How To Be Happier Than You Ever Were!

In this journey we call life we travel many different paths and listen to just about anyone who sounds interesting!~ In this track I share what I've done what I'm doing to be the healthiest, whole , woke person I can be. So when I say I'm happy hidden in this track is how I operate.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

My name is Douglas Grumman and I'm glad I'm still able to make recordings and share with you guys and girls all these beautiful insights that I've collected in my life along the way.

There's been a lot that's made me who I am.

If you guys don't know a whole lot about me,

I'm going to share a little bit about me.

I identify myself as a surfer first and then everything else falls into place behind that term of being a surfer.

The way we live our lives,

I live by the ocean because it's easier for a surfer to be closer to the ocean.

I found that when I lived away from the ocean and it's harder to get to the ocean,

It makes your surfing suffer in a way.

It hinders you where there could have been days where maybe it was one foot or two foot.

You probably wouldn't drive 60 miles for but if you live at the beach and it's one or two foot,

You're like,

What the heck,

I got nothing better to do today so I might as well just go out and go surfing.

That's kind of the way I structure my life.

It's not that I don't work around it either.

I would say for the most part,

I'm pretty attentive and focused in my job when I'm doing my job.

Sometimes when I'm working up in Houston,

Which is like a 60 mile drive usually,

Sometimes if I know there's waves,

I get a little anxious to get home and get on those waves as soon as I can.

I sometimes push the pedal to the metal a little bit harder on those days.

Outside of that,

I enjoy the rides to Houston.

I enjoy the ride home from Houston.

I enjoy working wherever I am.

I enjoy working because I just enjoy my job.

I'm a telecommunications specialist by trade and also a low voltage technician estimator.

I make my living mostly just doing those things.

It's a good life.

It affords me the ability to live at the beach even though it's a little bit harder.

I had a great man in my life once tell me that the best thing he ever did in his life was to move to the beach because then every day when you're not at work,

Every day seems like you're on vacation.

That's pretty powerful words to remember and abide by.

I moved in Virginia Beach.

I lived pretty close to the ocean.

Close enough,

There was like 15 minutes to whichever break was breaking better that day or whatever mood you might have found yourself in.

Sometimes in Virginia Beach,

The waves are pretty crowded.

You either deal with a crowd or go surf a lesser wave somewhere else that may be not as good but less crowded.

Anyway,

I won't bore you with all those details too much.

I did want to add a few things that,

Okay,

I'm kicking 60 this year.

In October,

I'll turn 60 years old.

I've seen buildings that are 60 years old and they look kind of old.

I feel pretty good for my age.

I want to share a few things about that with you guys.

One of the things I do that I found recently over about five,

Six years ago,

I was feeling tired and not energetic as I was when I was younger.

And it plays on you when you get older.

It plays on your emotions.

It plays on your psyche.

But I found that if you take a couple of the amino acids like L-citrulline or L-Argentine,

I take a combination of the two.

What that does is it helps you to digest the proteins in your bodies.

It gives you more energy and helps your whole system work better.

When you're younger,

Your body has a lot more energy and focus.

And by taking these amino acids,

It returns your body levels to more like when you're in your 20s or your 30s.

And the protein digestion or absorption is much better.

And it helps me to feel energetic and boost my day.

Now,

If you ever met me,

I am the most happy-go-lucky person you could have ever met.

Hardly ever a worry,

Even though,

Yes,

I do worry about things.

I have bills.

I have things that,

Just as everybody else does.

But I don't let those things hinder my psyche,

My outlook of the way I approach life.

There's a time to deal with bills and there's a time to live and there's a time to work.

There's a time to play.

It all comes to you and you enjoy the moment as you're living the moment.

Another thing I've started doing recently,

And I really wanted to share with you guys,

Is that I started to take lion's mane mushrooms in a powdered form.

There's one company that's even advertising on YouTube,

And I'll give them a plug here that I think it's called Mudwater.

But basically,

It's just lion's mane mushrooms.

And this mushroom is a brain superfood.

It does a whole lot for your mood,

For your psyche,

For your outlook.

So I started taking these mushroom supplements on the advice of a friend.

And I take about maybe two teaspoons of the supplement instead of having coffee in the morning.

I don't really drink coffee anyway.

But in place of that,

I started doing the mushrooms.

And I swear,

I go throughout my whole day just feeling so wonderful.

I mean,

I already felt wonderful anyway,

But now it's just amplified even more.

And it's almost like a sin to be so happy all the darn time.

I thought I'd share that with you.

And maybe if some of you guys or girls are having troubles feeling happy all the time,

It just could be something simple as a lion's mane to help boost your mood and help you to feel better.

So try it if you're having problems adjusting.

Because a lot of people could be having highs and lows.

Some days they'll feel very good for a few moments,

And then other moments they'll feel very down and depressed.

And that could be coffee consumption could be causing that.

Because you could get a high from the caffeine,

But then you crash later.

So the lion's mane mushroom is an alternative,

And there's no crash later.

There's no downfall to doing it.

Now,

I don't know if there's any long term scientific investigations done on the consumption of lion's mane.

That would be interesting to read about if anybody's ever done that kind of research.

But these are just some things that I do.

And other things that I like,

Everybody knows that I like to share my spirituality with you and anyone who will take the time to listen.

My favorite subjects,

I would have to say my top favorite subject would have been Tantra.

And not the sexual Tantra,

But the Tantra that just means the word itself means technique.

I fell in love with Tantra.

And it was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back that got me from being a river and flowing as a river.

And then when one day this river meets the ocean,

And when this happens,

It is the scariest thing in the world,

Because you think you're going to die.

And in a way,

The river does die when it reaches the ocean,

But to become something more.

But we go throughout our lives,

Conditioned by the two shores of the river,

Maybe one shore could be a negative aspect,

And the other shore could be a positive aspect.

And we flow between these two shores just surviving,

Being bumped around flowing as with the current down towards the river.

And of course,

All of us know that when the river meets the ocean,

Could be like,

You could compare to like the day that you die physically,

And then your life is over.

And that scares the living daylights out of a lot of people,

Because you think that you'll be no more.

And that could be hard for anybody to absorb.

I just read something recently in a book I'm reading about how like a well frog,

This little frog that lives inside of a well,

Could not imagine life outside of the well,

It would be too much for him to comprehend.

And just the same goes as like if a fly could imagine all of space,

All the air,

Including the whole universe,

A fly could cannot absorb that kind of thought,

Because it's just beyond their comprehension.

And we in the same way are confined by our minds.

And our minds are being controlled as we go down this river,

Because our conditioning has made us a certain way how the river bends depends on how we focus our lives and how we correspond to every given situation.

Some situations may require you to be negative,

And some situations require you to be positive.

But they are both sides to the river.

And that's all we know.

And that's all we cling to,

As we go through life.

And we think that the end of the trail at the end of when we die,

That we will be no more,

Or we don't know what's going to happen.

It's kind of a great analogy that the East has come up with that the river,

All these rivers,

They eventually meet meet the ocean and dissolve into the ocean when when we when we reach that point.

You can also look at this whole life thing as a journey up a mountain.

So there's a two analogies.

There's one that the rivers flow into the ocean.

That's one analogy.

And the other is that on your spiritual journey,

That like you're climbing a mountain,

This,

Even though you may not even be aware that you're climbing this mountain,

We're all on that journey,

Too.

It's just a different way of looking at it.

We could be flowing towards the ocean,

And we could also be learning and adapting and trying to cope with what happens to us in our day to day lives.

But it's a struggle.

It's a journey.

And if you compare it to climbing a mountain is kind of beautiful,

Too,

That so many different paths are made climbing up the mountain.

And I don't think there's any superhighway that goes right from point A to point B.

I think that a lot of religions would like you to think that there is their way is the superhighway to the point or the peak of the mountain.

But what happens is that as you climb the mountain,

You gain strength.

You gain endurance.

You gain wisdom.

And you learn what to do and what not to do and who to listen to and who not to listen to.

Just like listening to my voice,

It could be a hindrance or it could be a help.

It depends on how you're approaching looking at the mountain and how you want to climb it yourself.

But I will say a few things about the path that will help your journey.

By carving your own path,

It might sound egotistical that you don't agree with anybody else's path.

But the truth is that we are all here individually.

We're born alone and we die alone.

But we're kind of alone on our path as we go.

You can enjoy the company of others and you can enjoy your beautiful music.

If your church plays beautiful music,

That's kind of really cool stuff.

And there's some beautiful things about it.

But there is no superhighway that gets takes you all the way to the top of the mountain.

And I'll share a small story to kind of explain that.

The first year I ever went to Breckenridge,

Colorado to go snowboarding,

It was really beautiful.

We lucked out and drove into some good snow.

And we had to drive through a storm to get to Breckenridge.

And that was so scary because people died doing that kind of stuff.

When you get out on those freeways and you get snowed in in front of you and snowed in behind you and you get stuck,

You run out of gas.

You run out of fuel to stay warm.

And luckily we found a hotel on the road where they closed it out in front of us and they closed it behind us.

We found a hotel and we were safe for the night.

But I've heard some real bad horror stories about that and it's kind of scary,

But I won't get off on that.

So yeah,

So we made it to Breckenridge and it was just so beautiful and so amazing.

And I was a pretty decent snowboarder,

But I'd never been to a mountain that big or that massive.

Breckenridge encompasses like four or five different mountaintops and it's really a great resort.

Wide open trails.

It wasn't too overly crowded yet.

I mean it could handle the crowds,

I should say.

But yeah,

There's all these different varieties of mountaintops and paths and diamond,

Double black diamond,

Triple black diamond.

Just about anything if you felt you could handle it.

There were cliffs that could be jumped off of.

There's all kinds of different levels of fun,

You could say.

So without getting too off subject,

It reminded me that by the third day I got to the top of one of the mountaintops and I was just so in awe and so feeling blessed that I was able to be there and experience this beautiful resort and all it had to offer and the fresh snow and everything.

So I got to the top of the mountain.

I got off the lift and I kind of just sat there in awe and just like,

Wow,

This is so beautiful.

This is such a great thing to have happened to me at this point in my life.

And I think I was probably about,

How old was I?

I was probably about 26,

27 years old back when this happened.

But I basically sat down at the top of the ski lift and sat on a chair and as I'm buckling up my bindings and everything,

Getting ready to launch down the mountain,

I said a small prayer to myself and I said,

God,

Thank you for this.

Thank you for this experience of letting me be here.

And I said,

Why don't you ride the mountain and I'll just watch and you take over my body and you enjoy riding the mountain.

And I think something came over me because as I buckled my bindings up and I put my goggles on my face and on my hat,

I felt this essence take over me.

And I launched down the mountain and I just became the watcher.

And I let God basically take over my body and ride.

And I went faster than I've ever gone before.

I was flying down this mountain,

Just turning and carving and just,

It was amazing.

I was operating outside of my mind.

I was basically in a Zen moment.

And I remember about halfway down,

I hit this jump,

This kicker,

They call them.

And it flew me into the air,

Like 20,

30 feet into the air.

And I'm just flying through the air.

And I think my hat came off at that time.

And I stuck the landing like it was nothing,

Like I was a pro snowboarder or something.

And then I just kept flying down the mountain all the way down to the base of the mountain.

And I got to the bottom of the mountain and I was like,

Wow,

God,

You're pretty damn good.

And I relished that moment.

I was like,

Gosh,

That was amazing.

And I'm going to come back to this story in just a second.

But I have to finish my other thought that I was telling you about why.

Another day,

The next day on the mountain came around.

And they have a bowl section on one of their peaks.

And I've really watched all these amazing snowboard videos of people going out in the bowls and how amazing it looks and everything.

So it's kind of a rough trek to get to this bowl.

You ride like a quad lift up to a certain point.

And then it's a lift with like three seats on it that gets you up to the next point.

And then where that lift ends,

There's a T-bar,

They call it.

Basically,

It's a cable with a hook that you kind of sit on and it drags you up as high as it can take you to the edge of the bowl.

Now,

The bowls probably starts at about 11,

000 something feet,

11,

000,

12,

000 feet.

And then it's only another about 400 feet to get to the top of the bowl.

But the trek,

Of course,

I'm a landlubber living by the ocean.

The trek is like,

You can do 10 feet at a time.

And you're exhausted.

You can't take another breath.

You're just out of breath.

It's just 10 feet.

So I did,

But I didn't let it deter me.

I kept going up and up and up every 10 feet at a time,

Just taking a break,

Catching my breath,

Taking a break,

Catching my breath.

It took me at least two hours to climb that last 400 feet.

But I was determined.

I was pretty young back then.

I think I wouldn't be able to do it nowadays because I've developed a little bit of asthma.

And I think those days of climbing bowls are pretty much over for me now.

But anyway,

I got to the top of the mountain.

And the most amazing experience happened is that you could see all the other mountaintops,

All the other peaks once you get to the top.

And it's just this amazing view.

And you appreciate in life the fact that we go through our lives on the spiritual journey,

Climbing the mountain.

And if you steady your course,

You can get to,

With others' help,

You can get up to the highest point that the T-bar could take you.

So there's plenty of help down low.

Everybody wants to help you down low.

But as you climb further and further in your life and you obtain more serenity about yourself and more awe and your attitude is just so full of love and bliss,

And you're enjoying this trip up the mountain,

Then,

Like I said,

Once you get to the T-bar,

Nobody can help you.

And the less weight you carry,

Well,

The less friends you have,

Basically,

Because nobody has ever really gotten that far in life because they're told in life that you don't need to climb to the top of the mountain.

Maybe just staying in the valley is good.

Who knows?

So anyway,

What I wanted to share and convey with you is that even if you follow the footprints of yourself one day that got you to the top,

It snows.

And the path changes.

And you can't follow.

You have to create new footprints every time until you make it to the very top.

There's no path to follow anymore.

You can't follow Jesus' path because the snow took over His footprints at the very top.

You have to carve your own footprints.

You have to make your own way and make,

You have to use your own decision making.

And like I said,

It becomes very,

Very hard to get that last few hundred feet in.

Even the last 10,

15 feet will seem almost impossible.

But that's the attitude when you look at it towards a spiritual climb and this spirituality that we have all embraced in our lives.

Okay,

So I know I had to finish that thought because I know that I jump around on my thoughts on these talks a lot.

But here's what happened next,

Right?

So I remembered this awesome experience of God using my body and this Zen experience that came over me in Breckenridge.

And I went snowboarding about a month later in Ski Santa Fe,

New Mexico,

Which is a cool resort.

It's not quite Breckenridge,

But it's a cool resort.

It's kind of high up there and the snow is pretty good and the trails are wide and open and everything.

So it's kind of a nice resort.

So anyway,

I get to the top of the mountain in Ski Santa Fe.

And I sat down and I did my prayer again.

And I said to God,

You know,

Let's use my body again.

And I'll just be the watcher and you enjoy the ride.

And I'll just be the watcher and let's do what happened in Breckenridge.

Let's do that again because I want that experience.

I want to know what that feeling again,

That feeling of freedom,

That feeling of no fear,

That feeling of awe and amazement.

And anyway,

I buckled up my bindings,

Put my goggles on,

Launched down the mountain.

And 10 feet later,

I fell and I fell right into some deep snow and snow up my nose.

And I'm just like,

What the hell?

I mean,

I didn't understand.

I was sat there in bewilderment.

I'm like,

God,

Don't you want to ride the mountain again?

And it was this point I kind of realized that God doesn't like to do things twice.

He doesn't create two individuals alike.

He doesn't do anything twice.

Meaning that every experience can be new,

A new experience.

But you can't sit there in life and try to recreate an old one or relive an old memory.

We have animals that bless our lives.

And when our animals kind of live shorter lives than us,

And they leave us,

You have to kind of just appreciate the time that you have with them.

But everything has its time.

And that relationship that you have with that animal or that person in life,

I could say you could say a person too,

Right?

Every relationship,

Every attitude you take,

Every approach you make in life has its own variety,

Its own flavor,

And it'll always be a little bit different.

So take that away from this talk that God doesn't like to create duplicates.

And the way I've learned to cope with life since then is that I never try to recreate a situation or instance.

Every time I take a trip,

Like a driving trip away from Galveston and the place I work here locally,

If I have to go to San Antonio,

Or if I go to Austin or Dallas or one of the local cities that are a few hours away,

I always realize that every trip is going to be a little bit different.

So I never try to listen to the same music on the same trip.

I never try to create the same situations the way I felt on that trip.

I always remember that it's going to be,

This trip is just a little bit different.

This trip,

I'm going to enjoy doing this instead of that.

And you change it up a little bit.

And by doing so,

You add a little spice to the trip,

A little more awareness to the trip.

And it's easier to cope with the anxiety of not being near home or being near the ocean.

It's just healthier,

I should say,

To keep it new,

To keep it flowing,

Make everything just a little bit different every trip or every time in your life,

Every situation,

Every person you meet is a new person,

Is a new situation,

A new chance to grow and learn something that could change your life forever.

Anyway,

I guess we should end it there.

Aloha to all my spiritual surfing friends and namaste to those that maybe never surf but would love to try someday.

But blue skies to all you skydivers.

And I guess I'm going to say one last thing.

I think I've pretty much given up skydiving for now.

I feel complete and I don't feel the thrill of having to go like I used to before.

I've accomplished what I wanted to in the sport.

And I lived 20 years skydiving without ever seriously injuring myself,

Which is very fortunate because that doesn't happen to a lot of skydivers.

A lot of people have tragic endings to the sport because it's so dangerous.

But I enjoyed all the trips and all the beautiful people I met along the way.

And it was beautiful.

It was a great experience.

I mean,

You can never be any closer to God outside of meditation than when you're skydiving.

I'll say that much.

But anyway,

Adios to all you beautiful skydivers out there.

Blue skies if you keep jumping and maybe get to the point that I got to.

But much love and appreciation for everybody who listened to this track.

I know it's just the ramblings of an old guy,

But I just hope that through these ramblings,

You can gain insight and help your lives get a little bit better and a little easier to live.

Whether it's taking mushroom supplements instead of coffee or whether it's skydiving or flying down a mountain,

Whatever is your journey.

It may just be crochet and that's cool too.

All right,

Y'all take care of yourselves.

Adios.

Reviews

Glad I stuck with it till the end. Inspiring and true. Thank you!

I loved this talk! Thank you! I just found you and resonated with so many things you shared. I will be saving to listen again and following along as you share more insight. I’m not a surfer… yet, I have always wanted to learn 💙 Have an awesome day!