The Journey

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. So this is officially the first episode of the podcast One Life. And the reason why I'm kind of doing a Facebook Live as well as an Instagram live feed is because I wanted to let people know as to why this podcast even came into existence. So for me, life is meant to be explored, is meant to be enjoyed, is meant to be filled with passion, joy, and excitement. So in doing this, I find that the world around me, at least in my small world, sometimes I feel like I have a different view than everybody else. Sometimes I feel like I'm alone in the way I think and see things and as well as the values that I have. So this podcast is really a way of me sharing the things that are inside of me so that they may inspire you to just go out, live a life that's true to you, but also maybe to inspire you to just kind of get out and see the world, because there's so much there that we're not even aware of, that we don't even know, because we're caught in our own little bubble or way of seeing things. So, again, the objective of this podcast is to wake you up to life. And what that means is waking you up to a life that's unique to you, a life that fulfills you, a life that excites you and literally just shake you and wake up. Because that's really what it's all about. And what I wanted to talk to you today, it's a big influence in my life. It's travel. And I know it's not going to be a show just based on travel, because, face it, like, some people might not have the means to travel as little as it costs them, but some people might not have the means to travel. But nevertheless, the lessons that you could get from what I'm about to tell you, you could apply to any area of your life and what it comes down to. So a friend of mine. I was speaking with a friend of mine this past week, and she said something that stuck with me. I was having some inner turmoil as to what the next step should be in my life. Conflicts that prevent me from doing one thing or another. And she said this. She says we all end up at the same destination. The difference is the journey we take to get there. And for me, that made me think about the way I'm living life right now. So if I were to arrive at that final destination, is this the journey? Is this the path that I would be happy taking or that I would be fulfilled at the end of my life saying, wow, yeah, you know what? This is the path I took. I'm happy with the way I live life. To my surprise, maybe not so much to my surprise, that answer was no. As I thought about those things, I'm like, well, how. It wasn't so much the saying the question is how will I arrive the journey. The question for me was, am I living that journey now? And that was easier for me to kind of put into perspective the way I'm living right now. And is that in line with my long term, with the desires I have for my life? And in many cases it wasn't. So it was pretty much an eye opener. So travel. And I'll go back to this because it is one of the themes in my journey that I go back to over and over. So why take the time to travel? I mean, clearly it could be expensive, depending how you like to travel. I personally, I like to stay at youth hostels, primarily one, because it's more economical. Secondly, you get to meet people from all walks of life. So if there's anything it gives you, it gives you a way to just kind of appreciate other people and understand other people, to realize all these biases you have, especially here in the United States. It's so easy to get swept away in Black Muslim, whatever the ethnicity is, and it almost is. Sets like a dividing tone here in the United States. But when you get outside and you are alone and you have to make, make friends, it might be those very people that subconsciously or unconsciously you have this bias towards. But now all of a sudden you've broken through that and you just see people for who they are, people. So the three reasons that I give, I mean, and these three reasons are kind of like a running three reasons because they're always changing. One, memories. So you've heard the phrase spend your money on experiences, not things. And this is very much what is meant by that. So I was having a couple off days and they've been happening a little bit more frequently than I'd like to admit. And one of those things that always, always, always pulls me out of that mood and instantly can shift any kind of mindset that I'm in is reflecting on memories and things from my travels, like friends that I've met, experience that I've had instantly, they just snapped me out of it. I was talking with one of my friends. Actually, I wasn't really talking. He wasn't talking. I was the one talking. It was later in the evening. And I just kept blasting them text of photos from some of our prior trips and experiences together. And I was in this kind of the state where didn't really feel like doing anything. It was kind of like this lethargic state and I wanted to change my mood instantly. So I started looking at these photos of him and started laughing out loud. We shared so many experiences in Spain, here in the United States, as well as in Rome, Italy. And I literally was laughing in my seats recalling some of these memories that we had. And I just kind of kept sending him photos, photos, photos. And he then started laughing as well. If you know anyone from of Spanish descent or when we go ha, ha ha, they put ja, ja, ja. That always makes me laugh too. But so it's those memories that kind of just snap you out of whatever that funk is that you're feeling because you switch to a mode of being grateful as opposed to looking at those negative things or that negative perspective that you have of things, things going on in your life. Secondly, the reason why I really, really enjoy traveling is because it breaks you out of these habitual patterns that you have living your everyday life. So regardless of what you're doing. All right, so you could say travel is an escape in many ways. It is, at least for me too. Right. I do try to escape some of my realities and I would first want to own up to that. But one of the other good things it does is that it breaks the habit. So think about it every day. Like if you just take a piece of paper and just do some daily accounting, every single day, do it every day for a week. You'll notice that there are patterns to how you spend your time. There are patterns to how you think, There are patterns to your emotions that you have. And the one thing that traveling does is that it puts you in a completely new environment. All of a sudden now everything you were habitually doing on a day to day basis is literally just torn up and put into shreds. And because that you're now open to new experiences, you're now opening up to seeing different things around you. Seeing not only different things, but also your own thought patterns. You're able to observe them. I was in, I don't know if it was at Bologna or in Verona, walking down the street and I was looking at some guy was approaching me, kind of had this kind of mean grin on his face for whatever reason. And habitually I had this thought pattern like he was mad at me for something. And then I caught that thought. I'm like, what the heck am I thinking? This guy doesn't even know me. And so I was like, wow, that's. You know, how often do I do that? And the answer was, pretty often. So, again, it breaks those patterns and those old way of thinking. So think of. Imagine you're on a stage, right? So imagine you go to see a magic show. You're sitting up there in a chair. The magician asks for a volunteer. You volunteer. You're sitting in the chair, and he's waving that pendulum. He says, you're a monkey, you're a monkey, you're a monkey. All of a sudden, five minutes later, you start scratching your armpits and you start making monkey sounds. That's the same way. That's the same exact thing is being caught in these patterns. So when you. When I traveled, I noticed that I was able to get out of these patterns. I was able to start thinking and seeing life differently, and I was able to question the things I was doing, even if they didn't serve me. So at the time. So I was thinking of several things in my life while I was. Spent this last month in Italy. And I was, you know what? I don't want to do that anymore. That's not for me. But guess what happened. As soon as I got back home, I fell right back into that pattern. So it's almost the equivalent of, you know, being that volunteer on stage and forgetting that you are a human, but now you're acting as that monkey. You catch what I'm saying? So, again, it is amazing to be able to get out and to detach yourself from all those habits. This way you're not influenced by your family, your friends, people in your religious community, people in your town, city, whatever it is, even the cultural community as the United States as a whole, because there is this cultural belief system as a whole. And I might touch into that a little bit later. And the last thing it'll give you is perspective. Here in the United States, we have this thing that we feel, you know, we have to earn money, we have to be the best. We have to kind of put on this whole facade that everything is running on, everything's perfect in our life, that we have it all figured out. And I'm here to tell you that I'll be the first one. I do not have it figured out at all, but that's okay. And the perspective I want to give is that none of that is important. When I look at it, going back to the first point that I made looking at those pictures, I realized that the happiest moments of my life. I wasn't significant really. You know, there was no thing that I was driving toward nothing. That title that I was, you know, that I had, that made me feel like I was significant in any way, that I had to earn the respect of other people. It was just being there with different people, realizing that what's important is right now. What's important is the experiences that we have with one another. Secondly, you realize how good you have it. So we think that if, you know, if someone's making $30,000, especially in Fairfield county, that might be like the poverty line. But if you step outside and you go to Africa, I've seen people who were, you know, their sole source of nutrients is shima. Shima is this cornmeal. And from what I was told, it's not even the most nutritious part of the cornmeal. The corn. The most nutritious part of the cornmeal actually goes to the calves. So they get this. This filler food that literally is just there to kind of give weight, give substance to their stomachs. That's the way they. It appeases those hunger pains. But yet at the same time, these people smile. I mean, and it's. I know that part of it is. I'm looking at it through my own lens, right? So I'm looking at them, I see these smiles. I'm like, oh, wow, they have nothing. And yet they're still manage to smile every day. I mean, how many of us could do that? But so there is a filter that I'm applying look into it. And there's a whole. There was a darker side. When I was in Zambia, there was a darker side to that as well. In the nightlife and being some clubs, there were women who were going around trying to get money for sexual favors. So that dark side, you're like, wow. Well, you know what? Things are bad, though. Things are bad where these people have to do these kind of things to earn money, to make a living, to get food. But with that said, I will go back to it. Like, the perspective. So for me, perspective is saying, wow, you know what? I actually really am rich. I really have a lot to be grateful for. And just seeing them put on this smile, I mean, you could. You could read someone's smile. You know, if a smile is fake and you know, if a smile is real. So when I looked at those smiles, I. Trying to judge. I like to think that not. I think, I believe that by looking, if you and I. This is not like a Special skill to me. I mean, anyone could do it as long as you're paying attention. The problem is that very few of us actually pay attention anymore. If you look into someone's eyes, you could feel what they're feeling. There's something called mirroring neurons. Mirroring neurons is when you look at somebody and you look at their body language, it almost sounds like a reaction to you. If you mirror those same posture, the voice, everything, you can feel what the other person is feeling. The problem is that none of us really pay attention to any of that. We're in our own heads, we're in our own world and we don't pay attention. So while I was there. So going back to the mirroring neurons and seeing these people, I can judge whether or not a smile is genuine or fake. And you can see whether people have pain in their eyes or if there's something there, if they're really just kind of grateful for what they have. And that's what I saw when I was in Zambia with people sitting on the streets. They had this smile that was just very genuine and it kind of like reaches right down to your core and touches you. So that is. That is it. I'll go into another rant because this is my first podcast which will be under One Life, so I might as well mention it now. If you go to Facebook and you go to the group One Life, I'm not sure if it's One Life or One Life with Donny Rouse. I'll be posting things like this podcast there. And then also think of it as creating a community. Think of a community with like minded people who value the same things, who value the experiences of life, who value the truth of life and not this facade that everything is perfect or always has to be. Because that's bullshit. So if you want, I encourage you guys to join. Go there. I'll put the link on my Facebook page and you could go there and. Oh, hell, I mean, I might as well go into it now. So. So when I was coming in to do this podcast, I was speaking with somebody and we were talking about like, you know, how was your week? And he was telling me how, you know, it was a tough week and it's one of those weeks where you're happy to go back to work. And I know this gentleman's work schedule and he always has so much on his plate and very, very nice guy. It's a pleasure to always. Any interaction I have with him, I really, really value. And he was just talking about how we've gotten so far away from this social interaction. Like in some of the problems today where we have this instant gratification, we turn the phone on and we're looking at other people. And this inter exchange we have is in many ways I guess empty, but it doesn't have to be. And we were, we kind of spoke on different tangents there. So with that said, what I want this to be so this is not so. I, you know, I sell coffee, I do a bunch of other things. But my intention behind doing this podcast, my intention behind starting the One Life Facebook group is to get people to wake up, to wake up, to start experiencing life and stop putting it off. Because before you know it, life is gone. My sister in law, her mother had just passed away and if you known her, her name was Kathy. If you'd known Kathy, she was one of the most beautiful individuals that I've ever met and I hadn't known her that long but one of the things I immediately picked up on was she was a very, not only was she a very kind person, but she did celebrate the people around her. And she had during the, I can't remember what they called the speech or that like the, her son and her sister gave the eulogy or whatever it was and they were saying how she told them that in order to receive love you have to give love. And that was something that she always did. And as a result you could, you could see her and you could just tell that she had this very, very kind, kind heart that kind of pulled you to it. So she knew it was, she knew what it was about and her life was by no means easy at all. But that's really what it comes down to. So if you want to join a group of like minded people again, go to Facebook and search the group. One Life. I think it's One Life or One Life with Donny Rouse. But and I'll post things like this and it's just kind of getting started. There's no real format for the group but anything that I feel might be of value, any experiences and stuff that I want to share will go into that group. So thank you guys so so much for tuning into my first podcast. I am in the process of just kind of getting the logo done and once this is posted you'll be able to go back and re listen to it. And this is again very inspirational in the sense that, well one, I do want to hope that in some way it'll inspire you to live life, to step and to do the things that really follow, really the things that your heart's calling you to do, but also just kind of give you some perspective in the world today, because it's so easy to lose that what's important, what really matters, and everything could shift in literally a moment. What you bring into the world, what you bring into your day is the state you're in. So, like, the example I had of just looking at some travel photos before, you know, going to sleep last night instantly put me in a great mood. I think I had a dream about traveling as well. No surprise. But that's something you can do every morning just to start to prime yourself, your day, and put you in a different state. Because by doing that, you're gonna actually make different decisions in your day. You're gonna respond to things differently because you're coming from a different place, right? A different focus. So that. Is it this marathon or not really marathon, I guess by podcast standards. We're about 20 minutes right now is coming to an end. So I hope you guys will tun in and kind of follow me on. On Facebook as well as on Instagram. Instagram. It's Donny D O N N Y R A U S One word. That is my Instagram handle. And then when I do more podcasts, I will post them there. I'll try to do it live here as well. Just so I think it's a. It's a lot more personal. If you could see me and see my. My reactions, my response, my facial expressions and stuff like that, I think it's a little bit more real and you might feel it a little bit more and see where I'm coming from, but that is it, guys. Thank you so, so much. And we are coming to an end. Peace. And let's see. Boom.