyond the physical. I would say active piece is about so that means now that the sound has emerged totally in line with what with what we're doing, Ruthless focus on authentic self expression. Mhmm. Because we do not need a hegemony of marginalized, like, mediocrity. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:We don't need that. Like, we need people to be liberated, to be who they are, at least, like, fumbling around to try and find it. We didn't go through the pandemic to pick up defunct norms. Right? So the whole world stopped.
Reggie Hubbard:It wasn't a regional experience, it was a global experience that impacted all of us. So message, right, if the world stopped and we all bore witness to that, it is to some extent to stop and be contemplative about what we're doing. That having the courage to do that in community and then in so doing, once you figure out who you are, having the support of the community to just blast your awesomeness across the galaxy.
Skippy Mesirow:How might that present? Like, if I went to your class, what would I hear? What would I feel? How would people greet me? Could you, like, paint the picture?
Reggie Hubbard:Pretty laid back. I'm the teacher. I'm typically late.
Skippy Mesirow:I can confirm that.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. One of the platforms I taught on I was late by 90 seconds. And we had gotten snow. I was caught by a school bus, all these other things. I get an email from the CEO of the platform and he's just like, is everything okay?
Reggie Hubbard:I'm like, it's 701. For real? Like, what's going on? Right? I went to the class and I was just like, so which one of y'all ratted on me to the principal?
Reggie Hubbard:That ain't cool. So, I mean, I came in just like that. I was I was like, I've been 5 minutes late, ain't nobody called the principal. Y'all call me on 90 seconds? Like, what's going on?
Reggie Hubbard:So rather than being like, hey, guys. Sorry I'm late. Like, I'm late, and I'm here. So you're welcome. And not on some ego stuff, but just like, oh my gosh.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. I was driving carefully in the snow. Right? So radical authenticity from the teacher.
Reggie Hubbard:I always offer a chance for people to do what feels good in their body because I, for 1, don't like being told what to do. So, like, I can guide, and that's actually taught a class the next day with that theme. I was like, I'm still kinda pissed about what happened yesterday if whoever ratted on me. So, like, I'm sitting with that. And the theme of today's class is don't tell me what to do, and don't try and make me be nobody else other than myself.
Reggie Hubbard:So that was the theme of the class the next day. And this person, that class is amazing. I was like, I was inspired. Right? You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:Slash triggered. Like, oh my gosh. You're 90 seconds late. Oh my god. What happened if I would've gotten into an accident?
Reggie Hubbard:Stop it. Can a god be human and show up a little bit? You know what I mean? So humanity, I weave wisdom throughout my stuff. We're not just gonna do a posture, like so a lot of the class I've taught this month for Black History Month have been about aspects of black culture.
Reggie Hubbard:So resilience is born through conscious understanding of adversity and then liberation from the adversity that was painful and harvesting the adversity into wisdom, that's resilience. Then that is part and parcel of the black experience. And so I taught in my physical classes, I'm gonna have longer postures so you can see the strength that you really have, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? So I'll come up with a theme that is socially understandable.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So in our times, not like, oh my goodness, we're gonna talk about resilience because you got stuck in traffic and had a hard time parking. No, we're gonna talk about resilience because it's Black History Month. As a black person, resilience is the key aspect of my lived experience and it's also talked about in the yoga sutra and the yoga wisdom as a byproduct of consistent practice. I talk about it from that perspective as opposed to I mean, there's a lot of surface level stuff in the yoga game that makes me kinda sick, but, like, I show grace there because I'm not trying to hate on other people's liberation.
Reggie Hubbard:It took me a while to get where I'm at. So you do you, but that ain't welcome me up.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. You're a challenger. Right? I mean, that's my observation, but I think you'd agree.
Reggie Hubbard:Big time. Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:Doesn't mean challenging is easy emotionally. It doesn't mean it's risk free. What was it like to step into what has become, at least in America, frankly, a very white, fairly female, a very wealthy subsection of activity being yoga in the yoga world and do things so differently?
Reggie Hubbard:It has been so shout out to Old School Kindness Yoga in Denver, Colorado because when I started coming up in the yoga game, it was a majority white institution that I didn't feel like a freckle. A freckle being like the dark spot on a white face.
Skippy Mesirow:Oh, no. I got it. I've just never heard that before and it's really funny to me. Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Right on. So I didn't feel like that. Which allowed me to be so in my practice, get into not just the physical elements, but the the philosophical elements so that when it came time to do my own thing, I was already ready for it. It was kind of encouraged. And it also I didn't see a place for me, man.
Reggie Hubbard:You know what I mean? So the beauty of the pandemic and it happening this way is that the barriers to entry for all my MBA folks, the barriers to entry during the pandemic were lessened. And so also was the necessity of conformity. So pre pandemic days, if you wanted to teach, you would have to teach a certain style at a certain studio at a certain time. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:That never really worked for me because of, like, I didn't do a ton of vinyasa. I'm not, like, a skinny person who talks with a high voice. Right? I like to talk about real stuff. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:And so then during the pandemic, when they killed George Floyd, Skippy, I just, like, went into 5th gear and just was just like, oh, like, we're doing something here. You know what I mean? Because I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh, it'll be okay. So America cared about black people for 6 months. And in that 6 months, I basically took the yoga world by storm, reminding them that black people do exist, merging my activist practice and my spiritual practice, which upset things in a way that was needed and is needed.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? So it has been a delight to be the Pied Piper, so to speak. It's been a delight to be the jester, the joker, right? Because the modern establishment is toxic, it's appropriative, it celebrates able-bodied, it doesn't create conditions for all beings to find some level of comfort or liberation. So to be a marker of dissent against a structure that isn't serving everybody is fun.
Skippy Mesirow:God, you said something that I think is so important and worthy of discussion. You talked about George Floyd's happens, and in that moment, I had to do something. And what I wanna talk about is the transmutive nature of trauma. Because what you made me just realize is how it happens in both directions, which I knew, but it's such a stark example of anonymously happening in that sense where, normally, what trauma does is it's just contagious. Right?
Skippy Mesirow:I come from a Jewish tradition, and we are watching right now trauma experienced by both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people project itself out into further trauma and perpetuate and amplify itself in a way that is just horrendous to watch. That's what normally happens. But the other thing is also true. Somebody's trauma can cause healing. I would love for you to share your perspective on any of that.
Reggie Hubbard:I read a quote recently from Elder Martin Luther King that talked about essentially, I can't remember the quote off hand, but the short of it is this, I had to make a decision whether I was gonna use my suffering to help people or to harm myself. That's the gist of it. And that has been probably the most valuable lesson that I've learned through all this practice is that suffering is part of the human experience. Our culture, for whatever reason, wants to perpetuate myth of perpetual happiness when I know for myself the adversity that I've been through now that I've honestly reckoned with it from a compassionate grounded place has made me more humane, made me more compassionate, made me more connected to other people as opposed to loss and the delusion of my own ego. So the common notion of yoga is me, me, me, me, me.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? And it's hard for people to see we, we, we, we, we. When I realized that what happened to me can be service to we, oh, man. Right? I was like, yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:This happened to me, but I could talk about this in a way that a broad enough liberatory experience that heals me, heals people who heal the words, and the trauma which has a spiral downward can be catalyzed and just I mean, the sound practice that I have was born of the sudden death of my cousin. Corey had a pulmonary embolism on October 19, 2021 and was gone at 44. Broke me in half. And that pain that I still feel, I poured that pain into sharing music with other people because Corey and I had music in common. And so me being able to take that heartbreak and channel that heartbreak into a curative regenerative experience has impacted 1,000 upon 1,000 of people.
Reggie Hubbard:That lesson was born of just deep yoga discipline, basically. Just like so this is happening for you, not to you. And if it's for you, then what can you experience, harvest, release, then share?
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And I've heard you talk about again, my words, not yours, but the fallacy of cancel culture in a way, not fallacy in that it's not happening and but in the sense of who amongst us hasn't done some shit? Do we really wanna be judged by our worst day? No. Right.
Skippy Mesirow:And I think about the Martin Luther King quote that you shared, not quote, but I've done both. I've done both so badly. I have taken my insecurities and projected those onto women I've dated in ways that were harmful that I fucking wish I could take back, And I've done it in really beautiful ways of being able to absorb incoming and reflect love and compassion back and bringing sides of political issues together. As a result, I am guilty of both.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:I can't imagine that there's a person out there who isn't. And how do you and your practice or in your learnings, how do we cultivate the conditions to more readily on the side of healing rather than amplifying the trauma?
Reggie Hubbard:I remember when I first heard that, Reggie, be kind to someone. You just don't know what they're going through. Remember when I first heard that, I was like, but they should know better. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. The fact still remains that we have no idea what someone is going through even if we live with them, even if we have known them for years.
Skippy Mesirow:Yes.
Reggie Hubbard:We all had people pleasantly surprise us and or die by suicide because we just didn't know what was really going on with folks. So for me, once I realized in my spiritual practice that I never understand what's going on with somebody, I made a vow that to the best of my ability, if you interact with me, it will be in service to lightening your load. If you come on my social media stuff, social media is a shit storm tsunami. But everything I put out there is medicinal. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So cultivating that level of conscious understanding Mhmm. Creates an opportunity to be a balm in like otherwise harmful experience. Right? So we never know what someone's going through. And because of that, may what you receive from me be compassion, kindness, and a soft landing for whatever burden you're holding.
Skippy Mesirow:Yes. And you also don't mince words. You don't comport yourselves to the belief of what someone else desires or should hear. And so you say things that may be experienced as triggers for other people that might invite internal discomfort. And I don't see those things as discontinuities or
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:Mutually exclusive, but I could see how many people would get confused by that.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:So can you help us parse out that?
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Delusion is something I try and eradicate within myself and other people. Right? The kindest thing I can do is tell you where I thank you for the shit. Sometimes the kindest thing I can say is nothing.
Reggie Hubbard:And or if I'm in a circumstance where the time is right and I feel someone told me the other day, I was actually pretty impressed. They were just like, you have the ability to say whatever you think and not that many people get mad at you. I'm like, yeah, because it's from a loving place.
Skippy Mesirow:Or they don't tell you.
Reggie Hubbard:And that's what prayer beads are for. I mean, because the other thing too, and this is the integral part of that for me, is that in this physical body, we have been silenced, we have been hung from trees because of whistles that we Emmett Till was killed because he quote unquote whistled at somebody.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:So another reason that I'm so bold and loud is because I can be. Yeah. As a black man in these United States in this day and time, I can say what I mean, mean what I say, and not have fear of death. That's another reason why people get uncomfortable with what I say. Like, I know I've said it in love and I also know that there are many generations behind me who did not have the luxury to speak what they wanted to speak because they thought they might get killed.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. Which is indicative of 2 truths intention. Right? That there is still so much work to do and that a lot of work has been done.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Right. And I also trust because my prayer life is so deep that if I have offended someone in a way that brings suffering upon them, like, I ask for forgiveness for that. Right? You know what I mean?
Reggie Hubbard:If not from them, from whoever's in charge of this thing anyway. Right? So I actively try and clear my conscience because it is not my intention to cause harm. It's never my intention to causing discomfort and causing harm are not the same thing.
Skippy Mesirow:I've even I've heard you say from a yoga perspective, like, if you are seeking comfort or you're experiencing anything, you're not actually doing yoga.
Reggie Hubbard:Wrong practice. Yeah. Mhmm. Wrong practice. Yoga is not a narcotic.
Reggie Hubbard:It's an antiseptic.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. Right? Great analogy.
Reggie Hubbard:I'm a write that down. It's the first time I've said that.
Skippy Mesirow:That's a great analogy.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Yoga is not a narcotic. It's an antiseptic.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. It's not there to help you not feel the pain. It's there to help you clear it.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Clear it and come into right relationship with it so that you can find the next move that you need to do Yeah. Where it's healing and liberation.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:And the other thing I'll say with respect to the words piece is that one of my favorite phrases in black Baptist lore is that as a preacher, as someone who serves truth, love, and justice, I'm here to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
Skippy Mesirow:That's great.
Reggie Hubbard:Right? Because in all honesty, the culture of the United States is predicated on the comfort of 1 group and the marginalization, the discomfort of so many other people. Mhmm. So if I can flip that balance, so where those who have experienced discomfort for millennia can have some level of peace and those for whom their comfort is predicated on the discomfort of others feel a prick of what other people feel so they can find their truth and their healing. Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:That's
Reggie Hubbard:what I'm here for.
Skippy Mesirow:Yes. And in my I guess it's my theory, but also experience and observation, too much comfort is a very dangerous thing for the comfort holder. Yeah. And not because they have a different position than some other group or some sense of privilege or detachment. It's just, it's very debilitating to the organism.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:We grow when the muscle fibers tear.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Friction.
Skippy Mesirow:We expand when we're outside of our comfort zone. Like life is most lived, most acutely lived on the edge. Yep. The times that I most remember, most cherish were times of danger, intentional, or otherwise in so many ways. And to live a life without discomfort, I think, is a life, in many ways, very unlived.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. Yeah. One other thing really quickly came to mind as we've been processing is that as a entrepreneur, as a thought leader, as a visionary, and those sorts of things, we live in a time that requires us to speak bold. Mhmm. Bold truth, truth to power, bold love.
Reggie Hubbard:Act as bold as love is one of my favorite albums by Jimi Hendrix. Right? You know what I mean? Love is not timid. Love is bold.
Reggie Hubbard:Love is the only force in the universe that can look hate in the face, laugh, consume it, and grow. Yeah. That doesn't happen with timidity.
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:And I love us so much that I want people to be as free, as creative, and as spiritually open as I am right now. Skippy, I'm having a blast in this meat suit right now. No? Yes. Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:It is fun.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. It is. And I love the imagery of love eating. You say hate or anger? What did you say?
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And the reason that works, it's not timid, but it's also not resistant. When love eats hate, it accepts it. Right. And in accepting it, it dissipates it, and it integrates it back into love.
Skippy Mesirow:And it's in the acceptance of all those things that that is possible. I'm getting a thumbs up from Reggie, so I like that.
Reggie Hubbard:Absolutely.
Skippy Mesirow:But that's the truth of it.
Reggie Hubbard:And that's what we need now, man. We've gone through so much stuff as a society. Like, everyone's upset about something. People are screaming at each other so loud. You and I both worked in politics.
Reggie Hubbard:Everyone's pointing so many fingers, they forget to extend their hand in kindness and gratitude and those sorts of things. Like, there's so much they like, what we need is the energy of love to be like, okay. Yeah. What about this?
Skippy Mesirow:We just gotta hold. Yeah. We will never blame our way to a solution. Nope. Never gonna happen.
Reggie Hubbard:I, where is it? So somewhere in my studio, I have a quote from Maya Angelou, is that, hey, this caused many problems in the world, not solve one of them.
Skippy Mesirow:When we look to externalize our agency, we're gonna fail every time.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. So if we are to integrate all of the things we've been talking about, all of these practices, approaches, mindsets we've talked about into the public space,
Reggie Hubbard:right.
Skippy Mesirow:And allowing individual leaders, servants to adopt this at their own pace. You've talked about in the scope of yoga, how yoga has become commodified, suburbanized, privatized, even weaponized, potentially. Yeah. And For sure. So I'm curious how we may act in ourselves to avoid that fate for wellness or well-being also being co opted in that way, which I think there's an argument to say that that's just what happens to all things and may even be unavoidable.
Reggie Hubbard:Mhmm.
Skippy Mesirow:But how would you think about the intentional integration of these practices into the life of public servants that best safeguards from those outcomes that we'd prefer not to see and which are not an integrity.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. So as a former marketer, I am always looking for opportunities to saturate the market. Mhmm. So what some people see as co opting, I see as architecture.
Skippy Mesirow:Architecture. That's great. You know
Reggie Hubbard:what I mean? So I just got an email last week to teach meditation to the Democratic National Committee. So that means that an appetite and a culture has been created where people know that if they need meditative support, they can call someone. Mhmm. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:That proliferation in an election year at the DNC, which you know from your political work, is Yes. You called me. So you have a budget that you can devote to mental well-being for your staff at an election year.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. We got a call in the last 2 weeks from the Colorado State House and from a congressional caucus as well. And same thing, like, what? I mean, amazing, but what?
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Right. There has been enough of a shift, so hooray us and everybody that's in this game. Right? There's been enough of a shift that people know that this exists and that it can be for them.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. That makes me ecstatic because if there's a saturation, a proliferation, what does that do? It undercuts the BS in yoga land that I can't stand anyway. Right? So if I'm teaching 20 minute meditation to operatives in an election year, then listen, no shade on people if this is your natural voice.
Reggie Hubbard:But there's so many people who talk in soft voices and like this, like having a soft voice doesn't equate to spirituality. Mhmm. So if these things can be ubiquitous, I'm cool with that. Right? If it's in a way that serves to bring about peace of mind, more compassionate decision making, and help sow the seeds for the world that we deserve.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Let's go. So I have a different viewpoint on that. Like, most of my students are real people.
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm.
Reggie Hubbard:I try and stay away from yoga land. You know what I mean? Like, I've been accepted by it, which is hilarious to me. I was like, y'all know I'm so counterculture it hurts. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:Like, I'm not trying to be like you, but you like me? Cool. Because I believe that if it's spread more broadly, compassion rises, critical thinking rises, right? Increased connection rises. All those things help create an ecosystem that bring us together as opposed to, like, splinter as we don't need any more splintering.
Reggie Hubbard:There are way too many shards.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. I would imagine in the same way that you are providing freedom of motion and music and body type to the people you're teaching, you also provide the opportunity for many in quote unquote yoga land to do a thing that they want to do, but are too scared to do because they're too scared to ask what someone of a different skin color or culture might think or want. They're too scared to they're just too scared. And so I think, you know, you are probably expanding the range of audience to people that they really want. And so it would make sense that they would be grateful for that.
Reggie Hubbard:I talk a lot of trash about yoga land, but I do believe that for the most part, there are well intentioned people with huge hearts
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:That want to do the right thing.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:I do believe that. I do also believe and have seen that you can want to do the right thing, but be equipped with harmful narratives and actually end up doing harm while seeking to do the right thing.
Skippy Mesirow:You know the 21 questions. Right? The scientific method of asking questions to fall in love or whatever. Mhmm. One of the questions is you could have dinner with anybody living or dead.
Skippy Mesirow:I've always found that question to be fascinating, and my answer has always been something like Stalin. Because I want to know a person who we, through the sands of time, look back at committing some of the worst atrocities known to man. Were they, quote, unquote, evil, or were they doing what they believed to be good and the results ended up really bad? And what the Mhmm. Dissonance is between intention and outcome is something that just very much fascinates me.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:Very much so. Alright. So I wanna start to think about wrapping up here, and I'd really love to leave people with some tangible tactical things that they can do in their day.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:So imagine putting yourself back in sort of reggie 2016, 2014 zone. Mhmm. I'll think of myself back in 28, 2010, 2012 zone. So someone who's involved in service, who is doing it for the right reasons.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:But whether they realize it or not are presenting with a lot of unhealthy behaviors that will probably bite them in the butt later. What are some of the, yeah, what are some of the gateway drugs to wellness that you could sprinkle in for them to try?
Reggie Hubbard:When I chain smoked, I convinced myself into thinking that that nasty ass parliament light was giving me relaxation. The deep breath is giving you relaxation. The parliament light is giving you lung cancer.
Skippy Mesirow:And nicotine, which is very invigorating. Right.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. So breathing deeply always shifts perspective. Mhmm. If you feel tight in a situation, you're probably tight in your body. So I like that simple thing, a sigh of clearance as opposed to a sigh of exasperation is the easiest medicine to manifest.
Skippy Mesirow:Mhmm. So if you're giving people, say, 2 to 3 types of easily achievable breath, whether it's just that single breath or not, and you're gonna describe it as as if you were a PDF worksheet of how to that someone doesn't need a decoder ring for, what would you say?
Reggie Hubbard:We typically sit around like non scary T Rexes. Right? So what that does is it smashes the lungs, it constricts the body, and of course, it has a diminishing impact on your health. Look, it's biophysics. You can't take a deep breath here.
Reggie Hubbard:However, if you inhale, shoulders back, exhale down and away, Doing that simple thing of rolling the shoulders with deep breath, opens the lungs.
Skippy Mesirow:And if you're at home, you can if you're not driving, you can try this at home right now by just sitting down in a chair, lifting your shoulders up as high as you can towards your ears, then moving them forward and together, like you're being pushed in from both shoulders, and then roll the stomach in concave and try to breathe. Okay. Now, open those wings up like you're gonna fly somewhere. Right. Put your head up and take a breath.
Reggie Hubbard:Right. Super simple. Super simple. So that's one thing. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So just going from Dieter Sprockets to whatever. The second thing I would say is that we have never considered how much stress we carry in the face. Mhmm. So you squint for hours, you probably have pursed lips. Think of the aggregate of hours of that.
Reggie Hubbard:So simple way to release stress in the face, aggregate means, like, the addition. Add it all up. So, like, create friction in the palm because friction is a necessary part of the human experience. You're also creating heat softening the hands, then place heated hands on the jaw and watch stress melt away. Do that a couple of times.
Reggie Hubbard:Maybe even doing that over the eyes or whatever, but in high stress areas using tactile touch and deep breath, game changer.
Skippy Mesirow:Beautiful. Beautiful. Super easy, navigable. If you're not trying that, it's you.
Reggie Hubbard:Seriously. And I think that's part of my brand too is just I try and make this complex stuff super simple where you can, like, decide whether it's for you or not.
Skippy Mesirow:It works.
Reggie Hubbard:If you decide whether it's for you, then come with me. We can do some whole other stuff. But just your experience with me, you will feel connected to something that was digestible and understandable.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And it works. You did, like, a 7 minute body movement meditation with a group through ELC a long time ago. Yeah. And I've kinda kept the CliffsNotes of that in my mind, and I will, oftentimes, when clients are really having a day, we'll drop them in with that.
Skippy Mesirow:And, of course, credit you. And it's really amazing. And people will come out every time. Be like, wow. That was amazing.
Skippy Mesirow:You gotta talk to my boy, Reggie. Right.
Reggie Hubbard:Yeah. 7 minutes. You don't have time to feel this great. Stop it.
Skippy Mesirow:It's really, really good. Reggie, we have a closing question. It's the same for everyone. But before I get there, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you would like to?
Reggie Hubbard:No. I'm just proud of you. I'm proud of the work that you've done. You know, we both became acquainted through dear Elena at a time where both of us were figuring out what are we doing in this pandemic, what the hell is happening. Right?
Reggie Hubbard:So to sit with you again in both of us resplendent in the success of us taking a chance is just a beautiful experience. Right? So it's a beautiful experience to bear witness to your courage becoming a thing that is impacting substantially a area that needs love. Right? People that need love and care and concern.
Reggie Hubbard:So just props to you. So I guess talking about how and Jon Stewart said this recently too that we often glamorize the flourish of life
Skippy Mesirow:Yes.
Reggie Hubbard:But don't talk anything about the nitty gritty.
Skippy Mesirow:That's right.
Reggie Hubbard:The consistency of doing something again
Skippy Mesirow:That's right.
Reggie Hubbard:And again and again and again. The fast change people notice is predicated on all of the slow change no one cared about.
Skippy Mesirow:If you wanna be Arnold Schwarzenegger in world championship fit, and you get a gym membership, show up, do one set of bench press, get upset that you didn't get there and leave, it ain't gonna work.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:It takes persistent effort and
Reggie Hubbard:Again and again and again.
Skippy Mesirow:Again and again and again. And it's both. Right? It's both the earthquake and the steady drip of water that creates canyons.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:But the steady drip of water is acting on the land orders of magnitude more than the earthquake is in time interval.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:Right.
Skippy Mesirow:And I really appreciate that. And I just I get so much inspiration from you. I get so much learning from you, from your journey, for what you show up, how you show up. There's a huge part of me that wants to just be unapologetically me, and then there's a big part of me that's afraid to be that for what the consequence will be. And you always bring me back to that ground truth of authenticity, and that means the world.
Skippy Mesirow:So I really appreciate that.
Reggie Hubbard:It's a bigger consequence to not be yourself.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah. And the truth is that there is no courage without fear. And if what you truly seek, and I'm just my own experience is acceptance, community, family, purpose, you can never have more than the Mirage of those by being your non self and to have the real thing, you're not gonna get a 100% hit rate. That ain't it. If that's the goal, you're gonna lose every time.
Skippy Mesirow:But it's still it's easier to know that than to proceed through it, and you helped me do that. So thank you.
Reggie Hubbard:My honor, Fran.
Skippy Mesirow:Yes. Alright. So closing question. Yep. The audience for this show, not passive observers.
Skippy Mesirow:These are the people in the arena. And so knowing that people. If you could leave them with just one thing, one thought, one quote, one practice, one no bullshit call out, anything at all, that would best resource them to personally be a vector for healing our politics, what would it be?
Reggie Hubbard:There is a quote I'm seeking attributed to James Baldwin and it says the following, the place in which I will fit will not exist until I make it. Yeah. The place in which I will fit will not exist until I make it. So whether you be an entrepreneur, whether you be someone seeking policy change, whether you be someone seeking some other level of transformative experience for yourself and or for other people, God bless the creators, right? God bless the people that are going out there trying to shake things up because the way that things are built now are not built with everyone in mind.
Skippy Mesirow:Yeah.
Reggie Hubbard:So if you create opportunities for more people to fit in, it doesn't just benefit them, it also benefits you. Mhmm. Right? So using your creativity and your passion and service to making place where all of us fit, not just shallow ambition and talking points.
Skippy Mesirow:Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. Reggie, so fun. Where can people He
Reggie Hubbard:did it. Yeah.
Skippy Mesirow:Where can people find you? Those people that wanna hire you, work with you, seeking the magic, where do they find you? Where do they follow you?
Reggie Hubbard:Activepeaceyoga.com is the easiest way to catch me. There's a submit here form there if you have any questions or whatever. O regi global on Instagram is by far the biggest channel that I've got.
Skippy Mesirow:Can you spell that real quick?
Reggie Hubbard:O r e g g I e g l o b a l. Also, at activepeaceyoga, it's activepeace y o g a, and I just launched this thing because sound is an important part of my experience. Right? So, like, there are too many words. Part of the reason I teach so much sound is to get people to listen and stop talking so much.
Reggie Hubbard:Gong hits for peace, g o n g h I t s f o r p a c e. All those are on Instagram. But so you can get, like, inspired, you can get encouraged, and you can also, like, have a sonic experience on the mothership all in one place.
Skippy Mesirow:That's awesome. I am gonna check that out. You're not bringing me out of Instagram retirement, but I'll at least go and give it a look.
Reggie Hubbard:Gong it for peace is changing lives, man. People are like, yes. Like, there's no words. It's all sound.
Skippy Mesirow:So good. Reggie, thanks so much, brother.
Reggie Hubbard:Absolutely. Love you, man.
Skippy Mesirow:Oh, appreciate it, dude. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you wanna put what you've heard here today into practice, sign up for our newsletter, the leader's handbook, where each month you'll receive just one email with a curated of the most useful tools and practices discussed on this podcast today and over the course of the last month. Delivered in simple how to worksheets, videos, and audio guides, so you and your teams can try and test these out in your own life and see what best serves you. And lastly, if you wanna be a vector for healing our politics, if you wanna do your part, take out your phone right now and share this podcast with 5 colleagues you care about.
Skippy Mesirow:Send a simple text, drop a line, and leave the ball in their court because the truth is the more those around you do their work, the better it will show up in your life, in your community, and in your world. Have a beautiful day. Friends, since the recording of this episode, Reggie suffered a stroke that shook us all. Though he is on a miraculous journey of healing and recovery, he was literally leading meditation and sound healing sessions for his nurses in his hospital room and is learning the lessons of health, healing, gratitude, faith, community, and the power of love delivered by the stroke. The truth is we all heal best in community.
Skippy Mesirow:For those of you interested in and able to contribute to the healing efforts of Reggie's stroke recovery, please consider contributing as I have to his GoFundMe campaign. You can find it at gofundme.com backslash f like Frank, backslash reggie, reggie, dash Hubbard, h u b b a r d dash recovery. One more time, go fund me dot com backslash f backslash reggie dash Hubbard dash recovery to help this magical soul on his healing journey so he can come back into the world and be there to help heal and up level us. The Healing Hour Politics podcast is brought to you by the Elected Leaders Collective, the first leading and most highly recognized name in mental health, well-being, and performance coaching for elected leaders and public servants designed specifically for you. Now don't be fooled by the name.
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