Warren Falkenstein

Transcript

about 30 years ago or so I was sitting on an airplane with my family back to Los Angeles everything was good I got to choose whatever movie I wanted to watch and all of a sudden it felt as if the walls were closing in on my foot Tighter and Tighter and Tighter and Tighter I caused turbulence from the inside of the airplane as I screamed mommy what is happening oh my God what is happening flight attendants come running they come running there's nothing we can do there's nothing at all we can do you see I'm wearing a cast on my foot and it wasn't one

of those who holds your foots in in place cast it was a corrective cast you see my foot was starting to turn this way as a child and this was already pushing it the other way so now the air pressure is swelling up my foot Tighter and Tighter and Tighter in this confined space we had six and a half hours to get back to my home safely cut that off also about 30 30 or so years ago and he tells my family to make arrangements in front of me in front of the child tells him that he's going to die see this is just a

taste of my training and what I have come to believe is that whatever we are dealing with in life whatever situation that comes our way is actually minuscule it's what we're actually able to handle going forward and when we believe that and we understand that we can navigate it through gracefully and you see on paper I have been a victim to my suffering my entire life but I'm not a survivor I am a warrior and it took the universe to conspire once again to throw another messenger in my life and this time in the form of an Earth Angel that showed me my resilience that

showed me my power that showed me all that power that had been cultivated Within and you see love is my catalyst for strength and healing and there are messengers in our lives that come when you're not expecting them and sometimes we are assigned to be those Messengers and we don't know that of whose life we're actually going to change and help and that is why you must live a life of love over fear and that is why I show up every day living a life and loving a life of purpose over pain you see when we look back at all of the trauma and all

of the disturbances and all of the tragic events that have gone through we can look back and realize who we have become because of it who we have become in our self-evolution to looking back in those situations that we had no idea what they're about or why they were happening and who we are today because of them I had to learn acceptance I had to learn calmness and acceptance and calmness healing start starts from a place of calmness and that's what I had to discover on my own and realize to pay attention to the people that are placed in our lives to pay attention to

the situations especially the unexpected ones to pay attention to the messengers that are brought to us that we realize that at the end of the day Fierce love must prevail and if we want to tip the scales not just in our lives but in the lives of the entire world strength and love is the way of the Peaceful Warrior we must awaken it and it must be called and we must learn to love fiercely in any way that we can for there is a reason for us being here in this world and whether we fear death or we don't fear death or whatever our fears

are coming our way love is the answer that will shower all of that pain away one hand on your hearts for love one hand on your heart for strength say it together and say it with me whenever you're feeling it I am a warrior Warrior thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.

Transcript

and I'm walking around the audience and a young man comes up to me and he says Warren Hi how are you I came here to hear you speak today well thank you I appreciate that your messages and content online is so inspiring thank you how did you find my contact my content I asked I'm curious well you see my girlfriend was going through a really hard time in her life and she was watching your content and it helped her to get through what she was going through I'm so humbled I'm touched is she here with you today I asked can I reach out to her

on Instagram or somewhere maybe there's more I can support her with he looked down at the ground and then looked back up at me with tears in his eyes and he said no she's not here with me today you see she passed away recently and your messages helped her get through what she got through and that is why I'm here I was done I was done no matter whatever doubts Whatever uncertainties Whatever anxiety whatever things that are holding me back in my mind whatever I thought that I look like whatever I was afraid of gone at that second I was impacted by an unknown impact

that I had caused an unknown impact and what I got from that is that it wasn't about the it's not about the likes it's not about the comments it's not about the numbers it's about inspiring and showing up in ways that you never thought you can and it's the people that do not say anything and are perhaps suffering in silence that hear our stories when we show up and before this and the moments before this episode had happened I was dealing with a flare-up my nose was redder than Rudolph the Red-nosed red nose I was not feeling good my mind my body was saying no

and my mind was saying let's go and I sang to myself here I go again on my own as I open up the door there's stairs at the venue I had to get up those stairs with my crutches and as the guests started arriving it was weird I was hiding but why well I needed to meditate I needed to to I needed space I didn't like the way that I'm looking I don't want to talk to anybody and then I asked myself why am I here then why am I here what is the purpose so I got up and I started talking to everybody around

and then that happened and it was beautiful but what was that a second ago hiding in the corner with my mind of mine it's been 36 years or more and it takes a lot for me to show up in the ways that I do I may have deformities on the outside and I may look different and I may have to deal with a disability and an illness but I am also human but I had to learn ways to get out of my own way in order to show up the ways that I do to make these unknown impacts and if there's anything that I leave

you with today is to let our impacts drive us to let the unknown impacts drive us and get us out of bed in the morning and give us purpose as I do every day whether it be a hug or a smile on the street or watching someone walk down the street dancing on their crutches or in a hospital we don't know how who we are inspiring or when or how it is our unknown impacts that are worth living for thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.

Transcript

a tailor wants to ask me as he was measuring my brace and he looked at my hands am i angry at God I don't remember how many doctor's appointments or Hospital scares or flare-ups I've had in the past year never mind in the past 34 years what I do remember is the feelings and the emotions that are either felt or I assigned to a situation I remember that moment when it felt as if my stomach had flipped when I realized that I can no longer call my grandmother every Friday afternoon anymore because she had passed away I remember walking into a triage at a hospital

looking at the nurse and the doctors in the eyes and I knew that they didn't know what was going to happen or what they're supposed to do nor did I but I looked at them with a smile and I said party time and for some reason that positive happy energy somehow made that outcome of that situation go smoother we always have a choice we always have a choice to create meaning to create a meaning of what things mean I may need my crutches to walk or my crutches need me to give them purpose until their life until whenever I will need them anymore if I

do the dot a doctor told me once it is not gonna hurt don't worry about it we're gonna numb it I've done it a hundred times before what we're gonna do this biopsy but don't worry maybe you take some painkillers I get to the hospital there's a nice white bed there it looks nice doctors are friendly nurses are friendly everybody's friendly maybe I'll even ask the doctor if he wants to come to my birthday party as I lay down and if I think about that moment and I go back in time right now to that moment It was as if he pulled out a weapon

and started drilling it into my back the pain of a bone biopsy was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life the agony and pain does not even describe it I was shaking I was trembling I was in total total shock and there is no way out of it I'm lying there as blood there's a drill I have a high pain tolerance not just from my physical trauma that I go through regularly but from pushing myself from pushups to pull-ups to flare ups and then it was over I don't know what just happened I'm in total shock don't worry it's over now how am

I supposed to calm down I know that there was a bigger picture of why this is happening I couldn't understand but then all of a sudden oh no way we didn't get the sample we have to do it again twice now years later after making a vow that if I ever have to do that again I will be asleep but I realized something in order to help people in order to be able to have full compassion and empathy and that's what I want to do and that is my purpose that I've chosen now I can really relate to someone who's going through that and I

looked up to the heavens and I said okay okay I did it now I can really feel pain years later there was an opportunity for a research study and you had to be awake to do that and they needed somebody to go through the same test again and I went through that test and I did it again the third time the only difference is I didn't tell anybody until today we are only given what we can handle we can choose our paths that we take and we can choose the challenges and we can get ourselves into trouble but our vessel is only capable of handling

what we're able to handle that's how diamonds are made and when we realize that and when we try to focus on the bigger picture of what is really happening and not what we think and our reactive nature is just so important at that moment we will be able to go through and transform a situation that we think is impossible for us to cope with and we will overcome it or we go transform it and we will grow from it for there's a purpose there is a purpose for our being here in this world and when the tailor asked me that question I looked at him

with a straight face and I said I've never even thought about being angry at God I'm responsible for I'm here everybody in this world has a purpose and I encourage you and I beg you to find that purpose to find that purpose what drives you what gets you out of bed at night because one day you're gonna you're gonna have that moment you're gonna see yourself in as an observer and you're gonna know why you're here maybe you'll save somebody's life I need you to thrive I need you to grow as well as I need myself to grow as well because together that's what we're

all in the same boat and that's how it's gonna work is everybody as successful together going through the challenges as one I give you permission and I ask for you every day to find your purpose to just think about it what it is what is your purpose here in this world and when you do have a struggle you'll be able to conquer it let me be your four-minute mile thank you

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.