podcast

Next Level 330: Transcending Trauma to Achieve Success And Happiness with Naga Das

20
Oct
We are busier than ever, we have more than ever, and yet so many successful people are still asking the same question: I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, so why am I not happy?
In this episode, Chris sits down with Naga Das, whom he has worked with personally for more than three years, to talk about her new book, Dying to Live: Finding Peace and Purpose Through Pain. Naga shares her own journey: homeless in her senior year of high school, then a full scholarship to the University of Florida, a triple major, a dual master’s, a doctorate program, and a crypto hedge fund. Fear was driving her the whole way, along with prescription medications, drugs, and alcohol, until she hit bottom and tried to take her own life.
What came next is the heart of the book. Over the following two years, Naga came to see that what she wanted to end was the identity she had built and the suffering it was causing. She and Chris talk about trauma and addiction among high achievers, the difference between happiness and joy, the role plant medicines played in her healing, and a simple set of questions anyone can use to stop believing every story the mind tells.
Naga Das helps the greatest leaders from all walks of life transcend trauma and find peace and purpose. Until she found plant medicines, her life was characterized by high achievement, including a Harvard education and experience as a cryptocurrency CEO. Those medicines showed her there is much more to life than accolades, which ultimately led her to quit her addictions and pursue her passion for helping people.
Her new book, Dying to Live: Finding Peace and Purpose Through Pain, is a short memoir-style manual for finding peace and purpose through pain.

What you’ll learn

  • Why the book’s original title was How to Kill Yourself, and why it became Dying to Live
  • Why happiness is temporary, and why Naga says joy comes from learning to love your own company
  • Why we look back fondly on our hardest moments, and the deep trust that shared struggle builds
  • How Naga defines trauma, “deep grief that was never processed,” and why it so often leads to addiction
  • The fear she sees driving achievement in her clients, and the child underneath who just wants love and validation
  • The employee who stood up to her on his last day, and how his words came back to her in meditation a year later
  • How calm and spirituality can be used to push trauma away, and why sometimes the lesson is stepping away from the table
  • Why Naga calls plant medicines teachers rather than tools, and why the work in between sessions still matters most
  • Her snowy hill metaphor: how old habits wear deep grooves, and how fresh snow lets you make new ones
  • “Do you trust yourself enough to love the parts of you that hate you back?”
  • Byron Katie’s questions for checking your thoughts: Is it true? How do you know it’s true? What’s truer?

Resources mentioned:

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Christopher Larsen is the founder and Managing Partner of Next-Level Income. Since “retiring” after 18 years in the medical device industry he dedicates his time to helping others become financially independent through education and investment opportunities. Chris has been investing in and managing real estate for over 20 years.

While completing his degree in Biomechanical Engineering and M.B.A. in Finance at Virginia Tech, he bought his first single-family rental at age 21. Chris expanded into development, private-lending, buying distressed debt as well as commercial office, and ultimately syndicating multifamily properties. He began syndicating deals in 2016 and has been actively involved in over $500M of real estate acquisitions.

In addition to real estate, Chris has invested in equities, oil & gas, and small business lending, as well as being active in Venture South, one of the nation’s Top 10 Angel Investing groups. Chris lives with his wife and two boys (and Viszla, Lucy!) in Asheville, NC where he loves spending time with them in the outdoors and enjoying the food and culture that the region has to offer.

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