The Thirst of the Heart

Dr. E's Highway to Health Show Episode 30

Expert Interview
Highway to Health: Ep 30 - Udo Erasmus

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In This Episode:

In this insightful interview, Udo Erasmus talks to Dr E about the Thirst of The Heart; which is that feeling of emptiness, of having lost something in our lives.

Original Air Date: September 25, 2019

Show Notes ↓

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Actionable Steps:

  1. Make time to sit with yourself. And if you feel the heartache or the thirst of the heart, be with it. Stay with it. Feel it. Accept it. And be grateful because it is your heart calling your awareness to come back home to yourself, to life.
  2. Think of yourself as a creature made by nature and in nature. So try to align yourself as much as you can with nature.
  3. Be active. Play. Try things out. Always be doing something that you’re new at and become good at it.

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Show Notes

  • [00:07:19] Frying is the worst thing we ever invented to do with our health. And my slogan is Fried oils, fry health.
  • [00:13:33] As we were born and came to this world, our awareness went from being present inside, but absent outside, to now being present outside, but absent inside.
  • [00:15:24] The thirst of the heart is a starting point because it aches, your heart aches and you feel it in your chest.
  • [00:15:43] We know what to do when we’re hungry or thirsty. But we don’t know what to do with the ache of the heart.
  • [00:16:16] Every human being has that magnificence. Every human being feels that thirst. Although they call it all kinds of different names.
  • [00:18:29] It’s a distraction because I hope that if I make a million dollars I will feel taken care of. And it never happens because the care is already in me. It’s just that I’m not looking where it is. I’m looking elsewhere.
  • [00:19:25] You know, if you put that on a relationship, I mean, I can tell you my original relationship. Right. I saw the love in her. She saw the love in me. I didn’t see it in me. She didn’t see it in her. I expected to get it from her. She would complete me. She thought I would complete her. And then when it came into the relationship, she couldn’t get in touch with the love in her to bring it out. And I couldn’t get in touch with the love in me to bring it out. Well, then, where the hell is the love in the relationship supposed to come from if neither person can get to it?
  • [00:20:39] And when you finally take your awareness home to where the love has been waiting the whole time, it’s like, “oh, I’m taken care of. And if I don’t feel taken care of. I know where to go to feel taken care of: inside. Well, now that I’m taken care of, it doesn’t all have to be about me anymore. Where can I help make it better for everything?”.
  • [00:21:59] You put one person in control and you don’t put yourself in control, then you’re neglecting what you need to do.
  • [00:22:41] And the head of the country is only one person. He can only pick up one shovel. But you’ve got to pick up thirty six million shovels to straighten out your country.
  • [00:23:58] But until we feel taken care of, we are not going to clean up the environment. We are not going to clean up the politics. We are not going to clean up the relationships. We are not going to clean up our own health.
  • [00:26:04] Pretty much everybody’s trying to look for what they lost inside. To be fulfilled on the outside. And it doesn’t work.
  • [00:27:05] And so the turn around is to bring it inside and then you go. Finally, I have what I’ve been looking for all my life. OK, well, now what? Now what? Oh. I want to help. I want to help. Because I’m okay. I don’t need anything more.
  • [00:28:44] So if peace makes violence against women go away, maybe we should focus on peace. Maybe we should develop peace. Maybe we should cultivate peace.
  • [00:29:40] The cure to most of those issues on the planet is reconnection to self. For each individual. And if eight billion people do that, this is gonna be a very fine planet to live in. And the cleanup won’t take long. But we will not do that if we don’t first clean ourselves up.
  • [00:30:48] Look, if I’m in peace, if I feel peace, then I see peace everywhere in the world.
  • [00:31:05] If I’m angry, I’ll see enemies. If I’m afraid, I’ll see danger. If I’m a thief, I’ll see only the places where I can steal something. Our identity, our sense of ourselves not only creates our perception, but it actually also creates world.
  • [00:39:36] And then out of all of that comes what do you want to do? I want to be fully present in all of my being and my surroundings all at the same time. That’s called mastering what the masters master.
  • [00:39:53] And then when you live like that, because number one purpose of life is not to accomplish houses and money and all of that stuff, not even kids. The number one purpose of life is that you were given this incredible gift. And if you don’t fully enjoy this gift, it’s a waste of gift because nobody else can enjoy it for you.
  • [00:45:04] I think people are not selfish enough. Cause if you were really selfish, you would do what is really good for you, which is to get fully present. And then, that would be good for everybody else, too.
  • [00:46:52] The church that wants to own your soul tells you it’s not OK to master what the masters master.
  • [00:47:46] You were given life by the universe. To make your body, your temple. Worship not inside, because it’s there. And the master is in you. Life is the master.
  • [00:50:41] If you’re a fake student, you will find a fake master. To be a real student, be sincere. If you really want to know what you need, you will find what you need to be able to take that journey
Episode Transcript

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Dr E:
Hello and welcome to the Highway to Health Show. I am super excited to share with you today’s episode. Seriously.

Dr E:
You see, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing already close to 100 people between the podcast and some of the video summits and other things that we do. And most of these interviews have been really, really good. But the one you’re going to listen to today has so far it has been my favorite. And you’ll learn why as soon as you listen to it. So let’s dig in.

Dr E:
My guest for this phenomenal conversation is none other than Udo Erasmus. If you don’t know him, Udo is a health entrepreneur. He’s an author and an educator. He has taught, for instance, alongside Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra, just to name a few. Udo first pioneered the use of flaxseed oil and the healthy fats movement when he invented the machinery that extracts these oils, as well as for probiotics and enzymes and so many other things.

Dr E:
All of this led him to found Udo’s choice, which is a decades old staple, in the health and wellness industry, which you probably know, if not, you probably even consume some or a lot of their products.

Dr E:
More recently, though, he has switched his focus on health care, which led him to the concept of total sexy health and the thirst of the heart, which is what we explore in this episode. I really hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Dr E:
But before we jump on the fast lane of the highway to hell. There are a few other very cool things going on that I want to share with all of you. First, I want to let you know that I’m planning as low down a little bit with my projects at Dr. Ernesto M.D., which includes this podcast and my Web site and my one on one coaching and everything else related to our health education efforts. Now, this whole thing is only for a few months in which I really need to spend more time in my other company in order to finish the year strong and start the next one on the right foot.

Dr E:
However, this does not mean that there won’t be any more episodes for the remainder of the year. No, sir.

Dr E:
What I did was I recorded all the episodes in advance and I scheduled them to be released on a weekly basis. And since we now have tons of amazing interviews in the podcast queue, we will start grabbing the ones that are the furthest away and releasing them in advance exclusively in our free Facebook group.

Dr E:
So, for instance, this same week we just released Renee Jones’s interview where she shares the strategies she used to get off the yo yo dieting train, lose a stubborn weight and keep it off. All of this after the age of 50. If you would like to watch this video, interview, all you need to do is head on over to DrE.show/group, that’s d r e dot show, forward slash group and request access. It’s free and you don’t need to provide an email address or anything of that matter.

Dr E:
Oh, and there’s one more thing. There’s this newish podcast site called Podchaser. I don’t know how new it is. I just know that for me, it was new. And what it does is it allows you to create your own personalized podcast feeds. And what this means is that you get to choose which other podcasts you like –almost as much as this one– and place them on your personalized feet.

Dr E:
Once you do that, you will get notified of new episodes in any of the different podcasts that you have curated. You’ll be able to leave comments there, ask questions specific to each episode, see what other people are saying about each of them. And a lot of other very cool things. This feature is free, but it is currently in beta and it’s closed access.

Dr E:
If you want to get access, all you need to do is go to podchaser.com and once you get there you’ll see a section where it says early access. You click there and you enter the access key highwaytohealth without spaces and you’ll get immediate access.

Dr E:
For your convenience as always, all these links are in this episode’s description. So a remember if you’re listening as a podcast, You just need to click on the information or the description of this episode and you’ll see the links right there. If you’re watching on YouTube. Just scroll down and you’ll see the links right there as well.

Dr E:
But anyways, this introduction is already getting a little bit too long and I don’t want to keep you any longer. Here’s my conversation with Udo Erasmus. And remember, you are on the highway to health and I’m your guide to get you there.

Intro | Outro:
Are you ready to live Ageless? Want to discover alternative health choices, cutting edge nutrition and fitness for the entire family? Welcome to Highway to Health Show with your host Doctor E ‘The Stem Cell Guy’ Where E helps you live ageless. And now here’s your host, Dr. E.

Dr E:
Hello, everyone, welcome to this very special episode of The Highway to Health Show. Joining us today is none other than Udo Erasmus.

Dr E:
Udo is a pioneer of the health and wellness industry. Among his many achievements, he was the first to extract flax oil and he started the healthy fats movement. He’s also the co-founder of Udo’s Choice Supplement Brand, which has sold tens of millions of bottles of healthy oils, probiotics, and digestive enzymes.

Dr E:
And as if that wasn’t enough, Udo is an accomplished author, including the book Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill. That has sold over 250000 copies worldwide. And I could keep going on and on about Udo and his accomplishments, but it would not leave a lot of time for a conversation.

Dr E:
Instead, I’ll let him do the talking. So Udo, why don’t you say hi to our audience and share a little bit more about you and your health journey.

Udo Erasmus:
Hi audience. My health journey began actually very early when I was six years old. I started thinking about because I came out of the Second World War in Europe and people were arguing about really stupid, trivial things. I saw it as a six year old and it occurred to me that there must be a way that people can live in harmony. And I’m going to find out how.

Udo Erasmus:
So that was the beginning of my journey. And in order to just find out, because there was very little I felt I could rely on because it was chaotic. We were refugees when I was running from the communists and tanks and trucks and the allies were shooting at us from planes onto the roads on which we were fleeing. And they knew we were refugees. So I grew up just standing like, well, you know, who can you trust? What is solid? And there wasn’t that much.

Udo Erasmus:
So I got into science to figure out how things work. Then I got into bio sciences to figure out how creatures worked. Then I got into psychology to figure out how thinking works. And eventually I realized, you know what, I actually need to know how I work. So I got into self-knowledge to figure out how I work.

Udo Erasmus:
That’s basically is my background. I got into the physical part of health after I got poisoned by pesticides in 1980 and the doctors couldn’t help me. So I was left to my own devices. because I had the background. I said, I’ll figure it out. And I got into the journals and looked at health and disease and nutrition because the body’s made out of food, water, air and light. That’s it.

Udo Erasmus:
And if we want something to improve, then that’s where we need to make better choices. And so I got into the fats area because they’re the most neglected part of nutrition. They’re the most sensitive nutrients and need the most care, but get the least care because we fry everything.

Udo Erasmus:
Frying is the worst thing we ever invented to do with our health. And my slogan is Fried oils, fry health. I get audiences to chant that with me. Fried oils, fry health, fried foods fry health. From that, I got into inspiration because people won’t make changes if they don’t feel inspired.

Udo Erasmus:
Because it’s about energy. Right? And if you’re not inspired, then you usually in your mental and habitual ruts. And it’s really hard to climb out of those. So with information that needs to be inspiration.

Udo Erasmus:
And if people are inspired and they feel life is good, that’s when you’re inspired. That’s what it feels like. Well, then you make the changes you need to stick around. But if you’re depressed, you won’t make any changes. Why look after yourself like this crummy anyway? And if you’re depressed, you know, sometimes people kill themselves.

Udo Erasmus:
So if you want to make changes in a society or in a person, you have to be able to inspire them. And so that became really important. And then I wrote a book called The Book on Total Sexy Health. The eight key parts designed by nature. And there we go into awareness and light energy and inspiration and the physical body and then survival smarts, social group environment and big picture.

Udo Erasmus:
Because everything affects health. So if you want the best life possible, you have to be fully present in all of your being, on all those levels, at the same time and your surroundings. And the one place where you’re not going to be is lost in thoughts in your head. That’s the short version.

Dr E:
And now that you touched upon it, that is one of the things that from reading your books and from the kind of work that you do and speaking with Tony Robbins and with Deepak Chopra and doing all these different things, how you’re inspiring others really to change their lives, in so many ways. I really like that overall encompassing holistic approach to health and to really us as human beings, because that’s really the only way to encompass the whole thing.

Dr E:
You know, as Western medicine has been specializing further and further into smaller and smaller areas, we tend to try to compartmentalize everything that happens. And in reality, the more specialized that we become… I mean, I used to do just stem cell treatments, clinically. And the more we realized and the more we looked into it, we noticed that you still need to address the human being as a whole. You still need to look at nutrition and lifestyle and avoiding toxins and eating well and doing all these different things.

Dr E:
So I really, really appreciate your holistic point of view. And you’ve been saying this for literally decades. And how does it actually feel for you who’s been doing this for almost 40 something years, since the 80s, that you’ve got poisoning and started doing your own research?

Dr E:
Because doing research back then wasn’t like now that you could just Google, right?

Udo Erasmus:
No, no. I had to go to the library. I spent days in the library digging in actual books that were on the shelves, digging them out and going through them and reading this research. You know, the reading is still the same, but I can do it from home. I don’t even have to put on my underwear to go on Google.

Dr E:
Exactly. And when you started talking about all these things, how does it feel for you to look at the world… I feel like we’re at a point where we’re starting to turn a corner and we’re starting to embrace this. So how does it feel for you that the rest of the world is finally catching up to it?

Udo Erasmus:
We’re turning a corner. But one thing it’s very interesting, like there were these people who were called masters: Buddha, Krishna and Christ, and there’s a bunch of them. Right? They always said what you should put first is to be fully present in all of your being. And they said it in different ways. And they taught the people who followed them how to do that. And they were teachers of human nature because they were fully present in theirs.

Udo Erasmus:
So they knew what they were talking about when they were talking about all of these issues. And they always said, put that first and then if you put that first. Everything else will fall into place, you know. And Socrates did it, too, he said. Know thyself. He didn’t say no everything but thyself. He said, know thyself. And the unexamined life is not worth living.

Udo Erasmus:
So why didn’t he say know Everything but thyselves? That’s what we do. So what everybody who is wise, who has ever lived on this planet has said, put that first. We’ve always put it last. And we’re now in a place where, because we haven’t put it first when we’ve put it last.

Udo Erasmus:
We’re messing up the environment. Where politics is completely screwed up. Our minds are crazy. Our relationships don’t work. Our health is going down. And finally, when we run out of stupid distractions to pursue, we’re now having pressure because nothing is working to actually take on as our last resort what all the wise people said should be our first resort. And guess what? It still works! Even when you put it as a last resort. But we could have saved ourselves a lot of craziness if we have put it first.

Udo Erasmus:
But, you know, hindsight is always 20 20. But we are now under pressure for things to change because everybody looks around, says, you know what? The way we’re doing it, it can’t go on like that. And we always wanted everybody else to change, but not ourselves. But now we’re up to the point where we’re saying, you know what, if I don’t change, nothing is going to change. And the only place where I can make change, make changes is in myself, because I can’t force you to change, but I can choose to change myself.

Dr E:
Yeah, that’s when they say things like control the controllables. And really the only controllable is what we think and what we decide to do for ourselves.

Udo Erasmus:
Or where we decide to focus our awareness.

Dr E:
Now, is this what you called the thirst of the heart? Is this kind of like part of that concept? Because I’ve heard you talk about this.

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah. OK, let me talk about thirst of the heart. There is something in us that is restless and feels empty or feels like we lost something. And we did. We lost our focus of our awareness on the awareness that is the core of our being out of which comes life, out of which comes the body, out of which comes everything else.

Udo Erasmus:
And we feel content and fulfilled and whole and rich, only when we bring our awareness to the place where that begins in us, in our core. When we were in our mother’s womb, I call it the Buddha tank, because in that place we were just floating. There was nothing to do. There was nowhere to go. It was safe mostly. Right. We just hung out with our awareness in its source. Inside. In life. And then when we came out, we had to get to know the world. So our awareness went out through our senses. What’s that? Listen to that. Oh, yeah. That’s beautiful, right? Oh, don’t hit me. You know. And so we did all the stuff that we had to learn to get along in the world physically.

Udo Erasmus:
And in that process, our awareness went from being present inside, but absent outside, to now being present outside, but absent inside. And when we disconnected from our inner connection, that’s where search of the heart came from. That thirst of the heart is to feel whole, to feel one. To feel fulfilled. To feel complete. To feel loved. All of the good stuff that we’re looking for. We have in the core of our being sitting there waiting for us to come home to it and to enjoy it.

Udo Erasmus:
And the thirst of the heart is a starting point because it aches, your heart aches and you feel it in your chest. And it has nothing to do with your plumbing. It’s not physical. It’s just there this little feeling of blue, lonely. I’ve got ten pages of different words people use for that.

Udo Erasmus:
So that feeling. And in no culture do I know, as a culture, is that feeling addressed. You know, we know where to go when our colon is full. We know where to go when our bladder is full. We know what to do when we’re tired. We know what to do when we’re horny. We know what to do when we’re hungry or thirsty. But we don’t know what to do with the ache of the heart.

Udo Erasmus:
And it is the single greatest gift we’ve been given other than being alive, because that is our starting point for the journey back to our wholeness. The journey back to our magnificence.

Udo Erasmus:
Every human being has that magnificence. Every human being feels that thirst. Although they call it all kinds of different names. And we tend to misidentify the source of it because we think it’s about something out there when it’s actually our loss of ourselves that created that in.

Udo Erasmus:
But then when that distraction stops, that we’ve gotten into, then we’re back to that. It’s funny.

Udo Erasmus:
Grandma died. She died perfectly. No problem. I’ve got the problem right. Why is that? Because it’s not about, grandma. It’s because when she died, I fell back to my original problem, which is my disconnection to myself, for which she became a substitute. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
And when this is full and grandma dies, you remember her with fondness and with love and with kindness. And you know that everyone who checks in, will have to check out. So you’re going to miss her, but you’re not going to be beside yourself with grief, because most of the grief that we go beside ourselves about is the grief of our loss, of our connection to ourselves.

Udo Erasmus:
When that gets reconnected, everything on the planet is doable. And until we get connected, we will not fix the problems on the planet.

Dr E:
I see. Is that also kind of like the reason why you see so many people and so much dissatisfaction? I feel… I don’t know if it’s just because now we’re learning more about this, because we’re hearing more about other people kind of like social media and all these different places. But is this also part of the reason why people keep looking outside for validation? Because we have forgotten that ability to look inside of us and we tend to make other people’s journeys, our own goals. And we tend to internalize what they’re doing.

Dr E:
And oh, so if I want to do this, I need to do it at that level or I need to do it this exact same way. And you see, so many people, I’ve had so many people here in the show talking about pursuing a specific goal, whether it was becoming a doctor, becoming a lawyer or getting an MBA or doing this or doing that. And then when they realized that they had to, they’re like, is this it?

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah. Those are all distractions, like our professional goals. It’s a distraction because I hope that if I make a million dollars or I become a famous doctor, or I land the right girl, then somehow I will feel taken care of. And it never happens because the care is already in me. It’s just that I’m not looking where it is. I’m looking elsewhere.

Udo Erasmus:
And so these are all, that’s what I call substitutes. These are all substitutes for getting back in touch with ourselves. After that, you can still have the girlfriend and you can still be a doctor and you can still be a millionaire. But you’ll be doing it because you feel rich, because you feel whole, because you’re attractive when you’re not always needy. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
All of those things will come easier and you’ll have more fun because you won’t put the burden of your wholeness onto somebody else or onto something else because that’s crazy.

Udo Erasmus:
You know, if you put that on a relationship, I mean, I can tell you my original relationship. Right. I saw the love in her. She saw the love in me. I didn’t see it in me. She didn’t see it in her. I expected to get it from her. She would complete me. She thought I would complete her. And then when it came into the relationship, she couldn’t get in touch with the love in her to bring it out. And I couldn’t get in touch with the love in me to bring it out. Well, then, where the hell is the love in the relationship supposed to come from if neither person can get to it?

Udo Erasmus:
So what I say now to people is, look, you’re not ready for a relationship until you have committed to a relationship with your own life. Because when you’re fully present, then you can be a good husband and a good father and a good person and a good worker. But if you’re not in touch with yourself, you’re always going to try to take something out of those situations. Rather than saying “hey, I feel taken care of. So let me just see how I can help.”

Udo Erasmus:
And that’s the difference between being fulfilled and not fulfilled. If you’re unfulfilled, you’re always going to try and take things to fill yourself up. And it’s not going to work. And you’re going to be dissatisfied and you’re going to continue to be unfulfilled.

Udo Erasmus:
And when you finally take your awareness home, the prodigal son returns home, to where the love has been waiting for him the whole time. When you go to that place, it’s like, “oh, I’m taken care of. And if I don’t feel taken care of. I know where to go to feel taken care of: inside. Well, now that I’m taken care of, it doesn’t all have to be about me anymore. Where can I help make it better for everything?”.

Udo Erasmus:
So then it makes sense to clean up the environment and then it makes sense to help mom with the kids. All right. And then it makes sense that people with different opinions get together with respect for themselves and then respect for each other and then sort out their differences so they can make the country work.

Udo Erasmus:
Right? And then when you have disagreements, you don’t immediately drop bombs on everybody. That’s insane. That’s mental illness. War is mental illness, right? Why? Because we’re filled with love and we’re filled with care and we just block it off and then we go and do things that are completely unjust.

Udo Erasmus:
You know, there are no just wars. I knew it early because I was 2 when the communists were chasing us and the allies were shooting at us. Both sides of the war, I’m not impressed by.

Udo Erasmus:
And the idea is, well, we’re right and they’re wrong. And well, we did it because of this. That’s all B.S. That’s all B.S. You know? And what the pressure on us is, if you put one person in control of 300 million or 36 million or however many there are in the country you live in. You put one person in control and you don’t put yourself in control, at least of your part of the country, and become the prime minister or the president of your life, your sphere of influence, then you’re neglecting what you need to do in order for your country to work. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
And the head of the country is only one person. He can only pick up one shovel. But you’ve got to pick up thirty six million shovels to straighten out your country. He can’t do any more than you can. And the rest of us just blah, blah, blah. Maybe he can inspire people to pick up shovels. That’s the best job a head of state can do.

Udo Erasmus:
But, you know, a lot of them are corrupt, and a lot of them just milk the populations and enrich themselves. And that’s more and more prevalent everywhere. And ultimately, it goes back to there’s 8 billion people who could live their lives lit up from within. Be self responsible for their sphere of influence, do what needs to be done to create the kind of country they want to live in, in their sphere of influence.

Udo Erasmus:
And when thirty six million people in Canada, where I am, do that… You think, what kind of a country is that going to be? Living lit up from within, in harmony. Because when you’re lit up from within, light’s already there, when you feel it, when you see it. You don’t steal other people’s stuff. So then we can live together in harmony. And then when we live together in harmony, making sure that everybody’s basic needs are taken care of on a long term sustainable basis, is actually really easy to do.

Udo Erasmus:
But until we feel taken care of, we are not going to clean up the environment. We are not going to clean up the politics. We are not going to clean up the relationships. We are not going to clean up our own health. And we’re going to basically, you know, we may not make it to the end of the century.

Dr E:
Now, do you think that these things are happening, as you just talked about, jealousy and thirst for power and all these different things, Do you think those are happening because, as individuals, are these signs that people are failing to find happiness? That they’re blocking their own joy, as you describe at some point?

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah, well, I wouldn’t say that they’re blocking it. I would say that they lost it when they came out into the world. And there’s nothing that recommends us to go back to that. We could go to school and have a course on how to sit still and bring your awareness inside. And we could be practicing that from childhood on. But there is no course like that in school.

Udo Erasmus:
So we didn’t learn that. The going away from ourselves is automatic because we have to get to know the world. Coming back has to be deliberate. But most people don’t know that yet. And so what they do is they pursue one thing after another.

Udo Erasmus:
I’ve talked to billionaires. They’re not any different than the poor people. They’re discontent. And then they come up with some big deal thing they’re gonna do. And there’s always the hope that when they succeed, they will feel OK.

Udo Erasmus:
And what happens is maybe they spend 10 years, 20 years, creating this huge thing and then they’re successful. And then for three days go: Yeah, I did it. And after that, they feel let down again or they feel depressed again or they feel restless again.

Udo Erasmus:
So then they say, well, I must have not saw it big enough or I must have thought in the wrong direction. So let me do this. And then again, that same thing starts. The hope is when I succeed, I will feel taken care of. And when they succeed, they get their three days of yay! And then they’re back again.

Udo Erasmus:
And these are all people, whether you’re talking about murderers or terrorists or heads of state or people who make a ton of money or athletes or adventurers. I mean, literally every human being or people who are looking for a husband or a wife. Pretty much everybody’s trying to look for what they lost inside. To be fulfilled on the outside. And it doesn’t work.

Dr E:
Yeah. We start thinking of happiness, of joy or fulfillment as a destination. As long as I can get to X, then I’ll be happy. I’ll be fulfilled. And we failed to realize that it’s within us. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah. It is a destination. But except you don’t have to take the journey because you already live at the destination. You just got to bring your awareness. Not very far. It’s like that far. From the ache to the fulfillment, it’s that far. Not far, you can’t even measure it, right, just right behind the ache is what you’re looking for. But it’s in you. It’s not outside, it’s in you.

Udo Erasmus:
And so the turn around is: I’m going out for that, looking this, here, looking there, gotta have this. Get, get, get, take, take, take. It’s to bring it inside and then you go. Finally, I have what I’ve been looking for all my life. OK, well, now what? Now what? Oh. I want to help. I want to help. Whatever, wherever I can help. I want to help. Why? Because I’m okay. I don’t need anything more.

Udo Erasmus:
I mean, you still got to eat and food and all of that. That’s all simple stuff. Right? That’s all simple stuff. There’s plenty of food on the planet, there’s plenty of water. You know, if we stop putting our sewage in it, you know. So there’s lots of water, food, air, it’s all there. If we’re not wrecking it by our technology. So it’s there, the needs that we have are simple, but enjoying life is really the goal.

Udo Erasmus:
Because if you don’t enjoy your life, why take care of anything? If you don’t enjoy your life enough, people kill themselves. So what does it take to feel whole and fulfilled? Because when you live in the light, you’re ecstatic. Nobody in a moment of ecstasy kills themselves.

Udo Erasmus:
I gave a talk on peace once, and peace is also in the core of your being. And this woman asked the question, she said. With all this peace that you’re talking about. I hope you’re also against violence against women. I was like, well, that’s a good question, because I said to her. I have never heard of, read about or witnessed an act of violence against women carried out by anybody in a moment of peace.

Udo Erasmus:
So if peace makes violence against women go away, maybe we should focus on peace. Maybe we should develop peace. Maybe we should cultivate peace. And it’s true when I’m in peace, then Mexicans are OK. Right? Or when I’m in peace, it’s OK for there to be different people with different skin colors or people with different genders or people with different ages or people with different cultures or people with different dress codes or people with different daily habits. It’s all Ok.

Udo Erasmus:
Because when I feel content, I don’t have to have an opinion about everything and I don’t have to try to force everybody to believe the same B.S. that this is working for me. So why would I do that?

Udo Erasmus:
The cure to most of those issues on the planet is reconnection to self. For each individual. And if eight billion people do that, this is gonna be a very fine planet to live in. And the cleanup won’t take long. But we will not do that if we don’t first clean ourselves up.

Udo Erasmus:
It starts from the core of our being, and from there we can affect the world, influence the world, change what we do and model change.

Dr E:
Now, is this reconnection, and I want to tie a couple of things that you’ve mentioned already. You spoke at the beginning about your book, Total Sexy Health and the eight steps that you detail there. Is that reconnection part of those steps?

Udo Erasmus:
Yes, it’s the first, second and third of the eight parts. One is called internal awareness. One is called Life Energy and one is called inspiration. Those three are the most neglected parts because they’re the internal parts. We pay some attention to our thinking, maybe not enough. We pay some attention to the body and then the rest of it is all outside world. Well, who is it that’s creating that outside world?

Udo Erasmus:
Look, if I’m in peace, if I feel peace, then I see peace everywhere in the world. Because peace has always been everywhere in the world. But the thing is only peace knows that. So if I can’t see peace in the world, it’s because peace is not looking, right?

Udo Erasmus:
That same world. If I’m angry, I’ll see enemies. If I’m afraid, I’ll see danger. If I’m a thief, I’ll see only the places where I can steal something. Our identity, our sense of ourselves not only creates our perception, but it actually also creates world.

Udo Erasmus:
So you want a world in peace, you need to be peace and then your behavior into the world will be behavior that comes from peace. And if you want to create an angry world, then just be angry. Right. And then you beat up on people and then they’ll get angry and then they’ll beat up on people, and then you can create a world where everybody beats up on everybody.

Dr E:
The world seems to be doing well on that front.

Udo Erasmus:
We’ve done too well on that part. We have not done much to create a world of peace by bringing our awareness to the peace that we are.

Dr E:
And it’s funny that you mention this because another episode to normally we talk more about physical health, obviously here in the show and with my background, what we deal with, but one of the first steps that I always tell people, it doesn’t matter what kind of thing they want to improve their health about. It’s usually not about doing something as opposed to stop doing something else.

Dr E:
They’re causing this onto themselves. Right? And the problem that we identify or one of the big things that I place a lot of attention on, is to be aware.

Dr E:
We are not aware of what we’re putting in our mouth. We’re not aware of what we’re watching on TV, what we’re listening to, what we’re speaking, what we’re seeing, what we’re doing. And basically what you’re saying is that because we’re also not aware of ourselves, of what we’re looking for, of our own fulfillment. And I totally agree with you, you think that that has got to be the very first step.

Udo Erasmus:
And what’s interesting about that is that there is good research that shows that when you do take the inner journey and you do relax and you do get in touch with what’s indestructible in you, you actually reverse aging without doing anything else.

Udo Erasmus:
Why? Because you’re getting rest. You know, we’re living in a time where it’s like work hard, work hard, do whatever it takes. Go, go, go, go, go. Right? Get ahead. Competition. You know? And everybody who is motivational they say do more, do more, do more. Then if they’re smart, they say, oh, yes. And play hard too. And what I add to that is, I say and do nothing hard too. Because that’s your balance, because the do, do, do turns you into doo doo. You get burned out, right?

Udo Erasmus:
That’s the big burnout with all the stuff that we get motivated and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and push ourselves to do. There has to be a balance between the incessant doing, and complete inactivity.

Udo Erasmus:
And in that complete inactivity we get our rejuvenation. We get better insights. Our lives become easier because we don’t have to retrace our steps because we screwed stuff up. Because in the time you spend with yourself, you also get to organize your day. So you’re not doing, oh you go over there, but you also have to go over there. Oh, and then you got to go over there again. And then your time is not effectively spent.

Udo Erasmus:
So people sometimes say, well, I don’t have an hour to spend by myself doing nothing every day. And I say no. Yeah, actually, it’ll save you two hours of screwing up your schedule because you actually got it organized before you got out.

Dr E:
It’s kind of like that Indian proverb that says that you only need to meditate and you need to sit down and meditate for 10 minutes unless you don’t have time, in which case you need to meditate for an hour.

Udo Erasmus:
I haven’t heard that, but yea, for sure. Yeah. This whole idea, I don’t have time. You know, in meditation, you’re in the timeless. There’s no time in the place where your deepest being is.

Dr E:
You know, now that you brought it up, I was probably for many years, that exact same thing you just described. It’s all about, OK, let’s work hard and hard and hard and and now’s the time to really hustle. And now I need to do this, and sleeping three or four hours a night and going seven days a week and so on, and so forth. Then one of the most empowering things that I started doing at some point because of a mentor was I started both meditating and I started also journaling and planning every day.

Dr E:
So I started, like Jim Rohn says, and, you know, you never start your day until you’ve finished it on paper. Right. And that, for me, has been profound. I mean, the amount of things that you’re able to achieve and suddenly you realize that, oh, my God, I got time for everything. Or at least the things that are important. And sure, I’m not doing everything.

Udo Erasmus:
And now you’re using your mind for what it was meant to be used for as a servant to your life instead of random musings.

Dr E:
And of course, you cannot accomplish everything, but you get the one thing that is very, very important. And now I tie it with what you just shared with us. And it is peace of mind. That you realize, you know what, I did everything that was important today. And I took care of myself. And it was a great day.

Dr E:
Sure, I didn’t accomplish a million things, but I did the things that mattered. So, so far, we’ve touched upon three of the eight steps. What are the other five?

Udo Erasmus:
Ok. So the internal three, internal awareness, life, energy and inspiration. Number four is the body. That’s food and fitness and rest and detox and digestion and then activity obviously. So that one is where most of the energy goes when people talk about health, but they’re completely missing the foundation when they only focus on that.

Udo Erasmus:
Then the next one is survival smarts. And that is a combination that’s a mental thing based on feeling confidence, which is another thing that comes from the internal three. Confidence plus skills. So it’s good to have survival skills for those things that can possibly happen as crises where you live.

Udo Erasmus:
If you’re living on the side of an active volcano, it’s probably a good idea if you move, right? Or if you live under the high tide mark in a house. Well, that’s crazy. People wouldn’t do that. But if you live under the mark where a tidal wave would hit. Maybe you should build your house above that place where the tidal wave hits, right? Or maybe if you live in a place that’s given to floods. Maybe you can build dams and slow down the flow of water. Or you can have a dinghy so that in case it really floods, you can just go in the dinghy and go for a ride. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
Or if fire is an issue. Know how to use your fire equipment. Or if the earthquakes are an issue. Build your house in a way that survives the earthquake or know what you need to do or know where is someplace safe to go or have enough food around that you could live a week.

Udo Erasmus:
Food and water is –actually water is even more important than food– that you can live a week without external water while you’re waiting for rescue and all of that stuff. So there are things in survival that are useful to know.

Udo Erasmus:
And there are two pieces to it. One is to be content and confident. And the second one is to actually learn the skills. Well, that’s not any different than learning job skills. Everybody knows that that’s important.

Udo Erasmus:
Then there is a social group. Social group is about, on the one hand, you want to belong because you don’t belong to yourself or life yet. But then you give up your freedoms and your uniqueness to the group. And then the group expects you to cover their back, to have their backs, so to speak, even when they do things that should be exposed and should not be happening. And then you create weak groups. If your commitment is not to truce, but to people. And the group will put pressure on you so that can make you sick, too.

Udo Erasmus:
And then the next one is the environment. Nature. What we’ve done to it. But also nature is ninety nine percent resources and one percent danger. On the one hand, you want to be grateful and on the other hand, you need to have respect for nature. It’s powerful.

Udo Erasmus:
Then the last one is the big picture. That you’re live in a terminal condition. A little guy, little girl in an infinite universe. And to be okay with the fact that your time, your physical time here is temporary.

Udo Erasmus:
And then out of all of that comes what do you want to do? I want to be fully present in all of my being and my surroundings all at the same time. That’s called mastering what the masters master. And I don’t want to be lost in my head in random thoughts.

Udo Erasmus:
And then when you live like that, because number one purpose of life is not to accomplish houses and money and all of that stuff, not even kids. The number one purpose of life is that you were given this incredible gift. And if you don’t fully enjoy this gift, it’s a waste of gift because nobody else can enjoy it for you.

Udo Erasmus:
It’s not selfish to do that either, because that is your primary purpose. When all is said and done, how was your life? How much of what your life had in it, were you able to get in touch with and enjoy? Well, to me, that’s purpose enough. And then everything else.

Udo Erasmus:
Look, you help an old lady across the street and you go and eat when you’re hungry and you do something that helps everybody. That’s your contribution. And you do have to make some contribution to where you’re living. That’s just part of the fact that you’re not alone on the planet.

Udo Erasmus:
But in terms of your primary purpose, to be in that good space. And out of that good space, everything else becomes easy and you can be helpful and you don’t always have to get something back and you don’t have to go on strike because, you know, somebody didn’t notice that you did a nice thing, you know?

Dr E:
And we go back to what you said at the beginning that some people might say, well, no, the purpose of life is to enjoy and to have a family and to care for them and to raise your children. But in reality, if you take good care of yourself, respecting yourself and enjoying this gift that you have to the maximum… Then you can empower….

Dr E:
I’m thinking right now, if I can somehow also empower and teach these things to my kid, then he’ll take care of himself.

Udo Erasmus:
Right. You are right. When I fulfill my purpose. I show up in a certain way. I model that for everybody that is around. If I don’t do that, I will close that off for my kids.

Udo Erasmus:
When I’m fully present, by the way, I’m also more attractive. And you know, I’m 77 and I still get proposition, right? Why is it? Not because I’m so young, obviously.

Udo Erasmus:
But because there is an energy. There’s an energy around being fully present and it’s an attractive energy because everybody has that energy and unconsciously or subconsciously they want to live in that energy. And if they can’t, then they’ll gravitate towards people who do.

Udo Erasmus:
And if then you can help them get to that in themselves, you’ll have a relationship that will never end. Same thing with the kids. Right. Because the kids get lost in the world. What if they had a model? As a parent of someone who had gotten lost, found themselves again and now lives present in their own life.

Udo Erasmus:
They will grow up confident, they will find learning easy. They won’t be always wondering why am I screwed up? They won’t have to do all kinds of really crazy things, trying to figure out where to find that thing that they can’t find.

Udo Erasmus:
Because something in them is calling for, a thirst of the heart. It’s the call of the heart to come back home to life. In the kids, too. And that starts early. And so from that perspective, there is no downside to being fully present in your life.

Udo Erasmus:
You give more. You shine more. You feel better. You look better. You do better. Everything’s better. And if you think about it, you know, if everybody, Eight billion people on the planet lived fully present in their lives, this planet would be glowing. We’re wired for that. We’re just not looking into that wiring. But we are all wired for that experience.

Dr E:
There is something that you’ve probably been asked about with the huge amount of people that you’ve spoken to, But isn’t this mentality, isn’t this quest a bit selfish?

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what they say. You know who says that? All the people who want you to serve their agenda. It’s very simple, right?

Udo Erasmus:
And it’s not selfish because it’s a gift that was given to you personally, just like it was given to me personally. If you don’t enjoy it and I don’t enjoy it, the gift is wasted because nobody else can enjoy that gift for us.

Udo Erasmus:
So it becomes wasted. So we are wasting our lives because we are not fully present. Because you only get you tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Right. You’ve got four billion years of dust and water. Then you get one hundred years as a human being. Then you get four billion years of dust and water.

Udo Erasmus:
In that hundred years, it’s going tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
Are you enjoying yourself yet? Tick, tick, tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
Are you enjoying yourself? Can you enjoy yourself more? Tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
What are you doing to enjoy yourself? Tick, tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
Why are you upset? Tick, tick, tick. Tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
Why are you angry about everything? Tick, tick. Tick, tick, tick.

Udo Erasmus:
Why do you feel empty and you’re not actually going to the place where you feel full? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
And that’s the life. And so it’s not selfish.

Dr E:
No, it it would be foolish to not do it.

Udo Erasmus:
And I also say sometimes when people say that, I say, listen, I think people are not selfish enough. Cause if you were really selfish, you would do what is really good for you, which is to get fully present. And then, that would be good for everybody else, too. Because you would begin to model what it’s like. If you want to call it selfish. I’m OK with that. It’s a good selfish.

Dr E:
Yeah, in a way that’s even kind of paradoxical because by being selfish and focusing on being fully present, you’re benefiting those around you.

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah, and then you become selfless because it’s not about you anymore. It’s not about you getting anything. Because you got it.

Udo Erasmus:
And then, literally, then because I don’t have to spend time trying to get my needs taken care of like I used to do and all these crazy ideas. I had some pretty crazy ideas. Right?

Udo Erasmus:
I actually have more time for people. I actually have more time to give. I actually have more time for selfless and because I feel taken care of. It’s not always a horse trade. I don’t always have to. I’ll only do it if I get something back. I’ll do it because it needs to be done.

Udo Erasmus:
Hey. I don’t know how that can be a bad thing.

Dr E:
Not at all. I was just, you know, just as we were talking, kind of like trying to come up with things, because the funny thing is whenever you try to help someone. And if I, from my position as a physician, I always find it hard to kind of promote change because people are very quick to figure out the reasons why they cannot do that. Right.

Dr E:
And they’re quick to what I always say, that people like to hear good things about their bad habits. So they will always kind of like, remember, oh, no, no. But I cannot exercise because the other doctor told me that it’s bad for my knees. And the other thing. So that was kind of like trying to find what somebody might say. And I’m sure that you have all the possible comebacks after all these years doing this.

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah. It’s a joke, even as a kid in your family. Sometimes when they call you selfish, it’s because they want you to be doing something else that helps them.

Udo Erasmus:
It’s a church that wants to own your soul. Which is like that in itself is a contradiction. The church that wants to own your soul tells you it’s not OK to master what the masters master. It’s not OK for you to spend time inside quiet, enjoying what it feels like to be alive. Even though that’s the gift you were given to enjoy. But then they put a whole other spin on it and, Oh, no, no, it’s no. It’s sacrilege for you to think you could master what the masters master. And you shouldn’t do that. And you know, the devil comes disguised as an angel of light. So don’t believe anybody who says that, you know. And then we just get so mind… you know what… Right?

Udo Erasmus:
But the truth is, you were given life not by the church, but by the universe. To make your body, your temple. Worship not inside, because it’s there. And the master is in you. Life is the master. Everything raised, nothing runs. Everything is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent in your body. That’s the definition of God.

Dr E:
And the way you put it, regarding our own life, I think it’s beautiful. I had never thought of it that way. But looking at our life as a precious gift, which only we are able to enjoy. That’s it. No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we love the people around us, we can not share part of our lives with them.

Dr E:
We cannot say, you know what? I don’t feel like living one hundred and twenty. That’s what I was supposed to get. So I’ll give 20 years to my wife and I’ll give fifteen years of enjoyment to my kid. So I think looking at it that way is profoundly… is beautiful, really. So thank you so much for sharing that with us.

Dr E:
So, before we wrap things up as well, this shows mission is to educate and empower really the everyday person, kind of like what you do in so many different levels. But what we try to do is empower them with tools and strategies to take control of their health, to prevent disease. And so I always like to ask our guests to share their top two or three pieces of actionable advice to achieve… So in your opinion, based on what you’ve shared with us, what would be your top two or three recommendations for that person listening to us right now who just heard about this, thirst of the heart and about finding fulfillment within themselves.

Dr E:
What do you think that as soon as they pull their car over and not do anything silly while driving, What are the top two or three things that they can start doing?

Udo Erasmus:
I would say the first one is make time to sit with yourself. And if you feel the heart ache or the thirst of the heart, if you feel that, be with it. Stay with it. Feel it. Accept it. Embrace it. Maybe even be grateful for it because it’s the greatest gift you’ve been given, other than being alive, because it is your heart calling your awareness to come back home to yourself, to life.

Udo Erasmus:
That’s, I would say the first one. And do that every day. Five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes. On weekends, take an hour. So do that first. If you get to a point where you say, I’m doing it, but there’s still something that I’m not getting. Then find someone who can help you. There are people who know their way around that, they’re not government employees, generally speaking. They’re not in our educational institutions, generally speaking. They basically live in the world and help people who ask for that help.

Udo Erasmus:
The really good ones don’t charge, that would be one way to qualify them. If you’re a fake student, you will find a fake master. To be a real student, be sincere. If you really want to know what you need, you will find what you need to be able to take that journey. So that’s the first thing.

Udo Erasmus:
The second thing is. Think of yourself as a creature made by nature and in nature. So in everything that you do, look at what it means to live in line or live aligned with nature.

Udo Erasmus:
So for instance, when it comes to food, life’s mandate for every creature was fresh, whole raw, organic. For the food, right? Fresh, whole, raw, organic. So fresh, whole raw, organic is the direction that you ought to aim from wherever you are right now and whatever you’re doing and however you’re eating, head in that direction.

Udo Erasmus:
If you’re frying, go to boiling in water. If you’re boiling in water, go to raw. Frying is the worst thing we’ve ever invented to do to food. And it increases inflammation and it increases cancer. And it’s behind many of our degenerative conditions.

Udo Erasmus:
Processing is the big no no, because every time we process foods, we don’t make them better, we make them worse.

Udo Erasmus:
Keep aligned with nature in which ever way you can. Go barefoot on the lawn, you know, take your clothes off and get some sunshine on your butt and then be active.

Udo Erasmus:
Be active, but you don’t have to join a gym, you know be active. Just be active. Do stuff, you know, play. Play, you know, try things out. Do things you’ve never done before. And they’re always a big learning curve at the front, but always be doing something that you’re new at and become good at it. And if you do those three things, you’ve got a lot going.

Dr E:
Certainly, certainly. Now Udo, while this has been an incredible conversation and one that I have profoundly enjoyed, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

Dr E:
But before we say goodbye, I want to take a moment to acknowledge you, not only for your generosity in spending this time here with us, but for your life’s work and for positively impacting so many people around the world throughout your career. So thank you.

Udo Erasmus:
Yeah, I’m just getting started. I’m after eight billion.

Dr E:
That’s great to hear. One last question, though. Did you have a good time in the highway to health?

Udo Erasmus:
Yes, I am enjoying the highway to health. I am definitely on it. I am straddling the white line, but they are not very many people on it, so that’s good.

Dr E:
Well, let’s try to get a lot more.

Udo Erasmus:
Get more on it, then I’ll drive on the right side.

Dr E:
Sounds great. So for everyone else. Thank you for tuning in. You’ve been listening to Dr. E and Udo Erasmus. As always, if you have any questions about what we discussed in this episode, make sure to use the link in this episode’s description to ask them.

Intro | Outro:
Thank you for listening to Dr. E’s Highway to Health Show. Helping you learn the science of living ageless. Did you enjoy the show? Please like, share and subscribe where you listen to podcasts.

Intro | Outro:
Doctor E wants to hear from you. Go to dre.show. Again, that’s doctor e dot show. Until next time. This is Dr. E’s Highway to Health. Helping you live ageless.

Dr E:
Didn’t I tell you this was a great interview? I hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as I enjoyed interviewing Udo.

Dr E:
He is such a generous and kind person that I wish I had had more time to spend talking to him. Remember that there’s links to everything we spoke about in this episode description as well as in our complete show notes.

Dr E:
Before we go, remember to please take a moment and leave us a rating and a review. It helps us not only get noticed by other people, but also as feedback for what you would like to listen to, what you think of her episodes, what we can do to improve, which are the types of interviews you prefer, and anything else you’d like to say about our show, really.

Dr E:
The easiest way to rate our show is by going to dre.show/rate That’s r a t e.

Dr E:
Once again, I hope you enjoyed this episode. You’ve been listening to Udo Erasmus and Dr. E talk about the thirst of the heart. Thank you for tuning in. I will see you here next week. And remember, you are on the highway to health and I’m your guide to get you there.

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Our Guest for this Episode:

Health and Wellness Expert

Udo Erasmus is a pioneer of the health and wellness industry having created FLAX OIL and the Healthy Fats Movement.

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