Hey. This is Ken Jensen. I’d be bipolar disorder in an all natural fashion back in the mid 2000s. And believe it or not, that’s not even the coolest part of my story.

What I learned through that process and what came next and how that applied to bipolar and why bipolar was ever even part of the process was mind blowing to say the least. Bipolar has hidden wood in its strengths.

I’m gonna show you what I mean how they’ve shown up in my life so you can do the same. Welcome to the bipolar Excellent podcast episode 83. If I don’t pick something up and put it down soon, I’m back in the gym.

I just finished my 3rd night of lifting about an hour ago. You’ll probably see me sweating here if you’re watching the YouTube video version of this. it feels to be back in the gym.

It’s important to me. I’ve mentioned it in the past. I’ve had starts and stops since this show has started. Restarted. over the past year since my dad died, little just about a year ago, a little over a year ago.

And everything that that caused within my personal life, settling his estate, helping my mom with, every every major system in the house was failing.

The, the go fund me that I created and all the local help that that drummed up off of that and the charity that kicked in and, you know, I was in the middle of all of orchestrating that.

That was a lot of work. That was months. Some of it, still was taking place up until recently little dribs and drabs of things because contracting things take time.

And took away my focus for working out. At the same time at my day job, there was a lot going on that I was still adjusting to even though I’ve been doing this for a year.

The kind of work I do, I’ve been doing for 5 straight years, and it’s it’s part of how I am as a person anyway.

But the way they wanted it done at this place and how I needed it to be so that I could mentally survive what it is that happens to me at this job, it, and and to give the the corporation what they need.

It it there was just a lot I had to settle out in my head to to make things happen smoothly effortlessly and on autopilot.

I that all kept me from working out as well. So I recently got that all settled and found out I was in a better spot there than I even realized.

And it was time to get back in the gym. My body was getting loud about it in in the main in the main the main way was my knees. My knees were they felt like they were full of fluid and I hadn’t done anything anything to them.

My day job involves a lot of sitting, putting together this show and everything I do online to create content and market and help people involves a lot of sitting.

I’ve never sat this much in my life. Well, let me let me edit that. I haven’t sat this much since I was bipolar almost 20 years ago. And my knees felt like they were breaking.

I had days where I could barely walk, and I knew it was bullshit. I knew my knees were fine. I knew this was the result of inactivity. I have an extensive stretching routine that I’ve done 4 years before I even work out.

Some guys will say don’t stretch before you lift because you want that spring in your muscles because it helps you lift more. I’ve tested this and I agree with them. However, I’m not mobile enough without without stretching first.

I I there’s there’s positions particularly with dead lifting and a couple other things. Even benching, I can’t get in a position properly unless I’ve stretched first, and it got worse.

The older I got So my stretching routine got even more intense. And there’s warm ups I do now that I never used to do when I was younger, and it it feels really good.

And My body is thanking me for doing this. And primarily, my knees feel better. A lot better, and it happened almost immediately. and they improve every day.

The knees, because they wouldn’t bend, I couldn’t do front front thigh stretches where you squat down put your hands behind you, you know, balance on the floor and then and then let your body rock forward and stretch out the the front of your thighs.

I couldn’t get that into a lesser degree. Your hip your hip flexors, I couldn’t get that to happen because my knees would barely bend, period.

To go under load, which is what, you know, you’re you’re in the bottom of a squat position. You’re under the most load possible with your knees at their weakest because they’re fully bent.

I couldn’t do that stretch. So I came up with an idea. I got some lifting straps like you know, on a construction site that they got loops on either end.

And I looped one end of those straps around the main beam in my my basement. And I wrapped the other loop through that loop in such a way that I essentially invented a poor man’s version of the rings and gymnastics.

I run my forearms through the through the bottom loop and grab the straps above, and then I can hold all my way with my hands and in my in my upper body.

And then and then ease my way down into a full squat, which is sick. It’s delicious. I haven’t been able to do that and I don’t know how many months just to get reach the full squad position.

And then lift myself up a little by my arms and and let my body rock forward my lower body and get that stretch on the front of the thighs. I have missed that. Oh my god. and my knees are responding wonderfully.

They’re they’re they’re bending almost all the way again. They still hurt. This isn’t, you know, this ain’t magic, but they responded freakishly well almost immediately, and it gets better every day.

And then with the stretching routine, I’m telling you guys, if you don’t stretch, you’re fucked. You’ve particularly the rear of your body.

If your hands and your calves are too tight, and your back muscles are too tight. You you’ll have headaches. You’ll everything will hurt. Your heels will hurt. Your knee knees, your hips, everything will hurt.

And it’s because all the muscles in the back of your body, which hold you erect, are too tight. You gotta get some stretching in your life some somewhere. and whatever form you can, you’ll only win.

Do it carefully and go learn it online. Look up YouTube and go figure some things out. But I’m feeling really good. And and besides just taking care of myself and lifting, which I absolutely love.

I I love love love the gym. Love it. It’s the one place in life to where no matter what else might be going to shit around me, I’m at peace. The gym not only feels right. It’s church.

It’s meditative. It’s achievement. It’s warier time. It’s the only place I can be a savage. unbridled and get that level of energy out and in use in a way that’s acceptable in public. I lift at home so I can do her I want anyway.

There’s nobody to witness anything. The only the only thing I have to worry about is if if I live too late at night, I’m in my garage. I gotta button up the garage so I don’t link up my neighbors because I’ll get making some noise.

So anyway, I’m back at it. And part part of why I wanted to get back at it was because I knew, When your body runs better, your mind runs better.

That’s part of one of the systems that I the system I wrote about my book, the system I sell on my site, that that’s one of the things.

You want your brain to work better, take care of your body. They’re not separate pieces. That’s where psychiatry and Western medicine get things wrong. your brain and your body are one piece.

The brain in in in a sense is just another organ in the body needs to be treated properly. as the piece of meat that it is with the supporting structures and systems around it being treated like the machinery they are.

So that your brain such you can think right. Just keep your emotions under control and and all of that shit. If you don’t take care of your body, your brain ain’t gonna work right the end.

It’s not even to be argued. So anyway, Another part of why I did that was not just so my brain would work right, but because I want to succeed bigger and faster in my business practice than I am.

And I realized that number 1, everything that happened to me in the last year, it had to happen the way it happened. There was no getting around it, and I didn’t even really fight against it. I wasn’t happy but I knew what it was.

I knew I knew what it was. It it it had to be as it was. And I accepted that sacrifice. I literally said this many episodes back that I was sacrificing my health to a degree because I I didn’t have a choice.

I didn’t have the energy. I didn’t have the time. I didn’t have the will. I couldn’t even think clear to add training in the middle of anything else. The other stuff would have would have not gotten done.

And in some cases, tens of 1000 of dollars were on the line and other people’s lives are wrapped up in mind. It it required full focus. So As all of that’s going on, I’m still doing the work online.

I’m doing this podcast, the newsletter. I added the YouTube videos. I’m doing more on LinkedIn. And I just did a bunch of work on LinkedIn tonight today. I’m very happy. I got all my services put back in place.

They were there once before. I had some thoughts. I chased them down. they didn’t go where I want them to go, and I realized I need to put those things back in place so people realize there’s shit they can buy for me.

There’s ways I can help them. if they don’t consume all the material, which a lot of people don’t, they need to see blatantly immediately, like, oh, he sells this. So I didn’t have that in place.

I just spent a day putting those things in place, and I gotta tell you, I feel better about life. And and and I tuned them up so that they present well And, it’s so funny. I had a to do list over the weekend.

It was a mile long and I only got about a third of it done. Nothing in in nothing is anything complicated, but there’s there’s a matter of how much energy and focus I can put into any any one thing at one time.

And anything online always always takes longer than I think it will if it’s a new thing. This podcast and all the pieces that are connected to it I do it are a known entity. If I kick ass, I can get done in about 2 a half hours.

If if if I’m cruising 3 hours and if things are just not going my way or I’m tired, 4 hours. to get all of this done and out in time so that you guys have it in the newsletter Monday morning.

And and on on all the podcast stations, platforms, I I want it there every Monday. I want it before midnight on Sunday to be already loaded in.

That’s just the thing I picked to do. Now along, along with that, let’s see, the podcast. Now I had no intention of interviewing anyone ever again after that nasty experience I had not long ago that I take complete responsibility for.

I brought that to me. I signed off on it. I lived it. It was horrible. And the other person, the things they did upset me, it doesn’t even matter.

Nobody can get in your head and upset you. You upset you. It’s how you react to shit. That’s totally on you. I built a bad situation, and then I owned the the thing, the horribleness that came to me from that situation.

Fine. I don’t wanna interview any anyone anymore. Right? Well, this gentleman, I’m gonna leave all the facts out until we’re done.

Very, very nice guy, very accomplished person. He’s doing some cool stuff on the side. He’s got a bipolar background as well. just called me out of the blue. Well, he emailed me out of the blue and he wants to be on the show.

He wanted me to interview him. And I was like, yeah, fuck it. I’ll interview him because News is a nice guy, and he’s up to some cool shit too that are that’s separate from just talking about bipolar.

Same as me. You’re gonna really enjoy him. He should be next week’s show. I don’t see why not, but I still don’t wanna interview anyone, but I’m gonna wing that and just talk just two guys talking over coffee and just just just see.

I just wanna know about him. The longer I do anything, except for this podcast.

How do I put this? The podcast is by default against what I’m about to say. I don’t like talking about myself anywhere near as much as learning about other people and hearing what they got to say.

But the podcast starts that conversation. station. You guys get an idea what I’m about, and someday we talk about something. And so I don’t have a choice.

Here, I have to talk about myself. So I do my best to make it useful. as I learned in human design, I am I am not even technically here to help anyone so much as I am to share my life and people can learn from that.

I can share lessons from it. That’s literally how I’m designed to be. In the Colby Index a, I am not designed at all to build anything.

I am pure abstract thought, ideas, the plan. The the the I pull the pieces out of the mist and the fog and turned it into a cohesive tangible plan that somebody else has to then run because I’m done.

I don’t want nothing to do with it. You don’t want me running a thing I just built. I’m a consultant and an advisor and an advisor and a counselor in fashion.

I share all of this because that’s what I learned from Colby in human design as well as my personal experience over the years with a lot of other just real life situations.

You know, I’m gonna share for a moment. There was a situation again. I I needed money really bad and there was somebody that I was doing something with.

And they wanted to hire me to help them build something online, a website, and they wanted to tie it into something they were doing. I knew easily how to do it.

This person was a problem. This was a problem person to anybody that crossed paths with them. but he was willing to pay me. I was on a bind and and I think I needed a tank of fuel for my heater and, I agreed to work with this guy.

I had a partner at the time. He was like, whatever comes out of this, this is on you. And, now the thing is I met with this person and his team, and he had a he had a pretty good handle on what was what already needed to happen.

I just tightened it all up, scaled up the vision, and and clarified some details. I just I’d figured out who on the team was in charge of what clearly delineated who that should be and what they should be doing.

And, we even had we even had a contract And the contract stated that I am simply going to share my advice in these meetings.

There was gonna be 4 of these meetings, and that’s what you’re paying for, and then we’re out. as this guy signed in the contract, he basically, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We we’ll we’ll we’ll look into that. He kinda shined on shine me on, if that makes sense, his understanding of what that contract just said. It’s he just refused to honor in his heart. What his eyeballs were telling him.

And I caught that and and didn’t didn’t care. I needed the money. So I went with it. I did not rip them off. I provided everything. I said I would, and it was extensive, and it was beautiful, and wonderful.

When the 4th meeting was done, I was like, that’s it. I’m out. We’re done. This guy thought that I would remain glued to his hip for who knows how fucking long to see this grand vision has come into into being.

So I learned never to take money just to get paid. I don’t care how desperate of a time I’m in or what I need.

It’s not worth it. I’ve spoken about this before. There’s times when you’re dying or something, you gotta do something. for money and and and and come what may. But I’m not in in a spot like that anymore.

And if you’re if you are Think hard and fast before you before you do it. Hard and long, I mean, before you do it because, god, the headaches you you incur from that kind of a decision. You’ll remember my words.

You’ll rule my words. And I did with this guy. He lost his shit. He was a pure fucking asshole of just orders of magnitude beyond, just a day to day asshole. He made things hard and complicated for a while for me and my partner.

And, we basically both threatened him with his life to get him to leave us alone. And He eventually did. And, this was like, my god, I don’t know, 14 years ago or something, but god, what a lesson I learned off of that.

And and again, I served him well. He just wanted something different from me and just believed it would happen if he just clicked his heels to get it three times and wished it to be so.

I caught that and didn’t honor it’s happening to then just take a moment and be like, dude, I’m I just wanna check-in with you because I don’t think you’re reading what I just put down here.

Don’t I don’t think you’re, you want something more than what I just said here. And I would I would like to get really clear about it before we move forward. So anyway, I will never do that again.

If anybody comes my way for help, there’s a process they have to go through to for me to vet them. You have to prove to me why I should even consider working with you. It’s a and I’m teaching you an empowerment thing here.

I don’t want people’s money just to get their money. I don’t want an asshole client or a or a headache or a problem. don’t wanna bite off more than I can chew even if they’re good people and, you know, I think maybe I can pull that off.

I want nothing to do with any of that. I want everybody good on the details. and everybody comfortable with the relationship.

But this is my business. In a sense, I’m hiring you you gotta prove to me why I should take you on and put you in my life. Flip side, I’m then I’m then gonna throw myself, hurl myself at your issue, and help you every which way I can.

But not until you’ve proven to me that I should let you into my world. Again, if you’re building something new, get what I just did there into your mind and soul and heart and body, embrace it, believe it, live it.

You will have a much better time of all it is the faster you can take ownership of your dream the way I just shared with you that I do mine.

You’ll have far less headaches and a whole lot more fun, and you’ll make a lot more money faster. Okay. There was What was the other thing?

I just wanted to throw a tidbit in there. A bonus little bit of nothing. Okay. This this mic arm, this boom arm that’s in front of my face. I can’t wait till I can get the there’s a little desk thing I wanna get.

Like, I see on Rogan and other shows where there’s no boom in my face like this. But until that time, I had to move this boom out of the way to see if I could just whatever to to organize my desk better.

And when I went to move it, the the screw. It’s a screw. It’s a c clamp. And the handle on the end of the threaded bolt came off the bolt while the bolt itself never moved.

I didn’t realize they weren’t one piece. So I figured out how to get the C clamp off, and then I had to once again go to the fine folks over at JBweld.

I should be getting I should be getting kickbacks for this. They should be sponsoring me. I was able to take the the the handle. JB weld it to the to the bolt, the threaded bolt.

And then put the whole thing back together, move it properly, reset it, and it worked just fine. And I shared that because You’re just not gonna believe that the the the tiny shit that’ll frustrate you and get in your ways.

You try to do these things that you’re gonna have to deal with so that your your your show, in this case, goes forward properly, just tonight. There was some little tiny, tiny click I could just barely hear in the headphones.

I’m like, the fuck is that? This thing never did click, and it was electronic in nature. and and subtle. I’m like, that there’s no way that that’s not gonna come through on the recording. And I have no idea what it is.

I, you know, I I barely understand the stuff that I use here. I started playing with some of the little slidey things, and I was able to see who was one of the little slidey things. Apparently, I would guess it’s a former electrician.

There’s a loose connection of some sort. I I guess. And, you know, sometimes it’s on. Sometimes it’s off. And I I don’t know. But but I was You just it’s always gonna be something. If in this case, I fixed that one rather quick.

I gotta tell you, I feel very successful and good about myself as a man in American and a former marine that I found out what the hell was doing that click. It’s been there before, and I just let it ride.

I I don’t know if it’s in the recordings if you can hear it on different equipment, but I was very glad to find it and get rid of it and and, I don’t want anything messing with the quality of this stuff to to the best of my ability.

Okay. I think tonight, I’m gonna end on the little clicky thing. look out for the cool, super cool guest that’s gonna be on next week’s show, you’re really gonna like him.

Really nice guy. Not having not not anywhere near the loud mouth I am or the free of nature that I tend to be as I ramble and get out of control. Very nice, more of a reserved guy, very pleasant.

And I really like talking to him. I think you guys are gonna like listening to him. Alright. There’d be more if I kept digging, but I’m tired. I’ve gotta now process all of this and get to bed. Alright, guys.