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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 of timeless Stoic

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

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Speaker 1: ancient philosophy with lyrics and quotes from some of the

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Speaker 1: greatest to ever grace a microphone. Now, with that in mind,

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Speaker 1: let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration.

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Speaker 1: Now today, we're gonna be focusing the show around the

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Speaker 1: Stoic principle, the Stoic idea of gratitude. But I wanted

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Speaker 1: to tackle it from a bit of a different angle

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Speaker 1: than we have in the past. And to do so,

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Speaker 1: the song that I pulled up to today to pull

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Speaker 1: some some bars from this tupac right, one of the

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Speaker 1: one of the Goats, and and this song is Dear Mama,

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Speaker 1: which I'm sure we've all heard a million one times,

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Speaker 1: but I thought this was such a perfect example of

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Speaker 1: the the idea of of gratitude right, and and tackling it,

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Speaker 1: like I said, from a different angle than we have before.

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Speaker 1: So in this song, Pok says, because when I was low,

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Speaker 1: you was there for me. You never left me alone,

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Speaker 1: because you cared for me. And I could see you

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Speaker 1: coming home after work late. You're in the kitchen trying

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Speaker 1: to fix this a hot plate. You're just working with

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Speaker 1: the scraps he was given. And Mama made miracles every Thanksgiving.

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Speaker 1: But now the road got rough. You're alone, You're trying

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Speaker 1: to raise two bad kids on your own, and there's

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Speaker 1: no way I could pay you back. But my plan

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Speaker 1: is to show you that I understand you are appreciated.

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Speaker 1: And aside from me just being beautiful, words that you know,

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Speaker 1: touch any one of us, and especially anybody who is

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Speaker 1: a a mother out there, who anybody who has children,

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Speaker 1: I can imagine, you know. I think it also speaks

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Speaker 1: to a bit of the idea that we often take

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Speaker 1: those closest to us for granted. And obviously paka Is

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Speaker 1: is not doing that in the song, but he's talking

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Speaker 1: about really subtle things, right, you know, the the idea

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Speaker 1: of appreciating the fact that his mom is coming home

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Speaker 1: after working late, and even though they don't have much,

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Speaker 1: they only have scraps, right, she she figures out a

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Speaker 1: way always to to make sure that they're they're fed right,

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Speaker 1: and to make sure that the holidays are are meant

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Speaker 1: to feel special, you know, And and acknowledging, you know,

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Speaker 1: that he could never truly pay her back for all

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Speaker 1: that she's done, but understanding the importance of making sure

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Speaker 1: that she feels appreciated for for all that she has

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Speaker 1: done and continues to do for him in his life. Right.

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Speaker 1: And we all have, you know, different relationships with our

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Speaker 1: Our parents are loved ones, like I understand, some are

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Speaker 1: incredibly complicated, right. And maybe the idea of finding gratitude

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Speaker 1: or appreciation for parents aren't you know, doesn't bring true

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Speaker 1: to you given your situation. But I think it's probably

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Speaker 1: safe to say that all of us have at least

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Speaker 1: someone in our life that that we can look to

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Speaker 1: have who has you know, always been there for us

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Speaker 1: when we needed them most, right. And I think oftentimes

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Speaker 1: as human beings, it's the people closest to us that

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Speaker 1: we we end up taking for granted that we we

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Speaker 1: don't truly appreciate, right, And and even you know, to

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Speaker 1: a fault, to to the point that we begin to

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Speaker 1: look for outside approval from others, right, and we begin

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Speaker 1: to value that over the people that are right in

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Speaker 1: front of us, that are our rocks and that are

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Speaker 1: consistently there for us each and every day. Now, This

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Speaker 1: to me leads perfectly into a quote from one of

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Speaker 1: the stoics, right from Seneca, and he says, quote, joy

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Speaker 1: comes to us from those whom we love, even when

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Speaker 1: they are absent, right, And I think we we oftentimes

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Speaker 1: confused real joy with the kind of temporary dopamine hit

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Speaker 1: that that comes to us from something or some one new. Right.

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Speaker 1: But what he's talking about here is that real joy,

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Speaker 1: real happiness in this life in the context of a relationship,

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Speaker 1: right and be it you know, romantic, or be a

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Speaker 1: family or friendship, the real aspects of it, the things

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Speaker 1: that really matter are are the people that when they're

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Speaker 1: not directly in front of us, we still feel that

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Speaker 1: that love for them, right and vice versa. You know,

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Speaker 1: those are the the unconditional relationships in our lives, and

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Speaker 1: those are the ones we're real joy and happiness come from.

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Speaker 1: Right And Listen. They may not be as as shiny

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Speaker 1: or as fancy as like the social media love, right,

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Speaker 1: the likes, the comments, the d m s, you know,

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Speaker 1: or or they might not be as interesting or intoxicating

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Speaker 1: as the attention, uh, you know from someone that you're

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Speaker 1: you're lusting after. Right, But again, they are the only

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Speaker 1: types of relationships that that truly matter, and sadly, many

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Speaker 1: of us, you know, don't extend the proper amount of

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Speaker 1: gratitude or appreciation for those loved ones until that person

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Speaker 1: is is no longer a part of our lives, you know,

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Speaker 1: and then it's too late, Like like for me, my

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Speaker 1: worst fear and and and the worst thing I can imagine,

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Speaker 1: you know, is the idea of not figuring out what

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Speaker 1: truly matters until it's too late, right, and in this context,

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Speaker 1: the idea of of not recognizing the importance of the

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Speaker 1: people directly in front of me until they're gone, right,

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Speaker 1: and and to that point, how I relate to this

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Speaker 1: specifically is the relationship with my parents. I've talked about

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Speaker 1: it many times on on different platforms and and different

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Speaker 1: conversations about how I didn't feel supported by my parents

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Speaker 1: along my journey of essentially trying to live authentically right

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Speaker 1: and that being a career that I loved and and

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Speaker 1: being able to showcase myself, you know, my my art

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Speaker 1: and all of the different sides of me, right. My

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Speaker 1: parents oftentimes shunned that growing up, and you know, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't too to make me feel bad about myself. It's

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Speaker 1: because they were doing it in an effort to to

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Speaker 1: protect me. But that relationship that I had with them,

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Speaker 1: I had a lot of resentment towards them for a

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Speaker 1: very long time. You know. They became the fuel for

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Speaker 1: me trying to quote unquote make it in this life

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Speaker 1: right to prove them wrong. And what I realized over

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Speaker 1: the course of the last year or so is sort

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Speaker 1: of how toxic that is, right, that that fuel of

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Speaker 1: trying to prove them wrong became dirty fuel, you know.

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Speaker 1: And what I realized was that I was taking my

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Speaker 1: parents for granted, and luckily they are still here, you know,

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Speaker 1: but I I can only sort of man feel some

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Speaker 1: sort of shame about the amount of time I feel

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Speaker 1: has been wasted. Now. Granted, I've made great strides over

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Speaker 1: the last year of repairing that relationship, of prioritizing my

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Speaker 1: parents in my life, making sure that you know, I

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Speaker 1: spent time with them each week, and I talked on

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Speaker 1: the phone with my mom every single day, And those

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Speaker 1: are all things that are become incredibly important to me

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Speaker 1: because I feel an immense amount of gratitude for them

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Speaker 1: and all they've done, you know, beyond their their faults,

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Speaker 1: just like all of us have as human beings. You know,

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Speaker 1: They've been incredible people in my life and people that

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Speaker 1: I've been able to account on no matter what, you know,

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Speaker 1: even if they didn't agree with what I was doing

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Speaker 1: or the path that I was taking. They were always

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Speaker 1: that rock in my life. But you know, there definitely

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Speaker 1: was a point in my journey of of creating a

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Speaker 1: life for myself and chasing after my my dreams where

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Speaker 1: I put them on the back burner. I took time

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Speaker 1: you know, with them for for granted, and and definitely

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Speaker 1: I think the pandemic was a huge help as well,

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Speaker 1: where we can just slow down, and I was able

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Speaker 1: to spend far more time with them just out of

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Speaker 1: having nothing else to do. And that made me recognize

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Speaker 1: how important they are to my life and how much

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Speaker 1: appreciation I have for them, and I want to cherish

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Speaker 1: this time that we have left together, right. I made

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Speaker 1: that a priority in and recently, you know, I had

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Speaker 1: this amazing conversation with them, just really opening up about

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Speaker 1: all of the things I've I've gone through a felt

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Speaker 1: towards them in my life, and our relationship is only

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Speaker 1: stronger as a result of it. We were to share

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Speaker 1: things that one another about our feelings and upbringings that

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Speaker 1: has only brought us closer and hopefully long time from

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Speaker 1: from now and they're no longer here. I'm gonna gonna

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Speaker 1: be able to look back on our time spent together

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Speaker 1: with very few regrets. And that leads us to how

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Speaker 1: you can can make this your mantra for today, the

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Speaker 1: idea of gratitude. Before we get into that, let's take

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Speaker 1: a quick break and it will be right back. All right.

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Speaker 1: So you've heard the words from man one of the goats,

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Speaker 1: you know, Tupac. We've we've heard the words from Seneca.

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Speaker 1: I've talked to you about how this has been such

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Speaker 1: a huge aspect of my life and just a really

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Speaker 1: big change in my life. And now I want to

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Speaker 1: talk about how you can make it your mantra for today, right,

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Speaker 1: the idea of gratitude. And this is gonna gonna start

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Speaker 1: off a little bit dark, but something that really helped me,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of progress even quicker down this this

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Speaker 1: road of repairing my relationship with my parents was this

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Speaker 1: personal growth retreat that I went away too at the

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Speaker 1: end of one and it was called the Hoffman process.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things that they do is this

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Speaker 1: sort of death ceremony right, and you have to essentially

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Speaker 1: act out, you know, burying your your parents. And that

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Speaker 1: sounds incredibly dark, but it was incredibly moving that you

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Speaker 1: were given these things that represent your parents and then

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Speaker 1: you had to go out and find spots too to

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Speaker 1: bury them. And it was like this really deep meditation

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Speaker 1: that they took you on and literally felt like it

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Speaker 1: was real. You know. During it, I couldn't tell or

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Speaker 1: remember if my parents were truly alive or not. I

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Speaker 1: was just so in it, and it allowed me to

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Speaker 1: feel all of the emotions of God forbid losing them

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Speaker 1: right and I felt it right there in that moment.

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Speaker 1: And the beauty of it was that once it was over,

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Speaker 1: I had the joy of knowing that my parents were

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Speaker 1: still here and that I was going to have the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to make the most of our time that we

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Speaker 1: have here left on this earth. You know. So I

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Speaker 1: want you to to think about the special person or

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Speaker 1: people in your life. Maybe it's your parents, maybe it's

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Speaker 1: your your spouse, your loved one, and and imagine that

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Speaker 1: if you knew ahead of time today that when you

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Speaker 1: woke up tomorrow, you're gonna get the news that those

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Speaker 1: people are are no longer here, and really try and

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Speaker 1: feel all of those emotions, you know, tap into the

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Speaker 1: emotions t happened, to the feelings of sadness, the regret,

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Speaker 1: and ask yourself, what things would you want to say

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Speaker 1: to them today with the knowledge that you won't be

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Speaker 1: able to do it tomorrow. What things would you want

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Speaker 1: to do? What things would you want to change about

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Speaker 1: your relationship or the place that they have in your life?

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Speaker 1: You know, if you're lucky those people that we're talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, they're still here and you can now make

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Speaker 1: it a point to live with gratitude and appreciation for

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Speaker 1: them moving forward, right, and you can take the time

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Speaker 1: to repair that relationship and recognize it's important you know,

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Speaker 1: and you know, shave off that that regret that you

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Speaker 1: potentially could feel when they're no longer are a part

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Speaker 1: of your life. And for those of you who unfortunately

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Speaker 1: have already lost a close loved one, you know, I think,

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Speaker 1: just use this as a reminder and use it as

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Speaker 1: fuel to be more present to the limited time you

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Speaker 1: have with the people that are closest to you. Right,

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Speaker 1: make sure that those people understand how you feel about them,

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Speaker 1: and beyond just the words, make sure your actions. Also

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Speaker 1: follow up with that that you are appreciating them, that

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Speaker 1: you are savoring the moments that you have spent with

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Speaker 1: them here on this earth, and that you can potentially

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Speaker 1: continue to spend with them, and make sure that you

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Speaker 1: are feeling the gratitude of the opportunity to have new

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Speaker 1: moments with them for however long that it lasts. Now,

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Speaker 1: with that said, man, thank you all so much for

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

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Speaker 1: apply these concepts that we've discussed today into your everyday life,

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Speaker 1: and I'll catch you all next time. The Street Stoke

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Speaker 1: Podcast is a production of My Hearts Michael Pura of

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Speaker 1: KAS Network