Unmasking Greatness
Join Fitness/LifeStyle Expert & Mentor Chris Kakouras talk about maximizing your health, business, mindset, and overall life! Let's get better together as I bring on amazing guest to interview and learn from!
Unmasking Greatness
Cherishing the Present by Embracing Thankfulness
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and with it comes a whirlwind of emotions. From joy to the inevitable anxiety of holiday gatherings, these mixed feelings can sometimes overshadow the true essence of the season. But what if there was a way to transform this period into one of genuine gratitude and presence? Join me as I unfold how my six-year-old son with his innocent humor and fresh perspective, reminds me to savor life's little joys. Together, we'll explore how shifting focus from holiday stressors to simple gratitude can alter the way we experience these festive moments.
Gratitude isn't just a seasonal gesture—it's a powerful tool for emotional well-being and personal growth. Discover the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal and how this simple practice can improve your mood and sleep quality. We'll delve into the science of the reticular activating system and its role in creating a positive mindset. Learn how helping others and giving back, especially when feeling stuck, can inject hope into life's toughest moments. As we approach Thanksgiving, let's cherish the present, support one another, and embrace gratitude as a lifelong practice.
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Welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, a lifestyle fitness coach and mentor. This podcast is about unmasking your greatest potential, finding your purpose and crafting a life worth living. Health and fitness has been the gateway drug to all of my success. My continuous drive to keep learning and surround myself with other high achievers forces me to level up, which has developed my mind to something I never thought was possible. This podcast is here to share what I've learned and continue to learn with all of you. This is your sign to take back control of your health, mindset and personal environment. Strap in as we are recharged and always find value in the show. Please subscribe and share, as we can all get better together. Let's go.
Speaker 2:What's up, guys, welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, Chris Koukouris, and we are days away from Thanksgiving Literally days and you know, I don't know where you are in your current destination in the present moment, but some of you guys are excited, looking forward to eating all the good food, you know, looking forward to being around with friends and family, and then other you guys are stressing about being prepared, having some anxiety. Maybe you haven't seen your family in a long time. You know, wherever you are, I just want you to just take a moment and breathe. Just take a moment and just be in the present moment right now, breathe and just be grateful. Be in the present moment right now, breathe and just be grateful.
Speaker 2:You know, going into Thanksgiving, you know, obviously I want to record a podcast for you guys this week and I originally was going to come on here and I was like you know what I'm going to talk to them about. You know how to navigate the holidays and not gain a bunch of extra weight. Like what are some things that they can tactically do going into, you know, the day before the day of the day after Thanksgiving, to not completely sabotage any results that they are currently working on, or maybe they just don't want to gain any extra weight. They just want to kind of hold on and still be able to eat what they want, and you know the whole thing and I was like, yeah, I don't really want to talk about that. Honestly, if that was something that you wanted to know, go to my Instagram page coach, underscore, cac, kak and just DM me. You can just say Thanksgiving or hey, I was listening to your podcast. I have a free training, a free ebook that is step by step, how to do something like that, and it is not anything like restrictive. It tells you how you're going to be able to go in there and eat the foods that you want, how do you eat leftovers, how do you not feel guilty, everything Okay. So if that's something that you want to know, you want to hear, I did post about it on my IG and my Facebook as well, but that training is completely free. So just send me a message, I'll send you the link and that is yours. But you know, what I want to talk about today is just practicing some gratitude, being thankful we're going into Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:I think it's something that we need to put some more emphasis on in our life, not even just this week, not even just for Thanksgiving day. It is something I think that we should start to just embrace a little bit more. Okay, and I don't know, I feel like I've been getting more into it as I get older, as I go through more experiences of just life. As you get older, you experience more. You should be learning more. Hopefully, and if you guys don't know already, if you're new to the channel, I'm married to my beautiful wife, lily, and we have a son who is six years old right now Dimitri, we call him Mitri. And we have a son who is six years old right now Dimitri, we call him Mitri.
Speaker 2:And there's no book that tells you how to be a great parent or how to parent in general. You know, yeah, we get the gist for sure, but I think that just comes with experience. You know, I never really held a baby in my life before my son. So again, learning how to hold a baby, how do you feed a baby? I don before my son. So again, learning how to hold a baby, how do you feed a baby, I don't know. You put a bottle in his mouth. It's not always that simple sometimes.
Speaker 2:So you know, as he got older. You know, I'm, I'm watching him, I'm listening to him, I'm, I'm learning from him, because it's cool to see a child grow up when everything they see is like oh my gosh, because it's all brand new to them. You know, we get into our monotonous days and you get older and it's just everything's boring. We've seen everything. You know, nothing excites us anymore. So watching him, it brought a lot of joy to my life.
Speaker 2:And so my son, you know, six he's. He's at the age now where he'll he'll say things that are funny but immature. So it's like, Chris, you want to laugh a little bit but don't laugh because you know it's you don't want him doing that kind of stuff in public, one of those kind of, you know, immature moments and so. But he, he recently started doing this thing where he gets upset and he's just like this is the worst day ever and he's like crying. You know he's super upset and it's just, you know, just one of those incidents where he just he doesn't want to do something, he doesn't like something that we are supposed to be doing together and he's just like this is the worst day ever and I'm just like you're one dramatic kid. No, but yeah, but I'm watching him just break down and say this and I just kind of you know, kind of let him sit there and kind of soak it in a little bit and I'm like why? Why is this the worst day ever? He was literally outside playing for like three hours. I tell you to come in, and now it's the worst day ever and I'm waiting for the explanation. That's the adult in me, I would suppose.
Speaker 2:And you know, he's just working through his emotions and you know, I think as we get older we build a little more resilience to that. And it's okay to feel one way. I can be very upset Doesn't mean I have to have a full-blown breakdown and everybody feel my wrath around me. But for a six-year-old you get to feel that wrath. But as a parent, it's my job to, you know, listen to him and also try to help him navigate those feelings Because, again, they're normal, it's okay. You want to cry, it's okay. You want to feel upset, you want to feel mad. These are all emotions that we should feel.
Speaker 2:And so I asked him he's just like it just is. It just is the worst day. And so I look at him and I'm like, son, the day is what you make it. If you want this to be the worst day ever, let's stamp it. It is, it's the worst day ever. But if you want it to be the best day of your life, it can be, and it comes down to you. It's your choice. And he's a six-year-old. He may not understand what I'm saying right now, but down the road he will.
Speaker 2:And I'm speaking to you guys that are listening to me, because you guys are adults and you control your day. You control it. It comes down to you. I see so many people. One thing one outside circumstance trashes the rest of the day Straight dumpster fire, right. Someone cuts you off in traffic.
Speaker 2:You're pissed, you go into work and everybody's feeling that energy. You know, somebody said something to you that just offended you. Oh, it's on, it's on. Nobody talked to me, I just having a bad day. You let that virus come into you, consume you and shut you down. Wow, it was that easy. It was that easy to break your barrier, to come inside your ecosystem and just tear you down.
Speaker 2:If that's you, it's time. We need to reflect on that. We need to build some resilience for that, and so, with that, I'm telling my son, you know you control it. You got to understand yesterday. Yesterday doesn't exist anymore. It wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst. It's not there, it's past. We can't go back to it, we can't relive it. It's gone. Tomorrow, what's tomorrow? Tomorrow's not promised, tomorrow's not there Again. It's just a figment of our imagination. And this is where people build up all this anxiety, because they create these storylines in their head of what's to come. But did it happen? No, it didn't happen yet. Will it happen? You don't know Again. The only thing that you can control is today, the present moment. So it can be whatever you want it to be.
Speaker 2:But I feel like if somebody asks you hey, how's your day going? It's the best day of my life, they're probably going to look at you funny, you know, be like oh, listen to Chris's podcast. No, but say something different. I hear when I talk to people hey, how's your day going? It's all right, just getting by. Oh, you know, just trying to survive. Oh, another day, just blah. You know. Well, really, you're alive, you're here, you're living, and if you're getting better every day, this should be the best day ever. Period. You should always be. I mean, that's what this podcast is about is really filling up the potential unmasking your greatness. So every day you wake up it should be the best day yet to come, and so when you start to frame your mind that way, the way you view the world is very different. You also start to put things in perspective.
Speaker 2:Where people can't come into my life, they can't say things to me and get worked up, I do want to say I think that comes with maturity, it comes with age. You know, catch me when I was 16, 17, 18 year old and be like man, you're stupid, all right, we're fighting. There wasn't even any words. We're fighting, you know. Or somebody you know says something you know, just to hurt my feelings. Oh man, you know, maybe maybe it's not fighting now, maybe I'm just upset, I'm sad, I'm depressed. Why would somebody say something you know so mean to me like that? You know, I think that comes with time and you build up some resilience. But you also you have to know where you're coming from. You got to have some confidence in yourself and so it comes with time and I think that's why you know me getting into the gym and exercising. I mean it really transformed my life.
Speaker 2:And so practicing, you know, gratitude is is a big play in that, and that's really where I want to drive this podcast and this episode is practicing gratitude. I've done a lot of episodes where I'm telling you guys, I write three things. I'm grateful in the morning, I kind of graze over it, but I really want to drive it home again, because we're getting into the whole Thanksgiving concept, you know, coming into the holidays right now, and I feel like we really need to practice some of that. And most people are like gratitude, yes, gratitude is good, but how do you do it? How do I feel that I've never done that. Where's the first steps? So hopefully I can kind of give you some of these tactics.
Speaker 2:That's helped me and I'm not. I'm not the best, don't get me wrong. I'm not sitting here, you know, legs crossed, meditating in red light, like I don't. I don't do all of that. Maybe I will at some point, I don't know, just not something I'm digging that hard into, but I do a lot of self-reflecting. And so the first thing I'll say when it comes to gratitude is you have to understand. It's very. Yes, gratitude is good, but not just from a emotional standpoint, from a physical standpoint, from a hormonal standpoint. Practicing gratitude changes your anatomy.
Speaker 2:So one of the best ways to practice gratitude on a very simplistic level would be having a gratitude journal. Having a gratitude journal and writing down things that you're grateful for. There are studies shown that if you do this at night and this is honestly having a gratitude journal at night is probably a better option for beginners, especially because what do we as a society now most of us what do we do at night? We're watching TV. We're scrolling on our phones, watching Instagram, tiktok, highlight reels, funny videos, sad videos, scary videos, all in the same sitting. I mean, can you imagine all that like hits of just dopamine and different emotions. It's just, it's a crock pot of just a mess and nothing, nothing really beneficial for you. It's entertainment, you know, it's entertainment. So the best time to start doing your gratitude journals at night.
Speaker 2:Doing gratitude at night, it will, one, put that screen time down, but also, two, it gets you to reflect on the day, you know, reflect on your life. You know, just kind of sitting there, you're breathing, you're giving some deep thought, and there are studies shown that this not only will help you with feeling grateful, but also your sleep quality becomes significantly better, which is pretty crazy, right? I never, I never would. I mean, it makes sense now that you know that I've looked it up and I've done some research on it. But you know, if somebody said, hey, if you write a gratitude journal, you're going to have better quality sleep, I'm like what you know? But it does. It does because it puts your brain into a calm state. It starts to help you just get into a better position, to get into that deep REM sleep that you need to. So finding ways to do that I mean gratitude journal is a great way to do that.
Speaker 2:And you know, when it comes to a hormonal standpoint, you cannot be grateful and jealous simultaneously at the same time. You cannot. You cannot feel those two emotions at the same time. And so when you start to think about it like that, when you start to feel true bliss and really feel grateful for something, you actually start to get a little bit of a dopamine hit Hormones, those feel-good hormones start to get released and we thrive on that. We start to think more clearly, we have a better attitude, we have better energy and vibrations to others, and vice versa. Jealousy doesn't give you those sort of feelings. It gives you anger, it gives you stress. It gives you anxiety. There's a lot that goes into that, and so there is if you've heard me talk about the RES, the reticular activating system, it's a portion in your brain that makes you look for things that you think about.
Speaker 2:I use the example a lot in other shows, of when you go buy a car. You know if you're going to go buy maybe your dream car. Your next car is a, you know, let's say, a Range Rover. You want a Range Rover, you want a Range Rover. So you go and you're like I want this Range Rover. You know such a nice car, whatever your feelings are Side note, I'm not a big Range Rover fan but besides that, go get your Range Rover you start driving it around. All of a sudden we start seeing Range Rovers all over the road. Well, you think, just because you bought one, now everybody bought them. No, they were always there. But now that you got one, you're looking for them. You're looking for other Range Rovers now.
Speaker 2:So when you start to and think about this, when you start to feel grateful for your friends, your family, for certain things in your life, when you really start to hone in on those feelings, you start to look more for that, because you want that dopamine hit, you want to feel good, you want that positive vibration. But what if you're jealous? You're upset, you don't like certain things about your life. You're going to find ways to justify that. So you're going to start to look for more things to make you feel that way. And you know it's one thing to to make you feel that way and you know it's one thing to jealousy for me. I don't ever feel jealous of anything. Maybe I did when I was younger, but I'll tell you why.
Speaker 2:When, if you are jealous of somebody, it's okay to want what maybe somebody has, and it may not be a physical thing. Maybe it's a relationship that they have, maybe it's family they have a big family. You're jealous, you're jealous, right, but jealousy in the subconscious mind is telling you that you can never attain it. Jealousy is a very toxic place to be, you know, versus when you are looking at somebody's life or something that they want and you're like, you're impressed. You're like man, he's crushing it. Man, they have a great relationship, you know, whatever that means that you believe it's possible for you too. So be careful the way that you view things and watch out for being very jealous because, again, if you think, if you're feeling jealous, it means you ain't going to get it All right, and I want you to get it, get it all All right.
Speaker 2:So there's just tons of studies when it comes to feeling gratitude, which I honestly like. When I first started thinking gratitude, I was thinking very woo woo. Started thinking gratitude, I was thinking very woo-woo. You know, you think kind of like monks, you know, just really kind of digging into more of that holistic approach. But science has really started to dig more into this. You know gratitude concept and Duke University is one that has put a lot of emphasis and a lot of studies in it on how it affects the physical anatomy of the body and your organs, your heart, your liver, your kidneys. There's studies that are showing that gratitude actually improves the quality and the health of these organs, and so they're saying that it's almost a gateway to living a more healthy lifestyle and it also now again going back to that RAS, if you start to practice this gratitude, you start to look for other healthy alternatives to do things, and so it's pretty impressive to see how one word, some just phrase, that really can change a big portion of your life if you lean into it, if you look into it.
Speaker 2:And so, again, going into Thanksgiving, I really want you guys to focus on being grateful, being thankful and you know, I saw something the other day while I was reading, and I know that there's people out there that are struggling, there's people that you know don't have access to what we have access to, and specifically, food. We're going into Thanksgiving and most people correlate Thanksgiving with turkey dressing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie like food Food Like we hone in on food. Pumpkin pie like food food like we hone in on food. And America is one of the most unhealthy countries, period. So that doesn't surprise me at all. But I read this one study where they said one in nine people do not have food to eat every day. One in nine people do not have food to eat every day. That's roughly 800 million people every day that don't have food.
Speaker 2:So when you get to sit down at your table whether you're alone, whether you're with family, and I don't care if you got a little plate I think you should take a moment and be thankful that you have that. I think we should take a moment, do your prayers, whoever you believe in, be thankful for what you have, because there are millions of people that don't even have the necessities to. You know, live, so we need to be grateful for that. And you know, when it comes to when you start asking people certain questions of their life I'll leave you with this story too. So I want you to think back. I want you to think back in your life and all the different you know things that's happened to you that you've had to live through and have you ever asked yourself you know what's something you didn't deserve. You know what's something that you didn't deserve.
Speaker 2:And when you ask people that, most of the times their minds go to something negative, like you know I should have never been fired. That person I don't deserve to be. You know I should have never. I should have never been fired. That person I don't deserve to be. You know, beat up as a little kid, I was bullied. You know most, most of our frame of mind goes there. But imagine if we change that and recognize what, what has been given to us, has also been a blessing. It has changed us in a way to be better.
Speaker 2:And one of the things that I think about in my life in a big pivotal moment, also probably one of the reasons I'm doing this podcast now is that when I was in a transition of, you know, careers of leaving the restaurant, careers of leaving the restaurant, pursuing this when I left it was not. It was not on good terms, it wasn't I was an emotional wreck at the time. There was just a lot of personal things going on again and I just having my son I'm newly married there's just a lot that was just weighing on my shoulders and I was like I can't believe this is happening in my life now. You know I've done everything I'm supposed to do to have the life that you know I'm supposed to live and supposed to be happy with. You know I did high school, I did college. You know I got a job, I'm married, I have a kid and it's like everything's falling apart and I'm making one of the hardest, biggest and ultimately down the road I didn't know was the best decision of my life to leave a steady, paying job and to pursue something that I'm passionate about. And in the time I was like I don't deserve to feel this way. I've been doing everything that I'm supposed to be doing. I'm a good person, I feel like I'm, and I'm comfortable saying that why, why, why is this happening to me? I didn't know, and and the time I didn't know why I was going through what I was going through and I just again living in the present, I just took it one day at a time. And when I reflect back on it now, that's why I said it was one of the hardest but best decision of my life to pursue something that I'm truly passionate about and that is helping others.
Speaker 2:I love getting that feeling when I talk to others, when I look at their face, when I made a massive impact on their life, I helped them overcome a major struggle that they just couldn't figure out, and that makes me feel so good, I can't even I can't. That's why I'm like when people ask me, like, do you like what you do? Hell, yeah, I like what I do, I love it. I love it. You know my stress. Sure, it comes with stress running a business, but, like, just getting one person to tell me that I made such an impact in their life makes it all worth it, and I try to help as many people as I can. And yeah, it's a business. Sure, I got to make money, but I give a lot away for free. I give a lot of stuff to just help. I do a lot in the community.
Speaker 2:I don't ask for nothing in return and it's because I want to. I don't think you should ever do anything and expect something in return. If I'm coming to you and I offer to help you, if I offer to collab with you, if I offer anything of my services, anything to help you, just know I do not expect anything from you and I think what comes with that is reciprocity. You know, when I don't expect things and I'm just giving, the universe gives back in its own way. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it may not be 10 years from now, but at some point that energy will flow back. So you know I do my best to do everything I can to give back to where I can and I'm proud of that. And I feel like the bigger my business grows, the more I can give back.
Speaker 2:I love how people say like money doesn't buy happiness. Have you ever not had money? Because I promise, if you don't have any, it will. It will make you happy, maybe temporary, but my thing is, if I have more money I can give more back. I can help provide for more. I can do more for the community. I can do more for others. You know, money is just a transportation vehicle and I don't want to get into a money talk on this podcast, because that's not what it's about.
Speaker 2:But my point is like I feel grateful when I can give back and so that's why I do this podcast. There's no like I get no money from this podcast. It costs me time, it costs me money to actually do it, because I have to buy all the equipment too, but my thing is like I love it. I love doing it, so I'm going to continue doing it and it's just my way of giving back to you guys, getting you to think differently, because at some point, I promise, wherever you are in your life right now, I feel like I have probably been there or similar to.
Speaker 2:We all go through different things, but feeling stuck, lost, depressed, mad, sad. I've been there and I've been in some of the darkest places of my life and it just takes time to get out. But if I wish back, then I was listening to something like this, just to just show me a glimpse, a glimpse of light, a glimpse of hope, because there was a point that I was like this is it. I have gone too far down the rabbit hole. There's no way out. And if you feel like that, if that is you like that, if that is you, please just put a little bit of trust in me. There is, there is. Keep fighting, keep working, look for it. If you look for it, it will find you All right. So I hope you guys have a good Thanksgiving. I hope this episode resonated with you guys. Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, enjoy your food, be grateful, be thankful, live in the moment. Peace.