Hello, friends I'm gonna be completely transparent with you. I did something maybe a little reckless that turned out to be pretty empowering to me today, and I wonder if you've experienced something recently like that too. But I don't know what's going on in this world, but I do know that there's a lot of change and a lot of turnover and a lot of things that are getting turned upside down to re-examined, and my mind has been examining everything from every direction. And I don't mean in a bad way, more from a perspective of curiosity. I guess my best role model right now is a child who hasn't figured out they need to filter any of their curiosity. My role model would be a puppy's playfulness that doesn't understand boundaries and a lot of Glimmers of that have been seen and witnessed in characters that I've read about or witnessed. And this morning I stepped into that role without any premeditation. Have you ever stepped onto a stage metaphorically or literally having no idea what was gonna come out of your mouth? I'm kind of experiencing a little bit of that afterglow right now So I'll take a few steps back. I had a great night's sleep, very grateful for that. But when I woke up this morning, my body was processing something that I could not logically explain in my mind. I felt like I had just come out of an extreme conflict, and my whole nervous system was working overtime. You ever felt like that? Like, you couldn't explain exactly why, but your whole body felt like it was electric with, uh, an overabundance of adrenaline. There was no reason for it. There was nothing causing my ego to feel threatened. I was just waking up, and there was a cat on my belly purring. Okay? Nothing to be of alarm. But it was so strange to witness that. It was like, um, maybe being over-caffeinated or just having come out of a conflict with that, that, that adrenaline rush. Just I knew my nervous system was under attack from what, I don't know, but I felt it. And then my mind started looking for evidence of why I should feel that way. And I look at the clock, and there's an excuse I can choose if I want to. I could tell myself I should have gotten up earlier, or I don't know. So I decided to grab my phone to look at the weather, and inadvertently, I opened up an app that started spewing headlines at me that were fear-mongering headlines. They were, like, literally on social media, somebody reporting what they perceive as news, like performing the role that they chose to perform in society, and my nervous system was like, "Yeah, that, that. We're scared of that." And my mind is like, "Wait a minute. I didn't tell you you could talk to me yet." So I shut it off, and went and washed my face, and started to just kind of pay attention to what was going on. But just the memory of it even is right now triggering a little bit of that electricity in my body. I can feel it going down my calves and into my feet right now, and I thought, "Wow." If there was ever a teacher who needs to practice what they preach, it's me right now, because meditation could not possibly be more relevant than it is at that moment. And so I sat with myself, and instead of, like, going into anything structured or whatever, here's something I did that I thought was really helpful, and maybe you do your own version of this. I would love to know what your insights are, because I know my perception is only one experience of an infinite supply. So I sat down with it, and I closed the closet door so the cats couldn't come in hounding me for their meal, and the light on. I just sat down and I said, "What's going on with my body?" And I listened to my arms and my legs and my heart, and I put a hand on my heart, and I just paid attention. And I had to tell myself, "I'm okay. I am fine. I am okay. I'm here, and I'm fine." And along with a few breaths, deep breaths of compassion, that started to settle. And I said, "Oh, great. Let me just trust myself and go feed the pets and take the dogs for a walk, and then we'll get on with the day that I know is in front of me." So I gave myself extra time to set up, make sure my technology was cooperating. Well, this was for the community that, you know, the Picture Love community that I've been talking about. And I still haven't figured out a few of the little nuances between having different platforms communicate with each other for the best guest experience. That was my intention. I'm not trying to make things more complicated for myself. I'm not trying to be the professional. I'm not trying to be perfect. I just wanted to make it easy, as easy as possible for somebody to come in my metaphorical front door and sit down on the living room sofa with me and feel good. And so I stand by my intentions. But I started to ask myself, "Why am I doing it this way? Why is it so difficult? Why is it working one day and not the next? And why does it have to be so complicated?" And so I took a dog walk and decided I'm just going to give one of the platforms the day off, and I'm gonna try to home bake this a little bit 'cause I wanted live music playing so that anybody who was actually experiencing what I was offering live would have the added experience of having music behind them. You know it, how it drowns out outside noise and it really helps focus the brain. I love what music does in so many ways. And so I just took this little goofy Bluetooth speaker out of the closet where it's sat and never been used, and used my little smartphone to pair it and play the music. And I parked it right by my microphone, and you know what? What do you know? It actually worked. So while it didn't have to be a professional sound studio, it worked. Because I'm not trying to be a professional sound technician. I just want an experience that's satisfying for me to offer and prepare and satisfying for somebody to receive and participate with. And I think at the end of all of it, that's exactly what I got But coming back to questioning everything, I don't know why I had it in my head that it had to work that certain way. And I don't know why I had it in my head that I had to do it like the utter professional. Just because I've been a podcaster for almost three years, three years in October, doesn't mean that I have to hold myself up to my perception of somebody else's professional standards. You know? I don't have a whole corporation behind me, and I don't need a whole corporation behind me in order to speak my truth and hope that I'm connecting with somebody else's heart. So I'm gonna just share what I know, and I'm gonna trust that the person who needs to hear it will receive it and use it the way it's gonna support them the best. And if you're still listening, thank you. Thank you for being my sound wall. Thank you for identifying that there is a need to prioritize loving ourselves and our world. And thank you for being here and listening to the idea that I'm trying to convince the world that we are love, and we just need to recognize it within ourselves We do. We need to just recognize that it's within each of us. And that same peace that I try to deliver in my content and in my recordings and meditations and my writings, that same peace that I say is within each of us, that peace brought me through what my ego wanted to freak out about today. My ego wanted to tell me all the ways I was not prepared. But you know, all the planning in the world doesn't make you prepared. It doesn't. I think preparation comes with experience, and I think intention is far more important than all the planning in the world. I really do. I'm not saying preparation isn't required. I mean, tell that to an astronaut. Tell that to a surgeon. Of course preparation is helpful, but I'm just saying we don't have to make ourselves crazy over it By each having our own priorities and our aligned intentions, that allows us to each figure out what really does belong in that workflow and what maybe no longer fits anymore. So I guess my question to you today is, what have you discovered recently that is time to let go because it served a purpose, but it's just no longer around anymore? And have you ever woken up and your body's giving you distress signals that you just can't logically explain? Those are two places where I am today, and I would love to connect with you about that. And there's a place where you can connect with me and share some feedback, and we can build on it together, and you can actually contribute to the conversation here in this podcast, and that is in the Picture Love community. So if you would, go to the show notes where the links are. I want so much to have a two-way conversation. I want that two-way conversation to become more expansive. I'm not here to tout my knowledge and my expertise and convince you or sell you on anything. I'm here for a relationship because that's what we are. We're relational creatures, and I learn so much more when engaging with other Picture Love people. You know? I think that's the beautiful thing about community. We're always We always have this unlimited potential to lift one another up, to learn from one another. We don't have to agree on anything. We don't have to agree on everything. But building communities is something that I want to support. And if you're building a community, maybe on another topic, I would love to know that as well because I think we're coming into an era where we need to Create the spaces that we wanna be held by. And sometimes you create that space simply by asking a friend out for coffee, and other times you create that space by noticing an opening and inviting a friend. And other times, you might wanna build something from scratch, from ground up, like I've been trying to do here, like I'm doing here. So what kind of community do you need to be part of? What does your heart need? What are you already building that you know somebody else needs? Tell me about it. I would love to see how we can help each other create with greater ease and support. And fellow community organizers deserve to be in the company of others who are also learning their way through, knowing there's no one right way, there's no one wrong way, but we can share from the wisdom we've gained while figuring it out, training on the job, right? On the job training. That's really where wisdom comes when we pay attention to it instead of stumbling into old patterns that might need some updates. That's for sure. But now that I've talked to you about this, I've noticed that my, my feet are a little less tingly. My breath is a little bit calmer, and for that I'm grateful. It sure feels better. But I know there's any number of ways to do it, whether you're moving your body, sharing from your heart, making music, listening to it, connecting with somebody you love, nourishing your body with food or water. Whatever it is your body's calling for today, I hope you find it with great ease, and I hope that we all become the permission slip to help our neighbor do the same I hope there's something of value here that's sparked, and I hope if you didn't hear a single word I said today, I hope you heard the words in your heart that needed to be heard louder than anything I offered. Because that's how we picture love, listening within, so that we can be present where we are 'cause we are okay. We're going to be fine because we are fine, and we're here right now where it counts. I'll see you next time, my friend. Keep picturing love. Bye-bye.