Experience is the Teacher of All Things
Episode 237
In this episode of Integrative You Radio, Dr. Nicole and Nick explore the pivotal role of experiences in shaping our lives and decisions. They recount their recent journey from producing a documentary in London to relocating to Italy’s picturesque Sorrento Amalfi Coast. Their narrative weaves together the threads of cultural observations and personal transformations, emphasizing how environments influence behavior and values. The couple discusses the shift many are making towards experience-driven lives and businesses, reflecting on their own experiences that combine integrative medicine with the rich, immersive Italian lifestyle. The duo also delve into the concept of presence and its scarcity in modern American culture compared to their observations in Italy, where community and enjoyment dominate over the hustle for wealth. Highlighting their "Higher Self Architecture" approach, they discuss how they've integrated this framework into retreats that combine professional growth with personal enjoyment. This episode is a call to embrace experiences that align with one’s values, fostering not only personal satisfaction but also a profound collective impact. Tune in to learn more! What you’ll learn: Cultural Contrast in Prioritization: Drs. Nicole and Nick Rivera highlight the stark differences between Italian and American cultures—Italians prioritize community and living in the moment, whereas Americans often focus on productivity and financial gain. Impact of Environment on Behavior: The episode discusses how one's environment crucially influences personal and professional behavior. The Riveras emphasize the importance of being in settings that foster presence and mindfulness for true personal growth. Integrating Experiences with Professional Growth: The Riveras advocate for incorporating meaningful experiences into one’s lifestyle, particularly through their "Higher Self Architecture" method. They discuss how these experiences can significantly enhance personal sati
Topics: integrative, unknown, experience, experiences, personal, values, behavior, italy
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Experience is the Teacher of All Things
- Cultural differences in prioritization reveal a greater emphasis on community and presence in Italy versus the American focus on productivity and financial gain.
- Our surrounding environments significantly influence our behavior, values, and overall personal growth.
- Integrating immersive experiences into our lives, as seen in the "Higher Self Architecture" approach, can enhance both personal satisfaction and professional success.
- The concept of "presence" is often lacking in modern American culture but is a cornerstone of enjoyable living in many other places.
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place. **Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place.
**Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. This is Integrative U Radio. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio.
**Unknown:** You have Dr. Nicole and Dr. Nick here. I'm not gonna talk in my Jersey accent again like on our last podcast.
**Unknown:** Never know what you're gonna get. Uh, so we actually wanted to do a podcast, very short and sweet, about this idea of experience. It's actually been such a buzzword that we've been hearing. Um, we actually went to London a couple of weeks ago, and we were, uh, for those of you that don't know, we were the producers, and Dr.
**Unknown:** Nick was the narrator, for the Demartini, uh, documentary, which is being released this year, so keep your eyes out for it. Um, it was a really fantastic experience. But of course, being around a group of a lot of very driven facilitators and entrepreneurs, uh, they were talking about this idea of how so many people now are looking for an experience. And, you know, that's one of the reasons why a lot of them are actually pivoting their business model.
**Unknown:** And I thought it was kind of ironic, because we moved to Italy, for those of you that don't know, and we are here at the Sorrento Amalfi Coast. And we, naturally, because this area is absolutely phenomenal, wanted to bring together our knowledge and expertise of integrative medicine, uh, human behavior, and our method called the Higher Self Architecture, and bring that together with an experience here at the Sorrento coast. And we, we had a very specific intention with the creation of this, and part of it was helping people to get out of the day-to-day of all the things they have to do, and to be put in an environment where they can actually just live in the present. And part of this was because it's actually embedded in the culture here.
**Unknown:** This is ... It's really amazing to see how Italians have this natural ... I don't wanna say natural ability. I think we all have the, a natural ability.
**Unknown:** I just think that it's remained in the culture here. It hasn't been sucked out of the culture the way it has in the US, that people really are present. Like, if you are at a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, no one is on a phone. I think it depends what part of Italy you're in.
**Unknown:** Um, but the, the s- southern- The cities are a little different. Mm-hmm. But I will say for the most part, it is significantly different than anywhere you will go in the US. Yeah.
**Unknown:** And it's, it's just driven by culture. As in anything, the, the environment around us dictates the expression of the particle. So the people are the particle, the environment is the, you know, the society, the country. And overall, m- what you're saying is Italians, they care more about the community.
**Unknown:** The US, they care more about money. Yeah. They, th- a lot of Italians will- Mm ... we always like to ask the perception they have of, uh, of Americans.
**Unknown:** And that's a, a, a common conversation, is they feel that in the US, most decisions and most things people do are driven by making money. And they make a lot of decisions about what is going to allow them to live. And obviously everyone has a little bit different of a definition of what that looks like for them. You know, some, it's huge priority on family, and some, it's a huge priority on travel, and, and some, it's just a huge priority on just being in nature and, and seeing the sights.
**Unknown:** Yeah. The, uh ... It got me thinking of the quote of, you know, are you working to live or are you living to work? And both are wrong, in my mind, is that you should just be living.
**Unknown:** And everything that you do should be helping you be just a better version of you, whether that's your vocation, whether that's your spirituality, whether that's your relationship with your finances, family, et cetera. Like, you should just be living. And that is ... When you understand simply life makes most of its decisions based on the past.
**Unknown:** What are those big past things that are the biggest drivers in forming the blueprint of our mind, our unconsciousness? Experiences. Mm-hmm. So when you think about wanting to make a change in somebody's life, in somebody's blueprint, it can actually best be done by creating an amazing, inspiring experience, because it's the experiences that actually drive the creation of our future.
**Unknown:** Literally, the quote that I absolutely love isOf course now it just went off of my screen. Uh, but it's by Julius Caesar and it is that, "Experiences are the teacher of all things." Well he's my amici, so we're pretty tight. Well, I think it's interesting, you know, what you're talking about as well because as entrepreneurs and having a, a big business that unfortunately ran our lives for over a decade, you know, this was ... Oh, experiences were put on the back burner.
**Unknown:** And in previous podcasts we talked a lot about this getting sucked into the rabbit hole of hustle and reward, and we worked really, really hard, and there was rewards with little dopamine hits from mashed potatoes and wine and, you know, online consumerism. But one of the things that was on the back burner was, was travel and was experiences that would create memories or, or create these, you know, these experiences for vision and, and life changes. And it just ... There was all the reasons why.
**Unknown:** You know, there was all the reasons why. Because we were too busy. What would happen if we walked away from the business? And, you know, all of the other things that come up in between.
**Unknown:** If you're, if you're someone who has kids, "Oh, what am I gonna do with my kids? Am I gonna bring the kids? Are the kids gonna be ... You know, are they gonna like it?
**Unknown:** Are they gonna enjoy it?" Um, really at the end of the day when we started to really think about in our experience and how we want to help inspire vision, inspire change, inspire a life that's more purposeful, we knew that one thing that could be extremely valuable is taking people out of their current environment where it is filled with potential chaos, it is filled with to-do lists, it's filled with priorities and obligations, and, you know. Because we've worked with people from a healthcare perspective, and we've seen people that live in chaos, or they have a really stressful business or a really stressful career, and it hindered their progress. And- Well, you're ... And it's, it's not that it necessarily hindered, but your, your body and your mind, your brain, everything's geared to work as efficient as possible.
**Unknown:** So if you've been in that environment for months to years to decades, like, it doesn't have to think that hard. It knows how to react. Mm-hmm. It's wired to react.
**Unknown:** So you have to take that body, mind, spirit and put it in, like you said, a different environment. But this just follows Bruce Lipton's work, is that, you know, you put a liver cell in a Petri dish that's surrounded by kidney cells, that liver- It's not a liver. It's not a liver cell, it is a, um- Stem cell ... stem cell.
**Unknown:** Liver stem cell. And it's supposed to turn into a liver but it's turned into a kidney because that was the environment surrounded by it. Hm. So we're just pretty much taking all these, like, scientific concepts and structuring that into an experience to create inspiring change.
**Unknown:** Yeah. And it's kind of interesting because as we were putting together the website for our, um, our limitless experience, I remember the individual that was helping us, he just kept drilling me about, "Yeah, but what else are you doing? Like, what other workshops are you doing?" And I was like, "I gave you all the information." And he was so confused because he ha- he was under the impression that people had to do eight hours a day of this higher self-architecture work in order to see a result. And I was like, "No.
**Unknown:** We literally do the higher self-architecture workshop for an hour to an hour and 15 in the morning, and then we go through a guided meditation that helps to lock in and synchronize the work that we did, and then we go have a fuck ton of fun." And we literally go drink wine, eat food, hike, beach, beach club, and go out on the boat, and we chat and we laugh and we have fun. And of course we, we talk about the insights that we had from the workshop, but, like, we're living. We're really living. And it's not all, all, all work or all, uh, business by any means.
**Unknown:** And he was almost just confused because he was reading the testimonials. He was like, "So you're telling me that one of the people that came, like, went home and within one week she landed her dream job and you guys literally just did work for one hour each day for, like, six and a half days?" It was probably, like, three hours a day with the meditation. It was less than that. But of course, like I said- Sure ...
**Unknown:** we were continuing the conversations all day. Um, and he was just like, "Okay. I, I, I, I'm intrigued." So i- it's really, it's not about the amount of work, the quantity, uh, it's the quality. The quality and the focus.
**Unknown:** It's not what you do. It's how you do it. But going back to the topic of this, it's the experience. It was the experience about, around being around like-minded people, it was the experience of being in a place that's so beautiful you don't wanna be on your phone, you don't care about looking at your emails.
**Unknown:** Like, you truly are living in the moment, savoring every part of that day, that you are not thinking about social media, you're not thinking about checking your email, you're not ... You're just likeMy business will do what it needs to do. Like, I'm here, I'm, I'm getting the most out of this experience here. But that's when you...
**Unknown:** Just like meditation, when you let go, and you surrender, and you're just being present, that's like the true manifestation. That's when creation occurs. Surrender. So, so it's, it's just beautiful is that, you know, you have the meditation to be able to do that, but then we also just continue to put you into that present meditative state without you even knowing it for the rest of the day with a glass of wine or two.
**Unknown:** Yeah. But also, I don't think people realize the power of laughter, and fun, and playfulness. You know, that is equally as important, maybe more important, than doing the visionary work and doing the values work. Because so many of us have lost that.
**Unknown:** We... Life has been really serious. Life has been heavy, especially as entrepreneurs. Like, there's periods of time when we get started in our business, you know, we can call it the honeymoon phase, where it still feels fun, it feels exciting, it...
**Unknown:** We get to be creative. And then we grow, and we grow, and all of a sudden it feels like every ounce of fun has been sucked out of the business. You know, we always, uh, we always joked that once we reached, uh, over eight employees, you know, we had to put our big girl and big boy pants on. But if I am being honest, at that point in time is when business started to feel really hard.
**Unknown:** And, you know, looking back, there were so many misalignments that we can now acknowledge it got us to where we are, uh, but now we're such huge advocates for helping people to see what they can't see so that they can either redirect and make sure that they're still maintaining that level of fun and creativity in their business, um, or they're, they're pivoting. Um, because what is, what is this journey of entrepreneurship just to feel like you have a never-ending to-do list, and it's just... it's not enjoyable. You're...
**Unknown:** Like, you don't... You're not even circling back to the mission and the reason why you started it in the first place. And if, uh, if you're that controlled by your business, guess what? You're not that friendly to be around at home or, uh, with your friends.
**Unknown:** Yeah. Well, I think that, you know, a lot of us lose sight of, of those parts of life. And hence, this is why the Higher Self Architecture was created, which is the methodology that we implement in our Limitless Experience. It's something we implement when we work with people one-on-one.
**Unknown:** But it was created because we felt like this... there was a seesaw constantly happening. It was like, "Oh, business is doing well. Oh, we haven't talked to any of our friends or seen anyone.
**Unknown:** We've missed birthdays and holidays," et cetera. And then it was like, "Oh, okay, we're prioritizing making sure that we're being good friends, prioritizing us, date night, family," et cetera. And it was like, "Oh, now everybody on the team feels unsupported, like we've been distant, and, um, you know, we're really disconnected from the business." And it was just kind of like, "What is happening? Why can we not get ahead?" And there was just a lack of synchronization, but there was also...
**Unknown:** We were trying to be everything to everyone all the time, and that was because we had a lack of clarity on who we were and what our vision was going forward. Because you can't just have a vision for your business. You have to have a vision for all of those other parts of life. You have to have a vision of yourself.
**Unknown:** Who are you? How do you show up? What do you look like? Like, are you laughing?
**Unknown:** Are you not? And then what do you look like in your family life? What does it look like in your social life? And all of that.
**Unknown:** Like, that all has to be synchronized with the business. Otherwise, you're just gonna feel like, "Okay, one thing is good, but everything else is shit." And that doesn't feel good. That's not what we're here for. That's not what life is supposed to be.
**Unknown:** It's a bad experience. So the, the moral of the story is, is that this is something that we've experienced firsthand, is that an experience is, is literally inspiring the trajectory of the creation of your 2.0 life, and that 2.0 looks different for every single person. But if you feel like you've been really wanting a change, you've been really wanting a shift, and maybe you've hired coaches, and maybe you've done things, and you've gone to Tony Robbins, and you've done an online course, and, you know, you've been making these efforts, and things are not moving, things are not changing, things are not shifting, it might be taking a different approach, and taking yourself out of the environment of all the things you have to do and need to do, and having yourself an experience that inspires the trajectory of your 2.0. Did it...
**Unknown:** Is that a mic drop, Nick? You got nothing? All right, guys. So for those of you that were like, "Oh gosh, I need an experience," definitely head over and check out our page, Limitless Experience.
**Unknown:** We will drop the link below. Uh, we have multiple dates coming up in 2025 from June all the way to October. We have, um, specific events that are going to be specifically for male entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs, and we are curating these experiences custom to you guys. And it is going to be jam-packed with adventure, expansion of your mind, of your physical body, fun, lot of fun, lot of amazing gastronomical experiences.
**Unknown:** Um, food and good wine are a huge part of, uh, you guys experiencing the Italian culture here. And we're doing all these amazing adventures from boats, uh, boating out to Isle of Capri, swimming in grottoes, going to beautiful beach clubs where the water is crystal clear. So it is chock-full. The itinerary is there.
**Unknown:** Check it out, and we really hope that you join us in inspiring the trajectory of your 2.0 life. We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio. We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments.
**Unknown:** Please visit us on social media as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis. We hope to see you there.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
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