I lived on the streets of LA for 48 hours

what would you do if you lost everything no money no friends nowhere to go and you were dropped in the middle of the street having to figure out what to do on your own realistically where would you go see thousands of years ago ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca practiced something called negative visualization the premise is to spend some time once in a while imagining that you've lost all the things you value most in life like your loved ones your house or your job the idea behind the exercise is not to torture yourself for no reason but instead to remind yourself that everything in life is loaned to us and that any or all events can be taken away at any moment as a result it wakes you up to how fortunate your life really is and pushes you to live every moment with more intensity higher significance and greater awareness so today Amara wanted to take that philosophy to the extreme by living 48 hours with absolutely nothing in the streets of Los Angeles all he'd have is a small camera and some pepper spray for safety but other than that he's completely on his own I don't know about this one man can make a decision of whether my risk assessment just telling me okay this is not a good idea or is this just discomfort and that's the step that I have to push through Thor you've heard it I've been talking to a lot of people yesterday oh people don't think it's a good idea this would be up there in terms of like danger for the things that we do and I will be completing my own and why did you want to do this I think to take away everything from yourself so that you really aware every single thing you have is really important I'm not trying to simulate what it's like to be homeless I'm not trying to talk about homelessness because I don't feel qualified to but whatever it is that I'm gonna go through can't even imagine what someone who's actually homeless who doesn't know that in three days they're gonna go back to a home or a group of friends or like LA is no joke man there's a lot of crime and a lot of gangs gonna have to be super careful what do you bring flashlight the batteries do pepper sprays and let's charge it now bring a sleeping bag or anything the only thing I took is the face Apple watch cuz its cellular so I'd be able to like make a call if anything is up there's a lift coming in two minutes he's gonna drop you somewhere in West Hollywood okay just pick an arbitrary location up there all right anxious scared love you baby these guys dude guys I can't believe a mosque gonna be alone for 48 hours on the street with literally like no resources and the 48 hours officially begin what do even what they do I guess I can explain what the rules are I'm gonna find a place to settle I've been walking for a longer anything I just do not try to take it easy during the day as I can be up in the first part of the night make sure that I'm safe I'm gonna figure it out honestly like I have no idea how this video is gonna go I'm not going out with the intention of making a video I'm going up with the intention to actually live the experience and it's not fun and it's dangerous I want to make sure that I just got out of the experience the most I can and hopefully go back into my daily life with a new perspective okay I just had my first terrifying experience this is where I am I thought this is a block tough area and just someone in the middle of my nap just walks out from here and I just jumped out of my sleeve as I go I'm sorry I think I'm lost I'm like Monroe I think I'm lost I feel very lonely finger lead roles of attracting with people who's just hitting me as long as I've spent and not talking to people about hair wow I think I slept for like an hour and a half woke up to convoy of ambulances heading up Beverly Hills the temperature dropped significantly I'm like shivering which terrible news for tonight it's cold up my pants are pretty thin and I'm swearing a t-shirt under here there's just so much time to kill I'm like six hours out of 48 hours and I'm working going crazy where you I got water step one plastic bottle from the dumpster step two find public access for any kind of water I can basket by two trash cans that had bottles of water that I need but it's like every time I stepped near the trash can to reach out with my hand there was just this part of me that maybe it's just my pride feeling the shame of doing something like this it's drink water [Music] walked into this fancy parking structure [Music] you've been walking around for about an hour now round over the still looking at the trash food just a factory smells really [ __ ] good I think I recognize this from when I ran the marathon I think if I walk all the way down this way I can actually get this Santa Monica I need my dad I'm afraid that there will be like patrol on the beach but that's so better than sleeping some on the streets when it's literally raining has that speaker the long-ass track the Santa Monica starts and hopefully on the way find some food impression [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's been an hour walking no phone no distractions no humans nothing no food is just me and my brain food on the table I probably look in 20 trash cans for food not a single bite fine it's it's crazy like there is homeless people everywhere it's really every venture on the earth so my fear is if the homeless people come up here to sleeps and sleeping on the beach must be problematic in some way it's so dark and scary it's scared of being like out there on my own I see other homeless people so heading out towards the beach so this should be a little more I'll probably wake up starving given that I haven't had any food today so that's a whole other beast that I'm gonna have to deal with tomorrow I hope I don't get much tonight all right I'm gonna go to bed or at least I'll try from is that I'm so reachable here if someone just pops up they can get me right away should I sleep on top of the lifeguard would I be invisible from the ground level get a strike okay this is either very smart or extremely stupid I should just stop complaining and get a bed healthy for sunrise [Music] this is not working out for me too paranoid census to be up here every time there's a plane passing or I hear giggles I just freak out so I'm going to try below this guard Sam see if there's any better the San should be a little more comfortable than this giant sandpaper surface up here okay it's 1:00 a.m. and I'm really cold can't fall asleep I'm really hungry [ __ ] and I think my body is just exerting a lot of energy right now keeping me in one ah I thought the beach was gonna be a good idea right now I'm so blessed then you truly appreciate where you have entire thing from you daddy I'm just connecting with another human one you want like today was so [ __ ] lonely that's a very extreme switch from being like extremely social extroverted to being I can't even ask a girl for help [Music] [Music] the top number three [Music] I take my bed for granted I take everything for granted it's been a full day empty stomach I'm not a single by yoga sleep [Music] it's cool this I don't think you slept a full hour just always waking up from the cold and the concrete and now that I have to find a place that is very warm to speak tonight because otherwise you know sleep beautiful sunrise though let's get out of here [Music] combination of being freezing cold and extremely hungry sleep probably a fill of two and a half hours this is a lot of the biggest realizations from last time when you're sleeping on the streets that amount of fear that you fall asleep with every night that is just unbelievable I was so scared last night you just don't know who's gonna show up and just scared the whole time and you need to be alert so even though I slept I was still very aura by surrounding all right I made it to Venice there's a park that's so sunshine I'm gonna sleep for a bit and that's got walking south well chair should I sleep on that sure sure just honestly [Music] I'm probably gonna have a big crash this afternoon given that I haven't hit anything for 28 hours a lot of hardship right now but this is what it's about Wow I managed to sleep Oh [Music] it's pretty heavy so there's food inside god knows what the shape of the food is but I'll take anything like bones that that will do just think this one out play on through actually I can take a bite from the other side I am NOT some good news right here attention in the trash night only food for this 48 hours I'm very thankful for this I'm gonna do something that I don't which is mindful eating be extra extra conscious about the way interact with my food never take for granted that I can just eat whenever I want the end of the lot faster bye much like six potatoes and a drumstick under leather and the lemons thanks God us now I'm gonna be walking south because I'm hydrated there's a little bit of energy it's gonna be a long walk another like five to seven miles to get there and then probably just like three four miles walking around [Music] [Applause] [Music] later at three another right I'm gonna watch the sunset on the beach French just like press there for a sec before the night temperatures gonna drop just like go on that that sugar I figure out where the hell I'm gonna sleep tonight [Music] I'm making my way back up to Playa Vista I just want to find the sheltered place that I can select force myself to pass out in and then wake up to this sunshine the cell for me on this spot is its shelter can't be seen from street level and the wind is blocked by nice I was actually thinking about this during meditation and I would like to just push the challenge to you guys what is something that you want to deprive yourself from something that if you are taking for granted or don't really appreciate much even though it's a huge blessing that it's in your life and just do an exercise like this one okay it's 11:15 a busy two hours and 15 minutes unable to sleep because of the cold temperatures dropped again to below 40 degrees and freezing this has not been easy my friends harder it is the more valuable the lesson that I think learning a really really valuable lesson okay so I either came up with the most brilliant idea or the dumbest idea ever I'm thinking of walking to the airport which is 70 to 80 minute walk but I would much rather walk there knowing that I'm gonna have a guaranteed spot to sleep in which is just something Florida that can just say and I'm flying early and I didn't want to miss my flight that's going to be my motivation for the next 70 minutes walking the warmth that I'm gonna experience once I am inside the premises look at this beautiful road ahead night watchin the highway [Applause] whoo I made it yes yes so I've been on the streets for 42 hours oh so fix right now may this be a reminder never ever take anything for granted this to me is like a five start with that right now just everything is relative that was the core to the stoic practice that inspired me to do this imagining the worst-case scenario and forcing yourself to think that you are able to cope with it are you actually able to live through the worst-case scenario and for me the last 42 hours and the next six were exactly that I lost everyone I lost everything and I can do it I didn't die didn't get stabbed and get arrested [Music] one meal 48 hours vii all hours of sleep but six different spots have tried cost me the challenge is officially done I think the most surprising outcome to my experience doing what I just did I'm getting out of it appreciating and wanting more of self youth time if you think about there's very few instances when you're actually truly on interruptus [Applause] [Music] what an experience I need to shower if you made it all the way till the end thank you so much for watching I really appreciate you this was particularly a hard one to experience and felt really lonely but the learnings that I came out of the experience with definitely carried over in my daily life and I'm a lot more aware of the things that used to take for granted I'm a lot more aware of my privilege and on a side note every single penny that we're gonna make out of this episode is going to be donated to a nonprofit organization based here in the west side called spy safe place for youth and they basically do work around supporting homeless youth around Venice and on that note thank you so much again for watching we'll see you next week [Music]

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 3,105,529

Keywords: yestheory, homeless experiment, ammar kandil, homeless, homeless people, living as a homeless person, life as a homeless person, what is it like being homeless, yes theory abandoned, yes theory abandoned in, homeless challenge, life as a homeless, life as a homeless man, yes theory, yes theory justin bieber, yes theory wim hof, yes theory no laws, la homeless problem, homeless los angeles, going homeless, homelessness in la, homeless lonely, sleeping homeless

Id: BdTWh6dfye4

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2019