How I Cured Severe Tinnitus with Peter Studenik, 154

00:00:00 Peter: I started to go to psychotherapy, and I started opening that, okay, I am in big stress, or my tinnitus increased the day after I had meeting with my boss or when I argue with my mother or my ex-wife. And with this psychotherapist, we started to find out that I'm suppressing a lot of emotions, that I'm suppressing a lot of things which I should say,

00:00:33 Chazmith: Hey, hey, welcome to our Power is Within podcast. I'm your host Chazmith, and my mission for this podcast is to inspire you to take your power back and to realize that you are the healer that you've been looking for all along. I believe that we are all capable of healing in mind, in body, and in soul. 

00:00:52 Chazmith: Today's episode is sponsored by Primal Trust Academy and Community, created by my dear friend, Dr. Kathleen King. Primal Trust is a membership site that helps you to find freedom from chronic illness and trauma, and it is quickly growing as one of the largest worldwide online healing communities. The membership includes Access to Regulate, which is a level one comprehensive program to self-regulate the brain and nervous system, focusing on both a top-down and bottoms-up approach, which is a prerequisite to the level two mentorship, where we go deeper into the inner work of attachment and trauma healing, and level three, where we focus on values-based living and community. You will have daily forum support, peer-led study and support groups, and a variety of daily live classes to help support your healing journey. One of the greatest things about the Primal Trust membership is that it is always evolving and expanding based on the needs of the community. Self-healing doesn't have to be alone healing, and this might be the community for you. So, click the link in the show notes today and use the code OPIW for 5% off. 

00:01:56 Chazmith: Now our guest today is Peter Studenik. After four years of debilitating tinnitus, Peter finally found lasting relief. Today we deep dive into what worked for him and what he learned along the way. You can substitute any of the other typical TMS symptoms for the tinnitus that we talk about today and Peter's shares will still apply to you. 

00:02:34 Chazmith: Peter, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here with me today.

00:02:37 Peter: Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward.

00:02:41 Chazmith: Yeah, of course. So, I know that you are here today to talk about your personal recovery journey with chronic tinnitus, correct?

00:02:50 Peter: Yes, this is correct. I had it for four years in the past.

00:02:55 Chazmith: Four years. Was that your only symptom or your only diagnosis? Or did you have any other types of chronic symptoms as well? Or was that really it?

00:03:05 Peter: Before tinnitus, I had strong migraines for 10 years. And after I cured my migraines, the tinnitus started. And I had also sensitivity to noises connected with tinnitus.

00:03:25 Chazmith: Okay, all right. And now, if I'm correct, it's been many years since you actually recovered from tinnitus and haven't had any issues since, correct?

00:03:35 Peter: Yeah, it's like six or seven years already. I'm without any tinnitus symptoms.

00:03:42 Chazmith: Okay. Very cool.

00:03:44 Peter: Also, my sensitivity to sound is okay now. Yesterday I was on concert, so it is just great.

00:03:54 Chazmith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet at one point if you had a sound sensitivity, concerts wouldn't have been a very fun experience.

00:04:00 Peter: Yeah. Yeah.

00:04:01 Chazmith: Yeah. Now you also cured migraines. So maybe we'll have a chance to kind of pick your brain about how you did that as well. But you don't get migraines anymore now?

00:04:10 Peter: No, no. For, I don't know, it's long, long time, maybe 12 years. I didn't have any, any migraine. I must like look my head. It's like we in Europe, if we say something which we don't want to come back again, we do this. 

00:04:27 Chazmith: Oh, okay gotcha okay you do this? 

00:04:33 Peter: It's like you need to knock on the wood. 

00:04:36 Chazmith: Oh, we did that too yeah knock on the wood yeah. 

00:04:38 Peter: Yeah, and you know yeah, my head is from wood, or our heads are from wood.

00:04:44 Chazmith: Gotcha. So, and you had migraines like for your whole life or for you said a certain amount of time? 

00:04:52 Peter: It was for 19 years old until 29 so 10 years.

00:04:57 Chazmith: 10 years of migraines. Interesting. Now that you've done all this healing work, are you able to look back and understand why you might have had them?

00:05:05 Peter: Yeah, sure. Because this was a crucial part of my healing journey. I understood what was wrong in my life and how this happened to have migraines and tinnitus. Because the root cause of both conditions were very similar.

00:05:28 Chazmith: Oh, okay. And what have you discovered is the root cause?

00:05:33 Peter: Let's say it's mostly stress. And this stress can be divided into several different stresses. One could be like mental stress or psychological stress. We know this stress a lot. But there can be a chemical stress when we food some food with artificial sweeteners, preservants, junk food, etc. Then can be stress from water because when we drink, for example, tap water, it is full of some residues from the pipes. And also, not sleeping well is a stressor. And yeah, a lot of light in the night could be a stressor. So, a lot of these stressors combined together, and this happened. So, at the first, it was migraines because I studied at school the university and it was very hard for me because it was like material science and there was also nuclear physics, and it was very hard for me to study this. I finished that university, but my migraine started because my brain was I would say overused or.

00:06:55 Chazmith: Mm-hmm. And do you have any insight as to why tonight started once you feel the brain?

00:07:07 Peter: Yes. Actually, with the migraines, I solved some parts of my stressors. For example, I finished school, but I also changed my diet a little bit. But there were still a lot of things which I had to solve to be 100% healthy. or really healthy. With tinnitus, before tinnitus I went to concert, and it was very loud. After the concert, my ears started ringing and whistling. I would say tinnitus, imagine barrel of a gun and you put this gunpowder as your life goes. By living life,` you don't like, by having a relationship you don't like, by a lot of like stress in your life, overworking, etc. And you are like adding this gunpowder in this bottle of gun. And then I went to a concert and this concert was a spark and this barrel gun blows or blow. But if my life before was okay, it will not blow because the barrel gun will be empty.

00:08:32 Chazmith: Yeah, you're basically explaining how you are stacking all these stresses on top of one another. And we can handle so much stress, but there's always that one thing that's the final straw. And how you said a concert any other time in your life, if you didn't have all of this stress building up, it would have been fine. But because you already had you know; your system was kind of tapped out on what it could handle as far as the stressors that were being put into it. And then that concert just kind of caused it was like the final thing that finally caused your system to basically create a symptom or like a chronic disorder.

00:09:16 Peter: Yes, yes, exactly. You are. 

00:09:19 Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, did you realize that right away or was that more something that you discovered over time as you were on your healing journey seeking out answers and ways to heal?

00:09:34 Peter: I discovered it on my journey of healing and with the migraines I tried also everything to cure migraines and my medical specialist, she's like senior medical specialist here in drug hospital and she gave me triptans which are very strong like anti-migraine drugs and it helped but I told her that I don't want to like take these drugs all my life and she said okay we have the migraine diary it's a new thing and you can when you have a seizure migraine seizure you can write down what did you eat, who did you meet, were you in stress, and you make some notes. And then you will find what things are triggering your migraines. And by this, I discovered that, for example, my migraine was triggered by sugar, by red wine, by junk food, by parfums and not sleeping well and meeting certain people. So, by this, I was able to find out that some things in my life are triggering my migraines. And after I eliminated all these things from my life, my migraines just disappeared or didn't come again.

00:11:09 Chazmith: Yeah. Wow. So, you still have eliminated all that stuff from your life? You don't-Even the people? 

00:11:18 Peter: Yes, certain people, yes. And also junk food. But today, I love red wine. I eat some sweets but limited. So yes, I'm not so strict as in the time I had migraines or tinnitus. But still, I'm following some healthy recommendations, I would say.

00:11:44 Chazmith: Yeah. Now, when you had tinnitus, was it 24-7 constant ringing or was it like the migraines where it came and went, and you could actually keep a diary and look for the triggers of the tinnitus?

00:12:01 Peter: It was 24/7. 

00:12:04 Chazmith: Oh, wow. 

00:12:05 Peter: And it was very high pitch noise or ringing noise. And I was able to hear it even on subway it was so loud and it was non-stop like in the night, I couldn't sleep, in the work, I couldn't concentrate. It was all, it was all time there. And this, this was like terrible. And because of that, I, from the beginning, I was not able to apply migraine diary to tinnitus. Because it was all the time, all the same for me, all the time terrible. And what I made is like, this is like a discovery I made that I found out how to measure tinnitus every day. So, you see if your tinnitus is like stronger or lower than day before. And with this measuring, I was able to journaling again and make tinnitus diary based on migraine diary. And I was able to find out what things are increasing my tinnitus, and which are decreasing my tinnitus. And then I started to change my life again.

00:13:26 Chazmith: Ah, okay. And so, this was a four-year journey for you to finally experience complete relief.

00:13:35 Peter: Yeah, three years, nine months, something like that.

00:13:38 Chazmith: Yeah, it's a long time to have ringing in your ears, my goodness. So, from my understanding from our communication offline, you actually came up with a multi-phase process that supported you on your recovery journey that you now share with other people because you have found it to be a really supportive process, correct?

00:14:04 Peter: Yes, that is correct.

00:14:05 Chazmith: Yeah. Do you want to talk about it?

00:14:08 Peter: Yeah, I can go through the steps, which are very important in my recovery and recovery of many others. The first step is everybody needs to go to a medical specialist. to ENT or neurology to find out that there is no objective cause of tinnitus but in 99% of cases it is absolutely okay there is no objective cases so but it needs to be done before any other steps. And second steps after three years of total disappear because I visited maybe 30 plus medical specialists until one of them said me, "Okay, it is possible to heal tinnitus." And this medical specialist was professor Pavel Yastrebov I think he's from University of Yale and he's not ENT specialist, but he is neurologist and he look at the tinnitus from neurology point of view. And find out that tinnitus is not problem in ears, but it is malfunction of our brain and there is a part of brain called hypothalamus which is our filter, and this filter is like malfunctioning and it is increasing some sounds which should be like decreasing.

00:15:38 Peter: Pavel Jastrebov started his work based on one study or research in the past there was students in medical school sending to soundproof room and they told them that they will be like playing them very, very low sound in the central room and they should find out what is this sound and they go there one by one. And when they go out, 90% of them, like really healthy students without tinnitus, heard some sound. Some of them heard whistling, some of them ringing, some of them some noises. And it was like proof that everybody hear the sound in ear, that it is a natural sound. But for people struggling with tinnitus, The sound is increased by our brain and for healthy people the sound is decreased or eliminated by our brain. So this was like second step was understanding what is the root cause or real cause of tinnitus. And Pavel also discovered therapy to like, because when you have tinnitus, your brain is very focused on tinnitus and it is focused, it became dangerous for you and it is increased again more and more focused, more increased. So it is like vicious cycle. And Pavel Jastrebov was like trying to find out how to disconnect this fixation of brain. And he found out that listening to special noises eight hours a day is like disconnecting this fixation to tinnitus.

00:17:27 Chazmith: Wow, interesting.

00:17:28 Peter: Yeah.

00:17:29 Chazmith: Do you know how or why? Did he discover like why the certain sound waves actually helped it disconnect?

00:17:38 Peter: Yeah, these sounds are very similar to sounds which are pleasant in nature. It's like raining sound or waterfall in the very, very far waterfall. These like soothing sounds, it's called pink noise or white noise. And it's like these are soothing our nervous system.

00:18:00 Chazmith: Yeah.

00:18:01 Peter: So everything which suits your nervous system is decreasing tinnitus, and everything which is triggering the nervous system is increasing tinnitus.

00:18:15 Chazmith: Interesting.

18:16 Peter: Okay.

00:18:19 Chazmith: I think I read somewhere on your website, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there was also a study that you mentioned where people were also put into a room to listen to like sounds and that the outcome like depending on how they viewed or perceived the sounds would correlate to whether or not they were likely to experience tinnitus like if they thought the sounds were threatening versus like, you know, just had no real like strong opinion one way or another is that correct?

00:18:52 Peter: This is absolutely correct. If you have good life and you are like most of the time calm and you will go to concert, your ears will be slightly damaged by the sound. And there will be healing process in your ears, which will increase this internal sound in your ears for a few days. And after a few days, it is like healed. And then it will go to previous level and then you don't hear it. But when you are like anxious, when you are in big stress, you go to the concert, do the same, there will be healing process for a few days, but when you start to think that this sound is dangerous, your brain will put intention there and will increase it.

00:19:45 Chazmith: Creating that spiral downward, that downward spiral where it becomes something that was just a healing phase into now a chronic stressor.

00:19:54 Peter: Yes, yes. And because of that, I love the work of Howard Schubiner, because he find out that this is also like, most of chronic pains have also this spiral, that we are afraid of this pain and then the pain increases.

00:20:16 Chazmith: Yeah, right. Yes, we catastrophize over it. And then what we're doing is we're continuously sending this fear or danger message back and forth. So brain creates pain, brain notices pain, we freak out, we send message of fear, brain reinforces that there must be a problem in a brain continues to send that danger signal down and it shows up. as in your experience, the tinnitus, but for other people, it could be back pain, or some other type of physical pain, or, you know, sometimes even something in the gut, you know, or tons of other chronic illness symptoms. Yeah, it's like kind of all the same. And so what starts as one thing, due to us catastrophizing or getting into a fear state, having hypervigilance becomes something bigger, in a sense, we kind of get stuck in that pattern.

00:21:05 Peter: Yes, everything that is important and dangerous for you, your brain will increase it. For example, when we will be in the pub, and someone says Peter, you will not notice it. But if someone says chess, you will immediately turn your head because your brain knows that chess is important sound for you and will increase it and Peter is not important and will eliminate it. So this is how this like part of our brain works.

00:21:37 Chazmith: Yeah, yeah. So step two for you, the understanding phase was actually realizing that there wasn't a structural issue with your ear, but that there was actually this kind of quote-unquote malfunction happening in a part of the brain. And so now we have this awareness. And from the time that you first discovered this awareness on your 30th doctor, what do you do after that? Where do you go from there? You mentioned one thing was to spend eight hours a day listening to soothing sounds. Was that in and of itself enough for you or were there other things that you needed to do for yourself?

00:22:16 Peter: I started to study about our brain as many books or I read as many books I can about how the brain is working to understand why in the stress our brain is working differently. And it is for say hormonal work. Because when you are in stress, the cortisol and adrenaline is released, or mainly these two hormones, stress hormones, and your brain starts to work differently. So it is not like psychological things, but it is really physical things that your other hormones are released when you are not in the stress. So, I was trying to find all the ways how can I decrease cortisol and adrenaline levels in my life. Because actually, I'm a scientist, but I studied material science and economic science, but still I was trying to do scientific approach for this.

00:23:19 Peter: And what I did, I started to listen to this pink noise on my MP3 player with normal headphones. And really, maybe after two or three weeks, I discovered that sometimes I put volume 15 and I hear tinnitus and I hear the ping noise because this noise needs to be also lower than your tinnitus.

00:23:49 Chazmith: Oh, okay.

00:23:50 Peter: So I was tuning this every morning in the quiet room and sometimes I found that I am able to hear, for example, this sound on volume 10 and sometimes only on volume 15. When I had a good day, I put it to 10, I was able to hear it. Some days when I had a bad day, I put it to 10 and I was not able to hear it. I was able to hear it only the tinnitus. And I knew that that day my tinnitus was stronger and I need to also put my noise volume up. And by this way, I started to record my daily volumes. I knew that one day it was like 14, one day it was 20, one day 10. I also write as for my grand diary, I wrote down what I ate, what I drank, who I meet, what I did. After two weeks, I was trying to find connections in bad days and good days. First of all, what I discovered was that my tinnitus is increased by bananas, for example.

00:25:02 Chazmith: Interesting.

00:25:03 Peter: Yeah. I don't know why, but yeah, it was increased by bananas. And then I found out that roller skating increased my tinnitus, meeting my boss, talking to my ex-wife. There was a lot of things which I started to eliminate. And I found out that when I go to sauna, my tinnitus is like lower the next day. So I started to go to sauna two times a week.

00:25:32 Chazmith: Okay, okay. So you mentioned also several times that you had to make changes to your life. And so this diary really helped you in one capacity to see, okay, bananas, or, you know, in the case of the migraines, red wine, sugar, but certain people conversations with your boss, but unless you're going to quit your job, you can't just stop communicating with your boss. So sometimes we have to actually go deeper and understand why the communications with this person is causing x, y, and z. There a perception of have is for an emotion. I have is there uh some type of, you know, mental like thought that I have about this person. So sometimes we have to do some deeper in work. How did you find any experience that you actually needed to do any type of inner healing work around your mental state and your emotional state in general and how you perceive life on the outside?

00:26:40 Peter: Yes, definitely. The journaling, or finding song, Tinnitus Diary. Tinnitus Diary was only the beginning. But what I needed to do was also to fix these things. And yes, of course, you can quit your job, not talking to your wife, etc. But it was not an option. So I asked for help. I started to go to psychotherapy and I started opening that, "Okay, I am in big stress or my tinnitus increased the day after I had meeting with my boss" Or when I argue with my mother or my ex-wife. And with this psychotherapist, we started to find out that I'm suppressing a lot of emotions, that I'm suppressing a lot of things which I should say and I don't. And also that I'm in work which I don't like just because of the money or because of some career and some prestige, I would say. and that also we are with my ex-wife very different or we have like very different like hobbies and priorities in life.

00:28:00 Peter: So I went to psychotherapy for nine months every week and slowly one by one or step by step I started to like express what I need, what I want, what I don't want. And this relationship started to change and actually it ended up that I quit my job and I got divorced. But in many cases, it could not happen. Which few of my friends, which were also triggering my tinnitus, they were doing something and I told them, "Okay, don't do it, please. Because it hurts me or make me angry." And they say, "Okay, I just didn't know that it makes you angry." And they just stop doing it like from and they never do it again. So a lot of my relationship changed because of the psychotherapy, psychotherapy work.

00:28:56 Peter: What was very important in my case, when I started with tinnitus measuring and diary, I was able to see that my tinnitus is like oscillating, but it is like decreasing, it has decreasing tendency. And I started with easy things, not eating bananas, not eating like alcohol, not eating sweets, not eating like fried food, junk food, et cetera. And I know that when I will continue, my tinnitus will decrease to zero or some level which will not bother me. And only after that, I was able to do these harder things because expressing my needs and emotions was very, very hard for me. For example, my most suppressed emotion was crying or sadness. Because I was raised up that boys don't cry. 

00:29:55 Peter: And I didn't cry for 18 years. From 12 to 30, I didn't cry a single tear. Maybe one tear or something, but I didn't cry. And after this psychotherapy, I started to also read some books about some stories which were similar to my childhood. And after reading one such story, and after some time of psychotherapy, I started to cry. And I cried for four hours in a row. And what was very, very interesting at that point, that I still had the tinnitus, but it didn't bother me at the time. It was first time after three years and something, and I hear it, it was strong, but it didn't bother me. At that moment that if I have so much suppressed things inside of me, I cannot be healthy. But when I will process it, I will be.

00:30:54 Chazmith: Yeah. You had a huge emotional release, huh?

00:30:58 Peter: Yeah, very much. Yeah.

00:31:02 Chazmith: Over throughout this time, as you write a book, you know, about something like your childhood, and you start to understand, you know, these deeper complexities and realize, wow, I literally have been repressing all this and I haven't been tapped into my emotion. Did you get to a place where you started having self-compassion and a lot of just grace for yourself and where you were at and understand, wow, this life I've lived and this little boy and then this man I became, I never held space for him or I didn't acknowledge his needs. Did that lead you to self-love and compassion?

00:31:39 Peter: Yes, definitely. For me, it's like a lifetime process. But let's say during tinnitus, I did a lot of work to be kind to myself and to follow my dreams and my needs. But even after the tinnitus, my work didn't stop and I'm still working on this because I'm still discovering new things about me which were suppressed. But let's say tinnitus, 70% of things were solved, I would say.

00:32:15 Chazmith: Yeah, so what really happened is what started as migraines and then tinnitus really just became a catalyst for you to continue down this path of continued growth and unfolding.

32:29 Peter:  Yes, because it's just great. I never felt so good as I feel today, even in the childhood or a lot of people like remember the old good times but for me these times are the best so.

00:32:46 Chazmith: Yeah, that's awesome that's really great and so at the time that you had this four-hour crying session my head just hurts thinking about crying for four hours. When you had that, you said you still had the tinnitus, but that it wasn't bothering you in the moment. But then there, it was a short time after that you really felt like a lot of relief from the tinnitus where you felt like you were truly recovered. Were there any other huge, uh, pivotal action steps that you took or anything else that you felt like was a really big part of that journey into healing besides the psychotherapy and the learning how to express your emotions and your needs?

00:33:29 Peter: Yeah. Also, there was like a breaking point after this crying. I came home and I decided to not look on internet or everywhere else about bad Tinnitus stories. I stopped it and I just put down to the internet success tinnitus stories and I was like reading only successful Tinnitus stories. I was looking only for like positive, for people which like help themselves and eliminate tinnitus fully or partially and was trying to find out how they did it and I was like reading only positive like things about tinnitus from that point.

00:34:17 Chazmith: Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, you want to reinforce to the brain what is possible in a positive way. We don't want to keep sending it these horror stories, which then reinforce that it is dangerous or that it can't heal. It's that constant education reminder that, no, I can heal. Look at all these other people are doing it. You're finding evidence.

00:34:36 Peter: Yeah, and for me, for example, the big inspiration is Dan Millman. I don't know if you know him. He's like American or US acrobat and he shattered his leg on a motorcycle accident and he should not be able to walk and then he won the championship. So this was like a movie which I saw maybe 10 times during my tinnitus. 

00:35:02 Chazmith: Wow, okay that's awesome yeah that's more evidence like if he can heal from that you can heal from this.

00:35:09 Peter: Yeah, but in my case really what was very important to understand that problem is not in ears because if you think or yeah we are healing ears and the problem is not there you are not able to solve it.

00:35:19 Chazmith: Correct.

00:35:20 Peter: And when I read Pavalia's troubles work, for me it was immediately obvious that this is the case and I still hear it but I know that, yeah I need to fix my brain and then it will be okay. I knew it and it called me down and also, as I said when I was like measuring the tinnitus and it was like postulating by but going down, that this decreasing tendency also calmed me down a lot. So this was crucial for me to see that I'm in the right direction.

00:35:57 Chazmith: Yeah, yeah, that was more evidence for sure.

00:36:00 Peter: And also, maybe one of the last big steps is that I found out that after some sports, for example, roller skating, my tinnitus is increased. So I found a physiotherapist and we were working on the posture because my posture was terrible. And we found out that if I fix my posture, the spores will not increase the tinnitus. And it happened.

00:36:24 Chazmith: Oh, that's great. So you didn't have to quit roller skating.

00:36:27 Peter: No.

00:36:28 Chazmith: Okay, there you go. Now, you said a moment ago that this is basically a lifelong journey. Though the tinnitus is gone, you're still on this journey. So these days, what is your self-care routine like? Do you have a daily routine or does it really fluctuate?

00:36:46 Peter: I have very strict daily routine, which I love. So I wake up and I meditate in my bed for 20 minutes. Actually, I'm very bad in meditation. I fully meditate maybe one minute from these 20 minutes, but I'm improving. I hope that in half a year, I will be meditating two minutes from these 20 minutes, but it's like muscle work. I started like half a year ago, and it was like 10 seconds, and now it's a minute, so it's improving, but it's very, very hard for me. Then I have a dog, so we go outside, And we go near the workout gym or outside workout gym. And I'm working out every morning during snowing, raining, sun. I'm doing this like every day and I love it. And I have workout in the winter when it's very cold, maybe 30 minutes, in summer one hour. And then I go home and I eat something. Actually, before working out, I eat meat only like one time in two weeks. And also, I don't eat dairy products. but I'm doing like curcuma latte with soy milk and a lot of cinnamon. Cinnamon and curcuma are best things for the, for our health. It's like great antioxidants, etc. So I'm doing this. This is my daily drink. And when I came home, I eat something, And I try to eat beans every day. It's a blue zone diet. The people who have been living here for 100 years are fully healthy. There are a few zones in the other world and I'm trying to eat as they do. And this is like strict routine and then I'm not so strict about myself anymore. I would like to have just fun. So when I go to restaurant with my friends, I don't need to eat like healthy food because I knew that I had already two healthy foods before. So I'm trying to be healthy half the time and have fun another time. But I don't go, for example, to fast food. It's like, I don't like it anymore. But yeah, this is my routine.

00:39:12 Chazmith: And you work. You work and do other things throughout the day and stuff, obviously.

00:39:17 Peter: Yeah.

00:39:18 Chazmith: But you changed your job, right? You changed your job. The job from the boss that it heightens your tinnitus.

00:39:24 Peter: Yeah, actually…

00:39:36 Chazmith: Yeah. 

00:39:37 Peter: I was in a very big position in a corporation and today I'm just a marketing guy in some company and I love it. Actually, I love my job and before I hated it.

00:39:41 Chazmith: Yeah, that's good. That's good. It helps you make a change and to do something that you've loved instead of doing something that you hated every day thinking you had to do it. That's great.

00:39:53 Peter: Actually, there was one thing and this is very, like, maybe it will be important for listeners. that at that time I saw that I live a happy life, because I could not imagine anything better. Now, when I see my past, it was terrible. But at that time, I had a supercar, which I always wanted as a kid. I had a wife, which I always wanted. I had a job or career, which I always wanted. But I found out during the psychotherapy that I'm trying to please my parents. But my parents, they did not ever say it to me directly, but it was indirectly. We were only celebrating some like big successes in the sport because I also did like extreme sports for 15 years or in the school or in the job. And I feel beloved only when I did something big. When I had only fun and was happy, I didn't feel love from them. I didn't feel love from them. So I was trying unconsciously doing all these things to be loved. And this was like very big, like catch.

00:41:11 Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah. It's huge. And hopefully you learned that ultimately what matters most is that you can love yourself in your life that you've created and you don't need that permission from anyone else.

00:41:23 Peter: Yeah, but it was like quite a long journey for me.

00:41:27 Chazmith: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. That's okay. So there's other things too. You said you do, you have a marketing job, but you also have really done some things around the tinnitus and it's kind of led you to write a book, correct? And create some resources for other people who are suffering from tinnitus to help them on their healing journey.

00:41:49 Peter: Yes. When I healed or cured my tinnitus, I was so happy that I immediately wrote a book so others don't need to suffer as I did because for me it was really, really terrible. And I wrote this book, How Did I Cure It? And also I'm studying tinnitus almost every day or brain because it's my hobby. From the time it's fascinating me and in the time it's I think the book is today it's the seventh release and I'm like adding to the book the findings from work with other people which have or had tinnitus. Because it can be different. The past can be different. And some things are, I would say, same for all. If you will eat junk food with a lot of chemicals and toxins in the food, you will trigger a nervous system, you will increase your tinnitus. But for some people, there is no need to do mental work. For some, there is no need to do, like, physiotherapy work. Some just fix their diet or talk to their spouse and, like, things are being fixed. Or some of them only hear the ping noise and after a few months, Tinnitus goes away. They are very lucky ones. But for me, it was like all the steps and I'm trying to put or what I was trying to find out how to help as many people as possible.

00:43:30 Chazmith: Yeah, that's great. How can people find your book?

00:43:33 Peter: They can find it on Amazon and by typing my name they will find it. 

00:43:40 Chazmith: Okay, what's it called? 

00:43:41 Peter: It's called, I Cured My Tinnitus. 

00:43:44 Chazmith: Okay, and how can people learn more about what you're up to or connect with you?

00:43:49 Peter: They can go to my web, iCuredMyTinnitus.com. I have also Facebook pages, Peter Studenik, and I have also Instagram account, again, Peter Studenik. I'm putting there a lot of interesting things, not only about tinnitus but how to also be healthier and happier in our lives. Yeah, and there is a contact or email they can send me any question. They have, and I think that's pretty all.

00:44:21 Chazmith: Good, good, good, good.

00:44:23 Peter: I have a YouTube channel. I have a YouTube channel.

00:44:28 Chazmith: We'll include all the links in the show notes. I'm going to ask you one final question I ask everybody on the show, and that question is if you could only spend the rest of your life sharing one message with the world, what one message would you spend your life sharing?

00:44:45 Peter: Be with people you love and they are very nice to you.

00:44:52 Chazmith: Okay. Be with people you love and make sure they're very nice to you.

00:44:56 Peter: Yeah.

00:44:57 Chazmith: Okay. I love it. Thank you. Anything else you want to add?

00:45:04 Peter: Just don't give up because there is a way. and when you will like measure it you will see the results with easy things and then maybe your tinnitus will be fixed with easy things. Maybe with harder things but you will, when you fix the easy things and you will see the good direction. The decrease of your tinnitus you will be brave enough to to do the harder things as well.

00:45:37 Chazmith: Yeah. 

00:45:40 Peter: Definitely, it will increase your life well-being, not just fixing tinnitus.

00:45:46 Chazmith: That's true. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here and thank you for sharing your story and chatting with me today.

00:45:51 Peter: Thank you very much for your great questions.

00:45:58 Chazmith: All right, friends, that is all for today. As always, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you do find value in this podcast, please remember that you can help support future episodes for as little as 99 cents per month. There is a link in the show notes called Support This Podcast. Also, follow @ourpoweriswithin on Instagram to join me with the weekly challenges. And until next time, make this week great.