Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Jeff Ryder

Well, hi, everybody. It's David George Brooke, that gratitude guy with another special guest on my gratitude podcast interview. And today, I refer to him as a nice, just a great young man. Anybody's younger than me as a great young man that I've known a number of years and he's become a good influence on me and just a super guy, Jeff Ryder. Jeff, welcome to the podcast. Good to be here, David. It's good to see you. So let me start you off with a question. What has been your

best coping mechanism to deal with this pandemic? You know, that's an interesting question. I think there's been so many things that have allowed me to

cope well with this pandemic. And it really started several years ago. It isn't something that I'm

doing right now or that I've changed in my life per se to cope with the pandemic

But several years ago, as you know, I kind of started down this

path of maybe the rediscovery of myself, if you will, or just sort of trying to better myself or

become more aware of my feelings of myself and where I'm at in this world

And a part of that process has been meditation. Oh, great. So I, you know, I maybe starting three years ago or so, I started to meditate every day

And I can't tell you how significant that process has been on my life

And so, you know, I've continued to meditate every day very diligently

And during this COVID-19 pandemic, you know, at times I'll meditate twice a day or more a day

And it's just a very comforting, relaxing process for me. And that's probably been a very key thing for me

That's great. That's great. In addition, there's other things that I started to do, you know, months or years ago that, again, have

really helped me through this COVID-19 process. I've changed my diet. I've become more of a vegetarian-type diet

I'm very rarely in fact, in 2020, I've not eaten meat. Oh, great

I was already kind of on that process in 2019, but I still occasionally did eat meat

but in 2020 I don't. And I feel a lot better, just kind of lighter

Oh, that's great. And then the other thing that I've done is

is so diet, meditation, exercise, weight loss. Oh my gosh. I mean, you know, since the beginning of the year, I've lost almost 20 pounds

Oh, fantastic. You know, that's just been another thing. This has kind of helped me cope through this COVID-19 process, but I started it before

Yeah. So I really haven't changed that much of what I do, you know, during this COVID-19 process

I'm just still continuing to do those things that I started before. That's great

You already had, it sounds like, and I know that from being conversations you and I have had in the past

you've already had some pretty good disciplines. And it sounds like they just got even fine-tuned as an example

The meditation was fantastic too And then along with that another thing that I started to do and this is kind of a key thing and may surprise you is I greatly limited my beer intake Oh wow

I don't know if it surprises me, or I'm just really happy to hear that

Well, you know, it goes more hand in hand with this whole process of being, you know, meditation, becoming more aware of myself and my feelings

I mean, I don't want to get too philosophical about all that. You know, I kind of thought, you know, well, if I'm

I'm going down this path, well, why am I drinking beer every night

Right, right. Let's cut that out and let's just kind of see where I'm at, you know

because it kind of dulls your awareness to drink beer. Exactly, exactly

I'm happy to hear that. And then in terms of diet and all, you know, I, you know, losing weight

I really wanted to get my weight down, well, beer doesn't help that. You know, I..

That's good. There's things that I miss about in terms of the..

social aspects. Sure. The people that I hang out with and talk to, but a lot of that's gone away now with the COVID-19

So it's made it a little easier that, well, I'm not going down to the local pub and

drinking beer like I used to anyway. So that has been another huge thing

That's great. In the month of April, you know, I had a goal for myself

You know, you've heard of dry January people. Oh, yeah. At the end of the year, dry January, they don't drink

But we did that. Yeah. Oh, good. We just got back from a cruise

Excellent. Yeah, we got it on the cruise before the old COVID-19

Oh, that was fortunate. It was a wonderful cruise and all that, but you know, you drink like you can't imagine

of these things. So we got back from the cruise, we said, hey, let's just do dry January

That makes a lot of sense. And so we did that and it really worked out well for us

And we really enjoyed that time, not drinking, just kind of being as ourselves, if you will

Yeah, well, okay, we kind of carried that on. We didn't do dry February or I say we, my wife and I, we didn't do dry February or dry Mars

but greatly decreased how much what we did in now April. I'm doing dry April again

That's good. Well, it's very good for you. And those are some great reminders to, the meditation and not drinking as much and exercise and so forth

And so now you know me is that gratitude guy. So that middle name has kind of become my, my mind, if you will

Did you find, what are you, are you still grateful for the same things

Has it changed since before coronavirus to now what you're most grateful for

Well, good thing you brought that up. I said, I had my gratitude book right here. Excellent

Excellent. We're in my office here at home and my book sits right here

That's actually. I don't, I probably, I'd have to go back and look

You know, I'm not aware that it's really changed. that much. I mean, in terms of being grateful for health and grateful for health of my family

and, you know, I still am grateful for those things. Yeah, I couldn't tell you that there's anything

really different in that process I probably I you know to be perfectly honest I don write in it every day I probably write in my gratitude journal more Yeah good good Well that certainly good And my attitude always is I mean of course I am a proponent of the gratitude

journals and the ones I sell. I tell people I really think it's powerful to write in it every day because

it makes you feel better. Don't you want to feel better every day? But if somebody is writing it

every other day or occasionally or a bullet point, you know, that's all I can ask for and just keep

keep adding to that and so forth. And so another question, Jeff, is if I think about knowing you and Lori as well as I do

and the things you've done, any thoughts or ideas or tips or you would tell people to do

things why they're kind of sheltering in place? Because you've always had a lot of activities that you guys have done

And somebody, some people may not be as imaginative as you are or as created

But any thoughts to something that other people might be able to do while they're in their homes

Probably not anything different than what most people do. I mean, again, going back to the things that we were doing that we're continuing to just do

I mean, we've always done, you know, I've been semi-retired now for the last two and a half years or so

We do a tremendous amount of puzzles. So we have a huge puzzle that we're doing up, you know, just one of those things that we come together and work on the puzzle

It's very kind of calming and something we do together. We play a lot of games together

We have cribbage and what have you. We play, my daughter is here

Excellent. Excellent. My older daughter who works downtown Seattle, you know, her business is all self-quarantined right now

And so she was just sort of left in her apartment. And working from home

she still has a job and she works every day, but she was able to work from home

So she's here now. And so we're spending a lot of time, obviously

with her. We, um, we walk a lot. So we do go outside. We, we live in a rural area and there's a

really nice remote path, right? We walk out the front door, walk up the street, and there's the

path. Nice. It's a seven mile round trip. And so we do that maybe three times a week

Absolutely. And we go out and we walk. And as a family, my wife and I, my daughter, we all go together

Excellent. Yeah, you know, again, other things that we might do, we have bonfires at night

Things that we kind of go, we stay together and kind of hang out together and talk

Well, what I kind of like, Jeff, that I kind of hear from you that I can't say

has always been the same from some other people. You kind of already were on a pretty good path

And as you said, semi-retired a couple years ago. But some of the things

cutting back on the beer, doing the hiking, doing the bonfires, doing the puzzles, whatever

might be keeping busy. So I think you're already kind of on a good path. So it's kind of like it just maybe, you know, just more of the same, if you will, because

I've talked to other people that were, I've got to change this and that and so forth. Yeah, it has been much more of the same, maybe a little more intently

Like I said, maybe I write in the Graduate Journal more. Maybe I meditate a little more than I did before

So you know you do feel I do feel a certain amount of stress from this old situation Yeah So it good to sort of be able to acknowledge that and to release that or you know at least acknowledge that I am stressed you know

I'm not buried or trying to, you know, try and, you know, try it because I am

I am worried about my mom, you know, my mom's healthy and 77 years old

but here she is all by herself now in New Seattle. I worry about my other daughter down in downtown Seattle

I don't, you know, what's odd, I personally do not know anyone that has contracted coronavirus

That's the same. I think that's interesting. That's the same as me. And you see it on the news every day, but I've had a number of, I'm trying to think of me

I even knew that knew of somebody personally. So it's interesting. That's a little different. Yeah

I don't know of anybody. And I'm not going to what. I hope I don't need any

I hope I don't know anybody in the future. And I certainly feel my, like I said, I do feel a great deal of stress about my mom in particular

Well, and I think acknowledging that stress, whether it's your mom or other things, too, is the old thing that's half the battle

And then you decide how to how to manifest that exercise more, right in the gratitude journal more often, whatever it might be

I mean, the puzzles and the bonfires, all those things are de-stressers and things like that

So the other thing I do, just one other things is I read a lot

Oh, that's that. We live in the reading capital. of the world, right

I read, oh, God, I have, you know, three or four books waiting in the wings, and I'm

constantly reading books. That is a great point. I've heard a number of other people say they got caught up on reading the things as well

So great, so great ideas. That's exactly what I was looking for

And so last question is, do you have what you would call kind of a quote or a saying or a mantra

Some people have said Bible verses or things that kind of sustains you or sort of your

philosophy that you would say for Jeff's life or Jeff and Laurie's life that's sort of just this

thing that kind of directs you whether it's through a tough time like this or just in general

if you will? Yeah. I have one up on my reader board here

Oh, excellent. But it really isn't a coronavirus related. That's okay. But it was a quote that I have that I saw a couple years ago that I wrote down

I leave it up on my reader board here. It's from a guy known by Neil Donald Walsh

Okay. That person. He said life begins at the end of your comfort zone

Oh, I like that. Yeah. And so I, anyway, that's my quote

A reminder that, you know, sometimes I get too comfortable in my everyday routine

And, you know, you have to sort of get out there. If you really want to experience life

Yeah. That's good. Stretch yourself a little bit. That's a great point

And sometimes at a time like this where we don't have people get stir crazy and they get, you know, house fever or whatever being on, cabin fever and so forth

So that is good because we definitely have to stretch yourself and that makes a big difference. So that's excellent

Well, listen, thank you, my friend, just as I suspected, great tips and thoughts and ideas

And I appreciate it. And we will chat soon. Thanks, David. Good to see it

You too. Bye