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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 your daily dose of timeless stoic philosophy

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

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

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Speaker 1: who 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 are going to be focusing around the

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Speaker 1: stoic idea of gratitude, being grateful, and I thought today

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Speaker 1: tackling it from the advantage point of presence, being in

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Speaker 1: the moment, and for me, that's always sort of been

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Speaker 1: the the easiest way to kind of get to a

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Speaker 1: place of gratitude, right is by focusing on the present moment,

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Speaker 1: the most mundane little things that are just a part

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Speaker 1: of everyday life and recognizing the blessings that they are.

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Speaker 1: And a song that came to mind when thinking about

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Speaker 1: it from this vantage point is the record by Khalid

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Speaker 1: called Present. One part of it he says, is it

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Speaker 1: okay if I take the night to be present? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can give you everything tonight, give you everything you get,

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Speaker 1: all of my love. And I think for me, what

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Speaker 1: he's really talking about in just these few lines that

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Speaker 1: he's pulled, he's recognizing the importance of presidents, right. And

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Speaker 1: he's obviously talking about this in the romantic sense of

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Speaker 1: spending an evening with somebody, right. But I think the

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Speaker 1: fact that he's using the practice of being present and

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Speaker 1: recognizing that this is an important part of the formula

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Speaker 1: of truly giving yourself to somebody, right, giving everything to

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Speaker 1: this person that he's talking about. He's saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: you get all my love and recognizing that his presence,

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Speaker 1: his complete presence, is a part of that. It's like

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Speaker 1: the saying that I love so much. Presence is a

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Speaker 1: present and you have to treat it as such. You

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Speaker 1: have to cherish the present moment and live in it

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Speaker 1: and fully be aware of all that's going on around

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Speaker 1: you if you're interacting with someone or in this case,

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Speaker 1: like the lyrically pulled from Khalid, he's obviously looking to

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Speaker 1: spend an evening with somebody that he cares about. It's

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Speaker 1: the idea of mentally being there one hundred percent, right.

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Speaker 1: It's not about just physically sharing a space. You can

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Speaker 1: be you know, sharing a physical space with somebody. You

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Speaker 1: could be sitting on a couch watching a movie and

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Speaker 1: if you're not talking, you're not engaging with one another,

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Speaker 1: your mind is elsewhere. That's not really quality time. At

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, right, you haven't truly given

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Speaker 1: this person all of you in that moment. And this

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Speaker 1: leads perfectly to a quote from one of the stoics,

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Speaker 1: Marcus Aurelius, where he says, concentrate every minute on doing

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Speaker 1: what's in front of you. This is something that can

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Speaker 1: be taken for so many different kind of stoic ideas,

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Speaker 1: but I think the idea of presence and how that

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Speaker 1: cultivates gratitude. It's concentrating on what you have directly in

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Speaker 1: front of you in the moment, the person, the place right,

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Speaker 1: the feeling that is coming up for you in that moment.

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Speaker 1: You're not worried about anything that might happen tomorrow, you're

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Speaker 1: not dwelling on anything from the past. You are hyper

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Speaker 1: present to that moment. And again, that hyper presence allows

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Speaker 1: you to be grateful for so many different things, even

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Speaker 1: if it's not the shiny object that would be impressive

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Speaker 1: for you to post on social media or that you

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Speaker 1: can be braggadocious about. If you're able to be hyper

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Speaker 1: present to what's going on in front of you. I

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Speaker 1: can assure you you're going to have an endless list

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Speaker 1: of things that you can be grateful for that are

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Speaker 1: going to produce happiness for you. And Lautsu says, if

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Speaker 1: you are depressed, you are living in the past. If

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Speaker 1: you are anxious, you are living in the future. So

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Speaker 1: it's this idea that these negative emotions like anxiety and depression.

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Speaker 1: Of course there are clinical aspects to it, but just

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Speaker 1: for the general sort of conversation of everyday feelings that

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Speaker 1: we all go through, we are causing ourselves turmoil by

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Speaker 1: just not being focused and not being grateful for what

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Speaker 1: we have in the present moment. I'll relate to this

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Speaker 1: on a number of different levels. What immediately came to

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Speaker 1: mind as I'm thinking about this is my relationship with money,

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Speaker 1: you know, particularly my past relationship with money, and the

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Speaker 1: level of anxiety that it would bring me right, you know,

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Speaker 1: for me growing up and well into my twenties, you know,

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Speaker 1: and even up to a few years ago, my instability

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Speaker 1: with money and never feeling I had enough, and there

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Speaker 1: was always this hustle and this grind that had to

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Speaker 1: happen in order for me to sort of just get by,

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Speaker 1: and there was always an anxiety of what if this

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Speaker 1: doesn't work out, and that anxiety around money would take

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Speaker 1: me out of the present moment. It would not allow

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Speaker 1: me to appreciate how far I'd come on my journey,

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Speaker 1: particularly when I'm building my career media and I'm getting

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Speaker 1: all these awesome opportunities and the consistent money hadn't come yet,

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Speaker 1: But it didn't take away from the fact that I'm

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Speaker 1: getting to live out some really incredible experiences. But I

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Speaker 1: look back on it now and I can't help but

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Speaker 1: feel like I sort of cheapened some of those experiences

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Speaker 1: or wasn't as grateful for them in the moment as

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Speaker 1: I would have liked to have been now looking back,

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Speaker 1: And a lot of that was because I was concerned

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Speaker 1: with something else, even though my body was physically present

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Speaker 1: in one of these amazing experiences. Mentally, I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about the next move or mentally thinking about what I

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Speaker 1: didn't have, rather than just enjoying the moment for what

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Speaker 1: it was. Now, with that said, we have heard some

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Speaker 1: words from Khalid, one of the Stokes Marcus Aurelius, I've

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Speaker 1: given you some insight into my own experience around the

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Speaker 1: idea of cultivating gratitude your presence. Now, let's talk about

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Speaker 1: how you can make it your mantra for today. But first,

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Speaker 1: mistake a quick break, and then we'll be right back.

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Speaker 1: All right, So today we're talking all about gratitude and

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Speaker 1: how to cultivate it right and focusing on the idea

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Speaker 1: of presence. And you've heard from Khalid, you've heard from

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Speaker 1: Marcus Aurelius myself. Now let's talk about how you can

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Speaker 1: make it your mantra for today. And I think first

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Speaker 1: and foremost, we have to recognize that it's easier said

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Speaker 1: than done, right, I understand it. Life is throwing a

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Speaker 1: million and one different things at us. Our mind is

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Speaker 1: running all around the place. It's incredibly difficult to always

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Speaker 1: be present. But at the end of the day, it's

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Speaker 1: important that we remember presence is the key to our happiness, right,

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Speaker 1: and gratitude for that present moment, no matter what it

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Speaker 1: is or isn't, is where happiness lives. And I think

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Speaker 1: so many of us, myself included, oftentimes get caught up

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Speaker 1: in where we're going or what we've been through and

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Speaker 1: how hard things have been, or striving for the next achievement,

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Speaker 1: the next accolade, whatever it might be, and it sort

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Speaker 1: of keeps us in this mode of delaying gratitude. It

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Speaker 1: takes us out of the present and it delays gratitude.

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Speaker 1: And I think you have to find a balance between

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Speaker 1: being motivated but still present to the gift that is

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Speaker 1: the life that you're currently living, because I think the

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Speaker 1: problem that ends up happening is we get so used

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Speaker 1: to living in this mindset where we are delaying gratitude,

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Speaker 1: we are delaying happiness essentially, that even when we achieve

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Speaker 1: that big goal, that next thing that we have been

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Speaker 1: striving for, we continue that same cycle because it's become

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Speaker 1: second nature to us. Right, so, we have been striving

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Speaker 1: for a particular goal for like a year. Now we

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Speaker 1: finally check it off the list. Most of us are

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Speaker 1: probably going to have another goal that we've set for

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Speaker 1: ourselves after that, Right, so we once again delay the gratitude,

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Speaker 1: and then we do it all over again and over

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Speaker 1: again and over again, and before we know it, we've

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Speaker 1: moved quickly past some of the best moments of our

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Speaker 1: lives with without truly being present to them and taking

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Speaker 1: in and appreciating them. So let's recap all we've been

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Speaker 1: talking about today. You have Khalid really just describing this

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Speaker 1: night that he wants to give this person that he

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Speaker 1: cares for, right, saying, he wants to give them everything,

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Speaker 1: he wants to give them all of his love. And

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Speaker 1: I love the fact that he's talking about taking the

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Speaker 1: night to be present, taking the time, making an intention,

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Speaker 1: right saying, is it okay if I take the night

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Speaker 1: to be present? Recognizing that he can't give this person

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Speaker 1: all of himself without truly being present to the moment

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Speaker 1: and living as if nothing else matters outside of that

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Speaker 1: current moment. It's like Marcus Aurelius talks about, you have

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Speaker 1: to concentrate every minute on doing what's in front of

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Speaker 1: you at the end of the day, prioritizing the very

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Speaker 1: thing that you are doing right now in this moment,

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Speaker 1: and that's what alleviates those feelings of anxiety, those feelings

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Speaker 1: of depression. Right. We kind of do like a one

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Speaker 1: to two punch here with a quote from talking about

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Speaker 1: the reason why you're depressed is because you're living in

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Speaker 1: the past. The reason why you're anxious is because you're

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Speaker 1: living in the future. Right, talking about how us living

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Speaker 1: anywhere but the present moment puts us in some sort

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Speaker 1: of mental turmoil, right. It takes us away from all

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Speaker 1: that's in front of us and the gratitude and fulfillment

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Speaker 1: that come from the present moment when you're there truly

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Speaker 1: appreciating it. Right. And even in my story, I kind of,

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Speaker 1: you know, was talking a bit just now about the

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Speaker 1: delayed gratitude that I sort of did to myself, right,

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Speaker 1: the delay of happiness and allowing myself to feel the

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Speaker 1: moment because I was a was worried about the next goal, right,

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Speaker 1: or I was anxious about where the next check was

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Speaker 1: going to come from, or if my money was going

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Speaker 1: to dry up, right, if this opportunity was going to end,

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Speaker 1: and then I was going to be left scrambling, right.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the conversation that we're talking about

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Speaker 1: as a whole, Right. It's that your happiness is not

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Speaker 1: some later date to be found. It needs to be

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Speaker 1: found in the present moment, right. It needs to be

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Speaker 1: found in the gratitude that you have for wherever you

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Speaker 1: are currently in your life, there is still something for

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Speaker 1: you to be proud of, to be grateful for. Doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean that you aren't striving for more, doesn't mean that

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Speaker 1: your life isn't going to eventually get exponentially better in

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Speaker 1: some sort of way. But you first and foremost need

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Speaker 1: to find the happiness in the present moment. If not,

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Speaker 1: you're just going to create this cycle of always thinking

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Speaker 1: that happiness is around some other corner rather than in

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Speaker 1: the present moment. Now, with that said, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for checking out the Street Stoice podcast. Do your

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Speaker 1: best to apply these concepts that we discuss into your

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Speaker 1: everyday life, and I will catch you next time. The

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Speaker 1: Street Stoke podcast is a production of Iheart's Micothura podcast network.