The Ultimate Guide To How Pets Can Make You More Resilient

[00:00:03] You are listening to Resilient Life, the podcast where we explore the power of resiliency.

[00:00:10] I'm Nikita Ross. It is my hope that listening to this podcast

[00:00:15] will give you the tools to connect with and increase your resiliency.

[00:00:20] So join me on this adventure of self-discovery and self-love.

[00:00:30] I'm Richard Fourgreen to be on Resilient Life, the podcast where we talk about areas of life that we can increase our resiliency

[00:00:38] or we have experienced resiliency.

[00:00:41] I have been awkwardly introduced several times

[00:00:45] and so it is always my preference to have each guest

[00:00:49] introduce themselves. So Richard, if you can tell us your full name or as much as your government name you would

[00:00:54] feel comfortable sharing

[00:00:56] and

[00:00:57] your profession.

[00:00:59] Hey absolutely. So my name is Richard Franco and currently I'm the director of marketing communications for the Phoenix Union

[00:01:05] High School District, but I guess most importantly I'm a dog dad. You're a dog dad. How many dogs do you have?

[00:01:12] I have two beautiful Great Danes.

[00:01:16] Layla and Bella. I think that's awesome.

[00:01:18] I'll start off by asking you Richard,

[00:01:22] what is resilience to you? So when I

[00:01:25] when I think about resilience actually what I did is I looked up

[00:01:28] what is the opposite of resilience so that I could get kind of a better feel for

[00:01:33] what I was trying to say. Because my original definition of resilience is like a response, like how you respond to a given situation.

[00:01:41] Whenever I looked up the

[00:01:43] opposite, the opposite is inflexible, rigid or fragile.

[00:01:48] And so where that kind of helped me hone in on my definition is I think it's a response to a situation that makes us better.

[00:01:56] So

[00:01:57] depending on what happens to us in life,

[00:02:00] our resilience is not only that we got through it,

[00:02:04] but that we now become better on the other side for having gone through it.

[00:02:08] There's a lot of things that happen to us that can cause pain.

[00:02:12] There's grief, there's sorrow, there are things that are outside of our control that happen to us and your resilience in my

[00:02:20] opinion is your ability to get through it and become better on the other side never having for what happened to you.

[00:02:28] But really growing from, learning from,

[00:02:32] and being able to be better

[00:02:34] for having gone through it. I like that. I think that's a very encompassing definition. I really like that.

[00:02:40] So with that definition that you just gave in mind, do you consider yourself to be resilient?

[00:02:46] Situationally, I would say so. I'd say recently I've

[00:02:51] done a lot of work on myself as a person,

[00:02:54] being more mindful,

[00:02:57] really trying to hone in on

[00:03:00] who I am. And I think that comes with age. Like you get a little bit older and start really focusing on like

[00:03:04] what is this life about? What are the things that

[00:03:08] I am doing that don't serve me and what are things that I could be doing that could serve me better?

[00:03:13] And as I've gone through that, I've realized that resiliency is

[00:03:19] a critical component of

[00:03:21] the person that I am today, but also as I mentioned before, it's very situationally. There are things that affect us

[00:03:28] in different ways.

[00:03:30] And our

[00:03:32] resiliency is never time centered. I've heard you talk about that before where it's like

[00:03:37] it's not about how long you go through it. It's about what happens on the end of it. So

[00:03:42] to answer that question, I think that I'm resilient

[00:03:46] situationally,

[00:03:48] but with the intent of becoming resilient in all situations. That's the goal I would say.

[00:03:53] That's a very insightful answer. I love and I had never, I've never thought about it as being resilient

[00:03:59] situationally. So I think I like that. You gave me something to think about. You mentioned Richard in your response that

[00:04:06] you wanted to be more mindful.

[00:04:07] And so I wanted to know was there an event that triggered you wanting to be more mindful?

[00:04:11] Is it just a natural progression of aging? Can you speak more about

[00:04:16] what you think about when you think of being mindful?

[00:04:21] Yeah, so I think as we all get older, we have a sense of wanting to become more one with our body and mind.

[00:04:28] But I had some some health things that had really

[00:04:32] impacted my life and my way of being. I wasn't in the most healthy physical, mental or emotional state.

[00:04:39] I was really kind of going through the motions in life

[00:04:42] and I wasn't really taking control over the things that I had control over.

[00:04:47] And so with some of those health issues, I realized that I had to take control.

[00:04:52] I had to make some changes

[00:04:54] and then that, you know, I think started a ripple effect of me then looking at other aspects of my life

[00:05:02] that could be improved. Not only just my health but my spirit,

[00:05:07] and my connectedness with myself. And so those things all kind of rippled together, built on one another

[00:05:14] and got to the point now where I do my best to focus on mindfulness and

[00:05:20] meditate and become more

[00:05:23] connected with myself, more present and in the moment.

[00:05:26] And so those things really all fed into each other. They only recently started maybe in the last year or so

[00:05:33] getting more and more serious for me because I've realized as I go through them

[00:05:38] just how much better my life is

[00:05:41] for doing those things. So that's kind of where it came from. I love that. I want to commend you

[00:05:47] because as humans, it's not always

[00:05:49] the easiest choice to make a big

[00:05:52] life change even sometimes when we're faced with obstacles as far as like maybe a health concern or any kind of event

[00:05:59] that happens, we don't always take that hard path of making big changes in our lives.

[00:06:05] And so I really want to commend you on doing that and I hope that you

[00:06:10] are proud of yourself. I hope that you give yourself credit for the progress that you made or the

[00:06:16] fact that you even wanted to do this and that you're doing it. Is that, do you

[00:06:19] do you feel proud of yourself for that? Do you acknowledge the progress

[00:06:24] that you've made over as you stated the last year? So I mean, thank you for saying that and

[00:06:30] reminding me always of those kinds of things like that's such an important piece of our journey in life is realizing the little

[00:06:37] milestones. They're not always the biggest ones but the little ones. I think I really had a choice.

[00:06:44] You know, I came to a choice that either I was going to take control over my life or I was going to completely

[00:06:52] lose it. I wasn't going to be in control and I realized that like I had to take some concrete steps.

[00:07:01] Those things then as I mentioned kind of forced me to rethink everything in my life. The way

[00:07:08] that I was handling the friendships, my relationships, everything that kind of was

[00:07:12] going on. It sparked and triggered me looking into all aspects of my life. So

[00:07:21] to answer your question, what's been really nice is seeing the incremental growth in all

[00:07:27] the different areas. So like getting to a point where I can meditate for 10 minutes without my

[00:07:33] mind wandering or being able to bring my mind back without getting upset with myself.

[00:07:39] Like those kinds of things are huge wins in the grand scheme of where I started from.

[00:07:45] And that's just in the meditation being able to work out for longer than I could before and

[00:07:51] not get winded or you know being able to walk my dogs for a mile and not feel exhausted after

[00:07:57] that miles over. Those things are huge wins and I think the more that we remind ourselves

[00:08:03] of those wins that builds on our resiliency to that point because it shows us that we're better

[00:08:09] now than we were before and that growth is really the most important thing that we should be

[00:08:17] celebrating on this path. Yeah and seeing the growth encourages us to continue to grow and

[00:08:22] continue to stretch ourselves. I could not have said that any better Richard. That was

[00:08:27] perfectly said. Thank you so much for that response, that very thoughtful,

[00:08:32] thought-provoking response. What brings you joy? Well I mentioned before my pups. My dogs have

[00:08:38] been incredibly important to me. Whenever I got Layla I was working in San Tam Valley.

[00:08:45] I was living alone. A lot of my friends were an hour away. I was a little bit

[00:08:53] removed from my friend group, from my family and that can be a kind of a lonely place.

[00:08:59] I had people that were close to me, close by but not like those deep relationships that I have

[00:09:05] with others besides my mentor and a couple others like I said.

[00:09:09] So whenever I got my first home the first thing I was going to do was get a dog.

[00:09:15] Like I was going to get a dog. There was always a sense inside of me that that was

[00:09:21] a piece of my life that I wanted. Once I got my first house and I wasn't renting anymore and I

[00:09:27] was able to control my destiny a little bit more, I immediately went to that rescue and

[00:09:32] got Layla and I would say that the biggest thing that she's done as far as bringing me

[00:09:37] joy is dogs, pets, animals are a constant reminder of what being present looks like.

[00:09:46] The dog is never worried about the next thing that's going to come or stressed out about the

[00:09:53] future or depressed about the past. Dogs are always present. They are always in the moment

[00:10:01] of whatever's going on right then. So kind of learning from her to be more mindful and be

[00:10:09] present and also if you've ever been around dogs or you realize that they forgive.

[00:10:17] They forgive and forget immediately. Something could happen with a dog. You accidentally step

[00:10:24] on their tail or something happens and there's an initial reaction and then there's a moment

[00:10:30] within five minutes they've completely forgotten they've moved on. And so the thing that brings

[00:10:35] me the most joy is the love that she gives me, the love that I'm able to give her and

[00:10:41] that connectedness but also like a life lesson of forgiving and being present,

[00:10:49] of caring for whatever it is that you're looking out for whether it be family or friends

[00:10:56] or whatever. So I would say that's a big one that brings me joy. Another thing that really

[00:11:02] brings me joy is music. I used to make music. I used to be more of a musician. Now I enjoy it

[00:11:10] but one thing that I do find is that anytime I'm doing something there's music on. There's

[00:11:14] some kind of music going that just supports the higher vibration of energy that I think

[00:11:23] a lot of us long for and look for. So I'd say those are kind of the two big ones that

[00:11:27] bring me joy is my dog and the music. I like that you talked about the things that bring

[00:11:32] you joy. I want to know what is the healthiest thing that you've done for yourself? The

[00:11:38] healthiest thing that I've done for myself is meditate. And it's something that

[00:11:47] is very personal but it's something that is invaluable to me in so many ways. Like it

[00:11:55] has really changed my life in so many ways. That mindfulness, that peacefulness, that calm.

[00:12:05] We are inundated with thoughts and there's this really great book called Just a Thought

[00:12:10] that talks about how you should never take your thoughts personally because they're

[00:12:13] not personal. Your brain's job is to produce thoughts. That's why it was,

[00:12:20] that's what it is. That's its essence is to produce thoughts. And not all those thoughts

[00:12:24] are always helpful. They're not always beneficial. They're not always very caring

[00:12:30] of ourselves and sometimes they can be detrimental. If we don't hear them for what they are,

[00:12:37] just a thought. If we don't hear them for something, if we hear them as being too strong

[00:12:43] within our psyche, it can really bring us down and that's from within. It doesn't even

[00:12:49] have to be someone from the outside putting you down if you're putting yourself down.

[00:12:53] So what I have found is that through meditation, you can quiet that down but also you start to

[00:13:01] recognize it for what it is. You start to recognize it for something that's just,

[00:13:06] it's either there to protect you or it's there because its job is to create thoughts.

[00:13:13] So seeing it for what it is, you can then thank it, appreciate it for protecting you and doing

[00:13:21] what it needs to do. And then allow it to go without it kind of eating you up.

[00:13:27] I think there's a lot of people that go through that where your own thoughts

[00:13:31] can really spiral you and eat you up and it doesn't have to be an external influence

[00:13:36] that's coming in. So what I've learned through meditation, the first thing that

[00:13:40] you learn is that your brain's going to not stop. Your brain's going to keep going and that's okay.

[00:13:45] You're going to sit there for a while and you're going to be trying to be quiet and

[00:13:48] you're going to try to be still but your brain's going to go. It's going to take

[00:13:52] off in a direction or it's going to throw an intrusive thought or something like that.

[00:13:56] It's the recognizing when your mind's doing it, bringing yourself back to center,

[00:14:01] bringing yourself back to peace, quieting it down again for however long that lasts

[00:14:06] and realizing that that's okay. Like not beating yourself up about it, not being upset.

[00:14:13] My mom talks to me a lot about how she says she can't meditate because

[00:14:18] her brain is just going and going and going. And I always tell her that the point of

[00:14:22] meditation isn't to make that stop, it's to gain control over it. That's the whole

[00:14:27] point of meditation is to get to the point where you recognize that it's happening and

[00:14:31] you bring yourself back. So through that practice of slowing the mind, calming the mind,

[00:14:39] I have found great peace in that where now it's like a little bit of a challenge for myself to

[00:14:45] see if I can go longer than the last time between my thoughts. And so being mindful and

[00:14:53] meditating and calming the brain has been the most important thing I've ever done for myself

[00:14:59] because it also made me realize that I have control over this. Like I'm ultimately the one

[00:15:05] in the driver's seat. I'm not the victim in this situation of my own psyche.

[00:15:12] Like I control what thoughts come in. Well, you know, I don't necessarily control what

[00:15:17] thoughts come in. I control what thoughts I assign value to. So if there's a thought

[00:15:22] that comes in that doesn't serve me, that is not valuable, then I'm going to let that go.

[00:15:26] I acknowledge that it's there. I'm going to let it go. If there's something that comes in,

[00:15:32] that's way more beneficial for me, then I'm going to follow those things. But meditation

[00:15:37] in that mindfulness journey really, really has helped me hone in on who I am, become

[00:15:43] more connected with myself. But also it's created a filter for what thoughts matter and

[00:15:49] what thoughts don't. I love that. I was going to ask you because meditation seems to be

[00:15:53] popular now or a lot of people I've seen. Maybe it's the circle I'm in, but I hear meditation

[00:15:59] a lot. And I was going to ask what do you mean when you say come back to center and bring

[00:16:03] yourself back? But I think you did a fantastic job because when I first started trying to

[00:16:08] meditate and I feel like I'm still in that phase where I'm still trying to be a better

[00:16:12] meditator or meditate longer, I had similar things that your mom described.

[00:16:18] And I didn't understand. People said to me like, oh, just bring yourself back.

[00:16:21] I was like, what does that even mean? But I feel like you did a really good job of explaining

[00:16:27] what it means. It's like those thoughts will be there, but not assigning them value or

[00:16:33] not following them, but just acknowledging like, oh, I see you thought and then just

[00:16:37] coming back. And then, oh, I see you thought and not beating yourself up. I think you did

[00:16:41] a fantastic job of describing meditation. And again, I think it'll vary slightly for everyone.

[00:16:50] And I don't think there is one perfect way to meditate. And so I don't want anyone to

[00:16:55] think that, oh, this is the way, the only way and then beat themselves up for not

[00:16:58] doing it that way. But I think the general principle of like just being present, meaning

[00:17:04] I'm acknowledging, but I'm not allowing it to take over. I'm not following that thought.

[00:17:09] I'm not giving that thought too much power. I think you did a good explaining that. So

[00:17:14] thank you. I love that. Thank you. That was actually very helpful for me as well.

[00:17:19] Because as I told you, I also struggle with meditating at times. So thank you for that

[00:17:23] explanation was really good. How long did it take you to be able to get to that place where

[00:17:28] you could meditate for 10 minutes? Because something else I struggle with is I don't,

[00:17:33] I still struggle with being able to sit still for 10 whole minutes and meditate,

[00:17:40] meaning my mind. Because eventually I think the goal for me would be that I want

[00:17:44] to just have silence and not have those thoughts pop up. And so right now I struggle

[00:17:49] to get to 10 minutes. And so what was that process like for you to be able to get to 10

[00:17:52] minutes? Well, it's still in process and I still struggle with it just like everyone else

[00:17:59] does. One thing that I found is that whenever you do any kind of guided meditations, pull

[00:18:04] up YouTube and search for a guided meditation and do one that fits whatever time frame you're

[00:18:09] looking for. They have some that are a minute, whatever it is, you're going to find a common

[00:18:16] theme in guided meditations is them describing whatever state you're in as perfect. Whatever

[00:18:22] you're thinking about right now, that's perfect. Because I'll tell you, you should think about

[00:18:28] being in the forest or you should think about being next to a river. Whatever river you're

[00:18:33] sitting next to, it's perfect. Whatever place you're sitting next to, it's perfect.

[00:18:37] It's kind of ingrained in your mind that whatever's happening is okay and accepted.

[00:18:43] And that's what I think is really the key with meditation is realizing that it's okay

[00:18:48] and accepted. And maybe I, and I haven't gotten there yet, I have not gotten to a full 10

[00:18:53] minute session where my mind doesn't wander. And maybe there is something there that I'll hit

[00:18:59] that one day where I'm fully in like that. What I find with my 10 minute meditations,

[00:19:04] my 15 minute meditations is recognizing how often I bring myself back to what you had just

[00:19:10] said. Like we talked about bringing ourselves back. All that means is, is that I noticed that

[00:19:15] my mind is now thinking about my job or my mind is not thinking about my dogs or my mind

[00:19:21] is not thinking about my life or my worries or whatever. Whenever I told myself I was going

[00:19:27] to be intentional about focusing on whatever my meditation is on, realizing, oh, my mind's

[00:19:34] thinking about this. Okay, thank you. And then come back and being okay with it and being

[00:19:42] okay that, you know, that only lasted 10 seconds and my mind was already gone.

[00:19:45] And then coming back and realizing in 10 seconds your mind's gone again. And like

[00:19:50] the whole practice is realizing that you've left and bringing yourself back. That's the

[00:19:56] practice is bringing yourself back, bringing yourself back. And as many times as you have to

[00:20:00] do it, it's perfect. That's exactly how many times you're supposed to do it.

[00:20:05] And so those have been like the keys for me with getting through 10 minutes,

[00:20:09] because 10 minutes I don't think sounds like a lot to people when you think about anything

[00:20:13] else in your life. A 10 minute jog, a 10 minute walk, a 10 minute whatever. But when

[00:20:20] it comes to meditation, to complete silence, to closing your mind down, 10 minutes feels like

[00:20:25] an eternity. And so what I've found is that grace, allowing myself to go, to come and go,

[00:20:32] but always with the intention of bringing myself back to center has been the thing

[00:20:37] that's helped me increase the amount of time. This morning I did an hour long guided meditation.

[00:20:42] My mind was not centered the whole time. I was not quiet the whole time. Everything was not

[00:20:47] perfect. There was not bells and whistles going off inside my brain in this deep sense of rooted

[00:20:52] connection to the universe. What it was, was it was an opportunity for me to sit alone,

[00:20:59] be okay with being alone, be okay with being in my own thoughts and my own clothes within

[00:21:03] myself, being comfortable in my own skin and allowing myself to walk through this journey

[00:21:09] with the guide where they're taking me on this journey. They're taking there and then

[00:21:14] my mind's producing it. My mind's then creating the setting and the atmosphere for

[00:21:19] what we were going through. And we're going through some manifestations, which was great.

[00:21:23] But that's really what this is. You get more and more time, the more that you give yourself

[00:21:31] the grace to come and go as you naturally do. Thank you for that. Richard, what is that?

[00:21:37] You've told me the healthiest thing you've done for yourself. You've told me about how

[00:21:42] meditating was that. And I love that. I think once we get to a place of whatever we choose

[00:21:47] to utilize as our tool for helping us to peace and understanding, it increases our resiliency

[00:21:52] because we are better able to handle life challenges. So I love that meditation is your

[00:21:57] tool. And I think everyone is free to choose whatever their tool is for helping them find

[00:22:04] peace, to feel more healthy so that when we do face challenges because they cannot be avoided,

[00:22:10] we are able to better recover from the challenges. With that in mind of what you've

[00:22:16] done for yourself, what is the nicest or healthiest thing you've done for someone else?

[00:22:24] I'll start with this. No matter what we do for other people, we get something out of it.

[00:22:30] It could be financial that I'm going to do this job for you and you're going to pay me

[00:22:35] some money, or I'm going to do this or that. It could be that we're gaining friendship from

[00:22:40] it. I realize as I think about this, that no matter what it is that we do, we're getting

[00:22:46] something from it. And so honoring that and thinking about the things that you get from

[00:22:51] doing for others, I go back to teaching. So becoming a teacher, it was my job, but it was

[00:22:57] also a calling because I saw myself in a lot of the students that I had. I saw myself as

[00:23:04] I saw them as being a person that was at one point in my same shoes at that age. And so

[00:23:10] when I look about like doing things for others, you know, that's a very concrete example

[00:23:15] of being in the classroom teaching, working with people, helping them hone their craft,

[00:23:19] being a facilitator for their knowledge and helping them get to wherever it is they want to go.

[00:23:25] For a specific thing, I would say recently the work that I've done with my mom is something

[00:23:30] that's really been near and dear to my heart. My mom is a very important person to me and

[00:23:34] she and my dad as well as they have gotten older and they're retired. The best thing

[00:23:40] that I realized that we can do is spend time together. So I just recently got to spend a couple

[00:23:46] days with my mom. She got to come down and visit me at my house and spend the day,

[00:23:50] spend the nights with me. My dad comes down on his time and we do different things working

[00:23:54] around the house or he builds things. As I was thinking about this back to the original point,

[00:24:00] the nicest thing that I can do for them is spend time with them, spend quality time,

[00:24:05] be present with them. But also I get a lot out of that as well. And honoring that, yes,

[00:24:13] I'm also getting something from them. It's not truly a selfless act. I'm also getting

[00:24:19] the benefits of spending quality time with them and also getting the benefits of that

[00:24:25] dopamine rush of being able to do some cool things with them. So I would say honoring

[00:24:30] that it's connected to what we also get in return, but also doing those things intentionally

[00:24:35] with the people you care about most or the people that you feel could benefit most.

[00:24:38] What? So let's say you've given very good examples of your life and thank you so

[00:24:43] much for sharing very intimate details about your life. Let's say someone is listening and

[00:24:48] they're like, oh, I'm not to a place where I can meditate. I am really struggling with

[00:24:53] whatever is happening and going on in their lives. We all have our challenges. What advice

[00:25:00] would you give them to increase their resiliency? What are some tools that you could think of

[00:25:06] if they are just at the beginning and they're trying to figure out how do I become more

[00:25:10] resilient? How do I do that? What advice would you have? So it's a question.

[00:25:17] And the question that you ask yourself is what do I have control over? When you realize

[00:25:22] what it is that you have control over, and it may not be a lot,

[00:25:26] there may not be, you may feel like it's nothing. You may say I have control over

[00:25:31] nothing right now and that's fine. Asking yourself that first question, what do I have

[00:25:36] control over is going to allow you to take a first step because we focus, a lot of us,

[00:25:43] everyone, I do everyone, we focus on the things we have no control over.

[00:25:47] I don't have a control over. One thing I don't have control over is what other people

[00:25:51] think about me. I don't have any control over that. I have control over how I act towards them

[00:25:56] and maybe my actions will influence those things, but I have no control over what people think

[00:26:01] about me and that's okay. I have control over me. I have control over what I do,

[00:26:08] what I say, how I act, and now as a foundation, now I can do something. But I think

[00:26:18] it's overwhelming if you're sitting out there and you have a lot going on in your life that may be

[00:26:24] negative or may feel negative or could feel really heavy on you. Stepping back and asking

[00:26:31] myself, taking inventory, what do I have control over? If in that moment you literally

[00:26:37] have no control over anything except for yourself, you have control over that so let's

[00:26:41] start there. Then what are the other steps? Maybe you have control over whether you

[00:26:48] do X, Y or Z. Okay so now you have control over that and then you're going to start realizing

[00:26:54] that you have control over everything that you need to in order to be happy,

[00:26:58] but that's going to come with time. That's going to come with time and it's going to

[00:27:01] start with the very first fundamental even making like a list. One thing I talk about a

[00:27:05] lot is pro and con lists. We've talked about that before is like you make your pro and your

[00:27:10] con list and then I always go to what do I have control over on this list? What are the

[00:27:15] things that I can impact today and do something about? So I would say start with that question

[00:27:20] and go from there. I absolutely love that response. You don't know this but I actually

[00:27:25] teach a course in resiliency and increasing individual resilience and we talk about what

[00:27:32] can I control and to focus exactly on what you can control and the approach that we take

[00:27:38] very similar to everything you said, the approach we take is the thing I can control

[00:27:43] are my thoughts which leads to me controlling my actions which leads to me being able to control

[00:27:50] what's occurring around me like within my immediate proximity. As you said I cannot

[00:27:55] control how other people act. I can control how I respond to other people's actions and so

[00:28:01] I think that is really big because a lot of times when we are struggling, we are struggling

[00:28:07] with feeling like we're out of control. That fear. I fear that I'm out of control. I fear

[00:28:12] that this is going to happen. I fear that I have no control and I love the thought of

[00:28:17] bringing it back to what can I control? Can control and that's me and it starts with

[00:28:21] my thoughts which then goes to my words which then goes to my actions and I love that and

[00:28:27] actually teach that very same lesson and I love that you and I are aligned on that and

[00:28:33] I think that is one of the best things to help a person feel empowered in a moment where

[00:28:38] they may be feeling powerless and overwhelmed is to just breathe and say,

[00:28:44] what about this moment is under my control? And a thing that I also learned from one of my

[00:28:50] favorite spiritual teachers at Gartole is also when I'm thinking about what can I control,

[00:28:57] I'll stop to stop and say, what are my thoughts telling me occurring? And so being

[00:29:03] able to just breathe and say, okay, I just burn the eggs and then immediately I have a really big

[00:29:14] reaction instead of just pausing and saying, I burn the eggs. Okay, it's not the end of the

[00:29:19] world. I may have to clean this pot and or throw this pot away but it's not the end of

[00:29:24] the world but sometimes we create like this whole narrative of I burn the eggs. I know how

[00:29:28] to cook eggs. How did I burn eggs? And beating ourselves up and so I love that controlling

[00:29:34] your thoughts and thinking about what you can control. I think that was absolutely

[00:29:38] a phenomenal answer. That is everything that I have for you, Richard. Do you have any closing

[00:29:43] statements about resiliency that I did not ask or I did not get to? Is there anything

[00:29:49] else you want to share? I thank you so much for agreeing to be a guest. I do have any closing

[00:29:56] statements. I want to commend you a little bit for doing what you're doing with this podcast.

[00:30:02] I know it took a leap of faith on your part to do this. I know that this is something

[00:30:09] that you're passionate about and something that you're wanting to spread out into the world.

[00:30:14] So I do want to just give you kudos for that and anyone that does listen to this or

[00:30:18] hears this, I hope it brings you some peace, some joy, some happiness, gives you a couple

[00:30:23] tips and pointers. And just thank you so much for allowing me to be one of the guests on your

[00:30:28] Thank you so much Richard for being here. Thank you for your very thoughtful

[00:30:32] and thought provoking answers. I hope this episode gave you some tools to connect with

[00:30:38] and increase your resiliency. I'm proud of you. Let's keep up the momentum. Follow Resilient Life

[00:30:45] on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube at Resilient Life Podcast. Until next time,

[00:30:52] be kind to yourself and others.