I met dr. Joe a couple of weeks ago by coincidence and I found myself here. I
didn't seek it. I didn't..(.Dr.Joe:) we fast-tracked them Yeah, I
didn't seek it. I
wasn't trying to come here or anything and I came here the first day don't know what to expect never meditated in my life
(Dr.Joe) Wait, wait, let me let me just be a little backstory here. Okay, so we have a mutual friend
we were I was in London and a my friend of mine raised a dinner and
Salah's, is like there, came to the dinner and
you know, it was kind of like a dinner in my honor
so people are asking me questions at the end and
he didn't know anything about what I did really...
Everybody else there did he was just kind of but he was asking me really good questions
(Salah)Actually, I was trying to avoid him
I'm serious.(Dr. Joe) No at the end
you were sitting right over there, over there asking me questions at the beginning you were running away from me
I saw that , but at the end...
(Salah)Like I'm I don't want anyone to tell me what to do and how to, I'm how to do ..
So I said okay, you know like these guys are so I'm sitting next to this uh
Don't still don't tell me what to do. I I'm sitting next to this
amazing lady a Mexican lady very very strong very uh ...
she's a Michelin chef. She has a couple of restaurants in Mexico City and
she's super nice woman, and I'm asking her so why you're in London? She
looks at me and she said.. for the dinner
So I look at her and I said you came from Mexico City to have dinner with us?
She said yeah, you don't know Dr. Joe? I said no, I don't know Dr. Joe
She said I love the guy and he made so and she goes and tells me like a full story of how she
attended the one-week retreats, the books, how she changed
and I didn't take this lady like she was a
super person that you can see so I took her very seriously.
So while she's in the conversation said, okay, hold on a second. I took my chair up
went next to dr. Joe put my chair down
(Dr.Joe)Threw him to me
(Salah)And
I said, okay. Hi Dr. Joe, I'm Salah and we talked and I thought he was a great guy and
and I'm here so anyways I came here the
first day I had a plan. I want to go in and go out as fast as possible. I was leaving yesterday
I had an event in Porto, 8 guys
Great time
This is where I want to be
And I come and the first thing I see of course Kelly was amazing and all of these guys
and
my hugging friend over there
And he comes and hugs me and hugs my wife. Ok, this tall blond guy young guy. Hey
this is gonna be a shit show
We're all gonna hug each other and like...
I said I'm leaving on Friday going to Porto. I have my 8 best friends. I'm gonna hug them all the way I want
(Dr. Joe) By the way
his wife is all in now this week.(Salah)Yeah, yeah she is , she's
And
first day I go to the meditation. Ok, that's very nice
The morning I didn't come I was so frustrated and upset like I said, ok, this is waste of my time and
didn't come in the morning then went , came again went to the walking the walking meditation was amazing and
then we went it was raining so we didn't go for the challenge kept postponing and
okay, this is like
whatever... Like I've seen this in corporate events, so I'll go back 26 years ago
I'm 46 now at 20 years
I'm a type of person like at
14 years old. I knew what I wanted to do
Everything was planned out. The steps were planned up to 43 years. Was planned
At 20 years, I was in a corporate retreat I was diving, came out of the boat
walking on the jetty I started getting pain in my legs and
I went into my room and I
ended up in the hospital with big
dosage of
blood pressure
medications and
Xanax and Valium and all kinds of stuff and
since that day..(Dr. Joe) wait, wait wait we back up. So his symptoms were he got out of the water
and he was walking, he started feeling these sensations in his legs and then his heart
started pumping and racing and you started feeling(Salah) like crazy like it was a
(Dr.Joe)panic attack
(Salah)Yeah, and I went and actually I was afraid I called my mom who's my anchor and
I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. So I felt, I know she's crazy
so that is something's wrong. I can't understand
I talked to another person, couldn't understand the word
went out of the room found the first person I knew and I told him please take me to the hospital and
he was holding me up because I couldn't walk and I all I can feel as my
life is coming out of me very slowly
like it was up to here.. And
I went to the doctors and my blood pressure was like 180 over 140 or something like that and and
they gave me the medications I went back gave me more medications and
since that day
26 years ago, I've had a panic attack weekly
almost
not less than twice a week. Full onset of panic attack and by panic attack I don't mean like I'm upset. I
mean like my heart is
180,
my blood pressure is high
I cannot move. I cannot talk. I'm in complete panic
I'm dying now and I had that twice a week and at least twice a month
I would be in the emergency room .At
like 2:00 in the morning and so on(Dr.Joe) Almost but on the average four times a month
(Salah)Regular (Dr.Joe) In the hospital (Salah)And if I don't have a panic attack, I have a full
muscle
spasm from the neck down, I cannot move, I'm in bed
My wife protecting me and the children are away, taking shots of Valium and
that was life, that was okay, that was for me. I
did what I wanted to do
with that. So this is the panic attack would finish I would be very tired
but the next day I would go out and do what I have to do! Every day
and I
developed an agoraphobia in
In in between which is basically, I love to travel
that's my my thing, freedom is my thing actually and
I wouldn't go I at that time I grew up in Egypt and we had to have lots of desert,
we were diving all the time, camping all the time, desert safaris all the time
And I wouldn't if I'm going to a camp I would have to make sure I have my medicine I would chart out
what is the nearest hospital and
If I don't have a hospital within five to 10 minutes from where I go, I don't go.
And
I stop being afraid to go out meet people
go to a crowded places anything that would bring in a panic. And I would be in a meeting
get a panic attack I would run out get in the car and go home to seclude
I didn't want anyone to see me and I would throw up over myself driving in the car just to get myself
to a safe place that I would close
get a dark, not see anyone, not to talk to anyone and get on with life basically. So
and
three or four years ago, I think I...
During all of that, I was really not wanting to take any medicine. I tried homeopathy
I tried a lot of things, but I wanted to fight it out. I didn't want to take medication
The only medication I took was the blood pressure medication and
at intervals I of course went to psychologist, psychiatrist everything and they gave me like
antidepressant,serotonin inhibitors and that kept
me out of panic attacks and when I didn't have panic attacks I was in heaven
Basically, it was an amazing life, but I still didn't want to take the medicine until four years ago. I was in a plane and
I
was sitting and started
feeling the panic attack coming and then I went to the bathroom
close to the door and I cried so much
And I said I cannot take this anymore. This is too much like it's been over 20 years dealing with this
It's just too much. I cannot handle it anymore. I'm giving up and I went back and my my cousin is a
neuroscientist in John Hopkins, and he gave me this medicine called seprum and
he said it's okay take it and you're good spent three or four years. No panic attacks with the medication
So again, coming back here was no reason. I have no panic attacks. I'm
nothing I'm super happy
That I thought
and then we went into
the challenge I got up and
coming up the stairs "this piece of cake" like I'm a pilot I fly I do
maneuvers in fighter jets at 30,000 feet
So this is for me is is okay
And I go up and stand on the wood and start shaking and
not feeling it and I take a step back and
I don't know I don't remember who was .. But one of the amazing people that are with us
sets a word so I said, okay, so I took a couple of steps and I said, okay
it's two more steps, one step, one step more and I was there I
said okay. I want to go down now
So where's the ladders to go back down?
And then I said, okay I have to turn and and I turn and then jump
No
I'm not gonna jump
and
lso, someone said something and I said, you know, what what the hell just jump
what's gonna happen? And I jumped and
I went down and I went down like you know when you bring a
baby outside of the womb and he has no clue what's going on like like where am I like what's going on?
And then guess who shows up?
Robbie
By the way, I want to go to the
product store and I'm hoping to find a full-size Robbie
(Dr.Joe)We rent him out. You know him.(Salah) I want to hug him every day in the morning when I wake up
So I want to get a full-size Robbie,put him there and
hug him every day
And
I
was in still like I didn't know what to make of it. It's my
emotions are pretty strong, but and Robbie comes and hugs me and
I think it was like 45 or an hour later that I was able to stand
I was shaking my legs. I had the same pain I had in when I got the first panic attack. I
felt it coming. I knew it was coming. I felt it coming here. My legs were shaking
I
had pain a lot of thing and just
very strong pain in the chest not in the heart but in the chest here
But I wasn't scared
My heart wasn't beating it wasn't beating fast and my actually my heart was saying
It's good. It's okay !And
my whole system was pushing working very hard, but there was no panic. And
the only thing that kept coming to my mind Oh My God...
The past 26 years did not have to happen
It was
as simple as that
Why why did I have to go in the past 26 years of
this panic, so just get out of it in
two seconds? And
so this is all in the past. That's
my biggest
takeaway wasn't that I'm happy with what happened with me in the past 26 years. I own it. I loved it
It made me who I am. If I go back I would tune it down a little bit, but I
wouldn't want to be a different person. I still want to have the same thing
But
what I've started to realize from that moment till now I was actually shutting my the rest of my life down
because I didn't want to go back to the same person. I related my panic and my
stress to my previous life and my previous resolve to achieve things that
I said, you know what? I'm good
I fold. at 46 I said I'm happy. I have everything I want
I don't want anything more and I'm trying to figure out
running away from
the next I
Don't know 10, 20 30 40 50 years
And because and I thought I was doing it because of a logical reason that I didn't need to do it
but actually I was doing it because I was afraid And
I
was afraid to go back to the same pain
So what I'm realizing and this is through the walking
exercise that I'm actually just starting
I'm actually saying this is just a start. I'm going to be bigger and stronger and
more than what I've been in the past 46 years and
It's amazing
And honestly, and I'm not saying it out of
stupid ego but this is how I feel
I'm scared ! if I was able to reach who..
what I reached with this, I'm scared of where I'm going to reach without it