The One Thing That Could Have Made All the Difference That Day

Listen to an expanded conversation between Bart and Sunny around this newsletter:

We recently had the chance to attend an event where Dan Clark was both a speaker and a teacher. He shared this heart-breaking story:

Dan’s daughter is a professional dancer touring in London. When she was just 12 years old, she took dance lessons at a place called "Center Stage" in Utah. Fun fact: this is where Derek and Julianne Hough also learned to dance! Her dance partner and best friend was a boy named Hefa.

One day, Dan’s daughter, Hefa, Hefa’s mom, and Dan’s wife were all in Denver for a national dance competition. During the event, Dan’s wife called him with some urgent news: Hefa's dad had collapsed in the kitchen, and Dan needed to get there quickly. Right after he hung up that call, Dan received another one from Hefa’s 10-year-old son, Soa. He said, “Uncle Dan, my dad just fell over in the kitchen. He’s not moving or breathing.” Dan asked if he had called 911, and Soa confirmed he had. Dan promised to get there as fast as he could and drove like mad for 45 minutes to reach Spanish Fork, Utah.

When Dan arrived, he was shocked to see the ambulance still parked in the driveway. Inside, he found two older, out-of-shape EMTs struggling to lift Hefa’s dad, a big Polynesian firefighter who stood at six foot two feet and had 200 pounds of solid muscle. Unfortunately, they weren’t fit enough to get him onto the gurney, out the door, and into the ambulance so they could race him to the hospital. Because it was a small town with limited resources, they had to call for help from another nearby town, which (as you can well imagine) caused more delays.

Despite the advances in modern technology that should prevent a man like Hefa Sr. to pass away, he sadly passed away from a stroke, leaving behind three young sons and a grieving widow. At the funeral, everyone felt a mix of sadness and frustrated anger - anger because the EMTs hadn’t taken their physical fitness seriously enough to perform their duties effectively… and indirectly caused Hefa Sr. to die.

Most of us are not EMTs, but some of us are parents. Partners. Leaders. Business owners. And our bodies are the only vehicle we get for any of that.

Your Body is the Container of Your Power, Not Your Punishment

That’s why our “We Play Full Out Life Mastery Mastermind” starts with the Gateway called “The Vessel: Our Bodies.” The code we unlock within this Gateway is, “My body is the container of my power, not my punishment.”

This month in I Do Epic (our Elite Execution Network for High-Performers), we are having a fun fitness challenge. Yes, it is almost summertime and slimming down and getting toned up is top-of-mind, but our bodies are about so much more than looking good.

At the end of the day, it isn’t about having six-pack abs, it’s about being available for your life. That’s physically, energetically, and emotionally.

Our Bodies are Serving Us 24/7

Our bodies were not designed to sit all day (all fingers pointing at us as entrepreneurs)! It wants to move… it craves movement! It wants to serve you - and it does, at a very high level.

Think of all the things your body does in a day that you don’t even consider:

🫀 Vital Functions (You stay alive without lifting a finger)

Your heart beats 100,000 times a day to circulate blood and oxygen while your lungs are busy taking 20,000 breaths a day while simultaneously oxygenating cells and removing CO₂. While this is happening, your brain is firing billions of signals to coordinate movement, thoughts, and emotions. Your kidneys filter 50 gallons of blood per day, removing toxins… and your liver neutralizes harmful substances and regulates over 500 vital functions.

🧬 Repair and Protection (You’re healing 24/7)

Your skin regenerates constantly - healing cuts, bruises and scrapes without any kind of a conscious effort on your part. Your immune system detects and attacks thousands of foreign invaders daily. Broken bones fuse, infections are fought off, and damaged cells are recycled or replaced. Your body cleanses itself, detoxifying through your liver, kidneys, breath, and even your sweat!

🍽️ Energy and Digestion (You eat → you live)

Your digestive system turns food into energy, cells, hormones, and mood-regulating chemicals. Enzymes break down complex meals into usable building blocks, and your gut microbiome helps regulate your immune system and even your mood.

🧠 Balance and Sensing (You’re walking magic)

Your vestibular system keeps you upright and balanced while moving. Again, without a thought, your muscles contract and coordinate in harmony with your nervous system, even when you're asleep. Your eyes adjust to light instantly, and your ears can filter out background noise. Your super brain processes pain, pleasure, fear, joy - and stores your memories, dreams, and desires.

🧘‍♂️ Emotional and Energetic Alchemy

Then we get to the emotional and energetic category! Your body responds to joy with serotonin and endorphins. It releases cortisol and adrenaline to protect you in stress.our posture and breath change your confidence and clarity in real time. And, finally, your heart produces an electromagnetic field detectable several feet away — influencing others.

If you take all of that into consideration, your body could technically be considered your best friend - better than a best friend, more like a sacred companion or cohort! Your body is working for you and serving you 24 hours a day, even when you have neglected it. Even when you are mad at it. Even when you aren’t listening to it!

And what do you give it in return?

Do you talk to it the way you would talk to your best friend? Or do you spew toxic negativity at it every time you look in the mirror? Do you feed it the way you would feed a small child… no toxins or chemicals? Or do you fill it with junk and expect it to run like a Ferrari?

Your body continues functioning for you, but if you ignore it, it starts ignoring you back. And the cost of that?

• Your tired all the time.

• Your brain fogs out halfway through the day.

• You get injured doing things that used to be easy.

• You feel overexerted from things that used to be easy…

• You can’t play full out with your kids or grandkids because you get too tired too quickly.

#1: Physical Fitness Isn’t Just Going to the Gym… It’s a Way of Life

Staying physically fit and healthy isn’t just about going to the gym, it really is a way of life. The solution doesn’t have to be extreme (aka you don’t have to live at the gym, although a 30-min gym workout per day is a pretty legit thing to do). But… you can and should move as much as you can!

• Park farther away

• Take the stairs

• Walk the dog longer

• Pick up something heavy on purpose

• Go to bed USED UP - like your body did something! We can’t remember the book we were reading… but it basically said you should go to bed physically exhausted every night 🙂 

And… I think we all know we should eat healthy. Stay in tune with what your body needs and feed it the fuel to optimize yourself on a daily basis!

We live in a world engineered for convenience, which means we have to consciously choose to live inconveniently if we want to stay physically fit. Because, again, fitness isn’t about looking good (although that can be fun, too!)… it’s about being ready and able to show up and play full out in your life!

#2: Physical Fitness Isn’t Just About Moving Our Bodies, It’s How We Talk to Them

Now that we are locked and loaded on getting our bodies up and moving, we need to discuss how we are talking to our bodies. Sunny has a friend who is constantly pointing out things about her body she doesn’t like. She wondered if her body could hear her, even if she wasn’t saying it out loud. Sunny responded with a “DEFINITELY! DON’T DO IT!” As someone who has struggled with body image, Sunny found it hard not to self-criticize… until she started thinking about all the crazy cool stuff her body can do. Every day now she notices something her body can do and praises it for being so awesome! The energy shift has been extremely noticeable and self-image has definitely improved.

There are all kinds of unconscious processes that kick into play when we think negative thoughts about our bodies:

1. Your Brain Registers Self-Criticism as a Threat
   Negative self-talk activates your amygdala, the brain’s fear center. Your body actually perceived it like emotional danger! This releases cortisol (the stress hormone). Chronic cortisol release weakens your immune system, increases inflammation, and stores fat.
   
   In other words, beating yourself up makes your body defend against you instead of working for you!
   

2. Cells Eavesdrop on Your Emotions
   According to Dr. Candace Pert, author of Molecules of Emotion, your thoughts and feelings create biochemical messages that flood every cell in your body. If you think, “I’m disgusting” your body actually copies and pastes that instruction into your biology just like a computer code. Cells adapt to that vibration. Over time, it literally shapes your health, posture, and energy field.
   

3. You Disrupt the Mind-Body Feedback Loop
   Your body is always trying to support you through healing, balance, and communication. But when you constantly insult it, ignore its signals, or punish it with shame:
   
   → You shut down communication.
   → You become numb, disconnected, or constantly in pain.
   → You might even start to sabotage healthy habits because deep down, you don’t believe you deserve vitality.
   

4. You Reinforce Negative Identity Loops
   Thoughts repeated become beliefs. Beliefs become identity. Identity becomes action.
   
   “I always give up.” → becomes → you don’t even start.
   “I’ll never look good.” → becomes → you don’t nourish or move your body.
   “My body is broken.” → becomes → you subconsciously reinforce patterns of illness or fatigue.

Flip the script and start speaking to your body like it’s a sacred partner. Your body responds to love. It lights up when you say, “Thank you.” It softens when you say, “I’m listening.” It heals faster when you say, “I believe in you.”

Thoughts don’t just become things. They become cells, patterns, and possibilities - inside you.

Life Updates:

• This week we had little Lyla over for almost the entire week! Her Mom, Mercedes, went to Disney World… so we got the pleasure of having her little busy energy around us all day. SO FUN. And definitely reminded us of how much energy those little humans take!

• We have been event planning like crazy and are getting more and more excited as it draws near! We have 5 tickets left and two luxury tents left… so, come party with us if you feel called to! June 5th-7th at Mountain River Ranch here in Idaho! Check it out at www.idoepiclive.com!

• We had a Playbook Power Hour call last Tuesday - it’s where we get on a call with our I Do Epic group go through their 7-Figure Entrepreneur’s Playbook. We talk about their 90-day goals and what they are going to accomplish within the next 30 days. We hyper-focus on hitting those targets and growing our businesses!

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