Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Makes Sense Mondays - Untamed Gratitude - Episode 65

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast. This podcast covers topics that expand human consciousness and performance. On the Make Sense podcast, we acknowledge that it's who you are that determines how well what you do works, and that perception is a subjective and acquired taste. What we know is that when you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at begin to change. Welcome to the uprising of the sleepwalking masses. Welcome to the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. Dornick podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:37 Makes sense. Great morning, humans, great morning world. This is your friend, Dr. J.C. Dornick, and welcome to a special Thanksgiving week episode of the Make Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast. Today's episode is called Untamed Gratitude, one of my favorite topics ever. It's my hope that today's conversation awakens that inner child that may have gotten lost that's inside of you still and welcomes it to come back and get back to thinking that everything is amazing. And you know why? Because it is.

Starting point is 00:01:17 As a reminder, the Makes Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast is sponsored in part by the Make Sense Academy. The Make Sense Academy is a private community that offers all of the business and mindfulness coaching that you're looking for. as well as the tools and strategies that you need to stop simply going through life and start the process of growing through life. Check out the Make Sense Academy on the school platform. It's risk-free with a money-back guarantee. As we get ready for 2025 or for the sake of watching this as a recording, any transition into a new era where your brain is starting to acknowledge that maybe you're unsatisfied or you're open to more. or are you just in explore mode, you know, to see what else is out there.

Starting point is 00:02:03 I kind of like to look at it that way. Entertaining the ideas of gratitude and giving and serving is so important. As I said, this is a special Thanksgiving edition of this podcast and this discussion today is acknowledging what is my favorite week of the year. It's not that it's the only week of the year that we practice gratitude, but I love the fact that somehow the universe has provided us with the ability to have. have a week that acts as some sort of a triggering cue to remind us of these things. Very excited about this.

Starting point is 00:02:36 So much gratitude for everybody that follows the Makes Sense with Dr. J.C. podcast. I hope that you'll give us a rating, share it with others, and help us make this world kind of wake up and realize that it's in control a lot more than it thinks it is. So untamed gratitude. Hmm. What does that mean to be untamed? What does that mean to acknowledge that you have untamed gratitude? The first thing that crosses my mind when I think about that, and I don't know how I came up

Starting point is 00:03:08 with that name. I've just been diving deep into a lot of gratitude stuff lately, reading and watching YouTube videos. I just kind of took note of the fact that Thanksgiving week is a time where people almost feel compelled to express gratitude. I said before that Thanksgiving very often acts as like a trigger or some sort of a cue. So to do something on cue, it would be me saying, okay, now express gratitude. So I kind of looked at that and I said, that seems a little bit tame, meaning driven by something else.

Starting point is 00:03:40 And I speak all the time when I get into the interface response system about this idea of this program that's running, that's controlling the subjective nature of our perception and thus very, very much applying and swaying our reactions and everything. So if we say you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change, it's important to acknowledge that you are programmed to look at things a certain way. So when it comes to gratitude, can you assess that sometimes you forget to express gratitude like you did as a child? It's tamed to a certain nature. So I like the idea of having untamed gratitude. Like I want to allow my ability to express gratitude, which I have a lot of gratitude for, that I can express gratitude and just unleash it to this point where I can express gratitude

Starting point is 00:04:26 and appreciation at all times, like I did as a child. What's so interesting about the practice of gratitude to me is where it lives. Like, where does gratitude live? Where is it generated from? Is it your mind? Is it your heart? But what I'm really actively looking at when I say, where does it live, is it doesn't live in the future or the past.

Starting point is 00:04:46 It lives where in the present moment? Not only does the present moment provide the home and the space for gratitude, but it also offers a great opportunity for us to recognize and appreciate it alone, all by itself with gratitude. And what I'm talking about is the fact that we have this thing called the present moment that houses gratitude. It's the only place that it exists. In fact, it's the only place that actually exists. I think that it's important to acknowledge it with gratitude. Why?

Starting point is 00:05:17 For the same reason I just explained. The present moment is the only thing that we truly. have. Think about that for a second. Because gratitude is all about acknowledgement of what we have. But we live in a world where we're always in search of what we have not. Those things don't exist the past and the future anymore, right? So you might find your thoughts and feelings entangled often. And this is a great insight to actually identify that you have once again drifted and become entangled with the past and the future. And I'm hoping that this does this for you today. That entanglement with the past and the future is simply an illusion that you've somehow, for whatever

Starting point is 00:05:57 reason, bought into and called real or reality. So if you want to experience something really real, you know, this idea of living life, like we always talk about living your best life, if you want to experience something very, very real, well, it only exists right here and right now. And in that, I just want to say how grateful I am that you've chosen to spend. that precious time with me, that present moment time with me. We're together. We're thinking about this conversation. We're entangled in this conversation and it's happening now. Even if you're listening to this as a podcast or watching this video as a recording, it is happening now. You and I. So I very, very much appreciate that and have a lot of gratitude for it. So what else is special

Starting point is 00:06:45 about this moment right here? Let's dissect this present moment right here that we're always trying to capture and celebrate. Well, just the fact that we have it. We get to experience and soak up every little bit of wonderful magic in this moment because for some inexplicable reason, we're alive. I speak so often about the chances of us just being alive, and that's why we can expect a miracle. And we talk about how vast and limitless the universe is and how just incredibly odd it is that we're on this planet called planet Earth, which I would assume 99.999% of the universe is unaware of, right? It's so insignificant in the vast thing, but it's so special at the same time where the environment, we have oxygen, we have plant life, we have animals, we have food, we have water, everything to

Starting point is 00:07:39 sustain life. That's amazing, but it's also amazing that compared to all the trillions of other efforts of creating life, sperm, egg, parents meeting, all of that stuff, we're here. And we have this ability to live our life. And for whatever reason beyond that, we woke up alive today. Do you know how many people and things are not alive? That's what's so special about this moment right now. And if we forget that and we get tethered to the future or the past and entangled in it once again, we forget about the most amazingly magical real thing that exists. That's what gratitude. is. So I want to just explain that I understand that it makes perfect sense why so many humans struggle to practice present time gratitude, even when they know it's value. I could tell you right now

Starting point is 00:08:29 it's important to practice gratitude, especially when you're struggling. And you'll say, yeah, yeah, I know. I'm trying. I'm trying to get out of my own way, you know, live in the present moment and celebrate what I have, but I just get so tethered to the future in the past. Everybody knows this stuff. They know they should practice gratitude, but it's a matter of focus and attention. I want you to acknowledge the fact that you can decide right now with me to place your focus and attention on this conversation. You can do that. However, you also at the same time have to acknowledge that your focus and attention is being bide for by so many things. We call them distractions. Those distractions are very strategically trying to capture your focus and attention.

Starting point is 00:09:14 So it's not easy. So the first step in taking back control of our focus and attention is to understand where it went when we lose it, where it goes, and also what was it like before we lost it? That's what I want to talk about today. So let's look at this idea of like, where did it go? When we lose our focus and attention, where do we go? So if you're really, really struggling to practice present time gratitude for longer than a second, let's acknowledge that. there was a time that you had it all the time. Let's acknowledge that we live in a world that has taken our attention away from the excitement and exploration of the present moment that we all had as children. We're going to go back to our childhood here for a second and took our attention and steered it

Starting point is 00:10:02 towards places that don't actually exist future and past and are therefore not in our control. That's an interesting insight. It's one thing to be tethered and entangled to the future. or the past and say they don't exist, but also another thing to say, because they don't exist, they're not in our control. So if we're in the future in the past, we're living out of control. And I don't think anybody likes that. So the past and the future are those places where those things exist. So in fact, my observation, because that's what I like to do, observe, not participate, but observe, is that the human race is so fixated on the past and the future that it's actually now at a tipping point where it's begun to justify the future with gratitude.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Think about that for a second. There's a lot of stuff out there. I catch myself teaching it myself. There's a lot of stuff out there that talks about living in the future and acting in the now, which is a wonderful strategy. It's how children get the red, shiny bike under the Christmas tree, is to go into the future and have a goal that is so real that you almost know what it feels like and you manifest it. So you have a lot of gratitude if you have the ability to set those types of goals.

Starting point is 00:11:18 We're taught to learn from our past and dream big in the future. I'm not saying that that's bad, but it makes perfect sense while we have a tendency to spend so much time in our past and our future, learning from our past, dreaming big about the future, that we forget what is actually existing the only real thing, and that is right now. What was it like before we lost control of this thing. There was a time in your life that you didn't even know about like the future in the past. All you knew when you came out into this world was right now. You know, in the formative years when your brain is forming, you're just soaking in all of this stuff. So what was it like back then before we lost it? You know, as far as you can recall, the best description of what it's

Starting point is 00:12:05 like to be in a full, full, full, full on state of gratitude is found in the observation of children. and you used to be one. You still are. So that is before technology, and, you know, I can talk about my age and how it was different then, but technology was even at place stealing my focus and attention as well. But now more than ever, and the projection is it's going to get even more difficult, is that technology is stealing the focus and attention of children at an earlier age. But children come into this world with a blank canvas.

Starting point is 00:12:40 No baseline for reality other than in what is. right in front of their face in the present moment. So you know what that's like. Children naturally possess what's referred to as wonder and awe. If you really want to engage in this conversation, write those words down. Wonder and awe. Think about what it means to have wonder and awe over things. It means to be excited about everything because you're seeing it for the first time and you just think everything is cool. That's why kids, when they see something, they say, why, why, why, they want to know everything about what is actually happening. That's what kids are excited about, and you were like that in that present moment, anything and everything, that comes into their field of vision. That's what you

Starting point is 00:13:27 used to be like. We still see this organically in adults. And I like to consider myself somebody that really practices present time gratitude. And I use meditation and I use masterminds. This is something that we do in the Make Sense Academy is it's a present time conversation that we have daily, just like we're doing right now. We still organically see this in adults that have lived what's called an underprivileged life. Think about what I just said when I said underprivileged, because the definition of privilege is very skewed sometimes. To have an underprivileged life means to have very, very little. We're in a society where we kind of frown upon that. As we know, when you live a life where you have only a few basic needs met, which are really the only needs you have,

Starting point is 00:14:13 you experience wonder and awe over anything and everything beyond it. That's what I mean. When you have an underprivileged life, it is such a blessing because everything outside of it, which is most everything, is amazing. So I want you to understand right now that there are things that you have. You might be going through a struggle in your life, but you are privileged. You are privileged. In fact, you're privileged to just be alive. Just imagine how amazing it would be for somebody that's not alive to be alive. Right? So we forget about those things. And if you have these technologies, they've become appendages. They're parts of your body now. So, you know, there's a lot more to have wonder and awe about they've kind of been encapsulated in our comfort zone. So wonder inspires us to open our minds and hearts to embrace gratitude. That's what I love about wonder. Hmm, I wonder what that is. That's where we get in this state of gratitude. So this is an interesting

Starting point is 00:15:12 insight to grab onto today. Most of us know what gratitude is, but struggle to practice it with consistency over time. So I often find myself taking note of a very peculiar phenomenon taking place in those that struggle to constantly practice gratitude. It's noticing whether one appreciates the moment or not. That's what it is. So if somebody says I'm struggling, practicing present time gratitude, what I notice is that they think that it's something that they'll find outside. Like, it's something they have to go find, but it's something that's already happening. So when I see somebody incapable of appreciating the moment or not, which I catch myself doing too, they forget that they're actually living in the present moment. That's what's really interesting about gratitude and present

Starting point is 00:16:02 moment thinking. It's the only thing that's actually happening. So struggling to find it is just a side effect of living outside of what is actually happening. And this is what this means. Humans are always in the present moment. That's the only place you are yet somehow incapable of taking note of it. Imagine being in a room and not knowing that you're in the room. That's what it's like. Taking note of where they actually are. So a good practice would be to say, where am I right now in the present moment? I could say I'm in this chair, I'm in my podcast studio, and I'm speaking to you. What happens in this distracted world is people place their focus on the time and spaces that are not. And it's not our fault. We're trained and programmed to do that.

Starting point is 00:16:50 And that's the past and the future, as I said. I believe this is due to the urgency that has been placed on all of us to acquire success and status before it's too late. There's an urgency. It's like FOMO. We're all worried not just about achieving and succeeding, but we're worried about the time running out. And that gets more and more urgent as we get older. Make sense? So what happened to the wonder and awe that you had as a child? Where did everything go? Where everything was so amazing to you that you had the ability to allow your imagination to create a storyline that is far more interesting. and extravagant and magical than any movie you could ever watch. You know what I love about movies? And at this time, my wife and I are excited to see the second version of Gladiator. Remember something

Starting point is 00:17:43 about movies. Movies are concepts that started in someone else's head that was dreaming in the present moment. You're not thinking about a movie concept in the future. It's very much like dancing. I was saying this before. What's great about the idea of dancing through life is dance. Dancing happens only in one space. Like dancing is not something that we do to travel to a destination. Dancing is happening in the present moment. So I encourage you all to dance a little bit more. Would you like some wonder and awe for the day?

Starting point is 00:18:15 Well, how about considering for a second how you got here? I talk about this a lot, but I'm going to give you a little bit more of an interesting perspective. And maybe you could listen to this and relisten to this, or even consider this idea in your morning routine, just to take a self-assessment of some pretty amazing things that are taking place right now that you very often forget about. And that's how did you get here, right? How did you get in there? Take a break from your goals and dreams and concerns with me for a second and just consider this. How did you somehow come online at first? And what I mean by come online, it's like you were born,

Starting point is 00:18:52 but you came online. You came into this thing that we call reality. And first notice that you have these two like fleshy, interesting things on the sides of your head and these two round balls that rotate around, lubricate themselves, and somehow have the ability to listen or render images. I can look at this screen right now and somehow take in and see who's here and render an image that makes sense and interprets what it means to look at you via being processed, by some sort of a wet piece of meat in my protective skull that somehow, listen, man does its best to explain things through science and mathematics, but come on, it's way more complicated than that.

Starting point is 00:19:41 Somehow this wet piece of meat in my skull has the capacity to work like an extremely powerful computer, yet wirelessly, meaning there's no plug in the wall, right? I mean, that's pretty freaking amazing, right? How about those weird things that I referred to before, these perturbances on the sides of our heads, that enable me to pull sound in? I mean, think about this scenario. I have this hole in my mouth that gives me the ability to pull air from the outside in, which I instinctively know I need somehow, and then push it out with some sort of a vibration and say the words to you right now, tropical island. And just by hearing it through these things on the side of your head that you were born with, equipped with, batteries that were included, that sound of me saying tropical island from the hole in my face is also all of a sudden gives you the ability to render and understand and dream and imagination of this tropical island, what it looks like, what it feels like, all of that stuff. That's a kind of wonder and awe that you would probably be prompted to express gratitude.

Starting point is 00:20:52 about like oh my god i mean i know that right now you're like i got to get back to work but you wouldn't be able to work without all of these things right take an inventory and and give an oh my god or wow and just acknowledge that there's this other mystery going on right now in the present moment where i say how did you get inside that body that is fully functional with all of these features that are in play right here right now how did you get inside Do you ever acknowledge that? So here's an interesting practice of gratitude that can help you get through some tough times. This is fun.

Starting point is 00:21:29 As we say in our Make Sense Academy community, handle adversity with grace. So the next time that you perceive that you are struggling, which is probably going to be today, it's just the way we're programmed. Allow yourself in that moment of struggle to acknowledge that what is really going on in that moment of struggle is that that wet piece of meat I talked about, that brain in your skull, is just doing what it always does. So the next time you experience struggle, you're going to just recognize

Starting point is 00:21:59 that your brain is doing its job. And what it does, just like your heart beats and your lungs breathe, your brain thinks. That's all that's going on in that time of struggle is your brain is doing its job, it's thinking. As a matter of fact, as a reminder, that brain has the ability to process 40 to 70,000 thoughts a day

Starting point is 00:22:21 all that is really happening in that moment of struggle is that you're just for whatever reason perceiving that you're having a hard time and that's because you've somehow chosen a couple maybe one or two of those 40 to 70,000 thoughts and latched onto them and started to participate with those thoughts that you chose out of the 40 to 70,000 and labeled them as your reality. the next time you're struggling, realize that to many, many degrees, you've made a decision to struggle. And if you can make a decision to struggle, you can make a decision to not struggle by just latching on to another thought. So what if you reminded yourself?

Starting point is 00:23:04 Here's the practice, that the brain was just doing what it always does in that moment and detached yourself. The Buddhists would say, say the word, thinking, detached yourself from participating with those thoughts. You can acknowledge them and say, ooh, God, that's a... struggle thought. But you don't have to participate with it. Just like you can go to a movie tonight and sit there and eat popcorn and watch the movie, you can make a decision to not participate with thoughts and just observe them with wonder and awe. Like, wow, how crazy is that that my brain

Starting point is 00:23:38 has the ability to come up with those thoughts? I didn't tell it to do it. It did it on its own. Now remember, our brain has been programmed by others, so you could very easily blame somebody for your program, but that's not what we're here to do. Like, wow, brain. You are crazy. Your brain, by the way, is the craziest friend that you have. Do you agree? Your brain is crazy.

Starting point is 00:23:58 Like, you are so crazy, dude, with all that thinking that you do. I am impressed with your thinking skills. Yet, this is the practice. I'm going to just sit back and watch you do your thing, rather than feel compelled to choose any of those thoughts that you're giving me while I'm laying in bed at 2 in the morning to participate with at this time. I'm not interested in participating. Hey, would you like to come play kickball?

Starting point is 00:24:23 No, thanks. I'm just going to watch. You understand? I'll let you know when you come up with one of those thoughts that perhaps will suit me, my wants and my needs for a great day to day, but right now I'm just going to watch. I'm going to stop participating

Starting point is 00:24:36 or feeling compelled to and just observe. This can only be done when we allow ourselves, folks, and this is the week where you're allowed to do it and maybe catch a wave and keep doing it. Allow ourselves to live. in the present moment and detach from what I call the tamed form of gratitude. Where you only express present moment appreciation and gratitude, when you think that you're supposed to, the way you were trained.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Perhaps that's Thanksgiving for you, and that's why I come to you with this message. Perhaps Thanksgiving is this time where we say, it's Thanksgiving, it's time to give thanks. I asked my daughter this morning, I said, what does Thanksgiving mean to you? And she says, it's a time to express gratitude and give thanks. What's interesting about the word thanksgiving is a lot of people think that it just means to give thanks. But when I look at the word giving in spirit of this conversation I'm going to have with Bob Berg about the go giver, I also think about this idea of giving it away, giving it to others as I'm doing today. So my gratitude and acknowledgement for all this stuff we're talking about and Thanksgiving,

Starting point is 00:25:40 I'm reminding myself right now to pay it forward and share it. And I'm going to challenge you to do the same. It's a cue and trigger Thanksgiving to take the human brain out of the rat race and remind us to consider its blessings in the present moment. It's perfectly placed at the end of the year. It's a genius idea. Thank you, pilgrims and Indians. See, gratitude is a choice, folks. That choice to acknowledge what is already happening.

Starting point is 00:26:07 What you already have with wonder and awe, that's how you acknowledge it. We could go on forever, acknowledging how amazing your current reality is right now. millions and millions of things. What you'll need to do is allow yourself today and each day for the rest of your days, hopefully, to detach from the past and the future or at least stop participating with it. Acknowledge that you're seeing it, but detach from the tamed program that is running inside your brain that you acquired from your mother, father, teacher, preacher, society, and the consuming that you're doing all day, and then evolution.

Starting point is 00:26:43 Set your gratitude free to be today. that's my challenge for you with no limits maybe that proverbial pot of gold that we're all searching for at the end of the rainbow maybe it's not where we were looking that's why we never find it maybe this shift into living in the present time with what we call untamed gratitude set your gratitude free you do not have to police your gratitude let's give it a try maybe we'll find out that that pot of gold is actually already inside of us and we've been looking outside make a list today of everything that you're grateful for. And I'm also going to challenge you to share it on social media with your friends and family. Blow yourself away with this list. Create momentum and blow yourself

Starting point is 00:27:27 away with this miraculous list of everything that you're grateful for. Today, you will begin practicing this skill called gratitude and set it free to be expressed in an untamed fashion. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. We will go deep into this in the Make Sense Academy. And I love appreciate you all. Have an amazing day. Bye-bye.

Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Makes Sense Mondays - Untamed Gratitude - Episode 65

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