Rules of Life From a 92 Year Old Auschwitz Survivor
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast with your host and the future leader of The Republic Of Wales, Sveldfjer. Now this might be the only podcast in the world where you actually have to reduce the speed instead of increasing it. However, what I wanna get over to you is that the past is gone. The future doesn't exist. So if you wanna make the most of your life, you've gotta make the most of these moments every single day.
Speaker 1:And this podcast is gonna help you live a healthier, more fulfilled life, hopefully, giving you some wisdom to take away every single day. So I'm gonna shut up now so you can get on with listening to the next episode. Good morning you lunatics who are listening to this podcast trying to improve yourself every day. We're all for it. We're here.
Speaker 1:Okay. So just finished book club with the gang doing a really good book actually, and I'm gonna talk about some of my notes from the book, right, and some of the things we spoke about today. I think they're important things to talk about. No shout out Sarah, who is all the way from Australia, all the way to The UK, has jumped all into Turtle since she's been here and has, been a really big addition to the book club and has realized, you know, these conversations we have about these books that are meaningful are really helpful. And I think that's a lesson in itself.
Speaker 1:If you're having shallow conversation every day and you have no room for deep conversation or anything stimulating, trust me you're doing yourself a disservice. As human beings, right, for centuries and thousands of years we have been talking to each other most days in-depth sitting down around the fire, around the tables, right? We've lost that now in a sense. We've it's going to digital world. We've lost this conversation part of the human existence and we need it.
Speaker 1:We need the mind to think about these things and chat and listen and chat back and open your point of view, stretch your mind. Once you stretch your mind, it'll never go back so you've different points of view. If you've rigid mind and you've got all these core beliefs, right, like you're gonna find yourself tunnel vision, you're gonna be it's ignorance basically and sometimes you know the quote ignorance is bliss. I don't think that is true if you do wanna, you know, fulfill your potential. But let's get into some my notes in this book.
Speaker 1:It's basically some quotes and I think they'll resonate in a sense. The author's amazing. Think she's, like, 92 years old now. She was in Auschwitz, when she was 16. She got forced to dance in front of this, like, SS, like an elite SS guy who's a mass murderer, you know, the the the shock she was going through.
Speaker 1:And she's gone through all her life, since 16 to 92. And what she's saying is it's possible to go through the horrors of that and still be happy even with decades of feeling survivor's guilt and getting over it is possible. But the first step is to stop being a victim and to be a survivor instead. Say, look, don't take get rid of victim, Pindali. Why me?
Speaker 1:Why me? Get rid of that and think I'm a survivor. I've survived this. What's next? It's a good mindset to have.
Speaker 1:So if you're feeling that mode now, what you're a survivor of everything you've ever happened to you in your life so far. So that's the why you you know what's next for you. But she talks about nobody's born with shame and guilt. Okay? You choose the meaning you make.
Speaker 1:So we're never born with shame and guilt, but it's it's a learned behavior to be shameful or guilty for stuff due to society's you know pressures and stuff is a big thing obviously. But really they're kind of self imposed sometimes with the values we want to undertake. Social media puts a lot on us so if we can learn shame and guilt over something we can unlearn. I think unlearning is the next step for humans in a sense. So human nature and humans has always been about the accumulation of knowledge and improving going and going and more and more.
Speaker 1:I think what's gonna happen now with the realization of the unlearning, the unbundling of these things is the next step for us because there's an abundance. There's too much information now. So we have to unlearn. And this is a Bruce Lee thing. Addition via subtraction, less is more we've heard this it's the thing okay that's the thing.
Speaker 1:And she talks about like decide look at your life and you think about things what's empowering and what's depleting really list things down like am I empowered by this? Did I feel empowered after I would feel depleted? And do this follows as well. Were you empowered when you went on a night out? Were you empowered the day the morning of after?
Speaker 1:Were you empowered this and that? Were you empowered with your work today? Were you empowered chatting to this person? And if there's too many things that are depleting you have to cut them because depletion is the worst thing. There's only so much energy you got in a day and if it saps away from you, you can't give it to the important things in your life.
Speaker 1:And this is one of the main things behind the macro stuff. This macro stuff, nutrition, like, pull your head out, zoom out a bit. The fuck doesn't matter, guys, in a sense, in this in the grand scheme of life. Right? Human existence, all this, like, existential questions we have, macros to drop some body fat is like nowhere near at the importance of the scale.
Speaker 1:But we must do it because obviously it's something we if we can control, we can get in balance, we can feel healthier, we can give ourselves that platform to be who we truly are and also reduce the health risks that come from obesity and stuff as well. But we need to have our own energy for the things that really do matter and fulfill us. I think once we do kind of tick box that, okay, the app, the macros app or whatever that is in control and flexible and living it, you quickly realize like, I've got that under control now. Where next? What's next for me?
Speaker 1:Is it my job is gonna have this energy that I've gotten out? Is it my relationships? Whatever it is, I think it's an amazing feeling. But first of all, the gateway to self improvement I think through nutrition and training is a really good gateway. I think it's one of the easiest ones to go through, but it's also one of the most powerful ones.
Speaker 1:Okay. So another one is she says, stop trying to find a reason for something that's happened to you. Like, in her case, she talks about abuse. Stop trying to find a reason for why your partner's abused you or whatever she says. Because if you keep finding a reason, you're never gonna find one because it doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:The world just doesn't make sense. You could say, why are we here? I don't know how God, but who made God? Why is it what's the real I mean, we don't know. Okay?
Speaker 1:We just don't know. And I think the re if you keep asking for reason, reason, reason, you're gonna just it's gonna deplete you. Okay? So that's the thing. It's like sometimes shit happens.
Speaker 1:A lot of shit happens to a lot of people. A lot of bad stuff happens to a lot of good people. We don't know why it happens. It just does. I think it's easier said than done right now, but if something's gonna happen to me, it'd like, well, this happened.
Speaker 1:And I think I would have the tools to, I think, overcome it. But I would know that if I'm thinking, why me? Why me? It's not gonna serve me. It's not gonna serve me.
Speaker 1:It's gonna deplete me. So be kinder to yourself as well she says. Okay, a lot of people think I don't deserve this goodness in my life. I don't deserve this tranquility and stillness. But if you can't be kind to yourself saying this word, there's no one's gonna tell you you deserve it.
Speaker 1:The world's a rough place. They're not gonna say you deserve it. They might do and, you know, just to further their aim, but you have to understand and be kind to yourself. If you can be kind to yourself, you know, that's the only thing that really matters and the way you speak to yourself. Like Tiff was talking on the the call as well saying, you know, she found herself in a place looking in the mirror and speaking to herself like shit again.
Speaker 1:And there's those old habits coming in, but then all the awareness was there to catch it. Okay? That's the important. These things are automatic. There's a lot of you look at yourself in the mirror, automatically think, oh, you're a pile of shit.
Speaker 1:And then you go, do you know what? I'm not a pile of shit. Right? I'm not a pile of shit at all. That's a silly thought.
Speaker 1:You laugh for it. I had a thought the other day. I'm not gonna say what it was, but I I had the thought. Right? And I was like, that is such a stupidly bad thought.
Speaker 1:I thought, you know, that's not me. It's just my thoughts. Fine. But some people, like, think they think they are their thoughts and they're like, I can't believe I thought. I'm a terrible person.
Speaker 1:No. Trust me. We've all had stupid thoughts. There's sometimes they just pop in your head. Okay?
Speaker 1:And you just have to go, okay. Ta da. It's not that, you know, so you can't take it too personally. Same as being nasty to yourself. Think about it like mirrors haven't been around forever.
Speaker 1:When mirrors were first invented and people could finally see themselves. Like, think of the time when you couldn't see yourself. The thing there that is, like, other people would have you're out of relying on other people telling you. And I think it might might have been slightly worse. But now we can self analyze it all day, all the time because we've got mirrors everywhere.
Speaker 1:So it could it can be a it can be a slippery slope. But just remember, you you have to be kind to yourself. Otherwise, this, like, negative self talk builds up and makes you feel like shit, and it's not good. It's just gonna be you're just not gonna walk out the door with a smile on your face, and I think we all should walk out the door with a smile on our face. She then talks about give myself permission.
Speaker 1:She says make a statement. Don't ask for permission. I'm going to do this as opposed to should I do this? I'm going to start this new fitness regime because I wanna improve my health, full stop. What people are gonna say?
Speaker 1:They go, oh, should I start this fitness thing? I wanna improve my health. Oh, you don't need to do it. Just be statements. Boom.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna look for a new job. I'm gonna go for promotion. Okay? Talks about that. She can't change a thing.
Speaker 1:It's hard to accept over powerlessness. That's another thing. Some we are powerless less powerless in many things. Accepting that is probably one of the most the one of the quickest life acts you can do for accepting the reality of the world, reality of your life. Yes.
Speaker 1:World hunger. Power. We are essentially powerless as individuals to do this. Yes, I can do my bit and push and maybe you can build into something, but in a sense we are powerless in a lot of things and that's okay. That's okay.
Speaker 1:We'll just try your best. That's all we can do and see what happens. It's so hard to be in the present, to accept what was and is, and, Karen mentioned a quote by Hugh Gilmore from the Christmas challenge. You know, you you got one foot in the future, one foot in the past, and you piss in on the present. So, you know, make sure you're not in the past or the future at all time.
Speaker 1:You need to be in the present. And we hear you hear this all the time, especially this podcast, but key skill. Key skill. As she says, the phrase what if will deplete you deplete you to death. What if what if this?
Speaker 1:What if I spoke with this yesterday, tyranny of choice. What if this and what if I had that job? What if I did that? What if I did this? What if I kept playing sport at 16?
Speaker 1:Whatever. Fucking hell. What what so who who cares? Do you know what mean? I can't I don't know what came out of mouth there, but I felt like I was balancing like a gymnast.
Speaker 1:What if it's just gonna deplete you so let's get into that. Okay. Okay and she talks about the prison of rigidity. Okay. She says when I'm angry I'm the one that gets hurt she says that's a good quote so she doesn't want to get angry at all or anything she's the one to get hurt.
Speaker 1:Don't defend yourself over a crime you didn't commit she says and it takes two to fight one to stop it the more they talk the more relaxed I am is a good way. And she talks about as well about rigidities, like low level chronic anger and resentment really make you rigid. They stop you being able to open up to the happy moments. And I think a lot of us can take of Mars like, are you being fully present or you're holding on to little bits and bobs that happened yesterday, the plate being left there, this and that. And it's just complete resentment and mind anger, and it's just completely blocking off any new experiences.
Speaker 1:And I said in the book club as well, like, I was thinking this summer, you know, go to some events. I was like, I really want the event to be like it was before. As in the past. And I went to the event and I was like, I really want it to be like it was before. And then when it doesn't turn out to be like it was before, you think it's a shit event and it's gone to shit and you do it.
Speaker 1:But no, every new event or thing you're gonna go to is a new experience. It doesn't have to be it shouldn't be. It's never gonna be like it was before. So just be open to a new experience instead. New experiences, they're new.
Speaker 1:Neither is one better or worse. Like you grow up, things change. There's a different way you've there's everything changes. I think understanding that change is important and not holding on to past things and experiences. I should have been like this.
Speaker 1:I used to have this happen and this and that. That's not gonna serve you either. So I think there's a lot to take away from his voice now in terms of, well, this book. So I think, like, if anything does resonate with you, look into this book, be curious, read about it, look up the author, read the book. It's one of the highest highest rating books I think we've had in Book Club for a while.
Speaker 1:And I just wanted to say give yourself permission. Just give yourself permission to do something. We're all waiting for someone to tell us, yeah you can do that. Yeah you can go for that job promotion. Yeah you can start the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah you can do that plan. Yeah you can squat. Yeah you can do a press up. Sometimes, you know, we we have to pay people to just tell us, you can do that. And I'm telling you, there's a lot of, in this world, you know, I've looked into like, I've done a lot of online courses and stuff.
Speaker 1:I speak to these, like, creators and all that. And a lot of people just pay a mentorship program for someone above them just to say to them, yeah. You can do that. Do that. Go for that big.
Speaker 1:Do that big move. You got it in you. And it's all it takes is just, you can do it, okay, by someone that we think is superior to us. But fuck them. We don't need those people.
Speaker 1:We can give ourselves that permission to do that. And it's risky, of course. Remember the stoic reverse clause. I'm gonna try my best and I'm gonna be optimistic but faith permitting, shit doesn't go to plan, doesn't go to plan. I tried my best to put my best out there and that's all we can do.
Speaker 1:Try our best, put our best out there and if we do that every day, we'll all change. And I think I'll leave you with this actually. Very, really good concept on confidence. And I think confidence is not something fakely manufactured. Confidence comes from us doing new things frequently.
Speaker 1:So if you can think every week, I'm gonna do something new, like, I'm gonna go for me, like, go swimming. I'm gonna go cycling, do this. I'm gonna try and do that. I'm gonna write this. I'm gonna put a blog post out.
Speaker 1:Just do loads of new things all the time and realizing that doing new risky things isn't gonna it doesn't kill you, doesn't make you feel like shit, and it's not a thing, it's not as big of a deal as you thought. You've now got confidence because you're always doing new things that's in the unknown, and it's turning out okay. So what are you gonna do this weekend this new? Are you gonna go over to the same bar and have the same drink all the time? Maybe it's nice, but maybe think, do know what?
Speaker 1:What have I not done that I'd like to do if I'm quite scared of, that I look silly? Maybe go to like a dance class or like a fucking Latin American salsa class. I don't know. Go somewhere like a bit different. And if we can do that frequently, I think we live better lives and we can gain confidence in the fact that we can do it.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna leave you with that. Enjoy your day. Get on with your day. What's your one big thing? Let me know.
Speaker 1:New app updates coming soon. It's gonna be awesome updates. I can't wait. Weekend. And it's my birthday weekend, Sunday.
Speaker 1:I turn 29 years old. But there we go. I must've what is that? What is age? Sound nearly 30 now, guys.
Speaker 1:I'm in my last twelve months of apparently, twelve months of life because one thirty eight, so apparently world ends. But that's not true. But enjoy yourselves and I will speak to you all Monday. And that is it for today's episode. So hopefully you took something away from it.
Speaker 1:If you didn't, here's what need to take away. Stop wasting time on social media. Stop wasting time gossiping. You've only got a day to live. Today's the only day you ever have.
Speaker 1:So if there's anything to take away from this podcast, even if you can't understand the word I say, even if you didn't resonate with the wisdom I try to deliver, this is a reminder of you daily to live one day at a time. Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days but if you can make the most of today I'm telling you you'll have a fulfilled life so enjoy your day and hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow. Do daily to live one day at a time. Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days. But if you can make the most of today, I'm telling you, you'll have a fulfilled life.
Speaker 1:So enjoy your day and hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow.
