October 11, 2023 • 24 mins
In this episode of Pursuing Uncomfortable, host Melissa welcomes special guest Prof. Pete Alexander, a multi-talented individual with a wealth of knowledge and experiences to share. Prof. Pete discusses the power of laughter as a stress relief technique and how it can positively impact our health and well-being. He also opens up about his personal journey with stress and burnout, sharing a pivotal moment that led him to prioritize his health over his career. Tune in to this insightful episode as Prof. Pete inspires us to find joy in laughter and take charge of our stress levels.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Melissa (00:25):
Welcome back to Pursuing Uncomfortable.
In today's episode, professorPete Alexander joins us.
Get ready to be inspired asprofessor Pete shares his
journey of overcoming stress andfinding joy through the power of
laughter.
From owning an interiorlandscaping business, to
motivating marketing students,and even spreading laughter as a
(00:46):
certified laughter yoga teacher,Professor Pete brings a wealth
of knowledge and experience thatwill leave you feeling energized
and motivated.
Join us as we dive into theimportance of laughter, stress
relief techniques, and the lifechanging moment that led
Professor Pete to prioritize hishealth over his career.
Get ready to laugh, learn andstep outside your comfort zone
(01:10):
with professor Pete, on thisexciting episode of pursuing
uncomfortable Professor Pete,welcome to the Pursuing
Uncomfortable podcast.
How are you today?
Prof. Pete (01:22):
Melissa, I'm so glad to be here.
I really appreciate you havingme on the show and your
listeners time as well.
Melissa (01:29):
Well, thank you.
I think we're in for a treattoday.
You have so much energy, so muchgood stuff to share.
And I know it's going to be agreat episode.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Prof. Pete (01:42):
That's a big ask to have a really good episode, but
yeah, I'll try and reach thatbar.
Um, Yeah.
So, um, uh, I've, I've got a lotof things that I'm grateful to,
to keep me busy.
Um, I have an interiorlandscaping business that I've
owned since, uh, 2005.
Uh, I get to, uh, motivate, uh,marketing students, uh, at a
(02:07):
university, Antioch University,where I, I really love to, uh,
help them develop theirmarketing plans for a topic that
they have, uh, a strong interestin.
And, uh, I also get to bringlaughter into my community as a
certified laughter yoga teacheras well as a traveling improv
(02:27):
comedy performer.
Melissa (02:30):
I love it.
In fact, one of the jobs in ourfamily that I've tasked to my 13
year old is to find a bellylaugh for our family every night
because I think it's importantto laugh and it's healthy to
laugh.
Prof. Pete (02:43):
Absolutely.
And especially when we look athow we used to laugh, at least
most of us used to laugh askids.
And, you know, some stats saythat it could be as much as
several hundred times a day.
And as adults, if we're lucky toget maybe five laughs a day,
(03:04):
that would be a lot.
And so it really, so being ableto, to, to, to talk to your kid
about coming up and making alaughter, a habit.
Can be hugely beneficial from ahealth perspective for them.
Well,
Melissa (03:19):
that's good to know, that's been instinct confirmed.
All right, this is goingamazingly well.
What else do we have for ustoday?
Prof. Pete (03:28):
Well, you know, it, it, it, one of the things that
I've found since we're talkingabout laughter is, it is one of
my top stress relief, uh, youknow, techniques that I like to
use because The interestingthing, um, that a lot of people
don't realize, and especiallywhen they first walk into one of
my laughter, uh, yoga workshopsis, um, they think, okay, people
(03:55):
are laughing, but there isn'tanything funny.
And that's, that's reallywhat's, what's completely
different about this.
Um, you know how you feel reallygood when you do a good belly
laugh?
Well, oh yeah.
Yeah.
So what happens is when we laughout loud, our body excretes
(04:19):
these positive endorphins thathelp us feel better and long
term it's better for our health.
You know, because things, youknow, there's clinical research
that, uh, clearly defines thatlaughter.
Not only does it reduce ourstress hormone, our stress
response, it, uh, improves ourmood and it increases our
(04:43):
personal satisfaction.
And so the.
The secret sauce behind laughteryoga, though, is as, you know,
smart and intelligent as ourbodies are.
They don't know the differencebetween a real belly laugh and a
forced laugh.
(05:05):
It just knows that you'relaughing.
And when you laugh for at leastfive to 10 seconds, those
positive endorphins go into yourbody.
So that's what we do in the, inthe laughter yoga activities is.
Um, we try and connect with ourinner child and start laughing
about the most ridiculous thingsthat normally you would think,
(05:25):
that's not really funny.
But because laughter iscontagious, when other people
around you are laughing, you'regoing to laugh as well.
Melissa (05:35):
Yeah.
And, you know, when it comes tostress relief, you know a thing
or two about that, don't you?
Prof. Pete (05:41):
I do.
I do.
Um, yeah.
Stress and I have a lifetime to,uh, to, to be able to say our
relationship has, uh, lasted.
Uh, and it started with my, uh,childhood growing up in an
extremely dysfunctional family.
And what happened was, um, Itried to, you know, adapt based
(06:09):
on what was going on in my, myfamily to try and ignore some of
the stress that was going on.
But what I ended up doing wasbecoming a perfectionist and
this perfectionist tendency and,and actually I would call myself
a toxic perfectionist is what Iwas taught.
(06:29):
Um, and.
I was taught that because Inever felt good enough as a kid.
Um, a lot of it had to do with,um, the fact that I couldn't get
my dad's approval.
And so, or at least I neversensed that.
And fortunately, when he was in,uh, hospice back in 2008, uh, we
(06:52):
made peace about that.
So I'm really good about, uh,about that now, but, you know,
looking back, um, and in 2008,because I wasn't handling my
stress well.
And, you know, the feelings ofrejection, et cetera.
What ended up happening is I hadthis perfect storm of stressful
(07:14):
things going on in my life,including my dad passing away
and within he didn't have hisaffairs in order.
My mom, they had been divorcedalready for the second time.
Um, and.
She had, uh, a major procedureshe had to have done and she
didn't have the insurance forthe, for the, the physical
(07:34):
therapy that she needed and, um,I was running my business with
several employees.
My kids were small and theywanted my attention and, uh, oh,
and yeah, I was heading for adivorce with my, uh, first wife.
So needless to say, there was alittle bit on my shoulders and
all of a sudden I lost 30pounds.
(07:57):
In 30 days.
And at first I thought tomyself, wow, this is fantastic.
I haven't lost weight since mytwenties and I was in my mid
forties.
And then the weight kept comingoff.
And I was thinking, uh, thisisn't right.
And so I went and I had my, uh,blood work and guess what?
(08:20):
Uh, diagnosed with stressinduced diabetes.
Yet, you would think that Iwould have listened to my body
about what stress was doing toit?
No.
Instead, what I did was Icontinued to burn the candle at
both ends like I was doing formy entire career.
Until, uh, for, you know, Iended up in the emergency room
(08:42):
10 years later with a severecase of diabetic ketoacidosis.
And basically for your listenerswho might not know, my body was
eating itself alive because ofmy stress.
And that was crazy.
It was absolutely crazy.
(09:05):
It's interesting on my, I gottransferred to an extended stay
in ICU after my, uh, first dayin the ER.
And on my second day in ICU, Ihad gone back to the corporate
world, even though I still hadmy, my landscaping business.
And I had a micromanager as aboss.
(09:28):
And on the second day.
In I C U, I get a text at about6:00 AM and it says, if you have
a webinar you need to run ateight o'clock.
What are you going to do aboutit?
And you know, surprisingly, Idid not have my work laptop in
the I C U.
(09:48):
I just had my phone.
And mind you, my boss did know Iwas in the I C U and what, oh
yeah.
So what I started doing was, um,I'm pushing the envelope of what
my phone could do to try andreschedule this webinar.
And the nurse that was assignedto me at that time comes over to
(10:10):
me and when I was first admittedto the hospital.
My blood sugars were so highthat the medical grade
glucometers could not read it.
They just said high.
So the lab had to manuallyestimate it, and they estimated
that my numbers were eight to 10times higher than they were
(10:31):
supposed to be.
So yeah, my, my body was burningup, that's like 800, 800 to
thousand to 1,800.
Wow.
To a thousand.
That's what they estimated I wasburning up and it was all
because of this particular.
Uh, project that I was workingon that was high profile.
So as she comes over and shetakes my blood, my, my numbers
(10:54):
had come back down roughly sinceyou know, uh, uh, glucose
numbers.
I was around 200 to 20.
So it came down into morereasonable ranges of still high,
but more reasonable, very high.
Yes.
And.
As she takes this number, as I'mtrying to sit there and
reschedule this webinar, mynumber, like a 90 degree angle
(11:18):
skyrocketed back up.
And she says to me, as a matterof fact, you realize that's what
put you in this hospital bed inthe first place.
And you know, I had heard frommy family and friends that I was
burning myself out.
But it went in one ear and outthe other, a complete stranger
(11:43):
who had nothing to gain bytelling me this.
Had the impact and I sat thereand went, Oh my gosh, I'm
trading my health for my career.
And that's a very bad trade.
So I spent the next couple ofdays in, uh, in ICU, just really
(12:07):
contemplating that.
And the day after I got out, Idecided to resign from my job.
And then I started, for thefirst time in my life, working
on different techniques that Icould use to reduce my stress.
And hang
Melissa (12:24):
on, I got to interrupt you here.
So what happened with thewebinar?
Did you just let it go?
Did you just?
Prof. Pete (12:57):
No, no.
I rescheduled it.
I was able to reschedule it.
You know, and what I did was,um, as I, you know, and I still
didn't trust myself after Irescheduled it on a phone.
So one of the guys that wasreporting to me, I asked him, I
said, can you double check totell me if you're seeing this
correctly?
(13:18):
So you know, I made sure onceagain that things were taken
care of with work beforefocusing on what was going on
with me.
So, you know, and that's justwhat happens with a
perfectionist, you know, it'sjust everything has to be
perfect.
If it's not perfect, it createsus enormous stress.
(13:40):
So, um, yeah, so I, I ended up,uh, going ahead and, and
applying all these differentstress relief tools and
techniques.
And a lot of them work, some ofthem didn't.
And then, uh, my former coworkers and a lot of friends and
family said, you know, you, youought to write a book about
(14:00):
this.
So I did.
And, um, grateful that it becamean Amazon bestseller.
But what was really amazing isyou see what I look like now.
And if you were to see a pictureof me back in 2008, 15 years
ago, other than a little bitmore gray hair, I look younger
(14:25):
today than I did 15 years ago.
That is amazing because when youstart applying at least one or
two stress relief tools ortechniques that can work for
you, at least for me.
What I noticed is that not onlydid my stress go down, my
(14:49):
glucose numbers as a diabeticwent down, my weight went down
and my energy went way, way up.
It was sort of like getting,finding a fountain of youth.
So I highly recommend it.
Tell us about the name of yourbook.
Oh, it's called Lighten YourDay, Fast, Easy, and Effective
(15:12):
Stress Relief for When You KnowWhat Happens.
Uh, and the LIGHTEN is, uh, anacronym, a seven letter acronym,
and, uh, what it stands for, theL is for your livelihood or your
career, uh, the I stands foryour imagination or basically
your conscious mind where yourinner critic lives.
(15:37):
Uh, the G is for your genius oryour unconscious mind, which is
where all real change happens,uh, on the unconscious level,
like your habits, et cetera,your beliefs.
And then the H stands for yourhealth, you know, which is
something that, um, I'm lucky tohave regained.
Uh, P is for time, you know, yougotta be able to manage your
(16:01):
time because you can't get itback once it's gone.
Is your environment.
Because, uh, you know, beingable to make sure that where you
work.
You know, it should be, um,supportive of your stress relief
efforts and N is your network ofrelationships, both personal and
professional.
You have to be able to managethose.
(16:22):
So all seven of those are areaswhere it allows us, you know, my
research showed that the, um,stress can come from any number
of those.
And what we should be strivingfor is some balance, uh, you
know, at the end of our day, youknow, hopefully.
You know, we have some balancealong all of those and, you
(16:44):
know, the reality is something,one of those at least is going
to be, uh, off kilter and weneed to focus more attention on
it.
We should be striving to, tokeep those as much in balance as
we can.
Melissa (16:57):
The book looks phenomenal and I love it's
available on Kindle, audio bookand paperback.
So whichever format works bestfor you or at works best for you
at a particular time.
You have options there.
There's a link to that in theshow notes, as well as to your
website, which has links to yourYouTube reels and her YouTube
(17:21):
channel, I guess, is the moreappropriate designator there
where you have a lot ofphenomenal videos and, and good
Prof. Pete (17:28):
stuff.
Thank you for that.
Yes.
It, you know, I try and, uh,provides this information
because, you know, it'sinteresting.
Um, I was asked.
About, you know, what kind ofimpact are you trying to make?
And the reality is if I can helpone person at a time, I'm making
(17:54):
an impact.
And that that's really it.
And it's interesting because,um, a lot of people say, Oh, I
want to, you know, have thiswonderful, you know, position
or, uh, you know, I want tomake.
All this money and blah ba deeblah, and the reality is, at the
end of the day, how important isthat?
But if you can say that you'vepositively influenced somebody
(18:16):
and made a positive difference,that's really what I'm hoping to
do.
Melissa (18:21):
And is it important enough to change those
unconscious daily habits?
Because that's really wherethings happen, isn't
Prof. Pete (18:28):
it?
It is, um, and changing anunconscious habit does take
time.
So, it will be...
A bare minimum from theresearch, bare minimum of 21
days, but more likely 60 days.
And so one of the reasons why Iincluded in the book, probably
(18:51):
95% of them are five minutes orless, is because as we said, you
know, talked about time, time isso critical to our busy lives.
And if we can try something forjust a minute or two, if it
works.
Awesome.
(19:11):
Use it every day, because if youuse it every day, it's going to
become a habit.
And if it becomes a habit, it'sgoing to give you that long term
benefit, but you have to starttoday, not tomorrow, not next
week, not next month, today.
(19:31):
And if you try something and itdoesn't work for you, try
something else.
Cause that's the, you know, thething that I found.
Um, was most important,Melissa's something that might
work for me, may not work foryou and vice versa.
So you have to find somethingthat works for you in
particularly, and it doesn'ttake much time.
(19:52):
You just have to make theeffort.
And a lot
Melissa (19:56):
of your videos, at least at the top of your YouTube
page are less than a minute andthey're beautiful.
You love
Prof. Pete (20:02):
nature.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
That was a feedback that I gotfrom a lot of my followers that
they, you know, cause I livejust outside the Olympic
National Park and, uh, so I, youknow, one of the reasons I moved
up here is because, um, myfavorite hobby is actually to,
to, to go hiking and I lovebeing out in nature.
And, um, so my, my followersstart saying.
(20:27):
Why don't you just share your,uh, your, your nature videos?
And so I thought, okay.
And so, yeah, anyone who goes tothe channel, probably the first,
I don't know, 15, 20 might benature videos.
And then as you go down farther,you'll see all the, uh, very
specific technique ones as well.
So, uh, uh, but.
(20:48):
You know, if, if you have theopportunity, you being whoever's
listening, if you have theopportunity, even at that, like,
let's, let's say lunchtime atwork to go for a quick walk,
even if it's around the block,it's amazing what that does to
be able to clear your mind.
It really is.
(21:08):
And, um, and if you're luckyenough to have a park or some
grass or a tree that you cancome and connect with, by all
means do that, because we aredrawn to nature, you know.
Our bodies are made up mostly ofwater, so, and the reason we're
attracted to nature is becausenature is primarily water as
(21:29):
well.
Melissa (21:32):
So Professor Pete, who should connect with you?
Prof. Pete (21:35):
Oh, anybody who, uh, is looking to reduce their
stress very simply, you know,with a minute or so a day, that,
you know, I'm, I'm a good, uh,resource for that.
And anybody that, uh, is, islooking to, um.
Maybe laugh and, uh, you know,and once, once some fun stuff as
well that, uh, you know, I've,I've, I like to say that I've
(21:57):
got a good sense of humor.
I have an even better sense ofhumor now that I spread
laughter.
Yeah.
So absolutely.
Um, most of my followers are onLinkedIn, but I also have a lot
on, uh, on Facebook and thenInstagram would be third.
Melissa (22:13):
And all of those links are in the show notes.
So make sure you check it out.
Uh, especially the YouTubechannel.
If you're a visual person,there's so much beautiful
scenery there and the techniquesare spot on.
So make sure you check that out.
The author link on Amazon,again, different formats for
whatever works best for you.
So, Professor Pete, thank youfor coming today and sharing all
(22:36):
this with us.
What would you like to leave thelistener with today?
Prof. Pete (22:40):
Melissa, thank you so much for having me on the
show and, uh, again, for yourlisteners time, I greatly
appreciate that as well.
The one thing that I would justleave it to everyone to think
about is don't try and tradeyour health for your career or
any other responsibility,because if you think about it,
(23:05):
the last time that you might'vebeen very sick, let's say with
the flu, with COVID, whatever,whatever it is, think about
whether or not you had anyenergy, most of us, when we were
really sick, yeah.
All we wanted to do was lie inbed, and when all you can do is
lie in bed, you're no good toyour company, your career, to
(23:28):
your loved ones, etc.
Your health is paramount, sodon't trade it.
Take care of it.
Melissa (23:36):
Profound words.
Thank you.
Welcome back to Pursuing Uncomfortable.
In today's episode, professorPete Alexander joins us.
Get ready to be inspired asprofessor Pete shares his
journey of overcoming stress andfinding joy through the power of
laughter.
From owning an interiorlandscaping business, to
motivating marketing students,and even spreading laughter as a
(00:46):
certified laughter yoga teacher,Professor Pete brings a wealth
of knowledge and experience thatwill leave you feeling energized
and motivated.
Join us as we dive into theimportance of laughter, stress
relief techniques, and the lifechanging moment that led
Professor Pete to prioritize hishealth over his career.
Get ready to laugh, learn andstep outside your comfort zone
(01:10):
with professor Pete, on thisexciting episode of pursuing
uncomfortable Professor Pete,welcome to the Pursuing
Uncomfortable podcast.
How are you today?
Prof. Pete (01:22):
Melissa, I'm so glad to be here.
I really appreciate you havingme on the show and your
listeners time as well.
Melissa (01:29):
Well, thank you.
I think we're in for a treattoday.
You have so much energy, so muchgood stuff to share.
And I know it's going to be agreat episode.
So tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Prof. Pete (01:42):
That's a big ask to have a really good episode, but
yeah, I'll try and reach thatbar.
Um, Yeah.
So, um, uh, I've, I've got a lotof things that I'm grateful to,
to keep me busy.
Um, I have an interiorlandscaping business that I've
owned since, uh, 2005.
Uh, I get to, uh, motivate, uh,marketing students, uh, at a
(02:07):
university, Antioch University,where I, I really love to, uh,
help them develop theirmarketing plans for a topic that
they have, uh, a strong interestin.
And, uh, I also get to bringlaughter into my community as a
certified laughter yoga teacheras well as a traveling improv
(02:27):
comedy performer.
Melissa (02:30):
I love it.
In fact, one of the jobs in ourfamily that I've tasked to my 13
year old is to find a bellylaugh for our family every night
because I think it's importantto laugh and it's healthy to
laugh.
Prof. Pete (02:43):
Absolutely.
And especially when we look athow we used to laugh, at least
most of us used to laugh askids.
And, you know, some stats saythat it could be as much as
several hundred times a day.
And as adults, if we're lucky toget maybe five laughs a day,
(03:04):
that would be a lot.
And so it really, so being ableto, to, to, to talk to your kid
about coming up and making alaughter, a habit.
Can be hugely beneficial from ahealth perspective for them.
Well,
Melissa (03:19):
that's good to know, that's been instinct confirmed.
All right, this is goingamazingly well.
What else do we have for ustoday?
Prof. Pete (03:28):
Well, you know, it, it, it, one of the things that
I've found since we're talkingabout laughter is, it is one of
my top stress relief, uh, youknow, techniques that I like to
use because The interestingthing, um, that a lot of people
don't realize, and especiallywhen they first walk into one of
my laughter, uh, yoga workshopsis, um, they think, okay, people
(03:55):
are laughing, but there isn'tanything funny.
And that's, that's reallywhat's, what's completely
different about this.
Um, you know how you feel reallygood when you do a good belly
laugh?
Well, oh yeah.
Yeah.
So what happens is when we laughout loud, our body excretes
(04:19):
these positive endorphins thathelp us feel better and long
term it's better for our health.
You know, because things, youknow, there's clinical research
that, uh, clearly defines thatlaughter.
Not only does it reduce ourstress hormone, our stress
response, it, uh, improves ourmood and it increases our
(04:43):
personal satisfaction.
And so the.
The secret sauce behind laughteryoga, though, is as, you know,
smart and intelligent as ourbodies are.
They don't know the differencebetween a real belly laugh and a
forced laugh.
(05:05):
It just knows that you'relaughing.
And when you laugh for at leastfive to 10 seconds, those
positive endorphins go into yourbody.
So that's what we do in the, inthe laughter yoga activities is.
Um, we try and connect with ourinner child and start laughing
about the most ridiculous thingsthat normally you would think,
(05:25):
that's not really funny.
But because laughter iscontagious, when other people
around you are laughing, you'regoing to laugh as well.
Melissa (05:35):
Yeah.
And, you know, when it comes tostress relief, you know a thing
or two about that, don't you?
Prof. Pete (05:41):
I do.
I do.
Um, yeah.
Stress and I have a lifetime to,uh, to, to be able to say our
relationship has, uh, lasted.
Uh, and it started with my, uh,childhood growing up in an
extremely dysfunctional family.
And what happened was, um, Itried to, you know, adapt based
(06:09):
on what was going on in my, myfamily to try and ignore some of
the stress that was going on.
But what I ended up doing wasbecoming a perfectionist and
this perfectionist tendency and,and actually I would call myself
a toxic perfectionist is what Iwas taught.
(06:29):
Um, and.
I was taught that because Inever felt good enough as a kid.
Um, a lot of it had to do with,um, the fact that I couldn't get
my dad's approval.
And so, or at least I neversensed that.
And fortunately, when he was in,uh, hospice back in 2008, uh, we
(06:52):
made peace about that.
So I'm really good about, uh,about that now, but, you know,
looking back, um, and in 2008,because I wasn't handling my
stress well.
And, you know, the feelings ofrejection, et cetera.
What ended up happening is I hadthis perfect storm of stressful
(07:14):
things going on in my life,including my dad passing away
and within he didn't have hisaffairs in order.
My mom, they had been divorcedalready for the second time.
Um, and.
She had, uh, a major procedureshe had to have done and she
didn't have the insurance forthe, for the, the physical
(07:34):
therapy that she needed and, um,I was running my business with
several employees.
My kids were small and theywanted my attention and, uh, oh,
and yeah, I was heading for adivorce with my, uh, first wife.
So needless to say, there was alittle bit on my shoulders and
all of a sudden I lost 30pounds.
(07:57):
In 30 days.
And at first I thought tomyself, wow, this is fantastic.
I haven't lost weight since mytwenties and I was in my mid
forties.
And then the weight kept comingoff.
And I was thinking, uh, thisisn't right.
And so I went and I had my, uh,blood work and guess what?
(08:20):
Uh, diagnosed with stressinduced diabetes.
Yet, you would think that Iwould have listened to my body
about what stress was doing toit?
No.
Instead, what I did was Icontinued to burn the candle at
both ends like I was doing formy entire career.
Until, uh, for, you know, Iended up in the emergency room
(08:42):
10 years later with a severecase of diabetic ketoacidosis.
And basically for your listenerswho might not know, my body was
eating itself alive because ofmy stress.
And that was crazy.
It was absolutely crazy.
(09:05):
It's interesting on my, I gottransferred to an extended stay
in ICU after my, uh, first dayin the ER.
And on my second day in ICU, Ihad gone back to the corporate
world, even though I still hadmy, my landscaping business.
And I had a micromanager as aboss.
(09:28):
And on the second day.
In I C U, I get a text at about6:00 AM and it says, if you have
a webinar you need to run ateight o'clock.
What are you going to do aboutit?
And you know, surprisingly, Idid not have my work laptop in
the I C U.
(09:48):
I just had my phone.
And mind you, my boss did know Iwas in the I C U and what, oh
yeah.
So what I started doing was, um,I'm pushing the envelope of what
my phone could do to try andreschedule this webinar.
And the nurse that was assignedto me at that time comes over to
(10:10):
me and when I was first admittedto the hospital.
My blood sugars were so highthat the medical grade
glucometers could not read it.
They just said high.
So the lab had to manuallyestimate it, and they estimated
that my numbers were eight to 10times higher than they were
(10:31):
supposed to be.
So yeah, my, my body was burningup, that's like 800, 800 to
thousand to 1,800.
Wow.
To a thousand.
That's what they estimated I wasburning up and it was all
because of this particular.
Uh, project that I was workingon that was high profile.
So as she comes over and shetakes my blood, my, my numbers
(10:54):
had come back down roughly sinceyou know, uh, uh, glucose
numbers.
I was around 200 to 20.
So it came down into morereasonable ranges of still high,
but more reasonable, very high.
Yes.
And.
As she takes this number, as I'mtrying to sit there and
reschedule this webinar, mynumber, like a 90 degree angle
(11:18):
skyrocketed back up.
And she says to me, as a matterof fact, you realize that's what
put you in this hospital bed inthe first place.
And you know, I had heard frommy family and friends that I was
burning myself out.
But it went in one ear and outthe other, a complete stranger
(11:43):
who had nothing to gain bytelling me this.
Had the impact and I sat thereand went, Oh my gosh, I'm
trading my health for my career.
And that's a very bad trade.
So I spent the next couple ofdays in, uh, in ICU, just really
(12:07):
contemplating that.
And the day after I got out, Idecided to resign from my job.
And then I started, for thefirst time in my life, working
on different techniques that Icould use to reduce my stress.
And hang
Melissa (12:24):
on, I got to interrupt you here.
So what happened with thewebinar?
Did you just let it go?
Did you just?
Prof. Pete (12:57):
No, no.
I rescheduled it.
I was able to reschedule it.
You know, and what I did was,um, as I, you know, and I still
didn't trust myself after Irescheduled it on a phone.
So one of the guys that wasreporting to me, I asked him, I
said, can you double check totell me if you're seeing this
correctly?
(13:18):
So you know, I made sure onceagain that things were taken
care of with work beforefocusing on what was going on
with me.
So, you know, and that's justwhat happens with a
perfectionist, you know, it'sjust everything has to be
perfect.
If it's not perfect, it createsus enormous stress.
(13:40):
So, um, yeah, so I, I ended up,uh, going ahead and, and
applying all these differentstress relief tools and
techniques.
And a lot of them work, some ofthem didn't.
And then, uh, my former coworkers and a lot of friends and
family said, you know, you, youought to write a book about
(14:00):
this.
So I did.
And, um, grateful that it becamean Amazon bestseller.
But what was really amazing isyou see what I look like now.
And if you were to see a pictureof me back in 2008, 15 years
ago, other than a little bitmore gray hair, I look younger
(14:25):
today than I did 15 years ago.
That is amazing because when youstart applying at least one or
two stress relief tools ortechniques that can work for
you, at least for me.
What I noticed is that not onlydid my stress go down, my
(14:49):
glucose numbers as a diabeticwent down, my weight went down
and my energy went way, way up.
It was sort of like getting,finding a fountain of youth.
So I highly recommend it.
Tell us about the name of yourbook.
Oh, it's called Lighten YourDay, Fast, Easy, and Effective
(15:12):
Stress Relief for When You KnowWhat Happens.
Uh, and the LIGHTEN is, uh, anacronym, a seven letter acronym,
and, uh, what it stands for, theL is for your livelihood or your
career, uh, the I stands foryour imagination or basically
your conscious mind where yourinner critic lives.
(15:37):
Uh, the G is for your genius oryour unconscious mind, which is
where all real change happens,uh, on the unconscious level,
like your habits, et cetera,your beliefs.
And then the H stands for yourhealth, you know, which is
something that, um, I'm lucky tohave regained.
Uh, P is for time, you know, yougotta be able to manage your
(16:01):
time because you can't get itback once it's gone.
Is your environment.
Because, uh, you know, beingable to make sure that where you
work.
You know, it should be, um,supportive of your stress relief
efforts and N is your network ofrelationships, both personal and
professional.
You have to be able to managethose.
(16:22):
So all seven of those are areaswhere it allows us, you know, my
research showed that the, um,stress can come from any number
of those.
And what we should be strivingfor is some balance, uh, you
know, at the end of our day, youknow, hopefully.
You know, we have some balancealong all of those and, you
(16:44):
know, the reality is something,one of those at least is going
to be, uh, off kilter and weneed to focus more attention on
it.
We should be striving to, tokeep those as much in balance as
we can.
Melissa (16:57):
The book looks phenomenal and I love it's
available on Kindle, audio bookand paperback.
So whichever format works bestfor you or at works best for you
at a particular time.
You have options there.
There's a link to that in theshow notes, as well as to your
website, which has links to yourYouTube reels and her YouTube
(17:21):
channel, I guess, is the moreappropriate designator there
where you have a lot ofphenomenal videos and, and good
Prof. Pete (17:28):
stuff.
Thank you for that.
Yes.
It, you know, I try and, uh,provides this information
because, you know, it'sinteresting.
Um, I was asked.
About, you know, what kind ofimpact are you trying to make?
And the reality is if I can helpone person at a time, I'm making
(17:54):
an impact.
And that that's really it.
And it's interesting because,um, a lot of people say, Oh, I
want to, you know, have thiswonderful, you know, position
or, uh, you know, I want tomake.
All this money and blah ba deeblah, and the reality is, at the
end of the day, how important isthat?
But if you can say that you'vepositively influenced somebody
(18:16):
and made a positive difference,that's really what I'm hoping to
do.
Melissa (18:21):
And is it important enough to change those
unconscious daily habits?
Because that's really wherethings happen, isn't
Prof. Pete (18:28):
it?
It is, um, and changing anunconscious habit does take
time.
So, it will be...
A bare minimum from theresearch, bare minimum of 21
days, but more likely 60 days.
And so one of the reasons why Iincluded in the book, probably
(18:51):
95% of them are five minutes orless, is because as we said, you
know, talked about time, time isso critical to our busy lives.
And if we can try something forjust a minute or two, if it
works.
Awesome.
(19:11):
Use it every day, because if youuse it every day, it's going to
become a habit.
And if it becomes a habit, it'sgoing to give you that long term
benefit, but you have to starttoday, not tomorrow, not next
week, not next month, today.
(19:31):
And if you try something and itdoesn't work for you, try
something else.
Cause that's the, you know, thething that I found.
Um, was most important,Melissa's something that might
work for me, may not work foryou and vice versa.
So you have to find somethingthat works for you in
particularly, and it doesn'ttake much time.
(19:52):
You just have to make theeffort.
And a lot
Melissa (19:56):
of your videos, at least at the top of your YouTube
page are less than a minute andthey're beautiful.
You love
Prof. Pete (20:02):
nature.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
That was a feedback that I gotfrom a lot of my followers that
they, you know, cause I livejust outside the Olympic
National Park and, uh, so I, youknow, one of the reasons I moved
up here is because, um, myfavorite hobby is actually to,
to, to go hiking and I lovebeing out in nature.
And, um, so my, my followersstart saying.
(20:27):
Why don't you just share your,uh, your, your nature videos?
And so I thought, okay.
And so, yeah, anyone who goes tothe channel, probably the first,
I don't know, 15, 20 might benature videos.
And then as you go down farther,you'll see all the, uh, very
specific technique ones as well.
So, uh, uh, but.
(20:48):
You know, if, if you have theopportunity, you being whoever's
listening, if you have theopportunity, even at that, like,
let's, let's say lunchtime atwork to go for a quick walk,
even if it's around the block,it's amazing what that does to
be able to clear your mind.
It really is.
(21:08):
And, um, and if you're luckyenough to have a park or some
grass or a tree that you cancome and connect with, by all
means do that, because we aredrawn to nature, you know.
Our bodies are made up mostly ofwater, so, and the reason we're
attracted to nature is becausenature is primarily water as
(21:29):
well.
Melissa (21:32):
So Professor Pete, who should connect with you?
Prof. Pete (21:35):
Oh, anybody who, uh, is looking to reduce their
stress very simply, you know,with a minute or so a day, that,
you know, I'm, I'm a good, uh,resource for that.
And anybody that, uh, is, islooking to, um.
Maybe laugh and, uh, you know,and once, once some fun stuff as
well that, uh, you know, I've,I've, I like to say that I've
(21:57):
got a good sense of humor.
I have an even better sense ofhumor now that I spread
laughter.
Yeah.
So absolutely.
Um, most of my followers are onLinkedIn, but I also have a lot
on, uh, on Facebook and thenInstagram would be third.
Melissa (22:13):
And all of those links are in the show notes.
So make sure you check it out.
Uh, especially the YouTubechannel.
If you're a visual person,there's so much beautiful
scenery there and the techniquesare spot on.
So make sure you check that out.
The author link on Amazon,again, different formats for
whatever works best for you.
So, Professor Pete, thank youfor coming today and sharing all
(22:36):
this with us.
What would you like to leave thelistener with today?
Prof. Pete (22:40):
Melissa, thank you so much for having me on the
show and, uh, again, for yourlisteners time, I greatly
appreciate that as well.
The one thing that I would justleave it to everyone to think
about is don't try and tradeyour health for your career or
any other responsibility,because if you think about it,
(23:05):
the last time that you might'vebeen very sick, let's say with
the flu, with COVID, whatever,whatever it is, think about
whether or not you had anyenergy, most of us, when we were
really sick, yeah.
All we wanted to do was lie inbed, and when all you can do is
lie in bed, you're no good toyour company, your career, to
(23:28):
your loved ones, etc.
Your health is paramount, sodon't trade it.
Take care of it.
Melissa (23:36):
Profound words.
Thank you.
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