July 16, 2025 • 39 mins
"The moment I handed over my M4—the weapon that kept me alive for a year through hell—I felt naked." These powerful words from US Army veteran Danny O'Neel capture the vulnerability many veterans experience when transitioning from combat to civilian life.
Danny's story begins with childhood trauma, continues through combat as a Fire Support Specialist, and transforms into a journey of healing that offers hope to struggling veterans everywhere. Scoring a 10/10 on the Adverse Childhood Experiences test before even entering military service, Danny carried psychological burdens that would later compound with combat trauma. After losing nine brothers during deployment and witnessing many more succumb to suicide afterward, Danny himself reached a breaking point.
"I didn't want to be an asshole anymore," Danny candidly shares, describing how pushing away loved ones and self-medicating with alcohol led him to attempt suicide. His awakening came with the realization that he needed to "unpack Pandora's box of trauma"—not just from war, but from his childhood as well. The process wasn't easy, but it transformed him.
Danny's approach to resilience draws from a powerful metaphor: when storms come, cows run and keep running, exhausting themselves as the storm follows. Buffalo, however, charge directly into the storm, getting wet and uncomfortable, but reaching sunshine much faster. This philosophy—facing challenges head-on rather than avoiding them—forms the cornerstone of Danny's recovery and his message to other veterans.
Today, Danny runs multiple businesses and nonprofits dedicated to veteran support, including Warfighter Overwatch. His journey from not wanting to live to helping others find their path demonstrates that healing is possible, even from the deepest trauma. His parting wisdom resonates with profound simplicity: "Resilience doesn't happen when it goes your way."
Want to connect with Danny's work? Visit warfighteroverwatch.org or find Kinetic Ink Tattoos and Kinetic Threads on social media to support veteran-focused initiatives that are changing lives one warrior at a time.
Curious about Dominance & submission? Real stories, real fun, really kinky.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with
Michael Cole, the podcast thatshines a compassionate light on
the journey of veterans battlingthrough life's challenges.
Michael is a dual elitecertified neuro encoding
specialist in coaching andkeynote training presentations
dedicated to guiding militaryveterans as they navigate the
intricate pathways ofpost-deployment life.
(00:23):
Join him as we delve into theprofound realm of neuroencoding
science, empowering these braveindividuals to conquer universal
battles procrastination,self-doubt, fear and more.
Together, let's uncover thestrength within you to re-engage
with families and society,forging a new path forward.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hello, hello, hello everybody.
We have our fan favorite, myfriend, danny O'Neill, is on
today.
Danny is a US Army veteran whoserved with distinction and now
advocates for veterans' mentalhealth.
He's a founder of multiplenonprofits that empower veterans
through service, connection andpurpose.
He's a motivational speaker.
(01:08):
I mean this guy goes and talksto kids and schools.
It's fantastic.
He's a powerful voice withtrauma recovery, resilience and
post-service identity, ptssurvivor as well and thriver,
may I just add, openly sharinghis journey through therapy,
darkness and healing.
And, of course, he's a bigperson in the community with his
(01:32):
Warfighter Overwatch.
And of course, he has a kineticink tattoo and kinetic ink
threads and with wife on mothertrucker hats Is that right?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's right, mother trucker hat bar yeah it's
fantastic man.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So, um, if we can really quick tech issue fix, um,
tell us a little more aboutyourself that uh, maybe people
don't know.
I know you've been on heremultiple times, of course, but
uh, share a little more aboutyourself yeah, first off, thanks
for having me back on.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Appreciate you.
Uh, you know we love you, mike,and it's good to see you again.
So I was born and raised righthere in Northern California.
I was born in Stockton.
I graduated high school atGrant High School in Sacramento.
I grew up in some rough areas.
I had some significantadversity and trauma as a kid
and then, on 9-11, I signed upfor the Army to be an
(02:22):
artilleryman, a fire supportspecialist.
Essentially what I do is gowith the infantry and call for
bombs when we get in a gunfight.
The acronym for our name wehave a lot of different names,
but fire support team, so theycall us FISTERS, which is my
favorite thing to tell people.
It's hilarious, it gets veryfunny reactions, but it's a
strenuous job and it costs me alot of my friends.
(02:43):
So I have trauma from that andI, you know, struggle trying to
build a life back here in theaftermath of the chaos of war,
and I think I've done a fairlygood job now.
So I like to share myexperiences with other people.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, yeah, I think your story, you know, I'm just
going to say it needs to be amovie at some point.
I mean truly, danny.
I mean you are one of thoseinspirational stories, you know,
and that's why I love havingyou on here, because you'll
(03:17):
share the darkness but you alsoshare the light, and I think
that's inspirational.
It's got chills, man and Godbumps, but I think it's so
inspirational for our veteransand first responders and their
families to know, hey, you knowwhat?
Yeah, I can be in the ship, Ican be dealing with, as you say,
the PTSDs or whatever the casemay be, and come out and live.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And thrive, and that's really what we're going
to talk about, that resilience.
Again, we're going to go fromthe dark to the light, like we
always try to do on the show,because that's what we need to
show our veterans and firstresponders, et cetera.
So with that said, I mean, canyou take us back to the first
moment you realized you were nolonger at war but still fighting
(04:02):
really the battles inside themind, because that's what you
really hear about, right, it'syou know, no longer at war but
still fighting really thebattles inside the mind, because
that's that's what you reallyhear about, right, it's you know
what I'm back.
And a lot of times you don'teven know there's okay.
I'm going to say most of thetime from from my work with
veterans, you don't, you thinkyou're okay when you first get
out, even with all the stuff youwent through and guys Danny's
been through, he's lost peopleat war and a lot after because
(04:28):
of the mind battle.
So tell us kind of that.
You know, when you realizedthat difference, hey, shit,
something's going on.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I think even at war we joked about it because we
had been through so much wejoked about he has the.
PTSD, which is where you justheard Mike say that's because we
joke about it.
We joked about it because wehad been through so much.
We joked about he has the PTSDs, which is where you just heard
Mike say that's because we jokeabout.
We joked about it.
We thought it was, it was ourmorbid sense of humor, but we
were terrified of what washappening to us.
We were changing and and Ithink it felt scary, it was, it
(04:59):
was foreign to us.
And so I'll tell you, the firstmoment that I realized
something was a little differentand I was in survival mode I
didn't know necessarily that'swhat it was, but I realized it
was different was when I got offthe plane back at Fort Hood,
texas.
I was in fourth infantrydivision, uh, just finished a
year long deployment where wehad lost nine guys.
Now I'm a backup one week fromgetting off that plane, or just
(05:22):
four days, essentially, fromtravel the day we left, november
26, we lost two guys CaptainHamill was the company commander
and Captain Frazier was theexecutive officer of Echo
Company.
They were our engineers andthey were killed hours before we
got on a flight.
So now all the morale, all thegood feelings of I'm going to go
home and have a beer and asteak and you know, see my
(05:44):
family that evaporatedimmediately when that happened.
We left devastated, and when Igot off that plane I had to give
up my M4, my weapon that haskept me alive for the last year
through hell, and, to be honestwith you, even now thinking
about that, it was.
It was very hard because thatfelt like my lifeline, and so
the good news for me, I suppose,was that the person that I
(06:07):
handed that weapon to when Isurrendered it, gave it up to go
back in the arms room back herein the States, was my soldier.
His name's Niewadowski.
I called him Niewadomski forsix months before someone
finally told me I was.
We just called him Ski.
Most of the time, or Alphabetit's too many letters I give up
Too long.
Most of the time, or alphabetit's too many letters I give up
too long.
Didn't read, but ski had gottenhit in the neck one night and
(06:28):
um, he has a scar from his eardown to his collarbone.
And um, he came back early.
He's lucky, he's alive.
I hit his artery and um, andhe's lucky he's alive, but he
was.
He was the armor when I got home.
Um, they had picked him tofirst off go notify families
when their service member wasinjured or killed.
He had to go do thosenotifications, which was it's a
(06:48):
moment to grow up.
Unfortunately, it's somethingyou don't want to do, but
there's a lot of at least honor.
You're going to be the personwho's there telling this family
the most devastating news oftheir life.
But he was also our armor,because we knew so much about
weapons and things like that.
So I gave it to him and atleast felt comfortable that I
was giving it to my brother andthat he would take care of her,
(07:08):
you know.
But I also felt naked themoment I gave it to him and left
.
I felt naked.
So I had a lot of guns.
I immediately started buyingguns and ammo.
I felt vulnerable and I didn'tlike that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Right, and that totally makes sense.
I mean you, that was a part ofyou, that that was your lifeline
, yeah, so that that absolutelymakes sense.
So you know when, when you,when you got home and and guys,
you know I always talk about itthere's, you know, for veterans
there's there's a, in a sense,generally some kind of a.
(07:41):
Like he was saying, I'm goingto call it a honeymoon period, a
celebration period where you gohome and you go have that beer
and that steak and you're seeingthe family and all that stuff,
before really kind of realitysets in.
Right, yeah, you went throughthat as well, I assume.
I mean I've never heard ofsomebody not to be honest.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So my family wasn't there when I got home and my
life was, you know.
There was several thousandmiles away.
My family, you know, was fairlypoor.
My dad's vietnamese like flyingon planes.
Dad didn't really get on planes, um, and so well, I'll tell you
, it wasn't just a beer and asteak.
I didn't go get beer, I wentand got the biggest.
There's two bottles of of one ofwhiskey and one of vodka that
(08:21):
one of the other guys hadrequested, and I was a Sergeant,
so I had a house off the offthe base and we went to my house
and we and we drank it all thatnight and I remember sitting, I
couldn't even.
It was the only way I wastrying to go to sleep and that
wasn't happening.
So just drink more and drinkmore.
We were kind of celebratingbeing home but also mourning the
death of two guys who had justbeen killed.
Instead of getting, you know,instead of getting their hero
(08:45):
home, their family got a knockat the door saying they're never
coming home and that was justlike it seemed really heavy.
Um, and I'll admit, you know,I've done a lot of training to
make sure that I have broadshoulders and carry not only my
own way, but when other peopleneed it, um, as a leader, it's
my job to help them carry theirload, and so this was really
hard for me to.
It just felt overwhelming.
But the honeymoon phase itdidn't last very long.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and for you it was different.
So now that you start talkingabout that I didn't say that,
right, For other soldiers I'mtalking about, there's generally
a honeymoon phase.
Your honeymoon phase got ruined.
My friend it did.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Well, it did, but the truth is we saw it everywhere,
right, so you go to the clubswith your friends afterwards,
cause that is that part.
Right, when I go hang out, I'mgoing to enjoy these freedoms.
I just fought for, um, you know, the only part the attachment
for us was, and my friends diedfor.
It wasn't just the freedomsthat I fought for.
My brothers died for this, andso I wanted to enjoy that stuff.
But I wasn't doing a very goodjob of it.
(09:45):
Right, I was.
I was drinking to, um to cope,and that was much different.
I was self-medicating, um, and,and it was affecting my life in
various ways.
Uh, and, and you know, I hadanger seeping out, uh, you know,
all the time, and I, just, itwas the only emotion I felt
comfortable sharing because, youknow, I, what I really wanted
to do was break down and cry,because I had all this grief and
(10:08):
I, we didn't, we didn't grieveand mourn over there when I
remember, you know, sarp's KIAdays in two days, right, it's
always.
It's always some Memorial day.
Today is the day that Russo died, back here, right, and he was.
He ran over the IED that wassupposed to kill him.
The guy was the trigger man washitting the button and it
started sparking because theyjust ran it over and broke it.
(10:29):
It was the craziest thing ever.
They got very lucky and he camehome and he was on pain
medications and then the VA toldme he was a drug addict.
So he went to the streets toget him and he ended up dying of
an overdose and it's just likewhat you know.
It was unnecessary to me.
He survived hell and and nowhere he is, dying back here.
(10:49):
So for me, like the suicidesthat started, the things that
were happening back here fairlyquickly, it it first off.
That made me feel like we werebeing that stigma that people
talk about with vets.
Right, the anger, the alcohol,the violence, the addictions
that coincide with little to nocoping skills.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's just, the military did a very bad job of
helping us return home,unfortunately, yeah, and that's
why I do what I do, right For mydad, Because my dad same exact
thing thing till about a yearbefore he died the the va and I
don't want to, I'm not going to,you know, get on this for a
long time but, um, the va does,I think, what they can do.
They do and and the militarydoes a very good job
(11:34):
conditioning people to go dowhat they need to go do, yeah,
and stay in the fight becauseyou have to or the person next
to you, your brother, dies orsister, dies or her, whatever
the case may be.
But they don't do a great jobconditioning on the way out.
And that's why suicide rates,you see them, but the first 10
years, highest rates, followedby what?
(11:55):
The second 10 years, followedby the third 10 years, if they
make it that far, you know.
So that's why I think yourstory is so, so important and
that's why I really focus onthat transition period.
When you have a plan, when youhave a support system, whether
that be family or your buddiesfrom the military or whatever
the case may be and there'smultiple things I'm not going to
(12:16):
get into it it changes the game, but the military doesn't set
you up for that and it's betterthan it was.
I'll say that it's better thanit was, but we got a long way to
go.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It is, and I have way better care than my dad and the
Vietnam generation got Right,nobody spit on me when I came
home.
Nobody called me a baby killer,called me horrible names, had a
parade for us and we had a goodtime.
Right, it was good, they, they,there was pride for my service
(12:49):
and unfortunately, my dad'sgeneration didn't get that.
But what I will say is you know, I walked into my dad getting
ready to commit suicide and, um,and I'm lucky he's still alive,
right, uh, his dad, mygrandfather, was a world war two
that he did commit suicide.
Uh, one of my dad got sent toVietnam and and not just that,
but moving forward, for me, Inever thought mental health was
going to be an issue.
I just thought that I wasresilient, I was tough.
(13:10):
Now I'll say this in my earlychildhood my mom was a drug
addict and my dad had PTSD fromVietnam and his childhood as
well.
So, when being raised in asplit family and trauma on both
sides, unfortunately, I livedwith my mom in my early
childhood and I saw a lot of badthings and experienced a lot of
bad things.
So there's this study it'scalled Adverse Childhood
(13:31):
Experience Study, aces test, andit was developed by this smart
lady over from Berkeley and Itook it one day when I was in
college, getting my degree insocial work, so I could help
guys in the aftermath, right,and I got a 10 out of 10 on this
thing and it was.
It was rough realizing like, um, you know, I think like three
(13:52):
of these you're potentiallygoing to die early because
you're gonna have chronicdisease, heart, you know all
kinds of issues, but I don't notthat I don't buy into that, but
I feel like that's where I dohave a little bit of control.
I can make myself healthier, Ican process some of my trauma
right, and going through thesethings, what I've realized is
I'm the one who's in control ofmy life and the direction that
(14:15):
it goes right.
And it doesn't mean I'm incontrol of everything that
happens in my life, but I'm incontrol of how I respond to it,
how I let it affect me and myfamily.
Because in the beginning I was aterror to deal with.
I could only imagine, like youknow before, all the tattoos and
all that stuff.
I had them, but I was veryprofessional, they were hidden
by my shirts and I didn'tprobably look as crazy as I do
(14:36):
now.
But what I will say is I actedcrazy, right.
I looked like a nice person andI I, because I didn't want
people to get close to me,because people close to me they
die or they hurt me or thingslike that.
So I didn't want any of thatand so I did things to what I
thought was protecting myselfand I was just pushing people
away, people who loved me andcared about me, and I was, to be
honest, I was an asshole.
(14:57):
So I didn't want to be that wayanymore, and when I try to take
my own life and I woke up, it'sjust like waking up on the
battlefield when you're not dead, you better get up and fight,
cause someone's going to try tokill you again.
You know, it just might beyourself.
So for me it was a hard realitythat I was going to have to go
through this shit and reallyunpack Pandora's box of trauma,
and that meant, unfortunately,even going through my childhood
(15:17):
stuff that I didn't ever talkabout.
And so it's.
It's easy to understand howsomeone comes home from war.
Different, right, but talkabout that childhood stuff, man.
That was hard for me.
Being a warrior was okay for me,being a little kid and
vulnerable, was not.
I didn't know how to express orarticulate that stuff, and I'm,
you know, I'm grateful becausenow, not only have I learned so
(15:38):
much from that, but it made me abetter parent, made me more
engaged with them and make surethat I know cause.
I can't protect them fromeverything, but my job is to try
to prepare them from as much oflife as possible, and so far I
think we're doing a pretty goodjob.
My life is much better than itwas when I was in that dark spot
, ready to take my own life.
You know, when my dad was readyto take his own life, my
grandfather was ready to takehis own life, and I have family
(16:00):
members who have fought in everywar since the very beginning
from the Revolutionary War, andit wasn't tradition.
It wasn't like I was supposedto go do this.
My dad was angry when I did itbecause he knew what that meant
for my mental health.
But the truth is that if Ihadn't gone through that stuff,
I wouldn't be who I am today,and I'm grateful for that.
I do a lot of things to findgratitude and now I see it more
(16:20):
because I pay attention to thatstuff.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, I love that.
You just said that it's it'swhy did you give me chills, dude
?
It's good stuff.
That's why, because it mattersand it, it, it connects.
You know what I mean so much.
So many people don't realize.
And it's, it's the definitionsthat you give, the experiences.
(16:42):
And let's go even with trauma.
I don't care if it was from achild, I mean, let's call it
what it is.
Most people have traumasomewhere in their life and it's
the definition that you give itthat changes it from being
(17:02):
trauma to being, in a sense,something to learn from or a
gift and a gift.
Sometimes people have a hardtime swallowing it until they
process it and realize it yearslater.
Man, if I didn't go through thecrap that I went through, as a
kid, as a teenager in my 20s, Imean, let's call it what it is.
When you look back and youchange the belief system and
(17:23):
change the we have a table, wehave legs on the table with this
.
It's nice and stable with yourbelief system, and when you
start changing those legs ofbeing a victim or being this or
being that or this was horribleand I'm a victim to hey, I
learned something from it.
It's it's actually somethingthat I can help people with and
exactly what you do and havedone in your life.
(17:45):
When you can switch that around, the trauma is redefined and
it's not trauma anymore.
Until then, what happens is itkeeps spinning in your brain.
I'm not going to get allscientific here, I'll make this
quick, but it keeps spinning inyour brain.
The trauma generally happensonce.
Now, there are hard cases,obviously, where there's
multiple traumas, but the onethat you're focusing on
(18:06):
generally happens once.
It's you hanging onto it andnot redefining it and it spins
around and gets bigger andbigger and bigger, and that's
when the problem becomes abigger problem.
Kill the monster when it'ssmall.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
That's exactly right.
You know, like, if, if,specifically when I talk, like
you mentioned earlier that I gotalk to kids because I want them
to understand that sometimeslife is unfair and it hands you
these, these really crappysandwiches that you don't want
to eat, right, but we can'tavoid those things and a lot of
times that's our response isavoidance Right, or running from
these problems.
And that's why I love theanalogy when people talk about
(18:43):
buffalo versus cows.
Right, there's this.
It's kind of this crazyexperience when a storm comes,
cows run from it and theycontinue running and they're
tired and they continue running,but the clouds just keep coming
in.
But the buffalo, on the otherhand, turns and faces the clouds
and runs through the storm.
Yeah, they get soaking wet andtheir hair gets matty and they
freaking, probably stink frombeing wet and beastly animals,
(19:06):
but they get through the stormso much faster because they move
into it headfirst and don't runfrom it, where it continues to
chase them and follow themaround like this proverbial rain
cloud, except in this case it'sreal when they run through it
and they get to the other side.
Well, guess what?
There's light, there's sunshine, there's a time after the storm
(19:27):
and life is going to bringstorms, but it also has plenty
of sunny days and you know,unless you live in the Pacific
Northwest, I happen to live in aplace where there's mostly
sunny days and when I rememberthat, my perspective is
gratitude.
Perspective is gratitude, it'sthat I have to put hard things
in my life now to remainresilient, to remind myself of
that warrior spirit that we allhave inside of us.
(19:48):
Right Like last year, I took 15guys up half dome and well, 13,.
Two of them got to the cablesand said I love you, danny, I'm
not going up that way anymoreand I get it.
It can be a scary, dauntingtask, but putting those things
in my life continues to remindme that I am capable of doing
hard things and while my life ismuch easier than it used to be,
(20:11):
right than it was at war oreven as a child, I still have to
continue to do things to keepthat resilience and remind
myself so I can share that withother people that you know the
hard things that we do in lifeform our character and our
resilience and our ability todeal with adversity, because
(20:32):
there's always going to be somesort of obstacle or crap in
front of us, but how we respondto that really reveals who we
are yeah, I, I love so manydifferent nuggets you just
dropped in that that was.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That was absolutely fantastic.
So so if you were to go backand then we're this is just part
of where I want to go intoagain the light of it.
Right, you already started ushere with.
We're going to move intoresilience now, which is which
is really important.
If you were to go back to yourI'm going to say seven year old
(21:04):
self because that's about whenwe stopped believing everything
we're told and all of the youcan't blah, blah, blah all the
crap starts filtering in tostart changing our belief
systems.
If you were going to back tosay six or seven years old, what
would you tell yourself?
Now, I didn't mean to go realdeep on you, man, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
It's pretty simple and I've mentioned this before,
but it's stay the course.
You don't realize where you'rebeing led to Because we want to
be like I said, the only thing Ihave control over is my life.
But sometimes life presentsthese opportunities or these
different pathways and we takethem.
Now sometimes we realize goingdown that path is not the right
(21:49):
way and we need to correct,self-correct and get back on
track.
But in the military, as afister, I'm an expert in land
navigation and map reading aswell, because I use those maps
to call for bombs, grid squaresand all that sort of thing to
give coordinates.
I helped my infantry brothersnavigate life after the military
.
I helped my military brothersnavigate life after the military
(22:11):
.
I wasn't a navigator before,but now not only am I a
navigator, but I'm an expert inthis stuff.
Right, and the government wouldtell you the same thing.
I'm really good at this and Ispent a lot of time learning how
to do it and walking out in thewoods and learning that your
pace count changes when you'rewalking uphill versus downhill
or flat terrain.
I know how to get aroundobstacles.
(22:33):
Now I know how to figure out mypath and I know how to um, how
to do these things.
That can be if you don't know.
It can seem hard, right, but sodoes so many obstacles in our
life.
They seem hard until you startchipping away at it, until you
start, um, getting good at thethings that scared you or made
(22:54):
you vulnerable, or that youweren't good at, that you had
never tried before.
And the only way to get betterat those things is practice.
Practice doesn't make perfect,it makes better.
And we want to practice thosethings.
Whether it's self-care, becausethat's community care, whether
it's, you know, an act of random, act of kindness, it's not
random, it's intentional.
So do those things.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, I love that, and everybody remember one thing
, like Danny said practice youknow, doesn't make perfect, it
just makes better.
Right, repetition is the motherof all skill, right?
Build the muscle with thesethings that you say, oh, that
sucks, and I don't want to do it.
That's right.
And here's the thing I'm goingto say.
(23:34):
I can't help it.
I'm a neuroencoder.
I have to drop it, celebrate it, pat yourself on the back,
shake your butt, smile.
It releases all the goodhormones and your brain says, oh
, I want more of that.
And it's easier and easier andeasier when you celebrate the
little things.
Listen, when you were one yearsold okay, I don't know age on
(23:56):
this, but when you were little,you couldn't tie your shoes.
Well, you couldn't tie them atall.
But guess what?
Your parents kept saying goodjob, good job, not.
Oh, you suck, what are youdoing?
They celebrated you and youkept moving forward and made it
something that was important toyou until you did do it.
Now can you still tie yourshoes better, absolutely Right.
(24:18):
But just celebrate the littlethings.
Be grateful for the littlethings, like you said earlier.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And we call it crawl, walk, run.
This is how we learn to dothings as a child we crawl, then
we walk, then we run.
Now there are a few people whowalk first.
They literally don't crawl,they get up.
But let me tell you a littlesecret.
That's how we do every singlething First we crawl through it,
then we walk through it andthen we can run.
Right, but we can't do.
We have to do it in that order.
Because you know the way theytaught me how to be an expert in
(24:47):
land navigation was.
I'll tell you right now.
I took for granted how often Igot to fly around in a
helicopter.
So, me and the boys, we load upin one of the choppers and they
go drop us off somewhere.
And then we got to go walk andI would joke with the pilots hey
, sir, you mind dropping us offa lot closer?
We got 12 clips to walk, youknow, and he's just like no way.
So they dropped us off and thenI got to navigate with my map
(25:10):
and compass and get me to whereI'm going and I'm just me, but
my crew.
We have a very important job todo when we get there.
So I took that stuff serious.
Take your life serious.
Be intentional about whatyou're doing, because life was
intentional about trying to killyou.
Life was intentional aboutgiving you bad coping skills and
trauma and all this crap.
It was serious about that stuff.
Those are things that stay withyou and they gave me, you know,
(25:33):
survival issues at times.
And I still go to therapy everysingle week.
Right, because this is the bestgift I could ever give my family
, my community, is to be abetter version of myself each
and every day.
Try to improve a little bit.
Right, the building blocks oflife aren't these great, far
apart rungs, they're closertogether.
(25:53):
The steps are closer together.
You do those small things andit leads to big things.
And when I, when I realized,like, trying to overcome PTSD
overnight wasn't going to happen, that it was going to be a slow
grind I've watched my dad dothis for 50 years right, like,
excuse me, fuck that, I can dobetter.
I can do better than that andso I'm going to.
That means that I'm going to.
(26:14):
I'm going to do whatever ittakes to win this war.
And just because I'm notwalking through, you know,
kicking down doors and doingraids and stuff like that
anymore doesn't mean my fights,and it's just different, but it
still requires the same figure,the same intentionality and the
same warrior spirit.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Amen, she just got kicked off Facebook.
I'm joking, no, well, it iswhat it is.
No, but seriously, what youjust said is so important is
just keep moving.
One step, one step, one step.
It's when you stop it's aproblem.
Human beings are meant toprogress and move forward.
(26:58):
They are not meant to stay.
And because how many people doyou see that are just sitting
stuck and happy?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So there's this and I've learned this.
Unfortunately, I've learnedthat sometimes people aren't
ready for for healing theprocess.
Right, they're not.
They want to be, but they'renot.
And and so you know, there'sthis I'm going to screw this up,
but there's this um quote byhippocrates, and it says um,
before you heal someone else,ask that person if they're
willing to give up the thingsthat make them sick.
(27:30):
And so sometimes we seek thosetoxic behaviors, relationships,
things like that.
Cause that's what we know, likeyou said, with that table.
That's what we're comfortable,that's where we're stable, even
if it's chaotic.
I lived a chaotic life as a kid.
That made me great at war, mademe crappy at coming home, and
so the things that I had tolearn um, it was all that stuff
(27:50):
was internal.
Happiness is an inside job.
If I wanted to be happy, it wasgoing to be.
It required some stuff from me,right, exactly like your wife
just said, the devil, you knowyou get comfortable with that
stuff versus the devil you don't.
And and you know if you're aperson out there who's
struggling with this stuff andyou don't like who you are,
maybe you're short-tempered,maybe you're um erratic
(28:12):
sometimes, maybe you're shut offor closed and avoid things and
maybe you know who, who knowshow you're dealing with things.
But if you don't like that, ifyou realize that potentially
this is stems from trauma, Ijust want you to know that you,
you can overcome this stuff.
You can live a great life, thatthat isn't, doesn't have
(28:34):
boundaries, by by trauma right,that doesn't control my life or
my behavior, and at one point itdid so.
I just want you guys to knowthat.
You know if I can do this, youcan do this.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I love that, and so we're getting low on time and I
love that you said that, becauseit takes us right into
resilience.
I do, if you have time.
I'd like to go over just acouple of minutes, if that's
okay with you.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I think, because I think the value is is
huge.
You know you talked about thestigma earlier, about you know
veterans and drinking and thedrugs and you know all those
things.
Right, let me share somethingeverybody that's listening right
now and in the future, on onthe podcast forums.
It's not veterans get rid ofthe stigma, it's the human
condition.
(29:11):
That's right.
It's not veterans Get rid ofthe stigma, it's the human
condition.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
We all stuff too much food in our face.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
When we're trying to mask something, we all drink too
much alcohol.
When we're trying to masksomething Drugs, I mean.
You can go down the road withsocial media and technology and
all the different stuff, right,that we get ourselves
sidetracked from reality, if youwill.
So the stigma it shouldn't be amilitary thing, guys, it's a
(29:39):
human condition.
It really is, yeah.
So, with that said, let's moveinto resilience, right?
So what are some of the keythings that you do, or people
you know?
Whatever the case may be, youknow what?
Not today.
I'm getting out of bed, I'mgoing to go accomplish this and
(30:00):
I know you touch base on some ofthem, but I'd like to know some
of the little trick secrets,some of the other things that
Danny O'Neill does no-transcript.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I go down there and I go kick the crap out of myself
and I put adversity in front ofme.
There's heavy weights.
I need to move them.
Now, I'm getting old, I'mgetting beat up.
I don't, I don't lift as heavyas I used to.
I don't do.
I still do plenty of things tomake sure that I'm feeling
physically fit, that I'm feelingum.
I just think it's so important,right, that it reduces our
(31:01):
stress levels, it, it, it boostsour mental health, and so
exercise is top of that list.
Um.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
It does.
And let me let me just say thisbecause, again, brain science
can't help myself Exactly whatyou said, because you're
releasing the hormones.
You're releasing and gettinghaving less of the bad hormones,
the cortisol and all thosethings, instead of sitting in
bed going oh my God, I can'tdeal with today.
Oh, I hate my boss, I hate this, I all those things.
Get up and move, Just justwalking changes the game and
(31:31):
it's something my clients, it'sone of the first things I teach
my clients Get out and move, getout in nature.
If you can Put your feet insome grass, if you can.
But if you can just do that,like Danny said, it changes the
game.
And I know, danny, you say thatyou don't work hard.
You're not working out as hardas you used to.
I've seen the videos, dude,You're always sweating.
(31:51):
So don't give me that're notworking out as hard as you used
to.
I've seen the videos, dude,you're always sweating.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So don't give me that crap.
Well, I work out hard.
I just don't lift as much as Iused to.
My body says that's probablynot.
I have to have shoulder surgery, right.
But this is me taking care ofmyself.
Before I would have justcontinued to ignore it.
And I went to the va and I said, hey, man, something's wrong my
shoulder.
And they essentially kind ofignored me and it was persistent
.
So I went back like two and ahalf months later and they said,
all right, we'll send you foran MRI.
(32:15):
Well, why didn't you do thatwhen I asked the first time?
But they took the MRI and theysaid you got a torn labrum and
partially torn rotator cuff.
And I'm like, all right, well,maybe we can do it in the winter
.
I need to golf more.
I got a few things I'm tryingto do.
You know I'm still that guy,but I am going to take care of
myself because that part isimportant.
We always take care of otherpeople and rarely take care of
(32:35):
ourselves, and you're number oneon this list.
When you're on the plane, theytell you to put your mask on
before you help someone else.
It applies in all facets.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I love that.
You said that I was going tosay it, so bless you, sir.
So I I literally was thinkingman, how's he going to golf?
I don't know.
You'll figure it out, I will.
You'll just work harder to comeback from the surgery.
That's what we'll do.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I'm already, I'm already thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I already got the bands in there.
I'm ready to go and that's theresults.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Anything else you want to mention about resilience
, before we jump off yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You need to have a support system right.
The people around you need to,first off.
You need to have people thathold you accountable.
When they see you're sucking orhaving struggles or whatever,
they need to know you wellenough.
You need to have relationshipsthat are intimate enough for
people to call you on your crapand make sure that you're doing
the right thing, which is takingcare of yourself, and so that
(33:33):
is part of our resilience ishaving a support system that,
when I'm unable to carry my fullload, I can give a little bit
to someone else.
I can count on these people,and it doesn't have to be a big
circle right.
Quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, absolutely love it.
I think that is super important.
And the last thing I just wantto add on resilience is
literally, you can do it, no,you can do it, no, you can do it
, because if you just take thatone extra step it doesn't have
to be a big step, but just onemore step you get closer to
where you want to be.
Yeah, and resilience doesn'thappen when it goes your way.
That is very true.
(34:06):
That is the ultimate statementright there, my friend, that
should be a bumper sticker.
I like that, all right.
With that said, danny, how dopeople reach out to you if they
want to reach you for publicspeaking or any of that fun
stuff?
Or just reach out to WarfighterOverwatch, of course.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
So our website for Warfighter Overwatch is
warfighteroverwatchorg.
My email is danny atwarfighteroverwatchorg.
My email is Danny atwarfighteroverwatchorg.
You can find us on social mediakinetic ink tattoos on
Instagram, facebook.
Same thing with kinetic threads.
Our custom apparel shop.
Now we have another trucker hatbar and boutique do custom
stuff with that.
There's all kinds of I mean I'mliterally easy to find.
(34:48):
If you spell my last name right, it's O, apostrophe, n, e, e, l
, you're going to find me realquick.
First name really is Danny.
That's my legal name, easy tofind.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
There you go, there you go.
Can you give us three tips andit could be something you
already said to get veterans andtheir families further faster,
please sir.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
First off, like I said, staythe course, right, you don't
know where you're going to endup, but if you keep putting one
foot in front of the other,you're going to be somewhere
different than where you are now.
So, um, stay the course.
Uh, I gotta.
The self-care is so importantthat, um, you know, I neglected
(35:25):
myself, right, I put my teambefore myself over and over.
In fact, I put myself last.
I had this thing that said if Iasked you to comprise a list of
all the things you love, howlong would it take you to get to
yourself?
And at one point the answer wasnever.
I never would have put myselfon that list, right, but the
truth is, I've learned to lovemyself and care about myself,
(35:45):
and that was so vital for me.
Being a good parent, a goodspouse, a good neighbor, friend,
brother, you name it.
It makes us better.
So you're the average of thepeople you surround yourself
with.
So choose wisely.
You have to have these peoplein your life who are good for
you, not just, yes, men or womenwho always agree with you.
(36:07):
And it's just an echo chamber.
Now, you need to have diverseideas and experiences, even when
talking about this stuff.
These are my experiences, butthey're America's stories and so
if I don't tell them, nobodywill know what happened in
Sutter City with the Hounds ofHell, and that's true.
But for me it's even moreimportant talking about my
(36:27):
struggles and victories in theaftermath.
And so I have these people inmy life who are saying danny,
you're doing god's work, keepdoing it, and and it may look
different in a year or two, andI'm okay with that I want to be
focused on my family more.
I want there's things I need todo, but the biggest part of
that is surrounding myself.
Uh, you know, with the rightpeople amen, man.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Um, I'm glad to be one of those people.
My friend, I truly am.
You are one of the preciouspeople in my life I've got to
tell you.
Thank you, austin.
Yeah, it is so true everythingyou just said, and we could have
a whole other show discussingall of that.
You don't want to be thesmartest man in the room.
You want to be around thosepeople that bring you up, that
(37:08):
make you want to be better andlearn from, because otherwise
you're the smartest one, younever rise.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Being a business owner, like multiple businesses,
nonprofit that helps people.
I couldn't imagine 10 years agomy life being here, because I
didn't even want to live right10, 12 years ago, and so that's
why I just want people to staythe course.
Listen, it can get better.
I promise I can.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Yeah, absolutely Take , just take that step, because
how often can you look back andgo five years ago?
If I wouldn't have done that, Iwouldn't have helped these
people or I wouldn't be here,right, I mean, I could go
through.
I'm 53, man, I could go through, like all of these different
places, and just be like man andeverybody's brought, everything
has brought me to where I amnow, be like man and everything
has brought me to where I am now.
Thank God, thank you God.
(37:53):
With that said man, we are sofar over For Danny O'Neill, my
dear friend, time and mostprecious resource we have as
human beings.
We do not get it back.
Thank you for being here, thankyou for spending the extra time
and thank you for just beingyou man and just sharing your
story, because people need tohear it and I want to be
involved in the movie.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You got it Appreciate it brother.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
All right, man, and on that note, everybody we're
out of here.
Thank you for joining us onanother insightful journey of
your Thoughts your Realitypodcast, with your host, michael
Cole.
We hope the conversationsparked some thoughts that
resonate with you.
To dive deeper into empoweringyour thoughts and enhancing your
reality, visitempowerperformancestrategiescom.
Remember your thoughts shapeyour reality, so make them count
(38:42):
.
Until next time, stay inspiredand keep creating the reality
you desire.
Catch you on the next episode.
Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with
Michael Cole, the podcast thatshines a compassionate light on
the journey of veterans battlingthrough life's challenges.
Michael is a dual elitecertified neuro encoding
specialist in coaching andkeynote training presentations
dedicated to guiding militaryveterans as they navigate the
intricate pathways ofpost-deployment life.
(00:23):
Join him as we delve into theprofound realm of neuroencoding
science, empowering these braveindividuals to conquer universal
battles procrastination,self-doubt, fear and more.
Together, let's uncover thestrength within you to re-engage
with families and society,forging a new path forward.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hello, hello, hello everybody.
We have our fan favorite, myfriend, danny O'Neill, is on
today.
Danny is a US Army veteran whoserved with distinction and now
advocates for veterans' mentalhealth.
He's a founder of multiplenonprofits that empower veterans
through service, connection andpurpose.
He's a motivational speaker.
(01:08):
I mean this guy goes and talksto kids and schools.
It's fantastic.
He's a powerful voice withtrauma recovery, resilience and
post-service identity, ptssurvivor as well and thriver,
may I just add, openly sharinghis journey through therapy,
darkness and healing.
And, of course, he's a bigperson in the community with his
(01:32):
Warfighter Overwatch.
And of course, he has a kineticink tattoo and kinetic ink
threads and with wife on mothertrucker hats Is that right?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's right, mother trucker hat bar yeah it's
fantastic man.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
So, um, if we can really quick tech issue fix, um,
tell us a little more aboutyourself that uh, maybe people
don't know.
I know you've been on heremultiple times, of course, but
uh, share a little more aboutyourself yeah, first off, thanks
for having me back on.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Appreciate you.
Uh, you know we love you, mike,and it's good to see you again.
So I was born and raised righthere in Northern California.
I was born in Stockton.
I graduated high school atGrant High School in Sacramento.
I grew up in some rough areas.
I had some significantadversity and trauma as a kid
and then, on 9-11, I signed upfor the Army to be an
(02:22):
artilleryman, a fire supportspecialist.
Essentially what I do is gowith the infantry and call for
bombs when we get in a gunfight.
The acronym for our name wehave a lot of different names,
but fire support team, so theycall us FISTERS, which is my
favorite thing to tell people.
It's hilarious, it gets veryfunny reactions, but it's a
strenuous job and it costs me alot of my friends.
(02:43):
So I have trauma from that andI, you know, struggle trying to
build a life back here in theaftermath of the chaos of war,
and I think I've done a fairlygood job now.
So I like to share myexperiences with other people.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, yeah, I think your story, you know, I'm just
going to say it needs to be amovie at some point.
I mean truly, danny.
I mean you are one of thoseinspirational stories, you know,
and that's why I love havingyou on here, because you'll
(03:17):
share the darkness but you alsoshare the light, and I think
that's inspirational.
It's got chills, man and Godbumps, but I think it's so
inspirational for our veteransand first responders and their
families to know, hey, you knowwhat?
Yeah, I can be in the ship, Ican be dealing with, as you say,
the PTSDs or whatever the casemay be, and come out and live.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And thrive, and that's really what we're going
to talk about, that resilience.
Again, we're going to go fromthe dark to the light, like we
always try to do on the show,because that's what we need to
show our veterans and firstresponders, et cetera.
So with that said, I mean, canyou take us back to the first
moment you realized you were nolonger at war but still fighting
(04:02):
really the battles inside themind, because that's what you
really hear about, right, it'syou know, no longer at war but
still fighting really thebattles inside the mind, because
that's that's what you reallyhear about, right, it's you know
what I'm back.
And a lot of times you don'teven know there's okay.
I'm going to say most of thetime from from my work with
veterans, you don't, you thinkyou're okay when you first get
out, even with all the stuff youwent through and guys Danny's
been through, he's lost peopleat war and a lot after because
(04:28):
of the mind battle.
So tell us kind of that.
You know, when you realizedthat difference, hey, shit,
something's going on.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
So I think even at war we joked about it because we
had been through so much wejoked about he has the.
PTSD, which is where you justheard Mike say that's because we
joke about it.
We joked about it because wehad been through so much.
We joked about he has the PTSDs, which is where you just heard
Mike say that's because we jokeabout.
We joked about it.
We thought it was, it was ourmorbid sense of humor, but we
were terrified of what washappening to us.
We were changing and and Ithink it felt scary, it was, it
(04:59):
was foreign to us.
And so I'll tell you, the firstmoment that I realized
something was a little differentand I was in survival mode I
didn't know necessarily that'swhat it was, but I realized it
was different was when I got offthe plane back at Fort Hood,
texas.
I was in fourth infantrydivision, uh, just finished a
year long deployment where wehad lost nine guys.
Now I'm a backup one week fromgetting off that plane, or just
(05:22):
four days, essentially, fromtravel the day we left, november
26, we lost two guys CaptainHamill was the company commander
and Captain Frazier was theexecutive officer of Echo
Company.
They were our engineers andthey were killed hours before we
got on a flight.
So now all the morale, all thegood feelings of I'm going to go
home and have a beer and asteak and you know, see my
(05:44):
family that evaporatedimmediately when that happened.
We left devastated, and when Igot off that plane I had to give
up my M4, my weapon that haskept me alive for the last year
through hell, and, to be honestwith you, even now thinking
about that, it was.
It was very hard because thatfelt like my lifeline, and so
the good news for me, I suppose,was that the person that I
(06:07):
handed that weapon to when Isurrendered it, gave it up to go
back in the arms room back herein the States, was my soldier.
His name's Niewadowski.
I called him Niewadomski forsix months before someone
finally told me I was.
We just called him Ski.
Most of the time, or Alphabetit's too many letters I give up
Too long.
Most of the time, or alphabetit's too many letters I give up
too long.
Didn't read, but ski had gottenhit in the neck one night and
(06:28):
um, he has a scar from his eardown to his collarbone.
And um, he came back early.
He's lucky, he's alive.
I hit his artery and um, andhe's lucky he's alive, but he
was.
He was the armor when I got home.
Um, they had picked him tofirst off go notify families
when their service member wasinjured or killed.
He had to go do thosenotifications, which was it's a
(06:48):
moment to grow up.
Unfortunately, it's somethingyou don't want to do, but
there's a lot of at least honor.
You're going to be the personwho's there telling this family
the most devastating news oftheir life.
But he was also our armor,because we knew so much about
weapons and things like that.
So I gave it to him and atleast felt comfortable that I
was giving it to my brother andthat he would take care of her,
(07:08):
you know.
But I also felt naked themoment I gave it to him and left
.
I felt naked.
So I had a lot of guns.
I immediately started buyingguns and ammo.
I felt vulnerable and I didn'tlike that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Right, and that totally makes sense.
I mean you, that was a part ofyou, that that was your lifeline
, yeah, so that that absolutelymakes sense.
So you know when, when you,when you got home and and guys,
you know I always talk about itthere's, you know, for veterans
there's there's a, in a sense,generally some kind of a.
(07:41):
Like he was saying, I'm goingto call it a honeymoon period, a
celebration period where you gohome and you go have that beer
and that steak and you're seeingthe family and all that stuff,
before really kind of realitysets in.
Right, yeah, you went throughthat as well, I assume.
I mean I've never heard ofsomebody not to be honest.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
So my family wasn't there when I got home and my
life was, you know.
There was several thousandmiles away.
My family, you know, was fairlypoor.
My dad's vietnamese like flyingon planes.
Dad didn't really get on planes, um, and so well, I'll tell you
, it wasn't just a beer and asteak.
I didn't go get beer, I wentand got the biggest.
There's two bottles of of one ofwhiskey and one of vodka that
(08:21):
one of the other guys hadrequested, and I was a Sergeant,
so I had a house off the offthe base and we went to my house
and we and we drank it all thatnight and I remember sitting, I
couldn't even.
It was the only way I wastrying to go to sleep and that
wasn't happening.
So just drink more and drinkmore.
We were kind of celebratingbeing home but also mourning the
death of two guys who had justbeen killed.
Instead of getting, you know,instead of getting their hero
(08:45):
home, their family got a knockat the door saying they're never
coming home and that was justlike it seemed really heavy.
Um, and I'll admit, you know,I've done a lot of training to
make sure that I have broadshoulders and carry not only my
own way, but when other peopleneed it, um, as a leader, it's
my job to help them carry theirload, and so this was really
hard for me to.
It just felt overwhelming.
But the honeymoon phase itdidn't last very long.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and for you it was different.
So now that you start talkingabout that I didn't say that,
right, For other soldiers I'mtalking about, there's generally
a honeymoon phase.
Your honeymoon phase got ruined.
My friend it did.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Well, it did, but the truth is we saw it everywhere,
right, so you go to the clubswith your friends afterwards,
cause that is that part.
Right, when I go hang out, I'mgoing to enjoy these freedoms.
I just fought for, um, you know, the only part the attachment
for us was, and my friends diedfor.
It wasn't just the freedomsthat I fought for.
My brothers died for this, andso I wanted to enjoy that stuff.
But I wasn't doing a very goodjob of it.
(09:45):
Right, I was.
I was drinking to, um to cope,and that was much different.
I was self-medicating, um, and,and it was affecting my life in
various ways.
Uh, and, and you know, I hadanger seeping out, uh, you know,
all the time, and I, just, itwas the only emotion I felt
comfortable sharing because, youknow, I, what I really wanted
to do was break down and cry,because I had all this grief and
(10:08):
I, we didn't, we didn't grieveand mourn over there when I
remember, you know, sarp's KIAdays in two days, right, it's
always.
It's always some Memorial day.
Today is the day that Russo died, back here, right, and he was.
He ran over the IED that wassupposed to kill him.
The guy was the trigger man washitting the button and it
started sparking because theyjust ran it over and broke it.
(10:29):
It was the craziest thing ever.
They got very lucky and he camehome and he was on pain
medications and then the VA toldme he was a drug addict.
So he went to the streets toget him and he ended up dying of
an overdose and it's just likewhat you know.
It was unnecessary to me.
He survived hell and and nowhere he is, dying back here.
(10:49):
So for me, like the suicidesthat started, the things that
were happening back here fairlyquickly, it it first off.
That made me feel like we werebeing that stigma that people
talk about with vets.
Right, the anger, the alcohol,the violence, the addictions
that coincide with little to nocoping skills.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
It's just, the military did a very bad job of
helping us return home,unfortunately, yeah, and that's
why I do what I do, right For mydad, Because my dad same exact
thing thing till about a yearbefore he died the the va and I
don't want to, I'm not going to,you know, get on this for a
long time but, um, the va does,I think, what they can do.
They do and and the militarydoes a very good job
(11:34):
conditioning people to go dowhat they need to go do, yeah,
and stay in the fight becauseyou have to or the person next
to you, your brother, dies orsister, dies or her, whatever
the case may be.
But they don't do a great jobconditioning on the way out.
And that's why suicide rates,you see them, but the first 10
years, highest rates, followedby what?
(11:55):
The second 10 years, followedby the third 10 years, if they
make it that far, you know.
So that's why I think yourstory is so, so important and
that's why I really focus onthat transition period.
When you have a plan, when youhave a support system, whether
that be family or your buddiesfrom the military or whatever
the case may be and there'smultiple things I'm not going to
(12:16):
get into it it changes the game, but the military doesn't set
you up for that and it's betterthan it was.
I'll say that it's better thanit was, but we got a long way to
go.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It is, and I have way better care than my dad and the
Vietnam generation got Right,nobody spit on me when I came
home.
Nobody called me a baby killer,called me horrible names, had a
parade for us and we had a goodtime.
Right, it was good, they, they,there was pride for my service
(12:49):
and unfortunately, my dad'sgeneration didn't get that.
But what I will say is you know, I walked into my dad getting
ready to commit suicide and, um,and I'm lucky he's still alive,
right, uh, his dad, mygrandfather, was a world war two
that he did commit suicide.
Uh, one of my dad got sent toVietnam and and not just that,
but moving forward, for me, Inever thought mental health was
going to be an issue.
I just thought that I wasresilient, I was tough.
(13:10):
Now I'll say this in my earlychildhood my mom was a drug
addict and my dad had PTSD fromVietnam and his childhood as
well.
So, when being raised in asplit family and trauma on both
sides, unfortunately, I livedwith my mom in my early
childhood and I saw a lot of badthings and experienced a lot of
bad things.
So there's this study it'scalled Adverse Childhood
(13:31):
Experience Study, aces test, andit was developed by this smart
lady over from Berkeley and Itook it one day when I was in
college, getting my degree insocial work, so I could help
guys in the aftermath, right,and I got a 10 out of 10 on this
thing and it was.
It was rough realizing like, um, you know, I think like three
(13:52):
of these you're potentiallygoing to die early because
you're gonna have chronicdisease, heart, you know all
kinds of issues, but I don't notthat I don't buy into that, but
I feel like that's where I dohave a little bit of control.
I can make myself healthier, Ican process some of my trauma
right, and going through thesethings, what I've realized is
I'm the one who's in control ofmy life and the direction that
(14:15):
it goes right.
And it doesn't mean I'm incontrol of everything that
happens in my life, but I'm incontrol of how I respond to it,
how I let it affect me and myfamily.
Because in the beginning I was aterror to deal with.
I could only imagine, like youknow before, all the tattoos and
all that stuff.
I had them, but I was veryprofessional, they were hidden
by my shirts and I didn'tprobably look as crazy as I do
(14:36):
now.
But what I will say is I actedcrazy, right.
I looked like a nice person andI I, because I didn't want
people to get close to me,because people close to me they
die or they hurt me or thingslike that.
So I didn't want any of thatand so I did things to what I
thought was protecting myselfand I was just pushing people
away, people who loved me andcared about me, and I was, to be
honest, I was an asshole.
(14:57):
So I didn't want to be that wayanymore, and when I try to take
my own life and I woke up, it'sjust like waking up on the
battlefield when you're not dead, you better get up and fight,
cause someone's going to try tokill you again.
You know, it just might beyourself.
So for me it was a hard realitythat I was going to have to go
through this shit and reallyunpack Pandora's box of trauma,
and that meant, unfortunately,even going through my childhood
(15:17):
stuff that I didn't ever talkabout.
And so it's.
It's easy to understand howsomeone comes home from war.
Different, right, but talkabout that childhood stuff, man.
That was hard for me.
Being a warrior was okay for me,being a little kid and
vulnerable, was not.
I didn't know how to express orarticulate that stuff, and I'm,
you know, I'm grateful becausenow, not only have I learned so
(15:38):
much from that, but it made me abetter parent, made me more
engaged with them and make surethat I know cause.
I can't protect them fromeverything, but my job is to try
to prepare them from as much oflife as possible, and so far I
think we're doing a pretty goodjob.
My life is much better than itwas when I was in that dark spot
, ready to take my own life.
You know, when my dad was readyto take his own life, my
grandfather was ready to takehis own life, and I have family
(16:00):
members who have fought in everywar since the very beginning
from the Revolutionary War, andit wasn't tradition.
It wasn't like I was supposedto go do this.
My dad was angry when I did itbecause he knew what that meant
for my mental health.
But the truth is that if Ihadn't gone through that stuff,
I wouldn't be who I am today,and I'm grateful for that.
I do a lot of things to findgratitude and now I see it more
(16:20):
because I pay attention to thatstuff.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah, I love that.
You just said that it's it'swhy did you give me chills, dude
?
It's good stuff.
That's why, because it mattersand it, it, it connects.
You know what I mean so much.
So many people don't realize.
And it's, it's the definitionsthat you give, the experiences.
(16:42):
And let's go even with trauma.
I don't care if it was from achild, I mean, let's call it
what it is.
Most people have traumasomewhere in their life and it's
the definition that you give itthat changes it from being
(17:02):
trauma to being, in a sense,something to learn from or a
gift and a gift.
Sometimes people have a hardtime swallowing it until they
process it and realize it yearslater.
Man, if I didn't go through thecrap that I went through, as a
kid, as a teenager in my 20s, Imean, let's call it what it is.
When you look back and youchange the belief system and
(17:23):
change the we have a table, wehave legs on the table with this
.
It's nice and stable with yourbelief system, and when you
start changing those legs ofbeing a victim or being this or
being that or this was horribleand I'm a victim to hey, I
learned something from it.
It's it's actually somethingthat I can help people with and
exactly what you do and havedone in your life.
(17:45):
When you can switch that around, the trauma is redefined and
it's not trauma anymore.
Until then, what happens is itkeeps spinning in your brain.
I'm not going to get allscientific here, I'll make this
quick, but it keeps spinning inyour brain.
The trauma generally happensonce.
Now, there are hard cases,obviously, where there's
multiple traumas, but the onethat you're focusing on
(18:06):
generally happens once.
It's you hanging onto it andnot redefining it and it spins
around and gets bigger andbigger and bigger, and that's
when the problem becomes abigger problem.
Kill the monster when it'ssmall.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
That's exactly right.
You know, like, if, if,specifically when I talk, like
you mentioned earlier that I gotalk to kids because I want them
to understand that sometimeslife is unfair and it hands you
these, these really crappysandwiches that you don't want
to eat, right, but we can'tavoid those things and a lot of
times that's our response isavoidance Right, or running from
these problems.
And that's why I love theanalogy when people talk about
(18:43):
buffalo versus cows.
Right, there's this.
It's kind of this crazyexperience when a storm comes,
cows run from it and theycontinue running and they're
tired and they continue running,but the clouds just keep coming
in.
But the buffalo, on the otherhand, turns and faces the clouds
and runs through the storm.
Yeah, they get soaking wet andtheir hair gets matty and they
freaking, probably stink frombeing wet and beastly animals,
(19:06):
but they get through the stormso much faster because they move
into it headfirst and don't runfrom it, where it continues to
chase them and follow themaround like this proverbial rain
cloud, except in this case it'sreal when they run through it
and they get to the other side.
Well, guess what?
There's light, there's sunshine, there's a time after the storm
(19:27):
and life is going to bringstorms, but it also has plenty
of sunny days and you know,unless you live in the Pacific
Northwest, I happen to live in aplace where there's mostly
sunny days and when I rememberthat, my perspective is
gratitude.
Perspective is gratitude, it'sthat I have to put hard things
in my life now to remainresilient, to remind myself of
that warrior spirit that we allhave inside of us.
(19:48):
Right Like last year, I took 15guys up half dome and well, 13,.
Two of them got to the cablesand said I love you, danny, I'm
not going up that way anymoreand I get it.
It can be a scary, dauntingtask, but putting those things
in my life continues to remindme that I am capable of doing
hard things and while my life ismuch easier than it used to be,
(20:11):
right than it was at war oreven as a child, I still have to
continue to do things to keepthat resilience and remind
myself so I can share that withother people that you know the
hard things that we do in lifeform our character and our
resilience and our ability todeal with adversity, because
(20:32):
there's always going to be somesort of obstacle or crap in
front of us, but how we respondto that really reveals who we
are yeah, I, I love so manydifferent nuggets you just
dropped in that that was.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That was absolutely fantastic.
So so if you were to go backand then we're this is just part
of where I want to go intoagain the light of it.
Right, you already started ushere with.
We're going to move intoresilience now, which is which
is really important.
If you were to go back to yourI'm going to say seven year old
(21:04):
self because that's about whenwe stopped believing everything
we're told and all of the youcan't blah, blah, blah all the
crap starts filtering in tostart changing our belief
systems.
If you were going to back tosay six or seven years old, what
would you tell yourself?
Now, I didn't mean to go realdeep on you, man, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
It's pretty simple and I've mentioned this before,
but it's stay the course.
You don't realize where you'rebeing led to Because we want to
be like I said, the only thing Ihave control over is my life.
But sometimes life presentsthese opportunities or these
different pathways and we takethem.
Now sometimes we realize goingdown that path is not the right
(21:49):
way and we need to correct,self-correct and get back on
track.
But in the military, as afister, I'm an expert in land
navigation and map reading aswell, because I use those maps
to call for bombs, grid squaresand all that sort of thing to
give coordinates.
I helped my infantry brothersnavigate life after the military
.
I helped my military brothersnavigate life after the military
(22:11):
.
I wasn't a navigator before,but now not only am I a
navigator, but I'm an expert inthis stuff.
Right, and the government wouldtell you the same thing.
I'm really good at this and Ispent a lot of time learning how
to do it and walking out in thewoods and learning that your
pace count changes when you'rewalking uphill versus downhill
or flat terrain.
I know how to get aroundobstacles.
(22:33):
Now I know how to figure out mypath and I know how to um, how
to do these things.
That can be if you don't know.
It can seem hard, right, but sodoes so many obstacles in our
life.
They seem hard until you startchipping away at it, until you
start, um, getting good at thethings that scared you or made
(22:54):
you vulnerable, or that youweren't good at, that you had
never tried before.
And the only way to get betterat those things is practice.
Practice doesn't make perfect,it makes better.
And we want to practice thosethings.
Whether it's self-care, becausethat's community care, whether
it's, you know, an act of random, act of kindness, it's not
random, it's intentional.
So do those things.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, I love that, and everybody remember one thing
, like Danny said practice youknow, doesn't make perfect, it
just makes better.
Right, repetition is the motherof all skill, right?
Build the muscle with thesethings that you say, oh, that
sucks, and I don't want to do it.
That's right.
And here's the thing I'm goingto say.
(23:34):
I can't help it.
I'm a neuroencoder.
I have to drop it, celebrate it, pat yourself on the back,
shake your butt, smile.
It releases all the goodhormones and your brain says, oh
, I want more of that.
And it's easier and easier andeasier when you celebrate the
little things.
Listen, when you were one yearsold okay, I don't know age on
(23:56):
this, but when you were little,you couldn't tie your shoes.
Well, you couldn't tie them atall.
But guess what?
Your parents kept saying goodjob, good job, not.
Oh, you suck, what are youdoing?
They celebrated you and youkept moving forward and made it
something that was important toyou until you did do it.
Now can you still tie yourshoes better, absolutely Right.
(24:18):
But just celebrate the littlethings.
Be grateful for the littlethings, like you said earlier.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And we call it crawl, walk, run.
This is how we learn to dothings as a child we crawl, then
we walk, then we run.
Now there are a few people whowalk first.
They literally don't crawl,they get up.
But let me tell you a littlesecret.
That's how we do every singlething First we crawl through it,
then we walk through it andthen we can run.
Right, but we can't do.
We have to do it in that order.
Because you know the way theytaught me how to be an expert in
(24:47):
land navigation was.
I'll tell you right now.
I took for granted how often Igot to fly around in a
helicopter.
So, me and the boys, we load upin one of the choppers and they
go drop us off somewhere.
And then we got to go walk andI would joke with the pilots hey
, sir, you mind dropping us offa lot closer?
We got 12 clips to walk, youknow, and he's just like no way.
So they dropped us off and thenI got to navigate with my map
(25:10):
and compass and get me to whereI'm going and I'm just me, but
my crew.
We have a very important job todo when we get there.
So I took that stuff serious.
Take your life serious.
Be intentional about whatyou're doing, because life was
intentional about trying to killyou.
Life was intentional aboutgiving you bad coping skills and
trauma and all this crap.
It was serious about that stuff.
Those are things that stay withyou and they gave me, you know,
(25:33):
survival issues at times.
And I still go to therapy everysingle week.
Right, because this is the bestgift I could ever give my family
, my community, is to be abetter version of myself each
and every day.
Try to improve a little bit.
Right, the building blocks oflife aren't these great, far
apart rungs, they're closertogether.
(25:53):
The steps are closer together.
You do those small things andit leads to big things.
And when I, when I realized,like, trying to overcome PTSD
overnight wasn't going to happen, that it was going to be a slow
grind I've watched my dad dothis for 50 years right, like,
excuse me, fuck that, I can dobetter.
I can do better than that andso I'm going to.
That means that I'm going to.
(26:14):
I'm going to do whatever ittakes to win this war.
And just because I'm notwalking through, you know,
kicking down doors and doingraids and stuff like that
anymore doesn't mean my fights,and it's just different, but it
still requires the same figure,the same intentionality and the
same warrior spirit.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Amen, she just got kicked off Facebook.
I'm joking, no, well, it iswhat it is.
No, but seriously, what youjust said is so important is
just keep moving.
One step, one step, one step.
It's when you stop it's aproblem.
Human beings are meant toprogress and move forward.
(26:58):
They are not meant to stay.
And because how many people doyou see that are just sitting
stuck and happy?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
So there's this and I've learned this.
Unfortunately, I've learnedthat sometimes people aren't
ready for for healing theprocess.
Right, they're not.
They want to be, but they'renot.
And and so you know, there'sthis I'm going to screw this up,
but there's this um quote byhippocrates, and it says um,
before you heal someone else,ask that person if they're
willing to give up the thingsthat make them sick.
(27:30):
And so sometimes we seek thosetoxic behaviors, relationships,
things like that.
Cause that's what we know, likeyou said, with that table.
That's what we're comfortable,that's where we're stable, even
if it's chaotic.
I lived a chaotic life as a kid.
That made me great at war, mademe crappy at coming home, and
so the things that I had tolearn um, it was all that stuff
(27:50):
was internal.
Happiness is an inside job.
If I wanted to be happy, it wasgoing to be.
It required some stuff from me,right, exactly like your wife
just said, the devil, you knowyou get comfortable with that
stuff versus the devil you don't.
And and you know if you're aperson out there who's
struggling with this stuff andyou don't like who you are,
maybe you're short-tempered,maybe you're um erratic
(28:12):
sometimes, maybe you're shut offor closed and avoid things and
maybe you know who, who knowshow you're dealing with things.
But if you don't like that, ifyou realize that potentially
this is stems from trauma, Ijust want you to know that you,
you can overcome this stuff.
You can live a great life, thatthat isn't, doesn't have
(28:34):
boundaries, by by trauma right,that doesn't control my life or
my behavior, and at one point itdid so.
I just want you guys to knowthat.
You know if I can do this, youcan do this.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I love that, and so we're getting low on time and I
love that you said that, becauseit takes us right into
resilience.
I do, if you have time.
I'd like to go over just acouple of minutes, if that's
okay with you.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I think, because I think the value is is
huge.
You know you talked about thestigma earlier, about you know
veterans and drinking and thedrugs and you know all those
things.
Right, let me share somethingeverybody that's listening right
now and in the future, on onthe podcast forums.
It's not veterans get rid ofthe stigma, it's the human
condition.
(29:11):
That's right.
It's not veterans Get rid ofthe stigma, it's the human
condition.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
We all stuff too much food in our face.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
When we're trying to mask something, we all drink too
much alcohol.
When we're trying to masksomething Drugs, I mean.
You can go down the road withsocial media and technology and
all the different stuff, right,that we get ourselves
sidetracked from reality, if youwill.
So the stigma it shouldn't be amilitary thing, guys, it's a
(29:39):
human condition.
It really is, yeah.
So, with that said, let's moveinto resilience, right?
So what are some of the keythings that you do, or people
you know?
Whatever the case may be, youknow what?
Not today.
I'm getting out of bed, I'mgoing to go accomplish this and
(30:00):
I know you touch base on some ofthem, but I'd like to know some
of the little trick secrets,some of the other things that
Danny O'Neill does no-transcript.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
I go down there and I go kick the crap out of myself
and I put adversity in front ofme.
There's heavy weights.
I need to move them.
Now, I'm getting old, I'mgetting beat up.
I don't, I don't lift as heavyas I used to.
I don't do.
I still do plenty of things tomake sure that I'm feeling
physically fit, that I'm feelingum.
I just think it's so important,right, that it reduces our
(31:01):
stress levels, it, it, it boostsour mental health, and so
exercise is top of that list.
Um.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
It does.
And let me let me just say thisbecause, again, brain science
can't help myself Exactly whatyou said, because you're
releasing the hormones.
You're releasing and gettinghaving less of the bad hormones,
the cortisol and all thosethings, instead of sitting in
bed going oh my God, I can'tdeal with today.
Oh, I hate my boss, I hate this, I all those things.
Get up and move, Just justwalking changes the game and
(31:31):
it's something my clients, it'sone of the first things I teach
my clients Get out and move, getout in nature.
If you can Put your feet insome grass, if you can.
But if you can just do that,like Danny said, it changes the
game.
And I know, danny, you say thatyou don't work hard.
You're not working out as hardas you used to.
I've seen the videos, dude,You're always sweating.
(31:51):
So don't give me that're notworking out as hard as you used
to.
I've seen the videos, dude,you're always sweating.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So don't give me that crap.
Well, I work out hard.
I just don't lift as much as Iused to.
My body says that's probablynot.
I have to have shoulder surgery, right.
But this is me taking care ofmyself.
Before I would have justcontinued to ignore it.
And I went to the va and I said, hey, man, something's wrong my
shoulder.
And they essentially kind ofignored me and it was persistent
.
So I went back like two and ahalf months later and they said,
all right, we'll send you foran MRI.
(32:15):
Well, why didn't you do thatwhen I asked the first time?
But they took the MRI and theysaid you got a torn labrum and
partially torn rotator cuff.
And I'm like, all right, well,maybe we can do it in the winter
.
I need to golf more.
I got a few things I'm tryingto do.
You know I'm still that guy,but I am going to take care of
myself because that part isimportant.
We always take care of otherpeople and rarely take care of
(32:35):
ourselves, and you're number oneon this list.
When you're on the plane, theytell you to put your mask on
before you help someone else.
It applies in all facets.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I love that.
You said that I was going tosay it, so bless you, sir.
So I I literally was thinkingman, how's he going to golf?
I don't know.
You'll figure it out, I will.
You'll just work harder to comeback from the surgery.
That's what we'll do.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That's exactly what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
I'm already, I'm already thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I already got the bands in there.
I'm ready to go and that's theresults.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Anything else you want to mention about resilience
, before we jump off yeah,absolutely.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You need to have a support system right.
The people around you need to,first off.
You need to have people thathold you accountable.
When they see you're sucking orhaving struggles or whatever,
they need to know you wellenough.
You need to have relationshipsthat are intimate enough for
people to call you on your crapand make sure that you're doing
the right thing, which is takingcare of yourself, and so that
(33:33):
is part of our resilience ishaving a support system that,
when I'm unable to carry my fullload, I can give a little bit
to someone else.
I can count on these people,and it doesn't have to be a big
circle right.
Quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, absolutely love it.
I think that is super important.
And the last thing I just wantto add on resilience is
literally, you can do it, no,you can do it, no, you can do it
, because if you just take thatone extra step it doesn't have
to be a big step, but just onemore step you get closer to
where you want to be.
Yeah, and resilience doesn'thappen when it goes your way.
That is very true.
(34:06):
That is the ultimate statementright there, my friend, that
should be a bumper sticker.
I like that, all right.
With that said, danny, how dopeople reach out to you if they
want to reach you for publicspeaking or any of that fun
stuff?
Or just reach out to WarfighterOverwatch, of course.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
So our website for Warfighter Overwatch is
warfighteroverwatchorg.
My email is danny atwarfighteroverwatchorg.
My email is Danny atwarfighteroverwatchorg.
You can find us on social mediakinetic ink tattoos on
Instagram, facebook.
Same thing with kinetic threads.
Our custom apparel shop.
Now we have another trucker hatbar and boutique do custom
stuff with that.
There's all kinds of I mean I'mliterally easy to find.
(34:48):
If you spell my last name right, it's O, apostrophe, n, e, e, l
, you're going to find me realquick.
First name really is Danny.
That's my legal name, easy tofind.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
There you go, there you go.
Can you give us three tips andit could be something you
already said to get veterans andtheir families further faster,
please sir.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
First off, like I said, staythe course, right, you don't
know where you're going to endup, but if you keep putting one
foot in front of the other,you're going to be somewhere
different than where you are now.
So, um, stay the course.
Uh, I gotta.
The self-care is so importantthat, um, you know, I neglected
(35:25):
myself, right, I put my teambefore myself over and over.
In fact, I put myself last.
I had this thing that said if Iasked you to comprise a list of
all the things you love, howlong would it take you to get to
yourself?
And at one point the answer wasnever.
I never would have put myselfon that list, right, but the
truth is, I've learned to lovemyself and care about myself,
(35:45):
and that was so vital for me.
Being a good parent, a goodspouse, a good neighbor, friend,
brother, you name it.
It makes us better.
So you're the average of thepeople you surround yourself
with.
So choose wisely.
You have to have these peoplein your life who are good for
you, not just, yes, men or womenwho always agree with you.
(36:07):
And it's just an echo chamber.
Now, you need to have diverseideas and experiences, even when
talking about this stuff.
These are my experiences, butthey're America's stories and so
if I don't tell them, nobodywill know what happened in
Sutter City with the Hounds ofHell, and that's true.
But for me it's even moreimportant talking about my
(36:27):
struggles and victories in theaftermath.
And so I have these people inmy life who are saying danny,
you're doing god's work, keepdoing it, and and it may look
different in a year or two, andI'm okay with that I want to be
focused on my family more.
I want there's things I need todo, but the biggest part of
that is surrounding myself.
Uh, you know, with the rightpeople amen, man.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Um, I'm glad to be one of those people.
My friend, I truly am.
You are one of the preciouspeople in my life I've got to
tell you.
Thank you, austin.
Yeah, it is so true everythingyou just said, and we could have
a whole other show discussingall of that.
You don't want to be thesmartest man in the room.
You want to be around thosepeople that bring you up, that
(37:08):
make you want to be better andlearn from, because otherwise
you're the smartest one, younever rise.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Being a business owner, like multiple businesses,
nonprofit that helps people.
I couldn't imagine 10 years agomy life being here, because I
didn't even want to live right10, 12 years ago, and so that's
why I just want people to staythe course.
Listen, it can get better.
I promise I can.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Yeah, absolutely Take , just take that step, because
how often can you look back andgo five years ago?
If I wouldn't have done that, Iwouldn't have helped these
people or I wouldn't be here,right, I mean, I could go
through.
I'm 53, man, I could go through, like all of these different
places, and just be like man andeverybody's brought, everything
has brought me to where I amnow, be like man and everything
has brought me to where I am now.
Thank God, thank you God.
(37:53):
With that said man, we are sofar over For Danny O'Neill, my
dear friend, time and mostprecious resource we have as
human beings.
We do not get it back.
Thank you for being here, thankyou for spending the extra time
and thank you for just beingyou man and just sharing your
story, because people need tohear it and I want to be
involved in the movie.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
You got it Appreciate it brother.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
All right, man, and on that note, everybody we're
out of here.
Thank you for joining us onanother insightful journey of
your Thoughts your Realitypodcast, with your host, michael
Cole.
We hope the conversationsparked some thoughts that
resonate with you.
To dive deeper into empoweringyour thoughts and enhancing your
reality, visitempowerperformancestrategiescom.
Remember your thoughts shapeyour reality, so make them count
(38:42):
.
Until next time, stay inspiredand keep creating the reality
you desire.
Catch you on the next episode.
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