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Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, I am Dramas and this is the Street

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Speaker 1: Stoic Podcast, bringing you your daily dose a timeless Stoic

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Speaker 1: philosophy remix for the hip hop generation. We are combining

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Speaker 1: lyrics and quotes some of the greatest who ever grace

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Speaker 1: a microphone, along with ancient Stoic philosophy. Now, with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, let's get things started with your daily shot

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Speaker 1: of inspiration. Now today we are gonna be focusing around

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Speaker 1: the Stoic idea of gratitude, but more specifically having gratitude

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Speaker 1: for ourselves right and who we are and the hand

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Speaker 1: that we were dealt, because I know that from personal

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Speaker 1: experience it can oftentimes be really hard to appreciate and

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Speaker 1: love ourselves, you know, for the good and the bad. Now,

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Speaker 1: a quote that I pulled from this I thought was

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Speaker 1: incredibly profound. It was the inspiration behind today's show. It

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Speaker 1: comes to us from Kendrick Lamar and he says, once

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Speaker 1: I looked in the mirror and decided this is who

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Speaker 1: I am, and I'm not scared of who I am,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not scared that I can't be like you,

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Speaker 1: and I'm good with just doing me. That's when I

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Speaker 1: found myself as a man, and I love so much,

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Speaker 1: so much about this, right. I think at the core

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Speaker 1: of what Kendrick is talking about, it's the idea of

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Speaker 1: self love, right, and also recognizing that it's a process

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Speaker 1: that it takes work, you know. I mean that that's

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Speaker 1: what he's talking about when when he's saying that he

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Speaker 1: decided this is who I am, right, and he stopped

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Speaker 1: comparing himself as well, right, which I think is another

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Speaker 1: kind of action based idea. Is not looking at what

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Speaker 1: other people have or what other people are good at,

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Speaker 1: and then comparing and contrasting it to yourself. Right, Like like,

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Speaker 1: he stopped comparing himself to someone else, and he stopped

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Speaker 1: shaming himself for not being like them, right, and instead

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Speaker 1: he said, I'm gonna do the opposite, right, I'm actually

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Speaker 1: gonna gonna look at myself and be proud of who

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Speaker 1: I am. Right. And this leads perfectly, I think to

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Speaker 1: a quote from one of the Stoics, specifically Seneca, and

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Speaker 1: it's from letters from a Stoic, but in it he says,

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Speaker 1: I have learned to be a friend to myself great improvement.

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Speaker 1: This indeed, such a one can never be said to

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Speaker 1: be alone. For note that he who is a friend

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Speaker 1: to himself is a friend to all mankind. And I

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Speaker 1: thought it was kind of like worded, very doctor Seuss' like, right,

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Speaker 1: But really what he's talking about is treating yourself as

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Speaker 1: if you were a close friend, right, and more specifically,

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Speaker 1: learning that in treating yourself as as a friend, you know,

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Speaker 1: with compassion and kindness, like understanding that that is in

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Speaker 1: fact the foundation of a happy life. And also noting

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Speaker 1: that someone who loves themselves immediately becomes an asset to

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Speaker 1: the world around them, right. And I think that this,

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Speaker 1: you know, goes without saying. You know, when you feel

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Speaker 1: good about yourself, you can't help but attract people. You know,

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Speaker 1: people want to be around those who feel comfortable with

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Speaker 1: the person who was always the class clown growing up

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Speaker 1: in high school, you know. And and why was everybody

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Speaker 1: so fascinated by that human being? What was because they

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Speaker 1: were in awe of someone who was truly walking, you know,

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Speaker 1: authentically as themselves, was unafraid to be goofy, was unafraid

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Speaker 1: to embarrass themselves. You know, those are the kind of

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Speaker 1: people that we are naturally drawn to, you know, on

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Speaker 1: our own journey of self love. And for me, this

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Speaker 1: relates on such a personal level, right, Like, because I've

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Speaker 1: recently been been realizing that my self love you know,

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Speaker 1: or lack of, is the root of so many of

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Speaker 1: my issues. That like, even when I'm getting positive reinforcement

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Speaker 1: from people, I'm getting positive feedback, you know, I find

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Speaker 1: it hard to truly feel to take in, you know,

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Speaker 1: But when I get a negative comment when I get

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Speaker 1: negative feedback like that, I'm I can eat that up

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Speaker 1: all day, right, and I begin to feel bad about myself.

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Speaker 1: I've been to begin to discredit all that I'm doing,

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Speaker 1: and I think for me, a lot of this sort

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Speaker 1: of lack of self love. For a while, it caused

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Speaker 1: me to forget my why, you know, to forget my purpose.

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Speaker 1: And this was you know, fairly recent, to be honest

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Speaker 1: with you, you know, like I ate up all of

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Speaker 1: the negative commentary, and I started dreaming smaller. You know,

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Speaker 1: I would fall back on these sort of self deprecating

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Speaker 1: ideas that that you know, I couldn't make it on

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Speaker 1: my own, and not in the sense of like I

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Speaker 1: don't need help from people, because we all do, but

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Speaker 1: but more so the idea that like I always have

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Speaker 1: to have a bigger backing, you know, behind me, like

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Speaker 1: a brand behind me, or you know, some sort of

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Speaker 1: person watching over everything that I'm doing, you know, or

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Speaker 1: even further at times, thinking like man, I need to

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Speaker 1: get like an actual job, like I'm not cut out

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Speaker 1: to be an entrepreneur. I'm not good at this, and

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Speaker 1: even further, like if someone would bring up an idea

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Speaker 1: to me, I'd be a negative, you know, and I

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Speaker 1: would come up with a million and one reasons as

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Speaker 1: to why it wouldn't work. And all of it was

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Speaker 1: because I didn't truly believe in myself, right. I didn't

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Speaker 1: love myself. I didn't accept myself enough to have full

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Speaker 1: confidence in my capabilities and to believe the positive feedback

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Speaker 1: that I was getting, right Like, I didn't love myself

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Speaker 1: enough to believe in my endless potential. And listen, it's

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Speaker 1: been a really really long road. And within that like

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Speaker 1: that self doubt. You know, I'm so happy that I

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Speaker 1: get to be self employed at this point and I'm building,

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Speaker 1: you know, all these businesses and doing these different things,

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Speaker 1: but that self doubt it creeps in. I go on

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Speaker 1: LinkedIn sometimes I'm looking for what jobs are available for

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Speaker 1: somebody with my skill set? Like again, that self deprecation

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Speaker 1: that like this isn't gonna last to be a career

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Speaker 1: for you. Like sure, maybe you had a year of

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Speaker 1: self employment, maybe you've had you know, two years of it,

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Speaker 1: whatever it might be, but like it's going to end,

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Speaker 1: and you need to get real about your life and

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Speaker 1: your career and all these different things, Like all those

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Speaker 1: kinds of things they creep up, you know, on me

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Speaker 1: from time to time. And again it's been a really

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Speaker 1: long road. I'm happy to say that I'm turning a corner.

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Speaker 1: You know that I'm finally beginning to shed some of

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Speaker 1: those limiting beliefs. But best believe, you know, they still

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Speaker 1: come back from time to time. And I doubt everything

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Speaker 1: I've ever created in any positive feedback I've ever gotten.

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Speaker 1: And it's a constant struggle to remind myself that I

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Speaker 1: am enough, and that me as I am right now,

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Speaker 1: I am worthy of my own love right and like

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Speaker 1: Kendrick says, deciding that this is who I am and

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Speaker 1: standing on that and being proud of that right. And

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Speaker 1: with that in mind, we have heard from the great

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Speaker 1: man Kendrick, we have heard from Seneca. I've talked a

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Speaker 1: bit about how I am and battling this idea. Now

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Speaker 1: let's talk about how you can make it your mantra

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Speaker 1: for today. But first let's take a quick break and

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Speaker 1: then we'll be right back. All right, So we have

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Speaker 1: heard the words of Kendrick Lamar. We have heard from

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Speaker 1: one of the stoic Seneca. I've given you an insight

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Speaker 1: into my own personal journey with this idea of gratitude

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Speaker 1: for oneself. Now let's talk about how you can make

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Speaker 1: it your mantra for today. Now today's episode and kind

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Speaker 1: of the idea of adapting this idea of gratitude for oneself,

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Speaker 1: it's going to be incredibly practical, right, And it's the

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Speaker 1: power of suggestion, and it's the idea that when you

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Speaker 1: hear something enough, you begin to believe it. Or in

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Speaker 1: a more practical sense, you know, we've all either dreamed

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Speaker 1: of getting a certain car, or we got that car

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, we're out driving and

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Speaker 1: now we're noticing that car everywhere on the road. Right.

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Speaker 1: It's because our mind has been consciously influenced to look

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Speaker 1: for that thing. Right, And you could do the same

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Speaker 1: thing with your mind and even just how it thinks

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Speaker 1: in regards to yourself and that little voice that we

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Speaker 1: all have in the back of our head. Right. So

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Speaker 1: for me, something that has been really effective and something

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Speaker 1: I've been trying to consistently adapt is doing this thing

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Speaker 1: I call the I AM exercise, right, and I do

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Speaker 1: it every night, you know, as I'm falling asleep and

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Speaker 1: every morning as I'm waking up. And there's all kinds

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Speaker 1: of studies that talk about kind of those Those are

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Speaker 1: the pivotal moments, you know, when your brain isn't completely

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Speaker 1: aware of all its surroundings, that you can begin to

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Speaker 1: implement certain ideas into it. Right. But for me, what

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Speaker 1: I do is, you know, I speak to myself, so

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Speaker 1: I say, I am confident, I am successful, I am loved,

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Speaker 1: I am great, and even beyond just I am talking

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Speaker 1: to myself and saying, you know, I love myself, I

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Speaker 1: appreciate myself. I am capable of anything that I put

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Speaker 1: in my mind too. And then you could even squeeze

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Speaker 1: in certain things that you want, you know, for your future,

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Speaker 1: you know whatever, and your brain begins to operate in

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Speaker 1: that way, right, And the idea is like autosuggestion. Your

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Speaker 1: mind begins to look for ways to connect to the

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Speaker 1: things that you've been putting into it. Right. It is

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Speaker 1: because you are thinking about something now your brain is

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Speaker 1: subconsciously automatically looking for ways to connect those dots. And

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Speaker 1: this is based upon science and all different things like that.

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Speaker 1: But to me, this is a very practical approach to

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Speaker 1: everyday life of just trying to fight back against those

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Speaker 1: negative voices that we all have in our mind. So

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Speaker 1: to recap you know on this the stoic idea of gratitude,

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Speaker 1: but particularly gratitude for oneself and loving yourself. You know,

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Speaker 1: I pull from Kendrick the idea of making that decision.

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Speaker 1: This is who I am, and I'm good with that.

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Speaker 1: I am good with being me right again, standing in

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Speaker 1: the good and bad that we all have, you know,

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Speaker 1: our shortcomings and our things that we are great at

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Speaker 1: accepting all of it. And then when it comes to

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Speaker 1: Seneca talking about learning to be a friend to himself, right,

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Speaker 1: that treating himself with compassion not only makes him feel

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Speaker 1: good and makes him feel more fulfilled, but it also

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Speaker 1: makes the world sort of come to him. Right, that

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Speaker 1: he who loves himself, he who treats himself kindly, is

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Speaker 1: automatically going to become an asset to the world around him.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, even with my story is learning

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Speaker 1: to not indulge in all of the negativity. But but

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Speaker 1: also you know, appreciate yourself enough to embrace the positive

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Speaker 1: feedback that you're getting right and to not think small.

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Speaker 1: I think that's the ultimate kind of takeaway from from

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Speaker 1: my journey, is that not to take myself out of

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Speaker 1: the game just because I have my own self doubts

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Speaker 1: and and that is sort of what I hope begins

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Speaker 1: to get a race with this I am practice that

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Speaker 1: that I invite you to implement. Remember, talk to yourself

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Speaker 1: as if you were a kind friend, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: giving advice or empathizing with your current situation. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's all about how we train our mind to think.

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Speaker 1: And this action of repeatedly telling ourselves that we are worthy,

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Speaker 1: that we are special, that we are loved, will begin

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Speaker 1: to train our brain to automatically look for these things,

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Speaker 1: and hopefully it also begins to silence that little negative

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Speaker 1: voice that we all have sometimes in the back of

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Speaker 1: our minds. Now, with that said, thank y'all so much

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Speaker 1: for checking out the Street Stoic podcast. Do your best

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Speaker 1: to apply these concepts that we discussed. It's your everyday

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Speaker 1: life I'll catch you next time. The Street Stoke Podcast

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Speaker 1: is a production of Ihearts Michael Plura Podcast Network