What if the pain you've been trying to escape is actually the fuel you've been looking for? Recording artist Ben Barbic walked away from alcohol, nicotine, and blood pressure medications at 28 — and built a 15-year operating system for resilience.
In this episode of Health Longevity Secrets, Robert Lufkin MD sits down with Ben Barbic — chart-climbing reggae and hip-hop recording artist, San Jose-based studio owner of Where Dreams Sail Studios, and author of the new memoir Rise and Climb: Finding Purpose Through Pain (Skyhorse Publishing / Simon & Schuster, October 15). They talk about the night his childhood home burned down, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that destroyed his family's second house, the teddy bear from his young son that triggered his sobriety pivot, the redwood-tree metaphor on the book cover, kirtan and chakra meditation as his entry point to a calmer mind, and how very small daily choices — a single five-minute habit — compound into a completely different life.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 — Introduction
01:08 — Meet Ben Barbic: Recording Artist, Author, and Self-Builder
02:00 — Childhood Trauma: When the House Burned Down
03:00 — The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and the Power of Rebuilding
04:01 — Why Music Became His First Anchor as a Child
05:02 — The 28th Birthday Pivot: Walking Away from Alcohol and Nicotine
06:02 — The Subtraction-Then-Addition Method for Habit Change
07:03 — Quitting Blood Pressure Medications and Treating the Root Cause
09:04 — The Teddy Bear Moment: How His Son Triggered the Pivot
12:04 — Why Tiny Five-Minute Habits Beat Big Resolutions
14:05 — The First Three Habits He Added After Sobriety
17:07 — Kirtan and Chakra Meditation: A Beginner's Path
19:08 — Music, Memory, and the Brain's Storytelling Pathways
24:09 — Writing a Memoir: The Hardest Part Is Vulnerability
27:10 — Three Lessons for Self-Builders and High Performers
30:11 — The Redwood Tree Metaphor on the Book Cover
31:11 — Victim Mindset vs Agency: How to Reframe Adversity
32:11 — Redefining Success: From Catching Up to Contributing
36:12 — The Empty-Nest Pivot and the Next 5 Years
38:13 — Final Thoughts: Pursue What Gives You Purpose
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Subtract before you add — remove the drainers first, then layer in new habits.
Hypertension is rarely solved by stacking more meds — change the upstream inputs and the numbers follow.
The pivot moment usually has a single concrete trigger.
Five minutes is enough — compounding does the rest.
Kirtan plus chakra meditation is a friendly entry point for musicians.
Redwood trees regrow tall around old burn scars.
Define success by what you can contribute, not by who you can catch up to.
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