Kris LeDonne 0:38

Welcome back to Picture Love, friends. Thank you for returning, If you have been with me for any period of time. I'm so grateful for your presence, and if this is your first time finding Picture Love, thank you. I don't know what brought you here, but I really hope that something resonates because you believe in positivity and showing up as the best version of yourself. And I believe there's no such thing as too many resources to support our intentions of showing up and PIcturing Love into the world by just simply being present with ourselves in this moment right now and showing up in the world with a greater capacity for compassion, for love, for kindness. That's really the intention behind Picture Love podcast. And I'm so excited to share with you that this is the beginning, of something I've been wanting for a very long time. The Picture Love community is here. The doors are open, and I intend to help you fill your own cup. And if you're feeling like you're ready to do more and you wanna do it w- in the company of live friends online, I would love to get to know you more personally, and if I do know you, I would love to hang out with you in our community as we continue to do the work that we care about and show up in the world as the best possible version of ourselves, knowing that in every moment, we really are doing the best we know, and with a little bit of awareness, that best keeps getting better. So we all know that feeling of pouring from an empty cup. Yes? You know, when either work or life stages or our goals or our ambitions or family circumstances evolve to the point where life is just Offering more demands than respite. And in those circumstances, it's really helpful to find a way to fill your own cup so that you can keep going. And it's very difficult for overachievers such as myself to actually carve time out to rest. And I'll, I'll be honest, Sunday, I could have rested, I could have read a book, I could have been still. But instead, my body went into gardening, and then crafting, and then cooking, and then making my teas, and it just was one happy activity from one to the next. But when the day was over, I was zonked. I really was. I ate well, but I did not slow down enough to really fill my cup a little extra with the stillness that I think I'm, I'm really in need of right now. And they were all important things to me, but none of them were urgent. I was just treating them as urgent. And so I'm creating a community where we can actually carve out space to be still for a little while, so that we can return to our days better fueled up. You know, think of it as filling up your gas tank before that road trip. Nobody wants to start out with an empty tank. You won't get far. Anyway, so I, I've noticed lately that the people that I really want to welcome into this community are the ones who have made it their way to be in service of others. I wanna give to the givers. I wanna hold space for the people who value showing up as the best version of yourselves, but maybe you just need a little extra help making that space for yourself. And so what this looks like to me is regular live weekly meditation, visualization time, where you can actually meet up with other people in the community online and be in a space together and share some positivity for a little while, and then you can get back to your day, or you can stick around and go on mute and take your business calls. Clean your house. If you're homeschooling your kids, you can actually teach a math lesson while we're together on mute. And what's the benefit of that? It's to know that you have a network of people who are all doing their concentrated effort, and it could be you're curling up with that book that deserves to have your attention once a week at least. Whatever that activity is. I don't care if it's folding laundry. I don't care if you're sitting at, the gas station waiting for your oil to be changed. But it's allowing you to be in the presence of company that cares about you, who is invested in growing as individuals, but in a community of support. A place where you might find your next pacing partner for a goal, your next sibling you never knew. This is a space where we can all show up however presentable we feel, but knowing that we're valued, we're witnessed, we are cared about. And if you can't be there live, the meditations and visualizations that we do together will be recorded for you to come back at a later time. And it's a brand new community, and that means that this is just the starting place. And as we grow and as feedback is coming in, I can customize this space more and more. It will grow with us. But I believe that this container is important for the person who needs that little bit of extra support, and it's that person who wants to be understood because they're not the only person in the world who runs on an empty tank. And so instead of complaining about it, we're gonna fill up our tanks. We are. And we're gonna learn from each other. There will be chances for you to make personal one-on-one connections with those that resonate. You can be a quiet f- wallflower if you need to in order to just share your energy. You can be more outspoken if you want to. There is a Patreon page where we will get to interact in our group, in the presence of others. We get to share updates. We get to share thoughts. We get to be challenged together. We can share beautiful sunset pictures. We can share our celebrations, and we can also request encouragement at times of need. I'm also gonna offer practices, and one of the ones I'm going to be, starting this week, is a simple mindfulness exercise that only takes about about eight minutes but you'll be able to go in by the time you're hearing this episode and listen to it and participate in it, give your feedback, let us know how you used it, how it supported you, and little conversations that will come out of that because we're all doing our own work, but as a piece of a community. It's really satisfying as a human to feel like you're part of something greater, but that your little piece is honored and valued and seen and heard, and your piece of the greater is needed. Your presence is honored. It is needed. So if, if you want to be part of something positive like that, I'm even making it so simple that it's a month-to-month membership. Our founding members are going to be celebrated. They're going to have certain benefits that won't always be there, and, uh, I really think that this is the beginning of something really beautiful. So I'm building my field of dreams, because I believe it. If I build it, the people who need it will come for however long your season may be. And for those who just keep showing up because that's all you know how to do, I don't want you to feel like this is going to be a place of judgment. Just like on the podcast, this is a place where we honor what we've accomplished. Even if it's just stopping to take a deep breath. Stopping to get yourself a glass of water when life is chaotic. All of these little activities are really potent practices of mindfulness. Community is mindful. Breath can be mindful. This community is a place where we can root it deeper, and we can have that in person, that personal connection, rather than just being somebody who catches a recording online and doesn't have the benefit of the interaction with the other people who share beliefs, share curiosities, share optimism, share a need for finding the kind of love in the world that you have to offer, where we can mirror that back to one another. And a place where we can have compassion. When somebody is showing up like a hot mess, it's not a matter of, "Ugh, what happened to you?" It's a matter of, "Yay, you made it here anyway." That is the reception you will receive in this group, and the reception I'm asking you to extend to others who join us.

Speaker 11:30

Okay, slight interruption. Have you had a glass of water today? If you're like me, you might wanna go grab one. And let's continue. I wanted to share a little story with you, a sequence of events that was kind of unusual, and it all comes down to support before burnout My husband had, eye surgery recently, last week as a matter of fact, and he's doing quite well with recovery. He's so excited about his vision being so much better, and I'm so happy for him. And it's so easy once you get some- something like this done, it's so easy to quickly just try to jump back into life. But It's not just a matter of healing, it's a matter of letting the brain reprogram itself for new vision, right? In this example. And this is a perfect example of a time where he's being told to rest. And we, we went out to dinner the next night, uh, 'cause he was feeling up for it. His eyes were not quite dilated anymore, and he wore sunglasses and, it was, it was a beautiful evening. Crazy clouds obscuring the sunset in really dramatic and beautiful ways, and the dinner came, and it was just not a good experience. Let's just put it that way. And, spoke to the manager and he, handled it nicely, and we left there hungry and disappointed. But I- I didn't dismiss it. I didn't dismiss it a- and I didn't hold on to, "Yay, the manager really handled that well. Yay, it's a gorgeous day." Instead, I was like, "I'm hungry, I'm angry." Anyway we get down to the car, and he's like, "My eyes are really tired. Will you drive?" I'm like, "Of course I'll drive. You're still, you're still recovering." And I get in, and I felt a little bit of, I don't know, resistance. I looked down to see if the parking brake was on. Yeah, the parking brake was on. I didn't mean to push the button, but I did. So I'm backing out, and some guy rolls down his window, and he yells at me as I'm pulling out, and he's like, "You have a flat tire." And I get out, and I look at it, and the car's on the rim. And so I went from complaining and disappointment about my food to a new topic. It was like the universe gave me something else to be complaining about, and I caught myself in that moment. I'm like, "Oh, did I just create this?" Because I was in a pattern of kind of whiny, complaining disappointment. So fortunately, there was a space next to us, a loading space that gave us the, you know, the space to actually change the spare. And it was so nice because, A, there was no storm going on. We've had a lot of stormy weather. B, there was space next to us. Before even that, that gentleman who stopped me before I tried to drive out of the parking lot. There were so many things working in our favor. Then there's another really nice man waiting to be seated in the restaurant we had just eaten at, and he offers to help us. We didn't need his assistance, but there was something so supportive about having somebody offer assistance. And then we're driving home saying like, "How did this happen?" And he's remembering there was a sound on the highway going down there, and I said, "What was that?" And neither one of us recognized that as something puncturing a tire. And we get home, and, and Rick's like, "Well, that was a dud." I'm like, "Yeah, I'm hungry. Let's make a snack." And, and I said, "But then again," 'cause I remembered I don't wanna keep getting things to complain about. I said, "You know, that could have been so much worse." You know? It could have been pouring. It could have been pitch dark outside. It could have been so much harder than it was. And it really only held us up about an extra 20 minutes to get all in all, to get that, the donut on. And the next day there was even more that went well because the tire place was able to patch it. They said it was a nice clean hole straight on the f- on the bottom, not on the side. Got it patched, which is even better than plugging it. And so I was given opportunities to e- to either spiral in a complaining and disappointment, hangry standpoint, or consciously recognizing all of the protection and the provisions and all of the things that worked in our favor. And I'll be honest, I slept so well, and I didn't wait-- wake up exhausted. But the times where I have been in that downward spiral of, of complaining, uh, and there have been jobs where I've been surrounded by that kind of pattern, it depleted me. And so it was really, it was really beautiful to be able to go to sleep feeling held, supported by my day rather than sucked dry. And so I'm trying to get to the point where I don't wanna be insensitive when other people have their breaking point because we all have them. But I'm trying to strengthen the muscle of looking at something and saying, "Oh, that just happened. Now what?" Instead of, "Ugh, this is great. Oh, this is awful." You know what I'm saying? Trying to remove some of the emotions from it so I can just let my head and my heart operate clearly. And I want to find other people who love looking at life from a fresh perspective, you know? And zooming out and being able to look at something objectively, as objectively as we can while we're experiencing it anyway. Doesn't mean I, I would have opted for a flat tire. No. But, but without a flat tire, I wouldn't have been able to receive the solutions. So honestly, that flat tire gave me the gift... many gifts, opportunities to be grateful, opportunities to look at things from, uh, a solution standpoint, from a loving standpoint, and from that, I was able to be much more supportive of my husband emotionally while he is accepting that he should be doing less right now and that that is good and that he is not letting me down by physically doing less. We're a team. We're, we're here to support each other and that is what Picture Love Community is gonna be. That's what it already is. It's just waiting for its members. We can create this community where all of us are there. Whether we see each other or not, we're still there energetically, intentionally, in our hearts, in our mind. There's a shared energy of support and love and witnessing and being seen. And may we all let go of the burnout and accept a little bit of community in its place. That's all I have for you today, friends. I hope that you will click the link, check out the Patreon. So I hope that you will invest in yourself and help us create the community we all want and deserve. Have a beautiful day, and keep PIcturing Love, friends. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.