Surprising Ways GRATITUDE Can Change Your Life - EP 16

Surprising Ways GRATITUDE Can Change Your Life - EP 16

Welcome back, lovely listeners – and, well, sup, ya legends. This week, we’re getting real about gratitude! Yep, we're diving deep (as always) and embracing that sometimes gratitude is the last thing you want to hear about when life’s giving you a hard time. So, we’re talking about finding ways to appreciate even the tiniest, oddest, and most underrated joys – like being warm and dry indoors on a cold night or having a friend who'll let you vent, laugh, and swear to your heart's content.

We'll chat about why gratitude is more than a buzzword, how it’s actually your brain’s secret weapon against all the negativity swirling around, and ways to practice it even when everything’s testing your patience. Think you’ve hit a rough patch? Not alone, friend. From late-night chats about the news to personal stories about starting over, we’ve got you covered. Get comfy, and join us in finding those little pockets of positivity that keep us going.

Transcript

  Hello, good evening, ladies and gentlemen,  sup fuckers  Hello Yeah,  I did I did and this time I think i'm gonna leave it in so do it welcome back to the podcast  Let us be honest  Yep, I am every single episode So, you know what, we're just gonna keep it in. These last couple episodes have been so freewheelin and freedealin that I've had to mark them explicit.

So what's one more, right? What's one more?  Yeah, so welcome back yet 

again. Hello. Welcome back. 

Yeah. 

Thanks for tuning in. Again. Yeah. Glad to have ya. Glad to have ya. Always glad to have ya. Always, yeah. Again. 

Anybody willing to listen to us? Thank you. Thank you, yeah. It's uh, it's, it's good time. It is a good time.

Yeah. 

We like.  

Yeah.  That sounded so unsure. Alright. Oh boy. Well, today. Today, as you can tell. We're gonna talk about. Happy things, and great things, and why we're grateful for them. Yeah, so, gratitude. Yeah, gratitude. Why 

is it important to be grateful? Yeah. What does gratitude, or what does practicing gratitude add to your life positively?

Exactly. You know what I mean? Stuff like that. So we're gonna kind of dive a little bit deeper into that. I say that every episode. You do. I, at the beginning of every episode. 

We're gonna, we're gonna dive in a 

little deeper. I need to kind of figure something else out. We're gonna get 

you a shirt that says I like to dive deep.

Know what I mean? Yep.  I do know 

what 

you 

mean.  But, but yeah, anyway, um, so we're gonna explore. Yeah. The topic of gratitude and why we think it's important to be grateful. 

Yeah, and like, you know life It can be difficult people can be difficult depending on your job dealing with different people different situations It comes with stress, it comes with difficulties,  that's just life.

But,  that doesn't mean that it all has to suck.  So may as well be grateful for something. 

Right, exactly. I feel like being grateful even for the little things in one's life, you know, just adds to the positivity.  How you feel about yourself and how you feel about the world and your surroundings and the others around you You know what?

I mean? Yeah, it just it's a stepping stone into that kind of  Happy go lucky Carefree spirit. Yep. You know what? I mean? 

Yeah  Because I mean there's a lot of things when life is stressful that you can be grateful for and I mean we could even Break it down easily like the ability to if you're listening to this podcast, obviously, you have a way to do that Mm hmm not everybody on this planet would even have that option exact or Not everybody on the planet could be able to sit in front of a camera or some recording equipment and you know voice how they Feel in some places people don't have that ability being 

grateful to live in a world In a country, Canada, that recognizes your freedoms.

You know what I mean? Because there's a lot of countries out there that don't. You know what I mean? They ax it like, nope, you ain't got freedoms if you're a citizen here. Bye bye. 

You don't agree with our opinions?  Get out of town. On the other side of gratitude, I think it's very important to practice and identify gratitude because, as I'm sure we can all agree, you go on news outlets, news sources these days, it's always like, negative.

The world's gonna end tomorrow. Depending on who and what you listen to and honestly, it's more 

shots fired last night in a neighborhood  City of Toronto and you're like, oh my 

gosh, we're all gonna die, but we're here in Edmonton and it's like no We're we're fine But you listen to these things and the newscasters like yeah I know more people now than ever have like guns and they shouldn't you're like, ah 

Yeah, I mean that's honestly one of the reasons I don't really watch the news, you know, I mean people are always on me Like you should watch the news.

You should watch the news. You'd know more about the world. Blah blah blah And I'm like, you know what? I know plenty about the world for where I'm currently at. Yep. You know what I mean? I'm aware of the important things going on around the world. I'm aware of  Yeah, okay. What's happening in the world? 

Yeah, you know what I mean?

You don't need to be overly invested in what's happening. Like you don't need to. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely everything You don't need to like  Make all these really sad negative news stories, like, yeah, it's important to acknowledge that there's some shitty things happening out there. But at the same time, if that's all you watch and that's all you read, like, it's, it's, it's weighing.

It's gonna start to have effect 

on you, you know what I mean? Like, it's, at that, at that point, you're not just, you know, listening to the news and what's going on around the world. It's starting to And 

you're like, could it happen here? Could it happen to me? Like 

Let's, let's be real. You have no fucking idea.

You That the words they're spewing out of their mouth is the truth.  Well, that's the other problem. You know what I mean? You have not the slightest clue. Yep. They could be ramping this shit up like nobody's business 

and you're just like, 

oh my god, oh my god. 

They could have went to chat GPT and they could have put in there like, Please make this  following transcript worse.

Yeah. Like, make it a scary dark story, and then they post it, ChatGPT rewrites it scary, and they repost that. Mmm. Which is a fear with AI. But, we're not here to talk about fears right now. Yeah, 

we're not 

talking about fears. Yeah. So, with We're on the other 

end of the spectrum here. 

Yeah.  So, with all the negativity that can be out there sometimes, It is important to practice gratitude.

Very important. Because negativity, it just seeps in, man. It does. It 

seeps in. And our brains have a tendency, because it's a natural thing to understand fear. Did 

you know it takes eight positive thoughts to counteract one negative thought? Think about that. Yep. Think about how powerful that is, negativity wise.

You know what I 

mean? And it's just your brain's natural way of trying to protect itself. Yep. But because of technology and everything out there, like, I'm sorry, your brain doesn't know what a fake story is to a real story,  it just knows this sounds scary and dangerous, so let's not,  and then this is okay, so we're gonna forget about this, because like, this won't hurt us.

Basically the best you'll get is an assumption. 

Yep. You know what I mean? 

That's the best you're gonna get. I think they're telling the truth, I assume. I would like to hope for the best. Exactly, exactly.  Yeah, so anyway, that's that's why yeah, or one of the reasons I guess we feel it's important to be grateful exactly You know what?

I mean expel the negativity 

bring 

in the 

light. So what are some ways that we can practice gratitude er show gratitude er How how do you be grateful in your day to day?  

well  showing appreciation  Feeling appreciative. Yes. I feel like that's a good one. You know what I mean? Because it's one thing to show appreciation but to actually feel grateful for what's happened. 

That's another thing.  Have you ever had struggle feeling appreciation? Like if someone gives you a compliment or like shows appreciation towards you, have you ever had a problem? Like believing that that was real?  

I don't necessarily know if I'd say it was a problem believing it was real. More of a problem of not knowing how to react.

Fair point. Not same. Yeah. I was one of those people for a long time where if someone, like, complimented me or gave me a compliment for something, I'd always be like, Shit, now I feel like I need to compliment you. Yeah, exactly. And then you get caught in this, like, uh, they're gonna hate me if I don't compliment them.

But, as you grow and you learn, it's okay to get a compliment and be like, thank you. Mm hmm. I needed that. Yeah, exactly.  I appreciate that. 

Because, I mean, at the same time, they're going out of their way to give you that compliment. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I appreciate it. 

And I feel sometimes people have, not to get too hippie here, but  , , but I do feel like people have a problem sometimes maybe accepting  or allowing gratitude in, because they're like, oh, well, does that make me a selfish person?

Like, they gave me a compliment, like maybe I should complimented them back like I should have done something got within 

themselves. Yeah. 

Yeah. I, I went through that. Am I worthy 

of feeling grateful? 

Yeah.  Yes, am I worthy of feeling grateful? Yeah. The answer is yes. 

Yes. Everyone is worthy. Yes. Worthy of feeling grateful.

No matter what you've done or what you're currently doing or going through or if  you got a nasty ass past or something like that, you know what, it doesn't matter. If you're on the right path to bettering yourself,  you are allowed to be grateful for whatever the hell you want to be grateful for. Yep. As long as it's positive.

Yep. You know what I mean? Because like I said, you know, we're you're already on that path of growth and learning and yep You don't want those setbacks, right? Yeah. So as long as the gratitude is towards something positive I feel like man, it's 

a win win. Yeah be be open embrace it. I mean we've said it multiple times on this Podcast adventure like  if you're aiming towards a better future and you're working on yourself, you'll get there You And a big part of it along the way is like accepting that people are gonna, you know, appreciate you for what you're doing.

And 

if you don't give up, you will get there. Yep. You will. And I mean, if you do give up, fucking try again, man. Yep. Give up. Try again. Give up. Try again. Literally, man. We talked about that. How'd you learn to ride your bike?  Falling down and getting back up. Falling down. Exactly.  

We even mentioned that a couple episodes ago.

Like, you know, you can be 50 and completely change your career. Oh, a 

hundred 

percent. Nothing's stopping 

you. Um, the guy I'm working with at work, he, um, he was talking to me the other day and he's like, Oh God, man, I don't know why I still do this. I don't know. Cause he's like 50 something, right? 

That's fair.

And I was like, yeah, I don't know either, man. I've been doing it a year. I hate it. You know what I mean?  And, um, I was like, I don't know how the hell you've been doing it for years and years. And  I was like, you know, it's not too late, you know, go back to school or find something to do. And he's like, no, it's too late. 

It's too late for me, and that's what I kept trying to tell him, but he just,  he wasn't having it, it's too late for him, he says.  I say it's not. I don't think it is. You know what I mean? Like, so what, you're, let's say you're 55, you want to change your life around, you know what, retirement age is 65.  If you're feeling well and able, work.

Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? 

What's a decade to learn a new skill? Exactly, nothing. And who knows, maybe you'll learn  something new and you'll really enjoy it. Instead of Like fully retiring at 65, your new skills can be like, come aside hobby that you 

do. Or even if you do retire at 65, the last 10 years of your working 

career will have been great.

Yeah. And you could have learned something new and that's, that's why I think it's, it's never too late to switch it up. And not only that, but having the ability to do that is something I think a lot of people take for granted. 

And 

when it comes to gratitude, I think we should be grateful. That we have the opportunity to be like, you know what?

I don't think I like this path. I'm going to completely switch it up. 

Absolutely. When it's, or, you know, when it's, when there's bad weather outside, like rainstorms, snowstorm, whatever it may be. I don't want to sweep my truck you have a roof over your head. You know what I mean? Like, let's be honest, you know, we'll be sitting on the couch, watching TV or something, we'll look outside.

And it'll be pissing rain or pouring snow or lightning, thunder, blistering winds, whatever it may be. And we just look outside and we're like,  cool.  But how often do we actually sit there and be like, I'm grateful for this roof? 

Yeah. You know what I mean? And like the fact that we can,  yeah, just be in a place where so many of our basic needs and necessities are right.

And they're met.  

Yeah. If you're wondering if you're doing well in life. Ask yourself these questions.  

Do I have a roof over my head? Do you have a roof 

over your 

head? Did I eat at least once today? Did you eat today? 

Do you have clean water? Do you have clean clothes?  

Like the simple basic necessities. The simplest 

things.

I'm grateful to be able to sit here  with one of my best buddies. Yeah. And just shoot the shit. Yeah. A couple times a week. 

Yeah. You know what I mean?  That's what this is turning into. 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're getting places positively with these episodes. We are. But yeah, you know what, it has kind of turned into us showing up, or me showing up.

Yeah. You know, we're gonna shoot the shit for half an hour, 45 minutes before we start to do anything, you know, and then  

And then we sit down and we do We talk about this and we talk about things in our earlier episodes. We're we're a little like 

we just go hard. Yeah, because I feel like,  you know, I feel like when I get here  and we take that time, I'm able to get all the out.

Yeah. All the silliness or angst or stress or whatever I've had going on during the day. Yeah. And so that way, when we finally decide to start these, like we start recording these, I'm like, I'm good. I'm ready to go. At a happy place. And we can just have a smooth flowing conversation. Yeah. You know. 

And you know what?

And I'm grateful for that. I 

was just about to say,  I feel a lot of gratitude towards that because it gives you an outlet and I think everybody needs that friend or someone, you can have a couple of friends. I have a couple of friends,  very select few friends, like, like a couple of friends, like maybe one hand worth of friends, um, where, yeah, I can call them up or sit down with them once a week and just talk about the most random shit.

But it's small things that you know what builds up over the week like if I tell anybody else about this They they won't get it exactly but these select few they will and just having the ability to have people where you can just Reflect that way and just talk about the silly or stupid shit. Mm hmm.

It's healthy And I think we should be grateful to have people like that. 

Oh, 100%. Be grateful for the people in your life. The people that bring you happiness and joy. Happiness. And laugh. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Happiness. Ha ha ha. But yeah. Be grateful for the people that bring those positive emotions into your life.

And as we've talked before, like, if you're in a place where you might not have those friends or that support group, you know, just, if you continue forward and you keep being grateful for what you do have, like, start with the small things, like, yeah, be, be grateful if your living situation maybe isn't the best, but you have a roof over your head, and you're dry, especially now that we're heading into snow season in Canada, If you're warm and you're dry, start there.

If you have winter tires, be grateful.  

Or really good all weathers.  

I still have to get winter tires and I am dreading it. 

I still have to get new tires, too. 

I mean, I, dude, I probably won't even be able to get winter tires to, like, close to the end of November. 

Well, I thought you were gonna say, like, January, February.

Oh, I'm not doing that again. I did that last year. Yeah, that's fair. Mind you, last year was pretty mild. And then I didn't really have any issues till like  the end of February, March when it got cold. Kind of nice. Yeah. But,  

but yeah,  so we're grateful that we have the option to put winter tires on our car. 

It's not really an option here, is it? No, no, at least we don't live in BC. It's mandatory. Oh yeah. 

Oh my God. Yeah. 

They crazy.  But yeah.  Yeah. Tires. That's fun. Yeah.  

Not grateful for that. 

But yeah, start with the small things. If you've got a warm place in the winter and a roof over your head, start there. We get it.

Life can be tough. I'm sure  two guys just sitting here being like, you know what, it's tough, but you got it. You're probably like, shut up. You're probably like, 

shut up. Yeah, you 

don't understand. No, I do. We do. Once upon a time. Oh, trust 

me. I can get it. We  

Once upon a time for a good section of time in my life, I couldn't even afford a double double.

And this was a decade ago when they were 2 for an extra large. And I couldn't even afford one like that. It was the choice between  rent and a double double. So when we say we've been places and we've lived lives, trust me, we've been there. We've done the struggles.  At the end of the day, I'm still grateful  that I did have roof over my head, warrants,  and I could feed myself at least once a day.

Oh yeah, no, like, 

I, I, I would have been literally  homeless  if it wasn't for my mom.  Literally.  So like, yeah, no, like, we've been through shit. You know what I mean? It's not just two random people just spewing shit because they're tied to people on the internet. You know what I mean? No, this is two guys who've actually Experienced real shit.

Yep. You know been through life. Yeah,  but in the end still grateful still figured out still figuring it out Yeah, I'm nowhere close to figuring out that's for sure. And I think that's the other thing Sometimes people are like, oh well I just I need things to stop or wind down like I'll feel grateful like when I can finally feel like I can breathe Yes, guess what?

If you're looking for an opportunity to get to the point where you're like, Oh, I can finally breathe.  Yeah. Life is going to keep throwing stuff at you. 

It's not going to happen, my friend. No, 

that life is a continual ball. That you honestly have to learn how to deal with over time. Yeah. Um, 

Oh, it takes time.

Oh, 

it does. To learn how to be grateful  that you learned how to deal with it and you're figuring it out. That goes a long way. 

Imagine how good you're going to feel like 10 years from now. And you look back and you're like, Holy shit. I went through some shit and I came out a better person on the other end.

You know what I mean? Like. Imagine how good that's gonna feel. 

It feels great. Yeah, Cory's 

on that end right now. Yeah, like he's there.  He Conquered that shit. Yeah, and I'm still in the middle of it. Yeah, 

he you're doing great. Thanks, man. You're welcome  

Yeah, like I'm in the middle of it I'm still you know repairing some shit that I did to myself in my past, you know From some of my stupid decisions and mistakes and a  little more about me, but, uh, but yeah.

But we all make mistakes. Exactly. 

Life, life isn't life without mistakes. 

And I mean, I've corrected those. Exactly. And I'm on 

the path to a brighter future.  Am I right? So, and you know what, even sometimes when you're correcting those past mistakes, it can feel dreadful. It can feel heavy. You can be like, if only I didn't do this, maybe I'd be at a better spot, but you are, that 

thought's going to come into your brain.

I don't know how many fucking times, why did I do this to myself? If only I wasn't so stupid, if only I didn't do this.  Well, guess what you did. So you did you got to forgive yourself and move 

on yep, and if you're on that path and you're working towards fixing those things and just Showing a little bit of gratitude for where you are and the small steps you've taken Yeah, you might not feel like it's significant But hey You're your small step could be a big deal to someone and if you Like it to know somebody and tell them about your past like you can be pretty inspiring to some people Just for taking little steps 

like even now I mean, I don't I don't mean to keep talking about myself.

Oh, keep talking about yourself. I'm just like, relating, you know what I mean? But, um, even now, I'm 28, and I look back on where I was 5 years ago, And I never thought I would be here, man. Mm-Hmm. . I never thought I would,  dude, I never thought I would have my fucking license. Yeah, that's fair. You know what I mean?

Yep. Mm-Hmm. doing what I was doing. Mm-Hmm. and  Yeah. Like I thought  my future would look like homelessness. Yep. And  poverty. Yep. But, but it didn't, it didn't because I smartened up. Yeah. And it happens. 

Yeah. You know, and, and that's why we've said before, it's it's never too late. Like if you're actually focused on like, you know what, yes, I made some mistakes, but I wanna move forward.

I want to be better than I was.  We live in a very forgiving world. Sometimes it might not feel like it. Yeah, but eventually on the other side Once you get like there, I mean you'll never get there because you're always growing But eventually you get to a point where you look back and you're like, you know what? 

I'm proud of who I became through that. As we've said on this podcast before obviously Sometimes it sounds funny of just two people sitting here being like it'll be better Cause that's what everybody says, but you know what? It's, it's true. If you keep going in a direction that's for the best of yourself, and you're always working to be a better person, you'll have lots to be grateful for, the small steps, you'll eventually get to a point where you'll look back and be like,  I'm proud I stuck it out for me.

Yeah. 

Cause I mean, there is gonna be times where you are being the best person you can be, and you're trying your hardest, Mhm. and  Life continues to just throw shit at you. Yep. You know what I mean? And you're like, why is this happening? I'm just  gonna, I'm being the best person I can be. I'm just gonna sit here and just accept it all literally.

And that's all you can do. Yep. That's all you can 

do. And fight through it, man. And it's.  Frustrating and at times you can be like Irish in a week from now Who knows what my life will be because you don't have 

a choice, but to accept it Yep, you can't just be like actually no, I don't really want to deal with this So if you could come back later, that'd be great.

Nope, not happening, dude. Mm hmm  not in life  No life shows no mercy. Yeah So yeah, find something to be grateful for every day, no matter how small it is,  could be, all small things matter, could be grass. I'm grateful I get to touch this grass. Yeah, you know what I mean? Whatever.  We just  find something to be 

grateful.

Yeah, I'm grateful. Practice gratitude. I'm grateful for this fake plant. I don't have to water it. It's never gonna die, and it looks nice, so,  and I could buy it. Yeah, yeah, so I'm grateful I had that ability.  I think people can just go buy fake plants.  They can.  Leave Gerald alone. Gerald, no! 

Gerald!  It's gonna be a mini clip. Gerald! 

This will be the thumbnail to the video. 

Thanks for tuning in. Go be grateful for something. Go be grateful. If you're grateful for lots of things. Be kind to each other. Yeah, be kind to each other. Look out for each other. Yeah, and uh Hunting 

season's around the corner. Actually, it's currently hunting season.  If you get moose or buck or You know what I mean? 

Let me know. Yeah, be grateful for it. Send some my way, and I will be extremely grateful. 

Not for money though, because you can't sell it. That's illegal. So we'll have to 

It'll have to be a trade kind of thing. And 

we have services to trade.  For meat. 

Yeah, 

yeah, 

or if you want to just give it to me. That's cool, too.

Yeah. Yeah, he will just take it.  Yep Anyway,  and it ends.  Bye  adios