In this episode, Jonathan Hermida sits down with breathwork pioneer Christian de la Huerta to explore how healing trauma, understanding the ego, and reclaiming authentic power can transform both our inner lives and our relationships. Together, they discuss why embodied practices like breathwork unlock lasting change, how conscious relationships become a path for growth, and why personal transformation is one of the greatest contributions we can make to the world.
Most of us spend our lives trying to fix ourselves.
But what if healing isn’t about becoming someone new—it’s about remembering who you’ve always been?
In this episode of The Deep Coach Podcast, Jonathan Hermida sits down with internationally renowned breathwork teacher, author, and TEDx speaker Christian de la Huerta for a profound conversation about healing trauma, understanding the ego, reclaiming personal power, and awakening to our deeper nature.
Christian shares his remarkable journey from depression and self-hatred to decades of guiding transformational experiences around the world through breathwork. Together, they explore why trauma lives in the body, why awareness alone isn’t enough for lasting change, and how conscious relationships become one of our greatest paths for healing.
Whether you’re a coach, therapist, leader, or simply someone committed to your own growth, this conversation offers practical wisdom alongside deep spiritual insight.
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Jonathan Hermida (00:00)
Christian, it is so wonderful to be here with you. And as we always do in these episodes, I like to start with who was Christian de la Huerta prior to the onset of your own transformational journey or awakening?
Christian de la Huerta (00:14)
Well yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I guess the short ver the short answer to that is that I know self-doubt, I know self-hatred, even. so this journey towards remembering who we really are has been a long journey for me. and f you know, like my whole adolescence was one long depression.
Christian de la Huerta (00:42)
With suicidal fantasies. And the interest what I what I the reason I highlight that is if we flash forward to today, no matter what happens in my life, right? No matter the details, the circumstances, whether a relationship breaks out or it doesn't, whether or a project succeeds or it fails, never, ever, ever do I question my sense of self worth. And and the reason I share that is because I know that if that can happen in me, that can happen in anybody.
Jonathan Hermida (01:10)
Mm. How long would you say you were in that period of self doubt, depression in your life?
Christian de la Huerta (01:16)
my god, definitely
Christian de la Huerta (01:17)
my adolescence. And by my by my late teens, I had started to reclaim a sense of myself. I, you know, began to rediscover after having kicked away the the the crutches as I refer to them of religious upbringing that was very limiting. and
Christian de la Huerta (01:44)
So my twenties were more focused on my personal transformation, my professional development. but was interesting that as I approached the dreaded 3-0, and I had a very enviable life, you know, successful job. I was living in South Florida South Florida at the time, so I had a nice gushy job that I was able to wind and dine referral sources for a psychiatric and addictions hospital.
Christian de la Huerta (02:12)
and yet the more that I had and the more that I was sought after socially or professionally, I kept thinking there has to be more life. and and what I began to realize is that I had shunned, that I had rejected a whole part of myself, you know, or spiritual nature. in the same way that through my teens I had tried to reject and run away from my sexual nature. and so
Christian de la Huerta (02:40)
you realised that I had to reclaim all of who I am if I was gonna be fulfilled and happy and complete as a human being.
Jonathan Hermida (02:49)
Was there a a steady stream of dissatisfaction or was there an activating moment or an aha that you had that you were like, Man, you kinda woke up to this isn't how I wanna live?
Christian de la Huerta (03:01)
I don't think there was one moment. I think it was that the the the the doom of 30 approaching fast. which began a whole process of questioning, you know, which was very valuable. It was it wasn't easy, but very valuable, like getting really clear about what do I want from life. and, you know, never never turned back from that. That was my last job, you know, where I worked for somebody else. After that.
Christian de la Huerta (03:27)
Soul searching period. I I quit my job and sold my condo on in South Beach on the water back then when at the peak of the Renaissance of South Beach, and went off on a spiritual journey. Like sold everything, gave away all of my possessions and you know, except for my books and my armani suits, which t
Jonathan Hermida (03:47)
Right.
Christian de la Huerta (03:48)
tells you a little bit about my attachment.
Jonathan Hermida (03:51)
Sure. That's great. That's great. Do you still have those Ormani suits or they finally made
Jonathan Hermida (03:57)
their way up?
Christian de la Huerta (03:57)
I'm sure they're in storage somewhere, but
Christian de la Huerta (03:59)
I I I never wear suits these days anymore.
Jonathan Hermida (04:02)
Touche. Touche. When when you were in that period of questioning and self discovery, what what were some of the resources, outlets, books that you began to discover that helped to you know influence your eventual departure and spiritual quest?
Christian de la Huerta (04:19)
Well, I began looking eastward. You know, like having, like I said, rejected the religion in which I was raised, the Catholic Church, because it had no room for me. and then, you know, I began to look eastward. I began to explore, you know, Eastern religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American religions, and breathwork is what changed my life.
Christian de la Huerta (04:48)
Like that was the single if there was like one single thing, it was breathworking. I'll remember I was laying out, you know, laying out by the pool, reading something spiritual, and somebody else who lived in the building saw what I was reading. So we started to talk and you know, about alternative spiritualities. And he mentioned breathworking and somewhere in me, I just knew. I just like I didn't have to be enrolled. I like, Yeah, I wanna do it. Tell me when, how much, and I'll be there. And and I was and never looked back. I got I was on a track.
Christian de la Huerta (05:18)
you know, to get a PhD in psychology. My my dad was a psychiatrist. So I come out of that psychotherapy tradition. And after experiencing breath work that one time, I I jumped tracks. I never went for the PhD. And that was, you know, I've been offering it all over the world now for the last three decades plus.
Jonathan Hermida (05:36)
Unbelievable. Can you bring us into that moment, the first breath breath work session that you had? What was the environment and what was the the insight that you had to break through the experience?
Christian de la Huerta (05:47)
Well, it was a it was a group session.
Christian de la Huerta (05:49)
It was probably, you know, forty people in there. and I think what it did for me.
Christian de la Huerta (05:58)
Like it gave me a glimpse b you know beyond the limited perceptions of the ego mind, which I didn't even have a sense of what the ego was then. and you know, it's a whole huge conversation that we don't have time to get to get into deeply. but here's a beautiful image to help understand what the ego is, because there's a lot of confusion about what it is. if you put a baseball in the center of a stadium.
Christian de la Huerta (06:24)
That's what the ge ego is. And the ego means lat in Latin, it means I. So it's that sense of Iness, a sense of separate individual personality. This is Christian, that's Jonathan. and both a helpful illusion and the source of all our suffering. and so and who we are, you know, so you put a baseball in the center of the stadium, that's the ego. Who we are is actually the stadium.
Christian de la Huerta (06:50)
And and we've allowed this tiny, tiny part of who we are to think that it is all who we are and to make really important consequential choices from a small, limited, and always fear-based perspective. So that's what Breathwork did for me. It popped me out of that little baseball and I got a glimpse of our stadium nature and never looked back. Right. So stuff that I that I'd read about, one thing is reading about it, the other one is experiencing it. Like,
Christian de la Huerta (07:20)
witnessing yourself, feeling yourself as as part of the interconnectedness of of life. As part of a you know, cosmic awareness and that changed everything for me.
Jonathan Hermida (07:33)
Hmm. So then you decide to take off and what what was where did that take you and what did you yeah, what were what are some of the experiences that you had there?
Christian de la Huerta (07:44)
I ended up I mean those I ended up I was studying with a teacher who at that point was beginning to step into the role of guru in a traditional Hindu model. so you know I left with her and I worked with her for for the f for the next five years, lived in Hawaii initially, then ended up in in Southern California for about six, eight months, and then ended up landing in the Bay Area where I ended up leaving living for the next twenty years.
Jonathan Hermida (08:12)
Mm.
Christian de la Huerta (08:13)
Up up until about, I don't know, ten years ago or something. Before I headed back to South Florida.
Jonathan Hermida (08:19)
Yeah. So through all all of that you're learning from her in the breath work tradition and following, you know, kind of her lead and co facilitating spaces, is that right?
Christian de la Huerta (08:29)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like an apprenticeship in the old in the old ways, you know, where you you learned with a master as you're as you're practicing, as you're learning.
Jonathan Hermida (08:41)
Mm.
Christian de la Huerta (08:42)
and it was the most difficult thing that I've ever done in my life. I wouldn't want to do it again had I known what I was getting get what I was gonna get into, I don't think I could have done it. because and not only was the like the regular, you know,
Christian de la Huerta (08:56)
confront and and fear of leaving my whole life behind and my family. I was I I was celibate for five years during those times. I didn't know how I was going to support myself or when or if I would ever be in a relationship again. So it was like at the same time that that existential crisis was going on in me, I had the focus of this teacher who was a masterful ego slayer focused on me.
Christian de la Huerta (09:26)
So you know, my life kind of falling apart and at the same time my my old personality also being taken apart.
Jonathan Hermida (09:36)
What kept you moving and what what kept you in that path through all the difficulties?
Christian de la Huerta (09:42)
Yeah, that's
Christian de la Huerta (09:43)
a that's a very insightful question because at some point, I think I would probably within the first year, she started losing credibility for me as my teacher. I just started to see things that were not consistent. but but I was so convinced of the value of the teachings that that's what got me going. It was a sense of of of service in the largest sense of the word, not so much to the individual.
Christian de la Huerta (10:12)
of the guru who you know the person who that person but service to the world service to humanities like I I remember thinking well like why once I really began to the to discover what how the mind works and what makes us do the things I do with the things we do, I thought, man, like I didn't get that from my psychiatrist dad or any of my psychology t psychology teachers in college. I didn't get it from from the the Jesuits that I studied with in high school.
Christian de la Huerta (10:41)
and I thought, you know, this is what I needed to know. This is the information I needed to know to free myself.
Jonathan Hermida (10:48)
Hmm. What were some of those the some of that insight and what what was some of that information that you were learning through direct experience?
Christian de la Huerta (10:56)
Well, I think it was it
Christian de la Huerta (10:57)
was both breathwork as a as a as a healing modality. Like I've yet to come across anything that heals past trauma and that heals in every sense of the word, including physically, as quickly and as efficiently as it does. So so that was like, my God, I've gotta give this to others. and the other thing was the understanding of the ego in the way that the way that I learned it from her and the way that I was living it.
Christian de la Huerta (11:27)
I thought, wow, this is what I needed to know.
Jonathan Hermida (11:32)
The and so what was so then the understanding of the ego was emerging and you were understanding that separate sense of self and all the attachments that come with it, all the the clinging, the aversions, all the ways that the ego comes up short in providing us happiness and well being. I'm sure that was
Christian de la Huerta (11:49)
Yeah,
Christian de la Huerta (11:49)
and and all the ways that it sabotages that happiness and well-being and sabotages our relationships and keep us it keeps us in in self-made prisons of of fear and limitation and lack and defensiveness. yeah, all all the ego shenanigans that once we begin to understand, then like we don't have to personalize it as wow, like it doesn't mean that I'm a bad person. It just means my ego got the best of me in that interaction, in that moment.
Jonathan Hermida (12:19)
Yeah. For those that are unaware, what what type of breath work are we talking here? And and can you give a little more insight into what that process of breathing in that particular way, what that does and the results it gives and just that context would be helpful.
Christian de la Huerta (12:32)
Sure. Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (12:33)
And that and that's a really good question too, because breath work is a very large, broad umbrella term. So anybody who's ever been to a yoga class has done breathwork, right? Pranayama, there's there's breathing practices for to increase focus and increase energy. There's others that are for relaxing, for quieting the mind. The type of breath work that I'm talking about is probably, you know, I call it breath work on steroids, because you breathe in a circular, connected way for about an hour.
Christian de la Huerta (13:02)
An hour and a half. And amazing stuff happens. I mean, I can't tell you how often I've heard people tell me that they got to the same state of being just using the breath as they did on a sacred plant medicine journey, you know, ayahuasca or mushrooms or whatever. so so that's what I mean, that it pops us out of the the limited perceptions of the mind, and we have a glimpse of of our true nature, our interconnected cosmic nature.
Christian de la Huerta (13:30)
And and that changes everything. Like I said, you know, once you reading it is one thing, but what once I experienced that in my body, like I couldn't go back. Like I couldn't, I just couldn't go back. It was impossible to go back to the way that I that I used to live. it changed everything. yeah, like I say, we could spend, like in in my my book, Awakening the Solo Power, I spent probably the first quarter of the book.
Christian de la Huerta (13:58)
diving into what the ego is, because it's really important to understand how, you know, what makes us tick and what makes us react and what are the what are our triggers.
Jonathan Hermida (14:09)
Yes.
Christian de la Huerta (14:10)
why do we have fall into certain behavior patterns or relationship patterns, and how to free ourselves from them.
Jonathan Hermida (14:17)
Hmm. And what is the how with breath work? What how how I guess how does breath work do that?
Christian de la Huerta (14:23)
Well, yeah. Breath work,
Christian de la Huerta (14:26)
well, untwo I think two levels, like two prongs. One is healing the past trauma. and again, like I said, I don't know anything more effective in terms of healing emotional trauma. And I'm talking about heavy duty stuff. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with who who experienced sexual trauma, sexual abuse, rape, all the violent things that human beings do to each other, and that stuff gets healed. and
Christian de la Huerta (14:52)
Really important to do that work because otherwise w it's gonna that stuff, you know, we can't sweep it under the carpet, under the rug. it just gets, you know, we try to put it away and and run from it, but it only festers under the surface. And it's gotta get in the way of every single one of the relationships in our life. And so, yeah, it's not easy to look at this stuff and and ask the hard questions of why we do the things we do and why we get stuck in certain triggers and certain patterns.
Christian de la Huerta (15:21)
But it's infinitely worthwhile. Because once we see this stuff, then we have a choice in the matter rather than just reacting from old stuff that happened that sometimes we don't even remember happened, or or from the conditioning from family and religions, and cultures and society and schools and all this stuff. so so it that breath where begins to tap us with our true nature.
Christian de la Huerta (15:49)
And once we see that, once we have a taste of it, you know, like I said, like the glimpse of the stadium nature, then that also changes everything. So so one prong is is the healing of past trauma. The other stuff is having that glimpse of our nature and be and from that perspective, that allows us to choose, you know, like how we want to live, what we want to believe. and not an easy process, right? It's it's I to me it's heroic.
Christian de la Huerta (16:16)
It's a heroic process to be able to to look inside and be willing to look at ourselves and face our our in our demons and all that kind of stuff. And infinitely worthwhile. Infinitely worthwhile.
Jonathan Hermida (16:30)
What is your understanding of how the breath is able to access those old trauma bound bonds within us? What what's actually happening there?
Christian de la Huerta (16:40)
Yeah, and you know, they haven't studied breath work in the in with the depth and and breadth that they've that they studied meditation. They're starting to do breath work now. So my understanding of it is more from a psycho-spiritual perspective. And if we think about it, the breath is our most loyal companion on this journey of embodiment. it's our most faithful companion. and in
Christian de la Huerta (17:08)
most spiritual traditions in the world, the same word, one word can mean me can mean spirit or breath. So to me, that's ultimately how I hope how I understand how it works. You know, I can we can talk about how the when we breathe in that circular connected way, we're flooding our bodies with the universal life force, the energy that animates all of life in in the in creation, called prana in Sanskrit or chi.
Christian de la Huerta (17:36)
Or key in different languages and different traditions, and that intelligence of life courses through the body through the energy channels, the meridian, for which Western science found scientific evidence for. So we do have energy channels proven by Western science. So that energy, which we still haven't proved the evidence of scientifically, courses through the body until it can't, until it hits a block.
Jonathan Hermida (18:04)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (18:04)
And these are emotional blocks. These are places where we have stored past trauma and where we have suppressed emotions. And and what used to be spiritual teaching that everything is energy, now we know from quantum physics that even what feels solid, like this chair that I'm sitting on with the books behind me, it's all energy, it's all vibration. And we know from physics, energy cannot be destroyed. So for all the countless times that we try to run away from something that happened to us.
Christian de la Huerta (18:32)
Or the countless time that we stuffed our emotions because we didn't feel safe feeling them and much less expressing them. so we swallow that stuff, we suppress it, but it doesn't go away. Like we were saying before, it it only gets worse and festered.
Jonathan Hermida (18:48)
Thanks.
Christian de la Huerta (18:49)
And and there's a lot of problems with that, you know, because what happens is we stuff it and we stuff it and we stuff more emotions until the next poor, unfortunate soul says something to us the wrong way and boom.
Christian de la Huerta (19:00)
Right, volcanic eruption, and we cause harm to our relationships. Or we suppress it and we suppress it and we suppress it. That energy, because that's what it is, the emotions are energies, they cannot be destroyed, right? They can only change form. so they start seeping out and and showing up in the body as physical symptoms, as disease, you know, heart attacks, ulcers, cancer. And and so really important.
Christian de la Huerta (19:28)
You know, to do this work of of developing emotional intelligence, because it's something that we need to develop. You know, even my psychiatrist's father, who was a great psych psychiatrist from what I hear, people that used to work with him, with his own emotions, clueless. And so I grew up clueless emotionally too. I didn't know. If you would have asked me 30 years ago what I was feeling, I wouldn't have been able to tell you because I had no idea what I was feeling. So I went through a
Jonathan Hermida (19:51)
I think we'll tell you what's anything else.
Christian de la Huerta (19:54)
process of educating myself emotionally so that I
Jonathan Hermida (19:57)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (19:58)
increase my EQ intentionally. I used to walk around with, you know, before this was before iPhones, with a little timer from Radio Shack. And I had created a a grid of emotions and our, you know, time on the other side. So the timer would go off and then I go go look at my list. It took like 10, you know, 10, 15 seconds. Am I feeling that? Uh-uh. Am I feeling that? Uh-uh. Am I feeling that? Maybe. And and through that process I beg I began to develop EQ.
Jonathan Hermida (20:29)
Hmm. Yeah, this is kind of a often misunderstood part of the healing journey for folks where some people take the purely intellectual route and therapy, for example, maybe even coaching can be categorized as that. Or others take the fully embodied version. But there's it's really in combination
Jonathan Hermida (20:49)
where true wisdom, insight, healing happen because there's the aspect of, you know, what you were mentioning about the the the sort of energies get getting lodged in the body and not moving. I mean the book The Body Keeps a Score is just like the perfect title for that because that that
Christian de la Huerta (21:03)
Yes. Yeah, totally.
Jonathan Hermida (21:06)
that that is the the truth of it, right? We have we have these patterns and you see it in people's faces, the ones who are really filled with trauma, with pain, with hurt.
Jonathan Hermida (21:14)
You see how they hold their face, how they hold their shoulders, how they hold their chest. It's all there. Right. And so so the b the breath work allows us to to enter into those places where consciously we don't even know where they are, how to get them unlodged, what they're about, how they got all those different things. So it it allows us to release those stuck energies.
Christian de la Huerta (21:38)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (21:38)
But then
Jonathan Hermida (21:38)
at the same time, we there is a bit of the processing of understanding of, you know, discovering our true self beyond those egoic identities. And
Christian de la Huerta (21:46)
Totally. Totally.
Jonathan Hermida (21:48)
then some of the sort of, you know, just under yeah, under the the emotional intelligence aspect, like really understanding what's actually truly going on here. Like what's the nuance here that in in my experience and and all of that just really helps to awaken the experience of our true humanity, I would say.
Christian de la Huerta (22:06)
Yeah, yeah. Be beautiful.
Jonathan Hermida (22:07)
Which is a combination always
Jonathan Hermida (22:09)
of ego and spirit playing together, you know.
Christian de la Huerta (22:11)
Yeah. Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (22:12)
Beautifully summarized. And and that is why. I mean, you just spelled out why for me therapy wasn't enough. you know, as as a he as a path of healing and transformation. Because you know I can't tell you how often people tell me, you know, I've been going to therapy for ten, twenty, thirty years, rehashing the same old crap. And with all due respect to therapy in the right hands with clear goals, it can be profoundly supportive and and life changing. And
Christian de la Huerta (22:41)
We all know you can sit on somebody's couch or in somebody's office for years and decades and nothing happens. The reason for that is what you said, right? The trauma doesn't live in the head anymore. The trauma lives in the body's been somaticized. So no amount of talking about it, talking at it is ever gonna get to it. And for sure, understanding what happened to us when we were five or seven or ten or fifteen and the effect that it's had on our life beats not knowing, right? Beats going through life unconsciously completely.
Christian de la Huerta (23:12)
And it's not enough. It's not enough. That to me that's the beauty of these embodied practices like breath work that bypass the mind and go to the source of the trauma where the where it now lives in the body and clears it. Just clears it.
Jonathan Hermida (23:25)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (23:26)
Fast.
Jonathan Hermida (23:27)
Yeah. Yeah. Ultimately I think healing comes down to two words, letting go. You know, and and the the and and we we c we ostensibly somebody could in therapy finally let go of those bonds and there could be a somatic release and those things are very possible. But in order to actually do it, imagine trauma th these patterns were im imprinted in us to protect us so that it doesn't happen again, so that we're
Jonathan Hermida (23:53)
a awake and aware of of it. And so it's very difficult to just consciously say, let go of that, let go of that which is supposedly keeping you safe that
Christian de la Huerta (24:02)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (24:03)
a version of you thought would keep you safe. You know, and this is what
Christian de la Huerta (24:05)
Yeah, and and now we know
Christian de la Huerta (24:07)
that trauma gets also passed on epigenetically. Like, you know,
Jonathan Hermida (24:10)
That's right. That's right.
Christian de la Huerta (24:11)
with studies that they've done of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors who exhibit
Jonathan Hermida (24:16)
Yes.
Christian de la Huerta (24:16)
the same kind of behavior patterns and the same kind of stuff that that the that their grandparents did. So
Jonathan Hermida (24:23)
Yeah. Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (24:24)
so that's sort of the bad news. The the good news is that the healing can also be passed on.
Jonathan Hermida (24:30)
Exactly. Exactly. That's exactly right. You know, when I when I really was deeply and you played a big role in my own spiritual unfolding and my healing journey, I I sat in multiple breath work sessions of yours and I can attest to the power, the potency of of these breath work sessions. I mean, just incredible releases, also incredible experiences of deep, deep peace and presence.
Christian de la Huerta (24:57)
Yes,
Christian de la Huerta (24:57)
yes, yes.
Jonathan Hermida (24:58)
that that still stay with me to today. And so as I was doing the various modalities that I was engaging with, you know, I was very aware that a lot of it had to do with me, but I was also very aware that so much of this stuff felt also beyond me. It was my parents' stuff. And so it it it is you you mentioned the word heroic. It is a heroic
Jonathan Hermida (25:19)
journey, the healing journey is heroic because we're not just healing our our own self and our own life and facing our own demons, but in in some regards we're facing the demons of our ancestors. You know?
Christian de la Huerta (25:31)
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Christian de la Huerta (25:34)
And if we're gonna go by physics, you know, don't and don't ask me to explain how that works, because I don't I don't understand that rationally. But I kind of grok it, you know, it kind of feels right to me that that if time and space are illusions, that means that healing doesn't get passed on in just one direction. That as we heal ourselves and free ourselves, it also can go back in time and heal our our ancestry line.
Christian de la Huerta (25:58)
Which to me it's so beautiful and so profound.
Jonathan Hermida (26:02)
Yeah. Yeah, be because ultimately it live those patterns live within us in some way.
Christian de la Huerta (26:06)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (26:07)
It's just it's it's all of it is we carry the the history. We carry the history. That's why also even even physical locations carry an energy to them. You know, and so if you go I I was in Auschwitz, you know, you go there and you s you feel the denseness of it. The suffering is there.
Christian de la Huerta (26:26)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (26:26)
And
Jonathan Hermida (26:26)
so there is something of, you know, if people enough people over enough long period of time in a in a certain location start to change the energy of that place, you it it it has ripple effects beyond our imagination.
Christian de la Huerta (26:39)
Yeah, I agreed.
Jonathan Hermida (26:42)
So you wrote
Christian de la Huerta (26:42)
And that's in the
Christian de la Huerta (26:43)
and that's what gives me hope about about the human condition. Yeah. Like I don't b I don't believe
Jonathan Hermida (26:47)
Me too. Me too. Me too. You know, these are ripple events.
Christian de la Huerta (26:50)
the hundredth monkey effect, you know, it was disproven. at least the way that it was
Jonathan Hermida (26:55)
Can you share what that is?
Christian de la Huerta (26:57)
Yeah, it's the story goes that there was a an archipelago, I think, you know, somewhere in Indonesia or somewhere where there were sev separate groups of monkeys. They were all the same species, but not related because of the the they couldn't
Christian de la Huerta (27:10)
interbreed with each other because of the different because of the ocean being separating them. So one mother, young mother in one of the islands, I think it was I don't forget what it was, whether opening a shell or washing a potato before eating it, something like that. So then of course her her offspring started mimicking her. And then the other monkeys on that island started mimicking them.
Christian de la Huerta (27:35)
And at some point where they hit a critical mass, then boom, that behavior popped up simultaneously in all the other islands. So, you know, that story
Jonathan Hermida (27:43)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (27:46)
as in that specific way was was turns out was a myth, wasn't real. but I still believe in that hundredth monkey effect, in that critical mass that once enough of us heal or get to a cer certain level of awareness or whatever it is that needs to happen, then boom,
Jonathan Hermida (28:02)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (28:03)
then that'll spread out.
Jonathan Hermida (28:05)
You know, and we don't even have to get too metaphysical about it. It it's simply enough people doing enough acts of kindness over enough period of time. And that it's just we it's it's behaviors day in and day out. The way people, you know, I it's my generation of we can call them millennials. It's not even people that aren't even folks in my generation that aren't on a spiritual journey, perhaps. I've seen a lot of fathers in particular that are just
Jonathan Hermida (28:34)
At a different level of emotional maturity than past generations. And
Christian de la Huerta (28:40)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (28:40)
so we don't even have to get so metaphysical, so spiritual about it. There's just a a sort of a practical aspect of if I'm not putting my shit on my children, then they are
Christian de la Huerta (28:51)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (28:52)
not going to be caring as much. And therefore they're going to be better stewards of of you know of life, of the world, you know, for for others. And so there's this like positive ripple effect that I I do see the world.
Jonathan Hermida (29:04)
moving in that direction over time. And I think it is because so many of us are doing the hard work in the various directions that that has taken for each person.
Jonathan Hermida (29:13)
Well you wrote a r a book and correct me if I'm it's The Soul of Power. Yeah? What is power?
Christian de la Huerta (29:19)
It's called Awakening
Christian de la Huerta (29:21)
Awakening the Soul of Power.
Jonathan Hermida (29:22)
Yeah, awakening the soul of power. What does power mean here for you? Because that's a that's a word that connotes quite a bit for for many people.
Christian de la Huerta (29:30)
Yeah. Yeah, and and that's one of the reasons many of us have an ambivalent and I would say even conflicted relationship with power. Like part of us wants it and part of us is afraid of it. and we're afraid of it because we've been conditioned to believe that power is a bad thing. You know, with quotes like power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And who wants to be corrupted? You know, but what they didn't tell us about those words, that Lord Agden, who spoke them and wrote them,
Christian de la Huerta (30:00)
was speaking specifically about political power, not the interpersonal power that that you and I are talking about, the personal power. and then we've also been conditioned, you know, that to see how many acts of abuses of power have each of us witnessed, both in our individual personal lives and out in the world. Like all we gotta do is read through the headlines on any given day to witness at least, you know, five or ten abuses of power. And we don't want to be that way either.
Christian de la Huerta (30:30)
and so when you add to that mix the fact that we've been conditioned to be afraid of our emotions and to avoid conflict, when you put all that into the mix, what happens is we end up giving our power away. We end up how many times have s have we said yes when inside, it's really a no, it's really not okay with us. But to not rock the boat too much or or not to confront or or risk conflict.
Christian de la Huerta (30:57)
We override our true feelings, our desires, our dreams, and we settle for an illusion of accept acceptance and morsels, crumbs of pseudo-love. and and so what this book is about is like how do we step into power in a different way? Right? A power that doesn't that is not hierarchical, that comes from within, that that that no one can give us and no one can take away from the right a power that that is an an an imperial.
Christian de la Huerta (31:27)
An expression of what we are inside and that we all have access to. so part of what I did in that book is compare, right? Like what I call ego power or worldly power, the way that the world thinks of and relates to power, with what I call spiritual power or soulful power, that that power that comes from within. So, for example, the one worldly power is hierarchical. So it it depends on us pushing somebody down, stepping on them in order for us to feel powerful.
Christian de la Huerta (31:56)
Whereas the other kind of power that I'm talking about doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. It just is. And so I think of you know, it's humble. It doesn't need to prove anything. So think of a of a Gandhi or Gandalf, if you're into the Lord of the Rings, in their simple monastic robes, their sandal feet, from looking at them from the outside, we'd never know, you know, how much power they they hold until it's called for, until it's necessary, and then get out of the way.
Christian de la Huerta (32:24)
Like Gandhi brought the British Empire to its knees when it was at its highest point in terms of global reach and influence, and he did that without ever landing a punch or shooting a gun. Now that's power.
Jonathan Hermida (32:38)
How do you define power?
Christian de la Huerta (32:40)
Well, I mean that's also a big conversation. Power means the the root of it in Latin is p it's like poder, right? To be able to. So it's the ability to act. you know, poder in Spanish, pouvoir in in French is to be able to. So there's that connection between potentiality, possibility, and power and strength.
Jonathan Hermida (33:04)
Yeah, to be able to. Yeah, there's you know, power, there's an an energy to right, like the ability to exert energy in a certain direction, right? And
Christian de la Huerta (33:14)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (33:14)
typically power has been seen as the ability to exert energy in in a way that impacts others negatively, but it can also
Christian de la Huerta (33:21)
Exactly.
Jonathan Hermida (33:22)
be viewed as a way to impact folks positively, and that's what you're speaking to, yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (33:26)
Exactly.
Christian de la Huerta (33:27)
Exactly. And and that it's part
Jonathan Hermida (33:29)
How do we
Christian de la Huerta (33:30)
of who we are, right? So so why try to deny another part of who we are as human beings? So it's more
Jonathan Hermida (33:36)
Tell me more about that.
Jonathan Hermida (33:37)
How how does one access that power within ourselves?
Christian de la Huerta (33:41)
Well, I think it's the
Christian de la Huerta (33:42)
power is there. So it's just like stop giving it away, right? Stop acting as if. Stop stop playing small. Stop swallowing your truth to not rock the boat too much. Like just be who you are. Unleash yourself in the world. That's power.
Christian de la Huerta (34:02)
And and not in a
Jonathan Hermida (34:02)
Which goes back to
Christian de la Huerta (34:03)
in a reactive, in your face adolescent sort of way, like just natural way. Right? There's no need to prove any. This is not reacting. This is just being, just expressing what's in us.
Jonathan Hermida (34:15)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which goes back to the ultimate impact of the breath work, which is to release those channels that are holding back the energy, holding back the power, allowing it to
Christian de la Huerta (34:24)
Exactly. Exactly.
Jonathan Hermida (34:26)
to flow through us and and be expressed cleanly out in the world.
Christian de la Huerta (34:31)
Yeah. Exactly.
Jonathan Hermida (34:32)
Not distorted.
Christian de la Huerta (34:34)
Exactly. And to clear the stuff that had gotten in the way of that. Right? The misunderstandings, all the the lies and mis misunderstandings about ourselves and about the world that we took on as kids, right? Because that's how we were conditioned to believe that there was something wrong with us. You're too much of this, you're not enough of that. and then we would go through life believing that stuff.
Christian de la Huerta (34:58)
and it all gets in the way of our relationships and our el abil and our our ability to have fulfilled happy lives.
Christian de la Huerta (35:07)
And stuff that's not even real. It's not even true.
Christian de la Huerta (35:13)
Or stuff that that you know that that happened to us that doesn't exist anymore. Right. And I'm not minimizing anybody's experience or their past or their trauma, not at all. but what I am saying is that at some point we've got to move beyond that, right? And I'm not again not minimizing it. But as long as we're holding somebody over the fire for what they did or failed to do, our hands also in there getting burnt.
Christian de la Huerta (35:40)
So at some point we gotta find a way to heal, a way to forgive, even what feels unforgivable. And that doesn't mean we have to have brunch with them on Sundays. but it means that we have to free ourselves from that stuff that happened in our past.
Jonathan Hermida (35:56)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and drinking the poison.
Christian de la Huerta (35:59)
Yeah. And and that goes back to breath
Jonathan Hermida (36:02)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (36:02)
work. That's the most effective tool that I've come across that he helps heal our past quickly.
Jonathan Hermida (36:10)
Hmm. So true. You've become a published author, award winning author, TEDx speaker, teacher or a global teacher. A lot of folks that listen to this podcast either are kind of growing their businesses as you know, coaches, deep coaches, transformational coaches, or want to. what have you learned about the process of sort of building out
Jonathan Hermida (36:39)
the business that is Krishna de la Horta and all the offerings, right? Because to be of service, you create a vehicle. That vehicle is your company. How have you sort of thought about that over the years?
Christian de la Huerta (36:51)
I mean, I think I think the one word answer is persistence, right? Don't give up. I can't tell you how many times over the course of the last, you know, three decades plus that I've been doing this work, I had, you know, showed up, had a group announced, and three people showed up. and I know for I know that can be discouraging, I know that. and you just gotta keep going. If if it's coming from that place of mission, from that place of a calling.
Christian de la Huerta (37:19)
stick with it, right? And and try to reel yourself back from making assumptions. And that's an ongoing lesson for me. you know, because the the post pandemic my work has not recovered from from from that in terms of the numbers that that I that I least that I can measure with the groups. Now I'm not sure how many lives are being impacted through the books. but in terms of like numbers that I can measure or people attending groups, the numbers are not what they still the what they used to be.
Christian de la Huerta (37:49)
before the pandemic. so you know, for me, it's like I know what I'm talking about. Sometimes I have to exert mental self discipline and not allow myself to go there and say, Screw it, I'm just gonna go to the beach and have a lot of eat a lot of dark chocolate and have a lot of fun.
Jonathan Hermida (38:07)
Sure. Sure. Yeah, what what keeps you going?
Christian de la Huerta (38:11)
That sense of mission, that sense of, you know, I get paraphrasing Einstein that you can't solve a problem from the same level of consciousness in which it was created. So when I look at the world and all the faces, all the all the problems that we're facing, any single one of which can feel completely overwhelming. Like, what am I gonna do personally about the environmental crisis? or war in the Middle East, or or poverty, etc.
Christian de la Huerta (38:42)
And and then I just think, you know what? Just reel myself back. What can I do? Which is completely to com continue freeing myself and impacting, trying to help as many other people to free themselves. and that at some point, you know, it's like maybe enough of us, maybe there is something to that hundredth monkey effect that will allow us to leap. Because when I look at the world, it's like I don't s I don't think throwing money at it's gonna make any difference.
Christian de la Huerta (39:11)
the only way that I say out is is a leap in consciousness. It's like a spiritual revolution that's gonna shift the way we see ourselves, the way we see each other, and the way we see this our planet, our home planet.
Jonathan Hermida (39:25)
What gives you hope nowadays, you know, given how we're the state of the world, the state of individuals, and what are you seeing out there that gives you hope?
Christian de la Huerta (39:38)
And and sometimes it takes work, right? Too it takes discipline to look for it and not focused on on all the bad news that we that we're bombarded with on any given day.
Christian de la Huerta (39:51)
I mean it's people like you and people like people the fact that you are bringing up two new two new lives into this this planet that are gonna be brought up in a completely different way and that you've and that you're not passing on all the bullshit from from you know that's been passed on to to us. Like you said, no, that's it. I'm not passing that stuff on anymore. So that's that's my hope. And that there's an again, enough of us.
Christian de la Huerta (40:18)
And I don't think we're close here to the to that magic number, whatever the number that is. I don't know what that number is, but there's definitely signs of of sun rays, you know, breaking through in in the midst of the storm that we're in.
Jonathan Hermida (40:36)
Yeah. You know what gives me hope ultimately? All those things are true for me as well. And I one of the biggest blessings that I have is seeing my kids growing up in an environment that is so foreign to little me. I I did not grow up in in this kind of household, you know, at all. So that that that certainly is part of it. The other the other thing is, you know, there's a Brene Brown quote, it's hard to hate somebody from a close move in. One on one conversations give me hope.
Jonathan Hermida (41:02)
with everybody and anybody from
Christian de la Huerta (41:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (41:03)
across every part of life, every spectrum, on the political spectrum or any any it's one on one conversations give me hope. Because I I from having enough one on one conversations with people from every walk of life, you see that, you know, ultimately people are good, even if they do bad things at times. There there's usually, I mean I'm I'm sure there's outliers, but at least
Jonathan Hermida (41:27)
The assumptions that we make about human beings and also how human beings become a different version of themselves when they enter a collective. There's
Christian de la Huerta (41:34)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (41:35)
something about groupthink that just distorts our our minds quite a bit, and it's unfortunate, and that's the worst part of social media and the internet, I think. But when you speak to these people one on one, you know, there there there's glimmers of light and hope and and and goodness still inside and and that that I think is worth fighting for.
Jonathan Hermida (41:56)
You know, and
Christian de la Huerta (41:56)
Yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (41:56)
and again if we have enough people that are waking up showing other ways of of interacting, of being, yeah, then these that that that that potential is inside that these people are ready to to then kinda wake up to a new way of of showing up. You know, and that can
Christian de la Huerta (42:10)
Yeah, I love that.
Jonathan Hermida (42:12)
you know, be a game changer ultimately.
Christian de la Huerta (42:14)
I love that and a r y I had a flash of mem memory when I was in Beijing and Shanghai, you know, working with Chinese people and leaders and corporate leaders and actors and that kind of stuff. And when they were on the floor breathing, like I if I close my eyes, they could be anywhere in the world. Like right. Laughter sounds the same anywhere you go, and tears and crying sounds the same.
Christian de la Huerta (42:38)
So it was a very real hands-on realization of of our common humanity, which I think is where what where we need to land on to to stop fighting these ridiculous, absurd wars, and
Jonathan Hermida (42:50)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (42:51)
and the division and polarization, which is all ego based. and so so yeah, you know, it just when we think about the fact that our DNA, no matter what how much pigment pigmentation we have in our skin.
Christian de la Huerta (43:07)
And what are what what we look at on the outside, what we look like on the outside, our DNA is like 99.999% identical. So we we talk about four races, for hu you know, but just not enough difference to be called a different race. It's one race, literally, not poetically. and when we think that we shared 98.6 of our DNA is that identical to chimps, and and 50% of our DNA is identical to bananas.
Christian de la Huerta (43:37)
We think about that you know, that common family or that common bond. and going back to the breath, you know, when w one of the elements that we breathe is called argon, which is immutable, which means that it doesn't change. So unlike oxygen, then when we breathe it in, it comes out as hydrogen H two O dioxide. when we breathe in argon, it comes out as the exact identical boring argon that's been around for ages.
Christian de la Huerta (44:05)
So but that has a if when we think about that, that means that the argon that's going through our lungs right now, it's the same identical argon that went that went through the lungs of the saber saber of the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger and and the ancient Hindu sadhus and the Hebrew prophets and the Jesus and the Magdalene, and through every enlightened being and every brightest scientific mind of of human history. That same argon is going through our lungs right now.
Jonathan Hermida (44:33)
Yes.
Christian de la Huerta (44:35)
So one of the one of the prices we pay for having an ego mind, which, you know, like I said is a huge leap in evolution, as as far as we know, we're the only species that has that separate sense of self. There there's some theories about the higher primates and the elephants and the dolphins and the whales. You know, you put a a dog or a cat in front of a mirror, they'll react with that image as if it was another dog or cat. You put a chimp or or gorilla in front of a mirror and you put ash on their shoulder, at some point they go like this. So
Christian de la Huerta (45:02)
We know that they know that's them in the image, but to extrapolate from that to having a separate sense of self, we can't do that.
Jonathan Hermida (45:11)
Yes.
Christian de la Huerta (45:12)
and and so huge leap in evolution and also the source of of all our suffering, because once we have that sense of separate personality, we can feel lonely, we can feel depressed, we can have abandonment issues, we can fear our mortality.
Christian de la Huerta (45:29)
And and and so, you know, there's some theories that think you have to kill the ego because it is the source of all our suffering, and that part is true. and I don't think so. I don't think that's necessary. I think it's not a bad thing to have a separate sense of self as long as we remember and are aware that we also have a stadium nature, that that is our true nature. so rather
Jonathan Hermida (45:51)
That's it.
Christian de la Huerta (45:52)
than killing the ego, what I think what needs to happen is healing the ego.
Christian de la Huerta (45:56)
So that anybody
Jonathan Hermida (45:57)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (45:57)
can press one of our buttons and nothing happens, right? Rather than just reacting
Jonathan Hermida (46:01)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (46:01)
to the so same old unhealed stuff that happened to us years and decades ago.
Jonathan Hermida (46:08)
Mm.
Christian de la Huerta (46:08)
and that we haven't healed. So whenever anybody presses and causes a reaction in the present, we're actually reacting to previous similar situations in our past that were never healed. Like, my God, what are we to live? Imprisoned by
Jonathan Hermida (46:17)
I don't know if they can do something.
Christian de la Huerta (46:21)
our pasts. And again, that's the beauty of breath work. It heals that stuff quickly.
Christian de la Huerta (46:27)
and and so once we begin to come from that place, everything changes and and we can reintroduce or introduce choice into our lives.
Jonathan Hermida (46:38)
Yes. Yes. But it first starts with relating to rather than from the ego, right? That's people, the entire world
Christian de la Huerta (46:44)
Yeah, yeah.
Jonathan Hermida (46:45)
is relating from the ego. I am this thing and I am reacting. You did this to me. But
Christian de la Huerta (46:48)
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Jonathan Hermida (46:50)
when we begin to see the ego as a part of us, an experience
Christian de la Huerta (46:54)
Yes.
Jonathan Hermida (46:55)
that we might be having, then we can choose differently and start like you said, healing the ego. And in integrating the ego is another way of saying it.
Christian de la Huerta (47:01)
Exactly. I'd rather s
Christian de la Huerta (47:03)
that's great. That's a great word. And so rather than killing it, it's more about healing it and about putting it in its proper place. Rather than thinking it is the sun, putting it in orbit in service to the stadium nature.
Jonathan Hermida (47:19)
'Cause it's really beautiful. The variety of human beings that are out there, the personalities, the the experiences, we love it. There's the you know, we watch shows because we see these egos playing out themselves out, you know, on a big stage and and it's it's great, it's fun, it's entertaining, but but also it it's painful if we take it too seriously and if we believe it to be who we are, ultimately.
Christian de la Huerta (47:40)
Yeah, exactly.
Christian de la Huerta (47:41)
That's it. That's it.
Jonathan Hermida (47:43)
We can p y wear it lightly and have a blast, ultimately.
Christian de la Huerta (47:47)
Yeah. And heal your past.
Jonathan Hermida (47:50)
Yeah. And heal our past. Yeah. Yeah. As we begin winding down the episode, is there anything that we haven't covered that would be nice to share, cover, bring up before we we begin w winding it down?
Christian de la Huerta (48:05)
Well, let's talk a little bit about relationships. The the last book on conscious relationships.
Jonathan Hermida (48:09)
Yeah, beautiful.
Jonathan Hermida (48:11)
Beautiful. Yeah, beautiful.
Christian de la Huerta (48:14)
Yeah, so so the title of that book is called Conscious Love, Transforming a Relationship to Relationships. because if we're approaching relationship, which I hope anybody listening to this or watching this is not doing this, you know, approach hoping that the relationship is gonna make us happy and fulfill us, forget it. Hang it up. There isn't anybody out there that's gonna make us happy and it's not their job to. Like how unfair to put the weight of that responsibility you are gonna make me happy on someone else.
Christian de la Huerta (48:43)
Or put that weight of responsibility on a relationship. So if that's how we're approaching relationships, forget it. Hang it up. They're not gonna work. and so what does it mean to do relationships consciously? Right? So that's the first defin that's what the book is about, and that's the first definition of it. so we're we take responsibility for our own happiness.
Jonathan Hermida (49:06)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (49:07)
and that and that's what I mean, that an anybody who's watching this knows that there isn't anybody out there.
Christian de la Huerta (49:13)
That's gonna make us happy. And so then what is how what does that mean? So I go through a certain number of points, qualities of of conscious relationships. look at the definition of love, because we confuse the feeling of love with the act of loving. Right. And so we think that that that honeymoon phase where, you know, where that where that other person can do no wrong.
Christian de la Huerta (49:42)
Which, you know, lasts maybe three three months, six, maybe nine, if we haven't moved in together yet, because at some point or what's happening
Jonathan Hermida (49:48)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (49:50)
in that honeymoon phase, the ego boundaries have collapsed. So we feel at one with that other person until they do the the toilet paper in the wrong way. And everybody should know that this is the proper way. Or they or they squeeze
Jonathan Hermida (50:04)
I agree with that actually.
Christian de la Huerta (50:09)
the t the tube of to toothpaste from the wrong end.
Christian de la Huerta (50:12)
And then that's it, right? Then the ego boundaries come back up, and now we feel separate and and they can do nothing right. And then we leave, right? We we break up and go off in search of gre greener pastures, looking for love in other places. And this is paraphrasing Scott Peck, who wrote the The Road Us Last Travel. He says that's at the end of the honeymoon phase is when the work of actual loving begins. and and not and I mean you who as a parent, you know.
Christian de la Huerta (50:41)
That love is not a feeling. Because there's times where you have to discipline a child, or you know, you can't have more sugar or t or you can't run into that busy street. It doesn't feel good to discipline a child or to take chocolate away from them, but it's for their own good, right? It's an act of love, but it doesn't feel good. Right? So that so that's when he that's the to use Scott Speck's definition is that love that love is when we place ourselves.
Christian de la Huerta (51:10)
Beyond our comfort zone for the sake of the spiritual growth of another person. And that's interesting, that's deep.
Jonathan Hermida (51:16)
Yeah. I that's
Jonathan Hermida (51:18)
very very interesting. Very deep. You know, a lot of a lot of people take it also the other way. Some people go into relationship thinking that it's gonna save them and and heal them. And other people avoid relationships because they say that they need to be healed first. Where that they need
Christian de la Huerta (51:32)
Right.
Jonathan Hermida (51:33)
to go off and do and so there's an aspect of that that's valid in terms of give yourself space to understand who you are, what your needs are, what your wants are, and all those things. And
Jonathan Hermida (51:43)
In order to heal rel wounds that were established in relationship, right? Because all major wounds have been, whether it's with our parents, other l other loved ones, or you know, romantic partnerships over time, in order to heal those, we have to heal those within relationship. And so if two people come together, what we're talking about here is two people need to come together in conscious awareness that those thorns will be pricked, that those buttons will be pressed.
Jonathan Hermida (52:12)
And that it is that very act of them coming up and two people looking at it in full love and service of not perpetuating it, but of healing it together, of of of integrating it, let's say, is that that to me that's one of the highest forms of of partnership and union ultimately.
Christian de la Huerta (52:29)
Exactly. Exactly. But to me that's the
Christian de la Huerta (52:32)
highest form of a conscious relationship. Because what we usually do is point the finger, right? You did this, right? That's what egos are great at. Like blame. You and the ego has difficulty taking responsibility for anything. So it's a lot easier to point the finger. You do this. You'd never do that. You always do this. and and if we wanna be free, that's that's that to me, that's one of the those
Christian de la Huerta (52:57)
We've got to one of the hardest things, what one of the most heroic things is we we gotta tear up that victim card, right? The poor me card. And again,
Jonathan Hermida (53:05)
Yes.
Christian de la Huerta (53:05)
not to deny that bad things happen to to all of us and that human beings do bad things to each other, not denying any of that or minimize anybody's pain or or past. And if we wanna be free, there's no way around it. I don't see a way around it. Right? If if because again, if we're holding on to what somebody did or failed to do.
Christian de la Huerta (53:28)
We're still giving our power away and often to the perpetrator. So it's the the freedom could be as simple as saying, you know what, that sucked, and I wish that hadn't happened. And how do I choose to be going forward? Right? That's reclaiming power from our past.
Jonathan Hermida (53:44)
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Christian de la Huerta (53:46)
Right? Just squeeze squeezing in that element of choice. And that we get to redefine who we are and and our lives and what we want from our lives.
Christian de la Huerta (53:58)
No matter what happened and no matter what happens going forward, we always get to choose how we show up in response.
Jonathan Hermida (54:04)
Exactly right.
Jonathan Hermida (54:07)
And what we see as the opportunity of any given moment. Because there's always an opportunity, always. In all things, whether it's in a breakup or a a fight or there's an opportunity there to see something, to do something different, to learn something.
Christian de la Huerta (54:19)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (54:21)
Yeah. And one of the ways that I portray the ego is, you know, like a multiple armed like creature that has different weapons. One of the one of the weapons is a handheld mirror that it uses for a couple of things. One is like it's always stuck in the past, it's always looking behind. and the other one is like it uses its out of weapons, like you do this, you do that. that's easy. Anybody can do that. Turning that mirror around.
Christian de la Huerta (54:49)
Is heroic. How do I do that? Right? And the details are gonna look completely different. But the more that whatever they do gets us and triggers us, the clearer the sign that we're doing that too in some other way.
Jonathan Hermida (55:04)
And the the other the other aspect of this, I mean people listening and watching, have aspirations to serve the world and to quote unquote change the world in some respects. But we can't change the world if we're first and foremost not
Jonathan Hermida (55:19)
clear and clean within ourselves. And then from there with our relationships, those around us. You know, it starts it it always begins in the immediacy and then it it permeates out. Sometimes people wanna bypass that and go out into the world because the world is a safer place, it seems like, than those around us because
Jonathan Hermida (55:35)
You know, as as a saying goes, it, you know, you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family. You know, and and and those are the wounds that we that we try that we try to avoid. You know, and yet it is in the very act of, you know, of course, like we said, boundaries and anything that isn't safe or anything that isn't helpful, put the boundaries, have that conversation. But recognize that if we begin to clean house, you know, make sure that we are not perpetuating harm within our own household.
Jonathan Hermida (56:04)
and and creating an environment where healing is possible and where the recognition of our true selves, whether it's with our children, whether our whether it's with our pa partner, where that is made possible to experience, I mean that that's where that then ripples, ripples, ripples. And so, you know, we don't need
Christian de la Huerta (56:20)
Yeah, beautiful.
Jonathan Hermida (56:21)
to think about the the the the the stranger that's out there and that we're trying to reach to bring into our to into our ecosystem as clients. We start first with those around us.
Jonathan Hermida (56:31)
So Christian, as we begin closing out this conversation, for those that are watching this or listening to this and and they're on their own transformational journey, what advice, what perspective can you share with them to support their own healing and transformational journeys?
Christian de la Huerta (56:46)
I think we've we've talked about those things,
Jonathan Hermida (56:48)
Is it
Christian de la Huerta (56:48)
you know, go within. There's no no no way to bypass that. you know, we can't do anything about what we can't see. So awareness is the first step to freedom. breath work as a healing modality, breathe. and understand how the ego mind works.
Christian de la Huerta (57:11)
Like there are many instruments that that can get us to that place of freedom. But if to me, if you know those two things, if you have access to breath work and understand how the ego mind works, that's enough to free yourself.
Christian de la Huerta (57:27)
And stick with it, right? So go back to that resilience. We need you. Like we need anybody who's got had the slightest suspicion that they have work to do as healers, as coaches, as instruments of of transformation. Like like we're saying this this is the most critical juncture in the evolution of humanity, as I see it. The planet's gonna be fine, right? It might take a gazillion years, but life will continue in some form.
Christian de la Huerta (57:55)
Maybe at the end it's it's a it's a planet of enlightened cockroaches. Who knows?
Jonathan Hermida (57:59)
Yeah.
Christian de la Huerta (58:01)
Whether we make it, hmm, right? That's that's what's kinda up for us. so again, if you've had the slightest inkling or suspicion that you have work to do in supporting our collective healing and transformation, do it. We need you and we need you now.
Jonathan Hermida (58:20)
I couldn't agree more. Christian, I I've known you I think it's twelve years now, something like twelve years. incredible how time flies. And you are a consistent light in this world. And it's such a gift to know you, to have experienced your work, to see the impact that your life represents and all the lives that you've touched.
Jonathan Hermida (58:45)
And so thank you, thank you for sharing a a piece of you here with us today and and for all the work that you continue doing out in the world.
Christian de la Huerta (58:52)
Thank you so much for those beautiful and generous words, Jonathan, and thank you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for for your courage and willing willingness to do your your own authentic healing and journey of transformation. And now for saying yes to this call to help others do the same. and thank you for having this show, because I know in your in your willingness to do that, many, many lives are being touched. So thank you.