Welcome back to Picture Love, Friends. I am speaking to you on the skirt tails of last week's episode of Picture Love podcast, and I really hope that the takeaway a lot of people had, even though I was talking about finished or unfinished projects and looking at them and giving ourselves permission to reassign the value of those projects. I really hope that the takeaway was understood that our worth is not negotiable, and that somebody whose mind is overburdened with too many unfinished tasks and projects- deserves the knowing and the remembrance that their worth is not attached to the outcome and the completion of projects. And I grew up hearing a phrase, and it was, if you'd like something to be finished, give it to a busy person", implying that a busy person is, is a producer, somebody who really gets things done. So that was one of the needles in the haystack in my head. And so much of our worth seems to be rolled up in our titles and the roles that we play in our families and in society and our careers. And I want to highlight the fact that our worth is not negotiable. It is not compromised by the success or the completion of anything in life. And so if you haven't heard it today, you are worthy because you exist. Period. Anyway. Coming back to the topic of projects, I, I wanted to share with you some of the results of me practicing what I preach, and going through the list of things that I would like to accomplish or feel obligated to accomplish, and really reassigning value to, dismissing some, marking some complete because they had given me all that they needed to teach me at whatever stage they were paused at. There was so much mental space that I was able to identify a project that I wanted to move to the top of the list. It was a little closet we call a pantry in our kitchen. And I knew it had untapped potential and I knew it looked really sad. It had saggy wire shelves in it, and it was very difficult to stand things up and it was one thing that did not get redone before we moved in. And so I decided it was really important to me to tackle this project, and it was not something that I felt excited about letting somebody else tackle. I felt like it was an opportunity for me to love on my home and make it beautiful and use some of the skills that I have learned through my years. And I gave it space in my calendar. I wasn't sure how long it was gonna take me to complete, but I knew I would love to have it functional in a week's time and I didn't know if it was gonna take a couple days or the better part of a week to accomplish. And it's still not completely finished, but I would say it's 95% finished and reloaded and it feels so good. And all of the, the reasons why I'm coming back to you and talking about my kitchen pantry is not to toot my own horn, but to share from my heart the lessons that this experience gave me that I wanna hold onto by sharing it with you. I'm internalizing it even further. And maybe I'm giving somebody the little nudge they need to give themselves permission to do something that you really want to do. And why A task like this that could be considered a item on a honey do list is actually a practice of presence and love. And I don't mean labor of love, I mean a practice of presence that expresses and helps me picture love for myself, for my home, for those who live here, for those who encounter me as somebody who's feeling better supported by her home. And there are a thousand tendrils that could come off of that, but I will try to keep it somewhat concise. I helped solidify or polish a peace node in my home. The reason is when I went into the kitchen, before I would get stressed, I would see clutter on the counters. I would see my cat jumping up on the counter to see what he could pick through, which drives me bonkers. Maybe you don't mind that, but for me, I don't want paws on food surfaces. That's just me. And there was a list of things that I felt like having a functional pantry and having places for things to go to give my things a home that I would function better. And sure enough, it was more than that. Pet supplies were in three different places. Now they're in one. And I know where to find them and I won't have to overbuy because I could see what we have and I can find it and I can reach it easily. And when one's space supports them in pleasing ways, it. It supports the kind of energy that I wanna share with you. It supports the kind of energy that I want to live in. It supports everything about how I face my day. And, you know, the kitchen is, is a hub in a home. It's a place where not only nourishment is stored, but there's, you know. There's a lot that happens in a kitchen and it's always where people tend to gravitate to. When you're entertaining. You ever notice how many people stand around the kitchen or stand around the island or wherever the cook or the host is preparing and filling drink or preparing food? It is definitely a geographical heart of the home. And it, the practice of being present in this project was so beautiful. And I could compare the pantry before to an old chipped manicure. Somebody who loves to get their nails done and it's been too long and they've had one too many chips in their nails, and maybe even the cuticles become dry and cracked and messy. And when I looked at the closet, that's what I saw. I saw something that needed some love and needed, needed some attention, and then function could be restored. I think that it's really, really important to say that before I was able to actually tackle this project, I wanted to have space to work with my tools. I have a table saw, I have a chop saw, I have the tools I needed to actually build the shelves that I installed in my kitchen to put edging on them, to sand them, to stain them, to seal them. To make them beautiful. But I didn't have proper space to work with my tools yet, and so I actually delayed the project a day by what I might have in the past thought of as more chores, more projects. But what I was doing was making space in my space to enjoy the process. And a couple things that really benefited me, that I know somebody needs to be invited to do today is I turned off the news and I turned off the social media, and it ended up being the entire week. When I was working on this project, there was no world news when I was working on this project there was no social media. There was none of that in this project. And this project became a shelter of sorts where I chose the information that came in. And the information I chose for this particular project was music and audio books. I made it up as I went along and it felt so, so good. And. As a matter of fact, one thing I noticed in my behavior looking back is every day when I stopped I noticed I actually got the shop vac out every day. and I either blew the leaves that had blown into the garage or vacuumed up the sawdust that had accumulated. It was shocking to me because that's something I used to always dread. I'm like, Ugh, I can lug out the shop vac, but I did it without thinking. It was just a natural extension of the flow that was happening when I was in this creative mood! And I'm so grateful that that happened. And I could look back and say, I can't believe I vacuumed my garage five days in a row last week. That's so unlike any of my projects in the past, and I knew it was because I had nurtured a space that encouraged the a joyful unfolding. One thing I did differently before speaking to you now, is I brain dumped every little thing I could think of into my ai and I said. Can you repeat this back to me in a more organized manner?" This is just a messy brain dump. Sort this out and read it back to me. And that was so, so helpful. I don't know if you've ever done that before, but don't just use an AI to help you compose a great email or a letter. Use it to actually help organize your thoughts and see what it mirrors back to you, because it allowed me to then respond in my own journal and say. I chose joy in this. While I was practicing presence, I chose joy instead of finding myself wishing to feel joyful. And that was a huge shift for me. So if I had to coin it, if I had to put it on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker, it would be I choose to be joyful instead of wishing to feel joyful. And that simple choice was my agency. I was in a joyful state, and repeating this back to you, it is even deeper. It is rooted, and I hope that something in this episode translates to an idea that you needed to either rethink or choose for yourself. I, I had a mentor once and she would always say, choose joy. Choose joy. And I wasn't in a space to really understand it as deeply as I do now, and I don't think I could have until I really learned that my worth means I get to be joyful because I am worthy of being joyful. As you do too. So I'm wondering, is there a project that is in front of you that you may or may not like want to do, but you feel the need to do and it has value and it is something that needs your full attention? I wanna invite you to, to look at it with grace for yourself. I'm asking you consider making space for you to make that space. Think about it as preparing to get started and choosing joy instead of choosing to wish to be joyful. So questions that might support that would be. How do I wanna feel when this is finished? Instead of exactly what is this gonna look like and what would support me in doing this more easily? Or what is something that I can put on mute in order to find the bandwidth for this? Because if you look at, from a standpoint, labor drains us and c rafting expands us. So if you can come to it, making space for that- You know, like for me, the day of readiness for me in the garage was hanging things on the wall that needed to be hung. Putting some things in storage and actually realizing that there are some, some duplicate things that I donated and all of a sudden I had all this space and was able to set up my tools. So. What kind of preparation is waiting to be noticed so that the project in front of you is as joyful as possible? If it's already joyful,'cause it's something exciting for you, great. What could, what is the one or two shifts that could take place preparation wise that actually would take you from a state of excitement into. Even more joy through regulating that nervous system.'cause sometimes the brain processes, you know, stress, positive stress as stress. And I think that one of the things that really helped me was that, that slow down, that one day delay, that let me find peace in the space where I was going to do that creating, that crafting. And every time I walk in the kitchen, I thank myself for the gift of the space that I created in order to create that space. Now, I don't know if this is gonna resonate with you or not, but I think that we. Have been taught to see things too divided and too sectioned off and too pigeon-holed. I think everything that we do and that we think and that we experience is connected. And there's a couple joyful things that happened that seem unrelated, but I know energetically they were a hundred percent related. Things that worked out in my favor while I was turning off dysregulation and tapping into creative flow. One of them was a very big task in the front lawn that I knew was going to take a whole day and a lot of soreness. And it turns out a trained professional was taking care of that for my neighbor next door, and he added mine in to his and for a very reasonable fee that was taken off of my to-do list while I was busy joyfully creating. They may seem completely unrelated, but I think me making space to create in a calm regulated way allowed more calm, regulated support to come in from what appears to be the outside. And I was very excited to be able to partake. To receive the help.'cause I know that's a thing for a lot of us is being able to receive help being in a space to allow ease to come in... yeah. Some of us are very white knuckled at times. I think we all are at one point or another about struggle and not realizing that's what we're choosing. Does that relate? Does that ring a bell for anybody? But the other thing is I had created some affirmation cards because I love to put positive ideas out there. But a few weeks back, I started brainstorming a list of affirmations, positive thoughts that I would love to have visit me without me having to pull them out of my mind. I wanted to be able to see them presented to me, so I made a deck of cards. I did. Sent it to a printer, having no idea if this looks good enough, but I blessed it and I released it, and I sent it to print knowing that nobody has to see them until I decide they wanna be seen. And if I wanna completely redo them, I can. Well, it came in and I have to say it's the imperfection was perfect. It was perfectly imperfect. Meaning- I could actually look at this project and say it's complete as it is, or I can expand it and make it its new version. A new version of complete. But my point being, it was a finished thought that I, taught myself, I can trust me to finish something. And what this has to do with my pantry project- it arrived early. While I was busy focusing in my creative flow. It just came when I let go and trusted it, and it came earlier than I expected. When I unpacked it, it was like a piece of a puzzle just fit right where it belongs. It felt so good. And now the words are supporting me just the way I asked them to. I didn't know exactly what it was gonna look like. Before I opened the box, when it came, I told myself, I am proud that I completed this and I will love it for what it is. And if I see anything that can be improved, I don't have to make it perfect in order for it to be perfect for me. And that if I see anything I would like to expand on, I can do that. But I can enjoy it as it is right now. So I gave myself permission to receive the joy from it regardless how perfect or imperfect it looked to my human eyes. And when I unwrapped it, it just felt like confirmation. So sometimes by detaching from the exact picture I could have chosen in my head of that outcome. I chose a feeling and it served me. So I'm sharing this with you because I'm still learning it every day. It's something that I, I think, is valuable enough to share with you. And, I just wanna remember that. Before we begin something, we can make space for it. We can choose how we wanna feel about it, and when we detach from how something is going to look exactly- then I think we leave ourselves open for something even greater than we could imagine. And I'm so happy to say that I will be sharing these. I will be using them, and who knows, maybe they'll get to a point where I can put them in a picture love store and other people can order a copy of them. But I will be sharing them on social media in the meantime. And I am gonna share one with you right now. Okay. The title is rooted in Rising'cause that's what we are. You know, I love my trees, right? It is definitely a tree inspired statement. And the affirmation is,"I am grounded in worth, and growing toward my light." And that right there leaves it wide open to grow into whatever today needs to be. Whatever that project needs to be right now. Knowing it's still growing towards the light as we are, and part of that means there's roots going on underneath where it's not showing, but trusting that. And by being grounded in my worth, I'm not worried about is it good enough? I'm not worried about do I deserve this? I'm not worried about is it finished? Life isn't about finishing. Life is about experiencing. And so thank you for letting me share my experience with you today. I'm continuing to do my homework and I invite you to help me continue the conversation. There is a link in the show notes. I would love to hear from you and if you didn't listen to last week's episode, go for it. You are worthy of it. We are worthy of it, and I hope that the next project you face feels easier and I hope you give yourself the space you deserve to have in order to allow the joy to come in. That is how I am picturing love. See you next time, friends.