Ep#134 Decoding the Matrix – Keys to Empowering Your Personal Reality – Dr. Vic Manzo

0 (1s):
Welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you are so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach, chef, author, and yogi, Christine Okezie.

Christine Okezie (23s):
Hello and welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition Podcast. I’m Christine Okezie. Thanks so much for listening. So many of us are brought up in the paradigm of work, hard, grind, hustle, sacrifice, time, health, and family, because one day it will all be worth it. But what if there’s actually another more empowering way to chart a path to the life of your dreams? Well, today’s guest is Dr. Vic Manzo, a family wellness chiropractor, neuroscience mindful trainer, inspirational speaker, and influential writer. He’s the author of three amazing books in the human potential field. And here to discuss his latest one, “Decoding the Matrix”, a groundbreaking but real world spiritual growth book that anyone can use to empower themselves to overcome self-imposed limitations and start living life to their fullest.

Christine Okezie (1m 16s):
On this episode, we spoke about how Dr. Vic stepped out of that all too common cycle of stress and burnout, and transformed every aspect of his life from relationships to health and to money. He did all of this by understanding the power of his mindset. One subconscious limiting beliefs, universal laws by stepping into the quantum world and utilizing neuroscience. Dr. Vic’s passion expertise is guiding people to create and live a soul filled life. To learn more about his services and get his books, visit his website, empower Your reality.com. You should also check out his podcast, “The Mindful Experiment Podcast”

Christine Okezie (1m 55s):
available wherever you listen to your podcast. I can’t wait for you to listen in on this inspirational conversation. And if you do like it, I’d be grateful if you’d visit Apple Podcast, leave a rating and review. Share the episode with anyone you think may be interested and benefit. And if you haven’t already hit the subscribe button, please do so. It helps me keep my podcast growing. Thanks so much for being here, everyone, and enjoy the episode. Hey, Dr. Vic, welcome to the podcast. It’s great to meet you.

Dr. Vic Manzo (2m 24s):
I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Christine Okezie (2m 27s):
Yeah, I’m excited to dive into your journey and the body of work that you have been creating in this amazing field. But I’d love it for just some context, if you could take us back to that version of yourself that had not yet discovered the power of mindset.

Dr. Vic Manzo (2m 47s):
Yeah, that was, I was, I was always fascinated about the mind. You know, I guess my dad would always talk about things, and so I was always curious, but it was in, you know, late, early, late, late teens, early twenties is when I’m just, you know, always anxious. I was like an ADHD kid. I was undiagnosed. It was one of those things where I’m just all over the place in anxiousness and and whatnot. And you know, my dad would be like, my never matter, you know, it’s, you’ll let your mind control your body. And I was like, what’s this guy talking about? He’ll never explain things. He’ll just say something like that. And I was always intrigued by it, but it wasn’t, you know, and so I, you know, you’re reactive. You don’t know why you get triggered by things. I mean, there’s all this stuff that was going on, and I was like, man, why is it like that?

Dr. Vic Manzo (3m 29s):
Someone says something. It’s just like, you know, and I’m like, I don’t wanna be that way. I wanna be able to control me. And I’ve always read things like, don’t let anyone disturb your peace. I’m like, yeah, that sounds great, but what does that mean? And that’s what started open the door to mindset in a way, because when I got into chiropractic school, I mean, chiropractors were brain doctors. I mean, it’s kind of, there’s a lot of misunderstanding to what really chiropractic, I mean, I never more never experienced more misunderstanding to what we do. And not just from the public’s eye, even from in our own profession. Mm. And but we’re brain doctors at the end of the day. And, and, and we look at, you know, how the mind, the brain controls every single function of the body, how it organizes things and so forth. And I was like, okay, that’s cool.

Dr. Vic Manzo (4m 9s):
That’s interesting, but how can I dive deeper? And that’s where when I started to learn about success principles or learning from successful people, there was always something about mind, the mind, how they utilized their mind, how they saw things. And I was like, right, this is great. I hear all these cool things, but I want to go deeper into that. And that was when I got started to get the curiosity dove me deep into understanding like, okay, how does, how does the mind work with psychology and stuff? How does the, how do we get conditioned in certain ways? I, I found out at 24, like between eight, zero and seven, that’s it. This is your life. It gets dictated an event or something happens and it dictates your whole life. I’m like, but why does it have to be like that permanently? Why can’t we change that? And it just took me down this rabbit hole. Then when I got in the quantum physics, that opened up a whole door for me where I was like, wow, there’s a lot here to learn.

Dr. Vic Manzo (4m 52s):
There is so much like, you know, the studies unconsciousness and all these other things they’ve done. I’m like, how do they, and the cool thing is, is like they, even the scientists will be just like, this is just what it is. We don’t, you know, they’re the why part. That’s not what our job is. It’s just understanding how that works. And I was like, okay, that’s kind of interesting. And, and then it just, it just, you know, kept going and kept, you know, as I kept learning more and more, I started to realize that from all the stuff I study, that, you know, everything starts and ends in the mind. And the mind is like a lens in how we see the world. And, and that lens can be changed. And some of it take, you know, takes, some of it could just be a switch and that’s it. Some of it has to be, you know, you have to slowly rewire that brain and through chiropractic and understanding, you know, elements of what I did there.

Dr. Vic Manzo (5m 37s):
And then going into, you know, from a, then going in the cert being a certified pediatric chiropractor. And, and really my main focus was neural development. And so that part that also was feeding me the mindset side when I was going through that process and going deeper. And so that’s kind of been my journey and the mindset aspect world that led me to where I’m at today.

Christine Okezie (5m 58s):
That’s beautiful. Yeah. I can really relate to a lot of that, that path and, and those going down the rabbit hole, as you said, you know, we start out thinking about, you know, what is sort of ruling everything that goes on, right? Why does stuff happen? Why does stuff keep happening? And I like the way that you started, you know, you take a bite into, you go into, you go into psychology, then you go into neurology. And ultimately there’s quantum science and neuroscience, right? So I can totally relate to that. But ultimately what it led it to, similarly for me, similarly to a lot of folks who start asking those big important questions about what’s this really all about? Is it put you on the spiritual path.

Christine Okezie (6m 38s):
And you became officially, as I like to say, a seeker again, just a natural evolution of your evolution, right? But what I’d love to know is, you know, what life experiences, you know, plural, individual, sort of catalyze your journey into asking those big questions. Like some people change through loss and life altering tragedy and stress. Other people change more, more intentionally, right? So for you, I think you probably mixed your both, it’s the way it works for all of us, but what specifically sort of catalyze your journey here into embodying all this knowledge and experience?

Dr. Vic Manzo (7m 21s):
So there was two, I mean, there’s been multiple events, but there was two, there’s been two big ones in my life. And one was at 19 years old, I was raised Italian, Roman Catholic. And so we were told, this is what you do. Anything outside of this is devil’s work. So like energy healing or, you know, all that stuff. And yeah, the strict rules that came from that. And it was 19, I went, I went away to Arizona State and it opened the door to like, I, I had friends that were Christians and I come onto our Christian Church and I was like, right, I, I don’t know any Catholic churches around here. I can’t drive. So I mean, I don’t have a car, so I’ll walk with you guys there. And it was a different experience. And I was like, wow, this is totally different than what I’ve experienced before. And what that did, I, and I appreciate I did that. I was going, I remember we would walk, I walked them out, we would walk to the other side of the campus, which was like a good 15, 20 minute walk.

Dr. Vic Manzo (8m 6s):
And there were two girls. It’s a big campus. So I was like, they’re like, we need a guy. Anyhow, big guy to walk us. Anyhow, I was like, Hey, I got you. We’ll go and it’ll, it works out for us. But what happened was is that journey then made me so curious. Cause I’m like, well that’s just Christianity. What about Hinduism and Buddhism and all these other ones? Right? And that opened up my door to see a whole different world. Cause I was always seeking for truth. I’ve always been a truth seeker. I always wanted to go deeper as much as I could. Yeah. And fortunately I had, I hit my limits in Catholicism or they, they wouldn’t let me go. I wouldn’t say they wouldn’t let me. I don’t know if there wasn’t, I don’t remember if there wasn’t just answers. But I remember when I, if I, it was like, don’t question, you know, these kind of things. And it’s like, I’m not questioning it from the means of being negative or anything.

Dr. Vic Manzo (8m 46s):
I’m just curious. Well, you gotta be careful with your curiosity. And I was like, okay, forget this. That was one thing. Cause then I started, when I got into Hinduism and, and studying that and Buddhism and Taoism and all these other things, things, I was like, oh my God, this is more, it just opened up my world to understanding things from a different perspective of how there’s so many ways. And then there’s cross similarities and you know, one scriptures here and a parable here, and it’s very similar in this parable and whatever it may be. But it, it had me understand that there’s not one way to life. That’s what I needed. Cuz I was so bothered by like, well I have to be this way. And that’s the only way. And with the guilt and everything else that came with it. But the other big event, this was probably a little bit bigger cuz this is really what propelled me in so many ways.

Dr. Vic Manzo (9m 30s):
And it wasn’t in the moment, I’ll tell you that, but it was afterwards when I looked back, I was blown away by, this was about a year and a half, two years into my business as a chiropractor. My business was doing good. Financially. I was growing. The problem I had is my personal debt from student loans at the time. This is, this is right after I graduated in 2009 in September. And so as I was trying to start a business, they were not nice at all with anything, anything. Even business loans I couldn’t get. And it was weird because before October, 2008, what what they used to do is if you were a doctor, you just throw a business plan out, you got what you needed.

Dr. Vic Manzo (10m 10s):
That didn’t work anymore. So what happened was the student loans were being really strict. And I, financially I put all my stuff on credit cards and I’m like, I’m gonna be there. I’m ambitious. It’s gonna happen. I know it is. And the growth was happening just not at the pace I wanted it to, or I needed it to. And so I took a risk, didn’t work out, that’s fine. But I got to a point where I was like, either I let go of my business and I go work for somebody and I’ll pay off my debt, or I go bankrupt and get rid of all that. And then it saves my business and then it allows me to really flourish the way I need to. And I can, it gives me some breathing room. And so I end up doing the other part. And when I got, when I look back at everything though, I realized how I created it all.

Dr. Vic Manzo (10m 51s):
When I talk a lot about the law of focus and what you focus on is what creates reality. You know, it it, it, what I realized is I was creating, I mean, I had more downfalls coming at me financially. And I, some of ’em were shocking. I couldn’t believe it happened. And what I realized is that I was like, it, it, my focus was so on debt and the less scarcity I had, and I wasn’t focusing on abundance. And so what happens with the mind and reality is when you keep focusing on something that’s a value to you, the mind has to show that to you and then you’re gonna start attracting more of it. So all I kept seeing was more scarcity, more scarcity, more scarcity. It also told me the power of my emotions and understanding how, where my concentration of my vibe is every single day. And my intention is every single day. And once I went through all that and I became aware of my limiting beliefs and what became the money and so forth, once I started to do that work, it was amazing how financially, things like drastically changed after I had worked through my limiting beliefs for a whole entire year.

Dr. Vic Manzo (11m 46s):
And, and well at least at that time, I was really heavy into ’em from a financial standpoint the next two years. I mean, I remember in two years I tripled my, my business and I had 5.5 x growth in profits from doing nothing except limiting beliefs. I mean, yes, I opened up a new space and I went into a, you know, more visible store front area that may have helped a little, but we don’t get many walk-ins anyhow. But it was really just that that element of breaking that barrier allowed me to really excel. And that’s when I was like, Hmm, interesting. Here’s something I just did and work through this and look how the mind and all the other stuff I’ve done led me to go down this path to create that reality, what I had.

Christine Okezie (12m 23s):
That’s awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. Okay. So let’s dive into your latest book. You mentioned a few of those universal laws, how to, you know, rewire and, you know, those subconscious beliefs. So decoding the matrix, let’s jump into what was the inspiration to write as your third book in this space? And what is the matrix?

Dr. Vic Manzo (12m 45s):
Yeah. You know, the book started coming to me. I always tell people my books always come to me. It’s some of the teaching I do, one of the laws called the Law of Inspired Action, right? Just usually the way it shows up for me is I think about something, I can’t ignore it, and then I get anxious. I don’t get anxious anymore like I used to when I was younger. So when it does show up, I’m like, okay, you’re pressing a little bit here. So whoever that is. And I’m just like, all right, I’ll, I guess this is the time to do this. And when I started to think about the book, I, I, I was going with the, the title first. I’m like, okay, if I’m gonna write a book, what am I gonna talk about? And, and what was coming to me was like conditioning, conditioning in the minds and seeing people like in prisons and not knowing it. And I was like, okay, this is something up my alley. I’ve talked a little bit about this in my first book, but very briefly, but this, I wanted to take to a whole new level.

Dr. Vic Manzo (13m 29s):
And then I was like, okay, I’m getting the visions, I’m feeling it. And I’m like, all right, let’s, I go then, then all of a sudden everything started to come when I was getting ready to write. Like, this is why people need to know this. This is what they’re, they’re walking every day in their life like this. Not knowing how conditioned they are. They don’t understand what the matrix really is and how it, it can hold us and keep us in this, what I call mental prison, or I even call it modern slavery because we have to understand that the matrix, you know, it’s just another term for human collective consciousness. And you know, for those who may not know what consciousness, you know, human, what that is, it’s just averaging out the consciousness levels of every single human being or averaging out all the things that they think about and their emotional, emotional responses. The two of those things that would, that you average it out, that’s humanity and it’s essence.

Dr. Vic Manzo (14m 12s):
And that’s the matrix that is, it sets the tone, it sets the stage for what all of us go through as a totality. But what also the matrix does is it can, it conditions and frames our mindset because when we’re developing, what was the matrix at that time? What was the, you know, the main matrix. But there’s sub matrixes too that make it all up. And you know, it’s continents, country states, town cities. And it comes down to an individual. So what is all those programs or the matrix sub matrixes that exist that are imprinting on our mind And then that’s also making us think this is what life is. Because after the age of seven, that’s our brain thinks this is life.

Dr. Vic Manzo (14m 54s):
And so this is why a lot of the issues we deal with as adults, if you go majority, if not all of ’em, are between the age of zero and seven. And what ends up happening then is, is that when we have this, this, this conditioning, we think that we’re trying to do some, we’re trying to excel at some level and we keep hitting a wall and we go, ah, maybe it’s just, this is what it is for me. And what they don’t realize is that you’re just, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re not understanding how the, the matrix is playing a role. Because what happens, and I used to say this as a kid and I don’t ask me why, it just sounded cool. I was like, yeah, if you don’t set the, you know, plan for your day, the world’s gonna plan it for you. You say that all the time, never understood why I was like 12, 13 years old. Heck, it just sounded cool.

Dr. Vic Manzo (15m 35s):
Like I said, now I look back and go, that was pretty smart. Don’t, I can’t give, I can’t take credit for it. Cause I have no idea where it came from. But, but, but the key factor is, is that the matrix, one of the designs, and we know this, we’ve heard this, I mean if, if you file anything with business and and self-help person, they’ll tell you law association, the five closest people to you, you average amount, that’s you or the five incomes, closest incomes you average out. That’s your income, right? So law association, well law association also works with the matrix in the essence that it will always, always, always pull you back to wherever the matrix is unless you set the intention, right? Right. And that’s your energy, that’s your conscious level. What is that? That’s your thoughts, emotions, and where you’re focusing on where’s your vibe every single day.

Dr. Vic Manzo (16m 17s):
That’s how we break out of the matrix. That’s how we, we understand how to then not let it influence us. And it is possible. Some people when I say this go, I don’t know how true that is. Well, pandemic happen and 56% of net worth of the billionaires grew. That’s how much they grew. 56% was over 600 million. Billion. Billion. Crazy. Or another example is if you look at the, in the history of United States, the time that the most millionaires were created or during the Great Depression. Exactly. Right. And that’s living outside the matrix, right? There’s a sub matrix of the United States. This is what the conditioning is, right? We’re in a state right now during this recording where, you know, everyone’s talking about the gloom and doom or session and all these other things.

Dr. Vic Manzo (17m 3s):
Yep. And I always tell people focus. You know, same thing here. This is how the, that’s a matrix in itself trying to influence people. Cuz we are actually at the end of the day, the whole point of the matrix in the book is to show how powerful we really are as an individual. Yes. And how our, how our play is in the big game called life with the macro of the matrix in itself. And what you focus on is what you’re gonna give to. So the influencers, the powers a be that have more, when I say powers a be, I’m not getting conspiracy theorists like or anything that all I’m saying is the way the matrix works is the more people view something, they get, grab their attention, the more they can influence what the matrix is and then they can control behaviors. And then all of a sudden that’s influenced, then it turns into power and then it just constantly, that’s a cycle.

Dr. Vic Manzo (17m 44s):
They continuously do this. So if we can get more people to focus on something or some whatever, then that expands and that becomes a reality. Sure. And now all of a sudden, now majority of the people are gonna go through that unless we step out of it. It’s just like Covid, I used Covid as an example cuz it was a great example. Like people can go, oh, covid is this and it’s that people get it, this is what they go through and so forth. Yeah. That’s one aspect of it. But there was people that didn’t have that experience or was exposed to it and never had any issues whatsoever. There’s, there’s different aspects. Some people say it’s lucky this or this or that. I think it’s just living differently than what the ma you know, I can go down a rabbit with that, but that’s

Christine Okezie (18m 21s):
Beautiful. Yeah, yeah,

Dr. Vic Manzo (18m 22s):
Yeah, yeah. I’ll leave it at that. But at the end of the day, that’s kind of how, that’s the basis of the ma basics. Of the matrix.

Christine Okezie (18m 29s):
Thank you. Okay. So breaking out of the matrix, having a more empowering, intentional experience of our reality. How do we do it?

Dr. Vic Manzo (18m 43s):
So in the book I talk about, I, I do this with all my clients that I work with from a business per my business coaching. And that is, you start with a vision. The vision is the most powerful thing that you can do for yourself. It is one of the most underplay things that ever been done. I went through business school as an undergrad and we talked about vision statement, but it was more the mission statement that was more important, right. And in life you hear about vision and some people call it a dream and stuff, but we don’t really have what’s a vision of your life? Right. And now when I work with my clients, I always tell ’em the number one thing that I focus on is what’s the main purpose? Why you’re here, what’s the main vision of why you exist? And it’s amazing how when we don’t think about that too often or sometimes like I don’t even know how to figure that out.

Dr. Vic Manzo (19m 24s):
Well you, you don’t figure it out. It’s a feeling. And we develop that.

Christine Okezie (19m 29s):
Now you just have to go. Yes. Sorry, go ahead. Go ahead, go. No, you just mentioned something really important, really distinctive, right? When it comes to this type of deep change work and rewiring deeply group paradigms, right? It’s not in the intellect. And it’s also, and you spell this out beautifully in your book. It’s not in the doership as I my turn the doingness, right? It’s in the nonphysical, hence it’s in the emotional, mental, energetic space. Okay. So you work with business clients, how do you ground this for them? Cause you know, woo woo guru sometimes doesn’t fly for CEOs, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (20m 8s):
No it doesn’t. And it’s funny how, you know, I’ve been, I’ve been more into this now full time this year and it’s interesting how much kickback I get. I think I’m selling selling like snake oil, especially when I say have success effortlessly. That that that effortless term. Yes. It’s amazing how much it bites me. And I’m like, I don’t care. I’m gonna still say it. You know? And of course from a business, if I had like a, you know, I have coaches, but like one, if I had someone be like, don’t use that term cuz it, it repels people, I’d be like, no, but that’s what I do. Like that’s, that’s the essence of what I do. I can’t use a different term. I don’t know any others. But No, but the thing is reason why is how to ground them. I use science and that’s the thing. And that comes back from my going in my chiropractic days cuz I was studying energy healing at that time and also outside of school. And that opened up the door, like took the quantum physics to the neuroscience.

Dr. Vic Manzo (20m 51s):
So when someone’s like, like for an example, when I was doing energy healing, cause I was used to be a reiki master and trainer, I studied 12 different modalities, but all these other things. But when I talked about like, let’s say auras and they’d be like, that’s that woo woo stuff. And I’d be like, well you can call it woo woo, but here’s the thing, in the science world they call a biophoton field. So whether you don’t like aura, well then choose a different term. I really don’t care. But the science has shown that there is actually a field called a bio field, which in spiritual spirituality they call that an aura. So I’m like, it’s just like saying English and Spanish whose words are right, doesn’t matter. It’s just whatever language you choose to use terminology.

Dr. Vic Manzo (21m 33s):
Exactly right. So when it comes to like, the reason why I like vision, I talk about this in my coaching program that I do. And I always tell people like, the vision’s the most powerful thing. It is one of the most deepest things in all spirituality that’s ever been shared. Which you can see in your minds what you’re gonna create in a reality. And it’s in. And then some people go, well I’ll go in the biblical terms. In the Bible it states in, in Proverbs 29 verse 18 that the people without a vision will perish. And there’s another one, heah two and two, I forget what it is, but like it talks about writing down your vision and, and and, and and, and making sure it’s clear on the tablets and so forth. And it’ll come in a time of Terry, which means it’ll come within time. Interesting. And it’s, and it’s, so there’s there it is in scripture, but then I’m like, well we don’t have to go that route. Here’s the thing, the the, the mind can’t tell.

Dr. Vic Manzo (22m 14s):
Here’s neuroscience. The mind can’t tell the difference what you put in there and to what you see in your eyes. So why don’t we use that power? Let’s use that. Because when we can visualize, now all of a sudden you’re stepping into a whole different field that we’re just barely understanding. To where, where me being a doctor, I’m a chiropractor, we study the body more than anyone else out there. And there’s one thing that I can tell you that if you wanna build muscle, you, you’re based on normal muscle physiology and everything that I’ve studied about muscles and what I know about ’em, how to give them nutrition, all that stuff, you have to work the muscle to make it bigger and stronger and leaner. Right? But they have done studies, you can use the power of visualization and you can get somewhat close to the same results. And they’ve done new studies where they actually got better results visualizing than doing the work.

Dr. Vic Manzo (22m 58s):
That’s the power of the mind and what it does. So the mind can’t tell the difference. And so why not use that? And this is why I love having, why I’m so big on vision and so much more. So that is neuroscience there. I get into things about, with quantum physics, I talk about the the double slit experiment and how for those who may not know what that is, they were just trying to understand light in the essence as it is in a wave. Or is it, is it a particle? And particles in the physical form wave is non, it’s non-physical. And so they need like special sensors to pick that up to see it. Yeah. And when they, the scientists and the researchers were looking to see what it was, it would go to a particle and then when they look away, it’d go back to the way format.

Dr. Vic Manzo (23m 39s):
And so when they did this, they thought we did something wrong. So we messed it up. So let’s change the experiment. This is what I love about this. The study, they change the experiment to know. They’re like, we know for a fact this is how light’s gonna have to act now it has, we we, we, we, we got rid of the error. They go into it, same results. And they sit there and they go, okay, we have no idea why this is happening, but this is why I love about quantum physics. And physicists, you know, scientists, they’re like, no, it’s this or that. And for, and the quantum physicists, they understand like we’re just trying to understand the spookiness. Like we, we don’t, we don’t need to figure it all out. We just need, so they’ve done this with electrons and looking at the spins of the electrons and seeing if is it this or that?

Dr. Vic Manzo (24m 20s):
And when they looked at one way it was that way and they looked at the other way, it was that way. It was the same thing. But again, what that meant was is how you see your life, your world, the projection where you’re putting out there is what will be created for you. Powerful is what you can create. And so it’s really returning back to the power to the individuals and to understand that. And that’s what your potential is, right? We talk about potential a lot, especially in chiropractic. We’re always like, optimize your potential. Yeah. And I always say, well in the book I talk about you have to define your potential, what is it? And then how do you tap into it? And here’s the simple answer. What you see in your mind is what you can create. That’s it. Right? That’s what the possibility is for you. If you can’t see something in your mind, you’re not gonna be able to create it.

Dr. Vic Manzo (25m 1s):
And this is another reason why I use vision so much in my work, because we have to have that crystal clarity. We have, if you wanna oh go,

Christine Okezie (25m 10s):
How do you get that crystal clarity, right? Because we’re going a hundred miles an hour, many, many pulls to externally fixate on things, right? So again, you know, trying to help people experience the relationship between vision, mindset, taking action, right? What’s the first step to making sure we can, I obviously put the mind in the right setting, you know,

Dr. Vic Manzo (25m 39s):
What is it? You know, so like for, for the visualization or creating that vision and so forth. It comes to the point of a lot of times what I work with people, they’re like, I just can’t visualize. I can’t. And I’m like, you can, you’re just stuck in stress. Your brain is being conditioned, you’re nervous. And again, this is where I get my chiropractic background cuz understanding neurology and what I do as a chiropractor, it’s like when you’re stuck in those states of stress and your nervous system stuck, it’s very hard to go into a state of creativity. So then what you can do is watch a movie and if you like something on the movie, write it down. That’s a great visual, right? Cuz you’re seeing it, you’re seeing it. Emotions. If you see a movie, you like the character and you wish you could have a kill life like that. There you go. That’s a visualization that you can use for now, I don’t always, I don’t, I don’t like my clients taking that to 100% verbatim.

Dr. Vic Manzo (26m 22s):
Sure. Or whether they’re seeing, but I’ll tell ’em it’s just use that for now. And then when it comes to the point where you’re starting to feel a little more creative and you’re getting a little excited now you put your own touch on it. What does that mean for you? Because we as, as individuals, we create our reality. I mean there’s, there’s, there’s, I I have a quote I you say all often, I wrote in the book and I say it very often, there’s no rules to LifeStep the ones you create. Yes. And, and and the reason behind that is, is literally you can, you know, like what’s a, you know, you wanna be what’s success? What’s success? Well success is different for everybody. Yeah. You define success and that’s your reality to it. What’s a millionaire? Well what’s a millionaire to you, right? Cuz here comes the conditioning of the matrix. When we think of somebody rich, what do we think of? Oh they have a nice house, nice car, this that nice clothes, all that stuff, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (27m 4s):
And that’s just the conditioning of the world, you know? And I’m like, but what’s a millionaire mean to you? What is that essence of what that looks like for you? Because the more we can be authentic with ourselves and what matters most to us for our world, expressing our own piece of the pie of what human is being human is. And we expressed that and what it means for us that helps with all the things you hear about, with law of attraction, law of ma station, all these different things. Because now what we’re doing is we’re starting to share what’s really truly important to us and how we want to experience that. And when you come from that kind of a vibe from that kind of a place, then all of a sudden it is a huge, the the, the signal you sent out to create more is a lot more powerful.

Dr. Vic Manzo (27m 48s):
But that’s just a, that’s just one of the things you can look through magazines like people tell you to do when it comes to creating a vision board. Again, these are great things to start with, but you always want to make sure that you eventually put your own touch on it and what really matters most? Why do you like certain things? And really breaking down the why part. I talk about this I think in the book too, where you gotta keep asking why like a four year old until you get to that point. So like, why this, why, why do you like it that way? Why do you like the big house? Well because of this. Well why do you like the big, because it has to come down to, I just like it because I do like, there’s just, I don’t have anything else. You can’t, you’re not gonna start that way. So anyone trying to cheat this, you can’t cuz no one, if I asked you why, like if I asked why you like chocolate or vanilla, you’re gonna say why I like vanilla.

Dr. Vic Manzo (28m 29s):
Well why do you like vanilla? Cause I just wanna like chocolate that much and vanilla just tastes better. Okay, well there’s, you’re giving a reason why in which, and then I go through this whole thing on power. But that’s a whole nother story.

Christine Okezie (28m 38s):
It’s brilliant, you know, so, you know, to your point, it’s important to understand that, you know, there’s a lot of, a lot of discussion, a lot of information out there on manifestation. And I think sometimes ironically enough we can get, it can be another version of trying to manipulate our reality. You know, because there’s some steps as you go through very detailed in your book, there’s some steps that we just can’t pass. And that is a lot of clearing, a lot of the emotional deep dive. You know, what are our limiting beliefs? Once we get to them, we, we confront them. We say, oh, I don’t think I wanna have that belief anymore because that’s what’s underneath, you know, whatever it is.

Christine Okezie (29m 23s):
The self-sabotage, the repeating pattern in my life that I don’t like. Right? So manifestation, creating, tapping into our human potential is I think the stuff that gets very shiny in a lot of commercialization. But then there’s this other, I think more substantive foundation which you go into in the latter part of your book around source energy, which really is surrender and trust big spiritual principles. So I’d love for you to, you know, in your own words, what have you found to be the right recipe if you will, for surrender trust and taking empowered action?

Dr. Vic Manzo (30m 1s):
So it’s real simple, we just forgot it as adults how to do this. And I talk a lot about this more recently now I started talking about this after the book and I’m like, I’m not gonna go put this, I don’t think I put this in the book. And I was like, and that is go back to being a three, four year old because three, four year old is really the master of the universe. They, we a as three, four year olds, we know how to be, how do I know that? Well let’s look at it from a brain perspective. Neural develop wise, they are not logic brain’s not there yet. So it’s, it’s starting, it’s developing but it’s not at the point of making right or wrongs and seeing what this and that is what is at a peak at that point as imagination, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (30m 42s):
And imagination’s, everything billionaires do. This billionaires practice imagination often, quite often. And so it’s a very powerful tool. The second thing that three four year olds do that are so fascinating is that if you ever watch and be around them, they choose what they wanna do that excites ’em and that’s it. And they don’t care what other people think. Yeah. And they get immersed into the experience, right? That’s the secret sauce to manifestation. That’s the secret sauce to living to your life of which your truest element is. That’s everything. You know when it comes to manifestation, there’s so many people that have so many, you know, you can’t manifest from a 1, 2, 3, 4 kind of a thing. You can’t to a certain degree, but the, because the formula really is it, there was a formula, it’s just razor vibration and enjoy what you do.

Dr. Vic Manzo (31m 26s):
Truly. Like, I mean it’s just raise your vibe. Vision’s important. You know, having a goal is important, but you have to let that go. Like I tell my clients once they do all this vision work and sometimes it takes ’em like a month to get it all done, then I’m like, okay, put that in the back burner. I don’t want you to think about it anymore. And they’re like,

Christine Okezie (31m 42s):
Wow.

Dr. Vic Manzo (31m 43s):
They’re like, what do you mean now you maybe go through all this work, right? And now you’re telling me forget it. And I’m like, yeah, because that’s not gonna create it for you. Cuz the more you think about it, you create an attachment, the more you create an attachment, you’re creating resistance, the more resistance you’re not gonna get there. So I’m like, you have to let it go. And now you’ve just tell universe, thank you, God, whatever that is, here we go, this is what I want. I put my order in, I’ll wait until the time comes. I know what I need to focus on. Which is your vibe, which is with you and joy to do that creates fulfillment every single day. That’s what a kid does. Three, four year old does that all day long. Absolutely. I have a, I have a new daughter who’s only four months old and I, and, and I’ve been soaking up every ounce that I can with her joy and bliss and how she’ll just look, do a little smirk and then she just lights up.

Dr. Vic Manzo (32m 28s):
I know what I mean. I can feel her energy and I’m just like, man, I go, she’s teaching me just to like light up even more about life. Love that. And I, and I tell my wife all the time, I go go, I go, I’m enjoying every moment I’m in the present, but this is not gonna sound like I am. I’m like, when she’s three, four years old, I cannot wait to go into her world. I’m gonna do all that I can, whatever she wants me to do. What? Whatever. Cause I mean, again, I was a pediatric chiropractor, so I worked with a lot of kids. It fascinated me how their mind worked because they’ll be like, I mean the tools I use and what they would call ’em and you know, and they’d be like, I remember one kid was like, Dr. Vic, my, my brain not working. Well I need adjustment and it’ll make my, my gear and my brain work better.

Dr. Vic Manzo (33m 9s):
I’m like, where do they learn gear? And they all had different explanations to it and it was just so fascinating of their what they, but they get it what I did. But it was just fa fascinating. And that’s the key element to really mastering your life. We knew how to do that. Yeah. It’s just the conditioning of what I say this, and I know this sounds harsh and I’m not, I’m working on my own language of this, but it’s like we come in pure, but then the world and our environment tarnishes us, right? And, and, and the thing is, and then we have to learn to get the mud off us to really remember the light of who we are. Beautiful. And, and it’s just the way the system is that we wouldn’t come here otherwise to be human. If, if, if it wasn’t like that. So I don’t bash it. Everything happens the way it’s supposed to.

Dr. Vic Manzo (33m 50s):
Okay. But it’s, it’s, but it’s one of the things, going back to those elements of just embracing what really fulfills you, what excites you, what you know that you do. Some people say, well, as adults you have to do things you don’t enjoy. Well who, but there’s ways we can, we can, we can play some mindset tricks on that or play some mind, you know, shift things around a little bit. Change that perspective to where we can level it because there’s things I don’t like to do that I have to do, right? But I tie it to a higher value that I enjoy love doing. And I’m like, well this allows me to do more of that. So I’ll knock this out then so that I can do more of that. Does that kinda make sense?

Christine Okezie (34m 26s):
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. The meaning that we make of things you go into this in your book right, is so important, right? Cause we, we, we tell stories about everything that’s happening and why not make it a good one? I always say

Dr. Vic Manzo (34m 39s):
That’s the thing, you have the power that again, it comes back to you. Like I would say life has no meaning except what you put to it. It it, it. And, and when you really understand that me, that statement, you know, nothing has meaning. You’re the person who gives meaning to it. And you can choose a positive charge or a negative. And you know, there’s neuroscience that proves that there’s quantum physics that we already talked about some of the stuff that does that already. And so it’s those elements of what matters. What means to you, what matters to you, how you want define things, you know, vocabulary, how we explain our vocabulary. Like some people, I, when I was growing up, I, again, maybe I had a natural inclination to this, but I, I would say words and I don’t be saying that that’s not a worse and I’m like, but the energy of what you’re what the energy you’re coming off.

Dr. Vic Manzo (35m 20s):
But how you’re saying that is not the energy I’m coming off of where I’m saying. And so like a term, I remember the time I was talking with someone, they’re like, yeah, the word lazy gets a negative connotation. But to me lazy is this. And I said, I love that you define lazy in a different term. You chose what that’s going to mean for you in your world. Yeah. You know me, I wouldn’t choose that word. Yeah, but you choose that but you have the energy from, it wasn’t like being lazy, unmotivated, you know what we kind of think of what that is. Yeah. She’s like, I’m just gonna be lazy and lazy around to recharge and reenergize and do this. That’s what lazy means to me. And I’m like, I love that you reprogrammed your world to what that should mean for you.

Christine Okezie (35m 57s):
Yeah. In an empowering way. Right. That aligns beautiful. So you know, we’re living, as you’ve mentioned a few times in very interesting times, how, what’s your sort of nonnegotiable in when it comes to your emotional, mental, energetic, physical, self care,

Dr. Vic Manzo (36m 16s):
Nonnegotiables? I love these. I have a lot of these. Let’s see, I mean one of the things it is like when it comes to my, I always have to take care of my mind first, you know, in every element of what I do. So every morning I meditate, I’ll do some breath work and meditate. It’s, it’s something that has to be done. There’s no, no questions asked. The second thing is I have to challenge my body in some way, shape or form. So that means working out or on my days off I’ll do active recovery or I’ll go for a walk or two to just ch get my body moving. Cuz your brain likes movement. Okay. You know, those are just a couple there. My, my daily, I’m trying to think what else is there.

Dr. Vic Manzo (36m 56s):
I do, I have a lot of practices of what I do, but, but those are some of the main ones. Gratitude’s another big one that I have to do. Yeah. There’s no, no, no questions asked. And the reason why is I’m, I’m trying to master like, I, I, I remember I heard Steve Harvey one time talk about this and he was saying how, and and with a gratitude like you know, I could write 200, 300 things down what I’m grateful for. Mm. And I looked, I’m like, well he’s at a higher level. I could see that. But I’m like okay, I’m gonna take it as it is. And it was always fascinating how it’s a challenge to get past 80, 75, 80. I thought I’d get good at 92 1 time and I’m just like, wow, I really have to get better at my gratitude practice. I thought I had this, this rock solid uhoh. But those are just a few to name of what I do and so forth.

Dr. Vic Manzo (37m 39s):
But the biggest thing is, is always setting the tone of my energy. That’s why I meditate, do breath work in the morning because afterwards I’m, what I’m really doing is just setting my energy and my intention of what I want to create for the day. How I wanna raise my vibe up and then just hold that as best as I possibly can. Cause I’m human not gonna stay there forever. I have my own normal conscious level I resonate at and then just work on that process to excel and set my fourth for the day.

Christine Okezie (38m 7s):
Yeah. That’s brilliant. Thank you. And why is elevating our consciousness so critical in these times?

Dr. Vic Manzo (38m 16s):
Especially at these times? It’s very, very critical because I mean the thing is everything’s vibration, right? And quantum physics shown that everything’s energy and, and they call it quanta for the people who wanna know the scientific term of that. And so when you’re elevating, you’re elevating your conscious level, you’re elevating your energy to have a different experience than what is, you’re not gonna be pulled down to what, you know, like I said, a lot of people are talking about the, the gloom and doom come in and I had saw someone put a Facebook post and was like, right, the end is here now or something, you better get ready. You hope you prepare. And I’m like, I’m not gonna put my energy into that. Let’s erase that and I’m gonna go on to focusing on what I like to create at that moment to see happen. But it’s very, very critical because what we focus on is what’s going to expand.

Dr. Vic Manzo (38m 57s):
And yes, when, like for example, when Covid was starting to happen, I remember in end of mid-February I started to, I told my patients, I’m like, I’m gonna share with you the mindset world of what I do. Cuz I never crossed that barrier. I was like, I’m a chiropractor and I’m gonna be your chiropractor. Wonderful. And what I do here, I didn’t wanna cross over, I did share some mindset stuff but it was very, very basic. But then I was like, was like, okay, the time has come, I need to share this. And I was like, do not buy into the fear. Just take a deep breath and give it some time. Things are gonna all work out and we’ll get more information. I’m like, the reason why I’m saying that is cuz if you keep, if we all start buying into fear more, this is gonna be way worse than what we want it to be. And that’s the power of, of us focusing on our own energy levels to do this, this, that.

Dr. Vic Manzo (39m 37s):
Because if we can keep our consciousness levels higher, what that does, and we’ve all been around somebody who had a higher consciousness level. You may not be aware of it, but when you left them, you were like, man, I love being around that person. I just feel better, I feel more energetic. I can all these different things. Yes, that’s that they’re vibing at a different level. It doesn’t mean it’s better, it’s just at a different level. And, but what happens is, is when you do that, the people around you, you create a ripple effect. Again, law association playing many in both ways. You, they’re affecting you and you’re affecting them. But if you set your intention, you can help others to help liberate them to have the opportunity to do the same thing. And if we can all do this together, not be can influence heavily by the matrix or those sub matrixes and so forth and we stand in our own power, then what we’re doing is we’re allowing others to do the same.

Dr. Vic Manzo (40m 24s):
And we can go into this whole shift that’s been going on for quite some time. That’s really interesting times. But that it’s gonna be very critical for us to do that. So then we don’t get the same experience of what whatever that is out there, that that is having us go down this route, right. Whatever that is, we don’t have to go and be dragged in with it.

Christine Okezie (40m 47s):
Beautiful. Very powerful and very important work indeed. And so if I could ask, what is the number one thing you want people from, you know, reading your book books to take away,

Dr. Vic Manzo (40m 59s):
At the end of the day you have the power. You are way more powerful than you can ever imagine. We can’t even measure it. The key thing is what in all my books is always about under, it’s always about taking the power back to them, to the individual because we give it away in so many different ways. And the matrix book, the matrix is really just understanding the systems of how it tries to robs of our power. Right? And walk in the Dark is all about not allowing the events of our life become a victim of it and understanding how we can get away from, from suffering altogether. Yeah. And how we can take the power back and choose what that experience is gonna be for us. What does that really mean? Yeah. And so when we can do those kind of things, we’re really starting to step into the essence of really what it is to be as much as we can as the sole essence to who we are, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (41m 48s):
Cause as a soul, we get to choose an experience that happens. This is what it is. And so forth. And, and really we understand that we know these things when we come to being human, we forget it a little bit. But at the end of the day, it’s one of those things where how do we get back into that power? And if I can just share and then the purpose of is just understanding how we’re giving our power away. And if we can turn it around and take the power back to us, not only do we realize how we control and help our own life, but then also from the macro level, how we really transcend the world to go to the elements of being whatever the terms are. But it’s, you know, the sea, I don’t wanna say better, but I guess that’s the only word I can think of right now. But you know, better outcomes, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (42m 29s):
So you look at like, you know, all the instinct and danger species that are going on, the forces are doing this. All the things about life that we’re not supporting. A lot of times we think we have to do change energy and then that changes the outcome of that and so much more.

Christine Okezie (42m 41s):
A hundred percent. And you know, just to encapsulate, we’ve talked a lot about the energy of fear. So in contrast, I think what you’re talking about is the energy of love. We talk about when we talk about raising our vibration, and I’m not talking about romantic fluffy, you know, heart love, right? That’s nice. But just to give it, and sometimes words fall short as you know, even as a writer, you know, you notice sometimes these words fall short for these really beautiful ideas. But at the end of the day, I think that’s what this is really about. You know, is that it, it is more about stepping into love, letting love lead, letting that be the vibration of our consciousness.

Christine Okezie (43m 24s):
And that’s how we neutralize the fear, right?

Dr. Vic Manzo (43m 27s):
No, a hundred percent. I mean love is understanding. It’s trusting, you know, it’s connecting. It’s, it’s all those things and it’s the essence of who we were really made, we’re made from and, and having that cuz they, you know, in this world there’s really only two emotions and everything else is just an extension of it. And you’re sharing it love and fear. And it could be light and dark, it could be, you know, those are the opposites. And it’s one of those things of tapping back into that the element of who we really are and really expressing, you know, you know, the essence of just that essence of who we really are expressing that and onto the world and, and, and being able to have that connectiveness with it all so much more.

Dr. Vic Manzo (44m 7s):
Yeah. It’s a beautiful And we’re, we’re, we’re moving towards it. It’s, it’s just interesting times of what’s going through the process in it all.

Christine Okezie (44m 14s):
It is, it is. Thank you so much Dr. Vick. This has been a wonderful conversation and thank you for the, the insight and the wisdom you’re putting out in the world. It’s really beautiful. Thank you.

Dr. Vic Manzo (44m 25s):
No, I greatly appreciate it then. Thank you for all that you do, and thank you for having me on. I’ve, I’ve really had a really enjoyed this conversation.

Christine Okezie (44m 32s):
Awesome. And so just to, I’ll put all this in the show notes, but you know, is there something specifically and you wanna just let reader, our listeners know about, you know, how to work with you, how to learn more about you, how to just be in your vibe?

Dr. Vic Manzo (44m 44s):
Yeah, my website’s my hub. It’s empower your reality.com, your, I work with business owners and startups right now. But if you’re interested in looking at a coach, you like what I was talking about? Wanna see if we, we fit, I have a qualifying process where I do a free call to connect, learn more about you and see if I’m that individual who can help you. And then I have free resources. I have an ebook on the power visualization and talking about coming to some of the studies I did, I put two studies in there, but just showing how powerful our mind is, how it rewires our brain, neuro pathways, how it can help with muscle memory and stuff like that. Just just from just doing the visualization. My podcast is on there. And then social media wise, on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and, and TikTok.

Dr. Vic Manzo (45m 25s):
You’ll find that at the bottom left corner. Any questions you have, reach out, love hearing from people.

Christine Okezie (45m 31s):
That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Vic. Take good care.

Dr. Vic Manzo (45m 33s):
Likewise.