Welcome back to Picture Love Friends. I have so much to unpack. It's unbelievable. Have you ever had, emotional or a mental breakthrough on a topic and as a result of it, your life looks entirely different from your viewpoint? I think that's a benefit of doing the work, you know, a benefit of going to therapy, whatever kind of therapy you're talking about. When we heal from something, there's a whole new lease on life. Just like as if you've been with your leg in a cast for six weeks or longer and then all of a sudden the cast comes off and you have your freedom back and. All of the things you couldn't do you get reacclimated and you start to learn your to use those muscles again, free of the injury and free of the cast. So. That's my life since the Ape and the Chair. You know, this healing work that I did that resulted in a dream that resulted in an interview and that interview, the Spirit interview with Veyra last week was. It was such a transformational, pivotal moment for me in my adult life where I literally healed that version of myself and some stuff has come up since, and I've actually had conversations with listeners on their version of the ape and the chair and ways that either they were the ape or they were witnessing somebody else being the ape under a metaphorical chair. And, I was so, so moved when my dad had listened and I didn't know and emailed me, he said, kj, he calls me kj. Who put that chair over you and I'm like, oh my. Let's see. That must be so weird to be my. Parent and listening to my healing journey about something that I did not divulge as a teenager.'cause I couldn't, I wasn't in a place to speak it. That must be weird. Anyway, I responded and I told him who it was, and later that day I get an email back and he's like, yeah, talked to mom. She said, you're right. He was an awful teacher. Things you can't say to your teenager at the time when you're busy parenting them and they're currently in this situation that you can enjoy saying freely as an adult to your adult child. There is a huge difference between then and now, isn't there? And I know time is. Illusion. It's a linear concept that we are so married to and our brains are so committed to. But I can't help but think that this one, healing of this one topic, that it freed me, empowered me, allowed me to put so many other stories that might be related to it, or parallels of that feeling, disabled feeling without a voice, feeling disempowered. It puts so many other stories that. I wasn't walking around, reminiscing over, mind you, to rest and, and from that perspective, I'm, I'm not kidding you, the skies are brighter. I'm seeing beautiful synchronicities. I literally had a dragonfly, a beautiful blue and green iridescent dragonfly land on the, the hose handle in my hand while I'm watering my plants. And I'll be honest, maybe those things happen all the time, but now I'm noticing them. I'm lighter. It changes the way I see the world. And so my question to you is, if you haven't listened to it, maybe you wanna go back. And if you have listened to it, you know, what are your metaphorical ape and chair. And I don't want to, encourage doom scrolling or doom viewing on the news. There's a whole lot that we can feel disempowered about, but if we can heal just one thing in our lives and open up that freedom from the healing, then I really feel like it's, it's helping the collective. You know, because when we have one healed person who's there for another person who's doing their healing, there's a domino effect. There's an energetic ripple sent out that creates more ripples. And I just wanna see what kind of positive healing ripples can we create in this world? And, a little note about the news. I know I did a digital detox episode, a few weeks back. Encouraging people to take a little break, you know, put the, put the devices away for just a short period of time. You don't have to go around ignorant to the world around you, but allowing our minds and our bodies to rest in between. I went to the beach this morning for sunrise with my husband and my dog, and the phone stayed at home, and that was a weird feeling because it wasn't even intentional. But then I get there and I'm realizing, oh, there's no mistakes, there's no coincidences. That's what I needed in order to see this amazing Sunrise with my own two eyes instead of through the camera lens. And don't get me wrong, this podcast is named Picture Love, not just because of the metaphor of seeing things in a loving way, but I love pictures. Pictures are one of my love languages, and so not having my camera for the sunrise to show you what I saw was actually like a. A moment to settle down, reregulate myself, breathe and be present. So anything we can do to help ourselves with some compassion, take a pause and be present and be willing to be curious about what's in front of us, what needs our attention? What can we appreciate? What can we notice and not invest in emotionally. Where can we send some love in the world that they can find the same relief that we just found resolving an ape and a chair scenario? And if the ape in a chair scenario just doesn't make sense to you, please go back and listen to the episode prior to this one on Picture Love podcast. It is, it's a gift to me that I'm sharing with you. All of us have things we need to overcome. Come to think of it. So we had our spirit guest Veyra appear in response to the APE in the chair, and she was the character, the persona that helped me process that story and what it meant to me to, to get past it, to get through it, to honor it and release it. And in that episode I did share a bread recipe and I just want you to know I'm using this recipe and it's really satisfying because it is. So easy to use and it's very delicious and it's very versatile. So this morning I had a version of that bread, with a little bit of cinnamon sugar rolled up in it. It, it's not a sweet bread, but that way and toasted with a little honey. It went great with my cup of coffee and so there's an inspiration and the next time I make make it, I'm gonna make it as a focaccia bread, that can be, you know, bread and wine if you wish, or maybe under pizza or maybe I'll even make a fruit pizza on top of that recipe. So it's a really great base, Making bread and kneading dough with your hands is such a beautiful way of just reconnecting with your body and quieting some of the noise around us or in our minds. So. That was my intention was to encourage you to enjoy making something with your hands, something that is off topic from whatever might have your mind in knots in at any given moment. Enough plugging of that recipe. My question to you is. If you could whisper a message to either your younger self or a young person in your life, the way Veyra whispered to me, what would it be? And the message could simply be a loving question that allows them to open up and apply. Because we learn by applying things to what we know, right? Veyra asking me these pointed questions really did cut to the heart of things and sometimes the, one of the most loving things we can do is to be gently direct. Now, if you are in therapy, you're working with any therapist of any kind, I am not by any means short changing that. But I'm learning that it's really important that my learning is not based on what other people tell me to do. It's based on listening to my own intuition, tapping in, and really what is my heart telling me is true right now. Because with all of the, the craziness that we are surrounded with these days, there's a lot of false information. Part of it's sensationalizing. You know, some people care about their ratings, they care about their clicks, downloads and views, and it's really important that we curate what is going to serve us for our best and highest. Because if you are serving yourself that way, you're feeding your mind with useful information, you're curating how to use it, then you're showing up better in the world. It really, you cannot pour from an empty cup. It's true. On an airplane they say, before you assist your neighbor, make sure you secure your own air mask. If the pressure in the cabin changes before assisting somebody else. So that you have a steady hand so that you have clear cognition to help somebody who's in need of assistance. So coming back to it, anything that we can do to practice discernment and know that truth is not just,"do you see it with your eye and do you hear it with your ear"? But go within and just say, Hey, what is my body telling me? Is my body full of fear? Is my body full of like anxiety? Then maybe there's something that my body's saying I need to not invest in. And if your body's giving a full yes, like the people who are speaking truth for the greater good, great. But just do it in a way that you are not disempowering yourself and not laying down to have somebody put a chair over you. Because I care so much about you, and I think the people in this space care about others and they care about showing up and really picturing love in the world. And so if we can do that with a whole self instead of a piece of a dysregulated self. The point in what I'm trying to make is trust your intuition. Your intuition is not that voice of panic and fear. It's that voice of calm that always speaks softer and always speaks truth. And that voice of calm is easily drowned out by noise, but that is your true north. That true north is when within each and every one of us. I am working on that and that is following my true north. And I am recording what I know to be true and what I have learned is a message worthy of the greater good. And I will not preach fear here. If you want fear, take a ride on a rollercoaster. Do it in fun, but don't do it to dysregulate. And the other thing is I just want to offer you the idea of curiosity. Curiosity and imagination are beautiful, beautiful tools to tap into your true north. that intuition. Be curious about things. Don't go in dreading the worst case scenario. Go in to say, what can I learn in this situation? What can I use in this situation? What is for my highest good and what can I bless and let go so that I have more space to function? Proper functioning happens when we are picturing love. Because love is truth and lies are not. And one last thing, you might feel differently and that's okay, but I know for a fact news, just because it's on the news does not make it in your best interest to get all of the details because news is curated by people and not all are objective. We are all subjective at all times, right? So please tap in within yourself and say, is this information going to help me, or is this information going to root me in something that's damaging? So thank you to all who are the Truth speakers. Thank you to all who are on the front lines, working for the safety and the good of all. But for those who are viewing it from the world, please go within first. Before you notice, before you look, before you listen outside of yourself, go within. That is where your truth lies and that voice of panic. That is not your intuition, that is your ego. It has a purpose. We honor it, but don't confuse that with your intuition. Okay? This might sound really deep, but it's the message that my heart is demanding I share with you today, and you are the ape. You get to decide if somebody puts a chair over you or not. You get to decide if you're going to stay standing or sit on that damn thing because you deserve to have the freedom. You are sovereign beings. You get to decide how you experience your life, and you get to decide what you're going to do with the information that is available to you. And I hope this information you get to use to empower yourself today and love on somebody else who really needs it. I love you and I'll see you next week.