Gratitude Living
Being Cherokee, Filipino, and white and growing up in areas like Central Illinois and Tennessee I faced a lot of discrimination and abuse growing up. From some of my peers at school to my former step father at home I, like many others, had to endure a lot of hardships. From having to fight with an abusive step father, to being locked up for 2 years as a young teen, to having the skin burnt off my face with boiling hot water.
I'm grateful for every experience I’ve faced. From living in the lowest slums of the U.S. to dining in the nicest restaurants in Tokyo, I’ve lived a rich, full, and beautiful life and it’s far from over! I now live in Las Vegas and make more money than I’ve ever made. I’ve experienced some heart breaking relationships and through them I’ve learned to let go. I’ve won court cases in Tennessee that would have ruined most people's lives. I’m now more happy and more optimistic than I’ve ever been. Pain and trauma were necessary building blocks of this life!
As I type this in my new executive office, I express gratitude for my accomplishments in my career and the abilities God gave me to continue to accomplish more! One of the biggest takeaways I got from the last book I've read, ‘Dopamine Nation’ by Dr. Anna Lembke, is that pain and pleasure are experienced in the same part of the brain and we can’t have too much of one without the other. Pain is a necessary part of life and the more you shy away from it, the more intensely it comes back to you. The converse is also true, the more you face pain, the longer pleasurable neurotransmitters linger in your brain and the happier you’ll feel. We see this in exercise and It also applies to the rest of life as well. This is why I’m grateful for all the trauma I went through as a kid and the toxic relationships I’ve endured as an adult. They’ve given me a perspective I would never have had.
I share all of this to make one point: Everyone has a unique experience that is valuable to this world. No one like you has ever existed and no one like you will ever exist again. Share your life with others, be vulnerable, be compassionate. Your experience is valuable and it CAN help people!