Gratitude "Podcast" Interview: Jody Lentz

Well, hi, everybody. It's that gratitude guy, David George Brooke, with another guest on this special guest interview podcast regarding the pandemic. And today I have one of my close friends. I've known a number of years now, very talented young lady, Ms. Jody Lentz. Jody, welcome to the podcast

Thank you, David. It's my pleasure to be here today with you. Thanks. You bet. So my whole goal here has been to do videos and sort of podcasts or interviews to maybe help other people with some ideas that people have around what's going on and maybe something they hadn't thought of. So my first question is, is what is your best coping mechanism during this pandemic

Boy, I think every day I wake up. I try to be the most positive that I can be that day. We all hear that positive

added to positive outlook is a little bit contagious. There's so much negative going on in the news

that it's my goal every day to be positive. So much of life right now is working from home and

many of us learning Zoom or webinars or different things. And I've heard so many people say that

and I heard it the other day that we say that people are now working from home. But the reality is

is that people are home in the middle of a crisis and trying to work

So everyone deals with it differently. And my attitude every day and what helps me is just be as positive as I can be

and reach out to people as much as I can. That's good. That's good

And I think certainly these are uncertain times. Do you find, well, what do you find your most grateful for right now

It might be the rest of the time too, but especially now during this pandemic. What do you think you're the most grateful for

I think I'm most grateful for, of course, for every day in my life, whether it's pandemic or not, but especially now

I really grateful for my health And I enjoy walking every day So getting some fresh air and it made me more aware of my environment of the nature I look at the plants differently

I hear the birds in a different way. But I'm grateful for my health

I'm also grateful that I have all of my family around me. And they are all safe and healthy, all my kids, my grandkids

And I'm really grateful for looking at things like Zoom or FaceTime because we do a lot of

FaceTiming and chat with the grandkids each night. So very grateful for that. And I have to mention

that I'm really grateful for all the people on the front line. I think about the grocery store

workers. I think about the nurses and the doctors and the amount of gratitude that I feel for them

for being in that position and making the best of what they can do for people in such a tragic way

you know, to either lose their life or dealing with their family. So I'm very grateful for that

Great. Good answer. So you're somebody who keeps very busy, has a lot, juggles a lot of balls

He's got a lot on the go, on the go all the time. What would you suggest as far as a tip or a thought

or an idea for somebody of things to do, why they're kind of housebound, if you will

Boy, I think every day is just a gift and you have to look at it that way. I know that

The news is on all day, every day. I very rarely tune into it

I get my catch up in the evening. But I think for people, if they can just stay connected, if they can stay grounded

if they could realize we're going to come out of this. And we will probably come out better and stronger for experiencing such a life-changing event

and a historic event in many ways. And just being grateful for the things that you have and not worrying about all the

negative things in the world and all of the possessions that people have. When you realize what you

take for granted whether it going out to dinner or going shopping and buying new things and traveling the world and we can do that right now it helps bring you back and bring your priorities into perspective So I guess my tip for people is make the best

of what we have. I have to elaborate a little bit, a few years back, actually several years ago

I was at a seminar, and the speaker was a guy named John Gordon, and he wrote a book called

The Energy Bus. And one of the things that he did to the crowd when he did

he first opened up was, it was a large crowd. Everybody stand up, walk around this room, and look at people like you're completely oblivious

that they even exist. You're not interested in anything that they have or have to say or what they look like

And it was really interesting, just this weird, ho-hum, very negative environment

And then he had a stop, and he said, now, these are your best lifelong friends that you've had

in your life. and you haven't seen them in years and years. So now I want you to do that same exercise

And the energy that was in the room and the amount of attitude change that that created

So it makes me realize that if we can all stay positive, stay connected, stay grounded

And they always say that negativity is one of your worst enemies

So stay positive during this thing. And that'll keep you healthier. Good, good input

Good input. So last question, do you have sort of like either a quote or a philosophy or sort of

something that is a mantra that kind of runs through your mind through something like this or just

even in general, which kind of typifies maybe your mindset or something you kind of fall back on

throughout a tough, through a tough time like this? Well, there's a couple. I am a big quote fan. You know, I look at quotes all the time

And there was one by Dalai Lama. and it is choose to be optimistic because it just feels better

And it's so true. It that And then the other thing that I always think about is just be the best you that you can be So try to practice those every day In a meditation every so often I love to meditate

And there are these five-minute meditation videos that I get online. And it's quick, it's painless

It kind of clears your head and gets you prepared for the day. And one of the things that's really reminded me, especially in this whole pandemic, is it'll always tell you if there's a

message, it'll say, make sure you breathe and feel your breath and let that, whatever, you know

we might be in the message. But it makes you realize how grateful you are that you can breathe

because it's a terrible time. So I say, be the best you can be. That's my quote

Interesting. That's kind of ironic because the COVID-19 is all about respiratory in the lungs and

speaking and breathing things, which makes sense. But no, it's interesting. You mentioned choose to be

optimistic. And when I think about choosing the word that I use around that too is it's a choice

Every day we have a choice to be optimistic or pessimistic, left side of the bed, right side

of the bed, up down, left, right, black, red, whatever it might be. It's a choice. And you'll come

across people that say, you don't understand them having a tough time, but it is really a choice

and you get to decide. So good stuff. Well, thank you so much for that. Those were tremendous

tips. I so appreciate it. Thank you, David. It's always fun to do different things with you

And I just have to throw this kudos to you because writing in a gratitude journal, when you talk about gratitude, you got me started on that years ago

And that's a hugely powerful tool. Being grateful and gratitude is one of the most powerful tips that you can use in any event

That's, you know, whether it's good, better, and different. Gratitude is hugely important for everyone to remember

Thank you. That's a great advertisement for that. Thank you. I always tell people, somebody said, what's something in your talks? And I said, look, if I get through to one person on the talk, that's fine with me. So anyway, but thank you so much. Thank you, Jody. I really appreciate it

Thank you, David. You have a great day. Stay healthy. You too