How many people in your immediate circle of friends are sad or depressed? I mean that as an overall feeling. Meaning that they feel sad, or sad adjacent feelings, more often than happy ones. For me, it’s a lot. While I wish there was something I could do to improve other people’s lives; the reality is, there is not. The only person who can help someone is themselves. As stated very elegantly in much of Jack Kornfield’s work, You can’t change the world but you can change yourself. And that will change the world. “Tend to the part of the garden you can touch.” – Jack Kornfield
With this idea in mind, and a few nuggets from other thinkers, I have been slowly transforming my mind to be more productive and happier. I have been reading books and listening to a lot of podcasts. Trying to immerse myself in good thoughts and practices, in hopes of absorbing just a little piece of any of it. Jordan Peterson was a person I immediately found myself inspired by. In his book, “12 Rules for Life: An antidote to chaos” he talks a lot about the concepts of order and chaos. Much of my life I relished in chaos. In partying and the Kerouac American dream of freedom. but there is something very divine about order. Maybe that’s what sacred geometry alludes to, the divinity in order.
One of the other tools I have been able to use extremely effectively is the music of Akira the Don. Hailed as a “Legend” by the undeniable force that is Lil B, Akira the Don is a talented DJ, musical artist and all around creative. While he has produced hit songs and played music for large crowds all over the world, I discovered him through his own personal creation called Meaningwave.
“Meaningwave is a musical psychotechnology developed by Akira the Don with the aim of helping listeners achieve their potential in this lifetime.”
-Akira The Don
I first stumbled upon his music looking for downtempo/ambient music featuring Alan Watts and Terence McKenna. Two huge influences on my individual world view and people I have been obsessively absorbing over the last 10 years. I found Akira The Don’s “Timewave” album. It was a cool venture into McKenna’s thought and the musical production was impressive. This was around 2018 or 2019, right as I was joining the Army and making some very big life changes. I enjoyed the albums, but I was not hooked by any means. That would come a few years later when I rediscovered Akira the Don’s music through a lens of physical exercise.
I found his later albums “Experience” and “Goggins.” Albums about Joe Rogan and David Goggins, two different humans that have had a huge impact on my worldview. So, that’s when I really dove into Akira The Don’s discography and found an alarming overlap of people that I had already been listening to and absorbing over the years. Albums about Theo Von, Jordan Peterson, David Foster Wallace and Marcus Areailus. It honestly stunned me. Especially because so many of these people come from vastly different backgrounds and perspectives. And here they were, all packaged up neatly and easy to digest for my ears.
”I use a combination of different people talking about certain ideas from different vantage points. These are ideas that I would like to explore,” said Akira the Don. “So, Jordan Peterson, Alan Watts, David Goggins, Ayn Rand and whoever, all talking about the same thing. And people don’t tend to notice this when their listening to the records. But these things tend to work in phases. So, that way, the individual listening to these gets a clearer view of the totality of the thing.”
I have been listening to bits and pieces of these albums religiously over the last year. When I managed to run my furthest distance to date, 13.2 miles, “Goggins” was the only thing blasting through my headphones. When I wake up feeling like a little bitch that doesn’t want to work out, I listen to “Get that good Feeling” and put on my damn shoes. This music has changed my relationship to discipline and working out in ways I previously thought impossible.
So, when I got to have a conversation with the man himself, I was excited and extremely nervous. If you listen to the podcast, I start out noticeably nervous, but end up having a really good chat about a variety of topics. One of the topics we talked about was reprogramming the brain.
“Part of what I am doing it brainwashing myself,” he said. “Part of the reason I started doing it the first place, is I worked out early on, if you combine speech or ideas plus music, it helps you to imbue them much easier. So, it really just comes down to what do I need to know? What am I aiming at and what’s foundational to get to that point? Everything builds upon everything else and is aiming toward the ultimate point of achieved potential in this lifetime.”
We ended the conversation talking about advice for people lost in despair and hopelessness. And it boiled down to a simple understanding. If you are sad and are not working out. Start there. Getting your body moving and transforming your physical body has dramatic ripple effects on every facet of your life. I can speak from personal experience, the goals and momentum I have in life right now are impossible without my relationship to physical exercise. I can dive into the science of exercise and mental health in another article, but the proof is in the pudding. You only get one body in this life, try and treat it the best you possibly can. We are all in control of our destiny, but we have to work hard to achieve the greatest goals. Don’t let a shitty brain code stop you from recognizing your true potential.
Listen to our full podcast conversation below:
Check out Akira the Don’s music at AkiratheDon.com
Introspection Section 
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