July 2, 2025 • 29 mins
What happens when a life-threatening diagnosis forces you to completely reassess what matters? In this candid solo episode, Joe Grumbine shares powerful insights from his cancer journey that challenge conventional thinking about health, relationships, and healing.
After undergoing intensive chemotherapy for a tumor that was visibly protruding from his neck just nine weeks earlier, Joe reflects on the surprising discoveries he's made about cancer treatment that "most doctors don't know." He speaks frankly about the difficult dietary changes that became non-negotiable for survival—including completely eliminating beloved meat and dairy products—and how our true priorities reveal themselves when healing demands sacrifice.
Perhaps most poignantly, Joe discusses how serious illness unmasks the reality of relationships. "Family doesn't necessarily mean your blood," he observes, describing how some strangers provided more meaningful support than lifelong relatives. His experience reveals a profound truth: it's not about who talks about you, but who talks to you; not who sends a quick "love and light" text, but who consistently shows up when life gets hard.
The conversation shifts to the healing power of nature connection through Joe's work at Gardens of Hope, a botanical sanctuary offering therapeutic horticulture. Like the Japanese practice of "forest bathing," Joe emphasizes how sensory experiences in nature—the sounds of birds and rustling leaves, the sight of flowing water, the smell of soil—create space for reflection and spiritual connection that technology cannot replace. These moments in nature become not just pleasant diversions but essential components of healing.
Ready to reassess your own priorities? This episode challenges listeners to honestly examine where they spend their time, make space for nature connection, and determine what they're truly willing to change when health and wholeness are at stake.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today I will be hosting the
show.
It's been the first time in awhile that I've recorded a show
without it being a subscriberepisode, and so I'm kind of
happy about that.
For those of you who don't know, I've been going through some
(00:26):
extensive treatments for thiscancer that I'm overcoming, and
really a lot of it has been thesubscriber episodes and really
detailing everything I've done.
But we have showcased all thethings I've been doing to solve
(00:48):
this problem, and Dr RobertHoffman has been joining me most
weeks and we've been goingthrough the various and sundry
practices I've been doing andwalking through the process of
learning and solving thisproblem.
I really want this experiencethat I've been going through and
(01:12):
will probably continue to gothrough for the rest of my life
now to help others, and I'velearned some things about cancer
that you're not going to readin most of the books.
I've learned some things aboutcancer that most doctors don't
know or recognize, and they'veworked.
I've gone from a giant tumorsticking out of my neck just
(01:37):
nine weeks ago to people don'trecognize me, and in a positive
way.
So I've learned some things.
I'd love to share them andpeople want to reach out for a
consultation or more.
I'm available.
Anyways, part of what I havehad to do involved chemotherapy
(02:00):
and not a low dose, a prettymajor three drug cocktail that,
in addition to all these otherthings I'm doing to cause it to
work sort of a nuclear bomb.
It was necessary.
And again, you want to get allthe gory details?
Subscribe to the podcast andthere are dozens of episodes.
(02:21):
There's also a series calledOvercoming Cancer and Other
Obstacles where I do get into alot of the things that I've done
.
If you have cancer or knowsomebody who has, I highly
encourage you to check this out.
There are lots of things thatyou may be familiar with and I
guarantee you there will be somethat you're not, and I'm
(02:42):
learning every day.
You there will be some thatyou're not, and I'm learning
every day and I'm continuing toshare what I know, and I want
nothing more than to help evenone person to solve their
problem, and this doesn't justmean cancer, this is any medical
problem.
You're not going to probablyfind easy answers just by going
(03:03):
to the doctor.
I don't say that going to adoctor won't give you answers,
but you're not going to findcomplete answers because doctors
don't know them and you're theonly one that can diagnose
yourself, really, because you'rethe only one that has all the
information, and that's a lot ofwhat this show's about.
So recently and that's a lot ofwhat this show is about so
recently we've had a lot ofguests and that has made my job
(03:29):
a lot easier, because clearlyit's a lot more difficult to
just record a show without aguest doing the talking than it
is just to ask some guestquestions and keep them on the
line.
So the chemotherapy that I'vetaken has taken a toll on my
(03:49):
brain.
I'm recovering and I willcontinue to recover, but it's
made it difficult for me to keepmy focus clear and on any given
topic or even thinking oftopics to talk about.
But it's starting to go.
It's starting to get clearerand I've got some thoughts and
(04:11):
ideas I want to share witheverybody today.
I'm really grateful for all theguests that have come on.
The show is continuing to grow.
I'm grateful for the support.
If you think this show isvaluable, you can help in a lot
of ways.
You can talk about it, you canshare a link, you can send a
comment, you can come on as aguest.
(04:33):
You know this is a healthyliving podcast Mind, body,
spirit, anything that we canconnect to health I love to talk
about.
I don't believe answers comefrom gurus or just one source of
information.
I think we have a collectiveknowledge that we all gather and
hopefully share, and I thinkthat that's what this is about.
(04:56):
The second piece of this isit's about community.
Through this podcast andthrough my nonprofit Gardens of
Hope and my other for-profitbusiness, willow Creek Springs,
we've been bringing togetherpeople that share this in common
we want to be healthy, we wantto live our best lives, we want
to improve ourselves and thepeople around us, and people are
(05:22):
coming together bit by bit,piece by piece, and I'm super
excited.
It's been a lifelong dream ofmine to have a community that I
can rely upon, and so todaywe're going to talk a little bit
about priorities and I'vetalked about this many times
before, but I think it's becauseit's so important and also talk
(05:45):
about the truth.
You know, the podcasts ingeneral and social media and all
the things we do to gatherinformation and form opinions
are basically full of shit mostof the time, are basically full
of shit most of the time, andpeople will make a statement and
(06:08):
just whatever, say somethingand declare it as though it's a
truth and people will buy it asthough it's a truth.
And if you say it loud enoughand long enough or if you put
some marketing behind it, peoplewill buy it.
And that's a big problem.
We have a world of good naturalmedicines infiltrated by
(06:31):
supplement companies that areunscrupulous, that will sell you
a bag of shit and tell you it'sa bag of medicine and there's
bad labeling.
There's bad practices andthere's bad labeling.
(07:01):
There's bad practices.
There's just straight outdeception that's out there and
people just don't care.
Then there's the bandwagons andsomebody gets on a little hey,
this worked for me, let me sellit to you.
And you know, social media isjust so full of everything you
know.
Whatever opinion you want tosee, you can find it there, and
you can find the people that sayit absolutely works, and you'll
find the people that say itabsolutely doesn't work and
they'll have generally AI basedevidence to support it.
(07:21):
So we really need to be carefulwhere we're getting information
from, and that's a lot of whatthis podcast is about.
I don't have one point of view Iwant to share.
I want to share as many pointsof view as I can.
Most importantly, I want toshare personal experiences.
I believe that's where a lot ofour truth comes from and it
(07:42):
doesn't necessarily fit thescientific method because you
can't necessarily test for it.
Anecdotal evidence is flawed,we know that.
But when you gather enough ofit you can gather some truths
from it.
And frankly, most importantly,I think when people share what
happened to them honestly andfrankly, we can all learn from
(08:04):
it.
And I encourage people toparticipate in group meetings
where people are sharing theircommon experience.
So I've talked many times aboutdr hoffman's sunday at 4 pm,
zoom call and I have gained awealth of experience and
(08:27):
information and tools for myhealing through this.
And I just have discovered orparticipated in Mark Simon's
Nori call on Saturday morningsat 8 am and so far I mean I've
joined one episode of that butseems like a good group with
(08:49):
good information and I'm workingon gathering the tools for my
maintenance program once I'mdetermined to be cancer free and
some of the protocol looks likeit's going to come from that.
Anyways, when we share ourstories, there's generally
something good going to comefrom that.
Anyways, when we share ourstories, there's generally
something good going to come ofit, and so I encourage you.
(09:11):
If you're interested tobecoming a guest on here, reach
out either through a podcastlink or I am easily found, joe
Grumbine, and there's amultitude of ways to reach me.
Anyways, today we're going totalk about priorities, and I
think that it's like theelephant in the room.
(09:35):
The most obvious answer to mostof our problems require honesty
, because our priorities willtell us really what's happening,
and so you know people will say, oh, I want to be healthy, I
have this problem and I want tosolve it.
(09:58):
And I'll say, okay, well, let'slook at the problem.
Most of the time, when somebodycomes to consult with me,
they'll tell me you know, I wantto lose weight.
I, you know, have cancer.
I want to solve it.
I've got some other majorproblem, I'm depressed, or
whatever it is, and generallythe first thing I'll say is well
(10:20):
, we need to take an assessmentand you need to look at yourself
and make some determinations,and that requires some honesty
and some just being frank withyourself.
And when you start looking at,well, what do I eat, how do I
(10:41):
sleep, how am I spending thetime of my day.
Frankly, most people more thanhalf people for sure they walk
away and I never hear from themagain.
And what does that say?
Ever hear from him again.
And what does that say?
It says well, my priorities saythat my practices, habits, the
things that I'm doing are moreimportant than me solving the
(11:04):
problem I said I wanted to solve.
Well, okay, that's a truthright there.
So you're going to decide keepdoing what you're doing and
you'll keep getting what you got.
And, frankly, I didn't have tospend any of my time trying to
solve that because you weren'twilling to do the work.
I think that last statement Isaid, willing to do the work is
(11:25):
maybe one of the most importantkeys to any success, whether
it's a financial success, aspiritual success, a mental
success, a physical success, aspiritual success, a mental
success, a physical success,whatever it is, if you're not
willing to do the work, you knowall the affirmations and good
(11:45):
love and light thoughts youmight have are going to have
some limited result unlessyou're.
You know some ascended beingthat can really manifest things
in a way that most of us can't.
Most of us have to actually dothe work.
So we get these strong opinionsabout this and that and we just
leave it at that.
(12:05):
Mostly we just state ouropinions and let them fly off
into the ether and generallynothing comes of it.
Most people generally don'tcare, and the ones that do, or
really don't, generally havemuch else to do and they spend a
lot of time caring and notdoing so.
For those of us that are seriousand truly want to make change
(12:32):
hopefully for yourself, butsometimes others change
hopefully for yourself, butsometimes others you got to do
the work, you got to be preparedto do the work, and sometimes
that just means looking atthings honestly and making some
small changes.
Sometimes it means makingdramatic changes, like, for
example, with cancer.
The first thing I'm going tosay to you, if you tell me you
(12:54):
have cancer, I'm going to saywell, what's your diet?
What do you do?
What do you eat?
And whatever you tell me, I'mgoing to say well, you got to
remove meat and dairy from yourdiet right now, immediately.
That's the first thing you haveto do.
Now, you know me.
Anybody knows me knows that'sthe last thing I want to tell
anybody.
I am not a vegan by nature.
I love my meat and dairy, Ilove eggs, I love cheese.
(13:20):
I love, you know, and you know,prior to this, fish especially
I love it.
And prior to my awareness ofthis, I thought I was being
healthy, eating vegetables andmeat, and fish primarily, and
(13:41):
eggs, and wasn't eating fruit,no carbs, all of that keto thing
, and for some people it's thehealthiest thing in the world.
For anybody that has cancerit's a death sentence.
And there's so much badinformation, misinformation,
unfinished information out therethat people do what I did and
they say, well, cut the sugarout and you're okay.
(14:03):
Well, it doesn't work that way,folks, and if you really want
the truth, come and find me Iwill walk you through everything
I've learned.
But again, these priorities,that's a hard ass thing to do.
If you are like me and gain alot of joy from your diet, from
food, thinking, you know again,exercising, sleeping, keeping
(14:26):
the rest of the pillars strong,you know protein is important.
Bodybuilders, you know, consumehuge amounts of protein.
But frankly, most of us don'trequire nearly the amount of
protein we consume and it canbecome problematic.
So, again, a priority If youreally want to solve a problem,
(14:48):
you got to do the work, and mostI don't know about most of the
time, some of the times, theseare just simple shifts, you know
, like, where do you spend yourtime?
You say, well, I want to bemore successful at business, I
want to have a betterrelationship, I want to have, I
want to lose some weight.
Well then, what do you expect?
(15:30):
You got to be honest.
It's hard because a lot of ouraddictions and habits don't seem
detrimental or deadly.
You know, it's not a big deal.
I'm just looking through myphone, it's not a big deal.
I'm just having a conversationwith somebody, chit, chat.
(15:52):
It's not a big deal.
I'm just, you know, insertwhatever the thing you do that
isn't valuable to you.
And I think, being honest, yougot to realize that if it's not
helping you, it's holding youback.
You know the world revolves,it's not sitting still.
So anytime we're doingsomething, it's either helping
(16:16):
us or causing us harm.
There really isn't any inertactions and even if it's not
doing anything, it's causing youharm because it's not doing you
any good.
So you know, this is important.
I think, with relationships, alot of times we hold on to toxic
and bad relationships becausewe'd rather have them than not
(16:39):
have any.
Or you know, the family is key.
Here's an example.
So the other day my aunt comesover and she says did you go?
You know you were missed yourmom's 80th birthday party.
And you know your, your familysays, well, they've been
reaching out to you but youdidn't answer.
(17:00):
And I thought to myself, wow,that's hardcore.
Because you know my family,I've got this huge family and
you know, for anybody who knowsme, I've always been a family
guy.
Right, family is so important.
But as I became to take stockof my own life, I realized that,
you know, family doesn'tnecessarily mean your blood.
(17:22):
Family is who you spend yourtime and energy with.
And as my challenge becamelife-threatening,
life-threatening, there werepeople that came to me and
offered help and sometimes thehelp was, you know, just asking
(17:48):
me what can I do?
What do you need?
You know how can I be there foryou?
Just that alone will put you ina whole different category than
you know.
My blood family.
That, frankly, didn't give ashit, and that includes my kids,
that includes my mom, thatincludes my sisters, brothers,
brother, you know cousins, aunts, uncles, all of it.
(18:11):
There was just literally thisteeny little handful that
actually cared enough to engageand sending me a little text
saying I heard you had cancer,love and light.
That's nothing.
That's not engaging.
That doesn't even entitle youto a response in my eyes, a
response in my eyes when mywhole life was dedicated to
(18:38):
staying alive and all of that.
Now there were other people whoyou know a year ago I didn't
even know that were activelysupporting and trying to help me
, raise money and find answersand by to just see if I was okay
calling, texting just to seehow am I doing today.
(19:01):
Those things carried the weightof a hundred.
You have my DNA.
I didn't ask for any of myrelatives to be my relatives.
It's great when you share a lotof experiences, you build
(19:22):
relationships, you have a lot incommon, you create bonds and
relationships with these things.
But there's no requirement,there's nothing that says just
because this, then that, but wedo that all the time.
We prioritize and, to be frank,if you talk about me but don't
(19:46):
talk to me, that doesn't entitleyou to anything.
And I've come to a place in mylife where you know I'll be
direct and I'd rather have oneor two people that can handle
that relationship than a hundredpeople who you know are my
quote friends, like Facebookfriends or whatever who you know
(20:10):
will have an opinion, talkabout me all day long, but will
never engage on a on a deeplevel or put an effort in.
So again, these priorities.
Where do you spend your time?
What are you willing to do?
You're willing to talk aboutsomebody, but not to them.
You're willing to be offendedbecause they didn't do the thing
.
Or you're willing to go out andmake a visit.
(20:32):
You're willing to go and put aneffort in.
Well, there we go.
So I think the one thing that Iwant to talk about, as we're
getting sort of to the end ofthis round for me, is
prioritizing personal time toreflect and prioritizing time to
(20:55):
be in nature.
And so, for those of you whoknow or don't know, I have a
botanical garden and a nonprofitcalled Gardens of Hope, and we
offer what we call therapeutichorticulture and education.
So we've got this little twoand a half acre botanical garden
(21:16):
in Paris, california, betweenLA and San Diego, and we've been
my wife and I have been herefor 30 years.
We've been cultivating thisland, stewarding the land.
There's a little stream thatruns through it that we've
managed to keep with water forthe last three years straight.
It used to be seasonal, but nowwe've managed to cultivate it
(21:39):
to keep some water at least onthe surface all year long.
So there's now some littlefishes in there and the wildlife
has increased as a result.
And you know we live in a placethat's really dry and arid
generally, but we've created anoasis out here.
There's a big canopy of treesand you know it's a small farm.
(21:59):
We grow vegetables and herbs andthings like that and we have
groups that come out.
We have special needs groupsthat come out.
They learn life skills and getsome training.
We have what we call ecotherapy.
We have a mental health clinicthat comes and brings patients
out here for therapy sessionsand all sorts of different
(22:21):
projects.
We have workshops, we haveretreats, we work with plant
medicines, we have a homeschoolgarden that's developing right
now and we work with veterans.
We just received a grant tobuild a microgreens
(22:43):
climate-controlled area so thatwe can we do grow microgreens,
but we grow them kind of in ashade house and so as we're
getting into summer right now,it's much more difficult to grow
them and you know we cut backdramatically on our production.
But as we're able to get thisclimate-controlled resource,
(23:05):
we're going to be making thesemicrogreens available for
veterans, and you know, Ibelieve a lot of good comes from
being out in nature.
I think in Japan they call it anature bath or something like
that, where it's actuallyrecommended.
You know a doctor will give youa prescription.
Go out in nature for a while,and I think our priority is
(23:25):
sometimes consumer time, andwhether it's your work or your
hobby or your kids or whateverit is, think about it.
When was the last time you wentout into nature, whether it was
in your own backyard or goingto the beach or the mountains or
the desert or someplace whereyou could be quiet and just sit
(23:51):
there and hear the sounds thatthe earth and its native
inhabitants provide the soundsof the wind, the sounds of the
leaves of the trees, the soundsof the birds, the sights, the
beauty of a flower or waterfalling, or a sunrise or a
(24:16):
sunset, the smells, even thesmell of the soil, the smell of
water, the smell of flowers,fruit, vegetables, animals.
Anything.
All of these sensoryexperiences are healing and they
can provide insight.
(24:37):
You can find yourself in ameditative, reflective space
where maybe an answer comes intoyou.
A good place to pray, connectwith spirit and creator, a good
place to maybe discoversomething about yourself, have a
realization.
Maybe it's a great place todeal with a thing.
(24:59):
You know we have issues that weget obsessed over or we have a
hard time overcoming grief,anxiety, you know, any issue
that loops in our head andsometimes just getting to a
space where you can justexperience a thing looking up at
(25:19):
the stars at night, staring ata campfire, whatever it is there
are so many ways that justbeing in nature can heal.
You can help you to findanswers to help you to heal, and
so today I just want toencourage you to consider your
priorities.
Take stock of your day.
(25:39):
You know how are you spendingit.
Start journaling.
You can really learn a lot froma journal.
I've been remiss in the lastseveral weeks because of
chemotherapy.
It's just been really hard forme to focus, and my daily
journal has got a good six-weekgap in it right now, but I'm
getting ready to get back to itbecause it's good and it's
(26:01):
important and I need to make ita priority.
So I encourage you to thinkabout your priorities and
include some personal time,include a little bit of nature
and, if you're interested, reachout.
The Gardens of Hopethegardensofhopeorg is our
(26:23):
website and we're on Instagramand YouTube Lots of good
information.
Come on out, visit us, take atour, get involved in a program
or more.
So I thank everybody for yoursupport and remember we've got
subscriber episodes.
You can send a comment throughany of the platform links.
(26:47):
If you want to become a guest,reach out.
I'd love to interview you, talkabout your experience, and I
just am so grateful for thesuccess of this show and looking
forward to expanding it moreand more.
So, thank you and we will seeyou next time.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and today I will be hosting the
show.
It's been the first time in awhile that I've recorded a show
without it being a subscriberepisode, and so I'm kind of
happy about that.
For those of you who don't know, I've been going through some
(00:26):
extensive treatments for thiscancer that I'm overcoming, and
really a lot of it has been thesubscriber episodes and really
detailing everything I've done.
But we have showcased all thethings I've been doing to solve
(00:48):
this problem, and Dr RobertHoffman has been joining me most
weeks and we've been goingthrough the various and sundry
practices I've been doing andwalking through the process of
learning and solving thisproblem.
I really want this experiencethat I've been going through and
(01:12):
will probably continue to gothrough for the rest of my life
now to help others, and I'velearned some things about cancer
that you're not going to readin most of the books.
I've learned some things aboutcancer that most doctors don't
know or recognize, and they'veworked.
I've gone from a giant tumorsticking out of my neck just
(01:37):
nine weeks ago to people don'trecognize me, and in a positive
way.
So I've learned some things.
I'd love to share them andpeople want to reach out for a
consultation or more.
I'm available.
Anyways, part of what I havehad to do involved chemotherapy
(02:00):
and not a low dose, a prettymajor three drug cocktail that,
in addition to all these otherthings I'm doing to cause it to
work sort of a nuclear bomb.
It was necessary.
And again, you want to get allthe gory details?
Subscribe to the podcast andthere are dozens of episodes.
(02:21):
There's also a series calledOvercoming Cancer and Other
Obstacles where I do get into alot of the things that I've done
.
If you have cancer or knowsomebody who has, I highly
encourage you to check this out.
There are lots of things thatyou may be familiar with and I
guarantee you there will be somethat you're not, and I'm
(02:42):
learning every day.
You there will be some thatyou're not, and I'm learning
every day and I'm continuing toshare what I know, and I want
nothing more than to help evenone person to solve their
problem, and this doesn't justmean cancer, this is any medical
problem.
You're not going to probablyfind easy answers just by going
(03:03):
to the doctor.
I don't say that going to adoctor won't give you answers,
but you're not going to findcomplete answers because doctors
don't know them and you're theonly one that can diagnose
yourself, really, because you'rethe only one that has all the
information, and that's a lot ofwhat this show's about.
So recently and that's a lot ofwhat this show is about so
recently we've had a lot ofguests and that has made my job
(03:29):
a lot easier, because clearlyit's a lot more difficult to
just record a show without aguest doing the talking than it
is just to ask some guestquestions and keep them on the
line.
So the chemotherapy that I'vetaken has taken a toll on my
(03:49):
brain.
I'm recovering and I willcontinue to recover, but it's
made it difficult for me to keepmy focus clear and on any given
topic or even thinking oftopics to talk about.
But it's starting to go.
It's starting to get clearerand I've got some thoughts and
(04:11):
ideas I want to share witheverybody today.
I'm really grateful for all theguests that have come on.
The show is continuing to grow.
I'm grateful for the support.
If you think this show isvaluable, you can help in a lot
of ways.
You can talk about it, you canshare a link, you can send a
comment, you can come on as aguest.
(04:33):
You know this is a healthyliving podcast Mind, body,
spirit, anything that we canconnect to health I love to talk
about.
I don't believe answers comefrom gurus or just one source of
information.
I think we have a collectiveknowledge that we all gather and
hopefully share, and I thinkthat that's what this is about.
(04:56):
The second piece of this isit's about community.
Through this podcast andthrough my nonprofit Gardens of
Hope and my other for-profitbusiness, willow Creek Springs,
we've been bringing togetherpeople that share this in common
we want to be healthy, we wantto live our best lives, we want
to improve ourselves and thepeople around us, and people are
(05:22):
coming together bit by bit,piece by piece, and I'm super
excited.
It's been a lifelong dream ofmine to have a community that I
can rely upon, and so todaywe're going to talk a little bit
about priorities and I'vetalked about this many times
before, but I think it's becauseit's so important and also talk
(05:45):
about the truth.
You know, the podcasts ingeneral and social media and all
the things we do to gatherinformation and form opinions
are basically full of shit mostof the time, are basically full
of shit most of the time, andpeople will make a statement and
(06:08):
just whatever, say somethingand declare it as though it's a
truth and people will buy it asthough it's a truth.
And if you say it loud enoughand long enough or if you put
some marketing behind it, peoplewill buy it.
And that's a big problem.
We have a world of good naturalmedicines infiltrated by
(06:31):
supplement companies that areunscrupulous, that will sell you
a bag of shit and tell you it'sa bag of medicine and there's
bad labeling.
There's bad practices andthere's bad labeling.
(07:01):
There's bad practices.
There's just straight outdeception that's out there and
people just don't care.
Then there's the bandwagons andsomebody gets on a little hey,
this worked for me, let me sellit to you.
And you know, social media isjust so full of everything you
know.
Whatever opinion you want tosee, you can find it there, and
you can find the people that sayit absolutely works, and you'll
find the people that say itabsolutely doesn't work and
they'll have generally AI basedevidence to support it.
(07:21):
So we really need to be carefulwhere we're getting information
from, and that's a lot of whatthis podcast is about.
I don't have one point of view Iwant to share.
I want to share as many pointsof view as I can.
Most importantly, I want toshare personal experiences.
I believe that's where a lot ofour truth comes from and it
(07:42):
doesn't necessarily fit thescientific method because you
can't necessarily test for it.
Anecdotal evidence is flawed,we know that.
But when you gather enough ofit you can gather some truths
from it.
And frankly, most importantly,I think when people share what
happened to them honestly andfrankly, we can all learn from
(08:04):
it.
And I encourage people toparticipate in group meetings
where people are sharing theircommon experience.
So I've talked many times aboutdr hoffman's sunday at 4 pm,
zoom call and I have gained awealth of experience and
(08:27):
information and tools for myhealing through this.
And I just have discovered orparticipated in Mark Simon's
Nori call on Saturday morningsat 8 am and so far I mean I've
joined one episode of that butseems like a good group with
(08:49):
good information and I'm workingon gathering the tools for my
maintenance program once I'mdetermined to be cancer free and
some of the protocol looks likeit's going to come from that.
Anyways, when we share ourstories, there's generally
something good going to comefrom that.
Anyways, when we share ourstories, there's generally
something good going to come ofit, and so I encourage you.
(09:11):
If you're interested tobecoming a guest on here, reach
out either through a podcastlink or I am easily found, joe
Grumbine, and there's amultitude of ways to reach me.
Anyways, today we're going totalk about priorities, and I
think that it's like theelephant in the room.
(09:35):
The most obvious answer to mostof our problems require honesty
, because our priorities willtell us really what's happening,
and so you know people will say, oh, I want to be healthy, I
have this problem and I want tosolve it.
(09:58):
And I'll say, okay, well, let'slook at the problem.
Most of the time, when somebodycomes to consult with me,
they'll tell me you know, I wantto lose weight.
I, you know, have cancer.
I want to solve it.
I've got some other majorproblem, I'm depressed, or
whatever it is, and generallythe first thing I'll say is well
(10:20):
, we need to take an assessmentand you need to look at yourself
and make some determinations,and that requires some honesty
and some just being frank withyourself.
And when you start looking at,well, what do I eat, how do I
(10:41):
sleep, how am I spending thetime of my day.
Frankly, most people more thanhalf people for sure they walk
away and I never hear from themagain.
And what does that say?
Ever hear from him again.
And what does that say?
It says well, my priorities saythat my practices, habits, the
things that I'm doing are moreimportant than me solving the
(11:04):
problem I said I wanted to solve.
Well, okay, that's a truthright there.
So you're going to decide keepdoing what you're doing and
you'll keep getting what you got.
And, frankly, I didn't have tospend any of my time trying to
solve that because you weren'twilling to do the work.
I think that last statement Isaid, willing to do the work is
(11:25):
maybe one of the most importantkeys to any success, whether
it's a financial success, aspiritual success, a mental
success, a physical success, aspiritual success, a mental
success, a physical success,whatever it is, if you're not
willing to do the work, you knowall the affirmations and good
(11:45):
love and light thoughts youmight have are going to have
some limited result unlessyou're.
You know some ascended beingthat can really manifest things
in a way that most of us can't.
Most of us have to actually dothe work.
So we get these strong opinionsabout this and that and we just
leave it at that.
(12:05):
Mostly we just state ouropinions and let them fly off
into the ether and generallynothing comes of it.
Most people generally don'tcare, and the ones that do, or
really don't, generally havemuch else to do and they spend a
lot of time caring and notdoing so.
For those of us that are seriousand truly want to make change
(12:32):
hopefully for yourself, butsometimes others change
hopefully for yourself, butsometimes others you got to do
the work, you got to be preparedto do the work, and sometimes
that just means looking atthings honestly and making some
small changes.
Sometimes it means makingdramatic changes, like, for
example, with cancer.
The first thing I'm going tosay to you, if you tell me you
(12:54):
have cancer, I'm going to saywell, what's your diet?
What do you do?
What do you eat?
And whatever you tell me, I'mgoing to say well, you got to
remove meat and dairy from yourdiet right now, immediately.
That's the first thing you haveto do.
Now, you know me.
Anybody knows me knows that'sthe last thing I want to tell
anybody.
I am not a vegan by nature.
I love my meat and dairy, Ilove eggs, I love cheese.
(13:20):
I love, you know, and you know,prior to this, fish especially
I love it.
And prior to my awareness ofthis, I thought I was being
healthy, eating vegetables andmeat, and fish primarily, and
(13:41):
eggs, and wasn't eating fruit,no carbs, all of that keto thing
, and for some people it's thehealthiest thing in the world.
For anybody that has cancerit's a death sentence.
And there's so much badinformation, misinformation,
unfinished information out therethat people do what I did and
they say, well, cut the sugarout and you're okay.
(14:03):
Well, it doesn't work that way,folks, and if you really want
the truth, come and find me Iwill walk you through everything
I've learned.
But again, these priorities,that's a hard ass thing to do.
If you are like me and gain alot of joy from your diet, from
food, thinking, you know again,exercising, sleeping, keeping
(14:26):
the rest of the pillars strong,you know protein is important.
Bodybuilders, you know, consumehuge amounts of protein.
But frankly, most of us don'trequire nearly the amount of
protein we consume and it canbecome problematic.
So, again, a priority If youreally want to solve a problem,
(14:48):
you got to do the work, and mostI don't know about most of the
time, some of the times, theseare just simple shifts, you know
, like, where do you spend yourtime?
You say, well, I want to bemore successful at business, I
want to have a betterrelationship, I want to have, I
want to lose some weight.
Well then, what do you expect?
(15:30):
You got to be honest.
It's hard because a lot of ouraddictions and habits don't seem
detrimental or deadly.
You know, it's not a big deal.
I'm just looking through myphone, it's not a big deal.
I'm just having a conversationwith somebody, chit, chat.
(15:52):
It's not a big deal.
I'm just, you know, insertwhatever the thing you do that
isn't valuable to you.
And I think, being honest, yougot to realize that if it's not
helping you, it's holding youback.
You know the world revolves,it's not sitting still.
So anytime we're doingsomething, it's either helping
(16:16):
us or causing us harm.
There really isn't any inertactions and even if it's not
doing anything, it's causing youharm because it's not doing you
any good.
So you know, this is important.
I think, with relationships, alot of times we hold on to toxic
and bad relationships becausewe'd rather have them than not
(16:39):
have any.
Or you know, the family is key.
Here's an example.
So the other day my aunt comesover and she says did you go?
You know you were missed yourmom's 80th birthday party.
And you know your, your familysays, well, they've been
reaching out to you but youdidn't answer.
(17:00):
And I thought to myself, wow,that's hardcore.
Because you know my family,I've got this huge family and
you know, for anybody who knowsme, I've always been a family
guy.
Right, family is so important.
But as I became to take stockof my own life, I realized that,
you know, family doesn'tnecessarily mean your blood.
(17:22):
Family is who you spend yourtime and energy with.
And as my challenge becamelife-threatening,
life-threatening, there werepeople that came to me and
offered help and sometimes thehelp was, you know, just asking
(17:48):
me what can I do?
What do you need?
You know how can I be there foryou?
Just that alone will put you ina whole different category than
you know.
My blood family.
That, frankly, didn't give ashit, and that includes my kids,
that includes my mom, thatincludes my sisters, brothers,
brother, you know cousins, aunts, uncles, all of it.
(18:11):
There was just literally thisteeny little handful that
actually cared enough to engageand sending me a little text
saying I heard you had cancer,love and light.
That's nothing.
That's not engaging.
That doesn't even entitle youto a response in my eyes, a
response in my eyes when mywhole life was dedicated to
(18:38):
staying alive and all of that.
Now there were other people whoyou know a year ago I didn't
even know that were activelysupporting and trying to help me
, raise money and find answersand by to just see if I was okay
calling, texting just to seehow am I doing today.
(19:01):
Those things carried the weightof a hundred.
You have my DNA.
I didn't ask for any of myrelatives to be my relatives.
It's great when you share a lotof experiences, you build
(19:22):
relationships, you have a lot incommon, you create bonds and
relationships with these things.
But there's no requirement,there's nothing that says just
because this, then that, but wedo that all the time.
We prioritize and, to be frank,if you talk about me but don't
(19:46):
talk to me, that doesn't entitleyou to anything.
And I've come to a place in mylife where you know I'll be
direct and I'd rather have oneor two people that can handle
that relationship than a hundredpeople who you know are my
quote friends, like Facebookfriends or whatever who you know
(20:10):
will have an opinion, talkabout me all day long, but will
never engage on a on a deeplevel or put an effort in.
So again, these priorities.
Where do you spend your time?
What are you willing to do?
You're willing to talk aboutsomebody, but not to them.
You're willing to be offendedbecause they didn't do the thing
.
Or you're willing to go out andmake a visit.
(20:32):
You're willing to go and put aneffort in.
Well, there we go.
So I think the one thing that Iwant to talk about, as we're
getting sort of to the end ofthis round for me, is
prioritizing personal time toreflect and prioritizing time to
(20:55):
be in nature.
And so, for those of you whoknow or don't know, I have a
botanical garden and a nonprofitcalled Gardens of Hope, and we
offer what we call therapeutichorticulture and education.
So we've got this little twoand a half acre botanical garden
(21:16):
in Paris, california, betweenLA and San Diego, and we've been
my wife and I have been herefor 30 years.
We've been cultivating thisland, stewarding the land.
There's a little stream thatruns through it that we've
managed to keep with water forthe last three years straight.
It used to be seasonal, but nowwe've managed to cultivate it
(21:39):
to keep some water at least onthe surface all year long.
So there's now some littlefishes in there and the wildlife
has increased as a result.
And you know we live in a placethat's really dry and arid
generally, but we've created anoasis out here.
There's a big canopy of treesand you know it's a small farm.
(21:59):
We grow vegetables and herbs andthings like that and we have
groups that come out.
We have special needs groupsthat come out.
They learn life skills and getsome training.
We have what we call ecotherapy.
We have a mental health clinicthat comes and brings patients
out here for therapy sessionsand all sorts of different
(22:21):
projects.
We have workshops, we haveretreats, we work with plant
medicines, we have a homeschoolgarden that's developing right
now and we work with veterans.
We just received a grant tobuild a microgreens
(22:43):
climate-controlled area so thatwe can we do grow microgreens,
but we grow them kind of in ashade house and so as we're
getting into summer right now,it's much more difficult to grow
them and you know we cut backdramatically on our production.
But as we're able to get thisclimate-controlled resource,
(23:05):
we're going to be making thesemicrogreens available for
veterans, and you know, Ibelieve a lot of good comes from
being out in nature.
I think in Japan they call it anature bath or something like
that, where it's actuallyrecommended.
You know a doctor will give youa prescription.
Go out in nature for a while,and I think our priority is
(23:25):
sometimes consumer time, andwhether it's your work or your
hobby or your kids or whateverit is, think about it.
When was the last time you wentout into nature, whether it was
in your own backyard or goingto the beach or the mountains or
the desert or someplace whereyou could be quiet and just sit
(23:51):
there and hear the sounds thatthe earth and its native
inhabitants provide the soundsof the wind, the sounds of the
leaves of the trees, the soundsof the birds, the sights, the
beauty of a flower or waterfalling, or a sunrise or a
(24:16):
sunset, the smells, even thesmell of the soil, the smell of
water, the smell of flowers,fruit, vegetables, animals.
Anything.
All of these sensoryexperiences are healing and they
can provide insight.
(24:37):
You can find yourself in ameditative, reflective space
where maybe an answer comes intoyou.
A good place to pray, connectwith spirit and creator, a good
place to maybe discoversomething about yourself, have a
realization.
Maybe it's a great place todeal with a thing.
(24:59):
You know we have issues that weget obsessed over or we have a
hard time overcoming grief,anxiety, you know, any issue
that loops in our head andsometimes just getting to a
space where you can justexperience a thing looking up at
(25:19):
the stars at night, staring ata campfire, whatever it is there
are so many ways that justbeing in nature can heal.
You can help you to findanswers to help you to heal, and
so today I just want toencourage you to consider your
priorities.
Take stock of your day.
(25:39):
You know how are you spendingit.
Start journaling.
You can really learn a lot froma journal.
I've been remiss in the lastseveral weeks because of
chemotherapy.
It's just been really hard forme to focus, and my daily
journal has got a good six-weekgap in it right now, but I'm
getting ready to get back to itbecause it's good and it's
(26:01):
important and I need to make ita priority.
So I encourage you to thinkabout your priorities and
include some personal time,include a little bit of nature
and, if you're interested, reachout.
The Gardens of Hopethegardensofhopeorg is our
(26:23):
website and we're on Instagramand YouTube Lots of good
information.
Come on out, visit us, take atour, get involved in a program
or more.
So I thank everybody for yoursupport and remember we've got
subscriber episodes.
You can send a comment throughany of the platform links.
(26:47):
If you want to become a guest,reach out.
I'd love to interview you, talkabout your experience, and I
just am so grateful for thesuccess of this show and looking
forward to expanding it moreand more.
So, thank you and we will seeyou next time.
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