Life Boost with Amelia

Ep. 74 | Overcoming Adversity: Wisdom from the Wild with Guest Doctor Guss

• Amelia Knight Pinkston

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In this episode of 'Life Boost with Amelia' podcast, Dr. Amelia hosts Doctor Guss, a wildlife veterinarian from Mexico. They explore the intersection of personal development and animal behavior, highlighting how animals can serve as a source of strength during challenging times. Dr. Guss shares his inspiring journey through personal adversity, including his harrowing experience of wrongful imprisonment, and how he rebuilt his life by integrating lessons from animal behavior into personal development. They discuss key principles such as bravery, acceptance, and the importance of writing to process emotions. The episode encourages listeners to break free from societal norms and connect with their inner selves by drawing inspiration from the natural world.

Dr. Guss wears many hats and divides his days in three - helping animals, people and his personal projects. He is a wildlife veterinarian, Thanatologist, and an author currently finishing his third book. His personal touch is that he uses animal characteristics to talk about personal development and business to create awareness about conservation. And he is currently partnering with a consultant company to develop a wildlife conservation platform that will help to fight against social media misinformation while also raising money and linking institutions, experts, and the public. He says he is like geese, (flying, walking, climbing, swimming, and scuba diving).

Ways to connect with Dr. Guss:
Instagram: @doctorguss
Facebook: Doctor Guss
TikTok: @DoctorGuss
LinkedIn: Doctor Guss

Websites (coming soon): 
doctorguss.net
saywild.com

I'm doing something fun for the month of December! If you listen to a podcast episode and then share it on social media and tag me (@lifeboostwithamelia), you'll be entered into a drawing at the end of the month for a chance to win a free 1 hour 1-on-1 coaching session with me. Two winners will be selected at the end of the month (you can also gift the session if you wish). Every share on social media counts as one entry. Fun, right? 

Disclaimer: The information provided in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical, mental health, or professional advice. I am a certified health and life coach, not a licensed medical or mental health professional. Please consult with a healthcare provider before making any changes to your physical or mental health routines. If you are experiencing a crisis, seek help from a qualified professional or contact emergency services.

Connect with me on your favorite social media channel: Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn!

To learn more about my approach and the programs and free resources available to support you, visit my website: www.lifeboost.today

I love to hear from you. You can always reach me at amelia@lifeboost.today.

Welcome to the life boost with a million podcast where we're changing the narrative around what true health and success look like. They should give you energy, not drain it. I'm your host, Dr. Amelia multi-passionate integrative health and life coach, entrepreneur, and recovered burnout veterinarian. Together, we'll explore the science behind how your brain and body work, including the unconscious mind while also connecting with what your heart needs in order to stand up to the norm of feeling stuck on a hamster wheel-working hard yet feeling exhausted and not where you want to be- and instead live a life that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning and in love with who you see when you look in the mirror. The reality is if you do what everyone else is doing, you're not going to feel good. Let's break the norm. Hi friend. I have a very special guest to share with you today. And this episode is the kind that you're not going to forget. Dr. Guss's story of wrongful imprisonment will make your jaw drop and he shares so many pearls and words of wisdom that I know will come to mind the next time you're facing your own challenges or adversity. Dr. Guss wears many hats and divides his day in three, so helping animals, people and his personal projects. He's a wildlife veterinarian, thanatologist and an author currently finishing his third book. His personal touch is that he uses animal characteristics to talk about personal development and business to create awareness about conservation. And he's currently partnering with a consultant company to develop a wildlife conservation platform that will help to fight against social media misinformation while also raising money and linking institutions, experts, and the public. He says he is like geese flying, walking, climbing, swimming, and scuba diving. As always, I encourage you to pay attention to how the three Life Boost C's compassion, curiosity, and connection helped Dr. Guss to overcome challenges in order to move forward. It's connection being zooming out and looking at how everything is connected and also turning inward and reconnecting with your true whole self body, mind, and heart. He also shares a really powerful journaling journaling exercise towards the end of this show that you may even be tempted to try out, even if journaling's not typically your thing. All right. Enjoy the conversation.

amelia:

Dr. Guss, I am so happy to have you here. We originally connected on Instagram and I feel like I've already started getting to know you and you have just the most amazing stories of overcoming adversity and I think you have such a Cool and unique perspective about ways of even looking at animals in order to help humans overcome challenges. So I'm just so excited to chat with you and thank you for being here.

Dr. Guss:

Thank you for inviting me. I am like super excited. Just as I told you yesterday, I was excited already. I wanted yesterday to be today.

amelia:

Yes, I love that. I know today I was just reading, some of the information you gave and I was like, I cannot wait to dive into this. I have so many questions for you. Before we dive in, can you just start by telling us just a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Dr. Guss:

my name is Gustavo or Dr. Gus, from Mexico. I'm a wildlife veterinarian with wild knowledge in primatology and erythology. So neuroscience is my background. I love the conduct and behavior of, primates, but also in carnivores. But due to some things that you already know a little bit of, some situations I went through I had to explore more about myself, about personal development, about how to how to find strength out of weakness. Animals were always an inspiration and not just like, corny inspiration, but in life and death situations, they gave me this extra push. Besides my family, they have always been there as well. But I would say those two, like my family and the animals, the ability to understand what these animal principles can give to my life. And now it's like sharing it to people. Also, when I was back in vet school, like a hundred thousand years ago, I was studying thanatology because I realized it was just for me to be able to keep. Those hard news, how we deal with life and dead and

amelia:

Yeah, and for those that don't know can you just explain thana... I because I had to look it up

Dr. Guss:

Sorry. Sorry. my bad. Yeah. Because one, one time I was in a clinic with one of the best surgeons in Mexico, like one of the top in the world. And I mean, amazing with his hands. And I was talking to the owner of a dog that was already there in the circle they were performing surgery and this guy was 70 something. He lost his wife and his only son. And so this dog was the only, companion he had. So they performed the surgery, and the doctor came out and said, okay, I have two two news. One's bad, one's good. And this guy said, shot me with the bad one. And the doctor said There is nothing we can do about it. It's something very serious. And I immediately thought that good one would be, it isn't suffering, right? What else could it be? That was the only thing I could come up with. When the doctor said the good news is this breed is very cheap. I felt so many things like broke inside me because I had this doctor top, like in a shrine. And then he said that I was like, no, you did not say that. Oh my God, you're so stupid. And I came back running to my mother's house because she's she's retired now, but she was a psychotherapist and thanatologist and answering, sorry, but answering your question thanatology is a study, like it's the study of the process of those who are grieving. So for.

amelia:

it's incredible.

Dr. Guss:

Dr. Copley Ross, which was a psychiatrist she was dealing with life and death because of why she was working the kind of people with which she was working. And she found some patterns. And some of those patterns, most people, even in the Simpsons, they repeat them. Like when you are facing like an imminent death, you go through five steps, which is like first denial, right? Then you go in it, like you go through those steps later on, they realize it was not, She realized and then other researchers realized it was not so fixed, but I had to learn. And I was with my mother give me everything, all your books and everything, because I don't want to be like that doctor.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I really respect a doctor nowadays. Like, he did an amazing job helping when he passed away two years ago. So many people around the world, patients and doctors and everybody I was touched. By the amount of animals he helped, the amount of people he touched. It's only that we were not trained for that, you know? So I wanted to learn how to do that. First, how to be able to bring those bad news and those terrible moments. And I started learning more and more and more and more. I would say maybe because I was not a psychologist, but a veterinarian,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

of challenging these fixed thoughts because I was like, all right, yeah, I see this and that, but maybe there's something else. I learned everything that was there to be learned, but there were some things that I was like, I don't agree with this. I don't agree with that. I know there might be another option out there.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

mom was like, Oh no, no. Those are the processes. And I'm like yeah. Those are the ones that you guys know, but maybe there are others. And so I. When I went through my own situation, which was not like it didn't have to do with that at that moment, it was a loss, a significant loss. I had to put all that all that I knew back then use, I had to use it myself. I realized. It was useful, but it was not enough. I had to bring more from everywhere because it's not, for example, when you're grieving have you realized every person, even if they're experts, they give you their own approach. And I'm not wanting to sound like I'm criticizing because each one of them, I learned from.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I'm just stepping on giant shoulders, because

amelia:

Sure. Yep.

Dr. Guss:

amazing people have found so many things, but I'm just realizing that we have to bring all those things together. Psychologists will say it's something emotional. And we have to work with this aspect. And I totally agree with that. Absolutely. Then, maybe, and I've heard it, sometimes psychiatrists might want to bring in the medicines, which I am not against. We, as doctors, we're not against medicine in and of itself. But we understand that it's, when there's a natural process, it's not a lack of serotonin. I mean, maybe in that moment, but it's not that the body cannot produce it. It's just that there are so many things going on. That we need to boost the physiology so that it can come back to work as it should. It's not, I don't want it to sound like, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they're wrong. It's just that we have to understand that there is a time and place for everything. for example, in the religious aspect, They might say you have to do this in order to move forward, and I totally agree. It's just that it's not enough. Emotions, the physiological part, the spirituality, the food intake. Oh yeah, it has to do a lot. That what we eat and we don't eat has a lot to do with how we feel. Most people, when they are going through difficult moments, not only in grief, I'm talking I know a thing or two about those things. We want to immediately, for example, in my case, it has never been alcohol. Example, sugar,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

that. That's a drug.

amelia:

think you're alone. I think so many experience that. Oh, yeah.

Dr. Guss:

But the thing is, there are inflammatory foods.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

they are promoting not exactly the good bacteria you want in your gut and the relationship with within the gut that affects our mental well being. And this is one of

amelia:

Absolutely.

Dr. Guss:

People talk about,

amelia:

Yes. Yes. Oh, you're speaking my language. I totally agree. You

Dr. Guss:

and that's why I convicted when I started looking at your post. I was like, wait a minute. She knows a thing or two. And then it was not just a thing or two, like many things. And I became your. You're super Mexican fan.

amelia:

Oh,

Dr. Guss:

one day I decided to contact you because it was like, I wonder why, it was

amelia:

Yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, there's so many similarities in what we have found from different experiences, but I do think when you get curious, right? You just start noticing like, wow, everything is connected and you're looking at all these different processes and yeah it's interesting how it ultimately does start to reconnect you with that body, mind, heart, and soul. Approach, ultimately.

Dr. Guss:

And the more you integrate them, the easier and the nicer the process. I started receiving people. I'm not receiving, and they just called me because they lost their dogs. And I was like, Oh I mean, I'm not a psychologist. I can. I can give you some advice or help you with this book or that. And later I'd be decided to get certified just to help better. And then I got certified here and there and there and there and there, but it was still not enough until I really had so many tools and then people started calling me because they lost someone, not only a dog, but a cat. But someone, and I was, at first I was concerned about

amelia:

Absolutely.

Dr. Guss:

this even legal? The, you and I being doctors, we have to be very careful about these things. And I'm like, I don't really want to put anybody in danger because of me. But I was like, no I'm not saying anything that is not true. It's just I didn't, this imposter syndrome at first,

amelia:

Of course. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

But then Even psychologists started sending me their difficult cases.

amelia:

Wow.

Dr. Guss:

I was doing their job. It was, we were working together,

amelia:

yep.

Dr. Guss:

I was helping them with another, not another, many other aspects. Understanding, as I said, nutrition, physiology, and other deeper aspects. Like how to bring spirituality. Respecting each person's religion. But the spirituality and the personal Gustav style with the animals I wouldn't always bring it because that might, but at the end, when I tell them that most people are like, Oh, no, give me that, like all those principles. Because I tell they learn how those aspects helped me in very difficult moments. And then they're like, if that helped you, share it with me. And I'm like, no, but I started first learning how to bring the, like the real, like the, how to say, like real tools. tools of the thanatology and many other ways of helping them. But then I would only bring the animal principles just for them to remember them. And the beautiful part is once they integrate those things once they go through that process and they transcend it, Usually they become the, this animal, whatever animal they choose. Yeah. The champion of that species, for example, you want, sorry, what were you going to

amelia:

Yeah. Can we do like an example of this?

Dr. Guss:

Absolutely. I'm going to say, I was going to say, I, let me give you an example. Not, it's not exactly with what one person from thanatology. I could, but I have this one that I really love.

amelia:

great.

Dr. Guss:

I moved to this very small town in Mexico called Valle de Bravo, just coincidentally, my sister moved as well, just like two months or something, or one month after I did. And I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool because I'm going to get to get more related to my family. Nephew and my nieces, like with my nephew, I lost his first nine years because they were in the same city. And I was like, I will get to know him better. And I would be there for my two nieces, One was a baby. And the other one was five when we moved, when I would go visit them. The boy, the nine year old was like, Oh, Uncle Gus, very happy. And the two year old, barely talking she was very tender. But the five year old, not so much. Why are you here? Huh? Why are you here? But very, very happy. Very confrontation, like this adversarial attitude. And that started happening because let's say two, three weeks before moving, she was not acting in that way. But when she moved to this city, it was very adversarial. And I thought, okay, she's feeling weird. It's a different city, different things, different her room. Her, so many things, so many changes

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

next month. Two months later, three months later, and things were worsening up. It was not improving at all. And I started making the typical divorce father mistake, bringing toys.

amelia:

Okay.

Dr. Guss:

You should not do that. I remember bringing, let's say this toy, like this doll to her and she would grab it and my sister expected her to say, thank you, uncle, Gus, or whatever. And the old was like, this is a doll. And I'm like, that's it. Don't push them. Like she didn't ask for it. And that's a true. It was my mistake. She was a five year old. I was bringing a toy that she was not calling for. And then I was like, okay, nothing was apparently nothing was working. then I was like, all right, some years before and one Christmas we decided on the family to give each other a gift. That shouldn't be bought, something that came from the heart and I hated running, but my grandfather, he was 90 something and he was a runner all his life. So I decided to take him running for a month. He loved it so much that I did that for his sake. Last 10 years, and I realized it was a gift to me as well because I got to learn a lot from him, even though I really don't like running. I don't, I suck.

amelia:

It is special running with somebody though. Like sometimes the conversation that you have, that is a special bond.

Dr. Guss:

so many he died when he was 98 and he told me so many things that no, nobody from the family knew. And even my mother, she was like, he told you that? When? And I was like, remember every Saturday I would go run with him. why didn't I go with you? And I'm like, you know what? I might use that same strategy. Plus my niece, she was very competitive with animals, sometimes it's better to get them out of their territory. So it was just like using some good experience I had with a relative of mine. And with the animals, I was like. It's my niece. We're not talking about like a puppy or anything, but let's see and I came with my sister and say, all right, do you give me permission to invite her running? Why? She's so mean to you. And I'm like, yeah, let's do this experiment. Because, I told her, she's so competitive, and she won't be here, she won't be surrounded by the family, Uncle Gus, but not with you and her father, plus, let's see what happens, and my sister was like, alright, if she says yes, I'll be there. Let's try and I came and say okay, Camilla, I don't think you would dare go running with me because I'm taller than you. What? I'm faster than you. Well, let's see. I don't think so. Yeah, I can do that. It should change immediately. And we went running and. We ended running or in miles. How much would that be? I think it was like three miles to yeah, like three miles. Considering she was a five year old, I had to be very careful. I'm not in her, like we stopped half of that. Like it's five kilometers. That's why I'm like, I'm an initiative.

amelia:

yeah. Yeah. 3.1

Dr. Guss:

Okay. There you go. Half of the distance. We stopped at that moment. We were already I wouldn't say good friends, but already good acquaintance. When we came back, Oh my gosh, she made me look for Shira. Remember He Man and Shira, these cartoons many years ago?

amelia:

I don't,

Dr. Guss:

oh, no, they're younger. But the thing is, like many centuries ago, there was this cartoon called He Man and the Masters of the Universe. And she was asking me for the things I liked when I was her age. So I started telling her that, but I already knew the name of every single of her friends, what she liked at school, what she didn't like. Months later. We became so good because we were doing that like almost every Saturday, not all of them, but almost all of them. There was this competition and I called her and said, do you want to participate? Absolutely. I would love that. All right, let's do this. When we got there, I got this special, the shirt with the number and everything. I got her the smallest one. The smallest one was way too big for her because she was like very short.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

We got to my sister's house and she was super excited. We have the pictures there and she was like like jumping and chanting and everything. By the time we got there, everybody was my age. Or younger, but still like we were adults. Maybe there was like a 14, 15 year old. And she was like, Uncle Gus, and she started pulling my t shirt like, I'm afraid. But with this very tiny voice I'm afraid at that moment, I was like, I won't be making you do anything that you don't want, but on the other hand, I didn't want to enable this fear at the very first attempt. So I was like, Okay, let's do this. Let's get out of this crowd. Let's just sit and Want to run, we don't have to run. If you maybe want to run, maybe there's something tingling inside you that makes you want to run. Let's feel it! But, tell me, what's your favorite animal? My favorite animal? Yes I'm Uncle Gus. It's all about animals. Ah okay. The fox. Oh, the fox, really? Why? And she started telling me because there are this and that and da. And I'm like let me tell you something about the foxes. They're not the largest animals. They're small, but they're freakingly fast. And they're afraid. even of many larger animals, actually. She started getting bigger in the chest like, like a gorilla at that moment. And I'm like, there's another thing about foxes, they. Are very family driven like they take care of their family, beautiful family. And there is also Uncle Gus, and Uncle Gus is here to protect you just as your mother and your father and your siblings. And nothing will happen if you don't want, we don't have to do that. If you want to face your fear, I'm here for you for as long as you want. And we can step out of the competition if you want or keep on running. I don't care. It's okay. And she was like, I don't care. Again, she was feeling so so powerful and then I said and there's this other curiosity You know how they jump in a very weird way I don't know if you've ever seen those videos when they jump trying to catch a mouse Like in the snow they do that because they can listen to the mice even if their mice are under the snow like Again, inches, I don't know, like 40 centimeters I don't know how many inches, like 15

amelia:

That's amazing.

Dr. Guss:

something,

amelia:

Sure.

Dr. Guss:

they actually said, How do you know that? And I'm like I didn't do that. But some people have done these experiments with the foxes, and they put some clocks on Under the snow and on the they're able to catch it so you can do this. Let's close your eyes and let's listen to the tick tock of your heart. I was about to say something else. And she was like, I remember she didn't close them just like an adult would not. She was really closing in tight. I listened to my heart. My heart's telling me, let's do this. I'm a fox and I am going to love it. And she kept telling me everything about the fox as well. We were doing that and we finished. We had our medals and we biting the, like At the end, my, my sister was like, I feel so bad about not having run with you guys because now this story, I have many thousands of stories, especially when I'm talking with people like in serious cases. But this one is the cutest one because now she and I, we have this special bond, like with my. Former dog. He passed away years ago, but everybody thought there was an immediate surreal connection. And I'm like, no, we hated each other. Yeah, I didn't like him because I didn't want a dog. I had a dog before him, but he died in a tragic accident before. So I was like, I don't want any dog. Dog whatsoever. But my ex girlfriend brought me that dog. And I was like, and so this same thing happened with my niece, like we didn't have the best connection or maybe because we were like feeling this crazy energy when we transformed it. It was just a matter of understanding which thing to use as a connector. It was just asking. What her favorite animal was, I didn't know, maybe she would have told me, I don't know, a beluga or a rabbit, or I wouldn't even know what to say, it's just,

amelia:

She picked the right one.

Dr. Guss:

No, it Usually happens with each person, it would work, I don't know how it works, because it has to do a lot with so many aspects of life. The person, and I'm not saying I know every freaking aspect of each of the thousands and thousands of animals. We might have like of animals, right? So it's but in general, when we were talking, this is just a connector, but it's a powerful one because you know what? A year later, she was She was contributing to a place I think in England that rehabs foxes in a while.

amelia:

Oh, wow.

Dr. Guss:

they rehab them to send them in a while. And she was doing that by herself. She was already seven, seven or eight, but It was because of that race that she felt powerful and that helped her in other moments of her life, but also she was helping the animals. So I'm creating this bond and there, I'm like drafting my army,

amelia:

Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah I just love that approach and that story is such a great example of how, you could have met that scenario with judgment or getting defensive, but instead you really had that They always turn to the three C's, compassion, curiosity, and connection. And I feel like that's such a great story of all of those, of having that compassion, and then just being curious about, okay, what approach might work? What could I do differently? And what a amazing way. And I think bringing curiosity in with animals seems just like A really powerful thing, because I think there's just something that feels light and helps us to feel safe when we think about animals. And being able to relate to them, I think I can really see how that could be very comforting to so many people who are going through hard things.

Dr. Guss:

Yeah. And it's not sometimes people find it hard to understand it at first,

amelia:

Sure

Dr. Guss:

then, for example, one or two times people that I know have said oh, okay, I understand because you like it, but, and I can tell they don't really believe it can be effective. But those people, Two of them at least have reached out in difficult moments. And I'm like, do you want me to help with this?

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

Some approach? And it's, as I said, it's it's not the only thing. That's just a way of making them connect with their inner wild, with their inner strength. It's already there, but as a very unique animal, we humans have one ability to connect with our wild and to develop another one to learn from the other animals.

amelia:

So true.

Dr. Guss:

yeah, we can learn from others. We can adapt other aspects of the other animals, at least the principles and take them to our personal struggles. Not only struggles because use them in our favor to advance to move us forward.

amelia:

Yeah, I love that so much. And so I'd love to back up a little bit with your story because I think you have such an incredible story from when you were young and in vet school that it sounds like really could have Been a very dark place where you stayed stuck. And yet it sounds like you used that to just have gained so much wisdom and such a value, valuable perspective. So do you mind sharing that story with us?

Dr. Guss:

Yeah. As a matter of fact, let me I don't know if I should say this, but there are two possible, two people that reach out to me. They're interested in taking that story to big screen or small screen or whatever screen, but

amelia:

I believe it.

Dr. Guss:

Wow. What do you know? But people before that have offered me the same thing, but not the same thing, like a documentary or something, but now they're doing this more actively and now they're already starting to create these scripts. Now we're actively working. I don't know which.

amelia:

that may happen.

Dr. Guss:

We're working on that.

amelia:

AmazingThere's two different

Dr. Guss:

There's two different routes.. So yeah. The thing is, and people who are watching it might be like, so what's going on? What happened? But when I was in vet school I wasn't not in the, like in the fourth year here in vet school, it's five years. So I was in the fourth year and I got the chance to talk to a chain of people that got me in contact with a couple of doctors in Kenya. I was interviewed by them and I got this scholarship to go to Kenya and to Uganda for a shadowing program. It was amazing for the opportunity, but talking like many years ago and social media was not so developed. It was not up. It was 2002, like many years ago.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

The thing is. That there was still one more year to go, but I had to, they said, okay, you have just one more semester and you have to come here. I was like, Oh my God, but I won't be able to get the title. And they're like, we don't need the title. As long as you get the credits, we need you to finish the whole vet school. And I'm like, Oh, the credits, I can do that because I can find a way to put two semesters in one.

amelia:

my gosh.

Dr. Guss:

That's great. You know what we're talking about, right? Forget about life. Forget about. One semester, vet medicine is already hard. For those of you that aren't, are not related to this, it's already challenging.

amelia:

feels impossible. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I had the no already, and I don't know if you said it in English, but in Spanish we say I already had the no, so I didn't want no for me. I was like, I Let's find the yes. Let's find a way to get it. So it was my last week of vacation and I started making calls. People, friends of mine gave me the telephone number of a couple of the doctors, the teachers and the vet school. And they said we can pull that off. It's going to be very tough for you, but you want to do it, it was not my first time. I did it one semester many years before that, because I was in Austria. So When I came back, I wanted to catch up with my class. So it was going to be awful, but I said, I'm leaving. But the thing is. I knew it was really difficult and working a part time job is not something you can do when you're doing two semesters in one. Even one might be challenging, but two semesters is impossible. So I said, all right, let's get as much money as let's make as much money as possible in this Five to seven days. I don't know. I started telling everything like I sold my, like my computer, my books, a couple of things here, a couple of things there, my body, nobody wanted it. So I said, all right, let's do something else. And I had the. This lamp and this Winchester rifle from 1800s, like very old antique, the Apaches, you know, the Cowboys and Apache things.

amelia:

Yeah,

Dr. Guss:

My great grandfather gave it to my father and my father gave it to me. It didn't work. It was just, it didn't work. I don't know, like, when you have it how do I say it it's

amelia:

just like decoration,

Dr. Guss:

decoration and it was not even pretty, it was all rusted and it was not nice, but it was mine and I was like, I went to the antique store before and asked this guy and he said, Oh, it's better if it doesn't work because it's not a weapon, then in that case, it would just be a collectible. And as long as it says Winchester and the date, it has to be older than a hundred years. And I'm like, that's not an issue. That's pretty old. And he said, if that's the case, you're going to Africa. Oh my gosh. I was floating. I went back running to my house. I got the rifle. I got my dogs, my huge Mastiff, and we were walking like it was no further than a hundred yards from my house where military police, it was recent creation. They stopped us. I was walking with my brother as well, and they stopped us and at first they said we were carrying a weapon exclusive to the army. And the army is already didn't even understand what they were talking about. No, it's not, a hundred and something, 120, 150 years old. This thing, this doesn't even work.

amelia:

Right?

Dr. Guss:

One of them grabbed it and tried to like load it. And he couldn't. And I'm like, I'm telling you, it doesn't work. And he said, Oh no. In the inexperienced arms hands, it wouldn't work, but in experienced hands. And I'm like, yeah, you're giving me the reason these are not experienced hands. I'm not posing any threat. It's. And they had to slam the rifle against the floor. There were sparkles coming out of it because there's a metal part of it. Just for you to understand how hard they were hitting it only to got this lever action. There was so much rust, all the metal, all the rusty metal coming out of that. And I was telling them like, Hey, Write down this because they were taking notes. first there were only two police officers. They were not police, they were like military police. Actually, it was illegal to have those police back then

amelia:

Oh, wow.

Dr. Guss:

nowadays, unfortunately, Mexico is getting militarized. But we're not supposed to have military as police officers because it's a completely different treatment. But anyway, I don't want to get very political here, but In less than 10 minutes, we were surrounded by more than 30 something people.

amelia:

Wow. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

some people pointing at us behind their motorcycles and their hummers and their crazy things. Hummers with 50k, imagine a 50 caliber. It's and I remember one of our neighbors, she was super angry at this. And she was like, my God. You don't, you didn't try the criminals, but you're going against this neighbor. And I know him and he works and he studies and he's doing,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

and I'm like, you don't want them to get angry. And I didn't want my to get angry as well, because he's a Brazilian Mastiff.

amelia:

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

my puppy. It was very gentle, ridiculously gentle, but I didn't want to, Like a

amelia:

Absolutely, yeah.

Dr. Guss:

200 pound angry dog defending his boy back then. And I was like, just petting him. And then short version of that. They took me to the police station for eight hours. Then they took me to the federal police station. In the police station, I heard one, one person saying I'm not going to say the bad words. Even if I wanted to, there's no exact translation, but she was like, Oh yeah. Finally, they're going to trap a blondie, like guerrito. That's the word in Mexican Spanish. It's very Mexican. This word like meaning like light skin, blue eyed and

amelia:

Okay.

Dr. Guss:

Oh, this is serious, but because before that I was worried about that rifle that was my ticket to go to Africa

amelia:

Right.

Dr. Guss:

always thinking they're going to just check it review that this doesn't work. There was no bad intention whatsoever. I'm going to go. That's not a crime. And I know that not knowing the law doesn't exempt you. From following, but I knew that was not considered a weapon, except it was. And so it got a snowball getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and finally they took me to prison and in prison. I was facing a mandatory minimum of 10 to 15. It was a federal. Serious crime. Funny thing is, for example, murder is not necessarily it's not federal so you can get benefits in Mexico. Not now, but back then the minimum of murder was seven years. So I was facing

amelia:

you're 10 to 15. That's

Dr. Guss:

than murder. Yes. And. If I was getting convicted, I had to face the whole 10 or 15 or whatever. If it was murder and I got seven, I could work, I could study, and they would reduce

amelia:

Oh, my gosh. That is so backwards,

Dr. Guss:

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And once it reaches five or below you, you can get a fine. I was not a candidate for a fine. Of course not.

amelia:

Oh, my gosh. It's just I can't imagine how you were feeling at that point of just one event after another, just feeling like you were just can't win, really, at that point, right?

Dr. Guss:

in the book, one of the things that this person that's a professional with the scripts and is the one that wants to take it pictures and he says, Oh my gosh how do you describe the first night that they put you together? I were, I was already in prison, but they took me to the dorms and it was a second floor at this aisle with six cells. Then this, the stairs and other six six cells. But every, like every aisle, everything there has a door. It's like fences, right? So this guy, he didn't have the correct keys. He came back to fetch the correct ones and I was just listening to the guys trying to figure out what was going to happen to me because it was already like 10 o'clock at night. It was very dark except for five of those six cells were completely dark. Just the second one had lights on. Funny thing that was going to be mine. I didn't know that it was a coincidence. They were not having the light because of me. No, but when he opened the door, I was walking, but I was not walking. I was feeling, I was a prey, like a rabbit. And this guy was like a wolf, like carrying me inside the den.

amelia:

Oh, my gosh. How scary

Dr. Guss:

I could hear. All those people getting close to the cell fans saying what the, he's gonna what why is this guerrito? Like, why is this blonde? And I'm not blonde, but in Mexico, they,

amelia:

Gotcha.

Dr. Guss:

whenever I say I'm not blonde, Mexicans say okay, so what are you? And I'm like,

amelia:

Oh,

Dr. Guss:

trust me, I'm not blonde, but in Mexico, I'm blonde.

amelia:

share

Dr. Guss:

started Oh my God, what's going to happen? But I could listen. All my senses were so awakened.

amelia:

I bet

Dr. Guss:

got to and I could, I turn around just to see, I couldn't see very well because it was very dark, but I could sense there were like many eyes, how you can tell sometimes people are there like seven, eight on each cell, sometimes more. And my cell, there were four, one on each bunk. There were only four bunks. So those cells were Meant for four people, two weeks later, we were already 27 in that cell, you can imagine. Yeah,

amelia:

gosh. I can not imagine...

Dr. Guss:

That's crazy. I was there and I still have finding hard to imagine it just, I can just remember it, but imagine it sounds funny because they would have to sleep on a toilet, two or three people sitting on the toilet, like hugging each other.

amelia:

Oh my gosh. Mm-Hmm.

Dr. Guss:

So when I got in. I immediately went to the deep end of the cell, I turned my face to these guys holding these two like blocks of concrete that were working as a little wall for privacy for the toilet. And I was just staring at the middle of the cell. And I could I could tell I was looking at each of those four people's eyes. It was funny I was not staring at each person's eyes. I was staring right in the middle. I could feel their breathing, and I was breathing heavily.

amelia:

I bet

Dr. Guss:

One of them, a Christian, he was reading the Bible, and he was not a nice person. Was not exactly the nicest person you would, you could think he was because of that. No, no, no. He was kind of the opposite. But at that very moment, he was like, Oh, welcome. Do you know why you're here? I'm like, I've been listening to the reason I didn't answer. I was just staring at him, but I,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I was like,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

listening for 72 hours that the felony I was charged with. And this stupid guy is coming and asking me, just don't want you to come with a corny phrase or something, or with a I didn't even know what, but I was like, I'm ready for, Anything they do, I was feeling like lion just fall into a trap, scared and freaking aggressive at that moment, like ready to attack, ready to kill. It sounds because anybody that listens to me and really, really like a very, very calm person. But in that moment, I was ready to defend myself with whatever. And that's what I did.

amelia:

That's incredible. So that just that just came out, just an instinct

Dr. Guss:

The instinct was out there and I could feel it and was like and I was like bring it on I didn't want to wait more. I wanted them to do the first move so that I could just get it out I jump on them and then I immediately saw my like between my eyes I saw this image of myself like crashing them and then slamming my head against the fence And I got panicked. I was like, Oh my God, that's not me. You know, I was like, no, no, no, no, no, because

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

overwhelmed me. And then when he said, while you're here, Huh? To learn and be free.

amelia:

Wow. Unexpected, huh?

Dr. Guss:

So God loves you. Do you smoke? Back then, I did smoke like one year before that I was I had quit smoking, but I didn't, I really never smoked that much. It was like one cigarette a month or so. But at that moment I was like okay. Do do you like coffee? I did not. I really did not, but I was like, okay. he handed me a loaf of bread every single piece of like either a cigarette or coffee or bread in the next days was a cause of a lot of violence. But somehow, for me, it was like, like every single thing was happening in the right moment, in the right place. Even this guy, many months later, he was like, you know what? I don't even know why I told you that. To be honest, when I saw you, I didn't like you. I was like that's a good thing your lips didn't follow you.

amelia:

Yeah. How interesting.

Dr. Guss:

So yeah, it was a very, very weird experience, the whole thing, but many moments. I would say it's a rollercoaster. It's a a big rollercoaster.

amelia:

I can't imagine.

Dr. Guss:

And

amelia:

Yeah, like I'm curious like, when did it really sink in? Like, were you in denial or just I feel like if I had been in that situation, I would have just continued to be like, this can't actually be happening. Like they're going to realize that they've made a mistake.

Dr. Guss:

Oh,

amelia:

you ever have that or what, how

Dr. Guss:

it was like a first or second week. I remember it was already cramped. I don't know, maybe we were 10 or 15 people there. It was late at night. I was gonna say I was an owl because I usually slept after everybody was sleeping. The thing is, I always woke up earlier than everybody else so it was like not convenient. But I was awake and I was writing every night I wrote. Every night I was I wouldn't say a journal. But because it was just pieces of paper that I had at first, later on, I had when I was put in a different cell, but I just had a bunch of papers, but I was writing down, like putting my hand on top trying to reach out for a ray of light that was coming inside the cell because it was already late. was just like, like trying to write down and that very day, it was horrible. Everything was going wrong. Like really wrong And I was not feeling good when I finished writing. Instead of crying or getting angry, I started laughing

amelia:

Wow.

Dr. Guss:

I was laughing. I sound very weird to many people, but some people might understand that it was way too overwhelming and my, like my psyche was not ready for it.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

So I was like, it's way too much, it's way too much. I don't know how to handle this. I don't know how to, but the thing is I started asking myself and my inside was like, is this for real? It's not. And I was grabbing the bars. It was like, no, it's not. No, it's not. But the brain games on you. It was very confusing because I could feel them and I was like, no, it's not. I'm not here. No, it is. No, it's not. That's ridiculous. I wanted to save the animals. I was willing to do whatever it take in a legal way. But it was like,

amelia:

right.

Dr. Guss:

and I was, every single day I was looking at people, kidnappers going free

amelia:

Oh, Oh can't

Dr. Guss:

every day, murderers going free,

amelia:

I can't imagine. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

and I was like, this is not happening. So I understood the denial. The second book, the one that I told I am preparing, that's in English, it's Almost ready.

amelia:

Yeah,

Dr. Guss:

about eight, eight principles I use. I have to say they were not principles back then. There were just things I knew and have to put together. But the second thing first I would say was be brave.

amelia:

Mm-Hmm.

Dr. Guss:

The tricky part is yeah, be brave. And how the hell do you be brave? There are many things that you can do to become braver, even when you are not feeling brave, because for example, when they detained us My brother, he was 17 and he was like, you stopped us both. So we're going both. He didn't want me to go by myself. And I'm like, no, it's not about you. It's you have nothing to do with this. And he was my inspiration and I found so many other inspirations. I was reading inspirational stuff a lot. And there is a difference between motivational things and inspirational things, like motivational comes from the outside, but inspirational, it can ignite something inside of you.

amelia:

That's a great description.

Dr. Guss:

It was like making me feel bolder, even if I was not, But also gorillas, like puffing the chest, like Tony Robbins would say, like changing this,

amelia:

Yeah. That posture.

Dr. Guss:

changing the posture. And I learned how to do that when the very first day, my. My sister came to visit me I wanted to jump into the like in the bars and hold them like, I don't know how to describe it, but if you go to the zoo and you see the monkey sometimes doing this exact movements, I was feeling exactly that and I saw many people doing it. Funny thing is I was able to like, contain myself, but I was really wanting to do that. So many people's doing that. But there was this guy, he was an inmate when he was in the other side from like next to my sister, but he was bringing food and other things. He was like, Oh, don't worry. Blondie don't, I find it hard to translate it immediately because it was like, Oh, Blondie, don't worry. He's going to be okay. Don't worry. Anybody can know he's innocent. He didn't have an intention or anything. We did not know how the hell he knew about my story.

amelia:

Oh, interesting.

Dr. Guss:

But the thing is, he was being very nice towards my sister. But then he turned around, looked at me, and he said So what's wrong? Again, sorry for the swearing sometimes. I'm not gonna go bad, but he's

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

What is going on with you? You're not in Disneyland. It's prison. So to her, he was soft and nice and this and that, but with me, take out your hands take your hands out of your pockets, straight, like a straight face. And the thing is, my hands were not inside the pockets. But I can tell that my posture was so collapsed, my attitude was so defeated, and everything was so wrong back then that what he said made a lot of sense. And I was like, no this guy won't be telling me how to stand. And I started puffing my, and that very moment I re, re remembered, I, I used to work with with primates, and I remember the gorillas very moment, I did not know that, but at that very moment when I did that, I felt so strong and I did promise myself whenever I felt blue, I was always going to think about something or someone that would bring me to another different state. In that case, it was a gorilla. And I had to think about gorillas like every minute, every second. was gorilla gorilla exactly. gorilla.

amelia:

that. I think that's so good for so many of us to think if we are feeling not very brave, you just have to find your inner gorilla in those moments,

Dr. Guss:

And there were many other things, but I needed the inner gorilla. And I was thinking, I was feeling like a spider monkey, but it was like, no gorilla time, you know?

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

Because the thing is everybody was looking at me like a potential prey. You don't want them to call you a blood muffin in prison.

amelia:

No.

Dr. Guss:

No, no, and out of 8, 500 inmates,

amelia:

Oh my

Dr. Guss:

I was the only one like with blue eyes and light skin. And it was like not light skin. There were other five people, but I was

amelia:

Yeah, you don't want to be standing out in

Dr. Guss:

very, yeah the thing is I did not. And people here in Mexico. They have this belief, and I wouldn't say just belief because it sometimes relates to the truth. It was not in my case, but in many cases, it has to do with the status and the income. so they thought I came from money. I did not. That was an issue. That's why I was there. But the thing is, they thought it was a potential prey.

amelia:

Ugh. So what happened? So you were in this crazy environment where you're always in survival mode, and how did you get out? Did you have to go through the whole sentence or what

Dr. Guss:

No, no, no, we weren't. I wouldn't. The thing is, Mexican process and American process are very different. Ours is based on the german style law, whereas yours comes from Greece. So, American is more, how to say spoken, a judge, a jury, and the prosecutor there and the attorney here. And,

amelia:

Yep.

Dr. Guss:

I mean, we do have some of those elements. We don't have jury here, but we have files and everything.

amelia:

Okay.

Dr. Guss:

It's slow as staring at the grass grow up. It's horrible. It's like really, it can take for a person to appear, a witness. One of my witnesses came and it took let's say 10 days and then the prosecutor had another 10 days. They would use every day. So let's say I have 10 days and he has 10 days,

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

days. So it's two weeks and two weeks. So it's a whole month for one witness each.

amelia:

Wow. I

Dr. Guss:

Super slowly. Meanwhile, you can be threatened today to death. Five, seven, eight times a day.

amelia:

can't imagine. I can't imagine.

Dr. Guss:

And even, this is the craziest thing I would like, because you're not in a, like a a courtroom. It's not a, it is a courtroom, but it looks like a, I don't know, like a very bureaucratic office, horrible office. I have to walk through these dark tunnels and then We have this window, very small like fences and the bars, you barely see them. I barely see the judge and the prosecutor and everybody the out not the outside, but from the other side of the bars, right? One of those days, and I was in a federal one, supposedly like the most category,

amelia:

Okay.

Dr. Guss:

I suddenly felt something cold next to my jugular.

amelia:

Oh my gosh.

Dr. Guss:

And there was this guy saying. No, it was not a knife. It was just a piece of glass

amelia:

Oh, that's all.

Dr. Guss:

because you're going to bring a piece of there's metal detectors, but there's no glass detectors. So he

amelia:

Oh, my gosh.

Dr. Guss:

a piece of glass here and I'm like, are you for real? I just grabbed I just hold his hand. I'm like, are you for real? They're about to give me a sentence. That was not true, to be honest. It was just a regular visit to the judge. But, I don't know why it was the only thing that came to my mind, which was good, because it was like, it was exactly as if I was showing a vampire a crucifix. It was like, oh my god no sorry blonde. Best of lucks. And I'm like, what do you know? This is kind of cool. I mean, it was not cool that he was placing this piece of glass on my jugular.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I then realized that I was just grabbing it and taking it away, like putting it away. know how easy it is for them to just slice it open and kill me. And there would have been not much because no person from the judge could have jumped there. They're not in the same building. It's

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

I can see them them, but it would take

amelia:

no one's protecting you.

Dr. Guss:

probably 10 minutes to get there.

amelia:

Yeah. I see you just had that instinctual reaction. Yeah. So what would you say to someone who is feeling stuck, even in not in this

Dr. Guss:

No. I went too extreme. I know

amelia:

Yes, you really did. But if they're just feeling like really hopeless and stuck maybe in their career and burnout what would you say to someone or what advice would you have of like how to get through that? Or what is the next smallest step? How can you not just stay stuck in that

Dr. Guss:

I'm going to, I'm going to go. I said the first one during difficult moments is we have to understand we have to be brave because it, it demands it, that situation demands it. It calls for a better version of us. Then the second one, I'm going to give you all of them. Let's see. Very fast. It's there's a lot to them. Each one of them has to be like explained. But the second one. is acceptance. When I was writing this, I was laughing. Then some days later, I realized that in order for me to move forward, I have to accept When we are going, like for example, burnout. It might feel like, it's not a catastrophe because you have a job. People have in many other places, they don't have a job Because we might feel like it's wrong to complain because at least we're doing something good. Oh, when we reached that point, we're actually threatening our own lives. We can get to a point and we can either physiologically or even mentally, we can take wrong decisions or something inside us can stop working the way it should. it's very important to accept that our body is telling us, Hey, something's not, something is not properly working. Remember like pain and anything that's telling us. Pay attention. It's because of that. Pay attention. We have to pay attention to whatever our body is telling us to look at. Third one, as I said, write down everything

amelia:

Yes. There's so much power in that.

Dr. Guss:

And I'm going to give you a very Gustavian way of writing.

amelia:

Okay, cool.

Dr. Guss:

This is very in and on itself that I have a course to teach people how to do this properly, because it takes a while, but I'm going to give you just like the basics, because one day was It was not enough to Write down what was going on, so I realized I needed to vomit everything that was feeling wrong. So I started writing like everything that was not right about that process because I was trying to be the optimistic guy. But there is Only so much that you can hold until your body says, Hey, Be honest to yourself.

amelia:

So true.

Dr. Guss:

So I decided to start writing down in a way, in a trifecta, in three different steps. First, same situation in three stages. This is my personal way of doing it is first write down all the negative stuff. No editing, no editing whatsoever. Go through the motions. And the second one is doing it neutral. A way of doing it properly, but as long as you can do it neutral, find a way not to exaggerate it, not to just neutral. Sometimes we're not able to get to the third stage because it might be way too much. Feeling empowered enough. It's good enough to see the things as there are. At least that's better than not seeing them worse than they are.

amelia:

Yes, absolutely.

Dr. Guss:

Then the third one has to do with a change we transform it, we transcend it, but in order for us to get there, we have to change our inner state. I use the animals. I teach people how to do that. Changing the internal state, because sometimes it's, as I said, you might not feel like. wanting to see the good or the bright side of a bad situation. And it's okay. Neutral is good enough, but first get everything out of your system. Then see things as they are only with those two. It's powerful enough to transform everything because

amelia:

Yes.

Dr. Guss:

learned from many people. One of them forgot the name. Sometimes I, I miss names, but

amelia:

Yes, me too.

Dr. Guss:

see, we have so much in common here.

amelia:

I know, we really do.

Dr. Guss:

But It was a psychologist. She had different types of cancer throughout her life. And she said, Writing down is an extraordinary therapy. And I can relate to that, but I went a little bit beyond that because sometimes that's not just enough, like writing down whatever. It's let's do it in a structured way. First, do the bad things, write the bad things or the things that you like are really caring, then do your best, do it as if you were a robot, no emotions, valid, And do it as a game. For example let's say We were in a terrace in a coffee shop. You and I are talking and suddenly there is maybe a Porsche or fancy cars Out of that car, like a brutally pretty and sexy blonde woman gets out of the car. She's wearing a a dress. Very tiny. She's very exuberant and like, she calls the attention of everybody, Very, like very elegant. Not exactly vulgar. Then she crosses the street rings the bell of a building they open She enters the building people start talking about whatever they saw and not long from that moment She comes out holding say a 75 year old man's arm. The guy has this face, the smile looks like, my gosh. And you can hear, right next to you, some guy saying Oh my God, look at this perv, using this poor little girl. And then on the other table, somebody saying What's wrong with this woman? She's so vulgar and she's using her attributes, but it happens that, that this woman is actually let's say. She's studying to become a nurse, but to pay herself to pay her college degree, she's she's working as a model. She hates working as a model. The car is not her car. It's her boss's car. And that person is her grandfather.

amelia:

Yes. Such a great example of, how you can interpret things so differently

Dr. Guss:

every person can interpret things and we can add emotion to that. Oh my God, this guy, and look at our faces. He's so abusive and he's such a perv or, Oh, she's such a vulgar girl or whatever. And then, Oh no, I admire her. She's actually paying for her grandpa's nursing home as well. And then if you know all these three, it's wow, but there's an emotion attached to each of the versions, whatever the version is.

amelia:

Yes.

Dr. Guss:

What would the camera be looking at?

amelia:

If you were just looking at the facts without the emotion,

Dr. Guss:

you describe that? Instead,

amelia:

Yeah,

Dr. Guss:

how would it be? How would it sound? Tell me.

amelia:

so it would be like, there's a woman who,

Dr. Guss:

A person?

amelia:

oh, okay, there's a person who is wearing a dress, who was driving a car, who entered a building to

Dr. Guss:

To? No. No, not to help? No, you don't know.

amelia:

Yeah, you're right.

Dr. Guss:

then comes back.

amelia:

Yep. With another person

Dr. Guss:

You don't know if she's helping or not helping, or

amelia:

So true.

Dr. Guss:

It's no, that's our interpretation. You're the camera. The camera's enters, goes out. What else?

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

that's it.

amelia:

Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

So no emotion. It's boring if you think about it. Yeah. When you write that second stage, I want it to be super boring because it's,

amelia:

Yeah. I love that. There's a similar exercise that I'll use too. I love what you are doing with this journaling because I can really see the power of starting with just that, I call it like a brain dump, just like not worrying about grammar or anything, just let it all out, unfiltered, just like. Get it out of your head, and then I love how you are really changing the perspective, and you're really looking at how that brain filter is interpreting things, and the emotion, and then really, it can be a challenge to, to look at, okay, what are just like the Circumstances that nobody could argue with just these facts that really that alone can change things so much. So I think that's so cool. And then if someone's ready for that next step to even try to like, maybe embrace curiosity and try to see if they can see any positives in that situation. Yeah, that sounds like a really powerful exercise.

Dr. Guss:

So

amelia:

I love that.

Dr. Guss:

the third one. I don't know. I think that's enough for now, but we can keep on going. I don't know.

amelia:

Oh, I think that's great and maybe we'll have to have you on again or they'll just have to read your book in order to

Dr. Guss:

No, in fact,

amelia:

part.

Dr. Guss:

I'm having a blast here.

amelia:

Oh, good. Yeah. We'll have you back, but since we are getting to the end, I do have two questions first. One that I like to ask everybody is when do you feel most alive?

Dr. Guss:

Some weeks ago, the person that was asking me a lot of questions so that he understood where I came from while writing that book, the script writer he said, you know what we hate of our job is when we are asked to give in one or two sentences the description of a script because it's very hard. But I will ask you, what was it that you learned? And I said, so many people have asked me, but here it might be different because at first I had to learn urgently to survive. I was not the best candidate to survive back then, but it didn't take me a lot. to realize that I was there to learn to live. So when you, you tell me, when do I feel most alive? It has to do with the moments in which I connect with myself and my true self. And my true self does not have to be a Disneyland. I've been in prison, having a blast, feeling completely free, feeling completely alive. I've been in Disneyland. No, I did enjoy it. I wouldn't say but bored in one of the lines that took almost three hours. Yeah the truth is it has more to do with the consciousness of myself being alive, being what with this wild aspect of me enjoying. And understanding my purpose.

amelia:

Yeah. Wow. That's a really powerful answer. And I think empowering for others. Hearing that too, of that reminder of regardless of your circumstances, you are able to, like when you have that connection inward, that's what it's all about. And just being present right in that moment. Yeah.

Dr. Guss:

That's the keyword present.

amelia:

yeah, I think we all need that reminder these days with social media and all the distractions,

Dr. Guss:

they were telling me, Oh my God, because I live in a, as I said, at the beginning, I live in a very small town surrounded by forests. And I was streaming some time ago. And some people said Oh my God, I really want to go there and disconnect. I'm like wait. No. Here you come to connect. We're so disconnected already. We need to connect,

amelia:

no. Yes comes back to that body mind and heart right reconnecting all of that together yeah, I love that. And so for those listening, I mean just to help those understand that you experienced all those challenges and yet now you are, you're a wildlife vet, you're an author, you are, briefly tell me you're working in conservation or consulting for a company

Dr. Guss:

that's kind of crazy. Some people actually look like search for my service as a thanatologist when they're going through grieve of a beloved one. But also right now I told you I'm building this platform with another company I'm working with because they know how to do this. It's on wildlife, but it's not ready yet. It's going to take longer. So anybody that loves animals, like conservation, welfare, animal welfare, or anything related to animals, I would be happy to join forces because one of the things that comes next steps is, one of the most amazing animals in the animal kingdom, ants, they are able, aren't termites, they're able to do whatever they want because they're working together. One of the things is many times being afraid of this crazy project I have with wildlife. And one of my friends, she works for Tony Robbins and she keeps reminding me this and you went through crazy things and then you come and tell me that because you don't have the money you get scared. I'm like, You're right. I get scared because I'm human. But yeah,

amelia:

just have to find the gorilla in you,

Dr. Guss:

because we need a reminder. And that's why another thing is Dalmatian can bring down an elk if his pack is made of very strong wolves. But same thing happens the other way around. Not even the strongest wolf can bring down an elk if his pack is made of Dalmatians. So we are together with the right purpose and we're stronger together. So anybody that might want to join these forces, we can do this. I realize that it's not. Me, that's going to do it alone. I Had the idea and and I started this, but I am bringing people to this crazy concept.

amelia:

amazing. And so where can people connect with you and find you

Dr. Guss:

Actually, everything is Dr. Gus but not DR, like D O C T O R, Gus, G U S, like social media over across platforms, Dr. Gus,

amelia:

Perfect.

Dr. Guss:

they have spaces like like on Facebook. It has space.

amelia:

I'll link to all of it in the show notes. As

Dr. Guss:

Yeah, but in the others, it's all together. Instagram, TikTok, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, my personal website is doctorguss.Net, but it's, right now, I tell you it's not ready yet because I'm working on putting it in English and it's changing a couple of things. The approach is going to change. Yeah,

amelia:

Amazing. Great. We're going to have you back again because I feel like there's even more we could dive into, but you shared so much wisdom and I really appreciate your time and you sharing your story and perspective. you

Dr. Guss:

Thank you so much for the confidence of bringing this crazy guy here. Before I leave, what's your favorite animal

amelia:

Oh, that's such a hard question

Dr. Guss:

with doctors, with veterinarians, with travel? I know.

amelia:

One of my favorites is an elephant.

Dr. Guss:

Yeah.

And since you can't see, I'm just adding this for context that he pointed to an elephant figurine that was right behind his desk.

amelia:

Oh

Dr. Guss:

I worked with elephants for a while. Not directly. I was there. I was training. Oh my God. Wow. Why? Just give me one reason. Totally.

amelia:

Oh gosh. I think they're just, I love the family, like the connection, how they take care of each other. I think that's really special.

Dr. Guss:

Totally.

amelia:

Yeah. What's your favorite animal?

Dr. Guss:

Elephants are among the top five, but I would say jaguars. Even if I'm a primatologist, but jaguars have something very unique. That

amelia:

Yeah, all right. Love it. Yeah, we're gonna for anyone listening. I want to hear what your favorite animal is

Dr. Guss:

would be interesting.

amelia:

Have to comment, right?

Dr. Guss:

would be very interesting. Okay. Thank you.

amelia:

Thank you so much

Dr. Guss:

I had a blast here.

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