The Art of Living Fully: A Tale of Gratitude and Transformation

Welcome to "Restore the Real," hosted by Dr. Randy, a space where transformation and appreciation intertwine. In this episode, Dr. Randy delves deep into the concept of expectations versus appreciation, sharing his personal journey of self-discovery and growth. Having experienced life-altering moments at events like "Unleash the Power Within" and "Date With Destiny," he uncovers the profound shift from living in a state of constant expectation to embracing a life filled with appreciation.

Listeners will embark on a reflective journey alongside Dr. Randy, as he recounts the insights gained from replacing expectations with gratitude. He invites his audience to consider their own focus for the coming year, encouraging them to find a word or phrase that resonates deeply and guides their actions and thoughts. Dr. Randy's narrative is not just about personal growth; it's a testament to the power of perception in shaping our experiences and the world around us.

Join us on "Restore the Real" for this insightful episode where Dr. Randy challenges you to reevaluate your perspective on life, expectations, and the beauty of the present moment. Subscribe and listen on your favorite platform, and if you're inspired by what you hear, share your thoughts with us and leave a review. Your journey to a more appreciative and fulfilling life starts here. 🌟

Hi! Dr. Randy, here. Thank you for being here! I'd like to invite you, my podcast listeners, to our thriving private health community, Empower Act Heal, on Facebook. It centers around YOU claiming your personal power and gaining momentum on your path to vibrant health! We're a supportive, judgement-free community where you can show up as you are and find greater success. I do weekly LIVES and bring in experts, just like on my podcast, but in a more personalized setting. Just follow this link into our Community, we can't wait to see on the inside!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/empower.act.heal

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

It's time for real discussions about health. Hi, I'm Dr Randy Michaud of Total Body Wellness Clinic, and each week on Restore the Real, I'll sit down with the guests to discuss how developing or overcoming health challenges has shaped the way that they live their lives, what they've learned, what they've changed and how they're moving forward. Restore the Real is a podcast that is unafraid and unapologetic when it comes to getting honest about the nuances of health and wellness Mind, body and spirit. Hey, this is Dr Randy and welcome to Restore the Real. Happy New Year to everybody. I hope that you are excited about the new year. I hope that you've had a wonderful 2023, but I know that's not always the case and that we look forward to a newness and things are going to change and things are going to be better and different, and that this is the year. Maybe 2023 was fantastic for you and you're like how could it get better? Maybe 2023 was terrible, and now you know, at least you can look up. But I wanted to share a couple of things that have been very impactful to me and what has helped tremendously and this is only in the past year. Really, I went to unleash the power within a little bit more than a year and a half ago and completely transformed me and how I felt about myself, helped solidify some of the things I felt about myself, but helped open up just new perspectives and this within to create. And what I found during that and then what I also found at date with Destiny, which was several months later was I expected things to happen. I had expectations for myself, I expected a lot from others. I expected things to happen and expectation. What I found in doing that and when I had an awareness to what I was doing, I recognized the fear, the anxiety, the guilt and sometimes even the shame that those expectations created, because if they weren't met, then, gosh, what's wrong with that person or what's wrong with me or man. I thought that if this thing occurred, then life was going to be better. I truly felt that, and so then it led to more expectation, not recognizing that I needed to give up expectation and trade it for something else. Didn't even know that I could do that. I just looked at here's what I expect to happen and then, if it didn't, what's wrong with me? And maybe you felt something similar, maybe you felt some of the same things that I have and struggle with that and if you're over that, then fantastic. If you're still in the mix of that, fantastic as well, because you can change, and there's beauty in that.

Speaker 1: 3:18

There is a guy, jaco Williamson, that one of the podcasts that he did, people would say, you know, I failed this, and his response would be good or man, I'm not feeling well. And his response again good, this didn't work out for me. Good. And his response was always good. And what he shared with that is it's good because you have an opportunity now to grow, to learn to, to be stronger, to be you know whatever that might be, to learn from that experience and and make it better. I share that, because this whole thing of expectation, I'm glad that I did experience that I'm glad that that was something, because now, on the other side of that, there's more beauty, there's more peace, there's more love, and the thing that I learned was trade your expectation for appreciation and and and that was set up as if you want it, if you want your entire life to change, do this one thing, and this was from Tony Robbins. He said trade your expectations for appreciation. And so, last word, last year I made my focus on Appreciation, even right behind me my date with destiny poster it, my primary question. It asks how can I appreciate the immense love Even more that God has for me, or how can I appreciate even more the immense love that God has for me right now? And An appreciation showed up everywhere. How can I appreciate the walk that I'm on today? How can I appreciate the? My son crying, which definitely I was not perfect in appreciating that near, not even close. But different experiences challenges Hain, spartan race that I did. Challenges in business, trying to figure out how to help individuals, how to guide them through chronic illness, how to support my own family Right, and then how to how to work on myself. I traded an Expectancy for an appreciation and the beauty and the love and the gratitude that I've experienced as a result of that has been immense.

Speaker 1: 5:46

I'll give you an example. I love backpacking. If you know me, you know that I love backpacking, I love Spartan races, I love pushing myself, and there were so many times in the past that I would just blow right by stuff. My family would be hey, let's, let's, let's stop and look at this and I'm the person. It's like no, we were going to get to this point. Here's where we're going to. Let's keep going and I'd miss everything around me. And Several years ago we were on a hike.

Speaker 1: 6:18

It was my son, who was a lot younger at the time, and my wife and I really had to be like I'm just going to be here with him, I don't care how far we get, let me just be with him. And I remember hiking and having that urge to just to go. I'm like, no, you got to pull back. It was hard. This was not an easy thing to like slow down for me and he would see things on the ground that I never even caught a glimpse of. He's like well, look at this pattern in this log, or look at this leaf pattern, look at the snow on the ground and how it, how it has this pattern because of the trees around it, things that I would have totally missed, but there was so much beauty in that. And then life goes on and I completely forgot, right. And then there were different races, different hikes, and again it wasn't really until this past year.

Speaker 1: 7:12

We're on hikes and and even Spartan races and like how can I just appreciate the moment, the experience, the pain, the joy and, as I as I shared on a previous podcast man, the people that I met and the experiences that I had, the love that I felt, the love that I gave. It was beautiful and it was because I was looking to see how can I appreciate where I'm at in the moment, not just blowing by stuff Just because I want to get to a certain place or thinking if I get to that certain place, life will be better. But how can I appreciate the process? And met some really cool people again, had some great interactions and then even backpacking, having some experiences with the boys that I've taken backpacking and to see how I feel that I've taken backpacking and to see how they grew over a three day period, four day period, what they saw, what they learned and and being okay with going slower because they couldn't, you know, keep up with some of the other boys and Looking around and seeing the beauty.

Speaker 1: 8:17

It just when you have that appreciation, like everything opens up and I think like blinders were taken off of my eyes for the like one of the first times and it was like wow, there's so much that this world has to offer. If I can learn to appreciate the moment, because the appreciation for the moment, for the moment, gave me a greater awareness for where I was, for what I was thinking, for the meaning that I was giving to it, for the focus that I had on that thing. And that awareness Then gave me the ability to take responsibility Responsibility for what I was feeling, what I was thinking, the meaning I was giving to things, and I could change it. You could change what I was focused on instead of man. I'm going so slow. You know what there's beauty all around me. Just enjoy it. Or gosh, can't these boys go any faster? No, hey, I wonder what they're experiencing. How are they learning? How are they growing? Let's talk to them, let's see what they're experiencing.

Speaker 1: 9:21

You know, going through things in business, I'd ask myself similar questions. You know, sometimes I want to plow ahead and and just get to the other side, but knowing that the learning experience is not going to accelerate just because I want it to, there are things that I have to learn that may take time and maybe not may. That's a perspective as well, but anyway, I guess what I'm trying to share is that having that focus informed everything that I did this past year and and Any goals that I did set or things I wanted to achieve or accomplish. They were all part of this process of appreciating Even this podcast, which is which is funny I recorded a bunch of podcasts in the beginning and it was like come on, it's got to start, it's got to start now. And working with the people that edit the podcast, in my mind, I'm like gosh, this is taking so long. Is this going to be like? When is this going to happen? And then, when it came out, it was like, oh my gosh, the timing of this is perfect. Is there a lesson in that? Can I appreciate the process, appreciate Doing something well, doing something right, instead of just throwing something out there?

Speaker 1: 10:39

So, what is your word for 2024? Or what is your phrase? Do you have a word or phrase or something you want to focus on, because that can inform the decisions that you make? And that's a process to a process of learning, growing and Becoming that, and it may take two, three months to like get into it, to see the efforts being paid off. I heard something once from Ed Milette who said Whatever you're doing right now, you're not going to see the effect of it. And if you want to know why you're in the position you are in now, look back 60 days and what were you doing? What were you thinking Like, wow, that's, that's really profound, and I and I definitely see that to be the case. So what is your focus? What meaning are you giving to 2024? What is your word? And I'll share with you mine I thought I had it and then I didn't. And I thought I had it again and I didn't, and things weren't just resonating fully with me. There were pieces of different words and phrases that were important, but it didn't all come really until the past couple days.

Speaker 1: 11:54

And my, my phrase for 2024 is I and the creator of my life. Now, what do I mean by that? Those that you that know me know that I definitely fully believes in God and that we are co-creators in this life with God and Jesus Christ, and so I could say that I am the co-creator of my life, but I am the creator of my life. What does that mean to me? That means that it's my responsibility to create my own happiness. It's my responsibility to manage my internal state, to manage my emotional state, my spiritual state, by my actions, my thoughts, my words. It's my responsibility to create what I want in life and business, to create the relationships that I want with family. Now, I can't force anything upon people, but I can Create the opportunity to have those relationships and to have lasting relationships.

Speaker 1: 13:01

And maybe it's not meant to be, maybe it is, but to know that I'm the creator, that I am creative, that I can create, is really Fantastic to me, because I've never thought of myself as a creator. I think of artists and musicians as creators and I don't feel that I have that talent musically, artistically. It's just really never been in my wheelhouse. But I am an artist and I am a musician. In the life that I'm creating and the music that I'm creating within the, the energy, the, at what frequency my body resonates, at right, there's a music to that and I get to dictate what it is. I'm grateful for that. I think it's awesome and I'm excited about that to know what I can create, to know who's going to enter my life, who might leave and and what gift that is going to be to both of us, how I'm going to grow, how I get to grow with people and learn from people and and help. I'm in guide. It's just, it's super exciting for me. So I think the possibilities as you know, the cliche are endless. But when I picture myself as the creator and the co-creator of my life, with a loving God. There's so much to be done and there's so much healing to be done and so much love to feel and to give.

Speaker 1: 14:30

So this is a quick podcast, short podcast, but I hope that you have a word or a phrase or something that you are focusing on in 2024, and how will that inform what you do?

Speaker 1: 14:46

How will that inform what you think about?

Speaker 1: 14:49

What actions do you do, what are your routines, your habits and how can a word or phrase influence those? And what can change in 60 days as a result? What can change in a year as a result of having a word or phrase that you focus on, that you think about, that you get embedded within you and it have that be your guiding light and principle. Man, that's like that kind of gives me goosebumps and shivers and I'm super excited to hear from you.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Let me know, tell me what you, what word, what phrase, what is your 2024 going to be and how is, how do you hope that that word or phrase is going to propel you to being able to follow your heart, to follow that Again, as Rumi said, to be drawn by this strange pull Right. You're silently drawn to that strange pull and to know that it will not lead you astray, because love and light Will never lead you astray. And I feel that if you have your word or your phrase, you let your heart guide you to what that is that man? What are the possibilities? How exciting is that? Blessings to you, god bless you.