Podcast episode

Episode 14: Finding the Flow State with Tone Floreal

Hosted by Chris Albert

The Warrior Soul Podcast

Transcript~97 min · Chris Albert & Tone Floreal

Machine-generated from the episode audio and lightly edited — may contain errors.

Chris Albert

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. My name is Chris Albert, and I'm your host, and I'm also the owner of Warrior Soul Apparel. Today, we're gonna be talking about something that I believe we're privileged to talk about. It's called the flow state. And I have to put this in context for you.

One of the biggest things that racks my mind every day is the number of blessings I have around me and the number of blessings we all have around us at any given moment. If you go to a less developed country, if you go to a place where people don't have running water, where their major concerns aren't what's going on on social media or what's going on on TV. Their major concern is survival every day. Then you come back to a place like this where we have so much, it really racks your mind as to why so many people in these developed societies where we have the ability to listen to people speaking from across the world on a cell phone, where we have the ability to look anything up we want to at our fingertips, where we could say anything we want, where we can do anything we want within the legal limits, makes me wonder why we don't take advantage of that. Why are we living in a life that we just allow to pass by?

Somebody used an analogy with me once, and they they talked about, the analogy of a bird flying in a direction versus a leaf falling from a tree. Most people are leaves falling from trees. They let the wind bring them wherever they want to go, and where they land really isn't under their control. What we wanna be is birds flying with some sort of direction, but the problem is that that requires freedom and it requires the freedom that a lot of us don't quite know how to grasp. Even though we might be nominally free, we tend to trap ourselves in our brains with socially constructed chains where we seek to entertain ourselves.

And entertainment, rather than being a rare source of pleasure, becomes a form of mental masturbation where we isolate ourselves from our true human nature and go deeper into kind of an abyss of life without meaning. Now, if none of that makes sense to you, it will in a moment. But, I've got here my friend, Tone Floreal, who is an expert on the flow state. And Tone is gonna talk to us a bit about a few different things he's come across in his time that have helped him and helped his clients to find lives of purpose, to find lives of meaning, to get more in touch with their selves, get more in touch with their physicality and their mentality. So, Tone, I want to welcome you to the Warrior Soul podcast today.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Tone Floreal

Hey, man. It's a pleasure to be here, Chris.

Chris Albert

Tone's a Tone's a really good friend of mine. We met through London Real. We we both went up to a London Real meetup in San Francisco. And Tone is just one of these guys. He you know, when he walks into the room, you get a feeling of warmth.

You get a feeling that he's he's very wise. And when I say wise, I mean wise in in in that he seems like he has a very old soul. And I don't know if anybody out there believes in reincarnation or anything like that, but but he seems like somebody who's been around. And he's definitely had multiple reincarnations in his life. Tell us a little bit about your background, Tone.

Man.

Tone Floreal

Just, you know, born in California, Santa Monica, raised in San Francisco, surrounded by, you know, culture, food, different religions and family, different family members being different ethnicities, me being a, you know, a different mix of nationalities through my parents, my father is mainly Greek and my mother is the Asian side of Filipino, Japanese, little bit of Chinese there, some Spanish supposedly, and we just found out some Madagascar. I don't even know, like, how you would even pronounce or say what their ethnicity is, Madagascaran or I don't know. But, yeah, that's the background, man. I I grew up hearing impaired. I remember hearing as a little kid, but it just I don't know if it was just through a combination of variables, but I started to lose my hearing around the age of four.

I was fitted with hearing aids, so I had a struggle early on just trying to make sense of my environment just through sound and also, you know, in a single parent household, my mother took care of my sister and I because my father bailed out on us. So those are things that I sort of grew up with, the challenges that, you know, in hindsight were like blessings in disguise, which shaped me, enabled me to pay attention to my environment. So almost like a blind person has to use their other senses to sort of see, you know, without their eyes. I've learned to, like, lipread. And I never learned how to, like, do sign language, but I've learned to watch, like, body language, you know.

I had to sort of compensate. And it was frustrating, but through that, that's how I was able to notice more, I guess, my environment and and through that journey, you know, so many different things that have happened to me where I've had, like, near death situations and, you know, sort of enabled me to experience a lot in such a short period of time.

Chris Albert

That's amazing. I didn't you know, I've known you for for a bit now, and I didn't even know you were hearing impaired, bro. Like

Tone Floreal

Yeah, man. I wear a tiny ear. I have my left ear, and the right ear is almost completely deaf. But funny enough, like, just through, you know, my journey of studying about health and wellness and some of the sort of biohacking things I'm doing, I find that I guess, other other sort of, I don't know, resources or instruments come into play for learning how to hear, not just through, like, my my ears or my hearing aid, but I talk about, like, learning how to hear with, like, your skin and, like, you know, your like, this just their sight and feeling, you know. So using, like, all the other senses to to hear, not just through the ears.

Chris Albert

That's that's amazing, man. And you said something else there. I grew up without my dad too. And and one thing that I found out out of this was that I at first, when I was a little kid, I had a tendency to try to use that as an excuse for certain things where, you know, I was you know, I'd be like, well, never knew my dad, things like that. But what I found as I became an adult, you know, and and gotten in the military and things like that, I'm actually thankful that I never knew my dad, and I'm thankful for it for a reason.

And and the reason is that it allowed me to define what my own sense of manhood was, what what my own values as a man are. And and it allowed me to decide what was important to me and and to kinda guide myself. And and it opened me up to a lot of different types of mentors. It opened me up. I mean, honestly, I think one of the reasons why I joined the Marine Corps was to in search of my own sense of manhood.

At the same time, I never felt the need to be anything other than what I was. I I didn't try to be this fake over masculinized version of myself. I think that that, you know, actually growing up without my dad actually helped me get through the Marine Corps because I didn't have any any preconceived notions of what I was supposed to be. I was just what the Marine Corps made me into, and and I was the Marine that that that I wanted to be.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. I mean, I had considered joining the military just because my father was a I mean, excuse me, my grandfather was a World War two vet, Korean War vet. And there was something about, like, his presence that, you know, I kinda yearned for because I didn't have my father around. And like you, I was seeking for, like, some sort of father head figure, masculine figure to show me that side. Because when I ever saw my grandfather, he had, like, this presence about him, you know, and very sharp razor like, you know, he walk in the room and and you just knew, like, he was there. He didn't have to say anything and he just give you this look with his eyes, and it looked like a man that has been through so much, know, that had sacrificed in order to take care of his family, you know, took on many jobs after the war, had many kids and, you know, he didn't, he only knew what he knew at that time, you know. He wasn't exactly like very loving like my grandmother was, you know.

She kind of played that role, but he was just tough on his kids and and just being around him always had this thought like that's what a man would do, like, like, you know, because my father obviously wasn't you know, the story with him is that he he wouldn't I'm glad that he wasn't around as well because it would just be like he would I I couldn't imagine if he was. It was just like the wrong role model to have to grow up, you know. So it's just funny that you also found that, you know, through mentors and through the military. And the only reason I didn't get into the military is because of, you know, being hearing impaired and and only having one kidney that I lost in an accident. So I was just medically I don't know what the word like, the the terminology, but I wasn't eligible to be in the military for, like, health reasons.

You know? But I've been seeking that my whole life, and I think everybody has, a ripening process and where they find themselves and gone through enough like trials in their life and experiences that eventually you get to this place where you do find yourself and I guess people would perceive you as like, as a a man, you know, like, taking responsibility and all the things that we we kind of those sort of characters that or sort of different qualities that we we sort of project on what like a man is.

Chris Albert

Absolutely. Absolutely. And and, you know, in a lot of ways, the the it's the hard times that bring those characters and qualities out of you. It's the it's the hard times that really tell us who we are and and where we should be. And a lot of times, think that in many ways, we gotta be thankful for those hard times because that's what's gonna bring us to where we need to be going in order to become the people that we want to be.

Sometimes you choose your hard times, sometimes you you don't, and sometimes they're thrust upon you. But Yes. It's it's when when the shit hits the fan, so to speak, that, you know, we show our true cards and and Yeah.

Tone Floreal

So true, man. And I I think you you had that experience, you know, being were you actually in the, like, combat, like, zones or did you ever experience that, like, firsthand or?

Chris Albert

No. You know, I went to Iraq in 2003, and I have I tell people this. I I I had one of the easiest experiences, I think, amongst people in the military. And, you know, the the thing was what we were doing at the time, we were we were doing security missions up and down the Euphrates River. So we were operating pretty far away from everybody else.

We were Okay. Operating in small teams. But at the same time, you know, I look back on it and and it was such a like, it was an easy time compared to what a lot of people went through in Iraq. And one of the things that that has has gotten me is that, you know, after my first enlistment, I I left the Marine Corps. I got discharged, and I had the chance to reenlist, but I didn't.

My unit went back. They went to Fallujah the next time around and I wasn't there with them and we lost some guys. If there's any regrets things regrets that I have, I guess, you could say, is that I wasn't there when, you know, Marines from my unit, captain Latundra and corporal Pearson, were killed.

Chris Albert

Right. I wasn't there when my friend who survived got shot in the face as he was trying to save an officer. I wasn't there. And so that's what gets me. I think it's what gets a lot of guys.

It's what they call survivor's guilt.

Tone Floreal

Yes. Yes.

Chris Albert

I look back on my time in the military and honestly, just wrote a blog about this. It was the most free I'd ever been in my life. The reason why I stayed out is because didn't have to worry about debt. I didn't have to worry about bills. I didn't have to worry about much of anything, where I was going to live, what I was going to wear that day or anything like that.

It allowed me to focus on my job and it allowed me to focus on the moment, and it allowed me to focus on my purpose in life, which was to be a marine and to complete the mission and to do my job and to see after my junior marines. And that's why I think I look back on it so fondly because people think that the military is this kind of imprisoning force. It's not. You're young. You're younger than you're ever gonna be in your life again, obviously.

Yeah. But, you know, you don't have much else to worry about besides your purpose. You know, in today's day and age, everybody's there voluntarily. Sign a contract, you know, you get in. But I don't think I think one of the mistakes people make is that they don't appreciate that time of their youth like they should.

Mhmm. And when I look back on it, I wish I appreciated that time a little bit more because Oh, yeah. There's nothing like being young and and traveling the world. But, Tone, I think one of the one of the things I really wanted to talk to you about today was you're you've been working on helping people to get into the flow state and Yes. On your own quest Yeah.

Trying trying get yourself into the flow state. Yes. He's been doing a lot of stuff.

Chris Albert

This guy is self experimenting right now, and he he's experimenting, I think it's with how many different things you've been doing?

Tone Floreal

Oh my goodness. Well, I mean, obviously, I've got the microcurrent device that I've been involved with for the last twelve years, and I got fascinated with the the Wim Hof method, you know, on how to, like, control your or at least influence your autonomic nervous system and be in in freezing temperatures. And you know, through that just learning how to learn better, you know, getting back to that that freeing state that you talk about when we were, like, young young and dumb, you know. Absolutely. And full of cum, basically.

It's just think we know it all and life humbles us and but, yeah, I've been self experimenting with, like, all kinds of things, like, throughout the years through meditation, just through my journey. You know? I mean, back to, like, I guess, why I brought up my grandfather. It's just more or less, like, I wanted to know, like, what was that that sort of intangible thing that he was carrying around him that I now know is called presence. You know?

And I thought that joining the military was gonna give me that sense of manhood. You know. And, when I was ineligible for medical reasons, I was seeking things out there that would sort of give me that that sort of presence that he had. Cause to me that sort of man was like somebody that kept his word, that basically took responsibility, took care of people around him, you know, he was like a protector. And I never had that sort of, like, struggle growing up.

I was I was blessed, you know, to have family there that, you know, my mom was working. There was my grandparents to watch over us and aunts and uncles and cousins. And so, you know, we were talking earlier too about, like, the children that or at least different parts of the world where they're just trying to survive and how we take things for granted too. So it's just the environment I grew up with, was fortunate to value, hard work, although I didn't know exactly, like, what is it that I wanted to do, but I had these sort of profound experiences that brought me on a journey to figure out what was this and it was flow. I mean, I didn't know at the time it was flow, you know.

And so I did the things that, you know, I thought would make my grandfather proud. I was trying to do things to, you know, please him. And in that that sense, I I hated school, you know, I just stuck through it. I dropped out of college three times. I don't even know how I passed high school, you know.

But essentially, when I did graduate, I realized, like, you know, I was only doing things to please him and others and and started diving deeper into sort of the spiritual concepts that I experienced as an athlete. Mean, as an athlete, you find yourself in the zone and you would surprise yourself. I'd surprised myself as a ice hockey player, like, winding up for a slap shot and then it was like everything was in slow motion and it was a sweet spot of the stick and I watched the puck fly over the goalie's shoulder in a space that wasn't any more bigger than the actual size of the puck and into the top shelf of the net, you know, and and everybody would be cheering, and I'd just be like, how the hell did that happen? Like, you know, it was all in slow motion. And growing up in San Francisco by the beach, I I was, you know, riding waves at an early age and had the opportunity.

At that time, I was boogie boarding and I dropped in on a wave and the lip peeled over me and I was riding the barrel and again it was everything was in slow motion. Although I couldn't wear my hearing aid in the water, I could hear, you know, the thunder of the water and and feel like I was traveling in this this timeless vortex or time travel machine. So I always wonder, like, what is going on? Like, is anybody else talking about this kind of stuff? And I was afraid to come out of the closet with that.

Right? It was like, I didn't wanna sound too weird or sound like like, what the hell are you talking about, Tone? And I never heard anybody ever talk about it, but I've seen, like, athletes doing things that we thought was impossible, you know, and and slow slowly but surely, I don't know if there was their religious upbringing going through Catholic school and having these sort of spiritual profound experiences in a boring Mass, you know, it's just like I had no idea what the priest was saying. We were like kneeling, sitting, standing up. Was just like this weird structure and process, but, you know, the sense of just closing my eyes and having that moment of silence with a bunch of other people was incredibly profound.

It was like, what is that? And so you would see that at games, you know, like sporting events, like a baseball game where they would sort of ask the whole crowd to close their eyes for a moment of silence for the soldiers in war and their fallen heroes and and it was just like mind blowing, the silence in like a stadium full of 60,000 people, like what's going on here? So over the years I started piecing the puzzle and and it was just at the earlier stages. It was almost like accidental. I didn't know, like, the science of flow that the Flow Genome Project, you know, this organization that's come together to, like, look at how we can deconstruct flow and take the the the woo woo out of the, you know, like, the mystical and and focus on, like, what are the steps, the technology to, like, get into these states, these profound states that everyone, all walks of life, all throughout history has talked about in their own language.

Chris Albert

So so really quick, because we talked you just described the flow states. That that that time when, you know, you're slapping the puck into the goal and everything's slow motion and it goes into this little tiny area. And then, you know, you're you're you're on the wave and you you're in the barrel and everything like that, and and you could feel everything, and everything's, again, in slow motion. Is there a specific definition to this flow state as or is it mostly a feeling?

Tone Floreal

So, like, the Flow Genome Project has come out with a very simple definition. You know, actually, before that, there is this man named, he's an academic researcher named Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and he wrote the book called Flow. So he basically, did the largest at the time, the largest global, happiness study. And he wanted to know, like, what what was it that made people happy? What were the activities they were doing?

What was the feeling? And the common language that was used during these moments of flow is that it felt very flowy. So that's when he coined the term flow in the academic research, but funny enough, this had been talked about in all the esoteric books from, you know, India and the the Hindu and and Buddhist, the Bhagavad Gita's and the, you know, Buddha works and Tibetan stuff and the stuff in the East and different mystical traditions throughout the world had talked about these states because it it wasn't just through, you know, activity, but sometimes it would happen through, like, plant medicines and, near death experiences, outer body experience. All these different phenomenons were happening. So a bunch of researchers, even beyond Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in, like, the the seventies, eighties, and nineties, he was researching that this was being studied, like, back in the the late eighteen hundred, early nineteen hundreds.

You know? So the the definition that Flow Genome Project basically says is, like, the, the moment where you feel your best and you perform your best. They made it really simple, but what they're finding is that there's so many different, like, levels of flow. There's, like like, sort of, like, low grade flow, like, blown flow. Like, there's there's all the stuff between.

There's, like, different neurochemicals that are released. Some things are called helper's high when you that feeling you get when you search and you you make a difference and you're kinda blissed out afterwards or and then there's times where you're just struggling, you know, working out really hard. Maybe you're in a game situation or you're you're training the gym and you're just, like, trying to push through that last rep and, you hit, like, second wind or you're running and you just feel like your legs are running on its own and and you hit that destination, you're like, how did I get here? So there's so many different it's, like, all across the board. But, yeah, just need to to answer your question.

It's it's different for everyone and but it's also the same in ways. You know?

Chris Albert

Absolutely. And and so, you know, one of these you said there was that, you know, this has precedent in ancient culture. It has precedent in Hinduism and a lot of Eastern religion even. I think one of the things we're finding now is that I had Adam Magers here from Warrior's Ascent, and he uses depth psychology and meditation and mindfulness to help veterans to recover from PTS and depression and a lot of the other things that have been plaguing veterans these days. They've been finding that a lot of these ancient things like mindfulness and meditation and things like that, they actually have a lot of empirical evidence to suggest that they're highly effective methods of helping people to live better, to live longer, and to live happier.

I think that a lot of the stuff we used to call woo woo and real hippy dippy, we're finding that there's actual scientific basis for doing them. Now, I'm a United States Marine Corps veteran. I'm also a social scientist and an empiricist at that. I didn't want to try meditation for the longest time, but in certain times of desperation, I tried it and it actually worked. The more I practiced at it, the more I did it, the better I felt.

In touch with myself I felt, the more I understood what I was thinking. Right? Because a lot of times we think we the hardest person to explain our thoughts to are ourselves because a lot of times we don't understand why we're thinking the things we're thinking. We don't understand what sort of latent thoughts we have within us that are preventing us from doing certain things and from living the lives we want to. So so, yeah, I think that that there's a lot of science here, Tone, and I I think that there's a lot of potential here to help people from multiple facets of society to reach their full potential.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, the science is catching up, which is really exciting, and it's verifying all these things that these ancient cultures and so called mystics knew and even people of war warriors that had been in in war situations. And I always like that beginning opening scene of Saving Private Ryan where, like, everything goes in a slow motion because they're all shell shocked and the Nazis are, like, firing away. And the things that blow me away is, like, you know, you think about, like, mathematical, like, formulas and statistics, and you're like, what is the odds that, you know, a person goes through battle after battle after battle with bullets and missiles and grenades flying all over the place and they never get, like, scratched, you know, where they witness their buddies next to them get blown.

And and it just blows my mind, like, how statistics be able to explain those phenomenons. And I've seen that with my grandfather because he must have had some sort of PTSD, but they never talked about that kind of stuff. It was like, it wasn't a man thing to to bring up. He just kinda sucked it up and but he would have these, like, nightmares. You know, he'd talk about having these nightmares of being in war and, like, waking up in this, like, cold sweat and heart beating.

And he went through, like, some psychological help. And but, you know, these things always blew me away because it seemed like only warriors could talk about that with each other. They only those that have been through that can empathize because they've experienced it, you know. And they had these questions like, what is my purpose here on this planet? Why didn't my buddy get blown up and I didn't get blown up?

And, you know, they're able to, like, talk to each other and have sort of that community. But back to the science, it's just it's fascinating that, you know, they're they're able to look at the different sort of brain waves that occur and, like, why does meditation and sort of the nonsectarian version of meditation is considered mindfulness, you know, because they're trying to take the religion out of it and just focus on the actual process. And, you know, it's just what you said, being a social scientist, you have all these evolutionary factors and variables that are occurring, like, within the body with the amygdala, the fight or flight, the fear center of the brain. And we come into this world, like, you know, blasted out of our mothers and and and into this cold, like, weird environment. So it starts, like, right off the bat once you're born, you know, you're in this cozy, wonderful, warm environment with your mother, you're connected and then you're separated with her, you get the cord cut off and and then, you know, if you're a boy, you get circumcised or something.

It's just, like, so traumatic, man. It's ridiculous. So it's, right off the bat, we're we're subjected to these these stresses of pain, you know, and the brain is is a amazing tool, but it's it's only now that we're figuring out, like, how does it work, when do we wanna utilize adrenaline and cortisol or the the fight or flight center to to, like, move us into action? Or when do we need to sort of breathe through the the anxiety and the the fear to sort of master our own physiology and our psychology with the thoughts? It just goes on and on, man.

Like, where are these thoughts coming from? What what's, you know, are they really our thoughts? So that's the one thing you learn through, like, mindfulness or meditation. You're like, these things are running on its own. It's not actually, like, me per se.

Like, if it's not me, like, where is this coming from? And it's like, that's what science is trying to figure out. It's like, where is the locus of, like, consciousness? Like, is it all this stuff that we learned through conditioning, like what's our name, the date we're born, the time we're born, you know, what's your your ethnicity, like, who your parents are, like, what school you go to, what city you're from, like, you know, it's all these things that we learn through people telling us. But, you know

Chris Albert

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah. And and I think that, you know, one of the things that I think veterans are facing these days when they when they come home from something like combat is they're expected to come back to society. The media has portrayed them as being off or broken or not able to mesh back into society and having spouts of anger and having For a while there, it was bothering me severely because every military person who was convicted of a violent act, right, who came home and committed a crime was using PTSD as an excuse. What bothered me about that was that, well, there's a lot of people out there who have PTS who aren't trying to commit violent crimes, are trying to meld back into the society, and you're creating this stigma for all for all the other veterans that that to have to face this. And in in my mind, if you're gonna go if you go through something like combat, which is one of the hardest things a human being can get through, one of the most severe, most violent episodes a a human being can get through, Are you going to expect that person to come back all smiley and shit?

Are you going to expect that person to come back all happy go lucky? No. That person is going to have to do some training. That person is going to have to take some time to understand himself, to understand his own thoughts, to understand where his thoughts are coming from. And if you keep telling that person, oh, there's something wrong with you.

Oh, oh, you know, capable of going off the handle. You're capable of being violent and things like that. Of course, they know they're capable of being violent, but are they going to and are they going to use that as an excuse? And in my mind, if you keep telling people that they're more likely to do this, then they're going to feel like there's something wrong with them. And that's what bothers me.

That's what bothers me severely about this. And that's why I think mindfulness and meditation and some of these things that we we are now starting to come in contact with, I think that so many veterans could benefit from this.

Tone Floreal

Absolutely. I mean, they're they're tools and, you know, tools are always, like, neutral and they need, like, a a I mean the biggest thing I've seen is just like support, know, some sort of like connection or community of other people, their peers, other soldiers to like talk to you to at least like express their feelings because it's like, you know, it's not like a manly thing to like talk about your feelings but you end up like bottling all these like thoughts and emotions and feelings down and you know, we all have seen it. Mean, we've all had at least I have road rage. Right? Like, I I always get tested when I'm on the road with, like, my patients and I'm even surprised, like, like, where the hell did that, like, come from?

And I'm like, fuck you motherfucker. Like, you know, cock. Like, I just feel like crazy, you know, and and it's just like it's a game for me now to use, like, mindfulness to experience the stimuli or the stress and to not react, but to, like, feel it, You know? And but these are tools that are available to, like, everybody, including soldiers. And and like you said, manners that stigma because the media just always tends to focus on, like, the bad, like, like sour grapes, you know, and, like, you know, they blow everything out of proportion, but it's just like, oh, there's certain, like, soldiers that, like, flip out, and they're they're like, all all soldiers are like that, you know.

It's like, they're all, like, damaged and they're all, like what I'm saying is basically, they they they just they don't look at, like, the whole picture. They don't look. They just focus on one instant. And it's for example, like, when I was doing the Wim Hof method out out in the cold, I was doing it out in a playground, and a gentleman came up to me. It was, like, early in the morning, about six in the morning in New York, freezing cold, I'm doing the breathing exercises, my shirt is off, I'm on a playground, and the gentleman comes up to me and he's like, excuse me sir, I'm gonna ask you to leave, like this is a a child area.

You could only be here if you're with a a child. Like, you know, and I and it's, like, all the pedophiles basically ruined my my access to a playground. Like, I'm totally harmless, but because it's so focused that, like, the few people that ruined it, you know, now now all of us have to, like, actually be chaperoned by children, which is hilarious. You know? And I and I get it.

It's like, I I I totally get that we have to keep our kids safe, but it it's just an example of what you're saying. It's like these soldiers are like pigeonholed in the same kind of situation because one or two, like, soldiers came back and they flipped out. So it's like all soldiers that come back from war are dangerous.

Chris Albert

You know? Right. Exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing we neglect is the idea that that that type of situation could also lead to growth.

Yeah. It could also lead to growing one's character and could be an asset. I mean, these people are experiencing things that most humans today haven't experienced, but that human beings have experienced over thousands of years. You know what I mean? These are experiences that thousands of warriors had.

And in the past, warriors have come back. They've taken places in society. They've taken leadership positions, and they got to tell their stories and show their feelings and talk about what happened. What bothers me about today is I don't feel like a lot of warriors have that. They don't have the the way of espousing their views, espousing their their thoughts and feelings in a way that people would be comfortable with.

I think that in a lot of ways, incorporating mindfulness, but also incorporating, you know, the ability to tell one story, the ability to talk, the ability to communicate with other human beings about where they are, how how they're feeling about themselves, whether or not they're feeling comfortable coming back here and being able to talk frankly about what they're uncomfortable with in a way that's not going to get them pinpointed as somebody who who might be broken or something like that. I think that that's that's very important.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Where they don't get judged, basically. So true, man. I mean, think that's why we need each other. I mean, we could go into isolation.

I consider that when I spent a lot of years through meditation and, you know, considered being like a monk. It felt like super peaceful and blissed out, but there there is just like a time and place for things because even meditation can be very dangerous and people don't realize that. They think it's super benign, but a lot of people have developed psychological sort of sociopath tendencies because in meditation, if if you're not aware, you don't have, like, a proper t shirt, you can totally disassociate from your body. So, like, disassociate from your body, disassociate from the world, disassociate from relationships. So you're, like, present as a body and but you're so focused, like, sort of, like, in the mind and and beyond that people look at you and they're like, are you, like, actually here?

And you're like, yeah, man. Everything's groovy. Oh, bliss, man. You know? And so you hear these people talk that way and you're just going like, holy shit, man.

Like, you're not grounded. And and I've been accused of that and I've actually, you know, I'm happily to able to admit that that that's happened to me, but that was part of my journey. And but yeah. I mean, I think coming full circle about that question you asked about, like, sort of these different self experimental technologies that I've used in the sciences. That's what's so cool now is that there's communities that are available for people to be able to bounce feedback.

So, like, you and I are talking right now or communicating and just talking out loud is sort of like I'm self like, even in the moment of talking to you, I'm I'm like I'm I'm like listening to myself and my thoughts. And I'm like, is that really true? Is that what I'm saying really true? And it's like, I'm able to like use my ideas bounce them off of you and I'm like self correct, like evolve myself in the moment. And meditation, the same thing. And the the device that you and I were talking about where I use with my clients for, discovering flow electrically, it's all about, biofeedback and neurofeedback is looking inside the body where are those areas of resistance and then applying awareness or consciousness to those areas and then circulating electrical flow past those sort of, areas of resistance or blockages where the electrical signal is not flowing through the tissue.

And then the body recognizes that and then self corrects and opens those pathways. So, essentially, you have electricity flowing through every part of your body, and there's not a part where it's not flowing. So how I describe that is that, you know, we're trying to bring the body back to a state of a small child or a baby. And if you were to measure, like like, if they were a battery, they would be a 100% charged and every pathway, every part of their tissue would be flowing with electricity. But as we age, we have, like, injuries, we create scar tissue, maybe broken bones, it could be like a cut, and these scar tissues are very resistant tissue that doesn't hold electrical energy like that of, like, a pliable baby.

So I always tell people like babies and little kids bounce, adults break, you know. And and so the technology I use is essentially recharging the body and its cells like a battery, like a cell phone. So you're a 100% charged cell phone, and they call it cell phones, cellular phones. One cell talking to another cell with a full signal. So imagine every cell in your body has a clear signal, and that goes back to, like, being in flow.

It's that the moment that your monkey mind, that survival part of our brain, like, goes silent, that's when you go, holy shit. This is me. You know? There's that moment that we all had where we're like, damn, that's who I am. Like, that's that's like not the the the crazy thoughts or the the wacky monkey mind going crazy.

It's just like that moment where you're just like, boom.

Chris Albert

I wanna I wanna define a couple of things here because a lot of people who listen to this podcast would also be familiar with Jocko Willink and his book with Leif Babin, Extreme Ownership. For those who aren't, those are two Navy SEALs who wrote a book about leadership and used their experiences from the Battle of Ramadi. One thing they talk about is something called detachment, where you're able to look at yourself objectively and see yourself when you're you know, if you're in an argument with someone and you say to yourself, am I being a dick right now? Am I you know, being able to to detach yourself from a situation. And I think one of the things we're we're seeing here is that this type of activity, this type of mindfulness, these self practices allow you to practice detachment more effectively.

As we said, there is a danger there that you could get too detached and completely bring yourself out of your own grounding, but you have to keep yourself grounded through the process by consistently reminding yourself that Well, the way I do it is that I remind myself that my job here on the surface is to serve, and my job is to serve the veteran community and people, customers of my company, but the veteran community first and foremost.

Chris Albert

I think that one of the things we're seeing here is that the lack of detachment among society, the inability to see that the way you're acting might be brought on by something else, not within us, not part of us, not actually part of our identity, but something that we've been influenced to do by something else Mhmm. That's that's kind of out of our sphere of control, out of our sphere of influence. And to some extent, I think a lot of us, rather than owning up to our own actions, it's easier to say, all right, the world made us do this. The society made us do this. It's the government's fault, that kind of thing.

Chris Albert

And so this is a way of reclaiming yourself, regaining ownership over your own thoughts, regaining ownership over your own ability to act. Define for me really quickly, you said the monkey brain. What is the monkey brain, and and how many brains do we have? And and

Tone Floreal

Yeah. I mean, you know, science likes to sort of break everything down, but, apparently, like, it's just an analogy used for the prefrontal cortex of our brain, which is, like, in the front and the forehead area. Essentially, from what I gather is that there's like three layers of the brain that developed over evolution. So there's like the sort of the reptile part of the brain that's concerned about survival and, you know, keeping body alive and reproducing. So all it cares about is like eating, sleeping, fucking and killing, you know. And so then there's the part that developed like, I don't know the timeline, but essentially the mammalian part of the brain that's, some people call it the the pump the puppy brain or the the Labrador brain that's, like, like, always, like, looking for some sort of stimulus outside in the world. So it's like any shiny object, it it becomes aware.

You know? And so that, I think, brings on like, I'm not a scientist on this, but, basically, there's a crossover between, like, the reptile that, like, is always looking at the environment, looking for things that are negative that may that may kill you. You know? So that's that's responsible. The mammalian part, I believe, is, like, more, like, empathy, you know, connection, like, human beings or, like, love to be in social situations and, like, in groups or tribes.

And then the prefrontal cortex is what came later, which is where all the intelligence parts come in. And granted, like, all parts of the brain, it's not like one is going on, the other one is off. It's so complicated that they're discovering, but Mhmm. It just helps to, like, break it down to those little chunks to make it understandable. But, essentially, the monkey brain comes in where you start to, become into, like, critical thinking, but you can, like, you know, have, like, analysis paralysis, for example, where you're you're thinking overthinking. You're you're not able to actually take action because you're you're lost in your thoughts and you're, like, thinking of different scenarios. And then, like, if you're locked in that mode too long, like, you find, like, years kick by and you haven't actually done anything, you know.

But just thought about it. And so it's just learning how to operate these systems, you know, where that's where we're learning these days is, like, how to use them at the right moment, right situation. Mhmm. Because it's not like one is bad or the other. It's just that they're all tools needed at a certain situation and the ability I find that mastery is the ability to call upon the different processes of the brain at will depending on the situation.

Chris Albert

What so what have you done? I I know you mentioned the Wim Hof method, but but what are you incorporating with your own quest for the flow state? What what types of activities are you doing on a daily or weekly basis that that that you've incorporated or that that you're looking to incorporate or know, things like that for for the people at home? What what types of things can they do?

Tone Floreal

For people at home? I mean, for me, you know, because like you said earlier, I could I could only control, like, myself. I can't control, like, what's outside of me. So, essentially, like, I I try to focus on, like, exercise, sleep. So it's, all the basic things that the fundamentals that we we always try to, like, try to find some, like, supplement or some certain, like, hack or something to, like like, sort of find the easy way out, you know.

But the first thing is, like, what are the things in my life that I do every day that I can create flow out of? And if I get the right amount of sleep and the quality of sleep, like, I actually find myself in flow, like, naturally. What kind of foods am I eating? At what time? You know?

I'm not the type of person that I've tried so many different kinds of diets and Mhmm. And it's it was just learning, like, what worked for me, you know? Like, sometimes, like, I'm super drained and my body just wants to eat everything inside. So I just allow it. It's like it's not like I'm very strict about that.

But then there are other times where I I my body's, like, eat more fat or eat more carbs or eat more protein. So but the other things are, you know, things like meditation and then these other hacks. That word's super funny anyways. But, essentially, it's just like being in nature.

Tone Floreal

You know, spending more time in nature trying to get my feet on the earth, you know. So trying to turn off my cell phone and get away from electronics and get more sunshine, breathe good air, like, around like awesome people. That's another cool thing. Like, there it's just so funny. Like, flow to me is just life, And, you like, anything that that prevents you from feeling alive is is resistance.

And that includes our own thoughts or the people that aren't supporting, like, our journey or your self talk. Right? All kinds of different factors can play into creating resistance.

Chris Albert

That's a huge thing in in my mind and and just out of my own experience is that when you're around the wrong people and they're not supporting your growth and they're not supporting your quest, your journey for what you want out of this life, then what you find is that you get further and further away from yourself the more you surround yourself by those other people. And, you know, your brain your brain is constantly remaking itself. You're constantly remaking your self image. You're constantly remaking your personality based on who you come in contact with. And, you know, for those of you out there who are looking to make a change, you know, start with the people you're associating yourselves with.

Start with with ask yourself a question about everybody in your life. Are they helping me or are they hurting me? And I know this sounds is a lot harder than I'm making it sound because a lot of you might be emotionally attached to some of these types of people. But if there's somebody in your life who is a cancer, who is not helping you, the biggest thing you can do for yourself is to get yourself out of that situation and to get yourself away from that person. There is nobody in this life, there is nobody in this world who can who can hurt you or demean you without your own permission to do it.

That's a big thing.

Tone Floreal

Absolutely. Yeah. I agree. I mean, I think people always ask me, like, well, how can I get it to flow more? I say, one, like, us like, get the right amount of sleep, and then two, just start hanging out with people that, like, you you wanna, like, become, like, you know?

Because it's just, like, through osmosis, I find it it's weird, man. It's it's like you pick up the same kind of thought processes or I don't know if it's some sort of antenna effect or something, but in my experience is that that's when I I sought out whether it was good books or good movies. If I didn't have access to, like, those kind of people in my my vicinity, then then I would, like, learn how to meditate. I would practice that. I would work out.

I would read good books, listen to good, tapes, watch good movies, and then, essentially, like, you start finding, like, where those people you wanna hang out with hang out, you know? And and it's just funny. You go to these events and and then it's like your world changes because of like who you surround yourself with. And then I find like a few months later, I'm like, I'm almost like downloaded like, in the matrix, like, their skill sets, you know, just from hanging out. Their their language, their nuances, their their body language, and it's powerful.

Chris Albert

Yeah. You know, and and this is the thing about Tony, guys. Tony knows everybody. Like, you know, we're having Andrew Marr on on the show later on this week, and he's a former special forces operator, served in Afghanistan, and he's the founder of the Warrior Angels Foundation. And, you know, Andrew and I were talking the other day, and I was like because Tony introduced Andrew and I, and I was like, how'd you how'd you meet Tony?

And he was like, oh, yeah, dude. He just he just reached out to me. Just called called me up and was like, you seem like a really cool guy. And, you know, Tony's really good at that. Tony, like, he's reached out to I mean, there's a few different.

Like, Brian Rose from London Real, also a mutual friend of ours. Tone literally saw him on the street and gave him a high five in the middle of Hollywood. We've been friends and then showed up to his place in London. Right?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It's funny, man. I mean, I've I've done that purposely, like, traveled the world to seek out, like, sort of, like, the best in their fields to just being in the environment just to like experience the the download, the feelings of like the people in their area, you know, to breathe the same air.

It's just really weird, but each place on their planet does have like this own kind of vibe, you know? And and it's a science to it. It's not like it's woo woo, but Yeah. You know, there is like brain waves, heart waves, and muscle waves. That's why they call it EEG, EKG, EMG.

Like, these are actual signals, electrical signals coming from the body, and it's like the sum total of these signals is what makes us ourselves if we look at it electrically, you know. And so imagine, like, people in different parts of the world have a certain like rhythm, the way they play music, the way they speak and their intonations and their their rhythms, you know, it's it's interesting. So I just, you know, back to, like, meeting all these people and knowing them, it's it's it's just really that simple, like, out, finding out how you can get in touch with them directly. You know, I'm basically giving my secret away here. So essentially, if you don't get through that way, then the the next way is, like, find a person that knows that person you're trying to get a hold of.

Tone Floreal

And so you reach out to that person, you you get to know them and then like, they're like, man, you're you're pretty cool. I wanna introduce you to and you end up meeting like, they're like the gatekeeper or something. They like introduce you to the original person you're trying to meet, you know. So that's like a real simple simplistic way, but I do believe in sort of synchronicity as well. That the the moment you let go of the outcome, you know, it may sound like kind of like the secret or something.

I mean, I don't sit there with vision boards and, like, read them or visualize or those those have their time and place, but eventually you get to the point where you can, I believe, we can actually write the script of our life like in the moment? Mhmm. And I think that's that's where it becomes super magical and I hear it with Journeys like holy shit, I can write the script as we speak and the key is to stay humble because sometimes when this stuff actually starts like happening on a consistent regular basis, you actually start to think it's you that's doing it, you know?

Tone Floreal

And I think it's a it's a weird thing, but it's like a combination of of you as like a individual and maybe a connection to the unexplainable, inexplicable, like, greater, wherever whatever this this experience we're having is, you know. Like, religions that tempted or bastardized it, but, you know, deep down when we close our eyes, we we get this sense of of of something, whatever you wanna call that thing. But the more you you're sorta anchored to that, like, I call it the sweet spot, the more things seem to mold around you by will. It's it's really bizarre. And I think that there's certain individuals on the planet that demonstrate those characteristics.

And, you know, and and that's why, like, our example is way more powerful than our words, you know. Absolutely. Because you could see that's, you know, full circle again. It's it's like that was the presence that I saw in my grandfather and my grandmother and my mother, you know? Mhmm.

All these exemplary exemplary figures in my life are like like, that's what I wanna be and, like, that's they there's something that they know and maybe they don't know that they know, but they they radiate it. You know?

Chris Albert

Yeah. Absolutely.

Tone Floreal

Absolutely.

Chris Albert

So you've been so I had to set this up a little bit. There's a guy out there named Wim Hof, and Yeah. Wim is a is known as the iceman. And, basically, just to go through a little of this and and some of you are gonna be like, no way. But, you know, this guy summited well, he summited Mount Everest in his shorts.

Tone Floreal

I'm not sure if he summited, but he definitely, like, went up there in his shorts. Yeah.

Chris Albert

I think in the Vice documentary, he summited Everest in his shorts. He Okay. He did a marathon across the Sahara Desert without drinking a drop of water. Yep. He did a marathon in Antarctica in shorts and and

Tone Floreal

Yeah. The Arctic Circle. Yeah.

Chris Albert

Yep. Yep. And he he did a he has a world record for being in an ice bath, I think it is. What was it? Like, six and a half minutes right now or something like that?

Tone Floreal

It was almost two hours in a ice ice container.

Chris Albert

Yeah. Oh, it's on being underwater for for for for six and a half minutes or something.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was underwater. He swam under the ice for, like like, a 100 yards or something.

Chris Albert

You know? Yeah. And then and then he took didn't he he fought off an endotoxin, and scientists were moderate monitoring, and they injected with a toxin that was supposed to make him sick.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. E. Coli. Yeah.

Chris Albert

It was E. Coli?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. We can form a E. Coli. Yeah.

Chris Albert

So so they injected him with E. Coli, which will make you vomit and shit yourself, and he fought it off with his adrenaline. So this guy has a method. He teaches other people how to do this. The scientists were saying maybe it's a fluke, Yeah.

Yeah. And then he had 10 of his students go on and get injected with this stuff that was gonna make them vomit and shit themselves too, and they were all able to fight it off. So so talk to me about this guy. Talk to me about your own experience with the Wim Hof method and and how you're utilizing it right now.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. So it's just another self experiment. I I I saw this guy. I was like, is this is this possible? Knowing what I've known from using all these different technologies, like, I knew that this was possible, but I wanted to experience it myself.

Tone Floreal

And so, yeah, I was intrigued by his story and and by that story of of being under scientific scrutiny, you know, because he was like, this is not woo woo. I can teach anybody. I'm not like anything special. And so I bought his course. It was a ten week course online and basically put myself out in public that I was doing this thing in order to do having accountability.

So I've just stuck my neck out there, and essentially, I I did seventy straight days, so the ten week course. And during that process, I was able to submerge myself in freezing water for about twenty minutes, staying warm. So there's this part of the method is learning how to create inner fire as you call it. And some I think Tibetan monks spent like twenty years of meditation trying to like learn this technique of just to warm your body core temperature, so that you don't freeze and, essentially you learn how to do that in a ten week course. And so I was able to do that.

I was able to sit in freezing temperature, in the snow on the East Coast during the winter and just short to meditate. And, it was it was amazing. The physiological effects was incredible. I I gained a lot of strength. So I was doing these yoga poses, like sideways that I never thought I could do.

I thought that was just like a free thing, like even though I had a background in like bodybuilding and weight training, Olympic style lifting. And so yeah. And then the psychological benefits was just like like no depression, like no anxiety, like confidence, a connection to nature, monkey mind shut down. So it was like my inner critic Yeah. Wasn't like like on anymore.

And I guess, you know, from what people have told me, like, there was just sort like, glow or something. Some of some some glow that was radiating off.

Chris Albert

I thought you top of a mountain in, this ice land, and you were in in

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Where was that? That was out in Mount Baker in Washington State, just near Seattle. Yeah. So I I hiked up there.

I actually was wearing my pants just out of modesty because there were children hiking up there in their full snow gear, but I was gonna be doing it in shorts and I thought it was just a little inappropriate, but I hiked up to near the summit, you know, just in no shirt, basically, in, like, freezing temperature. So

Chris Albert

Oh, wow. That's yeah. And and so, guys, this this method and and at some point, I'm gonna have to try and get Wim Hof on here, but it's just one of the most interesting things that's out there right now. It's it's just it's absolutely amazing what he's helped other people do. And he's subjecting everything to scientific testing.

One of the reasons I bring it up is because one of our next guests too, Andrew Marr, is also doing it. I think that's how you guys met. Right?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. It was funny. I I had watched Wim Hof on a Vice documentary, and then I I watched Andrew and doctor Mark Gordon on the Joe Rogan show. Yeah. And at the end of that show, Andrew brought up Wim Hof and Joe Rogan was like, who is this guy?

I heard about this guy. Tell me more. And like Andrew's like, yeah, he claims that through, you know, this breathing technique and exposing yourself to to cold temperatures that you're gonna be able to overcome, you know, all the human problems and anxiety and depression and and when beliefs like, you know, basically diseases, you know. So he he brought that up and I and I was just like, wow. You know, Andrew's aware of this for his own healing besides sort of the the methodologies that he's going through with doctor Mark Gordon.

So, yeah, that's how I I just reached out to him. And Andrew, I think, said that he it's it's hard to retract, but I remember him saying that he was following me too, like, when he saw that I was doing the Wim Hof method at that point as well. So he was just like, man, this guy is really, like, gone for it. He's out in public. And that's how Wim Hof, like, noticed me as well.

It's Wim started I tweeted out to Wim, and then he tweeted back. And then so that's another way you you if you wanna meet your your mentors or your

Tone Floreal

These people to reach out to them on social media, which is incredible. And so but, yeah, I couldn't, like, get in and I ended up meeting the director of the film that's gonna be put out soon, I think, by 2017 about Wim Hof's life. Oh, And I met the director and then immediately the director saw that I lived in Hawaii and he was like, would you be the Hawaii ambassador? And I was like, what do gotta do? And he's like, just share the world, you know, about this film and and, you know, maybe host it when we come to Hawaii. And I was like, yeah, no problem. Let's do it.

And then I remember I I turned on Facebook the next day and got a message from the director and the director said, oh, because I was flying out for the film gala. Mhmm. Which was like the week after I just met the director and he said, you know, the the film gala was cancelled but if you do still come out, Wim Hof is inviting you to stay at his house. So Wim, like, knew of me, you know, through subjecting because what I my goal was to prove him wrong, like how he was subjecting himself to science. I was like, my goal is to prove Wim wrong.

And so he he respected me for that, and and and that's how I ended up, like, becoming buddies with Wim and and, you know, the rest is history that way. So Awesome. That's awesome.

Chris Albert

What what are you working on now? What's next?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. So after that Wim Hof challenge, I I jumped into the limitless challenge because I also had all this confidence that I could do anything because exposing myself to extreme temperature was, like, the hardest thing I've ever done, like, harder than any kind of sort of, like, even workouts or ice hockey training or, you know, being out in the ocean, like, against heavy currents and big waves. Like, it was

Chris Albert

How about the the limitless challenge? What is the limitless challenge?

Tone Floreal

So the the limitless challenge was building off the momentum of the confidence I built from the Wim Hof challenge. Essentially, I I I challenged myself in ten weeks to learn basic conversational French, to, learn how to play one song on a guitar, to do one, muscle up, like, on the gymnastic rings.

Tone Floreal

And, whatever else, I wanted to learn, I was just, like, subjecting myself to like learning rapidly like beyond like what we think is possible. What I knew of flow, the science of flow, all my experiences that I had confidence and the sense of power that I felt after doing the Wim Hof method. And long story short, I I did learn how to play one song after fifty days.

Tone Floreal

And the the French I I learned you know a decent amount I I didn't like get to basic conversational French but I I definitely feel more confident in like understanding it more than like speaking it I could like at least get the pronunciations right and you know the muscle up I I kept getting kicked out of playgrounds. Was in chaperones. Get me through the playgrounds man.

I know And even, like, military housing, they would come up to me and they're like, are you a resident here? And I'm like, no. They're like, they're not gonna ask you to leave. And I was just like, I'm so so harmless and benign, you know. But I guess all this hair looks a little, like, you know, suspicious.

Chris Albert

Tone Tony's Tone is a long haired, long bearded, half Asian, half Greek dude. So so yeah.

Tone Floreal

It's funny because the the last two days I've been, like, walking with my mom and people have been, like, waving at me, giving me the shaka hang loose sign, the peace sign, like like, stroking, like, their chin like they love my beard. And and then today we're at the stop stop light and big s black SUV pulls up, dude rolls down his window and he's like Jesus, it's Jesus, oh my god, right? And we started laughing and they're like start talking and he's like, they're they're just tourists from Germany, you know. And he took our he took a picture of my mom and I. It was hilarious. But I was like, oh, that's why everybody's been like giving me this attention on the street the last like, couple days, man. It's, like, hilarious. I was like, that's too funny, man.

Chris Albert

That's pretty funny. Yeah. I was when I was talking to Andrew the other day, we were talking about his operator beard and and how long he had it and stuff like that. And it's funny because, you know, it's both similar looks. And if you were standing with Andrew, like, people would probably think you were, like, some sort of operator or something like that.

But when they see you on the street in Hawaii, they're like, you know, peace signs and stuff like that. So it's another interesting case of of, you know, scenarios and

Tone Floreal

and Scenarios. Yeah. Well, this was here in San Francisco. So, you know, it's just interesting. Like, what what's left with all the attention?

It was it was an interesting thing to to be aware of, you know, and funny too. It's just having a sense of humor about it.

Chris Albert

Yeah. Absolutely. Kids not that seriously ever.

Tone Floreal

You know? Yeah. Exactly. And I mean, I feel good now, but we were talking about earlier about going through, like, our funk. You know?

Yeah. And didn't know, like, what it was, but it's just even with flow and knowing all this stuff, we're still a human being and still have those, like, those days where we just don't wanna, like, get out of bed, you know? And sometimes that lasts for like two, three weeks.

Chris Albert

You know, I think that whenever you start to challenge yourself and you start to get uncomfortable, stuff like that's gonna come up. Know? You feel the resistance. You're gonna feel like, oh, man. Do I gotta go through this today?

Do I gotta do this? Or you might feel like you just can't handle it. You might feel like you don't know what to do. And sometimes, you know, as an entrepreneur, sometimes I wake up and I'm like, you know, what the hell do I do today? What what do I focus on?

There's a million things I could focus on. So what do I focus on right now? And and, that's where mindfulness really comes in. You know, I I started keeping my my journal every day, and and before I start working each day, you know, I put my entries in, what I'm grateful for, what my goals are, what my main focus of the day is, and things like that. And so I really have to decide what I wanna do in order to keep myself on course, and I have to make that choice to think about that.

Because if I just started diving into work on my computer, you know, I'd probably be doing a lot of work but not getting anywhere.

Chris Albert

Focusing on on the stuff I'm most comfortable with rather than stuff that's most important. So

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Exactly. And it's cool. There's so many tools out there that that, you know, as we start to understand ourselves better and, like, what our process is in our own sort of creative process and plug these and integrate these tools in our own style, you know. And I think that's what's so cool about this human life, you know, is that we are like it's like the art of living in a sense, you know, like you get this science and you learn all these different methods and techniques and journaling, all that gratitude and and then you, like, you create this sort of routine or reach a ritual that puts you in flow every day and and it moves you in a in a direction that is closer to your vision and it's just like it almost feels magical because you you do the process and you focus on that and like you do end up at the destination at some point.

Chris Albert

Yeah. Absolutely. And it it's funny because, you know, a few years ago, I was I was, you know, just kinda cruising through YouTube trying to figure out things to watch, do maybe doing a little bit of research from from my fitness business. But, you know, I came across an interview with it was I was researching mobility and I came across an interview with Brian Rose and Kelly Starrett at London Real. And that kinda got me into London Real and and looking at London Real shows and eventually joining the London Real Academy, eventually meeting you and, you know, eventually using the academy to kind of find the courage to to expand my businesses and things like that.

And It's just funny. All that came out of, you know, one day I was on YouTube and, you know

Tone Floreal

Yes. Yes. Crazy. Right? I wanna ask you a question.

What what is flow to you, Chris?

Chris Albert

What is flow to me? So at times, flow is like chasing the dragon because I've been an addict before. I've I've felt the substance in my veins before. And at times chasing flow is like chasing a dragon, whereas you're searching for that perfect opportunity to get that perfect feeling. And in some ways, it's not going to come up.

The more the the the harder you try to find it, the the more it's not gonna come up. So, like, if I were to continually inject heroin or continually inject opiates into myself, That first feeling's never gonna come back again. Right? And that's the trick about drugs. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. You'll constantly chase that first feeling. With flow, what I found is that the more I try to get into it, and I'm not talking about the meditation or stuff like that, but the more I sit here and say, all right, I'm gonna shut myself off from the world. I'm not gonna look at anything else. I'm just gonna work on this, The more I'm not gonna get into flow. Mhmm. Flow comes to me when I am in the moment and truly enjoying what I'm doing.

Flow comes to me when everything is congruent, where I'm not only doing work for money, but doing work for my purpose and my mission. Mhmm. You know, I'm trying to serve this veteran community, trying to to add value to this world. And flow comes to me when it's unexpected most of the time. When I'm in the middle of writing, I'm in the middle of recording a podcast, when I'm in the middle of designing a shirt and I look up at my clock and it's hours later and I have to hurry up and go make dinner for my girlfriend because otherwise, she's gonna get mad.

Yeah.

Tone Floreal

You basically described, like, all the triggers. Well, at least a few of the triggers that they've discovered, like, how to get in the flow. You know?

Tone Floreal

And one of them is, like, that paradox is, like, you don't get into it by trying to get in the flow. Right? Right. Did I say?

Chris Albert

And and and the thing is I wouldn't understand that. I wouldn't this is the we we talk about blessings and curses. Mhmm. It's almost a blessing that I had the experience of addiction because and and don't get me wrong. It was a very dark period.

I don't suggest anybody get themselves into that. But but it helped me to understand after a while of banging my head into the into the wall and saying, you know, what are you doing? Why are you doing this? It helps me to understand that if if if, you know, you can't get there by trying. You can't get there by by working, you know, by by forcing yourself into it.

You have to let it happen.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It's the irony. And so, again, it's like just you you said something about sort of like in a way just having fun, you know.

Just have fun, do what you enjoy, your passion. It's like when that's like the number one trigger in the flow. It's like kids are constantly in flow because they're always like having fun and being playful. The second thing was like congruency. Like, are you on purpose with like why you're here, you know.

Mhmm. That's like like they call it like a focusing device, you know, because if you're you're doing the things that you enjoy, well, it's the reason why you enjoy it because it helps you to focus. Like, if it wasn't something you enjoy, like, it it wouldn't drive your attention to, like, the now and, like, time would just, pass by quickly, you know.

Chris Albert

Right. Right. Exactly. And that's what I tell people. You can't figure out what you wanna do in this world, think about a group of people that you wanna help.

Think about ways that you can add value to their lives because if you wanna help them, that means you care about them. It'll give you a sense of purpose. Just my feeling is that if you're doing something that you're not congruent with that your core values are against, it's going to eat at you and you're not going to be able to get in the flow state and you're going to find yourself in the opposite of the flow state, which in my mind is depression and anxiety and things like that. And I think that one of the big things in our society is that those of us who We come out of our teenage years, we're expected to become something, right? Like it to become a thing where you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, you're a soldier, a sailor, a marine, an airman, a teacher, whatever it is.

I think what's more important than actually becoming that thing is to to integrate the value into your life so that it's not what you are, it's who you are.

Chris Albert

So that's the thing. We you know, in the marine corps, say once a marine, always a marine. And it's the same thing with, you know, all the military services. But I think one of the things that that that screws people up is that rather than thinking about themselves as having the values of that type of person, they're thinking themselves as the uniform or the the the you know, and I think it's more important to integrate the values into your own core values and and and into who you are.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. Like, being, like, disciplined, having a sense of protecting others, serving others, like those kind of values I service. Yeah. Instead of actually, like, considering yourself just strictly, like, a soldier with a uniform, like Right.

Chris Albert

Exactly. Exactly. And it goes beyond that into college too because there's a million people out there who wanna be lawyers, but they don't know why they wanna be lawyers. Mhmm. You know, when I think about when I went to graduate school, and again, I don't regret this experience at all, but through a PhD program at UC Santa Barbara because my uncle Cosmo on his deathbed said to me, Christopher, you got to go out and you got to get your PhD, because it was like this Italian thing where I come from a family of Italian immigrants and education is on a pedestal.

And so I wasn't doing this because I wanted to do it. I was doing because my I thought my family would like me more.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. I had that same feeling with my grandfather. I, like, did it to please him, you know, father figure it to please the family.

Chris Albert

Exactly. And and they didn't want me to join the marine corps, but the marine corps was one of the best experiences of my life because I wanted to do it, you know.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's a big difference, like, you know, when you actually, like, want to do something, you know. Yeah.

The resistance is, like, gone, like, immediately. I wanted to bring up the sort of paradox at Flow too is that there there there is some struggle and grind and grit involved as well. You know, as anybody learning something new always feels awkward. It feels foreign. Public speaking, you might have, like, all these fears come up.

It's essentially, it's just resistance in the system, and that's the sense of struggle that if you can go into that understanding, like, what those feelings are and and learn the coping mechanisms such as, like, being mindfulness or mindful and, like, breathing through it and, like you said, with Jocko Willink is to be sort of non attached or detached from that. Then then it actually is like a on ramp, as they say, and Flow Genome Project into flow because you you get to the point where you you're actually working hard. It feels foreign. You're pushing through. You're learning something new, and then you just can't, like, take in it anymore.

You can't take in any more data. You're just, like, flooded, and then that's the moment you wanna, like, walk away from that task and they call that release. And there's physiological effects of of all that adrenaline that was produced during the struggle phase or the grit phase is is being flushed out by nitric oxide in the release phase. And then it's those moments wherever, like, we walk away from a task and we're, like, walking or we're doing dishes or we're sweeping the ground or something that requires activity but not a lot of intensity. Mhmm.

And definitely not from watching TV, but taking a shower, taking a nap, and then you get those insights. And that's like the gamma ray burst of your brain just gets flooded with all these neurochemicals that put you in flow and you're just like in that instant sort of moment state where creativity and everything just come into you and that monkey mind inner critic shuts off.

Chris Albert

And that it's funny you say that because I have to do a series of things before I can work Yeah. For the monkey mind to shut off.

Chris Albert

Yeah. I have to do my daily chores prior to going to work. I like Yeah. I have to make sure that, you know, the breakfast is made for my girlfriend, dog's taken care of. That's my family, obviously.

Like Mhmm. You know, I have to I have to make sure that my coffee I have my coffee, and the coffee has to be a certain way. Then I'll do my journal and I have to do my journal before that in other words, to put my mind at ease, I guess. And then after that, I kind of have to put myself in the mood for it to happen. The things I do that are kind of tedious, I guess you could say, are things I do so that flow can hit me.

And and I've heard about this if you ever read the book, Steven Pressfield's, The War of Art, have you ever read that book?

Tone Floreal

I have not read it. I've heard the the the principle of it and I I it's amazing.

Chris Albert

One of the things he talks about because he he's another I I used to live out of my car. He used to live out of his car. He used to live out of his van, and he said one of the things he used to have to do was he'd have to go into all of his junk underneath everything in the van he lived out of, and he he was a marine corps veteran just like me. And and he would have to pull out his typewriter from underneath a pile of junk so that he could work. And he said that was when he was an amateur.

As a professional, he would never tolerate that nor would nor would every any professional tolerate that because professional knows they have to keep everything clean. You do the dishes, you keep the floor clean, you keep your room straight so that when the muse hits you, it can hit you and you can be there.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. It's almost like having a bunch of windows open on your operating system on your computer, you know. Yeah. And it's like too many programs, operating program, multitasking. Your brain's, like, not designed to do that.

And so by, like, checking off your task list, you're shutting down all those little extraneous windows and then all of a sudden, like, all your left is like that piece of paper and your brain could, fully focus on the task. The last thing I think a lot of people don't know about flow, I mean, I tell people it's not necessarily a state that you wanna live in all the time. It's it's it's like chasing a dragon. I mean, it's it's a amazing state and you you wanna be like that all the time. But I don't know if it's like the physiological laws of physics or whatever, but, you know, there is a recovery aspect that, a lot of people that don't know, like they're just dabbling in the flow, that it does take time to recover once you've been in flow, but I always tell people, like, if you if you don't want to have, like, that depression, like, afterwards where you feel like you were Superman and then all of a sudden there's kryptonite and you feel like you're human again and you're like, gosh, I wanna be like Superman, you know.

The key is to go to that level of flow like right before the peak. So you wanna like pull out before you blow your load. So you keep, a reserve, you know, and that way the next day you can start from where you left off, and that's one of the tricks to have, like, a a more of a a continual flow than, like, a roller coaster ride. You know?

Chris Albert

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's some good insight right there. Brought sex into the whole thing.

Tone Floreal

Course, man.

Chris Albert

I think that yeah. Freudian here. Everything's everything relates back to sex.

Tone Floreal

Yeah. Exactly, man. Gotta have that sick sense of humor, you know, sex sense. That's where it all begins.

Chris Albert

Where where can people find you on the web, Tony? Where do you hang out at? Are you Twitter? Are you on Facebook?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. I'm on Facebook mainly. Basically, it's I don't know I don't even know that that thing, but my my profile is t o n e. I pronounce that

Tone Floreal

Mhmm. But f l o r e a l, Flow Real. Tone Floreal. That's, my profile name on Facebook. The same on, Twitter, Instagram, and, tonefloreal.com is my website.

So

Chris Albert

And you got your podcast up there too. Right?

Tone Floreal

Yeah. There is a link there, I believe. I'm so, like, out of touch. I gotta update all this stuff. But yeah.

Flow Real TV on YouTube is my podcast. And one of the things I'm trying to integrate is, like, actual being out in the world because I find myself getting out of balance being in a virtual world. And as my friend always joke, you know, a lot of people go online and jerk each other off, you know, like, it's just you're just getting high off of likes and post and positive confirmation biases and you're not actually, like, producing, creating, or generating or bringing in income. Right. You know?

Right. It's just another way to to be in distraction and to to actually get high off our own supply, you know?

Chris Albert

Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Cool, man. Well, to everybody out there, I hope that you that you find found some awesome information in this episode.

And for those of you out there who are struggling, who are trying to find your place in this world, one of the biggest things I think to take away from this episode is if you really wanna find your sense of purpose, you really want to get to a place where you can wake up every day and enjoy yourself and potentially get yourself into a state of flow, really think about what you can do for other people. And a lot of times we get so caught up in our own troubles and our own trials and tribulations that we forget how lucky we are. And if you're listening to this right now on an electronic device, I don't care if it's a 1974 Commodore computer or the latest iPhone six plus, you're lucky. You're lucky because you have electricity. You're lucky because you have access to information, something that for thousands of years was only given to a select group of human beings.

You're lucky to probably have running water and you're lucky because you're taking oxygen into your body right now. So take advantage of that opportunity and do what you can to add value back to this world. We'll be talking to you guys later this week with another great episode, and I hope wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you're walking your path, and you're loving this life. Talk to you all soon.

Chris Albert

Host of the Warrior Soul Podcast and founder of Warrior Soul. Worldwide trainer and nutrition coach, contributing author at Testosterone Nation and Muscle and Strength.

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