Health is Wealth

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse, and you're listening to the podcast One Life. Health is wealth. There's an Italian proverb that goes something like, he who is healthy is wealthy, although he knows it not. In the Western world, we have this idea of wealth. We think of like some dollar amount, whether it be a million or a billion dollars, and we say, well, this is what it means to be wealthy. We think of wealth as being able to afford anything or have anything we want at any time, no questions asked. But very few people actually answer that question while saying, well, health is wealth, because without health, you have nothing. The intention of this podcast is to really bring that magnifying and say, well, how do I feel on a day to day basis? Because what you may forget, because I think you understand it, but what you may forget is that your health spills over into every area of your life. Think of the time you spend with your family if you don't have the energy to pour out to play with your niece, nephews, kids, or to perform well at work. This all relates to health. A couple this past week, I just actually got out of quarantine. I tested positive for COVID 19 a couple weeks back. And the reason I went in to even get tested was because my siblings voiced some concern about being around my parents and developed a small cough. So I said, okay, let me go. I went in, I came back positive on a rapid test, and I was like, well, this can't be right. You know, I feel pretty good, you know, like, aside from, like the little cough. And I think I had, you know, I had sweats and chills, which I haven't had a fever in a very long time. So I don't even know what that is. I didn't know what that was. So I got it to positive rapid test. And then I said, you know what, let me just do one more test just to be sure. I went in to get a PCR test the following day, and then it came back positive for Covid. As you can imagine, it was a little bit kind of jarring to the system to think like, okay, I tested positive for this virus that literally has been rocking the world for the last two years. And like the media, everything's been behind it. So there' swhen you think of COVID one of the first things that comes to mind is your own mortality. Because you're like, all right, well, how bad is it gonna get? How many days do I have left? And the entire experience, I won't go, I may do it in A different podcast episode. But the entire experience was really eye opening for me in many, many ways. One, how I thought I was responding to it versus how the rest of the world responds to it. And then being grateful for my. Being grateful for how I was able to get through it, but also just the feeling of alone. Thankfully, I had some really good friends who would check in on me every day. And so it just placed the importance on, like, you know, how grateful I am for certain people in my life. But this is not the point of the episode. The point of the episode is to kind of go through what I felt about health and how once I regained my health, I realized that that is the real wealth. So as the symptoms progress. First, it started off with the cough. Some people get their bulk of their symptoms right in the beginning. That didn't happen for me. It took me to get, like, really, like, say, a good five days in before I started feeling some stuff. I mean, there were aches and pains, and there was, like, I think the fifth day, I had no energy, and I literally couldn't even focus. And so I just literally would lay in my bed and just stare at the wall because, you know, I didn't want to look at tv, I didn't want to read because I couldn't concentrate. And then later on, I started developing some symptoms in my lungs, and it wasn't. There was no restriction in my breathing. There was just like this. I could tell there was a presence there, and that freaked me out. That freaked me out big time. Because as I'm approaching the end of my quarantine, I'm like, well, why is this happening now? What is going on? You know, is this gonna get worse? Am I gonna wake up tomorrow and not be able to breathe? So you can imagine the things snowballing in my head and getting bigger and bigger. And as I started to focus on these things that I was afraid of, they started to grow. What I just mentioned, like, thankfully, I had friends who would check in on me every single day, and they were just friends who've had Covid and have gotten through it as well. As the health department of the state would check in every day to check in on the symptoms, and then they would kind of put things in perspective, say, you know what? This is totally normal. This is what most people experience at this point. You're on your way out. So post Covid, right? So I'm out of quarantine, and I started doing just little tasks. And, like, the. When I say little tasks, meaning, like, going out to the street and walking maybe like a hundred yards. I started to feel this fatigue. Like it was weighing, like, my lungs, like, just didn't have the capacity that they had pre Covid. So looking at that, I was like, whoa, this is crazy. I can't do a fraction of the exercise that I was able to do before. I still had a little bit of congestion after that. And one of the things that I noticed also was, like, just my being able to eat. When I was eating, I had this sour feeling in my stomach. And as a result, it kind of made me. It dampened my appetite. So I didn't really want to eat, but I was making myself eat full meals, three a day, as opposed to, like the five or six I normally get. I felt like it was never going to get better. But luckily, every day I would notice little differences. One would be just being able to take in more food, then all of a sudden, a little bit more expanded lung capacity. Then the increase in my attention to be able to focus on a certain thing, such as creating this podcast right now a few days earlier. That ability wasn't there because my health wasn't yet at that point where. And it's still building. But my health was slowly getting to improve. And as a result of doing that, I was able to take on different endeavors, started applying, going back in and diving back into my business and communicate with people and build my relationships with my friends and all these different things. And it was kind of like this, this. This scale that kind of like scaled up as every single day. My health began to improve, my life began to improve, my emotional health began to improve, because I started focusing on, like, the things that are getting better in my life. But how true is that when things are going bad, when you can't see a light at the end of that tunnel again, Going back to this experience, I could tell you the same thing happened, like, when I was. When I was in. But in reverse when I was in, like, day eight, which is like pretty much like 10 days. You have to quarantine for 10 days. And 11th day, you're out of quarantine because you're no longer contagious. So on that, like, that eighth day when I started to feel that little thing in my lungs, all of a sudden I started focusing on just mortality. I was like, oh, my God, what's gonna happen tomorrow? Am I gonna. It's gonna get worse tomorrow. Am I gonna be able to breathe? Am I getting worse? Am I gonna stay in quarantine? What's going, you know, what's Going on? Am I gonna have to go to the hospital? And, like, literally the snowballing effect of all these things that could possibly go wrong. And what kind of effect do you think that had on my health? I felt like shit. I felt. When my mind was spiraling there, I. Everything that I was, that I was thinking, I honestly thought that it was. I thought I was going to be a goner. But just as fast as you can go into that dark place, you can get yourself out. As I had mentioned, I had spoken to friends when they reaffirmed that, like, you know, no, this is normal. When I spoke to the health department, they said, no, what you're experiencing is normal. All of a sudden, there was that light of hope. And then all of a sudden, literally. And I shit you, not literally. In the moment, everything just kind of. It was almost like someone just took off a pair of blinders. All of a sudden I was like, ah, there's the light. And I felt better about it. So I digressed a little bit. But the point I'm trying to make by telling you this story is that you don't really. You don't really value something until you lose it. And then you. You know, you. Then you look at what it was and you're like, oh, my God, I wish I had that. I taken it for granted. And it's kind of like. I think it's like, it's one of the traps we fall into as humans that we don't. We aren't grateful for something until we lose it. And then we realize that that is what we want. But for life, we want to play a bigger game, right? Because if you can, you have to think of something greater than where you are, too. Right? Because otherwise you're just going to plateau. You're going to stay where you are. So you have to think of, like, what is it that you want? What's the bigger game? What's the ultimate goal? So this way, you have something to reach towards, and you have to be able to acquaint yourself with those feelings of what it's going to be like when you have that perfect relationship, that perfect health. We're talking about health here today. But before we even begin, we have to know where we are first, and then we have to know where we want to go and what we have to do to get there. So where are you in your health, like, on a daily basis? Let's get real with yourself right now, because whether. I mean, this podcast is about living your one life, traveling the world, starting that business Doing what? Whatever it is that makes you feel alive and that your heart is calling you to do. But none of that's going to be possible if you don't have your health. So let's get real. Where are you in your health? And if you don't know how to answer that, let me ask you a different couple questions. How do you feel on a regular basis when you wake up in the morning? What is your energy level like? Are there aches and pains in your body when you look in the mirror? Are you proud of what you see? Are you happy with what you see? Or do you look at me like, oh, my gosh, yeah, put on a few dozen pounds? I guess this is just how life is. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Right? So this is the real picture. And if you're thinking. If you're down on yourself, just thinking about this kind of like, literally zaps your energy. I want you to be easy on yourself. I promise you. I promise you. I mean, things could turn around in an instant, but it takes a change of your habits. Health is one of the easiest things to do. Actually, it's one of the harder because we put so much emotion. Like, there's so many emotions tied in with food. But health is one of the easiest things to. To take advantage of. Because really there's two things you gotta take advantage of, right? It's like what you're feeding your body and the activity that you do, right? If you eat less and you do more activity, you're gonna lose weight. But it's not just about eating less, right? You have to choose the things. There's certain foods that are gonna make you feel more vibrant, make you feel more clarity mentally. So it's. It's the most simplistic. And yet it'll have the power to transform every area of your life. Because success leaves clues. If you could conquer this one area, then you could do it for any other area in your life. So again, let's get real so we know where we are. So then where do you want to go, right? If I said, all right, well, you know where you are right now, right? So you have contrast. Like, if you think you're. If you're saying that you're X amount of pounds overweight, or you wake up with not so much energy and you crash midday, you have the bench, you have the baseline. So if you didn't know anything about what you wanted to create, you could be careful. Well, looking at what I have here, I know I want to feel more Energy. So more energy to do what? More energy to get through my day. I. Okay, well, that's an easy. Now you have something tangible, or you looked in the mirror and you had 5 extra pounds, 10 extra pounds, whatever it may be, then to be X amount of weight with more energy and feeling great is your goal, right? So now you have. Now you have, like that future, like that future self, that vision for yourself. And let's not forget to touch upon the why. Why do you want it in the first place? This is a tricky part because a lot of people, when they say their why, when they state their why, they're really saying why they don't want something, right? They're like, oh, well, why do you want to be in good health? Ah, because I hate feeling shitty. I don't like having no energy and, you know, like, I don't like looking in the mirror and feeling disgusted with myself. These are all you're saying, all right? You're going through this and you're saying all the reasons why. So you're like, reinforcing the negative. But if you want to, and that's not. I'm not wronging you for doing that because it's kind of a. I think it's a typical habit for most people have. But the benefit to that is that when you actually break that down, you could go, again, flip it. You say, okay, well, you know, you feel lousy when you look in the mirror. Well, what would be the opposite of that? To look in the mirror and feel confident to be looking there and be like, man, that is one sexy mofo in there. To feel, you know, turn on the opposite sex, whatever it may be. So I want you to be attentive to the why. Why do you want the thing that you want? Because when you're able to identify that and being conscious of the negative stuff, then you literally, again, it's the same thing. It's the contrast, the flip of that switch where you could turn around it and you start to feel more empowered by the reason and the vision that you have. It all goes back down to the feeling, right? So when you're describing why you want the thing you want and the vision that you want, it should light you up inside. You should feel good as you're voicing and picturing it. If you don't, then there's something wrong there. If you don't, that means you're focusing on the thing that you don't want again. So go back to the why. Feel it in your body. If it feels like something's bad, something's off and you don't feel, like, lifted, then you're focusing on the wrong thing. Use that contrast. Flip it around, say, okay, well, what is it that I really want? You want freedom? You want to feel great? You want the energy to travel, to hike Mount Everest, whatever it may be. I'm planting a seed there because I'm going to have someone on my show who has actually done Everest. He's done the Everest track five times. Use that as contrast. Let's rewind. Because I feel like this is an area that I feel very passionately about, and it's one of the areas of my life that I've had tremendous control over it. And when people have asked me how have I gotten these results and whether it's possible for them, I'm happy to encourage people because I know it is possible. I know it's possible. When you commit yourself to a result and then you align the habits that will get you to that result, because that's all it is. All it is. I mean, I've never been overweight. I've always been pretty lean. Throughout my life, I've maintained a steady weight of like, 165 pounds. And then if I'm doing a competition, I'm competing, then all of a sudden, I can literally flick a switch, because I've done it before. I could flick a switch and put 15 pounds of muscle on 20 pounds of muscle without any. I mean, there's always effort. It takes work, but I know the formula to do it. So let's start again. The questions I wanted you to answer are these. What is it that you're feeling right now? Where are you right now? Again we said, well, what is it that you feel? And how do you feel when you look in the mirror? Secondly, where do you want to go? What is the vision for your health? In this second question, help to look for the question number one and give the contrast. Look to the opposite. If you felt like you were 10 pounds overweight, then look at your ideal weight as being a. Don't say, oh, I want to lose 10 pounds. Say if you were going from like, 220, I am 210 and feeling blank. That is your vision. Third, look for your why. What is the big why? Why do you want to feel this way? Right. It could be a little bit narcissistic. Don't feel bad about that. Maybe you want to turn on. You want to have the opposite sex look at you and be like, oh, my gosh, wow, this person is one sexy person. You want to turn on the opposite sex. Maybe you just want to feel good in a bathing suit, whatever it may be. Get that big why? And again, just like question number two, if you find yourself feeling like down as a result of saying these why's, then you're focusing on the wrong thing. Flip it around, find a more empowering reason that's going to make you feel lifted and that's how you know when you got the right thing. And number four, what do you have to do to get that result? As I mentioned, health is one of the easiest areas of our lives to transform because there's really only two things you got to do. Your health is your. It's your diet and it is like, like the movement, the exercise or the activity you're doing. I mean, there's other aspects of terms of flexibility, whatever structure, whatever it may be, maybe you have some kind of issue, which. But for the most part, for most people, I think it's going to be those two areas. What action do you take? Is it getting a trainer? Is it literally just starting by planning your meals? That is a big one. I promise you, it's huge. And then lastly, let's get acquainted with how it's going to feel after. Right? We came with the why. Imagine yourself having achieved this vision for your health. How would you feel? It would help even close your eyes. How would you feel? Imagine yourself having that body, having that energy level, accomplishing that goal. Maybe it's like running the New York marathon after completing it, how would you feel? Close your eyes, see the images in your mind, hear what people are saying, hear the voices around you, hear people applauding you, looking at your transformation, like, oh my God, how did you do that? Feel it, because that is what's going to get you across that finish line. And that is it. That is all I got for you guys. But again, I hope you this, this episode helps you reframe, to think about health differently. Because everything you want in life is going to revolve around this one category, this one area of your life. Because if you are not feeling well, it's going to impact everything. Your relationships, your emotional life, your financial life. Maybe you can't work or you can't function. At the same way your spiritual life, it impacts everything. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Guys, again, my name is Donnie Rouse. You were listening to the podcast One Life. If you enjoy this, you can follow us on Instagram at D O n N Y R A U S D O N N Y R A U S and if you'd like to sign up for our mailing list, you can do so by visiting www.d o n n y r a u s.com and you can sign up there. And lastly, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so this way you do not miss a single episode and you get it as soon as the new episodes drop. That is all I got for you guys today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this and help me help you to just kind of think of a bigger vision for your life and to realize that life is happening now. And that's pretty much it. Life is happening now, so big things don't happen to happen for you to enjoy. It's just a choice to live each day. That is all we got for you guys today. God bless and I will see you again soon.