Picture Love
The Picture Love podcast is for photo lovers who believe in celebrating our best captured memories through reminiscing. Each episode will UPLIFT through caring conversations, INFORM listeners about ways to preserve life’s best photo memories in lasting systems and formats & to INSPIRE each other to take action meant to enrich and strengthen our connections. Host, Kris LeDonne, will share wisdom from her 20+ years in memory preservation & education, and we'll enjoy heartfelt conversations with guests who have unique ways to picture love in their lives. If you're looking for encouragement, inspiring stories and to come home to your heart, you're in the right place!
Picture Love
Meet Linda Farkas (part 1) Incorporating Photos Into Your Self Care Practices
This is part 1 of a two-parts, both published on 7/16/24 here on Picture Love podcast.
Part 1 is the beginning and ending of an interview with the the deeply compassionate, vibrant soul, Linda Farkas, who comes with a gift. In part 2 she leads us through a photo mediation/ritual you'll savor (episode 47) also published on 7/15/24.
In this episode, Linda shares her insights as a meditation specialist and as a scientist, shedding light on this frequently under-estimated practice. You're sure to be blessed, encouraged and inspired after hearing her share from her heart.
Please listen to this first, and the exercise when you are not driving and can get quiet/still for 20 minutes. You'll feel like NEW.
enjoy!
"Welcome to the Picture Love podcast! I’m your host Kris LeDonne and it’s my purpose to see the good in others and mirror the love back to them, and photos are one of the ways I love to do this. You’ll hear a mix of solo episodes with lessons I love to share and heartfelt interviews and valuable resources to support you with the parts that resonate. As an encourager, it’s my joy to help you picture love better in your life and if you need help curating photo evidence of lives well lived… I
You can help other optimists and storytellers find this podcast by sharing and leaving us a rating/review.
Find me on Social @KrisReminisce or visit my website krisledonne.com
Grab Kris's freebie HERE: Obliterate The Overwhelm
Happy Reminiscing!
<3, Kris
You can help other photo lovers and storytellers find this podcast by sharing and leaving us a rating/review.
Find me on Social @KrisReminisce or visit my website krisledonne.com
Grab Kris's freebie HERE: Obliterate The Overwhelm
Happy Reminiscing!
<3, Kris
Have I got a surprise for you, my friends. Today, you get to not only hear my dear friend, Linda's voice and her knowledge and receive love from her heart, but she's actually sharing it, walking us through a meditation to really just reconnect with yourself. The reason why it's so important for you to receive this gift from Linda is because she created it just for us by adding a photo component. It's such a beautiful self love practice, but I know a lot of my friends who listen to this episode are also listening from their car. So this episode that you're listening to right now is going to be the precursor for it. Explaining what we're doing and then some conversation coming out of it. And I separated the meditation so that you can go listen to the second episode that's dropping at the same time as this first one and do it when you are in a safe place to sit quietly or lay in bed at home after your day. Or maybe even before you do anything, getting out of the bed today. So without further ado, we're going to jump right in and I hope you love this episode of picture love podcast as much as I love bringing it to you.
Linda Csefalvayova:Thank you, Kris.
Kris LeDonne:Thank you so much, Linda. I'm so grateful to be in this space with you and to think that we're not even on the same continent. We're right here together. It's such a gift. We are in the same space. We are right now in a virtual space. But we know in meditation there are no boundaries, there are no real borders. We can connect just as much as we are in the same, same room and we are in the same room even right now. We are. So you had some inspiration to share and you have my interest and not just my heart. I'm right here with you. So can I just pass you the mic and listen thank you very much, Kris. Yes. And I would like to guide you through an exercise. That is not intellectual, but it's completely imaginal. It was Dr. Carl Jung who made it very famous, a technique called active imagination. It's very powerful and it is what we are going to do today. And he taught that it's not just fantasy. It's not just Disney. It's not just imaginary in that sense of the word, but it's actual, it's powerful, and it's transcendent that can lead us into the sacred. And it has a generative power. It can be very surprising. It can literally change the blueprints of our lives, but it does require that we relax, which is sometimes not an easy thing to do. But the more we can do this, the more we can relax and the more you listen as I guide you and be in a comfortable place, the more you let the other parts of yourself. Take over the parts that are bigger than us, the parts that we don't even know. So I will do my best to help you get to a very comfortable and relaxing place so we can do and have our imaginal meditation. And there's another thing I want to highlight here, just as we can go back and meet our younger version. The future you can also visit you in the now. So you might feel the presence and the guidance of the life of your life yet to be lived. So I would like you to be open to this idea and to be playful and to experiment with the idea that there is only one time. And it's now past, present, and future can fold into themselves, depending on our state of consciousness. And that's what we are going to do in meditation. We shift our state of consciousness. And we shift our relationship with time. And thank you very much, Kris, for allowing us to do it as a ritual today. I love this. I'm excited. And a lovely way to prepare any ritual is to have the four elements around you. So if you're outside. The wind is blowing. That's your air. You're next to the stream. That's your water. But if you're indoor, which most of us are, you might want to have some symbolic form of air that could be an incense or you can have a feather. Then you might want to have some form of fire that could be a simple candle. Then you want to have some embodiment of water. A big glass of water. I have a small bowl of water next to me. And, and finally, you might want to have some form of the earth. So our bodies are earth, but I love to have some, a shell could be a shell, could be a stone, could be a crystal. I have my smoky crystal here. So if you have a photo, Of well and wise ancestor teacher could be historical figure as well, you know, it could be a teacher from the third grade or someone who went before you, you feel connected, something that gives you strength. Just by looking at that photo to add to your strength, or you have this felt sense of, yes, I am loved. So someone like you emulate this person or you feel loved by this person, it would be a wonderful way. Now this, all of this is optional, but I have it ready here, so I'm giving you the option. So if you have this photo of well and wise ancestor that gives you strength, it will be great. Yes. And last but not least, if you have a photo of your younger self, yourself as a child, and this is to remember and to remind ourselves and to take along that part of us that is young, that is fresh from heaven, that is vulnerable, and in many cases, it's more connected to this magical realm and this realm of spirit. So you can take along with that part of yourself. I have. A picture of me as a baby and also me and my twin sister on a photo so you don't have to be necessarily alone on the photo. You focus on yourself. And taking this part of yourself along with you on this journey. For me is also because it unites us. We all were children. We all have this inner child and we shared this child archetype and it give us this instincts to care to reach out and it makes And also somehow makes us believe in goodness even in the most difficult situations I also have one picture that I loved very much. This was made in India and this is a statue of the well and wise ancestor that I feel very connected to. And he's here. I mean, he passed away before I was born. But I was able to make a picture when I was in India. I love it. It gives me the strength. I'm sitting with a wise and well ancestor and teacher in the tradition that I connected very much. I, I read the biography. I, I love the way he was connecting to all creatures, all beings, and not just human beings and the teachings that he loved, just, just give me the strength. So he's with me here and you can always call on your guide to guide you on this journey as well. Now I invite you to join me settling in, into your seat, allowing yourself to be exactly where you are. And if you have a blanket to keep you nice and warm, that might be also a very good idea. I do have my blanket and shawl and I'm going to light a candle for all of us. May this session be full of light, full of grace and full of ease for all of us. May you benefit of this session and may this benefit impact all those around you. Hey friends, here's the interruption I warned you about. The meditation that took place next in this conversation is on the second episode, also dropping today. We will continue this conversation after a quick break
If you're looking for a trusted service that can transform tons of printed and digital pictures into something that's space conscious, beautiful, and displayed on your walls or in a legacy album on your lap, then look no further. Reminiscence by Chris Ladan is here to serve you and your loved ones. Now you can continue to make and capture beautiful photo memories, enjoy sharing them with ease, and make new memories in the process of reminiscing You can find inspiration and a contact form at krisledonne.Com or just check the show notes for a link. Now back to the show.
Kris LeDonne:Maybe the last few years, I've been very much drawn to create my own altar like charge itself, especially when I meditate around it. And sometimes, you know, when I I cannot stop myself from watching or listening to, you know, things that are not perfect. Like in the news, I would at least drag myself to the altar that would create this intentional space and time to tune in because the world is not perfect. The world might feel broken, but a great choice of each person is if it breaks you and it doesn't have to, you're not here to be broken. Nothing is broken. It might feel broken, but it's not. That's so true. Thank you very much for allowing us to do this exercise in this way, Kris. It was a pleasure. Thank you for holding this space. You know what's beautiful about this, about this exercise is like, they are not here really to share. This is, you know, everything you and the answer that only you can answer and the whispers only you can hear. It's in your experience. It's for you. It doesn't have to be validated by anyone. You don't need any permission. You don't need any yes from anyone. It was for you. It was for you to take, to experience. And very often those experiences work with us. Later on, it takes time. It takes time. That's a beautiful you know, there's freedom in that, that there's no, there's no right and wrong that you don't have to be approved by anybody or accountable to anybody. And one of the things I'm learning right now that I was reminded of just now is that not all of us are here for similar journeys and experiences that everybody is here for their own lessons. And coming from a lineage of very loving people who had their own lessons to learn would try to impart the benefit of their wisdom on me but their lessons are not necessarily my lessons to learn in this life. And so as I have a teenager about to leave the nest and one, a young adult. Just barely out in the world, I, I want so much to keep them safe and give them a great life experience, but their life experiences are different from mine by design. And you give them the trust and the freedom to live their life. You don't want them to leave your life or your ancestors life. You don't want to leave the life of your ancestors, your parents, maybe grandparents. What I learned, and I know that the science confirmed, the lessons that we have a chance to get it, but we don't most probably from what I see from the generation, my parents generation and, and back is because they simply didn't have the tools, the techniques that we have now. They are then passed on and I can see this in our own family. We are three sisters and my mom, who is a very strong, very independent. person. But now in her 70s, she's now in her 70s and I see a little girl. Like she is back being this vulnerable little girl that just wants reassurance, wants to be loved, wants to be seen, that she had so much on her plate and I know she didn't have any tools. She didn't even share any tools with us. We know. Go through experiences, not similar, not the same. We share those experiences among the sisters and it's up to us. But now we do what we do. We have the tools and we can handle what she was not able to handle. And we can go through this. As fast as we can, it's interesting to watch. I was very much interested in epigenetics and all this neuroscience, how it worked. Because somewhere deep inside, I knew that what we, what they say, what we pass on, what we inherit are the patterns. Not the genes. By the way, the disease, diseases are not really caused by a gene, by a mutation of a gene. And we don't inherit the mutation of a gene, not most of the time, but the pattern that causes the mutation of the gene to then Manifest as the same disease, but there are a lot of good news now. We are not the victims of our genes anymore. We are not, we are not every time we eat a healthy food, every time we exercise, every time we get into sunshine, every time we get a good night's sleep. Maybe every time we meditate, we are flipping on the epigenetics of our genes. We are healing our genes. Epigenetics are simply a switch, on and off switchies. And, well, the best way, or the easiest way to explain our human genome is now talking about the epigenetics is, and I have it from a Ricardo Sabatini. He was one of the key scientists in coding a human genome. And he describes this, a human genome as a hundred page book. And it's only the last five pages of the book that are that are our genes that are fixed. And the first 95 pages of the book are our epigenetics, which are our switches on and off switches. And there's a beautiful book by Bruce Lipton called biology of belief. And it's all about how our stressful life style, everything that causes us Feeling stressed. We write our genes and it turn, it takes a healthy gene and it turns it into a diseased gene. But it works also the other way. We do something that feels good for us. It's healthy for us. Whatever it means. We rewrite our genes. We take the diseased genes and we turn them into a healthy gene. I'm fascinated by the science, but that's what we do. It's so empowering to know that that's a thing that's so exciting and fascinating. It might look like small thing. Yeah. Maybe it feels good. Now, you know, if it feels good, it's good. Yes. I mean, it's good for your genes. It's good for your, well, health, the whole wellbeing, even understanding of your inner light is such a contribution to your wellbeing, to our wellbeing. If we understand our inner light. Amazing. So by meditating. Or doing like the ritual we just, you just walked us through or any of those forms of self care that's good for our mind and body and soul. Those are ways that we can choose to flip those switches in our favor. And the key is to make patterns of that patterns of better actions and our actions are inspired by our thoughts. So. The reminiscing that I love so much to do and being selective about what I reminisce over, what gives me those happy feelings, that place of cat purring happiness. You know, children's playing and laughter kind of emotions. Those are things that are going to prompt me to not only feel better, but to take actions that perpetuate more feeling better. Yes. And if we think we heal ourselves because we heal ourselves on, you know, on the genetic level, on the cellular level, but also it, it has ripple effects. But healing ourselves, we also help to heal those around us. Yes. Yes. That's also extremely comforting. Yes. Because sometimes it's the only thing we can do. Right. Well, the only thing that we can do is to inspire others. We can't impose any healing on anybody else. I know. I know. But we do healing, it's, it ripples out. Yes. The healing is not just about ourselves. It's about healing everyone around us and this way, the whole world.