In this fascinating episode of Something Bigger With Rodrigo Canelas, we sit down with Chris Voss; former FBI lead international hostage negotiator, bestselling author of Never Split the Difference, and founder of the Black Swan Group. What unfolds is a masterclass in the invisible skill that shapes every human interaction you'll ever have and why most people have no idea they're getting it wrong.Here's what nobody tells you about negotiation: it has almost nothing to do with being clever, aggressive, or persuasive. Chris Voss spent decades talking people out of hostage situations, international kidnappings, and terrorist sieges over 150 cases and the single most important thing he discovered wasn't a tactic. It was that every human being on earth, regardless of culture, religion, or background, makes decisions based on the same wiring. Autonomy. Identity. And above all, loss. The fear of what you might lose drives more decisions than the promise of what you might gain. The casinos of Las Vegas are built on a 51% win rate. Voss believes you can trust people 70% of the time. But because loss hits 13 times harder emotionally than it actually occurs, most of us negotiate against ourselves before we ever reach the table.The conversation goes far beyond boardrooms and hostage barricades. Voss demonstrates live, in real time, how tone of voice alone triggers neurochemical responses in the brain, how a two-word observation like "you seem centered" can open someone up more than any question ever could, and why the phrase "I know how you feel" is one of the fastest ways to shut a conversation down. He walks through a three-step grocery store exercise that teaches empathy in under five minutes, reveals why asking "what do you love about what you do" unlocks more than any elevator pitch ever will, and explains the counterintuitive power of calling out negatives before the other person does a technique he calls inoculation. He shares the painful lessons from the Burnham case in the Philippines, where assumptions about cooperation led to tragedy, and why the greatest threat in any negotiation isn't the person across the table it's the team behind them that you can't see.This conversation isn't just about hostage negotiation or closing deals. It's about the invisible dynamics running underneath every relationship you have with your partner, your children, your colleagues, your own ambition. Voss delivers one line that reframes everything: "Intention and impact are two different things." You can mean well and still steal someone's story. You can be exhausted and undo a day's worth of empathy in one sentence. The skill isn't knowing this. The skill is practicing it when you're tired, frustrated, and running on empty.The next time someone asks you how you're doing, pay attention to what you actually say and what you're really asking for.Time Stamps:(1:22) – Why Chris Voss Chose the FBI Over a Normal Career(5:09) – How a Knee Injury Led to His True Calling(9:22) – Why 20 Minutes Was the Maximum for Any Call(13:32) – 150+ Cases: What's Underneath Every Negotiation(14:23) – Autonomy, Identity, and Loss (15:38) – Why People Fear Losing Their Job More (19:25) – How Tone of Voice Triggers Neurochemical Responses in the Brain(21:36) – The Burnham Case: When Cooperation Falls Apart(27:27) – The Agreement Graveyard and Why Signed Deals Die(28:23) – "What Happens If You Do Nothing?"(38:58) – "Seems Like You Got a Place You Want to Start"(40:21) – The Grocery Store Exercise That Teaches Empathy in 5 Minutes(44:31) – "What Do You Love About What You Do?" — The Magic Wand Phrase(49:13) – The #1 Mistake: Stealing Someone's Story Without Knowing It(56:26) – You Can Trust Blindly 70% of the Time(1:00:28) – How to Start Practicing Empathy Today(1:04:40) – Why Your Brain Is 75% Negative (And How to Use That)(1:11:40) – The Hardest Part: Using Empathy When You're Exhausted

A yoga teacher who's guided thousands of students almost quit everything after motherhood shattered the identity she'd spent years building. In this raw conversation, Greesha Dhingra opens up about postpartum depression, spiritual burnout, and the midnight breakdown that changed how she teaches and how she sees herself.Most people assume that once you find peace, you keep it. Greesha shatters that assumption in the first few minutes. She reveals how she spent years building an identity around being "the strong one," the go-getter who needed no one, who could handle any storm, only to discover, after motherhood, that this identity was never really her. Her hormones were disrupted, her carefully built sadhana routine collapsed overnight, and the peaceful version of herself she'd spent years cultivating vanished along with it. What followed wasn't clarity; it was conflict. "Oh, but I thought I was calm. Where is that calm now?" This, she explains, is exactly where postpartum depression quietly takes root, not from weakness, but from the gap between who you believed you were for years and who you suddenly are not.The conversation goes even deeper when Greesha admits that spirituality itself became her next trap. The very practices that gave her insight into herself eventually calcified into a new identity, "spiritual Greesha," and when life took that away too, she found herself questioning whether any of it had been real or just another mask. She describes nights of breakdowns with her husband, moments of wanting to quit teaching entirely, and a health crisis rooted in years of anger, poor eating, and intoxication that manifested as severe IBS and sleepless nights until Ayurveda and mindful eating slowly rebuilt her body from the ground up. She shares the story of a woman who found one of her Instagram reels on the edge of ending her life, and how that single moment of connection changed everything. And she teaches a breath-awareness practice rooted in the same principles behind Vipassana and Yoga Nidra that creates the one thing she says matters most: space between you and your mind.This conversation isn't just about yoga or spiritual practice. It's about the universal trap of building an identity around anything: strength, calm, achievement, even enlightenment itself, and the quiet courage it takes to keep letting go of who you thought you were. Greesha's honesty here is rare: most teachers perform certainty. She performs the opposite, and that's exactly why this conversation matters.Ask yourself whether there is an identity you're clinging to right now that you built to survive something, but never actually chose?Time Stamps:(0:00) – Introduction(1:55) – What Yoga Revealed That Made Her Deeply Uncomfortable(3:31) – Why Slowing Down Felt Impossible at First(4:09) – How Motherhood Shattered Her "Strong Woman" Identity(7:05) – When Spirituality Itself Becomes Your Identity(10:02) – "Why Am I Even Teaching?" — Wanting to Quit Everything(16:34) – Why Life Is Not a Straight Line (And Why That's the Point)(19:56) – "I Am Growing With This Hardship" — Redefining What Yoga Is Doing for Her(22:16) – Severe IBS, Sleepless Nights, and the Poem That Came Out of It(25:20) – The Ayurvedic Reset That Rebuilt Her Digestion and Sleep(30:59) – Why We Get Attached to Being Angry or Sad(39:14) – The Most Powerful (and Simplest) Practice She Teaches(42:14) – Why the Space Between You and Your Mind Is the Real Goal(49:07) – How to Know If You're Actually Doing Yoga Right(51:03) – Why 91% of People Value Yoga But Almost No One Practices It(52:22) – How Westernization Quietly Erased India's Own Confidence in Its Traditions(54:20) – "I Am Not a Yogi" — The Humbling Distinction She Makes About Herself(59:19) – Her Final Message: Don't Let Your Life Become One Identity#Yoga #Postpartum #Mindfulness #SelfHealing #SpiritualityAndMotherhood

In this profound episode of Something Bigger With Rodrigo Canelas, we sit down with Keshava Swami; a monk, speaker, and spiritual guide who left behind the conventional path to pursue something most people spend their entire lives searching for: meaning.Most people believe that success, wealth, and achievement will eventually lead to fulfillment. Keshava Swami calls this the biggest lie in the world, a lie that has been perpetuated for generations, adopted by every culture, and surprisingly, even when exposed, we start believing it again at the very next moment. He has seen people who had everything - two cars, two phones, two houses, too much and yet all of it left a vacuum. If that doesn't make you pause, nothing will.This conversation goes far deeper than surface-level self-help. Keshava Swami breaks down the five topics of the Bhagavad Gita: the soul, the world, activity, time, and God and shows how they answer the five fundamental existential questions every human being faces: Who am I? Where am I? Why am I in this situation? How long am I here for? And what is beyond this? Without that blueprint of reality, he argues, it's nearly impossible to locate yourself within it. He shares how monks wake up each morning reminding themselves of an identity beyond roles and titles, functioning in the world but not being consumed by it. "You're in the race, but you're not the rat." He also offers a powerful 7-day experiment: spend 10 minutes each night writing down three things; something beautiful, a lesson learned, and an intention for tomorrow.This conversation isn't just about spirituality or monastic life. It's about the gap between achievement and fulfillment that so many ambitious people feel but can't name. Keshava Swami delivers one line that will stay with you: "The pain of discipline is uncomfortable, but the pain of regret is unbearable." Whether you're building a business, raising a family, or just trying to figure out what you actually want, this episode will challenge the story you've been telling yourself about what "enough" looks like.Hit play. Then tonight, try the 7-day experiment. See what shifts.