#183 – Warrior Spirit with Mikal Vega

This transcription was made by using Otter.ai so it is not 100% accurate.

Krisstina Wise [0:01]
Welcome back. This is Krisstina Wise your host In this episode I interview my friend Mikal Vega. Mikal is a veteran who served 22 years within the Navy SEAL teams in EOD communities. While deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. he sustained an injury from an IED detonation that caused severe cervical trauma, ulnar nerve damage and a traumatic brain injury. After medical retirement, he founded a self hating life miserable, suicidal and addicted to VA prescribed narcotic painkillers and psychoactive drugs until he hit bottom and finally hit his limit. He finally realized that the medications were having an adverse effect on his physical health and mental well being. So he decided to drop the prescriptive meds and explore ancient methodologies for recovery and healing. Needless to say the new approach worked. Now his mission and intention is to help those seriously affected by trauma, especially combat veterans fully recover using non pharmaceutical methodologies. In spiritual practices, this is a deep conversation about war, trauma, death and a new chance at life about darkness and light as part of a healing journey. If you’re wanting to feel inspired, you’ll wish to listen in please enjoy my conversation with the call bigger

Mikal Vega [1:15]
fix, the stapler damage on the nerve damage, you know all the happy stuff that happens with close proximity explosives. It’s some of the core source issues that a lot of us are facing today in dealing with mild traumatic brain injury and the symptoms associated around just life as being a seal. I’m very fortunate, I all my stuff’s internal. I’m still functional. I’ve got I was given just enough I feel to push me in the right direction. And that was accelerated by the status quo at that time. Were you This whole PTSD or pts, is what I’d like to call it is started coming out. And and then the status quo at the time was using heavy medications to treat the symptoms of the underlying issues. And only now are they starting to embrace more of the things that I discovered on my own when I revolted against that pharmaceutical system to that, that really enhanced my health and helped me mitigate pain, non pharmaceutically. In most cases, there’s a place for medicine, it’s just that I feel like we, we really turned to too quickly without exploring some of the and and supporting the body’s natural tendency to heal and the power of the bodies the power of the body’s ability to do so. Using myofascial release, acupuncture far infrared spectrum therapy and a number of other modalities I started to reverse the process of

combat related stress

and and mitigate some of the effects of in TBI and pain and you know all these types of things. However that was expensive and, and paying for acupuncture, chiropractic and floatation therapy and all these different types of modalities that I engaged in. It it while I was in the military, developing this at the end, I was able to sustain but when I got out, I didn’t have the income and it became challenged. So however, the effect of Combining these different modalities were, were critical in in my overall health and ability to function in day to day life. So I tried to figure out how I could, you know, make these these modalities available in a manner that benefited not only myself but you know, other people going through the same thing. And so I started a nonprofit organization centered around that. That mission, you know, to make it available and for people to have an alternative to their own development and health and choose a different path or augment a path that they’re on themselves in 2012, and I guess I started this, that that whole process started after I had neurosurgery in 2009 and to rectify some nerve issues I was having, stemming from that injury. So

I started to when I got out in 2012, I moved up to Los Angeles, and I’ve been working in the film and television industry ever since. And it’s been something that I always wanted to do is what I did as a child I performed. I was like a Glee Club kid. I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t have a typical path into the SEAL team did you expect with sports and all this type of stuff, I like singing and dancing, you know, are all these types of things so. So that’s where I picked back up. You know, that’s where that’s where my heart really is. And so, being able to use my experience in a creative, my life experience in the military and a creative output, I guess Covered was an important and critical catalyst for moving the whole package down the field in the nonprofit space. So, using the modalities that I just mentioned in conjunction with the discovery and embracing creativity, I was drawn to meditation and yoga. And what really became the core of all of it are these warrior meditations that I discovered. And I found a master here in Los Angeles that teaches it. And I’ve been I became a teacher. Immediately. I went through teacher training in 2012 into 2012. And then I’ve been teaching ever since. And those classes are available online, as you know, to the nonprofit called vital warrior that that at the end of the day we originally started just, we just wanted to provide modality And then we still do, we still want to achieve this goal of opening a center and having everything under one roof. But at the end of the day, chasing the money and trying to get the funding to do everything we want to do, I was spending all my time doing that, instead of actually helping people and providing a service. So we’ve shifted in and we started to, we started to do what we could do, when could provide, what can we provide right now? Well, we can’t we provided chiropractic services for, you know, veterans in Los Angeles for over a year and a half. And we continue to provide yoga classes in the studios through a partnership with the Raja Yoga Institute, and we offer online meditation classes that are free for veterans active duty and servicemembers the end. And so that stuff’s all running with the goal of actually getting everything under one roof and being able to provide more services and and we’re getting there this pandemic kind of put a halt on our momentum

on developing that, but yeah, it’ll pick up again once we get through it. Yeah, see what I’d like to like

Krisstina Wise [8:28]
said for everybody listening I mean, it’s it’s a it’s a time right now like there’s a myriad of a lot of different emotions going on. Perhaps a lot of people are really in fear when we’re in fear our nervous system goes to that place of more fight, you know, fight flight or freeze. And then you know, we’re not really thinking it’s very reactionary, and you know, those types of feelings can be can take over and many times it’s it, you know, we, it appears like life’s going on just fine and then something happens. It’s sometimes old, true. Start to maybe rear its ugly head. So I’d love for you to share. Take us through your journey a little bit what did it like even when on the other side on, you know, before you like flipped over to let’s say this other side and found these other modalities? What did PTSD or PS what’s that what you thought What did it look like what did it feel like? What was life? What did like what was it inside your head being online with the pharmaceuticals like in that time explain like what that how that felt and what that reality was for you.

Mikal Vega [9:35]
So

I think that for me in and just my perspective on that whole thing is is that I don’t feel like it’s a disorder at all. I feel like it’s normal physiological response to abnormal condition. And if we just let if you put a body in acute related stress, acute stress situations for prolonged periods of time, the physiology of the body is going to have a calculated response it’s going to respond the same way doesn’t care about the source doesn’t care where it comes from. Knowing this, if we just allow the body to relax, when it comes back, and we support it in relaxing and help get back to homeostasis, then everything will be fine. But what we do is we jump to these medications way too quick, without allowing it to do so. And we’re putting these psychotropic drugs on otherwise healthier mind. So that’s what I experienced. That’s what that’s because it’s not I don’t think it’s malicious. In most cases, I think they’re just doing what they were just doing what they think was the best course with the information that they had. So at the time, so that for me, almost killed me. You know, like that cocktail of pills and and painkillers and all these types of things. metabolic syndrome I was 290 pounds, my brain wasn’t functioning properly. And

Unknown Speaker [11:08]
like what was what was the normal emotional state?

Mikal Vega [11:12]
rage, fury, you know, these types of things. And, and I knew I had a and as most veterans do, and most people in the stress situation, they know that they’re in this, this not working situation. They know that whatever it is they’re doing isn’t working. It’s just that they don’t have any options, or they don’t have the experience of something that does that they can turn to so they have to turn to you and just have hope that what they’re doing is working. And it’s not, you know, so so that’s where the despair comes in. That’s where, you know the suicide thought ideology starts coming in. And because they don’t want not from a victim place in most cases. It’s, it’s more centered around, you know, not wanting to be a burden on the people they care about, you know, there is that you got to think of it as, you know, you get these men and women that their life is of service. And now you’re in a situation where they’re, they feel like they’re a burden. They’re hurting the people that they want to protect inadvertently, because they can’t function properly, their minds aren’t working properly. So they just, you know, they feel like they’re only left with one option, and that’s what they do. They feel like they’re doing the responsible thing, by killing themselves is the way that I, you know, so I remember I was on like, 13 different medications, and I started going into a pharmaceutically induced cardiac arrest. And, you know, I was grateful for it. I was like, ready to go on. I was like, thank goodness, like, let’s just let this happen. You know, and it didn’t happen. And that’s when I really started to revolt against the system. You know, and I started to do things that made me feel better. And, and it when it would hit, it wouldn’t be a, it’s not like a normal anger. It’s not it’s like, I can feel it. It’s like, if you’re leaning back in a chair, and like the chairs, about to fall over and at the last second, you catch yourself, it feels like that when the anger hits through the central nervous system, the whole thing fires with, with the desire to hit, to destroy, to hit, yell, be violent, you know, and fighting that takes tremendous energy. You know, so what do you do you isolate you, keep yourself away from People so that you’re safe and they’re safe and, you know you in, I gotta tell you, it still comes up, it still comes up, even after all the work I’ve done, it still happens. And if I, if I’m unable to go to acupuncture or flow therapy or get tissue work and I’m in constant pain, or I’ve got nerve pain going through my face, all this type of stuff that comes from, you know, my experience, and then, you know, things start going sideways. And that’s when I’m grateful that I have tools, these these intense meditative tools to get me back to center. I have, I have things I can turn to. Then the trick, of course becomes once you have the tools, actually using the tools when the stuff comes up, you know, it’s all and then you build upon that once you get to that, then you become, you know, you have a whole nother level of learning that you have to do and You keep doing those different levels of learning and you become better and better at living with, you know, your life experience. And then you start to progress to a point that you become so adept at navigating it and having these tremendous experiences of personal attainment that you start to become grateful for those things in the past that used to crush you. You become grateful for the resistance or the adversity that you’ve had to face because it trained you to become someone that can’t and then the real rewards come through seeing other people start to embrace your experience into their lives. So that they also start having a better it starts replicating, right, you start replicating the journey and and that’s where the real Awards start coming in. So

Krisstina Wise [16:03]
what would like your your friends and family have said like the call before you, you know rebelled against some of the more traditional conventional therapies. And we’re stuck maybe on that side of the line and then the other McCall like what what’s the difference it from other people, there’s the difference from inside your own head and body and what would others say the difference what the difference if they knew you then and they knew you now

Mikal Vega [16:35]
people that know me on both sides of the fence.

They it’s common for people to say I’m not even the same person. Not even the same person, but I am. That’s the thing. I’m just an evolved version of that person. So one of the things that’s important to know and this is going to be experiential thing and in you hear it all the time. But until you experience it, it’s not going to have as nearly as much of an impact. And the only way it’s going to be experiences through hard work is that we have to embrace our shadow, all that fear all that trying to run away from or get back to where we were before any event happened, or, or, you know, I don’t want that to be a part of me. Well, that shadow is an imperative half of who we are, we’re shadow and light is love from fear. And the the only way that we’re going to have any form or definition in our lives, is to embrace that side of ourselves and understand it, then we can draw power from both the light and the dark. Having an understanding of that’s only gained from a place of neutrality between With so having the how do we get their hard work? You got to sit down every day doing the meditations work through the stuff. Use the breath, the breath is everything. Just check it out. Sometimes when you’re super stressed, what are you doing with your breath? What are you doing with your breath? Nine times out of 10, you’re probably barely breathing. So that’s where that adage comes from. Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath count to 10. You know, that’s, that’s a rudimentary form of the stuff that we’re talking about. So, but it works. That’s why it’s been around forever. We hope because it works. And I certainly wouldn’t be wasting my time on it if it didn’t. So

I hope that answer your question.

Krisstina Wise [18:51]
Yeah, it really does what I like about what you said there was but I am the same person. I’m just a more lightened version and and in the Journey isn’t really about getting into more love, like that real feeling of love of self of just connecting to love and source and gratitude and, and the work is that’s all

Mikal Vega [19:13]
in, that’s all it is. Because everything comes from love, everything comes from fear. It’s it’s two ends of the same scale, there’s nothing else joy, happy, you know, like, you know all is love like God, love having love, you know, fear, a worry, hell, debt, all that type of stuff. It’s all from that one scale that’s the only two things there are unconditional love and fear and creativity is you know creativity is spawn from both of those types of from that scale. So Knowing that that’s what became the driving force in vital warrior. And we started a creativity initiative that we created an album that was released August 22, which is one of the first product that we created from the nonprofit thanks to donors that I met at one of your retreats so they gave us the funds to be able to do that and get that out into the wild, then I’ve got people coming from, you know, sending me messages from downrange Afghanistan, saying how it helps them sleep better when they come back from missions, you know, And to me, that’s 100% success. I get one of those, or one person saying that you saved your life by X, Y, and Z, which we’ve had plenty of those. It’s all worth it. You know, I want to do a lot more. We’re going to do a lot more It’s just a slow moving machine, this time of uncertainty is he’s kind of

choked off our, our

finances for the, for the nonprofit, to be able to initiate some of the other things that we want to do. But it’s temporary, you know, so we do what we can do with what we’ve got in and, you know, we’re still moving the ball down the field, getting ready to start online, livestream, meditation classes, just basics to get people started, you know, how to deal with, you know, anxiety when it comes up because it does. I mean, it’s a human emotion. You know, it’s it’s not Yogi budgin, Master Kuma yoga, he’s like, don’t pray for great happiness if you don’t, if you don’t want, you know, great pain, you know, because it’s, it’s a balance. It’s all about and I totally butchered that quote, but But the point is the same. It’s it’s the human experience, you’re going to have those. It’s what you do with those experiences, that makes all the difference in the world. So, you sit in the fear, and the worry and where am I going to get this, that and the other? Or do you find a centered space? Do you know how to find a centered space? You just let your thoughts just take you off on a wild ride until the end of the ride and just you know, hope that things get better. Or you sit down and you you fight? You know, you fight for control of that subconscious mind. And you gain the awareness of not allowing those types of thoughts to run rampant in, in your thought processes. And or do you even know that they are? You know, so you develop the awareness through the practice to know when that type of stuff is going on inside of our minds, and then we can gain the power to share shifted into something that’s productive. So, or maybe the best you can do is is just not feeling horrible. You don’t have to go out and like, be crushing all these goals on one of those types. But can you keep yourself from from going down into that, you know, desperate, dark place. You know, that’s a victory. That’s tremendous effort. That’s tremendous progress. And then slowly you can start to develop the power to to raise the normal the bar of normal, like a healthy stock.

Krisstina Wise [23:38]
So that one thing I really, I mean, I love so much about you and I just love that you are a total badass warrior. I mean, anybody that sees you in person, it’s like, just solid warrior type, presence and physicality. And then you’re just, you just exude love. and generosity and comfort like that where it’s like this it’s interesting because when I’m with you, I feel this safety in the sense I feel safe from being protected from a warrior on one side and then I feel safe by being protected by love on the other and wrapped in both of those which is just such a beautiful Congress, you know, combination and integration of these kind of two archetypes in a way that really are so important in my point of view, for for life, you know, you have we warrior through life a little bit, but we can’t let the warrior control through some of these other type of emotions that might be attached that it’s, it’s worth going through life and tackling conflict and dealing with demons, you know, when whatever form they may form or shape they may take, and doing it in love and awareness and compassion, and this desire to help others.

Mikal Vega [24:58]
Here’s the thing, Krisstina And this is where this is one of the things I want to get out into the wild is, is my perspective on what a warrior is. And what I truly believe, is in a term, that’s way overused, warrior to me, to me, let’s put it in the context of the military mindset. Okay, in the military mindset, and this is applicable to, you know, what you were just saying, and just living our day to day lives as well. So just cut and paste where you need to make it applicable to you is in the military. We, we, in my community, in particular, we focus on this on cultivating a disruptive force to unleash on the battlefield, right, which we can do to great success. The Marines do it. US military does it, you know, and it’s and it’s highly effective, right?

Well, when we get done with the war,

we have all this destructive energy and no enemy. So we create an enemy within ourselves and that energy, that destructive force turns inward and we start destroying ourselves. So so I would, it’s my belief that, that, in that case, we’re not warriors. We’re war fighters. There’s a big difference. All throughout in the irony of it is, is that the societies that we model ourselves after the Spartans, the American Indians, the Vikings, the the Crusaders, you know, they all understood the importance of embracing spirituality in what they were doing in their day to day lives. It wasn’t something they were doing on Sundays. It was something that was inherent in it. Every aspect of their culture and life. And so, the warrior to me, in my experience the warrior becoming a warrior and being a warrior is about cultivating a destructive force and a creative one to maintain neutrality and draw strength from the to the warrior walks the the razor’s edge in between the two and draw strength from both, which makes them not twice as powerful, but infinitely more powerful. And that is the that can be applied to day to day life. You know, whether you like it or not, you’re engaged in a war. You are absolutely engaged in a war. Whether you know it or not, is irrelevant. In the war is for control of your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind will try to Did drive us into different areas that that put us a slave to whatever experience we had whatever thought processes that remain unfinished. You know, dreams, like stuff that’s not even real, is rolling around in the subconscious mind. And if we don’t take out the garbage, it’s going to stink. So what we’ve got to do is engage in the fight for control of that subconscious mind. And when we can control the subconscious mind, we control our reality. What do I mean by that? If we sit there and we go, if something pops up, random thought pops up into our conscious mind that spawn from the subconscious mind. irrelevant. Oh my gosh, I’m not going to have this that or the other is worried that comes out of nowhere. You know, do we allow that to become our foremost thought? Or do we have the ability to wrangle That and clear it. Well, that’s what we offer. We offer classes on how to gain those abilities, how to check in. And by doing so, by being able to control what’s going on in the background, we can put positive messaging into our subconscious mind that permeates into our conscious thought processes that will actually change the patterns of thought that move us into the trajectory of a better experience in this life. It happens, it works. I’m experiencing it. And it’s it’s a very real thing. Yeah, fear comes up. Yeah, it does. It’s a part of it. It’s the balance. It’s the shadow. It’s the you have to embrace it. Okay. What’s that telling me? How do I fix it? How do I incorporate that in readjusts? How is this fear making me stronger? Well, It’s making me practice the tools that I know, but that are going to pull me out of it and overcome it and develop the strength. Think of it as resistance training whenever that comes up that that thing. You start seeing it Oh, it’s time to go to the gym. Okay, let’s work it out. You know, and you sit down and you do it. I guess

Krisstina Wise [30:21]
what’s jumping out to me when I’m hearing you talk about fear. It’s it’s kind of the irony is these inside fears that we have and fears that really like what’s in so many day to day type situations? What’s there really to be fearful of I mean, you were How did you mitigate or navigate that fear when you are on enemy lions and you you can die at any second I mean, that’s real life. That’s real life and death and, and so I find it fascinating that you’re out on the battlefield and you’re, you know, overcoming fear, however you deal with it. There. Then that same fear can just this like it same biological type response, right? Like, whatever the fears are. But I’m just curious, like, how did you deal with fear when it’s when you can die at any second by protecting our freedom in our country. And thank you, by the way, thank you so much for the work that you’ve done. And you risking your life and even the injuries that you’ve been put through for that protection. I’m just my freedom is so important to me. And I’m so grateful. And I have that because of you. And others like you that that put their lives on the line. So I just want to say a public Thank you, but how do you not but thank you. How do you navigate that on the battlefield? And how is that the same bringing it home?

Mikal Vega [31:47]
Here’s the thing. And this is me, again, like anything i’m saying is my experience my perspective? You know, other people may have completely different thoughts, which I’m sure they do. And there’s a A lot of different things that work out there for a lot of different people. But for me, I never really i didn’t i wasn’t afraid. Like there was no there was no fear. I and I don’t mean that to sound conceited or anything like that he’s just there was it for me like, I had to tell you like across the board, I was an average seal, like average on seal standards, average runner, avid swimmer average, you know, all that, you know, average shooter. Like could hit my targets, you know what I wasn’t like, whatever. I got the job done. And, and, but what I was really good at because I was creative as an artist and I think I could articulate and communicate. You know, I could see the battlefield. You know, I can so so combat leadership for me was was what I was strongest that I could, I could see the different elements in my mind’s eye and I could see the picture of the magnet and, you know, looking at the grid, you know, Reference Guide and, you know, I can, I could articulate overcomes and handle all these different pieces in an artistic way, they had great success. And that wasn’t, that was just like, it felt natural after the initial, you know, growing pains of it, but, but it became like, who I was meant to be, right. And by being in that, who I was meant to be, there was no fear. There was no fear. There was no doubt that I was doing the right thing. And then, when I was ripped out of that, you know, that’s when all the problems started happening. You know, I didn’t have the problems while I was there. Most of us don’t. You know, I had a problem. When I came back, and I felt like I didn’t have purpose, and then then when my friends, you know, closest to me started getting killed,

that had heavy, you know, guilt associated,

you know, burdens to it, you know, the rational, guilt associated virgin burden burdens. You know, that guy was way more talented than me Why did he die and I didn’t die. I’m like, you know, and it felt like the only thing that would satisfy that would be dead, you know, that I did it right. Then, you know, now I’ve, you know, done enough, you know, but that’s that’s irrational. In in today it makes absolutely no sense when I look back on it, but it’s common. That’s a common thing. So, for me dealing with fear, like there. At the time, there was no fear

There was no fear

or anger. You know, there was it was just, I gotta be honest, like I slept great when I was in combat like better than I’ve slept in my entire life. I wasn’t so I came back that I had problem, you know, so

you it was it?

That’s, I’m not sure how common that is, but I’m sure it is within my community. There’s probably a lot of guys that would say the same thing. You don’t think about it. Like you just go do your thing. And and, and you enjoy doing it. Because you see the joy of Can’t you see the beauty of combat? For me, it was like, I knew what I was doing was right. It doesn’t matter why we were there. Why I was told I was there. I saw firsthand that we’re getting rid of cancer, that’s terrorizing you know, innocent, loving people. I was defending love. I was defending innocence. You know, and and destroying So when you know, when you had that conviction, there’s no fear of what’s going to happen to me, or How’s this? None of that? There’s no. So so it wasn’t until I came back that that I was faced with problems. And, and others were just, like, I think an amplification is stuff that was there before combat because I wasn’t exactly squared away when I was at home before that, you know, so I had a lot of personal problems before I went to combat so when I came back from combat, they were, you know, infinitely bigger, you know, combat was easy. You know, I didn’t I was expected to do i was i was known for being aggressive and in combat that was, go, you know, go be aggressive. And I’m like, Yeah, okay, cool. That’s who I really am. You know, so, it’s who I still am. I’m still very aggressive. You know, so I I use this meditation stuff is like a martial art against myself and I get aggressive that way on myself and the thoughts and the, you know, and I turn it into a positive manner. Am I always there? Hell no, no, I’m not walking on water yet yet. But like, it’s like it’s like, but I’m, I’m working towards a state of mind that enables me to be more resilient. Lit enables me to be more loving. It enables me to bring light into this planet, you know, through art and creativity and vital warrior and, you know, film and television. That’s what drives me on that whole thing. People ask, you know, what made you want to go out and be in Hollywood, you know, the most narcissistic, you know, yeah, some of those people are hard to deal with. You know, it they’re challenging to deal with but You know, it all goes back to the breath in a lot of cases and, and you keep your eye on the prize and you, you know, I want to create things that uplift and inspire others to discover their own creativity and use it in service towards doing the same for others. That’s it, perpetuating light, through creativity, perpetuating the balance between light and darkness through creativity. And that’s everything. Every endeavor that I engage in, is to that in state, you know, whether it be the Center for vital warrior, the, the album, that we created the film that we’re getting re release, you know, that’s what drives it, you know, and, and so anybody that’s out there that wants to support that for us and help perpetuate the fostering of growth of that and other people that have given so much in their lives, please do because We’re real, like we were real, we’re doing it. We’re actually, you know, we’ve got very little, but we’re doing a lot with what we have. And we get the right people behind us to bring this thing to the next level, we get the center open and standby, see what we do then see what I bring April then, you

Krisstina Wise [39:24]
know, I’d love to put a link to your video that you played at the event and we’ll put a link to your album and make it easy for anybody to find you. So as we wrap up our time together a few things. One is if you know someone is feeling a lot of fear right now feeling really triggered feeling a lot of anxiety, and just they don’t feel like they can really get a handle on that right now. What do you recommend is the is a few things to know.

Mikal Vega [39:55]
I know what it sounds like when somebody tells you to breathe when you’re pissed off. If you’re afraid, this breed is free, you’re like Shut the fuck up. You know, you don’t want to hear it. You don’t want to hear it. That’s the subconscious mind fighting the stuff that works. Oh my god, I don’t want to hear this guy with the subconscious mind anymore. I get it again. But it works. And I’m not going to stop telling you that it’s you got to do it. You have to do the work you the mind, revolting against the thought like the thought of using spirituality or or breath work or whatever you want whatever term you want to use to, to, to associate with it. Fine, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day. The subconscious mind is fighting against that. And that’s why it’s causing the negative mind to react the way it does to keep it away from you. So then it can maintain the control it has over you. You have to fight it. That’s the war you’re engaged in, whether you realize it or not, this was saying before, whether you realize it or not, that’s the fight, and you’re engaged in it. And so you got to be everybody’s potentially a warrior. If they pick up if when they start realizing what they’re engaged in, the fight is much bigger than what you see in this illusion in front of you. It’s inside, a fight is inside. The only thing you can control is that battle that’s going on inside you. And as you gain awareness of that, it’s going to its, you’re going to change your reality. You’re going to change your perspective on this whole landscape, you call reality, you can change it. You can shift it by engaging in your own internal reality and, and experience with yourself. So

Krisstina Wise [41:56]
well, thank you. So a few wrap up questions is I’d like to ask this question. And from your perspective, say, Christina, if you really really knew me, you would know that

Mikal Vega [42:11]
if you knew me

if you knew me, you’d know what

Krisstina Wise [42:15]
Tell me like if you really really knew me, you would know that

Mikal Vega [42:21]
that I’m a service oriented soul.

Unknown Speaker [42:27]
Right on Yeah. What’s up? And I need to brag moment Tell me something you’re most proud of.

Mikal Vega [42:35]
My daughter,

my daughter, I

she’s everything to me and, and the reason I’m so proud of her is because I’ve got three other children that I have relationships with two of them. But because I’ve been where I’ve been and I’ve done what I’ve done

There’s, there’s

there’s not.

It’s different. You know, I mean, it’s completely different than it is with my daughter because of all the work that I’ve done. And my daughter is the first first being that I’ve ever felt unconditional love with. So regardless of what happens in the future, I have that experience of that with her. And being able to feel that with her is, is indicative of the work that I’ve done to be able to receive that gift.

Krisstina Wise [43:39]
All right, one final question. I like to do a little myth busting. Is there a big fat lie or a big myth out there that you would like to bust just from your own perspective?

Mikal Vega [43:48]
Well, I just I already talked about it. Like, yeah, PTSD is not as disorder in the sense of what they’re labeling it as our experience. You know, so in the case of a traumatic event, you don’t have PTSD, you have an experience that continually broadcasts and keeps your adrenal spiering until they quit and you cause metabolic syndrome or any number of other dis ease in your body that’s coming from that. It’s not it’s it’s inexperienced, that’s, that’s causing the hormonal system to fire in a manner that’s unsustainable. And that’s where all the problems are coming from. So we got to get rid of that broadcasting element, and discharge the system allow the system to heal, with assistance, if needed. But to call it a disorder is in my experience, just a means to put medication on, you know, a classification that they can You know, put pills on at a rapid onset to treat symptoms instead of the root causes that are, you know, internal post traumatic stress. Yes, but disorder. No.

Krisstina Wise [45:14]
I love that. Well, thank you. Well, real quick again, just where Can everybody find vital warrior if they’re interested.

Mikal Vega [45:22]
I do a lot of updates via Instagram, at McHale Vega. And our website is www dot vital warrior.org. And I’m really responsive on the Instagram thing. So if you reach out there, you’ll get me there. And info at vital warrior.org is our email address if you’re interested. If you’re a service member and you’re interested in getting access to some of the things that we offer, then just send an email with your dd 214 or proof of service to that email address. And we’ll get you set up with the request. So that’s it in a nutshell. If you have any questions, anybody out there that’s like going through a bunch of anxiety and fear around what’s going to happen and it’s challenging. I’m not I’m not. I’m not negating that fact. It is challenging right now. It’s it’s different. It’s anytime there’s change, there’s going to be different and anytime there’s change, there’s going to be difficulties adapting to that change is going to be adversity to facing that change. Nobody’s denying that. It’s, it’s, it’s a it’s it’s a time where there is uncertainty of what the future holds, is a common thing that you hear. But when is the future not uncertain? When is the future not uncertain? This is just a different form of it, you know, outside of a normal parameter, you know, you know, so yeah, like money’s a thing, trust me, money is a thing. You know, and, and people trying to get food, there’s a lot of resources out there where people are donating food and like, you’ve just got to tap into those if you’re in those circumstances, there’s a lot of people wanting to help, too. So there’s resources in that regard as well. And so we just got to locate them and, and take advantage of them where we can. But we’ll get through it and, you know, you’ll be able to maintain your your middle ground, if you have some sort of a routine in practice is what I’ve been experiencing. I mean, for me if I’m not doing my routine, or I mean, I do it every day. I’ve been doing it for like 7.1 years. We looked up yesterday. 10.1 years every day. And so there’s, if I didn’t have this, my wife said this yesterday, if I didn’t have this I, I probably be dead. I probably would have taken my own life A long time ago. So

Krisstina Wise [48:18]
I love you, thank you so much for being here. And thank you for your contribution and, and all the good work that you’re doing in the world your gift.

Mikal Vega [48:26]
Wow. Well, thank you. And thank you for having me. And people out there going through this. You’re not alone. Everybody, everybody has this thing called the human experience. And, and there’s there’s teachings out there that will help you navigate it. Perfect. Thank

Unknown Speaker [48:42]
you. All right.

Krisstina Wise [48:47]
If you’re inspired by today’s show, and you’re the kind of person who likes to help others, there are some easy ways that you can help me first, please subscribe to the wealthy, wealthy podcast by doing so. It helps both of us. You You’ll never miss an episode and it helps me and my ratings. And if you’re able to leave a review, hopefully five stars even better. Finally, if you think your friends and family would enjoy the show, I invite you to share the wealthy, wealthy podcast with everyone you know. If you have any questions, I’m here you can email me at support at wealthy wealthy.com and I may even use your question or suggestion for a future podcast episode. Also, if you want to be motivated and inspired more regularly connect with me on Instagram or LinkedIn at Christina wise, that’s ke ri s s two ti na WISE. I believe we are all on this journey together towards finding our sovereignty and freedom. And I’d love to be part of your journey. I’d love to help you and especially on the financial side, so learn more at sovereignty. academy.com. As always, thank you so much for listening and being part of the wealthy, wealthy community.