Fighting Through Trauma with UFC Champion Miesha Tate

WELCOME TO EPISODE 245

Miesha Tate is a fighter in every sense of the word—but the real victories didn’t happen in the octagon. In this intimate episode, we go behind the title belts to explore the deeper work: healing trauma, redefining success, and reconnecting with the self.
Miesha opens up about being the only girl wrestling boys in high school, navigating a career in a male-dominated sport, and what happened when she hit a “false summit” of success that didn’t deliver the peace she was chasing. We talk about parenting with intention, recovery through movement and tech, and the spiritual and emotional work that brought her back to center.
Whether you’re facing burnout, parenting challenges, or your own inner critic—this episode is a powerful reminder that our greatest breakthroughs often begin with breaking down.

 

Episode Highlights
[00:00] - Winning a UFC title—and realizing it didn’t fix what was broken
[05:32] - Miesha’s start in wrestling and early brushes with adversity
[12:26] - Why MMA is more mindful art than chaotic violence
[16:40] - The “false summit” of success and redefining identity
[23:19] - Breaking generational patterns as a parent
[27:34] - Plant medicine, prayer, and the road back to self
[35:09] - Biohacking and clean living with intention
[42:50] - Why RICE isn’t the recovery answer and what actually works
[56:07] - Her message to young athletes (and her younger self)

 

LINKS & RESOURCES

Built For Growth Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/built-for-growth-by-miesha-tate/id1768061788
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/builtforgrowthpodcast/
Miesha's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mieshatate/

BEAM Minerals: http://beamminerals.com/beautifullybroken
Use code beautifullybroken for 20% off

Silver Biotics Wound Healing Gel: https://bit.ly/3JnxyDD (30% off)
(Use Code: BEAUTIFULLYBROKEN for Discount)

StemRegen: https://www.stemregen.co/products/stemregen?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=1&affid=52
Code: beautifullybroken
LightPathLED: https://lightpathled.pxf.io/c/3438432/2059835/25794

 

CONNECT WITH FREDDIE

Work with Me: https://www.beautifullybroken.world/biological-blueprint

Website and Store: (http://www.beautifullybroken.world)

Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/beautifullybroken.world/)

YouTube: (https://www.youtube.com/@freddiekimmel

---

FULL EPISODE INTERVIEW

---

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel (00:00.182)
All right, we're live. We're live, we're live, we're live. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. I'm here with my guest, Misha Tate.

Yes, thank you for having me. This is great. I love being down here in Austin and it's so good for us to make like be able to make this work. I mean, it was just like a week ago, I think that I text you and I was like, Hey, I'm going to be down there and look at us.

Now. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I have a gift for you. You do? I've never started the episode with a gift. But live podcasts.

live podcasts allow me to bring live gifts. So I have my homemade muffin.

yum, I'm actually starving. That are appropriate to eat that right now. Where are they? are they? Blueberry?

Freddie Kimmel (00:40.462)
No, eat it. They were cooked this morning. These are, yes, these are keto. So it's banana, almond, coconut, egg, no sugar, blueberries. That's it. Baking soda.

Stop. Where are you putting?

Miesha Tate (01:02.24)
I need this recipe.

On Rio, right? Mmm. I know.

Wow! That's delicious. I'm definitely eating the whole thing.

Ha

I love it. Well, it's hot and we're burning through lots of calories. I've, I've was looking through all your history and everything you've done in the world of, of fighting. It's absolutely incredible. I, the second I saw the request come through from Bev, I was like, my God, beautifully broken podcasts. It was like, of course we have to have you on.

Miesha Tate (01:32.162)
Well, thank you. I'm glad I've definitely been beautifully broken many times.

Yeah, I can't imagine. I literally, I map out interviews. Like I'll do like a Venn diagram with all different routes we could go. We could go a hundred in this. And what's fascinating to me, my God, the messier the muffin, the better. The messier, the better. The life of a professional fighter, when did you decide in your life that you wanted to do that?

don't ask me a question yet.

Miesha Tate (02:05.11)
I don't, I, the decision for me, I would say to do it professionally. well, let me start with the whole story. So I wrestled when I was in high school and that was just so weird by chance, know, destiny kind of finding me, so to speak. I didn't know that at the time I was 15 years old. I was looking for a sport to do in high school. It was winter season and basketball is just not my sport. You know, we all have like at least that one sport that you just know, you're no good. I can't jump. I don't aim well.

Like basketball was not going to be good for me. So my friend was like, why don't we go out for wrestling? I was like, you don't have a women's wrestling team. What were you talking about? She's like, well, turns out if they don't have a women's wrestling team, they have to let us wrestle on the men's. was like, really? Well, I was like, I'll go home and ask my mom. My mom was like, I don't, I'm, I don't think you're going to like this. I'm not going to invest in even wrestling shoes for you because I doubt this is going to last. This is, know, teenage phase kind of thing. My mom thought. And then, she was like, and the other deal is.

We can't tell your dad. So, so why I was like, deal. So we didn't tell my dad. I went out for wrestling and I absolutely got my ass handed to me. mean, those boys were no, like no joke, no mess around. Like they did not want, I don't, I don't think they were bad guys, but they certainly, I think had the thought that this girls can't do this. Like, let's just show them how hard it can be and they'll, they'll fall off, know?

But for me, was absolutely the hardest thing I'd ever done and I loved it. And that was the start of my addiction to contact sports and competitive sport. And I went my senior, all the way through, I wrestled all four years. And the senior year I won the coaches award, which to this day of all the accomplishments I've, you my strike force world title, my UFC world title, winning celebrity big brother three.

You know, these, these accomplishments that many other people know about and like, that's, know, that's a big accomplishment. this was probably the biggest accomplishment of my career, of my life, because that, you know, that young age, taught me that perception can be changed. know, if you, you work hard and you don't segregate yourself, you just show up and you do whatever, you know, whatever else is doing and you do it to your best that, you can change the way that people view you and the way that people think about you.

Freddie Kimmel (04:13.326)
to.

Freddie Kimmel (04:27.886)
Yeah.

Yeah. And then I went into college and I had a friend of mine, Rosalia, who was like, Hey, you want to come do this mixed martial arts club sport? And I said, no, I absolutely do not. Like that doesn't sound interesting to me at all. she's like, come on, you got to go. like, she went the first day by herself. I didn't go with her. And then she was like, there are a bunch of old, you know, a former wrestlers, they'd cut the wrestling program actually at the college, I think just the year prior. So there was a lot of.

guys that had wrestled and were looking for something to do, weren't able to transfer to other colleges. I was like, okay, fine. So I went and on my first day I learned how to choke people and that caught my attention. So I kept showing up and they were like, do you want to train the striking? And I was like, no, no, I don't. was like, I don't want to get punched in the face and I don't want to punch anyone else in the face. This just doesn't seem like something that I would enjoy or would do.

And it is so funny how little we know about ourselves sometimes. Right? You think about those like big moments in your life where you were pretty staunch about something or you even thought you knew about something. And then you find out it's completely the other way around. You know, I never would have picked fighting as a career as a young girl growing up. I've always been a pretty mellow person, pretty just chill, low key. not, I don't have anything to prove. I don't start fights. wasn't, you know, like some fighters have that.

background story, you know, they're damaged kids, they grew up in the hood and they were fighting everybody and then they then they got in a gym and it it directed it the right way. That that really wasn't my story. I think for me, it was just a matter of personal development and the challenge that it presented to me to, you know, to fight. And I think there was a little trauma wrapped up in that, you know, of course, there's trauma sometimes can be a great driver when you when it gets in the driver's seat. And so

Miesha Tate (06:23.404)
you know, my biological father didn't come into my life until later. And then my dad who raised me, who I consider, you know, that's when I say my dad, that's what I'm talking about. When I was about three years old and, you know, but we had some rough patches there. My dad had a lot of his own trauma that he was dealing with. There was about three years there from about 13 to 16. I don't know if we spoke like two words to each other.

We were just on opposite ends of understanding and he was working through his own things or, know, I don't even know if working through it's the right, I think he was suffering. Didn't really have the tools to work through it. And I was frustrated and felt like, you know, it was, didn't understand me in any way. And so I think part of getting into wrestling for me and part of getting into fighting was to become that masculine figure that I felt like I had been neglected of.

Yeah. Yeah. It's profound. Yeah. It's interesting. was just, of course, it's always divine the way sometimes you're working on something and you sit down with a guest and it's like, I was writing about this this morning. So I was going through this exercise of putting together an academy around all the different modules for health. And we're talking about genetics and epigenetics and how environment informs those genes. incredible. mean, these

You could have a mouse that's programmed to get cancer and diabetes and liver failure, and you put it in the right environment, it does not happen. And so what you said was you never know the truth about yourself until you're put in that situation and you were put in a cage and you're like, I'm actually really good at this. It's fascinating to me how things unwind that way.

Yeah. Well, and to clarify, I wouldn't even necessarily say that it's like, I'm really good at this because I wasn't, I wasn't good at wrestling and I wasn't necessarily good at fighting when I started. but I, I felt, I felt good. Right. I felt like this was, there was something right about this and it just aligned for me. And I took my first fight just a matter of weeks after I had begun training, which I mean, you call training. was two days a week. I was not.

Miesha Tate (08:34.49)
Barley my first fight. I think I had three weeks of training training, right? You're supposed to train like five days as a professional five days a week twice a day You know in the six days like another training, you know, I knew what a few moves were I knew what a rear naked choke was and you what an arm bar was I knew what a triangle was and I think I knew a hitchhiker was a very basic arm bar escape and that's it so I Just jumped right in I remember

Yeah.

Miesha Tate (09:02.158)
Going to watch my first amateur event and at the time there the UFC was there so this is back in oh and very end of 05 and The UFC was you know making its appearance But I wasn't really Watching it. I wasn't really you know into anything as a young teenage girl. Just wasn't on my radar I was kind of aware that it was out there. Oh, there's some fighting thing. You know, but the connotation very much was

It's barbaric. These are bar brawlers. These are uneducated people. It's for those that can't. so it wasn't something that really spoke to me. it wasn't until I went to a live event and it was amateur fighters who were young and you know, my age and some of them that I, that I knew and I watched them fight and it was beautiful to me.

to see the tenacity, the heart, the drive, the determination, everything that went into that vulnerable moment of exposure in front of a crowd of people. They just laid it all out there. That resounded with me. That was powerful. And so I actually went down and signed up for a fight in three weeks that was an all-female fight card.

Yeah. So you loved it.

I loved it. I loved it. just was ignorant. I didn't know what it was about. I thought again, it was, you know, for violent people with anger issues. I get that. I think I kind of assumed that angry people and it's so far from that. It's, it's really strategic. It's like playing chess with your body.

Freddie Kimmel (10:42.774)
Yeah. And there's some cost to that.

yeah, there's plenty of cost to it. But I think that the rewards have far outweighed the detractors. you know, I think we'll probably get into it, but there were points in my career that was just absolutely the lowest of lows, you where you consider taking your own life, where you don't know if you have value outside of this persona that you've created, this fighter.

and if you're not this fighter or if you're not strong or if you're not a winner, then are you valuable in any other way? And it was a big point of contention for me because I'd have to sit back and. I'm going to try to look at myself as anything but that. And I just couldn't see beyond it. And when I wasn't successful, it was absolutely devastating because it was, it was damaging to the core of who I believed that I needed to be.

I felt like was letting people down and I felt like was tied, my identity was tied to an outcome in a night, one single outcome.

Yeah, I mean, I can. I mean, I can relate when you know, when you're good at something and people celebrate you for that. Right. And it's it. It feels like there's nothing else in the world. so chemically, the brain is wired that way to believe that that fixed reality. It's like, this is my life. This is what I'm good at. This is and it's there again, that reward pathway. I can only imagine.

Freddie Kimmel (12:15.266)
I have some good ones, like have some good moments. can tell you that like bowing on a Broadway stage is like pretty wild, you know.

I friend of mine that did a Broadway. I was on Celebrity Big Brother with him. Now I'm not thinking of his name. Of course, my recall. This is what I get. See, I need to eat these ketones, right? I'll take a minute, a second. I'm sorry. didn't mean to cut you off. No. Todrick. Todrick Hall. I don't know if you know who it is. Yeah, so he was on Celebrity Big Brother 3, and we were kind of the dynamic duo.

I do know who Todrick is. Yeah.

Miesha Tate (12:49.742)
So I ended up winning it and he ended up in second place. He was like a uber fan of Celebrity Big Brother 3, so he knew everything about it. Up, down, top, bottom, all the little secrets and things. So he had a great pulse on everything. I was the idiot. I didn't know nothing about it, never watched it before, but I was kind of like the bronze, so like I would usually win all the competitions that I was allowed to enter anyways. between the two of us, we made a pretty good little dynamic too.

That's amazing. What is the high feel like of winning like a championship fight on a UFC card?

Just mind me why I just keep chewing. So good. you know, the high is I, I mean, it's one of those things a little bit difficult to put words to, but it's like the most

It's like everything you ever worked for and all the dopamine and everything that you could ever hope to go right and bundled up in that one moment. But the hard truth is if you haven't done the work on repairing the inside and moving through traumas and letting go of things and then once you get to the top, which is the place that you thought would fix everything, at least for me, right? I thought, and I think people can relate to this because

especially men I think, know, as I, and this is me seeking my masculine because it was something that I think I felt like missing. I think I relate on this aspect. if I just have this, if I just make enough money, if I just get this job, if I just get this car, then I'll get the house and I'll get the wife and I'll get the kids and it'll all be right and good. And then I will be happy. But the truth is if you haven't done the work on yourself,

Miesha Tate (14:31.916)
then once you get a peek behind that curtain, it can turn your whole world upside down. And I think, what was it? Was it Twitch? that, he was on Ellen DeGeneres, the show, was the DJ.

He's a DJ. Commit suicide. Yeah.

And from the outside, you see him every day on Ellen, they have a great banter and communication and he seems lively and he's enjoying life and he's got the beautiful wife, he's got the kids, the family, very successful man. Now, I don't know him so I can't speak for him or anyone else, but part of me wonders is if it was similar to how I felt when I thought this is what I thought would secure happiness for me, is to reach this place.

that if I had these things in order, then I would be happy. And once you get there, it's like a false summit. It's like, like, I don't know what will make me happy then. Maybe nothing will make me happy. Maybe I'll always be stuck in this place of misery and I'll be sad and I'll, you know, because, because I think the truth is, is that the traumas are still there. They are waiting to have their moment.

The feelings, the emotions are waiting to be present with you. And we've just been mastering the skill set of suppressing them in order of seeking things that don't really fulfill us at the end of the day. There's short term fulfillment, right? So we're like pushing this beach ball into the wall. It's like, I'm a fan of Dr. Gabb, under the water. I'm a fan of Dr. Gaber Mate. Talks about the amount of energy that it takes to do that. And so I think a lot of people end up suppressing, suppressing.

Miesha Tate (16:10.062)
hiding, not wanting to be present with themselves, not wanting to have, if you're somebody who has to have a podcast on at all times, has to have music on, has to be doing something, maybe even struggles to fall asleep because those are the moments that you have to be alone with yourself. Maybe you have to play music, have the TV on, to podcasts in order to go to sleep at all times. I think that there might be some value in learning to spend some time with yourself because you gotta have time for the questions to be asked.

You got time for the to seek the answers to the things that you need to move through and I you it's a really scary place if you reach what you thought would make you happy and then you find out it's anything but then everything gets way worse.

Yeah. So, so what was your experience when you had some of those moments? Like what tools did you lean into or did you feel good on the other side of, my God, I'm here. Now I can be happy.

Right. So, you know, there were absolutely moments of despair and, and, you know, heartbreak, but I still thought, well, it's, you know, it's because I haven't won enough. It's because I haven't become the UFC champion yet. You know, every loss was a heartbreak and I was in a, you know, toxic relationship for a long time, about nine years. And, you know, there was a lot of, mental and emotional manipulation and abuse and

I, the way that I got through it at that time, I believe reflecting with it, you know, a self diagnosis was a bit of disassociation or a lot. I got really good at not feeling anything. And eventually it led me to have flat performances and fighting. So I won the UFC world title against Holly Holm in 2016.

Miesha Tate (17:59.206)
And was, you know, it was an epic fight. It was great. won in the fifth round with a rare naked choke, you know, and I was kind of up against it. If I didn't win that, if I didn't finish the fight, the best case that could have happened would have been a draw. which wouldn't have made me a champion, right? So when this I'm on top of the world, everything is great and right. And surely going to be good now, right? Cause I'm there. I finally made it. And then my whole world just flips upside down. and.

You know, I'm, I'm just almost like sick at this point because I realized that it fixed nothing. If anything, it just complicated things because there's more moving parts. Now there's more people in my life that have to sort through. There's more people wanting things for me, demanding things, and I'm no more happy than I ever was. As a matter of fact, I'm probably more depressed. and I lose my title in my next fight. And that was just, I can't tell you how incredibly devastating.

that was for me. And then I lose my next fight. And in my by the time I got to that second fight after my title, I was absolutely in like an autopilot. wasn't there. I don't know how you could convince someone that in a full on fist fight that you could be like in an out of body experience. But that's how good I had gotten at just suppressing everything that I didn't know how to be present for anything. And that means like all the people that were around me to so many people came out to my fight because it was in New York, it was the first

UFC event in New York City. So it was a big moment. I barely remember any of it because I was just somewhere else all the time. And then people will be like, it's head trauma. You got punched in the head for living. No, because I have a better memory now. So it's a matter of me. I choose to be present in these moments. I choose to be with the people that I'm with, where my feet are. I choose to engage in those moments and look people in their eyes. And before, just feel like I was...

passively floating through life because it was the best that I could do with the skill set that I had and the circumstances that I had and my skill set of disassociation. I think it protected me for a long time. know, my parents fought pretty vigorously growing up and there was always, know, you'd hear and you just want to be somewhere else, but you couldn't because your child and you live in that home. So you try to go somewhere else. And I think that's where I started to learn it. You know, my dad always, he had a pretty good temper, which

Miesha Tate (20:23.33)
course was passed down through family trauma. His dad was like six foot seven, monstrous man, bellowing, scary, and was, in my opinion, quite abusive to the children, but especially my dad because he was the only boy, physically abusive to him. So my dad never laid a hand on me because he's some chivalry for sure. Never spanked me, but he scared me a lot.

You know, it was the big voice. was, you know, those, the yelling over you, the, know, and you have nowhere else to go. And so you're just kind of, um, yeah, I remember I would like practice, um, well, I wouldn't practice, but it would happen every time I would learn how to unfocus my eyes. So he would get a bit blurry and I would try to like be like, think about other things. You just go numb, you know? And by the way, my, you know, my dad's a wonderful man and we've moved past a lot of this, you know, and he's healed through a lot of his trauma, but this is what happens when.

you don't have another skill set or another tools to go to, you kind of revert to what you were ingrained with, right? So there's no sense in blaming my parents for their shortcomings. It's more like I'm very grateful that I've had those experiences and that I can turn it around and say, okay, here's the areas where I want to try to improve and be a better parent myself. So I have a seven year old, she's about to be seven and my son's about to be five. And gosh, I've learned things like,

regulating my emotions. It's like not so easy to do even, you know, in my mid to late thirties and my kids are only seven. I'm like, okay, get that's probably really hard for you. Seven and five. Your brains are not developed yet. You know, so, so these things have made me a more well-rounded human. Um, and that was my, that was my skillset at the time was avoidance, disassociate, close doors, stuff it under. Don't talk about it. Work harder. That'll fix your problems.

Talk about a bomb going off when I realized that, I did everything and I've done all that and now it's 10 times worse.

Freddie Kimmel (22:28.332)
Yeah, but the awareness that you have now, it's like this is like the gift to your children. Yes. You know, and they're there are so many, there's one phrase that I always, I never really understood. says when you heal yourself, you heal forward seven generations, you heal backward seven generations because it's linked in time. And it just, it, you know, when I'm listening to you speak, I was like, my God, what a great opportunity, you know, for your kids. And what a great.

that your dad didn't carry down 100 % of the volatility from his grandfather. He didn't. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, he was a much better father than his dad. But I think my parents were the first psychobrakers. They just didn't know that. They didn't know it at the time. And it's actually really impressive that they have been able to move through and do what they did considering their very limited resources. They didn't have a team of people around them or as much research or the science or even just the network of people.

You know, so I feel really blessed that I'm able to move through a lot of this, think, more quickly. And, and I can pass it along to my parents too, you know? So, so now my, my dad didn't really used to be onto this, you know, this wellness stuff. They have a hyperbaric chamber now at their house. They have the red light, they have the sauna and he does it more than my mom does. So my mom's always more open to receive this stuff, you know, but my dad's like, I feel, I feel it. I feel great. Um, so it's a lot of fun.

And then I think your question was kind of the things that I, how did I kind of like get out of that place? What are some of the tools and skillsets that I started to develop into becoming more of a balanced person? When I was, I would say suicidal and I was, I had lost that second fight and I, I knew that now fighting wouldn't provide me with the

Miesha Tate (24:24.798)
answers or the solution to anything. That was a hard pill to swallow. So I said, well then what will, because I knew that I didn't want to die. I just didn't want to live like this anymore. Right. And so, so I had to believe that there had to be something that I hadn't figured out yet that could help me get to the other side. And

The first thing that I did was, was remove myself from the situation that was bad, that was toxic. So actually my ex and I had broken up before my final fight. Although he was still there and present and made things quite difficult. And then I said, I'm, I'm, removing myself. So I packed my car or like, I just had like one bag and my little Chihuahua scooter. I, I,

I hit the road. just left. just went and I drove. And for me, was about two weeks that I was just trying to find myself, know? Call it like a sabbatical or something like that, you know? But it kind of was. And I was trying to find me. It was like I was a person that didn't have a reflection. I didn't know what I looked like. I didn't know who I was or what I would do if fighting wasn't part of my identity. was like, who am I?

What else is there? And so, you know, I would pull off, um, if there was anything that struck my fancy and I went shopping for the first time and would be like, what do I want to wear? know, so I'm not thinking about what, you know, my ex would, would want or like, or dislike. It's like, I'm actually doing this for me. And I remember that was like a, that was like a pivotal moment for me, like being in a store and buying a piece of clothing that was like 100 % my opinion, not for someone else. And.

little things like that just started to give me back a sense of myself. And then, you know, for me, God and prayer, that was a big turning point for me. was, you know, to have what I felt like was someone who was on my side no matter what and was there for me and loved me unconditionally no matter what. And, you know, for those of you who haven't explored this, I just encourage people to just

Miesha Tate (26:45.294)
try saying a prayer sometimes because there's just some power in that and it doesn't cost you anything and you have nothing to lose. I'm not telling you to go to, you know, I'm not even saying you have to go to church and I'm not saying you have to, you know, be tithing all of a sudden. I'm just saying like having that relationship and it's a spiritual connection. And I think it's just as much of a spiritual connection with God. You know, we think of God as externally, mostly, right? We think of him as separate as us. I don't think of it that way anymore. I think of God as a part of us.

So I also think it's like an internal dialogue that the spiritual, like the God within me, that spiritual because I come from God and it's, feel like it's all interconnected. I, I don't think that God is like this entity that's separate. I really feel like it's part of a network of energy that we're all a part of. You know, all of my first psilocybin trip, this was a kind of what I got out of that. I was like, this is an energy network and we're all on it. And, um, the degree of separation from me and you is not as much as I thought it was before.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's I mean that's been my experience that through the years and growing up in like Lutheran Church and then a Methodist Church and taking some time away and being like, there's always been something that just didn't feel right about that structure. But then yeah, doing some deeper work, whether that was internal or time in silence or meditation or plant medicine that yeah, I'm like, it's all

Connected there is no there the idea of like that is another person. They're a bad person and I'm a good person Yeah, mostly dissolved. Yep. And so in late Yeah, I figured it out. Yeah. Yeah and the story of life us as human beings I'm a human being I need that person to show up as that character at this time in the story for me to feel the way I feel It's all perfect. And yeah, it's

hurt person.

Miesha Tate (28:36.95)
and it's all perfect.

Freddie Kimmel (28:41.002)
I have a joke, I have a joke with my partner and she's like, she'll say something about a person. I'm like, that's exactly, that's perfect that she's that way. And she's like, what do you mean? Yeah. But, but I mean, and to explain it and to like, that now that we've gotten into it a couple of times, you know, at this time in their lives with the information that they have, it's perfect. Yeah. You know, so yeah, yeah, it's, it's, anyways, I joined with you in that, that it's all connected and it is, and it's a really,

I feel more complete.

Yes, my relationship with God is also my relationship with with self in a way. It's not the separate thing. It's like this this connection. And so I think by doing that and at the time I didn't have this perspective. I definitely had the perspective of like, you know, God is this superior being and you know what not. And then there's me, which is what organized religion, I think, usually would have you believe. And I

I just challenged it a little bit because it's in my heart. I've thought about this a lot and I thought, gosh, if God is everything, if he created everything, and this is going to, I don't know if he's going to strike some people wrong, then God also has to be evil or bad or have evil. must. therefore,

You know, I just think about it in a different way, you know that that God has these multifaceted parts. So maybe he's the, you know, the know all the be all being. but there's these biblical stories that make me also question. You know, like, I forget who it was, but you know, a sacrificing their only son, you know, and like God's like telling him to do this. And then he almost does it. And God's like, just kidding. You know, you don't have to, but I just want to make sure you would. like, what? You know, so I.

Miesha Tate (30:31.19)
I don't know. mean, and I'm not saying it's right. I'm not saying it's wrong and everybody's gonna have to have their own belief. But I've just began to dig a bit deeper and I'm like, I think it's more than this fear mongering you got to do as the church says, you've got to conform because if you don't, you're going to hell. I think it's more than that. I think there's a connection and it's this circuit and this energy system that we're a part of that the spirituality realm that

that's maybe God, we could refer to that as God, that we're all connected to. And I think it's taken me a long time to get there, but I would say a big leap for me was having, I've only had one plant medicine journey, just one. that's all you need. Right. And it was this huge epiphany moments. And, and, you know, people like, don't want to try mushrooms because I might get addicted. Well, okay, fair. Maybe for you, that would be the case for me. I think I, I,

2020.

Miesha Tate (31:22.964)
enjoy a micro dose somewhat regularly. But as far as that big heavy dose, I felt compelled recently to like, I think I want to do one more journey and see where I get because there were so many things that came to me in that. But it was a work. wasn't just, I'm not going to a rave and his party and working on suppressing more feelings. It's not what I'm trying to do. I'm actually trying to improve and elevate my being. So that was one big part. then connection with the people around me.

I think at the time when I was at my lowest, had isolated myself from so many people. So I just started reaching out to friends and family, reconnecting. There was great aunts and uncles, my grandmother's younger siblings. My grandma had passed already. And I was like, you know, I've never really sat down and had a conversation with these eight other siblings of my grandmother's. you know, they're getting old. Like I, I'm going to talk about the old world, you know.

My grandma came from Switzerland. was three years old when she, when she immigrated and her stories and I loved it. That connection helped me feel whole again. It gave me more purpose and more understanding and more support than I think that I ever, um, you know, I could have had. And then obviously for me having kids was a big one too. You know, that was a big, big aha moment. Like, um, I had a big epiphany for me to want to elevate who I am so that these little tiny beings.

who are really depending on me to try to be my best because my ceiling is their floor. So if I elevate, I feel like I can elevate their starting points. So that's another big, was a big motivator for me. I got very competitive when I got pregnant. was like, I want to try to have the cleanest pregnancy to my knowledge. I want to try to be the best mom. want to understand the development of the baby at all the different stages. And I try to change my diet and do all these things if the baby's brain was developing or it's when the bones develop.

And I loved all of that. loved dedicating myself to something that I see as like, that's bigger than me. Like my children are bigger than me. They're more important than I am.

Freddie Kimmel (33:26.71)
Yeah, incredible. You did it.

So far, yeah, you know, so far they're good. I don't think they'll be, you know, too damaged. You know, I'm not perfect. I still yell and scream and I've spanked them. I try now, I don't believe in spanking anymore, but I was spanked as a kid. I was too. Oh, I just accepted it. Spare the rod, spoil the child, right? Oh, it made me tougher. We all have these justifications that go through our minds. This is what happened with, you know, this, I'm fine. Look how I turned out, right? Isn't that a classic cop out? Well, I'm fine. Look how I turned out. I'm like, are you or?

Could you be better? know, I mean, there are so many little traumas that we just don't stop to recognize because we're, we're, we're taught to not do that because that just slows us down from the daily grinds and we got to get the house. We got to get the car. We got to get the job. We got to the wife. Cause then on the other side of the rainbow, but you're chasing the end of the rainbow, you know, and it's, it's never really going to find, I feel like, um, provide the sense of self-worth and value that you find when you can center yourself.

and you know who you are.

I'm proud of you listening to the just, there's so many roads that you could have taken from that second loss. So many. so understanding like what was at your, what was it within reach for tools and then incorporating some new ones that weren't in your lexicon at that time. And now here you are today. And I don't know if you're like me, but it's like becomes a tumbleweed. Like the more you get into like,

Freddie Kimmel (34:57.602)
how can I squeeze every last drip out of life, the quality of life? And for me, that's being cognitively very, very sharp, physically strong, my sleep, my resiliency, my recovery score, all that stuff, it adds to the quality of the day. For me. As opposed to this, God, what was the movie? There was the movie like Wall Street, like Gordon Gekko, like the people are just, they're taking.

You know, it's a monetary take from life. And it's a very different way to move through it. And it's an, think it's new mostly to this generation, which is a luxury of this generation. I think we can look back at the past and you know, there's a couple of times you've said you're like, maybe that wasn't the best way to do it. Maybe, but this is a learned experience as we go forward. I want to know when you put yourself in the ring and you are literally having these, multitude of acute injuries, right? In a fight.

What are you doing? What do you do for recovery?

recovery is such a big one. And it wasn't for the longest part of my career, but I think it is the recovery aspect that has kept me in the game this long. You know, I'm, I'll be 39 in August, as of this recording would be 2025. And I'm still ranked inside the top 15, still competing, you know, two kids later. And the recovery aspect is huge. First, first and foremost, I am really big on sleep. I'm

I am a light guru. I am very particular. I think it drives my fiance nuts, but now he's more on board. He's gotten used to it, you know, he's in my biohacking ways and it's come around to, you know, serve our family better. So I think he's kind of like lucid distance a little bit on, but it used to be annoying. And I, totally understand it because it's like, Hey, turn that light off, turn this down, do this, do that. And it's like, I just can't stand it. Cause it's overwhelming to me when the lights are

Miesha Tate (36:57.186)
bright at night and I know that children are twice as sensitive to a melatonin suppression as adults are. So, you know, there's all kinds of little things that I keep in mind, but every little thing that I do that helps my children promote their health and wellbeing is like a win for me. It's a success, you know? So I'm really big on that. Lights go low. As the sun's out, we try to get out and skip the afternoon light as well as the morning light. didn't start with that, but afternoon light helps kind of inoculate.

Yeah.

Miesha Tate (37:25.632)
Inoculate there we go. That's where I was going for against like the blue light exposure at night So even if you do have that if you get that that sunset in your eyeballs, it'll help you deal with that I put the lights low low literally physically low like low on the ground So I actually have like a lamp in my bathroom, which is very weird Most people don't have a lamp in their bathroom and have night lights around but but everything's low Because you know our light receptors in our eyes are in the bottom half of our eyes

So when we have bright lights above us, that cues us to be awake. Right. So everything I do is lower, and especially for my children. It's pretty low because they're tiny, and tiny little people. But it pays. I don't have trouble getting my kids to sleep. Right. But I don't over-stimulate them. Electronics go off around sunset. It's like, except for rare occasions. And then I just be present with them. And we try to get outside. And morning light.

amazing.

Miesha Tate (38:22.562)
That's a big one too. You know, when I first wake up, my first five minutes is laying my head on the pillow and deciding what I want out of the day. Like setting some intentions before I get up and I get started. Then I pop my head off the pillow and I go outside and I get that, you know, that morning light in my eyes for, you know, two to 10 minutes. And then I come in and I get on my phone and I get to, I get going. I get to work on the day and I, I'm busy, busy, busy. You know, before this, I was talking to Molly Eastman. We had

great, great conversation and I taught a seminar this morning. So I'm down here in Austin, visiting with you and, this is what I like to do. I like to be busy. I like to move. I like to make the most out of my days and otherwise recover wise. I love red light for, know, especially for, for me, for acute injuries. and I had a friend of mine who had, it was like a mommy makeover. So it was like a breast lift, tummy tuck kind of thing and put her in my hyperbaric chamber with the red lights and

Just a small little anecdotal testimony. she gets out of the chamber, she pops her head out, and she goes, it's a soft shell. it's like birth. She's like, boop, her little head pops out. And she's like, this red light works so well. And I was like, well, how do you know it's not the chamber? Obviously, I probably don't need to tell your audience about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I'm a huge advocate. But in this case, she could clearly distinguish that it was a red light because she put the patch on one side and it stopped. But put the pad on the other side, the pain on that side stopped.

I've heard it's as effective as like taking an ibuprofen except that it actually is facilitates healing because it helps your mitochondria produce the energy that it needs to actually heal. I use it on my kids. Another funny story. One time we went to a cottonwood cove, somewhere outside of Vegas and we all got swimmers itch and you know, a three and five year old hobby and they might've even been, yeah, barely three and five.

having swimmers itch in a camper was not fun. It was good solid hour of crying and screaming and itching and being agony. And my son is screaming at the top of his lungs, which I did not have. And I wished I had packed it, but I slipped my mind. I want the red light because he knew like anytime he gets a, you know, gets a boo boo, like it helps like, you know, and okay, the science is there, whatever you could even make a case that it's a placebo effect and it's just the warmth or whatever. Some people might not buy into the red light. I

Miesha Tate (40:45.23)
1000 % have read it. I believe that it works. think there's enough science there to say that it works. But, you know, for him, regardless, like that was the thing that was going to make everything better. So it's cute. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I already mentioned it.

How long have been using a chamber?

I started using probably in like 2014.

Until you bought a chamber. Great.

I had a soft shell OXY Health chamber. still have it. Actually, it's funny. The seal on it just gave. Just now. So I already talked to Mayor, the owner of OXY Health now. And I was like, I was like, help me out. I need another soft shell, know? So we're going to get that. Because I use it.

Miesha Tate (41:26.686)
I use it regularly and I noticed too, you know, when I don't use it or my sleep suffers, like right now we're on a road trip, so the kids are kicking me all night and I don't have my regular things that I normally do, but I still wake up with the sun, I still go outside and we're spending a ton of time outside, which I love. Great vitamin D. So I'll go out at solar noon, you know, I'll get in the sun, know, expose all my skin and try to, you know, I use the app called D-Minder. Yep. Use that one. Yeah, I love that app. I don't know who made it. I'm not affiliated with it, but...

I love it and it tells me I aim for about 7,000 I use at least a day. I don't always hit it. Of course, you know, I probably won't today because it's I've been indoors and on the go but that's a great tool to use to kind of you know, vitamin D is not just a vitamin. It's a hormone. It's really important. Do your own research. I guess you want to know more but I'm a huge advocate of getting in the sun and it's free. I'm gonna try to ground and sauna. Sauna is a great one. Now cold plunge.

Great.

I have done, but I don't do it that often. I don't. I almost don't want one because I feel like if I get one, I'll be like, I have to do it more. You know, it's almost one of those situations, but I have a pool like it's pretty dang cold in the winter. And so, you know, it does the job. I'm more of like a 57 degree cold plunger.

You don't have a cold pl-

Freddie Kimmel (42:41.838)
There you go.

Miesha Tate (42:48.302)
And I find benefits. So I could do it at like 57 and I'll stay in for about 20 minutes. And I listened to a podcast with Andrew Huberman where he talked about the studies and the benefits and the caloric burn of doing that. And it's not as stressful for me. 57 is much better for me than getting in at 43 or 39, that shock. now as I'm listening more to the research that seems to be coming out, Dr. Stacey Sims is talking a ton about the difference between women and men.

Yeah.

Miesha Tate (43:16.238)
And I love this. I've listened to her book. I've yet to meet her or reach out to her, but I should do that because I'm a

New Zealand. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. One of the tech companies I worked with is in New Zealand. yeah, I've been deep, deep dive on cold plunge for at least seven years. And yeah, literally, figuratively, I actually have my first cold plunge ever on video. my god. And I remember. you're probably just. nothing.

Literally and and

Miesha Tate (43:42.68)
I didn't know how to breathe through. Yeah, got in.

Backyard in Jersey, just shaking. And it took me so long to warm up. But yeah, it sounds like the different way that men and women hold muscle and fat on their bodies and different hormonal structures that it's likely that women have. Now, I will tell you this from my experience, and I've put hundreds and hundreds of people into the ice. Women handle the ice better than men do, 100%.

that it's possible that they don't need that extreme temperature range, that 50 to 55 can be really great. I mean, I think it's all, I'm fascinated, I always wanna hear how people respond. Like, what do you need, how do you feel after? We just had an event at the house today, which you had an event this morning, I would have had you go, that my partner ran, there were like 70, it was called Medical Glue. So it's all the women in wellness in Austin that just wanted to come over and do a recovery day. So we had the sauna going, sauna's at 180.

had the cold plunge set at like 50. But you have a 180 sauna by the time you fit five or six people in and out of that tank, then it's like 50, 53, 55. It starts to warm up fast. But I think for me, it's always been like context is king. Like the idea, when you're alone in your backyard and it's 50 and then you're gonna get into like a 45 degree tub, that is terrible. But when you're with other people.

laugh at each other's like suffering a little bit that always makes it better but yeah baths are way better

Freddie Kimmel (45:16.738)
The connection of community is so profound. So you had sleep, light, grounding, hyperbarics. Don't have an ice plunge yet. Sauna.

Yep.

Miesha Tate (45:30.082)
I do a lot better with the heat. just to give you a little context on me, getting in cold, cold water has probably, it's probably number one on my list of most challenging things to do. That's how hard it is for me. I mean, I, I'm not joking right now when I say if you were to tell me that, right now I would need to choose between, you know, 10 minutes of, of, of, of, birth giving birth.

or 10 minutes of a cold plunge, I would have a serious debate. That's how challenging it is for me. I love it. Yeah, it's really hard. So I'm always really proud of myself when I do it. I only do it in my follicular phase though. I won't do it in my luteal phase. So the first half of my cycle, when I feel like those hormones are on my side to be able to handle more stress. once I move into the luteal phase where it just gets harder, molehills feel like mountains, it gets already, the stress tolerance is much lower.

Mm-hmm. I don't enjoy doing that then to me. It's too stressful Yeah, so I do try to be mindful of that But I will say when I do it regardless of its you know, 43 degrees, which that's what the UFC Performance Institute's Cold plunge is 43 44, which I have done before or 57 either way after I'm done doing it and I warm up it is the best feeling mmm in the world Like the norepinephrine and the dopamine is yes it is like

Nice A Great Rebound is a-

Miesha Tate (46:58.08)
a four hour high that just like the best ever. So I know that like the pot of gold at the end of it is definitely worth it, but that challenge for me to get in there and do that is really difficult. So, you know, I challenge myself in other little ways and get little wins. You know, I'll turn my shower cold right before I get out or, you know, I do what works for me and I try to be mindful of how I feel in my cycle. yeah.

That's how I make it work. So I will throw it in there every once in a while. It's great for weight loss too.

It is great. know, yeah, I think I can tell I shred body fat quicker. The I also think framing it is like our body's ability to regulate temperature, as opposed to this idea of, you know, a burrowee cold plunge. Right? Like we've again being in controlled 72 degree boxes and and controlled light and controlled warmth and everything's just so soft. We lived outdoors.

for a majority of our evolution, hundreds of thousands of years, I look at it more like, how can you use this tool to train your body to better regulate temperature? Yes. As opposed to the three minute ice bath.

Right, I love that way of thinking. I love that way of thinking and I think you're absolutely right that there's a stress adoption that's really beneficial and important and it doesn't mean that it always needs to be so cold that it's so hard that you will never do it again. know? could start with something much easier. I you could even start with like a 68 degree water. I that's still cold. You could just like get in the idea of getting in cold water. Turning your shower with cold at the end, right? That's still like, that's a big win.

Miesha Tate (48:40.02)
one of the ones that I'm a fan of is sticking your face into ice water or sticking your, mean, I'm not a fan. I don't like it, but you know, sticking your face and your hands into cold water because it still gives your body that kind of like, that was cold.

Himalayan dive reflex. Right. As well as vagal tone. Yeah. It's an easy hack. you know what else I like about that? It's accessible to everybody. Everybody in the world. Just about everybody. a bucket of ice.

Yeah, just about everybody. guess maybe there might be some poor kids in Ethiopia or something. That don't have ice. But they're probably not listening to this podcast. Yeah, they probably do.

like that.

Freddie Kimmel (49:17.006)
I would also love to ask you, what about, you have injuries within your career. So we looked at some of your recovery stuff. What are some of the things you've used to get through chronic injuries? Because I know that is a big conversation within the fight community, which is something that can, again, feel like you're chasing your best self because you have a nagging.

sciatica or a bad disc or a bad knee.

I would say the Mark Pro has been a game changer for me. That is something that helps me move the inflammation out in a productive way. I don't believe in icing at all, locally. I don't believe in it. The science is not there. It's been peer reviewed at least six times to try to prove that icing does work, and it doesn't.

So, I'll just throw that out there. If you want to listen to my podcast with built for growth, if you want to listen to the episode with Gary Reinhold, the anti-ice man, he explains it beautifully. and it makes so much sense. So I sing as a myth and, as, instead the lymphatic system is passive. They're really the only way, which is your kind of cleaning out system. It's going to take all the waste and broken things when you have an injury, AKA inflammation, which is not a bad thing. It's your body trying to heal.

You need it, don't try to get rid of it. Ibuprofen's not your friend. But you put the Mark Pro on and what it does is load the muscle for you while you can actually just sit and relax. And so it helps pump that waste out so that more can go in and help facilitate the healing process. So for me, that or the H-Wave, I think H-Wave is what they use more in the clinics, I think, and stuff like that. But at home, I use the Mark Pro. It's beautiful. It works really

Freddie Kimmel (51:08.47)
I'm gonna hate for you to home.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you can have the H-Wave at home. I have the Mark Pro. I need it. I think I should invest. I should get an H-Wave because I haven't really used that, but I've just used the Mark Pro.

Produr- do you know a little bit about the science of the device? Is it a direct current or is it alternating?

that's a great question. Could you explain what it would feel different about it?

It would feel different. It's the way the energy is applied to the muscle. it's really the, there's two devices that I know direct current would be a new fit, which can be used for growth. It can be used for like an elongation of the muscle fiber and then H-Wave, which has a high frequency and a low frequency. So we get a fast twitch or a slow twitch. The fast twitch is to exhaust the sodium potassium pump to interrupt the pain cycle.

Freddie Kimmel (51:57.9)
the slow twitch is to get that lymphatic pump. So I know it's got those two modes. And then people confuse it with a tens device, which is alternating current, which can actually shorten the muscle fibers. There's less science about that. There is a, I mean, obviously,

This is discussion. it's like H-Wave and Mark Pro I believe are the same. Okay. Similarly, they're, one is just like a more affordable, like I think they're actually the same company. Okay. If I'm not mistaken, I believe so. It's probably the same science between that. Yeah, because you can turn the dial and you get faster spasms and then can turn it down and you get those lower spasms and you, you know, put the patches on and whatnot. So yeah. So, you know, that red light, I use it religiously. I use it.

So, yeah.

Miesha Tate (52:40.332)
all the time. I try, I'll use the bed sometimes too, but at least what I've been explained is like the closer you can get it to your skin, the better. So mean, like I almost try to embed those pads on me, you know, like if they have little like lights in them and like, if I can see those indentations once I'm done, then I feel like I've done it right. Right. Right. So red lights, a big one. I've already mentioned the hyperbaric. There's also some technology at the UFC performance Institute, PEMF. That's one of the ones I could put that on.

around yeah, like my knee or whatever and it

You have like a coil or a wrap. it's like a pop pop. So that's a high, that's called a ringer device. Okay. So it's a strong enough wave to make the muscle belly contract. Yep. Yeah, probably, probably gotta be Pulse Centers of America. Blue Tower. Yeah.

It probably is. Okay. I don't know if it's, it's not, not a tower that I'm thinking. It's like this, it almost looks like the actual machine itself is like this little hard black briefcase thing. then it has this plastic, looks plastic. It's probably more silicone white tubing that kind of comes down into maybe that. Yeah. I'm not familiar with the brand on that one. And then, I think it's a

Could be a Magno-Ed.

Miesha Tate (53:52.51)
shockwave or something like that that the UFC Pro-Rance uses too. It gets like deep down and promotes like stem cell growth, kind of micro tears in the tissue. forgive me for not knowing their products, the name of it. It's like I just show up and I'm just like, do whatever you need to.

Does everybody have access to this recovery center? Everybody. Phenomenal.

Everyone on the UFC does.

Miesha Tate (54:13.058)
Right, so they do needling as well. I never needled myself, but I have it done to me. Obviously, I don't know how you would have that at home, but I think it's great. mean, I think it helps a ton. Signals the body to the area that it needs to heal. And sometimes we just need a little boost to help us know where to send everything, send the resources. Those are my top ones. And then this is one maybe not enough people talk about, but movement. I feel like movement is medicine.

You know, when I have an injury, you know, the rice protocol is a bunch of hogwash, rest, ice, compress, elevate. So it's funny, again, I'll go back to the episode that I did with Gary Reinal. The doctor who wrote the rice protocol once was presented with all the data, you know, met Gary Reinal, actually wrote the forward to the anti-ice man book and said, I was wrong.

I didn't know, you and that's you don't get doctors to do that very often. So, I mean, it must have been like very, very clear, you know, like, hey, I thought this was good. I thought this is what needed. You need to do the pretty much this exact opposite movement is going to help you heal more than anything. So if I have a stiff back, it's like, I'm going to go find a way to move that doesn't, know, it isn't it shouldn't cause pain that's debilitating. You know, obviously, Gary says use your brain never cause pain.

Maybe that'll stick with you, but I'm trying to move. And if you've ever noticed when we cause those micro tears, when you're like lifting weights, you're working out and you're sore, right? You get out of bed in the morning and that's the worst part of the day until you sit down again and then you go to get back up and you're like, this sucks. But the moment that you're moving or you warmed up or you start jogging or you know, it's like, okay, I feel good now. It's like, well, that lymphatic system is pulling a lot of the garbage out of there. And that's, we were meant to move.

So when you have injuries, even if like, let's say you're in in a, in a cast or something, move your toe, like you broke your ankle, move your toes, get your calf moving, like try to just anything that you can to facilitate movement. So I feel like for me, that's a no-brainer. do that all the time. It's like move.

Freddie Kimmel (56:19.8)
move. Amazing. I've slept with the H-Wave on before.

Yeah, I slept with the Mark Pro on too. Yeah. Absolutely.

You know the other thing I think is like podcasting and I've done this probably like five or six times is I've done it on my hip flexors and so like that and I never turn it up enough because I don't want it to look like I'm bouncing on camera but you're just you're getting this constant pump through your hip flexors and it's you know sometimes the interviews are long. Great hack.

Yeah. So those are my favorites.

Those are my favorites. Yeah. Amazing. Oh my goodness. So we're coming up on an hour. We're 56, 58. I want to be mindful of your time. Thank you. I could interview for you five times in a row. We'll do it again. I am out in Vegas. I'm coming out for A4M in December. Okay. Have you ever been to that? Oh yeah. I'll be there with Flopresso, which is a full body lymphatic-drained suit.

Miesha Tate (57:03.822)
But we will do this again. Are you ever out in Vegas?

Miesha Tate (57:12.94)
Yeah. Sounds like a great time to...

Miesha Tate (57:19.52)
okay.

So we'll be rocking it there. I would love to ask you, so beautifully broken podcast, what does it mean to put the broken pieces back together? What does that mean to you to be beautifully broken?

I think it's an opportunity for growth, you know, which ties as cheesy as it is right back into my podcast, you know, built for growth, because that is exactly what I'm trying to do is like take the broken pieces and turn it into something that signifies my elevation through life, like me overcoming those challenges. And every time you are broken, I say to athletes, I tell them all the time and again, kids, and it's kind of like, huh, what I tell them.

Get excited when you fail. Let's get rid of the stigma about that, that failure is bad. It's not bad. It's an opportunity to learn. It's an opportunity to be broken, but then to make it beautiful, right? To change it into something. And I think that when we have our traumas and we have our low points and we have these turning points, you for you, stage four cancer, you know what I mean? Like that turned into an opportunity. mean, I...

You probably agree, you probably wouldn't necessarily be here today with all these biohacking and wellness and these people, group you would have continued to live life the way that you had been. And maybe that was great for you, but I find that usually when I hit those rock bottom places that I elevate from that and I become a better version of myself. It's like a chance to reinvent who I am and come out on the other side better for it. So I would have to say that's probably

Miesha Tate (59:00.536)
For me, what beautifully broken would signify is it's an opportunity.

Beautiful and if you could go back to the Misha and who had just enrolled in her first fight and You could sit down with her and give her any advice. What would you say? I would say

would say don't be afraid of being your best. Don't prioritize winning over being your best because now my only goal is to shake the hand of the woman that's the best version of myself. I want to meet her. And there are times when I do, get to, I get into the octagon and it's like, that is the best that I've ever been. Congratulations, now let's try to get better. It's always ongoing, but before that I was crippled by fear of failure.

was so afraid to lose that I handicapped myself and I would do just enough to win, but I was far from my best. And so would try to instill that in my former self. And I think that I would have had a quote unquote better career as far as, you know, I probably would have accomplished being a world champion sooner and maintained it longer and all these things, but it's all good because it was all perfect. I learned I needed to be broken. I needed to hit rock bottom. I needed that.

If I did.

Freddie Kimmel (01:00:17.922)
Yeah. Yeah. Beautifully said. Thank you. Thank you for being a guest. great. Yes. Thank you. We'll do it again. Yeah. Absolutely.