We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Martin Rynerson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Daniel Martin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you get your first job in the field that you practice in today?

Funny enough, I worked my way into working at a lab – the Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience in Newark by being a volunteer for one of their studies. It was interesting way to see the experiment that I eventually ended up working in, from the perspective of one it’s participants. I had found a posting on campus where I was doing my Master’s at Montclair and they were looking to pay people to participate in their study on reward processing in the brain. I responded to their flyer and ended up coming in to the lab, getting a full brain scan, and given a computer game to do while they read my brain’s responses to specific rewards given in the game. Curious about the study, I kept asking the guy stringing me up in the brain cap a number of questions about their research, trying to not give up my position as someone getting an advanced degree in Psychological Sciences.

But asking deeper about their experimental design, it got to the point where he asked me, “how do you know that?” And I gave up my position that I was studying for my Master’s and very curious about brain science, helping with some EEG brain wave studies myself. We began comparing our experiences working in laboratory settings where he mentioned most of the people under him weren’t as familiar with Behavioral and Psychological studies being involved mostly in Biology and Medical students. So, at this point I cleverly mentioned if they needed help around the lab, especially someone more familiar with Psychological and Behavioral experimentation, that I could offer a hand.

So I ended up getting the email of the head of the lab and a bit of a referral from the PhD student who I had talked to which got me an interview and shortly after, my first job in a full-time Neuroscience lab. It goes to show that sometimes, “the gift of gab” as my mother would call it, and certain amount of persistence can get you pretty far and that opportunity really does come in unexpected ways. If you’ re mentally engaged in your field and consistently putting yourself in places where you can make that happen, you might be surprised what doors can actually open.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I run a 12-week workshop series called the ‘SelfPerpetual Program’ that creates a fusion in our understanding of ourselves, merging Psychology, Neuroscience, and Eastern Philosophy. It teaches strategies and direct practices that allow the individual to take full control of the mind-body system by applying the science of the brain and behavior to our daily life.

The full program contains 12 workshops that give specific practices and prompts to do each week that allows the person a systematic approach to unlocking their minds, training their bodies to optimize habits, eliminating self-limitation, and ultimately seeing the deeper nature of consciousness and their true greatness. This work emphasizes merging the Scientific and Spiritual perspectives on the self experience, both giving vital insights into how the human body and mind operate – whether its understanding our thought patterns or emotional triggers in Psychology or if its dissolving our egos and transcending the concept of who we are in Zen, Yoga, and other Eastern philosophies. Each perspective is integral to being a fully realized human being, capable of reaching wholeness and actualizing our potential.

I’m now in my 4th year as an adjunct Professor of Psychology. Through my work, I always emphasize the importance of being well-rounded in how we approach the human psyche. The human being is multi-layered, we are both a hero and an enemy in someone’s story. But integrating the multiple perspectives on the human condition creates a grounded perspective and in my opinion is an existential necessity. As much as we get caught in the world of capital working America, trying to get a degree, get a job, and fall into the rat race of the world, we need to ask ourselves deeper questions of our true nature, our purpose and passion that motivates us in this life. What are our spiritual inclinations? What drives us passed the social pressures and societal assimilation? I feel like these questions allow us to find a balance, where our calling meets our daily life – to find the things that spark us, keep us thriving and alive in the truest sense. I really seek to help people find that and through education, understanding our Psychology at first, the mechanisms of our mind-body, and engaging in spiritual practice, we can begin to find that in ourselves.

To give an example, I specialize in Cognitive Science which studies the nature of thinking and thought. Our thoughts are conceptual, meaning we use concepts to govern our decision making and how and why we place value on specific things. What is important to us and how we act, react, and generally behave is all built upon this conceptual network. If we think of the word ‘chair’ as a general concept, we can imagine what it looks like, what color it is, what material its made of, etc. The interesting idea is that we all have a different chair in mind at this moment and this is a simple example. But when we get to more complex concepts like ‘love’ – how we conceive of love, what it feels like, how we act in love, what it means to love someone or how we accept love – this is complex and can often go uncommunicated between people. But these concepts govern how we make decisions, how we make judgements, whether that person really “loves” me based upon our perception of their actions. Concepts go even deeper to the point where we conceive of the world, saying “thats the way the world is” or that’s how “people” are. These are all concepts influencing our thinking, to the point where we even have a concept of ourselves. I heavily break this down in the workshops that I do, getting people to self reflect on these ideas, where they come from and how they effect our reality, our relationships, or our life at large.

That’s basically the first layer, and there are alot throughout the full 12 week program. Each week has its own specific focus, the first few being about the self concept, how the brain learns and makes associations leading to our general stream of consciousness. Learning to control our minds is key if we want to free our consciousness from the bounds of mental concepts. There are even layers to this within the body, namely our relationship with food, how to enhance our metabolism, utilizing physical yogic practices, as well as breathwork to help attune the body to keep the mind in balance. The last legs of the workshops go into some really heavy stuff about bio-physics, energy work, and Zen meditation practices; this is where we can begin to attain deeper states of consciousness, interfacing directly with the manifold of reality through our understanding of science and specific principles – where our consciousness is not externally focused on our image, our ideas, or our social world but maintaining an inner awareness where we can attain experiences closer to that of the Soul, using what I call ‘psychic devices’ to anchor our mind-body system into specific neuro-physiological states.

In my studies, I went across alot of modalities including Thai Yogic Therapy, Kriya Yoga, Polarity Immersion Therapy, and reading alot about Tai Chi, Taoism, and Buddhist meditation practices. I feel that Modern Western Science, as much as its tools help us to verify the true mechanisms in the brain and body, it also denies a lot of potential phenomenon in its material based skepticism. But the paradigm of modern science is changing, integrating alot of these ancient practices that have been proven to work for people’s mental health and well-being with a more meaningful connection to existence. And I feel that bringing updated science to people is so crucial to us growing as a society and as a species. Most of the public still operates on the idea that the brain cant grow new neurons after you’re 25, that “you can teach an old dog new tricks”, or that your genetics are set in stone and determine your life. This is 1950s science, with Neuroplasticity and Epigenetics paving the way that your brain is highly adaptable, can grow new memories, and gain new abilities late into life as our environment changes. Its our Psychology which becomes fixed, our mindset that gets stuck and this is why I do the work that I do. Information can change the brain, as our minds change, so too do our bodies and our lives. Modern science even shows that through meditation we find some of the highest potential brain waves (gamma) and even changes in the genetic expression of individuals – where our genetic predisposition is not a death sentence but simply a potential expression which the body has mechanisms to de-activate and alter when the person is optimally functioning.

I really strive to bring this information to people, and rather than spend my time with my head buried in endless reading and reclusive self-study, I’d rather bring this vital information to the world, to my fellow man, to my neighbor, to help us all understand our Psychology, our connectedness, our deeper nature as organic beings – responsive, adaptive, and communal on a living planet in harmony with other beings, with the higher order. I feel when we come to understand ourselves, we can more easily understand each other and the ripple effect of that leads to more cooperation, utilizing resources in a more sustainable manner. We cease to be wasteful, when we stop wasting our own potential; we stop destroying the planet, when we as individuals stop being self destructive. Im always echoing the question “What is wisdom if it is not shared?” So this is the motto for my business and why I am really choosing this route in education, in self-help, and wellness because I think its the best way to apply myself to helping the greater good.

As of now, I’m a featured monthly speaker at Lectures on Tap in NYC, but you can also sign up to join one of my free LIVE online workshops at my website (SelfPerpetual.com). If you are someone who is ready for the path of realization in Mindset & Mindfulness training, you can join the full SelfPerpetual Program.

More info at SelfPerpetual.com // Emails to [email protected] // IG: SelfPerpetual

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have definitely had to continually reinvent myself in life. I feel that its a critical skill, to be able to redirect ourselves. In the event that things fall apart – and as an entrepreneur many business endeavors can – that we are able to adapt, re-imagine ourselves, and re-calibrate our minds to new circumstances. I have found that multiple times, and especially among young people, you will end up not only working many jobs, but even changing the industry, or the overall career path you chose multiple times. I started in a trade school for high school studying auto mechanics and at the age of 18 found myself working for Cadillac – a career field I found myself in with little to no self reflection, simply due to the fact I thought cars looked cool as a 12-13 year old. Eventually, I went back to community college, thought I’d major in physics – because I thought space was cool haha – eventually got a 2 year degree in Music Business (as a musician myself). Getting into a 4 year college, I switched to biochemistry, dropped those courses, and eventually got a Bachelors in Psychology. Each one of these moments, was a point where I thought I had it all figured out. I knew what I wanted, where I was going in life, the whole nine. But as seasons change so too do our minds and it was a constant struggle that as I found myself unsatisfied with my choices, I had to drop the identity I chose, often going against a year or more of commitment, what some may call wasted potential, and reinvent who I was from the ground up, with a new pursuit and another mountain to climb.

Inevitably, I stayed committed not to a career or to a job but to myself – to aligning with what worked for me and where my curiosity and intuition could take me. I think there is a limitation to how much our logical minds can predict and sometimes as the tides move within us, we often have to follow them. If we fight them, we just become more and more out of alignment with who we truly are and I think this is most noble pursuit in this life. Id rather hit rock bottom knowing that I stayed true to who I was rather than to follow a vapid pursuit of money or status or prowess and do the same. The last thing I can let go of is who I was deep down and to some degree, I think the walls falling only reveals the reality of life that all things change and rather than trying to build thicker walls, further isolating ourselves from the outside world, we need to learn to be adaptable, learn the ebb and flow by taking a walk in the natural world – to live in accordance to it and not fight against it.
Every turn in my career, every time I reinvented myself, it only brought me closer to who I truly was. Rumi says “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” And I feel in a similar way, we insulate ourselves from life by clinging to the constructed ego given by our job, our car, our clothes, our friends, our place of residence – but these are all but barriers – cloaks to the more raw realization of ourselves and our nature.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

I think being genuine is a really valuable asset to growing a business. I feel when you’re acting in an authentic manner, work and life become easier. If we’re acting in alignment with our values, the expression of our desire to work with others doesn’t have to feel sales-y. It doesn’t come from a place where we are trying to one up someone, to get their money, or to have a business edge but… because its stemming from our genuine intention and alignment of your goals with others, the synergy in cooperation and negotiation is overall smoother. I’ve also noticed that as someone who works in a field that brings me joy, I feel charged after a lecture at the university, I feel I’m serving a strong purpose in encouraging deeper thinking in young people. When I pitch doing my workshops at new places or with other business, I come from a place of sincere offering, of service rather than trying to simply make a sale. It comes off natural and organic, communication goes smooth and its because I dont just have a monetary incentive to gain but also have a real connection to the work.

I think when we have that kind of motivation, the resilience we have to withstand difficult times is immensely improved. We tend to get discouraged at moments when our marketing isn’t effective or some people don’t immediately bite at the product we offer. But I often find myself working on projects, developing new workshops in the middle of the night, in bouts of random inspiration, thinking about how to be more innovative – in a headspace where I can be curious, passionate, and apply myself in ways I never would if it was just a job I had for the money. So if anything, Id say the most effective strategy is to know WHY you do what you do, to have a higher purpose, not only to just make money but to truly enhance the lives of those around you, to offer, to serve, to be genuine, and that energy is infectious, its real, and people see that and want to be a part of it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://SelfPerpetual.com
• Instagram: @selfperpetual
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmartinrynerson
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_osJNkr5rA
• Other: Omziel Healing Sanctuary Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH5IYj6wwL0

  Featured on the Wellness Driven Life Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkVL3hSMw88

  Live Holistic Psychology Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXMGk43L7es

Image Credits

Adam (Amaku) Echa