How Are You Doing?

Hi, guys. My name is Donny Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. How are you doing? When someone asks you how are you doing? What is the answer you give them? Is it the generic answer saying, yeah, everything's okay, everything is good? Or do you dig down? Do you really like telling the truth of how you're feeling? Do you let, like, those. Those feelings that you. You kind of hide, you don't want the rest of the world to see because you're trying to put on this image that everything is okay, and whichever one you choose to put out there or to make public is okay. But what I want to do as a result of this podcast is I want to give you a different way of answering that question in a different way of looking at it. Rather than say, I feel good, I feel bad making a different distinguish, like, distinguishing something different out of that question. So today is my birthday, my 40th birthday. For anyone who's wondering how old I am, I like to say that it is my 25th birthday because I don't feel like that, 40. And I really do believe that age is more of a number of how you feel, rather than just a number of years that you've been on this earth for the primary reason that if you take care of your body and you treat yourself well, you will look more youthful. But it's also more of a mental game. It's also a psychology, and that is what I'm going to get into right now. So the reason why I'm starting this is because, again, whenever someone asks you, how are you doing? I want you to think about how you answer them. So, being my birthday, I got a lot of texts this morning, and I texted a friend texted me. She goes, hey, happy birthday. I said, oh, my gosh, I haven't heard from her in a long time. I said, how are you? And she said, you know, she's like, I'm doing okay. And I thought about that. And then she asked how I was doing in that moment. I thought for a second I was, well, how do I really feel right now? I was like, well, yeah, you know, I kind of feel like, okay. I was kind of in little funk. But then I remembered something. Then I remembered that from the meditations that I've been doing, it's about becoming aware of this baseline state that you call your everyday. If I were to ask you how you're doing today, tomorrow, the week after, the month after, the year after, chances are there's this kind of equilibrium, this set point of where you Are. And while it may fluctuate up and down at different moments, it's usually there's this baseline. But what is that baseline that you call the baseline? Really? It is nothing but a habitual way of living, habitual way of thinking. And one of the things that I had been doing through meditation was becoming more aware of the habitual, like the habitual thought patterns, habitual ways of thinking. And by doing this practice where when you notice it, you see the reciprocal of it. Because what is the truth, right? Like, how are you doing? The only feeling you have right now is the result of your focus. And you can change that at any moment. So when I was asked that, I said, how am I doing right now? I kind of feel like a little bit lukewarm. But then I remember, then it triggered that this was just habitual way and that I get to choose. And all of a sudden I did a complete 180 on the, on the mood. And all of a sudden I was able to switch my. The way I was feeling in that exact moment. Now, this wasn't something I just did now. This is something I had been practicing now. And I know that one. It's not always easy to do because, you know, these things are kind of anchored into our psychology, right? We go think of coffee, for example, right? I'm drinking a delicious cup of my rouse coffee right now. The Ethiopia, to be exact. And when you think about coffee, for example, coffee, when you consume a lot of coffee, the caffeine goes into these receptors that like tell you when you should be tired, right? So the byproduct of cellular respiration is this thing called adenosine. If I'm pronouncing it correctly, this is the stuff that tells your body, hey, I'm tired, let's take a nap. When you consume cups of coffee, you start to fill in these receptor sites. And as a result, all this cellular byproduct that says, hey, I'm tired, can't hit those receptors. As a result, you don't feel the fatigue. What happens after time? What happens after time is your brain, your body knows, okay, I need to make more receptors here. So it starts to make more receptors. So this way it can grab that, and this way it could take this adenosine out of the floating whatever it is. So you consume more coffee and then it starts to plug these receptors. And what happens when you stop coffee? So when you stop coffee all of a sudden, now there's all these receptor sites that are open and the adenosine is like attaching to all these receptors. And you hit the wall, and you hit the wall hard. And you still. You get that your body's like, okay, you get that headache, that headache that you. That migraine that will not go away. What is happening, right? This is a good comparison to life. What is happening? Your body is going crazy because it had this thing that you were giving it every single day, and now you've taken that away. So the same thing is true as a result of your, you know, noticing, your psychology, noticing how you're doing. Let that. When someone asks you, let that be the trigger. Say, okay, how am I doing? What is it that I'm focusing on? And then by using it as a conscious pattern or a conscious habit, now you can then switch it, because guess what happens? After a little while of being off caffeine, those extracellular receptor, those receptor sites actually started to go away, and you're back to homeostasis. Now you can consume the coffee. As long as you don't do it too much, right? As long as you don't overdo it, you'll function by normal. But as a result of going through that withdrawal period and letting the body scream. But then you're training and say, hey, no, stay here. This is where I am. I'm in control of you. And that's what you say by, like, not doing the cup of coffee. The same thing is with the thought patterns when you say, no, this is where we're going, right? This is where I'm putting the focus. Now, you don't want to resist because by resisting, you actually will create more of that tension. But you want to be aware without judging. And that is how you start to change your psychology, start to change the way you feel, start to change and raise people that new baseline for yourself. So this way you start to feel good. And again, what is it that controls our focus questions? Right? Your thoughts control your focus. So where do you put your thoughts? Like when you notice when someone asks you that question, what are some other places that you could start to focus on? Maybe every time someone asks you the question, how are you doing? You reframe it in your mind. Every time someone asks the question, you say, what? What can I appreciate? Oh, well, you know, and just start to simmer with that. And the longer you sit with that question, the longer you sit with those things that you can appreciate, you start to change your patterns, your way, the way your mind is functioning, and you start to change the way you feel. But sometimes just noticing it, when you notice the pattern, you can quickly go to the opposite side of that pattern because, you know, it's just that it's only a pattern. So that is. It's my birthday today, but that is my gift to you. I hope you guys enjoyed that. Anytime I become like, you know, I get these awarenesses and these things that I want to share. I want to come on here and I want to share them with you because it really is about living the most full and passionate expression of your life possible. That is my reason behind doing the coffee. That is my reason behind doing this podcast. To wake you up, to realize that now is the time, right, to carpe diem, to seize the day. Don't let a moment pass, because this moment is all we have. So do the things now that are gonna make you happy, that are gonna bring you joy to your life. Don't hold back. That is it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. If you did, please send me a message or with any of your comments, your own personal stories. Let me know if you're trying this practice and if it works for you. And that is all I've got for you guys. God bless, and I will see you again soon.