David Green - getting to know your soul purpose

David Green is a musician, author, inventor and rabbi and he wants to help you become more aware of your unique personality and your meaningful path to achieve your purpose in this world.

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Music by Ian Hildebrand

Transcript

Arwen Bardsley: 0:00

Okay, hello, everybody, and welcome today to another fabulous interview today with David Green. David is an author, composer and inventor. And he's worked with some of the most famous names in music, and he's an award winning film producer. But he's on the show today to help you and me become more aware of our unique personalities and mission in this world. In other words, what I like to call our soul purpose. So David, welcome today, I'd really love it if you could start out by telling us a bit about you, your background, where you've come from, to be where you are now doing what you are doing now.

David Green: 0:45

Wow, that's, that's a long story to be made short. Okay, I am from Toronto, originally. I say the word about like that. And I grew up with when I was 16. All I wanted was to be successful in the music business. And I was running way too fast and very disconnected from my soul. And my my whole goal was to be an artist without sacrificing my artistic integrity as mainly as a jazz musician, but be successful in the pop market, which seems a bit of a contradiction, but it's, it's what I really wanted. And I was running very, very fast to try to get there. And thank God I made some progress became a staff writer for a record company in Canada called a&m records at the time. And by 18, I was in Hollywood recording an album. And the producer that worked with me had won numerous Grammy Awards in the past. And he couldn't accept his award should he have won that year. So he asked me if I would accept it on his behalf. And as a newcomer in the business at 18 years old, that was like a dream come true as a chance to rub shoulders with all the big players look like I must be successful if I'm accepting a Grammy on behalf of this gentleman Jean page. And I was very excited that I rented a tuxedo and his limousine picked me up. And we're heading down the highway to, to the Grammys. And I had a terrible panic attack, I was so scared that he would win. And I would have to go up there and accept the award and in front of 1000s of people and millions of people watching on TV. And then I was going to, like forget his name or something. I just was so nervous. And I think that was the first time I prayed in my life. Cuz I prayed that he would not win. He'd be too happy to know that I was praying for that. But thank God, my my prayers were answered. And he did not win. But after the Grammys was an event that took place for all the VIPs. And since I was a nominated, I had a pass, I was allowed to go to this party and they had all these different rooms in this big hotel set up the ballroom with Count Basie orchestra playing and they had the disco room. And then they had this one room where there were televisions playing the Grammys. Because if your artists performed that night, that night, they wanted to see how they did and there was this big spread of food there. And I walked in. And I actually saw one of my favorite musicians of all time, he was like my idol. And he won Grammy that year for a pop song. But he's one of the most incredible jazz musicians alive. And I looked at him. And he looked terribly depressed.

Arwen Bardsley: 3:49

Who was it?

David Green: 3:51

I don't want to say, tradition of not speaking badly about people. So I he was uncredible. But he's like one of the top jazz musicians still alive today. And I stopped and I thought to myself and I had this incredible vision that came from above and from within my soul. That said, you are running way too fast to become something that could actually be depressed. What you have to do is discover your inner happiness, and then use your music as an expression of that happiness, rather than running after the goal as if it's going to provide happiness because there you are looking at the person who personifies the absolute success that you're running after. And he does not look very happy. And that was to me a tremendous blessing in my life because at an early age, I was able to turn around 180 degrees and begin a journey which I call journey to the real you. A journey inwards to who you really are. And I actually produced an album called the Journey to the real you. That's a title song from it. But what happened was I went to college studying music composition in Bloomington, Indiana, for three and a half years. And then I still felt, you know, that was a different type of artsiness that I had to live up to. And it wasn't me. And I used to, for example, go to a park down the street, and there was a ditch in the park. And I used to lie in the ditch and just feel like I was part of the earth. And like, I just wanted to separate from all the noise of, of having to be this artsy artist and perform and be weird in order to be considered creative. And I just felt this connection with this much bigger thing when I lied in the earth and felt myself, as it says in the Bible says that we come from dust of the earth and will return to the earth. So I was, I was felt like I was part of the earth. And then what happened was, I started feeling certain contradictions in my religious identity. And I decided that I had to go to Israel to truly find my soul. And so that's what I did. And when I was there, I went to what's called the yeshiva where we studied Jewish philosophy. But, but I was there with about 30 guys who are all come from completely unaffiliated backgrounds, who had traveled the world exploring different religions, and then came home to, to their own Judaism in Israel. And after a number of months of questioning, I just found an incredible connection between the land and my soul. And the stage I was life in, in life, I was at the time. And I, I still live in Israel, I lived in Toronto for a while again, but I'm based in Israel now. And I became a rabbi, I continue to do my music. I teach a lot. I study a lot. And I'm involved in various businesses that because rabbis don't make money. As a as an inventor, I have technology that I sell, I patent and sell technology. So that frees me up to have the time to be able to put my heart into trying to help this world become a better place.

Arwen Bardsley: 7:18

So when you said, You prayed for the first time in the limousine on the way to the Grammys, do you mean that literally, so were you was it that you weren't brought up in your faith, or

David Green: 7:31

I was not brought up in my faith, I brought up with a strong, a strong Jewish identity, you know, feeling part of something bigger than me, you know. But when I went to synagogue, it was just, I just had no connection whatsoever, I was just more doing what my parents wanted me to do. And I would only go a few times a year, that was, you know, they have these big buildings that sit empty all year round until Rosh Hashanah, the New Year and Yom Kippur. And, you know, I was extremely assimilated. And so that actually worked to my advantage in many ways, because people who grow up in a religious environment often don't they're the religiosity has sort of been put on to them as a child. So they, it's like, there's a point where you have to grow out of your child clothes and put on mature adult clothes. And I had the privilege of being an adult looking at Judaism for the first time. And therefore I was able to look with a much more mature eye and not do it just because I was being told by somebody that it's the right thing to do. And it became much more a real part of me and I was applying it to so many important things in my life. There's nothing that made my my music flourish more than discovering my soul that were the best music school I've ever went to was when I was actually living in an apartment looking over the Western Wall and the Temple Mount and seeing everything I was learning it carved in stone. In fact, I have a video on YouTube called Jerusalem, eye of the universe, and it's just me throwing out my passion for this feeling, I have to connect it to the actual stone to the, to the ground to the to the archaeological, you know, imprints of our history. And so I felt that on a very deep level. And so I started I had a jazz band I used to perform every Saturday night there. And I started getting all these gigs, playing piano on albums and writing music for various projects. So his was fantastic. I had a reawakening or an awakening of my soul and, and ways of expressing it in within context of even though there's a lot of rules in the Jewish religion. Those Those are sort of like the the base where it's just like we as human beings all have certain things that we all have the same, I can go to the same eye doctor as you, even though our eyes are different colors and different shapes, the doctor knows because there's certain scientific consistencies that that work through all of us. So to the commonality that is within Judaism, and with the laws that seem somewhat restrictive. On top of that, it very much encourages us to discover who we are and find out what, why did God put us in this world? And what is the specific mission that I'm here to achieve? And that as an artist became such a focus of my spiritual development, because all that kind of artsy ness and individuality that I was spending within the world of music. Now I was spending it in the world with life, it was part of my essence of who I am, and wanting to know why I was created, like, whatever, why was I put into this planet? Why did my family survived the Holocaust and others didn't? Like, there's something meaningful that I have to get in touch with. And, and that was my, my mission was to get in touch with that.

Arwen Bardsley: 11:08

So So what age were you when you kind of realized that you wanted to discover that? And, and, you know, at what point did you have a understanding or awareness that it was your soul that you were trying to get in touch with?

David Green: 11:29

Well, on an experiential level, first of all, it was it was my early 20s, that I, I went to Israel. And on an experiential level, I felt my soul, which is just as a musician. Most artists have a certain connection to spirituality. Some, some of them know it, and some of them don't know it. But when you're reaching for sparks of inspiration, that's a spiritual process. But once once I started studying, then it was very, very open what I was looking for it was a very direct exploring what is the soul? And what is the soul longing for? And in, in my new book called pictures of your soul? It's all describing the kind of questions that people think that you can't answer because it's all about the soul, which is spiritual. And yet, we're, we learned so much anatomy of the soul, how it connects to the body, why doesn't fly away from the body of its spiritual, all these types of questions. So my book goes through that with illustration. And it's based on a Hasidic masterpiece called the Tanya, which gives you a tremendous amount of information on what the soul is, and what it's longing for, and how to lift yourself up from a dark place into a light place. And all those types of issues. My other book is called a book about you. And that's more individuality. How do you discover what your particular mission is in this world? And what is your personality? And so I'm happy to share any of these,

Arwen Bardsley: 13:04

I want to know the answers to all of those questions. Yeah. So I mean,

David Green: 13:08

you ask me and I'll go from there.

Arwen Bardsley: 13:10

Yeah. So perhaps starting with that individuality and life purpose, because regardless of, you know, how anybody feels about their spirit, their soul, you know, I mean, you know, my belief and yours clearly is that we are, you know, a spirit in a physical body. But, but for more people perhaps to start with, it's, it's easier to grasp that concept of individuality and life purpose. So yeah, I'd love to I understand you have a method of helping people to discover that. And obviously, I don't want you to tell us the whole book, because we want people to buy the book, but just you know, if you can give us some ideas of perhaps how people should start that or you know, just what your process is?

David Green: 13:59

Sure. Well, nothing I'm saying is anything I invented is all based on rabbinical and biblical sources. When we when we learn in the in the first part of the Bible in Genesis about the forefathers, so each one of them represents a certain type of personality. Abraham was one of chesed, it's called, which is kindness. And these are godly attributes that he put into the world when He created the world. And when He created us, so we were those three personalities of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We all have that within us, but one of them is more dominant than the others. And there's this principle from ethics of our fathers that says that the world stands on three things. And those three things correspond with this chesed, Guvureh and Tiferet. These are three attributes. And like a tripod, if you take one away, then the whole thing falls over. So a person needs to have all three of these so even though you can discover what your essential personality type is, it means that it must be complemented by the other two. So on the other hand, if you don't give enough fuel to that essential part of you, then you're going to fall down into more depressing state, to a place where you're not expressing who you are, and feel like I'm missing out on life. So the idea is to tap into your strengths, and now acknowledge that the weaknesses you have are sort of like they come as part of the package. For example, if someone is a very kind person, they're chesed personality, they're loving personality. So often, that person has a hard time with time management, because they are so into loving people that if they make an appointment to meet you, at eight o'clock, the likelihood of them coming at eight o'clock is so slim, because they see somebody else they'd like on the way. And they've got to give them big hugs, and they got to talk about what's going on. And like when we're going to get together next, I haven't seen you in a whole 24 hours, this is crazy what's going on, you know, and they feed the cat on the you know, that's needs a little cup of milk on the way and all kinds of acts of kindness actually remove them from time, and they will come late to someone they actually love very much. So they have a hard time with that. And, and there's even way the people people dress reflects that kind of personality. I taught for over 25 years, a series of classes on this. And what I did was I gave people, the Kabbalistic foundations of each of these personalities. And then I had them describe what would a person be like if they were based on this godly attribute of chesed of kindness. And they would tell me right down to what kind of shoes they wore, I didn't have to tell them anything. And it was the same list every time I taught it, you know, hundreds of times, and they all spelled it out the same way. So I have a personality test on my website where people can actually go, and with 19 questions, they can get the profile of how much of each of these personalities they are. And my book, each chapter is about the personalities, what the strengths and the weaknesses are. And then I go on to tell them about how to make choices in life and use that information in a very concrete way, as opposed to just pop psychology's kind of use of the the personality types. So it's there's that process of, of finding oneself is by identifying what's unique about them. And this process helps them zoom in on it, of course, it goes a lot deeper than that. But it begins the process of discovering what is your, the root of your personality from a spiritual standpoint. But there's another aspect of that, and that is based on the first two words that were said to Abraham, which are lech lecha go to yourself. And he was told to discover who he was go, first by removing distraction, which was remove yourself from the environment that you came from, which is one of idol worship, and one of all kinds of pagan ideas that that he had to lift himself out of, in order to see God is one he needed that space to be able to discover his his true faith. And so removing yourself from the environment that you grew up in, and also means the internet, your phone, all the distractions of of all the social pressure of trying to be all these things that everyone's telling you have to be. So you remove yourself from that. And that cleans out the passageway to the soul. Because now you can start to hear who you really are mindfulness meditations work on that principle. We move up into another level beyond that, called empty spaces, is the title of my second album, which has meditations in it that help you move up the ladder, which I can describe later but the second part lecha go to yourself is the proactive part of discovering your personality. But lech has a very important stage in that. So even though I discussed the idea of three primary personalities, one should at least simultaneously be working on removing all these voices that are telling you you're somebody that you're not.

Arwen Bardsley: 19:23

Yeah, I love that idea of, of going and then finding the emptiness there. So what are the other two? So you mentioned kindness, right?

David Green: 19:35

So the second one is called Guvureh. Guvureh means strength. But it says Who who is a strong person? It says in in ethics of our fathers who is a strong person. A strong person is someone who can conquer their evil inclination, it means a person with self discipline. So that type of person nowaday, you'll find, everyone tells me where are they at five in the morning there At the gym, they're there, they have keys on their belt to open up the office because of the first one, and they turn on the on the coffee machine, they turn on, on the printers and they the coffee machine and, and they, they are the ones that are always there to create structure and a sense of judgment and, and cleanliness, and they're just extremely organized. That's that's Guvureh. That's the strength personality that Isaac represented. And Jacob represented what's called Tiferet which is harmony, which is more something that a person who is a little more reserved, and more in the mind, that personality is a very intellectual type of personality doesn't mean they're smarter than anyone else. But it does mean that what stimulates them is more ideas. And they're very good at looking at a situation and not becoming too emotionally drawn in, by looking at one hand, okay, let's look at the pieces of the puzzle here. On one hand, this person is saying this, this person is saying this, now make a calculation as to what is the right thing to do. And make sure that I haven't left out the mind or the hearts and the both together move forward. So their sense of judgment is very good. But their vulnerabilities is that they start to think they're smarter than everybody else. And therefore ego is a very difficult thing. These three things are all correspond with negative attributes as well. So I don't want to go too deep into it. But it's all intertwined with major events that took place in the Bible during just before the forefathers came to be like, Cain killed his brother out of jealousy. The opposite of that is chesed kindness to an Abraham brought kindness into the world. It was a it was it was sort of the rebuild what jealousy had brought in. And, you know, each one of them correspond, but I didn't want to say too much at one time. Yeah, yeah.

Arwen Bardsley: 22:07

Yeah. So that yes, there's, of course, there's always, you know, the, the balancing negative dark side of of anything, isn't there. So, yeah, that totally makes sense. So how do you? I mean, you mentioned you know, the phones, the screens, all the distractions we have, but how would you suggest to somebody that they try to create the, the empty space so that they can get more in touch with their spirit spirit, their soul?

David Green: 22:46

Well, a lot of that has to do with what people believe in to start with, I know that I have a soul inside me. And my, the teachings tell me that there actually our two souls, there's a divine soul and an animal soul. The pure divine soul is something that is so precious. And it nobody can touch it and hurt you because it is pure. And so no matter what mistakes you make in life, there's this pure soul inside of you, which means we all have a gold mine deep down inside. And if a person is digging for gold, and they go in their backyard and just randomly look anywhere, they're going to be very frustrated. But if you actually know that there's a goldmine there, then every shovel you you dig, is coming closer and closer to that goldmine. So if you know that you have a goldmine within you, then the process of removing static from your ability to hear that Goldmine, that divine soul, is a very invigorating experience in itself. And sort of what happens is starts to build momentum, as long as you have this inner faith that you do have a soul, which is something that I can't even imagine not having, because otherwise like, what are we as human beings, you know, how could we be communicating to each other, just like you can't see my brainwaves, you know, you know, they're there. Because, you know, your deductive reasoning means that I must have a brain that's thinking, so to the just being a human being, which is feeling I feel this spirituality running through me, you know, I know that soul is there. And I have experiences of where the soul is more enlightened than others. So I have a relationship with my soul. And so therefore, people need to allow themselves the chance to find that soul. If they don't believe the gold mines there, they're not going to dig. So regardless of what level of faith you have, at least give it a shot. that, give it a try to start removing all the garbage that's, that's covering up that beautiful soul and polish it off and let it shine. I actually one of my songs is called candle in the night. A candle is a very spiritual thing, it's actually says in Proverbs, that the candle of God is the soul of man, which is why you see, and my background is part of my book cover, which is, you see a selfie look into the phone, instead of seeing your your physical self, you see the spiritual self, which is metaphorically represented by a flame. And if a person knows that that flame is there, and so then you go through this lech lecha experience of removing all this, you know, static. And once you start to see a little bit of that flame, when you light a flame in a dark room, it lights up the whole room. And so when you start to dig down deep, and you just get a little glimpse of that soul, then it shines and can light up a very dark place. And so there's an advantage actually to the darkness, because it allows you to actually see that you become a vessel for the shining light that's within inside you. And so, you know, it's it doesn't have to be so complicated. We, we pray three times a day. And that is a meditative process of getting touch deeper and deeper into the soul. But people can go through a meditative process. And by becoming aware, first of all of their breathing, breathing is a very spiritual thing. Because when the when we are created says that God breathed the soul into man. So this sound of hay is the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which it represents the five levels of the soul that God breathed into us. So when we become aware of that, that, hey, become aware of the soul having five levels, we can actually tune into them. And the first level is called nephesh. And that is the nephesh is connected to the blood, which is why we feel that the soul is moving all around the internal body with the blood, you try to say, well, where's my soul, like, where are you going to point it's, but it's actually connected to the blood. And many times in the Bible, it says that Dhamma who nephesh the blood is the nephesh. But that's only the lowest level of the Soul, which is connected to the body through the belief that there's actually a higher level of blood, it's almost like a vapor kind of blood. So that's where the physical and the spiritual connect. And then we move to the next level, which is called Ruach, which resides in the heart, which is a, where you completely surrender yourself to this dark space, which is infinity. And infinity is something which, if you let go and and allow your soul to travel there, it's a very scary thing at first, but actually you're connecting to the infinite. I love the idea of touching the infinite. It seems like a contradiction, but we actually can touch the infinite if we allow ourselves to go there. And that's what I call it, the empty spaces. And on my, my new album, there's a meditation that takes you up into that level of empty spaces. And then there's something called the neshamah, which is in the brain, and something called haya and yefida that are too lofty for us to actually grasp. So people can climb that ladder of higher levels of consciousness, tuning into the soul, and its various parts, which is why in my new book, pictures of your soul, the more you read it, the more it becomes actually something you can actually imagine being inside of you. Because it discusses it, it's like, you know, if you if you don't know somebody, and you can't know anything about them, it's a very hard thing to have a relationship with them. But if someone starts to describe who they are, then you start to develop a relationship because their personality and becomes something much more concrete. If you start developing a relationship to what the soul is and how it's made up. Then you start saying, oh, okay, now I now I know what I'm reaching for. Now I know what to dig for. I understand. It's a it's a you know, it's not just this, this sort of flame on its own. It's got many dimensions to it. And those dimensions help us connect through the understanding what the soul is.

Arwen Bardsley: 29:49

And so other than doing a meditation practice or a practice of prayer, are there any other things that you we'd suggest on a practical level for people to, you know, do some of that decluttering.

David Green: 30:05

I mean, people have to discipline themselves to, to look at like, what are they doing with their time? What are they running after? Somehow, the, there's, I find certain people who are doing tons of things with their lives, and achieving lots of things. And there's other people who look like they're running around getting all kinds of things done, but they're getting very little done. We have a tendency to want to run and do and do this and do that. But half the time, we're just an autopilot. So what we have to do is we have to turn off the autopilot, and step back and take a big breath, and ask yourself, what do you really want? What is it that you're really looking for? And take out a pad of paper and write down? What are your priorities? What are you looking for? And then ask yourself, you know, when I get up in the morning, the various things that I do with my life, how much do they have to do with that picture that I drew on the page, or the graph or the list of things, and have the discipline have the guts to be able to remove the things that are unrelated to who you really are. And that's a very simple process, but it can be a very difficult one to actually implement. It's worth writing it out. And, you know, it's an amazing thing, how I've seen people who have been extremely inspired. Right, I used to run a summer program where students from American colleges used to come to Israel, and they were extremely inspired and wanted to make major life changes. But what I did was I had them write a letter to themselves, and they would read it a month later. And they wouldn't be able to identify who was that person? Because that person was, like, on a high, you know, they were so inspired the question, who's the real person? Is it the person who wrote the letter? Or is it the person who's now back into their whole lifestyle meeting you at Starbucks at a certain time, then I gotta go to the office, and then I gotta go here, and then I gotta go run here. And if i don't, you know, I can't exist, you know, and, and it's important to recognize that, it's, it's a hard thing to hold on to that awareness. And therefore, every day, you should take out that piece of paper. And, you know, refine it and create for yourself the tools by like, there's, there's a challenge that many people have have of their ego. So for example, one of the rabbis tells us that in one pocket, you should write the verse that I am created from dust of the earth, which means like, I'm nothing, right? And there's another verse that says Bish, really no Ebola. For me, the world was created as if the whole world was created for me, which it was because the world that you live in is all based around you. But the problem is, there's a risk of the ego being inflated when you think that way. So what at times, when you're, when you're having a hard time you bring out the one that says beach Fellini for Olam, when your egos getting carried away, you take out the one that says I'm best of the earth. Now, those are two very simple statements. But if you carry them around with you, then it has a profound effect on you. So same thing, the messages, you want to tell yourself, based on the calculations you make in your life of what you're doing too much of what you're doing too little of where your true fulfillments coming from. If you make that like a diary for yourself, then you have to review it over and over again, in order to teach the negative voices within us not to fall and and buy into some other argument. And we have, as I mentioned, an animal soul that's there to try to pull us away. And that whole analysis of what that is, you know, I go into the book, but there were created in a way where even the simple process of remembering what we're here to do with our lives, and what how we want to prioritize our lives, it's very difficult to hold on to unless we have a constant reminder. So for some people, their meditation would be just to review what they themselves believe to be true. A person can be have decided for sure they're going to stop smoking, but every day is the last cigarette No. So they it's very, very hard. They can be on a diet and they purposely walked by the ice cream store so that they'll be tempted by the time they get there. You know So things that we know we want, it doesn't mean it's easy to implement. So we need to constantly review that. And so when it comes to getting in touch with ourselves, we have to do the same thing, we have to recognize that, okay, you can't just decide what's important to you, and expect that the next day you're going to be able to implement it, we need a constant reminder of commitment, the gevorah that I described before that type of personality, that gets up at five o'clock in the morning and is implementing the plan, we have to wake up like we're within ourselves to implement the plan of how we're going to move forward living who we really are.

Arwen Bardsley: 35:40

And I know that you have a term called spiritual self defense, and I'd love to hear more about that as well. And is that something that helps, because I know that being or I believe that being aware of our of our self, about spirit, being in touch with that, being in touch with our soul, can help with mental health issues? For sure. So I am not sure whether the spiritual self defense helps with that, or if that's two separate things, but can you just talk a bit about that as well?

David Green: 36:19

Okay, briefly, the spiritual self defense is based in the movie The Karate Kid, I don't know if you remember that from years back what the spiritual development is mirrored by the physical development, which means that we can learn from developing the skills in karate I just use as an example, where if you go to karate class, you don't go in and learn how to fight right away, what you have to do is you'll learn how to punch, you have to learn how to kick, you have to connect these little modules of punching and kicking one after the other until you have a whole routine. And you can't expect to end up in a dark alley with someone trying to beat you up. And that you're going to say, well, I learned in karate that I should punch this way you there's no time, you're gonna get smacked around too quickly. So what we do is we develop a reflex response to whatever is trying to attack us, so that we're already ready to punch my, my niece was on us on a bus once she's a, you know, fairly strong woman as she, I forget what type of self defense she's she, she was studying, but somebody she thought someone was going to attack her from behind, as she took them and flipped them over. And they she, she's a sweet girl, she says, I'm so sorry. Like, the person didn't mean that and she flipped them over. And that's, that's that trigger that we have to have, that when something looks like, you know, we're gonna worry, someone's punching us in the face, we're ready to respond as, as in karate. Same thing on the spiritual level. I use the example of the ice cream store, right? Spiritual development means I know that I have the vulnerabilities to fall and therefore I'm going to prevent myself from going into dangerous territory, where I could be pulled. I want to avoid the ice cream store and walk a longer route in order to avoid, you know, the enemy that's trying to work me and the strength of doing that. You may say, Well, you're being a wimp, but you're going in the opposite direction, because you can't handle the challenge. Yeah, I'm going to be strong enough to know that I can't handle the challenge. That's a strength. So spiritual. Self Defense is like, oh, there's that voice that wants me to do something that's below my dignity, oh, I know how to fight back. And I'm going to punch, when it's time to punch, I'll be ready for that and say, I recognize that voice. I'm going to prevent myself from going there. So that's the spiritual self defense is learning spiritually, what your vulnerabilities are, and learning how to step forward before they take over you. And make sure that it's your divine soul, the wishes of the essence of who you are, that's leading it. There's analogy that we have of a somebody riding a horse, right, who's in control the horse or the rider. So we have an animal soul that's like the horse. And we have the divine soul, that's the rider. And what we want is to always be the rider in control of the horse. Now, the horse is a very valuable thing. It's a physical thing. And we don't we don't knock down the physical world. The spirituality needs the physical world in order to to elevate it and utilize it. The Holy of Holies of a house is considered the bedroom where a man and woman have intimacy and they're, they're connecting on a very high spiritual level through that high level of physical pleasure. So physicality is something that we are supposed to utilize. So the, the rider is supposed to take that horse and use it to go do good in the world, right. But if the horse takes control, then you're in big trouble because the desires of the animal will use the same physicality for impure things that take you away from your soul. So spiritual self defense is that ability to be the rider to be the one in control and know all the tendencies of the animals. So and No, no, you can't go there. No, I'm going to keep you and utilize you to elevate and elevate you through spirituality.

Arwen Bardsley: 40:41

Okay, and then what about Yeah, what what are your thoughts on this kind of awareness of, of your, your true self, helping people to deal with mental health issues.

David Green: 40:54

I myself have suffered from depression in my life, I've been to hell and back and very difficult times. And what I've learned to do is see God in a very dark place, like I said, the candle and the night. If a person, there's a very direct connection between your spiritual health and your mental health, not, I'm not telling people to go off medication. But I am telling you that, that if a person gets in touch with what makes them truly happy with what the essence of their soul, if they discover what is unique about their soul, and what their soul mission is in this world, then the person can then start to utilize that to reach for something higher than themselves. In other words, you know, in a marketing company, I used to run an internet marketing company. And when we worked on projects together, we all felt this connection to each other because we're working on something higher than ourselves, and all kinds of energy that that seemed dormant before just came out and like was able to thrive because there was something more meaningful that we were all working on together. If a person discovers what their mission is in this world, and invest in discovering that doesn't mean they're going to discover it in its totality with the first process of searching for it. But if they make it important to discover who they are, and what the essence is, of, of their personality, and what, what what truly makes them happy, not what the world's telling them makes it happen, what truly makes them happen, then it's like pushing a button that energizes them and lifts them up above the depression. And so spiritual health and it's part of mental health, it's, it's totally integrated with each other. And I just know, for myself, when, when I'm involved in a projects, you know, whether it be a business project, or a spiritual project or teaching project, once I get going with my creative energy, then I don't suffer at all from depression. And thank god I've been having for many years, but but I know what it's like to be there. And I also know that the surrounding circumstances at the time of depression, it made a lot of sense that I was vulnerable to it at the time. Because I was sort of setting myself up for failure, setting myself up for depression. And what we have to do is set ourselves up for happiness. And that can be a difficult thing, but yet, it's so critical.

Arwen Bardsley: 43:44

Okay, thank you. So I really would love to hear as well a bit bit about your life as an inventor, like, you know, how did that? How did that start? What What was the spark? And can you tell us anything about what kinds of things I think you said it was? Technology? Yeah. Yeah, it's and have you well, how does it come about?

David Green: 44:10

It's It all started when I was a little kids sitting on the floor, where I would have about three puzzles sitting in front of me. And I would work on one puzzle and get bored of that and then work on another puzzle. And then my mother would say, No, put the other puzzle away. But you know, I know I'm not finished that puzzle. And I'm going to work on the second puzzle work on the third puzzle and called back and forth. And thank God I'm ADD, which gives me the the restlessness to always be looking for new inventions, you know, when I was that type of process of putting the puzzle together, is very similar to writing music, where there's a course is a verse, there's harmony, there's like and you want to get across a message and want the emotions to be there and they want it all to come together. So that's an inventor process. And so I, I always was creating gadgets, whether were there were artistic gadgets or functional gadgets. But what what really got me started was, when I was in the film industry, I started noticing some technology, you know, green screen technology that you know superimposes people over backgrounds. And what I did was I reversed that technology. And I made it Well, before we and all these various devices came on the market, it enabled you to stand in front of a camera. And next you in your room in your setting in your living room would be Mickey Mouse dancing with you. Yet the the foreground was on a DVD that played through the device. And so I actually did a whole presentation for Disney dancing with a character that I created, you know, singing the song I sang to my kids called coochie coo. And that was one technology that I sold for a very large amount of money to investors who then took it public, but didn't really make much out of it. But thank God I got my money before they took it in some the wrong direction. Now I have I have a, I have a technology that's out on the market now called Eden soles, which is a type of insole that you step on in the shapes to your feet right away. And it's, I remember going to the, to get orthotics, and the doctor put my foot in this mold, and, and then I finally got these two pieces of plastic that were extremely uncomfortable. And I thought like, Why did I pay like$700 to get these pieces of plastic. And I realized, you know, there's ways of doing this for very, very cheap. So I I have two patents in in the area of insoles. And right now I'm negotiating with some major shoe companies to integrate it into their shoes to be part of their footwear. I have lots of them. But those are, that's the one that I've learned to focus on. Now, as I say, I'm an ADD personality. So a lot of the chesed nature also is that one that wants to give out a lot. And it doesn't without Guvura it just gets spent. So I have a filing cabinet full of inventions. But if I tried to do them all, nothing will happen. So I have to enforce Guvura that strength, that discipline to say, I'm going to choose this invention now and make that my goal to go after that rather than trying to just have too many things to manage.

Arwen Bardsley: 47:53

Yeah, so that so basically, the spark comes from everyday situations where you just think, well, there must be a better way. And amazing creative mind helps you to bring that to life, I just think that's incredible.

David Green: 48:08

Well, you have to, you have to be a bit crazy that crazy, you know, what I what I do is I think of crazy ideas. Like when I had something called Liquid shirt, where if you get a stain on your shirt, you have this little marker that you write, you can color over it. And that way you it looks clean until you actually do wash it. It's just crazy. So what I did was, I have a process where I go on to the website of the patent office, and I start searching through patents that seem that they could be the same. And I try to find a window that's wide enough where there's room for a new idea in between them. And I sometimes will will modify the invention enough so that it stays clear from the other patents. And then I file what's called a provisional provisional patent application just cost about 160 bucks rather than a$5,000 with a lawyer, you can just put it in there. And now it's officially patent pending. So I have a number of patents where I just file them. And that way I can start dabbling a little with with companies to see if they're interested in and if I find enough interest, then I'll follow up on that patent because I know it's worth spending the legal fees on securing because I do have interest in the market for it. And that's the process that I take. Unfortunately, my lawyers have been spending sending me bills of astronomical amounts, but I have to do it so

Arwen Bardsley: 49:45

yeah, wow. Yeah. That's that's just incredible. So I guess before we finish up, it's really important that you let people know where they can find all your work and you know anything Any else that you'd like to share? So you mentioned, the personality test that's on your website that I'm sure will spark some curiosity. But everything...

David Green: 50:10

My website is called real you project.com. And at real, you project calm, there's links to my books, there's a overview of the books. There's my music just for like an initial, you know, taste of it. But if you go to David H. green, on Spotify, Apple Music, all those streaming companies, then there's two albums there that I highly encourage people to look at. And if you listen to that, and close your eyes, that itself, I think, can be a very spiritual experience. Because all the songs are about peace of mind, windows of your mind. Real you it's all you know, Journey to the real you. They're empty spaces, they're all songs that are there to help a person feel more connected to their soul. So David H. Green is for that. And on on the same website is the personality test. Yeah.

Arwen Bardsley: 51:08

The real you project has the personality test, and

David Green: 51:12

it's not the real you project. It's RealYouProject

Arwen Bardsley: 51:16

Okay. And with the books and things, and they just available through the website, or are they available through Amazon or bookshops or anything as well?

David Green: 51:28

Well, the first book was republished by a company called Morgan James and out of New York. And they are they are, it was published actually to reach a more non Jewish audience. And so there they have, they put them in all kinds of stores all around, you know, I believe Barnes and Nobles. I'm hoping to get into the airport store, you know, bookstores. But they're available on Amazon also, and, but you can buy them directly from my website. Both versions are on Amazon. And my new book also is on Amazon, and also from my website and in Jewish bookstores. So if you live in an area, like in New York, there's Jewish bookstores and get it there.

Arwen Bardsley: 52:12

Okay. Okay. All right. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. It's been a really interesting conversation. David, I really appreciate your time this morning. And I'm sure that everybody will get lots of inspiration out of what you've had to say.

David Green: 52:29

And my email and phone number are on my website, if anyone wants to discuss any of the types of issues that we discussed tonight. I have years of experience of counseling people and I'm not charging for it, but I feel people should feel comfortable to email me and ask questions and I perhaps can guide them to take an important step that will help them proceed from there.

Arwen Bardsley: 52:56

Wow, that's a very generous offer. Thank you very much.

David Green: 52:59

My pleasure.

Arwen Bardsley: 53:00

Okay, take care.

David Green: 53:03

Thank you.