Zane Landin: Heal &Bridge w Self-Love &Courageous Connection

Zane Landin and I talk about internal communications, writing, PR, National Geographic, the link between self-love and mental health, moving, logic and emotion elevating into a balance of wisdom and love, respect, worthiness, bridging generational divides, importance of dialog, fear, labels, diversity, division, intersectionality, finding purpose, and more

Transcript

Holiness and welcome.

This is Josh Dippold of integratingpresence.

Com.

And today I have Zane Landon with me.

Zane,

How's it going?

I'm doing well.

How are you doing?

Pretty good.

Yeah,

It's Landon,

Which it reminds me of a friend I went to university with,

Or one that stayed with me.

His first name was Landon,

And I had never heard that before.

And this is your last name.

It's a cool name.

It reminds me almost a little bit of Lando Calrissian in Star Wars a little bit.

Yeah,

I have a really weird name,

Dippold.

There's not too many Dippolds out there.

Well,

I'll share.

There's not many Zanes out there for my first name,

But my last name,

There are a couple of people that I've known that had the first name Landon.

I don't hear too often as a last name.

I'll just share.

I'm actually 50% Hispanic,

And my dad is full Hispanic Mexican,

And it's supposed to be pronounced Landin,

But.

.

.

Oh,

Thank you.

And I didn't even ask you how to pronounce it.

But I just say Landon at this point myself.

Yeah.

So I think I knew one person who was Hispanic who used it that way,

Which is impressive because most just say Landon.

So it's okay because I use Landon,

But that's how we're supposed to say it.

I hear Dippold,

Diploid.

I've heard Diploid.

I think it's a diploid group in biology.

So I just like,

Just don't forget to call me to dinner,

Right?

I've been called a lot worse,

But no.

So tell me a little.

What I like to do usually is I throw it back to my guests or whatever,

Whoever I'm talking to,

And have them introduce themselves instead of me reading a bio.

So tell me a little bit about who you are and the kind of work that you do and the things you're interested in.

Great.

Right now,

I'm currently working at National Geographic Society doing internal communications.

I find the role of internal communications really exciting,

And I think it's actually very important to propel a business for it internally to work well and for employees to be on the same page of what's going on.

So I absolutely love the work.

I've done several internships in communications,

And I just kind of found this kind of love for internal communications,

And I was definitely looking for a role that was all about that.

And luckily,

I was able to land a role at National Geographic Society.

And I say society because there's two sections of NatGeo.

It is the partners,

National Geographic partners,

Which is a lot of Disney,

And then you have society,

Which is the non-profit that actually funds the explorers,

Provides the grants.

And so official National Geographic explorers are funded through the society.

So that's where I work,

But we still work really closely with Disney,

And it's still under the National Geographic umbrella.

Anyways,

So I just graduated with my bachelor's in May.

I got my bachelor of science in communication and public relations,

Which is pretty interesting because PR is a little of the opposite of what internal communications is,

But I'm still using the principles of communications and writing.

And I've always been,

Actually,

I wouldn't say I've always been passionate about writing.

There was a time where I really struggled with writing because it is,

I think,

Very difficult.

And also,

I think sometimes they teach writing a little too structured,

And I don't think it,

I think it inhibits creativity,

And that's where I was able to really flourish as a writer.

And because I was able to be creative,

I was able to just kind of implement that creativity in essay writing and all these different things.

So I learned how to write,

I learned how to write with structure,

But I start,

But I really was inspired by the creativity aspect of it.

I've been writing poetry for a long time.

I identify as a poet.

I just wrote about a body positivity poem,

Which will be released in someone's project,

Which I'm really excited about.

And it's all about the journey of self-love,

Which I know,

You know,

You're going to have a question about later,

But it's all about the journey of self-love.

And I say the journey of self-love because it's a journey,

It's not a destination.

And I think people think that they can have this epiphany where they have this self-love realization.

I don't think that is the case for many.

I think you can have that self-love,

But I think that it's a journey.

So you can definitely be in tune with yourself.

And sometimes that's stripped away and you kind of have to start over.

But because you came to that realization,

At least you have that support.

You know what it was like to feel that way.

It's not like you're starting from zero.

And so that is one thing I will say about self-love,

And I can talk more in detail about it.

I just moved to DC,

Of course,

For the position because it's a hybrid role.

So I've been here for a month and a half.

I lived in California for 24 years,

Basically.

And it's been an interesting experience living in a completely different state as someone who never traveled anywhere.

I've traveled to different states,

But I've never lived anywhere else besides California.

And then aside from that,

I am really passionate about mental health.

I'm always constantly talking about mental health because I think it's one of the most important things that we need to be addressing.

There are,

Of course,

Several issues we need to be talking about.

But I think mental health,

In my opinion,

I think is one of the most important,

Especially since also you can look at any issue,

Almost any issue that impacts your emotions.

And it's going to impact mental health,

Everything from the homelessness to war.

It's all going to impact mental health.

And it's going to result in people who are undiagnosed,

Stigma,

Suicides.

And suicide is a very common thing that does happen in this world.

So I would say that about mental health.

One of the really cool opportunities I had was in May,

I actually got to attend the first ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum,

Actually hosted by MTV at the White House.

So it was actually at the White House.

And we got to have a conversation about youth mental health advocacy and how we show up for youth mental health.

It was a smaller audience,

But they did live stream on several news channels,

Which was really exciting.

And we had a conversation with Selena Gomez as the keynote.

And then there was Dr.

Biden,

Dr.

Murthy,

Just,

You know,

Really great high profile people in the government.

And then afterward,

We actually got to have a short conversation with President Biden,

Which is pretty interesting.

And I'm not hugely into politics.

So it was a great opportunity to be like in the White House talking to people that have these positions of power.

And I don't know if anything came out of the forum,

But I think that awareness is what was key.

And just seeing something like that on TV for people who experience mental health conditions or are having trouble with their mental health,

That's a great sign of hope.

Just see such an open conversation about young people,

Really,

They were talking about eating disorders and suicide,

And just these past experiences of trauma that they've had.

Just seeing that,

I think,

Is a great thing.

And I think,

You know,

If again,

I don't know what comes out of it,

But I think we're moving into a territory where we're more open about it.

And I hope more legislation comes out of it,

Because mental health is a very untapped community.

And it's a sad thing to see.

That's all you put plenty out there.

So I want to touch on,

Put,

Touch on these.

So I go back from where we started to and the internal communication.

So really briefly,

And I've been so I haven't really been public so much about this,

Because it hasn't been relevant.

But I actually went to university years ago as a pre journalism.

And I loved it.

I love writing and things like that.

And I loved writing and things like this.

But then I found out once I went through the boot camp,

I got accepted into the school,

J school,

But I turned it down.

And I just,

You know,

I learned so much.

And they had to write a ton and a ton under pressure and deadlines.

And for me,

Honestly,

It's it doesn't come natural to me.

And the payoff for me personally,

Is that it doesn't pay off for the amount of time it takes me to do.

But when it you know,

So that's why I've turned up to other things.

I still do it and still part of my,

My work and stuff,

But I don't come naturally to it.

So what is internal communications compared to external?

Are you talking about within an organization?

Is that what it means?

Internal communications?

Basically,

Yes.

And so you'll have a external communications person or a PR person,

Sure,

Whatever their position is there,

Whatever their role is,

You know,

I know people that have communication roles that work directly with the media,

That they are working to get the explorers or these programs in the news media,

I'm going to be completely opposite about that,

Where I'm going to be and this could be any organization,

Not just I'm not talking about National Geographic.

But with internal communications,

It's really how do we communicate these messages that impact employees,

So they're aware of what's going on.

And so they do not feel unaware and feel kind of isolated.

Because I think that if there is a scattering of information,

I think people have the right to know,

And they have the right to know in a timely matter.

And so that includes like,

You know,

Internal company newsletter,

Which I get to run,

Which is really exciting.

And just,

You know,

Having an intranet where stories there,

So I still get to write stories.

But it's not going to impact anyone's going to really see it outside of National Geographic.

No one's going to see that,

But inside the company,

They will.

Well,

I mean,

I'm sure you get a lot of talk when people you talk about National Geographic,

Because it's such a significant organization,

Right?

And media outlet.

I mean,

I remember,

You know,

Living in rural America,

As you know,

In the coming up in the 80s and 90s,

We had National Geographic there.

And just to be able to see different areas,

Almost exotic areas of the world compared to,

You know,

Like where I was living,

It was just wild.

And the photography is just was cutting edge back then.

And I'm sure it still is now I don't actually own a TV now.

But I just I one of the few things when I do watch,

I will watch nature programs,

Just because,

You know,

It's just so much more close to real life to me than so much of the other things on television.

But yeah,

Like you say,

National Geographic is more than their magazine and their their TV channel.

They've so much more as well.

So yeah,

I might as well just ask,

With since we're on that.

What what all I guess,

What would what would you say about that organization that most people wouldn't know about?

And you said you mentioned a little bit about their kind of charitable arm,

Right?

And are their funding arm?

But yeah.

So what was the question?

Oh,

What what what about the National Geographic Society?

And just National Geographic in general?

Would you think that would come to mind that most people wouldn't know about things that they're involved in?

Or,

You know,

Just something that flies under the radar that most people wouldn't think about National Geographic,

You know,

When they hear that name,

You know,

Something.

Yeah,

This is something,

Of course,

Worked here for a very short time.

I started in November,

But I will share,

You know,

Sometimes people look at National Geographic and not see the diversity they want to see.

And that has been something that National Geographic has owned up to and said that they haven't been the most keen on diversity.

But now they're really working with explorers from so many different backgrounds,

Working with so many different programs to bring in people of color,

Different experiences,

Different sexualities,

As explorers,

As people to embrace this scope of diversity.

That's one thing I don't think maybe people will see if they look at like kind of the old National Geographic,

But seeing it now.

You're talking about the employees and people behind the cameras.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

You mean like not the things that they shoot,

But the actual employees that work there,

Right?

That's what I think.

Both.

I mean,

You have the people who are explorers and they're looking for diverse explorers,

But also,

You know,

People who they hire,

Of course,

Too.

So,

Yeah,

There's a lot of different moving parts,

But I'm biased as I work there,

But I do really appreciate the diversity that they're trying to encompass.

And it's really exciting.

Very cool.

OK,

So now I think these to me,

The notions of mental health and self-love are so interconnected and so closely related.

So I know the challenges that I've had in my own experience that it was just like a godsend when I heard about this self-love.

And I'm just going to do a plug here for a teacher of mine I found valuable at a part on my journey,

Matt Kahn,

And he used to be called the Love Revolution.

Now,

I think he has a thing called Love in Action,

K-A-H-N.

He's gotten really,

Really popular.

He's written like the very first book he has is Whatever Arises,

Love That.

And,

You know,

The kind of practices is in the title so much with the only the exception,

Of course,

Being abuse.

Right.

So we do whatever we can to get out of an abusive situation.

Then it's everything is here to help you.

And the universe always has a plan.

So it just all this loving wisdom.

And when I first started to do this practice of putting my hand on my heart and saying these I love you's to myself,

I just it just didn't feel right.

It felt sappy.

You know,

It felt icky or it just is like,

What is this to me?

But then,

You know,

What's said is,

Well,

That's honesty and honesty is a form of self-love.

Right.

And it become it became more and more natural to do these I love you's to my own heart.

And it goes along with the kind of the Buddhist practices that I do sometimes called loving kindness and compassion,

Especially,

You know,

Towards oneself and yeah,

And rejoicing to and this this equanimity,

These Brahma Viharas,

These sublime abidings,

They're beautiful heart based practices,

Too.

And not they're not really vague either,

Because I can say,

Well,

I love to go for a walk in the morning or I love ice cream or whatever.

But that's not the love I'm talking about.

This is the kind that's really nourishing,

You know,

Well-being not only for myself,

But others I encounter and just all,

You know,

Contribute to the welfare and happiness of all beings everywhere.

And I know that it's really challenging for folks.

And because we're always kind of taught that,

You know,

That we should find love outside of ourselves.

But the thing is,

Obviously,

I'm preaching to the choir here,

Right?

That it's hard to show love and care and kindness to others if we don't do it for ourselves,

Right?

Yeah.

How would you say that ties in with mental health,

Too?

Because I know there is a huge stigma towards this.

And I mean,

Even the definitions,

And I know I want to talk a little bit about labels,

Too.

I found these in general areas of life to be helpful at some points.

And at some points,

They're not helpful.

Like I wouldn't really run around telling everybody I'm an uncle,

Right?

But in the certain situations where it makes sense to say I'm an uncle,

I'll say,

Yeah,

I'm an uncle.

I have a beautiful niece and nephew.

And they're really cool,

Because I don't have children of my own,

Right?

But so this is where I find labels in the context where they're helpful to pick them up.

But then sometimes they're not.

And yeah,

What would you say about the interrelationship between,

You know,

Self-love and mental health?

No,

I do think that there is a direct correlation between self-love and mental health.

And I think because mental health holds such a stigma that I'm not going to speak for others,

But you know,

For me,

There was a time where this feeling of being depressed or having anxiety felt like something you should be ashamed of because of how the culture does treat mental health.

And I think because it's something that you can't physically see.

We have a lot of,

I think humans have a hard time processing identities you can't see and treating them with respect as if you could see them.

So because mental health is something you can't see,

It's very easy to ignore it.

And it's very easy to,

As a person who may experience it,

Not bring it up or bring it up in a conversation because it's not the place to.

And I think for the longest time,

It wasn't the place to for many corners and pockets of the world.

And as I said,

I think we're seeing an elevation of consciousness in terms of everything with healing and mental health and spiritual healing,

Whatever it is.

I see a lot more people openly talking about their experiences with different types of spirituality that I didn't hear from for a long time.

I was always interested in these different spiritualities and it felt like something that I was always pursuing by myself or with my family,

Not like together,

But just discussing it with them and what they thought about it.

I never really felt comfortable talking about that stuff outside.

I think it can kind of go with mental health.

And I think that because of all of these beliefs and attitudes that people with mental health have had to kind of experience for so long,

It's very easy to hate yourself because mental health is so hated.

And if it's something that really is part of your being,

You hate a part of yourself.

And then in a way you're kind of hating yourself or ashamed of something that you possess.

And I think that true self-love is looking at every single component that makes you who you are.

And that is what self-love is.

You may not like everything about you,

But there's a very clear difference between not liking something and hating it and experiencing such shame from it.

You know what I mean?

And so I could look at parts of my body and say,

I don't like this,

But I don't hate it.

But it's just something that you come to accept.

But I do not think you need to accept like this hatred you have for mental health or yourself or other people because that's not going to get you anywhere.

And I think for your own wellbeing,

Your own peace of mind,

I think you have to come to a place to accept yourself.

Eventually when it's your time,

I really do think acceptance is a very good thing people need to learn.

But I understand that again,

It's a journey that every single person is going to be on something different.

And of course,

When you're cognizant of someone's environment,

You have to also consider that too,

Because maybe they do want to accept themselves,

But it's very difficult for them to find people that are like them.

Because I think that with something with self-love that I think,

I think that's important to embrace self-love,

But I think you also need to let that love in yourself from others.

Because one of the things I've noticed is that there are people that,

Including myself,

We have not acknowledged self-love and it doesn't impact us.

But I also think it's because we also had a hard time and we create this barrier from the love other people were giving.

Because I think it's easier to self-love yourself when you recognize the love people are giving you.

And it's like,

Well,

They love me,

Why don't I love myself?

They're seeing these bright qualities in me,

Why am I not seeing it?

And so I think also the self-love journey is all about letting the light in from others.

So you see it yourself.

I don't think you also,

I don't think you necessarily have to be completely independent in self-love.

It's not something you have to go through yourself.

I think there's always these people and places and things that really impact your self-love.

But if you don't allow it to come inside you and impact you that way,

It's just going to feel like love hitting you like a brick wall and you're not going to be,

You're not experiencing it.

But when you acknowledge and just sit with the love that people have given you,

Oh yeah,

I really think that it's again,

Not the only answer.

It's not going to lead to your self-love realization because I don't believe that's a thing,

But I think it's going to help you on your path to finding your self-love more because you're finally accepting what people see.

You know,

I hope that makes sense.

No,

It totally does.

And this is why vulnerability can actually be seen as a strength a lot of times,

Right?

Because this is,

Yeah,

Because we're kind of trained that the world is really hard and sometimes it really is and it is,

But the thing we,

So a lot of people as from my understanding is we put on this armor,

Right?

We,

To protect ourselves.

And so,

But when we armor ourselves from to try to protect ourselves,

Well,

Then we,

It's hard to let anything in.

So sometimes when we become more vulnerable,

Then we can allow the love to come in,

You know,

And this is like you say,

It's a really hard thing.

Cause I was,

I grew up,

You know,

I guess in my twenties where I was kind of jaded,

You know,

If I,

Any kind of affection I saw as kind of like weak or I didn't believe it,

I didn't think it was honest or there's worthiness issues,

Right?

I didn't feel I was worthy of anyone else's really love and,

But not even really realizing that either.

So yeah.

So the awareness practices come in too,

To,

To kind of even know about all this stuff,

Right.

To,

To kind of see it and,

And then how,

How we should see it then once we can see it,

Then what's a better way of seeing it or,

You know,

Or where,

How am I seeing this clearly and how am I seeing this in a distorted way?

And then,

And then knowing for ourselves,

You know,

Like what is the benefit of this?

How does it feel in my body?

When I let love in and when I show love compared to like being angered and armored you know,

And so that just doesn't feel good a lot of times,

But when we,

When I started to allowing you know,

More kindness and care and compassion for myself and others,

Eventually,

You know,

There was a lot of things I had to,

To clean out things that came up and,

You know,

Times of weeping and,

But eventually after a lot of the stuff got cleared up and the heart opened and grew,

Then it was,

It was easier.

And then it can really feel more and more of the benefits of it here and now.

Yeah.

I think also because of,

I think how emotions have been portrayed throughout history as emotions being negative trait,

That they're the exact opposite of the logical side of things.

I don't know if they're completely opposite.

I think,

I think you need both.

And of course you need the balance and you can be logical,

But too logical without emotion and too much without logic.

I mean,

I don't think they're really opposite in that regard.

And I think because of how vulnerability has been,

You know,

Portrayed so much as a weakness,

I actually do feel for people who,

Like you said,

Have built that wall or don't feel that they're worthy of love.

And I really hope that they can one day find it in themselves,

If that's what's right for them,

Because it's,

I think it's sad seeing people have to kind of live in a facade and have to put on a face that they think what people want to see.

And they're kind of,

They're kind of playing into the expectations of others rather than their full potential of the love that they can be receiving.

Very important point.

You know,

It's just,

We kind of see in the media a lot of times that it just,

You know,

People are,

It seems like we're conditioned and trained to not be ourselves,

Be somebody else or compare ourselves to other people.

Right.

And it just doesn't,

The authenticity is a huge thing.

And when people realize they can't be anybody with themselves anyway.

And you also talked about acceptance here.

I love this practice of radical acceptance,

This mantra of it's okay.

Right.

With the exception of abuse,

Right?

Abuse is never okay.

If you're in an abusive situation,

Do whatever you can to get out of it.

Other than that,

You know,

Just saying it's okay.

And it's okay that I don't want,

That I don't really feel that it's okay.

And I don't have to like it,

But it's okay.

It's okay that,

You know,

I don't have to like it.

So just saying that over and over again to everything that comes up.

Right.

And then the second part of that from this practice is,

You know,

Whenever we're ready,

We can take as long as we need just making decisions that we've know we need to make that we've been putting off.

Right.

So that's the part two,

But just take as long as we need to do the it's okay thing.

Now,

Go ahead,

Please.

Yeah.

I was going to say,

Absolutely.

And I think,

I think the,

Again,

The most important thing you can do in the journey of self-love and mental health is just try.

I think that's the best thing that you can do is always try your best to be on that path and understand yourself.

And there are days where it's slower.

There are days where you experience setbacks.

I just,

I hope people don't hold themselves back because of that fear.

And I have a question about fear.

So.

I did.

So that plays in beautifully here.

So tell me a little,

And this is one of the things that is suggested for people that are kind of in,

In fear that if we take action you said,

Try.

Yeah.

Even more so doing right.

So when we,

When we do something,

When we're in a state of fear or indecision,

Then it kind of it can kind of spur that,

That moment on,

I think what,

How,

What are your views on,

On fear and,

And I guess how have you dealt with it in your life?

Yeah.

I think fear is a huge component of why people don't take those leaps for themselves with anything.

If it's starting a business or even getting out of a relationship,

You know,

Even people who are in these abusive relationships,

They fear leaving,

You know,

They fear where they are,

But they fear leaving because they may not have anyone else.

And I'm not saying that that's a good situation.

I'm just saying,

You know,

If I were in an abusive relationship,

I would fear leaving too,

For whatever could happen if they come after me or if I'm going to be homeless or if I don't have a job or where am I going to go?

And so I think fear is a huge thing for why people don't get out of,

You know,

Certain situations or if they don't apply for a job or whatever it is.

And a lot of the fear is the fear,

I think is,

You know,

The fear of yourself.

I think the fear of yourself is important.

And maybe,

Maybe not.

It's that beautiful quote where it's like you fear how much potential you have and you don't,

You think of it that way.

And I know people directly think of it that way,

But I think like when you're like,

I don't want to take this leap,

I don't want to apply for this promotion because I don't want to be rejected.

It's like,

Well,

What if you get it?

What if you have this huge opportunity and maybe you apply for this promotion or this new job and you don't get it,

But they see you somewhere else,

Or maybe it makes you decide,

I don't even work here anymore.

I need to work somewhere else.

This is the final straw for me,

Whatever it is.

And again,

I think self-love is also making deliberate decisions that are going to impact you,

Your wellbeing on a longer term.

So some people might say moving,

Getting out of a relationship or applying for a new job,

That is all can contribute to your self-love because if you're in a toxic environment,

You might necessarily need to leave.

And I get the fear though.

I do understand it because let's say you do try looking for a new job and you do not find anything or you quit.

There's a huge fear factor there.

And so for me,

I feared moving because I lived in California for so long,

I didn't want to move.

And I've had a fear of rejection for so long because every time I felt,

Every time I experienced rejection,

Whatever it was,

I always took it as personal as possible to the point where it was incredibly difficult for me to process because I really gave my entire being into it.

So I really felt personal when it wasn't.

And I think also for me,

When I tell myself,

And it's actually,

It actually is really clear is that sometimes when we experience rejection,

I think it's the universe kind of guiding us in a different path and a place where we're really supposed to be.

That depends because I know sometimes you make it,

You go for a new job and it's a terrible place again.

But I do think that the universe has a plan.

Just don't know what it is that you're not going to know.

And I still think we also have our destiny.

We also have,

We have our own power to control our own destiny.

But I also think the universe does have a factor in it.

And I think that sometimes when you do get rejected,

It may be for the best.

And there are plenty of times where that happens.

In hindsight,

It was a great thing because I don't think I would have actually appreciated the opportunity or I wouldn't have allowed other things to come in.

Like if I did that,

A lot of other stuff wouldn't have happened then.

So I think I was just going to finish,

You know,

I wasn't even going to take the job at National Geographic.

I was not going to because I didn't want to move and I was really scared to live on my own.

But,

You know,

I had support and I decided,

Nope,

Even though this is scary,

This is a kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It's a new adventure.

But even though I'm really fearful of the future,

And I've made several posts where I mentioned the fear all the time,

I'm very open about how I was very scared of moving and trying this whole new life out,

Basically.

But I didn't want to,

I didn't want to for,

I didn't want to give up on my potential,

If that makes sense.

Yeah,

This is this is this this fear thing.

At one point in my,

I was experimenting with one things and I too had a big fear rejection that kept it helped me back for a it helped me back for a long time.

And so what I did one time was I just went out with the actual intention,

Just flipped it.

And I,

My intent was to get rejected.

So I just kind of did it humorously to go around.

We can't do this with a job,

Right?

This is more kind of on the the dating scene.

And I don't actually,

It's not like the official dating thing.

It was just kind of,

You know,

Just meeting people and saying hi,

And whatever.

And I don't,

It might have not been from the best place,

But it was an exercise and,

And just just getting over this fear of getting rejected by actually inviting it into my into a practice,

You know,

This experiment to actually get rejected and just feeling how kind of awkward and unpleasant it actually felt,

But then just being okay with that,

Because it just kind of got me over the hump,

In a way.

And but then you talk about new opportunities.

It's just,

It's wild how life can have so much more in store for us beyond our wildest dreams,

Even,

You know,

I could,

Some of the things that happened in my life,

I couldn't have,

I just don't see ever even dreaming about some of the amazing things that ever happened to me.

It's just wild.

And you did talk also about logic and emotion.

And I think when these things really get developed,

It reminded me of logic can turn into wisdom,

And emotion can turn into love,

Right at the highest levels.

And they work to balance each other out.

So if we have too much love,

Then we some of the people that have too much love,

That they lack wisdom.

And so,

You know,

They can do,

We know how,

You know,

People that are almost too lovey dovey sometimes,

Right?

But then the people that have too much wisdom,

Then they can become cold and sharp.

And,

You know,

Everything is just,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

But this is more with logic and emotion.

So that's beautiful.

Before I let you go,

You did mention this thing about,

I saw somewhere in your work,

Inter intersectionality.

So this is a new word for me.

And I want to know more about this.

I'm fascinated by that word.

Well,

I would definitely look up the definition because I think.

.

.

Hey,

Good idea.

He does.

I would say that not in like a mean way.

No,

I mean,

Oh,

I know.

But I mean,

That's how I could have done that,

Right?

Okay,

I'm supposed to do show prep.

What's it?

What?

Come on,

Josh.

No,

Nothing like that.

No,

I mean,

Like after this,

Definitely look at the definition because I think mine is a bit different in how I view it because there are different definitions.

But I think the one that I would say is,

Basically,

It's what I was saying about self-love,

Accepting every single identity that you own.

And basically,

Intersectionality is all about how every component of who you are makes are made up of those identities.

But you holding on to certain identities is going to,

Of course,

Make your experience different.

And so,

Again,

My experience,

I'll just say as a Hispanic person,

It's going to be different from a Hispanic person who is a woman.

That is kind of what they're saying,

That different identities are going to show up different.

It's going to create different dynamics.

And that's what intersectionality is.

And it really is just about acknowledging that we all come from different places.

And we all have different identities that make us up.

We should acknowledge all those identities because they all are really important.

And yeah,

I know you did briefly mention labels before.

Sure.

Yeah.

I think,

Like you said,

At one point,

Labels are important.

And I think that your label can support you to create community and like finding people that have similar labels.

But I think also when I think you fixate or you only focus on your identities or your labels,

You lose your individual identity.

And then when you're like,

I only see myself as this identity,

You lose a you kind of lose your personal individual identity,

Which I think is more important,

Especially if you look at intersectionality,

When it's all supposed to make you up.

And so you should consider every identity.

But if you're only looking at this small piece of yourself,

Not acknowledging anything else,

And the label kind of overtakes you,

And it's not about you anymore.

If that makes any sense.

I mean,

It totally does.

Yeah.

And that you're basically even said it more eloquently than I did about,

Yeah,

When they're appropriate sometimes,

And sometimes they're not right,

Or they're helpful sometimes,

Sometimes they're not,

But you just added so much more to that.

So cool.

I think that the other thing I wanted to do is we have a few more minutes here.

Actually,

A couple things.

You know,

The I don't really consider myself an old fogey now,

But what are what are in then would you consider yourself a millennial?

I don't know,

Age is usually not that important.

I usually don't do much with with generational stuff.

But do you see any kind of disconnect?

I mean,

Classically,

You know,

Different generations,

There seems to be certain similarities between certain generations and some disconnect.

Or we can just keep it as simple as as younger youth,

You know,

Compared to I don't know,

Middle aged people or older people,

If we're gonna do this type of thing,

Right?

Do you see any way to relate better to different generations or just in general,

Different generations to each other?

Yeah,

I am,

You know,

Gen Z.

So I'm a Generation Z.

I'm not a millennial.

Okay.

Millennials and Gen Zs,

I think can find some relation a lot more.

I think there's a disconnect between Gen Z and Generation X and baby boomers.

And I don't think it's good.

Because sometimes you'll have baby boomers Generation X say,

I've grown up in this time.

And we were not emotional like this,

We were not doing things like this.

While I understand that that was kind of how your generation was,

This generation is in fact different.

That doesn't mean I agree with everything that Generation Z does.

But I am proud that they are,

Depending on who,

They're more open to mental health,

They're more in tune with their emotions.

And I think that's something that I think baby boomers can learn about that.

But I also can,

I also think Generation Z is a little bit too fixated on labels,

That I think baby boomers can teach young people that your label isn't everything.

And it's not the only thing that you should focus on.

There's so many other aspects of yourself again.

I think because I see Generation Z that there is an obsession with labels to the point where so many groups are split completely all the time.

And there's just polarity.

And sometimes it's like,

We can still come together.

Because they're so divided.

Sometimes groups within groups are kind of pinned against each other in a way because they've split themselves up.

And it's very sad when they're supposed to be uniformity here.

So I think that's something that I think Generation Z can learn from baby boomers or Generation X.

And I think that,

I think it's just,

We need to do that.

I don't like seeing baby boomers disregard Gen Z.

And I hate Gen Z disregarding baby boomers.

I hate it.

I don't like that at all.

And I think it's not going to help anyone because we're still going to have to coexist and co-create together.

So there's no point in just disregarding.

We need to work together because as more young people get in the workforce,

They're going to work with Generation X and baby boomers.

So we have to find this path of working together.

And I think at the end of the day,

Assumptions are what won't rile.

And you look at assumptions and you look,

This is what Gen Z does.

Maybe if we just talked and had this dialogue,

We're not so different.

And we just,

We're just doing things in a different way though.

That's,

I think it's just important to have that natural dialogue.

And that's what I hopefully can bridge that gap.

Well,

Totally.

And that's,

Yeah,

That's the beauty of diversity there too.

And again,

Yeah,

Nothing can really ever happen at all without dialogue and without communication.

So that's,

Yes.

And I mean,

It is,

I think this world would kind of change overnight if people could just sit down and have,

You know,

More meaningful communication.

And I even love this thing where it's said that the most profound thing we'll ever do is speak with another human being.

And when I heard that,

I was like,

Wow,

What are you talking about?

All these amazing experiences we can have and all these profound things and this beautiful stuff.

But I just keep coming back again and again to that saying,

And it really is something else,

Right?

So maybe this will be the lightning round with this last question.

We were talking a bit before the show,

How do we find purpose?

And then after that,

Say anything else you would want to leave the audience with and how they can get ahold of you,

Where to go online,

What you've got going on.

I think finding your purpose is,

Well,

For one,

Tuning into your inner child and seeing what things as a child really brought,

If it was pleasure or enjoyment,

I think that's one aspect.

But I think just finding something where you can imagine yourself doing it and not get paid.

I think that sounds kind of weird,

But is there something you would want to do forever,

Every day,

Even if you didn't get paid?

And that I think is what your real purpose is.

But,

And again,

Your purpose changes all the time.

You may find this purpose and maybe you have another purpose in a year.

And it's okay if it changes.

It's okay for interest change because that's exactly what life's going to do.

So that's what I would say about finding your purpose.

I make it sound simple,

But it's very difficult,

Of course,

And it's a process.

Lastly,

You can find me on my personal pages.

I'm on Instagram,

LinkedIn,

Zane Landon,

My name you have.

And I have a digital magazine on Positive Vibes Magazine that you can find if you type that in,

Positive Vibes Magazine is the handle.

So that's how you can find me.

Well,

Cool,

Zane.

Thanks for joining and may you all be blessed with great mental health and lots of diversity and inclusivity and communication.

Bye,

Y'all.