Celebrity Plastic Surgeon: The Ayahuasca Awakening That Changed His Life

I spent years in a very dark place where I just I didn't really believe in a higher power at all. And as I came out of that and I started to find some love and rediscovery of me, I had an experience in ayahuasca that kind of helped me realize that prayer is just gratitude. And it reintroduced me to spirituality and the higher power that I had lost for years. Nicholas Howland is a board-certified, compassionate, and transformative plastic surgeon. Beyond his practice, he is recognized as a speaker and storyteller committed to helping others step into greater wholeness, both inside and out. Take some time to rediscover you every single day, and you will find self-love for you, which I think is the most important gift you can find. And... And it spans the globe like a super high school internet. Elvis, today, Apple is going to reinvent the bar. It's not over until I win. The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. That's extraordinary. The impossible. Oh, that is sensational. Welcome back to my season of Legacy Makers. My name is Keira Brinton, and I am so excited to introduce to you one of our extraordinary authors who just recorded their Legacy Maker episode today, Nicholas Howland. Hello. How are you? Oh, I'm so good. How was that today? Fun. It was fun. Actually. Yeah. Yeah. We did a little photo shoot. Yeah. I told my story. Yeah. I cried because that's I'm a crier. It was great And what I saw was the second You picked up the mic in the behind photo shoot and I was like oh he was always meant for this Like I was like we just locked into his most easy way Like, this is what you were meant to do. Yeah, I my wife will always tell you. She's like, oh, he's got main character energy every single day. I love that so much. And sometimes sometimes she's gonna be like, OK, give me a spot. Give me a little seat. I love it. And she's perfect partner. It's so good. It's so good to watch. And I love that Haley's here so I can kind of get to know your wife and just see you guys together. Because in a week, we're going to the private island. I know. To write your book on the TV show writer's island. All things I never thought would have been said about me in one sentence. Isn't that amazing? Yeah, I'm so happy I found you because I have been trying to write this book for three years now. Yeah. And I have had so many blocks and just getting it through to the finish line. Yeah. And I know one of your authors, Carissa Sherwood. Yep. And when I saw her launch her book, I was like, OK, I love the marketing. I love that you're able to do this and introduce me to whoever your person is. And you and I talked. Yeah. And I remember you're like, well, this is my process. Our next retreat is in two weeks. And I'm like, that's not going to work. Yeah. And he said, well, I only got one of the retreat this year and it's in a month or two. And I'm like, that also is not going to work with my schedule. Yeah. And then he said, well, I've got this other options a little out of the box. And you told me all about Riders Island and the deal. And I thought, OK, that sounds really cool. And what I need. And I don't know. And I I remember going down to my wife and what you have to understand is we made a very strong, committed goal this year that we were going to be home and we were going to connect to the things and the people that mattered the most. Last year we took 12 weeks off. We had four international trips We had a wedding Great year Yeah But it was too much yeah and so we set this goal and when i came down so we have one trip planned this year that it yeah and when i came downstairs and i said hey there's this thing what do you think she just looked at me and she goes i think that sounds like why we're supposed to be home oh and whoo oh it's so beautiful that kind of support from your spouse where it's not even like a well we're busy here we've got to do this or we might have to cancel this just that immediate like fuck yes this is why support from your spouse meant everything and so i was all in i love that what a beautiful i love that that was the entrance i didn't know that i love that so much i also love that i had that conversation with you when i was in Miami and here we are together in Miami. Um, for I, what I would love is if you could give us a two minute description of this book that you're writing and why it's so important to you. So the working title right now is the atheist's prayer and the, it's a memoir and it goes from my life as a kid, which was pretty, I was born into an LDS Mormon family in Utah, and I was all in. I believed every bit of it. And at 19, I went and served a two-year mission, lived in Russia for two years, and was fully in. And then went through a period of life where I was excommunicated from this church, came back, got rebaptized, recommitted, and then went through a divorce and got excommunicated a second time. And that was when I kind of said, fuck you to God. And I said, this is not real. And I spent years in a very dark place where I just, I didn't really believe in a higher power at all And as I came out of that and I started to find some love and uh rediscovery of me I had an experience in ayahuasca that kind of helped me realize that prayer is just gratitude. It's just an expression of gratitude. And it reintroduced me to spirituality and the higher power that I had lost for years. And I've been able to come back to this devout, self-loving, free person through those experiences. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited. I'm so excited to sit with you on the island in a week. I'm so excited to sit with this book. And I'm really honored to have you a part of our authors. Thank you. Yeah. And a part of all of this. Thank you. I'm going to be the only guy there. I know. Which I kept fighting like, come on, one more man. And it just wasn't in the cards. So we have 15 women and you. Perfect. And we're all going to be on this sacred island praying and writing these books. And it's going to be amazing. Am I the only one on the island who has not fully gone through a book writing process with you? There's quite a few. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So like Megan hasn't been on an adventure with me. a bunch of them haven't been on adventures and that's really the immersion, you know? So it's going to be, it's going to be so great. If there's one message that you could leave with everyone today, what would that message be? Honestly, it's that, that God is inside of all of us and that prayer is an expression of gratitude and just take some time for you. Take some time to rediscover you every single day and you will find, self-love for you, which I think is the most important gift you can find or remember. Yeah, that's so beautiful. With that, I hope you enjoy his episode and then we will see you on our next episode of Legacy Makers.