Story Samurai

Eleanor (00:00)
two years ago, my family and I moved to Brazil. We hadn't intended on moving to Brazil, we had intended on moving to the UK. However, my husband's visa was denied. So we had a choice, we split up the family or we moved to Brazil. And I had been attempting to learn to speak Portuguese for about three years prior to this.

I was still very afraid to speak and to have actual conversations with people. And so for the first probably year that I lived in Brazil, I didn't speak to anybody the whole time. I literally just said all the time, I don't speak Portuguese. You're not a Portuguese. And that's all I said to anybody. After about a year,

of having no friends, of having made no connections with anybody and having made no progress with my Portuguese, I decided to throw myself to the walls and I started doing daily TikTok lives, speaking Portuguese to Brazilians. And I got off the first, I'm getting goosebumps even talking about it. I remember getting off the first live

that was my proudest moment. I had spoken Portuguese almost the entire time. I had communicated with people in Portuguese so that they understood what I was saying. And I never thought that I would be able to learn a language, not in a million years. for me to have done it finally after faltering for so long was a huge relief. And I kept doing it every day until I finally got into that comfort zone where I could say,

I speak Portuguese now.

Ari Block (01:37)
That is incredibly inspiring. So now our audience is very confused because in your bio, they read that you were a financial executive, but you're in Brazil and I know, and they're gonna learn in a second, that you have something very special planned for the next stage of your life. And before we get to that, we're gonna keep the audience in suspense for a moment. I'll tell you a short story. So we just got back from Italy.

and I'm talking to this waitress and I've been studying Duolingo basically for three weeks and I'm like I'm gonna speak Italian even if I can't speak shit in Italian so I'm speaking to this barista and I asked for a coffee so un caffè per favore and I say to her she says americano and now that's an insult because Italian people don't drink americano they drink espresso especially

depending on the time of the day. So that's kind of an insult. you're a tourist. You want an Americano, right? So I answer correctly. I say, no, espresso. And then I continue and I say the following. Now there's a song. I don't know if you know it. It's called La Italiano. And basically the song, one of the things in the song says, in Italy, I'm a real Italian. Real Italians, all the coffee is short, ristretto. So I say to her, io sono Italiano. I'm Italian.

I am Italian, real Italian. And real Italian is from the song and it means a proper Italian. And so she of course fell down laughing. So I love your story because I think language is such an important way to connect to people and hearing you go through that journey, I felt the goosebumps as well. That's absolutely amazing. And you're in Brazil, you're starting a new phase of your life and you're doing something incredibly interesting. Tell us about it.

Eleanor (03:26)
was inspired probably around a year ago now to create a healing center. Now I received this idea in meditation and I work with my intuition. That's what I do. I follow my intuition. I live an intuitive lifestyle. So I saw this vision. It was kind of in a jungle. There were rooms and I knew that it was a healing center. It was a place people could go to unlearn.

the limitations that they are living by and embrace a new lifestyle following their intuition. And so I had absolutely no idea how I would do this. I was in Brazil. I didn't have a visa to work. I had had no income for about a year and a half at this point. I was coaching people, but I wasn't yet making an income from coaching people.

I didn't know where to start. It just seemed like a huge project. But my intuition had shown me what it wanted me to do, so I just started doing it. I put together a pitch deck. I started talking to people about the idea. I started getting ideas, getting momentum, connecting with other people that had opened similar spaces or wanted to open similar spaces.

Ari Block (04:38)
Okay, this, this, this, I need to stop you right there because this is crazy. I just need to bring the audience with us in this journey. You're a CFA. You were working for an investment company, right? Before that, if I'm not mistaken, you work for a bank, RBC, and you're an analyst. So you come from a very heavy analytical background and you clearly had some kind of mental breakdown associated with visions and you completely change your life.

Eleanor (04:49)
Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

you

Ari Block (05:08)
Like you've got to, we can't just jump there. We've got to go through the goriness of, look, I am weary of talking to see, you know, finance people because no offense there, but very often they're not, you are probably the most interesting, you know, finance person, you know, I've ever spoken to. So walk us through your, let's call it existential crisis with the finance world. And I'm being a little dramatic here. I apologize, but you made a change.

Eleanor (05:10)
Yeah.

Hehehehe

Yeah.

Ari Block (05:38)
Give us a little bit of background before we jump into this exciting new phase.

Eleanor (05:38)
I made a change.

Okay, so I had worked in finance for about 15 years when I decided to open a cafe. So I was living in Sydney, Australia at the time, and I started putting together ideas and plans for a cafe while I was working in my finance job and actually while I was finishing my CFA. So all at the same time, I was working full time, I was studying for my CFA, and I was planning to open a cafe.

I opened the cafe and later left finance with a vow never to go back. Following that, I opened another cafe and then a fine dining restaurant.

Ari Block (06:24)
Wait, wait, why why we're not gonna let you off the hook. Why did you make the vow never to go back to finance?

Eleanor (06:28)
Hehehehehe

So finance, I enjoyed it. The money was good. The people were friendly, but I was never filled with passion by it. I did finance because I liked numbers. I studied mathematics at university. I liked numbers. I would have got into accounting simply for lack of knowledge that other careers existed using numbers. And then I remember after I left uni, somebody else went into finance and I was like,

I don't have to be an accountant. There's this whole other industry I can do. So I kind of fell into finance and the role that I was doing, the analyst role, it was super easy. So we did monthly reporting. So I would only work really for about five days of the month for the other three weeks of the month. It was kind of project work. It was boring. And the career progression from where I was as an analyst,

would be into management. And it's just not a route that I wanted to take. I didn't want to get myself further into finance, managing other people, helping other people with their careers. When it wasn't a career I got any fulfillment or enjoyment out of, like I always knew there was something else out there for me. I just didn't know what it was. And it was a very comfortable life, you know, with really good money, like the hours weren't so bad. I was able to work on other projects.

while at work because for three weeks of the month we weren't busy. So, and for 15 years I did that. I was just, I was ready for the next challenge. And I love cooking. I love cooking. I grew up cooking with my father, cooking with my grandmother. I, like everybody told me that the sweet treats I made and I used to have people over for dinner all the time was really, really good. So I wanted to give that a go. So I opened the cafe.

and then another cafe in a restaurant, never to go back to finance. And then it all got too much. So the cafes and the restaurant were incredibly successful. The restaurant almost got the equivalent of a Michelin star in its first year. They don't have Michelin stars in Australia, they have chef's hats. So we were half a point off in our first year. The cafes would have lines two hours long. People would line up in the baking sun.

for two hours to get a seat at my cafes. They were incredibly successful. But running a cafe and a restaurant together, you start work at 5 a and you finish work at 1 a Like it's not sustainable. And there's a massive chef shortage in Australia. I believe other parts of the world have this as well. So the staff turnover was constant and I was constantly having to step in as a waitress, as a barista, as a chef sometimes.

Ari Block (09:00)
Yes.

Yes.

Eleanor (09:19)
And so I always had to be there. I couldn't travel. I couldn't take time away. And at this time, so this was age like 28 to kind of 33. And I wanted to have a family. So I just I decided to give it all up. The restaurants were at a really great place. So I sold my share in the restaurants. It was like a year or two years before Covid.

thank goodness. I didn't have to go through that with you. Yeah, excellent timing. So I did really well. I made a lot of money out of that. And that was me done with restaurants. I didn't know what to do with myself.

Ari Block (09:47)
Good job there, you got, that's as lucky as you can get.

So you call yourself in your LinkedIn financial executive emotional coach. That's not true. You're a serial entrepreneur and a successful one at that. Is that a fair statement?

Eleanor (10:15)
Yes, I would say serial entrepreneur is definitely a fair statement because I did go back to finance after the restaurants because I didn't know what else to do with myself. I had a lot of money and I knew it wouldn't last forever. I wanted to make sure I invested the money into something that would create a future for me. And like me personally, if I have money in my bank account, I'm going to be spending it.

Ari Block (10:26)
It's okay.

Right? I'm right there with you.

Eleanor (10:43)
So I lived it up for like six months, traveling, partying, going to festivals, living by myself.

Ari Block (10:47)
Okay, okay. Hold on, hold on. We can't, I can't ignore this. Okay, in those six months, like I've been in a lot of great places. Mine is definitely like Finland and Italy are probably one of the two best. And I've been everywhere from, you know, the Tierra del Fuego, the Fire Valley in Argentina to, you know, the, in the North, probably Finland and Far East everywhere. What is your favorite? Like what was the best of the best in those six months?

Eleanor (11:16)
I've been to a lot of countries but my favourite is the USA. I go back there again and again and again. I know, I know, I knew before I said it you were going to be bored with the answer.

Ari Block (11:21)
No, no, no, no pandering to the Americans.

God. Okay, okay, fine. Tell me why. Tell me why. Okay, so for everybody listening, you know, I'm American in Colorado. Eleanor is in Brazil now, but she used to be in the UK. Why? Why America? Come on, we have such a bad rep in Europe. How did that come to be?

Eleanor (11:33)
So, well.

It's the variety for me. I love being able to do anything whenever I want. I love that in the US you can drive for an hour and a half and you can go skiing and then you can go another hour and a half and you can go to the desert, you can go to the city, you can go to the jungle, maybe not the jungle, but like the USA has everything. And the amount of times for the cafe I needed to...

Ari Block (12:07)
Yes.

Eleanor (12:10)
because we used to run bacon festivals. This is why it got so popular. This is why people lined up for so long. And whenever I wanted to buy something, accoutrements, for the bacon festival, I would have to get them from the US. And it just occurred to me that everything's in the US. Like when I go to a grocery store in the US and I see your shelves lined with every variety of every food you could ever imagine, and I compare that to what's available in Brazil.

Ari Block (12:16)
Nice.

Eleanor (12:38)
for example, where you can only buy Brazilian food. It's the variety. Like my life is all about variety. My life is about trying everything, experiencing everything. And to my mind, you can do that in the US better than anywhere else.

Ari Block (12:49)
I love that. I love that.

I love that. I love that. I appreciate that answer. We're in Colorado. I love Colorado. And you're right. You can go to the Great Sand Dunes. And that's an hour or so. And you can go to amazing waterfalls and amazing lakes. And you can go skiing in what I think is the best locations in the world, right? Vail and Aspen. And I love Breckenridge. I'm not a fan of the expensive places.

You're right, it is true. And, you know, we'll make, if you know what pilmeni is, we'll make pilmeni at home. But we can go to Euro stores and buy, you know, everything from spotting sprouts to, to, you know, all the European stuff to Brazilian stuff. Like, we just got caipirinhas the other day. So I agree with you. I think that's, I think that's a fair, fair answer. I do miss the, the picanha. I do miss the terrascarias.

Eleanor (13:39)
Nice.

Yeah.

Ari Block (13:48)
But there are certain things in Brazil that you have to do in Brazil. But fair enough. So, okay, so wonderful. And then, what's next? What happened after?

Eleanor (14:00)
And I went back to finance, but I was there temporarily, just knowing that I wanted to meet a guy, get married, have kids. That was my goal at that time. Yeah. So I did what I do. I set my intention. I wrote a list of all the...

Ari Block (14:08)
I applaud your honesty.

Eleanor (14:17)
attributes I would like in a man and I got myself on Bumble and Tinder and I dated and I met the man of my dreams, the guy that ticked all the things on this list that I had set myself. Within six months we were engaged and we got pregnant on the same day that we got engaged, which was also my sister's birthday. And...

Ari Block (14:37)
Wow. wow.

wow.

Eleanor (14:44)
And so I got that, right? That's what I wanted. I wanted a family. Yeah. Why not?

Ari Block (14:45)
You really do do everything at the same time. That's amazing.

Why not? I am totally in love with your outlook on how life should be lived. And I think you are the most amazing example of somebody who is, I'm going to take every ounce of life that I can get and I'm going to live it to the most. I just wish people would just listen carefully to you and absorb what you're giving out because this is how life needs to be lived. We don't have infinite time. We don't have infinite health.

We can work hard to make sure that we have as much of it that we can by eating healthy, thinking healthy. And we'll talk about that too, because I know you've got something to say about that. But at the end of the day, the clock is ticking. And all I can do is advise to everybody not to be at the side of the room just watching, but grab life by its horns, so to speak. So let me just like, I feel goosebumps just, I love this.

Okay, so, so.

Eleanor (15:49)
Just wait for the next part. It's gonna kill you.

Ari Block (15:51)
Yeah, well, I know, I set you up and die. so you're living life large. What does that mean?

Eleanor (16:01)
Well, so now I've got what I want, right? I've got my man, I've got my kids, and I'm doing this boring finance job. COVID hits. End of the world as we know it, right? So I have my first kid, COVID. I have my second kid, COVID. Airports are locked down in Australia. We were not flying in or out. Lockdown. Nobody going anywhere. So I couldn't see my family. My husband couldn't see his family. He's...

Brazilian. So we decided as soon as lockdown ends, we're out of there. We're leaving Australia. We're going to move to the UK. So we made plans to do that. We shipped our stuff to the UK. We shipped our dogs to the UK. We went to Brazil to await the visa, which should take two weeks. It didn't. It took six months. So we were stuck in Brazil for six months.

during which time I basically burnt through all the rest of the money that I had made from the restaurants because we were stuck with no income and we were in a pickle. So once we got the visa denial, we decided to stay in Brazil. And for the following, let's say, year, it was dire straits. No money, no income.

No idea what to do with our lives. And like just a struggle every month to magic rent from nowhere, to magic money for bills and food and to pay for the kids' school. And I knew, so I had this vision, right? I had this vision, the healing center. I didn't know how I was gonna do it. I had no idea, but I knew I was doing it. And so I set my mind on it.

on that single focus, right? Every single day I got onto TikTok and I was coaching. I was live coach, I still do it, live coaching on TikTok until I got like clients, my own clients. And I had to practice what I preach because I tell people to follow their intuition. I teach people how to follow their intuition. And opportunities came up to get income.

Right? And I had to decide, am I going to practice what I preach and stay focused on this one goal, or am I going to go back to finance, because I had a finance opportunity, and give up on this dream? I stuck with it. I stuck with it. And everybody was just telling me, you are crazy. Like, you need a job. Get a job. One of you needs to get, because my husband doesn't work either. He was working for a while.

Ari Block (18:37)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Eleanor (18:44)
at a gym, but the wages in Brazil are awful. He was working six days a week and earning $92 a month. So just terrible, right? Imagine going to work for six hours a day, knowing that you're earning like $5 for the entire day. It was demotivating. It wasn't paying our bills. It was just wasting his time, basically. I stuck with it. Single focus. I'm doing this. I'm doing this. No plan B. I'm doing this.

And I kept talking about it and I kept coaching and it all literally just magically fell into place. So last time I spoke with you, Ari, I was still looking for investors, right? Now I don't need them anymore. So my intuition led me to a place. Thank you. I'm getting goosebumps again. My intuition led me to a place that would be amazing for the Healing Center. It's a paradise island.

Ari Block (19:27)
Okay, so first of all, congratulations.

Eleanor (19:40)
And my intention was to purchase land and buy and build my own center. About a month ago, some friends of ours that own, we call it a posada in Brazil, a motel is probably the closest translation. They own a motel with four rooms and a small communal area. They've had enough of running it. They said, hey, we know you want to do this here. Do you want our hotel?

Like, I couldn't have planned it better myself. So from the 1st of September, my healing center is ready to go. Just as is. Somebody just gave me one.

Ari Block (20:17)
That is crazy. So, okay, so let's, okay, few things we need to do some administration here. Okay, where in Brazil is this?

Eleanor (20:29)
So this is gonna be in a place called Carreira in Bahia, Brazil. It's a very small, they call it an island because it's cut off by the river on one side, the ocean on the other side, and native tribal lands on the other side. So you can't access it. There's no cars there. You have to take a boat. It's just the perfect place to go and disconnect from everything.

Ari Block (20:34)
Question.

wow.

Question number two, who is your audience? Who can come and do this?

Eleanor (21:00)
My audience is particularly people sort of around my age, so kind of around midlife, that have put all of their focus into one area of their life, whether it be their family, their career, whatever it may be. And now they're ready for a more rounded experience. Or they've been through some life changing event recently, such as a divorce or moving to a new place.

and they want to restart their life, but they want to restart it and do it right this time and have a full life.

Ari Block (21:33)
And is this people in Brazil, America, anywhere in the world? Who are you? I know. Okay. So from, sorry.

Eleanor (21:38)
anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world. Most of my audience is in Australia, the UK and the US.

Ari Block (21:44)
Okay, so basically American going through what can only be described as a midlife crisis or similar to and wants to figure shit out but prefers not to buy a new car or divorce my wife. That's basically, that's, hey, like that's a reality, right? Let's be honest.

Eleanor (21:58)
Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, or if you do want to do that, come to us first and let's see if that's the right move for you. Because maybe it is.

Ari Block (22:08)
Yes, yes. I don't know if I agree with that. Maybe, but it's an expensive move, both the car and the divorce. So I would definitely say talk to Eleanor first before buying an expensive car or the car will probably be cheaper in the long run. Apologize for saying that. OK, so we understand who. Let's talk about the what.

Eleanor (22:23)
Exactly.

Ari Block (22:34)
So clearly, you know, I'm going through something. I want to get out. I want to rethink and I want to refocus. And I want to find basically the second stage of my life. I want to make sure that I'm getting the most out of it because I understand that I'm halfway to the grave. Right. How do you do that?

What do I expect to go through in this retreat?

Eleanor (22:59)
So the skills that I teach, there's two main disciplines that I work in. The first is Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is a very simple and important skill that people are not taught. Emotional intelligence is gaining control of your feelings in order to create your reality. And it's very simple to do.

but you've got to do it all the time. It's very simple. You need to feel your feelings. That's it. That's how to be emotionally intelligent. You need to feel your feelings. That's it. Most people don't do that. Most people repress their feelings or they express their feelings or they avoid their feelings. That is not emotionally intelligent. So that's the first part. The second part is the intuition, following your intuition. So on an experience at the Universal Healing Retreat,

You will start by bringing awareness to what it is that's holding you back, bringing awareness to the limiting beliefs that are running your subconscious programming and eliminating them. That's the first step. The second step is then to identify what it is you want to be doing. And we can do this using intuition.

So there are several skills that I teach on how to communicate with your intuition, how to sort of awaken your intuition, because most of us have dumbed ours down by avoiding our feelings and by distracting ourselves. So most of us don't have a good relationship.

Ari Block (24:30)
Right. The things we could do as five year olds, we've killed, right? Like kids can do this and yet adults have forgotten.

Eleanor (24:36)
Exactly. Yeah, so up to age five, we're good. After that, after we start school, we're done for. So...

Ari Block (24:44)
That's a sad testament in itself, but that's a topic for a conversation for a different day.

Eleanor (24:50)
Yeah, when NASA did research into it in like 1967 and they proved that every like 95 % of people have the capability of being a genius until they hit five and then the number steadily decreases until by the time you're 12, only 5 % of people are able to become geniuses, you know, whatever it is. Yeah, so we're like, we're forcing it out of people. And, and I want to bring it back. So, so we go through a process whereby we kind of

unlearn these limiting beliefs, we bring awareness, we let them go, and then we relearn what it is we want to be doing or what it is we're here to be doing. Some people think of it as finding their purpose and then get you on that track, get you started with that. And that is where my experience, my crazy work experience from all over the place comes into play.

Because my goal through these retreats is not to give people a tool and be like, hey, OK, now go away, create your dream life. No, I want to give you the tools, and then I want to get you started. And so I have big ideas about where this is going to go in the future in order to help people do that most effectively. And I want my own reality TV channel based on this.

to allow people to get businesses started through creating audiences on social media, depending on what it is they want to do, of course. But with the end goal being when you leave, you know what you want to do, you're on a path to do it, and there is nothing that can get in your way anymore.

Ari Block (26:31)
everything about this. I want to take a pause and talk to the skeptics. Everything that you're talking about is incredibly based on science. There is a lot of research that is talking about everything that you're talking about. So I want to take a second to talk about it. So if you are a skeptic and you don't know anything about biases and cognitive biases that are stopping you and how your brain works and brain one and two,

What I would recommend before you discount anything that Eleanor is talking about, go and read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Go and educate yourself on the science. Go look up the articles that were mentioned and...

Ari Block (27:17)
because that's the basis for all the things we're talking about that are basically limiting yourself based on these shortcuts that your brain takes. And then the education that's been beaten into us, which is preventing...

you know, all these, let's say characteristics that allow us to be successful because we're all kind of being trained to be factory workers to none of our fault. But taking the skepticism away for a second and allowing our audience to do their research offline, let's come back. So, so we're coming to this retreat. We are, we're not learning tools. We're practicing how to experience our feelings. We're practicing.

how to build the self -awareness to learn from our mistakes and to become better and putting ourselves on a journey towards something that is very defined. We know we wanna go and we're on the path to achieving it. Is that a good, did I get it? Okay, wonderful. Anel, okay. So I gotta tell you.

Eleanor (28:16)
Yep. Nailed it.

Ari Block (28:24)
I don't know what the statistics are. I haven't researched this, but I feel like every single person that I know that hits 40, 41, 42, sometimes before, they go through some version of realization that they are halfway through their proverbial midlife crisis. And I think that this is such an amazing thing to be able to, in a structured way based on science, to really choose what is the next part of your life.

Eleanor (28:51)
Yeah, that's how powerful is that? Simply to choose.

Ari Block (28:55)
people are allowing their... the most important choices in their life to be out of their hands, which is ridiculous. Like, why would we agree to that?

Eleanor (29:05)
We burden ourselves with obligation. We do stuff because we think we have to. And we do things only because we think we have to. Like most people work for money, right? You go looking for a job and you look what's gonna pay me the most that I can do. Why are we not looking for a job that we want to do? We don't. And every single decision in life is like this.

Ari Block (29:29)
Okay, so here's, here's.

That's right. But here's what our parents tell us, right? Like, you don't need to love your job. You need to make a living, you know, have a family. And, you know, if you're angry or upset, like, you know, push that far down. And, you know, nobody's life is perfect. And to quote Zootopia, I don't know if you saw the kids movie, it's like, you know, the two rabbits are talking amongst themselves about how to be happy. And then the both, they say, we settled, we settled hard. That's the secret in being happy, to settle.

But that's what we've been taught, right? You settle for a partner, right? You settle for work, like your boss is probably gonna be not the best, but pays the salary. It's what we're taught. But you're saying there's an alternative. Okay, so going back to the skeptics. Tell me about the success. So clearly you're a success story. I mean, clearly you've lived through this. But tell us about other people.

that have gone through a similar journey. Because you came to this realization not from nowhere, right? You've helped other people through the TikToks. Give us a little bit more context to what this actually looks like. What will be the experience, not during the retreat, but after? What happens?

Eleanor (30:48)
Okay, so I've got a great example. One of my first ever live coaching clients. So she was attending my live coaching sessions on TikTok and she had just finished school. She lived in Africa in a very poor area. And when she first heard about my retreats, because I was talking about them, she said, I want to come, I need to be there. I need to be there with you. I'm going to figure it out. So I said, okay, great. Here's what to do. You need to consult with your intuition on how you're going to do that.

So I gave her some tools on how to do that and I sent her away. She came back the next day and she said, okay, I spoke to my intuition. I'm starting a business. I'm gonna borrow my aunt's deep fat fryer and I'm gonna cook chips and I'm gonna sell them at my old school. And the following week she came back. She said, right, I've got the fryer, I've got the products. I'm ready to go. I'm starting on Monday. She started on Monday. She came back.

another week later, so two weeks after she had had the idea, and she said, I've already made back enough money to buy my own air fryer. And she said, we're having problems though. The electricity keeps going out. When the electricity goes out, I can't cook my chips. So we had another little session, coaching session. I said, speak with your intuition. Let's see what we can do here. So she did that and she's like, okay, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to create some precooked foods.

And so when the electricity goes out, I'm going to be the only one selling because everybody else has to shut down. I've got precooked foods. I'm going to be the only one selling. She came back another week or two later and she's like, I am killing it. I am making money. I am so happy.

Ari Block (32:23)
I love that. I love that. I love that. That is absolutely amazing. I love that so much. So she turned her problem into a competitive advantage. That's amazing. That's like, that is absolutely amazing.

Eleanor (32:36)
Right? Simply by asking our intuition.

You didn't have to think of this. This is the thing, when you communicate with your intuition, you don't need to invest time and logic and like research into your answers. You ask your intuition, you get an answer and you do it. And it's going to be the best solution that there is for you at that time without any thought or any time delay. People don't do this.

Ari Block (33:08)
You know, it's funny almost every interview I have it's like I like but hold on what you're saying is so important and nobody's doing this like nobody gets it and It's like almost every time No, no, no, we're taught to be factory workers. It's it's it's a thing but but MBAs are not doing a much better job I'm MBA educated and you know, I'm not gonna not gonna not gonna talk bad things about my university, but but you know, I

Eleanor (33:19)
huh. Because we're not taught this stuff!

Mm -hmm.

Ari Block (33:36)
Higher education is not solving this problem either, unfortunately. Although they are teaching a lot of the science that does relate to what we're talking about today, but it's just the science part of it. Okay, Eleanor, you are an absolute delight. We have to have you back because I feel like I've written down so many notes of things that we need to talk about, but we just don't have the time today. So let's do this. I'm gonna ask you one thing.

And that will be the last thing. If you had to give one last gift to our audience, one piece of advice beyond coming to your retreat, and I'm going to say definitely do that. I need to convince my wife how we come and visit you in Brazil because that is going to be amazing. But one piece of advice, free of charge, beyond come to my workshop. What would it be?

Eleanor (34:21)
I'm expecting you.

The best advice I can give you to change your life is to feel your feelings. Feel your feelings. And what I mean when I say that is whenever you feel feelings come up and ordinarily you would react in a particular way, whatever the circumstance is, catch yourself and take note of how your body feels. When you get, when you get...

a reaction to something, a subconscious reaction.

Ari Block (34:57)
Wait, and when you say take note, what does that mean?

Eleanor (35:01)
What I mean is, let's say you get caught off in traffic and normally you would get really mad at the person. You would be beeping your horn, shouting out the window and being in a really bad mood for the next couple of hours, snapping at your coworkers, whatever, right? Take a second. You get caught off in traffic. You want to get mad, but you become aware instead and you feel the anger. You feel it in your body. Take away the label, angry.

annoyed, frustrated. Remove the label and become present with how it actually feels in your body. Allow yourself to feel it. And no matter how hard you try, you can't hold onto that feeling. Most of us avoid feelings because we're afraid we're gonna die, right? Like, my God, no, it's too painful, I'm gonna die. You're not gonna die.

the feeling will move through you if you allow it to, if you stop holding onto it, right? Allow the feeling to come up, reduce it to a physical sensation in your body with no labels, and just sit with it until it goes away and then move on.

Ari Block (36:14)
So, I mean, this is magical. And the reason why this works is because you can't get rid of something that you don't acknowledge. You can't get past something that you're unwilling to feel. And what happens is, and I use a similar technique by calling something out and saying, wait, hold on, let's take a moment to see where we are and what is happening. Because only when you acknowledge something, only when you accept it,

Eleanor (36:23)
Mm -hmm.

Ari Block (36:42)
then you're able to understand if you want it or don't want it. So it's such an incredibly powerful technique, what you've just described. And there is ample science behind it. So I'd advise people to go and understand the science working behind here. But it's so simple. Take a moment, right? That's what you're saying. Take a moment. Very, very powerful. Very, very powerful. And the second part of this that is incredibly powerful is this idea of self -awareness. And I would honestly say the same.

Eleanor (36:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, become the observer.

Ari Block (37:09)
I would say that the biggest gift that I could give somebody is self -awareness, is to be able to understand what you're going through, what you're feeling, what are you good and bad and uglies, and just to accept them, because that is part of your journey to get to where you want to go. And I feel like people who don't have self -awareness, they just stay in the same place. And then people who have self -awareness, they're on this infinite journey towards wherever they want. Eleanor, you are an...

Eleanor (37:27)
Yeah.

100%.

Ari Block (37:38)
absolute delight. We're definitely going to have you back. This has been wonderful. Just give us one last thing. What's the website? How do we find you?

Eleanor (37:48)
So at the moment there's no website, I'm on social media. So I'm on TikTok. It's my name, elinor underscore mereles. And same on Instagram.

Ari Block (37:58)
We'll put the links to the Instagram and TikToks in the post. Otherwise, Eleanor, thank you so much. What an absolute delight. And I feel like the next session has to be in Brazil where we interview on site. That's the thing. That's going to be the next one. There you go. There you go. Eleanor, thank you so much. What a delight. And have a wonderful rest of your day.

Eleanor (38:12)
I'm sorry. Give me two months. I'll be there.

Ari Block (38:21)
And I'll separate with saying, obrigado.

Eleanor (38:22)
Thank you.

Bye, thank you!