Chasing Fulfillment and Transcending Ego: Martin Hristov on Awakening, Holistic Well-being, and the Mystical Path Less Traveled

What happens when you question society’s norms and opt for the path less traveled? Martin Hristov, self-published author, speaker, and holistic well-being expert, shares his own journey - a captivating tale of awakening and escaping the endless loop of chasing external validation. He challenges conventional wisdom and shares his insights on how to find true and lasting fulfillment. 

Imagine dedicating your life to probing the furthest reaches of human potential. That's exactly what our guest, Martin Hristov has been doing. A modern mystic, yogi, biohacker, philosopher, and polymath, he reveals the importance of maintaining alignment and holistic well-being through daily practices. His insatiable curiosity fuels a continuous quest for knowledge, and this passion translates into a unique coaching method. Stay tuned for an exclusive sneak peek into his upcoming book as well.

Here's something to ponder on - what if you could dissolve your ego and become a vessel for divine energy? 

This episode concludes with a deep dive into this fascinating concept. We'll share personal experiences of transcending the ego and observing the magic that unfolds as a result. 

Don't miss out on this transformative conversation that's sure to inspire you to live a life beyond the ordinary.

https://martinhristov.com/ 

Chapters

• 0:47 Shifting Perspectives and Finding Fulfillment
• 12:26 Exploring Human Potential and Fulfillment
• 24:58 Learning and Daily Practices
• 30:43 Achieving Selflessness and Divine Channeling

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:48

Hello everyone, welcome to our spiritual spotlight series. Today I am joined by Martin Hisroff, and I apologize for mispronouncing his name. He is a self-published author, inspirational speaker, bliss coach and holistic well-being expert. He helps successful men in men life crises. Thank you so much for coming to our spiritual spotlight series. I'm so happy you're here.

Speaker 2: 1:10

Thank you for having me, Rachel. It's great connecting with you and I'm excited to be your guest and share a lot of insights with your audience.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Absolutely so. Your journey from Bulgaria to the United States and your pursuit of worldly success led you to the realization about the pursuit of lasting fulfillment. Can you maybe share a pivotal moment or moments that prompted this shift in your perspective?

Speaker 2: 1:37

I would say this is a great question. Thank you for asking me that question the first moment I really shifted things in me or gave me some intellectual background on what I was already feeling within me intuitively. But that was early, when, like in my mid-20s, I wasn't going in university and I can't recall exactly how, who recommended this book to me or how I stumbled upon it. But I read a book called Propaganda, which I highly recommend. It's like if you live in the Western world, you need to read this Propaganda. It was written in the early 1900s by Edward Bernese, who happens to be the nephew of Zygmunt Freud, but Edward Bernese lived almost for 100 years, up to the late 80s, early 90s. He's the father of PR, or what I would call public propaganda. They call it PR, public relations in a nice way, but the realistic aspect or the value of this modality or approach of using group psychology and how to manipulate human consciousness or human beliefs and what you deem valuable and important in your life and what you should vote for, and so on and so on. They call it the engineering of consent in democratic society, meaning like we live in a. This book really opened my eyes to the reality that in the Western world, in Western democracies, people live in the illusion of democracy. There is no such thing as democracy, because media is only showing you one very little snippet of the whole picture. You don't see the whole picture. You don't have the whole contrast. You cannot make an educated choice. So it's how you use this.

Speaker 2: 3:47

After reading this book, I already had some very deeply rooted feelings within me that all that we were fed had no validity, that there was no validity behind everything that society, culture, politics and all these institutions that supposedly govern our lives and we kind of like hand our power to and allow to make like life decisions on our behalf is not grounded in validity. And after reading this book it really opened my eyes of how all of these is literally puppeteer by a handful of people with very private financial interests, and usually it's big industrialists who have something to sell to somebody else. So this was the first pivotal moment after reading this book. I really had again, I already had a feeling within me, but I didn't have any evidence like real evidence to validated, to see. Like am I the only crazy person here that feels this way?

Speaker 2: 5:02

And after reading this book, because the most interesting fact of the book is that this man is the man responsible for pretty much all the biggest movements and changes in the Western world, especially in America, over the last 100 years whether it was for women to be okay to start smoking cigarettes, whether it was the election of certain presidents and so on. And in his book he speaks with real examples of campaigns he worked on and how he basically brainwashed people to buy into certain ideas that are not necessarily good for them but for his employers. So it's not like book on theory or something. He's actually teaching you how he has done it, giving you real examples. And the most fascinating thing to me was like wow, this man is putting this book out. Pretty much a lot of authors nowadays due to advertise their services to others, because he knew that not many people would actually like the normal person. The normal American or Western person would never read this book Because it's not like a mainstream information that they'll be interested in. But it was basically like his pamphlet of services. This is what I can do for you. And if you're an evil industrialist and you want to sell something or you want to get in power or you want to promote war like, for example, the war in Vietnam or the Korean War, or even the American government entering World War II. He was instrumental in all these campaigns so you can imagine the amount of impact in his work and this type of workhead in the world. So it was one of these pivotal moments that gave me evidence, real intellectual understanding, with examples and so on, and that was just intellectually right. Like once you have an intellectual evidence, now you become curious about what else is there. And obviously that wasn't like in that moment when everything changed, but it really like created this question within me to question even more everything that people hold as valid and grounded in some validity and being so called like you cannot question these certain, whether it's organizations or policies or whatever it is believes and so on, to really question everything and examine and really go really down the rabbit hole.

Speaker 2: 7:53

And after working like for a while here in the Western world, pursuing and achieving a lot of things, like I always caught myself, the next big piece was I always caught myself in the same never ending feedback loop.

Speaker 2: 8:14

It was always like I said something to achieve, I get really close to achieving it. I know I'm going to have it like tomorrow or the next day or a month down the road and then I'm already asking myself what's next, what's next, what's next. So the moment I like I haven't even got this, I know I'm going to get it, and it's always what's next, what's next. So I realized like I'm running this pattern that like I'm always chasing after and whatever it is that I get, I already, even before getting it, know that it's not going to satisfy me, it doesn't bring any meaning for filming or in a fulfillment or any value in my life. So I was like, okay, well, what else is there? And that was the real big shift when I caught myself in that continuous feedback loop that didn't lead anywhere, it was just I was basically running on the hamster wheel, right, like I'll be happy when kind of deal.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Right. So your concept of I'll be happy when is something that many people can definitely relate to. Can you maybe explain how this mindset impacted your life and what steps you took to break free from it?

Speaker 2: 9:27

Well, I think for for again, for up to my early 30s, mid 30s that led my life in a sense of this concept of you have to achieve something or get something or like. Basically, you're giving your power over your decision of how you feel to external circumstances and you need to check mark certain boxes in order to allow yourself to feel a certain way, which cannot be further from the truth, because once you realize how this human apparatus works, you can feel however you want to feel all day long right, you don't have to go and achieve anything. That that won't change anything, because I'll give you a very little secret here If you can imagine vividly what you want to achieve as having it, you can feel right now the way you expect to feel. And when you achieve that amazing achievement that you have, maybe you want to go to to Mars. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars, so I can give him the key to the house and let him feel amazing right now.

Speaker 2: 10:35

You don't have to go to Mars, or you don't have to whatever win a championship or something like that to allow yourself to feel this way, because the mental process that is happening, or the mental legal not legal, but logical kind of like reasoning that is taking places. I will allow myself to feel this way if so and so and so and so. However, you can allow or choose to feel this way today. You don't have to wait for that day. That doesn't mean you don't go and achieve it, especially if you know that this achievement, or whatever it is that you're trying to do, is going to help a lot of people and elevate many souls and improve many lives and have a positive impact in the world by. By all means, go ahead and achieve it by by. Why wait and making yourself miserable along the way when you can feel that way all alone, so to speak?

Speaker 1: 11:33

Absolutely. Yeah, I feel like people misunderstand that happiness is not something that is expressed externally. It's something that's, but then so it's just interesting. So let me talk about your book, which is also in the background of your image. So your book, superb men's ultimate guide to holistic well being, is an exciting project. Can you maybe give us a glimpse into what readers can expect to learn from it and how it aligns with your mission?

Speaker 2: 12:01

Well, I would put it lightly, I've done it. The book is basically a second, expanded version on my original book, which was called the Ineffability Formula, in which I offered six fundamental modalities to transform one's sense of self and life and quality of life from the inside out. However, what I decided along the way and discovered is that without the greater understanding and context and meaning of why, why should somebody go and put all the effort to what I call transform themselves from the inside out by putting time and effort to bear fruits that don't happen overnight. In our society of immediate gratification Right, especially here in the Western world, everybody's, like you know, they want things now. They don't want to put effort and work into something. They want to hire a fitness trainer who actually goes in the gym and works out instead of them and they wake up with muscles, kind of deal. That's the logic happening in the background.

Speaker 2: 13:13

But why would you take the time and effort to practice certain extremely powerful modalities that I've validated in a scientific method over the years that will allow you to be exceptional in anything you do and enjoy life beyond what you can imagine, that the billionaires dream about every fucking day, and they have everything that most people wish to have, and so on and so on. So I expended it upon the book and did a lot of deep research into the psychology of not just men, women too, in order to provide a greater context of the questions that every man at a specific age would question himself or hopefully, if he's in reflective and introspective enough to be able to sit with himself, will be questioning or having going on within him All the important questions, all the concerns, all the struggles, because science, a certain degree of science, has demonstrated without beyond any reasonable doubt that we human beings develop in different stages, and what I mean by this is, once you're like 18 or 20 and graduate school, your development doesn't end. Actually, it just has begun your development as an adult, and what I mean by this? Psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and so on. And there are different phases and stages of that development that have specific challenges and tasks you need to complete in order to say that you're making reasonable progress through art school, because school doesn't end. We're here to learn and grow. Case close.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Life is a learning experience and you got to be pushed to learn and grow. Whether you choose or not to do it intentionally, life will push you. That's how life is designed to be. You know, no matter how much convenience and comfort you seek in life, you're always going to find this moment where life will push you to stretch your comfort zone, because nobody grows in their comfort zone and your comfort zone started decay.

Speaker 2: 15:44

So in the book, after doing very particular research, I am answering all the major questions that are men, because I can only speak through the perspective of men, because I can only speak from the perspective of something that I've lived, validated in a scientific method, and can speak from experience. I don't speak about concepts, theories, I speak from direct experience. And obviously I'm not a woman. So the only person to whom I can speak from direct experience is another man and help him to navigate through life in the most effective and successful way. And when I mean successful, I don't mean materially, but to be to reach the end of life knowing that he has lived the most amazing life he can possibly had, given all the circumstances of his life, because nobody's life are equally created right. Nobody's circumstances are the same, but given the cards that he has been dealt, he can have an amazing, amazing gain.

Speaker 1: 17:03

That sounds wonderful. I mean, honestly, that's exactly what I think a lot of people right now are definitely looking for, and especially men. I don't think there's a lot of tools for men to really live your life to. You know the best moment and when you're you know if you're in your death pad. Did I live my life the way that I wanted to Like? This sounds like it's an amazing tool book to help them there. So one of the things that I really like is that you've dedicated your life to exploring the furthest boundaries of human potential. Can you maybe share some practical tips or practices that individuals can incorporate into their daily lives to begin this exploration?

Speaker 2: 17:38

Well, I would say the first and foremost would have to become your anchor, or what I call the metronome of your life. If you know what a metronome is for those who understand music, a metronome is a device you use to set the tempo of the music and it clicks, click, click, click, click on each beat so you can use your breathing, or your breath. By becoming or taking conscious control of your breathing, you can start changing everything within your human experience, because there is only one thing you cannot last without for more than five minutes, and that's if you have great lung capacity and you like a swimmer or a deep dive or something of that nature, and that's breath. Your body trust me on this one, I've experimented many, many, many times with my body Can go for many days without water, can go for many days without food, sleep and everything else but oxygen you need to have every single minute for most people. So by taking conscious control of your breathing, you can control pretty much everything happening within your head, psychologically speaking, and physiologically within your body, because they're both connected and have a much more ground experience and feel centered, because, through the breathing pattern that you choose, you can control the pace or tempo of your life. Just like a metronome is used to indicate how fast musicians who are recording or playing together should play and sing, so you can basically take full control of your physiology and psychology to just simply re-learning, because what you'll be doing is to re-learn how to actually breathe.

Speaker 2: 19:44

Because if we are to take a look at a sleeping little child, you will notice that the baby that hasn't been yet conditioned through the environment breathes deeply and rhythmically in its diaphragm. Yes, you're right, right here in its belly. Why? Because two-thirds of the lung capacity are actually down here. They're not up here, right, and that's when a baby is resting and relaxed.

Speaker 2: 20:18

Now what happens if an animal is under duress, stress running for its life? It's bending and its breathing pattern is very shallow. You can observe this pattern throughout the animal kingdom. Doesn't matter if you're a human being or you're looking at an elephant or some other tiny little creature. The more rapid and shallow your breathing is, the more nervous, stressed out and wired up you'll feel Right. So just by taking control conscious, intentional control of your breathing and turning this into a habit, you can change pretty much everything you want to change in your experience from a moment to moment perspective, because then you become in control of the physiology. No longer is the physiology controlling you, because you don't know how to actually take the wheel and drive the car home, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 21:20

No, that's beautiful. Honestly, that's beautiful advice For someone like myself. My day-to-day life I run a doctor's office. I'm a registered nurse, so it's interesting when you focus on the breath, you can calm down, you can re-center, you can re-focus. That's amazing advice. 100% I like that. So let me ask you this your journey has led you to a path of guiding and empowering others. How do you approach coaching and teaching to help fellow entrepreneurs and high achievers discovering lasting fulfillment?

Speaker 2: 21:53

Well, how do I approach it? The simplest way to put it is by expanding their understanding of the big picture and providing greater context, because content is irrelevant. As you can see, behind me there is a huge virtual library, right and based on how I hold the world within my, between my ears, or the context, the perspective that I have of the world is how I would process or view each and every one of those books if I open and read through it. So expanding or changing the context is key, because the fundamental problem of humanity is ignorance, because the problem of ignorance is that you don't know what you don't know until you find out. Right and from one thing I've learned over the years is the more you know and you are working on your ego, so you don't have this pride of like I know it all and you're humble and you always approach things with the beginner's mindset, where you can maybe be an expert in one field, but you realize that there are other things that you have no clue about. So you always have keep an open mind and you're humble in your approach. You realize that the more you know, the more you realize how little do you know about anything?

Speaker 2: 23:30

Recently I watched a very interesting scientific documentary, or rather a scientific talk, about fire. It's mind blowing just the concept of fire, because people like what we think, like we have a word for to call this thing fire. Right, wouldn't fire. And we call it fire and we understand it. Man, how are we ignorant about what's going on behind the curtains? It's just mind blowing. Their AD, unique chemical compositions that are created in this process, that actually are contributing for what is looks like a combustion, that it's burning. And the further you follow the rabbit hole that, the more fascinating becomes. And this is just fire, fire, I'm thinking we take for granted and we think we understand. And this same rabbit hole you can follow down any subject. You can think of the nails on your finger. How do they grow? Well, they grow out of the most abundant protein within your body. But that same protein can turn into a nail, can turn into your skin, can turn into a bone and other things.

Speaker 1: 24:48

so interesting, right, I mean it's amazing, I mean honestly with you sit there and think like this is silly, but just the other day I'm like it is. I am so grateful that I know how to read. It's just just something as simple as being able to read and for you, like you know, being able to take in this knowledge and be able to disseminate it and be able to help your clients with you know everything that you've learned because you know you describe yourself as a modern mystic, a yogi, a bio hacker, a philosopher and as a, a polymath. Like I mean, all of these different roles have contributed into this holistic approach that you offer for your clients, which is amazing.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Yeah, no, absolutely I something that it's unique to me. Is this what I call a untreated? Or I have a curiosity disease untreatable, or kind of like the terminal curiosity disease.

Speaker 1: 25:50

There's nothing wrong with that like to always wanting to learn and to expand, because while you're learning and taking in more, you're able to then apply it to help your clients. So I feel the same way. I call it shiny thing syndrome. That's what I call it. I'm always like I want to learn this and this and this and this. It's amazing. So let me ask you this, if anyone is in, before I ask you the last question if anyone is interested in working with you, what is the best place for them to go to?

Speaker 2: 26:17

the best places. Simply visit my website, martin Christophcom, and I'll spell it for everybody listening M a r t I n h r I s t o vcom, so you can familiarize yourself with my work, and just visit the coaching section if this is something you're interested to expand upon and experience how I go about things, because what I my coaching is approaches what I call tour de force. It's based on many, many different modalities that I've explored over the years different philosophies about coaching, and so on and so on. You can book your free coaching call, or you can simply sign up for my email list and get three chapters of my upcoming book and basically start to start to expand your horizon about what else is out there that, unfortunately, your senses will never allow you to perceive, because there's a different dimension to us that we can start to pierce beyond the veil of the senses.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Absolutely, absolutely. And let me ask you this so you emphasize that you walk your talk daily, can you share some of your daily practices or rituals that help you maintain alignment and the well being in your own life?

Speaker 2: 27:49

Oh yeah, I'm happy to. Well, the first one in that was probably the toughest. In this too is the toughest to be very, extremely consistent with is waking up very early, and when I say very early, that means four o'clock. For me, everybody's different and I work from home and I work for myself, so like I don't have to be in the office, I don't have to go to report, to work or whatever by a wall like have a consistent four o'clock in the morning, wake up at times. So I have two or three, maybe even four hours every morning to do some particular type of stretching energy work, exercises, meditation, and another one that is a big part of the way I find tune.

Speaker 2: 28:39

My own experience and I know works perfectly well for me is to fast. Throughout the day I only eat once and that's in the end of the day. Wow, throughout the day I run on water and black coffee, anything with no calories. So that's another practice that I have. So I'm always sharp in my head, in my energy, everything. Basically, I can go like this for two, three days straight, no problem, and soon.

Speaker 2: 29:08

Another one is like I also do it for three days at the end of every month just to clean up and get my body even more tuned and allow it to heal and fix itself. Not that I let's put it this way I abuse it in a way, but physically speaking, the type of physical exercises and routines that I do, I do put a lot of stress on it. So it's good to give it some time for the body to have nothing to digest, because digestion is a very energy intensive process that takes away energy and resources from the body that can be dedicated to other purposes. Hence why fasting is a critical component of exceptional living and why most religions, if you study them, they have some form of fasting incorporated into it.

Speaker 1: 30:05

No, that's amazing. To bring up the fact that you it's really important for you to be a clear channel, like you're very mindful in what you're putting in your body, how you're exercising, what you're. You know the, probably even the content that you're consuming. You know it's very, that's very interesting and I would imagine that your coaching is very clear and you're tapping into your intuitive self. That's amazing. I'll have a moment.

Speaker 2: 30:32

Yeah, all the time, actually all the time, I always speak from intuition. I never have any pre-can disposition, it's always channeling, like literally channeling, allowing. Basically, in the last couple of years, my work has really been on me from the perspective of removing the ego, personality, self and just allowing myself to be a perfect tool, or continue to sharpen myself to be a perfect tool for the divine to channel through and work through and to step out of the way, so to speak, and just to kind of be a witness of what presents itself.

Speaker 1: 31:11

That is perfect. Well, I want to thank you so, so much for Comalist Spiritual Spotlight Series. This has been amazing. I definitely look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Thank you, rachel. Thank you everyone for tuning in. It was great honor and I wish you all happy Thanksgiving and holidays.