LifeJitsu: Art of Life

"We All Have Our Stuff, We Are All White Belts At Something" -- Judging Others vs. Understanding Others. This episode is designed for anyone seeking to conquer their ignorance and tendency to quickly rush to judge others. The words and ideas in this podcast are intended to inspire you to live more positively, to focus more on Goodness, to see and be Oneness with everything around you. The mindset of “God is All and All is God” is a powerful perspective that helps us live fully and completely and harmoniously in the present moment. This prism and paradigm is designed to empower and raise your vibration, to not just imagine your Highest Ideals and Best Self — but to BE those ideals, EXPRESS those ideals, EMBODY those ideals, LIVE those ideals. The biggest takeaway from this mantra and mindshift is this: Be quick to seek to understand others, slow to judgment. This frees us to live in greater harmony with others, to see the Divine in them, and also cultivate more inner peace, poise, grace, confidence, and radiance.

Frank Forza breaks down The Genius that Made Floyd Mayweather The World’s Highest Paid Athlete & Near-Billionaire.

Frank Forza, Human Performance Optimizer, Philosopher-Poet, BJJ Black Belt and three-time IBJFF Masters World Champion, goes deeper into what mskes “working out” — in his case, six days a week— so amazing for us on many levels.

Vocalist Frank Forza and guitarist Erik Hight, collaborate and improv and deliver a unique freestyle rendition of the BB King classic, “Thrill is Gone.” For perspective: Frank & Eric perform the improvised song in a local parking garage, which aided the all-natural acoustics. They created the song’s sound and feel organically without AutoTune. Note: This is only the second time Frank and Erik have practiced together, and the first 90 seconda or so of this recording is just them playing. Around the 90-second and two-minute mark of this freestyle jam session is when Frank and Erik begin to find the song’s sweet spot and hit their stride. Very catchy improvised track if you make time to listen, which we appreciate. Comments snd feedback email: [email protected] OR [email protected]

Alot of people feel lost, anxious, depressed, un-motivated and unworthy. How do we break the cycle? Today Frank Forza, himself a survivor of his fair share of storms, discusses techniques that have helped him and others rise above psychological stumbling blocks and self sabotages. Frank speaks from the heart, constantly striving for unique self-expression, valuing innovation over regurgitation. He shares mostly what he has lived in the trenches, rather than what he read in a book.

When Serendipity Strikes When serendipity strikes, when you meet a total stranger and instantly hit it off as if you’ve known each other for many years, it leaves a wonderful and memorable tattoo on the mind. And so it was recently when a massive plate of salmon, being consumed at the table next to me, stole my attention. It wasn’t the two pounds of salmon that captured my imagination; it was the 100-pound woman still eating the salmon 20 minutes later. “How much salmon is she going to eat in one sitting?” “How much salmon does she eat each week and how frequently?” The questions tugged at me, so I stood up, opted to think out loud, and walked over and politely posed the inquisitions to her. I met an extremely pleasant, thoughtful and enlightened woman who appeared to be of retirement age. The dominoes fell so fortuitously that here we were, a week or so later, recording a 90-minute podcast together. Joyce Gibson, an Energy Healer who has been immersed in enlightened and conscientious eating and living since the late 1960s. Together Ms. Gibson and I discuss: Healthy eating and living habits; How do people north of 60- and 65-years old make peace with growing older, the fear of being alone, and death? Why do so many humans think that 70 is old and that being sick, and in pain, and losing your memory is almost a foregone conclusion? The psychology of words such as “older person” and “senior citizens” and “elderly”? Can we think of better, more optimistic descriptors? Breathing your way out of stressful situations for a calmer heartbeat and peace of mind; The power of Intentions; How Death can be, in many ways, a measure of our Faith in God or whatever you believe is next.

Only Girl on The Mat: The Brave, Bold Journey of Julia Salata Julia Salata was the lone female on her high school wrestling team and it was incredibly difficult to find a female wrestler on any team. Fast forward to today and the 2021 Olympic Games hopeful has watched women’s wrestling skyrocket across the country, with some indications that roughly 10 percent of all U.S. high school wrestlers are female. It is an astonishing rate of growth and empowerment, and mirrors the massive surges we are also seeing as girls and women train in other combat sports such as jiu jitsu, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and Muay Thai. In this 2-hour conversation, Julia and I explore how to build a higher-performance mindset; the sacrifices that are made in pursuit of a worthy goal, and how we have navigated and conquered injuries. Julia also also happens to be a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was one of the first 3,000 or so Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts in the world, and over the years I have been fortunate to both train with, and coach, many extremely talented female grapplers. They work just as hard as their male counterparts, express just as much fighting spirit, and deserve a much bigger stage and spotlight on their major contributions toward the skyrocketing growth of Jiu Jitsu, wrestling and MMA (interesting and somewhat mind-blowing stat: Today more than 10 percent of all high school wrestlers are female, and that percentage continues to climb). Julia and I tackle many thought-provoking topics, such as: -- What percentage of male training partners does Julia think go really rough? -- Fear of losing vs. natural high of winning: Which motivates top performers more? -- Is the average female grappler a better technician than the average male? -- Do female athletes have egos as big as their male counterparts? If not, why not? -- How extraordinary is the achievement of Heaven Fitch, a high schooler in North Carolina, beating boys to claim her state title? -- Is the thrill of domination simply in our DNA? -- The Zen and tremendous satisfaction that you feel after a really hard practice, where you're sitting there dripping sweat, exhausted and relaxed and thinking, "It feels so good to have given everything and worked that hard." -- How do we grow women's sports and create more opportunities for them? -- Lessons from the mat that carry over to life beyond; -- Why women usually make great training partners; -- The mental toughness and work ethic that wrestling uploads into its athletes. Julia is an assistant coach at King’s University, one of the premiere women’s wrestling programs in the nation. Frank is a philosopher, journalist, artist and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt who teaches martial arts, spiritual, mental and nutritional fitness. How to reach Frank and Julia on social media: Facebook: Juila Salata Twitter: @jsalata Instagram: @jsalata Email: [email protected] Instagram: frank_forza Facebook:Frank Forza website: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

What if you had to say goodbye forever to your greatest passion, your favorite work? What if you had to say goodbye and finally move on and find something else -- either because of Father Time or circumstances outside of your control? “What would I be without jiu jitsu?” Robert Drysdale says during the 2 and ½ hour podcast we recorded on Cinco de Mayo. “I’m able to picture myself, for a minute, without BJJ… I’m not chained to jiu jitsu.” Over the years, in my own life, I have contemplated the same. Among other things, in 1995, major surgery on an artery ended my collegiate wrestling career, which threw my entire identity and sense of self into limbo. More recently, during the past 9 weeks, the COVID-19 crisis has stirred in us a wide range of emotions. Highs and lows. Fear and Faith. And yet, as Napoleon Hill and many others espouse, every adversity overflows with equal opportunity and advantage. Within any chaos, if we look close enough, there are always seeds of positivity. “I was depressed for about the first two weeks,” Drysdale said. “I had just signed a lease for a new gym in Henderson a week before the lockdown, so it was a horrible thing.” By Week 3 of the government stay-at-home orders, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt legend started to adapt. Time to learn some new skills, he told himself. He started practicing on a guitar and regularly reading Shakespeare -- two things he had long targeted but never previously gotten around to because of his busy travels across the globe. Everyone with a cell phone and a Facebook account is an expert on everything these days. But how do you REALLY know what you think you know? What are you basing your opinions on? Frank, who graduated with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Maryland, has always been particularly interested in a little-known branch of philosophy called “epistemology,” which is basically the study of “How Do I Know?” Robert and I tackle a lot of topics herein -- both advocating the urgent need for more concerned citizens to set aside political ideologies and biases and avoid the tribalism that is viciously dividing Americans these days. We reveal things about ourselves that many people don’t know. We try to draw wisdom from the COVID-19 challenge, we talk about countries we have visited, and the hard lessons we had to learn from being way too ultra-competitive on the mats. “If someone scored a point on me,” Drysdale says, “I would lose my s___.” A coach took him aside one day and sternly scolded him, “You need to calm the (expletive) down.” There were low-points for both of us, and high points such as when Robert won the prestigious ADCC Submission World Championships absolute division. “You wish you could freeze that moment,” he says. “Where do you get that high again? It’s a natural high you can’t replicate ever again.”

Although they grew up in different countries -- Claude Abrams in the U.K. and Frank Forza in the U.S. -- both healthy-living coaches have striking similarities in their life arcs. Both are former professional journalists; both men have experience interviewing and writing about some of the world’s best fighters; they are roughly the same age and have increasingly focused much of their present-day energy and passion on wellness and optimal health. Claude owns and operates Intelligent Strength gym in his homeland, while Frank teaches jiu-jitsu and wrestling, human performance coaching, and nutritional fitness to clients. Claude and Frank share a strong fondness for plant-based nutrition, and their two-part conversation/podcast centers around habits of healthy living, ways to boost our Immune System and avoiding the “Magic Pill Mentality” that is contributing to growing global fears, chronic sickness and disease in the world. Most adults are well aware that more fruits, veggies and exercise would be good for them -- but how do we actually motivate and inspire people to experience a paradigm shift and FINALLY embrace healthier habits? If the current global crisis doesn’t spur more people to take greater responsibility for their health, to start committing to healthy changes, then what on earth will? How and why does someone become a vegan or vegetarian? Why are some people so obsessed with eating and living plant-based? And how can vegans and vegetarians avoid being too dogmatic about their food philosophy -- and less judgmental toward their carnivore-loving friends? Frank makes his case for “More apples, less needles,” and explores why so many people are sick and chronically ill in the U.S -- despite the country being far and away the most vaccinated in the world and greatest swallowers of prescription drugs in the world. Do we want, as an international community, to hand over even more of our health -- the decisions, what is best for us -- to bureaucrats and “public health experts” claiming to know what is best for us than we ourselves do? How much power over our health do we want to hand over to our government, big pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and Big corporations? What’s going on with us and our health and where do we start to transform from an unhealthy nation overall into one filled with healthy livers? This is Part 2 of a two-part series that both Frank and Claude hope will inspire ever-more people to take control of their health, to finally realize how much power they have over their spiritual, mental and physical health, and to start the journey to transformation today, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.

Although they grew up in different countries -- Claude Abrams in the U.K. and Frank Forza in the U.S. -- both healthy-living coaches have striking similarities in their life arcs. Both are former professional journalists; both men have experience interviewing and writing about some of the world’s best fighters; they are roughly the same age and have increasingly focused much of their present-day energy and passion on wellness and optimal health. Claude owns and operates Intelligent Strength gym in his homeland, while Frank teaches jiu-jitsu and wrestling, human performance coaching, and nutritional fitness to clients. Claude and Frank share a strong fondness for plant-based nutrition, and their two-part conversation/podcast centers around habits of healthy living, ways to boost our Immune System and avoiding the “Magic Pill Mentality” that is contributing to growing global fears, chronic sickness and disease in the world. Most adults are well aware that more fruits, veggies and exercise would be good for them -- but how do we actually motivate and inspire people to experience a paradigm shift and FINALLY embrace healthier habits? If the current global crisis doesn’t spur more people to take greater responsibility for their health, to start committing to healthy changes, then what on earth will? How and why does someone become a vegan or vegetarian? Why are some people so obsessed with eating and living plant-based? And how can vegans and vegetarians avoid being too dogmatic about their food philosophy -- and less judgmental toward their carnivore-loving friends? Frank makes his case for “More apples, less needles,” and explores why so many people are sick and chronically ill in the U.S -- despite the country being far and away the most vaccinated in the world and greatest swallowers of prescription drugs in the world. Do we want, as an international community, to hand over even more of our health -- the decisions, what is best for us -- to bureaucrats and “public health experts” claiming to know what is best for us than we ourselves do? How much power over our health do we want to hand over to our government, big pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and Big corporations? What’s going on with us and our health and where do we start to transform from an unhealthy nation overall into one filled with healthy livers? This is Part 1 of a two-part series that both Frank and Claude hope will inspire ever-more people to take control of their health, to finally realize how much power they have over their spiritual, mental and physical health, and to start the journey to transformation today, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.