I know the power of being in a movie, since I was in the famous The Secret and of course my own movie Zero Limits.

I’m involved with yet another film, and you could apply to be in it.

The ‘Kindness’ documentary is a transformational film created in collaboration with The Global Kindness Movement and Renee Dutton, exploring kindness as a force for healing, connection, and global change.

Drawing inspiration from real stories and lived experience, the ‘Kindness’ documentary reveals how individuals and communities around the world are awakening to the impact of kindness, compassion, and gratitude.

Through heartfelt stories and insights from leading experts, visionaries, and change makers, the film explores what it looks like to choose kindness, even in challenging times.

If you are a speaker, author, or coach and want a leg up in your career by starring in this new film about Kindness, then apply here: https://kindnessmovie.com/

Expect Miracles.

Love

Ao Akua

dr joe

Days before I turned 72 years old last month, I received my purple belt in MMA.

I started taking weekly classes at Kovar’s Mixed Martial Arts days after I turned 71 in 2024.

Just under one year later, right before turning 72 last month, I received my purple belt.

While the purple belt matches my purple Lamborghini Urus SE, I’m not stopping here.

Blue Belt is next.

I won’t stop there, either.

Red belt is after that.

I’ve publicly declared I intend to earn my Black Belt by age 75 – if not sooner.

This goal is not easy.

This past year has not been easy.

But if it were easy, I wouldn’t be writing about it.

You can hear Hanshi Dave Kovar, the creator of the brand of MMA I’m training in, interview me at https://youtu.be/cwJ_ZiVs_gY?si=gd0Smpbn0gVaBW0Z 

What are you going to do to make 2026 great?

The time to begin is NOW.

Expect Miracles.

Ao Akua,

Dr Joe

This should make you think…

How Netflix’s New Frankenstein Accidentally Explains Internal Family Systems

The new Frankenstein film on Netflix is supposed to be a gothic thriller — thunder, lightning, and existential dread. But as I watched it, something unexpected happened.

I started seeing it not just as a horror story… but as a perfect metaphor for Internal Family Systems (IFS), the therapeutic model that says we’re all made of inner “parts,” each trying to protect us, heal us, or help us survive.

Stick with me. I promise this will make you rethink the monster — and maybe even yourself.

The Creature as an Exile

In IFS, the deepest wounded parts of ourselves — the ones carrying shame, fear, trauma, loneliness — are called Exiles.

They’re exiled from our awareness because they’re too painful to face directly. They’re the parts of us we try to bury because we think they’re dangerous.

Isn’t that exactly what Victor Frankenstein does?

He creates life — this vulnerable, confused, newborn consciousness — and then immediately abandons it.

He judges it.

He fears it.

He pushes it away.

Victor’s “monster” isn’t monstrous at all.

He’s an exiled part who never got love, compassion, or guidance. And like any Exile, he eventually erupts in ways that terrify the system.

IFS teaches that when we exile a part of ourselves, it doesn’t disappear. It grows stronger in the shadows and eventually bursts out — sometimes as anxiety, sometimes as anger, sometimes as sabotaging behavior.

In the movie, the creature is the physical embodiment of everything Victor doesn’t want to face: guilt, regret, imperfection, vulnerability.

Just like our Exiles.

The Protectors: Managers and Firefighters

In IFS, when an Exile’s pain threatens to erupt, two other groups of parts step in: Managers and Firefighters.

Managers try to keep life orderly and controlled. They’re perfectionists, planners, suppressors.
Firefighters rush in during emergencies — addictions, outbursts, impulsive behavior.

Now let’s look at Victor Frankenstein again.

He’s the ultimate Manager part — obsessively controlling, avoiding emotion, intellectualizing everything.

Creating life was never about compassion; it was about mastery, achievement, and control.

“If I can control life itself, I never have to feel my own fear of death.”

When his creation shows signs of emotional need, Victor’s Firefighters show up. He runs, hides, denies, numbs, lashes out, blames. He does anything to avoid feeling the Exile’s pain — the very pain he created.

And just like in real internal systems, the more these protectors panic, the more chaos they create.

The Monster’s Rage Is Actually a Cry for Connection

This is straight IFS:

What looks like rage is almost always pain in disguise.

The creature’s fury in the Netflix film isn’t about destruction — it’s about abandoned longing.

He wanted identity.He wanted belonging.
He wanted a place in the world.
He wanted to be mirrored, known, and loved.

Isn’t that what every Exile wants?

When the creature finally confronts Victor, he isn’t asking for revenge — he’s asking for recognition. He wants Victor to see him not as a mistake, but as a part of him.

How many of our parts are doing the exact same thing?

The Self: The One Thing Missing in Frankenstein

IFS says beneath all our parts — the angry ones, the fearful ones, the perfectionistic ones, the lonely ones — there is Self: calm, compassionate, connected, curious, courageous.

Self is the healing force.

And that is exactly what the Frankenstein story lacks.

There is no Self-energy.

No compassion.
No integration.
No courageous turning-toward.

If Victor had met the creature with Self — instead of fear, shame, or avoidance — the entire story would have transformed. The creature never needed perfection. He needed presence.

IFS teaches that healing doesn’t come from eliminating parts; it comes from befriending them.

Seeing them.
Soothing them.
Inviting them back home.

If Victor had done IFS, he would have realized:

The monster wasn’t the mistake. The abandonment was.

The Real Lesson of the Movie

The Netflix Frankenstein is a warning tale, yes — but not about science gone wrong.

It’s about what happens when we exile parts of ourselves.

IFS shows us a different ending. A hopeful one.

Where the “monster” becomes a teacher.

Where the parts become allies.

Where the system finds harmony.

Maybe that’s why this movie hits so deeply:

It reminds us that inside all of us is a creature waiting to be understood — and a creator learning how to love what he made.

That’s not scary, is it?

Love

Dr Joe

(and Chappie)

PS – In case you are new to all this, begin here:

5 Books a Newbie Should Start With to Understand IFS (and Even Frankenstein)

1. No Bad Parts — Richard C. Schwartz, PhD

The clearest, warmest, most accessible introduction to IFS. Dr. Schwartz (the founder) explains the entire model in simple language, with stories and examples that make the “parts” inside us feel natural and relatable.
Perfect for understanding why your “inner monster” is never actually a monster.

2. Introduction to Internal Family Systems — Richard C. Schwartz & Martha Sweezy

This is the concise “IFS handbook.” Still beginner-friendly but a bit more structured and practical.
If Frankenstein shows what happens when parts become exiled, this book shows how to welcome them home.

3. Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts — Richard C. Schwartz

A beautiful, immersive set of teaching stories about parts, protectors, exiles, and Self.
Great for people who learn through narrative — making it easy to see how a misunderstood “creature” (inner or outer) behaves when it has no compassionate Self to guide it.

4. The Body Keeps the Score — Bessel van der Kolk, MD

Not strictly an IFS book, but several chapters dive into IFS, trauma, and how unhealed wounds create “inner exiles.”
Helps a newbie understand why trauma creates inner monsters and why compassion, not suppression, is the medicine.

5. Frankenstein — Mary Shelley (annotated editions preferred)

To tie it all together, reading Shelley’s original story — especially in editions with psychological or philosophical notes — reveals how deeply the narrative mirrors IFS.
The creature is the ultimate Exile, Victor is the panicked Manager, and every tragedy is caused by refusing to stay in Self.

What Does It Mean to Do the Impossible?

by Dr. Joe Vitale

Here’s the sound bite:

“Doing the impossible means erasing the limits in your mind

and remembering that the Divine never had any.”

Now, let’s unpack that.

Most people believe “impossible” is a wall. It’s a stop sign painted by fear, logic, and past conditioning. It’s what society teaches to keep you safe, small, and predictable. But safety rarely births miracles. The moment you label something impossible, you close the door on the very energy that could make it happen.

When you do the impossible, you don’t defy the laws of reality — you redefine them.

You enter a space beyond logic, where inspiration leads and the intellect follows.

You transcend your beliefs about who you are, what’s allowed, and what’s probable.

That’s what Zero Limits is all about.

In my movie Zero Limits, inspired by the ancient Hawaiian practice of Ho’oponopono, we explore what happens when you clean away the mental and emotional data that says, “You can’t.”

The practice teaches that we are not broken, but blocked; not flawed, but fogged.

Every “impossible” situation is really a projection of our inner limits.

When you release those limits through cleaning — by saying “I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you” — life reorganizes itself.

Miracles happen.

I’ve seen it countless times.

People healed when doctors said they couldn’t.

Debts dissolved when logic said they wouldn’t.

Dreams realized decades after hope said they shouldn’t.

When you return to zero — that state of pure awareness before thought — you discover there was never any impossibility at all.

Doing the impossible isn’t about fighting reality. It’s about aligning with the deeper reality that you are the creator of your experience. You are the channel through which miracles flow.

The only true limitation is the one you agree to believe.

When I began filming Zero Limits, there were endless reasons to stop. The budget seemed impossible. The logistics seemed impossible. The timing, the marketing, the release — all impossible.

Yet, each “impossible” dissolved the moment I took one inspired step forward and trusted the clearing process.

Now the movie has been nominated for over 39 awards and has won 27,

streaming worldwide right now on Apple TV, Amazon Prime,

and ZeroLimitsMovie.com.

That’s what happens when you live at zero: the Universe does the heavy lifting.

So, what does it mean to do the impossible?

It means surrendering the ego’s insistence that it must know how.

It means trusting inspiration more than information.

It means turning “no way” into “now way.”

It means remembering that what you call “impossible” is just something you haven’t cleaned on yet.

At zero, there are no limits. Only love, only potential, only the Divine saying, “Let’s go.”

Knowing this, what will you do today?

Expect Miracles.

Love

Ao Akua

Dr. Joe Vitale

The Room with No Door

There was once a man who woke up in a room with no doors.

He didn’t remember falling asleep. He didn’t remember entering the room.

But there he was, sitting in a chair that hadn’t been made…it had always been there.

The walls were smooth, warm.

Like memory.

Like silence before a thought.

He stood.

There was no ceiling. No floor.

Just stillness beneath his feet… and above him, something that looked like sky but hummed like love.

He began to search.

There were no exits. No windows.

Only a single phrase etched into the wall, glowing faintly as if written by breath itself:

“I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.”

He stared at the words.

At first, they made no sense.

Then they made too much sense.

Then they began to move.

Each time he blinked, the words shifted — like clouds forming new shapes.

“I’m sorry I believed I was separate.”
“Please forgive me for forgetting I am Divine.”
“Thank you for waiting while I searched outside.”
“I love you for never leaving me… even when I left myself.”

He knelt, without knowing why.

Not from sorrow. Not from worship. But from recognition.

He saw it now —

This room… was inside him.

The “walls” were beliefs.

The “ceiling” was doubt.

The “floor” was identity.

And the words on the wall… they were keys written in code.

Not a door was needed.

Just remembering.

Just… clearing.

He placed his hand on the wall and whispered what it had whispered to him:

“I love you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Please forgive me.”
“Thank you.”

The wall rippled like water.

And the moment he felt real gratitude—not as thought, but as being—
the room dissolved.

And he was standing in a world he’d always known but never seen clearly.

It was full of color.
It was full of life.
It was full of him.

But not the “him” who woke up in the room.

The one who was dreaming before that.

The one who is awake now.

And if you listen carefully…you might feel it too.

The subtle click of remembering.

The warmth of the doorless room… inside your chest.

You don’t need to understand it.

Just breathe.

And say it with me:

I love you.
I’m sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.

Love

Dr Joe Vitale